Omega

Chapter 3

The boy-in-black searched the face of that Eastern boy. That boy looked wary of him, which was understandable. He could be quite intimidating sometimes. The other boy, who was obviously Southern seemed to be trying to ignore everything. The boy suddenly turned to him.
"Hi," he said, "I'm Andrew Smith, what's your name?"
'Andrew' held out his hand.
The boy-in-black shook it, "Matt Leviathan."
Matt then turned back to face the front of the room, crossing his legs as he did so.
"Who is the Eastern boy next to you."
"His name is Jack," Andrew replied, "I think his last name was 'Vincent'"
Matt nodded and leaned back in his chair. The Northern boy behind him, Kent Scott, leaned back as well, trying to get away from him. Andrew noticed this and wondered what makes these kids so scared of Matt.
The titanium door opened again and a young girl walked in. Her eyes were a sapphire blue. She was on the skinny side, and she was wearing a dark tan pilot's cap, metal-rimmed goggles, and linen cloth strips wrapped around her arms. Along with that, she wore a dark tan sport vest, a cotton turtle neck tee shirt, and an out-of-place dark red bow tie. Around her neck was a bronze necklace with a bronze octopus emblem hanging from it.
She looked around at the crew of nine and noticed most of them were Northern. She sat down in the only other seat left, the one next to Matt.
Matt looked at her suspiciously, "And who might you be?"
She responded with a simple yet threatening-sounding: "Maggie Smith, and you?"
"Ah. I see. Relative of Andrew of here, aren't you? The name's Matt Leviathan."
Maggie looked at him and glared, "I am not related to any dirty Southerns."
Andrew heard this and stared. He got up and towered above her. Calmly, he asked, "What did you just say?"
Maggie stood up, but she was still at least a foot shorter than him.
"I said," She spoke slowly, "I'm not related. To any. Dirty Southerns."
Andrew pulled his arm back, as if about to punch, but Maggie didn't flinch.
"Dang it, i can't hit you," Andrew said, letting his arm fall to his side, "Southerns aren't dirty. We're the ones that give you your food and your clothes. We are proud farmers and will not be put down by high-and-mighty Northerns."
With that Andrew turned around and sat back down. Maggie grunted and sat back down as well.
Matt turned to Maggie and introduced her to Andrew and Jack before anything between her and Jack happened. The kid behind Matt, Kent, started to complain about waiting, but perhaps he spoke to soon.
The titanium door on the left side of the room opened with a hiss of hydraulics and that man, "Josh Twenty," walked through.
"Hello," he spoke "My name is Joshua Glade. I'm sorry for the delay. We were waiting on someone. Come on in, Emily."
Another young girl walked in. She had forest green eyes, like most Westerns, and she wore a black hunter's jumpsuit, dark green linen bandages around her arms and neck, a hunter's night vision sideglass (an attachment that goes on the right side of a person's face, and was held on by wrapping over the ear. Gives the ability of night vision and a heads-up display to the wearer), the screen was tinted green, and a quill of arrows and a bow was slung over her shoulder.
"Hi," She said looking around, "I'm Emily Chargraze."
Joshua spoke again, "Emily had some... injuries we had to take care of."
There were no seats left, so Emily did not sit down, though she didn't need to, because Joshua then led them all through the titanium door on the right of the room.
The door opened with a hiss and they stepped into the hallway beyond.

Joshua led them forward through the dark hallway. About halfway through, big tiles on the floor started to glow as he stepped on them, and as the group moved on, the glow faded.
As they kept walking panels is the floor started to open up. Mechanical hydraulic-powered arms reach out of the panels and placed on each one of the children a small, dark red, shoulder amour piece.
"This," Joshua spoke up from the front of the group, "...will be your training amour. I will use this to track your progress and position during training and after. You will keep this on at all times."
The arms kept going, and attached pieces of white and transparent blue plastic to the back of their shins. The 'fingers' of the arms then pressed on the plastic, which released white silk fabric, enveloping the children's lower legs in the stuff. It looped back into the plastic to form a boot. A metal bar was placed through a slot in the plastic and the children were asked to lift their legs up. On the bottom of each foot was placed a small pack containing two small jets.
Joshua spoke up again, "These are your training boots. Equipped with jump boost capability, one stomp down from both legs will activate the jets for a short period of twenty-five seconds."
Matt then spoke, "With all do respect sir, I already have a pair of my own."
Joshua looked dismayed at this and snapped his fingers. The arms came out and did the assembly process in reverse to the boots put in Matt.
With another clap from Joshua's hands, the silk on the children's boots hardened to a leather, and yet another door opened in front of them.

"This," Joshua again spoke, "Is the training room."