Brent woke up and decided that it was going to be a bad day.

Nothing in particular had happened, no weird events, no freaky dreams, it was just going to be a bad day, plain and simple.

Any reason for it to be bad? The scant remains of his optimism tried to cheer him up. I mean c'mon everything's perfect, nothing scheduled for today, it's a weekend so a few hours of training but no classes. Why don't you just take a hike or bauble somewhere interes--

Before his mind could process any more thoughts, someone wearing a blue bandanna walked past his open door.

He didn't know who it was, it didn't matter, but the bandanna was enough to tell him something.

This was going to be a really bad day.

He didn't argue with himself after that.

---

Guard Wing had arrived.

The Academy was one of the few gathering places for Ka Masters, and probably the most well known. Animals and humans of all shapes and sizes proudly marched down the halls trying to intimidate the kids who as usual could've probably cared less.

"Show-offs." Sora muttered as the parade of soldiers walked passed her, Craig and Tails.

"Ah, let 'em have a little glory." Tails cracked his back. "They're the ones busting their guts out."

"Guard and Advance Wings haven't had a mission in 3 years." Craig looked up, his eyes clouded over with boredom.

"And how do you know that?" Tails eyes shifted over to the rabbit.

Craig's eyes immediately snapped back to their normal selves. "Samuel-Ka told me. That's all."

"What about Advance Wing?" Sora folded her arms.

"Daroun Conflict." Tails' started in a deadpan voice. "First and foremost the Ka Masters are a peace keeping force. Advance Wing was sent to guard a convoy of supplies in some country I can't pronounce near it's capital, Daroun. Guerilla fighters ambushed 'em. Advance Wing crushed them."

"Okay, I've been raised in a family that whose job that is. How come you knew about that, and I didn't?" Sora looked over at him.

"Maybe if you actually did half your reading assignments...." Tails smiled and was greeted with a clonk on the head from Sora's staff.

"Why are they all coming here anyway?" Craig looked at the still forthcoming army.

"Meeting time and reassignment." Slak walked up from behind them.

"For the whole Wing?! All right, maybe Tyson-Ka'll be back a few weeks earlier!" Sora cheered.

"....For select divisions." Slak finished. "This is the day they add and take away. Like I should care."

"Passed up weren't you?" The vixen stifled a laugh.

"Watch it, until you're out of here, I have some sort of seniority." The rat walked past them.

"When you put it that way, you almost want to feel sorry for the guy." Tails looked after him.

"Hey he didn't get chosen that's his fault." Craig shrugged.

The three continued to stand there.

"We're at an all time low aren't we?" Tails looked around.

"Lower." Sora sighed and hung her head a bit.

---

"Bleh." Salah poked at her gyro with a fork.

"Tired from training with Sora?" Brent asked with a smile.

It faded when she looked up at him.

"Double bleh." Salah went back to prodding the wrap.

"I always thought you liked those things, Miss Eterna." Mason baubled into the room.

"She's beat. Give her a break." Brent put his head down. "Ngh. This is catching."

"I take it Juro's gonna show up and demand the NFE data?" Salah looked up at the squirrel.

"No, Michael's got him pretty busy at the moment." Mason smiled.

"WHAT?!" Salah immediately perked up and almost choked Brent. "YOU NEVER TOLD ME HE WAS STILL ALIVE!"

"I told you, I found something. It was him!" Brent got up from the table quickly.

"I thought you were talking about O-Zero!"

"Nope. You guessed wrong Snobgirl." Brent gave a sarcastic smirk.

"Don't talk to Miss Eterna that way." Mason looked over at the white cat.

"Oh what do you know? And stop saying 'Miss Eterna' you don't have an accent and you're not tricking anyone. Besides I'm pretty sure you're along the lines of pure evil. You're the one who convinced Taraku about the NFE."

"How was I supposed to know all that would happen?!" The squirrel retreated a bit. "At least I don't go around insulting people."

"It's an inside joke Mason." Salah calmed him down.

"Not a very funny one." Mason grumbled.

"Why? It does do me justice, or at least does justice to who I was." Salah narrowed her eyes. "And I would appreciate it if you didn't try to provoke my friends."

"Even this evil flea magnet?" A paw was pointed towards Brent.

"More or less, I really couldn't care whether my friends are bags of failed genetics." Salah folded her arms. "As for you, Mason, I can never forgive you for what happened to Taraku."

"Taraku volunteered. It wasn't my fault Vale messed things up." Mason countered.

"But it was you who convinced everyone the NFE was complete and safe when you didn't know what would happen." Brent stood in a attack pose. "It was your fault for Taraku's transformation. Not only that but you also convinced Michael to take that stupid O-Zero mission."

"I was paid well." Mason shrugged. "Very well. Not everyone liked Michael Banelan."

Brent tried to lunge forward but caught his footpaw on a chair dragging him down to hit the floor with a loud 'thud-crank' sound.

"Agile." Mason smirked. "Well if you'll excuse me, I popped in to say "Hello" to Salah. I should really get back to Juro before he kills himself." The squirrel baubled away.

"I can see the insults running through your mind right now. Sit down. Have a gyro." Salah offered.

"Bag of failed genetics?" Brent got up, created a bauble and stepped into it.

"More for me then. Just wish I was hungry." Salah put her head back down level with her plate and continued to poke at her breakfast.

"And so Dane had this hamburger he was ready to throw at some unsuspecting sap, when Slak-Ka came in, saw decided to blame somebody for no particular reason and since Dane still had the food in his hand, he was drug off to the Ta'Ka's lab, where I heard they're actually injecting foodaphobia into his mind." Cume flailed his wings wildly as he spoke.

"That was just about the worst one yet." Sora sweatdropped. "What happened Tails?"

"Slak-Ka chose somebody randomly, it happened to be Dane, he has detention." Tails sighed.

"I liked my version better." Cume mumbled.

"But it was a filthy pack of no less than....4 lies?" Craig counted on his paw.

"3, actually" Cume scratched the back of his head.

"Uh huh. By the way it's called 'Sitophobia.' Sora smiled and yawned. "Crap, Salah-Ka really pushes you. I need a rest."

"You hardly did anything! You argued with her for 3 hours straight!" Tails looked at her.

"I got my battle patterns in."

"Enough for Drills?"

"Relax. Drills are in a month or two. Plenty of time for practice."

"Actually I'm not worried about Drills....it's the Battle Royale that scares me." Craig shuddered.

"I heard that everyone who loses the Battle Royale have to stay on for 3 more semesters." Cume slowly fluttered his wings, but they moved faster as he started to say more. "What's worse is that if you fail it two times, there's this whole thing with a radioactive tapeworm....."

"Enough!" Sora clonked him on the head. "The Battle Royale seems kind of pointless to me. Isn't one of the rules, 'Trust your friends no matter what.'? Than why have us fight each other?!"

"Test of your skills, I guess." Craig yawned and leaned back in his chair. "Nyeh. Nothing to do today...again."

"I suppose we could go hiking." Tails offered.

"Not if you knew half the stuff that's in the woods." Cume started to flap his wings again. "I heard this one time a group of kids went out like that and they just happened to have a salami loaf with them....."

"DON'T EVEN START!" All 3 of the friends yelled at the duck before he could continue.

"I guess hiking wouldn't be so bad." Sora scratched her chin in thought. "At least it would give us something to do."

"Fine. Just...." Cume started.

"Say one word about salami and you won't be flapping those wings for a long, long time." Sora looked over at him.

"Aha! Onward!" Sora stepped in her over-exaggerated march she saved for her "leadership" roles.

"Do you honestly have to do that every half-mile?" Craig sighed.

"Dramatic effect. Do we have to go over this again?!" Sora laughed.

"Maybe we should take a break. I don't think Cume's taking it too well." Tails looked behind them.

The duck was racing frantically to get back up, flailing his wings at every step.

"I SAW SOMETHING MOVE IN THAT LAKE!!!" He yelled finally catching up.

"Yeah, those would be called 'fish'." Sora thwacked him in the head. "Maybe we should just turn back."

"Uh, yeah. Maybe this whole hiking thing wasn't such a good idea." Tails started to dart his eyes back and forth.

"Are you hiding something?" Sora looked over at him.

"N-no. Of course not."

"Yeah, you are. That's okay I understand. Don't blab it to the loudmouth right?" Sora stuck her muzzle in the air.

"No. It's nothing like that....okay yeah it is...but it's really not that important anyway." Tails scratched the back of his head.

"I bet I know!" Cume started flailing his wings. "Michael and Juro Banelan got in a fight around the lake, you and Brent-Ka met them when training, and now you're worried about running into them."

Tails jaw dropped. "How...?"

"Word spreads fast." Cume smiled and walked ahead.

"That? There's nothing worth blabbing. Except for the fact a supposedly dead Ka Master is alive." The vixen tapped her chin.

"Don't even think about it." Tails and Craig said in unison thwacking her on the head.

"Oww! That does it. You guys have been hanging around me way too long." Sora mumbled rubbing the top of her head. "Besides it not really that important. It's not like Michael-Ka was some great advanced Ka Master."

"Why does everyone keep repeating that?" A voice came from the side of them. "It's true yeah...but man that kills your ego."

Cume raced back to join them. "All right! A mysterious voice! I always wanted to hear these things."

".....Do the words 'you're an odd duck' sound redundant?" The speaker stepped forward. A gray wolf stepped out similar in appearance to Juro, but his eyes were a much cooler green, and a red bandanna was tied around his wrist. This was no foot solider, he was a member of Advance Wing.

"M-michael-Ka." The 4 saluted nervously.

Tails cleared his throat. "Uh..you are Michael Banelan right?"

"Yep. Salute on instinct huh? Not bad."

"Remind you of anybody?" Sora whispered to Tails.

"You're a Lateri, right?" Michael nodded at Sora. "Something about the way you talk...."

"Um...yes sir."

"Let's see.....that must make your dad....Karastil?"

"Yeah." Sora gritted her teeth.

Michael caught sight of Tails making a cutting motion across his throat.

The wolf quickly cleared his throat. "Uh, 'Tails' right?" He quickly shifted his gaze.

"Yes sir."

"Saw you with Brent, you're not his student are you?"

"I...kind of am." Tails scratched his head.

"HA! Crayshen training somebody! That's a laugh. I'm surprised he even made it as a Ka Master!" Michael doubled over. "He's probably been staying here all nice and comfy slobbering over Salah for the past 2 years."

The 4 exchanged nervous looks.

"Umm..." Cume sucked in his breath. "You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?" Michael said his laughter dying down.

"Tech levels...." Cume was all that he could squeak out of his mouth.

Michael stopped laughing completely, his face growing serious.

"What do you mean?" He asked starting to narrow his eyes.

Craig stepped forward. "It's just a stupid rumor that he's got all these techniques down pat, it's not true."

"....Ever here of anything called the Neo Factor Experiment?" Something in Michael's eyes grew immensly cold. The green eyes had gotten even brighter, but in an extremely menacing way.

"Uh yeah." Tails scratched the back of his head.

"I want you to forget about it. Every word. Got it?" The eyes grew back to their normal color. "So, anything new? Roddis still trying to act like he's in charge?" Michael tried to change the subject again.

"Shh!" Cume started flailing his wings. "Don't let any of the Ta'Ka hear you say that or they'll pin you down to the ground and start pelting you with oranges."

"Huh?" The wolf sweatdropped.

"Roddis-Ka's been a little...." Craig started.

"Relentless." Tails finished.

"Yeah, yeah show off the stupid vocabulary again." The rabbit mumbled.

"Oh come on. Anything more than 3 syllables and your brain turns to mush." The fox rolled his eyes.

"Cool it." Michael looked at both of them shutting them up. "Right, well maybe I'll see you guys again sometime." He started off again. "And Lateri?"

"Yeah?" Sora asked.

"Remind me sometime and I'll kick Karastil's butt for ya." The white wolf baubled away.

"I hope we see him again soon." Sora smiled darkly.

"That's enough violent fantasies for you in one day." Tails laughed. "C'mon let's go back already. I think we just found something to do."

"What?"

"How 'bout confronting a Ka Master for dark secrets?" Tails smirked.

"Huh uh. You heard the guy forget about the stupid experiment." Sora shook her head. "On the other hand, I'm bored out of my mind....Aw let's just go."

"Works for me!" Cume ran back in the direction of the Academy.

"Oh sure NOW he gets an energy boost." Craig laughed.

---

"You've been reading the report files haven't you?" Brent walked over to a table where Salah was reading.

"Ahh!" She nearly threw her book in the air. "Don't do that Fatmouth! Give some warning next time." Salah mumbled.

"Tell me. When'd you read those files?!"

"I CAN'T READ THEM!!"

"You're head of research!"

"Report files are meant strictly for the Ta'Ka no one else. What in the world makes you think I read them?"

"Because you know." Brent narrowed his eyes.

"About the NFE? I was just guessing." Salah shrugged. "I put it all together after you let that whole 'paycheck' thing slide at Training Factor 5. You didn't bolt off suddenly, you were put on assignment. Figures. You were always a cheater."

"Get it through your head!" Brent yelled. "I did NOT use the NFE to learn those techniques! I can't!"

"Oh really?" Salah smirked. "Than tell me why you can't."

"It has nothing to do with tech, but I could still be tearing you into shreds!"

"I thought a moderately strong body can handle it."

"What do you think it is?! It's not just something you can turn on and turn off. It's pure, raw power."

"..." Salah smiled again. "Yeah, uh huh, sure Crayshen just go on believing you're strong. But trust me I didn't read the stupid files."

"What the hell are you smiling for?!" Brent flailed his paws in a huff. "I was wrong. You're still as stuck up as ever. Everything's perfect for you isn't it?!!"

"C'mon Fatmouth. I didn't mean anything. I just found it interesting that you think you're actually strong."

"Fatmouth, huh? That's all you can say?! Well you know what? You were right. You can't appeal with memories."

"What's wrong with you?"

"No, what's wrong with YOU? Oh I know. NOTHING'S WRONG WITH YOU THAT'S WHAT!"

"If you're so mad about it, how come you didn't confront me earlier?"

"Because, I've just been grilled by my student and his dopey friends about it. I owed you a lot Eterna, but you're still bigheaded. Within a day everyone will think 'Crayshen? He's a cheater. Let's drive him out of this place as fast as we can.'.

"I thought you hated it here anyway."

"I do, but I don't want to leave again, Salah. Not again. I didn't want to leave the first time. They made me."

"....Look if this is about what happened a few months ago..."

"That? Who cares about that? Ancient history. Forget the past. And by the way? I'm resigning tomorrow." Brent's gray tipped tail swayed a bit as he turned around and started walking out.

"You won't. You want to see Tails through to the end." Salah went back to reading her book.

He stopped and turned around.

"Yeah, I do, and I don't want to leave, but I'm quitting tomorrow. I'm not gonna be drug through the mud again. You saved me the first time and than you go and bite my head off. I thought you were my friend."

"I didn't tell them anything." Salah said not looking up from the book.

"You let it slip somewhere. Somehow, someway you let it slip."

"You're acting like Sora." Salah gave him an amused look.

"Maybe she has the right idea about things." Brent mumbled. "I guess I was wrong teaching her that little lesson. People in the world don't care about other people, they care about making themselves greater. I thought you were different Salah. I really did." He walked out the door.

Salah continued to read her book in peace. Idiot Fatmouth. What right did he have to go blaming her? She never let anything slip anyway. Besides it was he took the NFE voluntarily. The report file said so. It didn't take much to get by Slak's defenses....If Crayshen wants to go ahead and quit let him! No one's stopping him.

You will. You promised, a voice inside her head started up.

Darn morals. Always getting in the way.

Don't blame me, the voice started again, you know what he said is true anyway, you aren't any different from those that seek power.

Now it was getting plain annoying.

And now you're trying to cover it all up! Her mind would not leave her alone. You're just as bad as Karastil! You're worse!

Worse? Ha! Of course she was worse. Maybe being worse was all for the better.

Nice try, now get out there and help Snobgirl

Salah slowly put down the book....and smiled.

She knew herself too well.

"I'm never going to finish this stupid book..." She sighed getting up from the chair.

---

Training was different that night. Everything seemed off-beat.

"Are you alright with this?" Tails raised an eyebrow.

"Of course I'm alright with this. It was my idea to have extra training for you." Brent mumbled. "Oh wait, do you think I'm not strong enough to handle it all? Or do you think I'm too strong?!"

"This is about that whole confronting you thing isn't it?" Tails hung his head a bit.

"Yeah. It is."

"You still never gave me a clear answer. Whether it was yes or no."

" All right than. The answer's yes, now why in the world are you still bothering me about it?!"

"BECAUSE I WANTED TO KNOW!"

"WHY?! WHAT GOOD WOULD IT DO YOU TO KNOW?!"

"I was just wondering if I could learn all those techs without the help of the NFE. Apparently you didn't."

"Listen Prower." Brent started to hiss. "Techniques have nothing to do with the NFE. The Neo Factor is nothing but trouble. It is power in it's purest form. It's strength not tech. I've worked my butt off the past 3 years training and now I'm gonna be discredited. It's happening all over again." The cat punched the ground. "You just couldn't leave well enough alone could you?! I took you on as an apprentice because I thought you had skill. I'm the one that taught you all of those techs, I'm the one whose defended you against those other idiots in there who keep calling you a freak, and for what? For you to turn on me and bring my worst nightmare back to life."

"What in the world are you talking about?" Tails asked confused.

"Oh, ANOTHER question to prod into my life 'eh? Why don't you ask Salah? She's the one who gave you the stupid NFE info right?"

"No." Tails shook his head. "We found it before we met Juro down in the lab. There was a cross reference to you in one of the files that involved the NFE. I just kind of put two and two together. Salah-Ka had nothing to do with it."

"So why the sudden questioning?"

"We met Michael-Ka on a hike. He seemed interested about the past.....so we kind of..."

"Filled him in?" Brent seemed to deflate. "I take it you let the whole NFE thing drop than."

Tails nodded.

"I am such an idiot. I'm an over-conceited piece of crap." Brent sunk farther onto the ground. "I take it Michael got a bit...upset."

"He seemed to shake it off fast." Tails tried to add encouragingly.

"......He probably thinks that I'm no different from Juro. That I turned my back on everything he taught me and chose the easy way out." Brent ignored him.

"Just tell him you didn't."

"That's the whole point. I did. I was afraid I couldn't make it as a Ka Master. I thought that maybe if I had a little boost....things would fall into place. It made things worse. The Ta'Ka sent me out on assignment to test the NFE but I went off searching for Michael, in hopes that...I don't know, maybe apologize for all of this?" Brent gave off a weak laugh. "That's pathetic isn't it?"

"Not really. At least that proves you still have some morals left in you."

"It's all too late now." Brent sighed. "I'm quitting tomorrow."

"WHAT?!" Tails backed up a bit in shock. "WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?"

"Easy. I'm gonna be drug through the mud, again. The last thing I want to do is dishonor my name, my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather...all down the tube."

"You're one to speak for honor!" Tails narrowed his eyes. "You've been living like a thief for the past 3 years! Since when have you EVER cared about honor?!"

"It's a family thing. I know I don't have the best record in the world, and the last thing I wanna be is a stuck up jerk whose hung up on 'preserving his honor' blah, blah blah. But we're talking about my entire family." Brent sat down. "All of them'll just be considered losers and cheaters because of me, and let's face it that's not fair."

"So how's quitting going to help any of this?"

"My entire family has been a long line of Ka Masters. Not nearly as long as the Lateris, but all the same...I turn in my staff, I'm thereby off the family proper. It's a way of disowning myself. Then all that nobility and honor crap can be preserved."

"You don't seem too enthusiastic about upholding all that."

"Would you, knowing you have to leave everything behind?"

"That's not worth it!" Tails tried to point out. "If you can just restore it..or something..."

"Not gonna work. No matter what I do everyone'll just think it's the NFE not me."

"......So now what? You're gonna go back to petty theft until they catch you?"

"Looks that way doesn't it?" Brent mumbled.

"This is downright insane....at least wait until after Drills. Just to see how everything works out. You're not thinking straight."

"I know." Brent said quietly. "But that's never exactly stopped me before."

"Than let it." Tails narrowed his eyes.

"........Darnit. We've moved into yet another deep conversation." Brent smirked.

"You're right." Tails shuddered. "Let's get back to training at least."

"Works for me....All right let's see how you've been working on that Quake Swing..."

---

"Two weeks spent trying to stop a rumor." Sora yawned over her books. "I've barely got studied the properties of the 4-Way Swing."

"At least we did something." Tails yawned also. "If that thing spread any farther than it did, they're would have been a huge boost to crime levels."

"Must study..." Craig nearly drooled.

"Uh...when was the last time you got any sleep Craig?" Tails looked worried.

"I squeezed a few hours in over the weekend....." The rabbit dropped his head rubbing his eyebrows with his palms.

"I wasn't much better off." Sora cringed. "I think my tail's been cramping up, and I'm starting to hallucinate."

"About what?" Tails raised an eyebrow.

"Giant inflatable balloons and the...gedder headio drinener." Sora's put her head down dropping into uncompressible speech.

She didn't get to far as she was immediately hit with a bowl of cold soup that had gone astray.

"Bleh." She got up slowly. "Well that does it for me. Last time I'm studying in the cafeteria. Better practice a bauble." Sora tried to concentrate on creating a sphere. "All right!" She cheered as it came easily before her.

"Yeah, yeah. You can do one thing I can't." Tails mumbled. It took at least 5 minutes for him to get a small one to appear.

"I also can actually go to places I want to." Sora stepped into it laughing.

"I get the idea." Tails looked back at Craig. "Are you okay?"

"Right over there." Craig mumbled also half asleep.

"Okay, I guess I'll go up too. You sure you don't need any help getting back to your room or something?" Tails got up.

"I told you it's over there." Craig yawned, still sleeptalking.

"Uh huh." The fox frowned. "You seriously need to stop pounding yourself...."

"Stop pounding myself...." Craig repeated half mumbling the words.

"And be sure to give Tails twenty bucks when you wake up."

"Twenty.....all right I'll go up to my room." The rabbit got up with a sudden burst of energy. "And stop smiling about it! I was practicing that sleepy-eyed look."

"You don't need to practice it. Your gonna fail Drills if you go into it like this." Tails warned.

"Bleh. I can still get more training in." Craig put his fist in the air. "It'll be a piece of cake! A very stale piece of cake, but cake nonetheless!"

"How's Sharp- I mean Samuel-Ka holding up to this?"

"He's wimping out, saying I'm pushing him too much."

"Wish I could say the same for Brent-Ka." Tails shuddered. "He won't give me a break."

"Even after we saved his reputation?"

"We MIGHT have saved his reputation. If Cume can really keep his beak shut about something."

"Wonder how Sora's doing."

"Not sure. The Ta'Ka pushed Salah-Ka to go to afternoon training when no one else is...that way when those two try to tear each other apart, it won't distract as many people." Tails rolled his eyes.
"Oh so only half of the world than?" Craig laughed.

"More like 3/4ths" Tails smirked.

"Right. Man. I really do need a nap or something." Craig threw his books in his pack.

"Nyeh. I agree." Tails yawned. "This is catching."

"Uh, I'll take us out." Craig backed up a bit before creating a bauble.

"I'm not that bad at it." Tails mumbled stepping into it.

====

RETROSPECTIVE

Update between bugs and plants

====

Well, I'm currently in a break, in the middle of my summer field ecology class updating this. With my internet access kaput, I really haven't found time to update much, so live with what you get, even though this chapter is a little....depressing? Hey, everyone's gotta have some sorta story, and this is Crayshen's. Sure maybe he is my avatar in a slice of story, but I still don't like him very much, I guess this is just a way of squeezing out a little sympathy for him. And as for Salah's little secret....never mind. I hate foreshadowing if people try to sneak it in like that.

Okay, plot point to make clear. Originally the chapter started with a training session near the lake, here that's just implied. Don't like it? Than you can live with the horrible scene that was there before I re-edited it.

Ha! They couldn't stop me after all! Who needs AOL anyway? Okay, I do...but still....

Anyway, I've got bugs to pin. Better get a move on.

Hey, it was either this or take physics.

High school credit. Fear it.