Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 473: Betrayal.

[GOOD MORNING NEO-VATRA!

It’s the 27th of February, and you know what that means? We are officially at the end of the wildest month in the last couple of decades!

Last year, we thought nothing could top the attack on the town hall, but then we got hit with Operation Wolf Slayer. You would think nothing could top a battle that involves a trillionaire, a mafia family, and half a dozen superhero teams, but things just keep escalating!

We have Paragon leading our very own Flame Guard. You heard me right! The Paragon is here in our city! Leading our prime superhero team! If that doesn’t excite you, then I don’t know what does!

What’s that? The strongest superhero being around isn’t a good thing, you say? It just means things are only getting worse?

Well, you aren’t wrong at all!

Just a couple of weeks ago, an entire neighborhood was wiped out!

Gang violence is on the rise, and it feels like every couple of days we have a new EI incident!

But which is better: having the strongest hero to protect us, or having no one to stop those damned villains from ruining our city?

This might come as a surprise to many, especially with all the doom and gloom being spread around, but our heroes have prevented more than twenty EI incidents this week alone! You won’t hear much about it, because no one was killed, and nothing was destroyed!

Don’t let the pessimists drag you down with them! We aren’t just doing fine, we are thriving!

The stock market is climbing up, real estate is doing better than ever, and

Vanguard’s construction has been progressing at a steady pace!

When they tell you there is a storm ravaging our city, all you need to do is look outside! We are heading for some-

]

TVs have been on the decline for years now. Turns out, when you have the option to get a chip that streams things directly into your brain, screens lose their appeal entirely. That didn’t mean they went extinct right away, though. Some places still kept them around as a decoration, others spread them around and played ads 24/7.

Some were made to play the usual propaganda, forcing people to hear about how everything is all fine and dandy, as if people didn’t have their own eyes. Because of that, it wasn’t that out of the ordinary to find some of those screens smashed. That was certainly the case for the screen in a certain club room in New City. The lengthy speech of the TV host was nothing more than background noise, but it got far too annoying, prompting the only listener to blow it up.

As mechanical parts and alloy plating retracted, forming an arm around the cannon that had just been fired, the room’s door burst open, and several men rushed in, weapons in hand. After surveying the place, they got an idea of what was happening and relaxed.

"Get someone to clean that mess."

"Understood."

Soon after, Jaguar was back to sitting alone, this time in absolute silence. Normally, he would have a bunch of women to keep him company, with loud music blasting in every corner. There was no party that night. The club was closed, and the only people inside were members of the Daggers—veterans who know their way around a weapon.

As much as he would have liked to take the war to his enemies, Jaguar had no idea where to start. He was fighting a ghost that appeared out of nowhere and disappeared into thin air, leaving no traces behind. His son supposedly worked for said Ghost, but the brat seemed unaware.

There was the red-haired brat, but after Henry’s disappearance, getting to him was starting to look almost impossible. News just broke out that he had defeated Riot and taken over Red Rage. Jaguar knew the muscle head from Red Hill, and he knew that even Black Skull didn’t mess with him. Hearing that guy got crushed by a brat didn’t bode well, and from the looks of it, things were only getting worse.

The door opened, and a skinny young man with green hair walked in. He was followed by an older man in a suit, and the looks on their faces said they didn’t have any good news.

"Just spill it out already."

The two looked at each other, and the green-haired guy shook his head.

"The people we sent to Hollowgrid are gone," Kindjal said. "And I mean gone. Disappeared. Spirited away."

"All of them?"

"All of them."

Silence seemed to return, but the tension in the room had undoubtedly spiked.

"W-well, at least now we know he is involved." Said Finka. "We can pass on the info to the BEO and-"

He was forced to swallow his words as the other two turned in his direction. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"I hate to say this, but... he’s right." Kindjal shook his head. "We aren’t equipped to deal with any of this. Not even your new gear could deal with that thing."

From what they have seen, their enemy seems to have a spatial ability of some kind. Someone like that couldn’t be fought with conventional weapons, so their only choice was to rely on one of the Genomes. It just happens that Neo-Vatra had someone like that among its superheroes, so it only made sense to have the BEO deal with the Ghost problem for them.

Resting his head against his fist, Jaguar kept his silence for a while.

"Henry fought the Ghost." He said.

"And so did we." Said Kindjal. "And we lost."

"No, you lost."

The fight under the church ended as soon as he showed up, so it wasn’t wrong to think Jaguar drove the Ghost away. That said, it felt like the enemy had just retreated at the time. If the fight had gone any longer, no one could have told what was going to happen.

"Either way, we need to decide this soon." Said Kindjal. "The bastard could be here at any moment."

Jaguar held his gaze for a moment, then turned to Finka.

"Is the second mech ready?"

"It... doesn’t seem so..."

"What?" Kindjal turned to him with a frown. "It’s still not done?"

"The boy said he keeps getting shut out. Something about the last gate being guarded by a strong AI."

"This isn’t making sense. I know he’s your kid, but are you sure about this?"

The question was directed at Jaguar.

"You got better ideas?"

"Yeah, just have the professionals handle it."

Jaguar straightened himself.

"You’d better watch that tone." He said. "We wouldn’t have had to rely on the runt if you did your job."

"L-let’s all calm down a little." Finka tried to step between the two. "These have been some very stressful days."

His attempt to defuse the situation seemed to fail, but just as it looked, the door buzzed just then. The three exchanged a look, and after a moment of silence, Finka connected to the control panel and opened it. A man in his thirties walked in, and going by the look on his face, he didn’t come with any good news.

"What’s up, Jim?" Kindjal asked, keeping his tone light. "You got something to report?"

The man didn’t answer right away, his gaze floating between the three heads of the gang. He only spoke when his gaze met Jaguar’s

"We have a problem, sir." He said. "People are quitting."

"Quitting?" Finka gave him an incredulous look. "What do you mean they’re quitting?"

"Exactly that."

Jim was a sergeant in the Daggers’ ranks, and his job was to handle the lower ranks, organizing the teams, and assigning jobs. He was with the gang since its inception and was granted the authority to make decisions on a wide variety of matters.

Most of the time, he handled most problems on his own, so the fact that he bothered to inform the heads of the gang only meant that the problem was beyond him.

"Rumors have been going around," Jim said. "They say a dozen thugs vanished from Hollowgrid."

"And?" Jaguar raised an eyebrow.

"Those thugs are said to have burned an old noodle shop a week or so ago. The same noodle shop Henry had us watch before he was gone."

No sooner had he said that than everything suddenly became clear.

"Tsk... fucking pussies." Kindjal walked to a corner.

"Just from rumors?" Finka asked.

"No, the thugs did disappear. But that’s not why our boys are jumping the boat." Jim grimaced. "Some of them have gone offline out of nowhere. No text, no calls. We got two guys who just vanished midshift." He paused, then squeezed his eyes shut. "Three. I just got word that another one is gone. He was inside a storage room. Only one door."

All eyes turned to Jaguar.

"If they want to quit, let them quit." Metal face said. "Keep a list. Once this is over, I will deal with them myself."

Quitting just when the gang was facing a crisis was the lowest of the low. Though he understood where they were coming from, Jaguar wasn’t about to let such betrayal slide.