The four went to sleep immediately after they arrive back at the Stargazer building. Riley is working her brother's shift as he needs rest now. Tomorrow is the day when Henry is finally going to do the simulator training.
Instead of sleeping, he just crawls inside his blanket out of happiness. He can't wait to finally fly a real machine, even if it's on a computer screen. His thoughts are everywhere; he remembers when he was sitting inside Darryl's, looking around the cockpit, trying to figure out what all the buttons mean. As for screens, he doesn't know how he will fight with an all-around screen, but he will give it his all.
Michael told him already about dealing with the vision since he has glasses, and wearing a helmet over it doesn't sound too good. His thoughts lead him into the center where Riley is working together with Doug.
"Did you know that guys who part their hair to the right live longer than those who do it on the other side?" asks Riley to Doug, who is eating a donut.
He immediately stops and looks at his hair. Today, he has parted it to the left side. "Oh, oh." He says and runs off to the bathroom.
At the same time, Henry is walking in, "What happened to him?" he asks, pointing at his leave.
"I don't know," she shrugs. "What do you want?"
"I know it's probably a weird question to ask at his hour—"He seats himself next to her to face her, making her slightly uncomfortable. "As I know, we need to wear a helmet, so how am I supposed to do it with these glasses? Like wouldn't that be bad or something?"
She looks down and speaks. "Wait here," and walks off past Doug, who just came back in.
"New haircut?" asks Henry looking at him.
"Oh, thanks for noticing," he says and bites a piece of his donut.
"Yeah, it looks good on you."
"Thank you very much," he says, brushing over his hair parted to the right.
He goes back to work, and Henry waits with his hands rubbing against each other, looking at the eating Doug makes him hungry as well. He hasn't eaten anything like that in forever. The last time he remembers was when he was still in Nios. The temptation is too strong; he needs to distract himself and looks away to Riley's screen, seeing what she is working on now.
He doesn't understand anything; it seems to be a programming language. "Hey, Doug. Can you tell me what this is?" his finger point to her screen.
Doug glances over his shoulder from afar.
"Oh," he says and continues to work. "It's just ConnectronLang. A programming language."
"What does that mean? And where do you use it?" asks Henry carefully.
"Well ConnectronLang stands for Neuron Connection, they wrote it to connect and program the fluctuation system. She's probably writing it for your machines now, as theirs is pretty outdated," explains Doug.
"Why you didn't just call it fluctuate then? Wouldn't that be easier?" asks Henry.
"Surely, but I didn't write it and didn't name them. So ask the twins," he shrugs and continues to eat.
Riley walks back in with a helmet from the pilot suits; it has no stripes on it, a prototype. "Here," she says. "Try it on and see how it works with your glasses."
Henry puts it on, with his glasses still on the nose. It squeezes the temples tight to his face. His lenses move up. "I don't think it works," he says with one eye closed.
Riley starts to think again. "What is your strength?" she looks at him.
"My strength? I don't know. I mean, I did get pretty strong lately, but why would you want to know that?"
"No," she rolls her eyes. "Not that one. I meant your glasses, dumbass!"
"Oh, I don't know. Why are you asking me that?" he shortens his eyes.
She smiles at him as if she has the solution to his problem in her mind. "Give me your glasses, and I will create a helmet just for you."
"How long will it take?"
"Not long," she exhales. "I will most likely finish it by tomorrow. So you can do the simulation."
"I will wait, thank you," he says and hugs her immediately, trying to kiss her.
"What are you trying to do?" she lifts her tone and pushes him back. "Really, why can't you be normal?" she adds.
He just smiles at her and walks off, watching her as he goes.
Doug looks at her and smirks. "Guess who has a loverboy."
"Wait, what?" she shrugs her forehead. "He's not my lover boy? He's not even my type!"
"Yeah, sure he isn't," he blows air out of his nose.
She falls back into the chair, arms crossed, muttering to herself.
"But you seem to like him," he says from behind.
"Shut up, Doug," her eyebrows arch as she moves to him.
"If you ask me, I'd gladly take Michael but not Henry," her voice rapidly descends at the end.
"I understand. I'd take Michael anytime too, I mean that accent am I right," his eyes widen as he speaks, then lowers. "But, you know Henry has a nice accent as well."
"Yes, a somewhat British one, but not Australian. And we both know that that's—"
"Whatever, girl," his pupils widen, and he puts up his palm towards her.
"I can't even finish talk—"
"I said whatever," he rolls the words inside his throat. "girl!"
Darryl waits for Henry at the simulator; he looks at his watch in disappointment, shakes his head left and right.
"Sorry," says Henry as he rushes in. "I've overslept."
"Well," Darryl raises his eyebrows as he writes. "That will give you some minus points."
"What?" he moves his head in disbelief and raises his tone. "You can't do that. I was just late for maybe five minutes! And besides I, I—"
Darryl doesn't let him speak out. "You are late for fifty-five minutes. Fifty-five minutes! You get that? If you would do that on a real mission, people could die because you wanted to sleep longer!" he steps closer as he walks towards Henry's face. "Take this serious, or you are out!" he yells at his face, spits tingly.
Henry shrugs together and seats himself onto the simulator as Darryl continues to talk. "You can't do that now. You need to change first."
"Oh," says Henry. "Where do I get the suit?" and touches his shirt.
"Look behind you."
He turns his head, and his face lightens up. "I might have forgotten something. I'll be back as fast as I can be."
Darryl sighs and raises a brow at him. He nods to make him leave the room as fast as he can.
"Where is your sister?" he asks breathlessly.
"Oh, she's sleeping. But she left something for you here, if that's why you came," Wylie gives him the helmet.
"Tell her to thank you for me!" he shouts as he walks back out.
It looks like a completely new one. Stripes on the side that seem to be going in a parallel line towards the middle and then into one. He gets lost in thoughts as he stares at his helmet that she made just for himself. Wylie waves him back into reality, his eyes flicker, and he runs back to the simulator, where he let Darryl wait too long again.
"I am sorry," his voice lowers. "This will never happen again!"
"Go in," he says, not making any mimic towards him.
Henry takes off his glasses and puts on his helmet. "Wow," his mouth open-wide. "I can see everything just like as if I would have my glasses on."
"Yeah, just as it should be," says Darryl and connects him to the wires. His front flap turns black, and the simulator starts.
"Alright, first off, you are going to do the test flights. That means flying around, getting used to the controls, and so on," explains Darryl moving his hand around as if he was inside the simulator.
He has set his mind on everything; he immediately begins to pilot and doesn't seem to show any hesitation or concentration problems. He flies his round perfectly fine; his pulse is regular, nothing unusual, yet. Flying into the air, back onto the ground. Even so far as passing through a small pit in between two buildings.
"Okay. I think you are ready for some action?" Darryl presses the key button to set him off into another simulated reality. In this one, he will be fighting against minions from Antares.
He doesn't flinch or even moves a bit. His heartbeat is not as fast as Darryl would have thought it would. Instead, Henry seems to be extremely good at this. He shakes off the first minion and reflects the other one to counter. He places his blue in front of the people and takes every shot until their magazines are out and need to reload. He steps up and stabs his shield, downwards, onto one and smacks it into the other. The citizens are still alive and healthy. The computer shows a message.
"You have successfully passed the mission," he takes off his helmet and looks at Darryl. "Did I win?" he asks. His face can't contain any other emotion.
Darryl can't keep his mouth closed. "How did you do this?" he asks with a stuttering voice.
"I just did what I had to do. Safe the citizens and destroy the enemy."
"Well, yes, but," he looks at his paper then back at Henry. "Okay, one more."
He puts his helmet back on, shakes in the seat for comfort, and starts the next mission. This time he has to fight three different machines with a partner. The one he has to protect is the H-02. This name shows on the right side of the window. The H stands for Horizon, the 02 for the second made model. Each Horizon has those inside to identify its members. Especially the final two letters are important. Henry's Horizon is the H-04. The fourth model and the color blue. As he uses the shield in the first battle to reflect the attacks now, he has to protect only, not attack. Henry knows precisely to whom the second Horizon belongs, the black one with the sharp claws, Michael's one.
He has to protect him, he wants to protect him, and he needs to protect him.
The members rely on their walls. The plasma protection Wall, as Rylie calls it. He spreads it left and right to the sides in a radius of 196 inches.
The plasma can withstand more than twenty-five hits from Mayumi's sniper simultaneously, which equals about one atomic bomb in terms of destruction. Tiny and almost non-visible little particles fly ahead and cling onto each other to perform the wall.
He's able to move forward, hardly. As he has to move the wall with him, standing in one position might be better than moving around. The black Horizon flies behind the wall to cover the plasma bullets for him. Henry would love to talk to him, but sadly, it's just a simulator, yet his imagination is so big he can just imagine him talking to Michael throughout the fight.
"Seems like you're a natural," Darryl moves Henry's shoulder. "I am just doing what I can," he replies with a smile.
With his steady mind and his skills, he can do the job in no time.
"Alright, I guess you're done for today." Henry takes off his helmet and looks at him in confusion.
"Wait, already? I thought we were doing this for the whole day?"
"Yeah, but I think you're going to be fine. Also, you have the whole week. Today was actually just the basics. Seeing how you're able to do these things with ease makes it easier for me."
"I don't really get that, but okay. So should I go back to the rest or?"
"No," says Darryl. "You're free to do whatever you want to do for the rest of the day." He jumps out immediately to rush off towards Riley's room. He still hasn't thanked her in person.
His constant knocking annoys her. She tries to cover over the noise by putting her pillow onto her ears.
"No. I am sleeping!" she huffs.
"Oh, okay. I just wanted to say thank you! The helmet is great, and I can see as if I would be wearing glasses! So, thank you very much, Riley. You're great!" he walks off with a lightened voice.
She just stares at her wall in embarrassment, thinking of him as his footsteps begin to quiet themselves. A second later, her own mind is shocking her "no, no, absolutely no," she mutters to herself while stuffing her pillow on her face.
Wylie is going through his emails. Nothing noteworthy except for this one from Crewenin.
Another weird one.
Good morning Jason.
We've been dying. to see the new festival that we. created for our families and friends during the summer, please. Tell me about you? How are you and your people. Celebrating the summer? Please. Let me. Know!
Sincerely Kim.
"What are you doing?" the man asks behind him.
"I don't like it. There is another weird message asking about the summer. Like that doesn't make any sense to me," he moves his head to the sides.
Hermann pushes him away to take a closer look. He fixes his glasses, his grey hair runs into Wylie's face, making him sneeze. He takes a step back and adds. "Can you make something out of it, old man?"
"I need to see the other ones."
"Okay, here you go."
Dear Jason.
The invasion. of the turnips has grown really bad! we can't contain those bad. boys anymore! No, but in all seriousness, it's been a great day for us. we landed in the woods. to see where we can go from here!
Cheers and all the best.
He takes off his glasses in surprise. "Dear God," he says and looks to Wylie. "This is a message," he grabs Wylie on his shoulder. "They are trying to tell us something!"
"What is it?" he says with a shaky voice as Hermann whips him back and forth.
"Look where she made the punctuations and read those words."
"invasion, bad, us, woods, dying, please, people. That doesn't—"
Both look at each other and talk in sync, their pupils widen. "They got invaded by some people and are in great danger!"
"And they probably ran off into the woods," adds Hermann.
"We need to tell Jason."
"You bet we are!"
"What do you want?" he asks with aversion.
"We've got a cryptic message from Crewenin. Apparently, someone invaded them. As far as the message goes, it's complicated to explain. She's been trying to send us messages, and we couldn't make something out of it," he shares a look with Hermann. "They have been trying to communicate or message us for a week now, but every single time it was just some random talks about summer or random stuff," Wylie explains with his hands moving around.
Jason stops his writing and grants a large sigh, his eyes close then open up. "As long as we don't have any clear instructions and not some random messages, we won't go out. It could be anything, a trap from Antares, from somewhere else. We don't know," he takes a small break. "So, if Kim doesn't send us something more clearly, we won't go."
Wylie and Hermann look at each other with worried faces.
"But—"
"No buts. Now go back to work!" Jason cuts off Hermann's talk, showing them their way out.
Wylie swallows as Hermann is about to leave. He clenches his fists and presses them onto his body. "I refuse," he mutters.
Jason stares at him. "What did you say?"
Wylie's forehead creases, he tightens his fist. "I refuse to go back and work if there is someone who needs our help!" his teeth clenched as he speaks.
Jason stands up he walks towards Wylie as he swallows once more. He leans his face to his's, "I thought my instructions very clear. But let me re-phrase it for you. Either you go back to work, or this was your last day!"
Wylie chuckles as his heart tenses. "You can't fire me."
"I can. Everyone is replaceable."
Hermann puts his hand on Wylie's shoulder. "We should go now, come on. He's the captain. We should listen."
They look at each other with no one blinking. As Hermann makes his leave, he follows shortly after refusing to look back.
"What in the world was that about, Wylie?" he raises his voice as they stand in the hallway.
"I did what I had to do! They need our help, we can't refuse! This is our job!"
"He's the captain. He knows what's right! If he says he needs a more profound message, then we should wait."
Wylie's mouth wrinkles up. "Or we can make that happen."
"How?"
Henry walks to the dining room with ease, finally dinner, he thinks, he was so hungry all day. He sees his friends eating as always, smilingly he seats himself next to Riley, who still seems very tired.
"Hey," he says to her.
"Hey," she answers with air hushing out.
"By the way, Riley. Thank you so much again for the helmet. It really worked," he smirks.
"That's what I do. Also, please don't thank me every single time you see me. It's fine, that's my job," she says and rests her head on the table.
Wylie steps in from behind and takes Riley with her. "Come with me!" he says and pulls her away.
"What in the world is happening to them?" asks Michael, who just came in after filling his table.
"I have no idea," replies Henry.
"Anyways, how was your simulator?" he asks.
"Oh, great. He said I am natural. I was able to protect your machine, so I think I'm pretty good."
Michael giggles. "Of course you were. I should have known. Mine was pretty bad at the beginning. But, now I'm decent, I think. At least that's what Logan told me."
"Well, you can't be good at anything, you know." They smile at each other. Finally, Henry found something he can do more so than Michael maybe. For once, he doesn't need to look up. He can look straight.
"I think we will be a great team on the battlefield," he looks at him with a smirk.
"Yeah. I am pretty sure we will be. I will always have your back," Henry takes Michael's shoulder.
"Are you two in love, or what's happening?"
A familiar female voice comes up from behind and seats herself next to Henry.
"No, Mayumi. This is called," he's starting to think of something he could say. "A bromance!"
"Bromance?" Michael starts to laugh loud. "I've never heard of that word before. Can you explain?" he asks.
"It means like romance but not sexual, between brothers. And we are kind of like brothers, so, yeah. He's my bro."
Michael just giggles at his honesty. "You're just as weird as the twins, mate."
Mayumi looks at both with sharp eyes. "This could be interesting. An unfolding romance between two brothers who are not real brothers. I would pay to watch that."
"Did you just turn into Riley?" his eyes shorten.
"No, of course not," she says, pushing out some air with her nose while eating a piece of broccoli to shake off the two guys' looks.
"Why are you dragging me all the way through the hall?" asks Riley.
"I need to show you something, asap." He stops to stare right into her eyes. "But don't tell anyone yet. Okay?"
"Okay. But what is going on?" her eyes flash.
They make their way towards Hermann's room, which is already sitting there with his laptop and Doug, right next to him.
"Okay," Riley continues to talk. "What is going on here?"
"We deciphered a message from Crewenin. Apparently, you couldn't ask me before, but. We told Jason what's going on, and he doesn't want to do anything," he inhales. "They are in danger. Some people apparently invaded their nation," explains Hermann while showing the message towards Riley.
"Oh, my damn. We have to do something!" she looks at them with her arms put on her head.
"That's the thing. We can't. Jason said he wouldn't do anything till he gets a real message from them, so we wanted to fake one. And since we four are the only ones who do the email briefing, it's up to us. Are you in?" asks Doug to Riley.
She looks around in confusion. Riley doesn't know what to do. She either lies to Jason and maybe saves some people or refuses and works against her friends. But what would be more important?
"What if that's a trap?" she asks with her eyes starting to turn their color.
"Well, of course, we can't be sure, but Kim is trustworthy, I believe," says Hermann.
"Thenwhy does Jason refuse? "she asks.