The Acolytes of Crane (Theodore Crane, #1)(61)

‘My story?’ I asked, ‘You mean people know about me?’

‘Yes, Theodore. Right down to your abusive parents. It is amazing you have made it so far, having parents like that.’

I felt embarrassed.

‘Okay, one last thing—you have a hole in your shoe.’ She giggled and turned her back to me. As she walked away, I felt drawn to her.

I dug deep to think of something clever to say. Fumbling, all that I could come out with was, ‘You too.’

She shook her head without glancing back and continued on, as the vault to the chamber closed right behind her. I bent my knee to bring up my foot at an angle into my line of vision. She was right. I had a hole in my old shoe hologram that was programmed into my XJ-731’s. Thus, the hole was fake, but obvious to any passer-by. I re-programmed the hologram to get rid of the hole.

I walked into the chamber, and its decontamination field inspected my entire body for viruses and mutant micro-organisms. Once in, I noticed that everyone from my crew was in the Chamber of Rafal.

‘What are you guys doing here?’ I asked.

Lincoln was swift to address me, ‘We’re here to watch your little promotion to the rank of weirdo—I mean—Messiah. Seems like you are the only one they needed. I don’t know why you needed us.’

‘We are a team and that is the end of it,’ I said warmly, smiling over the sense of adventure that we all would collectively embrace. Hopefully.

‘Whatever,’ Lincoln said. He stepped about five feet away from me with his arms crossed. I wasn’t sure what was bothering him. He had been quiet ever since we had that argument with Liam at my grandparents’ house. Lincoln just wasn’t himself.

‘This is Nezatron. Sorry for the interruption, now that we have you all here we can get started. Because of your dedication to duty and your fearless ascent into space we are rewarding you all with Sandolphin’s Bracers.’ He stopped for a moment, and an airborne robotic-looking Sepheran, hovering from one teammate to another, strapped the dark polished gray bracers to our wrists and forearms. ‘These bracers confer endless offensive and defensive benefits. The purpose of these bracers is to encapsulate or cover your hands with titanium nano-chain mail. Liam, please demonstrate by simply pressing the ruby button at the back of your hand.’

‘Just press right here?” Liam asked.

We all looked on at this chain mail—tiny rings of metal interlocked together to provide a sheath of protection over parts of the body. It looked like a macramé coat of metal.

‘Yes. This mail armor is used for hand-to-hand combat,’ Nezatron said, ‘With these titanium gloves on your hands, your bones will not break. Otherwise, if you lose a hand or a finger while fighting, it can be devastating to the team in the heat of battle. Moreover, these gloves can cause serious damage to any enemy. Since these gloves are so powerful, you have to show your restraint while fighting. Their force is so great that you could break a bone in your arm located beyond the support of your bracers. So ease up on whatever knock-out blow you deliver.’

Nezatron paused. ‘Finally, it is because of one courageous boy that you are assembled here today. Make no mistake; without you, he would not be here either. However, it was his blind devotion to Zane that gives us this newfound advantage over our enemies—Odion, Travis, and the Dacturon Council. Because of that devotion, the rank of Messiah was bestowed upon you, Theodore! Zane decreed it the moment you entered his ship.’

‘That is awesome, dude—good job!’ Dan said.

‘The next day, we will ensure that each of you enter the Chamber of Rafal. Theodore has already been adapted. Now it is up to the rest of you to await your turn. When you finish, you will be given a rolesk for the rest of your years,’ Nezatron said, “With the rolesk, you will have a vast but limited ability to control Dietons. There have only been twenty-five rolesks issued in the history of the multiverse. When you are in the Chamber of Rafal, it will only take about fifteen minutes, and it will help you to understand the conflict on a deeper level. You will be provided with history of the multiverse and the resistance. Now, dinner will be ready in half an hour. Although I am a robot, I have been programmed with the understanding of the human need for bonding. You may take fifteen minutes to share camaraderie and freshen up before we have dinner.’ He left.

‘Man, I wish they had one of these chambers in school. I would much rather have fifteen minutes a day to learn everything, than seven hours a day in the classroom!’ Liam said.

‘Hell yeah, that would leave more time for shredding pavement,’ Dan said. He dreamily visualized his skateboard.

‘I guess we head to our rooms now,’ Lincoln said, ‘Mariah, you have not said much, are you alright?’

‘No posanada…’ she started, speaking in Spanish before she caught herself. ‘I mean, don’t worry. I’m fine. Can you walk me to my room, Linc?’ she asked.

Her room must have been down at the other end of the hallway, so we had to part ways. Liam, Dan and I kept fooling around with our bracers. We were giving each other a made-up handshake with the bracers equipped. We were clanging metal together all the way back to our rooms. Meanwhile, Lincoln and Mariah were having a heart-to-heart.

‘Listen Lincoln, I know you are having a hard time not getting all the attention, but I think you should lay off Theodore a bit.’