#Keira lives with her mom on the base and goes to the same school as the boys

[radioactivepeasant]

Snippets: Free Day Thursday

The Pokémon au, or, "in which "human" actually means "human" this time"

For context: the Dark Warrior Program in this au was an experiment by Praxis, boss of Team Krimzon, to create a psychic link between trainers and Pokémon that he chose, by force if necessary. Jak had only been on his Pokémon journey for a month when he and his Eevee got snatched. Sig, an agent of the Wastelands Region posing as a social worker, helped Jak and Daxter beat Kor (a Bug-type gym boss who was struggling with Team Krimzon for control of Haven City). He smuggles them to a military base in the Spargus region, and the boys are separated for check-ups. (Warning for implied past experimentation)

Just another sterile, white room. Another cold metal examination table. No electrodes clamped to his head this time, but what was the difference? He could still feel the Pokémon restlessly moving in their pokéballs. He could sense that...thing Errol had made out of that poor Pyukumuku. The thing Praxis forced him to train, no matter how much it tried to kill him. He could sense its pain, its anger.

Jak glowered at the black and yellow Ultra Ball. I have to feel your pain, the least you could do is stop ignoring mine!

The Type: Null was silent, save for an aura that Jak had come to associate with snarling. In his arms, Vivi raised her hackles and growled in warning at the Ultra Ball resting on the counter. She hadn't battled until her legs gave out just to let some stranger's Pokémon push her Trainer around.

I am never taking you out of that pokéball again, Jak thought, feeling a little vindictive.

The doctors came back into the room with the uniformed man Sig had been talking to. Jak didn’t recognize the rank insignia on his lapel, but he could tell it was higher than Errol. There was a Baile Oricorio running back and forth across his shoulders, chirping in alarm the second it spotted the Umbreon in Jak’s arms. The man raised a finger to stroke the little bird's head soothingly.

"Overall, he's in better condition than we'd initially suspected," said the doctor with the ice cold hands. "He's just below the fifth percentile right now for overall weight, and I am seeing evidence of poor nutrition, so I'm referring him to a nutritionist. Personally, I recommend giving him a snack locker for his room, y'know, personally. Something he has control over."

The doctor with the gloves -- or was she a Professor? -- nodded in agreement. "His Pokémon are in excellent condition, aside from the Umbreon's scar, given the circumstances. I believe he was giving them his own food."

The stern man frowned. He took the clipboard from the Cold Hands Doctor and leafed through the pages.

"And these scars on his temples? Do there appear to be any lasting effects from them?"

"We don't know yet, sir." The doctor shook her head. "Please, let us know if he suffers any headaches, dizziness, or anything else you think could be related to his time in the Haven region."

She opened a cabinet and sighed.

"He...seems to have become acclimated to using potions to treat himself. As if he were a Pokémon. They're not as effective on humans, sir. I'm prescribing a multivitamin at a higher dose than usual, and a probiotic for some gut health issues his friend mentioned. You may have some difficulty getting him to take them. He seems to have a very good reason to distrust medical care."

Jak hugged Vivi closer and glared at the doctor and the strange man. Why wasn't Sig here? Sig had said he was going to take Jak to the place he used to live before Thin Man took him out of his yard and Mr. Hagai took him to Sandover Town. Who was this guy? Why would they have someone in charge looking over the doctor's findings?

Vivi hissed at the man as he took hold of the doctor's rolling chair and dragged it over to sit in front of the table. At a single hand signal from him, the doctor and professor left the room. Jak stared at him, and he stared back.

"Do you remember me?" the man asked quietly.

"I don't remember a lot of things," Jak answered shortly. "Where's Daxter?"

"Two examination rooms down," the man answered. "His new foster family will be taking him home shortly, but if it would help, I can arrange for them to say hello before they leave."

Panic flooded Jak, and he felt the Umbreon settle her full weight onto his legs, grounding him.

"You're separating us?!"

The man raised his hands placatingly. "Calm yourself, little one. He's only going to live fifteen minutes from us."

"Us?! What do you mean us?!" Jak recoiled until he felt cold plaster against his bare back.

The intimidating man rubbed his face as if he were exhausted.

"You're coming with me," he explained. "You're. You're coming home, Jak."

"How'd you even know who I was?" Jak demanded.

Several muted emotions flickered across the man's face, and the Baile Oricorio settled against his stubbly cheek with a comforting trill. He let out a long breath.

"My name is Damas. Ruler and Field Marshall of Spargus, and the entire Almia region. The...the missing posters Sig showed you? The ones going back ten years? I commissioned those."

He swallowed thickly and looked away.

"I...understand that you don't- you don't remember me. Although I hope one day you will. But I-"

His voice caught.

"I'm your father, Jak. And we've been looking for you and your Eevee for a long, long time."

He blinked, swift and hard, and his next words were almost inaudible.

"I've missed you so much."

_______________________________________

Two Weeks Later

______________________________________

"Ah! It's working, holy crap!"

"Daxter!" Jak squinted at the phone. "I thought the internet wasn't set up in your housing unit yet!"

"Yeah," his best friend shrugged on the webcam. "But Osmo got bumped up in line for dealing with those leftover Shadow Beedrills that tried to nest in the hangar."

Jak settled into the kitchen chair cross-legged. "Oh yeah. That makes sense, I guess. How...is the Drawers family? Everything still okay there?"

"Still the best foster-family I've had, bar none. Osmo let me put a picture of Mr. Hagai on Ximon's dart board, and he doesn't even tell me to "make myself useful" or whatever. And the mom, Xandra? She let my Pokémon sit at the table with me and everything. How's the weirdo they sent you to live with?"

Jak shrugged. "Gone a lot. Government meetings or something- by the way Sig is 100% not a real social worker, you were right. He's a secret agent for my...I guess he's my dad?"

"Told ya. No way a real Haven social worker would get us out of that city."

"Oh. And I have a little brother. Or half-brother? I'm not sure. He's three and he's staring at me while eating a ketchup sandwich. Just. Just ketchup and bread. Geez, that's creepy looking- Dude your face looks like a crime scene."

"Want some?"

"Uh...no, no thanks."

"Otay."

Jak made a face at the phone. "The kid has a Totodile, too, and it ate one of my shoes. Damas got real embarrassed and promised to buy more shoes? Which is nice I guess? And he and his wife -- I don't know if she's my mom yet or not -- said they'd let me paint my room- Dax, Vivi and I have our own room. It's weird not bunking with you."

The Umbreon nudged at his hand insistently, hearing her name. She could hear Daxter's voice, and was peering under chairs as if she might find him there.

"Ugh, same. I share a room with Ximon and he snores, but he always falls asleep on the couch playing video games so I kinda have my own room? It is weird though. Junior keeps opening drawers and peeking around the door. I think he's looking for Vivi?"

Mar tugged Jak's sleeve. "Big Kid."

"It's Jak."

"Jak big kid, da schoo' bus is here."

"Crap. Gotta go, Dax. See you in class?"

"Maybe? I don't have my schedule yet-" a muffled voice interrupted from somewhere outside the door, causing Daxter's Pawmo to leap up into his hair to hide. Daxter rolled his eyes. "I'm COMING, Ximon! See ya, Jak!"

The bright red backpack didn't really feel like his yet. He didn't know what any of the books inside were, and honestly he didn't care. All he cared about was that Damas and Phobos had promised that the teachers would allow Vivi to stay out of her pokéball. Jak grumbled under his breath and slung the bag over his shoulder. First day at Cooper Memorial Middle School. Two weeks until they got out for summer. He could survive that, provided the Type: Null stayed in its ball.

[aggresivelyfriendly]

Mistletoe- 

Little Holiday one-shot! Merry Merry!

He's just Harry in Holmes chapel: it's why he goes home as often as possible. Much as he loves his life- is thankful for his life, it's always a performance. He considers his trainers and socks before the gym far to much for instance. When he's home for Christmas, his mom has declared it a fitness free zone. Which he complains about, but secretly thrills at. His mom's baking, the excuse to overindulge, and rest. Real rest. Holmes Chapel is the softest place to land.

But after a few days, maybe five, he gets a little restless and the emails he sends himself, usually a list of people to send gifts to, what food to eat, what book to read, get a little boring. Even to him.

When he was younger the list usually included what friends to see. That had a lot to do with how early he had left the nest. Most of his peers had stayed through college, and they'd be home at the holidays from uni. There was often some kind of meet up at a pub, for instance for most of the time he was in the band on the rare occasion he made it home. But the last few years, when he has actually had time to come home, real time, not snatches stolen inspite of his schedule, his friends were not there. They are in new stages of life where they are too busy and too broke to come home.

It's why he nearly drops the bun he'd decided he needed for an excuse to go to Mandeville's. Truly, he just wanted to have his cheek pinched and his bum smacked by Mary, but he had to at least make a noise about a bun. That woman had worked at the bakery as long as he could remember, possible since he was born. Her energy was contagious, he'd float all day on her approval.

It's not Mary that nearly makes him drop his bun.

He hadn't seen Keira, since he was, 20? He thinks? No, not 20, he'd been turning 20 in two months and everybody had gone out to celebrate since most would be out of town on his actual birthday, him included. Keira had been, predictably, with Tom.

Keira has always been with Tom. And Tom and Harry had always been something like mates. At least friends enough that Harry always felt guilty for just how much he loved Keira's eyes.

Her eyes. And her lips. Really Harry had loved her face. The tone of her hair was something too. She wasn't ginger, but she wasn't blonde or brunette. It was some kind of auburn he'd only seen on her. She was tall, just a bit shorter than him, maybe two inches, and she'd been so sporty in school, she'd kick around with all the boys. But she was never one of the boys to him. And she loathed watching sports or playing video games, the few times he and the boys would go to Tom's for a match she would go home, or read a book.

Harry loved when she read books, in the window seat, and the sun would hit her hair and it would look really red then, even her eyebrows would have the Burgundy tint, and he'd feel a little drunk on her wine.

He was pretty sure he hid it well. Tom had never seemed to notice, hadn't even given Harry a queer look for how long he tended to look. Harry assumed that was because Tom never payed her enough attention. He took her for granted, they'd been together so long, he felt entitled to her company.

It rubbed Harry the wrong way, never enough to do anything, say anything, because he never cheated or talked bad about her. He was just.....complacent.

Harry thought Keira was too special to be that way. But he had no say, or a smidgeon of a right. He lived on tour buses and hotel rooms, other continents and nowhere near her.

It just bugged him so much the way Tom talked about uni as a chance to be free of her. It had only been once. Harry had never forgot it.

"She's great, I mean, I love her, and she's great fun," he's leered and the laugh in response around him pissed Harry off, though Tom hadn't said anything really offensive. "But, the same girl for forever? I need at least a 3 year break. Then I'll marry her, if she's not slagged about too much while she's away."

What the fuck was that? He was planning to fuck around, but her doing it meant she'd not be worthy of his inadequate carcass anymore.

Harry thought Keira was worth ten of Tom, at least three of him. He hoped she "slagged" about enough to realize what an idiot she was signing up for. Part of him hoped he was around if she did decide to sow any oats, he'd love to be her mill.

Harry had been a little excited when she'd come to his kinda birthday party. He assumed that by then Tom had got his wish and was banging around Bournemouth. It had genuinely shocked him when Tom had tumbled in after her and wrapped a proprietary arm around her shoulder. She'd looked flushed though, happy. All night, whenever Tom was nearby she'd looked pleased.

Harry liked when she looked like that, despite the reasons.

He'd heard a rumor that they had broken up, but were newly reunited just that day.

It had been four years since then. And based on Tom's stated plans, Harry's first course of action, when he got over her presence, had been to check her left hand. He was expecting at least an engagement ring.

She was wearing a ring, but just the band he remembered on her pinky.

Her ring finger was bare.

"Harry?" Oh! He knew that face, when she was genuinely pleased, and her eyes and lips topped up at the corner and her brown eyes sparkled. "I hadn't heard you were home! I haven't seen you in ages! What's it been, like." Her eyes slanted right to think.

"It's been four years, think it was just before my twentieth." He didn't need to think about it. He thought about it a lot.

"Fuck's sake, that's right!" And she took the steps between them before he could stop thinking about how her hair looked like Bordeaux in this light, her eyes lit by the old incandescent bulbs like bourbon. the sun was behind the clouds, and the small space was homely.

She shone by comparison.

He was such a romantic fool.

He would have rolled his eyes at himself, if she wasn't wrapping her arms around his neck. She didn't have to tip toe which he liked, but her face slotted into his neck. Harry closed his arms around her and he clung. Took an unsubtle whiff. He loved the way she smelled. Not that he got to be that close often. But one day she'd been on the couch next to him reading as he'd gotten his ass kicked at fifa because he was so distracted by what she was wearing. He'd asked her. "What's your perfume?" It had slipped out before he could stop himself.

She quirked her brow at him. And he'd felt compelled to say something. "Um...I need to buy Gems something. I'm at a loss. It smells nice."

She smiled at him fondly, but like lots of people who spent time with him did. He could be a little odd, surprisingly awkward he'd been told.

"It's called Alien. Which suits you, I'd say." And she'd knocked him with her shoulder. He'd been newly 16.

Newly smitten.

He'd smelled it on her another time. They'd been playing soccer and he'd scored a goal, which was rare, it was her assist, so they'd hugged, and under her sweat, he'd smelled a layer of sweet.

Whenever he smelled it he thought of her. He wished it was more.

She still wore it now. "You still wear the same perfume." It wasn't a question.

Keira smiled and bit her lip once she got her eyes on him. "I always have, and I always remembered you complimented it. I think I kept wearing it because you said that! Even then I admired your style, though it's certainly evolved, and I worshipped Gemma! Did you know that?" She asked but didn't give him time to answer. "I figured if you thought it good enough for Her, I'd stick with it. Plus, my dad puts it in my stocking. I should be getting another bottle in a few days."

"You staying through Christmas then?" Harry wanted to see if he'd see her again.

"Yeah, got in late last night, surprised mum and dad. I told them I couldn't afford to come home, but I figured me being around was a bit of a present. So I took off days and they will be getting trinkets." She shrugged and her smile was bright. He'd always loved her wide smile. It was so big, her whole body smiled. The presence was big enough to be contagious. "How about you, how long are you round for? Should we sit?"

Harry gestured to the small table and two chairs that was older than both of them, sat his bones down when she nodded. "Um, think I'm here at least until after Christmas. Will probably go back to London for New Year." He pinched his lip. He might stay if she was. "You?"

"I think I'm here through Boxing Day. Then I need to go back to London as well. I need to work, living there's why I can't afford to come home and buy presents."

It was on his mind. He was just gonna ask. "Did you get something for Tom?"

The right side of her face quirked up and her mouth fell open in surprise. "Tom? I always forget how much you've been away..." she leaned back in her chair and sighed. "No, definitely not. I've not bought him a present since.....well the Christmas after I saw you. So years. He had this habit or getting back with me when we were home on breaks, and breaking up with me when he got back to uni." She laughed. "I suppose it's better than cheating on me. But it was a dick move. One I allowed him too many times," She shook her head to clear the subject. "Anyway, What about you? Who'd you have to buy for?"

His brow furrowed a moment. Was she asking him if he was single? That was kinda of what he was asking her, without asking her. Though she wasn't with Tom, that didn't mean she was single. He'd have to be more direct. He sucked at this shit. Prolly why Jeff set him up multiple times. If your manager and another person's were involved, you were usually safe to assume attraction. "Well, like, just the usual people, my mum and gem, her boyfriend, grans, the little cousins. My god children."

"Did you say god children? You have more than one?" Delight danced in the pink apples of her cheeks. Bite them.

"I have a few."

"They know you are a 25 year old single male, yes?" She was laughing at him.

"You wouldn't trust your child with me?" I'm not 25 yet danced through his mind.

"No, I wouldn't trust my nonexistent child to you. You are never in one place long at all!" She pointed at him.

"That's true, but I'd slow down if something happened. I think it's more honorary anyway. And I'm good with kids."

"I remember that, actually, do you remember when we did that service project and we coached the little footie team?" Her smile was wide like the sky.

Course he did, he was pretty sure that was when he went from thinking she was pretty to infatuation. Feeling jealous of Tom and not a little covetous. "Course, Yeah, you were great with the kids."

"Yeah, I baby sat a lot. But I wasn't as good as you, though thankfully I was better than you at football. We'd never have won except for me." She slapped at his forearm and it occurred to him that was the third time she'd initiated contact. The hug, and she'd squeezed his hand at some point, and now she'd slapped his forearm and then left her hand there.

"That's true." He dimpled at her. "I dunno, people just seem to pick me. Maybe cuz they know I have more than enough financially?" He shrugged it off this time, "Are you going to the Sullivan's on Christmas Eve?" She'd been to that party a time or two when they were younger. His mum and Nancy Sullivan were good friends, they always went. Well, his mum and Robin did, he'd go with her this year. He knew his mum missed his step dad most right now. Lonely holidays. He'd been trying to be home longer on big days, or make sure Gemma was.

"Um, my parents are going. I think. I hadn't decided." She cocked her head to the side and he was gone. Her cheeks were still pink. "Are you going?" She squeezed his forearm.

"I'll go if you do." He blinked, in the way Nick loved to point out. Slow, and sleepily, but it always seemed to come across, even if he got the piss taken for it.

"Yeah, Yeah. Should I hang around the punch bowl or the wine, do you think?" She bit her lip. Wow, he'd seen her look at Tom like that, once, and he'd had to leave a party. She was looking at him now. He found himself calf blinking again, and wanted to slide his arm back to get ahold of her hand with his. That may be a little blunt, like an anvil to the head.

"The mistletoe." Ahh, now her cheeks went pink too. That was fairly blunt as well, but flirty. He did flirty well, sometimes. Sometimes, he was into it and whoever wasn't, he hoped it was his baggage and not him.

Keira's cheeks and the way she bit her lip made him think she was into it. "Should I take tips for kisses then? Make up for my lost wages coming home instead of working, Yeah?"

"Well, that's one course of action," he paused and finally flipped his arm and caught her hand when he slid his palm under hers. "Or you could just try to time it for when I'm nearby, if you wanted to?"

"Why would I want to do that?" Her pupils were almost swallowing her brown iris. She's leaned in too, he could smell the tea she had in her mug, Yorkshire.

"Well, if I'm honest, I've been wanting to catch you under the mistletoe since we were 15."

"Yeah?" Her voice was so breathy it put wind in his sails.

"Definitely."

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

"Harry, stop fluffing your bloody hair and get in the car, mum is gonna leave you, you daft boy." Gemma called from the doorway. He had been fapping about  with his hair for ages. But he was fairly certain Keira was gonna come, and he was gonna hang out by the mistletoe with a drink to cool his heels all night if he had to.

"Just a minute!" He called.

"You said that 20 minutes ago. Mum's fed up. We are leaving. You can walk!" Oh, siblings.

"I have a car!" He shouted down the stairs. Lots of them, even one he kept at his mum's.

"I know, but if you want to ride with us, get your arse down here."

He gave his growing curls one last look. It would do. Harry knew his hair was in a kind of awkward phase, he'd seen some shrek memes about it. Hurtful. But he'd been here before. It would be good in a few months. And it was long enough to wind around fingers while he was being kissed. He loved that, he wondered if Keira would put her hands in his hair.

He wanted to put his hands in her long auburn hair. He thought they may have kissed at the bakery or on the walk home, had Mary not bustled in and dragged him in the back to fuss over him. It was what he had gone there for, and he loved it. But his focus had shifted.

His focus was on little bits of green used to excuse inhibitions.

The drive was about his nerves though. Gemma teased him. He'd accidentally mentioned Keira being home. His mum had a knowing look, but hadn't said anything.

Gemma was not the silent type.

"Do you still have a crush on her then?" She had laughed at him and he'd narrowed his eyes and not responded. That had been the afternoon after the bakery.

His mum had causally said she saw Keira's mum at the market, "Sheila said they'd be at the party." She'd touched his shoulder and handed him a grocery bag.

He knew that.

But the confirmation was nice.

He was still a bit nervous on the way over to the party.

He was nervous for the first hour or so.

She wasn't there.

Until she was. He might have smelled her first.

He'd been refilling his wine glass, well he'd been hanging around the drink table, since they arrived. It was closest to the door.

He heard Kate Sullivan greeting somebody and as he turned like the mailman was down the way with a hopes for package, he caught her smell. Harry was smiling before he laid eyes on her.

She was too.

They'd hugged hello, and she's smelled better close up. Felt lovely pressed long up his front. He had hoped she would stay by him for a long while.

"Hiya Harry!" She'd glowed at him, brighter than the cinnamon candle he'd liked almost as much as his usual brand Mrs. Sullivan had going.

"Keira!" He'd not let her out of his arms, but had given enough space to look down at her creamy cheeks. She settled and he thought they may not need mistletoe.

Then he lost track of her for ages. Her mother had dragged her away to make the rounds.

At one point he'd seen her talking to a boy from college, he was a couple years older. She was laughing. All music notes and berry lips and sour stomach for him.

He was sulking, Gemma said, "just go talk to her!" And rolled her eyes at him.

Right, he was gonna do that. He was working himself up to it.

And then, he saw her, and she was walking towards him. Where he was awkwardly off to the side, alone.

"I haven't seen any mistletoe," Keira shrugged. He loved that she was so tall. "Luckily, I brought my own." She smirked and brought her hand aloft above his head, a small spirit of green with a festive bow. She could easily reach above his head.

She tasted better than she smelled.

[aesarctic]

Warcross, by Marie Lu

The first book in the Warcross duology. Finished two weeks ago, but now that finals are done, I was able to put out a review.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

FOR THE SUPER NON-SPOILERY PEOPLE: Warcross is set in the near-future (about ten years) where a boy named Hidea Tanaka has invented a virtual reality video game. Everyone became obsessed with this game, including our main character, Emika Chen. Emika Chen is eighteen years old, lives in New York, and is a bounty hunter for a living. She has $13 to her name and rent, which is well over $13, is due. She becomes desperate, and this leads her to try something risky. Unfortunately, the outcome of her action doesn't go as according to plan. --- If you read the Legend trilogy, also by Marie Lu, you'd know that [SPOILER] this book is based off of the Antarctica points and rewards system we briefly got to see. I loved Antarctica in the Legend trilogy, and I was really excited to know that that system was getting it's own book. I have to say, figuring out that it was going to be in a video game format ruined my hopes a tiny bit, but that was easy to overlook.[END SPOILER] I don't have much to say about the characters overall, whether they seemed incredibly human-like, or if they were more plastic, or maybe they were a personality trait carved into the shape of a person. Character design didn't stand out that much. I also think that the plot is a little predictable, but I love what Marie Lu did with our world ten years from now. Ten years isn't much, so there's still hints to today's New York and other places, but there's also the differences that ten years can make. Ten years ago everyone still had flipphones; now you walk down the street and everyone has a smartphone. It's the same sort of difference, but a little more present. And if you read all of that and tried to figure out why I gave it four stars, for one, I found that I had a hard time putting the book down, no matter what happened. I actually finished it around 2AM (I read almost 200 pages that day), so if that doesn't show interest, I don't know what does. Also, if I told you why one star was docked, it wouldn't belong in the super "non-spoilery" section. Head on over to just "non spoilery" to figure it out. FOR THE NON-SPOILERY PEOPLE: Just adding on from the SNS section, I docked one star because no matter what, I will always hate romance. It makes it worse when it's predictable romance. I didn't like it. But moving away from that matter and into a different one, I think that the book had some things that seemed unrealistic. Not science-wise, but I mean little things that you'll have to find out once reading the book. Between characters that I liked and disliked, I definitely like more characters than I dislike, which is hopefully a good sign for anyone who can't read books with bad characters. Personally, if the plot's good, I can keep going, but I know some people have to like the characters if they're going to keep going.

FOR THE SPOILERY PEOPLE: Let's start with Emika: She's sort of middle ground for me. I like her, but she's not my absolute favourite. I like her name, and I like her hair. However, she didn't stick with me. How do I know? I finished this book two weeks ago and I can't remember anything that completely defined her for me. However, even though I can't remember Emika as a person, I know that throughout the book, everything Emika does seems so simple. Not that I expect her hacking process to be in great detail (because that sounds very hard to write), but she makes it sound like reciting the alphabet--something she can do every single time without fail. No challenge whatsoever. I love the idea of a fantastic hacker, but sometimes a little bit of challenge is nice to read or hear about. I also think that all of her background stories sound so dramatic. Her dad's story, her mom walking out, the thing with Annie at school. I know while reading the book, I had a harder time believing everything. After the book starts, we soon meet Keira, Emika's roommate. She was sorta deadbeat-ish, as Emika pointed out, but the way the two interacted made it seem like they were at least some sort of friends. I wish we could have seen a little more of that. I want to know what happened to her after Emika left. Emika made a point that with the rent paid off, she might have the motivation to get onto her feet again. I want to know if she did. A bit after we meet Keira, we also learn Emika's past with hacking. I don't remember when--before or after her big Warcross hack--but we learn that she was in a bad place, then she noticed Hideo on the TV, doing incredible things. She figured she could do the same thing, and did her computer science homework. And then she did the entire textbook. And then she went down for dinner. This is one of those unrealistic moments I mentioned earlier. I don't know how big her textbook was, but even thinking of my elementary and middle school textbooks (she was eleven, so sixth grade), there's no way that could be finished in a night. Especially before dinner. Maybe I read it wrong, please correct me if I did, but it seems a little unreasonable. After everything with Emika's giant hack, she becomes a wild card, and is the first wild card to be chosen by a team. She goes with them, and meets Wikki, a little robot that takes information on everyone. The reason I bring this up is because when she hacks into it, I was convinced she'd get caught or something. That seemed so simple. And then she never did. It totally worked. It seems too easy, which loops back around to what I was saying earlier about everything Emika does seems easy. Hideo and Emika quickly form a relationship, and I want to talk about it a bit. As soon as Emika took note that he was three years older than she during her "This is how I learned to hack" flashback, I knew that he was the love interest, and I was right. It also happened a lot faster than I thought it would be, and it almost seemed forced in a way. I also hated every moment that Emika blew off her teammates for Hideo. There's romance in every book, so believe me when I say that there are times I can tolerate it, but something about this relationship that I can't handle. So, a good chunk more into the book, there's been a match already, Emika finds more out about Zero with the Project_Ice_Hideo_Tanaka, and I wrote in my notebook "Zero is probably a good guy, honestly." I said this book was predictable, didn't I? Then, later, after we figure out that Hideo has a brother--had a brother, at this point in the book--I literally wrote "What if Zero is Hideo's brother." Re: predictable. Also, unrelated, but Hideo's brother is named Sasuke, which took me out of the book every time, and anyone who knows what Naruto is knows what I'm talking about. One of my friends recently read this book and said the same thing. Advancing into the plot, we reach a point where Emika is really getting on Sasuke's--sorry, I mean Zero's--nerves, and Zero deletes Emika's memory files. Memories are important and powerful, and I'll admit that I got really annoyed at that, but I'm relieved that she got all of them back in the end. The Zero plot is advancing quickly, and we find out, predictably, that Tremaine is another hired hunter. At this point, every time Zero does something huge, I wanted a huge explanation on how he does this. It's like he's magic, and I thought Emika had it easy. Obviously I don't want Marie Lu to go through the pain of writing all of that (again, sounds hard), but it just seems too unexplainable for Sasuke to be able to manipulate the game as much as he is. The end of the book. Zero is confirmed to be Sasuke, Hideo's the one who has bad ideas, the Phoenix riders know, I don't remember what happened to Asher but I don't think he's on the team anymore. Warcross is becoming a mindcontrol game, and Emika's adventure is to be continued. Despite a couple things that I found to be holes, I thouroughly enjoyed this book, and I'm excited for the next one. I want to see where we go with Emika, and I really want to see how the entire thing is resolved. Some predictions/wants for the next book: -Her mom makes an appearance for some reason or another -Keira makes an appearance -Love triangle with Emika, Hideo, and Tremaine, though I wouldn't put it past the book to through Sasuke in there as well.