Bowls of Fruit
Emil paced back and forth and mumbled to himself as Jarrod Arlo, CEO of Arlo Corporation sat comfortably at his desk, playing with a bowl of fruit. The room was nice and tidy, the desk facing away from a large window overlooking the city of Boston as the sun was beginning to set.
"You want me to do what? Go all the way to Arizona? You just sent me to New York to scout Oren Astor, and I have barely a week before I have to what—baby sit him again? He's 18, can't he handle himself?" Emil was in hysterics, and had dropped any semblance of professionalism.
"It's only because you've been with me so long that I let you barge into my office like this, you know?" Jarrod's voice was weathered, like sandpaper.
He sat relaxed in his ergonomic chair. The man was thin, but not sickly. He had an impressive head of gray hair, and a stubbly beard.
"Sir, I'm sorry, but I just don't understand why it is necessary for me to shadow Mr. Astor any further."
"My contacts at the GCTF tell me that Oren encountered Carter Lovecraft at his evaluation. And that Oren was beaten. Handily."
"With all due respect sir, why do you care? Aren't you the one who told me that Oren should be able to handle Mr. Lovecraft if he's gonna be a good sponsor?"
"I did say that, but I think it's in our best interest that Mr. Astor have a proper guiding hand throughout the process. I just need you to go there, warn him about Carter, and keep watch over him. I'll increase your pay."
Hearing the pay increase was certainly enticing to Emil, though he didn't like being pushed around. Couldn't Oren simply be warned about Carter over a phone call? Still, Emil would be a liar if he said that he wasn't interested in the young man's career. And it would be a shame if Oren was killed by Carter over something he doesn't even know about.
"Okay sir. I will go. But—if I may ask, why don't you talk to Mr. Lovecraft's mother about this?"
As if on cue, the doors to the office opened, and a woman wearing business attire and expensive jewelry walked into the room. As the doors closed behind her, Emil felt the tension immediately manifest. A vein materialized on Jarrod Arlo's head instantly, and a look of consternation took hold.
"I see. I will take my leave then." Emil rushed out of the room with all the grace of a crippled ostrich. He'd been present for meetings between the two people before, and he wanted nothing to do with them. As he left, he heard the two speak.
"Thank you for meeting with me, Andahlia."
"Always a pleasure, Jarrod. What sin have I committed this time? I'm sure there's a failure of yours I'm somehow responsible for."
As the office doors closed behind Emil, he said a silent prayer for anyone else involved in those two's whirlwind.
~
The next morning, Oren and Loran sat across from each other at one of the many tables set up in the cafeteria building. The two were getting breakfast just before the second evaluation, which was going to be an intelligence test. It was set to be held in Gym No.1, where they had met with Coach Ecker for the first time.
"Oh please tell me again. You tried to do what?" Loran nearly choked on his hash browns while laughing.
"Dude, I told you enough times last night. It's not that funny."
"No you're right. It's not funny, its downright hilarious. Oren, it is extremely inadvisable for you to try stuff you see on TV in a real fight. I mean, jumping from the top rope? Really?" Loran was in hysterics.
"Ha ha ha, very funny. Could you just let it go? If you want, we can talk about how many times you got hit during the reflex test."
"That was—okay that was bad, but I didn't exactly know what to do when the cannons started spinning all around me. And when they started to change height I could barely focus at all."
Julian then sauntered over carrying a large tray filled with three pancakes, four sunny-side-up eggs, six pieces of bacon, two sausage patties, and two cups of orange juice. He sat down next to Loran, and began eating immediately.
"Woah. Julian I know you're like, the size of a tank, but that's a lot of food." Oren said
"Well, I ain't get this big eatin' a bowl o' fruits every mornin'" He pointed to Oren's tray, which held a modest bowl of mixed berries and melons, as well as a banana.
"We have an intelligence test today. I like eating fruits before tests because they help with memory and stuff."
Julian chuckled "And stuff…yeah okay."
"He's right you know. Certain fruits can help with through processes and memory retention." Loran chimed in.
"See, I'm just a little confused. What're they testin' us on anyway? I hope there aren't any equations or nothin' on there."
"Battle questions. It's gonna be a bunch of questions about what to do during a match, as well as some general knowledge questions about the sport. Hope you losers prepared yourselves." A new, feminine voice responded. The source of the voice made herself known by sitting down next to Oren, across from Julian.
"Elia?" Oren said, not hiding his delight.
"Who?" Loran and Julian said simultaneously.
"My name is Elia Whitehall. Nice to meet all of you." She gave a wide smile to the people around her, and wasted no extra time beginning to devour the breakfast burrito on her tray. Realizing that Elia wasn't going to elaborate any further, Oren decided that it was his job to do so.
"I met her after my evaluation yesterday. I saw her take out some dude that was twice her size. It was crazy."
"Tsk tsk tsk. Oren, don't lie. You came up to me because you thought I was pretty, didn't you?" Elia teased, making fake doe-eyes at Oren. Oren immediately flushed and tried to retort, but only managed to stammer.
Loran rolled his eyes as far back as he could and scoffed.
"Oren, sometimes I forget that you're such…a man." He said.
Julian merely laughed, but Oren retorted, "Okay, I saw a good looking girl my age and I went to talk to her, what's wrong with that?"
Elia, Julian and Loran kept teasing Oren for the better part of the breakfast hours. When the time came for them to go to Gym No. 1 to take the exam, They all decided to go together, and stick nearby each other during the exam. Once they arrived at the gym, the sight they were met with was an odd one. Instead of rows of desks with computers or even paper, they found hundreds of miniature Virtual Reality Stations.
"The hell?" Julian exclaimed.
The staffers were guiding each person to a station as they all filed in. The group looked at each other with furrowed brows.
"Elia, I thought this was going to be a test, like the ones we took back in high school." Oren said.
"Yes, this is quite perplexing. Though it seems that we aren't the only ones confused." Loran added. Looking around, they saw the rest of the trainees looking just as concerned.
"Dude, I just told you all what I'd heard from someone else." Elia defended.
Before anyone could say much else, a staff member came over to Oren, asking him to follow. Bidding a short farewell to his friends, he did so. When he reached one of the Virtual Reality apparatuses, the staff member instructed him to put on the helmet.
Immediately, reality shifted around him. Oren had been in virtual reality before, but this was on a completely different level. Suddenly he'd been transported to what looked like a Chasm, complete with metal obstacles and grates for the robots to come out. He stretched his hands out, which were fashioned to look like he was wearing a standard Darcy. However, his feet were nowhere to be seen. It seems that, even after over a century, VR capability still had that one downfall.
Suddenly, one of the grates began to open in front of him, and a group of five striders came out. Then, behind him, another grate could be heard opening. Turning around, he saw two wraiths approach him. Instincts kicked in and Oren tried to move out of the way, but he quickly remembered that he was in no real danger.
Then, a question appeared before him.
[In this situation, you may only take down one of the two enemy groups. Which group will give you more points?]
[A: Striders]
[B: Wraiths]
Oren's eyes lit up in excitement. This test was going to be very, very fun.