On the other side of the portal, I almost stumbled into Raleigh, who was waiting there.
"O-oops.. Sorry," I muttered. But he wasn't paying attention. He was studying the slightly battered up Tenebris and Skyal who had followed me.
"What happened?" he asked. Then he added, "and why is Dino in hypercore? You know you turn into a war-crazed asshole when you transform, right?"
"A little respect wouldn't hurt, now would it?" Tenebris answered. "You'd better watch your tone, lazy weakling."
"Excu-"
"Enough, both of you," Skyal interrupted, "Raleigh, stand down, and Dino, revert."
And so they did.
"My apologies," Dino said.
Seeing my confused reaction to the conversation, Skyal explained.
"As a side-effect of hypercore..." I frowned at the word. At the time, I hadn't heard it before.
"Defender mode," Raleigh said simply.
Skyal nodded and continued, "Right. As a side-effect, not just the defenders' bodies, but their personalities change as well, when they transform. Normally, Dino is polite, but when he transforms, well... what he just said," he said, jerking a thumb at Raleigh.
"Back to the question," Raleigh said, "what did happen?"
He looked at all of us, and when he met my eyes, I shrugged slightly.
"I can't tell you.. I was a little busy hiding under the stairs"
"Unity strike at the mansion," Sky said finally. "My room is practically destroyed now."
Raleigh shook his head. "They get more arrogant by the day, don't they?"
"They do," Dino agreed.
"So what now? Big sleep over with miss Torch-a-Soldier-Without-Being-Decil?" Raleigh said, indicating me.
It took me a moment to realize that he actually meant me.
"Uhm, I have a name," I said.
"I know," the defender replied, grinning. "I just chose to ignore it."
I sighed, then frowned. I opened my mouth to say something, but got interrupted by Raleigh (which, by now, didn't surprise me).
"So she staying here?" (Yes, he actually said it like that.)
"For now, yes," Skyal said. "I want to train her personally."
Dino sighed. "I will be returning to my nation now. It appears my presence is no longer required."
"You sound so disappointed," I commented sarcastically.
"See ya, Mr. Darkness," Raleigh added.
"I am not.." Dino said calmly, ignoring the obvious sarcasm. "And stop calling me that, light-bulb head." He deactivated the force window he was conveniently standing next to.
"Sayonara gentlemen.. and human-lady," he added when he realized that, oh, not everyone in the room was male. Then he deadman-dived out of the window, followed by a high-pitched noise and a sonic boom.
"Why is everyone ignoring my name," I wondered out loud. Raleigh made a noise that indicated he didn't know, and I was about to comment that he should, because he was one of the people who did it, when Skyal stopped me, probably sensing another one of the arguments that Raleigh was so prone to get into.
"Stephanie, training starts tomorrow. Either get some rest or do something else for now. Raleigh, show her around, will you?" I wondered if I should mention that he didn't really give either of us a choice, but shrugged mentally. I was a bit of a quiet person.
"Sure thing, sun-prince," said Raleigh.
For some reason, that really triggered Skyal. "I told you not to call me that. Now get moving!"
"Alright, bajesus, no need to go ballistic on me... ehm, you coming, Steph?"
----------》》》》》《《《《《----------
A while later, we arrived at what would be my room. I'd been shown storage, the spacebridge nexus, the entrance (featuring a sarcastic comment about how that was the highlight of the tour), and the residential areas.
"So this is where you'll be stayin' for a while. You have practically about everything you need; Ionican equivalent of TV broadcast, the human version, computer... all over there." He pointed over to a small, seemingly empty desk made of black glass on metal plate. Then he pointed at something that looked like one of those huge printers you often see in schools. "Food's in the atomic assembler."
"Uhm, right. Thanks, Raleigh," I said, smiling politely.
"No problem. If you need me I'll either be up in command center or in my room. See ya."
YOU ARE READING
The Last Defender (FINISHED)
Science Fiction"Once she reached the front of the classroom, the whole class was silent. Miss Derman smiled coldly. 'Everyone open your books. Page 132, come on now.' I opened my book. A new chapter. That's right, I thought, we're going to talk about genetics...
