pov
It was warm.
'What day is it?'
I got up from my bed. My messy bed.
The blankets clung to me, pulling me back into the mattress.
The comfort and warmth of the blankets were tempting, incredibly so.
However, "I've got shit to do."
I flung the blanket off of me, any more contact with them would have me trapped for hours.
The cold air of the room bit at my skin as I got dressed.
I glanced at my dresser, the photo of me and my parents a dull punch to the gut.
Get hit enough and you'll get used to it.
I entered my restroom and beelined to the sink.
Scrubbing my teeth I read the post it note on a pill bottle.
|It's better to take these and go outside where you'll see real people!|
I lifted the pill bottle and turned it around, reading the labels and the embedded words in the plastic.
I can't seem to remember what they say.
I found myself in the kitchen, a hot cup of orange juice in my hand?
I drank from the cup, perhaps the combination of orange juice and my freshly brushed teeth would evoke something.
I watched outside the window as I drank, looking at the great fire.
The fire?
I looked around me to confirm what I knew. My house was burning. I was burning.
The pain was-
povbreak
Bruce woke up startled, the time told him it was 5:30, the usual time.
"How many times?" He asked himself.
He thought that after fifteen conscious years of living here nightmares regarding his past death would have long since disappeared.
"Guess I still haven't moved on."
Though he's gotten used to it, the dream still gave him a sense of loss.
Much like the photo in the dream.
Bruce carried out his morning routine, checking his personal brick again.
Leia had texted him, she wanted to know when his rest days were.
After the initial rush of recognizing who Leia was he didn't know how to act regarding her.
She was special to him, for sure. A remnant of his past life he could call it.
At the same time, though she knew everything about him, he didn't know as much about her.
He looked in the mirror as he brushed his teeth.
'She reminds me of the other dream.'
He looked into his own eyes, reading himself through the mirror.
'The one with the mirror breaking.'
He spat out the toothpaste, rinsing his mouth with sink water.
'She was obsessed with me the moment she saw me.'
He thought about her more, while he went through his daily routine.
After his stretching today it would be conditioning.
The same as everyday, he watched the sun rise.
Its heat reminded Bruce of his last rest day. Six days ago when he woke up with Leia in his bed and when he spent nearly the whole day studying and cuddling with her.
She certainly knew to respect some of his boundaries at least.
Bruce believed that Leia had attachment issues.
He returned to his stretching, thinking about why she seemed to reincarnate here alongside him.
'Logically speaking, she shouldn't have appeared at all with any form of sentience.'
He watched the sun rise.
'I think she was the one leaving those notes behind.'
Bruce finished his stretches with one final question.
'If she came here, then will the others be here too?'
[Tomorrow is my rest day. Where do you want to meet?]
If it really came down to it, Bruce was ready to make friends, or fight for his life.
He put his personal brick down and left his room.
*Tss!
The time was ten in the morning.
The megabuilding gym was a sad excuse of a gym, one punching bag, one bench machine, one row machine, and empty space.
Bruce looked up, thinking about how many floors there were in each megabuilding.
'If each floor had its own small gym I can see why they have so little equipment.'
Bruce went to the punching bag, filled with sand.
Then he walked past it to a bucket, also filled with sand.
He started stabbing the sand with his fingers, making sure to also rotate his hands in the sand with every strike.
Was this the most optimal exercise?
Most probably not, but for Bruce it raised strength and constitution. It was enough.
Stabbing the sand, over and over again.
He looked down at his hands, entering and exiting the bucket.
'I'm hardly sane am I?'
He didn't usually think so much about himself, at least, not in this world.
The repetitive movements of his hands lulled him into a trance.
'Did I take my pills today? No, I don't have pills to take in this body.'
His posture slipped a little, a small attempt of the body to wake his mind.
It didn't phase him, he corrected the mistake without any regard.
His muscles twitched, trying to tell him something. Like countless little movements trying to manifest.
He allowed them to stay, neither shaking them out nor letting them act.
ps* ps* ps*
The same thing every single week. A routine built on years of hard work.
Designated full days of rest, his limbs were to listen to him, and him alone.
There was much to think about for Bruce. What powered cyberware, how the electric grid worked, How many operating systems he had to learn to make a genuine all purpose quickhack.
What he enjoyed doing.
—
—
—
What did he enjoy?
Bruce paused, why was he working so hard?
He stood and returned to his room, nearly jogging.
He checked the time, 12:12. Today wouldn't be a productive day for studying.
He took one of his many phones, this one with notes, and plugged it into the TV.
With text to speech mode he made it so that the TV would read out all of his notes, beginning from nearly fifteen years ago.
With his own learning verbalizing itself at him he began looking around his apartment.
He looked for his projects, the ever growing cluster of circuits and cooling systems, the files, the custom electronics.
All born of necessity, not desire.
No, he wanted something from these things.
Just as he searched through the apartment he scoured through his mind, through his memories.
Where was it?
Nearly all of it was training, bonus conditioning, training, studying, researching.
Oh, last week. The words he said, it was hard to remember what he thought at the time.
But he certainly said something.
{I need to do something first before everything else.}
Yes, those words, but what was the something?
He brought himself to his mirror, studying himself once more.
The silence was stronger than before.
What did he complain about? What did he dislike?
The fridge caught the corner of his eye.
The food, yes the food, there was no real meat. Why?
In this region plagues wiped out the livestock and the crops across America.
What about everywhere else? couldn't he just move to another country?
The vending machine caught his eye.
The corporations, the extremes of an economic system.
Exploitation?
He looked again at the fridge, this time letting his eyes wander about the kitchen unit.
He was paying extra for that, he'd need to pay extra to remove the vending machine too.
Yes exploitation, but what else?
He looked at himself, normal, completely normal. The face was, different, but he grew in this world with this face. Its sharp features and fine proportions were reminiscent of something he liked in the past.
Animation, anime, art. Not in this world, just product placement and overused cliches.
Cliches, young master was one of them, he glanced at the pile of bricks on the floor.
Right, who writes anything fantasy nowadays? Or at least, is there even a good writer out there?
He looked himself in the eyes through the mirror.
'Economic extremes, poor food quality, "art", her.'
He kept thinking, trying to form full words instead of just vague understandings in his mind.
'Exploitation, from above, can't leave the city, need to do something so that "we" are fine.'
He felt like he was trying to cross the border between listlessness and clarity.
It was always tough achieving clarity.
His eyes widened slightly, his mind stringing together what his original intentions were when he realized what world he was in.
'I will fix this world, no matter the cost.'
He left the mirror and returned to his project room.
He snatched his cyberdeck and connected to the net.
He needed a shard, even a quickhack would do.
Some very specific quickhacks.
He looked through the net, the BBS, anywhere.
He noted any neurology shards he could find for sale, each going for more than twenty thousand eddies.
The only way for an average citizen to get these shards is to join the corporation and pray they could survive.
He looked through the available posted quickhacks, bait, ping, short circuit.
The ones he was looking for, they weren't listed.
He kept searching, even the lowest available one would help him in his research.
Then he found one, something that helped, at least a little bit.
Cripple movement.
Thirteen thousand eddies, from Bruce's rent and his spending habits this was not a small load.
Having found his precious research materials Bruce took a moment to rest.
The robotic prattle of his own writing echoed in the background as Bruce deliberated.
Secrets of the human mind, or a minor hack that impedes lower body control.
'On one hand, direct control of the higher ups later, on the other, learn some aspect of control on the human body now.'
His hand returned to the device.
'I do need to survive first before I can get in their heads don't I?'
A question was sent.
[Includes source code?]
He waited, one second, two, and a few lines changed on the screen.
A botched representation of the people moving around the net, but still a representation.
change was constant on his screen, but soon enough a message came back.
[If you can crack it Mr.-?]
He thought for a moment, 'A small price to pay, just some extra time to work on the craft.'
[I'll buy it.]
seconds passed.
[Kabuki market, come to this shop. I will need a name for the order, you will pay in store.]
There was nothing else for Bruce to do.
[Nous, tomorrow.]
He disconnected right away, leaving the seller to their own devices.
Like he had completed a great task Bruce leaned back in his seat, his mind mulling over what he would need to do.
'Step by step.'
He wandered his room and grabbed his personal phone.
[Your place then?]
He texted back.
[I got something I need to do in Kabuki, down for a road trip?]
The reply was instant.
[Yes!]
Now the only thing left for him to do was study, feed himself, and then clean and sleep.
The day was short, but he had some time to think before he slept.
'Is that the only bout of dissociation I've had in this life? Or is this the only bout of clarity in this life?'
With that, he embraced the night.
5:30
Again, he rose before the sun. Again he cleansed himself of the remnants of the night.
Bruce thought about his immediate desires.
He would kill a family of five, dog first, in order to get a cutting of mint to grow on his own.
He shook his head, perhaps this world really was getting to him.
He stretched a little bit, it never hurt to stretch just that little bit more.
As he moved his body Bruce considered the fighting techniques of his past life.
'I would probably be incredibly resistant to the joint locks in BJJ now.'
|Thunk thu-thumk|
Someone knocked on the door.
Bruce checked the time. 6:13.
Leia was just in time for the sunrise.
He opened the door, stifled Leia's greeting and brought her inside, past his home gym equipment and to the window.
The window that he just opened.
He made sure to watch the sunrise everyday. He needed to preserve some parts of his wonder if he was to appreciate the work he set out to do.
Today however, he watched Leia.
He focused on the corner of his eye, how she really felt about the sunrise.
Her eyes sparkled with wonder, her face lit by the rose gold splendor of today's sun.
Yet, she did not look at the sun.
From the corner of his eyes he could see it, when the heat of the sun reached her skin she had no care for it.
Where he would take in the whole city and allow himself wonder, she would stare at him.
She clung to him with an iron grip.
She would stare at his face, basking in the joy that he would hold.
Like the moon reflecting the light of the sun.
Only today, his mind was not on the sun.
"What's wrong Bruce?"
Her eyes were dull, could Bruce call what he saw in them anger?
"Is the sunrise bad today?"
She spoke like she could solve the problem.
Bruce held her tightly, he should be careful with her.
"I have much to think about, I have plans to follow through with."
She analyzed him, from head to toe, his eyes, his breathing, his ears.
He still faced the sun, though he had shifted his gaze forward. Bruce had an inkling of new understanding regarding Leia.
Though he couldn't yet verbalize it to himself.
She traced his shoulder, deliberate focus on the connection between the chest and the shoulder.
A smile adorned her face again, though Bruce would not wager on its authenticity.
"Just make sure to leave time for yourself Bruce. Ok?"
Even to this, Bruce had to carefully word his response.
"Yeah, I'll make some time for myself."
In the window's reflection Bruce saw Leia smile again, this time without a doubt she smiled happily.
He was safe.
As the sun rose in its entirety and the colors of the horizon faded Bruce turned to Leia.
"Gotta go to Kabuki, picking up a quickhack."
Leia, ever joyful to accommodate Bruce, happily nodded.
"Let's go shopping!"
She flung her arms up with the exclamation too, childlike and endearing.
"Yeah, I could get some more electronics too."
—
7:00
Bruce did not anticipate the lack of traffic. What could have been a two or three hour trip was cut down to just thirty minutes.
What that also meant was that none of the stores were open yet. Not even the food stands.
Bruce found a free spot to park his car, it being a Mahir Supron meant that there was nothing of value in it or on it to steal.
'A perk of shitty taste I guess.'
"Hey hey Bruce."
Leia had already gotten his right arm.
"Yeah?"
She hopped a little up and down.
"Let's look at the shitty building designs. It's ugly in all the funny ways!"
Bruce felt like he caught something, he couldn't name it but it definitely helped in understanding Leia's thinking.
"Sure."
They walked around, the alleys, the streets, the terraces, and even the roofs.
"They're built pretty sturdy, I'll give em that."
Bruce kicked a can. He watched it land in a dumpster.
Leia kicked another bit of trash on the floor. It fluttered about on the way down, landing nowhere in particular.
"They're still using window mounted air conditioning units though."
Bruce kicked more rubbish into the dumpsters below.
"These aren't standardized buildings, hell they aren't even corp buildings. Centralized air conditioning would cost too much to install and isn't worth the hassle."
Bruce hopped up onto the next roof with Leia following him.
He grabbed her hand as she landed.
"Isn't it funny how those gang members aren't out yet?"
Bruce confirmed one of his questions. Leia had as much social knowledge as he did.
Hardly any at all.
"Well, it is 7:50, still early in the morning."
Leia swung her arms a little more.
"Shops open at eight right?"
Bruce glanced at her.
"I think it was nine."
Leia nodded.
"An hour to kill huh? Want to go do something?"
They walked along.
"Aren't we already doing something?"
Leia nodded, "Yeah yeah, we're having a nice walk, but I mean something a little more exciting."
A little confused Bruce asked, "Like what?"
They stopped in front of a little run down area just on the edge of Kabuki.
"I saw some scavs on the drive here, want to off a few of them?"
'Ah, I think I see it now.'
An extra puzzle piece was handed to Bruce, his eyes landed on Leia with newfound light.
He took out his Nue. 'I shouldn't encourage such behavior, but I also can't let her spiral. Not here at least.'
"I only brought two mags and the deck today."
He referred to his combat tools.
"That's ok! We have enough strength to just pop their heads!"
Oh that changed things. 'What has she been doing?'
Leia brought her finger to her chin for a moment before speaking again.
"Yeah and they give one full unmitigated statpoint each! It's way faster than training!"
Bruce stiffened for a moment. 'I have my work cut out for me.'
He did have an important question though. "Are we bulletproof?"
Leia nodded her head happily as she directed their walk.
"Nine millimeter and smart pistol proof! They do leave bruises though."
Bruce sighed.
"Please don't intentionally test the effectiveness of firearms against our stats."
She nodded, a little confused by the request but still in a good mood.
"Ok then! I wont test that then. Say, how many scavvies do you think are here?"
They arrived at a mostly empty lot. Several cars were completely stripped bare, and a few barrels were covered in ash and soot.
Bruce looked at the garages and the containers.
"Three or six, so treat it like there's twenty?"
Leia pulled out her gun. A DR5 Nova.
"When we're done it'll be zero!"
And she ran forward excitedly.
"Wait! At least let me use my shitty ping hack!"
Bruce ran forward as well, rolling up his jacket sleeve and activating his cyberdeck.
He looked around the empty space, wary of any possible ambushes.
clackdkclklt
His fingers were a blur as he uploaded a series of commands to his deck.
Leia stopped and hid behind a container, still in view of Bruce.
She winked at him, gun ready to fire if anyone came around.
Bruce got the results of his ping seven seconds later, filled with machinery and other electronic signatures.
He read through it looking for anything that could be relevant.
Why the lights were available for net connectivity still baffled him.
He scrolled through the available signatures and finally found something relevant. Seven similar signatures, each with the same attachment and similar traces on the net. Like they came from the same factory box.
'I think these are scav masks.'
He sourced those attachments to his cyberdeck screen and saw the typical clown holo mask images all scavs wore.
'They are.'
He waved at Leia and signed 7.
She grinned and jumped on the top of the container. Making no noise as she landed.
Bruce followed her, closing the distance and perching right next to her.
"So Bruce, you know where they are?"
Bruce shook his head.
"No, I can't even guess either since to my deck it all took the same amount of time for every signature to show."
Leia tilted her head.
"That's too bad then, I guess we're going loud."
Bruce's eyes widened in realization as Leia pointed her gun at one of the nearby floodlights.
"Leia are you fucking crazy!"
He whispered harshly.
BANG!
A minor bout of tinnitus hit the duo after the gunshot rang.
Harmless to the pair as it rapidly faded.
However that gunshot also brought out the scavengers that were nearby.
"WHO WAS THAT!"
Garage doors opened, from the right came four scavengers, one tall man, one blonde crackhead, two average fat men.
Bruce immediately grabbed Leia and pulled her down as he laid flat on the container.
The next three scavengers came from their left, in the garages they passed to get to this container.
"ANISIM I SWEAR TO GOD IF THAT WAS YOU AGAIN!"
The fattest of the three shouted.
He was flanked by two other guys. Both were balding.
Leia leaned over to Bruce's ear.
"Those bald guys are probably thanking me for shooting, imagine that fatass' snoring."
Bruce nodded, such a joke was something he could appreciate.
He fired back. "That crackhead was probably looking for a break."
A radiant smile came across Leia's face.
As they exchanged jokes the scavengers came to an agreement, they split up into groups, two, two, and three.
Two flanked and searched the containers around Bruce and Leia, three searched the far side of the lot and the last two inspected the broken floodlight.
Leia whispered to Bruce. "I guess we can do quiet."
He nodded, crawling to the end of the container quietly.
One of the bald twins was below him. He glanced back and saw that Leia was already in the motion to pounce.
'Shit!'
He had to act right away too, else this guy hears.
He got up from his crouch and dashed forwards lightly, a little scuff sounding out as his shoe slid on the container.
The scavenger had a moment to react as Bruce's forearm empowered by the fall approached him.
Still unsure of what he heard, the scavenger turned around and looked up. His iron still at his side.
Bruce slammed his right forearm into the scavenger's throat, crushing it immediately.
The thing before him was a clanker, even if the throat was damaged they definitely still had something they could do even with its throat crushed.
The scavenger's eyes began to glow as he tried to push out a distress call.
With his forearm still on the man's throat Bruce pushed the man's head down, right into his knee.
He felt the skull cave in and the neural port crumble as he crushed the scavenger's brain, extinguishing the attempt to call for backup.
In the back of his mind Bruce felt a +1 floating around his stats, ready to go wherever he wanted it to.
Looking around Bruce found himself in the clear. He grabbed the corpse and hid it behind the container.
He turned around and saw Leia doing the same. She winked at him and threw the corpse she had at him.
He looked and, the scavenger was alive. His throat was crushed, his neural port was ripped out and his jaw was broken open.
Looking at Leia she winked and spoke. "Stat points just for you baby."
Oh he definitely had work to do.
He put the man out of his misery , crushing the brainstem with his boot.
"Do you at least have a plan for the next five Leia?"
She shook her head, her eyes were greatly joyful.
"We just need to kill them, yeah? Look, this guy has a grenade, that guy has a grenade, you throw it and that's an easy plus five!"
Oh what an uphill battle it was for Bruce.
He glanced around the container, the scavengers at the floodlight were already closing in.
They definitely heard something from the quick takedown earlier.
He glanced at Leia again, her hands were covered in blood, her jacket sleeve was ruined and so was her blue shirt.
Her brown pants were stained in blood too.
He looked at his own clothing, his pants and boots had acquired blood as well.
"We need to talk about this later."
Leia tilted her head in confusion. Confused as to what they needed to discuss.
"Talk about what? And why not now?"
Bruce listened closely to the scavengers' footsteps. They split, hoping to hit their side of the container from two directions.
Bruce gestured with his gun for Leia to cover the other edge of the container.
She happily obliged, her Nova pointed at crotch height.
Bruce tried to stammer out a reminder that he wanted to do this quietly, but it was stifled as he heard approaching footsteps.
A DA8-Umbra peeked past the container.
In the split second he saw it, Bruce checked its angle, if he ducked away from the barrel would the bullets hit Leia?
Yes, they would.
He burst into action, grabbing and pulling the gun out of the scavenger's hand.
TARATATA!
Their panicked grip pulled at the gun's trigger as Bruce ripped the gun away.
"They're here!!"
"Shut the fuck up clanker."
Bruce flung the umbra far away and used his forearm to crush the goon's throat against the container.
Her arms went up to defend herself but they shattered as Bruce's arm swung by.
He took the moment to look for the last three scavengers.
Their angered voices aiding his search.
They were quickly approaching, but they had the whole empty lot to get through.
He glanced to his side to see Leia dragging her victim to him.
"Leia kill him now, stop playing with your food."
She paused, "But your stat points."
"Points be damned Leia, kill him, shoot him in the stem."
The wordplay brought a smile to her face as she shot the man in the back of the head.
She didn't even register the extra stat point.
"They're behind that container!"
"Grenade!"
At the second scavenger's word Bruce cursed.
His options were to leave cover, or try and throw the grenade back.
'I did spend a lifetime preparing for something I guess.'
Leia was mostly unbothered, she definitely did more testing than nine millimeter munitions.
Bruce's eyes held the gray sky overhead, the colored sky scarred by the so-called greatness of humanity.
A singular twitch and, he saw the grenade, he jumped, just enough to barely reach the grenade.
Midair, he sighted his targets, and with a flick of his shoulder down to his fingers he flung the grenade back to its sender.
"SHIT TAKE COVER!!"
Unfortunately for them they had long since crossed over into open space. There was no cover, or even concealment for them to get behind.
The explosion took away Bruce's hearing as he felt the wind briefly change direction.
A faint +2 echoed in the back of his mind.
A glance at Leia told him one thing.
She was just vibing.
He peaked around the container, looking at where the scavengers were originally.
Two faceless bodies, their heads were blasted open.
One man still trying to crawl behind cover.
His hopes pinned on getting to the far side of the lot.
The sight made Bruce smile involuntarily.
Some mirth for his troubles.
He waved at Leia, still a little deafened.
"The last guy is just crawling over there! You go kill him! I'm going to scrounge what eddies I can from these guys' accounts!"
Leia nodded her head and went off towards the crawling man.
Bruce pulled a wire out of his deck and plugged it into one of the four corpses at his feet.
Two ICEbreaker algorithms were all that he needed to connect to the remnants of the scav's funds.
'Accounts are shut down about 24 hours after an owner's death, the money usually returning to the corp holding funds or to whoever could get into the account before then.'
There was plenty of trivia for Bruce to learn in this world.
One, two.
Three, yeah he crushed this guy's port with his knee earlier.
Four, Leia had shot this one in the crotch and then the back of the head, from the neural port.
Nothing to scavenge.
"Hey Bruce."
He looked up.
"yeah?"
She tossed a man at his feet.
"Stat points."
She had a smile on her face, innocent, unlearned in societal norms.
He looked down, the man's tongue was ripped out, he would bleed out if he didn't do anything.
Drown in his own blood even.
Bruce shook his head, 'I can't just confront her about this now, I need to do this step by step, with subtlety.'
"No Leia, you got this guy, just put him out of his misery."
He reflected on himself again, walking to the other two corpses to see if he could still loot their accounts.
Leia tilted her head, 'Why isn't he taking these free points? Is he doing a challenge run or something?'
She watched him walk off towards the other corpses.
Looting them for anything of value.
Under her boot was the final scavenger, his wheezing and his tears making it obvious he wanted to be free of his pain.
Leia paid the thing no mind, the only thing on her mind was Bruce.