Slade's mind flashed back to the bitter past, to when he was still human in junior high, and the brutal event that landed him in prison. It all started when his twin sister, the only family he had left, hanged herself in her room. At first, Slade couldn't wrap his head around why she'd done it, until he found her diary.
The diary revealed his sister was being blackmailed by a P.E. teacher at her school. After school, she was forced to go to an abandoned storage room and submit to the teacher's sick demands. This had been going on for three months.
If she skipped, the teacher threatened to expose everything at Slade's school—which was different from hers—and destroy his life there. Terrified, she gave in until she couldn't take the shame and pain anymore, choosing to end her life.
Reading it, Slade boiled over. Armed with a baseball bat and a knife, he stormed out and headed for the teacher's house, the address scrawled in the diary. When he arrived, he was shocked to see a girl from his own school, one he knew, being led by a girl about his age from his sister's school.
It turned out the second girl was delivering the student to the pervert teacher, who was waiting inside with rope and a camera. His usual scam was to knock the victims out, strip them, photograph them, and then use the photos to blackmail them.
"That monster is still doing it."
Seeing another potential victim, especially from his school, Slade lost it. He charged inside and, without a word, slammed the bat hard into the teacher's head. Blood splattered. Before the teacher could even react, Slade stabbed him in the hip with the knife and kept swinging the bat at his head until the teacher finally stopped moving.
The girl from his sister's school tried to stop Slade from hitting the unmoving body. She then confessed that she had been the teacher's first victim and apologized to Slade for being the one who had brought his twin sister to the teacher, claiming it was for a study session.
Slade was consumed by rage, raising the bat to strike her too, but he finally told her to get out and take her unconscious schoolmate with her. Shortly after she fled, the police arrived. Slade stood there silently and was arrested. At the station, he confessed to killing the scumbag teacher. He was tried, and the court sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
The sensational story—a student killing a teacher—was broadcast nationwide. Later, the girl Slade had saved from his sister's school testified, exposing the teacher's pattern of extortion and assault against minors. Based on her testimony and the fact that Slade was the victim's brother, his sentence was reduced to just 3 years. Despite this, the public stigma was brutal, fueled by the trial broadcasts and the know-it-all comments on social media.
Slade, however, accepted his sentence without bitterness. He still had hope, even though he was unsure what to do once he was free. The girl in the photo kept visiting him in prison, and while her visits softened his anger toward her, he still refused to see her, feeling he was unworthy. [End flash back]
Finished with the memory flash back, Slade decided to leave the apartment and head to the convenience store for some food. He slipped the girl's photo into his jacket pocket. Calming himself, he turned to the door handle. But as he opened it, Slade was instantly startled. Two strangers in black suits and shades were standing right outside.
"Who—"
"Bzzzz...."
Slade didn't finish his question before they hit him with a stun gun. He passed out instantly. One of the strangers simply hoisted Slade over his shoulder and carried him away, closing the apartment door behind them. When Slade next woke up, he was totally changed and in the far future. The world was a desert, and human civilization was gone. All he had left was the girl's photo in his jacket.
***
Back to now. "Sleeeg...jgleg," the door behind Slade opened. He quickly put the photo back in his duster pocket and slipped his sunglasses back on. Suddenly, someone grabbed his shoulder, and he turned around.
"You were asking about work, right? Come on in," Jack said.
They walked back into the Guild and headed to the counter. Jack slid back behind the bars and pulled a tablet-like device from a drawer. He hit the power button, and it stayed off. He slammed the side of the tablet, and "bwung," it projected a laser beam that formed a three-dimensional photo above it—a hologram of a small girl with red eyes.
"Hold up. I'm hunting a kid?" Slade asked.
"Nah. This isn't a bounty job. It's a job to find this kid and guard her until her transport shows up," Jack answered.
"Huh. A little girl from the Noz faction, looks like some kind of noble kid. Who snatched her?" Slade questioned.
Jack tapped the tablet again. The hologram shifted to a girl about Slade's age: beautiful, with long black hair and red eyes. "Tluk." The cigarette in Slade's mouth dropped. He was gaping. The girl's face was identical to his dead twin sister in his memories, only her eyes were red.
"Oi, why the long face?" Jack nudged him.
"Ah, sorry. She's the kidnapper?" Slade asked.
"Hmm, technically no. She actually rescued the little girl from the kidnappers, but she hasn't brought her back yet. That's why the client wants us to find her, and if the girl she's with causes trouble, take her out. Then bring the little girl to the client," Jack explained.
"Who's the client?" Slade asked.
"Her bodyguard," Jack replied.
"Ha! That's rich. The bodyguard must be scared to face the girl's parents, so he's got us doing the legwork," Slade sneered.
"Not exactly. The bodyguard could do it himself, but he's on a deadline. That's why he hit up the Guild for help," Jack corrected.
"Honestly, I hate dealing with the Noz faction and kids. Plus, the client sounds shady," Slade countered.
"So, you taking it or not? It's 20,000 chips (octagonal coins) if you do," Jack offered.
"Okay, okay, I'll take it. I need the client's address and the case file." Slade pulled out his smartphone, which was now called a terminal, and pushed it across the counter to Jack.
Jack tapped his tablet to Slade's terminal. The hologram data jumped to Slade's device. Jack slid the terminal back. Slade grabbed it, reading the client's address and the note that the child was last seen near a settlement by the oasis. Slade tapped the screen, pocketed the terminal, turned, and headed for the door. But his mind was stuck on the girl's face.
"No way she's alive. I watched my sister hang herself."
Slade figured this because it had been 1,000 years since he was zapped and kidnapped from his apartment. Though he still looked the same, Slade had actually been alive for 300 years since waking up in this transformed world and had been asleep for 700 years in a cryo-pod.
Slade was different from the other Vorgs—the name for the new cyborg humans. His body was 90% synthetic/machine. All his internal organs were synthetic, too. He could transform his arms into any weapon: knives, laser pistols, laser rifles, even a sniper rifle.
He had a miniature nuclear power source inside him, making him far stronger than other Vorgs. He could also heal instantly if hurt, thanks to nano-machines in his blood, unlike other Vorgs who needed maintenance. He could still eat like other Vorgs, and his organic tissue could still process the nutrition.
Slade headed for the lift to go back to the surface and move toward the oasis, where the little girl was last spotted.