FLOOR-50

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Spiders skittered over the metal faces of dead machines - mechs, exos, giants in human form. The light clack of eyelids blinking in the dark, a flash of bared teeth. Jaws unhinged as they bit down, and the metal gods screamed.

"What? Where..." Will gasped.

The shrill, high-pitched pod alarm jolted him out of the waking nightmare. Error messages flooded his H.U.D.

"Test objectives cleared. Commencing termination of simulation. Warning. Abnormal vital signs detected. Terminating simulation. Unable to terminate."

The machine repeated the same messages, trapped in a dead loop. Still bleary-eyed, it took him a moment to orient himself. The beeping and flashing screens finally clued him in.

The test...

his ill-conceived plan to gun the objective...

almost making it...

and then the gum...

Purple...

"Goddamit," he let out a hacking cough and cursed through clenched teeth. "Rowan Kade!"

Will glared at his prosthetic. The metal leg might be stuck, but his real one was free. With great effort, he raised his natural leg and scraped off the gum stuck in his joints and the paddles. His metal leg creaked as he cleared the gunk.

With the gum gone, he could move his prosthetic again. He stepped down on the paddles. The lever clicked into place, and the VR pod was forced to reboot.

The helmet unsealed with a click, and the respirator came off. The simulation tank opened with a hiss, and Will groaned as he pulled himself up from the pod.

His arms shivered as he was halfway up. His strength was exhausted, and he couldn't hold himself up. His arms gave out, and he fell back into the pod once again.

Breathing hard, he tried once again and managed to sit up. Even that was too much. He slumped to the side and caught his breath. His entire body ached. It was the same after every seizure, being rendered weak and helpless. But this time, he was provoked, forced into this state by someone else's hand.

He swung his legs out of the pod and looked around for Kade. He was going to kill that bastard.

He got to his feet. The prosthetic creaked, but he ignored it. The exam hall was abuzz with chatter. The lights were switched back on, and the students gathered in small groups, discussing the test.

He pushed past the crowd and headed for Rowan's pod. Getting to the end of the row, he found all the pods empty. A faint mist still hung around Kade's VR. He leaned forward and touched the top of the pod. It was still cold to the touch. He must have just missed him. The pod had been in use a few seconds ago.

"Hey, Will!" greeted Remy. He beamed as he jogged up to Will, but the brunette's good cheer faltered when he spotted the ugly look on his friend's face. "Woah. What happened?"

"Kade," Will snarled, breaking into a tirade of curses. He explained what happened, and Rem looked equally thunderous when he was done.

"He can't have gotten far," said Remy.

Will gritted his teeth, barely able to talk. Both of them took off for the exit, pushing past people, making their way out of the classroom.

Will limped as he walked. The prosthetic was well and truly jammed, but he didn't want to stop now.

The crowd of students were headed down the building. Most of them crowded around the elevators, but a few took the stairs. Remy and Will muscled their way past them and rushed downstairs.

"Hey, watch it!" came a yell, but they were gone before anyone could protest.

"Do you see him?" asked Remy..

"No," said Will.

Remy frowned. "Jamboor, Teasten, none of his other cronies are around either."

The twenty stories zipped by in a flash. His prosthetic gave a mournful squeak as it hit the floor in the ground floor lobby. He gave the foyer a quick scan. It was nearly empty. The front entrance was closed, and the students were required to leave through the rear exit.

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They made their way past the administrative section and the ground floor classrooms. The crowd was slow-moving, and they squeezed past them to reach the back of the school and the general assembly area.

The wide open hall was filled to the brim with students. The crowd was thick in this area and none of the students seemed to be in a hurry to leave the school.

Will and Remy scanned the hall. Overhead skylights beamed down artificial light mimicking the noon-day sun. Along the walls were statues made of white marble and obsidian. Several statues of former alumni were placed there on raised daises. At the feet were the sculptures of several preening geese, the school mascot, who looked up adoringly at their charge.

Ignoring the pompous menagerie, Will surveyed the milling students. There was still no sign of Rowan.

"Damn" Will muttered.

Remy shook his head in disgust. "He's probably already out. Ran away like a coward."

Will clenched his fist. If Rowan wasn't there, then they would just have to go out and find him. Both boys squeezed into the crowd and made their way towards the exit with grim faces.

The general assembly area offered a direct exit out of the school, and the crowd slowly meandered their way out of the hall. The crowd moved too slow for the boys and they had to force their way forward.

Will struggled ahead when he felt his leg give under him. The metal leg came down with a clang, which was followed by a sharp squeak that cut through the din of the crowd. The prosthetic refused to move, and he nearly fell over.

"Whoa!" Remy grabbed him before he could topple.

"Shit!"

"Bruv, your leg."

The metal limb refused to move.

"Damn my leg," Will cursed and allowed Remy to drag him out of the crowd. The prosthetic lay beside him, limp and useless. He reached down and found more gunk in the prosthetic joints. It was the purple gum. He hadn't managed to get it all out in the first attempt.

He took the gum out with distaste and threw it to the floor. His foot squeaked as he tried to move it. Metal parts scraped against each other. It was still clunky.

"That doesn't sound good," said Remy with worry.

Will looked down at his leg. Remy was right. The prosthetic was still stuck, and there was no way he'd catch Rowan in the state his leg was in. It would take a while for him to have it in running shape again. He could push it, but that would mean more repair costs, and he really didn't have the money right now.

"Damn!" he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Are you ready to move?" asked Remy

"No," Will shook his head. "There is no point, and besides, there is something more important."

"What?" asked Remy.

"My results," said Will.

Will drew Remy further away from the crowd, and he pulled his slate out from his backpack.

The tablet was old and battered; its back was fused together with a plastic patchwork, and its cracked screen flickered as it turned on. He logged into the school portal and looked up his result. It had been quite a while since the exam ended; the grades should be out by now. He had to know what judgment the AI had made about his condition.

"I'm not sure what happened in the end," he said. "I don't know if I passed the exam or not."

"What do you mean?" asked Remy.

"I had already satisfied the win condition in the exam. The mutants had been beaten back, and the tower had been cleared. Technically, the exam ended then and there."

"Ah! But you had the seizure right after the exam... ended," said Remy, stressing the final word.

"Exactly. So the question is, can the AI make a ruling after the exam is finished? If it can't, then I'm in the clear."

"And if it can?"

"Then, Lord help me," Will muttered. The login button buffered as it loaded the results. There could be only two outcomes: either he was in or he was out.

For a few heart-stopping minutes, he watched the loading circle. "There it is," said Remy. "Mine's out." He held up his slate and showed his results: A+. Will smiled. Good for him. The slate buzzed, and he looked down. There was a pop-up, and where his grade was supposed to be, a line of words appeared: "Result on hold."

He looked at it in mute silence.

"So, what is it?" asked Remy.

He handed his slate over to Remy. He looked at the pop-up and cursed.

"What does 'on hold' mean?" asked Remy.

"I don't know," said Will. "Am I in or am I out?"

Remy had his hand on his chin. "It probably means the result is still in review. They didn't make a ruling yet. Wait, the scholarship."

"What?" he asked, still staring at the pop-up.

"Why don't you check your scholarship bank account?"

Will took back the slate and accessed his account, the funds provided for his education. The money for the medication, his school fees, all came from there. The slate loaded the account but came up blank.

"Access denied. Account locked until further notice."

He looked down at the pronouncement in horror, and Remy had his head in his hands. "Ah, shit."

The bank didn't waste any time. Regardless of the AI ruling, he was out. Or put on hold, whatever the technical term was.

"You just have to contest the ruling," said Remy. "The machine really was broken and gave you the wrong dosage that aggravated your condition."

Will clenched the slate in his hands, dismayed. That dosage was within tolerance for a normal psypher. Would the academy even entertain his request?

He could still petition the account to be reopened but the bureaucracy of the bank was slow-moving. By the time he got an answer, he could finish his degree twice over. It would be a miracle if it resolved any time this century.

"Damn," he sighed.

Remy placed a hand over his shoulder and frowned. "Will, whatever you do, don't turn around."

Will stiffened. "Why? What is it now?"

Remy looked past him. "You know the stuff that Kade said about the Wagners. Something about staying away from them."

"Yeah."

"Well, there's Rebecca Wagner," he said, looking behind Will, "and she's headed right for us."

Will had to resist the immediate urge to turn around. What could the school princess want with them? That's not possible.

"It's the gate, Remy. Everyone is headed for us."

"Sure..." said Remy, "but she is still looking right at us. Now she is nodding and waving."

"That doesn't mean—"

"William Dun," came a yell.

"Oh, damn," Will groaned. "I don't have time for this."

"Come on," Remy pulled him into the crowd headed for the exit.