It is the year 2069, and if the Military doesn’t control it, the Mega Corporations do. Average people scrape by in the meat grinder of power struggles. People are treated like commodities by those in power. The last half of the century has been rough on the planet. Worsening natural disasters and drought have wreaked havoc on mankind and their cities. A third world war has come and gone. National borders have expanded while others shrink. Technology has boomed and advanced. Artificial intelligence is so commonplace it is part of everyday life. Robotics has reached new heights.
A war between the United States and Mexico, which had been completely taken over by the cartels, ended with concessions of land to the United States in 2040. The Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas were now a United States territory called simply: “Gulf State,” and a new city broke ground on the border of Texas along the Gulf of Mexico sea.
Drought and the resulting famine made the Dust Bowl of the United States and much of the inner portion of the country uninhabitable. Over the course of two decades, people flocked to Gulf City. It was the fastest-growing metropolis in the world. Parts of it are a beacon of prosperity and technological advancement... if you are privileged enough. Other parts of Gulf City are rampant with violence and crime. Gangs fight over the scraps of the modern world. This is where our story takes place, in the neon lights of the future, things that seemed like science fiction just a few decades ago, have become commonplace.
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Taz sat in a velvet booth in the strip club’s VIP. Music thumped away in the neon-lit room, the driving bass more felt in his chest than heard. The air was smokey. A hand appeared on the other side of a curtain and tugged it aside. The face of a beautiful woman with Asian features poked her head through and peered at him. He nodded at her and she stepped in.
She turned around, showcasing her body for him. Her hair was long and bright blue. Tattoos streaked across her sides, feathers, and vines. Her face was also adorned with a tattoo of a vine, with little flowers blossoming on her cheek. She wore a neon purple bra and pantie set, patterned with a white leopard print that shined under the soft blue light. The heels she wore were extremely high, and she glided on them with expertise.
Taz had his hair cut in an undercut. He wore a nice dress shirt sans tie, which was tucked into some black slacks. His synthetic hands rested on his thighs.
Taz rolled his wrist over, using his fingers to manipulate a watch-like gadget to transfer credits to the captivating dancer before him. She stopped for a moment, her irises blinked blue with light as the signal transmitted, invisible to the naked eye. They remained lit up as she smiled at him.
She sauntered over to a pole on a low stage within the room, which glowed from LED tiles. A laser light show from the ceiling started up around them as she lifted herself up the pole and wrapped her legs around it in time with the music. Lithe, like a cat she spun around in front of him on the pole, arching her back. Taz watched on from his seat as she dipped and danced along the pole, seducing him. He adjusted his slacks as she inverted herself, her hair falling down toward the stage. The music stirred feelings of lust and wonder in him while she put him in a trance with her exotic movements.
She set her feet on the stage, letting her body fall toward him, as far as her arm would let her lean while she held onto the pole. She blew him a kiss in the dim light.
Stepping off of the stage with a confident swagger of her hips before turning around, she slowly lowered her gyrating ass onto his lap. He could feel an erection press into her flesh as she ground against him with sensual precision. Her perfume intoxicated him as her body rubbed against his.
She slowly pulled her bra straps down, teasing him as she leaned back against his chest, rolling her head against his face, he could smell her poisonous shampoo. He cupped his hands over her breasts as he let out a sigh. He could feel a chill in the back of his arms and neck as he became fully enchanted by her.
Still seated on his lap, she spun herself around, using her hands to support her. Swaying her head to the music, she lifted a leg over his head and onto his shoulder, slowly and erotically, before the other landed against his neck. She made eye contact with him and thrust her hips up, her thighs rubbing his neck. She pulled his head back, teasing his chin with her crotch to the rhythm of the music.
She crawled down from his lap and between his knees, lowering her face to his crotch, sliding her cheek against the bulge in his pants. Her hands teased his thighs as she looked at him seductively, the electric blue light of her irises burning into his soul.
She unbuckled his pants, pulling at the zipper. She licked her lips, getting ready to pull his cock out to suck it. He could feel the tension from the teasing within his swelling member, watching her exotic lips hover over his lap as she began to open his fly.
Suddenly she froze, her eyes rapidly blinking. Static filled Taz’s vision and there was a loud squeal in his ears as he was jolted from the strip club.
He blinked his eyes as he came to reality in his cluttered apartment. A heavily tattooed Japanese man in a white button-up shirt, his sleeves rolled up, was holding the plug that had been jacked into the port below his ear. Taz looked around and saw another man in a suit with his arms crossed at the door to his unit.
“What the fuck Tatsu?” Taz sat up. “You know it’s not good to do that,” he rubbed the port at the side of his neck with his synthetic arm.
“You’ll be fine. We need you to do another job,” Tatsu said coldly as he lit up a cigarette.
Taz picked up a pack of cigarettes from the coffee table and pulled one out to light it, taking a drag before answering.
“Nah, I’m done working for the Yakuza.”
Tatsu looked back at him, unfazed, “Last time was a mess, and I’m sorry about that,” he said as he sat in the chair across from Taz.
“A mess? You set me up, you son of a bitch!” Taz almost jumped out of his seat.
“We’ll pay you nine million z-taps,” Tatsu didn’t react to Taz’s anger. “On top of that, you can stay a weekend at Black Blossom.”
Handing Taz a dossier, he gave him a moment to look it over. “If you pull this off, I’m sure I can find out what happened to your sister.”
“Are you gonna dangle that carrot in front of my face forever?” Taz blew cigarette smoke across the table in front of him. Energy drink cans, food wrappers, and beer bottles littered across the surface of the table so there was barely enough room for anything else.
“No. Not forever. Just today,” Tatsu took another drag of his cigarette and thumbed a small cylindrical object in his hand.
Taz mulled it over before answering, “Fine, but any fuckery like last time and I...”
Tatsu cut him off, “Don’t threaten me Taz. I’ve tolerated enough from you.”
Taz took another drag, submitting to the powerful man in front of him. He thought of how badly he needed the money as he thumbed the papers in his hand.
An hour later Taz was in the street, firing up his candy apple red, Mega Charger. Litter blew from the exhaust around the exterior of his car as he turned over the twenty-four-cylinder, fusion engine.
He had texted an old acquaintance, someone he knew could accomplish the hacking he needed to get done. He drove through the bustling city, toward the Kitsune club. It was late evening now and the neon city lights raced by as he traversed the sprawling urban landscape. Towering skyscrapers blotted out the horizon, lit up specularly, like monoliths to the gods of greed. People bustling about were going by their lowly lives.
Gulf City was the new melting pot. Heavily influenced by both North American, Latin American, and Caribbean cultures, many Asian people also found a home. Nearly any food was available, and the music scene was diverse.
A police drone clocked his car as he exceeded the speed limit by a wide margin. The drone shined a red and blue light over the hood of the car to signal a traffic stop, mostly done by robots this far from downtown.
Taz took notice, then pressed the accelerator, his engine roaring to new heights. He could feel the rumble beneath him as the powerful engine went into overdrive. The drone tried to keep up, but soon disappeared in the rearview behind him as he barrelled down the road in a bullet train of machinery.
When he entered the club it was bathed in blue and pink lighting. Music emanated from the speakers as all kinds of freaks filled the bar. Mowhawks, leather jackets, LED lights, and metal studs adorned the patrons. A hostess with pink pigtails and a vinyl white maid’s outfit with pearlescent stockings and platform heels greeted him.
“Welcome to The Kitsune Club!” she looked upon him and seemed to undress him with her eyes.
“Is Saxxy here?” he asked her, trying not to yell over the music.
“She’s in the Karaoke room,” the hostess pointed toward the rear of the club.
Taz made his way back through the crowd of people dancing away from the pain of life, toward the private rooms in the back. A security guard stood in front of a door, he recognized Taz and let him in, the door slid open as he approached.
As Taz walked in, he found Saxxy on a couch with a guy sitting next to her. She was dressed in a black shirt with fishnet sleeves and a shiny pink mini-skirt with combat boots. Her blond hair was pulled back slightly by a glowing pink headband. She rested her foot on the edge of a coffee table where a bottle of liquor sat. The guy next to her had his hand under her skirt.
Across from them was a large tv monitor playing music videos, the songs playing tunes from a sound system within the room. The lighting was dynamic, it changed depending on the music.
“Uh, sorry, I can come back,” Taz threw his hand up, “but I do need to talk to you urgently.”
Saxxy wasn’t disturbed. “Hey, Taz. What’s up?” she asked. The guy next to her stopped what he was doing, but remained relaxed. It was difficult to hear her over the music.
Taz tapped his ear, motioning for Saxxy to make a connection via a psysonic call. Saxxy’s eyes blinked yellow then lit up solid, lighting up her cheeks softly in the dim light of the room. Her lips didn’t move but he could hear her. They were speaking in private through a wireless link.
“Must be important,” she said.
The guy on the couch just sat there, unable to hear the dialogue between them. He puffed on a vapor stick and picked up his drink while Taz explained the job he was tasked to do.
