The devil rat crawled through the effluence pipelines, high above the streets of Funky City on the grid of criss-crossing above-ground utilities systems built to supplement what was underground, its mouth (filled with malign and mal-aligned teeth) gaped open as it squeeked its shrill death cry, its lower body vaporizing in a puff of misty blood and flesh the remains of which flowed down with the rancid water to points unknown.
"They turn the lights down low, in shadows hiding from the world, only coming out when it gets cold..."
Through the coin-sized hole drilled into the metal of the pipe, I watched the streets below. The wind stirred the snow; ash-waste from the cottage factories and manufacturing plants alike of this city as the flakes flowed gently down many stories to the pavement.
I had been here, in this snug and cozy pipe amongst the bacterium and offal and urine of the teeming populace of Neplesia for days. I knew it was coming. If anything, they are punctual.
Here it came, rumbling among the masses, so alien to all senses. A sterile metal splinter in this most foetid of eyes. Emrys Emrys...I do not love you, but I do not hate you either. Alas, had we come together on the warmer days of youthful summer, ere would be different...But no, no, The Employer wishes me to put a show on for you...
Days ago, I had set the laser-trip devices on the pavement, attached to the timers to activate only for the shortest of moments, when the phamacy truck would be over my gift. My gift to you, dear Emrys; underneath the pavement row; ten meters long, four wide, six tall...A stack of gelignite of my own concoction. Is it too much, perhaps? Or too little? I would soon see.
With baited breath, I waited. The corpse of the poor devil rat flowed past me to points unknown. Moments lapsed until...
I saw it before I heard it, and I heard it before then. The sad groaning moan of Funky City as the gelignite carved a crater amidst her sweet bosom around and under the pharmacy truck, the shockwave knocking poor pedestrians off their feet and into pulpy oblivion before rattling through building foundations to shatter glass and shake loose the ash-snow.
The performance has begun! Another sin to repent, Harlequin! I said to myself as I detonated the smaller ring of explosives around the coin-sized hole in the pipe and plunged down to the truck crater amidst the falling snow and shattered glass singing aloud.
"The seas part when they hit the floor, voices carry on and out the door and everything you touch turns into gold!"
My black gentleman's cape fluttered behind me as I fell, heavy as it was with human waste. The leering gaze of my smiling mask allowed me to see the pharmacy truck below, in its forsaken grave among the broken bodies of its would-be customers, through the smoke of pulverized cermacrete and expended gelignite.
One hand to hold my hat to my head, lest it fly away. The other to the bomb on my back. My feet...
THUMP! I felt the suspension of the pharmacy truck sag somewhat under my impact!
Running up and over to the crew compartment, past the masers as they fired wildly at me, I took the device off my back and threw it to the roof of the compartment while holding on to the handholds of the device to use as a pommel-horse as I flung myself off the roof and away from the masers!
Grasping to the very edge, in front of the windscreen, I could not help but smile at the crewmen inside. One of them was still dazed from the impact, the other only now coming aware of what was happening.
"Like the angel you are you laugh creating a lightness in my chest, your eyes they penetrate me, your answer's always maybe, that's when I got up and left!"
Giving a quick wave to the man as he pushed a button, a panic button no doubt, I dug my toes into the armored face of the truck and peeked up at my little present on the roof. An indignant maser device fired at me, cutting across the hooked bridge of my smiling face-mask. I grinned at it in a congratulatory manner for the attempt and sank back to check on my crewman.
He had a weapon now, no doubt for me. I had a song for him.
"A beating heart and a microphone, a ticking clock in an empty home still tells of those times so long ago, and even though I've come so far, I've got so far to go and any day now..."
I heard the shrill sound of turbines activating from the roof and let my fingers let loose their grip to allow me to drop; even I wanted no part of that gift!
"...I'll explode!"
Sucking in external air, the device on the roof funneled it through and around the torus blasting the armor plate of the roof with superheated ionized gasses and destroying itself in the process.
I leapt into the hole, still glamorously white hot and with the greatest care not to singe my costume, plunged inside to knock the pistol from the man's hand. Singing as I did so.
"Like the angel you are you laugh creating a lightness in my chest, your eyes they penetrate me, your answer's always maybe, that's when I got up and left!"
Reaching to my belt with a quickness, I withdrew a stiletto and punched it through his elbow into the bulkhead before ramming the knife edge of my hand into his throat in a sharp, upwards motion.
Seeing as he was otherwise occupied, I removed the ICEpick that The Employer had given me. I must admit, I have no knowledge of computers; they were never my forte. Alas, it functioned marvemously in opening the doors between this compartment and the next.
I whistled a snatch of a tune as I removed the belt of silvery cylindrical devices from my waist and set the timer on one of the plasma grenades.
"And each and every day will lead into tommorow and tommorow brings one less day without you..."
I smiled, for I can do no less, at the poor crewman who with eyes agog was choking for lack of air and finding that cartoid response was inexorably driving him to cardiac arrest.
"...But don't wait up," I sang to him, "Just leave the light on, cause all the roads that I might take will all one day lead back to you!"
Throwing the belt of grenades into the main sales floor, I took Domino from his scabbard at my hip and relieved the poor men of their suffering. .75 caliber shells to the chest do that to a man, so I'm told.
Bowing to their corpses, mindful of the ticking gift I left, I concluded my performance.
"Like the angel you are you laugh creating a lightness in my chest, your eyes they penetrate me, never cease to amaze me, that's when I got up and left!"
Grabbing my stiletto from the crewman's elbow, allowing the body to slump to the floor, I was out the hole and into the night.
I love my audience. I never leave just one gift. A silvery holo-orb at the scene near the gutted transport.
Projecting to all who may care to find it, a broken sword thrust through a smiling mask.
"They turn the lights down low, in shadows hiding from the world, only coming out when it gets cold..."
Through the coin-sized hole drilled into the metal of the pipe, I watched the streets below. The wind stirred the snow; ash-waste from the cottage factories and manufacturing plants alike of this city as the flakes flowed gently down many stories to the pavement.
I had been here, in this snug and cozy pipe amongst the bacterium and offal and urine of the teeming populace of Neplesia for days. I knew it was coming. If anything, they are punctual.
Here it came, rumbling among the masses, so alien to all senses. A sterile metal splinter in this most foetid of eyes. Emrys Emrys...I do not love you, but I do not hate you either. Alas, had we come together on the warmer days of youthful summer, ere would be different...But no, no, The Employer wishes me to put a show on for you...
Days ago, I had set the laser-trip devices on the pavement, attached to the timers to activate only for the shortest of moments, when the phamacy truck would be over my gift. My gift to you, dear Emrys; underneath the pavement row; ten meters long, four wide, six tall...A stack of gelignite of my own concoction. Is it too much, perhaps? Or too little? I would soon see.
With baited breath, I waited. The corpse of the poor devil rat flowed past me to points unknown. Moments lapsed until...
I saw it before I heard it, and I heard it before then. The sad groaning moan of Funky City as the gelignite carved a crater amidst her sweet bosom around and under the pharmacy truck, the shockwave knocking poor pedestrians off their feet and into pulpy oblivion before rattling through building foundations to shatter glass and shake loose the ash-snow.
The performance has begun! Another sin to repent, Harlequin! I said to myself as I detonated the smaller ring of explosives around the coin-sized hole in the pipe and plunged down to the truck crater amidst the falling snow and shattered glass singing aloud.
"The seas part when they hit the floor, voices carry on and out the door and everything you touch turns into gold!"
My black gentleman's cape fluttered behind me as I fell, heavy as it was with human waste. The leering gaze of my smiling mask allowed me to see the pharmacy truck below, in its forsaken grave among the broken bodies of its would-be customers, through the smoke of pulverized cermacrete and expended gelignite.
One hand to hold my hat to my head, lest it fly away. The other to the bomb on my back. My feet...
THUMP! I felt the suspension of the pharmacy truck sag somewhat under my impact!
Running up and over to the crew compartment, past the masers as they fired wildly at me, I took the device off my back and threw it to the roof of the compartment while holding on to the handholds of the device to use as a pommel-horse as I flung myself off the roof and away from the masers!
Grasping to the very edge, in front of the windscreen, I could not help but smile at the crewmen inside. One of them was still dazed from the impact, the other only now coming aware of what was happening.
"Like the angel you are you laugh creating a lightness in my chest, your eyes they penetrate me, your answer's always maybe, that's when I got up and left!"
Giving a quick wave to the man as he pushed a button, a panic button no doubt, I dug my toes into the armored face of the truck and peeked up at my little present on the roof. An indignant maser device fired at me, cutting across the hooked bridge of my smiling face-mask. I grinned at it in a congratulatory manner for the attempt and sank back to check on my crewman.
He had a weapon now, no doubt for me. I had a song for him.
"A beating heart and a microphone, a ticking clock in an empty home still tells of those times so long ago, and even though I've come so far, I've got so far to go and any day now..."
I heard the shrill sound of turbines activating from the roof and let my fingers let loose their grip to allow me to drop; even I wanted no part of that gift!
"...I'll explode!"
Sucking in external air, the device on the roof funneled it through and around the torus blasting the armor plate of the roof with superheated ionized gasses and destroying itself in the process.
I leapt into the hole, still glamorously white hot and with the greatest care not to singe my costume, plunged inside to knock the pistol from the man's hand. Singing as I did so.
"Like the angel you are you laugh creating a lightness in my chest, your eyes they penetrate me, your answer's always maybe, that's when I got up and left!"
Reaching to my belt with a quickness, I withdrew a stiletto and punched it through his elbow into the bulkhead before ramming the knife edge of my hand into his throat in a sharp, upwards motion.
Seeing as he was otherwise occupied, I removed the ICEpick that The Employer had given me. I must admit, I have no knowledge of computers; they were never my forte. Alas, it functioned marvemously in opening the doors between this compartment and the next.
I whistled a snatch of a tune as I removed the belt of silvery cylindrical devices from my waist and set the timer on one of the plasma grenades.
"And each and every day will lead into tommorow and tommorow brings one less day without you..."
I smiled, for I can do no less, at the poor crewman who with eyes agog was choking for lack of air and finding that cartoid response was inexorably driving him to cardiac arrest.
"...But don't wait up," I sang to him, "Just leave the light on, cause all the roads that I might take will all one day lead back to you!"
Throwing the belt of grenades into the main sales floor, I took Domino from his scabbard at my hip and relieved the poor men of their suffering. .75 caliber shells to the chest do that to a man, so I'm told.
Bowing to their corpses, mindful of the ticking gift I left, I concluded my performance.
"Like the angel you are you laugh creating a lightness in my chest, your eyes they penetrate me, never cease to amaze me, that's when I got up and left!"
Grabbing my stiletto from the crewman's elbow, allowing the body to slump to the floor, I was out the hole and into the night.
I love my audience. I never leave just one gift. A silvery holo-orb at the scene near the gutted transport.
Projecting to all who may care to find it, a broken sword thrust through a smiling mask.
