A Future Ally
Part 7
Come on... come on! What's taking so long?
I had been waiting for around three hours, and I was beginning to lose my patience. Not to mention the fact that I had drunk half the fizzy drink bottle lying next to me. That's right - I had drunk 3 litres out of a 6-litre bottle and I was having trouble holding it. After about five minutes or so, I just gave up and went to the toilet. Unknown to me, that's when a huge - HUGE - argument between the two sisters started - and escalated into a full-on conflict. I was stuck in the toilet for a whole hour - I had to flush it around six times to stop it from overflowing. The toilet glowed a bright, fluorescent reddish-orange from the fizzy orange drink I had imbibed.
Exiting the toilet, I proceeded to go back to my post.
"Hello? Hello? HELLO?!" I shook my head in disbelief. Just then, there was the sound of a rocket being fired, followed by an explosion, accompanied by crumbling concrete and rubble. I was sure I could hear Nina's voice on the other end of the line.
"What the hell is going on!?" I asked, raising my voice to make myself heard over the fighting. I heard Nina speak to me, her voice cold and uncompromising.
"Sweevo! It's good to hear from you again. Listen to me: My sister and I are..." She cut herself off in mid-sentence as she avoided another rocket blast.
"...fighting again - but this time it's on an extreme level! It's borderline war! Stay where you are!" She said.
"OK - I'll do that." I nodded, unable to keep the concern out of my voice.
I was confined to my room for the majority of the day, unable to walk outside due to the urban battlefield situation. I heard a whooshing noise come towards me. I thought to myself rather irritably:
What now?
I turned around to face the window, and I saw a HUGE missile head towards me. My eyes widening to the point where they'd bulge out of their sockets, I leapt behind an armchair and took cover, screwing up my eyes so tightly they hurt and covering my ears to the extent that I could no longer hear anything at all.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The missile exploded in super slow motion, time seemed to decelerate to the point that everything had stopped moving except for myself. My laptop computer landed on top of me, miraculously intact, and landed in front of my face and hands. I opened my eyes and let go of covering my ears, standing up and brushing shards of glass off my front and back. I climbed out of the broken window and looked down the fire escape, finally locating the source of the commotion.
Two humanoid figures, one purple and with fair hair, and one red and with dark hair. Anna fired rockets at Nina, while Nina resorted to a sub machine gun and a sniper rifle, missing Anna, or wounding her occasionally, but never killing her. The sun was setting over the Greek skyline. I decided that this banter had to stop.
I climbed down the fire escape, ran straight into the battlefield, and managed to subdue Anna with a single, well-placed slap. She fell to the floor. Upon noticing my action, Nina ceased firing and ran straight up to me, her eyes registering confusion and pride at the same time.
"I thought I told you to stay in your room, Sweevo! What the HELL is wrong with you?!" I turned to her with a look that equalled the phrase "Just hear me out."
"What, and let this mindless violence continue for days on end? AFTER your sister fired a missile into MY room, nearly KILLING me?! You can sort this shit out between the two of you at the Tournament - NOT in a deserted city street, blowing shit up!" I raised my voice with each emphasised word. I was no longer the cowardly hacker and lockpicker I was two months ago - I was a more brave and decisive man now. I turned to face Anna, who glared at me with a look of total hatred, then I faced Nina, who, for the first time in her life, stared at me blankly, her normally unflappable demeanour now temporarily speechless.
"Save it for the Tournament, Nina." I said to her. She nodded:
"Yes, sir." I left and went back to the hotel room, with an ironic smile on my face.
By the time I got back to my hotel room, the window pane had been fixed, and most of the mess had been cleaned up. Thankfully, my laptop computer was still there, so I put it back onto the table and reconnected myself to the wireless network infrastructure, ready once more. I thought to myself:
Now is the time to strike.