Temptation Protocol Pt. 01

Chapter 1: The Hunt

Sarea Hightower had a lead on a hideout in the hollows. It was a subterranean, ugly place full of ugly half-metal men, but that's the job sometimes. In the neon blue light of Old Chicago, Sarea watched the men pass. Each was lethally kitted: some with metal arms with two-ton actuators, retinal implants, the works. A lot of gear for some lowlife gang. Too much.

Sarea was a decker; had been since she learned to type. She was good, too. A decade of blackhat hacking led to a decade of spy work for the government. Sarea had hated the job but loved the work. She'd learned to fight there, gotten her own set of upgrades - way more than an underground decker could afford normally. Her small frame carried a lot of power: grappling hooks, a hidden blade, three network ports, a heads up display when she needed it. On her side was her deck: a portable computer with hardwire hooks for all kinds of machines.

She didn't look powerful, though, and that was by design. Sarea loved to be underestimated. She was 5'6, curvy in all the right places, with a short brown bob haircut. Everything on her was proportional: a model woman. She needed to look "perfect" for her work abroad, and her governmental modifications had guaranteed she did.

Sarea stepped gracefully along the edge of the buildings beneath the neon bright underbelly of the Upper City and leapt onto a fire escape. The holograms in the sky scrolled through advertisements: pleasure mods, discount firearms, tampons. An occasional hovercar cut across the neon sky. When the Upper City was built a hundred years ago, it cast what remained of Chicago in perpetual darkness. People find a way to survive though, and life thrived above and below. Above, in the light of the Sun, life was picaresque, but down here in the underbelly, people lived and died without ever seeing the blue sky above.

Sarea jumped across a small gap between old tenement buildings, following the men from above. The gang turned into the alley across from where Sarea perched. The hideout had to be nearby. She loped along the fire escape and leapt over the edge, sliding down the rails to ground level. When she strolled out onto the street, a kid in tattered clothing hawked his wares at her.

"Hey baby, I got disiac here, get you cummin' all night," he said.

"Fuck off, kid," Sarea replied.

Disiac. Aphrodisiac. The Pleasure Pill. It was an awful name for an awful drug. It was originally sold as a pill by big pharma. In that form, Sarea didn't mind it at all. It was prescribed to save marriages, that old institution. However, these drug dealers had made it much, much worse. Sold as an aerosol inhalant or, in the most extreme use cases, an injection, the drug stimulated men and women to states of arousal way beyond normal limits. Consent went out the window because everyone consented to everything on it. Sarea didn't have a problem with that. It was its other uses, its less savory uses, she hated.

Like the gang she was following tonight: Gods and Kings was a new dealer on the scene. They'd risen in power quickly. The strain of disiac they sold had burned through the undercity and left the local P.D. in a lurch. However, Sarea and her client suspected there was something more to G & K's operation. Sarea took the contract without hesitation and for lower than her normal rate. Anything having to do with the drug had to be stopped. Her client had asked for intel on manufacturing, which had led Sarea to this dingy alley in Pilsen.

Sarea kept her eyes on the group as it turned down another alley. She crept between dope fiends and piles of rubbish, her enhanced eyes tracking the six men through the foggy dimness. The men stopped in front of a dumpster in the middle of the alley and looked around. One of the men waved at a camera Sarea hadn't noticed. Thanks, idiot, she thought. Sarea stayed hidden behind some garbage and watched. A keypad appeared. The leader, a handsome asian man with spiky hair and more metal than flesh on his body, typed in a code. The dumpster split and the six disappeared inside.

Sarea activated her video scrambler implant and hurried as quietly as she could to the door. Just as it was closing completely, Sarea stuck a screwdriver into the keyplate cover to keep it open. From her deck, she uncoiled a small Cat-8 cord. She pried off the keypad and connected the cord to the internal port, then opened her screen. Green and blue interfacing logs scrolled rapidly across her terminal.. To her surprise, this keypad wasn't retail. Whoever this gang had working for them was good, really good. None of that added up, though. Sarea tried a few vectors of attack before one stuck. The keypad whirred in compliance and the hidden door opened silently, revealing a narrow stairwell down into neon blue light.. With one last look around, Sarea snuck down the stairs. The dumpster closed behind her.

#

Chapter 2: Deep Cover

When Bastien DuBois went into deep cover with undercity gang Gods and Kings, he didn't expect to be in brothels, yet here he was. He wasn't Bastian in the gang though. He'd been in deep cover so long he wasn't sure he'd even recognize his own name. Here, with G & K, he was Lucas Tate. His reputation preceded him: a slate of burglaries up and down the coast of Georgia, followed by gangland murders in Chicago. His rap sheet said he was a murderer for hire. Everything would check out if the gang dug into his background.

Muffled moans of pleasure came through the walls, and the sweet smell of Disiac mixed with the smell of sex. Consensual sex? Lucas didn't know. He'd joined Gods and Kings only a month ago, and the more senior members kept most of the gang's internal affairs from him. This was his first real gig. The gang had come to this neon den of iniquity for a package of Disiac, ostensibly for Lucas to use. He still had one final rite of initiation to undertake, but Sten, his capo, had only said Lucas would have to bind someone to him. When Lucas asked what that meant, Sten and the gang just laughed at him. Lucas sighed in the hallway and kept walking.

It was clear to anyone who saw him that Lucas had a soft side. He was terrifying, to be sure. 6'4, huling with muscle, long black hair that he kept in an ornate bun, piercing blue eyes. But he was soft, people just sensed it. Lucas had grown up a serf of a corporate man in the suburbs, and he had never entirely escaped his past. Lucas was huge and terrifying because his corpo owner had wanted him that way, and he hated the way he looked. He had been modded to be a scrubber: he went ahead of his owner and looked for traps, poison, or enemies. His taste had been improved, his physical sensations heightened to an almost unbearable sensitivity, and his body engineered to be a killing machine.

But Lucas never killed.

He'd only kill when he got his hands on the bastard who'd done this to him. Dominic Westerson. Lucas said his name when he woke up every day. It drove him to join the marines, then the D.E.A. It drove him into deep cover, always on the man's tail. Westerson had defected from his corp and began engineering disiac for gangs in this area. Lucas was close now, and he'd put up with anything - even these fuckin' rapists - to get to him.

Obviously, fitting in with the gang hadn't been easy. Lucas figured they'd be gangbangers from the undercity, but they weren't. Each member was from a well-to-do family, politicians' sons and the like. They wore their wealth, and violence came easy to them. Lucas still didn't understand why these rich kids had joined a gang. During his trial period, the others hazed him, calling Lucas gentle giant, pussy, all sorts of bullshit. They wouldn't let him forget he hadn't been fully initiated, whatever that meant.

The group walked down the neon hallway, jeering at each other with each new moan they heard. The leader, Sten, knocked twice on a metal door at the end. Average height and handsome, Sten was a natural leader, even if he was evil and unpredictable. After a moment, the door opened a crack, and Sten mumbled something into it. It slammed closed, and locks clanged inside, then it opened completely.

A small man with glasses beckoned Sten inside. Sten turned to the gang with a smirk, "I'm sure you can find something to do while you wait."

The men laughed, and the door closed. One of the guys, the gang called him Log for some reason Lucas didn't know, said, "Fellas, we've earned it."

Log opened the first door to the right and went into another neon-lit hallway. The group followed. At the end there was a door, and when Log opened it, Lucas understood what he meant. It was a long room with massage tables and beds. The massage tables had wooden walls fixed to one end with a hole for a woman's hips and feet. A few women were naked and strapped across them, their hips stuffed through and exposed. Some civvies were on the beds on the other side of the room, each pounding a woman or a man. Everyone was clearly drugged. Their eyes were heavy with it, the lids half closed.

The door guard nodded the gang by. Log didn't wait at all. He walked over to one of the girls strapped to a massage table. She was petite, small, perky tits and a round ass with a soft cock. Log unfastened his pants, and Lucas realized why he was called Log. His cock was massive. Next to the massage table was a lube dispenser. Log slathered it on his beast, grabbed the woman's penis and balls and sunk his shaft deep in her ass. She moaned in a mix of pain and pleasure.

The rest of the men found a hole to fuck too. Except for Lucas. He knew everyone was the correct age - the gang had a strict policy against pedo bullshit, but disiac users didn't give a shit about consent. Lucas leaned against the wall and studied the ceiling. It didn't take long for Log to notice.

"Look at our soyboy over there, can't even get it up!" He shouted between pumps. The men, even the civvies, laughed.

"Fuck off Log, you freak of nature," Lucas replied. The men laughed again, Log too. Lucas left the room. He needed some air.

He walked the neon halls and tried to ignore the sounds of fucking, the wet splats, the moans, the dull bass of the music. As he was about to leave, he noticed a side door hanging open. He narrowed his eyes and gently pushed it open. It was a manufacturing room, clearly, with an elaborate set of beakers, tubes, and plastic barrels containing gallons and gallons of disiac. A technician laid on the floor unconscious. A small woman was crouched at the computer across the room, a cord from a deck on her side connected to it. She looked up when the door opened. She was stunning. A short bob cut of brown hair, narrow waist and wider hips. Thick-rimmed, wide glasses covered bright blue eyes.

It all happened in a second. The cord retracted into her deck, and a bright light hit Lucas square in the face. He yelled and fell back into the door across the hallway, crashing through it and into a storeroom. The girl leapt onto him and kicked off his face, stunning him. She was up the stairs before he could sit up.

The door at the end of the hallway flung open, and Sten jumped out in time to see the girl run up the stairs. His eyes went to Lucas next. He screamed, "Get her you fucking idiot!"

Lucas leapt to his feet and ran up the stairs after her.

#

Chapter 3: Chase

Sarea had found paydirt. That den was both a brothel and manufactory. Her client would pay very well for the data she'd taken. She raced down the alleyway and back onto the street where the boy was still selling. He looked up at her through lidded eyes and said, "Hey baby, got some disiac-"

She didn't hear the rest. She was already across the street and leaping onto a fire escape. At the first landing, she turned back to make sure she wasn't being followed.

She was being followed.

A giant of a man leapt the street in one jump. It was the man she'd stunned in the brothel. No way he should be up by now. Modded, must be. He had long black hair and rippling muscles and he was beneath her in a flash. Sarea shot her grappling hook out of her wrist and flew up to the ledge of the building. Behind the man was the rest of the gang, some of them pulling on their pants still. Fuck.

Sarea sprinted across the rooftops, leaping gaps and parkouring over vent shafts and air cleaners. The hulking man was right on her heels. She turned and tossed a flashbang at him again, but he batted it aside and sent it flying to blow up harmless in the street below.

Fuck.

Sarea leapt another gap. The man was gaining on her. She couldn't outrun him. Fighting it was then. On the next building she landed and turned on the spot, raising her foot in a roundhouse kick meant to catch the man in the air. It connected but did nothing. Instead, the man landed on top of her in a clump. They rolled across the rooftop and came to a rest against a vent shaft. Sarea released a blade from her other hand and tried to sink it in the man's chest, but he deflected it at the last moment. The blade dug into his shoulder, and he cried out in agony.

His massive hands gripped her wrists and pulled the blade out. Then he tossed her across the roof. She tumbled to a crouch, ready to fight. Blood poured down his side. His chest heaved with great breaths.

He said, "Goddammit! I don't want to fucking kill you. Leave your deck here before the rest of those fucks catch up and you can go free."

Sarea laughed and said, "Liar."

She leapt through the air at him again, blade swinging wildly for his face. He dodged to the left and swung wildly at her. Sarea tumbled beneath the blow and swung her legs around to trip the man. She was too slow. He was already on top of her. He grabbed at her - his hands were big enough for one to almost entirely encircle her waist - but she rolled beneath his hands. With distance between them, Sarea took off again. She climbed atop the building edge and ran along it. On the street below, the gang had caught up. They shouted and pointed at her as she ran.

Fuck.

Sarea heard the man lumbering behind her. He was quick, way faster than his size would have you believe. Sarea reached the next gangway between the buildings and feigned a jump across. Instead, she landed gracefully on the edge and put her entire weight behind leaping at her pursuer. He tried to slow up to catch her, but he wasn't the only one with speed. Sarea wrapped her legs around his neck and activated her actuators in her body to catapult the man across the gangway.

Sarea had hoped to throw him off, but she misjudged the force she had used. The man smashed through the building's air cleaning unit, sending sparks and metal flying. That's that, she thought with a shrug. Sarea turned and ran along the alley, hoping to put space between her and the gang below. Just as she reached the edge of the building, she heard a loud grunt to her right, where she had thrown the man. He was in the air flying right towards her. She had no time to react. He collided with her, throwing her like a ragdoll.

Sarea tumbled across the roof and smashed through the door to the building's staircase. She came to rest in a heap, the wind knocked out of here, right in front of Sten and Log. In a daze, she tried to rise, but Sten crunched his fist into her face, and the world went black.

#

Chapter 3: Bound Embrace

Lucas wouldn't do it. Doc was stitching up his shoulder and wrapping bandages around it while Sten and Log hooked the girl into one of their harnesses and hoisted her up on a chain. The gang had taken over a private room when they returned with the hacker. No charge, of course, management was thrilled they had caught her. The hacker, a small woman, was naked and restrained, hands bound across her stomach in an L shape. Her legs were posed so that her pussy was easily accessible. But Lucas wouldn't do it.

When the girl was secure, Sten turned to Lucas, pulled out his gun, and said, "Lucas, you're gonna do it or you're gonna die and so is she."

"If I had known that this was what bonding was when I joined, I'd never have even come," Lucas said.

"Waa waa waa," Sten rubbed his fists near his eyes in mockery, "I don't give a shit, Luke. We don't tell newbies what's needed until we're sure they're trustworthy. Are you telling me I was wrong?"

Lucas was on thin ice, "No, I just - I just don't want to bind someone who doesn't want it."

Sten rolled his eyes, "She will want it once we give you our special sauce," Sten shook a bottle of G & K's disiac as he spoke, "Besides, this is what we do. The bond is how we survive."

Lucas had no idea what that meant, "Can't I just be your muscle without this shit?"

Sten stopped shaking the bottle. He said, "Are you sure? You're really not gonna do this?"

Relief filled Lucas. "Yeah, I don't want to do this."

"Ooookay," Sten said, then he pulled a knife from a sheath on his belt and put it to the girl's neck, "Then you both die right now."

Lucas jumped to his feet and raised his hand, wincing in pain, "No! No! Wait, ok!"

Sten lolled his head to look at Lucas, "Your tune is changing a lot here, buddy. Are you fucking with me?"

Lucas shook his head, "No, no I'll do it. I'll do it."

After a tense moment, Sten roared with laughter and sheathed his knife, "That's more like it! Get them clothes off big boy," Sten spanked the girl's ass, "You got a hottie right here waitin'!"

Lucas looked for a way out of this. His mind searched: violence wasn't an option, too many of them, and besides, he had to maintain his cover. Before he'd made any decisions, the girl woke up. A soft grunt escaped from her, then she wriggled in the harness and binds, causing her to sway slightly.

Sten noticed immediately, "She's up!" He knelt in front of her and took her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him, "You fucked up, slut. You're ours now."

The girl spat in his face. She has charm, at least, Lucas thought. Sten slapped her, then shoved her away from him and left her swinging. Crying out, the girl tried to stabilize herself, but that was futile.

Sten rose and turned to Lucas, "It's time."

The girl spoke, "Time for what?!"

"Shut up," Sten said, "We'll get all the answers we want out of you after you're bound."

"Bound, what the fuck are you talking about?" she asked.

Sten got an inch from her face and said, "You're about to be joined in carnal matrimony with our hulk over there," Sten pointed at Lucas without looking, "Temptation Protocol. And then you'll be an honorary slut of the Gods and Kings forever. We're going to give you enough Disiac that you'll fuse with our boy."

The girl screamed, her eyes widening in panic. She strained wildly against the harness that locked her legs and arms in place. It didn't budge.

"Fuck that! Let me go, please!" Sarea cried.

Lucas stood as well, "Sten, anything else, please."

Sten put his hand on his knife hilt and said, "The more you fuckin' talk, the more I think you're a cop."

Lucas bristled, "I'm no fuckin' cop! I just want someone willing."

Sten laughed, "They're never willing for this. No one can be until they've experienced it."

Lucas asked, "What is it actually?"

Sten put a hand on Lucas' shoulder, "It's a bond, like we said. Our chemists call it the Temptation Protocol. Your mind and hers, your heart and hers, fusing. There's nanites or something in our Disiac. It's like, like fuckin' magic man."

Sten grinned from ear to ear and continued, "I can feel all the people I've bonded right now. They're all across the upper city. I feel them inside me, and they feel me. We're connected, like you're going to be. You're gonna love it."