"Spreading Sneezes: The Daemon" a Cyberpunk 2077 story

[Dgrayman]

"Just put it in the bin over there," Judy instructed the Mox that had just brought a BD in for her to scroll.

"I've got to go through them manually first to ensure there are no hacks or daemons."

"Spreading Sneezes" read the title on the chip. 

"Oh great! It's a sneeze fetish tape," Judy said in her mind. These freaks were into the weirdest things. Why couldn't it just be Scavs being zeroed in an All Foods robbery?

But Judy knew that the sneezing fans were willing to pay significant eddies for this stuff. It also did well with the algorithm for lots of likes quickly.

Judy ran a sweep on the chip. It was clean, nothing to worry about. So she plugged the chip into her BD wreath and began to scroll.

The tape was of a woman who looked to be in her mid-20s. She was dressed in some anime magical girl costume and sniffing a powder.

"It's always been stuff with these people, " Judy scoffed.

"I'm going to sneeze so hard for you, Sensei," the woman in the BD said. "Here it comes. I'm gon... I'm going to snee... sneeze. Ha... Ha... HAA KUSHUN!"

The woman's pink and blue hair billowed as she caught the sneeze in a tissue.

"*sniffle And now, it's your turn, Sensei," said the woman, looking straight at Judy.

Suddenly, the BD began to fall apart, but something was wrong. A line of code had appeared to have gone corrupt. 

"Ahhhh! There's a daemon on this!!" Judy yelled. Even though she'd checked out the chip, a clearly very skilled Netrunner had snuck in the corrupted code.

Judy calmed herself and began to run a systems check. But she wouldn't need to run it for long. Because her nose had not only begun to run; it was also itchy. Pretty soon, her head was travelling back, as her eyes closed and her lips opened. 

"Eh... Eh... Eh... EH... EH... EH-CHEEEEIIEEEWWIE!!!" Judy had sneezed very high-pitched and girly. 

[Aduible chime]

"Ha-Ish, Ha-Ish, IT-Sheeww!" Sneezed the Mox who had brought the chip in.

"*sniffle *sniffle Well, I guess it's a Quick Hack, too." Judy chimed.

[The oh so annoying humm of Cyberpunk's phone app]

"V, I'm going to need... I'm going to need your... Nope, I'm going to sneeze first. One moment, V. Eh.. EH-Cheewww, ET-Cheeewiee. *sniffle *sniffle, I'm going to need your help."

 

[That's all for now... Do you want more? With V?]

[NickG1998]

Sure that would be amazing 

[Dgrayman]

On 9/21/2022 at 10:55 AM, NickG1998 said:

Sure that would be amazing 

There's a request for part 2. So I shall continue.

part 2 [Better Care]

 

"Hey V, thanks for coming. Eh-Cheew!" Sneezed Judy.

"You look rough! The mighty Judy can make it on her own in Night City until she's felled by a small cold, eh? You want some orange juice and a tissue?" Chuckled V from the doorway.

"Very funny, V. This ain't no cold, though. It's some sort of Daemon with a Quick Hack that could go of at any minute, so be careful." Commented Judy, with obvious concern for her girlfriend.

At least, that's what the trail of sneezing Mox and customers left at Lizzy's would suggest.

"I just... I just... Hold... Hold on. I've gotta sneeze again. Eh... Eh... Eh-Hitcheww!!" Sneezed Judy. "I'd hate for you to catch this V."

"Relax, Judy." V chuckled. " I know you don't trust anyone in NC. But I'm a professional. I know when I'm being hacked. I'll use my optics and get out of the way before it even enters my system."

Speak of the devel... No... Wait... Speak of the Daemon. V noticed a little red timer pop up in her optics. She ran to the roof of Judy's building in time to see it drop.

"Cheeeeiwwiee!! Eh-Tchew" V had caught a sneeze and a half from Judy over the phone. 

"I think we should take you to see Nix," said V. "He'll likely be able to locate this thing and explain why it's making you sneeze."

"*sniflle Good thought." Replied Judy. "I'll drive my van to Afterlife so I don't infect you. Meet you there."

[Later, at the Hall of Justice... I mean Afterlife]

"This is a nasty little bug." Nix offered from behind his screen. "It appears to be sending a neural message through your implants to tell your body that it needs to sneeze."

"Spea... Speaking of nee... Needing to sneeze. Eh... Eh.." Judy began to hitch.

Sensing a Quick Hack, Nix jumped into action on disarming it.

"Eh-tchewww. Ehxt-cheew" Judy sneezed into her thumb and index finger. 

"I've cut the hack so it shouldn't spread be further," Nix said with a smirk. I also found a message hidden in some of the code. "It's for you' V." 

"Oh yeah? What's it say?" V chuckled.

"Compliments of us for offing Royce. Enjoy the cyber cold."

V cut Nix off, saying he didn't even need to say who it was from. Figures Maelstrom would be the ones to manufacture a cold.

"Can you solve Judy's sneezes? And then go deal with Lizzie's? I've got to pay some friends a visit," V said.

As she left Afterlife, V called up the only person she thought would know where Maelstrom we're hiding. 

"What? Didn't I tell you never to call me again?!" Dum-Dum asked V after taking a sip of his tropical beach drink.

"Where's Maelstrom working of these days?" V shot back, slightly disgusted by the sight of what appeared to be Dum-Dum on a beach... Or in the desert. 

"I'm out of the game, V. How should I know?"

"Don't give me that! You know where they are. Don't make me come over there with your shotgun."

"Fine! Last I heard, they were working out of an All Foods refrigerated storage facility out of Arroyo. The cool temperatures make it easier for doing deep netrunning."

"Thanks for cooperating," V said, hanging up the phone briskly. She was going to go see things straight...

[End]

I have one more chapter planned!

[mysterysneeze]

Wow! I like the way the characters are written. The recent anime has a lot of color and action to it. I think the way you spelled the different sneezes makes each different part of the sneezes stand out from each other.

Thank you for taking time writing this story! ^^ 

[Dgrayman]

Part 3 [a real cold]

V pulled up on the refrigerated storage facility and did some reconnaissance with her Kiroshi optics.

There were a couple of turrets trained on the front doorway and the garage door but a handful of guards inside -- mostly focused in the runners in the primary storage floor. 

V decided she would play nicely... For now. She walked out to the front door, pulled out the very gun that had killed her so many months ago and fired it in the air. 

" Who are you, and what do you want?!" Asked a stern voice over the door's speaker.

"Come on!" V yelled. "You'll send me a fetish-level sneezing chip because I zeroed your boss, but you have no clue who I am... Really?!"

"I think it's V," the voice whispered while still on the mic to someone else in the room. "No, I don't know why she's not sneezing!" 

 "Look, are you going to let me in, or am I letting myself in?" V asked impatiently.

The door opened, and V walked in, instantly hit by a wave of icy air. She wore an oversized biker jacket, but it was still frigid in the facility.

 V walked onto the storage floor and saw a skinny borg sitting in a torn recliner with a female borg standing next to him. V wondered how she wasn't hypothermic because she wore a ripped pair of shorts and a black training bra. But then again, V imagined these borgs were so modded out that they felt the cold about as much as an unused toaster does. 

 

"V, I'm Bryce." Said the man, who is apparently Bryce. "Did you get my gift? Sara, you sent the BD, didn't you?" Bryce asked the woman standing above him.

"I sent it to her little gal pal. I thought it was more likely to reach her that way." Sara responded.

"You've made my girlfriend pretty miserable, choom," V coughed before continuing. "And that's got me mad. So here's what we are going to do. You are going to forget I was ever here and that you ever had the gull to challenge V. You are going to. Buy a round for the whole staff at Lizzie's that you've made sick, and then, you will go back into hiding."

"Or else what?" Bryce asked in a cocky voice that V disliked immensely.

"I'm not in the business of spreading sneezes." V shot back. "No, I spread brains with bullets. Do we have a deal?"

Bryce hardly looked scared, and V assumed it had to do with the fact that a group of borgs was now surrounding the storage floor. He had picked the hard way. 

V hated that shooting these losers would cost her eddies to use Plan B. But every bullet was worth it for the agony they had caused Judy. V and Judy had built a relationship on being strong but vulnerable. Right now, Judy was just helpless. V got to work...

 

[Latter at Judy's]

V and a newly cured Judy were lying in bed. Judy was in her bra and a pair of athletic shorts. At the same time, V wore a wight tank top and some gold silk panties.

"Nix is a magician, V. That code was preem," Judy said. "We really owe him a David Martinez for all the trouble of curing all the girls at Lizzie's as well."

"Yeah, about that. What's this I hear about Sneezy Sundays?" V inquired?

"Strangely enough, it turns out people are into sneezy dancers and hostesses because the girls made major edds while they were sick! It looks like I'll also be scrolling some sneeze BDs now as well." J Judy said, sitting up to look at V. V had a confused look on her face -- eyes crossed, mouth opening and head falling back a little bit. 

"You good, V?" Judy asked. 

"Ah...Ah...Ah-it-SHH-eew! ItSHeew, itSHeew... *sniffle *sniffle Ahhhhh.. Damn by sdee... Sdeeze is stuck"

V was frozen in the most helpless look Judy had ever seen. She was half way between giving up full control or not. Judy flicked V's nose and watched as the woman exploded with a final sneeze.

"Ah-shEEEWWW!!" 

"Damn, V! Did you slot that BD while you were gone?"

"Do!!! *sniffle *sniffle. It was cold id that warehouse. I thidk I caught A... A... Ah-shEEEwww! A real cold.

 

End

 

[Dawsio]

This is great! I haven't really played the game or seen the show yet, but I really like the style you wrote this in! It's so full of personality. Keep up the good work!