“You are so full of it, it’s not even funny!”

   “ Am not, I’m telling it’s true. The government had them all over the place!”

   “ Even if it was true, you said they had them all over the place.”

   “    Well, there could be a few left, you never know.”

   “ Well I know one thing, and that’s you so full of it your eyes are brown.”

  “ Are you two going to go at it all night?” interjected another voice, not belonging to those who were talking.

“ It’s what we do.” Replied the girl, more like teenager, that was sitting in the booth, across from her male counterpart.

“ Come on, We are out of high school! Are we just going to sit around here all night! Lets have some fun!”

“ And do what? Between me, you and Dax, we have less then enough to pay for a holo flick, let alone do anything but sit around here.” Said the guy.

Dax, the women, who was talking with the man, sighed. “ Don’t remind me, this summer is going to be a crash major!”

“ Well, we could all get jobs.”

“ Not funny, besides, my mom says since I turn the big “1 8” this summer, she is going to plan something big for me and my brother.”

“ Man, that bites that you and your bro where born on the same day.”

“ Not as much as the fact that he is my brother.”

“ Come on Dax, Crix isn’t all bad” replied the teen known as Blade to her friends.

“ You don’t have to live with him.”

“ What’s wrong with living with him? He spends 99.9 % of his life locked away in his room.”

“ Trust me, there are problems.”

“ Listen Kids! If you don’t buy something, get out! I got people that have money that could use this booth!” snapped the owner of “ The Hard Drive Café ”

“Yeah, Yeah…” Mumble Blade as she slide out of the booth with Dax and the guy, who they called “Squid”.

The trio walks out of the café and into the night air of System “Scifera” . They had just graduated a few nights ago. The school year had been extended because of a lot of bomb threats and so they had missed a lot of days, which they had to make up in the summer. But now they were free from one school, but not free from the controls of their parents.

Dax didn’t mind so much, she and her mother got along pretty good, even if they didn’t always see eye to eye. Her and her brother on the other hand, had more of a “ Don’t get in my way and I won’t get in yours” Relationship. Which was fine with Dax, she really didn’t care about it to much.

“ I guess I better be heading home, it’s almost 20:00 and Mom will have a field day if I’m late again.” Said Dax.

“ You mom she goes through a lot to humiliate you when you break a rules doesn’t she?” asked Blade.

“ It’s her thing..” replied Dax.

The trio of Humans walked down the street. They really didn’t have much to worry about in Scifera. It was a large system to some respects, but it was very safe. All the illegal or harmful things happen on the lower level like level 21. Racial things were pretty much not a factor. Although a mostly human populated system, It had its small share of Anthro’s, and a good group of sprites. Most of them Dax went to high school with.

As they walked down the street and through the shopping district. They all reflected on what they would do since they were free of high school.

“ I’m not sure… I think I become a Cargo runner for a while, it’s good pay, and I’d like to see other systems.” Replied Blade, whose real name was Sarah Kar. But retained the name Blade from when a guy in school had tried to feel her up and she pulled her scalpel from Biology glass on him and made him apologize. 

“ That sounds pretty cool… My parents want me to become a Guardian..” replied “Squid” who’s really name was Max Shapard. But was still called Squid because he was a newbie to school when Dax and Blade had took him into their little group.

“ I can’t believe you Dad wants you to be a guardian, let alone have a key tool.” Said Dax, the proclaimed leader of the group, which all in all had about five members. Three of which were Dax, Sarah and Max. The other two were a couple know as Jane and Marty, Dax and the other always referred to them by different Nick names when they weren’t together, but in the last year things had started to get hot and heavy between the two, and the rest had yet to give them new names. But it didn’t matter, not to Dax at least, what she wanted to do this summer was something her mother would never let her do.

“ I want to see my Fathers grave…” replied Dax.

“ Why?” asked Max.

“ If I can’t see the man my mother loved and who is my father in person, might as well see him and let him know he has a daughter.”

They had all been told about Dax’s father from Dax, who had been told by her mother.

According to her mother, her father worked for some government group that was into rooting out Hackers. In a fire fight her  father was shot through the back fifteen times but still managed to get his team out of the hackers base and to safety, he died a short time later.

Dax had always thought the story to be a little faulty, but she had no proof and believed her mother’s words.

It seemed that Dax returned home earlier then expected. She bid her friend’s good bye and walked into her large home. Her mother was a home designer and decorator, so she had made this house. It was large on the outside, but inside it seem even bigger. “It’s the colors” Dax always thought, but never cared to think about it much. Dax wasn’t into this kinda of stuff, she had always had an feeling to prove herself better then others, and always seemed to have the energy to do it.

“ Oh Mama-son, I home…” She said in her normal greeting.  Dax’s mother, Jenny Lockheart walked out of the kitchen. Jenny stood almost 6 feet, a little taller then Dax. For the work her mother did she looked very well toned. Somewhat of a muscular woman, but not too much as to frighten people. She had shoulder length black hair and very deep blue eyes. Dax always figured she had her father’s eyes, since her was an almost too demonic looking green.

“ Hey kid, how’s it going?” replied her mother.

“ Not to bad, so what’s new?” asked the younger women.

Dax always admired the fact that her mother always looked very young, and hardly used any make-up. If someone didn’t know better, they would think the two were sisters.

“ Not much, making dinner, what’s new with you?”

“ Not to much really… Blade and Squid didn’t have much money ether, so we decided to head home”

“ You mean You, Sarah and Max got kicked out of the café and had no money to even go to the holo’s” corrected her mother.

Dax could never trick her mother, for someone who clamed to be in her thirties, she seem to have the wisdom of some ancient guru.  A fact that Dax both admired and hated, she could never lie her way out of trouble.

“ Yeah that’s it..”

Dax was knocked forward a bit by an unknown force, she turn to see her brother walk by, her arm felt like it was just hit, and she knew who hit him. She picked up the apple on the table and was ready to chuck it at him, when her mother snagged it out of her hand and gave her a strong look.

“ Hey Sis…” said her brother as he open the fridge and began to rummage for food.

“ Hey Crix… You got about 2 seconds before Mom smash’s the door on you…” 

Crix moved with lightning speed as the door slammed shut in front of him, the sound of bottles knocking together told him of the force of the door slamming shut.

“ Dinner’s in five, so not rummaging” snapped his mother as she returns to the stove and checked on dinner.

Dax and Crix figured their mother had to have lived in a military family, because she often acted like a drill Sargent. Jenny never talked about her family, and they never left to see family, Jenny always had some reason for why they never got an e-mail, or even a call from there relatives, but they didn’t think to much of it, never had, never had to.

Five minutes later, Dinner sat on the table. And the two teens sat down and began their meal of Mac ‘n Cheese with stake and a potato. Jenny looked at her children. Dax, the oldest by fifteen minutes took after her a little. But not too much, she reflected her father. Dax stood about 5’11 and six out seven says a week always wore the outfits she made. Mostly it was a old leather chest armor, cut off at her belly button with a long v-neck cut, along with a leather type pants. Her belt held everything Dax needed for any time of day. She had brown/black hair and the most demonic looking green eyes Jenny had ever seen, aside from those of Dax’s father.

Crix on the other hand looked just like his father, aside from the fact that his hair was brown, eyes blue and his face a little slimmer, he was a dead ringer. Crix always wore black, and Jenny could never get him to wear anything else.

Jenny loved her children more then anything. Well, that’s not true. She loved their father more their father as much. But he was dead now, so she figured, and so she told her kin.

Little did anyone know that tonight was the night, when there perfect dream lives, would be shattered.