章 6: Zera
In a quiet neighborhood, a young man with light brown skin and even darker brown hair was getting ready for his day while thinking of the events from the day before.
The Evening Before~
"Mom, I'm home." The cheerful youth said as he entered the front door to the home.
"Ohh, Damian you're here? I thought you would be out longer with your friends." A woman said in a similarly cheerful tone.
"Something came up so we decided to all go home early today." He replied as he walked into the living room to find a beautiful middle-aged woman watching tv.
"Well, you are all done with high school so I won't say anything more to you about curfew and stuff like that. There is food in the kitchen already so eat something, will you? Your games can wait a few minutes." She said as she smiled at him before focusing back on the tv.
"Ok, I'll eat now, was there anything interesting on the news?" He asked as he took out his phones and searched up the different news outlets.
"There was something about sightings of colorful floating thrones in the sky, but I haven't seen much about it. Kids these days and their video editing skills, making even the news outlets cover such things". She said with a laugh as she thought back to the hilariously named articles before.
Present Day~
"I need to decide what to do... I can try to keep my powers hidden but if one of the other kings comes looking for me then it could be a problem for mom." Damian said as he looked in his mirror, his eyes turned a shade of gold before changing back to their previous brown color.
"Maybe I should just reveal myself to the public? It's not like kings are weak, as long as I can make a deal with the government I can become a superstar and move mom into a nice house and have a beautiful girlfriend too."
(Suuuuure you can. You almost caused your throne to fall on your first day as a king, that's embarrassing!) The girl's voice said as she teased him within his mind.
"Be quiet. I was simply distracted yesterday!" Damian said within his mind wondered what a good choice was.
"Anyways, I have no idea how the government will act to knowing people have superpowers, I can't expose myself unless I have a plan already." He thought to himself as he went to the front door and put on his shoes before leaving the house to meet up with his friends.
...
It was around ten in the morning when Damian arrived with his friends, Kai and Ari, at a local Internet cafe. Taking a seat at one of the many tables, the trio ordered some coffee and food.
"Did anyone see what happened to the anomaly? It disappeared!" Ari said, causing both boys to look towards her before she and Kai looked towards Damian. "It must have something to do with what happened to you." Ari quickly added.
"It most likely does but I'm still curious about the others, I'd like to meet them sometime," Damian said as he took out his phone and browsed the various media platforms in search of the other kings. This leads him to find a single thread on a random website talking about a green throne appearing in LA.
"The only thing I can find is something mentioning seeing a green throne in LA but there is no proof..." he said, sighing to himself he placed his phone down.
"What will you do then Damian? If the other kings are power-hungry and hostile, they might come for you to remove threats to themselves or start trying to taking over the country or something." Kai said giving a few possible scenarios.
"Well while it doesn't say only righteous people become kings, I doubt any of the other kings have control of their powers yet. We all need time to understand and learn how to use these powers." Damian said as the server brought over some coffee and food.
After thanking them, Ari gave her own input. "You can't be the first to reveal yourself, the government will try to take control of you at any cost, you know this through all of those movies we have seen. They will want to dissect you and stuff."
"I doubt that the government isn't at least aware of the kings by now, with the anomaly gone it's most likely that the box has landed somewhere in Boston. They will most likely try covering up any information confirming their existence of the kings while trying to find them and create their own conclusion on the matter." Damian said before taking a sip of his coffee.
"I wonder what they will call us... Pandora's Kings? That would be a nice name for us kings as a collective." He added in his mind.
(The possibility of that nickname is over ninety percent) The system said, causing him to wonder why he is thinking of the name that he will be designated.
"Don't focus on the name for now. Instead, let's agree to lay low for a while, I don't want to draw attention to right now, let's give it at least a few weeks before I do any big tests of power," Damian suggested.
"You could do that Damian but what about the other kings? You'll fall behind in control of your power unless you start now, if you are at least doing small tests of your power, you should be able to keep a low profile." Kai suggested while taking a bite of a sandwich.
(He is right, Damian. You need to practice using your powers)
"You also need an organization to Damian, you said that kings can share power right? Then the other ones will definitely have followers." Ari added as she began sipping her coffee.
"I'll think about it, for now, we will wait and keep looking at the internet for a bit," Damian said, smiling as he took a bite of his sandwich before frowning slightly as he was chewing
"I said no tomatoes..." Damian complained silently as he used his fingers to pick out the red vegetable slices from his sandwich.
Sipping too much of her coffee at once, causing her to choke. Ari, hurriedly slammed her coffee cup down while coughing and attempting to speak.
"Dami-kouh!" She tried saying as she coughed a few more times before finally clearing her throat. Looking around a little before leaning her entire body closer to Damian and Kai, Ari asked about something that had completely slipped his mind.
"Have you given your system ai a name? I was thinking back to when you told us about it on the way here. You never mentioned a name it had." Ari said as Damian prepared to bite into his sandwich again.
Looking at her while mid-bite, Damian's mind paused momentarily. He had truly forgotten to give his system ai a name. While the system did come with one, according to Damian's experience with system-based web novels, the ai included with the system enjoys receiving a name.
"Uhh... I haven't given her a name..." Damian said, causing both of them to look at him as if he were stupid. They had all been reading web novels in their free time. So, even if Damian had nearly double the amount of reading time they both had, they knew how many system-based novels went.
"Ohh? So it's a girl? Does that mean that you have finally been inside of one? Or would that be the other way around?" Kai asked as he smiled at Damian who had placed his food down.
"That's not good Damian! We need to give her a name!" Ari said, sparking the Ai in Damian's name to yell in agreeance. Unfortunately for him, he only received a head full of yelling.
(Wooooohoooo! Yeeeees Ari! Tell him to give me a name!)
"Quiet down! I won't give you a name if you continue to scream in my ears like that." Damian was finally annoyed enough a snapped a little within his mind, causing the ai to immediately become quieter.
(....)
"That's better..." He said with a sigh before thinking of his possible name for the female ai.
"What do you both suggest as names?" Damian asked, flipping his focus back to his friends who thought of a few suggestions for names.
"What about Aya or Rena?" Kai suggested after around half a minute before he continued to drink his coffee with a smile on his face.
"You can also pick Nano?! or Lexa?!" Ari suggested excitedly as Damian sat there and went over many names with them for the better part of fifteen minutes. After some time they managed to narrow over twenty options to three.
Leaning back against his chair, Damian sighed as the voice within his head pondered about which name it liked best. The final three options were Nano, which Ari suggested. Zera, which Damian thought of a few minutes prior. And Alaya, which Kai had suggested closer to the beginning.
(I really like Zera the most... with my host thinking of my name personally I feel it is the best option!)
"If you are serious then I'll give you the name Zera, though the names my friends thought of were just as great," Damian said trying to give one final chance to the ai within his mind while narrating its thoughts to Kai and Ari.
"So she went with your idea in the end..." Ari said as she sat back within her chair with a downcast look on her face, all while she continued to slowly sip what remained of her fairly warm coffee. Kai was a bit disappointed as well but he simply shrugged his shoulders in defeat.
(I choose Zera as my name! It is final!) the ai, or rather, Zera, said happily within Damian's mind. Before he was able to respond though, he saw a bright gold test appear before his eyes.
[Congratulations! You have given your AI the new name, Zera!]
[With 3 of 7 AI programs being given names, a new feature, "Chat Room" has now been unlocked!]
"The fuck...." Damian said out loud, confusing his friends as well.
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