>> A Voyage Of Lights.... and Dark Delights

Current Funds: 16₣

Bellies refilled, milkshakes murdered, and desserts desecrated, we stagger out into the musky-warm dark. Into a world of indoor towers and rattling tramlines - all sprayed with artful, shadowy, colour. With huge bright signs, and inky sellers in eerie masks.

Not just for anonymity, either.

Gone Wrongs, mutants, synthetics, and ‘thinking monsters’ shift and slither through the streets. Plying trade, and other things. Fake faces held on by handless fingers, or tendrils of slime. Between them, machine-things clank on metal paws, trailing tails of woven cables - twitching with Tek.

Or eyeballs and mouths.

We pass a tinkerer stall with armoured walls, loaded down with oddball toys. All tiny robots, aliens, and blaster-rays that ‘really work!’. With darts that ‘come back’ (that sounds…. terrifying), and titanium dragons that roar. But next to it, is something fantastical. A glass-fronted stall loaded with little robot animals. Ducks, and snakes, and even....

An iridescent cloud of bright little creatures, all glittering and dizzying about.

"Woooow!!!" Badger gasps, flailing about we huddle around. Demon leaning in to sniff the glass, his horns tilting strangely.

Tufty tilts his head, curiously. Claws clicking as he does a little hop, trying to catch a blue and gold wonder through the glass. “Gosh! They’re pretty! What….. um.... What are they, though?”

“Butterflies....." I say in a low voice. "They’re insects.”

“They're little robots.” Kami says in.... not wonder, but well-hidden shock. “Kids had these in school. Basic AI. Used to fly them round class when the teacher was out....”

We all stop in collective hush.

"Uh. Mate..... Remind me again, yeah?” Zip hesitates. "Aren't, like... aren't you.... from a...."

"World Government enclave. Yeah." Her throat works. "Where images of animals are illegal. Yes." She swallows again. "You could get... in a lot of trouble.... having one. "

"Dang, girl...." I stumble out. "So..... were.... were they tryin' to get arrested, or somethin'?"

Kami hesitates, a shadow crossing her eyes. And then she speaks a little too slowly, looking away. “Yeah. Maybe. Teacher.... used to just take them, though. Didn’t even know what they were…..”

“Huuuh? She didn’t!?” Badger gawps up at the shiny, fluttering, shapes with pure - unshakable - innocence. "But.... Yah! Spook! I thought everyone knew what a butterfly is!! And look! That's a fox! A real fox! Not a GMO fox! And-" He hesitates. "How come? Why are they banned??? They're not banned here!"

I share a look with Demon.

But Kami gets in first.

"Because it's not real." She says in the softest little voice. "None of it is."

Badger jerks like he was shot. "What? What's not real?" His voice is low, too. Quiet.

“Kami-” I warn, but she kneels down to him. Holding his hand, and arm.

“Animals." She whispers, in a bitter hiss of hurt. "Animals are make-believe. They all are. They’re all just fables. Like The Surface..... Or The Sky.... The Sun.....”

“Whaaaat??? All of them!?!?" Badger gasps. "But.... but....” He stares to the stall, then at me, then turns to Tufty, and points. "But.... but Tufty's a cat! And! And!!!"

Kami's braids rattle on hidden armour as her head shakes. "Tufty is a GMO..... He's special. But...." Her gruff face slips into something softer. "But he's just.... a modified human. They all are. Just a person made to look like something that doesn't really exist."

"But...." Badger points, miserably. "Butterflies....."

Her face dips, and then clenches with resolve. Regret and shame glistening in her eye as she turns away. “Look.... It's just.... mythical crap to con gullible tourists. Okay?" She forces out. "There never were any animals. Not really. It's all just fairytales for kids."

"They're not." I state. And her head whips to me. Eyes hard, but wet.

"If you think that.... you've been lied to.. Sorry." She states, like it happened to her too. "I hate this. But he has to know. He has to know it's not real."

“But n-no they are!! They’re real! My dad said-” Badger yells at magnificent volume - leaping to touch the glass. But she pulls him away. A flicker of something like fear in her eyes.

"Your dad was just being nice..... I’m sure. People just pretend because it makes them happ-”

“But-!!” He struggles free. “But no they’re not! Joan said-!! And! And!”

“Who?”

“Joan! Our dad! OUR REAL DAD!!! He said-” Badger blinks furiously. Tufty grabbing his arm, and tugging. Trying to get him away.

“Kami, drop it.” I growl as Demon hoists Badger onto his shoulders, and away. “They’re real enough. They’re just…. gone.”

“What.....” She blinks, and hugs herself tight. “Did you never get The Talk, or what?”

“Hey, like, chill guys. Yeah?” Zip laughs nervously. “Kinda making a scene, here, right? And.... y’know.... we're sorta meant to be hiding? Right? From The-" He stops short of saying 'School'. "-bad guys?”

Kami’s face flickers through a hundred different emotions. And then she folds her metal arms. A shake going through her whole body as she turns dull yes upon me. “Prove me wrong, then.” She whispers. "Prove me wrong."

But I shake my head. Tail lashing. Teeth gritted. Guts cold.

Because she’s right. I can’t.

Not…. Not anymore.

Demon whispers gently to Badger as we leave the dreamlike butterflies behind us, and delve a little deeper. Then deeper still. Into streets hung with lights, and faction flags. With paper lanterns, holos of birds, and golden suns that really glow.

The cold in my gut burnt away as we're immersed in a world of colours and madness.

And it isn't long before the Tufty is being rushed from sweet-truck to toy-stall, on a stream of Badgery babbling. “Oooh! Look at that!! Look at that!! Bet I could make that robot shoot LASERS!”

“Oh? This? It already shoots lasers!” Chuffles the overtly fuzzy shopkeep, firing off a tiny ray to pop a balloon.

“BIGGER LASERS!” Badger exclaims. “And ROCKETS! EXPLODEY ONES!!”

“Ah-ha! I think I may have just-”

“Nooope!” I chuckle as Demon ‘escorts’ our grabby kid away from the tiny murder-bots.

“But they’re - guided - missiles!!” He huffs at large. “So I definitely won’t make a mess! Cause I'll only blow up the - right - things!”

“Yeah, right.” I snort - whomping him, playfully, with my tail. "Hey's, damn. Looks like it's gettin' late. Time to drag the 'shortie patrol' to back to bed, I reckon."

"BACK!?" Badger gasps in horror. "BED!!?"

Zip gives me a virtual thumbs up. "Oh yeah, like better pick up some snacks on the way, yeah? Comms from base says we're all out."

"What?" I balk. "We just bloody stocked up! We got tons of snacks-"

"Not any more, mate." Zip snickers.

"But....I rub my face. "Oh God damnit. The lil red dustbin strikes again.... She'll be eatin" the bloody walls next."

"Uh, yeah, about that-" Zip snickers.

"Nope. Nope. I don't want to know." I sigh. One hand out, the other cushioning face. "Alright then. Snacks it is..... Better take a left here....."

And so, jingling the last of our precious vials, we slip off down a row of originTek shops that drift with ominous antiques. Their windows filled with oddities and unsettling machines - all gauntlets of glossy-black stone, ticking machines, and crystalline armour.....

And that's just the stuff I dare to look at.

There's things, here, so utterly unreal they seem to fuzz the edges of reality around them. Seeping their pulsating Colour across the ground in twisting tendrils and shadows that shift like they're actually alive. Squirming and swirling around us, as if to grab at our ankles.....

But that ain’t nothing like as scary as the tags in the windows.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Ya gotta pay t’see the prices!?” I goggle. “How the heck does that work out?”

“Very nicely, I should imagine.” States the dead voice in my ear. And we shuffle, quickly, on - just in case they charge ya rent for looking. Dipping out of central Karrak, and into a street where fur-covered full GMOs hawk everything from beads to bazookas.

Hawks-heads flogging spae-parts for Synthetics. Synthetics flogging hawk-head eggs, and tiny tape-deck driven robots. Scaled wrathKin hissing prices for bullets and beers... while Gone Wrongs shiver in the dark, right at the edges of our world. All limbs, and ears, and.... I shake my eyes away.

They're people too. They're just a bit....

Not fun to look at.

But soon we find what we're after, a whole market street - down in the GMO Quarter. The whole place twisting with tails. With sharp eyes, and sharper claws. With bat-creatures that hang from the balconies, hunting for shoplifters. With fox-eared boys barking at cat-kin, and gangs of cobra-kids waving their junior switchblades.

More fur. More animal. Way fewer shoes.

But plenty of strange and wonderous things for Badger to gawp at. Even things that could pass for a dragon, at a distance. Or maybe even a real animal, if you don't see the extra eyes. Or fins. Or the way no two are truly alike....

And, way more importantly: full of cakes, bakes, and synthetic snacks laid out on bulging tables. Mounds of creamPuffs. Massive sacks of marshmallows, in fifty different flavours. Boulevards of biscuits. Causeways of candy. Every flavour and type of sweet, dehydrated meal, and hot food cart - ready to go.

We slip among them like we belong. Kami folding her arms, to make em more obvious. Badger stuffing his 'cat ears' back into place, while Tufty perks up - sniffing the air from behind our backs. And Demon....

Demon takes off his mask and hood.

Golden bright hair. Handsome, almost human, features - framed by his four horns. And a new, kindled, fire in the square pupils of his glowing golden eyes as we browse amongst bread and pastries. Past entire displays of synthetic simVeg and simMeat (for the traditional). Plus the usual nutriSlop refill bags for food-printing machines. And nutrition pills, for the preppers and the truly desperate.

We dig in to browse for deals, careful not to steal amid the sharp senses and shuffling claws. Owl-eye kids tilting their heads on the balconies above, while blue-feathered heron-guards stalk the crowds on legs longer that a man is tall. Glaring down at us with long, hard, beaks set with rows of eerie little eyes. Backed up by dozens of tiny metal turrets, glittering with insectile cameras.

But you soon forget em, after a while. Delving through hot trays of baklava, dripping with synthetic honey and butter, fresh from neoTurkey (to the North). Through boxed rows of scones, laden with clotted cream, and synthetic jam from New London (South West).

And a side of curry, of course.

To say nothing of rarer treats: Artificial spices from Neodine (East). Synthetic herbs, and dried meats of every strange colour. Along with strange, tucked-away, shops selling things that are almost alchemy. All hung with twisted horns, and monstrous spines. All Jabberwock teeth, and Slime Skuller eyes......

But we slip past them all. Down an alley lined with boxes of treats, and bars of chocolate. Pounds of sherbet, and mounds of marshmallow. Gummy worms as tall as you, in great glass jars - and only some still wriggling. The sweet smell of it hits you in a dreamy cloud, and picks my lips with want.

There's a thousand things to grab, and not enough pockets in the world.

Or money in ours.

But we can breathe it in. Feeding Zipper a wash of sultry, simulated, smells and sights through our implants - as if he were really here with us. Tasting the air for himself. The alleyway winds, and I laugh out loud. "Wow. Hey, hold up a sec! Look at this." I whisper, nudging in the others when Kami ain't looking.

"What, mate......?" Zips eyes light as we crowd around the boxes and boxes brightly colourful chews. "Wow! Like, damn mate! Flavour Cravers! Yeah! I remember these! Wow. Like, we must've had these a million times when we were little....."

"Flavour Cravers!!" Badger cheers, materialising from nowhere. "YEAH! WOO!! Flavour Cravers!! GET IN MY FACE!!!™"

"Heh. Fat chance." I snort. Itching to bop the lil muffin-head. "But come on, d'ya notice anythin' weird?"

"They're not in my face??"

"Besides that, ya dummy!"

"What? Weird mate......?" Zip's avatar wades through the stall to get a closer look, as I grin behind him. "Not really weird, but, like, this really takes me back. Y'know?" The smile turns a little sad, but then brightens. "Oh nice, they got all the best flavours! 'Black Blast'..... 'Zesty Zinger'....."

"'Ludicrous Super-Sours'!" Badger pipes, eager fingers twitching.

"Yeah, and...." Zipper's forehead wrinkles like it ate a super-sour. "Wait, like...... the names are wrong?" He starts, as my grin gets wider. "Ludicrous Lemon & Lime?" He lifts a virtual copy of one of the packs. "Black Berry Blast...? Hold on, like are they knockoffs? What the heck is a 'lemon'?"

"Some mythical fruit, or something." I scoff in a mockery of Kami's voice. "But no, they ain't knockoffs. "They're the original, censored, versions." I poke a claw at one. "See this? Black Blast is actually Berry Blast. Same exact flavour." My claw shifts. "Same with Ludicrous Lemon. Mango Madness. X-Tream Lychee....." I drop the claw. "Got em all the time, back when I was a shortie."

"You were LITTLE!?" Badger yelps as I kick him in the leg.

"Yeah, I was squirt. I ain't proud of it. But the point is, this was my sweet shop. Actual pictures of fruit. Actual names of fruit." I cough. "No actual fruit.... But, point is...." But I hesitate, shifting a pack of Ludicrous Sours cover the happy lemons and limes. "....one day..... they all just vanished. All at once."

"Vanished? Mate? What?"

"Yep. Every damn one of em. And nobody wanted to talk about it.... Nobody would tell me why....." I choke a swallow. "Then, a few weeks later, they came back. With different packages. Different names. Suddenly it was all 'X-Tream Gushers' and 'Mystery Madness'. No cartoon fruits at all." I turn a look at him, slowly. "Craziest part is, they shop denied it. Told me I was imagining it. They'd always been like that. Always......"

"Seriously, mate?" Zip blinks. "Damn.... Like, I don't even remember that."

"Well, like I said, I was a shortie." I shrug. "Maybe you weren't there yet."

"Then, like, where'd these come from?" He frowns. "How? Like, how've I never even heard of it?"

"Dunno. New London? I hear they're all about the stuface stuff....." I drop the little packet. "All I know is, we got told to shut up about it. And we did."

Zipper shakes his head, wordlessly. "That's mad. Like, and to see them right next to each-other. Like...."

"Separate products for alternate realities." Injects the ever-watchful Polybius, on our private comms. "One for a world where fruit, officially, 'never existed'. And one for a world where it did."

"Yeah." I rub my neck. "Capitalism gonna capital, I guess.... Even when things get weird....."

Badger wants to get both of each to 'compare', but the moment is making my brain itch all over again, and I push him on. It's not really food, anyways, and the ones with fruit names are pricy due to rarity. But we have a fun browse.

Scoping new food, and old.

Even actual antique stuff, dug out of ancient vending machines - down, down, down in The Beneath. But when we start browsing biscuits, I finally relent and pick out a couple of packs.

Current Funds: 15.5₣

Tufty hops ahead through the maze of claws, and paws, and spidery legs as we pay. Sneaking a peek up at a table stall loaded with simFish and faux Crab. That lil nosie snuffling curiously, under the hair, as he mewls quietly. As if in some primal need.

"Eh. May as well get ya something." I mutter as we fall in behind.

"No." Growls the richly full-blooded tiger behind it, proudly thrashing his five flowing tails.

"What." Kami scoffs.

“No dirty human monkeys.” The full GMO snarls, glaring directly her down with six great ruby eyes. “Or their midget spawn.” It adds, as Badger pops his head over the counter, paper ear dangling.

"What!?" I snap. "Shit, most of us are-"

“Or dirty half-breed fakes." It sneers at Tufty. Fangs shining as it spits to one side, eyes shifting independently. “Or-”

“Shit! Well screw you then! Die poor, ya stripy bastard! We'll keep our money!" I snap as Demon fights to drag a raging Kami away. Metal fists flailing, and grabbing at air, as the impervious creature smirks behind us. Giving off a little ‘piff.’ of contempt and folding its four, huge, hairy arms. "Yeah, you laugh. Bet you're broke as crap too...."

"HE'LL EAT CRAP WHEN I'M DONE FEEDING HIM HIS OWN ASS!!!" She screams around the corner, as the tiger-creature flickers a smug little smirk. "YEAH! YOU BETTER STAY THERE! SCARDIE CAT-!"

“Yahh!! Spook!? Spook!?” Badger tugs at my arm. “Kami’s saying weird stuff again!! Is she really gonna feed him his own ass-?”

"YOU BET I AM!"

"WOW! Can you eat ass??" Badger gives his own a speculative look, like he's thinking about a lil bite.

"Big bloody no to that, kid." I wince. “It's a figure of speech? Or something?”

“Oooooo!” A pause. “What’s a fig-gure?”

“….I’ll…. tell yah when I’m older.”

“You won’t GET any older if you don’t LET ME GO!!!”

“Let's just ignore her.....”

We delve back into the market, jangling our last vials of Old Blood as we hunt out a deal. Their hardened crystal glittering bright and red in the shifting lights. Each with a tiny, hexagonal, chip shining inside - suspended in liquid.

It’s clever stuff. Remove the liquid, and the chip instantly fries itself. But you can’t really screw with the chip while it’s wet. So no making copies.

Yeah, we tried.

We burn it all on basic snacks on a street thick with feathers. Counting out our last, precious, vials into the clawed hands of a tiny little ole rabbit-eared lady…. with a big-ass gun, and scary-ass gang tattoos. Who pets Tufty on the head and calls him a sweetie.

She was… weirdly nice.

Set my bells off again, just like with Tun. But I keep it quiet.

“....only now we’re totally broke. And I mean totally.” I say, slapping Badgers hands away from the bag. “Looks like we’re gonna have to grab that bounty job.”

Current Funds: 0₣

From there, we quietly slip back into the treacherous bits of the grand Pirate tower - and the dark closes upon us. Walls of hustling merchants giving way to dens, gangs, and prospective robbers. Beady eyed kids. Vampire-pale addicts. Whole streets taken over by lurid fungal growths, beaten back by guys with blaring flamethrowers. We pass one that’s just a carpet of addicts.

Then even the people taper off into silence and stillness - stirred only by whispers of wind. And a growing roar of storm. Zip guiding us past buildings with steel-plated doors. Thick as vaults. Residents with cameras and rusty metal dogs.

We hurry on.

A pimped ganger rig ghosts past us on the way - neon strips transmuting its frame into an empty cage of light. Like something from the Virtual. And then there’s nothing for minute after minute.

Tick, tick, tick….

It’s almost a relief when the rumbling bulk of a heavy cleaning drone crosses our path. Thick with turrets and armoured thugs, who hang off the sides. All bearing the branded mark of The Pirate Lords.

Just in case you got ideas…..

Silence again.

Echoing with Kami’s boots. The pat of our feet, and clicking claw. The pant of breath, and crinkle of plastic bag. The shiver of a heart, as dread settles in…..

And then it gets worse.

Total, empty, devastation.

Broken houses. Broken furniture. Vacant streets…. burnt cars…. mutated skeletons…. And the ceaseless touch of unseen eyes…..

“Wish we’d saved the tram fare…..” I mouth over comms as the streets deafen us with ravenous quiet. “Damn, it’s…. desolate.” Not even the usual mutant cyborg beggars with guns…..

“Brr. Gosh, I wish we could park closer….” Tufty stammers back, under his breath.

“Can’t.” I shake my head, and leave it at that. He knows why we set down out here. Far from the bigger, busier, supposedly safer, hub ports - where every landing is recorded by multiple Pirate Factions. And possibly others….. Maybe even….

Them.

Sometimes every option is terrible for your health, is what I’m saying. But, then again, we never came this way, going in…..

“Hey, y’know-” Zip starts up over comms, just to break the harsh and…. twitchy…. silence. But then he cuts himself off. Wait! Like, uh…. hold on a second….”

Instantly, my ears swivel. “What? All I hear is….”

Engines…..?

They’re faint. An undercurrent to the endless wind. As if they’re really far away, or…. dampened. My ears flick the other way, my tail beginning a slow sweep. Heartbeats pass. My hackles prick. I glance at the others, and we all spread out more. Checking guns. Scoping boarded shopfronts. An icy thought entering my mind.

What if we hid the chopper, but exposed ourselves?

And then….

“Mate, uh, don’t freak….” Zip hesitates, a wide look in his eyes. “….but…. you got hostiles incoming…. Looks like you’re being hunted…..”

> > >< < <