*** 3. Looking for Madman ***
One day they ran errands in Lightboon, one day in Darkbane, but overall the trash punks were back to delivery quests. They were fairly sought after, having a slave who could carry superhuman loads.
"I'm bored," Cumshot said as the marched along the colorfully lit streets of Neon territory in the evening. "I thought things would be more exciting on the mainland."
Xyz shrugged. "You got used to life off Cypher pretty fast. This is all trash punks are good for unless you go to the frontier, I'm afraid."
"Fuck that. If trouble won't find us, let's make some."
"Uh," Dumbfuck made. "I think the kid's following us again."
For almost a week, the trio had been stalked by a short boy who appeared as the sun went down and followed them around town for an hour before vanishing.
"Well," Cumshot said. "There's trouble, hopefully."
They slowed down so the boy would get bold and come a little closer, despite his useless attempt to stay hidden behind the protrusions of psychedelically patterned walls.
He had to be about their age, but was almost a head shorter than Cumshot.
With his lack of tattoos, the unknown boy couldn't be a Buster or a Neon – he was from a hamlet or farm outside. The thin tool belt over his jockstrap and the protective forearm wraps gave him away as some sort of carpenter.
When the boy stepped past shrill neon lights, his short cropped olive mohawk was revealed on top of his round head.
Cumshot judged him close enough and gave the command. The trio surrounded the boy with his back to a wall.
"Yo, what up, little fucker?" Xyz asked.
"Any reason you're sneaking up on us?" Cumshot said and flashed a mean grin.
The boy was stunned. "Yo, I... I'm sorry. I'll never... fuck, just let me go."
"Not without answers. Who are you and why are you here?"
The boy sighed. "I'm E. I run errands for my dad. I... I just wanted a closer look at your freak slave. He's uh..."
Cumshot noticed E's jock strap grow and point up. The boy was getting a boner.
"Ha," the trash punk made. "You're fucking horny for muscles, aren't you, bitch boy?"
"Yeah..." E swallowed hard. "Can I do anything so you'll let me worship your slave?"
Xyz shrugged. "Dunno. What can you do for us?"
"Um... I... I work in my dad's workshop at Exocage. Maybe... you need something?"
Cumshot wiggled his head. "Don't think so, but we'll check by. Need to see some new scenery anyway. Now fuck off, little wannabe-punk."
E ran, scared to death. Was there anything useful for them to get from a carpenter?
"Yo there, trash punks," said a new voice. The three turned around to see a Jolly – skull tatt on his face and feathers in his mohawk.
For a second, Cumshot started summoning smoke, but then he remembered there was no way for the scavenger gang to have figured out who had robbed them. This Jolly wasn't here for a fight.
"Yeah?" the punk said slowly.
The Jolly looked left and right on the deserted street. "You bunch can look scary if you want, huh?"
"More than you know," Cumshot said and pointed to his fully black eyes. Let the guy guess what freak powers lurked behind those.
"Are you interested in a mission? One of us went missing and he knows too much to just forget about it."
"Why not ask NewLaw?" Xyz said, expecting something shady.
The Jolly hooked his thumbs into his thong. "He's our brew master. We want him back, sure, but there's a good chance he won't want to come back or... someone took him and won't give him back. So... if you find him and it turns out complicated... just make sure he stays quiet."
"Oh," Cumshot said with a grin. `Brew master' meant drugs. "Got it. Where do we start?"
"His name is Madman. He was last seen at Exocage. If you find him, bring him to Gutter Chapel. You know where that is?"
"No, we... Wait... Exocage? Dumbfuck, run after the kid."
A few huts were in the lush grass outside the actual cage, which was where E's dad had his workshop. Exocage itself was a metal grid of rafters and grates spanning over a town sized hole in the ground.
Under the metal frame was a ring of houses hanging from it. In the deep far below that were tons of slaves. Exocage's mines were the reason there were almost no slaves to be found in the area around Lightboon and Darkbane.
Since E had led them all the way, he got to bury his face between Dumbfuck's ass cheeks while the other two punks considered the next step.
Over the soft rimming noise, Xyz said, "We could just ask around for Madman at a bar, but if he's been kidnapped we could alert the kidnappers."
"How about," Cumshot began, "We stay here for a while and do boring missions until we don't stand out as strangers anymore? Then we..."
"Yo," E said as he came up for air. "Exocage is a small town. There's a lot of traffic through but you won't blend in anytime soon. I could ask around, though."
"All right, bitch boy," Cumshot said. "Do that and you get to choose three spots on our slave to lick."
E perked up. "Can I choose the mouth so we can tongue kiss?"
Dumbfuck chuckled. "You can pick three spots and get my tongue. But I'm horny from the rimming now."
Cumshot pulled his thong down. "Then let's fuck before we enter the place. Hey E, you drank a lot of Hydro-Cola on the way here. Care to let Xyz taste your piss?"
While the young boy filled the thick punk's mouth with his piss, Cumshot lined up his semi hard dick with the well rimmed slave hole. It was always difficult to get in, since the superhuman muscles made Dumbfuck insanely tight. But it was worth the struggle every time.
They'd enter the town when the sun came up.
Smoke rose from the forges deeper in the hole. It formed a gray blanket under the cage rafters from where it slowly dissipated upward.
With the dry heat from below and the protective grates from above, the Exocage inhabitants didn't have need for traditional houses. Instead, they hung platforms from the cage, connected them with wobbly bridges and lived in half open tents.
A third of the population was slaves – wearing a metal collar and a chastity cage like Dumbfuck but without even the flimsiest of clothing.
Another third was prisoners, dressed the same way but with a number tattooed on their forehead.
The final third were free men – a mix of Neon, Buster and others.
E climbed back up the ladder to go home, having collected information for the punks as far as he was able.
Cumshot walked along the precarious bridges to the bar E had told them to look for. It was a collection of iron plates and cloth, open at the front.
Two boys played cards on the ground, one man slept on a bean bag, a prisoner was getting fucked and clearly didn't like it. Normally it was frowned upon to fuck in public inside a city, but with a population of mostly slaves, these things were going to happen.
"Yo," Cumshot said to the barkeeper. "You're Whisper?"
The huge, thick man with a skyblue mohawk in a long braid looked up from his counter. "That's me, punk bitch."
Cumshot pulled out his bag of bottle caps. He scanned the chalk on the wall behind and put the right amount of money down. "Three Hydro-Colas, lime flavor."
The bartender complied and the boys settled on the floor. The sex next to them was getting louder. Whoever fucked that prisoner liked to make sure the victim felt it.
Once a forceful orgasm put an end to the spectacle, Cumshot talked to the bartender again.
"Yo Whisper, I heard you can help us out. Little E from above said you saw Madman before he was gone."
"Right I did," Whisper said as he wiped the table full of prisoner pre-cum. "Saw him talking to four guys with an eye tattooed on their foreheads."
"Eye?"
"You know, like the spiritual third eye? The guards on Illusion have that. NewLaw's not too keen on taking over that trash pile."
"You think he's on Illusion?" Xyz asked.
"Wouldn't know where else he'd have gone. Was prolly fed up with life in Gutter Chapel. I'd bail, too, but once you're in a gang it's hard to get out."
Cumshot had been pondering for a while whether he and his boys should join or even register as a gang, but now he decided to put it off for a while. Maybe finding Madman could give him an idea of why one might want to leave a tight team like that.
"All right," Cumshot said. "Thanks for the help, Whisper. We'll be back, probably. Now punks, let's get going."
Dumbfuck rose. "We're leaving for Illusion?"
"Yep."
"Do you know where it is?"
"Uh, no? Close by, maybe?"
The slave grinned. "We'll need a ship."
Too bad we have to leave Exocage already. Can't wait to come back.
Next up: a strange city and a brutal prison.
Chapter 4: Illusory Trouble