Steam 4 "Pocket!!!" I exited Old Wise Guy (the village's super crappy but super useful computer) and dragged my feet. My brother can be such a dick sometimes. He slapped my head when I came through the door of the kitchen. "Sit down." He says. Sit down? Sit down??!!! I give him the death glare. "What are you, the overprotective mother I never had?" He sighs in irritation. "Come on. We have bigger problems to think about. Like Caveli, for instance. We need to find some way to communicate with her." "Ugh... Do we have to? She's just so wrapped up in her 'perfect world'. We'll never get through to her!" ............ Pain.

Steam 3 I woke up exactly when I wanted to, the time flashing before my eyes. I groaned quietly when I realized, it was Sunday. The SIDs (Super Intelligent Dictators. Not really. Merica and I just made it up. Nobody knows what it really means.) all had to meet at Crin tools for 100 to do our weekly ritual. It was like a vow, but nobody listened anyway. They were all too busy texting on their handpans. Me included. I then took my morning serum, keeping me awake for the day until I took my nightly serum, instantly letting me fall into a deep sleep. Next, I plugged my cenrevel into my neck plug, keeping my brain communicating with The Place. The Place is where all the cenrevelant energy flows, transmitting to our brains when we make a say, or how you might say it, a daydream. Except our daydreams come true. I made a clothing say, a pair of boyfriend jeans, a boat neck cropped top with a tank top underneath, and a pair of black hoverheels. Yes, hoverheels are exactly what they sound like. I scanned myself in the mirror. My soft dark brown waves fell an inch past my shoulders, and I had bright hazel eyes, flushed cheeks, and full lips. I suppose I was pretty. I sighed and pulled the lever on my hoverheels, sending me flying through the city. I met Merica on the way there. Now SHE was pretty. With long, straight strawberry blond hair, huge green eyes, and a tall, lean frame, she was like a supermodel. "Ready?" She yelled over the wind, "Yeah!" I yelled back. ................ I smushed up my face. "She's kinda pretty." Snap, my older brother, laughed. "Well, you can have her, if she's smart enough to break through and save us all."

Steam Chapter 2 Merica and I crashed through the door like two drunken girls who'd been at a party all night. Well, we were, I suppose. I couldn't think straight, I had inhaled too much alcohol. They let it into the room, like a gas, getting us all as high as the tip of the eiffel tower! It's great. We fell on the floor, laughing hysterically. - "And then when that gross guy tried to pick you up?!" - "Oh my god. I was gonna retch!" - "He would have cleaned it up!" - "Excuse me for a second, I've got to go to the washroom. I got up shakily, leaning on the wall for support, and slowly shut the door behind me. I looked at my disheveled dark hair and pale, clammy complexion. Yup. I'd been at a party all night, that's for sure. I sighed. I was going to feel this in the morning. Merica knocked on the the door. "You done yet? I'm gonna hurl." She slurred. I quickly opened the door and ushered her in. ............ The man hovering in the air pointed with a wrinkly finger. "Kneel, child." I knelt, and blinked vigorously as tears threatened to spill. "There, there." He said, his tone softening slightly. "Just think of a better place." He floated over to me and placed a hand on my small head. And I thought. I thought of a place without worries, without parents or grown ups. Where I could do whatever I wanted. He took his hand off my head, snapping me back to the present. "If this is truly what you want, then I will grant it to you. He sighed, and the world went fuzzy around the edges.

Steam Caveli. That's what my parents named me before I was steamed. Sometimes I look back on it, wondering what exactly I'd been through. It's all a haze now, I remember smoke filling my nostrils, hurting my head. The sharp pain of the syringe entering the base of my neck. After that, my first memory was of Crin Tools, the training arena. I was small then, maybe six or seven. Names kept being called out, mine one of them. I pushed through the enormous crowd, silent as I searched my brain for memories. They came in flashes, my old #life, family, friends, but it only further confused me. Someone grabbed my shirt from behind and pushed me forward. I gave a half hearted shriek and removed my face from the concrete to discover I was now laying in a clearing, with what looked like important people staring down at me disapprovingly. Quickly, I pushed off the ground, dusting off my new skirt, now dirty from the floor, and grimaced in humiliation as I realized how many eyes were on me. "Caveli." Said the man in the light. "Step forward." I did as I was told. The man in the shadows bored holes into my skull with those eyes. Those piercing eyes that sliced through the darkness. "Caveli." His voice was like pieces of sandpaper being rubbed together. "You have just been steamed." -"What's that?" -"You can now have any #life you want." -"You mean like my dream #life?" -"Yes." -"But what about my parents? My home? My friends?!" -"They don't matter anymore."