Chapter 12: First District

"Excellent!" Seymour said, clapping his hands. "I'll leave you two to it then!"

"Wait just a second Seymour," B said, letting Lars out of the headlock.

Lars gasped for air, finally getting a chance to breathe. "That was like being restrained by an elephant!" He thought. "This girl is a monster!"

"Thank you for saying my name correctly! What is it I can do for you B?" Seymour asked earnestly.

"I'll help you under one condition…."

(30 minutes later)

Lars stood at the top of a 800 meter building looking down at all the Shifters below him. From where he stood they looked like ants getting onto trains and cars that looked like Caterpillars. Clenching his fist tight, he stood on the edge of the buildings ledge standing next to B.

"WOooooooooooohhhhhhhoooooooooo!" B cheered. "Man Seymour's the best!" She shouted.

Lars, still unsure of what was going on looked down at his feet. Hundreds of feet below he saw little dots on the ground that were most likely cars and other vehicles leaving HQ.

"Ummm…. Why are we doing this again?" He pleaded.

"Because it's fun? Duh! Don't tell me you've never done this before!" B asked.

"Definitely not!" Lars screamed, `What exactly did Seymour do for you!"

"Look down at your feet Baby blue," B laughed.

Lars looked down at his feet again, still confused with the strange device that Seymour had placed on his foot.

"Those are called air thrusters! Click your feet together and watch what happens!"

Lars clicked his feet together and was instantly lurched forward.

"WHAT THE!!! HELPPP!!!!" He yelled

His body dangled off the edge, putting him on the verge of falling 300 stories into the pavement.

"HAHAHA You have to stay perfectly still," B said, grabbing him. Slowly pulling him backwards, she brought him back onto the roof.

"If you lean forward, you start to accelerate, leaning back decelerates and or brakes, and finally, you can click them together again to turn them off or emergency stop!" B said laughing.

"Wait.. What does all of that have to do with standing on top of a building!" Lars asked.

"We're going to skate down the building idiot! Using the momentum from this drop, We'll get to the Trenches in 5 minutes!"

"WAIT WE'RE GOING TO WHATTTT!" Lars screamed.

"Any last words?" B asked.

"Wait… WHATTTTTTTTTTTTT!"

B shoved Lars from behind, sending him flying off the ledge.

"Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaa" Lars screamed falling through the air. "I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna... what?" He said looking down at his feet. They were centered, he wasn't falling, he was actually skating!

" I'm… Ok...I'M OK!" Lars yelled.

"Of Course you are ok stupid!" B said. "Those boots naturally align themselves with the closest surface, it's impossible to free fall!"

"Then why didn't you tell me that before!" Lars yelled.

"Because your face was so freaking funny! HAHA! You looked like you were gonna die!"

"I was going to die! I almost had a panic attack! Hahah your worse than PB!" Lars laughed.

"Please" B said. "Don't compare me to that piece of human debris!"

Lars continued to gain speed, blazing down the side of the S.P.A building. The air thrusters were not hard to control at all. They were just like roller skates. Lean a little to the left or right and you could control direction. Crouch forward and you rapidly gained acceleration. He began to enjoy himself as his hair was jostled by the turbulence of the air.

"Ha your really getting it now! Nice!" B yelled.

"I can't remember…" Lars said to B. "The last time I did something like this."

"Did what? Skated down the side of a building?" B asked.

"No…" Lars answered. "The last time I did something fun…"

"Well if you don't jump at the right second this isn't going to be very fun!" B laughed.

"Wait… What!"

"Well the ground is another surface right? These skates can't tell the difference so they won't know where to align! So your going to have to time your jump onto the next one!" B yelled.

"What! We have to be going at least 100 kilometers per hour right now! How am I supposed to do that!" Lars yelled.

"I don't know, but if you don't figure that out, you're going to be wondering how to get out of the hospital wing for the next few weeks!"

"WHAT!!!!" Lars said. As they neared the ground he noticed the blue barrier still up.

"What about the Barrier? Are we going to skate up that?" Lars asked.

"Oh Shoot! I almost forgot! Let me add Seymour to COMM's!" B yelled.

"S.P.A COMM's! Open!" B shouted.

A virtual screen opened up with a directory in front of her.

"Add Seymour and Axel to COMM's!"

Instantly a screen appeared in front of Lars with B and Seymour's faces on it.

"Seymour!" B yelled. "I need you to open the Barrier and give us a class 3 siren!"

"Hmmm…." Seymour said yawning. "Wait! Did you already start skating down! It will take at least 15 seconds to open the Barrier!" Seymour screamed.

"Just do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" B yelled.

"S.P.A Access I need emergency release of the Barrier for two Cadets following a non violent CIP, with level 3 sirens!"

"Access granted!" A man answered. "Please allow 15 seconds for your request.

Lars and B came just a couple of feet from the ground, from their distance they were about 3 seconds from the barrier.

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOO!!!! EMERGENCY OVERIDE THE BARRIER NOWWWW!" Seymour screamed.

"Very well, Emergency Override, granted."

"Jump NOW!!!!" B yelled to Lars.

"DEARRRRRR GGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDD!" Lars yelled

As the ground became just ten feet away, Lars timed his jump, separating his feet from the building.

"Surface change acknowledged." Lars heard from his shoes.

At the last moment, Lars timed his jump blasting past the Access gates and into Atlantica city.

WHHHHHHHHHEEEWWWWWW!!!!!

Blue white and gold Sirens started blaring on either side of Lars and B's shoes.

"Level three Sirens! Thanks Seymour!" B yelled

"Few!" Seymour said sweating. "If I screwed that up that would have been a lot of paperwork, I'll catch you later guys," He said.

"Screwed what up?" Lars and B heard General Grant say from behind Seymour.

"Heheheh…. Nothing… General.." Seymour said sweating.

"Seymour..." The general said, putting out his cigar. "I may have been born last month, heck, I may have even been born last week! But I damn sure wasn't born yesterday! Emergency access requests just landed on my holopad! What the hell is going on!"

"Heheh Seymour out.." Seymour said.

"HAHA Follow me!" B yelled.

As Lars followed B, they continued up a long ramp that had "S.P.A, Emergency Access" written on it.

As they went up the ramp they were propelled 50 feet in the air gliding across the sky.

"Woah" Lars said taking in the scene.

He had came to a place of Amazement. No matter how much he traveled the world of Shifters of the year 2230 always had Surprises for him.

Just below him at about 30 Feet, He saw the floating train stop at a platform in midair, letting off passengers that walked on floating sidewalks into a building.

Just below that, at 15 feet was a blur. A series of tubes with 2 and 4 person vehicles were blasting away at hypersonic speeds. The tubes were attached to buildings and seemed to run all the way through the cities.

On the ground level he saw a completely different set of shifters. So far the only shifters he had seen were those at the S.P.A., but this group was so... Different.

For one, the hairstyles of the people in this area were for lack of better words out of control. Almost all of them had hair that went past their shoulders, and those who didn't were wearing weird looking hats that seemed to have hair ligaments extending from them. One girl walking by passed with a neon bright hair hat with neon pink and black outfit quickly catching Lars attention.

"First district Atlantic City" B said. "Looks Beautiful from this angle doesn't it?"

As Lars drifted through the air he followed close behind B in complete shellshock.

"What is this world?" He thought. "Is this really only 200 years in the future?"

Back at HQ Seymour was being grilled by Grant.

"You gave them level three sirens.... for their enjoyment? Tell me your kidding!" Grant said facepalming himself.

"Well what about you! What about taking in kids from District 4! What is this scholarship I hear about?"

"That's none of your business!" Grant grunted.

"Grant tell me! What is the connection between you and Axel!"

"Train him!" Grant answered.

"What?" Seymour answered.

"Train him... and I'll tell you if he passes the exams."