While You Slept

3

"Sloane behind you!"
Sloane darted behind the trees just before a laser sliced one of its branches. Daniel was right. This was hard. They hadn't rescued anyone yet and her body was already aching. The robots weren't taking it easy on them either. Richard moved towards where Sloane was hiding.
"Any ideas yet?" he asked
"We cannot keep hiding. We have to vaporize them." She answered.
"I think we already tried that."
"I mean using the nebulizer, the one that melts metal."
"Oh, that could work"
"Well let's see" she said and brought out the weapon she was talking about and waited for Richard to bring out his before she continued,
"On three. One, two..." They both jumped out from the trees and attacked the robots. In minutes they obliterated the robots and saved the civilians. Then the simulation faded out and the arena room faded back in.
"Nice work you two." Daniel remarked.
"Thanks. You probably should work on your tough assignments" Sloane commented while stretching out the sore parts of her body.
"Yeah. I'm with her. But those robots were something else." Richard agreed. While they showered and changed into normal clothes, Sloane remembered that she wanted to call her mum.
Once she was fully dressed and in her office, she dialed her mum's number and she picked on the first ring.
"Hi pumpkin." That never gets old.
There was loud rock music playing in the background. She wondered how her mother could hear the telephone ring with so much noise. She had to guess it was Ravi, her fourteen year old brother who was causing the noise. Since he was hearing impaired and hated using his hearing aids, he usually turned the music up to the loudest so he could hear the beat of the music well. But their father always made sure he wore his hearing aids.
"Hi mom, what's with all the noise? Is it Ravi again?"
"Yes. It's him honey. How are you today?" her mother asked almost shouting.
"I'm good. Just thought I'd say hi. I might be dropping in for a visit soon"
"Oh that's wonderful. I'm sure your dad will be more than thrilled to know that."
"I'm sure he would. I hope Ravi still uses his hearing aids because it doesn't sound like he is"
"Yes he is. He just still likes his music loud. It still works perfectly"
Sloane was happy to hear that. Ravi was a gifted child, more like technically gifted. When it came to knots and bolts and building stuff, you couldn't beat Ravi. And his hearing aids were a bonus. Because with it he could hear sounds impossible to hear by normal ears. He could hear the faintest of footsteps; the most discreet noise even the ticking of the hands of the smallest watch. He was that awesome. But he did not go to any special school or anything. It would be too much drama for him. He went to Woodland Academy instead which was a normal school.
Jane knocked on the door and walked into the room. When she saw Sloane was on a call she mouthed the words "The boss wants to talk to you." Sloane nodded and she left. Then she said to her mother, who was saying something about her dad's last idea of a surprise party,
"Okay mum, sounds great. Well tell Ravi I said hi, I got to go now"
"Alright honey, talk to you later." Then she terminated the call. She got up from her seat and straightened up herself before she went to see her boss.