Cytronica

Twenty-one

Hunter opened his eyes, his consciousness returning to the real world. He sat up in the chair, his mind taking a few seconds to adjust to its surroundings.

When his vision was no longer blurry, he looked around the empty server room.

"You're back," Zack said.

"Yep." Hunter let out a soft yawn. "Man, you missed out on some awesome stuff. There was a high-speed chase and everything! And then soldiers started blocking off the streets. It was intense."

The shorter boy looked across at him. "Wow," he said, pretending to sound impressed, "that does sound cool. Next time I'll join you for sure."

"Really?" Hunter asked, unconvinced. "Because you didn't seem so keen before."

Zack lowered his gaze. "Sorry. I just panicked a little. I'm not used to seeing riots break out and stuff."

"I get you. It's daunting." He rose from his chair. "So much fun though. Way better than gravity. Although I get the feeling Justin and Casey hate each other."

Zack smirked. "I think it's obvious they don't get along."

"Oh well," Hunter shrugged. "Not my problem." He walked over to Miller's computer and took a seat. "Did you change the password back?"

"Yep. All done."

"Cool." He logged into the system and stared at the screen, browsing through the system preferences. "Everyone else gone home?"

"Yeah. They'd had enough of Cytro for one day."

Hunter let out a smug laugh. "Probably too much for them to handle." He continued reading through the different network settings that Miller had access to, looking for a certain button. "Did you speak to them much?"

"Who? The others?" Zack asked, trying to sound casual. "Yeah, a little bit in the common."

"I see." Hunter turned his head, facing his friend. "What did you guys talk about?"

Zack paused, thinking of the right thing to say. He was torn, knowing he had to do the right thing by stopping the Legion from ruining Cytro any further, but also curious to see what else Hunter had planned for the immediate future. "They're not too happy with what you've been doing," he admitted.

"Which I already knew. Did they say what they're going to do about it?"

"Not really. There's not much they can do."

"Exactly." Hunter returned to the computer screen. Seconds later, he found what he was looking for. "They're just as involved. They can't go to Ramirez. So they'll either have to come to their senses and see how much fun Cytro can potentially be, or they can log out once and for all."

"You're right." Zack looked up at the dimly lit room. It was quite a lonely space when it wasn't as crowded. He had no idea how Miller could stand working here by himself for eight hours each day. "What's next for the Legion? What's the plan?"

"Still working on that one. Tomorrow and Friday I'm not too sure. We could always lower civil stability down to zero."

"Zero?" Zack echoed. "Are you sure you want to go that low? That probably means, like, civil war in the realm."

Hunter laughed. "You could be right. I want to test it out before Saturday."

Zack clenched his jaw for a moment. It was the second time he'd heard Hunter mention the coming weekend. "What's happening Saturday?" he asked, hoping to pry the answer from him.

"Something big. For now, it's a secret for only myself and Justin. But trust me—it's going to be awesome. After I left your place last night I went home and studied the manual some more. I have some cool ideas. It'll be exciting."

"Sounds good," Zack lied. "You sure you can't tell me though?"

Hunter winked in his direction. "Patience. You'll find out soon enough."

"Okay," he accepted, not wanting to push his luck. "Shall we go home now?"

"You can. There's something I need to do quickly."

Zack logged off from his computer and walked over to Miller's desk. "What is it? Can I help?"

Hunter spun around in the chair and rested his hands behind his head. "I have an idea for a backup plan. Hopefully, we won't need it, but I want to be prepared, just in case."

"Good idea." Zack watched the monitor but Hunter took no action. "Are you going to tell me?"

Hunter made an apologetic face. "Not yet. Even Justin doesn't know this. It's just an idea I had when I was logged in before."

"Okay," the boy accepted, again not wishing to pry so much that Hunter no longer trusts him. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

"See you then, man."

Zack made his way to the door and closed it behind him. As he walked down the hall, he took a final glance through the window, hoping to see what Hunter was up to, but the on-screen font was too small to read from this distance.

He gave up and strode through the hollow corridor, his mind trying to figure out what was going to take place on Saturday.

Whatever it was, it was bound to be awful.

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