ROUND TWO, FIGHT!

so, here's chapter one. That last one was the prologue. Why do I clal it the prologue? Because I do.

Now go out there, and get me some skulls! (Read: Start reading)

The screen shut off, and the booth became dark. I was supposed to stand up and leave, but I decided to sit for a moment longer. I shifted the metal stylus in my fingers for a while, then carefully stowed it away in my coat. I wouldn't need it in the immediate future.

I brought the necklace out from behind my collar and brushed my thumb over the smooth rock. I thought of her lovely face, once more recalling that moment behind the waterfall.

I shook it from my thoughts. I had not the time to be day dreaming. I had only the time to begin my search. There was work to be done.

I rose from my seat and exited the booth. Dozens of booths much like the one I was in lined this new, bright hallway, which stretched the length of the building. It was a fairly quiet affair, taking jobs. No one argued with the clients.

"YOU GOD DAMN MORON! YOU TRYING TO GET ME KILLED!?"

Well, almost no one anyway. Further down the hall, I could see Brett storming out of his booth, a mad look in his eyes. A service droid nearby immediately began heading toward Brett's booth to reset the monitor inside.

"What are you looking at, Clark?"

"…"

"Yeah, yeah, I bet I look like an asshole. So how've you been?"

I shook my hand in the air, showing a so-so expression.

"I hear ya. So you get anything today, or you still looking?"

Thumbs up.

"Good for you. Too bad I don't have your luck. Last guy I just talked to wanted my to fly by a military installation to break out a partner of his, fucking jack off."

As he began to pass me, I turned around and walked next to him for a bit. When we made it back to the lobby, I waved him off and headed over to Hannah. Brett was most likely going out for a night of booze and sex.

Hannah hadn't noticed me come up to the counter, and was intent with a document she must have been writing to Don upstairs… Or perhaps she was writing to her boyfriend.

I assumed the latter.

I knocked on the counter. "Just a moment," she said. She didn't even look away from the monitor in front of her. A tad annoyed, I pulled the comm. line out of my neck and plugged it into the counter. With a clear tone through the desk's built in speaker box, I said:

"I need to get my things from the weapons room, Hannah."

She jumped a bit, surprised.

"Geez, Tyler, you gotta scare me like that?"

It was kind of interesting, seeing a cyborg so colorful and vivid. She was easily making use of her facial features, blushing her cheeks lightly, raising and furrowing her eyebrows. It was hard to believe that just a year ago she was completely flesh and blood, and now the entirety of her body was artificially produced.

"So," she said, quickly regaining her composure, "you got another job?"

I nodded.

"You never take a break, do you?"

I pointed toward the weapons room.

"Right, right."

She pressed a button on her desk, and the red light on the weapons room door changed to green. The security lock had been lifted. I bowed lightly, and then headed off.

"You're welcome," she said, calling after me just as I left the lobby.

The weapons room was fairly large, with a number of lockers creating rows left and right through the room. Heading farther down, I spotted row eighteen, went down to locker forty five, and entered the twelve digit combo Hannah had given me earlier, before I had even spoken with my client. A moment later, I had my knives and my two pistols hidden underneath my jacket.

After ensuring my equipment was secure, I pulled my old knife out, one last time before I left. The wooden hilt felt good in my hand, but I could tell it was beginning to fall apart. The blade was starting to get loose, the blade jingling a bit as I shifted it from side to side. I'd have to repair it sometime, but there aren't too many charred veil trees in the galaxy.

'Looks like I'll have to head home soon…'

I sat down on the metal bench in between the two of lockers on either side of me. My thoughts wandered home, thinking of the organic air, the wondrous smell of the wild. I could see the gassi flying above in the bright green sky. The fjeir shinning brightly, illuminating the world with its blue light.

'Fjeir… What was it that most humans called them…? Stars. They litter the night sky with their light, millions of light years away. I must really get used to referring to everything in human terms. My vocabulary must always expand. Though… Remembering my past is always important. I must not forget where I came from.'

A gander at my knife reminded me of where I came from. Of my friends, of my family. Of the world I so often took for granted. Of the world I fought to survive, to stay alive just another day... Of the world I left behind.

I remember the large tree back home, where we used to play. Its sturdy limbs more then strong enough to be used to hold together the very metal of my knife for almost ten years now. Its limbs strong enough to resist the wear and tear of many long and arduous battles with the Vorkuta, our mortal enemies back home.

Limbs strong enough to become the bond between souls.

I raised my left hand to the necklace once again. The strong, dark brown symbol hanging from my neck still whole despite these long years out in the void that man so dull fully called space. I looked at the symbol… and I was overcome with sadness.

'Ti… How I long for you.'

Slam.

My eyes darted to the end of the row, where a large, bulky robot stood, a large fist dug into one of the lockers. His chassis, a mix of black with red stripes and white lettering. Perhaps the most recognizable robot I had ever seen. Takeshi. He's very well known in the guild for his excessive use of deadly force. Great for jobs that require plenty of destruction and mayhem, horrible for subtlety.

"You," he said, pushing himself off of the locker. He stomped on over to me, his beady little sensors constantly keeping me in their sight. "What are you doing here?"

I couldn't answer.

"Right, you don't talk."

A silent buzz came to my head, and he spoke directly to me.

'I see you still have a cyber-brain.'

'Of course. It's the only non-organic part of my body.'

'Maybe you should upgrade,' he said, lowering his sound sensors slightly. The fist he had been dragging around soon relaxed and came to rest atop his metallic skull. He looked amused. 'Unless you plan on killing me with that butter knife.'

My grip tightened on my knife. Oh, how I would love to rip out his servos.

'You're lucky I've still got a job to do, or I'd finish you off here.'

'Maybe some day I'll show you what an organic can really do.'

'I look forward to watching you squirm.'

Communications were cut, and he walked away. I could hear the doors to the lobby swish open, the shut one more time, just as they had when I had entered earlier.

'When will I get my chance to kill that sonofabitch…?'