Chapter 68: Slumber Party! The Night Before The Gauntlet!
"YAWWWN NNNN" Lars said, waking up in bed.
"Mannn why am I always waking up hooked up to an Iv?" He said looking around his bed.
He was in a white room, but not quite like the one from his dreams. This one had blue and yellow tiles every now and then as well as the letters SPA written on the wall. Squinting his eyes he peered out the window to get a better sense of where he was.
"I made it back!" Lars said "YAHHOOO I can't wait to tel….."
Axel paused. For a second there was a piece of him that he had forgotten. Almost as if he had woken up from the hospital missing an organ. He grabbed his chest trying to soothe the emotions, reassuring himself it was there.
"WAIT A MINUTE WHERE ARE MY FRIENDS!" He shouted.
"Please there is no needs for such outbursts…." Obrian said entering the room. "They haven't gotten here yet, they are most likely still undergoing processing and should arrive in the next few hours. In the meantime you have a visitor waiting outside."
"Well I'll be damned!" Colonel Grant said walking into the room.
"Congratulations kid you did it! Axel you are an official agent of the SPA now! Here's your badge, your uniforms will be delivered to your dormitory but until you have done your breifing you are not required to wear them "
"Woooohohooo! Lets goooo!" Axel hollered..
"Your friends are waiting fro you in the tower, you've all been given dormatories now!"
"YOOOOO THIS Place is wayyyy more serious than the academy" Reggie said walking around the large hallways of the SPA HQ. The usual crew, Reggie, 6, Lance, B and Lily, were being shown around by their tour guide.
The lounge area was humongous, not the size of a battlefield but maybe half the side of a football field. Multitudes of desks and services populated the floor, from " Welcome" services and "Holistic S.P.A Therepy Center to the "Office of Human Affairs" and even "S.P.A First Class Air Center!"
Erected in the center was a waterfall monument with statues of Founding SPA agents littered across the hall.
"There are many that laugh and call us the spa or the shifter message center, I for one don't mind the gest. After all, we're not so different. Just as a spa would, the S.P.A aims to lift the enourmous weight from the shoulders of Shifter kind and protect it from bodily injury. The only real difference is the charge. To receive service from this administration all one must do is be born into this world." "Llyr Greenhawk" Lily read. " First Master General of the S.P.A. 2130"
"Tsk!" Lance said in disgust. "Easy for him to say he's not down here giving back rubs is he" Lance scoffed
"OMGG I can't wait to see their Library." Lily said spinning around in a circle.
"Hey Tour guide do we get library cards?" B asked
"Why do you care! Your just gonna punch the books not read them!" Reggie laughed
"I'm so happy! Lilly is an awesome additoin to our team!" 6 chimed
"In addition to old texts from the pre-shift era, Our library has over one trillion digital logs and instructional data pieces! You are free to view 99.9% Of them with those passes I just gave you. The last .1% is restricted to high level SPA Agents like myself." The tour guide said gloating
"Hehehe we'll see about that" Reggie said rubbing his hands together in a low voice
"I'm sorry… what was your name again?" 6 said scratching his head.
"Heeehhh" The agent sighed. "My name is Seymore!!!!! Major in the SPA Police force and second in command of the research facility! How can you forget my name! We just went on a missoin together!"
"Wait so you're like a smaller version of O'Brian?" Reggie asked.
"O'Brian? Who is that?" Seymore Asked, visibly annoyed. "You don't mean Henriette O'Brian? Head of the Gates facility?"
"Yeh that guy!"
"You don't mean a Colonel from the SPA Headquarters?" Seymore asked.
"Yeh that guy?"
"Has purple hair and sharp glasses?" Seymore said.
"YEH!" Lily said laughing.
"Nope never heard of em! Sounds like an overrated jerk to me" Seymore said.
"Wooow someone's jealous," B said laughing.
"Whelp your tour concludes here" Seymore said pointing to an elevator.
" Up on the 33rd floor is your dorm. You all have the corresponding key cards and should be able to find your rooms. I mean if you can't do that maybe you shouldn't be in tomorrow's exams!"
The group each examined their translucent encrypted keycards.
"Yo 6 what room you in bro?" Reggie asked
"It says here… room 3333." 6 said
"Nice! Me too!" Reggie answered
"Wait there must be some mistake," Lily said. "My keycard says 3333 too…"
"Yeh mine too" B said scratching her head
"Damnit... Looks it's going to be a long night" Lance said holding up his card showing 3333
"Wait a minute what's the meaning of this?" Lily said turning to Seymore.
"HAHAHAHRRRHRHRHHAHAH" "I'm truly sorry, I just enjoy seeing this reaction for newcomers here so much." Seymour said drying his eyes.
"What are you talking about?" Lily asked
"Right now all of you are Recruits… Recruits are the lowest rank in the SPA. followed by Officer, Lieutenant, Captain , Major , Colonel , Brigadier General, and General.
"When you first start out Recruits are grouped together in squads for training. While on that squad you live, eat and breathe the same air, until one of you ranks up to officer or higher.
"WHAAATTATATATAT" You mean We are going to be living in the same roommmmmmm..." Lily shrieked
"YEHEEHEHHEH WHOOOOHOHOOOHOO" "AWESOMEEEE Scary GHOST STORIES TIME!" REGGEI Screamed.
"There's gotta be some way other way! This is ridiculous!" Lily ranted.
"No… what is ridiculous is that I, a Major in the SPA Police force is walking around a bunch of teenage kids with no formal training about to take on the exams! Goddamnit why do I always get stuck with all the dirty work…."
" Maybe you should ask your buddy O'Brian to help you out!" "I'm sure he'd help a fellow researcher! Even though you may be a lower rank…." B laughed
"TSKKKKK!" "Like I need help from that purple peace of overrated research!…. One day I'll show him I'll show all of you! I will be a man known for his renowned work in the field of Shifter ethology!"
"Yeh You tell me Simone!!" 6 said.
"ITSSS Seymore!!!!!" Seymore said walking away with tears filling his eyes "It's…. Seyemore…"
"Hahah what a guy" Reggie said laughing.
The group finally arrived at the 33rd floor. The ride had took less time than they had expected, reaching it in only 10 seconds.
The group stood in silence as the doors to the 33rd floor opened.
"Well this is quite the welcoming committee." Reggie said
From the entryway on the 33rd floor all the way down to the corridors As far as the eye could see dozens of SPA Cadets stood eyeing down the group.
"These are the Agents that are skipping training?" One of them remarked
"Tsk yeh looks like just a bunch of kids to me!" Another scoffed
A huge commotion built up as the Cadets hastled the group.
"Excuse me do any of you know where room 3333 is? 6 asked.
"Heh its right over there!" A huge Cadet said pointing behind him. "Lets see you try to get there!"
"Haha yeh!" The Cadets hollard
"Lets give these kids a warm welcome!"
"Enough!" A voice boomed from down the hallway.
"Oh shit Alex is coming! Everybody scram!"
In less than a moment everyone in the hall scattered.
Appearing before them teenager with a red Mohawk appeared. He seemed to be half asleep or just so incredibly bored that he could barely be bothered to look awake. The only thing keeping him awake seemed to be his extremely loud Rock music booming from his headphones. As he examined the group he briefly paused looking at Lance before taking off his headphones.
The group stood in silence unsure of what to say to this sleepwalking Cadet.
"My name is Alexander…" Alex said rolling his eyes "Alexander Hendrix… I'm the lead officer on this floor, I even have my own room…" He said looking at B and Lily.
"Room 3333 is to your right, should be easy enough to find…" He said walking away
"Wait" 6 said.
"Your not going to ask us how we got into the exams or even ask what our names are?" 6 asked.
"Your 619, The loud one is Reggie, he's Lance and there's Lily and B" He said pointing them out.
"Amazing! How did you know!" Lily remarked.
"It's my business to know" He said walking away. "After all tomorrow you'll be my opponents."
"That guy" B remarked "He's not like us" "I can see it in his eyes… He's a user…"
"A user?" 6 asked.
" And you 6!" Alex yelled into the bathroom
"Stop rubbernecking! If you want a shot at them you'll have to wait until tomorrow!"
6 Shifters came out of the restroom. The first was a spiky haired kid with black hair, he was followed by a giant shifter with chains, a female shifter with a teddy bear, a Shifter that looked like a human spider, and a shifter who had a disgusting amount of earwax in his ears. Lastly, a man who seemed to be in his mid thirties came out of the bathroom.
"What in the hell! That guys a Recruit?" Reggie asked.
The older gentleman glared at Lance staring without breaking eye contact.
"What the hell?" Lance thought
"You guys got lucky that Alex was here!" The black haired shifter scoffed. "You guys would have never made it to tomorrow!" He scoffed.
"Attacking early so you can ensure every one of your friends passes… Thats low even for you Riley" Alex scoffed.
"Hmph, You'll have to go to sleep at some point, Alex" Riley answered
"You wake me up and you're as good as dead" Alex said walking away.
"Sheesh Man! It hasn't even been 48 hours since we left high school! When are we gonna catch a friggin break!" Reggie yelled
The group each stood with their belongings outside of room 3333 waiting for someone to open it.
"Ladies first!" Reggie said gesturing for Lily and B to come forward.
Before they had a chance to get to the door Lance pushed it open and walked in. B and Lily's face tightened up with resentment as he pushed through them.
"Hey! Wise guy" I said ladies first Reggie barked.
"Well considering someone else was already here…. I didn't see the need for all that" Lance said pointing into the room.
"Hey Guys! WHATS UP!" Lars shouted from the top bunk of a bunk bed. He was leaning over the side of the bed on his back doing sit ups.
"AXXXXX YOUR ALIVE" 6 yelled running up to him.
"Heh every time we see you you're always recovering from an ass beating" Lance said laughing.
"Yeh right! Fight a colonel and then you can brag about it!" Lars said jumping down from his bed.
"Guysss we just got together! We should be celebrating!" Lily said taking out chocolate chip cookies.
"Say no more!" Lars said, grabbing a cookie. "We've got a lot to catch up on!" Lars said.