Hi-Tech opened his eyes to Scarlett standing in the doorway and Duke yelling at him to wake up over the intercom. He slowly sat up.

"I'm up, I'm up..."

"Hurry and get dressed. Duke and I have to go visit Hawk today and you need to get to work so we can do that."

"Okay, okay." He answered, padding on sock-clad feet out of the computer room and into the command room. He looked over at his commander, a blank and lost expression on his face.

"Do you remember where I put my RSD device? I need to take a shower this morning."

"No, I don't remember where you put it, but you can use mine." Duke answered the sleepy techie.

"What on earth is an RSD?" Scarlett inquired

"Room Security Deactivation. Hi-Tech has a special security set on our rooms, and he has to deactivate that security using a special pocket remote. He can't seem to find his remote, so he's borrowing mine." Duke answered as he handed Hi-Tech the small controller. "Oh, don't forget that the microwave is broken!" Duke shouted after him.

"Why'd you tell him that?" Scarlett looked puzzled.

"Because-" Hi-Tech didn't hear the rest of the conversation. He knew it would probably be about his 'issues' with forgetting things. He just didn't have time to remember that stuff; why couldn't they understand that?!

He was later standing in front of the mirror brushing his hair after his shower, thinking about his newest upgrade on his favorite invention, HOUND, when he began thinking that making a cup of instant coffee would be a good idea.

Hi-Tech opened the microwave.

"Funny, this thing smells weird...oh, well. Now, lets see, where'd I put the coffee...aha!" Hi-Tech went about getting all the needed things for making coffee, or what he thought MIGHT be what you used for making instant coffee. Now, real coffee, he had no idea how to do that.

"Oh, and you know, I could give HOUND another compartment that I could put an extra pistol and some bullets in..." He muttered, putting his mug in the microwave and hitting a few buttons. The microwave started, and Hi-Tech sat down on one of the two twin beds in his and Duke's room, muttering more things about his computer not working well enough to improve HOUNDS system like he wanted it to, and so on and so on.

He honestly, seriously, DID NOT see the smoke coming from the microwave, even though he was looking right at it.

"Something smells-Oh my gosh!!! THE COFFEE'S BURNING!!!" He shouted, whipping the microwave door open and at that moment remembering what Duke had said earlier. "Ohhh...aw, man...now our room's full of smoke. I guess I'll just open the window to let some fresh air in and hopefully this smoke will clear out." Hi-Tech headed over to the window on Duke's side of the room. As he began to open it, he saw a note taped to the base of the window. It read-

Hi-Tech,

Remember the seagull incident and please do not pull up the screen. Just the glass, not the screen.

Thanks,

Duke

"Don't pull up the screen, right." Hi-Tech left his room a few minutes later, having successfully taken a shower, gotten dressed, and opened a window. It seems like a small accomplishment, but in fact, it was very large for the techie. The day to day struggle of trying to live like a normal human.

"How goes the paper work?" He asked Duke when he reached the Command room.

"Awfully tiresome. How many times do I have to write Conrad Duke Hauser on a sheet of paper before I die?"

"A lot. I'm getting pretty tired of Shana Maureen O'Hara, myself." Scarlett announced from where she was sitting at her computer with papers strewn all over the keyboard. The keyboards on the C-Titan were digital and flat; they could be disconnected to become a very nice desk.

"Well, I'm really glad I don't have to write my name a million times like you do. David Michael Efrem Lewinsky is pretty long." Hi-Tech answered, laughing. Scarlett looked up from her paper work.

"You have two middle names?" She stepped over to the coffee pot and poured a cup.

"Yep!"

"Scarlett, don't you think you've had enough coffee? That's five cups." Duke began, sounding a little wary.

"Oh, I'm fine. This one's for Hi-Tech." She gave him the cup, and then directed him to look at something on her desk. While he was leaning down next to her she whispered in his ear.

"Try to remember what your brother says, and that there is always coffee in the Command room. You don't have to try making it yourself if you don't want to. And I already told Duke that the window was open, so he won't submerge without closing it."

" Oh, yeah, well...I just thought today would be a good day to try. I kinda forgot about the microwave, sorry. Wait, how did you know about that?!" He whispered back. Scarlett winked at him.

"I just know those things." She replied, smiling. He looked at her suspiciously, but let it be and headed back to his computer room. Today would be a long day.