Scene 2 – Skyfire and Sexfire

It is around nine o’ clock in the evening when Marisol arrives with her boyfriend Taiyuo. They restaurant where the meeting is to be held is in Uptown, the classier part of the city. There is no one around the front of the classy restaurant. The best parties are in Downtown; only preppy cliques eat here—and the Skyfire Club. The kitchen is noisy with clattering pans and sizzling meats and vegetables. It smells like it as well. Something with a classical tune is playing to set the mood. Marisol is the head of TEO and doesn’t find it the least bit funny that her Japanese boyfriend teases her for being a gizmo-girl. They sit in the back booth with the other four:

Zakoda (17), head of WATT, a smooth mocha-skinned boy with a mop of messy long stark white hair. He has alarmingly large green eyes that seem to always stay fixed on the future. It has been stated that his eyes could see into the very souls of the people before him, so lying to him is useless. He has never revealed anything about his ethnicity and is a known orphan.

Amandi (16), head of the SIC, is a dark-haired, dark-eyed half-white, half-Italian kid with tan skin and an angled, serious face.

Acito (14): Amandi’s boyfriend and deputy. He is flamboyant-looking white boy with a section of pink hair in the front left bang of otherwise electric-blue porcupine spikes and color-changing contacts. He is on the small side, but it is said that in the scuffle at Grytown Mall against the middlums, he took down eight of the fifteen single-handedly. No one has ever called him a faggot and walked away without limping.

And there was a new face: The special guest from the Inner City, Marrik (17). He has skin the color of ebony and tight curly hair pulled back into a ponytail that sticks out from his head by a foot. His eyes, due to torture at the hands of vengeful middlums, are pink.

Taiyou (17) is dark-haired and dark-eyed with ivory smooth skin and a mischievous look about him. He is somewhat tall, but not lankily so—graceful is more like it. His hair is pulled partially into a Japanese top-knot with the rest falling down to the middle of his back.

Marisol (16) is a Puerto Rican girl hailing from the island. She is dark-haired and dark-skinned with wavy always-wet-looking hair that falls to her back and green eyes that make emeralds jealous. She has noticeably thick thighs for being so petite. She is also the last one anyone would expect to be a total gizmo-girl.

ZAKODA: The meeting today is about the middlums. Apparently, they still have some degree of control over vulnerable reblum minds. (He takes in their stunned faces)

AMANDI: What evidence do you have of this?

ZAKODA: Forceful migrations of reblums to boarding schools and a special interest group called “PAK: Parents Aid Kids.” Blatant as hell, but they are trying to make us let go of our grasp on the city and force their kids to fight on their behalves.

MARISOL: Sick! (Sips pineapple juice that has a bit more than pineapple in it) We’ll have to definitely deal with that. That’ll be a main priority, Amandi, now wont it?

Amandi and Marisol have a rivalry and both attempt to outdo each other in nearly every way—especially by showing knowledge of the other’s expertise. Verbal battles with Marisol having insight of great law enforcement tactics and Amandi showing his knowledge of electronics have gotten quite ugly in the past.

AMANDI: You’re right. I’ll require a full Saruka Tank SLR2000 with the 7I level attachments. You can make that by using basic electrodes and—

MARISOL: (Abruptly and sharply) I know how to make 7I level attachments! (A bit flustered as she catches her breath)

AMANDI: (Smirks at Marisol superiorly and turns to Zakoda) I’m on it.

MARISOL: Me too!

ACITO: And what about the hospitals? The oldies are filling them up—

ZAKODA: DON’T CALL THEM OLDIES! (He says this just as abruptly as Marisol when she snapped at Amandi) Ahem. (Ignores the bewildered stares of the others). The elders were on our side. They were the ones who helped us when we were just littlums. They taught us how to undermine their own disgraceful, ingrate children—our parents. The eldums vouched for us when we were clearly wrong—like when we stole treats from the dessert bin before dinner. And we could do nothing when our parents put them in… ‘Oldie Homes’ (He says the word ‘oldie’ as if he has just swallowed nasty medicine). They gave us the keys to the kingdom and we have just opened the door. We will not dishonor them with discharge from the very institution that is preserving their lives.

MARRIK: (Narrows eyes and makes a small thoughtful noise, as if things are coming together and gears are churning within his mind. His pink eyes flash with the shadow of realization before he begins to speak but then stops himself, allowing Acito to go on.)

ACITO: Then where will we get doctors for them all? We cannot keep bribing the middlum doctors to stay—they fear that we will betray them.

TAIYOU: My thoughts exactly. But I have a solution: Tokyo reblums from my old boarding school are better than fully-fledged doctors in this city… sadly. We can find a way to get them here.

MARISOL: All right, all right. Sounds good and all… But who the hell is he? (Points dramatically at Marrik as if she hadn’t realized that he’d been there for the entire meeting)

ZAKODA: This is Marrik: He is the head of the organization RUSH (Reblum Urban Speedy Haul). He’s the reason the Inner City is booming and how messages are relayed due to the lack of web connection since the middlum expulsion. And with your vote, he will be the newest member of the Skyfire Club.

Realizing this means more efficient delivery and a whole new world of possibilities for the new Reblum Regime, every hand goes up immediately and Marrik is a member. Even through the low lighting and his dark skin, he can be seen blushing slightly.

ACITO: (Whistles) Whoo! Another gay guy in charge!

AMANDI: (Rolls eyes) Maybe he didn’t want to be outted that way.

ACITO: Well he wasn’t hiding it.

AMANDI: Don’t yell at me.

ACITO: I’m just stating a fact.

MARRIK: Erm, it’s cool. But I’m not—

ACITO: See, Amandi: He don’t have any objections.

AMANDI: That doesn’t mean—

MARRIK: I’m not—

ZAKODA: Anyway… Next meeting is in five days. Taiyou, can we talk for a minute?

TAIYOU: Sure…

Taiyou and Zakoda leave the private restaurant booth and go into the brightly lit restroom where Taiyou hands him a small bag of black-and-silver cubes.

TAIYOU: These baffle-tablets are Thai-made. They’ll keep the middlums in mush-mind for longer and they’ll leave with a lot less resistance. They’re proximity based so we don’t have to do the thing with the water again…

Taiyou is referring to how they had to put nanos in the water system to weaken the part of the brain that desired to stay in Grytown for middlums. He and Zakoda have a hidden history of doing things under the radar.

ZAKODA: Good. (Sighs, pockets them, and hands Taiyuo two small magnetic-stripped cards) Unlimited Uptown usage. Expires in two weeks of first usage.

The cards are basically like credit cards in the early 2000s. Taiyou and Zakoda reverse-engineered the systems a bit before the Reblum Regime to accept their homemade hack-cards for extra funds. When Taiyou left for Japan during the time before the War on Adults, Zakoda took full possession of the technology and knowledge used to make them, becoming the only one in the city with unlimited amounts of money.

TAIYOU: (Without warning, Taiyuo steps forward and brushes his lips against Zakoda’s cheek. His expression is lust-ridden as he steps back and waits for Zakoda’s response.)

ZAKODA: (His expression is apologetic and shakes head ‘no’) I still didn’t feel anything… Sorry, Taiyou.

TAIYOU: Mhm; Marisol it is then. Why do you keep calling me this way?

ZAKODA: Sorry, Tai… I just don’t—

TAIYOU: It’s cool. (Side-steps smoothly and brushes harshly past him. His hand is on the doorknob when Zakoda speaks again.)

ZAKODA: Really, I’m just—

TAIYOU: I. Said. It’s. Cool.

Taiyou opens the door gently and slips through the small crack, not bothering to hold the door open for Zakoda. As Zakoda follows behind him, he realizes that Taiyou’s feet are not very loud, but he feels the vibrations of Taiyou’s anger with every footfall. Zakoda wipes his cheek off and mutters “Freak show.” Before he reaches the booth, a voice speaks in his ear. It is the micro-transmitter that is smaller than a pin-head and surgically placed in the cartilage of his ear which is hidden by his hair anyway. The voice says: “That freak show is your best friend. Don’t forget the years you shared.”

ZAKODA: Fck off, Grandpa… Sorry. I didn’t mean…

GRANDPA: No harm done, Kodie-ma-boy. I love you.

Zakoda does not respond, but he does make a sound of acknowledgement. When he arrives at the booth, he sees that Taiyou is chatting animatedly with Marrik and Marisol has another pineapple juice that is certain to be more than pineapple essence. There is nothing to suggest that Taiyou and Zakoda have been having illegal baffle-tablets put in the houses of middlums who refuse to leave, or that Taiyou earned unlimited amounts of money for it, or that Taiyou attempted to get intimate with Zakoda with only twenty feet and a door separating him from his girlfriend. And nothing ever would.