The woman moved swiftly, sticking the needle in the vein of his arm and injecting its contents into his bloodstream. The drug worked quickly and words dropping off in a slur. Alex's head lolled to one side and his limbs grew heavy.
He was suddenly tired. Holding out with a glare beneath drooping eyelids for a moment longer then eyelids closing, his breathing slowed descending into sleep.
When his eyes opened again, Alex found himself in a car, not on a train.
"Ah, so you're awake,” Wilson greeted him, looking up from some papers. "Quite the episode you had back there."
"Shut up."
Wilson shuffled through the documents and gave Alex a sidelong glance. "You seem fine now."
"You, drugged me..."
"Nope, we had a specialist for that."
Alex didn't respond.
"Why don’t you like trains?"
"None of your business."
"The doctor said the reaction was likely due to a traumatic experience."
Alex gazed out the window. They were in the middle of nowhere; uncultivated land stretched in all directions.
"Where are we?"
"Have you ever lost someone, Alex?"
Alex blinked slowly, spring green eyes skimming over Kiko's sparse grassland.
"What age?"
He kept his silence.
"I see...quite young then."
"Would you stop?!" Alex demanded, whipping from the window with a glare.
Wilson set his papers aside. "You should talk about these things, Alex."
"I don't want to discuss them with you."
"Why not? Don't you trust me?"
"No, I don't."
"Ouch. You wound me."
"Good."
"So who did you lose?" Wilson pressed. "A friend?"
Alex turned back to the window. "Quit digging."
"Sibling?"
The blond ignored him.
"Your parents?"
Alex winced and slowly recoiled from the window. "Wilson I swear, just let it—"
"How?"
Alex turned, with haunted eyes plagued by insurmountable pain and trailed by trauma. "Train accident." His voice was barely above a whisper.
"What happened?" Wilson softly prompted, offering the boy his full attention.
"The train car flipped—" Alex caught himself and shook his head. "A lot happened, it sucked, its past and I don't want to talk about it."
"So, your train car flipped and...?"
"Wilson seriously, just let it—"
"What happened to the train Alex?"
Alex blinked back welling tears. His eyes drifted up to the car's dark ceiling distantly. "The train...fell off a cliff."
Wilson placed hand on his companion's shoulder which was brushed off just as quickly. "There, there, now that—"
"Don't touch me."
Not missing a beat, Wilson recovered his papers and continued to read while Alex stared at him for a moment. Then the boy returned to Kiko's scenery, enduring what remained of the drive in silence.
~*~*~*~
The car pulled up to the school's roundabout driveway. Alex, got out and stepped onto the sidewalk.
"Hey Alex, wait!" Wilson called after him, as he got out the other side.
"What?"
The man rounded the car with a smile.
"Have a nice school year, kiddo!" he said with a shove.
The air shimmered and Alex's surroundings changed, morphing from the parking lot's whitewashed sidewalks to gleaming tile. Momentum carrying him, he stumbled back into someone. Knocking a guy from his locker, and nearly falling on top of him in the process, Alex sent the other youth's books skidding across the floor.
Alex, head on the swivel, looked about bewildered. "What the—where am I?"
"What the hell?!" a voice demanded behind him indignantly. "Fucking klutz, don't you know how to step out of a portal?"
Alex stood and brushed off his jeans before offering a hand to the shorter teen with a sheepish smile. "Sorry man...I didn't see you there."
A few bystanders laughed. Guilt tugged at him. He hadn't meant to make a scene. The stranger's hair, jet black with a silver streak stretching from roots to bangs was jelled back into a spike-like style to reveal dark eyes, demeaning in their nature.
The youth stood, chin up and eyes narrowed. "Think you're funny huh?"
Alex retracted his hand. "I try, yeah...but what's your deal? I apologized, so how 'bout we move past—"
"My deal? You ran into me."
"Well you should've moved, short stuff."
A trickle swept into a cluster until a multitude of darkly uniformed students locked them into an encircling crowd who talked to one another in hushed whispers as they listened to the conversation at hand. A few phones arose and were no doubt recording.
"Not even wearing the school uniform. What, too poor to afford it? I guess your scholarship didn't cover everything. To be expected, chump change can only go so far."
"Wh-who the hell do you think you are?" Alex seethed, through clenched teeth, hands curling into fists at his sides. Things had become a whole lot more personal.
The dark haired boy smiled smugly. "I could ask you the same question."
Alex swung, and the other youth dodged it easily. Putting his hands together, he dropped the blond with a punch in the gut. The breath forced from his lungs, he fell to his knees like a sack of potatoes, doubling over in a silent gasp. Glaring up at his dark haired counterpart through blurring vision he found himself drawn to the gleam of metal bracers encasing his opponent's knuckles.
When did that get there? Alex wondered. There'd been nothing there before. Had he materialized it? He had to have done it somehow.
"Cheater..." Alex spat, feeling weak and worthless; his previous confidence as fickle as the wind, had deserted him.
"Now who's taller?!" his opponent gloated as, turning on his heel, his dark eyes absently glazed over a bystander with smug superiority. "You, pick up my stuff and put it in my locker there. It's already open so don't be incompetent and make sure you close it with my books aligned right to left in chronological order.” He glanced over his shoulder at Alex. "And you...filth, stay out of my way. I'm Aaron, a Goethe.”
Pale yellow electricity flickered along Aaron’s hands, connecting at the fingertips. A malevolent grin spread across his face as, lifting a hand he snapped his fingers and disappeared.
Alex blinked, more confused than shocked. Did Aaron just disappear?
The stillness dissipated with a snap and Aaron reappeared in a crouch before him. Dark eyes flashing, in one fluid movement Aaron brushed his fingers along Alex’s chin. Sliding them from jugular to tip, the touch was smooth with an electrical aftertaste.
“You’re my bitch,” Aaron smirked as he stood. Looking down on Alex, he put his hands in his pockets and turned. The crowd parted for him as he walked away.
Alex, seizing from the electrical current, could only watch. His bloodshot eyes welled with tears before shutting in a dead faint.
~*~*~*~
Alex heard a passerby sneer as he sat up with a start. "Facing a Goethe, how stupid can you get?"
"What a weakling, he went down with the first punch, not to mention…" Another voice passed him by before drifting out of earshot. Finding himself in an emptying hallway, he stood and trailed after a cluster of students.
Following them around the bend into another hallway, Alex wandered, entering the overarching doors of an auditorium. The room was chopped into an upper and lower level which separated the class. Sophomores and above resided on the second level spread out across numerous sections while freshmen clustered into the lower level whose two large seating arrangements were separated by a center aisle.
Joining a crowd dispersing into one of the two sides, descending down a short flight of steps of the lower level, Alex managed to snag the last seat in the second row.
"Welcome to Corpus Academy,” a voice boomed. "I see that all of you have had
a chance to meet, greet, and have some fun."
On the right side of the lower level, Alex studied the stage. Overlooking the crowd stood an older man with graying hair, his voice projected by a small microphone clipped to his collar.
Carved across the stage's dark marble base was a large dragon, its head nearly protruding over the first rows from the stage's center, head tilted back, obsidian eyes staring up aimlessly. The tip of the ancient lizard's chin cut into the stage's interior. On its tongue sat a deep blue sphere nearly as large as the man beside it.
Off to the side of the stage, situated on the first step of the stage's short flight was a woman; a clipboard in one hand and circular device that flashed red every so often in the other.
"As many of you may know, I am Mr. Goethe, your Principal,” the man continued. "Once everyone has taken their seats, the orientation will begin."
Chapter 13
Indoctrination
The auditorium’s conversation died as Mr. Goethe cleared his throat. "Having the ability to attend this academy is a privilege which each and every one of you have earned. The road for some has been a difficult one, for others even more so. Therefore, I thank you for your effort, hard work and dedication that played a vital role in taking you and your extraordinary talent the extra mile. This year I am proud to welcome the new freshmen class of 3015."
Alex sucked in a breath. "Three thousand and what now?"
A few eyes turned his way further down the row and the blonde girl sitting next to him, previously engaged in light conversation with a darker haired girl, did the same but said nothing. Consciously closing his mouth, he sat back in his chair and ignoring the attention, tuned back in to Mr. Goethe.
"—Corpus, is your new home and family. Upperclassmen, give your peers a round of applause."
Whistles and applause lifted in response.
"After orientation freshmen report to your assigned building numbers backstage for a campus tour after you've received your titus level from the estimator. Upperclassmen are, of course omitted from the tour for obvious reasons, and are free to pick out their dorms. But you are required to stay in the commons for the duration of the freshmen tours. Interference of the tours can result in time in the brig and or loss of privileges. Okay, first row line up."
A line began to form, branching off from the stage's stairs as the silent atmosphere was alleviated with light chatter.
Alex tapped the shoulder of the blonde girl beside him. "Um..."
She turned. "What?"
Alex swallowed nervously. Slight of build with subtle curves and a fit physique, the girl had golden blonde hair which was styled simply by an enwrapping halo of loose waterfall braids. Her eyes were a rare clear purple which rivaled her own innate beauty. Entranced, only one thought crossed Alex’s mind in his tongue tied loss for words: she was hot.
"Well?" She crossed her arms impatiently.
"Oh, err...what does the, um—that guy mean by titus level?"
"Your titus level indicates how much titus you have and therefore how talented you might be. Level one is the weakest and eleven the strongest." She pushed a few strands of hair behind her ear absently. "To give you an idea, there have only been two elevens as far as we know."
"Wow, those guys must have been strong."
"You mean those girls,” she retorted, rolling her eyes.
"Oh."
"The first eleven’s name was Jamieh S. Cooper. And it's been said that she had enough titus to create a galaxy, had she wanted. Instead, she created Gluto."
"Gluto? You mean Pluto? No way…"
“No, I mean Gluto,” the girl said, giving him a look. "And yes way. Then...of course sixteen years or so after she kicked the bucket, the scientific world discredited Gluto of its title as a planet and reduced it to an asteroid or something. I'm the second eleven."
“Wait you’re an elev—”
"Really?” said the girl beside her. “Are you going off about that again, Melissa? It happened a year ago, get over it already."
"It was eleven months ago, not a year, not yet."
"Close enough."
The new girl was long limbed with a short torso. Her shoulder length curly hair shifted halfway from an unassuming mousy brown to the soft sheen of sunset orange. The girl's eyes, a deep emerald green, twinkled as she offered Alex a smile.
“What's up?” she said. “I'm Sierra, what's your name?”
"Alex."
The girl's eyes narrowed, confusion flashing as they did a once-over. "You look like a...three? Four maybe? What do you think, Melissa?"
Melissa turned her back on Alex with a shrug. "Does it matter? He's weaker than us either way. Especially me."
Alex frowned, feeling their conversation was at an end. He shrank back and faced forward. Awkward and uncomfortable, he felt categorized, alone, unworthy of even the friend zone.
"Oh, so you knew? Then why talk to him?"
"He asked me something."
"Seriously? A lower tier?"
"I think he's new."
"Or stupid,” Sierra said laughing and looked at him. "Lower levels don't talk to the higher ones. I mean seriously, what planet are you from? It's obvious that we're higher, so know your place and shut your mouth. Or don't you know the color code?"
"Um...no."
Melissa gestured to her red jacket collar with one hand and tugging on her matching cuffs with the other.
"We're red. Tier ones."
Alex looked at her blankly, uncomprehending and Sierra rolled her eyes.
"You know,” Sierra continued impatiently. “Levels eight and up?"
"I have no idea what you guys are talking about."
"What are you, an oddity or something?" Melissa asked absently, inspecting manicured nails in the dim auditorium light.
Alex nodded.
Melissa looked up. "No way..."
Sierra stood. Putting her hands on Melissa's shoulders she leaned over her friend. "Seriously?!"
Alex nodded again. "That's what they called me when I fell off the—"
"Get off me, Sierra..." Melissa said shrugging the girl’s hands off. "And sit down, you're making a scene."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah whatever." Sierra sat reluctantly, eyes still trained on Alex. "But an Oddity...he's the first in what? Twenty years?"
"Sixteen, actually."
"Row two," the principal called.
Melissa stood as did Sierra and Alex. Joining the line, Alex yet again felt relevant. He eagerly answered Melissa's and Sierra's pressing questions. By the time the girls had questioned themselves out, there remained only two people in front of the trio.
Alex watched as the next person, a girl with short choppy brown hair, was scanned by the woman with the circular device. The machine flashed green and the woman waved her forward.
"Who's that? Do you know?" Alex asked Melissa, relieved that he'd found another topic worthy of conversation. She shrugged.
"Alice Brown,” Sierra chipped in. "I think...anyway, she's a senior this year and infamous for being among the few level ones who've never advanced."
"Wait, why is a senior down here?"
"She slipped into the freshman level, how else?"
"Why?"
"Orientation is the best time to get reevaluated. First come first served. If you're not a freshman, you get shafted onto the waiting list and with so many hopefuls set on the prospect of leveling up, you'd be lucky to get your hand on the sphere before the end of the year."
Alice, stepped onto the stage, shuffled forward, eyes lowered; a deep frown eased across Mr. Goethe's face as she passed. Stopping before the sphere with its flickering dark blue interior, Alice hesitantly lowered her hand upon it. The sphere's white flecks began to swirl together before merging in a swarm to form a large number one beneath her palm. Alice, biting her lip, removed the trembling hand numbly, her expression hollow, hopeless. A soft murmur ran through the on-looking crowd.
Mr. Goethe sighed dramatically. "You never fail to di
sappoint Mrs. Brown. Just—just go to the Commons. Enjoy your last year."
"No, no, wait...le-let me try again. I'm sure there's some mistake. I'm positive I've improved!"
"And yet it is evident you haven't. Unfortunately, not everyone can be a winner, Ms. Brown, now shoo, shoo, get out of my sight. Make the most of your last year."
Alice, walked away dejected, looking the image of a person who had just failed at life.
That sucks... Alex thought, witnessing her walk of shame with a worried consciousness. Just what happens if I fail? Is it possible to get lower than a zero?
"Lower level trash,” Mr. Goethe muttered, his voice carrying across the audience. The Corpians displayed a mixed response ranging from outright laughs to hushed whispers but gasps, interestingly enough, were nonexistent.
They must be used to this sort of thing, Alex realized, taken aback.
"Well, I guess some people are just destined to suck." Sierra tugged at a curl absently, her eyes roving from the stage to the next contestant.
"Wow, real classy, Sierra." Melissa's sarcastic tone lacked the berating sympathy Alex halfheartedly expected.
What is with these people?
"But seriously, how'd she even get into this school?"
"I bet her family had some deep pockets."
"What do you think Alex?" Sierra glanced back his way.
He frowned. "Who cares?"
Sierra raised an eyebrow, and then smiled. "What? Afraid you're gonna end up like that? A common brick in the lower levels?"
"At least he's prepared. Level ones do get the crappiest education."
"Bad education my ass, Corpus is prestigious. That Alice girl is going to get a great job regardless, when she graduates." Sierra took a step forward, moving up the line. "I don't know why she's so upset, the attention whore."
The next student was ushered backstage by applause preceded by the Principal's heartfelt praise. Sierra stepped up next and after being scanned, walked across the stage. Mr. Goethe beamed at her.
"Why does the principal look so happy?"
"Didn't you know?" Melissa gave him a sidelong glance. "Oh...I guess you don't, huh? Sierra's a Goethe, their family owns this school."
"Why, if it isn't my favorite granddaughter?" Mr. Goethe exclaimed.
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