The Scavs' specialty was turning people inside out. They didn't just kill — they emptied you. When they were in a good mood, they left scraps. When they weren't, not even your shadow survived.
In Night City, there were plenty of people and gangs who wanted the Scavs wiped off the map. The Scavs knew it too.
That's why they never stopped upgrading themselves. To keep their grip in this city of chrome and rot, to stay one step ahead of every rival merc, every NCPD raid, every vengeful fixer, they had done what they did best — become monsters in both body and soul.
Full-body chrome. Muscle fibers replaced with synthetic tension wires. Optic cams wired into their skulls. Internal reloaders, auto-aim arms, reinforced spines. Aside from those lunatics in Maelstrom, no one in Night City was more mechanized than the Scavs.
Together, they were a pack of cybernetic predators — brutal, efficient, and far too hard to kill.
So to end them quickly, there was only one strategy: go for the head.
…
Neo stepped forward, blades in hand.
Left hand: Unnamed Blade One.
Right hand: Unnamed Blade Two.
His body leaned with the rhythm of the wind as he moved — a twin-blade dance faster than the human eye could follow.
Every strike flashed once, clean and silent. Every target fell the same way — their necks parting neatly, their neural ports sliced smooth in half.
No blood touched the blades. No need to wipe them.
When Neo slid both swords back into their scabbards, the fight was already over.
Behind him, three people stood frozen — Jackie Welles, David Martinez, and Rebecca. Their mouths hung open, stunned into silence.
Jackie was the first to exhale. He'd been a merc his whole damn life, running with the Valentinos in Heywood, seen every kind of psycho and chrome-junkie in the book — but even he had never seen something like this.
Neo didn't move like a man. He moved like the ghost of a storm.
David just stared, dumbstruck. His mind flashed back to that night — the night Neo saved him and his mother, Gloria. It had been too dark, too fast to see clearly. He only remembered the sound of steel, the blur of a single figure tearing apart an entire Maelstrom unit with one sword.
Now he'd seen it.
Not clearly, no one could follow that speed, but enough to know one thing:
This man was a monster.
Strong. Terrifyingly strong.
Rebecca whistled, eyes wide and sparkling. "Holy frag, V, that was insane!"
She bounced up to him, shotgun slung over her shoulder, grin ear to ear. "I was wondering why you don't use guns, or chrome, or… anything, really. Guess I know now. You don't need 'em!"
Neo gave a faint smile. He appreciated the praise, but now wasn't the time to enjoy it.
"Jackie. David. Move," he said, voice sharp as steel.
…
A shadow flickered at the far door.
Before the Scav inside could blink, Neo was already in front of him.
The blade shimmered once.
Shhk.
A thin red line appeared across the man's neck. His head slid off like a loose part.
Neo spun, parrying a burst of bullets with his other sword. The rounds shattered against the invisible wind around him. Then he stepped in close —
Two blades.
Two cuts.
Two corpses.
The rest of the Scavs finally realized what kind of nightmare they were facing.
"FIRE! FIRE! KILL HIM!"
Gunfire erupted, deafening and desperate.
Neo's right fist clenched. The air warped around it.
He punched forward.
BOOM!
The shockwave blew every bullet off course, shredding them midair like confetti.
"...What the hell…" one Scav muttered before his jaw dropped open for the last time.
KA-BOOM!
The door beside them exploded.
Rebecca burst through, Ironheart shotgun blazing.
"Time to die, you kidney-stealing sons of bitches!"
Each blast of her scattergun turned the cramped room into a red mist.
"Over here, scum!"
David shot out from another corridor, his movements sleek and fluid — every dodge, every shot executed like a perfect sim test. His chrome-enhanced body flowed like mercury.
"Damn," Rebecca muttered mid-reload. "Kid's smoother than a BD reel."
David's bullets found their marks. The Scavs staggered, disoriented and terrified. For the first time, they were backing away.
But retreat? Not an option.
Jackie grinned and pulled the pin on something small and round. "Here's a little souvenir, cabrones."
The grenade rolled to a stop among the Scavs' boots.
Click.
Zzzzzzt—BOOM!
An EMP grenade.
It didn't tear flesh — it tore circuitry. In an instant, the Scavs' neural links fried. Their eyes went dark. Their processors melted.
They collapsed before they could even scream.
The air sizzled with ozone and burnt chrome.
Jackie walked over, shaking his head. "Shit. Look at that mess. Whole brains turned to soup."
Neo sheathed his blades, eyes sweeping the room.
"Everyone okay?"
Rebecca raised her hand. "Still cute." David gave a breathless thumbs-up.
Jackie chuckled. "Not a scratch, hermano."
Neo nodded. "Good. Let's finish the job."
…
They stepped through the final door — into a small, dim bathroom.
The cold hit first. Then the sight.
Two figures lay submerged in a bathtub filled with ice. One was already gone. The other — barely alive.
Sandra Dorsett.
Her vitals flickered weakly on the HUD feed. One kidney gone. Blood pale and thin. Her body trembled, fighting a losing battle.
Jackie froze, face hardening.
"Maldita sea..." he whispered.
He'd seen death, lived with it — but this? This wasn't killing. This was cruelty.
The Scavs had taken her organs — and then dumped her into freezing ice water to keep her body fresh while she died slowly.
Jackie's fists tightened until his knuckles cracked. "You sick, gutless bastards…"
Neo knelt beside the tub, checking her pulse. "She's alive. Barely."
He turned to Rebecca. "Call it in. Trauma Team priority. Code platinum."
Rebecca nodded, her grin gone, replaced with grim focus.
The faint hum of the ice bath filled the silence — until a mechanical shriek echoed from deeper inside the building.
Another Scav. No… more than one. The air buzzed with static and rage.
Neo rose slowly, eyes narrowing.
The job wasn't over yet.