CONCEPT: Eight million robots walk the streets, but this isn't science fiction. This is New York City, top to bottom, from a basement in the last Brooklyn ghetto to the clouds above a penthouse suite on Park Avenue. These are robots in agony, ecstasy and everything in-between, searching for love, sex or just enough spare change to get them through the day.

This Issue: She sits alone at the bar because everyone's as scared of her as you are. She looks coy, but there's a gun in her purse that fits her hand like a diamond ring. Nika lives a disposable life at full speed; she wants more than you do and always something new. When her expectations grow faster than her means, she points a gun and quietly gets her way. But sometimes when you point a gun, another gun points back.