Green jungles, tree's the likes I have never seen.  Real water, sparkling and blue.  I'm running, naked, free of all things physical.  My ethereal self exults in the pureness of this place.  And then. . .
     "Wake up Shin, it's 5:00 A.M."  A tiny fairy says sweetly.
 Puzzled I blink and the beautiful world becomes blurred for a moment.
     "Really you should wake up."  She admonishes.
     But. . .

    Groggily I open my sleep gummed eyes, all the time wishing I hadn't.  The world of dreams was so much more preferable then this drab reality.
    "Well finally,"  The little wrist mounted computer says petulantly.  "I thought you'd never wake up."
    I roll over and glare ineffectually at the little comp.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  The man who invented Artificial Intelligence deserves to die a horrible, pain filled death.  I can remember way back when computers were obedient servants that had a smidgen or two of manners, now they're all cursing at you in binary or basic.  Jeez!

    I sit up and put my weary head in my hands trying to grasp what little beauty of the dream I can remember.  "What, prey tell, possessed you to disturb the one thing in all of Realm I find some small amount of pleasure in at the crap of dawn?"
    "'Crap'?  Don't you mean the 'crack of dawn'?"
    "When you've had about two-and-a-half hours of sleep it's the 'Crap' of dawn.  With a capital C underlined in italics and bold."  I reply sardonically.
    "Ok I'll make sure to remember that Shin,"  Why do I bother?  It's a fucking machine!  Sarcasm is lost on it.  "You wanted me to 'disturb' you at the Crap of dawn so we could get an early start remember?"
    I let that sink in for a moment or two. . ."Oh shit!"  Startled into full wakefulness I run to the refresher to get cleaned up and dressed.

    "Where're we going Shin?"  If it's not my sleep she's interrupting it's my train of thought.
    "K.N.S., my job, there's some loose ends I gotta tie up and my stash of credits I wanna transfer to my chip."  I hope I get there before anyone else does, good-byes are hard and there're some people I just don't wanna run into.
    After a few blissful moments of silence. . ."Shin?"
    "Yes comp?"  I sigh, I might as well get used to her being around, it was my idea.
    "That's what I wanna talk to you about,"  Did you notice how A.I. adapts?  Already she's dropped the 'want to's and 'can not's.  She's starting to sound like me.
    "I don't like 'comp' it's not a name, it's just an abbreviated word for what I inhabit.  I want a real name."
    "All right, have anything in mind?"  I learned long ago that prudent men don't argue with women.  I must be adapting too, since yesterday I've been thinking of her as a her.

    "Oh yes!"  Was that a note of excitement I detected in her voice?  My my she is adapting.  "I wanna be called Flirt!  Tee hee!  What do you think?"  Oh if only I could say what I thought without fear of 5,000 volts of electricity shooting through my body.
    "I uhh think it's cute Flirt.  Very cute."  If I roll my eyes she'll shock me.  If I roll my eyes she'll shock me.
    "I'm so happy!"  Unbidden the image of a rather cute teenage girl bouncing up and down enters my mind.  The bouncing part intrigues me so I entertain it a bit.
    Moments later we arrive  at the K.N.S. building.  Fucking thing is so damn tall it reaches above the pollution clouds, I was lucky enough to get an office on the top floor, did you know the sky is really blue?  Parking my hover cycle in the usual spot I scan my I.D. and take the turbo lift to the top floor.
    In less than twenty-five seconds it stops on the 244th floor, huh it's a little slow today, that cheap penny-pinching snob Mr. Kurasawa should get it fixed.
    I run to my office to get what I need from it.  I'm not shocked to find it half empty but neither am I worried.  I kept all my important things in a safe locked with an old world metal key, not a computerized lock that could be decoded.  Taking the key from a chain round my neck I open the safe and grab the assorted stuff I have in there, my spare D.I.R. with extra M.C.R.D.s (Mini Compact Recordable Disc's.  I know, the name is redundant.)
    Most important of all the things is a little credit chip, my secret stash.  I've never liked K.N.S., for a decade I've been embellishing, not enough to be noticed but enough to build up into a nice tidy sum, carefully I connect it to my regular credit chip and make the transfer into my bank account.  While it's doing this the hairs on the back of my neck raise slightly.  Someone's behind me.

    "Back from the dead ay Mr. Hideki?"  Rasp's a voice that sounds like it had to worm it's way around a self-righteous smirk.
    Faking a friendly smile (Something all journalists learn to do early in their career.)  I turn to greet my boss, Mr. Kurasawa.  An immaculately dressed fellow in his mid forties.  Short salt & pepper hair and a pallid complexion with a perpetual frown to match.
With the lovable disposition of an over ripe corpse.
    "Hello sir, no I'm actually here to hand in my resignation."  Like I said before I'm terrible with lie's but it was all I could come up with on such short notice.
    "Oh really?  That still doesn't explain why you've been out for over a month Mr. Hideki."
Why does this guy keep saying my name?  What, does he believe in that old fable where if you keep saying someone's name you own them or something?
    "I came down with something, don't know what.  Probably due to the atmosphere poisoning, was in bed for like three weeks and I'm still a little affected.  Doctor says I should take time off alone and move to a sector with less atmospheric poisons."
    Hey that was pretty good, maybe I'm getting better at this after all.

    "Is that so Mr. Hideki?  I hope you feel better,"  He smiles, a rarity for him so I know something's up.  "However, isn't it strange that first week you fail to show up for work a whole cabinet's worth of old files, a prototype mini-computer and our newest D.I.R. turns up missing?"
    I fail to answer.  Great fully my face betrays nothing but I cant even begin to form words and bring them to my defense.  I'm stunned, how the hell did this old fart know?  I scrambled the security camera's and everything, I didn't even leave friggin finger prints!
    "Wondering how I came to know about you're little venture into the career of larceny?"
He chuckles to himself obviously enjoying watching me sweat.
    "It was simple, so simple infact that had you only waited you would have gotten away with it.  You of all people should know that we do an inventory check every five cycles, had you only waited a day or two longer Shin. . .tsk, tsk.  You were always an impatient boy."
    Oh well, when all else fails try bravado, however false.  "So what?  I took some old files, a fancy watch and the newest model D.I.R.  Big deal?  I needed a new D.I.R. anywayz and you said 'The company shall provide.'  And the files look like they could make a great story, what's wrong with that?"  Hey that almost sounded like I had a backbone for a second, what the hells wrong with me?
    Mr. Kurasawa's face darkens slightly and his eyes flash.  "Because you ungrateful little fuck, those are secret old files that could jeopardize the security of this country if the public ever got wind of them."
    Now that's something to think about, I had no intention of coming back to Kikai when I left but now there's a reason, for once the people will know the truth.  I cant help but smile.
    "That's why I took 'em, I'm gonna blow this conspiracy wide open old man and there's nothing you can do about it."
    He smiles evilly for a moment.  "Is that so Mr. Hideki?"  He pulls a blaster from his jacket and aim's it at me.  Oh shit I am fucking toast!  "Any last words Mr. Hideki?  No?
Fine then, your fired."  His index finger pulls back slowly on the trigger, I'm counting every second of life I have left.  My heart is pounding, I shoulda never come here.
    Everything seems like its moving through molasses, time itself seems to slow down, savoring each precious second.  My left wrist jerks upward unbidden and a blue spark shoots straight at my former employer hitting him directly in the chest.
    I fall back in amazement as he experiences the pleasure of being hit with 5,000 volts of electrical power, his gun arm jerks upward shooting the unoffending ceiling several times before he lets go, his body falls to the ground and continues its spasmodic dance for a few minute's, then is still.  Blood is gushing forth from his ears nose and mouth, he probably bit his tongue, hit the vein.  Standing I touch my fingers to his neck, no pulse.

    He's dead.

    I sit down again, trying to let this all sink in.  My mind goes blank, I just can't except this.  It's to much.
    "Shin?  Are you ok?  You're not hurt are you?  I'm pretty sure I got him before he fired at you."
    "Flirt?  How did . . .?"
    "Forget it, come on you've just committed murder get moving boy!"
    Anger flares through my body clearing my mind.  "I just committed murder?!  I didn't do shit you overgrown video game!  You're the one who commandeered control of my body and shocked the stool outta him!"
    "Hey all right all right, but you think anyone's gonna believe you?  I saved your ass!  Now lets go before someone else come in!  Besides I only meant to stun him, did I know he'd be stupid enough to bite his tongue?"
    This is still to much, better not think about it and just move, that's the best answer for now.  Thinking would only confuse me more at this point.  With a mind full of questions and the sense not to ask them I run to the turbo lift.

    It's getting dark.  I've been keeping myself busy for the last fourteen hours since the uhh. . .incident this morning.  I went about the day mechanically doing what needed to be done and ignoring Flirt's attempts to brake me out of my reverie.
I bought enough provisions to last six weeks and stowed them on my hover bike and then just drove past the city limits into the outskirts.  Avoiding the main road I should be nearing the wastelands soon.
    You know thinking about it further I think Ukyo did us a favor that time so long ago.
Humans were expanding too much, like a virus we ate up land and air and spit out garbage.  We were slowly destroying our continent and soon we'd all die because none of Realm's other peoples would accept us.  They hate us.  When he destroyed Shinjuku it brought Human development and expansion to a dead end.  We had to stay in our remaining cities to survive, and even then life was harsh.
    Some small effort was made to clean up the air and water and reuse old materials and eventualy there was an effect, albeit slow.  When President Kunihiko Arashi was elected to office he abolished the government and created a dictatorship, stupid man.

    "Shin."

    Without the government to keep the corporations like Geno Dyne T.E.C.H. and Mech Corp. on a leash Kikai's government was split into three major powers.  And now Kikai is in chaos.  Smaller powers like K.N.S. side with who they think is the most powerful and play the part of the lap dog or toady doing as their master bids.  If I brake the propaganda that Humans are the strongest species on Realm the people might realize they were being duped, what they do after that I have no idea but surely it will cause chaos in the upper ranks of society.

    "Shin?"

    In my mind the equation goes something like this:  Chaos+Order=Freedom.
    Now don't label me wrong here, I'm not into politics and I'd rather wash my hands of the whole messy matter.  I could care less about my country and want out of it as soon as possible, but I owe it to myself to discover the truth and let people in on the "Big Secret".  Gotta live up to my name right?  Besides in some small way its revenge, pretty petty huh?  Humans may not be the strongest but we certainly are the most complicated.

    "SHIN!"  Woah!
    "What're you trying to do!?  Blow out my fucking ear drums!"  I'm still a little peeved at her about what happened this morning, sure I didn't like the guy, truth to tell I downright hated the bastard but jeez she didn't have to kill him.  But on the other hand maybe I'm being a little ungrateful. . .she did save my ass back there.   "Sorry I yelled, I was thinking."
    "Well you think to damn much!  I've been trying to tell you for the last fifteen minute's that the bikes power is running low and we should stop for the night to let it recharge.
Besides don't you fleshy carbon based life forms need to recharge too?"  Do I detect a note of insolence in her voice?  Perhaps I should look into a limiter chip to keep her under control.

    Withholding a biting retort, prudently might I add considering her uncanny ability to electrocute the excrement out of someone, I go about the labors of setting camp.
    When I'm done I have a small tent with a thermal sleeping bag inside to ward off the chill that infest deserts at night and a cooler unit to keep me comfortable in the day, and I had my dinner going.  Or rather I was heating up the nutritional bowl of packaged mush over a micro stove I had set on the ground.
    Remembering Flirt's less than complimenting words I set the bike to recharge and after a quiet and tasteless super I relieve myself and settle in for bed.
    "Goodnight Shin."  Flirt coos in my ear as I lose conciseness.
    "G'night Flirt. . . ."  I mumble.  And then blackness.
 
 

    The night passed uneventfully and I slept comfortably for once.  There's something to be said for camping.
    "Shin!  Shin wake up now!"
    Swearing profusely I say those things that needed to be said.  "Dammit Flirt!  What the hell do you want from me?!"
    "No time for that!  Three life forms are approaching on my radar fast!"
    Oh shit!  I try to get up but my sleeping bag is feeling a bit frolicsome.  After a brief tussle with the bed sheets I show them who's boss and dash outside the tent in my boxer briefs.
    The sun is just beginning to peak over the horizon staining the sky with fire and blood.
Squinting hard against the bright light I spot three indistinct shapes within a cloud of dust coming towards me at great speed.  As they come closer I can see the hover bikes they're riding, they don't exactly look awfully friendly.  "Oh shit!"
    "You said that Shin.  Repeating yourself is a sign of senility."
    "Be nice.  Could they be cops?"  I doubt that the police would go through all the trouble of finding me and tracking me down, as flattering as it sounds.
    "Uh uh, they aren't Human."
    That little tidbit of knowledge isn't exactly reassuring, but at least it isn't cops.  Maybe these 'non-Humans' are of a civilized and sensible manner.  Of course I don't know any non-Humans and have only see a few Kusan's and Cyborgs in my time.

    "What are they then?"  I ask curiously.  Good Journalist's have certain inbred traits, one of them being an unsatiable curiosity.
    "I don't know, they aren't in my files.  Just becareful, they have high Sento-Ryoko's (Fighting Ability.)

    Trying to look tough I waited for them to reach me.  The bikes they're riding are older models then the ones that are all the rage in Kikai but they seem to have made some improvements, the most prominent of them being heavy artillery.
    The men on the bikes, for they are indeed male, look like incredibly healthy and well built Humans with tall, powerfully muscled bodies.  Two of them wore leather pants and jackets open with no under-shirt leaving their chest's exposed to the desert heat.  Chains and spiky hairdo's dominated them.
    The one who I assumed to be the leader wore long black pants of some un-identifiable material and a long sleeved shirt of the same kind that ended in metal wrist cuffs.  His black hair, which seemed to be a common trait among their race, was wild and unruly but far from the over gelled masses of spikes on the heads of his subordinates.  All of them had a the same tattoo running down their left arms, a huge and nasty looking black snake.
    We met each others gazes for what seemed like forever, although it must've been only a moment or two.  His dark eyes sparkled with intelligence.
    "Well met Human."  His voice was slow and deliberate, as though he thought of each word carefully before speaking it.
    "I am called Rictor the Dark Wing, when we were scouting the perimeter of our lands I sensed your Ki.  I wonder. . .why do you travel into the Badlands?"  Did he just say. . .?
    "These are the Badlands?!"  Uhhg, that smacked of a certain fervor I didn't want to add to the flavor.  Great now he's gonna know that I was looking for this place, still I never had a hope of finding the Badlands on my way to Alania.  Who woulda thought the Wastelands were the Badlands?
    Rictor's left eye brow shoots up and he gives me this funny look filled to the brim with badly suppressed amusement.  "You did not know?  I thought this rudimentary knowledge was known to all peoples."  Maybe he's not a jerk, that sounded kinda sincere.
    The two disreputable types behind him however begin to howl with laughter.
    "Hah!  C'mon Ric', you know Humans don't know nuttin!"  The left one says.  My aren't we rude.  I keep reminding myself about Flirts warning.
    "Yeah, they call it the 'Wastelands'!"  The one on the right isn't any better.  Now I'm starting to see the differences between Rictor and those assholes behind him.
    Speaking of which ol' Ricky turned about and gave them a glare that'd freeze the sun.  They promptly, and wisely I would think, shut up.  I think I could get to like this guy.
    Turning back to me I see the hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth.  "I beg your forgiveness, children these days have no manners."
    "Perhaps they should be spanked?"  I counter blithely.  "My name's Shin."
    He smiled genuinely.  "Well met Shin.  Come,"  Gesturing to the bikes.  "I will take you to Lord Kairahn, he's been expecting you."
    Opening my mouth to reply Flirt gives me a slight shock to shut me up.  Ok I'll bite.
    "Give me a moment to get my stuff ready."
    "Yes but mind you be quick.  The sun rises and before long it will beat down upon our heads with all the mercy of an enraged Ogre."  Ogre?  What is this Black Wing guy living in a fantasy land?  I break camp and clothe myself in a light, white colored robe and then hop on my bike.

    After several hours of riding in the sun my body is lathered in a dry sticky sweat that's making my underwear riding up my ass and itch really bad.  Damn it's hot!
    Looking at my escort doesn't help much, they don't seem to be affected buy the heat, hell they aren't even sweating!  What the hell are they?
    After another hour or so I start feeling dizzy and after a look at me Rictor calls a halt.
    Stepping down from his bike he grabs a handful of sand and motions for me to come to him.  I strive valiantly to walk in some semblance of a straight line but my legs seem to have different plans.  They also seem to be having a difference of opinion with themselves since they're trying to walk in opposite directions.

    "Here eat this."  He shoves the handful of sand. . .no wait its salt, in my face.
"You've gotta be kidding me!?  My tongues dried enough."  Well that's what I wanted to say but it sounded as though a retard had attempted to articulate old basic.
    "You must eat it, you sweat is releasing all the salt from your body.  If you don't eat it you'll die, you may have some water after."  He shoves it more insistently towards me.
    Dying isn't exactly high on my agenda so like a good boy I choke it down and wash the burning feeling away with water.  Hey something just occurred to me!  This water tastes allot different then the water in Kikai. . .allot better.

    The sun was setting when we reached our destination, it was a bunch of pinnacles and small mesa's augmented by metal structures and obsolete robo'circuitry.  It was a city in the loosest sense.
    "This is our home."  Rictor said simply.  Although there was a note of pride in his voice.  The two rowdy young punks whooped with joy and raced off into the streets and alleys knocking things over and causing a huge disturbance.  The people in the street cursed good-naturedly after them.
    "Come, I will show you to the palace."
    The "Palace" was more like a glorified bar with all that goes with it.  It was dimly lit and it smelled of beer and piss, many of "court functionaries" were either snoozing in a puddle of beer and saliva or openly brawling, some few sat alone in corners sipping mulled wine and staring with dark eyes and frowning faces at the revelry about them.

    The loudest among all the voices came from the direction of the throne.  A rather over opulent chair of gold and silver with large red cushions and many types of precious gems.  Sitting in it was a thick bodied man with long shiny black, almost blue hair tied back in a long braid.  He had a black beard and wore a beer stained black doublet and hose with long, scuffed black knee boots.  The doublet had several knife holes in the back suggesting to the onlooker of how it was procured.
    "Our glorious leader, Lord Kairahn."  Although obviously embarrassed there was something in his voice that told me he had great respect for his leader.  Appearance isn't everything.
    "HO RICTOR!  I SEE YOU'VE BROUGHT THE HUMAN WITH YOU!!  BRING HIM BEFORE ME!!"  My isn't he boisterous?  Loud too.  I'm getting a little tired of being called Human, maybe I should take steps to rectify that.
    "Hiya,"  I was never one for formality, and something tells me that formality is in scarce supply in this place.  "My names Shin your Lordship."
    "HAAA HAAA Haaa!!  Ya don't need ta call me 'yur lordship' Shinny boy!  I don't need such flowery titles."  He waves around his tankard spilling beer on those close to him to emphasize his point.  With a long suffering sigh a man standing behind the throne that could be Rictor's twin depreciatingly plucks at his beer soaked shirt.  "My lord,"  He begins, leaning over to speak in Kairahn's ear.  "Wouldn't it be prudent to tell master Shin why he's been brought here?"
    "Yeah yeah, and would you quit that 'My Lord' business?  It makes my teeth itch Victor."

    "Yes My Lord."  Victor replied with a wan smile.

    Turning to me all the laughter left Kairahn's eyes and he seemed remarkably sober compared to what he looked like a moment ago.  "You've been brought here, Shin Hideki of Kikai, to learn the secrets of Ukyo and the Ryu-Jin."

    His words hit me like a thunder bolt and I grow grew in the knee's.
Flirt pulses on my wrist excitedly.
    This is so cool!!