2 WHAT HAPPENED

THE OTHER WORLD

THE PROPHESIED ONE

XAVIER'S ARC

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER 2

A GUY NAMED XAVIER

....

KNOCKOUT PT2

When he entered the master's office, two others were sitting across from him. They turned to look at him, and Marco realized who they were.

Professor Mulder Sem, Head Professor of Elemental Training, and Nurse Tattyanna Reina Ravas, Head Nurse of the School Infirmary.

Mr. Zimmer asked Marco to take a seat between the two adults.

"So, I assume you know why we've called you here." Marco shook his head.

"Don't be afraid, dear boy. You're not in any kind of trouble. Why don't we begin by you telling us everything you remember about today's sparring test? "

"OK, well, I had been paired up. To fight…"

"Victor Lucas Lennox, a water element wielder, is a strong student. But is lazy, stubborn, and infamous. The class bully type of student, he's given me more. I have more kids to care for in a day than I have at home. Does he pick on you, Marco?" Nurse Tattyanna cut in, staring at Marco after asking the question.

Marco was perplexed about whether to answer her or to go on with his report.

"None of that, Tattyanna; you'll overwhelm him. Continue, Marco," declared Master Zimmer.

"Sir Mulder alerted us to start sparring. Victor came at me with his speed and attacked me with some basic water battle techniques. I dodged each attack easily enough, but he had me when he used this new technique; he'd been bragging about it in class. I think it was finger water. Or was it whip-tail water?"

"The fingered water tail whips. It is a complicated elemental weapon to forge a whip with each finger as its limit.

Sadly, for Victor, Head only used a four-fingered one. And I'm sure he would have done better if he'd mastered ten-fingered moves. Mulder sighed. I had passed by you two at that moment, remember? That's when I confronted you to fight back because it was an attack and defense sparring test," he added.

"Enough interruptions from the both of you. We had our talk before I called him in. I just want to hear his side of the story now. Please let him finish." Zimmer pleaded.

"Continue."

"So, I tried some attack moves of my own and pinged his suit a couple of times until, in the end, he finally won and knocked me out."

"A couple of times?." mumbled Mulder, laughing to himself.

"Knocked you out?" Tattyanna asked.

"I'm guessing that's when that was when his flame-forged armor kicked in," Zimmer added. "What do you think, Mulder? Mulder!"

The professor snapped out of his giggling fit.

"Oh, yeah, sorry, I guess it activated after he'd gone unconscious from Victor's blast. So, I'm thinking a feeling of rage, anxiety, or any other emotion sometime during the battle."

"or before. Remember Victor bullies, kids." Tatyana added

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So, as I was saying, this feeling must have activated some kind of fail-safe kill switch attack function or something." Mulder continued.

"They do say such powerful forged elemental weapons do strange things when emotions are involved. Which leads me to my other question? Where did you learn this skill?" Zimmer asked the boy.

Up to this point, Marco was the only one still seated in his chair. All three adults had stood up during their discussion without even realizing it. Marco was even more confused than ever.

Mulder shook his head and smiled. "It looks like we'll have some more explaining to do. In the meantime, Tatiana, can you go to the hospital and check up on our little schoolboy one more time? See if he's awoken yet. If so, be sure to have him checked up. Both body and retrospect."

"Wait a second. Victor was knocked out too." Marco thought

"A battle where both contenders were defeated. Strange."

.....

WALKING HOME, ALONE

Hands in pockets, head lowered, and taking a step at a time, Marco dawdled home alone. He was deep in thought.

Master Zimmer had given him an early dismissal to go home and rest. That was a few minutes ago. He wasn't thinking about the odd meeting he was called to an hour ago. Neither was he happy about the praise he'd received at the meeting for learning the complex forgery of an element armor nor the fact that he'd won the sparring battle between with Victor and had passed the test with excellence.

His thoughts were on his best friend, Joher Thionne. Joher couldn't make it to the test. And he lay in a sick bed, and it was all Victor's fault.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

It happened at midday yesterday. It was cloudy, but it did not rain. The students of the Basic and Advanced Elemental Training School, the BAETS, had just been dismissed. The kids walked home in their usual peer groups.

"Joher, on a scale of 1 to 10, how prepared are you for tomorrow's test?"

"The full 10. Super prepared. I mastered five more rock elemental battle techniques and another forged rock weapon. I call it the sledgehammer but it's too lethal for the test. Anyways, it's cool. I'll show you later on Saturday. Come over."

"Well, I've been reading some good textbooks I found in the Attic. I found a lot of unique but difficult fire elemental skills."

"Awesome," Joher chuckled. "Sorry I cut in, but I just think it's ironic how hard I trained only to find out who I'll be sparring with on Friday. It's one-piece. Can you believe it? I'm surely going to win."

"Understatement of the semester you won't just win you'll grind him. I mean, the pieces barely even attend classes and with Victor hanging out with them.

Now I have a good feeling I'm coming. Out on top of the class again. "

Suddenly someone from behind touched them and stopped some distance ahead of them.

"Hey brainiacs, let's have a practice sparring session right here right now. Show me some of your moves."

Marco and Joe decided to ignore Victor and kept on walking "Joher spar with one-piece, at least before the final show tomorrow", six-piece said walking at Marco's side and pointed to one-piece levitating at Mark at your side.

Marco looked at them both and suspected something fishy was going on.

"My money's on Brainiac", 6-piece said at Victor, who was ahead of them.

Marco and John still hadn't said a word. The pieces stopped. Marco looked over his shoulder, wondering why. He saw a six-piece wink in their direction.

The signal for a trap. We fell right into Marco's thought.

Victor rushed forward with a large sphere of water and tossed it into Joe's face. He was completely soaked. Marco had had it. Victor run and Marco chased after him.

Right after they left, the pieces started to attack Joher.

They both were blasting him with their fire and wind elements.

Joher had forged some padded arm shields from rock to block the attacks.

"Hey, what's up with you guys?", Joher questioned them, the force of their blast pushing him backward slightly.

"Well, with other people we don't have a reason for bullying". 6-piece started. "But your case is special."

They walked closer to him, still blasting the elements at him.

Joher kept reinforcing the shields with more rock, but it was useless. Just as much rock was getting replaced was broken.

Joher was being pushed further backward. His feet were sliding across the sand and gravel. He could feel the soles of his shoes wearing and heating up.

They stopped to see what damage was caused.

Joher's rock pads glowed a fluorescent red-hot color and so he had to dispose of them. He cracked the shields into pebble-sized rocks and shot them as pallets at them both.

"I am not going down without having a good fight first."

On impact, a dark cloud had formed.

"Wrong move." He heard from the cloud.

Then one piece emerged from the cloud and flew past Joher. "It shall be your last as well", one-piece said as he blasted Joher with a wind wave. Unlikely Joher, he couldn't reform his armpads because his arms were mildly burnt. The hit knocked him off his feet and back a few meters.

.....