Bluefable leaned forward against her desk.

She didn't need to tell me why she'd asked me to come to her office.

I could hear it already.

What should I say to him? This is the last straw, really. He just doesn't seem to understand that cheating isn't acceptable.

"Soundwave." She took in a deep vent. We can't pity him to the point of letting him get away with this… "I'm afraid there's a problem with the history assessment you took last decaorn."

I looked down. Of course there was a problem with it.

He thinks that will work like it does on Cablereach. I can't do this any longer. One of us has to put our pede down.

"I'm just going to be straightforward with you," she said. "You need to stop cheating."

Silence fell. Silence for her at least, as she waited for me to respond. For me, there was no such thing as silence.

"I need you to promise you won't do this again. Talk to me, Soundwave."

"Ok," I said quietly.

"This is your last chance. And I will be reporting to the Headmaster." If he can't stop this we're going to expel him no matter how rich his caretaker is. He doesn't care, though. Look at him—he looks so calm, like none of this matters to him.

I'm sorry, I thought. And maybe if I could have said it, dripping with sarcasm and pent-up frustration, I would have.

"Why?" she said eventually. "Why can't you just do your own work? I'm not even sure how you're doing it. Every quiz, every assessment, every in-class assignment is copied from the other students."

That wasn't true. But after a while they always started seeing it, even where it wasn't.

"Soundwave, I need an answer."

Really? That had sounded like a rhetorical question to me.

"Why did you cheat on this last assessment?" I'm going to give him a zero on it, which will bring his grade in my class down below sixty percent. I hope he knows that's failing. "I don't know how many times you've been told you can't just cheat your way through school without doing any work. Why do you keep doing it?"

I dreaded this more than anything else. The necessary explanation. The necessary lie. But most of all the necessary talking.

I'd never been very good at talking.

"I ju-ust couldn't… I didn't kno-o-ow the a-answers."

My stutter was always worse when I was nervous.

Like something a sparkling would say. Surely he knows better than that. Or is there truly something wrong with his processor? A hint of fear crept into her emotional core. I could feel that, just like I could hear her thoughts. She suppressed a shudder as she stared at the dark screen that was mounted where my faceplate ought to be. "That's not an excuse," she snapped, trying to hide her discomfort with anger. "If you don't know the answer, then guess, or answer wrong, or leave the problem blank. Cheating doesn't help anyone, especially not you."

But sometimes it was so hard not to cheat that it wasn't worth it.

"If you cheat again you will be expelled." His caretaker will have to find him another school. If there are any left. She'll eventually start having to send him to public schools.

I nodded. I knew I'd be expelled. I'd have to start over again and wait for the stares to go away and the curiosity to settle out all over again.

"And have you gone to see Ochre about your voice box? I think it's getting worse."

Yes. But the school's medic, just like every other medic I'd been to see couldn't do anything. Nobody could do anything. There was nothing wrong with my voice box.

"Soundwave?"

Is he even in there?

"Ye-es."

She stared.

"I we-e-ent to see-ee Ochre."

"All right," she sighed. "Well, you can go back to whatever class you were in. You received a zero on your test so you'd better study hard for the next one or you're in danger of failing the class."

That was nothing new.

I failed classes.

I got expelled…

I turned and left. Out of the office and down the long corridor. I had no desire to go back to class. I wished she'd sent me somewhere else, like Ochre's office which was rarely crowded, or back to my room where I could study in peace.

I went back to class.

Hey, it's Soundwave. "Look who's over there, all by himself…"

"Heard he's getting expelled."

"Aw, too bad." He's fun to mess with. "Should we go console him?"

"Exactly what I was thinking."

"Hey, freak!" Verdict yelled.

I bent lower over my data pad. I normally spent all my time after classes were done in the library or in my room, but this orn I'd decided to go outside instead. Clouds in the sky threatened acid rain, so I'd hoped everyone would be indoors and I'd have some quiet. I'd gone all the way to the end of the yard behind the school and found a secluded spot to sit. I hadn't expected them to be out here.

Now they'd noticed me, and my best option was to ignore them and hope they got bored quickly.

"Can you hear me in there?" He's such an idiot. Practically a drone.

Of course I could hear him.

Verdict came up behind me and I tensed. I couldn't help myself, because I knew what was coming.

He smacked me in the back of the helm. "Hey, glitch-face, look up."

I turned around and he tried to snatch the data pad from my fingers. But I saw that coming too, and got it out of his reach in time.

That made him mad. He grabbed my shoulder and yanked me forward and off balance. The data pad flew from my hand and hit the ground. I heard the screen crack.

"Oops," he said. "Watch out, grease-fingers."

I pulled away from him and sat down again, ignoring the data pad.

Creepy glitch.

"Didn't need that, huh?" Verdict asked.

"Nah. He's got that data pad across his face." One of Verdict's friends said.

"We could break that too." The other growled.

I saw my screen in his imagination, broken and leaking energon. I wished I just got the words, not images too.

"What do you say?" Verdict grinned. "Want us to break it for you?"

I looked down again. Where was a teacher when you needed one?

Not near enough. Not anywhere near enough.

Some mecha were afraid of me. Some thought I was stupid. But most of them left me alone. Not these three. As far as I could tell, Verdict just liked tormenting other mecha. It wasn't just me. He and his friends had a few favorites to pick on, but everyone knew not to make them mad at you or let them catch you alone.

"I need an answer," Verdict said. "Or I'm just going to have to assume you mean yes."

Verdict's creators were both well-known lawyers, and because of that he was pretty sure he could get away with anything he wanted to.

Unfortunately, he wasn't far wrong. He'd done things that would have gotten any other student expelled.

"What's no-face's problem?" Motormaster asked. He was the largest of the threesome, and his processor was the most disturbing. He was in it for the opportunity to hurt the other students and get away with it. There was something wrong with him—something very wrong with him.

"Guess he does want us to break his face in," Verdict said. "Or maybe he's just all spark-broken about this." He reached down to pick up my cracked data pad. "This was his best friend, you know." Doesn't have any other friends.

I wished they'd just get it over with and go away.

The third member of Verdict's little gang grinned. "That's ok," he spoke with real enthusiasm, but fake sympathy. "I've got one ya can borrow, Stutter-wave." Let's make him read something. "Here." He held out his datapad. "I bet ya were practicing for a poetry recitation next orn."

Verdict nodded. "Yes, that's what you were doing, isn't it?"

I saw where this was going. I wanted to sink into the ground.

"You of all mechs need to practice for something like that," Verdict continued.

"Just le-eave me alo-o-one," I said.

They laughed.

Pathetic.

As if…

They were right.

"Leave you alo-lo-lone?" Verdict mocked. "We're only trying to help you."

"Here, read this out loud." Jazz shoved his datapad in front of me. I tried to push it away and run. They might chase me, but at least I'd have a chance.

Motormaster caught me, and slammed me into the fence I'd been sitting by. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm no-ot re-eadi-ing."

"Yes you are," Verdict said. Or we'll break you into fifty pieces. "Or we'll break you into fifty pieces."

"I'll do the honors," Motormaster said. Let me break him…

"What'll it be?" Verdict asked. "The poem or the pieces. You've got to the count of five to decide."

"Can he count that high?" Jazz wondered.

"Po-oem," I said.

"Motormaster, hold him still," Verdict said. "He's got to have good posture."

Motormaster grabbed my arms and pulled them behind me until my sockets groaned. I saw it coming, but couldn't do anything about it. Not without making them angry. Then they'd hurt me more.

Jazz held the data pad in front of my face.

I started reciting.

There was something wrong with me.

I'd been in an accident when I was a very young sparkling. My creators had both been offlined. I couldn't remember them, or the accident, but I sometimes thought I could remember having a faceplate once. And I wasn't sure why I could hear what everyone was thinking either. Or why I couldn't talk right.

They laughed and made fun of my stutter until they got bored, then left me with a couple of dents and a processor ache. I picked myself up off the ground and retrieved my cracked data pad.

My reflection looked calm, serene.

It always would.

Ravage was recharging when I got to my room. He was curled up in my desk chair, and I didn't want to wake him, so I went and sat in the corner, putting my arms around my knees. I didn't feel like doing homework just then.

I lived just a twenty breem walk away, so I didn't need to stay at the school, but Crescent didn't want me at home, and she, being my caretaker, always had the last say. So I boarded here with the students who lived too far away to come to school every orn. I didn't mind too much. It was hard to recharge when anyone else was still up nearby because I could hear them thinking. But other than that, it was actually a little better than Crescent's house.

I heard Ravage's systems boot up. He yawned and stretched, then noticed me in the corner and leaped off the chair.

"How wa-a-as your orn?" I asked him as he came over and climbed up onto my shoulders.

"Boring," Ravage complained. Are you ok? Why are you sitting in the corner?

I vented a sigh, and reached up to stroke the plating behind his ears.

We weren't technically allowed to have symbiots, but the school had made an exception for me. Crescent had insisted. Things wouldn't go well if I left Ravage at home while I was away at school. My caretaker and Ravage didn't get along at all, but she knew I needed him, and there were some things she wouldn't dare take from me.

"What?" Ravage asked.

"I'm ok." I even managed to say it without stuttering.

But Ravage wasn't convinced. "What happened?" he growled.

What had happened? I'd been warned by a teacher that if I cheated on one more test, I'd be expelled. And then Verdict and his friends had caught me alone later the same orn.

I picked up my cracked data pad from where I'd set it down beside me. If I kept getting expelled every term, Crescent would run out of schools to send me to before I was finished with secondary school.

By then, though, I would probably be completely insane, and it wouldn't matter any more.

I'm going to rip them to pieces.

"Wha-at?" I looked at Ravage.

"It was them wasn't it? They broke that thing. Did they hurt you?" I wish they'd come in here sometime…

I shook my helm. "You kno-ow you can't a-attack any-yone, Ravage, we-e'd get in so-o-o much trouble."

They'd take him away, probably have him put down. I could not let that happen. "I'm fi-ine," I said again, hoping he'd listen this time. Besides, I wasn't as upset about the bullies as I was worried about getting expelled.

I did not want to have to start over again.

This was one of the best schools in Kalis. It was a reasonably large private school, with just over six hundred students, which was about as many as I could handle during an assembly when they were all close enough I could hear their thoughts.

Getting into the school had been easy enough. The entrance examinations were given individually and even if I hadn't done well on them, money could just as easily get you into the school. Crescent was willing to pay a lot for the chance to send me away.

But what if she did send me to a public school after this? With thousands of other students and stricter rules about having symbiots.

It was going to happen eventually. All I could do was worry.

Ravage curled his tail around my neck. You aren't all right, at all, are you?

I wasn't.

But it was nice that at least someone cared.

"Good orn, class."

It was three orns after Verdict had broken my datapad and I'd had the screen fixed by the computers teacher, Cablereach, who was always willing to do that sort of thing.

Most of the students responded with a "Good orn, Bluefable."

She smiled at us, but she had an unpleasant surprise. I already knew what it was, of course, but I felt dread sink deep into my spark again as she announced it.

"Today, we're not going to have a normal lecture. Instead, we have an assessment."

What?

We just had one last decaorn!

"Think of it as a pop quiz only a little longer. The same rules go as for our regular assessments. If you finish early you can leave."

One of the students, a little yellow femme, raised her hand. "What does the assessment cover?"

"It's a bit of an overview of the whole term so far,"

Oh, no… what did we cover in the beginning of the term?

Why does she have to do this? I think she does things like this to torture us on purpose.

Scrap, I only got admitted three decaorns ago… I'm so doomed.

"However," Bluefable said. "Since I didn't announce this assessment, or give you time to study, I'm going to count it more like extra credit than a real test. If you do well on it, I'll replace your lowest test score with this one."

Everyone else was relieved. Bluefable looked at me. I'm giving him a chance. I hope he realizes that. This is his chance. I even made it almost impossible for him to cheat. And I let everyone else know about this. We're having that meeting after classes are over for the orn…

She pulled out a stack of thin datapads and walked through the room, handing them out. "No one start the test, please, until everyone has one." She dropped one on my desk. But he will cheat. He always does…

She finished and went to the front of the room again. "All right, everyone. Make sure to enter your designation before you begin. You can start."

I tapped the data pad to activate it, and typed in my designation.

Sometimes, I tried to get ahead, or skipped the early questions so I could go back and answer them when no one else was thinking about them. Things were never that hard during the beginning of the test when everyone was on the same question, but it was easier not to cheat if I started at the end.

Not this time.

A cacophony of focused chatter washed over me. It wasn't as loud during a lecture when only half of the students were paying attention. But the more focused someone was, the better I could hear, and the harder it was to ignore.

Everyone was focused during an assessment. Normally, they were focused on the same question, at least at the beginning, so I only had to ignore one very loud fact at a time.

The modern senate system of government was brought about by…

The second Quintesson war ended after…

The five founders of the city of…

Not this time.

I've stumped you, haven't I? You haven't even started. You're stuck.

I looked up at Bluefable.

She met my gaze, feeling an odd mixture of triumph and disappointment.

You really don't know how to do anything without cheating.

The Dynasty of Primes was supposedly…

Brought about by…

Five hundred died in the battle of…

Everyone's questions were in a different order. Everyone was doing a different question. This was like the middle of the test, but worse, and it wouldn't get better. Normally I tried to finish early or late so I didn't have to deal with the cacophony in the middle.

But that wasn't going to work this time.

I looked down at the first questions again. I had to read it three times before my processor managed to piece it together.

Was built around the…

In the vorn of 7897…

I typed 7897, then erased it. That was wrong—the question didn't even ask for a date. I put in the right answer.

Other students were on their second or third question. They were going to think I was completely stupid. Everyone already thought there was something wrong with me, but it was just going to get worse.

I skimmed the test. It wasn't that long, but it was long enough. I couldn't wait until the others had left before starting it. I wouldn't have enough time. When the class period ended, Bluefable would collect the tests whether or not we were finished with them.

I went back to the top.

The three reasons…

The reforms of…

My processor was starting to overload.

I know this one… what is it? What's the answer…

The technological revolution gave rise to…

I felt dizzy. Pressure mounted in my helm.

The Dynasty of the Primes was supposedly organized by the first thirteen…

"Well, Soundwave, time's up."

I hastily typed in another answer—a wrong answer. There were still ten questions I hadn't gotten to.

Bluefable came over and took the data pad from my desk. "I said time's up. You can go now."

I put my hands on the desk in front of me to steady myself. Echoes of answers to test questions were still running through my processor in little bits and pieces.

"Soundwave? I said you can leave."

I jerked my helm up in a half-nod, and was rewarded with a spike of pain. Oh, my processor hurt.

Leave? I could leave?

Good.

It was quiet here though, now that everyone else was gone. And empty. I didn't want to go out into the hallways.

He knows he's doomed, doesn't he? He knows he'll be expelled. It's so hard to read him, though…

Well, mostly quiet.

Well, he can just sit here forever for all I care. I'm done teaching for the orn, so no one will be in here.

"Or I suppose you could stay."

Every word, every thought, pierced like a knife to the helm. At least if I was expelled, it would be a while before I had to deal with this sort of thing again.

She walked to the doorway and stopped. "Unless you have anything to say before I go."

Anything to say?

Of course he doesn't.

I tried to piece something together. It seemed I had had something to say, recently. What had it been?

She left.

Could I retake the test later? By myself? Could I prove I didn't need to cheat?

Too late.

I put my helm down on the desk and waited for the processor ache to go away. This one was bad enough it would probably take five or six joors. I had another class I was supposed to go to after this one. But at this point, I didn't care.

"Soundwave!" Here he is, right where I left him.

I sat up, suddenly online. I couldn't even remember slipping into recharge.

"You're still here." I would have tried to find somewhere to hide if I was him.

She was mad. It must have been obvious on the test that I hadn't been doing my own work the whole time.

My processor ache was as bad as ever but at least I didn't feel quite as scrambled. I could think again.

"You need to come with me," Bluefable said.

"I fa-a-a-ailed, didn't-i-idn't I-I-I-I?"

Oh, my…

"Are you all right?"

No.

She waited. Is he going to answer? I need to get Ochre to look at him. "You did fail. Rather miserably. Though I'm not sure how you did it. The headmaster would like to discuss with you exactly how you managed to cheat on it. A group of your other teachers as well. We're going to have a meeting about it, and we thought we'd invite you." Because there's only one way this can end.

I wanted to tell her I didn't cheat, but I didn't dare try to speak again. My voice box was glitching almost to the point where I couldn't talk at all.

Besides, it probably would have been a lie. Probably. I wasn't even sure…

"Come on." How does he hold so still? If he offlined right here and now I wouldn't even be able to tell.

I got to my pedes.

Maybe I should take him to Ochre instead.

"I-I'm fi-ine."

He doesn't sound fine. What happened to him? I really should ask Ochre to look at him.

Oops. She hadn't said that out loud.

Then again, he could be faking it. And he's probably just nervous because he knows he's going to get expelled. Let's just go to the meeting and get this over with. "Come on."

I followed her out of the room.

We went to a large conference room. There were a lot of teachers there, and not just ones I had classes from.

This was serious. I could just imagine how angry Crescent would be if they expelled me now. I hadn't even made it one full term.

"Sit down," the headmaster said. He was an older silver and blue mech designated Graycharter.

I approached the table and sat at the end of it, trying not to imagine how the rest of this would go.

To everyone else the room was silent.

Does he know how serious this is?

What are we going to do with him?

How did he do it? We made it practically impossible, how did he do it?

If I told them I could hear them thinking, they would do worse than expel me.

"Before we begin," the headmaster said. "I wanted to give you an opportunity to say something."

He did? How considerate.

He's just going to sit there.

"Do you have anything to say?"

Not out loud.

"Very well then. We gave you a chance. No, we gave you many chances. This was the last one."

If He's smart enough to get past all our precautions, all our blocks, everything. Why would he need to cheat?

Cablereach was looking at me with a thoughtful expression that contrasted the anger and confusion coming from everyone else.

"Tell us what you did," the headmaster continued. "Tell us how you cheated."

It hadn't really been a test for the whole class, it had been specifically for me. A last chance to prove myself. They had wanted to test me, watch me, figure out what I was doing.

"Tell us what you did or you will be out of this academy before the orn is up."

"If I might, Graycharter," Cablereach said. "I think the why is more important than the how."

"It was an unannounced test," Bluefable said. "He couldn't have known beforehand."

I had known. I had been picking up hints about it for the last three orns. But I hadn't expected it to be that bad, and even if I had, what could I do about it?

"How did you do it?" another teacher asked.

They stopped talking, but they were still thinking. Their minds accused and demanded and questioned.

"I…" it was getting overwhelming, but I needed an answer.

Cablereach was still thinking calmly. I tried to ignore everybody else.

How could he have done it?

Why hasn't he said anything?

Maybe I should have taken him to Ochre after all…

He couldn't have hacked the other data pads. Maybe the security monitor…

"The se-e-ecurity-y mo-oni-itors."

They all stared at me.

"I go-ot i-into the securi-ity mo-o-o… mo-onito-o-or-rs."

It got worse the longer I talked. At this point, even short sentences were almost too much.

Ha. Good guess. I think…

Oh!

That makes sense. No wonder.

…But it doesn't explain… why would he…

"I see," the headmaster said. "We didn't think about that."

Neither had I. Thank you Cablereach.

"Hold on," Cablereach said.

Never mind.

"So how did you accomplish this?"

They all looked at me again. For once I was glad they couldn't see my expression. I scrambled to come up with a way to hack the security cameras.

"It to-oo-ok o-orns."

"We need to know." Cablereach said, "So we can prevent it from happening again. Where did you do it from?"

He said monitors. There's only one monitor in that room. Has he hacked more of them?

"Li-ibra-ary."

The library computer consoles would probably be the best place to hack the school's systems from.

Cablereach pulled out his own personal data pad. It was more like a full computer than simple data storage like most of them were. He keyed it unlocked and started doing something on it.

"Cablereach, now is not the time," the headmaster said. "We have to make a decision. Soundwave, you have broken a number of rules. You mock this school with your general disregard for them. Do you have anything at all to say for yourself?"

I looked down.

"The answer is obvious," Bluefable said.

"I still think we should be asking him why he cheats," Cablereach put in, still tapping on his data pad. A few ways you could hack into the security monitors ran through his processor, but I wasn't sure I knew enough to make them work.

"It is true," another teacher said. "If he's capable of hacking the systems, he ought to be capable of learning history."

"And he's not cheating very effectively either."

Is he doing this to spite us?

It was like I wasn't in the room any more.

"Soundwave," Cablereach said with a sudden thought. "Is the course material too easy for you?"

Too easy? "No-o," I said.

They stared at me as if expecting more.

All right then.

"But I-I-I get ne-e-ervous i-in a roo-oom fu-ull o-o-of…" I trailed off. They got the point.

Oh.

That doesn't quite make sense…

That's no excuse.

"That's no excuse," Graycharter said.

"I'm so-o-orry,"

"Ochre should take a look at your voice box."

I took a deep vent. If she could do something about it, she already would have. Why didn't anyone ever think about that?

"Sorry is not enough this time."

Should I even bother to try? "I wo-o-on't do it aga-a-a… aga-a-a-ain."

Scrap, I really needed to calm down.

They watched me.

Why did everyone watch me? Did they think that maybe if they stared enough they'd be able to see right through my screen? Did they think I didn't care? That it didn't make me uncomfortable to have thirty optics reflecting of the black surface of what should have been my faceplate? Did they think I couldn't see them?

I could see them.

I could see them better than they could see each other. I could see past their faceplates, past their optics, right into their processors, right into their sparks, right into every dark part of themselves they wanted to hide.

I saw them whether or not I wanted to.

And no one.

No one, no matter if they tried or not.

Ever.

Saw.

Me.

"Do you have anything else to say?"

Not to them.

Not out loud.

Did I ever?

"I thought not. Will you please wait outside while we discuss this?"

My chair scraped on the floor as I stood. The door opened for me.

They started arguing once I was outside and 'out of hearing.'

But I could hear every word and every thought. I wanted to leave. I wanted to go hide in my room.

But they had told me to wait out here.

…Freak…

…Expell him…

…doesn't deserve another chance…

…disobedient…

…cheater…

…something wrong with him…

…he frightens me…

…don't know what to do with him…

…Crescent, his caretaker…

I sat down, wrapping my arms around my knees and bowing my helm, tempted to forcibly shut myself down so I could stop hearing.

By the time they called me back in I already knew what their decision was. It surprised me.

"Soundwave," the headmaster said. "We've decided to give you one more chance. One."

Because of Crescent. Because she was rich and well-connected. If they knew how little she actually cared, they probably would have expelled me decaorns ago.

I nodded.

"If something like this ever happens again, you will be expelled."

I nodded. It would happen eventually. Eventually even Crescent's influence wouldn't be enough, and they'd kick me out. I had thought it would be this time.

"We are being more generous and forgiving than you or anyone deserves."

From their perspective, yes, that was true.

"I need to hear you promise you won't do anything like this again."

I would rather not.

"And I want to hear your profound gratitude for our generosity."

I gathered myself.

Ungrateful little glitch. Thinks he can get away with anything.

"Thank yo-ou. I wo-on't do-o-o it aga-ain."

They stared expectantly.

I had nothing more to say.

Arrogant…

…is he mocking us?

I couldn't talk. How long would it take them to realize how much every broken word that came out of my voice box cost me?

"Very well," the headmaster said. "Cablereach, I believe you wanted to talk to him further about the security cameras."

"Yes," Cablereach said. "Soundwave? To my office?"

I followed him out the door and into the hallway, anxious for the point where we got far enough from the room that the other teachers were out of my range.

They faded from my mind and then disappeared as the distance between us grew.

Except Cablereach's

This is such a disappointment. I thought this fledgling was going to do so well. He was not like this when he first came here, was he? I looked at those scores on his entrance exams.

When I'd first come I hadn't been as bad. But my range was expanding. I could hear them better. They were all getting louder—steadily and progressively louder.

Oh well. I hope he can get it together before it's too late. Not everyone gets the opportunities he's had. Doesn't he know how lucky he is?

Lucky?

We made it to his office and he handed me the data pad. "I've put this on a setting so that you'd have access to the same things you would from a library computer console. Could you hack the security cameras with this?"

I looked down at it. Right. I needed to suddenly be a brilliant hacker.

I shook my helm.

"No?"

Wasn't that what I'd just said?

He's going to refuse to show me how he did it. Or maybe he was lying back there? Doesn't he know the consequences of that? And is it just me, or is his stutter getting worse? "Your stutter's getting pretty bad. Are you all right?" I'm missing something here…

If they found out, they'd do worse than expel me.

"I'm ti-i-i-i-ired." I didn't even try to stop the stutter. "Ca-a-an-an I-I…"

I can't tell if he's really tired. But he sounds tired. I wonder if he's all right. I wish he'd tell us what was really wrong.

"All right," Cablereach said. "But you will show me how you hacked the security cameras. Next orn. All right?"

I nodded. Then I left. I needed to be alone.

Unfortunately, that was impossible.

Notes to Chapter 1:

1. This is the only time I will apologize for this. There are many OCs in this story, some of which take on major roles for a time. I've heard that some people don't like OCs. If you are one of those people, I'm sorry. Don't worry, though. I kill most of them off by the end.

2. On a similar subject, yes, Cablereach is kind of a dumb name. It stuck. I can't change it now. Sorry.

3. Yes, that Jazz from earlier really is Jazz. No, this is not a shattered glass story. Everyone will eventually end up on the side they're supposed to end up on.