AN: This is a Warehouse 13 AU of Ender's game, so I hope you like it. I also hope the spelling and grammar is passable because I am dyslexic and I am editing on my own, which is stupid, but hey...
Chapter 1
50 years ago we were invaded by aliens, aliens known as Formics. We were close to losing the war, fifty of million's have died, we nearly lost hope, but that was before him. Only one has been successful at killing them, and that was our greatest commander Adwin Kosan. He brought Earth's wrath upon these creatures and had them pull back. It was through his sacrifice that we avoided a total annihilation.
Since then, we have been preparing for them. The older generation had made a school and re-engineered the younger generations minds so that they could be smarter, quicker, and far better to destroy the threat to our planet.
I am one of these younger generations.
A girl with black hair and a pale complexion who was extraordinarily beautiful, was sitting at a lab table with a bunch of other kids on the other side. She and one of the kids, a boy, had tablets in there hands and were playing a game. The boy that was playing the game had his friends looking over his shoulder watching the outcome of the game that was being played. Both the girl and the boy were playing a spaceship game where you battle each other with your ships in space in an asteroid field.
The girl was calculating all of the boys moves. He seemed to be very cocky and would come at her with full force and hold nothing back, so she decided to use his strength against him. She was a much better flier than he was, and far more quick and agile. She used this to divert his strong straight forward approach. She dodged all his attacks using what was available to her by using the asteroids to deflect the attacks.
The boy grew tired of this, deciding to end her running away to avoid his attacks. He went straight for her closing in fast, while firing all his remaining ammunition hoping to cause as much damage as possible. He was quite confident that this would work, knowing she will not be able to doge a fast, high dive coming in approach on her so quickly.
She knew that he would come at her like this and dodged as much as she could, so she did not take to much heavy damage and waited for him to close in, and then simply made her move.
The boy came in high and at the last minute the girl moved completely out of the way, dogging the remaining of his attack. He came in so fast that he didn't see the collision course he was on with the asteroid that the girl kept from his sight and he crashed his ship into it.
The boy was furious when the game was over, he slammed his tablet on the table and yelled, "You cheated!"
The girl looked up at the boys furious face, while putting away her tablet in her school bag and replied back, "I only calculated your moves and used that information and the space provided in the game to be available avoid your attacks. There are no rules against this, so one such as myself, could not possibly have cheated."
The boy stood up very fast and slammed his hand on the table and lowered his head a bit to the girl sitting so his face was closer to the girls, their faces were about 2 feet apart. He glared at the girl and yelled again, "You cheated! I don't care if you say there are no rules against it, you did not engage me in a proper fight H.G. Play me again!"
H.G. looked at the boy scowling at her and all his friends ready to jump in on his command, and thought now would be a good time to leave before she got into more than she can handle, not that she couldn't handle them, but she was afraid of what the penalty would be if she engaged into this conflict. She raised her hand to the boy for a handshake and remarked calmly, "Not today maybe tomorrow. Good Game."
The boy glared at her, then her hand. He stared at her hand for a little bit then back to her face like he was deciding to beat her up or not. After making a decision he looked over his shoulder at his friends giving them a head tilt telling them that they were leaving. They all walked out and the boy followed, but not before he growled, "This is not over H.G."
H.G. put down her hand as the boy left and sighed when he was out of the room. She continued to sit there glaring at the door the boy and his friends left through, and then growled under her breath "Neanderthals!"
There were two people, a man and a woman in military uniforms who were watching a screen that showed what happened with H.G. and the boy playing the video game. They were both watching from a camera in the room they were playing in, as well from H.G.'s eyes. They also could hear what was going on in the room from H.G.'s ears.
The man was analyzing the girl to see if she had the potential to be the their new savior. They needed a leader, a strategist to help them win this war. They needed someone that was calm, that could analyze and not have their emotions run them in high times, they also needed someone that was aggressive that would not let their enemies go.
The man looked to the side of him at the woman that was in the room with him and casually mentioned, "She is the one."
The woman took her eyes off the screen and looked at the man and said in a calm but commanding voice replied back with, "That is what you said about her brother too."
"Her brother was different. He was all talk and little to walk, and way to cocky for his own good."
"So what makes you think she is any different, Colonel Valda?" The woman emphasized his name and rank to make a point.
Colonel Valda looked at her for a few seconds deciding if he really wanted her opinion or not on the girl. He did request her to help him with this case specifically because she had a background in psychology.
The colonel looked back at the screen when he made up his mind and described what he saw in the girl. "From what we have been watching it appears she is good at strategy, but not in just the virtual world, but when it comes to picking and choosing ones fights and how they play out. She used a strategy in the game not many people would use, and even after the game she analyzed the boy and decided to show good sportsmanship to help her out of a fight, Major Frederic." Colonel Valda looked back at the major trying to figure out where she was going with this.
Major Frederic looked back at the screen seeing the boy's friends leave while their leader stayed behind. She heard the boy threaten the girl as he left, and then heard H.G. sighing and growling under her breath.
Over all, she thought the girl was a genius, a few that could be considered so, but the girl could be quick to temper if pushed to far and what the colonel had planed for her, could do just that. "What about her temper and her aggressive behavior when she is pushed to far. If that comes to pass, what will you do then?"
There was a pregnant pause were Colonel Valda stared at the Major for quite some time seeming to debate something, and then said to her in the most arrogant voice she has heard in some time, "Well we will have to see how she does with rejection, hmm."
H.G. was on her way to her next class when she was called in too the infirmary through the speakers around the school. She looked up at the speakers when she heard her name being called.
"Helena Wells please come to the infirmary, Helena Wells please come to the infirmary."
She had no idea what she did, or why she had to go. She hoped she was not in trouble. She sighed and went down to the infirmary.
When she got there she was told to go in the room and the doctor will be right with her. H.G. went in the room as instructed, sat on the cot like table and waited for the doctor to come in. She was getting very nervous as the minutes passed.
Finally when the door opened for what seemed like forever, the doctor came in with a prep nurse, which made her even more nerves, because that can not be a good sign.
The female doctor came in and said, "Hello, Helena." as she walked into the room. She proceeded to walk up to Helena and told her straight out in a pleasant, robotic voice, "That nasty monitor of yours is coming out today. Please lay face down." as she waves her hand referring to the gurney in front of Helena and herself that had a head rest that supports your head, much like for messages, so you don't suffocate face down.
H.G. looked at her with fright and tears in your eyes and ask, "Why? Am I off the program? Did I do something wrong?"
The doctor replied back to calmly for Helena's liking, "That's not for me to say." as the prep nurse brings over the metal, rollable tray that has all the tools the doctor will need to remove the monitor in the back of H.G's neck.
The doctor starts putting on the gloves that were on the tray and says to H.G. more forcefully and commanding, but still calm, "Lay down. The sooner we get this done, the sooner you can move on."
Helena looks at her for a moment, and then complies to the command and lays face down on the gurney. She gets very nervous and scared as the doctor straps her head and body in the gurney so that she can't move when they do the procedure.
The doctor puts the last strap on and asks, "You ready?" pausing for a bit expecting a reply. When she doesn't get one she reassuringly, robotically says, "This wont hurt a bit."
H.G. hears a machine on and waits as it gets closer and closer to her head. She feels the cold metal claw on her neck as it closes in on the knob like thing in the back of neck. It grips a hold on the knob and yanks the knob out.
Helena screams as all the wires that are attached to the knob were being yanked from her brain. It was the most pain she has ever felt in her life.
After what felt like forever in hell, the yanking stopped and she heard a clang as the machine dropped the monitor onto the tray. She took heavy breaths and tried to calm herself and the pain.
After Helena got her bearings the doctor came up next to her and wiped her neck with antibiotics and bandaged it up for her. The doctor then unstrapped her from the gurney and told her that the procedure was done and that she could be on her way.
Helena left the infirmary rubbing her neck tiring to ease the pain in more than one way. She walked slowly with her head down. She didn't know what to do with herself, she felt ashamed and disgraced. Her mind kept drifting to thoughts about what her parents would think. She thought her parents would really not be happy to hear or find out that their second child was a failure too.
She did not look up till she saw feet.
H.G. looked up to find that the feet that stopped in front of her belonged to a boy. She recognized him, he was one of the friends of the boy she played against in the spaceship game. She then looked over to the right, because she saw some movement in the corner of her eye, and saw the boy and this friends coming out of a empty class room.
Helena ignores them and tries to continue her walk down the hallway, only to be fetched and apprehended.
The boy looked smug and yelled, "Where do you think you are going H.G.!" as his friends fetch and apprehend H.G. His friends grabbed her and brought her to him. He took hold of Helena by the scruff of her shirt so that they were on eye level and then said, "Washed out, huh?"
H.G. tries to leave again, but he grips more forcefully on her shirt so she can't get away.
The boy growls, "Come on!" as he drags her by her scruff and throws her in the empty classroom that looked like it was for labs to study the alien creatures they were up against.
Helena tumbled and landed into a lab table and knocked something over. It shattered on the ground spilling its contents all over the floor. She quickly stables herself and runs to the next table for a better stance.
The friends of the boy crowd around as their leader walks into the room. They form a circle around their leader and H.G., as the boy moves in closer to Helena. Two of the friends swoop in and gab Helena's arms to bring her face to face with their leader.
The boy growls at her, "Come on H.G. One on one for real this time. No game."
One of the friends remark all smug, and cocky like, "She's got no monitor now."
The boy replies back just as cocky and smug, "That's right. No one is watching you now Wells"
Helena looks back at the boy pissed off and replies back at the cocky leader, "One on one you say, then why are your boys holding me."
The boy looks at her pissed and pushes his friends away. The boy's friends let go of her and he stares at her for a minute sizing her up. He then says, "Let's go!" waiting for her to make a move.
Helena would like nothing more to beat the shit out of this guy and his friends, but she is in enough trouble as is, and she didn't need more on top of it. She tries to get out of this situation as safe and calmly as possible.
As slow and as calm as she can, she starts inching for the door, but has the leader still in her way. H.G. states as calmly as possible trying to play this situation off, "Come on, it was just a game."
The boy didn't take to kindly to that and grabbed her, and threw her into the table again.
Helena grabbed the first thing she saw and turned around and smacked the guy in the face with it.
He fell on the ground into the shattered container that was knocked over before.
H.G. came closer to the fallen boy with the thing she picked up from the table, a part of the Formic anatomy that was replicated for study, and hit him again in the face.
The boy fell all the way back down to the floor.
Helena slammed down the object she had on the table and kicked the boy repeatedly in the stomach. She paused, breathing hard and growled out, "Stay down!"
The boy had the air knocked out of him, but still had strength enough for him to threaten her, "I am going to kill you Wells!"
Since he would not relinquish Helena kept kicking him repeatedly till one of the friends grabbed on to her and said that was enough. She grabbed the object she hit the boy with and swung it, which the friend of the boy barely dodged the attack in time.
Helena held it out like a knife and said, "You maybe thinking of ganging up on me, but just remember what I do to people that try to hurt me."
Colonel Valda and Major Frederic were watching the camera feed of the hallway and classroom that the fight took place.
The colonel sat up and nodded his head pleasingly of what took place.
Helena Wells made her way home that day hoping not to run into her brother, her parents weren't do home for a while yet. When she got home she made her way to her room and went to her desk and started working on her gadgets that she was in the middle of making. Building and imaging up knew things always calmed her down. She tried not to think about what happened today, while she tinkered with her current gadget that she was working on.
H.G. was hoping that she could be alone for a bit to calm down so that she could explain what happened today to her parents. It seemed nothing was going in her favor today. Her brother came in and asked why she was home an hour early.
Helena wished today would end, she did not want to deal with her brother today and his jealousy. "I had my monitor taken out. I am now a drop out like you, Charles. Is that what you wanted to hear?" Helena said cheekily.
"So you are saying mum and dad spent all this money on a second and they failed too. Sounds great!" Charles replied back just as cheeky.
"So now that you are just another drop out like me, want to play a game?" Charles holds up a mask of a bug's head that he had picked up from her dresser.
"Why? So you can somehow prove that you are better than me, Charles dear." Helena remarked sarcastically while looking up at him, already knowing that it was true. She grew irritated and frustrated with her brother petty jealousy, "In case you didn't notice I am in your same position, I was kicked out too!"
"Yeah, but you got farther than me, and mum and dad think you are their 'perfect little child' that will go so far, unlike their useless eldest son, that didn't make it passed a test that they should've, and then getting kicked out do to retaliation for not getting a second chance on the test." Charles spat.
"Now that you have no monitor, you are just like me, dirt, garbage, the shit of this earth. I am now going to prove that we are the same." He held up the mask and said, "So let's play like we used to, you be the bug and I be the militant, the hero that we are waiting for."
H.G. looks at her brother like he is mad, but she does not see a way out of this that doesn't include fighting. If she doesn't agree he will attack and probably try to kill her. If she does play along he could do that too, or bring her near close to death. She took her chance and decided to play his sick game. She put on the mask and readied herself.
Charles didn't wait long, as soon as she put the mask on he tackled her and threw her onto the bed.
Helena tried to get up, only to have her brother on top of her, choking the life from her.
Charles leaned down, then took off the mask slowly, revealing her face to him once more and threw it across the room. He then leaned in even closer till his mouth was right next to her ear and whispered aggressively. "You know I can kill you like this." There was pause as he lifted his head up staring at her face as is was growing blue, enjoying the power it gives him. He leaned back down to her ear and growled out, "It should have been me! I should have been Chosen!" Charles lifts his head up again and stares at her for a little bit longer, then puts more pressure on her neck as Helena grasps for more air, shoving her further into the bed with his hand around her neck, and then quickly letting go. He immediately gets off of her then leaves the room without further comment, disappearing down the hall.
Helena starts coughing just as soon as she takes her first breath when he lets go. She calms her coughing after a bit and breaths in deep breaths of air. After she calms herself she goes back to her desk and looks over her blue prints and tinkers some more with her creations as if nothing happened, like it was normal, and that was because it was for her.
As Charles progressed in his studies in the International Fleet's training schools he had become more aggressive and boastful. He became power hungry and made friends with kids like the ones that attacked Helena today. Charles become more arrogant about his abilities and always tried to show off, but when the time came for him to prove himself worthy of being the best, he failed.
Since then, he has been a walking ball of anger and rage. He believes that his discharge from the program was unwarranted, and that he should have another go to show them that he is the best. In his mind there can be no one better then him, and he will spend the rest of his life proving that they were wrong. Somehow, someway, he was going to show the world that he, Charles Wells, was better then everyone in the International Fleet and anyone that apposed him.
Later that day H.G. told her parents about the monitor and they have not spoken a word too her since all the questioning about the events leading up to it.
They were now all at the dinning table being served dinner by her mother. Her dad was watching the news with a stone face and her brother sitting at the table pissed off as usual.
Her mother walked in with the last thing that was to be set at the table and sees Helena's face of sorrow and pain for letting down her family. She tells her husband to shut off the projector that was showing the news broadcast about the war with the aliens worldwide.
"Why? You would rather not know what's happening in the world?" Her father replied back still watching the news.
Helena's mother looks back at H.G., who looks back at the news then to her plate and states to her husband, "I'd rather you talk to your daughter."
Helena's father complies to his wife's demand and turns off the news.
As soon as it is shut off Helena remarks dejectedly, "If you want I'll go away so you won't be embarrassed."
H.G.'s mother replies reassuringly, "Helena no one is embarrassed."
"But I am the second." The second to fail, Helena thought. "I should have never been born." H.G. counters.
"Just because you didn't make it too, does not mean we didn't want you." Helena's mother replied in hast as she could not believe what she was hearing. She looks over to her husband and begs him to say something, to help prove to her daughter that they love her even if she failed that school.
Helena's father looks at his wife then his daughter and says, "It is a tough program Helena. When we came to this country there was less competition and still I didn't make it. Helena you have nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing."
Just then, an in coming call came in through the projector.
"Sensor alert. Front door. Please state your name." stated the their system for the house.
On the screen was a white, middle aged man with a black, middle aged woman in military uniforms. They answered the system and stated their names, "Colonel Benedict Valda director of training the International Fleet, this is my colleague Major Frederic, may we?"
They let the Colonel and the Major into the house and lead them to the living room so they may talk, as they have requested to talk to Helena about what happened with the boy today.
The Major went right for it and asked, "Why did you keep kicking him? You had already won the fight. Did you enjoy it?"
Helena replied back quietly full of gilt, "No."
Helena's father was standing next to her and asked earnestly, "Then why? Speak up Helena."
H.G. looked uncomfortable and nervous. She licked her lips, closed her eyes and took a deep breath and then exhaled. She replied straight after, "Knocking him down was the first fight. I wanted to win all the next ones too. So that they would leave me alone."
Helena's mother was sitting on the couch and asked, "And you didn't think to ask a grown-up for help?"
Her father interrupted his wife and said angrily, "She can fight her own battles. Colonel she obviously was bullied and she defended herself."
Colonel Valda got off the couch he was sitting on, from where he was observing Helena and walked towards her and stated, "I would like to offer you a place in our program."
Helena was looking at her parents in disbelief, and the same thing with her parents looking at her and each other.
Helena then looked back at the colonel and replied, "But you took away my monitor."
Major Frederic stated, "Are final step in our evaluation is always to see what will happen when it is removed."
Her mother looked up at this utter disbelief, "She passed?! She just put someone in the hospital!"
"It is not what she did, but why she did it. It is tactical, a strategy, to stop future attacks." The colonel replied back confidently.
"Helena, you don't have to do this if you don't want to." H.G.'s mother stated looking at her daughter, who only minutes ago thought she brought them shame.
"Helena and I should have a private conversation-" The colonel said, but was cut off by Helena's father.
"Absolutely not!"
"With all do respect, you can't stop me."
They both stared at each other for a long time. Helena wanted to get this over with and said, "I'll go. We can talk outside, sir."
The colonel and her went outside to talk privately and decided to sit on the bench that was a little on the side of the stairs leading up to the house.
The colonel looked up at the sky and randomly started stating, "The Formics might have wiped us out the last time, you know. A brilliant commander is the only thing that saved us."
"Adwin Kosan" H.G. pointed out.
"Adwin Kosan. We need minds like yours, Helena. Young people that analyze complex data more easily then adults."
"Will the monitor be reinstalled?"
"No. You've graduated to battle school. Privacy rights restored. There is a chance because of you that the Formics might leave us alone forever. I am going to have to ask you to come with me."
Helena looks down at the ground and bites her lip. She does this for about 30 sec. and then looks back up to Colonel Valda and states, "It is what I was born for, right?"
The colonel nodded his head yes.
The next day I had to say goodbye to my family and was picked up by the colonel.
Colonel Valda told me that my brother was quick to anger and I had a pretty level head, but that I need to remain level headed or I might end up like my brother. Basically, he was telling me I need to find a balance between my violence against my good nature.
We drove to the base where they launch all the graduates into space to get to the next school, Battle School.
To Be Continued...
