Chapter 10: Maple Street Elementary School
September 10, XX54
Light residence
It was their first day of elementary school, ever. Zero was in his room putting on his uniform. They weren't allowed to wear armor to school, probably to discourage fights. Instead, he had a yellow polo shirt with MSES on the left side of his chest, with a brown jacket over that. The brown jacket had a yellow edging and a school badge. The square badge for Maple Street School was a maple tree with red leaves on a yellow background. Then he had brown pants and black shoes with white socks. Roll had thought it looked cute on him.
He also put on a name tag with a safety pin. It was something done for reploids entering first grade and humans entering kindergarten. Then he picked up his backpack with a few basics inside and went downstairs.
Roll was fussing with X's hair. Zero had done his own hair earlier and tied it back with a brown hair tie, to go with the uniform. "It's fine," X insisted, trying to leave his hair the way it was.
"Just like your father," she replied with a smile. "I guess it's decent. Here's your lunches. Rock, aren't you going with them?"
Rock came out of the office. "Yeah, I'm ready. You two get your winter cloaks on." Rock was wearing a uniform too. But as he was a Guardian, it was made up of red and yellow armor with several identifying badges.
Roll handed Rock his lunch. "You boys have a good day at school. Don't worry too much; I'm sure you both will do fine."
They exchanged goodbyes and left with Rock. He was showing them the way to their school, as they were close enough to walk. "What's school like?" X asked him. "What are we going to do there?"
"I don't know myself. When I 'awoke' as the first reploid, I was an adult in mind and body already. My emotions still had to grow up, but my dad was watching me every step of the way. But now there's many reploid children, and most of their parents don't even know how they're built in scientific terms. So we send you to school to make sure you know what you're supposed to."
"Are we going to be in the same class?" Zero asked. "I don't really want to leave X alone."
"I don't want to leave you alone either. It's kinda scary."
Rock touched X's shoulder. "You don't have to worry. The schools are among the most secure buildings in the city. As for your question, Zero, there's only one class per grade for reploids. Even though Maple Street is the only school for reploids here, there aren't that many children around. At least, compared to the humans."
"So you don't know anything about what school will be?" X asked now.
Rock shrugged. "I know some things. Like at the end of each school year, you'll retake the STERE to see if you pass. There are eight grades; you need 500 points to enter second grade, 1000 to enter third, and so on."
"So you need 4000 points to pass school entirely," X reasoned.
"Not quite. You need 3500 points and you must be ten years old. Then you can join the rites to become an adult."
"We become adults through magic rites?"
He nodded. "Yes, but you're not old enough to hear of the specifics yet. When you turn nine, they'll teach you that too."
"So eighth grade must be optional, if you have enough points, but aren't ten yet."
"That's right."
"How far does the STERE score go?"
"The perfect score? Well, you don't hear of that happening often. I think it's 5000 points. They make a big fuss every year of the ones who make 4500 or more."
"But what if people cheat on it?" Zero asked.
"You can't cheat the STERE. At least, so I've heard. It's a dynamic test. The questions are randomized, the difficulty is based on how quickly and accurately the child answers; not even the teachers will know what will be on a specific STERE session. They test in a special room and they don't allow more than six students per supervisor... even if you can cheat STERE, it would be very difficult and not really worth it."
"Because by the point you can do that," X thought aloud, "you wouldn't really need schooling anyhow."
They stopped at a crosswalk of a busy intersection. A trio of reploid children came across to their corner, two boys and one girl. The girl was wearing a name tag too, but stuck close to one of the boys. The other boy grinned on seeing them. "Hi Master Rock!"
Rock nodded to him. "Hello Ash. It's been some time since I've seen you."
"Told you I knew him," Ash told the other boy.
He had wide eyes. "Really, so you're really the hero? I know Roll, but you're like never around. I have six of your cards in my Battlefield deck."
"That's impressive. So Ash, how's your father doing? I haven't heard from Oregon in a while."
"He's been stationed somewhere, but of course I can't know where. He does write me a lot and tries to call every Saturday."
The light changed, so they crossed the street. "That's good, at least you hear from him."
"I know. Oh, and this is my best friend Sandy, like I was telling you about. And this is his little sister Iris."
Iris smiled. "Hi."
Zero felt stunned for a second on hearing this was Iris. But his memories stayed elusive. Thank goodness, he thought. If she was wearing that name tag too, she was probably going to be in their class. So that meant Sandy was probably Colonel. And was Ash here really General? Zero couldn't be sure. He'd never seen the pair out of military armor back home; at least, no time he could think of now. Seeing them all in school uniform was odd.
And the trio wasn't quite the same. Sandy was the sort of kid one called a beanpole, almost the height of an adult, but skinny. He had short brown hair. Ash, on the other hand, was more of a tank, short and stocky. He had stringy blond hair. Iris was much of what one expected of a little girl, petite with long brown hair. Except, to Zero's annoyance, she was taller than him and the same size as X. She wasn't wearing a beret, which probably wasn't allowed in the school dress code. Instead, she was wearing a hair clip with her namesake flower in silk.
Rock nodded to them. "Good to meet you both. This is my son X and his best friend Zero."
X seemed stalled for words. Zero tried to smile, but felt really nervous. "Um, hi."
"You two are going to school?" Sandy asked. "You seem kinda little."
Iris tapped her brother. "Hey, don't be mean."
"We are going to school," Zero insisted.
Rock tapped the boy's shoulder. "Ash, since you two have to be looking out for Iris anyways, would you mind helping X and Zero out? It would be a big help."
"Sure, no problem," Ash answered.
-+-
September 10
Cain residence
Sigma stirred his breakfast cereal around. He had to go to school today. How demeaning. He wished he could escape this body and find a more suitable vessel. As a virus, he should be able to do that. But for one reason or another, he was stuck. This world was so annoying.
For a while, he looked forward to school as a means to escape his family. It'd be for a few hours nearly every day. He would know everything already, so he could slack off in class and work on his plans to overthrow this world. When he grew up, that is. He was five years old physically. According to his research, he had another five years to go, and then a sort of adolescence for three years. Then he would be considered a legal adult.
But this morning, he noticed Roger was wearing the same Maple Street uniform that he was. Roger was fifteen and had three or six more years of childhood/adolescence to go. At that age, reploids were expected to be in their life careers. Roger still had school to finish, and it seemed they were going to the same one.
Sigma finished getting ready and left quickly, trying to get ahead of Roger. But as he came onto the sidewalk, he realized he wasn't entirely sure of where he was going. He forced the body to recall the directions. It started him slowly to the west.
Roger caught up with him easily. "How're you feeling about starting school again, huh?"
Was he going to have to put up with this every morning? "Okay, I guess. It's just school."
"Just school? Come on, I know you love school. And we do have to hurry now, to get to the bus stop on time."
Sigma walked faster along with Roger. He tried to seem excited. "I know, it'll be fun, but..."
He gave a sly smile. "Ah, I know your problem. You're worried about Baba Ferham, the infamous third grade teacher."
Baba... Ferham? The name was familiar, from his world. He didn't quite remember right now, but seemed to think it was odd she was a teacher. "Sort of."
"Well cross your fingers and hope you broke 1500. Then you could skip to fourth and get that cutie that joined last year. What's her name? I think Cinnamon Gaudile."
That was familiar too, but less then Ferham. "That'd be nice."
They came up to the bus stop, where a large group of kids had gathered, both reploid and human. The Gates were here too. Shield Sheldon was standing off on his own. Ground Scaravich, Metal Shark Player, and Rainy Turtloid were chatting with each other. Infinity Mijinion was sitting on the bench reading. Dr. Gate was speaking to Vile while holding onto Blizzard Wolfang, who seemed to be an infant. Yammark... he wasn't really a commander yet... was wearing a nametag and skipping around the group, chanting, "I'm going to school, I'm going to school."
Roger leaned over. "The Gate clan has grown again. I always wondered why he has so many kids, but he's not married."
"He made them all from scratch," Sigma said.
Roger nodded. "Oh yeah, that makes sense. Well, more sense then some other things I've heard. Kevin was claiming that Gate kidnaps them and experiments with their DNA."
Sheldon spotted them and smiled. "Hi Sigma! Where've you been all summer? I've hardly seen you around."
"He's been moping," Roger teased.
"I have not," Sigma insisted. Roger shrugged and went to speak to one of his friends. "And you saw me..."
"Shh," Sheldon said hastily. Then he glanced around. "And did that star really hit you?"
Oh yeah, the RFF was a secret. How could he forget something so simple? "It did, really hard."
"That must have been bad. But at least you're okay now."
"Of course," Gate said, drifting over to them. "We wouldn't want to lose our dear little friend Sigma, would we?" He smiled.
He didn't trust that smile. "I'll be fine."
"Awwooooofff," Wolfang remarked.
"Wolfang thinks he's a real wolfoid," Sheldon commented. "But he's only five months old, so it's okay."
Gate tapped his youngest son's nose. "It would be better if he were trying to talk."
Wolfang barked.
Gate shook his head. "Well, have a good school year, Sheldon. Listen to your older brothers now. If you keep your ears and eyes open, you'll learn the truth in short time."
"Okay dad." He watched as Gate went to talk to Infinity. "Yeah, I'd listen to them if they weren't so mean," he muttered.
"They are," Sigma spoke softly, then wondered why he did. He only knew Gate back home; he'd hardly spoken to his eight reploids.
Sheldon looked around, checking where his brothers were. Then he said, "Sigma, I have to talk to you. Something secret... it's bad, but I have to tell someone."
Maybe these two were friends. "What is it, Sheldon?"
The bus arrived. "Later. If we get left alone at recess. Hopefully."
Might as well, Sigma thought. "Okay. At recess."
-+-
September 10
Maple Street School building
Rock hugged X as they got to the school. "I'll be home about the same time as you. So I'll see you then."
"O-okay," X said, the first thing he had said since meeting up with Ash, Sandy, and Iris.
Rock shook hands with Zero, as he wouldn't stand being hugged in public. They exchanged goodbyes and Rock went to work. Ash and Sandy lead them into the gymnasium. The human kids were going straight to class; there were a lot of them. The reploid kids were gathering in the gym first.
"You three wait here a minute," Ash said. "We have to get our STERE scores and grade assignment."
The two of them went up to a table and got their scores from Douglas. X and Zero checked with each other silently, but it did appear that the Hunter engineer was here working for the elementary school. Nearby in another odd scene, Cinnamon and Layer were speaking merrily to each other, both adults and both apparently teachers. And not just the teachers. Many kids were familiar from their home world. Like just a few feet away, kids who appeared to be Spark Mandrill and Overdrive Ostrich were arguing over something. It was eerie.
X stepped closer to Zero and whispered, "These kids, we know all these kids... and..."
"We have to think of them as different people," Zero whispered back, which had been his primary view on Iris so far. But then he noticed X was tensing up, like he was falling into another panic attack. Maybe it was like his temper here; maybe X couldn't help being so afraid. "X, you gonna be okay?"
X turned around to face the wall. "Too many people here," he said. "It's too noisy."
"It'll be okay," Iris said. "My brother and cousin can keep the bad kids away."
Then there was a cheerful whoop from Sandy. "All right! I got into eighth grade with you."
Iris smiled. "That's great."
"How do you know I got into eighth?" Ash challenged.
"No duh, you were in seventh last year."
"All right, so I've got 4012. What about you?"
Sandy checked his paper as they stopped by the younger ones. "Um... 3501."
"Geez, you cut that one fine. Hey X, what's up? You look kinda pale."
X didn't say anything immediately, so Iris said, "He's a little scared."
"It's mostly the noise," Zero said.
"It'll be okay," Sandy said. "Besides, you get the absolute nicest person in the world for your teacher, Miss Alia. She can help with anything. We get... um, who are we getting this year?"
Ash shrugged. "I dunno. But Alia is very nice. Sandy's just had a crush on her since he was your age."
Sandy turned bright pink. "I do not have a crush on her!"
Iris giggled. "Yes you do."
Ash grinned. "Come on, we'll introduce you to her."
To help X, they walked around most of the crowd. Alia was sitting in a chair talking to older students. It seemed many kids were fond of her. Sandy smiled at her, then tried to not smile too much and wound up with a goofy look on his face. "Hi Miss Alia."
She smiled warmly at them. "Hello again, Sandy, Ash. It's so good to see you again. How did you boys manage this year?"
"We both get into eighth grade, although he gets in by only one point."
Sandy gave Ash a sharp look.
"Very good, both of you. Who've you got with you now?"
"My little sister, Iris. She should do really well."
Iris smiled and shook hands with Alia. "Hello."
"And this is X and Zero; we're helping them out too. But X is nervous."
"You'll be fine." Alia looked him over, as if gauging just how nervous he was. "We can go into the office here, if it'll help. They won't be starting for another five minutes."
X tugged at his hair. "Um, okay."
They went into the gym teacher's office. With the door partly shut, it was a great deal quieter in here. Alia tried speaking to X as she probably did every first day with a nervous youngster. Zero could tell it wasn't working. He tried to think of something that might and remembered how long X had taken on the test, which was supposedly a good sign. He tapped Alia's arm. "Hey, that STERE test thing said we would get our scores today too."
"I'll pass those out in class, although I can check if you really want to know now."
"Okay. But X probably has a much better score than I do."
"You never know." Alia brought a file out of her handbag and searched for her class list. "Let's see... ah, Iris Greensward, with 137."
"Is that good?" Iris asked.
"Any first grade score over a hundred is good," Ash said. "You won't have any problems with this year."
Alia nodded. "That's usually how it goes. I found Zero Light, with 121."
"Really? I thought I was doing kinda bad, especially with spelling."
"Everyone has their weaknesses. Hmmm... This is very strange. You're not on my roster, X."
X was startled. "What? We're going to be in different classes?"
Feeling panicked too, Zero added, "But we can't be in different classes."
"It won't be for long, just a few hours every day," Alia said. But she was obviously puzzled as to how to handle this situation as well.
"And we all have the same lunch and recess schedule," Ash said. "Me and Sandy haven't been in the same grade for two years now, and it's been okay."
"But we've never really been apart," X said, pulling his arms in close to his chest. "Except for very bad times."
Sandy told Ash, "Hey, let's go find out what class X is supposed to be in."
"Right, you two go do that," Alia requested.
Iris watched them go, but decided she wanted to stay with X and help that way.
"There's nothing wrong with being nervous," Alia told X. "Lots of kids get nervous when they have to go to school for the first time and be away from home."
X mumbled something. When Alia didn't respond, he repeated, "We never had a home."
"But you came with your dad," Iris said.
"We only met him a month ago. Before that, we lived in Ikari Tower."
"Oh my," Iris said softly.
Alia tried putting her hand on his shoulder. "I see. You two must have been through a lot."
"Can't he stay with our class?" Zero asked, trying not to whine and probably doing a bad job of it.
"I can see why it would be a good idea to keep you two together. But I'm afraid our class will bore X greatly. You should be with your proper learning group."
Ash and Sandy came back in. "Miss Alia, this is so weird, but true. He's going to be with us."
"In eighth grade?" she asked, not sure if this was possible.
Ash handed her X's score sheet. "It's really amazing. You got 4350, which is even more than smarty-pants Infinity has, and this is his second year of eighth grade."
Alia looked it over, then handed the sheet to X. "Who taught you this well, in Ikari Tower?"
X understood the scoring graphs in a glance, and also understood that a normal child his age probably couldn't. "I taught myself, and Zero. I read lots of books."
The teacher thought on this. "You know magic... can you tell me about the elementals?"
"That's easy. Spells seem very complex and random, but there is natural logic to their behaviors. Aura, the base of magic, is formed off emotions, memories, and thoughts. There are 49 elemental types of aura, split into the Seven Rings and Seven Arts. The Seven Rings are White, Black, Warlock, Sorcery, Nature, Elf, and Shadow. Then the Arts are Water, Fire, Earth, Thunder, Air, Light, and Life. By pairing up an Art with a Ring, you can make all of the elements, even something that seems as contradictory as Shadow Light. Then you have to know the formula for the kind of spell effect you want."
"Whoa, how do you remember all that?" Sandy asked. "I'm a Nature mage and I can only keep track of my own Ring."
"Um, it's not that hard," X said.
"So what sort of mage are you?" Iris asked.
"He can't tell you," Sandy said, when X paused to think. "You three are too young to be tested."
Someone rang a bell outside. "Oh, they're starting now. The rest of you should go back in."
"What am I going to do?" X asked her.
"Well you've proven to me that you belong in eighth grade. You should be fine." She winked. "You should also stick with these two; they'll look out for you, I'm sure."
"Of course," Ash said. "Nobody'll mess with you here, we promise. Right?"
Sandy nodded. "Right, by our honor."
-+-
The meeting was simply a greetings and encouragement to the new school year. Then the reploid classes made their way upstairs. X and Zero said goodbye to each other and nervously went their own ways.
The first grade classroom had a bird theme to its decorations. There were posters, dolls, books, and even one real bird, a parakeet named Whistler by the cage's tag. Overall, the room was bright, colorful, cheerful, and most of all, cute. Zero wasn't sure how he felt about coming into this room every day to learn under Alia.
"Good morning everyone," Alia said cheerfully.
"Good morning," about half of the class replied. Two even thought to add, "Miss Alia."
She nodded. "I am Alia Smith. I can assure you we will be having a wonderful year and we will learn many fun and interesting things."
This was Alia's mirror, no doubt. Zero wondered how long he would last under her super bright cheeriness.
Pointing to a wall lined with cubbies, she ordered, "Now, line up right there, that's good. I'm going to call your names and when I do, I want you to tell everyone what your favorite animal is. First off, Yammark Gate."
Yammark looked startled to be called first. He fluttered his wings. "Oh, that's me. Um, I like dragonflies, cause that's what I am."
"Dragonflies aren't real, dork," the boy next to him said.
"Well if they aren't what am I doing here, idiot?"
"Stop that," Alia said firmly. They both stopped. "We do not insult others here at school, understand?"
"Yes Miss Alia," the two boys said, with some reluctance.
"Okay, then we have Cyber Peacock Rainier."
It was the boy who claimed dragonflies weren't real. Apparently developing just like a real peacock, he was covered in black downy feathers. "I'm here. And I might be a peacock, but I actually like bats. Bats are cool."
"That's fine. Next, Sugar Gaudile." Alia smiled at her.
Gaudile? Zero remembered seeing Cinnamon. Sugar looked much like her, only she had pink hair and wings. "Hello Miss Alia. I like platypuses, cause that's what my dad is."
"An interesting animal."
"Yup!"
"And Rainbow Swan Jupiter."
That name was completely unfamiliar. Also reflecting her real bird, Rainbow Swan managed to look uglier than Cyber did right now. "That's me," she said smugly. "I like swans, of course. I'll be much prettier when I grow up."
It won't help if that attitude doesn't change, Zero found himself thinking. Alia just nodded. "Of course. And Crystal Snail Observer."
Crystal Snail was unique in that he was allowed to wear his shell armor to school, because he was a snail. The school badge had been velcroed to his left side. "That's me. I like ferrets best. I've got a pet ferret at home. His name is Mr. Furious."
"That's very clever. And Iris Greensward."
She liked horses, Zero recalled spontaneously. She smiled sweetly. "That's me. I like horses, because they're so pretty."
"They are. And lastly, Zero Light." She gave him a direct smile too.
"I'm here." He wasn't sure what animal to say, but it came to him as he spoke. "I, um, I like wolves best. They're the guardians of the woods."
"That's very poetic of you."
"Well they are."
"Oh good, I thought we had another girl there," Cyber said. Yammark snickered.
"I am not girly," Zero insisted.
"You two cut that out," Alia told Cyber and Yammark sternly. "Cyber, you need to write an apology note to Zero before lunch."
Cyber scowled. Zero felt like he wasn't getting off to a good start.
Since Infinity had been in eighth grade last year, he led the others to their home room. "Anybody hear who we got?"
Nobody seemed to know. "What happened to the last teacher?" a boy asked. X suspected he was Lumine.
"She was out traveling and her caravan got attacked by orcs," Ash said. "Only a few people came back alive, my dad said."
"The orcs are getting desperate," one of the two girls said. "They attacked while the sun was up. Sure, it was sunset, but normally they won't come out of their caves until twilight's fully gone."
"They could have been really bored," X said. "Their caves aren't frozen and if it was a civilian caravan, there was probably nothing they wanted."
"That's true," the girl answered.
"What are you doing with us?" Lumine asked harshly. "Go back to the baby class."
"He belongs in our class," Sandy defended. "He's much smarter than you are."
"Can't be."
Ash glared at him. "Lumine, leave him alone."
Lumine scowled back, but didn't say anything. X gripped his backpack and wished he could stay with Alia's class. Here, he'd be dealing with much smarter bullies.
"We're here," Infinity said to their teacher.
The teacher gave him a stern look. "That would be here, sir." He shifted his arm, where a badge for the Snow Patrol was located. He had black armor like an elaborate coat. A black commander's hat sat on the desk. But the thing that caught X's eye was the silver ice. It encased his left leg, clung to his hair, and left streaks on his arms. He was lucky to be alive.
All the other kids seemed awed by him. Infinity blushed. "Oh, right... sorry sir."
Was he familiar? X seemed to think so, but wasn't sure who he was. He nodded and indicated the tables around the room. "Go ahead and take your seats. Civilly."
The kids did as he asked. X sat with Ash and Sandy. The girl who had talked about the orcs gave Ash a questioning look, then sat with them. That completed one table. The others took another table close to the teacher's desk, leaving two more tables completely empty.
"Did you really fight the Ice Dragon, sir?" Lumine asked.
"More than once," he replied. "I've encountered some difficulty in continuing, and thus I am here to teach you now. A little different than my usual classes, so we'll have to learn from each other, agreed?"
They agreed. X thought about it and figured that any kid in this world would greatly respect a warrior of the Snow Patrol, especially one that had fought the Ice Dragon and survived. But he must be suffering a great deal. The silver ice never melted through ordinary means, and the patrol officer probably had a difficult time moving. A cane was leaning against the wall, confirming this.
"I am Blue Dragon Lord Signas Nautilus," he introduced himself. Ah, that's who he was. X didn't recognize the mirror of the Hunter strategist because the ice grayed his hair. "But I won't be picky about the exact title. I've had enough of those things for a while. Now, I know every one of you must deserve to be here. You should understand, though, that as members of the class for intellectuals, I will expect nothing but your best."
That was the sort of thing Signas would say. X knew that this class would be challenging. Signas gave no quarter to the upper ranks. He wondered how his classmates would feel when they realized that, after the awe had worn down.
Signas picked up a clipboard. "So let's see who's misfortunate enough to join my class. Alisander Greensward, 9 years old, 3501."
That was Sandy. "Here, sir."
Signas looked at him. "Greensward, of Jando Greensward?"
Sandy nodded, looking solemn at the mention. "Yes sir."
He nodded back, apparently holding respect for Sandy's father. "Good man. Nice to meet you. Hyper Mayden Alden, 8 years old, 3505."
Who named their kid that, even a reploid? It was the girl sitting with them. "Here, sir."
"Is that really your name?"
She grinned. "Yes sir, that's me entirely!"
"I see." He flipped the page up to check something, then went back to his class list. "Leeden Lumine Leeton, 10 years old, 3782."
Somebody should have tried talking sense to Lumine's parents. Maybe Hyper's, but she seemed happy with her name. Lumine seemed annoyed. "I go by Lumine, sir."
"If you wish," Signas replied, in a tone that hinted that Lumine better not let disrespect show in his voice again. "Carol Angel Heart, 9 years old, 3814."
The other girl, who seemed to fit her name well. She wore barrettes with hearts on them and had a pair of creamy yellow wings. "Here, sir."
"You'd better put that brush away." He waited until she did so. "Washington Riviera, 9 years old, 4012."
That was Ash. "Here sir."
"Oregon's son, huh? I know him." Signas chuckled. "Anyone in the Patrol knows General Oregon Riviera."
Ash nodded, apparently used to this. "I know, sir."
"Infinity Mijinion Gate, 9 years old, 4300."
"Here sir," Infinity said proudly.
"One of Gate's clan, huh? I could've guessed that by your form."
"My dad's the best engineer out there... sir."
"One of them. And X Light, 3 years old, 4350."
Hyper smiled at him. The other table stared at him. X felt very nervous and shrank down. "Um, here, sir."
"I've heard of you, from the men of my old fort."
"Fort Madeline, sir? They were nice to us."
Signas smiled. "Certainly. Don't meet many kids who can escape Ikari Tower and Shadow Palace, and then run twenty days in the snow fields. Not many at all can do that."
X put his hand in his hair, very nervous. "Well..."
"You're probably one of the few people in the world who has seen worse things than I have. So I don't mind if you don't use 'sir' with me."
"Um, sure."
At nine-thirty, the reploid kids got to have recess. Sigma wondered what to kill time with. So far, school was being different than he expected. He couldn't slack off in class, especially not with the teacher he had.
"Hey Sigma, hold up," Sheldon said as he came up. "Remember?"
Why are you bothering me, he was going to say. But what he said was, "What's bothering you?"
Sheldon edged them toward a corner, away from the other students. "I don't like this RFF thing."
"Well then why did you join?"
"Dad made me. He threatened to kick me out of the house and make sure no one would take me in. But your parents would, right? If I got in trouble with my dad?"
"Of course," Sigma said without thinking. He tried to temper that by adding, "But your dad was probably just joking with you."
"It didn't seem like it. I mean he... um..." his lips trembled for a moment, looking quite forlorn.
At that, Sigma felt an uncharacteristic amount of concern. "What?" he asked in quiet reassurance.
However, the conversation didn't get any further. Sheldon's four older brothers came up to them. Turtloid grinned. "How's the wicked witch treating you both?"
"Ferham's terrible," Sheldon said, dropping his emotions for a well-practiced act. "She carries around a big metal rod and hits desks with it."
"And you just know that she wants to hit some kid with it," Scaravich added. "She's not supposed to hurt anyone, but I bet she would."
Yammark fluttered up to them. "Hey, whatcha guys talking about?"
"Scram, baby," Turtloid said. "This is a big kid conference."
The little insect put his hands on his hips defiantly. "I'm not the baby. Wolfang's the baby."
Vile and Dynamo came up from behind the kid. "You are a baby," Vile said, shoving the dragonfly over.
Indignant, Sheldon went to his younger brother and helped him off the ground. "Don't be so mean to him."
Agile raced up and stopped abruptly within their group. "What's a baby doing with us?"
"I'm telling Miss Alia!" Yammark cried as he ran off. Sigma rolled his eyes. Kid politics were no better than adult politics. They were just more open.
Agile started jumping up and down. "Hey, hey, did you hear, did you hear?"
"What's gotten into you?" Dynamo asked.
"There's something really crazy going on. Right Serges?"
Serges, Violen, and Lumine came to the corner. That completed the RFF children's unit, so far as Sigma knew. Serges didn't seem impressed by whatever gossip Agile was raving about. "Well Lumine said it," emphasizing Lumine's name in a bad way.
"It's true, I tell you."
"What's this about?" Sigma said sternly.
"There's a pair of baby reploids this year that escaped Ikari Tower and Shadow Palace. And as if that weren't enough, they crossed the snow fields on their own."
"No way," Vile said, although part of him seemed impressed. "Any one of those things is impossible, especially for baby reploids."
Trying to save face, Lumine looked to the oddest Gate child. "It's true. Right Infinity?"
He nodded. "It is. One of them, get this, he's in eighth grade with us. And Lord Signas respects this kid so much that he's allowed to address him informally. Can you believe that? A baby reploid allowed to address a Snow Patrol commander informally."
"It's those kids over there," Lumine pointed out. "Those two boys with the geeks."
Sigma looked. To his annoyance, it was X and Zero. They were sitting on a bench by the school building, talking to an older pair of boys and a little girl. Although in the same uniform as the rest of the kids, and much smaller, he could recognize Zero by his hair, and then X by his general looks.
Dynamo snorted. "Them? Man, they're really babies."
"They're the others," Sigma said.
"What are you talking about?" Sheldon asked.
"You remember what King said. The three stars brought three blessings to three children. Two would become the bane of our existence, and it's those two."
"I hope you're joking," Metal Shark Player said, with a slight threat to his voice.
"No, I'd believe him," Lumine said. "That X kid has a higher STERE score than Infinity."
"Hey!" he cried indignantly.
Seemingly more comfortable with that, he replied, "Come on, how can you not see that he's an unnatural genius? I mean, didn't you hear him answering Lord Signas' magic question?"
"He must have cheated," Infinity insisted. "No way some three-year-old can have a higher score than me."
Sigma had been thinking about how to undermine X and Zero from trying anything. "If they're doing impossible things and he's too smart to be real, then maybe they had supernatural help. Although it would take evil forces to do so."
"Like they had help from demons?" Vile asked, scandalized.
"Maybe. But I know they're the ones from the dreams the star gave me. They'll ruin us someday if we're not careful."
"Then we have to stop them before they stop us," Dynamo said. Everyone else seemed to agree.
Sigma smiled. This was working out splendidly. Now he just had to confirm his role as leader. How to accomplish that?
He heard a squeal from behind him. "Eee, Sigma, my sweet bamboo!" Some girl hugged him from behind. "I haven't seen you all summer!"
Most of the others snickered at him. Sigma threw her off. "Hey, cut that out."
Sheldon nodded. "Yeah Hyper, go find someone else to pester."
Sigma turned to face Hyper Mayden. She had golden eyes and light blue hair that just touched her shoulders. "But he's my sweetie pie. Right?"
"I am not your sweetie pie," Sigma said. "Leave me alone."
"Aw, but I missed you."
"Go away."
Giving him a semi-fiendish look, she teased, "I'm gonna tickle you."
Sigma shoved her away, making her trip. "Get lost, dimwit."
She looked very upset. "How dare you break my heart?" She ran off.
"About time you got rid of her," Dynamo said.
"She's not important. So anything come through the past few days?"
By lunchtime, it had spread like wildfire that two of the three-year-olds had come from Ikari Tower. "Did you tell other people that?" Zero asked.
"Signas knew. He used to be based at Fort Madeline."
"Oh I see. But you know, it's kinda creepy, the way everyone else looks at us."
"I know. Sometimes I think that everyone here should be dead, even the humans and the reploids we didn't know. There were a lot of times when we simply arrived too late."
"That's not our fault," Zero insisted.
"It still bothers me. And my age seems to have amplified my imagination."
Zero started to say something, but Ash and Sandy came up to their table. "Sorry to leave you for a bit. We promised to trade some cards with Storm Eagle."
"That's fine, Zero found me."
"So you guys cousins or something?" Ash asked.
"No, just best friends. We've been together our whole lives."
"At least as far as you can remember," X said. Zero shrugged.
Sandy was looking around. "Did Iris come with you? I have to look out for her especially well."
Ash shook his head. "You're more worried than she is. She's a smart girl; she'll do fine."
"Still, I can't let my dad down... oh, there she is. Hey Iris!"
Iris came up with Sugar Gaudile. "I made a new friend already, Sugar. This is my nerdy brother Sandy and my geeky cousin Ash."
Sugar smiled. "Hi. Oh, hi Zero! Who's that?"
"My best friend, X."
They got into their lunches, at which Sandy discovered, to his dismay, "Ack, my mom put relish on my sandwich again. I told her to stop doing that last year."
"But your mom's relish is the best," Ash said. "Trade you my ham and swiss."
"Go right ahead." They traded. Then X traded his pear for Sugar's carrots and peanut butter, and Sandy tried to trade off his green apple, but no one wanted it.
Iris tugged at her brother's sleeve. "Guess what? Miss Alia is going to teach us about spring."
"She always does," Ash said.
"Does she have pictures?" Sugar asked.
"Lots," Sandy said.
"My big sister says everything will get better when spring returns," Sugar said, sounding awed. "You think so?"
"Of course it will," Ash said. "If the adults say so, then it will be."
"But the wall will come down when spring comes back," Iris said. "Will we be safe?"
"Sure, we'll be safe," Sandy replied. "When spring comes, the Ice Dragon will be dead. She made winter."
"So winter won't ever come back?"
"It'll come back," Zero said. "But not this bad."
"No," Sandy replied. "If the Ice Dragon is dead, winter will never come back."
"But winter's caused by normal time cycles, not any stupid dragon."
"How do you know that?"
"I've seen spring."
"You've seen spring?" the other four asked at once.
"It wasn't really spring," X corrected. "It was just a shadow of spring in Shadow Palace. None of that was real."
"So you didn't," Iris said, disappointed.
"We know about spring," X said. "It's part of the normal seasonal cycle. It goes spring, summer, autumn, winter, and then back to spring, every year. At least, it's supposed to do that. The Ice Dragon simply stuck us in winter. Once she's gone, the cycle should return to normal."
"How do you know all this stuff?" Ash said. "I mean, you were in Ikari Tower, the worst place in the world."
"You're right there," Zero said.
"There's a huge library there," X explained. "I taught myself."
They ate for a little while. Then Sandy asked, "I heard that the master of Ikari Tower actually eats little kids. Is that true?"
"You still believe that?" Ash said.
Sandy shivered. "It's just too freaky to forget. There was this horrible story about..."
"No gross stories during lunch," Iris insisted. "Mom says so."
"Oh fine."
"I never heard of him eating kids," Zero said. "Although he kept those betagators awful close to our room. And he is an evil man."
X rubbed his nose, then said, "Actually, there's two Masters in Ikari Tower."
"Two?" Ash asked.
"Master Wily and Master Domino. They're both evil. I never met Master Wily in person, although sometimes I heard his voice. And Master Domino," X shuddered.
"Master Domino was freaky," Zero said. "He never actually killed anyone with his own hands, but he can make anyone do anything he wants."
"Now that's really evil," Ash said. "Treating other people just as puppets."
"He did."
Another reploid child, a spider, came up to his table. "Hey guys, hope you don't mind."
"Nah, you can join us," Sandy said. "Guys, this is Web Spider; everyone calls him Spinner."
Spinner waved one of his feet. "Hi. Look, I'll meet you all properly later. But the kids of our district have decided to warn everyone."
"Of what?"
"Sigma and Lumine."
"What about them?" Sandy asked. "Sigma's a spoiled rotten brat and Lumine's the worst bully in school. Everyone knows that."
"Yeah, but not everyone knows what happened earlier this summer. Sigma shoved Lumine off a playground tower, after breaking his nose by punching him. "
Ash put his red apple down. "Wait a moment, are we talking about the same Sigma? Cause Sigma's never won a fight and he chickened out of that incident with Sparks."
Spinner stood himself taller on his legs. "He's changed. Now he's a worse bully than Lumine. Just wait until you meet with him again. There's an evil spark in his eyes, I'm sure. So we're all warning you: stay away from Sigma." Then he moved on to warn others.
"Well that's weird," Sandy said. "He finally gets some nerve and starts bullying others."
"He was enough of a headache as he was."
"Why is Lumine still in school?" X asked. "He's ten and his score is high enough."
"He has a really bad birthday," Ash explained. "September third. The cut off for the ceremony is September first."
"Still, he's a nasty kid. You'd best keep away from both of them."
Sigma left school a little late, because Hyper had cornered him and tried to get an explanation for their 'breakup.' He sent her off in tears again. Why was she like that? They were kids, and apparently weren't old enough to be interested in dating. She was gong to be an annoyance.
School was going to be an even worse annoyance, he thought as he walked down the mostly empty hall. He felt so stupid today. Long division and multiplication of fractions should not be a problem for a reploid. And then there was his memory. Sometimes he remembered everything of his old world. Sometimes he remembered nothing. Sometimes he ran into a kid that he knew but didn't know. It was so confusing that it was giving him a headache.
He left the building and who was standing around the bottom of the steps? X and Zero; they were looking over some papers. Sigma felt mad. "Hey, you two!"
They both were startled. "Sigma?" X asked in confusion.
"What do you want?" Zero asked in challenge.
"What the hell happened to us? Why are we in this world?"
"You too?" X asked, confused.
"Of course, you idiots. I thought you were dead. Instead I wind up in this awful world. You'd better have a good exit strategy."
"Um..."
Zero glared at him. "Leave us alone, you spoiled brat."
Sigma tensed on being called that. "Don't call me that, Ikari demons."
"We're not demons," X said, although his voice betrayed an uncharacteristic level of fear.
"You're going to pay for getting me into this." Sigma punched X in the shoulder, missing his face.
And X... ran off crying? Sigma felt a mix of confusion and pride on seeing it. But in watching X run away, he missed Zero losing his temper. The much smaller Zero grabbed Sigma's right arm and bit hard enough to draw blood.
It hurt terribly. Unconsciously, Sigma backed up. His eyes were watering. "What did you do that for?"
Zero shifted into an aggressive fighting stance, even if it made him look unpracticed. "You hit him! I can do much worse."
All right, so Zero was less than three foot high, and Sigma was almost four. The fight should have been a cakewalk. To his own dismay, he ran off too, almost crying. I'm an idiot, Sigma thought. That was no reason to run. It wasn't like him. Then again, X and Zero were acting strangely too.
A hand grabbed his shoulder. "Sigma, there you are. We missed the bus; we're going to have to wait... what happened to your arm?" Roger knelt and looked at the bite mark.
"One of those Ikari demons bit me," he said, trying to keep the hurt sound out of his voice.
"So that's true? I thought it was a rumor."
"They're evil kids. They shouldn't be in school."
Roger shook his head. "Now think about that. If they've lived in Ikari Tower all their life, they're probably not sure how to cooperate with others. Why did he bite you?"
"Because he's mean."
Roger sighed. "Let's go home."
-+-
X ran into the house, shutting the door firmly behind him. He was exhausted after running so far. Shoot. If only he had his adult body, that run would have been nothing. Then again, if he had his adult body, he probably would not have run.
"Good afternoon," Rock said. "What's wrong?"
X hugged him. "It was scary. I don't want to go back."
"What was so bad?"
"There were too many people. And Zero and I were in different classes."
"You were? Where is Zero?"
"I thought he was right behind me."
Zero came in then, also looking like he'd run the whole way. "You okay?"
"I guess."
"Why were you running?" Rock brushed X's bangs back with his hand.
"Um..." X twisted his hair in his hand.
"There was this mean bully, Sigma," Zero said, spitefully. "He punched X in the shoulder. I yelled at him for being so mean and he ran off. He's a bad kid."
"You need to stand up to bullies," Rock said. "Once they learn you're not scared of them, they won't bother you."
"But I don't want to hurt anybody."
"You can be assertive without hurting anyone. So why were you in different classes?"
"Because Zero's a normal kid and I'm not."
"That's not bad," Zero insisted. "He had a really really good score on the STERE. 4350, I think, so he went straight to eighth grade."
"Really? That's wonderful. I knew you were smart, but I didn't know you were that smart."
"But we were separate, and the eighth grade teacher is really strict, even with me."
"Ash and Sandy were with you," Zero said. "Ash threatened to put Vile's eye out for teasing you during recess."
"I guess. Maybe we should walk home with them; we had to stay a bit longer to finish registration and they had to be home early for a Scout meeting."
Rock nodded. "I'm sure you can trust those boys. If they're anything like their fathers, you shouldn't have anything to worry about."
"Why's that?" Zero asked.
"Well Ash's father, General Oregon Riviera is one of the most respected generals in the Snow Patrol, and with good reason. I appointed him myself; he does everything necessary to keep people from harm."
"What about Sandy's dad? Jando Greensward, I think."
"That's him." Rock bit his lip. "Jando is a martyr and is quickly growing into a legend. There was a small town, Odessa, which managed to survive up until six years ago. It was a historically and culturally important place, which is why the Greenswards and others stayed on. But then the Ice Dragon attacked Odessa directly. Jando fought her off alone, and very nearly destroyed her, while allowing the others to leave Odessa safely."
"Really?" Zero asked. "He must have been very brave."
"He was. I do wish we could have sent someone to help in time. But as I said... if those two inherited any of their fathers' honor, you have nothing to fear with them as your friends."
A/N: Wow, I didn't remember how inconsistent chapter lengths were in this story. 10 is twice the length of 9.
Lots of character intros here. Zero does have it right; Ash, Sandy, and Iris are AU versions of General, Colonel, and Iris from X4. And yes, X is a super genius.