T-MINUS 15

T-minus 15 minutes. Angie and Janet walked into the pod area. Mark was still sitting there wearing the old style VR helmet. Slowly he reanimated. Billy Long Hair took the VR helmet off of Mark’s head. Both of them were still dressed.

Heather and Mike had already been settled into their pods and closed up. Angie didn’t see anything amiss with them or the readouts. She had checked the monitors before she walked into this area. Angie turned to Janet again.

“You will have to start setting up the next set of gear. Don’t forget you need to crossover the x16.”

“And if I don’t it will cost us precious hours of repair work.” She ticked off the items Angie kept repeating to her. “We can power up the beta units on Aux 6, but don’t connect them to the main system until the squad is out of the main game arena. Oh yeah. Y203. I need to be careful of that too.” She paused and struck a clueless girl pose and tapped her head. “How will I remember all of this?” Janet looked at her phone and then held it up. “Hey, it says all of this on the checklists that you and I wrote together.”

Angie was frowning at her. The frown had been more and more a part of her life as the competition got closer. It had gotten worse today. “My place is here, not in there.”

“Today, your place is in there. If you can prove that your hardware is the best, our future will be so bright….”

They finished the saying together. “...we’ll need to wear shades.” The founding members of Team Bloop had chosen the motto. Angie had seen no point in changing it. After all, it was a good and important connection to the founding members. They had graduated and had gotten good jobs. The old team had made some suggestions, but they took the rules seriously. The rules said people employed in the field or alumni of the team should not help out their old team.

Mark stood up. “So what now?”

“Learn to shoot straight?”

Mark turned to Janet. “Funny.”

“I thought so. Take your clothes off, we have 15 minutes until go time.”

“What?” Is this a joke?

Janet pointed towards the two closed capsules. The doors had huge windows in them. Heather and Mike were in their underwear.. Their faces were peaceful. Like they were asleep. Wires ran to fancy headbands. Headbands wasn’t the right word. The headbands had metal strips that went from one point, traced over their heads and connected to the opposite side of the headband. Helmets wasn’t the right word either. Metal helmets with big patches cut out?

He looked to Angie. She was thoughtful. She hadn’t thought this part out either. A glance at a capsule showed that Heather had put on a sports bra. Angie had on a regular bra. Victoria’s Secret standard issue black lace. With some push up support. Not too much push, lots of support.

“Billy Long Hair and Momma Robin got them wired up and running while you were hunting seagulls.” He frowned at her. She didn’t even look up. “Now its your turn. We have a bet about what kind of underwear you’re wearing.” She looked at her watch. “14 minutes until go time.”

Mark frowned and pulled off his shirt. Shoes and socks were next. He hesitated as he looked at his belt buckle. He looked around the room. Angie was in her bra and starting to unbutton her jeans. She looked him in the eye and gave a half smile. With a grimace like she was pulling off a band-aid she jerked her jeans down.

I have never felt so humiliated. Her roommate’s dad was seeing her naked. Not naked, just in her underwear. This was her lucky bra. Only one guy had ever seen it before now. That guy had been a ripped hunk of beefcake. At the time, Angie knew she was lucky to be in the bedroom with the guy that every girl at the party wanted to be with. Then, hunky beefcake fumbled with the bra catch and somebody walked in on them. Despite the person’s quick retreat, the interruption was a serious mood killer. The bra was no longer lucky.

Later Angie found out he hooked up with another girl that night. Not long after, the other girl was crying over an STD. The bra that wouldn’t open for that pig turned out to be lucky after all. Thank God I avoided that horrible mistake.

Now she wore the lucky bra when she had a test or a big event like this. Anytime she might need a little boost. Maybe the bra would still be lucky even though she was in her underwear in front of her friend’s dad. Well, kind of Sarah’s dad. Kind of...

She watched his face and smiled. He was looking her in the eye when he took a deep breath, held it and shucked his pants off. Standard issue boxers. With a Route 66 travel the country map and cartoon artwork. And a frayed waistband.

Janet snickered. Mark frowned. “I wasn’t planning on stripping down today.”

“Me either,” Angie answered. There are a lot of unplanned things going on today.

“You know what they say,” Janet chimed in as she guided him to a pod.

“What do they say?” Billy Long hair was attaching electrodes to Mark. Calves, thighs, abs, biceps, chest, all over.

“They say when you’re going to the doctor or the engineers, always wear your best clean underwear.” Janet looked down at Mark’s boxers. “You know, the ones without the holes.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” They slipped wired caps over his fingers. “When do you strip down?”

“Only in your dreams.” Everybody smiled. “Step back.” She guided him into the capsule. “Breathe deep and relax.”

She closed the door.

Across from him, Angie was getting into her capsule. “If you tell me to relax, I’ll vomit.”

“If you don’t relax you’ll vomit,” Billy Long Hair said as he looked at her readings, “or your heart will explode.”

“A heart attack will do less damage to the equipment.”

“That’s the right attitude,” Janet said from across the room.

Billy Long Hair closed Angie’s capsule.