Dragon Conjurer 3, page 8
“That’s all we’ve seen so far,” Michel answered and looked down the hall to the elevator.
“Then we’ll go ahead and take you down to the training floor.” I led the way down the hall toward the elevator, and then Nala and Steffi glued themselves to my side before we got there.
“I think the French girl has the hots for you,” the fairy-girl giggled in my ear as she patted my chest.
“I think so, too,” Nala added and glanced over her shoulder at the rest of our group. “She couldn’t stop staring at you the entire time we were eating.”
“What, are the two of you jealous?” I teased and rubbed their backs as we stepped into the elevator and waited for the others. “You know I’m not going to replace you girls.”
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t add more girls to our little group.” The cotton candy-haired goddess batted her eyelashes at me as she rose onto her tiptoes and put her lips right next to my ear. “Nala and I have talked about this, and we’ve agreed to share you with more girls if you want more girls. We’re okay with it as long as you don’t just stumble around and pick anyone with a pussy.”
“We trust your judgement,” the caramel-skinned beauty whispered in my other ear. “We just want you to be happy and have as much fun as you want.”
“You girls better stop before I lose my composure,” I warned and tried to keep my mind from wandering to the other girls I’d seen in my travels. I thought about Ronin and how badly I’d like to bed her, and then my thoughts wandered to how hot it would be to take Elisabeth back to my room and test the limits of her shapeshifting.
But then I thought about Lia, and I tried to keep myself from wishing too hard to see her again.
Before I knew it, we were at the first basement level, and our group stepped off the elevator and into the hall between the training rooms.
“This is a lot like our facilities,” Michel murmured as we walked down the hall between both occupied and empty training rooms. “We don’t have nearly this many rooms, but the science seems to be the same.”
“It combines holographic and shapeshifting technology to present a real and dangerous battlefield,” Nick added as he swung his arm wide like he was guiding a tour. “We’re never in any real danger of getting permanently injured, but we’ve always been good about treating the mock fights like the real ones.”
“What’s the point in pretending it’s real if you think the consequences aren’t?” Leon grumbled and crossed his beefy arms over his chest. “Your Academy is wise to encourage you to treat every fight like the real thing.”
Before we could turn around and head back toward the elevator, our favorite bully and his whacked-up entourage rolled up like they were getting ready to wreck our shit. Bruce and his crew stopped in front of our group, and all four of them crossed their arms with boyband-level synchronization.
Seriously, did they practice this shit before they came up to confront us?
“I see you’re in charge of leading the newest visitors around,” Point Break sneered and looked the French cadets up and down like he was sizing them up for a fight.
Did he really think he could take all seven of us when he couldn’t even beat me by himself?
What an idiot.
“Yeah, Burkhard put us in charge of keeping the French transfers company,” I answered without letting Bruce goad me into anger. I wouldn’t give him what he wanted today. “I don’t have time to fight with you today, Bruce. Just let me get past so we can get our visitors settled and--”
“And what?” Johnny interrupted as he pushed himself to the front of the group and stalked over to get in my face. “You think you’re tough now because you’ve got the foreign kids on your side?”
“Leash your attack dog, Brucie,” Nick scoffed as he moved to stand between the girls and the bullies. “If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll leave us the fuck alone.”
“I don’t talk to Yellows.” Carrottop started to walk toward us, like he was about to push Nick down, but Leon butted to the front of the group and stuck his arm out.
Johnny didn’t stop walking, and he made a grab for Leon’s wrist like he was going to shove the arm out of his way, but instead, the redheaded punk bounced off Mountain Man’s fist like he was made of rubber. Johnny flew back toward his team, and the three others had to catch him so he didn’t fall to the ground completely.
“We don’t tolerate bullies in AMIE,” Leon rumbled as he moved back to his place behind us and crossed his arms. “You should not taunt someone so powerful.”
“We’re powerful, too!” Bruce shouted as he shoved Johnny behind him. “We’re all Orange! Before this asshole came along--”
“I don’t want to hear any more,” Michel interrupted as he moved past me and started to walk back down the hall like there weren’t four bullies standing in his way. “I want to enjoy my first day here, and I don’t see how I can do that when you’re harassing my tour guide. If your headmaster assigned my team to work with him, then Dylan and his group can’t be as horrible as you claim.”
“B-But--” Point Break stuttered, but the seven of us pushed our way through his team and walked back to the elevator like he wasn’t even there. “You cowards! Just you wait! We’ve got another fight coming!”
“Just ignore him, guys,” I said so Michel and Leon wouldn’t turn back to kick Bruce’s ass. “Trust me, it’s not worth it. I fought him when I first came here, and he’s gotten so much more belligerent because of it. Let’s just finish the tour.”
“If you say so,” the redheaded boy replied and pushed the button to head up. “I trust you to know how to deal with the likes of him, but you should know Leon and I have no problem challenging him to a fight if that’s what it takes to shut him up.”
“I’m telling you, that won’t shut him up.” I turned and looked behind me before I boarded the elevator with everyone else. “Hey, Leon, that was pretty awesome back there.”
“I know,” the big man agreed as he put his huge hands behind his head. “My density power is helpful in situations like that. If you can’t make a bully back off with your words, sometimes you don’t even have to shove him.”
“Let him shove himself,” Nick finished with a grin. “Badass. I knew you guys were going to be great. I’m so glad we get to have you around with us while we work.”
“Where to next?” Elisabeth asked as we came out onto the second floor. “I can’t wait to see more of your Academy.”
“I’ll take you to our education floor,” I answered and stepped off the elevator first. I motioned for everyone to follow me down the hall, and I soon fell into the tour guide role. I led my team and our guests down the halls between the libraries, cadets’ science labs, and classrooms, and I stopped every now and then to explain what each class was and who taught it.
I felt like I needed to wear a cap and a vest that read “AIMM Tour Guide” or something like that, but I was just glad I knew enough about the Academy to lead a tour like this. It was a blast to lead everyone around and talk about how cool the Academy was. I couldn’t imagine spending my morning doing anything better.
Well, I could’ve been learning in my classes, but I didn’t think missing one morning was going to hurt too much. I’d missed a week and already felt pretty caught up afterwards.
After I showed the French all the classrooms, I took them through the other floors and explained what each floor had on it. I didn’t want to take them to our dorms just yet, so before we made it to the fifth floor, I took a detour and went back to the ground floor.
“Where are we going?” Steffi asked like she was part of the new group. “I thought we’d head to the dorms.”
“Yeah, but I want to show them around the grounds first,” I explained as I led them out through our lobby and out to the sidewalks around the building. “Just so they know we don’t have to spend all our free time inside.”
We stepped out of the front of the building and into the mid-October sunlight. The air was crisp as it entered my nose and pooled into my lungs, and it felt like mini ice crystals poking into my chest.
The trees around us had already turned from the leafy green colors to a rainbow of reds, oranges, and yellows. Some of the trees were stubbornly holding onto their leaves like they were trying to prevent the season from changing, but other plants had already lost their foliage to the ground. When we walked down the sidewalk, we crunched on the brown leaves scattered around, and the sound was like music to my ears.
“You have a beautiful facility,” Elisabeth breathed as she walked next to me. “You must be so happy to be here.”
“I am,” I assured her with a grin. “But not just because it’s pretty here. This place is better than anything I ever imagined for myself. I was going to school to be a folklore major, and I had no idea places like this even existed. This is way better than any job I could’ve found once I got out of college.”
“Why did you choose to be a folklore major?” The foxy redhead turned to face me, and her pale green eyes grew wide as her gaze searched my face. “It’s such a strange career choice, given what you couldn’t have known was real.”
“I love legends and folklore.” I shrugged my shoulders and reached up to catch a falling leaf just before it hit the ground. I held it up in my palm and smiled at how crisp and red it was, and then I handed it over to Elisabeth. “I didn’t know what else I could major in, and I wasn’t exceptionally good at most subjects. I would’ve passed my classes if I’d chosen to do something else, but I knew I wouldn’t love it. Honestly, I just planned on teaching anthropology at a community college somewhere near my hometown once I graduated.”
“Where are you from?” She held the leaf in between her fingers and started to examine it while we walked down the sidewalk.
“Kansas originally, but I moved out here to California to study at UC Berkeley.” I stuck my hands into my uniform’s pockets and looked down at my feet as we crunched through the scattered leaves. “What about you? What’s your life as a magic user been like?”
“Nothing short of eventful,” she giggled as she slipped the leaf into the breast pocket of her own uniform. “I was a student when I first discovered my ability to shapeshift. I’d had plans to attend the University of Bordeaux once I graduated, but since I am walking with you, I’m sure you know that didn’t happen.”
“Yeah, I figured,” I chuckled. “Go on.”
“I discovered my powers when I was sixteen, and a group of mean girls at my school mocked me for my appearance.” Elisabeth looked down at her hands and started to pick at her fingernails. “I remember coming home from school that day and staring at the mirror. I wished I looked different, and then my wish came true. Suddenly, I had a different facial structure altogether.”
“Did that scare you?” I tilted my head to one side and thought back on how I discovered my powers. Maybe not everyone had the same explosive story I did.
“Yes, it terrified me,” she laughed. “I had no idea who was staring back at me, and I was too afraid to leave my room and call for help. I begged whatever gods who’d changed me to give me my real face back, and just like that, I looked like normal.”
“Sounds like you had a handle on your powers.” I glanced over my shoulder and looked at the rest of the group.
Everyone behind me was laughing about something Nick had said, so I didn’t worry about focusing most of my attention on the French beauty.
“I kept what happened a secret for a short while,” Elisabeth continued, “but AMIE found me. I wholeheartedly agreed to go with them, and when I arrived, I discovered my cousin Michel had been brought in about six months before I was.”
“It must’ve been nice to have a familiar face with you.” I glanced at the redheaded French dude. “How did you two end up on a team?”
“It made sense to our leaders,” the foxy girl explained. “We’d been close as children, but his parents moved to the country shortly before I turned fourteen. We were able to reconnect quickly, and it was apparent that our powers would work well together.”
“And so you were paired up,” I finished as I looked back to Elisabeth. “And what about Leon?”
“He’d been rooming with Michel since my cousin arrived, so when it came time for the team to be made, Leon was brought with us.” The peridot-eyed beauty glanced over her shoulder at the mountain man behind us, and a smile started to creep up on her pink lips. “He wasn’t always this big. When I first met him, he was tall, but his muscles were much smaller. He looked proportionate.”
“I wouldn’t say his proportions are weird now,” I admitted and followed her gaze to Leon. “He’s huge, but at least he’s not, like, bodybuilder muscular. He actually looks healthy.”
“He’s healthy, that much is true,” she giggled as we stopped walking. “Healthy and stuck on himself.”
“I have a healthy respect for myself,” the mountain man corrected as Elisabeth and I moved around the others so we could walk back toward the building. “I don’t see a problem with that.”
We all laughed, and then we headed back up the sidewalk toward AIMM’s front entrance. I figured we’d made it through the major stops on the tour, so now it was time to head back to our bedrooms and relax until further notice. I didn’t think now was the time to take the new kids to classes since they’d be the talk of the whole period, and I wanted to let the French transfers get acclimated to the new environment before they were thrown into a classroom where they might be studied like lab rats.
We made it inside, and we were just starting to walk down the hall to the elevator when the doors ahead of us opened, and two guards stepped off. The huge Men in Black stalked straight toward us without looking away, and my gut sank like I’d just gotten caught for doing something really bad.
But I didn’t get into trouble, so what was it?
“Anything we can help you with?” I asked the guards as they stopped directly in front of us. “What’s going on?”
“I’m afraid you won’t be able to finish the tour,” one of them said as he adjusted the tiny pair of sunglasses on the bridge of his nose.
I still had no idea why they insisted on wearing sunglasses inside. It wasn’t like anyone was going to blow their cover around here.
“What’s happened?” Nala inquired as she stepped forward and stood next to me. Her hand slipped into mine, and I squeezed her fingers tightly as we stood there in front of the guards. “Did we do something wrong?”
“Did our Academy call us back?” Michel questioned from behind us.
“No, nothing like that,” the second guard rumbled and moved away from his partner. “We need you to follow us to the headmaster’s office. He has an urgent mission for you.”
“For all of us?” Nick asked while the guards turned and headed back to the elevator. “Or just us American kids?”
“He has requested to see all of you,” the first one answered without turning around. “Follow us. I’m sure Burkhard will explain everything once you get up there.”
Well, this wasn’t expected. I hadn’t counted on an important mission coming up so soon after the French kids got to AIMM, but I shouldn’t have been too surprised. After all, the monsters weren’t going to wait around until it was convenient for us. Usually, the monsters around the world seemed to attack exactly when things were the most topsy-turvy.
Oh, well. It was time for another adventure, and no matter what happened, I was super excited to find out where we were going.
“This is where the fun begins,” I murmured to myself.
Chapter Six
“Does your headmaster always give such little warning before he calls on you?” Elisabeth asked as the seven of us stepped off the elevator and headed toward Burkhard’s office.
“Yours doesn’t call you at the last minute?” I questioned while the guards marched in front of us like they were on their way to receive orders of war or something, when the truth was they would hold the doors open for us and let us go off to fight.
Not that I cared, since I loved being the one to run off and do all the daring deeds.
“Not always,” Michel replied, and I looked over my shoulder in time to see him give me a shrug. “When we know we might be on call for a mission, we always expect it. We prepare to be called upon as soon as we know there is a mission ahead, and if we are not chosen, then we wait for the next mission.”
“Sounds intense,” Nick commented. “Do you guys ever catch a break over there?”
“We’re not a military Academy,” Leon gruffed as he shook his head. “We just know the importance of being prepared.”
“Well, you’re in the country where the Minutemen got their start,” Nala added. “Americans are known for flying by the seat of our pants, so AIMM is no different.”
By then, we’d arrived at the door, and the guards moved toward it so they could push it open for us.
Since the French transfers had already been by the office, I didn’t see the need to slip back into my tour guide persona for a second. Plus, the serious look on Burkhard’s face told me it wasn’t the time to be funny anyway.
“I’m glad we found you,” the headmaster said as he motioned for us to sit down at the now-seven chairs in front of his desk. There were two rows, with three in the front row and four in the back.
“We came as soon as we could, sir,” I said as me and my fellow AIMM cadets shifted into the longer row. “I was just giving the AMIE cadets a tour of the grounds.”
“I know, and I greatly appreciate your dedication to do so, Mr. Cooper.” Burkhard waited until all seven of us were situated before he sat down behind his desk. “I apologize for the short notice, but I’m grateful to you for showing up so quickly.”
“I assume it’s pretty urgent if you needed us before we stopped back at our dorms,” Nick commented as he stared at the Kingpin look-alike. “What’s going on? Where are we going now?”
“We have received word of increased monster activity in Alberta, Canada.” The headmaster sat back in his desk chair and steepled his fingers like he always did when we were in the middle of a brief. “We’ve known this activity could spike in the near future, but we didn’t expect the increase to come so soon.”
