Echo XI: The Gun

Are your preparations complete?

Yes, now he better win. You have no idea how long it took to find that.

And your efforts are appreciated. Now can I go get things started? Wouldn’t want to keep people waiting.

Very well, although you don’t need my permission to do anything Nak.

I never said I did. I was merely being polite.

Well don’t do that again. It’s weird

I woke up early the next morning, at around five, probably because I was overly anxious for my first day of classes. It disturbs me how action packed my first day of guild life was. . . I mean, I got a super new healing power, fought three battles with extremely touch opponents, almost died twice, and all I had to eat was a muffin.

I began to think more about everything that happened yesterday. I wonder why Yian was so freaked out when he blocked that star yesterday. I mean, he’s moved as a shadow before, right after I got my healing power. What was so different about moving off the floor? I guess I probably wouldn’t understand. It’s most likely the kind of thing you have to experience.

Also, why do I have six hours of combat practice, not even including the hour of target practice? I don’t know if any person could survive that for five days a week, year round. I guess Demitri might have a reason, even if I don’t understand. I wonder what we could possibly be practicing today. Guess I shouldn’t wor. . .

It was just then that I realized I hadn’t checked what Demitri had left me in my locker. Actually, I hadn’t even opened my locker since I got back. So how did Fye get my desk. . . Ok this is making my head hurt. I picked up my desk from off the floor and pushed my finger in the lock on the wall.

On the bottom of my locker was a cardboard box. It was rectangular, and boxlike. It wasn’t very pliable, but it weighed practically nothing, as if there wasn’t anything inside of it. On the top was a very messily written, “To Echo.” I’m still not sure why I spent any time examining the box when I could have just opened it. Sometimes I even confuse myself.

<Planning on opening it anytime soon?>

{Nope.} I put my desk back in the locker. Reluctantly, I put the package back in too. I guess it was kind of self sacrificing just to spite Yian, but I still felt it was worth it. I laid back down and dozed off again.

Fye woke me up at around six. Unfortunately he did so by dumping a bucket of very cold water on me. I got out of bed, shivering, and threw my waterlogged pillow at him. He dodged it, laughing, even when I chased him around the room.

“You might want to consider getting ready. Breakfast won’t wait forever you know.”

“Oh right, food.” I ran over to my locker and changed into my uniform. Apparently someone replaced it while I was sleeping, because this one was perfectly in tact.

“In case you were wondering, the uniforms are outfitted with the latest nanotechnology, to repair any damage done to them in battle. It just takes a while to work.”

“Well that’s interesting.” I grabbed my card in put it in my pocket. I left the package in the locker, planning on retrieving it after lunch for my first combat class. “Ok I’m ready.”

“Let’s go.” He ushered me out of the dorm.

A few minutes later we arrived at the cafeteria. It was bustling with life. A small group of trainees were having an argument about who could throw a pancake the furthest. Two older girls were pulling at each others hair, and a teacher was frantically shooting flaming arrows at them, trying to get them to stop. The girls would part for a second, then go right back at it. Several boys in guild uniforms were watching, occasionally letting out a cheer. The teacher shot them a dirty look, then returned to trying to separate the girls.

Fye and I walked the long way around the cafeteria to avoid the confrontations. We walked into line and grabbed trays. I got a muffin and a big bowl of cereal, Fye got a huge stack of pancakes and doused them with syrup. We both grabbed a glass bottle of milk and went to look for seats. Unfortunately, the only seats available were next to Jin and one of the other members of Rose guild. Reluctantly, we sat down, shying away to the very edge of the table to put as much distance between us as possible. He glanced over at me, seemingly not noticing who I was, and returned to talking to his guild mate. Suddenly it seemed to register in his head who I was, because a huge grin spread across his face as he slowly turned his head toward me.

“Well, well, well, look who we have here.” His speech was slow and annoying. He slid over till he was sitting directly next to me. His guild mate looked a little confused as to why he was suddenly abandoned.

“You know, you should try to not say such cliché things. It makes you an expendable character.” He grinned and ran his fingers through his hair.

“I see someone’s still bitter about losing to me. Or maybe it’s about me defeating your guild so easily yesterday.”

“I see you like taking credit for other people’s work too. Seriously, the jerks are always the first to go. I mean, unless they befriend the protagonist and miraculously undergo an emotional transformation at the most convenient time.” I looked him up and down. “I doubt that’s your cup of tea.” I could tell Fye wanted to laugh, but he restrained himself out of courtesy. Yian had no such qualms, as he burst out laughing as soon as I finished my sentence.

“So maybe Yian will die first.” I scoffed and went back to talking to Fye. “Don’t tell me I struck a nerve.” He grinned. “I guess I’ll see you later.” He got up and walked away from the table. As soon as he left Fye burst out laughing. I laughed too.

“So how do you know Jin?”

“Wow, long story. Well not really. Actually I just fought him yesterday.” He looked confused.

“Why?”

“Well, that’s kind of a medium length story. It all started when I first arrived. . .” I spent the next fifteen minutes telling him everything that happened since I got to the academy, including my encounter in The Mind with Lai and Roy.

“Wow.” He sat back in his chair. “That was one action packed first day. Jeez man, you should write a book or something.” Yian and I laughed. “And coincidentally, it’s just about time for class.” He got up from the table and chucked his tray across the room, perfectly landing into the trash can.

“Aren’t we supposed to be saving those.”

“Oh. . . oh well.” Just then a loud bell rang. Everyone at once rushed to the doors and down the hallways. “Yep, time to go. Check your map for your first class.” With that he dashed out of the room and flew around the corner.

In World History we did a bunch of pointless “getting to know you” games. No one I knew was in that class, but I did see two other members of leaf guild, the rank seven and thirteen. I nodded to them, but only thirteen responded. Seven scoffed and turned back to the group of kids he was talking to before. I didn’t feel like participating, so I put my head down and closed my eyes, pretending to be asleep. I could feel the teacher’s eyes burning a hole in my neck, but I refused to give in. Eventually he gave up and went back to “teaching” his class.
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Soon the bell rang, 9:00 came sooner than expected. That’s mainly because I lost most of my sense of time after spending so much of it in The Mind or fighting someone. I probably should have gotten a watch. Oh well, too late now.

I checked my card to see where the Event hall was. Turns out it was all the way across the school. Go figure. I burst out the door and charged down the main hallway, eventually arriving at the hall. A few students were still trickling in, but the majority was already in their seats. The room was split into four main columns and three rows, about seven chairs long and four wide. I looked around for Fye, eventually seeing him wildly waving in a seat far to the right. I walked over and took the chair next to him. We exchanged hellos and waited for something good to happen. That something came five minutes later.

“Hello students!” A voice seemed to boom from all directions. Several kids covered their ears to protect them from the violent sound. “Welcome to the Events!” A cheer erupted from the crowd, which soon died down. I guess they did do this every day.

“We have some new participants today!” The students started shifting in their seats uncomfortably. “Actually this is a first, because our first new applicant is only rank two!” This time a huge wave of excitement charged through the crowd. I wonder why this is so exciting. “Without further a due, I present to you, Echo, from Leaf!” Three gigantic spotlights flicked on at the same time and shined directly on me. The light was so intense it took five minutes for my pupils to adjust. When they finally fully adjusted, I noticed everyone in the room was staring at me. I awkwardly waved. Some people were completely awestruck.

“He looks like he’s 10.”

“No way he has enough talent to be in a guild.”

“And rank two at that. I mean, for his size that’s impressive.”

“He must be one hell of a thief.”

“Students I would hate for you to get distracted!” The booming voice interrupted the chatter. “The second student joining us today comes straight from Rose Guild. Many of you may know him from various guild battles or meals in the cafeteria. He’s finally taking a break from his private training to join the rest of in regular classes. Give it up for, Jin!”

Many of the kids gasped. Apparently they knew, and feared him. I guess he was an extremely powerful and memorable person. And he said himself, I one day could be stronger than him. It made me want to run straight to combat practice with Demitri. The spotlights turned toward Jin, but he didn’t even flinch. Probably something about his fire ability gives him a natural resistance to bright lights. He was sitting in the same column of students I was. He slowly turned around and grinned at me, waving very discreetly. What was his problem . . . why was I so damn interesting? The response to Jin’s introduction was the exact opposite of mine, everyone tried to avoid his gaze. He turned back around and focused on nothing in particular. Come to think of it, I wasn’t aware of who was speaking to us, or which side of the room was the front. It all looked the same.

“Well now that that’s settled, let’s get down to the details of this event!” The crowd cheered again. “Today’s event will utilize your piloting and reaction time. Students with higher energy levels will most likely do better in this competition.” Someone next to me groaned. “I can’t tell you much more than that, I think you’ll enjoy it though. Now for the prize.” The wall the chairs were facing began to split in two with a loud groaning noise. When they came to a halt, they revealed a golden pedestal with an ornate black gun resting on top of it. It seemed to glitter in the spotlight.

“Today’s prize is “Necros”, a pistol forged from the rare Black Crystal ore. This is a one of a kind weapon of extreme craftsmanship and efficiency. It will fetch a fine amount at any store. Good luck finding bullets for it. Now to start the event.” As soon as he finished his sentence the floor disappeared, sending everyone wildly descending into a dark abyss.

I landed on a cold, wooden surface in a large, dark room.

{I really have to stop waking up in strange places. Why can’t they have a test where I actually know where I’m going for once?}

<That wouldn’t make it interesting would it?>

I got up and looked around. I was in a small ship that looked something like a rowboat but with more depth. There was a control panel in the front of the boat. In the center of the panel were two green circles with a black outline of a hand in the center of each. Between them was a steering column with a blank screen in the center. On each side of the circles were six switches, three on each side. They were labeled from left to right as: L, R, B, A, C, S. I assumed I was supposed to place my hands on the circles. As soon as I did such, I felt a tingly feeling, then a humongous sucking sensation. My energy was being drained through my hands and into the ship. I was so surprised I left my hands on till I started feeling lightheaded. I ripped my hands from the machine and it roared to life. It leveled itself and hovered up three feet above the ground. I pressed the button on the right side of the column and the ship flew forward.

<Whoa.> We must have been moving at 200 miles an hour, at least, with no protection from the wind. Soon the wall came into view.

<Uhh, Echo?> We were about 100 feet from the wall.

{Yeah?}

<Might you consider turning?> 50 feet from the wall.

{You know I thought about it but.}

<Just turn damn it!> I pulled up on the steering column with all my strength. It was just in time too, because the ship was now flying directly up the wall, with about three inches of air separating the two. I kept pulling and the ship separated from the wall and flew back the way we came, upside down. I was hanging on to the wheel for dear life. A red light started flashing on the screen and the ship flung itself back upright, violently slamming me onto the wooden floor.

“Ouch.”

<Get tougher.> I was about to respond, but out of no where a bolt of white lighting flew over my head, barely missing me.

“What the . . .” Another one came from no where and flew a little to my right. The bolts were coming from above and to the right of us. I heard a faint, wild yelping in the distance, and then more bolts came flying at us. I let go of the button instinctively to try and block the bolts. What I didn’t know was that our ships stopped on a dime. My body kept flying forwards, soon to be over the bow of the ship. I grabbed onto the nose, which covered my hand with splinters. I kept sliding forward, dragging the ship with me but not at the same speed. The wood stabbed into my hand, drawing blood and digging deep into my skin. I resisted the urge to scream and climbed back into the ship. As soon as I did, another ship zoomed by my head. That was probably who was attacking us.

<Are you ok.>

{Yeah fine.} I used my field dagger to take out the larger splinters. The rest would have to wait for later. The wounds began to glow green and the wound began to quickly heal, stopping the bleeding within seconds. The ship that passed us was covered with a black, metallic looking material. But other than that, the ship looked pretty much the same as mine.

{How is he shooting at us. . . What are we even doing here.}

<How would I know . . . maybe you should check some of the switches on the dashboard.>

{Oh yeah . . .}

I flicked the switch labeled L. Two lights flashed on in the front of the ship. Illuminating a small part of the ship.

“Hmm” I flicked the R switch. The screen on the steering wheel lit up. Some text was displayed, which said:

[u]Death Match![/u]

Destroy your opponents before they destroy you.

The text dispersed after I finished reading and a radar field filled the screen. On it were a few dots, one was speeding away from us. It began to slow down, and then start coming back our way.

{That’s probab –}

<That’s obvious, no need to say it out loud.>

As predicted, the ship from before soared back toward us, guns blazing. Quickly I turned the ship around and piloted the ship forward as fast as it would go.

{Damn, I want some guns too!} I frantically flicked the B switch. The ship started making all kinds of noised, and then flung forward even faster than before. The dot on the screen that was following us soon began to fall back. As soon as we were out of range I turned off the switch.

{Well if I don’t have weapons I’ll have to out pilot him.} I turned off the lights and turned the ship to face our pursuer. When he was about 150 feet from me, I turned on the lights and charged right for him. I hoped the light was getting through the cover. Right before we impacted, I darted above his ship and turned the wheel as hard as I could while I released the accelerator. When I was fully turned around, I accelerated the ship directly for the back of his ship. I turned on the booster so I could catch up to him, and impact him a little bit. Our hulls met and I turned off the boost. I kept flying into him, keeping him from turning in any direction. Eventually we came to the wall. I waited until we were almost there and turned back on the booster. When we were dangerously close to the wall I turned off the booster and the accelerator, and watched his ship smash to pieces against the wall. Before his body hit the floor it disintegrated in to several blue particles, then to nothing at all. So were in The Mind, again.

<That was some nice piloting, although you neglected to check the other switches.>

{. . . Damn!}

I flipped the A switch and two panels opened up in the front of the ship. A long metallic nozzle slowly reached out from the new opening.

{All that work . . .}

<Get over it.> The button on the left side of the wheel popped up. I’m assuming that was the button to fire the weapon. I looked back down at the radar screen. Of the 27 dots I saw before, only two were left. As I flew back into the room, one of the dots disappeared. The booming voice came back.

“This is a very interesting match folks. Just out of coincidence the final two contestants left are Jin and Echo, our two new applicants. This should be good.” I gulped. This hardly seemed fair. The dot on the screen, representing Jin’s ship sped toward mine, much faster than that other ship. I think he was using the boost. Soon his ship came into view. It was grand, small but formidable. It looked to be completely engulfed in flames. The room seemed to grow hotter and smaller the closer he got to me. I could make out his voice of the crackle of the flames.

“Well, well, well, we meet again. Hope you weren’t planning on winning.” When he was done, several gigantic fireballs came flying at my ship. I frantically maneuvered around them and shot directly into his ship. The bolts that came out of my ship were a deep red, they looked like lightning dipped in blood. However, the assault seemed to have no effect of the ship, he didn’t even try and dodge. I could hear his annoying laugh in the distance.

<The switches stupid. There’s two more.> I quickly flipped the C switch. The front of the gun began to glow, and particles of light started to be sucked into the nozzle. Soon, the whole front of the gun was completely bathing in a sphere of blood red light. I used boost to maneuver the ship into a position aiming directly at Jin’s ship, and fired the charged shot. The blast came out in a gigantic sphere that flung my ship backwards and hurled directly at the ship at an extremely high speed. Jin quickly boosted out of the way, narrowly avoiding the blast. The ball spun harmlessly through the wall into nothingness.

Frustrated, I flicked the last switch. The screen went black, and the vessel began to plummet to the floor. The only thing that kept me in the ship was my death grip on the steering wheel. I pulled myself down and flicked the switch back in its original position. The power returned to the ship and it stopped plummeting, slamming me onto the deck, again.

{What the hell was that!}

<Well obviously that switch turns off the power to the ship.>

{. . . You. Suck.}

I circled the ship and kept peppering it with bolts. Jin returned fire with powerful plumes of flame. I dodged them all, barely, then boosted off to safety.

{He’s invincible! There’s no way I ca . . .} Conveniently, I came up with a plan mid sente . . . thought. Quickly, I boosted back toward Jin’s ship. Soon I got within firing distance. He began shooting more fire bolts at my ship. I didn’t bother maneuvering around them. If my plan worked, the fire wouldn’t have enough time to completely destroy my ship. About 50 yards from his ship I flipped the last switch. The ship completely shut down, flying downwards and forwards slightly. I jumped to the back of the ship, so the front started to turn upwards. When the front was pointed directly at Jin’s ship I jumped forward and turned back on the power. The booster was still activated so the ship shot forward, directly at Jin’s ship. I flipped the charge switch on, and the powerful bolt slowly charged to full strength. Just before I collided with Jin’s ship, I fired the bolt, which made a hole straight through it, wide enough for me to pass through. I could hear Jin’s excited yelp below me.

“Excellent!” As I neared the ceiling, the screen went out again. The ship began to plummet back down to the floor.

{What the hell!}

<Did you flip the switch again?>

{No!}

We began to fall at extreme speeds, faster than the ship could fly with booster. As soon as we passed Jin’s ship, it exploded, sending tendrils of blood red energy and ship debris flying everywhere, which turned into blue light and dissolved. The ship kept falling. It was falling so quickly, a vacuum was created by the ship, cutting off my oxygen. Right before we hit the ground a blue light surrounded me. I opened my eyes with a gasp. I found myself sitting right in the chair I was before the event, definitely in an oxygen rich atmosphere. Some were looking at me with anticipation, some with admiration, and some with digression. The speakers in the room played a loud fanfare.

“Congratulations Echo, You’ve won!” Everyone in the room erupted in a cheer. Fye was the loudest. Jin got up and walked over to me. His hands were smoking, for some strange reason. He stuck his hand out with a grin. I shook it, although they were burning hot. I refused to back down. I could feel the skin peeling off my hand.

“Congratulations. You finally beat me at something. However, this wasn’t too fair of a competition. We’ll settle this in the battlefield. Later though. For now just enjoy your victory.” He let my hand go and walked back to his seat. Where his hand had been was a huge black burn. It hurt, a lot. The healing started, slower than normal, although most of the pain was gone within seconds. Fye looked at me with amazement.

“Man, when you told me about that power I could have never expected this.” I shrugged.

“Get used to it.”

The voice boomed back into the room. “Echo, would you please come up to the stage.” I was too busy with everything else to notice a man standing in the front of the room, on a stage that wasn’t there before. His features were too defined to accurately describe, but I can say he was strangely handsome. He had a glow about him that was irresistible, like you just had to be his friend. I walked up to him and he shook my now fully healed hand. He was holding the Necros on a green pillow with gold trim. He moved the pillow in front of me, and I slowly picked up the gun.

“Congratulations. Use it well Echo.” I looked at the extremely fancy and extremely light gun in my hands. It was amazing! Slowly I lowered it to my side, and then triumphantly held it over my head. The whole room erupted into a deafening cheer. This moment seemed to make all my time here worth it.

Just as the cheer died down the bell rang again. The man took one last cursory glance at me, then disappeared into a plume of light.

{Time to meet Demitri again.}

<Let’s hope this time goes better than the last.>

Okay, thanks for reading. If you hadn’t noticed I’m using roman numerals for my chapters now. Also, if you would like to be in the story PM me for an application or something. Comments are appreciated, you know, constructive criticism and everything. I’ll be posting more frequently from now on, since I got over my writers block. I know some of it was evident in this chapter, but I think it turned out okay. Anyway, I have stuff to do so I’ll see you guyz later.

~JSibbs Productions