Morph [EDITING] || Wattys 2017 Winner

~SEVENTEEN~

~amelie~

The next week passes without incident. I keep training in my different classes, and every evening Elian brings all of us into a room and briefs us on what's happening. He doesn't have much to say for the first four days. My friendship with Genevieve grows, and I begin training against her and her friends in Multi. I haven't beaten Minerva or Thomas - the invisibility girl and the portal manipulator - but when we went outside and I battled Cerise, I managed to pull off a victory. She nearly got me with a lightning strike, but luckily it missed. After the fight was over, she looked sheepish and told me that she'd never done that before. We celebrated that night, along with Cade, Ryan, Amber, Hunter and Lila.

I keep trying to beat Cade, but he's impossible to defeat. Every fight ends with me on the ground, and, although sometimes when I land hits on him he staggers back a bit, I can't hurt him in any way. Still, he congratulates me every time.

"You're improving," he said in our last session.
I laughed. "Thanks. We all know who's better though."
Cade leaned in and lowered his voice at that point. "I may be better now, but you can never tell what's going to happen in the future." He sounded sincere. I didn't believe him.

I'm just about to start navigating the complex to get back to the Night Wing, exhausted after another solid day of training, when a crackle fills the air and I jump. Elian's voice, filled with urgency, booms from the ceiling, "Ryan Elian and Cade Wilson, report to Planning immediately with your teams."

The speaker crackles off again as I turn round and start running. I don't have far to go, but time seems to warp around the moment, making it last forever and a split-second at the same time. As soon as I round the last corner, I spot Hunter ahead, and I gain a burst of speed as I catch up to my teammate.
He glances at me and a flash of happiness crosses his face, but then it's replaced by a weirdly serious expression.
"You okay?" he asks, and I frown.
"Yes, why wouldn't I be?"
Hunter looks straight ahead determinedly. "I just wanted to make sure you're alright. This doesn't happen often, and whatever the reason, it's not good."
"This?"
"Elian never puts out emergency calls unless it's really serious. Like we're under attack, or a team needs immediate backup, or we have a sudden opportunity."

But before I can ask what he means by opportunity, we're at the door, and Hunter quickly pushes it open. The room is crowded, and it looks like we're the last to arrive. I can see friendly faces in the crowd - Cade, Amber, Lila, Ryan - but also people I don't know, like a boy with a shock of white hair and a girl who towers above everyone in the room. Elian gestures us in a second before he taps the table and clears his throat. Every pair of eyes focus on him. His face is grave.

"Thank you all for coming so quickly. We've received intelligence from an inside man that suggests Nathan Carmichael will be vulnerable tonight, and in a position where we can get to him." Elian doesn't waste any time telling us why we're here - no theatrics, no pretences. I try to pretend that Elian talking about capturing my dad doesn't spark doubt and a little of bit of fear inside me, but I can't hide my expression entirely. Elian's eyes flick to me quickly before returning back to the whole audience. "We are acting immediately on this information, and so we're assembling two teams to go in and capture him. Cade, your team will be Alpha, and Ryan's Bravo. Alpha will enter and subdue, while Bravo will stay behind for backup. Clear?"

Every person around me nods, and Elian takes a deep breath. "Everyone, get your gear and meet by the wall in ten. We're going in."

~~~

Five minutes later, every one of us is hurriedly pulling gadgets together and zipping up suits. As well as my earpiece and microphone, I've now apparently got an upgrade to my camo suit. Lila pulled me over earlier, making our way through the corridors, and told me the Professor would meet me here. But while everyone else has almost finished getting all their stuff together, I'm still standing here awkwardly with nothing to do. I scan the room again, but I still can't see my suit.

"Amelie?" comes a young but confident voice, and it startles me. I spin round to reveal a small boy with messy hair and blue eyes staring up at me. I exhale in relief - I'm way too on edge. The Professor (and now I wish I knew his actual name) holds out my suit to me, and it glitters and shimmers in the light. "I added a couple of new features. There's a voice changer attached to the neck, but I had to work quickly - it has a few limitations. Tap it lightly to start recording a voice, and then when the system has processed the data it will be able to replicate the voice. Tap three times to change your voice, and another three to return to normal. Got it?"
I nod, unsure that I'll remember, but wary of the time. "Thank you."
He smiles. "Welcome. Then there's the-"

Lila yells, "Hurry up!", and the boy scarpers as I realise we're the only three people left in the room, and I start pulling on my suit quickly. Even going at maximum speed, it takes forever, and we hurtle out of the room as the ten-minute deadline draws closer. As we sprint, I reach out and tap my teammate's all-black gear, and my suit shifts and flips to replicate the clothing. I lock the design in, and then Lila stops dead and I realise we're at the wall - the gateway to the outside world. We pile in, and the wall engulfs me before I'm spat out the other end. It's the weirdest experience. Suddenly, Elian materialises next to us.

"Good luck! Remember, teamwork will keep you safe. Go!"

And with a nod, Ryan links hands with a spiky-haired girl and flies away. He disappears from view within seconds.

"Uh..."
Amber glances at me. "What?"
"Where... is he going?"
"Iya's power is teleportation. She can bring other people to her location. She gets us all to where we want to be pretty easily."
"Oh."
Amber is silent for a moment, before she says, "You guys kissed, didn't you?"
I feel my cheeks redden slightly. "Um... yeah."
"You really like him," she adds, smiling. "I can tell."
"I guess so. Just..." I sigh. "I don't know how to say it."
She laughs. "Don't think about it. If you want him to know, just tell him."

I'm about to reply when a mauve mist suddenly rises around us, and then it coalesces into a swirling disc right before my eyes. I realise it's expanding to cover all of us, and suddenly the sphere reaches me and covers my vision in one surprising instant. All I can see is purple, and I'm about to panic when suddenly the mist vanishes and so does the compound, and we're standing in a completely different location. I look at our surroundings - green grass, blue sky - and notice that there's an oak tree in the corner of the garden we're in. I frown. It looks familiar. I quickly take a few steps, and then I'm next to the tree. It towers above me, and its trunk is gnarled and aged. But it's not the tree itself that shocks me. It's the carving, two words accompanied by a heart.

'Sophia's tree'

My eyes widen, and I spin around. We're not at some random location.

We're at my house.

A/N: I haven't been around much lately (sorry for not updating! :( ) so when I came back to find 2k reads I was so surprised! thank you all so so much for supporting morph, and I should have a lot more time to write now, so expect more chapters.
question: do you guys prefer shorter chapters more often or longer chapters less often? tell me what you think! :)