King of Earth and Moon-a podcast novel

Google doc of the text so far. The Kid was totally stoked.nbsp; He and James had taken out at least a dozen robots, if not more.nbsp; The situation was more serious than the Kid had guessed, though; on the streets, as James had pushed the Camaro through the early morning traffic, they'd spotted several corpses.nbsp; The Kid had never seen a corpse before, so it kind of freaked him out, but when the Kid did something for the first time, he liked to pretty much master it, so now he considered himself a master of seeing corpses.nbsp; Nothing could gross him out now. Dowell and the other guy were approaching.nbsp; The Kid thought he probably looked pretty tough, leaning against the Camaro with his tattoos exposed.nbsp; The Kid was more of a Volkswagen man than a Camaro man, but he had to admit that the Camaro had handled well, and they'd taken out more robots than they could have in a VW.nbsp; The Kid was stoked.

Google doc of the text so far. For a group with such a high-tech headquarters, Dowell had trouble understanding why they were low-tech when it came to transportation.nbsp; He'd expected a rocket to shoot them out of the river and into northern Osaka, where the Kuchi Sakeh Onna was on the move.nbsp; Instead, they had just come back up through the river and run back to the taxi.nbsp; The same woman was driving them.nbsp; Their clothes were soaked with river water.nbsp; Dowell thought they might want to focus less on computers and monitors and more on a way to get into and out of the facility without swimming. Dowell turned to the taxi driver, whose face alternated between dark shadows and the bright colors of the neon signs they were passing on the street outside.nbsp; ldquo;What's the plan?rdquo; ldquo;Catch her.rdquo; ldquo;But, doesn't she kill people?rdquo; ldquo;Yes, sometimes.rdquo; ldquo;So, isn't it dangerous?rdquo; The taxi driver smiled.nbsp; ldquo;Anything worth doing is dangerous.rdquo;

Google doc of the text so far. For years, Mick Aloha had been talking about writing a messiah story.nbsp; Aloha was better at talking about ideas than he was at actually following through on them, so his messiah story, solid as it was, remained in the back of his mind.nbsp; As he sat on the bottom of the river, unable to breathe as he had yet to develop the ability to breathe water, he wondered if this was his messiah story.nbsp; Was he going to die?nbsp; Was he going to come back to life?nbsp; Was he going to save the world? Aloha thought, for a moment, that it was true, that he should just give up, take in a big breath of water, and drown on the river bottom.nbsp; Coming back to life and saving the world was better than just swimming out of the river.nbsp; There was some logic in him, something he'd never before felt, that told him he had to move, he had to breathe air.nbsp; That sounded like Dowell-talk, but there was not time for Aloha to contemplate how much he hated his arch enemy.nbsp; There was only time for him to save the life of his favorite person.nbsp; Himself. Aloha tried again to free his hands, but they were tied too tightly.nbsp; He kicked with his feet and came to the surface, where he took in a gulp of air.nbsp; The air went down smooth.nbsp; He sank again to the bottom. Pain shot from the center of his belly to the right side.nbsp; He gritted his teeth against the pain.

Google doc of the text so far. The Kid was just, like, totally standing there, staring at the guy in Eri's doorway.nbsp; The guy's hair was long and blonde, but more of a tough, dirty blonde, not a Hanson blonde.nbsp; He was wearing a wife-beater and both of his arms were sleeved out with tattoos.nbsp; It was good workmdash;some of the best the Kid had ever seenmdash;and the way the tattoos related, the way they almost told a story, was cool.nbsp; The Kid was totally into the guy's tattoos, in a big way. ldquo;You just going to stare at me, man?rdquo; ldquo;Spssshh, like, I might.nbsp; Where'd you get your work done?rdquo; The guy scratched his nose.nbsp; ldquo;Work?rdquo; ldquo;Like, your tattoos.rdquo;

Google doc of the text so far. The sirens grew fainter.nbsp; The taxi driver dropped from a run to a fast walk.nbsp; Apocalypse Dowell followed close behind. Dowell thought about just running away.nbsp; The taxi driver seemed like a good guy, and he'd taken out all of those robots, but Dowell needed to move on.nbsp; He needed to find Aloha and the Kid and then find the Witch Doctor.nbsp; Following the taxi driver would just delay him. ldquo;Where are we going?rdquo; ldquo;Too many question.rdquo; ldquo;That was my first question.rdquo;

Google doc of the text so far. Mick Aloha's head hurt.nbsp; Ninja K was doing a terrible job leading him through the bamboo forest; several times, he had run right into a tree.nbsp; Aloha was privy to walking through woods when he couldn't see.nbsp; His father had once taught him how to feel the woods as you walked at night, how to know when there was something in your way without seeing it.nbsp; At the time, Aloha had believed him, but now that he was a devout atheist, he knew running through the woods at night without hitting something was just luck.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Aloha was unprivy to being led by a girl through the woods.nbsp; There was nothing wrong with girlsmdash;Aloha had stopped being sexist years earliermdash;but he was just unprivy to the situation.nbsp; Ninja K, fine looking woman though she was, had run him into several trees.nbsp; The bamboo trees were thin, so it was nothing like running full speed into an oak, which he had done several times, but it still hurt. His vision had almost fully returned.nbsp; He could see that they had cleared the forest and that they were on open ground.nbsp; The sounds of the kappa cult were growing louder behind them. They fell.nbsp;

Google doc of the text so far. The Kid had once heard someone say that just a handful of decisions determined the paths of people's lives.nbsp; It was probably either Tony or Rick who had said itmdash;they were both, like, totally intellectual like that and totally people who would make those kinds of philosophical statementsmdash;so it had to be true.nbsp; In his lifetime, the Kid had already faced some of these decisions.nbsp; The first was when he'd decided to move to San Francisco.nbsp; Another had been when he'd decided to ride long boards instead of short boards.nbsp; Yet another had been when he'd gotten his tattoos.nbsp; And now, sitting in the apartment of a hot Japanese girl who collected junk because of instructions she received from ghosts on her laptop, the Kid was at another of those decision points.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; The voicemdash;the one that had said to get nakedmdash;had spoken English.nbsp; That meant that it was talking to the Kid.nbsp; He, like, had no interest in getting naked, at least not because a ghost told him to.nbsp; The Kid was pretty much not into being told what to do by anyone.nbsp; Living his own way and doing whatever the hell he wanted was what got him stoked.

Google doc of the text so far. Apocalypse Dowell had never been much of a driver.nbsp; He'd sold his car back in Kentucky, and in San Francisco he'd only taken the bus.nbsp; The bus was usually late and full of crazy people, but it was cheap and when he got off the bus he didn't have to worry about where to park it. Horns were blaring behind him.nbsp; He knew they wanted him to drive faster, but he couldn't.nbsp; Under normal circumstances, on a sunny day out in the country in Kentucky, he drove slowly.nbsp; There was no way he would speed up at night in a foreign country where people drove on the wrong side of the road and where he didn't even have a license. He had no license to drive in Japan.nbsp; He was driving illegally.nbsp; That thought made him want to pull over, but the word swarm kept repeating in his head.nbsp; The driver had said it.nbsp; When he'd first met him, the driver's English had been understandable but poor.nbsp; Then, he'd used the word swarm.nbsp; Did they teach that in Japanese schools?nbsp; How are you?nbsp; Fine thanks, and you?nbsp; Please watch out for the swarm.

Google doc of the text so far. Mick Aloha had a terrible thought as he threw down the Famicom's controller.nbsp; He'd completed the gamemdash;using the warp zones and some pretty smooth cheatsmdash;to finish in less than fifteen minutes.nbsp; That left him five minutes to spare.nbsp; The thought, though, kept him from enjoying his victory.nbsp; What ifmdash;and this was a big what if, but a possible what if just the samemdash;Ninja Aki next asked him to finish part two in 20 minutes.nbsp; Aloha was privy to the two versions of Super Mario Brothers 2, the Japanese and American.nbsp; The Japanese version was so difficult they didn't even bother releasing it in the U.S.; instead, they took a different game, changed the characters, and turned it into a Mario game.nbsp; Aloha knew there was no chance he could finish the Japanese version in 20 minutes, maybe not even in 20 days, and this took into consideration Aloha's expert video game skills. Ninja Aki turned off the TV and Famicom. ldquo;Ne, good job.nbsp; Now, for your next test.rdquo; ldquo;When can I get something to eat?rdquo; ldquo;When the testing has finished.rdquo; ldquo;I'm starving, dude.nbsp; Myself, I prefer a big breakfast and a big dinner.nbsp; I like to start big and end big.nbsp; Pretty much, that's how I live my whole life.rdquo;

Google doc of the text so far. The Kid thought about running, even though he was comfortable on the futon.nbsp; Erimdash;like the Kid had totally remembered her named, because it sounded like airy, and that's what the Kid was thinking about the space between her earsmdash;was completely nuts.nbsp; Anyone who claimed to talk to ghosts, gods, or Santa Claus was nuts.nbsp; She didn't seem too nuts, though.nbsp; Not crazy enough to hurt him; at least he didn't think so.nbsp; That's why he stayed on the futon. ldquo;Like, you talk to ghosts?rdquo; Eri nodded. ldquo;Like, to ghosts.nbsp; Not, like, just some guy whose nickname is Ghost?nbsp; We're talking spirits here?nbsp; Ghosts?rdquo; Eri nodded again.nbsp; ldquo;I talk to ghosts.rdquo;

The robot's mangled legs left Dowell with little to grip.nbsp; He was reminded of a kid named Jason that he'd gone to elementary school with; Jason liked to grab kids' hands and then use them to punch them in their own faces.nbsp; He'd then ask why they were hitting themselves.nbsp; It was already an old joke, even when Dowell was in school, but to Jason it was fresh; to Jason, based on his laughter, it was the funniest thing in the world. They were hovering now.nbsp; Flashes of light came from below; Dowell assumed they were the flashes from cameras.nbsp; There was a train passing right underneath them; it was hard to make out in the faint light, but it looked orange. The robot took another swing, and once again it punched its own leg.nbsp; The thing was looking pretty bad; soon, it would start to malfunction, and that would be the end for Dowell.nbsp; The worst part of dying was that it would make Aloha happy.nbsp; He'd probably rub his chin after he got the news and say something about only the tough survive or that the world's a better place without him. In the distance, coasting just above the buildings, Dowell saw a dark figure approaching.nbsp; It looked like another robot.

Google doc of the text so far. Mick Aloha was privy to waking up in strange places.nbsp; It had been happening to him a lot recently.nbsp; What had once seemed to be a negative had turned into a positive, though, as his priviness had prepared him for the current situation. Aloha pressed against the soft ground to lift himself to a sitting position.nbsp; He judged, from the sunlight, that it was just after dawn.nbsp; He'd slept all night. A bamboo forest surrounded him.nbsp; Morning mist hung above the ground, hiding the bottoms of the bamboo trees.nbsp; Birds called in the distance; Aloha had no interest in birds, other than chicken for eating, so the calls meant nothing to him.

Google doc of the text so far. Sato's bunker was totally, like, not a bunker at all.nbsp; Bunkers were bunkers, man, with ramparts and other defenses; this was just a studio apartment.nbsp; As the Kid surveyed the place and his eyes drifted over the piles of clothes, electronics, and empty beer cans, he thought studio was the wrong word.nbsp; Studio made it sound cool, like Sato was giving up his comfort for his art.nbsp; There was no art here, though, and there was definitely no organization; Sato was a slob. The Kid took off his shoes.nbsp; He'd heard you were supposed to do that type of thing in Japan, but, like, come on.nbsp; The Kid was into wearing his shoes, especially in dumps like this.nbsp; There was no telling what the Kid might step on.nbsp; This guy had, kind of, saved the Kid's life, though, and when, after the Kid's non-verbal cues that he wanted to keep his shoes on, Sato had just kept motioning for him to take his shoes off, the Kid had complied.nbsp; The Kid liked that word.nbsp; Comply.nbsp; Yes sir, I comply.nbsp; The Kid was into it.nbsp; The Kid was into his own vocabulary. nbsp;

Google doc of the text so far. In the summer between the 6th and 7th grade, Dowell had visited New York City on a school trip.nbsp; Looking down on the city from the Empire State Building's observation deck, with his face pressed against the metal crossbars, he'd heard his classmates discuss the fatal consequences of dropping coins from the deck. As they talked about it, a girl Dowell had been going to school with since kindergarten tossed a penny over the side.nbsp;nbsp; A worker yelled at her, but it was too late to do anything about it.nbsp; Later that day, there were no reports of death on the sidewalks below the building, no FBI agents at their hotel, no reporters following their chartered bus.

Google doc of the text so far. As the robot clung to Mick Aloha and flew him through the air, he thought about all of the things that were wrong with this situation.nbsp; He hated robots, so catching a ride with a robot was like a cat catching a ride with a mouse; it was unnatural.nbsp; Even worse, the robot had kind of saved him.nbsp; Aloha used the term kind of because even though the robot had been his means of escape, Aloha knew he could have escaped, anyway.nbsp; He was unsure about the others, though, which was why he'd agreed to this plan.nbsp; Another problem with this situation was that there was no upgrade.nbsp; When Aloha flew, he always tried to get the upgrade.nbsp; He went for upgrades at hotels, restaurants, and even the San Francisco MUNI buses.nbsp; There were no upgrades available on the buses, but he tried.nbsp; He tried a lot. The worst part of this situation was the lack of escape routes.nbsp; Hanging from a robot, with no separate propulsion system of his own, left him in a dangerous position.