BOOM!
A violent explosion ripped through the street. The shockwave slammed into Maekawa and Brick's car from the side, flipping it twice through the air before it crashed into the guardrail.
[Brick: Cough, cough... damn it, what the hell happened—Joestar! Joestar! What the hell kind of shot was that?!]
Joestar jogged over quickly, yanking open the warped car door and reaching in to pull his boss out.
"Boss, I don't know either! DoomDoom said the voltage's been unstable lately, and NCPD keeps talking about someone sabotaging public systems—maybe that's why?"
Smack.
Brick was dragged out of the car, the chrome plating on his arm scraped off in chunks. He plopped down on the guardrail.
"Just my damn luck!"
Maekawa was soon pulled out too—but his state was far worse.
The Maelstrom Gang had always had top-tier cyberware, and after becoming one of Leo's experimental subjects, their bodies had gotten even stronger. Though it wasn't full-body conversion by market standards, it was close enough—less functionality, but built like tanks.
Maekawa might've had some good mods, but his level of augmentation was nowhere near Brick's.
Now his designer suit was just tatters of black and red—black from burns, red from blood.
"Damn it…" Maekawa spat as he looked around.
Westbrook was the most densely populated district in Night City—and not the slum kind of dense either.
Whatever people said about the area's "industry," it was home to the city's best entertainment and service scene.
But not anymore.
Explosions and car crashes had turned the street into chaos. Fire and smoke everywhere, wet slicks on the ground where bodies had been crushed under wheels.
The few surviving Tyger Claws were cowering behind cover, screaming and firing blindly, retreating like terrified street thugs.
A wave of helplessness welled up in Maekawa's chest.
Ever since he'd been beaten down, the Tyger Claws had lost all control over Westbrook—and even Japantown.
Now even the damn Moxes were stepping on their heads.
Hiss—
Three cars skidded to a stop right in front of Maekawa. A cyber-enhanced woman—the insane one from before—landed heavily on the street.
She didn't look good. The plasma blast had grazed her shoulder, the molten residue dripping downward under gravity until it had melted her entire left arm. Her mind seemed fried too. She staggered toward them.
Maekawa snapped out of his daze, panic flashing across his face. "Brick!"
The two Maelstrom gangsters rushed to join him behind an overturned car, peeking at the oncoming woman.
"Holy hell… what do we do now?" Brick muttered, elbowing Maekawa. "Hey man, where's your Arasaka backup and your NCPD magic call button?"
"You didn't watch the news?!" Maekawa barked. "Anti-corruption, anti-bribery—the NCPD can't wait to throw me in a cell! And Arasaka? They pulled funding ages ago! You think I'd be buying gear from you if they hadn't?!"
"Hey, hey, no need for that attitude! Damn Night City snobs always look down on us—"
"Can you not start this crap right now?!" Maekawa was losing it, grabbing Brick by his jacket's chrome plate so hard his hand got sliced open. "You're talking business deals when we're about to die?! You high or just stupid?!"
"Don't touch my boss!"
Joestar jumped between them with a raised arm, nearly sending Maekawa into a rage-induced aneurysm.
Had the Maelstrom Gang not just been beaten senseless—they'd been beaten stupid!
Brick's brain damage hadn't exactly helped, but behind his nonsense, he was still thinking—sort of.
Not that it mattered. The Maelstrom Gang barely had a few dozen members left, all scattered across other territories running side jobs.
Where the hell was he supposed to find backup now?
"Sigh… didn't wanna use this move, but guess I gotta."
"You've got a move?"
"Yeah. We surrender. Cooperate, serve a few years, come back fresh."
Maekawa felt his heart skip a beat.
Brick looked at him. "What? You've never done time? Couple years inside, come out a free man."
Yeah, sure—you do time, you walk free. I do time, Arasaka kills me in my cell tomorrow morning.
Beep—
The NCPD sirens were getting closer, rattling Maekawa's skull.
So this was it, huh?
After years of blood, sweat, and scheming—building Westbrook into Night City's "safest," most glamorous playground—his reign as the uncrowned king of Japantown was about to end at the hands of a few sex dolls?
Brick added, "Or you could just go with those Mox chicks behind us—move fast if you don't wanna get nabbed."
"本当に馬鹿みたいだな." (Really… what an idiot.)
Maekawa raised his hands, ready to surrender to the Moxes he used to despise.
But the moment he peeked over cover—his blood ran cold.
The cyberpsycho woman had grabbed one of her "sisters" and smashed her head into her own crotch!
Like a watermelon on concrete!
Maekawa ducked right back down, breaking into a cold sweat. "Screw this—run!"
"What?!"
Brick and Joestar had just started to follow when Maekawa poked his head out again.
"That chrome bitch's cyberpsychosis just kicked in!"
BOOM!
Another car exploded behind them.
[River: Yeah, there's an alarm going off in Japantown. Looks like the Tyger Claws and the Moxes are tearing into each other again. It's bad—HQ's authorized Centaur mechs.]
[River: Honestly, this isn't the first time Japantown's gone off lately. Ever since… those incidents, Westbrook's been a mess.]
[River: Not blaming you—Night City's been a warzone lately. Lots of old gangs popping up again, and they're all packing serious tech: the Butchers, the Black Queen, Wild Ones, Brain Demons…]
[River: But Westbrook's the worst right now.]
[River: HQ's pulling their hair out. We've got to find the source.]
[River: You wanna help? Sure. I'll get you the funding—this case is yours.]
Beep beep—
[V: So noisy. What, are we cops now?]
V frowned as she drove.
Mackinaw received a temporary police alert—the sound was piercing, even more so with them sitting inside the vehicle.
[Leo: Riding the authority wave—perfect timing to ask Maekawa something.]
In the pickup's trunk, Leo connected Jackie to the "Scorching Knuckles."
[Leo: By the way, what did the Moxes want from us?]
[V: Something about taking down the Zenith, liberating sisters… or something like that. But the contact didn't seem to be their boss, so I ignored it.]
V had one hand on the steering wheel, the other resting on the window, chin propped up, eyes scanning the chaotic crowd outside.
They were approaching the incident site, and the area was a mess.
Honestly, aside from the few times they themselves had stirred trouble, V hadn't seen the streets this chaotic before.
Several cars ahead were reversing in panic, blocking the entire street. V quickly picked a path with the least resistance, slammed the accelerator, nudged aside cars, mounting the curb and continuously forcing a path through traffic.
As she floored it, a small smile finally appeared on V's face.
"Ah… now I get why you installed that thing—the driving experience just skyrocketed."
Click—
The Scorching Knuckles were fully equipped. Jackie flexed his arms; the jet ports roared flames. The two massive fists collided with BOOM BOOM.
"So… are we officially outsourced to the Riot Control Task Force now?"
"Nope." Leo shook his head. The mechanical arm behind him shifted into mobile mode, pulling him into the back seat. "Stop worrying about who's hiring us. Forgot? We've got our own target. We're in range—countdown, five seconds."
Jackie nodded thoughtfully, dropping to one knee, palms pressed against the trunk floor. The turbo engine screamed, electricity in the circuits pushed to the limit, waiting for the power valves to fully unlock—
Leo's cybernetic eye synced with V's vision, locking onto the rampaging Mox gang member, calculating distance and required thrust in real time.
A full-body cybernetic—just like the others.
[Leo: 5…4…3…2…]
[1.]
Torrential power erupted. The Lizard Berserk Module fired at full output, the Scorching Knuckles spewed flames! The entire truck suddenly sank as the chassis scraped the ground, sparks flying across the asphalt like a fiery carpet being laid with the vehicle's forward motion!
Jackie leaped high, locking onto the target midair—
The thrill of suspension made his blood boil. He couldn't help but yell:
"Uppercut!"
[TN: Shoryuken]