Chapter 1: The Awakening

"Heartless bastard. Nothing, for all the work of tearing that guys implants out and they ain't worth shit." The withered older man grumbled as he worked his way through the filth and scrap on the pit, the ground level of the grand capital city.

"Doesn't he get it, I can't be going up and down the elevator to be bringin 'im this scrap if he ain't even gone pay me for it." The old man continued to grumble as he approached an end to the alley he was stumbling down.

"D*mned rotten luck to even run into a dead end in this maze down here!" The man collapsed against the nearby wall, "at least I still got three more days before my food-tube runs dry." He taps a small tube implanted into his arm, right above a printed bar code and numbers - identifying him as a legal resident of the city. The nutrient supplement tube fit snugly into his arm, providing him with all the necessary nutrients to live, as long as it doesn't run out.

Actual food was a luxury only experienced by the upper class, and those in seats of power. That being said it wasn't unavailable to the general public, and they even indulged on special occasions, but with its exorbitant price, these occasions were far in between each other. Not to mention the nutrient pastes, which could be injected continuously in a cyber implant in the arm, or with regular injections were far cheaper, and readily available.

This being the case, the scum of the earth only had less they had to buy, and more they could spend on earthly pleasures. But when time came to get nutrient supplements, the scramble for money led many to the pit. The ground level had become a dumping ground of machines, bodies, and anything else people wanted to keep hidden forever. Chances of it surviving and making it back up to the upper levels of civilization were slim, and with the occasional rain, anything not covered would be washed away or destroyed.

*WAAAAAAaaaaahhhh* A siren goes off, prompting the old man to jolt back awake, as the sound means rain is coming, and while unlikely it will make it all the way down to him quickly, the instincts drilled into him told him to seek cover, Luckily for him just at the end of the alleyway was a pile of scrap protected by an outcropping.

"Heh, guess its one bit o'luck I could live with" The man ducked under the space and crawled next to the pile of junk and lay his head against it, and exactly 30 seconds after the alarm began, rain started to trickle its way down the buildings, which were coated to protect themselves, however everything left out was not so lucky. The old man watched a bit of scrap melt away and get swept into the underground sewage as he just smirked and lay his head against the scrap to doze off again.

"Blood?" The old man sniffed his nose again. "Yeah, thats-" He peeked out from under his protection and didn't see anyone in the alley he was in, then chanced looking up, and couldn't see anything past all of the outcroppings and buildings. "What the-?" He wrinkled his nose again and looked back towards the pile of junk, where he saw a bit of blood on various bits of the junk. "Shit! Did I nick myself?" as he pat himself up and down he realized he hadn't been cut. He threw on his gloves and started digging in the junk pile.

"Did I just strike gold and find a fresh body?! If they ain't been dead long their implants will for sure not be fried yet!" As he tossed pieces of junk out of his way, he uncovered a body, but to his surprise, it was very much alive, and as he pulled the young man out of the junk realized the blood was from junk pressing into the man, probably from him laying down on it.

The old man flipped the young mans arm over where his ID number should be, only to find it blank.

"Huh?..." The old man stared at the young mans arm in confusion for a few seconds before he realized. "This must be one of them purist terrorist, what havin no ID and what looks like no implants, I could make a fortune turning him----"

A sharp intake of breath, and the young mans eyes opened, before he sit up suddenly and looked around.

"Easy now son, you was sleeping underneath that junk pile there, are you okay?" The old man put on a smile and the friendly face of an elderly man, while trying to figure out if the young man was dangerous.

"Where?....Who?..." The young man was stumbling over his words, but just looked at the old man extremely confused.

"Well if yer askin for a name, You can call be Stennik, or Sten if ya like, Have ye got any clothes son?"

The young man still looked at the old man with confusion, "Stennik..." He then shook his head at the Sten's question, to which Sten just gave him a large smile, if he had no clothes stashed, it meant he probably didn't have anything else stashed.

"Ye got a name son?"

"I...Uh....Don't know." The young man must have gotten hit in the head and dumped down here or something Sten thought, but whatever the case he didn't have an ID, which meant Sten had found a good payday.

"Here." Sten took off his cracked and holey jacket and put it around the young man. "Come on, I'll take ye somewhere safe." Sten laughed to himself slightly then coughed to cover up the laugh.

The young man just nodded and got up to follow Sten, looking around confused.

"...Sten...Where...are we?"

"Have ye never seen the pit boy? Bottom of the capital, worst place to end up if ya mean to keep your nose clean, But don't you worry boy, we goin up a couple floors to where its ni-ce and sa-fe." Those check-points aren't in the pit after all, can't turn in an illegal down here.

"Boy-er I'll just call ye John for now" John nodded, accepting the name for now until he could remember his own. "Get up on this platform and stay behind me when we gets upto the upper floors, if anybody asks you are my long lost son" John just nodded but looked at Sten with a bit of confusion at that.

"Why would people...ask questions about me?" John inquired. "Oh you know how nosy people are, always questioning new faces and people walkin around, at least you fit in, whens the last time you got a food-tube?"

"Food...Tube?" John clearly didn't know what Sten was talking about.

"Yeah, Food-Tube, Life pod--nutrient supplements you idiot" Sten reached back to shake Johns head, but was dodged pretty easily by John. Sten just eyed him at that, "Whatever boy, if ya never heard of it then forget it."

How does this boy not even know what a Food-Tube is, you can't survive in this city without-- Wait, the kid doesn't even remember his own name why am I surprised.

The elevator finally stopped and it looked like the two had stepped into a new world, There were people following walking here and there in massive crowds, pushing by one another, giant boards flashing with advertisements for everything from food, top of the line nutrient supplements, to implants, and even cybernetic augmentations for you and your pets.

John looked like a tourist looking around at all the billboards and up at the now more visible buildings and windows. The sky was still obscured, but there was plenty of light from all the ads and lights from the buildings. "Sten this place is amaz-" John started but got interrupted "Yeah, Yeah, come on boy we ain't got all day" Sten took John by the wrist and started pulling him through the crowd.

Sten made his way to a different road that wasn't as populated and let go of John's wrist. "Aight, boy, listen to me, I want you to stay right here." Sten pointed to the wall and looked sternly at John. "Don't move a muscle till I get back, I need to grab you some clothes, and Food-Tubes for each of us- So Do. Not. Move. Are we clear?"

"Yeah, I- I got it, Sten. I'll stay right here" John replied after a moment

"Well at least your head seems to be clearing up."

Sten made his way down and looked back a few times before slipping into a governmental Peacekeeper station.

John continued to watch the boards flicker to different ads, and the people going by wearing vastly different clothes from one another. He looked down at the jacket he was wearing and felt a little embarrassed that it was the only thing he had on, and closed it a bit more tightly. His clothes did make him stand out, and he was aware people were giving him strange looks and keeping their distance.

He then noticed one of the ad boards hadn't changed in the last minute or so, which was odd as they were constantly changing. The only reason this one caught his eye was it was a solid color, red with words written in white "Hey, You."

John just tilted his head at it, expecting it to change to an ad soon, but the words just changed. "He Isn't Your Ally"--"You are in Danger"--"RUN"

For some reason, John's skin turned as cold as ice as he read the words on the sign, He glanced back to where Sten went, no longer leaning on the wall, and realized he couldn't see what type of building he went into. He moved closer, and saw Sten walking towards the door with what looked like men in extremely advanced cybernetics armor- Peacekeepers. John didn't know why Sten went there, but for some reason he felt that warning was directed to him. And turned and bolted down an alleyway. Shouting could be heard a few moments later from where he ran from, but he continued down the alleyway. A bright red sign with an arrow caught his attention, and with more trust now in the sign than Sten, took the direction. Moments later he heard a siren from the direction he was previously running towards and gulped hard.

"I don't know who you are for helping me, or what is going on but thank you"

Another arrow appeared, another turn. Then another, and another. Soon John was wheezing and out of breath, but was in a rather cleared area. He looked around at the billboards for another sign, but didn't see any more, but did notice a terminal with a bright red screen.

He approached it, and a compartment opened, revealing a phone that started to ring. He cautiously picked it up.

"...Hello? Thank you for helping me, Who are you?"

"Kassix." A female voice responded after a few moments.

John's stomach dropped and he felt his hairs stand up on end.

"How do you know my name?" Kassix said after a moment.

"I'm here to help."