Hybrid Earth is set in a future where most of the planet's population has been merged with machines. These half-machine/half-human creatures are called Hybrids.
In December of 2023, a coordinated terrorist attack on most of the world's nuclear power...
"I'm sorry but at this time, we aren't looking to hire anyone." The woman talking to Ira was slim, good-looking, with half her face covered in shiny, chrome metal. The eye on that side glowed a steady, eerie green.
Ira sat there calmly but, on the inside, he was seething with anger and rage. This was the eighth temp agency in the city he'd been too since the Merge. Each one told him the same damn thing.
"Not looking to hire anyone," they all said.
It was bullshit. Total bullshit.
He knew it. They knew it too. They weren't even that convincing. No one wanted an ex-con that was a Class 3 with a highly destructive power set. Enhanced strength. Weaponized mech arm. Instability from the Merge. It was in the damn file the government kept on him. And, due to the Freedom of Preservation for Human Life Act, it was all easily accessible to employers. The worst part was that any employer could, if they deemed a person a threat, deny them employment and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
"I'm sorry. Did you hear me?" The woman asked.
Ira looked up at her, that anger still roiling inside him like a living, breathing thing. There was a look of mock concern on her face and that made him angrier still.
How dare she?
How fucking dare she pretend to sympathize with me!?
"Yeah," Ira said. His voice was low and ominous. He got up and looked at the woman, wanting nothing more than to punch her smug head off her shoulders. "I fucking heard you, you hypocritical bitch!"
He slammed his gigantic, metal fist onto her desk and shattered it completely. The woman got up and a bolt of bright, intense light shot from her glowing eye. Ira blocked it with his arm. There was a dark, singed spot from where it hit, but he was otherwise fine.
"Get out of here!" she screamed. "Get out before I call the HEA! Now!"
"I'm gonna go but before I do, I want you to know..." Ira paused as he leaned in closer to the woman (whose eye flashed a warning at him). "What I become next is on you. I tried to play things straight, but this world doesn't want me to! Remember that."
Less than a month after that...
"Ouch," Officer Hastings mumbled.
Ira looked through the hole in the wall he just sent the annoying, pissant cop through.
"You haven't got the stones to bring me in, Hastings," Ira declared.
Xander laughed.
"You think that's funny." The chuckling from the cop made him furious. "You're nothing but a wimpy ass human. A weak Pure. I'm gonna crush your skull with my bare hand."
Ira walked through the hole and into the alley.
"I might be a weak ass Pure, but you're forgetting something Ira," Xander told him as he got up from the ground.
"What's that?" Ira asked.
"That's never stopped me before," Xander yelled and then suddenly darted forward.
Ira blinked in confusion for a second and then anger contorted his face. He tried to punch Xander with his massive mech-arm, but Xander dodged the attack with ease. The cop managed to get in close and punched him squarely in the face, breaking his nose. That was followed up with another punch and then a kick straight in the nuts. Ira yelled in pain, but the damned officer didn't let up. He grabbed onto Ira's ears and yanked his head down. Then, to make matters worse, Xander brought his knee racing up at the same time and smashed it into Ira's already broken nose. Xander backed away, his body tensed up and poised.
"Link," he heard the cop say and his blood ran cold.
"Incapacitate."
He heard the word and knew it was all over.
The Orb orbiting around the cop's head like a tiny, mechanical planet let out an affirmative chirp. Then there was an arc of sizzling blue electricity that hit him in the chest. He screamed out in pain as his body locked up. Then he dropped like a rock to the ground.
The world slipped away and was replaced by darkness.
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