Hal sighed. He had had a long, strange first few weeks of school. He had thought that he had everything about last Friday night all figured out. It had been a dream But then his other roommates admitted that they remembered the "dream" he was telling them about.
Ok. Fair enough. So it was a shared dream. Something weird had happened, and somehow they all had the same dream. Maybe there was something in the drinks at the bar or something. Yeah. That made sense. At least- a whole lot more sense than what they had seen had actually happened.
And then Derek never came home. Ok- no big deal. He was practically failing out of college anyway. Maybe he met some girl at the bar. It made a whole lot more freakin sense than he got carried away by three shrimps in black.
Then Derek didn't show up for a week. Now, they had to tell someone. They told his mother that they had lost him at the bar, and didn't know where he was. She filed a missing persons report. A police officer had come to their dorm. They had all agreed what to tell him beforehand. Even Mirvin (with only minor bullying). Heck- Hal wasn't so sure it was a lie anyway.
Then there were the dreams. Every night, Hal had the same one. He was playing baseball by himself, against a team of shadows They had no distinct features, and they were just black, faceless, sometimes even changing shape. And every time he swung the bat and missed a ball thrown at him by some creep too scared-pissless to face him without hiding, he saw another image from Vertigo on Friday. Fshhht- a missed pitch: Dan flying through the air, Wshhhh-swing and a miss: Dan pushing aside gunfire with his hands, wooosh: another one right past him: Derek, being dragged off into the night.
The first night he had woken up in terror. But he quickly brushed it off as a booze-dream. And what the hell anyway?! Baseball! Ha, If they had played Hal's sport, the real man's sport of hockey, he would've kicked those shadows' asses, all by himself.
After three nights of the same dream, Hal decided to mention it to someone casually. Unfortunately, when the thought occurred to him the only one around was Mirvin. He was clicking away in the bedroom he shared down the hall with Collin.
Hal walked towards Mirvin's room and paused outside his door. He sighed. He needed to know if it was just him. He walked in.
"Yo Mirvin, Hey man, I got a question for ya."
Mirvin continued clicking away. Without pausing, he said "Hello Hal. Mirvin is busy with elite computer programming work." He paused. "It is for masters only," He added, as if Hal wouldn't understand this important fact.
Once again, Hal bit back the desire to turn Mirvin into a human torpedo and fling him out a window.
"Look" He began, his voice harsh. But then he caught himself and continued, semi-calmly, through his teeth. "Yo man, I was just wondering, if well- if you've had any weird dreams lately. 'Cause, ugh, you uh, look tired man."
Mirvin paused, and turned around to look at Hal. He blinked.
"Mirvin has had strange dreams." He said this to Hal informatively, as if Hal hadn't just freaking asked him that. "Mirvin's computer hovers over Mirvin's head. Won't leave Mirvin alone. No. It is a bad computer. Makes Mirvin remember things that never happened."
Hal felt a surge of relief. It wasn't just him. It quickly fell away though. Maybe it was just a one time thing. And who is to say that Mirvin didn't always dream about that? He was an egg-headed freak, after all.
"Does uh, your computer always do that? While you sleep, I mean?" God, he sounded like an idiot.
Mirvin shook his head, giving Hal the feeling that the giant thing was going to fall off his neck and roll down the stairs.
"Oh no. No Raffy is good to Mirvin. Mirvin makes him work fast and efficiently." Mirvin turned to smile at "Raffy" as if it were a dear friend that Mirvin had just payed a compliment.
"Oh um- yeah ok. Thanks uh, Mirvin." Hal stepped out of the room then, grateful he didn't need anything else from the kid. Mirvin seemed like an Ok guy and all, but man was he a freak. Anyhow- It wasn't just Hal. Mirvin seemed to have very similar dreams.
As the week progressed, Hal asked Collin and Rich the same question, each separately. They too, had similar experiences. Strange dreams, the same ones every night, and always remembering Vertigo. That memory that had never happened. It couldn't have.
That wasn't the only thing either. Hal had come home after hockey practice one day, and Collin and Rich were arguing over the remote. Hal was about to say that they were both wrong, and they had to change the channel to ESPN, right now- when the TV had shut off. And it wouldn't turn back on. Mirvin, who had been sitting on the couch, immediately rose to the challenge, bragging about his smattering of engineering courses. But he was left confused. He said that everything should work.
He had unplugged the TV, and was fooling around with something in the back, when it had turned on again. Mirvin squeaked, and immediately jumped back from the set. They all stared. After a moment it turned off again. Then Mirvin tried to plug in the set again, his eyes closed and looking like at any moment the television would suddenly jump up and eat him. The television turned on and began working normally as if nothing had happened.. They had decided not to talk about that for a while.
And now, now Hal was standing right in front of the two men who didn't exist.
Dan and Jeremiah. The doorbell had rang, and he had been watching the Bruins game. His shouts for someone to get the door went unanswered. So, grumbling, he had gone himself. Strangely, his feeling of disbelief had immediately been drowned out by another feeling. It was Dan, and he was alive and well. "Dude, I am SOOO smashed right now." said Dan. He was just as Hal had remembered
Jeremiah gave Dan a disapproving glance. Then he turned back to Hal.
"Yes- well. Hello! You remember us right? I told you I would check up on you, so here I am. So how are things?"
"Yo man! You're ok! That rocks!" Hal reached forward and grabbed Dan's arm, slapping him on the back with his other. "Whoa. Shouldn't you be in the hospital or something? You were shot in the stomach, I saw it myself!" Dan grinned, then shrugged.
"It was a lucky shot." He said, simply. Then he mumbled "The paradox hurt a lot more."
Hal assumed that
wasn't for him. He turned and yelled over his shoulder, "Yo
everyone! Dan and Jeremy are here, come on down!"
"Dude,
didn't those guy empty like entire clips of machine guns at you?"
Hal asked, in awe.
Dan shrugged.
"At least there were no missiles this time." Hal gaped. He tried
to think of something to say, but all that came out was- "You are a
God."
Dan shrugged. "Not really", he said. "Hey can I
come in now, I'm finding standing up a little tricky." Dan
wobbled on his feet, clearly very drunk.
"Sure, Course,
man! Come in, come in." Jeremiah walked in, almost looking like he
was gliding in his longish white cloak. Dan staggered in, his cloak
hanging open, and he collapsed on a couch.
"This couch
kicks" he said, somewhat stupidly.
"DAN!" Came a shout
from the top of the stairs, and down came Collin, shaking Dan's
hand at an awkward angle. "It's great that you're alright! How
are you?"
"Drunk" said Dan with a solemn nod.
Next
came Rich, who shook hands with Jeremy and Dan. He then grabbed a
chair in the corner, and sat their observing for a while. Mirvin came
next, after Hal threatened to go up there and get him. He also sat on
the couch a bit out of the way.
"So," said Jeremy, "Did
your friend ever return?"
Hal shook his head. "No, he
never came back. What happened? Where did those punks take him?"
Jeremiah shared a look with Dan on the couch. "That is
unfortunate." Jeremiah said.
"Yeah, it totally sucks"
Dan agreed.
"Maybe he went to go pick up an Angel" Collin
offered, winking at Jeremy. Hal rolled his eyes.
"What does
it mean? You hafta help us find him."
Jeremy nodded. "Very
well. But first off, I have to ask you something. Have you four been,
well-"
"You see anything really friggin' weird?" Dan
said, finishing Jeremy's thought. Jeremy glared at Dan again.
"Since Saturday" he said, choosing just to add to Dan's quip.
"Well, well yeah actually." Hal said, feeling awkward. He
hated admitting not knowing what was going on. "I've had some
weird dreams- We all have. The same one every night. About what
happened in Vertigo." They all told Jeremiah and Dan about their
dreams. And then they told him about the TV, Mirvin saying something
unhelpful about the TV's disposition towards him.
Jeremiah and Dan
shared another look. Then Jeremiah sighed.
"Ok." He said.
"This is what is going on." He pointed to the window, where some
college students were walking by. "You see all of them out there?
Walking by your window? They, like you, have certain beliefs, a whole
lot of beliefs actually, even many that they don't even know they
have. They are like most people in the world, like 99 percent of
everyone in the world. But it is their BELIEF that makes the world
work the way it does. They don't realize this of course, they just
assume it. But millions, hundreds of millions of people all have
certain assumptions about what one can and can't do. Their
collective will makes it so. Among these beliefs, are certain notions
about fire. Fire must be started by an accelerant, and it must have
fuel on which to burn." Jeremiah motioned to Dan, who staggered
over to the curtains, and drew them.
Jeremiah held out his
hand, palm open, and a blue flame sprung into existence floating
inches over his hand.
"That's awesome!" Collin burst
out.
"How did you do that" Rich demanded, from the corner.
Jeremiah smiled. "I decided, despite millions of minds
telling me to the contrary, that in fact fire does NOT need an
accelerant, or fuel. All it needs, is my will." He looked out on
all of them.
"You have all been asleep," he said. "Just
like them outside the window, like most everyone else in the world.
Your minds have bee adding to the collective assumptions about
reality, and you decided without even knowing it, that you would
accept these assumptions. "He paused. "But last week you saw
something that couldn't happen. It wasn't a dream, and it
happened, even though it couldn't. And now your mind is waking up.
It is realizing that reality isn't so simple, so set as you thought
it was. You are now seeing behind the curtain." He paused again,
and looked at Dan for a moment. "We all go through this process.
Everyone you saw in the Library- that is the entire building you were
brought to last week, not just the section with the books- Everyone
there had to go through this. The dreams you had were your minds,
telling you that it is time to wake up, it is time to stop being
passive observers of reality." Jeremy looked at Hal, his expression
softening.
"There is a war going on. One of the conflicts is between people like us at the Library, who think that we should learn to shape reality, that we should control the environment in which we are set, and then there are those like the men you met at Vertigo, who think that we are doing something wrong, that we are violating nature, though millions of people shape reality every day without even realizing it. Their minds constantly reaffirm basic assumptions about physics, about your mind, about simple concepts like light, space, and weight."
"Those who think that we violate nature will do anything to stop us. They do not realize that they are already "violating" nature anyway. Those of us who oppose these people who would take out all mystery, all wonder from the world, are separated into factions called Houses. Myself and Dan, and everyone else at the Library, are part of a House that specializes in energy, and the forces that govern movement, heat, gravity, and many other things. We call ourselves the Order of Hermes." Jeremiah paused again, looking each of them in turn in the eyes.
"We would like you to join us. We can teach you to really see the world for what it is. We can teach you to do what is necessary to find your friend." He added, looking at Hal.
"How do we know this isn't a scam?" Said Rich, from across the room. "That you guys aren't con-artists?"
"Because we aren't forcing you to do anything. Nor do we require any currency from you. What we will teach you will be free. All we ask is that you abide by certain rules we have, such as not disclosing anything you learn with anyone else.
"I don't know" said Rich. "The whole thing sounds fishy to me."
Jeremy looked at him. "The choice is yours, of course. But let me tell you this- the dreams you had, the strange happenings, such as with your electric device; they won't stop. Once your mind has seen the world the way it is, it will never go back. It won't let you hide again. Once you wake up, you can't go back to sleep."
Rich remained
silent, considering. Hal and Collin walked over and began discussing
it. Eventually they decided to try it, that it couldn't hurt. They
could at least maybe find out what was up with the TV. That was
Collin that pointed out that one. He seemed to have an irrational
interest in the TV. Mirvin took a little long while longer to ...
convince. Actually, he ran upstairs, saying that everyone could all
go without him. Jeremy and Dan just looked at each other and laughed
knowingly. After a few moments Mirvin screamed something that sounded
like "No Raffy, No!".
Rich, with a confused expression,
immediately looked at Jeremiah, who just smiled. "Now, when I
say mind it's probably a tad bit confusing. If you think about a
human being made up of mind, body and soul, it is actually the soul
that wakes us up."
Everyone stared blankly, and a few more
banging and squealing noises came from upstairs.
Jeremiah looked at each of them in turn once more. Then he sighed, as if he was resigned to a certain decision he regretted on some level.
"There is just one more thing I must tell you before you make your choice. And that is concerning the phenomenon known as paradox. It is possible, with many long hours of practice, by learning the correct methods, and by concentrating enough, to change reality in nearly anyway you can think of. But like I said, the collective will of humans in the world makes reality the way it is. So each time you change something, you push against that will. Paradox is the will of reality pushing back. Any time you change the world to overtly, especially in front of "sleeping" witnesses, that Pattern of reality may snap back onto your mind and cause you damage. Dan had a particular nasty bout of paradox shortly after we healed him of his wounds. Otherwise he would have been up and running much quicker than he did." Jeremy paused.
"This is why
it is best to try changing reality in subtle ways, ways that can be
easily explained as something else- especially when you are in front
of Unawakened witnesses; that is those who do not except the
malleable nature of the universe. But we will teach you more about
how to deal with that later. Additionally, the Library is in an area
that is more immune to paradox."
Right at the conclusion of
Jeremy's speech, Mirvin practically fell back down the stairs. He
hurriedly said that they better hurry up and get to expanding their
minds, giving a worried glance behind his back, up the stairs.
After that, Jeremiah did something strange to Hal's bedroom window, and said that they should all go through it in about an hour. He then said he had some business to take care of, and him and Dan left.
During the hour, everyone talked about what they had heard. They decided that it couldn't hurt just checking out what was going on.
Hal was the last to push himself through the window, grunting. It was odd being the biggest guy now. Usually it was Derek that brought up the rear and could never fit through doors or low ceilings. Hal chuckled to himself. But now, he... No. No point in thinking about it. Derek would show up eventually. He probably just took a bit longer than normal fighting off those freaks in the hats back at Vertigo. Ha! The big wimp. Hal would've busted all three of those punks in no time. They even put away their guns. There's no way Derek could lose to those guys in that situation. They were like twigs. Coat racks with arms and legs. Pah! What did Hal care anyway? He was glad that big loser was gone. All he ever did was brag about how great he was anyway, and...
"Hi everybody!
I trust the window works well enough for you?"
Hal was
jerked from his thoughts by the voice in front of him. He managed to
push through Collin and Mirvin, to stand by Rich in the front. The
voice belonged to Jeremiah.
"Yo, Jeremiah- I feel like a
big loser crawling through my freakin bedroom window to get here.
Come on man, there has to be another way that's less... dumb."
Jeremiah laughed. "I'm afraid that's the only way we
can do it, Hal. Without making something real conspicuous in your
front door anyway." He stopped for a moment, and frowned.
"Speaking of which, I don't recommend having guests over
too often. You have to be careful now. There will be many things in
your lives now that will be difficult to explain to others. Please be
cautious, all of you." He surveyed the group after finishing. Then
his grave expression fell away, and he brightened.
"Well
then, enough of that. Come with me everyone, I'll introduce you to
your teachers. Most of them are free now I believe, but only for a
few minutes. You will have to schedule lessons with them for a later
time. I recommend-"Jeremiah continued saying stuff, but Hal was
distracted by something in the back of the big room they were in. It
was the office area he had seen before. The floor he was currently
standing on was carpeted, but it gave away to polished hardwood floor
on the far left corner of the room. There was an open area there.
It's where he had seen two kids playing with fire before. It
appeared to be some kind of sparring area, for there were two people
facing off on it now. Around them was a small crowd, with a dozen,
maybe more looking on. He could see the combatants from here, because
there was a fairly large raised area, on which mats had been placed.
Unconsciously Hal began moving forward, as he tried to see
what was going on. He heard a voice behind him, and was about to ask
what they wanted, but was distracted again by movement back on the
raised stage.
On the left of the mats was a man who appeared
to be in his early twenties. He had a slight, thin build, and dirty
blonde hair that he was constantly shaking out of his eyes. In his
hands was a sheathed sword. It appeared to be tightly bound with
ribbon. Obviously not meant to be opened, not in this match anyway.
Hal could see the sword in his hands clearly now, it was moving in a
dizzying pattern in the area. It rested in a defensive position, and
the man left it there, waiting. Hal couldn't quite make out his
expression yet. He drew closer.
Facing him, several feet
away, was a girl who appeared to be in her late teens. She had brown
hair tied bag in two tails, a single white ribbon in each. She wore a
wide white sash, with many pouches hanging off her hips. Presently,
she crossed her arms over her chest and gave a derisive, unimpressed
puff of air at the sword play in front of her.
Hal was on top
of the crowd now, and he pushed through to the front. There was a
white line on the hardwood floor several feet away from the stage,
and everyone was behind it. Hal shrugged and stopped there.
Standing in front of him, directly in front of the stage, was
an old man in a brown cloak. He cleared his throat and then turned to
address the small crowd in front of him. After a moment, he spoke, in
a strong, if a bit cracked, voice.
"Please stay behind the
lines everyone, or I can't ensure your safety. Today it is James
Versus Kristyna. This match will determine who goes to the level 5
tournament later on this month, to represent the Library."
There
was a general rustling from the crowd, and a few shouts for: "yeah
James!" and "It's all you Kris!" and even a "Go Kristy,
kick his ugly ass!" The last comment came from a group of two girls
to Joe's left. Obviously the one who had shouted was the one with
long blonde hair like spun gold that hung loose over the back of her
white dress. She had several rings on her fingers and even a complex
black amulet around her neck. The girl beside her was mostly silent,
but she was glaring out at James, as if she were trying to burn a
hole right through his face. She simple darker shaded clothing, with
baggy pants and a somewhat expansive coat. The coat hung a little
open in the front, and Hal could see a wicked looking short sword
with an ornate handle that held a single, large glass jewel in the
middle.
Hal shivered, hoping no one saw him. What was wrong
with him? Afraid of a girl? His hockey pals back at school would
never let him hear the end of it if they ever found out. But there
was something creepy about her. Though he couldn't put his finger
on what.
Hal turned his attention back to the scene in front
of him. The girl had uncrossed her arms now, and was giggling. "Nice
display their James, but I can tell by your expression that you
aren't ready for this. You're afraid to hurt me aren't you?
That's real sweet and all, but unless you go all out, you'll
never beat me. I've gotten a lot better." She grinned, enjoying
herself, and then jammed her hands into the pouches on either side of
her hips. There were three big ones, two on her left hip, and one on
her right hip. She also had a few pouches in the back, but she seemed
less conscious of these.
James smiled, without saying
anything, but Hal thought he looked nervous.
The old man held
up his hand then, and held it raised. James and Kristyna tensed. What
was the big problem anyway? That James kid looked tough, he had to
admit. And that chick was just an uppity priss. This really shouldn't
take long. Though Hal also had to admit, that he wouldn't want to
fight a girl either.
The arm fell, and Kristyna immediately
pulled her left hand out of the pouch on her hip. It appeared to be a
fine, sparkling powder of some sort interspersed with pink rose
petals.
At the same time, James took a step back, close to
the end of the sparring platform. He bent low, his sword held
defensively in front of him. He appeared to wait to see what Kristyna
would do.
Kristyna paused, with the powder in her hand, and
looked up at James. "I've developed quite a lot since the last
time we did this. I have a few new tricks I'd like to show you.
Hope you like it."
James smiled again, tolerantly, and
tensed.
"Waiting to see what I do then? What a gentleman
you are."
She giggled, and then held her hand out before
her lips, and blew hard. The petals and powder fluttered out of her
hand everywhere, bouncing in the air, but then something strange
seemed to happen to them. She blew again, harder, even though the
petals were well out of the range of her breath now. Nonetheless, the
petals spread out, and flew forward, as if a great gust had caught
them perfectly.
James laughed, sounding almost relieved "I
don't know what that is, but it can't be good. You'll forgive
me if I don't stick around." He danced to the left, and circled
towards Kristyna.
Kristyna laughed again, thoroughly enjoying
herself. It sounded like tinkling bells. She held out her arms out in
front of her, palms open and facing up. She raised them slowly, and
the petals slowed dramatically on their swaying path towards the
ground. In fact they seemed to nearly freeze in the air.
She
winked at James, and then turned her palms over again, facing to the
left. She moved them in James' direction, and the petals suddenly
whirled in the air again, heading towards him. She gestured toward
herself with her left hand, and the petals spread out again, until
they covered his entire corner. They started gusting in his
direction, now that he was cornered. They weren't just at one
height either, so James couldn't go under. He appeared to have to
jump over at this point, although they were almost head level
and...
James raised his sword, made a circular swinging motion
in the air, stepped forward and... disappeared.
Hal gaped. He
looked wildly around the room and spotted James on the other side of
the platform. What? How had he moved that fast? It was completely
impossible! Hal didn't even see him MOVE. And Hal's eyes could
pick up a puck moving at bullet speed.
Kristyna whirled,
swinging her arms in James direction. The cloud immediately gusted
past her, towards James, picking up speed this time.
This
girl was good. Look at the control she had, balancing petals on the
wind!
James frowned, as the cloud spread out wide in a
seemingly random fluttering of red and white. Each petal seemed to be
blowing and fluttering wildly, but it would always fly back into
line. It was wider now, and moving towards James fast.
He
seemed to sigh to himself, and then cut at the air again, stepped
forward, and disappeared. This time he appeared directly in front of
Kristyna, less than 3 feet from her. Hal rubbed his eyes, scarcely
believing this was happening.
The guy set himself and then
sprung forward, swinging his sword at Kristyna's head. It was a
clumsy swing though. And Kristyna easily ducked under it, and then
leaped backwards, her hand going to another pouch on her hip. What
was she going to pull out this time? Barbie dolls?
James
immediately recovered and leapt forward, again swinging clumsily,
almost gingerly for Kristyna's middle. Kristyna dove out of the way
once more letting out a squeaky "Eep!" as she did. After she
rolled back to her knees she quickly let something out that looked
suspiciously like pizza dough.
Hal couldn't take any more
of this. He had seen what James could do with a sword. He got angry
and forgot himself.
'Dude what are you doing man? Kick her
ass! Stop pussying around! What is she gonna do, hit you with a
pizza?" He shouted, drawing a few sharp glares from the girls to
his left. Hal didn't care though.
James swiveled instantly
and jumped up in the air, flying up way more than should have been
possible. When he hit his apex he swung down hard towards Kristyna.
Instantly Kristyna grabbed the top half of the dough, and pulled it
up with her as she stood up and back. With the dough in her right
hand, stretching from over her head to the ground, she made a hasty
hand gesture with her left hand, and then balled it hard into a fist.
The dough was stretched between her and James now, making a sort of
tent-like covering over head.
It looked really silly. What
the heck was she doing? Hal was about to shout something mocking at
her, when the dough changed. It seemed to become more compact, more
solid and the color faded from gray/white to a bluish grey. And then
it was hard, REALLY hard. The overhead light glinted off it.
James
was on top of it now and he swung his sword down hard... and it
smacked into the substance and bounced. James stumbled as he fell
into the metal, his chest crashing into the curved metal ledge.
Obviously he had been aiming to cut through the dough Was that stuff
steel? What? Who WERE these people? How did she DO that? James
seemed as surprised as Hal. He was now hanging by one arm from what
looked like a giant half melted chunk of metal, at least 6 feet off
the ground, that rose up out of the ground like a hunk of melted wax,
and curved in a half arc. James slipped and clung desperately to the
metal structure. His face looked partially in pain. He had expected
to land on his feet, cutting through dough, not on his stomach,
landing on steel. He pulled himself up to stand on top of the metal,
precariously.
Kristyna was also getting to her feet, now
several feet away, having leapt from under the structure shortly
after James struck it. She stood up now, and turned to look at James.
Her left fist was still clenched.
James bent his knees, and
prepared to leap off the metal, directly at the girl below him. He
tensed. Kristyna looked at him in alarm, and instantly opened her
hand. And just like that there was no longer anything supporting
James' weight. He fell on the ground, landing on his ass painfully,
wet chunks of grayish white dough landing on his head and face.
He
stood up uneasily, rubbing his backside, and then picked pieces of
dough off his face and out of his hair.
He looked up.
Kristyna was doubled over, laughing hysterically.
"Wow.
Just WOW. That was totally classic James. What was that? Why did you
jump way in the air like that? It just gave me more time to set up."
She stopped laughing, and narrowed her eyes.
"You
were trying to scare me weren't you? Get me to give up without a
fight. Damnit James. When will you take me seriously? I'm telling
you, I've grown. I'm not a little girl anymore. And this match
isn't just for kicks. We are going up against some serious shit in
the near future. If we don't get better fast, we will die."
She set herself,
and jammed a hand into her pocket.
"You WILL take me
seriously. For your own good. You can't be soft when it counts. And
what if a situation like this occurred in battle? If you don't go
all out on this next one, you could get hurt."
James
finished dusting himself off, and started trying to plead with her.
"Kristyna, this is just a sparring match, please. Look,
fine ok. I give up. Ok? You can go to the tournament. I just don't
want to see you hurt..."
Kristyna's expression grew
furious.
"Oh No you don't. No way. I won't let you. I
am NOT a little girl who needs your protection. If you don't do
something serious with this next one, they will have to dust you off
the floor with a brush."
Hal leaned forward, wanting what
she could possibly pull out of the third and final big pouch on her
belt. And maybe now this James guy what get serious and he could see
what he could really do. How had James jumped that high? Or moved
that fast? Hal wanted to, NEEDED to learn, now. Imagine what he could
do if he could move that fast! No one would score a goal on him,
EVER.
At the exact moment that Kristyna appeared to be ready
to make a move, Hal felt an arm on his shoulder. It pulled him, hard,
back out of the crowd.
"Don't wander off like that" he
said, frowning. "You could get into trouble I can't protect you
from. Plus it's not a good idea for you to watch that yet. You need
to learn to crawl before you can fly. And besides, if I'm not too
much mistaken, Kristyna is about to do something fairly reckless. And
I cannot let you get hurt quite yet. Now come with me."
He
dragged Hal back towards the front of the room, where the desks were.
Hal started resisting, trying to tug free.
"Dude what are
you doing? I gotta finish watching that, it was amazing! I-"
He would've
struggled more, but he was quickly surrounded by Rich, Collin and
Mirvin. "Where did you go to?" asked Rich, his black jacket still
on, the telltale bump for his hockey stick still there. It took
concentration for Hal not to laugh. A stick? With what he had just
seen two teenagers do, even if Rich's stick had been a bazooka it
would little difference in this place.
Jeremiah had let go of
him now, and Hal realized that he was obediently walking with
everyone else behind Jeremy. His gut reaction was to screw this, and
go back to the fight that he was missing the end of, right this
moment. But then another thought came to him. If he wanted to learn
to do what he had just seen, he had to play along for now.
Chances
are that this was all a colossal joke, and Hal was being laughed at
by punks watching him through cameras right now. Either that or he
was still passed out on the bar at Vertigo, and this was all a
complex drunk-dream. But whatever, for now he'd just pretend it was
real.
He turned to
answer Rich, as they walked behind Jeremy.
"I was watching the
match over in the corner. You should've come over to watch it man,
it was In-freakin-credible. This one guy, he's so fast that not
even I can follow him moving from once place to another at all."
Rich eye's widened a bit. He seemed impressed by this, but didn't address the comment directly.
"Well we were going to follow you right away, but Jeremiah was called away to do something, and he got that Michael guy to watch us while he was away. I don't think he wanted us watching that match. We could only make out a little from where we were, because that weird guy with all the electronic crap kept spinning around us on that chair with the wheels."
Rich paused a moment, frowning. "It's a bit unfair that you go to see the fight, and we didn't."
Hal resisted the temptation to turn around and try to get a glimpse of what was happening in the match. He didn't hear any cheering, or loud noises, so he assumed nothing yet. The group was weaving in and out of desks now, with Jeremiah several feet in front of them. Mirvin and Collin were in between them and Jeremiah and Collin appeared to be laughing and poking Mirvin in the ribs while he complained loudly.
Rich glanced at Jeremiah, noting his position, before he turned back to Hal as they walked. His expression lightened a little, looking mischievous and conspiratorial.
"But anyway, so- what happened? We saw some big weird structure in the middle of the floor up there for a second, but then it disappeared? What was that? And was the guy with the sword any good?" He asked, an edge of excitement pushing into his voice. Hal was about to answer, when he realized that Jeremiah had stopped in front of a door and was patiently waiting for them.
"Come on", he said "We have only a few minutes now, and Wizard wanted to meet you."
They followed Jeremiah up a flight of stairs, down a hall, and into a spacious room with various strange looking things on the shelves, and a big desk in the middle. Sitting at the desk, working was an old man with stark white hair and a full white beard that stuck out from his face. He wore a simple black cloak, with a silver clasp that seemed shaped into some kind of figure Hal couldn't make out.
He stood up as they entered.
"Welcome," he said, smiling broadly and warmly.
"Hi Wizard," said Jeremiah, with respect. "These are the new students I told you about. I figured I should take them to meet you real quick before you had to go out again."
Wizard nodded. He stepped forward to shake everyone's hand. As Hal shook his hand, and introduced himself, he got a better look at the clasp around Wizard's neck. It was an angel, a male one. It had large silver wings, and two hands holding a sword formed the clasp in the middle.
After he finished, Wizard stepped back to look at them. Strangely he looked... guilty. It was a foreign expression on a man who exuded so much... patience, and power. Hal wasn't sure how he knew, but he got the feeling that this guy was really powerful, and important. Even beyond the obvious.
"I regret that I personally will only be able to teach one of you. I have a bit of nasty business to take care of this week. I believe you do as well, Jeremiah?"
Jeremiah nodded. "I think Dan is free though, or more than normal this week."
Hal had so many questions, so much he wanted- NEEDED to know. It burst out of him, without even thinking.
"Yo- Wizard, Hey man- I saw some weird stuff at the match down stairs. And I was wondering how they do that? Turning stuff into steel, moving so fast I can't even follow where they go in between, jumping ten feet into the air and-" He stopped. And looked at Wizard, with steely eyes. "I want to learn how to do that." Wizard laughed lightly and said, "Whoa, hold on there. I compliment on your eagerness young man, but I'm too old to answer so many questions at once! I will answer one or two of them now though. You will have to come back to me later to learn the rest."
"If I'm not much mistaken, this 'speed' you speak of, isn't speed at all. " Wizard paused, apparently thinking how to phrase his next sentence.
"There are nine ways to change reality. These nine ways we refer to as 'spheres'. No doubt what you observed today falls under the sphere known as 'Correspondence'. This deals with spatial relationships. This means that the man you observed was it James?"
Jeremiah nodded.
"Yes, right. Well this means that, most likely, James moved
directly from one space to another. It's not that he was too fast
for you to see, he didn't move through the space in between at
all."
Hal gasped. He couldn't wait to learn something like
that. He didn't care if this was all a dream. Damnit he would enjoy
it if it was. Wizard stopped a moment, and looked back at Jeremiah.
"Is James sparring with Kristyna?"
Nod from Jeremy.
"And
she has used two of her pouches?"
Another nod. Wizard's
eyebrows lifted, and his eyes widened.
"You four are missing
quite a show then."
Hal and the others looked at each other,
then they looked back at Wizard, hopefully.
Wizard laughed again.
"Go, Go on then! Come back at the same time tomorrow. Hal you can
come up here. The rest of you will have to find Dan. Careful not to
stand to close to Kristyna" Wizard said, having to raise his voice
a little as Hal, Rich, Collin, and Mirvin flew out the door and back
down the stairs, in that order. Mirvin quickly fell somewhat behind,
complaining and asking what was going on. But Hal barely heard him
anymore; he flew down the stairs, skipping three at a time.
When he was about halfway down there was a loud BANG, and a few seconds later- BANG BANG BANG! Then he heard a loud cheer go up from the crowd. It must be deafening up close since he could hear it from way back here. The three of them flew out the door and across the offices, dodging desks and men with papers.
Hal didn't care what that girl could do, there was no way she could ever, possibly beat-
When they got there, there was a crowd of girls waving their arms and cheering at the top of their lungs. The guys in the crowd were milling about and slowly walking away, shaking their heads. The group of three (Mirvin was way behind now) stopped in front of the crowd.
No way. There was no possible-
They pushed through the crowd, and there, up on the platform, was perhaps the saddest scene Hal ever laid eyes on.
There, on the ground, was James. He was unconscious. Sitting on his chest was Kristyna. She was humming to herself, and appeared to be... braiding... flowers?!? Into his hair? Hal stared, mortified.
In between humming, Hal could hear her softly talking to the unconscious James.
"I'm sorry for getting mad at you earlier. But you really should've tried harder. I told you I was better. And you wouldn't have hurt me. See? I'm just trying to protect you, in my own way. You never know when some Technocratic chick is gonna come after you, ready to tear off your nuts with an electric chain saw. If you're too soft to fight her, you'll be done for." She giggled again, and took another petal off the ground, braiding it into James' hair, humming to herself.
Hal looked around the arena. There was a glitter-like substance over almost the entire arena. It was swirling now, moving into Kristyna's pouch, along with flower petals. Over some parts of the arena, there was also a small quantity of water.
Water?!? Hal thought. Those explosions he heard were caused by water? How? And how had Jeremy been put out? It must have something to do with that glittery powder. Did it have sleeping-agent properties? Hal decided not to find out by getting any closer. He tried asking some of the guys about what had happened, but no one appeared to want to talk about it.
Dangit. Hal had a thought then- Maybe he could ask Wizard about it later, he seemed to have an idea of what was going on. Hal suddenly felt excited. He thought back to all the things he had seen James do. He was going to learn that. All of it. He couldn't wait.
Rich suddenly appeared over one shoulder. He motioned to the group of girls all cheering now, and talking excitedly with Kristyna. He pointed to one in particular, the one with the glaring eyes, dressed in a black shirt with a baggy pants and jacket.
He muttered into Hal's ear, "She has throwing knives on her. Lots of them." Hal looked back at the girl, he couldn't see a thing. Man Rich had sharp eyes. Hal decided he would learn from James' mistakes today. Don't take crazy chicks lightly.
He returned through the Library window to his bedroom window, and did a little homework. Tomorrow he would learn how to kick some ass. And, he would make that Jeremy punk keep his promise. Tomorrow they would find Derek.