Enter: S.H.I.N.J.I. A & B

A:

Suddenly, I awoke. I knew I had died, yet every inch of my body was in searing pain, like I was being roasted in a fire. I tried to open my eyes, and was immediately blinded by the light.

I called out to no one in particular.

"Is this… hell?"

"No, it's Neon City. Although no one would blame you for mistaking this place for hell."

A woman's sultry voice responded to me. Maybe I wasn't dead. I tried to move my arms and legs, but I couldn't.

"Where am I? What happened to my body?"

My eyesight settled as the woman with the mysterious voice spoke to me.

"I told you, you're in Neon City. At the Solnya Medical Center in Bayfront Docks."

"Bayfront Docks? "

"Your body was compromised."

"Compromised?"

"80% of your organic body was obliterated by an accident on Bitbolt Avenue. The pain you're experiencing is a good thing. It means your nerves are working, so your body has already accepted the cybernetic implants."

The stuff she was saying didn't make any sense. I tried to process everything as my eyes adjusted to the bare white room. I was laying down, strapped to a hospital bed. A woman sat on the other side of the room, legs crossed, with her face obscured by shadows.

"Solnya Medical Center? That's impossible, I don't even have insurance. You can't add it on to my debt if I didn't sign anything, right?"

"I tell you that most of your body was destroyed in a horrific accident, and all you worry about is the debt? They say Old Town folks are weird about money, hopefully that's something you'll grow out of eventually.

But don't worry about the bill. Everything was paid for before you arrived. You have something much more important to think about now."

The woman stood up and walked towards me from the shadows. She looked like a serious business woman. She wore a power skirt-sui and had her long black hair in an elegant ponytail. Smart black-framed glasses hide her brown eyes.

"My name is Jel. I'm a recruitment agent for the S.H.I.N.J.I. organization's intelligence division. We covered your medical expenses."

Her introduction only confused me more.The Strategic Hazard Interception Network Joint Initiative, better known as S.H.I.N.J.I., was known for its espionage, private warfare and Mechagear engineering, but not so much for charity work.

She walked up and held out her manicured right hand for a handshake. I tried to meet her, but both my hands were shackled.

"I guess… you don't need those anymore. You were kicking and screaming a bit before, but now you've calmed down."

She took out a key and undid the shackles that were binding my arms.

I sat up and finally got a good look around. I could move my arms, but everything felt different.

"You're going to need to get used to that new body. But trust me, once you're accustomed to it you will be amazed at what you're capable of."

My hands looked the same, but they were different. I felt sensation in my hands, but it was nothing like before. It was far more intense. At that point I couldn't imagine getting use to it.

I looked back up at Jel, still confused.

"But why?"

"It's my job to find long-term investments for the firm. By my calculations, the ten or so million credits spent on this surgery will be returned 40x over the next 48 quarters."

"Ten million credits? Forty-eight quarters? S.H.I.N.J.I.? Recruitment? Do you mean…"

"I mean, I'm about to make you an offer you can't refuse."

"…I…"

"I want you to come work for me, as an intelligence operative, at S.H.I.N.J.I. If you're a success, you won't need to worry about things like bills ever again. In fact, you'll probably end up a Trojan yourself by the time it's all said and done."

"Join S.H.I.N.J.I.?"

"Become an agent for S.H.I.N.J.I. That's every Neon City boy's dream, right? It's the one thing that connects the higher and lower boroughs. Whether your from Old Town or Neon Manhattan, every boy wants to work for us—"

"No thanks."

Slightly irritated, Jel tilted her head after processing my response.

"Excuse me? We just paid for your surgery—"

"That doesn't mean I have to work for you though, right?"

"No, but what about your debt? How are you going to pay for all of that? Hustling teenagers at the arcade has never been adequate, has it?"

"…Who told you about the debt?"

"I work at S.H.I.N.J.I. It's my job to know these things."

"That's… that's exactly why I didn't work with you guys. Yeah, your Mechagears are cool and all… but you're so shady. If even half the stuff people say about S.H.I.N.J.I. is true, it's the exact kind of organization I want to stay away from."

"It's true. All of it. But that's the best part. We're actually much more amazing than even the conspiracy-minded public gives us credit for."

"If you're so amazing, what is it you want with me? Don't you guys have like a zillion actual Mechagear pilots on staff? I couldn't have impressed you that much with my performance on a sim."

"Oh, you know very well what makes you special. It's your power. You can control time, can you not?"

I was stunned. I'd never mentioned my ability to manipulate time to anyone before. I didn't even think anyone else could perceive this.

"How do you know about that?"

"It's my job to know these things. You have a Quantum Time Affinity. That is an exceedingly rare genetic trait. In essence, you were meant to work for us. No, you were born to work for us. It's the only way your life will have any meaning. If you keep going the way you are, you will amount to nothing and die in a gutter. And what a waste that would be."

"But—"

"If you want to know any more about yourself, or how we found out what we know about you, you'll need to join us."

"No thanks."

B:

The Martian Spoon (Restaurant), Bayfront Docks, Neon City

The stately sound of the string quartet sawing away in the corner sat under the murmur of conversation. The vanilla white linen table clothes were immaculate, and somehow the art on the wall tied it all together. Certainly, I'd never been in a place so fancy. A waitress came up to take our order. Jel spoke first.

"Do you still carry the fresh truffles imported from Earth? My friend here needs to experience fine dining."

"I'm afraid our supply of truffles has been cut off, due to the recent set of sanctions on Neon City by the Alliances of Earth."

Jel rolled her eyes and gently slammed her wine glass in a show of disgust.

"This is all due to the Sector 4 territories, which are our rightful property anyway. Who do those effete commie bastards from 'Earth' think that they are? To tell us how to live? They don't know what it's like to tame the great wilderness of the galaxy. Sometimes you need to crack a few eggs to make an omelet, right?"

The waitress looked confused.

"So… you'd like me to bring you an omelet?"

As I watched Jel try to communicate with the waitress, I imagined how miserable of a boss she'd be.

After I'd adamantly rejected the offers to join S.H.I.N.J.I., I finally agreed to let Jel take me out to lunch in Bayfront Docks, to show me the kind of "lifestyle" I'd get to experience as an agent of S.H.I.N.J.I.. Frankly, I was appalled. A tiny plate of something that a frog could've coughed up was twice my rent.

Speaking of rent, it turned out I'd been unconscious for longer than I'd thought.

It had been over a month since I'd been hit by the car. All the rest of the time I was in a coma. I doubted my bills had magically been paid too. I just hoped the landlord hadn't already evicted me.

Jel ordered for the both of us and the waitress left.

"Just wait until you taste the pouched quail. It's the best in Bayfront Docks."

"I'm sure it's fine. I have a question though."

"Go ahead and ask me anything. I'm an open book."

"S.H.I.N.J.I. is so mysterious. What do you guys really do? Is it true you have a secret space station hidden somewhere in Sector 6?"

"I am not at liberty to confirm or deny any specific reports."

"So much for being an open book. Fine, tell me how you ended up finding out about my 'accident' anyway. Tons of people get splattered on Bitbolt Avenue everyday. There was nothing special about my situation."

"Oh, but there was. That girl who was chasing you around with a sniper rifle."

"Right, Ice. What happened to her anyway? Is she okay?"

A memory of Ice's blue eyes ran through my mind like a shockwave.

"She's fine. But Ice isn't her real name."

"I knew it!"

"That girl was Snow Solnya. The daughter of Nazmo Solnya—"

"Wait… I know who she is. The so-called 'Princess of Neon City'? You're yanking my chain. There's no way she'd ever be at some rundown arcade in Old Town."

"No, our intel agents are very good. It was her. Apparently she was slumming it. She chased you into the road and you ended up saving her life. Our agents caught your quantum movement on the CCTV."

That at least explained how they found out about my power, as Jel called it, the "Quantum Time Affinity".

"This is my reward for saving her?"

"No, actually the Solnya reps didn't even notice you using the Affinity on camera. They actually wanted to use this incident and your debt to apply for an Assumption of your Independent Rights. Isn't that hilarious? What idiots. This is why S.H.I.N.J.I. is so far ahead in operations than Solnya Corp, despite being a smaller firm."

The phrase Assumption of Independent Rights sent a cold chill cascading down my spine.

"You mean…"

"I'll be blunt: they were going to make you a slave and probably send you off to one of their mines in the Jovian League. If we hadn't stepped in, you'd be halfway to Jupiter by now."

In Neon City, basically every non-Trojan was only a couple bad breaks away from losing their freedom to whatever entity owned their debt. It was some sort of loophole in the law. It was possible for a citizen to become property, but the status of these "slaves" wasn't even acknowledged in the Constitution of the NCMA. It was a perilous situation, a situation no one potentially impacted had the power to change.

Eventually the food came; it was actually pretty good. Good enough that I let Jel perform her full sales pitch without protesting.

"As you know, legends of S.H.I.N.J.I. date all the way back to the First Great Corporate War. Without the assistance of our paramilitary operations, Solnya never would've been able to consolidate power and bring the lasting peace to Neon City. You would be the next in a very long and prestigious line of heroes who keep Neon City safe."

I winced.

"The First Great Corporate War…"

"Our agents also brokered peace in the most recent Gang War between ak91 and the Black Suns."

"I know. I think you got my neighbor killed."

For a moment, Jel looked taken aback but then brushed it off.

"Oh, you're so funny. It's like I said, you have to—"

"Crack a few eggs to make an omelet, I get it."

"Good."

"You know what? I think I've lost my appetite."

"Wait Graze, don't go! I told you we'd pay off all your debts, right?"

Ignoring Jel's protests, I got up from the table, walked out of the restaurant and headed back to my life in Old Town. Yes, I was impressed by the opulence of Bayfront Docks. I was certainly intrigued by the allure and prestige of S.H.I.N.J.I. Who knows, I may even have been able to become a Mechagear pilot.

But something about Jel really turned me off. She was very attractive, at least physically. But she was so flippant, particularly when talking about the lives of certain people. It was something I hated about Trojans, and this lady had "uptight Trojan bitch" written all over her.