Aya's interface appeared, stuffed with an enormous stack of pings, tens of thousands of them stretching off into the invisible distance. She'd never have time to read them all!
"You should see yourself, Aya," Frizz said, laughing. "You look like a littlie who just ate too much ice cream."
"Too much is right. You should see all these messages!" She remembered Hire's trick after big stories, when he was always ping-bashed with tips. Her fingers began to twitch. "Hang on, let me sort them by face rank. Pings from extras go to the bottom and the important ones rise to the top. If Nana-chan really is in here, she'll be right at the whoa."
There were so many pings, Aya could actually see them moving, the city interface straining as it checked each one against the constantly updating face ranks. Gradually a few bubbled to the topbig-face kickers, politicians, a note of thanks from the Good Citizen Committee "I am totally going to score some merits out of this," she murmured. "Shuffle Mansion, here I come."
Then she saw it a glowing ping rising on angel's wings.
"Oh, Frizz. You were right Nana-chan was watching!"
He laughed. "I told you so!"
Aya was about to open it, but suddenly the ping slid down. She stared at the new message in disbelief. It carried no decoration at all, its black text as bare as an automatic reply.
"Um, Frizz, there's another one above it."
"Another what?"
"I think someone more famous than Nana Love just pinged me."
"But there isn't anyone who's except " Frizz let out a strangled sound. "You mean Tally Youngblood just pinged you?"
Aya nodded slowly. It was right there, painted in laser light on her eyeball. A ping from the world's most famous personthe girl who'd made the mind-rain fall. The name prayed to by the Youngblood cults every morning, cursed by Toshi Banana as he slammed the latest mind-rain clique, repeated countless times whenever the story of the Diego War was taught to littlies "How could she know so fast?" Aya murmured. "Isn't she hiding in the wild somewhere?"
"The story went global two hours ago," Frizz said. "She must have friends checking the feeds for her."
"But since when does Tally Youngblood just ping people?" Saying the name made her throat go dry again.
"Who cares?
Open it!"
Aya twitched her finger, and the ping expanded. It was tagged by the global interface, guaranteed authentic. But as she read the message, Aya wondered if Tally's English was confusing her somehow.
"What does it say?" Frizz cried.
"It's only seven words."
"What words? 'Thanks'? 'Congratulations'? 'Hello'?"
"No, Frizz. It says, 'Run and hide. We're on our way.'"
"This is stupid," Hiro hissed. "We should go back to the party. Running off like this is making us look like idiots!"
"You're telling me to ignore Tally Youngblood?" Aya said. "Her ping said run and hide!"
"You call this hiding?" Ren asked.
Aya glanced into the sky. A hundred or so hovercams had trailed them out of the party, probably wondering why the seventeenth-most-famous person in the city had suddenly abandoned her first interview ever. The swarm was silhouetted against the night sky, a host of lenses glinting down at them like the eyes of predators.
"That's a good point," Frizz said. "We have to find somewhere private."
"I'm trying."
Aya sighed.
The four of them had left the bash by a side door and headed randomly across a darkened baseball field. Safety fireworks were still shooting up from the mansion's roof. Flickering across the grass, they sent Aya's huge, jittering shadow stretching out in front of her.
She remembered Lai's last warning on the sled: "Whoever built this monstrosity is dangerous."
"What's the point of privacy?" Hiro snapped. "If you think someone's coming after you, shouldn't we stay where everyone can see us?"
Aya came to a halt, stopping so quickly that Moggle bumped her from behind. Maybe the safest place was in full view. No one would dare do anything at a crowded party or with a hundred hovercams directly overhead, for that matter.
She sighed. "I guess we could go back in."
"Exactly," Hiro cried. "We can kick Tally Youngblood's ping. If everyone finds out she's on her way here, it'll be massive!"
Frizz cleared his throat. "This probably isn't the best time to worry about face ranks, Hiro."
"This isn't about face ranks, you bubblehead!"
"Technically speaking, I'm not a bubblehead," Frizz said calmly. "Which is why I'm not shouting our plans where everyone can hear them.'" Aya glanced up. There was still a fair-size reputation bubble around her, but a few cams were close enough to have caught Hiro's outburst.
"Whatever we do, let's keep our voices down," she said. "Somehow, I don't think Tally-sama wants the whole city to know she's coming."
Ren shook his head. "She's not from here, Aya, so she doesn't understand how the reputation economy works. About half a million people are watching right now. Your fame will protect us."
"You can't hide, Aya," Hiro said. "Everyone knows exactly where you are. Wasn't that the point of tonight?"
Frizz frowned, looking at her. "I thought the point of tonight was to save the world."
Aya sighed. "There may have been several points, okay? Everyone just be quiet for a second while I think!"
The other three fell silent. Aya stood there, feeling their eyes on her, and the lenses of a hundred hovercams, and another half a million people watching through them. Even Moggle was staring at her.
It wasn't the best spot for thinking.
Frizz drew closer, putting an arm around her shoulder. "If we go back to the party and someone comes after you, who's going to stop them? A bunch of pixel-heads?"
Hiro shrugged. "The wardens, just like any other crime."
"Do we trust the wardens?" Frizz asked. "Remember what that kicker said? Our city might have built this thing!"
"The guy who called her a traitor?" Hiro laughed. "He was totally brain-missing!"