Is that Protection?

Avery awoke to the sound of multiple dull thuds. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust. Random dots of coloured dominated his vision, and he felt the world lurch forward as he tried to sit up.

Another thud.

It was all coming back to him. This was his room. A plain, wooden box of a space with no unique features. He really didn’t see the point. If all the rooms in all the houses of the neighbourhood started out the same, what was the point in changing them? This was the excuse he gave most often. In truth, it was really difficult to concentrate on, or enjoy things when your brain is constantly running itself in circles and never switching off. If he picked up one interest, he would gain twelve.

Luckily, there was nothing interesting to be found on Luddite Row.

One final thud rounded off with a metallic ping. It came from downstairs. Probably the garage.

Avery paid no attention to it. One of the neighbourhood kids having a boxing match with a vending machine, no doubt.

“And they call me the strange one,” he said quietly to himself.

The sound was gone. No more begging and pleading, just the high chirp of the birds and the low, distant tunes of the Geothermal Station. It seemed happy. There was no reason to worry.

The only question that remained was what he was going to do today. He could be pretty certain that, in the not too distant future, his Father was going to knock on the door and appear with a glass of disgustingly pulpy orange juice. There would be an attempt to make a conversation, and he would get bored and leave. Politely, kindly, but he would leave.

A pre-emptive good riddance to that.

His mind kept returning to the noise. It wasn't so much the begging. It was the accent. He'd only heard voices like those when he would listen to old recordings at Dorian's house. Recordings from political speeches and afternoon talk shows from before Lugus declared its independence. It was snooty and posh, like an old-fashioned upper-class British gentleman, if he remembered Dorian correctly. An Apollo Station accent.

Whatever that voice was from, it was, or wanted to make it sound like, they'd come from the Union.

Was he being tricked? If so, by what? Nobody can hear their surroundings like he can. If that’s the case, then-

A predictable knock interrupted Avery's thoughts. A tall, broad shouldered, muscular man stepped into the room. Satoshi Midorikawa placed himself on Avery’s bed, giving his legs enough room. Father and son were pretty identical when it came to facial features. Both had the same deep purple hair, though Satoshi chose to cut his short and spiky. They both had the same freckles under the eyes too. To be like his Father in any way was painful to Avery. At least he managed to get him back a little by taking his Mother's last name.

He was also incredibly grateful for the fact that, as much as his Father might want to have him take it easy or restrict his movement because of his collapse, the law did not allow him to. With Greenhaven being such a small hamlet, it would be foolish for the Council to start dictating who goes where or who does what.

It always seemed rather funny to Avery that his home would have such a liberal attitude to personal freedom that it went both ways. You have both the freedom to conduct your business, and the freedom to get involved in everyone else's.

“Hey buddy, are you…are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

As predicted, there’s the long drawn out silence. That might be a new personal best as far as Dad was concerned. Avery looked at the pulp filled mass that apparently qualified as orange juice and grimaced. Satoshi placed it in front of his son and straightened out his sheets. He must’ve had a restless sleep. Avery looked at his Father blankly, and he bristled. “What happened to thank you? Fainting take away your manners, did it?”

“No…Sorry, thank you.”

“You’re welcome…Hey, did you check out yesterday’s Generals game? Our first win in five! Cool right? That triple play from Magic Ishida in the 39th was gold! Oh, sorry, did the guys wake you at all? I told them to keep it down, but we were just so hyped about being out of the relegation playoffs, y’know?”

“Its fine, you didn’t wake me.”

Avery examined his Father. He was tense, unusually so. He obviously entered the room for a specific reason, a reason he was confident that neither he, nor his Father, were going to enjoy. Avery didn't want his Dad sitting with that bizarre, uncomfortable alertness for too long. His face was freaking him out.

“Are we about to have an argument?”

“What? Oh shit, I forgot you are so good at reading faces. I hope not, but I have something to say, and I want you to listen, and when I say listen, I mean listen. None of this staring off into space stuff. I’ve told you so many times how rude that is.”

Oh great, here we go. Avery wondered how could it possibly be that the only person on the planet that should understand his son was the only one who couldn't. Not even Graham would be so bold as to call it ‘staring into space stuff.’

“I’ll listen. I promise.”

“Good, okay. I want you to stop hanging out with Dorian.”

“No.”

And just like that, the switch was flipped. Satoshi’s veins bulged in his head. He really was too predictable. “You said you would listen!”

Avery jumped as the wave of noise hit his ears and sent them ringing. The pain drummed in his head and he squeezed his eyes shut. He needed to push through the pain. Normally he'd be quite happy to let his Dad win. Most things they argued about were small and trivial, but not this. He would not let anybody separate him from his best friend.

“I-I listened. Believe it or not, I respect your opinion. Still, I'm going to refuse.”

“What do you mean you’re ‘still going to refuse? For goodness’ sake Avery, I’m trying to be reasonable! If you’re going to tell me no, at least tell me to piss off like a normal person. Still going to refuse…You sound like one of them.”

“I’m not going to be nasty to you Dad. As much as you want me to be like your Holoball buddies and their kids, I’m not going to talk to you like dirt for no reason.”

“And what’s wrong with that!?” Satoshi roared with the authority that only a Guard Captain could, causing Avery to scuttle up his bed. Satoshi’s face unwound as he instantly regretted his tone. His head was in his hands. “Sorry Avery I just, I just…I don’t know. I didn't mean to talk to you like that. You know I didn't. That doesn't change the fact that Dorian is trouble. He’ll lead you down the wrong path.”

Avery had recovered by now and went on the offensive. He wasn't sure what it was about today, but he decided that today was the day that his life was going to be resolved, even if partially. “Why? Because he, for all his f-faults is a bit of a Union fanboy? I-I don’t care about that!”

“Well, you should! Kids like you don't know how easy you have it. The Union oppressed us, Avery. Treated us like a little backwater planet, promised us democracy and liberty, but what did they do? They sent a governor, a general more like, and taxed us for all we were worth! Dorian looks at the model space stations and battleships and thinks it’s a technological paradise but it isn’t! If people like him and his Mum have their way, we’d all be under the jackboot again.”

“I'm not old enough to remember. How do I know you're telling the truth?"

“Because I am old enough to remember the faces and the stories of your Grandmother and Grandfather. I’ve seen their scars Avery, their tears. I trust your Grandfather’s word as my bond. May the earth keep his bones. I care for your safety and the safety of everyone here, even if certain people don’t.”

Is that why you encourage all the kids to go to town on all those wide screen TVs in the junk pile? Is that protection? Is it protection when I see you and your drinking buddies beat up on an old supercomputer? So? I don’t care about any of it, Dad; I like you both, but from where I’m sitting, Dorian looks like a child and you and your friends look m-mental. At least Dorian has the decency to care about me."

Satoshi looked at Avery for a long time. He couldn’t work out the combination of emotions in his Dad. Only that when he was done thinking. He took a deep breath and put his head back in his hands. It was then that Avery noticed for the first time the oil on his Father’s knuckles.

Fresh oil.

“There's no point talking to you, is there? As much as I love you, you're never going to understand. The sacrifices I make for you, the sacrifices that they made for you and your ungrateful best bud…. What those things did to—No, you know what? You're right. This will be the last conversation we have about this, Avery, just me aware that from now on I'm going to treat you like every other member of this community. If you step out of line, you'll be in the same boat as your friend. You want to be treated like everyone else? Well, there you go. I won’t bail him out, either. As far as I’m concerned, Dorian Pepper is a criminal"

With that, Satoshi left the room.

***

“Hel…Alo…please.” The noises pounded in Avery’s head. They had started in the late afternoon after Satoshi had another round of metal boxing. Avery tried to cover the noise with a pillow, but it wasn’t outside. The voice was ingrained in him. He lay cowering in the fetal position. He silently repeated the things to himself he could never say.

“I hate myself.”

Why Mum? Why not Dad?”

“I just want to be normal.”

“…I just want to watch it all burn.”

He sprung out of bed in search of the noise. Using pain as a compass, he guided himself downstairs past the kitchen, past the living room, and into a space with a latch at the end of the hallway.

The space that led to Dad's gym. He had never been down there before. He was under strict instructions not to, but the voice, the noise, was dragging him, pulling him. And so, placing his sanity over any potential discipline and grabbing his torch, he climbed down the ladder.

It was dark to begin with. He would not turn on any lights and potentially alert his Father, but he knew enough about the equipment Dad kept down here and where he kept it to avoid any potential injury. It was only when he got into the furthest most corner of the room, where The noise was pounding on his brain so much he thought he was going to have an aneurysm, that he noticed it. A brief flicker of blue light running backwards and forwards in a square shape before stopping and focusing on him. The light flashed intensely.

“You can hear me? Please, please, if you can hear me, don't hurt me. I promise I know nothing. I've told the man all that I know, please! Just let me go and I promise I’ll be on my way.”

Avery held his torch defensively. “What are you? Are you working with the Union?”

“Please, I can’t move.”

Realising he wasn't in danger and noticing that the voice sounded panicked, Avery shone the light on the thing that he, or rather, his mind, had been conversing with.

Hanging in front of him, almost crucified, was a genuine, honest to God, Union Droid.

“Help me.”