Birds singing above their head below the fair yellow sky of the east. The smooth hum of the engine and smashes of waves created a beautiful melody as they stood on the deck of the expensive Oro Shinsei. The ship was made with light materials crafted from a subsidiary of the meteor that once destroyed the planet. It is durable enough to last in sail for 75 weeks without ever docking, coated with holographic memory scenes, chips, and hard drives up to with RAM capacity of 1 zettabyte, Wi-Fi satellite receiver ready, solar power operated systems, bio gas-fueled engine, and one of a kind ship with a heated wave pool and recreational courts only for big shots and can-afford individuals.
"We're really stepping in this thing, right?" Andi mumbled. "Ne, Andra, pinch me to know it was not a dream."
Alex poked his head hard that he almost hit the wall.
"Ow..." brushing the pain away "That sure hurts, Alex. I just ask to be pinched not to be hit."
"Sorry, my hand just slipped.." he said turning his back to Andi.
"I'm gonna take a selfie.." Andra muttered throwing her arms in the air, holding her cellphone.
"We're not here to play, guys.." Sandra said.
"Oh no.. we are here to play, remember?" Tori replied holding a floater and her change of swimsuit ready to go any minute.
"You're getting the wrong idea..." Sandra muttered.
"You can enjoy yourselves after we discuss some things before the convention," Louige said with shady eyes.
"Okay.." they replied, all looked mystified. The dry air breeze blew on their napes.
They followed Louige and they gathered in a room with a glass door and a glass window overseeing the coast in the middle of the deck.
"So, what do we have here?" Alex exclaimed. He sat on the couch sipping the miso soup Louige brought for their breakfast.
"Ma..ma... don't rush, Alex. We're not on the playground yet..." Jayson said frowning at his friend to stop the psywar. "But, he's right, Mr. Louige, we need to know what we have to know now. We shouldn't be wasting our time dillydallying inside this majestic cruise ship." He added. "especially when we still don't know our odds in the game we're about to play."
"Besides, isn't this ship the same as the Shizora?" Alex muttered. "I mean, I saw the same symbol of infinity in one of the ramps in the ship... So this thing can handle security threats like a piece of shit."
"Yes, it is indeed the same as that plane with a much higher security system. But you have to work your ass in the AR, so you need the energy to move around." Louige ordered. "It's another exercise we're having, like last night but with a twist."
Alex mumbled but obeyed what Louige had said. Soon after they finished their food, Louige activated the AR.
"Ne, Mr. Louige, is this a default set up of the ship, this AR?" Sandra asked.
"You can say that..." Louige said. "This is one of the ship's features. Once activated, the whole ship turns into a different ground surrounded by holographic sceneries in Augmented Reality."
"Amazing..." Andi said. "Is this made by the same programmer?"
"Are you referring to the one who programed the Shizora? Yes, it was designed by the same man, though I helped in many ways..." Louige uttered.
"Awesome... I wonder who that man is.."
Shichiro muttered inside his brain again, "We did it! We did! Ne, Ha-chan, say it! Say it out loud!" but Hachiro shunned him as always, like a thought trying to be forgotten.
"Okay, I guess we can multi-task here. Get yourself ready" Louige gave a deep sigh. "Activate your watches and start cruising the AR."
....
They found themselves in the middle of a rundown city. The road was destroyed and flooded with debris due to explosions and possibly an earthquake, tall buildings stood crumbling with broken glass windows from smoke and fire and the sky was engulfed with dark clouds from smoke and a possible storm. The city wails of despair and agony as the wind blew hard on its streets and walls.
"This is horrible..." Sandra muttered and tremble in fear.
"What's the matter, Sandra-chan?" Michiyo asked, patting her shoulders.
Hachiro stood startled seeing the vast scenery. He tried to shake away the thought but he can't get over the things he'd done in this scene. He's frozen in his ground.
"Are you alright, Ha-chan?" Shichiro whispered, but he did not respond. "Ne?" He closed his eyes trying to get a hold of himself.
"It was like the city in the Aurum incident..." Sandra squealed and covered her mouth, trying to keep her composure though she felt her knees turning into lead. She looked for Hachiro and found him leaning on a lamppost. She thought he might be shocked by the things he is seeing. She remembered it was the same lamp post where she saw the flying burning bin that almost hit Hachiro when they were parting ways to go on their task. She scanned the area and she saw no difference from what it was during the terrific incident.
"Seriously? Did it look like this?" Andra muttered. "Everything is a disaster."
"Yeah,,, I was here when it happened...standing in the same spot..." Sandra answered. She doubted what could Louige want with this scenery and where did they get a file of it.
"It was difficult back then, right? Are you alright?" Tori asked, wearing a wary face.
"Yeah,, somehow but I can manage..." she tried to control her fast breathing. Her heart beats fast and her chest is throbbing from the painful experience they have had in the city of Aurum by the time the hacker attacked it.
"This looks bad, right?" Jayson said "I mean, we're not in the city when this happened. All we know is that it went badly out there in the city. But we're not allowed to get outside the school walls and help the people outside. We tried to track the interference and did something to prevent it but... we can't do a thing..." he moved towards the ruined café and arranged the tables and chairs where he took a seat "The Apollo tower canceled all the signal transmission from inside the city radius that gave us no choice but to sit warily inside the school."
"Thank God Mr. Reiko happened to be outside the city and re-wrote the system having seen the incident upon entering the city." Alex said, "He did the great saving that time."
"Ahh. He also informed us on what to do to help lessen the casualties and damages in the system through the discreet program default of the school." Jayson added. "I thought we all come useless if that didn't happen."
"Thanks to him we got to save others by sending that canon. He actually complimented us after the incident."
"It was him and Louige who actually defeated the hacker in the end..." Jayson asserted "...though it left a huge number of casualties and damages in the city."
Sandra's eyes widened from what she had heard. She can't believe that was what the others thought about the incident where she and her friends almost died in the battle between the Androids but they got it all wrong. There is no single word about her friend's struggle to defeat the harbinger of that incident.
She tried to say, "No, it was all Markus' efforts that the incident was stopped! It was because of my friend who fought to death---" but no words came out from her mouth. She knew that if she say the name Markus, a commotion will arise so she stayed silent. She took pity on herself for being a coward.
"It was great to have my dad, right?" Hachiro said boastfully, wearing a grin on his face. He hadn't said a word when the Circa was reminiscing the past incident where he fought with his life in bind. Shichiro wailed in his head "It was him! I helped him defeat the hacker, idiots! Hey, Ha-chan say it! Tell them you did save the city back then!" and keeps on repeating it that it gave him a headache. It was a past he wanted to forget but cannot escape.
The Circa turned towards him and gave a cold stare.
"Yeah, but I wonder how did he get to have an idiot son like you though.." Alex grinned back.
Alex wanted to start a fight, he felt provoked every time he see Hachiro's face. He always got to remember his crappiness in the desert with scorpions and he was saved by the same man he's getting angry with. He felt his pride getting trampled.
But the moment he took a step forward to approach him, Louige sounded the game music and started talking in a remote mechanical voice, "the convention is scheduled to last for 3 days, with exhibits and hands-on exercises and such. Thus, we need to get you accustomed in using the watch for AR games. You have to buy time and figure out how to capture the hacker."
"We all know that..." Jayson said frankly.
"Thus, the fight is inevitable..." a huge sound came from nowhere like a metal rolling door was opening and something terrible is coming out. "As you can see, this is the remnants of the Aurum incident where the brave fought to stop the hacker invasion."
"But why show this to us?" Andi exclaimed. The sound of something coming their way grew even louder.
"This is to warn you that this thing might happen in the Argon battlefield. It may not with the same enemy but you can fight against the ones the First generation for starters, where Sandra here fought with, encountered due to the signal interference as sparring partners--- the Androids." Louige explained.
And as if the word Androids became the cue, they came rushing to the Circa's location.
"The data of the Androids were gathered and stored in the ORION's system after the incident where we studied them for future purposes," Louige explained. The Androids brought different weapons attacking the Circa like zombies. Some walked slow, others ran fast, and most others had guns, swords, and spears (where did they get those weapons?), fire, and even a grenade launcher. "They fight in this unpredictable manner so better be careful and try to win the game...we even upgraded them in some cases."
"You're saying as if this won't hurt and this is very simple to deal with..." Andi wailed.
"Do your best..." Louige said and sounded the game music. "And I just want to remind you, this is AR. Pain is real here by sending impulses to your brain that triggers endorphin hormones to circulate the body registered as Pain. So, better be careful. Try not to get killed, as what I have said, we didn't have further data on how to revive the dead here in the AR, yet..."
"At least try to sound optimistic..." Tori mumbled.