Original - With Wrath, the Fall

Kalvin - Chapter 4: Inconveniences

It took approximately ten minutes for us to find ourselves to the 8-series of buildings being that they were at the eastern most end of the 250-acre campus. It would have taken us much longer had the trams they had all throughout the campus not been accessible. The 8-series of building were very interesting. They stood higher than most the other buildings in dome-shaped structures that were three stories high and divided by specialization.

Our class would be in building 8C. It was a building that offered third-year-plus military courses. Things like tactic training, battle simulation, and student arena training. It was the most unique of the 8-series building. It was a building that had ridges climbing up its dome structure with energy that could be seen radiating as heat waves. I remembered reading somewhere that building 8C was classified as the most dangerous building within all of the Greater States. If it were to be weaponized its force would equal that of 3 nuclear bombs simultaneously exploding together, leveling an entire continent. As a result, you could imagine, it was highly active with security. Security bots hovered around like saucers in very precise, well-programmed watchmen trails. In addition, there were military personnel proudly displaying uniforms of the AAA section, the third most elite military division of magical warriors in towers, on the ground, and even in the air in drones.

As we neared the sector gate a robotic voice sounded from a single column-like structure, "You may not proceed until presenting sufficient qualifications."

"It's a passport bot," Randal said matter-of-factly.

"The hell do you mean qualifications," Lane glowered at the bot. There was a hissing sound then he aggressively removed a booklet from a drawer that popped out of the bot. Lane quickly flipped through the pages, "What a piece of metal trash," he tossed the booklet back into the drawer.

There was a voice that came from above, "Initiate override protocol Enigma-Yankee-Alpha-2-5-6."

"Command cannot be preceded until authority has been confirmed. Please standby for voice protocol scan in droid, SED 3."

I looked up. A minor distance behind the passport bot there was a black droid. Its operator, though mostly hidden, seemed to be wearing an SED division uniform. The SED division is known as the military's personnel hunting dogs, SED standing for Shadow Engima Division.

"Voice scan complete. Transmitting data to main server... transmission complete. Good morning General Reese. How may I be of assistance today?"

"Initiate a full body scan at X 2-6, Y 3. Count: 4."

There was another hissing sound and a pod rose from the ground just in front of Lane, "Please proceed into the pod."

Lane gave a worried look toward Keagan then to the passport bot.

"You either step into the pod or I bring the security bots, kid. I haven't all day for this." The man in the drone, General Reese, had landed, making his way toward us.

"Piss off."

"Piss off? He is quite disrespectful to his superiors," I thought.

"Have it your way," General Reese raised his wrist and started typing on a keyboard that projected from it.

Lane scuffed then reluctantly stepped into the pod. The door closed. It was tinted to the point where it was impossible to see inside aside from some occasional flashing. There was the sound of hydraulic pumps, more hissing, and then the door opened to nothingness.

"Number 2, please proceed into the pod."

I looked around. I had noticed that Keagan and Randal had moved behind me.

"That'd be you, fox. Get moving! I said I don't have the time for this."

Seeing no other choice, I obeyed. The doors closed. It was very dark inside the pod making it impossible to make out any significant details but a light that went from top to bottom in a spiral, surrounding my body. The entire process took about a minute.

"Scan complete. Citizen name: Kalvin, son of Shane. Data will be transmitted. Access to 8-series allowed by executive order of Samuel Meyers. You may proceed to 8C. Please do not forget your new student ID."

The door hissed open revealing the inside of what appeared to be a building with no sharp corners.

"Blargh," My heart skipped a beat.

"What the hell," I felt dizzy and wobbly.

There was a gasp for air followed by another blargh. "Damn it! What was that about!?" Lane was on the ground his arms wrapped around his stomach.

Slowly my surroundings began to focus in. I tried to make sense of what had just happened.

After a few minutes and realized what had just happened, "From what it seems, we were directly transported into building 8C."

Lane looked at me. His eyes were slightly blood-shot, teary, and nose runny. "Just don't tal.... blargh!"

"Not a fan of teleportation, are we?"

There was a hiss behind me. Stepping out of where the pod was Randal came. Soon a second bigger one rose next to it opening to reveal Keagan. Well... a rag-dolled Keagan that fell straight to the ground, unconscious.

I went to his body. With a hefty heave I pulled at him. He would not move. Randal lent me a hand. With all our strength we pulled at him but Randal lost his balance just as we got him up. Complete disoriented, I fell back Keagan's limp body pinning me.

Randal stood above me, "You okay there Kal?"

"I'm fine. Just get him off me."

"Sure, thing pal. Is he going to be alright though?"

"He'll be fine. I can hear his breathing," a bonus of being a part of the beast species, sharp hearing.

I laid there as Randal tried to roll Keagan off me; Lane had managed to make his way over to help too. Cleaning bots swarmed around like over-grown files in swoops toward where Lane just was. I watched them as they buzzed about.

"Dude, this dude is not going anywhere."

"Great..."

Another bot hovered by. It was a general bot that displayed the time: 10:21 A.M.

I sighed ignoring the fact that we were running remarkably late for class.

There was a groan.

"Oh! He's waking up."

I sat-up propping myself on my elbows. Keagan opened his eyes. He blinked once then twice. He gazed at me. I gave him a wave and a smile.

Keagan bolted up, "What the hell is going on? You better watch yourself fox. I'll... I'll..."

"Pommel me?"

"Yeah!"

"I believe we explained this already."

"Whatever," he seemed embarrassed.

"Wait... was he just... blushing? No way..." I pushed the thought aside.

"As you say, son of Leo. Come on. We need to get moving."

Another drone whizzed by. It stopped by us. "Your new student IDs have been processed. Here you are."

Four drawers popped out of the drone, each of us grabbed out our new student IDs.

"Please follow me to your current class session. I will explain to your professor your reasons for being late. We apologize for the inconvenience."

"Looks like we got out of that," Randal joked, smiling slightly.

We all followed the drone which was going on about the building's history as we walked.