Post by Veronica Strader on Apr 2, 2022 1:27:59 GMT -5
Victoria and Veronica had become enlightened. Enlightened to the fact that Veronica is, in fact, her own person, has her own soul but has been trapped in Victoria’s physical being since the womb. They also learned that she wasn’t the Affliction; she was merely a puppet being used to dismantle Victoria one piece at a time. Once the destruction was complete, the Affliction would have dismantled Veronica simultaneously, becoming the sole being.
Luckily for everyone in their life, this hasn’t happened. At least, it hasn’t happened yet. Valerie, as the Affliction referred to itself as, tried to take a shot at taking over. Before Luck of The Violent, she was able to trap both Victoria and Veronica inside of a world inspired by a video game that Vee liked to play (removing that knowledge from her memory so she wouldn’t catch on to the plan from Valerie).
Fortunately for Vee and Ronnie, without Valerie being able to manipulate them like she could from deep inside the psyche, they had learned that they needed to work together and became quite the unstoppable team. It was after the ladies survived the manifestation that was Supreme Machine that Valerie returned back inside the mind palace created by Victoria and made an attempt to stop both Vee and Ronnie.
Valerie underestimated the willpower of Victoria. Vee was able to confine her to a cell within her mind palace, which allowed both Victoria and Veronica to be in control, to share the body. At the end of it all, the first and foremost important thing in their mind was defending the Trans-Atlantic Championship against the formerly lost Stranger. Victoria was valedictorian in high school, with high-end grades that she could’ve rode into University, but her passion had always been for wrestling. Veronica, even though stuck inside a body and life she couldn’t control, also had a deep love for the sport of wrestling which would come to make sense when it was found out who their real parents were.
They were able, with everything they had, to beat The Stranger. Another future OCW Hall of Famer checked off the list. What happened next, no one saw coming because it was thought impossible, thought of as fantasy. Even Vee’s father refuses to believe she is gone because of a portal being involved. While Vee and Ronnie were able to survive and not be Dead by Daylight, they had a whole new journey ahead of them.
Now the question is: Do Victorias Dream of Electric Afflictions?
Arasaka Tower
Night City, Northern California
“Alright, here we go.”
Victoria Strader stares up at the black reflective glass tower of the Mega Corporation that runs the world, and she feels a chill run down her spine; it could’ve been her Kiroshi Optics sending signals to her nervous system, but she could tell the difference. Veronica walks up behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
“You really think this is going to work?”
Victoria sneered at their near-identical reflection, except Ronnie’s hair was fire red. She wore dark blue synth-denim jeans, a white tank-top, a leather jacket and her right arm was made of steel as she could hear her fingers clicking against each other. Her darker blonde hair with a red tinge to it falls over the black leather jacket she has on. Victoria’s brown leather pants hug her hips as she makes her way to the automated door that swishes open, making her way into security.
“Welcome to Arasaka, Strader-San. Anders Hellman-San is expecting you. Please place all weapons to your left and step into the scanner for a few seconds,” the pleasant Japanese security guard instructs her. Vee places her Malorian Arms 3516 custom silver-plated revolver on the tray, which security pulls through as she steps into the scanner. Thousands of thin green lasers scan her head to toe four times. Rinse and repeat for Ronnie, but she has a Liberty handgun, the KONGOU power pistol.
Ding. All Clear.
Security has removed the ammunition from her gun before handing it back to her. She places it inside her brown Samurai jacket and heads toward the elevator. Veronica pitches in again, this time beside her.
“You really think this will work?”
“I hope so. I want to know how you got out of my head, Ronnie. Out of my body.”
“Our body. I am not some rogue daemon like Valerie probably is. You still haven’t seen her?”
“No, I haven’t. You?” she asks softly, only her eyes moving to see what Ronnie is doing: making a face, squinting, anything to give her a clue of what she was thinking.
“The better question might be, why am I in a new body and in constant telekinesis with you?”
Maybe.
“Yeah, you might be right. This is no coincidence; we have been here before, to Arasaka HQ.”
“Yeah, I bet these bastards split us when we got here. But where is Valerie?”
Weeks ago…
Victoria Strader wakes up in the Kabuki Market of Night City, hailed as the worst city between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It rests on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. She feels different, lonely almost. A hand touches her shoulder, and she sits up just along the littered shoreline running through the Megapolis. She sees herself looking at… herself? It was a weird feeling.
“Who are you?”
“It’s Ronnie, you dope.”
Vee’s eyes went wide because she wasn’t speaking out loud.
“How is that even possible?”
“Is Valerie with you?”
“I-I-I don’t know. I’ll look.”
Victoria closes her eyes and searches deep in her psyche but is aided by a technology she’s never seen before. When she opens her eyes, she realizes she can scan people, and their info comes up in front of her eyes like a terminator; luckily not all in red and white. She scans the woman in front of her:
Veronica Strader. She was telling the truth.
She shakes her head and stands up, taking in the scenery. She squints while looking out at the city from the shoreline that cuts through this part of the city.
“Where are we, Ronnie? And why are you in your own body?”
“Honestly? I have no idea, Vee. I mean, I am not complaining, I love you and all, but it was awkward when riding Christian,” she adds with a sly wink and grin.
“Yeah, gross. Outside of that one time, I just went deep inside,” she says, realizing how it sounded when Ronnie laughs.
“So we have some kind of technology in us, as I am sure you noticed with the Kiroshi Optics that have been implanted behind our retinas; we also have a thing called a “Holo,” which is basically a cell phone where you can see the person in our sights. I had a random unknown sender text message with an address that says we’ll be comfortable.”
“Ok, so how in the heck do we find it?”
With a motion of her left hand, Ronnie sends Vee a map of the city digitally like an AirDrop. She loads the map up, and a location pings. She sees a GPS setting and inputs the address.
“The Glen? Sounds fancy.”
“Appears to be near the city centre, so it’s not a cheap place, I am guessing. I feel like that portal not only took us into the future but an alternate reality,” she says, trailing off in thought.
Vee puts her arm around Ronnie’s shoulder and leans her head against hers.
“We got each other, and we’ll get back home. Can’t let them give our TransAtlantic championship away. That peckerhead Kelson probably,” her chuckle at the end makes Ronnie laugh too.
“Plus, we can’t let mom get near my man,” she says, and she is probably right. Meghan does have severe daddy issues. It doesn’t go unnoticed to Vee that Ronnie referred to Meghan as “mom,” and she smiles.
“I wonder if they made it to “australia” safely?” she says with the addition of air quotes on the questioned continent.
“Best. Joke. Ever.”
Victoria and Veronica laugh, thinking of angry PerZag gets when that joke is made. Vee motions for them to get going. They had to figure out where they were and what’s exactly been done to them.
To be continued in Vee and Ronnie’s new series “Age of Cyberpunk: Do Victorias Dream of Electric Afflictions?”
