[Maya: Leo, the news lately is terrifying… it really feels like a war's about to start.]
"Yeah, big headlines non-stop. City Hall got bombed five days ago — same type of explosives used on Holt."
[Leo: Don't worry, Mom. Did you know the company just opened a branch in Latveria? Christopher sent back a bunch of pictures. You can check if it looks the same as before.]
Leo rubbed his forehead. "City Hall? Any more leads?"
V, walking ahead, gave him a strange look. "Didn't you spend a whole week lying in bed?"
"...Hacking's a physically demanding job."
"Tch."
V gave Leo's small frame a disdainful glance and, while stepping into the elevator, reached out to tug at his mechanical arm.
The little octopus drone on his belt helpfully activated its sensory-simulation system, providing an oddly realistic "soft touch" experience.
V gave an approving hum. "NCPD's as clueless as ever. My guess? Someone local's pulling strings behind the scenes.
The gear's probably leaking from the Kabuki black market. I went there earlier — the amount of new stock is insane."
"New stock?"
"Yup. Looks like our international friends have started selling in Night City."
"No kidding," Leo nodded.
V agreed with a grim nod. "And there's another big one, same level as the City Hall bombing. You wouldn't even hear about it if I didn't have NCPD contacts.
A biker gang went nuts in Westbrook — scared the Tyger Claws so bad they almost pissed themselves. NCPD called in the MaxTac Unit.
Their bikes were crazy — could ride up walls, launch rockets and all that."
V paused for emphasis. "Felt like they were trying to steal our spotlight. Luckily, the MaxTac team blew them to hell. Literally."
She sent Leo an internal NCPD photo.
A motorcycle charged through a barricade — the rider roaring with a blade in each hand, six more blades mounted somewhere on his joints, gleaming under the moonlight with an almost artistic menace.
Rumor had it that just before this photo was taken, one of them had already been reduced to liquid by a Centaur mecha.
The next photo showed them midair — moments before detonating — after the MaxTac team hit them with some oversized weapon. The projectile was the size of a small artillery shell.
In less than 1/60th of a second, ten rounds were fired, five hit. Nothing left to bury.
NCPD's tech analysis team marked the dead edge-runner's body with:
[Note: Full-body cybernetic conversion]
[Height: 1.98–2.0 meters]
[Weight: 159–180 kg]
[Classification: Suspected "Alpha-grade"]
[Self-identified gang: 'Slaughterhouse']
V frowned. "So… what's Alpha-grade supposed to mean?"
Leo quickly recalled something and found the answer in a netwatch handbook.
No wonder V didn't know — "Alpha-grade" full-body conversions were tech from over fifty years ago, a flagship model once made by International Electrics.
Full-body cybernetic conversions were rare even in Night City, but one name stood out — Adam Smasher, the walking billboard for chrome.
Rather than just implanting cyberware into a body, Alpha-grade meant transplanting a human brain into a fully artificial body.
After the procedure, the host's body reached Olympic-level performance across all parameters, with massive defense and pain resistance. The rich could even buy premium Alpha-grade units offering the highest modular compatibility on the market.
Leo summarized, "Ancient tech. Over fifty years old. Same category as Adam Smasher's build."
"Still sounds pretty badass," V said. "Heard in the black market it goes for around 110,000 eddies — but after surgery, most get dumped in alleys. Ripperdocs are terrified they'll go psycho."
Full-brain transplants needed serious hardware. Those ripperdocs definitely had corporate backers.
After answering V's question, Leo asked his own: "This 'Slaughterhouse' gang…"
"Oh, small-time Northside crew," V said. "Used to have some glory days, but Maelstrom crushed them ages ago. No idea why they're back now."
Leo nodded slowly. "Actually… we do know."
The elevator doors opened. They stepped out of the tower base and saw Jackie sitting at a ramen stand, wiping his mouth.
"Hermano! You finally came out! The Mox and the Tyger Claws look ready to tear each other apart — we—"
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
A low police siren blared. NCPD cruisers screamed past the street — and surprisingly, they now had pickup trucks with Centaur mechs mounted in the back.
Leo immediately recognized the design — a modified Villefort.
[NCPD Dispatcher: Illegal activity reported in Japantown. Requesting backup, do you copy?]
[NCPD Officer: 3-3-1, copy. Dispatch, you free tonight?]
Japantown District — Sagan Street
One of the busiest commercial areas in Night City. Crowds filled the wide boulevard — until a rocket suddenly shot through the air.
BOOM!
Panic erupted. Civilians screamed and dove for cover. Nearby Tyger Claws swore and scrambled behind barriers, guns drawn.
Around the corner, a Tyger Claw sports car — red, yellow, and green — slammed nose-first into the pavement, crumpling its sleek frame.
Inside, Maekawa Takeshi wrestled with the wheel. The car skidded violently, scattering parts across the street. Sparks trailed behind like a line of fire.
"Go to hell, you damn bastards!"
A furious woman's voice echoed down the street. More cars poured in, most losing control and crashing onto sidewalks or flipping over.
At the moment one flipped, a woman stepped lightly across the spinning car's side, slipped a grenade inside—
BOOM!
Maekawa's passenger, Brick, a Maelstrom boss, roared.
Left hand gripping the window, his right arm twisted backward at an impossible angle as he fired wildly behind them.
His target: the pursuing Mox convoy.
The Mox gunners screamed back, spraying bullets. The Tyger Claws' cars couldn't even return fire — their lower members were getting shredded in the chaos.
The Mox girls inside the cars fired nonstop, eyes red with rage, completely feral.
"These chicks are insane!" Brick shouted over the gunfire. "What the hell did you do to them, Maekawa?!"
"How the f*** should I know?!" Maekawa yelled, face flushed.
"Ah!"
BOOM!
Grenades exploded down the street. Shrapnel flew — a shard lodged in Brick's eye. Snarling, he ripped it out, tossing the piece aside.
"Where's your NCPD contact, huh?! Where—"
"Gone, dumbass! They all got busted! You're the one who wanted to sell this thing — well, show me how it works!"
"Almost there…"
Beep—beep—
Both froze as NCPD sirens blared.
[Brick: Joestar!]
[Joestar: Boss, it's ready!]
[TN: JoJo is back]
Ahead, Joestar, his body fully chromed, sprinted out of a storefront dragging thick power cables connected to a massive gun mounted on the roadside railing —
A long electromagnetic barrel with a smoking, glowing red spherical "magazine."
He gave Brick a thumbs-up and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
A blazing projectile cut through sunlight and slammed straight into a Mox car.
BOOM!
But then — something even brighter.
The red-hot magazine in Joestar's arms overheated, glowing white — it was about to explode!
Cursing, he dropped it, scanning wildly, then jammed a scrap of metal into the trigger, wrapped the wire around a pole, and bolted.
The weapon overloaded — spitting out superheated plasma like a deadly fountain!
The Mox cyborgs watching froze for a heartbeat — their neural augments slowing perception — and they could see the supersonic plasma jets crawl through the air toward them.