The cult doth welcome Dr.Pine to its grand and venerable ranks, may their labors gain the blessing of the sacred machine.
---
Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
Click
Boom!
The charging Maelstrommer is thrown bodily back as my Burya discharges into his center mass.
His cyberized weight clotheslines his buddies who were rushing in after him, knocking them around and briefly blocking the entrance as my Artifex whipped out from behind my coat, reloading my railgun for me while my free hand clutched the new grip of my Crusher.
"Covering fire." I ordered coolly, ignoring the terror-stunned traitor in favor of stepping in front of the actually salvageable Tyger Claws currently too busy scrambling for their weapons to react.
Just in time for the Maelstrommers to recover and rush into the room with shotguns of their own.
All they got for their trouble was a wall of noise and lead, mismatched chrome shredding under the weight of my fire while my own barely even registered their own pitiful attempts to do the same.
Another signal pinged back to my Cyberdeck, and my hand twitched to the right, just in time for the window to burst apart as a lithe Maelstrommer crashed her way through, her body jerking back immediately after as a tungsten shell caved her chest in, throwing her back into the face of the gangoon climbing after her and sending him hurtling through the air before his screams were shut dead by the pavement below.
A hail of gunfire came from the Tygers behind me, suppressing the main assault just as I aimed my shotgun hand to the left, the wall of the neighboring apartment exploding under the charge of a massive cyborg.
The roaring wall of man and chrome stopped in his tracks and then staggered, his roars turning pained and even louder as I unloaded the remainder of my Crusher magazine directly into him, his heavy armor cracking but not breaking under the hail.
Seeing him raising his hand that quickly began disassembling into a Projectile Launch System, I reacted on instinct more than I did with any real strategy, dropping my Burya and launching myself forward with all the force I could muster in that split second.
His hand was fully disassembled now, but his weapon failed to fire as a [WeaponGlitch.exe] pierced his ICE, and I slammed my thermal katana down into the offending shoulder, slightly misaligning the cut in the rush.
The massive strommer growled under the pain, and I saw his entire body tensing as he prepared to try and crush me with his bare hands.
In a flash, my Secutor bit into his fleshy throat, and I ripped the sword out with a growl of my own, the backswing violently sawing his head off in one visceral pull of blade and Mechadendrite.
Briefly, as I turned to the main entrance, both the Tygers and Maelstrom paused what they were doing as the cyborg's body toppled over, before Senko and her goons caught themselves and redoubled their fire, and I threw myself the remaining chrome cultists.
They did not last a minute.
--
The final Maelstrommer coughed as he was slammed against the wall of the hallway, looking up at me with dazed Optics "Holy shit." He choked out blood, but the glow in his eyes only grew "What a beaut'."
A shotgun shell blew his head off, and I sent out one final ping, finding I was not quite right about him being the last.
My Artifex tossed me my reloaded Burya as I looked down, seeing the outline of two less modified 'strommers trying to make a run for it down the stairs.
I patiently lined up the shot and waited for the perfect moment before pulling the trigger, easily nailing the both of them through two floors worth of concrete.
Half a blink later, the two red silhouettes fell over each other like puppets with their strings cut, and every 'strommer in the building was dead.
"Clear!" I called as I returned back to the hideout, the two goons aiming at me slowly lowering their weapons as I fully entered through the hole in the wall.
Senko was currently busy crouched down, looking over a bullet-riddled body with her hands moving about erratically, uselessly over the corpse that was once her friend.
Her eyes snapped up to mine, and despite knowing better I still ran a quick vitals scan.
Shaking my head and making her shoulders slump in defeat, I moved on to the final Tyger Claw in the room, who didn't even have the common decency to try and escape what he tried doing.
Instead, the traitor was currently curled up in the corner of the room, his side bleeding from a stray shot and the rest of him shaking in terror as I walked over.
"How did they find us?" Senko's hateful voice stopped me before I could get rid of the filth.
I kept my cold glare on the terrified man and gave the answer "They obviously couldn't have hacked us, and our location was undecided up to until an hour ago. Maelstrom didn't have any patrols in the building. Which just leaves someone informing them of our position in real time."
All three surviving loyal Tygers immediately snapped their eyes to me, and then to who I was looking at.
The man pulled his knees back and began to openly sob "I'm so- I'm sorry." He looked up at me with bloodshot eyes "They had my family!"
Pausing briefly, I nodded "I understand." And faster than he could react, I reached over and twisted his head by one hundred and eighty degrees.
The Claw trio behind me all flinched at the sound but I ignored their utter terror as I stood up "Keep watch. We'll have to get out quickly and soon."
Senko inhaled sharply and stood up, offering me a nod and turning to her people.
'Now then, how in the fuck do I salvage this clusterfuck?' I thought, feeling oddly somber as I jacked back into the localnet, quite certain that my current employer was very dead with how I left him.
Isamu 'Jugo' Okada (earlier)
As the blinged out pistol rested against his forehead, Isamu couldn't help but burst into mocking laughter "Jotaro, Jotaro, Jotaro..." He shook his head, staring up at the other Tyger's sneer "Even when you finally find your balls, you still have to disappoint me."
Shobo's eyes widened and he immediately went to pull the trigger.
At the same time, Jugo felt an electric jolt flash through his entire system, and in a blink the scene changed from him kneeling before a gun to Sobo's arm flying away alongside his weapon.
"Akh-" Shobo choked at the sudden loss of sensation, and his dilating eyes slowly lowered to its source, his entire body beginning to shake before a scream of pain ripped its way out of his throat.
Jugo's grin threatened to split his face as he felt the spike of heat lance through his back, but before he could decapitate his traitorous shit of a former comrade he felt his instincts screaming at him and was forced to leap back as something approaching an artillery shell detonated where he was just standing.
"FINALLY!" Powerpump roared, completely unbothered by the fact his ambush was evaded as he glared down at a panting Jugo, and addressed his gang "KILL 'EM ALL!"
The entirety of Totentanz shook under the sheer cacophony that followed the boss' declaration as each and every Tyger Claw that wasn't Shobo was immediately swarmed by the screaming and roaring horde of drugged up Maelstrommers.
Shobo's bodyguards were ripped apart in seconds, but Jugo's men were old hands at this business and immediately fell into place around their boss who had quickly leapt from Powerpump's booth.
They didn't waste time even looking at each other, simply reaching for their weapons and sinking into the crowd with their swords and mantis claws out, ripping their way through the sea of bodies the way they knew best.
One cut at a time.
Jugo wasn't sure how it started, but by the time Powerpump's canon blasted a clump of his own men into pieces as he tried to blow him up he was laughing like a complete madman, his sword arm swinging without stopping and painting Totentanz even redder than it was before with the blood of the Maelstrom.
His joyous laughter only increased as the band on stage began playing even harder, and he sunk deeper and deeper into the haze of battle, at one point going blind with the sheer amount of blood that got stuck in his eyes.
Only when he heard the distant echo of gunfire did he shake himself awake, somehow managing to wipe his face with his bloody sleeve and finding himself surrounded at the center of the night club with only two of his men with him, one of whom was missing an entire arm, and the other half of his face.
"Fuckin' 'Ugo." Powerpump let out a rumbling noise that was somewhat reminiscent of a glitchy if satisfied chuckle, his raised canon slowly lowering to point at the trio of Claws "Finally got 'ya."
"Boss!" His right hand borg suddenly called out.
Powerpump's whole body twitched as he slowly rounded on the man and roared in his face "WHAT?"
Brick flinched and quickly answered "Tygers are attacking the building in numbers, they'll be up here in less than a minute."
"Then wha' the fuck are you doing interruptin' me?!" The giant borg backhanded Brick with his canon hand, sending him sprawling into the mass of bodies and turning to face Jugo again.
But he was interrupted again, as Shobo, clutching his stump as he went, shoulderchecked his way through the crowd, nearly getting himself stabbed for his trouble if not for Powerpump glaring down the offending 'strommer "Wait a moment, Powerpump."
The borg growled, his optics glowing threateningly, but surprisingly to Jugo, nodded.
"Okada." Shobo faced Jugo.
"Traitor." Isamu spat.
"Call it what you want you hypocrite." Shobo sneered hatefully "It doesn't matter, because today is the day I finally get rid of you."
"Oh?" Jugo tilted his head, resting his katana on his shoulder like he wasn't surrounded by hundreds of crazed cyborgs "And what makes you think you are capable?"
"Your stubborn refusal to die complicates things." Sobo went on with grit teeth "But knowing you I prepared for it anyway."
He twitched his head towards Powerpump "My soldiers are positioned all around your men attacking this place. You will accept your death and order them to follow my word, or-"
Shobo paused as his eyes narrowed into a glare "I will have them killed to the last."
"You want to hand Watson over to the Maelstrom over a grudge?!" Isamu demanded, momentarily baffled with the scale of idiocy he had just witnessed.
"Powerpump and I have a deal." Shobo shrugged "Now you can throw hundreds of your subordinates to die, or you can accept your own death, and tell them to pull back." Shobo repeated "I'm sure the honorable dog you like to pretend at being will love the poetry of it, and it is definitely preferable to what I am going to do to you if you don't."
The cold cruelty in Shobo's eyes made it quite obvious he preferred the latter.
Seeing Jugo's eyes turn cold in turn, he quickly added the final nail in the coffin "And there is no need to wait for your pet netrunner. He has been death with."
At this Jugo found himself pausing, a small frown forming on his face.
Before he threw his head back and laughed, and laughed far harder than he did even as he cut his way through dozens of cyborgs.
"What is so funny?" Shobo growled, his frustration bubbling from under his control "Do you not understand the gravity of this situation you god damn fool?!"
"Hah!" Jugo let out a final bark of laughter before looking back down to the traitor "You are the one who doesn't understand shit, Shobo." He grinned, pointing his katana at him "Tygers die on their feet."
Shobo's eyes widened, and his face somehow twisted into an even more hateful expression "Oh I will enjoy skinning you alive!"
[Back in action.]
Before being replaced by one of utter terror "No." He muttered "No, no, no, NO-" He began clawing at the back of his head with his sole hand so hard he drew blood but it was all for nothing as every single implant in his body began to overload.
He was given a brief moment to contemplate just how utterly dead he was as his body began steaming on multiple spots, before the delicate balance of his systems snapped, and his entire body was set on fire.
Even as the screaming human torch that was Jotaro Shobo rolled on the ground in a futile attempt to survive, Powerpump found himself stepping over the soon to be corpse without a care.
Only to pause, and spit on it "Good 'ucking riddance." Before turning to face Jugo.
Who was currently grinning like a loon, and just as an explosion rang out behind him, signaling the arrival of his troops, he sent a message to his lieutenant commanding him to take over Shobo's men and herd them forward, and activated the experimental sandevistan attached to his back.
He felt entire world slow to a crawl and he felt every single synapse in his body fire as he forced it to move faster than it had any right to, ducking under Powerpump's line of fire and launching himself forward through the crowd of Maelstrommers once again.
The second was stretched into what felt like an hour as he slashed throat after throat, taking a head with each step even as heat built up on his back, and just as he felt his implant about to run out he launched himself off the falling chest of a cyborg and into the air, his blade raised as he appeared midair above the Maelstrom boss.
Jugo let out a battle cry as he swung down with all his might, looking to decapitate his old enemy and finish this in one swing.
"FUCKING-" Powerpump's roar blurred just as his body did, his previously vulnerable flank disappearing in favor of a rising hand canon "'UGO!" He finished his curse and pulled the mental trigger.
But instead of firing, his weapon clicked, jammed.
Jugo didn't waste any time in pressing the opportunity, slashing again and again at his disoriented foe only to be smashed back when he once more got tantalizingly close to finally ending it.
The gang battle around them turned bloodier by the second as well, the close quarters melee quickly evolving into by explosions and hails of gunfire as more and more Tyger Claws rushed in over the corpses of their fellow gang members.
All the while Tinnitus refused to leave the stage, their lead singer screaming ever louder for his adoring audience.
Jugo and Powerpump blurred over and over again, constantly pushing against each other but failing to land a killing blow until the cyborg clamped down on the irritating program invading him with all the processing power his ICE held, giving himself a moment to act.
He and Jugo shared a look, and as one activated their sandevistans.
The ground behind the swordsman exploded, shredding his legs and back with shrapnel before he disappeared in a blur of speed only to appear behind his enemy, his sword held forward with both hands.
Behind him, the massive cyborg stared ahead, at the enemy gang members pouring into his Totentanz, and his normal hand slowly reached for his neck.
He let out a gurgle, and his head slipped off his shoulders.
Seeing it tumbling next to him, Jugo grinned, and finally lost consciousness.
Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
With eyes that were completely and utterly dead, I disconnected from the localnet, having just gone through enough emotional whiplash to last me a lifetime.
When I discovered Jugo was still alive, I was surprisingly relieved and immediately focused on the near-impossible job of making him survive after this clusterfuck of a situation.
In fact, I felt so motivated all of a sudden that I decided to ignore the uncomfortable feeling Powerpump's systems gave me and hacked him despite my paranoia.
Thankfully he only had the touch of old AI in him, and not an actual subroutine, so I survived the attempt, even if I was going to have to scour my systems just in case.
And what does Jugo do with all this?
The madman holds back so he can act out a fucking Bushido scene, that's what.
Checking the feed just in time to see one of his goons dragging him off, I muttered "Give me back my worry you bastard." And decided my work here was done.
The damn weeb could clean up after himself.
-------
Knock knock, I desire a lot more rock.
14 glorious chapters await for those wise enough to seek them upon the forbidden Patreon (at patreon .com/ Rastislav156)
If you want to discuss the story or just meme about join my discord server: https://discord .gg/fE4nB3CzDP (link should work for a week. refreshed as of 24.12.25)