Chapter 2: SCS

"Where… Am I?" Axel asked

Everywhere he looked was white as far as the eye could see. There were white tables, white chairs, as well as the walls and floors of the room. Even the clothes he was wearing were white. The only that did not appear to be white was the huge door that he had come tumbling through earlier.

As he marveled at the weird setting he was surprised to see an old man with long white hair and a beard sitting across from him at a long table.

The old man was picking up flash cards and examining them and then placing them back down.

"I have waited a long time for our meeting, but at the same time no time at all" The old man said.

"Is this… A dream or is this real?" Axel asked

"This is a dream and it is also very real" The old man said "The link between fantasy and reality is perception. Find that link and you will find the light"

"Wait… What?"

"AXXXXXEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"Cried Ms. Bené.

Axel anxiously jumped up in his seat standing at attention as his teacher slammed her ruler onto his desk.

"AHAHAHA" the class roared as his teacher began scolding him.

He had fallen asleep in history…. Again, and he was sure to get detention this time.

"Sorry Ms. Bené" he said apologetically.

"Apology not accepted I'll see you in detention today Axel" She said seemingly satisfied.

"That is…unless you can tell me what the island we live on was originally called in the Ad standard time".

"Umm was it Canada?" Axel asked.

The class bellowed in laughter once again. History was never his subject. Then again nothing was really his subject.

Ms. Bené shook her head in shame.

"Axel has no powers! And he's from the badlands! Why is he allowed to go here!" One student asked another

"I heard one day a man on a motorbike showed up and donated 100,000 Ethereum to the school so that he could get in!"

"Is that true?"

"Reggie!" Ms Bene yelled "would you like to tell us or did you think that during Axel's sleep study I wouldn't notice you fiddling with your latest craze?"

BOOOOMM!

An explosion of smoke came from Reggie's desk covering his dreadlocks in dark soot. As the blowtorch coming out of his mechanical hand subsided he dusted off the remaining debris off of his desk.

EEERRREEERRRZUURRMM!!

His giant bionic arm creaked and reformed into its normal form.

"This Island as far back as record has it was originally called Okinawa. Originally before the great shift of 2030 it was a city in Japan that now, along with most of the rest of the world have perished. All that is left is us here Shifter's the dormant sleeping power of the universe! Of course…some of us have greater sleeping power than others… but that's another story" Reggie said shrugging his shoulders.

The class roared with laughter, Reggie was being sarcastic as always, but Axel couldn't help but be torn when he saw his teacher laugh as well.

"If only they could see what I see" Axel thought. "Then they wouldn;t be laughing"

"Oh and where do you think you're going Lance?" Ms. Bené asked a student who had gotten out of his seat.

And there he was, the real dormant power of the universe, Lance Nazuka. He was the kind of person the girls would faint over as soon as his name was called in class. He had long and lavish green hair with hazel eyes, a rare eye color to appear in Shifters. He was tall and slender, at least 3 inches taller than Axel, and was in tip top shape despite his apparent slim look. Few had heard him speak and fewer had seen him smile, the only thing known about him other than his popularity among female students is that he was clearly the most powerful person at the school and the most intellectually gifted.

He said nothing to Ms. Bené and just pointed to the clock without even turning to face her,

11:59

"Class ends at 12 Lance there's still one minute le" Without even a passing glance, Lance continued on walking out of the classroom as Ms. Bené bickered. As he exited the doorway, for a second Lance gave a disapproving glance to Axel, almost as if his eyes were yelling the words "Loser".

There was also something else in Lance's eyes Axel saw, something he was almost familiar with, but from that short moment he couldn't tell what it was.

Ding-Ding! Ran the bell.

And in that exact second Lance Nazuka had disappeared from sight.

"Alright class for homework…." Ms. Bené went on as Axel zoned out.

"Hehe nice…." Axel thought looking up at the clock "4 hours of class to go..."

He slumped his head in shame as he gathered his things and headed towards his next class.

"Don't even think about ditching detention young man!" Ms. Bené said as he exited the

Class. "I've already notified my husband he said he going make sure you are wide awake after his

class!" She added.

Axel's head sunk lower leaning so far into his chest he could barely open his mouth. He

walked amongst the dozens of other students alone in his dark thoughts, thinking of what else the day had in store for him.

What…. What was that?" Axel thought as he walked down his school hallway. He was slowly making his way towards the gym locker room, holding one hand on his head, dazed from the flashes of his daydream.

Axel was an outsider in the halls of his academy. The school was called S.C.S or "Shifter Community School". It lay to the Mideast in a town called Lakewood. It was a small private school erected from a group of parents that wanted their kids to get into the SPA. Many of the other schools either did not prepare one for the S.P.A exam, or were so hell torn they became pits of chaos that only produced more criminals to pillage the war torn badlands.

Axel cracked open the door to the locker room to find, much to his dismay, that it was fully populated. He could see multiple students changing around his locker, laughing and being entertained by Regis's enthusiastic hand gestures. Through the crack of the door, his eyes briefly met with Lance again, receiving that same look of antipathy he had experienced earlier. Seeing the populated locker room he shut the door, letting out a sigh.

"Damnit" Axel thought apprehensively, "I got here too late, I should have been changed already!"

He decided to head towards the cafeteria until things had quieted down.

"Did you see that loser pass out!?" A voice laughed.

Thud!

Axel grabbed his chest as his heart began to beat louder and louder. He raised his hands to his face, finding himself unable to control their sporadic shaking. A gut wrenching anxiety slowly took him over as he heard a malevolent voice echoing from around the corner.

"I know right I shot like 4 spitballs at his forehead I thought I gave em a concussion or something!" Laughed another.

Axel stood around the corner paralyzed as the two voices approached. Like a Manichean placed in the center of a mall he stood petrified in the hallway amid the flow of passing students.

"Man why does that punk still even go here?"(Voice 1)

"I don't know but he has detention right?" "Let's catch him outside after school! He won't be able to get away this time!" (Voice 2)

Axel's face began to soak in sweat as the thought of being captured by the two silhouettes became vivid in his imagination.

"No", thought Axel, "That direction is definitely not a good idea".

As the large shadow of his predators creeped in, he hastily made for the door. Barging into the locker room, he jumped out of his clothes and began shuffling through his locker in a frenzy.

"Woah Ax you good bro?" asked Reggie as Axel knocked over his gym bag scattering his clothes across the floor.

Axel ignored Reggie as he frantically grabbed the last of his possessions. As he finished changing into his gym clothes, Axel hastily spun around towards his stalkers anticipating doom. To his surprise, he found only the awkward stares and puzzled expressions of his classmates. Letting out a sigh of relief he made his way to the exit that led outside.

"You could've at least acted like you gave a damn!" Reggie yelled as Axel opened the door to the practice field.

"Man, and people say I'm insensitive!" Reggie said to his surrounding classmates.

WHAM!

Axel opened the door to find himself pinned up against the wall behind the bleachers. Looking up at him were the heinous owners of the two belligerent voices.

The first was a muscular teenager with a rotten expression... His huge rugged hands wrapped around the collar of Axel's gym sweatshirt as he pinned him against the wall. It seemed he had predicted Axel's reaction and had ran around to the other side of the locker room to anticipate him.

The boy's rotten expression was warped into a coy smile as he pinned Axel against the concrete wall.

"Long time no see, buddy" he said sadistically.

Axel had always gotten changed and left the locker room long before anyone else entered, purposely avoiding situations like this. His day dream from earlier had clouded his mind, and he now found himself in the worse of possible scenarios. Pb, Peter Brown, the unwakeable nightmare had captured him once again.

"Told yeh he was listening." smirked Pb's long haired friend standing behind him.

Jeff was the J that completed PB. He was always behind him, always making things worse for Axel. He was a thin teenage boy that seemed like the type to always be listening to punk rock. His long hair dropped out of the beanie reaching down to his back.

"Hey look everyone it's the dreamer Axel!" Peter proclaimed loudly. Laughter erupted from students looking outside.

"So where are you hurrying off too huh buddy? Are you going to blow our minds again with your spittle again?"

"Spitting up a lugy? What are you a retard?" Jeff mockingly said.

Pb laughed. "Hey Axel what do retards sound like?" mocked Pb tightening his grip on Axels sweatshirt.

Axel looked around the dugout hopelessly searching for help, finding the only students not participating in his ridicule, off minding their own business. From the corner of his eye he saw his teacher Mr. Bené out on the practice field.

"Maybe I he let out a yell…"

"Hey" PB said as he grabbed Axel by the neck and slammed him into the wall again. "I said make retard sounds!" he said firmly. With those words little dots began to pop up on the surface of Pb's face. They quickly began to multiply in succession, slowly turning his skin pigment into a greyish tint of black.

"P…..B" Axel groaned as he started to lose breath

Suddenly the room started spinning. The voices of his jeering peers began to slowly fade until their voices came to a mute, and soon their images began to fade as well. Axel found himself alone in some other strange dimension.

He was no longer in the alleyway dugout leading to his schools track and field. He instead found himself in a room in a house pinned to the wall by some invisible force.

As Axel fought and struggled to free himself from the invisible impedance, a fire began to warp and transform itself revealing the outline of a man.

From the depths of the flames a man dressed in rags proceeded through the fire wholly unscathed. His body was tightly wrapped in some kind of paper from the bottom of his toes to the bridge of his hair. The burning sarcophagus, slowly crept toward Axel, swinging his arms side by side as he approached.

"NO" Axel screamed in terror "NOT AGAIN!"

It was too late, the man appearing from the fire grabbed Axels arms scorching them with flames.

He began a wicked chant as Axel screamed in pain

"By the flames of Prometheus I lay these embers upon this child... Die now and from the ashes and be reborn!" The man yelled

"So" PB said "how does a retard sound?" he said violently

Axel returned to his senses looking down at PB and the crowd of tormentors.

"AURAUARURAU" said Axel as he fought for air. "AAURRU". Everyone in the area ached with laughter.

"Alright Boys! Stop fooling around!" came a voice from the center of the field. "Get your asses out here before I have you running laps!"

PB let go of Axel and exchanged smirks with Jeff.

"See you after school, buddy" he said cruelly patting Axel on the shoulder.

Axel slid his hoodie over his head as he walked back to the locker room examining his arm. His head was lowered in defeat but his eyes were wide open, like he had been struck by lightning.

"That memory" he said depressingly as he firmly grasped his arm. "I wish that was a dream...".

He lifted up his sleeves revealing scorch marks of previously burnt skin, proof that the memory was in fact no dream.

"Dreams….. Memories…. Reality… It's becoming harder and harder to find the difference" Axel thought as he grabbed his arm.

"Yo Ax" Reggie said, emerging from the locker room.

Axel quickly dropped his sleeves down as he intercepted Reggie.

Reggie approached with a clench fist, holding something in his hand.

"You were in such a rush you dropped this man!"

Reggie reached out and handed over to Axel a gold necklace glittering in the light.

"You shouldn't leave something like that on the ground!"

"Your right", Axel said, admitting as he put it around his neck.

"Is that new? I've never seen you with that before" Reggie curiously asked.

"No, I always wear sweatshirts so it's usually not visible, but I;ve been wearing it since my first day here" Axel answered.

"It's definitely got a weird shape…. but its nice man! I dunno if you should bring it to school though, at least not when Pb's looking" Reggie said out of concern.

"Thanks," Axel said gratefully, "It was a gift from my mother before she passed" Axel said nostalgically.

Axel lifted up the necklace bringing it to eye level. He admired its carefully crafted gold pendant, a symbol his mother had once explained that he had forgotten in time. It had been several moments before he realized how long he had left Reggie beside him in silence.

"Also thanks for the concern" Axel said shifting towards Reggie. "But PB isn't interested in something like this, he thinks it makes me look like a girl hehe" Axel laughed halfheartedly, attempting to water down the remark. He stared back nostalgically into the necklace reflecting on his mother's legacy.

"Yaknow Ax, my father once told me something wise about people like PB" Reggie said, placing his hand on his chin.

"What did he say?" asked Axel?

"Someone whose mind is made of false values, will never comprehend anything of real value" Reggie said, putting on a serious adult-like impression.

"Wow" Axel remarked "that's very wise"

Axel thought back to the calculus class he had slept through earlier, seemingly triggered by the word value.

"Did he say anything about the Intermediate value theorem? I could use some help with that!" Axel asked curiously.

"Hahah Actually he slept through his calculus classes too! He also used to say "Why work smarter or harder when a computer can do both better!" Reggie said laughing

Axel chuckled softly as he rubbed the underside of his wrist. "Real value huh? I wonder if my values are real? "He thought.

"Well I'm gonna head up to the field, good luck Ax" Reggie said smiling.

"Thanks" Axel said as Reggie took off.

Axel took another look down on his chain remembering his mother's words.

"You are never alone my son, the light of the father shines brightly within you! That is your true power".

He smiled admiring the necklace one last time before making his way to the field.

"...."

"WHAT THE!" Axel screamed

A rush of heat trickled up his spine, giving him the presence of something huge right behind him. Sporadically spinning around he got ready to intercept the force.

"There's no way, I felt someone right behind me" Axel said

Strangely enough, he found nothing occupying the space between him and the gym door. He continued to spin, looking up at the trees and then to the rocks surrounding the school, but inevitably found nothing there.

"What are you losing your mind now?" he laughed as he turned to continue his journey.

It wasn't more than 2 steps before he felt the same presence again. He spun around expecting to encounter the force, but couldn't see anything behind him that had changed. Axel anxiously whipped his head around, trying to find the source of the persistent rubbernecking. Someone, somewhere, was watching him, and whoever they were, they were watching him intently.

"619, you really shouldn't stare at people like that" said a man in the distance.

"But…. he's the same as me" a teenage boy answered in response.

A man and a young boy stood 80 feet in the air, atop of the school's flag post far from Axels view. They were standing back to back on the small spherical finial at the end of the pole whispering to each other.

"Interesting, is that so", the man laughed. "Then would you care to meet him? Maybe you two could foster a friendship of some sort."

"I'd like that very much!" The boy said gleefully closing his eyes and pumping his fists.

"Remember the promise you made to me if I find you a friend."

"I promise," the boy said sincerely. "I promise once you help me find a friend, I'll help you find the friend that you lost…But….. You have to make sure we're really friends first!" The boy exclaimed

"And how will we know that?" The man asked

"I read somewhere that friends have secret handshakes, so… as soon as that happens!" The boy said eagerly.

"Good", said the man happily, "I promise to make you friends, but you mustn't use your powers, no matter what!" The man said waving his finger

"Why not?"

"Are you forgetting 619? What happened to all your other friends at the facility? There are few who can see your power without being filled with terror."

The boy looked down at his hands as they sparkled with blue light. After admiring them the light slowly began to fade returning them to their normal state.

"If it's what I have to do to find a friend… I'll do it no matter the cost!" He said diligently.

"Good" said O'Brian smiling, "Now why don't we introduce ourselves to your... friend?"

"Awesome!" The boy said, taking off in Axel's direction.

"EHEM" said the man grabbing the boy mid jump.

"I will do the introductions." The man said, taking lead.

"Let's have a little fun now, shall we?" He said with a grin "Before we show him the magnificence of this world let's first show him a little chaos"