The second segment of school continued on well for Kudzai; the questions had stopped and the cla.s.s was engrossed in their lessons. They had begun biology under the guidance of Mr. Basin, their biology, and chemistry teacher. The cla.s.s prep, Dionne, who Kudzai noticed due to her elitist and over emphasis on mannerism, was head over hills over Mr. Basin. She looked like the poster girl for the school, not the one who made grown men drool, but the one who fit the image of the school: cla.s.s, etiquette, excellence, and formality. She sat at the very front of the cla.s.s with her cronies: Clarice, David, Michoone, and Alice. She was a looker, but one thing that made preps unbearable as living specimens was that they were usually intimidating or extremely rude and sn.o.bbish people. She was bangable in his eyes, but reeked of the psycho b.i.t.c.h scent to the point that he erased any potential interest in her. On the far left of the cla.s.s, at the window, sat Melissa Keaton who would looked dazed, taking intermittent glances outside the window and sketching something on a piece of paper. Kudzai had figured out that she was the artsy emo chick in the cla.s.s. She would of course look back and sight him in his observation pose. Kudzai would then quickly initiate pretence of having been doing something else. The back of the cla.s.s had the ultimate vantage point and this made it easier for Kudzai to identify and scrutinise the mannerisms of each individual in the cla.s.s. The Korean guy, Neo Jo Yeun sat in the middle of the cla.s.s. His row was a clique of sportsmen and a girl next to him who seemed to fidget a lot to discuss with him, writing him something on a piece of paper for him to read or whispering. Her name was Tracy Madison, an average looking girl with blue eyes, short curly hair, noticeable cheek bones, lip balm on her lips and a basic body that was yet to reach p.u.b.erty. From the way she handled herself around him, she was clearly Neo"s admirer. The other guys in the clique would soon be Kudzai"s sporting colleagues, if they were in the athletics, basketball, and fencing team. However if they were lacrosse players it would just be a basic cla.s.smate relationship. Lacrosse as a sport to him was an elitist, isolationist sport that didn"t have much compet.i.tion due to it being within only A-list schools settings. The other sports had a lot of compet.i.tion ranging from all walks of life, private schools, and public schools. His negative opinion of the sport was most likely going to be permanent.
Kudzai had surprisingly gotten along with the two he was sitting next to, Jonathan and Lisa. They had shared their personal tastes and had reached common ground. Jonathan was the guy who blogged about the school"s sports stats, tech reviews, style reviews and at times, gossip columns. He was a big movie guy and shared similar interests with Kudzai, but he was kind of effeminate and soft for his size. After a brief conversation with him, he realised that he was gay and ended up giving more attention to Lisa. His tolerance for Jonathan"s h.o.m.os.e.xuality was a miracle on its own. Being raised in a militant environment, soldiers who were part of the LGBT communities were stigmatized and such liberal concepts didn"t settle well in the barracks. It was usually best to keep one"s orientation under wraps. However, Lisa compensated him well by being a fun person who often blurted odd s.e.xual innuendo. She was a tom boy who obviously found Kudzai to be fascinating though the feelings of attraction were not mutual on both sides. Lisa was okay looking, but her dialogue, which bordered on guy talk, landed her in the friend zone. She was also geeky but in a different sense, talking about MMORPGs and ancient medieval lore. From his time with them, he got to know about Emerald, who he had asked about as they conversed. As Kudzai had predicted, Emerald was a freak and exceptional artist who actually was rumoured to have paintings that sold extremely well at auction houses. Jonathan even stated that she recently made 900000 credits (equivalent to $900000 US dollars in the story) when she submitted her painting of a popular Reverie icon, princess Danai Guru. Her paintings were usually humongous and framed at a whooping 5metres by 7metres in terms of dimensions. Unlike most rich kids who were dependant on their parents" affluence to flaunt their sn.o.bbery and cla.s.s, Emerald was an exception. Though Jonathan argued that her success was mostly due to her father being a well renowned art gallery curator in Sky Colossus. Her father multiple major art galleries and museums, which generated decent returns from the commission money they got for having sold the works of the artists. Lisa would interject Jonathan and defend Emerald"s eligibility, but Kudzai remained quiet at the spectacle of these two arguing. The two of them both agreed on one thing though, that she had no reason to attend school at all. All she did was sleep around with younger guys, attend parties, leaving her infamous exploits and immoral influence everywhere, which could . She was a temptress who Kudzai was warned to avoid at all costs. These chats all happened during the time it took for the next teacher to come to their cla.s.s for the next lesson. It was set up in a way that if the period ended the next teacher would have to come from wherever they were and access the cla.s.s. This restricted ma.s.s movement in corridors and made it in such a way that kids would not have an excuse of being lost which was common in the old system of students going to the teachers" different cla.s.srooms after a lesson. Kudzai learned a lot from these two, even finding out that Meiko was in the cla.s.s 2A2, information that really gave him something tangible to work on. As the last lesson came to a close, Kudzai had made new friends, familiarised himself with the cla.s.s and fit in well. The transition from a boy"s school to a mixed school was a pilgrimage and St. Calteco high was his holy sanctuary. As he packed his books and emptied the room like the rest of the cla.s.s, greeting the sports clique and telling Jonathan to email him all of last year"s notes, he b.u.mped into Neo. Neo who seemed to have a serious expression in the beginning, grinned at the sight of Kudzai. He nudged him on the back calling out his name.
"Kudzai wait!"
"Huh...oh Neo… what"s up?" he said casually.
"I know everyone here was going on and on about your brother, but I actually have something different to say." Something different? What was in Neo"s mind was drawing Kudzai into a state of curiosity and nervousness.
"Sure man, tell me what"s on your mind."
"I want to tell you that your father is a h.e.l.l of a war hero and that his military policy in regards to the grabbing of Animorph states is a blessing to the state. I respect him and think his cool."
"Sure... thanks man, you really surprised me with that one." he said, scratching his head over the idea that someone could have such an admiration for his father. It was true that he was a war hero of notable merit and currently the Vice Admiral of the most powerful navy in Reverie, but the public didn"t know how he was behind his prestigious uniform. He was the hero to the ma.s.ses, but he was the villain within his own house hold. Kudzai received his father"s complement and acted normal. He proceeded out the cla.s.s, heading towards the tennis ball courts thinking to himself, "If only they knew who he really was."
Kudzai met Matthew Logan at the tennis ball courts which had a foyer, the designated area where these two would go together alone. The room had the usual library of trophies and school pictures that gave it a family feel, the kind expect in a school of this calibre. Morgan was mostly quiet, being taciturn as he led the young man to a room at the far end of the foyer. The room looked like a cubicle, a small s.p.a.ce with not much to speak of. Kudzai got underwhelmed by this and asked, "Hey I hope this isn"t it, cause that would just be a s.h.i.tty joke."
"Patience kid, don"t puke once we fall."
"Fall?"
The cubicle"s door shut behind them and a series of mechanical sounds began to happen. Kudzai heard the shift of gears and then suddenly their cubicle plummeted to the ground. It was an elevator that led to the underground room that Morgan had intended to show Kudzai. Morgan began to speak, "You"re familiar with the number of types of Animorphs right?"
"Yah," he said, holding his wits together, "what about them?"
"Of the 3 types commonly known; land creatures, sea creatures and sky beasts, there is a fourth that is never stated...actually omitted to not cause a panic in the state."
"A fourth, wait a minute why are you telling me this and how would you know this, if that were even true?" he said, weirded out by his sudden revelation of things foreign to him.
"Your brother didn"t tell you didn"t he? Hmm... Kudzai, you and I are the same."
"Huh?"
"We are both sons of high ranking officials in the military."
"Wait you are?" he asked, shocked that his brother had never mentioned this. They were in the same team, but it"s not like Tendai would disclose information about his friends as if it were public domain.
"Yes, Captain Miles Logan is my dad. He works alongside your father. His also at that meeting at the north federation."
"Wow I didn"t think there would be a lot of us types."
"Trust me there are more of us, but I will introduce you to Tinashe and Edmund soon. First things first, I wanna see how good you are at VR battles."
"Cool."
The cubicle reached the bottom and made more mechanical sounds and electrical sounds. The wall in front of them separated and opened them to a world so far-fetched it looked like a prototype to alien technology. It was a corridor with several servers stacked to each side of the walls, all glowing ambient with neon lights. As they trotted down the corridor, their footsteps left an imprint which then conspersed in the form of purple and blue lights on the black surface of the floor. Matthew led the way, going straight, turning right to face another door ahead. The sound of computers processing things became more vivid as they drew nearer to the last door ahead. As soon as they reached the door, the blue mounted object just above the door began to scan him, a process that took less than 10 seconds. Upon being scanned he uttered, "Scan the new member Harvey." An automated voice then replied, "Beginning scan of Kudzai Mhike." Kudzai was scanned and the colours of blue and purple were highlighted onto his skin. Kudzai then said, "Well, it seems like your scanner is no different from the one used at the Elba barracks, it accesses and relays information in real time."
"Yah... it"s the genuine article." The door in front of them opened as soon as the voice said, "Scan complete." What Kudzai saw was a highly technological circular room with extremely large curved terminals. The setup was like a concentric circle with subsets of gadgets, overlying cables and four seats at the centre. The servers acted as the sledges and the light in the terminals resembled that of a larva glow lamp with fluctuating intensity of different lights. The room itself glistened as if there were Christmas lights shimmering on and off. Kudzai didn"t really marvel at the site of this for he had been used to seeing such at the barracks. All he said to kill the silence was," Sweet set up man."
"Thank your brother who actually forked out the cash to have this built."
"Wait he did?" he asked, caught off guard by this sudden revelation. The secrets of his brother were slowly being revealed to him and somehow in the back of his mind he began to wonder if Tendai had a lot more than he was letting on.
"I guess he didn"t tell you," he said, glancing at the kid in bewilderment, "well that"s a personal issue that you will have to sort out between the two of you. For now get on the NHMD seat."
Kudzai obliged Matthew and went on ahead to go lie on the NHMD seat. The seat was inclined at an angle of 30° degrees and had a combination of latex, synthetic, and silky nodes that were supposed to latch onto the limbs of the one in a reposed position. Matthew did the same, having the nodes latch onto him. Upon lying on the seat, a mechanical sound began to occur, and a HMD device began to appear below the top tip of the seat. It pulled a full rotation and then latched onto his eyes. The same happened to Kudzai. The terminal began to glow and thus an image of a Greek like statue with chiselled fine features began to speak.
"Master Matthew, back yet again for another round of trying to break Mr. Mhike"s record."
"Not this time Harvey, I am here for a versus match, the slayer campaign at the Mylican island with a 3 kills target count. This is what I chosen for today." he said, kind of embarra.s.sed by the disclosure of his personal trials.
"Very well, enjoy your play." said Harvey, instantly dissipating upon the last word.
The VR game that both Matthew and Kudzai were about to play was different in that it was connected to the brain"s response to stimuli and synapses. NHMD stood for Neural Head Mounted Display, thus it meant that whatever they were going to encounter in the game, the pain and other tangible experiences, would be felt by them. Kudzai felt a tingly sensation in his body and then heard Morgan say, "May the best man win!" Kudzai blacked out and then woke up in a tropical jungle set up which had the feel of a remote island. The flora looked exquisite and bushy, the likes of the Amazon rain forest. He could see mountains in the background and beautiful red and orange clouds. The time in the game was most probably around 17:00, which would explain the colour of the clouds. It was most probably twilight, which looked like the perfect setup for an epic conquest. Kudzai soon realised that he had body armour similar to that of a police officer in the SWAT. He was wielding a large lance with spiral sharp serrated p.r.o.ngs at the end. It looked as if it were designed to slay a whale, something he had chosen naturally upon waking up in this virtual reality. Apparently, unlike most games that allowed you to choice your weapons on a dashboard, the game gave the user a weapon and armour based on his unconscious desire to have it. To the merit of the game, it was usually right and the users usually didn"t complain for they would wake up with what they had wanted in their artillery. Kudzai then noticed Matthew who was wielding a huge rectangular prism like hammer that was the size of a brawny 7 feet tall man. It was as if he had taken iron ore and compressed it into one shape. Kudzai naturally reacted like any normal person upon seeing that, he was overcome by great awe.
"Dude what the h.e.l.l is that?"
"You mean this," he said, tilting his head to look at his weapon, "this baby is called the Livestock basher."
"What a name."
"It weighs a lot, like close to 10tonnes, but its light as a feather when um using it."
"I call bulls.h.i.t on that! 10tonnes, you"re lying."
"Um not, my weapon is modelled out of my personal a.r.s.enal outside the VR world. If you still doubt me, come, try and lift it. You might as well use your tamer strength." he said, trying to sway the kid into belief. Kudzai walked towards Matthew who was pretty much wearing his school uniform in the game. Kudzai started to think that Matthew was pretentious; he had no body armour that was necessary for this kind of mission and seemed to have suggested that he could lift a planet easily. Kudzai then stretched out his left hand and grabbed hold of the long handle of the weapon. He began to tense and his muscles began to bulge, actually ripping off a part of the armour that had concealed his bicep. He had activated his tamer brute strength and attempted to lift it. In that moment, he remembered the painful moments of the gym that involved lifting weights that weighed on his will power to the point of surrender. The darn thing was extremely heavy and made him feel less of a man as Matthew observed him with a grin of mockery. He began to grunt and his body became veiny, showing how he was struggling. He only managed to lift it 3centimeters above Matthew"s hand. He quickly gave up and admitted defeat. Matthew had clearly now become the alpha male in this setting and Kudzai realised that he was bad news. Kudzai went on to ask, "How are you this strong?"
"It"s a trade secret I can"t let on kid, ask your brother and you will be well informed. For the meantime, let"s see who"s the fastest when it comes to taking down these animals. The GPS on your screen should have already turned on, you know the rest."
"Alright, I will show you what I am made of."
"Good, if you"re compet.i.tive it makes crushing you even more enjoyable," he said, getting into a stance as if he was about to jump, "let the games begin!"
Matthew leaped upwards like a man who had been deployed from a catapult. The ground where he had initiated jump had ruptured, cracking as if there was an earth quake. Kudzai had not clearly seen how he went from point A to Z for it all happened in a flash. The 10tonne hammer of death was wielded with such majestic ease and prowess to the point it was like the perfect glimpse to a form of remarkable cinematography done by the hands of a talented film maker. Even Matthew"s landing in the dense bushy forest to the far left was astonishing. A loud boom was heard and shortly after that, there were vertical gusts of dust emanating from within. Kudzai realised that Matthew was in another league of his own. This was going to be a challenge that Kudzai would surely lose, but Kudzai wasn"t one to give in even if it was an insurmountable task.