Zero

Chapter One

The morning begins like it always does--an obnoxiously loud and distorted car horn blaring in Yari's ear, startling her awake.

"God, shut up," she grumbles under her breath, fumbling around the dashboard. Yari's hand scuttles around the dashboard's assortment of faded stickers, finding a bright red button.

She slams it with her fist, letting out a loud groan. Programming the old Volkswagen's car horn to be an alarm clock was probably the worst choice she'd ever made in her entire life.

Whatever.

She was awake now.

A new day, a new job to take on.

Yari rolls down the car window from the passenger seat and reaches over to open it from outside. The child lock could never be undone for reasons unknown, but Yari decides to get used to such a mild inconvenience.

She steps out of the car, the chilly air cooling her flipflop-clad feet. Yari absentmindedly hums a tune as she walks to the car's trunk, twirling a key ring around her index finger.

Yari opens up the trunk with a habitual flourish. Inside the trunk, a semi-organized assortment of clothes lay waiting to be worn.

"Today's weather will heat up a little bit," she says to herself. "But it'll still be cold." Yari carefully inspects a pair of oil-stained cargo pants before settling on a pair of navy blue capris.

"Laundry later today," she promises.

~•~•~•~

Yari sticks her toothbrush into the Volkswagen's cup holder and picks up a large canvas messenger bag from the back seat. "Let's see what requests we've got today," she singsongs, opening up her bag and pulling out a small, rectangular device.

The device beeps into life as she touches its transparent surface, a neon blue graphic rotating around a logo before being replaced by a lock screen.

Yari types in a seemingly random pattern of numbers, mumbling under her breath its combination. A small beep unlocks her phone and brings up her home screen.

A small star graphic zooms out from a random corner, cartwheeling its way to the middle of the screen and grinning widely.

"Salutations, Yari!" the star graphic greets her. "Today you have three requests from Albany Rodriguez, Mizuki Miyano, and the Fireshot Gang. They await your correspondence."

Yari lets out an indignant huff. "Tally, please send Albany Rodriguez and Mizuki Miyano my job acceptance. Reject Fireshot Gang," she requests.

"Sending job acceptances to Albany Rodriguez and Mizuki Miyano," Tally clarifies. "Sending job rejection to Fireshot Gang. Anything else you would like for today, Yari?"

Yari scrunches up her nose in thought. "Yeah. Call Deha's Pizza. A small pepperoni, please."

~•~•~•~

Yari watches the sun set from atop a pile of rusty SUVs, a box of pizza at her feet and jazz music pouring out of her phone. Her end-of-the-day routine.

Her foot bobs to the beat. The sky turns pink, tinging the clouds with gold. In the distance, Olympian City's lights start flickering on one by one.

A fog horn blares in the distance, signalling a boat's arrival into Atlantis Harbor. Wonder what's in that boat, Yari muses, picking up another slice of pizza. She turns it around, the crust facing her. Taking a bite out of the warm dough, she taps the star on the screen.

"Tally, do I have any requests for tomorrow?" Yari asks.

"None whatsoever. Albany Rodriguez and Mizuki Miyano have sent you their payments online. Would you like to add them to your bank account?" Tally replies.

"Yeah," Yari answers, swallowing her pizza. A bullet train zooms by, its stark white surface getting brighter in the fading daylight.

Its last destination is probably Olympian City, Yari concludes, scratching the back of her calf. Wonder where its station from here is.

The sun fades into the horizon, dozens of stars already scattered around the sky in a haphazard pattern. A cool breeze chills Yari's skin, goosebumps already surfacing.

She rubs her arms and shuts the pizza box. "Time for bed, I guess," Yari says to herself, tucking the box under her arm.

~•~•~•~

Clang! Boom! Crash!

Mountains of metal, glass, and other miscellaneous material crash to the ground, stirring the junkyard orphan awake.

"Wha's goin' on?" she mumbles sleepily, rolling down the window of the pasenger seat and opening the door from the outside.

Yari wraps her blanket around her shoulders, squinting in the darkness of the junkyard.

Another loud crash is heard, this time a little closer to where Yari stands.

Yari stiffens. She ties her blanket around her neck and picks up a crowbar poking out from a small pile of junk.

"Who's there?" she calls out, gripping the cool metal of the crowbar tightly.

A beat of deafening silence follows her statement. Yari holds her breath. Something's coming, she thought.

Without warning, a neon blue disk flies through a tower of wheels and straight into Yari's chest.

A blast of light fills her vision, spots dancing in her eyes.

Yari screams.