Cyberspace; The Ultimus Collection

Chapter 5, Guardian School

Derick took his helmet and latched it onto a leather belt around the waist of his armor. "If you're gonna do this there's a special place we need to go. I'll explain once we get there, I'll use our walk to explain the basics around here." Derick started to walk back down the sidewalk with Daniel trailing behind. "Oh before we get into this whole exposition dump, I never got your name."

"Huh?" Daniel looked confused. I guess he never did mention his name. "It's Daniel, Daniel Brown. But if you didn't know my name, how did you piece together all that stuff about the Lab Rats building?"

"Oh I just kinda assumed!" Derick laughed.

"You just assumed I was dead!?"

"Hey come on kid give me some credit! It wasn't very hard to do some process of elimination and critical thinking! Besides it doesn't matter now, if it was you or not they'd still forget about you with the passage of time!"

"Well that's a rude thing to say to someone! How would you feel if I just told you you'd be forgotten by everyone!?" Derick sighed.

"Sorry, sorry. You're right. In all seriousness it is a pleasure to meet you Daniel." With those kind words Daniel snapped out of his funk. "Now come on. Time isn't really on our side in this."

"Right." Daniel rushed forward to catch up with Derick. The two walked side by side, master and apprentice. "So... what is this place exactly? I know it's the internet, but it doesn't... feel like it. Like it's not what I expected." Derick chuckled.

"Yeah that makes sense. If you want you can think about this world, or universe really, as a layer below the internet you know. Like how your skin has different layers. What you see is the thin top layer, while everything you interact with is this deeper layer. If that makes sense." Derick looked over at Daniel, who was clearly trying to process the information. He sighed again. "You'll get it eventually, that or just forget about it entirely. I think the more important thing to learn is how everything in this world works. The internet is a vast universe of information, with millions of worlds housed in its network. Where we are is the dead center. We like to call it the hub. It's a very diverse landscape here, similar to what it would be like on Earth. Oceans, deserts, forests, mountains, we've got it all. Not to mention our bustling cities. Speaking of which are all contained in different districts that divided up this world."

"Like countries." Derick smiled.

"Yes exactly! We're in the central of downtown district. It's like a melting pot of all the others. The most important thing it holds is the core, a giant pillar that powers the entire world, and even some other parts of the universe."

"Woah..."

"Woah indeed. There's also the visual district, auditory district, arts and literature, there's even a growing video games district believe it or not! And that's barely even scratching the surface of what all's here."

"Am... I going to have to take a test on all of this?" Daniel said worriedly. Derick stopped Daniel in front of a brick building. He put his hand on his neck.

"Well..." Derick opened the wooden doors to reveal a large classroom. "How good are you at school?

"Are you kidding me?!"

"Hey hey! We're going to have to bring you up to speed somehow."

"And you went with a school?!" Daniel said frustrated. Derick began to walk inside, with Daniel hanging around the front door. "And who's we?"

"You'll get that answer once I make a few phone calls." Daniel grumbled. Derick flipped on a light switch and illuminated the class while he took out his phone. He typed in a few numbers and began his calls. While he was talking Daniel explored the classroom. The whole building was just one big room. The only other door went out back to what looked like a training area. There were different posters and pictures hung up on the walls. The posters seemed to be instructional lessons and infographics on certain heroic topics. Controlling energy, making proper arrests, reducing collateral damage. The pictures on the other hand seemed to be of what Daniel assumed to be the other guardians. There were portraits of individuals, group photos of random events, and even photos of guardians receiving awards. There were some pictures that stood out to Daniel. One was of a blonde and very beautiful woman on a hospital bed, holding a baby in her arms.

"One of them's a mother?" Another photo was one of the portraits. While the others were photographed, this one was painted. And even stranger, the guardian in it isn't human, it's a robot. And finally the last photo to capture Daniel's attention was another portrait, but this one didn't enlist any positive emotions, only confusion and despair. As the portrait was ripped and torn, possible even burned, but still neatly framed on the wall with the others.

"Alright they'll be here in about 5 minutes." Derick put away his phone and Daniel turned to face the knight.

"Oh okay."

"Admiring the art work I see."

"Yeah. But some of it is... confusing and unnerving." Derick focused on the pictures Daniel was by. That's when he noticed the ruined portrait. Derick cleared his throat.

"We'll... explain that when we get there okay Daniel?" Daniel looked back over at the portrait.

"Yeah, okay." Suddenly there was a knocking at the door. Derick and Daniel turned to see two figures. One was the lady from the baby picture, and the other was the robot from the portrait.

"You two are here early. But where's Jax?" The woman rubbed the back of her head.

"Yeah it would've taken us longer, but G-1 insisted we got here as fast as possible. As for Jax, well he's out with the police trying to solve our little mystery."

"It is quite unfortunate that Jax could not assist us in the training of our new recruit. But based on my calculations, having Alyson and I assist you Derick should be sufficient." Derick smirked.

"Then let's get started!"