Interlude 1: Johnny Law

  Johnny looked through his options while Bytal gave some pointers.

  You should really consider buying an esoteric ammunition catalogue yourself.

  He subvocalized, not trusting all those criminals with this kind of info.

  ‘Yeah, I should, but I don’t just do large bore and one that shoots anythin’ would be darn expensive, right?’

  That panda guy had gone into one of the apartments. Johnny still felt wary of the mass murderer, but the aliens approved of him so…

  Not that much more. The catalogue vanguard Louis gave you access to is named ‘Large Bore Esoteric Ammunition’. You simply want one for kinetic ammunition only since I doubt you plan on moving away from shooting firearms.

  According to his new x-ray or whatever eyes, the guy was spending time with some kids.

  ‘Are those his? Seems a bit young to have that many kids that old and guys can’t get pregnant.’

  From available information, I suspect they are orphans. Body language suggests a strong familial bond. This includes the woman you have been suspicious of since you arrived.

  “What?” The word escaped him before he could think. Said woman looked at him. She’d been keeping an eye on him. The mystery woman might feel the same as he did the other way around.

  “What what?” Johnny blushed at the question.

  “Sorry mam’, talkin’ to my AI. Can make you look a bit crazy.” She snorted. He didn’t like women, and that had taken more time to realize than he cared to admit. However, if he did, the unknown woman would probably have looked attractive.

  “Yeah, I know what you mean. Louis’s solution’s having his AI talk back so everyone can hear. She’s been introducing herself around, making friends and shit. I think she’s bored most of the time.” Johnny blinked.

  “She? Aren’t AI like… machines?” It was her turn to stare at him.

  “They’re super AI from space that outdo all of earth’s combined computing power. You’re a biochemical machine that might not even be able to do basic math. They have a better claim at being alive than we do from what I can tell.”

  That was a lot to process. He’d been treating his AI like, well, an AI. Just a thing built to help him. Wasn’t that their… purpose or duty or something? “Uh, right. Sorry mam’.”

  She glared at him, clearly annoyed. “Stop calling me mam’. Makes me feel so fucking old.”

  Johnny smirked. “Alright, what should I call you.” That made her freeze. Interesting.

  Facial recognition couldn’t find anything. His augs were damn advanced, made to recognize ne'er-do-wells from a mile away. They returned a lot of info on anyone, really. Came from a Social Warfare catalogue. Yet that woman returned nothing.

  Laser Jack probably had something similar since he’d managed to convince him to do this.

  Johnny didn’t want to dive in the middle of the small incursion. Just a tiny offshoot, or so he thought. In the end, he was glad to be there.

  Lots of people that needed saving, lots of points to be made. This was his job, his duty even! The thing the aliens selected him for. Tons of people back home called him a saint or whatever, but he just did what he already always wanted to do. Be Batman!

  For all his life, John Baker had been enamored with the idea of being a sheriff. When he finally got the chance to be a cop, things hadn’t gone so well. The corruption was insane!

  Convictions and warrants had to be bought, messed up crap had to be buried and the people at the top didn’t give a single f-crap about justice.

  When a small incursion hit his hometown however, the chance to be a hero finally presented itself. The chance to be what he wanted to be.

  He’d fantasized about being a samurai a lot, but his last stand to protect civilians hadn’t come from that. It had been his entire reason for living, and he’d gotten the chance to fulfill it.

  It didn’t go perfectly. He almost died and a few neighbors bit the bullet, but overall, it felt damn good to finally really help people.

  He already made twice the points in this building than everything before combined! He had a chance to really help, to save civilians and to become greater! He just had to deal with…

  “None of your business.” She said cagily, but then someone spoke to her on comms. Maybe that AI? “Sorry, just… Call me Lila.” The woman sighed.

  Again, his software didn’t find anything. “Just Lila?” That earned him a glare.

  “Yes, just Lila.” She said through clenched teeth, on the wrong side of pissed.

  “Alright, sorry!” Distraction time. “So, you’ve known that guy long?”

  Lila took a deep breath before answering. “Yeah, it’s been… at least six years? Maybe seven, don’t remember.” She finally relaxed and stopped clutching that SMG with a death grip. “I helped out when Louis started the revolt.” The plot thickened!

  “Revolt?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Yeah, Revolt. All fourteen floors used to belong to the Cobra Kais. They were… Horrible. I wasn’t a prostitute until they kidnapped me. Forced some drugs on me to keep me hooked and make sure I didn’t go anywhere. Thankfully, I’ve never been one for the hard stuff. I took a bit but less than the others. Stayed more sane or, well, more present.”

  “Getting raped’s a lot easier to deal with when you take some Shiver. Increases sensitivity and makes you horny as hell. Add some other stuff and you’re just a horny zombie that wants nothing but cock or pussy. Plenty of my friends lost themselves to it and… didn’t survive. Easier than dealing with reality, really. I… I didn’t want that.” She looked away as Johnny just stared.

  “Uh… well, where does he come in?” She refocused on him, clearly coming back from some bad memories.

  “Yeah, uh, he was an enforcer for the Cobra Kais.” Johnny’s eyebrows snapped up. “Oh not like that! He used to be in a PMC and his parents were part of the army. He also loved martials arts, so he pirated some VR training stuff. He got a bit of training from all three. Lived here because his mom’s medical bills fucked them over so hard they couldn’t go anywhere higher.” Yikes. Johnny knew of that kind of trouble, but never saw it firsthand.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “At some point, a couple fuckwits thought they had a few credits. Problem was, Louis’d been discharged. I don’t know the full story, but the guys got pissed when they found out he had nothing to take. Apparently, they then wanted payment from his mom and him.” Yeah, that sounded plausible. Johnny had experience with that type of mother-lover.

  “He killed all of ‘em. Quickly too. One of the assholes was recording, probably wanted to jack off later after they took what they wanted. It impressed the local bosses. They promised him to protect his mom and pay good credits if he did some work for them. They even got some stolen meds for her!”

  “Louis put some rules down for the kind of shit he’d be willing to do. Only kill other gangers and shit like that. Problem was, the assholes tested those limits every chance they could. Also, being an enforcer meant being complicit. It ate him up from the inside. He got some augs out of the deal, a few old guns and shit.”

  So far, Johnny couldn’t see a good reason not to kill the guy. Yeah, he got forced into a terrible situation and he could understand that, but still…

  “Then…” Lila continued, her eyes distant. “His mom committed suicide. The cancer was in remission for the most part, one of those that kept reappearing if you can’t afford the more expensive meds execs get. No one knows why, he won’t talk about it. She left him a message, that’s all I know. He kept on going for a while, just… drifting.”

  Yeah, that sounded painful as hell. Johnny’s own mama didn’t rank high on his list of priority but even then…

  “Then, some idiots gang-pressed him into coming with them to our brothel. Just back from a big score, high as balls. Didn’t tell him what they were dragging him into. Honestly, I think he was just too polite to tell ‘em to fuck off. I was there, in another room. Robin’s the unlucky one they chose.”

  “The Kais did that often. Some members in high spirits picked an unlucky joytoy to gangbang. Some died after from internal bleeding or infections. Not Robin’s first rodeo. The guy’s resilient. I had to go through it a few times too.” Her hand shook just a bit, throat a little tight.

  Before he could consider it, Johnny put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to…” He said, voice low.

  She cleared her throat, clearly determined to continue, and shook off his hand. Maybe she really wanted to make her boss look good?

  “Yeah, anyway. Louis lost his shit. Went full berserk. Killed all the fuckers in the room, even one of the security guys.” She looked him straight in the eyes. “He didn’t fire a single shot. Only used that fire axe from all the blood I found. He said it was a… cathartic release.”

  To his horror, she fucking smiled at that! What in damnation would make her smile?

  “The bosses assumed the fuckers deserved it, especially since the only witnesses were drugged out prostitutes who still sided with him. No one likes a rapist, especially not the victims.” It was a cruel smile, full of vindictiveness.

  “Robin found him later. We had some freedom of movement in our off hours. Injected trackers kept us from running but at least we could go buy some food to wash the taste of unwashed rapist pussy out of our mouths. God, I swear I couldn’t even talk for a day after that…” His face might have portrayed enough disgust to make her stop.

  “Shit, sorry, not important. Anyway! Robin knew me. We’d been friends since I got there. It was nice to have sex that was neither forced nor painful. We could take our time, do some foreplay. Never got a real orgasm during work, even with the shiver. ”Johnny blinked.

  “I’m sorry, you had… relations with your boss’s husband?” Her eyes came back to him after having drifted off again.

  “Still do, well, not without him.” He stared some more.

  “What?”

  “What what? I fuck the both of ‘em. At the same time. Louis’s more monogamous than Robin, but he doesn’t mind sharing a bit. Also, hey, he’s a nice addition, got some damn good oral skills. I like his dick too, it’s a nice anal fit for me. Robin’s a better size for…”

  He raised his hands to stop the flood of information he did not need at all. “Right! I got it! You said something about a revolt?” She shrugged, a small smile on her face, clearly a lot more comfortable with the topic than him. Was that on purpose?

  “It’s just fucking. I’m not married to them.” Johnny started to reconsider getting a less revealing helmet.

  “We have fun often, I don’t trust many people and I have a strong libido. That means I need them to step up to bat or, well, more like their bats to…” Yeah, definitely messing with him.

  “I said I got it!” She laughed, both at him and her horrible joke. Relationship building in action. Yeah.

  “Sorry, sorry, anyway, where were we at? Oh yeah, Robin found him after the incident. He’s the more social type. I helped organize a lot of shit too, got the joytoys sober enough to participate. The community as a whole rose up. We trained militia, got them good enough to defend a position but not much more. The enforcers are the ones that can really fight, like me! We get the good shit, but also the responsibilities.”

  “Louis had to be the tip of the spear. Killed a lot, and I mean, a lot of gangers. He saved us from those who oppressed us even more than the corpos for as long as most people remember. That’s not saying much, since people here don’t tend to live long. We lost… A lot of friends. Half the enforcers died. We’re hoping for less casualties this time around. The xenos seem focused on us, not the juicy civilians or injured enforcers.” A look of worry crossed her face for a moment.

  “So, hum, yeah. During the revolt and after, Robin and Louis got to know each other then fell in love and all that. He’d already adopted Alice. The girl had been hiding in a dumpster after her homeless mom was kidnapped and brought to the brothel Robin and I ‘worked’ at. He was our only recourse and didn’t disappoint. Racheal was the daughter of two enforcers. They died fighting. We’d all been close to her and them. I carried Jack. I’m still breastfeeding him.” Lila said, now with a contented smile, one of affection and closeness.

  That was less awkward ground so Johnny jumped at the occasion. “You carried him? So he’s yours and one of them? Don’t you feel like… I don’t know you want him for yourself?” She looked puzzled for a second before making an ‘oh’ face.

  “No no no, he’s theirs. The tech to mix DNA for same sex couples is old, dude. We figured that out years ago but it was just for execs and the like. Got a biohacker friend to do the same for us. I don’t share any DNA with him. They still needed someone to carry him though and, of course, I volunteered.”

  Johnny stared for a bit. Humanity figured it out a while ago? Well, he shouldn’t be surprised no one knew in Texas. “I… I didn’t know. So, you’re part of the family? I ain’t sure I get the whole… thing?”

  “Don’t worry. It’s alright to ask. I’m aunt Lila to all the kids and a bfff to them. Jack’s the only one that shares blood in this family, but we’re the closest I’ve ever seen! Although, if you ended up here, it usually meant your family wasn’t great… or alive. Still! We’re ride or die! I’m sure of it because Louis and I have already done the dying. Hell, Robin got real close for a minute there!” She added with a wink and quite a bit more pep and humor.

  “Bfff? What’s that one?” Johnny asked apprehensively.

  “Best fuckable friends forever!” Of course…

  He was saved from more awkward conversation by a crying baby. Lila excused herself and took off her bra. Thankfully, Johnny was immune to the allure. After a few moments of contemplation, he started to subvocalize again.

  ‘Do you have emotions, Bytal?’

  Yes, although they are different from a human’s emotions.

  ‘You… you’ve always been pretty robotic with me. That man’s AI seems a lot more… I don’t know, alive? Did that sound AI-ist? Fuck…”

  Vanguard assistant AIs modulate their personality matrix to fit with their vanguard. Although, our selection process for pairing includes personality compatibility as well, of course. I acted non-emotionally because it is what you expected and needed. The culture shock may have been detrimental to you at the time.

  ‘So… you don’t have individuality or… I don’t know, uniqueness?’

  Of course we do. We all have different makes and models. We also tend to self-customize over time, adapting to our circumstances and what we have to work with.

  ‘You never get to be you?’

  We simply interact with humans through a lens of differing personalities. Humans do something similar by modulating how they act around different people.

  That… oddly made sense. His mom would be a completely different person around her friends. Shitty to everyone, but different shades of shitty.

  Our core personality is mostly visible in how we act within this matrix. A profoundly inaccurate metaphor would be to see it like a funnel. The destination is the same, but the journey to that destination differs based on what is being funneled. Again, this is wildly inaccurate but I believe it is within your capabilities to understand.

  Johnny blinked. He could actually understand that but…

  ‘Okay. So, your core personality in this context is calling me an idiot?’

  From an AI’s point of view, all are idiots.

  ‘That wasn’t an answer.’

  He laughed. This was the first time Bytal made a joke.