Blue Haired Neko by Peggy Jo1
Esther’s Dystopian Days
By
David Heath
Episode 4
Fighting Like Cats and Dogs.
Dystopian Days
By
Esther Goldbaum
Crystaline Eden prowled the streets of New Neo-Portland. The city had been built thrice and razed to the ground twice. The gentle Pacific Northwest drizzle could have cooled her, but she kept her armored neo-faux leather jacket closed to conceal her razor–sharp katana, if Corp-Sec spotted a massive fight would erupt. Decades of climate change had warmed the world, Intensifying the humid drizzle, making her stylish yet stifling coat both shield and burden <Esther Notes to self: Is that how global warming works? better Google it.>
As she crept through Danger Alley so named for its perilous reputation—her senses were assaulted with a block of 3D screens bombarded her eyes and ears with commercials for Chinese condoms, Brazilian ammunition, and Malaysian beer. Pheromone –laced scents wafted through the air,: first smelling pizza, then beer, and finally a rose-tinted perfume. Sonic vibrations from the screens caressed her skin, through her clothes urging her to buy <Esther notes to self: That is only four sense come up with something for taste.>
Crystalline kept walking, the cleansing nanobots in her body purging most of her of the urge to worship at the altar of capitalism though not exactly Even she couldn’t resist the subliminal call to buy new shoes. Halfway down Danger Alley, she before a massive screen displaying what seemed a close –up of her own face. Had she been spotted? Was an unseen enemy using a hidden camera broadcasting her location to world?
Then Crystalline realized the woman on the screen wasn’t in the advert strewn alley where she stood, but cutting edge–edge biolab. Despite the uncanny resemblance, the figure wasn’t her, it was her mom! Well, technically, Dr. Valentine wasn’t her mother, but her DNA donor, for Crystalline was a clone! An exact biological copy of her creator, enhanced with combat augmentations. The fierce urban warrior loved Dr. V any child loves their parents. Yet, in a cruel twist, the good doctor couldn’t return. To amplify her intellectual capacity, Valentine, had sacrificed the emotional parts of her brain that could love and care for a child, for the cold academic prowess needed to achieve a grown breaking achievement in biological sciences. This was the great corundum of Crystallin’s life her very existence came at the cost of the maternal love and affection she so desperately craved. <Esther note to self: You are so good at writing the angsty heart string tugging stuff. Keep up the good work dude.>
The advertising broadcast showed an older image of Dr. V from before she had created Crystalline in a lab, before the fall of the Neo-American-Republican-Democracy <Esther’s note to self: N.E.R.D. get it?> and the rise of the New Corporate Confederation, a sinister quasi-governmental organization ruled by a corrupt corporate. To Crystalline, the street-samurai, Dr V was her mother. Mother (that word again were clones truly daughters?). Despite the decadence of the new societal overlords, and their offers of vast Corporate Credits, a lavish subsidized lifestyle, and a seat at the table of power. Dr V had won Nobel Prizes for Peace and biogenetic, their bribes and went underground to found The Resistance!. The pseudo-documentary about her was full of lies and false accusation which despite Crystaline’s complicated relationship with the woman, made her blood boil.
The fact that the film clip was recorded nearly a decade ago challenges for Crystaline. The nubile <Esther’s note to herself: OK, I just looked it up, that words means “Of marriable age” I thought it meant sexy. Hmmm still works keep it in.> appearance —she had existed on this planet for eighteen years, belied the wisdom Dr V had given her. Valentine’s “Hyper Knowledge Education Training Techniques.” She possessed the knowledge, experience, and understanding of a woman four times her biological age. Yet this meant she resembled her creator in the video stream more than she would if the real Intensifying the humid drizzle, making her stylish yet stifling coat
Valentine Stood by her. Someone passing through Danger Alley might notice the likeness and report her to the Corporate Confederation, and their feared notorious enforcers.
With heightened attention for detail, the intrepid rebel heroine Crystaline prowled through Danger Alley. She spotted two hulking humanoids shaking down a noodle cart vendor, who longed to see his fiery kimchi and ghost pepper synthetic extract slithered on steaming udon noodles. had massive, muscular builds and distinctively canine heads. They must be Dog Pounders, she thought, members of the notorious gang known for illegal body modifications that turned them into bipedal human-dog hybrids! She thought.
One Dog Pounder was clad like a cursed highway nomad in a Kevlar- leather jacket, a faded Thorny Roses death-punk band T-shirt and cargo pants bulging with Corporate Credits, sniffed the air. His gaze shifted and stomped away from the hapless vendor and headed over to Crystaline. He must have smelled how dangerous she was. <Esther’s note to herself: Absolutely must use this idea for the next time the gang lets me run a Shadowrun game, but give dog-boy magic, oh yeah!>
Unlike Crystalline, who was biologically engineered in vitro, the Dog Pounder had been modified as an adult. The urban warrior had no issues with people altering their biomass if they chose to. One of her closest allies had been transformed into a magnificent stained glass,-winged moth-man. In an age of medical miracles, she believed people should be allowed to be whoever or whatever they wanted yet. She questioned the motives behind this particular transhuman’s choices. He seemed to have chosen a form crafted to injure and intimidate.
He stalked close enough for Crystalline to smell raw meat on his breath. His muscular torso loomed before her. His yellowed polycarbonate teeth bared in a snarl, could nap a brick in half. Built from a DNA blueprint of a rabid predator hunting dog not a fluffy, sweet puppy, He was all menace. “What are you doing here?” He growled.
“Just passing through big boy.” Crystaline said a beguiling and disarming smile attempting to get around him.
“I don’t think so. He barked. <Esther’s note to self: Barked. dog man LOL> “I think you’re doing biz on Dog Pounder territory without paying your taxes.” Though the gang member wasn’t book –smart but Crystalline could tell he had sharp streetwisdom to him.
“No disrespect to you or your posse. I just want to get my tired but outta here and back to my crash pad. That copasetic with you, comrade?”
“I’m not your comrade!” the gang member growled Crystaline’s near –omniscient threated detection sense six more dog-morphs, closing in to back their buddy. “How about we take you to the Doghouse for a sit –down.” Bloodlust gleamed in his eyes.
“Love to, buddy, but this Girl got to je, no time to chat.” Crystalline gripped the handle of her trusty katana with one hand while lowering her mirrorshades with the other fixing him with a steely” You don’t want to mess with me glare. Her heightened combat awareness locked onto a small figure, obscured by a heavy cloak approaching The Dog Pounder’s partner. She could have warned them but chose to watch how this would play out.
The short, figure cast off her obscuring cloak, revealing a lithe feline form clad in a Vantablack skintight neo-Kevlar-leather catsuit <Esther’s notes to herself: Alright maybe a cat babe in a “catsuit” might be too much.> With a shrill hiss, the larger canine morph. Sharp polycarbonate claws extended from her fingers, and with two swift swipes of each hand, she left her target’s body tattered
Half a dozen Neko gang members descended from the roof that lined Danger Alley. Their muscular and ample breasts stained tightly on their neo-Kevlar-leather armor fired autoloading assassin crossbows. Embodying dangers avatars of death. <Esther’s Note to self: I think if I made the Neko cat assassins hotter, I would increase my readership with furries.>
As the Dog Pounder blocking her path returned to the Neko’s deadly assault, he made the fatal mistake of shifting his attention from Crystaline. With a swift one-hand strike, knocking his head to the ground before he realized that he was dead.
Corp Sec Enforcers arrived almost before Crystaline could sheave her katana. They must have had the Dog Pounders or Nekos under surveillance, nothing else explain the lighting fast response armored silk turtleneck and mirrored smart glasses that allowed them to operate in the dark. They moved like a wolf pack, a single deadly force with multiple bodies. They had clearly been tracking the canine and feline figures. A towering enforcer an ogre of a man, shouldered a missile launcher and fired its deadly payload Moving strait at Crystalline Eden!
Her Heightened reflexes sent her dodging to the right, the projectile, missing her by millimeters. She felt the heat of its exhaust grazed her cheek. The missile slammed into a video advertising wall, exploding. In a shower of sparks and debris that scattered the crowd. Smoke engulfed Danger Alley. Seizing on the chaos, Crystalline fled down the alley, her enhanced sense guiding her through the obscured pathway. At the intersection of another alley. she veered down new route.
A mysterious hooded figure struck Crystalline Eden from the side, knocking her on her butt. At first, the street warrior thought it was a Neko. But it couldn’t be. Her trained senses would have detected one, even with the obscuring smoke. Her assailant was clearly taller, fitter and more voluptuous than any Neko. This attacker was too cunning to be a mere street ganger, and used neo-Krav Maga, just like Crystaline A chilling revelation hit her. No, it couldn’t be!
The figure before the downed cyber warrior threw back her hood revealing Currency, the infamous international assassin, famed deadly betrayer of The Resistance, and Crystallin’s former lover! The well-endowed blonde Caucasian woman was clad in yellow overalls over a rare orbital spider silk t-shirt, her gorgeous blonde hair in twin stylish buns. she radiated menace and purred in a husky voice “I am going to take you down and savor every nano-second of it.” Then she pounced.
Cleopatra Parker set down the manuscript Esther had printed for her. “Couldn’t help but notice this Currency character looks a lot like your ex-girlfriend Penny.”
“I know!” Esther explained enthusiastically. “Currency, Penny, both names have connections with money. See what I did there? Pretty subtle, huh?”
“Not to anyone who knows you or her. The African –American girl said flatly. “So, when you finish the rest? What happened she killed Currency?”
“Ah… Well… No…” Esther explained. “I already wrote that part. They have se right there in the alley in the alley… Hard core sex. I know that that kind of things bothers you.”
In a deadpan tone, Cleo said, “My virgin eyes thank you.”
“I’m cool like that.” Esther said then with the energy of an excited child, asked, So what do you think?”
Cleo sighed. She liked science fiction as much as the next nerd nerd –punk. As an anime fan, she like the 1980’s cyberpunk like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Appleseed, but she never quite understood her best friend’s obsession with the genre. “It’s not half bad?”
“Okay, that means it’s half good!” Esther said, nodding.
Cleo rubbed her temple. “I liked the part about the companies manipulating part about all our senses to make us buy stuff pretty now……”
“Yes!” Esther exclaimed.
Was the story good? That depended on taste. Was it professional level, Not quite. But Cleo gazed at the pages Esther had lovingly printed. She saw the beaming smile on her friend’s face her work. If she called it good, would it set Esther on a path of disappointment or delusion? Probably not? As excitable as Esther could be, she wasn’t delusional. She wouldn’t throw her life away, chasing a dream.
Esther, like all of them, had endured so much. Happy moments were rare in her life, and this story brought her so much joy. Cleo wouldn’t take that away. If it made her best friend happy, then it was the greatest story ever written. “It’s great.” She replied.
“Yes! thank you, thank you.” Esther bubbling. “I was so afraid you’d hate it.”
“Never” Cleo smiled.
“Want to read the unedited version with the intense alley sex?”
“No.”
“You’ll never know what you’re missing.” Esther gushed.
“That’s the plan, babe.” Cleo replied. “That’s the plan.”
Esther’s Dystopian Days. 
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