Halo Squad

Chapter 19

Karen assigned them all bedrooms then let them hang out while John made dinner. Dominic, Baby and Emilia went into Sophie's room, where they sat on her bed. "So, guys, tell me about being an angel!" said Sophie, eyes full of curiosity. Dominic spoke first "It's bloody awesome! We train everyday for hours on end, which doesn't sound fun, but we can do so much cool stuff now! We're like perfect athletes. We were trained in gymnastic, acrobatics, tumbling, and various weapons. Each of us specialises in a different combat type. As for me, I'm proficient in most sword-fighting styles, but my main is dual katanas" he brought his swords out of the scabbards at his waist, Emilia brought her assault rifle from it's special holster on her waist, and Baby held up her wrists with her knives out. "Cool!" exclaimed Sophie, then Dominic continued "I think the coolest part of being an angel is our equipment. By equipment, I mean our haloes and our orbs. You saw my orb earlier, when I used it to change. We mostly use these orbs to change outfit, but they can do so much more. For example, they can summon our weapons for us, or they can create new weapons. I used mine to create Baby's wrist blades, and I used it to create that contract earlier. The orb can't actually distinguish what is a weapon and what isn't, so it can basically make anything I give it. But it can only make something it can see, so I need to find a picture of what I want it to make".

"Wow! This stuff is so cool! I wish I was an angel" said Sophie, "I wish I could make you one, but it's not my choice. I don't have the power" replied Dominic. "Yeah, I know. I don't think I could leave my parents anyway. Well at least not permeanantly, I still go on trips away and stuff" Sophie swung her legs up to the bed and lay down "If you guys are angels, where are your wings? Or are those just a myth?". Dominic's face took on an angry expression, and Emilia knew to take over the explaining "No, it's not a myth. Angels are supposed to have wings. But the guy in charge of us, he didn't trust us enough to give us wings. And well, we're fairly sure that he's the one who let the de-mons into hell, so I doubt we're getting our wings anytime soon". Dominic and Baby shared a look, but didn't say anything. "Wait a second, something doesn't make sense about your story, I just realised. The way you described your training, you guys are pretty much fully trained in everything. But you said that you've only been angels for a month. Even with training everyday, you shouldn't be experts yet" Sophie told them, sitting up. "Um, you're right actually. By all accounts, it makes no sense. Probably some kind of angel magic" replied Emilia. Baby shot Dominic an accusatory look, but he just shrugged.

Dominic spoke again "Okay well, we may have to go to school during the day, but I still want us to be ready to take back heaven when the time comes. And we can't be too reliant on our weapons, you remember what happened when six of us were left without them. So I say we take up martial arts training. Actually, we've been attacked by de-mons on earth before. So Sophie, you should probably train with us too, just in case. Also, we all better join her cheerleading team, in order to keep our skills up. Both of those, combined with a daily morning fitness regime, will keep us fit while we're on earth". Sophie, Emilia and Baby nodded, then they heard a shout "Come down to eat, y'all!" and went downstairs.

Two hours later, at around 8pm, they had eaten, played a game of monopoly, and gone to bed. Dominic waited for about half an hour, til he knew Baby and Emilia would be asleep, then he got out of bed. He crept out of his room and into Sophie's. "Soph, Soph. Wake up." he whispered as he gently shook her. Sophie's head slowly rise, and she looked at him. "Dominic? What do you want?" she said groggily, "Sophie, how old are you?" he replied, "What why?" "Just tell me" "Ugh. I'm fourteen. Why?" "As I suspected. You're younger than us. You were moved ahead in school, weren't you. Why?" "Um, apparently I've got like some high IQ or something. Even now school is too easy for me, but I don't tell anyone because I don't wanna end up going to school with a bunch of seniors" "So you're some kind of genius then" "Um, I guess? Why does it matter to you?" "Well, keep this between us, but I've been working on some stuff. This part, Baby knows about. Since Gabriel won't let us have wings, I've been trying to design some. But for some reason I can't get them to work. I was hoping you could help me with them. This part, no-one else knows about. I'm trying to hack my halo, but obviously it's a little harder than hacking a computer. Not that I can hack computers either. If I can hack into the halo, I was thinking I could access the same privileges as the archangels, including being able to go to heaven" "Um, wow. Why don't you want them knowing about that?" "I don't want them thinking about all this stuff, they need to focus on training. Plus, they don't really realise this, but the fight waiting for us up in heaven has extremely high stakes. Even angels can die, and with heaven in the control of de-mons, I don't think the afterlife will be as pleasant as it should be. I want them to enjoy their time on earth, not be constantly anxious or stressed about when we eventually go back" "Yeah, I understand. The thing is, I'm intelligent, but these kinds of things require knowledge that I don't have. Knowledge I don't think anyone on earth has". Dominic smiled and reached into his pocket, bringing out the small black cube inside, "I don't think that'll be an issue.

The next morning, Dominic woke Emilia and Baby up at 6am, "Morning sunshines! Get into your training kits, we're going running". Emilia and Baby reached for their orbs, then tapped them and got out of bed. All their training had meant that they were able to wake up quickly, instead of the slow start most people were used to. They went out of the front door, to see Sophie waiting in a sports bra and slim grey tracksuit bottoms similar to theirs. "Why'd you wake Sophie up?" asked Baby, "I didn't, she was already up" replied Dominic. "Also, Sophie, why are you going out like that, aren't you worried guys are gonna catcall you?" asked Baby, but Emilia said "Leave her, she can wear a sports bra all she likes". Sophie laughed "I don't let guys like that bother me, they only get worse if you give them any attention. Let's go". They spent the next 25 minutes running at 70% speed around the block, finding that Sophie could keep up due to her cheerleading. After a 5 minute break, they went on to doing various other excercises including; 50 pushups, 50 sit-ups, 50 star jumps, 5 minute planks, and a specialised leg workout they had learnt in heaven. They then went back inside the house at around 7am, just in time for when Sophie's family usually all woke up.

They all ate breakfast together with Karen and John, who was surprised to see them all up "I thought teenagers your age all like to sleep as long as possible". Emilia laughed and said "We're all into fitness and stuff so we like to excercise every morning. We grabbed our stuff from the orphanage while we were out, it's all in our rooms". The three of them had spent the last 10 minutes before they slept putting on outifts with the orb, taking them off and putting them away, then repeating until there was a realistic amount of clothes there. As he swallowed a mouthful of the pancakes Karen had made for them, Dominic said "I also got all three of us into Sophie's school last night, and we start today". With Sophie's help, Dominic had hacked into her school's database and added all three of them to the register. They were all in Sophie's classes, after he had moved some of her classmates to other classes. "Do you have a school uniform, Soph?" he asked, and she nodded, "Normally it's only private schools that have uniforms, but this is one of the few state schools that do". "We were going to put her in private," added Karen "but Sophie wanted to go state and Barbe produces results just as good as any private school". Dominic nodded knowingly but said nothing, just finished off his breakfast and stood up "Does there happen to be a shop where we can buy school uniform nearby?", and John replied "Luckily for you, there is. On the high street about five minutes walk away, Sophie will take you. And here's some money" he handed Dominic three 20 dollar notes "You only need to buy shirts, ties and trousers or skirts. It shouldn't be more than twenty dollars each. The school isn't fussy about shoes".