Mordecai's few steps through the gate proves his reputation: swift to move away from the previous scene and careful to transit to his new scene. But to his sight, the soldiers stop to stare him down to a stand still. At this moment, being aware of his surroundings has never been so acute. There are naked eyes from ahead, sunglasses from the right, and goggles above from the watchtowers studying him. Spotlights come to warmly touch his raised feathers and highlight his gaze back towards the soldiers. He stands with a confused expression and has something odd attached to him. The silence begs the soldiers to poke at and speculate what odd thing he has, but the gate behind him bangs shut to close him within the area. The sound of the closed gate is a clue for thought of who he is. Like a remedy, it causes some of the soldiers to continue what they were doing. The spotlight drifts away and turns off. Some of the other soldiers continue to have deeper inquiry of what is wrong with him. Their unfamiliar faces look at each other and then back to him. Otherwise, and with his mind on his main priority, he begins to walk again. The other soldier's eyes follow him as he approaches the tunnels.
The tunnels will lead him to go further underground, where half of the complex resides. They are straight ahead and they show the steel platforms, concrete stairs, and crystal elevators, as they function with soldiers and their instructors traveling to their destinations. Above the entrance to the tunnels, there is a giant letter "S" painted white on a wall and glows by spotlights beaming onto it. It has a notch on it such that it could be either interpreted as the number five or letter S. But Mordecai knew this symbol as it helps spells out the S in "Surge". The wall and the tunnel are a part of a building towering into the sky. It reveals that the complex isn't shy that it is underground: it goes far enough to touch the ceiling that appears as a second blackened sky. There is always the sound of machinery operating and people talking to make echoes. And eventually, there would also be a beam of light to disperse the shadows and to discover its jutting rocks and mineral veins. Behind the tunnel building contains a fifth of the complex. Some guards block the access to it from the left and right of the tunnel building. Before the entrance to the tunnels, there is a hologlyphic wall that swarms with data through its front and back panels. Beyond its mashed jargon, it could clearly show meaningful details: today's date, weather, and news in sections. Underneath Friday and the clock showing ten thirteen, there are bulletins of information that are general or specific -especially about the riot in the Electric District. Weather shows the temperature, chance of a lightning storm, and phase of the moon. Then there is the news, separated by relation to particular members or Surge altogether.
There is information for Mordecai that requires him to step on a plaque by the hologlyphic wall. Before heading to the Tunnel Building, he steps onto the plaque. The wall begins to point lasers at his eyes and began to spew data from the wall. Then the data spherically encircle him with lines of all information related to him. He reads the title, "Schedule" distinguished from the sphere; underneath it are more lines that remind him that his class starts in forty seven minutes. Some of the lines reform to describe his shift overnight and a word in bright green text reads: "Promotion." Mordecai stares at the word. He tries to remind himself what has he done to deserve it. But he realizes his dingy sleeves of his hoodie instead. "Shoot!" Mordecai exclaims, causing the sphere to also examine his clothing. A catalog forms and displays jackets and coats with their product number, size, and price. Mordecai waves the displays away, shaking his head.
"Are you going to buy something?" Someone calls out. The person rests on his arms behind a counter.
"Wait, you can see that?" Mordecai replies.
"Yeah."
Mordecai begins to reply, but the sphere begins to add more words and details about the member he looks at: such as his job of working at the front desk. The man's job is to inform or sell goods to members.
Mordecai replies, "I just wish the figure didn't look everywhere I look. So, you're a clerk, right?"
"Yeah."
"Crap, well, is that why you could see the jackets?"
"Yeah."
"OK. Do you know if teachers will think my hoodie is fine?"
"We have a uniform for a reason."
Mordecai didn't say anything but begins to think about why he is wearing the hoodie in the first place. He didn't have time to change before he got to the site.
"Do I have to buy one?"
"Well, didn't you just buy one a few weeks ago?"
"I did," Mordecai says with a hint of curiosity.
"Where is it?"
"It's in my car. But I'm going to be late if I go back, get it, and get through the gate again."
"No problem." The clerk steps behind the counter and walks to Mordecai's figure and asks for Mordecai's car keys.
"Where did you park?" the clerk continues.
"Hey man, wait. Can I really trust you?"
"You can trust me," the clerk says looking over to the gate. There are a few guards there, leaning on the watch tower and talking. He calls for a guard to come over.
A reptile looks over and then tells his buddies goodbye for now. His horns are questionable along with his species. Nonetheless, he has flowing locks of hair reaching to his shoulders. He stands tall and readjusts his jacket so that his lapel reads his last name, Ladetto, flattened across his chest. Then he walks over to the two with his thick arms crossed and ready to figure whatever needs to be straightened out. Mordecai looks up to his bearded face to find a slightly annoyed frown.
"Hey man, it's not that big of a deal," Mordecai says.
"Listen," the clerk shakes his head and asks, "how long have you been in Surge?"
"Two weeks at best."
The clerk points to the guard's boots, "they look pretty special right?"
"I've seen that style of boots before; it has more metal and stuff than the other style."
The guard asks the clerk, "Do you want me to surge, basically?"
The clerk looks back to Mordecai and asks, "You know what is surge?"
"What?" Mordecai says confusedly.
"That explains everything," the guard says. "Where do you want me to go?" the guard asks the clerk.
"Scott, where did you park your car?" the clerk asks.
Mordecai stalls a little but he continues to say, "the Skyport parking garage. I'm on the third level underground, lot 4A." The figure begins to form a line of details of the pinpointed location of Mordecai's radio at Skyport.
"And your keys?"
Mordecai gives his keys to the clerk. And the clerk gives the keys to the guard.
The guard asks, "Alright, Scott, where did you park your car?"
Mordecai reiterates, "Skyport parking garage."
The guard looks at Mordecai's figure and finds the location of his car. Then he points in the direction of the gate. Mordecai follows where the guard points to, but he looks at the gate without knowing what he is actually looking for. The guard grabs a gadget from his belt and tinkers with its interface. His boots begin to glow white hot while the guard changes his stance to get ready to sprint. But the guard disappears before he could begin to accelerate.
"What?" Mordecai says.
"He's at your car," the clerk explains. "He's probably grabbing your uniform and is about to surge again in a few seconds." After his words, the guard reappears, walking back with Mordecai's uniform jacket in his arms.
"I told you that you can trust me," the clerk says, walking away to his desk.
Mordecai stands in shock, trying to understand what has happened. But the guard gives the uniform and keys and replaces his gadget to his belt. He pats Mordecai's shoulder and says, "Someday, you'll learn all about how to step in these shoes. It's a high-class privilege you'll have to take advantage of."
"What?" Mordecai says and looks back at the sphere's green text.
"I can see your figure of course."
Mordecai stares at the guard with a confused face.
"I mean, your figure is pretty unpopulated; I guess you don't know everything about the figure yet or what I can actually see. Y'know, I can't see everything it lists about you."
"Ok, did you lock my car doors?"
"Yes."
"Alright, what do you see?"
"See what? Did you mean what did I see in your car?"
"No, my figure."
"Scott, you're a promoted man."
"I was promoted to Class 17 today."
"Yeah, it's just like climbing stairs from the previous step or few here."
"Well dude, it's a glitch-"
"Glitch? The figure can't glitch."
Mordecai looks at the figure's data again. The guard also learns a few things about Mordecai.
He asks, "You don't know how to surge?"
"I didn't even know about it."
"Did you come from Class 21 or lower?"
"Yeah, I was in Class 48."
"Oh, what? That explains it; they underestimated you. It must mean you get stronger easily or you're hiding your smarts."
"No, I'm awful."
"If you put it that way, then I guess maybe you're worth Class 10?"
"No, I'm legit garbage."
"Oh, that's right; I forgot that I saw the rejects put you to sleep."
Mordecai sighs, "Forget that."
"You just can't let people do that to yourself like that."
"That's easy to say."
"But you've jumped up to Class 17?"
Mordecai didn't say anything. The figure speaks for him in its line that he is a neophyte in combat.
"Why did you join the police if you can't fight?"
Mordecai stands there and realizes his figure gathered even more lines of data. It forms a new line that states that he is unclear about his purpose to prevent anarchy.
"You don't have the answer right on your heart either?"
"That's just for me to know," Mordecai responds irritably.
"Oh. Oh, I'm digging into your personal bubble. That's my fault. We ought to get to class before you're late or I interrogate you 'til you're dead. Though, you're awfully different from everyone else."
"We?"
"Yeah, us. I'll talk to you later in class, man. I gotta get back," the guard says walking back to his fellow guards.
The figure wasn't glitching; his promotion is legitimate: Mordecai jumped thirty-one classes in a single day. He steps off the plaque while the figure's data swims back to the Hologplyh.
Walking into the Tunnel Building, the tunnel cast a grapefruit-red light onto him. And the light reflected identification holograms off of passing policemen's uniforms and soldier's rank badges. The red light of the tunnel melts off Mordecai and he arrives in the lobby. Mordecai's feet meet the steel floor of the balcony and his hands grasp a rail. Looking over, there is a lower floor of technology markets and a series of clear elevators shafts that lead their passengers down or up. Strolling over to the stairs that lead to the elevators, he descends and enters an elevator. He presses the button labeled "-5" and leans against a wall of the elevator. The elevator doors close and he descends...
...Mordecai steps to an entrance of a hall. He stops to look side to side, observing the difference between the old hall and his new hall. An openness of bulky doors separate themselves by immense distances and stand in space, leading to extensive rooms. Spanding down to the far end, there is a center divider of lounge furniture. They are accompanied by trees with sprouting branches reaching upward. To the left, the first door is not readily ahead but distant. Moving down into the hall, he looks for the number seventeen etched into one of the doors. But he is distracted by phones, backpacks, purses, phones, and laptops left open about on sofas next to doors. Even though there is the buzz of TVs showing news and statistics, the hall is more quiet than normal. Noise isn't leaking from the rooms; which might indicate that there isn't training or conditioning happening. To be sure, he approaches in front of the door labeled, "Class 1", while faint vibrations lightly shake the floor and soft crackles of automatic guns sounds. A slightly louder boom vibrates the door and the thuds of things hitting on the door. The thudding stops, and the addition of a muffled shot of a sniper sounds behind the door. He walks up to the door, and places his ear closer to its metallic surface. The quiet world became clear: someone is running closer to the door. "Shit, give me a clip!" a voice says. Another shot echoes in the room, followed by someone running closer. A shotgun fires a blast. "Ah! Take it and run!" a distressed voice calls. The one who ran towards the door runs off again. "It's not that I can't stop him," the voice continues, shooting off another shell, "Stop shooting that! Those things actually hurt!" the distressed voice says. "This can't even make you bleed!" the voice says, "If you keep bitching about these guns, then we'd have to degrade back to the other ones. You'd better get-" the man is cut off by a blast. "What the hell?" he says, scuffing the dirt underneath his shoes. "I'm OK. I can get out by myself!" the distressed voice says. The voice says, "Let's just focus on not getting blown up!" Then a total, abrupt stop in gunfire gave a distinct sound of a fiery whooshing noise becoming suddenly louder. BOOM! Mordecai jumps back and finds himself a distance from the door. The door had jolted, pangs of metal fragments were deflected, and a large spray of something solid pelted upon the door. Bewildered at what was the solid thing that smacked on the door, Mordecai stands in place and considers if they'd actually blown up someone. He goes to the door again and listens. The sound inside is muffled by something covering it: a vehicle approaches and bumps about on rugged terrain, "WHOOOOO! Way to escape that shell you two! Although, Arelena totally devastated your little camp over here, HA HAAAAA! It's all over on the door now! Come on! Why are you guys looking at me like that?" someone exclaims.
The voice continues, "You guys aren't hurt!"
A sniper rifle shoots a round.
"Ow!-" the voice says, "Crap, you guys are really sneaky!"
The vehicle begins to move again and go off into the distance, followed by more running off into the distance. Gunfire starts again and becomes faintly quiet.
Mordecai continues down to door three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, and fifteen. Finally looking ahead, a kangaroo stands out to the side of the door with a clipboard. He is writing something down on the clipboard underneath the enormous door labeled "CLASS 17." The door draws closer over Mordecai as he approaches.
The kangaroo looks up.
"Mordecai Scott?" the kangaroo says, pointing his pen towards Mordecai.
"Yeah."
"I've been standing out here for a while now," he says while looking down onto his clipboard. The clipboard has a big picture of Mordecai with a nervous smile. Below it are numbers about Mordecai's age and height and words about Mordecai's species and healthiness. Such one word is what Mordecai stares at: "overstressed" in big, upside-down letters. Who observed Mordecai to determine if he is stressed? Judging the kangaroo, his first impression is his fiery-tangerine hair arranged in a type of a mohawk. There was a lot of time put into his large spikes as one his bangs hangs over his smug face. Though, his face hasn't been snooping around the lower classes, his striped A shirt and workout sweatpants rather suggest that he's active at the benchpress. His buffed-out biceps and shoulders are proof. But pulling attention below the waist, his pants has a fancy design to distract the fabric's wear near the leg openings. His lengthy tail relaxes behind his feet.
Without overlooking, this guy is possible of seeking Mordecai's trait out from out of sight.
"I'm surprised that you walked all the way over here, though, there is a conveyor belt that can transport you here quickly. Did you know that?"
"No."
"That's alright, I'll show you when you leave for the morning. Anyways, my record says you've come from Class 48? Is that correct?"
"Heh. Yeah."
The kangaroo mumbles to himself and speaks up, "Well, my name is Ivan. I am the leader of Class 17, underneath those managers, of course."
Mordecai and Ivan shake hands.
"I'll be showing you around the house. But while we go around," Ivan says while flashing a card to a sensor, "we need to be quiet. I'll be totally honest with you: one of our classmates died."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
"Just be respectful to the guys."
Ivan pushes the door aside, revealing the classroom. "Is there anything you'd like to say?" he says, walking to the end of the entrance deck.
"It's a bit too early to say anything," Mordecai says, following him.
"Really? Nothing?"
"Yes."
The door shuts.
"Well, what about yourself, Mordecai?"
"Heh. What about me?"
"What do you do? You go to workout?"
"No."
"Wow, you look like if you've come straight from the gym," Ivan begins to point to Mordecai's arm, "your muscles are a bit too swollen."
Mordecai straightens out his rolled-down jacket, "Sure. But I've ran a few errands last-minute before I came here."
"Literally?"
"Kinda. I've been doing a lot this week. I guess I'm tired."
"So you're busy?"
"Yeah."
"What kind of errands?"
"I have busy-work in the morning, and so I have to do that. I actually meant earlier that I don't go to the gym," Mordecai says as he points to his tone, feathered arms.
"I realized that. But what else about you? What do you when you get home?"
"Work and running in circles."
"That's no fun."
"Yeah."
"Aren't you going to introduce yourself?"
Mordecai sighs, "I'm, I'm a co-manager of Park in downtown Linnen."
"Nice job. It seems like I've recruited guys that have sundry jobs."
"What do the other guys do?"
"It's a good range. I have a guy with his own business and another unemployed."
"Interesting."
"Though, I'm going to have to figure something to do with your expertise."
Mordecai didn't say anything.