A hologram of a dancing girl hovered over Sora, singing its programmed alarm song and invading his dreams. He lazily opened his eyes and slapped the hologram away, shutting it up. He turned his head to his calendar and saw the date marked with a skull.
“Whoa!” Sora shrieked as he threw the covers off him and jumped off his bed.
The day had finally come and there was no way he was wasting a second of it. He peeled off his clothes as he stumbled to the bathroom, almost losing his step when his legs caught in his Pajamas. He took a rushed shower and brushed his teeth in a daze as he crosschecked his plan in his mind.
He ran to the kitchen and put a slice of bread quickly into the toaster then ran back to the room and threw off his towel as he got dressed. At the same time, he swiped off a screen from his pod and enlarged it. The hologram portrayed news about a new ship that was to be launched by a coalition of rich enterpreneurs in Vannes and he smiled knowingly.
"Rich bastards," he grumbled and yelled as he lost his balance while putting on his pants and fell on a figurine of Bullshit. He yelled in pain because he sat on the mast and it pricked him, making him hold his butt as he pranced around the room. He finally put on his pants successfully, and wore a red T-shirt with a blue jacket on top of it. He grabbed the screen and swiped it back into his pod then closed the device.
He picked his skyboard from its spot by the wall and ran out of his bedroom, and through the kitchen, grabbing the toast in mid-air. He put on his sneakers when he was at the door and stopped for a second to say goodbye to his little apartment. He clasped his hands together and bowed his head in thanks. “Thank you for taking care of me. Next time I walk in here I will be a well-known pirate,” Sora vowed and bounded out the door.
He lived in an apartment on the third floor of a six floor apartment building. Unlike most other buildings, his used an open corridor despite how dangerous it was.
He jumped down from his floor, enjoying the free fall then placed his skyboard under his feet and took off down the streets of the little town of Lamia. The skyboard was one of his creations: it was modelled after a skateboard, except it used compressed air to allow its user to float in mid-air.
A brown hawk with a red head circled above him then perched on his shoulder and Sora grinned as he greeted his best friend and brother. The hawk's eyes gleamed with a hidden intelligence, its feathered body hiding the robotics within it, the whole thing an artificial masterpiece his father had created.
“Hey Crow, our hard work finally pays off today. You excited?” Sora asked as he neared the main town of Lamia.
“Need I remind you that I’m the one doing most of the work,” the hawk replied in a mocking tone. It had the voice of a six year old boy, which made it impossible for Sora to ever take it seriously. Unfortunately for Sora, Crow was built to adapt and grow to its surroundings and so its sarcastic attitude never stopped evolving.
“Hey, all you do is the software stuff. I’m the one dodging bullets,” Sora countered.
“Bah, I can dodge bullets in my sleep,” Crow replied and flapped its wings.
“No one would shoot you in your sleep. You’re a freaking bird,” Sora said as he tried to grab it.
“Exactly,” Crow pointed out as he deftly dodged his hand, then landed on top of his head.
Lamia might be a small town but it was really lively. At eight in the morning the streets were already piled with people walking to work and shop owners vending their goods using big holograms.
Sora got off his board because it would be too dangerous to fly through the bustling crowd. He tucked it under his arm as he ran to the store of Old man Jenkins. As the name suggested, Jenkins was an aging old man with grey beards that fell to the ground. His eyes were covered by his eyebrows and his skin was completely wrinkled. Jenkins ran the electronics store legally, but under wraps, he sold a lot of banned or illegal software and weaponry that could take down towns. He waved to Jenkins and the old man guided him to the back of his shop.
