OG: Chapter 27

As I popped out of my destroyed cover, time slowed down as I ran the numbers and my enhanced intellect and various implants tried to weigh things up. The Copper Golem and Sword Spider weren't big problems, not truly. I could zero them both with just my Xipe Totec, not even needing Fuerza Crispa or even anything heavier. That Iron that Aleksander Yurinov had, though, that was a problem. My Armor could take a couple shots of that, but molten metal would cool fast, weigh me down, and ultimately burn through the alchemical heat resistance that my armor had with time, weight, and proximity. My course of action was clear, only zero the summoned Gonks if I had to. Otherwise, focus on Aleksander.

As time sped up, however, it soon became clear that Aleksander Yurinov's summoned creatures weren't going to give me a choice here. The Sword Spider pounced, leaping off the wall with another unearthly shriek, bounding down at me with its limbs whirling like a storm of blades. I was forced to juke to the side to avoid the falling limbs, Xipe Totec barking as I did so. Ten millimeter rounds plowed into the sword Spider's Thorax even as its bladelike, chitinous limbs scraped across the pauldron of my armor with a screeching sound. Surprisingly, it took me a full clip to chew through the Spider's Chitin, and it spat a basketball gobbet of sizzling venom at my face as it was zeroed, which forced me to dive to the side, tucking into a shoulder roll to avoid it.

Suddenly, I was booted in the side as I was rushed by the Copper Golem, whose foot dented the plates of my armor in an impressive display of power. I was going to feel that tomorrow, but didn't have time to dwell on the bruise forming along my side as the Copper Golem followed up with a punch. Its fist smashed into the pavement as I rolled away from it, cracking the street of the alleyway where I'd fallen after being kicked. As I rolled away, the Copper Golem screamed out, a wave of sonic force smashing into me, picking me up, and tossing me through the wall of the Red Cyclone, reinforced concrete shattering under the force. I saw stars as the back of my head slammed into and through the wall, eardrums bursting from the sonics.

Fortunately, my implants had me covered, Mechanicus Cranial Implants allowing me to shake off being stunned just in time to avoid a spray of molten metal from Aleksander's Shotgun. I snarled, Sandy and Kerenzikov working overtime as I burst out of the hole in the wall I'd been smashed through by the Copper Golem in a blur, firing my Iron's Plasma Launcher as I did so. The Magnetically-Accelerated, Plasma-Sheathed, Alloy Bullet flung out toward the Copper Golem, hitting it and blowing its left leg off. I janked to the side, avoiding a clumsy haymaker from the Copper Golem as it slumped to one leg, reloading as I did so and firing my Iron again, second Plasma Round punching through the Copper Golem lengthwise, coring through it and zeroing it.

Unfortunately, as I did that, a blast of molten metal slammed into my Chest, knocking me back and sizzling against my breastplate. I could feel my ribs bruise under the blow, and just barely turned my stumble into a slide back behind the cover of another dumpster, avoiding a second shot. I took stock of what was happening as I reloaded my Iron. Aleksander had brought out another pair of creatures. One that looked like a Robotic Armadillo-Bear from Avatar: The Last Airbender and one that looked like a Salt Mephit.

"Nice try, but I have reserves!" Called out Aleksander Yurinov.

"Just means I'll have to zero you as a priority you fucking Gonk!" I retorted.

"You think I'll let you get even close to doing that?" Questioned Aleksander Yurinov.

"You think I care?" I queried.

"Come on then, let's see if you're hard enough to do it!" Taunted Aleksander Yurinov.

I sprang out of cover, firing my Xipe Totec even as the Salt Mephit breathed out a cloud of golden particles that threatened to blind me. Glitterdust, a good tactic to use, but my Mechanicus Implants had me covered. My eyes were more than just 'ganic orbs, they were chrome, and came with brightshields to avoid being blinded by flash grenades. That included Glitterdust, since it conjured blinding material instead of projected blindness into your brain like an enchantment or illusion. I fired my Iron back at the Salt Mephit, even as the Armadillo-Bear bounded forward. As my rounds blasted into the Salt Mephit, wounds opened up on the much larger bulk of the Armadillo-Bear instead.

Then I was being seized by powerful jaws as the Armadillo-Bear snatched me up in its maw, biting down with pneumatic pressure as its robotic theming worked to try and punch through my armor. Fortunately, though the Armadillo-Bear dented my armor inward and bruised my collarbone, it failed to bite through my armor, and my implants found an access into its systems, allowing me to netrun my way into the Armadillo-Bear's robotic brain even as it tried to bite me in half. I managed to slip a Synapse Burnout Quickhack into its systems before it slammed me into the pavement, shattering the concrete and bruising my tailbone, opening a gash on my scalp as well.

As it let go and roared, however, my Synapse Burnout took effect, practically exploding its head, zeroing it, even as the Salt Mephit breathed a cone of salt crystals at my downed form that seared into the exposed skin on the top half of my head. I was still going, however, and fired off another burst of rounds at the Salt Mephit. This time, the rounds from my Iron did actual damage, zeroing the Salt Mephit and pulping its head, just before I rolled back into cover in time to avoid another spray of liquid metal rounds that seared into the pavement, boiling the bloodstain I'd left on the pavement.

"How much more of this can you take? You seem like you're pretty fucking banged up while you haven't touched me once!" Sneered Aleksander Yurinov.

"Why don't you come over here and find out?" I asked.

"I could do that. Or, I could send in more of my reserves." Smirked Aleksander Yurinov.

As he did that, I heard a growl, looking up to see that he'd summoned a Nexu from Star Wars to the balcony of the apartment on the second floor above where my cover was. It shook its butt and got ready to pounce down on me as I reloaded once again. I dashed out of cover as it did so, avoiding the pouncing Nexu, whose claws struck sparks off the steel of the dumpster and left deep gouges in the industrial-grade metal. I turned, preparing to fire my Iron into the Nexu's head, only to be bowled over by another creature. This one looked like a cross between a Lion and a Wolf, though I didn't recognize it at all. Its jaws clamped down on my right arm, crunching into the armor and grinding the metal against my forearm, bruising my ulna in the process.

I had no choice but to pull Fuerza Crispa with my off-hand and thrust it through the left eye of the beast as it bore me to the ground under its weight, cracking the pavement as we slammed into the ground. Thankfully, Fuerza Crispa punched through the red, slit-pupiled, Ganic orb, punching into its brain and discharging electric sparks as it did so, frying the Beast's brain, zeroing it even as it bore me to the pavement. I hefted it off me, tossing the Beast at the Nexu as the latter came bounding toward me, wincing slightly as I moved my wounded arm on-target with the Nexu, firing my Iron into its face as it tried to dodge the thrown corpse. The Nexu let out a plaintive whine as I zeroed it, and I retrieved Fuerza Crispa in time to dodge another blast from Aleksander's Shotgun, tucking into a shoulder roll and squeezing off a full clip of rounds into Aleksander's Armored Torso.

As the rounds punched into his odd, Ganic-looking breastplate. Aleksander jerked about, being struck seven times full on before his armor gave way, sloughing off him like molting scales. Aleksander's eyes widened as time slowed down for me. I could tell he was about to Bombshell, and I had one chance to zero him before he did so. Unfortunately, that precluded reloading my Iron. Instead, I flipped Fuerza Crispa around and offered a prayer to Vulcan as I tossed my blade at Aleksander Yurinov. He janked to the side at the last moment, and Fuerza Crispa stuck into his shoulder instead of punching into his throat like I'd wanted. It discharged its electrical payload, and suddenly, Aleksander Yurinov's left arm stopped working. With a snarl, he dropped his shotgun, removing Fuerza Crispa from his arm and tossing it back at me, forcing me to drop to the pavement to avoid it.

As my blade sank into the side of a dumpster behind me, adamantium monoedge punching through industrial steel like butter, I got back to my feet to see Aleksander Yurinov running, deciding that it was time to Bombshell after I'd crippled his left arm, zeroed his summoned Gonks, and shredded his Ganic-looking Armor. I moved to follow, reloading my Iron as I did so, only to be slammed in the chest by something moving at hypersonic speed. This destroyed my breastplate and broke three of my ribs, but I'd managed to scoot into cover in order to avoid a second attack.

As I peeked out from cover, I realized exactly just what had happened. Aleksander Yurinov had summoned help to cover his escape. Not just any help, either, an F-Three Footman Droid from Star Wars, with its right arm-mounted Miniaturized Railcannon. That sort of weapon was easily a match for my Magnetically Accelerated Plasma Caster. It also had the benefit of range, being able to be employed from Sniper Distances. The F-Three Footman kept me pinned down for a minute, allowing Aleksander Yurinov to successfully bombshell. It unsommoned itself shortly afterward, leaving me alone in the alley. The corpses of Aleksander Yurinov's zeroed summoned creatures began to dissolve as well.

I had his measure, though, now. I'd zeroed what had to be the majority of his Menagerie, and unless he'd managed to pick up the ability to resurrect summoned creatures, he wouldn't be able to summon the ones I'd zeroed again. The next time we met, I would end this. For now, though, I had to retrieve Fuerza Crispa, seize control of the systems in the alleyway, and wipe them of anything they might have seen, and bombshell myself before Badges showed up. Unfortunately, the time I would take to loot the Red Cyclone had been taken up by fighting Aleksandr Yurinov, and I was beat up bad to boot.

I managed to do that, along with burning up any bloodstains I'd left in the alleyway using a few plasma rounds, before I bombshelled back to my Paladin Five-Hundred. I made my way back to Lizzie's to report in to Suzie Q. What I hadn't known then was that I hadn't had it the toughest out of all the groups that had fought in Suzie Q's little operation. I would find out during the debriefing that Erica Nightly and Jessie Nyan had actually been cut up badly attacking Clouds. Erica had needed the services of Doc Rainwater out in Kabuki, who owed Suzie Q a favor or two. Everyone else, though, had managed to successfully hit their targets. The tide had now officially turned, and in more ways than I'd figured at the time.

By the start of next week, I would be jumping out of Cyberpunk to my next destination. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the next chapter. The SI gets beat up pretty badly taking on Aleksander Yurinov, but that's more or less expected from SI vs SI combat in situations like these. Honestly, most cases tend not to have both combatants leaving under their own power, or at all. Fortunately, the SI has managed to take out the majority of Aleksander Yurinov's Menagerie and wound him badly enough to force him to retreat. Next time they fight, one or the other is going to die, and at this point, it's likely to be Aleksander Yurinov that bites it, not the SI.

At any rate, the next chapter will be an interlude showing how Erica Nightly and Jessie Nyan's attack on Clouds went, then we'll get an interlude with V and Jackie attacking the Hotel Vladivostok, before we return to the Main Story for the debriefing and aftermath of the attacks. We don't have that many chapters left in Cyberpunk to go, after all. I'll also have updated character sheets out before any of those.

Stay tuned. . .