Cyberpunk 2077: V

Chapter 5 - Threshold

No dreams, just a strange ringing noise echoing over and over in V's subconscious. It annoyed her enough to wake her up completely, and as she blinked her eyes open, she realized the ringing was her phone-link. Squinting against the sunlight filtering through her window, V finally registered who was calling her. 

Jackie. 

V's morning MedTech diagnostic popped up, scanning through her eye implants, RAM, and jack connections for any issues. She could have sworn she saw the word, "CORRUPTED" flash on her HUD for a split second, but when she tried to focus on it the words glitched then read, "NORMAL". After letting the phone ring a couple of times, V answered the call and slowly sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes, uncaring about her state of dress.

Jackie appeared on screen, his eyes widening slightly when he saw her still in bed.

"Woah V! Get your beauty sleep? Ha! No matter, time you got up!"

V glanced at the time and blinked in surprise. It was after 10 o'clock; wayyy past when she usually got up. Another system malfunction message flashed across her HUD, and V finally accepted that she was actually ill. She rubbed the back of her head and gave Jackie a tired look.

"Think I might'a caught somethin'...when I jacked into Sandra's biomon...a neuro virus or..." 

She coughed a little, wincing when it made her head hurt. The system malfunction message popped up again, staying longer this time. 

Yep, definitely caught something.

"I'm gonna go see Vik, see if he can tell me what's got my head reelin'."

Jackie's eyes softened as well as his voice at her words.

"Okay, lemme take ya. I brought your ride. Throw on some threads and meet me downstairs." With that, he ended the call.

V couldn't help but smile. Of course he was already here. 

She managed to get out of bed, stumbling a little as her head throbbed. A couple of pills she kept in case of emergency in a bottle near her bed soon took care of the headache, but she still felt off. Hopefully Vik would be able to help her out. V tossed on a crop top, some blue cargo pants, and her red combat boots. Her revolver fit nicely into the large side pocket of her pants, with her sword slipping perfectly into the custom sewn compartment on her other leg. Ammo clinked in neat rows into another cargo pant pocket. All of her clothes were like that. V rarely wore visible holsters, preferring that if she did want to display a weapon, it be her sword. Looking at her, no one would be able to even guess that she was packing heat. That was fine by V. Never knew what was going to happen out there, and it paid to have some iron to back you up when some gonk decided to swerve out of their lane. Ready to go, V grabbed her red leather jacket and the two trash bags by the door, then head out.

V was pleasantly surprised to find that the gate had been fixed overnight, and it was now wide open. The dumpster was there at the top of the stairs as usual, with V having no idea how they managed to clean it out every week. Regardless, she tossed her trash in and wandered down the stairs. Barely past the first flight, her phone started ringing again.

She assumed it was Jackie, but she paused on the top step when she saw that the caller was someone she didn't know. The name "Regina Jones" blinked on her HUD, showing a profile picture that had some sort of star on it. Curious, V answered the call. 

A woman with a dark ponytail and an eyepatch showed up on screen and started talking before V could say anything.

"Regina Jones here. If you're looking for work in Watson, give me a call."

V blinked, slightly startled. Wakako was the main fixer she and Jackie worked with. Sometimes they would help out the Padre, but Wako was their main squeeze. This was the first time a fixer had ever reached out to V directly. She cleared her throat.