Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 494: Bone Crown. (Part One.)

[Alright, let us go through this one more time. Today, we will be putting an end to the notorious Bone Crown gang. Their boss is a Level 4 genius Sorcerer who created his Arts without the help of an established family. Teams A and B will handle ground invasion. Team C will take the aerial route. Your job is to open a path for the superheroes to infiltrate. Team Silver Wind will handle the Sorcerer and his disciples. Permission to use lethal force has been granted. The operation will start in-]

"Wolf... hey Wolf... Earth to Werewolf!"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Werewolf whipped his head left and right. His eyes landed on a young man dressed entirely in white.

"This really isn’t the time for you to be spacing out." Said White Arrow. "The mission is about to start."

"Huh? But we were just..."

He was sure he had just been listening to the raid commander addressing the force in the pre-raid staging, but the next thing he knew, he was sitting on a rooftop somewhere. It took him a moment to realize what was happening, and as soon as he did, everything came back to him.

"C’mon, man, I need you to focus," said White Arrow. "Stop acting as if this isn’t a big deal."

"Sorry about that." Werewolf smiled awkwardly. "I didn’t miss anything, did I?"

"If you had been paying attention, you would have noticed." Sighing, White Arrow turned away, holding his hand and summoning light, which he then condensed into a single bolt. "Be ready, it’s about to start."

Apologizing once more, Werewolf began stretching his body, preparing to do his part. A part of him felt ashamed for failing to hide his disinterest in the supposedly important mission, but there was nothing he could do about it.

It wasn’t that he looked down on their targets–he simply had other things that occupied his mind at the moment, so much so that he couldn’t focus at all.

Right now, as he stared at the restaurant where their target was located, all he wanted to do was finish this so he would be able to focus on his own thing.

The clock hit 0000, and the raid began. A caravan appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the building. At the same time, a real vehicle descended from the sky.

Agents in power suits flooded the street and then poured into the restaurant. Among them was a ball of bright orange hair.

A powerful gale struck the building from above, shattering the windows, opening a path for the agents spilling from above.

The first floor was struck. The third and fourth followed. Only the second was left untouched, and that floor just so happened to be on the same level where Werewolf and White Arrow stood.

"I will be going, then," saying as much, Werewolf hopped a few steps back, appearing weightless as his enlarged arms floated beside him.

Taking a deep breath, he then exploded forward, shooting straight into the building across the street. The glass barring his path might as well not exist, and as soon as he was inside, his senses took in the interior of the room, giving him a sense of everything it contained.

’Four...’

Something didn’t feel right, causing him to momentarily slow down. His nose caught the scent of four people, but only three of them were Sorcerers. The fourth was a Cyborg.

An unknown factor. Bionics were the easiest enhancements to obtain, so a gang like Bone Crown was bound to have a few Cyborgs. That said, the mission briefing detailed that only the Pope, Bái Gǔnán, will be there, with his two disciples accompanying him at most.

’No matter...’

His mission was to deal with the Pope. Everything else was for the others to handle. That should have been the plan, at least.

Once he got the two disciples out of the way, Werewolf balanced himself on the round table and prepared to attack their teacher. It was then that he noticed the Cyborg had yet to move an inch, as if unbothered by what was happening in his surroundings. Curiosity overcame the hero, and his eyes shifted from his target, landing on the unknown factor.

The instant he saw his face, the once foreign scent became familiar.

"It’s you..."

A few months ago, Werewolf came across a thug terrorizing a bunch of innocent kids. Being a hero, he intervened right away and moved to arrest the thug, but he found himself faced with unexpected resistance.

Ever since, Werewolf couldn’t take that young man out of his head, wishing they had the chance to spar again. That chance never seemed to present itself, but at long last-

"The fuck?" The instant their eyes met, his face contorted with disgust. "What kinda freak is this?"

The word "freak" turned into a spear that pierced Werewolf in the guts. He was well aware of how some people saw him, and he was called names more than once while he was doing his job. That said, this might be the first time he had been affected by that word.

"Get off the fucking table," the red-haired young man waved him away. "Shoo! Shoo! You’ll get hair on my food!"

Feeling a pang of anger, Werewolf was about to reply when something shifted in the corner of his eyes. Before he could think, his body moved on its own, leaping away just as something sharp pierced the spot he had been standing in a second ago.

Just as his foot was about to touch the floor, another sharp object sprang up out of nowhere, forcing him to flip to avoid being impaled by it.

Moments from the briefing flashed in his mind, allowing him to recognize the nature of the spears that strung up under him. His gaze returned to the old pastor, and his maw parted.

"Bái Gǔnán," He said. "By the authority granted to me by the Bureau of Enhanced Operations, I’m placing you under arrest."

At the other end of the room, the Pipe was kneeling, one hand on the floor. His appearance seemed to have changed compared to before. Though his attire was still the same, his skin seemed to have gained a strange white texture, and his head was now adorned with a strange-looking accessory–a crown made from sharpened bones.

"Shouldn’t you declare that before attacking?" The old pastor shouted, a disturbing grin splitting his face. "Now it’s just self-defence!"