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“Watch your six, V, you got a tail.” Johnny fizzled into the distance in front of her, folding his arms and giving a nod to the back alley where V was running from.
“No shit!” V hissed, pushing right past him, breathless and annoyed. She whirled around, firing a few shots before rushing her way. “ Fuckin’ scavs.”
After the final shot, V turned tail and jumped down some steps, fleeing down the street. She pushed some civvies along the way, disappearing into the crowd of people, where she could not be easily followed. After sufficiently making some distance, Johnny watched as she vaulted over a barrier and slid down an embankment, right under a bridge. V rolled to her feet, taking out her revolver and taking cover by one of the stone pillars, stilling herself as she listened for any sign of the goons chasing her. But all was quiet.
“Looks like your chooms lost ya.” Johnny flickered into existence, looking up towards the street, smoking his imaginary digital cigarette.
“Ugh…” V collapsed, leaning heavily against the wall. “ Fan-fucking-tastic.”
As soon as the words left the merc’s mouth, Johnny became aware of a sharp tingling sensation in his abdomen area. It didn’t hurt that much, more like a hot rash, but it was noticeable enough to catch his immediate attention. Puzzled, Johnny turned to his host, who had slid down to the ground, clutching her side. On the wall she was leaning on was a streak of blood; red was already dripping between the cracks of her hand as V clutched the wound. There was actually already quite a collection of the red stuff, pooling on the ground underneath her.
“Shit, V, you got shot?” He approached her, kneeling down to her level. She was covering the wound with her hand, but judging about how much blood there was, the bullet pierced right through her.
“ Wow, fancy that. Didn’ even notice.” V scowled, her voice tight with pain. She winced as she removed her hand from the wound, revealing quite a nasty looking bullet hole in her side.
The engram winced in empathy. “Looks pretty nasty. Got you real good.”
“Eh, not as bad as it looks.” V’s voice was strained as she tried to play it off. She felt around in her pockets, eventually revealing a health booster. She swallowed in anticipation.
Taking a deep breath, V jabbed the booster right into the wound with little to no hesitation. Normally it always took time for Johnny to feel anything V was feeling, sometimes a few minutes or even days later. But this time, the pain was intense. So intense that as soon as the thing touched down, Johnny knew exactly how agonizing the pain was.
“ Fuck. ” V swore, a few tears escaping the corner of her eyes. She tapped her foot impatiently, trying to ride out the pain.
Johnny found himself staggering due to the pain, but he sought to hide it. There was no real need for her to know that he knew how it felt. Instead, he plopped himself right next to V, watching her carefully. He didn’t think the wound was that bad; hurt like a bitch, sure. But V could survive this, she’s survived much worse.
But still.
V tossed the empty booster out in front of her, hissing in pain. “They’re all fucking dead...” She growled.
Johnny took out his fake cigarette and stuck in his mouth, trying to ignore the sympathy pains in his own abdomen. “Lucky he missed, or you woulda had more than just a hole in your stomach.”
“Scavs never did have good aim.” V pointed out, stifling her movements. “It’s just this lucky gonk aimed a little better than the rest.” She grumbled. "He'll be lucky if he doesn't wake up tomorrow at the end of my mantis blade."
“...You gonna live, V?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Been in worst stints before.” V wheezed, putting her hand on the wound again in an attempt to stave off the pain. “Nuthin’ can really beat a bullet to the brain.”
“Huh, can’t argue with that.” Johnny paused, thinking for a moment. “Though maybe getting fried by Soulkiller got that beat.”
“...Fair.”
In the next few moments, the booster seemed to do as advertised. The blood slowed, started to clot. The pain dulled, it was no longer as intense as it was before. Or maybe his and V’s senses misaligned again and he would feel this much later down the line, it's hard to say. Johnny eyed the wound carefully as V continued to tap her feet, movements starting to grow a little sluggish. If they didn’t get moving, they would be in real trouble.
“Get up, V, you don’t wanna die here. Should get back to your place or your ripperdoc friend. Hell, even your input’s. Anywhere’s better than here. ” He said, standing to his feet and putting his hands on his hips. He looked over at his host, hoping his voice would snap her back to the waking world.
“I just-I…” V panted, tears starting to appear in the corner of her eyes. “I need a second…”
As soon as the words left her mouth, V suddenly went limp, head lolling forward. The hand that had been desperately clutching the wound fell to the ground, unmoving. It took a second for Johnny to realize that she had fainted.
“V?” He asked, just to make sure. When she didn’t respond he cursed. “Ah, shit.”
It was hard to tell whether or not V had passed out from the pain or the very fact that she had leaked out half her fluids out into the dirty pavement, but it didn’t really matter. V still fainted and now Johnny had to figure out what to do. He crouched next to her to get a better look. She looked paler than she did a moment ago, but she was still breathing, so still alive. If she had died, Johnny would have inherited the body the moment she died. Though the wound looked nasty as all hell, V was in decent shape, likely due to her armored chrome. But being exposed out in the open like this was a good way to finish what the bullet wound didn’t.
“Hey V, wake up.” Johnny prodded. He reached to touch her shoulder to shake her awake, but his hand went right through.
Ah, that’s right. This is what he was. Just an engram in her head. Data. It was really only on certain occasions that he’s able to touch and interact with V, usually when she was awake to really process the touch. Sometimes, when he talked to V, he forgot that he was just that. Maybe it was because she always treated him like a human, even if they were at each other’s throats most of the time. In a way, Johnny was thankful that she even considered him to be as much. He sighed.
“Come on, V, do you really want me to do this?” She didn’t respond. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
There was really only one viable option now: to borrow her body. Of course, V didn’t really seem to like it when he took control, understandable honestly, but she had been accommodating him occasionally, like with Rogue and Kerry. Just as he was about to take over, he hesitated. Last time he had fully taken over, V became incredibly sick. He wasn’t sure what taking over right now would do to her body, but if he didn’t do something…
Ah, fuck it. Better than dying under a bridge.
“Gonna call your input to pick you up. You can thank me later.” He told the unconscious merc. He could’ve called Misty or the doc, but an input is more likely to fuss more and get things done out of ‘love’. Geh, he really didn’t like being the third wheel.
Since her consciousness was asleep, it was easy for Johnny to push her aside for the moment and hop into the driver’s seat. Though, when he assumed control, he was greeted by the searing pain of the gunshot wound. The pain was so intense that Johnny actually considered leaping back out of control, but he gritted his teeth and pulled out V’s phone.
“Alright, where’s your little boy in blue…?” he muttered to himself, scrolling through V’s contacts with one hand, the other holding the wound. He finally found the name he was looking for and he dialed it.
It took a few rings, but the man of the hour finally picked up.
“Need you to pick me up.” Johnny said before River could even get a word in, his words coated with V’s voice. “I’m sending you the coordinates.”
“...Sure, okay.” River sounded taken aback, but concerned. “Is..everything okay?”
“Got shot. Bleedin’ out here, under the bridge.” he explained, though a little snippy. “Are you going to pick me up or what?”
“Got shot?” River parroted, shocked.
“Yup.” Johnny was getting annoyed. He wondered if he should try to sound more hurt, maybe the cop would get here faster if he did. “Better hurry, lost a lotta blood.” That last bit came out a little bit more sarcastic than he intended it to, but River didn’t seem to notice.
“Shit. I’ll be right there. Hang tight, V.”
With that out of the way, Johnny popped V’s phone back into it’s place and wriggled out of the driver’s seat, letting V’s sleeping consciousness back in the wheel. As soon as he was free, he was relieved to no longer be feeling the brunt of the pain. He had to hand it to V, she had an incredible pain tolerance. It might be a good thing that she was asleep right now.
Johnny hung around for a bit, watching over V’s body, keeping a lookout. He couldn’t exactly do anything if anyone besides the cop showed up other than hop back in the body and take action, but thankfully there was no need for that. Johnny noticed a car approaching and he recognized it as the cop’s truck and he gave a slight nod of approval. He saw River frantically burst out of the car, looking for a moment. Once he noticed his unconscious input sitting by the pillar under the bridge, he quickly rushed over.
“V!” He called out, rushing to her side.
At the sound of his voice, V shifted slightly but didn’t awaken. Johnny could feel that she recognized who was calling her, but still wasn’t awake enough yet. But this was good news, she would be up and running in no time.
Now he could keep watching, but there was no need to. V was safe and her lovesick input was already here to take care of things. So with that, Johnny flickered out of existence and decided that he would take a nap too, in the dark comfortable recesses of V’s mind, wondering if V really was going to thank him later.