- Exam Results

"You're that guy from earlier, right? The one from the simulation?" Gus was asked by a familiar boy with a posh, educated accent.

"Huh?" Gus responded.

"From the simulation. We saw you sitting with the others, laughing, making jokes. For hours it's happened. You were the one who openly undermined me and sided with her, weren't you? You made a mockery of me, didn't you?"

As the boy spoke, Gus recognised where he knew him from. He was the small boy who wanted people to stage their defence inside during the simulation. Seeing him now in person, Gus noticed the boy had a full head of dark hair, inorganic eyes, and a seemingly synthetic jaw, if the low whirring sound that was heard whenever he spoke was anything to go by.

Standing next to him was a tall, muscular boy. Maybe by choice or not, the top of the boy's bald head was covered with a metallic shine, indicating it had been replaced by synthetic parts.

"Listen, I don't want any trouble," Gus said, raising his arms in innocence. "I only wanted us to do well, since this was our first showing at the academy."

"Oh, you didn't want to?" the posh boy asked sarcastically. "That's okay, then."

"It is?"

"No! You made a fool of me. And no one makes a fool of me and gets away with it!" he declared, throwing a punch towards Gus's ribs.

Gus brought his right hand across his body and pushed his assailant's fist away with ease, leaving the boy stunned.

'It seems like he's just as weak as he looks.'

Gus followed up with a left punch across himself. It flew cleanly through the air, and squarely hit the boy on the jaw, putting him on the floor. In retaliation, the tall boy launched a fast and powerful punch into Gus's stomach, putting him to his knees. A follow up punch to his face put Gus onto his back.

Standing back up with the help of his muscle, the smaller boy took advantage of Gus being on the floor by repeatedly kicking him in the stomach.

"Will, watch out," the tall boy said in warning. The boy he called Will stopped kicking Gus, and the two proceeded to quickly leave the area.

Moments later, Gus felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking up, he noticed a couple of people had come over to him from the group he had been a part of after the simulation.

"Gus, you alright? What the hell happened?" Connor asked him.

"It's nothing," Gus responded.

"It doesn't look like nothing," Claire said. "It looks like someone beat you. Your eye is swollen."

"It's nothing," Gus repeated. "I'll sort it out, sooner or later."

'I've got this system now,' he thought to himself. 'I guess I'm one of the Evolved now, one of my father's experiments. He'll learn not to mess with me.'

"You were gone for a little while, so we decided to send a couple of people to find you," Claire explained.

"Yeah, Joel was getting worried that he'd scared you off," Connor added with a smile.

Gus got to his feet with the help of a hand from Connor, before the three of them returned to the others in the group.

"What happened to you, Gus?" Joel asked as they returned.

"Gus, are you alright? Did something happen?" Krista also asked.

"I'm fine," Gus said. "It was just some rat, don't worry."

"I think if a rat did that to you, we'd need to worry," Connor joked, drawing laughs from a couple of people.

"Look out," Teala said, nodding behind Gus to signal something.

"Gus Braye," spoke a familiar voice behind Gus.

Turning around, Gus saw the face of the man who had watched his fight in the alleyway looking at him.

"Jet? Why are you here?"

"Jeez. What happened to your face?" Jet asked him. This time, Jet wasn't wearing his hat, which revealed a head full of glistening white hair.

"It, it's nothing, don't worry."

"I wasn't worried, I know you can handle yourself. I need you to come with me, it's nothing too serious, so don't worry about it."

Gus glanced at the others before following Jet. Jet led him through the hall to a door on the left of the hall in the wall opposite the simulation rooms.

Behind the doorway was a small corridor, with a door on the left side and a couple of doors on the right side. Jet immediately went to the nearest door on the right, and gestured for Gus to enter. As he walked towards the door, Gus looked into the room on his left. Staring back at him was his reflection, a perfectly normal version of himself. The weirdness began with the surroundings.

Instead of seeing himself surrounded by the walls of the corridor, the image reflected back to himself was surrounded by overgrown vegetation, as though it was reflecting into a jungle or an abandoned building.

"What's that?" Gus asked as he entered the room, gesturing to the room with the mirror.

"Nothing. It's nothing, just something that's waiting for transport to the Lethell system," Jet responded. "Now, want to tell me about your eye?" he asked, sitting down at a desk on the left of the room and gesturing for Gus to sit on the opposite side. To the right of the room was a sofa designed with a ninety degree angle, a large bookcase and a low table. Directly opposite the door to the room was a cabinet containing different ornaments with designs from around Earth.

"It's nothing, honestly. One of the people from my team in the simulation wasn't happy with my choice," Gus answered, sitting down at the desk.

"William Dean, correct?"

"Yeah, it was."

"Gus, I know it probably wasn't you who started it, but please try to get along with him. His father is pretty rich, and his mother was high up in the military, so he's got a bit of a superiority complex. But do try to not be antagonistical to him. If you want to get him back, do it in a combat class or sparring session. We're all from the Sol system, after all."

"Sol system?" Gus asked.

"Yeah. The home system, the system we're in now. Surely you've heard that name before?"

"Ah. I'll do my best to play nice, but I won't take any nonsense from him," Gus answered.

"I wouldn't expect anything else. Now-"

"Hang on a second. What do you mean, 'We're all from the Sol system?'" Gus asked.

"It's just a way of saying that we're all human, we're all from the same place originally so there's no point in infighting," Jet answered. "Now, for what I called you in here for."

"Yes?" Gus asked.

"We've reviewed the footage from the simulation. And, the choice was simple. You've been nominated as a Leader candidate."

"A leader candidate?" Gus asked.

Jet nodded in confirmation. "I'll simplify it for you, it'll probably be explained later on. We split the cohorts into platoons of 50 students, each composed of five squads of ten. The five squads then compete against each other in sports and competitions, while the platoon itself go to lessons together, and compete against other platoons. And, you've been nominated to be a Leader, meaning you'll have a squad."

"I get it, I think," Gus responded.

"Good. So, squads are made of ten people. Counting you, you need nine people. Any ideas? Anyone you'd like to nab early? As you're the first one, you have a full choice of the entire Earthen cohort."

Gus paused for a moment. "I think I know all of my choices."

"You do?" Jet asked in surprise. "Great! Let's hear some names!" he said, grabbing a sheet of paper from a pile on the desk

"Okay, so from my group, there was Connor; Joel; Krista; Anten; Teala; Kyle and Faye. And from the group after, there was Claire and, uhm, I think her name was Emmy."

As Gus spoke, Jet wrote down names on the sheet that Gus said.

"Okay, I'll be back in a minute. Feel free to take a look around the room, there's some good works on the shelf," he said, leaving the room.

Gus stood up out of the chair and looked at the cabinet. Inside, he saw a large elephant made of glass, a silver bird of some kind, and a humanoid figure made of some material Gus had never seen before.

Before he knew it, Jet had returned to the room. In his hand he carried a couple of new sheets of paper that he didn't have when he left the room.

"So, just to confirm," he said, sitting down at the desk once more. "You wanted Connor, Joel, Krista, Anten, Teala, Kyle, and Faye from simulation 1, and Claire and Emmy from simulation 2?"

"Yeah," Gus said, confirming with a nod.

"You sure about this?" Jet asked him, once again giving him the chance to change his mind.

"I'm sure. It's better than being assigned random people, I suppose."

"No problem," Jet responded with a smile. "This just needs to be filed, then I'll show you all to your living space. Wait here for just a little bit longer," he said, before he left the room once more.