*Pacificus*

“No it’s ok…” Ii said. “Bye.” He got out the hove car. The chances he would actually meet him again were low. Ii walked the distance to the orphanage, carrying his board with him. He thought about whether the orphanage heard about the accident. It could not have been more then hour but news traveled fast. When he arrived though the front doors and Miss Jane was already there waiting. He only looked down in shame waiting for the yelling but before he could realize it, Miss Jane was hugging him. He felt his heart beat as he could feel her warmth. She was crying. He realized she must have cried ever since she heard about.
“Don’t you ever do that again,” she said as cried. “The board’s going to be shelved and you won’t leave this place until every injury is healed, you understand.”
“Yes, Miss Jane.”

(Rex is in Dijerta.)

"**** it! I can't get this to work," Rex stood in his shop hunched over some random pieces of metal and glass. He was trying to design a new gun. One smaller but more powerful than all the rest he sold. He was going to power it with his own eldritch blast but he could find no suitable container in the entire town. He sat pondering what to do and it came to him he would have to get one of them fancy smart people to help him. He was jarred from his thoughts by the bell on the door to his shop.
"A customer" he thought to himself.

"How may I help you ma'am?" He said to the lady who had come in.

"I am looking for a gift for my husband. He likes things like this, heaven knows why." she replied in a mono tone voice, "just something small and flashy please." She continued. Rex stooped below the counter and came back up holding a small case. He opened it showing the gun to the lady.

"This is a Taurus Millennium series PT945, an exact replica of the 145 but it fires the more modern effective laser over the ancient bullets." Rex was trying to be polite as people who talked like that bugged him.

"Yes...that will do" the lady told Rex still monotone. The lady paid and left. Rex was left to go back to his work. He decided he would go to another town in search of a container that could hold the essence from within himself. He locked up his shop and got into his hover car. Off he was to (he is going to the blue city. Is there a name?).
Upon arrival Rex found himself a little hotel to stay for his trip. He would start his search in the morning. He hoped it would end well.

“Wake up, Vivien. You are scheduled to work in two hours. Geraldine needs to be fed. Remember to buy Tyler a birthday present. Tyler’s birthday is in three days. You have three new messages. First unheard message sent today, at twelve thir-”

Vivien groaned. “I’m up, I’m up! Shut up!” The automated message from her interface ring mercifully complied. But then again, it was a computer. What choice did it have but to obey her?

“Gah,” she moaned, falling back down onto her pillow. “I hate my life.”

Geraldine leapt up onto the bed, mewing in concern. She stepped gingerly onto the pillow next to Vivien’s head and mewed again, louder this time. “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere,” the girl assured her. “Unfortunately,” she added bitterly. She rolled over and glared at the ceiling until her interface ring went off again.

“Wake up, Vivien. You are scheduled to work in an hour. Ger-”

“Frickin’ quit yelling at me, you brainless piece of metal!” She gave it an aggravated flick. “You can’t think, you only do what I tell you, you’re just machinery! What right have you to boss me around?” Geraldine backed up, looking anxious, and her owner immediately softened. “I know, Gerry…I’m the one that told it to wake me up…but it doesn’t have to be quite so insistent about it.”

“WAKE UP, VIV-”

Grumbling to herself, the girl finally crawled out of bed. She shuffled across her room to a sleeping robot in the corner and punched the on-button. Her Cleaning Bot, Winnie, instantly jumped to life and began making her bed. Convenient little bugger.

She threw on some sweats, and then wandered out to the kitchen where she restocked Geraldine’s automatic food dispenser and then began her work-out routine. She had to maintain her physique for her job.

Her interface ring went off again 20 minutes before she was scheduled to be at work. She took a speed-shower, threw on her uniform, grabbed an energy drink and her hoverboard, and sped out the door.

If there was one thing she loved, it was hoverboarding. She loved the air that rushed through her thick, long black hair. She’d left it down, streaming across her shoulders, but she’d have to pull it back once she got to work. Another reason to hate her job. She looked ridiculous with her hair back; it made her look like Dumbo the way her ears stuck out.

She cruised up to the compound, waiting till the last minute to slow down. The thick aeolium walls were not welcoming. Neither was the barbed wire. She let the security system scan her retina and her thumbprint, then she entered her 26-digit personal code. And now she was officially on the clock. Time to get to work.

Ii let out a sigh. He going to be stuck inside all day with no chance of getting out and the caretakers kept pestering him about what happened. Apparently, the orphanage never connected Ii and the “Nitroglycerin accident” together so it pushed Ii deeper into his hole of trouble when they found out. Miss Jane was the most concerned. He assumed as the new caretaker, she had not seen his injury history went very extensive. The majority of the time Ii went invisible to people but that small amount of time he attached attention, he constantly came in the presences of bullies. Always coming back with bruises and injury, the head caretaker took it upon herself to go and “fix” the problem. Of course, that only pushed Ii into finding other methods of dealing with them. Hence the hover board, a device able to travel faster than the average speed of a running person unless there are too many obstacles in the way or he was knocked off the board.

Ii looked outside from his bed. It was morning and a day of wait. Then he remembered someone saying it was bed-jumping day. When enough kids were adopted, it left some rooms with one person and others with three. That is where bed-jumping day came in. Rearranging kids with new one to promote togetherness, it killed two birds with one stone. However, with these bandages on him, he doubted he would get to change rooms this jump. Ii wondered who his new roommate would be. Unexpectedly someone began knocking on the door.

Vivien was doing her routine perimeter check when she got the call, her earpiece buzzing. "Requesting assistance in the mess hall. We've got a situation..."

"Copy that. I'm on it."

She took off across the grounds, sprinting past sailors eating at the picnic tables. The mess hall was two buildings over, past the library and the billiard hall. Some of the sailors gave her concerned looks, while others cursed her for almost knocking them over, but she ignored them all and barreled straight into the mess hall, heart racing, adrenaline pumping, thrilled at finally getting a chance to do something.

She burst through the doors and stopped dead. It was complete pandemonium, sailors yelling, chairs and tables overturned. One of the newly-hired security guards rushed over to her, panic in his eyes, and yelled, “I can’t stop them!”

Vivien scowled. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

A food fight.

Vivien found a table and hopped up on it. She grabbed the guy nearest to her, his hands covered in mashed potatoes, ready to fling them on his neighbor, and hauled him up next to her. “HEY!” she screamed, using her interface ring to project her voice through the hall like a megaphone. “The last five men out of here get to help me and this guy clean this crap up. So MOVE IT!”

She left Felton, the greenling, in charge of her captive and headed for the door. Men were trampling each other in their frenzy to escape. Pushing, showing, fighting her way through, she eventually made it to the door, holding it open while the masses poured through, waiting for the crowd to thin out. It didn't take long. She quickly intercepted the last few, closing the door and barring it behind her. "Today is your lucky day, fellows. You've been nominated as the cleaning committee." She left Felton to guard the door while she sought out mops, brooms, rags, and extra trash bags. Then she resumed her position atop a table, yelling out orders for the next twenty minutes.

This was pathetic. And it would probably be the highlight of her day. She hated it when everything went smoothly. She needed a little attempted suicide every now and then to mix things up, keep them exciting.

"Come on, you sissies! What, are you gagging? Would you like me to get your smelling salts, you wimpy old woman?"

Vivien couldn't imagine being in their shoes. These were sailors, adventurers! And here they were, cooped up in a little pen like a herd of cattle or something. No wonder they got into skirmishes, no wonder they broke out into food fights. If she were in their shoes...she wouldn't have made it this long.

"We ain't got all day. Your buddies are going to be wanting their dinner soon. If this hall's not clean, no one's getting in, and I don't think you're friends are gonna like that."

When was her break? Was it time yet? Why was her interface ring buzzing again?

She left Felton in charge and took her break a little early. First things first...those unheard messages...

"First unheard message sent yesterday at 2:45pm."

"Hey, Viv, it's Ty. So I finally got that ancient DVD player all fixed up. I'm going to try it out tonight. So you should come over after you get off and watch movies with me! I picked out one that looks mildly interesting...sposed to be a classic. Anyway, yeah, so, message me back!"

Crud, she'd missed it...

"Second unheard message sent yesterday at 7:30pm."

"Hello, this is Roselia Warburton, head of The Association of Scientists. You're presence is required in a meeting tomorrow morning. A hovercar will be sent to pick you up at 8:45 am sharp. Be sure to be there. Until then."

She glanced at the time, already knowing she was late, and cringed...maybe the car was still there?

Vivien sat in the hovercar impatiently, wondering what kind of meeting this was, if Roselia Warburton was really as awful as everybody said she was, who else would be there, how long the meeting would take, if they'd give her food (gah, she was starving!), but the most pressing question, why her? What did she have to do with Roselia Warburton and her kind? Business suits, scientists, meetings...those just weren't her style.

She took her hair down once she realized she didn't have to stay in uniform anymore. Ha, she could hide her Dumbo ears! Ew, was that...jelly? In her hair? Disgusting.

And then the hovercar stopped. "You've reached your destination. Please step out carefully and take all belongings with you. Have a nice day," the cheery automated voice announced. So she obeyed (what else could she do?) and stepped through the doors into the meeting.

Ah, crap. Everyone was looking at her. And of course the doors had to be right there by the head of the table where this fierce-looking woman was standing up to speak (and glaring at Vivien). And of course the only empty seat left was three-quarters of the way down the long table, so everyone stared at her while she walked all the way there. She summoned her poker face and tried not to look too self-conscious. But then she happened to notice the person in the seat beside hers, and her face fell apart.

That couldn't be...Meghany?!?!!

She half-fell into her chair, totally shocked. But everyone was still staring at her, so she closed her gaping mouth and turned to face the important woman. She was going on about this new law and robot armies (why did they want her here? This meant nothing to her!)

Wait, hang on...illegal? She worked for this company, she worked for The Association, her name was permanently tied with theirs, and they were making robots...illegally? Wanting to overthrow the government? She hadn't signed up for this, they hadn't told her, she didn't know...And then, she smiled.

This had to be more interesting than breaking up food fights.

“Hello,” Miss Jane announced cheerfully as she walked through the door. “And how are we this morning?”

“Oh…ah…fine…I guess,” Ii answered, returning to his regular volume. She walked over and sat on the side of the bed.

“So I have some news,” she said as turn to face him. He continued to avoid eye contact as his hands began to fidget. Miss Jane sighed.

“Well first things first, let’s get those bandages off,” she retreated. She spent the next fifteen minutes taking each bandage off carefully while checking to see that every injury had healed properly. Ii was glad the bandages were coming off. They make him feel like he in a hospital.

“You know it’s quite amazing,” she said to him. “There’s not a single scar left, you didn’t break a bone, and yet you flew at least a hundred meters in air. Some people would say its god’s grace.” She finished up, putting the bandages into the garbage. “Don’t you want to hear the news now?”

“Ok,” Ii said, finally looking at her. He wondered what it could be that had her so interested in the subject.

“Well,” she said with a relief. “You’re going to get a new roommate.” She paused for a second. “It’s just that she’s a girl.” This studded Ii for a moment. The orphanage had always separated boys and girls and now he was going to room with a girl? “I know, I know. It would be breaking a rule but that’s the way the room arrangement worked out and of all the boys here, Caretaker Helen kept insisting that you would be the most harmless.” The head caretaker was toying with him again. “But don’t worry, she’s very nice and sweet and this could be a good thing for you.” Somehow this did not give him any relief. Then a knock came into the room.

“Come in,” Miss Jane answered. A girl walked in. she looked about the same age as Ii, only slightly taller. She wore a dark blue-green top and a pair of jeans and had dirty blond hair down just to her ears. Something about her eyes told Ii, his hole of trouble just got deeper.

“So this is my new room? It don’t look so bad,” she said in a somewhat innocent tone.

“Ii, I would like you to meet Rain. Rain, this is Ii,” Miss Jane introduced. Rain laughed a little.

“That’s a strange name,” she giggled. Miss Jane stood up.

“Well, it looks like you two will do just fine,” she said. Walking to the door, she gave one last look back to the two and smiled and left the room.

“Finally, she gone,” Rain said with a wicked smile on her face.

Did anyone have questions? Vivien inwardly sneered. Uh, yeah! Duh, she had questions. An overload of questions crashing around in her head like a million ping-pong balls all dropped at the same time. But not questions she really wanted to voice. Not in front of all these people…

But then a toothpick-thin girl sitting up closer to Roselia waved her manicured hand tentatively. Roselia raised an eyebrow in her direction, but the girl hesitated. “Yes?” the boss prompted brusquely.

“So, we’re, like, building a robot army? What are they for?”

Roselia gave a harsh snort-laugh. “To maintain control once we have it, of course. To guard the island, keep everyone here, take care of rebels, fight FSL, etc. Anyone else have a question?”

That same girl timidly raised her hand again. “What?” Roselia snapped.

“Well…what is the chip for?”

“It holds the secret code to override the control room.” When she saw the girl’s confused expression, Roselia kept going. “Which controls everything on this island.”

The girl pursed her lips for a moment, staring at the ceiling in what appeared to be deep, painful thought. “So…”

“You ignorant idiot! How can you have worked for us and be so ill-informed?”

The girl shrugged, tugging on a curl. “I’m just a receptionist. I just smile and say hello.” She demonstrated, giving a wave.

Roselia blinked with a scowl frozen on her face, then turned to her guard robot at the door. “You. Get her out.”

When the doors had shut firmly behind the receptionist and her robot escort, Roselia turned back to her audience. “I’m not going to ask which of you bumbling fools invited her to this meeting. Just be sure it doesn’t happen again. This group is a select group of individuals each chosen for their skill, capabilities, and reliability. So all the information you’re hearing is classified. Understand?”

No one moved, but Roselia took their fearful silence as obedience. One by one, she stared them all down until they dropped their gaze.

“Now, if they aren’t any more questions, we will continue…”

I’ll pass, Vivien thought, giving a nervous inward chuckle.

But there was movement in the back. A man who looked to be in his mid-thirties had leaned forward in his seat and raised two fingers, a flashing a genuine smile at the head of the association. “If you don’t mind, I do have a question.” Roselia scowled in his direction and he took that as permission to speak. “How do you expect to find the chip?”

Roselia smiled. “Glad you asked.”

Mugen woke up after exactly 8 hours of perfect,uninterrupted sleep. Well, that little tidbit works like a charm. I really love my work. Mugen walked around his house looking for something to entertain himself with while he waited for Ian to contact him. He walked over to his closet and grabbed a pair of dark blue jeans and a black tee shirt. As he pulled the clothes on he walked over to the table and shrugged on his lab coat and began walking to the bathroom. He took a look in the mirror and sighed. Goodness this is gonna be miserable. He tugged the knotted ponytail holder from his hair and began to brush through it. After he had succeeded in removing the majority of the tangles he redid the pony tail and walked out of the bathroom and started the elevator down to his lab.

Once down in the lab he sat down and started his music running through the
devices in his ears. Command: Start MP3 Music Player: Artist: Shinedown: Album: Us And Them. About half way through the album the display on his contacts flashed Incoming Call: Ian Thompson. Command: Close Music Player. Command: Answer Call.

"Hello Ian, Mugen speaking, how are you this morning? Did you sleep well? How's your puppy? He's such a beautiful dog." Mugen said, kicking up his feet onto the lab table.

“So what’s your problem, Ink?” Rain asked with a sadistic tone.

“It’s Ii…not Ink,” Ii corrected her. The mood in the room made his skin crawl.

“What? Come on, speak up,” she directed. “Whatever.” She went and relaxed on her bed sitting to the right of his bed. Ii bounced off the left side, getting to the desk by the window. Sitting down on the chair, he attempted to remember the ending to his story from the day before as he pulled out an old-fashion outdated notebook.

“Ah, so you’re a writer, Ink,” she said with a wondering tone. It surprised him when her voices came right over his shoulder. A smirk grew on her face as she leaned over for a look.

“It’s Ii…not Ink,” he corrected her again faintly.

“It still weird.” She looked over his shoulder to his notebook. “Let me read it,” she blurted out.

“no…It’s not…”

“Come on,” she continued to egg on. Ii blushed when she started pushing her face closer. He became completely speechless for a moment.

“Well I guess you’ll do,” she finally said, pull her face back.

“F-o-or wh-a-at?” he stuttered, adjusting back to normal.

“My plan,” she announced. “To finally leave this place and you, my friend, are coming with me.”

Vivien inwardly scowled. Yup, Meghany hadn't changed too much. Pompous little...

"Yeah, I guess you could call me a guard. I worked as a Security Personnel at the Sailors Compound. Not exactly high profile stuff, but nothing to spit on either." She drew herself up, squaring her shoulders a bit. "It's better than being stuck behind some old dusty office desk."

It was strange to sit here and justify her hated job to her old karate friend-of-sorts. But she wouldn't give Meghany any added reason to look down on her. Meghany probably didn't need any.

So she gave her one of those "dare you to say something" looks.

“Wh-what are you talking about?” Ii said shocked.

“I’m saying that we’re going to go leave this place and have an adventure,” Rain exclaimed. “You might be the writer but it’s time to be the character.”

“But…um,” he answered dropping in volume. Her expression changed.

“I’m sorry if I was mean earlier. It’s just that when I get nervous I start to act out,” she gave a nervous laugh. “Just forget about what I said just now.”

“O…k,” he answered. Ii wondered why the sudden change in her voice. She seem to really want to go and then nothing. He looked to find she had turned around and mumbling something to herself.

“Are you alright?” he wondered.

“Of course I’m alright,” she said as she turned around. “Now what are you doing pack your bags.”

~*.~*.~*.~*.~

“Mommy, why do I always have to do what you tell me to do?”

“Well, there are many reasons, Ii. The first one is that you should because you love me, right?”

“Right!” he smiled.

“Well, the second reason would be that I’m a lady.”

“Why is that?”

“Because no matter where you go or who you find, a lady is still a princess at heart and a princess must have a knight.”

“Well, I want to be mommy’s knight.”

~*.~*.~*.~*.~

Ii felt the anger in her voice and did not hesitate to follow the order. He collected his small possessions of things in a backpack he had stored away. There was a rush of thoughts of whether he really should be running away. Rain never unpacked her things and was waiting by the door, with a bag on her back. When he finished, she ordered him to follow after her. She moved through the hallways, somehow avoiding people from noticing them, as if they’d ever even notice they were gone in the first place. When they cleared out the building, Rain continued walk without slowing down.

“Hey…where are we going?” Ii asked as he caught up to her.

“The bullet train. They’ll never find us after we leave the city. Anymore question, Ink?”

“Why are we leaving…I guess.” Ii detect her expression changed again.

“I sorry, we had to drag you into this,” she apologized. “It’s just that Rain wanted to leave that place and I guess she wanted someone else besides me.” They stopped walking and she bowed her head slightly. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Sun and I’m Rain’s second personality...”

Vivien pressed her lips together. Tyler would've known what she meant about dust. And dusty or not, a desk was still a desk, and she hated sitting.

Plan? Vivien didn't have one. "I was hoping to discuss that with the other members of my team. Because, you see, I'm willing to work with people rather than always forcing my own ideas." She hoped Meghany caught the dig. Then again, she probably shouldn't have said that...Meghany's temper was not easily reckoned with.

"Why are you asking?" Vivien asked, although she had no doubt Meghany was full of ideas of her own and would be eager to share them. Or enforce them. Whichever way you wanted to look at it. But they were probably good ideas, which would probably be lacking among their members. None of her newly-assigned cooworkers appeared particularly brilliant...