12. Mall

[08:00 AM]

In the kitchen cooking some breakfast for this weekend. Kayla is in the living room watching some morning news in her light pink pajamas. As I'm cooking some eggs and bacon on the frying pan, I'm watching the news from the kitchen.

"—Last night, a student was arrested at a fast-food chain after being apprehended by the security bot for carrying an unlicensed firearm. This incident is also connected to the recent police raid that was held early this morning, resulting in the capture of an arms dealer that was supplying the recent rise of illegal firearms."

I see the info I sent was helpful to Chief Eileth.

"Hey, you. Was that your doing?" Kayla asks from the living room.

"Can't you call me by my name? I'm not someone you can just call 'you'," I say.

"Answer my question idiot," She says, ignoring what I previously said. 

"No way, Kay."

"Hey! I didn't permit you to call me that!" She angrily says as she quickly rises from the sofa.

"Then call me by my name or I'll keep calling you Kay."

"No!" She stubbornly refuses.

"Have it your way, Kay," I say as I place the freshly cooked eggs and bacon on an empty plate beside a bowl of fried rice. "Hey, Kay. Breakfasts ready."

"Ugh! Fine! I'll call you Blaze! So stop calling me Kay!" She groans as she gives up her stubbornness rather quickly.

I lightly chuckle to myself. "Thank you, Kayla." 

"Idiot," She mumbles.

"Regarding your previous question, yes, I did it," I told her.

"But how did you hack that bot?  I didn't even see you pull out your phone, wearing smart glasses, or even digital contact lenses."

"That's a secret."

She clicks her tongue, "Figures."

As we sat down at the table and ate the freshly cooked breakfast, a notification popped up on my phone. Opening the message, I start reading the content.

`From Chief Eileth: 

Thank you for sending that data lad. You helped us track down the perpetrators for the distribution of illegal weapons. Thanks for your continued support for this city.`

That's the Chief for you.

I type 'glad to be of service' before sliding my phone into my pocket.

Swallowing a piece of food, Kayla asks me a question. "Who was that?"

"The Chief," I reply.

"Why is he messaging you?"

"Thanking me."

"For what?"

"That." I point at the tv broadcasting the recent police raid.

Kayla glances at the tv before facing me with a look of confusion on her face. "What about it? All you did was hacked the bot, which led the police to investigate the gun he tried to threaten us with. Why would the Chief thank you for that?." 

"I'm the one who sent the info about the arms dealer."

"You did? But how?" 

"It's a secret."

"I shouldn't have asked," She says while shaking her head. As we continue eating, the intercom starts beeping, notifying that we have a visitor. Standing up from my chair, I walk over to the intercom on the wall before saying, "I'll get it."

"Stop! Don't answer it!" Kayla suddenly yells.

Before I could understand what she meant by that, my finger pressed the answer button on the screen. A familiar face appears on the screen.

"Good morning Ka— Blaze!?" Ivy says, surprised. "What are you doing in Kay's penthouse!?"

Kayla on the other hand is now slumped on the table, groaning. "I forgot she was coming over today.

"I live here," I reply to Ivy's question.

"You're both living in the same place!? Why didn't I hear of that!?"

"I moved into this place the day before I transferred to the school."

"Oh! So it's about your 'job' huh?" Ivy says, referring to me being a bodyguard to Kayla.

"Yes," I answer.

"Sweet! Can you give me access to the elevator?"

"Alright." I tap the screen and command the elevator to the lobby.

"Thanks!" Ivy says, stepping into the elevator.

A minute later, Ivy's elevator arrives at the penthouse floor. Opening the hallway door, I see Ivy smiling at me; wearing a blue dress. "Morning!" She happily greets.

"Good morning," I replied.

"Where's Kay?" She asks.

"Over there at the table." I point my thumb at the white-haired blond now methodically stabbing a piece of egg with a fork. "We were just eating breakfast. You can join us if you want."

"If it's that replicator stuff, no thank you," She says, cringing.

"Nah, I made the food myself." 

"Wait really!? So Kay's been eating your cooking for days now!?" She says, surprised. "That cheeky girl is so dishonest sometimes! You make her tasty lunch every day at school and won't even eat it! But over here she's enjoying the breakfast you cooked!"

"It's not like I have any choice!" Kayla shouts across the room. "I'm not going to waste delic– food in front of me!"

Ivy giggles. "Like I said, dishonest."

"Are you two going to stand there making fun of me!?" Kayla shouts.

After Ivy joins us for breakfast, she lets out a pleased sigh as she pats her stomach, slumping on the couch. "I'm so full! Thanks for the food, Blaze!" 

"Your welcome," I say as I grab the dishes from the table before placing them inside the dishwasher. After that, I ask Kayla and Ivy a question. "So what are you two going to do today?"

"None of your—" Before Kayla could finish talking, Ivy excitedly cut her off mid-sentence. "We're going to the mall!"

"Ivy! Why did you tell him!?" 

"Cause he asked," Ivy says.

"Let me change my clothes before getting the car ready," I say.

"No!" "Sure!" Kayla and Ivy say respectively.

"Even if you say no Kayla, I still have to go with you," I say.

"That's the point! You're always following me and it's getting annoying!" Kayla says, irritated.

"Aw come on Kay! It's not like he did anything bad to you," Ivy comments.

"But I want only the two of us to go together!" 

"No buts, Kay. You're inconveniencing Blaze's work," Ivy says.

"He's the one being an inconvenience!" Kayla retorts.

I sigh. "How about I just drop you two in front of the mall and let you two enjoy yourselves alone, ok?"

"Look what you did, Kay. You're selfishly forcing Blaze away," Ivy says.

"Fine! I'll let you drive us to the mall! But don't follow us inside you got me!" Kayla says while pointing a finger at me.

I scratch my head. "Alright, I'll get the car ready."

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[09:00 AM]

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Inside the largest mall in Aurora, the three of us are walking inside the corridor bustling with humans and zulaiths alike. While Ivy is enjoying the view of the stores and stands inside the mall, Kayla is sulking with her arms crossed on her chest.

"Why are you with us?" Kayla asks, irritated.

"Oh, come on, Kay! Wouldn't it be cruel for us to leave Blaze alone in his car?" Ivy says.

Kayla clicks her tongue.

"Ok, I'll leave you two alone for two hours. We'll meet each other back at the food court." I say.

"Ok! See you back in two hours!" Ivy replies.

"Finally! Let's go," Kayla says as she grabs Ivy's hand before walking into the crowd of people.

AI, connect to the camera system of the mall and observe Kayla and Ivy.

<Affirmative, accessing mall network– network establish.>

In a split second, a live feed of the camera is being projected on my HUD, tracking the figures of Kayla and Ivy in the crowd of people. With a means to safely observe them without being intrusive, I start exploring the mall. After 30 minutes of walking around, I found an arcade. A sense of nostalgia starts flooding me.

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"Let's play these!" Amber pulls both me and Malt to a nearby first-person shooter VR console.

"Come on! I'm bad at playing FPS!" Malt complains.

"I can cover your back Malt!" I excitedly say.

"No way! It's embarrassing for someone younger than me to watch my back!" Malt argues.

"You might not shoot well, but you're good at looking out for us!" Amber says until we're near the consoles and grabbing her game card. Malt reluctantly grabs his card and I grab mine from my pocket before swiping it on the console readers to start the game.

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I sigh, shaking the distant memory away before entering the arcade. A multitude of tunes from different game consoles mixed with gameplay reaches my ear as people of different ages occupy them. Happily playing as if the war was an unpleasant memory left to be forgotten. Standing in front of an automated booth, I swipe my wrist band on the scanner and pick a regular game card from the menu. With a pop, the booth dispenser lets out a plastic card from its slot which I grab.

I guess I'll try the latest shooter.

Swiping the card on the reader, I pay the credits for the game before hooking myself on the VR rig. As I place the goggle over my eyes, a view of a wrecked space station enters my field of vision. I look at my avatar to see it wearing a sleek military-grade space suit armed with a bullpup assault rifle, floating inside the zero-g hallway of the station. After a few seconds of getting myself oriented, an NPC shows up on my helmet HUD to send my game objectives.

"Sergeant! Thank God you're still alive in that forsaken hell! You've been separated from your squad and you need to regroup with them ASAP. Heavy hostile presence is near your area so you should expect resistance as you try to reach your squad. "

After giving me the beginning dialogue of the game, the HUD shows me the next waypoint. Using the directional thrusters on my suit, I quickly navigate the winding corridor of the station while avoiding floating debris. Suddenly, multiple enemy icons pop up on my HUD. Using the momentum from my thrusters, I start bouncing off the wall, my bullpup aiming at the possible direction of the enemy. When the first enemy came into view, I pulled the trigger; shooting a hole through his helmet, his lifeless body drifting in the weightless environment.

Alerted by my gunshot, the rest of the enemy starts firing at my position.

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As Blaze bounces and dodges the virtual bullets from his enemy, a crowd of people starts gathering around him. Watching his acrobatic performance under a hail of fire while calmly picking the enemy off one by one. The crowd cheers as they attentively watch his gameplay. While the crowd is excitedly talking about Blaze's gameplay, Kayla and Ivy pass by the arcade and notice a group of people loudly cheering.

"Hey, Kay! Do you want to play some games before meeting up with Blaze?" Ivy happily says.

"Why not? I don't have a console at home so I barely play any games," Kayla says.

"Great! Let's go inside!" Ivy grabs Kayla's hand and heads inside the arcade. When they entered, they were met with a crowd of people watching on the large monitor of someone playing a VR shooter. "Wow, that guy's good," Ivy says as she watches the game. "Who could it be? I hope they don't beat my best speed."

"Uhm… Ivy?" Kayla taps Ivy's shoulder. 

"Yeah?"

"Look." Kayla points at someone using the VR rig, a red tail swaying behind their back.

With wide eyes, Ivy looks with surprise as she recognizes the one playing the game. "Blaze?"

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As I take cover behind a wall, an enemy is manning a heavy caliber machine gun in the hallway, blocking my final path to my objective. When I tried to peek, he immediately would fire at the wall I'm hiding to pin me down. Grabbing my last grenade, I pull the pin and throw it hard on the wall, bouncing it in the hallway before slowly drifting towards the reinforced glass window of the station. Holding tight on a nearby handlebar, the grenade explodes, destroying the glass window and immediately depressurizing the room; sucking anything out to space.

The enemy who was manning the machine gun is holding on to the gun handle for dear life, trying to avoid being sucked out to space. Using this chance, I took out my pistol and shot both of his hands, forcing him to let go of the handle as he silently screamed into the void of space before the emergency shutter closes the breach. With the threat being dealt with, I quickly reach the bulkhead, finishing the game. A flash of text on my goggles shows the previous gamers who completed the game, showing who was the quickest to complete it. 

Surprisingly, my time was the quickest out of all of them, beating the top player named, WitchofGames. I type my player name on the leaderboard as BlazingTail, my old player name when I was a kid. When I removed the VR goggles, a surprising amount of people cheered me on, giving compliments and congratulating me for being at the top of the leaderboard. As I was about to exit the arcade to head to the food court, I found Kayla and Ivy standing behind the crowd.

"Hey, is that the Witch!"

"Whoa! I didn't notice the Witch was watching herself being dethroned! 

The crowd starts gossiping as they look at Ivy. 

Ivy's the WitchofGames?

"Good job beating my score!" Ivy happily says with a grin.

"Uh yeah." I scratch the back of my head. "I didn't know you were the player I beat. Sorry about that."

"Come on, don't apologize! It's not like I'm mad; quite the opposite! You're the only person who beat my fastest time in the game!" Ivy says.

"If you say so, but what are you doing here in the arcade?" I ask.

"Kay and I were supposed to play some games when we noticed you surrounded by that crowd. Now that you're finished with that, how about you join us! Right, Kay?" Ivy elbows Kayla on the sides.

"Fine, I'll let you with us," Kayla says.

The next hour was spent with the three of us playing games before heading to the food court.