Saving Money (Part III)

“Hey Talon, what are you doing here?” Marty was one of the cooler guys he worked with. He didn’t talk down to Talon, just because he was a lowly dishwasher and Marty was a chief. “I thought you had tonight off?”

“Oh, I think I left my Personal here,” he lied. Talon didn’t even have enough money to own a personal, which these days meant his dating pool was pretty narrow.

“Well, the lost and found is near the register.” That was what he was hoping Marty would say.

New Cluster

Hurrying through the busy kitchen, he dodged plates and conversations. He saw a stray steak knife and tucked it into his back pocket. It wasn’t too big, but it could come in handy.

Making it to the front, he dropped behind the counter. Sassy was working, which he couldn’t decide was lucky or not. He had a hard enough time talking to her normally, but tonight, he was already feeling like his pulse rate had doubled.

The thought that he had eaten a steak of human flesh splattered across his mind. Did it somehow make him different? Could it scar you? He tried to push such feelings away. There would be plenty of time to ruminate on that horror later. Right now, he just had to make sure he had a later.

Attempting to push his tangled thoughts aside, he moved in behind her, waiting. There were worse places to be. Wearing the skintight Chinese dress did what it was supposed to do and graced her thin figure exquisitely. The scarlet dress matched her heels as well as her lips. She had a short blonde gloss cut, which belled out just over her hairline. Luminescent light blue eyes finished the look.

Sassy selected from the cream of the available undercrusties, and sometimes men who weren’t so available. She was way out of his league, even though they were of an age. This didn’t keep her from being decent to him and they joked around as much as he could manage.

Turning to face him, she smiled, “hi there Talon, just can’t stay away from the fun?”

“You got me pegged, I can’t hang here next to you while I’m not the clock, so I have to come in off shift for the privilege.“

He might have almost brought some color to her cheeks, and she eyed him slyly, but then quickly said, “Why are you really here?”

“I think I might have left my Personal here?”

“Really, I didn’t know you had one.” throwing her hip out slightly, she eyed him strongly.

“Why do you want my number?”

Sassy

“Maybe,” she pointed a scarlet fingernail towards a haggard yellow box that sat under the counter. “There is the lost and found. If you see a pair of amber earrings let me know.”

Talon was trying to kill time. He had to stay behind the counter as long as possible. Minutes dragged until he had spent enough of them to search the box three times.

“You know that if you lost it here, some scratch would swipe it anyway,” she said from behind him.

Holding up some thick red winter gloves, “here, how about these? They match your dress?”

“Hilarious. If I didn’t now better, I’d say you were lingering down there to check out my legs.”

“Man, I should have thought of that.” He was trying to joke, but things were wearing thin. Just then, what he had been waiting for happened. One of the waitresses came up with a man’s Digi-cred on a plate. Sassy quickly scanned the number. The number was only on the blue screen for a few seconds, but Talon jotted down the info on the back of his hand with a pen. Thank you Brian Whitney, he thought to himself with a secret smile. The digits disappeared before he could double check that he had gotten the right number. He had better hope that he had, the entire plan rested on this data.

After a brief attempt to part nicely with Sassy, he was on this way. Dashing out into the stagnant night, heading back to the last place in the world where he wanted to go.

*      *      *

“Yeah, he sent me back to get everyone. There are three people that we got.” Gesturing with his hands. “We need help, getting them all back.”

Pitch glared at him through squinted eyes. “Why three? Rick knows that we are only supposed to do one at a time.”

“No see that’s the thing. This is way more than what you guys got before. These three were smugglers. They had all sorts of stolen electronics. Valuable stuff. We can bury the bodies if we have to. Who cares?”

Pitch had drawn a black bladed dagger and was now playing with it while they talked. Talon tried not to stare at it. “How did you PRs take out three guys from the majors?”

“Mostly because Rick is a freak,” he answered. “The guy went sickness. The whole thing happened under a bridge over the canal. He got two of em’ and I waxed the third by pushing him over the railing.”

“You waxed a guy?” Pitch didn’t struggle to hide his disbelief.

Pitch

“Unless he can survive a thirty-foot drop.”

“Come on Pitch,” Stain was saying, while tugging at his arm. “I’ve always wanted a Ipod. It would be cool to have a Television here too and make some real money. RTD is…sick like Talon says. I could see him wasting these guys.”

“I’m still not sure.” Pointing his dagger straight at Talon’s face, there was now only a foot of space separating the tip from his eye. “It seems a bit on the, to good to be true side, for my tastes.” A pause, “why didn’t Rick come back?”

“Someone had to guard the gear. He’ll be able to scare any dregs off.” The others were getting excited and soon Pitch didn’t have much choice.

“Alright you pudwacks, we’ll check this out and we are all going.” Pointing the dagger at him still, “and you, we will be keeping a close eye on you.”

“As long as I get my share.”

“Oh, we believe in sharing everything.” As he spoke these last words the glowing eyes of the rest of them all focused on Talon. Trying not to shiver, he could only met their gaze for a moment, before he turned and led them out the door. Many of them paused to gather up weapons. Not to be outdone, Talon went to grab a baseball bat. Pitch was faster. He snatched it up and tossed it to Mucci. The dark skinned youth caught it easily. “No weapons for you yet. Mucci keep an eye on this PR. If anything goes less then perfect, keep hitting him until he stops moaning.”

Mucci pushed him forward and the group faded into the streets of New Cluster.

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Streets f New Cluster

Book Review of The Mask of Fu-Manchu, by Sax Rohmer

The Mask of Fu-Manchu, by Sax Rohmer
Published By: Titan Books
Published: 2013
Reviewed by: Michael D. Griffiths
Stars: 4 out of 5

The Mask of Fu-Manchu, by Sax Rohmer

The Mask of Fu-Manchu, by Sax Rohmer, is a reprinting of a book that was originally written in England in 1931. In case you have not heard of Fu-Manchu, he is one of the very first arch-villains to appear as a running adversary against a group of heroes. Like many arch-villains, Fu-Manchu is looking for nothing less than world domination. If he cannot get the whole world yet, then he will settle of a culture or two, or perhaps a few countries or in some cases almost an entire continent.
But although charismatic, Fu-Manchu is a figure of the shadows, the type of man that controls politicians and kings, but is not one himself. As would some nemesis to follow, Fu-Manchu also has a strong set of ethics. He would divert a dying village’s water supply to help his workers mine for diamonds, but his word is also his bond and despite his evil manner, he can be trusted to live up to his bargains like a gentleman.

In this story, our stalwart band of English heroes have once again been set on by the subtle strings and manipulations of Fu-Manchu when they unearth ancient artifacts that could rekindle a fanatic uprising among the Muslim people. Fu-Manchu wishes to use these items to set himself up as a new messiah in the Middle East, while the Englishmen seek to keep Fu-Manchu’s hands off them.
After several attempts to steal the artifacts and the murder of their friend, the heroes flee from the city near the dig to Egypt. But the sinister Chinaman has a new tool, a strange mimosa smelling chemical that not only knocks a person unconscious, but can be used to put them in a trance where they can be forced to obey his will. With the use of this drug, Greville helps Fu-Manchu kidnap his bride to be. Using the poor girl as a hostage, they set for a meeting to trade the woman for the artifacts within the largest pyramid.

I do not want to reveal more of the plot for it is a book worth reading. If one has never explored Fu-Manchu, it might be time you started. Many of the classic villain archetypes can find their origins within these pages. Sax Rohmer is a classic English author comparable with Doyle, Wells, and Verne, but remains far less known. The book is fast paced and action packed and leaves you wanting more.
Drawbacks of the book could include a racist aspect that is hard to deny. The threat of “the Yellow Peril,” is quite evident. Other races appear to have little will of their own and are used for tools and must be controlled. This brings up the issue of judging a man by our standards or his. Is Thomas Jefferson evil because he owned slaves? Should we disregard everything he wrote because of this? Or was he, for his time, a progressive thinker that did have valuable ideas to share? In some respects learning the origins of our past in an honest manner could have value and instead of ignoring that realty and pretending it did not happen. Perhaps instead of condemning whole centuries of humanity as evil, because they do not act like us, we can try to understand our own histories.

The Mask of Fu-Manchu was a real pleasure to read. Some of the writing was of a dated style, but this did not misplace to thrill of following these men through their adventure. Whether it is for personal enjoyment, learning more about the history of villains, or for an author to improve his own villains, The Mask of Fu-Manchu is a worthy read.

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Worst Case Scenario

Despite his reluctance, Jack decided to go with Bruin’s plan of letting Jack and the Dionysus worshippers try to rescue the healer Felix, while Bruin and Lanna attempted to destroy a Darcarre nest. They made it deep into Boston unopposed, but this also made sense for the Xemmoni no doubt wanted them as far into the city as possible before they set their trap. For the team would be kidding themselves if they didn’t admit there was a trap being set for them. The only questions would be if Felix still lived or if they would be able to live through it themselves. 

Urban Issues

The tension, in the new van Jack had purchased, lay thick and no one had spoken for so long that Phillip’s voice caused him to jerk the wheel. “It’ll be great to have a healer with us, if nothing else. All we need to do is be able to fight our way toward him and he’ll get us ready to fight our way out.”

“I just hope he still lives,” Cleo said, with less optimism in her voice. 

Jack glanced at her in the rear view for a moment before saying, “Phillip’s right though. We have just one goal. Grab Felix and go.”

“What if he still refuses to leave with us?” Phillip asked.

“We just have to assume, by this point, he’s knows better. Even if he’s too scared to hit our enemies with us, we can still hide him in some hotel and use him as a healer after our conflicts.” They rode in silence for a while, but then Jack added, “And one more thing. I could care less about coordinating some attack with Bruin. If the Darcarre come at us and lighten his burden, so be it. But I’m not risking our safety to do anything other than rescue Felix.”

Soon they arrived at Felix’s home. It was lit up like the man expected company, and Phillip mumbled, “I hope all those lights are a good sign.”

“Or maybe he’s just trying to keep the Darcarre at bay,” Cleo said.

“Brace yourselves,” Jack said, through clenched teeth, seconds before he hopped the van over the curb, drove across the lawn, and pulled up next to the front steps.

Phillip jumped out of the van first. “So far so good. No sign of anything.”

As one, the trio raced up the steps. Cleo gazed in every direction. “Is it possible that there isn’t a trap set for us here?”

Before he answered, Jack reached for the doorknob. It proved to be unlocked. Looking back over his shoulder, “This is getting strange.”

Phillip’s voice dropped to a whisper as they shut the front door behind them. “His room is upstairs. He’s either there or in the library on this level.”

They checked the library, but found no signs on him. Phillip and Jack lead the way up the stairs while Cleo watched their backs. Approaching Felix’s bedroom, the Stalwarts drew weapons. Again the door was unlocked, Jack opened it, and the men rushed inside.

The sight before them caused even those veteran Stalwarts to draw back and gasp in horror. Felix floated in mid air like he had been crucified on an invisible cross. He moaned slightly, but gave no indication that he was aware of their presence. His naked body showed signs of horrible abuse. Bruises and angry red lacerations covered more parts of his body than not. Only the whites of his eyes were visible, but they only had just enough time to take this in before the healer exploded.

Death of Felix

His very body became weapons and Phillip and Jack cried out as sharpened bones impaled them and viscera blinded their eyes. The men stumbled back into the hallway and struggled to wipe what was once Felix from their faces. Before this could happen, an insane laughter filled Jack’s veins with ice.

He’d heard that laugh before.

“VILE!”

Vile Darken

Jack looked on in horror as Vile Darken himself, both the Earth’s and Jack’s ultimate enemy, stood before him opposite of the stairs. His nemesis’ black sorcerer’s hat did little to contain Darken’s wild mane of unkempt hair. His goatee had become a raged beard since the last time Jack had confronted him, but insanity still burned behind his evil eyes. Tall ebony jack boots met a midnight blue uniform that made the foul villain look like some sort of space pirate. One hand clamped onto a smoking, black cutlass, while the other had Cleo’s body suspended by the neck so that her feet dangled a full foot of the floor.

“Ho, Jack Primus we meet once more, but then again, I’ve meet you so many times over across the Everywhere War, that such encounters tend to lose their uniqueness.”

He has your love in his hands

“Let her go, you horrid freak,” Jack hissed. “Your battle is with me. Let’s finish this!”

“Jack,” Phillip said in a low voice. “Behind us.”

Jack took a second to discover that dozens of Xemmoni rushed into the house behind them. In seconds they would be heading up the stairs at their backs.

Vile’s voice drew Jack back to the dark villain. “I’m been enjoying causing people to explode latterly. You could say it’s my newest trick or perhaps hobby.”

Evil thy name is Vile

Then, before Jack could do anything, Cleo exploded into a thousand gruesome pieces.

To be continued next Monday

Find out how Jack’s Adventures Started Here!

Vile Darken

YIG Entropy Guide

The Path of Life has Eight Hundred Directions at Once

Each day we are Faced with more Choices then we Realize

Servants of Yig

Are one with the Chaos

Like a Snake they can move in any direction at any Time

But move Forward once the Direction is Chosen

I seek to be like the Snake

Let the Chaos Embrace Me

I Wish to be like the Leaf in the Wind

Which Lands on the Pot of Gold

Let the Chaos Infuse Me

Entropy shall be my Guide

Take me down the right Road

The path of Greatness Awaits

The Journey continues Forever

I am the traveler, who Seeks, Finds, and becomes Complete

Yig

 

Find out more about Followers of Yig Here!!!

Saving Money (part I)

“So how do you like it?” Pitch asked, while cutting another huge piece off his steak. Swirling it in the bloody grease on his plate, he popped it into his mouth, before Talon had a chance to reply.

“Yeah, it’s great,” he answered. Talon hoped that this wasn’t a prelude to Pitch asking him up pony up some money for his share of the meal. Talon only had three dollars to his name and didn’t want to part with them.

Saving Money

“I’m glad you like it,” Pitch said. Some of the other guys laughed for some reason. “Would you like a beer?” Everything about Pitch lived up to his name. From his dyed hair to his wardrobe, everything stayed a deep dark black. He kept himself clean-shaven and was probably a few seasons shy of Talon’s twenty five years of age.

“Wow, you have beer too? What’d you do, roll somebody?”

Laughing between mouthfuls, “there might have been some rolling involved?”

Pitch

Rick, or Rick-the-dick, as most people called him, handed him a can of cheap beer. Rick was tall and creepy, in a general sort of sense, which even wearing outdated glasses couldn’t dispel. Local legend had it that Trash had kept the lanky freak from raping a girl behind Greasy Tony’s sub shop. Why Pitch let the guy hang around was beyond Talon. Still, a guy on his budget couldn’t turn down free food and beer, so here he was.

            The group of five guys and one gal circled the grimy table that was in the main room of the small shack known as the Mutant House. Torn and shaggy show flyers mixed with random posters in an attempt to conceal the dirty brown walls. Trash mingled with dumpster dived furniture and junk, until it was hard to distinguish one from the other.

Taking another bite of meat, he let it melt on his tongue. Who would have guessed these losers could cook this well? “So what do you think you might be eating?” Pitch asked? This elicited more laughter from his buddies and girlfriend Stain.

“Some kinda steak. I guess.”

“It is some kind of steak,” Mucci giggled beside him.

Talon was starting to feel uneasy. What was going on with these guys? He took another bite and washed it down with a big chug of beer. “Would you like to know?”

“Ah sure, why not.”

“Rick, go grab what is on the plate.”

Moving to the fridge, Rick strangely waited until he was nearly standing behind Talon, before he tossed the plate onto the table. Talon shot to his feet so fast that the chair toppled backwards with a clang. He gasped when he saw that Rick had tossed a folded human arm onto the table. Most of the meat had been sliced away, except for the flesh around the hand. This had turned a sickly light blue.

The others were laughing at his reaction, but Rick placed a controlling hand on his shoulder as he whispered, “stay cool.” The words were drawn out and eerie, sounding like some fiend out of an old horror movie.

“What the hell are you guys doing?” He managed to spit out.

Talon

“Saving money,” Pitch said, standing up.

“By eating people?” A deep terror began to well up inside him. It was an explosive feeling of horror, which he could barely control, but he knew that if he lost it, trouble would quickly follow.

“Hell, is it our fault?” Pitch began, as he started to pace through the crowded room. Papers were crushed under his feet and he knocked over an overflowing ashtray. This created a gray cloud that clutched at his combat boots.

“We have hit way worse than a recession here. New Cluster is dying. We are living off its corpse anyway, why not take it one step further?”

“Where did you get the body?” He couldn’t help but ask, which caused Rick’s hand to clamp down on his shoulder painfully.

“Don’t worry. It was already dead, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Pitch said, with a dismissive flick of his hand. “Everyone is so hungry that people are dying all around us. Rick found this corpse in the street; no one cared. The government might have gotten the paramedics around to cleaning it up eventually. They don’t care about us or care that we are starving, they just want to clean up the streets so that the uppercrusties don’t have to be disturbed by our reality.”

“But who was this guy?” Talon tried to shrug Rick’s hand off his shoulder, but this only made him grip harder.

“Just a bum.” Ceasing his pacing, Pitch met his eye, staring him down. “Why should we live in poverty, until we end up like those guys, wasting away in the streets? Why should we spend every cent we get just to try to survive and miss out on everything? Hell, you liked that beer, didn’t you? Do you think we would be able to afford something even as simple as these cheap ass beers, if we were shelling out money for grub? Hell no. We would be sitting here eating some oat supplement, staring at each other. Some Saturday night that would be.”

“I hope we can trust you not to narc us out,” Rick whispered into his ear. “Cause if you do…” His words trailed off, but Talon felt the implications. The silent threat that perhaps he would be becoming their next meal.

“So I ask you this Talon, are you with us, or are you just going to continue to grovel for the Posh, washing their dishes at that place you work, watching more food flow down the drain each day than you get to eat in an month?”

The grip on his shoulder intensified. “Yeah, I’m cool. I would never narc you guys.”

“We want more than that Talon, we want you to be one of us. We have already shared one meal; why not make it a lifestyle. No matter what, we’ll never starve and we’ll certainly have more cash for rolling.”

“I don’t know.” This was wrong, so wrong, and he just wanted to get out of there and never return, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t make it out of there at all if he didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear. Quickly building a plan and fighting down his building sickness, he figured he would play along with them for now.

“I guess you have a few points. I hate eating synthetic mush and not even having enough money to wash it down with something more than our nasty tap water.”

“Now you’re talking.”

“Wait,” Rick said from behind him. “Before we welcome him into the fold, I want to seem him clean his plate. Can he do it now that he knows what he is eating?”

Pitch must have seen him grimace, for he smiled and said, “Come on Talon. Talk minus action equals zero.”

His hands fell like fish caught in the mud while his throat constricted painfully. Dread welled up inside him, building into fear. Looking around the constricted room and feeling Rick-the-dick’s grip on his shoulder, left little doubt to the true nature of this test. Fail, and it could be his arm they would be eating.

Red Talon

His mouth turned to ash. Could he do this? Eating this meat was the only way to get out of here, but would it pass his throat? Could he make it happen?

Slowly, trying not to let his arm tremble, Talon picked up his fork and stabbed it into his remaining triangle of dripping black meat. It was a big piece, but he believed that it would be better to do it all at once, for he wouldn’t wish to have to do it again and again.

Staring at it, he could see the crimson muscle. It looked like human flesh now. Hesitating too long could give him away. Frowning uncontrollably, he shoved the whole piece in-between his teeth in one bite. It filled his mouth and he gagged. His throat tensed, closing like a vise. Flesh splintered and tore, splitting into wet fragments that became caught between his teeth.

He began to dry heave. Not bothering to hide the menace in his voice, Pitch said, “don’t do it.” A steak knife filled his hand and he brought it up like a weapon. “Don’t do it.”

Panicking, he snatched up his half full beer and downed the thing. He was barely able to keep from vomiting, but the beer washed away some of the foul taste and with a supreme effort, he was able to swallow the rest.

For a moment all he could do was stand there panting. He hadn’t even noticed at first that Rick-the-dick had let go of him. “Can I have another beer please?”

“Sure,” Pitch said and tossed him a beer. “Good job by the way. Now you only have to pass one more test”

Explore more of Talon’s World Here!

Talon’s Nightmare

In Charge of My Own Demise Part V

Mace’s code 10 was taking longer than Dak would have hoped and soon he was forced to distract Lacy Law. Fortunately this wasn’t overly difficult, other than the keeping her icy hands off of him part. Dak just hoped that Erin wouldn’t be leading the way and find Lacy practically sitting on his lap as she was.

When the door to the hotel room was finally kicked open, Dak lunched to his feet, which lunched Lacy onto her ass. After emitting a very undignified chirp when she landed, Lacy suddenly sprung into action.

Lucy

“Come on Dak,” she yelled while delivering a karate kick to a Jumper’s face. The man went flying backwards into a wall, his face an angry smear. That would be enough damage to send that boy back to the Grafter’s cloning vats.

Since she was watching, he was forced to stun one of his own allies. When her kick took out another masked Jumper, Dak realized that his remaining allies were dwindling. He grabbed one of the Jumpers by his jacket and together they slammed into a wall. Dak winked at the man, then used his Flashgun to send a stunning beam of yellow energy into Lucy’s back. She fainted before she could turn, but he would have just blamed it on the Jumper anyway. 

Mace

When freed, Mace shook his hand. “I guess I finally owe you one.”

“After helping me with Erin you are more than even.”

“Or maybe you’re going to owe me again,” Mace said, as a smile spread over his bruised face. With his hand his gestured to two limp bodies that were being dragged into the room.

“What is this?”

“We can’t leave you looking like a incompetent can we.” His hand patted the side of Dak’s face. When he saw Dak’s look, it quickly jerked away. “These two Jumpers have broken a few of our laws. They’ll take the rap on your side of the law as their punishment.”

He was walking over to the unconscious Lacy as he spoke. “That will help your story, get you your first big Jumper bust, and get rib of these two dregs all in one move.”

“If I didn’t know better, I might think you set this all up.” Mace only smiled. “Hey don’t mess with her,” Dak started but it was already too late. Mace had found a small dagger somewhere and stabbed it into Lacy’s leg. It drew more sparks than blood. 

“Just as I thought, she has some type of cyber legs. I’d watch out for this one Dak.”

“You can count on it. Now, since you are still basking in the glow of my rescue, I wanted to talk to you about Matthews. He needs to be on the task force. I also think…”

                                               *        *        *

Erin was tapping her long pink nails against the glass table. Long blonde locks hid most of her face and only the side of her cute nose and her cherry lipped pout could be seen. “Okay what is it?”

Erin

She picked up a nail file without looking at him. “Mace told me you were getting pretty close to that reporter chippee.”

“Not as close as he was.” He couldn’t help but grin.

Turning towards him at last. “Mace doesn’t have a girlfriend.”

“Neither do I.” Her eyes went big, he let his words linger for a moment, “I have a lover.”

She softened. “I could see why that bionic bitch would be interested, but she needs to stay away from my man.”

“I wish she would, but I have a feeling that my new job is just going to be making things more complicated and difficult.”

She finally moved close enough for him to hold her. “Doctor Max knows what he’s doing. If he thinks this Task Force is a good thing with you at its helm, it probably is.”

“Better me than someone else, but it still is putting the flame on high.”

“You just have to make sure you don’t get set up.”

“Or that you don’t get dragged into things.”

That quieted her and she shivered against him. In the background the news was coming on. He had wanted to hear how they would cover the event, but when he heard Lacy Law’s voice and saw her cold piercing eyes, he turned the vid off.

Skinjumpers

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