Chapter 37 - Darling! (1/2)

After returning home, Gray rummaged through the box of stuff Carly gave him and was very surprised to see that it was a lot of the gadgets and toys that he had shown interest in over the past 2 years but never was able to afford... some of it was no longer for sale even and had been out of stock for months.

"Wow, she did this for me? I don't know if I should be touched that she likes me or worried that she's stalking me..." Gray mused.

Taking out the gaming accessories, Gray put them with his old PC. He was actually looking forward to trying out the 214 button immersive controller that was an accessory for Super Steel Battalion: Vintage Edition and meant to be like you're piloting one of the earliest mechs from well before Gray was born. As for the rest of the accessories, they ranged from a surround headset, forced air recirculating back rest, a few tshirts (which were eerily Gray's exact fit), and a few figurines of some of his favorite game characters. At the bottom of the box were two sleek black boxes tied neatly with a ribbon.

"I don't remember seeing these in the store..." said Gray.

He opened up one of them and his eyes went wide with excitement.

"Is... is... is that... YES!! YES IT IS!" Gray stuttered with excitement as he pulled out a cylindrical metal object with a switch on the handle as he recognized it as a beam saber, and not one of the cheap ones. This is one of the ones that the beam isn't up all the time causing it to be more than just a piece of plastic that lights up, this one actually emitted a physical beam. Although it wasn't dangerous and the beam broke easily if it struck something hard enough, the technology in these was impractical and useless, but it looked cool as hell!

Gray flicked the switch on the saber and a dark blue beam extended from handle, Gray twirled it around a little bit with glee and accidentally smacked it against a table breaking the beam. Gray thumbed it off quickly and then thumbed it back on to restore the beam.

"This is so cool!" thought Gray. He suddenly remembered there was another box that was identical to the one with the beam saber and quickly opened it up while picturing himself holding dual beam sabers like a J**i from S*** ***s. Sadly, this one only contained an envelope.

Gray saw the front of the envelope had the words "If you haven't opened the other box, open it first butt head, then open this card!"

Cards were rarely made out of paper but instead were just 3D Micro Codes that contained the information within the code itself. This allowed one to scan it with their armlet or another device that could read it and then display the card.

Having already opened the first box, Gray took the Micro Code from the envelope and scanned it with his armlet and a holographic card was projected in front of him that he could interact with. He opened the card and saw that she put a simple poem in it.

"Roses are red"

"Violets are blue"

"I have a beam saber"

"And now so do you"

Gray chuckled at it since it is cheesy just the way he liked it. He flipped to the next page and Carly had put a picture of her wearing a cosplay of a female J**i from S*** ***s while holding the handle of the lit up beam saber in her mouth and posing flirtatiously. The caption below said "Come duel with me sometime, I won't let you stab me so easily."

Gray thought that it would actually be very attractive if he didn't hear her voice and know her personality, that and the thought of her swinging anything in his direction with her amazonian strength would be enough to frighten most people. "I wonder how Spoon would react if I showed him this picture." Gray thought to himself.

After playing with his new beam saber for a bit, and breaking a glass jar, Gray remembered why he had gone to see Spoon and Carly suddenly. "Guess I'll just call Spoon directly" Gray thought, then tapped his armlet to bring up his phone book and called Spoon.

After 3 tones it connected and Gray heard Spoon's voice coming from what sounded like a truck and Gray thought he was in the cabin of the truck on his way to wherever Alterra Corporation told them to go.

"Hey Spoon, it sounds like you're already on your way to Alterra Corp's shop or wherever."

"Gray, schweet, good thiming! I wash getting bored!"

Gray was a little curious and asked "How can you be bored driving a truck with some of your coworkers, especially if Carly is in the same one as you? Speaking of which, I don't hear her."

"I'm shtill in the box!" exclaimed Spoon. "It shucked at firsht, then I realizshed I didn't need to work in here! Now I'm packed up and on my way!"