From: aharonet@panix.com (Aharon Etengoff)
Subject: The Underground. By: Akuma
Date: Sun Mar 05 04:07:19 MET 1995

                                  The Underground By: Akuma
     The sky was tainted, the purity that was once associated with it was
long gone; now it was only a reflection of the filthy spirit of man.  The
city lay in ruins, the gothic decay was now irreversible and no one cared.
The rulers of the land were long gone and the people indulged themselves
with a myriad of immoral and meaningless pleasures that little by little
were taking the little humanity left in their drug-pumping, rotting
bodies.  Kyle was staring at the sky and remembered what his dad said
once, "The sky was like the color of a TV turned off, not black, not gray,
just the shade of death."
    'Boy was the old man spooky or what?' thought Kyle. School had been
eliminated for 25 years now, the only thing that loosely resembled one was
the Day-Time-Containment-Centers (DTCC.) What a joke; temporary jails to
keep the young people from running loose in the daytime, that's all it
was, not even the private - megacorp operated DTCCs were safe, but then
again a private DTCC was better than the public ones....
     Kyle decided to go to the DTCC today, after all, he had some deals to
close with Tekken, and if he succeded he would be part of the underground,
and after that the sky is the limit!
     Kyle looked at the mirror and turn away almost immediately, 'nothing
to see,' he thought... He went downstairs where he kept the brand new
Toshiba 6700 cycle, and the rest of his most valuable possessions. On the
way he saw his mother laying on the bed with a countenance that implied
imminent death.  Kyle felt pity for his Matriarch, even though they had
all they needed to survive, thanks to his deceased father and his dealings
with the old American Software Megacorps. Still, mom wasn't happy and he
couldn't blame her, she was one of those souls that did not fit in today's
society. He walked towards her, and kissed her, saying good bye. She
barely managed to say OK.  Kyle knew she wasn't sick; just depressed, and
lonely. He promised himself he would take care of that soon.
     He now resumed his walk downstairs, towards his studio. The room was
saturated with bits and pieces of technology, everything from simsticks,
with every Metalica performance in the USA, to the latest de-encryption
routines, and even more importantly; the bike, Kyle's pride and joy. The
bike was one of the latest models, and one of the most versatile when it
came to interfacing; unfortunately Kyle couldn't take advantage of all the
cybernetic connections since he didn't have any nano-technology implants,
due to the prejudice some people had towards the Net-runners. He did not
want to jeopardize his future, or even make his mother mad at him, well,
at least not at the moment. With excitement and anticipation, Kyle rushed
to the terminal to check his e-mail. The sterile voice of the digital
assistant filled the room. "3 new messages have been received since your
last log-in."  "On screen," ordered Kyle. "No- wait. Process level three
and above messages only."
     The digital assistant acknowledged the command and proceeded with
it's task. In less than a second, the face of a Japanese teenager was on
the 91 inch LCD flat screen. It was Tekken, his face was cluttered with
tattoos and a fiber optic cable seemed to grow from the base of his neck;
his eyes reflected the light from the computer screen, much the same way a
cat's eye reflects light at night.  "YO, man, whassup?! Hope you get your
ass in here on time, the underground cannot wait. Look, I included a file
you may want to take a look at.  C'ya."  "End of message," said the
assistant. "There's a file attached to it, do you want to see it?" asked
the assistant, with a voice that somehow filled Kyle with serenity, and at
the same time made him uncomfortable.  "On screen."  "Unable to comply,
use of Vrx terminal is required for this program format."  "Shit, I hate
to use that crap."
     Kyle sighed, and strapped a small black box to his chest. There was a
small LCD display for the machine's status, and two switches. Most of the
machine's functions were accessed verbally. He connected a small fiber
optic cable to the unit, the other end of the cable was attached to Kyle's
main system. He sat down on his chair, and calmly reached for a pair of
shades that were near the keyboard. Kyle put the shades on, and told the
assistant to resume execution of the file.
     In an instant, the room faded to black, and the show started.  It was
Akibahara, Japan, the people bumping into each other, and hurrying with
their day to day business as usual. Kyle was wondering what he was
supposed to see in this program...Suddenly, a beautiful blonde came
running down the street and took his hand. Kyle's armor gel jacket
tightened a little, and he could feel the "pressure" of the girl's hand.
She was indeed strong, then again, it could've been a mistake in the
program; Tekken wasn't the programming type.
     The girl led him to an abandoned storage facility, a warehouse, which
was an oddity, specially in Akibahara. Another programming glitch?  Well,
it was, after all, a simple program, so Kyle did not pay much attention to
Tekken's oversights.
     Once inside, the girl stopped, and started undressing.  "I can see
where this is headed, and this is not my style, you know that, man! Damm,
you can be so childish at times."  "Computer, end program."  "Wait, don't
do that!" exclaimed the girl.  "I have to show you something."  Kyle was
about to abort the program, but he was amazed at the reproduction of
details; it seemed like half of the memory was dedicated for this
encounter.  All of a sudden, the digital assistant interrupted the session
with it's sterile voice.
     "The current program is taking 98% of system resources, possible
viral contamination, caution is advised."  Kyle knew what that meant, and
immediately decided to shut down the program.  "Computer shut down. What
the hell?"  All of the sudden, a blinding light filled the studio, and
Kyle passed out.
     Kyle awoke to a symphony of sounds emitting from his computer
equipment.  It was hard for him to keep his balance, and a terrible
humming sound that seemed to come from inside his head was driving him
crazy. But he managed to get up.  "Lights on!" uttered Kyle.  "Lights are
already on," replied the computer.  It wasn't until that moment, that Kyle
realized he was completly blind!
                   To be continued in the next pack !  By :AKUMA
   If you have any comments or questions, please send me e-mail at:
AKUMA@SILLY.COM or call the CyberPalace BBS at: (718) 377-7497 Special
thanks goes to my friend Gandalf the Grey, without him, none of this could
have been possible. ( So if you don't like it, go and complain to him.)
                   This has been a Secret Fire release.