It's Dan MacRae

Chapter 17

The More The Cybergame Changes, The More It Stays The Cybersame

As they walked through the streets of Super Detroit, President Johnny Xlybok could sense that his Secret Service Agent was feeling uneasy.

“What’s wrong Baptiste? Don’t you trust your President?”

“It’s not you I don’t trust, sir. It’s this crazy mixed up world I don’t trust. And I sure as hell don’t trust it at 3AM in the raygun crime capital of the country.”

Agent Aaron Baptiste was right to be concerned. Although the President had a sterling approval rating in both the human and cyborg community, the wounds of Civil War 2.0 had not yet healed. Even in the President’s hometown there were places where “Hail To The Cyberchief (Cyber Motown Remix)” wasn’t as popular as “I Ain’t A Voter, I’m A Cyborg Choker”.

“Here we are. Looks beautiful, doesn’t it?” beamed the President. Xlybok’s smile went from antenna ear to antenna ear. It was the MegaGym where he played cyberball as a plucky teen and won the quadrant championship for his beloved St. Michael’s Learning Facility 6. Xlybok lifted his arm and shot the doors open with his wrist-saddled door opening beam. The President activated his boot wheels and entered the facility with Agent Baptiste trailing behind him.

The Learning Facility 6 MegaGym looked a bit different than it did when the observation cubes were packed to see the quadrant’s top cyberball captain with “Xlybok <34>” on the back of his sportshield. This dusty building was quiet tonight, but Xlybok could still hear the static and beeps of the capacity crowd chanting his binary. It was in this MegaGym that Xlybok became a leader. Who would have guessed that being a master of the disc rotation would actually parallel grasping werewolf tax legislation.

“Look Baptiste, that’s where I scored my first cybergoal. And in that cube sat my first cybergirlfriend. Ha! I had my first cybersex under those cyberbleachers. She had a stick of cybergum after, I had a cybercigarette. Those were some exciting cybertimes. End nostalgia transmission.”

This was a different side of President Xlybok, one Agent Baptiste had never seen before. Xlybok’s public persona was always one of a schmoozer and subterranean military captain, but this trip to the MegaGym shone a light on the cyborgmanity circulating through the chestplate of the being that was known as “Daddy” in the private quarters of The Chrome House. Johnny Xlybok was a man-machine fueled by something noble and good and American and…

“Baptiste, I accidentally killed a Neo Soviet prostitute again. I need you to bury his body underneath this MegaGym.”

…an insatiable need to kill male prostitutes from enemy countries.