by K. L. Lewis
What was all the rage about anyway? Why fight over the bathroom? His curiosity grew as he peeked out, catching Yue open the bathroom door and finally let Amy in.
“What took you so long?” Amy sassed.
“Oh, give it some years,” Yue shot back. “Don’t wanna spoil the surprise.”
DeMarcus wasn’t sure he wanted to know, shaking his head at the two and pausing the moment Yue turned to him. “Did we wake you?” she asked.
“Amy’s banging did, yeah,” DeMarcus answered.
“You look like you had a rough night too.”
“Something like that,” he lied. Didn’t want to let her know he was dreaming about Crystal.
He caught a whiff of charred meat and followed the scent to the balcony outside, looking down at Shen standing over a grill and Jiao setting up tables and chairs. Platters of food sat on the side as Shen sorted them into large bowls and pans, with Jiao coming over to wrap them and place them away.
“What’s all the food for?” DeMarcus asked. And why so early in the morning?
“It’s for a friendly get-together with some of the neighbors tonight,” Yue answered. “We have it once every year.”
“Who’s coming?”
“Just the usual folks: Ty’s family, Mitch, and Sarah’s,” said Yue. “It’s a great way to get to know everyone.”
Her words were garbled as they went in his ear, but he caught enough to get the idea. His body was still woozy and shaky, and his eyes grew heavier. “Sounds fun,” he said.
He stumbled back to his room, the world still spinning around him. He noticed the bathroom door open as soon as he came near, and he greeted Amy as she came out. “Hey, Amy.”
Amy crossed her arms and scowled at him, then flipped him off. Still hated him, huh? “Whatever, I’mma go back to sleep,” he said as he passed her.
Then he yelped from a sharp spike on his tail. He turned to Amy’s foot crushing down on it as she smiled back at him. “What the heck was that for?” He yelled, pulling his tail away.
Amy didn’t answer him, instead humming to herself as she waltzed past Yue, who stuck her foot out and sent her little sister tripping to the floor. DeMarcus snickered to himself as Amy stood back up and glared at Yue.
“Serves you right, little brat,” Yue said with a smirk.
And here they go again. DeMarcus stood back from Amy steaming red in rage in her rush at Yue. Yue waited in front of the bathroom, arms crossed until just the right moment before sidestepping Amy as she stumbled onto the bathroom floor. Then she closed the door shut and held it tight, her smile widening as Amy hammered the door from the other side.
BAM…BAM…BAM! “LET ME OUT!” Amy shouted.
“Keep trying, little brat,” Yue taunted. “It’ll work eventually once you learn some manners.”
Well, that was one issue dealt with.
With a yawn and a stretch, DeMarcus returned to his room still upset that he’ll never experience that dream with Crystal again. Nothing left to do but to get more sleep. “Wake me when it’s time for school,” he said to Yue.
The walk to school was a drag, probably because he woke up in the middle of the night earlier. DeMarcus couldn’t stop from yawning as he walked with his friends to the bridge tram to the city.
He slumped in his seat for a brief nap, spurring awake when Tyrone tapped his shoulder. “Yo, we’re in the city,” he said.
Rising to his feet, DeMarcus stretched as he followed the gang off the tram and onto the sidewalks to the Academy, and he couldn’t keep himself from slumping to the ground on the way.
“Dude, you okay?” Mitch asked. “You look like you haven’t slept in ages.”
“Amy was being a brat in the morning and woke him up,” said Yue.
“Yue,” Jun scolded. “That’s enough.”
“Oh, don’t stick up for her just because she knows not to mess with you,” said Yue. “She even stomped on DeMarcus’s tail right as he was about to head back to sleep.”
DeMarcus glanced at Jun, dead silent and without words as she looked back at him. “Yeah, that actually happened,” DeMarcus said. His tail still throbbed from earlier.
Passing a few food trucks as they neared the Academy, DeMarcus caught that familiar whiff of berries swirling in the air. The smell made him stand straight up as he caught Crystal walking with her friends onto the Academy campus.
“Looks like someone’s perked up,” said Sarah, glancing over at Crystal. “And I think I know why.”
Was it that obvious? Well, it’s not like they didn’t know at this point. Just looking at Crystal brought a smile to his face, until her image was blocked out by an energy drink held in his face.
“Here,” said Yue, holding the can. “And remember what I told you earlier about her.”
“She can’t be all that bad,” said DeMarcus.
Tyrone chuckled. “Who knows? Maybe if you play your cards right—”
“Stop giving him ideas, Ty,” Yue interrupted. “You should know better than anyone.”
DeMarcus chugged the energy drink as they stepped onto the Academy grounds, bidding Jun goodbye as she split for the upper campus. Thank goodness for that energy drink, as it managed to keep DeMarcus up during all his classes. But come the lounge period, his and Yue’s final hour, he found himself crashing down as he slumped over his wrist with only the sounds of Mitch tinkering with his OmniMorph keeping him awake.
“So, DeMarcus, you enjoying your time here,” Sarah asked as she sat down with her lunch.
“Aside from being tired as hell, yeah,” DeMarcus answered.
“The day’s almost over,” said Yue. “All we have to do is wait for the last bell and we can head home.”
“Lucky for you two,” said Mitch. “I still have History class to deal with.”
“Don’t like it?” DeMarcus asked.
“It’s not that,” said Mitch as he took out his battery. “I just wanted to leave early for the get-together today at your place. Mrs. Sun cooks some of the best steaks I’ve ever had. If I could find a woman like her in my life.”
DeMarcus noticed Crystal’s friends walking by—the blonde human Elene walking side-by-side with two parahumans. One of them, a tall girl whose stare was as dark as her looks, glared at DeMarcus as the shorter, paler parahuman pointed at him. The three girls sat at the bench behind him, keeping to themselves. DeMarcus wondered where Crystal was among them, only to catch the dagger-like stare from the dark parahuman that made him wondered what her whole problem was.
“What’s with her?” He asked his friends, tilting his head at the dark parahuman.
“Who? Alanya?” Yue asked. “Don’t mind her. She acts like that with a lot of guys.”
“Not like that,” said Sarah. “I’ve ever seen her give anyone that look.”
“What the hell’s she gonna do?” Yue asked. “She knows better than to try anything with me around.”
He hoped so, but DeMarcus couldn’t shake the feeling that he still had a knife poking at his back from that girl.
“So, about Crystal,” Mitch began. “What is it you really like about her?”
“She’s not like any girl I’ve noticed,” said DeMarcus. “But I haven’t really gotten to know her well. Seems easier said than done with that Alanya around her.”
“Well, you do have good taste,” said Mitch. “Crystal is beautiful. I wish I had a chance with her.”
“You were into Crystal?” DeMarcus asked.
“Oh yeah. That hair, lips, and legs among other things,” said Mitch.
“Oh, my goodness,” Sarah sighed with a roll of her eyes. “Is that all you boys ever think about with girls?”
“Well, that’s just me,” said Mitch. “What about you DeMarcus? Is it those hips? Her walk?”
“It’s not like that,” said DeMarcus.
“Really?” Yue asked, sounding unconvinced.
“Well…not just those things,” DeMarcus corrected.
“…ervert.”
&
nbsp; DeMarcus’s ear twitched at the faint words coming from one of the girls behind him, peeking over his shoulder at Alanya still staring at him, before turning back to his friends. “Are they…talking about me?” he asked.
He noticed Yue’s eyes knifing back at the girls. He never saw her give this look before, not even toward Amy, and he hesitated to ask why she was making it. “Let’s find out,” she said with a grin, reaching toward Mitch’s dead battery. “You don’t need this anymore, right?”
“Nope,” Mitch said. “Gonna take it to a recycler after—”
“Good to know!” Yue snatched the battery, flicked her arm back, and slugged it past DeMarcus. “Zeet!”
The battery flew over the table across from them, and DeMarcus heard one of the girls shout “Ow!” behind him. He turned around and flinched as Elene looked at him with the other two girls, rubbing the back of her head before turning her hands into fists. She gritted her teeth and stomped toward him. “Why you…!”
Yue stood over the table ready to pounce. “Wrong one, bitch! I’m the one who threw it!”
Elene paused, then backed away. “What the hell d’you do that for?”
“You cats sounded like you had something interesting to say,” said Yue. “Care to share, or do you want to shut your goddamn mouths?”
Elene scoffed and looked back at her friends, neither one making a single move. Then Alanya shook her head and stood up. “Come on, let’s go somewhere else,” she said, leading the way to another section of the yard.
Yue sat back down with a smirk and a cross of her arms. “Thought so.”
Watching Elene rub her head from the impact of the battery made DeMarcus wonder if Yue went a little too far. More importantly, he still didn’t understand what he heard from those girls. “What’d they say?” he asked.
“They called you a pervert for talking about Crystal,” said Yue, crossing her arms. “Like those floozy bitches don’t ogle boys from the upper campus.”
“You say that like girls are no different,” DeMarcus said.
Yue shrugged. “Our mind’s in the gutter too, but girls like them will bullshit about it.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s like that,” Sarah said.
“Says the one who likes reading dirty romance e-books,” Yue quipped, her face stone cold as she glanced at Sarah doing exactly that on her OmniMorph.
Sarah lurched back. “Wha—that’s different!”
“Bullshit,” Yue said without a change of face. “Don’t make me spill the beans on the freaky things you’ve said.”
“Whatever,” Sarah said with a sigh as she went back to reading on her OmniMorph.
Not a good job disproving Yue’s point, DeMarcus thought. But that was the least of his concern right now.
The bell rang throughout the school, and everyone in the yard prepared for the rest of their day. “Alright, that’s our cue,” said Yue. “Let’s head out.”
“Lucky,” Mitch grumbled.
“We’ll see you guys at the get-together,” DeMarcus said as he followed Yue to the campus gates.
The moment they made their way out, Yue took a turn opposite of home. “Gonna make a slight little trip before heading home. You got the money mom gave you for a new OmniMorph, right?”
DeMarcus pulled out a card. “Right here. Didn’t think we’d do this today though.”
“Eh, better sooner than later,” Yue said as she led the way toward Downtown.
“So, where we headed?” DeMarcus asked.
“The Rula Megaplaza.” Yue pointed off in the distance at a wide dome sitting near the edge of the river.
Squinting his eyes, DeMarcus saw the heads of people dotting the area around it, with a massive, blackened area shaped like a clover where people glided inches from the ground. That couldn’t be what he thought it was—a Magna-rink? It was almost as wide as the Megaplaza itself!
His tail twitched in excitement as he kept pace with Yue, eager to see what this place had in store. The old Houston Galleria was massive, but it paled in comparison to this. And the closer he came to the Megaplaza, the wider his eyes opened at the size of it. Its glossy white dome stood several stories high as it glittered in the sunlight, held up by spires jutting up like mini skyscrapers that were visible through the dome. It all made his jaw drop at the sheer size of it.
“You done gawking?” Yue teased. “Wait ‘til we get inside.”
At the entrance, the doors slid open to what looked like a mini city. Deep green lakes of grass and bushes split by rivers and canals dividing the Plaza into sections, white tiled lanes leading them to the directories, tear-shaped solar trees soaking in the sunlight, and that was just the mid-floor they were on. From the slopes and chasms leading down to the floor below, DeMarcus saw benches sitting atop blue islands shaped like lily pads next to food courts and playgrounds. On the floor above, bridges and platforms crisscrossing between each other with gardens on the edges and skyscraper-like spires serving as elevators and shops.
“This is a plaza?” DeMarcus questioned.
“Not something you’ve seen before, huh?” said Yue. “Let’s head to the tech shop.”
He followed her to the shops at the Plaza’s edge, walking through the grasslands to a techno-paradise of gadgets and tools. There were tablets smaller than his hand that folded into the size of a card, drones of various shapes and sizes that were made strictly for civilian use—as if that ever stopped militants from retrofitting them into something else, not that DeMarcus knew how to do it.
“Over here!” Yue waved him over to the OmniMorphs, each with various colors and capabilities.
All the OmniMorphs can shift their forms, from bracelets on one’s wrist, to tablets, or the shape of books like the ancients used before the Great Wipe. Some were more peculiar than others, rolling out from tube-like forms—“scrolls” as they were called when civilization first began.
They were priced based on data and capabilities—the average OmniMorph had 2 Tera-Qs of data and can contact anyone from around the world. The higher priced ones can reach the Iuvian colonies orbiting the fractured moon, and the most expensive ones reached Mars and beyond. If only he could afford that last one.
“So, which one looks good to you?” Yue asked him.
DeMarcus switched his gaze to one of the basic OmniMorphs, a red one with many pins and slots for great modularity. “That one,” he pointed.
“The Coalesce X9? Good taste,” said Yue.
The robotic clerk took out a small box containing the model and priced it at the register. “That’ll be 200 Units.”
DeMarcus swiped his card, and the payment was confirmed.
“Can I get the Drone-Gimble I ordered last week?” Yue asked. “Confirmation number YLS0521.”
The robotic clerk turned to the storage and took out another box twice the size of DeMarcus’s purchase. She swiped her card, completed her purchase, then led the way out of the shop. “Thank you!”
“Please come again,” said the clerk.
Taking out the OmniMorph from the box, DeMarcus set up his new device and shifted its form. Downloading his old applications and accounts, he peeked over his shoulder at Yue opening her new device. She took out a drone smaller than her palm—it looked like one of those old helicopters that most of the world stopped using, folded propellers sitting atop a camera that made up most of the device and connected from a wire coiled to a thin, flat slab.
Yue continued fiddling around with it, connecting it to her OmniMorph and monocle while the drone took flight and followed her hand movements. Good, she wasn’t paying attention. That gave him a chance to send a message to his mother in secret—if Yue found out who he really was, there was no telling how she’d react and likely bring the kind of attention DeMarcus would rather avoid. Now all he had to do was wait for a response. It should come any moment.
Any moment…
Hopefully not too soon though, as the moment they walked the edges toward the escalators, the magna-rink came into
view. It was already massive looking at it from the outside, but getting a closer view inside made him seem like a speck by comparison. He leaned over the guardrails, his toes twitched at the idea of speeding along the black-tiled surface of the rink. Then his ear twitched at a ring from Yue’s OmniMorph.
Looking over his shoulder at Yue answering a call from Tyrone, he stood by as Tyrone’s head flashed over her wrist. “Hey, where you at?” Ty asked. “I’m done with class. Mitch and Sarah won’t be out for a while.”
“Me and DeMarcus are at the Megaplaza picking up a few things,” Yue answered.
“Oh really? Wanna hit the rink then?” Ty asked in a challenging tone. “We still have a score to settle after last week.”
“Only if you can get here in time before we leave,” said Yue. “We still have the Get-Together coming up.”
“It’s a bet,” said Tyrone before logging off.
“Come on!” Yue waved DeMarcus down to the bottom of the escalator. DeMarcus felt his blood race through his veins as fast as they rushed to the rink—it was like a wish come true the closer they came. But the air suddenly shook, and the people around started murmuring and pointing at the ceiling.
“What’s going on?” DeMarcus looked up to a hole blasted in the dome where light poured down to the floor. Shards of metal and glass rained down along with people in green full-body exo-suits and facemasks.
Their visage and H-shaped insignias were unmistakable.
“It’s the Fronties!” DeMarcus shouted. “Run!”
DeMarcus pulled Yue by the arm and led her away from the Fronties landing. The militants flipped their rifles up and fired at the crowd, taking out the security androids storming at them along with anyone else unlucky to be too close. A drone flew overhead, launching rockets out into the open, blasting the floors and edges.
Wind whizzed over DeMarcus’s head as pebbles pelted his head and his lungs filled with dust, and a sharp sting ripped through his side. He clenched his stomach and pulled Yue over to the elevators, and his heart hammered in his chest as he caught his breath. “You okay?” He grunted out.
“I’m fine,” Yue said, raising at her right hand. It was bruised and bleeding, suffering cuts from a few shards of glass stuck in it. “Or…not.” She looked back at DeMarcus and gasped. “You’re bleeding like crazy!”
