Project 2035

Chapter four The Heroes of 2035

The kids cheered and smiled. Overwhelmed, Tom stepped back. All of them looked sweaty and burned. They wore the same black uniforms as the Project 2035 men. There was one with a scar across his eye and another with cut, still fresh, across her chin. They were a mix of both girls and boys, and the age range seemed quite big. One little blonde, curly haired girl, who looked to be around five or six, stood clapping happily in with the mass of cheering children. Another boy looked fifteen or sixteen.
"Umm, thank you. But how do you know our names?" Talia asked. Tom turned his attention to Amelia, who gave him only a side glace, before looking back at the crowd.
"I will leave you two here, you can get to know the kids you will be working with." Amelia said, and turned around and walked out the door, and left it ajar. Tom closed the door behind her.
"Mr. S told us you were coming. He said he had a good feeling about you two." A boy with abnormally long black hair said. He had a deep British accent, and looked to be around fourteen. Tom raised an eyebrow.
"Us? I don't think he meant us. We aren't very important." Tom said. He side glanced at Talia, wondering if these kids were nice or not.
"No. He meant you two. He said you two would defeat the York family's future plans." He answered. "by the way, my name is Reese." He said.
"Reese. Okay. But why did Mr. S say we were special" Talia asked. Tom knew they weren't special.
"I don't know what he meant by 'special'. You don't look special to me. You will have to ask him yourself. But for now, you can meet the head trainer." Reese said, then looked around at the rest of the people. The crowd parted to the side, and a boy, who looked like the oldest of all of them, stepped forward in a beat. He had dirty blonde hair, a scar over his left eye, and he was so tall, Tom and Talia slightly coward in his presents. He had a strict face and he wore a frown with pride.
"So, you two are the two kids Isabella was telling us about. You're pretty scrawny to be special. Maybe Isabella mistook you two for someone else." The boy said. Tom scowled at him. Talia wore the same face, scowling at the boy.
"Who are you?" Tom asked. The boy shifted his position to be able to put his hands on his hips.
"I'm Chase. Chase Marley. I'm the boss when there's no one around. Wondering why? I'm the oldest, and most experienced. Which makes me the best leader." He said. Chase looked over at the group. "Introduce yourselves. You don't want them to call you 'him' or 'her', do you?" Chase frowned. Frowning seemed to be normal for him. There was a pause, then the little blonde haired girl stepped forward, staring at the light blue floor. She was small and cute, with an innocent face. It killed Tom to see a big scar across her face. Probably from training.
"Um, my name is Mariah. And I'm five years old." She said. Talia smiled. How could they let someone this small, fight to save the world? A thought troubled Tom. What did everyone mean by 'training?' Was it hard-core workout and running, or was it different? Tom decided to wait until everyone introduced themselves, before asking. Slowly, they all stepped forward and told the twins their name. Once the very last person, Jackie Davidson, age 11, stepped back into the lot of kids, Tom asked his question that puzzled him.
"What is the training?" Tom stared at the kids, but tried to not make eye contact with Chase, just in case he was glaring at him. The kids took a second to answer. They side glanced at each other, with worried expressions.
"We aren't telling you. It'll be a surprise when we train next. You two best be ready for the biggest surprise in your stupid little lives." Chase glared, as usual, with his thick, un-welcome eyebrows and big nose. His sly mouth was always curved down into an, unkind nature. Reese bit his lip, as though sensing Tom's future remark.
"You know, it takes more muscles to frown. But, you probably used to it by now, since you obviously don't know how to smile." Tom said, but quickly realized it was a bad idea. Chase's eyes came from narrow, to wide eyed, like a cat when it sees an approaching dog. He looked around at his fellow children, then stared back at Tom, with a look of disbelief.
"You better take back what you just said, or have me hating you until you die. It probably won't take that long, you won't last a minute in the training area." Chase snarled, finally showing his yellow, crooked teeth. The crowd "oohed" and turned to look at Tom, who was lost for words. He still didn't know what the training area was. If he wasn't going to last a minute in there, it was bound to be awful. Talia finally spoke.
"Hey, you don't know if we are good in the training area. We may be great at fighting. You have no idea. So don't make assumptions." Talia stared down Chase, who looked at that like a invitation for a fight.
"Well, prove it. If you are so tough, then beat me up right now. Come on, do it. Your puny little paws aren't going to hurt me." Chase cracked his knuckles and stretched out his neck. Tom looked over at Talia, giving her that "shouldn't have said that" look. Tom already hated Chase, it's was amazing how quick it took for Tom to get an enemy. And he was the leader. Talia straightened her back, took a deep breath, and spoke, not punched, spoke.
"No. I won't. You can't make me." Talia held her chin high as Chase pointed a brutally blistered finger at Talia.
"Weak. You are so weak. Isabella was wrong about you two. You are nothing more then a couple of metal clangers." Chase said, then turned around and walked away. Some of the crowd parted a way for him, but the people who forgot to make way for him, Chase would brutally push to the side and out of the way. He stormed around the sofa and to a door at the back of the room. Once the door slammed shut, the lot of kids looked over at the twins.
"Wow, no one has ever stood up to Chase like that before." A girl named Emily Jackson enthusiastically pointed out. The crowd nodded, some clapped, others just smiled. Tom put his hands out to quiet the little bit of clapping, and stared at the 59 kids.
"Why is that guy your head trainer if he is so mean?" Tom looked from one head to the other, each looking sorrowful and annoyed.
"We are too scared to tell he can't be the head. One guy tried to one-up him once. It didn't end well." Emily said, remembering the thought gave shivers to her spine. It seemed to give the others shivers, too, because they all looked quite uncomfortable after the thought. Tom didn't want to get on Chase's bad side, but it seems like he already has. Emily was on the edge of her seat, waiting for another one of Tom's questions.
"What are the adults around here doing about Chase?" Tom asked, then looked at Emily for a response, but instead, a small lean boy with short black hair and freckles on the other side of the room answered it before Emily could even open her mouth.
"They don't give a damn. All they care about is that we are able to save the future." The boy, who had introduced himself as Oliver McAllen, glared, as though just thinking about the workers here made him angry. Tom had one more question, which Emily could tell, she was hopping up and down, and glancing occasionally at Oliver to make sure he didn't answer the question before her again.
"And Chase said me and Talia were nothing more then a couple of metal clangers. What does metal clangers mean?" Tom turned to face Emily, who had opened her mouth to answer when Reese butt in and answered the question before an annoyed Emily could.
"It's when you aren't good enough to fight, the makers, also known as the adults, make you work as the blacksmith. It is just easy to make like some sort of robot to do the blacksmithing, because the makers can do anything, but if you didn't work as the blacksmith, you would be killed. So your pick, death or metal clangers." Reese kept an abnormally straight face the whole time. Tom was done answering questions. There was a creaking noise from behind Tom, and the door opened, revealing a girl that Tom had never seen before. She was quite pretty, with medium length dark brown hair, hazel eyes and freckles. She smiled and Reese walked over to the two twins.
"Hey, Isabella, this is Tom and that is Talia." Reese smiled. Isabella nodded and looked at the siblings.
"Sup! I'm Isabella Corduroy. I'm the animal expert. Nice to meet you. But there is no time for standard talk, it's time for your night time training. Follow me." Isabella said, as her head disappeared from around the door all 59 kids smiled devilishly at Tom and Talia.
"What?" Talia snapped.
"You will see. Just follow Isabella." Emily said.