Bounty Cats (Reboot)

Book One: Chapter 4

The neon logos of gaming corporations flickered across Rei's face as she leaned closer to the screen, fingers twitching over the controller. Luna sat cross-legged beside her sister, her lips pursed in concentration as their avatars battled through a war-torn cityscape.

"I've almost got the high score this time," Rei muttered, her character rounding a corner and unloading a clip into a cluster of enemy bots. Sparks flew, and the mechanical soldiers crumpled.

Luna snorted. "In your dreams, sis." Her avatar kicked down a door and sprayed the room with gunfire, racking up bonus points.

Their trash-talk dissolved into playful shoves and laughs—the timeless twin antics that provided solace in the antiseptic chill of their temporary quarters.

Two days had passed since they completed their bounty hunting training, and so far the commissioner hasn't contacted them yet.

Rei glanced at the computer terminal, its black screen like an unblinking eye waiting for new orders. How many more hours until—

The shrill tone of an incoming message shattered her focus. Luna whooped as her fighter jet blasted Rei's character into pixelated oblivion.

They dropped the controllers, scrambling for the terminal. Rei stabbed the display and Fiona's terse message filled the screen.

Her heart thudded as she scanned the update. A breathless cry burst from her lips. "We did it! We're hunters!"

Luna slammed into her, squealing joyously as they bounced around the cramped space in a tangle of flying limbs. After their training in combat sims and marksmanship drills and harrowing real-world scenarios, the grueling regimen had paid off.

"Can you believe it?" Luna crowed, eyes sparkling. "We're actual bounty hunters now!"

"With actual licenses to kick criminal ass all across this hellhole of a city." Rei wore a ferocious grin, adrenaline thrumming through her veins. "We will pay off our debt in no time."

They basked in the triumph, lost in visions of tracking down Moreau City's most wanted vermin through its cyberpunk alleys and skidways. Their first genuine mission as legal hunters loomed before them, ripe with promise and peril.

But first, they had to claim their prize. Rei read the last lines of Fiona's message. "We need to hustle down to their headquarters and get our papers squared away."

Luna swept up her jacket, already moving toward the door. "Then let's not keep Lady Law waiting. This city's scum won't hunt itself."

The fire burned in their eyes as twin smiles stretched across their faces—the expressions of unleashed predators ready to stalk their neon-drenched urban jungle. A new, dangerous breed had been certified, one that would paint the streets in crimson retribution.

*****

A hazy mauve dusk cloaked Moreau City as Rei and Luna emerged from the police building, their new bounty hunter licenses clutched triumphantly in their paws. The elderly desk attendant, a grizzled bear woman straight out of a medieval fable, had offered one last piece of advice with her gravelly bleat.

"First place ya greenhorns should hit is the HUB. That's where all the real players congregate to swap intel and snag the hottest bounties." Her rheumy eyes glinted with sly mischief. "Course, finding the entrance is a whole 'nother trial. But I'd be a sorry disgrace not to at least point freshly-minted hunters in the right direction."

Following her crooked directions, the twins prowled the lurid, cyberpunk streets in search of the elusive Hunter Union Base. Bioluminescent signs flickered in a dozen diverse languages, advertising everything from narco-stims, bio-enhancements, and cyberware upgrades. Modded gangers and pleasure huskers leered from dingy alcoves with invasive optical enhancements.