The Boxer — Jessie Jasen

Last week, when I made a jump to the future, I went out to the Strawberry Bar to fight in a match. The crowd at the bar wasn't the usual one. The place was packed with punks and outsiders, who came to watch us fight. Binge drinking, screaming, shouting and verbal harassing was on the menu. The music was loud and sweaty. One bad word from a stranger, who watched us fight in the ring, was returned by two bad lines from a regular. A few beats of my favorite song, and I jumped out of the ring in the middle of the fight and turned the word fight between strangers into a fist fight. That's how I got bruised. I wore my gloves, but the punks in the crowd didn't. They punched me with bare knuckles. I want to make this clear-I don't do bare knuckle fights. They're bad for my hands. I need all the dexterity in my hands I can get. My hands must remain unharmed if I want to fight every Saturday night. I've been carrying the bruises on my face for a week now. They're healing, but still, they hurt."The year is 3002. The human race is extinct. Androids walk the Earth. Julia, a famous android TV chef, travels 1,000 years into the future via a time machine. After the time jump, she undergoes a transformation where she becomes Alan, a boxer android ridden by OCD, who obsesses over numbers. Every Saturday night after the jump, Alan goes to a fight club in downtown Manhattan, called the Strawberry Bar, where he boxes for fun. This Saturday night, another match at the Strawberry Bar awaits him, but this match will exceed his expectations of what the future holds in store…