Halsey turned off the speaker button and cleared her throat. Three other Masters stood anxiously in the meeting room. They all felt a sense of panic, but they could not show it in front of their protégés.
"So it has been confirmed that the gamma radiation from the Orb is increasing?" Obadiah asked. The tall, stocky man with the partially graying hair looked briefly at Halsey.
"It has been confirmed. They even say that a rift is slowly opening from The Orb," Halsey replied.
"After twenty years? It's doing something?" Obadiah hissed incredulously.
"The Deformity gave you that message, Halsey? When?" A woman with shoulder-length brown curls asked in a trembling voice.
Halsey nodded. "Just before dinner. That is why I gave it to Obadiah right away.
"I was the one who asked the masters to secure the children in the dormitory immediately," Obadiah replied.
"The real problem is that you asked for the children to be sent to the fortress." Halsey looked alternately at the figures in the room.
"What? They're still children! None of them are allowed to leave the academy unless it's recruitment time!" The stern voice came from a man who was about twenty-five years old. He had slightly long, black hair that reached down to his neckline.
"Calm down, Matthew," Obadiah said.
"We are not all slaves, Obadiah," Matthew replied sternly.
Obadiah corrected, "No one said you were slaves."
The curly-haired woman raised her right arm, showing the bracelet on her hand. "Oh, we are slaves, Obadiah. Then what is this bracelet? An accessory?"
"We are not going to argue here, and we should find the best solution for the safety of the children," Obadiah said. "Please, Matthew, Sharon, calm down."
"That's easy for you to say. You're not a mutant," Sharon snorted.
Halsey felt her head throbbing. The urgent situation had been conveyed by the Deformity, who had asked the children at the Academy to help defend Earth if anything happened. Children all over the world, scattered in various academies.
Because the change of the Orb was happening simultaneously.
Halsey should be able to take the middle path. At least the one that was good for mutants and humans. If she refused outright, the Army would see it as an act of mutant treason. The problem would grow.
"We're sending the children who have turned seventeen," Halsey said.
"Oh, my! They have to go through two years of recruitment training before they're released, Halsey!" Sharon exclaimed angrily. "We don't even know what danger The Orb has been in for the past twenty years! And you want to sacrifice them?! You're crazy!"
"Sharon!" Obadiah warned.
"I don't care if you call me a defector or a rebel. I will defend the children," Sharon snapped.
She stormed out of the meeting room, followed by Matthew. There was silence for a moment. Obadiah sighed quietly, then approached Halsey.
"Are you absolutely sure they're going to take the kids?" Obadiah asked.
"The Deformity will pick them up at ten." Halsey tried to hold back tears. "What am I supposed to do, Obadiah? I don't want the children taken away either."
Obadiah was stunned. Although he had been in charge of the Academy since it was built 19 years ago, he had no real power. He only followed the instructions and orders of the government and the army. As for the deformities, they were the executors.
The children who graduated from the academy went to the recruitment and then became members of the Deformity. There was no way these children could be exposed to something they had never seen before without a prepared military education.
"I'll talk to one of the Army leaders," Obadiah decided.
"You know yourself, if the Deformity has made a decision, then it is the decision of the government and the Army. You're wasting time, Obadiah."
"We have to work on this, Halsey."
Halsey nodded, though his face was still clouded with doubt. "All right."
"After the kids are in the dorms, call all the Masters and we'll decide what to do." Obadiah looked at his watch. "We still have three hours before the deformities arrive."
*
Bernice tugged at Lucas and Elijah's arms as they walked in a line to the dormitory. With the Masters unaware, the girl ran as fast as she could down the hallway to their left, toward the archives and library. Lucas and Elijah followed close behind her.
Their actions were noticed by the other Academione, but they remained silent.
Finally, the three youngsters arrived at the library, Bernice walking straight past several large and tall bookshelves, then turning at the end of the library building. After a few minutes, they caught their breath.
"Why are we here?" Elijah asked.
"To celebrate your birthday," Bernice answered.
"In the library?" Elijah still didn't understand his best friend's intentions.
"Don't turn my roommate into your twin, Bernice," Lucas complained. "I've got enough nerds in my life, and that's you."
"I'm not a nerd," Bernice insisted. "I have the highest academic scores in the Academy. I'm fluent in several languages and martial arts. Did you hear that, loser?"
"Ouch!" Elijah laughed at that.
"Then why do you hang out with losers like us?" Lucas snorted.
"Life has to be balanced," Bernice replied lightly.
The girl bent down and pulled books from the bottom shelf, then squeezed her body between the shelves.
"What are you doing?" whispered Elijah.
Bernice didn't answer, so she came out with a metal plate with a cone on the end. It was as big as a pencil. She chuckled softly.
"I'm going to take us away from here, just for a little while," Bernice said.
"From the Academy?" asked Lucas.
Bernice nodded.
"From a building that's probably safer than any building in the world?" Lucas continued.
"That's right." Bernice said yes.
"Don't mess around, you'll get us in big trouble!" Lucas eyes widened and he began to panic. "We're going to get caught. Do you see this? This bracelet has a tracker!"
But the girl was busy poking a small hole in the bracelet with a metal plate in her hand. There was a small "click" sound, and the bracelet fell off in Bernice's hand.
The girl smiled. "Voila!"
"No way," Elijah muttered in disbelief.
"Come on, let's go have fun until midnight and celebrate your birthday, Eli." Bernice held out her hand to Elijah. "Turn seventeen, just once in your life."
"Don't do it, Eli," Lucas pleaded.
"Why?" Bernice looked at Lucas.
"It's a reckless act. I don't know, you can call me a coward, but I don't want to get in trouble until recruitment time." Lucas moistened his dry lips.
"It'll be okay, Lucas." Bernice tried to calm the red-haired young man in front of her.
"Look, if we get in trouble here. Where will we go after we leave the Academy? I don't want to be an outcast mutant if I don't make the cut," Lucas babbled.
Elijah looked at Bernice and Lucas in turn. After graduating from the Academy, he had to go through a two-year recruitment course. Then he would be stationed in the strongholds around The Orb, who knew which country he would be sent to. Elijah's days would be very monotonous. Maybe he would spend boring years just waiting for The Orb to leave Earth.
All his life.
But Elijah is different, isn't he? He doesn't have powers like the others.
Or maybe Elijah lives in normal society. Which would mean that he would be discriminated against. All the kids from twenty years ago have superpowers. Elijah, on the other hand, will just be walking among people who will definitely think of him as a mutant as well.
Sounds like a bleak future.
Elijah held out his hand to Bernice. "I'm in. I want to get out of here and have some fun."
"Two against one," Bernice pointed triumphantly.
"You bastards!" squealed Lucas in annoyance. Then he held out his hand to Bernice. "Hurry up. Before the Masters catch us."
Bernice deftly opened the bracelets on Elijah and Lucas' hands, which didn't take long. Bernice quickly pushed the books aside. The girl unscrewed the air hole in the lower corner wall, and it was big enough for an adult to crawl through.
"Who wants to go in first?" she asked.
"You, of course, I don't know which way," Lucas said.
"All right then, I—"
"Jeez, what is this? A bunch of losers?" The voice startled Elijah, Bernice and Lucas.
Elijah glanced in the direction of the voice and saw Isaac standing there with a triumphant smile.
"Are you trying to escape?" Isaac asked.