Think I'll take a break after this. Must be getting old if four hours or so
of C+C does this to me:

Well damn, 2002 and we're still all here.

  YOU'VE GOT NEWS!

  "Good morning. Tom "Tommy" Wilkinson for the
independent press, freq 720. The city's only unbiased and reliable
news

Most people that have to qualify their speeches with words like 'unbiased'
and 'reliable' usually means they are neither. :P

  The camera beheld the tall, wide shouldered man at a
podium bearing the crimson Mandate crest. A red lion standing
triumphant over an evil white one.

I wonder if anyone has even seen a live lion in this world. :)

  "`More.' A word said so eloquently by a wizened mouth
that has seen more years than any other alive. More jobs, more
money, more revenue, and more experience. The cries and pleas of
the city's entire population point in one unified direction.

Arkoff: Freedom. But they're not going to get it.

More.

Poverty, illiteracy, homelessness; these atrocities demand a
solution no less dire.

Arkoff: Therefore we shall shoot anyone who lives in poverty, is illiterate,
or homeless.

  "Our goal," said Arkoff, "is not an obligatory settlement to
be compromised with forces ultimately superior. The doge

Doge

does

not believe it is so difficult to determine when the city's
progression impedes on the value of living. Freedom is not a
bargain at the price of a child's suffering.

The horrible thing is, you'll hear a lot of politicians use this tactic.
Anyone that uses the phrase 'this is going to be for the good of the
children/downtrodden/poor/etc is usually doing something bad and using the
excuse that it's only meant to help someone to pretend the action is not
objectionable. After all, how can you disagree with something that 'is going
to be for the good of the children/downtrodden/poor/etc'? If you do object,
then you must be cruel and evil for wanting people to suffer and by
definition should not be listened to. It's really a surprisingly effective
technique, since far too many people believe soundbites rather than thinking
about what's actually being said. Keep your eyes and ears open and you'll
see what I mean. Marvelous work on the speech, Max.

  "This year the Mandate reports that it will be cracking
down on the large unregistered adult population who hold neither
citizenship nor identification other than drivers licenses. The long
standing law states that it is illegal to employ non-citizens over the
age of twenty-one,

Heh. So does that mean you can hire them if they are under 21?

 though over six million of them work in low

income jobs around the city at present. Gas stations, salons,
grocery stores, Blockbusters,

Heh. Bear them a personal grudge? :)

  When I discovered this fact at a little after nine, I
remembered the argument we had six hours earlier. I had yelled at
her to wake up and smell the sordid stink of urban city around her;
she had said she would do just that. I never heard her leave. She
could have at least spared my wallet.

  I tried to order pizza but the phone told me it was too early.
Zig had taken the last bit of food to bed with him last night and I
guessed that it had turned into a one sided

one-sided (I think)

 >   "I heard it," he said readily, as if having anticipated my

thought.

  "Alethea took off last night. Stole my wheels."

  "I heard it coming," just as readily.

Heh

  "Fuck you."

  "Sorry, buddy. I know Diago made you tell your little
story, and that now it's clear she was not ready to hear it. But I
swear to god you read her wrong if you thought she was going to
sit around here and be yelled at because she `doesn't

odd mark there

understand

what it's like.' You should have seen it coming too, and dodged
the subject."

  "I would

It

have come up eventually."

  "Look, I'm the last one to bitch at anybody about their life,
seriously. But I can offer some advice as a person who lives off of
other people's misunderstanding me." Zig stood up and gazed out
the window.

  "I told you not to take advantage of the girl because it
would convey my feelings about her, not because I expected you to
have anything bad in mind. I mean, shit. You're too nice of a guy,
Screw, and you get sick of it now and then. Which is alright. It
means you have a core of fallibility and

fallibility, and

 I wouldn't hang around

you if you didn't. But don't lose your shit around Alie. She doesn't
need any more of that."

  "What about you?! You haven't had a real relationship in
more than a year! And the last one dumped you because you sold
all her underwear for Knicks tickets!" I yelled back.

  "Yeah, your

you're

 right." Zig cocked his head. "And considering

the size of those things, I should have gotten floor seats..."

  "If she cant

can't

take my past than there's nothing more to

say."

  "Look, this is about you, anyway. What you want out of
your life, and if you're even ready to make a choice right now. But
I wouldn't throw this one away," He

he

 >

  "Well, I got a few customer's

customers

coming over tonight, so if

you want to pass your piss tests, you might vacate the place." he
said.

  "Nah, I'm gonna wait for Alethea to come back with my
cyc. Then I gotta make up with her, and not the way I want to. Its

It's

Lot of simple mistakes here.

  At around 10:00 the sky became really black and I began to
get the creeping feeling that it was night. No Alethea, no cyc, and
swimming in smoke. I opened a window to get some fresh air, and
was immediately admonished by every voice in the room. So I
went in the kitchen and stuck my head in fridge, but after a while it
filled with smoke too. I was back to second hand suffocation.

Hehehehe. Very cute

  I kicked a rat out of my path and

path, and (I think)

it squealed. I had hoped

that the change of scenery would satisfy my subconscious. But all I
saw when I looked around was a thousand places I

were (I think would agree with 'places'

  I sat there alone and started to spit myself, thinking it
would make me able to take it straight like my dad had. Of course
it did not, but it kept my mind away from crying, which he had
always told me was an assertion of weakness. His opinion lay
pathetically branded in my mind that way. It wasn't that I thought
he was right, but I could never get past the idea that I might be
wasting important time. Important tragedy time. Some day I'll
spell out all the important things I did with that time.

Nice insight into his mind.

  So what is a boy to do when he can't cry? Get furious,
intentionally confused, and take it out on other people of course.

True

 I

  People like me hate introspection. I kicked another rat.

Slow rats

never far away.

  A few cars passed me on the right splashing puddle water
onto my shoes. I was surprised that there was not more traffic on a
cold Monday night. Coming around another corner, I saw that
West Main St. was empty too. Strange. Storms often lightened
traffic on the highways, but residential roads were usually
unaffected. In the distance I could see the outline of the old
stadium which had been abandoned to the gangs decades ago. Who
knew which one occupied it now.

Which what? Which gang?

  Damn it! Why couldn't I make up my fucking mind
anymore? I needed Alethea.

  Still walking, I looked around me again

I'd drop the 'me' or rephrase that.

for movement.

There wasn't a whole hell of a lot. Maybe while I had been gone
the weather computers had predicted hail. Wouldn't want to be out
in that.

  Then from

Then, from

  Neither one caught fire in the downpour, but the first car
slid along the wet road into the front of a corner street store. The
wall size glass panes shattered inward and the noise was
tremendous. I ran toward the wreck as fast as I could.

You didn't get an opportunity to loot like this very often.

  I pulled the man up in his seat, and he groaned.

  "Oh god."

god,

  "No, he pulled out of the wrong lane so I would not see him
coming. He must have gotten ahead of me somehow.maybe back
at the turnpike. I don't know. But if he is dead, I need to see the
body."

  "Someone is after you?"

It's not like Screw doesn't know the feeling. :)

  "No, damn it! I never could."

Interesting

  He paused, wiping the rain water off his face. We studied
each other. I was an odd case; I actually felt nervous when I
thought I had too much control of a situation. It was unnatural.

Heh. True

  "Yes. And the gun is some sort of energy rifle. I have never
fired it, so use your own weapon until you find it necessary. Now
help me, I hurt my hip in the crash.

Among other body parts.

  Looking back I saw three men in black jackets running in
our direction. They were about two hundred yards back, and were
openly carrying their side arms. The short one who was lagging
behind dragged

one, who... behind, dragged

 an older model G79 in the grass and laughed as he

stared at the ground. I realized that all three of them were laughing
as they ran.

  "They are on accelerants," said Weirham. "Rufius makes
them take the pills before doing jobs so they wont

won't

  Weirham screamed "No!! I thought you knew! You can't
fire an energy weapon outside in the rain!

Heh. Oops.

  I pushed people aside and ran into the train's tiny
bathroom. Through a shaded window I concentrated on the stairs I
had just come down, and got ready to smash any gang members
who came down. Before the cars even started moving I saw the
glint of Weirham's dangerous little toy in the hands of a fat,
screaming Taur who I now realized could not have been more than
seventeen.

Old enough to kill you. In the end, that's all that really matters.

  "Government agencies are individually run by members of
the Mandate with near autonomy. Believe it or not, the Gold Cup
Racing Board is one such institution. If you get a bad Director,
there is next to nothing the public can do about it. It's the way the
Mandate divides up the power between themselves. Rufius tips the
scale even by their standard." He sighed and stared out the
window. "Wells used to come for me after meeting with the man in
the early morning, and we would.find people. And do things to
them just so he could vent his tension and anger. Rufius is the only
person I know who was able to crack Wells' shell, and make him
leak a little humanity. It came out only as hate and hysterical rage,
but it still scared me."

I would say so.

  "Rufius' first student. I think the two of them may be
related somehow, but I don't know. White was more adept than
Wells, and Rufius kept him close at hand for help with his work.
White only had one student, but he got away before fully maturing
his power.

Wonder if it's Screw

 >

  "Well, I don't see...oh...Oh god... He brought friends."
The black Taur with a smile on his face walked down the
isle of the car in front of ours. Behind him were at least six other
gang boys with their right hands in their jackets which bore the red
bull tag. They shoved commuters out of the way and came right at
us.

Time to use psionics again.

  They finally came through and the first one stepped into my
car. But it was not the black man from before. It was the fat biker I
choked the night before at Korre's.

  I got a `Remember me?'

Think you should use double quotes there.

  As we both raised our guns at each other, the train finally
jerked to a stop, and reflexively we all reached for a pole.
But in that instant, I realized my folly. I wouldn't be able to
fire the damn gun with only one hand-  I deliberately missed the
pole, and continued to fall forward onto the floor as the shooting
started. Glass was heard shattering behind me. I rolled onto my
back, aimed the gun upward, and pulled the triggers.

There's more than one trigger on it?

  "Wait! It's not the cops! It's some sort of gang war!"

  "Then we better run twice as fast!"

Probably right

  "Don't argue with me, Screw. We're going, now."

  It was Christopher Dais.

He does get around. :)

Nice to see things moving along at a rapid pace now. Very exciting and
intersting.

D.B. Sommer

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