Cyberpunk Masquerade Thursday

[Sarah]

A fellow friend of yours has invented a time machine and he wishes you to test and try it out. You unwillingly agree and enter the time machine. Your friend originally intended you to go back in time a day before but the machine broke in the midst of the journey. The machine plunges and crash-lands into an unknown place. It blasts you out of it and you lay motionless on the coarse ground, moaning in pain. You are unconscious after a while.

When you open your eyes, as you're conscious, you find yourself lying on a pathway. There are several futuristic-looking stores along it, like one apparently levitating 50 meters in the air. You notice an AI robot cutting a person's hair expertly yet swiftly and many holographic 3D billboards everywhere. A large billboard catches your attentions and states that today is 24 December, 2729. Your eyes open wide, realizing that you've been transported into the far future. Where would you start to explore this city of the future? What adventures await you there? Will you be able to return back to present day or stay here forever?

Credit to @Tringapore for writing this months Masquerade.

 

[Tim Kasto]

The police units swarm the scene of where I appeared in the city. The blue flashing lights are reflected against the surrounding buildings and my ears are deafened by the loud sirens. The heavily armored police officers quickly exit the vehicle and surround me. Before I know it I was put into handcuffs and shoved into back of vehicle. I am not sure how long I have been locked in here but I can feel we have been moving this entire time. I could feel the car come to a stop and I was quickly ushered into a small room with a desk. A woman entered the room dressed in a black suit wearing dark sunglasses. She asked me few regular questions such as name, date of birth, nationality and why am I here. She went quite for a moment walking around the room. She asked the same question again. She reached for her earpiece and quickly left the room. I remained in the room for a few minutes before the building started to shake and the lights cutoff. The door into the interrogation blew open and I was disoriented by the blast. A man entered donning a black trench coat who looked different from the rest of the police. He told me he is here to help me to escape. I had no other options so I did the only thing I could and followed him.

https://imgur.com/IYpHFfo

 

[Katuda]

Suddenly, the floor beneath me begins to rise. Surprised and bewildered, I stare around me as the floor grows ever more distant. I shiver, my thoughts pummelling my brain, pinging around in my brain. Houses shrink to the size of ants, but I still keep rising. A guttural, savage scream erupts from my mouth as I panic. Is this how I end? As I scramble for handholds, I stare at what brought me so high. What I thought was the floor looked like a neon skateboard. Lights flicker, and I hear a series of beeps. I curse my luck, and my friend. It was all his fault. I scream again, tears streaming down my face. The neon billboards, giant skyscrapers, humanoid robots and flying cars that had commanded my attention when I arrived looked so blurry, so far down below. As I sit, terrified on this odd skateboard, I hear a dull growling, like a muted lion. Then before I can even think, an enormous aeroplane emerges from a one of the dark grey clouds that surround me and comes thundering towards me. Like a deer in headlights, I sit, frozen. My last thought before the impact was 'Do they even have deer here in 2729?'....

Suddenly I jolt awake, and I am tumbling through the sky. Wind rushes through my ears, and everything is spinning. Round and round and round, always spinning. Nothing is visible, just blurs, and as time goes on I am still spinning. My fingers, frozen scratch the stubble on my cheeks, and I bemoan by rash, stupid decisions. If you had only straightened out.... Hopeless, I close my eyes and wait for the end.

Ow. Ouch. Owee. Get off, I think. Aargh! My back. Slowly my eyes blink awake, and she is there. I see her, and I feel at home. Her visible eye twinkles green, a bright star in the dark sky. On her face is a mask, glowing pink. Her smooth red hair tumbles behind her and it seems to glow pink in the light from her suit. One eye is covered by some sort of technological piece, and her visible eye stares at me, not judging, not confused... but knowledgeable. She is wearing an army suit of some kind, all black, with body armour and what looks like long bullets strapped on a sash from her shoulder to her hip. As I stare at this angel, out of the corner of my eye I see a flash of pink. It floats over her shoulder, wings flapping gently. I stare awestruck at it. The pink butterfly wafts gently and lands on my shoulder. What have I got into? I stare back at the lady. Who is she? Then I black out once again, and fade away into nothingness...