Newcomer

Jim focused his mind on the journey ahead of him and tried as much as possible to free his mind from any wrong emotions. His butler at the driver seat of the Rolls Royce was silent. He obviously understood what Jim was going through and decided to remain silent. One thing Jim couldn't get off his mind was seeing the strange man he saw the day his butler requested a spar with him. The strange man was just at the front of the mansion gate as he was leaving. Considering where he stood, it would not be hard for anyone to know that there was an intruder who was either spying on him or his family, if he truly was a stranger. He decided to ask butler Han just if he knew anything about that guy.

"Han!" he called out.

The butler only responded with a hum.

"The man standing by the mansion gate, do you know him?"

The butler kept silent for a second. It was obvious that he was confused. "What man?" he asked. "I did not see any person whosoever at the gate when we left."

Jim kept silent for some while wondering how butler Han did not notice the strange man he clearly saw outside. His agitation did not go unnoticed by his butler. Han seeing his answer was about to raise unnecessary suspicions in the young master's mind quickly tried to address the situation.

"It may be that a man was at the gate and I didn't notice him. I focused solely on the road as I did not want emotions to get in the way way of my work. I hope you understand"

Jim didn't reply, though he was worried about his parents, felt assured by his butler's confession.

After some moments of driving, Jim began to see a stark difference between the other areas he had seen and this place. It looked more modernized and security was completely foolproof to Jim. The car had been stopped a couple of times and had been checked by military personnels Jim could make out to be working for the Academy, due to the large letter A on their badge. The car was now passing through a tube like structure. Jim could see through the rear mirror, the back of the car had a tint of blue.

"The car is being scanned" the butler explained. Jim could make out the rest from what the butler had just mentioned. It would suggest that the blue signified the car was good. Soon enough, they had come out of the tube like structure. After driving for a while, Jim saw that there were actually several structures similar to the one that they had passed through. And it seemed like several cars were coming through them. The place they had entered was completely different. The ground in front of the car suddenly opened up.

After which, they found themselves in what looked like an airport. From the way the butler was acting, it seemed like he had been here couple of times. After driving for some minutes, the car came to a sudden halt. Butler Han had stepped out of the car to open the door for Jim to come out. But Jim had made his way out already. He did this because he was mesmerized by what he saw. There were several hundreds of cars parked around them. The place definitely looked exactly like an airport, but Jim doubted it was. The environment was vast and occupied with several tall ultra modern buildings. The entire place was a complete master piece. In an instant, Jim changed his view of the Academy. The entire place was also very quiet. The only thing that could be heard was a comfortable and soothing breezy sound. It was as if this sound drowned out all other noises.

"Shall we go?"

Jim looked at his butler who stretched his hand forward. Despite the cars parked here, there still was a wide walking space between each car. It seemed like the cars all parked in an orderly pattern. Jim followed his butler who walked in front of him through the walking space. Soon enough, they had entered one of the buildings. The interior was just as wonderful as the exterior. They were not the first to arrive and it would seem that they would spend a lot of time waiting. This was as a result of the amount of people who were already waiting. One thing very noticeable was that there was a big A at the center of the place. The butler continued walking forward while Jim followed him. Going through the usual checking procedure, Jim and his butler made their way over to the Departure room. There were already several people who were waiting for departure and Jim didn't expect his case to be an exception nor did he expect the Academy to be this organized. The looks of this place spelled out the word money. Jim's view of the Academy quickly changed again when he saw the letter A written all over the place, even on the chairs and the walls.

"There was no need for this. They were being too possessive. It wasn't like anyone would try to steal the walls." Jim thought. He was caught in his thoughts and didn't notice when moved in the way of an individual who was also passing the same walkway. He heard footsteps in front of him, but it was too late to move out of the way. The individual collided into him.

"Hey man. Are you blind?" the angry individual questioned rudely.

Jim was about to pick up the some of the individual's items that fell. But when he heard the insulting question thrown at him, he withdrew.

"Go to hell" he said.

Instead of another angry response from the individual, he smiled and commented.

"Few years in the Academy and you'll change." Jim pretended not to hear him and walked away. His butler however, was making arrangements for his flight and soon Jim joined him. The butler walked over to a counter and handed over to the female attendant a card which was gold in color. The female looked at the card carefully and then handed to the butler a slip which she had earlier scribbled upon.

"Keep this carefully" Butler Han said. "You'll need it for your clearance." Jim was about to ask about the clearance when a monotone voice was heard.

Flight 63. All passengers should be on board plane in ten minutes for take off.

The message repeated twice and finally went off.

"That's your flight young master" the butler spoke suddenly after the announcement. He picked up Jim's things and was prepared to move when he noticed that Jim wasn't moving. He looked at the lad seated on the waiting chair and asked sincerely.

"Tell me young master, are you scared?"

"Would it be bad for me to be?" Jim asked back.

"No" his butler replied.

Jim took a deep breath and smiled. "Yes I am."

Butler Han felt like sobbing. 'Why won't he be scared' he thought. 'The young lad was just fourteen who had lived with his parents all his life.'

"Be strong for your parents, for me and for your self" Butler Han said. "You will see your parents again. I'll make sure of that" he assured. "But you must be safe. Safety first" he added. The butler realized he needed not create any more affections. He held out his hand for a handshake and said. "It's been a pleasure to serve you, young master Jim Alfred Lorenzo. Till we meet again."

Jim looked at the hand and thought. 'Useless formalities old man. "Instead of the handshake, he went in for an embrace shocking his butler. The shocked butler got over his shock and returned the embrace. As soon as he pull Jim out of his hands, he carried the young lad's things and headed for the plane.

Soon after, Jim was ready to leave this world to a new world, fully strapped to his seat looking at the waving butler and waving back.

"We'll meet again" Jim kept murmuring until the plane took off.

"We'll meet again."

____

"Picking up traces of increased soil activity, uncontrolled radioactive decay. We have to be careful." a young woman said. She was fully equipped with an exo armour fitted to her size. Strapped to her back was an assault rifle. This was no ordinary assault rifle. It looked like a long rectangular box of short width. There were curves at the front of the rifle, the top, bottom and at the back. It looked exactly like a normal assault rifle but differed by the shape and curves. By the sides of the exo armour were deadly hand guns. One in particular, the butt was longer than the head. There were other weapons fitted into this exo armour. Behind her were six individuals who were her companions. All were clad in same armor as her with a visible letter A on the chest of the armour. The female who was the leader of the group turned to the rest and said. "The stray shouldn't be far off."

The environment looked dark and the soil was dark red as if there had been a forest fire. A female who was part of the group looked at her wrist which displayed a hologram showing where they were.

SECTOR G72

PROVINCE 7. ACADEMY B

11:46 PM

"It seems like the stray is not the only thing we'll have to report. Environmental issues are now becoming a big concern. The cause of this is an over excitement of electrons in the environment especially the soil. But who or what is doing this." The leader talked to herself. She quickly collected samples of soil and was about to return when a loud growl was heard behind them.

" The stray." a man shouted. Three pair of eyes were seen in the somewhat dark environment.

"Or rather, the strays" said the leader using her night vision googles to view the creatures in front of her.

"Castaway to predator, castaway to predator" she called out using the communication device in her suit. "Project genetics phase 2 nearing completion. We're about to bring the strays in."

A bulky male from the group jumped to the front of the creatures and stretched forth his hand releasing a bright light, after which, a loud piercing sound that caused the creatures to fall flat on the ground. The group were not affected because of the exo armour.

Suddenly a figure in black appeared behind the group.

"Too bad, project is canceled." he muttered in an inaudible voice.

The group readied their weapons and shot at the intruder. Two in particular, raised their hands and large red beams shot from it. In seconds, the ground they fired at, became rubble. However, they could see that this strange figure was standing away from the rubble. He looked as though he had been hit, but not so affected by it. One of those with the night vision googles called out immediately.

"Gen.."

However, she could not complete her sentence as a bullet pierced through the night googles straight through her eyes and came out from behind her head. Before any of them could react, the strange hooded man stretched out his palm. Out of it came out what looked like several destructive waves highly compressed in a straight line which struck each of their chests one after the other. The exo Armour did a good work protecting them. But the hooded figure pulled out a hand gun and fired six bullets, some penetrating a member of the group. Resistance was futile as whatever weapon the stranger wielded was able to damage their Armour, killing them all one after the other.

The hooded figure moved towards the bloodied corpses and stepped on a communication device, shattering it completely. After which, he placed a circular object on the floor and walked away.

Few moments later, the entire area where the device was placed, blew up.