It was late on Martian Moon 2 and inside a dark room,dimly lit by a single light bulb a lone exhausted, sleep deprived dusty blond furred,brown haired male martian mouse sat tightly bound to a high back rolling office chair at a metal table bolted to the floor completley hidden by huge computer monitors on which lines of data filled the screen.
As his fingers rapidly flew across the key board he heaved yet another yawn, battling back the severe urge to fall asleep knowing the shock collar tightly fastened around his neck would ultimately wake him out of whatever sleep he managed to sneak.
Although the bells rang loudly outside his door, inside they could barely be heard through the heavy steel door that separated him from the rest of the prison population.
As he stifled yet another yawn, the male continued working the data on the screens ensuring to steathily save his progress to a hidden flash drive then saved it again to the prison's hard drive without the changes,each time expecting to feel a sharp twange of pain from the shock collar tightly fastened around his neck for stealing prison information from the stink fish, but to his astonishment, he recieved no shock and to his delight, for the first time in ten years, the tight straps across his chest that held him in the chair, were no longer tight and were allowing him to breathe easier. The only tight strap that held him in place was the one around his mid-section that kept him seated.
Several hours flew by until the screeching of the heavy metal door caught his attention but he simply dismissed it as his guards opening the door to bring him in a tray of what they called food and turned his attention back to the screens saving the data as it was to the flash drive and altering the data that he plugged into the hard drive to be uploaded.
At long last the inner door to the room he'd been locked in was screeched open just as he finished the last page of information he saved to the flash drive before altering it and saving the altered information to the Plutarkian server to screw them over and removed the flash drive, slipping it into his pants pocket just as he hit send to upload the virus riddled information to the server.
Basil silently thinks as the infected data uploaded: I hope you all rot in hell and have a wonderful time running your antivirus software to get rid of this virus I made. There's no way in hell you'll get rid of it in this life time and I won't tell you how to get rid of it either.
Digger finally gets the door open and flips the switch to turn on the brighter lights saying: Basil? That you after all these years?
Basil in his thick Australian accented voice: Wouldn't be anyone else in here mate, I'm the only one they wanted to build their data bases. Too bad though, the only thing they'll be gettin is a nice virus that will shut down their servers for good. Now if ya don't mind, would ya be kind enough to cut these damned straps off of me or at least find out how the hell to get them off? It'd be mighty nice to stand up and have a nice long stretch then get this damned collar off my neck.
Digger reaches into his vest pocket and pulls out a flat head screw driver that he sticks into the key hole of the collar around Basil's neck and turns it counter clockwise until it popped off then pocketed his screw driver and pulled out his hunting knife and in one swift slice had the leather straps sliced off Basil saying: What the hell is all this data?
Basil snickers and says: A nice surprise for the stink fish that took me away from Autumn ten years ago. I've no idea where she or my kids are. I've got the original information on a flash drive in my pocket, the information packets they've been getting are laced with a nasty trojan virus. (Heaves a yawn saying) I never realized just how tired I really am until now, I feel a bit loopy.
Digger: Didn't they let you sleep at all?
Basil: Oh I'd say they let me sleep for fifteen minutes three times day while they tried out the virus riddled programs I made for their computers and that was it. (Notices a washroom across the room and says) I'll be back, I've waited long enough to relieve the ever mounting pressure. Just give me a few minutes and I'll be back. (Makes a mad dash for the washroom across the room leaving Digger to stick his head out the door)
Gage sees Digger and says: Where the hell's Basil?
Digger: In the washroom making himself feel better, this is the first washroom break he's had a crack at.
Gage: There's a washroom in there? I've got little ones here who really need to go before they go in their pants. (Turns around and says) Hey guys bring all the boys to the front and Digger here will take 'em in to the washroom.
Digger backs out of the way and allows the boys to file in and says to Basil who had emerged from the washroom: Would you ensure these guys use the washroom before we leave? It's a long flight back home. Hey is that a girls washroom over there? Awesome! Hey Gage!
Gage turns around and says: What?!
Digger: There's a girls washroom in here too! If any girls need to go they can go as well!
Gage turns back to his group and says: Alright bathroom break before we leave! In there and follow Digger's directions.
Digger directs the group saying: Girls to the left and boys to the right (Watches as his group splits into males and females heading into their respective washrooms saying to Basil) You don't know where Autumn and the twins are?
Basil: Mate if I knew where they are, I'd find them meself. We were separated ages ago, our kids were split up. They took our youngest twins a few months ago. I have no idea if any of them are even alive and if they are, where they're located, hell I don't even know if Autumn's alive since it's been so long since I last seen her. (Hears the group coming back together and says) Everyone out! We have two hours before all hell breaks loose, follow Gage to the entrance that was blasted and board the ship, Digger and I'll bring up the rear. (Watches as the group fresh from the washrooms filed out of the room and out the door in single file following Gage who had just blown a hole in the nearest wall to accomodate the rescue ship's gang plank that had been lowered and says) Alright everyone up the gang plank to freedom. (Watches as the group walked up the gang plank and boarded the ship then followed behind Gage saying) Everyone else left behind is what? Being picked up by somone else?
Gage laughs and says: This is the last batch, all the other floors of the prison were cleared out days ago. This batch was the last floor to be found as it was cut off from the general population. Hell I'm lucky I found you!
Basil boards the ship and sits down in an empty seat and for the first time in ten long years, he fell asleep and remained asleep for the long flight back to Arsis base
Arsis Base cafeteria
Autumn pokes at her food and sighs attracting the attention of Sierra
Sierra looks up from outlining her line work and says: Food unappetizing?
Autumn without looking up to see who had spoken says: No,not really. At least not for something that takes me back to my older sister's cooking....(pushes the food away saying) Alyssandra never could cook anything right,so how she became a professional chef is beyond me.
Sierra leans back and catches the sandwich and drink guys saying: Whoa dudes, slow down and let someone take a gander at what you've got on your trays
James goes around to where Autumn sat with Evan and sees the slop saying with a laugh: I don't blame ya for not wantin that slop! Wouldn't feed it to my cat if you paid me.
Autumn looks up at the tray of sandwiches and eagerly takes all of the freshly made roast beef sandwiches off the tray saying: Oh finally some real recongizable food! Thanks a bundle!
Evan sets the crate of pop on the table and pulls out a few bottles saying: Hmm diet coke, diet pepsi,root beer,cream soda,orange pop,cherry coke,cherry vanilla coke, raspberry coke, orange coke,lime coke,lemon coke,vanilla coke, same with sprite and pepsi, gingerale, I have juice,white milk,chocolate milk,strawberry milk,cold coffee,iced tea,sweet tea
Autumn eagerly takes all the Diet Cherry Coke bottles off of Evan and says: At last, some decent food after three days of eating what looks like shoe leather! (Unwraps the first sandwich and says) Now where do I find mustard?!
Joe takes the mustard bottle off his tray and puts it on the table saying: Here ya go.
Autumn grabs the mustard bottle,removes the top piece of bread and squeezes a small amount of mustard onto her sandwich then unwraps all the other sandwiches putting mustard on them then begins to eat them relishing the long forgotten taste of a roast beef sandwich and swig of cherry coke saying: Heaven! I'd begun to think that I was stuck eating shoe leather! (Recognizes Starlight as Sierra,sets her sandwich down and grabs her left hand saying) I can't believe you're alive after all these years!
Sierra yelps in pain saying: No no no no no! Not that hand! Let go! It still has tendon, nerve and muscle damage!
Autumn lets go of Sierra's left hand and grabs her right hand saying: I'm so sorry! I hadn't realized your left arm was still healing. What happened to you when the invasion started?
Sierra heaves a sigh of relief and says: That was my cue to exit stage right. I was called back to the Guardian Realm before my magic spun further out of control. I went through magic training then I got assigned to a planet full of Ducks where I met my friends before they were stranded on Earth,then towards the date of the Saurian Invasion, I got really sick with whatever it was I'm still battling every now and then. I injured my left arm's muscles,tendons and nerves some how and it's still healing under the brace that I might have lost somewhere along the line.
Autumn: KIDS! My twins! Seira and Sora! They were taken last year. I have no idea where they are!
Sierra: Didn't know you had any other kids. If they're out there, the guardians will take them somewhere safe.
Autumn: I hope so! They were an unexpected surprise from a spontaneous moment of intimacy between Basil and I when we were locked in a private cell. I knew all the symptoms from the older kids, but this pregnancy was the smoothest one I've ever had. No morning sickness,no cravings,I had energy,wasn't tired all the time. Nothing made me sick. So I went through the first three months of the pregnancy not realizing I was pregnant, until they started kicking. Then I relized oh boy, these two are going to be born and raised in prison, not what I want to have happen. Unfortuntely, that's what happend. They were born in the Prison Hospital right on time on I believe October 28th at midnight, they left the twins with me their whole lives, until a few months ago when they came in,snapped a shock collar around Basil's neck and dragged him out then came back and took the twins to who knows where leaving me alone. What about the portal to the world of Kats and the one that leads to Limbo?
Sierra: Sealed off long time ago. To the inhabitants of that world, my team and I are but a distant memory and a chapter in the History Books. I don't know, I haven't tried the one that leads to Limbo in a while. Things must be peaceful out there since no one's called me to say that the Mob's been acting up. (Notices something sticking out of her bag and pulls it out saying) Ahh my new brace! Guess I did pack it. (Unfastens the velcro straps and opens the brace slipping her left hand into it and pulls the straps until they were nice and snug then fastened the velcro to the fasteners and says in relief) Ohh so much better! I was supposed to go see my therapist for more massage therapy but as per usual with this pregnancy, I picked up the phone to call him and stared at the phone for a half hour forgetting what the hell I picked it up for the put it back on the cradle then remembered what I was doing at three in the morning.
Autumn: Welcome to pregnancy where you pick up your phone to call someone but you can't remember why. Where you wake up your soundly sleeping husband to have him go get peanutbutter,strawberry,hotfudge and pickle ice cream which does NOT exist only to have him come home with vanilla ice cream,peanutbutter,strawberry and hot fudge sundae toppings and pickles and plop everything into the biggest bowl in your cupboard and bring it to your sleeping ass because he took too long and you lost interest in peanutbutter, strawberry, hotfudge and pickle ice cream.
Sierra: Mom warned me about cravings for strange things that will make Rimfire sick.
Autumn: Your current mother now is who?
Sierra: Caramel Brown hair,light blonde fur,blue eyes married to Crystal's brother?
Autumn: NATASHA?! Oh my gosh,she survived? Wait-when did you and Rimfire get married?!
Sierra: If she hadn't I wouldn't have been able to be reborn. Two years ago, I finally had the last growth spurt and finally matured fully to look like an adult and not a thirteen year old girl dating a twenty one year old man. If there's anything he never has to worry about, it's where his next meal is coming from and if anyone has used up all the hot water or where he's gonna lay his head at night. He now has a stable home scrap that, multiple stable homes to choose from, I have more money than he knows what to do with so he never again has to worry about where he's going to get his next meal. He knows that I'll make him a fridge full of food to take with him to work and if he doesn't feel like going to work, we'll just kick back out in the country side or down by the lake in the secluded lake view chateau I just bought or the country farm house I just bought. Needed major updating decore wise but hell we took care of that over last winter and spring, over the summer we had a master electrician come in to upgrade the wiring and electrical panel in conjunction with the Central Air guys installing Central Heating and Cooling, then we got to work painting in the lake chateau, oh lord I swear the people who flipped the property and the stagers were in love with everything to do with the seventies! Imagine wall to wall shag carpeting with my allergies to dust! That nauseating pattern that was popular back then was on every-single-freaking-main floor-wall!
Autumn: You mean that nasty ass aurora borealis type pattern was on ALL the main floor walls?!
Sierra: No, the stupid hypnotic pattern. Circle in a circle in a circle
Autumn: Just as bad as the Aurora Borealis pattern in green,yellow,blue and brown
Sierra: Ahh that was upstairs in the master bathroom, the master bedroom was painted what the decorator called 'Romantic Red'.
Autum starts laughing saying: ROMANTIC RED?! MOTEL ROMANTIC RED?! Don't tell me the bed was heart shaped and the walls all had some sort of romantic themed decor on them!
Sierra: Unfortunately yes. (Pulls out her tablet and taps on her digital photo album then opens the folder named Lake View Chateau Photos and hands Autumn her tablet saying) Have fun flipping through
Autumn takes Sierra's tablet and starts swiping through the photos until she got to the Master Bedroom and cracked up saying: OH MY GOD! The last time I seen a paint and decorating job like this, was the year Basil and I got caught in a rain storm and couldn't get home! We ended up staying in the only Motel with a Vacancy which was the so-called Honeymoon Suite.
Sierra: Funny you should say Honeymoon Suite because when I snapped a photo of the master bedroom and posted it online, I got flooded with photos of the exact same decore decades apart at Murphy's Motel so I said to the person who was selling the place 'Did you by chance stay in the Lover's Room at Murphy's Motel on route 98?' She gave me a blank look so I showed her the exact same decor in Murphy's Motel's Lover's Room and you should've seen the blood drain from her face.
Autumn: Oh come on, what did she say?
Sierra: She sat and flipped through all the photo's of the Honeymoon Suite or Lover's Room in Murphy's Motel on Route 98 and kept saying 'Oh no! No! No! No! No! I don't believe this! I thought I had an original idea for decorating the master bedroom! I had no idea Murphy's Motel had the exact same decor since it opened in the 20's!' She was ready to give me a substantial drop in price going from nine hundred and twenty five thousand, six hundred and thirty five dollars all the way down to a thousand fifty seven.
Autumn: Whoa, she must've really wanted to get rid of that nightmare house to let it go for a thousand fifty seven!
Sierra: She didn't have a choice, by the time Rim and I had free time at the same time, it had been on the market for well over a year with no interest. They had to pay carrying costs, a mortgage,property taxes, heating bills, electrical bills, water and sewer bills. They were playing a game of blind Russian Roulette with the price and I took Domino with me since his background is in Real Estate. He simply asked them how long the house had been on the market by the time we got to see it late on the last day of our synced vacation time and by that time it had been well over a year so after we toured the bedroom and took Domino back to his honeymoon, he sat down with the Real Estate Agent for the house and simply said "Hey look, that couple is willing to take the house off your hands for well over full price including closing costs and commissions. She doesn't really care what the price is, she'll take the place. We've already been to see seven other houses and had our offer rejected seven times. So what's your answer?' She nearly fell off her chair and accepted the check for well over asking price. It had no significant impact on the money I'd been setting aside for something like this, it was merely a rain drop in the vast ocean. It only cost us a few hundred to repaint the entire house and a few thousand to redecorate it after the furniture was taken out. I'm sorry but the furniture just wasn't what we wanted, the couches weren't big or long enough or comfortable for either one of us, the chairs had to go. I don't enjoy seeing a Chiropractor when I have to never mind because I threw my back out after I sat on furniture that was left behind by the prevoius owners. With Alexa screwing with the time lines, it screwed me out of four years worth of maturation and growth. The curse was finally broken, Rusty's team was finally able to over throw the corrupt dark corrupt society that was running their world and the base they lived on. That world is now peaceful and running smoothly, anyone who was imprisoned for disobeying direct orders was freed, Gyros finally regained use of his legs after years of being cursed to never again use his legs,got his family and life back on track the same with Rusty, he got his wife,kids and his life back. For the longest time we had Alexa's goons a hundred percent convinced that I was behind the infiltration of the dark company taking over their world and base. As time went on,we slowly started stringing clues together until we had a clear picture of who was sitting in the directors chair orchestrating things.
Autumn: You mean to tell me that that little brat somehow managed to overthrow an entire Army and plunge that world into chaos?
Sierra: Oh yes, she was a conniving little wench whose parents put her right back where she belonged: in a Maximum Security Detention Center For Delinquents where she will stay for the rest of her life. There's no where for Alexa to go and no way for her to get out again, her friends were scattered to other Maximum Security Detention Centers with no contact with Alexa. Serves the little brat right that she's got a whole new No Nonsense All Female Security Team on her perky little ass that won't let her out of their sight, where she goes they go. Alexa has eyes on her at all times that way what she did won't happen again, the adults in her group are all in Maximum Security Lock Down.
Autumn recalls what Sierra had said and says What did you mean by 'it's not like you can't control the quality and quantity of food and you're just the one who arranges for fresh food to be brought here from Earth so freed prisoners can eat a good meal and have a variety of drinks to choose from when they're released?'
Sierra heaves a sigh and says: Didn't anyone tell you about where the food and drink selections come from? It's between my connections, Domino,Blaine and Dragon's connections that brings food, drinks and supplies for everyone and everything here on base. A Good chunk of the money that comes from the sales of my books provides the pop and juice fountains as well as the food on the cold buffet stations, Dragon provides the hot meals and hot beverages. Domino provides everything else that we didn't think of and between the three of us and our unlimited funds, we keep uncle Terry well stocked in everything he needs as well as all the other Doctors on other bases who are starving for supplies, they get unlimited supplies and the field Docs are also well equipped with everything they need and those fighting in the field can look forward to edible food instead of staring blankly at the slop plopped on their plates.
Autumn totally confused: Your...books? You've lost me, I'm afraid I don't understand what you're talking about when you referr to your books.
Sierra: I'm a published graphic novellist, have been since I was thirteen years old.
Autumn: You? You're a published author?
Sierra: Author,Actress,Voice Actress,Singer/Song Writer,five star baby sitter but I'm not in the system anymore since I thoroughly trained and graduated my replacement at the top of her class, retired figure skater/hockey player,former modle.
Autum: Do you have anything I can look at?
Sierra digs in her back pack and pulls out one of her art books for one of her on going series and says: Yep here's one of my many art books. (Hands it to Autumn saying) This one is for the series I'm currently working on.
Autumn sets her sandwich down,cleans her hands off then takes the art book from Sierra's hands and begins flipping through it saying: Holy chipotle you are a damned talented artist for however old you are
Sierra: I'm twenty right now and married to Rimfire. This (Points to her stomach and says) will be Centerline's first grandchild from Rimfire.
Autum continues leafing through the art book saying: Dammit you're good for twenty! (Has a thought hit her and says) You don't by chance remember any of my kids do you? (Looks up and says) Holy cow! How far along are you?!
Sierra heaves a sigh and says: Almost due in two days but I decided to be induced on Friday just to get some relief from the constant sickness. Rimfire comes home, orders supper, showers, throws on his night clothes then comes back answers the door and get whatever he ordered, brings it in to the living room where we sit and eat or Rimfire eats while this miserable pregnancy cold make enjoying even a banana impossible, heck I can't even drink a glass of water without them making it impossible. One sip of water and I'm leaning over the toilet puking my guts out. Your kids? Sorry pregnancy brain has my memories scrambled.
Autum reaches into the tattered satchel and pulls out a worn photo album and opens it to a family portrait from before the war and says: They're all listed on the page below.
Sierra turns the photo album around and says: Yep, Rielley is the base Optomitrist, Bryant is my physio massage therapist-busted my arm in eight different places and still require physio-therapy, uhh Rimfire and Cross are someplace around here-they track down truant kids and haul their asses to class, Cleo just started walking on her own after an accident left her paralyzed from the waist down for three years and is one of the many Pediatricians in the Medward other than Crystal, Kari, Trigger and Sandstorm,this one's Joey! He's the base dentist. He's married with kids one of which just walked by. Care to meet your oldest grandson?
Autumn: G-GRANDSON?!
Sierra: Yeah, hold on and I'll bring him over. (Pulls out her cell phone and sends a quick message to Ranger's phone then sits it down saying) He's been through hell and high water. A survivor of four bouts of cancer but he's cancer free now. (Notices another girl in the photo and says) That one right there's Raider and she's a mom to four boys and two little girls. I'll see if she can bring you your younger grandkids. (Sends message to Raider saying) MOTHER is here in the cafeteria and would love love love love to meet her grandbabies.
Raider: ON MY WAY WITH KIDS.
Sierra: Well your other daughter is on her way with her kids. It seems you've come at the right time, in six weeks Rielley and Becky will be getting married.
Autumn: He's finally settling down in six weeks? FINALLY! I thought it would've happened when he was eighteen, but then the war started, our neighborhood was destroyed and apparently he was captured then let go and Becky was left behind. I'm so relieved that she made it back safely to Rielley.
Ranger comes over to Sierra's table and says: I didn't know you came back home. When did you come home?
Sierra: Yesterday, I'm only here for today to get these ones checked and ensure they're on track for their arrival that I'm scheduling for Friday. I'm hoping that I can have something to eat and drink as I've not been able to keep anything down with the constant activity of these two making it impossible. I've made friends with Mister Porcelain. Say hello to your dad's mother-your paternal grandmother.
Ranger: Geeze you're huge and your shoes and socks didn't match this morning. My what? Dad said he had no idea where either of his parents were and that he was damned lucky he found his siblings.
Sierra: Tell me something I don't already know. It's a good thing Rimfire has matching socks and shoes for me in his locker otherwise I'd be walking around with a running shoe and a dress shoe on.
Autumn stares at Ranger and says: My god, you're a splitting image of your father as a teenager! (Feels relief wash over her and says) I-I don't suppose you could help me find any of them,could you?
Sierra looks up and sees Raider coming in pushing the buggy and says: Autumn, here's your other daughter with her kids.
Raider comes over to the table and says: MOM!
Autumn stands up and hugs her daughter saying: Raider! (Notices twins in the buggy and says) Well hello! How old are we?
Raider: Six and a half months
Autumn unbuckles then lifts up Coral saying: Oof heavy for six and a half months aren't we?
Raider: Uh-oh someone needs their backside changed then. Good thing I have their diaper bag with me. (Reaches over to the buggy and takes the diaper bag off the handle of the buggy and sets it on the table then unfastens the changing pad where Autumn laid Coral as she said) hoo it's nice to get out for awhile, I've been home all day bored out of my skull.
Autumn goes about changing her granddaughter's diaper saying: I thought you worked along side Ryder?
Raider: He's not home, he's on Earth trying to untangle a bloody knot in distribution. Some idiot caused a bottle neck in both production and distribution.
Autumn finishes cleaning Coral and says: What happened?
Raider sits and heaves a sigh saying: A new Production and Distribution Manager was assigned that wasn't brought up to speed found a million and one reasons to stop production that caused this bottle neck knot in everything. First 'problem' he found was in the way bottles are sterilized, he wasn't satisfied with how they were 'coming out'. Stupid fool was standing on the intake end not the output end where the bottles come out sterilized and clean. So what he seen was dirty bottles going in and clean sterilized bottles coming out and got confused because where he comes from right is dirty left is clean and all bottles get cleaned by hand where as Rider's dad's factory does it all by machines. The idiot got confused and stopped sterilization of all bottles until he could 'read up on the process', the manual is the size of the old city wide phone book! It would take this moron six LIFE TIMES to read cover to cover page by page.
Autumn sterilizes the area where she'd changed Coral saying: Six life times? I doubt this idiot will get past page five before becoming overwhelmed by the next pages of diagrams that the others went through training to understand. What makes him think he can understand diagrams in under twenty minutes?
Raider: Oh he's a certified genius
Sierra: Whoop-dee-doo so am I but I'm not insane enough to try and read a nine hundred and sixty page manual in under twenty minutes. It's like trying to read War and Peace in an hour, it's next to impossible. But then again it's like trying to tell my old editors that an All Girls School doesn't allow boys in it. They got confused with my first novel and said to me 'where are all the boys in this book? We have read this novel cover to cover and there's not one single male teacher or student! Why is that?'
Raider: Uhm because it's a school for girls like I went to, they don't allow boys in those schools. It's easier to focus on your studies when there aren't any males around being assholes during teaching time. Besides girls learn faster when the opposite sex isn't in the same school. I've been through the all girls school system and it was a whole lot quieter than it is in public school. I transfered out of Public Elementary in the middle of fourth grade and when I started fifth grade at my new all girls private school, my grades went from C's and D's and hearing 'Have your mom or dad sign this and bring it back to me tomorrow' to A's and B's with 'You're doing much better than I had hoped you would be doing!' That reminds me, the last time I seen you, you were on the Student Exchange Team switching places with four other students. They never did say why only YOU came back early.
Sierra heaves a sigh saying: So four of us were picked from the top lists in school to go on exchange with four girls from four other schools. Midway through my first term at Collegiate Academy the Head Mistress went loco in the Coco and terminated my transfer demanding the girl who I switched places with be returned to Collegiate Academy on the grounds of Falsifying her credentials.
Raider snorts then laughs saying: Falsifying her credentials?! Was she SERIOUS?!
Sierra: As the Marsian Flu Epidemic. The Head Mistress claimed and I quote 'Flare falsified her GPA's number by eighty five points. Therefore she is to immedieately return to Collegiate Academy first thing in the morning!' I've seen Flare's GPA on the list of Students who were recieving Awards for their outstanding GPA and I highly doubt that Flare falsefied a 8.0 GPA.
Autumn groans and says: So Gearshift collapsing and passing out is ridiculous!
Sierra: They didn't collapse because of the news, this wasn't the first time the school changed the start,lunch and dismissal times. It was because the auditorium was so damned hot! We were all wearing our summer uniforms but it was so stinking hot because the Janitor had the key to the mechanic room where the AC was located and he was no where to be found. We had to sit in a stifelling hot auditorium while someone on staff called in a locksmith to open the door.
Autumn: Again?! The Janitor took off with the key to the utility room again? Why was the heat on in the middle of May anyways?! The heat goes off at the end of April!
Raider: Because there were teachers on staff who bitched like the old battle axes they were that they were too cold. They literally showed up for work wearing heavy knit sweaters,wool stockings,heavy knit skirts and winter blouses and berated the hell out of their students who showed up wearing their summer uniforms. I heard it all the time 'why are you wearing lightweight uniforms? It's freezing cold! Don't bother coming to class if you're going to be wearing that uniform! It's too cold to be wearing it! It's too early!' So I'm not surprised the heat was still on in May when the martian summer heat kicks in, thankfully those teachers were retired that year so the next summer the heat went off at the end of April and stayed off and the AC came on cooling the classrooms that were once ovens because the older teachers were always cold. I know you,Flare and two others were permitted to graduate Middle School three years earlier than the rest of the kids.
Sierra: It was a fight I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I went up against the School Board, the Board of Concerned Parents, the Board of Trustees AND up against the one who was paying my way aka Macy who wanted me to finish Middle School then graduate up to Junior High School. But when your placement tests say you're smart enough to handle High School you don't argue with the Testing Company's results.
Autumn: The Board of Concerned Parents? What the hell did they have to say about where you went?
Sierra: They were concerned that some of us wouldn't be able to handle graduating up to High School instead of Junior High School. They felt we were 'too young' to go to high school at thirteen years old.
Raider: Bah! I went to High School at thirteen! I was actually twelve when I started High School because my birthday falls outside the Calandered School Year which was September to November and January to April. Bryant and I were born May 18th so we were twelve when we entered High School and thirteen in grade ten.
Sierra: I was born Christmas Eve and technically I'm over a thousand years old. Grew up in the court of Pharaoh Akhenamkhanen as Priest Mahad's only daughter Rebel. I was three years old when I was shoved through a portal and landed ontop of Seto's head. By that time my father had laid the finishing touches on the plan for me to stay there far out of reach of Crystal Hunters. Not a pleasant bunch of people, what they couldn't have they took by force and killed the user or corrupted them beyond help of the current generation. Yet what most History Books don't get right is that, Mahad knew me shortly after I was born. My grandfather took me to Earth for the future Pharaoh's Court to meet, out of them all Isis declared herself my 'mother' defacto.
Raider: Oh man! Lucky you!
Sierra: Not really, Atem sealed himself inside the Millenium Puzzel and I was sealed inside Healing Crystalline Ice for thousands of years in a healing sleep that I wasn't supposed to be awakened out of but somehow someone found out how to break the healing ice and slowly woke me. Atem was the last Pharaoh I remembered. I had no idea who came after him until some newbie Guardian told me that Seto had taken the throne and ruled for many years passing the throne on to his next of kin. I ached something fierce from the shoulders down because of the beatings I had taken, old wounds had been opened again that I ignored until I had defeated Sleet,restored his real magic and his memories.
Raider: Where were you located? The last distress call was from where you went up against Engine Light! When search teams got there, you were no where to be found.
Sierra: That's because they sent MORTALS to find GUARDIANS. Had they sent Guardians to find Guardians, they'd have found my team sooner. The last one my team went up against was Sleet and we freed him then a few miles north we went up against the force behind the corruption and defeated him. That's were they fell,exhausted and depleated of magic, battered and bruised from head to toe. I kept going until I reached the final destination and the ultimate force behind Sleet's corruption.
Raider: Oh my god. You went up against Titan alone?! No one has ever gone up against Titan and lived!
Sierra: I did and I depleted every last ounce of magic I had. Titan never did say where he kept his prisoners, he didn't have to. Before I faced him, the last of my team liberated the prisoners, except my dad. Titan wouldn't divulge where he had him hidden. The again, I already knew my dad was home with my mother and new siblings tending to the village garden. The spot where I defeated Titan utterly destroying him, was where the healing crystalline ice started encasing me. After Titan was destroyed, I fell asleep. Just couldn't fight it anymore and gave in,then the healing crystalline ice started forming around me until at last I gave in to the sleep an the crystalline ice completely surrounded my body and there I remained for thousands of years along with the rest of my team and the teams that came before us. The years and centuries came and went without me even knowing about it or the fact that many MORTAL teams were dispatched to try and find my team and I to no avail. The older teams were released from their sleep and went back to wherever they came from but my teams slumbered on in our deep healing restorative slumbers. I remained there until someone broke the seal of the healing cyrstalline ice capsule I was encased in. Most of the injuries I'd sustained had healed and when the seal was carefully broken, the very last wound had healed up and closed, my magic had come back stronger than ever. But everything I once knew was no more. The planet had changed,civilizations had grown and exploded, technology had rapidly expanded and new tech came into being all the while I was in a deep sleep. A few months after the new Guardian Doctor cleared me, they told me they'd found my dad and boy did I laugh my tail off at them. They were so perplexed as to why I was laughing so hard until I told them that when Virginia altered the timeline of the first fight,she gave my dad the opportunity to escape from Campion and get himself to safety. He stayed with my mother and I in Egypt for awhile but then he became too terribly homesick for home and they went back home. By that time, my headcold was gone and I was back on my feet seeing them off. But oooh I had a good long laugh at those cluless block heads! I was promptly given a new assignment and shipped out with updated battle gear and communication devices. The new mission was far too important to wait. They woke me,checked me out,gave me something to eat, new clothes and footwear, a brand new fully loaded pack,new more modern gear and communications devices,a sealed envelope with mission details inside and said 'Off you go! Hurry, this mission is of dire straits! You can't dilly dally! Family reunions can wait a few more years! No one's going anywhere,just go and go now! You have your new orders and your new mission! Your team's waiting on you to arrive.' My team was still in their slumber, I was the only one awakened and told once I left the Guardian Realm that it was a 'solo classified mission' some crock of BS about Titan coming back to life. I knew there was no way in hell Titan could ever regenerate, Rocky was the last of my team to succum to the crystalline healing ice and the deep slumber after he'd destroyed Titan's regenerative machine with his axe and I destroyed Titan myself. It was just make work to keep me off the throne and out of the Guardian Realm. Not that I really cared, Tobias took grandpa's crown as he was the ony one suited for it. I was told by someone else to just ignore the orders and go help where ever I could or go do whatever I wanted to do. Grizwald had no authority over anyone, he could suggest I do something but as for telling me what to do, he could go to hell and rot for all anyone cared.
Raider: Geeze what a bunch of idiots! Who was in charge?
Sierra: A guy named Crankshaft, round 5'2" always wore black boots and a hazmat suit with a respirator and dark goggles. Who knows what color he was as he was covered from head to toe including his tail. Nothing showed,every piece of him was covered in a white hazmat suit and he always wore gloves,a respirator,dark goggles and black boots.
Raider: Oh that germophobe. I remember him, he always washed his hands no matter what he did. He carried handsanitizer everywhere and constantly used it to the point he's developed an allergy to it. He can't use it anymore because he over used it. (Teases Sierra saying) History says Rocky was your lover, you never said you had a lover.
Sierra: Heaven knows I'd have gone insane if I didn't have a S.O. or a lover and 'Rocky' was his code name, we never used our given names in battle. Not like I'm going to divulge what his given name is anyways, he's still in his healing slumber as he took the most beatings and had the most injuries to his body. Just let Rocky rest in his sleep. (Thinks to herself) Ahh poor Dustin, he was beaten within an inch of his life by Titan before he mustered up enough strength to destroy Titan's regneration machine before falling into his restorative sleep as the Crystalline Healing Ice Capsule enased his body. Is he still where he fell all those milleniums ago or did someone move his capsuled body? I'll have to find out or is Rimfire really Dustin's soul reincarnated minus his memories and magic?
Raider: According to Guardian History Breaker, Shocker,Charity and Searchlight are the four missing captives. Titan hit four different villages in a four year period taking two brothers from the first village and two sisters from the second village corrupting them to the point they'd do anything for him, even kill their families. Thankfully they didn't go that far, Sleet just had them round up more magic users for his sick collection telling them their villages were gone as were their families, they were the sole survivors and he'd be the one to 'take care of them' until they were older.
Sierra: Yeah well my dad's one of those who was taken from his village farm, he has no magic of use or value. He's a Genie-GARDENER, meaning he has Wish Magic and Floral magic in his veins which is why all his plants were healthy and growing in abundance, even in the winter. Without my to ensure invasive species didn't take over everything, his garden was overgrown with weeds and invasive plants that were mistakenly planted by other villagers bringing them to what they thought was an empty gardening spot 'quite near the village square.
Raider: Are you saying that Teddy's your....
Sierra: Father? I am and he is. Ares is our grandfather. Teddy is the first born crowned PRINCE of the Ares Kingdom and is the only Prince REGENT that is often overlooked. When things became too dangerous at home with the hunters,grandfather had already laid the foundation for me to grow up in Egypt until those responsible for what happened to Axel and I, they were caught and tossed into prison. I grew to love being on Earth in Egypt away from the strict court rules that surrounded me from the time I was born. I could get away with experimenting freely with my magic to see what I could and couldn't do without strict Sorcerers telling me what I as a young lady should learn and what was off limits. Battle magic and a young lady? Oh no no no! That's taboo! A young Princess needs to have mastered gardening magic, that's more acceptable to her long line of suitors that are ready for her by the time she hits double digits.
Raider: Sounds like a real snooze fest for those raised in a palace.
Sierra: YOU were raised in a palace under suffocating rules and when you had Dustin, Brandon, Dakota, Cassandar and Codie you didn't bother to raise them the way you were raised. You let them figure out who they were and what their abilities were, never once did you or Raider step in and tell them who they were,what their abilities were,where they could and couldn't use them,when it was and wasn't appropriate to use their abilities,why it was or wasn't appropriate to use their abilities and how to and how not to use their abilities. You two let them figure things out, Dustin figured out he had his father's battle magic in him and he trained to be able to use his Battle Magic and to properly be able to summon his battle axe in the heat of battle.
Raider notices her other siblings hadn't arrived yet and says: Where is everyone? (Hears her own phone message chime and pulls it out saying) Well girls,it looks like daddy's home with the boys.
Autumn: Tell him to haul his backside down here with my grandsons!
Raider reads the message and says: Ohh no,both boys were sick to their stomachs and shouldn't be traipsizing around with who knows what. I best get the girls home to a freshly showered dad
Sierra: They'll be on their way. There's a bug going through the Elementary division, they must've caught it. Crystal's been swamped with parents bringing their sick kids in with complaints of nausea,vomiting, chills,fever,headaches and tiredness. (Picks up her phone,puts in her lock code then taps the messaging app and sends a message directly to Rielley,Bryant,Jet, Cross,Joey and Cleo's phones simply stating someone was waiting to see them then hit send.)
10 Minutes later
Rimfire: Why are we still here and not at home?
Sierra: I had alot of prepping to do for the induction.
Rimfire: You're being induced? When?
Sierra: Saturday at seven thirty in the morning. I had a choice to either show up here on Friday at 4 A.M. or stay in the Maternity Suite, returning home to pack my suit case with everything I'll need for the stay. That means I can either check in tonight and stay through Thursday or go home for tonight and tomorrow to tie up any loose ends. have a few loose ends to tie up then I'm checkingin for tomorrow morning
Rimfire: Alright then, we leave tonight right after supper.
Autumn: Bit of advice here, go early so Sierra can get settled in and attempt to get some sleep. Seven thirty comes really fast not to mention that they'll want to take blood every freaking half hour of the night, followed by blood pressure readings, temperature checks, fetal heartbeat checks. They'll ask stupid questions before the inducement like 'is this your first child?' and 'will this be a c-section or a vaginal birth so the doctor knows.' Everything can be right infront of them written down on your chart but hell they'll ask anyways. Instead of waiting until tomorrow night after supper to go get checked in, go tomorrow afternoon or hell go tomorrow morning that way you have plenty of time to have a nap,have something to eat and some quiet time before they start walking in and out of your room to check your blood pressure,check your sugars, check your temperature, take blood,urine and fecal samples. Why they need urine and fecal samples is beyond me. They did it to me for everyone of you, every freaking hour on the hour a Lab Tech wandered in to do blood pressure checks,temperature checks, sugar checks then drew blood,gave me a bottle to fill with urine and a bottle to deposit a stool sample in. I was having a BABY no where did anyone tell me during check in they'd want urine,stool and blood samples every hour on the hour. So when the Doctor came in to check the heartrate between contractions, I asked her 'why do you need blood,urine and stool samples?' I got the craziest looks from her as she said 'we don't need blood,urine and stool samples. Blood Pressure checks yes, temperature checks yes, contraction checks yes, blood,stool and urine samples? no. We don't need that stuff, we're here to deliver a baby nothing more nothing less. Why, has the lab been here?' of course I told her about all the visits from the lab with requisitions for blood,stool and urine samples and she put a stop to it stating no one on the Maternity floor needed to have blood drawn. Shortly after that, the Lab Tech came in my room two more times for blood samples stating another OBGYN from the night shift, had ordered more tests to be done on my blood so she had to collect more blood from me before I could have I believe at the time it was Rielley and Cleo.
Sierra: Wait, so before you could deliver Rielley and Cleo, they ran tests on your blood why?
Autumn: Ever see Rielley and Basil as kids? They're identical right down to the bang curl and the little tail that comes out the middle of the back of his hair. Somewhere along the line, M.C.P.S got this strange idea that Basil wasn't the father of Rielley and Cleo, that their real father was my father, your grandfather.
Ranger: Oh man no way grandpa would ever do that.
Bryant unsuccessfully tries to untangle himself only to fall down and says: MOM?! Sierra? A little help here? Someone's yappy to meet their grandma. Yeah well tell that to Martian Child Protective Services, no one got to see or hold Rielley and Cleo until they were one hundred percent certain grandpa didn't father Rielley and Cleo. Mom wasn't even allowed to let them suckle to get her milk going because they feared it would contaminate the tests so Rielley and Cleo never got their first feeding until a week later when everyone was satisfied with the test results. Imagine having twins only to have them whisked away right after being born and put in a 'secure holding facility' where only approved Nurses could enter and change their diapers. No feeding, just diaper changes.
Sierra stands up and goes around the table to untangle Bryant saying to the pup: Now now, settle down. I get it, this is the first time you've been out and everything is new and exciting. (Unwinds Confetti's leash from around Bryant's feet allowing him to stand up then picks up the wiggly pup saying) Autumn, meet Confetti, your grand pup.
Autumn takes the wiggling brown and white ball of fur from Sierra's arms and says: Aren't you adorable! Oh yes you are! Yes you are! Grandpa Basil would just love you to pieces, he just loved small dogs. (tips Confetti over on to her back and tickles her tummy saying) Aren't we an exicted ball of energy today! Did we get sprung from puppy jail huh? did we get sprung from puppy jail? Yes you did, didn't you? Oh dear you have to go potty don't you? (Sets Confetti down and says) Anyone got a peepee pad for Confetti? She has to go and can't wait.
Sierra goes back around the table and reaches into her back pack pulling out a potty pad and hurries back around the table and unfolds it setting it down just in time for Confetti to squat on it and pee then quickly scoops it up and disposes of it in a white garbage bag saying: There we go, puddle on floor avoided.
Crossfire sees his mother and says: MOM?!
Cleo comes in leaning on her cane for support and says: Mom?! It's been years since I last seen you! Where's dad? Rielley can't come right now, he's with a paitent with a stubbonr baby tooth that doesn't want to fall out and make way for an adult tooth to come in. Apparently, the baby tooth fused to the adult tooth making it difficult for the adult tooth to come in and for the baby tooth to fall out, so he has to go in, crack the baby tooth at the gum line since the roots are showing and remove the baby tooth to allow the adult tooth to come down properly then grind the adult tooth to make it look normal.
Autumn backs her chair away from the table and stands up feeling the relief wash over her as each of her children hugged her as she said: I don't know where he is or where they took him all them years ago. I guess Joey couldn't make it either.
Ranger: He's with a paitent right now who has a baby tooth whose roots are fused around an incoming adult tooth, but he'll come on his lunch break. I probably could speed it up if I told him you were here granma. (Pulls out his phone that still displayed the messaging app then types up a swift message to his dad's phone and hits send saying) Don't be too surprised if he comes through that door. (Hears his dad come through the door and says) well like I said, here he is.
Joey comes over and sees his mother saying: MOM?! When did you get here?! Where's dad?! (Feels something pulling his pantleg crouches down to pet Confetti saying) Well I see you broke out of Puppy jail huh? All up to date with puppy shots?
Bryant: Two more sets of shots to go in six weeks then she gets her big girl tag that says I can bite and not give you rabies. How'd the defusing go?
Joey: Think back to when it happened to you with your front teeth! Remember how long it took the Dentist to break the root of your front baby tooth from around the adult front tooth coming in and what he had to do after to make your front tooth look normal? That's what I've been dealing with since eleven this morning ontop of an over over over over protective dad in the room. Jeeze and I thought Jesse had it bad growing up with her dad being over bearing! This dude takes the cake in that department. So you don't know where dad is?
Autumn heaves a sigh saying: No and I wish I did know where he was. That way I'd figure out if the twins were with him or not.
Cleo: Where are you living now that you're free?
Autumn: No where yet, I haven't been able to find a place for your father to call home now. Right now all I want is a nice quiet haven to call home, somewhere that I don't have to worry about volcanic erutpions making sleep impossible.
Sierra: There's an entire suite in Jewel Towers that's empty, I can ask Dragon if you can have it rent free. It's on the same floor as I am and it's peaceful there. I highly doubt he's willing to give it to anyone else.
Autumn: Would you ask him for me?
Sierra types out a quick message and sends it off to Dragon who responded as she said: It's still available if you want to go see it. It's got six bedrooms all with ensuites,a kitchen,open concept living/dining area,a balcony,swimming pool and a garden area.
Autumn: Sounds wonderful. When can we go see it?
Sierra hears her messenger app chime and says: How about today? (Goes back over to her side of the table and carefully begins to pack her art supplies back in the carrying case ensuring that her latest panel was on top then says to the kids) Ready to go home?
Sierra picks up her art carrying case then her art kit and bag then says: Let's get going to the Transporter room. You can come with me since we'll be in the same building.
Autumn follows Sierra out of the Cafeteria until they arrived at the transporter room where Sierra opened the door allowing everyone in ahead of her and shut the door
Sierra went around behind the transporter,plugged it in,then came back around to flip a switch and called up the last set of coordinates and says: Everybody in and we'll be at my place in a flash.
Once Autumn was in the Transporter Sierra simply pressed the same button she pressed every time she went back and forth from Earth to Mars and in a flash she and Autumn were transported to the transporter room in her apartment's hidden room
Anaheim
Sierra steps out of the Transporter and opens the door saying to Autumn: Come with me and we'll go meet Dragon at your new place.
Autumn: That was one fast trip, barely had time to panic.
Sierra heads to her door,opens it and heads out into the hall saying: Hear that?
Autumn: No, I don't hear anything. Oh oh! I get it! This is a private floor!
Sierra: Exactly! There's only three condo's on this floor. Mine,Dragon's and yours. Just follow me through the breezeway and we'll be at the condo that will belong to you and Basil. (Heads down the hall to the breezeway and turns right continuing until they seen Dragon standing outside the empty condo as she said) Well here we are Autumn. Your new home.
Dragon: I can't believe it! Autumn? Where's Basil? You two were never apart!
Autumn: I don't know, they came into our cell ten years ago,locked a shock collar around Basil's neck and dragged him off somewhere. That was the last time I ever seen him.
Dragon unlocks and opens the door saying: Go on inside and take a look around. Only three condo's on this floor were ever furnished because they were occupied immediately. I took one, gave Sierra the other one on her thirteenth birthday so that her family had somewhere to live when they were here. Now it's her's and Rimfire's condo with a Nursery all set up for the wee one. Which is coming when?
Sierra: Saturday thank the stars. I can't do this much more, I'm so tired it's not funny. I tried to take a nap this afternoon before my appointment, yet as soon as my body hit the mattress and head hit the pillow, my stomach starts lurching. Don't get me started on eating, that's a no go. I tried cup of blue berry yogurt this morning as my stomach was actually still and as soon as I finished the cup; one started then the other started and I was leaning over the toilet puking it up. If I eat what the hell ever the Nutritionist sent me home with, my stomach is happy as hell. Beyond me what the hell it is as it tastes horrible.
Autumn steps inside and says: My old furniture and decorations from my long destroyed house!
Sierra: No, not exactly. I had pictures of the furniture and decorations you had at your old place and went furniture shopping looking for updated versions of the old furniture. The other five rooms are guest room, the master bedroom is at the end of the hall behind the double doors complete with an ensuite so you never have to go far for a shower. There are also offices off the sun room for both you and Basil to work in and a Music room for the girls. There's two state of the art dishwasherd in the kitchen, a convection oven with warming drawers, wall ovens, state of the art digital microwave, twelve cup coffee/tea maker, door in door fridge with freezer on the bottom-fully stocked,a fully stocked deep freeze and a fully stocked pantry. The cabinets are all filled with canned goods and dishes. Unlike the predecessors of dishwashers, there's no need to scrape or pre-rinse dishes. Just stick 'em in the dishwasher racks,add a rinse aide and a couple of detergent cubes to the detergent holder,shut the detergent holder door,then the dishwasher door,press the start button and walk away. In the laundry room there's four industrial strength washers and four dryers so that you can do multiple loads of clothes, in the master bedroom the bed is ready to fall asleep in, there's clothes in the closet,armoire,dressers and bathroom stuff in the bathroom including towels,robes and slippers. No need to wait for the water to get hot, just turn the handle to the left for hot and to the right for cold and straight up to shut it off. You have full body Rimfire sprayers in there to hit you at all angles to give you a complete clean.
Dragon: We've also brought two certain someone's to live with you. (Steps aside to allow Autumn and Basil's two small dogs to come in)
Autumn drops to her knees and allows the two dogs to run into her arm saying: Oh thank the stars you two are alright. So then that must mean that Confetti's your daughter! She's so sweet and awfully exciteable! (Stands up and stretches saying) As for me, I'm ready for a nice long hot shower then a good long sleep in that bed.
Sierra hears her phone go off thinking: Well it's time for me to go get Autumn's surprises from school since it's done for the day. (Heads up the breeze way then turns and heads down to her condo where she opens the door,steps in then shuts and locks it behind her noticing her friends had gone home then heads to the transporter room resetting the controls for Mars,steps in and a few minutes later she was back on Mars on her way to Siera and Sora's classroom where she waited)
Seira comes out to see Sierra waiting and says: Did they find mom?
Sierra: Yes, your mom's been found. We just need to wait for your sister's class to be dismissed then we'll go see your mom. (Glances at her watch and says) Sora's class is late being dismissed, it's quarter to four. School for you guys is done at three thirty. What's going on that's so important, the teacher is over teaching?
Seira: I don't know. At lunch time the class clock fell off the wall and scared the class. They've been watching a movie since after lunch.
Sierra: Oh that stupid clock fell when I was in school and scared everyone on the other side of the hall. (Knocks on the door saying) Almond, it's time for these guys to go home.
Almond tips her wrist to look at the time and says: Oh! So it is! (Picks up the remote and stops the video saying) Alrighty that's the end of that video. Alyson, come up and get it out of the bluray player and take it back home. Next Friday it's Molly's turn to bring in a DVD or Bluray for us to watch.
Sierra: So that damned clock fell again huh? It did that back in the day and no one knows why.
Almond: I'm telling you it scared the life out of everyone here. It sounded like someone slammed a door closed. It stopped at ten o'clock, someone said it was once fixed.
Sierra: No, that damned thing was never supposed to be put back up, it doesn't work and it's haunted or so I've heard. There was supposed to be a digital clock put up but I see they never got around to doing that either. This was where I went to school back in the day. Crystal taught a compact condensed version of the standard program. No fillers, no fluff,nothing extra just the most important stuff that we needed to learn to get through the next grade level. When we got into High School the program was fast paced, no papers to write, no pop quizzes,no 'special guests' coming to take up valuable teaching time, no off topic projects for 'bonus marks' that didn't exist, he stuck to his cirriculum and that was that. Started in eighth grade and went through until we graduated knowing more than our peers who were still sitting in class taking notes about who knows what.
Almond: What else is new? I need ten more text books,work books and reference books for ten students who never got them but they haven't arrived yet.
Sierra heaves a sigh and says: More like they were never ordered to begin with and they're just placating you
Trapper knocks on the door saying: Someone ask for a new clock and text books,work books and reference books?
Sierra points to the clock on the floor saying: It fell again.
Trapper: What else is new? It fell when we were kids.
Sierra: According to the kids next door, the clock fell down at ten o'clock.
Trapper: Let me guess, it stopped at ten o'clock? It's been stuck at ten o'clock since we were kids. I have one brand new digital clock that will be installed when everyone's gone home for the weekend and before everyone leaves, I have text books for those who don't already have one. They were sitting in the storage room still in the box. (Turns and says) Who doesn't have text books,reference books or work books?! (Watches as the kids without work books,reference books and text books put up their hands and starts handing out work books,reference books and text books until everyone had their own set of books then says) Well that takes care of this class as it was the only one that was cheated out of enough books for everyone.
Sora grabs all her stuff saying: Did they find mom?
Sierra: Yes Sora dear, your mom's home. Not here.
Sora: Where?
Sierra: Remember the empty condo up the breezeway and to the right?
Sora: Yes, I remember it.
Sierra: That's where your mom is right now. Probably having a shower and a nap. That's where we'll go and after today, your mom will be the one to pick you two up after school. Let's get going. I have bags to pack so I can get to the Medward's Maternity Ward and get settled in so I can at least try and get some sleep tonight and tomorrow. (Heads out into the hall with Sora to meet up with Seira and says) Alright, let's go get you two reunited with your mom. (Heads towards the Transporter room saying) Everyone in and we'll be back at my place in a flash. (Steps into the Transporter and keeps on walking until they arrived at her place as she says) I seriously hope your mom's awake when we get there. Do either of you need to use the washroom before we get going?
Seira sets her stuff down on a kitchen stool and heads off to the bathroom followed by Sora while Sierra went and got their rolling suit cases from their shared bedroom that had been packed that morning
Sierra comes back out with their rolling suitcases and says: Here's your suitcases girls, now lets get going. (Heads towards her door until they were infront of it and opened it ushering the two girls into the hall so she could shut her door then says) Alright let's go. We're going up the breeze way and to the right. (Heads up the breezeway and turns right until they were outside Autumns new condo then reaches out and knocks saying to the girls) Stay behind me, that way she won't see you right away. (Watches as Seira and Sora hid behind her and waits for Autumn to open her door)
Autumn hears someone knocking on her door and thinks: Who could it be at this hour of the day? Could it be? Someone's found my girls?! (Quickly gets up off the chair and hurries to the door opening it saying) Oh, Sierra. It's just you. I had hoped it'd be someone with news on my girls, c'mon inside.
Sierra: Actually, I've someone here for you.
Autumn: Someone for me? I-you've lost me here and I'm in no mood to play games right now. I'm at the point where I'm likely to get angry without warning. What is it you're getting at?
Sierra steps to the side and says: These are for you. They were dropped off on my doorstep by one of the guys on the clean up crew and have been living with me and Rimfire.
Autumn sees her twins for the first time in three years,drops to her knees and says: Seira! Sora!
Seira/Sora: MOM! (Both run to their mother's arms)
Autumn closes her arms around her only set of twin girls saying between sobs: Oh thank the stars you're both safe! I had begun to fear the worst when I didn't get word on where you two were taken! When I was taken back to base, Braden told me he didn't have you and didn't know where you were. At least you've both been looked after. Oh thank the stars I got you back!
Sierra: They just got out of school. Seira was done at three thirty and I had to remind Sora's teacher it was home time. The class clock fell down again and is permanetly stopped at ten in the morning.
Autumn stands up and usheres everyone inside and closes the door saying: Why don't you two go pick out your bedrooms alright? (Watches as the twins ran off to pick out their bedroom and says) Who's Sora's teacher?
Sierra heaves a sigh saying: Someone you're all to familiar with.
Autumn: Almond? Almy? The class clock fell and no one touched it? Sounds like the clock in Basil's old office back in the day, no one in his office at three a.m. and it falls off the wall with a great big BANG scaring anyone over his office. Didn't figure out what it was until the next morning when he found it on the floor stopped at three thirty
Sora comes out with her bag,heads over to the kitchen counter,plops it up on the counter with a thud then climbs up on to the stool,unzips it and begins pulling out her lunch bag followed by several text books,note books,work books,reference books,music books and her flute
Autumn hears a thud and says: What have you got in that bag of yours? Bricks?
Sora: No, homework.
Autumn: For how long? The next millennium?
Sora: No, it's weekend homework. We get it every Friday night. I have to do six hours of Flute practice every night or else I fail Music Class. Maestro Caleb's already said I'm in the bottom percentile of the class and the new term is only two weeks old.
Autumn: My dear, this is only Tuesday. Friday night is three nights away. Six bloody hours of Flute Practice? Oi, good thing there's a music room here, that way you don't disturb anyone while practicing.
Sierra: No, it's Friday
Autumn: Oh, is it? My week's gone by too fast. I'm just glad I have somewhere to call home for these guys. Where's Seira?
Seira comes out of her shared room with her bag heads over to the kitchen counter, plops it up on the counter with a thud then climbs up on to the stool and unzips her bag pulling out her lunch bag and her books followed by her pencil case saying: Odd, I thought I put it in here..
Autumn: Put what in there?
Seira: My stupid Green Plastic Folder for Creative Writing Class.
Autumn: They still give those out?
Sierra: I had a purple one,still have it...oh wait no. That was my music folder, the red one was my Math Folder, The Blue one was for Social Studies, The yellow one was for Social Science, The White One was for Language Arts, The Green folder was for History, the Orange folder was for English-Literature, the Aqua colored one was for Science Class, the Brown folder was for Cooking class and the Grey one was for Creative Writing. Wasn't much creativity going on in that class. A writing prompt was written on the board, we'd be put into groups of four and one person did the writing and everyone else just gave ideas, then they'd all be put together into a story that had to match what everyone else in the class had or we'd get a zero. My sixth grade class novel was a real snooze fest: The Old Man And The Sea.
Autumn: Are you serious? You read The Old Man And The Sea in grade six?! I never read it until senior year of High School! Even then I hated it.
Sierra: Yeah we read The Old Man And The Sea in grade six,after that we had to listen to it, then after that we had to watch it and then to rub salt further into the wounds, my drama teacher thought it'd be a good idea to have the class re-enact several chunks of chapters on stage infront of our families,that didn't go over too well. Not everyone was all that interested in the book. Then in grade twelve we read War and Peace. I never finished it, though there was one kid in my English Class who must've had nothing going on in their lives because they read the entire BOOK in one night! (Feels her baby kick and says) Oh knock off for the night will you? You've been kicking non stop all day and I'm getting sore. Don't tell me you two are going to do this all night tonight! I've got a thousand things to get done before I go home to bed. Not that it matters, I'll be awake again all night tonight. Too bad I can't have them now so I can get some sleep! Thankfully I'm checking into the Birthing Suite tonight then the doubting Thomas of a nurse will find out just how active these two are for nine month old full term babies.
Autumn: I can just hear her now: You didn't tell me they were this active this late in your pregnancy! Would you like a Bran Muffin?
Sierra: Yes but I think you'd better run it by these two, if they don't want the Bran Muffin and I eat it, I'll be in the bathroom puking the night away. I swear by the time these guys are born, I'll have little foot prints permanently imprinted on the sides of my stomach that won't go away with time. I really wanted my cereal this morning but these guys decided they weren't interested in cereal and milk so because they didn't want cereal and milk, that meant that I didn't need breakfast and I wound up throwing up every time I come in contact with food I was longing for. They wanted the shit the Pregnancy Dietician and Nutritionist gave me when I first became pregnant and insist I stay on for the duration of this pregnancy. They love that shit, I hate it. Tastes like cardboard. I just hope they settle down long enough for me to take my latest drawings and the latest 'changes' to Skylark and to get through a meeting without getting up and running to the washroom every five minutes to puke my guts out. There's a dipstick idiot who doesn't understand that there are times when I am literally unable to get my ass end out of bed because I'm so stinking tired from throwing up all night long and not being able to eat anything, so what does he do? He offers me FOOD after I've told him that I'm unable to eat anything but unsalted crackers but he still pushes chocolate on me and gets 'offended' when I literally and forcefully say 'no thanks, I'll only puke it up in five minutes'.
Autumn: Geeze, you'd think that turning fifty shades of green in the face would be a visible clue as to how you feel about food.
Sierra: Torbin's an idiot who can't get it in his thick skull that I'm taking a leave of absence after this book is published so I can focus on relaxing after the kids are born. I need time away from my books,away from deadlines, frantic phone calls from my Publisher and as far away from my Agent calling to tell me yet another danged Talk Show wants me to go on and 'talk' with the Hosts. The only thing that happens when I go on talk shows is they start out really nice and sweet, then midway into the taping of that segment, they start talking over top of eachother louder and louder and louder and louder until I can't understand a word anyone is saying. The last time I was on a four person talk show and they started getting loud and rambunctious talking over eachother until I couldn't hear or understand any of them, I lost my temper and literally scared the living day lights out of them. It effectively shut them up long enough for me to say 'Now one at a freaking time,slowly and clearly pronounce each word so that I can understand what you're saying! Right now it sounds like a bunch of Peacocks squawking all at once. Now one at a time and ONLY one at a time or I get up and leave and you can continue squawking and clucking like peacocks and chickens. I get one question at a time with time to answer without interruptions or anyone else starting to talk over me until I'm drowned out and they're the only one who can be heard. Do I make myself clear? Good. Now first question and remember the rules; one question at a time and let me answer before the next question is asked!' They didn't have a choice, they had to wait their turn as each question was asked and answered. It took longer than they wanted it to, but that's what happens when everyone starts talking over eachother until you can't hear or understand them. Before Rimfire and I married, long before we started dating the rumor mill was working eternal overtime: I was pregnant, the father was a married man whose wife wanted me to give her the baby because she couldn't have any babies of her own. Then when the bloat went away it became 'Oooh she had an abortion! She was too ashamed to have the baby so she got rid of it.' The last talk show I was booked on, I walked off the set because they wouldn't stop prying into my private life. 'Inquiring minds want to know, are you a virgin? How many men have you had?' How many what did I have? Am I a virgin? Is it any of your business?! 'Are you pregnant?! Sources say you're six weeks along! Is it true?!' Uh no, it's not true. Last time I checked, it takes two to tango and a one night stand.
Autumn heaves a sigh and says: When you shoot down the rumors,they take that as face value and say 'well you heard it here! Sierra's not a virgin! She's had more men then she can count!' Well I best try and figure out what I'm giving the girls for their supper. I have absolutley no idea what to cook or order. Maybe after they have their homework done we'll figure supper out.
Sierra: As for me, I've sketches to take to Skylark to look over. Before I do leave (Pulls out the meal chart she'd remotely printed off and says) Here's what they've been eating. Monday night because Rim and I worked late and their sports practice ran late, we met in the lobby and went to Subway for supper where Sora had a turkey on rye and a tossed garden salad a bottle of water with a large pop, Seira had a ham and cheddar on whole wheat toasted with mustard and a chopped garden salad, Tuesday was a roast that had been slow cooking since that morning with mixed vegetables, long grain rice, corn, a tossed salad and for dessert pecan pie, Wednesday they came home to oven roasted chicken---couldn't eat a thing yet again I was sick to my stomach all day--mashed potatoes, steamed sugar snap peas and for dessert we had chocolate cake, Last night's dinner was steak, steamed mixed vegetables, corn on the cob, mashed sweet potatoes with gravy, bread, a garden salad and since it was their birthday yesterady, we went to Rainbow's Ice Cream for dessert.
Autumn suddenly realizes what the previous day had been and says: Oh no, I missed their birthday yesterday! I completely forgot! (Reaches out and rubs Sierra's stomach saying) Giving mom a hard time are we? Let her eat something! She can't continue like this.
Sierra laughs saying: You're talking to a pair of brick walls. They won't listen, that's why tonight I'm checking in and having them tonight or tomorrow depending on what Terry thinks. Well I've gotta go and see Skye about some lewed changes Torbin made to my layouts and get Blaine involved. (Heads out of the kitchen,out the door shutting the door started to think about the five canvass drawings out of which four were altered then colored and thinks) Maybe Skylark can make sense out of the notes from the last meeting and help me decide if I should stick to my original drawing. I'll go home and get my drawings from the last meeting and go see her. (Heads home to an empty condo and gathers up her art bag that contained the panels from her last meeting then heads back out the door closing and locking it behind her then heads down the hall to Dragon's place and knocks on the door)
Autumn sees how tired her girls were and says: Since you've picked out your bedrooms, why not go lay down for awhile? It's going to be quite some time before I have supper figured out. Start those bloody six hours of practice tomorrow. Tonight's family time as soon as your father comes home.
Seira shoves all her folders back into her bag,slips off her chair and heads back to her bedroom followed by Sora who closed the door behind her, kicked her shoes off and climbed up onto Seira's bed taking the hair clip out of her long aburn hair allowing it to cascade down her back watching as Seira did the same with her blonde hair then they both laid down and fell asleep
In Dragon's Condo
Skylark hears someone knocking on the door,sighs,puts her book mark in her book to mark the pages she was reading,sets the book on the table then unfurls her long legs and stands up heading to the door she unlocked and opened saying: Oh hi hon, he's not home. He came home, loaded up Aria and Orion in their carrier and took off.
Sierra: I'm not here to see Dragon. I'm here to see you. He's still dealing with the Concierge idiots downstairs. I can't be around Aria and Orion, I'm still battling a bit of a Pregnancy cold that I don't want them to get.
Skylark: Ahh yes, the Pregnancy Colds. How was your appetite this morning?
Sierra: I had a nice bowl of Maple Brown Sugar oatmeal infront of me with a cup of blueberry yogurt,a banana and a mug of chocolate milk and these two deicded 'nope no want what mom's eating! We want that shit the Dietcian and Nutritionist gave her to eat so let's make her sick at the very sight and scent of food!' I suddenly felt nauseous and fled to the washroom to throw up the few saltine crackers I had eaten at two this morning until nothing was left in my stomach. I've been trying desperately to get something to eat all day but these two won't stop making me sick. Then at the very scent of ice cream my stomach started turning and I was off to the ladies room to puke. I'm only (pulls out her phone and opens the pregnancy app saying) Oh thank goodness, this pregnancy's done in another two days but what's two days? I'm being induced on Friday so after this meeting with Michael and Marie over Torbin's ideas, I'm going home, packing and then we're heading back to Mars to the Medward to get me settled into the Maternity Suite where I hope to hell to have a decent night's sleep. Uncle Terry's made it clear that no one is to bother me every hour on the hour for blood as he's already done blood work and wants me to try and get some sleep. I'd love to have something to eat without throwing it up because these two don't want food.
Skylark: Yep that's pregnancy.. With Aria and Orion I woke Dragon up six times to go get me Chinese Food and when he came back up with it, I was out like a light. At least he ate a good meal for once instead of left over pot roast,cold potatoes and cold vegetables. C'mon in. Oh right, the Concierge desk. Thank the stars that stupid thing is going. If you're due any day now, why not go in and have them a few days earlier than planned? You haven't eaten at all these past three weeks because of how active the twins have been nor have you slept much at all this month. If they're that active, go have them early so you can eat and get some sleep and go to the washroom in peace.
Sierra steps inside while Skylark shut and locked the door again saying: I'm being induced on Friday, it might end up being a C-Section instead of a natural birth but who cares?! I need some sleep and I seriously need food! I've been eating intermittently. Yep he's gone down to give them the ninety day notice to pack up and ship out. Too many complaints from businesses downstairs in the mall that they're interfering with the mail delivery.
Skylark: Oh yes I know, he's told me all about it. Missing payroll checks for the Baby Store were found in a locked drawer at the Concierge desk this morning and were promptly taken to their delayed destination and distributed to the employees who hadn't gotten paid last month.
Sierra: Probably more missing paychecks hidden in that safe in the 'Purser's Office'
Skylark: The PURSER'S OFFICE? That over stuffed pompus wind bag thinks he's a Purser?
Sierra: That's what he calls himself and his fat brother is a 'Secure Mail Delivery Person' who safely and securely delivers mail to the stores in the mall, but from what I've heard, he hasn't been doing 'job' because lots of stores haven't gotten their paychecks for their employees yet and it's getting close to the second payday.
Skylark: Hmm, I have a sneaking suspicion, the missing mail and paychecks are hidden in the Purser's Safe in the Purser's Office. I bet Dragon would love to see inside that safe. (Remembers what she had talked about with Sierra and says) Oh right, c'mon in. Oh and Dragon wants to know where in the hall to put the transporter room. You brought them right?
Sierra: Yeah I brought them. How about the wall mid way between here and Autumn and Basil's condo?
Skylark turns and looks at the blue prints for the private floor and says: That is perfect! Lable it 'Electrical Rooms' with an actual Electrical Rooms on either side and the transporter at the far back behind sliding wooden doors with lighting bright enough for everyone to see where they're walking. Maybe even put in an elevator there so visitors can actually get up here to visit from the lobby and food can come right on up and find the condo they have deliveries for. Great I will mark it out for him to see when he gets home. (Draws two walls on the blue prints labelling each side Electrical Room then a Transporter room and beside it draws an elevator shaft going all the way down to the Parking garage then walks by Sierra and says) He's bound to see this when he gets home and just in case he's too tired to look here (Pulls out her smart phone,opens the camera and snaps a picture of the blue prints then sends it off to Dragon's Smart Phone and gets an immediate response saying) He approves of the spot we picked. Renovations begin in two weeks. Finally we'll have an elevator that goes from the Lobby up here and from up here to the Lobby and Parking Garage. No more having to call Dragon to see if he's home so I can come up in the Private Elevator loaded down with groceries. Follow me to my drawing room that I had incorporated into the original plans that Dragon knows about. (Heads down the hall to a set of double doors saying) He tells people that this is the laundry room but it's my art studio where I go when the girls and I get tired of him and his brothers. The real Laundry Room is between the bathroom and bedroom the shortest route for dirty laundry. It was originally off the kitchen but who seriously does their laundry off the kitchen? Really? Let's get supper ready while sorting through filthy laundry, why not?
Sierra follows Skylark down the hall saying: Could be worse, the last house tour I went on with a friend of mine we went into the kitchen and there was this door like literally right across from the stove. Sara wanted to know what it was so her husband went and opened it and quickly shut it saying 'Who the freaking hell puts a bathroom IN the kitchen this close to the counters?! No one wants to smell someone else doing number two or hearing number one while they're eating! If we buy this house, this bathroom goes as does the one off the dining room!
Skylark: A bathroom right off the kitchen and one off the dining room? Gross! Who puts bathrooms where you're prepping meals and eating? Talk about unsanitary! (Opens the double doors to her drawing room allowing Sierra followed by her dogs and cats to enter then closes them behind her saying) Lets get a look at what these old foggies want you to change.
Sierra sets her art bag down on the table and pulls out the sketch book and panels saying: These are the originals that I wouldn't allow them to draw on (Pulls out six other panels saying) These are the changes they want me to make. Note the hemline of the uniform skirt is now midway up the thigh to the point that when the girls bend over, their panties show. They want the tops of the bustier girls to be several sizes smaller to the point the buttons are bursting. Gone are the knee high navy blue socks with the red strip and tassel with black dress shoes, now they want them to wear sheer thigh highs with heels.
Skylark turns on her overhead light saying as she leafed through the panels: No,no, no,no,no and NO! This story is set at an all girls private boarding school, not some hoochy mama school that doesn't care how the girls uniforms look! Didn't you say that the school goes back hundreds of years?
Sierra: Yeah I did research before starting this novel series and settled on a prestigious private all girls school that went back hundreds of years, they've had the same uniform, only the styles have changed and that's what I loved about it. But these bozo's can't seem to get it in their thick masculine heads that girls don't need to go to public schools or private schools with boys to get an education or to be educated by male teachers nor do they need to look like sluts and tramps wearing short short skirts that show their panties and tight tops with buttons bursting showing their braless boobs. The skirts I drew (pulls out her original panels saying) stop at the tip of the middle finger just above the knee and vary on different girls since they're all different heights and body types. Bustier girls have bigger tops to accomodate their bigger busts and plumper girls have skirts that are bigger on the waist to accomodate their bigger size. But what really pissed me off is this panel, the one at the start of the school year where I set the scene in a lingerie boutique with the girls all being properly fitted for bra's and panties. Instead of blindly grabbing a bra off the racks in stores, this school has an on campus lingerie boutique where professional lingerie dealers measure each girl for a proper fitting bra and panty set, they carry every size from trainers to ZZZ size which is HUGE. I've been in my fair share of lingerie shops so I know how friendly and helpful the women and men who work there are.
Skylark looks over the original panels and the altered panels and says: Are those what I think they are in the altered versions?
Sierra looks at the altered panel and says: Yeah that's the problem I've been having with them. They're supposed to be in a Lingerie/Clothing Shop but this new idiot got the notion to change it from a Lingerie/Clothing Shop to a Sex Shop because it 'suited his idea more'. He went through and changed everything about the entire graphic novel from a novel about School Girl Idols to porn star idols which could in effect get me pulled off the shelves of every single bookstore in the freaking world. But as long as he gets his way he doesn't care. I mean really? Every single meeting I have with this guy all I hear out of his mouth is 'why aren't there more nude sex scenes? I mean when is she going to get laid? Are all these girls virgins? That is so last year!'
Skylark looks over the panels and says: Does Blaine know about the changes to the books?
Sierra: No, Torbin sets the times of the meetings so that he doesn't have to deal with Blaine. He finds out where Blaine's going to be and at what time then schedules the meeting for that specific time so that I'm flying solo.
Skylark picks up her cell phone saying: Not this time you're not. Give me the card for the bozo who is trying to get you pulled off shelves everywhere.
Sierra pulls out her card wallet,opens it and pulls out the newest card with the latest meeting date and time and says: Here, this is the new guy. The date and time of the next meeting is on the back of the card.
Skylark taps her contacts app,taps Blaine's name then his number and hears it ring followed by his voice saying: What're you doing oh say this afternoon at five fifteen?
Blaine rolls his chair over to his schedule and says: Not a thing why?
Skylark: Sierra has a meeting with the new editor of her book.
Blaine: Oh really? There's a meeting this afternoon at two is there? Over what? Or dare I even ask?
Skylark: Maybe you should come see what he's proposing to do to her novel.
Blaine stands up and stretches saying: Alright I'll come see what this new moron is proposing then take Sierra to her meeting at five fifteen. I'll be there in a few minutes. (Hangs up and heads out of his condo telling his wife he had a meeting to attend)
Skylark hangs up her phone and says: This will be a nice meeting between Blaine and your new publisher.
Sierra snickers saying: All hell's about to break loose when he sees the new panels this guy's drawn as his wife's a Lingerie designer who helped me with making the lingerie scenes look like they're actually in a Lingerie Botique not a porn store. (Hears a knocking on the door and says) Sounds like he's here.
Skylark heads out of the drawing room and returns a few minutes later saying: He's about to get Sierra pulled off the shelves with his new 'ideas' and 'changes'
Blaine: What changes? I didn't authorize any changes to be made to Sierra's latest book! What's this asswipe done this time around?
Sierra puts the panels back in order and says: Take a look, this is book one of the series and already he's proposing things that will get me pulled out of the YA Section of the bookstores.
Blaine picks up the panels and flips through them saying: Oh no! Oh no no no! No freaking way this is happening! No freaking way! I'm putting a stop to this? (Tips his wrist to check the time and says) Run home and gather everything up,get changed then meet me downstairs in the parking garage,I'll be there waiting with the car, from there we'll head to the meeting.
Sierra gathers up all her original art panels and puts them in order then puts them in the back compartment of her tote then picks up the editor's panels and puts them in the front part and zips it up then heads out of Skylark's studio, down the hall to the door and out the door,down the hall to her own condo where she went to her room to change into more comfortable maternity clothes and slip on shoes to accomodate her swollen ankles, then exits her room and goes to the kitchen where she grabbed some unsalted crackers,pepto and several juice boxes and bottles of water that she sat on the counter while she opened her canvass tote to place the things in then headed to her elevator then pushed the down button on the panel,waited a few seconds stepped into her private elevator,pushed the close door button followed by the Parking Garage button and in a few minutes she was down in the Parking Garage where Blaine waited saying: Well lets go raise some hell at Sierra's Editor's Office.
Blaine opens the Limo Door to allow Sierra to slide in then slides in saying: Nice clothes, what part of your closet did you pull those from?
Sierra: I just bought these yesterday. I needed a change of clothes, the pants I was wearing were beginning to dig in around my stomach and the other shoes weren't very comfy nor practical so I switched into a pair of feet stablizing shoes with my new orthotics and I dare say, my feet haven't ached since I started wearing them.
Blain: Ethan to idiot's studio then wait and see if the building starts shaking.
Several minutes later Blaine's Limo Pulls up outside the Publishing Building
Ethan puts the car in Park and gets out, goes around the passenger side door and opens it saying: I give you a maximum twenty minutes before you blow your lid
Blaine reaches in and takes Sierra's artist satchel and helps her out saying: Let's go get this over and done with. If he doesn't stop making inappropriate changes to your novel, a brand new publishing company just recently opened up and is looking for new authors and to have you would be the cherry on the sundae. (Heads into the building saying) What floor is this moron on?
Sierra pulls out the card and says: The fortieth floor, the entire fortieth floor.
Blaine with Sierra behind him walks over to the elevator,pushes the up button and steps into the open elevator behind him then pushes the fortieth floor button then the close door button and feels as the high speed elevator whisked them up to the fortieth floor then watched as the doors opened and stepped out saying: So where does this bozo reside on this floor anyways?
Sierra: Through those doors, it's the door on the left, the door on the right is the stinky conference room that smells like sardines every time I come here. We have to go check in with airhead over there at reception and see if she can remember to call and let Torbin know we're here. (Heads over to the reception desk and says) So-ra, So-ra! Earth calling Sora! (reaches over and removes Sora's ear phones and says) Sora get your head out of the clouds, call Torbin and tell him we're here NOW or I'll do it myself, I'm really good at mimicking voices.
Sora: Like what button do I push on this doohickey again?
Sierra groans saying: Oi vey! Never mind, I'll do it myself! (Reaches over, picks up the reciever and presses 385 then waits for Torbin to answer saying) Like I know your totally busy, but Sierra's here with her financial backer. Like fine I'll tell 'em. (Hangs up and says) We can go into the conference room and wait for Torbin. (Heads off to the Conference room where she sat with Blaine beside her and waits for Torbin and says) Aww geeze see what I mean? It reeks of Sardines and peanut butter in here!
Blaine: Oh man, WHY?
Sierra points to a group of twelve overweight men in the hall and says: See those guys there? The ones with their guts hanging over their belts?
Blaine notices the overweight men and says: Yeah what about 'em?
Sierra: They're responsible for the stench of sardines and peanut butter in here. They EAT their lunches in here every day.
Blaine: Isn't there a lunch room around here to do that?
Sierra: Yes but that's down the breezeway and through the double doors. That's too far for those poor fat pigs to travel so they come in here,sit down and eat their lunches and they never ever open the windows to air out this place because they claim it gets too 'cold' to open the windows for very long but yet each and every one of them is sweating like a pig on a spit because they're so hot and overweight from over eating at every single office function. Like last Christmas, there was a beautiful spread in the banquet room and while everyone else was taking two things from each station so as not to over stuff themselves before supper was served, those pigs ate their way through the treat table in less than ten minutes and were still hungry when supper was served.
Blaine: Unbelievable. What were the treats
Sierra: Oh the usual holiday treats, buche noel,ginger bread cookies and ginger bread cakes,chocolate cakes, rice krispie treats, ice cream treats,ice cream soda's, all sorts of things including specially made treats for those with special dietary needs like gluten free cakes, cookies and treats,sugar free treats and trust me those are awful. If I ate as much as those pigs ate last Christmas, I'd be in extraordinarily hot water with my blood sugar.
Blaine: Too much sugar isn't good for anyone, even if it's only once a year. But from what I heard from Dragon, those pigs didn't leave very much in their ravenous wake for the little kids to have.
Sierra: Very little, a few marshmallow treats and a couple ginger bread cookies and that was it. Everything else that was set out for the kids to have, they divied up into doggy bags and made off like bandits in the night. Not even the kid friendly drinks were safe, they divied those up and left after supper was served, when it was time for the kids to go make their treat bags, there was literally NOTHING left behind except the Marshmallow Treats. I had to pull quite a few holiday favors last year to restock the party tables. Those that owed me favors were at first reluctant to let me cash 'em in but when I explained that a group of tweleve full grown men had cleaned the treat bag making tables of every thing except the marshmallow treats,ginger bread cookies and the gingerbread cake even going as far as cleaning out the ice cream and frozen treats table and the soda cooler. When they heard that it was full grown men robbing children of their chance to make goodie bags, they were pissed to the max. The damned cowards actually had the balls to come back to try and clear out the freshly refilled goodie bag maker table.
Blaine: You have GOT to be kidding me. Didn't they do ENOUGH damage to the little kids? Who invited them to the party anyways?
Sierra heaves a sigh and says: No one, they just showed up uninvited and while the kids were at dinner, they cleared the goodie bag making tables and ran off. Thankfully though, I caught them trying to sneak out the Emergency Exit doors and called Security to have them apprehended. They faced Michale and Marie who were throwing the party for the kids when they were brought back into the Hotel's Banquet Room to return every single last treat they stole from the Goodie Bag Making Table. When we came back here in January to go over the next books layout, they were put on probation and sent here to work for Torbin since Michael and Marie don't allow thieves to work for them.
Torbin enters the Conference room and not noticing Blaine says: So have you come to take me up on those changes I made to your novel?
Sierra: Not on your life! There's someone with me that isn't too thrilled with you.
Blaine: What will it take to get it through to you that your ideas will get her pulled off book store shelves EVERYWHERE?! Are you that DAFT?
Torbin: Oh oh no, you're here too? I thought you were scheduled to be out of town for six weeks!
Blaine: Where did you get that idea?
Torbin: That bubble headed secretary out front told me that your secretary said you'd be gone for six weeks.
Blaine: One I don't have a secretary and two, the only one who knows where I'll be on any given date is my WIFE who has more brains in her little finger than that thing outfront and three don't insult my intelligence level, I'm four hundred points above you and eight hundred points above me is Sierra here. Sit your spoiled rotten pampered little ass down in that chair and listen to what I'm about to tell you very carefully so you can explain to your parents why you lost Sierra a young and upcoming graphic novelist they found themselves ten years ago!
Torbin sits in his chair and waits to hear what Blaine had to say
Blaine: You know what? I think your mother and father ought to see your ideas for Sierra's next graphic novel and seeing as how I know them personally. (Pulls out his phone and dials Torbin's father's cell phone number and is greeted on the second ring saying) Michael? It's Blaine are you busy? No? Great can you come to the conference room oh and could you PLEASE bring some air freshener? It smells like sardines in here! Alright I'll see you in a few minutes oh and would you rather see Sierra or her real self Sierra? Oh Sierra alright I'll tell her. (Hangs up and says) Michael and Marie know you as Sierra unlike this dufus who only wants Sara.
Sierra carefully removes her contacts from her eyes putting them in her contact case with two drops of contact solution then closes the case putting it in her purse then slips on her glasses closing her eyes for a few minutes before opening them to a clearer world
Blaine: Contacts irritating your eyes again?
Sierra: Yeah, I'll have to tell Rielley they're bothering me again, maybe he can figure out what's going on. (Pulls out her phone and taps the messenger app then selects Rielley's name and sends him a message simply saying) Contacts are irritating my eyes, can't wear them for more than an hour. (Hits send and waits)
Rielley: When you get back, come see me, I'll check the strength of your contacts and the solution you're using, could be either the strength is too strong or the solution is too weak. Come about 4 and I'll see what's what. Might be pregnancy hormones irritating your eyes.
A Few Minutes Later
Michael opens the Conference Room door and allows his wife to enter saying to their son: Alright Torbin what have you done this time that will get Sierra over there pulled off store shelves everywhere?
Sierra pulls out her original story panels and lays them out in order saying: This is the original story board for the first chapter the Back To School Chapter, I have all the girls in a Lingerie Boutique being measured for proper fitting underwear, it was a decent little boutique, tastefully decorated, however Torbin over there decided it was too 'safe' and decided to make some changes.In the fitting room panel where the girls are with the fitter, I had them dressed in their current bra and panty sets with the fitter wrapping a measuring tape around the top of their chest,the fullest part of their chest and the bottom of their chest under the shoulder blades for accurate measurements,the same with their panties. (Pulls out Torbin's story board panels and says) Here's Torbin's story board, notice the drastic changes he's made. Torbin however decided the lingerie shop was too boring and changed it to this. (Puts Torbin's fitting room panel out saying) As you can see he took it from a simple bra and panty measuring session to a full on sex scene between a boy and a girl.
Marie horrified at her son's story board says: What the hell posessed you to draw this smut? Are you trying to get her pulled off of book store shelves? Young pre-teens are reading this stuff! You can't put this smut in YA Novels and you should KNOW that!
Michael takes a look at his son's story board and says: I can see this for another author but not Sierra here! She's a YA and Juvenile author, she can't have this sort of thing in her books!
Sierra: Especially not when a good chunk of my books are located in the CHILDREN'S LIBRARY! I haven't gotten permission to be located in the YA section in the adult library yet. It's still a work in progress, like a six YEAR work in progress.
Michael: You should've been located in the YA Section ages ago, what's the hold up?
Sierra glares at Torbin saying: Ask your son what the hold up is. He still has the application to be put in the YA Section still hidden in his desk drawer, been there since I was thirteen. He comes up with varying excuses as to why we haven't heard from the librarians ranging from 'they're still reviewing the application' all the way to 'they've submitted it to the Librarian's Association for approval and that may take three to eight years.'
Michael glances up and says: The YA reclassification takes no more than two days! Why are you holding on to the application for so long? Don't give me your pathetic excuses. I know the Librarian's Association President and that's your AUNT ALLYSON! Do you WANT me to call her? I SHOULD call her and ask her about this. (Pulls out his phone and calls his sister getting her on one ring saying) Ally, quick question for you.
Allyson: Oh hi Mike, what's up?
Michael: Sierra would like to have her YA Novels relocated from the Children's Quarentine Section to the new YA Section of the library, what does she have to do to get those old biddies to move her ongoing graphic novels out of the Children's 'quarentine' section and into the appropriate YA section?
Allyson: Give me an hour to relocate all her books with YA on the spine from 'quarentine' to the YA section. What the hell are her books still doing in the quarentine section of the library? Oh never mind, I know who put them there and they'd put Winnie The Pooh there if they had their way. So yeah give me an hour to relocate her books and another hour to change the location from 'quarintine reference' to YA in the computers. (Hangs up with her brother to head to the library two hours before it opened to get the ball rolling)
Michael: Well there you go, all your books that are in quarentined reference, will now be located in the proper YA section. As for YOU!, these sketches you and your pervertic team have come up with have one place and that's in the garbage! As for the smell in here (walks over to the window,opens the curtains then opens the window saying) it's about time we got some fresh air in here to get rid of the scent of sardines and ugh peanutbutter. Kindly remind your team that the conference room is NOT the lunch room and to kindly refrain from eating in here! That is NOT what I designed this room for, it is for conferences and going over Sierra's materials, not for eating lunch because we're too lazy and fat to go to the lunch room and eat. Now since you can't handle taking care of our long time money maker, you just LOST the account for your firm. She's now going to go back to being with your mother,myself and your older brothers and sisters who respect her creative talent and where her story board ideas are going. You don't take her storyboards and change them from a fitting to an all out sex scene! Granted she's eighteen years old but that doesn't mean she's ready to start illustrating sex scenes in her YA Novels! She's already gone down that road and got slammed hard for doing it. Sierra inform Torbin what happened with your first big mature novel.
Sierra: It got pulled from one city's library shelves the first day it came out, then it was pulled from that town's bookstore shelves when mothers protested the contents. The entire series was labled 18+ and people were only able to purchase it with proof of ID stating you were 18 and over. It wasn't out in the open for kids to pick up and read, you actually had to go into a separate area of the bookstore to purchase this book set, so why parents were protesting it was beyond me. It was in the adult section of the book store which is a whole different store than the regular bookstore so no little kids could go in and pick up the book then be 'scarred for life'. As for the libraries, it was only available for check out if you had an adult library card and could prove you were over the age of 18. Unfortunately some over worked over tired stressed to the max mother just grabbed the book series off the shelf and checked them out for her kid because the cover was 'adorable' and she thought it was 'suitable' for her young six year old son to read by himself so she could get some work done.
Michael picks up the original story boards and says: Have these been colored yet?
Sierra: No they haven't been scanned yet, I've been dealing with it wit over there's inappropriate changes to my novel to get them scanned, other than that my current scanner decided to quit working mid scan. So I have to get home pretty soon for the delivery of my four new printer/copier/scanners and get them set up so I can finish scanning things,get them copied and get things that need printing off, printed off.
Blaine: How old was that scanner anyways?
Sierra sinckers saying: Oh I've had that scanner since I was ten. The printer cartridges were huge as they were 'toners' and required you to call a qualified repair person to come install the toner cartridge and that required an appointment.
Blaine: Oh my god! You had one of THOSE? Separate printer,copier and scanner?!
Sierra: Yeah, it was all my editor would let me have. She kept telling me there was no such thing as a printer/copier/scanner. I took her to Best Buy and showed her one, then her next reason for not allowing me to have one was 'they're just too expensive to purchase! The cost of the special ink and paper alone will cost thousands of dollars!'
Blaine: Please an HP Printer/Copier/Scanner is what ninety bucks and the paper is like between ten and fifteen bucks with sixty bucks for ink? Where does that add up to thousands of dollars for everything needed? There's no special paper or ink required nor is an appointment needed to have someone install the printer cartridges.
Sierra: I know. At the time Leila was still living in the days of when Computer Tech's came to the house to fix the printer because it was so complicated. She won't believe that there's anything new on the market until she sees it set up at my place, then she'll freak out when somethng is printing without a computer near by.
Blaine: There's nothing complicated about today's printer/copier/scanners! You open the scanner bed lid and that's where your two ink cartridges go. The two I have run on ink cartridges number sixty one and sixty two XL, hell you can go to just about anywhere that sells computers and find ink and paper. What time is your delivery slated for?
Sierra checks her phone's email and says: Oh about seven thirty. Unfortunatel I won't be home. I'll be back on Mars checked into the Maternity Suite to get ready for my induction on Friday at seven thirty. I'm tired of not being able to eat or drink anything or get any sleep because of these two.
Marie: Well then we'll take these unsavory items off your hands so you can get back to the task at hand and get the rest of your stuff finished. (Gathers up all of Torbin's proposed changed story boards and puts them in a garbage bag saying) This is where your story ideas belong Torbin, in the garbage! Your next meeting will be in oh six to eight months to a year's time to give you time to catch up on your delayed work. So now you're free to go back to focusing on what you were originally doing before Torbin changed things. There is nothing worse than someone new coming in on whatyou're doing and changing things mid way.
Sierra: Uh big problem there, I'm due tomorrow because I haven't slept all month and have eaten sporadically so a year from now these two will be running around getting into things and I'll be too distracted to do much of anything except keep my kids out of trouble.
Marie: Well then take your time! Toddlers will need your full attention. We have more than enough pieces to continually release art books until you're back writing and illustrating new books. With Christmas coming up very quickly, we have enough Christmas Pictures to put together a Holiday Themed Box and enough black and white images to put together an art box for those who want to color your drawings themselves and enough materials to release a How To Draw book for even the most beginning drawers to appreciate.
Sierra: I'll probably be doing everything while they sleep or are fascinated by whatever video happens to be in the bluray player or I'll just dump them on either set of grandparents for awhile while I work or hell I just might open up the door to ancient Egypt five thousand years ago and dump them on Mahad for awhile and let him deal with them. He always used to say his one regret would be that he'd never get to meet his grandkids, so once these guys are born, there's one text to my brother 'hey come meet your whatever.'
Blaine: That's what we're here for, to look after our grandkids for a spell then turn 'em back over to mom and dad all sugared up. Poor Mahad,he'll be driven nuts by his grandkids.
Marie: Wasn't he a Priest?
Sierra: Ever hear of the "Magic Hunters?" A band of miserable bastards that hunted down magic users and threw them in prison. I was six when I was sent to live with Mahad but I'd known him since I was born, he raised me under the name Rebel Dawn. I left shortly before he merged with his Spirit Monster and Atem sealed himsel in the Millennium Puzzel. There's not gonna be any sugaring up of my kids! Both sets of grandparents know the ground rules, too much sugar and they'll be dealing with the hyper active toddlers and trying to get them into bed for the night while I work on my book.
Marie: Good ground rules! You sugared them up, you deal with the bath,putting on with the pj's,the teeth brushing and the putting them to bed.
Blaine: No problem, I dealt with Rider when he was sugared up to the max by my own parents with bottle after bottle of water to flush his system out. It calmed him down and got him ready for bed. One night it took twenty four bottles of water to flush out the twelve cans of soda they let him have, good thing we started the bottles of water at breakfast and insisted he take a few bottles with him to counter act the grandparenting sugaring he was going to be getting. However Rimfire's parents don't have any other grand kids other than the ones that're on the way.
Sierra: My parents are first time grandparents as well.
Meanwhile on the escape ship
Gage hears his phone ring and answers it then listens as Dustin tells him where to find Autumn then hangs up and heads to the back where Basil was seated and just waking up then sits across from him saying: Hey, word came in on Autumn and the twins
Basil fully wakes up and says: Where are they?
Gage: Anaheim California, Jewel Towers private hidden floor.
Basil: Where the bloody hell is Anaheim California?
Gage: On Earth, the hidden floor is quiet,peaceful and private. You have a condo all set up for you,Autumn and the girls to live in. That's where she is with your twins, in your new condo probably helping them with their homework while figuring out what to give them for supper. Dustin's waiting for us to land to take you to your place in Jewel Towers to be with Autumn.
Basil heaves a sigh of relief and says: For ten years they kept saying she was dead and disposed of. Just to hear she's alive and safe makes me feel a boat load better. What about our kids?! Especially the twins she had in prison?!
Gage: Bryant's married, a dad to a little girl he named Cecilly-Autumn just born a few weeks ago and fur dad to a brown and white ball of energy who has one more set of shots before she's ready to be leash trained named Confetti and a Physio-Therapist, Rielley's an Eye Doctor, Joey's the base dentist and orthrodontist, Jet and Cross are Truant Officers who haul truant kids to class, Cleo had a really bad accident and is just now re-learning how to walk on her own, Raider's married to Rider with six kids four boys and two girls. In six months Rielley's gettin married to Becky. Sierra-weelll the Guardian Council had to call her back just after the invasion started, her magic was spiralling out of control. While the others are getting off on Mars at base, we'll take you directly to the transporter room that will transport you to Jewel Towers to be with Autumn. It will take you to Dragon's private transporter and he will take you to Autumn. Rimfire's married to Sierra. Rimfire well he met his better half with Sierra even though some people say it's 'wrong'. The girls I believe live with Rimfire and Sierra. They have the room and time to look after them, the first choices already have kids and the other kids are all working too many hours to look after them so Dragon dropped them off with Rimfire and Sierra to be cared for. Better than being dumped in the orphanage on East Star Base. They're probably in school right now while Rimfire sleeps the day away and Sierra works on her books, they go home for lunch then go right back to school for recess and the rest of the day.
Basil heaves a sigh of relief saying: Oh thank god,she'll be happy. At least they're all safe and back together and at least Sierra's alright. The last time I seen her was right before the invasion started. Huh I always wondered where she got off to. (Heaves a yawn saying) Now that I know Autumn's alright, I'm going back to sleep while I still can before having to answer fifty million and one questions about my time in prison and another fifty million and one questions about the program on the flash drive. That is if I decide to hand it over when I disembark. I just might wait awhile before turning it over. Sounds good to me. A nice long hot relaxing shower followed by clean clothes, a decent meal and a nice long uniterrupted sleep sound great to me. (Stretches and goes back to sleep for the remainder of the trip back to base)
Two hours later
Gage shakes Basil awake saying: C'mon, I'll take you to the transporter before anyone else finds out you're here.
Basil stands up,stretches and says: Alright then lead the way
Gage heads to the door of the ship and looks both ways to ensure no one was around and says: Follow me, Dragon has a transporter hidden across the hangar that no one else knows about. (Heads down the gang plank with Basil behind him and walks diagonally across the hangar until they came to what looked like a janitor's closet,opened the door and said) It's on, just walk through and keep walking and you'll emerge in Dragon's transporter room. From there he'll take you to Autumn.
Basil walks through the transporter door and kept walking until he emerged in Dragon's private transporter room
Dragon sees Basil and says: Well you made it in one piece. Beats the hell out of flying here doesn't it?
Basil heaves a sigh and says: Yeah it does and I didn't have to be squashed between two oversized overmuscled pea brained attention span of a gnat memory span of an ant Military Grade idiots because I have something the Military wants badly. I haven't eaten a decent meal, had a shower or slept more than fifteen to thirty minutes in ten years. It'd be nice to eat a meal,have a nice long hot, relaxing shower then hit a soft bed and sleep so that I can think clearly. But mostly I just want to see Autumn.
Dragon turns and opens the door saying: Well then, let's get going and get you reunited with Autumn. (Heads out the door with Basil behind him emerging in the hallway outside his condo and says) Just follow me and I'll get you to Autumn. (Heads straight down the hall and stops outside the condo down the hall and knocks on the door)
Autumn hears someone knocking on her door, stands up and heads to the door to open it saying in an exhausted voice: Oh hi Dragon, what's up?
Dragon: Six foot package delivery for you fresh from Mars
Basil comes out from behind Dragon and enters his new home embracing Autumn saying: Oh thank the stars you're alright!
Dragon backs out of the way saying: I'll be on my way then. I've some errands to run for Skylark to get done before all the stores close for the night. (Pulls the door closed, heads back up the hall turning at the junction that lead to Sierra's condo where he stopped and knocked on the door waiting for her to open the door only to have Rimfire open it saying) Oh hey, is Sierra not home?
Rimfire heaves a yawn and says: No, she has an editorial meeting t'day. She won't be back until later tonight. Please tell me you're going to get rid of the damned concierge!
Dragon: Yes, I'm on my way down to the lobby to break the news, I've been getting too many complaints from the businesses that they're not getting their messages,mail or deliveries. I've also been getting irate phone calls from the people on the third floor and up about the concierge desk refusing fast food delivery people access to the upper floors, I should've gotten rid of them after the last business opened, they were helpful to a point then they started turning people away from the front lobby during the winter and during times when it was raining or windy. We have a mini mall on the main floor for a bloody reason,so that in bad weather people can come in and shop. I've seen the lewed changes and I don't doubt she went back to Michael and Marie's publishing company, they treat her better than Torbin ever did.
Rimfire: Maybe now when we order from one of the restaraunts on the main floor, we'll actually get hot food not luke warm because the Concierge is running security clearances and checking ID's then making phone calls back to the place we ordered from to validate the ticket and order number then calling one of us down to the lobby to sign a release form and get our lukewarm almost cold food.
Dragon: Yeah that's gonna stop as soon as I tell the Concierge to pack up and GTFO of my building they're no longer needed. Well I'll let you go back to bed and get some sleep.
Rimfire heaves another yawn and shuts his door heading to his bedroom where he flopped onto the bed and instantly fell into a restful sleep.
Meanwhile in Autumn and Basil's Condo
Autumn shuts the door and locks it then returns and relishes the long forgotten feel of Basil's body and says: Welcome home at long last, I've missed you so much.
Basil lets go of Autumn and says: A nice hot shower sounds nice right now. But more than anything, I want to see our twins!
Autumn pulls Basil down the hall towards a bedroom where she stopped and said: Shh, they maybe having a rest. (Opens the door and walks into the dimly lit room saying) They were tired from school today. Ontop of that, Seira was assigned to play the flute and Sora the Piccolo with six hours of practice every day.
Basil: Wonderful, tolerable instruments! I was dreading being told they had the Trumpet and French Horn. (Walks over to the king size bed and pulls the blanket up over his two sleeping girls dropping a kiss on each of their heads then straightened and heads out the door with Autumn pulling it closed behind him saying) I could seriously use a nice long hot shower.
Autumn pulls Basil down the hall towards the master bedroom where she shut the double doors saying as she returned to his arms: I've already showered so you can go have one, then we'll head back out to the kitchen and figure out what to have for supper. Then head to bed after supper since we're both exhausted. The towels for the bathroom are right here in the cubbie as is a robe for you to put on so I can wash your clothes while you're in the shower since the washer is on a separate tankless hot water heater it won't interfere with your hot shower. (Grabs a towel from the cubby along with a robe then heads into the ensuite shutting the door behind him to start getting ready for his shower handing his clothes out the door piece by piece to Autumn who took them to the laundry room to be washed while she rummaged in the pantry)
Meanwhile
Sora stirrs from her nap,sits up,stretches and mutters: I think dad's home
Seira: We should go check with mom to be sure
Sora shoves the blanket back and slips off the bed followed by Seira, walks over and opens the door heading and down the hall to the kitchen saying: Mom?
Autumn smacks her head on a shelf in the pantry saying: In the pantry girls
Seira and Sora both head into the pantry saying: What're you doing?
Autumn: Trying to figure out supper, why?
Sora: Is dad home?
Seira: How about Honey Garic Sausages and salad. Quick and easy.
Autumn: Yes, he's having a much needed long hot shower right now. (Grabs a container of whole grain rice off the shelf saying) Alright girls, out into the kitchen and I'll find the sausages. I'm too exhausted to cook anything else. Oh by the way (Reaches into her sweater pocket and pulls out two boxes saying) I'm so sorry I missed your ninth birthday yesterday. I was still sitting in prison dreading the thought your father and older siblings were dead. I asked one of the guys on the rescue team if they knew anyone who could get you something for your birthday and Sierra came up with these (hands the girls the boxes saying) She had no earthly idea what you wanted so she's made it so you can go get whatever you want on your own. Two hundred from me and two hundred from your dad.
Seira/Sora each takes a box and opens it to reveal $400.00 gift cards
Seira: I can finally go get those beads I've been eyeing to finish off my art project before the Art Teacher decides to fail me. Then I can get a new bike and maybe new roller blades!
Sora: I can finally get those new roller blades and gear I've been staring at since I first seen them! Oh don't forget we have to figure out where to get composer paper for when we have to create our own pieces of music. Nothing I'm looking forward to doing
Autumn: Claeb is a pain in the tail to please, he's a perfectionist with zero tolerance towards people who don't have his skills in reading or writing music. He needs to remember you're learning to play instruments and read and write music, you don't have his training. (Ushers the two girls out into the kitchen where she sat the rice on the counter then opens the built in freezer and pulls out several meat packs saying) Back Ribs, Spare Ribs, Steak, Pork Chops, Hamburgers, Hot Dogs,Chicken and ah-ha! Honey Garlic Sausages! (Pulls out two packs of Sausages and says) Now where's the buns?!
Sora notices magnetic menu's from the various restaraunts and says: Why not just order in? There's Tai, Japanese,Korean, Italian, Pizza, Hamburgers even a Chinese Place.
Autumn: No, maybe tomorrow night we'll go out. Tonight we've got sausages,salad and rice, now if I could only find the blasted buns!
Seira opens a door and says: Found them! In the bread pantry! Ooh there's buns made with olive oil! They're good! (Grabs two packages of sausage buns from the shelf then closes the door setting the buns on the counter)
Sora opens the fridge and pulls out the fixings for a garden salad saying as she carefully backed out: Here's the fixings for a garden salad including a romaine salad base.
Seira opens the top freezer on the fridge and says: Oh my stars! It does exist!
Autumn: What? What exists?
Seira reaches into the freezer and pulls out a tub of Candy Cane Ice Cream and Candy Cane Ice Cream Bowls saying: Candy Cane Ice Cream and Ice Cream BOWLS!
Autumn: Hello Rielley, I thought Rielley was your BROTHER. You sound just like him.
Sora: We should take him some!
Autumn: Oh yes I can just hear him if you tell him you have candy cane anything, he'll be on the doorstep.
Seira pulls out her cell phone, opens the camera and snaps a photo of the tub of Candy Cane Ice Cream, the Candy Cane Ice Cream Bowls and the Honey Garlic Sausages then sends it to Rielley's phone and says: Now we wait.
Autumn hears her phone chime and says: Now what?
Seira: Uhh we have guests on the way for supper
Autumn goes back to the freezer and pulls out an extra pack of Honey Garlic Sausages and says: He never could pass up sausages. What does Becky say about coming here for supper?
Seira: That was Becky. They're coming since Rielley didn't get to see you when you were on Mars.
Autumn: I came here with Sierra to take a look at this place. I'm thrilled it's on a quiet private floor. Your father and I need peace and quiet to catch up on our missed sleep. (Unwraps the sausages, turns on the grill on the pininsula kitchen island stove saying) Tell Becky supper's in about a half hour.
Seira fires off her mom's message then says: They should be here in a few minutes (Hears the door bell and says) That should be them now. Sora go answer the door while I make a salad
Sora heads through the living room to the door and opens it to let her brother and future sister in law in saying: Supper's not ready yet, mom just put the sausages on the griddle to cook.
Rielley steps inside the condo and says: Where is Mom?
Sora: In the kitchen cooking sausages
An hour later
Basil comes out from the bathroom into the bedroom and noticing Autumn wasn't there walked over to the double doors,opened them,walked down the hall and into the kitchen wearing a clean pair of pj's while still towelling his hair dry and says: I feel a whole lot better! A Boatload cleaner! (Notices his wife's absence and says) Autumn? (Notices his son and says) Rielley, Becky
Seira & Sora dart to their dad saying: Dad!
Basil catches both his girls saying: Seira! Sora! You've gained weight and some muscles!
Autumn: They have gained weight and muscle. I've seen some of the other kids their age, they've got too much weight. They're chunky bordering on obese! Too much TV and Computer time not enough exercise time!
Seira: What do you expect? The Academy did away with gym class because no one could get any time in the gym. It was always booked by the Army for training so there's no where to have gym class.
Basil: You can do calisthenics exercises in the classroom. You don't need mats all over the place to do stretches
Becky: Are you kidding? There's no way to move the tables! They're bolted to the floor. All the desks are bolted to the floor.
Rielley: The Library's not much better, you can't sign out a book unless you have parental permission,two forms of ID,are a registered patron and sign a waiver that says you swear that you'll bring back the books in the exact same condition you borrowed them in. The Librarian writes down the names of all the books and their authors along with your name,age,grade and the person to contact if you fail to return the books in three weeks time.
Autumn groans saying: Would would want to keep books past three weeks? It normally takes a couple of days to read through a stack of books. Who bolts tables to the floor? What are they afraid of? Could you find me onions, ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, olives, plates and cups? I'll finish getting supper ready
Sora finds all the condiments her mother asks for in the pantry and sets them on the counter
Becky goes about grabbing plates,cups and bowls out of the cupboard then opens a drawer to pull out six forks and returns to the table to set it saying: Don't get me started on the A/V Department. A whole entire wing of DVD's and Blurays and CD's but no one's allowed to check them out unless they go through a thorough vetting process to get an AV Card and that can take anywhere from three to six months. Normally you fill out an application,pay a two dollar fee and are presented with your new Library Card, not with this broad that's behind the desk. If you already have a card, you'll be lucky to step foot in the movie building to check out movies as she's incredibly picky and fussy as to who can and can't take out what she calls 'her' vidoes.
Basil: Reminds me of my old school, desks were bolted to the floor and chairs attached to the desks by a long metal bar, as though anyone wants a damned table What is for supper anyway?
Sora: Honey Garlic Sausages,rice and a garden salad with Candy Cane Ice Cream inside edible Candy Cane Ice Cream Bowls.
Autumn notices how much salad Seira was making and says: Okay okay Seira you can stop making salad before you have everyone on Arsis base on our door step for supper!
Seira finally notices how much salad she'd made and says: Well at least we'll have salad for lunch tomorrow! I'll go wash my hands now! (heads down the hall to the bathroom with Sora and Becky in tow saying) Here's the bathroom
Sora: We don't need to use this washroom, we have our own bathrooms.
Seira: Let's go get washed up for supper, then I have math sheets with corrections to figure out
Becky watches as the girls went to their rooms to use their washroom,turns on the light,shuts and locks the door for privacy
Meanwhile in the dining room
Autumn finishes placing sausages on everyone's plates followed by a scoop of whole grain rice and a heaping plate full of garden salad, then pours Seira and Sora each a large glass of water and a bottle of pop for everyone then sits down and looks at the clock saying: Where are they? It doesn't take this long to wash their hands. I"m going to find out what's taking them so long in that bathroom! (Gets up from the table and heads down the hall to the bathroom nearly slamming into Seira,Sora and Becky saying: Oops, I was just coming to see if you were coming. The boys used the washroom off the dining room and are back at the table waiting.
Basil hears a knock at the door and goes to answer it opening the door he nearly dropped to her knees as he said: SIERRA?
Sierra heaves a yawn saying: That would be me.
Basil moves aside and says: Come on in! You live here on this floor?
Sierra yaws saying: Uh-huh. Go up the hall and turn left at the junction, I'm the only condo down there. I've lived here since I was sixteen years old, just couldn't do the schelpping back and forth and since I'm done with school, I don't have to worry about school interfering with my meetings or homework cutting into my drawing,lining,inking, shading and coloring time.
Becky notices a brace on Sierra's left hand and says: What have you done to your arm that requires a pressure brace?
Sierra: Broke it in eight places at the end of my last tour when I slipped on some frozen puddled water. I have nerve,muscle and tendon damage right now that Bryant is working on fixing without resorting to minimally invasive surgery.
Rielley: Isn't that nice? Someone didn't do their job and throw down some rock salt to get rid of frozen water.
Basil notices Sierra's eyes were red and says: Do you need drops for your eyes? They're red!
Rielley: I already put eye drops in her eyes. I can't do much more until she has the twins.
Sierra: I'm just plain exhausted from a meeting I was in. I've been up two nights in a row trying to get my storyboards in order and dealing with an idiot who decided his ideas were better than mine for a YA Idol novel I've been working on. Which brings me to this (lifts the bag in her right hand saying) Two laptops complete with a wifi router.
Basil: Just one router?
Sierra: That's all you need. Rimfire and I work off the same wifi signal with no problems unlike the old ones where you had to have one in each room, this one will let more than one computer work off of it. You take the cable cord that normally goes into the cable cord jack and you plug it into the top of the router and when the green light is blue, you have wifi. You just need the password which is normally a default password of 33333333 you can change it to whatever you want it to be.
Autumn comes to the door and says: If you're hungry and if the twins will let you eat, we've got honey garlic sausages on the table
Becky sees Sierra's face turning multiple shades of green and says: Oh joy, oh rapture is this what I have to look forward to?
Sierra: Yes and no. Depends really, I just got my lab results back and it's a lovely thing no one told me about called a Pregnancy Cold. No wonder I'm hot one minute freezing the next, hungry the way I was when I was awakened from the crystalline healing ice then puking everything up. The twins are ready for birth so they're not kicking anymore, my stomach's been doing summersaults all day long. Sleep? Forget it, I had to re-train my brain and body to shut down at the exact same time and when these two came along, all hell broke loose and I haven't been able to settle enough to get any sleep. I'd sleep for like five minutes and be racing around the condo doing anything and everything to avoid going back to sleep.
Basil takes the bag from Sierra's right hand and says: Piece of advice, go back out to the country! It's too noisy in the city and you said yourself that you sleep deeper and longer when you're out in the country. Raise the kids in the country not in the city. That's why I'm screwed up the way I am. I was raised in the concrete jungle, I couldn't tell you what the ocean looked like to save my life but then again Geography was a subject that met the chopping block by the time I got to third grade it was a thing of the past as was History and Science an Music and Health Class. A Laptop for you and one for me with a wireless router that will let both of us work off the same signal. (Carries the bag into the living room and sets them on the coffee table taking the boxes out saying) Let's open them and see what they look like!
Sierra follows Basil into the kitchen and sits in a chair to rest her weary body
Basil takes the other box and opens it to remove the laptop saying: Mine's the same shade of blue my old one was before it decided to quit working. (Reaches back into the bag and pulls out the wireless router box saying) Ahh so this is the latest modle of wifi routers huh? Can it be charged?
Sierra heave another yawn and says: Yeah it comes with a charging cord. Mine however met Mittens in a playful mood and well she chewed it to bits so I just went out and bought a new charging cord for it and my phone and Mittens is not allowed to be near cords. How she got it is beyond me. Everything is put where she can't get at it. As for your laptops, they are your old laptops just tuned up and updated to run windows11 and have wifi capabilities. All your old information is still on the hard drives nothing has been changed or altered. Just updated and upgraded.
Basil plugs the cord into the back of his laptop,plugs the other end into the wall socket, turns it on,watches as his computer turned on then input his password and was presented with his old homescreen as he said: I can't believe it! All my files are still here! I thought for sure when this suddenly quit after my last back up just before the war started, I'd lost everything for good! How did you manage to fix this when no one else could?!
Sierra: I called in a favor from Crystal's brother Mitchell, he's a whiz in computer repair and system upgrades. I gave him your laptops complete with notes and he went to town with his wife digging through your system without damaging any important files on the hard drive, they ran a diagnostic scan and deleted a few unwanted background programs that were taking control of your system then when they ran an advanced antivirus scan they found somewhere along the line that someone had installed some simmering viruses that they removed. I'd say somewhere along the line of a hundred different viruses that were safely removed fifty between each of your laptops. You have turbo antivirus software that has created a titanium barrier throughout your systems, there won't be any viruses making themselves at home in your computer systems. As for ordering from the restaurants online? It's easy, you choose the restaurant you want food from, in the address bar you input their web address then hit enter and it'll take you directly to their ordering site. Since you're both first time customers you need to register by filling out the information you see then you'll get a confirmation email with a link you need to click on to confirm your account and after that it's a matter of <yawn> picking what you want to order and checking out by choosing your method of payment. Since Dragon owns this building and this is a private floor no one up here ever has to pay for their food since it goes on a tab that gets paid at the end of every month.
Basil looks over the list of restaurants and says to Autumn: For tonight it smells like you brought me supper!
Sierra puts the heavy thermal bag on the counter and says: There's more than enough Tai food for a dozen people. Rimfire had an even longer work week, three nights and no time for sleep makes me wonder if he's awake.
Basil: Where is Rimfire?
Sierra: At home sleeping. He's been working back to back to back to back crash shifts in the Medward and this is the first chance he's had at getting any sleep. I'll see if I can wake him up. (pulls out her cell phone and hits send on the message she'd already written then waits until it chimed and taps the envelope saying) AHH he is awake or as awake as he can plausibly be. (Sends him directions to Basil's place then hits send and says) Now we sit and wait to see if he comes. (Suddenly hears a knock at the door and says) He's here.
Basil gets up off the couch and goes over to the door and opens it saying: Rimfire?
Rimfire half awake says: Hey Basil
Basil: You look worse than I do right now. Babies keeping you awake all night?
Rimfire: Huh? Oh no I haven't been to bed at all this week. I've been working back to back crash shifts with no let up until this morning then I high tailed it home to bed. Just trying to catch a nap before Sierra and I head back home to get her settled in for Friday at seven thirty when your next set of grand kids will be born.
Sierra comes out of the living room and says: Hungry?
Rimfire: Starving haven't had anything to eat since I passed on early this morning's gruel aka leftover soggy runny oatmeal in the cafeteria. I got up just before you texted me, Dragon texted me stating that they're looking into the reason the elevators keep stalling. Your deluxe printer packages arrived and are set up. Then he came to the door to say that they're OFFICIALLY GETTING RID OF THE CONCIERGE DESK!
Sierra: Glory Halejuhia! FINALLY when we order take out, we'll get it when it's nice and hot instead of on the verge of being cold because the Concierge has held up the delivery guy for over an hour vetting his information and security clearance!
Basil: It's always awkward with Concierge's, even if you live in the building, they look at you like you're a criminal and treat you as such.
Rimfire: I made a simple mistake one year and got on the public elevator forgetting it doesn't come up here and the Concierge looked at me like 'Who are you? What are you doing in my elevator? where the hell did you come from? when did you start living in my building? why don't I know you? How long is your rap sheet?' Well one I don't have to introduce myself to you since I rarely if ever stop at the concierge desk, two I live here, three I came from the private floor you're not welcomed or allowed up on, four I started living here a year after Sierra did, five I don't make it a point in my day to stop and chat up the Concierges I hate them with a passion.
Sierra grabs Rimfire's hand and says: Come on into the living room and sit down. (Pulls him into the living room and lets him sit saying) I was wondering when Dragon was going to get rid of them. I ordered something for Terra's baby shower and the box was delivered three weeks after it was due to be delivered. The box was opened, the contents taken out,unwrapped and taken out of the factory seal.
Rimfire sits on the stool next to Sierra saying: What did you get her?
Sierra: A crib set for her baby and a stuffed Winnie The Pooh. When I got Pooh Bear his back seam had been sliced open then sewen back up again rather sloppily. I had to fix the sloppy sewing but it was beyond repair so I had to toss it and re-order a new one with free express one day shipping and it arrived the next day then got wrapped up and delivered to Terra's baby shower.
Basil: I hadn't realized this building had a concierge desk.
Sierra: By the way, want to meet your grand pup?
Basil: My grand pup?
Sierra taps the album app and pulls up Confetti's picture saying: This is Bryant's fur baby Confetti. She was just sprung from Puppy Jail today after she had the last of her puppy shots updated, now she just needs her Rabies shots and tag then she can bite anyone she pleases as long as Bryant doesn't find out. Oh and this little stinker (swipes to the left bringing up Bryant's daughter saying) is Bryant's daugther, (swipes to the left for Joey's clan saying) These are Joey's kids,Ranger's a cancer survivor four times over, I unfortunately don't have any other pictures. Raider hasn't sent me updated pictures of her kids, Rielley's the base optometrist who's getting married in six months, Cleo's not married but had an accident and is just getting back on her feet after being paralyzed from the waist down, Rimfire and Cross are Truant Officers, Bryant's my physio massage therapist,Joey's a dentist,Raider has four boys and two girls of who Autumn has already met.
Basil: Damned I've so much catching up to do with my own kids it's not funny!