Chapter 184: C183: New Pet
C183: New Pet
Alt Title Teaser: Rogue AI
Date published: 2/3/2025.
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"So, who the everliving fucking piece of shit are you?" A deep voice echoes in Axel's ears, yet even as he is in a crowded bar, no one else can hear the voice. The most noteworthy aspect about Axel at the moment is that he is wearing a special type of sunglasses with a connected earbud over his right ear. Said glasses have 2 small antennas along the back of the frames as well as 2 small cameras along the length of the frames, facing the same way as the lens of the glasses.
While it might look weird, it's not a completely strange sight in Night City when people can completely gouge out part of their faces to replace with Cybernetics. As for the owner of the voice, it can be considered a handsome but rugged man wearing a vest of body armor with 2 patches on them as some dog tags around his neck. His left hand is primarily made of metal that goes up to his shoulder; though you can see some bits of cable along the upper arm. Axel is not fully sure if those wires are an actual weakness or not as the individual is already dead.
Yes, Axel is speaking to a dead man, nothing new. Afterall, all of the Maine crew is meant to be dead but aren't yet, but this time it's different, the speaking person is actually dead-dead. There is only his soul to show for it and through a certain notification Axel got a while ago, he learned that his target who holds the fragment of soul has returned back to night city. So after a little sneaky beaky, he got his hands on a legendary item, The Soul Killer Chip.
Soul Killer is a type of chip that is jacked into a person and then it deconstructs a person's entire psyche/soul into formative data that is then typically sealed away in a vault. This technology is unique to Arasaka, but it was made by the chips ex-girlfriend, Alteria Cunningham (ie Alt Cunningham). A brilliant netrunner during the early 2000s era that died when the chip or similar technology was used on her. Except in her case, instead of being locked within the Soul Killer or duplicate chip, she had become a rogue AI that now roams on the other end of the BlackWall.
"Calm down young'un. Come sit, have a drink with me. I give you permission"
"Where the fuck am I? And who are you to dictate what I can or can't do?" The brash older fellow gives him the finger with his metallic hand but still sits regardless.
"Well, first off, we are in kabuki, a quinate little bar named Soul Residence. I felt like it's name gives the appropriate vibes for what happened to you and your current state" Axel responds as he looks in the direction of a nearby mirror that reflects him with the glasses on.
"What? I'm not in you" The voice says with disbelief.
"Indeed, you're in my glasses, how does that make you feel Johnny.bot?"
"I'm not a bot you Corpo piece of shit"
"And i'm not a Corpo Saburo's fuckhole" Axel returns the insult which seems to piss off the dead man as he kicks into a slew of slurs but Axel just mutes him by tapping on the side of the glasses. The dead man surely got his programmed notification about being muted but that seems to only instigate him as his language filter fully goes to war. Axel just leisurely keeps drinking, and this is where Axel put in a nifty little feature for Johnny Silverhand.
He set up a little biotracker for the glasses where he set up an actual alcoholic catalog within the new 'soul home' glasses, so that when its wearer gets drunk, or at the very least drinks alcohol. That same dosage then is transmitted as data to the ai. Allowing it to get properly hammered as well.
Axel soon turns the sound back on where Johnny is casually leaning against the bar. "Thanks for drinking this cheap swill, better than nothing but if this is gonna be my entire existence, then do us both a favor and put a gun to your mouth and pull the trigger.
"Later sweetie, don't wanna traumatize anyone here, unlike you, I like the japanese." Axel offers a wink to the AI as he rolls his eyes.
"I'm not gay" "neither am I, i'm the birth father of multiple wonderful children." Axel says and takes out a photo he took of his whole family together. All ten and a half of his wives (both oni count as half as does Rebecca). The multiple children all bear happy smiles as they do various poses for the camera. Some hang off their mothers or Axel while Ignant transformed into his tank form with the barrel pointed to the camera.
"Did you screw a group of quadruplets? Damn, those are some fat milkers" The ai points to Kaoruko, Raikou, Gorgon and Serenity due to their purple hair but pauses in confusion or admiration as he notices Gorgon in the back.. Axel bursts into laughter as he only now recognizes that fact.
"Nah, I guess it's just a relatively common color amongst the women of their nature, though i do think Serenity got her color from all the poison she was trained in using" He points to the lithe one of the photo, the only one who could give her a run for her money in regards to being Skinniest of the group is likely Syr/Horn due to her shorter nature.
"This has to be edited, nobody can be that big" Johnny continues saying as he keeps looking at Gorgon.
"Then let's go and see if it's edited or not" Axel says and pays his tab then leaves the bar, walking down a random alleyway, he opens a gate to his home.
Seeing all the life and greenery leaves Johnny reasonably shocked. "What drugs did you ingest that are affecting me now? Can I have some more?"
Suppressing a small chuckle, Axel makes his way to the edge of his village where a singular house rests. Granted it's hard to call it a house, it's size is comparable to a medieval castle yet this is all due to the actual size of the house and it's length. Opening the normal size door, he enters the house.
"Is this a house for giants and it's pets?" Johnny comments as through the glasses, he spots a normal size house within the giant house. Axel just smiles as he makes his way across and enters a bedroom.
Hovering up to the giant bed, is a giant woman of 20ft lying down with her long purple hair spread out. "How are you Gorgon?" Axel calls out his big wife who had only gotten bigger after gaining her divinity. Originally she should have grown up to 100ft tall thanks to her monster blood but Axel was able to catch this change relatively early and suppressed the monster blood so her legs have not merged into a singular monstrous tail.
As a result, she got taller but remained human though scales adorn even more of her body, giving her a more exotic appearance. The largest change to her is that a few of her hairs have clumped up and actually changed into snakes. This was the biggest factor that made Axel step in as Gorgon begged him to stop the change. With only 1 clunk of hair mutated like this, she can at least treat it like a pet snake.
Other than these physical changes, her magic grew exponentially as she became in charge of the little zoo Axel made of all sorts of dungeon monsters coexisting in a safari style zone he set up.
"Mmm, Axel, nice to see you so soon." Gorgon greets Axel as her hands hover on top of her belly.
"How are you feeling, Any nausea? Ill teleport those two here if they neglected you at all right now" Gorgon beams at his care but sighs a moment later. "You don't need to involve them right now, let them sleep for a bit. They might try to stage a mutiny against 'goddess cruelty' if you keep up your bullying."
"So your name is Axel? How the fuck is this possible?" Johnny who has been observing through the glasses is dumbstruck that the woman in the picture is even bigger than the picture itself or that Axel had the balls to fuck such a tall woman.
"Now i'm as curious as the next person, but how did you impregnate her? At her size, she should be choking out your seed the moment it tries to enter her"
"I can grow bigger too. Though unless I use extra effort. My limit is half her size."
"But, how?"
"Magic, and the fact I ate an entire dragon by myself" The information seems to have fried Johnny as he is stuck looking at Gorgon for a while before turning around and turning himself off to sleep.
'Well, that's that. Guess i better get to work now' "Sorry love, i gotta get back to work but ill check up on you every once in a while."
"Be sure to bring snacks" She reminds him as he leaves. Axel thinks about how She has enough divine energy to make her own snacks in his territory but he still nods as he teleports out of the home and back into the same alleyway he was in before.
From there he makes his way down a few streets and transitions from kabuki to Southern Watson. He soon arrives at a certain bar. With his unique sight, he spots the special technological design of the Empress on the wall of the building. He makes his way inside and gives a nod to Bronson, the bouncer at the door, he steps into the infamous bar, The Afterlife.
Axel doesnt visit this place very often, keeping to the allure of it's infamy and the fact that he is widely known as being underage but he doesnt really care right now.
"Oi, wake up sleepyhead" the blue haired 'child' pokes at his glasses and Johnny is brought back.
"Where are we now?"
"Take a look for yourself, I'm sure you're in for a surprise. It's had some renovations since you were last here. Not completely sure but maybe they changed locations too" Axel states as he takes a seat at the bar. He takes off his glasses and points it in a certain direction to his left. Axel can still tell that Johnny has just taken a proper seat at the bar and is mixing himself a drink. Axel just gets himself a synthetic juice that he just gulps down in one gulp so as not to get used to its bad taste as he can feel the macroplastics evaporate the moment it enters his body.
"So what is the point of coming here?" Johnny asks, still clueless to the hints he has been given.
Axel turns around on his stool as he leans against the bar, he turns to look in the glasses direction as he comments, "maybe this will trigger your fossil memory, this place is the Afterlife."
"Ooooh, you're bragging about some sort of piss rat reputation you might have gotten in Night city." Johnny naturally knows about the reputation of his old friends bar but even with all these clues, he doesnt seem to piece everything together.
"Disable being able to see yourself through the glasses" Axel gives the final clue and when he notices that the ai does so, a silence soon ensues between them as Axel has a smirk on his face.
For context, With the design of the Afterlife, on the far end or left side of the bar area which is in the center of the overall building (entrance is closer to right side along with a few tables and chairs) there are a bunch of special booths and in the center most booths is the esteemed owner of the very bar the man and ghost are in.
Rogue Amendiares, the Queen of the Afterlife. "Thats" Johnny 'exhales' out his words as surprise thoroughly takes him. "Rogue, your old friend." Axel declares and puts the glasses back on so they share the same view of the 'queen'.
Black-blue long hair with bits of white mixed in that goes down to her shoulders, neatly combed over so it only goes down the right side of her face. 2 bits of steel along her cheekbones which from a distance could look like a bit of 'war paint'. She wears a white tank top shirt with a sweater vest that gives the impression of being able to take a bullet or two. She gives the impression of always being in a bad mood, likely due to all the tragedy she has been a part of. She is currently having a discussion with a group of mercs but it doesnt seem to go well as one of them storms off..
'Oh hey Panam.' Axel recognizes the downtrodden woman who left but doesnt do anything yet. But it seems he is soon noticed as Rogue focuses on him as he is constantly watching her. She seems to say something to one of the big guards outside her booth and they begin to approach Axel.
At the same time Axel reads her lips so he gets up from his seat and approaches Rogue's table. The city's greatest fixer is noticeably confused as to why a child is so confidently strutting around in her bar. Yet as one of the best info brokers in the city, she clearly knows who Axel is and what he is capable of.
"Had enough of your staring?" She calls out to Axel but Axel offers a meagre response.
"I'm not staring, he is" Axel takes off his glasses and puts them forward for Rogue to take, johnny is calling out curses for Axel to not hand him over to her and while one of the guards does try to block him, Rogue still takes the glasses.
"Is this a joke?" Confusion visible on her face as her vision doesnt change at all.
"Oh, little shy lamb. Hiding from your crush. How cute. Here" Axel comments with an obviously teasing tone before handing over the hearing aid for the glasses. She puts it on but nothing still happens.
Axel rolls his eyes and then snaps his fingers which gives the Ai a little jolt. Rogues eyes go wide as she sees her old 'friend' Johnny Silverhand. Said friend is currently trying to wail on Axel as revenge before groaning and asking Rogue, "hey, can you shoot him in the fucking face. He has been confusing the fuck out of me since I woke up today."
"J…Jo…Johnny??!!" Rogue stutters as she is confused by the situation and has to lean back in her seat.
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Alt Title: Johnny.Bot, State of Family and Friends.
Word count: 2554
Drop a comment if you wanna judge my writing or the story. I'll try to respond, especially if you're confused or anything.