Inner Man Theatre

    AB withholds his next comeback as he sees his fraternal twin’s face which has, “Try me,” written all over it.  You tell ‘em, Cici.

    Well, I bet you’re wondering who the couple is standing next to the trio at the start of the chapter.  That is Alice and her husband Goloc.  As they show up and are introduced, the Asteroid Girls point out that their female guest is so much better with her English that even her accent sounds fluent.  Mind you, it doesn’t matter since SG technology translates everything for everyone so that you’d never know Cat and her students don’t even know English.  That’s right; in case you forgot, Duplica speaks a language that’s so different, it’d be like writing in computer symbols just to print it out.  She only knows our dialect even exists because of history.

    “Hello, my name is Alice, and I’m what is called an angel.”  Watching for smiles or giggles, she continues, “Your teachers must have already told you about us.  Then you know I’m not like the angels that are from heaven, not at all.  It is just a nickname our society has given us.  I don’t really enjoy using the term for myself because it can be confusing and it glorifies people, but so that you don’t get confused, I don’t mind using it in its proper context.  You know about the Baylors, I’m sure, and that we are their descendants.  We are just normal people who occasionally display superpowers in time of need, though it is usually only once in our lives.”

    “Let us get started.”  Alice straightens her vest and quickly combs her hair a bit with her fingers.  “Our first case for today involves a young man, twenty years of age, named Adam who lived in a dystopian Sudan.  His adventure picks up when he spies a seven-year-old girl out in her yard after curfew, which means death on sight if she is spotted by the police.  Even as she tries to return inside, the door is locked as her parents would rather lose their daughter than risk being seen letting her in.  With a police van approaching, Adam guides the little girl to him and decides to keep her safe until the morning.

    “As the night passes, the trials come.  First, a stray dog attacks them, but Adam is able to deal with this easily.  Next, as they finally have a moment to sleep, Adam awakes to the child, Lydia, being carried away by a vile stranger.  Though the hero is able to catch this fiend, a fight occurs and the little girl accidentally hits her friend in the head with a bottle she found in a nearby dumpster.  Having hit the wrong person, Lydia is carried away again until a military van spots her and shoots without hesitation.  As Adam sees this, his sorrow turns to greater horror as he sees the kidnapper still moving.  However, the joyful truth is that a very alive Lydia is the one pushing the dead man off her.  She is perfectly fine, just scared.  There is little time to rejoice, however, as that military van sees there is still work to be done, causing Adam to resort to running while carrying his little friend and putting his gun to use.

    “Eventually, Adam is out of ammo, and must stick with just running.  That’s when he looks and sees a gun aimed right at him and Lydia.  It fires point blank.  As he continues to run, he feels no pain.  He asks Lydia if she is alright and confirms for now that she seems fine.  In reflex, he fires his gun, having forgotten it’s empty, and continues to fire bullets all the same.

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