A strong light poured onto the ring, banishing the dark, and giving a clear look on the stage. The crowd's cheer intensified as I fell down against the stage, I let out a deep sigh and pretended to be hurt. My opponent raised his arms in the air, gaining the audience's attention. He's a young caucasian man, probably in his early 20's, crow cut and intimidating tattoos all over his body, despite that, I can tell that he is a nice guy. Because of his next action, he gets closer to me while the referee was counting down to my defeat.
"Are you okay? Because I kinda feel bad beating someone with one arm." He whispered to me.
I gritted my teeth, I wanted him to win and that was the deal, but what he just did piss me off. So I stood up with an unamused expression and glared at him. He let out a smile, and jokingly side steps around. The crowd laughed as they watched the comedic routine that the young man showed.
"So do you want more? Then kindly step into my office."
It wasn't his arrogance or attitude, it was his sympathy, I hated that. With a single step, I entered his strike zone, he swings and I duck down until my back touch the floor. Then using a single hand, I pushed myself up with my feet above me. Time distorted into a sudden crawl, my foot hit his jaw and send him flying.
His body fell onto the stage with a loud roar, the audience turned silent, while I flipped and landed on my feet again. I glanced around me at the quiet crowd, then I walked out of the ring while the referee declared me the winner, but I don't give two shits about it. The crowd parted as I walked through them, they all stared at me with disbelief eyes.
The door swung as I entered the locker room, the first thing I did was went to the sink and splashed some water onto my face. I raised my gaze until my eyes met the mirror, baggy eyes, unkempt long brunette hair, an expression that screamed get out of my face, and a missing arm. Sometimes when I blinked, I could see the real Andre, the young man with cold eyes, and soaked with blood. It has happened before, quite normal for me, but It's not like I want to see him.
In every corner of my eyes, I could see her hatred glares and his disappointed stares. Daisie and Agnes, always haunting me, everywhere I've been and everywhere I go. I gritted my teeth and whispered to the empty air.
"Go away."
However, no matter what I said, they never did, they still stood there. Frustrated, I moved away from the mirror and sat on the bench. I wiped my face with my palm and sighed deeply. Without giving it a thought, I reached out to metal flask in my duffel bag, but then I realized that I used the wrong arm. My other hand trembled in rage, so I stood up and kicked the chair near me across the room.
"Shit! Freaking shit!"
The door to the locker room opened and revealed a man with slick black hair, and wearing an 80's white suit with a round black sunglasses. A commons style around here, for some reason people in this world like the 80's style. A smirking smile decorated his face as he makes his way to me.
"My man, every time I come to see you, you always so angry. You know my grand-mama always said 'you gotta chill in life, my dude.' And her words never failed me yet."
I sat back down again and started packing my stuff in the duffel bag. The man shook his head slightly and sighed. He reached into his jacket and took out a wad of cash.
"Always grumpy, but I kinda like that about you. Here," He dropped the cash onto my lap and leaned on the locker beside him.
"It's not what we agreed upon."
"What we agreed upon was you taking the fall and let the kid win."
After clicking my tongue, I tossed the cash into my duffel bag. Then I stood up again and opened the locker right next to me. Taking out the coat, I immediately wore it with ease despite having only one arm.
"You know if you want to make more money, there's a new place opening up at Io on one of Jupiter's moons. I'm bringing all my guys there, you know before shit hits the fan between the Mars High Council and the Earth Federation. I can get us through the borders with ease. So what do you think? You in?" I felt his enthusiastic smile behind the locker door.
"Not interested." I closed the locker and walked to my duffel bag, the man groaned in response.
"You don't want to be a champion, you don't want to be a hero, you don't want to be famous, and you don't even want to be filthy rich and that is crazy, but you’re the strongest meatbag I know, no enhancement, no robotic limb. I’m not sure but I know you don't take any drugs. C'mon... there’s gotta be something that you want."
"Alone," I slung the bag over my shoulder and walked toward the door.
"Always so depressing," He sighed.
Taking hold of the doorknob, I stopped and asked, "The kid?"
A half-smirk appeared on his face, "Despite the small concussion, and a bit of his ego cut down. He's gonna be fine, but his career gonna take a while to reco—wait!" I left the locker room before he could finish.
Loud cheers overwhelmed my hearing as the audience show their support upon the two fighters in the ring, the cheers became louder after one of them managed to land a hit on each other. I let out a sigh, lowered my head and head to the bar where I took one of the drinks without paying and chugged it down. After tossing the glass away, I exited the club through the main door, and I was immediately bombarded with colorful holographic advertisements upon reaching the crowded small alley on the other side.
Bright colorful clothing, lights, but a depressing state of living, pipes leaking all over the place, dirty and rubbish littered ground. Two words that I used to describe this place, colorfully depressing, but despite the horrible place of living, the view is actually pretty good. I looked up and there it is. Their version of earth.
"Welcome to Ring Station Alpha, the only independent station that encircled the earth, for a better living and second chance." The advertiser spoke.
I could see the extension of the station as far as the horizon and return back here, a massive ring around the earth, truly one of a kind. I inhaled the recycled air and began my stride through the sea of people. After a couple of minutes, I reached a secluded shop in a dark alley. Without thinking about it, I entered the shop and was familiar with the surrounding, a tight, common convenience store. I stepped closer to the cashier and place the wad of cash.
The rough bearded man glanced at me, then placed his datapad down, "The usual?"
I nodded my head slightly. The man let out a groan as he squatted down and brought up a paper bag filled with items. He took the money and went back to reading his datapad. I grabbed the bag with me as I exited the shop. After another couple of minutes navigating a bunch of alleys, I arrived in a very dark and creepy one. I heard a dog growl coming closer to me, with no fear I took out a bag of dog food and poured out the content onto the grounds.
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The skinny black dog stepped out of the shadows, drooling as it bares its sharp teeth and glared daggers at me. The dog never once showed me any sign of getting docile, the beast always stays the same, angry and hungry. I found comfort in knowing that, I leaned back on a wall, keeping my distance between me and the dog. I took out the last item, a bottle of very strong alcohol and chugged it down with ease.
"Eff the world, am I right?" I muttered to the dog, it ignored me and continue to devour the food savagely.
After a couple of hours, I took a high-speed tram toward my apartment sector. Pushing the crowded station, I headed toward an old laundromat. I came here because I needed to wash my clothes and this place is the closest and cheapest place around here. Looking around, I noticed the usual amount of people I always see here, stopping my sight credit exchange, I walked toward it and like a drone, I went in a motion of doing what I usually.
I exchanged my credit into coins, then stored some extra coin in my pocket just in case the dryer doesn't fully dry my clothes and it needed more time. I took the same seat, on the same bench while facing the same washers and just let my mind doze off.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her, and I saw him, it never goes away, no matter how much I ran. I remember her words as clear as day.
'I hate you.' So much hatred and that was her last words.
Someone pulled me back to reality with a single cursed and a loud smack. I opened my eyes to a woman in a thick fur coat and wearing heavy makeup, platinum straight hair with bob cut style, Asian heritage, soft smooth skin and underneath that coat is a very skimpy silver dress. I don't mean to judge, but she looks like an escort. She kicked and cursed the washer at first and I was fine with it, but she's really starting to get under my skin.
"Stupid bloody washer, it bloody ate my money!"
"Oi."
She turned and looked a bit surprised to see me, "Yeah?"
"Catch." I tossed my extra coin toward her and she caught it with ease, "Use mine."
"Ah, thanks."
I went back to my thought, and the woman's washer rumble as it began its routine of washing. Calm and quiet swept me again like freshwater, until suddenly the woman fidgeted closer and started talking. I internally groaned as I used my fullest ability to ignores her.
"I always see you around here...blah blah blah." My mind just went to the default of filtering her words into nonsense and gibberish.
I don't know what happened, but midway of the conversation I fell asleep. I saw Daisie in my dream, she charged toward me with maddened eyes and bloody hands. I raised my hand to protect myself, but found both hand missing, only stumps remained. I couldn't defend myself against her as she tried to choked into death.
"I HATE YOU!"
The glass shattered causing me to returned back to reality, I heaved and looked around. Everyone is missing, I looked outside of the glass pane and saw them talking to a lot of bad guys, known as the Skullhead gangs. I couldn't care less about them so I went back waiting for my…
BOOM!
The entire laundromat exploded and went up in flames in a matter of seconds. The burning ceiling collapsed on top of me, the fire started to burn off some of my hair, that was lucky compared to my clothes, it was turned into ashes in a blink of an eye, leaving me in my black panties. I gritted my teeth as my rage took over me, my eyes bloodshot red and I stood up with ease despite having the heavy ceiling crashed on top of me. I walked out of the fire, unnerved by the heat with a wave of newfound blazing anger in myself.
"I told you there will be consequences if you don't pay up." The head of the gang warned the owner of the laundromat while his other members laughed at the destruction they caused.
"Oi!" My bare feet casually stepped on the burning timber like nothing.
The entire gang turned their attention at me, while the onlooker backed away from them. The same woman who talked to me step forward and help the old man to get out of there. I took another step and one of them accidentally pre-fired, their gun wasn't the typical one that is used in my earth, theirs are what they called an energy repulsor handgun or weapon. ERP or ERW, it doesn't shoot regular bullet instead it shoots a blast of white-hot energy, enough to penetrate a person and throw them across the room.
The energy blast hit my chest, forcing me to take a few steps back, I felt it piercing temperature, but it wasn't enough to do any real damage. I raised my head and glared at the happy trigger gang member, he looked at me with horror.
"Shoot that son of a beach!" The leader ordered, after hearing the order, the gang member aimed their weapons at me while the civilians evacuated inside the nearby shop and apartment.
A rain of energy blast thrown at me, some missed while others hit every part of my body. Despite the painful jabs, I toughen up and charged my way toward the closest enemy. The enemy panic as he tried to keep his distance, but I was too fast. The moment he entered my strike zone, I kicked him across the street and caused him to crash into one of the industrial pipes after letting go of his weapon. The pipe cracked and started to pour out recycled water onto the street.
However the rain of energy blast didn't stop, I looked down at the weapon lying on the ground, grabbing it with one hand, I threw it with so much force at one of the enemies causing him to crash into a Hovercar. The thrown enemy drop to the floor and people could see the massive dent that it left behind. The onslaught stopped, I turned my head to the last two, and they are already in a hovercar. Two bright light shone at me, limiting my vision, and suddenly, I felt the tremendous force of a heavy object rammed into me.
After my sight returned, it was the Hovercar that had crashed into me, and I saw the leader's smirk behind the windshield. He must have thought that his pathetic and desperate attack was working, but I will show him that he is wrong. I planted both feet into the ground and using my hand, I dug into the metal hood. The hover cars stopped just a few feet from where it hit me.
Both of them with widened eyes looked at me, I gritted my teeth as I held the hovercar in place. The leader's aide quickly exited the vehicle and took off. However, the gang leader, himself, clenched his jaw and stepped onto the gas pedal with all his strength. It was an action of a desperate man, and deep down I felt joy watching him become terrified of me. I dug my feet deeper, then raised the car up slowly but surely, then flip it upside down.
The car roof smashed into the ground first, trapping the leader inside. The car was going nowhere, I walked to the driver's side and tore the door. Turning my body to the running gang member, I twirled and tossed the car door across the street. Then with pinpoint accuracy, it perfectly fell on top of the runaway and knocked him out.
The gang leader crawled out of the car with cuts and bruised. Underneath the skin of his right, I could see a prosthetic robotic arm. He must be an Enhanced, human with cybernetic body parts either willingly wanted or unwillingly given to them in a medical emergency. However that was not the most surprising thing here, every one of the people here could have a hidden cybernetic enhancement or a visible one, to make it clear it's normal for them here.
The gang leader coughed out blood as he tried to crawl away, but with a slow stride, I already managed to catch up to him. Using my feet, I forced him to lay on his back.
"W-What are you?" His voice trembled.
I hold his entire head like a soccer ball and raised him high until his feet dangled under him. My vision reddened, I heard voices, voices telling me to do it. To take the next step, a step which I have taken before, and pay dearly for it.
"Kill him!"
"You know you want too, you've done it before, and remember the satisfaction when you did it. It's easy, just crushed his entire head like an egg, poof, he's gone."
A smile crept onto my face, and I was about to do it when civilians began to come out and get a closer look. I glanced at their stares, their horrified eyes and terrified face brought me back. A terrible realization swoop over me, I was about to take this man's life, my hand trembled and I let go of him.
When I raised my sight, I could see Daisie and Agnes amongst the crowd. The scared gang leader looks at me as he lay on the ground, waiting for me to decide his fate. The whispering voice multiplied and grew louder by the second.
"Murderer!" It said.
"No, I'm not!" I pressed my palm against my forehead and closed my eyes.
"Who are you talking to?"
I looked back at him with maddened gaze, and examined his turquoise and pink windbreaker, "Give me your jacket!" Through aching pain, the gang leader immediately took off his jacket and gave it to me.
"Murderer."
I snatched it away and wore it, "Now get out of my face!" He quickly crawled away like a worm, I turned my body to the crowd and begin my stride. The crowd makes way for me and I tried my damn hardest to not make any eye contact. I blocked any murmur I heard, wishing to not know what they are saying about me.
"Murderer!"
After I passed through the crowd, I took off into a run.
"Murderer!"
"Shut up!" I screamed as I ran.