Neon Knights
- Episode 1-
As the sun slowly made it’s descent from view the lights
above the city were already racing to replace its dying illumination. The neon
glow never truly died away, but as the sun’s bright light faded it always
seemed to flare to life to dominate the sky. And with it the city itself seemed
to awaken, bursting with a fresh fast-paced life of its own. Which meant soon
enough the streets would be flooded with people, and that was reason enough for
Lexel to not be.
Lexel was used to the walk home; she had been doing it for
as long as she could remember. It was part of her routine, just as much a part
as making the trip alone was. She could barely remember the last time she
walked home with her mom, or for that matter made it home to find her mom
there. But at least these days she had her friend Xephaedra to walk with which
was kind of nice. Xeph had insisted for a long time on going home together,
even though Lexel was fairly sure it was simply to avoid her friend having to
make the trip alone. She was a great friend, no doubt about it, but Xeph could
quite often be overly cautious about, well, almost everything.
They made for an awkward pair Lexel had always thought. Xeph
was almost a head taller and already growing into the sort of pretty girl every
boy couldn’t stop looking at. While Lexel herself never cared much for being
the center of attention she couldn’t help but notice that she herself could
never quite compete with her friend. Not in the looks department anyways. She
was shorter than most the girls her age and while she found her thin toned
figure to be adequate most of the boys didn’t seem to agree. Which suited Lexel
just the same; she had seen the kind of attention some girls attracted and it
was something she long ago decided wasn’t for her.
“So, what you have planned for tonight Lex,” Xeph asked her
friend even though they both already knew the answer. Lexel always wondered why
she kept asking but she had to admit it was kind of nice knowing Xeph would
always worry about her. She couldn’t resist rolling her eyes at the question
before puffing a strand of her short brown hair out of her face.
“Oh, you know, the usual I guess,” Lexel replied as she
walked right through a lingering puddle without hesitation. It always made Xeph
squeak a little, which made Lexel smile at the silly notion. “How girly can you
get,” Lexel thought to herself.
“You know, one of these days your going to get caught Lex,
and when you do it’s going to mean trouble. Why in the world do you even keep doing
it anyways? What is so fun about playing other peoples games or prowling around
into all those private nodes? It’s dangerous if you ask me, which you never do,
and I am scared that one day soon your going to find yourself in the wrong
one.”
Lexel was used to Xeph voicing her concerns about any number
of the things she did that her friend deemed to be overly dangerous. But Lexel
had been looking forward all day to getting to play some more of her current
discovery. It was a little simulation game on a private node she had found
about a month ago by accident. The getting in was surprisingly easy for a node
that was tucked away like it was. It was the kind of thing that should have had
some nasty security all over it to keep her out, which made it a curiosity to
Lexel.
That was the part Xeph and others could never really
understand; it was all about curiosity and the challenge of it all. She just
had to see just how far she could go, just how much she could find. If someone
told her she couldn’t get in or that it wasn’t something for a girl to be
doing, well then Lexel would just become determined to prove she could. It was
just one of those things about her that she couldn’t stand; just because she
was a girl didn’t mean she had to be girly or that she wasn’t just as talented
as a boy. In fact she was quickly starting to think that she might even be
cleverer than most the boys in her classes.
“Thanks for the concern Xeph, but I’ll be fine; don’t worry
so much,” Lexel tried her best to ease her friends fears. But it was still
written all over her red-headed confidante’s face; Xeph was really concerned.
“Just be careful, alright Lex,” Xeph said, her tone hushed before bidding her
friend farewell.
Lexel waiver goodbye as she watched Xeph head down the street
to her own home like they always did and then rushed up the steps that led to
the small apartment she shared with her mother. She entered her personal access
code and entered to find as usual she was home alone, again. “Nothing new,”
Lexel said with a sigh as she stepped around a few clothes that she hoped
belonged to her mother before heading straight to the terminal in her room.
It was the sole luxury Lexel had available to her, while
most of her friends had portable little mini-coms they could pack around with
them her only real access to the nodes was through an old terminal. While other
kids might laugh at the out dated hardware she treasured it as her primary
escape. They couldn’t ever afford much, but when she was little she had been
lucky enough to find the old device that miraculously still worked.
Lexel patted the old terminal thankfully as she jacked
herself in and smiled to herself. Awaiting her was the same old greeting that
she had been met with every time since she had found the hidden node:
“Would you like to play a game?”
Her answer was always the same – yes.
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