"This place looks like a dump," Tycoon announced aloud as he, Victoria, and Belladonna walked into the Megabuilding H10 apartment. The arcology was located northwest of Lizzie's Bar in Night City's "Little China" sub-district. She had managed to save around 10,000€$, or Eurodollars, so her options were fairly limited. Making "eddies" as Victoria and Tycoon called them, was critical for making it in Night City, so what little she had needed to last. Thankfully, the apartment in H10 would cost only around 1500€$ a month. So long as she found work, Belladonna was sure she could manage.

Still, Tycoon did have something of a point. While the apartment had all the necessary amenities like a large bed, toiletry facilities, and even one of the vending machines Victoria pointed out could supply her with quick access to food, the area wasn't the nicest. In many ways, it reminded her of the slums often tucked away out of sight in most cities she visited back in her world. So many people seemed crammed together like cattle before the slaughter in this building that pierced the sky. Trash was often strewn about with people outfitted in rags no better looking than the trash itself. Yet despite the smells and oppressive atmosphere, the people carried on with their lives as best they could.

They stepped out back into the "open-air" of the arcology and Belladonna locked the door to her new home, Apartment 0716, behind her.

Slapping Belladonna on the shoulder, Tycoon asked with a grin, "Well, now that shelter is taken care of, what now?

"Now," Victoria interjected, "We get this witch chromed up!"

Deciding to receive some of the cyberware that most people in this world utilized was not an easy decision. As Victoria has explained it, the process involved removing organic parts of one's body and replacing them with a mechanical replacement. Victoria had assured her that the surgeries were performed by qualified "ripperdocs" and that she and Tycoon would be there to see Belladonna on the other side.

Still, the term "ripperdoc" only made Belladonna reflect on the barbaric attempts at surgery performed in field hospitals she witnessed during the war. While magical healing could do much, some injuries were too grievous for even magic. Amputations were not an uncommon sight behind the lines of combat.

Thankfully, a ripperdoc that Victoria trusted resided nearby H10. A quick street crossing and ducking through some dodgy alleyways took the trio to a set of stairs descending underground. As they ventured down their progress was stopped by a chain-link gate revealing a large room with a patient's chair centered roughly in the middle.

The gate rattled as Victoria gave it a solid series of smacks with the palm of her hand. "Yo, Vic, you in?"

As if on cue, a man in what seemed to be doctor's scrubs and sunglasses rolled into view on top of an office chair. The man, Victor Vektor, smiled and clicked something on the metallic gauntlet on his left arm that caused the gate to slide open.

"Vicky," Victor said offering his other hand for a handshake, "How've you been?"

"All good, Vic," she said, "You got some free time?"

Victor nodded. "I don't have any clients coming into for a few hours, I take it one of your three needs my services?"

Belladonna raised her hand and moved towards the ripperdoc. "My name is Belladonna, though Victoria and Tycoon call me Witch."

"Well, a pleasure to meet you, Witch," Victor winked, "Though I have to say you don't look the type to be getting chromed up. How much are you carrying if you don't mind me asking?"

Not knowing how much of her story she should share with a stranger, regardless of Victoria's assurances, she merely pointed out the neural implant was all that she had on her.

"In that case," Victor said, "I think it'd be wise to go at things nice and easy. Should be able to set you up with a personal output so you can jack into systems. I can't really say what else I can do until I take a look at that operating system you've got in detail. Why don't you take a seat and I'll do that?"

Belladonna sat on the patient's chair and saw Victor pull a long wire out from his palm and plug it somewhere behind her head. Victor's eyes lit up blue for a few seconds before he whistled.

"Shit, kid," Victor exclaimed, "The hell did you get this beauty?"

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"Problem, doc?" Tycoon asked.

"No problem, just stunned to see something completely unlike anything I've ever seen before. Got zip in any registries and I'm finding no parallels with any corps databases. But I can tell it's powerful, whatever it is. Where'd you find this girl, Victoria?"

The trio gave each other a look before Belladonna decided to tell Victor the whole story. During the whole re-telling, Victor just sat attentively and made no effort to interrupt. Every so often he seemed to take notes on a pad of notepaper, but otherwise seemed completely invested. Finally, as Belladonna finished, he nodded and said, "I'd wondered what the deal with your ears was."

"So, uh, you believe all that?" Victoria asked.

Victor shrugged. "Night City's a weird place and gets weirder all the time. Would you believe me if I told you she wasn't the first person to come to me to say that rockerboy Johnny Silverhand was talking to them from beyond the grave?"

"Bet that's a wild ride," Victoria said.

"Well, regardless of what I believe or not, Witch here needs some cyberware if she plans to go down the merc route," Victor concluded, "But I do think starting small is probably ideal. As preem as the neural interface she has is, I don't want to risk adding too much cyberware to a relative unknown so quickly and cause some major...complications."

Based on what Tycoon and Victoria had told her, Belladonna could infer from Victor's statement that he was referring to cyberpsychosis. From what she was told, cyberpsychosis was a sickness that tended to result from people with too much cyberware. Personal tolerance differs from person to person, but cyberpsychos hit a point where they stop seeing themselves and others as humans. This behavior usually caused the afflicted to act out and go on rampages that required the cyberpsycho to be put down for good.

"Think she could handle a cyberdeck?" Tycoon inquired.

"Wanting a fellow netrunner by your side, Tycoon?" Victor asked with a chuckle.

"Hey, gotta make sure she has plenty of options. If runnin' ain't her calling we can always come back and she can get something else."

Belladonna remembered what the Mox netrunner Ivy was able to do during their assault on the Animal warehouse that liberated Tycoon. She was able to see whatever their security systems saw and even set the gargantuan Great White's body on fire remotely. It reminded her in many ways of magic.

"Let's do that," Belladonna answered, "I'm ready."

Tycoon and Victoria took seats off to the side to watch the procedure while Victor prepped himself. Belladonna was given anesthesia to put her to sleep, but she ended up drifting in and out during the surgery. She felt no pain but did recognize the sight of blood, flesh, and bone at various points of her half-waking, half-asleep mental meanderings.

Eventually, the operation ended, and she was greeted by the sight of her friends patting her awake. Victor was out of sight, though the sound of running water suggested he was in the process of cleaning up. He returned to her after a minute or so and prescribed her some pills to help take any recurring pain's edge off and immunoblockers to combat any immunological rejection of the cyberware implanted in her body.

Victoria and Tycoon helped Belladonna up the stairs out of Victor's clinic and back to her apartment in H10. Still woozy from the ordeal, Belladonna climbed into bed as her friends departed and swore they'd check up on her the next day. Belladonna's next task was to be set up with a "fixer", a person who acted as the middleman between mercs and those needing their services. Luckily, there was a highly-respected fixer in the area who agreed to see her in the morning. All she wanted to do was sleep, but an annoyingly familiar presence insisted on keeping her up.

[Getting a massive case of deja vu, B.]

Groggily, Belladonna asked, "How's that?"

[Victor wasn't exaggerating with that comment about me being in someone else's head. Only now been able to figure that the year is 2087, ten years ago I was in the head of a merc who went by the name V.]

"Tycoon mentioned someone named V the other day, who were they?"

[Probably would've been a nobody had a job to secure an object called the Relic not gone tits-up. The Relic was an Arasaka toy that copied the mind of a person to preserve it in case the user died. Shit hit the fan during the job and V was forced to put the Relic in their head. Guess who ended up going along for the ride?]

"You?"

[Fuckin' A. I got my brain screwed with by Arasaka goons back in the 50s and was their prisoner ever since. Bad thing was that V got shot for their troubles and the Relic tried having my mind override their mind. We had to work like mad to find a solution.]

"I take it you did in the end since you're talking to me now.'

[That's the bitch of it. I can't seem to remember what happened. The last thing I remember was planning to infiltrate Arasaka Tower to get to where the corp held all of the minds they fucked with in perpetual bondage. Either way, the prognosis for V wasn't good. At best, we found out they'd only have about six months left to live. Guess V must've figured something out and I ended up in the net with an old friend who decided to help us out. Then the next thing I know is I'm conscripted into helping you out now.]

"Maybe I was sent here to help you find out what happened to this V friend of yours?"

[Forget it, what's done is done. All I hope is that V found peace no matter what path they took. The thing to do now is figure out what to do with you.]

"Back on the Mox apartment rooftop you made it seem like I needed to continue your crusade against Arasaka."

[If you want to take that corp down a peg or two, I certainly won't stop 'ya.]

"I'd rather not pick up the vendetta's of other people if I can help it, especially against a group that hasn't wronged me."

[Yet.]

"When or if that happens, then I'll let you know.

[Holdin' you to that.]

"Deal."