Q woke up and instinctively looked around him, expecting Taylor to be there. He lay on a white bed with curtains around him.
The explosion, he remembered, this must be the school infirmary.
He got up and instantly felt light headed, everything around him spinning. The curtains parted and a girl walked in, “Ah you’re up already. Better take it easy though.”
She wore a long white lab coat that made him assume she was the nurse. Her dark skin and curly, black hair suggested she was of African ethnicity. Her eyes were as black as the night and her pointy face had a calm expression on it.
“How are you feeling?” she asked. “You know, considering you got hit by a sonic burst.”
He looked around, “Where’s Taylor?”
“She’s fine. They’re all in class now. You might want to rest some more though. You’re not exactly in good shape right now.”
“I don’t need any rest,” he protested, got up, and jumped off the bed. “I’ll be fine.”
In a flash she grabbed onto him and tossed him back onto the bed.
“You were saying?”
“Maybe I should rest,” he said, his face half-smothered by a pillow.
The girl smiled, “I’m Christina by the way. My friends just call me Chris,”
“Nice to meet you. I’m-”
“-Q, yes I know. Taylor wouldn’t stop telling me everything she felt I needed to know. Impressive first few days you’ve had, huh?”
“I still have no clue what I’ve gotten into.”
“All of us felt the same way at first.”
He felt like that should reassure him but he wasn’t feeling that way at all.
“So you’re the school nurse?” He asked. She seemed a little too young for the post.
“No, no. I’m just taking over for today. I’m actually a healer at Aliea.”
His eyes widened and his mind went berserk as he saw a familiar face walk right past the window. He got up from his bed and his vision started to blur.
Chris caught him just as he was about to collapse.
“You’re too weak. I told you already. You can’t stand up too many times,” she said. “What were you after anyway?”
“I saw Jake,” he mumbled.
“Ah, him. He came in for a checkup last night. Some medical personnel found him collapsed at the R&D department inside the academy.”
“Anything wrong with him?”
“Not really sure. He seemed to have a concussion or something of the sort. His memories are a little fuzzy too.”
He didn’t say anything. What Chris said did kind of explain the whole situation. The intruder must have knocked Jake out before getting to him.
He felt a little bad for assuming Jake had run away. But for someone who was the president of a powerful student community, he sure was taken out quickly.
Q tried to fall asleep, and when Chris finally woke him up he realized it was late in the afternoon.
“You’d probably feel better if you went outside for a while,” she suggested.
“I can’t even stand up,” he mumbled.
“I really didn’t want to use it, but I can make an exception in your case,” she put her hands on his shoulder and squeezed. A surge of energy flowed through his body and spread a warm feeling all through his muscles.
“Done,” she said a few seconds later. He stood up and this time his vision didn’t blur.
“Wow,” he said, stretching his hands out.
“That’s a part of my wave skill. I can use my life energy to heal someone else.
“So I’m completely healed now?” he asked. “I guess I’ll get going then.”
“Wait. I’ll call someone to take you there. Can’t risk sending you alone.”
“Well, that makes sense too.”
She spoke into an intercom next to the wall, “This is Christina. Do we have any medical assistance personnel available?”
A voice cracked from the box, “All personnel have already been booked for duty.”
Chris shrugged, “Guess I’ll just have to accompany you then.”
“I could wait until they got someone else to help me.”
“Hey!” Taylor popped into the room. Q’s face broke into a smile.
“Ah, great timing,” Chris said. “I was trying to get him to walk a bit. Maybe go look at a few sights too. He’s been holed up in here for the whole day.”
“What about those battlegrounds?” Q asked, recalling that blue sphere of light he’d seen.
“No way,” Taylor said.
“I don’t see why not,” Chris said. “He’s almost at full health so it’ll be fine to let him go watch a few bouts.”
“Are you sure?”
“He’s fine. No serious damage at all. The shock only made his body sore and tired. I got rid of most of that.”
“So I guess we’ll get going then?” she looked at Q “I have a hovercraft waiting outside.”
“Uh yeah, we can leave now,” he said.
“I’ll go start the engine,” she said and walked off.
“Take care,” Chris smiled at Q.
“Thanks for taking care of me,” he said and ran behind Taylor.
By the time he’d caught up to her they were beside the hovercraft. The good thing though was that he hadn’t felt any pain while he ran, which meant he really was back to normal.
He jumped onto the craft and sat behind Taylor.
“Hang on,” she said and the craft shot forward.
The wind grazed past his cheek, and the buildings quickly became larger and larger.
He saw a large dome come into view, this one barely as tall as the buildings around it.
The closer they got the more Q realized that the actual size of the thing was tremendous.
“Impressive huh?” Taylor slid the hovercraft to a stop. “The battlegrounds.”
“Amazing.”
“It uses fully reinforced rabbitiyiminixilieum. It can withstand any attack, which means it’s the ultimate battle arena.”
What a name, he thought. Any other name would have been much simpler sounding that this one. Something struck his mind as odd, “But if the stadium is protected, then how did the sound wave get through?”
“My only conclusion is that there was some sort of pre-existing breach, like an open door or something. Usually it wouldn’t make a difference, but with stronger attacks you need every nook and cranny to be completely sealed off. The girl who caused the sound wave is still in a coma so we’ll ask her about this once she wakes up.”
“She was strong enough to cause the breach? Who is she?”
“I don’t know. She transferred in today and immediately picked a fight with the Khan. Pretty impressive for her to do that.”
“But then, how come no one else was affected?”
“Well, it could be because of the fact that I and the other guy standing by us ducked during the blast so the sound wall just passed over us. Most of the cadets at the stadium were in regulatory armor, which lessens the damage significantly. You on the other hand were completely defenseless and right in its path.”
“Wow,” he chuckled.
“Anyway, my whole class is at the battlegrounds right now. They’ve all been raring to see the commander’s brother so you better be ready for some attention.”
“I hate attention,” he mumbled.
“Taylor! Where did you run off to?” A lady came running through the doors just as Taylor stopped the hovercraft.
She wore a long white shirt with accentuated cuffs that made her look like a pirate, and dark black pants that slightly resembled those old-age bell bottoms.
“Hello, Miss Juliana,” she said.
Juliana, Q thought. He recalled Kai talking to someone of the same name. Maybe it was this lady.
“You know how worried I was?” she said, her red hair bouncing on her shoulders as she talked.
Her voice sounded nearly the same too.
“I told you I had to go get a friend,” Taylor
said.
She looked at Q. “So this is the kid? The Commander’s brother?”
“Hi, my name is Q.”
Juliana looked closer at his face, “Hmmm, he doesn’t look very warrior like.”
Well, that’s nice, he thought.
“He hasn’t had a day of training yet.”
“Oh really?” she smiled, “Perfect.”
“Ummm...what?”
She grabbed his hand and led him towards the arena, “Come along now. You’re going to have some fun.”
“Miss Juliana, he’s just recovered from a sonic burst.”
“So? I’m not going to drill him.”
“You’re not?”
She chuckled, “I have something much more fun in mind.”
***
Whoa, Q thought.
The interior of the stadium was even better than the outside. An oval-shaped, sand-covered battleground stood in the center. Around the ground were audience seats in concentric ovals, each one a platform a little higher than the one in front of it. The ceiling was transparent at the very top and seemed like it could take a few blows without a scratch.
The only odd thing about the place seemed to be the presence of sand in a high tech stadium. He figured it had some sort of intricate combat purpose to it. The place was filled with the chatter of the cadets who sat in the audience seats, gossiping with their friends.
“What are you doing here, newb?” a voice called out to him.
“Ah, Jake,” Juliana said.
The familiar blond dude jabbed his thumb at Q, “What’s this doing here?”
Jake, he thought. The guy had become more irritating than usual.
“Excuse me,” Q said. “I didn’t know the stadium was your personal hangout spot.” To think that he’d actually felt bad for assuming the guy ran away during last night’s fight.
“What did you say?” he smirked.
“Don’t expect me to take you seriously when you got knocked out while pretending to be a hero.”
“Okay that’s it,” he rushed up.
“Ahh,” Juliana came between them. “We don’t have time for this. Follow me.”
Jake protested, “But,”
“NOW,” she said and walked down towards the grounds.
Once they were on the sand she made them stand opposite each other, about ten feet apart.
“Taylor could you go get me a bottle of water please?” she asked.
Q didn’t like the smile she had on her face though. There was something calculating about her. He saw her mutter something as soon as Taylor left the arena.
A wall of light emerged from around the battleground and converged at the top in a hemisphere, isolating them from the now-confused audience. He didn’t blame them for getting confused, or even acting horrified, which they didn’t do though. It wasn’t every day a teacher did something this crazy.
“Q!” Taylor’s faded voice reached past the barrier.
“Don’t worry Taylor, he won’t get hurt.” Juliana said.
“What in the world are you thinking?” she asked, but Juliana ignored her completely.
Ugh, he thought. What had he got himself into this time?
“I’m getting security,” she yelled and ran off.
“Taylor,” she said. “You take one more step, and I’ll have you suspended for disobedience.”
She stopped, “Very well, ma’am,” she said.
“If anything gets out of hand I’ll stop it myself,” she said. “The force field is but a precautionary measure I have to take because of the breach earlier. I am well aware of Q’s previous physical condition. I know what I’m doing.”
Taylor seemed to calm down and relax a bit. But her eyes showed that she was still plenty tensed.
“So what’s going on here?” Q asked.
“You and Jake here,” she looked at both of them. “Are going to have a duel.”
Q laughed, “No seriously, what are we doing?”
She looked straight at him, “Seriously. A duel.”
His face dropped. She wasn’t joking around. It wasn’t a prank. This was her telling him exactly what she had planned.
“Don’t worry, punk,” Jake smirked. “I’ll make sure I only mess up the face.”
“Dude, seriously, what’s your problem with me?”
“You wanna know? Well-”
“Boys, keep everything for the duel.”
“Yes, ma’am” Jake said.
“There is no way you’re making me fight,” Q said.
“Listen Q,” she walked to him. “That’s a force field and its deactivation code is controlled only through my voice. A cadet can get in or out only if I let them. So either you fight now, or this becomes a one sided battle. And trust me, Jake seems pretty eager to finish you off.”
He glared at her, “I’ll fight,” he muttered.
“Brilliant,” she smiled.
Juliana explained the rules of the match. It was a two-minute match, and the winner was declared if the other was knocked out or surrendered. She told them any foul play wouldn’t be tolerated and then listed all scenarios that would be declared a foul.
Finally, the number of weapons usable was unlimited.
That put Q at a disadvantage since he didn’t have any weapons. He didn’t know how to use any either, which was probably an even bigger problem.
“Without further ado, let us begin!” she said.
The dulled down cheers of the audience resonated inside the force field.
First of all Q didn’t even know they had an audience. And the fact that they were suddenly okay with all this made him the confused one.
What a weird bunch, he thought.
“Arm yourselves, boys,” she said.
Jake took out his sword, a silver blade that was about twice an arm’s length. He touched the hilt to his forehead and mumbled something. Spikes of ice grew from its surface, completely covering it in ice.
He probably used one of those wave-skills, he thought.
He turned to Juliana, “Could I borrow a sword or something?”
She nodded, “System protocol 815, Recreate standard sword.”
A dull gray sword materialized and dropped to the ground.
He picked it up at the hilt. He’d never picked a sword up before so he had no clue if this one was good or not, and he was pretty sure a duel wasn’t the right way to find out.
“Alright then,” She looked at the two of them. “BEGIN.”
Jake pushed his sword into the ground, sinking it down to the hilt.
The very ground trembled and the floor beneath Q split apart a few inches.
He can’t kill me right? he thought and jumped away from the fissure.
Jake pulled his sword from the ground and charged at Q.
He pushed Q back, each swing of his sword followed by a chuckle of mockery. He seemed to be enjoying this battle.
Q, on the other hand, had to put all his concentration into just blocking the blows.
Honestly he was surprised he wasn’t dead yet, and Jake’s reactions didn’t seem any different.
“Impressive defense you got there,” Jake said. “But how long will you last?”
Jake brought his blade down on top of his head. Q blocked using his sword, but this time Jake didn’t pull back. He kept pushing at him, muscling him to a lockdown.
“You can only run, newb. Why don’t you just give up?”
“What is it about me that makes you this mad?”
“You think you’re a hotshot just cause your brother is the commander?”
“You’re such an idiot,” he muttered.
“WHAT?” Jake jarred his knee into Q’s chest. Q flew through the air and skidded along the coarse sand.
“Ugh,” he mumbled.
“Say the words, newb,” Jake walked to him, his sword poised to land the final blow.
Anger swelled up inside Q. He was being abused, for something that wasn’t his fault, for some completely random reason.
“Don’t. Tell. Me. What. To. DO!” He yelled out in frustration.
And the next thing he knew, his sword was on fire.
“What in the world?” Jake jumped back, utterly confused.
The flames didn’t harm Q at all. They only seemed to affect the sword and nothing else.
“Oh you’re in trouble,” he smiled and charged at Jake.
He hacked and slashed, trying to do as much as he could before Jake snapped out of his dazed state.
“Just stop,” Jake put his palm forward. A block of ice materialized out of thin air and rammed into Q.
He knelt down to the ground and gasped out for breath.
“Your mistake, newbie,” Jake said. “I’d never go easy on you.”
Q felt the hairs on his neck stand. Pure hatred coursed through his body. He didn’t want to lose. Not to a jerk like this guy. He just couldn’t.
I won’t lose, he thought.
His arms and legs tingled and an unfamiliar sensation went through his skin.
He heard muffled gasps from the audience and he had no clue why, until he saw the air above Jake.
Strings of electricity ran along like decorations, appearing and disappearing in a flash.
“Great. He’s got another wave skill,” Q threw his hands in the air.
And the weirdest thing happened. The threads followed the exact path his hands took.
Whoa, he thought.
He moved his hands around and the bunched up electricity moved around too.
Q looked at Jake, “With this we’re even,” he brought his hand down.
A bright flash of lightning struck the ground, causing it to tremor and shake.
When it ended, Jake stood there completely shocked, fragments of his now-broken sword scattered on the ground next to him.
A commotion started outside the barrier.
“You,” Juliana caught Q by the arm, her face completely terrified. “You’re coming with me.”
“But he started it.”
She said nothing and kept going on. “Protection shield deactivate,” she said and the shields dropped immediately,
“Jake, get all the students back into the dorms,” she said and grabbed Taylor. “You’re coming too.”
She dragged both of them to the hovercraft Taylor had used and got everyone seated on it.
“Umm…Where are we going?” Q asked.
“To the commander.”
The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5 Page 14
