“He snores so loudly… Shouldn’t he be awake by now?” she asked. “It’s almost noon.”
“Just let Alex sleep,” I told her as I stepped to the front door, opening it so both Huntresses could walk out. Lady C. moved in front of me first, followed by Aya, who hiked her ass up as she passed me, rolling her eyes.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked after we were outside, a light rain pattering the streets.
Everything was gray and shiny at the moment, the fallen leaves glistening, a few people walking past in raincoats, a man riding his bicycle and perfectly handling an umbrella.
“You don’t pay attention to me anymore,” she said, and I couldn’t tell by her tone if she was being playful or not.
“I always pay attention to you. Whenever you are around me, I spend all my time paying attention to you,” I reminded her.
“Oh, please,” she said as an Uberyota SUV began to lower. I opened the door for them, and they got in. “Thanks,” Lady C. said. “It’s raining cats and dogs out there.”
“We do not say this phrase in Tritania,” Aya told her as I got in the front. I confirmed the location with the vehicle as they continued to speak, the aeros rising into the air. “Our version translates to something like, ‘water dragons are weeping.’”
“Awww… that’s so cute,” Lady C. said. “I really like it how everything Thuleans say has something to do with either war or dragons or… war.”
“It is in our nature,” Aya told her. “There is a song about it as well. Maybe if you ever get your little musician group together, you can learn a version,” she said, looking in the rearview mirror at me.
“How does it go?” I asked her.
“You know I don’t like it when you put me on the spot and ask me to sing songs. And you haven’t sung a song for me in a while. What happened to Happy Birthday? You and Iris never play that one anymore.”
“We have been busy.”
“Busy losing tournaments. Do not think I forgot, Chase,” she said as the vehicle picked up speed.
We were heading toward Central Park, which made me think that Keegan lived somewhere around there considering that was where I always met her.
“We came in second place,” I reminded her. “You know, there are a lot of teams that did a lot worse than we did. Besides, we are new at this. We will win it next year.”
“Do you promise?” she asked. “By this time next year, we will be in a higher-level bracket. Unless we start getting rid of some of our mythcrea and only get ones that keep us in this bracket, to give us an advantage.”
“I never really thought of that as a strategy.”
“I’m sure you haven’t.”
“I bet Iris has,” Lady C. said, clearly just trying to be part of the conversation. She had a folded book in her hand, another romance, which she had been reading all morning since returning to her avatar form.
“I’ll discuss that with her later, and we’ll figure it out. Anyway, how does that song go?”
“Fine, fine, but this the only song I will sing for today.” Aya cleared her throat. “The war to come had twice begun; the dragon’s wing a delicate thing; the floating lands above the sea are true to their nature, and true to me. A sword once sharp, a blade is born. A blooming crimson, wound to wound. A winding sound, the joy of death, a death died well, no enemies left.”
“That was so good,” Lady C. said.
“Stop it, Lady Cassandra, you flatter me,” Aya said, her cheeks turning a bit red. “Besides, it isn’t the best translation. But I know that neither of you speak Thulean.”
“I’d love to hear it in Thulean,” said Lady C.
“Another time. I told you I would only sing once today. So, Chase, enough of my antics. We are meeting this Keegan girl, yes?”
“Correct.”
“And then we will fight her and her one-eyed bastard and fluttering faery again, correct?”
“Not exactly,” I told her, watching our vehicle slow behind an aeros convertible. This vehicle was in the air solely for advertising purposes, the Wendy’s Hut logo clearly visible on its side. And as always, focusing on the convertible for too long created an advertisement on my iNet screen, telling me that I could get Dave’s single with cheese for free with any junior bacon cheese pizza purchase.
“Hello, Chase? Are you listening?”
“Sorry,” I told Aya.
“Are you trying to make yet another lady friend out of Keegan?”
“Hardly.”
“That’s a good choice; you really have too much to handle as it is. Between the three of us, you constantly seem to have your hands full.”
“I don’t disagree with you there,” I told her, grinning at her through the rearview mirror.
“Pfft. You sure like to tease us, don’t you? Did he tease you last night, Lady Cassandra?”
“He did much more than that,” the Metican warrior said, smiling as she looked back to her book.
Aya laughed until she was blue in the face. “I just can’t imagine… Lady Cassandra, you know he is a scoundrel! Am I the only one that recognizes this? Don’t you see? He’s not a good, committed man. Ha! He’s not even a warrior!”
“Meticans don’t always date warriors,” she told her, shutting her book.
“But do they date musicians?”
“Let me think…” Lady C. considered this for a moment as the vehicle began to land.
I was ready for this conversation to end, and I was glad that Lady C. wasn’t escalating it, that she was actually playing along with Aya.
Thank God.
The last thing I wanted was for them to get in an actual verbal argument in a flying taxi.
“I guess there is a first time for everything,” Lady C. said once the vehicle landed.
“I guess,” Aya replied, still chuckling some. “And now you have to take this mechanical body to be with him. It seems like I am making fun of you, but I’m not. I’m making fun of Chase. This is quite astounding. I don’t know if there has ever been a story like this in the Proxima Galaxy.”
“Please,” I told her as I got out of vehicle. “There are tons of people who have relationships with avatars, and who have relationships here as humandroids, and in the Proxima Galaxy. Just because you haven’t heard of it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
“I suppose you are right,” the Thulean said. “Just because I haven’t heard of it, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. But that also doesn’t make it a good thing. Unless you two are having fun.”
And for once, the expression on Aya’s face changed to one of curiosity, and a little apprehension.
“What is it?” I asked her as we waited for Keegan at the agreed-upon meeting place near Central Park near where they hold the annual Columbus Circle Holiday Market.
“You aren’t actually having fun, are you?”
“Of course we are, Lady Aya. Chase and I are having a lot of fun. It’s very interesting. We are learning about each other. Right, Chase?”
“Um, right.”
“Well, then I will say one more thing.” The Thulean took a step closer to me and placed her hand on the hilt of her sword. “You’d better treat her well.”
“Hey, there’s Keegan.”
The teenage girl approached with her Hunters behind her, the cyclops and her fairy mad-doggin’ the hell out of Aya and Lady C.
“I’m serious, Chase.”
“I would never treat her poorly,” I assured the Thulean. “You should know me well enough to know that by now.”
“Okay,” she said, turning away from me. “But I have my eye on you.”
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
“Hi, Keegan.”
The teen alpha’s big cyclops took a heavy step toward us, mumbling something under his breath to the small fairy with glittery gold tendrils falling off her form.
“I didn’t think you would show,” said Keegan, in a black dress and black combat boots, a backpack flung over her shoulder that had a Japanese ma
scot on the back pocket.
“Why wouldn’t I show?”
She shrugged.
“Cool backpack,” I told her.
“It’s vintage; the mascot’s name is Chiitan, just in case you’re wondering.”
“Good to know. Well…”
“It would be smart for you to watch where you put your eye,” Aya told the cyclops.
“Hey,” I started to say.
“I don’t have many options of where I can look, mind you,” the cyclops said, his voice incredibly soft and polite, completely at odds with his form and intimidating gait. “I know that Thuleans can be a bit aggressive, and if you are trying to challenge me, know that I have already agreed to my Alpha’s request that there will be no fighting between us.”
“No need to be polite to her, Brutus,” the fairy said, her voice high-pitched and making me wince as soon as I heard it. “If she wants it with us, let’s give it to her! And this time, let’s not go as light as we did last time!”
“Killy,” Keegan started to say. “I told you, we are not fighting them.”
“What kind of fairy are you?” Lady C. asked, taking a step forward.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Killy the faery said with a powdery spin. “Just don’t call me a pixie! In fact, don’t talk to me at all. We don’t need to have a relationship. This is between our Alphas, not us.”
“She is sort of like a fairy version of a Thulean,” I said with a smirk.
“Chase, she may be rude, but she is not as rude as me,” Aya corrected me. “And unless you want me to remove my bug swatter from my inventory list and smack you out of the air, fairy, you will recognize your size, and understand your role in this world!”
“Fuck you, you green armpit stain!”
Keegan cleared her throat. “Killy, Brutus, I’ll send you both back to the dojo if you keep it up.”
“I have not said a word, just as you ordered,” Brutus the cyclops said.
“Brutus, you know I have to punish both of you, not just one of you,” Keegan said under her breath. “That’s the rule. This is going to be excruciating, isn’t it?”
I shrugged. “It’s really up to you. I guess we don’t need our hunters for this though, right?”
“Technically, no. I just like hanging out with mine,” she said, offering a short smile to the cyclops and her fairy.
“Enough chit-chat and sharing of warm feelings,” Aya growled. “Where are these rare monsters that we are supposed to hunt?”
“Is that what you told them?” Keegan asked me.
“Sure, was I supposed to tell them something else?”
“We’re going to meet a group that hunts rare monsters. Meet. What part of ‘meet’ don’t you understand? They are pretty secretive about who they are, a little paranoid, if you ask me. So they will be wearing masks. Just so you know.”
“Okay, that’s not strange at all…”
“Chase, what have you gotten us into?” Lady C. complained in a playful tone. “We could be out there doing something, or lounging around the hotel room, or going shopping in EverLife.”
“That’s right, your dojo is in EverLife,” Keegan said, jealousy in her eyes.
“How’d you know?”
“It’s the way your name appears on my pane of vision when I use the app. There’s a star next to it that means that you have a dojo in EverLife. I clearly don’t. Hopefully, I will get to connect my dojo up one day, but that day hasn’t come yet. There’s always a tournament though offering that as a prize. So soon.”
“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” I told her. “Actually, I kind of miss the times before we were connected to all the other kingdoms. There are more complications that come with being connected,” I said, thinking of some of the situations that had already gone down, from William to the big club fight in Kingdom Sana.
“I will get there one day. Probably pretty soon. But right now, I just want to collect the best mythcrea possible.”
“I feel you there,” I said.
“Do you? What’s the best, or the most powerful mythcrea you have caught?”
I looked to Iris and Lady C. “Ummm… a Thulean goblin?”
Killy the fairy started laughing so hard that she could no longer keep herself afloat. She fell to the ground, beating against the pavement, gold sparkles flying everywhere.
“That is not as impressive as I figured it would be,” said Keegan, a grin on her face.
“He’s pretty special, Level 69 last I checked, and he was once part of the Mitherfickers,” I told her.
“The Mitherfickers?” she snorted. “Yeah-the-fuck-right. Those guys are legends. You don’t have someone from the Mitherfickers in your guild.”
“We do, but fine, don’t believe me.”
“Any other rare ones?” she asked, growing impatient.
“We have a Golden Allocamelus.”
“Yeah, those don’t do anything.”
“But he looks good.”
“I really hope that you can impress the group that I’m taking you to,” Keegan said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I sort of went out on a limb recommending you. Now I’m regretting that. Funny, right?”
“I don’t find anything funny about your sassy little attitude,” Aya said, glaring at the girl. “If anybody in this group has something to say, they can come to EverLife and say it to my face. Right, Lady Cassandra?”
Lady C., who had re-equipped her romance novel, nodded as she continued skimming through the pages.
“May I ask what you are reading?” Brutus the cyclops asked her.
“Just a trashy reverse harem by an author who writes under the pen name Dustin Broner. Actually, I think the real Dustin Broner died years ago, but since he was a self-published author, someone he knew just kept writing genre fiction under his name. I don’t know. I just happened to pick it up because I was bored, and now I’m interested in the story, especially because it has Creative Non-Fiction Sci-Fi elements that I didn’t see coming.”
“Lady Cassandra, you are boring all of us,” Aya said.
“Maybe we should send our mythcrea away for now,” said Keegan. “It’ll be a little bit easier to concentrate.”
“Whatever works best for you,” I said, the two Huntresses fading away immediately.
Keegan’s Hunters did the same just a few seconds after.
“I have hung out with other Alphas before,” she said as she turned to the south. “It can be overwhelming when all the Hunters are out.”
“I can imagine. Hey, I saved our UberLyft,” I started to tell her, pointing at the vehicle which still hovered on the street, its lights flashing.
“We can just walk. It’s not very far from here. I will need you to put this on once we get there,” she said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a thick black beanie.
“Sure, I can wear that.”
“Over your eyes. You can’t see where they meet until they’ve officially let you into the group.”
“This is getting stranger by the moment, but I’m sort of looking forward to it now.”
“Good, hopefully they will feel the same way.”
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
“Stop here,” I heard Keegan say.
The black beanie she’d forced me to wear over my eyes didn’t obscure everything. There was still a bit of light that came through, enough that I could sort of get the layout of what was before me, but definitely not enough for me to know where we were aside from the fact that it was within twenty minutes or so of Central Park.
Which literally could have been anywhere in New York.
“Who is it?” a muffled voice asked.
“You know who it is already,” said Keegan. “And I brought the Alpha I was telling you about.”
“Okay, okay,” a man said as he opened the door.
“And this is him?”
“No, I just brought another guy who is wearing a beanie over his eyes.”
“No need to get snappy with me,”
he told her as Keegan led me down the hallway. I could tell by the sound of my feet that I was walking on wood, and then we switched to marble, or possibly a tile of some sort. From there we were on the carpet, moving down a stairwell into a warm room.
My beanie was removed, and Keegan handed me my glasses back.
“This place is huge,” I said, nodding to a group of masked men and women who sat on old leather couches. I had a feeling the space used to be a gym of some sort, or possibly a basement basketball court for a wealthy New Yorker.
But we had come up some stairs, and then we had gone down more stairs, which made no sense now that I was trying to orient myself. There were no windows on the walls, no pictures either. Just a vanilla colored paint and the occasional light fixture which ran all the way to the end of the place and back.
A custom Monster Hunt room… I thought, as I looked at the six other hunters, all masked, all of whom were looking at me curiously now.
“Hey everyone,” I said, trying to be friendly.
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” the man who had greeted us at the door said.
He was a butler of sorts, evident in his suit, and the way he was already making his way back up the stairs, leaving us down here with the masked Alphas.
“So,” another man said, this guy with a bit of a paunch. “You are interested in hunting rare mythcrea, right?”
“Who isn’t?” a British man asked.
“Keegan here has indicated that you are interested in hunting rare monsters,” a woman said, her voice a bit deep. She was the only one that sat on the ground, with her legs crossed under her body. Next to her, with his hand on her shoulder, was a muscular black man, who wore a funny looking horse mask.
“Sure, I’m definitely interested.”
“And how long have you been using the app?” the British man asked.
“I mean, almost two weeks? Not very long.”
A few of them started to laugh, the others groaned.
“I thought you had been using it longer than that,” Keegan said under her breath.
“No. I just got it. What about you?”
“I’ve been using it forever. Well, a year, but that was only because I wasn’t able to get an access code. And my parents wouldn’t buy one for me off the black market.”
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