"That dream… was crazy" Axel groaned.

He rolled over reaching for the snooze button on his phone.

"OOWWWW"

As he reached for it he felt the tearing of his aching muscles still reeling from his elongated dream. Stretching across his bed, he finally completed the struggle, putting a stop to the sound of his phone's annoying "beeps".

Rolling out of bed, he waddled over to his window gazing outside the broken frame left from his brother's surprise attack the night before. Nothing had changed during his nightly adventure. There was no sign of impending doom or old men with long white beards anywhere in his view. It was the same barren dirt trail and shrubs, with only the set of travel marks from his brother's hover cycle that appeared to be new.

"Was I a completely different person in that dream?" he said, pondering the previous night.

"How long was I-?"

Axel's eyes popped open. Spinning backwards he jumped over his bed reading the time on his phone.

It was 6:10! If he didn't get a move on now he'd be late for the bus!

"CMON CMON CMON" Axel said as he ran to the bus stop with only 5 minutes to spare.

"Thank god Sammy was waiting for me!" Axel said running into his school gates.

As he ran into the school doors and made it past the main hallway, he slowly crept into his homeroom doorway. Standing on the tips of his toes, he swiftly slipped through the crowd of students desperately trying to avoid detection.

When he had finally made it inside, he realized his teacher hadn't arrived yet. Letting out a sigh, he slouched back against his homeroom wall.

"OK class, settle down, settle down" came a voice from the hallway.

"Ok class we have a rare occasion here today", she said addressing them. "Today, we have a new student."

As she spoke a shadow was seen stretching around the corridor into the doorway of the classroom.

"It's ok you can come in" Ms. Bené said.

As the student walked forward he rocked slightly from side to side. It was clear that an extreme form of anxiety cloaked him as he approached the classroom.

He had a really skinny body, like it was made of twigs, and a bland skin tone like he had never seen light. Appearing in stark contrast to his bleached skin, a small black bar code appeared on the side of his neck with the numbers 619 appearing beside it.

[https://i.imgur.com/ayxla6x.jpg]

"Ok class I want you to meet… it says here 619, is that correct?" Ms. Bené asked.

The class returned equally confused looks as the student with a number for a name nodded his head in agreement.

"He's a new student here and although he's late in the semester, he'll be taking the same classes as everyone else."

A silent spell washed over the class as 619 entered the room. The students simply did not know how to receive him. They were unsure whether to be weirded out by his strange demeanor, or frightened to all hell by his potential..

"If I had ordered 619 to kill, you would all be dead"

O'Brian had said that yesterday, and now, standing in front of the class was a mysterious boy who had the potential to kill all of them and return to his dinner before they even could bat an eyelash.

"Well… That's it… class dismissed! You can proceed to your first block classes now." Ms. Bené instructed

As Axel came into the hallway he desperately tried to catch up to 619.

"What's happening!? Why is he here!? And what happened yesterday!?" He thought in disbelief. He trailed 619 from the walkway on the second floor, trying to lap around and confront him.

As the new kid came into the hallway his path was blocked by none other than PB and J as a small crowd started gathering around them. As Axel traveled down the stairs to get a better look he came face to face with Lance who was traveling up the same stairs in the opposite direction.

The split second for which their eyes met felt like hours. As usual, the same expressions were exchanged between the two with Lance letting out a "HMPH" as he passed Axel.

"What was that guy's problem anyway?" Axel thought, continuing down the staircase.

He maneuvered too far down the stairs losing sight of Pb and 619 in the endless crowd. He decided to walk back up to the middle of the staircase where he could get a better view. As Axel leaned over the banister, he saw PB wrap his hands around 619s neck lifting him off the floor.

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"Well well well, what do we have here?" Said PB highlighting 619's neck, revealing a barcode branded into his skin.

"A bar code?!" He said "What are you some kind of robot or something?!" He said laughing.

"Hey PB" whispered J "We're drawing too much attention to ourselves…. We shouldn't do this in the hallway...!" He said motioning away from 619. "Besides that guy freaks me out! You heard O'Brian right?"

"Hahh?" PB said grunting "This guy kill us all? Give me a break" He said tossing 619 to the ground. "That was probly just another one of O'Brian's tests."

619 said nothing. He didn't struggle to escape or even respond to PB's belligerence. He just lay on the ground, tossed by Pb's massive hands like a ragdoll.

"PB you bastard!" Axel said, trying to fight his way through the crowd.

With PB's ruthless attack on 619 the small crowd of bystanders started to feel relieved.

"Heh I knew it! No one's stronger than you Pb!" Jeff said, patting his back.

"Heh, you got that right! He's not a robot he's just some cheap toy!" PB said laughing

619 continued to lay silent, never even raising his head to meet Pb's murderous eyes.

"Listen you broken toy" Pb said, stepping on 619s back. "Hehe I'm gonna make your life so miserable that when I'm done with you you'll be begging for your strait jacket at the nut house back!" Pb yelled.

All of a sudden the crowd of students started dispersing.

PB eased up leaving 619 sulking on the ground..

"Teachers" whispered a kid from the walkway above.

"Hmph, you got off easy this time freak! Next time I won't be so gentle" PB groaned walking away. "Oh and by the way, welcome to SCS!" Pb exclaimed "Me and you are gonna be real close."

After all the students had left the hallway 619 remained. He was standing in the middle of the hallway now with no one else around him drooping his head.

"Damnit!" Axel yelled

DUNG!

Axel smashed his fist into a locker causing a metallic echo to travel throughout the empty hallway.

"What's up Axel? Thats how students greet each other right?" said 619.

Somehow in that split second Axel had seen him dejected sulking in a corner, 619 had made his way over to him.the ground. The dark and lonely expression was still there, but he was speaking to Axel with a tangible eagerness that he could feel.

"Yeh, you could say that… how are you doing? Last time I saw you you were in pretty bad shape!"

"Thanks for your concern…" 619 said "I was fine after some treatments from O'briens medical team."

"Well what are you doing here? Are you trying to join the SPA?" Axel asked

"SPA? I couldn't care less about hat!" 619 said "I came here so we can be friends!"

Axel took a step back on the steps. He was so taken aback by his words that he had nearly ran away. He stood above 619 holding his hand up in front of his face like he was under attack. This was certainly not the answer he had expected.

"Wait…" Axel said confused. He was beginning to feel a little suspicious. "What going on here? Why is this guy after me? "Is he for real?" He thought.

Outside of that strange encounter, 619 had no reason to help him to this extent. Now a day later, this strange boy had somehow enrolled in his school? All in an attempt to help him?

"Why do you care anyway? Why are you looking for me? Why are you trying to be my friend!?" asked Axel, getting defensive.

"Why… Why would you want to be my friend? You… you don't even know me!" Axel said.

"You were just like me, I had problems with my powers and no one at the G.A.T.E.S was able to help me. That was until O'Brian came" 619 said clearing his throat. "If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be here…. So I've decided I'm going to do the same for you."

"Wait a minute… you had no powers? And you were able to awaken them? How?" Axel asked eagerly.

"I… can't tell you that", 619 said, leaning away from Axel. "It's…. too painful to say"

"I see…" Axel said. 619 was a truly mysterious character indeed.

"But if we can be friends it would mean the world to me! I've never had a friend before!"

619 closed his eyes and reached his hand out to Axel. Axel stood across from him in the empty hallway not believing his eyes.

Once again he felt his heart race. He was beginning to feel extremely wary. Though he felt eagerness and genuine warmth from 619, he felt especially skeptical given the weird circumstances the two had met under.

As he acknowledged 619's eager gesture, he saw a genuine display of empathy for him that he couldn't write off as ill will. There was something miraculous about all this that made him want to take a chance, but still he relented.

"After I watched PB do that to him because I was too weak… Why would he want to be friends with someone like me?" He thought

"You are not alone the light of the father shines brightly within you"

Suddenly, Axel felt a force nudge him from behind. Losing balance, He started to fall down. Tumbling forward he reached for 619's hand and was caught before he fell down.

Axel returned to his feet and looked around but he saw no one on the steps beside 619 and himself.

"Are you ok?" 619 asked.

"Yeh" Axel said, shaking 619's hand, "Thanks friend" He answered smiling.

619 eyes started to light up with blue sparks, this time, they were streaming down his face like tears as he shook Axel's hand.

"Follow the light huh?" Axel chuckled to himself.

"Axel!" 619 said crying, "Thank you for becoming my friend! I promise, I won't let you down. I promise I'll be there for you, I'll do anything for you I-"

"619", Axel said smiling, "When you want to be friends with someone you don't have to do something for them in return, you just become friends!"

619's tears turned into a stream of light pouring out of his eyes. Axel eagerly wanted to ask what in the world the blue streams were, but something told him to think nothing of it, the circumstances were weird enough as it was.

"You will never have to force real friends to become a part of your life or stay in it. Everything in your life that needs to be there will always be there. That's what my brother says anyway." Axel said, scratching the back of his head.

"YEESSSSS!" 619 exclaimed. "I have a friend!"

"Yeh I guess I have one too!" Axel said smiling

"OK NOW SECRET HANDSHAKE TIME!" 619 yelled enthusiastically

"Ahhh…. we should probably make it through class before we do all that!" Axel said, pointing to the clock.

9:44 one minute before the next class

"C'mon 619 were gonna be late!" Axel said, taking off.

Axel began a dash for class but stopped a few steps in. He turned around giving 619 a strange look.

"What's wrong?" 619 asked.

"I don't know…. It's just... I can't be friends with you and call you 619... Do you have a real name?" Axel asked.

"If I do… I can't remember it." 619 said, dropping his head again.

"Hmmm. Well, how about well how about just 6 for short then?" Axel asked.

6 looked down at his hands examining them eagerly. It was like Axel had placed some kind of spell on him, transforming him into something else entirely.

"6… Short for 619… That's awesome! That's called a nickname right? I've read that's how friends address each other right… uhhh… Ax!?

"Looks like you've got it," Axel answered.

"Read that? Just what kind of place did he come from?" Axel wondered

"Alright then Ax!" 6 said winking, blowing a flame of blue light with his eye. It floated through the air like a balloon until it popped, disappearing into the ceiling.

"Forget about where he came from! What the heck is this guy?" Axel thought, marveling at the blue light.

"Let's go to class!" 6 said, pumping his fist.