"The Current Time is Six Forty-Five, It is time to wake up – Five Minutes to Bell, Five Minutes to Bell." A metallic female blared out of the Boise Vocalarm. A broad, bronzed reached out, once, twice, and then landed on the ribbed beige plastic, each finger wiggled and squirmed to find something that was oval, or round – raised plastic that would give under their weight, and he found none.
THUD! The machine clattered on the floor, the red digits still gleamed steadily. Benji ignored this as he rolled over, a pillowed clamped firmly on the back of his head. For a Priest's daughter, that Mina knows how to pull up a drinking game. Come to think of it – a dash of Sake and a dash of Kang Amber Draft was a match made in the most wretched, bottom rungs of hell. Acrid bile rose up and caught in his throat, a threat that was deemed worthy to venture into the horrid sunlight.
"Spirits no... I swear I will not agree to anything that lady suggests ever again!" He rolled out of bed, and landed on all fours. Clint Eastwood Drinking game – who knew that there was so much drinking in the movies?!
"Benji, Are you ready to eat yet?" The far-too cheerful alto chirped as the 'cursed lady' poked her head in.
"Eat? You insane?! I think I better start my religious duties before I can even look at food...." The redhead man staggered up to his feet, the brown-hazel squinted most wretchedly in a fool's attempt to defuse the hot morning sun.
"What? Praying?" Mina questioned as she sipped from her mug, seemingly unaffected by the events of last night, though she seemed – oddly worried.
"Yea, to the merciful porcelain goddess." He pulled on a ripped shirt – and noted wryly that his sweatpants were soaked with perspiration. "Hot night was it?" He wobbled to the doorway, and prayed for the room to stop turning about like a top.
"Yea – I had to really turn up the AC." The woman faintly shivered as she moved out of the way. "Oh – yea.... Arikado left, so did Soma."
It was greeted by silence... then a pause, followed by a bleary-eyed look of confusion. "What?"
"Yea – they were gone when I woke up."
"No notes, no messages on the Photophone, no pings?"
"None." Mina shuffled her feet as she shrugged. "Soma will pinged us – I know he will." The Navajo man had a suspicion that she sounded more confident then she actually was.
"Did they take their stuff?" Benji continued his trot to the bathroom.
"Yea – it looked like the guest beds weren't slept in." She headed off into the den to check the Photophone, and the Net-Buddy once more.
"Fuck!" The short male kneeled, hands clutching the rim of the bowl. What are they up to?! Don't they know people are out to get them?
The copper-hair woman rested her chin on her hand as she stared at the blank Ping box, and the Tachi list that only had the OL-Alias of her female friends; no matter where she fished, or googled, but there was no sign of StrwayHvn, BlancKght, or SulDamire.... Though she didn't really expect him to be diving the net this early in the day, or that Arikado would allow him to use the Net-buddy, or Arikado's more expensive but silly looking Spect-Diver (which looked suspiciously like a transparent blue horse-blinders) while they were traveling.
"Minvera." Mina sighed into the com-speaker as the ICS-tracker mascot hopped onto the screen, the large eyes blinking. "Please alert me if Blanc- Knight, Stairway-Heaven, or SulDamire pings me, or enter on the Tachi system." She spoke out the full words of Soma's OL-Alias as she drummed her fingers on the roll-top desk.
The pixilated caricature of an owl turned its head once, twice, three times, and clicked its beak. "Will do, Lady-Falcon." And it fluttered onto a branch that dangled above the e-text of the Mainachi News. Then it blinked once again. "Do you want me to read this page for you?"
"No."
A loud beep startled the woman from her browsing as she quickly searched the Ping-box, but found nothing, and then looked to the Digital- Minvera who had gone to a pose of sleep (though actually just waiting). "Huh? Then what--?"
Another beep – it wasn't from her Desk-topper; Then it must be a net- buddy, she surmised as she got up to search for the said item.
"Let me get it, it's probably mine." The Baritone was considerably more upbeat then it was a half-hour ago. Benji fished a vaguely Y-shape object from the pack, and slipped it's nylon band over his wrist, and with a flick of his hands, he pulled the flap up, and started to unfold it into six screens of four inches until all six panels were up and open. "I really want a Spec-Dive!" He whined as he peered at a cheetah that was divided into two segments.
"What do you want me to do then?" Mina kneeled next to the young man, and peered at the envelope in the Cheetah's mouth. "Everyone knows that only the Celebs and Fortunate 500 Execs can afford them. So who's the ping from?"
"New E-Mail, From Blanc-Knight. Do you accept it?" The speech bubble appeared over the animal.
"That's Soma's OL-Alias, open it!" The woman urged him, her stormy eyes flashing.
"Okay, okay – Mercury, what kind of Ping is it?" Benji muttered as he typed out the question.
"It is a Text Ping, Do you want me to open it?"
"Yes"
Mercury paws it open, and threw a 'paper' at the screen, which then unfolded as the text flashed on and remained there.
Mina, Benji,
I'm with Arikado right now, don't worry, we're fine, it's just
Arikado gotten word that the police are coming to the Shrine in about
three hours, and well, you can see why we left when we did. I don't
know when we'll be back... if we ever will get back. I had managed to
talk Arikado into letting me Ping Benji's Net-buddy, since that really,
pinging Mina's Desk-topper was too risky. Well, I'll try to ping you
guys as often as I can for the next while, However, if I didn't ping
for a week – fear for the worst, and please get a hold of Yoko or
Julius if Arikado hasn't already.
Mina, I'm having those problems again – with my sleep, is this a sign
that things will get worse?
--Soma,
--The Knights of Psychological Warfare, Visit our page at
"What Problems?" Benji looked over to Mina as he deleted the e-mail. "And who's Yoko and Julius?"
"Well... he sleepwalks, mostly if things are stressful, he hasn't done it since High School Exams! He was doing it again last night, dressing and undressing into some weird clothes, and muttering about being thirsty... And since when did he own a pair of leather pants?" She lifted her brows in an expression of disbelief as she neatly rose to her feet.
"But don't they have pills, or nanos to correct the problem?" The watery eyes peered upwards as he tilted his body back. "I mean it isn't like the 1900s."
"Yea – but for some reason, Soma's problems defy those pills; he had once taken four kinds at once at twice the recommended dosage each and still sleepwalking... and well, do you really want tiny protein machines in your brain?"
"Point taken." He yawned, and rolled over to his hands and knees as he arched his back. "Say, say the problem isn't natural? I mean, hell, with all our science, we still don't understand stuff, maybe there's another problem, I dunno – like someone hexing him, or something?"
She froze in mid-step... why didn't she think of that?
"Say... wait a minute, you were watching Soma changing his clothes when he's sleeping?! That's not nice!"
"It's rather hard to ignore some doing that! And I doubt you would have the niceties to look away either." She laid a finger on his nose, and then sauntered off into the kitchen.
"Well..." The redhead paused to think over what was said – then his eyes widened as it dawned on him what she was implying. "Wait – you knew?!"
"Yup."
"Since when?!" Benji scrambled to his feet, and bolted after her.
"Since you came here, you're too easy to read." Mina giggled as the bronze temples somehow managed to give a rogue tint to them.
"And you know your teasing me so we won't be worrying ourselves silly over Soma." Benji folded his arms across his chest as he tapped a bare foot on the tiled floor.
"Right." She murmured and moaned softly.
"And it won't work for long." He sighed in unison. "Any ideals?"
"Just one...." Mina Hakuba paused for a moment.
"What?"
"The James Bond Drinking Game-Athon." The pretty wild-rose lips curved into an evil smile.
"You are pure evil, and you are soooo going to make me regret agreeing to this."
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since it's about 30 years in the future, new tech, and new slang will be more likely. What you think of the OL-Alias?