From: mattm@apple.com (Matthew Melmon)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Subject: Jungle Man
Date: 16 Oct 92 23:34:15 GMT
Followup-To: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.

A flood of information spilled through Alistaire's field of 
vision.  He stood very still, not moving, as the young boy - the 
young Cat - he had seen crawled over him.  Alistaire turned it 
off.  The red glow of letters would be visible to the two Cats.  
The boy probably wouldn't understand.  But the larger one - the 
one that pulled him out - he would understand.  And Alistaire did 
not want to make that one uncomfortable.

A cougar.  A silent hunter and scout.  Alistaire was on the border 
of a Pride's territory.  But he new that.  The Pride's lived along 
the Core's edge.  They did not care for the decay at it's very 
center.  

The center.  That's where Alistaire was headed.

The boy bit him.  Not very hard.  Alistaire did not flinch.  He 
had very thick skin.  Very strong.  The boy probably could not 
harm Alistaire, however hard he tried.

But the cougar could rip his head off.

"Hello," said Alistaire.

"Hello," replied the cougar.

Still a young man.  Very muscular, very handsome.  Very naked, but 
covered with a strange, glossy black hair.  Starting bellow the 
neck.  Very short hair.  Very strong.  

The Cat's were descended from gangs of affluent youth, common at 
the turn of the century.  They could afford the genetic 
engineering and the bio-chemical treatments.  They did not suffer 
from the Metal Plague, which decimated the much larger gangs.

And, of course, they were strongly connected to Prometheus Mage - 
the Prometheus Mage.  Permanent Secretary of Defense for the 
American armed forces.  Chairman and Chief Executive of 
Salamander.  Many of the Cats were children of Salamander 
employees.  They were an extension of Prometheus into the 
underworld.  Bosses have risen and fallen throughout American 
history, and Prometheus Mage was the wealthiest, deadliest boss 
who ever lived - and anyone that told him so died.

No questions asked.

Prometheus no longer lived in Los Angeles, if he lived at all.  He 
hadn't been seen in two decades.  Salamander had moved north to 
Portland.  The vast ziggurat of it's former headquarters no 
belonged to Baalphegor and the Los Angeles Security Forces.

His boss.  And one of Salamander's greatest creations.  A fully 
functional biorg - one of only four known to exist.  The biorgs 
were not cybernetically enhanced humans.  Mechanical life.  The 
only way to describe them.

Prometheus Mage.  Mordred Heath.  Nagasaki Gorgon.  Baalphegor.

Mechanical life.  Flesh and steel merged so perfectly that the 
Metal Plague meant nothing to them.  Perhaps even time itself 
meant nothing.  In more ways then one, they were dinosaurs.  
Obscenely powerful monsters of another era.

But while Prometheus had withdrawn, his science had not.  The 
genetic engineers flourished.  Humanity was not what it once was.  
Elements of the cybernetic era remained.  Alistaire himself was 
proof.  The Cats were proof.  Science had found ways around the 
use of metal.  

But metal was hard and strong.  And many wanted that strength.  
Many of those didn't believe the Metal Plague was real - and often 
didn't live long enough to find out.  Many others knew it was 
real, but knew death was certain anyway.  And the Metal Plague 
wasn't an ugly death.  The body just wakes up some day and 
realizes all's not quite right, and it stops.

Just like that.

Toxic shock.  Takes a minute, maybe two for all vital signs to 
vanish.  But the brain shuts down almost immediately.  There's no 
pain.

But Alistaire wouldn't suffer from the Metal Plague.  And neither 
would this cougar.  And neither would the boy, arms fastened about 
Alistaire's neck, legs fasted about his waist, teeth occasional 
biting a shoulder or arm.

"This is not a good place," said the cougar.

"No," Alistaire replied.

"Follow me," said the cougar.

Alistaire looked at the boy.  The cougar reached out a hand, 
faster than Alistaire would have expected - even knowing the speed 
possessed by these Cats - and swatted the young one.  The child 
hissed, and was swated again.

The child bared his teeth and growled.  

Alistaire knew the polymers woven through his skin would resist 
the child's claws or bite, but he tensed anyway.  Reflexively.  
Another swat and the child dropped to the floor, hissing but 
subdued.

The cougar moved silently into the shadows.  Alistaire followed.


Matthew Melmon
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo