Chapter 1
It was a calm, peaceful night in the suburbs of Paris, France. The wind whistled softly, the night sky was clear with a full moon, and it seemed like there was nobody out on the streets. However, there was one person out in the night, silently slipping through the streets like he was on the run.
This person, however, hadn't committed any crimes, not unless you count sneaking out near midnight a crime. The person was a kid, in the 9th grade, and about 14 years of age. He was somewhat small, and he had long dark brown hair, grey eyes, and a fair complexion. He wore a light blue bandanna around his forehead, a dark purple t-shirt underneath a grey sweatshirt, blue jeans, and black and white running sneakers. Not exactly the sneakiest clothing to be wearing while out, but it worked for him.
After wandering the crooked streets, the kid came to a bridge, which he crossed. The bridge led to a broken down, abandoned factory which had been closed off to the public. Only the brave few ventured into the factory, either out of fear of being caught by the police, or by some otherworld entity that was hiding itself in there.
After getting passed the yellow and black warning tape which littered the area, the kid climbed down a long rope from the floor he was on, down to the second floor and into the factory. Once he reached the floor, he then walked to an elevator and went in. He pressed the down button on the controls, and waited as the door closed. With gears winding and scratching, the elevator made its descent downward. A minute later, it stopped, and the doors opened to large room with a strange looking generator in it. The generator was large, colored black and yellow, and it had a large switch that was turned off, just waiting to be flipped.
The kid, who's name is Justin Lawrence, moved forward and placed his hands on the switch. But before he was about to pull it, he thought about how he found out about this whole thing and wondered if he was going to regret flipping the switch.
Justin was a student at a boarding school called Kadic Academy, which was about a mile away from the factory. On Saturdays and Sundays, the students were allowed to leave the school grounds and do what they want. Justin, who had a never-ending curiosity for exploring places, decided to investigate the strange factory and see what was inside. When he found the generator inside the factory, and the computer it belonged to, he was amazed. For a while, he didn't want to turn it on, but his curiosity had picked away at him for a long time.
Now here he was, at the moment of truth, with his hands on the switch and deciding what he should do next. After a few seconds of deciding what to do, he made his choice.
"Well, here goes nothing…" Justin said to himself. He then flipped the switch down, and the generator came to life. It hummed for a few seconds, and then a bright life flashed from it, sending Justin back a few feet in fright. He was a little bit freaked out by what happened, but he was also excited; If it turned on like that, then who knows it powerful it was?
He then went back into the elevator, pressed down again, and went down to another floor. This time, when the doors opened, he was in a room with a computer hooked up to the ceiling, and a large, comfy chair that was near it. He walked forward, sat in the chair, and the chair turned around to face the computer.
"Alright, here I am." He said to himself again. "Let's find out what secrets this thing holds."
He pressed the 'ENTER' key on the computer, and the screen came up. A loading bar appeared, and after it was loading, several small screens came up, each with interesting information on it. But the most interesting were the side screens on the computer: the left had several graphs and charts on it, and the right had a map of some kind of world.
"Wow…" Justin breathed. "What have I gotten myself into?"
He typed on the computer keys, navigating through what the computer had to offer. Justin wasn't exactly a computer whiz to begin with, but he could still handle himself with this kind of technology. He then came to a thing called "VIRTUALIZATION" and he hit the 'ENTER' key on it.
When the screen loaded, it showed three-cylinder shapes, and a light was flashing on one of them. Justin pressed an arrow key, and the light moved to another cylinder. He then pressed enter on it, and a loud clank and hiss caused him to jump.
"What was that?" he asked quietly.
Justin looked and saw a light coming from another room below, one which could be accessed by a ladder. Justin then got up from the chair, slowly crept towards the ladder, and climbed down. He then found himself in a room, with three-cylinder chambers in it, along with a porthole in the middle of the room. One of the chambers was open, which Justin must have figured was caused by him pressing 'ENTER' on the computer.
He poked his head into the chamber, and then took a step into it. He put his hands on the smooth, circular walls, feeling them go around. He also looked down, and saw he was standing on some kind of light source.
"Cozy…" he said to himself. "Almost feels like I'm in a coffin."
He was about to step out, when suddenly, the doors closed with a loud CLANK! He was now trapped inside one of the chambers!
"Hey!" he yelled, banging on the door of the chamber, hoping the door would open again. "Hey! Let me out of here! Let me out! I don't want to die in here! Help!"
Suddenly, the floor started to glow brighter and brighter. Then, Justin felt like his whole body was being pulled from existence, and when he looked down, he saw that his legs were fading away like white, glowing, pixelated dust! Justin then looked up and let out a loud scream as the process completed and his face disappeared into pixelated dust!
And when the doors to the chamber opened, they were empty. Needless to say, Justin was probably now regretting flipping the switch…
…
Kadic Academy was brimming with life as the students filed into their classes the next day. Most students went into their classes very slowly, as they had done already. It was nothing new to them; same old stuff they were learning every day.
A 9th grade class was going into their literature class, and they were beginning to settle down. Some talked with each other, others read over their books, and most kept to themselves as the teacher prepared the lesson.
One of which who was keeping to himself was a boy, about 14 years of age. He had short blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair complexion. His clothing consisted of a black t-shirt, black fingerless gloves, dark blue jeans, and heavy, black boots. He sat in his seat reading his book, letting all distractions dissolved away as he focused on what the book was saying.
"Perdoneme, are you Evan Mitchell?" a voice asked. The boy, Evan, looked up from his book to look at the owner of the voice.
The owner was a boy like him, about the same age. The kid was of Spanish descent, and he had curly black hair, tanned skin, and green eyes. His clothing consisted of a yellow dress shirt with short sleeves, dark green slacks, and dark blue running sneakers. In his left arm, he carried his school books.
"Yes…" Evan said warily, as he gave the kid the once over. "Who are you?"
"Yo soy Alexander Cortez, I'm gonna be your new Companera de cuarto." replied the kid, sitting down next to him.
"What?" Evan asked, not understanding.
Alexander chuckled and then said, "Sorry about that; I have a habit of speaking both Spanish and English at the same time. I was trying to say that I'm gonna be your new roommate."
"Why?"
"Well, Principal Delmas wanted me to room with somebody who knows their way around the Academy, like you, for Ejemplo."
"If we're going to get along at all, you really need to stop confusing me by speaking Spanish and English at the same time." Evan said with annoyed tone. "Also, I like a little personal space, so try to annoy me too much, okay?"
"Bueno." replied Alexander. When he saw the scowl on Evan's face, he then said, "I meant 'Okay'. Okay, as in I get the idea to not annoy you."
"Well, well, well… Adding more freaks to your group of friends, Mitchell?" a harsh voice spoke up.
Evan and Alexander then looked and saw the owner of the voice, standing in front of them. The owner was a muscular looking boy, who was very tall for his age. The boy had a crew cut haircut, harsh brown eyes, and a pale complexion. He wore a blue and white soccer jersey with the number '1' and his last name on the back, black cargo pants, and a pair of white sneakers with white laces. He wore a teasing look on his face, like he was trying to annoy the two kids in front of him.
"Yeah, and I want you to join, Gregor." Evan replied, a snarky grin on his face.
"Very funny…" Gregor replied, scowling. "But comments like that will get you killed, Mitchell; You better watch your back, or you're gonna get my shoe in it!"
Gregor then left, leaving Evan and Alex alone with each other.
"Okay, who's the Imbecil, or 'Jerk' in English?" asked Alex.
"That's Gregor Rickman, the school's soccer star." Evan replied, his voice filled with disdain. "He thinks of himself higher than others, just because he was the team captain of the soccer team. Not only that, but he's got a kick that would make a donkey jealous, of which I have been receiving end before."
"I guess he doesn't like you."
"Yeah, he's had it out for me ever since I joked that the reason he got kicked out of the league was cause of his poor hygiene. In reality, he was kicked out because he kept tripping and kicking his opponents. It really gave the Academy a bad name."
"Maravilloso…" Alexander said sarcastically. When Evan gave him a scowl, he then said, "That means 'wonderful' in the English language."
"Alright class…" said the teacher of their literature class. He was an older man in his late 40s, with a balding head, pale skin, a moustache, and glasses. He wore a white dress shirt, a dark green sweater vest, brown slacks, and brown dress shoes. In his hands, he held a clipboard containing the various names of his students. "As usual, I'm going to take roll call of all who are here."
The teacher then began listing down the names, till he got to one who was not in the classroom.
"Justin Lawrence?" he asked, looking around the room. There was no reply. "Mr. Justin Lawrence?" He asked a second time; No reply. "Justin… Lawrence?" He asked clearly this time.
The teacher then sighed, pulled out a pen, and wrote on the clipboard. "Tardy…" the teacher muttered. He then continued going down the names.
Evan looked at Alexander, who looked back at him. "Tardy?" he asked in confusion. "Justin's not one for tardiness, I know that. I wonder where he is?"
…