“Whoa!” I exclaim as a burst of yellow fire erupted from the gun.

“Sal! You need to stop playing with those weapons!”

I glanced up. Tigerclaw had paused for a moment in her practice to yell at me. However, the arena hadn’t stopped with her. I gasped as a volley of arrows descended from nowhere. She didn’t miss a beat, just did a wild, harmonious dance to dodge the arrows. She moved with an inhuman grace, flowing through the tight spaces between the weapons. Just as the last arrows met the ground, she jumped lightly into the air and somersaulted away, seconds before the ground shot out a burst of fire. Next, she battled her way through an army of trained robots.
When the arena was done sending out challenges, the stage was swept clean, and the large screen above the arena displayed the score and comments.

“90%, stay focused or lose your life!”

“Harsh,” I comment as Tigerclaw walked over. She just sighed and sat down on the bench next to me. Then she grabbed a strange, circular gun and started shooting at targets at the end of the room. “Don’t you ever get a break?” I asked as she shot the last target.

“Wish,” she replied.

Tigerclaw was an undercover spy and hero. Her real name was Meeka, but only I know that. Ever since her parents, also undercover secret agents, died ten years ago, the agency had taken her in and started her “training”. Mostly, it involved exhausting challenges 20/7, with little time for breaks. She also takes care of taking down evil geniuses.

People might get jealous because I get to hang out with an undercover spy and play with all the neat gadgets, but I sometimes I wish I could trade Meeka for a normal friend. It’s not easy being a spy’s best friend. Not only do you have to keep it a secret, but you’re also worried to death how long the friendship will last. I’m sure it’s not easy for her, either.

“The score’s wrong, it should really be a 120%,” I say, to cheer her up.

“The score’s never wrong,” She answered.

“Yeah, when it’s measuring robot abilities. Seriously, humans can’t do that.”

“Hm.”

“No, really. You need a break. Why can’t we be normal friends?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she just walked to the middle of the room and stared at the empty screen. I could tell she was disturbed by what I said. It wasn’t in her face, but in the way she stood with her feet slightly apart, in the way she tilted her head. She never showed any emotion easily, mostly for survival reasons. I remembered the first time I had asked her why she never smiled for real, why she never seemed upset.

“Do you ever feel anything?” I had asked after we’d watched Titanic.

“Of course,” she’d replied.

“You don’t show it,”

“Emotions can get you killed,” she’d replied cryptically.

I was deep in thought, and didn’t hear Meeka talk to me. “What?” I asked.

“I said, do you want to do something normal?” Meeka looked at me expectantly.

I was shocked. “Wha- really? You mean it?”

She nodded.

“What do you want to do?” I asked.

“What do people normally do?”

“Um, go to the mall, watch a movie, hang out, those kinds of things.” I paused. “Well, how about we go to the movie? I mean, you have your own made-to-order wardrobe here, and an arcade might seem boring compared to—well, compared to this.”

“Sure,” She answered. “But please call me Lilly.” Then she glanced at my gun. “You can take that if you want, just keep it hidden.”

I didn’t know how much normal could go wrong, but it did.


Ten minutes later, we were at the movies. I purchased three tickets to a comedy, since those were her favorite. The third ticket went to the man assigned to guard Meeka, since the agency were paranoid that she’d die at the movies, and not when she’s trying to escape an exploding building. We went into the movie room, and spent two hours in relative peace.

“Wasn’t that a great movie, Me-Lilly?” I asked as the room was emptying.

“Yeah, but the boy was really stupid. How can you climb down a building with necklaces tied together?”

Before I could answer, I caught a movement in the shadows. We turned to see the guard engaged in a battle with another man. Suddenly, the guard was thrown against the wall. The stranger got up. Now I could see that he was a tall man, perhaps in his early 30s. He had shiny brown hair, and was wearing a suit and dress pants. However, there was something strange about the man. He seemed, plastic, in a way. I wanted to point this out to Meeka, but she was already running to the rescue.

Plastic, I thought. No, metal, no, oh my god! He’s a robot!

Before I could shout a warning, though, Meeka discovered it for herself. The man, no, the robot lifted his hand. The arm changed into a laser gun, and the robot began to shoot at Meeka and the guard, who had gotten up. I watched in horror and fascination as the two battled with the heavily equipped robot. One second it was against lasers, the next against mini-bombs. Suddenly, however, the robot lunged and gripped the guard with one hand. Faster than even Meeka could move, he blasted the guard with a burst of electricity. The guard screamed, and his clothes burst into flame. The robot tossed him into the shadows, where I couldn’t see. Meeka, however, was near him. She stared at the spot where the guard was, her face pale and, could it be? She looked scared and sad and mad at the same time.

The robot began walking towards them. Meeka didn’t move. She seemed rooted in place.

“Move, Lilly!” I screamed, remembering her false name just in time.

She moved to late. The robot had her in his grasp. Without thinking, I grabbed the gun from my purse and fired. The robot went up in flames, and Meeka was able to break free. Then, taking another weapon from her pocket, she fired at the robot. Then she ran, grabbed my hand, and we raced for cover as the robot exploded behind us.

Panting, we stayed under the seats until the police arrived. Then we got up, and Meeka explained what happened. They were suspicious at first, but after learning who she was, they let us go without much more comment. We walked to an ice cream shop afterward. I really needed to cool my nerves.

As we sat down at a table with our ice screams, I sighed. “So much for normal,” I said.

Meeka didn’t answer.

After a while, I asked what the guard looked like afterword.

“Electricuted,” She replied dully.

I glanced at her. “Meeka, what’s wrong? Why did you freeze back there?”

She played with her spoon. “My parents died the same way. I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have let my emotions take over. It could have gotten us killed, well, it would have.”

I should have comforted her, should have done something a friend would do to cheer up a friend in the dumps. Instead, I smiled.

“What? Why do smile?” She asked, puzzled by my reaction.

“You are human,” I laughed.

She blinked, and then smiled too. A real smile.