A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

V makes a call, in more ways than one.

-x-X-x-

It was never too early to start making eddies. With that flicker of thought, V can feel Alt moving to place the call for him, using a number from his memories of the future. He can also feel his passenger utilizing her capabilities to hide any details about him, making the call as anonymous as he wants it to be.

A moment later and Wade Bleecker, aka Mr. Hands, picks up the call. As usual, the Fixer for both Pacifica and Dogtown is mostly shrouded in shadows, only his metal cybernetic hands visible in the light as he clasps them together in front of him.

“It’s not often I receive a call from an unknown. Consider my curiosity piqued. Who is this and how did you come by this number?”

Heh, classic Hands. Though of course, they don’t have the rapport here that they would have had in the future. No reason to not start building it, however. Subvocalizing his response so that Dex and his goon outside the door didn’t catch wind of the conversation, V keeps things nice and compact.

“Name’s V. Mercenary. And you’re Mr. Hands, Pacifica’s current Fixer.”

There’s an ever so slight tightening of metal knuckles as Mr. Hands tries not to react to the use of the word ‘current’. At the same time though, there’s not even a flicker of recognition at V’s name. Of course there isn’t. Night City is a big place, home to millions. And before tonight V was a nobody, a small fry who didn’t operate in the sections of the city that Mr. Hands operated in.

Still, best to keep Hands on his toes. Wouldn’t want to give him a chance to hangup if he decided this wasn’t worth his time.

“I’m calling you because I’ve got information about Dexter DeShawn, Pacifica’s last Fixer. I’m sure by now you already know he’s back in town.”

This time, Mr. Hands doesn’t even bother hiding his reaction. He leans back a bit further in his shadowed office, silent for a moment before responding.

“I’m aware.”

V grins, taking a bit of a gamble.

“And do you know what he’s been up to? What he’s planning?”

Another lengthy pause, until finally…

“No. I assume that is the information you wish to sell me?”

Good. That was a calculated gamble. It was possible Dex’s OpSec was shot to hell, and also possible that Mr. Hands knew what was happening through his connections in Pacifica’s Voodoo Boys. But V didn’t think it too likely. Even if he’d said yes though, V’s answer would have been the same.

“I want to sell you his life, Mr. Hands. I want you to hire me to zero Dexter DeShawn and pay me a stack of eddies for presenting you evidence of his corpse.”

That gets the Fixer’s attention in an entirely new way and he leans forward again.

“You’re a surprising man, V. What makes you think I care about an insignificant worm like DeShawn?”

V lets out a chuckle at that, knowing full well that they were moving into the negotiating phase of this conversation.

“Because he’s your predecessor, Hands. And not in the warm and fuzzy mentor-protégé way either. You’re his replacement. And we both know if he’s back in Night City, he’s back for good. You want to spend the next several months fighting him? Be my guest. Because he’s no worm… he’s a snake in the grass and he’s coming straight for you.”

There’s a lot of lies in that. V doesn’t feel very guilty about telling them though. He and Hands might have had a good relationship in the future, but it was one built on business. And he’d probably build it again by proving he was still the competent mercenary that Future Hands had come to appreciate so dearly.

First though…

“Ten thousand eddies. Offer me a contract for DeShawn’s head for the price of ten thousand eddies and he’ll be dead before the end of the night.”

It was a princely sum… but also not nearly as much as V probably could have asked for, given the circumstances. Indeed, if Hands could truly be convinced that Dexter was after him, he could probably have been convinced to pay a lot more than that. V can tell he has the Fixer just from the length of the pause. Hands wouldn’t even be considering it if he wasn’t going to go for it in the end.

“… Very well. But I will require proof, V.”

V grins at that, suddenly getting a kind of crazy idea. But he can feel Alt in his mind and can feel her approval too… she’ll make it work.

“Sure. Patching you into my Kiroshi Optics now.”

That gets a genuine startle from the Fixer on the other end of the call. But after a few moments of checking over the offered connection and finding no traps, Hands takes it like one might take a handshake. Ultimately, this isn’t the kind of thing that V would ever offer anyone in Night City, regardless of how much he trusted them. Not under normal circumstances anyways.

However, he wasn’t living in normal circumstances anymore. With an AI in the form of the legendary Alt Cunningham in his head, V didn’t have to worry about giving Mr. Hands access to his eyes. Alt wouldn’t let the Fixer do anything more than look.

As soon as the connection is established and V knows Hands is watching through his vision, he turns with Yorinobu’s sidearm in hand and proceeds to open the door to the main hotel room.

“V-!”

BANG!

As Dexter DeShawn turns to him, the big fat black man preparing to lull V into a false sense of security so that the muscled goon just out of sight on the side of the door can ambush him, V is already firing. A bullet goes right between Dex’s eyes, rocking the Fixer’s head back as blood and brains and bone spray out the back of his head.

BANG!

A second bullet finds its way into the head of the huscle just outside of V’s field of vision, the one that he’s not supposed to know about. Turning his head just enough to give Mr. Hands a view of the now-dead lumbering oaf, V then pans his view back and forth in silence as both corpses fully drop to the ground with matching wet splats.

As blood begins to pour out of their obliterated skulls, V tilts his head to the side, not bothering with subvocalization anymore.

“I hope this gig has been completed to your satisfaction, Mr. Hands.”

Silence reigns for a moment before Hands pulls back out of V’s Kiroshi Optics and instead turns their communications back to a normal call. The shadowed figure and his metal hands suddenly looks a bit tense. However, after a beat, V sees Hands’ eyes glowing golden in the dark and a moment later he receives the deposit of ten thousand eddies into his account.

Rather then a ‘job well done’ message or anything like that however, Hands just grunts.

“There seems to be things you’re not telling me, V.”

Smirking slightly, V inclines his head in acknowledgment.

“If you want to know more about what DeShawn was up to, Hands… look into what happened tonight at Konpeki Plaza. Careful though… don’t go looking too deep.”

Knowing Hands, there was nothing the man liked more than information. After all, information was leverage. Though sometimes information was a poisoned chalice. And having information on Arasaka and what was going on at the highest places of power within the company could be very poisonous indeed.

After another beat, Hands just nods.

“I can appreciate a professional. Until next time, V.”

And with that, the call ends. V considers his stolen firearm for a moment, and then the dead bodies of Dexter and his huscle. With a grunt, V grabs both bodies and drags them off to the side of the hotel room so they’re against one of the walls. Then, he drops down onto the long L-shaped couch that dominates one corner of the room, kicking his feet up onto the low table in front of it and spreading his arms across the back.

There’s a moment of quiet and then Alt Cunningham appears before him in all of her early Twenty-First Century style. Leather jacket, white tank top, cute blue jeans that hug her curves in all the right ways. Her wavy blonde locks only accentuate her beauty, even as her green eyes bore into him for a moment.

“… You’re waiting for Arasaka.”

It’s not a question, but rather a statement of fact. After all, she’s already read his intentions from their shared headspace. Smiling slightly, V shakes his head.

“Not Arasaka. Goro Takemura.”

Alt hums before walking forward and leaning over him. She plants her hands on either side of his head, looking him directly in the eye. Even if she can read his intentions, it seems she can’t read deeper… she can’t see every thought in his head. Otherwise her next words wouldn’t sound so damn inquisitive.

“An Arasaka Samurai who just lost his Master… and who thinks he is hunting his killer. You.”

V lets his eyes wander down the front of Alt’s top. If she didn’t want to give him a view, she wouldn’t have positioned herself like this. He finds himself grinning a little, only to grin wider when Alt scoffs at the surface level thought she suddenly picks up from him.

“Damn straight I’m a much better partner than Johnny. Now please V… explain. We’re both on the line here, after all.”

Fair enough.

“Goro Takemura is coming for me, Alt. No helping it. He’ll track me down wherever I go and even if I thought I could escape him… I ain’t the type to run forever. Besides, once he finds me and calls it into his new boss, Yorinobu will have the Arasaka Cyber-Assassins he currently has tailing Takemura step in to clean up both his father’s bodyguard AND the witness to Saburo’s murder.”

Looking around the hotel room, V snorts.

“Better to deal with that shit here than anywhere else. No collateral damage here.”

The beautiful blonde AI considers that for a moment before finally nodding and smiling.

“Makes sense, V.”

Then, before he can say or do anything else, the AI is suddenly in his lap, her hands moving from either side of his head to caressing his face as she straddles his crotch and kisses him soundly on the lips. V goes still at the unexpected amorous intent. On the one hand, he knows intellectually that it’s not necessarily ‘real’. Alt isn’t really here, she’s in his head and projecting a hallucination of herself on top of him right now.

On the other hand, that doesn’t change the fact that she very much feels real, especially as his hands instinctively go to her hips, gripping them and finding them to feel very, very real as he grasps at her. In the end, as far as ‘interactions’ with his AI passenger go, V’s had worst. And he’s certainly not going to turn down a beautiful woman who is all but throwing herself at him just for having strange circumstances.

Though, he would turn her down for other reasons… other reasons that he outlines the moment they part lips for a moment.

“Takemura will be here soon, Alt. Don’t want to give the Samurai the wrong… impression.”

Alt giggles at that and her green eyes glow blue. When next she speaks, her voice doesn’t just come from her illusionary lips, but from all around him.

“The No Tell Motel has pretty good security for such a dump, V. But nothing that can hold me out forever. I’m in their systems and I’ve managed to get access to security cameras for a block in every direction. I’ll know Arasaka is coming long before they actually arrive, don’t worry.”

Hm. That did change things. Grinning, V nods his head.

“Alright then.”

Snorting in amusement at his easy come, easy go attitude, Alt then surprises him by suddenly sidling out of his lap. However, she does so not because she’s decided she doesn’t want to fuck him after all, but because she’s sinking down to her knees between his legs. V watches as the AI makes a show of shucking off her not-real black jacket, pulling her not-real white top over her head, and exposing her not-real tits to him.

But he has to admit, even knowing they’re not real… her tits are absolute perfection. Don’t get him wrong, he wasn’t some old codger who would go on and on about how ‘they didn’t make them like they used to anymore!’. But there was something about Alt’s tits that screamed ‘all natural baby!’ at the top of their lungs. And V quite liked that. Even if, paradoxically, her tits were in fact completely fake just like the rest of her.

Smirking up at him, Alt wastes no time deftly pulling his cock free of the confines of his pants. And then she slaps his dick down between her breasts, moaning as she slides her soft chest along his throbbing shaft. V groans in response, the entire thing feeling completely real. There’s no real disconnect there, and V is easily able to turn the rational side of his brain off and focus on the pleasure at hand.

Especially when Alt leans forward and begins to lick at the tip of his cock as it protrudes from between her breasts. Feeling her wet, eager tongue slipping and sliding back and forth over his dick tip, V shudders.

He could get used to this. Alt being his partner instead of Johnny. He could very much get used to this.

“Heh, glad you approve, V. I really must be the more human parts of my greater self… because I can’t remember being this horny in the past several decades. Or, more likely, you’re influencing me through our connection. Making me want to get all slutty for you because of how hot you find my body.”

V raises an eyebrow at that. Was that even possible? But Alt just gives him a wicked grin and a wink before going back to using her tongue and mouth for things other than talking. He has to admit, he certainly doesn’t mind her doing so.

Though at the same time, he SHOULD be ready when Takemura arrived. He needed to decide what was going to happen. V’s main priority was to keep Goro Takemura from following him to any of the people he actually cared about, both from this time and the Future. Vik and Misty, Judy and Evelynn, Panam and the Aldecaldos. And those were just barely scraping the surface of people V had some level of affection for in this damnable city.

So yes, he and Takemura were going to have their altercation here, where nobody else could get hurt. And with Alt at his back, V wasn’t even particularly worried about being barely chromed up against an Arasaka Samurai and the Cyber-Assassins he’d unwittingly brought with him.

Still… how to go about things, exactly?

-x-X-x-

[ ] Scorched Earth. Kill Takemura and the Arasaka Cyber-Assassins - 18%
[X] Try Diplomacy. Talk Takemura down and turn him against Yorinobu - 82%