Hey guys, I'm actually not that big on this story and have abandoned it. If I ever pick it up again it would be reworked considerably.
But I am looking for feedback on the writing itself. Hopefully it's an improvement on past works. At least some. Let me know?
Thanks ...
***
Act 1: El Lobo & the Buxom Gangster
by Rooster Bartholomew Smith
***
El Lobo’s long dark hair blew in the breeze as he exited the crack house. Flames crackled in the night, escaping from windows on all three stories. Glass shards sparkled on their way to the sidewalk.
He turned and admired his work, resting his hands on his gun belt. Tribal tattoos ran up his arms. The patches on the back of his leather vest read RESISTANCE and DYSTOPIA and one of them was a skull with flying V guitar cross bones.
“Damn,” Lobo said to himself. “I look so GODDAMN cool right now!”
Kids in green shirts and bandanas ran up to him. Their leader, Brains, couldn’t have been more than twelve.
“I can’t believe you did that!” he shouted. “You took out the entire Brotherhood! Respect, man, respect!” He pulled a roll of bills from his back pocket. “You know I’m a man of my word.”
Lobo waved the cash away. “Use it to feed your people. Just remember, these streets belong to the Resistance now. No more drugs!”
The kid nodded. “I respect that. If the Resistance ever needs anything, let the Pitt Bulls know.”
Lobo walked away then, thinking about calling it a night. But Killer finally got around to ringing him. He didn’t unclip the phone from his belt, just put it on speaker.
“Pick me up by the prescient?” Killer asked. “Things didn’t work out.”
Lobo laughed. “What happened?”
“I got into it with some guys. Sounded foreign. Cops took my rifle.”
“Guido won’t send you out on anything important. Not without a rifle.”
“I know, just get here.”
“That’s gonna be a small payday.”
“I know! Just get here!”
***
A few minutes later a black Charger pulled up in front of the prescient. Orange flame decals licked at its hood and sides and two M60s stood mounted over the headlights.
“Damn,” Lobo said. “I look so GODDAMN cool right now!”
JewKiller666 opened the passenger door and got in. He wore his usual white T-shirt with the red swastika on the chest.
Lobo handed the skinhead one of his pistols.
“Thanks man.”
“Yeah.” Lobo pushed the pedal and they were flying past twenty-four hour pharmacies and gun shops. “I know you shot first. If you didn’t shoot first the cops wouldn’t have come for you.”
“They started it. When we’re done with this, I’m gonna go looking for those guys. They’re gonna get their cum muffins.”
“Dude, you got a swastika on your chest. I think you started it just by walking into the room. Did you just say cum muffins?”
“Yeah, they’re gonna get it. Fucking foreigners. On our American internet ...”
“Do you mean comeuppance?”
“Is that how you say it?”
“Damn right it is, why would think cum muffins?”
“I don’t know. I thought it was like, you know, someone pisses you off so you jerk off in a muffin and give it to ‘em.”
“No, man.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
***
They parked on Main Street, still buzzing despite how late it was. Dystopia never slept. Too many players.
You could tell them apart from the non-players. They all dressed tough, like gangsters or bikers or cowboys.
And they were always packing.
Cyberpunks standing in front of a gun shop noticed Killer as he passed them. Two guys with spiky hair and a bald chick.
The chick had a high, piercing voice. “Hey JewKiller! This is the face of Jewish vengeance! Pull mother-fucker! I dare you, pull! I’ll spin your ass like a dreidel!”
“Don’t listen to ‘em,” Lobo said. “They’re baiting you into a gun fight.”
“Yeah, yeah ...” But Lobo could hear the struggle in Killer’s voice.
“White trash piece of shit!” shouted one of the guys.
Guido’s Flesh Shop was on the next block. The sign read ‘Guido’s Gun Shop’ but a sign is just a sign. Chimes clattered as they entered.
“I wanna talk to Guido,” Lobo told the Goth clerk.
She rolled her eyes away from her tablet device. “You’ll have to register.”
Killer started for the counter but Lobo stopped him. “Wait. We’ll get a better job if I do it. I have a better reputation right now.”
“Just barely,” Killer said.
Lobo took the pen the Goth provided and signed his name on a clipboard. Low tech.
“Guido just got out of surgery. Keep it short.” She went right back to her tablet.
“He’s always ‘just got out of surgery,” Lobo complained as they made their way to the back rooms. “And that chick is always pissed.”
“So what?”
“It gets repetitive. It bothers me.”
They walked to the end of a narrow hallway. Lobo hit the intercom next to a blast proof metal door.
“Hey Guido,” he said. “I almost got lucky last night but she turned out to be a dude.”
After a short pause the comm crackled, “Those guys are getting really good at hiding the candy.” The door swung open on its own. Lobo and Killer entered Guido’s operating room.
A surgeon washed his hands near a medical sink. Guido Esposito sat up on the operating table grinning ear to ear. “Lobo! So glad you’re not dead, kid! Come here and give Uncle Guido a kiss!”
“Uh, sure ...” Lobo went over there. A sheet covered Guido from the gut down but his brand new breasts were hanging out for the world to see.
“Holy shit!” Killer shouted. “What did you do to yourself!?”
Neither the surgeon nor Guido gave any indication that they heard the skinhead.
Just when you think things are getting repetitive, Lobo thought with a smile, the city throws you something like this ...
Guido gave him an audible smooch on each cheek and turned to the surgeon. “Hey, Doc, this won’t take five minutes. Give us some time.”
“If you’re sure, Mr. Esposito ...” He nodded to Lobo as he passed and closed the door behind him.
OR lights hung from the ceiling, bathing the room in a dim blue/white haze.
“So whatcha think of my tits, kid? Too much? Too big?” He tried to jiggle them like a showgirl but they didn’t jiggle.
“They look fantastic,” Lobo lied. “That’s the best job I’ve ever seen.”
“Really!?” Guido’s smile got wider.
“They look hideous!” Killer cried out. “What is the world coming to? They’re pointing in two different directions for Christ’s sake!”
“You wanna feel them?” Guido asked.
“Uhm, well ...”
“Can’t say no,” Killer reminded him. “You know how sensitive he gets. Get in there, boy.”
“Sure,” Lobo said, with a shit eating grin. “That would be awesome ...” He placed his hands on both. Hard as rocks. “Very nice ...”
“Thanks, kid. It’s good to get an outside opinion. Hope my wife likes them...”
Lobo stepped back. “I’m sure she will, sir.”
Guido leaned back on his elbows, chins bunching up under his face. “You guys looking augmentations or work? Work, I’ll bet. You know Benny the Cyborg? Owes me a lot of money. Tells me he’s not paying. You go break those fancy robot legs of his, and you can keep whatever he has on him. I just wanna make an example at this point.”
For a few seconds Killer remained silent. But Lobo knew, that was the calm before the storm. “Are-you-shitting-me?” Killer stressed every word. “You got us collecting debts?”
“That’s a smaller payday then we thought,” Lobo said. “You have anything else?”
“Sorry, kid. Only big jobs. You and you’re associate don’t have the hardware for jobs that big.”
Lobo turned to Killer. “This is why I work for the Resistance. They don’t care what you’re packing.”
Killer didn’t say anything. He just stood there, perfectly still, the OR light shinning off his bald head. The calm before the storm.
“Talk to me, Killer ...”
Killer didn’t talk to him. He just lifted the pistol and shot Guido in the head.
At that distance the shot sizzled right through the skull. The buxom gangster fell backwards, his body making a wet smack against the floor.
All the swagger el Lobo gained that night disappeared. He let out a bitchy squeak. “NOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO!?”
Killer looked at him. “I’m not spending the whole night chasing dead beats. At least now things’ll get interesting.”
He pushed Lobo out of the way and yanked on the reenforced door. He fired Lobo’s gun five times into the hall and someone dropped.
“Got the doctor.” But rifle fire blasted Killer into the back wall in flashes of red.
Lobo already drew his gun took Killer’s place. He fired once, hitting the Goth girl’s rifle. He slammed the door shut again as the rifle exploded.
That just pissed her off. She screamed from behind the door, “You’re both dead! Nobody fucks with the family! You hear me!? Nobody!”
It didn’t take her long to grab another gun and pound away at the blast proof door.
Nothing’s blast proof, Lobo reminded himself. We got two minutes. Maybe.
As Killer got to his knees Lobo kicked him right in the face.
“You idiot!” he screamed. “We’re gonna have the entire Mafia gunning for us!”
Killer laughed from a pool of Guido’s blood. “Like I said, it’s gonna be a fun night!”
“Protection from the mob!?” he yelled. “You know how much that costs? I’m gonna lose everything I made this week! We are done, dude! Our partnership is over!”
“Wait, what?”
“I’m sick and tired of helping you! Bailing you out of trouble! Putting up with all the people you piss off! I’m done with it!”
“Don’t be a faggot, man. We’re friends!”
“I’m not a faggot! You’re a faggot! And we’re not friends! You’re a nazi! Nazi’s suck!”
“Nazi’s don’t suck! Shut up!” Killer’s voice went higher than Lobo had ever heard it. “You better watch the way you talk to me, boy! I know where you live, I’ve been on your Facebook!”
***
Two minutes later, in Hamilton, Ontario, an obese teenager was cursing and screaming into a headset. An attractive woman in hospital scrubs stood in his doorway, her arms folded ...
Waiting for the teenager to notice she was there ...
“I hope you do come here so I can kick your ass! ... No! I’m gonna kick your ass!” Giant man breasts flapped under his shirt as he paced the room in anger.
Ramon Suarez finally spotted her then. He dropped his controller and yanked off the headset. Thick black hair fell into his eyes. “Mom! You’re home!”
“Ramon, seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? I could hear you from the street!”
“Let me explain-”
“Explain what? Why I shouldn’t take this game away from you? Then again, if I wait a few minutes they’ll probably ban you again ...”
“I’m sorry, mom. I lost my cool.”
“You always lose your cool, Ramon.”
“I know. I’m trying. Just, please give me another chance? This game is all I have ...”
The truth behind those sad words weakened the stern exterior of Maria Suarez.
There you go, Ramon thought. Anything close to the ‘I’m incapable of making friends and I’m going to die alone’ thing always works.
His mom unfolded her arms and walked over to her son. She grabbed two handfuls of chubby cheeks and squeezed. Then she planted a big smooch on his forehead. “Fine. I’ll let you keep the game ... if you come to diner with me and James tomorrow. I’ve bought you a brand new shirt.”
Ramon squirmed. “Jesus, isn’t that kind of early? How long have you been dating?”
“Six months, Ramon!” She slapped him on the shoulder.
“It hasn’t been six months,” he said. “Five months. Tops.”
She laughed and rubbed the shoulder she hit. “Okay, five months. In five months I’ve gotten to know James very well and I really like him. Now I think it’s time the two men in my life got to know each other.”
Tough price to pay, he thought to himself. “Thanks, Mom.”
She laid half a half dozen more kisses on him, and wrapped him up in a big hug. “You’re going to like James. You two have so much in common, he’s a mixed martial artist! You like that right?”
I like professional MMA. Not that bush league your new boyfriend’s about to get cut from ... “I do like that.”
“Just don’t ask about his record, he’s really sensitive about that.”
“Got it.”
“And maybe you guys can work out sometime! He has access to a special gym. I was telling him what you told me about getting into shape and-”
“Mom, no! You really told him that!?”
“Why? What’s wrong with that?”
“Jesus, Mom! I don’t want other people knowing my business. This is the diarrhea thing with Grandma all over again!”
“Okay, I’m sorry. I won’t bring it up.” She looked up at him with twinkling eyes. “My son!” she said. “You don’t know how handsome you are.”
“Mom, come on.”
“You look just like your father right now. Whenever I finally got him to look up from his computer.”
But Dad didn’t weigh three hundred pounds, Mom. He didn’t have bitch tits ...
“Okay, I’ll let you finish up but it’s bedtime soon, right?”
“Right.”
She kissed him one more time and made for the door. But she turned around before exiting. “Ramon?”
“Yeah?”
“Cursing is for the ignorant ...”
“I know, Mom. Sorry.”
And she left.
Ramon shook his head. That diner was gonna be awful ...
He slipped the headset back on. JewKiller666 was no longer threatening him, just laughing.
“That was the saddest thing I ever heard, Lobo! Or should I say, Ramon!”
“Fuck you ...” Ramon didn’t have energy to fight any more. He picked up his controller and summoned the cross-media bar on his monitor.
Just a few more seconds, Killer. Then you’ll just be one more asshole trash talking me on the forums ...
“Hey, man! Guido’s not dead!”
“What?” Ramon dismissed the bar ...
***
Killer was right.
Guido was sitting up on the table again with the sheet over his junk. The doctor stood next to him.
“Lobo! So glad you’re not dead, kid! Come here and give Uncle Guido a kiss!”
A green energy bar hovered just below Guido’s torso, full.
“What the hell happened?” Lobo asked.
“I don’t know,” Killer said.
“Don’t shoot him again!”
“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t ...”
“Hey, Doc, this won’t take five minutes,” Guido said. “Give us some time.”
The Doc nodded again and left the room. This time the door opened again as soon as he closed it.
A punk rock chick in tight jeans and a black bustier walked into the room tapping away at a tablet. She had a spiky red mohawk and guns on her hips.
Like Guido, her name showed up green underneath her hit points.
“She’s a non-player character,” Lobo whispered to himself. “And she’s hot.”
She looked up from the tablet and flashed a smile.
Killer tsked. “Calm down, momma’s boy. She’s a video game, she ain’t real.”
“Dude, you ever see an NPC who looked like that before?”
“Yeah! There’s a million cyberpunks out there. Nerds from the 80’s.”
“Pay attention. Her face is different. That face isn’t an option in character generation. Look how smokey the eyes are ...”
“Yeah, and she looks pretty slutty too.”
“That’s the kind of gratitude I get?” she asked them, placing the tablet in a satchel hanging from her shoulder. “I save your asses, set everything back the way it was and you call me a slut? And a video game? The hell does that mean?”
“So whatcha think of my tits, kid?” Guido asked. “Too much? Too big?”
Lobo forgot Guido was there.
“That’s why I don’t come to this city,” the girl said. “Too weird. Even for me.”
“She’s very different,” Lobo said. “See the way she rolled her eyes? And how she talks? No other NPC has those lines.”
“Ask her what she wants,” Killer told him. “We might make some money tonight after all.”
“Why don’t you ask me yourself?” she asked. “Afraid to talk to girls?”
Lobo gasped. “She talked to you! She talked right to you and you’re not even the registered quest character! How’d she do that?”
“I read on IGN they updated voice recognition.” Killer walked closer to the girl. “Maybe this is it?”
“It’s gotta be!”
“And look how she acts when I get closer. It’s like I’m making her nervous or something.”
“Personal space, JewKiller666.” She pushed him back, but not forcefully, it wasn’t an attack. Lobo had never seen that before, from NPCs or players. “Okay, guys. I don’t have time to explain how rude it is to talk to someone like they’re not standing RIGHT in front of you-”
“How’d you do it?” Lobo asked her. “How’d you set everything back the way it was?”
“I’m a hacker, it’s what I do. People are really easy to manipulate in this city. Except people like you. Players.” She smiled again. “Thanks for finally talking to me.”
Why do I feel so weird about a video game smiling at me?
“So you got a job for us, baby?” Killer asked her. “A quest? Anything?”
“Glad you asked! I need a bodyguard. I need to get back home but the guys I came here with betrayed me. Dicks!”
“Where’s home?” Lobo asked.
“Past the Wastelands. A city called Utopia. It’s far, but money isn’t an object. You can name your price.”
Then she held her breath, as if the fate of the entire world depended on his answer.
“This is weird, Killer. The Wastelands are PVP territory.”
“See how high she’ll go!” Killer shouted. “Ask for the moon!”
The girl squirmed and covered one ear. “Seriously, what is your problem? Your shouting in my ear!”
Killer laughed. “I love this game, I really do!”
“I want 500,000 credits,” Lobo said.
She let out a sigh of relief. “Done.”
Lobo’s heart skipped a beat. “Seriously?”
“Whoooooooo!!!” Killer screamed. “Goodness gracious! Great balls of fire! We hit the Goddamn jackpot!”
“It’s dangerous work though,” she warned them. “I have a well funded operation looking for me. They’ll be looking for me here and in the waste.”
“No problem, we’ll do it!” Killer slapped Lobo on the back. That action came from a perk Lobo unlocked in a cyber pack a week earlier. He already had the card so he gave it to Killer. Just like he gave Killer his gun that night. And the night before. And the night before ...
“There is no we. You’re done mooching off me, you nazi bastard. I told you, we’re done.”
“Wait, what!? That was before, man. We’re cool now! That was forever ago!”
“Tough noogies, Adolf.”
“I unlocked this! By shooting Guido! My ass backwards playing style finally paid off! You can’t do this to me!”
“I recommend sticking together,” the girl said. “Chemistry can be hard to replace-”
Lobo heard Ramon’s mom calling him from downstairs. Bedtime.
“I gotta go,” he told them.
“Go where?” the girl asked him.
“I’m gonna pull the Fun Choo Train into Sleepy Time Station.”
***
Ramon brought up the cross-media bar and found EXIT GAME.
From the monitor he could hear Killer screaming, “You can’t do this to me man! You can’t kick me out! I thought we were friends!”
“You thought wrong, bro. Have a good life.”
“Wait! Don’t leave!” the girl cried.
That is the best actress in video game history. She sounds so scared ...
He hit X on EXIT GAME.
“Sorry, babe. I gotta go.”
“Dammit! You’re dad used to do this to me too! What is it with you people!?”
Ramon dropped his controller as the screen went black.
