Chapter 2
Al struggled against the weight both his arms endured, his body shaking his limbs felt as though they’d turn to pudding at any moment. The boulders he was lifting in his palm…they were larger than his head. All the while, it was indirect sunlight so he was extremely hot.
It wasn’t as bad as some, though. He saw one guy having to punch a boulder, the girl named Sonia had to see how many times she could split her body as well as how many spheres of light she had to make, as well one boy who seemed to be dying as from exhaustion from running.
The pain in Al’s arms became overwhelming, not far from collapsing totally, he dropped the rocks with heavy THUDs. He laid flat on the ground, manipulating the air around his body to cool himself off.
Too tired. Far too stressful.
Training ended soon afterwards whereas Al met his three roomies looking at him with equal looks of exhaustion.
“How did you do?” Hale asked.
Al plopped onto his bed.
“Not so bad,” he replied. “It…could have been worse…I guess.”
The four sat there in silence, barely breathing for maybe an hour or more. After what Al felt like must have been at least two hours, he got bored. He stood up, his legs slightly wobbly, before stepping into a more shady spot of the room, slipping into the darkness. While it didn’t heal his torn muscles any faster, it certainly eased the pain to where he felt almost nothing as his body was, for the most part, incorporeal. He even heard Kelly and Mike comment on it.
“What’s he doing?” Mike asked. “Shouldn’t he be staying here?”
“Nah,” Kelly said. “Leave him alone. He may be healing, actually. He could be doing anything.”
Al slipped underneath the doorway to the main hall where they had been gathered. However, he soon grew bored of the activity, returning to his room where he became visible to his friends again.
“Where’d you go?” Hale asked.
“Mmm…nowhere special,” he said.
“Wish I could do that,” Kelly said. “Looks fun. If I could do that I’d go anywhere I’d want.”
Their door was opened once again by another man.
“Time to train for real.”
The instructor with yellow tassels had said that he wanted them to all gather into groups of three and choose one person to be the one to fight against. Unfortunately, since Winston and Keiko, the two he found who would fight him, decided since he had a great tolerance for physical impact that he would be the one they would fight.
Winston was charging full force at Al with speed that was abnormal for a human, making any punch he threw all the more painful for when it collided with Al’s face. He also seemed to be able to see where Al would be standing before he would be there so Al had to routinely jump to avoid his low kicks. Keiko, on the other hand, seemed to be awfully good at doing everything.
When Alistair wasn’t looking, she had frosted his feet to the ground, making it harder to dodge Winston’s attacks. She blew smalls streams of fire from her hands just to mess with him and, when he would dodge that, it appeared she could use telekinesis because he occasionally felt pushed back and forth without Winston trying to hit him.
Al took an especially painful hit when he manipulated the air around him to increase his speed to stay away from Winston. He jumped back fairly fast but backed right into a burst of flames Keiko had sent his way. All dropped to the ground as he moaned in pain, using all the wind he could he could muster to cool the pain and, just as he did, it gave Winston the opportunity to kick him while he was down, sending him tumbling across the field.
Al stood back up, looking directly at Keiko with a glare.
If I can take her out then Winston shouldn’t be a problem. He thought. After all, his mind-reading abilities don’t work if he has no counter to them.
Al looked around, seeing no shadow to hide in. He steadied himself as Winston knew exactly what he was planning, looking over to Keiko and muttering loudly.
Better be fast. He thought.
Al slammed the air around him with all his might, creating a shock that blew Winston back, the wind causing him to tumble away. He charged at Keiko, the around him push him forward at her. While Keiko blew another stream of fire at him, but the whirlwind around Alistair merely deflected it. Al was aiming to tackle Keiko with the tornado around him.
However, just when he got maybe a foot away from Keiko, she reached out to touch him. When the tip of her finger met Al’s chest everything stopped. It felt as though the world had lost all movement as Al stood there, like a dumbass. His whirlwind was gone, as the air that pushed him was. As Al stood there he saw Keiko draw her hands back as she lifted him into the air with telekinesis before throwing him down. Al did not bother to get up afterward.
What… He thought. What was that? Was it…what kind of trick? Oh, it wouldn’t matter anyway, of course I’d get my ass handed to me.
He looked up at her, the girl just staring back with a playful glare before walking away.
“Give up?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he replied.
“Then you’ll just have to fight me again,” she said while smirking. “Fight me until you feel you have no life. Then we can return back to our rooms.”
Alistair stood back up, noticing Winston was staggering back toward the two of them. He whirled around at the other groups of Changelings practicing. They too seemed to look as though their limbs had lost feeling even though they continued to throw punches and projectiles at each other. He looked back at Keiko, who seemed to have the look in her eyes as though she couldn’t wait to start hurting him again. Alistair felt disturbed by this look.
“Again,” she said. “This time I don’t want any pussyfooting around. I want you to both fight me because this time, I’m not going easy on you.”
Al glared at her before hearing the last part.
She was going easy on me? He asked himself. Shit, and I was trying my hardest just to stay away from Winston.
Winston and he readied themselves as in one hand Keiko mustered a gust of frost-white-dyed air and in the other a red flame.
Al was thrown against the fence that surrounded the arena, hurting his back worse than it already was. The invisible force that had thrown him felt as though it was hand that gripped his whole body and tossed him like a rock. Al struggled to move up but as soon as he felt the burn spot right underneath his armpit, he gripped it in pain and hunkered down, too hurt to move.
It’s a good thing that invulnerability is a thing. He thought. Or that fire would have burnt my organs.
He looked up to see Winston throwing punches and Keiko at the speeds so fast he could barely keep up. However, almost each time Winston threw his fist, Keiko seemed to tap her right index finger on his knuckle to effectively make his arm seem to lose all momentum. After a while of this Winston’s arms seem to hang by his side like limp vines. After enough sweat dripped from the boy’s forehead to fill puddle, Keiko outstretched her hands at him, smiling as she did so. As she did, Alistair’s mind began to race with fear for the boy.
So let’s see. He thought. How many Changeling powers has she revealed? There’s that ice manipulation, the fire power, the telekinesis…that thing she does with finger to make all movement stop…and now this…?
From Winston’s chest sprang up human arms that, once grown to the length of Keiko’s, proceeded to give him the pounding of his life. At a rapid-fire pace the arms struck him in almost every area they could reach, the bloody bruises appearing as soon as the fists left their target’s skin. The boy’s face became nothing but a bloody pulp. Winston didn’t last long, fainting to lie flat on the ground. Once he did, the arms seemed to withdraw back into his chest and disappeared. After seeing Winston not moving, Keiko made her way over to Al, giving him a pitiful expression. Alistair looked up at her with a painful sigh.
“What now?” he asked. “You one…didn’t you?”
Keiko tugged at her mouth, as though she was trying to figure him out.
“You seem pretty weak,” she said. “All of you do. None of you seem to be able to lay a finger on me.”
“That’s because you’re a monster,” Alistair said. “Nothing but a machine practically built…mmm, owwww…for battle.”
“That’s what you become if you fight and train long enough,” Keiko said with nonexistent emotion. “In battle, Changelings will often lose themselves to bloodlust they gained during fighting. It’s only natural.”
“Well you’re not supposed to just destroy and beat others down for the sake of it,” Al said. “After all, how are you supposed to help people if you do nothing but fight for the sake of it?”
Keiko smirked at him again.
“Help people,” she said, almost laughing. “See you round kid.”
Alistair sunk low into the ground now, feeling as though he’d made of fool of himself.
That sounded stupid. He said. After all, we’re supposed to learn military training. We can’t be concerned with trivial feelings. That’s just the way it is.
{Seven Months Later}
Alistair stood at attention, shoulder to shoulder with Mike, Hale, and Kelly as they watched Julian hover his hands over a red button. It presumably opened the door to the retractable metal wall in front of them.
“Do you know why I brought you here?” Julian asked.
“You said you had a quick assignment for us?” Hale replied.
“Something of that nature,” he said. “This is a…desensitizer…if you will to what you will experience in the nearby future. Alistair, do you remember Winston?”
Al nodded.
“I’d been sparring with him for a while,” he said. “We’re regulars at it.”
“Perfect,” Julian said as he pressed the red button.
The metal wall retracted back into the wall as Al held his hand over his mouth, the room letting out a gasp.
In an empty room was Winston and two girls chained and gagged, lying on the floor as the chains that held them were attached to the wall.
“What…why?” Kelly asked. “They’re students here.”
“Yes,” Julian said. “These three students, last night, had attempted the murder of fellow students at this academy and successfully killed a master. From what we can gather they were attempted to start a riot.”
“Why have you brought them here?” Al asked. “Shouldn’t they be court-martialed?”
“No,” Julian said. “We have several eye-witness accounts of them actively trying to instigate murder and mutiny in this academy. Hardly much to be questioned, yes? The thing is that I’ve brought them here to be executed.”
“What?” Al asked. “You mean…us?”
“Precisely,” Julian said. “As Changelings who are training to be soldiers you are to be psychologically ready to kill on the battlefield. Each of you will kill one of these students you see before you, except you Hale. You have already proved yourself mentally prepared.”
“But why?!” Al asked. “Isn’t this wrong?! Aren’t…aren’t we supposed to…to bring peace…to help others…?”
“Alistair,” Julian said. “Your brother has well informed me of your desire to help others in less fortunate circumstances in this fallen, dark world using your gifts. I understand and respect your position as much as humanly possible. However, you are a soldier as well as peacekeeper. You must be used to the sight of blood quickly in life. If you like to I will call you last. Mike, start first, slay one of the girls.”
Mike slowly approached the group lying on the ground, laying on one knee as he hardened his skin. Alistair could hear the boy sniffling.
“Murderers,” Julian said. “Murderer of one of my colleagues. It is futile to keep them alive as they are extremely likely to do it again. We have had trouble with them before. We would kill them anyway. You are, in no way, morally corrupt for carrying out a deed by order someone older than you would do already.”
Mike smashed his hardened fist into the girl’s neck, an audible snap echoing throughout the room. Mike ran away from the scene, rushing to the corner to vomit.
“Not bad,” Julian said. “Quick. Kelly.”
“No!” she screamed. “I can’t! I know all three of these people! They…they’d never…never do this…”“Well direct evidence says otherwise,” Julian said with barely contained anger. “I hope you are not insinuating my colleague killed himself. Are you?”
“But I can’t-”
“Someone else would,” their master replied. “Better someone they know than don’t. This is a better death than they deserve.”
“I’m sorry,” Kelly sobbed. “But…but…but they’re not-”
“I order you to!” he said. “Do you not understand they slaughtered innocent students and teachers alike?! This is not up for discussion!”
Kelly slowly walked over, producing sand in her palm from seemingly out-of-nowhere. She leaned down, lowering the girl’s gag as she sobbed uncontrollably before kissing her cheek. Kelly levitated the sand in her hand to be sent down the girl’s throat. A second later the girl lay motionless as the sand came out from her throat.
Finally, Al walked up to Winston, looking down on him with a stoic expression. Winson’s red eyes were tear-stained, but there was a certain dignity he had with him in his expression the boy could not help but admire. Alistair’s eyes became just as red, his tears making his face embarrassingly wet.
“Master,” Alistair said. “I can’t do this! He said! I just can’t! Winston, no!”
Al saw Julian walk up to him as he patted him on the shoulder before gripping him and looking at him in the eye.
“Listen to me,” Julian said. “Do you not think there is evil in the world? Do you argue against proven logic?! You think I’m lying to you, boy?!”
Al bit his lip as he shook his head, not daring to tell Julian he thought Winston could never do such a thing.
“Well he did!” Julian screamed. “You are going to have to learn that evil does in fact exist Alistair! You need to in order to understand we’re doing you a favor by letting you be the ones to execute them!”
Al looked up at him in shock.
“What you have here are murderers willing to stop at nothing so long as it meets their end!” he said. “I know that this is hard but we do it so that, in the middle of combat, when you’re struggling to fight against the enemy of our civilization that you’ll be accustomed to taking the lives of all that do wrong! It’s not so much cruelty, you have to realize, and as much as being accustomed to doing things that make you feel bad for doing what is right! It’s never the easiest thing but it is always the right thing! Getting rid of those who do wrong is right!”
He shook Alistair a bit.
“Do you deny that murderers should walk free and go unpunished for what they do?!” Julian asked. “It’s not so much moralistic vengeance as it is a practicality! If it was not you executed Winston it would be someone else! We do this so you know you won’t feel wrong in killing those who do wrong! Now go do it, I will hear no more objections.”
Alistair walked up to Winston who, with his eyes, seemed to be asking Al to do get it over with, as though it were a sorrowful attempt to save the both embarrassment. Alistair raised his foot over Winston’s head before quickly stomping his foot down on Winston’s neck, breaking it in with solid kick. Al fell to his knees, his tears staining the sleeves of his shirt and vomit soaking the floor beneath him. After Al had quit vomiting and kneeled down there on the floor, Julian kneeled down beside him, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“I’m proud of you,” he said. “It was not an easy thing to do, but the right one. Don’t let what is easy get in the way of what is right.”
A thirteen-year-old Al’s whirlwind launching from his hand deflected Kelly’s arm of adhesive sand she’d sent at him, turning it back into loosened grains of earth. Not wanting to hurt Kelly that much, Al then sent a strong gust of wind in her direction, knocking her back into the fence. After doing so, Al’s back slumped down in protest to continue.
He sighed as he looked at Mike and Hale who, after sparing for an hour or so, seemed to be ready to give up.
Al looked to Julian, the man in yellow tassels who stood watching them, his eyes razor sharp as he looked over all of them.
“Master,” Al asked. “Why is it you wanted us to fight each other? After all, we spent all day training with others? Why again tonight?”
Julian tugged at his mouth.
“The reason is twofold,” he said. “Because you’re going to need to be familiar with how the other fights, as well as allow me to see how strong each of you are. Tomorrow you four will spend the entire day resting because the day after that you are being assigned your first mission. You will begin tomorrow at nine thirty.”
Alistair stared at Julian in shock with his mouth slightly agape.
“Ah…are you serious?” Al asked.
Julian nodded.
“You four have grown fairly quickly,” he said. “We have been tasked by the higher-ups of the Blue Sky Kingdom for a certain mission that cannot risk stronger, more well-known Changelings going in and doing themselves. Since this mission has fairly high risk danger, we thought we’d send in a few new recruits. How well you do will determine your academic ranking.”
Al hung his head a bit in response to what Julian said. The ranking was just what it sounded like, the stronger and more accomplished the pupil here the higher the ranking on a specified list of names. The higher the ranking the more freedom that Changeling had to leave the grounds of the academy or likelihood a request of theirs being granted. Ironically though, to be placed high in the rankings you had to train harder and spend more time in preparing for missions, so if someone felt they wanted to leave the academy more often than they would ironically have to put more hours becoming stronger.
Kelly, Hale and Mike gathered around Alistair, looking intently at their master in yellow.
“You said the day after tomorrow?” Hale asked.
“That’s correct,” Julian replied. “Now that you’re all familiar with each other’s techniques and powers, you should be fairly ready to work together as a team. However, any mishap that comes from lack of or poor communication will be on your own head. Do you all understand?”
“Yes sir,” they all said.
“Good,” Julian replied as he turned around to fish for something in the bag he brought with him. “Now that we’ve said that, I have a couple maps and notes for you to study while doing this.”
He handed the folds of paper out, being taken into Kelly’s hand as she unwrapped it.
“You will need to remember to stick to that like a holy book, remembering all you need is in there. What Changelings could map their Circle from aerial surveillance they put here.”
“Will you be accompanying us on our mission?” Hale asked.
Julian scratched the stubble of his chin, looking back at Hale.
“Hmm…” he groaned to himself. “I have already decided if I will do that or not. But I will not let you know if I am there or not. If I am, don’t expect me to help out in almost any regard I will be far too busy watching your progress. Oh, and another thing.”
Julian turned around to handle the strap of a great, large bag. He plopped it onto the floor, unzipped it and poured its contents. There was an assortment of weapons that ranged from knives, a few sheathed swords, and a few other things. Julian handed both Mike and Alistair a sword. Al held the sheathed weapon in his hands awkwardly, looking at the red and brown scabbard like it was a fire cracker waiting to go off.
He fit the strap around his shoulder testing it out as Julian spoke.
“These were both weapons given to you by your family,” Julian said. “Al, your brother had that blade commissioned for you, sorry I couldn’t give it to you at a sooner time. Mike, your father thought your ability to sense movement would be great with that kind of weapon. Pick whatever you think you could carry on you before you leave.”
Hale sighed as Julian stood up and left the room, his eyes following Julian as their master left. Hale immediately sat down on the floor of the room, unrolling the paper given to him by their master so that three sheets lay on the floor. One was obviously a map while the two others were a set of pictures and diagrams with notes scribbled beneath the visual aids and to the border of the paper. The third paper was what Al presumed to be their mission directives from what words he saw from it and from Hale reading it more than he did anything else.Hale’s eyes scanned the whitish-brown paper with ink-typed text written on it as he held it tightly. He put it down for a second with a somewhat grave expression as he looked at the three of them.
“This mission,” he says. “Is that we’re supposed to invade a Circle that’s been a rival to the Blue Sky Kingdom for about five years now. We need to sneak in and steal about 20 gallons of Changeling blood tomorrow from the Yageran Kingdom. Our target seems to only be about fifteen miles away.”
Steal? Al thought. Why would they want to steal? Does the Blue Sky Kingdom really have such low Blood Energy reserves right now? Are they going potentially dry? Is…is this a kingdom that’s done atrocious things to our Circles?
“I’ve heard of the Yageran Kingdom,” Kelly said. “Did any of you hear about how they conquered only five other Circles before gathering a small army of Changelings? I’ve heard they’re actually managing to rival the Blue Sky Kingdom in the Stadiums.”
“I heard something similar,” Mike said. “Just last week one of their Changelings that goes by the name of Teller actually was able to kill a senior member of the Blue Sky’s senior warriors. Did it say how close it was to the Yageran Central Circle?”
“From what the mission directive says it seems to be only at the border of their kingdom,” Hale said. “Where most of their Changeling blood reserves are sure to be heavily guarded.”
Hale looked down at the ground with a sullen glower, almost as though he was angry.
“Why would Julian, or whoever, send us on an assignment guarded by a kingdom notorious for their combat strength that are able to overpower even senior Changelings?” he asked them. “You think it’s just an added risk they thought to further test us?”
“I’ve never done this before,” Mike said. “So I wouldn’t know. However, my older brother said that missions like these usually are higher risk than you’d expect. He said that his squad actually had the task of being a diversion to a group of armed Sentry-men while the real forces went in to sabotage the Circle itself, destroying it in the process.”
Sabotaged other Circles? Al asked.
“Really?” Hale replied. “That does sound pretty tough? How long had they been in the academy?”
“Barely two months,” Mike replied.
“Pretty
“What?” Al asked. “How could our side be so cruel?”
The three of them turned to Al and looked at him as though he’d said something extremely weird. Their expressions a mix of confusion and exasperation.
“What?” Alistair asked. “Don’t tell me you’re not thinking the same thing…are you?”
Kelly looked at him as though he were making her feel uncomfortable.
“Um…Al…are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Alistair replied. “Why? I…I thought…we were going to help people. That…that sounds almost cruel…sabotaging a Circle. What about the innocent people that live on it.”
The three of them looked at him like he was being weird again.
“What?!” Al demanded.
Kelly and Hale seemed to sigh as Mike seemed to still be somewhat stiff.
“Listen,” Kelly said. “Alistair-”
“Al,” he replied.
“Al,” she started. “Sometimes…sometimes you have to do things that aren’t necessarily all that…clean to do the right thing. There is no one set good or bad way. You have to defend your people after all, don’t you?”“I guess,” Al replied. “But wouldn’t destroying a Circle be simply malicious? And stealing blood from another Circle, are we running out?”
Hale stretched his arm and put it to Al’s shoulder.
"Listen, Al,” he said. “I know this may be a bit tough for you, but you got to listen.”“Nothing’s tough for me to understand,” Al asked. “I just want to know why it’s necessary to do all this.”
“Because it is,” Hale said sternly.
Al recoiled back and, as he did, Hale’s expression didn’t soften as it did before.
“Listen,” he said. “I understand you want to do the right thing and that’s good. Some out there have their morals all screwed up over petty stuff, kay? We need to be good to each other…but there are times, like these when you have to suck up your pride over your ethics and do something you think would make you a bit unclean. You have to do what they tell you because that’s what you need to do. Got it?”
Al shook his head.
“Okay,” Hale said as he turned to Mike and Kelly. “We’ve got that cleared up. Besides, we won’t bring much in the way of casualties. A simple seeking out and taking of excess blood they don’t need. We’ll examine the maps tonight and tomorrow and be ready for the mission the day after. Everyone understood?”
They all nodded.
