OG: Chapter 22

I'd reported back to Suzie Q at Lizzie's first, telling her that not only wouldn't she have to worry about the Animals anymore, but that she also would probably feel pressure from the Tyger Claws start to slack off. I did that largely over the Net, calling her on an encrypted frequency. After all, there'd been a bunch of Gangoons that'd been Zeroed today. Coming so hot off the heels of the showdown at the Stop-N-Leave Facility, I was worried that the Badges were gonna lock down the district. Fortunately, Suzie Q was also worried about that, and had started to get everyone to ground, just in case. She understood the problem and decided skipping the face-to-face was best. She did, however, flick me an extra five hundred eddies as a bonus, doing the same for V and Jackie.

Of course, I'd barely made it across the Bridge into Kabuki, heading for Vik's Clinic in Little China to rendezvous with V and Jackie when a shitload of sirens started blaring, I turned the corner just in time for the lights to change and a whole mess of Badges came rushing for the Bridge to set up the Lockdown. They had Militech Minotaurs and everything. Seems the Badges weren't playing around this time. Either they'd suddenly grown a spine, or more likely, some Corpo in an office somewhere had decided that all the Gang Violence was bad for Biz and they needed to lock shit down so the Gangoons could cool off some.

Either way, I'd made it out right ahead of the Lockdown, making my way to Goldsmith Street, then over to Bradbury and Buran, before turning onto Urmland Street and parking outside Misty's shop. I locked down my heavily modified Paladin Five-Hundred and headed inside. Any Dorphead trying to steal my new ride was in for a rude awakening. The Paladin Five-Hundred was notoriously difficult to steal, after all. Shit was practically an Urban Combat Vehicle. There were stories about Solos parking one in the Zone to handle their Biz and coming back to a pristine ride and a Zeroed Gonk who'd caught a ricochet after he'd gotten frustrated after too many failed lockpicking attempts and tried to shoot out the glass.

That done, I headed into Misty's Esoterica to find Jacquito sitting on a chair there, head in his hands. Misty nudged him, and he looked up at me and shook his head. Jacquito was normally pretty jovial, or at least pissed off, he didn't usually get like this.

"What happened?" I questioned.

"It's V, Ernesto. Vik says she's hurt bad. Worse than we'd thought, way worse." Admitted Jackie.

"How bad is bad?" I queried.

"One of the rounds she caught ricocheted off her broken subdermal and clipped her right lung. It'd been filling up with fluid the whole time we were klepping shit. I knew she'd been in a bad way, but I didn't know it was this bad." Sighed Jackie.

"Can Vik save her?" I asked.

"Vik wants to install a set of Syn-Lungs just to be sure. Problem is, V's lost a lot of blood already. Vik's worried about blood loss and will have to keep her overnight for multiple transfusions." Answered Misty.

"Does he have enough blood?" I questioned.

"That's the good news. We tested V in the Clinic, and she's AB Positive." Nodded Misty.

"Universal Donor. That's lucky, at least. You know, she insisted on helping me shoot my way out of the Office to go help you? I told her she looked too hurt for that, but she insisted. I let her do it, I shouldn't've made such a leadheaded move." Frowned Jackie.

"No. You absolutely cannot blame yourself for this, Jaquito. It wasn't you who cut V up downstairs or who fired the shots that clipped her lung. It was the Tyger Claws Gangoons. If you wanna blame anyone, hermano, blame them. You already Zeroed Ken, and when the lockdown lifts, we'll head back to Japantown to finish that Biz." I intoned, refusing to let Jackie take this all on himself.

"Yeah, the Claws have gotta go. We at least gotta pay them back bigtime." Agreed Jackie.

"En sangre, mi hermano. I promise you that." I affirmed.

"Are you gonna be OK, Jackie? My break's almost over, and Vik needs me back in surgery." Queried Misty.

"I'll be good, Chica. No worries there." Nodded Jackie.

Misty nodded once before disappearing into the back room to head out the back door and make her way back to Vik's Clinic. I nodded at Jackie, who seemed less down now that he had a target to take his anger out on. That'd get him zeroed quick if we weren't careful about it, but I couldn't say I didn't feel the same way. I just had to figure out how to channel that anger into productive avenues.

"I gotta say, hermano, out of all the Mainlines you've had, I think Misty's the best." I offered by way of distraction.

"No kidding. You know Mama wants me to pop the question?" Asked Jackie.

"Can't say I blame her, hermano. I've known you most of my life, so believe me when I say that Misty? She's the best you're ever gonna do." I teased.

"Cabron." Chuckled Jackie.

"Seriously." I grinned.

"Let's be honest here, I'm not exactly a Corpo hanging out with the Bridge and Tunnel Crew. I'm never gonna be the type of Gonk to settle down with. Our life just isn't stable enough for that." Shrugged Jackie.

"Yeah, I figured. Honestly, I'm right with you on that. Pretty sure we'll both be Night City Legends before that point." I agreed.

"Yeah, like Johnny Silverhand and Morgan Blackhand." Sighed Jackie.

"To be fair, they never found Blackhand's Body, even after digging up the rubble of the Arasaka Tower. He might have survived and decided to fuck off to some place where nobody's gonna try hiring him for some Biz. Settled down, had a kid, and disappeared off the grid." I tried.

It probably wasn't the case, and honestly, I doubted anyone could've survived what went down at ground zero of the Night City Holocaust. At least, not anyone who couldn't just tough it out in a super-borg body like the ICE Dragoon Smasher had on at the time. Still, it might just get Jacquito to stop being all fatalistic about shit.

"You really think that?" Questioned Jackie.

"Anything's Possible. Besides, if anyone could've survived getting attacked by Smasher and then buried under the nuclear rubble of Arasaka Tower, it'd be Morgan Blackhand." I shrugged.

"Maybe. It's a good story, at least." Nodded Jackie.

"Look, I need to head back to my Apartment. I have a bunch of projects that I need to get around to. Are you gonna be ok here to wait for V?" I queried.

"Sure. I'll flick you the detes when she's ready for visitors, yeah?" Offered Jackie.

"Sounds like a plan, Jaquito. Just. . .don't go haring off looking to slammit on without me tonight, all right? Promise me you'll call first, at least." I insisted.

"I got it, Ernesto. Really, you don't need to worry so much." Reaffirmed Jackie.

"Right. Well, then, I should get going." I remarked.

"What kinda projects are you doing, anyway?" Asked Jackie.

"There's a lot. I need to make some new Iron, since Ken trashed mine, then I need to try and see if I can't figure out how the preem shit in his sword works. I'm sick of wrecking up combat knives trying to slammit on at Super-Speed, then there's a whole shitload of stuff I should get to before we go Tyger Hunting so we don't get a repeat of today." I listed off.

"Got it. Just don't burn yourself out, Ernesto." Warned Jackie.

"Right back at you, Jacquito." I smirked.

And with that, I left Misty's Esoterica. Predictably, my Paladin Five-Hundred hadn't been so much as touched. Most Gonks in Night City knew when not to fuck with something, after all. At least the ones who ever made anything of themselves did. Something about this City seemed to hone a Gonk's survival instinct to the point where even the leadheads got it. If you didn't, you got zeroed quick. I unlocked my car and slid into the driver's seat before heading out back down Urmland Street.

I drove over the bridge, through Downtown North, and headed into Corpo Plaza, turning off the roundabout on Congress and getting onto the overpass near MLK. I drove on the Highway for one exit, getting off as a bunch of AVs flew overhead, making their way over toward Japantown. The Badges were reinforcing their lockdown. I'd find out later that a bunch of the Japantown Animals had tried to run the lockdown blockade at the Bridge into Kabuki, where they were probably planning to link up with Kanga's Pack at the Kickboxing Gym she ran out there. Whether Kanga would've taken them in or not wasn't clear.

Regardless, I made my way into my Megabuilding without incident, parking and heading up to my apartment. The second I entered my Lab/Factory, though, I could tell something was different. Not only did I have a new area dedicated to magic in the form of a Wizard's Lab, but also a Mystical Forge where I could enchant various items. Not only that, but I also had the knowledge necessary to use it, as formulae for enchanting any magical item that came to mind exploded into the forefront of my mind as I looked at the Lab and Mystic Forge.

At the same time, I somehow instinctively knew that the subtly glowing green rock on the alchemy bench in my Wizard's Lab was the actual Philosopher's Stone, though it was the version from the DCU, which couldn't let you live forever, but could ensure that you had any materials you wanted while also being a source of energy in and of itself. I also saw a number of papers telling me that I had somehow just acquired mines of various materials I might want to get my hands on to be used as either crafting fuel or for sale. I somehow knew that those rights would follow me to new worlds as well. Then there were the various crates, chests, and cases.

Opening one, I was surprised to find a number of vials of a silvery gray liquid that I just knew would solidify into unbreakable shapes as soon as I got them into shape. Liquid Adamantium, the hardest substance in the Marvel Universe, kept workable by the magic of the Celestial Forge. Closing that case and opening a crate, I found a stack of Golden Bronze Ingots, which were miraculous in their capabilities and could be used to do any number of things, from nullifying magic to generating heat to full-on gravity negation. Nth Metal, that wonder material of Thanagar from the DCU. On and on I opened crates, chests, and cases, and one by one their contents revealed themselves to me to be rare materials. Wakandan Vibranium, Olympian Adamantine, and Asgardian Uru from the Marvel Universe, Phrik, Beskar, Ultrachrome, and Refined Cortosis from Star Wars, and a chest containing Palladium, Platinum, and Rare Earth Metals.

"All right, Power. I get the hint. You want me to use you? OK, let's cook." I grinned as it all registered with me at once.

With that in mind, I set down to do some serious tinkering. It was four in the afternoon when I returned to my apartment from my day of being Huscle for the Mox. By the time I went to bed, it was almost six in the morning. I'd missed a call from Jackie telling me that Vik wanted to keep V one more day for observation, which was just as well, as I set my alarm and hit the sack. After all, it didn't look like the Japantown Lockdown was lifting for another couple of days. By the time I got out to Laguna Bend to take care of the Militech Biz, it was already nighttime. It was worth it, though.

After all, neither the Cylons guarding the hidden Saka Facility nor their Wraith Huscle would ever know what hit them. . .

XXXX

Wakako Okada had to admit, she'd been shaken. Oh, certainly, she had authorized the attack on the Hot Tin Roof. Why wouldn't she have? The Mox and Animals were far too distracted with each other to be able to truly contest a push, and though Wakako had heard that Suzie Q had brought on huscle, she also believed that said huscle would be far too absorbed dealing with the rabid dogs of the Animals to contest her forces. She had sent the Takeda boy that Arasaka had used as a Guinea Pig for their new and more powerful Wetware along just in case. He had good results against the Moxes' new huscle before, after all.

She had not expected the Mox to come out on top in either confrontation, much less both of them. Takeda had taken twenty-seven men with him, including at least three Elites. All had been zeroed by the Moxes' huscle, including the Elites and Takeda. It had been a bloodbath, and Wakako's only consolation had been the fact that the Animals had lost even more in their own push, losing forty of the hundred-strong pack they had in Japantown, including their leader. The Japantown Animals were now a spent force, but unfortunately, the Tyger Claws were looking increasingly bloodied themselves.

And that had been a fact that had not pleased Wakako's Superiors in either Organization. Arasaka had not liked losing such a valuable experimental subject as Takeda. Meanwhile, Hayato had been angrier that she had started a War in Japantown without telling him, not that he was up to much beyond the ceremonial at this point. A botched cybersurgery a decade ago had left him a cripple. Privately, Wakako had felt that it was better to be a cripple than to contract Cyberpsychosis, which Hayato was clearly going to contract sooner or later if he had kept up the pace at which he was chipping in new chrome. Now, the only chrome his body could handle was the sort that kept it alive. He had largely been delegating things to mid-level officers since.

Regardless, the fact of the matter was that Wakako's superiors were not happy with the performance of the Tyger Claws in their war so far. Thankfully, that was offset by the fact that they had a strong alliance with the Organaskaya and could not seize control of the Japantown Animals' assets. Of course, the Organaskaya had already taken their due, the same as they had done with the Japantown Scavengers, however, the Lion's Share would belong to the Tyger Claws, at least it would when the lockdown had been lifted. The NCPD had gotten orders from their Militech Overlords to lock down Japantown, as the amount of carnage was hurting business, and a lockdown would not only staunch the flow of blood but also hurt Arasaka, who sponsored many businesses in Japantown.

That was what had been claimed, at any rate, and it was the official stance of City Hall. However, unlike the Police Department, much of the civil administration was in Arasaka's pockets rather than Militechs, even if they pretty much had the local judiciary split down the middle. What this meant was that Wakako was privy to the actual reasons. Mayor Rhyne was aligning closer to Militech on various issues lately and had agreed to approve the lockdown to stop the disruption of business in the whole city, though he was not quite as on board with the supplemental reasons as Deputy Mayor Holt might have implied during his reports.

Wakako frowned. Something would eventually need to be done if the Mayor continued to align with Militech. She knew that Arasaka would not allow the Balance of power in such a major North American Stronghold of theirs to shift in favor of the rival corporation like that. Likely, that something would be an assassination, though Wakako doubted that Arasaka would use her Tyger Claws for that. They had professionals for such things on the payroll, after all.

Regardless, the situation had still left her shaken. Her superiors clearly wanted her to call for a ceasefire in both organizations. She should be content with having pushed the Animals and Scavengers out of Japantown while absorbing their territories and holdings, who cared if the Mox still operated in Japantown? They would be in the weaker position from now on and could have terms dictated to them. Clearly, that was the smarter option, and Wakako was tempted to agree.

Then she had gotten the phone call from which she had just hung up. It had been with none other than Pavel Ivanovich Kublanov, the Pakhan of the Organaskaya in Night City. He was to the Organaskaya what Hayato was to the Tiger Claws, and far more capable of overseeing his organization personally than Hayato was for the Tyger Claws these days. Apparently, the war was going well enough for them that Pavel refused to call for a ceasefire.

"You wanted all others out of Japantown, so that will be what is done." He'd said before hanging up.

And now Wakako couldn't agree to a ceasefire without sacrificing one of the two things she had done in this War that were a net benefit to the Tyger Claws. Effectively, the Organaskaya were backing her into a corner, and she wasn't sure that Pavel even knew that was what was happening. She certainly hadn't mentioned how fragile the war effort on her end was turning out to be, and she couldn't admit that to him without showing weakness. Maybe even enough weakness to give the Organaskaya the leverage to become the Senior Partner in their alliance, and that certainly wouldn't do.

What made things worse was that while the Organaskaya had been able to replace the relatively few losses they had taken so far by press-ganging former Scavengers into their ranks to fill low-level vacancies and promoting survivors from battles to fill upper-level ones, the Tyger Claws did not have such a ready source of extra manpower. After all, they strictly recruited Japanese and Japanese Americans. The detente they had with the Triads over in Little China practically demanded that they not recruit other Asians. Certainly, none of the Scavengers or Animals would agree to join the Tyger Claws.

"And so we continue this dance until someone dies. Hopefully the Mox, but I will take Pavel's group dying if it means we can negotiate a way out with honor." Sighed Wakako.

In the meantime, she would lick her wounds, marshal her resources, and wait until the lockdown had lifted. There were recruits to train, arms to source, and funds to be gotten and laid aside. It wasn't the best or most glamorous part of being an Underworld Boss, but it had to be done.

After all, with the lockdown in place and her course decided for her, it truly was the only thing she could do. . .

XXXX

River Ward frowned at the many, many body bags that had been piled up on the side of the street. From the word he'd heard from the medics, some of these poor Gonks had to be ID'd by their dental records. One or two didn't even have that much, having been Zeroed pretty brutally by what seemed to be high-powered weaponry using explosive or incendiary ammo, judging from the charring. It had been a massacre. Forty-eight Gangoons, twenty-eight of them Tyger Claws and Twenty Moxes, had used this place to Slammit On bigtime.

The worst part was, they had no clue where the survivors were or even who had won. Any winners had gone to ground pretty damn quick, almost like they'd been expecting the Lockdown to come down at any moment when it finally did. River couldn't blame them for that, between the forty Zeroed Gangoons here and the forty-two Gonks in bodybags down on Monroe Street, this was guaranteed to happen.

"Damndest thing, the Sarge says she can't get Scop out of the Local Net. The Security System's been wiped clean, total factory reset." Spoke up Detective Han, River's Partner, as he made his way over to where River was standing.

Harold Han was old, balding, with gray hair and a weary outlook. This city had practically beaten any zeal for justice that Han might've had out of him a long time ago. Now, River was pretty sure his Partner was dirty. He had no proof, mind you, but it was just a feeling he got from Han sometimes. There was probably a reason they partnered him with a Gonk like Han. Maybe they'd thought his cynicism would wear off on River and he'd get with the program. River didn't know. What he did know was that his partner liked open and shut cases or cases where the Brass took a special interest.

"That's weird, I just flicked a message over to Emilia working the Old Cyberteen Shop, and she said the same thing." Mused River.

Well, that hadn't been the full truth. Sergeant Emilia Locarno had been heading the Tiger Team over at the Old Cyberteen Shop, and she'd said the place stank like sex even through the smell of gunfire, too, but that wasn't really helpful to add right now. They'd already figured that place had been a Joytoy Brothel. It was one of the things the Moxes had as their bread and butter, after all. They mostly ran Joytoys, Clubs, Designer Drugs, and so on. Club Drugs, though, not any of the Back-Alley Dorph that Gangoons like Maelstrom peddled.

"Oh yeah? Sounds like the Mox have some Preem Netrunners on their payroll now." Remarked Han.

"I don't think a Netrunner did this, Han." Frowned River, gesturing at the stack of body bags.

"Yeah, probably not. It's not the usual Netrunner MO." Agreed Han.

"You wanna know something, Han?" Questioned River.

"What's that?" Queried Han.

"All these cars, I ran their plates. Most of them come up as being registered to suspected aliases or known chop shop IDs. There's one that doesn't come up at all, though. That big one over there with the Military-Grade Iron on the roof mount." Intoned River.

"That? I think you're gonna be chasing down a lead on that one for a while. That's a Nomad Kombi. Those Gonks are slippery and can go off the grid and out into the Badlands before you can blink. I'd give up on that if I were you." Scoffed Han.

"What? It's a lead, Han." Insisted River.

"You never learned to pick your battles, did you? How did you make detective like that?" Asked Han.

"Hard work, Han. That means following leads when they're right in front of us." Scowled River.

"You go ahead and keep tilting at that windmill, see where it gets you. Some of us have actual police work to do. Be careful, though. You're not gonna go very far in this town by going after every lead you see." Warned Han.

River brushed off his Partner's so-called advice. It was just more of the same incompetence from the NCPD that had him joining up to show the Gonks just what a real cop could do. He'd figure out who owned this Kombi even if he had to stake out this parking lot until the Lockdown lifted to see them retrieve it themselves. Then he'd follow the owner back to wherever they were holed up and arrest them. Once they were in holding, he'd interrogate them and get the full story of what went down here. All he needed was to find the owner, he could feel it in his bones.

That night, he returned to the parking lot of the Hot Tin Roof Club in his truck, ready to stake the place out. He had coffee, he had takeout, and he had the will to stay here for days if he had to in order to catch the Gangoon. He'd use the toilet down the street at the Oasis Minimart on the Corner if he had to. All he needed to do now was wait. River would be waiting a long time. When he finally did get to arrest someone, it wasn't the owner of the vehicle, it was just some Gonk who'd seen a shiny Kombi and decided to try and Klep it. By the time he returned from interrogating that Gonk, however, the Kombi was gone.

And with that, River's one lead on the details of this fight had driven off with it. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here's the next chapter, we see reactions from various people and POVs, including one we haven't seen before in the form of River Ward, who is trying to figure out just what went down in the battles that forced the NCPD to institute a lockdown of Japantown. At the same time, V got pretty badly hurt in the fighting at the Hot Tin Roof Club, needing a bunch of blood infusions, cybersurgery, and multiple days of recovery. Meanwhile, the SI's Factory/Lab got a pretty damned big upgrade for him to tinker with. At the same time, Wakako is not having a good time, since the Tyger Claws have gotten pretty bloodied in the fighting so far and have lost multiple elites and middle management figures, only for their allies in the Organaksaya to force them to keep the war going.

Things are heading for a climactic showdown on the streets of Japantown just as soon as the Lockdown Ends. The SI and his group are going to try and ensure that when it does happen, the Tyger Claws, Organaskaya, or both are the ones who go down in the fighting, not them and not the Mox. That's gonna be difficult with Aleksander Yurinov doing his thing with the Organaskaya, but it's not impossible.

First, though, the SI has that job for Militech to complete out in Laguna Bend. That will be coming up in the next chapter. I'll also have character sheet updates out before then for both the SI and Aleksander Yurinov.

Stay tuned. . .