[Rith]"Rith Sann!" came a loud, brash shout. "Hey! I'm talkin' to you, little fuckin' punk!" 

Rith turned his head to the side, and from the corner of his eye he could make out the shape of a large man leering at him from the opposite end of the alley. Rith adjusted the hood on his head and began walking quicker. Just as he reached an intersection in the alleyway, two more adult men turned around each corner and stopped him in his tracks.

"Y-you have the wrong kid," Rith stuttered. "Just let me go, please!" 

It was then he heard the loud and heavy footsteps sounding from behind him, meeting the puddles of rainwater that swelled on the streets from the downpour the night before. He turned and met the gaze of the man shouting at him earlier. Rith looked up in fear at the towering man. He recognized him as Jakob Dresden, a local drunk and low class drug dealer. His long, dark red hair was matted and greasy, and his clothes appeared tattered, hanging on quite literally, by a thread.

"I'll let you go when you give me back what you stole, boy," Jakob said, the stench of days old alcohol coming off his hot breath. 

"I-I didn't steal anything from you, I swear!" Rith sputtered, backing away from Jakob. 

At this response, Jakob lunged at Rith and grabbed him by the hood of his jacket. Rith shouted for help, but it was only him and Jakob's lackeys in that alleyway. Rith struggled to break free, beating his fists on Jakob's prosthetic arm, but he was far too strong. His eyes widened in fear as he heard the cybernetic limb whirring. 

"Lie to me again, you little prick, and I will gut you right here and the birds can have a little somethin' for dinner," threatened Jakob, his bloodshot eyes searing into Rith's. "Where... is... my fuckin' Craze?" 

"I didn't... steal anything from you!" Rith choked out as he squirmed in Jakob's grasp. With a swift motion, he rocked his body and swung forward, driving his boot into Jakob's groin. The large man roared out in pain and anger, dropping Rith and clutching his groin. Rith turned to face Jakob's two men.

"Grab that rodent!" he heard Jakob shout. "I'm gonna turn his head into mush!"

Rith used his small size and ducked under and between the two men, bolting past them and down the other alley. He ran as fast as he could, throwing down garbage cans, boxes and whatever he could to slow Jakob and his men down. 

Sweet! He thought to himself as he noticed an open door on the right side of the wall. He burst through, found himself in the kitchen of a noodle shop, and shoved his way past an old woman who shouted expletives at him. Rith ran towards the entrance of the shop and through the front door, to the dismay of many of the customers. Once through, he found himself face to face with more of Jakob's men.

"Thought it'd be that easy?" shouted Jakob from behind him, who was standing in the doorway of the shop. 

The men closed in on him, and Rith tried to run again, but Jakob grabbed him once more and threw him to the ground. Rith rolled onto his back, and before he knew it, Jakob's cybernetic arm was flying towards him in a brutal ground pound. One of his eyes went dark, and his head rolled to the side, where blood and broken fragments of teeth were coating the sidewalk. He heard the whirring of Jakob's prosthetic limb once more, then everything turned black.

* * *

Rith awoke from his sleep in a cold sweat, trembling even underneath his covers. He laid there for a moment, regaining his composure and rubbing his face, making sure it was still intact.

It was just a dream, Rith. You're okay. Jakob is dead, he died years ago.

The rain gently falling and meeting the roof of his rudimentary metal shack eased him into a calm state. He looked over at his wall, rubbing his eyes and trying to read the holographic multi-function screen. 

March 16th, 2424

5:45 AM SCT

Weather: 46°F/7.7°C 

Cloudy, rain starting soon.

Rith sat up and looked around, still no sign of his parents. They'd left four years prior, no trace left, nothing to go off of. He didn't know why he still clung to a distant hope that one day they'd return. He always just assumed they were dead, made it easier to go about his life. Rith held a sort of resentment for it. He didn't know why they left, or where they'd gone, all he knew was that they left their 12 year old son to fend for himself in a vicious and relentless world. He'd grown to take care of himself, and it was all he knew.

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Quit moping and get up, we've got things to do.

Rith rose from his cot, folding his tattered sheets up neatly. He'd read somewhere before that even if one's living conditions are less than ideal, the carrying out of routines as if everything were normal can be beneficial to mental state. As he made his way to his wash shack, he looked himself in his small mirror. The long black hair he had was disheveled from his sleep, and he could see small bags under his eyes. He shook his head a bit and splashed some water on his face to wake up. Quickly brushing his teeth, he grabbed his plastic bucket and began scooping water from his shower barrel, pouring it down on himself. 

Drying himself off, he glanced at the multi-function display once again.

Always with the rain... he said to himself.

He threw on some old clothes, he hadn't had time to wash them lately. The laundromats were too crowded most days, not to mention the prices. If you didn't have a solid 7,000 CPIs, you weren't wearing clean clothes. Rith couldn't afford that luxury. Rith had always said to himself that one day he'd have enough Cerbs to live a decent life. The Cerberus Pact Integer was brought into circulation as an end-all-be-all to all currency. Everything else had been wiped and burned, and if it wasn't Cerbs you had, it was worthless. The only thing was, they were hard to come by. 

Rith threw on a jacket, grabbed his pack, and stepped through the tattered tarp that acted as a door to his makeshift metal hut. Rain fell slightly, softly pelting the nylon material of his jacket. He looked overhead into the dark early morning sky as a distant whirring and whooshing sound echoed through the sky. He could make out the faint red glow of a ship's thrusters off in the distance. 

Cerberus. What're they doing here right now? He wondered.

Shouldering his pack, Rith set out to meet with a friend and associate. He'd have to make his way through downtown Terradyne, which was situated right at the center of Los Angeles Impact Zone 7, and if he knew where he was going, he'd end up at Stardust Diner, an inconspicuous little bar and grill on the outskirts of Impact Zone 7. As Rith walked through the streets of Terradyne City, he was engulfed, almost overly so by neon shop signs all advertising some sort of corporate products. Energy and plasma rifles, cybernetic enhancements, medicine; even Craze, a supplement that when abused and ingested in large amounts, enhances the user's reflexes and quickness at the cost of significant chance of harmful hallucinations among other side effects. Rith felt a shudder creep down his spine as he saw the Craze advertisement, thinking back of his run-in with Jakob Dresden, only a few years ago.

Rith kept walking, his mouth watering as he walked past a street market full of stands of enticing street-cooked food. He glanced at an LED menu as he strolled past one of the stands.

Looks like they're serving roasted rat again. He thought to himself. Real meat was scarce, either due to dangerously low population levels of typical farm animals, with some even being extinct, gone off of tables entirely. Only those at the top of the hierarchy of this new society had the luxury of having real food served. He continued walking, the scenes and sounds of the city playing out to him like a songbird's hymn in a wooded forest. Idle conversation of how shitty life was, kids playing with whatever they could find on the side of the street. He noticed some kids playing around with what appeared to be an ancient firearm. The handgun was large, and only trace amounts of what Rith assumed used to be stainless steel remained, the rest of the weapon being encompassed in dirt, rust, or grime. He shook his head, but then remembered that at 12 years young, he wasn't much older than those kids.

A long few moments of walking had gone by, and by now Rith was nearing the edge of Terradyne. The jungle that was the decrepit shambles of buildings that formed the city were now scarcer, and only the shells of former structures existed at the edge of the city. He continued over the bridge that connected Terradyne to the rest of Impact Zone 7, and continued on his way. After about 15 more minutes, Rith saw Stardust Diner in the distance. It was easy to spot, due to its location atop a meager hill of tall grass. He checked his watch, he was right on time.

Rith stepped through the automatic doors of the diner, of which only one side worked, and was immediately greeted by the aroma of various breakfast foods. He looked around for his friend Remaza, and located him at a corner table of the diner. He waved and Remaza noticed, waving him over. 

"Sann, what's up, man?" said Remaza, looking no worse for wear than usual. "Have a seat."

Rith sat down and set his pack beside him on the worn red leather booth. "Remaza, I see you're in a good mood today," he replied, glancing at the plate of eggs and artificial bacon in front of his friend.

"I am, Rith Sann, I am in a great mood today," Remaza said, taking a bite of the stretchy bacon. "You wanna know why, kid?" he asked.

"Only if you give me some of that," Rith replied with a cheeky grin.

"Dig in," Remaza said, rubbing his hands.

Rith helped himself without being told twice as Remaza laid it on him.

"My good mood today is because in about a week's time, we're not gonna be sittin' here, eating this chewy fucking fake bacon," Remaza began. "Because you and I, buddy, we're gonna be eatin' the real shit, I tell ya." He snickered.

Rith stopped chewing and looked up to meet Remaza's gaze, raising an eyebrow. 

"Don't give me that look, Sann," Remaza asserted. "Me and Winslo, we're cookin' up a plan that's gonna see that we get paid real well. I'm talkin' fine ladies, rich ladies. Real food, real cow, real fuckin' pig, real  fuckin' bacon. And you my young friend, won't have to live in that little metal garbage can and bathe out of a barrel of dirty water anymore!" Remaza finished, throwing his arms out to the side. 

Rith couldn't help but grin. He always knew Remaza was a bit rambunctious, but what his friend was saying was just too good to the ears. But he couldn't help but notice a nagging feeling that maybe this was too good to be true. 

"So why don't you fill me in on this little plan you and Winslo have cooking?" Rith said, taking another bite out of his bacon.