"These upgrades to city security are taking forever,"

Krutch, a slender, grey hedgehog blinded from birth, said to his friend.

" Well even for us, it does take time. We live in a city made entirely of skyscrapers, nothing is easy to change right away here." Rave, his friend said, leaning on the balcony of his high-rise apartment, looking over the cityscape surrounding him.

" We try everything, Krutch. I can't tell you how many things we've tried to keep the city and it's people safe. But every time, without fail, something comes along at the last second and wrecks our plans. Cameras? An anti-surveilance protest vandalized them all. Armed guards? Magic monsters. Nothing has worked 100% since I took this job as head of defense."

Krutch, facing towards the apartment, stands up and puts his hand on Rave's shoulder, almost missing it and having to recatch his balance from the slight inaccuracy of the vizor he wears.

"You'll make it work eventually, Rave. I believe in you. Your girl believes in you, my wife, we all do. I know you'll find a way to stop these crimes. You've just got to find that spark."

Rave's face relaxes as he let's out a sigh. "Thanks Krutch, I needed

to hear that. Let's just hope the rest of the city thinks the same."

Krutch waves his hand, opening the electric door into the apartment. "They will, in time. Come on, I need to head back and you have a date tonight, right man?"

Rave snaps straight, looking Krutch right in the eyes: " HOLY CRAP! I TOTALLY FORGOT! TIGER'S GONNA KILL ME!" He shouts, dashing by his friend as if Cthulhu himself was trailing behind him.

Krutch, pleased at his correct fact checking, smirked slightly as Rave dashed to his room to change. "I knew he had forgotten something. He always does."

He yelled down the hallway towards the bedroom, his voice slightly echoing off the white painted-a stract metal walls, "Best of luck Rave! I'm heading out! You'll need it!" He began to walk slowly towards the apartment's door, almost reading it before Rave burst out of his room.

"THANKS!" He stammered, speaking far too loudly for someone simply late for a date. Krutch watched as Rave grabbed his holo-pac off the table, slipping it around his ears while heading towards the door. Krutch gleefully held the door for his friend.

"Aethra, lock apartment." Rave said quickly, heading towards the door.

A hologram bust of a small, green-blue fox girl appeared in the middle of the room above a circular disk embedded in a coffee table. She held no emotion on her face, but quickly replied to Rave's request.

"Aethra request in progress. Beginning apartment lockdown." And with that simple statement, the AI vanished, and all the technology in the apartment began to fade off and return to it's reset positions.

Krutch smirked again, and with a small chuckle, he torted, "I still don't get what the point of Aeth is. She shuts off lights and TVs. That's it. Sort of a dumb AI for the cost of 60 thousand Arcane, right?"

Waiting for an answer, he looked around him to where he thought he'd see Rave, bouncing up and down, waiting for the apartment to close. But he was nowhere in sight.

"Rave? Rave? RAVE?!?!"

Krutch yelled. "DONT LEAVE ME HERE! I DIDNT BRING MY CAR!!!!" He screeched, bounding down the hallway after him.

Chapter 1, Hopes and Dreams