The Crystal Hall: Fan Fiction => A, vol. 3 and up

A, vol. 3 and up [message #20364]

Wed, 31 December 2008 17:22

Aranis
Messages: 729
Registered: October 2008
Location: Mid-Atlantic US

"This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but since it's fan fiction, who cares? To see the canon Whateley Stories, check out Sapphire's Place (http://www.sapphireplace.com/stories/whateley.html), Whateley Academy (http://www.crystalhall.org), or the Big Closet (http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/taxonomy/term/117)."

EDIT: From now on, I will post all future A stories to this thread.

This story is a continuation of A, vol. 2.5: A's Game

A's Trials

A has a hard week.

Part 1 -- Tests and Discoveries

Monday, September 11th through Sunday, September 24th
Those were a busy couple of weeks, let me tell you.

When I ran into Zack on Monday morning, we talked some about Chasm. When I gave him my thanks, he just shrugged and dismissed it. Just Zack being Zack, really. We ran that day and the rest of the two weeks, too. Every time we went out, I was a little faster, and Zack matched whatever speed I would go.

On the 11th, I got my powers tested a little more, but the doctors (and Mr. Clark) still couldn't decide whether I was a Channeler or not. They couldn't even decide if the ectomorphs around me were spirits or something else. One would say that they were something else, then the other would babble about a study, then Mr. Clark would chip something in. The worst part was that I basically just stood there while they went on about it for an hour. After that session, they said that they would have to settle on what all the data meant before we kept going, so I didn't have another appointment until the 25th. Suited me, really. It was kind of interesting learning more about what I could do, but it was real pain listening to them argue.

On the following Tuesday, I dropped my record of the ninja fight off so that they could have plenty of time to look over it and not bug me about for a while. They seemed really happy to get it, too. But I didn't get away scot-free. Oh, no. They wanted me to do some homework and brew up a new form. I started to protest about how it wasn't that easy, that I couldn't just sit down and pop something out, and . . . they'd have none of it. They told me to be back in two weeks and try my level best to come up with something new. Which I did. More on that here in a bit.

That same week, Maria, Penny, Ray, Max, and me all served detention. By cleaning out gutters. It sucked, but I guess that's the point, huh? We even found some weird stuff in the gutters, like circuitry, a head-sized glob of moving goo, and some earthworms that hummed pop music. We asked the maintenance crew about the junk, but they just shrugged and said that what we had found was pretty tame. We didn't really know how to take that, so we just went about our work. We had some passing contact with Jade from Team Kimba. She seemed like a pretty cool kid, really. She definitely had that 'cute, defenseless little girl' vibe going. On the other hand, she _is_ part of Team Kimba, and they're some of the toughest kids on campus. It made me wonder just how defenseless she was.

Anyway, our detention (well, most of us) wrapped on the 16th. It could have been worse. Now, you know where I just said "most of us" a second ago? The "most of us" would be everyone but Max. Remember how he went and told the girls that I was in trouble and kinda neglected to tell the Wild Pack that he could port them straight to where I had been taken? Carson didn't like that. At. All. Max told me that he got the worst chewing out he ever had, and even Chief Delarose was brought in for the fun.

Once he had been reamed, Max got the news: he would be serving two weeks of detention instead of one. He'd get the 'pleasure' of helping the kids in Hawthorne. I hadn't heard much about Hawthorne, but I what I had heard was dang far from pleasant. Max backed up the rumors, but he wanted to make sure to say that some of them were actually pretty cool. He also mentioned FUBAR, the one that the security guard had told me about. When I asked Max about FUBAR (or Foob, as Max called him), he just said that he lived up to the name, but he wouldn't go into any more detail than that.

While Max was in detention, I got some extra time alone in the room, which I used to my advantage. In between homework and hanging with Maria, I started on a new comic with the character I had been busy designing to help with the bullies. I called him Raptor, and he used gadget-wings and some other knick-knacks along with air control to move quite quick and stay on top of various situations. By the time the 24th rolled around, I had finished two full volumes about Raptor. I still hadn't field-tested him yet, but I planned to do it later that week, maybe starting in powers testing.

Of course, that was hardly all I was doing. I spent all my other free time with Maria. We didn't always even do things together: sometimes, we'd just sit in front of a fire and cuddle. The first time we tried it, I thought that we'd get chased out of Schuster, but then I caught some other couples (including a lesbian one) doing the exact same thing. Other times, we'd watch anime or movies and she'd sit in my lap (which was a completely natural fit). We didn't make out or . . . you know. We just hung out _a lot_ and cuddled and kissed (lightly). Why, you ask? I wanted to make sure I didn't screw anything up, so I took things pretty slow. Especially by "Max standards."

As far as classes, well . . .

My independent studies class with Dr. Woodrow was going pretty well. We were still charting out my abilities, and we had only made a little progress. I had already created a new written language, the one I had shown in powers theory back on the 7th. We already knew that, really. Dr. Woodrow also had me start in on another new written language. I could do it when I let myself space out while reading or listening to something. Well, "space out" isn't quite right. It was just a different way of processing things, sort of like a trance. With just a few practice sessions, I was able to get the hang of hitting the Zone (that's what I called it, anyway. Dr. Woodrow rolled her eyes every time I said it).

Since the 17th, we had been seeing if I could read a language that I hadn't seen before. As it turned out, I could after a bit of practice and getting familiar with the characters. She started me off on ancient Greek (which wasn't too hard; you can actually hear the basis for English words in it). On the 24th, we did some more with ancient Greek, but we also played with Aramaic a little. Oh, Aramaic? Language of the ancient Persian empire. It was the local language for a lot of the 'country' communities in the Isreal during Biblical times. It wasn't as easy to work through as Greek had been, but I could still get the hang of it after some time.

Once we finished that night, Dr. Woodrow said that she was going to be getting ahold of a friend of hers' and her come in and see me about the whole thing. I wasn't really sure what to think about that. Was I really that interesting? Would this new person mean extra work for me? Dr. Woodrow didn't really answer any of my questions, instead just saying something about "wait and see."

My Geometry, Lit, Powers Lab, History, and Flight classes were all between "above average" and "great." I had really lucked out on getting some of the teachers. Over the couple weeks, I really heard about some jerks, especially the guy who taught Survival class. Hoo, boy.

Then, there was Art. It was different. My first impression of Mrs. Hoben was that she was a complete flake, complete with the wardrobe of an aging hippie. She didn't do much to fight the image of flakiness when she started our first class with a lame joke. Poor lady did not have a sense of humor, but she was trying to get one. I felt like I would do her (and us) a favor if I told her to stop and find a better way to spend her time. I didn't want to get in trouble, though, so I gave her my best pity laugh.

Once she got past the joke and into what she expected of us, I was instantly reminded of what Dr. Woodrow had said about her: she expected you to work hard. That night, she basically just wanted to go over what she expected of us and that even though attended class was optional, it was in our best interest to come. You know, teacher speak for "show up or you're screwed." For the class after that one, she wanted us to bring in our best pieces. I looked through my portfolio and went with the inked and lettered versions of the finale of my Venger run. She gave me no small amount of praise for it, too, which was . . . a mixed blessing, maybe? It was good to have the teacher's appreciation, but it was not so good that she more or less said that she liked my work better than everyone else's.

Then, it was almost like Mrs. Hoben went out of her way to make it even worse when she asked us to give a brief run-down of our art education. Everyone in there talked about art camps and personal tutors and everything. When Mrs. Hoben got to me, I felt like a total jerkass when I said that I hadn't had any formal education. So, the guy who hadn't been on the inside of an art classroom showing up all the people whose parents had spent thousands on developing their kids' skills? Yeah, you can imagine how well that went over. If looks were needles, I would have been a pin-cushion by the time class was over that night.

Then, there were the real crappy classes.

To be fair, I guess, we'll say Powers Theory was going "as well as possible." It was dull-tastic and then some. I did get to practice my language-making while Dr. Ben Stein droned on, so that was something. I also learned "mutant-speak" as Volt called it, so I could finally (hopefully) keep up with the doctors and Mr. Clark when they started in on one of their rants.

BMA sucked. You know how I was still uncomfortable with actually making contact with people, and that meant that my hits were either way too hard or way too soft? Both sensei's picked up on it. That meant that I spent of BMA classes in base form fighting Squirrel Girl, Mechanoman, Glass; you know, the bottom tier. I would do all right most of the time, but it was embarrassing to be doing only so-so when I could use any of my forms and whoop all of those kids.

Every now and then, I would spar with Golden Girl, Britomart, or Silverwuss as Megadeus. It was a mixed bag as far as those kids go. I was stronger than Golden Girl, but she had beams and forcefields, both of which gave her a pretty nice edge over me. Britomart was a little on the slow but a lot nimbler and tougher than you think she would be. She could stay away from me pretty well, even if she couldn't really hurt me. Silverwing was not much fun at all. He could hurt me some and he moved a lot faster than I did in the air. He had a really annoying scream power that made me go all wobbly. Then, he would get all smug when he beat me by the skin of his teeth. I was really starting to hate that guy. The feeling was mutual.

Oh, and I got to fight Ayla a few times, too . . . and she kicked my ass. Badly. She just did the trick where she goes all Shadowcat and knocks people out. I didn't have any way to knock her out or anything without physical contact, and I wasn't about to use Cobalt indoors. We only sparred a few times, which was a good thing.

"But, A," you might be asking. "why don't you just quit BMA and go with Survival classes?"

Well, for one thing, I told Dr. Woodrow that I would give it a month. Then, there was the fact the Survival teacher was a real jerk. But neither of those is the real reason. The real reason was that I wanted to be ready. Ready for what? Chasm. He was still out there. Even with everything my friends and I had done to him, we were barely able to beat him. And he still got away. I didn't know if he would be back, but I wanted to be as ready as possible if he showed up.

Oh, on the subject of fighting and all (sorta), there were our team orientation sessions. Mr. Shane (our team advisor) thought that we would fit together decently, since, according to him, our abilities complemented each other pretty well. To make sure that we had someone who could take and dish out punishment, Mr. Shane (our team advisor) recommended that I stick to Megadeus form. When I mentioned the Overload problem (you know, where a form shuts off if I push really hard?), he told me that I should switch over to Cobalt. He told me that I could even add to our team's ranged firepower that way, with both me and Ray flinging spells and blasts and distant targets.

That pretty much covers everything, I think. That brings us up to the night of the 24th. We were out for our weekly game of hide-and-seek that night, and Maria was "it."

Sunday, September 24th – Night
I peaked around the side of the building. As far as I could tell, Maria wasn't around. I would have tiptoed around the building, but I didn't need to, seeing as how I was airborne. Instead, I *whooshed* as quietly as I could. I was about halfway to the tree when one of the octolegs popped up from nowhere! I barely managed to dodge it, and then another came up, and another, and another. I danced my way through the air, looking like a putz, I'm sure.

But she couldn't keep me from moving forward. I kept swerving and dodging, and I finally made it to base.

"Got it!" I said.

"Oh, come on! I know I got you!" Maria said, walking up with her octolegs still bugging out behind her.

"I am afraid not."

"Crap!"

"Way to go, bro," Max said. "One more base grab."

"Hang on a sec," I said. I settled down, closed my eyes, and reached for Juice. I let it go from my form and I went back to being A. The good news was that it only took me about 30 seconds.

"What's the ranking on scores?" I asked.

"Let's see . . ." Max said. "I'm ahead with 3, you, Maria, and Penny have 2, and Ray has 1."

"Ooh, betcha she'll catch up tonight," I said, teasing Maria.

"No, she won't! I've got a full perimeter scan going! I'll know the exact second she – "

"You can have this point," Ray said.

Maria eeped and spun to see the Chinese girl.

"How'd you do that?" she asked.

"A simple application of magical energy," Ray said. "But that is not what I wish to discuss."

She held up something in her right hand. It was a medallion made of metal with some Chinese character written on them.

"What's that?" I asked.

"I am unsure," she said. "I found it in the middle of the game. It . . . called to me? Whispered, perhaps, would be a better word."

"Whispered how?" Penny asked.

"I could not understand what it had to say, but it was saying something."

We all gathered around and took a look at it. There was sort of a collective shrug from all of us.

"What are you gonna do with it?" Maria asked.

"I think that I will show it to the heads of the Magic Department. If anyone would know what this is, I believe that they would."

"Sounds like a good plan," I said. "Well, that's one more for Maria."

"Um, yay?" Maria said. "I wanted to earn it."

"I am sure you will in the future," Ray said.

We all parted ways, needing to get back to our homework. I walked with Maria back to Dickinson. We didn't say anything, just enjoying the night air with each other. When we got to door, we kissed before she went inside. We gave each other huge, goofy smiles right before the door closed. Whenever she did that, my head went fuzzy and my insides went funny. In a good way.

On the way back to Emerson, I thought about Maria, about her hair, her smell, her smile, her laugh . . . and that train of thought kept running through my head, not leaving much room for homework, but I did it anyway. I finished my assignments and played chess with Max a couple times (he still beat me senseless) before we turned off the lights.

Just before I drifted off to sleep, my mind went back to the thing that Ray had found. What could it mean?

Monday, September 25th
That was the night the dreams started. I usually don't talk about them. They're a bit . . . much. On top of that, though? Whenever I sit down and start describing it, these words pop into my head, not like the way I normally talk. So, I don't talk about them much. But it's important for you to know how they go, so here it is.

Ruin. Everywhere. The stink of ash. The sky of smoke. The hills of blasted rock. So little left of the way things were. Death lay in all directions in those days. Every gust of wind, a wail. Every quake, a shudder of pain. And yet, it was not the end. There was still hope. Murmuring as it did like a heart's beat, deep below the surface of things. And our ears heard it. We followed that rhythm and found one another. We did meet on that hill, amidst the remnants of life.

None then knew what the next step be, so we spoke for a time and slept. Then, the dreams came.

My eyes bolted open, the dream still fresh in my mind. I sat up and took deep, ragged breaths. I walked to the bathroom and washed my face. I could still see the smoldering landscape in my mind, but I couldn't really . . . grasp it. The scene kept replaying, but it was like I was watching a movie in a foreign language. I shook my head again and decided that the best thing I could do would be to go for a run.

Then, I remembered my Juice Journal. I grumbled and wrote down that there hadn't been any changes. After that, I got changed and headed out to the statue, where I started in on my stretches. Zack was already out there doing the same.

"Rough night?" Zack asked.

"Yeah, weird dreams," I said.

I looked at Zack when I said that. Recognition, or surprise, maybe, flashed across his face for the shortest time.

"You have weird dreams, too?" I asked.

"No."

//Well, that settles that,// I thought, loading it down with sarcasm. Still, I didn't figure it was worth getting into with Zack about, so I just let it slide.

We did our run, and it was the fastest I had managed yet. Not that it mattered to Zack. Whenever I'd get a little faster, he would, too. I was beginning to wonder if maybe he had some sort of power he wasn't telling me about. We got back to the dorm and parted ways without saying anything more, which is how most of our runs ended, really. I got inside, showered, changed, and headed off to breakfast with Max. Once everyone was sitting together, I brought up my weird dream.

"Have you had any dreams like this before?" Maria asked.

I shook my head.

"No, this is a first," I said.

"I'm surprised you're handling this so well!" Penny said. "I would be freaking out."

"Um, thanks? Do you guys have any idea what these dreams might mean?"

"Um, no," Maria said.

"Sorry, bro," Max said.

"That's a 'no,'" Penny said.

"I may have an idea," Ray said.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yes. It is said that every soul has seen embodiment any number of times since the beginning. Sometimes, the memories from these lifetimes can surface in their current incarnations."

"So . . . you're saying that these dreams were from a past life?"

"It is a possibility. Another is that you are demonstrating a mutant ability. Do you remember Dr. Quintain's lecture on the branches of the Esper trait?"

I nodded.

"And the 'Reincarnator' application of that trait?"

"Oh, the one where the mutant can relive the memories of his ancestors? Like that?"

"Yes, precisely. It could be that you're reliving the memories on an ancestor."

"Oh."

"You should talk to your counselor about it," Maria said. "If it is a new power, then they should probably test you for it."

I slumped back in my chair and groaned.

"What?" Maria asked.

"Oh, those guys argue over me like toddlers with a toy. It's annoying."

"Really?" Penny asked. "I only had to go twice, and they had my classification down."

"Yes, really. I'm some sort of new thing, it looks like, only they can't decide what that means."

"Bummer," Max said.

"Yeah. I go back in today, right after first period. Hopefully, they've gotten the arguing out of their systems."

We finished up breakfast after that, and I gave Maria a goodbye kiss. We smiled at each other, and my head went fuzzy again. Ray had give me a hard nudge before we took off for Geometry. It was pretty much just another class day, one that didn't drag on too long. After we let out, I waved bye to Ray and headed over to Siegel and down into the bottom floors. I walked into the atrium, and there was a bookish-looking girl with thick, black frame glasses and brown hair pulled back and held up with lacquered chopsticks. She was cute (by baseline standards), and her blouse and skirt went with her green eyes quite well.

"Um, hi?" I said. "I'm here for my appointment?"

"Oh, hello, you must be BB," she said, typing something into her laptop. I groaned inwardly.

//That's it. I'm changing that.//

"Right on time," she said.

"Are you Sarah?" I asked.

"Yes, indeedy, that's me," she said.

"Oh, the doctors mention you every now and then."

"And it's all nice, I trust?"

"Sure."

"Anyway," she said. "Head on back. They're waiting for you. Lab T today."

Oh, that meant eye-watering. Fun.

"Thanks. Good to finally meet you," I said.

"You, too."

I walked back to Lab T and immediately turned toward the alcove the second I entered the room. Both doctors were adjusting the controls and Mr. Clark was watching intently. Hilary stood off to one side with her cart.

"Hi, Hilary," I said.

"Oh, hey, BB."

Mr. Clark must have heard us, since he was actually the first one to see me, and he nudged Dr. Hewley, who then nudged Dr. Shandy. All three of them walked over to me.

"Welcome back, BB," Dr. Shandy said.

"Guess what?!" Dr. Hewley said. "We've finally decided about you! And it's PHENOMENAL! I think that there are least 3 papers in the data we've collected!"

"Oh," I said.

//Well, that means no more arguing. Hopefully.//

"Well, what's the score?"

"Actually, there's one more thing we need to you do," Dr. Shandy said. "Just a formality, really, but it would round out our hypothesis."

"OK. What is it?"

"Did you develop a new form?"

I nodded.

"Excellent. Just like last time, please stand in the center of the testing area."

"Will do."

As I walked over the doctors and Mr. Clark went back into the alcove. Hilary just stood and watched.

"All right, BB," Dr. Shandy said. "You'll feel the tingle in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . ."

And I did. Sandpaper all over again, but it passed after a few minutes. I kept my eyes closed so that I wouldn't have to wipe them over and over while I waited. Somewhere in there, I think I heard one of them say "oh." They didn't yell at me to run and Hilary didn't rush over to me, so I shrugged and waited for them to say something.

"Well, that's it! That proves it!" Dr. Hewley said.

"All right, BB, you can come back to the alcove."

I nodded, opened my eyes, and came over.

"Well," I said, "what's the score?"

"We've discussed the data we've gathered on you at great lengths," Dr. Shandy said. "We had a number of theories that we discarded as we went until we came to the one that fit everything we knew."

"As it turns out," Dr. Hewley said, "we're now sure that you MAKE your own ectomorphs! It's astounding! We weren't sure at first, but we noticed on the scans that your Imprints had qualities like those of manifestations. Now that we see have a new one, you MUST be making them!"

"Wait. Imprints?"

"Jim's referring to the ectomorphs around your body. We needed a label to apply to them, since they weren't traditional spirits, and they didn't exactly match anything else we'd seen, either."

"But you don't just MAKE them! You actually MIMIC them! What's just as amazing is that you Manifest their equipment, too, so you copy their abilities, bodies, and belongings!"

"When Jim says Mimic, BB," Dr. Shandy explained, "he means that your biology changes to duplicate the properties and powers of the ectomorph. You're not Channeling the ectomorphs, since Channeling requires you to enter into an agreement with a full, complete spirit, which the Imprints are not. Nor are you bonding with them as an Avatar might."

"OK, you said Mimic's change themselves, right? Is that a kind of Shifter?" I asked.

"Yep!" Dr. Hewley said. "Thing is that it doesn't seem you can change into anything except your Imprints! This knack you show is a FIRST!"

It was a little hard to take in. So I was MAKING spirits, er, Imprints, then changing myself to look like them? Wow.

"Wait, I heard someone say 'oh' a few minutes ago. What was that all about?"

". . . It seems like you have a limit on how many Imprints you can have," Dr. Shandy explained.

"Wait. How many? What's the limit?"

"7," Mr. Clark said. "From what we can tell, 7. Our scans show that one of the Imprints is gone, replaced with your new one."

"Oh."

"Still, you have amazing flexibility!" Dr. Hewley said. "And a one of a kind power! Certainly nothing to complain about."

"No, I guess not."

"All right, now, here comes the hard part," Dr. Shandy said. "It's time for the full Exemplar battery."

If only I had known what I was getting into with that. I got changed into some embarrassingly tight spandex-style gym clothes before they led me off to another part of the labs. I did the Xavier test, all sorts of hellish reflex tests, I did weight lifting, sprinting, played a weird computer game, played Dis-Chess (which made my head hurt) and a bunch of other stuff. By the time we were done, I was just about ready to drop from the exhaustion . . . and hunger. The testing trio came up to me after that.

"Well, you're clearly a physical Exemplar-3, just like Dynamo had said," Dr. Shandy said. "She actually got it right for once."

"As far as the mental package," Dr. Hewley said, "you're a lightning fast reader, have a typing speed of 70 WPM, and are ambidextrous. Your recall is also quite good but hardly perfect, and you don't have any danger sense."

Yeah, I still tingled where they'd gotten me with the oversize cattle prod.

"If we had half-points," Dr. Hewley continued, "then you would be a mental Exemplar-3.5, but since we don't, we'll put you at Exemplar 3 there, too."

I was about to mention my language trick when my stomach yelled at me for neglecting lunch.

"Are we, um, done for the day? I really need to eat," I said.

"Oh, right! Sorry about that!" Dr. Hewley said. "Yeah, go ahead and get changed. See you again on Thursday, 1st to 3rd period."

"K, bye!" I said, running for changing area. I think that was the quickest I had ever changed in my life. I blazed out the door, said bye to Sarah real quick, and made a bee-line for the Hall. I ripped through what must have been an entire pig (much to the amusement and shock of those around me), and I ran off for BMA so I wouldn't be late.

Of course, I probably would have skipped it if I had known what was going to happen there that day.

[Updated on: Thu, 19 March 2009 20:03]

A's story is now complete.

The beginning: Volume 1

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