The closer the subway train got to the Dreadnaught City
station, the more Colonel Scott Percival doubted whether or not he could return
to a normal life. Still dressed in his black khakis, brown boots, and black
combat vest from the war, everything about Scott screamed “soldier”.
There was not one trace of love or peace in his
contemplative facial expression as he kept his eyes glued to the floor of the
train. Visions of war caused him to clench and unclench his ham-hawk fists. His
energy blade was nestled by his side in case the war came back home with him.
He never knew when the next explosion would come or who would be next to fire
an assault rifle at him. In the cyberpunk hellhole of Dreadnaught City,
being steadfast and hyper-vigilant was a way of life.
Scott’s inner demons were interrupted by the beeping sound
of the train doors opening at its final stop for the night. With nobody else
onboard except for him, getting off this clunky car was the easiest part of his
evening so far.
The hardest part was seeing his girlfriend Gayle Rodriguez
leaning against a platform pillar with her arms and legs crossed and tears
running down her face. No trace of happiness, not even a weak smile, just a red
cocktail dress, flowing black hair, and eyeballs full of stinging juices.
The traumatized soldier approached the equally traumatized
girlfriend and wrapped his massive arms around her in a tender embrace. “It’s
okay, baby girl. I’m home now,” Scott said in his best smooth jazz voice while
stroking Gayle’s silky soft hair.
Gayle broke the embrace and looked into Scott’s coffee brown
eyes with her own puppy-dog expression. “You don’t understand, babe. I can’t be
with you anymore. I’ve done something horrible. I’m sorry, Scott! I can’t do
this! I had to make money while you were away…and…I…I…”
“Back to work, sweetheart. Your dinner break was over an
hour ago,” said a rough feminine voice from the shadows of the platform. When
the woman walked into the overhead light, she revealed herself to be a
gasmask-wearing heavyweight with a large red geisha robe fitting snugly over
her pudgy features. Like Scott, she too had an energy blade nestled beside her,
ready for combat at a moment’s notice.
With a look of concern shadowed by his black dreadlocks,
Scott asked, “Gayle, who is this woman? What have you been doing while I was
away?”
Gayle’s sobs became louder as she buried her face into her
boyfriend’s chest and yelled, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, Scott!”
“Break up the love fest, you stupid bitch!” shouted the
obese woman. “There are horny men that need attending to and I don’t have
anybody else to do it! You want your paycheck? You want to keep living in a
heated apartment? Come with me! Never mind that loser you’re hugging! If he was
a real boyfriend, he would have stayed home with you instead of running away
from his so-called patriotic duty!”
Scott broke the embrace with his girlfriend and slowly paced
toward the female pimp with his hand firmly around the dragon-themed hilt of
his energy blade. “What did you say to me, bitch? What did you say?! You want
to get your head chopped off tonight or what?!” Gayle was about to interrupt
him with a sorrowful warning, but Scott backed her off and said, “Just stay
behind me and don’t do a damn thing! I’ve got this! We can talk about the whole
prostitution thing later! Right now, I’m going to gut this fat bitch alive and
spread her insides all over this fucking platform!”
The pimp glared at Scott behind her hideous gasmask and drew
her skeleton-themed hilt before ejecting a blade of hot red energy from it. She
swung it around with the deftness of a samurai, sometimes even showing off when
she spun it in the air. “For the record, my name isn’t fat bitch. It’s Carla
Madder. Madame Carla Madder. The only one who should get her name changed to
bitch is that woman you’re protecting!”
Scott Percival screamed in primal fury before drawing his
glowing blue energy blade and throwing down with Carla Madder. Gayle stayed in
the background curled up in a ball on the floor and letting her tears and snot
run down her legs. The two warriors slashed and twirled their blades at each
other, sometimes blocking with their weapons and other times flipping and
dodging out of harm’s way. Their weapons even took chunks of cement out of the
pillars and floor. The more destruction they caused to public property, the
more they swung at each other with a berserker’s fury. Their furious brawl
stalled with the two warriors holding their weapons together and glaring
violently at each other.
“Is that all you got? I thought you soldiers had big fucking
grenades. Turns out your just smuggling some cherry bombs!” taunted Carla.
After laughing obnoxiously at her own joke, Scott went for an overhead slash
only to have her duck down and head butt him in the stomach, dropping him to
his knees and causing him to release his blade. Carla kicked the weapon onto
the train tracks and stared at her opponent with a grizzly bear’s hunger. She
even took her gasmask off and revealed her mouth to be an ugly contraption
filled with razor sharp teeth and bloody red lips.
Gayle’s eyes shot up in horror at she watched her boss lick
her top teeth with disgusting sexuality. Scott’s girlfriend crawled over to the
edge of the platform and vomited stomach acid onto the train tracks.
“You have every disease on the fucking planet and you’re
suddenly disgusted by what my mouth looks like. What about what YOUR mouth
looks like, bitch?!” shouted Carla, earning her a punch to the gut and a
clenched-teeth expression from Scott. The rock hard fist sank into her big
belly like her body was made of quicksand. The wide-eyed Scott even struggled
to pull his hand out, even grabbing his own wrist with his free hand.
“Pathetic! That’s all you soldier boys are!” taunted Carla
as she popped Scott’s hand out of her belly and spin kicked him in the chest,
sending the “soldier boy” flying backwards several feet and rolling on the
ground. The demonic pimp squeezed her own breasts in violent anticipation while
Scott was lying on his back hacking and wheezing.
Gayle crawled over to Scott and wrapped his huge arm around
her shoulders in an attempt to get him to his feet. Even with Scott’s
cooperation, lifting him was like trying to lift a small car. He continued to
inhale deep, raspy puffs of oxygen, but dropped down to one knee. “Come on,
Scott, get up! Please! Help me!” shouted Gayle.
The words of encouragement filled Scott’s mind with fire and
fury. Even with his lungs burning and his chest stinging, he got up on his
feet, looked his girlfriend in the eyes, and said, “I love you so much right
now.” And then he heard a whirling noise and felt a hot blast of energy seer
through his shoulder. He screamed in horrific pain as his left arm limply fell
to the ground in a splash of blood, no longer attached to his already pain-wracked
body. Scott got down on one knee again and clutched his shoulder, squealing
through gritted teeth and tightened eyelids. Gayle screamed along with him and
hugged his neck tightly.
“Enough of this shit!” shouted Carla, immediately gaining
the silent attention of Gayle while Scott continued to cry out in agony. From
where she was standing, it appeared the pimp threw her energy blade at her
opponent. She confirmed this when she pointed her sausage finger at the hilt of
her blade, which was halfway across the platform. “You’ve seen how much of a
protective boyfriend your so-called man can be. How protective is he going to
be with just one arm? How is he going to earn you the kind of money you made
while working with me, Gayle? Is he going to be a circus freak? Is that how
he’ll earn his money?”
Carla breathed like a wild beast while Gayle slowly backed
away from her. The heavyset pimp approached her like a lion getting ready to
feast. She kicked Scott in his shoulder hole along the way, causing the battle
born soldier to roll around and scream even louder. Carla smiled viciously and
said, “Gayle, give me my energy blade and all will be forgiven. You can come
back to work anytime you want. I’ll even give you some…extra shifts!” Gayle
attempted a fierce glare at her boss, but could only muster more sorrow. “Give
it to me, Gayle! Give me the goddamn blade!”
This was Gayle Rodriguez’s chance to see the writing on the
wall. She could side with her armless boyfriend and potentially live on the
streets or continue having sex for money and live comfortably. Scott was a
gentleman and the ultimate romantic lover. There was nothing romantic about
what Gayle did for her paychecks. But big paychecks they were, so big that she
could be in line for a promotion. Plus, how could she look Scott in the face
after everything she did while he was away? Paycheck or not, it was wrong. Dead
wrong.
With shaky legs and arms, Gayle got down on one knee and
struggled to keep the energy blade in a firm grasp. Carla motioned for her to
toss it with a wave of her hand. The prostitute steadied herself and once again
tried to form a strong glare. All she did was shake some more. Her insides felt
like they were being ground up into meat. With one girly throw, she tossed the
hilt of the energy blade.
Carla reached up to grab it, but the hilt sailed over her
head and into the one arm of Scott Percival, who ejected the red energy and
slashed the pimp’s throat in one quick motion. Blood and organs flowed heavily
from Carla’s big neck as she dropped to the ground and soaked the platform with
her life juices. She tried to curse at her former charge, but all that would
come out was a waterfall of blood. Once she landed on the floor chest first,
the final tidal wave of blood splashed onto the train tracks below. One final
twitch of her fat pinky and that was all she wrote.
Scott tossed the blade aside and looked tearfully into his
girlfriend’s eyes. She looked back at him with that same ghostly expression
before running up to him in high heeled shoes and hugging her one-armed man
tightly while showering his face with kisses. “I’m so sorry, Scott! I didn’t
mean for things to turn out this way! Please forgive me!” she begged.
Even with one arm, Scott’s hug felt warm and protective,
like a romantic shield. “I’ll never let anything bad happen to you again,
Gayle. I’ll find a way to make money. And when I do, we’re going to have that
family we’ve always wanted.”
“I love you, Scott!”
“I love you too, baby girl. Let’s get the fuck out of this
dump.”
