Chapter 3

“Hello? Hellooooo? Hellllloooooooo?” a feminine voice echoed above me.

“Ugh, what?” I put my hand to my head and felt the large bump there. “Ow, what the blast?” I massaged the bump with careful precision.

“Ok, he’s awake. Open his eyes,” a gruff male voice reverberated in front of me. I realized that I was not lying down as I had thought, but sitting in a rough metal chair. I heard a whistling sound and a force hit my head with the strength of two comicins bull rushing me. My eyes shot open and a tooth went whizzing out of my mouth. I looked around for my attacker.

There were three people in the room. One, a man with a heavy scowl, was sitting just across a little table. One other, a brown haired girl, was standing right behind me. Third, a man with bright red hair and a bright red mustache, was standing behind the other man, like he was the other man’s bodyguard. I was chained to my chair by some cheap carbomateria rip-off, probably magnemateria.

“We have been waiting for you to wake up,” the scowling man said. “What did you do with that card?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I lied through my teeth.

“Oh, I’m sure you don’t,” he laughed sarcastically. “Now, where is it?”

“I don’t know where it is,” I lied again. I didn’t want to Clari to be caught up in this.

“Yes. You do. We saw you go out of Sector 7 and into one of the other sectors. With a card that we were trying to steal. Those club hoppers you sold the Hydrospeed to? We were after them. We almost got the Hydrospeed too, but you showed up first. We had wanted to get their cards the easy way, but noooo! You had to show up and ruin the plan we have made for several months. It took us almost a year to get a member onto the trash control so he could send us that Hydrospeed. And you ruined it,” the scowling man rumbled and threw his hands around as he talked.

“Trash control?” I asked with curiosity.

The girl lounging behind me answered. “Flying garbage dumps that add to the trash of Sector 7. The other sectors don’t want it, so we get it, whether we like it or not. The general populace does not know of the trash control, so, keep it that way, ‘k?”

“Enough,” the scowling commanded. The girl fell silent immediately. “Just give us the card courier, and we will let go on with your merry life.”

“I don’t have it anymore sir,” I replied honestly.

“Then who does?” he asked, leaning in.

“A friend of mine. An Exiled,” I shamefacedly said those two sentences.

“Ok, Veronica, Sean, go get this Exiled,” the big one ordered. “Until your friend is brought in you will have to stay here.”

“But what happened to letting me go on with my merr---“

“Once we get the card courier. Once we get the card.”