Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 560: Mutants.
Krueger and Ahab stood on the dark dock, straining their necks as they followed something through the air. As a shadow fell over them, they had to spin around, and an instant later, they felt their bodies bounce off the ground as a powerful impact spread through it.
Regaining their balance, they landed without a problem and quickly turned to the source of the tremor. As the water from the geyser rained down on them, they struggled to understand what was happening, and their minds failed to accept it, but there was no denying what had happened.
Ahab’s ship, the 50k ton alloy behemoth, was sent flying through the air. It crashed into the solid concrete like a toy tossed by a toddler, and the groaning of its metal showed that the damage was spreading, causing it to become unable to withstand its own weight.
Everyone on the dock was frozen. Some had fallen on their behinds, but even those were dazed by the magnitude of what had just happened. It was only once the sound of gunfire shattered the darkness that they snapped out of it, and the next second, the dark dock turned into a warzone, bullets flying back and forth.
The Black Skulls had no idea who they were fighting. Not that it mattered. Someone fired on them, and so they returned the favor. The only ones who noticed that something had been odd about it were Krueger, and as soon as he did, he turned to his subordinates and shouted an order.
"Take the truck and get out of here!"
The direction the enemy fire was coming from told him that they were trying to distance their allies from the semi-trucks, likely so they could come in and hijack them. That was the one thing he wouldn’t allow, and so he quickly moved to prevent it.
He was about to send a distress signal to the backup he had prepared when he noticed that he had no signal on his OAM. His spare phone was the same. No sooner did he realize that they had been jammed than a faint glitch froze his vision for a fraction of a second, but that short lag was more than enough to cause his panic to spike once more.
"Shut down your NIMs!"
He quickly did so himself right away. His NIM might be one of the best money could buy with defenses that cannot easily be bypassed, but he didn’t want to risk having his brain fried by underestimating the enemy. If he were here, anything with a signal could be compromised.
"!!!"
The Black Skulls weren’t the only ones on the dock. Ahab’s crew was there, having jumped off the shop as it was tossed. Then there were the maintenance bots.
An army of hexapods came sliding over the soaked concrete, their shells spreading open as mechanical arms, each equipped with a different tool, popped out. They immediately started attacking anyone and anything in their way, be it people or vehicles.
While Ahab’s crew took out their weapons and took on the machines, the Black Skulls were helpless against them. Most were Level 1s and 2s at best, and though that allowed them to barely escape the machines, they couldn’t do much about them.
"Mutants! Take the drug!"
Seeing no other option, Krueger gave another order. Among his group, there were a few who were still Basic without a single bionic implant. Normally, such people were entirely useless in a fight involving Enhanced Individuals, but that had changed as of late.
As they hid from the gunfire and the rampaging robots, several Black Skulls took out a small gray box and grabbed its contents, throwing it into their mouths. The blue capsule reached their stomachs in seconds, and as soon as the acid through the outer layer and came into contact with its contents, a chemical reaction started, followed by a biological one.
Maddened grins spread across the gangsters’ faces as power filled their bodies. One grew scales on his arms, another had his muscles bulge to three times their size. A third one turned entirely blue, horns growing from his forehead, and a fourth glowed a bright pink.
Catalyst worked quickly, and with their new powers, the Mutants rushed to meet the charging robots. The powers granted by the drug were random, and for many, their first time taking it could be their last. Those who accompanied Krueger on this errand were the lucky few to be blessed with powers that didn’t leave their bodies destroyed once the drug’s effects wore off, which allowed them to use it again and again.
As if fear had left their bodies, they attacked the machines with vigor only seen in warriors of ancient times. They cut through the alloy shells, tore off the robotic limb, and crushed them entirely. Explosions followed as one of the mutants used his ability to blow up things. Another grabbed the hexapods and tossed them into the ocean as if they didn’t weigh hundreds of kilos.
The tides seemed to change instantly. Krueger tried not to think of how all that chaos might catch the attention of some heroes and watched as another bot was sent flying into the distance. His expression fell the next instant as something he didn’t understand happened right in front of his eyes.
The bot that had been kicked into the distance came to a sudden stop as if it had collided with something, then fell into the ocean. Though it was still dark, Krueger could still see just fine thanks to his bionic eyes. Because of that, he was confident that nothing was there.
"It’s a barrier," Ahab said from beside him, his voice sounding grave. "The bastard probably did it..."
He was glaring at something while biting on his pipe, anger glowing in his eyes. Krueger followed his line of sight and saw a wave slowly rising over the dock, and on top of it, someone stood perfectly still like it was a moving platform.
