"What do you think of her?"

Noah turned in his seat to see Piper Lee join him with his food plate. The cafeteria was bustling with students, and he had found a rickety table in the back that nobody else ever used.

Piper looked like a human, except that one of his eyes was bionic. The natural eye was fixed on him while the mechanical one was trained at the other end of the cafeteria, where the popular students hung out.

"Who are you talking about?" Noah asked timidly, wishing that Piper would leave him alone. He had spoken to the boy a few times before, but those occasions were purely accidental. At the moment, he found no acceptable reason the cyborg would approach him out of the blue. It was intrusive and annoying.

"Her! Eve Trinity! The transfer student!"

"I don't know. I haven't paid her any attention."

"Oh really? I caught you ogling at her, man. As if she were a slab of chocolate."

"So were you."

"Well, yeah, now that we have established that, tell me what you think of her."

Noah sighed. Piper would not leave unless answers were furnished.

"She's okay, I guess."

"Okay? She's damn pretty. Man, she could be a supermodel."

"Uh, good for her, I guess."

"Don't be a wet blanket, Noah. Aren't you a bit curious why a bombshell like her from the famed Symbiosis High would transfer to our average-rated school?"

"Maybe her parents are in the government and were transferred to Concord?"

Appointments to top positions in all the cities were made by the Covenant government based in Pledge City. Inter-city transfers were frequent.

"About that- I checked the school records. Eve is registered as a special race. No parents. She's being bankrolled from city resources. It raises red flags, man."

"Wait, how did you access the school records? Aren't they locked and encrypted?"

Piper waved a dismissive hand.

"Never mind that. I checked Symbiosis' records too, and they have no record of an Eve Trinity."

"Symbiosis records? Piper, you know very well that hacking is punishable by expulsion from school, right?"

"Focus on the topic at hand, Noah!"

"Okay, fine. There was no Eve Trinity at Symbiosis High? People change their names all the time. About the city paying her tuition? Perhaps she's one of the geniuses we hear about."

"Why would a genius come to Synergy High, Noah?"

"I don't know, Piper! You're giving me a headache!"

"What if she's a Harmony city spy? A special race created in the lab?"

Noah was trying to impale a runaway pea on his plate.

"Piper, I appreciate you coming over to talk to me. However, I am not interested in conspiracy theories."

The cyborg trained both his natural and bionic eyes on Noah.

"Oh really? Your blog posts and message board chats speak otherwise, man. LoveLord15!"

Noah was speechless for a moment.

Piper was clearly a hacker, and discovering a gamer's identity was child's play for him.

"Shhh! You are not to tell anybody about this!"

"I don't get you, Noah. You are treated like scum by everyone. Telling the students that you are the legendary player LoveLord15 will make you popular in class!"

"Please!!" Noah folded his hands.

"Fine! Fine! Your secret is safe with me. But I need your help to figure out Eve's identity. I have a gut feeling that her secret is exponentially bigger than yours."

"That sounds like blackmail to me."

"Let me spell it out for you- it is blackmail. You pushed me into it, man. We can do this as partners, and I won't have to draw the blackmail card. I had been keeping it as a last resort."

Noah's head started throbbing. He had a feeling that Piper Lee was all sorts of trouble. His base instincts asked him to run away. But then, he did not want his gamer identity exposed.

"Okay! How can I help?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Look at her body, man."

"What? I won't join you to perv on her, Piper!"

"Jeez, no, look at her seasoned constitution, man. That's not the body of an ordinary teenager. She's trained in the martial arts."

Noah looked across the cafeteria. A bunch of girls surrounded Eve. She was aloof and talked to them sparingly.

The girl looked like a movie star.

Piper wasn't wrong about her build, though. Eve had slight musculature and a firm body that reminded him of martial artists from movies.

"You could be right. But there's no regulation on learning self-defense. You still haven't answered my question. How can I help?"

"This will be a tough nut to crack, man. I have a plan." Piper's mechanical eye swerved around as he thought pensively. "I'll find you after class."

Noah furrowed his brow. A plan? What had he gotten himself into?

"But-"

"It will take half an hour max."

Lovelord15 could spare thirty minutes to protect his identity.

"Fine."

Piper Lee gave him two thumbs-up and left.

Noah shook his head. He had lost his appetite from the pointless conversation. Eve Trinity, huh? The mysterious beauty. Like most of the class, she would probably end up ignoring him or joining others in bullying him.

Noah left his seat and disposed of leftovers inside the automatic recycle bin. The lid closed with a whoosh while the processor converted the organic matter into energy.

| Recycle Complete | | Efficiency: 97% |

He looked at the serving station of the cafeteria. Four lifelike robots stood back to back and served the food on automatic conveyor belts. They were labeled as-

|Human|Hybrid|Cyborg|Special|

Different races needed distinct forms of nutrition.

"Hey, Pipsqueak!" someone called from behind him.

Noah turned around to see Cory James eyeing him from a nearby table.

The serving station was close to the bustling area where the popular students hung out.

'Serves me right for lingering here for too long,' Noah thought.

Cory was beckoning him to come over.

Noah pulled up his hood tighter and walked up to the Class President. It wasn't wise to ignore the guy.

They had a full table- Cory James. Alice Harper, his girlfriend. Dave Smith, Class Secretary. Katie Bell, Math Club Prez, among six others.

"Settle an argument for us, Pip," Cory said, sneering.

"My name is Noah."

"Whatever, Pip. My friend Dave here is arguing that you are the most useless entity in the school. Whereas, I maintain that the biology class hamster we get to dissect takes the title. Care to weigh in?"

The group laughed in unison. Humans, especially ordinary ones like him, were the butt of every joke.

The noise hurt Noah's ears, bringing on his deep-rooted migraine. He bit his lip and started to walk away.

Cory rushed to his feet and blocked the boy's path. He pulled down Noah's hood and grabbed his jaw with a hand. "I wasn't done talking, scum!"

Noah tried to shake free, but the hybrid was too strong.

The class president was from a well-to-do family from the Sanctum. His father was an enforcer in the city services.

The James family had wolf genes, making them a powerful hybrid clan. Cory was probably more powerful than the ablest human in the school.

Tears welled up in Noah's eyes, but he dared not show them his pain. It would encourage Cory even more. He had learned this lesson from years of experience in getting bullied.

"Leave him be, Cory," Alice said. "Unless you want his germs on you."

The group guffawed again.

"You're right," Cory said, laughing. He let go of Noah and then sucker-punched him hard in the gut.

Oomph!

The boy keeled over, undigested food rising up his throat. It hurt like hell, but he ground his teeth, living through the pain.

'Don't cry. Don't cry,' the boy reminded himself.

Before Cory doubled back, Noah gathered his things and scurried away.

The Class President was not one to bully a running coward. He punished only those who were bold and stubborn.

The academic subjects to follow the evening break were History of the Covenant and Elementary Eugenics. Noah sat through them, barely paying any attention.

Knights of Regia was the only place where he belonged. The real world was cruel and unforgiving.

As soon as the end of class rang, Noah rushed out of the main building.

Headmaster Malcolm's hologram still ran on its loop.

< EUGENICS HAS CREATED THE STRONGEST RACE, THE HYBRIDS >

'Yeah, bully for the hybrids, 'Noah thought bitterly. The colonies were steeped in poverty. Humans could not afford to become hybrids without paying a fortune. The hybrid colonies were full of defects, rejects, and bastards. Families who lived in the Sanctum either upgraded their bodies to hybrid or cyborg status.

Noah was almost outside the gate when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He flipped around, dreading another bully.

Piper Lee's bionic eye greeted him.

"Hey, Piper, can we do this some other time? I'm not feeling so well."

Noah's mind was on the New World Expansion Pack of Knights of Regia, launched a week back. He had collected almost enough gems to convert into purchase credits. He was four credits short. A few more days of revisiting old campaigns could get him the requisite gems.

"You gave me your word, Noah."

"I know. But I need to finish some campaigns to purchase the New World Expansion Pack. You are a gamer, right? You understand. We'll definitely do this some other day."

Piper's mechanical eye zoomed in and out for a moment.

"Consider this offer. I will give you ten credits if you come with me."

Noah raised an eyebrow.

Ten credits could get him the expansion pack along with some level-ups. The offer was tempting and seemed quite harmless.

"Just half an hour, right?" What could go wrong in such a short time?

"Yep! But we have to hurry. Time is of the essence."

Piper Lee beckoned the boy to follow him to another exit.

"Where are we going?" Noah asked, jogging behind his new friend to keep up.

"We're taking the city subway."