Chapter 1

New Brussels

New Brussels. With its tall spear of glass and white steel, it was a peaceful city.

“Clic.Clac.Clic.Clac.” The old man was venting his stress on his pen, looking over the city through the panoramic window of his office, at the eighty-seventh floor of the USE HQ of Star Overdrive. They really changed this city… He remembered when this place was nothing but a giant mess of buildings and streets.

The architects and the city administration back then hadn’t put too much attention and effort in making something whole and harmonious. Old buildings, mansion and such made by great architects of olds had been destroyed to put big chunky grey building at their place. He remembered this mess, sadness and sorrow clouding his thought. Of course, nearly everything had been destroyed during the European war of 2039, then rebuilt from the ground by the effort of the USE.

New Brussels was way more gorgeous and practical than Old Brussels. Electrical train tracks flew over each road and shiny bridges connected skyscrapers together with, sometimes, multiple bridges crossing path to give birth to a Crossroad, with their big waterdrop-shaped inversed building hanging from them.

Still, he missed the city of his youth. He missed his innocence, too. “Clic.Clac.Clic.Clac.” His gaze fell on the holographic screen, on the report it was displaying. His back was aching. His joins too. I’m old. He thought for the thousandth time. Too old for this. But the young ones aren't ready, not yet. One more step, and I will finally be able to rest. This summer will be very short for some, very long for others. “Status report over the Sleepers.” “Right away sir.” Answered his secretary.

New Brussels’s Janssens Secondary school

“YES! Yes-yes-yes-yes-YES!” Silence followed. Oh fuck, I’m making a fool of myself right? Her math teacher was indeed broadly smiling, nearly laughing at her display of joy.

“You were always an expressive one. I’ll miss you, Zoe.” He said, sadness creeping on his smile.

“I’ll miss you too, Teach’ !”

“Do you already know what you want to do, now that you’ve finished your secondary studies?”

“Well… I don’t really know, even though I’ve been thinking about it since half a year ago. I didn’t really think I would have succeeded in one go.” She answered, looking at the degree resting between her hands.

Suddenly, her phone started ringing. “Ah sorry. I asked my Uncle if he could come and pick me at school, I need to go. Thanks once again for all your work, sir. We’ll see each other at the prom!”

“Sure, you can go.” He answered calmly. “While you’re at it, say to the next when they can enter.”

“Sure teach’ !” She ran through the door and quickly said to the next one to go in, before rushing through the school corridors with her bag on her back and her degree in her hands. Soon enough she was going out by the main entrance, storming over the square the door opened upon.

She swept over the place with a single gaze, quickly finding what she was searching. A grey-haired man making a sign at her from a car. Ah? Oh, he pulled out the big artillery. Thinking of it, it’s a pretty important day in his opinion, right? The car was a very recent model, an electric race car that should never have been taken out of its racetrack. As she went toward him, other students' gazes followed her and another group was looking at the car with googly eyes.

“How the fuck did you bring a Typhoon 6 on the civilian road system?” She asked once she reached the supercar.

“Ahahah! I’m just that good, lassy!” He opened the left door, letting her in. “I thought it would make you happy if I took it to drive you home.” She closed the door behind her. ”So?” He pointed toward her degree.

“I’ve succeeded. I’ve my SSSC!”

“Great, great! I knew you could do it! Let’s bring you home, I’m sure your parents will want to hear it!” He started driving. The City was big, the road larges. Lots of trees and green spaces had been created, making the whole place spacious and giving it a nice feel. I’m happy it’s not the same city as before. She thought, some of her history lessons wandering back in her head.

“So, how do you want to go home? Fast? Or… faster?” He interrupted her train of thoughts. She smiled, as It wasn’t the first time he asked her this question. You madman.

“Faster, of course. What is the point if you don’t go fast?” She answered, as always. He ever asked this question only when he knew that the conditions were grouped for his overspeed to not be dangerous to anyone else.

“What is the point indeed. And, as always, don’t talk about it to your mother, I don’t want her to scold me, right?” His shoulder-long grey hair shone in the afternoon light as he winked at her. “Of course, uncle.”

***

She calmed her breath, toning down the excitation that had risen in her heart as they had rushed on the black roads between the white buildings. When everything was a blur and every part of yourself had to be focused on what you were doing to stay alive, that was the kind of thing that makes her feel alive.

“I’m back!” She screamed while she opened the door of her home. It was a house at the outskirt of New Brussels, one in thousands that were built for people that wanted to work in the city but didn’t want to sacrifice their garden.

“We’re in the living room!” Answered her mother. Did they take a day off?

“Don’t forget to take off your shoes, uncle. You know how mom is.”

“Of course I know. She was already like that when we were kids.” He answered with a smug smile. The went through the entrance corridor directly to the living room were her mom and her dad were watching a Korean drama. Again. Urgh, how can they like that?

“Hi!” Her mom paused the show. “Hi too, sweety. And hello to you too, brother.” She said in a mildly warm tone.

“Hello you two!” added her father with his usual joyous tone. It was no mystery in the family from whom she took the most between her mother and her father.

“Come, come, we’ll drink something.” Said her mother, going to the dining room with her father just behind. The whole house was pretty clean, if far from empty. Her mom loved taking in new furniture all the time, packing the house to the brim.

“So, what news?” Asked her mom when the all sitting around the table. Zoe put her degree on it.

“Well, I’ve succeeded. I’ve my SSSC.”

“Oh, thank God it’s a relief, I really didn’t think you would succeed in one go.” Answered her mother, a hand on her heart. Why is she always like that? Can’t you praise me a bit? Zoe thought angrily.

“After all, you’ll need a proper degree to gain money, it’s not like everyone can gain money from videogame, right, brother?” She added in a venomous voice. I shouldn't have asked Uncle to bring me home. She felt a bit guilty since the true reason he was here was to support her in front of her mom. If only she wasn’t such a douchbag when talking about school and money.

“I couldn’t know, sister. After all, I don’t have a degree. I only have a villa, multiple holiday house and a helicopter with a personal pilot waiting for me at home, right?” He answered in a voice no less poisonous, but way colder.

“So, hm, mom, since I succeeded, I can go to Uncle’s home during summer break, right? You promised.” Her uncle and her mom looked at each other, lightning striking as their gaze fought one another.

“Sure sweaty, you can go. I’m very proud of you!” Her dad broke the rising tension as if it never had been there at all.

“Thanks dad! I’ll go fetch my luggage!” She rushed out of the room to let her Mom and her Uncle fight without her being actually there. Her feelings were conflicted. She loved her mom but, since she started going to school, she had felt her mom growing more and more distant.

“Hey! You’re going somewhere?” Asked her sister, Claire, poking her head through the door of her room.

“Yeah, I’ve struck a deal with mom, I can go to Uncle till the end of summer break.”

“Lucky! How did you do that?”

“I’ve succeeded to get my SSSC.”

“Oh? Congratulation onee-chan!” Claire jumped at Zoe’s neck, hugging her. She’s fucking strong, I always forget that. She gave the hug back and they stayed like that for a long minute. “I bet you’ll play at something the whole summer. That’s why Uncle invited you, right? He as a new game or something to make you discover.”

“Of course. Go, try and guess what we will play!” As they talked, Claire was helping Zoe making her last luggage.

“No? ...Of course not. I don’t play video games, how would you want me to know what you’ll play together?”

“...I turned eighteen last month, right? Can’t you give a guess? Any game you’re forced to be that age to play?”

“...You’ll start playing at… Binding Fate? For real? Like, for real real?” The bewildered expression of her sister made Zoe laugh.

“Yes, for real real. Uncle said that he had kept an available Diving Pod just for me, he bought it a soon as he saw it for the time I would turn eighteen! Of course, he working for Star Overdrive helped quite a bit, too.”

“I can’t believe it.” “Me neither! I’m so excited!”

“Since it’s Uncle that found the Pod, will you be part of his streams?” Ah?

“I didn’t… think about it. I’ll need to ask him that, I suppose.”

“Who knows, you may become rich just by playing videogame and streaming it after all. That would piss mom off a lot.”

“Yeah, right. I don’t know, for now I just want to play, I don’t want to think about money or work.” She had finished packing up and gone back to the dining room.

“I’m ready to leave!” She spouted while rushing through the door.

“Well well, that was quick.” Said her mother. She then saw Claire.

“Ah, of course. Your sister helped you, that’s why. Well then, if you want to go so much, I’ll not keep you here. One word before you leaves, however. Don’t you forget the second part of our promise, right? I want you to expose your plans for the future to me before the end of summer break. Be it university or a job, you’ll have something to present me, understood?”

“Yes mom, I know, I’ll plan something during this summer break. Uncle will help me, right?” Zoe looked at her Uncle, eyes full of expectation.

“Of course I’ll help you, lassy.”

“...I don’t know why, but it doesn’t really comfort me.” The venom was back in her voice but, before her Uncle could retort, Zoe cut in it.

“Then let’s go! Bye mom! Bye dad! See yah later Claire, stay sharp!” And she rushed back through the door she had come from not a minute ago, her Uncle following her while saying goodbye to the family.

???

The sky was this deep blue of a hot summer day, the blue that became nearly black when you looked at it long enough, the blue that made you remember that the Earth was but a mud ball spinning quickly in the infinity of the void, anchored to a sun that warmed her.

Not that this girl knew that the planet was a sphere floating in space. Not that it was the Earth, too. She smiled at the window of somewhat clear glass, a luxury in her village, cooking scrambled eggs with forest mushrooms she picked up right this morning. The Calolapis was giving a good eat to the frying pan, a convenience that was as rare as clear glass by here.

Magic sure is convenient. She was thirteen, fourteen maybe, with short hair tied in a bun and cut on the sides; bright-eyed, dressed like a young man, she was a true tomboy in essence. Her appearance, at least. The rest? Well, who knows?

“Mom, Dad, stop messing in your bed, breakfast is ready!” She said in a voice powerful enough to reach her parents in their room.

“Yeah yeah, don’t scream like a goat!” Answered her mom with all the natural finesse of a steamroller. She’s saying that to me? Ah! She set the table and cut the scrambled eggs into three parts, the biggest going for her mother, of course, and draw a clear and cold water at the pump that she put in a pitcher.

In the meantime, her mom and dad had come down from their room. With their messy hair and their bags under their eyes, Dzive could see why they had made so much noise last night. Gross. “Gogogo, eat while it’s hot!” She ordered them. “I need to go, Greypa asked me to come visit him today. See yah!” Taking her bag of food with her, she rushed outside through the door of the kitchen. The day was already hot.