Here ya go, I wrote this the other day. Don't ask me why, it just
came to me and I put it down. (It must be a vision from Gawd brothers!
.. . no wait a minute God hates the internet, I forgot.) Anyway, I
thought I'd put it up and see what people thought about it. Gimme some
C&C. Should I do more with it? Should I chuck it? Should I mention that
its a character intro and thats why it has a weird writing style? Should I
shut the hell up and let you read the story?
Matthew Trotter, I couldn't think of a good quote, so fuck it.
The Old Man
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Go ahead start causin' trouble
Get outa my way, get outa my way
-Rancid
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I know what you thinking. Yeah, sure old man. But it true. You
don't wanna fuck wit an old pro boys. It'll gitcha nothin' but trouble.
Oh I'm sure th' doc tole you, you was on top. But lemme tell ya, it ain't
legal to get wired as me . . . not no more.
Oh yeah? An you think they sell th' good shit to a punk like you? In
th' service, whacha think? They bust you brain wile they was in there,
boy? 'Course I'm a vet ya fuckin' idgit! Do I look like active duty?
Twenty damn years boy, longer then you been suckin' on you mama's tit! I
tole you, you don' want none a this.
Oh, you done passed all them tests. Oh well ain't you th' bright
one. Back in the service they didn' have no testin'. They shove you on
th' table one day an' tomorrow you out kickin' some ass. Ain't th' same
sissy shit you got neither . . . we got th' real high tech back then. Oh
you think that's something like fast, boy? You keep fuckin' wit me an you
gonna find out about fast, ya damn punk.
Cause if you gonna fuck wit a messa boomers you gotta be jacked for
it, why'da think I let 'em fill me fulla all this shit? Oh you ain't
seen a real boomer in this city boy. Real boomer blow you head off ten
mile over a hill. Real boomer a bad mother fucker. An you know what?
That was my job. Kick their ass. Man we seen some bullshit action
too... Fuckin' set up and shit . . . lucky to be alive. An then that
cyberpsycho shit, boy I tell you that was a bad time there. Gadamn docs
all on your ass about how you feel an shit . . . halfa mother fuckers
loosin' it and getin' put down, damn lucky to still be sane . . .
Fuck, you ain't even pain' no attention. Fuck you, I got work to do.
Go jack up you mama, or somebody can't git ya dead boy.
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Look, for the last time, I only saw the guy for a couple of seconds. He
came walking out of the alleyway and some kid ran up and tried to knife him.
He did some fancy move an kicked the kid in the knee. I could hear the
kid start screaming from up here, so I figured he broke his leg. Then
there's a gun shot and that window over there cracks up like it took a
hit.
The old guy yells something down the alley and then there's more
gunfire. The old guy jukes and ducks around and the window gets blown
out. Then he yells something else down the alley and pulls out this big
funky looking gun. It almost looked like one of those police shotguns
only it had all sorts of crap on it. Anyway, he pulls it with one hand...
No, off the truck, I told you that before. The garbage truck, god damn
it! What other truck have I mentioned?! Jesus. Can I go on or do you
have another stupid question? Ok, so he pulls this huge gun and points
it down the alley. When he pulls the trigger there's this sound like
someone hitting a pillow and then the lights went all wacky. Then
there's all this screaming from down the alley, it sounds like someone
going under a press or industrial shredder...
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Dalley: Well what do you think Leon?
Leon(setting an audio file on the desk): I think its some new type boomer.
Dalley: But why disguise it as a trash man and sic it on street kids?
Leon: Those weren't just street kids, they had illegal mods.
Dalley: Yeah. But they were basically street trash, not much of a
challenge to boomers."
[Officer Percy Jones enters from an elevator and approaches Leon and Dalley.
He is carrying a file folder]
Percy: That wasn't a boomer.
Leon: Percy, my man! And what's your theory on this?
Percy: Leon, this ain't a theory, I know what it was.
Leon: Is that so, what do you know, Dalley, looks like the case is closed.
Percy has it all under control.
Percy: I'm serious, Leon. This is probably worse than boomers. Who
ever it was who hit those kids, used a EMP.
Leon: A what?
Percy(holding up the folder): EMP, electromagnetic pulse. The boys in
autopsy found the shell.
[Leon takes the folder and begins flipping through it.]
Dalley: I thought the idea of an EMP was not to have shells.
Percy: It is, Dalley. The problem is that the blast is multidirectional.
People came up with the EMP shell idea as a carrier, but when you
start on shells there's a lot of better weapons you can make with a
shell.
[Leon gets a look of horror on his face and almost drops the file.]
Leon: BOOMER KILLERS!?
Percy: I see you found the good part.
Dalley: Boomer Killers? What do they have to do with this?
Percy: The only real action EMP shells ever saw was in early 2010. The BK's
used to hand make 'em. They used a mass driver variant for propulsion
and to charge the capacitor in the EMP shell. While it was a good
fall back gun, it was never widely popular because it still played
havoc with the electronics on your side. There were also a lot of
complaints about it generating "head noise".
Leon: Are you telling me we have a Boomer Killer loose in the city?
Dalley: I thought they were all destroyed . . .
Percy: Its a myth that's encouraged, actually, about 90% were destroyed.
Another 9% were brought in and "cured".
Leon: And the other 1% is running around killing street punks?!
Percy: Did you read the witness reports?
Leon: Did you see the body?!
Percy: That's what EMPS do to cybernetics, that's why BK's used them.
[The phone on the desk rings, Leon picks it up.]
Dalley: So how do we deal with a BK, don't they have special status under
the cybernetic rights codes?
Percy: Well, if he's on a rampage, he gets same status as a boomer. If
not it goes to trial. If he's the standard BK he'll have an optic
codec and be able to download . . .
Leon: What? Heh, so much for the BK theory, Percy.
Percy: What?
Leon: They guy just turned himself in, he's just an old man.
Percy: BKs look human, Leon. Tell them to ask his service number.
Dalley: Why would he turn himself in, its a sure trial, and with these
new "cyberpunks" people are really down on the heavily augmented.
Percy: Well, he did trash some of these punks, and he's probably got
clean proof of his innocence.
Leon: Awww shit.
Dalley: What is it Leon?
Leon: A17JS23759.
Dalley: What?
Percy: His service number. Well, this ones all yours officer McNicols.
Leon: What, why are you dumping this on me?
Percy: A17, he's an old BK vet. Nothing but trouble.
Leon: Gee, thanks Percy.