A Prelude to a Cyberpunk Story

"All in." He looked confident when he said it, though he was misguided in this, considering the pocket aces in my hand. On the table lay the two other aces, along with two kings and a seven. "Call," I said as I threw my hand face up on the table. He followed suit, tossing his two kings down. The color drained from his face as he saw my hand. "Fuck."

I smirked as he begrudgingly shoved all of his chips my way. I pulled them closer, letting them fall into my duffel bag. Tonight's total: twelve thousand. "I'll go get some more chips, let's keep it going," he said to me, in a more casual manner than I knew he meant it. "Nah, sorry. I'd better be going now." I hadn't seen him show much emotion on his face before, but now it was shock all over. "What the fuck, dude? You're seriously 'bouta hit and run?" I said nothing as I walked away, to the counter. Exchanged my chips for cash. I heard him cursing at me as I left. Cursing at me in Japanese.

I exited the casino, headed to my car. The lights seemed dimmer than usual, the city quieter. The silence was tension. The tension, trouble. I knew this, of course. Placed my hand on my belt, ready to draw my pulse pistol if trouble was for me. It was.

A spider-like body modification allowed trouble to spring at me with two spindly and robotic legs, attached on the lower back, an extension to her human limbs. The legs crawled towards me at an inhuman pace. I gripped my pulse pistol tightly. She lunged at me, I aimed the gun and shot her in the chest. Too late. One of her robot limbs was already deep in my stomach, a small yelp escaping my lips.

She flinched at the shot, but it didn't hit any integral organs, instead just melted through some of her cyberware. She drove one of her sharp, spider-like legs through my left hand this time. I screamed again, louder this time. She was closer now and I could see that her face was covered with a mask, only one of her eyes shone through.

I shot her again, aimed for her implants this time. It was enough to short out her cybernetic legs and send her stumbling back. "Kuso!" A translation scrolled across my retinal implant (RI): "[Fuck!] (translated from Japanese)." I managed to roll away from her next attack. Just what she wanted.

It was over once I noticed the car barreling towards me, my RI blinking in the corner of my vision, "136 mph." The car slammed into me, pinning me against the wall, the stab wound in my stomach now worsened to the point that my body was almost split in two at the abdomen, hanging on only by a few tendons.

I tried to scream, but nothing came out of my mouth except blood. The driver of the car, who happened to be the man I played poker with, was yelling at me in Japanese, but my RI wouldn't translate it. Too busy displaying, "CRITICAL CONDITION. DIALING EMERGENCY SERVICES." I could feel myself losing consciousness, but I fought back.

The car then backed away and sped off as I collapsed to the ground, my intestines spilling out onto the pavement. My stomach, which now looked more like ground beef, followed after, falling out in shredded pieces. My face hit the ground hard and everything went black. I felt myself fade away as blaring sirens made their way towards me.