“Abby’s only good at thinking stuff,” a voice replied.
The boy talking was the kid Kel from the beginning of the trials. He was lounging in a chair while two girls paced back and forth in front of him. I crept silently next to a chair and proned myself against a nearby wall. The BAU training I received in the simulation showcased itself as I barely made a sound.
“That is literally the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Kadmiel replied cutting her eyes at him.
The girl I assumed to be Abby chuckled at the sound of Kadmiel’s words. She was a beautiful girl with wavy dark black hair. She like the rest of her team was clad in a Light Trial robe.
“Speaking bout’ stupid, why did you do that in the last battle?” he snapped. “Go ahead and beat up the media darlings. That’s bout as stupid as stupid gets. You’re just taking sponsors out of your own pocket. You think that look good.”
He had a thick southern accent that made everything he said sound like his mouth was full of peanut butter. He wore a cowboy hat the hung low over his face as he sat back with his feet on a table that sat in front of him. He scratched his chin and chuckled as a toothpick hung loosely out of his mouth.
“That Nazarene bloodline is about as chaotic as tornado,” he replied. “You never know what’s going to happen…but it sure is fun to watch, I’ll tell ya.”
Kadmiel stared at him with a look of disdain.
“You’re an idiot,” she replied flippantly. “Besides, I practically begged that kid to invoke paradosis. That’s on them.”
She turned to Abby as if to be getting conformation from her. Abby’s gaze danced as if she was intentionally avoiding eye contact.
“Still, you need to control that temper of yours,” Kel replied.
Abby stared at the corner right next to me as if to be checking for someone. I crept closer sure she wasn’t looking at me but still being cautious in my approach.
“Where’s Sean? He’s taking forever,” she responded looking at her watch.
“Knowing him, he’s probably still signing autographs,” Kadmiel replied.
She chuckled to herself falling back exhaustedly into a chair behind her with a slouch.
“How do you like that? I’m the one who gets the win and they spend the night talking to him,” she replied playfully bitter.
Abby smiled as she walked a couple of steps and peaked around the corner.
“Yeah, the only people close to that kid are those two Eli boys,” Kel replied.
Kadmiel took a deep breath as if to be picturing something in her head.
“Speaking of close; I liked to get closer to that, Jacob,” she replied pulling Abby’s robe. “That kid is too hot.”
Abby chuckled shaking her head humorously.
“Are guys all you think about?” she replied checking her watch.
Kel sat up and began to tap on the table like a drum as he did light alternated from the tips of his fingers causing his fingers to make a bell like tone with each tap of the table.
“You know Kaddy, romance and fighting; those are her two favorite pass times,” he replied placing his fingers together and separating them causing the light at his finger tips to play and look like an accordion.
“Oh c’mon on Abby, are you seriously saying that those kids for the Theta Delta Legion aren’t hot, not one, I understand the older kids, but that Tim, he’s a little young for me but he still should be on your dream list,” she replied leaning back.
Abby cut her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her shaking her head.
“My gosh,” Kadmiel replied casually.
“Kaddy, unlike some people, Abby is mature enough to focus on analyzing her opponent to pick them apart. You’re too busy analyzing how kissable their lips are,” Kel intervened.
“Well excuse me for noticing a work of art when I see one,” she replied propping her feet on an ottoman that sat in front her.
She placed her hands behind her head as she lounged backwards.
“Besides, Abby’s too focus on her new improved little friend Danielle,” she replied looking peripherally at Abby as she spoke. "It's hard for her to think about something else."
Kel chuckled as Abby ignored the comment.
“My gosh, now that was a coming of age,” Kel replied following it with an infatuation filled whistle. “Talk about hot. I didn’t even recognize her.”
Abby’s demeanor was visibly different as she shuffled uncomfortably as an irked facial expression slowly covered her face.
“You think you could put in a good word for me,” Kel continued to poke insensitively.
Kadmiel let out a provoking laugh.
“With the way those two fell out, you’re better off speaking to her yourself,” she replied.
Kel turned to Abby at the sound of Kadmiel’s words.
“What do you mean?” Kel replied sitting forward. "What happen with you two?"
Abby ignored his comments and began to walk toward the front door. As she did I turned to see a light emanating in the center of the floor in the shape of a door. Slowly two light bodies began to form until I could finally make out who it was. Sean stood standing with a kid half his size as the light dicipated.
“Well, bout time superstar,” Kel replied rising to meet him.
“Yeah, Sean, where were you?” Abby seconded approaching him.
Sean patted the head of the short kid standing next to him. The kid looked even younger than the twins. He wore a back pack that was seven tenths the size of his whole body. He wore big glasses that covered most of his face.
“Christian wanted to learn the ‘ebeh Kaph technique I learned a couple of weeks ago,” Sean replied.
They all stared at the kid as he sniffled and dusted himself off. He looked like the biggest geek in history. He didn’t say hi or even acknowledge the rest of the people in the room.
“Is he supposed to even be here,” Abby asked.
“Like they would even find out,” Kel replied patting the kid on the back. “This kid is probably the best wormhole conductor at his age level in years. This kid could pinpoint a position on a plane flying at G-force speed.”
The kid was dry as dry could get in his demeanor. He didn’t even look at Kel as he spoke he just stared at Sean.
“Alright Chris, I’ll see you in a few days and I’ll continue to show you the finer points of the technique, okay,” Sean replied.
The kid didn’t say a word. He just vanished as the rest of the legion continued like they were accustomed to his weird behavior.
“That kid is so weird,” Abby replied. “He gives me the creeps.”
Sean shook his head with a chuckle and tossed his bag on a nearby chair.
“He’s a cool kid, he’s just a little eccentric,” he replied sitting down.
He relaxed then stared at them as if something had just come to mind.
“Why are you guys here?” he replied in a matter of fact type tone.
Abby shook her head in a half-hearted manner.
“The trials with the Selli kid,” she replied. “We’re here to figure out a strategy?”
He rolled his eyes playfully exhausted.
“Alright then, lay it on me,” he replied throwing his hands up jokingly.
They all stared at one another not really knowing what to say.
“Well, we haven’t exactly thought of one,” she replied. “We were hoping you already had one.”
He laughed at the irony.
“So, what’s the meeting for then,” he replied sarcastically.
Abby shrugged apologetically.
“Well, we do it for everyone else, it’s just weird not to do for you too,” she replied in an embarrassed tone.
"See, I told you, Abby," Kel complained. "This is a waste of time."
Sean grabbed his backpack and tossed it over his shoulder as he stood up.
“Well, this has been productive,” he poked.
Abby shot a sarcastic grin.
“Well think of it this way, we have the utmost confidence in your ability to take care of yourself and do what’s best for the team,” she replied.
“Well, apparently you’re the only ones who think so,” he replied stretching.
“What do you mean?” Abby asked caught off-guard by his words.
He shrugged nonchalantly cracking his knuckles.
“I only got a 9 out of 10,” he responded casually.
They all sputtered at the sound his words.
“What?” Kel replied. “Are they serious? What did they dock you for?”
“Yeah, what could you have possibly done wrong?” Kadmiel replied in snarky tone. “Oh, great Sean the second coming.”
“Be quiet Kaddy,” Abby responded. “We’re just saying, if anybody deserved the first 10 out of 10 in trial history it should have been Sean. I mean there has never been a recruit like him in…possibly ever.”
Kaddy made a playfully sour face. Abby returned her gesture with a cut of her eyes before turning back to Sean.
“It’s no big deal, that one guy, The counselor from the Zebulun House felt I lacked a solid sense of loyality,” he replied. “I guess he’s right, I mean, I tend to be a loner in a lot of our missions; I hate the Alpha House, and I’m a part of it; I wouldn’t exactly call that being loyal. Let’s be real, if it wasn’t for Herschel, I probably wouldn’t even be here.”
I listened and he was the complete opposite of what I pictured. He reminded me of well, me, except he was more humble and level headed. They all nodded signifying they could understand the point he was making.
“Well, regardless, what are you going to do about the Selli kid?” Abby pressed changing the subject.
“I don’t know, I still got a lot of studying to do, you know, looking at his techniques, habits, flaws,” he replied. “I’m just getting in, but you guys are welcome to join me if you want.”
Kaddy and Abby grabbed their bags and went to follow him. Kel exhaled annoyed following suit.
“Go right in. I have to go get something from my room and I’ll be right there,” he replied pointing behind him.
“Alright, hurry up man, I could be lounging with the rest of the guys but I’m here helping you out, remember that,” he replied walking into the training room.
“Yes, what would Sean do without you,” Kadmiel replied shoving him forward as she followed with Abby on her hip chuckling.
Sean waited for a second than stared at his watch. He surveyed the room before turning to me with a smirk.
“Tim,” he replied sending my heart in my throat. “I know you’re here.”
I crept lower trying to hide myself as he walked over to me and tapped on a nearby table.
“I’m a feel sense and I have a memory like a computer,” he replied. “I never forget faith energy so I could feel you from the minute I entered. I’m guessing your using Sarai’s invisibility trait but it doesn’t matter, there is nowhere in this room you could hide where I couldn’t feel you.”
I took a deep breath and released the bending light. He smiled as I slowly appeared.
“Why are you in here?” he replied with light hearted chuckle.
“It was kind of an accident,” I replied embarrassed and afraid of the consequences of being caught. “I was looking for Jacob’s room and for some reason your door allowed me in.”
He scratched his chin and walked over to the door expecting it.
“Well, it’s not hard to do that,” he replied. “It’s all smoke and mirrors. These doors usually identify using a friend or foe algorithm, so if you’re not a threat to the occupant, and if what you say is true, and you truly did make a mistake and you believed this was someone else’s room than it will open right up.”
I nodded staring it over.
“So I believe you when you say that you walked in by mistake, the question now is why are you still here?” he replied pressing me.
I scratched the back of my neck not really knowing how to respond without sounding like the biggest scum bag known to man.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I was worried about Pete. I was trying to see if I could...if I could maybe find some information to help him out,” I replied.
He cut his eyes at my words.
“So you were looking to cheat to get an advantage,” he replied.
I swallowed hard looking away with my heart beating a mile a minute. His words made me feel like I was half a person.
“I guess so,” I replied embarrassed.
He smiled trying to hold back his laughter before bursting into a chuckle. His actions caught me off guard. I didn’t know if his action were that of a guy putting me on or making fun of me. I stood staring as he raised his hands apologetically.
“I’m just joking with you,” he replied.
His words calmed me as I smiled trying to save face. I shook my head embarrassed but happy he wasn’t mad.
“So you’re not mad,” I replied trying to check to see if things were really how they seemed.
He shook his head.
“Am I happy to see you here, of course not, but I can understand. If I saw what happened to your legionmate today and had to worry about my best friend possibly facing the same thing, I would probably do what I had to do to prevent it as well. I may not have gone this far but who knows,” he replied placing his hands in his pockets as he spoke.
I couldn’t believe he could be this good of a guy. I stood nodded in disbelief.
“So, what happens now?” I replied willing to deal with whatever punishment he saw fit.
He shrugged and pointed to the numbers on the top of the door.
“Remember those numbers and don’t come here again,” he replied. “Other than that, don’t worry about it; I’m not going to say anything.”
I nodded with a smile.
“Gotcha, thanks, and I really am sorry,” I replied walking to the door still embarrassed beyond my witts.
As I approached the door Sean called out from behind me.
“Tim, don’t worry about Pete, regardless of the situation, I can incapacitate him without putting him in a coma,” he replied. “He’s a strong and brilliant fighter, so I can’t promise it won’t get hairy but I’m not Kaddy, it won’t go that far.”
I nodded appreciating his words.
“Thanks Sean, you’re a good guy,” I replied feeling peace from his words.
The worry that had dwelled in the pit of my stomach since Beth’s match had vanished. I was actually excited to see Pete in a true gentlemen’s battle. I trusted Sean’s words wholeheartedly.
“Thanks but it doesn’t take a good guy, it’s just takes someone who still understands what it’s like to be human,” he replied. "And a Christian."
I nodded not fully understanding what he meant. I really didn’t care. I was just happy it wasn’t going to be a blood fest again. I gave him an acknowledging salute as I exited. He smiled as I disappeared in the light.
UMPH! I appeared in the hallway knocking Danielle over.
“Tim,” she replied staring at me surprised. “Where have you been?”
I helped her to her feet.
“I went into the wrong room,” I replied dusting her off.
“Oh, is Pete with you,” she replied.
“No, I thought he was with Jacob, Luke, and Uriah,” I replied more asking then telling.
She shook her head surprised by my response.
“No, they thought he was with you,” she replied.
I tensed up at the sound of her words. Where could he be? I thought retracing the events that had transpired minutes earlier in my head.
“He isn’t with me. The last time I saw him he was leaving the hospital,” I replied.
She looked at the floor thinking for a second than shrugged.
“This doesn’t make sense,” she replied shaking her head. “Let’s go find your brother.”
I agreed trotting with her. We walked up to the door. It scanned us as I tap my foot impatiently. The light covered me and I ended up on the other side of the door. I stood blown away with the suite. It looked like a palace. I walked around staring at the walls in awe.
“How did they get this?!” I replied pointing in no direction in particular.
She shook her head annoyed.
“Never mind that, let’s just find the boys,” she replied. “That’s not important right now.”
I stared around like a kid throwing a temper tantrum internally as we walked the huge palace like inside. It had more rooms than I could count. It looked like one of the mansions from the magazines. It had pure golden walls with pearly white tiles on the floor. I stared out the window. It sat on a cliff side looking over a beautiful ocean waterfall drop. I couldn’t believe it. There room made ours look like a motel suite.
“Jacob,” Danielle responded turning a blind corner. “I found your brother.”
As I approached the whole legion was standing in the middle of the simulator room. Sam trained while the rest of the legion looked worried standing around. They perked up at the sight of me.
“Tim,” Zech replied running up to me. “We thought a wrathdemon got you.”
“Yeah, that or maybe you were lost...you know because you’re stupid,” Jo seconded.
Zech bowed him hard causing him to recalibrate.
“I’m sorry, I mean we thought you got beat up,” he replied with a fake smile.
“Thanks for your concern,” I replied not sure how to respond.
“Move you two,” Luke responded nudging the boys to the side.
“Tim, where were you?” Jacob responded checking me up and down.
I sighed not wanting to go through the whole story.
“I came from the hospital and went to the wrong room,” I responded. “Well, it was kind of more than that…I sort of tried to eavesdrop on the Alpha Beta Legion and got caught.”
Jacob sighed throwing his hands in the air in anguish.
“Tim,” he grunted.
“What, it was fine, Sean was the only one who knew and he was cool about it,” I replied trying to calm him down before he started. “He even sort of gave me his word that he wouldn’t hurt Pete.”
Luke's eyes opened wide as he stared at me like I was the world biggest idiot.
“So you snuck into the guys room and begged him not to beat up your friend….so lame,” Luke replied piling on.
“No, I didn’t,” I responded.
“So, what did you find?” Uriah asked cutting me off.
“Well, nothing really,” I replied embarrassed.
“Wait, what does that mean?—nothing really,” Jacob pressed.
I sighed coming clean.
“I actually didn’t find anything at all,” I replied. “I just heard a conversation between that kid Kel and the two girls, Abby and Kaddy.”
“Abby?” Danielle replied bashfully.
“Dude, I know you’re a kid but, man, you do some stupid things,” Jacob replied shaking his head. “Do you realize you could have cost Pete his trial if that kid would have turned you in? Do you ever think before act? Just once…I’m serious, just once.
He looked like he wanted to swat me like a fly. I ignored him with a grunt as I scanned the room.
“Whatever,” I replied. “Anyways, none of you know where Pete is. I mean, are you sure he isn’t in our room or back at the hospital with Eve?”
Uriah shook his head.
“No, we tried all those places, we asked Eve in the hospital and Luke transported to Sai’s room,” he replied. “We can’t find him.”
I shook my head picking my brain trying to think of where he could be.
“I’ll go and check the hospital again,” I replied. “Maybe he’s gone back since you checked.”
“Why go all the way back there?” Luke replied. “We’ll just contact Eve from here.”
“No, I need to check some other places on the way,” I replied. “You can give Eve a heads up but regardless, I gonna check the grounds myself.”
They all nodded as turned to leave. Danielle hesitated for a second than responded.
“I'll go with you,” she responded bashfully.
I wanted to ask why but she looked embarrassed enough so I just ignored my suspicion.
“Sure,” I replied not really knowing how to respond.
“We wanna go too?” Jo added.
“Noooo,” Danielle let out sarcastically extended her response. “Maybe one but both of you are not coming.”
“Jo you go, I’m gonna teach Sam some more moves anyways,” Zech responded.
“Okay, see, no problem,” he responded with a gushing smile.
“Okay,” I responded.
Danielle rolled her eyes as we turned to leave. It was good to know they were coming. They knew a lot about the heaven realm and I was going to need a crash course to find Pete in enough time for him to get good practice before his trial. The clock was already working against us as it was.