Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 481: Take a Seat.

A storm rampaged inside the invisible barrier, rising like a typhoon. The light faded, and the wind calmed down soon after. Half the street was gone, crushed into a crater. The other half crumbled little by little.

At the center of it all, a white and blue mech stood tall, casting a shadow over its dark counterpart, which was missing its lower half. It remained still for a long moment, then blue light burst from its right arm, coalescing into a single point. The white mech raised its lance and, without hesitation, drove it into the torso of the dark one, just a little below where the cockpit would be.

The first energy field gave in right away, but the alloy plating held its place for a while. Eventually, the lance broke through, melting the alloy as it dug a hole through the giant machine’s guts.

One would think damage of this level would cause the machine to explode, but the power cells remained unharmed, so all that happened was the machine shutting down. Once it was rendered immovable, the white machine then went about peeling the plates around the dark mech’s upper half, exposing the small space and the man cramped inside.

His arms were missing; the ports at his shoulder connected to the machine itself. Everything below his chest was gone, erased along with everything the energy lance passed through.

The man’s face, half of it, was covered in gray alloy. He didn’t bother moving, not that he had much range with most of his body gone. His eyes were unfocused, staring at the sky above, but then they moved, drawn to the faint hiss of panels moving and a hatch opening.

The white mech went down on one knee, and someone jumped out of its cockpit, landing straight over the bisected man. Their eyes met, but the silence lingered.

[The fuck... are you waiting... for?] The man’s metal jaws remained unmoving even as he spoke.

The boy didn’t answer, continuing to stare at the dying man with cold, uncaring eyes. An Ascended Cyborg had almost no flesh, and thus, they don’t feel any pain, even as their life slipped away from them. Some might say it was a peaceful kind of death, others will try to convince you they had long since died, for a machine couldn’t possibly have a soul.

"You might be human, but you never had one," Finn muttered.

[The hell do you mean?]

"Nothing."

Shaking his head, Finn pulled the slider on his Blue Night.

"Just wanted to ask you one question." He said, not looking at the man. "Did you ever care for us?"

Though he was never in their lives, Finn remembered living comfortably for most of his childhood. They even had people guarding them the entire time, and one of those people was Jake. Though that wouldn’t change anything, a part of him still wanted to know if they meant anything to this man.

[Keep... blabbering like that, and... you’ll lose... your chance...] said Jaguar.

Sighing, Finn stepped forward and stood on his chest.

"That skull of yours if bullet proof, right?" As he spoke, the plating on Jaguar’s face began to move, and his metallic jaws began to open. "I need to hit you in the right place, or the shot will just bounce."

Betraying its simple form, the bionic jaws unfurled, its components parting as it entered maintenance mode. Even in such a state, the skull still remained entirely covered, save for a small canal in the back. Leaning in, Finn stuck the barrel of the gun through that canal.

[For what’s it worth, I... I never cared.] Jaguar said. [I just... hate it when... when people take my... stuff...]

"Oh, yeah?" As the look in his eyes got colder, Finn let the corners of his mouth rise. "Try stopping us now."

BLAM!

~[ ]~

[February 27, 2099

Neo-Vatra experienced another Enhanced Human incident. The main culprit was identified as Kent Dean, also known as Jaguar, leader of the crime organization known as the Daggers.

The investigation shows that the Daggers have smuggled what can only be described as weapons of mass destruction into the city. Those weapons were unleashed on New City, and though the damage had been contained, several neighborhoods have been impacted, with dozens of properties entirely destroyed.

Miraculously, the only lives that had been lost in the incident were those of the gang leader himself, and a few of his subordinates. Many claim that they had found themselves outside the danger zone minutes before the incident, which is believed to be an escalation of the Dagger’s war against rival gang Black Skull.

Confusion continues to rage as the world asks the same question: why did the heroes fail to prevent this disaster?

The BEO claims that its heroes had been occupied by different incidents, preventing them from gathering the necessary force to intervene in time. This failure comes less than a month after the Red Garden incident. With so many disasters taking place one after the other, one can’t help but question the capabilities of the BEO. If having the world’s strongest hero isn’t enough to bring peace, what else must we do to banish evil from our lives?]

For the first time since forever, corporate media allowed doubt to seep through the filter. Gaslighting people right after another big incident was a very bad idea. The people pulling the strings knew that well, and so they eased down on the propaganda.

As he watched another one of the curated news reports on the screen of his projected laptop, Jordan’s face twisted with a grimace. As the head of the NVPD, he was at the forefront of those facing the backlash, and he couldn’t even complain about it.

Not only did the NVPD fail to stop the weapons from entering the city, but they also failed to retrieve them after the incident. By the time Flame Guard broke through the barrier, the site of the incident was cleared out, with the only thing left behind being Jaguar’s corpse, along with a few others with faces covered in skull tattoos.

The blatant cover attempt was far from convincing, but it gave them a story to tell the public, and so they ran with it. There were no witnesses, after all, and every camera in the city seemed to refuse to record what happened, making it impossible to discern what truly happened.

It was almost as if the whole thing was caused by a bunch of ghosts.

"Hmm..."

Closing his projected laptop, Jordan got up and left his office. Several people swarmed after him, but he only listened to them passively, answering only when he had to. After dismissing them, he took an elevator and went down to the station’s bottom floor.

As he entered the desolate basement, Jordan’s mind visited the topic once more. In truth, there was a witness at the scene—someone with eyes sharp enough to see through the rain and fog. Her testimony had been locked behind rolls of red tape, so the media knew nothing of what she had seen.

The ones behind the incident noticed her presence and tried to remain out of sight. Even then, she was able to glimpse a few details from her position above the barrier.

The first was that the battle had been an internal conflict. Both sides used the weapons in the Daggers’ possession, and one of them had Henry, Jaguar’s right-hand man, with them.

The part that concerned Jordan the most was the sighting of a red-haired youth at the incident site. After cross-referencing some evidence, they managed to identify the suspect. They expected another mess when they moved to arrest him, and so they deployed several heroes just in case. To their surprise, he agreed to come with them without making a fuss, and because of that, he was now locked in one of the most secure holding cells in the city, right under the police station, and only a few hundred meters from Flame Guard’s headquarters.

Though he came in peacefully, the youth had refused to say anything since then. He refused to hand in his combat bionics, too, so they couldn’t claim he was cooperating.

Standing in front of a large, blastproof gate, Jordan took a deep breath and then straightened his suit. An alarm rang as the gate slid open, and it only stopped once the gate closed.

Inside the massive white room was a single table and two chairs. One of them was empty, the other one occupied. On it sat the red-haired youth from the reports. Looking at him from afar, he appeared like the average thug, but the instant their eyes locked, a chill ran down Jordan’s spine.

"Took you long enough." The youth said, his tone more annoyed than fearful.

Struggling to control his nerves, Jordan walked over to the table and pulled the chair on the other side.

"I’m Jordan Evans, commissioner of the Neo-Vatra police department."

"Oh, so they finally got it through their thick skulls?"

After allowing himself to be taken in, the youth had refused to speak, saying he would only talk to the one in charge. Few were in favor of the idea, but with nothing working, they had no choice but to agree to his demands.

"Alright," He said, leaning back into his chair with his hands in his jacket. " Why don’t you take a seat?"