"Stop pulling me! Jessepi! Fuckin' stop!" Teo yelled, his voice echoing off the grimy, neon streaked buildings as he walked his new pup through Night City's littered sidewalks. I know what your thinking, why the fuck did you name the dog Jessepi? Because I can… fuckin' suck it, chooms.
Jessepi, a blur of happy, sniffing energy, barked once, then kept pulling on the leash, his tail a furiously wagging blur. Teo was on his way to meet a client, some low level Arasaka desk corpo who wanted to know if his wife was bangin' another dude. For a couple thousand eddies, Teo had done his digging. He'd hacked the local Arasaka office building, having Fucker run amok in the systems, scattering his digital presence like the shadow clone jutsu he saw on old anime streams.
He'd found the archived footage from a recently deleted camera outside the team leader's office. You see, the guy's wife was also a corpo in the same building. The footage showed the wife following the team leader into the office, their backs stiff and professional, and then, thirty minutes later, they emerged, the wife subtly adjusting her corpo suit and running a hand through her impeccably styled hair.
Teo had laughed when he saw it. He sort of felt bad for the guy. Well, not really. The client had been a real piece of work on the line, treating Teo like a street urchin, all demands and zero respect.
He'd downloaded the footage, a neat data packet, and uploaded it to a plugged in share on his forearm. Fucker had left his usual ghost digital destruction tag, a string of chaotic code that made the system burp digital static for hours.
The AI had giggled when it did it, a maniacal, digital cackle. Fucker had learned fast, picking up on how people talked and acted, now displaying his full force of personality, no longer a mere robot voice, but a truly human, sassy voice.
Jessepi tugged hard again, nearly yanking Teo's arm from its socket. "Fuckin' quit it, you mutt!" Teo yelled, scaring a street vendor hawking synth noodles, who stared at the dog with a surprised, almost fearful glance. Yeah, he had a dog. Fuck with me, see what happens. He was walking to the Afterlife, the legendary merc bar where the client was waiting.
The air grew thicker with the scent of cheap synth booze and fried protein as he neared the Afterlife. Neon signs flickered, painting the grimy alleyways in garish pinks, blues, and reds. Distant music throbbed, a bass heavy beat that vibrated through the cracked pavement. He navigated around a group of junkies huddled in an alcove, their vacant eyes staring at nothing, and stepped over a discarded shard.
As he came to the grand, scarred staircase leading down to the Afterlife's entrance, he let the leash go. Jessepi, with a joyous bark, sprinted down the steps, his paws clattering against the metal, disappearing around the corner. Teo followed behind with a grin.
"KYAAAAAAA!" A high pitched, undeniably manly yell echoed up the stairwell.
Teo rounded the corner to see the Afterlife's formidable bouncer, Big Mike, a wall of chrome and muscle, backed up against the corner of the entrance. Jessepi was jumping all over him, tail wagging furiously, slobbering on Mike's polished cyber chest.
Some hopefuls waiting in line to be 'judged' by Mike as the bouncer had put it, were trying to stifle their laughter.
"Jessepi, get over here, you little shit!" Teo called, trying to sound stern, but a grin tugged at his lips. The pup instantly yielded, bounding back over to Teo so he could grab the leash. Jessepi sat at his feet, tongue flopping out the side of his mouth, panting happily.
Teo turned his gaze to the sweating bouncer. "Dang, didn't know you would shit your pants, esse!" Teo laughed again, unable to resist.
Mike glared, wiping his brow with a massive hand. "Shut up, Teo. Next time I'll kick the damn thing." He grumbled, but his eyes softened a fraction as he looked at Jessepi.
"Still ain't seen a dog in this city that's not flatlined or wired." Mike pushed the heavy door open for Teo and the pup. Teo dismissed the man's lingering threat with a casual shrug and strutted inside, Jessepi trotting obediently by his side.
Heads turned in the Afterlife. Patrons, mostly mercs, fixers, and solos, stared at Teo, his reputation recently on a noticeable incline, a recognition of who he was in the underground, they also stared at the fucking dog by his side. Tame, healthy dogs were almost unheard of, a luxury only the ultra rich could afford for genetic purity.
He spotted the corpo guy sitting in a secluded booth, tapping his foot impatiently against the worn upholstery. Teo had arrived late, a strong ten minutes. He could care less for corpo assholes.
He strode up to the table, releasing the leash, and letting Jessepi jump up on the empty booth seat. Teo then slipped in behind the dog. The man's face, already pinched with impatience, contorted with noticeable anger.
"You're late! The fuck you thinking keeping
me waiting! You know who I am?!" he raged, his voice cracking slightly as he slammed his glass of whisky on the table, sloshing amber liquid onto the polished surface.
Teo merely looked at him, his gaze level, unblinking. "You sure have a lot of balls talking to me like this, when I hold your info, choom." He said, smoothly sliding a digital menu from the corner of the table, pulling it in front of him. He ordered a Johnny Silverhand with a tap, sending the order directly to the bartender.
The man gritted his teeth, his jaw visibly clenching. "I'm not your choom, and I could say the same to the man who speaks like this to a guy with his eddies. You got the info or what?" he snarled, trying to rein in his anger, but his eye twitched.
Teo nodded, pulling the data shard from his implant in his arm with a soft click. He slid the shard across the table to the man, who snatched it quickly, jacking it into his neural port. The corpo's eyes glazed over for a moment as he dove into the data.
The man quickly scanned over the docket, reading every single detail. A frustrated sigh, a sound of pure indignation, escaped him. "This only shows her going into the office and coming out! I need hard proof!" he yelled, two veins popping out on his forehead, throbbing visibly.
Teo raised an eyebrow, a flicker of genuine confusion crossing his face. "That is hard proof. She went in with the team leader, fucked him for a raise, and left looking like a train ran her over. What else do you need, a braindance?"
The man got angrier, slamming the table again, making the glasses rattle. "No! I need to bury her! I can't use this! I need more! Go back and get the footage from inside!" he demanded.
Teo looked at him for a moment, a cold realization settling in. This wasn't about catching her cheating, was it? It was about ruining her, about moving up in the totem pole, leveraging her indiscretion for his own gain. Wow. Typical corpo behavior.
Teo sighed, leaning back. "Ha, nah. I can't do that. Hacking the team leader's office wasn't in the gig info. That office is monitored by agents of higher Arasaka executives. I'm not delving that deep for peanuts. If you want that service, you need to pay more, choom." As he spoke, a waitress came over with a tray, gracefully placing a glowing Johnny Silverhand in front of Teo and offering him a polite smile before melting back into the crowd.
"You street rats are all the same! I'm not paying you a dime until you get me the info that I asked for!" the man raged, his voice rising, drawing the attention of almost all the patrons in the bar.
Teo looked at him, a genuine shock registering on his face, quickly replaced by a cold fury. "The fuck you just call me? Who the fuck are you to say that about me? You're just a low level desk jockey who sucks his supervisor's dick for eddies!"
The man got up, slamming his hands on the table once again, his chair scraping back. "What was I thinking hiring someone like you. I ain't paying you shit!" he snarled, turning to leave, only for Teo to speak up, his voice dangerously low.
"You better sit your ass back in that seat. I ain't done yet." Teo's hand moved, fast as a snake strike, unholstering Bon Bon Mark 2 and placing the gleaming, extended weapon on the table with a loud CLANG. The man froze, turning back to Teo, his face turning red as he stared at the menacing weapon. "You dar-!" he began, his voice choked with fury, only for Teo to cut him off.
"You know what's wrong with you corpo fucks?" Teo said, taking a slow sip of his Johnny Silverhand, his eyes never leaving the man's face. Jessepi, sensing the tension, let out a low, guttural growl next to him, his hackles rising. The man stared at Teo, waiting for him to finish.
"You think you can go wherever you want, say whatever you want, and… do whatever you want. Look where you are, choom," Teo continued, his voice calm but lethal. The man's eyes darted around, finally noticing the oppressive silence that had fallen over the entire bar.
All eyes were on him. This wasn't about Teo being popular. This was about mercs not getting paid. And mercs didn't like that, especially if it was a corpo trying to skip out.
Teo leaned forward, his voice a dangerous whisper. "You ain't scary, bub. You're a bottom feeder that's easily replaced. You better pay up, fucker."
The man just looked at him and laughed, a nervous, desperate sound. "The fuck you gonna-" Before he could finish, Jessepi, with a terrifying, silent lunge that defied his earlier puppy antics, launched over the table. He dug his teeth into the corpo's exposed neck, a wet, tearing sound ripping through the silence. The dog began to furiously shred the man's throat.
Teo watched with a mix of shock and morbid fascination. "Well… I was gonna shoot him. That works too." He said, watching the man scream, gurgle, and try to pry the dog off him, blood spurting across the table and onto the Johnny Silverhand glass as he slowly finished off the drink.
After a minute of horrific struggle, the man laid on the floor, lifeless, a red pool spreading around him. Jessepi sat next to the corpse, panting happily, his snout and jowls smeared with thick, dark blood.
"Corpo cunt neutralized! Efficiency rating, 98.7% due to unexpected canine intervention. Resource expenditure, Minimal. Clean up liability, probably High." Fucker chimed in, utterly devoid of judgment.
"Good boy, Jessepi!" Teo said, sliding out from the booth and walking up to the dog, patting his blood soaked coat.
Big Mike, the bouncer, came out from the front of the bar, his eyes wide as he stared at the dead corpo. "The fuck?!" he bellowed, the silence broken.
Teo looked at the bouncer, then knelt down next to the downed body. He quickly jacked into the man's neural port, running a quick breach protocol, bypassing his ICE, and initiating a rapid data transfer. He siphoned a large sum from the man's account before his access was forcibly terminated. 8,750 eddies. Added to his current balance, that put him at a chill $24,000.
Teo stood up again, looking at Big Mike. "I'll take his body out back and throw him on the street." He said, shouldering the limp corpse with surprising ease.
"Alright, alright. I'll get a cleaner out here to sweep up the mess, maybe next time take it outside the bar, Teo," Big Mike said, shaking his head, already walking over to the bartender, probably to order a stiff drink for himself.
Teo dragged the body outside, through the alley, and unceremoniously dumped it into a overflowing trash compactor. Jessepi barked a happy bark, nudging Teo's leg.
He wiped his hands on his pants and started his walk back towards the El Coyote Cojo, Jessepi trotting loyally by his side.