{"sf1_id":742573,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Cyberland - 1","author":"Arghos","words":3541,"posted_at":"2014-08-11T06:38:00.000Z","tags":["Assassin","Character Development","M/F","Story Progression","Story Series","corruption","cyberpunk","straight"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/742573-cyberland-1","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/742573","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=742573\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"     \"This is the ninth murder this\nmonth.\" An officer in a black coat stated as he looked down at the soaked\nbody of an African American youth. His long ebony hair was done in a ponytail\nas he pulled the collar up on his coat to defend against the chilling wind.\n     The woman next to him stretched her arm,\nthe slow hum of the internal processor whirring like a mad hive of bees while\nshe clenched her metallic digits into a fist. In a better light, out of the\nrain of the city and under better circumstances one could say she was radiant.\nHer long, deep red hair cascaded past her shoulders and curved over her frame,\ndripping with perspiration in the mid-summer rain storm. Her elongated muzzle\nwas that of a fox, yet blunt enough to almost be classified as a feline. Her\ntail swished with its radiant red and black hues as she stared with an annoying\nglare at the other men.\n     \"If I could correct you officer it's\nthe ninth gang-related murder this\nmonth.\" She interjected. \n     \"Yeah, thanks for the obvious\nstatement Alexa.\"\n     Alexa crossed her metallic prosthesis over\nher clothed arm, walking circles around the corpse while noting his garb and\nfacial tattoo. His shirt was of black silk design and was cut off mid-riff\nstyle, with a thick white vest inlaid with red neon strips that still glowed in\nthe darkness of the night. His chest was littered with holes of varying size,\nthe bleeding long since stopped.\n     \"Neon glowing tattoos across the face.\nThat's usually synonymous with the Key Strokes. White vest, steel toed boots,\nfacial tattoos, what kind of weapon was he carrying?\"\n     A man in a blue uniform handed her a sealed\nbag with a firearm safely placed inside, the handle was a sawed off rifle\nstock, custom fitted to a three barrel firing case with what looked like a\nplunger in the back.\n     \"What kind of Stems was this guy\npacking?\" She asked the man carrying the bag as he looked back and forth\nnervously.\n     \"We aren't s-sure. The gun was\nunloaded when we arrived at the s-scene s-so as far as we know it was emptied\nor already fired.\" He stuttered. From the way he talked Alexa noted he was\nprobably a third time rookie. He had probably never even seen a corpse.\n     \"Thanks rookie, you can head on over\nand give the boys the gun so they can analyze it.\"\n     The boy looked all too happy to be leaving\nand nodded his head as he hurried off, pausing past the tape to throw up on the\nground, coughing violently as he tried not to look back. The towering heights\nof the buildings created an almost eerie scene as Alexa looked around. Who knew\nwho or what was watching them on top of those buildings, or even hiding in the\nshadows. She looked down at the corpse one more time as she felt a hand on her\nshoulder.\n     \"Hey, let us handle it from here. Go\nhome and get some sleep you've been working the square for over a year without\na single bloody vacation. This isn't the war anymore Alexa.\"\n     Alexa felt her metal plates that made up\nher shoulder bones sag as a sigh escaped her throat. It hadn't been easy coming\nback to the city. It hadn't been easy getting over her friend's death and it\nsure as hell hadn't been easy finding out how the murders of both augs and stem\naddicts were related to each other.\n     \"I'll head over to Todd's and have a\nfew drinks. You or the boys want to tag along?\"\n     The officer shook his head with a flinch as\nhe looked back to the other patrol officers.\n     \"Sorry Alexa, but even being cops we\nall kind of fear the guy running it now. It just isn't the same since Todd\ndied. Not to mention he gives me the creeps and you know the story about his\narm.\"\n     Alexa rolled her eyes and pushed past the\nofficer with a groan.\n     \"Cowards, nothing but fucking\ncowards.\"\n     She opened the door to her car and hit the\ngas, leaving an etheric trail of neon lights as her car sped down the road. She\ncould understand their fear, on the other hand though she had known Todd and\nhis brother since they were kids. She remembered the times they would go to the\nriver at the reserve park and play at night when the city lights cast a rainbow\nglow over the entire park. She remembered how Todd and she had entered the\nmilitary together and even graduated top of their class at the exact same time.\n\n     She pulled up to a very antiquated building\nwith a large wooden plaque declaring the owner of the simple yet popular bar.\nShe smiled as memories of Todd buying the place and spending a small fortune\ndecking it out with antique furniture and lighting. A lot of time and energy had\ngone into the building, on all their parts. Her, Todd, and-\n     \"Alexa! Are you just gonna stand there\nor are you going to help me unload this?\" Came a cry in the rain from\noutside her car. She was snapped out of her memory and opened the door, looking\nat a shadow of a man wearing a dark green coat extend a gloved hand to her.\n     \"Come on Alexa. I'm glad you decided\nto show up, did you get off work early tonight?\"\n     Her heart grew soft again as she heard that\nbaritone voice so richly talk to her. Todd's brother Han had been one of her\nmore childish friends. His eyes shone under the dark mantle of his hood, those\nblue orbs accented along the iris by the effects of his old military stems. She\nstepped out of the car and took his hand, walking alongside him as he\napproached an unloading truck, signing the holographic tablet being held by a\ndelivery boy.\n     \"What did you buy this time Han?\"\nShe inquired.\n     He pulled his hood back leaned up into the\nrain. His oaken brown hair fell back in a disheveled mess, casting a few bangs\nover his forehead as he reached up to wash his face with the fresh rain. The\nrough cut of his beard made his face appear wiser and angular, both of which\nwere traits he did not possess.\n     Alexa sighed at his silence and grabbed the\ndolly that supported a crate taller than her, helping Han wheel it into the\nwarm atmosphere of the bar as electric jazz washed over her. The bar was empty,\nthe tables all had chairs stacked on top of them, the lights turned low with\nmost of the light coming from an old jukebox and a few holograms projecting\nads that Todd had used to help pay for the bar when business was slow.\n     \"Well it's the one thing that Todd\nalways wanted, but he never could get.\"\n     Alexa stared mouth hung wide open while Han\ngrabbed the side of the box with his gloved hand, tearing the side off with a\nswipe of his arm. The splintered remains poured out beads of encasing foam poured\nout of the side. With a wide grin Han reached in and with a grunt of effort\npulled out a pay phone, covered lightly in rust and paint chips.\n     \"I can't believe any of these exist.\nWhere the hell did you manage to get one?\"\n     Han shrugged and pushed the pay phone\nagainst the wall next to the bar, staring at it with a happy sigh before going\nbehind the bar and setting two glasses on the counter. He looked over at Alexa\nand paused, his mouth twitching as if he wanted to say something, but opted\ninstead to grab a dusty bottle of whiskey and present it to her.\n     \"Todd's fifty year old bottle of whiskey... Are you sure you want to drink this Han?\" She asked while\nlooking at him with a concerned frown.\n     \"It's been long enough.\" He\nstated quietly as he poured a generous amount for each of them.\n     The golden liquid almost glided over the\nice like silk, casting shadows of gold and brown on the smooth oak counter, well-worn\nwith scuffs, scratches, and gouges from when the few brave augs played stabs. \n     Han picked up the glass and held it aloft,\nsighing as he closed his eyes hard. It was a moment just like this before Todd\nand Alexa went to war when they drank in the empty building that was now his brothers'\nlegacy. The memories came pouring out as the first few tears fell from his\ntightly closed eyes. As he opened his eyes he looked at Alexa who was also\nfighting back tears as she toasted with him, downing her glass in one gulp. Han\ndrank the deep robust flavor of well-aged liquor. Soon his mind swam with the\ndeepest memories of his brother, and how it all came to an end with the painful\nthoughts that had once given way to blame.\n     Alexa let out a muffled whimper and clenched\nher fists, shattering the whiskey glass in her prosthetic hand. She looked down\nwith wide eyes as they wandered over her metallic digits. The arm whirred\nsoftly as she sporadically tried to pick up the shards.\n     \"Alexa stop, you haven't been maintaining\nyour augment. Go down to the basement while I lockup and I'll help you\nout.\" Han commanded softly as he placed his own prosthetic hand over hers.\n     Alexa sighed and nodded her head. His kind\nblue eyes worked in keeping the many worries she had at bay. Han didn't join\nthe military like Todd and she had. He opted to stay behind and work for Jenix\nAugmentations. His deep knowledge of coding human as well as bestial neuroscience had made it possible for multiple breakthroughs in digital\ninterfacing over the last few years. But when the accident happened he had left\nthe business, sold off his research, and stayed alone in the bar's basement for\nover a year.\n     She tapped in the twenty digit password to\nthe door and walked down the familiar stairs as lights turned on one by one in\nfront of her. A normal person would be skeptical of the lights and the\npassword, but living in the military and knowing what some of the experiments\nmeant to Han made it all seem normal to her. She walked into his workshop and\nsat on the well conformed chair meant for operations while she turned on the\nantique CD player Todd had purchased when he had first opened the bar.\n     \"It'll make it classier.\" He had\nstated while giving a noogie to Han at the time.\n     The white washed walls were decorated with\nblue-prints, pictures of Han and Todd, and tools that were used for augment\nmaintenance. Alexa felt strangely at home in the modern basement of an antique\nbar setting. Her mind swam with the affection she held for the human male, even\nthough human and bestial relations were to be kept as friendships due to the\nbreeding laws. Soon enough she saw the lights go out upstairs and heard Han\ndescend down the steps as he whistled a familiar tune to himself. He entered\nthe lab and quickly took his glove off, revealing the cold dark chrome outline\nof a hand that was his, yet not his own. \n     \"So how long has it been since you\nreset the nerve connections and did a complete system reset?\" Han asked as\nhe sat in a swiveling chair and wheeled it next to her as she sat up to take\noff her coat and outer shirt.\n     \"It's been a little over a year. I\njust tend to forget I need to do maintenance on my own body.\" She stated\nas she laid back on the table. \n     It wasn't strange to her to be so bare next\nto Han. He had been the one to operate on her when she was flown back to the\ncity for extensive reconstructive surgery. So for all intents and purposes he\nwas the only man to ever see her naked. He labored on the connecting panel over\nher shoulder with a machine like precision, his metal hand easily unscrewing\nthe bolts and pulling the wiring out as a bird would when pruning its partner.\nThe multiple colors of wire came out as he grabbed the endings of each, small\nsilver prongs that hooked up to nerve clusters in the spine. \n     \"Well you lied.\"\n     She looked at Han with a confused look as\nshe witnessed his fingers separate into a dual pair of slimmer fingers. She\nwasn't sure what he meant and kept quiet as he re-integrated the nerve endings\nto her robotic mainframe.\n     \"You've taken very good care of my\nprosthetic. It's clean, it's been maintained better than most of my old\npatients, the only problem is you hyper-extended the endings so they separate from\nthe clusters, making the movement sporadic and unpredictable.\"\n     A very subtle blush surfaced across Alexa's\nface as she looked away, making sure not to let her eyes meet Han's. \n     \"Well of course I took care of it.\nYou're the one that put it on. I remember they told me you wouldn't let anyone\nelse into the operating room while you worked on my arm and leg.\"\n     Han smiled with a chuckle and set aside his\ntools, the thin prongs of fingers clinking back to normal. The last closing\nsound of the plate rang out as he walked to his bench and grabbed his pipe.\n     \"That's right. I didn't let anyone in\nthe room as I operated. I sat next to your table after everything was installed\npraying that you would make it. I wasn't about to lose another family member\nbecause I couldn't work. I didn't do it alone though Alexa. I had my brother\nbeside me to work.\" He stated as he flexed his prosthesis.\n     Alexa was one of the few people to know the\nentire truth of Han's arm. Three years ago Han and Todd were out driving around\nthe city after a successful presentation of Hans' new line of augmentations hit\nthe market. A few blocks into the city their car was attacked by gang members\nwith use of explosives and sonic weaponry. The car was almost completely\ndestroyed, and Han was left without an arm. Later that evening after being\nrushed to the hospital Todd had told Han to take his prosthesis for himself.\n     The military was not too happy with this\nand even though the arm was one of Hans' designs they still claimed ownership\nover Todd's corpse upon his death. So Han got out of his bedroom after they\ncleaned his wounds and used his security skills to lock himself in the hospital\nmorgue. After a ten hour attempt to get inside Han walked out with his brothers\nprosthesis secured to his own body. It still remained a mystery how he had done\nit with no tools, no doctors, and no anesthetics. The government dropped the\ncase in exchange for the original design which Han was all the happier to be\nrid of.\n     \"Thanks for the tune up Han. I was really\ngetting the shakes lately.\" Alexa whispered graciously while pulling her shirt\nback on. \n     A blush crossed her muzzle again as she bit\nher lower lip, surely her time hadn't come yet, she had taken the necessary\nshots so she wouldn't be bothered with her heat any longer.\n     She smiled and tested her arms reactive\ncapabilities, marveling as it felt even smoother than her real flesh and blood.\n     \"No problem. You may notice some\ndifferences in the frame work because I overclocked the reaction nodes along\nthe fingers and hinges of the arm.\" You might not be superhuman or bestial yet,\nbut I'm willing to bet you can bend a steel rod right now. Just be sure to keep\nthat to yourself.\" He added with a smile.\n     \"You overclocked the muscle mesh? That's\nillegal!\" She said with a smirk. Legalities were lost on Han.\n     Alexa sat upright with a shake of her head\nand looked around the room. She noticed something was different with Hans' lab.\nBlueprints were strewn around the desk and the room was in minor disarray,\nwhich wasn't like Han at all. She looked behind her and stared wide eyed at the\nseries of suits behind her. Suit wasn't the right word she realized. The first\nwas a black hooded jacket with pauldrons over the shoulder that scaled down to\narm guards, and hung directly below it was some sort of attachment meant most\nlikely for an augmentation. \n     \"Han what is all this?\" Alexa asked as she\nlooked back at Han while he smoked his pipe.\n     His eyes grew cold as he stared at the wall\nof suits and tools. She watched as he strung a hand across the black suit and\nacross the polished pauldrons. She had seen him like this once before. At his\nbrothers formal funeral his eyes had gone so cold the winters snow seemed hot\nin comparison.\n     \"It's nothing. We should go for the night.\n     He picked up her jacket and placed it\naround her shoulders as he coaxed her upstairs. It wasn't like him to keep\nsecrets, she thought quietly. Han had never been one to keep secrets let alone\nseem morose in his nature. Yet as his hand reached around her shoulder she felt\nthe familiar warmth of his company. The Han she knew was still there, beside\nher and with her quietly.\n     She walked with him out of the bar and\ninto the damp streets of the city. Bestials and humans walked around the bar as\nif it was cursed, many not so much as looking towards them as they left arm in\narm. If a policeman had seen them he would have surely questioned them, but as\ntwo hardened souls they hardly even cared. \n     Alexa looked to Han as they walked on and\nfelt her head fall slowly onto his shoulder. He smelled of cleaning solution,\nscotch, and wood, but still he smelled to her as a summers warmth did. \n     \"I'm sorry if I'm a little close Han.\" She\nstammered suddenly as she backed to his side.\n     \"You're in heat, it's quite alright.\"\n     She stopped dead in her foot steps and\nglowered at him.\n     \"You knew all along?\"\n     Han turned around and produced a smile that\nparalyzed her.\n     \"How long have we known each other Alexa?\"\n     She smiled back and chuckled, walking up to\nhim and socking him in the shoulder with her newly repaired arm.\n     \"You could break that arm if you're not\ncareful.\" He joked back as they approached the neon enriched apartment building\nshe called home.\n     \"You're fault. I don't suppose inviting you\nup would be in order?\" She asked almost too quietly for anyone to hear.\n     Han shook his head and looked up the hill\nto the brightly lit capitol buildings of the city.\n     \"As much as that may be a temptation to\nevery male in the city I'll have to pass Alexa.\" He said almost too harshly.\n     Alexa felt her heart sink and she wondered if\nthe fusion of the alcohol and her heat had ruined a possibly fruitful\nfriendship with Han.\n     \"Even if it's a temptation to me...\" He muttered\nto himself, her ears barely catching the comment.\n     He shook his head and embraced her.\n     \"Sorry hon, maybe another time. In the mean\ntime you should use the hyper vibrating functions I installed into your\nfingers.\" He added with a smile.\n     She blushed and turned quickly her tail\nbristling behind her.\n     \"I n-never asked you for that!\"\n     He smiled and kissed her on the head as he\nbegan to walk away.\n     \"If you overdo it you won't ever find a man\nto make you happy in bed!\"\n     She bristled and called after him.\n     \"There's a million men that would jump on\nme right now if they had the chance and you're walking away!\"\n     She could hear him laugh as he trailed off\nin the distance.\n     \"I'll be first in line then!\"\n     With a laugh she turned and went upstairs\ninto her bedroom. As the door closed behind her she felt her shoulders fall and\nthe familiar tug of her heat draw her to the bedroom. She might as well make\nuse of the gift Han had given her and as she removed her shirt, then her sports\nbra, she looked out the windows in the hopes maybe he was there. Maybe he would\nrush upstairs and break the door down into a million splinters and make\nravenous love to her.\n     Just the heat talking. \n"}