Earth's Academy for Gifted Space Soldiers

Chapter 4: Jason

Jason worried to himself as he walked down the long hallway full of doors. I've never had a roommate before, what'll I say to him? I'm no good with people... he thought as he searched for his dorm room number, luggage in tow.

Jason had always been a shy person by nature. It's not that he didn't like people; he just felt more comfortable minding his own business(far out of other people's way). Therefore the idea of a roommate didn't exactly appeal to him. He gulped nervously.

Finally he found his room. He paused for a moment and stared at the door anxiously. Well, he thought, here goes nothing...

Jason took a deep breath and raised his arm to knock on the door. The door swung open almost immediately to reveal a boy with short, black hair and a wide, cocky grin. He was much shorter than Jason.

"Oh hey! You must be my new roommate!" The boy's arm shot out quickly, Jason took his hand and shook it as he spoke, "the name's Zach, congratulations!"

"Congratulations for what?" Asked Jason.

"For getting paired with the coolest roommate ever!" Zach replied, still violently shaking his new roommate's hand.

Jason stared at him bewildered for a moment, then started chuckling sheepishly, "I'm Jason." He said, "nice to meet you."

Suddenly Zach yanked Jason's arm, sending him stumbling into the room. Jason took a moment to examine his new living quarters. It was a small room. On either side of it were two twin beds with a wardrobe in between them. There was a sink with a mirror near the front of the room and no windows. It wasn't exactly glamorous, but it felt like home.

"Since we're beginners, we get the tiny dorms." Zach complained, "But I'm sure I'll rank up quickly, so its really just a formality".

Jason chuckled, "man, I wish I had your confidence. Aren't you at least a little intimidated by all this?"

Zach grinned proudly, "Nope; I've got it all planned out! What about you?"

Jason hesitated for a moment, then spoke, "I just hope that I'll be lucky enough to keep up with everyone." Zach looked serious for a second before grinning, "Well then, just stick with me and you might be almost as awesome as me one day!" They both laughed. Jason let out a sigh of relief. This isn't so bad, he thought.

After a couple hours of unpacking and setting everything up, the boys decided to explore the facility. They had gotten their class schedules earlier that day in the form of a thin transparent tablet that doubled as their student ID card. When tapped, it would light up to display the student's ID, and various links to other resources such as schedules, announcements, and the internet. Jason was fascinated by it, as he wasn't used to having a lot of fancy tech growing up.

"Thank God that classes don't start for us till tomorrow," Zach sighed, "this gives us plenty of time to get a lay of the land!"

"You're way too eager about climbing all those stairs." said Jason.

"HA! Are you kidding? I'm in peak physical condition! These stairs are nothing!"

Three flights later, Zach collapsed on the floor, panting heavily. Jason looked down at his new friend, "Wanna take a break?" He inquired as he wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. Zach looked back up at him, "I'm *gasp* fine... but I think *gasp* for your sake... we should probably rest for a couple *gasp* minutes." Jason chuckled as he helped him up and scanned the floor for a place to sit.

What caught his eye instead was a set of huge doors, with the words "A.C.T. GYM" in bold fixed above them. "Hey Zach, what do you think this is?"

Zach's eyes fell on the doors, "I dunno, but it looks rad!" Without hesitation, he ran to the doors and shoved them open with surprising gusto. Jason followed him. "Woah!" They both exclaimed.

On the other side of the doors was a large arena-like room. Complete with bleachers that lined the walls of the circular room.

"Woah, no way!" Zach shouted. Jason directed his focus to what Zach was messing with on the far end of the room. There stood a six-foot tall robot shaped like a human. It was white and faceless, and it stood straight up; perfectly still. Zach stood in front of it, at least a head shorter, poking and prodding at it curiously.

Jason got a bad feeling, "Um, hey... I don't think we should be messing with this thing..."

Zach rolled his eyes, "relax, Jason, it's just a piece of metal, not like it's gonna-" Suddenly, the robot lit up, bright glowing blue lines ran all along it, and glowing blue eyes emerged from its carbon-fiber skull.

Zach leaned in closer, "hey! What the-"

There was a loud smack as the piece of metal punched him hard in the face, sending him to the floor.

"Zach!" Cried Jason as the machine stalked towards his friend. "Don't worry," Zach groaned as he got up slowly, "I can take him."

He hadn't even raised his fists yet before the robot landed another hard blow to the head. Zach, now unconscious, returned to the floor. Jason watched as the robot loomed over the small boy. The machine bent down slowly and grabbed him by the collar, slowly lifting his limp body.

Jason panicked. Without thinking, he sprinted towards the attacker, shoving it hard with his whole body. This was enough to get the robot to drop Zach, but now its full attention was on the trembling Jason.

The robot broke into a full sprint towards him, but he held his ground; driven by pure instinct and adrenaline. The machine approached quickly, raising its fist to strike. Jason instinctively raised his arms in defense and blocked the blow. He thought about running, but he was the only thing standing between the assailant and his friend, so he continued to hold fast. Using all his strength, he shoved the robot off of him and threw his own punch. The punch flew right past the machine's face, and it grabbed his arm in retaliation, twisting it so hard Jason thought it would snap. He let out a scream and gathered his senses enough to swing once more at the robot with his free hand. This one landed and caused the machine to release him(though it probably hurt Jason's fist more than the robot's face). The robot grabbed both of his shoulders and kneed him hard in the stomach. Jason crumpled to the floor, nearly collapsing. The machine kicked him once more and he was down at this point. Jason stared up at the attacker as it was preparing to land another punch. He braced for impact.

But it never came. There was a sudden crash of metal as the robot was knocked several feet away. Jason looked up to see the headmaster standing at the entrance and a man he didn't recognize wielding a large war hammer standing over him.

"That should be enough to shut him down, we really need to update the activation system on those things," said the man. He looked down at the boys "are you two alright?"

Jason nodded weakly, still trying to gather his thoughts. The man continued, "man, how long were you holding that thing off? You must be a pretty tough kid to have held your own for that long with no combat training." Jason didn't answer; he only turned his head to look at Zach. "Don't worry, we'll get him to the nurse's office and he'll be up in no time." Said the man.

The headmaster walked over to Jason. "You two should have been more careful. There's no sense coming into the Auto-Combat Training Gym without at least having been to a combat class!" He said sternly. "Yes sir, we didn't know." Jason mumbled solemnly, he was going to have to get used to all these acronyms.