Silver Pixel

"Oh hey, choom! Nice body sculpt! You were hot before, baby, but now you're fire!" Rebecca bounced around in her seat after coming in for her interview, "You single? I'm single. We should do dinner!"

I'd been surprised when a character from Edgerunners was the first to complete basic training, especially after meeting Big Ned Kenworth - the giant chromefiend I laid hands on at the initiation. Not to knock on her brother, Maine, and Doria, but their scores were fairly average for anyone that can make it as Edgerunners for longer than a year. Pilar was actually fairly below average due to having the natural awareness of a guy who can't tell that he's about to have his brains splattered.

The little pale cyberdoll looking girl seated across from me in a black bikini and oversized jacket shaved a week off the expected completion time for those worth investing in, so I came down to the training facility to personally congratulate her and discuss what she wanted out of the program.

"Thanks, Rebecca, did a hardware overhaul now that I keep myself warm at night by burning mountains of eddies." I said as I leaned back and tapped my fingers on the silk waistcoat over my barely filled in belly, "Lets talk about how you see your own overhaul, what you think the ideal you is going to be."

"Hey, don't just brush me off like that! I'm sensitive!" the petite teenager pouted and drew her legs up onto the chair as she grasped the seat positioned like a cat.

"So am I. I'm allergic to fourteen year olds." I deadpanned.

"I listed eighteen on the forms." the girl stated before sticking her tongue out at me, "Besides you want to talk about carving me up but carving up this coochie got you pussy footing. You're a lot less lame on the news, dude."

"I've got the power of background checks…" I said as her tirade failed to affect me.

"Yeah well, age is just a number." she meekly held onto her adversarial position.

"Just one of those things, chica." I shrugged, "People are cool with filling mass graves with fourteen year olds, but not their pussies. Is what it is."

"Whatever." she hissed, "Let's just talk about killing people."

"One of my favorite topics." I grinned as we moved on, "Violence is a canvas, chica. How do you like to paint?"

"I like shooting people with really big guns." Rebecca grinned and pantomimed plugging people with a pump action shotgun.

"Word, chica. I'm about that too." I nodded while thinking about stripping my guns down again and giving them the clean and oiling they deserve, "So you thinking optics, ears, and joints?"

"At minimum, choom!" Rebecca smiled widely, "Shorty wants a cannon!"

"Never change, chica." I smiled back, "So we could go with the standard weave for your skin and muscle, but what do you think about trying out some proprietary tech options?"

"My body is ready!" she shouted as she leaned back in the seat and kicked and punched the air in excitement.

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"Wouldn't it be better to just get some BD's?" David complained as we drove up the hill to the Silver Pixel Drive-In Theater with his mom.

"Gah, niño! There is a hierarchy to entertainment and because your brain isn't developed enough to hit the opera house or an art gallery we are going to the movies." I told him as we pulled up and I held out three fingers to the automated teller.

"That just sounds like some stuck up rich people stuff." the kid slouched in the back seat and continued playing a little hologame to pass the time on this trip.

"Don't close yourself off to experiences like that. You never know what you're going to like until you've done it, and even if you don't like it the first time you should still give it a few more chances and even circle back to it later if you can. You don't know how you're going to change over time." I advised the kid as we found a parking spot and set the truck's audio to the correct broadcast to catch the pre movie advertisements, "Lord knows how many Rockerboy concerts I've let Jackie drag me to over the years. All those gonks screaming into a microphone like they're a goat being sacrificed to Satan thinking they're the next Kerry Eurodyne, but really they're all velocity and no weight, 2D and repetitive."

"If that doesn't describe the whole Rockerboy scene these days I don't know what does." Gloria chuckled and I gave her a fist bump.

"Hey, niño, be careful with BD's. Too much stimulation will ruin you. You gotta put in a little effort before reaching gratification, otherwise your work ethic turns to shit and you're running around looking for worse and worse stuff to get your jollies." I said as we watched a commercial for some new Biotechnica medication.

Biotechnica is like a bunch of radical environmental terrorists got together and formed a corporation. They are always looking into new tech to help the plants and animals, but they are definitely not Team People, and give no fucks if the products they peddle to fund their research kills the end users.

What are they going to do? Complain? Biotechnica feeds the city literal worms and everyone just has to grin and bear it unless they want to switch over to kibble, liquid nutrition, or have the eddies to get fancy.

"Alright kiddo, this movie is about feelings and acceptance and such, so if you get bored, hit the arcade. If any Tyger Claws give you trouble tell them you'll send their picture to Takemura Goro and someone will be by to give them a sex change with a samurai sword if they don't fuck off." I said and the kid nodded.

David didn't make it past the opening credits before he left the truck. What a fool, leaving his delicious mama with such a hungry man.

"It's weird that a warmongering mass murdering harem lord is a good influence on my son." Gloria sighed as she snuggled under my arm.

"I prefer Streetwise Hercules, but understand why people might see it differently." I grinned as I tactically ignored the film playing.

"How long do you think it's going to last?" Gloria asked in a somber tone.

"I'm thinking Welles 2080 for mayor. I'll let the investors buy me out and laugh as they crash and burn and I skip to an easy win for my entrance into politics." I laid it out for her, "And when I'm in office I'll take any little shits that annoy me out quail hunting and pepper them with birdshot. It'll be glorious."

"And this whole eleven year run the other shoe never drops. None of these crooked politicians and evil businessmen you mess with are going to realize that they are sick and tired of an upjumped beaner from Heywood fucking them over and just bring the whole world down on you and everyone around you?" Gloria questioned with obvious worry and stress in her voice.

"If you spend all your time thinking about what other people are going to do, you won't have any time left to do anything." I answered firmly, "The world isn't like playing chess. There's no thinking five moves ahead because anything can happen. You can trick yourself into thinking you know what people will do, and that's when the punch you don't see coming puts you down. There is only action and reaction, setting a goal and pursuing it come what may. Everyone dies, Gloria, but if you die on the path to what you want you're already a damn sight better than all the poor gonks that got flatlined going to the grocery store, or any of a thousand other places you can die that don't mean anything."

"All the little people and their little lives?" Gloria shook her head, "My parents died like that. I wanted better for David than what they could do for me, and then I hoped I could just give him what they gave me. Getting a job with the meat wagon seemed like the best I'd ever be able to do."

"Do you like me, Gloria?" I asked as she laid against me, "You walk out tonight you'll have an account with enough eddies to put David through the best school in the city and an apartment in a nice neighborhood. Anybody starts sniffing around with bad intentions and I'll gun them down and all their friends and family. No more Juan no more worries, but you gotta leave tonight."

Gloria thought about what to say then shrugged and spoke her mind, "You scare me, and I want your money, but you're also the realest vato I've ever met. I don't like you, Juan… I love you."

"I love you too, mamacita." I grinned and lifted her face up for a kiss, "That's why I had to let you go if that's what you wanted. From now on, I will fight. I'll fight to make sure nothing breaks what we got."

Gloria leaned away and shimmied out of her coat before unbuttoning her pants.

"Shut up and put a baby in me." she grinned and I thanked God for the elastic fibers in my pants.

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"Damn it." David signed as he halted his walk back to the truck from the arcade when he saw the beast of a vehicle shaking.

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