MegaBuilding 21

  Santiago de Gloria

  Gloria City

  Alcides rubbed his eyes and sat up. At first, having a blanket surprised him since he had given it to his sister. It was just before dawn but he could barely make out his sister on the bed curled and shivering up trying to stay warm. He sighed at her doing this again and, as quietly as possible, he walked over to her and put the blanket over her. Then he walked out of the bedroom and into the small living room of the tiny apartment where he had set out his clothes.

  Like the richest corpos, Alcides also had a specific outfit to wear to work. The difference was that instead of absurdly expensive tailored suits; he wore simple practical pants and a shirt with a syn-leather coat. In addition, he also had a holster which held his pistol, which had an extended barrel for more power and accuracy, and a combat knife. He then went into their cramped bathroom to make himself look presentable. His tan skin blended in with the rest of the people in the district he lived in, as did his brown hair and brown eyes. Honestly, he’d blend in pretty well into a crowd unless somebody was looking for him.

  With that, he was ready and so he left the apartment and headed out. He quickly left the building and outside his friend Ryota Akihito was waiting for him. Like Alcides, Royota was a young man who was also a mercenary or an edgerunner. He was about the same height as Alcides and had long black hair tied back into a ponytail. Like Alcides, he had a few weapons with him, although he had different weapons. He had a katana strapped to his back and a pistol on his hip, which Alcides would always point out was incredibly stereotypical.

  “Hey Cee what’s up?” Ryota said as he waved to Alcides.

  “Nothing much. You ready for this gig?” He replied.

  “Course I am,” Alcides confidently replied.

  “Let’s go then. I’ve got the car ready.” With that, the two got into Ryota’s car and started driving. As they were driving, Ryota asked, “So, how’s your sister doing?”

  “Isabella’s doing well. She actually started secondary school at a corp school, which costs way too much money by the way, but corp schools are the only place to get a quality education in this city.”

  “Oh really, which corp?”

  “Okura Corporation.”

  “Okura?” Ryota asked, since he wasn’t familiar with the corporation.

  “It’s an older corp trying to get into Gloria City. I could tell those fuckin’ corpo assholes were looking down on us. I swear if it was any other situation, I would’ve punched them.” Alcides said while still clearly bitter.

  “Ha I mean they’re corpos. What’d you expect?”

  Alcides sighed, “I just hope the kids aren’t as bad.”

  “I mean, you know what happens when people get deep into corp business.”

  Again Alcides sighed remembering his old friend Camila, who started working for a corporation and how the two had a falling out soon afterwards. “Ugh, don’t remind me of her.”

  Ryota just chuckled at that and they quickly came to a stop outside a rundown two-story house on the outskirts of Santiago de Gloria. Both Alcides and Ryota then got on a call with the fixer who had gotten them the gig. The fixer’s handle was RX and neither Alcides nor Ryota nor anybody else to their knowledge knew the fixer’s real name. They even used a voice modulator so people couldn’t even guess what their gender was. Still, they never hazed Ryota or Alcides on any jobs and they always paid them in full.

  RX finally picked up and gave them a reminder of their gig. [Do you remember what your job is?]

  Alcides was the first to respond. [Course break in and klep the guy’s laptop.]

  [More…crude than I would have put it, but yes, that’s the job.] RX replied before hanging up on them with the job clear.

  “Hate how he does that. Well, let's get to work.” Ryota said, stepping out of the car with Alcides close behind him. The pair saw security cameras outside of the house and hid in the shadows while Alcides tried to hack them. With his limited skills, he could only temporarily shut down one camera. Once the camera shut down, the pair quickly and quietly rushed to the house. They opened the door and entered the house.

  The pair split up to better cover ground and search, with Alcides taking the top floor and Ryota taking the bottom. The two kept an open phone line so that they could keep in contact. As Alcides carefully made his way up the stairs, he heard one gangster inside the house walking around, so he hurried up the stairs. Finally, he reached the top floor and looked around to see what was around him. Ahead of him, a gangster stood facing away from him with a shotgun in his hand. Not wanting to kill him for no reason, Alcides snuck up on him and, with one hand, covered his mouth and grabbed his neck with the other.

  However, it didn’t go as planned as the gangster, in his panic, fired a shotgun blast into the roof, alerting everybody that there were intruders. After firing, Alcides knocks him out. Instantly Ryota spoke on the call. “Shit, Cee you good?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just screwed up a bit.”

  “Bit of an understatement. So what now, do we delta?”

  “No, I know I’m about to get that laptop. I just need a bit more time.”

  Ryota sighed, “I’ve got to be an idiot but fine Cee, I’ll be up there in a second to help you.”

  Alcides, completely giving up on stealth, kicked down a few doors before finally reaching what seemed to be the “control room” of sorts with a laptop still open on the desk. Without checking the room, he used the interface plug in his wrist to jack into the laptop to check if it’s the right one. Luckily, it was, and he quickly jacked out, but just before he could close the laptop and leave, somebody slammed the butt of a rifle into his back.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  He fell to the ground breathless from the strike and he fumbled around for his knife before the figure stomped on his hand, preventing him from grabbing the knife. “Well, looks like I caught myself a thief.” He said.

  Alcides felt the barrel of a gun to the back of his head and in the end resigned himself to his fate. After all, what else did he expect in this line of work, still he hoped Isabella would be fine without him. “You know, the worst thing somebody can be is a thief.” The gangster began. “Some say murderers are the worst, but thieves are another thi-”

  His monologue came to an abrupt end as he tumbled to the ground, lifeless from a stab from behind. Alcides grabbed his knife and rolled into a fighting stance before seeing it was Ryota who saved him. As he wiped the blood off his katana, he joked. “You know you always talk shit on my sword, and yet it always ends up being super useful.”

  “It wouldn’t have done anything if that guy hadn’t wasted his time monologuing. Anyways, let's get out of here before more of them show up.”

  “Yeah let’s go.” With that, the two of them made it out of the house only to run into more of the gangsters. Alcides quickly raised his pistol and opened fire and one went down with a hole blown through his shoulder. The other gangster tried to raise his pistol, but Ryota drew his pistol and shot him. The two of them then ran through the yard outside the house, only to see more thugs arriving, who started shooting as soon as they saw the two of them. Automatic gunfire ripped past them as they ducked into a nearby alleyway. The two got into cover and waited for the gangsters to come at them.

  And they didn’t disappoint as they immediately rushed into the alleyway, giving Ryota and Alcides a perfect shot, which they took. They fired round after round down the alleyway, cutting down a handful of gangsters. In response again, the gangsters fired their shotguns and rifles down the alleyway at the pair, but in the dark they weren’t too accurate. As Alcides was reloading, he heard sirens in the distance and he knew the gangsters heard them too. Ryota patted Alcides’ shoulder to signal that they should go, and Alcides nodded, knowing that neither they nor the gangsters wanted to get in a shootout with the GCPD. So, with the temporary distraction of the sirens, the pair slipped away.

  With that, the two were finally safe as they didn’t hear or see the gangsters who were chasing them. The two then called RX to tell them that the job was done. The holophone rang for a few seconds before they picked up.

  [I assume you have completed the job? Though not without some unfortunate difficulties, I hear.]

  Ryota saw Alcides was about to give some backtalk, so he stepped in. [Yes, we’ve got the laptop.]

  [As long as it’s in working condition, the client will take it. Leave it at the drop site and I’ll get you your money.] With that RX hung up on them.

  “One day they’ll say goodbye before hanging up on us,” Alcides said as he stood up and started walking towards the agreed-upon drop point, with Ryota following him. “So Cee you got anything going on later tonight?”

  “I have like three friends counting you. I basically never have anything going on.”

  “Ha true, but you never know. But anyways, I’ve got a few tickets to a concert. Apparently there’s a new talent, some girl, if I remember. Personally, I'm not sold, but apparently her singing is angelic. I’ve got two tickets so you and your sister can come with me.”

  “Huh, I mean, I’m sure Isabella would be interested, but I’ll ask her when she gets home from school.”

  “Alright, well, just wanted to give you the offer. I’ve got to get home now, so I’ll see you later. Oh, do you need a ride back?”

  “Nah, I’ll walk.”

  With that, Ryota left, and Alcides placed the laptop into the drop point. As soon as he did, he saw a transaction window open off the side of his vision, showing that he’d gotten $2,000. He sighed. It wasn’t too bad, but still it wasn’t much since his rent was about $10,000 a month, which he fully knew was a scam. Plus, Isabella's school cost quite a bit too. All of that wasn’t even counting the other bills he had to pay on top of that. Still, he’d probably be making less than that as a traditional worker. As he thought this, he passed by a factory and saw the workers heading inside. Each of them looked dead inside. Working a backbreaking job with no safety for some megacorp who doesn’t give a damn about you wasn’t how Alcides wanted to live.

  Finally, he made it back to his apartment and relaxed until Isabella got back from school. While he waited, he read some random articles he could pull up with as well as finally ordering another blanket. Eventually Isabella made it home from school and as soon as she saw Alcides she ran up and hugged him. Even for a young teenager, she was shorter than most other kids her age and skinner too. She looked very similar to Alcides just with longer hair. They are siblings, after all. She was wearing the white and purple uniform of the Okura corporate school she went to.

  She pouted slightly. “Cee, did you have to leave before I woke up?”

  Alcides chuckled slightly since with hindsight he knew it wouldn’t have mattered if he waited since they would’ve gotten in a shootout anyways. “Probably not. But anyways, how was your first day at the new school?”

  “It was amazing. They had actual food there for us and even most of the other students were nice to me! But…” she trailed off slightly at the end.

  “But what?” Alcides asked.

  “Some kids were laughing at my tech. They called me a bunch of names.”

  Alcides kneeled down and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey don’t listen to what they say. You’re better than they are.”

  “Thanks Cee I know, but still…” She was still looking down.

  “You know if it’ll help you feel better. Earlier, Ryo asked if you and I wanted to come with him to a concert.” Alcides said, trying to distract her from her rude classmates.

  “Oh really! That sounds amazing!” Isabella said, completely forgetting what her classmates had said about her for the moment.

  “Great, I'll send him a message and tell him we’ll be going.” After Alcides sent the message, he sat down with Isabella and they told each other about their day.

  Finally, the brother-sister pair headed off to the concert venue, which was in the Little Tokyo district. They took the metro system to southern Little Tokyo and from there headed off to the venue. Outside, Ryota was waiting for them. As soon as Isabella saw him, she ran over and gave him a hug.

  “It’s good to see you two,” Ryota said as he returned the hug.

  “Let’s go!” Isabella said as she led the two on towards the entrance.

  While they walked, Ryota said, “She’s really excited about this.”

  “I mean, it’s not every day that we get to go out and do things.”

  The trio finally entered the venue and waited for the concert to start. The first group was a newer underground punk band which reminded Alcides of an old punk band he liked, although not as good. Still, he liked the music, although he knew Isabella didn’t. Next up was a mediocre idol group, which was incredibly mediocre, and Alcides didn’t like the music at all.

  Finally, the main act came out. The announcer announced her stage name as Deep Blue and Alcides saw why because her outfit was blue colored and its pattern was reminiscent of the ocean. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and he also assumed she was Japanese. Something about her drew him in, although he didn’t know what.

  Then she started singing and Alcides remembered how Ryota had said that people considered her singing angelic and he had to agree with them. The song she was singing was pretty basic. It was a Japanese song about heartbreak and loneliness which Alcides could understand thanks to his translation implant.

  Unfortunately, a scream of terror from the back of the venue cut her song short. Alcides turned around expecting it was something mundane or stupid. Instead, though, he saw a pair of mantis blades burst through the chest of an audience member. As the audience member fell, he saw that the person with the mantis blades had a completely blank look in his eyes and had an insane amount of combat implants.

  As Alcides understood what was happening, another audience member gave words to his thoughts shouting. “C-cyberpsycho!”