Cyberpunk: Unbound

> The hotel

Fire. There was fire everywhere.

We howled in agony, unable to bear the heat caused by the dancing orange flames licking at our sides.

It was hot, so hot.

The feeling of our skin melting atop charred flesh.

It was an inexpressible level of pain.

We could do nothing about it, trapped beneath a heavy wooden beam that had fallen from the blackened, broken ceiling.

Tears stung our melting cheeks as our body slowly fell apart, succumbing to the blazing heat that was creeping throughout the hotel.

'This isn't fair!' A voice screamed, drowning our already-addled minds with a shout. 'It hurts, it hurts so much!'

It was Delaney.

Fuck.

He didn't deserve this pain, neither of us did.

Our mind shut down, unable to function for a moment longer.

We had died.

***

> Watson, Kabuki - Riverside

Delaney's tired eyes shot open.

"Mmmph."

He convulsed, gagging as he inhaled a lungful of dirty, polluted water.

His panicked gaze darted upwards, desperately seeking a way to escape the clutches of the dark water surrounding him.

He kicked his feet viciously, swimming upward as fast as he could possibly manage.

His head spun violently from the effort, but he kept kicking at the water behind him with a furious intensity.

'Calm down. You're ascending too fast.' A familiar voice suddenly spoke, echoing throughout his agitated mind. 'We're already out of air and we're going to pass out if you force this too quickly.'

Delaney took comfort in the voice's rationality, closing his eyes and slowing down his swimming pace.

'Good. We'll be up shortly, then we can talk.'

Around ten seconds later, Delaney's head broke the surface.

He coughed until his midriff hurt from exertion, sending a wave of ripples speeding across the water's surface.

They were in a river.

But how? They had just died, hadn't they?

'Not important.' Said the voice. 'Get to the edge - now.'

Delaney turned to the right, wading his way through the murky water and toward the short concrete banks that ran along the river's edge.

He made a beeline for a set of stony steps attached to them, barely managing to pull himself up before collapsing back against the hard, sun-warmed concrete.

"Shit," Delaney swore, reaching up to wipe away the water that was still clouding his left eye. "Where are we?"

'Not dying by fire - which is always a win in my books.

The boy laughed aloud, his brother's dry comment catching him way off guard.

'And not quite ourselves,' Jamie continued, prompting Delaney to take a closer look at the hand that was rubbing at the front of his face.

It was pale, lacking their previous tan and weaving tattoos that should've stretched right to the base of their fingertips.

His skin was now warped by a deep layer of burnt scarring that covered his whole arm.

The boy's gaze was quickly subverted once he finally saw what lay on the opposite side of the river.

There were massive, towering buildings that stretched up into the blue sky above. He was in a city.

That fact alone wasn't too disconcerting.

But the gigantic neon logos that were covering each one?

Now that made the two of them stop and think.

Nordstar, SoftSys, 2nd Amendment, and… Kiroshi?

"Jamie," The boy breathed, searching for a response from his other half. "Those names…"

'What the fuck?'

Jamie's murmured curse was a testament to how shocked he was.

His brother never usually swore, not ever.

Delaney tore his gaze from the mixture of odd-looking buildings, turning left to look at what lay further down the river.

A slum of makeshift huts lay not too far from where he sat, each one built from an assortment of scrappy-looking sheet metal.

The huts stretched out onto a cracked, muddy-looking beach that eventually blended back beneath the murky water of the river.

'This is impossible.' Said Jamie.

Delaney gawked at the slum as if it were magical. "Apparently fucking not. What is the hell is this - reincarnation?"

'Transmigration.' Jamie corrected him. 'If anything, it's transmigration. Or a dream.'

Delaney glanced back down at his pale, scarred hand. He crawled forward, back toward the water's edge.

He stared down into his reflection, slowly reaching up and running his fingers across the foreign face that was now their own.

The figure in the water spoke.

"It better not be a dream."

Delaney laughed again, a growing smile broadening his new, teenage features.

"Although, waking up in our favourite game… Means it probably might be."

***