Chapter 35

Madara

I arrived at the battleground, Minski following close behind. “Take the upper quarter,” I ordered. I ran to the front lines and hacked my way through the ranks of enemy soldiers. I was aiming for Rafique, the general of the School’s army. He was my Instructor when I was still training.

I distractedly conjured up Immaterial Beasts. When I had them imagined down to the last detail, I applied my power. In this case, Varkins and Pfaits would be more intimidating than gummy bears. Besides, unlike the candy simulations, Immaterial Beasts have their own minds and can survive independently of my life force long enough to help us fight. When we didn’t need them anymore, they would enter a vegetative state and die couple hours later.

Abruptly, I felt the presence of hundreds of minds. The Telepathists must have already linked everyone together. This tactic was actually my idea; the Telepathists specialize in reading minds the usual way, not subconsciously interpreting Energy waves like the Energy Manipulators. That means that they can link other people that there is one mass awareness. The Energy Manipulators could do that as well, but the waves would be meaningless to everyone else.

This system helps us look out for each other and prevent casualties.

Not even one Earth second after I was linked in, I felt several minds wink out. Two were young children who went through the escape portal. Three were deaths. Two were people knocked unconscious. One was Aiyamar, and the other was Norve, another student of mine.

I hoped that they were alright; the mass awareness doesn’t provide that much information.

I side-stepped a heavy blow from my left. It would have taken my arm off. My natural battle instincts warned me of another blow from the other side. I ducked and swung for the soldier’s legs. He was too fast.

He whirled about, dodging my sword and swinging his own weapon in a graceful arc around his shoulders. I focused on his eyes, predicting his next move.

Rafique jumped to my side and cut down a soldier who was trying to kill me from behind. I could picture the disgust on the general’s face.

I fought the enemy soldier for a long time. Neither of us surpassed the other; we were too evenly matched. I knew that this man had to be a former Inborn. None except us could stand against an enchanted weapon. He managed to make a deep gash in my side, and I retaliated by lopping off his ear. Our battle continued long enough for all but a few Classmen to escape through the School portal. I felt them through what little remained of the mass awareness.

I was faltering; Rafique was too far away to help me, as were the other Inborns. My sword fell from quaking hands. I knelt, unable to keep myself upright. I looked my opponent in the eye defiantly. At least I would die with some dignity.

A blood-curdling scream came from the group of remaining Inborns, and a roaring blast of black fire tore through half of the remaining soldiers. I knew it was Rona and Red; that was one of their favorite moves. The fire was so close that it burned the leather on my gloves smooth and hard.

Rona wanted to blast the enemy swordsman to pieces, but she was too far away for accurate aim; I would be in danger.

There was no time to save me. “GO!” I ordered, knowing they wouldn’t obey.

“Yeah, right!” Corator answered. Don’t you DARE die on me or I’ll kill you myself!

Some small corner of my mind giggled at the irony in his declaration. The rest of me was battle-weary with the knowledge that I would die anyway. “GO!” I ordered weakly, holding my side. Steaming, hot blood seeped through my fingers as I tried to fight off the pain.

Suddenly, I couldn’t move. No warning, nothing. I prepared for death. Nothing I could do would save me.

Chapter 34

Hanayni

“Do you have any suspects?” A traitor! No one I knew would betray the School. At least, that’s what I’d always thought.

“There are a few. All members of my Inner Circle are suspect,” Kelsey answered. I wasn’t offended; it was the only sensible to suspect us all, since we are the only ones who know the location of the Meeting.

I trusted Kelsey. She would find out who the traitor was. I knew it wasn’t me, and I was reasonably sure it wasn’t Lorik. Even though he is an unfeeling grouch, his loyalty is unquestionable. He’d never to anything like this. Neither would Astulad, Diane Jameson, Fistac, Madara, or Rona. These people, I was completely sure of. Corator, Aoife, Istalcia, and Red, I wasn’t quite so confident in. They were newer, and I didn’t know them as well. But I’ve always downright distrusted Minali. From the beginning, she had just seemed…dark. Devious. I had never trusted her. And she definitely wasn’t the sort of person I’d trust with my life.

“Hanayni!” Kelsey said loudly.

“Yes, Your Honor?” Now that I was suspect, it would be best not to be familiar with the Head of the School.

“You were zoning out. There’s work to be done.”

I started to interrupt, but she continued. “But first I have to satisfy myself that you are not the traitor,” she said without a trace of a smile.

I knew what that meant. She would screen my mind. Reluctantly, I walked forward and allowed her to take my hands in hers. I prepared for the pain.

Getting your mind searched always hurts, since you can’t really help the searcher if that’s not your IP.

I just gritted my teeth and endured. It couldn’t have lasted more than 15 seconds, Earth time, but when she finished, I felt like I had just fought a week-long battle.

“You’re clear, Hani,” she said, using my nickname. “We need you in the sick ward.”

Chapter 33

Krystal

When I woke up, I thought I was dreaming, or still in the portal. I couldn’t see anything, but I could smell some sort of grain. Like flour or something. I realized that a flour sack covered my head. And of course my hands and feet were tied.

As far as I could tell, I was sitting still. I was on a soft surface that definitely wasn’t grass. It felt sort of like those special mattresses that mold to your body.

Inevitably, I had started to panic. I calmed myself and tried to remember what Madara had told me to do if I was ever captured. Apparently, I had been captured.

I was supposed to appear as if I was unconscious, which wasn’t very hard, seeing as I didn’t think I could move if I wanted to. My body felt so heavy, like I weighed 200 lbs instead of 103 (point 6).

There was a funny taste in my mouth. It reminded me of the smell in doctors’ offices back on Earth. I started panicking again. Oh, my gosh what happened? Where am I? Who’s here? Where’s everyone else?

That’s not exactly how I thought it. It was sort of all at the same time. I half-expected to feel Kyle’s arm around my shoulders. He was always there for me when things got heavy.

Suddenly, I rolled off of whatever I was sitting on and hit what I believed to be the ground. Hard. That’s gonna leave a mark, I commented dryly to myself.

Large hands grabbed me roughly. And I mean “large” hands. Whoever it was could cover my whole arm with his hand. I got lifted at least 10 feet in the air, my feet dangling over nowhere. I stiffened up, and practically heard Madara yelling at me.

The bag was ripped off of my head, taking chunks of my hair with it. Too bad Lorik never actually got around to teaching me that hair trick, I griped, irritated.

To my surprise, I wasn’t blinded by light. Wherever I was, the sun wasn’t very strong. Or it was evening. I was in a small-looking, dirty village populated with huge, cone-shaped huts.

Right away I saw Wynn, similarly bound, and with a sack still over his head. I reached out to his mind. For a brief second I smirked to myself. It’s prohibited to access another’s mind uninvited unless you have a constant connection with them. Oh well. Hopefully the Board would make an exception.

WYNN!

No need to shout, he responded. His “voice” was a little slurred, like he’d been on morphine for the past 24 hours.

Sorry, I said in a softer voice. Of course, I just had to think of Kelta as I said it to him. I’m not all that good at controlling thoughts that other people see while mind speaking with me.

Kelta…is she okay? Wynn asked.

Uh, sorry dude but we’re kind of…you know…in trouble.

You weren’t supposed to hear that, he retorted.

I was going to apologize again, but I was distracted by blood running into my eyes. Do you know how much that hurts? Try mixing cornstarch and water, and then add about a gallon of salt and rub it into your eyes. Make sure the mixture is steaming hot.

The giant squeezed my abdomen so hard that I couldn’t breathe. Yes, it was a giant. At first I thought it was a Cyclops because of the one large brown eye in the center of its head, but then I noticed two smaller eyes on either side of it. So, it was a Three-clops. And there was another one behind us. I could sense its brain. Barely; these creatures weren’t all that bright.

It spoke to its companion in a garbled, mangled language that I couldn’t have understood if I had wanted to.

I still couldn’t breathe. I sent a jolt of energy through the man-beast, electrocuting him. Apparently I gave him too much, because his body shook with spasms violent enough to knock down a brick wall.

As soon as he let me go, he nearly trampled me to death under his huge feet. He had also dropped Wynn from his other hand, though I couldn’t see him anywhere. Where could he possibly be? The giant almost stomped on me again. Kôrspt yalra! I swore, using a expletive I had heard Lorik use often. As far as Kyle would tell me, it meant something like “May your bowels be slowly eaten away by bugs”. Apparently it’s a huge insult in Lorik’s world.

The Three-clops didn’t like that. He shakily stood to his feet and roared, beating his chest with dirty, oversized hands.

Men.

Wynn appeared next to me, and then disappeared again. I sought him out with my mind, connected, and then exploded. NICE! REAL NICE, WYNN! JUST GO AHEAD AND LEAVE WHENEVER YOU FEEL LIKE IT!

You should talk. You nearly killed me with your little stunt back there, he answered emotionlessly as we ran back down a winding road.

I had forgotten that Wynn’s body wasn’t electricity-proof like mine. I didn’t bother apologizing; I had saved our lives, hadn’t I?

Behind us, we heard primitive grunts and roars. I chanced a look behind us; they were close. More Three-clopses had joined them, some carrying wicked-looking spiked clubs. The spikes on those things were huge.

I whipped my head back around to Wynn, but he wasn’t there. WYNN! I shouted at him, wherever he was.

I’m right here. He appeared on my other side.

Quit doing that!

Quit doing what?

I didn’t bother responding with coherent thoughts; keeping up a connection with someone who can’t read Energy output is physically exhausting.

The Three-clopses were gaining on us. We were panting hard, and my sides were starting to hurt. Through what little remained of our connection, I could feel my Teammate grabbing for my attention. I distractedly acknowledged him.

Suddenly I went cross-eyed. Wynn was sending me a mental image, but the waves were all wrong. It only took a fraction of a second for me to sort it out. There was a hill off a few dozen meters to our right. It was covered with tall plants that resembled trees, and a few large boulders. I didn’t know what the heck he wanted to do, but I did know I was supposed to follow him.

I just did it. The way we were going, we’d die anyway. What did we have to lose?

We had almost reached the hill when Wynn drew a dagger, flipped his wrist, and made a cut on his wrist. He repeated the operation on my arm before I had time to protest.

As soon as the blade touched his skin, everything around us went blurry like it had in my Earth high school when Kyle and Lorik had first brought me to the Inborn Powers Training School.

…

I must have passed out, because the next thing I remember was waking up in Wynn’s arms. Well, this is awkward, I noted, carefully concealing my thoughts about Kelta. Now didn’t seem like the time to go “Hey, do you like Kelta?”

Once he saw that I was fully awake, Wynn moved away and waited for me to get up. I sat up, swayed, and found myself kissing the ground. In an attempt to roll over, I somehow managed to get my arms and legs confused.

A little help here? I prompted the tall Shadow Classman.

You looked like you had it under control, he responded, his mind tainted with mirth. I got the feeling that he was teasing me.

I growled and collected myself without his help.

“We’ve got to go back fro the others,” I slurred aloud. It took me a minute to remember how to rearrange my mind waves like Lorik had told me.

Wynn raised an eyebrow, as if to say “Really?”

I made a “duh” face back at him, and turned to go back towards the Three-clops village, but Wynn held me back.

“I don’t think they came with us.”

Chapter 32

Kyle

We were being chased. I’ve never liked running, so I always hated when Instructors would have us do the weekly physical exams. But now, I was thanking them like they had saved my life. Of course, they probably would save my life, albeit in an indirect way. (Did I really just use “albeit” in a sentence?)

Once we started running, I felt lightheaded. It was all I could do to run and concentrate on Lorik’s report at the same time, so I put Rona in charge. I could barely see where we were going; I just followed Lorik’s surprisingly gentle nudges in the right direction.

I’d never felt like this before, and it was obviously because I was attacked. From the way that Lorik told it, a humanoid shape had appeared out of nowhere with such strength that it knocked me to the ground and completely flattened all of my ribs. Why I hadn’t died, he couldn’t explain. One minute, he said, I was lying on the ground, and the next, I was sitting a few feet from where I had been before. Near as we could figure, something had created a time-stop around Lorik, Rona, Llare, and Kelta. At any rate, I was all healed and had started to stand, but had fallen down unconscious. Probably because I went into shock.

Behind us, it looked like we were being chased by wind. Yup. Wind. Up ahead, a portal glowed with what I can only describe as “dark brilliance.”

The portals are mostly woven out of Shadow and Light, with Energy and some other Elements woven in. The Shadow is the base, but you have to have Light in order to make Shadows. So when you see the portals, they kind of look like glowing blackness. Which I know makes no sense. You kind of have to see it for yourself.

As we ran, Lorik gave us orders to align in single file. We would have to jump through the portal one after another, instead of the customary 3-second wait.

It’s best not to go through at the same time as another person, because your body…disintegrates as you go through. When you get reassembled, you might end up with bits and pieces of other people. It happens sometimes.

Thankfully, the “switches” aren’t very harmful. And any injuries that can result from it usually can be healed with a well-directed burst of Energy. Besides, if we waited, whoever was chasing us would catch us.

Llare reached the portal first and jumped in. It was about 8 feet in the air, so that was pretty cool. Well, it would have been under different circumstances.

Rona did a ninja flip, sailing through the air perfectly. Lorik motioned for me to go before him. This wasn’t a time to argue. I went through the portal, propelled by a miniature tornado, courtesy of Kelta.

…

The portal felt strange. Sort of like a malfunctioning elevator. I was kind of afraid that we wouldn’t actually go through. People have been trapped between space and time, and usually they don’t get out. We could have ended up stranded in outer space if the portal was acting wonky. Or, at the very least, that we would end up in another unknown world. Obviously something was up with the portals, because we definitely hadn’t ended up at the Meeting.

When you go through a portal, you kind of just tell it where you want it to go. If you’re not consciously thinking about that, then it won’t take you anywhere. Otherwise regulars would be popping up in all the worlds. There are portals in the School that are specially woven to only go to certain places, but the ones you find “out on the street” aren’t like that.

This one should have taken us to the School.

Hopefully the others made it, because I didn’t.

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Hanayni

I was in the middle of a class when I saw Fistac running towards me. I stopped him with a look; he wasn’t too different from Eyrad, his student.

I made him wait while I finished showing Team 091 how to work an AK47. Unfortunately, most of this Team was from primitive planets and had deep-seated superstitions. I couldn’t get them to touch the things, because apparently they’re “dark-sided”.

I hopelessly tried to explain that the guns were not, in fact, black magic, but only technology. Alas, my efforts were not rewarded.

Fistac, meanwhile, had been hopping from foot to foot and floating. Although he in many ways was like Eyrad, he had long ago mastered proper control of his Power. Otherwise he wouldn’t be an Instructor, now would he? Aware of this fact, I turned to him irritably.

“What?” I demanded. “This better be important,” I warned menacingly. I hate having my classes disturbed.

“Kelsey w-w-wants you in the Office b-b-because th-the T-t-team is, is, they didn’t get to the m-m-Meeting a-and--” he gushed without taking a breath. I decided to cut him off. “Fine, I’ll be there.”

The Team hadn’t gotten to the Meeting? Big deal. They’d only been gone for 3 days Earth time. Many times, Teams didn’t reach the fortnight-long Meeting for 5 or 6 days. So why was Fistac all freaked out?

Walking into the Office that day, I knew something heavy had come down.

For one thing, Kelsey glared at me like I was the most irritating person ever. Thank heaven I’ve been working on a hard, unreadable expression lately.

I walked to the center of the room, as was customary, and stood at attention. Presently the Head addressed me. “We’ve been attacked,” she said in a cold voice. I forgot all about what Fistac had said about Team 009.

Again, thank heaven I’ve got that unreadable expression down. On the outside, my expression didn’t change. Inside was more chaotic. I’d rather not write it down, as my mental breakdown was rather embarrassing.

At any rate, I could see that she wasn’t going to say anything else. At least for the next 3 seconds. I can see all possible futures for the next 3 seconds, and I can see the past for 1 hour. That’s why I’m one of the best warriors the School has, if I do say so myself.
“Who would attack us?” I asked in an even voice, betraying no emotion whatsoever.

Kelsey was silent. I racked my brains, thinking of all the enemies of the School. There were a few, but the only ones who were formidable enemies (and who were idiotic enough to attack us) were Xtam and Garthor. But Garthor couldn’t attack, since he had no army.

I decided that it would be best to let Kelsey answer instead of jumping to conclusions. “When? And how many casualties?” I asked, hoping that Kelsey would answer. Using my Power, I could only see her being silent. But that could just mean that she was going to be quiet for three seconds.

Finally, after about 10 seconds (way out of my field of vision), she spoke. Her voice was unusually timid, scared even. This was not the Leader I was used to.

“We don’t know.”

I gave her a peeved look. She wasn’t telling something, and she actually thought she could hide it from me. As if. Reluctantly, she sighed. “Probably Garthor,” she admitted.

The temperature in the room dropped by several degrees. Literally and figuratively. Kelsey possesses all the Powers.

“Garthor?” I asked, just for clarification. “He attacked us? Where would he get an army?”

Kelsey heaved a sigh and sat down. “I don’t know. We were attacked at the Meeting, and we suffered over 3,000 casualties and 400 deaths.”

My throat went dry. “400?” My voice cracked.

“400. Mostly world-schoolers. I’m relocating all world-schoolers above 12 years of age here. We need to be able to fight.”

“How are you going to explain the disappearance of over 5,000 teenagers and adults from the worlds?”

“Hanayni, you’re forgetting how many worlds there are.”

True, there were at least 498 known worlds. Taking roughly 10 people from each world wouldn’t be a big deal. The thing was, if Garthor had actually managed to get a force large enough to successfully attack a Meeting, there were bound to be a lot of Manipulators with him. There had to have been, in order for him to find the Meeting place. No one except for Kelsey and a few of her trusted advisors (like me) know where it is. Even the people at the Meeting have no idea what world they are in.

I said as much to Kelsey, and concluded with “There is a spy in our ranks.”

“I know.”

Chapter 30

Aiyamar

The enemy had totally surrounded us by the time the Shield had completely disintegrated. Thankfully, the Shield dissolved into energy that flowed evenly into everyone under it.

Who could this possibly be? I wondered. Garthor, I answered myself. The only one who would attack the School at a Meeting was Garthor. He was a student that was banished from the School ages ago for disobeying our most important rule: Don’t tell the regulars about your IP. He told his father, who was a government official in Incard. It took 3 Earth years for the Energy Classmen and Instructors to erase the memories from everyone’s minds. We can’t have knowledge of us out there; all the governments on all the worlds would be after us.

Garthor had refused to aid in the clean up that resulted from his actions, and he wasn’t sorry at all. In fact, he totally disrespected the leader at the time, Kelsey’s dad. Then he killed him. That’s why he is our bitter enemy.

And now, he was directly assaulting the School. How could he? There were toddlers here! They had long since been teleported back to the School, along with pregnant mothers and elderly Instructors. The Meeting is for anyone affiliated with Powers and the School, so there were all kinds of people here. I just hoped that the portal had taken the weak back to the School without any detours. As for me and my Teammates, we stayed.

Ya’asa and Eyrad appeared next to me, armed and ready to fight. We would hold off the advancing army for as long as we could, while everyone evacuated. The Teleportation Classmen would monitor the portal while the rest of us fought. Then, one of them would stay behind to close the portal. That person would die for all the others.

Eyrad had his blowgun loaded and at his side, while Ya’asa drew her bow. I wished that the rest of our Team was here. Not that I didn’t feel confident in everyone else there, but I just missed them. It’s so weird how you think about stuff like that at times like those. At times when you might die.

I’ll admit it; I kind of started to panic. I didn’t want to die. Not without saying goodbye to everyone I knew. Especially Astulad.

An arrow flying by my ear interrupted my reverie. Without thinking, I sent a shaft of white-hot light in the general direction of the army. Where the heck did Garthor get an army, anyway? The light wouldn’t do much more than cause some bad burns from this distance, but burns on their side would help our side.

I saw several men fall and scream, clawing at their faces and arms. Some of the super-heated light heated their shields so much that they burned other people. I smiled with satisfaction. Finally those lessons with Astulad would pay off.

Next to me, Ya’asa was rapidly firing arrows in arcs over the enemy. Red was supplying her with flaming arrows. Many of the soldiers were too slow to raise their shields. The effect of the fire against the metallic trees was captivating, but I had to ignore it.

Off a few feet in front of me, Istalcia was firing small amounts of water at amazingly high speeds. That gives a new meaning to “water gun”, I thought in the heat of the moment.

In spite of everyone’s efforts, the enemy soldiers broke through our ranks. They were less than 3 meters away. I sent pulses of light through my twin spears, heating them more than 1,000 degrees. I threw them both at the advancing soldiers, and held my hand out. They returned to me, the blood burned away so that they were all clean and shiny again.

The whole clearing was ablaze with light, heat, snow, weather storms, and inexplicably black areas. It was so hard to concentrate on anything, so hard to see.

What I did see will stay with me for the rest of my life. I saw a young girl on our side skewered by the broadsword of an enemy soldier. I screamed with rage, pouring all of my emotion into a stream of light aimed at him. It dispersed all over his body, creating small areas of intense pain. They wouldn’t wear off for days if he survived the battle, nor would they kill him. I wanted him to suffer for what he had done to the defenseless child, instead of being allowed the mercy of a quick death.

Behind me, Eyrad yelled, “Watch your back!” I whirled around, just in time to block a javelin thrust from an opponent. Before my eyes, the soldier flattened into a bloody mess. Eyrad stood behind him, looking rather pleased with himself.

Suddenly, my head flew forward and I heard a resounding CRACK! I knew nothing more.

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Aiyamar

A horn-like sound blasted through the Meeting place. Everyone looked up. I don’t really know why we did, since nothing was there. I didn’t know what was going on, so I just looked around frantically. I do that a lot. I mean, you’d think that after three years at the School, I’d have that whole “panic-control” thing down. Don’t let the movies fool you. It doesn’t work that way (unless you’re a Shadow-Manipulator or something).

Everyone started moving around, heading for the northeast edge of the enclosed Meeting place. I was irritated. I wished, probably for the millionth time, that I could read minds and find my Team members. Why didn’t Kyle let Lorik or Krystal come with our group? Well, I guess he didn’t expect to take so long in coming. Where were they, anyway?

Tzara followed the crowd, and since I couldn’t find anyone I actually knew, I followed her. We had almost caught up when the barrier shattered. Yes. The Barrier, the gate around the Meeting place shattered.

Since it was made with all of the Powers, it was fed with the presence of people of all Powers. For it to shatter meant that something stronger that 30,000 Manipulators was outside.

The last time this had happened was many, many millennia ago and was the result of a band of rebellious Manipulators playing a prank. They, with the help of a few Energy Manipulators, scrambled their Energy output so that it seemed like they weren’t there. They were severely punished (the punishment lasted for three decades).

This time though, I could see the approaching army through the fallen barrier. I digested this turn of events quickly (three years of training does do that to you), and had my weapon in my hand before I even thought about it.

This was war.

Chapter 28 (redone)

Chapter 28

Hanayni

This morning at breakfast, my usual table is a lot emptier than normal. Really, it’s almost like the whole room is quieter than normal without the raucous laughter of Team 009. They’ve always provided a bit of variety in the mess hall, what with Kyle’s constant assortment of harmless pranks.

Once I have filled my tray with the usual assortment of otherworldly delicacies, I head for my normal table. But I change my mind. (In case you’re wondering, that’s very typical of me). I’m going to go to another table. Most of my close friends are at the Assembly anyway. It is an extremely difficult and highly organized project to get all of the Teams and Instructors to the Assembly.

Picking a table at random, I stride over to Team 018’s table. Teams don’t have “official” tables or anything, but the students form cliques, usually with their own Teams.

Janaya sees me before the others do and waves me over. Janaya is one of the few students that I have to teach privately. She has exceptional skills with nunchucks, but no one else has even the most remote interest in them. So, she gets private classes in addition to classes with her Team.

I sit down at the end of the table, in the only available seat next to Janaya. I find myself surprised and irritated when I notice Corator flirting with her. Everyone knows that he is…coarse. He says some of the most inappropriate things. I don’t like him all that much as far as being friends go, but he’s a good fighter, and loyal to the School as far as I can tell.

“So, Janaya, how are you doing?” I ask in a pointed effort to draw her attention away from Corator.

She turns to me, a thankful smile on her face. “It’s pretty good, you know? I want to go…” she pauses, and gestures with her hands. She is currently in her first year, so she is still learning English. She has a heavy Tortish accent. It reminds me of the Earth French accent.

“You want heavier training?” I suggest. She nods empathetically. “Yes, yes that is what I am saying,” she says. I deliberately delay in answering her. Part of being a good warrior is patience, and Janaya has a quite a problem with that. I can already see her start to fidget as I keep her waiting.

I finish my plate slowly, keeping a wary eye on Corator. Finally, I turn to Janaya. “Perhaps you can train more. Learn something at the Assembly. I will think about it.”

The thing about this is that Janaya is of the Tortish clan. They are known as extremely violent and not loyal in the least. Sort of like intergalactic Berserkers. It is not necessarily that I judge Janaya because of her people, but only that I am taking precautions. Too much training in the ways of war without enough moral institution could be very bad; both for the School and for Janaya herself. It is at times like these that I wish my gift were Farsight, rather than Nearsight. Being able to see three seconds into the future is great during a battle, but it is not half as helpful in everyday life.

Maybe she will break the stereotypes. Perhaps not. What truly worries me is the rumors about Tortaki.
People say that the Tortish are able to adopt other forms for a time. The forms, usually animal, indicate a person’s true personality. It is mostly thought to be a sort of folk legend, but the Board of the School has found substantial proof that it may be a lot more than a legend. The part that I find disconcerting is Janaya’s orange brush tail. It seems we may have a fox in our midst.

Chapter 27 (redone)

Aiyamar

The portal dumps us about 10 feet away from the Shield. The shield is a barrier made of all the Powers combined, and it doesn’t allow anyone who isn’t and IP holder to get through. It’s so cool!

Sadly, Redoran wants us to wait for like, an hour before she lets us go in. The rest of our Team hasn’t come yet. It’s no big deal. Portals have a lot of different exit points as the time changes, since they’re connected to space and time. Our Teammates probably ended up five Earth kilometers away from the Assembly place or something.

When we get to go in (finally!), I totally lose myself and start glowing. I’m sure I look like such a newbie, but it’s SO FREAKING AWESOME! There are so many people there. Knowing that they are all from different worlds and of all different Powers make it that much more ridiculously awesome.

The Assembly Place is a humongous clearing in the middle of forest. But this is no normal forest; the trees are multicolored. Mostly metallic blues, pinks, and greens. And the sky is a velvety-looking purple, with stars the size of coconuts. Very breathtaking, but also kind of strange. Trees don’t sparkle on Earth.

While I’m standing around gawking at the landscape, Eyrad has already found a group of Gravity Manipulators and is standing around talking to them. I try to find more Light Manipulators, but it’s really hard to find them in such a well-lit area. Astulad wouldn’t have had this problem, but he’s not here, now is he? No, he is probably 10 miles away from here. That probably wouldn’t be a problem if we were Energy Manipulators. Well, we sort of are, right? I mean, Light is technically Energy. But it’s a different kind, I guess.

I wander around aimlessly for about fifteen minutes, meeting various representatives and students, and World-schooled students. World-schooled students are like the homeschooled version of Training School students. For some reason or other, they can’t join classes at the School (usually because suddenly disappearing raises eyebrows in most worlds, and the Board prefers not to fake deaths all the time), so Instructors teach them on their home worlds. I would have been World-schooled, like most students from Earth, but people had already kind of noticed that I was different. I glow when I’m happy, and I didn’t know how to control it. The Shadow Manipulators have it easy; they just kind of disappear if they get over-emotional. I’ve always felt really bad for the Water Classmen. They drip, or create miniature waterfalls if they can’t control themselves.

The Energy classmen usually get off the luckiest. Just some static, or overheating. Apparently Krystal has it worse than normal. She almost set the freaking room on fire! I still laugh when I remember that incident. Krystal kind of…made her mark that morning.

It’s so funny to see the different “malfunctions” of all the Powers. People at the Assembly are really excited to be there, so there are a bunch of little “accidents”. Eventually, everyone kind of pairs up with someone of their opposite Power. Like, Redoran and Istalcia pair up, because they’re Fire and Water. And I pair up with a Shadow Manipulator named Tzara. We meet by accident, when I trip over her. She was blended against the background and didn’t notice me walking right into her. Once I knocked her over, she came into view.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” I scream, helping her up. She jumps up easily enough without my help. She smiles at me and laughs sarcastically. “Nice to meet you. Apparently fate decided we had to meet and we’re not going to get out of it,” she says as she flips her short brown hair and offers her hand.

I giggle nervously, unsure of whether she is insulting me or not, and shake her hand. She has a really firm grip for a girl, and she looks pretty badarse. Her muscles are well-defined, but not bulky. Definitely someone to watch in a fight. Well, Shadow Manipulators are people to watch in fights regardless.

She continues as I size her up. “I’m Tzara. You?” she speaks with the slightest hint of a central Chastan accent. She has obviously learned English at the School, where we are taught English with an American accent. I remember being frustrated at learning that I wouldn’t get the much-coveted British accent.

“Aiyamar,” I oblige simply. She nods slowly, as if trying to remember something. She doesn’t get a chance to finish remembering, because something interrupts her. Something that hasn’t happened in centuries, millennia, even. And it isn’t awesome.

Chapter 26 (redone)

Kyle

I don’t know what happened with the portal. I felt nothing. All I remember is going through the Assembly door, and waking up tied to a chair.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realize that I was tied up. I tried to stand, but only succeeded in nearly tipping said chair over.

When I finally do realize the situation, I fight off a panic attack, and then start checking in on my Team members. I find Llare, Kelta, Lorik, and Rona quickly, but there is absolutely no trace of anyone else.

We are all tied to pretty standard wooden chairs, arranged in a circle. Obviously our captors don’t know that we were Inborns. Good for us. Escape should be pretty easy.

Of course Lorik has to butt in. Don’t draw—I finish the rest for him. Don’t draw conclusions until I’m totally sure of the situation. How could I possibly forget? He’s been drilling that into my head ever since I started my Training five years ago, and even more since I came to the School. I don’t hear him mercilessly burning principles into Krystal’s brain constantly.

My walk down memory lane is interrupted by a door behind me opening. I can’t see them, but I hear men walk in. They are wearing heavy boots, probably military issue. From the footsteps, I guess that there are about five of them. Five to five. Our chances are pretty good, even if Lorik and I are the only ones conscious.

A small rustle catches my attention. Rona is tied up behind me. She, along with Llare and Kelta, are just beginning to regain consciousness. I see now that we were drugged. How rude. Immediately I run a check on everyone, even though Lorik probably has already. Lorik himself has a bad cut on his arm, and Kelta has a possible concussion. Other than that, there are just a few assorted bruises and scratches.

I take all of this in within a single second. If needed, we can fight. That’s always good.

After the door slams and the boots stop making so much noise, the ringleader come to the back of the room where I am. Then he just stands there looking at me for an uncomfortably long time

“My, don’t I feel special. Nobody’s ever been so awed by my presence before,” I mutter. I hope that he isn’t the sort of baddie to try and be all scary by not talking. That’s very irritating. And yes, I would know.

“I will not sit here and play games with you, Kyle William Jameson,” he finally says.

Right away I know two things. One, he is a native of Yarco if I’m any judge of accents. Two, he got my name from a written document, likely stolen by a spy in the School. After all, no one says my name as “KEE-lee”.

“Uh, mister, for one thing, you’re not sitting. You’re standing,” I say with one of my amazing smiles.

He sets his mouth in a straight line. I’ve been around Lorik enough to know that this is a telltale sign of frustration.

“We can do this the hard way or the easy way, Jameson,” he said. His voice is like concrete; cold, hard, flat, and grey.

“Dude, you’ve been watching too many movies,” I reply. “Everybody knows that it’s cliché to use the “hard way/easy way” line. It was in last month’s issue of “Second-Rate Baddies Today,” I babble on. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t really understand anything I’m saying. Theoretically, this should cause this guy to get mad at me for being disrespectful. I happen to be very good at triggering that particular emotion, so it works. The moment he steps towards me, I give the fight signal to the Team.

It’s a madhouse in this place. For like, five seconds. Rona had already escaped her bonds and loosened mine. I have no idea how she did it; Shadow Manipulators have always been kind of mysterious like that. I spring up and pat my calve automatically for the dagger that should have been there. Of course, whoever had so rudely captured and drugged us had enough sense to take our weapons. No big deal. I plant a solid roundhouse kick in the jaw of the leader, and follow it swiftly with an uppercut to the chin.

My Team has already taken care of the four arms men. Two are dead, one is unconscious, and the other is whimpering at Lorik’s feet begging for his life. Lorik throws a questioning look at Llare. I’m a little shocked at the respect my Instructor shows to Llare, since Lorik is about a hundred levels higher than him. Llare nods his head, and Lorik brings his elbow down on the man’s temple. He’s unconscious before he knows what happened.

The ringleader is still mostly knocked out, but he’s coming around. Wow, that was fast.

Before he can start to rise, I plant my foot firmly in his throat. “Tell me what your name is, who you work for, and where we are,” I order. Normally, this is the Leader’s job, but Wynn obviously isn’t around. And the Second, Llare, can’t read minds. Actually, we don’t know if Wynn can either. He manages, though, whatever he does. Told you, Shadow Manipulators are a trip.

The man attempts to shake his head, but that’s kind of hard to do with someone’s foot on your throat. Instead he remains silent. I press harder. “Answer me NOW!” The man still won’t answer me, and I don’t have time to wait around until he changes his mind. So I take the answers by force. It’s my only choice.

Chapter 25 (redone)

As soon as I step into the door-portal, an indescribable pain rips through my entire body. There is nothing but pain. My brain stops functioning, my being spasms. I’ve never been ripped apart limb by limb, but I’m sure this is what it would feel like.

I feel like screaming, only I can‘t. You see, the thing about portals is that you kind of…disintegrate while going through them. It’s like your body isn’t there, but it is. You can’t move your body, but you can feel things happening to it. I don’t know what in tarnation is happening to me, but it’s wrong.

The agony is so intense, it feels like I’ve been in the portal for at least half an hour, Earth time. But my rational side (which is somehow subconsciously working) knows that it hasn‘t even been three Earth seconds. This is confirmed when the portal spits me out, nearly on top of Aoife, who was just getting up. Wynn follows me after about five seconds, and Astulad five seconds later.

I lay on the hard, hot earth, waiting until my lungs remember how to breathe. My mind automatically disconnected from everyone, leaving me alone in the darkness of my own head. The Energy waves from everyone are distorted, and they’re distracting me from the healing ritual Lorik taught me. I know that my waves must be all kinds of messed up, so I slowly calm myself until they “reset”.

I sit up, ignoring the leadenness in my muscles. Everyone else is lying face down, twitching slightly. Strangely, I don’t see Group One anywhere. I kneel next to Wynn and quietly enter his mind, fixing his Energy output so that he recovers. “Thank you,” he says hoarsely. I move on to Aoife, then Astulad, and finally Ikah. Once they’re all oriented, we go to Wynn and wait for his orders. Astulad and Aoife share a concerned look; they are obviously as surprised by the pain in the portals as I am.

“Krystal,” Wynn calls me. “Can you locate anyone from Team 009 or the accompanying Instructors?”

I close my eyes for a minute to concentrate better. I’ve heard that it’s normal for the portals to move around a little, so the other groups easily could have been dropped off five Earth miles from where we are. I search for Lorik, since he is stronger than Kyle and will be easier to find.

I can‘t find him; it‘s like he doesn’t exist. Neither does anyone else from Team 009; just my group. “Wynn, I can’t find anyone. I’m sorry, its just like they’re not here.”

“Interesting,” he mutters, apparently not too surprised that two thirds of his Team are nowhere to be found.

Ikah sways around, and she looks little green in the face, so, acting on friendly instinct, I step over and steady her. She doesn’t reject my assistance. Lovely. I’m helping Ikah, and she’s okay with it. Now I know we’re in trouble.
For a few seconds, no one says anything. Then Astulad breaks the silence. “Well, looks like we’re on our own.”

“Wait, waddaya mean ‘on our own’? What happened?” I demand.

Astulad takes a deep breath. “The portals are obviously malfunctioning.”

Wynn speaks gravely. “Garthor?”

Astulad exchanges glances with Aoife. “Probably,” he says, not too hopefully.

I only have a vague idea of who Garthor is. Madara mentioned him in Battle Practice a few times..

Thankfully, Aoife picks up on my confusion. She answers my unspoken question in her soft, almost breathy voice. “Garthor is the enemy of all things good. He destroys for the pleasure of it. He finds joy in the death of innocents.”

I sink to the ground. “This cannot be happening,” I mutter. I’m not ready to fight some serial killer! I can’t even drive yet!

“Calm yourself, Krystal,” Astulad commands sharply. “This is no time to let your emotions run rampant.”

I smother my thoughts immediately and put my panic attack on hold. Astulad is right; there’s no time for this. Instead I finally think to evaluate my surroundings. We are in a wide-open area, sparsely covered with a strange plant that reminds me of crab grass. As far as I can see, there are no trees or cover to hide from any enemies.

Ikah speaks up quietly, having gotten over her nausea. “I don’t see the Assembly,” she says. She is right. There is absolutely nothing here. Not a single person in sight, much less an Assembly of multiple thousands.

“Well, it seems that the portal took a wrong turn,” Astulad says. “And now--”

“Wrong turn? So we’re lost?!” So much for reining in my emotions.

Astulad looks away and answered quietly. “I’m afraid so.”

I panic. Yeah, that whole “calm” thing I had going on kind of falls apart. Ikah starts hyperventilating a little, and Aoife pales. Well, she’s pretty darn pale already, but she looksickly pale instead of delicate pale. Understandably, too, considering the implications of Astulad’s statement.

We are lost somewhere in space and time.

Chapter 24 (redone)

Immediately after lunch, Kelsey assembles the members of Team 009. She leads us to what I can only describe as a space/time-crossing airport. Its this HUGE hallway full of doors, all marked with different names. Since they’ve obviously been written by people who have never heard of English, I can’t read them to save my life.

Kelsey shows us down to the exact middle of the hallway, and stops in front of an ornately decorated door. Here, Astulad, who will be accompanying us in place of Sana, meets us.

Unlike the others, the door that we stand in front of is labeled in English. I think it’s written in olde script or something, because I’m having a little trouble reading it properly. The words keep shimmering and moving around, and I know it’s not just my dyslexia. It says “To the Assembly”, Kyle intones. Well, that’s pretty straightforward, I observe.

Kelsey gestures for us all to pay close attention. “Now, for some of you students, this will be your first time at a Assembly. So that’s why you’re taking so many Instructors along. It’s just to make absolutely sure that nothing goes wrong, alright?” she explains. “It’s not to baby sit you guys,” she adds. “All of you have shown considerable improvement, and you’ve shown that you know how to adapt quickly,” she says gesturing towards me. I’m sure that if my skin were lighter I’d blush. As it is, I know Kyle and Lorik noticed my embarrassment.

The Principal continues. “The others will be arriving later, on scheduled times. Due to the difference in Time thickness, you should all arrive about 5 minutes apart. This portal should drop you off right outside the protective barriers that surround the Assembly place.” She turns to Wynn and Llare. “You know what to do at that point.”

Wynn dips his head slightly. “Yes ma’am,” Llare says, imitating her Texas accent seriously.

She shoots him a playfully irritated glance and continues talking. “I think it’ll be best if ya’ll go through in three separate groups. Wynn, you’re officially in charge now. Good luck,” she finishes. Turning on her heel and making her long blonde hair swish in her wake, she exits the portal-airport through a nearby door.

I sense a little bit of confusion coming from all of my Teammates. None comes from the Instructors though.

Coming to the center of our circle, Wynn flips the hood of his cloak off. He looks completely different without the shadow of the cowl over his face.“Alright then. Due to some…complications, Kelsey is unable to attend this Assembly,” he says in an even voice, pausing to gauge our reactions. When nothing too dramatic happens, he continues. “So we’ll go over in three groups of five. Group one will be myself, Krystal, Ikah, Aoife, and Astulad. Group two will be Ya’asa, Eyrad, Aiyamar, Redoran, and Istalcia. The last group will be Kelta, Llare, Lorik, Rona, and Kyle.” Wynn briefly glances over at Rona, seemingly for approval. She nods almost imperceptibly.

I for one am not surprised at the amount of thought that Wynn put into choosing the groups. He’s just like that. For one thing, I notice that each group has two Instructors, so I feel a little more comfortable about jumping around in outer space. Also, there aren’t two people of different Powers in any of the groups except for Kyle and Lorik in Group 3. So, if anything goes wrong, it’ll be easier to find each other. But for the love of all things good, I don’t see why he would put me and Ikah in the same group. At least it’s just to cross over.

After sorting ourselves out into our assigned groups, we head through, one group at a time.

Kyle? I reach out tentatively, like a frightened child.

Yeah? You alright? Your waves are all wobbly.

I’m fine.

For real?

Yeah.

Are you sure?

Yeah.

Are you lying to me?

Yeah.

It’ll be fine. I’ve done this hundreds of times. You want me to ask an Instructor if you can go with my group instead?

Nah, I’m alright.

Uh…huh.

Really.

Kyle rolls his eyes, knowing that I’m really scared to death. It’s my turn to go. I look back at my best friend and see his encouraging wink, and I know that everything’s going to be fine.

It’s just my luck that it goes horribly wrong.