I went home. I did a post-mortem on the fight, and then I crashed. By the end of my analysis -- which, by the way, I flunked myself on -- I was running solely on fumes and caffeine from a cup of mint tea I'd made myself, and the latter was about to run dry. I had almost no energy reserves to speak of, so I could barely heal myself before crashing; I managed to knit my broken ribs and scab over the worst of the wounds and that was it. I did manage to undress myself before falling into the chirping metallic hammock that pretended to be my bed.Of course, I had to get up a mere five and a half hours later. Most other days, five hours' sleep would've let me pop right up, fresh and energetic, but that morning I felt like an extra in a George Romero movie. My energy reserves were there -- I finished healing myself before getting into the shower -- but I simply hadn't gotten enough sleep to shake a general feeling of headachy exhaustion. "Gods help me if I have to fight anyone or anything today," I muttered to myself as I got dressed. I made it to work without crashing my bike, and stumbled into the lobby, carrying my helmet in via the bowling ball bag again. I managed to be polite and friendly to Kendra as I tottered through to the cube farm beyond -- she was still a little twitchy, poor thing -- but I only grunted when Chizue threw me my morning bagel.I had already taken a couple bites from it when I pounded on Ohara's door."Come," was the muffled reply."Good morning, and aren't we the picture of health," he said as Istaggered in and put down the bag.I didn't feel like clever repartee that morning. "I thought youwere going to quit it with the fucking boomers."Ohara put down his pencil and looked up at me with honest surprise in his eyes. "We did.""The bunch that I fought last night all locked on to me just like the little army you deployed against me at Bunko's. You're telling me they weren't yours?""They certainly weren't," Ohara declared. "Why the hell would we do that? We *have* you already. The only reason we sent boomers after you was to capture or test you, and to study what you could do. We can do that a lot more safely -- and *cheaply* -- here in the Tower."If I hadn't been so fried from the aftereffects of the battle, Iprobably would have thought of that myself. I hadn't, though, soI made the universal gesture of "oh what a schmuck I am" by wipingmy hand down my face and groaning as the obvious implication finally made itself known to me. "Oh, great. Just great," Igrowled. "A third player's joined the game."Ohara thought about that for a moment, then nodded soberly. "Ithink you may be right.""I *know* I'm right." I rubbed my eyes and wished for some aspirin."Gods, I hate this world."Ohara smiled his little not-smile smile. "I don't blame you. I'mnot too fond of it myself sometimes."
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.