Chloe's eyes fluttered open slowly as the morning sunlight poured through the window, its gentle glow brushing across her face. The warmth lingered in her gaze, steady and calm, as though morning itself had quietly awakened her.
She yawned.
Worn out by the restless night she had.
She picked up her phone, unlocked it through her facial recognition feature and immediately went on fwitch.
Her phone buzzed non-stop.
There were so many notifications from her account. Although she wasn't the one that managed it, she still made out time to see it.
But majority of the notifications didn't come from her account. It came from the other account she followed.
The Real Night Hunter.
In exchange for not ratting out his use of the company's computers, she tasked Williams with keeping her informed on any updates concerning the Vigilante — or anything concerning him in general.
The day the fanpage was created, Williams informed her about it. But she wasn't interested.
That is, till the video of Night Hunter saving a scientist from Nex industries leaked.
The sources traced the video back to the fan page, and as curious as she was, she joined it.
She was DullNighter236. (Chapter 23)
After confirming from Night Hunter himself that he'd start up his own account rather than let his followers do it, she immediately followed it.
She stayed up all night. Wishing. Hoping that he'd post something. But he didn't.
Even after she woke up, it was still the same thing. All she say was his updated bio, and his followers commenting on his profile picture.
"He really hasn't posted anything huh." She muttered under her breath. Slightly disappointed.
"What am I saying!?" She was flustered by her own words, and she hugged her pillow tightly as she glanced at her ceiling. "Why am I so eager to see him?"
Since her encounter with him that fateful night, and the words he said to her. She couldn't get him off her mind, not one bit. It was almost as if she took a liking to him.
"GRRRRR! Why can't I get him off my head!?" She covered her face with her pillow with embarrassment. She was given the day off to prepare for her important meeting the next day.
So there was nothing to distract her, especially from waiting for Night Hunter to say something to the world.
"This feeling, this sensation when I think about it... No Chloe." She sat up. "He's a vigilante, a law breaker, I can't fall for someone like him. Can I?"
..
Mason was already on his way to school, he was a bit weak, tired.
He barely slept last night because of his notifications, and it cost him. Because he had a pop quiz today!
He focused more on the alien tech system and less on school that he forgot about the pop quiz that would happen today. And he wasn't ready at all.
He got to school, wasted no time in getting to class.
"Hey Mason!" Conner and Mike called him, out of the three boys he rolled with, they were the only two in his class.
"I know what you're going to ask me, and no I'm definitely not ready for the pop quiz." He replied.
"Dude!? How!? Man you know you're our only hope in this! I don't want to do extra credits just to pass this semester!" Conner said, almost in tears as he could see his fate already.
"Have you tried something called reading?"
"Dude, it's trig. Who reads trig!?"
Mason shaked his head. He knew listening to them rant was just a waste of time as there was literally nothing in his head.
He sat in his chair and opened up the textbook. But as he did so, he himself almost broke down in tears. "Nah... What the fuck is this!?" He hated to admit it, but Conner was right. Trig wasn't something you could read in mere minutes.
As the bell rang, their trig teacher stepped into the classroom immediately and took away all their textbooks. It was time for the pop quiz.
As it started, Mason stared into his paper, and for a moment, he felt like his head was about to explode. They were questions that on a good day he could solve, but reading slipped his mind the previous night.
But just when all hope slipped his mind, he remembered something crucial.
"H.A.V.A."
[Yes master?]
"Can you solve these equations?"
[Yes master, Earth's mathematics are mediocre at best, it is nothing compared to the galactic formula.]
"I have no idea what that means, but I assume that's a yes? Is it possible for you solve it for me and transfer all the answers to my brain using NanoForge?"
[An easy task.]
"Alright then."
He checked his sides, and after confirming the teacher wasn't looking, he hovered the touch panel of his watch over the paper.
[Scanning....]
[Successfully scanned.]
Almost immediately, he could feel the data transferring to the brain. But that wasn't all.
"AAARGHHH!" He let out a sharp piercing scream and held the sides of his head with his hands.
[This is your first attempt to transfer information directly to your brain, your body is not used to such stress.]
"You think!?"
"Quiet Harris! Or you're out of here!" The trig teacher said. He was not particularly fond of Mason, after all, he was his most troublesome student.
"Sorry sir." His head calmed down, and he could feel it clearly, the information transferred to his brain. As he glanced back at the question, the answers popped up.
A smile stretched across his face, and he picked up his pen and started filling the answers immediately. "Hehehe, who needs to read when you've got a cheat code? √45x + √32 = H.A.V.A."
When the test was over, he bent into a stretch, he was the first to finish, and he walked to the teacher's table and submitted his papers. "I'm done."
The teacher pulled off his glasses. "Excuse me?" It was almost laughable. Mason wasn't dumb, but he wasn't that smart either, not after the questions were specifically designed to make him fail."
"See you next time." He grinned, then left. It was a win for him, and it was all thanks to H.A.V.A.
As he left the classroom, he pulled out his phone from his bag. There were a lot of notifications, most likely from the comments on his profile.
But there was one that specifically stood out — miss calls from Vanessa. Texts. Audio calls. Voice notes and a message.
"She called me!?" He immediately rushed over to her chat. He was angry with her earlier, but he still prayed and hoped she'd call him. And when she finally did, he overslept.
He listened to all the voice notes, it was basically telling him that they needed to talk before she left. She didn't want their relationship to be as it was.
Then he saw it.
The text from Vanessa.
[After everything's that's happened, I think it's time for us to move on in our lives. Get a life Mason, find a fucking job before you end up in the streets, that's if you haven't already. It's over between us.]
"Huh?"