A new beginning
Hope closed the door behind him silently and walked towards the nearest transport station, with Kara following slightly behind. The dying sun lit his face with its magenta twilight, and the light breeze ruffled through his hair. His communications device vibrated, and in front of him a holograph of Morgan sprang to life.
"Where are you?" he asked.
"Coming," Hope said. He looked behind quickly to check where Kara was, before turning back to his friend.
"Where are you?" he asked.
"We're already there bro-catch you later." He replied, before terminating the communication. Hope sighed and quickened his steps towards the club. The streetlights were beginning to turn on. Above the street flowed blue cables of energy, perfectly smooth, and pulsating, bathing the street below in a watery light. The transport station was close by and Hope walked through the gates quickly, impatiently waiting for Kara. Once she was there he entered a cubicle, and typed the destination code. Soon their bodies disintegrated into a flash of light that flowed into the cables above the street, causing a slight pulsation; and then just as quickly they were in the Centre of New Bodhum, some thirty miles away.
This area was in no way similar to the leafy suburb they had just left. All around them, stood skyscrapers of tremendous proportions. The towers here were not as great as in some of the other cities, such as Everlast; but nonetheless they were so great that they reached above the clouds, thus making the tops invisible. Standing on ground level was a good way to feel insignificant.
"Shall we go?" Hope asked.
"Why not?" Kara asked with a smile.
The club was on the seventh hundred floor of the Metropolitan Cuisine, a tower stretching five kilometres in the air. The seventh hundred floor was in fact the penthouse, and the party was on the roof. At that altitude, the wind would be enough to make any party a very bad idea, but the use of suspended energy particles deflected the wind towards central wind ways, where all the wind in Central Bodhum was funnelled. These highways had wind speeds in excess of a thousand miles per hour, at an interval of around 300 metres. They were used to illuminate the city at night. None of the other civilised cities had anything quite like it, but new Bodhum had always had the highest funding from the government, due to its sentimental value as the first city.
Hope walked into the building, and into the concierge.
"Hi, I need a pass to floor 700." He said.
"Name?" the receptionist asked.
"Hope Estheim." He replied. The receptionist swiped on her holo-deck, before keying something in.
"Yes, that's right. The lift is down the stairs and on the left. Your DNA has been tagged; if there are any problems just let me know.
"What about my friend here?" Hope asked.
"Name?" the receptionist said, looking over at Kara.
"Kara Villiers." She replied. The receptionist's eyes widened slightly at the last name, perhaps wondering if this girl had any relation to the General of Nora.
"Yes, that's right." The receptionist said. "Have a nice time."
Hope walked down the large hallway, following the lush red carpet. On the side many people were milling around, to what purpose he could not say.
"You know she was looking at you," Kara said.
"Who?" Hope absently asked, as he searched for the stairs leading to the lifts.
"That receptionist." She replied.
"Well of course you moron; where else is she meant to look-the floor?" Hope said sarcastically. Yet the slight tinge to his cheeks betrayed the fact that he knew exactly what she was talking about.
"Give it up Hope, she was eye-fucking you!"
"Ah! There's the stairs!" Hope said loudly, in an attempt to change the subject.
They walked down the stairs into a large clearing, where there was a crowd of several people; all waiting to get on one of the several elevator bays. There was a beep, and one of the doors opened, and soon the room was clear. Hope walked to the nearest elevator and pressed the button. There was a whir, which signalled that the elevator was coming. Hope sat down on one of the blue energy benches nearby. These were relatively new, having only recently been backwards engineered. They made use of anti-gravity systems to form a seating area, which was extremely comfortable. They used too much power and were too expensive for any large scale use, at least in their current incarnation. He had no doubt that they would see commercial use soon enough though.
"You do have school tomorrow you know. Lightning is going to kill you." Kara said, whilst looking out the window at the dark sky.
"Why?" Hope asked. "It's not as if I don't have an excuse."
"What excuse?" Kara said.
"I was helping you clean your house, after someone went in and trashed it." Hope replied.
"What? That's your excuse?"
"What's wrong with it?"
"She'll never believe it!" Kara replied with a snort.
"She will, if she sees the damage herself." Hope replied.
"Yeah, but she won't, because there is no damage."
Hope looked down, saying nothing.
"There is no damage right Hope?" Kara said.
Hope still said nothing.
"Hope?" Kara said with a clearly malign edge.
"I may have hired someone to trash your house-but I told him to break nothing valuable and to steal nothing. I'll get someone to clean it up later." Hope said very quickly, and raising his arms to protect himself. This seemed to be a good move, since Kara leaped onto the ant-gravity bench and started to fight him. They writhed on it, with Kara trying to punch and Hope always rolling away, or deflecting it.
"Why you…" Kara said with grit teeth.
"What? I'll pay you back!" Hope said.
"No you won't! I want a new house and jewellery!" she said as she aimed another punch at him.
"A new house?" Hope said. "What the fuck for?"
They were disturbed from their revelry, by the sound of the elevator opening. From the lift emerged several people, who all stopped to stare at the two of them. Hope was lying face up on the gravity bench, with Kara straddling him. She at once went very red, and jumped off him, trying to explain to everyone what was really going on. Hope, however would have none of it.
"I told you it wasn't safe here!" he yelled. Kara gave him such a dirty look, that he fell of the bench with laughter.
"Asshole."
"Don't I know it!"
06:22 am
Hope heard a small beep sound, and then felt a heavy thump on his chest. Within minutes his body was burning up, and he writhed in agony. He jumped out of bed, and looking around him, he picked up one of his shoes and threw it at the bright blue ball floating in the air. He had bought that alarm clock a few weeks ago. It had said 'guaranteed to wake you up, so that you feel refreshed the whole day!' He had bought it, and today was the first day he had tried it. It seemed as if it did do its job-just not in the way that he had anticipated. Being blasted with electricity did not seem a good way of starting the morning. He threw his other shoe at it, and the alarm clock finally buggered off and floated away.
He checked the ceiling clock and sighed. He had only had half an hour of sleep. Luckily he had not needed to explain to Lightning why he had come home at 6 in the morning, since she was asleep. His head was pulsing with pain, and he reached over to his counter and pressed the red button. A quick bolt of electricity was more than enough to dispel the pain and freshen him up. The ceiling in his room had recently been upgraded, and now it was indistinguishable from a real sky. In this virtual sky, the bright sun and the floating clouds were more than enough to cheer him up. It really came into its own at night though, when the stars came out.
He came downstairs half an hour later, and sat down at the breakfast table with Light. She was watching the news, while drinking some hot drink. He didn't know what it was, but from all the steam he wondered how she didn't burn herself.
"Morning," he said. He went into the cupboard and got some breakfast out.
"Good morning Hope." She replied. She transfixed him with a stare.
"What?" he said.
"It's your first day of school," she said. Hope rolled his eyes.
"As if I could forget," he muttered.
"So why aren't you wearing your uniform?" she replied, whilst taking another sip.
"Uniform?"
"Your new school requires a uniform Hope." She smiled at his outraged face.
"But you didn't buy me one!" Hope spluttered.
"Yes I did. I put it on your bed, whilst you are sleeping." She said. Hope banged his head on the table. It must be on the floor somewhere hidden under his blankets.
"You needn't have bothered Light-I could have got it free from the nanofabricator." He sighed.
"What nanofabricator? We don't have one-there's no way we could afford one! Not even Snow has one."
"Right," Hope said. "I'll go change now."
07:46
"Ready?" Snow asked, hopping onto his own air bike.
"I miss the Velocycles!" Hope complained. "I can't fly these," Hope kicked Snow's air bike in frustration.
"These? They go like three times as fast!" Snow said.
"Yeah but I don't know how to fly them!" Hope said.
"I'll teach you, maybe later," Snow said with a wink. "Come on get on!"
"We could just take the public teleport system," Hope said.
"There aren't any near the school," Snow replied.
Hope jumped on the bike, sitting behind Snow, wondering why they weren't using the aircar. Serah must be going somewhere with Hazel. Hope took comfort in at that at least he knew some people at school. He had made some friends at the beach, but that was only around twenty people, out of the thousand or so who went to New Bodhum High.
It was a new experience. Hope laughed into the wind as he stuck his head out, and his head was buffeted. Below him, buildings passed in a flash and roads and people swirled in and out of view. New Bodhum, was nothing like the major metropolis's such as Everlast and Star Reach, but its city centre was still busy, and there were airlanes.
As they got closer and closer to Central Bodhum, they rose higher and higher, as they followed the airlane. Other cars joined the lane, and soon everything was busy, and Hope could no longer see the landscape around him, only different aircars, and the jets of blue blur behind them. He could see however the looming skyscrapers that marked Bodhum Central, stretching up at the horizon. Hope could see the Metropolitan Cuisine, where he had partied last night, sticking straight up. Even from this height, the top couldn't be seen. It was said that the towers in Central Star Reach, where all commercial airlanes where diverted away from, reached fifty kilometres in the air; and at that height the sky was truly black, and people there swam with the stars.
As Hope stared at them, he noticed Snow turning off, and beginning to descend. Below them in the distance was a huge park, and a bunch of buildings-New Bodhum High. There were other schools in New Bodhum of course, such as Redwing, Tapering High and The Crowns Secondary Court. Serah had apparently chosen this one though. He looked around, now that most of the surrounding vehicles had gone and turning his head around he saw no sign of the sea. He looked over at Snows shoulders and saw that they were a kilometre in the air. That must mean that they were quite far from home, but they had only travelled for less than a minute. Hope had only travelled on an airbike once before, and had forgotten how much faster than cars they were.
"So that's why we brought the bike," Hope told Snow.
"What?" said Snow.
"The bike-why we brought it," Hope explained.
"Yeah, it's faster!" Snow yelled. There really was no need-the airbike was open, and travelling at extreme speeds, meant that no sound could usually be heard, over the roaring of the wind. Fortunately all airbike had force fields surrounding the two sides. They allowed objects to pass through, if they moved slowly enough, such as Hope's head, but nothing else. The noise outside was monitored by the airbike's internal computer. It cancelled any irrelevant noise such as wind, so that the inside of the airbike was silent. Any important noise was patched through though, such as people talking. Hope wished these kinds of things had existed back on Cocoon.
Snow lowered the airbike on the side of a large green field. As it neared the ground, Hope saw the grass around them being flattened, and the leaves on the floor being blown away. The vehicle landed with a slight bump, and Hope jumped out.
"Are we here?" Hope asked. Snow de-powered the bike before jumping off and looking back at Hope.
"Yeah, this part of the schools grounds-pretty big isn't it?" Snow said. "You would know where we were, if you'd gone and visited the school during the summer."
Hope growled, and started walking away leaving Snow behind. "Go! I'll find my own way!" He heard Snow give an affirmative answer, and get back in the bike, and start to leave.
"Bye!" Snow yelled, as he flew off. Hope raised his hand, watching Snow disappear into the horizon. Looking around him he saw that the field he was in was large but there were buildings all around. Before he could decide which one to head off to, he heard a loud whistle and a tall man ran up to him.
"This is a school-private property! You're trespassing young man. Leave now before I call the GC!" the man yelled as he came closer. Hope turned around in surprise; the man approaching wore shorts and a white t-shirt, the whistle hanging around his neck. He had a pair of black sunglasses and a blue and red baseball cap. Hope could see that he had blue eyes and long dark brown hair which went well with his golden skin. The man looked decent enough, but Hope had no time for him. He was already late for class.
"Sorry, but I need to go." Hope said, taking a map of the school grounds, and orientating it.
"I don't think so!" the man said.
"What the fuck?" Hope muttered quietly.
"What was that?" the man roared. It seemed he had better than usual hearing.
"Look please go away." Hope said, turning his back on the strange man.
"No!" He roared.
"Oh fuck off!" Hope said. The man opened his mouth and closed it wordlessly.
"You're one of those paedophiles aren't you? Trying to have your way with all the students here!"
"What? No! I'm a student! My name's Hope Estheim." He refrained from calling the man sir, since he didn't know who he was. Hope felt a sincere resentment at being made to go to school, despite being a secret billionaire. Kara had laughed about it for hours.
"You're at least twenty. This school only goes up to eighteen. What kind of a student flies a car into the school sports ground? Trying to be stealthy eh? You little shit, thinking I'm that stupid! I'm calling the Guardian Corps-they deal with scum like you. Breaking into schools-the youth of today are all cretins! And I'll get that blonde pervert with the long hair locked up too!""
The man had caught up with Hope, and was stabbing him with a finger. He towered over him; the man was a giant, at least six foot three, with a definite muscular build. He wished he hadn't sent Snow away.
"Then come with me to wherever new students are supposed to go. Then we can decide if I really am a student." Hope said nervously, praying that the man would agree.
"Well I can't just leave you! I'm coming with you! I've made my decision, so you can't run off like the criminal you are!" the man shouted. Hope winced internally. The man really was either extremely paranoid, or a ridiculous simpleton. The man stared a Hope for a minute or so before yelling again.
"What's wrong you imp? Move your ass!" he shouted. He was starting to really get on his nerves.
"I don't know the way, please show me," Hope said, trying to not show his frustration.
"Aha! What kind of a student can you be if you don't know your way around!" the man started to menacingly make his way towards Hope, who wailed and sat heavily on the warm grass. Impossible. No-one can be this stupid! No-one!
"Excuse me, what's going on here? Hope turned his head around to see a blonde woman with green eyes behind him. She was very beautiful, and slender, and Hope could hear the tall man begin to splutter.
"I caught this criminal Miss Moro! Yes I did! Right here. I saw one of his cohorts drop him off from an airbike and zoom off again." The tall man said. His golden skin was being suffused with red as he looked at the women. She looked down at Hope and raised her eyebrows, her eyes widening in shock.
"He doesn't look like a criminal," she said.
"I'm not. I'm a student, my name is Hope Estheim!" Hope said wearily.
"Hope? Yes I know that name. I was just going through my register, last night. I remember a Hope Estheim in my form class."
"Thank god!" Hope said as he lay down on his back, closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling of sunlight.
"That doesn't explain why you're here." Miss Moro said.
"What?" Hope said opening his eyes and sitting up.
"Come with me-you're already late! The rest of your class are just there in that building to the left. We all saw you come down in that airbike-quite an entrance Mr. Estheim." She said.
"Uh thanks, I guess," Hope replied following his new form teacher. He looked back and stuck his middle finger up at the man, who spluttered and followed him, just to make sure.
They entered the building, and went through a long corridor. After going up a flight of double stairs, they entered another corridor, and Moro opened the first door on the left. The class went silent as she entered. Hope looked around, and saw that New Bodhum High was certainly a modern school. Each desk had its own in-built computer hologram system.
"Hope this is your new class! I'm sure you'll be alright." She said as she sat down on her chair at the front of the room. "You have your own seating place!" Moro said as she pointed to an empty seat in the centre of the room. "Please be seated." She told him.
Hope knew that he was going to hate this school. Everything was too controlled and strict-they were even being told where to sit! It seemed like one of those prison schools. Nevertheless he moved to his new desk and sat down with a heavy sigh. He returned the smile of the guy next to him, and focused his attention on the women at the front of the class. He found her looking at him, and she quickly looked away once she saw that he had realized. Hope sighed again. Really? She's spying on me? What kind of a school is this?
Hope realised that he must have caught the eye of the Miss Moro. All too soon, a sneaky plan emerged in his head. A plan born both from residual lust, as well as overriding laziness. He would try to seduce Miss Moro. He sincerely hoped that it would mean that he could get away with not doing any work. He did not listen to a word that the teacher said during registration, instead concentrating on how to get her into bed.
Registration ended relatively quickly, and Hope studied the timetable he had been given. It showed that his first lesson was history. Hope almost giggled-history had to be the most boring subject in the world. He had tried and failed to do it back in Palumpolum, but now that he already had all the money he would ever need there was no need to even try.
"Hey! Who else has got history now?" Hope called out.
"Yeah, me!" A tall dark haired boy replied. "Come, I'll show you the way!" Hope smiled and gave him a nod as he followed the boy out of the classroom. He gave one look back at Miss Moro, and winked at her in an extremely provocative manner. Her blush did not hide her shocked face.
"Hi, I'm Jason by the way, I take it you're Hope?" the boy grinned. Hope nodded, as he pushed his timetable into his jacket pocket.
"Yup," he said. "Do you know where we're going?"
"We have to go to the history building-it only a five minute walk away." Jason said with a small grin. "So are you a history buff?"
"What? Fuck no! I hate it, but for some reason I'm put down to do it." Hope sighed.
"You mean you didn't choose your subjects? All new students get to choose mate. Someone must have chosen for you!" Jason laughed, as Hope growled silently.
"Who's Sarah?" Jason asked.
"Huh?" Hope asked in confusion.
"The name you mumbled?" Jason asked. "Doesn't matter-I think you'll be glad that I hate the stupid subject as well. Can't stand those essays!" Jason exclaimed.
"So why are you doing it?" Hope asked.
"My mum forced me to- she said it would be good for university. I'm in a heap of shit though. This year we have our ICS exams, and history is supposed to be one of the hardest."
"It doesn't look good," Hope agreed. He smiled despite the impending boredom. He had found a way to fuck Miss Moro by lunch time.
Hope saw the history classroom up ahead, and got his plan into action. This was something that would never have occurred to him a few years ago. When he had become a l'Cie, he had been very hardworking and attentive in class. Even after that incident, he had still worked hard, though his social life saw a marked improvement. Now though? Now, he saw no real reason to work. The incentives were no longer clearly defined, and the last thing he wanted to do was work.
Hope fumbled in his pocket, and took out a cigarette. He knew this was risky, and if it went wrong, Lightning could be called in. If it went well though, the risks would be worth it. He lit the cigarette and kicked the door open with a loud crash. The class had around seven people, who were all startled by the loud noise. Looking around he saw disapproval written on nearly everyone's face. Jason sat at the back; everyone else was on the front row, studiously taking notes. They all had immaculate uniform; most had glasses and all were fucking losers. It didn't help that a few years ago; he would have been one of those hard working sheep. Those were the people who would get ahead in life. Though Hope was certain that no matter how hard they worked, they would never become as wealthy as himself.
The teacher grabbed Hope by the scruff of the neck and escorted him out of the class. Hope though he heard the man saying 'not another flipping Jason.' Hope was taken to the form room, and was told to wait. The teacher had probably gone to get Miss Moro. Excellent, Hope smiled. He finished the cigarette before dropping it on the floor. He took care not to look at himself in the mirror, since even he could get lost in those green eyes. It did not take long for Miss Moro to arrive, and to Hope's intense relief, she did not have that History teacher with her. Now it was time to get his plan working.
"Hope." She said sternly.
"Miss," he replied, with a low tone.
"What's going on?" she replied, though noticeably more bothered. Hope wondered to himself about this. He had never used his good looks to actively seduce a woman. His heart was beating so fast that it seemed as if it could burst out of his ribcage. When he had had sex with Jessica for the first time, he was pretty sure that he didn't have the looks he did now. He wondered if this was really going to work.
"I was feeling rather hot," Hope said in what he hoped was a seductive voice. "Could you take my clothes off?"
Instantly her face darkened. Uh-oh. This didn't look good.
"Excuse me?" she said. This really wasn't going the way he hoped, but he figured he should go for broke.
"Uh…Could you please take my clothes off?" Hope said, hoping good manners would do the trick. It didn't. Moro just stood there, opening and closing her mouth.
She's probably just shy.
Hope, confident of his new appraisal of the situation, undid his tie and pulled off his shirt, showing his toned white torso.
"Stop!" she said. "Disgraceful! Absolutely disgraceful! Who do you think you are?" she thundered. "I am calling home right away young man-let's see what your parents have to say about this." With that Moro turned and left the room.
"Oh shit," Hope mumbled. That had definitely not gone to plan. He had never seduced a girl before, and it appeared that it wasn't as simple as he though. He would have to do a bit more research.
He took out his phone, and connected to his network server.
"Connect to network jlaix. Location New Bodhum." Hope said to his phone. He hoped the new AI he had got was better than the old one.
"Connection to New Bodhum servers authenticated. All nodes are online." The phone responded. In accordance, several green lights flashed on.
"Connect to Lister." Hope commanded. Lister was his go-to man. He was expensive but he was the man to call in situations like this.
"Contact file found. Command name Lister is an encrypted server. Password identification is needed."
"0-9-9-8-7-2-3-4 Velocity Airways" Hope whispered quickly.
"Connected-Lister is online."
"Hello?" a voice rang out."
"Hey Lister it's me, we have a problem." Hope said.
"What can I do?" he replied.
"I put a move on a teacher at school, and now she's calling home." Hope said. He could hear someone approaching.
"Understood." Lister terminated the connection and Hope stuffed the phone back in his pocket. Miss Moro walked back into the room, holding a phone. It seemed that she hadn't called home yet. Her eyes widened when she saw that Hope had not changed.
"Put your clothes on Hope." She ordered, giving him an icy glare. Hope did as he told, trying to supress his excitement. He wondered what Lister was going to do. He knew that it was likely that the school would ring Serah, since getting hold of Light would be nearly impossible. He hoped to god it worked.
"It appears no one's at home, but your Aunt, Serah is listed as a housewife. Shall I call her?"
Hope didn't answer and Moro connected to Serah's network. It connected suspiciously quickly, but Moro clearly didn't notice. Fixing her beautiful eyes on Hope, she spoke up.
"Hello?" she said.
"Hellllooooo? Who the fuck might this be?" Serah's voice replied. Hope twitched. It was definitely Serah's voice, but she would never say such a thing. Someone from Lister's organisation must be using a voice synthesiser.
"Oh hello." Moro said, clearly startled. This wasn't what she was expecting. It wasn't what Hope was either. This could get messy.
"Who the fuck is this?" the voice rang out.
"Hello, um I'm Miss Moro from Hope's school?" she said hesitantly. "I just wanted to complain about his behaviour…"
"What the fuck? We sent him to you, so he's your responsibility! It's up to you to punish him. And I wouldn't call his mum, because my sister likes being bothered even less than I do. So grow a pair of tits and stop fucking whinging. Dirty Skank." The line went dead.
Moro disconnected the phone, looking extremely flustered. She gave him a look, before quickly leaving the class. Hope had no doubt that she was planning something.
He picked up his school bag and lit up another cigarette. After a few minutes he sighed and left, heading back to history. He opened the door and headed straight to the back near Jason. The history teacher cast him a baleful look and handed him a card.
MR. SVOLESON
Hope smiled and put it in his pocket. History was going to be dry.
1:12pm
It turned out that he was getting a detention, set by Moro; though apparently there was no supervision. A teacher came in at the start of Lunch break and at the end to ensure that you were there. He made his way into his form room, where the detention was to be held. Miss Moro was already there, and sitting at one of the tables, was a dark haired girl. Hope sat at the back.
"At the front Hope!" Moro said. He sighed and moved to the front row, next to the dark haired girl.
"I'll be back in an hour, and I want to see what you have done!" she said, before leaving. Once she was gone, Hope rested his head on the table. He planned on getting the essay done quickly. He really didn't want to cause too much trouble. Being a delinquent wasn't as much fun as it had seemed. It had just dumped upon him a heavy guilty conscience.
"You're the new guy-Hope wasn't it?" the girl asked, though she clearly knew the answer. He hadn't paid her much attention, but now that he looked at her, she really was hot. Her brown hair matched her chocolate eyes gorgeously. But he didn't really care. Moro was the one he wanted. But how to get her?
"Yeah that's right," he replied, typing the essay title on to the holodeck.
"It sounds like a girl's name," she said. Hope looked at her.
"Really?" he said non-committedly. At that moment his phone vibrated-the id said it was Kara. For some reason she was requesting a holo-vid. He accepted. The figure of Kara came into view, between the dark haired girl and himself. He had to say that she looked particularly fine. However right now was not the time.
"What?" he said.
"There's a party tonight. In Central Bodhum, on top of the Silicon Tower. You're coming right?" she asked.
"What? No! As if I would. Do you know how tired I am?" Hope mumbled.
"Everyone's going to be there!" she said, as if to tempt him.
"I'll think about it," he replied before terminating the phone. He stared at the holo-screen, where he had begun to write the essay title. He turned it off, and rested his head on the desk. He would much rather sleep.
"You'll get into trouble if you don't do the essay." The girl said. Hope ignored her.
"I'm serious," she said again. Hope sighed. There was no way he would be able to sleep if she kept yattering on. He raised his head and turned to face her
"What was that about saying I have a girl's name?" he asked.
"Um"
"Don't worry-loads of girls say that." Hope replied.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said. He talked to her more and more, and she seemed to get more and more interested. She had completely forgotten her essay, despite what she had said earlier.
"Let's do it," she suddenly said.
"Huh? Yeah I suppose," Hope turned back to his table and turned his screen back on. The girl looked at him in surprise.
"What?" he asked.
"No, as in lets fuck." She said.
"Huh?" He replied, dumbfounded. Where had this come from? Why did it work with her and not Moro? Why not Moro?
"You heard me," she replied.
"Really?" He said raising his eyebrow. "You don't even know me,"
"What's there to know? It's not like I want to go out with you!" she said. Hope agreed, he had no intention of giving up his single status.
"I would, but I'm too tired," Hope said, turning back to his screen. If I can get this girl, why can't I get Moro?
"Don't worry-I'll do all the work." She said. She got up and walked towards him.
"By the way, my name is Alex-I'm in your form."
She unbuttoned his shirt, button by button and let it fall to the floor. Hope allowed her to pull his trousers off. He knew there was a good chance of getting caught, but he knew he wouldn't get into trouble. How this girl could be so bold though was another matter entirely. She looked at him expectantly.
"Well I'm not taking your clothes off-do it yourself!" Hope said. She rolled her eyes and pulled his briefs down. She licked her palm and reached for him. Maybe being a delinquent wasn't so bad after all.
It was about twenty minutes later that they were disturbed. Hope was lying on the floor, naked, with Alex straddling him. Her hands were on his toned shoulders, as she grinded against him. Hope had his hands on her hips. They had already done it three times, and Hope had noticed something strange. First he seemed as full as ever, and second with each subsequent fuck, Alex had become more and more deranged; as if his cum was addictive. He would have to get it checked.
It was at precisely at that moment that the doors opened and Miss Moro entered. She dropped her cup of coffee when she saw the situation before her. The fact that neither stopped, made things worse, and she picked up the remains of the steaming coffee and threw it at Hope. He howled as it burnt him. He pulled out of Alex and ran out of the class clutching his chest; his bag and clothes forgotten. Could things get any more ridiculous?
Federal Research Facility, Area designation secret, Yestura, Capital of the New World
"What is this thing?" a man said bursting into the room. The lab was deep underground, so there was no natural sunlight. Instead a series of lights encircling the room, gave a bright blue edge to the pristine metallic walls. In the centre of the lab was a floating body. Around nine feet long, and covered in black shiny skin. It was full of uniform ridges and delicately patterned grooves. It was not human. Its head jutted out and was aligned with sharp teeth. It had a monstrous tail, which also seemed engraved. If there were eyes the man could not see it. The thing looked terrifying. He had heard over encrypted channels that he was needed urgently. He had seen this creature on the cameras, on the way over.
"This thing?" one of the scientists replied. "This thing sir is one of the most horrifying creatures we've ever seen."
"The civilisation that came before us. They were totally destroyed not even ruins were left. Up to now we have only speculated at what their downfall could have been. Now we know," another said.
"Let's deal first with that. I want to know what it is." The man said.
"It's an alien organism."
"Alien?" the man said faintly. "Are you sure?"
"Quite positive. It matches no known life forms found here."
"Where did you find it?" the man asked.
"In one of the more recent depositaries-Linux Alpha 2 I think it was."
"Is it dead?"
"Quite so."
"Is this a concern?"
Another two men stepped into the room.
"Ah! Dr. Bowman, General Yetae," the man said. "Would you please explain whats going on?"
"Certainly Senator." Bowman replied.
"This alien life form is a concern, and a great one at that. It was found preserved in Linux Alpha 2; though for what purpose I cannot say."
"This is not the only strange occurrence in recent months. Bloodworks from Sestopher Hospital, New Bodhum also brought strange results."
"What kind?"
"Come sir, we'll brief you as we go. There's no use staying here."
"Where to?"
"The Presidential suite. President Rapture wants to see you."
"But she sent me here."
"In that time we have told her whats going on. She now wants a meeting with you and the other senators."
"Senator," Bowman said taking off his glasses, and rubbing his eyes. "We believe these aliens were responsible for the destruction of the previous civilisation. And we've awoken them."