Chapter 22: Chapter 22 - Cyber Carnival
It's dark at the Madrid Zoo. A group of transhumanists huddle near each other after closing time. Whispering, a crafter, a dryad, a lion man, 2 tiger women & 3 bears folk, speak of how they intend to escape from continental Europe. "It's dangerous for us to stay together like this, we have to split up for the moment." the crafter says. From his right side print out 8 party flyers. "Here, I just downloaded from our contact, where we need to meet." he says, handing them out.
No sooner does he hand out the last one, & he is struck by a small silver dart. It's red contents spill into his bloodstream. Upon reacting with the nanites in his body, the tiny robots begin to unzip his DNA. Before the others have a chance to react, the Dryad is struck with another dart. She screams "RUUuun...." As the others scatter in different directions, her body falls to the ground, leaving changing color from a dark summer green, through yellow-orange, to red-brown, as her body becomes a wood husk. Banging into the ground, the vibrations shake the leaves from her. Blowing away in the wind, past the sparking exposed circuitry, some of the pieces of leaves stick to the spilled organic material of the crafter's body.
From her current vantage point, the nun could no longer see any targets. They were faster than she had anticipated. As the nun in white & orange jumps down from the building she had purchased on, the leaves blow past her feet. Walking over to the wood husk & fried mechanisms, she scouts out the area, to see that she is alone. She feels confident & that no one else is around & bends over. Picking up one of the 2 cards left behind, she smiles widely. As she walks out of the zoo, she changes the playlist on her iPod, attached to her upper right arm, to Frank Sinatra.
Later that night at the underground dance event, Cyber Carnival, the MC of the party is thanking the last performers as they leave the stage. The crowd ready for the headliner, cheers. "WHAT! UGH! YEAH! without further ado, the last man on Earth to spin real records! DJ SEERING!!" The crowd cheers again. As his fluorescent orange & metallic green Sion backs out on to the stage. Transforming before the audience, the truck splits in the middle & pops out speakers in the front & on the sides. Seering's hat, slightly covering his face in shadows from the lights coming on above him, comes into view as his driver's seat slides in front of his decks. With one record in each hand, he lays them on the turntables. A low hum of ambient music resonates from the stage. Upon dropping the base, the whole dance floor erupts into a brilliant chaos of clowns & other beautiful costumes falling to the rhythm.
Regrouping on the dance floor, the transhumanists spiral & slide through the crowd until they meet just back a few rows from center stage. Using their WiFi they link together, joining mind to mind. *Our contact is the promoter of this party, he'll get us out of Spain, to England, I'm going to go meet him now. Keep dancing & have a good time. We're not leaving until he does, which may be, not until the party ends. Be right back.* The cyber lion dances around until he makes his way backstage. A large man in an OuterTech strength prosthetic stands in front of a door marked V.I.P. The cyber-lion takes out a P$100, showing how the eye on the pope's profile is cut out of it & hands it to the bouncer. Stuffing it in his pocket with one hand, the big man opens the door with the other & lets him pass.
Vedren & Funfetti finish making out. He looks up at the Cyber-lion, "What are you doing here? I didn't book you for tonight's entertainment." jokingly, Funfetti winks. Funfetti then gets up & hugs the cyber-lion. Vedren then hugs him too & begins purring. "Sorry to hear about Cypris & Danny, Bro. Tonight's drive is going to be long enough without looking at those 2 empty seats."
At the front of the club, the nun pricks a bouncer at the front door with the injection ring in her hand. By the time he turned to hit whoever it was that poked him, he was all ready to accept her instructions. "Attack the other bouncer." As the fight breaks out, she ducks past the distracted greeters.
Walking through the party with her nano scanner & dart gun, some costumed characters, tell her "Great Costume!" She nods in false appreciation, rolling her eyes as she turns & scans the others in the area. Nothing. Undaunted she wanders through the other rooms of the old warehouse.
Upon reaching the main hall, her scanner & ears pick up some twitter. Deep rumblings grove into a Drum & Bass mix of Frank Sinatra's "I've got you, under my skin." She took it as a sign from God.
Seeing a large half-panda/half-man she readies her aim. Then she notices the 2 tigresses behind the panda-man. Stepping closer, she notices in the scanner, that the panda was human after all. Just a big furry. The tigresses behind him were the real hybrids.
The nun kicks out the back of the knee of the panda dressed furry, mid-dance step, tripping him into one of the tigresses on the right. Then at point blank range, tags a dart into the tigress' body. The hellacious screaming roar that came from her shocked most of the party goers around her. Shocked that they heard such a noise over the thumping base. As people turned to see what created such a sound, they saw the convulsing tigress being torn apart from the inside out.
The nun steps toward the tigress on the floor, who was finally pushing the panda off of her. While raising her weapon within an inch of her face, the nun is tackled from behind by one of the real bear folk. The crowd begins to panic, stepping away from the drama. As she loses her grip on her weapon. It flies across the hall & bounces & slides across the dance floor, out of her reach. Rolling with the tackle, she herself ends up on top, being bear-hugged from behind by the transhuman hybrid, now under her. Quickly she kicks him in the testicles & he releases her, with a moan. Flipping herself over she rolls towards her dart gun.
"Don't you know you fool, that you never can win....." sounds Frank from the speakers.
With most of the people leaving, the DJ notices why. Grabbing his staff, he leaves his records spinning, & pushing off his chair, he jumps over his turntables. As he runs towards her, the nun picks up her weapon. Twirling his staff, a dart gets deflected & flips away harmlessly. She pulls the trigger, firing again. Still moving towards her & spinning his now glowing staff, he slaps that shot away too. Now close enough to strike, he swings & knocks the gun aside. Continuing the motion he twirls the staff low & hits the inside of her shin. However she slides with strike. Dropping herself into a split, the nun tries to punch him in the balls. His staff knocks her hand away, & she spins into a prone position & fires again. This time he was ready for her though and struck her other hand. She pulls the trigger & the dart ricochets off a metal door. As his staff tip crackles into her chest like a taser. The dart from the ricochet pricks his arm. DJ Seering stands there looking at it. His opponent, twitching in her own drool, seizures & shakes, finally passing out.
Funfetti & the others then arrive, "That was amazing, Man. where did you learn to fight like that?" Asks the youngest bear folk. Unable to stop himself, Seering replies, "My father taught me to spin a flaming staff when I was 9." Not expecting that answer, the bear folk just nods. "We gotta get out of here!" cries the remaining tigress. "She's right man, we have to get out of here now. Where's the back door to this place?" He asks Funfetti. Who turns towards the stage, "Right on the other side of his truck." They all turn to leave, except DJSeering.
Halfway to the stage, the lion man notices a dart on the floor. Picking it up he looks back at the DJ just standing there. "What are you doing man?" he growls. Seering calmly says "Standing." Puzzled, he looks the DJ over & notices the dart in his arm. "Yo, FETT? There's something up with your man over here." Funfetti turns & sees Seering just standing there, staring off into space.
Vedren had turned back with Funfetti, "This is what happened to those people i heard about at the church. He's a zombie now. He'll walk into traffic if you tell him too." Funfetti yells to his friend, "Seering, transform your stage show, & tell MUSE to follow us, we gotta go now."
Moving as fast as he could, he did as they told him. Funfetti knew the truck could drive itself, & only obeyed Seering. So he tells his DJ friend to tell MUSE to follow the other 2 trucks. As the stage transforms back into a truck, Seering, Funfetti & Vedren climb into the truck's cab.
After driving for over 2 hours, the 3 trucks turn off into the woods & drive for another 20 minutes before stopping near a river. Waiting for them in the river is a LUCII designed submersible craft. After an almost Walton's "Good night" level, worthy goodbye hugs were given to Vedren & Fett, the transhuman hybrids got on board the boat. It's covers rose as they waved to each other. The ship sank into the river, bound for the open ocean & the safety of English shores.
Turning back towards MUSE, Vedren asks Funfetti "What are we going to do with him?" Funfetti whistles. From out of the forest 2 dryads step into the light of MUSE's headlights. Vedren begins to purr, "You always have your friends back, don't you?" Funfetti replies "What kind of friend would I be if I didn't?"
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