Prologue

V grits her teeth as her reinforced tendons tighten and then release, accelerating her high in the air. She then propelled herself off a pillar, changing her direction slightly.

Her swift actions paid off as the pillar was blown to smithereens by a hail of missiles, courtesy of her adversary.

"Missed, fucker!" she taunted with a flip of her middle finger.

Adam Smasher mirrored her direction in a near imperceivable blur.

Craning her gaze to the legendary cyborg, her blue cybernetic eyes shone with a mechanical hue as her nefarious cyberdeck burned hot in her head. She overclocked her netrunning systems. The latent demented power beyond the Black Wall activated with a ferocious appetite.

"Curious, high-level ICE is slowing my actions," the artificial intelligence, lovingly called Canto, mused with its insidious voice prowling in V's head. You must pilfer that creature's hardware; it will be a great boon."

The hack pierced the complex and active intrusion countermeasures with a ferocious cyber attack. The sheer amount of complex ICE slowed the upload but did not stop it.

"A rudimentary hack!" Smasher cockily declared as his ICE launched a massive and quick counterattack.

Yet, her cyber attack fired first as she directly attacked the cyborg with her cyberdeck's main attack. The demonic quick hack pierced a hole in the Black Wall and directly connected the target with the horrors of the Old Net.

Smasher's left arm began to rapidly spasm and shut down as he let out a mechanical grunt. "What is this?!" he roared as he grabbed his arm with his other. Then, without hesitation, he ripped out the affected limb.

V, meanwhile, landed on the ground and immediately dashed around Smasher. "Your software!" she quipped with a grin, following up with more numerous but weaker quick hacks.

She drew out Johnny's trusty Malorian 3516 and emptied an entire magazine towards Smasher's head. The armor-piercing ammunition dented the cyborg's armor but failed to penetrate.

Seeing that her bullets were still not working, she holstered her pistol and unsheathed her katana, Errata. She swooped in, activating her kerenzikov as her blade bloomed its fiery blossom. As the entire world slowed, her quick hacks followed through.

Smasher's chassis lit up in sparks and fire as his internal systems were hacked. The wrath incurred also damaged his sight and hearing.

The cyborg was left vulnerable as her katana made contact. Her cybernetic strength and speed made her blade swift and accurate. She cleaved through Smasher's armor like a hot knife through butter.

V lopped off Smasher's left leg first and then his right arm before fully humiliating him by cutting his right leg.

Immediately, the legendary psychopathic killer fell to the ground, somehow landing on his torn knees.

V heaved as she stood over the defeated cyborg, her entire body aching from the intense battle. She took a moment to relish the victory and to catch her breath as she sheathed her katana. Then she coldly said, "Johnny Silverhand sends his regards."

Adam Smasher's defiant mechanical eyes look at her with disgust and confusion. "Are you fucking with me now?" he growled despite his defeated state.

Johnny appeared next to Smasher, his usual suave and amused look replaced by a stern disposition. "He got a point V. Shut up and finish him, be done with it," he warned.

V gave Johnny a grin from behind her matte-back gas mask. "I defeated your arch-nemesis, Johnny. Let's have this. I gotta relish how great I have become," she touted openly with a puff of her chest.

Johnny gave an uncharacteristic frown as he flicked his non-existent cigarette on Smasher. "Just finish it. You don't have the time to jack yourself off."

V nodded in understanding. Then, with a slight glance, she activated Canto again and delivered the finishing blow. The quick hack was uploaded swiftly and furiously delivered.

"Witness your upcoming fate."

Adam Smasher's defeated body and systems were set alight by a horrifying assault. The apex predators eviscerated his entire being, and his psyche was thoroughly devoured. His physical systems spasmed maniacally as all systems were rapidly turned off and on.

Until finally, the legendary cyborg mercenary collapsed onto the ground as a lifeless husk.

V spun on her heel without missing a beat and immediately marched to Mikoshi. The experience caused little doubt in her, for she had long seen and experienced such horrors already.

She was ready to weather what fate would have in store for her.

Fate had other plans for her.

V awoke not in Mikoshi's thermal dispensing liquid pool or a virtual space but in a dark and damp trash heap. Her neural interface automatically began running rudimentary analysis. Her vitals, which were critical before her entering Mikoshi, gave cautionary warnings of declining systems but otherwise reported positive data.

She also did not receive any connection to emergency services.

"Ugh..." she groaned as she gripped her head. She was supposed to be in Mikoshi to separate her and Johnny, but this didn't look digital. "Johnny...? Alt...?" she called out as she pulled herself up.

Only to find the barrel of a pistol pointed squarely at her face.

Looking up, she found the iron's owner alongside half a dozen more barrels. She also noted that she was not in some outside garbage dump but rather in a pile of debris located in some bar.

The one with the pistol, a bulky tan woman with a whacky mechanical arm, sneered, "Who the fuck you?"

Prologue End