Within five and a half weeks, Byte had already gotten at least half of the key that she needed. Also by this time the show received great praise by the virts and Byte was now somewhat of a celebrity in the city. "I hate you, you know that right?" Byte slipped on the black leather outfit, the same outfit from the game. Java glanced over at her with a slight smile as a way to tease her.
"Oh come on, kid. I don't like it either but hey…a promo's a promo," she replied. "If I had it my way, you'd be more covered up and not looking like a fantasy toy for the men around here."
"And what would you be having me look like? A nun?" Byte asked from afar. She stepped out of the bathroom, certainly dressed to impress. Although this time instead of all of the midriff, she put a corset over the bra-type top that she had on in the first place. "Alright, I'm ready," she said.
Java shook her head as she saw that the back to her top was untied. "Turn around…you missed a spot," she said. Once Noelle was turned around, she pulled the strings tightly and suddenly she yanked the last few strings which caused Noelle to gasp sharply.
"Can't breathe, Java," Byte squeaked.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry," Java said frantically as she loosened the strings up a little bit. "Better?"
"Much." Byte followed after Java into the hallway. There she spotted McNeal, the guard, and Damien. She nodded to the two of them as she walked side by side to Java.
"Both of you are gonna be standing by on the promo. Make sure nothing happens to Byte, ya got that?"
The room began to spin slightly and her head began to feel light. Byte stopped walking for a moment and leaned against the wall.
"You okay?" Java asked as she neared her.
"Fine," she replied, getting to her feet once again. She followed behind Java slowly.
"Okay. Come on then," she said and led Byte by the arm. "So, you're going to speak nicely and properly…"
"Uh huh," she muttered. She stopped in her tracks for a second and lost her balance slightly. She toppled over but caught herself.
"Noelle, you don't look so good," Java said, now concerned. She held her by the arm and stopped the walking.
"I'm fine, don't worry," she managed to say. Her knees suddenly gave out and she landed on the ground with a loud "THUD" and Java's effort to catch the girl proved fruitless as she only caught her head.
"Oh dear god, she's fainted," Java said to herself. She pressed on her headset, "Okay…um hold off the crowd for a moment. I need someone to help me out in the east wing…bring some smelling salts as well." She kneeled down next to Noelle and sighed. The girl looked pale and flushed. It was the contrast to her usually golden and energetic appearance. "Byte, honey, wake up," Java said. She gently shook her arm then slapped her softly on her cheek.
It only took a couple of minutes to get the smelling salt. Java carefully grabbed one of them and placed it under Byte's nose. After a few seconds, the girl suddenly woke up by sitting up quickly. Along the way though, she head butted Java to which she fell back slightly.
"So glad you're up," Java said as she rubbed her forehead. Now her head was pounding. She sighed deeply and got to her feet to help Byte up. "It's okay…just walk it off," she muttered to herself and to Byte, who was also rubbing her head. "Off you go to your promo."
Byte nodded as she was escorted out by Damien and McNeal. Upon exiting the hotel, she was greeted by a large crowd of people. There she stood next to Java, who introduced the new star.
"How do you all like the new show?" Java asked. In reply the crowd cheered and clapped their hands. "We've got a wonderful appearance today from your very own Byte, the star of 'A New Hope'! Let's all give her a warm welcome!"
The crowd roared as Byte approached the podium. "Thank you Java," she said and smiled. "Hello and good morning to you all. I'm so excited to be here today. First off, I'd just like to thank all of you for watching and supporting the show. It truly raises my spirits just knowing that I could appeal to such an awesome crowd so please keep watching and I hope you all enjoy the new show."
After she spoke she was handed a crossbow. Confused, she looked over at Java, who then gestured over to a hoop that hung from the top of the building. She aimed and fired an arrow. It passed through the hoop and suddenly a poster rolled down the side of the building. It showed a forest in the middle of winter and Byte, with a smirk, holding the crossbow as if she was about to shoot the person looking at the poster.
Finally Byte was brought down to the crowd where she signed a few autographs. Thankfully two guards were there to protect the girl while Java oversaw everything. After signing a few autographs, she grew tired once more. Now she felt a bit weak. "Get me outta here," she muttered to Damien.
Damien nodded and grabbed her by the wrist. Then he brought her back into the hotel where he sat her down. "Here, have some water," he said then handed her a bottled water.
She took a sip of it and sighed. "No, that doesn't help," she said. Now she felt a pang of nausea come over her as she tried to get up.
"It must be all that Reality Space…it's getting to you," Damien said. He kneeled down for a moment to reach eye contact with her. "I didn't know this would happen to you, I'm sorry."
"Don't be. You're not the one who created the game in the first place," Byte murmured. She then stood up and excused herself. "Thank you for your assistance, Lieutenant."
"It's really no problem," he replied. He watched her leave for a moment. "What a beauty," he thought.
Meanwhile, Byte caught up with Java in the halls. She stopped for a moment as Java ordered around some more guards.
"Get all the virts out of here," she said to the guard then looked back at her. She reached her hand out and nudged Byte on the shoulder as a way to get her to start walking again. "So tell me about this Damien kid. I watched you two spar and I've got to say the Lieutenant is pretty good."
She shook her head and rolled her eyes, "He's nobody…just someone I train with."
"You sure about that, Noelle? If you ask me, I think you two would make a nice couple."
"Yeah, couple of people. C'mon, I have Max. I think you just like Damien for me just because he's a Lieutenant."
"Yeah, that is true but there's a reason as to why he's got that position and not Max. He's smarter, obviously works harder, he's loyal and he's cuter." Java then turned a corner and the two of them found themselves in front of the gym. "He's in there with McNeal…how pleasant."
Damien was on his back as he slowly lifted the barbell as McNeal spotted him, standing by just in case he couldn't handle the weight. His muscles bulged as he lifted the 200 pounds and he gritted his teeth. Clearly he could handle it. He placed the barbell back carefully on to the rack and got up. He crossed his arms over his bare torso as he smirked, "Hey man, that Byte chick…she's pretty raw." His bright blue eyes darted back toward McNeal who just had a smirk on his face
"Yeah, she's a tough girl," he said.
"She's pretty too," Damien added. "What do you think?"
He shook his head before giving Damien a slight smile, "Hey, man...you know she's Max's girl, right? I don't think he'll like this very much."
"She's Max's?" Damien sighed to which McNeal simply nodded.
"I still think I should go for it. Max is gonna be gone for a while and…oh hell we could just start off as friends," Damien thought. He looked out of the gym window to find the lovely girl speaking with Java. He smiled at the thought of her being his while he went back to exercising.
"You're sure you haven't seen Max?" Byte asked Java. In reply Java shook her head.
"Walk with me, kid," Java muttered. She linked arms with her daughter as the two of them walked. "You know what's funny, Noelle? Your name actually means Christmas in French. Now if you count exactly nine months back from your birthday, September 25th, what day would you get?"
Byte counted back quickly then looked back at Java, "Christmas Day. Now why would that be funny? What happened?"
She smiled slightly before answering her daughter's question, "Wouldn't you like to know." she smirked. She looked back at Noelle.
Noelle looked at her mother with furrowed eyebrows and her mouth slightly agape. She couldn't speak. "That's disgusting, Java!" she said after a few seconds of just staring at Java disgustedly.
"Oh come on, kid. You know you wouldn't have been born if it wasn't for me!"
She shook her head, now eager to go back to work. "I can't believe we're having this conversation!"
Java disregarded the last few comments made by Byte. "You know, I wasn't as strict as I am now. I was actually quite limber."
"And let me guess, Noah liked that a lot?"
"Oh yes he did. I was limber in many ways. He enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. Oh those days," Java smirked.
"I can't…I can't," Byte paused for a moment, "I can't handle this!" Frantic, she walked off as Java giggled.
A few guards passed by and a couple stood on their marks before she yelled out: "Hey! It's good to know you inherited my ass!" She saw Noelle's jaw drop to the floor while she then grabbed a purple folder to cover up her bum. "Back to work! All of you!" she heard Noelle say.
Meanwhile, Siva stood outside the mall alongside Lex. [i]"I can't believe I'm doing this. I can't believe I'm doing this. God I hope they'll like me here,"[/i] she thought. "Lex, are you sure about this? What if they don't like me?"
He looked over to her and wrapped his strong arms around her. "I'm sure, Siva. Don't worry about it okay? You're safe now and out of the hands of that creep."
"But me and our baby living here?"
"Would you prefer a safe place or a nice clean jail cell?"
Alright so he was right. She sighed softly and grabbed his hand. "Alright," she muttered as Lex placed a hand over her four month bump.
Flashback
Nine weeks earlier, Siva sat on a hospital bed while she awaited news from one of the medics. [i]"What's wrong with me? Damn I haven't been sick in so long…I hope it's not another virus coming around,"[/i] Siva though. She sighed apprehensively and watched the medic come back in the room with a few papers. "Commander, would you consent to an ultrasound? According to the tests we did, it seems as if you're pregnant."
"What," Siva muttered. She looked at the medic wide eyed. "You've got to be kidding me! I can't be! Hell no!" she yelled, her voice getting higher pitched with each word that came out of her mouth.
"Well we have to do this ultrasound just to confirm. Who knows, maybe the tests didn't read correctly," the medic told her.
"Alright, alright," she sighed. "Let's do it."
Within moments, nurses brought out the machine and they began the process. At first they didn't hear a thing but suddenly a heartbeat came up on the machine. The medic looked to Siva and nodded his head. "Congrats, Commander, it looks like you're about eight weeks pregnant."
Once the medic and the nurses put away the machine, Siva sat up. "This can't be happening. What am I gonna do? Ram obviously couldn't have gotten me pregnant…should I just tell Lex? No…I can't get rid of the baby. One way or another, I'm having this baby with or without Lex."
End of flashback
Siva entered the mall with Lex. She took a good look around the place and was still in disbelief. Here she was, a pregnant Techno who just left her lavish lifestyle to live amongst virts in an almost dilapidated mall. "Just do it, Siv. It's for the better."
"Alright everyone, this is Siva. She's gonna be staying with us from now on," Lex said bravely. He set down a couple bags of hers as he approached Pride and the others. "Please, just let her stay."
"How do we know she isn't a spy? Don't bring her in here," Pride said.
"She isn't a spy. Look, she's pregnant with my child."
Siva looked at the two men and shook her head. "Lex, this is all just a bad idea. I should just-"
"No, Siva. You're not going anywhere," Lex replied.
Salene finally stepped in and walked toward the former Techno. She bent over slightly then picked up one of her bags. "I'll show you to your room," she said. She smiled and then looked up at Pride. "Remember…all of you remember…we are Mallrats and Mallrats never leave anyone in need behind."
At that moment three Techno guards entered the building followed by Byte. Each of them set down a crate then Byte tossed a crowbar to Lex. "You'll be needing that," she said.
All of the Mallrats stared while Pride came down the stairs. "What do you want?" he asked.
"Nothing from you. This is Siva's stuff, I'm just delivering it here," Byte replied. She then moved over to Siva and grabbed her by the arm. She pulled her aside toward the Phoenix statue. "You sure about this, Siv? I mean look at them…"
"Yes, I'm sure. They're here to help," she quietly replied.
Byte sighed deeply as she shook her head "The crazy things you do for love," she looked over at her aunt, "take care of yourself." She nodded to her, about to leave until Siva grabbed Byte by the arm and gave her a tight hug.
"Thank you so much, Noelle," she whispered and then pulled away, now holding Byte by the shoulders. "Take care of yourself too."
On that note Byte smiled slightly. "Don't forget, I'm coming by the visit once my cousin's born. I'm not out of your life just yet," she smirked.