“I still have to pay taxes…”
“Yeah, that’s not great.”
“No, it’s not. But once I sell the property in EverLife, we should be set. And I mean we. I’m giving you half of that. Whatever I sell it for.”
“Chase, I don’t really need…”
“Iris, I wouldn’t have any of this if it wasn’t for you. I keep telling you this, but it’s like I can’t get through to you.”
“Let’s just see if you sell it first,” she said. “Have you ever been to Newport, Rhode Island?”
“No, I’ve never even been to Providence,” I told her. “Well, I took Amtrak through it once, but I only saw the city from the window. Lots of brick.”
“Back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the East Coast’s richest families built huge estates in Newport. You should see some of the homes that they built there. They are like beyond mansions, easily bigger than the White House, at least some of them.”
“But they probably don’t have an underground bunker…”
“They may,” Iris said. “I never checked. Anyway, all that property is worth millions and millions of dollars, and it’s all empty now. Just mansions that have now become museums, because people don’t want to live there.”
“So you’re saying that people don’t want to own the Steeple?”
“I don’t know, Chase. Proxima property is really hot right now, so some people may want to own it, but it really depends on the price. The point I’m making is: sometimes something is worth something, but regardless of what it is worth, no one wants to buy it. Seriously.”
“I know, I know, but you said yourself that Proxima property is hot.”
“True,” she shrugged. “Maybe I’m overthinking this. You and I should take a trip up there. You would be amazed at some of these homes. I’m talking a long boulevard with these big houses that look out to the sea, long driveways, three, four stories, views from every room, it’s like The Great Gatsby leveled up out there. And most of them are empty, aside from old money.”
“I get what you are saying,” I told her. “And maybe we could take a trip one day. Hell, why not? We can do anything we want now…” I bit my lip. “I’m sorry, I’ll stop having that type of attitude sooner than later.”
“Yeah, maybe we will take a trip. We need to prepare for this tournament first. It is seriously two days from now, and we are representing our kingdom. Remember, we are both Lightning Knights…”
“It’s an honorary title.”
“But a cool one, one that we should be proud of,” Iris said firmly. “I’m looking forward to the tournament, and not just for the titles we may get, or the titles we already have. It’ll be fun. A way to distract ourselves.”
“I just find it really hard to get competitive when I was originally being competitive for money, and now I have money. Does that make sense?”
“It makes a lot of sense. But I really want you to participate, and I want you to start training with me tomorrow. Would you do that for me?”
Iris turned to me, and in that moment, I felt a spark between us.
“I would be honored to,” I said, even if my instinct was to push away from the tournament. “I just don’t know about competing…”
“Come on, Chase, it’ll be fun. Just think of the Huntresses, how much fun they will have.”
“They’ll love it.”
“What are your plans for tomorrow?” she asked, turning back to the window.
“Well, as I told you earlier, I want to see about cloning the trolls. I will also probably check out the Steeple, then I guess you and I will train and hit up Kingdom Ignis. Spew Gorge keeps talking about this uncle of his, so I suppose we will have to pay him a visit. The Huntresses want to shop, but we should probably get out of Kingdom Sana for a bit just in case there’s any backlash from the club incident. And we have a concert tomorrow night.”
“I have school too, but that won’t take too long. And really, we need to look into turning the practice room into a recording studio. So we should check into that.”
“The tech has always been your thing,” I told her. “Just get what we need, and we’ll press some records. Literally. Let’s put out the first Dalton and the Alpha Duo EP on vinyl. It’s not like it matters; people will be able to play it there just by touching the vinyl.”
“That would be so cool,” Iris said. “Still not so stoked about that name, but he is sort of the front man.”
“Sort of? He’s light years better than Chad.”
“He’s pretty good,” Iris said. “Actually…”
“Yeah, you know it, and I know it. He’s a pro.”
“Well, just don’t tell him that. Dalton is already giving out sage-like advice like he’s auditioning to be a contender in whatever New Age movement arises next. We don’t want this stuff to go to his head.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t tell him, trust me there.”
I made my way to the bathroom. It was a weird set-up, and rather than opening like a normal door, the heavy industrial door slid to the left.
Definitely a nice bathroom, though. As I warmed the water up to take a shower, I looked out over the city through the one-way glass. It would fog up eventually, but for the time being I would get cleaned off while staring out at New York City.
What a life.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I activated the Monster Hunt app once Iris was asleep.
Lady C.’s form took shape before me, the Metican warrior now in a sleep shirt and a pair of panties. She crawled in the bed immediately, a smile on her face as she wrapped her legs around my body, bent forward and kissed me.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I whispered to her.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said, but from what I had seen, she’d never actually looked around the room or at the views.
She was only interested in me.
Eventually, the Metican fell asleep in my arms. The last thing I remember was the reflection of the moon on one of the glass buildings in the distance.
What a view. What a life.
I awoke before Iris the next morning, and after gently waking Lady C., I sent her back to EverLife.
“I have big plans for us today,” I told her before she went. “So get excited. I’ll be at the dojo in a bit to check on things, and you can ride over there from the hotel in Sana if you want. Or just whatever you’d like. But trust me, I have big plans.”
“What kind of plans?” she whispered to me, even though Iris wouldn’t hear her.
“Just get excited,” and with that, I deactivated the app.
I went to the sleek restroom and washed my face, running my hand through my black hair before I put my glasses on and returned to the bedroom, where I found Iris seated on her bed, her hair a mess.
“Do you have time for breakfast?” I asked her.
“I should go home; I need to catch up on a few things before I head to class.”
“Understandable, but I’m pretty sure this hotel has a nice restaurant…”
“Fine, you’ve convinced me,” Iris said as she rolled out of bed. She was in a shirt and a pair of panties. I glanced away at first, but she didn’t seem too worried about walking in front of me, so I relaxed a bit as she passed.
What was going to become of Iris and me? Not much had happened since we’d made out a few days back, but I wasn’t going to press her on anything.
And as odd as it felt, at least conceptually, Lady C. was on my mind at that moment.
No matter how much I reminded myself that she wasn’t real, she felt real to me, and who decided what was authentic or not, especially this close to the twenty-second century?
We would find out soon enough what it would be like to truly be with Lady C...
Iris came out of the bathroom wearing a skirt and her normal leggings. She sat on my bed as she laced up her shoes, yawning again as she did so.
We left the room, heading straight to the elevator, where we wer
e greeted by 8-bit styled circus music playing from the elevator speakers.
It was entirely surreal, something almost Beatlesque, and Iris and I both jokingly rocked out to it as we took the elevator down to the restaurant, which was stocked with the finest French pastries available in Midtown.
We dug in, sipping cappuccinos, and orange juice made from blood oranges, sharing several crepes, a plate of sausage and gravy, and a ton of fresh cut fruits.
“Now that’s what I call a meal,” I said as the check came. I drummed my fingers on my belly, Iris shaking her head with faux disdain.
“You’re going to get so fat as a rich guy.”
“No, I mostly ate fruit. You are the one that was slamming down those chocolate croissants.”
“I had half of one.”
“And I had one and a half, but who’s counting? Don’t worry, this will be my biggest meal of the day. Well, I suppose we could eat something later too. We can always do something like that.”
“Some soup would be nice, especially if it’s cold out.”
“Duly noted,” I told her as I transferred the money to the restaurant over iNet. I also could have it charged to the room, but figured I would just pay the bill now. I left a good tip too, even though the service wasn’t that good, especially for a restaurant of this caliber.
The food more than made up for the service.
“So we’ll meet later?” Iris asked.
“You’ll know where to find me.”
“You’re going to stay at this hotel again?”
I shrugged. “Just for another day or two. I know, I’m splurging a bit, I just have never been in a place like this before. You understand, right?”
“Just don’t let it go to your head,” she said as she turned to the exit.
“You’ll be the first to know when it has gone to my head. And at that point, I’ll need you to take me back to Brooklyn, stuff me in my room and make sure I hit my head on the pipe on the way in.”
“Will do, and thanks for breakfast,” Iris said, offering me a cute wave as she left.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
The famous Brian Eno tone played, and it wasn’t long before I was standing before our recently renovated dojo. The Huntresses knew I would be here—I was pretty sure they got a notification when I logged in—yet no one was out to greet me.
My guess was that Aya had stayed at the hotel in Kingdom Sana with Altsoba, and Lady C. was probably asleep in her cabin, as she usually was at this time.
Rather than go check, I made my way to the garden that was to the left of the mythcrea dormitory, where I found Rose the bearadillo rummaging through a bush with her cub, Gobi.
You have a smile on your face, she thought to me.
“Life is looking up for me,” I told her as I approached, placing my hand on her shoulder. Gobi burst out of another bush, looked to me, licked his lips and dove back in. “Is there any reason why you two are ruining our new garden?” I asked.
I told Gobi that there were certain beetles that come with these types of gardens that create a red paint if you mash them up.
“Gruesome, but sort of awesome.”
I’m glad you approve.
“Do you like what Iris has done with the place?”
We still have our meadow and the hills beyond, so I have no qualms with it. I believe the others really like it though, and Fujin has really been cooking up some nice things in the remodeled kitchen. You know, Sun Wukong and him work really well as a team.
“Good to know,” I told her.
Are you ready for the upcoming tournament?
“Iris is going to do most of that,” I told her as I took a seat at the bench. Gobi ran over to me, his muzzle red with squashed beetle guts.
You’re not interested in winning?
“To be honest with you, there’s more to life than winning, as cheesy as that sounds.”
No, I agree with you. But why the sudden change of heart?
“You haven’t heard?”
She looked at me fondly for a moment, well, as fondly as a ginormous bearadillo can look at a human. I suppose I have.
“Well, that’s why. I just need to see how this plays out a bit. It has taken me by surprise, in every sense of the word.”
I petted Gobi’s head, trying to avoid his sticky red muzzle. The bearadillo cub looked up at me with love in his eyes, and I couldn’t help but smile down at him.
Enjoy the surprise, then. Why fight it?
“Good point,” I told her as I turned to the front gate, waving goodbye to both of them. I could see Yaksha in the distance, the giant statue meditating, and for a moment, part of me wanted to join him.
I wasn’t much of a meditator, and sitting still usually just quieted my mind enough for me to think about music. But he looked peaceful out there, and maybe another day, maybe I would join him.
“Mitchell, Schnoogles,” I called out as I approached the front.
Mitchell the troll came running over; Schnoogles, not so much. The second troll was in the watchtower with a golden monocular in his hands. He turned the monocular to me, and I could see an enlarged version of his eye, like something straight up out of a cartoon.
“Just stay up there,” I called to Schnoogles, who blinked and looked away.
Mitchell lifted his hand curiously, as if to ponder if he should sniff his ball-scratching hand in front of me. Figuring he was just with the boys, the troll gave it a good whiff.
“Well, I hope you are clean,” I told him as I invited him into the dormitory.
“Pfft! I bathe every couple of days, thank-you-very-much,” he said as he followed me into the dormitory.
“We’re going to do a little experiment,” I told him as we headed down to the basement.
Mitchell and I entered the Fusion Center, the space now Bauhaus chic, a single table in the center of the room in front of a pair of vertical vats covered in blinking blue lights.
I saw the trackball of the table, and I remembered how to use it from last time, how to scroll through the list of mythcrea we had captured and put in a few commands.
But that wasn’t what I was here for.
“This place is creepy,” Mitchell the troll commented.
“That just because there’s no furniture. We’ll add some furniture, how’s that?”
I scrolled through a few menus and added a couch against the wall. It didn’t really go with the decor of this place, but Mitchell seemed to like it. He waddled over to the chair and hopped onto it, kicking his dirty feet up.
“Good,” I told him as I went through some of the menus available on my dashboard.
It was interesting how it was arranged, but eventually, I was able to locate exactly what I was looking for. I purchased the Cloning Machine for well over fifty thousand Proxima Dollars. It came with the requirement of a place to hold the clones, and after being given a three-dimensional grid of our land, I selected a far-off corner, hoping that it wouldn’t obstruct any views.
Once that was done, a series of levers appeared next to the trackball on the main table in the Fusion Center, an additional vat taking shape between the two with blinking blue lights. This one had a metal coil around it.
Tutorials presented themselves to me through pop-up boxes, a female voice reading them.
[First, select the mythcrea you would like to clone, and please note, cloning mythcrea will not give you any bonus tokens.]
I did as instructed, using the trackball to scroll to Mitchell.
“What’s going on…?” Mitchell asked as an invisible force lifted him and carried him over to the vertical vat that had appeared in front of me.
[Now use the trackball to select how many clones you would like to create. Once you have selected a number, the cloning process will begin. A single replica will be created and then deposited in the Clone Pen you have installed in your dojo. You will need to check this replica for any defects, and once you have done so, you can continue your cloning in the pen. You will find that th
e Clone Pen has information along the wall that you can use to make changes, or approve of the next batch of clones. As previously stated, cloning mythcrea will not give you any bonus tokens. Have fun, and don’t get too carried away.]
“Here goes nothing,” I said once Mitchell was placed inside the vertical vat. The door sealed shut, a hissing sound escaping as the troll looked at me with panic in his eyes.
“Whoa… whoa… this is crazy!”
“I know it seems crazy, but just relax,” I told him. “We’re just going to make some more of you.”
“More of me?” he asked from inside the vat, his breath hot against the glass.
“Yep, as many as we possibly can. And you’re going to be leader of all of the yous, and you will lead them in the battle.”
“Against who?”
“Against William, the guy who attacked us the other day.”
“This is about him?” He glared at me. “Why didn’t you friggin’ tell me? I would have gotten in here without being forcibly lifted by an invisible force!”
“Sorry, I should have clarified. Ready?”
He gave me the thumbs up.
This one’s for you, Iris, I thought as I pulled on the lever and smoke appeared in the vat. She would have definitely gotten a kick out of this.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I logged out, glad to see that the Mitchell cloning operation was going to go according to plan. I could check back on the clones later, having approved the first one.
Lady C., if she was indeed at the dojo, never made it out of her cabin in time to see me off. But she would be stoked, or at least a little nervous, when she saw where I was going next.
Once the NV Visor powered down, I noticed an incoming message from Keegan, the young female Alpha challenging me to a Brawl.
I jokingly shot a message back to her, telling her to bring her biggest guns possible, which sort of came off weird especially after my message was flagged by GoogleFace, and I had to wait a few minutes for Keegan to finish her side of the report telling GoogleFace that I wasn’t threatening her with a firearm.
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