AI-13

Simulation

Even though many argued that the temperature in London had decreased over the years, anybody who had been outside that day would have begged to differ. The Sun’s rays caused the air to ripple in the distance and the tarmac to become sticky underfoot. Not many stayed out in the sun for too long and hordes of people stayed under shade or indoors with the comfort of air conditioning.

“Is everyone in position?” a tall, dark haired boy said into his mouthpiece. He was perched on the roof of one of the smaller buildings in the area, his brown eyes never leaving the scope on his Barrett XM500.

After a couple of seconds several positive answers replied, four to be exact and the boy exhaled loudly, beads of sweat running down his tanned skin. He really wished he had looked at the forecast for today and then he could have hid in one of the cool, air-conditioned rooms instead of sweltering under the sun.

“Good.” The teenager looked to his left and saw a traditional black cab speeding over the flat road. He magnified the scope slightly to confirm the identity of the passenger.

“Target is in sight. Are you ready with the distraction Pyra?”

“Ready, Ant,” a female voice replied.

“Ok, on my mark. Three, two” He waited until the car stopped at the traffic lights. “Now!”

A small blonde girl who was hiding in one of the darkened alleyways nodded silently and closed her amber eyes to concentrate. Those who were listening closely may have heard the faint snap of fingers or seen a spark fly through the air before it landed on the engine of a nearby broken down van. Since all vehicles were powered by hydrogen, the tiny spark instantly caused the van to explode. People were thrown back and began to run around in panic. One girl with long black hair tied in a clip stood stock still amongst the crowd, the blast from the explosion cause her bangs to obscure her vision slightly and her flowing lilac top to billow in the wind.

“Karin! Keep him still so I can get a shot.” Antonio ordered through his mouthpiece.

“Roger.” The pale girl replied.

The taxi began to form an aura of sorts and the driver found that no matter how hard he tried the car would not budge. Ant took his chance to aim and fire.

The gunshot could be heard throughout the streets and sent the public into even more disarray. The bullet flew through the air and went cleanly through the man’s skull before imbedding itself in the side of the car. Not a sound was heard from the man who slowly fell in his seat and blood flowed from his skull into soaked into the leather seats of the car.

The gun-wielding teen smiled to himself before giving out the next orders. “Ok, Aero and Cosmo go get that briefcase.”

Two affirmative replies were heard before the panicking people began to slow down to about half their original speed. A girl with blood-red hair shot out from an alleyway. If the people were at their original speed they may have noticed that the girl appeared to be translucent as she dashed towards the unmoving vehicle.

Aero pulled open the door, let the lifeless body of the passenger fall out and reached over to snatch the case from the other side. She turned back only to come face to face with the barrel of a handgun and the police officer holding it. In the slowed state she could see that he was about to shoot and began to swipe at his gun. Another ear-splitting gunshot, and the officer slowly fell to the ground.

“Get the hell out of there, Aero!” Antonio’s voice yelled in her earpiece. She looked up at the building he was on and gave a thumbs up motion before running in the direction of the alleyway.

Ant sighed heavily and relaxed a bit. “Okay guys, mission successful.” he took out his earpiece and stood up, looking at the sky. “Computer, end simulation.”

The breathtaking sights and landscape of the city began to disappear pixel by pixel. It’s inhabitants too, slowly faded into the silicon-coated walls of the simulation room, the temperature cooled as the graphic Sun disappeared and the noises of the city were silenced one by one until just five people were left standing on the metalloid panels.

Karin stretched and exhaled loudly before speaking. “So, how did we do Ant?”

The Italian smiled slightly. “You guys did fine, we should be ready for tomorrow.” he clapped his hands together. “Tell ya what, you can have the rest of the day off.”

Pyra cheered and ran for the door, her boots echoing against the hard floor despite there being little heel on them. By the time the rest of the group had reached the door she had punched in the code, ran out of the door and down the corridor so only the ends of her blonde hair could be seen, which were a burnt orange colour.

“Where is she off to?” Aero prodded Karin lightly, “We have the entire day off.”

A small smile appeared on Karin’s pale face and she chuckled lightly. The redhead walking next to her raised an eyebrow at this.

“What’s so funny?” she questioned.

“It seems that Pyra’s new eye candy is coming back from a mission today, as well as her best friend. Didn’t you know?”

“Serious? Fluke’s squad is back today?” Aero paused “Wait, are you telling me that Pyra likes someone on that squad? Who?”

Karin rolled her eyes “You don’t notice much, do you? There are only two guys on that team, Air. I’ll give you a clue, he’s about my height, has dark green hair and slightly longer canines than usual. He’s the leader of the group, wears a green flak jacket and grey jeans-”

“Okay, okay. I get the message. No need to take the mick.”

The group carried on walking through the corridors heading outside. Light chatter remained among the four until they opened the double doors and stepped outside. Whether or not this could actually be classed as outside was debatable. A force field surrounded the entire camp to ensure that nobody could escape and although it clear and you could see the world outside, it just wasn’t the same.

Antonio headed to the cellblock saying that he was tired and waved goodbye. Aero waved back whilst Cosmo and Karin started to bicker over something. Aero simply blocked it out and continued walking, since it was fairly normal for them two to disagree. She looked around at her home, which was comprised of four main buildings: the cells, where people slept; the simulation building; the gym and the cafeteria. Everything was built cheaply and to last, so that the gifted need not spend time there. The drop off, where squads left for their assignments, was simply a raised area with a control panel. Among the small crowd of people waiting for those to return Aero could see a small blonde figure dressed in blue and a red-haired girl dressed in pale green next to her.

“Pyra, Vez!” Aero called, stopping Karin and Cosmo’s conversation. Both Pyra and the auburn haired girl she was talking to turned around to see the three heading towards them.

“Hey guys!” the red-haired girl, called Verity, waved. She had the remarkable ability to peer into and control peoples minds, so no secrets could be kept from her. She waited for them to catch up before speaking again. “Looking forward to your mission tomorrow?”

“Not really” Cosmo slouched slightly and put his hands in his jean pockets, “especially if clumsy here gets shot again by half speed police.” He jerked his head at Aero.

“You got shot?” Verity looked over her square-rimmed glasses to the violet eyed girl in disbelief, getting shot at half speed was like walking into a wall that had been painted fluorescent yellow, especially when most people had been training to prevent that happening for several years.

“Nearly,” Aero corrected, pointing a forefinger at Cosmo, “Ant shot him first.”

Cosmo rolled his deep blue eyes at her. “You’re just lucky that he’s used to your clumsiness or he probably would’ve shot you instead. He hates it when we’re put in unnecessary danger.”

The red haired girl pouted childishly, before changing the subject. “Where’s the rest of your squad, Vez?”

“Around” she replied and began gesturing in different directions, “Nickel’s gone to the gym, Rai went to the canteen and Hydra and Damien are around here somewhere.”

Nickel’s squad specialised in interrogation and torture and were also known as IT-9, while Fluke’s squad were used as heavy artillery in conflicts and thus named HA-7. There were at least twenty different squads in the camp, each with different preferences for jobs. Even though solo or double jobs were becoming more favourable, jobs were normally done in squads.

Karin looked around the large crowd, eyebrows furrowed slightly in puzzlement. “How come there are so many people here? How many squads are supposed to be back today?”

Verity put a forefinger to her chin and looked down in thought. “I do remember hearing that a few squads had been sent to the Epsilon universe,” she paused for a second “but it’s odd, we’re not allowed access there, it’s suicide.”

“Wait a sec,” Pyra butted in, bored of waiting for the other squad “Isn’t that the universe with all the freaky ghost-things that suck out your soul?”

“I’m sure they’d love to hear that.” the sarcasm was dripping off Cosmo’s voice.

Before Pyra could even think of a comeback a cold blue light began to glow in the centre of the drop off platform. The light began to spread into air, each thread of light weaving side to side with unbelievable speed. More threads appeared, criss-crossing and passing each other until they were overlapping completely to form a flat circle about ten feet in diameter. The entire crowd gathered in apprehension to see who was returning. After a minute, small ripples began to form in the disk, slowly becoming larger and then holes appeared as a figure walked through.

The girl was of average height, with coffee coloured skin and short black hair. Her name was Skye, her curse was the ability to control the weather and, judging by the smile on her face, Fluke’s squad had come back unharmed.

Sure enough, one by one, the rest of the squad returned through the portal. First was the leader of the group, Fluke, who was just as Karin had described. Apart from a few cuts and bruises on the both of them, they both appeared to be unharmed, meaning the mission must have gone without a hitch.

The next member to appear was a slightly shorter boy with short black hair and relatively pale skin, called Styx. His power was that he could control energy; draining it from any enemy and firing it back at them.

The next two came through simultaneously, since they were sisters and were always together. Cyan, the oldest, strode through proud as ever not having a single scratch on her. Her power over poison made her an excellent assassin in both stealth and battle missions. She smiled and waved at the people she knew, one arm still around her slightly injured sister.

Retra was the youngest in the group, possibly the entire camp, at only 14. She could be rather reckless sometimes and this showed as she had several large gashes down her arms and other scrapes on her person. She was completely caked in mud from head to toe, which often happened if she went overboard with her terrakinetic powers. However, she was smiling widely so it could not have been too bad.

When her light blue eyes met the violet ones of Aero, her smile instantly stopped. Aero too froze, if she had known they were coming back this quickly, she would have left earlier. She and Retra did not have the best of records. In fact, the last time they had met was in the cafeteria a week before. Talk began, which became an argument, which then escalated into a full-blown fight with the space of a couple of minutes. The fight almost destroyed the cafeteria with chairs and tables toppled, holes in the walls and ceiling and chunks of concrete were ripped out of the floor and buildings. It took both teams to restrain and calm the two and although neither said what had started the fight, everyone knew that they were not going to be friends soon.

Remembering this, Aero turned on her heel and headed for the cells, leaving the crowd rushing to welcome back the team.

The cell block was very large and built to accommodate as many people as possible so the rooms were only large enough for a single bed; a cleaner, which uses sonic waves to remove dirt from the body and consisted of a small cubicle much like that of a shower and a chemical washer, which washed clothes overnight. Aero walked through the corridors, looking at each metallic door in turn, all identical except for the code inscription on the front. Eventually she came to a stop in front one of the towering doors and read the inscription. It read ‘AI-13-1’.

‘Ant’s room’ she thought to herself, puzzled. She frowned, wondering why she was here. If she turned around she would be facing her own room so why had she stopped here? She tried to think of something worthwhile to do before Ant woke up and found her standing idly outside his room. She couldn’t go outside in case she bumped into Retra and another fight ensued, especially since Karin had practically ordered her to stay away because she was not going to fix everything again. She looked at the window at the end of the corridor. The Sun was setting, but it was still too early to go to sleep.

Frustrated that there was nothing to do, she decided to bother her neighbour. Then at least she could tell him that Fluke’s squad returned safe. After all, he was good friends with Fluke, Skye-

‘And Retra’ she put as an afterthought.

Hesitantly, she knocked on the cold door. Not hearing any response, she knocked harder.

The sound of something heavy hitting the floor echoed through the corridors. Aero flinched slightly; he must have been fast asleep. Shuffling sounds on the other side of the door slowly got louder until the door slid sideways back into the doorframe and revealed a rather tired looking Ant.

‘He must have gone straight to bed then,’ Aero thought, looking him over cynically. His mahogany hair was dishevelled and he still wore the white shirt and jeans that were underneath his overcoat, which was crumpled up on the floor. Even the white cloth that he’d tied around his forehead had slipped until it hung loosely around his neck.

“What is it?” he mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Aero snapped out of the slight daze she had been in, after all most of the buttons on his shirt were undone.

“Oh, yeah. I just came to say that Fluke’s squad came back today, just so you know.”

Slightly more awake now, he seemed less grumpy. “That’s good, but I’m still shattered at the moment. I’ll catch up tomorrow.” He began to turn back into his room.

“Wait a sec!” Aero burst out, Antonio turned around confused. The redhead tried to regain her composure “I just wanted to apologise for messing up earlier today.” Aero suddenly found her feet very interesting.

Sighing, Ant smiled. He bent down slightly to match her height and casually flicked her on the forehead.

“Ow” Aero rubbed the part where her friend had flicked her.

“It’s fine Air, seriously. As long as next time you decide you want to use kamikaze tactics you tell me okay?”

Aero pouted “Why?”

“So you can do the paperwork beforehand, I hate the stuff.” He chuckled lightly and turned away, “Night, Air.”

“Night.” She replied, the door slid shut between them.

Though not sharing the amusement of the joke, Aero was relieved that he was not angry with her. Yawning widely and with nothing left to do, she decided that she would go to bed too. After all, it was going to be a long day tomorrow.

-X-

Next chapter is the mission and it most certainly won’t go nearly as smoothly as the sim did. I hope this wasn’t too boring. Feel free to pull it apart.

Note: Edited out some of the description by request.