The City of Ambition

*Warning: Swearing, Sexual Theme, & Physical Violence*

Forgive me if this is not tagged correctly, this is my first time posting

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“Panda! Where is that girl?!”

Even without being in the studio, I can hear the director’s shouting from inside. My friend shakes her head, looking directly at me.

“Hell of a time to get stage fright, kid. This interview means everything to us. He’s not going to be happy,” my friend, Bella, says.

Inside that studio, I know that Jameson and the rest of the corporate spies sit in chairs with a smile on their faces. He doesn’t know that we all know what he has done. He’s here on behalf of the corporation to make sure that I don’t spill too much on live television.

Maybe I should give you a little backstory. If I were ever held at gunpoint by the corporation and instructed to tell the story of my life, I wouldn’t know where to start (granted none of the corporation’s white suits would ever hold me at gunpoint. That would be far too messy for them, and better left for someone in the profession of killing). I, Panda Dagon, was born on a cold October night in 2083 to Calihan Dagon and Laelia Dagon in the dystopian cyberpunk city of Ambition; five years ago, my parents were murdered in our own house on the orders of the corporation that runs our city. They left me behind, alone, in this falling-apart city.

I breathe heavily, attempting to calm my nerves. I’ve spent five years getting here, developing an AI named AVA that would corrupt all cyber wear owned by the corporation so that we can take them down once and for all. I want their attention, in fact, I craved it. We are finally supposed to attack tonight, yet I cannot bring myself to get on the stage.

“I cannot go out there…” I say, moving my fingers to spin my mother’s wedding ring on my finger only to find out that it is not there.

In a panic and dropping to my knees, I begin searching around where I’m sitting. It’s not there. My body heats up due to the panic. Nausea rises inside my stomach. 

“Did you lose something?” Bella questions.

“My mother’s ring… I lost my mother’s ring… It’s the only thing those scums let me keep of hers! I’ve worn it for protection and good luck since her death… I cannot possibly go out there,” I frantically ramble.

The door swings open and a young Japanese male not much older than me stands in the doorway. He looks down at me. I can tell just from his facial expression, he’s disappointed.

“Oh, Sylas!” Bella says, relieved to see him coming to help.

Sylas Okamura… Sylas Okamura came to Ambition when he was fifteen. He had come to the city seeking a better life but had been met with disappointment. Outside of Ambition, everything is a wasteland and inside of Ambition, everything is about how many cybernetics you have inside you. Sylas didn’t even own a phone. The only thing Sylas had been offered when he arrived in Ambition had been a microchip… We’re all microchipped like animals.

By eighteen, Sylas Okamura had become ‘Hermes’ online. He had become a whistleblower with a secret identity. Each week a new corporate member was exposed for what they’d done. The lower rings of Ambition looked up to him. By nineteen, Sylas Okamura was successfully robbing them of thousands.

Then came the day I met him and got caught up in all of this…I think back to it. I can still remember our words.

“Ava, lights please,” I said as I opened the door to my office.

As soon as the lights come on, a knife is pressed to my throat, and I am pushed against a wall. My attacker was about a foot taller than me. The man wears cyber clothes that fully conceal who he is. The only part of him I can see is his bright blue eyes.

“Panda Dagon. Such an interesting name for a corporate pig,” the man says.

“Corporate? I don’t work with them,” I breathe out quietly.

He makes it apparent that he is not one of them. He’s not even an assassin. If he were either of the above, he would’ve known I’d never done a job for them before.

“You sure have a lot of their files on your computer. You’ve even paid a pretty penny for some of their tech online even outbidding me multiple times,” the man denotes.

He had not been wrong. I had a ton of files that only an employee would have. I had even recently bought A.I. engineering to improve AVA.

“They killed my parents. Let me go, and I’ll show you,” I responded, knowing I could not fight him for my life. The man was bigger than me, taller, and had a weapon.

Cautiously, the man loosened his grip. I raised my gloved hand, making contact with his hands, transferring memories of my parent’s death and the terrible memories of the corporate pigs as he had called them. Cyber smart gloves had been a rewarding purchase.

“Why do you stay here in this ring?!” he demanded.

“Because they will never expect someone here to be conspiring against them,” I confessed.

The man lets me go. I breathe a heavy sigh in relief.

“If you help me, Panda. I will help you. With the files that you contain on your computer and have access to, I can further weaken them,” the man confesses.

“Who are you?” I questioned.

“Hermes.”

That night I became Athena. I knew about cyber engineering that he did not. I had security clearance to the white suit information that even he, as a hacker, could not reach.

Sylas Okamura did not tell me his real name that night or any night after for over a year. We were both twenty when I heard him mutter his real name. I met him in public that night. That’s the only reason I heard it.

‘Meet me at the Purgat0ry :D.’  

Most of my conversations with Hermes had only been online. The day I received this message made me think he had sent it to the wrong person, but he hadn’t.

I remember this night vividly. I had never been to a bar, and that’s what the Purgat0ry was. I wore a sparkly dress that night for the first time in my life to blend in with the crowd. I, Panda Dagon, was a recluse. This bar had been out of my comfort zone.

I descended into the bar with no idea what to expect. Would Hermes be hiding his face? I had never seen his face.

“Who are you here for, sweetheart? You look lost,” the bouncer questions.

“Hermes?” I answered, unsure if I should even trust this bouncer.

“Hermes? You can find him in the cubby seat nuzzled underneath the stairs to the left of the dancefloor,” he answered.

The bouncer’s directions led me to a table. Sitting at it was a young boy, the same age as me. He was unmasked, clearly not worried about drawing attention to himself. He had shoulder-length black hair that he had tied up into a bun. His only recognizable feature was his blue eyes.

“Panda,” he said quietly as I sat down. “You look nice.”

I look nice? Had I looked nice the night he tried to kill me? I wasn’t entirely sure. He doesn’t even get to talk before two corporate members rush in.

“They’re looking for someone,” Hermes denoted.

They rushed to our table after harassing multiple other guests. Their face was almost disappointed at the sight of us. We were not whom they were looking for.

“Names. ID Chips.”

“Panda Dagon,” I replied, showing them my wrist to be scanned.

They scanned my chip with no questions. It was not illegal for upper-class citizens to mingle with lower rings. That relieved a lot of my anxiety about the situation.

“Sylas Okamura,” Hermes replied, showing him his wrist.

They left us alone after that and began terrorizing people at other tables.

“How often do they just show up and demand to know people’s names and scan their ID chips?” I asked, curious.

“Every. Single. Night.” Hermes (or should I say Sylas) answered.

“So, why have you asked me to come here?” I finally asked.

“Because, the man who killed your parents… His name is Jameson,” he answered me. A part of him looked saddened to deliver this news. “He is a high-ranking member. He is not easy to get to, not impossible. We will have to do a lot of favors and many jobs. It will involve making a lot of new…. Acquaintances.”

Across the club, a couple in a booth scream as the white suits interrupt their make-out session. I was actually sure that their make-out session was slowly becoming sex anyways. All of it made me miss being locked inside my house.

I remember that night vividly because of that. I felt close to the end, but yet I was still so far away. Everything started moving fast after that. Until, finally, we got here…

Do not mistake me. I’m not like Sylas Okamura. I’m not in this to be a hero that saves the people of Ambition. I am in this for revenge. I've never claimed I’m a nice person.

“Panda, what is wrong? The director is looking for you. The interview is about to start,” Sylas questions me in a calm voice.

I had never admitted this to a soul but while working with Sylas, I had developed a small crush on him and us being the only two members of the crew close in age did not help nor did his sudden found niceness only for me.

“I’m sorry, Sylas, I really am but I cannot go out there… Especially not with losing my mother’s ring. It’s my good luck charm, Sylas…” I reply quietly.

The part that I have forgotten to mention is… I have extreme anxiety and paranoia in case my creating AVA had not given that away. Since my parents had died, I avoided going outside. It wasn’t until I met Sylas, that I left our penthouse in the upper ring.

Sylas drops to his knees in front of me. I barely meet his eyes. Tears, despite my protest, had started streaming down my face.

“You don’t need a ring, Panda. You’re the daughter of Calihan Dagon, the best engineer that has ever lived in Ambition, and the only corporate member I’ve found that wasn’t a lying pig responsible for suffering. That’s why they got rid of him… If he can stand up to them… you can too. It’s in your blood,” Sylas says.

His words cause my anxiety to settle. He stands up, extending his hand to me and helping me up. For a second, I forget all about the damn ring.

“I’ll be in there with you just off camera… Panda, don’t think about the cameras just look at me,” Sylas says.

I nod my head.

“Okay, I’m ready.”

Sparkling on the floor just outside the room I had been in, my mother’s wedding ring sits. I pick it up and slip it back onto my hand. I’d do this for them.

“I’ll get revenge for you, mom.”