Skyline: A Cyberpunk Noir

Prologue

The damp streets of Brooklyn... Either it was rain or blood, sometimes you couldn't tell. Hurried feet and slouched figures crept over the sidewalks. The patter of rusted rain and magnetic cars slide by with a soft hum were the only sounds to be heard. A society filled with the dead or worse... those brave enough to have dreams.

The alleyways weren't any better, women with bioenhancements and tired eyes waved to men and women. Trying to earn a living while feeding mouths at home, it's hard to look down on them when they have nothing else to turn to.

The only color that dared shine in this sullen hole was the harsh glare of neon light, and even they were uninviting with angry reds and sickly purple.

The night was growing darker... The masses lumbering along with the beat of their own sadness when the twelfth floor of the MalenTek Company HQ erupted with a flame so strong, it could only he described as an earthquake. So says a family that was two blocks away.

Sirens wailed in the distance shortly after, brave men and women paid to only look out for the bigger boys on the playground. SPLINTER, MalenTek, Wei-Yu Medical, BATCA, the list goes on. Even Liberty News Central, people dedicated to the truth they fabricate to keep the masses at their boiling points. Maybe it was better that way.

"Was it that terrorist group? Those freaks... What are they called?" A working girl asked, more to herself but she was answered, "Who else?"

Organization of Bioenhanced People... OBP. LNC was giving then a bad name, forging documents and photos of them killing for sport. Some of them killed in self defense but more often than not... it was just a club filled with teens and kids who were bullied because of what they couldn't control.

However, there was a splinter group that broke of from the OBP with more... violent tendencies. A band of "Freedom Fighters" that call themselves BioAngels. They try to strike out against oppression but they've always fell short of the goal line.

Whoever wired the building must have been planning it for months... on the inside.

-

"What the hell is going on out there?" A woman asked as a man entered her little motel, if you could call it that, "Some terrorist attack... I have a reservation." The male stated, clearly eager to get a move on.

The Inn itself was dusty, wallpaper was peeling off, and cracks covered the base. The smell of old perfume and something dead could make anyone recoil, this woman must have been here a long while to be able to ignore it with such ease.

"Oh, um... Yes, what is your name?" The woman asked, the wrinkles that covered her face contorted and stretched into a forced smile. She was more afraid of what was happening outside and more interested.

"Jensen." The male answered, and was quickly given a card that went to a magnetic lock. More than likely one of the doors that surrounded him, "Take the last door on the left, Mr. Jensen."

"Yeah." He replied as he took the card and made his way down the hall, the floorboards under him creaking like a violin string that was out of tune. Dust floated around him, thick enough to be seen clearly. The smell of rotting death was stronger now.

The man slid the card across the scanner that was situated at the middle of the door, where the peephole would be. A soft click resonated shortly after and the male made his way inside.

The room was rather cozy, everything the working man could ever need. A bed that was hugged against the upper left corner wall and a book case right next to it. Nothing else beside the dead rat near the door.

The man walked over to the bookcase and pulled a book, titled "Little house on the Prarie." This caused the male to chuckle, how quaint. When the book was opened, it revealed another key card scanner which lifted the foot end of the bed up to reveal stairs when he swiped the card across it.

His boots clacked against the stairs, the floorboards above him closing and the bed moving back into place when went down. A corridor soon followed, the tiles were a blinding white. All he could see was a door and two scanners coming out along with a few turrets for his trouble.

The gentle scanner beams wizzed over him more times than necessary before shutting off and the turrets slinking back into the ceiling with a soft symphony of clicks whirs. A robotic voice followed to confirm his presence.

"Welcome, Detective Kade."