Evil Game Master Society

Rosie Tries Out for the Team - Story Arc #8

Rosie Tries Out for the Team

Gillian smiled at Aidan’s words. It sure sounded like he was starting to get an attitude. She wasn’t positive of it’s origin, but she decided to take mental credit for it anyway.

“First things first,” Rosie replied. “That’s fair. So let’s begin, shall we?” Stepping across the threshold, she gave the interior of the room the once-over. She felt as she had stepped into the middle of one of the largest dance clubs in York. Multi-leveled, the building was packed with people. The dance floors were filled with gyrating bodies and the music was a decibel or two below deafening.

Rosie flinched against the initial barrage of sound. Then she edged along the wall toward where the bar was, the better to take in the scene and start trying to figure out the scenario’s objective. She did her best to pay attention to the figures and decor as she moved. _My outfit would go practically unnoticed in a place like this,_ she thought.

The club was decorated in a mixture of art deco and industrial, with no real rhyme or reason to it. A small group of people were in the mosh pit, thrashing around to music that only they seemed to hear. A band was beginning to set up on the stage, but there were no signs indicating who was going to be performing.

Guardian spoke out loud. “Would Eldritch and Flar please report to the training room.” Gaurdian then motioned the others into the room as she waited for replies from the other two missing members.

“Neither of them will be present for this exercise,” Aidan replied. “They are otherwise engaged.”

“Acknowledged” Guardian noded and headed into the room.

Boreas who had snarfed down a couple painkillers with a evian chaser turned in the direction of the cacophonous sounds emanating from the next room.

“Hey Aidan, why didn’t you tell us there was a Rave going on next door? Still a little out of it, Boreas went through the door, not realizing what she was getting into. In a half daze she made her way over to the bar.

“What can I getcha,” the bartender asked moments after Boreas found a spot to squeeze herself into.

Guardian strode into the club and headed directly for the stairs as soon as she spotted them. She climbed halfway up them and looked around. The club
was packed, with people dancing to what she would term “distracting noise”.

Guardian moved to look out at the people and tried not to pay attention to what they were doing. It looked to her like they were all dying in some painful way from the noise that was filtering through the club. Guardian shook her head and tried to look for anything out of place not realy liking this place at all.

Rosie was amused to see that this particular establishment didn’t seem to believe in carding. Ordering a rum & coke for herself, she looked around again. _I’d hate to think such bad taste was copied from a real place,_ she mused. _Even though it suits the noise they’re making._ “Drink” in hand, she continued moving toward the right-hand side of the club, taking the stairs in the lower-right hand corner up to the balcony.

Rosie noticed Jezebel’s apparent disappearing act, and decided that a place like this was probably very close to her natural environment. So she stayed on the second floor, still trying to get a handle on the situation, while also trying not to let the underlying technology–and its implications–distract her, yet.

The dancing continued on the balcony to the north and the tables were packed with people drinking and having a good time. Some people were also sitting on the bleachers.

Jezebel stepped into the room and directly into the club in the process. She immediately melded into the crowd, as if she had been there before, disappearing into the darkness and the pulsating crowd.

Jezebel moved into the crowd, avoiding the bar near the main entrance. Everyone knows that that’s where all the losers, boozers, and jailbait hang out. Her main goal, for the time being, was to disappear into the crowd so that the rest of her team would loose sight of her. At least for the first couple of minutes.

She resisted the urge to start moving with the music. It would have helped her to fully blend in, but wouldn’t help much for this situation.

Jez moved across the dance floor, the rhythm of her steps following along with the beat of the music. She moved with a focused attention otherwise. Once across the dance floor, she started up the stairs, weaving through the party goers clustered there. She headed straight for the DJ’s booth, intent on providing he or she with a smoke break… Whether they wanted one or not.

The DJ in the booth was a young man with spiked neon yellow and orange hair who looked to have every available square inch of his body tattooed or pierced.

“Hey Bob.” Jezebel shouted over the music while knocking on the glass to the DJ booth. “Steve said to take a smoke break. Put the turn tables on auto and take your break before it gets busy out there.”

The guy nodded, flipped a couple of switches then left the booth, locking the door behind him.

Boreas looked up at the bartender. “What can you get me? Hmmm, how about a cure for this headache?” As he turned for some aspirin she reached out and tugged on his sleeve. “Actually, strike that…I just remembered where I am. Don’t need any fake drugs, sides I just felt the Tylenol kick in. A pair of ear plugs would be nice though…ya know to drown out this incessant noise.”

She rapped on the counter and looked into the mirror behind the bar. “You can do that right Aidan?” It didn’t occur to her to ask for the music to be turned down a tad.

The bartender chuckled. “If you can’t stand the noise, get outta the kitchen,” he replied. “And the name’s not Aidan, it’s Joe.” His attention was caught by someone further down the bar wanting to order a drink. He opened his mouth to say something when there was a loud explosion and debris came raining down on the dance floor in the middle of the room.

From her vantage point on the second floor, Rosie could see a group of men wearing some kind of body armor and wielding bfg’s come swarming in through the hole in the wall. She recognized the symbol that they were wearing from the recent newspaper article about the kidnapping attempt of the Brechtelstein ambassador - it appeared to be the Wolf Pack.

Guardian looked around for the source of the noise, then ran to the top of the stairs. She caught sight of the invading armored people and frowned, remembering her past instance with them and her ruined jacket. She really liked that jacket too. Guardian turned her attention from the dance floor and looked at the upper levels and the level she was on for the sniper and back up for those on the dance floor, remembering their tactics from the convention.

Even though she knew that this was only an illusion, even though she knew that this was calculated to have this effect on her, nonetheless, Rosie disliked the intruders on the spot. Having such power, and using it only for harm… She set her “drink” down and flexed her fingers, glad that she had already taken the high ground. Feeling the charge build, she tried to estimate how many there were, and to get some idea of what villains such as these (she could hardly bring herself to call such creatures “men”) could want in a place like this, as well as to see what her more experienced comrades would do. Most important to her was bringing down the pack of hyenas without the habitues getting hurt.

Boreas flinched reflexively at the loud explosion. Aidan was definitely not playing fair here. She then spun around to see what had happened, and tried to remind herself that most of the people she saw were holographic images and not in any real peril.

However, she chastised herself, perhaps it would be just as good to treat these people as real. A test of sorts to see if she really is cut out for all this heroic stuff. Besides Jez, Rosie and Guardian were real enough. She reached down amidst the chaos and slipped on her blades, ready for trouble.

Rosie didn’t see any of her (prospective) teammates. Thus she decided to take the initiative. With a thought, her body was covered in that distinctive blue-white lightning, creating interference patterns even as it raised her up above the railing. “Oh boys,” she called, twirling as she came into view, “if you’re looking for a party… I’ll show you a CRACKLIN’ good time!” As she spoke, she pointed and let fly with a lightning bolt at the nearest of the ones she could see.

The bolt crackled as it hit one of the armored men. The blast flung him backwards off his feet and he hit the wall, then slumped to the floor.

Boreas decided to stay low and move close to the source of the trouble, ready for any sign of trouble. She didn’t want to draw their fire just yet as there were too many innocents about. However if any of them threatened to fire she would have to do something heroic she guessed. Although she couldn’t think of what at the moment.

It then dawned on her that the original attackers had been targeting someone for assassination. Perhaps Aidan was having these holo-thugs react after a similar fashion. She tried to figure out who they were looking for, if anyone. That would be the person they would have to protect.

There was another explosion and three more men in armor came bursting through the wall near the bar on the main floor. They quickly spread out and moved behind cover.

Upstairs, the armored men also spread out and moved for cover.

Jez looked around quickly then tried to force the door of the control room. She swore, realizing that she’d probably need to break it down to get inside.

Guardian spotted the armored men moving for cover. She tried to sneak up on one of them in hopes of disarming them and disabling him, but knocked over a small table with a crash!

Rosie nodded with satisfaction. First blood, and the initiative, to her side. More importantly, her actions and overall flamboyance should keep the opposition’s attention–and firepower–on her, rather than all the bystanders. It was a good start. Pressing her advantage, she called out, “Oh, don’t run and hide, boys! That was just a warning! Surrender now, while you still can!” At the same time, she was scanning the communications bands to see if the “club’s” sound system was wireless. She frowned slightly when she didn’t find anything.

.o0 It was worth a try, 0o. Rosie thought. .o0 But I guess we’ll just have to do this the hard way after all. 0o. Aloud she said, “All right, if you want to play hide-and-seek, I’m more than happy to be ‘It.’”

Boreas shook off the lingering effects of the drugs in here system as she felt the adrenal rush kick in. One thing was for sure, she would definitely be missing those early morning classes.

With a fluid grace she skated up to the nearest opponent. She came head on, but at the last moment pirouetted out of the way. Positioned off to one side she gingerly reached out with a hand to touch the assailant. “Interested in a little game of freeze tag?” she said with a mocking smile.

The temperature dropped dramatically and where she touched the man a thin sheen of frost appeared. It was hard for Boreas to tell how strongly he had been affected by her touch because of the darkened faceplate of his helmet.

Two of the armored men on the second floor took aim at Rosie and the beams from their bfg rifles hit her squarely in the chest. Rosie felt like she got hit by a mac truck when the energy bolts from the rifles hit her and she was flung back through the air, hitting the far eastern wall of the club.

The member of the Wolf Pack that Guardian had tried to sneak up on turned and fired at her, hitting her on the right shoulder. The force of blast sent her flying backwards through the balcony railing and she fell down onto the dance floor, narrowly missing landing on top of a group of dancers trying to flee the dance floor.

The crowd of club goers erupt into mass hysteria and the air is filled with screams of terror as the innocent bystanders try to flee the club.

Dazed but still aware of her surroundings, Rosie thought, detachedly, .o0 About time… 0o.

The three armored men on the ground floor aim at Boreas and fire their weapons. Two of the shots narrowly miss her, but hit two women in the panicked crowd behind her. The screams of the crowd increased tenfold when the blasts ripped through the women, blowing off the head of one woman and almost cutting the other in half.

The third shot hit Boreas squarely on her left hip, sending her flying off her feet and into the crowd. She narrowly missed landing on top of Guardian.

Shaking the stars out of her eyes, Rosie got to her feet and turned her force field back on. She’d drawn their fire, all right, and people were dead anyway. Pointing at the nearest target, she let fly with another bolt, this one more tightly focused than the previous one. “Bastard,” she muttered as it lanced across the room, though even she could not have said whether she was addressing the “villains,” the mysterious Aidan, or herself.

The bolt hit the Wold Pack member she had struck before, sending him flying backwards with a loud crack and distinct smell of ozone. He went flying back through the hole in the wall and disappeared into the night.

“Damn,” she muttered. “Must be rockier than I thought… Didn’t mean to hit the same guy twice…”

Guardian quickly stood up and took a quick evaluation and looked at Boreas. “Find the others of the team. Take out the snipers. I will go on the dance floor and draw their fire. I can handle the shots. They need to be taken out quick before any more deaths occur. Go quickly!”

Guardian then moved into the crowed glaring at the patrents to get them out of her way as she stepped out on to the cleared dance floor and looked around.

“I see your aim still hasn’t improved since the conferance. You really should look for another line of work because you couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn!” Gaurdian tried to put sarcasim in her voice like she had heard on tv, trying to make it sound as taunting as possible. “Those pea shooters couldn’t hurt a fly!”

Jezebel walked casually over to the railing looking down on the ground floor. She surveyed the goings-on down below with a fairly confused expression on her face.

“*sweeeeeeeeeek!*” Jez let out a loud, shrill whistle, trying to get someone’s attention. The sound was (probably) lost in the general confusion and din of the club.

Not getting a response, she started to head down the stairs. She proceeded to walking into the middle of the firefight like she was walking into her own kitchen to get a cup of coffee.

“Hey!” Jez said outloud, to just about anyone who would listen. “What the hell is going on? Something’s not right. This isn’t the mission I programmed.”

Stopping at the bottom of the stairs, she turned her gaze towards the gunmen. “Who the hell are these blockheads? They look like rejects from the last Stallone movie… No one is going to take these guys seriously.”

She paused for a second, getting a bit annoyed that no one was paying attention to her conversation. “Hey! Is anyone listening to me?!”

.o0 Maybe not, 0o. Rosie grumbled to herself. .o0 But they sure rang _my_ chimes. 0o. Still, she tried to keep an eye out for anyone taking aim at Guardian’s back.

Boreas shook off the effects of the blaster fire as she laid on the dance floor. She tried to screen out the screams and shouts from the startled patrons and concentrate on what Guardian had said to her. Evidently the Alluring Amazon was much more confident in Boreas’s abilities than she was.

She quickly rolled to her feet when she noticed the casualties. She hesitated for the briefest of moments in shock, her mouth agape at the headless woman that was next to her. It was so realistic, she had to convinced herself again that these are only computer generated images. Still she feared that she would have trouble sleeping tonight.

Standing there, she looked over at the assailant that she had put the freeze on before. She concentrated on his position and bringing her arms up for effect drew his body heat into her, significantly dropping his body temperature in the process. “Unless you enjoy being turned into a popsicle I would advise dropping the gun.”

One of the Wolf Pack members, using a table for cover, took aim at Guardian’s back and shot, hitting her full in the back. She went flying forward, ploughing through several tables before she landed face down about twenty feet away.

The remaining armored men on the second floor aimed and fired at Rosie, both of them missing her by a hair. The blasts went past her and hit the wall, creating holes and a shower of concrete, paint and plaster.

The man in front of Boreas stands there motionless, watching her.

The last two Wolf Pack members on the ground floor take a bead on Jez and fire. Both blasts miss - one wildly, while the other is close enough that it singes Jez’s hair.

Jez, still oblivious to the imminent danger, “What the hell was that?”

“Hey, that was my hair!” Jez said, looking up to where she imagined Aidan would be. “My hair is going to go back to the way it was when the session is over, right?”

Sensing a momentary lull in the action, Rosie took the chance to get some of her wind back. She also took the opportunity to register what she’d just seen and heard, and figure out what to do next. The fact that Gillian only got shot at in response to her declaration disturbed her much more than the statement itself. Who was the real opposition here? And what to do about it?

Rosie decided to try something different, now that she felt somewhat less enervated. She was very concerned about the fact that the room had somehow managed to replicate her energy effects so precisely, on the spur of the moment, when she had never been here before. But attrition was working against them, and Gillian didn’t appear to be getting through either.

Raising her force field again, she flew toward the doors, like an arc of electricity. Facing the entrance at an angle, hovering just off the floor, she called out, “I don’t know what you’re trying to prove, Mr. Aidan, but I think we’ve all had enough. Open these doors now, before we have to find out how much excess juice they can soak up.” And the crackling glow around her hands increased, as if by way of emphasis.

“Hey I got my guy covered.” Shouts an excited Boreas. She looks a lot more confident than earlier. “How are the rest of you doing?” She asks.

She then glares back at the armored trooper waging a finger. “Don’t even think about it wormboy. I have had a long hard day with and could really workout some of this aggression, but I got a soft spot for smart guys. So don’t be stupid.”

Everyone but the Sentinels suddenly stopped moving in mid action and the room went silent.

“You are taking exception to the simulation, Cracklin’ Rosie?” Aidan’s voice flowed through the room. “The simulation in progress is an accurate representation of what would occur should the Wolf Pack be hunting the Sentinels, if you pardon the pun,” he said in a neutral voice. “Forgive me for taking liberites with the program you wanted, Jezebel, but I believed it would be more effective as a training tool for the entire team with the modifications that I made. I have determined that there is a 63.287% chance that the Sentinels will be encountering the Wolf Pack again due to Guardian’s interference in their attempt to kidnap the Brechtelstein ambassador.”

A concerned look came over Boreas’s face as Aidan’s statistical comments. “What you mean like they will be hunting us or something? Oh, this is just what I need! Perhaps we should lay low for a while until the cops or Interpol catch these luzers.”

“It is unlikely they will make an active effort to track down the Sentinels,” Aidan replied. “But I am confident that if they learn of the team’s presence at a particular location and they are in a position to interfere or intervene, that they will do so. It is also likely that any efforts the Wolf Pack might make against the team will be specifically geared at Guardian. They have exhibited this behaviour in the past and will in all likelihood leave the rest of the team alone in their pursuit of her -unless, of course, we ‘interfere’.”

Rosie lowered her hands to her sides, turned and floated over to where Guardian lay. Leaning over, she asked, with an ironic tone in her voice, “Is she all right? I don’t suppose you calculated to five significant figures just how big a jones they’d have for her for spoiling their fun, too, did you?”

Guardian stood and dusted herself off. “My tactic worked, though I believe I underestimated the effectiveness of their weapons.”

Rosie touched down on the floor, and looked back at the entrance. “All right. I don’t mind that you pounded on me. Everything about this scene told me we were the likely targets,” she continued, “but I couldn’t warn anyone. So I drew their fire, since we couldn’t have stopped them all in time for the bystanders to get away… But they killed people anyway, and things seemed to be getting out of hand…”

She sighed. “I think I see now the point you’re trying to make. If they really are this tough, then we’ve got a lot to do, and not much time to do it. And I made up my mind when I got this power to do everything I could so people won’t die like that. If you’ll have me, I’m yours for the long haul. Now will you kindly come out where I can see you? I think it’s time we met face to face.”

Boreas chuckled to herself at Rosie’s last comment. “Oh this’ll be good.”

Gillian glanced upwards in the “direction” of Aidan’s voice and then shrugged. She glanced around, saw Boreas was closest, and made a beeline right for her.

“Hey, is my hair okay? It’s not singed or anything is it?”

Boreas suddenly got a very concerned look on her face. “Uh, Jez I am afraid the news isn’t good.” She reached out to examine some tangled strands. “Look at all these splits ends! Do you even know what Conditioner is used for?” She said with a slight smile.

In spite of the situation, Rosie snorted. Jez had walked right into that one.

An immediate look of concern hit Jez’s face, and I do mean hit. It faded after a second though, “You’re just pulling my leg. The training room can’t give me split ends.”

Since, apparently her hair was back to normal, Gillian totally forgot about it for now. She was already planning what sort of practical joke she was going to have to pull on Boreas. Maybe something involving blue food dye and chicken feathers. “Jezebel, Boreas and Guardian, what do you have to say? Is Cracklin’ Rosie to become part of the team,” Aidan’s disembodied voice asked. “If they agree, then we’ll meet face to face.” Aidan chuckled, and Rosie got the impression that he found the phase amusing for some reason.

_Him and everyone else,_ Rosie thought.

“Heck Aidan we did away with the grueling initiation process to this sorority long ago. She seems more than competent and willing, plus she has a good had on her shoulders. She gets my vote, the more the merrier I say.”

She then sidles over to Rosie, “Just remember not to snicker too much when you peak behind the curtain at the great and terrible Oz.”

“Thanks,” Rosie replied, “for the vote of confidence.” To herself she said, .o0 ‘Oz’? Is Aidan not going to be what he seems, whatever that is? Well, here comes the moment of truth… 0o.

Guardian looked at Boreas with a puzzled look on her face, which she dismissed with a quick shake of her head. “I agree with Boreas,” she said. “The team is in need of experienced members.”

Rosie glanced up at Guardian. “That means a lot, coming from you.”

“Well, will we have to take money out of the pizza pot if we let her in?” Jez asked. “I mean, is it going to be a lot of trouble to get her one of those fancy, high back chairs with her symbol on the back of it? If she’s not going to cut down on pizza night, then I vote yes.”

With that, Jez turned her head to face Rosie, smiled and gave a quick eye wink. As if that last statement was all a joke. Not that she’d want her teammates to know that.

Rosie’s mouth curled up slightly at the corners. “Thanks,” she said, which was all the response she could muster at the moment. The suspense was killing her.

“Very well,” Aidan replied. The dance club scene faded away from view to reveal a very large room with what appeared to be heavily reinforced walls. The walls were covered with a large metallic grid and obvious sensors, projectors and some things that neither Rosie nor the others could identify sprang from the walls, ceiling and floor.

The small spider-like robot that had been riding on Guardian’s shoulder before the simulation skittered along the floor and came to a stop in front of Rosie. It paused, looking up at her, giving Rosie the eerie feeling that there was a lot more to little mechanical beast than could be seen.

The little spider then reared up on its hind legs and did a complicated bow. “I am Aidan,” came Aidan’s voice from the robot. “And I am Aidan.” The voice echoed from speakers hidden in the walls. Then, about five feet in front of Rosie an extremely lifelike holographic projection of the head (though it was about two feet tall) of a man that looked a lot like Sean Connery (from the movie Medicine Man) appeared. “And I am Aidan.”

Boreas blurted out suddenly. “And I’m Spartacus!”

“Sorry couldn’t resist that one.” She added sheepishly to Jez

Jez looked at Boreas with an unaffected, but slightly confused expression. She would have to remember to ask her who Spartacus was.

“Aidan is an acronym for Artificially Intelligent Decentralized Analytical Network. To put it very simply,” the head explained. “I am a sentient computer program.”

“We affectionately refer to him as Big Brother.” Boreas quipped.

Rosie stared blankly for fully ten seconds. She could almost hear the click of the pieces falling at last into place. “‘Cover up the blank spots/Hit me on the head…’” she at last quoted, in hushed tones. Laughter overtook her before she could say anything else.

Jez, still unconcerned about the goings on, just shook her head slowly and mumbled under her breath. “The valium supply is going to be dwindling around this place…”

“I’m… sorry,” she gasped out, getting herself under control again. “I’m… NOT… laughing at you… Even if the first thing that came to mind was the last line of a song by… Heh… Talking Heads…” Looking directly at Aidan’s hologram as she said this last made her laugh once more, holding her sides, before the reality of what she was seeing sobered her up again.

Now that the tension had passed, Rosie was not only relieved, she was amazed. She looked at the spider-bot, then at the hologram again, awestruck. The engineer in her was threatening to take over. Questions were coming fast and furious, and she had no idea where to begin with them. So she turned to something she did understand.

Looking at the others, Rosie smiled. “I’m forgetting my manners. I haven’t properly shown you how grateful I am to all of you for taking me on. Thank you.” She rose up until she was parallel to the ground at shoulder height, and, without further preamble, kissed each of her new teammates in turn, stopping short only when she got back to Aidan. “I’m sorry, I’ve never kissed a computer before,” she said to his image. “Would you feel it if I did?”

*”Hell-O…* For the first time, in quite a bit of time, Gillian was suitably speechless. At first she didn’t realize what Rosie was about to do. When she actually did it, Gillian just remained still. Not to avoid offending Rosie, but because she couldn’t think of anything else to do.

Once Rosie backed away, Gillian’s eyes slid to the side to look at Aidan and then slide to the other side to look at Boreas.

Boreas was looking at Gillian quizically trying to figure out what was going on. Do they know each other she thought? Then her eyes went wide and looked like a deer caught in the headlights as Rosie approached her.

“I’m afraid not,” Aidan replied seriously.

“That’s too bad,” Rosie replied with equal seriousness. Then she blew him a kiss. “But the thought counts, too, and you are a handsome devil–for a Big Brother.” She turned and smiled at Boreas as she said this last. Then, lowering herself back to the deck, she looked at them all again. “So what do we do now?” she asked, still smiling.

Boreas stood there in amazed shock. Evidently Rosie was…French? She didn’t act like it though. Wide-eyed she squeaked out, “Y-y-you’re welcome.” She then spun her head and looked at Jez to see what her reaction was fearing that she was the only one looking foolish at this point.

Rosie didn’t miss Boreas’s apparent panic. She walked over, hands outstretched. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m just so glad to have made the cut, to at last be among fellow supers, and words felt inadequate to show how I felt.”

“Y..Y..Yeah sure, no harm done. A simple handshake or perhaps a hug will suffice next time.” Boreas said trying to cover up her embarrassment..

She reached up and doffed her mask, exposing eyes with strangely gray pupils. “And I guess the answer to what we do now is, I start by telling you who I am, now that we’re all on the same side.” She ran her fingers through her hair before continuing. “OK. My real name is Cynthia Scott. I’m an electronics engineer from the States, and up to a year or so ago, that was about all. So far as I know, at this point about the only thing I can do with this power that I haven’t mentioned yet is scan the communications-band portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.” Turning to look Jezebel in the eye, she added, “By the way, you were right about there being people close to me, Gillian.”

_Rosie…or Cynthia certainly was an interesting person,_ thought Melissa. She did appreciate the openess and trust she portrayed and in spite of the liplock, she thought she was really really going to like the girl.

“Do now?” Boreas stretched and let out a slight yawn. “I dunno, but it’s kinda pretty late isn’t it? I wouldn’t mind catching some serious sleep before tomorrow. Especially if I have to start worrying about this wolf bozos out to get us.”

Gillian, having regained some of her composure, wasn’t looking at Boreas any more. She turned her attention back to Rosie and had regained the use of her voice.

“Okay, first of all, let’s set some ground rules.” she stated, doing her best to sound serious, without sounding like she’s offended. “Only one rule comes to mind, at the moment. No groping your teammates. I can’t speak for anyone else, but there’s no lip pressing with me unless you’ve bought me a couple of drinks first.”

Boreas could be seen nodding perhaps a little too vigorously at Jez’s comments.

“I don’t usually kiss on the first date either,” Rosie replied. “And I wasn’t making passes.” Her smile turned mischievous for a moment. “If I were, there’d be no room for doubt. And I give you my word, I won’t do it again, now that I know how you feel about it. But like I said, this has turned out to be one of the biggest days of my life. And while I see Boreas’s point about getting a good night’s rest, I don’t think I _can_ sleep right now.” She turned to Aidan’s hologram. “Could I at least have the fifty-cent tour? Everything I’ve seen already is so amazing, I can’t wait to see the rest. It’s as if I’m in Valhalla Nova, Zero-Zero. I almost expect to see Luther Arkwright or Rose Wilde just around the corner.”

The image of Aidan nodded, and Rosie was given a brief tour of the base, including the laboratories.

Continued in “Darkness on a New Day”

© Lisa Hartjes, 1999-2000