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From Badlands To Good Times A Cyberpunk 2077 Tale	By : Crystal_Dreams_Writes Category: -Misc Video Games/RPGs > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3887 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Cyberpunk 2077 nor the characters from it I do not make any money or profit in any way from the writing of this story

Chapter List
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It hadn’t been one minute after she got out of the shower when her holo went off, an incoming call from an ID she wasn’t familiar with. Either her name was getting out there and people were trying to reach out to her for a quick fuck, or her name was really getting out there and people were trying to reach out to her for merc work. She hesitated for a moment, but ended up taking the call “Hello?” she starts as she sits on her couch “Y-yeah, hi, is this V?” a girl with green/pink hair dye asked, she seemed nervous and anxious, or maybe both “Speakin’, what can I do for you?” the girl clears her throat “I hear you’re a merc? You do jobs? Are you available?” V sighs, it was a shame some people weren’t aware of how hiring mercs worked “Sorry choom, you have to reach out to a Fixer, put the job detes out there, and—” the woman interrupted “I know, I know! But… I can’t do that, I don’t know who to trust, please, will you hear me out?” V sighs, exasperated, and just nods “Go ahead, but I can’t promise I’ll take the job” The woman looked relieved “A couple of weeks ago, a very good friend of mine went missing, I think someone or something powerful or with influence was after her, I think she might be in danger, she’s been actin’ strange, sometimes even hostile, she hasn’t even shown to work, and I don’t think she’s even gone to her apartment” standard for most missing people cases, V nods “Happens many times a day in Night City… For this kind of work, you still need to reach out to a Fixer, sorry I couldn’t help you” As she was about to kill the call, there was something in the woman’s eyes that forced her to stay on “Please… I don’t know who else to go to, I don’t know who else is after her, and I fear she may have done something very stupid…” This was going against everything V as a merc believed in, every fiber of her being was shouting at her, telling her no, she finally sighs, knowing she would regret this “Alright… Fuck… Fuckin’ fine, what’s your choom’s name?” the woman’s face lit up, and a smile of gratitude appeared on her face “Thank you! I feel like we should speak in person… I’m sorry, I’m just very shaken up, can we meet?” she groans again, thirty seconds in and she was already regretting it.

“Fine, where?” V asks as the woman smiles “I’m at Lizzie’s bar, if you don’t see me when you arrive just ask for me, I’m gonna tell some of the girls I’ll be waiting for you. My name is Judy. Judy Alvarez”. Not wasting much time, she put together an outfit, wearing a black reinforced leotard, cargos of the same color, sneakers, and a short bolero jacket, besides her usual makeup and jewelry, with that, she exited her apartment and headed towards the parking garage.

A few moments later, V was on her Brennan speeding through the streets. There was something she hated about this job already and she was wondering why she decided to give this Judy the time of day. Not too long after, she was at Lizzie’s, she parked the bike as she approached the neon-soaked building, this was the only known location where the Mox, a gang formed mostly by sex workers, considered their home.

“Hey there dollface, haven’t seen you in a while” V recognized that voice, Rita Wheeler was one of those Moxes you couldn’t forget, no matter how often she swapped her arms, and even face cybernetics “Hey beautiful, sorry, been swamped with work” V replies, flirting back, Rita grinned “Mhmm… And in the meanwhile, I’m here night after night just waiting for your sexy self to show up… Someone ought to lock you up, I’m neglected here” V chuckles, looking at the Mox, she was toned, pale, and she had that naughty look in her eye that people oftentimes said V had too “I’m all for being locked up if it’s with you, doll” Rita finally chuckled and placed her trusty baseball bat on her shoulder “You here for business or pleasure, baby?” V sighs, shaking her head “Business I’m afraid, meetin’ someone here, do you know a Judy Alvarez?” Rita nodded “Mhm… she’s our top BD editor, she told us someone would be comin’ to see her, didn’t imagine it’d be you, should I get jealous?” V grins, looking at Rita, she was wearing latex pants with neon trims, and a barely-there top that showed all the goods “Probably, yeah” Rita tsked a few times “See how bad you’re to me? You can find Judy in her den, go on in, walk past the bar, take the hall to the left until you reach the dressing room, then turn right and go down, pretty straightforward from there, dollface” V nods as she walks into the bar “Thanks Rita, I owe you one” the Mox purs and grins “You owe more than one, dollface, and one of these days I’m gonna collect!”

Lizzie’s bar was soaked in colors, neons, and beautiful men and women. It was for the most part a BD Joint, anyone could browse the catalog, and pick anything they desired. No one in Lizzie’s was afraid to scroll any and all kinds of scenes, from innocent softcore to depraved hardcore and everything in between. Following Rita’s instructions, she eventually reaches the dressing room, where plenty of staff was changing outfits, V had never seen so many Mr. Studd and Midnight Lady implants in one place, let alone with such variety. “Hey there beautiful” a scantily clad man with blue neon hair looks at V, he clearly was in shape, and he was significantly taller than V “You the one Judy’s waiting for?” V nods “That’d be me” The man smiles and points at the door at the back of the dressing room “Go down a couple of flights, follow the lights, and you’ll see her in her den”.

Lizzie’s basement doubled as both the server room and the Braindance editor’s studio. As she walked in, she recognized the girl who had called her, she was wearing a BD wreath and she was clearly tweaking a BD of some kind. V clears her throat as Judy opens her eyes and gasps, she immediately stands, removing the wreath “Jesus, you scared me!” V blinked, about to say something, but she decided against it at the last moment. “Is this place safe to talk?” V asks as Judy nods and offers V a seat, she pulls up a chair and sits next to her. “Sorry to make you jump through hoops… I almost didn’t call you, but I just couldn’t let this rest” V breathed in and nodded “Don’t worry about it… Alright, so if I got it right, a friend of yours disappeared recently, and you fear someone or something of considerable power and influence is after her, and you fear she’s in danger because she’s acting strangely, did I get that right?” Judy nods nervously, as V continues “And your friend’s name?” Judy looks at V, for a moment it looked like she was re-considering, but it was too late to back down “Evelyn Parker”.

V stops in her tracks, as she looks at Judy “I’m sorry, did you say… Evelyn Parker?” now Judy looked nervous, more than she did during the call “Y-yeah… It’s… M-maybe I…” V reassured her “Calm down girl, I’m just asking a question is all. Why don’t you start from the beginning?” Judy breathes out and looks at V, after a few moments, she finally nods.

“A while back, Evelyn said she had a plan to leave Night City and be set for life… At first, I thought she meant that she had found a rich old guy willing to put her in his will or something like that, she then started asking me if I could edit a scroll if it was captured from Kiroshi Optics, which is entirely possible, so I said yes. I thought it was just a question about my job, she didn’t bring it up again, not for a while anyway. She, Evelyn, she’s a doll, you know… High-class escorts for celebrities, corpos, and rich people in general. She’s healthy and really pretty, and she has the right personality for people in power: Flexible, but not submissive. Assertive, but not dominant. She started working with some execs at Arasaka a few months back, and I know she had a regular… Yorinobu Arasaka” Despite the revelation, V didn’t react, she had more or less pieced together with what she already knew, but she let Judy continue “At some point, she scrolled something and stored it in her Kiroshis, she says it was her way out of Night City and into a better life, I told her that usually, corpo scandals don’t shake people, at least not like they once did, but she said she wasn’t a scandal, but something bigger… There was this prototype chip stored in Yorinobu’s suite, and she hoped a BD editor could reveal its location… You see… The suite was the penthouse of the Konpeki Plaza, the fancy Arasaka hotel that got hit not too long ago… I’m sure you are already piecing things together”.

She was, and she did at least that part she knew “She tried reaching out to a lot of mercs, but they all told her the same thing you told me, to reach a fixer and go from there, but she said that what she had was too important to include middlemen. After a few days of trying and getting rejected, she finally decided to look into fixers, and decided to go with—” V interrupts, looking at her “Dexter DeShawn, former fixer from Pacifica” Judy blinks, looking at V “Y-yeah… H-how did you…? Who are you?” Judy was starting to get anxious again, so V proceeded to explain “Dexter DeShawn reached out to my partner and me for that job, it was supposed to be several steps before going into the job proper” She then looks at Judy “I turned down the job, there were not enough assurances for me and my partner, but Dex did convince me to do the bot retrieval, a Flathead bot from Militech… The same they found in the hotel” V looks down, sighing “Dexter tried to convince us to take the job once we did the delivery, but he didn’t have any better luck than the first time, he said he would have to find more mercs to replace the team he had originally envisioned, the netrunner remained the same” she looks at Judy “I’m bettin’ a few days later someone either came here to see Evelyn or met her somewhere else?” Judy blinks “Y-yeah, they came here, I remember Ev was annoyed and that fixer convinced her that the plan was still in the right timeframe to be successful, she believed him”.

“And then the job went tits up” V says, Judy nods “I still remember when it happened, it was all over the news, and everybody was talking about it. Arasaka was hit again, some people panicked thinking it was gonna be another nuke like last time. Ev was furious and afraid. I’ve never seen her so afraid before, she called the fixer, and he picked up the first time, then stopped answering, she finally managed to get in touch with one of the mercs on the suite” V’s eyes widen, looking at Judy “What?” she asks, Judy rubs her temples “I told her not to, I told her that whoever was listenin’ on the other side would come after her, she didn’t listen!” V breathes out, thinking as she assures Judy “I wouldn’t worry too much” Judy looks at her, confused “The netrunner was neutralized, Dex is dead, and the two mercs were killed on site, even if Evelyn had managed to talk to one of them, the lead died there”.

Judy looked at V, and V tried to decipher what that look meant “N-no, you’re wrong” Judy says, V was now feeling insulted, she knew there were two mercs killed on the site, and the netrunner had been neutralized “What do you mean?” Judy rubbed her temples again “They found the vault where the tech was, something happened, and alarms went off. The netrunner managed to open a window before she was neutralized. When the mercs were making their escape, Yorinobu’s top bodyguard killed two mercs, but the one carrying the case slipped away”.

“Wait, what did you just say?” cold sweat ran down V’s spine, Judy looked down, she had restless leg syndrome, and she was trying to recollect all she knew “The third merc, he managed to slip away, with the tech” V took a moment to process what she was hearing “The… Team, it was originally going to be me, my partner, and T-Bug the netrunner. When we turned down Dex, I assumed he was simply replacing the missing team members, bringing in two other mercs… I didn’t expect a third” Judy looks at V “I guess the fixer changed his mind…” V had to think, suddenly, the chip was still in play “Alright so… Say I find Parker, what next?” Judy stops rubbing her temples “W-what?” V nods “You’re hirin’ me to find Evelyn, right? So… I find her, then what?” Judy froze, she hadn’t thought ahead “Other than her acting up, I don’t really have much to go on… And if she stole from Arasaka, and Arasaka found out, she’s not safe well… Anywhere” Judy was about to protest, but deep inside, she knew V was right.

“And Arasaka is not the only one after her, there’s also NetWatch and the Voodoo Boys” Judy finally stopped, looking extremely surprised “Wait, what?” V nods “It’s a convoluted mess, for what I understand, Evelyn approached the Voodoo Boys at one point, I am guessing they gave her the idea of scrolling using her Kiroshis, and they expected her to deliver the chip to them. She then tried to reach NetWatch and arrange the sale of the chip” She then looks at Judy “Fortunately, it seems NetWatch is more focused on dealing with the VDB’s than with Parker, and the Voodoo Boys were recently hit, a few of their leaders are dead, but this information is out there” Judy looked at V, but before she could ask anything, V continues “So, tell me, what are your plans? Take Evelyn with you, fly somewhere Arasaka has no presence? Go into a bunker until this whole mess blows over?” Judy starts to fidget again “I-I don’t know… I guess hide somewhere out there, maybe the Badlands, and roll with the nomads for a while… I don’t know” She looks at V “How do you know so much about this?”

V breathes out, the next part was not going to go well “Full disclosure, and I’m going to reveal this to you because you have been forward with me, alright?” Judy nods slowly as V continues “Arasaka is upping the ante, and there’s a special unit looking into the theft, they are making me work with them” Judy frowns, it looked like she was about to engage in a screaming fit, so V continues “My name and my partner’s name came out because Arasaka knew Dex offered the gig to us, they are also aware of her connection with the VDB’s and NetWatch, and as I said, they are looking into it, I’m on call, meaning, whenever one of them drops me a line I have to meet with them, and much like yourself, they are very interested in finding Evelyn Parker”.

“Shit!” Judy stood up fast, the chair falling to the floor “Fuck! Shit!” she then looks at V “And you’re working with them!? Of all people? Why?” V shrugs, looking at Judy “I go where the work is, and corporate contracts are the best payin’ ones, it’s just like you, if someone offered you seven figures to edit a smut BD, you’d do it, wouldn’t you?” Judy was furious, frustrated, afraid, and confused. V, to a degree, could sympathize. She slowly stands, looking at Judy “I could help you find Evelyn, but because of Arasaka, I’d have to inform them where she is too” Judy hated the idea, corporations had taken plenty from her, and she couldn’t keep letting them do what they pleased, she wasn’t saying anything, but she was staring daggers at V. Not as she could blame her “Or you could reach out to another merc, maybe a fixer too… Hell, go to the Afterlife, tell the big guy there you’re looking for a fixer, there’ll be at least half a dozen there at all times… But there’s one thing you should understand, Arasaka is likely offering a substantial reward for Evelyn, I chose to be straight with you because you were straight with me, but there are other mercs out there with little to no scruples, the kind that wouldn’t hesitate to blow off your head the second you turn around if that earns them some eddies”.

“So what, do nothing? Is that what you suggest I do? To abandon my friend, leaving her alone out there, and wait until Arasaka finds her, kills her, or something worse?” V had heard all kinds of horror stories about Arasaka’s secret weapons and secret facilities. But those were, of course, only rumors, although there was always one person every few weeks claiming to know the truth of the matter with these topics. She was sure Garry the Prophet was one of them. “That’s not what I said, I didn’t suggest anything in fact, but you should be aware of all the pieces in play, and the pieces that are no longer on the board. Going against a corporation like Arasaka is a death sentence, you know that as well as I do” Judy covers her mouth and it was obvious she was about to cry, V’s first impulse was to approach and comfort her, but she didn’t know if Judy would be receptive to that or if she would try to bite her head off “I’m sorry” Judy says, breathing shakily “I don’t know what to do” V nods, genuinely wishing she could do more for her “It’s not easy… I know, and I know you are hatin’ my guts right now. I am not apologizin’, but I’m tryin’ to be fair with you here. If you wanna survive, do nothing. If you go out there and try to find her, in time, Arasaka will have you in their sights too” Judy looks at V, she wasn’t furious but she was hurt “Ev is like family to me, V, if I don’t do anything I’d be abandoning my family and letting them die, do you know what’s it like to look at your family one more time before you turn around and leave them?” V looks at Judy and looks down, nodding “I do, more than you can imagine”.

There was an awkward silence, only barely interrupted by the humming of the servers. V finally steps forward “Listen…” she starts “You don’t have to make a decision right now, and it doesn’t even have to be me, go out there, look for second opinions… But if you make a decision and you think I should know, you already have my number… Or if you just want to talk, shoot the shit, we can do that too” She almost cringes at her own words, was she trying to pick up a girl while she was having a crisis? Fortunately, she was discreet enough that Judy didn’t notice “I’ll… I’ll be around, Judy, take care, and… I’m sorry” V turned around and headed out “V, wait” She turns around to see Judy approach “Yeah?” Judy looks at her for a few moments and nods “Thank you for being honest… I-I think I need to think but… I’ll keep your number, alright? I only ask that you try to delay Arasaka” V sighs “Judy…” but Judy was looking at her, pleading “I don’t know if I can do that, they work at a whole different level… I’m sorry” Judy finally breathes out “I understand… I’m sorry, I just feel lost” V nods “It’s never easy when we are in this kind of position, because no matter what we end up doing, someone’s gonna lose, someone’s gonna get hurt, and we’ll be wonderin’ if what we got in return was even worth it… I-I’m really not sure if there’s something that can be done to keep all sides satisfied…” V sighs again and just looks at Judy “Just drop me a line if you feel like talking or if you make a call, alright?” Judy knows, breathing shakily, she did look like she was about to cry, V turns around and heads to leave.

As she leaves Lizzie’s, Rita was still there “Hey dollface, everything alright?” she asks as V just nods, with a fake smile “Peachey” she replies, Rita smirks “You’re a bad liar, babe, you know that?” V sighs, looking at Rita and just nodding “I guess it’s one of the many things I gotta work on, huh?” Rita shakes her head “I rather you don’t, beautiful. Lots of liars in Night City these days, not enough honest people… Truth hurts but in the long run, it’s preferable to a lovely lie, dontcha think?” V chuckles “I didn’t take you for the poet kind, Rita” Rita grins at her “There are lots of things you don’t know about me babe, most of them are the sexy kind, drop me a line if you wanna find out one day” Rita’s eyes glow, sending V her number, V chuckles “How come you’re just now givin’ me your digits? Now I feel neglected!” Rita grins as V sends her her number “Fair’s fair” Rita nods “Oh, it’ll be more than fair, dollface, I told you, didn’t I? One of these days I’m gonna collect!”.

V had started the brief way back home. The situation with Arasaka was getting more complex, and more people were getting involved. She didn’t know Judy enough to determine if she had her own agenda, but in Night City almost everyone had it.

As she reached her apartment, she received a message from Vaughn “We’re up for tomorrow, I’ll pick you up at noon” brief, and cold, the corpo way, in many ways. Things were conveniently coming together, or perhaps this was the universe’s way of telling V to take a few wins before something horrible happens.
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From Badlands To Good Times A Cyberpunk 2077 Tale