Prunella Honey Thornton finally exits the Summit City Gym at 5:33 pm. Her nerves have calmed down a little bit after spending some time in the relaxation room, watching cartoons, and enjoying flavored water and cookies.

  Now she is on her way to submit her information to the Academy of Irregular Defense Recruitment Office, which is located at the Fleur de Lis Plaza. According to her map, the route is a big L, so it is easy to follow.

  The late afternoon weather beats against Honey as she walks down the decorative sidewalk, passing the elaborate lamp posts and fancy buildings, and her brain barely registers her surroundings.

  Despite the beauty around her, her heart is still heavy, and her knees feel weak. She swallows down the urge to scream, the urge to cry. But while she struggles to keep those at bay, she keeps thinking about Rocky’s destroyed face staring down at her.

  His jaw was a mangled mess, his teether were shattered, his blood was all over his face, his chest, and dripping down on her, and yet he didn’t seem fazed at all. He was all focus on his goal of killing her in the simulation. Thinking about that sends a shiver up her spine.

  She notices enough to not get run over and to follow the pedestrian signals, and when she reaches the mall, the very first thing she sees is a Fleur de Lis carved from stone and lined with small lights. It is in a patch of grass with colorful flowers, and flanking the carving are a pair of signs that read Fleur de Lis Plaza, and the structure behind it is something that Honey finds to be absolutely beautiful.

  The glass domed roof shines in the sunlight, and the ringed structure goes up three stories, with a covered walkway around its perimeter, and each level has an exterior walkway for people to enjoy the weather while they shop or rest in the sunlight.

  Honey whistles impressively and approaches the building. The parking lot is full of cars, and civilians go to and from the building, leading to her weaving her way through the vehicles and sporadic groups of people. When she reaches the double doors, she sees a sign that reads: Please keep weapons holstered at all times. Violators will be punished!

  Honey checks the straps and the magnetic braces holding Thor-Ton, and satisfied with its security, she goes forth.

  The doors open automatically, and cold air immediately assaults her exposed skin and seeps past her clothes. The sudden coldness makes her twitch erratically, getting some stares from people passing by, but she ignores them and goes further in.

  Music plays over the intercom, but she can’t understand the lyrics due to all the talking, sneakers squeaking on the tile, kids screaming or crying, and vendors shouting at people to buy their stuff.

  The lights are bright, the store fronts have displays of mannequins wearing overly priced clothes. The walkways are also crowded with people moving at various speeds, carrying big bags, no bags, food, children, pushing baby carriages or wheelchairs, or sometimes a combination of one or many of these things.

  Their chatter, the many steps, the noise from the announcements, the music, and venders, all of it converges on Honey’s senses. The chaos leaves her already heavy heart racing and she finds her hands instinctively coming together and her head dipping as she weaves her way through the mass of consumers.

  With the anxiety comes the confusion. Honey knows she’s better than this, but then again, she has never seen anything this crowded on Lilian. Even their plaza was nothing like this, in size or customer density.

  As Honey travels through the crowd, her eyes lock on to a pool; its floor decorated with colorful rocks and underwater ruins, and fish swimming around. There is a mesh net over it and signs instructing people to not feed the fish.

  There are also drones flying around, watching everyone closely. One of them even stops and looks at her, and its lens adjusts, prompting Honey to smile nervously and meekly wave at it.

  The drone leaves after that, and Honey exhales and continues walking. As she does, she veers off to the side to avoid a family walking through with their vocal and bounce happy toddlers. As she does this, she comes in close proximity to a booth with a lot of mannequin heads that have colorful wigs and displays of hair dye product, and an overly flamboyant man leaps in front of her, making Honey yell and recoil.

  “You! Blondie! Do you want to buy some hair dye?” asks the vendor.

  “No, thank you,” says Honey with her hands held up and walking backwards from him.

  He takes another step to her and shakes the hair dye bottle. “Come on! You’ll love it! Squirt it on, rub it in, boom! New hair color for six months before fading! Only five thousand fedos!”

  “No, I’m good,” says Honey.

  She turns around and bumps into another vendor. He is next to a slightly raised platform where people’s legs are strapped down while a little machine aggressively polishes their shoes. The customers look less than comfortable.

  “Sup. Want me to shine your shoes?” asks the vendor roughly.

  “No, thanks for the offer, though,” says Honey.

  She slides by him, and weaves through a group of people standing around like a blood clot in an artery, forcing people to move around them and deal with vendors or pretend they wanted to go into the shoe store.

  Then she sees a map on the wall, and she smiles with relief as approaches it. After a quick search, she sees that the Academy of Irregular Defense Recruitment Office is on the third floor, almost directly above her. Even more fortunately, there is an elevator nearby.

  Honey hurries to the elevator and ignores vendors begging her to look at their products, and when she gets inside, she hits the appropriate button. The door is about to close, but a hand suddenly stops it. Honey frowns and backs up as the door opens so fifteen people can crowd inside it.

  All of them are wearing Church of Unity shirts, and some of them offer quick apologies to Honey, which she returns with a small smile. But that smile disappears as soon as they look away, and she grits her teeth behind her sealed lips as she is pressed into the corner of the elevator, which is made all the more uncomfortable by Thor-Ton digging into her back. The only good part about the ordeal is the fact that the large group got off on the second flood, and no one came into the elevator after that, leading to ascending to the next level breathable.

  As soon as the elevator reaches the third level, Honey swiftly exits and looks both ways before seeing the recruitment office. For its grand purpose in the security of the Neto System and Prospect Sector of the Federation of Systems, its location is plain to say the least. There is a digital sign above its one door entrance that reads: Academy of Irregular Defense Recruitment Office- Summit Branch. Then there’s the window with their symbol on it: a sun with a musket and sword crossing behind it. The symbol looks like it was made with glass paint, too.

  Honey makes haste across the walkway to the office with a smile on her face and an excited heart rattling behind her ribs. When she enters the office, a bell dings, and she finds a pair of couches off to the side with a coffee table, some magazines, and a TV with a game console plugged in. But the TV is currently broadcasting a news report of military buildup.

  On the other side are a few desks with one occupied and the other two empty. However, in front of the occupied desk causes Honey to stiffen and her eye to twitch.

  It is Rocky and Emma.

  “Everything looks in order for both of you,” says the man behind the desk. “The next flight to the Academy is in three weeks. If you arrive on the shuttle, great. If not, you clearly weren’t ready, so you’d be doing all of us a favor. Enjoy your day, you two.”

  Rocky and Emma stand up, and Emma bows slightly while Rocky shakes the recruiter’s hand.

  “Thank you, kind sir,” says Emma.

  “We won’t disappoint anybody,” assures Rocky.

  “Don’t make promises like that. Now, get out of here and enjoy a meal or something,” says the recruiter.

  Rocky and Emma say their farewells, and exchange eye contact with Honey. Rocky has a smirk, Emma waves with wiggly fingers, and Honey glares at them.

  “You know those two, miss?” asks the recruiter.

  Honey turns to him and flashes a polite smile.

  “They’ve been problematic for me, but I’m done with them for the day,” says Honey.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Right…” says the recruiter. “I’m certain you didn’t walk in here on accident.”

  “No, sir. I did not!” Honey approaches the desk and motions to the seat. “May I?”

  The recruiter nods and waves her down, and Honey unstraps Thor-Ton and sets it next to her as she sits. The recruiter stares at the weapon and then looks at Honey.

  “Cybernetic enhancements,” says Honey.

  “Oh~ That answers a lot of questions,” says the recruiter. “Now for my questions. You are here to apply to the Academy of Irregular Defense, right?”

  “Yes sir, I am, and I have everything I need in my pouch.”

  Honey opens it and finds it empty. Her brow furrows, and her hands tremble as she looks inside, seeing nothing in there at all. Not even lint. She looks at the recruiter and flashes a nervous smile, and he raises a brow.

  “Just one second, sir,” says Honey. She opens a smaller pouch on her pack, and that one is also empty. She closes that one and stares down at her legs. Her fingers tense, her heart gets heavy and a pressure in her throat builds while her eyes burn from hot tears.

  “Are you okay, miss?” asks the recruiter.

  Honey takes a deep breath to break the wet barrier in her throat, and she blinks a couple of times before looking at him. “No.”

  “You don’t have you letter of recommendation or genetic receipt, do you?” says the recruiter.

  “It was in my pouch before I got here!”

  “Or you made a mistake and left it at home.”

  "There's no way I left it at home! … Sir. Somebody must've…"

  Honey's voice trails off and she remembers when Emma got oddly close to her and felt her around. Specifically, the hip, and Honey’s hands clench into tight fists with the blue markings pulsing.

  “Never mind, sir. I know what happened to them, and I’m going to get them back,” says Honey.

  The recruiter pulls out a file and leans back in his chair while flipping through it.

  “No rush. We close at eight and are open every day," says the recruiter dryly.

  Honey puts Thor-Ton on her back and hurries out of the recruiter’s office. She looks in the direction the two devils went, and she barely sees them going down an elevator. Honey speed-walks to the edge and watches the elevator go down to the first floor. The pair exit, and Honey sneers and looks around for a way down.

  It doesn’t take long for her to find a good spot, and after a quick jog, she climbs over the railing, bringing people to pause and gasp or tell her to stop, and she jumps down. Her hands catch the second level railing, and her feet help her body lock in place, getting some screams and shouts of approval, and a drone flies over to her and watches her as she pushes herself off the railing, grab the side of the elevator shaft use her gloves and boots to slow her slide down.

  She pushes her way through the crowd, in the direction of Rocky and Emma, and sees them go outside. Her quick walk turns to a fast run, almost knocking someone over in the process, and she doesn’t wait for the automatic doors to open all the way before she goes outside.

  The late afternoon sun shines bright on Honey’s face. She squints her eyes and peers down the direction Rocky and Emma went. She sees them rounding a corner, and she gives chase. As Honey runs, she shoves people aside and ignores their shouts and curses.

  While she is running, one person she runs into leads to their food and drinks from a Klumsy K's eatery splattering on them. Their carryout box breaks, their cup's lid breaks off, and sauces, soda and pieces of burger are grounded into their suit.

  Honey tries to keep running, but he grabs her with the striking speed of a snake, and Honey freezes. She looks at him with wide eyes and he glares at her with cold blue eyes. He is older than Honey by a year, and has thick dark hair, thick eyebrows, and rough tan skin.

  "Aren't you forgetting something?" he says.

  "Let me go. I need to catch someone!" says Honey.

  "I want an apology and your name and address so I can send you the cleaning bill."

  "What? You ran into me! That mess is all your fault!"

  The man tightens his grip on her wrist, and Honey growls and blue lines tracing her bones glow under her skin as she begins prying his hand off. Her strength surprises him, and he grabs her hand and tugs her back with some difficulty.

  "Are you modified?" he asks.

  "Yes. Now let me go," says Honey.

  "You owe me a cleaning bill."

  "I don't owe you jack!"

  Honey tries kicking him, but he blocks her kick with his foot. She twists her arms, and then tries tripping him, but he keeps a tight hold on her, leading to both falling and rolling over each other. They hop back to their feet, still not letting go. A small crowd has gathered, but the two ignore them as they force each other into a circle that ends with the man slamming Honey into the wall.

  "How about this? A duel at the Summit Gym tomorrow at two o'clock? If you lose, you pay the bill. If I lose, I forgive you," he says.

  "Fine by me! I've been there already," says Honey.

  "Astros Fere."

  "Honey Thornton."

  Astros releases Honey and she runs away. When she is gone, Astros looks at his messy shirt. He sighs and walks away without saying a word to the crowd.

  Meanwhile, Honey goes down to the area where she last saw Rocky and Emma. Her heart is racing, and her eyes frantically dart side to side looking for clues of Rocky's whereabouts.

  Then she sees the pair entering a park via gate next to a ticket booth advertising park entrance price.

  "Got you," says Honey under her breath.

  Honey runs forward and bumps into another person. This one is female with an elegant body, fair skin, and long brown hair, and wearing a nice outfit consisting of a blouse, skirt, and jewelry. Or the stuff was nice until Honey running into her causes her to fall into a mud puddle while her finely dressed male courter watching them dumbfoundedly.

  The female screams angrily as she looks at the dark, grainy, and leafy gunk covering her.

  "What in the world!?" she says.

  Honey scrambles over her, stepping on her gut along the way, causing the woman to gag and twitch and Honey’s boot leaving a muddy footprint on her. Honey attempts to make a break for it, but her ankle is grabbed, and she is tugged to the ground.

  Honey's vision is knocked out of focus as she hits the ground, and she is turned on her back, making for a very uncomfortable position due to Thor-Ton digging into her, and the woman she ran over straddles her and grabs her collar, growling like a vicious wolf.

  "You imbecile! Do you have any idea how much this outfit cost!?" she says.

  Honey looks at the jewelry and notices that the gold coloring is slightly off. Then she looks at the outfit, and finally at the makeup ruined by the mud.

  "If it's fake like your jewelry, then not much," says Honey.

  The woman gasps, and her courter stiffens.

  "Wait, you're wearing fake jewelry?" he asks.

  "What? No, I'm not! She’s lying!" says the woman defensively.

  "Oh, trust me. It’s fake. The gold is fading, and she probably has some weird tint on her fingers from wearing the fake gold ring," says Honey.

  "Quiet, harlot!" snaps the woman.

  "If you're wearing fake jewelry, that must mean you're poor. And that's gross. Good day, pleb," says the courter.

  He gets up, wipes as much mud off him as he can, and then walks away and hails a taxi.

  Honey and the woman watch a taxi pull up to him. He gets inside, and after the taxi drives away, the woman glares at Honey, and she smiles nervously.

  "He wasn't good for you, anyway?" suggests Honey unsurely.

  Honey is then punched in the nose, and while she curses from the pain, the woman yanks her to her feet and points at her bleeding nose.

  "Summit Gym. Tomorrow at two thirty. Be there!" she says.

  Honey sniffs blood up her nose. "Name?"

  "Petals Vallon."

  "Honey Thornton."

  Petals shoves Honey back. "Get out of my sight."

  Petals storms away, and Honey bites her thumb at her before going to the ticket booth. The ticket booth operator is an android with an expressionless face and a sleek shell with a scanner in its hand.

  "One ticket to the park, please," says Honey, keeping her hand pressed against her nose.

  "That will be eighty-five fedos," says the android.

  "Yeesh, interstellar robbery," grumbles Honey as she digs into her wallet.

  She pays for the ticket and goes into the park. It is a spacious place with large trees, cobblestone paths, and a fountain of a pair of angels surrounded by chromosome structures and molecular structures of the chemical elements found in the human body.

  Honey keeps her hand pressed against her nose as she frantically looks around for the spawns of Satan. She sees couples walking around, singles sitting on benches, old people playing chess, children playing checkers, young adults jogging, an automated cart driving around with an advertisement of a modification clinic. But no Rocky or Emma.

  Honey grits her teeth and continues her search. Minutes tick by, and Honey's aggravation only grows. She walks the entire park, staying on the raised walkway for optimal views. When she finds Rocky and Emma enjoying the scenery at the pond, she leaps over the railing of the walkway and runs to them, ignoring the stares she is getting.

  Her heart races, her vision turns red, and then she tackles Rocky from behind.

  The two crash into the pond. Emma shrieks and Rocky thrashes in the water and manages to throw Honey off, but Honey lunges at him again and they fall in the water again. When Honey gets her footing, she pulls him up and yells, "Where is it!?"

  Only to realize that this person has fair skin, eyes like blue diamonds, and a bushy mustache.

  This wasn't Rocky.

  She has no idea who this person is. And his date (assuming it is his date, anyway) is not Emma. She has ink black hair, tan skin, and hazel eyes. Completely different from Emma.

  And now police officers are approaching from a distance with a drone hovering overhead. With that unpleasant sight, Honey giggles nervously and straightens out the stranger's soaked jacket and brushes off some of the lily pads clinging to him.

  "Oh wow, this is awkward. My bad," says Honey.

  “Your bad?" says the man sourly.

  "I thought you were someone else. So, I'm going to go far away and-"

  Honey tries to leave, but her collar is grabbed.

  "You’re not going anywhere," says the man.

  Honey groans and turns to him, thus dislodging his hold on her. "Come on, cut me some slack! Some jerk stole my letter of recommendation and genetic receipt for the Academy of Irregular Defense, and I've been trying to get it back!"

  "So, your first thought was to tackle the potential letter thief into water, where the letter can be damaged?"

  “Its laminated!”

  “My dear, it is clear this person is in distress and wasn't thinking clearly," says the other woman.

  The man looks at his date, and then at Honey. She smiles innocently and bats her lashes. And the police show up with the drone hovering over them.

  "Excuse me, is everything alright, Mr. René?" asks the police officer.

  René holds out his hand and the cops help him out of the water, but when Honey tries getting out, the drone aims a tranquilizer at her. She stops and holds up her hands.

  "Let her go. Everything is fine. It was all a misunderstanding," says René.

  The drone retracts the tranquilizer, and the other police officer helps Honey out of the water.

  "However, there still needs to be punishment for her rash behavior and her embarrassing me," says René.

  "Community service?" suggests Honey.

  "No. A duel so I can knock some sense into you."

  Honey groans in disbelief.

  "That seems a little harsh," says the date.

  "Not now, Marie," says René.

  "What time?" drones Honey.

  "Three pm tomorrow at the Summit Gym."

  Honey gives a groggy thumbs up. "Got it. Name?"

  "Asmund René."

  "Honey Thornton."

  "And I'm Marie Rohan," says the date.

  "Nice to meet you," says Honey.

  "Likewise," says Marie.

  "No pleasantries from me," says Asmund. "You two, throw her out of the park."

  The police officers grab Honey's arms, the drone aims a tranquilizer at her, and the next thing she knows, she is sailing through the air outside the park wall and lands in a dumpster. The lid falls on top of her and the police officers laugh.

  "Behave yourself, next time!" says one of the officers.

  The police officers walk away, and Honey groans and bangs her head against a garbage bag.

  "This place sucks!"