1 prologue

Boston, 2007

"You know a good playstation when you see one is as great as a good night with a gorgeous woman you have wanted to be with for a long time, you know what I mean? You finally got her." Vasko Mario said huskily to Ling Kai who was scrutinizing the said electronic in the limited fluorescent light. "Look at the plastic coated controls, the custom green Greninja splice art that I had done at a convention . . . it's going to keep you up all right? You get what I mean right? I mean you should say something."

Kai did very much understand such a strange analogy very vaguely so he was ignoring the seller. He didn't really like it when men spoke so roughly of the opposite gender even though it was common. His strategy with dealing with these types of characters was just to ignore it.

Nothing good would come of complicit behavior.

His eye was stuck to the beautiful playstation. Dear God, the limited edition, custom piece was from the early launches in Japan. Although there was a garish paint job, it was light as a skin that he could peel back just a bit to see the actual art that he had been looking for from the 500 million limited edition play station pro. The blue and silver rivets running through the machine were exquisite like a jewel that someone would need to excavate from a sarcophagus.

He could definitely spent all night, restoring it back to it's beautiful self, but on the subject of whether it would give him a sexual release . . . he didn't really think so. It would be a fun time. But, not the type of fun that his seller was thinking of.

"Five hundred dollars?" His expression was neutral as he tried to negotiate and the tactic of keeping cards and dollars close was important. In poker, more so, but this was money mattering.

Mario's eyes flashed as he tried to turn the tide more so in his favor. "C'mon man, I know you got a nice house. We're buds, we can make it worth both of our times. I know you got something whirling around, you always do, that's why we're such good friends."

Kai refused to give into the urge to frown as he felt bile rise up. Where did that come from? He could distinctly count on his hands the number of times this so called chum and himself had hung out recently. Most times Mario was so drunk he was not able to stand and he'd had his car cleaned. It was not exactly his idea of fun, but he could compromise. "Vasko, I am cutting you a very fair deal. On Ebay, that's what these items sell for? And you have had it custom painted with an artist that you like. Not everyone has your preferences. I'm not interested in the art skin. I just want the product."

He pulled the skin back to show the poor workmanship and that the underlying electronic had been fried due to the artist not using proper coverings. The glue was coagulated into the socket which was why, he figured that Vasko was even bothering to sell it as he doubted that Mario would take the time to fix something this old.

Vasko looked offended, his soup-like eyes softening into his pudgy face. "It was over a thousand new? Like I don't understand why the value would fall so much. I feel like you're trying to rip me off."