"Captain is the best!" Micheal screamed with joy as he wrapped his hand around Cronos thick neck and dragged him in for a brotherly hug.
"I mean...even..*belch*.. if ...he ...*belch* is a terr...orist..." He continued excitedly as he downed all what was left in the beer cup and slammed it down on the table.
"More beer please!" He called out with a foolish smile on his face, his white cheeks completely red like roses; he was clearly drunk.
"A man ought to know and not pass his wine limit" Kim said as he took small sips of a colourless liquid.
"What's that ?" Caramel asked as she chugged down some of the sweetened but sour taste of her beer.
"Soda" Kim replied as he took yet another small sips and stared at his mates with blank expression.
"Your turn captain, tell us about yourself." Jason said as he popped the Cork of what would be his third bottle of the night. He popped another and passed the first to Cronos who acknowledged him after taking it.
'Ahh the taste of beer!' He thought to himself for the fourth time this night. It brought back memories, memories of he and his team, the Bionic Ten. They always drank to stupor before and after every mission.
When asked why, their reply was always : So we could be sober when shit goes down and sober when shit was about to hit the fan. But deep down, they all knew it was just a coping method, a technique to keep their demons at bay. In order to sleep at night, they needed something, just something to keep the nightmares silent. And that was alcohol.
Here he was taking his new team to their first drinking, and most likely not their last. That's if they survive the first mission, and then the next mission, and the next after the next. But as far as they were on his team, they would need the usual drinks. So it was better to start now than to start later.
"Well, you all know me already. You must have read my file and heard the rumours ,so there's nothing basically to say, except that what you heard and read is correct. They are all right." He said in a lazy tone as he emptied the remaining contents of the beer down his throat.
"C'mon big boy, you know we didn't read your file, or whatever that's called." Caramel said as she pulled up a hologram.
"All it says is you're part of the Bionic Ten. The first created Bionic Ten, the strongest of all Bionic Ten and last but not least, their captain." She said as they all stared at him with interest, including Kim.
"That sounds like a good resume to me" Cronos said with a chuckle as he ordered for another bottle.
"Sure it's Captain " Micheal said as he smiled foolishly at Caramel.
"See lads, I don't talk about myself. Who I'm died twenty years ago, ever since...." He paused as he took a huge gulp of his beer.
"Ever since your pregnant wife died ?" Caramel said as the whole group paused and stared at him.
"Yeah." He said in a cold tone as he gulp down the remaining contents and smoothly pressed his finger against an index scanner.
"Payment successful"
The machine chimed out as he stood up from his seat and headed for the exit door.
"We leave in thirty minutes....just want to get some fresh air outside."
"Okay boss" They chroused in unison as he nodded before walking into the busy streets with neon lights, floating advertisements boards and flying cars everywhere.
"Reboot The Bionic."
[Bionic No.1 Rebooting]
Suddenly he lost control of more than half of his body as his legs, hands and neck became stiff. His eyes glowed blue, then green as his system rebooted.
It took a minute for it to be done, as during that time frame, a lot of people, humans ,robots and half robots alike gave him curious stares before moving on.
[Bionic No.1 Done rebooting]
He heard the monotone A. I voice in his head as his eyes came back to life, now its usual grey colour and he was able to move his limbs. He continued walking as he gave further instructions to his system.
"Scan for host network."
[Scanning....]
[Host network has been shut down, and is currently unavailable.]
"Mhmm...scan for PERMAFROST."
[PERMAFROST FOUND!]
[SECURITY KEY NEEDED]
"Retrieve security key from memory".
[Retrieving security key from memory]
"Ohh sorry." Some tourists smiled at him as they accidentally stood in his way, in their bid to take a selfie.
[PERMAFROST CONNECTED]
"Good. Search for Miguel Raymond ."
[Searching....]
[No Miguel Raymond found!]
"Mhmm...search for the one eyed demon."
[The one eyed demon not found ]
"Search for Bionic 2"
[Searching...]
[Bionic 2 is non existent, confirmed dead or disabled or unavailable. ]
"Mhmm but they said he was alive ." He muttered to himself as he walked into a park and sat down on a bench. Around him was the moment of love as couples in one another arms watched the sky with its endless stars.
"Search for the resurrection of Bionic 2"
[Files found. Nature: Classified]
"Hack into it."
[Processing...]
[Action successful]
"Download files into memory"
[Downloading....]
[Download successful]
"That was a hassle. Now let's see what we have here." Cronos said to himself as he mentally went through the catalogs of information.
Few seconds later.
"What the fuck!"
Meanwhile, back in the Pentagon. Different men and women in different military camouflaged could be seen running helter-skelter as they relyaed different information from one person to another.
"What's the status.?"
A white haired man who's body was still clinging unto his boyish looks, thanks to advancement in technology asked out loud.
"PERMAFROST has been activated sir. "
"What ?"
He screamed as the tablet in his hand hit the ground, slightly bouncing after impact before laying at rest on the floor. He cared little about that as he quickly whipped out his glasses and walked towards one of the monitoring screens.
"What did you say again?" He asked as the man who spoke earlier repeated himself.
"SInce when ?"
"Just now sir."
"Fuck!"
"Get the generals on this and the Vice Supreme General, and not a word of this to the media or anyone outside this building."
"Infact this facility is now on lock down. All telecommunications to outside is banned and activate all the firewalls on our servers, PERMAFROST must not get in."
"Sir!"
"Yes, what's it ?"
"it's already in."