High-pitched wails echoed throughout the night. Six small shapes darted above ground around what seemed like set routes between tall spires of glass and neon lights. The tall structures acted out the part akin to roadside barriers.
The six shapes bunched up and loosened again as they negotiated open stretches and tight corners. Their exhaust vents lit their rides’ tails like fireworks, adding their colors to the night city lightscape.
The bikers zoomed lower and closer to street level, but their darting shapes were still way above the ground, zipping over the traffic of vehicles on the streets.
The wail of their engines echoed even louder at this height as the straight stretch they were in led to a T-junction. Five made the sharp right turn, while one crashed and burned against a thick steel and concrete pillar holding up a huge neon advertising board above it.
The street they turned into had less traffic on the surface level, as the wailing of their dart-like machines seemed to reach ear-splitting decibels, each rider pushing their roaring beasts to the limit. Until they passed a line of light that sat across the street, the bikes suddenly changed their high-pitched wails to deep, throttling sounds, an unmistakable sound of steel against steel adding a steady staccato above the otherwise bassy growl of their engines.
A crowd flanking the streets where they finally got their rides to slow down broke out into a loud cheer as lines of light fell on three of the men in different colors that denoted their respective positions from the race. The three lowered their gleaming mounts onto a platform in the middle of what otherwise would be a large parking lot.
The riders in their fitted riding suits slid off their hoverbikes, each sleek testament of power and speed emitting a whirring sound as their engines were turned off. The sounds overlapped as each died down as part of a planned cascade.
The crowd's crescendo rose higher and higher as their cheers echoed off the walls surrounding the lot. The winners made their way toward another stage, the lead removing his helmet as they ascended onto the platform.
Thin metallic lines crossed the sides of his skull from behind his ear to the bridge of his nose and forked up to just under his eyes as he elatedly waved at the cheering crowd. Three iris-sized metallic disc-shaped objects embedded high on his clear forehead bounced off the lights from the stage.
Anya's head tilted up and toward the direction of disc forehead-guy. Her eyes then trained on another girl with long, silver hair shaven on the left of her head, who shook her head slowly in reply to Anya, much to her disappointment as she hid her frustration.
She fidgeted; she could feel herself getting restless, maybe even bored. This was taking too long; attending this event wasn’t necessary… but Noa had insisted; she darted a look toward the silver-haired girl again as the crowd’s cheering rose higher and higher, amplified by the walls.
Anya made her way to the girl she had just signaled and turned to face the stage once she was at her side.
“Finally got to see his mug in person, was getting tired of seeing his sorry face on a screen,” she quietly uttered into the internal comms device embedded in her head, shooting a glance to her left.
Noa smirked as Anya's complaints reached her clearly, her thin lips curved up at the side. Her left iris seemed to light up slightly as she stepped closer to Anya and nudged her arm,
“Well, we came to verify with softballs whether it was actually him… and both of us agreed to take the second option for this; besides, that option does come with a nice bonus…”
she shrugged,
Anya frowned as if the reply was so silly it made her eyes roll,
“um... You.. of all people, don’t need the bonus?”
Noa shrugged again.
“Perhaps, but it’s not just the Y-bees now, issit?”
She winked at Anya, and the screen on her left iris scrolled with more information about the subject of their discussion. The crowd around them reached an even higher fervor as they cheered.
The stage on which all attention was focused was now occupied by the three men who had dismounted from their bikes. Each held a meter-long metallic board with a different-colored light etched into it.
Noa nodded curtly and slid a finger across Anya’s arm before turning around.
“ok, we have updated information… finally…digger came through as promised on his favorite haunt whenever he’s here.”
She walked away from the crowd, heading toward the corner of the long street where the audience and everything else were. Anya followed suit after a couple of minutes.
She reached her vehicle, which beeped in response to her proximity; the driver’s door slid out and back with a soft beeping sound. The vehicle's interior whirred alive as she slid into the driver’s seat and wiggled her hips to make herself more comfortable. Anya slid in on the passenger seat and tipped the handle of her door interior so it would close. As she looked at Noa, her left eye emitted a similar light to Noa’s left eye just moments before as new information appeared and scrolled onto her display,
“Got the deets?” Noa started the engine; the vehicle barely moved as the engine purred to life; her lips smirked slightly as she relished the sound,
Anya nodded. “Mhmm, received, thanks.” she leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs at the ankles as she reached out to turn the car radio on.
“So we’re heading there now,” Noa said rhetorically as she guided the vehicle from the alley where she had parked it onto the main road. The streets were empty; the narrow walls gave way to wide double-lane roads with lights on either side.
Anya nodded and leaned her head back as she closed her eyes. “Can’t wait for this job to be over. It’s the longest we’ve been on any single job.” Her lamentation was drowned out by the loud electronic music that blared from the car speakers as Noa immediately put the vehicle at high speed. The high whirring sound of the engine was exasperated by the exhaust roaring just behind the small cabin they were sitting in.
—----------------------------
The streets were always empty this time of night, even if they were near where most of what happens after sunset happens. Noa droned on about how she thought everything could be done better in this city, her face frowning each time she found something new to complain about.
Anya leaned against the passenger door on her side of the car, her eyes trained on Noa while she watched her elder sister continue her tirade and personal musings. She smiled, her memories recalling how the two of them grew up.
Noa, being the elder of the two, had always kept Anya safe, at times at a high cost to whichever party intended anything ill to her beloved younger sister. Since their father nicknamed Noa his ‘little bird,’ Noa took it and modified it for her own younger sister and used to call her ‘little little birdie. ' Simple, just as Noa usually liked to solve issues, yet always seemed to find ways to make everything more… challenging.
She started chuckling to herself, recalling when Noa learned the other way to say ‘pineapple,’ which seemed like it could rhyme with her name, and thus ‘Anyanas,’ her moniker, was born. Just then, Noa turned momentarily to Anya.
“Are you listening to what I’m saying? Or do I have to repeat myself?” she practically shouted over the music blaring in the small car cabin. Anya smiled, shrugged, and nodded back.
“Do please continue,” she smiled back warmly.
Noa squinted her eyes as she eyed Anya suspiciously, then shrugged. She continued with her tirade about how it always seemed to rain in the city streets, darting another look at Anya.
“Don’t doze off; you’ll never know when you need to drive next time.”
Anya shrugged nonchalantly in response, “There’s always route programming.”
Noa shook her head, rolling her eyes. Anya was like a lost little princess in the world they decided to be a part of; merc work wasn’t for just anyone; no one with money would even dream about it. Yet, she had decided to join Noa. And it was all because she was bored while waiting for some guy she liked, who kept his end of the text messages on what seemed an eternity of ‘...typing’.
Noa concluded it must have been the rush of doing something someone of their stature would never be caught dead doing, or maybe it was her fascination with how projectile weapons affect different surfaces and materials.
“I’m so glad you decided to play along and keep that long gun of yours at home.” Noa’s thoughts suddenly spilled out from her mouth, which elicited a confused “Hmm?” from Anya.
Noa shrugged, her right hand waving what she had just said away as something unimportant, and smiled at Anya, who returned the same warm smile. For a so-called princess or gem of high society, she had to admit that Anya was in a league of her own regarding her ability to handle firearms at any range.
The city's tall buildings started to taper out, the broader streets continued, now flanked more by open spaces and small rows of shops than before.
“Close now,” Noa muttered as she took a quick look at Anya’s direction; as she had anticipated, Anya was blissfully asleep, her head tilted almost strangely to the back.
—----------------------------
“Okay, wakey wakey, we’re here,” Noa muttered as the vehicle slowed down.
“I wasn’t sleeping.” Anya blinked her eyes open and looked around, licking her lips as they suddenly felt parched.
She looked out the window to see what was outside. Rows of stand-alone houses with gardens surrounded each low structure. Her brows frowned as she tried to make sense of the area. The low light from street lights barely illuminated the street they were on; the road was narrower here, a lane headed in either direction, flanked by individual houses with lawns and low hedges,
“hmm, where… wait, is this where I think it is?”
She sat up, excited, and looked at Noa. Then, she turned her head to look outside the car again,
“Look at them. Wonder if that’s real wood? Perhaps not. Who would waste something as pricey as that on houses… here?” she chuckled softly as she looked at Noa, the absurdity of the idea written all over her face.
Noa giggled softly in return as she turned a corner and slid the car to the side of the road. She gave a single nod in response to Anya's question. “Yep, who wuddave thunk, right?” she smiled at Anya and turned the engine off; the vehicle gave a soft whirring sound that slowly winded down. Only small lights were left on the vehicle's dashboard.
“Welp, we’re here.” Noa undid her seatbelt, sat up straighter, and looked around. Her left eye again gave out a light, fainter this time. “Okay, so he should be here in a bit; time to get to work,” she smiled at Anya as her driver’s side door hissed softly and slid out and back.
Anya raised a hand, one finger pointed up. “A moment, please,” she said as she twisted to her side. Her hands dug into the small compartment behind their seats. “One never knows,” she mused as she pulled out a short-barreled projectile weapon.
Noa sighed as if she disapproved. She leaned her head into the car while her hands rested on the roof. “Oh my god, yoh, nothing lethal, please, yeesh.”
Anya’s eyes widened. “What? I’m not going to use it; it’s for… presence,” she smirked slyly in reply to Noa, who just shook her head and stepped back. Her door slowly slid back down and closed with a soft hiss.
As Anya turned to follow Noa, she paused to clip the butt of her shotgun to the sling around her body; her jacket broke the lines of her otherwise figure-hugging bodysuit, which showed off her tall and athletic build while she checked on her weapon.
Noa strode comfortably next to her as they made their way. Her face was in full focus as she went through the checklist in her mind and on her eye HUD, her left iris faintly lighting up as information scrolled on the screen over her eye.
“Ok so, Bug Bunny has an update, confirming target scrip and payment with a bonus if parameters are adhered to,”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Her left hand moved up, fingers tapping just behind her ear. Three lines lit up softly, started from her extremes, and moved up her legs and arms to her torso, the otherwise dark-colored bodysuit she had on momentarily highlighted before the lights disappeared again.
They reached the house they were heading to and looked around before deciding to go behind the building. It had a double-story wood exterior and a yard sizable enough for a family of four. They negotiated their way onto the house's roof, careful not to make any loud noise.
Noa squatted down on her toes, pushing and brushing a roof tile with her hand as she looked at Anya. “Do you know that these things used to be made from ceramic? I mean, doesn’t it get hot when the sun blares on it?”
Anya looked at Noa quizzically and chuckled softly while she tapped the tile with her knuckles.
“Really? Wow, now THAT, I cannot imagine…” she mused as her fingers pushed at the roof tile. She then turned to Noa, her expression hardening up. “Anyway, did you find the box?”
Noa nodded. “Ya, well, not really, but from the plans I’ve seen, usually, they are on the 2nd floor, on the inside of the exterior box, which… according to this… is at the balcony.., here”, her left eye faintly lit up again as she sent the information to Anya, who annoyingly looked at her “Noa, babe, next time, please pass this along BEFORE we start?”,
Noa smiled and winked at Anya as she reached the roof's edge and slowly dropped down onto the balcony, her landing almost silent. A small, obscured, and subdued single light blinked momentarily just under her heels as she proceeded to pick at the lock of the door that headed inside. “I really dislike these old-school locks,” she muttered under her breath as her hand held onto the tool that was picking the lock.
Anya slid next to Noa, her landing having been just as silent as she perked up to the sound of a vehicle and some voices from the front of the house.
“Just in time… looks like our boy is back… with company, of course”,
she added matter-of-factly when two other female voices joined in a conversation from the front of the house.
“Winners’ choice, I guess,” Noa muttered nonchalantly in response as the door clicked open.
“... and there we go.” she gently pushed the door open and slipped in, followed by Anya.
Anya scoffed. “I don’t know if I’d use the term…’ winner,’ but ya… these people and their weird hobbies.” She shook her head as if in disapproval; her face showed that she continued not to understand some things that those like their target did.
As the two entered the upper floor of the house, Noa’s left eye turned a deep red as she raised her right hand in a signal to Anya to freeze. She turned her head slowly, finally paused, and nodded in the direction she was looking.
“OK, it’s not exactly behind the outside box; newer and undocumented updates probably… still, it’s close enough…” she stealthily headed in the direction as Anya flicked a switch on her shotgun. The weapon sighed, coming to life with a subdued whirr. Noa paused, her left hand held onto the small control box she had looked for. “I do hope it’s not to kill?”
Anya shrugged and softly blew a raspberry with her lips. “Eh, I’m just doing this because you insist on going for the bonus… if you ask me, the less dirty lowbies, the better”. Noa smirked at the reply while her left hand held onto the now-open control box.
A single thin cable snaking from a slight indentation on the wrist of her body suit, “Hmm, this place has more cams than I anticipated…that’s… weird… but…” she softly mused while her left eye lit up. Information scrolled on her eye screen as she focused on her task. “... I have control of the system now, disrupting for… 30 minutes. Should be more than enough time?”
Anya nodded curtly at the question, “Yep, more than enough.” As she tilted her weapon, her left hand tapped on a stout blue-colored box under the gun, “OK, all set and ready when you are.”
Noa unhooked the cable from the control box and gently closed its cover with a soft click. She turned around and squatted onto the balls of her feet. Loud electronic music and bass now thumped and blared from the floor below, accompanied by laughter.
She turned to Anya and smiled, slid on a pair of shaded slim glasses that covered her entire eye region. “Let’s get busy then, shall we?”. With this, she stood up and walked softly down the stairs toward the house's lower floor as the laughter got more animated from the people below.
—-----
Benjamin ‘Benny’ Howzer, founder of the band God’s Mama and all-around rocker boy and darling of the millions of music fans in the city and country, gun enthusiast, biker extraordinaire, and winner of nearly every hoverbike racing circuit everywhere, leaned back on the well-used leather couch he was on as he waved at the girl in a green sequin dress that matched her lime green hair.
“Yeah, go ahead and pour more of that pepper liquor, beautiful,” he said while he waved at another girl in the same cut sequin dress, colored bright yellow, with equally loud electric blue hair with red highlights, who moved her hips while she went through the music selection on the screen attached to the wall.
The lime green-haired girl suddenly squealed out with fear. The bottle in her right hand slipped to the ground, then the glass in her left hand. Her face conveyed as much fear and shock as her squeal, and her eyes were wide as she looked toward the stairs.
Benny looked to where she was looking and saw a tall and athletic woman with silver hair who smiled at him. Behind her, another equally tall woman held what appeared to be a shotgun.
His eyes studied the silver-haired woman; she wore a bodysuit that might as well be her skin. A deep red color swathed with small, black hexagonal patterns as if a mesh over her bodysuit. A thick belt sat on her hips with several attachments and pouches around it that broke the curve of her legs and hips; her left thigh had what seemed to be a holster and a black and red waist jacket with more equipment attached to it. Her deliberate and well-practiced movements belied her perky smile as she waved at the electric blue-haired girl with a beefy pistol in her left hand.
“You, go join your friend by the bar.” electric-blue nodded, her face struck with fear and shock as she kept her hands raised to her sides and slowly walked over to the lime-green girl. The other tall woman was dressed in a similar body suit, with a dark bomber jacket that hung down to just above her hips, a holographic animated drawing of a female moved on the back of her jacket, with a white cartoonish sunflower on the right arm of the jacket, a yellow smiley face adorned its center that contrasted with the tension in the air. The weapon in her hand was what confirmed to Benny what he had thought.
His mind raced, and he identified the weapon as an Arc Armament SE13. ‘That’s a military-grade weapon, and those attachments on their clothes and the weapons don’t look cheap either,’ he raised his hands higher as he looked at the silver-haired girl, who smirked at him.
“Hello, Benny, I’m so glad we could join your lil’ soiree,” she purred at him as she walked closer.
“no sudden moves now, please, let’s keep this… civil, shall we?”,
Her tone was… Playful? Coupled with her smile, it almost seemed like she was having fun. His eyes floated down to the pistol in her hand. Arc Armament P750, with Corneal targeting interface upgrade and suppressor. Everything pointed in his mind that these women weren’t just petty thieves,
“fuck… gunees?” Benny blurted out softly, having used the derogatory term for mercenaries.
The silver-haired girl slowly shook her head and tsked at him. “Tsk tsk, Benni-e-e, why use such a bad word now? Didn’t I say keep it civil? I’ll even add, please, how about that, hmm?”
She smirked as she stepped in front of him and planted her left boot on his crotch. “Self-defense projectiles in the sole. If you want to stop being a non-implanted functional male, then I suggest you be nice”,
Benny froze when she said that; he winced slightly as she adjusted her boot on his crotch. His mind now raced back to a reminder of his messages about being extra careful if he ever got back into this city. He hung his head down slightly as he sighed deeply at this recollection.
She placed a gloved hand over his shaven head, and a soft whirr emitted from her wrist. His eyes angled up at her, the shaded wraparound glasses covering her eyes, not giving away anything. She smiled down at him as she rested her left hand on her thigh, the barrel pointed straight at his face.
Noa’s eye HUD flashed with information; the scan from her glove showed everything in his skull: soft tissue and bone, standard implants, and, more importantly, what she was looking for—security software, which she then proceeded to nullify. A message stating that the task was done flashed after mere seconds, which led to the next item on her list as she pulled back her hand from his head and dug into a small pouch on her hip.
She fished out a small finger-sized cylindrical device and pressed it under his left ear. A soft hissing sound escaped it as she injected a small device into his skin, accompanied by a quick wince from Benny, sucking in air through gritted teeth,
“There we go,” she purred at him softly. Messages scrolled down her HUD and indicated that any incoming or outgoing signals from his internal communications device were successfully blocked.
She leaned her head slightly forward. “So… hard or soft?” to which he looked up at her,
He stammered at her with a confused look, “Wh… what?”,
Her lip pulled up to one side. “Hard, or soft?” without offering anything else, dragging the As and Rs of her first word.
“Um… soft? I guess?” Benny let out a quizzical look at her,
She sighed, shook her head, and imitated a buzzing sound. “Wrong answer, hard drug or soft blow to the jaw, silly,”
She giggled as she kept shaking her head slowly, as if disappointed at his answer, “You’re lucky I can’t risk it, so I have to forfeit your request,”
As she said, she dug out another cylinder from another pouch on her hip and smoothly brought it to his neck. Benny’s body froze as he tensed up in anticipation of yet another injection. The cylinder gave out a soft whooshing sound as she injected it into his bloodstream.
“lights out, Benny”. The drug took effect almost immediately as Benny’s eyes fluttered, his body growing limp until he slumped back on the couch.
“Babe, how’re we doing with our girls?” Noa looked over her shoulder at Anya, who was leaning against the wall by the stairs they had just descended from,
“Very compliant,” was all Anya replied with a hint of disappointment,
“Dazzee, then, give them their options, please, ok?” She looked over at Anya again and stepped back; Benny slid down and laid sideways on the couch as she turned to where the backdoor to the house was,
“You got it, babe.” Anya smiled at Noa and turned to the lime green girl and electric blue-haired girl, relaxing her stance slightly as she started explaining their options and how they could proceed.
Noa opened the backdoor and looked out; the whole area was quiet, save for the distant sounds of thumping bass and vehicles; the immediate area was peaceful. She tapped herself just behind her jaw, soft lights from under her skin lit up momentarily as her internal communication device connected her to another line; a scratchy female voice answered,
“Hello, Noa. Is the target secure?”.
“Yes, Mama Baasan. Target is secure, and not a scratch on him too.” Noa smiled at herself; the job was executed just as she had intended it to.
“Very good, Noa. I knew you could do it,” Mama Baasan replied monotonously. Noa smiled. She knew that the older woman never revealed anything to her, regardless of whether things were going well or poorly.
“Alright, we will wait for your guys to come for the pick-up. How long?”
“They are already near the location and will arrive in about 10 minutes. Your payment will be transferred to you once the target is picked up. Thank you for your service, child.”
“Thank you, Mama,” Noa purred back with a smile. The call ended as she sat in the open doorway and looked at the housing area.
—-------------------------------------
Anya sat down and exhaled, resting an arm on her thigh while she held an open bottle to Noa.
“Look what I found, some really nice collection of booze in this place,”
Noa looked at the bottle, cocked her head to the side, and studied the label on the bottle before she grasped the long neck of the bottle, her lips pursed slightly into a smile. “Not bad; I suppose a venue such as this would have its fair share of good stuff to drink,” she mused as she took a quick swig from the bottle,
“Eh, well, if you ask me, I was actually quite surprised... Pleasantly, yes, but surprised nonetheless. I mean, they don't even usually have this brand in the regular stores around the city, do they?”
“Hmm, nope, they don’t. Lowbies don’t really care for the real deal. For them, this is actually the pinnacle of drinks that they can get.” Noa smiled as she took another quick swig before she passed the bottle back to Anya, who gratefully grabbed it and took a longer swig of her own; she nodded as she gulped it down,
“Hmm, yea, still, it’s way more, I dunno, real? I guess. in its own way. And well, you’ve seen the holo-vids, right? About how these people live and party? It seems to me theirs are way more… alive than the ‘parties’ that we have, relatively speaking. Definitely less politics, maybe more posturing..." Anya continued her theories using what she knew, which she gained exclusively from holovids and stories from total strangers.
Noa leaned against the doorway and looked at her sister; she had always wondered if following her around would have an effect on Anya. The socialite with an uncanny talent for firearms. She knew what she wanted for herself - to build a reputation and nest egg, funds not tied to their family - but was continuing to bring Anya along doing any good for her? Her thoughts surfaced in a quizzical look on her face as she shook her head, Anya's words making it through her reverie.
“Wait, are you actually… approving of the Lowbies?” her face and tone poked fun at Anya,
Anya chuckled and blew raspberries. “Oh please, no, I’m just trying to play devil’s advocate here. No way will I be caught dead socializing with them”, she imitated herself, shivering. Noa replied with a soft laugh,
“Yep, that’s what I thought.” her eyes looked out over the area they were in,
“So I read somewhere that these places are like THE place to be if you’re a Lowbie; living in this area means you’ve made it,” Noa mused softly,
“Really? This place?” Anya leaned forward and looked around before she leaned back and shrugged,
“I dunno, I mean, it looks like it doesn’t have much at all,” she pointed at the cables that snaked on tall poles that sat on the sides of the streets. “Look at that, isn't that like… old old and tacky and risky? Such an eye-sore as well, don’t you think?”
Noa leaned her head against the doorway she was leaning against, her eyes studying the cables Anya was referring to. ‘Hmm, ya, it's a potential hazard, but it’s cheap and gives them something to do when it breaks down… I guess… All I know is that I would have no freakin’ idea how to live in this kind of place. That control box I went through? It was so archaic… it had physically separate boxes for power, cameras, and the net. I knew it was going to be some cheap tech, but wow, I did not expect that.”
“Huh, really? You didn’t seem fazed when you opened it earlier.”
“Ya… well, our current tech is an evolution of this one, so I just pieced it together… and...” she tapped her left eye. “I had reference sheets up on screen.”
Anya nodded and smiled. “Of course,” she said before taking another bottle swig.
Noa looked further up into the sky. “And the atmosphere… I dunno, the general feel when we’re walking around like there’s constantly some cloud or something, and the constant raining… and, don’t get me started about the smell, yeesh. " Noa mimicked a shiver, which elicited a chuckle from Anya as she looked up.
“Hmm, ya, I’ve wanted to say something about it. It always feels stifling in the Lowbie city streets; one would think you’d get used to it after so many visits… but… I’ve always found it to be rather… claustrophobic. I think that’s the word?”
Noa nodded slowly in agreement, her lips pursed as she did. She stretched her arms out and deliberately rubbed her fist against Anya’s cheek before she started to stand slowly back up,
“We best head back to the apartment, still need to get home after we get there…”
She paused and looked down at Anya. “You can bring that home,” she teased as she patted Anya’s head,
“I’ll have to finish it before we go home, so I’ll drink it on the way.” ignoring Noa’s teasing pat, Anya stood up with the bottle in hand, “Let’s go then.”