The Formation of Team 55

by Neo Nidhi Baghel

  The bell dinged and the elevator opened up slowly. He gritted his teeth at the view. A group of girls was giggling and gossiping with each other. He didn’t have time for this. Ace rolled his eyes as one of them gave him a smile. This was the future of the descendants? A giggling group of stupid teenagers who weren’t ready to quit their social life? He wondered if they still had their cellphones with them to click pictures and post on social media because he sure did woke up here without his laptop, camera or cell phone.

  ‘Excuse me,’ he mumbled stepping inside the elevator and the girls shifted a little. He never took elevators as Ace believed in walking up and down the stairs. But, the elevator at Bridging was different. It didn’t go up and down.

  As soon as the door slid closed on the sixth floor, the bell dinged again and it slid open again. It was the ground floor. It barely took him seconds. The elevator had a mind of its own, just like the doors and the rooms. It could analyze people’s thoughts and give priority to those who were in urgent need of being on whichever floor.

  He patted the elevator as it opened up and thanked it mentally, knowing that it could analyze his thoughts, and raced out the hall. The doors were open, waiting for him to run out. As soon as he rushed through the doors, they closed behind him.

  Dawn was at the Phrontistery with the last member of Team 55. Ace was scared as he didn’t know what to expect right now. He kept running as fast as he could. He had a long way to go. Apart from the Moon’s Nest, there was one more guest house on the other side of the street, called Stag’s Shed. The descendants weren’t allowed to go inside and explore this one as they were told that most of the guides who came to visit their enrolled novices at the Phrontistery stayed here. The descendants who have been enrolled were allowed to go inside, but only through an official invitation.

  The concrete path on the street between the two guest houses was crowded with people. There were small antique shops on almost every twenty to thirty meters on either side of the street. An owner of one of the clubs where Ace had been before spotted him running down the street and gave him a big smile.

  ‘You fitness freak!’ he laughed at Ace, not knowing why he was running.

  ‘I take that as a compliment!’ Ace yelled back as he ran past him.

  ‘Come back for a free drink tonight!’ the owner yelled after him.

  Ace knew that giving away free drinks was just a way for these club owners to promote their clubs, so that these descendants who were drinking for free, get a habit of it. After they get enrolled and want a drink, they will have to pay.

  He began to slow down as he reached the end of the street. Ace stood there staring at the entrance of an old manor in front of him. There was a board outside the manor’s gate that read ‘CENTER OF LOCAL RIDES’, below which it was written, ‘Capital Region of Hellberk’.

  Hellberk, the capital and the most secured region of Bridging. It might sound hellish but was very heavenly and amazing. There were six other regions in Bridging apart from Hellberk. But, the capital was the central one, that connected the rest of the regions. All the important art galleries, embassies, libraries, museums, major official departments, and important organizations were here. This was the heart of Bridging. In fact, the main junction that connected Earth to Bridging and to the rest of the universe was at Hellberk as well. Ace had heard that the locals weren’t allowed to enter the main junction as it connected worlds, including Earth.

  He had only explored Hellberk, that too not completely. The seniors had warned him not to go around exploring without getting enrolled as the Phrontistery sent the novices on free and guided field trips too.

  The descendants staying at the guest house Moon’s Nest had the permission to ride the local trains for free till they get enrolled.

  In order to reach the Phrontistery, the descendants who were staying at the guest house had to travel all the way from here to the small station called FOREST OF PHRONTISTERY, a region that was specifically dedicated to the descendants. The station was far away from here, located in the southwest Bridging. Right now, Ace was in the central region of the hidden land. Ace was about to enter the gates of the manor alone. He was getting late for the meeting now.

  ‘Ace!’

  He was distracted as he heard someone yell his name from behind. Ace turned around to see a girl and a boy running towards him as fast as they could.

  ‘Victoria? Brent?’ he gave them a puzzled look. ‘What happened, is everything okay?’

  Victoria and Brent were members of Team 55. They spent most of the time away from the team, exploring the area and sipping drinks at the club. If you wanted to have a good time and chill with a drink, they were the people with whom you could tag along.

  He walked up to the two of them. Victoria, the girl who called out his name fell on her knees and coughed. She was out of breath. Her hazel eyes were watery and her blonde hair was scattered because of all the running. She took off her jacket and dropped it on the side of the street.

  ‘It’s hot... it’s hot!’ she began to wave her hands around her face to cool herself down.

  ‘That’s why you were running?’ Ace felt really annoyed. ‘Because it’s hot?’

  ‘No!’ Brent, the guy with Victoria scrunched his face. ‘My head hurts.’

  He wiped his face with his hands and picked up Victoria’s jacket, waving it around himself to cool himself. He had tied up his long black silky hair in a bun, which was supported by two chopsticks. There was a small scar on his chin that expressed an old cut. He took off his boots without even thinking even once and then sat on the ground, next to Victoria. The two of them sat there trying to catch their breath as Ace kept gawking at them.

  ‘Did you two do something nasty with each other?’ he raised an eyebrow at them. He knew them. They had no shame in discussing how they had gotten drunk so many times and gone wild.

  Brent waved his hand dismissively, ‘That was last night after-’

  ‘Shut up!’ snapped Victoria. She grabbed Ace’s hand tightly and pulled him down, motioning him to sit there.

  ‘We’re right next to a street, near the manor of the traveling department.’ he reminded Victoria, uttering every word loud and clear.

  ‘You think I give a damn?’ she flashed her eyes at him. ‘We have been running since who knows when. We were at the museum. And then..’ she went quiet.

  ‘Then what?’ Ace frowned at her.

  ‘The lady who sits at the counter at the entrance,’ added Brent, ‘her screen was on. The screen thingy on which they all see what’s happening all around Bridging, you know?’

  ‘Yes!’ Ace nodded his head thoughtfully.

  Everywhere he went, including the clubs and even in the guest house, the cafe at the Phrontistery itself, there were small transparent screens on which people gathered at that place could watch the news about Bridging. The news screens were not anywhere inside the Phrontistery’s campus. The authorities who ran the institution were strictly against the ‘news thingy’ being used by the descendants to get information about the events happening around and outside Bridging. They believed that the descendants should work hard to find out each and every detail by themselves.

  ‘The news thingy?’ that was what Ace called it. ‘But we aren’t supposed to be seeing that yet. We don’t have the permission to do so.’

  ‘Yeah! The news thingy. But we sneaked in when she wasn’t there. And, you won’t believe what we saw.’, Victoria nodded impatiently. ‘We saw.. we saw..’ she was trying to speak but wasn’t able to.

  ‘We saw her.’ Brent did it for her. ‘They said that the last descendant of this year has arrived.’

  ‘Oh that,’ Ace stood up looking around. ‘I realized that.’ he pulled out the note he was sent by William and handed it over to Brent. ‘I saw at Dawn’s door. She is with him, Kathy and Justin. Nothing to worry about.’

  Even Ace wasn’t sure if the team should be worried or not, but he said it anyway. He wanted to make sure that Victoria and
Brent wouldn’t worry about this.

  ‘That’s great.’ Brent read the note getting back on his feet. ‘Maybe he’s calling you so that he can inform you about her? Maybe he doesn’t know that you have already seen her, right?’

  Ace wanted to agree with Brent, but deep in his heart, he knew that wasn’t the case. There was something wrong.

  ‘Yeah! We’ll see about that.’ he offered Victoria a hand and helped her stand up. ‘Right now, I have to get there as soon as possible.’

  Brent grabbed his boots and stood up, deciding to walk barefoot.

  Ace stormed off towards the manor as Victoria and Brent trailed behind him. The two of them kept nudging and whispering to each other as they followed Ace. Victoria tied her jacket around her waist and tied up her hair in a ponytail.

  ‘Either say it out loud or don’t whisper at all.’ Ace kept walking as he said that. The two felt uncomfortable now and went quiet.

  What looked like a manor from outside, turned out to be a hidden junction from inside. There was a guard at the entrance who made the three to get into a line on which few people were already there. They had to pass through the bluish security screen. Every time a person passed through the bluish screen, there was a beeping sound.

  As a person would pass through the screen, their entry permit would get registered with the barrier which was a few minutes away from there. After passing through the security screen, Ace casually walked up to the barrier and placed his right palm on the small screen on top of it.

  ACCESS GRANTED, flashed on the top corner of the screen on the barrier.

  There was a clicking sound and the barrier slid open. He went ahead and waited for Victoria and Brent. Ace noticed that the two were still gossiping about something. As soon as Brent saw Ace staring in their direction, he elbowed Victoria to be quiet. She looked away immediately and hurried towards Ace. He decided to ignore them this time and turned towards the platforms.

  ‘We need to be at platform number two before the next train arrives.’ he was almost running.

  The station wasn’t much crowded today. Even though this was the central junction, where all the trains coming from all directions met and was always crowded. Today the station seemed almost deserted.

  ‘Mr. Long legs!’ Victoria called him from behind. ‘Some of us are not as tall as you are. Slow down, will you?’

  He kept walking without responding to her. The two ran ahead to catch up with him.

  ‘Do you think that the new girl is going to be a problem?’ asked Victoria, as she trotted after him.

  Ace reached the platform and kept staring at the point from where the train was supposed to arrive. He was trying to avoid Victoria and Brent so that he wouldn’t have to answer their questions. Of course, he was stressed and worried about what was the deal with this new girl. But, he chose not to speak before he had seen and analyzed all the facts and details.

  ‘Look!’ Brent patted Ace on his shoulder, partly resting on it and interrupting his thoughts. ‘We reached here on time too.’

  Ace glanced at Victoria as she tried to catch her breath along with Brent. He tried to focus on what she had just asked. The new girl had shown up somewhere else and not in the guest house. This was definitely a problem, wasn’t it?

  As the three of them stood there, the train approached and came to a halt with a screech.

  Please don’t make things more complicated, he thought. Everything is just fine. Ace was fine with whatever he was going to do at Bridging. He was ready to face any challenge that a common descendant faces. But, he wasn’t expecting any unusual complications that might bring his entire team in danger.

  ‘Ace!’

  He looked up and saw that Victoria and Brent were standing at the door of the train and staring at him.

  ‘Come on, dude!’ Brent raised an eyebrow. ‘What are you thinking?’

  Ace shook his head and smiled gently. He got in with them and entered the compartment.

  They chose to sit on the seats which were right next to the compartment door. Ace sat down facing Victoria and Brent, across the table. He looked around the compartment and noticed that there were very few people traveling today. Most of the seats were empty. A waiter was serving snacks and drinks to those who had boarded the train from the previous stations.

  It was going to take them around thirty minutes to reach the station that was near the Campus. The trains here were really fast and connected the entire Bridging through just a single railway network.

  Victoria said something to Brent and he shook his head. ‘We can’t tell him that.’ he told her. Ace glared at them. Now, he was mentally punching Brent in the face.

  ‘What can’t you tell me?’ Ace was getting pissed now. He had been noticing the two chit-chatting since they had arrived and wanted them to either just shut up or say it out loud. ‘You can talk about all the sick stuff you guys do and still think that there is something that you can’t tell me?’

  Brent bit his lip and exhaled sharply. ‘Dude,’ he paused. The look on his face said that he was not able to say whatever it was.

  ‘The enrollment process has begun.’ Victoria said softly.

  There was silence for a moment. The train began to move with the screeching sound again.

  ‘No, it hasn’t!’ Ace tried to correct her. ‘Every new descendant receives a notice from the Phrontistery that they have to present themselves at the given time and venue when this happens.’

  ‘I’m sorry, man.’ Brent looked at him apologetically. ‘We believe that our team wasn’t invited for the process.’ he glanced at Victoria as he said so. ‘I think either this is a mistake or has something to do with the last girl who arrived. She showed up at the hilltop. That’s not a good sign.’

  ‘Why would she show up at the hilltop?’ Ace chuckled softly. ‘This is some sort of mistake. She might have gone there by mistake.’

  ‘Not according to the news thingy!’ Victoria bit her lip. ‘The voice on the screen said that William found her there. He usually receives an alert every time a new descendant shows up. That is how he finds out where all of them show up and in which room at the guest house. After that, he comes to pay us a visit.’

  ‘From where does he get the alerts?’ Ace asked them eagerly. ‘Is there some kind of locator or something that he has?’

  ‘That, they didn’t talk about.’ Brent was beginning to look upset now. He rubbed the small scar on his chin thoughtfully. ‘We are going to see him for a meeting, right?’

  Ace nodded slowly. ‘Why do I feel like he is up to something, that none of the novices or the staff at the Phrontistery know about?’ he clenched his jaw. ‘Seriously, I need to talk to Dawn. He will surely have some idea to sort this out.’

  ‘Why don’t some of us distract William while we are his cottage for the meeting?’ he looked around making sure that nobody was listening. ‘Some of us can sneak around to check out that locator? We might find something useful because I seriously think he is hiding something.’

  ‘Let us get there first.’ said Ace, in a very quiet and calm manner. ‘Our team is finally complete and I am sure we will figure it out together.’

  Ace couldn’t believe this. This was some sort of mistake for sure. Why weren’t they invited to the process?

  ‘Are you sure that this is exactly what you saw?’ he asked the two as they sat there, not partying or gossiping at the moment. ‘That, the process has begun?’

  Both of them nodded together at once.

  ‘I don’t understand! Why would they do this?’ he felt his heart lurch slightly. Ace had always felt like the most responsible one in his team.

  Justin and Kathy kept messing around with other descendants. Victoria and Brent were always busy having fun. Dawn used to accompany him and be his friend, but even he had his own issues to deal with. He wondered if this team was not going to be at the Phrontistery this year.

  What was happening? This last descendant who had just arrived, was she the one who had r
uined everything for them? Ace could feel his head getting heavier. His mind was not working anymore. He decided to simply put his head down on the table in between him and the other two.

  ‘Do you need a drink?’ Brent asked him instantly. ‘It can make all of your tensions just go away.’

  ‘Not now.’ Ace thought for a moment then tilted up his head. ‘But, tonight I might drink.’

  ‘I will drink now.’ Brent waved at a waiter who was serving some snacks on the other end of the compartment.

  The waiter came trotting up to their seats as fast as he could. An apron was wrapped around his front, covering his uniform and he had a tray in his hand that had some delicious-looking sandwiches on it.

  ‘Are those vegan?’ Victoria nodded at the sandwiches.

  The waiter bowed his head agreeing with her.

  ‘Oh, crap!’ she looked away from the tray and didn’t say anything else.

  She loves meat.’ Brent explained her behavior to the waiter, who looked really nervous. ‘It’s alright!’ he smiled and cleared his throat. ‘Do you have any good stuff to drink?’

  The waiter opened his mouth to say something but then smiled. ‘How about a Lavender Blast?’

  Drinks at Bridging were just as unique as the hidden world. Ace remembered the first time he went to the club with Dawn, he had tried a drink called Evil Rose. After drinking it, he had almost punched Rover, one of the new descendants who loved messing with Ace a lot. Dawn had to drag him away.

  Now, he wanted to see an actual drunk Brent for the very first time. That too, drunk on some powerful drink and not just liquor.

  ‘Get it here as soon as possible!’ Brent commanded as he took off his jacket, getting ready to drink.

  ∞∞∞

  Twenty minutes had passed and the three of them were sitting there, waiting for the train to reach their destination.

  ‘You evil,’ Brent glared at Victoria, squinting his eyes and watching her through the wine glass that rested in his hand in a very classy manner. ‘Yet, divine little glass of joy.’ his eyes were wide and he seemed to be drunk. ‘Even you won’t get enrolled this year.’