I step off the table, over a terrified elderly woman. “He fucking tried to punch me in the face. I am not the problem here.” 

“I know, I know, but we need to deescalate this, alright? We are in a wedding. My wedding.” 

I’m steaming. My teeth grit. Is she serious right now?

The microphone squeals, then silences. Wesleyas is on the stage, looking like a cartoon character between the grungy band members. “I feel this is good of a time as any.” 

Tauren turns to him, confused. 

“This man here, whom I’m sure all of you wish to exile from our event, is a symptom of the issue I have been trying to bring light to. Noncompliance in the age of Bansilin expansion can only result in being squeezed out of the system. Onto the streets. Out of school. Out of a wedding. We seek so desperately the conformity that this substance brings us that any alternative must be purged from our vision.” 

“This has nothing to do with bansilin,” Hegalf croaks. “He was being a fuckhead.” 

“Nobody said that he wasn’t being a fuckhead,” Wesleyas replies. Laughs ripple. “Look past your petty grievances of appearance. This is not about any of us. This is about all of us. That is what I am trying to tell you. They are trying to suppress this information, and so few seem to seek it, so allow me to present it to you with truth and and transparency. They, yes Cloud and Air, but also their oligarchic sisters as well as the government of Supreme Law are all working together to keep this information from the public eye. I am aware of the dangers that I am inviting, but that is a risk I am willing to take, so long as my words can inspire at least one of you to take action.” He pauses. There’s a slight grimace on his face, as if prepared for a bullet to rip through the window and through his brain. 

I step closer to Tauren. 

Wesleyas takes a breath. “Bansilin is not harmless. It is not absent of side effects as it has been marketed. Yes, biologically speaking it is the safest chemical ever. Yes, overdose is impossible. Yes, continued use can carry out sustainably through ones life without tolerance or degradation of your organ systems. But that is what they want you to know. What they seek to hide is that it is not your body that suffers, it is your mind. Every time you use bansilin, an aspect of your personality will change. However, your memories regarding this will alter as well, accordingly, which is why you do not notice this change.” 

The display screen behind him, which had previously been showing the opening band’s accompanying visuals, suddenly turns black. It plain text behind it, appears, ‘THIS EVENT IS NOW CLOSED’.

Wesleyas pushes his combover back. “Your favorite color may be red, yet after just one use, it can become purple. You will believe that all your life, you have been a lover of the color purple, but everybody around you know that this is not the truth. It is too late. You have been altered forever. Your friends, your family all know this, but you will not believe them. Distrust breeds. This poison spreads like a disease, spores reaching the highest levels of society. Right above our greatest elite, who do not use this chemical. I know this because I am among them. I have peered inside the eye that watches our world and seen the truth! This is why, despite the reduction in use of the harmful drugs that once decayed this city, the levels of happiness are plummeting. Life satisfaction is in free fall. Families are broken. Suicide as the leading cause of death is reaching ages as young as twelve. The conscious trust of our society is rotting!” 

The doors of the concert hall blast open, ripped straight off their hinges. One of the bouncers is slammed into the nearest table. 

Corpsolds storm in. Black visors. Clinking black armor. Humans or droids, who knew? 

Humans are cheaper. Droids are more efficient. 

Either way I’m fucked. 

“Is this not the greatest proof you could ask for?” Wesleyas roars. “You have not seen so the world has decided to show you!” 

The corpsolds split up, they charge in two lines around the edge of the tables, making their way towards the stage. 

“I will take my trial in court. Supreme Law clause six eleven. Lay a finger on me and your division will be disarmed.” 

The corpsolds don’t stop, they trot straight onto the stage. One kicks the back of Wesleyas’s knee, dropping him down. The next plants its foot on his back. He tries to cry out, but the wind is forced from his lungs. 

“What is this?” his brother hollers. “Under who’s order would you dare?” 

The corpsold’s visor activates, showing a plane emoticon face. “The Duke Bedsal Wesleyas is in violation of our company policy. Here, at Cloud and Air, truth and efficiency is our motto! We do not condone the spread of misinformation and smear campaigns that may hamper live saving developments in the medical scene.” The face cracks into a smile. 

From beneath it, Wesleyas manages to croak. “There is no… lies here. Look now, all of you…” 

“You’re suffocating him!” Tauren cries, rushing to the stage. 

One of the corpsolds steps forward and rips it’s baton in a wide arc, striking her in the face. Tauren crumples like paper. 

I’m frozen. 

She is lying there, bleeding from the side of her head. 

Wesleyas is shouting, but it is draining out. I seem to be looking through a tunnel. The sides of my vision are fuzzing with white. My blood screams in my ears

The crowd is frozen. Only Wesleyas’s brother is shouting and pushing forward. I can’t hear him. I’m being pulled the other way. My legs carry me backwards, towards the door. Salif grabs my hand but I slip out. The entrance door is moving towards me. 

“Fight! Fight! Do not let them…” 

I do hear the last words that escape from Wesleyas before the sound of his spine crunching breaks through my mind. The corpsold’s foot is pressed halfway through his torso. Blood splatters from his mouth. 

Wesleyas’s brother is being held down and repeatedly slammed in the chest. 

Malyko is carrying Tauren, clearing a table to lay her on. 

I have left the building. 

I can see Tauren. I can see her bleeding, even though I can’t see her. 

There are two corpsold’s just outside the front door. But I don’t go forward, I go up. Racing up the cluttered architecture of the Strobe. The frayed concrete and undercut metal beams come naturally to me, flowing like sound through water. 

As the dome gives way, I see skylight drones, ducking under the grimed floodlights. The top of the building is a massive support beam that stretches up to the level of the ceiling. I fly upwards now. Rusty rungs built for unsteady hands are devoured by mine. 

If the corpsold’s have ranged weapons, I am dead. 

There are only two below me right now. 

When I reach the ceiling, I squirm into the nearest gap in electrical panels that I can find. I sprint on all fours, moving along the metal skeleton from which the floodlights hang. 

There it is. 

Laserfire, straight from the corpsold’s dislodged wrist. 

I don’t feel the pain yet, I just watch as my forearm explodes and I’m launched off my beam. I’m flung sideways, smashing into the next beam at the hip. Before even the pound of burning flesh on my left forearm, I feel my rib crack. 

My right arm had extended over the beam I collided with, leaving my chest into a forced metal kiss. The pain first stuns my lungs. The earthquake churns to my head, stunning my brain. My forearm feels now like has lit on fire. The boiling of blood and searing of veins. Flesh peels. I cannot scream. 

And so, I dangle there. 

The pedestrians of Six crane their necks to see the scrawny, raven haired creature dangle like a fruit from their metal sky. 

Another laserfire, This one singes the side of my head. My hair goes ablaze.

I swing my destroyed arm over the beam, tucking my legs as another shot goes under them. I heave myself onto the beam, my shoulders fitting with a sparse few inches on each side. 

Laserfire blasts past me. Parts of the horizontal scaffolding that holds the lights of the ceiling up are evaporated, and the light beneath me drops, smashing something.

Ok. 

They can’t fucking shoot me. 

I roll onto my front and scuttle forward. 

There are no shots.

I break into a four legged gallop. 

And break into deeper cover within the ceiling. 

I know the way to the Elevator. I found it first with Tauren when sneaking into the Strobe for concerts. 

I can see her bleeding. 

I…