Raven's Song

by Launnie Roush

  James waited as his aunt and uncle gave their final well-wishes to their son, then he and Del exited the Lux-car. Their high school, a large, two-storied red brick structure, loomed before them at the end of a long, wide sidewalk which bisected a large lawn, the grass withered and brown under winter’s harsh treatment. James took a minute to straighten his school uniform, which consisted of black slacks, a white, short-sleeved button-up dress shirt, a black wool blazer, and polished patent-leather loafers. He nearly reached to adjust Del’s collar, but decided against performing any sudden movements around his cousin. Everyone in the family except Eve had been informed of Del’s violent past, and James found it hard to believe that a single young man his own age had amassed a kill count rivaling those of history’s deadliest rangers and corporate troopers. Yet over the past week he had seen his cousin perform feats of strength, endurance, speed, and dexterity which gave unnerving hints at his rumored lethality, hence his reluctance to approach his cousin too purposefully.

  “The bell rang a bit ago, so everybody’s inside. I’m supposed to take you to the testing center, Cousin, so follow me,” James said.

  “And I won’t have to participate in any martial segments of this test, right?” Del asked.

  “Nah! Our parents got that all straightened out, Cousin. Your fightin’ days are over,” James assured him.

  He and Del made their way to the school building and stepped through the front doors, taking a second to strip out of their blazers as the building’s toasty interior rendered them unnecessary. Del claimed to be completely undaunted by the situation, but James was plenty nervous for the both of them. The school’s main hall was bustling with students who were busy socializing, rummaging through lockers, or making their way to various destinations. The cousins started down the hall, and James immediately noticed the curious looks. Del’s rescue had made national news, and many of the students were aware of the fact he would be attending school alongside them, but to see him in the flesh was apparently a whole different situation for them. Many glances were cast his way, some subtle, but many not so much. James could not help but get a kick out of the looks of unease many students displayed, the most amusing ones coming from the supposed “big, tough” athletes they passed.

  James cast a quick glance at his cousin and found him studying every detail with a quiet intensity. No wonder so many people look worried, he thought, a big, pissed-off lookin’ guy glarin’ at everybody would be pretty spooky.

  “Easy up, Cousin,” he told Del, “nobody’ll attack ya here.”

  The words had barely left James’s lips when the door to the lavatory they were passing banged open and a boy a grade lower than James barreled into the hall. He was apparently engaged in horseplay and did not realize he was on a collision course with Del. While James was still trying to process what was transpiring, Del had reacted. He grabbed the boy by his shoulder, sent him careening into the hall’s far wall, and before he could even rebound from his impact, Del was on him, wrenching his arm behind his back and pinning him roughly against the wall.

  “Jeez-āch!” the frightened boy squealed.

  “Del, Del, Del! Cool it, bud! He’s no baddie! He was just funnin’ ‘round, that’s all! He didn’t mean nothin’ by it!” James cried, trying frantically to calm his rattled cousin.

  Del appeared as tense as a set trap that was ready to spring at the slightest disturbance. Within moments he visibly relaxed and released the boy. “Apologies,” he said, “thought you were the principal.”

  This little joke, which James did not think his cousin was capable of making, worked like a charm. The students in the hall, many of whom had witnessed this display with grim shock, let out relieved laughs, the boy Del had pinned laughing along with them. Del offered his hand, and the boy shook it, promising to be more careful before playfully slugging Del’s shoulder and heading off. As the cousins resumed their trek to the testing center, many of the students they passed looked more comfortable with the new student in their midst.

  “Slick play, Cousin, but I thought you said you weren’t nervous,” James ribbed.

  They meandered along at a casual clip, and James engaged in his routine morning socializations. Though by no means “King Popularity”, James’s easygoing nature and sense of humor had won him numerous friends and made him more or less welcome in nearly every clique comprising H.S. 77’s social hierarchy. As he cruised along he was in his element, exchanging cheerful greetings with more than a few classmates, engaging in a fairly complicated, and admittedly awkward, handshake with a good friend, and giving a group of attractive young women a blatantly lusty once-over, a string of complementary slang terms and idioms oozing from him like honey. He introduced Del to many of his personal friends and more well-liked acquaintances, and his cousin returned their greetings with a small smile and a charming greeting of his own.

  Not sure, but I think he’s gonna be just cherry! James mused with no small amount of joy.

  #

  The testing center was a large lecture hall filled with small desks featuring nanite touchscreens installed in their surfaces. James had left Del at the door, and Del quickly took his seat at the rear corner of the room, making sure he had an unfettered view of all points of entry. He ignored the looks of the other students in the room, most of them still in their early teens, and when the principal entered he stood along with the others and waited with quiet respect for permission to be seated. Once they were settled the principal, a stern-looking, smartly dressed older woman, began speaking loudly and briskly.

  “Good morning, students. My name is Mrs. Vicki Harper-Orton, and I’m principal of H.S. 77. Your education up until this point has been generalized academics, arts, and physical training. Now that you are starting high school, you will begin your career training, which will prepare you for the occupational role you will fill for most of your adult life. All incoming high school freshmen, as you will be next fall, take the CAB, or Career Assessment Battery, which will determine the career best suited to your unique skill sets and helps tailor your high school classes so you can be properly trained in said career. You will start the two hour academic portion of the exam right now, which will be followed by a two hour artistic assessment, and we will conclude with a ninety minute physical battery. I ask that there’s no cheating, you work swiftly and as accurately as possible, and wish you all the best of luck. Time starts now.”

  Del found the academic exam ridiculously easy, finishing a full forty-five minutes early. He discovered he had no grasp of the arts in the next portion of the CAB, struggling greatly throughout the assessment and finishing only by choosing the last twenty answers at random. The physical battery followed a thirty minute break period, and its first half went smoothly, Del and the other students executing various exercises and other physical feats. Del was just thinking the physical exam was also ridiculously easy when it was announced that the students would be engaging in mock combat. Various wooden practice weapons were brought onto the gymnasium floor, and the students were divided into groups of six. Del was told that due to his combat experience he would be facing members of the school’s varsity kendo and unarmed combat teams.

  Each group, in turn, went to the mat and engaged in mock combat, the young teens displaying their burgeoning skills as they attempted to impress a ten-person judging panel consisting of the school’s principal and head coach, military personnel, and other combat-career representatives. Del tried desperately to inform someone in authority of the obvious mistake they had made by including him in this portion of the exam, but his objections went unheeded. James showed up at this point and attempted to assist Del in his protests, but to no avail. Del’s group was the last to step onto the padded practice floor, and his visible agitation was finally noticed.

  “Is something wrong, Mr. Von Raben?” the principal asked.

  “I think there’s been a mistake. I was under the impression I wouldn’t have to take this part of the exam,” he answered.

&nb
sp; One of the military representatives spoke up, “Son–”

  “I’m not your son!” Del barked.

  The representative looked slightly taken aback by Del’s outburst, but quickly recovered. “Mr. Von Raben, by law every citizen must take the CAB in its entirety. We ask that you be patient with us, and the law, in this matter.”

  “You know who I am, what I’ve been through. I can fight just fine, and there’s no need for me to prove it. This is unnecessary,” Del argued.

  “Sir, he really doesn’t have to fight. His parents and his doctor already had it cleared with-” James interjected, only to be cut off and hustled into the mostly-empty bleachers by an assistant coach.

  “The test will commence at the sound of the buzzer,” the head coach announced.

  “Please don’t make me do this!” Del begged, anger boiling in his voice.

  The buzzer sounded, and the five varsity combatants charged forward, one of them armed with a short wooden club, another wielding a Bo staff, and the remaining three unarmed. They closed on Del in unison, and it proved a costly and painful mistake. Within two minutes the combatants were lying on the floor. When the other teens had battled, their blows had been light and relatively harmless, but Del had shown no such reserve. One young man was nursing his pulverized nose, a series of loud wails of agony blasting from him, three more were unconscious, and a young woman was lying in a tight ball, struggling desperately to draw a breath.

  James sat rooted in the bleachers, his mouth hanging slack as he tried to process the tremendous skill and calculated ferocity his cousin had just displayed. The test’s other participants were abuzz with low whispers and many shifted about nervously in their seats. One boy’s voice rose to a panicked squeak as he asked the girl next to him if they would also have to face Del in combat.

  Del merely stood amongst the carnage he had created, a cold stare fixed on the shocked judging panel as he stated in a low growl, “I can fight just fine!”

  #

  “C’mon, man, the set’s about to start!” James urged as he shouldered his way through a fair-sized crowd of young people.

  “Why’re we doing this again?” Del asked.

  “I already told you; you’re in need of cheerin’ up, Cousin, and this is the best way to do that!” James told him.

  An hour after he had finished the CAB, the principal of H.S. 77 and representatives from the military and the Federal Career Agency informed Del that he had been selected for military service. They proceeded to heap congratulations and praise on him while he sat silently fuming. By the end of the day his career assignment was common knowledge throughout the student body, and he was forced to endure yet more unwanted praise. After school, his parents were given the news, and they immediately sensed their son’s trepidation, vowing to assist him in any way they could in getting a career transfer. As evening approached, James put in an appearance and insisted that Del accompany him to a youth club, both to ease the sting of Del’s career assignment and continue his “social education”.

  Del followed his excited cousin with a bit of apprehension. The youth club James had brought them to, which was called Heaven-Sent, was apparently overflowing with young patrons who had come to partake of the services it had to offer. The cousins passed under the club’s neon pink sign and, after paying the doorman, walked into the tumultuous interior of the club. Del recognized a good number of his classmates from school, many of whom greeted him and his cousin with friendly cheer.

  The club was packed with youths, many of whom crowded a large dance floor and the tables surrounding it. A snack bar serving food and drinks stood against one wall and on the far side of the room was a doorway leading to a room filled with all kinds of amusement machines. A rainbow of lights illuminated the dance floor, and the surrounding tables were lit by small nanite lamp-clouds hovering just above them. A large stage dominated one side of the room, and although it was devoid of life, there were some icy blue spotlights focused on it.

  “Let’s grab a table and wait for the band to take the stage,” James suggested.

  “Why are you so adamant about seeing this performance?” Del asked once they were seated.

  “Well, if you must know, I’m in love with one of the performers.”

  “Does they know this?”

  “Actually, we’ve never met, but I can always hope, right?”

  “You don’t find your supposed ‘love’ a little sad?”

  “Oh c’mon! Don’t be so icy, hotshot. One of these days you’ll obsess over someone, too. It’s an easily acquired disease.”

  “I doubt that.”

  Suddenly the lights in the club went dark, and the music stopped, causing all the youths in attendance to begin clapping and cheering excitedly.

  “You’ll love this! All the performers’ Cells are hooked up to the house sound system, so whenever they dance the system translates the movement into music, and they all dance together to make a song,” James explained quickly once the commotion had died down.

  “So which performer’s the love of your life?”

  “The lead singer! She’s gorgeous!”

  A voice blared across the club, welcoming everyone to the establishment before introducing the night’s first act, a performance group known as “Blood Angel”. It was at this point bright white light flooded the stage, revealing five people standing on it. Four of these people began to dance about, their movements being translated into an electronica song that was heavy in bass and quick in tempo. After a minute of this, the fifth person stepped forward and began to sing. As James had said, she was a gorgeous woman clothed in a dark blue catsuit and long, white PVC coat. Her blue hair was styled into long spikes that swept back on her head, and her face was decorated with silver glitter, pale white makeup, and blue gemstones. A chill went through Del as he took in the sad tones of her melodious voice. The woman slowly moved her hands, adding a melancholic strings section to the music.

  Del turned to James to ask a question, but found him missing. He assumed his cousin had vanished onto the dance floor, so he sat back to watch the performance onstage. He soon turned his attention to the dance floor because some of the dancing going on there was so bizarre he found it amusing. Many of the youths on the dance floor wore the most stylish fashions of the day, garments featuring holes cut at strategic spots to show off the wearer’s physique, and a lot of adornments made of chains, leather straps, and plastic mesh. The nanites covering the surfaces of their garments, hair, and cosmetics caused the colors and decorative patterns of these things to change constantly and glow with unearthly colors. Some even had nanite costume-clouds, which could form props such as ethereal wings, serpentine tails, flaming haloes, and countless other surreal accoutrements, accentuating their persons.

  It was as he was studying this spectacle that Del laid eyes on the young woman on the far side of the dance floor. She was sitting on the edge of a table, swaying slowly to the music. She was average height, and her frame boasted a curvy fitness prominently displayed by the tight, white lace bodice, short, electric-blue skirt, and black jackboots she wore. Her short bob hairstyle was colored to match her skirt, and her side bangs did a fine job of drawing his eyes to her lovely, delicately featured face. Del found that he could not breathe very well as he looked upon her, but he could not tear his eyes away. He was still gazing rapturously at the young woman when a group of dancers momentarily obscured his view, and by the time it was once again unfettered, she was gone.

  Del stood quickly and started through the crowd towards the table the beauty had apparently just vacated. The song ended at this point, and the crowd erupted into enthusiastic applause as they rushed towards the stage, carrying Del along with them despite his protests and physical resistance. Somehow in all the jostle he found himself standing beside his cousin.

  “She’s amazin’, isn’t she?!” James gushed.

  “Heart-stopping!” Del declared distractedly as his gaze darted about the club.

  �
�I don’t think we’re talkin’ about the same person.”

  “She was over there,” Del explained as he pointed towards the table where he had first seen the young woman.

  “Ha-ha! See, an easily acquired disease! I wish you luck, Cousin. With this kinda crowd, you’ll be hard pressed to find her again.”

  #

  Del searched all over the club for nearly an hour before he finally admitted defeat and shouldered his way into the lavatory. He went to a sink, splashed some cool water on his face, then leaned against the counter and dejectedly hung his head.

  “What’s wrong, buddy, your love ditch you?” a sweet voice asked from his left.

  Del raised his head, and his breath caught when he discovered it was the young woman he had been hunting for who had spoken. She was even more beautiful up close. Del was drinking in her warm brown eyes when he noticed she had an inch long, nanite-created image of a black feather below her left eye. He suddenly realized he had yet to answer her, and quickly found his voice.

  “Uh, no, actually,” he stammered.

  “Then don’t look so wrecked.” The server came and took her order, then she continued, “You’d have a lot more company if you livened up a bit.”

  “I think you’re right. I merely lifted my head, and I‘m already enjoying your company.”

  The young woman giggled, a sound that sent a delightful shiver through Del, “You’re funny! Why haven’t I ever seen you around before?”

  “I guess it’s because I’ve been indisposed for a while.”

  The young woman offered her hand, “Fair enough. I’m Sheila, Sheila Beech.”

  “Del Von Raben,” Del returned as he shook the girl’s hand, excitement crashing through him upon making contact with her warm, soft flesh.

  “Really? Are you telling me you’re the same Del Von Raben that was recently found after ten years of being missing? The grandson of the former Veriform CEO? That Del Von Raben?” she asked, Del relishing even her mild tone of incredulity.