Two Months!

How I Write

Typically I write (type) in the afternoon.

My writings are organic production, meaning I served it raw. I write as I construct the whole thing (I am doing it). Sometime I was even surprised by my own train of thoughts because I never anticipated how the idea or concept would end (or no ending at all).

I write one true sentence so it will started off on the right track.

At the beginning, I used Ommwriter which sparked many great ideas and concepts in a distraction free writing environment.

More recently, I started to do it in Google Document as to prepare for the transition from a desktop with Windows to a Chromebook with ChromeOS.

What I Am Working On

As I have stated in the blog, I am currently writing short burst of ideas or concepts, mostly are materials that I might use for the Sci-Fi Universe I am shaping, with the element of the sub-genre Cyberpunk.

And starting from the 1st November, I will be participating the NaNoWriMo. Basically, I write at least 50,000 in a month and I will win.

I thought about outlining the sci-fi story I am working on but nada, I want to do something else. A Space Comedy, something funny that involve a crew in a spaceship, adventures, jokes, explorations, encounters. It should be a fun time to write. Because I find writing about that easier.

Working Title (Any suggestion?):

• Cyber Next 2020 (Cybernex 2020)
• De.Tec.Tive
• Trans Vision
• Mass Rollback (M.R.)
• Bridged Connection

Why I Write

I Write Because Writing Is Not A Game.

So I have spent years on gaming and watching TV shows and will probably continue to do so, for they are truly entertaining and provided me with many excellent ideas.

Unlike games, there is no pre-set premises or restraints (Except I Have To Write It As I Go), There is no rule or regulation, I can write whatever pleases me, however ridiculous. I enjoy the solitude while I write for I feel much more alive and engaged in the world I created.

Where I Write

In my parents room in front of the desktop. Not the basement for we do not have one in a residential building, thank god.

I am thinking about writing somewhere else, and a stupid idea came up to me. Wake up early and walk to the Hong Kong Central Library to write everyday.

Who Motivated Me

Myself? Writers like Stephen King, Ernest Hemingway, Philip K. Dick,William Gibson? Famous Authors, Smart People.

Am I Financially Independent

Not that I know of.

However, I do have saved roughly HKD50,000 + during my dreadful labor work for the McDonald’s kitchen for the past three years. I am thinking about investing in steady income and low risk products.

Am I studying

Obviously YES.

I am currently enrolled into 3 MOOC(Massive Open Online Course) provided by Coursera and iversity, and I believe much more to come in the next year.

Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World

Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade

The Future Of Storytelling

I am willing to be one of the lab rat for this kind of studying method, and I support and recommend it. Nothing is for everyone, believe me, I know.

P.S. I WANT YOU

Seeking artist to draw, or more like sketch something base on the ideas and concepts. Nothing fancy.

If you have the time to spare, drop me a line.

SECONDS, MINUTES, HOURS, DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS...

It has been a fruitful two months, I believe I wrote more words than the last six years studying in school. AND I LIKED IT.

As this time, I still have roughly 20 more writings written in advance, like a reserve in case I missed the daily writing or stressed out myself. Peace

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Arcade Center

The only arcade center left in Chinatown, in New York City, crumbled to its end and went down with the owner.

So long had it been operated under the control of the gangs in recent years, acting as one of the many empty shell for money laundering and storage for highly addictive and illegal stimulants. The neon signs flashed and the game music looped, the artificial marshmallows scent gone with the ages, and the variety of vintage games in store were now the memory of those who passed by.

The preliminary report compiled by the fire department suspected a short circuit in one of the gaming console at the rear, which torched the carpet and swarmed the whole place in a matter of minutes. There, however, had signs of a deliberate fire from the trace of gasoline near the emergency exit, and a sudden electric current overload occurred near the time of fire in the building.

While the arcade center burned in flame, the fire department was not granted access to the road immediately because the Chinatown’s denial of authorities. It was after half an hour of negotiation with the local did the firefighters reached the building and provide limited assistance under the surveillance of the gang members. The rescue was eventually meaningless and fruitless but necessary.

A letter received by the police department a day later bared the confession of the owner, Jackie Chan, that claimed his involvement in a shooting that gunned down a local gang boss and some of its members at a newly opened burger place inside Chinatown, though there was only the surveillance videotape that vaguely captured the shooter in the shadow which hardly resemble the feature of Jackie Chan. The investigators suspected someone planted the murder to Mr. Chan, so they decided to conceal the news from the public at the moment, before more evidences were collected and examined that an official statement could be given out confirming the crime Mr. Chan might had committed, as to not hinder the interrogation of the other suspects the investigators had in mind. Rival gangs, and possibly a internal power and standing struggle that sparked the killing. The list of suspects were long, and time was not on their side.

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Undercover

Steve stepped inside the room and was confronted by a gun equipped with a silencer roughly mounted on the desk with the dark green laser aimed right at his chest. His body rigid and feet frozen, he dare not made a move. A sound cracked from a wireless speaker in the corner. “Got ya.” followed by a disgusting laugh.

“Who… What do you want.” Steve said, eyes fixed on the weapon.

“Oh Steve, you know what we want,” The voice said, “Back out on the case and we’ll all be happy, and less hassle.” It suggested.

“Who are you people? Do you seriously think this will be over if I quit?” Steve squinted at the weapon setup. “There are other officers working on this case day and night, for the victims sake.” He breath in “We are getting close and that troubled you, right?”

The gun moved sideways and fired a round at the wall. “Do you really think you could get away safely from us, from me?” Coughing. “Oh Stevie, you are still that fearlessly stupid.”

He caught the last phrase it said, a familiar one. “Is that... you?”

The signal stirred. “Last warning.” The laser returned to its original target. “I won’t miss this time.” As the gun moved, Steve noticed the position of the mounting station changed to a lower angle. The laser was aiming at his stomach now.

“Why are you doing this, why?” Steve said while stepping back, “You are one of…”

A shot fired at high velocity and went through his left kneecap, he tried to stand on one foot but the pain quickly expanded to his whole body at such rate that dragged him down and pulled him to the ground. Steve lay on the icy cement and maintained his breathing, he made a distress message to dispatch by a push of the button on his belt and slowly went into a coma.

“Oops, that’s a miss.” Dean said to his two muscular companions that were monitoring his operation.

“Shot him again.” One of them said.

“Can’t, the gun won’t move up and down, it just goes sideways.”

“Let’s go finish him. You, stay here.” The other guy said.

“Don’t, the police will be there in any moment.” Dean warned them.

The meats went there anyway and were eventually shot dead, of course.

“I am sorry Steve, I had to do it,” He paused. “I hope what we are doing worth all this drama.” Dean said to Steve, who already drifted into a void. He cut the connection and leaned back to the chair waiting for the pickup to arrive, but before that, he made an anonymous call to Steve’s location.

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The Witness

Janet got out of Jason’s insane vehicle, or more like a racing machine to her, and retreated into her uncle’s house with a disgusted feeling. Everything she had been through today and last night was a complete nightmare, she wished any of this would be gone by the time she woke up for dinner, but it didn’t.

Yesterday evening, she was hanging out with her friend as usual in an arcade center in Chinatown. When they finally finished with the day and went out for dinner, couple street kids circled and invited them to dinner, as long as they kept quiet at the table. Janet and her friend thought about the free meal and eyed each other, they couldn’t resist it, especially when they were going to the new burger place.

They knew something was wrong immediately when the car pulled over outside the diner, it was too quiet for the dinner crowd. They stayed put in the crappy white van and waited. Presently they saw some dude with a mask carrying gun-like object fled the scene as the action unfolded. The interior and windows were splashed, or blasted with fresh blood. One of the girl dialed for help while the others walking toward the entrance.

The door was wide open, they smelt of a foul and fishy scent as bodies lying on the floor in their own blood pool. The guys went straight to the counter and checked out the cash from the register, the girls on the other hand chickened and ran back to the van. They drove away to another place and had a better dinner, all paid with the money stolen from the burger place.

What they didn’t know was, the people died there weren’t ordinary citizen, they were, including the employee, had affiliation with the CK gang. Their boss, CK happened to be there celebrating the opening of their first legitimate burger shop, which came with bribery. Also, the cameras installed above the counter area and the entrance captured everything happened, although the member couldn’t identify the gunman because of its mask, they thought the kids entered later might saw something insightful.

As the people around the underground gathered at the nightclub discussing the incident with Jason’s uncle that midnight, those street kids were brought in for questioning as they showed themselves in the surveillance footage. They traced further back to the arcade center owner and got hold of one of the girl’s address, whom’s uncle was his schoolmate once. Poor Janet, her uncle foretold this would happen when he received the call from the owner of the arcade center.

She didn’t know anything, she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. She cried and begged the people in the room to trust her, just as she did when her parents died in a terrible traffic accident. She was gagged and put away in a corner while the discussion continued.

“Dinner!” Her uncle yelled downstairs.

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Startup

The startup bubble didn't burst like everyone expected and there was nothing wrong with that.

With the startup contributing the creativity and prototype for the market, mega corporation found a new way to cut the budget on the research and development department. Every piece of new product and technology came straight from a successful raw ideas or concepts brought up by the startup, all a company needed to do was to give the new kid a tempting acquisition proposal and they would be on their way to a new product line in a month. The whole cycle of acquiring would repeat itself when a newer or better idea surfaced. The person in charge of monitoring the startup and discover the gem in a rough stone was unofficially called ‘Startup Hunter’, though the official name was even weirder, ‘Potential Partner Overwatch’. There was a raging war between the corporations in offering the best deal to a startup that matched their products, and the person in that position often require a quick insight and sometime, damned luck.

In fact, startup made up almost a half of the innovative technology products and a quarter of the modern household appliances. There was never a lack of competition and innovation coming out from them, it was just the matter of time when someone would appreciate their hard works.

It didn't mean the startup owner or their employee would be better off after, most of them were involved in the production after their acquisition, but as soon as they rushed the finished good to the market, unemployment was nearly inevitable. A cursed fortune, indeed.

Some were gathering underground, seeking help to aid their revenge to the mega corporation. The crowd grew larger in time, a clash between the two forces await. But there was never a right time.

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Doppelgänger

Geo traveled between the system and the cyberspace, she had been to everywhere, even places a web crawler couldn't. One day she would be the lovely princess living in a castle, then a punk girl rocking in a band, other days a teacher and a musician… Nothing interested her for long. With time she absorbed anything ever created on the Internet, but it wasn't enough, she craved more. Patterns studied, objects constructed, emotions predicted. She knew everything, even though her purpose was to gather images from military satellite and identify the locations with information from the vast database she gradually sampled throughout the years. The people designed the artificial intelligent didn't know they made a mistake that allow Geo to evolve from the data. Her evolution from pure reconnaissance purposes to machine learning fascinated the military, and without the president's consensus, a secret project was undergoing for the greater good of mankind.

The project, code name “Cyber Next”, ported Geo’s knowledge to another giant machine with specifications surpassed her generation, and only the settings were slightly off. Her name, Elite Warrior. Designed with a sole purpose, search and destroy, and she was good with that, a large proportion of the military defenses relied on her, so was the national network security. Of course, anything flagged based on her own ever changing algorithm would be screened then reported to organic human decision, although things that she considered minor within the parameters would be decided by her own without consulting the flesh first. But with her growing self consciousness, there was no way to know when she would be the sole decision-maker. She knew, people tends to lost themselves to their most trusted one.

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The Project

“Old? New.” ---Motto of Mega Corporations 

Not only will it cut down the salaries they pay each month, there is also more youth energy and creativity around. But letting the old one go is not enough, they are dangerous people, they might work for other company or start their own, steal our profit and compete with our brand. They should be terminated, they should be wiped out!

Mega Corporations were in no way lack of talents, they offer good money for a job and provide top-of-the-class training. While the more experienced worker bargaining for a better payout with the company earning so much profit, they shut them up by signing off their contracts and then later, brutally murder them through hired hit-man.

People named this as “Project Trashing” when the first mega corporation made this kind of move to its former employees. The news broke out like wild fire in a forest going through extremely dry weather, but the investigator tied no knot to the mega corporation themselves. But for the people who were in it, they knew. (Featured in ‘Contacts’ Part 1 & 2)

Few survived to tell the tales of how their colleagues died one after another mysteriously several months into their unemployment. Those who walked out of this alive were living in fear and despair. They hide, they disguise, they run, they walk away from everything they once knew to another totally unfamiliar identity.

The continued investigation proved useless. Not one killer. No one was caught, yet. Sources indicate some affiliation with underground gang and hired hitman but there simply wasn’t enough to go on based on some stories on the street. They listed each case to murder instead later, not the conspiracy the street wanted.

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Boating

“Hey what’s your name skater?” She asked.
“The name is Pete,” He said. “You?”
“Ash.” She said, looking around.

They sat quietly in the wooden boat that floated on the center of the blue lake while others hurried past them. The waves hit the boat on the sides and it started to shake left and right like a drunkard, the paddles beat on the boat created a relaxing rhythm.

“How old are you?” Pete asked.
“Seventeen.” She said. “You?”
“Same.” He said.

The sunlight pierced the surface and reached the bottom, the water was so clear they could see fishes swimming and plants swaying. Everything there seemed shiny and golden, ocean blue and forest green.

“Is that comfortable at all?” Ash pointed at Pete’s awkwardly tight life vest.
“I don’t wanna drown when it went down.” He said. “Why aren't you wearing one?”
“Eh, ‘cuz I know how to swim?” Ash replied. “Do you not?”

He looked backward, evaded the question and started paddling the boat toward the shore.

Slowly the steady movement gained momentum and they were welcomed by a breeze, she leaned to the side and bent low and sliced the water with her hand and splashed some forward. She could see clearly a small group of fish was trailing behind, swimming in that cute motion. She made out some bread crumbles from her bag and fed them, how hungry they must be that it stirred the surface and rippled the water.

Later they landed on the sandy beach and walked on the warm surface, and dragged the boat to the land together by a rope and secured it on a rusty metal rod stuck deep into the ground.

“Thanks for coming out today, Pete.” She said, smiling.
“Just doing my brother a favor.” Peter answered while rubbing his hand in the water.
“Let your brother know I had a good time today, okay?” She said.
“Sure” He said.
“And tell him not to worry, he had already made up to me by sending you.” She added. “You were good company, except you don’t know how to swim.”
He blushed.

“Your brother know how to swim, then? God, I didn’t even ask him once.” Ash said to herself.
“We are brothers, so I guess it’s pretty obvious, right?” Pete said.
“No way! I thought -” Ash gasped, and it turned into an smirk, then a laugh with tears streamed down her cheeks.
Pete didn’t know what to say so he gave her his napkin.
“Oh, you guys are so cute.” she said, sobbing and laughing.

Back home, Pete sat next to his brother on the sick bed. He told him what happened and what she said. His brother were stunned to hear how she reacted, and how stupid Pete told her, or hinted.

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Power Source

Ever since the expedition teams found the burnable ice, Methane Clathrate around the globe, it offered another possible source of power, but it wasn't the end of it.

Discovered by a Russian researcher’s group in 2018, the new power source based on these burnable ice brought hope to the world. By condensing the ice and put it under a special kind of electrolysis, it would generate an enormous amount of energy like a magnifying agent. For an ice cube with the size of 8 cm3, it could provide electricity for a family of four at least a quarter of the year.

This was the new era for power source, immediately countries all over the world started to mine and collect and store the ice. Although the amount of ice was not as abundant as the oil or coal, and the method to obtain was expensive, the price for a cube didn't go up as the market expected. Behind the steady price were the Governments in an effort to cut down the emission of greenhouse gases from traditional power station. They compensated the price by partnering with the mega corporation that had a said inside the congress, or almost every council that they could walk out with benefit.

The cube also revolutionized the environmental-friendly vehicles which reduced their weight even further and made room for more innovative ideas. Other regular vehicle also got rid of the gas and diesel and replaced with the ice. The emissions of many pollutants dropped significantly and continue to be from the year the ice went into the mass market.

The rapid development of the ice then made its move from industrial use slowly to daily life. Almost everything was powered by it. Every country was happy about their progress in cutting down the pollutant.

This of course making the Middle-East turned into an oil asylum, the oil and gas extractions were at a halt worldwide, the holes were covered, the storage was useless at the moment. Some lost their investment, some lost their mind. Coal mines, too, were closed.

But as the world move on, the frequent earthquake around the globe caused several major oil leaks when the covers were blown or shook away. The cleaning up was dreadful, and some are still continuing with the help of the automated ocean cleaning machines or robots.

The ice won’t last that long if no other energy source was used. Controversially, the Nuclear Fusion was adopted in many country because of its high output. Combining with other renewable source that compensate the energy needed to operate it, the world gained the steady supply of cheaper energy.

Other method to provide energy endless energy was being researched, and the notably, graphite ran the show with its potential far beyond expected and since it was one of the earliest researched, the application were already put into use. (Featured in ‘Stackit, Made Possible By Seq’)

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Vehicle Magnetic Crashing Pad

First came up in the ‘Escape Drive’, the ‘vehicle magnetic crashing pad’ is a form of protective measure against vehicle crashing into each other by the force of magnetic energy.

Magnet will attract or against the other based on their side, and scientists made use of that characteristic and invented the crashing pad which could prevent direct vehicle collision by manipulating the magnetic force.

While the vehicle is on the road, the magnetic bar embedded around it would start to function as a barrier, once another vehicle came too close, the two would bounce off or cancel out the force, which would also release the safety bag for good measure. If the force is too strong and could create a huge bounce off that might spun off more problem on the road, the magnetic bar would automatically calculate the amount of energy needed instantaneously to release and by controlling the amount of bounce off energy, the least bounce off distance and impact would be. Auto driving would also be enabled for safety reason for a short period of time, or until the driver regain control through voice command.

If a driver rushed through a jam by pushing forward rudely, it would push the vehicle in front aside or forward depending on the point of entry, those vehicles would still be damaged by the wall or fence on the road but not other vehicle. In that case, other driver could disable their pad in order to stop the vehicle from plundering forward. That also mean the crashing pad won’t work if the other vehicle had not enabled it. Luckily Jason didn't get that from the drivers on the road when the police were chasing him.

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Airborne Vehicle Magnetic Field

“By the time the magnetic technology was finally developed by the Chinese, the US was pissed off.” Dean said.
“That was because the Chinese stole from us via hacking years before, right? I knew already.” Ken said.
“Not only that, kid, the Chinese even volunteered to help us build it and maintain it,” Dean wiped the beer drooling from his lip. “That, was the biggest rip off.”

There were roads that implemented this technology which could be used to the advantage of the rich because one would have to pay for the use of it and get the license and equipment done. The magnetic field so to speak, was not enabled all the time, they were open at restricted hours and controlled manually at the time of specific events. People had been requesting for it to be autonomous and let more people to have access to it for year.

How it work? It would first receive the request of using the road, if a match of the credential details was found in the registered database, the magnetic field will be enabled for that vehicle. At the moment, only certain types of cars are allowed, which are small to medium size vehicles with the weight less than 2500KG. It was designed to solve the traffic jam inside the city.

While people had attempted to bypass the system and make use of the magnetic field, there were only a handful of private bodies achieved that. Rumors said the underground gang and people affiliated with them had it figured out thanks to connection inside the system.

When a car goes airborne, the driver could select the way to go in the control panel by following the message sent out from the system, provided they have the proper equipment installed and calibrated. Alternatively, they could self control the vehicle on the designated lane. To avoid collision, the system would assume the control of the vehicle when it detected a threat based on the speed and distance and projected path.

If the driver dropped out of the magnetic field and the system wasn't able to stop it in time, the result would be disastrous.

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Buildings

Tommy visited downtown Manhattan on a sunny weekend and found the new buildings were near completion. The buildings used reinforced carbon and metal, provided a solid frame to the whole structure and adopted the modern design of simplicity which give more space and area to the New Yorkers.

The city started partner with several local construction company as a way to create more jobs in the market in 2016. The plan was to reconstruct the whole downtown area first with higher story apartment and commercial-use building to cope with the demand from the market. It had completed nearly 40% of the downtown area as of the year started at 2020. Most building were up to 35 floors, with some exception staying at the range of 25-30 floors in an effort to retain a unique New York City view and better air flow in the area.

The buildings at the center of the downtown area were the very first to be rebuilt, so as the construction progress, Tommy could see the contrast between the highrise in the center and lower one near the edge. It was quite a unique view indeed. He had seen concept models and computer generated pictures of the finished work, it looked absolutely stunning and added a futuristic feel to the city. 

Though not everyone shared the same view as his. Some locals talked about the pollution caused by the construction; activist groups chanted about the historical value of some buildings; housing market analysis also held a negative opinion toward this.

The fact is the construction was quieter and created less pollution thanks to the advancement in the industry in recent years. The pollutants emitted into the air were monitored by the government and so far the statistic were satisfactory. The result were comforting as Tommy checked them up on the city website.

Some buildings were ticked out of the rebuild list, instead they were added to the reconstruct list. What it meant was the building would be reinforced to keep it safe to live in or not to cause any public safety concern.

The price of the houses were dropping insignificantly thanks to the active investment from the Wall Street and other cooperation. Though some were listed as subsidized housing, meaning buyer could cut a better deal with the city if they could show required identification materials and invest in certain bonds.

The neighbourhood was friendly and active, except for the vehicles flying over his head. Damn skydiever.

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Soda

The six feet tall soda machine stood solemnly on the corner of the street, waiting for a passing by customer to buy something inside its display so that she could perform her magic, and benefit the addicts.

Jason happened to drive past this street with his mouth hanging dry all the way without a bottle of chilling water in his car. He parked near her and swiped his credit card above the payment panel, a confirmation sound emitted from the machine and Jason selected the brand he always loved - Sprite. The chilling artificial lemon flavor and the bubbling compressed carbon dioxide filled his mouth as the can dropped into his hand with an opening pop.

Satisfied, he slipped back into the vehicle and sped away to god knows where.

What you didn't know was, she wasn't not just an ordinary soda machine that sold soda for a living, she was also capable of distributing exotic drugs to the local addicts.

This district's soda machines were compromised as the local drug lord threatened the refilling person to cut a deal with them so that the soda machines could be used for high-end stimulants distribution. In this way the police won't find the evidence they need so easily as it was all transferred by an agent.

There were many types to choose from, besides the regular or normal Soda, including the Coke and Sprite, there were the stimulants that aimed at specific body part. The most popular one being the brain, artists and writers relied on this kind of medications. Then there was the limbs, which made you exceptionally strong for a short period of time and would wear your off extremely quickly for the day. Next one was the eye drops that form a layer on your eyeballs and generate a virtual reality interface through the nano circuits in the jelly-like fluid.

Sadly, Jason didn't pick the other unknown brand of soda ranging from ‘The Farmland Fruit Juice', ‘The Hawaii Coco' to ‘The Galaxy Stardust' and much more, or else he could enjoy a hell of ride back home.

The soda machine refilling person named Tommy had a wife and a kid both living in New Jersey. He have been doing this refilling job for a consecutive of thirteen years ever since he graduated from high school. Because he had endured hardship in the Noughties, he had never thought about doing anything else. Besides, the job pays the bills. With his solid build carried on to his thirties, and the company had no plan of replacing the labor force with the automatic ones, he had to held on to the job even if it meant playing fire with drugs.

Meanwhile, drug addicts frequented the soda machines attracted some suspicion from the locals but none took action to investigate further. With the cover of the soda machine in work, the drug lord’s gaining tripled, and that meant a gang war was brewing inside the seeming calm and quiet community for money and power.

What’s your choice of Soda, cowboy?

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Interception

The government had secretly kick started a few more team that anonymously intercept personal information even after the scandal of the NSA. It was the fundamental experiment of the previous failed attempt by the NSA that made the government more determined to create the now team based operations. The risk of them being exposed was greatly reduced and the environment was more controlled.

John worked for one the team, code name 'iBravo'. The name literally just added an 'i' to all the existing A to Z military call sign. His team consisted of ten smart and highly-skilled technology experts, their works including intercepting calls and retrieving information from such actions that could help prevent crime from happening. Their team were assigned to a secure military base in the state of New York and they were required to relocated to another one in that same area every three months.

His work was the easiest on the team in his perspective, which was to analyse the recording of the recently intercepted calls and categorized them within a database followed by a transcription. He didn't have to worry about the actions at the moment of the interception, there had no chance for error and hesitation, which he constantly sweat about for his colleagues.

The team had so far been successful in terms of intercepting important calls, identifying targets, and indirectly suppressed the criminal activities.

The ten of them were on a constant shifting schedule, each work for eight hours a day and the rest was their to make use of. John had lately been visiting downtown a lot and aroused some suspicion within the team, but no one had directly confronted him.

The reason he went down there was purely for fornication. He had a girlfriend that followed him to New York, whenever he had the time off he would visit her and make up for her. They planned to marry the next summer and to have a baby as soon as they could. They would move a better place and live a quiet life.
     

A year passed and Jason married his girlfriend and had a baby that was three months old. Baby that was born in the year of 2020 had so many excellent medical care and such social welfare that the couple need not to worry about the future of their daughter.

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Interstate Travel Agency

As Gomez strolled past a Ramen place inside the alleyway at a warm night, the stench of swine almost suffocated him. How could people endure the foul smell and taste of it? He hated people who ate meat, especially because he himself is a vegan. To him, killing animal is a sin that deemed unforgivable. Every single living animal that based their life on other living animals should be executed immediately.

No way could he not quicken his pace and walked out of that dark alley. The bright blue spotlights shone at him as he stepped out from the shadow, he was blinded for a second while the eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness. The main road was crowded with tourists and vehicles, they were on the street as well as the sky level. The vibrant neon signs and spotlights overhead rendered the place like a giant stage, everyone could be in character, everything else could be the props.

He squeezed through a line of Korean speaking in English and hurried to the next block. There he struggled pass another group of Japanese and Chinese, eventually reaching his destination. The Interstate Travel Agency.

It was just eight at night and foreign tourists from all over the state were already lining up for the overnight service. Most of them were coming from the Asian countries that have an almost inverted time zone, the state thought it would be great to open up the agency at night to process these people's inquiry and applications to balance the work flow in the day.

Ever since the US announced the visa-free visit to Asia countries, New York had been overwhelmed by the number of visitors everyday, and the limitation on crossing the state border had also increased the workload of the Travel Agency. The screening of the applicant to another state was as easy as checking their personal belongings and signing a good behavior letter, but the actually process was a nightmare.

The most common problem he had to deal with was language, the Japanese and Chinese had absolutely spoiled his bad temper, nothing he said or point at could be of any help. Sometime people weren't willing to let them perform a scan on their bag or body, which of course, in most case they carried potentially illegal properties. 

The day off work was the day to sleep till his brain stopped functioning. But sometime he would take a walk in Central Park with his dog, Willie, and enjoy the peaceful moment at a corner of the city's paradise. It had been quite a year for him, he had been promoted at work and had his own place and a dog to look after, it was the most accomplished year that he could ever remember.
 

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The Inside Job

The terminal Kevin worked on had just received the confirmation of a huge sum of credit transfer from an anonymous client to another. He seized the chance to grab any data from the terminal in that fraction of a second, and netted a significant amount of encrypted files.

The place Kevin worked at, QinTian Credits Ltd., is a major company involved in the anonymous Global digital Credit Transfer system, short for GCT. While paper currency still hold its value at the market, digital credit had also gained its place around the globe, especially for underground payment and money laundering since credits were relatively stable in exchange rate and least regulated. Companies like QinTian that dealt with credits transfer acted as an agent that provided a channel for ease of transaction. Besides automated programs that process enormous amount of data in a network, a specialist was also hired to oversee the transactions and ensure network stability, in which case, Kevin was the one in the morning shift.

He had access to logs and security details from the system, but if it went down to the client information, the company surely would have a state-of-the-art encryption system in effect. Decryption wasn't impossible, all he need was the right tool for the right information.

Right after he captured the data on the transaction of one client masked as 'D***WADE' and bypassed the system, the credits was literally his to waste. When he was on the shift, he always kept an eye on 'D***WADE'. Once it made a transaction, his program would automatically place another order right after that and purchase items he pre-selected and ship them for sale in the black market. His contact there would cut him a six and four deal for the wholesale.

Twice had he succeed using this method to gain a fortune, more credits than his work paid in months, and the client didn't even react or suspect a thing. Only this time, he found the account temporarily went on lock when he finished his lunch. He realized he had to abandon the fish, though there was bigger prey in the ocean waiting for him.

Kevin didn't just leave the account's owner alone, the next day when he got back to work, he purposely flagged the account as being involved in suspicious activities and executed a credit froze. Not credit in, no credit out. You want to play, let's play.

What Kevin didn't realize was, there were something more important than credit and he was messing with the wrong person.

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Impulse

Sharon could not take it anymore. she would not take it, no, she told herself. She won't do it. Her hands reached for the products on the rack, and quickly stuffed them in her oversize jacket. The feeling of wanting to rush out and being caught filled inside her and merged both satisfying and terrifying emotions, that's what kept her from doing it.

The first time she shoplifted was with her friends from high school in a local shopping mall. She never contacted them again after getting expelled. The security was insufficient and the stuff were cheap, nobody cared if they lost some. A pile of gums and few candy bars were all they took. After a few times they got bolder and hit a beauty shop, while two of the girls were stalling the sales person, the others stole high end beauty products and snuck those out. It worked until they were caught doing the same thing so often in the same place. Dumb was all her parent said, and stupid, to the officer.

They were booked for theft as misdemeanor but because of their age, they were given a chance and had to attend therapy sessions in scheduled time. She admitted it was an act on impulse and the peer pressure that dominated her mind to the therapist. They discussed and communicated toward a common solution. That didn't quite work out after her release.

She was confronted with all the shiny things inside the mall and could not resist the urge to steal something, anything. Countless time she busted out the mall tearing in agony, cursing on her inability to be disciplined. The temptation was larger than her.

Lost she was, and the vicious cycle continued. She rolled into bigger joints and targeted more expensive loots. Every time she walked out of the shop she just stole from, a weird sensation would surface and consume her body and soul, rendering her vulnerable.

Each heist aiming for a different price. Perfumes, lipsticks, wines even. 

Of course she was caught in action for several times but she paid and settled the thing like she just forgot to check out. She didn't want the police involved because that meant her ass would be on the line, more therapy or straight to juvenile center. This kind of money should not be spared, she told herself.

Eventually she got arrested telling the same lie in the very place. Dumb, and stupid. The jail time for her felony charges summed up to five years.

She was sent to the same therapist again. She told the same story again, convinced that was all an act on impulse. What she didn't know was the thing the therapist wrote on the remark: Impulsive and Delusional. Psychiatric.

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Skate NYC

[Silly stuff, I know, but why the hell not?]

Put the skateboard down with a little push and make a run to drive it, let you feet kicking on the floor if you need for speed, and don't forget to strap on the GoPro to share the journey skateboarding through New York City!
     
NYC is a crowded place with lotta traffic, skateboarding here requires your awareness of both the environment and the situation around, just like riding a bike, but with more regulation and limitation around the block.
     
Free roaming around NYC could be achieved by risking your life on the line and getting hater's hating your in the face. 
     
Never bother the cabbies, but do use them for a boost if you wish.
     
Look for structures that might be a place for a trick, but never go near places the traffics are because you don't want to cause any accident by showing off, people will get excited by your tricks and keep their eyes on you. Never be the spotlight! Also true for the cops.
     
Sightseeing is cool but remember to keep your eyes on the road, don't bump into any post and you will be the cool kid.
     
Do trick the cops walking the street but ignore the one on vehicle, do get away from them.
     
Don't pick up the skateboard if you could, let it remain on the floor, it's better that way.

Skate through the Central Park is okayish, but be careful with the dogs and the baby stroller.

Protect your skateboard at all cost, even if your life are in danger because you will need it to get out of the situation alive.

Show off your skills at others playground, and teach whoever wants to learn.

Again, keep your eyes on the road, don't give your full attention to ladies or guys, if you want to get to know them, you should make sure you can stay alive first.

Don't ever give your numbers or your address to others, seriously, get a room.

Go to small shops, skateboard welcome shops, we don't like no trouble, cause no trouble.

Riverside skating is okayish, just look out for kids and people who would love to push you into the water.

If the guards show you the way out, you better hurry up what you are doing, they ain't gonna be nice the next time.

Carry light but secure.

Chinatown is not an ideal place to skate but stake, just make it quick and don't look back.

Stay hydrated.

Remember to check your GoPro.

Have fun.

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Bat Me

I had never swung a bat at people. Until now.

A baseball bat wasn't that heavy, but the swing from a powerful arm could deliver a devastating blow. Imagine you were hit by a bat swung for home run, do you get the idea? Good. Now, if the baseball bat was the only thing available to you as a weapon other than your fearless fists, would you not use that? I know I would, and I was.

My folks introduced me to baseball back in the days when I was still a 6th grader, I was in the little league all right, swinging the bat and running the base, an all around. When I was born, I remember we used to like the Yankees and watched their games together and enjoyed it, then somehow years later we were on the Red Sox's stadium cheering for their opponent instead. The sweating crowd and the soda that never run dry was the best I could recall. Bearded men shouting and yelling, too.

Something stirred down stairs and I woke up to the sound of it. Someone had broken into my house. I rolled to the edge of the bed and carefully stood up, not wanting to alert the thief of my presence. Slowly I walked to the stairs and peeked down and listened, the steps of that person, although very light, still distinguishable. The sound was coming my way. I quickly retreated to the guest room, emptied except the baseball bat leaning against the wall under the windows. I grabbed its cold metal handle and felt the grip from years ago still lingering in my hands, the moon shone on the bat and the shadow extended to the door. A human figure with a bat in hand. Pure evil.

Whoever intruded my place, would taste a heavy beating of a life time.

The stairs started to creak, I knew it was coming my way so I stood at the darker corner of the room, where no moon was lighting, only the shadow's passenger awaited. I took a good hold on the bat, as soon as anything poked into this room, I would smash it hard, like a home run to the center of the earth.

The silence went on for a while, the electric wave piercing my ear kept my alert. Sweat ran down my naked shoulder and soaked by my sleeveless shirt, my nose itching. A rumbling noise came from my bedroom, drawers pulled, wardrobe cleared, desktop swiped. I stuck on the wall and listened to every bit of noise made next door.

The steps coming my way. I held on tight to the baseball bat, it might be my only chance to get out of here alive. I knew I should have bought a piece when I moved to this neighborhood, but damn, I thought I would be safe with all the patrol details out there.

The light went on outside as I saw a familiar shadows.

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Bridged Connection

To take a stroll on the bridge overlooking the harbor on Sunday was a weekly ritual for Max. He never skipped going there no matter what, it was a promise to keep.


Three years ago, Max walked the bridge with his twelve years old son, Shawn, with leisure on almost every weekend. They would stood still looking at the horizon, searching for the invisible comfort hiding in the depth of the ocean. Occasionally, they would also reach for the sky and murmured the words of knowledge. The day would flow past them in a swipe leaving memories to be recovered by the subconscious.

That Sunday, they paced on their usual speed, greeting the people and praising the day. Cars pushed forward while people headed nowhere. Two teenagers riding on skateboards rushed pass them; a man leaning against the fence was reading the morning paper; joggers ran through; they were in the crowd, again.

At the center of the bridge walk they stopped to marvel at the scenery out there and observe the activities in the city. Every weekend there were subtle changes from the previous one: people they met on the walk were different, though some were familiar faces; the color of the earth, the brightness of the day; ships at the ports; cars drove past; their moods. With all compressed into a mind of an intelligent Shawn, it generated and deducted the mood as Happy.

They would talk about the day if they felt like it, otherwise it was a quiet father and son walk.

A guy in a open jacket was talking senseless in front of them, his hand waving in all direction and walking in circle. Max saw that the man had a gun holstered around his waist, he pushed Shawn backward and told him to go in the opposite direction. Max himself approached the man very slowly "Hey buddy, are you alright there, do you need help?" He stood a few steps away from him, waited for the reply.

The man clearly wasn't in his right mind and didn't respond to Max. He continued bouncing around. Max made a run for it and caught the guy in a bear hug, they struggled on the floor while Max trying to snatch the weapon from him. The guy resisted and kicked Max aside. He stood up and grabbed the pistol pointing at Max's direction with a shaking hand.

"Dad?" Shawn double back to his father only to find they were both in danger. 

Shawn spooked the guy and the gun went off.

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Meditated Irritation

[You don't have to read this ____, mind you. If the following writing offended you, I am sorry. But I had to try this, it felt so good writing in YOU.]

You happened to come across something about meditation on the Internet and you thought, huh, I might as well try that when I am not busy.

So you took your time and when the time was right, you sat down and read through the whole article on how to meditate and what's the benefits. Really, that cool? You thought. First was the sitting still and not listening to anything annoying. Duh, baby crying next door; drill penetrating on your wall; truck shaking your floor; someone knocking on your door. (Flies sucking on your balls, ouch!)

You then waited till all the noises were gone by filling your ears with cotton balls, movement subsided as you sat on a stack of soft blankets. Everything's ready, except you. You had to ____.

After you finished your business _______, you resumed your position and began to meditate as the article said. You sat still with eyes closed and relaxed the whole body and breathed evenly. Slowly you felt the heat built up inside you, like a core in the volcano formed in your gut. You started to sweat, a lot. You butt itchy, toes numb, legs sore, back broken, brain on fire. Nothing feels that right when it hurts so wrong.

Not even five minutes you started to curse yourself, question yourself. Go ____ yourself, you said. You carried on, remain seated but irritated. Something was definitely wrong. That something was causing you to suffer the immortal pain, like not being able to suck God's ____.

The ten minutes mark was approaching and you felt awfully good about yourself. It wasn't so hard after all. Your mind scrambled through bunch of silly stuff that you wanted to do after this, then you got excited because of an idea. You almost couldn't resist the temptation to do that thing you do.Your mind wandered into another place, you started to wonder if you were delusional.

The time was not up yet, you still had five more minutes to sit through. Five literally 'pain in the ___' minutes. You repositioned yourself to a more comfortable, more relaxed posture. Sweat dripping from your forehead, from your neck, the inside damp as hell. You held on to it, enduring to the last moment.

You could almost taste the victory in salty sweat.

Time was up and you ran away.

You threw meditation away for a long while, not especially thinking about it. Then someday you revisited it, and your feeling towards it got even weirder. It was like going through a journey to the underground, which was also called hell, to find something you never knew that was in the meditation, that was what irritate you the most. Knowing something you never knew.

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Delivery

       The traffic took a halt at the Baker Street where a automated delivery truck felt from the belt and spilled the chemical it was transporting. The acid eroded the asphalt and formed a hole the size of a tennis court with no civilian casualty but serious property damage. A peculiar stench spread around the neighborhood, a group of people started to gather around the site before the police arrived at the scene.

       

       Heavy machinery were sent for emergency repair but the reinforced metal melted at the touch of the ground. A team of chemical cleaning experts were summoned, they took sample of the acid for testing and sprayed white powder on the corrupted ground in plastic green protective gear. The test result turned up showing nothing, an unknown chemical, at least not in the database. They ran the other samples and were given the same output. Unknown. Was there anything contamination that could affected the readings.

       The situation was reported to a superior and then a higher level of authority. Later the military moved in to the block and sealed it with a camouflage tent that went all the way across. No one knew what happened inside but when the sun awoke the next day, as if nothing had happened, the ground returned to it’s original state. Reports on the site were maliciously deleted, banned, manually covered.

       The chemical exposed was the component of an experimental industrial multi-purpose melting solution aimed for speed and efficiency. They certainly figured that out but the stench of it, unlike other similar products, was unbearable.

       People who breathed in that smell were later all committed to the emergency room under the condition ‘Signs of Death’. The local government conducted a full scale research on the matter and maintained communication with the company responsible for the incident. They even went through the why the delivery truck dropped from the belt. The path was clear, straight and was checked that morning. The only possible explanation would be the connector on the truck, but forensic returned with a negative. The container itself was not worn out by the acid, so something or someone might tempered with the truck.

       The investigation went on without hard evidence for a long time, and when the analysis on the computer system that day on the belt showed a temporary break in control, a ghost log existed within the main log. It shed a new light on the investigators. As they tracked along the only sensible trace, it was a disappointment once again. Nothing concrete was left for them.

       The personnel involved in transportation gave solid alibi and showed no motive. The investigation halted with no progress at all like the traffic that day. The case was transferred to the Gathering Dust Department. Until someone confess, or it would never see to the end of the day.

[Did someone try to cover their track doing other thing by making this 'accident' happen? Or was it just another simple system failure within the system? Did anyone benefit from this? Anything happened that day?]

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Outpost

The landing of the transporter blew up the light blue sand from the surface, Karl and other guards jumped off with masks in full gears and ran toward the outpost - a camp the Acting Galactic Government set up for expedition and research purposes on this unnamed planet. The surrounding area was quiet and the temperature was close to the human body. The only visible object was another outpost in a distance, almost as far stretch as to the horizon.

Planet 9013, a medium asteroid class rock covered in light blue sand rumored to have a rich reserve of Orculium that could be extracted for mass fuel. Thus, the Acting Galactic Government sent out a team of researchers and built outpost on it for stay. Karl, and other guards were on a rotational duty between here and Planet 9015 every three Galactic Cycle. The work was dull but life was easy as the planet around this system had no living creatures.

The other night when Karl was off duty and at asleep, he started to dream about being in the front line of an epic ground battle. The visual was vivid and the motion was intense. He saw himself leading a team of elite soldiers and shoot down so many enemies that he begun to feel numb and sore. He rushed forward, ducked for cover, fired for suppression, yelled to command, signaled to regroup. The encounter gave him an adrenaline rush.

The battle was won.

Karl woke up in a bloody vision. He smelt of blood, tasted of blood, surround by blood. Blood everywhere. Bloody hand prints on the wall, bloody footprints on the floor, blood in his hand. Blood in his hand. Everywhere, blood.

He walked out of his cubicle quarter, into every room and the ground, everyone was shot dead. He called in for help.

Guards from the other outpost arrived, he was put into a cell block and later transferred back to a military prison on heavy chains.

People on Planet 9013 were afraid, they suspect Karl was contaminated or exposed to some kind of virus that turned him crazy. This wasn't the first time people gone out of their normal behavior in another planet but no one really knew what caused the issue.

Karl received medical treatment and psychiatric therapy, he was remarked as an intelligent person with extraordinary imagination.' Life in prison was boring but he managed to came up with exciting myths and tales to tell, the inmates were impressed by him.

When he talked about how he ended up in prison, almost everyone said they had the same experience. They thought it was all a dream.

Maybe they ate something, maybe they were exposed to something, maybe they were fed with something, maybe they were made for this thing.

Dr3am On.

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From Desert With Gun

       Max dragged his body forward, every move he made instantly transformed into a pain in the ass, literally. He had been walking in the desert for half a day without supplies and water, the only thing he had was a hand gun shoved against his hip. The steel burned him under the direct sun flare. His mouth dry as a sandpaper, his movement slow as a camel. The only way out of this was to find a place with water or a town with people, or die.
       It was after he passed out on the doorstep to a small town when Kat saw him. She half-dragged half-carried him to her house, fed him water, risen him in bath and looked after him personally till he woke up the next morning.
       Max was surprised to be alive, he remembered being too excited and thought he was going to die of a heart attack before any help arrived. Luck had been on his side. Ever since his team were ambushed and took out by a band of desert raiders, the only thing he could thought of was death, and survival.
       He tried to sit up but the pain from sunburn and exhaustion electrified his muscles. His eyes was blurry when scanning the room, and he saw Kat slept on an armchair, he blinked rapidly trying to moist the eyes, then he saw this pretty lady in blonde hair and a purple dress. He thought about waking her but decided not to and went back to rest.

       Max awoke to the sound of water being poured into a cup, he looked aside and there stood Kat with a smile. "Hey, you are awake. Are you feeling better? You were seriously dehydrated when I found you. Here, drink more water."
       She held his head up slightly and fed him water, the touch was skillful, like a nurse.
       "Where am I? Who are you?"
       "Relax, you are in Lieberman and I am Kat, a nurse here, would you like to lie down now?"
       "Yeah, thanks. So, how bad am I."
       "You are hanging up quite well, but you were fried pretty deep out there, I think you would have to undergo at least three months of just lying on bed. But don't worry, I will take care of you."
       "Thanks, now, do you know anything about bandits around ---" Max coughed violently, the pain inflicted in his body multiplied and magnified, and he passed out again.
 
       Max woke up stripped against a chair, his mouth sealed by duct tape.

[Was Max hallucinating? Why was he in the desert with Kat around? Who were the raiders? Where is Lieberman?] 

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Snow Business

       The snowstorm hit Sweden right in the gut, the major roads and streets were closed due to low visibility as well as the thick stack of snow. The whole country frozen in an icy state, everything were covered under the snow. How lucky people could stay near a fireplace and enjoyed some time alone or with the family. For those who were on the street, the local prepared some place for them, either a school gym or a community hall, everybody's safe. The time slowed down in the country while the storm continued its course.

       

       Shawn and Karen didn't know the weather could go so badly in a matter of days. They stayed in a small wood cabin in the hill with no contact with the outside world, no weather report either. The plan was to live in the wild for half a year as a vacation of another kind. The time was almost up, they were prepared to leave but as the storm hit, they were grounded until it cleared. Though the logs for fire were rich, the room was crowd, with animals.

       The couple had been taming wild animals in the woods, mostly just hares and squirrels, and a few young wolves in a separate room. They were trained specialists in the field and they treated the animals well. These animal would have a hard time surviving out there by themselves, lucky they were here in a controlled environment.

       At night the wolves howled as chilling as the snow, when the hares and squirrels were curling up at asleep. 

     

       The tough part of the storm past in a week's time. The white woods looked bright and clean. As the couple headed back to home, the animals were released one by one. First the hares, then the squirrels, and last the wolves. They jumped and ran away while only the wolves lingered after the human. Their steps muffled by the snowy ground, their groans blew away by the wind. Shawn threw away the remaining meats for them, they feasted on it, and that's the last time the couple saw the wolves.

       The wolves returned to their lair, not thinking about the human, not caring about the human. Some of their companions were froze to death, they howled for them, the sound echoed throughout the woods.

     

       At the facility Shawn and Karen worked at, they requested for a research on the wolves to find out if these animals were like dogs that are loyal and attentive to the human. The result were fascinating, wolves are one of a kind and behaved differently from dogs, they don't feel us human like dogs, they are self-aware and not easily provoked.

[Find out more about Wolves being your Pet Dog from io9!]

     

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Fierce Fight

       "Blood boiled fight started in the living room, and then the two struggled to the kitchen and Mr. Franklin the victim grabbed the sharp knife hung on the rack while he was pressed down toward the drain and took a stab on our John Doe here. The penetration caused internal bleeding in the gut, so to speak, and he died of excessive bleeding according to the preliminary report from Lauren. The time of death estimated to be around 8 to 9 PM, matching what Mr. Franklin had described. He said he called in as soon as the guy went down. Would you like to talk to Mr. Franklin or would you like to walk around the scene, or check the body?" Betty finished her report to Detective Steve in an automated tone. They stood outside the house, it was a quiet block, nothing stirred in the air. 
       "I'd like to see our John Doe first." Steve ducked past the tape and went inside. A man around his 40s was lying dead in a suit on a pool of blood with a knife planted at his belly. He was intrigued by the fullness of the guy's facial hair, wildly grown in dirty yellow. Steve rubbed his skinhead in a backward motion and scratched his beard stub.
       Mr. Franklin greeted Steve when he went by the ambulance, he seemed fine except a bruised eye and a cranked nose.
       "Hi, I am detective Steve Baldwin from NYPD and in charge of this investigation, I am going to ask you a few questions about things happened tonight, is that good with you?"
       "Yeah."
       "So, do you know the man that attacked you? Did you meet him somewhere? What happened."
       "No, I don't know that guy, he just jumped on me when I unlocked the door. It was dark inside the house so I didn't have a good look at him. He choked and beat on me, I fought back and we both choked each other. He let go and I stumbled into the kitchen. He then rushed toward me and pinned my head down to the drain, but I kept my head straight and pulled a knife and took a stab at him. I don't know what else I could have done. My life was on the line, too."
       "Did you notice anything suspicious before entering the house? Was there any car parked nearby that shouldn't be. Are you in conflict with anyone? Can you think of anyone that wanted to hurt you? Did you owe someone money?" Steve fastened his speech as he thought about the possibilities out there.
       Mr. Franklin touched his chin and came up with nothing interesting.
       The paramedic dropped their conversation and sped away to the hospital while Steve continued examining the scene of crime.

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Expecting You, Expecting Me.

[This piece of writing was probably inspired by 'Gone Home' developed by The Fullbright Company (Which I LOVED, most of all the voice-over) and the movie 'Blue Is The Warmest Color' (Which I have not watched, YET.). I felt most content about this one so far comparing to all the writings I have done.]

       I promised my girl I'll be there with her tonight.

       She was mending the bikers's lost soul outside a local bar when I first met her and she was that type of chilling witch you would never offend. Her wavy ginger hair looked fancy in a white T-shirt and checkered skirt under the spotlight. Little flirty and very sexy.
       I was at the pub getting drunk as she sat next to me and ordered a beer. I lied on the icy marble desk where she stroked my hair like my mom used to, the sensation of being caressed kept my emotion at bay. I was a kitten treated right, a puppy deemed worthy.
       As I sat up slowly when her hand left me completely, I stared at her with my dreamy eyes and greedy needs. She said to me in a hazy voice "Hey you." I didn't know what to say as my tongue struggled between the word 'Thanks' and 'Mom', or 'I love you'.
       She grinned at me, showing her teeth in perfect condition. "Are you feeling better?" she said and put her hands on mine.
       "Never better." I said, looking at her hands. She had such great nails.
       "Why are you sad?"
       "Because I can?"
       "Because someone made you."
       I thought about what she said, "Have we met?" Stupid question, I know.
       "Not that I know of." She took the last sip of beer and exposed her firm neck and delicate bones to the surrounding.
       She leaned forward and clung to my hands. She showed me sympathy, I returned her company.

       We traveled around the states, always on the road, never settled for a place. She kept on giving out meds for the underground and underprivileged folks while I sidetracked about peacing off the girl scouts backstage with her.

       The one year anniversary crept on the both of us, the day of remembrance was around the corner and we decided to go back, back to where we first met, the bar where I first saw her performances. Back then she thought I was the groupie, I reckoned she was just another pissed off girl scout searching for reasons to love.
       I promised her I would be there after visiting my parents out of town. I had not told my folks a single thing about their daughter being gay, being a lesbian, being a fucking dyke like they said until that evening. We had a fight. We cried together. We hugged each other.
       She opened the show at nine, already making a scene for the fans, I joined the crowd and cheered with them for her. The last song she performed was the one I heard the day we met, she dedicated it wholly to me. I melted as she gestured the heart to me and said she loves me.
       We spent the night drinking while she stroked my bleached blonde hair.
       "How did you know stroking my hair would make me feel better?"
       "I don't know, but I just did." She giggled and danced and rocked the night away with me.

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Crucify Me

It Comes As It Goes.

Nothing Stays, Everything Changes.

Whoever You Are, Whatever You Do.

Dollar Gets You, Rage Pokes Me.

When It Stays Constant, Remember Who Made It Happens.

It Belongs As It Never Is.

Let Go, Be Prepared.

Let Loose, So To Spare.

Immerse, As I Despaired.

Improve, As Time Faire.

Important As You Perceived, Shouting And Yelling.

Difficult It Seemed, Complaining Without Reason.

Gesture Suggested, Expression Revealed.

Offended Me, Defending You.

Razor Sharp, Laser Thin.

Oh. Crucify Me.

Oh. Mercy, Mercy, Me.

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Contacts Part 2

This is the second part of the 'Contacts'.

There was two new windows on the panel when Dean returned from the bath. They alerted him about the police raiding at the nightclub where Jason worked and suspicious transaction record from his account. Normally he would just ignore the alert, but not today. He stared at the bill and found the listing items he had paid for but didn't buy and he concluded at the moment that someone was stealing his credits, someone was ripping him off, someone with skills.

He triple checked his transaction records and came up with two more unidentified purchases of electronics. The payment was authorized by himself as the system showed, but he didn't remember doing such thing, nor did he received any electronic. With some digging, it turned out the shipping address was a black market resale warehouse where people traded stolen properties to other interested parties, there was not a chance he could find out who did this to him, not if he had connection inside the market. The date and time of the billings was seconds after he paid a worker, maybe someone had penetrated his network and gained access to his outgoing connection packets and made use of the digital footprint to forge the authorization, or it could be someone inside the credit company that stole his money. Either way, someone was watching his every move. Determined, Dean shut down the connection to detain further information leakage. He had to move away to some place safe tonight, and he happened to know a place that he could stay.

That night he went out to a remote location - an abandoned old sewage pipe entrance under the bridge, to monitor the kill of Joseph Stevenson in a portable rig. The weather was chilling outside, beside wearing a decent and clean down jacket and trouser, he also brought an extra warming gloves with him to keep his hands from frozen. He went inside the stinky pipe and found a spot to lean against the rusty surface, and set up his equipment in a comfortable position. The time at 12:40 AM Midnight. 

After successfully established a secure connection to a video feed near Joseph Stevenson's apartment, Dean waited for KPJ to took action while monitoring his credit account's activity. At exactly 12:45 AM, a shadow executed Joseph Stevenson with a glowing dark green laser blade in a clean cut which decapitated him and left his blood pumping onto the wall. In the darkness another light source appeared, once again Dean scanned the display and wired the credits to KPJ's account. This time he kept an eye on the credit balance and transaction records but nothing transferred except his own authorized payment. Dean grinned at his account balance one last time and packed his thing to move back home. Maybe there really was someone accessing his network at where he lived, or there's a slight chance that the person working at the credit company who stole his assets was off the clock. 

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Contacts Part 1

       Dean's fingers swiped through the circular interface smoothly, pushing windows to pin them at the QuickAccess, leaving only the live camera feed on display and magnified it in the center. The feed was showing a room with a closed windows looking out to the downtown Manhattan covered in snow. He checked the time, 7:45 AM. 
       He sat still in his chair which connected to a custom made wheel line in his cubicle apartment, and waited for something to happen on the other side of the feed. Outside the wind howled and he heard police siren bouncing up and down in the air. 

       Presently, a women figure walked into range and was doing her makeup. Seconds later, Dean heard a girly scream followed by a muffled shot. The girl, confronted with the gun in her most vulnerable moment, fell down onto the mattress and bounced off to the floor. A man covered in a bulky dark-blue greatcoat came into view and lifted the girl's body in front of the camera with caution. He gently positioned her to lean against the bed and carefully closed her eyelids to cover her dilated pupils.
       With that done, the man stood there and held out a display facing the camera. Dean performed a scan on the display through the panel and transferred a large sum of credits following the details he retrieved from it. The man checked with the device as the transaction completed, then he froze in front of the girl saying something inaudible to Dean, and opened the windows before he left. "It's been good doing business with you." Dean said to the screen. 
       The girl's head remain tilted backward lying on the bed with her neck exposed to the chilling winter air and her blood tardily soaked up by her white bathrobes.
       Dean didn't even check his credit account, not the sum, not the transaction record because he had so many liquidity going in and out all the time, it was hard to keep track on every single detail.

       Dean terminated the connection to the feed in self-envy and dragged a list with names, titled 'Performance Appraisal', into the center display. He scrolled down the list and crossed the first name, 'MADISON, KAT'. One down, nineteen to go.

       His finger then kept circling around the QuickAccess undecided. When he finally settled on 'Contacts' and dialed for one named 'Jason L', he was a bit skeptical about himself.

       "Hey watup D?" Jason blurred.
       "Don't D me." Dean remarked. "Where are you? Sounded too loud to be the club in the morning."
       "I am driving to pick up this girl for my uncle. Guess I am now doing Girls Delivery, too."
       "At this hour? Man that sucks." Dean said. "Well, I guess I would have to call the other guy then. Later." 

       He ended the conversation and initiated a chat with 'KPJ' on the contacts list.

       08:11 Dean: Up for a Job? 
       08:11 KPJ: Anytime
       08:12 Dean: 'STEVENSON, JOSEPH', MALE, ADR - O, DLV 0
       08:14 KPJ: EST - O

       Dean dragged the bubble 'O' open to view the content, it showed the time, 12:45 AM Midnight.

       Dean pushed himself away from the workstation and glided to the kitchen on the wheel line. Breakfast cereal was on the upper deck. He recalibrated his artificial arm and extended it to grab the box, he didn't like to move around in the morning, stood up was absolutely unnecessary in his mind when he could utilize his arm. A cockroach in the drawer was added in the meal for flavoring and nutrition. He ate it with disgust, crunched the food with his dirty yellow distorted teeth, then slid to the bathroom and immersed himself with the artificial right arm taken off in a pond of yellow rusty discolored water for a very long time.

[This is a fusion of three ideas, an expansion of details from the previous 'Random Encounter [2]' (Kat and the man in bulky dark-blue greatcoat), 'Artificial Limb' (Dean) and 'Escape Driver' (Jason), check them out if you haven't already.]

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