School resumed on Monday as though nothing had happened. It had been rebuilt back to its original state, presumably by magical means. When my friends and I entered through the gates, we were immediately swarmed. At first, I was confused as to why we were suddenly celebrities, but then I remembered that Ethan had been Claimed by the most powerful deity in existence. That might have had something to do with it.
I didn’t bode well with crowds, and nor did Natasha. The two of us stood to one side and watched Ethan deal with a barrage of students. If I had been in his situation I probably would’ve gone buck wild. No way would I have been able to keep calm like he seemingly was.
I noticed Peter standing a little bit away from the commotion, a seemingly dark look on his face. His eyes were harsh and glaring, and faint electricity was running along the backs of his hands. It was almost scary.
I was glad when the bell rang just a few minutes later. As we were walking into Form Ethan seemed out of breath. After being mobbed like that I really couldn’t blame him.
‘They were asking me to do all sorts of things,’ Ethan said as we sat down. ‘Like set my hands on fire, control the wind, I don’t even know how to do any of that.’
‘You’ll probably learn,’ Natasha added. ‘They’ve gotta teach you at some point.’
Josh then spoke. ‘I sure hope they teach me how to use my Hades powers, but I don’t even know if anyone’s qualified to teach Titan Powers.’
My vision tunnelled. Titan Powers? I was certain I’d heard that term before.
‘What do you mean?’ Ethan asked, worry creeping into his voice.
‘Well, Titan doesn’t have loads of kids,’ Josh explained. ‘In fact, you’re the first one I’ve heard of since the founder of the City- Hey, wait a minute. The guy who founded the City was-’
I leapt up from my chair, pouncing on Josh. I pressed my right hand hard onto his mouth and brought my face next to his ear so I could whisper without being heard by anybody else.
‘Don’t say another word.’
Josh gave a sort of questioning grunt through my hand.
‘They don’t know about me, my family. Don’t even think about telling them who founded this City.’
Josh’s eyes softened and he pulled my hand off of his face. He looked me in the eye and gave me a simple nod. A few people around the room were giving us strange looks, but Miss Thomas hadn’t noticed, so I sat back down and foolishly pretended as though nothing had happened.
‘What was that about?’ Ethan asked as Natasha was asked to sit in her own seat so Miss could begin with her continual rant about drugs.
‘Nothing,’ Josh answered for me, avoiding my gaze. He looked unsettled. Whether that was due to me lunging at him or the dark glare in my eyes I did not know.
To be honest, I had covered Josh’s mouth on a hunch. If my family had been Prime Ministers of RoCity for hundreds of years, we must have founded it right? And Josh had been about to blow my cover by saying who founded the City. Obviously, the last name would have given it away. But I didn’t know for certain if this was the case, but I’d learned the hard way that you act first and ask questions later.
Ethan was about to continue asking, but he closed his mouth after catching the look in my eye. From that point on it was the first time that Ethan, Josh, and I actually listened to Miss Thomas’s drug rant.
Once Form had ended, Ethan, Natasha, and I all headed to English together. I didn’t really enjoy English as a subject, I just loved the joy of almost vomiting with laughter at anything Peter said. The man was a comedic genius.
However, once we arrived at our English room, Peter was already sitting in his seat, and he had a very dark look in his eyes. He wasn’t glaring per se, but he just looked done with everything. Part of me was confused, he had wanted to be Claimed, and he had been, by one of the most powerful Gods, right?
But maybe he felt the same way I did. Maybe being Claimed by a God like Zeus was more of a burden to him than a help. If I were Claimed by somebody like Titan or Zeus I didn’t know if I’d be able to cope. I certainly would not be able to handle being swarmed like Ethan was.
‘How did your mom react?’ I asked after I had sat down.
‘She was happy for me, I guess,’ Peter murmured. ‘But I don’t know if I want to be Zeus’s son.’
‘What do you mean?’ Asbel piped. ‘Isn’t he like one of the most powerful Gods?’
‘Well, yeah,’ Peter said, still murmuring, ‘but being a son of Titan would’ve been way better.’
That was it. Peter was jealous of Ethan. Nobody had cared about his Claiming because a much bigger one had happened right after. I’m sure that anybody that got Claimed within the next few weeks would feel the same. I wasn’t too sure exactly how big it was to be Claimed by Titan, but it clearly was a big deal.
However, Mr Lloyd instructed everybody to quiet down so he could teach the lesson that he had supposedly spent all night planning. Despite this, it was an ordinary lesson.
I was still somewhat shocked at how casually Mr Lloyd had told us that he was a son of Athena on Friday. Were things like that really considered normal here? If being a child of a literal God was pretty standard here, then if I were to just start travelling by wing would anybody even bat an eye?
Josh had mentioned it on Friday, so clearly some people had noticed, and presumably had their own individual thoughts on the whole thing. But it wasn’t like I was going to cut off my wings or anything, to stop people from thinking I was a weirdo. A freak. They’d just grow back, no matter what I tried.
Asbel and I looked at each other awkwardly. Even though the two of us had not been Claimed we had to be there for Peter if he ever felt down.
‘Ethan doesn’t even know how to use any of his powers,’ I said plainly. ‘And you smashed an entire lightning bolt into Robert’s head immediately after being Claimed.’
‘Yeah,’ Asbel added. ‘Just because Ethan’s father is more powerful than yours doesn’t mean that you’re weaker.’
‘That’s exactly what it means but thanks for your motivation, I guess,’ Peter said, still glum.
He didn’t really speak much for the rest of the lesson. Asbel and I kept whispering to each other about ways we could possibly help, but in the end, we didn’t really think of a solution that seemed good enough. It’s not like we could have gone back in time and changed Peter’s parentage.
Since Peter wasn’t really in a talking mood English was just another boring lesson after that point. Once it was finally over Ethan, Natasha, and I had DT together. The three of us walked purposefully to our classroom and filed in with the rest of our classmates.
Our teacher was a woman that was in her fifties or sixties. Her hair was a very light blond, and she had warm brown eyes and a tight smile. Her round glasses sat at the end of her small nose and when she spoke it was in a pitch so high I wondered for a moment if she was a human.
‘We’re going to cook bread.’
Ethan and I looked at each other.
‘I’ve always wanted to make bread,’ I heard Josh murmur sarcastically. Ethan and I grinned at him.
‘Find yourself a partner to work with and I will demonstrate to you how we’re going to make it before giving you an ingredients list at the end,’ she said in that scarily high-pitched tone.
Ethan and I nodded at each other instantly. I turned to Natasha and saw that she had partnered with Louise. If Natasha was happy with her then that was fine, but I sure wasn’t gonna let Louise hang outside with us or anything.
Natasha and I smiled at each other. I knew that Natasha didn’t like talking to people much, she hated social interaction about as much as I did, so her making a new friend really did make me happy. Even if that new friend was a git.
And as much as I wish it were a joke, this teacher really did show us how to cook bread. But a fancy kind of bread, so it actually was a bit more complicated than I thought. When it was done it smelled quite nice, I have to admit, but Ethan whispered a good point to me.
‘Wait, if you can learn magic can’t you teach yourself a heating spell so it cooks quicker? Or instantly?’
‘That probably exists,’ I said calmly, but on the inside, I was actually kind of excited. ‘If it’s not too tricky I can try and learn but I’m not too sure.’
‘Just can’t get caught cheating,’ he said. ‘But if Natasha can do magic, too, then I wouldn’t put it past most of the class to do the same thing.’
‘Or you could light your hand on fire or something and heat up the bread,’ I said, smirking.
Ethan scowled. ‘Use your spooky yellow lightning.’
We both smirked at one another.
At the end of the lesson, the two of us agreed on which ingredients to buy, and the decision was made a lot easier thanks to the £10 weekly income we both knew we were getting.
I did notice, however, that a lot of the people in our Form looked at us as though we were weird or something, which is definitely not what I expected when I agreed to come here. Five different people asked if they could partner with Ethan, and upon hearing that he was already grouped with me, they gave me some of the dirtiest looks I have ever been unfortunate enough to receive.
The mood at Break was glum. Light rain poured down on us from the dark grey sky and Peter and I didn’t really say much. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but I certainly didn’t feel like talking.
Maltor and Quinn were nowhere to be seen, either. Jay had said Maltor seemed fine in DT but then once the bell rang he just disappeared. I hated to admit it but I was actually worried for him.
And of course, Quinn hadn’t really been himself since his mother didn’t choose to live in the City. I felt really bad for him. I could only imagine what it would be like to see the one person in the world that is supposed to love you through thick and thin choose to stay away from you even when that was the more difficult choice.
When Natasha and I arrived in Charms after Break, Maltor was already there. Surprisingly, he seemed to be making a feather float with his wand. It was scary how quickly he’d learnt. Granted, Hugo was standing next to him helping, but it was still scary. Hugo himself seemed different as well. His long black hair fell over his eyes in a way that made him seem mysterious and dark.
Natasha and I tried to initiate a conversation with Maltor, but after being ignored for five minutes we dropped the attempt. We instead found feathers of our own and decided to try with those. We slumped our bags onto the floor and began.
I remembered the spell from what the teacher had taught us last lesson. Avis Levare. I remembered that our teacher had said that this spell was best for light objects, so of course, I asked Natasha what she thought would happen if we used it on our bags.
‘You’re an idiot,’ was her response.
I placed my feather down on the table, slightly wincing at the thought of some poor bird having its feathers plucked from its back so some grimy eleven-year-olds could practice silly little spells on them.
I stretched my arm out and pointed my wand directly at the centre of the feather. My hand was trembling slightly but I tried to ignore it. My wand seemed to glisten in the light, which I didn’t think possible for wood, but I tried to move past it.
I concentrated as hard as I could and tightened my gut ever so slightly. I closed my mind to all thoughts but one: that feather in the air. I thought of flying. I thought of being free. If I could lift my feathers into the sky, then why not this one?
‘Avis Levare!’
Slowly lifting my arm to see if the feather followed, I was very soon disappointed. The feather stayed exactly where it was. Didn’t even move half an inch.
‘Dammit!’ I shouted, slamming my hand on the desk, making Natasha jump. ‘Sorry.’
‘You’ll get there!’ Natasha said, and I was certain I heard Hugo mimick her from over by the window, and Maltor tried to conceal a laugh.
‘How am I supposed to fight Amy when I can’t lift a stupid feather?’ I growled, gripping my wand so tightly that my knuckles went white. ‘I can’t even dream of hurting her if I can’t lift this stupid feather.’
‘You just need to practice,’ Natasha said reassuringly and I saw Maltor and Hugo giggle again.
I glared at them, pouring as much steel into my gaze as possible.
When our teacher finally arrived, she didn’t seem to care that nobody would listen to her. Everyone was doing their own thing, trying to levitate numerous objects around the room. If anything that seemed to make her even happier.
‘I’ve always been a fast learner,’ I complained to Natasha after attempt six. ‘It’s literally a stupid feather and I can’t lift it.’
‘You can’t lift it with your stupid piece of wood,’ Natasha said, trying not to sound bored.
At one point in the lesson, I started to get really frustrated. I kept jabbing my wand at the feather, despite the teacher’s frequent reminders that I was supposed to ‘lightly point it at the desired object and slowly and gently lift my arm in the direction the object needed to move’.
Literal steam started pouring from the tip of my wand. Thin translucent plumes floated skywards, coating the area in front of me and Natasha in a shallow haze.
Natasha suggested that I calm down, but my mood did not improve because after she said this she effortlessly lifted her feather.
‘You just need to calm yourself down, and think of nothing other than that feather gliding through the air exactly where you want it,’ she said calmly, keeping her feather somewhere above my head.
‘I’ll calm down,’ I growled, trying to soften my jabs, if such a thing were possible, ‘when this damn thing lifts off of the table!’
A loud cheer came from Maltor’s direction, and looking over I saw that he was keeping his feather steady about an inch below the ceiling. He cast a sideways glance at me, giving me a horrible smirk.
‘Or whenever he can stop giving me those damn smirks,’ I continued to growl.
I continuously struggled for the rest of the lesson. At one point my feather slowly slid across towards Natasha.
‘That wasn’t me!’ she had exclaimed. ‘I’m just watching!’
I stared at her in disbelief. ‘I didn’t even move my arm that way.’
I then apologised because that seemed to upset her.
When the teacher called that it was time to start packing up I felt utterly defeated. I hadn’t even lifted the feather an inch off of the table. All I had done was move it to the right slightly, and I still wasn’t even sure if that was me that had done that.
However, right as everybody started filing out of the door I gave it one last go. I thought maybe I could make it fly towards the cupboard it was supposed to be in. Just maybe. All for a joke.
I pointed my wand wearily at the feather and murmured, ‘Avis Levare.’
And I kid you not, a strange tingling sensation ran up my arm as I said that. Thinking nothing of it I slowly began to lift my arm upwards, bringing it up to about eye level. My eyes widened. The feather, slowly but surely, began to follow my wand. It shakily rose off of the table into the air.
Natasha gave a little clap. The teacher smiled at me. I held the feather at a good height near my eyes. I slowly began to wander over towards the cupboard. Opening the door with my left hand, I tried to manoeuvre the feather in. Somehow, I managed it. The feather dropped limply onto the top shelf and I turned to Natasha and beamed.
We had to exit the class in a hurry as some older kids needed to come in, but my spirits had been successfully lifted for about the next week. Natasha kept telling me how proud she was, which was a bit condescending but I didn’t mind. It had been a long time since somebody had been proud of me.
Maths was, admittedly, one of the most boring lessons I have ever been unfortunate enough to partake in. Mr Mullins wouldn’t stop talking. On and on and on. It was all I could do not to fall asleep. Asbel kept laughing saying that I pulled a stupid face whenever I was tired, but I couldn’t care less. I just wanted to drop to the floor and have a nap.
But after a painfully long hour, it was over. It felt like a new world once I had stepped outside that classroom. I felt free from the shackles of algebra.
Lunch, however, was a lot more interesting. If you could say it was interesting. I would call it Tartarus. But it certainly was a Lunch that I would never forget.
It happened quite quickly. As my friends and I were walking toward the dining hall, we noticed a huge commotion at the front doors. There was a lot of shouting, jeering, and people seemingly trying to run.
A small teacher was in the centre of it all, but I don’t know what they were doing. Due to the abundance of older students, my friends and I couldn’t really see anything at all. But Peter and I managed to sneak around the side of the crowd, and once I saw what all the fuss was about, I felt my stomach drop.
Quinn. Quinn was pinned to the front table by a much larger boy who was grabbing him by the collar. Two other older boys had grabbed Quinn’s hair and leg respectfully. Quinn was trying to raise his arms, as though throwing a punch against these behemoths would do anything.
I tried to dart forwards, but Miss Thomas jumped in the way, as though she knew what I had been trying to do.
‘Wait,’ she said sternly, gazing down at me.
‘But Quinn-’ I tried.
‘We’ll sort it, just wa-’
She was interrupted by a loud yelp that came from somewhere behind her. Looking around her to see what had caused it, my jaw dropped slightly. A strange dark glow was emerging from where Quinn was. It cloaked the dining room in darkness, and I struggled to see even Miss Thomas.
When the darkness finally cleared, I saw that the three boys that had been mercilessly bullying Quinn were all lying on the floor unconscious. There was one of those floating hologram things above his head. It seemed to be the head of a dog of some sort. Well, three heads of a dog. Three translucent heads floated above Quinn’s head. I wasn’t too sure what this meant, but I did have a hunch. And my hunch would explain everybody’s shock.
It seemed to be a sort of standard to do what Miss Thomas and the other teachers did next. They turned to face Quinn, and they all simultaneously bowed their heads. A few students followed. Not all of them, but some of them.
‘Welcome, Quinn O’Neill,’ Miss Thomas said softly, ‘Son of Hades.’
Feeling a bit rude, I bowed my head too. However, I was a bit confused. Josh had said that when he got Claimed by Hades that he’d been draped in a black cloak. Quinn had just gotten a hologram of a three-headed dog. Clearly, even Gods weren’t past favouritism.
Mr Lloyd arrived and dragged Quinn out into the corridor, where I lost him for the rest of the day. My friends and I all sat down together and resumed lunch, buzzing with adrenaline.
‘So that’s our third Claiming,’ Ethan said.
‘Yeah, we just need five more,’ Asbel said moodily.
‘It’ll happen with time,’ Natasha assured the rest of us. She was great at doing things like that.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
‘What do we have next, anyway?’ I asked.
‘We’ve got General Battle with Natasha,’ Ethan said after checking his planner. ‘I don’t know about the rest of you.’
‘Meh,’ Jay said passively. ‘I’ll check in a minute.’
I smirked. General Battle, huh? We’d be fighting? That would definitely be fun. Because of the Undetectable Extension Charm on my bag, I’d been able to fit my sword in there, so hopefully, I could use that.
After hearing that, I was too excited to pay attention to whatever was going on at Lunch. There was a lot of talk about Quinn, but I just wanted to get to General Battle.
Once Lunch ended, Ethan and Natasha had to repeatedly tell me to calm down, but I just couldn’t. This was my practice. This next hour.
The three of us arrived at the Gym to see a large class already there. Apparently, General Battle was done in classes of sixty; our form and another.
A boy ran up to us excitedly. He had brown hair and eyes that sported the same colour. His face was roundish but his smile seemed to radiate through time. His eyes were wild with excitement, and I could see him bouncing on his heels.
‘Is it really you?’ he asked.
Ethan and Natasha seemed confused but I, unfortunately, knew what he meant.
‘Yes,’ I said quietly. ‘It’s me. Guess we have General Battle together, huh?’
His eyes shone. ‘Yeah! I never thought I’d meet the Albert Santrrer!’
‘Who even are you?’ Ethan asked.
The boy, who seemed to be trying to hide his hurt at that question, answered very quickly. ‘Crawford. Isaac Crawford.’
I didn’t exactly know what to do here, so I stuck out my hand. He shook it after hesitating for a moment.
‘Nice to meet you, Crawford. Isaac Crawford.’ I said, trying not to smirk.
‘Wait, are you the Isaac in my Maths?’ Ethan asked.
Isaac’s smile widened. ‘Yep.’
‘Right!’ came a loud voice from behind us.
Turning around I saw that a large muscular man had just entered the Gym. His short brown hair was gently styled to the side and he walked heavily and purposefully. His green eyes scanned the room, and his gaze stopped on me and my friends.
‘Ah,’ he said in a deep voice. ‘So you’re the new kids?’
Ethan and I nodded slowly. Natasha stood perfectly still, terrified.
‘Right!’ he boomed again. ‘I’m going to give a run-down for these new students and for the few others in here that haven’t been listening these past two months!’
Ethan opened his mouth to speak, but I poked him hard in the arm; I wanted to hear this.
‘At this school, we are fortunate enough to have Combots, a type of robot that has been enchanted to learn as time passes! You’ve each been assigned a personal Combot, and I’ll grab three for the new students in a moment! They start at ‘Easy’ but as time passes they learn your moves, your tricks, and they will prove to be a harder foe! They are designed to be your polar opposite! Everything you think you can do, they have a counter-attack! Clear?’
‘Clear!’ I said, loud enough for sir to hear, but not loud enough to draw attention.
‘Grab your desired weapon from one of the racks on the wall and begin!’ he shouted again.
As he said this, some bricks on either wall parted, revealing racks that looked at first like ordinary clothes racks, but they were laden with swords, knives, spears, clubs, everything. I also noticed that some pieces of armour lay among the various weapons.
At the same time, bricks on the back wall also parted, and dozens of strange-looking robots. They all varied in height, and I presumed that they were the perfect height for their designated student. They were a clean white and had glowing blue lights in place of eyes. Instead of legs, they had a singular metal pole stretching downwards and connecting to a set of four wheels. Their arms seemed to be designed in a way to allow movement like human arms but still manage to look robotic. They were all also holding various weapons; some held wands, others held swords, and the range expanded to nearly everything I could think of.
Isaac, Ethan, and Natasha all ran over to get weapons, but I slumped my bag down on the floor next to a wall and dug inside to find my sword. Pulling it out, I saw it glisten under the Gym lights magnificently.
The teacher, who later introduced himself as Mr Davis, came back into the Gym, hauling three Combots behind him. He beckoned me, Ethan, and Natasha over and we quickly ran over. Isaac followed us, and he was being trailed by his own Combot. Ethan and Isaac had chosen a sword to fight with. Natasha, on the other hand, had been smarter and chosen a sword and shield. Ethan and Isaac insisted they wouldn’t need one because of their armour. Speaking of that, my friends were all wearing bronze chest armour and helmets.
‘You’ll need to complete an introductory test of sorts,’ Mr Davis informed us. ‘Won’t take too long, but I suggest you hurry.’
He went and sat on a chair in the corner of the Gym after setting up the three Combots in position. Isaac put himself in between me and Ethan, but I had Josh on my left so at least it was somebody I knew. However, after just a few seconds of sitting down, he promptly got up, grabbed some armour and handed it to me. He helped me fit it on and adjust it, and then did the same for Ethan and Natasha.
The armour was bronze, or at least looked like it. It felt heavy on my body, not heavy enough that I couldn’t move, but it was certainly a burden. Mr Davis had fitted it to be just tight enough, I could feel it slightly pressing into my skin, but I could still breathe.
Strangely, fighting a Combot felt like a tense moment. Like a rite of passage. If I could defeat a Combot then surely I had at least a chance of defeating Amy.
I pressed the round button on my Combot’s chest and its head lifted as the blue glow appeared in its eyes. It spoke in an eerily soothing voice, but I moved past it quite quickly.
‘Hello, partner!’ it said. ‘Please type out your first name so I know how to address you!’
I looked sideways at Isaac, who was watching me. He nodded frantically. He appeared to be waiting for me to finish before he could start.
A blue hologram screen spread out from my Combot’s chest. On it was a keyboard. I assumed that I just had to press the letters of my name, so that’s what I did. It was quite a strange sensation, pressing buttons on a keyboard that felt like nothing. After poking my fingers through the hologram for a few seconds, I typed out my name.
‘Excellent!’ the Combot said once I had pressed Enter and the first hologram had disappeared. ‘Hello, Albert! I just need you to answer a few questions for me before we can begin! Firstly, what weapon will you be using against me? Keep in mind, this can be changed at any time from the Settings menu!’
Another holographic screen emerged from its chest. A list of options was there, and somehow I managed to figure out how to scroll on a hologram, so I did that until I saw the option for ‘sword’ and pressed it. The hologram quickly disappeared again.
‘They say that brave warriors use a sword!’ my Combot said again. A sword that appeared to be made of iron materialised in front of the robot and hovered there. ‘Now, which hand is your dominant hand?
I selected ‘Right’ on the screen that appeared. The Combot reached out its own right hand and grabbed the sword. It took so much effort not to say ‘Whoa’.
‘Once I believe that your skill has surpassed a certain level,’ it said, ‘I will allow you to set my weapon as a different one to yours! For example, you could use a sword whilst I am firing spells at you! That is all for now, if you think any setting needs to be changed, or added, be sure to check out the Settings menu!’
The Combot stood awkwardly for a moment as I raised my sword. It seemed to detect the movement, as it lunged at me the moment I had put my sword in place. Instincts kicked in, and I leapt into the air and positioned myself at the side of the Combot. I spun perfectly and landed a hard kick into the back of what had to have been the thing’s throat. It hit the ground immediately.
Isaac was staring at me in shock. He quickly turned his on, eager to test his skills. Needless to say, his flying spin kick ended with him on the floor. However, he quickly stood back up and began to fight his Combot pretty well.
Mine stood up. How it managed that whilst it had wheels for legs is beyond me, but it managed. It came at me now, much quicker than before. There was no way I could leap out of the way. It swiftly swung its sword towards my stomach.
Yelping as I felt the scrape of it against my armour, I brought my own sword upwards to catch its next strike. The blades met with a noise that made a few students stop what they were doing to cover their ears. The two of us struggled against the other's might, unable to best each other. Our swords were shaking purely from the strength being placed upon them, but it felt like I was trying to lift a brick wall.
‘What the hell is this thing?’ I said loud enough for Isaac to hear.
He spoke in between heavy breaths. ‘It adjusted quickly to you. It’s designed to be as good as you if not better.’ He resumed his fierce spar with his own Combot.
I swept my left leg round, catching the Combot’s wheels. Using the brief moment that earned me, I leapt back and readied my sword again.
‘Come on…’ I whispered to myself. ‘It’s just a stupid robot…’
I darted forwards at a lightning-fast speed. I swung my sword around towards its neck area, and I was certain I saw faint electricity running up the blade. It was just as quick, however. Just an instant before my sword made contact, its sword came up, catching the bottom of the left side of my helmet. The force jolted my head sideways, throwing me off course.
My Combot then used its sword like a bat, swatting me in the stomach. Winded, I spiralled through the air, landing in a heap on the ground with a horrifying clatter of metal.
‘So that’s how we’re doing this, huh?’ I said, jumping to my feet.
It rolled forwards. Its sword was aimed perfectly at my stomach. How technology of this level was possible I had no idea, but I had to try, right? No way I could beat Amy if I couldn’t take down a simple bundle of wires.
I jumped to the right. If you ask me, that was an expert move. If I had jumped to the left it would have been easy for the Combot to simply jab its sword to its right and stab me, landing me on the floor again. By jumping to its left, I put us on an even playing ground. If either of us wanted to hit the other, we would have to exert the same amount of force.
Quickly swinging my sword around, I caught the Combot in the side. As it soared through the air I chased it. Plunging my sword into its stomach region from above, I drove the Combot into the hard Gym floor. It raised its head shakily. Could this thing feel pain?
I hesitated. Its sword came up, cutting my left shin. I gave a short cry of pain, jumping back. But that was all the time it needed to get back on its wheels. It rolled towards me once more, and my arm moved without me thinking. It caught the Combot’s blade, and I felt the muscles in my arm give in.
I jabbed my arm upwards with just enough force for my Combot’s sword to fly upwards through the air. I jumped upwards and caught it with my left hand. All it could do was stand there like a dope. I don’t think it had a program to run once it had been disarmed.
Still, I ran forward, jabbing both swords into the Combot’s stomach region. The combined force sent the thing tumbling backwards. It hit the wall of the Gym and sat there, seeming dazed, if a robot could be dazed.
I stepped forward, pressing the power button on my Combot. Faint plumes of steam rose from the cut in my shin, and the skin had healed within just a few seconds. Panting, I looked up to see nearly everybody else staring at me in amazement. By ‘nearly everybody’ I mean everybody except Ethan and Natasha, who were lightly duelling their own Combots.
Mr Davis came over and looked down at me. I could see the veins in his muscular arms.
‘Santrrer, correct?’ he said. I heard a wave of whispers echo throughout the Gym. ‘That was phenomenal.’
I stood up, feeling flushed. ‘Really?’
‘What do you mean, ‘Really?’?’ he said, appalled. ‘That was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen a student do first try. You are a natural fighter. Amy should be shaking where she’s standing.’
I looked up at him sheepishly. He dug in his pocket for a moment and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He passed it to me and I promptly unfolded it.
The paper read: ‘SPARRING CLUB. TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS 3:10-4:10. GYM. MR DAVIS. COMBOTS. FRIENDS. JOIN NOW!’
I will admit, that piqued my interest.
‘It’ll do you good,’ he said warmly. ‘You can practice hand-to-hand combat, archery, sword fighting, even magic if you wish.’
I looked at Ethan but he was too interested in the Settings tab of his Combot.
‘You’re probably better than I was at your age,’ Mr Davis continued. ‘That was honestly kinda scary, lad.’
He placed his hand firmly on my shoulder and smiled down at me. He then instructed the rest of the class to continue as though nothing had happened, but Isaac and I struck up a conversation.
‘Do you know your Godly parent?’ I asked.
‘That’s the thing,’ he said, oddly happy. ‘I’m not the son of a God. Nor am I descended from one.’
‘How are you here, then?’ I asked, confused. ‘You break in?’
‘Nah, my older brother’s a son of Hermes, so the family got to move here.’
‘Ohhh,’ I said. ‘Have you been bullied for it or anything?’
‘I used to be,’ he said, now sounding hurt. ‘But Peter used to stick up for me so that soon stopped.’
‘You know Peter?’ I said excitedly.
‘Yeah, of course,’ he replied. ‘We’ve been best friends for years. Why, you know him?’
‘Yeah, and we get along pretty well I’d say.’
Isaac beamed at me. ‘Well, that’s just another reason for us to stay friends, huh, Albert?’
‘Yeah,’ I said, smiling at him.
I was in an unusually bright mood for the remainder of that lesson. I practised hand-to-hand on my Combot, but this required the removal of my armour, and the hits hurt a lot more. Sure, I could punch it with no problem. The problem arose when it hit me. Imagine, for a moment, a speeding chunk of metal zooming towards you in a perfect martial arts position. And it lands that hit on your jaw. Hurts, right?
At the end of the day, we waited on our usual patch of grass outside the front door for Quinn. We assumed that he wouldn’t have detention, because why would the victim be punished?
Sure enough, after about five minutes, Quinn exited from the front doors, his arms spread wide like a Saint. He beamed at us.
‘Well, I got Claimed,’ he said proudly. ‘By Hades. One of the Big Three, right?’
Ethan and I looked at each other. We were both thinking the same thing. This Hades Claiming had been nothing like the one Josh described. Either Josh was lying, or Quinn had pulled the short straw.
‘Yeah,’ Maltor said enthusiastically. ‘You’re one powerful demigod.’
Then something strange happened. Maltor turned to Isaac, who had merged with our friend group, and asked him a question which I knew would be a bit sensitive.
‘Oi, Isaac, right? Who’s your parent?’
Isaac fumbled. ‘Uh, I’m not actually the son of a God. My brot-’
Isaac stopped at the look on Maltor’s face. If Maltor had been trying to hide his true emotions, he was definitely failing. Such a look of disgust had covered Maltor’s face that I felt appalled just by looking at it. Such anger in his eyes that I felt it radiate across the grass patch.
Nevertheless, Isaac continued. ‘But my brother is a son of Hermes, so that’s how I got here.’
The instant Isaac had finished talking, Maltor left. He hurriedly walked down the path. He was heading home. And Quinn soon followed him.
Isaac looked hurt. Very, very hurt. I could even see his bottom lip trembling. A look of fury was masking Peter’s usual joyous face. He was glaring at the spot where Maltor had been standing, as though if he stared at it hard enough he could hurt Maltor.
‘Your mom will be waiting for us in the car, right?’ he asked Isaac.
Isaac nodded slowly.
‘Then let’s go.’
The two of them quickly left. The rest of us stood in awkward silence, trying to process what had just happened.
‘So, is Maltor a racist?’ Jay asked, half-joking.
‘Didn’t think he was,’ I replied, fully serious. ‘Didn’t think he could be.’
‘Isaac’s actually alright, though,’ Ethan said. ‘He’s funny, at least. He’s actually a good friend. Why the hell would Maltor hate him for not being a demigod?’
‘Racism,’ Natasha said abruptly.
It felt like a part of me had just slipped away. How could Maltor act like this? You’d think after being tortured for seven years he’d at least have some tolerance for others, right? Was I really about to lose my best friend simply because I’d made friends with a non-demigod?
It didn’t make sense. Maltor, racist? The two didn’t go together. And even if he were, how did this ideology form? For more than half of his life he had been kept locked away in The School, he couldn’t have decided then that he hated normal people. And in the three and a half years since we broke out, what could have happened to him that was so bad he decided to hate non-Mutants?
‘I need to think,’ I said abruptly.
I slumped my bag down onto the ground, took off my blazer and shoved it in. I slowly stretched my wings out through the holes in the back of my shirt. I gave them a little ruffle, preparing them for flight.
I put all of my weight into my legs, crouching slightly. Then with one mighty jump, I was in the air. I flapped my wings slowly for a moment, feeling the breeze glide through them. I looked down at my friends and saw them all staring up at me in shock.
Ethan grabbed my bag from the floor and tossed it up.
‘Just don’t get shot out of the sky,’ he said, genuinely sounding worried.
‘I can try,’ I said, smirking.
Then, with a powerful beat of my wings, I shot upwards into the sky. I spiralled like a rocket, twirling through the wind like some majestic bird-ballerina. That’s when the voices started. I knew they would, that’s why I had taken myself away.
‘So,’ came a deep voice from inside my head, ‘why do you reckon we do this again?’
‘Because we’re superior,’ came another voice, still deep, but slightly different. ‘Those filthy Mortals have to pay for what they did.’
‘Pay for what they did hundreds of years ago? It just doesn’t seem right…And if we’re fighting for the same cause, why don’t we just join forces with Amy and get it over quicker?’ came the first voice.
‘Because Amy wants to rule the world,’ replied the second. ‘Alfonso, we only want the eradication of Mortals. The world can continue running the way it is, but with Amy at the top it would pose a problem for us.’
‘But if we’re fighting for the same-’
‘Alfonso! You ask too many questions!’
Silence rang in my head before Alfonso spoke once more, this time in an eerie tone.
‘Maybe you’re right…maybe we are different from Amy…But nobody is a good guy.’
‘What are you on about, Alfonso?’
‘Nobody is a good guy…not in war. Nobody’s innocent…Everyone gets their hands dirty…There’s no escaping evil in war.’
I could then see the scene. I was again taller than usual, and I was standing next to the same short man with greying brown hair and green eyes. We were standing in a white room, staring through a large window that covered the entire wall and looked into another plain white room. A white room I recognised. The white room that Maltor and I had been held in for seven years.
The shorter man looked up at me, worry in his eyes.
‘Don’t do this again,’ he said. ‘Don’t you dare talk in that mysterious tone again.’
I looked down at him. My eyes seemed to be only half-open, and when I spoke again I sounded as though I were done with everything. Fed up with the world.
‘You can’t say that just because you know I’m right. I wonder if that prophecy is right; I wonder if the boy will bring an end to Amy.’
‘Don’t be stupid, Alfonso,’ the shorter man scoffed. ‘Prophecies are always right. Trying to fight a prophecy has only ever ended horrifically.’
I turned my head slowly and looked through at the plain white room again. ‘Hmm.’
‘You know something, don’t you?’ the shorter man asked. ‘You’ve seen something.’
‘Who knows?’ I said, not looking at him. I felt empty on the inside, as though this man had brought up a bad memory. ‘Maybe I have. Maybe I haven’t.’
The shorter man laughed at me. ‘Yeah, yeah, you’ve definitely seen something. No need to be so secretive about it.’
‘If you knew about half of the things I saw you would never be the same man again,’ I said darkly. ‘The things I’ve seen have crushed me.’
My vision cut like static back to the real world. I saw the blue sky stretched out above me, and felt my wings gliding effortlessly on the wind. For a split second. Almost as quickly as I had entered the real world, I had exited it again.
‘What if we don’t get there in time tomorrow?’ I asked.
‘We will, don’t you worry,’ the shorter man said confidently. ‘We can use my Power to get there quicker. And yours will easily crush anyone there.’
I nodded slowly. ‘We won’t.’
Silence rang in the room. I heard the man next to me exhale slowly.
‘Then we’ll leave earlier than planned.’
‘You said just a few minutes ago that fighting prophecies only ends horrifically,’ I pointed out.
‘Oh, please, that’s not a prophecy,’ the short man said condescendingly. ‘It’s merely a vision. Visions can be changed. You could have seen a daydream for all you know. Prophecies are set in stone, we can’t trust the things that you say you’ve seen.’
I cut back to the real world. The wind was seemingly stronger now, and I felt noticeably more stressed. One word was circling my mind like a fly: Prophecy. Alfonso, whoever that man was, had seen a ‘prophecy’. He had implied that this prophecy foretold that I would end Amy unless I was misinterpreting what he said, but I found that unlikely.
I only had a rough idea of what a prophecy was, but the short man had said that prophecies are always right. So did that mean I would defeat Amy? I would be the one to end it all?
Cursing myself for falling into another vision, I ramped up my speed. I soared over the City for a few minutes before the cycle of thoughts began once more.
Why had I been brought here? Did they really want what was best for me? Or did they know of the prophecy, and thought that I was the only way to end the war? Would they really go to such lengths and use a child just to end their war?
Regardless of whether that was the case or not, I would do it. I really wanted to. I wanted to bring Amy as much pain as possible. And I needed to find Alfonso. Maybe I could use Grandad’s power as Prime Minister and send a search to find him, so I could find out what really happened that night. He had been there, after all, so he must know what actually happened. I didn’t trust Amy’s story one bit. There’s no way that my parents didn’t fight, there was just no way. They would have tried to protect me, right?
I thought back to what the short man said. ‘We can’t trust the things that you say you’ve seen’. That’s how I felt towards Amy. On one hand, I wanted to believe anything that anyone told me, just so I could use it as some sort of hope, some sort of comfort. To fool myself into thinking that whatever anybody said was the truth. I just wanted to believe something.
Without realising it, I had begun to glide over towards the north side of the Valley. It was mostly flat, but numerous hills spread out sporadically, decorating the area. Quite a fair bit away from the Valley edge sat a mountain. A very tall mountain at that. I quickly decided that that was where I wanted to visit.
I soared at about seventy miles per hour northward. Looking down I saw that some light fighting was taking place near the edge of the Valley. Clearly, some of Amy’s forces were clashing with the City’s. All of a sudden, a bright red light shone in my eye from down below. Yelping in both shock and pain, I lost control of my flight, and I dropped like a brick.
I flapped my wings wildly, desperately trying to regain control of my flight. This, however, was useless. I collided with the hard dirt and waves of pain washed over my body. I curled into a ball and blinked rapidly, trying to remove the crimson tint that was covering my vision.
I could just about make out a man standing over me. He lightly jabbed his foot into my side repeatedly, as though checking if I were dead or alive.
‘Oh, Gods, we just shot Albert out of the sky,’ I heard a voice say as the man straightened his back.
Numerous pairs of hands grabbed at me and helped me to my feet. I look around wearily, and I knew that I looked drunk. I felt dazed and my senses were going haywire. I felt jittery, scared, and like I could take on Titan himself and win.
‘What’re you doing, flying over a place like this?’ I heard a different voice ask angrily.
‘Mountain,’ I said faintly. ‘Mountain.’
‘Dumb kid,’ someone whispered.
My vision was slowly returning to normal. I looked through a gap between two people and my jaw dropped. I saw two men dressed fully in black carrying another person. The person being carried was also dressed in black, but the body was limp and covered in blood. They seemed to have a piece missing from their side. They were dead. They had been killed by one of Amy’s soldiers.
The two people moved closer together to obstruct my view of the scene. They looked down at me, horrified. I, too, couldn’t believe quite what I’d just seen. Sure, three days ago I’d watched Maltor get blown up by a bomb spell, but something about this was different. I had known that Maltor would heal, but this person was dead. In just a few minutes, a family would receive word that their child, sibling, spouse, parent, grandchild, whatever they were to someone, had died. Someone would be told that their best friend had been killed. Maybe even a pet would sit at the door expecting its owner to return, only to be met by cold silence.
‘Get yourself back to The Tower,’ somebody growled, pushing me forward, closer towards The Valley. ‘Now.’
‘But I just wanna see the m-’
‘Oi, kid! Listen to what we tell you to do! Get your ass back to The Tower!’ somebody else yelled.
Then the ground shook. Someone grabbed me and yanked me backwards and the sky turned red for a brief moment. The person that had thrown me out of the way collapsed to the floor in a heap. The others looked down at them in complete horror.
A woman glared at me, her entire body trembling. ‘G-Get to The Tower. Now.’
Somebody else took it a step further. ‘You can fly, huh?’
Then they rushed me, pushing me over the edge of the Valley. I yelped as I began to fall. However, I was of course skilled in this area of business. I unfolded my wings through the holes in my shirt and kept myself aloft roughly fifty metres above the bottom of the Valley.
Okay, maybe I wasn’t supposed to be up there, but pushing me off of the edge of the one-hundred-metre deep Valley was a bit far if you ask me. However, I remained calm, as I always could whilst flying. But the shock of the event was flowing through my veins. I felt overwhelmed.
Realising what was going on, I soared at a very quick ninety miles per hour towards the southern side of the Valley. I glided upwards, close to the steep grassy edge and darted up over the side. I once again rocketed through the Southern Suburbs, zipping down streets and weaving around lampposts.
People pointed up at me but I didn’t care. For the first time since getting my wings, I panicked whilst flying. My breathing was unsteady and a cold sweat broke out over my forehead. I felt pure power flow through my body and I only had one target in mind: that damn forest.
I looked down (sideways?) at my body and everything went numb for a moment. The yellow lightning was back. I had expected so, yet it still came as a shock. This time was different from the time in Form, however. There was seemingly much more yellow energy, it was thicker, and moving faster and erratically over my torso, legs, arms, hands, feet; everywhere.
I ramped up my speed. It steadily increased till I was moving at a terrific one-hundred-and-ten miles per hour. The forest was getting bigger and bigger and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could contain myself. My vision became tainted with yellow and I could only faintly make out the outlines of the tall trees standing before me.
But I got there, and just in time. The moment I became encased by the trees was the moment that I lost control. I let out a gut-wrenching scream of pain and anger. I felt like I was going insane. My scream echoed throughout the trees, and birds scattered into the sky as my entire body became cloaked in a strange numbness.
The ground shook and the whole world around me transformed into a yellow screen. Still screaming, I felt The Power take over my body as I desperately fought for control.
It felt good. Once it was all over. I felt both calm and angry simultaneously. A group of trees collapsed in a wooden heap as I took a step forward. The world shook beneath my feet. I was on top of the world. I was the ruler. I was Death.
I stared out into the tops of the trees, feeling nothing but a tranquil resentment. I took a single deep breath before letting out the worst roar that had ever graced the Gods-forsaken Earth. The sky shook. The ground rumbled. The world trembled. I kept screaming. Nothing could stop me.
Cold power ebbed and flowed through my veins, and my heart became one with The Power. I took another step forward after pausing my roar and the Earth itself creaked. I felt nothing but unrelenting hatred.
‘I’m gonna…kill them all…Every single last one of ‘em…’