NORTHERN MARKETS
EPISODE SIXTEEN: Friendly Reunion

Wolfboy183 snuck into the laundry room where that permanoob girl was talking on her messenger. He saw the electric dryer and threw his wet clothes in it, inserted four 100 meso coins and it started up. The girl kept talking…
“…yeah, these two guys were following us, like, all day, and the one guywolf184 or something kept checking us out, it was creepy. Yeah, his idiot noob brother is in here…”
183 walked out, cursing under his breath.

Jamie, level 17 beginner, long brown hair, NX clothes- t-shirt, hippie sweatshirt with green, black, red patterns, and stained purple jeans, and Azure, level 28 magician; dark blue hair, blue hoody sweater and army pants sat on the bench outside the Bath House staring up at the giant TV screen that was mounted on the grand tree in the center of town. It cast its bright light on them, showing commericals, anti-hacker warnings, messenger megaphone announcements, and FM prices.

Azure sat back, chomping on a sandwich Jamie gave her and chugging down a home made carbonated blueberry juice.
“…everyone’s been so worried about you” Jamie was saying. “Joshua called Laney from Kerning yesterday and said some hackers got you in the Free Market. Everyone think’s you are dead” she said. “Toemi and Randy B seemed especially worried-“
Azure igonored her and drank the last of the berry soda, then threw the bottle over the rail into the dark thick fog below. She sure as hell didn’t want to think about boys right now.
“Hackers didn’t get me” she said. “Fuqking Justice Arrow son of a priqk bowman tried. Then some guy came out of nowhere and pumped that guy full of snail shell fragments. My partner made me throw away my mana bottles cause we were posing as noobs. I got tired and everyone in there was trying to kill me! My partner got shredded by this cannibal crusader bich who eats babies”
“Eats babies!?” Jamie gasped. “…How-“
“It’s the Free Market. they can do anything” Azure spat. She picked up a large twig off the ground and started peeling the bark off it.
“I dont even know how I got here. Last thing i knew i was in the Free Market trying to get away from this hacker and then everything blew up around me.”
Jamie said nothing. Azure continued her story. “I think I saw Madam Shuma- she’s my teacher, then it all blanked out.
w-when I woke up, I was on an operating table or something like that. That examination they were doing… it’s like they were messing around inside my brain. Then for like a thousand hours everything is all blurry and i hear all these people’s voices and these megaphone announcements that don’t speak in English and all these people getting killed. So scary! These mages kept chasing me, and i felt like i was being electrocuted by magic attacks and I couldnt stop them!” Azure cried, trying to fight back tears.
“I-I never wanna go back there again, wherever that hell hole is!”
“Then lets get outta here and go back to Kerning!” Jamie said, tugging on her arm. “We were gonna go on Friday.”

“You stupid noob! What the hell are you going to do without me? You got nowhere to go!” Wolfboy184 shouted at his younger brother.
“Bite my shiny metal ass!” Wolfboy183 shot back as he stormed out of the back door of the laundry pool of the Bath House.
“That’s all you ever be! A stupid noob rogue! They’ll never pass you at the 2JA! And me you’ll be looking at a damn good hunter soon!”
“Go get shot, you fuqking bum!” Wolfboy183 yelled back.
A siren cried, and a crystal powered hover bike roared to life. The GM heard the boy curse and drove his bike over to him- the blue and white lights flashing.
“Hold it, you!” the big officer shouted.
In the distance, Azure and Jamy saw it all. “Wha-? What could the GM want with Randy?” Jamy asked.
“Maybe a hacker raped him and now he’s contaminated” Azure joked.
“You’re mean!”

The GM officer pulled up to Wolfboy183. “Y-yes sir?”
“What’s going on? a homocexual domestic dispute or what?” the old man GM asked.
“No, sir” 183 said without the attitude. “Then why you swearing at him? Cursing is illegal!” the GM said, pulling out his ticket book.
“Sorry, sir” Wolfboy183 said.
“Yo, that guy’s a hacker! Kill him!” the hunter guy shouted.
“Ess Tee Eff Yoo!*” Wolfboy183 shouted back. “I’m even not hacking!”
The GM sighed in frustration, and flicked on the bike’s built-in hack scanner.
“Yeah right! He’s negative! Another fake report from you Wolfboy 184 and I’ll be taking you in!” he said writing up a ticket, and handed it to the rogue.
“300K?” the rogue whined staring at the ticket.
“You’re damn right that’s a 300K fine! Next time it will be 300 hours service duty! Now get out of here!” the GM said, firing up his bike and blasted down the street.
“Aw hell! Asshole!” the rogue said, shaking his fist in the GM’s direction.
“Maybe now you’ll keep your mouth shut!” Woldboy184 said to him.
“Go away!”
“OMG, I am your older brother, have some respect for me!” Wolfboy184 shouted at Wolfboy183. The hunter was at least 6 feet while the rogue guy was only 4 feet.
“Respect?” the rogue shot back. “For poisoning Hitoyo and getting us kicked out of Reign? For getting Kyro after me when YOU are the one trying to score with his girlfriend? I’d have to be piss drunk on mana before doing that!”
“SHUT UP!” Wolfboy184 shouted, pulling out his ryden bow and swung it hard smoking the rogue kid in the face- the sharp end of the bow slicing a gash in his cheek. Wolfboy183 was knocked back and fell down.

“HEY! You quit it you big meanie!” Jamy shouted at the hunter. “That guy’s our friend!”
Azure stood up too.
Wolfboy184 igonored him, drew an arrow and aimed it at the kid.
“Don’t do it!” Jami shouted, firing up her 3-snail skill and fired- A bottle of purple elixir shot out of the white energy in her hand and smashed over the hunter’s face, getting him in the eyes. He fell back. The arrow slammed into the ground, followed by the ryden bow.
“Randy! Are okay?” Jami said, rushing over to Wolfboy183, helping him up.
“I’m fine” he groaned. Azure got down from the bench and went over to him. She saw the bloody gash the hunter’s bow gave him.
“Harsh!” she said. Randy blushed when he saw her. “Hi Azure…” he said in a weak voice.
“You’ll be fine!” she said, messing up his pumpkin shaped hair cut.
“Let’s go inside, it’s cold out!” Jami said. “and it’s starting to rain”
Azure leaned on somebody for support- it turned out to be Randy. She just about threw him to the ground, but she held back the impulse. She didn’t hate him, it was just that pre- high school love crush crap.
They went back inside the laundry pool.

“cool! Azure’s actually alive!” Laney said, cutting herself off talking on her messenger, staring at the magician girl.
“Guess what! Azure’s acutally alive!” she said on her messenger.
Later she hung up the messenger. “Guess what. Philly and the boys are going to jack some of the new hover bikes and we can ride back home!”
“Why do we need to steal hover bikes?” Randy asked her.
“Dude! They won’t let us on the bus anymore! Well not on the one that goes through Henesys. Athena Pierce III made it illegal for permanoobs to be in town. Says it attracts too many hackers.”
“And tomorrow, we’re going back to Kerning City!”
That was the best thing Azure heard anyone say in over a week!