Chapter 4

Ever since Jen "joined", I had been suddenly struck with an actual incentive to show up to Caitlin's little Brigade Meetings. I felt like Jen was so hot and so nice and whatnot that she needed someone like me around to protect her if Caitlin tried to go too far. Plus she seemed pretty normal, which was a major plus for any of my friends, let alone fellow S.O.C Brigade members. At least, that was what I thought at first.

Anyway, one day Caitlin made the following pronouncement:

"Attention, Brigade members! I have decided that what the S.O.C Brigade needs the most right now is a web site. Who amongst you wishes to go with me and procure a system from those Computer Club geeks?"

Not a hand went up. Jen was too scared and Nikki was off in her own little world again. Which, of course, left me to go along with Caitlin's dirty work again. Everyone in the Computer Club was hard at work when Caitlin and I came bursting in through their door like a hurricane. The lead geek of the Computer Club was a guy that I had met before in the A.V. Club. (Where did that guy find the time?) His retainer-constrained mouth fell open in shock as he suddenly found himself face-to-face with the at this point infamous Caitlin Cooke.

"Wh-who are you?"

"We are the S.O.C Brigade. I am Caitlin Cooke, the leader. And these are my henchmen, Number One and Number Two."

Something just told me that I was meant to be Number Two.

"We have come here for one reason and one reason only: To procure a computer by any means necessary. Oppose us and prepare to be destroyed."

The pimply-faced nerd, whose nickname was Darth, tented his two hands together, forming the Evil Finger Cone of Nefarious Intent.

"Well then, Miss Caitlin Cooke, perhaps we can work out a bargain. As you can see, this club could sort of deal with a woman's touch. With all these hairy and unwashed computer nerds around, I feel like I'm living on the forest moon of Endor. So, just sign that girl over to us for at least part-time, and you shall have your computer. I swear this to you upon my honor as a Jedi Knight."

Cailtin ignored the flowery speech and retorted with an instant response.

"Very well. You can have Jen."

As she spoke, one of her arms snaked its way around Jen's shoulders and around to her back.

"Here, take her!"

All of a sudden, she thrust Jen towards him with a mighty heave. In his haste to protect himself, Darth threw up one of his hands…and it connected with her breast. Jen shrieked in embarrassment and Caitlin's hands became a blur as they produced a hidden camera and snapped away, all before Darth could even comprehend what was going on. Spittle flew from his mouth as he finally got it.

"GAHHH! Y-you! Wh-what do you think you're doing?!"

Caitlin smiled evilly, terrifying me for yet another time.

"Giving myself a bargaining chip. So, you give me the newest computer you've got right now, or this picture makes it all over the school!"

"Y-you can't do that! Even if you try it, everyone in this room will back me up. They saw what went down here!"

"Just exactly who is the school going to believe? It's your word against ours, Lightsaber Boy. Now you hand over that computer or I tell the entire school that you all teamed up and gang-raped her!"

Darth's face fell, as well as the rest of his body. There was a noticeable sob in his voice as he spoke his final words on the subject.

"Just take it. Take your computer and go."

Let that be a lesson to you, people: Don't mess with the Caitlin.

Our new computer now well in hand, it fell to me to do the actual creating of the website. Not an easy task, considering that I still had no idea what the heck Caitlin's little S.O.C Brigade was really about. So, long story short, I only wound up making us a main page and a hit counter. But, I must say, it was actually pretty fun. I worked late into the night, my eyelids going lower and lower…that is, until I had the one fateful Red Bull that enabled me to pull through. Of course, afterwards, I was too wide-awake to even think about sleeping. So, out of sheer boredom, I picked up the magazine that Nikki gave me way back when. Nothing new in there, girl stuff and makeup tips, but something written on the last page made me stop cold:

"Wyatt: Meet me in my hotel room on the date specified. It is of vital importance that you come and come alone. I will tell you the truth about Caitlin Cooke. The address is as follows…"

I was in shock. Not only was the date that very day, but the address was only a few blocks away from my house, in one of the new high-rise apartments that they'd built last year. Needless to day, I went there as fast as I could, unprepared for anything of quite such a magnitude to go down.

One quick bike ride and one quick elevator ride later, I found myself staring at the front door to Nikki's apartment. I knocked once, and Nikki opened the door to a room as blank and as empty as her daily expression. Not one picture adorned the walls, not one pillow had one of those little mints on it, not one pattern was visible on the bedspread of what essentially amounted to mattress laid out on the floor.

"Uh, hey, Nikki. I haven't come at a bad time or anything, have I? Because it looks kind of empty around here. Are you and your parents moving away somewhere?"

"No. I have no parents. As it stands, I am the only one here."

She lives by herself? As I pondered the meaning of Nikki's statement, my eyes scanned for what little there actually was in this room. Aside from the plain mattress and the plain walls and the plain curtains, there was a wire table brought out from the balcony with two cups of steaming coffee sitting on it, as well as two wire chairs. Nikki and I each took one and sat staring at each other in silence.

"So…uh…what did you want to talk to me about?"

Nikki drank her coffee almost mechanically, disregarding the heat and the steam, quickly draining her entire cup in one go.

"The reason I have called you here is that Caitlin Cooke and I are not exactly what you would refer to as normal humans."

"Yeah…that's true. No offense, but you may as well have just told me that water is wet."

"I do not mean that Caitlin and I do not share certain socially acceptable personality traits. I mean that she and I are much more than ordinary humans…The Data Thought Integration Entity, a massive collection of databytes far off at the edges of the known universe. It has always existed throughout time, but it is incapable of taking on a physical form. But, three years ago, a new hope for its evolution appeared. All of a sudden, a massive explosion of data came forth from this sector of space. Caitlin Cooke. An organic humanoid interface was created by the Data Thought Integration Entity to investigate the anomaly…and that is what I am. I suppose in terms that you yourself are more familiar with, you may call me an "alien" of sorts."

And the weird thing was that she said all this with a straight face, same as ever. As she stared lifelessly back at me, my mind struggled to wrap itself around the concept like a green snake trying to climb a greased-up sugarcane. And all I could think to myself was:

"Alien…Alien…Nikki is an alien…"

To Be Continued…