High School Revolution

Chapter 20: The Origins of the Revolution Project

Strider's mind was trying to figure everything out. Kevin was now much younger than he should be, apparently had metal enhancements like a cyborg, and was trying to figure out what led to this. Then, he enthusiastically came to a realization.

"You're the same age as us. Wait, is that why you're called a student-teacher?"

Kevin sighed. "That's the first thing you think about?" He chuckled, something he didn't do too often. "You haven't changed a bit, have you?"

Strider cocked his head in disappointment. "I have! I think," second guessing himself. "I hope," before trying to get his focus back. "Okay, this isn't about me, it's about you. But I'll listen. Though if it's too painful, just give me the core details."

Kevin took off his glasses. "Thank you, I suppose I should start from the beginning. The Revolution Project was built here, and yes, it was designed to help the next generation, but-not exactly students."

"Human society?" The young cousin figured that would make the most sense.

"That's what I tried to steer the project towards. In reality, it was for creating super soldiers."

"Wait, what? For like war or something?"

"Sort of. You've heard of the No Child Left Behind act?"

Strider shook his head. "What was it?"

"It was an attempt to improve the school systems back when you all were born. But it limited the amount of subjects you were allowed to take until you went to college, it cost a lot of teachers their jobs, schools were closed down, and it was so focused on testing, a lot of students couldn't handle the pressure and dropped out. You've felt and seen that happen before, right?"

"Yeah, in elementary I was at the top but in middle school, the workload was brutal. I kept getting close to the low honors but it was just too much to keep up with. The one time I actually made it," sucking his teeth, "I couldn't make it because my behavior kept getting me an F, and you needed a Pass or Fail in every class to make it." Strider gritted his teeth. "Not helped by all the stupid fights and stuff I had to fight back against," cleching his fist and slaming them into the wall. "I was so close!"

"Combined with Auntie being hard on you, it wasn't an easy experience. You mentioned in your application you would come home crying almost every day, right?"

He took a second to chill. "Well that wasn't the only reason why, but yeah."

"That's exactly why the program was flawed. Thankfully the 44th removed it but with the 45th, we realized it was still an issue, especially as I went to high school. So when I was recruited to join the Revolution Project back in my freshman year of college, I was hesitant about the whole ordeal. I had expected blackmail or an ultimatum until I learned about who were supposed to be the subjects of the experiments."

"Kids?"

"Exactly. When I heard about that part, I wanted to stop the project all together. Then I met Professor Ivo, he explained how he was recruited to join, but wanted to avoid the kids from being hurt at all costs. I learned about his past, and we agreed that if I joined, I'd be allowed to be the head researcher and have the most influence on how they were treated."

"Oh, so why would you be recruited in the first place? Wait, that sounded super rude didn't it? I mean of course you would be, you're super smart after all. Hold on."

Kevin stopped his rambling with the nudge to the head. "I get what you mean. But my resume was a bit hard to not get me noticed. You ever get those ideas in your head and you start to generate, and desire to flesh them out and manifest them into reality?"