"Heard you got in trouble today, plebe." By way of an answer to the voice coming from just behind my left ear, I drop and spin, kicking my leg out low. The boy I've just swept tumbles to the ground. I brush away the flash of identifying information that reads:

Name: Ansel Kaynes

Call Sign: Dagger

Rank: USIF Grade VI, Camelot Company, Alexander Division

Origin: Anchorage, AK

Achievements: State Speech and Debate-1st Place, Member of Regional Championship Hockey Team, National Merit Scholar

IP: 2053:db7:lj71:287:113:6e8

Security Status: Top Secret LANDLOCK-6

Like I need that to identify my own dimwit brother. (I tend to sass my neural processor a lot, which I guess is weird, but I promise I'm totally sane.)

"Ow, jeez, Skylar," he whines.

"Aw, shut it Axle." It's not like I have a ton of patience with my brother on the best of days.

"Hey, I've had a long, hard day of fighting space battles."

"Yes, yes, you're in CamCo, and you let me forget it approximately zero percent of the time. Now if you'll excuse me, I've just spent half an hour being interrogated for something I did right, and I might murder you solely because I'm so hungry."

"Maybe it was actually about something you did wrong. Maybe they're just waiting for you to reveal your secret plot, and then they're gonna arrest you and rip the neural processor out-"

"Axle!" I shriek, lunging at him. Laughing, he jumps back and starts running down the hallway. I chase after him, wondering how exactly he became a Combatant, when all of a sudden I crash into someone full force. From where I've landed on the ground, my eyes travel upward and I don't need my neural processor to tell me that I have quite literally just run into Elliot Ramirez. Awkward. Now, I will readily admit that he is as gorgeous as he appears on tv, but it's less because of that and more because I just collided with a solid object that my apology comes out as a stutter.

"Hi, sorry, I-I just-" I gesture vaguely at the hall that Axle has now disappeared down, laughing. "Sorry."

He takes in my information. "Axle's sister?" I nod. "I totally understand. Kid's not a bad fighter, but he's kinda crazy."

"Got that one right," I mutter. He grins.

"Well, if you're gonna go beat your brother to a pulp, don't let me stand in your way." He sticks out a hand and pulls me to my feet.

"Thanks. And...sorry." Now, I would definitely say that flustered is not a natural state of being for me. And yet, I could certainly be described as such as I ran off down the hall to find Axle, and, as Elliot had put it, "beat my brother to a pulp."

Sorry, this one's a little short. They're all different lengths because I generally stop them at some place it seems natural for an individual memory to end, but it does mess with the chapter lengths a little. Anyway, hope you liked it, please review.