Year Two – Consequence

They had her strung up high on the flagpole, the highest form of treason one can have against the Crown. Anyone within an entire mile could see her, including the adjacent Hendry and Gallagher schools. Fanny and Patton in the meantime had been sent into permanent detention due to the Crown had long since deciding that they were much too dangerous for the standard punishment. This way the could easily watch them under lock and key.

Why they had decided to publicly rally up the entire 9th grade instead of work behind the scenes to destabilize the hierarchy, Chad did not know, or maybe didn't want to know. They could have easily just dodged the hazing and let the weaker students get caught in the crossfire. That was what he had done. That was what everyone had done.

But not Rachel McKenzie, oh no. She had to be the hero, had to change a system that had been implemented for years. She had to be so invested in the face of injustice even at the cost of what was most likely going to be the end of her social life. They haven't even finished the first quarter yet.

Rachel raised her head when he approached, a small smile on her face. It was humored. It was defiant. It was absolutely…

"Visiting hours finally open, Dickson?"

"We can make this a conjugal visit, if you're up to it," Chad had to tease, hand over his eyes to block out the sun. "How are you holding up, Ms. Pariah?"

She snorted, shuffling against her binds a bit. "I prefer martyr."

"I prefer dumb." His smirk turned into a frown. "I warned you not to play hero."

She continued to smile, despite it all. Yes, Chad had warned her and she knew this. But she couldn't just sit around and let her fellow classmates get beat on for no reason other than for entertainment. "How's Fanny and Patton holding up?"

"They would have been lawyered up if Fulbright didn't toss the last one out. Best deal they can got was permanent detention with possible parole if they renounce their loyalty to you." Chad answered. "But I doubt they'll do it. They like you for some reason." They had hit it off well. Too well. Maybe something of a connection still lingered within those lost memories. Maybe it wasn't in the mind at all, if he was a more sentimental individual. They followed her like lost puppies, probably clinging to the weird pull they felt around each other that couldn't be explained.

He could feel it too, sometimes. When she looked at him right now, there was that connection. A lifetime's worth that only one of them could remember.

"How do I look?" She suddenly said, stirring Chad away from his thoughts. It was a weird question, but he didn't say so, deciding to humor her since she was probably going mad being tied to a flagpole.

She was all kinds of messed up. Those golden locks was a mess from the struggle and her clothes were wet and wrinkled from the swirlies. Rachel's left eye was even starting to swell from Jen's punch, but she continued to smile, believing that she was making a difference even if it seemed like it wasn't.

She never looked more beautiful. "You look like hell."

"Ah, much thanks." Her response was mildly sarcastic. "I feel like hell too."

"Oh, I bet." A pause. "Do you want me to cut you down, Ms. Martyr?"

She pretended to think about it. "Oh, I figured I'd hang around a bit. Get a little fresh air. Is my sentencing over yet?"

He snorted. "Not even close."

"Then no dice. Let them point and laugh. I'll be back here by tomorrow anyways." Rachel rolled her shoulders back against the binding. "I'm not going to just sit around and let them do this. I'll be on this flagpole until something changes!"

Chad had always been the pessimist. "What if it never changes?"

That was when Rachel sighed and bumped her head gently against the warm metal. "Then I guess I'll be missing prom then. Too bad."

He had to admire her dedication, but that was something he was already aware of, the word stamped in every other sentence in her KND dossier That was what drew the GKND to put her on the recruit list, even if it ultimately ended up with Numbuh 1's victory. Maybe it was how flexible her loyalty could be that kept her from beating Nigel to the punch. She seemed like the type to deal with injustice in everything, not just including kids. Here she was defending a class of teenagers from tyranny, even with her memories gone.

And yet he could see her continuing to fight for justice even if she still had her memories. Maybe that was why the GKND knocked her off the list. Her loyalty was to the ideal of equality, not for just kids alone. She could easily defect from a mission if the GKND had to play the villains in whatever theater of war they were fighting. Uno was too naïve to think realistically, his blind loyalty for anything KND related made him something easy to manipulate at the end of the day. Chad himself was too suspicious to be trusted by even his allies at the moment. He schemed too much, acted too much of a wild card for the GKND to have. At least, that was what Infinity seemed to imply these days.

He eventually left her there to reflect.

Things became personal with Jen. Just as much as it had become personal when she shirked her duties for revenge, she targeted Rachel more than any other freshman her group had come across. And the more angered Queen Alana was for the blond girl, the more vicious Jen's attacks became.

When Chad found Rachel one afternoon in the nurse's office sporting a busted lip and two black eyes, something in him had snapped.

"I warned you, didn't I?" He asked dangerously, stepping on Jen's bruised hand. She let out a howl, but there was no one there to help her. Her punks were not too far away, battered and unconscious in an abandoned hallway. He would give her the compassion that she had given Rachel the last few weeks. Thrice over.

"I hazed them!" She desperately cried out, trying to pry her hand from under his shoe. "I did what you said!"

Wrong answer. Chad pulled her up by her shirt and slammed the Executioner against the lockers. "Hazing? You think that was hazing?! No, this is far worse than hazing, Jennifer. This is revenge and you're looking to beat McKenzie until she's unconscious, aren't you?" Jen was scum. She was always scum. More scum than any other Executioner. She was a bully, a clever bully.

"W-what do you care, m-m'lord?!" She stuttered back and, for her efforts, he slammed her head against the lockers again.

"I knew you were dim, Jennifer, but I never pegged you for a moron." He sneered against her ear. "The 9th grade rebellion is getting stronger. And they're looking for blood this time. You think you're in the clear when you're beating up their beloved messiah? You think I'll be here, heck anyone would be here, to save your pathetic behind when they come after you and your subordinates? You've got another thing coming."

He finally let go of Jen with a disgusted push and watched her slide down into a heap on the floor. "Go near McKenzie again. I dare you. You'll have far more trouble than the Crown when you do, Jennifer." Spitting out her name, Chad walked off and kicked one of her boys before exiting the hallway. It was cathartic to his electrified nerves, but not even a good old beating could temper it completely.

Needless to say, Jen hadn't touched Rachel since.

But things were far from over. Word had quickly gone around that Rachel was to be on the pole every day until the end of the semester, forced up in the mornings, lunch, and after school. She refused to head to school late enough not to be strung up in the mornings and refused to quickly leave after school to avoid the third string up. "I want to make an example that I can take whatever they can dish out," She had told him. "They can string me up until graduation for all they want, but if they think they can make me give up, they've got another thing coming."

So they did. They had strung her up until quarter's end. But she endured and riled the Crown all over again with her refusal to fall back in line with the Hazing. Before she could even taste freedom, she was ordered to be put on the pole until the 9th grade ended. Queen Alana had gambled on using Rachel McKenzie's permanent incarceration to make an example of potential rebels.

But it didn't.

Rachel's staunch opposition to the Crown had generated empowerment and strength to those hazed the worst. Her name soon became a secret password whispered to get into resistance groups of all shapes and motivations within the 9th grade. One group even managed to break out Rachel's most staunch loyalists from permanent detention, among those being Fanny Fulbright and Patton Drilovsky.

It was Fanny's idea to name the rebellion group as Prometheus. "Ye see 'er strung up in the mornin', strung up in lunch, an' strung up after school. McKenzie is Prometheus, punished fer bringin' the fire in our bellies, punished by a higher power!"

"Prometheus?" Rachel cocked an eyebrow from her tied post when Chad relayed the intel to her at one afternoon. "I didn't know Fanny actually sat awake through Mythology!"

And Prometheus did bring waves among the nobility. Food lines were being torn asunder by opposition and conflict and the Executioners were far too little in numbers to staunch their riots in comparison to the growing cult. Rallies were finally held long enough for those curious enough to listen before Queen Alana put a stop to them, and that was only if she was able to.

The rebellion grew to such threatening lengths that Alana personally ordered Rachel to be cut down from the pole prematurely, hoping that letting her go would appease and dissolve Prometheus. While the tensions had lessened, the rebellions and rallies continued. Once at the helm of Prometheus, Patton had been cited in the school newspaper that Rachel's freedom was due to the Crown's fear of the rebellion succeeding. That publicity alone continued to stir the 9th grade.

"You really smacked the beehive now, McKenzie." Chad had said to her before she was carted up by her peers at the Resolution Rally. The 9th graders erupted in cheers over her freedom before she made a tentative speech about change.

She never wanted fear as the motivation for rebellion, so she tried to placate her new-found followers. "If we use fear against them, we are no better than them." Rachel said carefully at the makeshift podium. "What we need is democracy, not a monarchy. The right to be equal and have a voice. The right to go to school each day without fear of an Executioner at our backs! What we need to focus on is getting rid of this stupid Initiation for this year, and the 9th graders of the next, and the next! Let us take care of those being hunted and fight when we are fought first!"

Her words, however, were received with mixed results. She had gained favor among the upperclassmen for her attempts to protest in peace instead of through fear, but a good number of her followers were still bitter and angered over their treatment. Struggle reigned through Prometheus until the group was eventually split into two: those that favored a more peaceful resolution, and those that desired to overthrow the monarchy and gain power themselves.

"I can't believe this," Rachel, for the first time since Chad's known her after decommissioning, discovered the weight and pressure of what was happening under her leadership. She pressed her fingers to her forehead and began to rub it. "Vargas… you idiot." Tony Vargas had completely turned her group into an extremist cult instilling terror to everyone not in their ranks. It wasn't just the upperclassmen in fear of Prometheus, but students from their very own year as well.

At the request of Patton and Fanny, the rest who remained loyal to Rachel renamed themselves as Phoenix, with the blond at the helm in the hopes of equality and peace.

"Another mythological creature, Fanny?" Rachel had teased when she brought it up as one of the replacement names to their cause.

"Aye. But if it's too silly for ye, we could always go with Cutsy Cuddle-Bunnies. Minnie suggested that in third period," Fanny snarked back.

"…Phoenix it is."

From the flames, we are reborn.

Patton had made that their slogan. Their vital password had become so viral that eventually everyone had written it inside of their lockers, tagged bathroom stalls, and wrote it all over school banners until they couldn't use it anymore. It became something cool to wear, and Rachel soon found people sticking patches of a phoenix onto their backpacks and the inside of their jackets. Rebellion was always cool to teens, no matter which class.

Phoenix had done what Prometheus never could, and that was to extend the bridge between grades and utilizing them as allies.

The Sophomore class was the easiest to gain in numbers. They still remembered their days being hazed and Rachel's strange gift at diplomacy helped bridged that gap. While still loyal to the Crown, they were of much use with tactical support and that too soon whispered in through the higher levels of McClintock.

Change was coming and Rachel McKenzie was the key component to dragging the lot of them kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

"I want you to stop her at once."

Chad eventually knew it would come to this, that someone would have told Queen Alana that he was intimate with Phoenix due to their leader being his charge off-duty. It was probably Cree's doing who, being Queen Alana's most loyal adviser, had been itching to stir the pot in a bid for the throne. As he knelt before his Queen ruing the day that Cree had to stick her nose where it shouldn't belong, Alana's orders were pretty straightforward.

"I'm her valet, not her babysitter, your majesty." He lowered his head in answer. She normally didn't like smart mouths, but Chad's charm and devotion to the Teen Ninjas over the last three years had made him an absolute exception in her eyes. "I've tried to dissuade her, but she is stubborn. She wants to end the Initiation for her class."

Queen Alana sat back on her throne, a capable leader in stark to the King who was too preoccupied with strumming his bass guitar to care about politics. "Just the Initiation? Prometheus desires the Crown."

"Prometheus is an unfortunate setback to her cause. McKenzie has publicly disowned them as an extremist group. The 9th grade has also distanced themselves from Prometheus' terrorist acts against the Crown in light of McKenzie's statements." He said, continuing to stare at the floor with bare respect.

Rubbing a fine manicured hand against her cheek, she deliberated quietly, forcing Chad to stay knelt until she allowed this information to sink in. "Regardless, Prometheus is a legitimate threat to the Crown. And it was born from McKenzie's rebellion whether she has abandoned them or not. I want Prometheus silenced for good."

Chad frown was hidden from her. "Phoenix's attempts to subdue Prometheus are strained at best. Despite tensions, Prometheus will not touch Phoenix so long as McKenzie leads. We believe they still harbor a respect left for the one who inspired them to fight in the first place."

"Then our paths have been laid for us." Alana gracefully stood up and motioned for Chad to rise. "We will settle this matter the way the Crown has done for decades. Summon everyone for the Gauntlet."

"Your majesty?" Chad blinked, not sure he heard her correctly. She couldn't have possibly…

"The Gauntlet. Go to Phoenix and offer McKenzie this ultimatum. Everything in McClintock history had been settled with the Gauntlet. Everything will end with the Gauntlet." She examined her nails. "She will make her demands there. If the ancestors of McClintock favor her, than she will have what she desires. This… end of the Initiation. If she is able to, that is."

He was more worried if the ancestors didn't favor Rachel. "If she fails, her social life will end. She would be the laughingstock of McClintock, forced to have her picture forever stricken from every yearbook. She would be-"

"-Undateable." Alana was amused by this, her perfect lips curling into a sneer. "If she is not favored, then yes. That will be the consequence she will have to endure. Tell her this, for the Crown will not meet her demands otherwise."

It must be serious if Queen Alana wanted to establish the Gauntlet. Those rare few who have succeeded may ask for whatever they desired without question. Many lucky victors have practically jumped ranks to become King in doing so.

His doubts of Rachel passing the Gauntlet were still great, despite the resurfacing of her leadership ability ingrained during her stint as Supreme Leader. She was still a normal teenage girl and would be at a great disadvantage. With a terse nod, he hesitantly accepted Alana's request. "I will inform Phoenix at once."

"You have always been our most loyal subject from Junior Hall, Lord Dickson. The Crown can always rely on your guidance."

He lowered his head again. "My alliance is to you only, my Queen." That seemed to please Alana. She smiled with such flattery even the King had done a double-take.

"Such a charmer, Chad." She purred.

"Dude." The John whined when one of the bass' strings snapped.

"The Gauntlet? Seriously?" Maurice glanced incredulously over his binoculars despite the fact that he tried not to grin. Chad looked like he had just swallowed a lemon AND a lime. "You're gonna get a LOT of gray hairs over this, aren't you?"

Chad glared. "Don't remind me. The way things are going, Father could definitely use McKenzie for his ranks. She makes me feel old just looking at her."

"All the best girls do." Now with a full on grin, Maurice returned to his post, watching Cree and a few recruits initiate a confrontation with the Kids Next Door. Unfortunately for her, him and Chad had missed her signal to flank them. Oopsy-daisy.

They watched from atop an adjacent rooftop, simply staying out of the fight as Cree was slowly overwhelmed by the larger quantity of children. "Numbuh 5's been recommended."

Chad wasn't surprised. He stole back his binoculars. "I'm guessing from the way you've been smiling the last few days, she's accepted it had she?"

"She was gung-ho about the idea years ago. Her response was positive, but…" Maurice frowned a bit. "Abby wasn't as excited like before. Reluctant, just like Rachel was."

This was news to him. Chad tore his gaze away from the fight to frown at Maurice. "You never told me that you approached her for a recommendation."

He shrugged. "It didn't seem important to say at the time. She knew I was undercover, so it made sense that the big guy sent me to recruit her. I was her main intel when she was Supreme Leader back then after all."

"Did she tell you why she denied the application?"

Maurice looked up at the night sky, brow furrowed in deliberation. "Not… exactly. She sent back the application and didn't really state her reasons. I just assumed that she was tired of the KND. Numbuh 100 did the same thing if you recall."

But Numbuh 100 had always been upfront with his emotions. Numbuh 362 had been trained in espionage and infiltration. That took meticulous detail and dedication. Anything she said you had to read between those lines. She could easily admit a truth inside a lie or vice versa without breaking a sweat. If she had a reason, she would have stated it, wouldn't she? Why would she hide it?

"Heads up!" Maurice snapped aloud, shaking Chad out of his reverie. "Cree's retreating. Better give her a good excuse this time."

Chad snorted. "The car broke down."

"We used that last time. And she ordered my car overhauled, remember?" Maurice's face soured. "It hasn't been the same since."

"We went on a nacho run."

"Now we're talking!"