New Arizona – September 14, 2510
The street was deadly quiet. It was the middle of the night and there was absolutely no one around to disturb the peace. The odd piece of litter drifted down the deserted back alley as they wind gently blew right down it. Despite the nearby street lights and neon signs, the back alley was extremely dark. Suddenly there was a spark of light in the middle of the alley. Several feet off the ground, the light sparked again. Seconds later and a large gust of wind started to blow down the alley. Litter and trashcans were sent flying down the alley as the tiny tornado like winds blew down the tight alley. The alley had been turned into a makeshift wind tunnel. Anything that lay in front of the bright light was being blown away. The light sparked again. This time in was bigger. The light then turned into a whirlpool of light. Cascading out from the original spark of light, a large vortex of whirling white light appeared in fresh air. The light remained in the air for several minutes, before a person came flying out of the centre. It was Larna. Larna could not do anything to protect herself. One minute she was floating through a blinding bright light. The next, she was being catapulted out of a rift in the light tunnel. The bright light changed in the blink of an eye, to the scene of a dark and damp alley. Larna was sent flying headfirst into a pile of trash. She did not even have time to prepare herself for landing. She crashed down into the combination of wooden boxes, cardboard boxes and metal trashcans. Pain was etched all over her face. The stinging pain ripped through her side and through the laser burns that were still present. Larna rolled out of the trash. She could hardly catch her breath. The pain was waving through her body like a tidal wave. As quickly as the light of the vortex has appeared, it disappeared. The alley quickly returned to the calm stillness that it had been before the vortex had appeared. Larna clawed at the ground in front of her. She dragged herself across towards the metal mess fence that was at the side of the alley. She managed to grab hold of the mesh and used it to pull herself up. The pain stabbing through the burn on her leg was getting worse instead of better. When she was gingerly on her feet, she spun around and lent back against the metal mess. She used the fence as a support. She quickly took in the scene around her. It did not look exactly familiar to her. She just hoped that the explosion and destruction of the vortex in Loretta had not destroyed the co-ordinates that she had entered into the system. She did not know whether this was Earth or not. She immediately looked down at the screen of the Thala surgically attached to her left wrist. The screen was still blank. It had been blank all of the time she had been in the alternate dimension. Larna did not like the look of that. She quickly activated the operations function of the computer with a quick thought. The initialisation beep sounded after just a few seconds.
‘Why am I? Can you give me a location check? Am I back on Earth?’ Larna asked using her thoughts to question the computer thanks to a modified FHI Implant.
*** Currently calculating location. All systems will be functional within five minutes. No location can be calculated until then. *** the Thala replied using a computer synthesized voice that Larna heard only in her subconscious.
‘Can I at least transport?’ Larna asked wanting to use the Thala’s transportation sequence to restore her health to one hundred percent.
The Thala had her DNA pattern stored in its reanimation sequence. This DNA pattern had been stored after her first transport through time and the first time the reanimation sequence was used.
*** Until a location has been calculated it would be unwise to use the transportation sequence at this time. *** the Thala replied.
Larna sighed. She was having trouble staying conscious. She was just glad that the fence was stable, otherwise she would have been flat on her back in this damp alley. She shook her head as she struggle to fight off wave after wave of nausea and darkness brought on by the overwhelming pain that was rippling through every muscle of her body. The vortex trip had done nothing to relieve the pain from the laser burns and the landing had in fact made things worse. The bumps and bruises she had received from crashing in to the hard ground and the metal trashcans just compounded the aches and pains she had already been suffering.
The scream echoed around the alley like it was a disco hall. Larna looked in every single direction immediately trying to work out where the scream had come from. The alley was just as deserted as when she had first arrived. The screams were getting closer. Now, instead of just a high-pitched cry for help, Larna could actually make out some words. Whoever this girl was, she was terrified of who or what was after her. From the look of the alley, Larna found it easy to understand her fear. This whole place was like some sort of nightmare. The air was damp and unfriendly. She definitely did not feel a warm and fuzzy feeling in this place. She just hoped that she was back on Earth so she could do something about her situation. Larna struggled down the alley. She cringed and gritted her teeth against the pain as much as she could. She was still very unstable, but she wanted and needed to find out what was happening to the young woman screaming. The footsteps were getting closer all of the time. The young woman’s steps showed clear signs of tiredness. Larna could sense that she was in a panic too, because the steps were extremely uneven. She got a flashback through her mind. She had once been in a similar situation. She was running through one dark street after another. She was only wearing a tattered nightshirt. After her foster father had tried to rape her for a second time and she had slammed a chair over the back of his head she had fled to the streets. Unfortunately she had run straight into the waiting arms of a vicious street gang. Larna remembered the fear she had felt as she was run down by a group of five large men. Having been raped the night before, she was suffering an emotional nightmare. Larna shook her head to get rid of the intense flashback. Normally she was able to control her memories, but the pain running right through her was making her concentration waver. The young woman then ran passed the end of the alley. The wild frightened look in her eyes just confirmed Larna’s worst fears. The woman was frantically and wildly looking around her in all directions. She was desperate for help. She was desperate for an escape. But, there was no sign of either. Heavier footsteps could then be heard. Larna pressed her back against the wall of the alley, shielding herself in the shadows. She did not normally hide from a fight, but given her current condition, she was in not state to fend off a gang. The girl’s screams increased. Larna peered out from the shadows as a group of six men sprinted passed the end of the alley. Only when Larna was sure that they had gone, did she come out from the darkness. She staggered down to the end of the alley. She just managed to use the building on her right side to help support her. Larna was now at the end of the alley. She had the perfect view into the street.
The main street was deserted. The only people on it were the gang and the terrified young girl they were running down. It was like a ghost town. The buildings looked slightly run down too. The young girl had long flowing blonde hair. It was swaying all around as she flicked her head in all directions trying to find a way off the street. She only looked like a teenager, barely out of the education system. Her body was still developing, but she still had an athletic and slim build. She was dressed casually. It was if she was sitting at home watching the television, when this gang burst in on her. Her clothes held the futuristic fashion that was cool at this time. The material was shiny and figure hugging, but not like any that exists today. She wore a tight fitting mini skirt with a tight fitting top. Her feet were bare. There was a lightning-like design coming from the corner of her eyes. Her lips were a bright pink and held a certain sparkling wet look to them. She was weaving from left-to-right across the street in desperation. The six members of the gang were dressed all the same. Larna had to take a second look, because she could have sworn they were Blue Coats. Blue Coats were police. The only thing that gave them away was the gang markings where the police badge would have been. Larna had never seen the skull in fire before. It was a new design. Larna was still assuming she had made it back to Earth at least. The outfits were made from a blue moulded plastic like material to fit the bodies of the men perfectly. They all wore black masks, similar to those worn by Zorro. They had black baseball caps on their heads, turned backwards. The skull in fire design was on what was the front of the caps. Each man had a side arm. Two carried rifles. One had a computer pad on his left wrist. One of the other three carried a number of C.O.C.’s. Collars Of Control were designed to completely isolate the person’s mind from their body. They were prisoner control devices. But, every time that Larna had come across these wicked devices, perverts and dangerous psychopaths had used them. It was obvious that the same was true again this time around. One of the men with the rifles swung it up level with his face so her could look down the sights. He fired after only a short pause. A blue circular pulse came from the end. The pulse hit the running woman between the shoulders. In mid-stride she was thrown forward. The girl crashed to the ground hard. But, it was not the fall that stunned her. The pulse had completely paralysed her. She could not move from the neck down. She strained to look back over her left shoulder. The gang now stopped running. There was no hurry for them anymore. The young girl continued to scream as the gang approached her. The leader started shaking her head the closer he got. Her pulled out his sidearm and fired once at the helpless girl. A beam of white light hit her in the chest. She fell silent immediately.
“I hate fucking screaming bitches,” the gang leader expressed firmly. “Why can’t they just accept their fate and come quietly?” he asked not really expecting an answer. “I mean—” he continued as he turned to face the other five gang members behind him, “—how many have we had to chase down now?” he finally asked with a sigh.
The rest of the gang just smiled at him and began to laugh. They knew he was just joking, because they knew their leader found the chase even better than the prize at the end of it.
Larna could immediately sense that she was in the line of sight. The leader had turned around and was looking right back down the street towards her. His attention was focused on the rest of his gang for the moment, but it was quite possible that he could see her in the corner of his eye. She did not want to be caught in this vulnerable state and unprepared for the battle. She quickly tried to duck back into the alley. Unfortunately, she did not see the trash can beside her. Her right leg slammed into the can. The harsh metal sliced across the laser burn across her right thigh. She yelled out in pain and lost her balance. She staggered backward out of the alley into clear view in the street. If her yell was not loud enough, the crashing of metal on concrete surely was. Larna grabbed her right thigh in agony. It was almost as if she was trying to squeeze the pain back inside the laser burn. Every single gang member turned to see what the noise was. Their mouths started dropping open when they saw Larna staggering out of the alley. Larna was a very stunning and sexy young woman. Her auburn hair just added a sexual heat to her whole appearance. What made things even worse for Larna, was the fact that she was still wearing the skimpy prison uniform from the Loretta prison. It was barely enough to cover her blushes, let alone her athletic and curvaceous figure. Her athletic legs were clear to be seen. Most of her thigh was revealed. The curvature of her firm buttocks was also displayed. Her ample bosom strained against the skimpy material. The shoulders straps of the outfit barely hung on. Larna slowly turned her face to peer down the street towards the gang. They were all standing quite still around their fallen victim. Larna decided not to wait for them to make the first move. Trying to ignore the pain as much as she could she hobbled back into the alley. That was the only place she could think to go. The leader of the gang immediately slapped the man with the computer on his wrist hard across the chest with the back of his left hand. The pair of them started sprinting down the street.
The leader grabbed one of the rifles from the men holding them on his way passed. “We’ll take care of the extra bonus package, just finish the job with the commissioned one,” he demanded as he increased his speed.
The other gang members quickly turned their attention to the young woman at their feet.
Larna did not even manage to make it back to the wire fence she had first used to drag herself up to her feet. The pain from her leg became too much for her. Her right leg just crumpled underneath her. She slumped down to the ground in a heap. Flat on her face. The jolting pain that reverberated up her leg from the impact of hitting the floor added to the discomfort that was becoming ever more overwhelming. She looked up the alley into the distance. There was no way she could even think about making a run for it up the alley. Those men would easily chase her down given her current condition. Larna even doubted that she would be able to make it back up to her feet at this point. She glanced over her shoulder back to the other end of the alley. Her sixth sense for trouble, while slightly disturbed by the lack of concentration she was suffering through, could still pick up the fact that some of the gang were not too far away from rushing into this alley. She could not run. She could not stand and fight. Larna hated to admit it to herself, but the only option she had left was to try to find some place to hide. Her eyes flashed around the ground level she was at, hoping that there was some small dark corner she could claw her way into. At first glimpse there was nowhere she could hide. Out of the corner of her eye she then saw a broken window. The window was right at ground level. It must have been the window of a basement. Larna rolled across the ground. She ignored the cold wet conditions under her body. She was more concerned with getting under cover. She peered through the window. The other side was in pitch darkness. She could not see a thing. Larna decided that whatever the conditions were inside the building, they were going to be far more welcoming for her than the groping hands of those gang members. She used her good left foot to kick the window through. Carefully she put her feet through first. Using as much strength as she had left, she gently lowered herself down as far as she could go. Even at full stretch she could not touch the floor. Larna held her breath. After a count to three she let go of the window. She dropped a good four feet. Of course, the first foot to touch the floor was her right foot. Her leg just crumpled out from under her. She crashed down on to the floor hard on her back, knocking what wind she had left completely out of her. She even found it hard to scream she was in so much pain. Larna managed to shuffle herself into the shadows, trying to hide herself away.
The two gang members charged into the alley in full flight. The pair of them was sure that they were facing a long run down to acquire the bonus package. Both stopped dead in their tracks when they found the alley deserted. The man with the computer wrist panel quickly started taping away at the controls on the tiny computer. His finger taped away like a professional clerical typist. He was becoming more and more frustrated with the lack of information her was getting from his computer aid. The leader looked all around the alley. There was no sign of the bonus package they were after. He kicked hell out of the nearest trashcan to him, before turning sharply on to his comrade.
“Well,” he demanded firmly and with a sharp tone.
The other gang man looked up from his wrist. “I’m not getting a reading,” he said with bewilderment.
“That’s impossible,” the leader replied in a questioning voice. “You know as well as I do that all of the women in this city were coded soon after the new General Council was appointed. The President made it one of the first laws he passed. It was designed with collections in mind. It made the job of tracking the lottery winners down,” he explained firmly.
Larna could hear all of this from inside the building. She was finding the delivery of all these facts quite helpful.
“I know sir,” the other man replied with a deep sigh. “But, there is just no reading,” he finished shrugging his shoulders.
The leader roughly grabbed the computer interface from his comrade’s arms. Holding it in front of him, he did enter a series of commands into the system to search and track the code of the young woman who had been present in the alley. The computer returned a ‘no code available’ message on to the screen. Not happy, the leader questioned the system on why there was no code. He doubted that the reason was the system did not have long enough to get a positive lock. The system only needed a brief moment to get a lock on the code implanted into the woman’s arm. Not having enough time though was a better response than the only other possibility. The leader was not looking forward to that response being given. When it was, he slammed the computer back into the chest of his comrade.
“According to your machine, the bitch wasn’t coded. Get the fucking thing checked out the moment we get back to the Starlight,” he exclaimed in frustration.
“Look boss, we got the package we came for. Let’s make sure we get her back before we start worrying about any bonus packages we lost. The collection is tomorrow. We don’t want to be short again,” the other smaller man, said nervously.
“Yeah, you’re right. Besides, the commissioned package should be good enough to satisfy the collectors this time,” the leader paused and turned to his fellow gang member. “But understand, we say nothing about the one that got away. If any of the others ask, we decided that she was too damaged to be any good. Understand?” he growled through gritted teeth.
The other man was not going to argue. He found it strange that his leader would not report the non-coded woman, but would not question the orders that he had just been given.
The leader draped his arm over his comrade’s right shoulder. “Come on, let’s back to the Starlight. We’ve got some celebrating to do,” he expressed laughing heartily as they started back towards the main street.
Larna sighed with relief. They had not even bothered to check this building. They were just relying on the coding to help them track her down. If she ever got the ability to transport with the Thala back, she could use this stealth to her advantage. Just then the Thala beeped twice in her head. Immediately Larna glared down at the display on the top of the machine. The destruction of the time vortex had made a difference to where she had arrived. She was back in New Arizona, back on Earth, but she was nine Chronoyears out. Instead of arriving back in 2501 on the date that she originally left to chase after Hunter, before her adventures in the alternate dimensional reality, she now found herself in 2510. Larna suddenly remembered that she had briefly been in the year 2506. Montgomery Tormaine had won the General Council elections and had become President. He chose her as his wife. Larna rebelled against the idea. But Tormaine was dead. Shadow, Larna’s arch-nemesis, had killed him in the future. Someone must have taken Tormaine’s place after his disappearance. That someone had turned the streets in a gang pleasure dome. They had tagged all of the women in the city with codes. And had created a form of lottery and female slavery. Larna had a lot of history to catch up on. She knew that there was little time to waste lying on her back suffering through tortuous agony. She immediately activated the Thala’s operations functions. The Thala immediately advised her that transportation was now possible. Larna sighed with relief as she requested the STC for her present time and location to be entered. Once the Thala responded with a task complete message, she activated the transportation sequence. In the blink of an eye, Larna’s appearance changed completely. No longer was she wearing the skimpy prison uniform. She was back to her glorious sexy self. Her health was fully restored and all signs of the torture and slave brandings that had been inflicted on her in the alternate dimension were gone. Now, her looks and clothes complimented each other to give people the impression that she was just a stunning young woman. It hid her true dangerous nature. She was now wearing a pair of black fishnet stockings, with a very close tight pattern, which made her legs look even sexier than they were without them. On top of them going around her waist was a small, tight figure hugging black leather mini-skirt which, at about eight inches long, just covers her buttocks. On the top was a black leather shirt over a black lace bra. This shirt was tucked into the mini-skirt. Her jacket was a black leather motorbike jacket with matching black leather motorbike boots on her feet. The boots had got a number of buckles on the side and came right up to about half way up her shinbone. Her long auburn coloured hair with it’s white streak, about one centimetre wide, running down the middle was once again tied up in a ponytail. It was waved back from her forehead to leave just a tiny fringe down her forehead. Around her neck she had a gold chain with a cross on the end. The cross hangs down to lie just in-between her breasts. It was her mothers’ necklace and Larna was never without it. On her right wrist she had the wrist part of a pair of handcuffs that they use in the present day. Her father gave it to her when she was young. She used to keep it in a box until she killed her foster father, now she wore it constantly to keep reminding herself of the past, which had made her what she is today. Her face had just the right amount of make-up. Her eyes were surrounded by a dark eye shadow and her lips were a bright red with a black surround. The tattoo of the Chinese for Eternal Devotion, which she did herself in memory of her late husband, was back to its best on the right side of her neck. Larna arched her back and athletically flipped herself up on to her feet. She tugged at the jacket to make it comfortable before looking up at the window she had fallen through. Larna knew that she had a lot to discover in this future New Arizona, but there was some place she had to go first. Starlight.
Larna returns to New Arizona in the year 2515 to find the whole planet being ruled by a single man. The Fatman. He’s a criminal mastermind who first took over his home Living Quarter of Brisbourney, before expanding across the whole planet.