Ballerina Feet

"You got what I want?"

In haste, Kay slid the small velvet bag to the shadowy figure across the table and palmed the vial of purple liquid that he uncovered, slipping it into the money pouch she kept tethered around her naked waist.

Maybe it was her cat-human genes' natural aversion to reptiles - or maybe it was that he was a crime lord and a major creep, which fueled the barely concealed aggravation she felt whenever she was near Snake.

Music like the panicked caws of a thousand grackles filled the night club - Gaia Grunge. Her cat-like grace and grotesque hand-like feet had made Kay a star among the go-go girls who worked the poles and cages for tips.

The dance floor was crowded with animal-human hybrids of every imaginable form. An ancient time traveler from the 21st century would think they'd stumbled into a Halloween party - but these were no costumes. Once mankind learned to "write" genes, there was an explosion of bio-diversity driven evolution, as parents sought to give their progeny any possible advantage in a world coming apart at the seams.

"You wanna' get together after your shift?" Snake's bifurcated tongue flicked from his lipless mouth, the lewd gesture dislodged a tiny drop of liquid from one of his fangs.

"Can't. I've got stuff to do," she said, pushing her untouched drink away. Reptos' venom wasn't fatal, but a drop in a drink had an extreme tranquilizing effect. The guy was a walking roofie.

She was so close to her dream now. The vial she'd just acquired with tech she'd cat-burgled early that night, combined with her go-go tips, would buy her a pair of dainty dancer's feet that fit ballerina shoes.

Kay would escape the tedium of the club and one day dance Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet with the Old Russia Ballet Company.

-DeRicki