Blackstone

A Rivalry Begins

Colonel Nash walked off to the side of the stage and exited behind the large curtain.

            David Ross stepped forward, "All right, worms. Play time is over and the real fun begins. You're now Blackstone property. Your souls may belong to God, but your butts belong to me," he barked out. Every trace of the charming boy next door was gone. Here was a fierce competitor who had survived whatever hells this place had thrown at him, in fact not only had he survived but he'd excelled. I hated him even more.

            The recruiters swarmed off the stage, shouting at us like we were some kind of livestock. They formed us all into lines and we marched out of the auditorium like we were in the military.

            Outside on the expansive lawn, I saw B'Zide and two other Mechanects standing around holding large colored flags on staffs. The flags were brightly colored and had the letters A, B, and C on them.

            "The I.M. that you first met upon arrival has your company assignment," shouted Nicole.

            I hustled with a crowd of other recruits towards B'Zide. He welcomed everyone with a quick wave of one of his arms.

            "Yes, right this way, children. Step up and form yourselves into three rows. We must always have order in everything we do."

            I stepped into the front row and saw to my delight that Carrie was to my left. "Hey, we're in the same company."

            Carrie smiled, "The fates have drawn us together it seems. We are lucky. More First Teams have come from the Alpha Company Rangers than any other."

            "Bollocks to the Rangers," a lanky boy with skin as black as midnight muttered to my right. "I was hoping to be recruited into the League of Hackers. Instead,  I'm stuck with the bloody Rangers. Probably going to be running and jumping out of trees. Doing all sorts of fighting with ray guns or whatever they give you damn Rangers to fight with," he said.

            I looked at the boy. He was about two years younger than me, couldn't have been more than 15 years old and looked like he weighed about 100 pounds with all of his clothes on. His cheap, shabby clothes were too big for him and hung loosely on him like a potato sack. He seemed like he hadn't had a decent meal in weeks.

            "Hi, I'm Eliza Grant and I don't want to be here either," I said and offered my hand.

            "Thomas Adebayo. Nice to meet you," he said.

            "Oh, this is Carrie. She's a psionic/empath or something," I said pointing to my left.

            "It's very nice to meet you, Thomas. I'm sure I'll enjoy working with you," Carrie said with a twinkle in her eye.

            Thomas frowned, "How do you know that?"

            I patted him on the shoulder, "She can see the future or something like that. I wouldn't worry about it."

            "Well, can you see who wins First Team. Because that would be pretty bloody nice. I'll just be sure to get on that team."

            Carrie closed her eyes, "The time streams are too muddled. This usually happens when I'm personally involved in the outcome. Emotion always clouds my abilities."

            "Weird. You Psi Blokes always wig me out. All this talk about time streams. Seems it'd be much easier to build an App for something like that," Thomas said with a wry grin.