I woke up in my bed. Clock showed it was 3:27. I turned on a light and put on some clothes, even though my body felt like shit. My belly roared… The kitchen was my goal, second after the toilet. The house was dark and the outside world was even darker. I rummaged about the fridge and grabbed a blood-plant. It tasted better than any other I had tasted… I turned around and found aunt Eve in the doorway. “You’re finally awake,” she said telepathically “My little hero…” She hugged me. She was wearing the same pyjamas I could remember from Mom’s first fight for me… “Why am I a hero?” I asked her and chewed on the sweet, juicy plant. “You risked your own safety only to honor Zil’s wish, and then you save Kimeera and Rhahl without killing anyone,” “Do you know if Zil’s safe?” I suddenly missed the presence of her… Eve turned her sight down and shook her head. It made me want to cry… “The humans have sent a synthetic to look for her, and uncle Zaz is sure it will find her…” She gives a me a sad look. “I miss her…” I mumble. “I know you do… But think positive,” I wiped my runny nose and nodded. “Kitty has been eager to see you the last days since you got home, so has your other friends. They too think you are a hero…” “Did you say last DAYS since I got home?” Had time played a trick on me? “You have been in what Nick called a coma for 3 days now, that’s why I’m here,” Aunt Eve’s expression turned to a more happy one. “I was scared that you would never wake up,” A tear built in her eyes. She was so happy she started crying, and turned away so I wouldn’t see her like that.
I crept back to my room, got out of my clothes and back in bed. I lay awake, long thinking of Eve and even longer thinking about Zil, wishing and praying for her safety…
The presence of people awoke me. As I first opened my eyes, I saw the blurry outline of an SG. I lifted my head to get a better view. That’s when two arms got wrapped around my neck. “You brave fool…” It was mom’s voice, though a bit choked up. She didn’t want to let go of me at first, probably afraid of losing me… I was a bit ashamed of just running off without saying a word to anyone, and with Zil gone I felt even worse… I was uncertain if I ever wanted to face the light of day again. The time was about noon and mom left me, all choked up.
I saw it only fit to face the day, head on, rather than waste away in a confined space. Someone had cleaned my room while I was out. I put on some long, baggy jeans and a sweater, as the temperature had done nothing but drop. After a quick stop at the bathroom, the clockworks of life started grinding. Up the stairs, through the hall and into the kitchen. “It was about time those synths came…” an unknown guy in white at the kitchen-table said and had a sip of coffee “Or else I wouldn’t had time to do house-calls,” Upon entering the kitchen, I found that Eve was there too. “Really now?” the guy said and put the mug on the table, as Eve nodded and pointed at me. He turned around and greeted me with a smile. “Good morning to you. How are you feeling today?” His orange hair, pointy ears and rusty to gray fur were quite new colors to me, but he still seemed like a nice guy. “I dunno… Who are you?” I said in a sort of grouchy way. “Not too good, huh? Anyway, I’m dr. Nick, but you can call me Nick,” He drew a few devices out of a disc hanging from his belt. “Could you please take a seat, kid?” I did as the doctor asked, and he quickly sat down right next to me. He grabbed my arm and held a syringe-gun to it. “I’m sorry if you ain’t feeling well, but I’ll do my best to patch ya up,” The needle shot into my arm and filled the loaded vial. “Could you take off your sweater?” He asked and lay the full vial on the table. Eve walked out of the room after I got my sweater off. Nick got off the chair and put a harness on me, strapped it tight. There was a monitor on the chest, and Nick put a strap around my left arm. “Okay… This WILL sting a little, but you’ll get used to it in a sec,” He flipped a switch on the contraption. It felt like all muscles in my torso were electrocuted, but it doused down. “Great… Great… Do you work out?” “No…” Nick just bobs his head. “You’re going to have to wear that thing for the rest of the day, sorry if it’s inconvenient…” “What is it? And what does it do?” I asked and looked down at the monitor with many green lines and a flashing heart-shape. “Oh, it’s what I would call a time-saver.” Nick smiles “It’s some human-made piece of technology that monitors most of the things that go on in that handsome body of yours. You know… Pulse, blood-levels, electrical patterns… Boring stuff a doc needs to know,” “Oh…” I nodded. “So-eh…” Nick suddenly as a metallic orb in his hands. “How does it feel when you turn into that monster?” I gave it a bit of thought and answered: “It feels like everything goes at a slower pace and everything I see and hear and smell come out a whole lot clearer…” Nick attaches the orb to the harness. “And what about pain? From what Snowen estimated, you took 50-75 bullets before taking a dive…” “Yeah, it doesn’t really hurt… I kinda just feel them hitting me, more or less,” Nick nods and looks at the monitor. “I guess you’re just like your dad… When he gets pissed off, and mean REALLY pissed off, his body starts spewing out adrenaline and endorphins like crazy! But I’m still curious about how you can expand your body like that…” Nick detaches the orb and let’s it vanish into his sleeve. He stuffs the gun and the vial into the disc, and is ready to leave. “I’ve gotta go now, just try to act normal with that thing on ya, yeah?” I nodded and sent him on his way.
I put my sweater back on, and went to the living room. Mom and Eve sat there, watching some soap-opera. “There comes sleeping beauty,” Mom said jokingly. “How’s the shape, honey?” “Weak…” I replied. “Eat something… Catch some strength,” “I’m not hungry…” Mom wasn’t sure of what she should answer to that, so I switched the subject: “Where’s Star?” “She’s still in school,” “I’m bored…” I mumbled. “Maybe you should go to school too. Wanna give it a new shot?” “No…” I sighed “I’m too afraid that the same thing will happen,” Mom just nodded and said: “I understand,”
There was not much more I wanted to do there, so I crept back to solitude in my room… Nothing good was on TV… I ended up watching some lame cartoons. All of them ended alike: Big, strong bad-guy gets taken down by the little, smartassed good-guy… Made me feel as if I’ve been playing the role of bad-guy… I missed Zil…
The hours slowly crept up on me, there I sat with animated characters running across the screen and Zil running around in my mind. A stampede was coming my way, or so it sounded. The sound of 8 feet in the stairs were not to be mistaken… Star and her band of babes were up to something, and the next thing I knew was that Jool pounced me. She had me at her mercy as she sat on top of me. “About fucking time you woke up!” she said with a big smile and climbed off of me. “Group hug!” Careen suddenly said, and I was covered by girls… I have to admit it felt quite good and it surely put a smile on my face. They released me, eventually, and seated themselves. “Is there something pointy under your sweater, or are you just happy to see us?” Kitty asked and felt my chest. “It’s just some gadget the doctor strapped onto me…” “Are you sick?” Careen asked. “It’s to monitor his lifesigns, stupid,” Jool told Careen. “So… How are ya feeling?” Star asked and straightened her tail. “I’m alright, I guess,” Even I could smell it was a lie… “I saw the expression on your face before we barged in…” Kitty said “It looked like everything but “alright”,” Her face had a kind of worried look. “Are you sure everything’s okay?” I just sighed and hung my head. “Poor guy…” Kitty whispered to Careen. Star then said: “I’m pretty sure they’ll find Zil…” “Oh, come on,” Jool interrupted “It’s already been 3-4 days! Whoever got her can be anywhere by now! So what if they track her by satellite?” “For heavens sake, Jool!” Star said in an angry tone “Have a heart! My brother just lost his girlfriend and all you do is rub it in his face?!” She shakes her head and leaves. “Remember how you were the summer of 21!” She said from the doorway before she vanished. “I told you NEVER to mention Chass AGAIN!” Jool shouted at Star and her face went sad… It was almost hard to believe that there was soft marrow in that girl who was carved out of bone… “Oh… Fuck it… I’m going home…” She said with a sad tone. Soon it was only Kitty and Careen left to accompany me. “What was that all about?” I asked confused. “Well… I didn’t become friends with Star and Jool before in 22,” Careen said and sat herself closer to me. Kitty got closer on the opposite side of me and said: “I didn’t become a part of your click before last year, but Star told me about that incident…” “Why didn’t she tell me?” Careen asked jealously. “Look, she made me swear I never tell anyone about this, so I’ll ask the same of you… Okay?” Careen nodded. “So, it was 4 years ago…” I said. Kitty nodded and continued: “Jool had been going out with some guy, Chass, all summer. Star said she was madly in love with him… And late that summer, Jool caught him going out with some other girl… The day after Jool found that out, Chass went missing and was never seen since!” “Damn… Weren’t there any leads or clues as to what happened to him?” I asked and readied my gray matter. Kitty just shook her head and said: “Only thing Star knew was that Jool went to the beach the day before Chass vanished, and she didn’t come home before late at night…” Careen was kinda scared by the last bit and had grabbed hold of my arm. “So one possibility is that she did it herself…” I said, scaring Careen a bit. “Well… You saw yourself how she reacted when star mentioned “21”…” Kitty said. An eerie silence filled the room, only disturbed by the screams of cartoon-characters…
Something started beeping in Careens jacket. “Oh… I’ve gotta go now,” She said and got off the couch “See you guys tomorrow” Kitty made a little wave as Careen walked out of the door. “One down, one to go…” I said jokingly. Kitty smiled and looked down at her hands. She sticks her hand into a pocket on her jacket. “This is yours,” She said and gave me my phone. “I took the liberty to add a few numbers to your list,” “Thank you,” I put it in my pocket. “Gave you the numbers to us girls… Both home and mobile” Kitty’s face showed there was something else she wanted to say and do… “And-eh… I want to thank you for finding Kimmy…” She started to unbutton her jacket. “No problem, I had to get out of that jail myself and she happened to be in the same cell as I was…” Things started to feel weird as she threw the jacket on the floor. “You even got shot…” She moved closer to me, even started caressing me. “I didn’t even feel them hurt…” I said and swallowed nervously. “You can feel this…” She unzipped her pants “…right?” I was thinking that I might actually get a use for those condoms dad got me… And just as I thought of it, the 20-13 unit crawled out of a drawer. It crawled over my hand, and dropped of a condom… Kitty was too occupied staring at me to even notice the little blob crawling back into the drawer.
I was turned on, to say the least… I wanted to run, but all my brain-cells had migrated to my penis… I looked Kitty deep into her eyes… She wanted to do this, but was kinda scared… I pulled off my sweater. The monitor on my chest was making some weird patterns. Kitty couldn’t care less about the contraption and wriggled out of her pants. “What if anyone comes in and sees us?” I said nervously and dared my hand onto her body. “We’ll just lock the door…” Kitty slowly got up and over to the door. The lock clicked. She peeled her top off and stood before me in nothing but a g-string and a bra. I got on my feet and dropped my pants. Her tail wagged slightly and she pressed herself up against me. I put my arms around her, unhooked her bra while still holding the condom in my palm. She gave me a shy smile before our lips met.
She lay down on the couch and pulled down her g-string. I soon got out of my shorts and into the rubber, then on top of her… What we did from there wouldn’t be too hard to imagine. We kept at it for a quite a while, doing a couple of different positions…
I had seen this be done on TV, but never had I imagined that it would feel so damn good… Her soft body so close to mine, the way we touched each other… Neither of us really wanted to stop, but we did eventually.
We didn’t know what to say, if there was anything to say at all… Kitty had both a happy and sad face as she put on her clothes. I think I understood why… I was still the guy of her dreams, but she knew I belonged to someone else. I still had feelings for her too…
She left without saying a word.
I flushed those millions of potential lives down the drain, and got dressed.
Everything around me felt so heavy.
I went up to the living room, found Eve sitting alone in front of the screen. “Your mother is in town with your father,” she said without turning around. “And Kitty seemed quite sad when she left…” I could feel she knew what we had been up to. “Please… Don’t tell anyone about this,” I said telepathically. She nodded. “Is Star still around?” I asked, not really knowing what I should do. “She’s still in her room,”
Up the stairs I went, knocked on her closed door. “Yeah, jus’ come in,” I closed the door behind me. Star didn’t exactly look too happy, there she lay on her bed reading some magazine. “Kitty sure left late… What were you guys up to?” “We talked… Watched TV… Nothing special…” Star just nodded and flipped a page. “So… Why have you been up here all the time?” I asked just to try and steer away from me. “I’ve done some homework, read this magazine…” she said and sighed. “You’re psionic… aren’t you?” she suddenly looked up at me “Like dad, I mean…” “Kinda…” I said telepathically to her. “Not much sense in trying to lie to you then…” she said and flipped another page. “I’m kinda jealous of you…” “Why? Because I got that big room, big TV and that bike and X0-skeleton?” “No… It’s not as much those things as it is err… that you’ve found love, and my friends are crazy about you,” “One of them more than the others…” I thought for myself. “Feels like I’m losing them to you…” I heard a drop hitting her magazine. I sat down next to Star on her bed and said: “Nah… You’re not losing them. It’s just that I’m that new toy everyone wants to play with, soon I’ll be a thing gathering dust on a shelf…” Star sniffed. “You’re probably right… It’s just me who’s too stupid to see it,” “You’re not stupid,” “Than why can’t I do that telepathy thing? Or any of those powers dad have?” She looked up at me. “I’m pretty sure you’ve got them… You just don’t know how to use it yet…” “And I’m too stupid to figure it out…” Star hid her face in her pillow. “It’s just not fair…” Her muffled voice was sad and angry. “Don’t cry…” I lay a hand on her shoulder “I bet you’ve got powers that are much cooler than mine,” “You’re just saying that to make me feel better,” she said through the pillow and sniffed. “Would I lie to my own sister? My TWIN-sister?” Star didn’t answer that… “Aunt Eve can help you with your powers… She taught me how to focus energy, and about telepathy…” Star revealed her face again, and brushed aside her black hair from her blue eyes. “Let’s talk to Eve, eh? I bet she’d love to teach you some tricks,” Star nodded and smiled.
We headed down to Eve, and as I told Star: She was glad to help her out…
I felt that I might have done a good thing. Eve wanted me to stick around and see if I couldn’t get an even better grip on my powers than before.
After a few hours uncle Zaz came in. He still had a patch covering his right eye. He smiled as he saw me. “I see you’re finally up, Fredrik,” He walked over to Eve and gave her a kiss. “I’ve got good news concerning our hunt for Zil. Seems they are trapped in a bunker, so we should have her within reach the coming days,” I was happy to hear that, this gave me at least hope that I would see her again. “So, Star… Have you told your brother about the new thing you and your friends have been doing?” “Oh yeah, I almost forgot…” Star said “M and P have fixed up a combat-simulator and lets us play around with it, and it’s cool,” “What do you say we try the clone-war scenario today, Star?” Zaz asked with laugh. Star nodded and said: “Sure thing, I’ll call the others and see if they wanna come too,” “Well, Fredrik, you have some actual experience with firearms, but what about honing your skills, eh?” “Sounds like fun…” I said. Star talked into her phone. “I’ll call Kitty,” I told her, and she nodded while talking to Careen. I went to the kitchen, then called her. Kimmy answered the phone: “Kitty’s phone, this is Kimmy,” “Hi, Kimmy, it’s Joon,” “Hi! How are you?” She sounded quite happy. “I’m recovering, but where’s Kitty?” “She’s in her room, but she doesn’t want to talk to anyone…” “Try saying it’s me…” I could hear Kimmy talking to Kitty. “She said she would call you later…” Poor girl… “Okay… Tell her I don’t feel too great either… Bye…” I hung up. I started wondering if what I did was way out of line, even though I already felt quite guilty for it… I told Star and Zaz that Kitty couldn’t come, Star said Jool was coming. I went down to my room to pick up my wallet and the 20-13, then outside. Zaz was driving a stealth APC, not too fast but had instruments to compensate for Zaz’ eye. I felt that I should take my bike and put 20-13 on it and gave it a “follow”-command. Jool didn’t live far away, nor did the others. Star pointed out which houses they lived in while we drove off to see the humans. Zaz stopped outside a square-shaped building. We entered through the automatic doors and took an elevator 5 floors down. The entire surface of the floor was steel, and many places were littered with parts from machines. Upon entering the second room, we were met by the humans. Their naked, metal bodies were spray-painted with strange symbols, and their heads were almost as gray as the floor we stood upon. “Well, well, well…” one of them said and lifted his goggles away from his red eyes “Our dear friend Snowen still thinks he is a pirate, M…” Zaz smiles and lifts his patch. I was behind him so I couldn’t see what it looked like. “And obviously with a good reason, P,” “I asked you guys to fix me a new one 3 days ago…” Zaz said. “Sorry, but we’ve had our hands full with all these synths we’ve been modifying,” “But let us not bore you with such details… The young ones have come to play, haven’t they?” Both of the cyborgs turn around and start walking towards a door. On their backs they had a letter. One had a red M and the other had a blue P. I followed the rest into the next room, where a whole lot of strange chairs were lined up. M and P asked me to take a seat as they showed me how to seat myself properly. My phone was placed in a special holder on the side of the chair. P checked that everyone were strapped down to their seats, while M operated some machine in one corner of the room. “All set…” P said and M flipped a switch that lowered some headpieces. Everything went dark, then I found myself alongside Zaz, Star and Jool in a white room. “Give us the clone-war, M,” Zaz said. A voice from nowhere sounded: “Who was giving…?” Zaz sighed and said“Give us the clone-war, Master,” Mannequins with different armament lined up along the walls. Uncle Zaz picked one with almost no armor, but a grenade launcher and a shotgun. Jool took a medium armor with an assault rifle, and Star one with a plasma rifle. I was uncertain, but ended up with light armor and several SMGs and pistols that I could use akimbo-style.
We were now in a huge city, with buildings stretching for the sky and looking ready to collapse at any minute. Zaz took the lead of the operation, sent me up front to act as a scout. “Keep those guns ready all, the clones might be anywhere,” Our helmets were equipped with both HUD and Comm-link, and the guns had ammo-counters.
Advancing through the streets, all seemed still. Suddenly, a swarm of deformed humans crawled out of the sewers. I quickly turned the safety off and squeezed the triggers. The empty shells rained down and the blood flowed freely. I took a brief look behind me to see how the others were doing. Zaz held the grenade launcher in his left hand and the shotgun in his right. Explosive canisters blew gory bits all over us. I threw away my empty SMGs and pulled some fresh ones off my bandolier. The flashing barrels made me feel like things went in slow motion. “Incoming transmission” a soft female voice sounded in my ear. “Hey, son,” “Oh, hi, dad,” I answered into the microphone. “So how’s about some quality time with your old man?” “You’re not that old, and what did you have in mind?” My clips were empty again. I drew twin 69’s, the grip on them seemed to mold into my hands. “I was wondering if you could… Are those 69’s I’m hearing?” “Yeah…” I answered and blew the brains out of two clones with one bullet. “As long as you’re not smoking… But anyway, I wanna show you off at The Z, think you can come?” I was out of ammo, and guns… “Fuck I’m outta ammo!” I shouted and drew my knife. “When do you want me there?” I asked as I stabbed those who came too close, while slowly being pushed backwards, closer to the others. “An hour, maybe earlier…?” A clone suddenly swings his giant fist and knocks me to the ground, a smaller one jumps on top of my chest and rams his hand straight through my armor… “Okay…” I answered while gasping for air. “Great, see you there,” All life left my body, and I was sent back to the white room. Soon I was joined by Star and Jool. Then a short while after Zaz came in. A scoreboard took shape on one of the walls. “Damnit! How could that newbie get more kills than me?!” Jool wasn’t too happy that I got a few more kills than her. “I’m pretty sure I could have killed them all,” I said “If this simulation could let me turn into my “other” form” “It could be arranged…” M’s voice said. “Don’t risk it guys…” Zaz said “You remember what Eve did to your equipment when you tried this thing on her…” “You’re right, his brain might interpret it as reality,” M said.
We played 4 more scenarios, but never did we succeed… An hour or so had passed and I headed to town on my bike. I remembered having seen a sign with a big Z somewhere near Star’s school, and there I parked outside. I went inside. Dad and mom sat at a table with 3 others, 2 of them male. I headed over and sat down next to mom. “That’s one nice kid you got there…” one of the guys said and pointed at me. “Looks like he got Xeni’s good looks and those weird black patterns you got,” Everyone laughed a bit. I thought I could show how much alike mom I could be, so I changed my colors briefly. Everyone was in awe. “You gotta be careful what you say around my boy,” dad said jokingly and pushed about his empty glass. “The boy probably doesn’t know who we are,” the female said. “I’m Lori, Careen’s mom,” “I always wondered where she got her beauty from,” I said and smiled. “Boy’s got his dad’s silver tongue as well…” Lori said and nudged the guy next to her. “No wonder Careen says nothing but good things about you… I’m Cole, her dad…” The guy next to Cole raised his palm and said: “Joel, Jool’s dad,” Joel seemed like a rather muscular guy. “Heard you put your own ass into the line of fire just to get the youngest Koru safely back here,” He said and swallowed the last of his drink. “It was no big deal…” I said how I felt it was. “I would actually call that bravery,” Joel said and pointed at me “And you should hang onto that heart of yours, cause it’s got the strength of a wild beast,” “You don’t know how right you are…” I said jokingly, but nobody really understood what I meant. Dad started talking about something with the others, but at the same time he talked to me telepathically. I only managed to perceive what he said.
“My boy’s becoming quite a man… I see you found a use for those condoms,” “You’re not helping me much by telling me that,” “I won’t tell anyone… I feel how you feel, and why you feel it,” I could see everyone laughing, but focused more on my mind. “So did you do anything like this when you were my age?” “Not by a longshot… I studied under Rhahl’s guidance and never had the guts to ask any girl out, even tough we didn’t have anywhere to take girls in those days,” “And how did you get together with mom?” “Pure luck… Or maybe fate. I was 16 and sucked through a black hole or whatever… I’ll tell you some other time, now just tune back into reality and look behind you,” A tall guy with white fur, black hair and tight clothes stood behind me. “Another round?” His left hand was metallic and held a notepad. “I’ll take a last one,” Joel said “And so does the Storm-kid,” Joel winked at me as he said that. “Now there’s a guy I’ve wanted to meet for a while…” The guy with the white fur looks down at me and stretches out his right hand. “The name’s Toby,” I politely introduced myself as well, then Toby said: “You look almost like your father when he was your age… And why haven’t I seen him before?” He asked my dad. “Blame the system…” Dad replied. “Cute guy like him should be kept under wraps… The girls must be swarming him… Be back in a sec with the drinks,” Toby headed back to the bar. “So we know you’ve got an iron-plated heart,” Joel said while looking at me “But how are you when exposed to poison?” Toby returned with two drinks. “Don’t want to break any laws, so the kid only gets a half pint,” Joel gets started on his clear, brown liquid. I tasted a sip of mine first. It was bitter, but not too bad… As I finished my glass, dad crept into my head again. “My son; Killer, womanizer, drinker…”
We left soon afterwards, after a few funny tales from their childhood. Mom and dad walked home, I had my bike. As I came out of the garage after placing my bike there, a light APC with red crosses came along and stopped outside our house. Nick stepped out and asked me to come over to the back of the APC. “Okay, let’s see what you’ve been doing since this morning…” I took of my sweater so he could take the monitoring-device off of me. Once off, I put my sweater back on. Nick opened the back of the APC and hooked the small device to a bigger screen. “What the…?” Nick said and pushed me into the vehicle. He got in with me and closed the doors. “You call this acting natural?” He said jokingly. “Let’s sum this up… From what I can read of these feeds… You’ve had sex, you’ve died 5 times and just recently consumed alcohol,” I looked confused at him. “Aren’t many dead guys who can drink beer… But when you had sex… Were you protected?” “Yeah,” “I hate to seem boring, but that’s my job… You’ve prob’ly heard in school what might happen if you’re unprotected…” I nodded. “There are those even younger than you who have come to me to have an abortion… That’s scary, so it’s good to see you are one of those who play it safe,” Nick pushes a few buttons on the screen. “I’m not going to bother you more today, except that I can tell you that your blood has a crystalline substance in it, much like your fathers. Your coma must have been caused by you burning yourself out,” We got out of the APC. “If there’s anything wrong with you, I’ll be more than happy to help you out,” Nick got in the driver’s seat and closed the door. He waved at me as he drove off.
I crawled out of my clothes and into bed as soon as possible. Not that I was so very tired, but I had easier for reflecting on what had happened the hours I had spent awake when in bed. The day did not end with a smile on my face… As usual…