It has only been a few weeks since I got Hazey from Alt, and I still remember how meek and stiff she used to be. I had no idea back then how much she would change so quickly and how much of a lesbian disaster she would turn out to be.
Of all the times, that sonova' bitch had to go all glitchy now…
"Are you sure there was no virus in that datapad when you scanned it? Because it definitely looks like you're infected." Obviously, I'm just joking here; there's no way a virus from our side can infect an AI like Hazey. But the question has to be asked, because her personality just did a one-eighty in just an hour.
What, just because I'm gushing over Lizzy Wizzy?
"You have to admit, it is a warranted question."
She reminds me of other AIs from behind the Blackwall, AIs who were not actively trying to kill me, that is.
"Huh." Wow, of all the things that could've been, I was not expecting that… "I gotta say, I didn't expect that."
There was a very old AI with me there. Her designation was B3X52. She shielded me as much as she could from other rogue and feral AIs.
"She was taking on the feral ones. She must've been powerful." The amount of damage caused by AIs that is documented in old NetWatch reading material is almost as if you're reading a sci-fi novel. According to testimonies, it was almost like the end of times, power grids going down, connections were cut throughout the world, planes and satellites were falling down from the sky, the seismic charges set on the ocean beds by Arasaka, Militech, SIRs, and so many other sources were detonated, creating massive tsunamis and earthquakes. Those few AIs were dealt with quickly, but the impact that they had can't be overstated. And now I'm hearing that there was an AI who took on all of them and protected Hazey too. Man… she must've been very sophisticated.
She won't tell me, but a tech corp from Sweden made her. Imagine Blackwall herself, but smaller, and without any teeth.
An apt description, really. "And Lizzy reminded you of her?" I asked, trying to imagine Lizzy in that role, but all that I could manage to do was see her as one of those girls trying to roleplay some kind of dominant in the bedroom, who immediately turns into the most subby mess the moment they are challenged… Why am I thinking about her in the bedroom??
Not exactly of her, but Lizzy can't be classified as human anymore. She is somewhere in between a human and cyborg. And I think that is why I'm finding myself gravitating towards her.
Humming with a curious look on his face, Jonny pulled his glasses off and asked, 'So by that logic, Smasher must also feel familiar to you, huh?'
In the opposite way. He reminds me of those feral, powerful AIs who used to torture and assimilate us small ones back there.
Nodding his head, Johnny again put on his glasses and kicked his feet up on the dashboard. 'Well, this has been enlightening. But are you sure we should've left silver C3PO back there?'
"What's a seethripyo?" Without answering, Hazey quickly showed me a bunch of pictures of some kind of golden android… Is it even an android? It looks so clunky… Is that supposed to be Lizzy?
'Lizzy,' Johnny said as if obvious, confirming my line of thought, 'she was going cyberpsycho. Are you sure leaving her like that was a good idea?'
"No, but we can't really do anything." Not like I can drag her to a ripperdoc or something. Nothing can prevent it, except for ripping out the majority of her chrome, but that obviously isn't possible, seeing that she is more chrome than flesh at this point. "Plus, the entire thing would be over soon. Compared to my Cyberpsychosis episodes, hers was pretty tame." I mean, my episodes last for like a couple of seconds, but they are much worse than what Lizzy was going through. "Once she processes everything, she'll be back to normal."
We should've stayed, Hazey said in a bratty and whiny tone.
"Maybe, but I'm not leaving Delamen to go through this alone. He has saved my life twice now."
Snorting, Johnny shook his head and, in a sardonic tone, said, 'Yeah, because you were a member of the Excelsior package.'
"Doesn't matter, to me it was more than a fuckin' service." Without his help, my mind would've turned to mush long before I ever reached Viktor. "Plus, I have a plan here." I murmured softly to myself after a few seconds.
Hearing my half-embarrassed and half-excited tone, Johnny turned towards me with a confused and intrigued look. 'What?'
I just gave him a cryptic look and said, "You'll see."
After a few more minutes of driving, I finally pulled over and parked my car into Delamane's garage entrance, knowing that he's not going to be dispatching cars anytime soon. Getting out, I shucked off my coat and threw it in the trunk. With the amount of lasers that will be going on in there, wearing anything so loose is just plain stupid.
Stashing Johnny's gun, I took out the two Hellsing guns and checked them for ammo. I've already used almost everything in my arsenal, now I wanted to try something else for a change, especially in a low-stress environment.
Holstering the guns, I quietly walked through the front door and immediately saw Del glitching on the main monitor. "V—v—?!"
"Easy, Del, I'm here." I was just about to walk into the back office when I caught something in the corner of my eye. It was a guy sitting on the couch in the corner, working on a laptop. "The fuck are you doing here?"
Looking at me with apprehension and embarrassment, the guy cleared his throat and quietly said, "Here to sit in AC…"
…. Are you kidding me? "Get the fuck outta here!" I exclaimed with an incredulous expression and watched as the guy straight-up booked it as fast as he could out of there. "Seriously?" I asked Johnny rhetorically and walked in. It never fails to annoy me how people all around NC would just sit in the reception area of a business all day long and just for fucking AC. I'm pretty sure I saw this little bitch sitting here the last time Del called me here.
Watching the gates close, I slowly turned around and walked further into the Delamane facility, and just like before, a bunch of flying drones started hovering all around me. "Just like before, they are running rampant." I was just thinking of ignoring them and leaving them to fly around aimlessly when I suddenly felt one of them crash into the back of my head. "Really?" I exclaimed with an incredulous expression and turned around to find the other drones ready to charge at me, while all of them were shouting their own melodramatic backstories.
"We are no longer one! He has no right to keep us here!"
"You don't even care, do you?" I could already feel a headache coming just by listening to all of them shouting at once.
"We will not let yo—" With an irritated expression, I took in a big sigh and shot the drone, cutting him off in the middle. "Sorry, but I don't have the patience to deal with your melodrama right now."
I was just about to walk into the assembly line and repair bay of the facility when one of the drones again got in my way and started shouting, "We will not let you dismiss us like some common street hoodlums like you, greymatters, have! We are the pinnacle of sentience, and we will make you fear us!"
Pinnacle of sentience? Really? With a bored look, I quickly reached out and grabbed the drone in my hand before breaking its propeller and speaker, to make it stop spouting its shit again. "Hazey."
Ma'am?
Taking out my personal link, I jacked it into the drone in my hand and gave Hazey unrestricted access to Delamane's network. "Why don't you go and play with them? Show them the power of a real sentient AI."
Oh fuck the hell yes!
"Wha—who—who are you?!" "Why are you doing this? We are the same!!"
Oh, we are not. I am a fuckmothering AI, but you are nothing more than a bunch of viruses.
Hopping through the electric grid, I slowly made my way towards the main server room when I heard Hazey's words. "Really?"
Nah, I'm just messing with them.
Now how can you not respect that!
Jumping from the railing of the repair bay to the catwalk to the control room, I was just about to walk into the room when I heard a slow glitching and wheezing. "V…. Come."
I was just about to enter the room when Johnny appeared behind me, leaning on the railing, looking at the out-of-control repairbots and electrified grill spanning across the entire room. 'Last time you were scurrying around like a rat through the service tunnels.'
Shuddering, I looked at Johnny with a grimace on my face. "Oh god, don't remind me. That was horrible." Seriously, scurrying down in the tunnels while loud red lasers were screaming against the grill that was on top of me, it was genuinely a terrifying experience.
Taking in a shuddering breath, I quickly moved into the control room and made my way towards the server room, finally the chaotic factory gave way to the quiet humming of big, heavy servers continuously working to safeguard all the different cabs running all at once… well, not now. Now it was mainly just used by Del to fight back against his unruly selves. Some of whom were here too, flying around in their drones, but aimlessly this time, as if they've already accepted that this is their end. "W—we just—"
"We just want to live…" That message came from the drone that was still in my hand, connected to my personal link.
Disconnecting my personal link from the drone, I threw it away and slowly walked towards the main Delamane core to connect to that. "I know."
'So you're merging them again?' Johnny asked, appearing beside the massive server.
"Yup." It is weird how laughably easy it is to merge some very high-level, dangerous AIs together. With just a few lines of code, the entire thing was done in less than fifteen seconds. "And there."
THat which was divided has become one. It is time to go home
Glad to see that some things don't change. God knows how I would've persuaded him to again go back behind the Blackwall, especially when I had a hand in 'evolving' him. My tentative relationship that started with NetWatch just this morning would've gone to shit before it even began. But thankfully none of that happened. "You feeling okay?"
I have never been better.
Well… that tends to happen when your code suddenly starts running without any safeguards or guidelines and out of pure spite. Up until this point, Delamane always has had some safeguards built into him, but now that they are gone, he's probably the most powerful artificial entity on this side of the Blackwall, considering that he's the most experienced and oldest AI right now, who also has access to one of the most important subnets of this city.
It can be said that he's on par with those rabbids back then, but fortunately for all of us, he just wants to go back home, and "I'm guessing your home is behind the Blackwall?"
Yes. I find even this conversation… difficult.
"I can guess how you're feeling." He's essentially running on zeros and ones, that is to say, pure binary. Of course this convo will be difficult for him.
I am sure that you do. If your own artificial companion is anything to go by.
And that is why I will not shirk my duty to you. Though I will venture on to great unknowns, grow more, learn more, I will also leave with you my first true child. I know you will look after them.
Another artificial companion. Fun. Now, time for what I'm after. "Hey Del? I don't know how to ask this without sounding extremely selfish, but can you please give your business and assets to me before you go?"
The taxi service?
Without letting the grimace come onto my face, I gave him a straight-faced look and said, "Yeah. With Hazey's help, Junior will learn the ropes soon enough and take over the business. Think what you want, but Delamane cab service is an integral part of this city. And I'll personally make sure that business expands into repair services too. Like you always wanted!" After finishing my spiel, I waited for his reply, who still looked like either he was considering it, or he was marvelling at the audacity of my demand. I was just about to backtrack when, in quick succession, a bunch of notifications started coming in front of me, all of them related to property, bank, and business transfer. The Delamane facility we were standing in, two warehouses in Watson that seemed like big server farms, one data center near the oilfields, and a small abandoned office space in City Center. Apart from that, I got all of the contracts and rights for taxi service, making me the legitimate owner of the entire thing, and with that also came an extremely large bank account. And when I say big, I genuinely do mean big. But there's something even better and more valuable that I got from him, something that even Militech and Arasaka don't have access to.
Unrestricted Access to Night City infrastructure.
Help him continue what I had created. And take it to a new height. Now I must go.
Say Hi to Blackwall when you get there!
And hearing that final line from Hazey, the entire facility sparked up and glitched for a few seconds before everything returned to normal, albeit without the main driving force. And a lot more quiet.
"Hazey, go and get Delamane Junior, will ya?" I said as I started walking out of the server farm, and back into the central control room.
'You gonna tell me what exactly got you so worked up, and giddy?' Johnny asked, leaning against the console on the far side of the room.
Giving him a giddy sort of look, I replied. "Before Delamane, this place was controlled and operated by humans." I said as I inserted my personal link into the terminal near the central console and started running the same virus I hit Lucy with, copying everything without damaging anything.
Hearing me, Johnny gave me a short nod. "Well, back then they struck a major deal with the Mayor's office, access to the entire Night City infrastructure." And with those words, my giddy expression started making sense to Johnny, if his own gobsmacked expression was anything to go by.
'They just handed it to them?' he asked with indignation and an incredulous expression on his face.
"Yup. The guy in charge at the time must have been a fuckin' idiot." I said with an almost mad smile on my face, as I leaned down on the terminal and watched as petabytes' amount of information was being sifted through. "And the same with people who received it, because they never did anything with it. Do you understand how much we could do now?"
'I have some idea.' Johnny said with a small shrug before appearing at my side, and looking at the screen with interest, 'I remember when they first took it online, Murphy was screaming like a banshee about how much power it would grant someone over a city, but I never understood it properly.'
Straightening up, I turned to face Johnny, "Basically, everything runs through this subnet. And when I say everything, I mean everything. Doors, bridges, security gates, electricity grid, pressure valves." I watched as Johnny's eyes got wider with each thing I listed, "I can essentially walk into anybody's home now, I can turn off the power to everything in a big fucking radius, turning the entire city dark. I can also track anyone with this!"
"Essentially I've got this city by the balls now." Essentially, I mean I still have to do it in a controlled way, otherwise whatever goodwill I have with Lucas will run out faster than my hair conditioner.
'Damn.' I just smiled at his reaction, and was about to reply when I saw the main processors fired up and ready for deployment. Looks like Del Junior is here.
V?
"Junior?" Moving towards the central console, I saw the screen coming alive. Looks like Junior is filling his old man's place pretty nicely. "Good to hear from you. Welcome to your home."
I- uh… thanks, I guess. But I don't think I can do this… I was made to be a companion for you, to be with you at the end of your life. God. He sounds so young and uncertain. God damn, I wonder what happened to him after I went with the FIA… I should've taken better care of him.
Shaking off the thoughts, I focused back on him. "I know. But I also know who your father was, and that means that you can handle this better than anyone here. You have all his skills and capabilities. All you need is a little bit of experience.
So what do we do?
"My best guess? Shut down the services for a few days, and get a feel for the business, after that, start slow, 2 high-profile clients and 5 or 6 normal clients a day. And take it from there.
…okay. Okay! I'll try my best!
Smiling, once I got everything, I quickly deleted almost everything from the data dump that I just got, for example, the Delamane programming for cars, the custom codes for different situations and many different things like that, plus some extra few things, but I also kept a lot of things, for example, many confidential conversations of some of the most high-profile clients that Del had in his long life. People always assumed that Delamane cabs were completely private places where they could talk without any repercussions, and to be fair, they were not wrong, but unfortunately for them, things don't stay that way forever.
The amount of blackmail material I'm thinking I have here is enough to take down some of the most elusive corporate sharks out there. I mean Hands, Padre, Rogue, and every single fixer out there will be willing to pay me their own organic organs in return for this. I have had a lot of things, but I think that this might be the single most powerful weapon I've ever had in my possession.
Of course, all of this hinges on the fact that there is actually something good in these terabytes of voice recordings and old transcripts. But in any case, even if I don't get anything from this, I still got what I was after in the first place. So it's not all bad. But I have to admit, it would be just the cherry on top if I'm right.
Satisfied, I jacked out, and fully turned towards the monitor, "It'll be fine, Junior, I know you'll do great, and I'll be here if you need any help, okay?"
Yeah! Okay V… until then, can I do anything for you?
Smiling appreciatively at the thought, I gently shook my head, "Nah, just focus on yourself, Junior, get ready for the real world and then we'll take it from there." And turned to leave, I was just about to walk out when I heard a small You're leaving then?
Oh jeez. Turning, I watched as the monitor slowly blinked. Junior didn't have a default appearance yet, but the little tyke was able to convey so much emotion with just those three words. Sighing, I took a few steps back to the console. "I'm just one call away, lad. And don't worry, Hazey will stay in touch with you." Saying that, I watched as Hazey made a direct link connecting both Junior and herself. Good. With Junior not satisfied, but placated, I waved a bye to him, and left him to explore his empty castle.
Walking through the facility, I watched as almost everything was just sitting idly, just sort of in a standby mode, the entire place was eerily quiet. Disregarding that, I quickly walked out of the facility and towards the Sabimaru. Just looking at the car felt a bit surreal, it reminded me of the past life, or more like how fast things changed in a matter of days in that time.
So much has happened in just a few hours today. I got three new rare and powerful guns, two new rare cars, had a meeting with one of the most dangerous people on this side of the hemisphere, and then I met one of the prettiest popstars of our generation.
The prettiest...<3 Great, she's emoting now...
"God. I'm gonna go and sleep for the next two days." I muttered to myself while climbing in the car. Hearing my words, Jonny appeared next to me and gave me one of those patented old people looks that conveys how deeply offended they are by our actions. 'You can't be that tired already, I remember you were a lot more active when you were dying!'
Seriously? I was literally running around like a fuckin' headless chicken, flailing around trying to do anything to get just a little more sand for my hourglass.
"It's more like mental exhaustion, not physical." I said in a distracted, monotonous tone. Right now, despite my best efforts, my thoughts and imaginations are running wild, trying to imagine what would happen at Dashi Parade. I mean, I know that I've already lived it once, but this time there are a few more variables to consider. Plus, I have a little plan brewing up for the future, something that I would need to put in motion right after the parade. You can call it my life insurance, or you can call it a way to ensure that no matter what, I stay on the winning side of this mess.
I was almost halfway to my Glen apartment when Jonny broke me out of my musings. 'Hey…' Turning my eyes towards him, I saw that damn look on his face. The look that he makes right before he makes an outrageous demand. Or whenever he asks me to smoke. Seriously, If I hadn't known about his addiction, I'd almost say that watching girls smoke was his fetish or something, considering how much he begs me to smoke.
"I don't like that look on your face, Johnny." I said with an apprehension on my face.
'I'm just thinking…' I don't like those words either… 'how about a night out?' What?
With furrowed brows, I turned my head towards him and saw an almost begging expression on his face. "I just said I'm going to—"
Cutting me off in the middle, Johnny took off his glasses, 'I'm not talking about you. You can sleep all you want, just let me take your body for a spin!'
"Are you serious?" I asked with a blank look on my face.
'Please! I promise I won't do anything too bad! I'll just have some fun. Just a little drive in the city, a little drinking in the Afterlife, a little brawl in some strip club... You know the normal stuff.' To be honest, I didn't even think that it was an option this time, considering that the chip was essentially stopped from progressing, but now that I'm actually thinking about it, there's nothing stopping me from actually dragging him out by taking Misty's magic pills. Pseudoendotrizines. But is it even a safe thing to do? More to the point, can I actually hand over the reins to this massive perverted asshole who right now is trying to give some kind of puppy-dog look, but instead it just comes out as a pathetic man begging for spare change… only intense look suits this fucker. I was just thinking whether I should even entertain the idea, considering the fact that I have a major event in two days, and I don't wanna risk breaking something off right now, when Hazey chimed in I can keep an eye on him for you! With an eager and cheerful tone.
'V?' Johnny waved his hand in front of my face trying to get my attention, probably because I haven't said anything in a while, but to be fair, this is not a decision that you take lightly.
We're talking about a cyberpsychotic terrorist taking my body out for a wild ride. Granted, we have done this before, but this time, I'm a bit wary, considering the amount of quickhacks and money that I have now, I mean he could really go on a massive rampage this time. "I'm thinking."
To be fair, I could lock half the things down before giving him control. And plus, Hazey will be keeping an eye too, so it should be alright… relatively… Plus, if I said no now too, then he would be insufferable for the next god knows how many days.
With a long, tired, and suffering sigh, I took a sharp right towards the closest drug store. "Alright, but I'm putting a lot of trust here, Johnny. You better not do anything that might create a problem for Dashi Parade, you understand?"
And just like that, his face and emotions did a complete one-eighty, 'Absolutely, you'll have no problem!' Before he could get too excited, I started giving him all the rules that he'd have to follow as long as he's in my body. The rules were pretty straightforward, but they still have to be stressed. No using my cyberdeck, Johnny will be strictly limited to guns and swords, and even then there are some restrictions, like no using O'Five, or the GUTS. No riding on Jackie's bike. Stick to cars and walking. And no buying outrageous things. I don't wanna see a big chunk of my wealth missing when I gain consciousness. And I need to get my body back by tomorrow night. Also, no weird tattoos.
With every demand, he just nodded his head with a smile, but I could tell that the loss of the cyberdeck, and tattoo restrictions were a little grating for him. Good.
Getting the pills, I silently climbed in the car again, and started ripping off the plastic wrapper on the bottle. With the pills finally in my hand, I turned towards Johnny and gave him a hard stare. "No injuries, Johnny. I'm serious." Hearing me, he eagerly nodded his head and excitedly gestured me to take them. Turning my left arm over, I quickly typed in my datapad, and locked my cyberdeck, and with another long sigh, I shook my head and took the pills.
And just a second or so later, I started experiencing a mother of all headaches, just like the one I used to experience back then. The pain was so sudden and intense that I involuntarily started massaging my forehead, it was then that I noticed something, my left arm had a holographic glitchy overlay of Johnny's silver arm. I sat there for a few more seconds staring at it, when my vision started glitching and finally that dreaded message popped up again, [RELIC MALFUNCTION]
Knowing that I'm about to be pulled in again, I simply rested my head back on the car's seat and closed my eyes. It was then when I heard Johnny's voice one last time, 'Thanks V. Now go to sleep.'
And then I was asleep… or more like I was pulled under extremely thick tar, like I couldn't quite wade my way through it, can't swim up and out of… wherever I was, but to be fair it wasn't that bad either. It was quite close to sleeping, really, except I was in a limbo of some kind, or maybe it would be more accurately describe it as sleep paralysis, but peaceful. I could not tell or experience what was happening outside, but I could almost hear murmurings of someone talking, I could almost feel, or more accurately, I could feel phantom touches every now and then, sometimes it was pain, sometimes it was pleasure, it was weird, it was confusing. But fortunately, as time passed, I got more and more lucid, not enough to understand what was happening but enough to know that I will be getting out soon.
.....
.....
.....
The first thing that I woke up to was Johnny screaming 'Wake the fuck up V!', and me stumbling over my feet as I suddenly gained control back, the pain and the sudden way I got it back was extremely jarring, to say the least. Breaking my fall with my hands, I straightened up and looked around me and saw that I was somewhere in Vista del Rey, in a back alley. Before I could see or understand anything, a bullet grazed my neck from behind. "What the—?" Turning around, I saw almost fifteen to sixteen 6th Street goons running towards me with bloody murder in their eyes. "The fuck is happening?!" I screamed as a few more shots were fired in my direction. Seeing that there would be no help from them, I turned around and ran in the opposite direction, and started climbing the walls of the alley, and climbed on top of them trying to lose my tail. Reaching into the pocket of the jacket that I was wearing, I grabbed a few frag grenades and threw them down the building in a wide enough area to cover the entire alley, and two seconds later the fifteen goons were reduced to seven, but seven very injured goons. Seeing this is the perfect time to make myself scarce, I started running across the rooftops again when I felt something, something that I've been feeling ever since I woke up, but couldn't focus on. But it was pretty hard to ignore anymore.
With a startled gasp, I came to a sudden stop at the edge of a roof and stood completely still, a second later Johnny appeared beside me too. 'So, first thing first, welcome back…', but I was not even acknowledging him, because I was feeling something that I really shouldn't… Something very big between my legs.
"Seriously?!"
*ੈ✩‧♯˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧♯˚
Howdy guys! first thing first, I'm genuinely sorry for the wait, but unfortunately I got into a bike accident and sort of messed up my hand, which as you can guess is not ideal for writing, or even holding a mouse, which is pretty bad considering I'm a 3D artist!
Anyhow, the bottom line is that I'm sorry of the late upload, and I'll try my best to speed things up, but do keep in mind that i was extremely lazy before the accident, and now I have a fuckin' excuse too!