~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some context before we start. Last year, the Detached-People 's Discord Group ran a year-long competition where people could submit artwork based on a theme, and after a year, a raffle would go out to give prizes to each of the contestants. By sheer coincidence, CyonixGFX and I each won a render request from the other as our prize (You can check out his amazing interpretation of my idea over here!)
While he was responsible and got mine to me in a reasonable manner, I unfortunately am ever the one to take simple things too far (I really should just change my middle name to 'Scope Creep' at this point 🤣), and what started as a rather simple request to see Izzy headless in a cyberpunk setting, sort of ballooned out to creating an entirely new CyberPunk Alternate Universe (which yes, still features a shot of Izzy headless 😉)
The story you're about to read (if you read the descriptions for these things), is a bit darker than my normal stories, but I feel like that's sort of to be expected with CyberPunk.
I want to thank Cyonix for being extremely understanding as I proceeded to take nearly a year to get his prize done, and for letting me share it with you all. It was a lot of fun to design this alternate universe, and honestly, it's a setting I could see myself returning to very soon.
Enough of my yapping though. Enjoy!
-Michael
Enforcer 773 paused outside the large metallic door of the apartment her target was supposedly hiding out in. It had been rather trivial for her to track his hideout down, the target having been foolish enough to rent the space using his credit card on file with GigantoCorp’s banking subsidiary, Finance Star Plus.
Accessing her internal database, she opened up the case file again.
Target: Phillip Gibson
Crime: Stealing confidential GigantoCorp Prototype.
Assignments:
Return stolen property
Neutralize Gibson
Returning him to Headquarters alive preferred, but optional
She closed the file, scanning the metal door. Internals seemed standard, so not particularly high security. She could rather easily hack the lock if she wanted to, but that would take extra time to make sure to not leave a trace while doing it, which would not be worth her time nor effort.
As E-773 contemplated her next move, she felt some cool air blast her boots, looking down at the small crack between the floor and the door, she smirked.
“Should have gone with the hermetically sealed unit, Gibson,” she tutted, as within moments, her body and clothes began to take on a metallic sheen as her form gave way, melting into a liquid metal puddle on the floor.
The metal puddle moved on its own volition through the crack at the bottom of the door, and as it emerged on the other side, began to grow upwards, gradually regaining the shape and color of E-773.
Expecting the worst, E-77E took the opportunity to morph out some defenses, her armor lattice regrowing across her rapidly reforming chest, and some defensive weaponry forming from her arms.
“Hey Dirtbag!” She shouted out, scanning the room in a millisecond and confirming her target’s absence. “Return GigantoCorp’s property immediately!”
With the living room clear, she melted herself closer to the ground, avoiding the disgusting pieces of trash strewn about the floor as best she could as she maneuvered towards the bedroom, weapons still drawn.
She stopped herself right before the closed bedroom door, some light clearly peaking through the crack at the bottom. “If you give yourself up now, your sentence may be reduced!” She shouted, revving her chainsaw arm to emphasize what the smart decision would be.
She waited only a beat for a response, melting herself fully back into a puddle and slipping below the crack in the doorway even quicker than she had at the front door.
As she reformed her body, she didn’t even bother reforming her weapons, mentally checking off the ‘Neutralize Gibson’ assignment as she looked at the mangled, naked mess on the bed.
As annoyed as she was that she would not be able to complete her optional objective, she had bigger concerns to deal with. An initial scan of the room didn’t provide any hints as to the location of the property he had stolen.
She spotted an ancient looking computer unplugged on the floor in the corner of the room.Walking past the bed and what remained of Gibson, her nose sunk into her face as she mentally turned off her olfactory sensors.
E-773 was impressed as she plugged in the fossil, a slight sparkle of surprise lighting up her eyes as the fans came to life. Her mood did sour slightly though as a password screen popped up. Typing in Gibson’s company password on the archaic yellowing keyboard yielded no results, so instead she focused, the nanomachines that made up her finger reforming into a USB stick.
Plugging herself in, she was easily able to bypass the login screen and directly access his harddrive. A cursory glance through his files indicated he had not downloaded the stolen property onto this machine, nor had he written any sort of hints as to his plans to steal from the largest Mega-Corporation in Neo-America, but there thankfully was a lead in his day planner.
A meeting that supposedly happened last night:
Private Session with M. Pickup from Maho’s at 9. Remember to pick up condoms!
She downloaded a complete copy of the ancient machine’s harddrive for Headquarters, before shifting more of her nanomachine mass through the USB slot, disconnecting herself from her arm as the gray blob of herself recycled the PC, making further nanomachines where possible and converting the non-usable components into scrap.
While that was going on, E-773 searched the database for what ‘Maho’s’ could be referring to, very quickly determining that it was a dance club on the edge of the redlight district about fifteen minutes away from the apartment.
She stuck her foot into the pile of grayish-goo that had formerly been her arm, the mass quickly absorbing into her body, leaving behind no trace that there had ever been a PC in Gibson’s apartment. She took a picture of Gibson’s body, giving Headquarters the all clear to file a wellness check on Gibson and get his death on the official books, before making her way back out of the apartment.
As she walked down the street, her standard uniform began to shift as it stretched to a tight-fitting black dress, her boots shifting to heels as she strutted on towards her next lead.
Come join the Discord Server for more weird renders!
https://discord.gg/F44BQYDWf9