Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 557: Another Failure.
April the 2nd, 2099
Nightsun, Blue Moon street, NVPD station number 37. The officers had gathered at an early hour in the morning. Going by how crowded the place was, it wasn’t just those who had a morning shift present. They had been called for an important meeting, and once it was over, they all went to prepare for what they believed would be the biggest raid of their lives.
Among the many gangs forming the dark side of Neo-Vatra, Los Aros had always seemed like an outlier in how peaceful they seemed, especially considering that they ruled over most of Nightsun. That wasn’t to say that they didn’t have their hand in any illegal businesses. Apparently, their latest venture was in human trafficking. Hearing that they brought in a large number of children whom they planned on selling to sick monsters, the just officers of the 37th NVPD branch were ablaze with fury, vowing to do whatever it takes to free the children from the grasp of the evil gangsters.
As they geared themselves for war, an alarm went off inside the station, followed by an announcement through the station’s comms. The headquarters had sent a party of investigators for an unknown reason, and with their sudden arrival, the raid had been called off. As the officers waited, confusion spread among them with each passing second.
Eventually, they received news about the Captain, his Lieutenants, and several officers being arrested on suspicion of bribery and corruption. It would be some time before they learn that the raid they had planned was the true reason, and that everything they heard about it was coated in lies.
News of what happened soon reached a certain office in Red Hill. Inside, a man with the face of a scorched skull slammed his fist down, shattering the wooden desk in front of him and scattering everything that was on it.
Another failure. Jason was never under the impression that his plan was flawless, but he had never expected it to fail the way it did. How could he account for the NVPD commissioner himself showing up and getting in his way?
Just trying to understand how it was possible filled him with paranoia and anxiety. Again and again, his mind kept wandering back to what seemed to be the perpetrators—a small new gang named Inferno and its leader, the Cyberpunk. Believing they were behind all his troubles was difficult, to say the least, but the more he looked into it, the more it looked to be true.
There was only one way to confirm if that is indeed the case. All he had to do was crush this Cyberpunk and everyone who followed him, and if his troubles disappeared afterwards, he would be proven right.
He quickly formulated a plan in his mind, and just as he was going about giving the final touches, a message reached him through the gang’s private messenger app. Few could contact him this way, yet it was still surprising to see who it was.
As his mood took another dip, Jason agreed to the meeting his fellow lieutenant was trying to set up. He already had a guess on what the topic was going to be, and he turned out to be correct.
"He’s at least Level 4, that kid," Harry said, his eyes on the red wine swirling in the glass he held.
A few days ago, Harry had confronted the young boss of the new gang and managed to drive him away. Jason was hoping to hear the details of what happened, but the boss hadn’t called for a meeting. The Four lieutenants of Black Skull usually keep to themselves, handling their side of the gang’s business without getting involved with each other. That wasn’t the case for their subordinates, however. Those on the lower levels worked as if there were no factions inside the organization, which is why it was able to last so long despite the tension brewing in the background.
"Level 4..." Jason pursed his lips. This was a guess he didn’t like having confirmed.
Harry handled the violence side of the gang, from recruiting the members and training them to distributing roles and leading their forces during wars. Among the four lieutenant, he boasted the highest Threat Level, making him their strongest fighter. If he said that someone was in trouble, then that person was in a serious matter.
"From what I have seen, he got his hands on tech unlike anything I have seen before." Said Harry. "Something tells me he is in the same situation as us."
"The same situation?" Jason raised an eyebrow, which only caused his left eye to open slightly wider.
"We already know that he got himself a powerful backer. I guess that he’s being used to test that new tech before it hits the markets, just like with that miracle drug of yours."
A frown caused the skull tattoo on Jason’s face to look more grim.
"You telling me that tech is on the same level as Catalyst?"
"Do you recall the last time he caused trouble for us?" Harry said. "From what little intel we managed to gather, the abilities he had used back then were entirely different from what he showed during our fight. His implants were different from what he had during his fight with Riot as well."
"Different implants..."
The idea got across, and Jason immediately understood what his fellow lieutenant was trying to say. Dante Sokolov is believed to be backed by Ghost, the mysterious villain and hero killer that had appeared in recent times. Ghost is believed to wield powers close to those of the world’s strongest, and the Red Garden incident was the best proof of that.
Many assumed that those powers were magical in nature, if not biological, but what is it’s neither? What if the devastation that monster brought was a result of tech unlike anything the world has seen so far? Tech that can be reproduced and distributed on a scale comparable to Genomes?
"We must deal with Inferno sooner rather than later," Harry said. "If more of them manage to obtain that tech, we might have a much more difficult time dealing with them."
