Study Break

Hours later Sun Yi stretched, doing delicious things to her naked body. "That's it. I need a break."

"I know the feeling." Alex said, taking his head in his hands and twisting it from side to side sharply cracking his joints.

"And what are you working on over here?" Shannah asked as she rolled her shoulders to loosen them.

Alex leered at luscious sight as he replied, "It's a game program for Ms. Halloway's computer science class."

"Ah, 'Hot Bod' Halloway." Shannah grinned lasciviously. "I swear she's like sex poured into the shape of a teacher."

"I know, right!" Sun Yi squealed in agreement. "It'll be a sad day when she changes her name."

"Yeah, except for the lucky bastard who puts a ring on it." Shannah sighed. "Now if that isn't a worthy use of mind control power I don't know what is."

"Even if the big bad master already has slaves?" Alex asked in surprise.

"With a package like that, I would be honored to share." Shannah said in all sincerity.

Sun Yi placed her hand over her heart. "I would kneel before her as my mistress with a smile on my lips and a song in my heart. So, project?"

Alex set aside this new revelation and refocused. "Well, unlike some of the guys in my class, I'm actually there for the subject matter. But I can't deny that the subject comes with some delectable eye candy."

The three students paused to consider the veracity of this statement before Sun Yi refocused. "Focus, Alex."

"Right. It's a match three game like Bejeweled, but if you're insane you can flip it to advance mode and play like Candy Crush." Alex explained, raising his fingers to count off features. "It's got single player, competitive and cooperative multiplayer, and a quest mode that's built like a scaled down MMO. Your little avatar can go adventuring, either alone or with friends, and the powerups you gain in quest mode will carry over to other modes."

Shannah whistled. "That does sound ambitious."

"It has to be." Alex agreed. "Not only am I submitting this for a grade, the top five grades will get to pitch their project to a developer in hopes of at least one of us making it to the big leagues."

Sun Yi nodded. "So how close is it to being finished?"

Alex somehow managed to pinch the bridge of his nose and rub his eyes. "Infuriatingly, everything works as intended... Except for the single player mode that is the basis for everything."

"How does that even-?" Shannah twisted up her face in thought.

"Wish I knew." Alex replied. "I'm running out of programming tricks to throw at it. If I haven't gotten it licked by Monday, I'll ask Ms. Halloway."

"Can you do that?" Sun Yi murmured absently as thoughts tumbled through her head.

"Oh yeah." Alex waved it off. "Everyone has to turn in one functioning program, regardless of how far it makes it. Ms. H is willing to help everyone making an effort to get at least that far."

"This could be the first step in our global empire, if it works." Sun Yi grinned as she recentered herself. "Just think with the right nudge everyone would be playing it all the time."

"I dunno." Shannah looked doubtful. "Remember when Pokemon Go came out and a lot of people got hurt cause they weren't playing safely?"

Alex saw the dynamic of his new "empire" form before his eyes. Sun Yi was setting herself up to be the driving force pushing them forward. Shannah focused herself on problems and logistics that could lose them ground, and he himself meshed their visions together to make things happen all the while chiming in with what he was sure was going to be his new catchphrase. "Now ladies, you KNOW mind control isn't real. There's no way I could write the code to do anything like that." Alex tossed out, casually glancing back at the screen as lines of code wrote themselves on the screen.

"Of course not." The girls chorused, without a drop of sincerity between them.

'Pops clearly wasn't kidding when he said the amulet could do anything' Alex thought as he perused the new code, which was elegant in its simplicity. As the audiovisuals captivated the conscious mind, the game would then start sliding preprogrammed messages straight into the subconscious. The scrolling code stopped and the cursor blinked at him expectantly.

Alex hummed thoughtfully as he casually drummed his fingers on the desk while rereading the code. "I guess for now a compulsion to own and share the game will be enough to ensure dominance." He murmured dancing over the keys with practiced ease. "I think I'll quit here, though."