Darkest Side of the Night
NOTE: This monologue is not canon for my character's background - it is written in the Mega Man Battle Network universe, with him as a net navi. However, the characterization is correct.
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The puddles in the streets reflect the multicolored lights that shine above on the skyscrapers and storefronts. Advertisements flash across giant screens as crowds of navis file through the lanes like aisles in a supermarket, taking in the sights and sounds of the city nightlife. The popular nightlife, anyhow.
Wander out to the edges of the city, away from the monolithic structures at its center, and you'll find a distinctly different side of the night with its own shades of grey. The darkest side of the night. Worn-down abandoned buildings serve as shelters for migratory malcontents who've lost their souls somewhere in this maze of urban degradation. Alleyways go unlit and provide hiding spots for muggers waiting for unsuspecting passerby. The roads are illuminated by flickering neon, lit above dives that haven't had a customer in years. The abandoned and unwanted masses congregate here, locked in an eternal state of symbiotic tension; always needing one another, but never trusting anyone.
The darkest side of the night isn't the home of the villains, the darkloids or demons with pleasant nightmares swirling through their minds and aspirations of evil greatness. It's a much more pathetic reality - filled with the fallen angels that take to the street and reluctantly sell off their souls for the chance to survive. Many of them have gone insane because it's the only way they can live with themselves. Most of them don't wonder about their future because they don't think they'll have one. Existence is a constant countdown to that one incident you don't make it out of, and the display on the time bomb is broken.
It's my kind of place.
When I first got to Element City, I wandered around with the crowds for a while, glancing at the tourist traps and the hotel signs, keeping the filters in my suit's vents active to nullify the gas that I couldn't keep from seeping out. I didn't want to draw attention to myself just yet.
The way the city is laid out is clever - there's never a main street that even slants toward the slums without blocking them from view with another picture-perfect piece of manufactured metropolitan bliss. The only way to end up there is to be dragged in by bad decisions or bum luck - or to follow the signs of failure and the scent of fear straight into hell.
It was on one of those crowded city streets that I caught my first glimpse of what I'd come for. A strange-looking green navi across the street from me was pulled into an alley by a small attacker. By the time I'd navigated my way through the cascade of nobodies and crossed the road, the green one had walked back out with only the slightest hint of annoyance on his face. I sauntered into the alley once he was out of sight.
His assailant was lying on the ground and moaning in pain. There was a gash on his leg with pixellated edges that shifted and flashed; something was happening to his data, and he was clearly not enjoying it.
He reached up and tried to grab my leg. I knocked it away with my foot. He opened his mouth, speaking in a weak and pathetic voice, begging for help, explaining that the green freak had done something terrible to him.
I crouched down to get a better look at him. My visor was cold and expressionless as I spoke, foreshadowing my actions even as the tone of my words came across as sweet and caring.
"It's okay," I told him. "City life is rough. A lot of people find themselves in situations like this, dear. I bet it hurts, doesn't it?"
He nodded, a sob escaping his parted lips. I could tell from his reaction that this must have been his first mugging, or at least his first failed attempt. He was probably new to the trade, recently abandoned by an operator he had relied upon. Maybe someone had killed them. That was an amusing thought - fate certainly likes to connect the dots.
I spoke slowly, so he could understand me in his hysterical state. "Don't worry. I'll make the pain go away."
I turned off the vent filters. There was a hint of a smile forming on his lips as he heard the faint hissing sound of the gas flowing out from the vents on my suit. Before it reached him, he asked me if it was a healing spray, some sort of restorative skill. I told him no. Why lie to someone when you're about to delete him anyway?
He wretched and gagged as he took his first breath of the malodorous mist, but I held him down with one arm. It wasn't difficult - he was clearly a low-version navi like myself, and his injury had left him severely weakened. After less than a minute, he was done for. His distorted code scattered on the wind.
I stood back up and wandered deeper into the languishing labyrinth to which I'd finally found the entrance. It was everything I'd imagined; there were plenty of helpless, desperate navis whose morals had eroded as their primal instincts had blossomed. They were a perfectly exploitable group - exactly what I was looking for. Once I'd made a name for myself, gained versions and power, I'd be back... and all of these walking memories of lost dreams would fall right into my hands.
There were grimy lights all over these back streets, smeared with unspeakable and unidentifiable substances. I thought he was one of them until he moved. An electrical navi, covered in the scars of battle, with two bright orbs on his shoulders and few other distinguishing features. He stepped out in front of me, blocking the narrow path.
He asked if I wanted to buy some Dark Chips. I asked what the hell he knew about Dark Chips and why he would have any to sell in the first place. He was clearly no darkloid - just another of the discarded dimwits that were so common in the area. He got angry and started shouting about how he'd beaten a darkloid senseless and taken them from him. He said that I'd better do business with him or he'd do the same to me.
I laughed in his face. He took the opportunity to blast me with a bolt of electricity. At first, I seemed fine - the attack hadn't even hurt. His fists started glowing and he lunged at me. I went to duck under his attack and counter. It was a great plan, a terrific example of thinking on the go. The only problem was that I couldn't move.
My body locked up the instant I tried to dodge, and he grabbed me with his energized hands. They formed a vice grip around my torso, pinning my arms to my sides as he lifted me off the ground. I panicked for a moment, but I couldn't kick or scream because I was still paralyzed. The orbs on his shoulders started to flicker and the electrical energy in his body began surging through his hands and into me. This time it hurt like hell.
My motor control returned, but it was useless. All the struggling in the world couldn't free me from his agonizing grasp. The attack seemed to last forever, with incredible amounts of energy being forced into my body. I felt my systems being overloaded. I wasn't thinking about anything at the time, since my mind was in such a frenzied state. Yet somehow I knew subconsciously that just a few more seconds would finish me off. This was before I knew how my Dark Soul worked, of course. I actually would have been fine - better off, even - if he had finished the job. But at the time, I was terrified. As far as I knew, it was only his greed that saved me. He released me, allowing my limp, weak form to drop to the ground. He laughed triumphantly and made some sort of comment about taking something from me to sell before deleting me. By now I knew that he was obviously not the weakling I had assumed he was; even if I hadn't been caught off guard, his power was much greater than mine. I had one chance to use that against him.
As he leaned in to search my body, a dark energy rose off of my suit, forming a cloud of blackness all around my attacker. I scrambled to my feet and ran off as quickly as I could - which wasn't terribly quickly at all in my state. Fortunately, my attack had done its job. The cloud dissipated, leaving the electric elemental in a blind rage, blasting and punching everything near him as I turned a corner and made my escape. I ran so far away... farther than I really needed to. To be honest, I was mortified - and more than a little bit humbled. I wandered back into the more vibrant section of the city, exhausted and frightened.
Looking back on the experience the next day, I felt more motivated than ever to build my strength and return. Nothing would be more satisfying than watching that navi grovel at my feet as I took command of him and all his kin. In the back of my mind, I thought that by the time I came back, he would probably be long gone - deleted by a more powerful potential customer. But there was a chance he'd still be there, taking his foes by surprise and winning his battles. After all, if I'd learned any lesson, it was that things aren't always as they appear when they're shrouded in the shadows of the darkest side of the night.