Friday Night Firefight: A Cyberpunk Isekai

Someone did a study once. They showed that after a person killed for the first time, their amygdala was changed irrevocably. The thing in your brain that processes emotions became desensitized after committing murder. It was as if killing someone sent a powerful enough shock into your brain that your entire consciousness kind of just shut down in an act of self-preservation. You don't feel the same way after killing a person. Is that why everyone says it gets easier after the first? The first time you kill is the hardest. That's what they say in all the movies and the books and the tv shows that I've watched. In the Bond movie with Daniel Craig, the first one where it's a reboot and he's just starting his career as a secret agent. Wait...was it a reboot? There's that theory that James Bond is just a codename for multiple secret agents, kind of like how 007 is a codename for James Bond. The theory says that there are multiple secret agents in MI-6 and they all take on the codename James Bond when they're active. That would explain why so many different actors played Bond throughout the years. Connery, Moore, Brosnan, Craig. Oh yea, the first Daniel Craig movie. They had that opening scene where he's fighting a guy in the bathroom and then it shows him going to kill the next guy and it flashes between the two scenes and the second victim of Bond is like "it takes two kills to qualify as a double o agent," and Bond is like "yea, I killed so and so," and the dude is like "well, after the first kill you'll find it gets much easier," and then Bond shotos him and he's like "oh, I agree," or "much easier, quite," in that very British manner he uses. And he shoots the dude and that shows that the second kill was much easier because Bond didn't even flinch. He didn't struggle killing the second guy. The first kill was all sloppy and dirty and he was all banged up after fighting in the bathroom. I think he fought a guy in the bathroom. Pretty sure. And then the scene flashes back to the first kill and Bond struggles to stand and walk away but the guy is still alive and then it morphs into that famous Bond shooting pose with the whole barrel thing acting as the camera lens. But that barrel wasn't what the drug dealer saw when I shot him. I don't even know what his name is. Was. I didn't know what his name was when I shot him. Should I name him? I feel like that's something a person should do. How about Daniel? Like Daniel Craig. Or Jeremiah. Why Jeremiah? That's a weird name. Jeremiah probably wouldn't like it if I gave him that name. How about Steve? Yes. Let's go with Steve. That barrel thing from the Bond movies wasn't the last thing that Steve saw. Well, I guess people don't really see the barrel camera thing either. The barrel is just the gun that is pointed at Bond while he's walking away. So, the last thing the dude who saw Bond walking away sees is...Bond walking away. Yea. That sounds about right. Bond is walking away, all Bond-like, and then he goes into his shooter pose and shoots. That shooter pose wasn't the last thing that Steve saw either. He probably just saw some kid in front of him, holding a bright orange ray gun looking thing. Or was I seated on my ass? I think when he turned around I had already fallen backwards on my ass in shock. Yea. He saw some stupid kid, flat on his ass, eyes wide in surprise, with a bright orange ray gun looking pistol raised up at him and then bang. That was it. Wait. No. He was still bleeding and breathing and doing things after I shot him. I shot him and he was on the ground staring up at the sky and then I rifled through his pockets to grab whatever was in there and he didn't look at me when I was doing that so the last thing he saw was probably the sky. I guess that's a whole lot better than seeing the guy who shot you start freaking out and then rifle through your pockets. I guess he did feel me going through his pockets. He felt me, right? But he didn't see me as I was freaking out. So, yea, he looked up at the sky and probably thought 'oh that's beautiful.' Yea. That sounds nice. I felt someone shaking my shoulder, trying to get my attention.

"Noah. Noah!"

I snapped to and saw Fred hovering over me, his hands on my shoulders. He looked better than yesterday even though he was still sporting a blackened and bloody eye. What do you call that? It’s not a bloodshot eye. Burst eye? That sounds worse than it is. His eye was all red where it was supposed to be white. My eyes drifted away from Fred towards Deng who was standing behind him. Why was Deng looking at me with a…look? Indecipherable. Was he just watching me or was there a reason he was looking at me? I couldn’t tell.

“Noah. What’s wrong with you?” Fred kept shaking my shoulders, trying to keep my attention on him. Had I given him the medicine yet? Is that why he no longer looked completely beaten to hell? No. I had been waiting for him. That’s right. I came here to try and give him the medicine, but he hadn’t been around.

“I was waiting for you. I got you some medicine,” I said, but something was telling me that wasn’t entirely true. I had the stash, but I still needed to sell it. Tomas said he could help with that. He said he knew people who’d give us a good price. Where was he? “Tomas and I still need to fence the stash. But afterwards, we’ll be able to buy you some medicine.”

“What are you talking about kid? Tomas? It looks like you’ve been crying. Did he get jumped again?” The last question was aimed over his shoulder towards Deng and some quiet part of my brain noted that Fred was freaking out. Deng was still calm and just watched me and I saw him shake his head at Fred’s question.

“I don’t think that’s what this is. It looks like adrenaline. It does weird shit to your body. A lot of people get the shakes afterwards. Or they vomit. Or cry. It’s normal.” Deng knelt down next to me and drew my eyes towards him. “What happened kid?”

“Normal for what? They get the shakes after what?” Fred was standing now, letting Deng take over as he realized he had no idea what was happening, and Deng seemed like he was a better fit to handle an unknown situation. His voice was rising, and I wanted to do something to assure him that everything was going to be okay now. I had helped. He didn’t need to worry about anything.

Wait…adrenaline makes you cry? I had been crying? I don’t remember that. When did I start crying?

“Kid. Focus. What happened?”

“I went out with Tomas to get medicine for Fred. We figured that Dennis’ crew had taken all my money so…” the image of a guy sprawled out on the ground, gasping for breath and clutching at his chest, flashed through my mind and I shut my mouth. I couldn’t let them know what I did. They’d look at me differently. I had to ignore that part of what happened so that Fred wouldn’t start worrying.

I heard Fred suck in his breath through his teeth and then step away. He picked out his old beaten-to-hell Agent from his pocket and started dialing. I would have thought that Officer Kirk had broken that. Did Fred not have it on him when he was beaten? I was just about to ask him when Deng snapped his fingers in front of my face.

“You went to get medicine from the dealers. And then what?”

“I, uh, came back here to give it to Fred. But he wasn’t here. So, I waited and then you guys showed up.”

Deng sat back on his haunches and looked at me. There was a perplexed look on his face as he stared at me. He stopped asking questions and I figured that we were done. Fred looked better. I got the medicine. Wait. No, I didn’t. There was another step in the plan. I needed to fence the stash to buy the medicine. I tried to figure out where I put the stash and struggled to stand, but Deng put a hand on my shoulder to calm me down and keep me seated.

“That was Mor,” said Fred as he slipped his Agent back in his pocket and came back over to us. “He said Tomas isn’t by Lizzie’s. He’s sent some people over to the court to check it out.”

Deng sat there with a look of – concentration? – on his face before he stood and helped me up. Why were we standing? My body felt wrung out and all I wanted to do was sit back down on Fred’s mattress, but Deng put a hand on my shoulder to steady me. Wasn’t I trying to stand earlier and he stopped me? Make up your mind Deng.

“I think I know what happened. Come on kid,” he said as he guided me forward and prodded me to start walking. Fred fell in step behind us, a look of concern splashed across his face as he mumbled something to Deng.

“He’s in shock,” answered Deng. I couldn’t hear what Fred had asked him. He should speak up. It’s rude to talk so quietly when other people are around. Wait…was that rude? Fred had never been intentionally rude to me before. I shrugged my shoulders and decided to trust that Fred hadn’t suddenly morphed into a person who’d be rude to me without reason. “His mind is shutting down. Actually, it’s more like aimless wandering. It’s a defense mechanism.”

“From getting jumped? I’ve never seen something like that before.”

“I don’t think he was jumped,” was all Deng said as he side-eyed me and kept leading me forward. I had no idea where we were going but I trusted the two of them to get us there so I was quiet and meek while we walked.

I followed the two of them for a while and started perking up when I heard music and voices. I looked around, expecting to see the familiar glow of the ‘Lizzie’s’ sign and Rita guarding her post at the front door. But neither were in sight. We were in some kind of alley or something. A dead-end alley. There was probably a better word for it. A…culvert? No. Pretty sure that was meant for water under roads. Cul-de-sac? Nope. That’s houses. We were in a dead-end alley sort of thing.

A party was going on and I noticed a bunch of cars parked in a semi-circle, Japanese lettering stenciled on the side of the cars. Bright neon glows were coming from their…under carriage? How come I can’t remember words? Ha. Fargo.

“Are you sure you don’t want the undercoating?” I said which drew the attention of Deng and Fred.

Why did I immediately think of that movie? Weird. People were gathered around the cars, chatting and joking with each other. I think each of the car radios was set to the same station and music blared from them for everyone to dance to. Did any of these people know that I had killed Steve? Did they know that he died gurgling on his own blood? Is that why they were all looking at me like I was a rodent intruding on their picnic?

They had clocked Fred, Deng and I as we got close and a few people came over to…greet us? They didn’t look friendly, but Deng stepped forward and spoke in a low voice to one of the new guys. Now that we had stopped moving and Deng was talking to someone, I felt it safe to let my attention drift towards all the people dancing around.

“Noah,” Deng pulled my focus back towards him. He was standing in front of me with a well-dressed Asian guy whose jacket was unbuttoned, showing off glowing tattoos on his chest. “This is Haru. Tell him about the dealers over by the basketball court.”

Haru looked at Deng and then at me and seemed to notice something. He softened slightly when I glanced over at the people dancing. Tyger Claws. Oh. We were crashing a Tyger Claw party. Should we be here? They looked upset at my presence. I guess Fred, Deng and I were all underdressed. That was probably a major party foul. Plus, we didn’t bring any gifts or anything. Thank God Dennis had taken my Unity. I didn’t want to explain to all these dancing people that my gun came from a dead Tyger Claw. A few of the dancers noticed me standing there and marched forward, getting ready to yell in my face, but Haru held up a hand to stop them and then spoke to me in a soft voice.

“Noah? That’s your name? I’m Haru. Your friend says you know of a crew that’s on our turf. Tell me about them.”

I looked over at Deng and he nodded a ‘go ahead’ at me. “There were three of them. Two should still be down by the court. They work for a guy named Dennis. I was there with a friend, and he mentioned the Tyger Claws, and they all freaked out because they know it’s your turf and…” I paused. I didn’t want all these people to know I had killed Steve. Fred would know and look at me like I was a monster. Haru was nice. Would he still be nice after learning that I had killed Steve? He was gasping, and gurgling, and I did nothing except rifle through his pockets and run away. Would he still be nice knowing that I did that?

“There were three? You got one?”

All I could do was nod and I saw Fred pale at Haru’s words. Deng didn’t react at all. Shit. Fred was probably disappointed in me now. I kept my eyes locked on Haru and away from Fred so I couldn’t see the distress on his face.

Various things happened but I wasn’t paying attention and I was minimally aware that Deng, Fred and I were soon shunted off to the side. Fred seemed a little out of place with all the Tyger Claws hanging around. But Deng was completely composed. A Tyger Claw guard had come over and stood near us, probably keeping an eye on us, but I wasn’t paying him any attention. I was trying to find out which radio station all the cars were tuned to. Would I hear Maximum Mike spouting conspiracy theories? That would be trippy hearing the voice of Mike Pondsmith coming from the radio. That would be like God coming down and speaking to his creations. I always wondered if the conspiracy theories that Maximum Mike talked about were true or completely batshit insane. Maybe I’d try and meet with him to get to know him better. Maximum Mike. Not Mike Pondsmith. How trippy would it be to meet –

Fred stepped away from us and pulled out his Agent. I noticed the Tyger Claw guard shift as if to say something to Fred but he took one look at Deng and didn’t try and force the issue. Were we guests? Haru was nice and probably told everyone to treat us with respect and not be all rude.

“That was Mor. He said the Claws just cleared out the court. Tomas is safe and Mor has him over at Lizzie’s. Dennis’ people beat on him and cut him a little bit, but they didn’t do anything permanent. He’ll be okay.”

Deng nodded and a few moments later Haru came back over to us. I saw his eyes flash with a golden glow before they dimmed and he stood in front of Deng. “Your information was correct. We took care of the other two dealers at the court.”

“Only two? Was there a leader there?” asked Deng.

“We took out the two dealers at the court. If he wasn’t among them, we didn’t handle him,” he said, slightly aggravated by Deng’s questions. He sighed and slipped something to Fred and Deng. “If you ever hear of any more dealers on our turf, let us know.”

I thought that was that and we’d be leaving. I wanted to get back to the mattress. Wait. No. I needed to pawn the stash. Why did I keep forgetting about that? Haru stepped in front of me and drew my eyes towards him.

“You did good work today. Be proud.” He slipped something into my hands, and I looked down to see what it was. 100 eddies.

“Your first kill is always the hardest. It gets easier.”

Hmm…just like James Bond.