Crash and Burn
Chapter Three: Child Prodigy
Bearit's Notes: … my Autozam boys want my soul, I swear. I can't believe I got this one done as quickly as I did. Eagle, if I fail my classes this semester, it's all your fault. Anyway, in comes, for once, a canon character. Finally, right? This is one of the very few happy chapters of this fanfic, so enjoy it while it lasts. Because next time is the interlude. And the interlude will definitely not be happy. I swear I love my Autozam boys, really!
And a disclaimer, before I get too carried away: I do not, unfortunately, own Magic Knight Rayearth. If I did, I would make sure that my Autozam boys (and Lantis!) got their own series. Really.
The Grand Mansion, Eagle thought, was nothing spectacular. Yes, it was the hugest home in all of Autozam, so much so that it merited it's own dome in the middle of Integra, and the interior design was exquisite with lilac walls and many strategically placed bright green plants, some artificial, some very much real. Everything that could be framed, from the photographs of past presidents dressed in either white or green to mirrors, was framed in gold, the rounded corners designed with a mechanical flair. Silver metal tables of many shapes and sizes lined the walls of the main hallways of the Mansion, and there was always people bustling in and out of the rooms with a sense of urgency.
Eagle's bedroom itself shared many of the same qualities of the rest of the Grand Mansion with its light purple metal brick with an intruding line of white through the center, a ridiculously huge mirror that was three times Eagle's width and took up the entire height of the room, a long gray table that seemed to serve little purpose except to keep things Eagle didn't want to lose track of, a couple of huge fern plants alongside a couple of corners of the room, and a large bed with gray sheets with the metal headboard aligned parallel to the wall. Outside the door to his room was a domed hallway with a narrow walkway and a huge opening for various hovercrafts to speed through to get from point A to point B. The door itself was humungous and Eagle wondered about the necessity of the hangar like entranceway into a mere bedroom for a family member of the president.
Even so, the Grand Mansion did not impress Eagle, and he never liked to spend too much time in the awfully large home for too long. He spent most of his time napping or finding his way to the battle domes of the Academy, where he learned quickly that it was nearly impossible to get into a mecha without clearance, so all he could do was watch. Many times he tried to look for that one boy he battled a few months ago, but to no avail, and Eagle skipped out of school one day to see what time of day that boy would be present in the battle domes. However, there were too many cadets flooding in and out every minute, and an officer finally came by and escorted Eagle out, recognizing him as only a citizen and not a cadet.
One day, a month after his father took the oath and assumed the role of president and Eagle had seen no sign of either of his parents in over a week, Eagle wandered the Grand Mansion halls one day after school and stumbled across a small platform on the top of the dome, and the sight astounded him, and he took back anything negative he ever said or thought about the Mansion.
There was a small parting of black clouds, and what Eagle saw, was a brilliant blue. It was a much deeper blue than the energy orbs on the headbands and power supply centers of the larger vehicle, and Eagle knew not how to describe it, except that he could only stare at it with a smile, and he sat and stared until the blue sky turned red then indigo and then black.
Once Eagle shook himself out of his reverie, for the first time in ages he felt at peace, and the upper observation deck of the Grand Mansion turned into Eagle's secret, and he would only disclose the location of it to two people in his entire life.
Two months later, Eagle received a rare message from his father inviting him into the main office, and he quickly dressed into his comfortable black turtleneck and pants and made his way to his father's office. There, he was met with the retreating green back and graying hair of the general, and his father, his brown eyes weary with little sleep, looked up from his desk and waved his hand, inviting Eagle to seat in the dark green chair in front of him. Eagle complied stiffly, and his father smiled wearily.
"There's no need to be so formal, Eagle," he said. "I know I've been busy lately, and I may be the president now, but above all I'm your father. I always will be." Eagle did not change his posture; his father sighed. "I can't promise you when everything will be back to the way it used to be—"
Eagle shook his head. "I don't think it ever will be."
"Maybe you're right. You have a bad habit of that." Eagle chuckled, and his father sighed with relief. "There. Now, I have to ask you something. The end of your last year in the regular schools is nearly here. Your mother and I are concerned… but do you have any plans for afterwards? Were you looking at any particular academy?"
Eagle shook his head though a lie. His father seemed to relax a little, but his eyes spelled worriedly a hesitant suggestion. "Dad, is there anywhere you want me to go? I'll go."
His father shook his head. "I only want you to go where you want to go."
"But—"
"I'm not going to try to win you over to a suggestion, and I'm going to tell you the truth," said his father firmly, looking straight into Eagle's eyes. "The Cabinet—no, more like the general, everyone else just agrees with him… anyway. They think that the military academy would be the perfect fit for you."
"Oh," said Eagle with a frown. "Is that it?"
His father stared at him, and then burst out laughing. "It's just like you to make a comment like that. If I sent you there—with your scores, you're more than eligible—you wouldn't have any complaints at all?"
Eagle shook his head. "I don't see why I should. Is there any reason why they want to put me through the Academy?"
Though there were many academies in Autozam for various professions, the military academy was always called the Academy because of the prestige that accompanied it, so Eagle already had an idea why it would be a wonderful move to put the president's son through the rigorous program the Academy had to offer; after all, there was a very slim chance that Eagle would perform poorly there.
"Good image," said his father with a wave of his hand. Of course. "I don't care about that, but ever since they mentioned it, your mother and I got to thinking, and I was just wondering if you even wanted to go to the Academy. You never talk much to begin with, and now that we're seeing less and less of you, well, we were getting concerned, that's all."
"Sure, I'll go. I'll be happy to go," said Eagle with a smile. His father glared at him.
"I hope you're not just saying that just because you think it'll make me happy."
"I'm not, Dad, I promise you. So long as I get into the fighter course, I think I'll enjoy the Academy," said Eagle.
His father laughed. "Well, yeah, I guess you are an ace at the mecha, aren't you? Sure thing. I'll let the Cabinet know next week, so think about it for a little bit."
"I don't need to." Eagle kept smiling brighter and brighter. The prospect of going to the military academy seemed better and better by the second. "I have my heart set on this decision. I want to go to the Academy. Let them know right now, or else I'll tell them myself."
For the first time in a long time, Chrysler Vision seemed satisfied. "Excellent," he said as he pushed the red call button to summon the members of his Cabinet.
Though the Cabinet had been thrilled at the news, somewhere between the announcement and Eagle's first day a mix-up had occurred and Eagle would enter the military academy under the leadership course with an interest in combat. After he spoke with the headmaster of the school, who was a muscular grayish brown man, he decided that he was content, since he could still spend a good deal of his time at the battle domes. So, Eagle Vision went to the military academy, feeling as though the only thing he left behind was the magical blue sky at the top of the Grand Mansion dome.
After the immediate morning review where the headmaster barked at the freshmen to yield them into submission, each of the cadets were given a rectangular green key with a number at the top, signaling their dorm room. Eagle did not hurry but did not waste any time to get up to his dorm room, because he had only half an hour before his first class started. When he slid the key into a narrow slot beside the room, the doors parted from the center and slid open, and he stepped inside with his bulky bag draped over his shoulder.
He had beaten his roommate there, for it was completely empty save for two silver desks taken up nearly completely by a computer, with a shelf space only for slates of text. Those were on the opposite side of the room, towards the windows that faced the black clouds of Autozam. No wonder the Academy was never seen as quite the happy place, Eagle thought bitterly. Besides both of the desks there were long, narrow beds with white sheets lined up against the wall, and on the other side of the beds, also against the wall, were huge, metal closets already equipped with a formal uniform and several pairs of "casual" uniforms. Compared to his room back at the Grand Mansion, this room was drearier, smaller, and somehow more comfortable.
Eagle knew he couldn't stay long, though, because he needed to find his class, and that was in the opposite building from the battle domes, so he set his bag on the bed and left, making sure he had his key in his pocket and started his first day at another new school.
It was only slightly different than the Lexcen school. In classes, he felt all eyes from the professor to the boy in the back corner of the room on him, scrutinizing, waiting for Eagle either to screw up or to show absolute brilliance. Eagle did neither and instead listened; falling asleep here as opposed to falling asleep back in Lexcen, he knew, would suffer many consequences, so as much review as everything seemed to be, he forced himself to stay awake and alert.
Lunch was a peculiar event. He sat at a table, and for a while some people sat as far away from that table as they could, or sat near the table but not at the table, and eventually, and Eagle decided that it was because there were no more seats elsewhere, others sat at his table. Instead of blatantly ignoring Eagle, however, the other cadets at the table tried their best to include Eagle into their conversation, asking about his interests, and pretending that they shared the same interests when time and time again they would bird walk into an entirely different conversation. Eagle only smiled politely and spoke politely and decided that he should take to napping during lunchtime again.
After classes were over and the same boys and girls who talked to Eagle during lunch tried to get him involved in the conversation again, to which Eagle politely apologized and said that he would like to get some homework done. They laughed, but let Eagle go about his own ways, and he knew that they would have nothing nice to say about him once they were out of earshot. It was a good thing he did not expect the military academy to be any different than Lexcen.
He went back to his dorm room, and after he opened the door and slid inside, he saw the bottom half of a smaller human crouched by his desk and swaying back and forth, and he heard a mumbled voice from within his desk. Surrounding the desk were various shapes and sizes of interesting looking tools.
Eagle frowned. "What are you doing?"
The boy yelped and threw himself from beneath the desk and he rolled to a sitting position with his legs outstretched and his body being held up only by his small arms. His normal hair was a normal brown, and he was really small, and Eagle wondered if his growth spurt was just taking a very slow start. His normal brown eyes, however, was not normal, and instead a certain spark grew there, an eye for details, an eye for life, an eye for a future. Eagle knew immediately that this was no normal boy.
"Oh, hi!" said the boy with a bright smile as he pulled his legs in and crossed them. "I didn't expect you to come so soon after classes."
"Likewise," said Eagle. "May I ask what you're doing?"
The boy looked at the desk and smirked playfully. "Oh, well, before I went to class I decided to see what was going on with these computers, I kept hearing that they were state of the art, and well, yeah, they are, but they were awfully slow. So! During lunch, I got my computer up to a speed I'm used to working with, and I decided, well, why not work on my roommate's? So that's what I'm doing now." Then he bowed his head sheepishly. "Um, I'm sorry if you didn't want me to…"
Eagle smiled. "No, no, it's fine." Besides, if the computer broke he could always find a way to get another one. He was good at that. "Is your computer really faster?"
The boy nodded with a big grin. "Yup! Look, come see, come see!"
He scrambled to his feet and rolled in the chair to his computer desk and switched on his computer. Eagle came behind the boy to see, and indeed, the computer loaded much faster than even the computers back at the Grand Mansion. The boy played around with opening some programs here and there, and then he spun around to look at Eagle, grinning.
"Don't worry, I made sure to test with my computer first to make sure it would even work," he said. "And I'm not doing any other changes to your computer, and I was hoping to finish before you got back."
Eagle laughed. "Just in case it didn't work, and I couldn't blame you?"
"No!" said the boy indignantly. He hesitated, and then sighed. "Okay, fine, that was part of the reason. Even geniuses like me make mistakes sometimes too. But mostly because, I don't know." He shrugged. "I guess a part of me didn't want you to know…"
"Know that you did that? Why?"
"Have you met some of the brutes here?" asked the boy with wide eyes. "I'm glad you're not one of them, well, looks considered, but some people here are just plain bullies, and some are snot-nosed rich brats. I'm not saying all rich kids are snot-nosed though. I don't think I am."
Eagle laughed and took a seat on his bed. "Well, why don't you finish up? I have homework I'd like to get done before I go to bed."
"Man, they piled you with homework on the first day? I have enough to keep me busy until dinnertime, and then I'm done," said the boy. "You really have enough to keep you busy the rest of the night? I heard that doesn't happen until next week."
"No, I don't have a whole lot, I'm just really tired and would like to sleep," said Eagle. The boy frowned.
"Sleep? Well, I can understand that the first day at the Academy would be harsh, but I hope you're tired only because it's the first day. If you think this is too tiring I'd hate to see how you hold up the rest of the term."
"No, I just like to sleep," said Eagle. The boy sighed, exasperated.
"Man, that's boring. Okay, okay, I'll finish this up, even though it might take me until dinnertime, so you might be going to bed at the same time as the rest of us."
Eagle chuckled, and the boy crawled back underneath the desk. Eagle leaned against the wall and decided that until the boy was done he could take a little nap, but as soon as he shut his eyes the boy started talking again.
"So, are you from Integra?" asked the boy, his voice muffled against the walls of the desk.
Eagle did not open his eyes. "For now."
"'For now?'" the boy sounded puzzled. "You mean like for the time you're at the Academy?"
"No, my family lives here, for now."
"Oh, so you move a lot?"
"If what you mean by a lot is a total of twice, then yes."
The boy chuckled. "Twice in the fourteen years of your life is a lot," said the boy. "Unless, well, are you fourteen?"
"More fourteen than you, I'm sure," said Eagle with a small chuckle. "You definitely don't look old enough to be in the Academy."
"Well, really, I'm not," said the boy as a metal clang rang through the dorm, followed by the boy muttering, "Ow." Then he continued. "I just skipped too many levels to count. I'm only ten, you see."
Eagle's eyes flew open and leaned over to look at the boy. "Ten?"
The boy laughed. "Like I said, I'm a genius. I could probably skip another level if I wanted to, but the Academy was already worried letting me in now as a freshman, they wanted me to wait another year, but I guess with my stepmother being the person she is now they had to let me in." He pulled out of the desk and grinned at Eagle. "I normally don't like it when people use their rich and famous parents as an excuse to get what they want, but in this case, I'm kind of glad. I'm still bored in my classes, but I don't know how my attendance would have been if I stayed at Sonata."
Eagle smiled gently. "Everything seems like review?"
"Worse than review," said the boy. "But I can deal with it. Oh!" His eyes brightened, and then he scratched the back of his head with a nervous laugh. "I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Zazu. What's yours?"
"Eagle," he said, and the two shook hands both with the same hopeful smiles.
Sure enough, Zazu finished "fixing" the computer before dinnertime, and after unsuccessfully begging Eagle to go down with him to the cafeteria he left, and Eagle went to his computer and immediately was awed by the speed of the machine, which already seemed faster than Zazu's computer. Zazu was more brilliant than he gave himself credit for; the mechanic course was perfect for the young boy. Within record time Eagle completed his homework, and before he climbed into his bed again he left a note for his young roommate:
Thanks for the upgrades. I finished my homework faster than I thought I would have. Good night, and we'll talk again tomorrow.
He left the note on Zazu's computer, turned off his computer, rolled into bed, and much to his surprise, did not dream of the blue skies back at the Grand Mansion.
Two small arms shook Eagle awake, and he groggily opened his eyes to see a wide-eyed, frantic Zazu urging him to get out of bed.
"We're running late!" he yelped, pointing wildly at the clock on his computer.
Eagle groaned and sat up, not even looking in the direction of his roommate's computer. "What time is it?"
"Five minutes until morning review! Come on, Eagle, we have to go!"
Eagle grinned. "When did you wake up? Just now?"
"Five minutes ago. I don't want to be yelled at my second day, so hurry up, hurry up!" Zazu pulled needlessly at Eagle's arm, and Eagle laughed as he climbed out of bed and opened his closet.
"You could just leave now," he said, as he dressed into his olive green uniform. "No need for you to get in trouble on the account of me."
"But—" Zazu protested.
"It's fine," said Eagle as he pulled on his boots. "Really."
"Well, you're ready now, aren't you?" said Zazu. "So we can still go together. Come on, come on!"
Eagle continued to laugh as the two ran out of the dorm room, Zazu yelling at himself under his breath. By some miracle the two barely made it to the straight rows of columns of their fellow cadets before it was time, and Eagle went towards the leadership block and Zazu headed for the mechanic's block. As the two parted ways, Eagle looked at Zazu and said:
"Thank you for waking me up."
Zazu grinned and threw Eagle a thumbs-up before jogging off to his block just as the headmaster began yelling and screaming nonsense that Eagle immediately tuned out, and reflected on blue skies and white streams of light. Then the cadets were ordered to head straight for the first class and consequently dismissed, and the two passed each other on the way, and smiled.
Like the day before, many eyes hesitantly glanced at Eagle, and two of the girls Eagle sat with earlier, during each break, would giggle insanely and would not approach him. He cared little and only focused more on reading ahead in the texts rather than listen in on what those girls may have to say about him. Of course they talked about him behind his back. Eagle was used to being known as "the weird kid," and he knew he would probably suffer the same fate here at the Academy.
The teachers scrutinized Eagle less and focused more on the real troublemakers in the Academy, sentencing a doodle to an afternoon's detention and a whisper to a week's detention. Nobody could or wanted to fathom what detention meant at the Academy, so quickly the other cadets quieted into submission.
The homework load built, and finally it was lunchtime. Eagle took his time to the lunch line, and after he received his tray of slops of who-knows-what, he glanced around the cafeteria. Most tables were taken, but the cadets he sat with the day before waved him over to their table in the direct center of the cafeteria. Why not, Eagle thought and he made his way there. More pretending, and more conceited laughter that the boys and girls tried to hide behind their stares away from Eagle. Eagle, in turn, pretended not to notice, or care.
Be like other children, sweetheart! Those were his mother's words before he left for his first day at the school at Lexcen. Eagle looked around the table he sat, at the other cadets, and their pushing and shoving and pointing and insulting and laughing and pouting and talking and pretending. Eagle knew how out of place he was, and wondered how much longer he could go on like this. If it weren't for his lack of breakfast, he would have just gone right up to his dorm room and napped. Assuming Zazu was there, he was certain the boy would wake him up in time for class. Tomorrow, Eagle decided, as he abruptly stood from the table and headed for class, leaving behind more gossip about the son of the president as a souvenir.
Once the afternoon classes were completed and Eagle went back to his dorm with one more text of homework under his arm, Zazu had not yet returned, so Eagle sat in front of his computer and hooked the cables of his headband into the main console and started his homework.
When he was done with the mecha controls unit—for at least the first couple of weeks the freshmen could not go near the battle domes so that they wouldn't kill themselves trying to move an arm—the door slid open, and Zazu waltzed in backwards.
"See you tomorrow!" he said towards the open door.
An uncertain tenor voice replied, "Uh, yeah, and thanks for the help, Torque."
The doors closed, and Zazu sighed and threw his texts onto his bed. He muttered under his breath, "Help, yeah right. Do your own work." He noticed Eagle then, and smiled brightly. "Hi, Eagle!"
Eagle decided that it would probably be best if he did not mention Zazu's exasperation, and smiled back. He saved his work and turned off the computer and slipped off his headband. "Thanks again for waking me up this morning. I'm sorry that I almost made you late."
Zazu laughed and waved his hand. "Oh, no, it was nothing. Hey, I couldn't find you at lunch today. Were you sleeping?" His grin grew mischievous.
"Not today, maybe tomorrow," said Eagle. "I'm sick of the people I sit with."
"Already? Man, it's only the second day! I hope I'm not bothering you that much."
"No, not at all," said Eagle, and was shocked by the honesty of his own words. "Not… at all."
Zazu sighed with relief. "Well, that's good. Hey, is the computer still working? No problems?"
Eagle nodded. "Yes. I think you made my computer better than yours, though. Are you sure that the Academy won't move you up a level?"
"I'm pretty sure. But I don't think I want to anymore."
Eagle frowned. "Why not?"
"Because I would have to change roommates."
The two laughed together, and Zazu made his way in front of his computer and took a headband from his belt and slipped it onto his forehead. As he connected the cables into his main console, Eagle swiveled back to his blank computer screen, bit his lip, and turned back around to face the young boy.
"Zazu?"
"Yeah?"
"Your last name is Torque?"
Zazu stiffened and sheepishly looked over his shoulder. "Yeah. Why?"
Eagle shrugged. "I think it's the same last name as my father's friend, Maverick. Are you related to him?"
Zazu chuckled. "Yeah, he's my dad."
Eagle let this information sink in, and slowly said, "So, your stepmother is Kia Avant?"
Zazu stiffened again and a look of utter fright climbed onto his face. "Yeah… but it's nothing special, really. I mean, yeah, she's the vice president, but she's only my step mom, and…"
Eagle grinned. "Don't worry about it, Zazu. Your stepmother and my father were co-workers in the Senate. I know what it's like."
"It's a bit different when she's the Vice President of Autozam," Zazu replied flatly.
"I can relate, though. My father is Chrysler Vision."
Zazu blinked once, then twice, and fell out of his chair howling, surprisingly not ripping out the cords during his tumble. "Who would have thought!" he said. "I'm so sorry, Eagle, I shouldn't have assumed… oh, man!" He climbed back onto his chair and stared at Eagle with an apologetic smile. "Yeah, I guess you would know what it's like. It's too late to do anything about it though. We like each other now, and there's no going back."
"Yes," Eagle said, once again shocked by the truth looming behind his agreement.
Zazu turned back to his homework, and Eagle did likewise, and at random intervals Zazu would throw back conversations of nothing, and Eagle would always reply. Finally, an hour later, Zazu glanced at the clock and once again begged Eagle unsuccessfully to go with him to the cafeteria for dinner. He only left after he made Eagle promise not to fall asleep before he got back, and to make sure of it, he was going to leave his key in the room, so that Eagle should stay awake so he could let Zazu in. In turn, Eagle told Zazu to get back as soon as possible, before two hours later, and Zazu agreed.
"It's fun talking to you," said Zazu. "I'm looking forward to it! That's why you can't go to sleep before I get back."
"Zazu, we have the rest of the year to talk," Eagle reminded him.
"Yeah, but we can double that time if you just stayed awake. So I'll be back as soon as I'm done eating, and don't you dare go to sleep!"
"Okay, okay," said Eagle, and Zazu, satisfied, left the dorm room.
As Eagle finished the last of his homework assignment for one of his basics classes, he smiled, and as soon as he wrapped up the last of it, he unplugged the cords from the computer. He took the green key next to his computer and left the dorm room. At the end of the hallway, there was a thin gray communications box, and Eagle plugged in his cords there.
After a momentary pause, the face of his mother appeared on the screen, her long blonde hair in a rare loose ponytail slung over her shoulder, and her golden eyes shimmered with her smile.
"Eagle, honey, hi!" she said. "How is the Academy?"
"It's fine, Mom, it really is," he replied. He paused for a moment, and then returned the smile with one of his own. "Mom, I made a friend yesterday." And he proceeded to tell her everything he knew about Zazu Torque.
