He noticed the pale steel sky first, but only because of the neon signs and lights glowing brightly because of it.
Floating panels displayed advertisements from Beast Egg flash sales to urgent Rift alerts, calling nearby Riftwalkers to assist in the clearing of a newly detected Rift.
The city never seemed to stop moving. There were drones zipping overhead like impatient hornets, and massive silos belching plumes of recycled steam into the residential streets.
Glowing lights were everywhere David could see.
They came from people, brands, buildings, and small street vendors scattered from one corner to the next.
Below those radiant heights, the street level was filled with vehicles hovering inches above the asphalt as they drove by on silent magnetic currents. Bigger vehicles like synth buses, carrying more people, rumbled past. There was a street performer in glossy but old clothing playing his bass.
Even with Jethro's memories anchoring him, David still found all of this to be unbelievable.
It was like waking up in a dream someone had left behind.
He darted his gaze around, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this place, his Red Lizard watching as well. It sat lazily on his shoulder now, tail flicking with boredom, beady eyes blinking as it turned and bopped its head.
David stood by the asphalt road for a moment, still taking in the scene and adjusting to the strong scent of wet metal and wires. A girl who had just gotten her license hurried past him, crossing the road with her Flame-tailed Squirrel and disappearing into the smaller streets.
He lingered on her fading silhouette, then looked away. "Apparently, I'm supposed to go home now," he said, more to himself than the gutterling on his shoulder.
He knew where 'home' was, though he hadn't particularly been there. However, just like Jethro's memories offered him a backdrop and familiarity with everything he was witnessing, he had just about enough knowledge of the place he now lived.
It was a small workshop-house hybrid tucked in the outer ring of Sector Twelve, beneath the glimmering bridge lines. He was presently in Sector Five, and that was a considerably far distance from home, hence he needed transport.
Led by Jethro's memories, David approached a hovertram terminal. It was a rectangular glass box, smeared with grime and glowing from the inside with route holographics. A worn-down automated voice greeted him from the paystand.
: Welcome to Line V-23A. Please swipe your paycard and the closest hovertram will rerouted to your location.
Not quite sure what a paycard was or if he even had one, David sunk his hand into his pocket and withdrew it. It was almost like the credit cards he was used to in his former world, but the inscriptions on it were done with blue lights.
The paycard displayed a holographic report of his credit balance, and it was a meager total of 5.71 credits.
He winced. This ride alone was going to cost him 4 credits. "Probably the last ride I can afford, huh?"
The gutterling licked its own eye and chirped, as if fretting over future meals.
"Hey, don't go nagging me right now. Don't forget that I spent most of the credits on purchasing you, and the only reason you're still here is cause I can't get a refund."
That shut the baby lizard up, nodding its big head once.
After paying, David stood by the roadside, watching other new tamers cross over, some pausing at the terminal to request a ride. At least that meant a hovertram would be rerouted sooner; the more requests a terminal received, the quicker it drew one in.
A few tamers laughed and joked at David as they crossed the road, the ones waiting for the hovertram merely gave him glances. Although he returned most of them, he could do nothing else but ignore and wait for the hovertram.
Finally it arrived, and when the doors opened with a fsshhkk, David quickly stepped aboard the long metallic vehicle.
Inside, the lights flickered over rows of metal seats and a digital screen cycling news bulletins. A kid playing with his mother's Shock Ferret stared at him for a moment before deciding he wasn't interesting enough to bother with.
David slumped into a seat, letting out a heavy sigh. The lizard jumped from his shoulder with excitement and curled itself on his lap like a lump of cloth.
With his hands on the back of his head and his feet crossed, David opened one eye and took a peek at the mechbeast, watching it sleep on his lap.
For such an ugly beast, the gutterling— as it laid there —looked almost…
He pushed the thought away and exhaled once more.
The tram was moving now, and outside the window, the structures that defined Nebulon raced past.
Glass towers. Metal towers. Glass and metal towers. Graffiti-scarred buildings. There was a street protest happening under a red-bellied patrol drone.
More billboards hung high in the sky, advertising tamer supplements, mechbeast nutrition and cultivation facts. Others promoted Rift crisis awareness or pro-Riftwalker propaganda with tamers smiling for the camera and their mechbeasts behind them, flashing their fangs and claws with staged menace.
David pursed his lips. 'What even is this place, really? It can't just be that another world like this exists away from earth. And I couldn't have just taken over someone's body. That's just sleazy and… wrong.'
He sat like he did, letting his thoughts take over.
It wasn't like he'd left much behind in his old world. David was an orphan.
He lived in a stinking boys' orphanage, teenage boys to be exact, and one could only imagine what survival meant in a place like that.
Quietness, fists, and of course a necessary dose of luck.
David had made it better than most of the boys though. He was smarter, possessing both school smarts and street smarts. He had studied biology in a community college and eventually ended up working for a pet store as an emergency vet.
That was most of his life, if not all of it. It wasn't a very difficult life, but it was far from great.
Yet, compared to this world… Even with the insults, the near empty credit balance, and the worthless mechbeast cradled on his thigh, the two hours he'd spent here had been more exciting, colorful and alive than all his seventeen flat-line years in his old world.
The idea of beast taming wasn't new to him. He'd consumed multiple forms of media, even some that he wasn't too proud to admit.
But he'd never seen it done in a cyberpunk world, and never imagined it happening. It was all genuinely exciting to witness in person, even if his beast was too weak to lead him down any other path apart from that of an exterminator.
Still, David now focused intently on the positives of his situation. Returning to his former world was no longer a desire. He decided to make the best of this madness and build a life in this world.
Hopefully, he could also think of something to do about this damn lizard, especially since it was now drooling all over his lap!
Ew!