Chapter 19: Are We The Bad Guys?

The Horus made its approach, the AV beginning to hover closer to Manhattan's skyline. Mega-buildings dotted the overlook. The Freedom Tower stood proudly over the cityscape, but this was not their target. Their target lay farther down below. Scylla, as it was named was a smaller mega-corporation with a small and squat corporate building in the middle of downtown Manhattan. The glass and metal structure shone brightly with its own vibrant neon signage. A small penthouse was perched on top of the structure. Scotch blearily eyed hopped into the pilot's seat as Jericho jumped up and headed for the rear hatch. Hildegarde grabbed her weapon and stood next to him. They weren't anywhere close to the rooftop yet. V just turned in surprise as Jericho forced the rear hatch open and jumped out, Hildegarde holding onto his shoulders as the two of them fell. V just stared in awe before jumping out as well. He'd survive this, probably.

V was still hundreds of feet in the air and falling towards a rooftop down below. Jericho and Hildegarde still within line of sight, but further down. Jericho's arms shot outwards, as if spinning an unseen ring as a set of fiery wing-like jets sprouted from his upper arms and shoulders, his descent began to slow for he gracefully landed on the roof of Scylla's corporate headquarters.

"Johnny? Do we have one of those?", V asked as the rooftop began to approach at speed.

"Nope. Grab that antenna!", Johnny noted.

V grabbed the radio antenna as it flew past him narrowly avoiding being skewered by its tip. He swung his arms around it and rode the metal pole towards its base which was slightly higher than where Jericho had landed. He launched himself off the pole as the various boxes and couplings caused him to lose his grip. As best as he could, he tumbled to a halt a few feet from where Jericho had landed and composed himself, making sure none of his weapons had fallen off during his descent.

"Glad you could make it, V.", Jericho added.

"What... What was that thing you just did?", V asked.

"Ah, the Icarus Landing. Perhaps I will install it on you someday.", Jericho noted.

Jericho surveyed the penthouse that they'd landed at. No alarms yet. There were only a few people that he could pick up on his own scanners, one was sitting in front of the TV in what was presumably the living room of the penthouse, a few others were lower down on another floor. It was time for a reunion, long had it been since the two brothers had seen each-other. Jericho just motioned for V and Hildegarde to cover him, not that it was even remotely needed, but both of them did so anyways.

"-Jericho? I've got the penthouse doors and elevator locked. Nobody is coming in or leaving...", Asher announced through their comms. Jericho just nodded.

The cyborg himself just walked over to the the balcony, and around the corner to face whoever was in the living area of the Penthouse. Myung-suu Jung sat at in front of his TV, he was much older. Time and stress had taken its toll on the man. He appeared to be watching a newsreel, the television screen flashed as various incidents were played on it, a SovieTek laboratory break-in, thefts, the murder of Jean Starhawk, a raid on an abandoned missile silo in Arizona. He hadn't noticed the ghost outside his window yet. Jericho didn't bother to knock, but instead just walked through the glass pane, breaking it as he pushed forwards. The shattering of glass pulled his attention to the cyborg. Myung-suu shot up and turned around before staring in horror.

"Hello, brother. It's been a while, hasn't it?", Jericho stated, his glowing eyes piercing through the much older man.

"J-Jin-suu? You y-you haven't aged! You- You're still the same!", Myung-suu stammered.

"The same? Look at me!", Jericho roared. He threw his tattered black trenchcoat to the floor and raised his arms upwards and revealed his true, fully cybernetic body, to his brother, coursing blue circuitry all over his form, inhuman three-toed feet attached to dull-black cybernetic legs.

"I-I-... I- had to. The project... What you created...", Myung-suu stuttered taking a good look at what had happened to his brother, his immortal and now fully cybernetic brother that stood in his home. "It was too dangerous, the world... if they'd gotten to it and used it, the other corporations... the wars would end the world. It had to be buried! With you!"

"And to think I used to call you my brother. We had our differences, yes. But when everything ended for me, I trusted you. I did everything for you... so we never had to suffer through another Corporate War again. And when I had the key to our salvation in hand, you betrayed me. Why, brother?", Jericho ranted.

"You- You were insane. Drowned by grief caused by the 4th Corporate War. The project would've never worked, it only would have brought destruction upon us when it was revealed. The others, Militech, Arasaka, everyone... They wanted what you had and wouldn't have agreed to the terms you demanded! It was better for it to disappear. For you to finally move on, for you to finally see your family in heaven..."

"But alas, dear brother... I survived. The project is a success. I am the only living example of it. Perhaps if I was not a bastard, our father would've invested his fortune into my project, rather than yours.", Jericho ranted, he looked down for a moment recalling a memory. "And the joy I felt when I was young, to know I had a younger brother- Half-brother... someone I could trust... Oh how wrong I was..."

"What do you want? Why are you here? After all these years, Jin-suu... Why now?"

"I finally remembered who I was. Call it a side-effect of the Project and its conversion process. I remembered you and what you did to me. You stole my life from me. My future. Everything. You did it to protect yourself. But now I am here, I have returned. And I am seeking vengeance.", Jericho ranted. "How happy are you? You forgot about me. You sold my designs to Militech to feed your greed. To keep your own false empire alive! You thought you could run away, that you could live a happy life built upon lies!".

"I- I did. You were dead. I thought you were... The Project was gone... I did what I had to!"

"You never even bothered to check!"

"I did! I sent Militech to the old laboratory! They- They never came back..."

"Because I killed them all. You opened my sarcophagus. You've unleashed destruction upon the world as you know it. The End starts with you, Myung-suu."

"No! Please... I have a family... I named my son after you..."

"Just like our father, he couldn't think of any other names. He named me Jung and you as well! I am the firstborn, a bastard, but still the first. And you are the second, the worthless, the bad copy."

"Jin-suu... Please... I'm old. I'm weak... I'll die of old age soon. Just forget about all of this, it was so long ago..."

"No. I will show you no mercy. You shot me in the back. You betrayed me. You caused this. All of this.", Jericho noted motioning to his own fully cyborg body. "I will live until the sun dies because of you! I will watch every person I've ever loved die before me, as they wither from old age. I will never have peace because of what you did!"

Jericho just walked forwards, radiation spiking in the room. Myung-suu began to fall ill with radiation poisoning. V took a shot of Anti-Rad while Hildegarde peered around the corner onto Jericho as he exacted his revenge. The core shielding on his chest was to open up, a bright blue light burning within.

"Oh gods... The core! You've got- no, you built the core... Stop this! What are you doing!?", Myung-suu pleaded.

"A Revolution, dear brother. When there are no more Corporations, there will be no more corporate war. The Corporations did this, caused this all from the very beginning. When there are none left, who will fight pointless wars? A new world will rise from the ashes of this one, rebuilt by humanity and run by humanity alone, not false kings upon their blood-soaked corporate thrones!"

"You're insane. You're starting a war to end a war? Don't do this, Jin-suu... It's not who you were..."

"You're right... I'm not Jin-suu anymore... You can call me... Jericho.".

"Oh gods... I'm sorry for what I did to you... What have you become!?"

"Something far greater... Always greater... I have transcended humanity. Stare upon the light of judgment!"

Jericho raised his arms, almost into a T-pose as if crucified. He chest began to slide open revealing the swirling hot nuclear fission of his power core. It burned inside with violent anger. Myung-suu was drawn into it, looking at the small artificial sun housed inside Jericho's chest. The radiation in the room skyrocketed maxing out V's dosimeter in seconds. Hildegarde pulled away from the balcony and retreated to the edge of the rooftop, she pulled V's shoulder and dragged him along as the light inside the penthouse began to grow.

"Brother! Please!"

It was too late. Jericho's core entered a criticality event. 15 Megawatts became 150 megawatts in seconds, the power spiking higher and higher. Myung-suu's face began to blister and melt from the radiation and heat, shock and horror forever frozen on his face. The entire penthouse began to burn. Jericho just pulled his arms downwards, seemingly wrestling against the overloaded power core. He shut the hatches on his chest, and shielded the front of the exposed core, his cooling vents blasting white-hot flames that melted the glass windows behind him. He struggled to contain the power of the core, but still managed to convert his left arm into its cannon form. The surging power charging close to meltdown. He aimed his arm-cannon at Myung-suu's slowly disintegrating form on the ground before releasing all of his rage upon the man and his hapless corporation.

Hildegarde just pulled V off the rooftop of the building. This was getting way too hot even for her. She and V fell several hundred stories away from the penthouse, she tossed him aside and allowed herself to fall. She watched as the top of Scylla exploded as an aerial explosion traveled downwards. The building seeming to stretch and bulge as it struggled to contain the blast. Rather than make interesting artwork on the street below, she jumped in mid-air and grabbed onto a lamppost, swinging around its top for several moments before hopping down to street level. V had done the same, but in his fall had landed onto a New York Taxi, the driver of which was giving him a right bollocking up until Scylla's corporate headquarters exploded in a blast of metal and glass, the windows blown out from whatever it was that Jericho had done in the penthouse. She took cover behind one of the many vehicles parked on the street until the dust had settled. Scylla still stood, but only its bare frame remained. Papers and fragments slowly rained down on them. Sirens could be heard in the distance.

V just looked around in horror. The entire corporate headquarters had been gutted from the inside out, a blast traveling downwards through the entire mega-building and blowing out every window. The cab driver that had been cursing at him was nowhere to be seen, only a dark stain remained where the man had stood. Hildegarde was also nowhere to be seen. He crawled off of the wrecked cab he'd landed on and stumbled into the street. Sirens blared in the distance. The adjacent buildings had also suffered catastrophic damage as well, like a terrorist attack. He looked around in confusion before finding the plum-purple clad woman and made his way over to her. She just grabbed his arm and pulled him along and away from ground zero.

The two of them ran, the infamous outlaw and the unlucky merc. The streets were filled with other citizens as they ran from the wreckage of Scylla's destruction. A dust cloud followed behind them as they ran. This was the worst destruction that Manhattan had seen since the terrorist attacks almost 70 years ago. The two of them ducked into a nearby braindance cafe and locked the doors, the aforementioned dust cloud surging past as Scylla began to collapse.

"D-Did you know he could do that?", V asked. Hildegarde just looked around in mild panic.

"No. That's the first time I've seen that..."

"And you're absolutely sure right now... That you picked the best person to work with? The man who can nuke a city!? What if he does that in Night City!?"

"Then, the Revolution will be short and sweet..."

"Yeah, I dunno about that. Are you 100% certain this is what you want? He could do this anywhere. At any time! We... We're worse than the Corporations!"

"We're not, V. This is just a means to an end.", Hildegarde sighed.

"Y-you're just delusional! We're the fucking bad guys!", V shouted.

"Do you really think so, V? Tell me, what do you think we are?", Hildegarde hissed as her eyes narrowed on him.

"Well, you're not heroes! What, are we going to destroy the world first before we rebuild it? What is that world going to look like!?"

"If that is what it takes... No more corporations, only people and their own kings and kingdoms...", Hildegarde noted.

"And how is that any different from now!?"

"If you don't know how... You should just cut and run... Go back and live out your life in the desert with your nomad buddies, you never wanted to help us did you? All you wanted was to get a second chance at life again. We're making that life better for everyone."

V just threw his arms up in exasperation. They were the bad guys. He'd somehow gotten himself involved with the villains of this adventure and now he had no way out. He thought hard for a moment. He really couldn't take action against them by himself, he have to rally his own friends against them. He'd have to change sides in a losing battle now that he'd seen what Jericho was capable of. He'd die irradiated alongside everyone else as a new world was formed from his bones. Fuck it. Too late to change your mind, this was how it was going to have to be. He sighed and just accepted that he'd ruined the world. He was still alive, though. That was what he'd wanted from the beginning when the Relic had started killing him. At least he had that.

V wondered idly where Jericho was and if he'd survived his own mutually assured destruction of Scylla and a few city blocks around it. He would, inevitably, as the cyborg was stupidly strong. His brother had been right, Jericho was the herald of destruction. His attention was pulled as the man in question landed with his Icarus Landing outside of the Braindance cafe he and Hildegarde were hiding in. Despite the door being locked, the cyborg just twisted the door handle until it broke and walked inside anyways.

"I am sorry you had to see me like that. I can only do that a few times. I was overcome with emotion. Night City will not befall destruction like that. This was a family matter.", Jericho noted.

"Y-You just nuked a building!", V shouted.

"I know. It will not happen again. We should move. Militech and Manhattan's own police are searching for anyone involved or new to town."

"Just like that? No explanation!?"

"I lost control, V. For the first time. You would've reacted the same way if Panam had suffered the same fate, would you not?"

"I-I-... I don't know. Maybe..."

"You love her, don't you? You would kill for her if she was hurt, wouldn't you? And you'd avenge her death if the corporations killed her and your children, would you not? How far would you hunt those that did that to you? And how would that experience change how you view the world? Wouldn't a different world be a better one?"

"I-I... ", V thought long and hard for a moment. Yes, he would do all of those things. Not just for Panam, but for all of his friends. "I would..."

"Then let's go. Scotch has the AV parked nearby. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can start preparing for the Revolution.", Jericho concluded.

Hildegarde just followed the cyborg off into the dusty wasteland that he'd created. Manhattan's downtown was in ruins. Police sirens blared and Militech personnel scoured the streets for anyone strange looking. The Veil would hide them for now. V just sighed heavily and followed them. He really had no choice at this point. He was in for a ride.

"Holy fuck! V, did you see that?", Johnny added, appearing near V as he ran down the streets.

"Yeah, I saw it."

"Arasaka tower, 2023. I did something similar..."

"I know..."

"This revolution is going to be great!"

"I don't think so, Johnny. But we're in too deep to get out of it now..."

"Just do it, V. Go with the flow. See what happens next... It's not like you could fight back!"

"What do you think I'm doing!?"

"Pondering why you exist?"

"Fuck off, Johnny..."

V just ignored Johnny's Anti-Corpo ideals for now. He really didn't have a choice right now except to follow Jericho and Hildegarde back to the Horus. He could try to run, but would be stuck on the wrong side of the NUSA. He could try to take them down, but would get slaughtered before he could even damage them. He could try a lot of things, but survival meant the most to him right now. He still had the rest of his life to determine if he'd made the right decisions. And for now, he was almost certain he'd made the wrong one.

The Horus took off from street level, the wreckage of Scylla and the extent of the damage Jericho had done to the skyline clearly visible. The entire corporate building had been destroyed, its smoking, irradiated skeleton standing where the once gleaming build had been. The penthouse was gone, now replaced with smoking ruins like a lopsided ashed cigar. Nobody had survived even though the main structure still stood. Sirens and flashing lights of emergency vehicles blared far down below as the AV made its escape. How many had died? V didn't know, but this was bad. This was more than he'd expected. Maybe Jericho could've tossed his brother over the balcony, that would've been awful, but it wouldn't have destroyed a good chunk of Manhattan in the process. This was the beginning of World War 3 as he saw it.

"I promise, V. This will not happen again. This was a fluke, as you've so experienced, where emotions cause you to do things you usually wouldn't.", Jericho reassured.

"I fuckin' hope so, Jericho. I'm almost reconsidering my promise I made to you..."

"As I said before. If you need to run, then run. I'll find you again when you're needed..."

"No, I told Hildegarde already, I'm in this. Just don't destroy Night City. I have friends down there..."

"It's a deal, V. I won't destroy Night City. Its destruction was never my plan to being with."

V just sighed harder. This was going to be difficult. They were clearly the villains. An unstoppable set of villains set on the destruction of the world he knew. But that world was still flawed and anything better would be better than what he was familiar with. And Jericho was right, he would've sought revenge if Panam or anyone else he loved had suffered a similar fate. He would've fought for them and their memories. He would've sought to change world. But he wouldn't have even been able of doing that, not in a million years, by himself as a normal chromed-out mercenary. Jericho was capable of doing that, however. And that part of it was intensely frightening. He just sat back against the wall and stared at his new chrome, he still didn't know how to use all of it yet. His feet definitely had some jump height and impact protection on them and his new arms had the strength of his old Gorilla Arms as well as the Smart-Link for his firearms.

"This is what we do, V. Get used to it or get going.", Hildegarde sighed, noticing him sulking.

"Destruction? This is what you've been doing?", V asked.

"In a way... We've gotten quite a reputation from it... Well, I have..."

"Oh... great... Guess that's why they call you The Genocider, right?"

"You've figured it out, V. You get one free question to bother me with!"

"Okay... So hypothetically speaking, if someone were to shove a grenade into your body-suit, would the explosion kill you?"

"Well, they'd have to get their hand in there first without me ripping it off of their pathetic unmodified human body, but... possibly? The body-suits deflect all kinds of concussive and piercing damage, the explosion would be kept inside nice and neatly. I suppose it would turn me into pudding if that was the only protection I had..."

"You have more armoring!?"

"I have a lot of interesting tricks, V. Perhaps you'll get to see some of them."

V just shook his head. That dream he'd had where he'd tried to take on the team, Ouroboros, was not, in fact, a possibility. He didn't know the extent of Hildegarde's cybernetic enhancements aside from the characteristics of her armor and the nature on how her gun functioned. Jericho would just nuke him and the surrounding countryside. Scotch he knew was good at brawling, but how good was still a question in his mind. Asher was weird, but lightly armed and armored, a decoy perhaps? They were so much more powerful than him and he couldn't even realize it and they had allies around the globe. He had the Aldecados and that was about it, he doubted that Misty, Vik, or Judy could do much to help him. Maybe the Fixers he knew could, but then there would just be more Mercs on the battlefield, Mercs that would agree with Jericho's vision. And the tides would quickly turn in his favor.

V thought a bit more, if he'd just left after finding Jericho's memories he wouldn't have had to witness this level of destruction, he'd just be happily sailing down the freeway with Panam. He'd be living peacefully in ignorance as the Revolution came. Jericho's plan would've come to fruition regardless, and then one day, the cyborg would find him and drag him back into servitude just like he'd done with everyone else. No choice. Except one choice all the way back in Night City when he'd decided to take the fight to Arasaka and get rid of Johnny... He had the option of just ending it all; toss his pills and eat a bullet. Or... another choice, letting Johnny have his body instead, but then the Rockerboy would've been found by Jericho and recruited into the Revolution and Johnny would've gone hardcore into the cyborg's ideals. V just slammed his hand against the cot, this Revolution was coming, it always had been, there was no stopping it and he was painfully aware of that fact right now.

Chapter End.

A/N: Using D&D 5e/homebrew rules, V is somewhere around Level 15. Jericho and Hildegarde are both Level 20+, Scotch and Asher are both Level 18. Jericho possesses several spells which include Disintegrate, Circle of Death and Magic Missile. He has several Legendary Actions as well. As this was roughly based on a Cyberpunk RED Homebrew TTRPG, V is woefully under-leveled, but has some tricks up his sleeve that will still work in his favor.