Cyberpunk Blues – Part 7
Been awhile since I’ve felt so attached to a project. Really enjoying where this is leading me.
In other news, I continue to have… difficulties. This morning our house went on the market. In order to do so, we need pictures taken. Our lawn was a lot of a jungle, however, this morning both the lawn mower and the weed-eater went belly up on me. I tried to do my best with a pair of limb cutters, but there’s only so much those can do. In the end, we had to ask our real estate agent to make the best of the situation.
Normally, that wouldn’t be such a big deal. However, with the recent loss of my job everything has become emotionally magnified. So it wasn’t just that the lawn tools broke. It was the fact that I couldn’t afford to replace them until my wife got paid. It was the fact that my lack of job meant that we were put in a situation where that happened. It all sort of snowballs at some point, and despite my medications and better nights of sleep there is only so much my mind can take right now.
I know it will get better. The house sale alone will secure us for some time. I have other monies coming in, as does the wife. She has a tutoring job in addition to her teaching job, and I have a ton of job experience and am moving to a major metropolitan area with lots of opportunity. This is only a temporary setback, at best. Living through such rough lows is hard though. Scrounging the house for food, unable to absorb even the tiniest economic setback. One emergency and we’re toast.
I had hoped that writing would be a financial boon for me. The Temple release, this blog, a lot of different things that I had hopes and aspirations for. That hasn’t happened, and it could be years before it ever does. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, because book one will be out this year, but it feels like a heck of a lot of waiting for a ship that will never come in. Them’s the breaks however, and I knew what I was signing up for when I started this journey. Again, that whole in the moment suffering being hard.
With Cyberpunk Blues, I finally get to write an action scene with the awesome Chase and her personal tick-bird Betty. I have always been fascinated with the idea of a colony of sentient nano-bots taking up residence in a human body. It’s a perfect win / win scenario. The nano-colony gets a highly stable, well regulated environment to help protect it, and the human being gets a being whose well being rests upon their good health and continued survival. It’s something I would jump into with both feet at the slightest opportunity. Maybe that makes me an oddball, but hey, I like what I like. Sue me.
With further oddities…
Cyberpunk Blues – Part 7
My fist connected with the unnamed mob bruiser with a satisfying thump. The nerves under my knuckles, immune to pain, conducted information to Betty’s central neural net in a torrential downpour. By the time my swing was complete, Betty not only knew the biotech firm which had manufactured the thugs body, but also the exact weaving, stress tolerances, and various weak spots of his model. Betty, knowing I would be distracted if she tried to whisper the information or flash it across my eyes, simply uploaded it directly into my memory. I knew exactly what I needed to do to take him down. I have always known.
His body was an older generation than my own, but his had been built for power. If he got in enough good shots, I’d have to bug out before he crippled me. The cops would be no help either, as they couldn’t even come close to affording one of their number getting a synthbod. So, no cavalry would be riding in to save me. Just the way I like it!
I had been keeping a slight distance for the few seconds it had taken to get all the data situated and line out my circumstances. The trenchcoat wearing stranger doffed his threads, and a crooked smile overtook his features as he pulled in close in a fighters crouch. His smile was identical to my own. You didn’t give up our flesh and blood body unless you really liked this job.
His right hook darted out like a lightning bolt, but I deflected it easily with my left fist. I slid in close, and landed a solid blow with my right fist on the area that would normally house a human kidney. His eyes widened slightly as he stumbled back and I gave myself more distance to work with. I grinned. Betty and I were… unique. Perks of being a human lab rat I guess. He must not know about her, or how she uploaded his specs into my memory so that I knew exactly where is power station was housed.
I couldn’t break his bones, but I could sure smash up his electronics. Our bodies were heavily shock absorbent, with the woven skin and graphene skeleton, but that’s a far cry from shock immune. He immediately turned his left flank, changing his stance so he no longer presented the same target. Big mistake. He had given up his only chance in this fight by ceding the offensive. I pressed him, hard.
Jab, feint, duck, blow to the knee to put him off balance. I tagged his left flank a second time. I lunged, ducking a sudden kick that surely would’ve bought him the advantage, and turned my lunge into a sweeping kick. He didn’t quite get his kick leg down in time to regain his balance, and he went down. He was up again within heartbeats, but not before I had gotten in another solid blow to his power station. He was weaving slightly now. A drunken sway as his power generators strained to keep up around the damage I had caused.
His next punch was all power without any speed to back it up. I grabbed his arm, and with surgical precision I rammed my knee into his flank with everything Betty and I could crank out of the old crate. There was a muffled explosion, like listening to a firecracker explode underwater, and all the fight left him. Down to his backup reserve, he’d slip into a stabilizing coma to conserve energy.
“Hey, Mike. I got him, you can come out now. I need you to call the police station so they can come clean up the garbage.” I stepped over the prone body of my would-be assailant, and sat down at the bar to finish my drink. Mike’s head popped up, eye wide with panic as his cybernetic implant zoomed around the room assessing everything. “You’re sure he’s down?” There was only a tiny bit of quaver in his voice. That’s Mike for ya.
I tipped my head back, shooting down the last of the delicious whiskey, when a blast of force sent me flying across the room into the far wall. Suspended in midair, I coughed blood and barely had time to lift my head before I blacked out. Across the room, looking calmly at me, was Mike. He was holding a pistol unlike anything I’d ever seen before, engraved with runes and ominous symbols.
“N..no tip f.. for you.”
Then, blackness.
Mikefully,
Justin
