Chapter One_ _
[Fayon Academy]
It was astounding. The entire campus was completely covered in snow. Zack sat in his Battlefield Preparation class, looking out the window while the professor blabbed on and on about today's lesson. They knew that a snowstorm was supposed to be coming in, but this. This was a little too much. Still, he liked it. He loved playing in the snow since he was a little kid, even though he couldn't remember ever being a kid. Everyone in the classroom with a window seat also stared outside, mesmerized by the colorless sheet that seemed to be draped across the world. They all wanted to leave class and play in the snow. It had been so long since anything like this had happened.
"Alright everyone, listen up. I've finally got information on our official training exercises." It was like someone shot a gun in the room. Everyone was suddenly alert and listening to every word that left his mouth. The professor stood up and strode towards the center of his platform. They had been waiting for information on their training schedules for a while now. "Your training schedules have all been emailed to you. Now, before you turn on your PCDs-" he raised his hand to emphasize his point. "I have something else I need to tell you. You all need to find someone from the Fayon AMP Division. It's essential that you find someone to team up with, primarily because you wouldn't last a second on the actual battlefield with out an AMP technician, but also because they won't let you participate in the exercise without one anyways. It'd probably be best if you found someone that you get along with because you're going to be stuck with the person for a long, long time. That's all, class dismissed."
'Finally. I've been waiting for this.' Zack thought to himself as he jammed all of his books into his bag. A heavy punch landed on the back of his arm. "Hey Zack, what's up." Alex stood next to Zack, holding his PCD to his face and waiting for it to log in with his name. "Oh, hey Alex." Zack yawned and stood up. "Man, this is awesome. We finally get to get actual battlefield experience. This is what its all about!" Alex said. "Yeah, I guess so, huh?" Zack snapped the bag shut and slung it over his shoulder. "You ready to go?" he asked. Alex nodded. "Sure." They both walked out of the door and into the fifth floor corridor.
"Hey, check it out. We both have training on the same day. Dude, this is awesome!" Alex shouted. He looked like he was about to start jumping off the walls. "That's cool." Too preoccupied to care, Zack continued his stride down the hall with his head turned towards the glass panels in the wall. Whiteness fell into his mind once again as he image of the snow- covered mountains possessed him. He wanted to go outside so badly, but a warning had been issued because it was twenty below outside. Something hit him violently on the shoulder, knocking him out of his trance. He had accidentally run into someone. Zack turned around to see someone facing him with a scowl on his face. Zack waved his hand and smiled sheepishly to show that it was an accident and the man shrugged and walked off. "Ugh. I'm out of it today, dude." Zack said to his friend. "Yeah, aren't we all. You wanna get something to eat real quick? I'm pretty hungry." "Dammit Alex, you're always hungry." Zack answered. Alex shot him a bright grin. "I'll take that as a yes." They stopped at the doorway into an elevator shaft and Alex pressed the button for their floor. The elevator didn't come in the first five seconds, so he got impatient and started slamming his fist over and over into the button. "Alex, that won't make it go faster." Zack said. "How do you know? I think it does, actually." Zack smiled and shook his head. Alex's impatience was going to get him into trouble some day, but that was one of the things that made him a fun person to hang around. Oh well, it wasn't a big deal right now. A small 'bing' rang out from the shaft and the doors slid open.
The elevator walls were covered with a velvety crimson material, and about every two feet there was a triangular glass structure suspended against the wall emitting a comfortable light. They were the only ones in the elevator, so Alex pressed the button for the second floor then he pushed almost every other button just to piss everyone else off, then started making shadow puppets with his hands. Zack laughed to himself. "So, who are you gonna team up with?" Alex asked him. "I dunno. I don't really know anyone from the AMP Division." Zack said. He hoped that he wouldn't have to take a big chunk of his time out because he had to look for a partner. "Yeah, same here. Ah well, its no big deal, really. Just as long as we get good scores. That shouldn't be a problem for you." Alex elbowed him playfully. "Yeah, yeah. I know." Zack answered
Zack was the best fighter in the academy. For as long as he could remember, he had been a natural fighter. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember very much because about five years ago he and his parents were involved in a car accident, in which they died. He had lost all of his memory from before the incident. He was an expert with his sword Cheryongdo and his two gem-transition pistols, Fenris and Lidia. He also had a habit of giving his weapons names. His sword was a very unique one; it had a long handle made out of a special metal alloy that looked like wood. The hilt of the sword was made of the same substance, but it was colored blue. It stuck out in two smooth blocks to serves as hand guards from an enemy's blade. The blade stretched about four and a half feet long, curving slightly and ending in an enlarged section. The blade itself was made of a very rare metal, orchialum, which was rumored to be the strongest metal in the world. Both of his pistols were finished in a glossy black cover and had their names embossed in chrome on the shaft. There were two slots on each side of the handles, made to put special gemstones into. These were very, very rare pistols issued to him by the school. If used with crystal bullets, the pistols could imbue elemental attributes from the gems in the handle into the fired rounds. Zack had a small pouch stuffed with gems attached to his belt, but his weapons were in his room. He usually didn't carry his weapons around with him like everyone else did because he didn't need to.
The elevator doors finally slid open and they both stepped out into another hall. Alex snickered as the doors of the elevator closed. "Well, it'll be about twenty minutes until anyone can get onto that thing." Zack laughed again and smacked him on the back of the head, and then they both continued down the hall play fighting with each other.
Glistening walls of marble told them that they had entered the cafeteria. Whoever had made the plans for this place did a pretty good job of designing it. They had entered on the second level, and their seating area was a giant donut that circled the length of the room. A long wall, about ten feet tall, divided the space into two areas, each one littered with tables. People were standing in line for their meals on the other side of the cafeteria. Lucky for them, they'd been let out of class early, so there weren't many people there at the time. They both began walking towards the line. Zack walked over to the railing and continued to walk, letting his hand slide against the cold steel banister. The first floor of the cafeteria was the best. There was a huge fountain in the middle of the foundation and in the middle was a towering statue of the creator of Fayon Academy. Water was sprayed forth from huge fountains, and several fish were swimming around in the crystal clear water. There was a glass panel situated in the middle of the ceiling, beaming down thousands of beams of refracted light into the water. Several benches lined the cobblestone flooring surrounding the fountain, and you could find people sitting on them at almost all times of the day.
"Hey Zack, what do you want to eat?" Alex asked. He didn't really feel like waiting in line too long today, and he wanted to get out of here before everyone started swarming in from their classes. "Mmm. I think I'm gonna get a burger. It's the shortest line, and I don't feel like hanging around for too long." Alex nodded. "Burgers sound good to me. Let's go." They both began walking towards the line. "Man. No one is here yet. This sucks." Alex complained. "Ah well. They'll probably be here in a few minutes." Zack said, yawning. God. He was tired. After he got something to eat he decided to try and get some sleep. They went quickly through the line and grabbed a tray with a hamburger and a box of fries,
jimmy choo for cheap, then walked over to a table and took a seat. The legs on Zack's chair were bent and he was too lazy to get up and switch it for another one right now, so he wobbled around on his chair while he ate. He looked up at Alex. "Hey man, you want to go looking around for some partners later today? Like, in. four hours? I've got nothing else to do." He asked him through a mouth stuffed with food. Alex nodded his head rapidly. "Yeah yeah, of course. Maybe we can get a little combat practice in, too." Alex commented. Zack nodded and leaned his chair back on its legs, wobbling even more. "I hope it doesn't take too long. I just wanna get this over with." Zack said. Alex nodded again. "I hear ya, dude." He looked up at the enormous glass disk implanted in the ceiling. "I wonder how long it took them to get that up there." He said. They both stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, attracting some unusual looks from people walking by. Zack finally shrugged. "I dunno. Probably. Probably used a crane or something." He reasoned. "Yeah. Maybe." Zack finished stuffing down the rest of his meal. "Whoa, that was fast." He said to himself. "Didn't think it would be gone so quick. Oh well." He looked over to one of the hallways leading into the dining hall and saw a large group of people filing in through the doors. "Hey Alex,
MBT M?nner Spor, I'm gonna go catch some sleep. Come get me in about four hours or so." Alex nodded. "Alrighty dude. Well, there's Mike over there. I think I'll go mess with him for a while." Zack stood up and stretched, then walked over towards the hall he had entered through.
Zack's dorm was on the seventh floor of the SHIN Division of Fayon. The academy was divided into two major sections; one of them being the SHIN Division's classes and dorms and the other being the AMP Division's. The SHIN area was divided into twelve floors. The first three were the recreational area containing the indoor sports courts, the dining halls, and several other things to keep the students occupied. Floors four through nine were filled with classes, but the sixth floor was used as an indoor training arena. Zack didn't like going there very much unless he was sparring with Alex; he preferred going outside to practice. The tenth floor was where the student's dorms were and the eleventh was where the teachers stayed. The highest floor in his division's sector was the observation floor. It was basically a huge inverted stadium covered by a glass dome. You could see for miles from up there.
AMP and SHIN were kept separated from each other because they didn't want people from either side changing halfway through their courses. They were required to keep an equal output of both SHIN and AMP individuals, and this was how they did it.
Zack had looked out of the windows again, and once more, become entranced into the enticing beauty of the snow. He didn't stop walking, but he was basically wandering around aimlessly towards where he thought his dorm room was.
On the ninth floor, there were several pathways connecting the SHIN sector to the AMP sector. Zack had accidentally wandered into one of these pathways and decided to take a break. He walked over to one of the high windows and crossed his arms on the high windowsills and layed his head down on his arms, staring out of the window again. He stood there for a few minutes just looking out of the window. Then he heard a small giggle right next to him that made his whole body jump. He turned quickly to see a beautiful girl, about the same age as he was, laying her head down the exact way he had been doing about two inches away from him. She had brilliantly bright blue eyes and long, flowing black hair, and she stood just a little shorter than him. "Oh my god. I'm so sorry. I. I didn't mean to do that." He stammered out. Scarlet colors crept across his face. She laughed even more. "Hey,
tiffany Ring, don't worry about it. You scared me first, you know. I was just sitting here and you came right up next to me. I don't think you saw me." She smiled softly and lay her head on its side, looking at him. "Oh. I'm really sorry." He said. She nodded and looked out of the window. "It's amazing, isn't it. I haven't seen snow like this for a long time." She said, as mesmerized by the snow as Zack was. "Yeah, I know how you feel." He walked over next to her, but not as close as he had been, and looked out the window with her.
Fayon was built in the mountains, so the view from the school was already pretty good. The sky was clear and there was no fog drifting around, so across the snow, thousand of trees could be seen surrounding them. Cerulean blue skies added to the effect, using the intricate colors of the environment to toy with their minds. After a few more minutes passed, she turned her head and looked at him again. "I'm Iris Irene, by the way." She said softly. Zack returned her look. "I'm Zack." He held out his hand and she took it, smiling. "You know, I think you're breaking the rules." She said. "Huh? What do you mean?" Zack asked. Iris extended her arm and pointed at the SHIN insignia blazoned onto his jacket. "You're in the SHIN Division. Do you know where you are?" She asked slyly. Zack took a quick look around the hall and realized that he had no idea where he had gone. "Um. Actually, I don't." He said. "You're in AMP territory, pal." She said, grinning. Zack's eyes widened. "Oh god. Are you serious?" There were severe punishments if anyone from either organization was found in the other's area. "Crap. Well, I guess I'd better go then. Hey, nice meeting you, Iris." He said. "You too, Zack." She smiled softly as a small hint of red covered her face. They shook hands again, and Zack turned and ran back to the SHIN building.
Now that he was actually paying attention, he guided himself to his dormitory, forcing his attention away from the windows. If he had been caught. He pulled out a small, clear plastic card with a semi-transparent picture of him printed on its surface out of his pocket as he approached the door to his quarters. A small tone sounded and the door slid open as he passed the card against a small metal scanner on the wall. Zack yawned once more as he stepped into the room.
The room was dark because he pulled the shades on his windows down before he left in the morning. He reached up and flicked the power switch up, and a large light fixture that ran around the edge of the ceiling slowly lit up. Everything was neat and organized; he had cleaned his room the day before. His bed was in a corner of the room underneath one of the windows, and his two pistols were lying on the wooden bed stand next it. There was a long, glossy desk on the left wall of the room from where Zack was standing which he didn't like very much because it had way too many scratches in it. He sighed and flopped lazily onto his bed, and suddenly realized that he didn't know what day he was supposed to be going for training. Frustrated, he pulled out his slim PCA out from his pocket and flipped the screen up.
Zack thought his PCA was one of the coolest things he had. When it was off, it was like holding a thin sheet of glass, but once you raised the screen and turned on the power, a dark wave covered the whole thing and the screen projected itself about an inch away from the PCA itself. Small white dots would zigzag their way across the entire thing, drawing out patterns to make it look like whatever the settings were set at. Zack had his set on 'waterfall', and he watched hundreds of tiny dots of light zipped around the surface and drew out lifelike picture of a waterfall. The holographic screen, just a green block right now, began to separate itself from the body of the computer. After a few seconds, color flew across the hologram and the welcome screen popped up. The PDA suddenly filled with color and movement, showing the running water from the river above slamming into the stream below. None of this was real, of course. The sound annoyed Zack at the time, so he turned the volume dial on the side of it all the way down. He gently tapped his finger through the hologram where there was a small mail box with the words 'e-mail' hovering below it, and a white box slid onto the screen with only one email in it: his training schedule. It read:
To: ZacharyLenieanFayonSHIN-EduCorp
CC: - Date: December 7, 2180 Time: 1350 Zulu
To whom it may concern:
As you have most likely been anticipating, we have finally come up with the dates and times at which your official training exercise will commence. We are sorry for the delay in this; as you know, the computer database crashed and we lost all of our information one week ago. The past week has been spent thing to fixing this problem at Fayon Academy, and now everything is up and running.
When you arrive at the training ground, you will need to have a teammate from the AMP Branch of Fayon with you. There are several reasons for this. The main reason is because AMP is also in need of training, and it would be more efficient to have both SHIN and AMP to work in unison. We will permit for you to pass freely through the AMP building of Fayon only when classes are not in session. If you are caught on the AMP campus while classes are in session, there will be severe consequences.
These are your training schedules:
ID Numbers:
39617 - 41099 December 14
42166 - 46525 December 15
46637 - 51298 December 16
Remember, you must have a teammate from the AMP Division with you on the day of your training.
-Fayon Admin.
So he and Alex were going on the 14th. Now all he had to do was find a partner. Suddenly, the girl he had met in the AMP crossing popped into his mind. Was she in AMP? Well, most likely. Zack decided that he would try to go looking for her when Alex came for him. Now that wasn't too hard, if this worked then he'd already have his partner. Zack rolled over in his bed and closed his eyes. Swords flashed in his mind as he daydreamed about what the training would be like. He had no idea what to expect, but whatever it was, he was pretty sure that he could take it on. And if this Iris person was a good AMP technician. He didn't really know exactly what AMP did, actually. He'd have to find out. In five minutes, hidden sensors in the room picked up readings that Zack was asleep. The lights were dimmed, leaving Zack to rest in the solitude of his dark room.
* * * * *
"What the hell. He said four hours." Alex slammed his fists into the door again. People walking by were looking at him really weird, and a few of them turned around and took another path.
Zack finally heard the noise and woke up in such a hurry that be hit his head against the wall. At first, he thought someone was in his room trying to attack him, so he flailed his arms around and got tangled up in his bed covers and fell off the bed. He hit his head again on the floor and it took him a few minutes that someone was knocking on his door. "Mmf. Ill be right there." He called out.
He stood up and scratched his head. Interrupted in middle of a dream. How annoying. Zack stood up and threw the covers against the wall, then walked to the door and pushed the open button. It slid open just as Alex threw his foot forward, and instead of hitting the door, it hit Zack in the knee.
"Holy shit! Zack!" Alex stumbled backwards as Zack fell to the ground and clutched his knee. "You idiot! I said I was coming!" He shouted at him. "Oh. Uh, sorry." Alex said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. He held out his arm to help Zack up, but instead of taking his hand he spun in a circle on the floor using his elbow for support. He slammed his leg into Alex's foot, knocking him into the air. Alex landed hard on his back, and now they were both on the floor of Zack rooms, groaning in pain. People looked in through the door as they walked by and got a quick laugh.
After a few minutes of lying on the floor, Zack slowly pushed himself up. Alex did the same and both of them started laughing. They limped out of the room and Zack slid his card across the scanner to lock it. "So, where to first?" asked Alex. Zack stopped and thought, using the rail the on the wall for support. "You know, I accidentally phased out and walked into an AMP area and ran into this one girl there. I was gonna try to find her again, you know, to see if she really was in AMP and all." Alex raised his eyebrows. "Already? Jeez, that was fast. Did you get her name?" Zack furled his eyebrows. "Umm.. Iris Irene, I think it was." Alex's eyes widened. "You're lying." "What? No I'm not." Zack was confused. Why would he lie about that? "Yes you are. Or maybe not. Dude. That's weird." Alex said, irritated. "What, do you know her or something?" Zack asked. Alex shot him a sarcastic look. "Come on Zack, who doesn't know her? Well. Other than you. She's like. The best AMP Technician in the whole school. She's way beyond her league. She got here about three months ago and she's already in the advanced classes." ".Oh. Um. Well. Still, I wanna see if I can find her." Alex laughed. "This'll be interesting. The best fighter and the best technician in the school teamed up with each other. Well, good luck. I'll help you out. Let's go. I think we should go check out the AMP area. I'm a little curious. Never been there,
ray ban italia, ya know." Zack nodded. "Alright, lets go then." They walked, still limping slightly, towards the AMP Cross hall.
"I'm gonna be pissed if they have fancy stuff all over the place, you know, like crystal pillars and big chandeliers and stuff." Alex said. He always wanted to have the best of everything. "Well, they are a tactical ops group. So I guess it would make more sense if they did have more sophisticated things than we did." Zack reasoned. "Yeah, I guess." They turned into the hall that Zack had met Iris in earlier. They were the only ones in the hall except for two other people, a guy and girl speaking to each other in what sounded like Chinese. They passed by the two and continued towards the AMP facility.
Blinding yellow rays were shining off of the sun as it slowly lowered itself out of sight. There were two huge mountains to west of Fayon and it looked like the sun was lowered into the middle of the two if you watched the sunset from the academy. The mountains were named "Phoenix Peaks" because of that and Zack didn't really like the name, but he didn't care much either. Not enough to make a big deal out of it, anyways. He turned his head away from the curved glass windows and continued down the hall. He was a little anxious to see what it was like inside of the AMP building, too.
A large double-door was waiting for them at the end of the hall. It was made of some kind of blue metal and had a huge silver pattern sweeping all around it. In the center where doorknobs would've been on conventional doors there was a medium sized black oval with the words AMP imprinted across it in white. They stepped in front of it and looked for a way to open it, but they couldn't find any scanner ports or access pads. Alex tried to push it open but it wouldn't budge. After a few seconds, a computerized female voice sounded out from somewhere in the door. "Please state your name." It said to them. Zack said his name and Alex opened his mouth to say his and basically screamed it out. He got a hit from Zack. A small clicking sound was issued from the black oval, and the words AMP slowly changed from white to black and were no longer visible. "Welcome to the AMP Division of Fayon. Enjoy your stay." The doors slid open and revealed a long hall with a long velvet roll out carpet that stretched down the whole length. Chandeliers were hung from the ceiling and they had real candles hanging from them, bathing the area in a soft light. Alex turned around to take a look back at where they had come from and sighed. "This is so not fair." He said. Alex faced forward and they both started down the hall into the other half of their academy.
"Well, I have no idea where we're going." Alex stated loudly. "Dude! Shut up, you're way too damn loud. Do you have your PCD?" Zack said. Alex shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Uh. Yup, here it is." He pulled it out and handed it to Zack. He flipped the paper-thin screen up and waited for it to load up. The holographic screen projected out and a series of icons flashed across the screen. Zack pushed his finger through the 'Maps' icon and a window slid onto the screen. "Huh. That's interesting." He said out loud. Usually he could only see the maps for the SHIN area and the off-campus areas, but the AMP area had been automatically uploaded to Alex's PDA. "Hey, was the map for AMP on this thing before?" He asked Alex. "Uh, no. Why, is it there now?" He asked Zack. Zack nodded. "Yup, its on here now. I'll probably have to upload it from you later. Lets see, where to. How bout the library?" Alex shrugged. "Sure, why not." Zack looked through the map and traced their route. "Um, we turn left at the end of the hall and we should be in the dining area. Then we go straight and we'll reach it." Alex nodded and they continued walking.
The hall split into two directions and they took the left. They were suddenly looking down an extensive marble staircase and into a massive rectangular room. At the bottom of the staircase was a walkway that extended across the room and up into another similar staircase on the other side. Smaller stairways branched off of the walkway and into the room below, floored with a dark purple carpet. Tables were spotted everywhere, showing that this was obviously the dining room of the AMP facility. The white walls were traced with intricate designs of silver that flowed like water from the floor to the ceiling like the door they had come through before. Beautiful crystal lights hung from the ceiling showering the entire room in a soft but glorious light. Zack started to walk down the stairs, but Alex didn't move. He just stood there looking around the room in awe. "Alex, come on." Zack said softly. "I hate this whole damn place!" Alex shouted. What the hell was wrong with him.? Zack ran back up the stairs and smacked him in the side of the head. "What are you trying to do, get us kicked out? Shut up and walk!" He said, pointing towards the other end of the room. Alex frowned and forced himself forwards. "But this isn't fair. We don't get any of this crap." "What are you talking about? We have that humongous fountain in our cafeteria. Quit complaining." Zack said. "Oh yeah. Forgot about that."
Once they climbed the staircase at the other end, they could see the massive oak doors that led into the library. Zack pointed at it. "That's our ticket right there. Let's go." Zack was about halfway down the hall when he realized that Alex wasn't with him. He turned around and saw him playing with a little box attached to the wall, messing with some switches on it. He was never coming back here if Alex was with him again, that was for sure. "Alex." Zack said loudly. He looked up at him and raised his hand. "What's up?" he responded. "Get over here or I'll kill you." He was kidding, of course, but he tried to make his voice sound intimidating. Alex nodded half-heartedly and kept on fiddling with the switches. Three girls walked into their hall from the dining room, giggling to themselves until they reached Alex. One of the three girls stepped out and tapped him on the shoulder. "Um, excuse me. What are you doing?" She asked him. Alex jumped and flashed around. "Oh hi, I was just. Fixing it." Zack put his head in his hands. "Oh! What's wrong with it?" She asked him enthusiastically. "Um. He knows." Alex pointed to where Zack had been standing, but the only thing he saw was the library door closing.
The library was massive. There was no way to truly describe it in words. It had to have been at least ten floors high, each floor stuffed with thousands of books. In the middle of the first floor was a large rectangular area with very comfortable-looking recliners lying around, surrounded by four L-shaped desks lined with computers. Each level must've had at least 10,000 square feet of floor space. Ancient wooden bookshelves, twenty feet high and sixty feet across, lay symmetrically across the entire library. Hanging from the ceiling was a gigantic crystal chandelier. It was the most intricate piece of work Zack had ever seen in his life. He walked into the span the library in awe. He had never seen anything as majestic as this before. There weren't very many people in there at the time, but it would still take an eternity to find anyone in this place.
Zack turned around as the library doors slammed shut. Alex was holding them shut and the girls that had met him before were on the other side, trying to hammer the door open. He looked at Zack desperately for a second and ran from the door to hide behind one of the bookshelves. The three girls came into the room fuming. One of the girls wearing a metallic green jacket spotted Zack and ran over to him. "Have you seen that one guy who was fooling with the power breaker?" She asked him. So that's what that thing was. "Nope, sorry. I dunno where he is." She sighed and turned around. "Alright, thanks. Hey girls, there's no way were going to find him in here if he's hiding. Let's go." The three of them walked out of the library, and the one in the green jacket turned around and flashed a wink at him as she left.
He hadn't even been in the AMP area for thirty minutes but he was already getting paranoid about Alex getting him in trouble. Well, if Alex couldn't find him, he couldn't get in trouble for anything he did. He quickly ran up one of the two elegant stairways that lead up to the second floor. 'Better start looking for Iris,' he thought to himself. Zack started walking back and forth between the rows, looking in between them to see if she was standing around somewhere.
By the time he had gotten to the seventh floor he was exhausted and convinced that there was no way he could find Iris without some help. That meant he would have to find Alex. But lucky for him, Alex found him first. He had seen Zack from the floor below, and he started jumping up and down waving his arms. "Zack! Down here! Hey!" he kept on shouting until Zack had reached the floor he was on. 'Hey man, Iris is in the observation floor." Alex said as he grinning. Zack's eyes widened. "How do you know?" He asked. "I heard some chicks in here talking about her. She's not gonna be up there much long, either." Zack pulled Alex's PCD out of his pocket and flipped it on as he walked towards the exit of the sixth floor of the library. To get to the observation floor, they would have to take the elevator to the left of where they were now to the sixteenth floor. "Alrighty, then lets go find her before she leaves." Zack said as he snapped the PCD shut. They both walked out of the library and towards the end of the hallway.
"So, did you find anyone?" Zack asked him. "Nope. I guess I need to actually start trying to find someone, eh?" He said. "Yeah, actually, you do. We're having our exercise in four days. Time to stop screwing around." Zack replied, and Alex nodded his consent. Zack got to the elevator first, so he pushed the button and stood between it and Alex so he wouldn't break it before the elevator got there.
The only difference in the AMP elevator was that the letters 'AMP' were imprinted in a repeating pattern across the top of the rail on the inside. They both walked in and Zack pushed the button that would take the elevator to the highest level of the building. "So, what do you think the trainings gonna be like?" Alex asked Zack. "I'm pretty sure that they'll change it for each group that comes in. Not every group is going into terrorist counteractivity like we are, so we'll probably have to do different things than the other people." Zack explained. "Yeah, that makes sense. So, you think you might get a little R&R with Iris,
Nouveau Arrivée, eh?" Alex said jokingly. Zack sighed and shook his head. "Dude, come on. This is just a training exercise. It's not a big deal." He said. "If you say so. You know, I think you need to find a girlfriend or something. Maybe that'd soften you up a little." Alex said, raising a half-hearted shrug from Zack. "Whatever."
The doors to the elevator slid open silently, revealing a long hallway that led into the observation dome. "Alex, try not to be too loud here." Zack said softly. "Don't worry about me, just go find your little Iris." They both gave a slight laugh and started on their way into the room.
Night had already draped the sky above Fayon Academy. Thousands of stars were spackled across the sky as if someone had hastily thrown paint onto their canvas. The lights of the Aurora Borealis were barely visible above the horizon, catching Zack's attention. He stood there for a while staring into the vast skies beauty. The night sky had always been able to capture his imagination from the SHIN observation dome,
Vibram Five Fingers Flow, but the effect seemed magnified from here. He just couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away from the faltering lights hanging overhead.
"Zack! Wake up dude." Alex shook Zack from behind, snapping him out of his trance. He shook his head for a second and regained his composure. "Sorry. Kinda. Phased out, I guess." Alex nodded again. "Well, go find her before she leaves. I don't know what she looks like." And with that, Alex walked off towards one of the seats at the edge of the platform they were on.
It was then that Zack actually realized how complex the dome of this place was. The hallway they had entered from led to a fifty-foot wide raised circular platform. The platform was actually some kind of map to the stars above with thousands of tiny specks of light dotting the dark blue steel. Glowing white names outlined the constellations, giving easy access to their locations. The platform sloped downwards from where Zack was standing and into another lower area lined with long, plush couches and advanced stargazing equipment. Several elegant telescopes were placed along the outside edge of the room along with a few computers that could program the telescopes to look into a specific set of stars.
Zack was the only one standing on the platform, so if Iris was actually here she would've been in the area below. He slid down to the lower part of the room and walked around the entire thing looking around for her. There weren't very many people in there at the time, and he didn't see anyone who looked like Iris. He did, however, see Alex talking to a young girl that slightly reminded him of her. She had long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and seemed to be about the same height as Zack was. Her skin was slightly lighter then Iris's was. Her bright green AMP jacket shone in the darkness, the silver insignia glowing against all else. Zack walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. "I don't think she's here, Alex." "Yeah, I know," he said, turning around. "This is Iris's friend, Sara. Iris left a couple of minutes ago. Sorry, dude." For some reason, Zack's heart sank. He really had wanted to find her. Oh well, he thought to himself. I'll probably run into her again some other time. He held his hand out to Sara. She grasped it and smiled brightly. "Hi, Zack." She said softly. "Hi, how are you?" He asked her politely. Alex shook his head and stepped between them. "See Zack, that's why you don't have a girlfriend. You're too freakin' nice. You have to be aggressive! Show them who's in charge!" He said, his voice steadily growing louder and louder. Sara pushed him aside. "Don't listen to him. It's nice to actually meet a guy who has some manners." She said, laughing slightly. "Maybe Alex could learn a thing or two off of you.?" She said teasingly. Zack shot Alex a grin. "Yeah, maybe he could, huh? Well, I'm gonna go ahead and get back to my dorm. It's a little too late for us to practice, so we'll just go tomorrow since we don't have any classes. Is that cool with you, Alex?" Alex shrugged and looked up at the stars. "Yeah, that's cool with me. I'm gonna hang out here with my partner-" Sara hit him in the side. "-Sara for a while longer. I'll talk to you tomorrow morning dude." Zack nodded and walked out of the room after wishing them both good night.
Well, no luck in finding Iris today. He'd just have to try his luck tomorrow after him and Alex got their sparring practice in. Finding was something Zack had unconsciously put into his mind to do, and when Zack wanted to get something done, it usually got done.
He was unusually tired at the time, considering that he had only been out for an hour or so. Zack threw himself onto his bed without even bothering to change. Images of the stars filled his mind, and Iris had somehow found a way in along with them just before he drifted off into a deep sleep.Topics related articles：
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