Living Metal: Metallic Soul

Chapter 2: A Start of a new day

“Remember….a…promise… What promise?” screamed Anna as she woke up in her own bed. Flabbergasted over her dream she lifted up her head from the pillow while hugging herself. With tears streaming off her cheek she was visibly shaken from the nightmare. The warm morning light shone across her bed helped her to check back into reality, “What?” She said to herself with a shaky voice, “I am home.”

Holy crap that felt so real to me, I…I cannot stop shaking. You think I would get use to it by now….but…damn…”

She felt her face and wiped the tears from her face. She looked at her hands in confusion.

If it is just a dream, then why am I crying? Who was that and why were they calling me…

“Le..Levia?”said Anna out loud.

She leaned back onto her bed with a light blue bed sheet and lifted her right hand to break the morning light beam on top of her bed. She could barely remember anything about the dream, only that there was a woman who asked her to do something.

What did she want me to remember? Wait, who was calling me?

She placed her hands over her face and let out a big sigh,

“Ah, damn it, every time I have this dream, I end up forgetting it immediately. But, this felt different. Something more to it, and… that woman….. It’s that lingering feeling of something important still stuck into my head. Uh…. she said to remember something about a promise…”

Out of her corner of her eye, Anna was interrupted by a sudden image of two cat paws popping up on the ledge of her bed. Her ears twitched up as she heard a thump sound that came from the same place. She scooted over to see a jet black American short tail cat looking up at her with its piercing yellow eyes.

“Huh, Mr. Scraps, do you want to get up here?”

Anna picked up her cat, and lay back on the bed. She laid Mr. Scraps on her chest, and lightly scratched the back of its ear, “I bet you don’t remember the promise either?”

Mr. Scraps with a blank stare raised its right paw, and lightly pat on her nose. She laughed a bit, and raised her hand towards the cat. Mr. Scraps kept on batting her hand.

“Okay, Okay, I’m getting up.”

With one more good stretch, Anna got up, and exited her bedroom. Mr. Scraps passed her by and ran to the temper glass door on the other side of the kitchen. It opened out to the small patio that hung over her apartment. With his tongue poking slightly out of his mouth, he looked back at her with a blank stare and patted the door.

“Okay Scraps, we’ll go outside, just let me get my coffee.”

With a yawn, she walked over to her coffee maker which was on the end of the countertop that faced the glass door to the outside. As the coffee was getting ready, she picked up a frame picture of her with two other police officers. She was in the middle of the two.

The one behind her on the right side of the picture was her commanding officer Sergeant Simms. Of African descent with a goatee, he was about six one and in his late forties. Simms was one of the few people who knew that she was augmented. He looked after her like a daughter and helped to keep her out of government eyes.

On the other side of Anna was a woman holding her by Anna’s left arm was Stacy Mitchell. She entered the police academy the same time that Anna did, and became friends. She was mixed with Caucasian and Asian descent with greenish blue hair, Stacy didn’t know about Anna’s capabilities, but all ways wondered why Anna shied away from public places. She felt it was her duty as a friend to make sure that Anna had a life outside of work.

The aroma of the coffee heating up filled the room. Anna loved the smell especially when she added the dark fudge chocolate to the pot. Because of her augmentation, Anna had a very high metabolism. She needed three to four times the calories to maintain her body. It was one reason she didn’t go out in public or to dates.

The coffee was ready, and she poured a cup with the added fudge. Anna opened the glass door to the outside and walked through with Mr. Scraps. It was her morning ritual to welcome the new day on Mars.

Outside her on the balcony, which was sixty floors up, her pet jumped up onto the railing and started to groom himself. Anna came up and leaned right beside him with her coffee in her hand. It was a little bit windy, and her long red hair flowed to her left. It wasn’t too cold for her; it was at the right temperature for her to enjoy her surroundings.

She took a sip and looked out to the vast city of New Dicon City. Her apartment was just outside of downtown which stretched out for miles. She enjoyed the bustling city as the different types of drones passing back and forth near her perch. In the distance, she could see a cobalt steel dome with reflecting octagon shape glass. It was in progress of being deconstructed. Anna was fascinated by the mega structures that were created before the war with Earth.

She remembered reading that inside the dome was the original city of Dicon, before the restoration by the Earth’s government after the war which Mars lost to. The dome was to keep an artificial atmosphere of the city until they get a permanent solution. Now a hundred years later and the newly built atmosphere converters there was no need for the dome.

Anna placed her coffee down on the railing and stretched with her hand in the air. She smiled as she petted her cat behind the ears which was Mr. Scraps favored place to be petted.

“I’ll tell ya one thing Scraps, I am going to miss these days of eight hours of sleep when my suspension is lifted.”

Anna leaned over the ledge a bit, looked down at the street below, and continued as she pet her cat, “You know it is hard to believe that it’s been ten years since I have awakened near a colony in the asteroid belt. Now, look where I am at, I am a cop on Mars. It’s funny, all this time; I still can’t remember anything about my past.”

Anna thought about those first moments she awoke and how she felt without having any memories of her past. She didn’t know what to do. Even her name, Anna was given to her when she was found. After coming to Mars she came to terms that she was going to get them back and wanted to start a new life.

She took another sip. The rich chocolate fudge mixed in with the warm coffee tickled her taste buds as it went down her throat. Just as she was going enjoy another taste and a spotlight shone brightly on her. This took her by surprise and caused her to pour the beverage all over her chest.

“(Cough)… What the hell?”

Above her was a police air ship designed for air to ground combat. A two man seated cockpit with hovering capability. It was about twenty feet in length. Anna wasn’t amused as she wiped off the fudge of her mouth. She looked up and wondered who had the audacity to pull this type of stunt.

As she examined the ship hovering above, her eyes adjusted to the light and recognized who it was. Her ears twitched downwards with annoyance and said, “Jack, I am going to kill you for that.”

Inside the cockpit was one of her friends from work. Police officer Jack Landcaster, a cyborg class with sixty five percent of his body artificial. This time Jack got the upper hand on Anna and said with a smug look on his face, “Chop, chop Anna, you’re wanted back at HQ. I don't know what you did, but everyone there is in an uproar.”

Trying to wipe off the chocolate from her tank top she yelled at him, “Wait, what I did?”

Jack leaned over his cockpit and said with a smile, “Hey, you know if you check that ancient answering machine of yours, I wouldn’t be here. But hey, I’m not complaining. I mean you didn’t have to get all choked up when you saw me.”

Anna turned around to discuss and realized that her face was covered in fudge as well.

“Damn it Jack, you better not be recording this?”

Anna heard a beeping sound, and knew that he was. She still had the coffee cup in her hand. Infuriated from his action, her ears twitched downwards. She turned back around and threw the cup into the spotlight. The impact caused the light to blow out.

Surprised by this, Jack got up of his seat, and saw the damage that she caused. He then turned back to her and screamed, “Damn it woman, I was just joking! I can't believe you did that. You know how much one of these things cost.”

“First of all, I haven’t heard from you guys today. Second, you should have knocked on my door, instead of invading my privacy and…ah…”

She paused as she remembered about last night when she was taking a shower she thought that she heard her phone ring. Then she remembered that her cat was hitting a lot with his paws as of late. Instead of apologizing she turned around. Anna was still ticked about his entrance and the mess it made. She opened her glass door and said, “Whatever Jack, I’ll call HQ and confirm your claim.”

“WHATEVER!” screamed Jack as the veins around his forehead pulsated in frustration, “You know this is NOT coming out of my paycheck!”

Anna didn’t look back; she just did a half-hearted wave and stepped inside. Once Jack left, she went back into her bedroom. Mr. Scraps followed. On the left side she had a desk with a com-station set up with a video / holo-emitters and called in to her precinct.

Realizing that she was still drenched in chocolate flavor coffee Anna started to wipe off the mess with a light green bath towel. She was about to undress when the call went through, and a three by five video-holo popped up with her friend Stacy answered,

“This is NDC Police Department; my name is Officer Stacy Mitchell. How may I direct… Oh, hi Anna… huh, you know the Sarge been trying to reach you.

“Yeah, sorry about that, I think my cat’s been deleting my messages. So what’s the deal here, and please don’t tell me it’s something I did?”

“Well, I don’t know all of the facts, but from the debriefing, the leader of the Red Skull Society was able to obtain a cold fusion bomb.”

Anna turned around to undress and said, “This seems too extreme even for them. Are you sure the info is right and…?”

Stacy became flushed red as she saw that she was about to take her top off and said,

“Uh… Anna, you know this isn’t a secured channel that you’re calling me from.”

At first it didn’t register what she said and continued, “Besides, those idiots barely can put on a shoe than stealing a…”

Anna’s ears twitched upwards as she too became flushed red. Quickly, she retracted her arm and covered up with towel. Within seconds hundreds of incoming calls were popping up to her phone. She threw the light green bath towel over the receiver. Stacy clicked over to a close channel and said, “Sorry about that, but we are on a secured channel now.

Still embarrassed Anna with her lower lip sticking out a bit replied, “Yeah, I’m still keeping the cam cover.”

“Well anyways, Jack should have told you that debriefing is in twenty minutes. You need to get here and hopefully with all of your clothes on.”

“Oh, ha, ha, Stacy. Fine, at least I don’t have to go to anger management class today.

“Ahh, about that, the Sarge did get your suspension lifted. However, it is only if you go to those sessions once a week.

Her ears twitched downward, and said unenthusiastically, “Just peachy, I’ll be there in fifteen.”

Mr. Scraps was looking at her while licking his paw with a blank expression. Anna looked back, and said, “Well, I guess vacation is over.”

As she took out her police uniform, she thought that it was strange that the Red Skulls are going to this extreme to get revenge. Her experiences with the gang while she was undercover showed no signs of real threat to Mars. They were a gang hopped on their brand recognition or who had the most badass cyborg implant.

To the left of her bed were her boots with two metal plated shin guards. Her cat jumped into the left one while looking at her with a blank expression. She could tell that her pet didn’t want her to leave. With a smile, she scooped him up, and placed him on the bed. Just as she turned back around, Mr. Scraps jumped into the right one with the same expression.

Anna’s ears twitched, and then laughed as she took her cat out of the boot. She thought that if the Red Skulls were haft as difficult as her cat, she would be real trouble. However, her thoughts kept lingering on how they acquired this type of bomb. She looked over at her cat that was looking up at her with his tongue poking out a bit.

“Okay Mr. Scraps, don’t worry, I’ll be back later and…”

Anna noticed that her cat started to pat the side of her leg guard, while looking at her with a blank expression.

“God, I hope you didn’t just use the kitty litter.”

Looking up at her, Mr. Scraps with his tongue slightly poking out of its mouth watched Anna leaving the apartment. He stood there for a moment looking up at the door waiting for her to come back and then licked his paw. Slowly, he came up to the door and patted it.

Down below, Anna made her way down to the parking decks. She had a police steel blue hover bike parked there. She straddled the bike, and turned on the engine. The sound of a low hum vibrated under the bike. She took out the helmet from the storage compartment and put it on.

The on board computer system inside the helmet linked her in to the police mainframe. A female AI voice came from the mainframe and said, “Welcome back officer Matrix. Under article 2.0081, full status of rank and privileges will resume.”

Anna noticed the time on her visor and said to herself, “I wonder if I have enough time to grab some strawberry filled donuts.”

The AI voice chimed in and said, “That’s a negative. You must report immediately to your precinct. Anna rolled her eyes as she pulled out of the parking deck, and turned on to the freeway heading north.

To the left of her apartment down the major freeway was a huge statue that rivaled the Statue of Liberty on earth. It was Lady Justice, blind folded with a sword in one hand and a balance table in the other hand. As she passed the statue her communication device in her helmet went off. It was Stacy.

“Hey Anna, sorry, there’s not enough time to come to HQ. You need to head to the south gate’s precinct. A truck and supplies will be waiting for you.”

“Wait outside, Stacy; I thought that the Red Skulls were planning to attack the city?”

“Sorry, that’s all I know. But hey, when you get back, we’ll all go out for drinks. I’ll pick up the first round.”

Anna smirked, “How about you make it two rounds, and you got a deal.”

The sound in Stacy’s voice became excited when she said that and replied, “OMG…You’re going to show this time?”

“Hey, if you got the tab. Then…. sure, why not.”

“Okay, I’m going to hold you on that. We’ll talk later.”

“Rodger that.”

So much for the donuts, thought Anna as she turned off from the freeway turn onto a side street that led to southern gate.

As she exited the freeway to turn around, something small struck her bike. She didn’t think much about it and veered off to the exit. What she didn’t know was that the thing that hit her bike near the tail pipe was a small tracking dart that was fired about two hundred meters above her to the right.

***

On top of a roof that hung over the freeway, there was a woman dressed in red with slick back silver hair. Her face had a quarter-size red dot with red line going down on each side of her face. Her name was Ellen, a mercenary who was hired to follow Anna.

She was sixty five percent cybernetically augmented for espionage, and assassination. Her cybernetic right arm had opened up to transform into gun barrel that was made for sniping. It was raised in Anna’s direction. She was the one who tagged Anna’s hover bike. Her arm quickly reconfigured back to normal.

She placed her hands onto her hips, and arrogantly said to herself, “It is a shame with all that I can do. My job was to tag this cop with a tracker.”

Just then her left arm buzzed. She had a holo-emitter computer built in with communication device attached into her forearm. It was a call from the one who employed her service. A man name John Lorick, the head scientist of one of the leading corporation in fringe and military science technology, Cybergenic Technology Corporation, of C.T.C. for short.

Ellen answered her call and up popped a three by five holo-projection was John, with parted charcoal black hair with silver oval frame tempered glasses that hid his light brown eyes. Attached on his forehead had a one and a half metal triangle plate that was a part neural responsive super computer.

“What is your status?”

“Your cop friend here is tagged, and ready to track. Are you sure that’s all you wanted me to do?”

“This woman here is a key part to play, and every pawn on my board must be track.”

“Ah, okay.

John didn’t like her lackluster response, and said, “Your job is to keep out of site and record her movements, is that clear?”

Ellen never had any love for working for his kind of cliental. That being said, the money she was promised, and the upgrades that she received with her cybernetics were too hard to pass up. She was flustered by his word and quick to retort, “Wait hold on, when do I get paid here? The deal was to tag her with a tracking devise. Now, you want me to be a peeping tom, so what gives?”

Again, agitated by her insolence, he raised voice to make it clear to her, “First of all, it is Dr. Lorick, and if you want to get paid from our arrangement, you will shut up and do your job. If not, what enhancement I gave you can be easily removed.”

“Damn it John…meant Dr. Lorick that is not what I meant…I skshhhh.”

He didn’t care on what she was going to say. To him she was just another pawn in this game, and turned off the connection. Ellen dumbfounded with her mouth opened, she lowered her arm and walked over to the edge of the roof. She crossed her arms and said to herself, “Asshole…”

Across the city about ten miles away from Ellen’s position was one of the tallest building that had a triangle insignia with the letter CTC. This was one of many facilities that this corporation had on Mars. Sitting to the left corner office beside the sign was Dr. Lorick’s office. He had another call to deal with.

On the viewer before him was a heavy set looking cyborg with brown beard, and a helmet that had a crescent moon symbol attached onto the top of the forehead plate. Dressed in a red samurai-like outfit, his named was the Great Jaguar, one of the leaders of the gang called the Red Skull Society.

Most of the members have illegal cybernetic implants, or parts on their bodies. It was one of the requirements to join. Every member was at least fifty percent or more have enhanced. The Great Jaguar was no exception as he was nearly eighty percent cyborg. He stood there smiling as John greeted him.

“Ah Mr….. Mr. Jaguar, I see everything is in order. Just one thing, what did this cop do to deserve such attention?”

“From the reports from my men in the southern district, she came in as a recruit. She then wanted an audience with the Butcher of Dicon City. No one thought she would stand a chance with him.

“Like me, The Butcher is one of the Heads of our society. Who knew that her body was artificial? With one kick, that cop took him down. She arrested him and any of my brothers that stood in her way.”

Jaguar leered over the bomb and said while laughing, “Ha, ha, with this device, I will let loose my vengeance upon her.”

John’s interest picked up when he told him that this cop had a cybernetic body, because what Ellen had told him that other than her protruding ears, which are not that uncommon these days, she looked like a normal human. Considering that a lot of young adults on Mars were getting body modification, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

However, that interest went away as his dealing with the Red Skulls. He knew that they liked to embellish their own ego. John figured that instead of telling that their great Butcher got defeated by a normal cop, they just lied.

He didn’t comment on it and instead want to conclude this meeting and said, “Per our agreement, the attack must be out from the city in the northern quadrant. No one other than the one you want was to be harmed. We are not looking to cause a war here. If you are caught, you’re on your own. Other than that, go and create chaos.

“Yeah, hear that boys. It’s time to create the chaos of our retribution.”

Behind, and around him were twenty of his fellow members who were all cybernetically enhance. From makeshift gun ports on her arm to heavy armor bodies, they were all excited about the bombing.

Sounds of gunfire and laughter race across his men as the celebrated this moment of true power. Jaguar turned to his men and yelled for all to hear, “You know what this mean boys?”

One of the thugs screamed out, “Yeah boss, those fools from the government gonna fear us now!

“That’s right, and we are not stopping there. Mars belong to the Skulls!” All of the members that were around him screamed out loud along him with great enthusiasm, “Red Skulls are forever!!!”

John with a blank stare on his face as he listened, clicked the transmission button, and then said sarcastically, “Yeah, have fun with that.”

He then pressed the end call button, leaned forward in his chair, and let out a sigh of annoyance, “What is with these idiots and their names? I just made a deal with a guy named ‘The Great Jaguar’. To be honest Core, why involve these imbeciles in the first place? We can easily create our own distraction without a use of a cold fusion WMD.”

To the left of his desk stood a massive cyborg, stood around seven two staring out of the window of the office. He was known only as a Core, the vice president of CTC’s special division. His blue tinted titanium reinforced body was the leading edge of cyber technology, which gave him the physical edge on anyone who gets in his way.

Down below he watched the people living their normal lives oblivious to the game that he will play upon this city. He turned to John with his piercing radiant yellow eyes and replied,

“Don’t be naïve, my good doctor. We have to have a good face for the Earth’s Government. Any involvements of the last war, especially of our own labs are under scrutiny. They would love to gain our lost tech.”

“So by giving the Red Skulls a bomb and, known hatred for the police force, you wanted to create confusion for the government.”

Core crossed his arms behind his back, and smiled while looking back out of the mirror, “Precisely, we will be there with helping hands and manipulating every step they make. If what we find is the Cryogenics lab, then at all cost we must be the ones to retrieve what was