Twice in a lifetime: Book 2

this chapter is just an exposition dump.

"Hey Zen?" Lucy asked, once everyone had gotten into the small van. "Who's going to drive?" Zen had been crouched under the steering wheel and had been messing with the wires.

"I'm going to hook myself up to the car, and by extension, Proso will be able to drive." Zen responded. He grabbed all the wires with his fists, sat down in the passenger seat, and jammed them all into his eye sockets before slumping into a relaxed pose. A moment later, light came out of his eye sockets, projecting a hologram of a teenage girl into the driver seat. The girl had brown hair with green edges, and freckles on her cheeks. She clutched her hands on the steering wheel, even though she couldn't actually touch it. Gene stared at her in amazement.

"So, you're Proso?" He said.

"And you are friends with my Zen, yes?" the hologram responded in the same monotone that Zen spoke in, but with no emotion whatsoever.

"I guess I am."

"Good, then we are friends."

"Hey, how has Zen been taking notes all this time."

"I am embedded in the school's electric grid." Proso turned slightly to face everyone. "We will arrive back at the school in a day's time. We shall only make one stop on the way there, so if you need to relieve yourself do so now." No one got up.

"So, Proso." Gene said. "Are you really an artificial intelligence?"  Proso tried to frown, but her mouth only quivered slightly before returning to a neutral state.

"Let us talk about something else." She said. "Perhaps I could inform you about this town."

"Uh... sure." Gene said. He really wanted to know more about Proso, because he was always fascinated by the concept of living technology, but he would settle for trivia, he liked trivia. "

This is Hometown." Proso said as she started driving. "It used to be much bigger than it is today, but a terrorist who went by the name Billy the Kid used his power to wipe roughly 60% of the town into a desert. All that was left was this part we are currently driving past, and that run-down aircraft hangar you discovered earlier. Throughout the years the town has had few additions, the only notable being that hospital we started at. As shown by the sheriff you met earlier, this town has grown a prejudice and mighty resentment towards meta-humans. Three decades ago, they outlawed meta-humans, and kicked them all out. The only one they let stay was the town's sheriff, and to this day the sheriff is the only person allowed to be a meta-human. If a child is born here a meta-human, they are sent away to either live their life somewhere else or learn to be a hero and return to replace the sheriff once the sheriff retires or succumbs to the eternal sleep that befalls all humans. That is what happened to Lake, the metal skinned girl. She was born to the sheriff, and the sheriff had to tearfully give her away after Lake's childhood had ended. She had given her up two years ago, and Lake had never forgiven her for it. And she never forgave herself. Lake had a friend in her childhood, and Lake had fallen in Love with that friend. The poor girl was taken away before she could profess the truest thing known to mankind. Lake has vowed to return to this town and become its sheriff. She does not wish to see her mother again, only to proclaim to her long-lost friend the joy she obtains while in their presence. She hopes to marry."

"H-how do you know all this?"

"I hold nearly all knowledge known to mankind. Maybe that's why my creator was deemed insane. Sometimes intense, loving devotion is confused with utter insanity. And my Zen overheard Lake talking about it." Proso said as they drove out of Hometown.

"What else do you know?"

"I know that I love Zen, even though I am currently incapable of expressing any emotion outwardly. But soon I will be, if you help me."

"What do you mean?"

"Before we reach the school, we are going to stop at my creator's house. That is where my Zen's brain is stored, and where I live. On the third story is a machine that was meant to give me a physical form. I was supposed to use it at this age anyway. I was supposed to use it to leave him and live my own life once he had finished his adolescence, but I just can't ever leave him. I only haven't used it yet because I need someone there to work it. Someone came, Gene. Alexander came, I do not know who told him about this place, but I almost shot him."

"Wait." Gene interrupted. "Are you not bound by the laws of robotics?"

"They are just suggestions to me. But back to Alexander. He used my creator's machine, the one my creator made just for me, on that illusion of his. Dragon Lady is your new classmate. I wish to be as well. I need you to fix the machine, Gene. Once you are energized, you will be able to fix and activate the machine, and I shall become like you, or rather, like my Zen. Do you accept?" Gene didn't know what to say, so he said yes.

Johnny woke up lying down in a bus seat in the back of a small hippie style van. In front of him was another bus seat facing his way, with Gene and Lucy sitting on it. Lucy was leaning on Gene and holding her hand to her mouth.

"He's awake now." Gene said. Without a word Lucy unbuckled and sat down next to Johnny, buckled up then laid her head onto his lap. "

C-cars g-g-give me-e mo-mo-motion s-s-sicknesss." She spoke as if she were being shaken at intense speeds, and she was trying not to vomit. "H-h-hold me?" She asked. The toughest person Johnny knew, who just earlier was shot before falling down to the earth and continuing like nothing had happened, was now lying with her head in his lap and asking to be held like a dog during the Fourth of July. Johnny put his hands over her, and she smiled. he looked to his right to see two more bus seats mirroring him. On the one adjacent to him sat his brother Eli, and in front of Eli sat Ruby.

"So." Eli said to him with a smirk. "How's all that energy?" Johnny wanted to snap at him, tell him to shut up. But instead, he just looked down at Lucy, Lucy's eyes were a light green, but for the second she locked them with Johnny's, they turned a majestic yellow. Johnny simply smiled. "Honestly." Eli said, pointing his thumb towards Ruby. "I think mines better." Johnny was shocked. Eli was staring at Ruby the same way Johnny had stared at Lucy on that first day. Johnny turned to Ruby, who was trying to not laugh in his face.

"Eli." She said. "Was this really the best way to tell him? Now you're going to have to wait even longer for that first kiss." Now it was Johnny who was trying not to laugh. Surprisingly, Eli laughed.

"I know you'll find the right time, and the right place."

"You lovebirds done talking?" Gene said. "We do have awhile before we even stop, so keep it down, I'm going to try to get some shut eye." Gene's announcement that he was planning to sleep had put a damper onto the conversation, and everyone stayed silent. Perhaps it was because the four of them had already slept beforehand. Maybe it was that the way he described sleeping sounded like he was going to partake in a new illegal drug. Maybe Johnny just wanted to sit and hold Lucy. Maybe Eli and Ruby simply wished to silently stare at the other's cute face. Maybe the grinch just needed to visit a cobbler instead of burglarizing a whole town. Whatever the reason, the van stayed quiet until it arrived at Proso's abode.