Chapter 90: Smasher
A/N: The Fight! (From Smasher's POV~)
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"Took you long enough."
The meat that Silverhand has taken over doesn't look even a little like the dead rocker boy in appearance, but he certainly acts, dresses, and moves like him. Smasher remembers seeing the absolute terror in the meat's eyes back that night at Konpeki Plaza when he'd very nearly totaled the Delamain the meat was escaping in.
There's none of that fear now. Despite not looking half as chromed up as he would need to be in order to go toe to toe with Adam fucking Smasher, the meat stands there holding Silverhand's gun like he doesn't have a care in the world.
Blasting forward, Smasher doesn't waste time with words. His response is in his actions, aiming to rip through Silverhand's latest body right then and there to open the fight. Ambush? Yeah, he knew it was going to be an ambush. He wasn't fucking stupid. But he also didn't care. Let them think they got one up on him. He'd re-kill Silverhand with his opening move and then slaughter his way through the rest from there.
Only, just as he's reaching the meat that Silverhand is wearing, someone else jumps up from behind his head with hulking gorilla arms chambered and aimed right at Smasher's face.
"FUCKIN' GET SOME!"
The woman, who Smasher only recognizes as Rebecca Carmine because of Hanako Arasaka's reminder, lunges forward, all aggression, no defense. Smasher isn't so foolish. He aborts his charge on Silverhand, sets himself in place, and raises his arm to block her strike… before contemptuously swiping her aside with that same arm when her gorilla arms only just manage to dent his chassis.
"Out of my way, pipsqueak."
Alas, by the time he's sent her flying off to the side, Silverhand has already started moving, the Malorian in his hand coming up and firing into Smasher's borg body. Sensors immediately start reporting damage as the aim proves to be surprisingly true, powerful explosive bullet after powerful explosive bullet finding weaknesses that shouldn't exist and hitting them with pinpoint accuracy.
Rumbling in displeasure, Smasher reaches back behind himself even as his borg body barely jerks from the shots. Yanking his Tsunami Arms Helix off of his back, he snarls as he gets the hex-barreled gatling shotgun into position, pointing it directly at Silverhand. The meat 'bravely' dives for cover as he begins to fire from the hip, massive 10-gauge slugs lashing out and making swiss cheese of the surrounding environment.
Unfortunately, they don't make swiss cheese of the meat himself, annoyingly enough… and the next thing Smasher knows, he's receiving more alerts, this time to tell him that he's being Quickhacked of all things.
A flash of honest incredulity washes through the borg at that point. Someone was seriously trying to hack him? Did they not know who he was? Adam Smasher's ICE ate Netrunners for breakfast. He'd sent dozens of the best and brightest into fucking comas over the decades just by existing in the same space as them, and those were the lucky ones. The rest burnt out just trying to get past the first layers of his ICE.
Which is why its honestly shocking when, for the first time in half a century at least, Smasher finds himself actually stumbling as a Reboot Optics Quickhack actually gets through. Partially only, since his optics are actually on separate systems for exactly that reason, but its still quite jarring to suddenly lose half of his eyesight to the hidden Netrunner.
"WHO DARES?!"
"FUCK YOU, THAT'S WHO!"
And of course, the fucking technicolor gremlin with the gorilla arms is back attacking from his new blind spot. Not that it matters. He already has her number, he figures. As such, Smasher swings his Helix around to smack her once more, this time down into the ground so he can stomp her dead instead of giving her a chance to recover and get back into the fight.
Only, instead of going all attack like he's expecting her to, the bitch actually has the audacity to change it up. One of her gorilla hands closes around the barrel of his helix… and the sound of metal grinding fills the warehouse as she squeezes down hard and ruins the gun right then and there.
That's annoying… but not nearly as annoying as another round from Silverhand's Malorian hitting the side of his head, landing dangerously close to Smasher's one remaining optic. To be fair, his optics are armored and his brain isn't anywhere near the 'head' of his chassis, but its still fucking annoying as all fuck.
"Damn meat!"
They were smarter than he'd given them credit for. He might have figured out it was an ambush, but he'd underestimated how much of an ambush it would be, clearly. Sending out a ping to his reinforcements, all of whom should have been right behind him, returns absolutely nothing back… meaning dozens of Arasaka's finest cyber ninjas are already dead or someone is blocking them from getting to him both in meat space and cyberspace.
Smasher finds himself betting on the latter, especially when a second ping sent out immediately after DOES gets a response… but not from any of his reinforcements.
"Sorry Adam. But your boys and girls aren't going to be able to come play with you today."
That voice, he doesn't need to be reminded to recognize. Johnny Silverhand's better half in more ways than could be counted. The true reason behind the Night City Holocaust. A Legend from half a life time ago.
Altiera fucking Cunningham.
Maybe his enemies are just playing games with him. Probably, even. But at the same time, he can easily believe she'd be back too in some shape or form. If Silverhand could come back like he has, then it stood to reason that she could as well.
One might expect Smasher to feel some fear at this point. He's being pushed like he hasn't been pushed in decades. He's being brought to the edge of something he hasn't faced in all that time… the possibility of death. The attacks keep coming, though he gives as good as he gets. And for all that Silverhand's new body seems to have better aim than his old one did, for all the damage that Malorian is capable of… he's still Adam motherfucking Smasher.
Pulling out the SlamDance, his Hyper-Hammer, Smasher brings it down on the ground in front of him to make some space. He roars as he swings it too and fro, preventing the bitch with the gorilla arms from getting closer and keeping Silverhand from lining up another shot.
At the same time, he can feel more Quickhacks attempting to take hold in his systems, but they're having a hard time finding purchase. See, his ICE isn't just top of the line… it's fucking adaptive. Anyone who wins once against him isn't going to be able to do the same thing a second time.
Though… he does grin as he develops suspicions about just who the persistent Netrunner is. Not Altiera, he doesn't think, though she's clearly here to. No, this one… this is the Netrunner girl who was friends with the gorilla arm bitch. Lucy or something like that.
A year ago, when he'd torn her little boyfriend to pieces and ripped that experimental junk he was using off of him, she'd tried to hack Smasher then and nearly gotten her brain cooked for it. But now… well, apparently a lot can change in a year. Especially when you're backed up by Alt Cunningham.
That said… all of this is far too planned to be one of Silverhand's plans. This whole thing is just too well thought-out. In the end, there's only one person who could plan an ambush like this. And it's not fucking Johnny Silverhand.
With a fresh roar, Smasher swipes back his enemies yet again and spreads his arms wide.
"WHERE IS SHE?! WHERE'S ROGUE HIDING, HUH?!"
Rogue Amendiares. The woman who got away with nuking Arasaka Tower. Who bent the knee and kissed the ring of the old man so that the Emperor would leave her alone, letting her become Queen of the shit heap. Smasher had always wanted a chance to kill the bitch, to find out just how washed up retirement had made her.
… If this was her plan but she wasn't here to take part herself, he'd be so very disappointed.
As soon as that thought crosses his mind though, a heavy weight lands on him from above. His half-offline optics provided a blind spot he wasn't used to dealing with, and he never sees it coming.
"I'm right here, Smasher. Right fucking here."
The telltale sound of grenades being primed causes him to let out another roar as he reaches back for her. One of his hands closes around her midsection and rips her away from his neck, but not before she drops multiple explosive devices into the grooves of his chassis, back behind the first layers of his armor.
He begins to squeeze down on her all the same, trusting the lower layers of his armor to protect him even as he aims to crush Rogue to death right then and there. Annoyingly, she doesn't look scared as he stares at her with his one working eye. She looks resolved. Determined. He hates the meat who act so brave in the face of a grisly death.
BOOM!
Only, just as he's squeezing down, a certain Malorian barks off a shot, the bullet taking him right in the wrist. It shouldn't be possible, his wrists are armored as much as any other part of his chassis, but the bullet does just enough damage to cause his fingers to spasm open and Rogue to fall free from his grip.
She lands in a roll, ducking under his follow up swing and dodging out of the way just a moment before the grenades begin to go off. Smasher's chassis jerks back and forth as EMP and Frag Grenades alike trade off, exploding and shocking his borg body from the inside.
His redundant systems immediately boot up to handle the load however, the attack doing some damage but not nearly as much as they're probably expecting. Scoffing, Smasher takes a step forward towards Amendiares, still fully planning to end her once and for all as soon as he gets his hands on her.
Only, that single step turns into a stumble of all things as his borg body betrays him and he drops to a knee. At the same time, his sensors begin to scream at him that he's being hacked again… and this time the damage from the EMP Grenades was enough to disable some of his systems, removing layers of ICE.
A voice whispers in the back of his mind through his cyberware, a feminine tone brushing across his thoughts.
"This is for David, you bastard."
Then, the pain starts. Overheat, Short Circuit, Contagion, and Synapse Burnout. The little Netrunner bitch doesn't bother with just one… she throws them all at him and sees what sticks. Unfortunately, most of them stick more than they ever should, his defenses peeled off of him and exposing the vulnerable cyberware underneath.
His body stops responding after a certain point, simply jerking and sparking as he knees there. But that's not enough for them. They remove his arms first and then his legs, the dead girl with the gorilla arms tearing them off of him after some well placed shots from Silverhand's Malorian to the joints.
Only once he's reduced to nothing but a torso do they stand over him, staring down. Looking back up at them with one working optic, Smasher sneers at Silverhand in particular.
"Trust you to ride your betters' coattails all the way to the Finish Line even after being taken out of the race, Silverhand."
The mercenary wearing Silverhand's clothes and wielding Silverhand's pistol silently tilts his head to the side, even as he lifts the Malorian up. The girl with the gorilla arms manages to tear the last of Smasher's armor away from his chest, exposing his vulnerable braincase, which the Malorian is subsequently pointed at.
There's a pause that follows, in which Smasher scoffs.
"Do it, Silverhand. And rest uneasy knowing you didn't do anything to earn this victory."
Humming, Silverhand… shakes his head and flips the Malorian around all of the sudden, passing it off to Rogue who steps up beside him. Then, much to Smasher's shock and confusion… it's almost like Silverhand melts away. One moment he would swear that the meat looming over him was the rocker boy come again, his mannerisms and attitude outing him as Silverhand's engram possessing a new pile of flesh and bones.
The next though, it all fades and someone else stands there in his place, someone unfamiliar. The body and face don't change or anything, but the man who Smasher had been fighting suddenly doesn't feel like Silverhand at all. And indeed, in the end he gives an irreverent, casual shrug as he takes a step back.
"Sorry. You got the wrong guy. Johnny Silverhand's been dead for fifty years."
Smasher barely has the time to recognize the truth… that he's been well and truly had all the way from start to finish, when Rogue steps up with the Malorian in hand and points it down at the last organic part of Adam Smasher, his brain.
"For Johnny, you goddamn fucker."
BOOM!
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