Wilde awoke to the pounding pain of a handover beating within his skull, the sharp glare of light from the lone window of his one room apartment piercing his eyes. He let out a noise somewhere between a growl and a grown before kicking the thin sheet off him and sitting up on his bed gathering his bearings.
Judging from the bright light shining through the grime on his window and the smog of the city he figured it was probably noonish, meaning he’d slept for about seven hours as he only got back to his place at six in the morning before collapsing after a night on the town. It had been a good time from what Wilde remembered, although seeing that he’d woken up alone, without Kay by his side meant that it could’ve been better he mused.
Through bleary, bloodshot eyes Wilde looked over his room. It was a small affair but by the standards of the Seattle barrens he was doing well for himself. With four walls, a ceiling, a roof, a locking door, an intact window, and minimal damp or pests, there were people in the barrens that would kill to have such a place, plenty would probably kill for much less. But to Pedro Wilde it was home.
A part of him was grateful that he hadn’t managed to bring Kay back over, his place looked like a dump with dirty clothes and half eaten takeaway containers strewn around. It wasn’t that he was afraid of offending her delicate sensibilities; she wouldn’t have left her megacorp funded life to live down in the barrens if she couldn’t handle dirt and trash. It was more Wilde wanted Kay to see him at his best, not as a lazy slob. With that in mind he forced himself up and began to tidy up his apartment, throwing on the least dirty of his worn clothes and putting the rest of them in a pile to wash later at what passed for a laundromat down the street. The trash of the room was tossed in a garbage bag to leave on the sidewalk, someone would take it at some point, either to burn for warmth or in a vain attempt to scavenge something of value.
Looking about Wilde felt more secure about having Kay over now. He went over to his combination microwave, fridge, freezer and finished off the remains of a bottle of herbal tea and a cold bao bun for his breakfast cum lunch. With that done he looked over his newly cleaned home. It was still messy, but presentable enough in his eyes. The battered desk that he had rescued from the street was covered in old water damaged books made of real paper, but they were in no real order. Most of them were on magical theory and well thumbed, a couple which had been his mothers were on neo-anarchy and were gathering dust at the edge of the desk. The one that he’d been reading last was a new acquisition, a book on small unit tactics from a few years ago. The past few urban brawl matches Wilde had done well in, but Carlos kept going on about how he needed to be more tactical and not just run off on his own. So, this was his response.
Urban Brawl.
Outside of Kay it was the thing that he lived for, the thing that helped get him up and motivated him for the day ahead. Wilde had heard it called everything from televised street violence to the modern-day answer to the Colosseum. The only thing that mattered to him though that for as long as he was in a match he could cut loose with his full magical power, hearing the roar of the crowd as he did so as he relished the rush of wild abandon he got from it. Even in the few matches that there was no audience in attendance, only drones recording his actions Wilde still got a thrill from knowing that there were people watching him. That for a brief moment HE was the centre of their world.
That he got to wield the magic he was so naturally talented with in a safe, relatively rules free environment and get a reasonable payment for it was a happy bonus.
The rules of the game were very simple. The match took place in an urban area that had been cleared of anyone not involved in the match, rarely the same place twice. There were two teams, two goal and one ball. Get the ball to the other teams goal your team scored a point. The team that scored the most points won. It was everything else that made the game the sensation that it was. Outside of heavy weapons like machine guns, full body heavy armour and subtle, difficult to detect magics, nothing was forbidden in Urban Brawl. Shotgun blast to the knee? Katana through the gut? Fireball into a group? All permitted if not actively encouraged. It was fast paced, adrenaline fuelled violence for the masses and Wilde loved it.
There were some allowances to prevent deaths, dead players couldn’t come back for a rematch after all. The guns were all loaded with gel rounds to lower the chances of fatalities and the players were “discouraged” from killing other players. An accident or two could be overlooked, but if a player gained a reputation for killing other players, then they had a habit of getting into fatal “accidents” during matches themselves.
Wilde was no master sword fighter, nor expert gunslinger, though he did fancy himself as decent in both fields. But his true talent lay in the casting of magic. Fire and lighting danced around the arena whenever he was on it and the audience cheered for him every time it did so. He had the “talent” as his mother had called it, from an early age just as she had. The inherent ability to command and manipulate the mana of the world into spells and summon spirits. Yet where she found it easiest to cast health based magic Wilde had an innate gift when it came to combat spells. He wasn’t a killer by any means, Pedro had never killed anyone in his life, a rare thing to say coming from someone born and raised in the Redmond barrens of Seattle. His mother had always s taught him to respect life and he did, or at least he tried, but that left him with few opportunities to truly cut loose and revel in his power. Urban Brawl was one of the few situations where he could do so, no need to worry too much about harming people, even be applauded for doing so. For Wilde, there was nothing better than winning a hard-fought match, save perhaps for one person.
He shook his head and looked around his room some more, examining his reflection on the cracked mirror he’d bought off a scavenger. Close cropped black hair, bright green eyes, dusky skin, and with no bruises or fresh scars it seemed like Wilde had a relatively sedate evening out last night. He was glad that he didn’t get into any fights, not that he was worried for himself, but if Kay saw him looking beat up, she’d worry about him no matter what he said. It was just how she was.
The nights events played over in Wilde’s mind as he tried to remember what exactly happened. He remembered hanging out with Miguel down at Tarnished Gold bar for a few drinks, then going to the new club in Redmond, Neon Riot to dance and let off some steam. He liked Tarnished Gold, it felt like it had some character, or what passed for it in the barrens, with all its brass piping and furnishings it looked like a mash up of a steampunk factory and an old Bavarian coffeehouse. The Neon Riot on the other hand wasn’t to his taste; just bad, repetitive music blasting out of low-quality speakers and drinks so watered-down Wilde was surprised they even bothered calling it beer. The entire club was just a half-collapsed warehouse that someone had thrown some glow in the dark paint on, plastered the walls with cheap neon looking lights and made a crude bar and stage inside. The entire thing was soulless. Pedro figured it’d be forgotten in six months or so.
Not that any of that mattered to him, not really. He figured he’d hit up Vega’s Urban Brawl arena to see if there were any matches coming up, he could join, then he’d call Kay and see if she was free to hang out and –
Wilde’s commlink began to flash, vibrate and whine in tinny tones grabbing his attention. He picked up off his desk and examined it, a cheap model he picked up months ago after his old one finally died on him. The white plastic was chipped and yellowed from age looking like poor man’s ivory, the few buttons on it had lost any identifying symbols years ago through wear making Wilde struggle to answer the call for a moment. When he answered his heart soared for a second before plummeting to the floor as he saw the staticky hologram of a face manifest.
It was Kay.
There were tears in her eyes, and she looked terrified.
‘Pedro! I’m being chased! I don’t know who! I think they’re a gang!?’
‘Wha- Where are you! I’ll- ‘
‘I’m sending you a ping on my commlink! There’re two cars full of them, I saw them following me for a while but as soon as I tried to give them the slip they started chasing me!’
‘What do they look like! What’re their colours, signs?!’
He hoped that it wasn’t Halloweeners looking to set another person on fire, they’d been on a pyro kick for the past couple of days. Wilde was already throwing on his armoured jacket and grabbing his pistol and katana.
‘B-blue! Bright blue! And snakes or eastern dragons on their cars and jackets! Do you know who they are?!’
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‘No. Look, if you can’t outrun them or lose them then find somewhere to hide ‘till I get to you. I’ll be there soon. I promise’.
He was about to run out the apartment but just as his hand touched the door a thought flashed through his mind, and he rushed to his bed instead. He pulled out a heavy machine pistol and slammed a magazine in. Wilde had only bought the Ultimax 70 a few days ago and wasn’t good with it but he was hoping it would give him an edge in laying down suppressive fire. Panic just barely kept in check he leapt to the desk next and pulled a square of duct tape from beneath it, in the middle of it was a small silver ring shaped like a coiled serpent. He rammed it onto his right index finger and looked back to the quivering ghost of Kay coming from his commlink.
‘I’m in a burnt-out building close to the street’. Her voice was as quiet as the grave as she whispered to him. ‘They don’t know where I am but their looking for me. They – Oh frag they’ve got a mage hood! They know I’m a magician?! How do they know? Did -? Oh frag, I think I’ve been made. Pedro I’m sorry I – ‘.
The commlink gave out low metallic tone as the call was disconnected.
‘Kay?! KAY!’
All semblance of calm evaporated, his heart raced, and he could feel a cold sweat begin to coat him. Wilde burst through his apartment door unaware if he’d slammed it shut behind him or not. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered other than getting to Kay. He sprinted through the twisting hallways of the ancient apartment building, heart pounding more from fear than physical exertion.
SMASH
He kicked open the door to the outside and didn’t even taste the acidic air of the Seattle’s Redmond barrens as he rushed down the street. His eyes didn’t register if there was anyone else about, they just darted straight to the lot at the bottom of the street where his bike should’ve been parked. He’d paid enough money to the local gang for the safety of his ride and as he caught sight of it a tiny part of his terror faded.
Pedro was going to get to her; he knew he would.
Battering down the street, legs pumping as hard as they could, body barely registering the strain on his muscles, he jumped over the crude fence around the lot and scrambled to his bike. A Suzuki Mirage, a fine example of a Japanese racing bike and a great way to get to a place fast in the barrens. As he jumped onto the gleaming red vehicle Wilde started to regain control over his emotions. He needed to, for Kay’s sake.
With fingers still slightly trembling he punched in the location Kay pinged him before the call cut off into the bike’s onboard computer. With the destination locked Wilde kicked off and tore out of the lot and down the street.
Even though he’d stopped running he was still breathing hard, and he only just realised that he’d managed to have the wherewithal to grab his helmet as he rushed out of his place. He threw it on and began to drive at speeds that would have been dangerous on normal roads, let alone the unmaintained dead arteries made of potholes and cracked asphalt that were the barren’s streets. There were few people who owned vehicles in Redmond, and most of them avoided places like the one Wilde was headed which gave him the small mercy of not needing to worry himself with dealing with traffic.
Speeding down abandoned roads Wilde glanced at the time on his commlink. It’d been eight minutes since the call had cut off and he couldn’t get through to Kay no matter how many times he tried. He was so focused on the commlink that as he took a sharp corner he leaned in too hard and found himself and his bike skidding down the street before crawling to a stop.
Pain shot through Wilde leg as he dragged himself from under the motorbike and forced himself up.
‘RRRAAAHHHHHH!’
Kicking the fallen vehicle with his good leg as he screamed out, not in pain but frustration. Every second he wasted was another second Kay was in danger. He couldn’t afford this. She could afford it.
‘No! No. Focus. Need to focus. Need to get my head straight. Can’t do this half assed’.
He muttered to himself as he took a deep breath and held it. Exhale, then repeat. His heart calmed; his breathing slowed. Wilde wasn’t good, but he was better. Well enough to assess the situation better. He righted his ride and checked over the damage to it and himself. His bike had some scratches and scores on it, but nothing serious and his armoured jacket had taken the brunt of the damage from the fall. The right leg of his jeans was torn up a bit, but the leg underneath it was fine. Only the totally destitute or the mad wouldn’t be wearing armoured clothing in Redmond and Pedro was neither. It wasn’t a big enough inconvenience to stop him from carrying on. Nothing more than death would be.
Wilde closed his eyes and pushed his will beyond his body, reaching out and touching the innate power that coursed across the world. He could feel it, and more importantly he could control it. A small part at least. Around his body, invisible to the unawakened of the world, mana flowed around and through Wilde, manipulated and shaped by his will. Within seconds the mana was shaped into the spell he desired, and he locked the effect into the sustaining focus he was wearing on his right index finger. Wilde felt his reflexes enhanced to a degree that would put some cybernetically enhanced people to shame. He repeated the action but with a different spell now, one that would enhance his raw agility and sustained it within his own mind, a more difficult task but one Wilde had gotten a hang of a long time ago.
Once again Wilde kicked off his motorbike and speed down the abandoned streets of the Redmond barrens. With his magically empowered reflexes he handled the ride much better, but he still made sure to maintain control and not risk another accident. Kay deserved better than that, better than him, but if he was all that she had then he would make damn sure she would get his A-game. And the ones that were hunting her down. Death would be a mercy compared to what he wanted to inflict onto them.
Kay.
A chill ran down Wilde’s spine as he thought about what could be happening to her. If she was “lucky” this was just a gang looking to terrorise some random person as a show of force, not uncommon for the barrens but he doubted that. She’d said that they had a mage hood with them, a specific tool used to restrain magicians and stop them from casting spell or summoning spirits. That was specialist gear that a gang wouldn’t just have along with them by chance, it suggested to Wilde that they were targeting Kay specifically, and he had a good idea why.
She wasn’t born into the barrens like most of the people living there, nor was she cast out from the more “proper” districts of Seattle. Kay had been born in an MCT arcology, the beloved daughter of influential managers for the regional branch of the megacorporation, the modern equivalent of royalty. Then as she grew older Kay discovered that she was blessed with the gift of magic and rose even further in status in the megacorporation; magic users weren’t incredibly rare but were uncommon enough that having one born into a trusted and influential family in the megacorporation made them invest more into her. Kay was permitted to attend the university of Washington by MCT to further her education and grant her a degree of worldliness that would help her in becoming a more efficient tool for the megacorporation. What they hadn’t counted on was Kay was bright enough to pick up on the discrepancies between the lies she was raised on about the world outside of MCT and what she began to learn at the slightly less restrictive environment of the university. The hypocrisy, the inequality, total cultural stagnation that the megacorporation’s didn’t just accept but actively encouraged to maintain their position of complete supremacy. Kay gradually came to understand that the life of luxury that she had grown up with was paid for with the toil, suffering and lives of hundreds of thousands of people who would never get a fair chance of having what she had. It would have been easy for her to just shut her eyes to it all, go back to her golden life and ignore what she’d learnt. But that wasn’t the kind of woman Kay Yamashita was.
Rather than continue living a life of luxury and lies Kay broke away from MCT, fleeing the university and going to the one place in Seattle she knew she could hide from such a powerful entity. The Redmond barrens. She’d only been there for a couple of weeks when they’d first met in Tarnished Gold. He figured her for just another spoiled corp kid looking to slum it in Touristville for a night before heading back to the comforting iron grip of their parent corporation. But the more Pedro spoke with her the more he came to respect her, admire her, care for her. He’d grown up with damn near nothing and was proud of who he’d become because of it, but he’d be a liar if he didn’t admit that he’d fantasied about living in the kind of luxury that Kay was accustomed to. Pedro wanted to say that he would’ve been able to walk away from all of that as well, but he wasn’t sure how easy he would have found it. Kay’s conviction was strong though and he had never seen her waiver over her decision.
Which let them to the danger Kay was now in.
In all the time Pedro had known Kay she had never been able to stay in one spot for more than a few nights. It wasn’t uncommon for her to disappear for days at a time; in the months that Pedro had known her he didn’t think that there had been a full week that Kay had managed to last before going to ground. That was because the megacorporation’s didn’t like it when people, assets in their eyes, that they had invested time and more importantly money into left on their own accord. To MCT, Kay Yamashita wasn’t simply one of their citizens, she was their property.
And they wanted her back.
Wilde quietly cursed his naivety as he continued speeding past the burnt-out husks of buildings towards Kay’s last known location where he hoped she still was. Kay was smart, beautiful, magically active and had a mostly finished medical degree. They were never going to let her go without a fight.
Some random gang in the barrens wandering around with a mage hood hunting down Kay made a lot more sense if they were hired by MCT to find and capture Kay for them. The megacorporation might not have even hired them specifically for the job, there might well be a bounty out on her head for all Wilde knew. He should’ve checked for that, should’ve made more of an effort to help Kay keep a low profile, should’ve been with her when they’d first spotted her. He’d make it up to her after he tore through the street scum that were willing to be bought and sold for corporate credit. Wilde swore he’d never let her out of his sight, never let her find herself in such danger again.