Chapter 34: Comedy Night

Kix had already called in one of the patrolling security drones to take over documenting the crime scene.

“Why can't we just plug in and download the data ourselves?” asked Arron.

“Mother and Fathers new orders. Something like this has to be taken care of by the security drones under their control. Not sure if this new law is also for the major cases as well,” said Kix with a shrug.

“Just seems unnecessary,” said Arron.

“I don't mind really. With this being such a shady place, who wants to plug in and give a direct connection to your NerViz allowing any type of hacker to access or even take control? You need to be careful of what you connect to or you might get a virus that can spread and hack into any other augments in your body.”

Arron watched as the security drone floated up the stairs and plugged itself into the floor's security system.

A holographic video was projected out from the bot as it gathered all the holo-vid recreating the scene of all that had happened.

When it was done with that it floated into the apartment and scanned the three bodies, as well as their NerViz cloudchip's, and took samples of their blood.

When it had gathered all that it needed it sent the information back to HQ for the paper pushers to take care of.

***

Arron and Kix exited the artificial Onsen that was located on one of the underground floors of [The Roach].

“This place sure has everything doesn't it,” said Arron. He was now more relaxed after soaking in the hot water for over 30 minutes.

“Don't think you can come here every day. With the water laws the way they are, the Onsen is too expensive. I only treated you today because of how crazy everything was today,” said Kix.

“Captain Pointer and the others should be waiting for us at the bar. Tonight should be fun.”

The two made their way to the stairs and climbed up to [The Oasis] on the 13th.

The atmosphere was a nice breath of fresh air and calming as they entered. As they walked over to the corner where the rest of ERF 3 was once again sitting, Arron caught a few snippets of the news from the several Holo-vision screens playing on low volume.

“...in other news, a recent rare interview was allowed to air this morning. It showed a captured savage, who talked about 'fighting for the freedom of his country’, has gone viral,” said Fela.

“All these savage countries are still experiencing the [Troubles] and yet they babble on about 'Freedom'. They need to stop acting like terrorists and stop fighting against the WHO's army. Only then can the WHO Normalize the [Troubles] and allow them to join as a member state,” said Kommy.

When Arron and Kix arrived at the corner table, they found that everyone was engrossed in listening to Old Tooth telling a story.

“Where was I?... ah yes... as I was saying... I was once a millionaire many years ago... I had over 3 million dollars.”

Old man Tooth took a sip of his drink before continuing.

“I made it all from an investment. But it was all in the currency of the old country. When the WHO and Mother and Father took over... Poof! It all became worth less than 1 credit.”

“Hey old man...” Toothbrush tried to ask a question but was interrupted.

“I'm not old! I'm only 41!” said old Tooth.

“What!?” asked the entire group in shock.

Old tooth definitely looked like an old man with his wrinkled face and white hair.

Grumpily old tooth stood up and walked to an empty barstool to nurse his half-empty glass of bubbling alcohol.

“I guess the stress really does wreak havoc on your body,” said Captain Pointer.

“Kix, Arron, nice of you to join us,” said Ward as he sipped a dark bubbling drink.

“Arron, You must be special. On your first day you already got your near-death cherry popped,” said Kat with a smile.

“You heard about it already?” asked Arron.

“You won't believe all the crap we ran into today. It was hectic,” said Kix, shaking his head.

Arron nodded his head in agreement.

“This is not something to joke about Kat,” said Priss, as she ate some of the snacks on the table.

“If you can't laugh about it, you'll end up insane. Just look at me,” said Knox Harup, pointing to his many scars.

The other members of ERF's Unit three continued to chat with each other while Arron looked through the table's holo menu and decided to try one of the 100+ different coffees that [The Oasis] served.

'It's probably safer than choosing an alcoholic beverage.' Arron thought as he tapped on a brand named 'Normal Original Plain Coffee'.

As he paid for the drink, the large balance in his account reminded him that he needed to send some money to his parents.

He taped in 10,000 credits for the transfer, which would leave him around 2k credits for the rest of the month.

[Processing... Transfer failed! Maximum allowed monthly transfer for Rank B SCS is 9999.]

Arron again tried to transfer credits but this time typing in 9999.

[Processing... Transfer success! Maximum allowed monthly transfer has been reached.]

He noticed that his NerViz mail had several new messages from friends and family back in Novhere, all asking about a news article that was written about him.

They were worried since the article made him sound like a bumpkin who was amazed at everything in the city and thought that the party of Mother and Father were not strict enough and needed more laws.

Arron sighed and closed the messages when his coffee was delivered by a serving bot and placed down on the table.

“You finally see the article?” asked Kix with a smile. “You know what they say, either you read the news and are misinformed or you don't read it and you are uninformed.”

Arron shrugged his shoulders as he took a sip and made an odd face causing the others to laugh. The coffee tasted like steaming hot and bitter synth-food.

“What did you expect? You won't find real coffee anywhere on the 1st level unless you're a politician of the party of Mother and Father,” said Kix.

“Arron today is your lucky day,” Bishop.

“I doubt it.”

“It's Comedy Night!” said Kat with a grin.

“Comedy night?”

“Just watch and you'll see,” said Kat patting him on the shoulder.

“Level one may be the poorest level of the Megacity but at least we have more entertainment than we know what to do with,” said Ward.

Kix snorted, “Cheaply made mass-produced garbage. All they do is recreate old versions of shows and movies every few months. It's all done to keep idiots under control.”

The already dim lights in [The Oasis] lowered even further and the small stage near the end of the bar lit up. Revealing several men and women sitting on hover chairs.

The first man stood up and walked to a floating microphone with the golden yellow spotlight narrowing and focusing on him.

“Ahem...,” The man nervously cleared his throat. “What do you call a man with no nose and no body? … Nobody nose.”

“Speeding never killed anyone... It’s the sudden stop.”

...and so the jokes continued coming, with one person after the other trying to one-up the last person. Things were really heating up as the patrons that volunteered got more comfortable.

The jokes got more wild as time passed and the strong drinks they were guzzling down started to take effect.

Arron was enjoying how crazy things were getting, allowing him to take his mind off the day's events.

“...what next? Will Mother and Father ban pooping while sitting down? Or regulate that you have to pee while doing a handstand?” said a drunk female.

Annnnnn!

A loud buzzer sounded as the female finished her joke. The spotlight light turned red and a security bot flew down from the ceiling.

“Violation of speech code and a breach of the peace! Begin Normalization!”

Zap!

The female was knocked out and fell to the floor, which opened up underneath her and quickly closed after she fell through.

The security bot flew back up into the ceiling and the light returned to its golden yellow glow.

The rest of the people telling jokes became stuttering wrecks. Those who could speak just repeated jokes they had already said as their minds blanked and ignored the other jokes they had prepared.

The relaxed mood from before was broken and everyone started to ignore the people on the stage and while they quietly talked among themselves.