Here we go!

Time to meet main character number 2!

Transformers © to Hasbro!

OCs © to me!

Chapter 2: ForcúÞ

"Ay-lis Cruiser?"

"It's Aalis, ya know, pronounced like 'Alice' and Kreuzer, say it with me, krite-zer. Aalis Kreuzer." The girl's green eyes flashed at the older boy from the student council. Her mahogany-red hair hung around her face, casting shadows that made her seem just a little intimidating.

"Aalis," a girl behind her giggled, "no need to give him a heart attack."

Aalis leaned back in her chair. "Sorry, Hannah, but this is graduation, and if he mispronounces my name when I walk across that stage…!"

"You do have a weird name."

"I know." The girl sighed. "Just my luck to have tow medieval literature professors for parents. No, we can't name our daughter something modern, let's go with the medieval French variant of a popular name."

The students around her laughed. "You know you love it."

"Yeah, I do."

Aalis looked around at her graduating class. Everyone was so excited to get out of high school and on to the real world, and she was too. College was going to be amazing. She already had almost a full year in credits from a community college and from dual-credit classes, and she was ready to get started.

The graduation rehearsal finished earlier than usual… thank goodness. She and her friends met up after school for some coffee. She kept close with three friends, all nerds.

"I still can't believe we beat that mission last night…" Hannah Innes laughed, tossing a lock of blonde hair over her shoulder.

The other Hannah, Hannah Farro, let out a long, exaggerated groan, her ash-brown hair falling over the table as she pressed her head against the surface. "I thought that we were going to die… I hate Threshers. I hate them so much."

"And Goliaths." Amber Burton leaned back, taking a drink of her coffee.

"Goliaths suck." Aalis chuckled. "Especially when people keep shooting their heads off and making them go berzerk.

"I'm sorry! My shotgun blasts scatter!" Hannah number two threw up her hands.

All of them laughed. Hannah number one stood up. "Well, I've got to go. We playing Borderlands again tonight?"

"Yeah!"

"So, at 6?" Aalis fingered her hair. "I should be there on time. I need to get my hair cut before I go home. And I was hoping to get some drawing done too."

Amber giggled. "I still can't believe you dyed and cut your hair to match your favorite anime character."

"Lea Eldr(1) is amazing." Aalis grinned. "I'm happy to represent my favorite fire-mage!"

"No kidding… you sewed her costume and wear it all the time."

"Well, it's more comfortable than the stupid private school uniforms we have to wear." She gestured down at her blue, white, and gray plaid skirt, button-down shirt, black necktie, white stockings, and black dress shoes.

"You right…"

The two Hannahs and Amber left as Aalis took her time errand running. She had plenty of time to think. Life was moving so fast. She'd been accepted into a private liberal arts college where she had decided to double-major in Art and English, with a specialty in Medieval Literature.

She blamed her parents. Her parents would read her Beowulf in the Old English as a bedtime story. By now, she was practically fluent in the all but dead variant of the language.

Eventually, she took a taxi home. Her home, a tall, restored Victorian-style home with soft gray walls on the outside. The inside was beautiful and full of books. Bookshelves lined every wall, reminding Aalis of the library in the video game, Kingdom Hearts. Books were everywhere, from the floor to the ceiling.

Her own room stood on the second floor with a tower spire of her own.

She climbed the spire stairs to a room with soft blue walls and windows on all sides. Curtains of soft velvet hung on the sides of every window. Opposite the staircase was a U-shaped desk with a large high-backed gaming chair. The desk held three large, bright computer monitors, a keyboard, and a mouse.

She slipped into the chair and booted up "Borderlands 2". There was still time before she was to meet everyone online. Enough time to slip down to the kitchen and grab the dinner of champions: microwave ramen.

Yep, she was ready for college alright(2).

Going back up, ramen and fork in hand, she logged into discord only to find Hannah, Hannah, and Amber waiting for her. "Hey weirdos!"

"About time!"

"You ready?"

Aalis grinned. "To quote my favorite wheelchair-bound turtle(3), 'Let's go kick some butt!'"

"Run!"

"Threshers! Threshers!"

"Drive Amber! Drive!"

"AHHHHHH!(4)"

The car ran into a rock and turned over. Aalis's character jumped up on a rock, sniper rifle in hand as the snake, things called threshers popped out of the ground. Her companions began running around, shooting at all threshers that tried to kill them.

"Hannah! Look out!"

"Which one!?"

"The one that's dying!"

"We're both dying!"

When the threshers were dead, the four girls sat in silence for a few moments before bursting out into laughter.

"I thought we were going to die."

"We almost did!"

"Let's go turn in this quest and then stop for the night."

"Agreed."

When Aalis logged off she sighed. Her parents were out of town at a conference and she had the house to herself. Again.

Being a hermit had its disadvantages. She barely had any friends. Actually, other than the two Hannahs and Amber, she had no friends. She was nice, and a nerd. No one else literally sewed the outfit of their favorite anime character and wore it for fun.

She literally had no life.

Taking off her uniform, she put on a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt before grabbing her notebook and planted herself in front of the television with a few Modern English to Old English dictionaries, pose references, and three copies of the book "Beowulf".

She wanted to create a manga version of Beowulf in both Modern and Old English. The perfect way to spend her Friday night…

Drawing manga.

Watching hours of "Daredevil".

Alone…

I hope you guys liked this chapter!

Hannah, Hannah, and Amber are based on of few of my nerdy friends I hang out with. And yes, when I play Borderlands 2, it's basically screaming.

Please review!

Footnotes:

(1) Lea is a reference to the Kingdom Hearts character and Eldr is old Norse for fire.

(2) As a college student, sadly the ramen stereotype is true.

(3) This a reference to Bentley from the "Sly Cooper" series.

(4) Sadly, this is a perfect representation of how my Borderland games with friends go.

Aalis Kreuzer- Caitlin Glass (Mina Ashido, Winry Rockbell, Hanna Annafellows, Triela)

Hannah Innes- Hedy Burress (Yuna, Anima, Kristi, Cis, Brody, Brigitte Stark/Rosie)

Hannah Farro- Madison Devenport (Materia, Nameless Star, Quillo, Stacy, Fiona)

Amber Burton- Natalie Lander (Liz Alllan, Terra Branford, Stargirl, Kinzie Kensington)

Isaiah 65:24

"I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!"