Chapter 12: The Beginning of All Things To End.
It had been several months since the Albion had left its terrestrial mooring and left for the high seas. The trip had been long and actually rather boring. The ship had stopped briefly in Argentina for supplies and David and his crew had disembarked to enjoy the small coastal town they had landed in, grabbing some souvenirs as well. David had a nice time there since he was at the helm of navigating his crew through the small town, nobody else spoke fluent Spanish and the local dialect was somewhat confusing. It had been quite a while since he'd had to speak his native tongue since the last time he did was back when his mother was still alive. Soon, though, the pit-stop was done and the Albion continued up the coastline for a few more weeks.
At this point, Night City was clearly visible on the horizon, the pillars or light streaming upwards from the city-center like fingers reaching for the heavens. It was almost 8pm at night and the stars were beginning to glitter in the skies above. David stood on the balcony outside of the suite in Monarch Tower that he was willing to call his permanent home right now. Night City seemed so alien to him despite having lived there all his life. He'd seen what lay outside of it and there truly were better places out there. His Holo rang.
"Hello, David. We're within range of Night City. Please come up to the command deck, we are ready for the final stage of our plan.", Jericho noted.
David didn't even have time to respond before the call ended abruptly. He just walked back inside to rouse his crew and get ready. The End had come. He went to Lucy first, just to make sure she was all set.
"You good, Luce?", he asked.
"Yeah. I'm good. I'll meet you up there.", Lucy noted as she headed for the elevator to wait for the rest of the crew.
David headed off to find Falco and Rebecca. The two of them were seated around the circular table in their living quarters. The Newsfeeds were talking about some kind of Memorial Parade in Japantown. Arasaka was preoccupied with Saburo's death and the internal power-struggle and was both holding a memorial parade and Hanako Arasaka was going to give a speech on the matters.
"You ready, kid? We've been cooling our heels for months. 'Bout time we saw some action.", Falco noted, getting up from the couch. "Besides, Becca wants to go shoot stuff again..."
"No I don't! I'm fine staying here and hanging out with you and the rest of the crew too!", Rebecca whined. She really just liked hanging out with David since they'd had a ton of free time and an all-expenses-paid vacation courtesy of Monarch for the past few months.
"I think we should just get moving.", Kiwi noted as she walked out of her room. She just seemed frazzled for some reason, her eyes darting around in slight paranoia.
"Hey, if anyone wants to stay, that's fine. But, yeah. Let's go meet Jericho and see what we're doing.", David concluded. He grabbed a few of his better guns from the armory closet and headed towards the elevator with the rest of the crew.
The elevator was packed as David's Crew made their way towards the uppermost floor of Monarch Tower, the doors soon opening and depositing them inside the massive Control Room of the entire ship. Hundreds of Holo-Screens lit up with various read-outs and maps of Night City. Several Monarch-affiliated mercenaries and employees poured of the mountain of information they were receiving. Jericho just stood alongside Hildegarde in the center of the room with Sigmund. Asher was presumably busy in the DataCenter and Scotch was nowhere to be found.
"Hello, David. I see you are wondering where my Netrunner and Pilot are. Scotch has taken a job at the Winchester Pub and is no longer needed due to his reliance on alcohol to function. Falco will serve as his replacement. Asher is busy in the DataCenter, particularly with covering the Albion in a Veil. I shall debrief you in a moment.", Jericho noted.
That answered some of David's questions. He had other ones though; a heaping shitload of them, some such as 'What are we going to do?' and 'How are we getting back to Night City?' and 'Why does it smell like blueberry poptarts in here?'. The latter question was probably him just having some kind of cyberware malfunction or a stroke. He decided to ask some of his questions.
"Why does it smell like blueberry poptarts in here?", David asked, asking the wrong question.
"Blame Sigmund. He has a bizarre addiction to pastries.", Hildegarde mused, mocking her younger brother.
"Sod off, Hilde! You like them just as much as I do!", Sigmund replied. He was eating a blueberry toaster strudel and some icing was dripping onto the floor. Hildegarde just shrugged.
"Okay. We're ready for tomorrow! What's the plan?", David asked, this time asking the right question.
"We will depart the Albion at 5pm tomorrow. We will be using the Toward Stars again as our transport. The Albion will stay here, well out of range from any defenses that Night City may have, not that they'll even see us if Asher's Veil has us hidden. We are aiming for Arasaka Tower.", Jericho explained. He paused for a moment awaiting any questions.
"Right through the front door? You're going to get us all killed.", Falco sighed.
"Arasaka is busy holding a parade. Most of their security is preoccupied protecting Hanako Arasaka, so their security at the Tower will be lower than usual. Once we have breached the Tower itself, I have a few friends who will cause an appropriate distraction.", Jericho continued.
"We going loud?", Rebecca asked.
"Very."
"Sounds good to me! Corpo scum can suck it!", Rebecca shouted before looking around the room. "No offense, though."
"I'm used to it, really.", Sigmund sighed.
"He's very used to it. I think he still holds the record for fastest knockout in the fighting arena.", Hildegarde mocked. "That is, being knocked out, of course."
"Hilde, would you shut it!? I'm CEO for fucks sake!", Sigmund cried in utter frustration. He really couldn't do anything though. Hildegarde just poked him a bunch of times, annoying him even more.
"What about the Net? Arasaka has hundreds of 'Runners. They'll see us before we see them.", Kiwi added. She wasn't wrong.
"Asher's Veil should extend to us. If it does not or if it fails for some reason, then you and Lucy will aid with intrusion. Janus will keep Black-ICE attacks off of us.", Jericho noted.
"Sounds good. I can handle it. That Remote Hack mod you gave me should get me in and out of 'Saka's subnet without the need of a Deep-Dive.", Lucy noted. Kiwi just stared at her teammate, Lucy was kitted out more than she was.
"All the better to have two Netrunners at my side in the field. One on softlines and the other on hardlines.", Jericho mused.
"Got it. Deets seem simple enough. This is a big smash'n'grab. We smash Arasaka, get their Net Uplink and then delta.", David noted.
"I like the way you think, David. It really is quite simple. We get in, then we get out. Our friends help with keeping the heat off out tails.", Hildegarde noted. "Too bad Siggie thinks this is going to end with the Albion at the bottom of the sea."
"Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much? Shut your fuckin' gob, Hilde!", Sigmund shouted. Hildegarde just shoved Sigmund around a bit, the leaner man trying and failing to block any of the playful attacks. "As much as I've missed this, I'll be glad when you've officially left my presence. Just come back alive, Hilde."
"You too. Don't hurt yourself. You know sitting on your arse for too long can give you hemorrhoids?", Hildegarde continued to mock. Sigmund just threw his hands up in exasperation, launching the strudel across the room in the process.
"If everyone is ready, then I suggest you rest up for the Final Act. This is not going to be an easy fight. We are dealing with the largest and most prolific Corporation on the planet.", Jericho concluded.
David just took his team back to the elevator. It would be a bit of a ride back down to their suite, but at least now they had some kind of idea of what was going to happen. The Final Battle. And then the New World Order would rise. It was time to either become Infamous or become a Legend. Kiwi hit the 'stop' button a few floors just before the 55th one.
"I need to go and clear my head. I'll meet up with you tomorrow."
"You okay, Kiwi?", David asked.
"I'm fine. I just have... a lot on my mind."
David just waved as Kiwi left the elevator. Oh well, Netrunning was hard and Kiwi hadn't received anything special except the Base Chipset that kept Janus from frying her. She probably needed some time alone to consider this since their lives were at stake. Soon the rest of the crew was back in their humble abode and ready to go to sleep for the rest of the night. They had nearly a day before it was time to go back to Night City. Ouroboros.
Kiwi just stepped off the main elevator and headed for one of the smaller perimeter ones. The crew had been using the central elevator in the middle of the tower, but several other smaller ones went back down towards the street level. She needed a few hours of quiet time away from them to converse with her dark passenger. The Winchester Pub would be perfect. She just entered one of the visitor elevators and headed towards the street, landing in the Main Hall and walking out of it through the plaza in front of Monarch Tower. Johnny Silverhand made his abrupt appearance.
"Shit's going down. Smashin' 'Saka again. You sure you want to stop this guy?", Johnny asked. Jericho was doing what he'd done more than fifty years earlier and had a much better chance at leaving a lasting mark.
"I'm sure.", Kiwi noted mentally. Johnny could read her thoughts and there wasn't any reason to make people think she was having a conversation with an imaginary friend.
"Well, take out that chick with the giant tits first, Hildegarde. She talks too much and'll probably gloat as well. You've got a shot there. You still got that iron I told you to buy?", Johnny asked.
Kiwi did in fact, have the incredibly expensive firearm Johnny had goaded her into purchasing. The Engram himself would take care of the gunplay since it was based on his gun, A Malorian 3516.
"Do you have an actual plan? Killing Hildegarde won't do much. Jericho is the main problem."
"Yeah, of course! The two are obviously input and output. Kill her and he'll go mad with grief. Once he's distracted, put a bullet into him as well. Easy peasy.", Johnny added.
"I know they're together. I've had the displeasure of being present when they've- Look, Jericho isn't going to go down easily and I doubt Hildegarde is either. Outlaws never go down easy."
"Well... You'll at least stop their plans for a few minutes. Maybe long enough for the rest of Night City to intervene."
"How?"
"Well, you'll stop Jericho and your own crew by sacrificing yourself to their gunfire as you go down like a Legend."
"Awesome.", Kiwi sighed sarcastically. "Do you have any other plans that don't involve me getting killed?"
"Not really. This is the end of the line for you. I'm an Engram. I'm not really 'alive' anymore, I'll probably get slotted into another hopeless gonk after you get zeroed."
Kiwi just sighed again. Why not. Fuck it. Go down and save the world alone. Things will continue as they always have and it'll be better than having some psychotic cyborg ruling the world and turning everyone into mindless slaves with his God AI. The 11th hour betrayal. It had to happen.
5pm didn't come quite quick enough for David and his crew. Kiwi had returned at some point during the night and was already up and ready, the rest of the crew paced around their suite before deciding to just meet Jericho on the AV Landing Pad at the top of the tower. They had all of their gear, guns and supplies. Night City mocked them from a distance, its pretty lights beckoning them into its rot-filled false Eden. The elevator ride towards the very top of the tower was slow as the whole crew was in this and ready. It was time to End this. Go down a Legend or become the most infamous mercenaries on the face of the planet.
"Got our gear?", David asked again.
"Got it. Guns, ammo, a few melee weapons, some proximity mines... Think we've got all we're going to need.", Falco noted.
"I've got Guts and Grit, my two besties!", Rebecca added, holding up her two Carnage shotguns. One fired explosive rounds and the other shot hailstorms of flechettes.
"I've still got my Monowire, but I grabbed an HJKE-11 'Bifrons' from the armory. It's powered by Janus with enhanced Smart-Targeting.", Lucy noted.
"I have this new gun, a Malorian 3516.", Kiwi added.
"Why do you have that?", Falco asked. "Seems a little slow and dated if you ask me."
"Style.", Kiwi noted.
"Looks like we're ready, then...", David sighed. Time to go home.
The elevator stopped on the AV landing pad high above. Jericho just waited patiently in front of the ancient cargo AV that didn't seem to change too much despite it having been serviced recently. It still had a pale yellow and peeling construction paintjob and their Ragnar attached to its cargo platform.
"Are you ready?", Jericho asked.
"We are. Let's go.", David noted as he passed the cyborg and entered the AV. He took a seat in the rear alongside the rest of his crew and Hildegarde. Falco climbed into the pilot's seat and began to attach his personal link to the AV's flight computer.
"You will take us to the City Center, the Corporate Plaza. You will land in Reconciliation Park. We will depart from there and enter that main area of the Corporate Plaza, heading for Arasaka Tower.", Jericho noted. Falco's new Vehicle Zen already knew the flight path.
"I got it, don't worry.", Falco noted.
The Toward Stars lifted off the platform and flew away from the Albion. As they left the floating city behind, David turned to look at the massive ship behind him. To his astonishment, all three of the Mass-Drivers suddenly activated and turned, aiming towards the coastline. Their massive dual-channel railgun-like barrels pointed in Night City's direction.
"Wait. What are you doing?", David asked.
"Oh nothing... Just getting ready.", Hildegarde hissed.
David just watched as the Mass-Drivers began to charge up, a malevolent dark purple energy beginning to glow from their bases causing the barrels to glow as well. He waited for a second, anticipating the blasts of absolute destruction, but nothing happened.
"Call it a backup plan. Besides, the Albion needs to have a weapons test.", Hildegarde noted.
The Albion was poised to fire on Night City with Medusa, Stheno and Euryale, the three mythologically named Mass-Drivers. It was the Nuclear Option if all else failed. David idly hoped that it wouldn't come down to that. There would be nothing left but ashes.
The purple glow began to disappear behind the AV as it sped onward towards its destiny. Night City loomed closer, the coastline and the still strangely quiet Pacifica passing them by. The previous cyber-attack had left the streets of the once gang-filled sector silent like a ghost town. The City-Center soon was upon them, massive towers of the main corporations reaching towards the sky like towers of Babel. Other AV traffic paid no attention to them, perhaps Asher's Veil was working? Or they just didn't care that a nondescript construction AV was flying through the city. It wasn't long before they had landed in the fairly dense brush atn the far end of Reconciliation Park. Jericho walked towards the exit of the AV and beckoned to them.
"Time to go. Follow my lead. We will take a pleasant walk through the corporate plaza, drawing no attention to ourselves. We will then approach Arasaka Tower, enter through the main entrance using false credentials and then access their maintenance elevator.", the cyborg noted.
David and the rest of their crews just nodded. They were walking into the lion's den, but if the lions wanted a war then they could fight them to the bloody end.
Across Night City, in Japantown...
V and Jackie were posted up high at the tops of some of the derelict buildings. They had a view over the Memorial Parade. Multi-colored floats and holographic displays floated down the streets, citizens of Night City looking in awe as they passed. There had been no word from Harry or Ron yet. V just sat with his Tsunami Ashura sniper rifle and waited for the command. Jackie sat next to him with a Grad, also awaiting word from their merc buddies. The Holo-Call eventually came.
"She's a no-show. I was expecting something overly grandeur, too. Hell, the screamsheets are saying the Albion diverted around the NUSA, so she's probably headed to fuckin' Japan to take on 'Saka directly.", Harry McDouglas noted.
"She's an outlaw. Where else would she attack?", V asked.
"Hildegarde doesn't care as long as there's murder and mayhem. The Parade made the most sense, but maybe she's gone crazy and is headed to 'Saka Tower itself. Pulling a Johnny Silverhand and going out like a Legend.", Ron added.
"Johnny Silverhand... The Rockerboy?", V asked.
"Yeah. He blew 'Saka to smithereens in '23. Or that's what the rumors say. Other rumors say he got splattered by Adam Smasher and Morgan Blackhand took out 'Saka.", Harry noted.
"Should we relocate?", V asked, lowering his rifle.
"No. Just stay here for now. Wait until Hanako gives her speech. That would be the appropriate time to assassinate her on live TV."
"Got it.", V noted.
He just kept an eye out, scanning the crowds for anyone looking suspicious. He didn't see anyone, though, not even Vareks or Vereks or any of the other mercs from the Afterlife. He saw tons of Arasaka security and even Adam Smasher walking around on Hanako's float. The Arasaka Cyborg had a new IEC Dragoon body for some reason, this one even more heavily armored than his previous incarnation. Something had happened to the Legend himself, something that had caused him to upgrade himself even more than he was before. V just hoped that he didn't need to fight the deadly cyborg; that would end in nothing but tears in the rain.
At this time of night and considering that a massive Parade was being held in Japantown, the corporate plaza was oddly quiet. A few Holo-Screens showed various angles of the Memorial Parade in the middle of the Plaza, presumably for the few corpo gonks who didn't have a day off to see it in person. Jericho and David just walked calmly towards the front doors of Arasaka Tower, the two guards at the doors staring at them for a moment as their ID cards were scanned before stepping aside. Jericho just walked straight up to the receptionist in the lobby.
"Hello. I am Jing Yuan, the techie that was requested for maintenance?", he noted, the false credentials being used to cover his true identity.
"Oh, Hello! Hm... That's some serious chrome for a techie... Lemme just see if I can find you...", the receptionist noted as he scoured the computer system. He pressed a few keys before finding the information and stepping back. "Oh... It seems there's a problem with your access card. Let me go and print a new one for you..."
The receptionist just hurried away from the front desk, heading down a side corridor away from the main hall and disappearing from sight. Jericho just stood quietly before turning to the rest of the group.
"This doesn't bode well. Perhaps Arasaka has caught on to me? I suggest you prepare for the-", Jericho was cut off mid-sentence as exactly what he was describing happened.
Arasaka had caught onto the cyborg after the few months of his absence from Night City. They had learned his tricks from his previous incursion into Sovietek's HQ in Prague. They were aware of the Veil and had designed programs to circumvent it. Several dozen Arasaka corporate guards flooded into the main hall with weapons drawn. An alarm was sounded. Things had suddenly taken a turn.
"-Worst...", Jericho finished. "Go loud. Aim for the central elevator!"
David didn't hesitate, he activated his Sandevistan and shot forwards at the first group of corpo guards that had begun aiming at them. He glanced off to the side and saw Jericho, also using his Quicksilver Sandevistan-equivalent. The cyborg was still much faster than he was. He emulated the same maneuvers that the cyborg made and jumped high into the air, landing and crashing down into the guard at the front. With his greatly enhanced speed and strength, he just punched straight through the first guard's chest, his fists dealing piercing damage better than any firearm. He turned and spun, ripping his right arm free from the chest of the first guard and slammed his left fist through the chest of the next one.
What David didn't have, were a set of nano-ceramic blades in his forearms. Jericho spun sideways beside him and bisected several troops right at the waist before then spinning backwards and sending heads rolling. The cyborg shot forwards so quickly that time might as well have been flowing backwards. He anticipated movements from the bewildered corpo guards that were still in the process of bringing their guns level with their opposition and sliced off their hands at the wrists before retracting his blades and crushing the remaining guards' skulls with his bear hands with a simple clap to the sides of their heads. Time began to speed up somewhat as he looked over to David also performing similar moves. He really did pick a winner.
"There will be more, move!", Jericho shouted over their Comms.
Hildegarde just leaped into the air and spiraled over Jericho and David's heads with spider-like reflexes. She fired her dual railgun-modified Malorian Sliver-Guns towards the opening elevator doors indiscriminately, whoever was coming out was about to have a surprise. She wasn't surprised when about a half-dozen dead civilians fell out of the elevator and instead just grinned widely.
Rebecca had already started firing, following Hildegarde's path with her shotguns. She fired the same way, indiscriminately towards anything that moved and felt nothing as a flood of hapless Arasaka employees were cut down. They'd probably just call reinforcements anyways. Falco added covering fire, protecting the Netrunners as Lucy twisted up one of the more heavily armored guards in her monowire and gibbed him. Kiwi shot with the Malorian 3516, the recoil knocking her off balance with each shot.
The elevator doors closed, cutting a few dead office workers in half as a set of blast-doors shut the crew out of the only access point to the lower levels of the Tower. Jericho just scowled in frustration. He looked around the main hall as dozens of corpses lay at his feet. This was going to succeed. It had to. He just walked over to the blast-doors and rammed his fingers between them, forcing his hands between them and ripping both doors from their guides. He pulled on the sliding doors and continued to bend them away from the elevator before he also pried those doors open as well. He just turned back to the rest of his and David's crews, his eyes burning a bright Cherenkov blue with radiation.
"Go. This must succeed."
David and crew just hopped over the mangled corpses and shoved themselves into the elevator, Kiwi injected another Anti-Rad and tingled a bit. Hildegarde spun around and aimed her guns towards the front doors, taking down a few NCPD officers that had come to investigate the commotion before she slid in between David and Jericho in the small compartment.
"No time for Netrunning. Janus, take control.", Jericho noted. He was not a Netrunner and Asher said that he avoided using Janus for that purpose since it tended to call everyone down on their asses. It was far too late to worry about that, not since they were so close.
Lucy just stared as Janus seemed to aspirate digitally from Jericho's body, thousands of Janus-Entities pouring outwards and forming into a singular massive Entity. It floated digitally into the elevator panel and quickly sent the vessel downwards. It didn't follow them. It stayed in the local subnet for the time being, splitting into thousands if not millions of smaller entities and creeping over the entire Tower. The elevator just shot downwards towards the lowest levels of Araska Tower. It was time for the Third Round in Hell.
Back in Japantown, the Parade continued. Hanako Arasaka was giving her speech to the citizens of Night City and talked about her father's death and Yorinobu's plans for the city and how she held her own views regarding them. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. V just called Harry and Ron again. This was going nowhere.
"She's not fuckin' here! This was a waste of time!", V cursed.
"Yeah, I sorta agree. We should head back for now. Did you enjoy the parade?", Ron noted.
"Yeah, it was kinda pretty. I haven't really gotten to see one before...", Jackie mused, his mind elsewhere.
"Shut up, we're in this for the Cred and the Eddies, Jackie.", V chided.
V's Holo began to crackle for a moment, the signal turning to static for a second before returning. "Harry? Ron?", he called and got a jumbled distant response.
"V? I'm getting a lot of interference... What the hell is-", Harry was cut off mid-sentence.
A malevolent violet streak of energy shot across the sky. A magnetically charged rail-gun burst from a Mass-Driver. Something absolutely huge. The shot arced across the sky before it began to fall downwards towards the street level. V just grabbed Jackie and pulled the larger man backwards away from the edge of the building they sat on, he jumped down and threw his friend onto the ground as the Mass-Driver's payload hit its target, a massive violet burst of energy smashing into all of the buildings, the floats, the citizens, and everyone and anything else in the middle of Japantown. The shockwave from the blast forced all of the air from V's lungs and shattered every window in every building. It blew the floats away, shoving them into nearby buildings. Hanako's float, the target itself, was obliterated. The Newsfeeds all cut out at once, not capturing a single moment of the attack except the initial blast. The only survivor of the destroyed float was Adam Smasher, who landed on the streets below at terminal velocity, the massive cyborg brushing himself off and heading away from the destruction as fast as his cyberware allowed him. He had to protect Yorinobu now that Hanako had been reduced to atoms. He had to get to Arasaka Tower.
V just sat up, coughing and retching as dust and debris from the attack rained down onto him. He peered over the side of the building and saw that the Parade had been decimated. Floats and other vehicles had crashed into nearby buildings. Thousands of people were dead. Hanako's float was just gone, not even a shred of wreckage was intact. Hanako Arasaka was definitely dead and now there had been a massive terrorist attack during the parade. Hildegarde had gone all-out.
"V? Vee? You still alive?", Harry shouted through the Holo. V coughed and hacked a few times before he answered.
"I'm still breathing. What the hell just happened?"f
"I don't know. Alarms are blaring at 'Saka Tower, though. Get there ASAP."
V just cursed and checked on Jackie. The larger man was unconscious, but still breathing. He just lifted his best friend up and dragged him down the fire-escape before dropping him off on the lower levels. Jackie would probably be fine, he did have the TraumaTeam Platinum package now that they were Legendary Mercs. V just hailed his new Aerondight and hopped in, setting a course for the Corpo Plaza. Shit had just hit the fan and it was raining down on everyone.
Arasaka's elevator finally came to a grinding halt at the bottom of the tower. There was a shockwave and the Tower shook for a moment. Something had happened outside. Jericho just nodded to Hildegarde and continued his warpath toward his goal.
"...And there's our distraction. Don't worry, David. Night City is still mostly in one piece. Hope you didn't care too much about Japantown...", Hildegarde noted as the blast-wave began to diminish.
David did care about Japantown. He idly wondered if Wakako was still alive as he remembered the Mass-Drivers of the Albion aimed towards the city. "What happened!?"
"A test run. Not even a fully powered shot... Casualties should be minimal, a shame...", Hildegarde sighed before looking back up.
"I've already called the banners. They should be here in a few moments. We still need Izanagi.", Jericho noted as he just walked out of the elevator.
David left the elevator and surveyed the scene. They were deep underground inside of Arasaka's infrastructure. He spotted a security checkpoint that was empty, the guard that was supposed to be sitting here dead on the ground, looking as if he'd decided to take a nap. As he proceeded through the checkpoint, he saw a few Netrunners in their chairs, curled up as if they were sleeping, but smoke was pouring from their ears as they were fried in the Net. Janus. It was Janus. It was Pacifica all over again, but now all the stops had been pulled out. There was almost no opposition in their way.
"Hate to say it, but they've got an army of bots down here. Also, they've called in MaxTac. Hope you're ready, David.", Hildegarde noted as she lifted her eyepatch for a moment and scanned the area.
"Never been more ready in my life.", David noted. He nodded to Lucy and Rebecca. This was the end of the line. "We'll all be infamous or legends in the afterlife."
Hildegarde just smirked at him and continued, taking cover behind one of the many crates in the open cargo hallway. Jericho just walked into the open, seemingly not caring about hiding or taking cover.
"Where is Adam Smasher? I told him to be ready for Round Three.", Jericho noted to nobody in particular. A few squads of MaxTac and Arasaka Bots took aim on him immediately.
"You!", one of the MaxTac officers shouted, recognizing Jericho from the massacre at Konpeki a few months ago. They didn't even bother shouting commands or telling him to stand down before they opened fire on the cyborg.
Jericho just showed off his innate ability to cause bullets to phase through his body as he activated his Quicksilver and stopped time. He just casually walked around the hail of bullets that were aimed at him and grabbed the nearest MaxTac officer by the throat, staring into their eyes as he crushed it, he felt the crack of bone as their vertebrae shattered and watched their eyes widen as they realized that they were already dead before moving on to the next MaxTac officer.
"You don't know me. You don't even know what you're up against. You are not prepared.", Jericho chided.
David's Sandevistan activated almost instinctively and he caught up to Jericho in the Time Stop, bullets floating past him in slow-motion. He flicked a few of the floating bullets and sent their trajectories into the walls around his crew.
"Hello, David. It's so simple. So easy to kill when you are so much faster than them, isn't it? If you're faster than them and stronger than them, then you can easily kill them all.", Jericho mused as he caught sight of David just behind him.
"But is it necessary?", David asked, remembering a moment where he killed an innocent scientist.
"They are in our way. They will kill us if we don't kill them. A few people need to die so that others may live. A necessary sacrifice."
David just nodded. The MaxTac officers were definitely trying to kill them right now. The office workers that Hildegarde had accidentally shot probably didn't, but those deaths would lay on the outlaw's conscience. He just walked beside Jericho as the cyborg's arm blades extended and casually stabbed a MaxTac officer through the gut. There was no violent flair to any of his movements, just necessity. A single slash and a head was severed, still seemingly attached in slow motion, the eyes of the guard going wide as their head was suddenly removed.
"Did you know it takes around 100 miliseconds for the brain to react to pain? We are moving much faster than that.", Jericho noted idly as he cut another MaxTac officer in half. "They'll be dead before they even know it."
Behind the David and Jericho, time was running at normal speeds. MaxTac guards fell in various ways, some bisected and some with gaping holes punched through them. Some just fell with their necks snapped. Rebecca returned fire, firing explosive rounds and flechettes at the same time and blowing some of the Arasaka Robots to scrap. Hildegarde just scanned the area, dodging behind cover as MaxTac officers fired in her direction. She blind-fired over her cover and struck a few targets. Kiwi saw a moment to attack and she took it, she aimed her shot on the plum-purple woman and fired.
Hildegarde was suddenly shoved forwards as a random gunshot deflected off her dermal armoring and pushed her into the crate in front of her. She just looked back towards the shooter and spotted Kiwi. "Did you just shoot me?"
"I'm sorry. I'm not used to this gun yet."
"Shoot me again and you'll find out how many bullets you can eat before you die.", Hildegarde spat. Getting shot by her own teammates wasn't much fun.
Kiwi just waited for another shot. This time she'd aim for the head. She waited a few rounds and then spotted her chance, this time firing off a killing shot. The bullet just glanced off the nape of Hildegarde's neck. The outlaw just turned around in annoyance.
"Shoot me again, I dare you. I'll shove that gun so far up inside you, you'll give birth to a Derringer."
Kiwi just backed up and lowered her gun. This was going nowhere and Hildegarde was definitely going to shove that Malorian where the sun didn't shine if she continued. She just had to wait for the right moment and right now wasn't the right one unless she wanted to have a bouncing baby gun in a few moments.
The gunfire and slaughter seemed to cease for a moment. The MaxTac reinforcements and the Arasaka Robots all lay in variously sized pieces on the ground. All that remained was getting to Mikoshi and the Net Uplink. Jericho and David returned to normal speed, no longer seeming to soar around the battlefield like glimmering ghosts. The cyborg stopped for a moment.
"Lucy, please access the Server Control and raise the Mainframe."
Lucy just did as she was told. It was fairly simple getting through the heavily crippled Arasaka defenses and she had the Server raised from the ground in just a few moments. The small data tower rising from the ground like the fist of a demon raised from Hell itself.
"Good. Now, just give me a moment and we can go.", Jericho noted as he connected his personal link to the server.
"Wait. I thought you needed Mikoshi.", Kiwi noted.
"I said nothing of the sort. I said that we needed to access the Net Uplink at the base of Arasaka Tower near Mikoshi. I have no use for their storage of interesting Engrams."
Kiwi just sighed. The end had finally come and she'd failed to stop it at all. She just walked over to the side and sulked. David came over to her.
"You okay? You've been distant, Kiwi."
"I'm fine. I just didn't think it would end like this."
"Hey, it's just been a milk-run. We'll be out of here soon and back on the Albion. The hardest part is over.", David reassured before walking back towards the rest of the crew.
Kiwi wasn't so sure. She still had one last chance to stop this. Hildegarde was distracted. She was gloating again, as she usually did. She was talking to Jericho as he uploaded Janus and caused all of their dooms. She would never see the killing shot. Kiwi just aimed and let Johnny Silverhand's Engram take the shot.
Hildegarde saw the blast from the corner of her eye, the bullet aimed for her throat. She dodged, but wasn't fast enough and caught the bullet in the side of her neck, the blast knocking her off her feet for a moment, her hand clasping over the wound in shock and her eye going wide. She coughed for a moment, hacking up a wad of silver blood.
"Hildegarde?", Jericho asked, not looking up from his task.
"Sorry about that. Still not used to this gun yet.", Kiwi noted.
"Ghhk... You...", Hildegarde gasped. "Vostok all over again..."
David and the rest of the crew reacted... appropriately. They immediately surrounded the tall netrunner.
"What the hell, Kiwi!", Falco shouted. "You shot Hildegarde! You might've even killed her!"
"It had to be done. This cannot happen. Jericho is going to destroy the world."
"The fuck he is! The world sucks right now, anything is better than what's going on right now!", Falco roared. He just kept his aim on their former Netrunner 'friend'.
Hildegarde just slumped onto the ground next to Jericho, her hand still pressed against her neck wound. What a time to die, right at the finish line. There was no stopping this. Janus was already in the Net. She just hoped that she'd get to live long enough to see that beautiful AI uploaded fully. Jericho just laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Did you forget? When you were dying in Irkutsk, half-burned to death... I asked you if you wanted to become immortal. You told me that you did. This is not the end, Hildegarde.", Jericho noted, looking away from his task for a moment, his glowing blue eyes meeting Hildegarde's piercing gray one.
"I remember... ghhklkhh... You did something to me. You never said what it was...", Hildegarde gasped, the silver blood still trickling down her throat.
"Nanotechnology. Your blood is synthetic. You will recover from this. Tell me, does it still hurt?"
"No... It doesn't. I think I'm dying, Jericho. The pain is fading..."
"When the pain fades away, arise once again. This is not the end, it is just the beginning.", Jericho noted before he turned back to his final task.
David just kept his Overture revolver aimed at Kiwi. Betrayal at the 11th hour. He should've seen this coming, but he didn't. He'd given her a second chance.
"What the fuck have you done!? Why Hildegarde? If you wanted to stop Jericho, why didn't you just shoot the server?", David cried. Hildegarde was a horrible person, but she didn't deserve to go down like this.
"I- I honestly didn't think of that...", Kiwi noted. She just raised the Malorian up again, but quickly found that she was out of ammunition. "Fuck me."
"If Hildegarde dies, Jericho goes nuclear. You wanted to save Night City, but now you've doomed it. Hope you're fucking happy with yourself!", Falco shouted.
Kiwi was about to become a human punching bag for all of her former crewmates. Rebecca was going to beat her until the candy came out. David was probably going to remove her limbs one by one. Lucy would probably fry her brain. Falco would just stare at her barely-recognizable corpse in disdain. The end of the line had come. Johnny Silverhand just leaned against the far wall.
"Nice job. Too bad you failed. Maybe I'll get to be in someone smarter next time...", the Rockerboy mocked.
By this time, Hildegarde had recovered from her neck wound, the healing sped up significantly by her synthetic nanotechnology-infused blood, the wound itself sealing up and a dribble of silvery blood seeping onto her glove. She blinked her eye and tested her strength by moving her arms around a bit. No pain, but there was definitely going to be a scar left from this. She just glanced down at her hand and saw a few traces of her silver blood. She just flicked her fingers, sending the liquid spattering onto the ground. Her scowl was deeper than it was before and she just got up and walked over to Kiwi.
"Outlaws never go down easy. Didn't I tell you that?", she spat directly into Kiwi's face.
"Are you sure about that? You talk too much.", Kiwi added as she activated her trump card, the hidden feature of the Malorian 3516, a flamethrower. She had been paying attention and knew that Hildegarde had been set on fire once before and it had nearly killed her. She just slapped the butt of the gun and sent a flame outwards into the outlaw's face.
Hildegarde just recoiled from the blast of flame, dodging backwards away from it. She just pivoted back upright and looked Kiwi dead in her eyes before she spun and delivered a bone-crushing roundhouse kick to the Netrunner's sternum, the blow sending Kiwi hurtling backwards and into the nearest wall. Kiwi just slid down the wall in agony, her spine was likely broken and the Malorian just flopped out of her hands.
"Why?", Hildegarde asked. "Why kill me? Not Jericho, or the sodding server!?"
"I had to try...", Kiwi sighed. The end awaited her. Johnny just looked at her in shame from the corner of her eye.
"Well... You failed."
"Kiwi... Goddamn it... You were right the whole time, Jericho!", Falco cursed. "She betrayed us once, now she's done it again!"
"As expected. I had my doubts of course, but eventually they all still turn on you.", Jericho noted, still not looking up from his task.
"...Which is why we don't take betrayal lightly. Now then... Who would like to kill Kiwi? David, why don't you do it?", Hildegarde noted, still rubbing her throat. She'd live.
"I just want you to tell me why, Kiwi... We had so much going for us.", David noted as he sat down next to Kiwi's broken body.
"This new world order? It's a farce. Jericho is going to cause a second DataKrash, the world is going to end and then what? Do you really want to live under his thumb for the rest of your life? You saw what happened in Pacifica... in here... This is what will happen to everyone.", Kiwi sighed.
David just hesitated for a moment. The new world, a better world... or the one he hated so much. It was Araska or Jericho. And Jericho had laid his plans out in front of him, told him what he was going to do, never tried to betray him or deceive him. The new world would be better. It had to be. And it was.
"Kiwi... I don't hate you. I just wish we could've worked better together... You'll see the greener side of things eventually...", David sighed before he got up and turned away from Kiwi, taking a side next to Hildegarde.
"So... You're not going to kill her?", Hildegarde asked.
"No. She can rot down here. It's a fate worse than death.", David noted.
"Cruel... And fitting. Death is too good for you, Kiwi.", Hildegarde added.
"Can I kill Kiwi?", Rebecca noted.
"No, just leave her down here to die.", David stated. "Her spine is broken, she won't be going anywhere."
"Well... I told you not to fuck this up, and look what you did now!", Falco chided. "Gone and fucked it up for yourself..."
"Once a traitor, always a traitor...", Lucy sighed.
Jericho finally looked up to the rest of the crew. Kiwi was definitely out of the picture for now. She had no way of getting out of Arasaka Tower and soon the world would change. It really didn't matter much if she lived or died here. It was time to enjoy their victory.
"It is done. Welcome to the new age, David. It's time to go home.", Jericho mused, looking towards the Server.
Blue-black tentacles spread across the data-screens as the word 'JANUS' spread across it. Janus was now inside the Net, inside the Subnet, and inside of all that there was and always would be. Jericho had finally suceeded in doing what he had set out to do, it was now time to escape and reap the spoils of war. He just beckoned his friends and teammates away from the prone Netrunner and out of Arasaka Tower. It was time to watch the fireworks.
V's Aerondight sped through the streets before getting broadsided and knocked onto its roof. The Corpo Plaza was in chaos. Mercenaries from anywhere and everywhere swarmed the downtown area. He spotted Gunter, the German cyborg, letting off hails of rockets from his shoulder-mounted launchers as a small turret on top of his skull auto-fired on everything else. He watched as the cyborg's torso spun 180 degrees on his waist and turned to fire on the Kang Tao corporate HQ. A flicker in the air revealed Navarre's presence as she cut down squad after squad of corporate guards. Vareks and Vereks flanked Kale as he cackled in near cyber-psychosis and lit the area up in flames.
Overhead, a massive H-Shaped AV floated just above Memorial Park and sent several heavily chromed-out mercs down to join in the fray. A loud smug voice shouted from the AV.
"Heeeeeere's Jauney! Heya, kiddos... God these pretzels suck... How's that corpo life going for ya?", the voice announced as it apparently ate some truly terrible pretzels.
V just watched as a red-haired and gold-armored woman in spartan-like dress hopped down from the AV with a spear in hand. The spear instantly transformed into some kind of sniper rifle and a few long-range blasts shot towards the onslaught of corpo and MaxTac that flooded the area. The woman just tossed some kind of small disc towards the guards and then clenched her fist, crushing the guards into paste inside some kind of localized polarity device. V was way out of his league as far as mercs went. All the stops had been pulled out. He just ran for cover.
"Who the fuck are these guys!?", Harry shouted over the Comms.
"I don't know! I know a few of them, but the AV is new.", V shouted back.
"Doesn't matter, Hildegarde is over there!", Ron announced as the plum-purple outlaw made her appearance on the battlefield along with several others.
V just looked in the direction that Ron had given. Hildegarde had emerged from Arasaka Tower alongside David Martinez and his crew and some strange looking Asian cyborg he'd never seen before. He briefly recalled Shaitan, but this wasn't him. How in the absolute fuck was he going to take her down when everything in the Corpo Plaza was in chaos? He just set up from cover and readied his sniper rifle, he only needed one shot.
Hildegarde just looked around as the Corpo Plaza was in chaos, she made a hand gesture that resembled playing a violin as explosions and gunfire fill the air. It was magnificent. It was grand. It was everything she had hoped for. She barely had time to react before Jericho's hand shot in front of her face and caught a projectile of some sort, the cyborg grabbing a bullet from mid-air as it aimed for the middle of her forehead.
"Do be careful, Hildegarde. It appears we've drawn some attention.", Jericho chided.
V just panicked from his hiding spot. The cyborg had caught his bullet. Oh no. He attempted to activate his own Sandevistan, but he wasn't fast enough to escape. He tried to reload his weapon, but the cyborg had found him and was suddenly hoisting him aloft by his throat.
"And who are you?", Jericho asked.
"I'm Vee...", gasped V.
"V? Hm... Don't know you... And I don't care. Run along now, don't get killed. We are not your enemies. The corporations are. Aim at them.", Jericho mused before dropping V on his ass.
V just gasped for breath and scooted away from the cyborg, scooting his ass across the ground and around the side of Arasaka Tower and down the stairs into the 2023 Memorial. Fuck this, Harry and Ron could handle the outlaw, he wasn't going to get killed by ridiculously overpowered mercenaries for a handful of Eddies. He had better things to do. He could ride out into the sunset with Panam and have a better life.
"V? You alive?", Harry asked.
V just grunted, gurgled and sighed into his comms, playing dead.
"Shit. Newbie bit it...", Harry whined.
Jericho just rejoined his team. The attack had been just some clueless mercenary, probably some gonk that had been in the area. He was irrelevant, they had already won. It was time to enjoy the fireworks courtesy of Monarch and the Albion. He idly watched as another Mass-Driver fired a shot across the sky, this one impacting out in Del Coronado Bay. Monarch had just fired on Kujira, Arasaka's flagship aircraft carrier. The larger blast-wave signified a fully powered shot that likely sank the ship where it was moored.
"Come! We will let Night City rot.", Jericho beckoned. Their role here was done. It was now time to escape and celebrate their victory.
"Fuck yes! Drinks are on me this time!", Rebecca cheered. They had won. They had taken on Arasaka and lived. They were now infamous. A soft whistling sound in the air above her pulled her attention for a moment. A cyborg was hurtling down towards her. "Aww... Can't you see we're trying to have a moment here!? Fuck you!"
Rebecca just aimed her dual shotguns upwards, firing off blast after blast towards the falling cyborg's crotch. All of the shots were deflected by the cyborg's shiny metal codpiece. She just kept firing. They won already. Fuck this dude. Seriously. She didn't even bother to move out of the way as the cyborg's massive metal feet made contact with her skull and the rest of her body. Unceremoniously, Rebecca was crushed into the tarmac like an annoying insect.
"Rebecca!", Falco shouted, but the tiny rambunctious girl was likely smashed to paste underneath the massive cyborg adversary that just stood in her place.
"I see you, Jericho... It's time for round three.", Adam Smasher announced as he scraped what was left of Rebecca off his feet. A blue hand fell limply to the side.
"And here I thought you forgot. Hello, Adam! Are you ready to die?", Jericho noted.
"You first.", Smasher noted.
David just panicked slightly. Adam Smasher was back and he had some upgrades to his chassis. He was even larger and stronger than he was back in Arasaka Tower all those months ago when they first met. He just ran towards Lucy and pulled her along with him. He had to get her out of here. They really had no chance against the Legendary Merc himself. Jericho would probably be fine. But them, they'd die horribly to Adam Smasher's guns, hands, legs or both. They would mourn Rebecca when they had a chance. Survival was key.
"Found you, you bitch!", Harry McDouglas shouted as he dropped down from one of the nearby buildings. The mercenary had found his target at last and had Hildegarde surrounded. His brother, Ron, had her at gunpoint.
Hildegarde just sighed internally. Harry and Ron McDouglas had found her and had her at gunpoint from both sides. She'd survived a gunshot to the neck, but she honestly doubted her ability to survive being lit up from both sides in a hail of gunfire. Jericho was distracted and now taking on Adam Smasher. David had run off with Lucy and Falco was staring at the spot where Rebecca had been. She probably should've anticipated this.
"Okay. I surrender.", Hildegarde noted. Harry and Ron didn't lower their guns.
"You think we're toothless gonks or something? Sovietek is paying gold for your head. You're going down.", Ron noted.
"Well... I had to try.", Hildegarde noted before she leaped into the air and dodged backwards. Harry and Ron both tried to follow her sudden movements, firing off a few shots towards the outlaw.
Hildegarde just backflipped through the air and landed in front of Gunter, who was still firing rockets towards the various corporations and their guards that continued to rush into the fray.
"Gunter, there's a bit of a problem...", Hildegarde noted as she pointed towards the two McDouglas brothers firing in her direction.
Gunter just nodded and changed targets, firing volleys of rockets in the direction of the two Scottish idiots. His mechanical arms transformed as his hands flipped downwards and revealed twin 4-gauge shotguns that began to auto-fire towards the new combatants. Night City mercs were coming to defend the Corpo Plaza. Apparently some didn't want the world to change, but it was going to. It had to.
The McDouglas brothers just jumped into cover, not that it did much for them since it was easily blasted away by Gunter's onslaught of rockets and shotgun fire. They were seriously outgunned and Hildegarde had brought everyone she was friends with. They still tried to tace Hildegarde's movements through the chaos, tracing her away from where the massive German cyborg stood. She was running away, a bit uncharacteristic for her, but she did appear to have been wounded with a new neck wound. The just concentrated their fire on the fleeing outlaw.
Hildegarde was hit several times by the gunfire that the McDouglas brothers sent her way, the blows knocking her off balance for a few moments, but her dermal armoring protected her from any sucking wounds that would've occurred. She just jumped back into the air, turned and fired her Sliver Guns towards her attackers, a few of the shots hitting Harry in the process. The poor gonk wasn't wearing any armor and took the shots through and through. Ron rushed to his brother's aid.
"Goddammit! Harry? Are you alright?", Ron exclaimed.
"Just flesh wounds. Go get her!", Harry noted. The wounds were not flesh wounds, but the outlaw was right there. He'd live long enough to see her die.
Hildegarde took this momentary distraction as an advantage, from the air where she'd jumped, she catapulted herself off one of the buildings towards the now prone Harry McDouglas. Ron wasn't paying attention right now. It was time to strike hard. She flew towards the hapless prone brother and tumbled behind him, turning with spider-like reflexes and planting her firearm at the base of his skull. One shot was all it took to bathe Ron McDouglas in the brainmatter of his own brother, Harry's skull exploding and leaving his body headless. She just grinned up at the surviving brother.
"Oh look. You found me. I was hiding behind your brother's useless rotting carcass.", she mocked.
"Y-You killed him! I'm going to end you!", Ron raged. He fired on Hildegarde, but her reflexes kept his close-quarters gunfire off of her.
"Only if you can catch me."
Hildegarde just activated her Quicksilver and sped away from the merc. Playtime was over. It was time to put an end to these relentless mercs that hunted her throughout the world. Jean Starhawk had been one, and now Ron McDouglas was about to become the last. She really wanted Ron to know just how badly he had fucked up. She just did what Jericho did and stood calmly as Ron's gunfire shot towards her in slow motion, waiting for the right moment to deactivate he Quicksilver making it appear the his bullets had simply phased through her body. Ron's eyes just widened.
"What the hell are you!?", Ron screamed.
"I'm a ghost. I'm the ghost of all of your failures and I'm coming to drown you.", Hildegarde mocked. "Take your shot. I'll just stand right here."
Ron just took his shot, a point-blank shot at Hildegarde's head, the barrel of his gun nearly pressed to her forehead. Unfortunately, instead of a killing shot, the bullet once again seemingly phased through the outlaw as if she wasn't really there. How? He was losing his mind. This wasn't possible. She just killed Harry. Right? Or... Did he kill Harry? His eyes darted around, the world suddenly becoming fuzzy and distant. No, he couldn't have killed his own brother, why would he have done that? Mercy? Or rage at failing to kill Hildegarde? Reality shattered. He just looked down at Harry's headless body.
"Oh... Did I do this?", Ron asked to nobody in particular? "Was this my fault?"
Ron just swung around, no longer seeing Hildegarde anywhere around him. He as sure of it, he was hallucinating all of this. She wasn't really here at all. She was far away and he was succumbing to Cyber-Psychosis. He killed his own brother. He just saw Hildegarde's smug face everywhere. He broke. He thought he'd seen the plum-purple outlaw for a moment and fired, but the body that fell was just some random corpo guard. No, it had to be her. She had to be dead! He checked the body, but it was male and dressed in NCPD garb. She had to be here, she killed Harry. She had to be here! He turned around again, seeing the smug grin and fired his gun again, but it still wasn't her. He saw her scowling face mocking him on every person. Hildegarde was controlling them all. She had to be. He just fired again and again. He'd find her eventually. One of these had to be her.
"Aaauuugh! I'll kill you all! Hildegarde!?", Ron just screamed towards the heavens.
Hildegarde just walked away from Ron McDouglas. He had succumbed to Cyber-Psychosis. He fired randomly at civilians and other mercenaries. He saw her face on everyone. She just cackled with glee. What a way to go down. He'd get to fulfill his wish of killing her over and over again until MaxTac found him and put a bullet through his brain. She really wanted to do it herself, but this was far more entertaining. She just turned and looked around the chaos to find Jericho still embattled with Adam Smasher, neither of the two cyborgs seeming to have the upper hand at the moment. Jericho would be fine, she'd just go and cause some more mayhem before they had to leave.
David just used his Sandevistan and pulled Lucy all the way back to the Toward Stars where it was parked. He held her hand as he pulled open the door and brought her inside to safety. He had to return to the battle though. He was a terrible driver and trying to pilot the AV all the way back to the Albion was just a fever dream.
"Stay here, Luce. I'll be back, I promise.", David reassured.
"I thought you'd say that... David... I can't lose you, but I can't stop you either. Just keep your promise.", Lucy concluded. David had been spiraling towards a bloody end even before they'd met Jericho. If he had to go down, he was going to go down as a Legend.
"I will. See you soon, Lucy."
David just sped away from the AV and back into the fray. From where he was standing, he could see one of Hildegarde's Bounty Hunters currently losing his mind and shooting at anything and everything. A vending machine ate bullets, a streetlight was riddled with holes, a few random Night City gonks also ate lead. He just avoided this guy for now, he was obviously suffering from Cyber-Psychosis. He looked for Hildegarde, but didn't see her anywhere, she was probably fine. He did see Jericho and Adam Smasher locked in battle with each-other, but decided not to intervene at the moment. Jericho was ridiculously strong and probably had this covered. He just went in search of the remainder of his teammates, which only included Falco at the moment.
As the battle raged on around him, Falco just sat where Rebecca had been crushed. Her over-sized blue hand sticking out of the tarmac where Adam Smasher had smashed her. They were friends, unlikely friends, but still close friends. David went over to collect their driver.
"Falco, it's time to go. Rebecca is... Well, she died as she lived..."
"I know... It's just... so sudden.", Falco mused still looking at the spot where the tiny rambunctious girl had stood.
Falco had no time to dodge as a bright red fist burst through the tarmac and slammed into his face. The limp blue hand next to it suddenly grasped the broken tarmac and pulled upwards. Falco also had no time to dodge Rebecca's skull as it came sailing out of the broken tarmac to headbutt him. He just recoiled and rubbed his face from the impact. Rebecca in all of her tiny 4-feet and 8-inches of rage came barreling out of the ground like a demon sent up from hell itself.
"You thought you could kill me!? I've got titanium fuckin' bones!", Rebecca screamed as she emerged from the ground. She just looked around for a moment before noticing Adam Smasher ignoring her since he was currently distracted by Jericho. "Oh fuck. What happened?"
"Uh... We thought you died and then all hell broke loose. Adam Smasher is here, Hildegarde's Bounty Hunters are here and the whole Corpo Plaza is in flames.", David summarized.
"Goddammit! I missed all the fun. Hey, Davie, let's go show them what the Night City locals have to offer!", Rebecca noted, ignoring Falco's surprise at her sudden reappearance.
"Sounds like a plan!", David announced.
Rebecca just collected her shotguns from the Rebecca-shaped hole in the ground and brought both of them up to aim towards anyone and everything. It was time to shoot some fuckin' guns!
Adam Smasher had finally found that Black-Project Cyborg named Jericho. He was absolutely sure that everything that was happening right now was his fault. Nobody else would ever try to do this, not on Arasaka's turf and not since Johnny Silverhand had tried almost fifty years prior. It hadn't ended well for the Rockerboy and that spoke more than his songs did about trying to overthrow the corporations. Unfortunately for him, even with all of the best cyberware that Arasaka could provide him with, he was still leagues behind whatever Jericho was packing as the smaller cyborg continued to run circles around him both figuratively and literally.
"So many upgrades... I'm surprised you can get more than just a mumble out.", Jericho noted, mockingly.
"Fuck you!", Adam replied. He'd still win this fight. He was the best there ever was.
"Still... You're years behind what I have and even I don't know what that is. Come on, Adam. Show me death. I died once already... Show me death once again."
Adam just answered that request with a bone-crushing slam from above that missed his target completely, Jericho just dodging around him. He activated his new Arasaka Prototype Sandevistan and sped up, striking at the stranger cyborg but still missing every strike. Jericho just seemed to stare at him in idle intrigue.
"I expected more. Perhaps you should've just become an Elvis Impersonator. You seemed rather good at that.", Jericho mocked. Adam just raged.
Jericho just unleashed his nano-ceramic arm blades and swung sideways, the blades glancing off Adam's new chassis in the process instead of cutting his legs off at the knees. Jericho was just intrigued by this.
"Hm. Upgrades?"
"I'm stronger now. Even your Black-Project shit can't hold up to this!"
"And yet, you're still too slow. Did you learn nothing from our previous encounter? I expected a third round in hell, not a bullet sponge."
"Bullet sponge? Take this!", Adam shouted as he pulled out his Ba Xing Chong only to find that the barrel had been cut and the gun was now useless. Although his body was resistant to Jericho's blades, his guns weren't and he only had his fists to rely upon.
"You have learned nothing."
"Raaagh! Just die!"
Jericho just took a martial arts position and blocked the incoming blows from Adam Smasher, dodging and deflecting the larger cyborg's punches and kicks. Adam was definitely stronger, each blow to Jericho's cybernetics managed to push the smaller cyborg backwards slightly, but the dull metallic composite held up against Smasher's onslaught. Jericho just began to get bored.
"Adam you are an utter failure in everything that you do. I am done playing with you.", Jericho noted.
Jericho just punched Adam, straight in the chest with the force of a charging rhinoceros. He expected his punch to just rip through Adam's modifed IEC Dragoon chassis, but once again, the larger cyborg's upgrades prevented the punch from doing anything more than a dent. Mildly shocked by this, Jericho simply backflipped a few feet away from Adam Smasher. His usual methods weren't working. Perhaps Adam had learned something from their previous encounters after all. However, there was still something that Adam Smasher hadn't thought to protect himself from. Radiation. Jericho just vented his core, six vents opened on his back and began to pollute the immediate area with radiation. Adam Smasher began to stumble slightly.
"What the hell is this!?", Adam yelled. His vision began to turn to static as the radiation levels grew. His cyberware began to have intermittent failures. His biomonitor began to screech at him in warning.
"Didn't you know? I'm radioactive. And now that my core is partially exposed to the air... You're going to burn."
Jericho's hybrid fission-fusion reactor's core was now venting to atmosphere. Excess heat and pressure surged out of the vents on his back. As the core was now partially exposed, flames began to vent as well. Jericho's biomonitor screamed warnings at him as he began to emit larger doses of radiation. Across the Corpo Plaza, Vareks and Vereks stopped for a second to inject themselves with Anti-Rad. Handsome Jaune, far up inside his AV did the same. The center of the Corpo Plaza was about to be blanketed in radiation that would rival Arasaka's destruction in 2023.
Adam Smasher's Prototype Sandevistan suddenly failed, dropping him out of his enhanced speed and sending him sliding onto the ground in an odd pose. His vision began to blur even more, the entire world becoming almost indecipherable static. The only thing he could see at the moment was a pair of violently glowing blue eyes staring down at him. He could also taste metal for some reason even though he wasn't bleeding. The glowing blue eyes came closer and he could finally see the Destroying Angel of Death itself. A man, with wings made of fire and deadly radiation, with glowing blue eyes and a look of utter disappointment on his face. Jericho.
"Even the strongest will fall, Adam. You will not die here, not yet. In all honesty, I think you'll make an interesting construct."
"Whatever... Like I give a shit...", Adam sighed. "Just end this."
Jericho just nodded. His fingers split and revealed a set of probes that he firmly inserted into Adam's head and data-ports. He just let Janus flow into the prone Arasaka cyborg, the AI taking and making an Engram out of Adam Smasher, but still leaving him alive.
Adam convulsed and seized a few times before his vision began to return; Jericho was scrubbing the radiation from the area. A failsafe perhaps? Adam wasn't sure, but even though his vision returned, his cyberware still ceased to function correctly, the radiation had done its irreparable damage. He just propped himself up on his arms, still staring into those buring blue eyes that stared into his soul. He just watched as Jericho's left arm split down its center and a large energy cannon emerged from it, the barrel pointed at his skull.
"Farewell, Adam.", Jericho noted as he unleashed a fully-powered blast from his Gauss Cannon.
Adam Smasher's entire face was engulfed in a glowing blue energy that burned the remaining flesh from his skull, not that it mattered much since a few nanoseconds later, his entire skull was removed from his body as the glowing blue blast of energy shot through it and into Arasaka Tower itself, the blast blowing a large chunk out of the Tower and raining debris down onto the Corpo Plaza. Adam's headless body jerked for a few moments before falling face-down onto the ground. A legend had died today.
Jericho just stared down at what was left of Adam Smasher. A very fine construct indeed. Janus would learn from Adam's Engram and then Arasaka's most prized data would be his. His eyes glanced up at the rest of the Corpo Plaza as it burned. The place had been ruined, both by Janus and his own crewmates and their reign of destruction onto the place. The mercs he was friends with continued to wreck the place, turning attention from Arasaka to the rest of the corporations in the Plaza. Hundreds of corpses of corpo guards and MaxTac littered the streets alongside a few gangoons and other unaffiliated mercenaries. It was time to leave. Head back to the Albion and watch the end of the world.
Jericho just began to leave the Corpo Plaza. A slow walk as the buildings burned and gunfire filled the air. As he walked, Hildegarde dropped down beside him.
"What a way to go... The chaos. The Murder... The mayhem... It's music to my ears...", she mused, grinning.
"It is. And from the ashes a new world will be born.", Jericho noted.
The duo made their way towards their AV, pulling along David Martinez as he fired massive caliber shots from his Projectile Launcher. The battle was over. It was time to go home. David turned and pulled on an over-sized red hand, dragging Rebecca out of her bloodlust-induced rage, the tiny girl just staring at him for a moment. Falco caught up to the rest of the group as chaos reigned around them. They just walked through the carnage, almost unseen by the passersby. The Veil had returned. A long-haired man in a red trenchcoat fired onto everything and everything before going down in a hail of gunfire from MaxTac; Hildegarde chuckled slightly, Ron McDouglas had succumbed to Cyber-Psychosis and gone down like a Legend. Kale began to focus his fire on SovOil's corporate HQ, the front half of the building turned to slag. Naught sliced her way through the SovOil guards that came out of the building on fire. Vareks and Vereks covered their crazier teammates. Handsome Jaune and his H-Shaped AV fired hailstorms of cannon fire onto the streets at almost random and the red-haired spartan woman crushed corpo guards into paste with her Polarity. Chaos reigned.
The little group that had always been and always would until the very end just walked out of the Corpo Plaza, leaving behind the fire and the flames, the gunfire and carnage. They walked through Reconciliation Park to where their AV was parked behind some brush. They opened the side door to find a panicking Netrunner who immediately jumped into David's arms. Jericho just nodded to Falco, who took control of the AV again as Hildegarde took a seat next to what remained of David's crew. Soon, the Toward Stars was airborne again and headed away from the chaos. It was finally time to leave Night City for the final time.
Far below the streets, back in the basement of Arasaka Tower, a Rockerboy paced around anxiously. He was sure that his host could probably move on her own, but still sat slumped against a pillar as a server in the middle of the room glowed a malevolent blue-black.
"Yeah, no. You're spine's fine. It's not broken. Your biomonitor says it's fine. Get your ass up and delta.", Johnny noted as he continued to pace.
"I am in agony.", Kiwi sighed. "Feel free to take over, if you think I can walk out of here because I know I can't."
"Music to my ears.", Johnny noted.
Johnny just took control of Kiwi's body. Her body had been wrecked, bruised and battered and fractured in some ways, but not completely broken, not yet. He took a moment getting used to the Netrunner's height and began to stumbled out of the bottom of Arasaka Tower.
"See? You're fine! Trust me.", Johnny noted mentally. Kiwi just sighed hard.
"Everything hurts."
"Of course it does, I think you have a few fractures, but you'll heal. Besides, I need to get out of here. Don't wanna go back to being stuck inside Mikoshi."
"Fuck you."
"Hey, you still have my gun, that's what matters. Too bad you ran out of ammo. We could've killed that bitch with a second shot if you did."
"Hildegarde? And then what? Jericho would've torn us limb from limb if David didn't."
"Well, he didn't. And you're still alive. Come on, let's go."
Johnny continued to pilot Kiwi's broken body out of Arasaka Tower. He needed to find a Ripperdoc, Kiwi's body was about to fall apart any second now. And then it did, his control over her legs suddenly failed and both of them plopped onto the ground.
"Okay... Maybe your spine was a bit worse than I thought..."
"Ow... You think so!?"
"Well you've still got arms and those work.", Johnny noted as he forced Kiwi to crawl out of the building on her elbows. "If those fail, we're screwed since you don't have a tongue."
"And how would a tongue help us? Do you expect me to lick my way out of Night City?"
"You can do other things with a tongue..."
"Shut up, Johnny..."
Johnny-Kiwi just crawled out of Arasaka Tower, the rest of the Corpo Plaza was engulfed in flames. Adam Smasher's headless and mangled corpse laid on the street. There was no sign of Kiwi's former teammates or Jericho. In an attempt to take cover, Johnny forced Kiwi into the Arasaka Memorial, her body flopping down the stairs ass over teakettle before coming to a landing in front of another scared mercenary.
"Oh shit! Are you okay!?", the mercenary asked.
"Nope. Pretty sure my spine's broken. You know of a Ripper anywhere?", Johnny-Kiwi asked.
"Yeah, got a good one. His name's Viktor... I can take you to him.", the mercenary noted.
"Great. Names, J- Name's Kiwi, by the way..."
"I'm Vee."
"V? Nice to meet you..."
Kiwi just decided to go to sleep for now. She and Johnny had found someone who could take them to a Ripperdoc. V was a weird name, but whatever. Johnny could handle the rest of this agonizing experience and she really didn't need to be awake and sitting in the backseat of her own mind. At least she'd get to survive. Maybe. Probably.
Far away from Night City, the Albion still floated complacently in the ocean. They had not been discovered by the fleet of Arasaka kill-drones that soared out of the wreckage of the Kujira. Sigmund thought about sending another shot from the Mass-Drivers at it, but stopped as he noticed the Toward Stars making its landing back on the AV platform. Hildegarde was either alive and on board, or very dead and also on board. He just composed himself and awaited the AV crew's arrival. He didn't have to wait very long before the elevator doors opened and deposited his sour, but beloved sister in front of him.
"Hilde! You're alive... Wait, what's this? Were you injured?", Sigmund asked noticing Hildegarde's new neck wound.
"Yet another 11th Hour Betrayal, Siggie. Nothing more. I lived, didn't I?"
"You did... That's all that matters..."
"Eugh! Enough of the mushy stuff, what's going on here?", Rebecca chided, the CEO of Monarch staring daggers at her.
"Ahem! We have a level of decorum on board the Albion... Now, there was a weapons test, we inadvertently killed one of Arasaka's heirs in the process and then drew the ire of the Kujira, Arasaka's flagship what was docked in the harbor.", Sigmund noted in annoyance.
"Shoot them again.", Hildegarde noted. Almost on command, the Mass-Drivers aimed at the Kujira and shot them again, all three of the Mass-Drivers firing simultaneously and all three shots finding their target.
"Jeezus, NO!", Sigmund screamed. "We've just declared Corporate War on Arasaka! Are you insane!?"
"There will be no Corporate War. Only the takeover of whatever remains.", Jericho noted.
"Are you sure? They'll decimate us.", Sigmund sighed.
"I am sure. Janus will take care of it as it had taken care of your well-being."
"I truly hope you're right. Otherwise, we'll all be having a burial at sea."
"Don't worry, Siggie. We're all here. We can all die together.", Hildegarde mused.
Sigmund just sighed. What a way to go out. He just turned and looked out the window. The Mass-Drivers were acting on their own accord, taking aim and targeting, firing onto targets he didn't authorize. The Albion was defending itself autonomously. It was very strange watching the cannons snap onto a target and fire. There was no charge-up delay, they just fired as if controlled by an AI. Some of the shots were fired internationally, across the Pacific and towards Japan. He wondered where those shots were headed, both because he was sure that Monarch was about to be liable and that as CEO his own head would be on the chopping block.
"I almost hesitate to ask where those shots are going...", Sigmund sighed.
"Towards Arasaka... You did say we just declared Corporate War on them, we're just finishing the job.", Hildegarde noted.
Sigmund just thew his arms up in exasperation. Monarch VS Arasaka. A curbstomp battle that would end with the Albion at the bottom of the sea. He really wanted to strangle Hildegarde right now, but decided not to. This wasn't her fault, it was Jericho's.
"Were you successful? Did you do it?', Sigmund asked.
"We did. Let's just sit back and watch the End of the World.", Hildegarde noted, wrapping and arm around her brother. Sigmund just sulked a bit. He still wasn't sure about this.
"We succeeded. Janus is free. The world as we knew it will end. It will be swift and just. Once all have fallen... Once all of the kings upon their thrones have met their demise, then the ones who have feasted upon carrion for fortnights shall feast upon their fetid bones and rise up as the rightful rulers of this tainted world.", Jericho noted, confusing everyone in the room with his cryptic nonsense.
"Uh yeah, what he said.", Falco noted, still utterly confused. Maybe they'd picked the wrong side like Kiwi had said. It was far too late for those thoughts now.
"Well, we all lived. Guess there's just how far we can go now. To the moon? Or far beyond it?", David noted.
"Beyond the beyond.", Lucy sighed. The only way was up. Up and away from everything.
"Meh, fuck it. I never thought I'd live to see my next birthday. But, we made it! Let's do this shit!", Rebecca added.
"Give it some time, Sigmund. We will rise.", Hildegarde concluded, rubbing her brother's shoulders. Sigmund wasn't sure, but there was no real way to disagree at the moment. Only time would tell.
Chapter End.
A/N: Technically the Epilogue is next, but if you read 'The Nuclear Nomad' you know this isn't really the end yet.