Book 1: CyberPunk Londinium

Rock Bottom Rumble

I got the news from Karim. It came so suddenly, and was not what I had expected to hear that day. "Maverick, you awake?" Karim had asked, carefully surveying my face. I struggled to reply, but I was able to say yes. "What happened?" I enquired, "why can't I see out of my eye?". His reply was full of stutters and mumbles "Well, y-y-you see, the thing is, you l-lost your eye...and your arm...I have had to r-replace then both with cybernetics". I was dumbstruck. Why did it have to be me? I panicked, and in my ambiguity, I had tried to stand up, and couldn't as I felt my legs crumble from underneath me. "Stay calm, Maverick!" Karim instructed, "Maverick, Maverick!". I couldn't stop. Karim had to grab a sedative and put me to sleep temporarily.

When I came to, I was informed that I will struggle to do anything for the next few days, potentially even weeks. I agreed to exercise daily, and so Karim told me to walk to my sleeping quarters. However, as soon as I no longer had the bed to lean on, I fell onto my front and could barely move. Karim took me to my bed, and I laid there until the unthinkable happened.

*BOOM*

I was woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of the ceiling crashing down around me. CyberCorps had somehow found us, and were launching an attack. 'I have to hide, and quickly!' I thought to myself, still barely able to move my body in any way. I threw myself off of the bed, and used my one real hand to move myself to the door. My prosthetic hand and eye were in the medbay, so I had to get there before the guards. However, I had my hacking device on me and, with a quick viewing of the cameras, I learnt that there weren't any Superior Guards in the hideout. But one was near my location. So I used the doorframe to stand up, and slammed their head into the wall. Unfortunately, my body was still weak, and this did knock them out, but it also hurt really badly.

I tried to walk to the medbay, but I couldn't stay upright, and fell onto my side. I reached for a stool to push myself up, but the wheels moved and I fell again. Using a thumbprint scanner, I entered the room closest to the medbay as a method of avoiding 2 soldiers, and when I was in there, I saw a mallet on the desk. 'So THIS is Jake's room!' I thought to myself, barely able to lift the mallet. Looking through the crack under the door, I saw a shadow go past, so I opened the door and swung at the soldier's head. Whilst I had knocked him out, I had forgotten about the other one, who went on to jump behind me and begin strangling me. Due to my injuries, I couldn't stop him even though I tried my hardest. All hope was lost, I was thinking. How wrong I was. All of a sudden, I see the man's face become a pit of crimson. It was Ron! He had shot the soldier just barely in time!

'Maverick! Thank God you're alright. Let's go, I've got you!" he exclaimed. "No" I replied, "Just open the medbay!". He did this, and I just about made it to the prosthetics container. I saw the only fake eye in there, and snapped it into my head. Lights went on in front of me, but only I could see them. It was like a superhero helmet. I then spotted an arm with a post-it-note stuck to it that simply read "Maverick-MK1" meaning that it was mine. I connected it to my shoulder, and went on to hear an extremely robotic voice calling to Anonymity through a megaphone. "Come out with your hands up, or I will be forced to send in my Superior Guards!" it proclaimed. "Well, Mav? How are we getting out of this one?" questioned Ron. I knew what had to be done. I hated it. "We're not" I replied.

We exited the hideout, and saw that Jake, Karim and 54R4H were all on their knees, with rifles aimed at their heads and bags over their faces. Suddenly, all 3 of the Superior Guards that were behind them kicked them onto their fronts, placed one of their feet on each person's back, and aimed at me and Ron. We put our hands up, and Ron lowered his pistol to the floor. I could see Karim miming something to me, and I quickly realised what it was. He was telling me to press the inside of my shoulder blade replacement on my arm. I did this, and suddenly, all electronics in the area shut down. Me and Ron saw this and charged at the Superior Guards.

I was so full of anger from them harming Anonymity that my injuries no longer mattered. I sprinted forwards and, using my new arm, slammed one of the Guards into the wall at full speed. I knew the punch was strong, because the wall was at least 15 feet away from us. Ron grabbed another soldier's knife and stabbed them in the neck. Unfortunately, no one could have predicted what came next.

Suddenly, I had been tased in the back, and Ron, 54R4H and I were forced to watch Karim stand up and casually remove the bag from his head. Jake was on the floor near him, and instead of freeing him, he paused. "I always liked this group." Karim informed us, "Especially you, Maverick. I trusted you all. However, I never wanted to leave Londinium. I want to rule it. After all, who runs a huge military like CyberCorps and doesn't rule anywhere, am I right?". This blew our minds. Karim was the leader of CyberCorps?! Jake silently mouthed to me "Prepare to run, and not look back". I knew what this meant...and I couldn't stop it.

"Oy, muppet!" yelled Jake to Karim, "I always knew you were on the wrong side. But I never thought you were THIS stupid.". I nodded at Ron and 54R4H, and while none of us had ever wanted this, we knew that it had to happen. Karim was tired of Jake's insults and aimed a non-electronic pistol at his head. "Goodbye, Jake!" he bellowed. *BANG!!!!*.

The gunshot was our signal.

I punched the Guard behind me over a small stone wall, and assisted 54R4H and Ron in escaping. As we fled, 54R4H fell and injured her leg, and Ron had gotten shot through the side, so he was exhausted already. As they both passed out from pain/exhaustion, I lifted them both up on my shoulders in a fireman's carry and continued to walk to the nearest safe area. As I got to a small platform next to the Thames, I fell onto my knees, and placed 54R4H and Ron under a small shelter, removed my prosthetics, and went to sleep in the recently started rain. I was at my lowest I had ever been. But one thing I knew for sure:

Karim was a traitor. Traitors are executed.