The Dark Luminous

1387 Solar Coronal .

One of the city's dark, quiet streets is where the city's elite congregate for late-night revelry. The area is well-known for its illegal drug and ammunition markets.

At one of the outdoor street bars:

Man 1: Hey, did you hear about the 254th death last night?

Man 2: Oh, yeah! I mean, how can the number of deaths keep rising?

Man 1: I'm not sure about it, but according to the authority, it's all about the solar eclipse two months ago.

Man 2: Fuck them! Life is disgusting. That's why its good to drown in the world of dizziness. At least it just keeps distracting us from the negatives all around. (He drinks one of the beer bottles.).

Man 1: Hey, man! You are drinking a lot. I hope you will pay for it.

Man 2: Haahahah... Are you saying you used to pay them for it??

Man 1: Oh, yeah! Why not?

Man 2: You seemed like a nice guy to me. (with a gory look) How many people have you killed in your lifetime?

Man 1: Uhm. (scared) I have only witnessed the death of my dog! (Saying with glittering sadness in his eyes.)

Man 2: Haha (laughs aggressively). Are you serious?? Do you consider it a death? ... Every day, another piece of trash must perish in our world. They live in order to die.

Hahaha... You truly are a moron! 

(Pointing to the people sitting around.) 

Man 2: Hello, ladies! Just get this guy out of my way. Talking to him now is such a disguise. (approaches one of the ladies sitting around)

Lady: (a wealthy looking and not-so-friendly one) Who are you to order us like that?

Do you know who I am? 

I am the wife of the owner of this magnificent establishment.

Get your ass out of here, you jerk!  (while laughing..)

Man 2: Oh, I see! I believe you cretins have never been educated. Let me demonstrate something to you.

(He pulls out a gun from his pocket.)

The crowd rose up in commotion. As if they were ready to run for their lives, they were all terrified.

Man 2: Woah, woah, don't worry, guys. 

Do you know how it works? (starts demonstrating)

First, you need to charge the burster with the acid battery in it. (It sounds like an electric charge is moving.).

Then pull the initiator (pauses while hushing) & watch out!.

(Lady shouts in panic.) 

Man 2: Don't pull the trigger until you aim it. And once you are ready,!! (He aims it at the man and smiles.)

Man 1 : No, please don't... Let me go! See, I have my family.. Just forgive me (he shows his phone having a picture).

(The drunken man struggles to see, presses the trigger hard and shoots him.)

While the man has been shot. His phone dropped to the ground, revealing a photo of his smiling, beautiful daughter sitting on his shoulders. His face was just busted in such a way that all of his features were disfigured to the point where no one recognised him.

The woman was smeared with his blood on her face, screaming as if she knew her death was imminent.

Panic broke out quickly. The mob was trying to get out of the shop while the drunken man was shooting everywhere.

There appears to be a man staring all the time from the top of one of the sky scraping buildings.

Ryan: Finally, the night is here... People drive crazy when they see this dark sky and shimmering lights all around. (smirks)

They show what they truly are. Sitting on the top while watching, it always feels like they have this naive mask on their face where they seem like some motherfucking gods.

(Man shot that owner's wife on the head down in the bar.)

But I know they are just predators. They find their prey in this quiet chorus of noise, and when they see it (pauses), they never think about the consequences.

(Other gun carrying men arrived in the uproar while choosing the woman they like..)

H.. How stupid can they become, I wonder? I still don't know why I used to see these things in front of my blood-fed eyes.

While I hunt down people, I always think that life now is worthless. It's the power that drives the world; it's the wealth that allows one to buy even the will of a person, even if it is precious to someone.

(Men carrying women on their shoulders all smeared in blood.)

The preciousness drives me insane (anger uproars),just like a wolf who has lost his prey. I won't let anyone catch my prey because it's fucking precious to me!!!!!....

The man sprints and jumps towards the building entirely encased in glass panels, bursting through the glass and revealing himself.

Guardsman: Hey,who's there? (carrying a burster and aims it in the shadows)

Ryan: You wanna see? 

A man emerges from the shadows with a knife and a gun in both hands, as if they are a part of him. He has a cloth mask over his mouth and neck. With his hair on his brow, he looks like a true hellraiser approaching... (His suit gleams with varying intensities of color, as if he's just trying to express his rage.)

Ryan: See! Your death came to you itself.

(Ryan thrusts his knife straight into his front neck, blood splattering around him.) 

Ryan: There seem to be more people down there.

(Ryan rushes down through the building terrace.)

Voice through his earphone: I hope you know you are not here to wait, so just get those fucking guns loaded.

Ryan: Are you aware?

Mira: What?

Ryan: Just shut the fuck up! (While analyzing the place around).

Ryan: Hey Scotch, please get me a hyper boomer right now.

Scotch: It will take some time, Ryan. You gotta cover yourself.

Ryan: Uh, ah... Let's see how many of them are there. {sounds like he would not settle for less.}

(Watches the people positioned at places.)

Ryan: Oh yeah!!!!!, There's going to be a lot of blood. I'll make sure not to waste any.

(Ryan Casually walks into the guards.)

Ryan: Hey guys! I believe you should take a break right now. You all seem tired. (Guards seem startled.) Hear me and get those loaders at rest.

{The soldiers immediately aimed their weapons at the psycho boy. The thudding of guns at the same time gives the impression that there will be a lot of blood. And you know I'm here for it only!}

Ryan says, "Scotch!" I don't think we can get a better time than this.

Scotch: Okay! The RD-646 has been loaded.

Ryan: Oh yeah! (excited)

(As soon as the soldiers started shooting, Ryan grabbed his armor and blasted off his boomer, moving around to prevent and reflect the aimed blasters.)

(Every soldier aiming got exploded with the reflected blast explosion.)

(Floor went all red.)

Ryan: Oh man! That felt so hard. Nice paint job, huh? 

(The site fills with smoke and people shouting for help as they were burning alive.) 

(More soldiers rushed towards the scene as the psycho boy looks dreadful.)

Due to heavy explosions, the site grew dark with no light source available except the night sky light coming from the backdrop of the smoke around.

One of the soldier—-nervous tries to move ahead to see what's in the smoke.

He sees a pair of eyes with a gruesome look. It looks as if it is going to jump on him.

He starts shooting towards it. (bang.) But there was nothing, actually. He's so scared—literally, he is so shocked, and now he doesn't know what he really saw in there. He is sweating and scared.

He went back to his fleet with a horror-stricken expression. 

Soldiers: Hey! What was that?

Soldier: I don't know. (scared) I was about to die by an animal or anything.

Soldiers: Are you joking?? Those bodies were burnt by some animal??

Soldier: I don't know ! [pauses and tries to watch closely]

Hey what was that??

The soldier sees something coming towards him from the soldiers back. (He aims towards it.)

Soldiers: What are you doing?? (The soldier continues to aim his target.)

He's gone mad. (Orders his subordinate.)

Shoot him right now.

Bang….

Soldier panicked and shot many rounds of blasts on his very own fleet.

After finding that they had all died,. He got so mad that he left his ammunition and ran towards the animal he mentioned.

(Another blast with lots of blood splatter on the wall behind.)

Ryan: Did you see that Scotch? (says ignorantly.) Humans are so easy to kill. 

I need something challenging. That's so boring.

{Well said, Ryan!}

Mira (in his earpiece): If you are finished , just retrieve that shit and let me go.

Ryan: Relax; I'm on it.

(He went into one of the server machine rooms, all foggy and cold.)

(He tries to connect his system to the main console.)

(The console screen says "Network Shared.")

Ryan: Mira! The job's done; you can proceed now.

Mira: Oh, really? Well, you already took most of the time given to us.

I'm hoping we'll make it through.(doesn't sound happy, though.)

Ryan: It will only take a few minutes.

Mira: Bingo! We're linked. Now all you have to do is send me those signatures as soon as possible.

Ryan: It's not a big deal, I guess. It'll only take 3 minutes!

Mira: Ryan, we don't have that much time. Resistance is on board; we have to do this quickly.

Ryan:(frustrated) We will make it through. You just keep your foul mouth shut. 

(Here is another blast around Ryan.)

(Appears another cyberbot.)

Psycho: You've got to be kidding me! Now they are sending kids like you! (disappointed)

(A giant psych droid with metal arm comes into the place.)

Ryan: I hope you want to take back those words; it will be tough once you're dead.

Psycho: (mockingly laughs) We'll see. (Loads the gun and shoots.)

Ryan swiftly dodged and got his body behind one of the big server machines. Psycho blasted the machines, causing the scene to darken. The only thing one can see now is the flame from the blaster when it is shot. 

Mira: Gotcha! files are received. I don't know, Ryan, how you will come out of this mess now.

But I'm done for now!!!

(She dashed through the roof of one of the buildings, heading to the unknown.)

Ryan: (while hiding) Hey, bud! Don't you think you are making things worse for you by destroying everything here. I don't think your client will appreciate it.

Psycho: It will all be worth it once you are dead, child..

(Shot another one that blew up nearly everything, the whole wall collapsed. The building is all open from that side.)

(Debris fell down, making people around the area so concerned now. Cops have arrived and they now started heading to the top of it.)

(Ryan got damaged severely this time. Although he is on his feet, he quite knew he couldn't handle it that long for real.)

Ryan: Woahooh… It looks like you messed things up badly.

 I can't believe you are doing it (while breathing heavily.)

Scotch: Ryan! The next attack is on queue already. You have 10 seconds at most.

Ryan: Don't make me worry now, Scotch. Just give me the best shot possible to get this thing done.

Scotch: As you wish..

(It looks like Scotch was telling to get away from here. But he is in different mood.. He is just a badass at this moment..)

Psycho ran towards Ryan for his final blow.. However, Ryan doesn't look in any mode of retaliation.

BANG…..

The scene concludes with a dim light showing blood splatters all over the room. The structure is rapidly collapsing. Cops have arrived, and there is no word on Ryan's survival.

While the cops are dealing with the whereabouts of the whole damage to the building, there emerges a man all covered in devastation. 

Ryan: Call for the mobile (mobeel) Scotch!.

Scotch: On the way.

Scotch: But what was that, Ryan??

Ryan: (tensed) I thought you poor computers' had eyes too!

Scotch: Well, according to me, you totally gave up at that moment. I don't know how you have survived.

(Ryan smirks)

Ryan put on his helmet and found something on the road. 

Ryan: A phone stained with blood?!

(It has some picture of a man and a little girl child sitting on his back.)

(It might move him, but its just too much for a damaged cybebot. He threw it away and moved on. The screen of the phone goes off finally.)

He jumps to one of the fastest moving objects that appears out of nowhere..

Ryan is riding his bike at such a high speed that his light bike appears to be a flare. It left a colorful flash of light wherever it moved. Its his favorite color too… The Colour of Blood.

He arrived at an old house on the city's garbage dump land. All of the city's electronic-digital waste used to be dumped on this land.

Ryan: Scotch!! What's my health level?

Scotch: Its 55%. But no major damage whatsoever. You'll need some rest and a good thunder charge. I'm about to retrieve the visual data we have. Your memory will going to be nearly empty the next day. Headquarters is receiving information.

Ryan: I don't need this crap in my ears. Make sure I get enough sleep. I don't want to be stressed right now.

Scotch: On it.!

The scene concludes with Ryan thinking, hesitating, and sleeping in his sleep pod.

The next day, Ryan was called to headquarters for his previous mission call-up.

ATLA : Hey Ryan! How are you?

Ryan: Come on… just go ahead! (He is really pissed off of these computer voices all the time.)

ATLA: You did an excellent job. I mean, the customers were overjoyed. They got their data, but the damage you caused was unexpected. The cops have begun their investigation.

Ryan: Is there something I need to take some stress out of?

ATLA: Well, until now, it looks like there is no way cops were able to figure out your presence. You might know the case of Cyberot-116.

Ryan: That destructive machine, seriously?

ATLA: I mean, there is a 95% chance you will be safe this time, but just beware of the other 5%.

Ryan: Ok.. (frustrated really)

ATLA: Any other help??

Ryan: No

ATLA: Would you like to try our new Sexual Experience Module ? It's in high on demand among many cyber handlers.

Ryan: Take a note, okay.. I dont like these fucking advertisements. Better avoid these; otherwise, I will rip your skin. (in the most dreadful expression possible…) 

ATLA: Good joke, Ryan! I don't have any skin. By the way your suggestion is being recorded. Have a great day ahead :).(In the sweetest possible tone.)

(Ryan seems to have a free time now.. he's not a type of droid to enjoy it.)

The life for cyberots like him is nothing more than just being a controlled piece of machine; it's just that they don't have their own will. However, the Fochips doesn't allow them to . Maybe that's the reason all of them are kind of irritated. NEVER MIND, GUYS WE ARE ALL BECOMING LIKE THAT… IT WOULD NOT BE A NEW THING SOON.

Ryan moves to a low lying part of modern NYC where beggars and certain "unsocial" people lives. 

(He observes people doing sexual intercourse with the simulation machines common these days.)

Ryan enters an old rostro bar, which used to be a luxury one around, but after what happened here 20 years ago, converted the whole scenario around. He calls a man named Fredo, aka Farhan..

Ryan: (asks as if he is whispering ) I heard you have your hands on that, huh..

Fredo: (A fat-old man busy in his own work of cleaning mess around) Yeah those were big but I'm not a big fan of them.

Ryan: Don't play ambush here, okay, I'm asking for the cell.. I need it .(emphasizes his point)

Fredo:(laughs), I know how fucked you are but it's not a good thing to talk about .

(hesitating) It will ruin my business.

Ryan: That ain't a business, you idiot.. You just smuggle it illegally. I need it now; just tell me what you need in exchange.

Fredo: I need your assistance in one of my work.

Ryan: (irritated by what Fredo says) Ok, see, I have these boosters attached to me, and what I need to convince you is to blow that bullshit head of yours. (points towards Fredo) So just give it to me… It would be a fair deal.

Fredo: You sound too confident, kid. Maybe you can threaten a normal person like that but I'm not flattered. You hear it .. 

(Enters a customer drunk all in.)

Ryan: Ok, see, I need it right now… (shows real desperation this time.)

Fredo : Not that easy, you son of a bitch… (takes out a vintage hand-pistol out aiming Ryan)

I have been waiting for this moment my whole life. It would be a fair deal with some corporation of cyberbot, not some piece of trash like you…

Customer: Hey !!! Give me my regular beer, old man …(He seems to be so high on drugs that he doesn't know what he is saying to whom.)

Ryan: That would be the same, Fredo… You will be caught, I swear. Corporations work like that only. 

Believe me, just give it to me.

Customer: Hey… you fucking kid, bend infront of me.. Iiii… will make you suck…. (He's not able to say things clearly.)

(Tries to push Ryan)

Ryan pulled the trigger and shot under… the man.

Ryan: No need. You just don't have something to be proud of now ..

 (Man falls down with blood all around the floor.)

Fredo : Shoot !!(really scared) WTF, you lunatic!! I just mopped the floor some time ago. 

Ryan: See, just give that to me. (definitely a threatening warning.) Otherwise, I'm not hesitating to do it again.. (tries to convince him one last time)

(Fredo scared the shit out of him… nods in favour)

He hands over a metal cabinet.. looks heavy as he struggles to hand over.

Fredo: Atleast just give me that dead bloat's simulation machine.. (all people seem to have these.)

Ryan: Sure, the body and his belongings are yours.. Help yourself… 

Fredo quickly come closer to the body to collect needful things for him.

(Ryan comes out of the bar. People looked disdainful about his presence.)

Ryan narrates:

The world is definitely the worst place to live for a common man. It's not some place now that one wants to flourish in. 

But it wasn't like that all these years ago.

The ongoing bio mechatronics were part of the war that led world to fight in order to become the supreme commander of the humanoid armies. 

I myself was part of the leading Humanoid-C28 squad. We were all prepared for any style of combat, whether it's hand combat or some kind of shooting competition.. It was rather a war experience that I will laugh on further. Because no one died…

Droids just use their spares to their advantage whenever there is some major damage to their body.

Unless we reach human settlements, machines like us cannot sense the fear and intense emotions among real men and women. 

But we were reckless, (pauses) we swept the whole race living there.

I was only 14, at least according to what my chest spare says.

I had my chest torn apart during one of the combats with a human. It was an equal fight, with two men fighting to survive. Just like how nature works.

I killed him and ripped his chest apart at last. 

However, he made me realize how it felt to be torn like a plastic.

That's when I realized we don't have to think much about emotions. It was a close one, truly.

But see where I am now (laughs), fighting over the supplies I need to survive from these humans.

(Some guys fighting on streets.)

Guy 1: Hey, show me what you got? you asshole..

(Guns shot heard with splatter of blood)

Crowd: It's a psych droid..! Run for your life..

Guy 1: What were you thinking, huh, You have the potential to fight? No humans! Sorry; you are forced to live scared under us . (pointing towards the dead man)

Ryan continues:

It's really normal nowadays. The seekers just can't stop it. They don't have power, or maybe they just don't want it to.

(They don't seem to have any government or anything rather a bunch of seekers trying to manage life around the city. THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A COUNTRY IN THIS WORLD NOW. Although, it used to have once).

Ryan reached his house cum workshop.

Ryan: Scotch, can you just analyze the detained power source.

Scotch: Sure,

Scotch: Its a compressed nuclear compound embedded in some biomag system.

Ryan: Hmm, something that a human would try to do.

Scotch: What are you trying to do here, Ryan?

Ryan: Do you remember that duel with that psycho that night? (breathes)

Scotch: Yeah, I think I can see where you are headed, Ryan.

Ryan: True, initialize space-time dilator and use that binucleate to match the energy density requirement.

Scotch: Okay! But beware of the anomalies you will encounter. The company won't like using their technology like this.

Ryan: I don't need any advices at this moment Scotch, just do it.

Ryan switches his bio-suit into some kind of black chrome that seems to absorb every light around it. And there comes the bright luminous.

[THE DARK LUMINOUS]

Ryan enters the past.

Scotch: We are 10 minutes and 5 miles away from the actual target.

Ryan: Fine!! Just keep me tagged into the dilator feed.

Scotch: Ryan!! (pauses) Who's the second person here??

Ryan: What do you mean?? (confused)

Scotch: I can see one more tag-in to your feed.

Ryan grew restless, trying to see what was going on around him.

Ryan: Scotch, can you get me the information?

Scotch: On it, Ryan!!

Ryan moves to the building where he fought the psych droid.

Scotch: Feed is not stable. I mean, I can't control what's happening, Ryan.

Ryan: Don't say shit Scotch, just try to hang on .

(A rectangular piece of blank paper appears in front of him, floating in air and falls down in front of him.)

Ryan, being curious, picks it up… but its empty while the papers back have something written.

Ryan: Its written in Sanskrit with a strange symbol. 

(कालस्य अवगमनाय विरामः अतीव महत्त्वपूर्णः अस्ति

त्वं च तत् स्थगितम् अन्विष्यसि यत् जीवनस्य अन्तं सुनिश्चितं करोति।)

(Cessation is very important to understand time. And you are looking for that closure which ensures the end of time.)

(Ryan feels weird about the note as he is in past dilated time that keeps him shocked about showing something written on time.)

Ryan: I am probably not the only one seeking something from this timeline.

Scotch: Hey, Ryan!

This is the moment.

Ryan swiftly reaches the point where building went open and the psycho was about to shoot.

Ryan: Scotch, just tell me if something strange happens in the time feed.

Scotch: Okay!

Psycho: You're a dickhead, kid!! (Aims his gun towards Ryan and shoots!!)

Ryan from the past watches closely as the bright blaze of psycho's blaster fades out his vision.

(He closes his eyes forcefully. Everything seems pretty quiet and calm now.)

He seems to feel the sound of his breath; its too silent for a droid like him.

And suddenly he hear a sound of rising power level of blaster that's coming towards him in no time.

(Ryan comes back to his consciousness and dodges to the coming ray of blast.)

Ryan: What's this?? (panting) Scotch, what was that??(No answer.) Hey can you hear me?? Such a piece of sh*t! (frustrated).Everything around is so quiet and frozen in time.

Where Am I?

Strange Voice: It's the end, Ryan!! (Comes out a look-alike of a human c-droid just like Ryan, but he looks bulky and covered with some kind of helmet or face mask , which is so black that its hard to see any texture or detail over it.)

Ryan: Now who the fuck are you, and you know me? Everything seems frozen, and you are not… any special privilege, huh??

Stranger: That's a whole load of questions, but I'm not here to tell you all this. 

(Aims his loaded blast towards him)

Ryan: NO!! (BANG….)

Ryan: It was so close… 

(Stranger draws/make out a sword out of his arm..)

(Stranger tries to slash Ryan. )

(Whoop!!)

Ryan: Woah!! German Fencing style, huh.. Let me try this too..

(Jumps backwards and flips while forming a similar kind of blade out of his hand.)

Stranger: That slashing in air looks cool Ryan! but its not enough.

Ryan: We'll see.

(Both run towards each other while maintaining their respective combat stances.)

Ryan tries to stab him, but he is not immature either.

He gently reverts his blow back to Ryan, facing his neck.

Ryan: Phew!! You're good.

(Stranger seems to be impressed too.)

Stranger went berserk this time, slashing hard with each blow stronger than the previous. Ryan seems to be struggling this time.

Stranger seems to have the upper hand this time and got a clean slash on Ryan's body.

Stranger: Come on!! Give me a break. You can do a lot better.

Ryan continues to defend himself while tricking his opponent into thinking he is going all in for a slash. But he swiftly bent down to get hold of the opponent and slashed him, moving around while completing a circle.

(Stranger doesn't find it coming, though.)

Ryan: Well, now that's not something one could be proud of!

Stranger smiles and draws out his blaster, ready to explode at any moment.

Stranger: To be honest, I was waiting for it.

Stranger shoots the burst towards Ryan.

Ryan manages to dodge it, but somehow it is not aimed at him.

Ryan looks shocked by what has happened .

Its for the frozen droid, not for him, making all surroundings normal as commotion of cops and people around buildings can be heard.

Ryan: What do you want? (shouts)

Stranger: Now I have it already . (with a proud voice). But I need to do one more thing..

He blasts another one towards Ryan, and this time Ryan has no control over himself. 

(Ryan hits hard this time , exposing a lot of his damaged suit and a red blood stain on his head. (It looks no good for a warrior who fought in a petrifying war.)

Ryan don't able to see much now, but shouts in anger.

Ryan: Just tell me, you motherfucker, who are you? (cries of pain)

Stranger: Don't you understand Ryan, huh?

(brief pause.) (Removes his helmet revealing his face)

(Ryan looks shocked.) I am ... (inaudible)!!

The world around seems to melt as if it starts to collapse and amalgamate. Sky seems to crack open , sucking all the air out.

Its clearly the world, that is dying.. Ryan shouts in pain and anger. But he won't be able to do anything for it.

(Air escapes out as its loud aching sound leaving..)

Everything goes silent and black. As if there wasn't anything here all this time. Its silent and peaceful.

Everything fades away.!

 You were reading Episode One (The Dark Luminous) from Am I? Volume 1 The Time is Now... .