Clashing Obsessions

Chapter 15 - Kalix

"Live from London, England, this is Nexlo Newsday," the host announces, rather dramatically, and the intro music plays.

The first story is the one I was looking for: updates on OutlawResolve's hack. Unfortunately, it turns out to all be information I already have, and the reporters are just spinning it to sound more exciting and new. The next headline is about how they caught the perpetrator from an armed robbery two weeks ago, then—

DING...

That must be Roxy and Cayden. They're coming over today to work on our community service project for school. After making sure to close the tabs with anything, well, sketchy — dark web chats, illegal programs, etc. — I head downstairs to get the door.

"Hey, guys, come on in."

"Hey!" Roxanna hugs me and Cayden waves, and they both follow me inside.

"Anyone want tea?" I ask, heading to the kitchen, and my friends nod. I set the water outlet to 98°C then search the overhead cupboard for a box of tea bags.

"So, you up to anything interesting today?" Roxy asks, sitting on the counter.

"Not much, really. I was just watching a newsfeed when you guys got here, kinda boring, though. What about you?"

For the next few minutes, while I make and pour the tea, we talk about our days and what's been going on. Roxanna and her boyfriend broke up, and apparently Cayden and Jezzia are in some kind of argument. For once, I'm kind of glad for my lack of a love life — this all sounds pretty stressful.

The three of us head up to my room with our mugs of tea. The newsfeed is still playing in the background — something about a scientist, Dr. Blayne — as I open up a new document to start planning our project. The journalist rattles on about some controversial plan for experimenting with cybernetics, and I mute it, flicking the window to the side.

"It gives me the creeps," Roxy says, her eyes on the screen, "the idea of some mad scientist experimenting on a bunch of cyborg rats."

"Better rats than humans. I happen to know a cyborg and I'd really rather she weren't a test subject for Dr. Mad Scientist Dude," Cayden jokes.

"Yeah, me neither," I say, chuckling. "The guy does seem a little... off his rocker."

Roxanna furrows her brow. "Where'd that expression come from, anyway? What's a rocker, and how does somebody get off it?"

* * *

"Whoa, be careful up there!" Cayden calls up to me. I'm currently sitting on a structural beam of an overhang above a nearby park's designated picnic area, holding on with one hand. My phone is in the other, the camera app open.

For the project, we're supposed to film ourselves helping the community, to make an advertisement of sorts. We chose the environment as our "area of concern", so we're at the park to pick up garbage and explain about the dangers of littering. When we're done, our video and those of the other groups will be shown at the final assembly on the last day of school, as a way of trying to persuade students from the grades not participating in the project to also do community service.

Oh, right, and as for the overhang thing, I thought I'd be an interesting angle. What can I say, I like climbing stuff.

"I'll be fine, I've got a good grip here," I reassure him. "Besides, that Dr. Blayne seems to think falling won't hurt me. I'm like a shock-proof human!" I joke, and Cayden glares at me, but from what I can tell it's a combination of a pretend, joking glare and an I'm-serious-don't-fall-and-die glare.

He turns back to Roxy, who's re-reading the script we devised on her phone. "Ready?"

"Yep, you can start recording, Kalix," she tells me, and I hit the button.