Golden Opportunities

It had been a long day for the robotic hero known as A.I. After three muggings, two rapes, and four gang fights, Gabriel had had enough heroism for the day. As usual, he retired back to Phoenix's dorm room for the night. Walking in, he saw Phoenix and what appeared to be a new Talon holding hands on the couch, wearing the N.E.S.T. visors. "Hm. I don't know if I should interrupt them or not..." A.I. thought out loud. "Oh well." he said, deciding to join the party. Closing his eyes, A.I. uploaded his consciousness into the base.

After a few moments of travel through cyberspace, A.I. arrived in the Talon base. Walking into the main room of the base to find it empty, A.I.'s suspicions grew. "Uhm, Phoenix... If you don't want me to come in, just say so and I'll leave... But if you aren't in the middle of coitus, I'd be glad to meet our newest member!" he said, walking down the hall and waiting outside Phoenix's room.

Andrew heard footsteps in the hallway and wondered which Talon it was. Then he heard A.I.'s voice. Hearing such a mislead A.I.., he had to reply sarcastically."What to say?" Phoenix thought quickly. "Actually I'm in here with 15 Afghanistanian hookers. This isn't a great time." Phoenix answered trying his best not to laugh looking over at Tyuki. Taking another hit of the blunt he started cough a little. "I'm kidding Gabe get in here." he said with huge grin on his face.

"You're gunna love this guy, he's so...innocent. He's like programmed to be one of us. He'el give you his whole shindig when he meets you in a sec, but more or less he's a robot from the future. Looks like a human, hits like a machine." He took one last haul and put out his blunt, he was feeling the wave. "When we get outta here wana go get some chinese? There's a awesome place like 10 minutes from my dorm." he asked Tyuki hoping she'd say yes because he was hungry.

"Afgani- what!?" A.I. exclaimed, surprised and slightly disturbed. "I don't think it's very responsible to abuse our technology like that..." he said, completely missing Phoenix's joke. The Talon leader admitted to his joke, and Gabriel let out a sigh of relief. Not a moment later, the newest Talon opened the door to greet him. "Hello Tyuki, it's nice to meet you! I'm A.I., but outside of battle you can call me Gabriel." he said politely, walking in to join them.

"To answer your question, Tyuki, I can eat, but I don't need to. I can taste, but that's the extent of it. It's basically just so I can appear as human as possible to the naked eye." A.I. explained with a smile. "And thanks for the offer, but no, smoking has no effect on me. I can download low level viruses though, which is a way for me to get similar effects as marijuana." he said, grinning at Phoenix. "I have fun when I'm fucked up, don't I Phoenix?" he laughed. "Anyways, Tyuki, what are your abilities? I would very much like to know what Phoenix sees in you." A.I. asked, trying to be polite.

Phoenix grinned as A.I. gave his introduction. "Well we should be getting out of here, wana come get some food with us, or are you gunna chill here?" Andrew asked Gabriel. He knew as soon as he left the virtual world his stomach world be roaring. "I guess it's time we eject." Andrew said to whomever would be coming with him. Closing his eyes and thinking of leaving he felt his mind slipping out of this virtual reality. When opening his eyes he was back in his dorm, holding Tyuki's hand. She clearly hadn't come through yet, or else her hand would be gone. Andrew let go and stretched.

Feeling the hunger he stood up, whipping his hand off on his pants from the sweat. He walked over to his closet and grabbed a zip up fleece. All red with two black stripes up the sides of each sleeve. Picking his keys up off the table, he turned towards his front door and off he went. Walking out the front door he called behind him "Last one out lock up for me please." Looking down at his phone he saw he had no new text messages.

Opening the door for Tyuki and possibly A.I. he was the first inside the Mustang. Plugging in his Ipod, he scrolled through Artists until reaching Breaking Benjamin. Throwing on the song Had Enough he started the car and leaned back, started nodding his head to the beat, and waited for his passengers to get in. Thinking of his day he couldn't help but smile. "What could possibly come next?" he wondered.

Firing up the engine to the car, the got ready and backed out. "Off we go then." Andrew said pulling out to go to their destination. The streets were almost empty. It was getting pretty late. Phoenix was certainly glad they were on their way to get food. "So how do you like hanging with us Talons?" Andrew asked looking over to Tyuki with a wide smile.

"Yeah sure, I'll come along. I find Chinese people quite interesting. We don't have them in my time. Can't say why though... Spoilers." A.I. said, winking at the two humans. He closed his eyes in the virtual world, and opened them in Phoenix's dorm room. As promised, Tyuki demonstrated her powers, cutting herself and healing from the wound. "That is quite the gift you've got there!" Gabriel said, giving her a cheesy thumbs up. Being the last one out of the room, A.I. locked the door and shut it behind him on his way to the car. Tyuki called shotgun, but then got into the backseat. "Isn't it customary to get in the front of a vehicle after exclaiming shotgun, Tyuki?" A.I. asked before he got into the car.

The newest Talon seemed to be enjoying the perks of the team so far, but she didn't even know the half of it yet. "I can give you a N.E.S.T. Visor, next time you're nearby just shoot over. I have quite a few of them." A.I. said, looking into the backseat at Tyuki. "And if you like the visors, you're gonna love this new project I'm working on..." he said with a smirk. "I call it the bird. When you see it, you'll know why." Gabriel loved showing off his inventions. They were some of the few things he took pride in. "I'm also working on the blueprints for a real base, but due to lack of funds, we'll have to put it off for a bit. When it is built, it's going to be incredible." A.I. said, looking into the distance imagining his creation fully built.

Andrew smiled as realizing Tyuki called shotgun and hopped in the back. "Good point Gabe." he said with a grin looking over to his robot buddy. "The bird , I saw the blueprints for that thing. It's gunna be unreal." Andrew paused mid sentence, just registering the real base thing. "Wait, real base? When did you plan on telling me? Lame dude. What, are your circuits fried? " Andrew said joking to A.I.

As the approached they restaurant, he looked over to Gabriel. "Please don't mention the no Chinese people thing. People in this time don't get the time warping thing. They might just think you're nuts." Andrew said looking down at his cell phone. He got a text from one of his college buddies Mario but just let it go. "I'll hit him back later." he thought.

Walking through the front door first he held the door for the lady and the robot. Approaching the front desk, there was a small guy working the counter. "Good evening sir." the man said to Andrew. "Thank you, likewise." he said back bowing his head a bit. "We'el take a table for 3 please." he asked kindly.
"Ah sure, right this way." he said leading them to a table in the very back of the place.
Leaving three menus, the man went back to the front.

Taking a seat in the booth he moved in, against the window. He saw one of the candles on the table was starting to dim out. Looking around for a second he lit a small fire under his finger and reset the flame. Making it move around a little, he was satisfied and looked up at his friends to see who would sit where.

A.I. chuckled at his friends' response to his joke about Chinese people, then face-palmed. "You know, I was completely joking. Looks like we're even." he said, smiling at his friend. They arrived at the restaurant fairly quickly, and early enough that there wasn't a wait to be seated. Following Phoenix inside and to their table, Gabriel sat down and looked at the menu. "Very interesting..."

A tall, George Takei looking fellow came after a few minutes to take their orders. After all three of the heroes ordered their food, A.I.'s attention was drawn to a koi pond beside the table. "What a nice little display!" he exclaimed reaching in and grabbing a fish "I'll eat this one!" he said, plopping it down onto the table. "I have also heard that many of your types of establishment serve feline. Is this true?" Gabriel asked the waiter. The man gave him a death glare and said "No, we do NOT serve cat here, sir. And the koi fish are not for eating."

A few minutes later, A.I. decided to take a stroll through the restaurant while they waited for their orders. In the next room over, he found more people eating, and a piano, so he decided to give the people a show. Casually walking over and sitting on the bench, he began to play a tune. When their orders arrived, he was preoccupied, going hard playing "Piano Man" by Billy Joel, harmonica, singing, and all. When he was through, A.I. sat down next to his friends and looked at them back and forth. "What?"

Andrew laughed looking down at the menu as he heard Gabe was joking about the Chinese people. The waiter walked over and A.I. asked him for a cat. "Oh my fucking god." Phoenix thought putting his face in his hands. The man answered with an angry tone. For A.I.'s next act he picked a koi fish and plopped it on his plate. "Why did we bring him here?" Andrew asked himself looking up.

"I'll just have some white rice and teriyaki chicken please." Andrew said putting his menu down. "Can I have a sprite with that?" he asked kindly. "Yes sir." the man responded bowing. Andrew knew A.I. wasn't trying to be a goof but just as he thought it couldn't get worse, he hopped on the piano. "Gabe, no!." Andrew said through his teeth. To no use, the robot hopped on the instrument and began to play Piano Man.
"At least he's good." Andrew thought, folding his hands together. "So what's up Tyuki?" Andrew asked.

A.I. sat back down at the table and grinned. "I do love the music of this time. Everything in the future is so... Techno." he said with disgust. "Not enough vocals in the future. The human voice, such an amazing thing. But enough of that." Gabriel looked to Phoenix and let him answer Tyuki's question. When the food arrived, and A.I. received his meal, he noticed the sauce on his chicken looked strange. Promptly scanning it to check for anything dangerous, he learned that it was human saliva mixed with mucus. a "loogie". The waiter was nowhere to be found, so he figured he would bring it up to the chef himself.

The kitchen was full of shouting and clanging, but the moment A.I. walked in, the room went silent. "Excuse me, I'd like to speak with the chef?" the android said. A large, rotund asian man with a fu-manchu and a chef hat walked out, his face bright red. "What do you want?" he said loudly. "Well sir, there appear to be samples of mucus and saliva in my meal." Gabriel said, trying to be polite. "What is this... You accuse me of serving ferine and you kirr my favorite koi fish!! Now you accuse me of spitting in your food? How dare you!! Get this man out of my restaurant!!" the chef shouted.

Four men in suits came to escort Gabriel outside. According to A.I.'s data, three of the four were known Yakuza members, and all four were wanted criminals. Once outside, A.I. broke free of their grasp and kicked one of them in the chest. The man flew into a dumpster and it slammed shut. "You ruined my dinner." he said, grabbing two of their heads and knocking them together. With only one Yakuza left, A.I. left the man one option. "Tell me everything." The man barely hesitated to tell him everything he knew, which wasn't much. Apparently they were assigned to protect this restaurant. Just low level thugs. Gabriel thought to himself. Using his wrist computer, he sent an anonymous alert to the police to pick up the thugs he had beat down. A.I. knocked out the last Yakuza and walked around to the front of the restaurant, hoping his friends were done with their meals by now.

Andrew smiled at Tyuki's date remark. "This is business, if this were a date you'd know and want a second one ." he said with a wink."You don't know if I'm that into you?" Andrew asked himself. "I'd like a real date sometime though. You know, non-superpower talk. I love the saving lives and keeping the world safe, but a dude's gotta live. Plus, you're like the coolest girl i've ever met." he said with a smile, then looking over to see A.I. come back.

"Nice, if the superhero gig ever falls through my band could use a pianist." Phoenix joked to A.I. The food was now arriving to their table, and the waiter handed them their food. Andrew watched as a look of disgust grew across Gabe's face. He then looked at his food and their was spit in it. "Hahaha, that's what you get for fucking with the people who handle your food." Andrew said laughing at his friend's misfortune.

Andrew looked over to Tyuki as she asked about the Talons. "We can talk about it as long as no one hears. Just keep it low key and we are good. Gabe standing up and getting the entire place to stare at him wasn't a great example of low profile." Andrew said looking over at A.I. "But, it was funny. Just don't do that again."

Andrew watched as A.I. got up and walked away to the kitchen. "Gabe. No." he whispered to him. His friend kept walking. Andrew just looked back at Tyuki and laughed a little. "I guess we let him have his fun, he's a good guy." He started to eat his food, then looked up at Tyuki. "Now this is kinda like a real date." he said sticking out his tongue.