Sunlight shone through the bent slats in my blinds, hitting me square in the face; I groaned and rolled over, hoping to be able to gain an extra five minutes, when all of a sudden, gunshots rang out outside, sighing, realising I was not going to be getting any more sleep with the gangers deciding to start a shootout first thing in the morning.
I activated the blinds control with my augments. The blinds began screeching together as the bent slats started to compact. I winced as light flooded my room, allowing me to see the mess of my apartment, bare concrete and a moulding carpet. Stepping over yesterday's clothes, I grabbed some clothes and went to the bathroom. The bathroom wasn't much better than the rest of my apartment. I made my way to the sink, looking into the broken mirror that hung over it. A young man of twenty stared back. He had short-cropped dark brown hair and piercing green eyes. A scar ran from the left side of his mouth, reaching up to just below his ear lobe; I got it from a local drunk when he didn't like how I had looked at him when I was twelve.
My augs began to ring, making me jump I quickly checked who was calling me. It was Pete, my boss at the bar I worked at promptly picked up. "Hey boss, what's up? You never call me before work," I said.
"No Nate I'm calling to make sure you're still alive Your late again" panicked. I looked at the time 11:26 in my augs. "Shit, sorry Pete, I must have overslept, and you know the last time was because I almost got jumped on the way to work. ", I quickly added, "I'll be there in fifteen minutes," hearing Pete grumble even more at my reply.
"I'll be counting," Pete responded before the call was cut off. Sighing, I decided to forgo the shower and start dressing.
"God damn it", I ran down the street, cutting through safer alleys to cut some time 'Pete is going to make me do all the shit jobs today' as I emerged from an alley into a deserted street, something caught my eye flying above the buildings at the end of the block was Neon she hovered there with purple wings keeping her in the air, she was looking down onto the roof and just as I was wondering what she could be looking at a dark shape launched up towards her.
Neon dodged the shape and raised her hand towards them, releasing a purple blast towards the shape. Neon released multiple blasts down onto the roof, seeming to defeat whoever she was fighting; she stopped shooting and turned her back to the building when, all of a sudden, the other person lept towards her, latching onto her back and ripping a wing off which began to dissipate into nothing caught by surprise and having lost a wing Neon began quickly descending right towards me.
"Fuck” I shouted, running around the corner of the building I was standing next to just as Neon and the other Super clipped the corner of the building, spraying small concrete chunks over me; I stood there in shock as the two supers laid a few meters in front of me in a heap, Neon flung the SUper off of her scrambling to her feet she readied as a sword made out light appeared in her hand and a white round shield appeared in her other. The other Super, who I recognised as Iron Claw, had gotten to his feet and into a crouched fighting position. Both Supers squared off with each other, daring the other to make the first move.
"I should have bought popcorn", I muttered; my comment surprised both supers as they quickly turned towards me.
"W-what are you doing here, civilian? You shouldn't be here," Neon said, surprised and stuttering.
"Awe, did the little civi surprise you Neon, you civi get out of here before I decide to make you a casualty", Iron Claw growled, pointing a clawed hand at me, Sensing that standing around watching was not a good idea right now, I quickly turned towards the alley behind me and began running down it, the sounds of the two supers fighting echoes after me.
After running into a Super battle, I stopped dawdling and quickly arrived at Pete's bar. The bar was situated on the bottom floor of a run-down apartment complex. Daryl Pete's thug leaned against the wall next to the door. He nodded to me as I walked in. Pete sat in his wheelchair at his table. He had a bulky cybernetic arm that was at least twenty years old. He was holding a tablet and reading something on it. "By my count, Nate, that was longer than fifteen minutes," he said.
"Yeah, sorry, got caught in a Super fight between Neon and Iron Claw and had to take the back alleys,". Pete seemed surprised by my comment but only grumbled in reply,
"Get in the back and get ready for work. You're on the front today," Pete said. As I walked into the back, Pete seemed to begin to call someone.
Halfway into the night's shift, Callie, one of the waitresses, approached me. "Pete wants to speak to you," she said.
"What did he want?" I slid a drink over to a customer who probably should have been cut off a few drinks ago.
"I don't know, and I don't care; hopefully, it's about you being late," she snapped back. Having decided that an argument wasn't worth it, I began making my way into the back to Pete's office.
"I need a favour", Pete said. As soon as I had closed the door to his office, I was immediately on edge as Pete had never asked me for a favour, not in the five years I had worked for him.
"What do you need me to do?" Pete let out a small sigh.
"I need you to head to Mega Complex Fifteen on the north side of District Twelve"
"Why send me over there" I interrupted, receiving a glare in response.
"I need you to grab a package from a woman called Esmerelda and bring it back here; she will be waiting for you at Suki's Sushi on the seventeenth-floor, food court 9; take the backdoor out of the bar".
Heading out of the bar, Callie called after me, "Where the fuck do you think you're going? Don't think that you can just slip out after getting a reaming from Pete I don't care how fucked you are. I ain't dealing with these drunks by myself" sighing I had hoped to sneak out without Callie knowing, turning
"Pete's asked me to head out and grab some bits for the bar"
"Great just fucking great, fine get out of here".
It's said that New Halcyon never sleeps, and I can't help but agree with whoever said that. Making my way across the district wasn't a five-minute walk, especially with the number of people out in the streets deciding it would be quicker to take the metro, as unreliable as it was. I made my way to the nearest station.
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Like most of the outer Districts of New Halcyon, the station was bare, cracked, and crumbling concrete peppered with spray paint from years of neglect. The streets and alleyways in front were littered with bags of trash. The inside wasn't any better; it just had far more tags for the many gangs that claimed this area over the forty years since the metro was rebuilt after the Second Super War. While waiting for the train, I decided to play some music, activating my augs music, which started playing directly into my ears, bopping along. I tried to ignore the tweaker tweaking out on something on the bench behind me and the couple getting a little too handsy beside me. Just as I thought the couple would get down and dirty right on the platform, the train pulled into the station.
Stepping onto the train and past a pile of vomit, I found a seat away from the previous couple, who I don't think had come up for air since I got to the metro. After about ten minutes of riding the metro, I finally reached my destination, Mega-Complex Fifteen; like most places in New Halcyon, the Mega-Complexes were some corporate's idea to help with a housing crisis; the Mega-Complexes are entire small cities in giant towers covering blocks of space and reaching up to fifty floors high the Complexes house thousands of people, the buildings provide more than just housing but are truly cities in cities with food courts, entertainment, markets even shopping centres, corporations and gangs are known to claim entire sections of the building and setting up inside.
The metro station exited right outside the Mega-Complex. The building was imposing; I couldn't crane my neck far enough to see the top of the building from where I was standing. Crossing the street, I noted the constant flow of people entering and exiting the building's open entrance. Walking through the building's large open entrance, having to push past a few people, the building opened up into a massive bazaar recessed into the floor; standing at the top of the steps leading down into the sprawling shops and stalls, I could see a sea of coloured cloth canopies at the far luckily an elevator was situated not far to my right making my way towards I noticed along the wall a gangs tag I hadn't seen before not surprising as I had never been to Mega-Complex Fifteen, the tag was of a black metallic skull being held by skeletal hands.
Taking the elevator up to the seventeenth floor, I was immediately confused. While the area had a lot less foot traffic than the ground floor, there were still quite a few people moving about, obviously knowing where they were going; the only problem was I had no idea where Food Court nine was, deciding that walking around aimlessly was an excellent way to get myself mugged or lost I approached the nearest food stall and asked where food court nine the cook behind the stall laughed and said "new to the seventeenth are ya, alright I help a newbie, what ya want to do is head through the gates there where you'll enter market six from there it's a short walk through block hundred ninety-three, and at the cross between ninety-three, four, five and six you'll find food court nine"
"Thanks" I slid a few credits across to the man and started to walk towards the entrance gate to the blocks. 'Just got to hope that man gave me good directions.' Walking through the blocks, I noticed a lot of hard stares at me even when no one was around. I could feel eyes on me, decadent to move faster. I got to the court without any trouble. Looking about, I found the neon sign for Suki's Sushi, quickly spotting the stall's name with sushi with blinking anime eyes; laughing in my head at the sign, I made my way towards it.
A woman sat at the stall eating sushi and talking to the cook, who I assume was Suki; the woman had raven black hair and gunmetal cybernetic arms, and as I approached, she turned towards me. She seemed to be in her mid-thirties. I noted that she had cybernetic panel lines that crossed over her nose, but what drew my attention was her lilac eyes, which seemed to glow as she appraised me. As I neared, she motioned for the stool next to her, turning back to Suki; sitting down next to her, she spoke to me,
"Nate, right" I nodded in response. This woman, Esmeralda, had a presence that made my brain scream at me to run. "Peter said you could be trusted, can you?" her voice was silky, each word was chosen perfectly to put me on edge.
"U-um, yes?" I managed to stammer out and keep eye contact.
"You seem unsure", was all she said back, but it felt like a death sentence.
"S-sorry, I'm not really sure what's going on Pete. Uh, Peter just told me to come here and collect a package for him" A melodic laugh rang out, and the woman finally looked away from me. All the presence seemed to fade away,
"Esmerelda", Esmeralda said, holding out a hand for me to shake, which I took "And this is Suki, one of the best sushi chefs on the seventeenth," she motioned to the Japanese woman behind the counter who did a little bow and returned to what she was doing before I turned up, "Now onto why your here," she pulled a little black box out of somewhere placing it on the counter "I need your word that you will take this package straight to Peter without any other stops,"
"I promise; I want this job over and done with so I can finally get that pay rise I've been asking for ages", I managed to joke, even though this woman made me really nervous.
"Remember straight to Peter" were Esmerelda's final words to me as I totally didn't rush to be as far away from her as I could. The journey to the elevator was uneventful. I still felt like I was being watched, but that stopped as soon as the elevator started moving toward the ground floor; stepping out into the bazaar, I quickly made my way to the exit, out into the street, and towards the metro station. As I approached the metro, I noticed a few police officers standing outside, shooing people away from the station curios I approached. "Excuse me, what is up with the station? I kinda need it to get across the district"
"You and everyone else, buddy, but Blitzkrieg damaged the line in his ongoing battle with Velocity, so the metro is down until we can get someone out tomorrow to fix it," one of the officers said not even bothering to look at me.
'Fuck’ I couldn't get a Nexride taxi across the district. That would be two days' pay down the drain on a favour I will probably not get paid for. Sighing, I started my long trek home, regretting my life choices that got me to this point.
Half an hour later, I was walking down a street when I heard crashes getting closer and closer; suddenly, Blitzkrieg came crashing through the top floors of an apartment complex, causing all of the passers-by to panic. Cars swerve out of the way of the supervillain who just crashed into a parked car, crushing the roof, and a laugh wrang out from the wreckage. Blitzkrieg pulled himself out of the wreck; he stood there with his full face and gunmetal-coloured helmet that looked like it almost hugged his face except for the front, which was a blank visor. His armour was similar to his helmet, a gunmetal grey suit of armour that made it look like his body was made of metal with strategic metal plating, creating the look of muscle definition; he stood there laughing when his voice rang out, "Come on, Velocity our fight isn't over yet" Blitzkriegs voice was modulated through his helmet giving him an almost robot voice.
A blue blur that trailed crackling energy streaked from the building in a blink, smashing into Blitzkrieg and sending him bouncing off the road and into a lamppost, standing where he once was a heavily augmented man whose torso and lower legs were lightly armoured in a skin-tight blue suit, "Let's make this quick Blitzkrieg I've got better places to be than fighting you, we both know you'll run away once I have beaten you enough" Velocity quipped in a flat bored tone motioning to speed things up. Blitzkrieg was in front of Velocity within a second, punching towards him, which he easily dodged. Crack Blitzkrieg's head rocked back as Velocity punched him, but this only seemed to spur the Super on, "Come on, boy, this is a fight. You need to be trying to kill me, not just whatever that weak punch was."
Blitzkrieg's comment seemed to have angered Velocity as the Hero turned into a blur of crackling energy circling Blitzkrieg; each punch that landed on the Villian elicited a small grunt. "All alright, my turn," was that was said when Blitzkrieg exploded into motion, seeming to track the speedster and landing a gut punch that shot the Hero into the apartments above where I was standing
Deciding that I had had enough of supers today, I turned to run. Still, just as I began to run, Velocity burst from the building overhead, causing rubble to rain down onto the watchers. Screams rang out as the watchers tried to move out of the way; a piece of rubble caught my leg, causing me to trip; as I hit the pavement, I rolled over and looked up, seeing a large piece of ruble falling towards my head raising my arm the last thought that went through my head was.
'Fuck’