Chapter Two

The plot thickens. Really, there's no other way to describe it. Adrian makes a reappearance.

Chapter Two

“Okay, Mark, out with it,” Christine typed on her tablet during lunch, “What happened after gym?”

They were in a group conversation with Adam. Anything they said could be seen by all three of them. “What do you mean?” Adam typed, looking confused while munching on his sandwich. They were typing so no one would overhear their conversation, but Mark was sure that anyone skilled enough could follow it just by looking at Adam’s face; the guy’s facial expressions were always over the top. Right now, his face looked completely scrunched up toward his nose, which was how he looked confused.

“He ran straight into my head as I was walking here. I’ve always told the Bureaucratic Education workers that the ceiling is too low for Trajectory, but they never listen! He tried to run past me, but I grabbed onto him and threw my weight towards the wall, effectively pinning him. He still hasn’t said a word.” Christine managed to type all this in the span of thirty seconds.

Mark didn’t want to talk about what had happened in the locker room, but he knew that Christine would keep pestering him until he told her. So, he typed, “It wasn’t really worth talking about. Three of the guys with Capacity on the opposing dodgeball team came into the locker room and tried to beat me up for making them lose. I managed to get away from them.” Technically,  it was the truth, but a highly edited one. He didn’t tell them about Tyler/Travis’ plot, or how he had managed to end up naked in the middle of the locker room, having escaped from a Capacity-grip and knocked out all three.

Christine raised one eyebrow in suspicion. Mark grimaced. Christine knew him too well; she could tell when he was lying or even omitting the truth. It wasn’t as reliable as his mother, whose Insight always told her exactly how he was feeling. “Are you... completely sure that was all that happened?” she typed slowly.

Mark slammed his hand against the table. “No, it wasn’t, alright?” he said angrily out loud, “He was trying to blackmail me!”

Christine desperately asked him to be quiet, looking around. The other students in the room were listening to music on their tablets, but you never knew who had the Virtue of Perception and could hear everything in a given area.

“Who would try to blackmail you?” Adam typed, worried.

“It was probably Tyler/Travis,” Christine typed back, sipping her juice.

Adam frowned. “Which one, Tyler or Travis?”

“They’re the same person,” Christine explained, “I just can never remember which it is, so I call him both.”

“That’s a very lazy approach.”

“Says the one who never has to take any sort of first aid when he gets injured.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault that I heal quickly!”

“Guys, you’ve had this argument already,” Mark typed in all capital letters, so it would get their attention.

They both looked guilty. “He’s right,” Christine typed, “We need to know about this. How did he blackmail you?”

“He said that he could prove that my green eyes and impossible catch were the result of a physical-stimulant.”

Christine gasped. “That evil, sneaky little worm!” she whispered, “When I get a hold of him, I’ll-”

“Christine,” Adam said, “You’re making the table float.”

It was indeed lifting off from the ground. That was a common problem among the Virtuous; it was harder to control your Virtue when you were emotionally stressed. She blushed and released the gravitational hold on the table.

“So what happened after that?” Adam asked.

“Tyler/Travis full on Capacity-punched me in the gut, but it didn’t seem to do anything. It hurt for a bit, but I was back on my feet soon afterward, taunting him. I don’t know what I was thinking when I did, but it was too late. One of them grabbed me while the other wound up to punch me again. I don’t know what happened after that; all I knew was that they were not going to do this to me. The next thing I knew, all three of them were unconscious on the ground and I was standing, naked, in the middle of them.”

Christine gasped in surprised and blushed again. Adam looked uncomfortable as he asked, “Really?”

“Absolutely. I was in my full glory in the middle of the locker room, and you weren’t there to see it,” Mark typed, grinning. He was starting to feel normal again.

“But that must have been a Virtue of some kind!” Christine typed excitedly, “Maybe you triggered Constitution and that’s why the punch didn’t have an effect!”

“But how would that have worked?” Adam replied, “I know for a fact that Constitution wouldn’t have gotten Mark out of that hold, especially if he was being held by a Capacity.”

“There was another thing,” Mark continued, “When I made that catch in the gym, I could have sworn that my hand grew larger to catch it. There is no way I could have caught a full Capacity-throw without some sort of help.”

Christine looked troubled. “I can’t think of any Virtue that works like that,” she typed, “Maybe we’ll find out in Bureaucratic Studies.”

Just as that message sent, the Education Head, Mr. Gillmon, came over the intercom to tell everyone that lunch was over and it was time to go to class. “In addition,” he said, making all the students stop to listen. There had never been an “in addition” before. “In addition,” he repeated, “As those who have already that class have noticed, our dear Mrs. Evert, who has taught Bureaucratic Studies for a long time, has been asked to work somewhere else. Be prepared to meet your new teacher today. That is all.”

Mark, Christine, and Adam all looked at each other, then ran to the door. They wanted to see who this new teacher was.

She didn’t look too strange. She was a young woman, probably in her mid-twenties, and was sitting at Mrs. Evert’s desk like she had always sat there. She smiled as the three of them came in. “Welcome,” she said,” My name is Mrs. Tillens. I realize that this is an abrupt change, but I hope you will adapt, as I always have.” She looked at Adam and smiled. To Christine, she said, “Ah yes, the girl with Trajectory. I’ve heard about you.”

She looked at Mark, and for the faintest of moments, she looked into his eyes with great alarm. In a split second, she was smiling again as she said, “And what is your name?”

“Mark,” he replied.

“How very nice to meet you, Mark. I get the feeling that we’re going to be good friends.”
Easy for her to say. Mark was half-sure that teachers were required to say that to make their students more at ease.

The rest of the students filed in, and she greeted all of them as they came in the door. Once they were all seated, she said, “I realize that this is a shock to you, but I trust we will all be good friends soon, as I have already told dear Mark here. My name is Mrs. Tillens. Before we begin, I want to get any questions out of the way. I personally believe that all distractions and questions should be dealt with first. Does anyone have anything to ask me? Anything at all?”

They all looked at each other. Mrs. Evert had never done this with them, not even on the first day of school. They had no idea what to say. Should they ask her something innocent, to see if she was serious? Mark had a few questions he wanted to ask her, but he wasn’t sure if he could. When she said, anything, did she mean anything?

Finally, Cameron Stocks raised his hand from the back of the room.

“Yes,” Mrs. Tillens said, smiling encouragingly, “you in the back. And what is your name?”

“Cameron,” he replied, “And I’d like to ask, where were you born?”

“I was born a long way from here, on the other side of the continent, actually, in a place called Little Rock. It’s one of the smallest cities in the country.”

[My goodness, I haven’t explained about cities here, haven’t I? See, I told you I wasn’t truly omniscient, or I would have realized this a lot sooner.

Around the time when the Bureaucracy came to power, the population started to explode out of control. It probably wouldn’t have been as noticeable if it hadn’t synergized perfectly with a change in government. Those are always marked with increased levels of anarchical leanings in society.

I rather like that sentence; there’s just something about it. Maybe the pedantic nature of the words makes it work. Anyway, the cities in what used to be America weren’t big enough to accomodate so many people.

I can already feel your blank stares growing from when I said “used to be America”. Let’s rewind and let me explain fully.

To quote one of my favorite novels, “In the beginning, the universe was created. It caused a great deal of outrage and is widely considered a ‘bad move’.”

Okay, too far back, but I do enjoy that line.

Before the Bureaucracy took power, this continent was split into three main countries: Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America. The United States were further split up into fifty-two other, you guessed it, states, each of which had its own interests, political leanings, and squabbles. Forty-eight of them were all on the mainland, but there were four that weren’t connected to them: Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and, for some reason, Alaska, which was north of Canada. Cuba had been the most recent addition, but it didn’t stay that way for very long.

You see, America had a problem. While it had one of the greatest national economic outputs in the world, it also sported the most enormous national debt in the history of the entire world. While some politicians and representatives who ran the government had desperately tried to lower it, the other ones didn’t care and went right on growing it. In desperation, they annexed Puerto Rico and Cuba to try and gain their resources, but (and I won’t go into any of the details right now), the annexation sparked what they called “World War Three”. Pretty soon, nuclear weapons had been fired. It wasn’t the absolute nuclear holocaust that many people feared, but it did greatly damage the United States’ environment and left the country in shambles, which allowed the Bureaucracy to take over. As I’ve mentioned before, one of the Bureaucracy’s first aims was to protect what remained of the planet. Each different biome in the Bureaucracy was identified and preserved in reserves set all over the country (one of which was where Adrian Tullenson’s siblings were killed). The reserves were numerous enough to house enough of the environment to keep the planet stable and allowed the Bureaucracy to open up the rest of the land to the cities. They grew exponentially and soon began butting heads over borders, as they’d grown right up next to each other.

There, that should be enough backstory for now. I shall try not to ramble too much in the future, although I make no promises.]

The students murmured in appreciation; Little Rock was all the way across the country from where they lived [which I should have mentioned was a city called Portland].

A girl Mark didn’t know raised her hand and said, “Do you have any family over there?”

“Why yes,” Mrs. Tillens said, “My parents still live there, but my brothers don’t anymore. I’m not sure where they live now; they’re kind of all over the place.”

Christine raised her hand next. When Mrs. Tillens nodded to her, she asked, “Do you have a Virtue?”

Mrs. Tillens laughed. “No, I do not, but I don’t let that bother me. I can still do my job without having a Virtue to complicate things.”

Christine looked at Mark expectantly. He knew what she was thinking: if Mrs. Tillens could still be happy without a Virtue, then so could Mark.

Soon, questions came in droves. Mrs. Tillens was asked everything about her life; did she have a husband, where did she live, what aspirations had she had in life? She answered every single one calmly, smiling. Once they were finished, she clapped her hands and said, “Alright, is that all? Well then, let’s get down to business. Mrs. Evert left a note on where you’d left off in class, but I’d like to hear myself about what you’ve been learning.”

Adam raised his hand at once and said, “We’d been learning about Virtue Workers.”

“Good,” Mrs. Tillens said, “That’s what Mrs. Evert said you’d been learning about as well. What exactly do you know about them already?”

“Not much,” Christine replied, “She told us how most of them have Triggered Enlightenment so they can figure out confusing Virtues, but other than that, not much.”

“Well then, I’ll tell you more. The Virtue Workers are to be there every time someone Triggers a Virtue, so they can catalogue it and, very very rarely, to enter in a new Virtue that has been discovered. As you will have learned in the Bureaucratic Biology Studies unit, the scientists who input Virtues in the population did not have specifics in mind; they merely input a new kind of protein gene into the human genome. The protein it created was supposed to only give the Virtue of Capacity to the population, but they discovered that the effects of the protein varied on the person creating it. While the Virtue Workers feel that they have catalogued most of the Virtues that are possible, and indeed, there has not been a new Virtue in a great number of years, they are always alert for the time when a new Virtue will appear.”

Mark thought about that. Was his Virtue a new one? He was sure that it was a Virtue now, but it was unlike any he’d ever heard of. Healing spontaneously, hands growing larger, randomly fighting off thugs and ending up naked in the locker room? There was no Virtue he’d ever heard of like that.

Something was happening at the back of the room. One of the girls was struggling to lift her tablet off of the floor where it had fallen, but she couldn’t. “Christine!” She wailed, “What did you do to my tablet?”

Christine was shocked. “I didn’t even touch it, Amy! We’re on opposite sides of the room!”

“Then why can’t I pick it up!? You’re lying!”

But one of Amy’s friends had noticed something she hadn’t. “Amy!” she gasped, pointing at Amy, “Your eyes!”

Everyone turned to behold her eyes. The color change was perfectly clear; Amy’s irises were now bright gold color. “It’s a Virtue!” someone shouted, “But which one? Trajectory?”

Mark looked at Christine, but she shook her head. “My Virtue can’t control objects’ gravity once they hit something. That tablet is touching the floor; its gravity should have been returned to normal if Amy Triggered Trajectory.”

Mrs. Tillens cleared her throat loudly from the front of the room, restoring order. “I believe I know what Amy Triggered. It’s fairly rare, and I shall call for a Virtue Worker to be completely sure, but I am under the impression that Amy Triggered Attachment.”

There was a murmur of approval and understanding; Attachment was a Virtue that allowed one to make things stick together or balance in impossible ways.

“Try to get it unstuck,” Adam suggested.

Amy took hold of the tablet, scrunched her eyes in concentration, and the tablet came loose without a sound. She must have been pulling pretty hard, because she fell backward onto the floor. She tried to get up, but apparently she had stuck her clothes to the floor as well; Attachment couldn’t affect living matter.

“Someone help me!” she cried, on the verge of tears.

“Calm down, Amy,” Mrs. Tillens said soothingly, “Just concentrate on getting unstuck. Your Virtue is a little erratic right now, as it has just been Triggered. Be very careful of what you touch for the next hour or so.”

Amy desperately tried to calm down, and then, slowly but surely, she sat up. She had managed to hang on to her tablet.

“There,” Mrs. Tillens proclaimed triumphantly, “I told you it was nothing to worry about. Now, just let me make a quick call to the Administration Department to request a Virtue Worker, and then we’ll get back to the lesson."

She took out her own tablet, decorated with pink flowers, and tapped out a number.

"Yes, Mrs. Tillens?" A pleasant female voice said, "This is Mary Wilkins with the Administration Department, how can I help you?"

"Hi Mary, I need to report that Amy Minsen has Triggered a Virtue. Can I request a Virtue Worker for sometime tomorrow?"

"Certainly. Just let me take a moment to see who's available... Wait a moment. There is already a Virtue Worker in town right now."

"There is?"

"Yes, he was called about a week ago and hasn't left yet. Do you want me to call him and ask him to visit the school? He's staying close by."

"Yes, that should be fine. Thank you Mary." Mrs. Tillens closed her tablet. "Well then, Amy, if you're up to it, maybe you could entertain us with your Virtue while we wait?"

"Well sure," Amy replied, " But I'm not sure how well I can control it."

"Oh, that's fine. Just do the best you can."

Amy obliged. They spent the next ten minutes laughing as Amy practiced her Virtue. Having help from a tall classmate, she took a desk and stuck it to the ceiling. Christine dropped onto the ceiling and sat in the desk, lounging upside down. "I could get used to this. How long does it stay like this?"

"From what I've heard," Mrs. Tillens said, "About fifteen minutes. You can sit like that until the Virtue Worker gets here."

Amy's other exploits included gluing someone into their desk and having someone with Capacity lift it up and shake it, and the affair culminated with her sticking her shoes to the wall and walking up to where Christine sat, laughing. "Looks like I'll finally have some company!" Christine said jovially.

"I'm not sure how long I can stay like this," Amy complained, "All the blood is rushing to my head!"

She had just walked back down the wall when the Virtue Worker walked in. He was a very handsome man; even another guy, like Mark, had to admit that. His hair was styled, but not too formal. He wore a black suit with a bright red tie, and he looked completely comfortable walking into a classroom full of teenagers. He was smiling gently, obviously knowing that he was a stranger to them and was trying to put them at ease. Everyone was looking at him, so it was only Mark who noticed Mrs. Tillens’ reaction.

As soon as the Virtue Worker walked into the room, Mrs. Tillens’ face had gone deathly pale. Her jaw was open in an expression of utter shock and, surprisingly, fear. Whoever this man was, she knew him, and her reaction did nothing for Mark’s mood. Everyone was put at ease by the Virtue Worker, but Mark only felt dread. From what he had seen, Mrs. Tillens was a very nice lady. He wondered what this man had done to elicit such a reaction.

She glanced over and saw Mark staring at her. Instantly, she out back on a smiling face. Meanwhile, the Virtue Worker had noticed Mrs. Tillens. He was obviously much better at controlling his emotions, but Mark still saw that same look of shock in his face. Yes, they knew each other very well, and neither was pleased at the arrival of the other. They apparently didn’t want to make a scene in the middle of the classroom, because Mrs. Tillens said, “Welcome! Are you the Virtue Worker I called for?”

“I am,” the man said, smiling again, “And who is the one who Triggered a Virtue? You’re lucky I was in the area; this region’s Virtue office is getting a lot of requests lately.”

Amy raised her hand enthusiastically. “I did,” she said proudly, “I Triggered Attachment.”

The Virtue Worker nodded appreciatively. “Congratulations; Attachment is a fairly rare Virtue. Normally I get called for Alacrity or Enlightenment, but Attachment is one I haven’t seen as frequently. Just out of curiosity, does anyone else have a rare Virtue? I have official records of Virtues back at the office, but I don’t remember exactly what Virtues are here.”

Christine, of course, was the first to raise her hand. “I Triggered Trajectory a while back.”

The Virtue Worker was truly surprised. “Trajectory, you say? That’s one of the rarest I’ve ever seen. The only other one I’ve seen that uncommon was Ubiquity. My father Triggered that one.”

The class murmured appreciatively.

“Now,” the Virtue Worker said, inputting Amy’s information into his tablet, “That’s all in order. Just to check, did anyone else Trigger a Virtue today that I should know about?”

Mark saw Adam raise his hand after they made eye contact; he was obviously about to point out Mark’s odd experiences. Something told Mark that they should keep that quiet. He shook his head, and Adam managed to turn his hand-raise into a head scratch. The Virtue Worker had noticed the movement, however, and looked at Mark.

“Have you always had that color eyes, Mr…?”

“Mark Carson, sir,” Mark replied nervously, “And no, I haven’t. I accidentally spilled a chemical in Science today.”

“Hm,” the Worker mused, “Well then, I guess that means my work here is done. Good day to you, Mrs. Tillens.”

“Wait,” Mrs. Tillens said, “Could you speak with me after class? I have some questions you could probably answer. I’m new here, you see.” The Worker nodded, and at that moment, the bell rang for the students to go home. Adam, Mark, and Christine filed out behind the rest of the students, but Christine stopped right outside the door.

“What are you doing?” Adam asked.

“I want to hear what they’re saying. Maybe it’s important.” She dropped to the ceiling and held her tablet up to the air vent to record it. The recorders in the tablets were incredibly sensitive. Mark had once managed to record a conversation going on at the end of the hall from twenty feet away.

Mark and Adam connected to Christine’s tablet through their own to listen too.

“-cannot fathom what you’re doing here, Adrian,” Mrs. Tillens was saying.

“I could say the same thing to you, Alice,” the Virtue Worker, Adrian, said, “I’m simply stationed in this area. What could you be doing here? I had suspicions that you weren’t as dead as you appeared years ago, but why are you in Portland?”

“Our mutual friend saw someone Triggering it here soon.”

Adrian was quiet for a moment. “When you say “mutual friend”, do you mean…?”

“Delphi, yes. She saw a boy triggering it here.”

“The boy with the green eyes just now…”

“I believe so too. I’ve got to get him back to the 2051 before the Bureaucracy can catch him.”

“I’m not sure you have time. From what I can tell, the Chief consulted with Aris and Phoenix today. He immediately gave me an assignment here. They’re on to him.”

Mrs. Tillens growled in frustration. “Curse Prescience. It can’t be a coincidence; Phoenix and Delphi probably saw the same thing.”

“What are we going to do? Mark’s going to be a target if this gets out. They’ll have someone with Administration or Insight probe me once I get back to the office, and I can’t do anything to stop it.”

“You’ve always been able to outrun everyone else since that day. Remember?”

“But the Bureaucracy? They watch me constantly.”

“I’ll protect him then. Just do your part.”

They could hear Adrian walking toward the door, and they frantically put away their tablets and acted as if they were just walking by. It didn’t really work; Adrian came out, saw them, and immediately said, “Do you three normally listen in on private conversations?”

They all blushed in embarrassment, but Adrian smiled and said, “It’s no problem. You probably wouldn’t have understood it anyway. Mrs. Tillens knew you were out here, and she wants to talk to you, Mark. Have a good day.” He walked down the hall and out of sight. Adam and Christine looked at Mark, who nervously opened the door and came in.

The change in Mrs. Tillens’ body language was evident. In contrast to in class, when she had been perky and excited, she was slumped at her desk, utterly exhausted. Mark got the feeling that she had been through a lot recently. She still smiled when she saw Mark and said, “Ah, Mark, Adrian told you that we needed to talk?”

Mark nodded, wondering what she wanted to talk about. Her conversation with Adrian had shaken him. They had been talking about his Trigger, he was sure of it. At least he knew now that it was a Virtue.

“Well then, let’s get right down to it. What happened today?”

Mark flinched. “What do you mean?”

“Those green eyes are a Trigger, Mark, as you have most likely figured out. What happened today that caused it? This Virtue has most likely manifested before, but there must have been some sort of event that caused it to Trigger. So what was it?”

“It was in Science. Adam and I were working on a chemistry experiment, and he spilled some acid on me.”

She nodded. “Let me guess: you felt the pain, but when the teacher came over there was no sign of acid burn?”

Mark nodded.

“That was most likely it, then, but I need to make sure. In the last few years, has anything odd continued to happen around you? Your body acts in odd ways sometimes?”

Mark thought for a moment. Come to think of it, there were things that had happened. “I’m clumsy,” he said thoughtfully, “In chemistry recently, I’ve been constantly dropping flasks. My hands just couldn’t seem to grip them, and this morning, as I got out of the car, I tripped because my legs wouldn’t function.”

Mrs. Tillens pursed her lips. “That’s what I was afraid of. After you spilled the acid, did strange things happen today?”

Of course they had; the dodgeball and Mark’s run-in with Tyler/Travis proved it. He didn’t want to talk about a fight happening to a teacher, but before he could stop himself, he said, “Two things happened today. We were playing dodgeball, and I managed to catch a ball thrown at full-force from someone with Capacity. I could’ve sworn it looked like my hand had grown larger to catch it. Then, in the locker room, three of the boys with Capacity who my team beat came in to try and beat me up for making their team look bad. One of them Capacity-punched me, but I got back up in no time. Finally, one of them put me in a chokehold, and I lost it. The next thing I knew, all three of them were unconscious on the floor and I was standing naked in front of them.”

Mrs. Tillens was surprised. “And you have no idea what you did? No recollection at all?”

“None.”

She was pensive, he could tell that much. Something about his experience was unusual, and she, who seemed to have so much knowledge about whatever was happening to him, wasn’t sure what it was. Or maybe she knew, but it wasn’t good. There were too many options to choose from.

“Mark,” she said after a minute, leaning forward and folding her hands on her desk, “I need you to listen to me. Have you told anyone else about this?”

“Just Adam and Christine.”

“Make sure it stays that way. No one else can hear about this. As soon as that acid touched you and your eyes turned green, you went on the Bureaucracy’s ‘most wanted’ list.”

Mark’s eyes widened in fright. “W-what do you mean?” he stammered.

“I can’t tell you everything right now; we need to keep you safe. Let me summarize: you Triggered a Virtue. Normally that would be cause for happiness and celebration, like it was with Amy today, but no one connected to the Bureaucracy can ever learn about this, even family members who work for them. You’ve heard about Compound Virtues, have you?”

He nodded, too frightened to speak.

“The Virtue you’ve triggered is incredibly dangerous. I’m sure you’ve never heard of it: the Virtue of Fluidity.”

Mark was astonished. “Actually,” he said, confused, “I have heard of it, but I don’t know what it does.”

Mrs. Tillens gasped. “Did Mrs. Evert mention it?”

“Only to say that it was a Compound.”

“Even then, she said too much. Virtues are cherished in the Bureaucracy normally, but for reasons unbeknownst to any of us, they hunt Fluids with a vengeance. Did you hear Adrian and I talking about Aris and Phoenix?”

“Yes. Who are they?”

“You don’t need to know that. What’s important is that, because of them, the Bureaucracy knows that someone in this town Triggered Fluidity. They don’t necessarily know that it was you, but if you let this slip, they will, and they will come after you. If you heard my entire conversation with Adrian, you’ll know that they’ll probably find out anyway. The Bureaucracy has ways to extract information from its workers.”

“People with Insight or Administration.”

“Exactly, so it’s imperative that you keep this quiet. Adrian will withhold information the best he can from the Bureaucratic workers, but they will most likely be able to glean your location. Do not do anything out of the ordinary at school anymore, or they will find you.”

She seemed genuinely scared for him, which of course unnerved him. He left the room, walking past Adam and Christine. They said something to him, but he didn’t hear it. He was in shock from his conversation with Mrs. Tillens, but one fact had managed to anchor itself in his mind.

The Bureaucracy is hunting me.