Chapter 13: I Scream at A Fish

CHAPTER 13:

 

I got out of the bathroom, half-running to the body mirror in Michael’s room, my face red with my lips quivering thanks to too much excitement at my new outfit. Though, fashionistas won’t take them much into thought since I’m sure I’m the only one enjoying being able to wear this much black.

Replacing my white bunny pajamas, I was now wearing a black, warm and smooth cotton jacket filled with pockets probably big enough to fit two small books in.

It also had those stretchy cuffs that I love so much and a tight, also stretchy round collar that was big enough to cover my entire mouth whenever I zipped myself up.

Along with the jacket were black training slacks with bright, green linings at the side. Every bit of the clothes I was wearing right now was wonderful.

 

I turned my back to the mirror, now seeing a symbol printed between my shoulders- the symbol for Omega in white. I blinked, wondering about the meaning but shrugged it off.

Except for the shoes I was holding up in the air. They were dark green combat boots, old and battered.

They were perfectly my size and I would’ve loved to wear them if only it weren’t for the stench that said they’ve been partying in an old closet filled with molds and mothballs. With a grimace, I made a disappointed face.

 

“All these new clothes and you end up running everything.” I muttered to myself as I plopped the shoes to the carpeted floor with a soft thud.

As I pulled my thick hair into a high and tight ponytail, Michael came out of the bathroom this time wearing a fresh new set of clothes.

He wore the same thing as me, the only difference was that his slacks had red linings and instead of moldy old boots, he was wearing black, high tops that smelled absolutely new. And honestly, I was having a hard time controlling the urge to step [stomp] on them.

I suddenly found myself staring at him as he walked into his bedroom, my eyes trailing after him.

In a second, the edge of my mouth twitched as I glanced at myself at the mirror.

Why does he look like one of those ultra idols when I look like a total nerd?!

With a slight growl, I sighed, my consciousness hissing at me to stop making everything with this b*****d a competition.

“Oi.”

Right then, I slightly gasped as I juggled the sudden appearance of black velvet gloves in my hands.

 “Hell yeah! We’re wearing gloves.” I thought as my eyes gleamed while I pulled them on, securely strapping the Velcro.

“You done?” Michael asked as he got out of the room.

 

 Once he saw me, he blinked and looked me up and down with a blank look on his face. I narrowed my eyes at him, daring this b*****d to say something that can make obliterate him.        

Smartly, he nodded his head slowly before fiddling with his cuffs and heading to the door.

“Let’s go then. It’s time for training.” He said as he snapped his fingers and the door opened.

With a smirk, I nodded at him, fastening my gloves in that cool way.

“Don’t do that. You look ridiculous.” Michael said flatly before moving out of the room and leaving me frozen with a blank look on my face as I gripped the velvet glove.

A growl left my throat and I stomped to the door, slamming it shut in the process.

 

“Hey.” I called, as I ran after Michael. “What are we gonna do today?” I asked curiously.

“Training.” He simply replied, not bothering to look back at me at all. I frowned. He really is a boring person. I can also see the dark clouds prancing all over him.

“Specifics, please.” I sighed. Michael glanced back at me, his light red eyes seemingly glowing for a bit.

With a sigh, the b*****d decided it was better to answer me. “You’ll be learning stuff first.”

What a glorious answer.

The edge of my mouth twitched with annoyance. I mean, I know I’ll be learning stuff! Hence the word ‘training’! This guy is just….

“I know that. What kind of stuff?” I growled.

“Telling you is just gonna be annoying. So just be quiet and wait till we get there will you?!” he snapped, knitting his brows at me a bit and looking at me with a very troubled look as if I were some kid he was baby-sitting.

With an annoyed pout, I whipped my head away. “Fine. Old grump.”

 

After a few seconds of me and Michael exchanging insults in the hallway, we finally got to Lukas’ room to see a note on the door.

I pulled it off before Michael could, leaving his hand frozen in mid-reach. I smirked at him, reading it aloud.

“Gone to the Training Floor. You guys are…..absolutely ridiculously ridiculous. Love, the dear....awesomely amazing Lukas.” I trailed off, feeling stupid that I read all that out loud.

But that wasn’t all.

The phrase “PS. Michael is an unintelligent person.” had been written at the bottom of the paper in bold and very big letters. Other than that, there were dozens of foreign words written all over the paper in smaller fonts.

 

As the note was crumpled in Michael’s angry hands, my head whipped down as I muffled my laughter. That was the best part of this insanity. Now I think Lukas and I are going to click very well.

“Tsk. C’mon. And stop laughing.” Michael growled as he grasped the back of my collar and dragged me through the hall. I didn’t care right now. I was feeling too blessed someone else knew that Michael was indeed an ‘unintelligent person’.

 

Besides, I have proof of this. Just before I went to the bathroom the said unintelligent person hit his head on the glass table so hard everything on top threatened to fall to the floor.

As I pulled myself out of Michael’s grip, we walked quietly to the Training Floor with me having a smirk on my face while Michael attempted to glare at me.

 

After a while, we got to the Training Floor to see it was empty just like before. I was about to think that the trainees here were absolute lazy a*s people but I remembered they were all kidnapped by something or someone.

And instead of crowds of kids, Michael and I saw three guys standing next to the “S Field”, AKA the giant bowl shaped area in the room.

 

I knew the other two guys were Skye and Christian since they were wearing the same thing as me, but the other one…..I wasn’t sure if he was Lukas….or some crazy guy escaped from the mental hospital.

As I looked up at them, I stared with amazement, amusement and worry at Lukas.

Right now he was probably doing some kind of poor imitation of a kung fu fighter with his one leg pulled up and his arms stretched in the air with his hands pointing upwards.

After a second, he made a pterodactyl screeching noise before wildly wiggling his arms then standing in a completely normal pose as if nothing happened.

The two boys just stared at him, dumbfounded and petrified.

“And I’m supposed to be unintelligent…” Michael trailed off. I raised my brow at him, wanting to say he was stupid but decided to save it for a better situation.

 

 

Right then, Lukas disappeared from his place, making me freeze up and blink to make sure he was gone. In a second, I jumped back, stumbling to see Lukas standing inches in front of me.

“Jeez!” I shouted, feeling the thing in my chest falling to its butt. “Don’t do that!”

Lukas snorted, smirking at me and looking proud of himself.

“Well, you guys really are slow.” He said while we walked towards the S Field.

Once we got there, I tried to muffle a laugh at Skye.

The child looked absolutely hung over. Like he really did get drunk and he actually had a bandage over his cheek. Christian on the other hand looked normal and gave me a smile and a “Good morning.” as I approached.

But I was too busy biting down my lip to say good morning back. Seeing I was trying to laugh at him, Skye glowered and snapped his fingers.

Right then an invisible force made me stumble over my legs and fall to the floor on my butt, making everyone turn to me in surprise.

As my jaw fell, I glared up at Skye who was now the one muffling his laughs.

As I got up and we started pulling each other’s hair and faces, Lukas sighed.

“Jeez, this kid. Oi! Just ‘cause you learned how to use Force doesn’t mean you can use it whenever you want!” Lukas scolded, making Skye pout.

“She started it.” he muttered, making me hit the back of his head. As the others sighed at our light brawl, Christian seemed to ask Lukas a question. But I couldn’t hear thanks to Skye’s pterodactyl noises.

At Lukas’ answer, Christian’s eyes widened and so did Michael’s.

“WHAT?!” they yelled in unison, making me and Skye freeze and turn to them.

“No, Lukas!” Michael shouted, looking angry and annoyed.

“What? You went through the same training!” Lukas shouted back.

“They’re not like me, Luke. You need to take this slow first.”

“We can’t take it slow you idiot. If we do the whole world’s gonna go to hell!” Lukas shouted angrily as he butted heads with Michael. Instantly, the air spiked and I shuddered at the thickness in the air.

I didn’t know what was happening or what they were talking about to turn this into a scary situation, but I had a feeling what they were talking about wasn’t gonna be a walk in the park.

 

In the middle of everything, Christian, tried to calm the two rogues down, attempting to come close to them but backed down anyway since the air just got too heated as Michael and Lukas stared each other down.

After a tense second, Michael sighed. “At least make them go through S-training first.” he said. Lukas was about to reject his words once again but Michael cut him off by saying:

“You’re responsible for Richard’s kids now. Think about what can happen to them when they know absolutely nothing about this world.”

With those words, Lukas visibly flinched and slowly, he turned away from Michael, sighing and making us all relax as the spiky aura subsided.

“Alright. Don’t lecture your own mentor, kid.” Lukas quietly said as he headed off somewhere, leaving Michael stiff and annoyed.

Carefully, Christian asked what we were going to do now and Michael turned to all of us, his light red eyes looking as if they glowed.

“S-training.”

 

“Over here, guys.” Lukas said loudly as we stopped next to a big black table with something like a control panel filled with buttons and levers on top. Lukas punched in some kind of code then pulled down a red lever.

Right then, the floor shook, making a loud rumbling sound echo through the room as I gripped the metal railings, trying to keep my footing.

Soon, I was seeing the S-field’s floor change. From polished wooden floors, they changed into a smooth dark brown floor, the tiling shifting over each other like pages in a book.

After a few seconds, the small box floating in mid-air I thought was harmless, shook wildly and popped.

Once it did, black willowy shadows sped out of the box and twisted around the air, looking like tentacles or tails. After a while, they started moving around the field like snakes, making me jump as far from the railing as possible even when Christian and Skye looked absolutely excited.

When I inched back, the shadows were dissipating like fog and soon, the field was empty again.

Lukas then punched in another number and turned to us. “Alright, let’s get this straight.” He started.

“One you get in that field, there’s no turning back. In this organization, the basics are learned in the battlefield, not behind desks. Also, in this exercise….you better make sure you stay alive.”

I blinked at him, freezing up.

“Stay alive?”

Lukas nonchalantly nodded at me in reply.

“The S in S-training and S-field stands for-“

“Simulation.” Skye finished, looking pale all of a sudden.

Once he said that, I went pale myself. Simulation?! That means we’ll face something….real?! Didn’t I already get a first-hand experience at seeing scary things?! I mean, that clown last night was simply the scariest thing that ever laughed at me…

Lukas nodded at Skye, looking impressed. “Exactly.”

“What are we gonna do?” Christian asked, knitting his brows together.

“You’re simply going to fight holograms. It’s not that hard. Besides, we set the monster level to three. You guys are going to be fine.” Lukas said, waving his hand in the air dismissively.

“How are you so sure we’re ready for this?” I asked, feeling worried. Hello, I might’ve gotten past the Night charms and all but only barely. I actually still feel like I’m gonna go crazy after seeing everything last night.

Lukas gave me a warm smile, momentarily putting my guard down.

“You all finished the Night Charms splendidly. Actually, the real time restraint in using Night Charms is 20 minutes. You guys were still fine even after an additional 10 minutes. And our best trainees couldn’t even get an inch close to you guys.”

I blinked, feeling the competitiveness pop up in my head once again.

“Well, that’s great and all.” Christian started, waving away the fact he was mentally super strong. “But, simulation stage?” he asked in a high and slightly anxious tone.

“I know you’re all worried and all. But, really. You guys will be fine.” Lukas said.

“Plus, it can be fun.” Michael added with a close-eyed smile.

When none of us said anything else, I bit on my lower lip, wondering now if I should jump in first. There were facts supporting me, I was also good in video games that were similar to this.

 

With a hesitant sigh, I nodded once. “Well, let’s get started then.” I said with a low voice as I rubbed the back of my neck. Lukas smirked at me along with Michael.

“Alright then.” Lukas said, pulling levers once again. “Cyreen, Christian, get in the field.”

Skye blinked, exchanging glances with me. “What about me?” he asked loudly as he pointed at himself.

Lukas turned to him and made a pained look. “Ah, little champ….you.” he started.

I think skye was smart enough to know what was gonna happen. “Don’t tell me I’m too small for this.” He muttered bitterly. I blinked at him, snickering.

Back in a theme park we went to with my friends and I, he wasn’t allowed to ride a roller coaster since he was an inch smaller than the allowed height. So he had to stay with me and wait for my friends to finish. [I was allowed to by the way. But those rides are gonna kill me.]

 Skye narrowed his eyes at me and turned back to Lukas.

“Sorry Skye but, you’re still too young to go in simulations.” Michael said, not looking sorry at all.

“Why’s that?” I asked. Lukas sighed.

“People do say that kids have a higher sense when it comes to ‘seeing’ stuff and all that, but when it comes to fighting them, child Rogues still need to develop their powers through a lower level kind of training. It’s not simulation though.”

Seeing Skye’s disappointed look, Lukas smiled a bit and put a hand on the kid’s head.

“Sorry Skye. This tall grump over here just said you weren’t allowed yet. I wanted to throw you in there but, yeah. Maybe next time.” Lukas apologized.

With that, Skye nodded and Lukas gave him a hug. I blinked at them, surprised they were already that close.

 

“Hey, let’s go.” Michael called, motioning for me and Christian to go down the field.

I looked for stairs to go down with but, there were none.

“Oh, you need to slide down.” Lukas said, nodding towards the shiny edge of the field.

Shrugging our shoulders, Christian and I pulled our legs out and just let ourselves fall and immediately slide down the smooth floor and stop at the middle of the field.

Once we got there, Christian and I both froze, glancing unsurely at each other as my stomach froze along with my throat.

 

 

Right then, the floor shook. And from the far left of the field, something smashed though the floor with such force, the floor shook more violently than before, almost making me fall off my feet again.

 

 

Once I looked up, my eyes widened and my heart stopped to see a giant serpent-like creature.

I could say it could’ve been a leviathan but it was only because of its size. It was a giant thing and could surely swallow both me and Christian without a problem.

But looking closer at its ugly face, it seemed like an angler. You know, the one fish that tried to eat Nemo’s dad. And it was scarier than it was on TV.

My jaw fell as I stared up at it, my brain telling me not to move an inch as the serpent stared at us with milky white eyes and seemed to smile horribly with its super long and sharp stick-like teeth.

“What the hell is this?!” I screamed as Christian and I got ready to run if we had to. Actually, we obviously need to since we were never given any weapons.

“That’s a Leviathan.” Lukas cheerily said, pointing at the giant fish hissing at us at the corner of the field.

“We usually use creatures from legends and myths when training. It….livens up the brain.” He explained.

I can see that it does liven up my head, you dumbbell. I wanted to say, but I was too petrified to say anything else but a bad word.

I thought Christian was gonna cuss like I did, but instead, he muttered:

“I can’t punch that.”

 

And with that comforting bit of information, the serpent screeched loudly, giving off something that sounded like a bloody scream. After that, it lunged at us, snaking through the [thankfully] long and wide field.

As it snaked at us with amazingly fast speed, I made an undignified whimpering sound as Christian gasped along with me.

Unexpectedly, the leviathan jumped up the air, its shadow towering over us and its white eyes glowing with hate before it smashed through the floor halfway to us, completely destroying the smooth tiles.

In the background, I could hear Michael and Skye snickering with enjoyment while Lukas shushed them. I wanted so badly to throw shoes into both their mouths but I needed to focus.

 

“Hey! You said this was a simulation!” Christian shouted. “This thing is real!”

“It is!” Lukas shouted back. Hearing that, Christian and I froze and slowly, we glanced at each other, our blood draining.

I wanna run. I really do. But my legs won’t listen to my head. Christian must’ve had the same thing happening to him since he wasn’t moving an inch either.

“Listen, when I mean simulation, I mean, not a simulation. Hahaha!” Lukas laughed loudly.

“NOT FUNNY!” both Christian and I yelled.  

“Alright, alright. Calm down. In today’s first part of training, you won’t be running so much. We need to make sure you guys keep calm in the face of danger. I made it so the fish won’t eat you guys, but once you guys are able to be cool about this, you need to figure out how to kill the leviathan.” Lukas explained.

“Simply put, keep calm and kill it.” Michael said this time.

I whined, wanting to cry. Lukas is a compulsive liar! How are we gonna kill a hundred ton fish?!

“Right now the weapons are at the very top.” Lukas said, his voice echoing in my head. Christian and I both looked up to see the black box shuddering and floating in mid air. So that’s what it was. A weapons box.

“Reach it.” Lukas added.

“WHAT?!” Christian shouted. “HOW?!”

“Yes, we need a little more information other than we should kill the thing and the weapons are up there. It’s quite obvious already!” I shouted.

Lukas rolled his eyes at us and sighed heavily.

“Stop asking questions and think and act fast! Because every second you spend yelling at me, the leviathan gets stronger and harder to kill!”

I blinked at him and quickly racked my brain. How do we get to the very top?

 

After a few seconds, the floor rumbled again and exploded, right then a rock hit me square on the forehead.

Along with that, an answer. I gasped.

“Jump on the fish!” I shouted.

“What?!” Christian yelled back in shock and confusion as a giant rock fell right between us.

“We need to get to the box, yeah? That fish is big enough for it to help us reach!” I said. Right then, my blood quivered to hear that screech once again.

 

Looking up, we saw the leviathan’s head protruding from the mountain of rubble in the middle of the field.

“You’re insane!” Christian shouted at me.

“You punched a werewolf!” I shouted back, making Christian flinch.

“Whatever! Let’s just do it!” I shouted and got ready to lunge the fish.

With a grit of his teeth and a loud growl, we both lunged the leviathan head on, making it freeze up in surprise.

Thank god I was fast and the boots were actually helpful with the smooth and slippery floor.

“KYAAAAA!” the leviathan screeched and snapped its jaws at us before Christian and I split off and watched the fish bury its head in rock.

 

Before it could pull its head up again, I ran up the side of its spiky and gigantic head then quickly climbed.

I was right, this height is enough for us to get to the floating box. After slipping a bit on the fish’s scales and holding tight on the spiky bones, I finally reached the top of its head and held on to something, waiting for Christian.

“Huh, the view’s not so nice up here.” I thought as I grimaced, seeing the leviathan’s face pulling up from the rubble and showing its bulgy white eyes and ugly…oh, so ugly mouth.

After a while, Christian appeared next to me, his arms shaking as he climbed on next to me, staring down at the fish’s mouth.

 

“Now what?” he asked and I could say it as easy to hear his heart beating like a drum.

I smirked. “Bait.”

Right then, I made the crazy decision of pulling myself closer to the fish’s eyes.

Even though it’s all white I’m sure it can see us. Ignoring Christian’s calls, I reached my arms out for the ridges above its eyes and looked into its eye which was four times bigger than my head.

“Yoohoo!” I smiled, waving my arms. I wasn’t supposed to do this, but my inner crazy came out and I ended up punching the leviathan’s eye.

“KYAAAAAAAA!!” it screeched and as I thought, it pulled its head high enough to let Christian reach the box.

“NOW, CHRISTIAN!” 

Hearing my shout, the boy turned and quickly grabbed the floating box and held it in his arms.

“Wait, how do you get the weapons out?!” he shouted. As the leviathan struggled wildly under us, Christian and I looked up to Lukas and saw him shrug his shoulders at us.

I growled at him. What a horrible teacher.

Quickly, I climbed back up to Christian and took the box from him and attempted to shake it. Nothing.

“You stupid piece of-“

I censor that.

 

Soon, the fish under us was getting impatient. Unexpectedly, the leviathan angrily swung its head to the side and my eyes widened when I found myself floating in mid-air.

“CYREEN!” I heard Michael’s voice shout.

S**t. As I fell through the air, I stumbled with the box and looked down to see I was about to fall on a mountain of big rocks.

While my hands ran through the box, I felt a rough area somewhere and for some reason, pressed down.

Once I did, the box glowed a white hue and spat out a thick three-bladed spear into my hand before flying off somewhere.

 

I gasped, coming up with a brilliant [maybe] idea and quickly pulled the spear under me with the blades facing downwards. I then placed my feet at the sides of the middle spear and concentrated on keeping the spear upright and steady.

I wasn’t sure it was going to work but the weapon seems sturdy enough to pierce through the rock.

After a second, the blades unbelievably pierced the top of a rock and I gripped the handle hard, trying to keep myself in place as gravity pulled me down then back up again.

At the holy force, my jaw fell as my feet started to give me pins and needles.

 

Right then, I heard the leviathan scream, making me cover my ears at the loudness.

“Cyreen!” Christian shouted. I looked up and froze to see he had a sword right through the leviathan’s neck.

Quickly, I tried to pull out my spear but it was easier said than done. The panic stated to set in me and in that second, the leviathan must’ve heard me and turned its face, hissing at me.

“Cyreen, run!” Christian shouted.

But seeing that horrible face made me freeze up and lose my nerve, unable to move, I just stared at the creature, cursing myself at not being able to keep my cool. Even though I knew the thing wouldn’t eat me, I screamed as the leviathan opened its jaws wide.

 

Before I thought it would bite me, Michael came out from nowhere and sliced the leviathan’s neck with a thick and gigantic sword.

Instantly, the fish froze and seemed to shimmer before completely disappearing.

Christian ran to me and held my shoulders, yelling: “Hey! Hey! Cyreen!”

I couldn’t reply though. I was too shocked to say anything.

Michael then appeared at my sight along with Lukas who had an annoyed look on his face.

“Cyreen, are you-“

“I am fine.” I said through gritted teeth. For some sudden reason, I felt my blood fume as I started down at the floor which was slowly repairing itself.

Tch, my first training and it turns out with me screaming. But some part of me was still annoyed at Michael. I could’ve moved at the last minute and helped Christian out. But instead he showed up and ended everything.

Lukas sighed from next to me. “Don’t be disappointed, Cyreen.” He said and glared up at Michael.

“She had this, Michael. Why’d you interfere?” he asked. I blinked at him.

So he was annoyed at Michael and not me? Well, I am annoyed too.

“What?” Michael asked with disbelief. “She screamed, Lukas. It was obvious she’s not yet ready for this.” He said.

“This is training Michael. I agreed with you when you said they should do this. I knew they were going to be fine. If you just didn’t step in at that minute, they would’ve learned how to beat a monster.” Lukas growled.

 

As they started to argue with each other, I growled and stomped my foot with such force, they all looked at me and went silent.

“That’s enough! We can do it again, right? Stop being so….ugh!” I groaned, stomping towards Christian since I was getting annoyed by both older Rogues.

“Cyreen,” Michael started, heading to me. “Maybe you shouldn’t-“

“Don’t treat me like a weakling.” I snapped, making the black haired boy freeze.

I glared at him and slowly, his shocked look turned into a glare as well.

“I wasn’t-“

“You are.” I growled. “Don’t you dare say that I should wait for tomorrow until I start training. I am training and I will continue. Even though you have a higher status than me, doesn’t mean I can’t be as strong as you.”

For a second, the floor was silent as Michael and I faced off, the air around us prickling.

I knew he was just trying to help and that he must’ve thought this was going too fast for me. Well, he was being a total prick. And Lukas was right. We could’ve ended this training session if only it weren’t for Michael.

Michael gritted his teeth then with a growl, he turned away from us and stomped away, jumping up the air and landing next to Skye who inched away from him.

With a final glare, he whipped his head away from me and stubbornly showed the side of his face instead, looking like a total kid.

Lukas sighed next to me then snapped his fingers, making all weapons disappear.

“Alright. We’ll take a break for now.” he said, then turned to me. “I knew you were gonna move Cyreen. You two are actually good at this. But for now we’ll take a little break. You deserve some food.”

At the mention of food, I perked up, feeling my annoyance just a few seconds ago pull away. With a heavy sigh, Christian wiped his sweat and we walked out of the field with him saying:

“I hate fish.”

Author's Note

I hope you guys like it! :D