Psionic Academy

Chapter Two: The Awakening

"Time," Juniper breathed, "it all depends on the time."

She was talking to nobody in particular; her voice was meant for herself alone. Underneath her desk, her foot pummeled the ground, drumming out a rapid, anxious beat.

Juniper watched the monitors with consummate focus. Her eyes darted between the illumined screens, from video feed to video feed.

Once again, she checked the vital signs.

All was normal.

Too normal.

It was taking too long.

Juniper's eyes were fire.

She stared at the screen, begging for the vital signs to change, for the signs of the experiment's success to flash from the monitors to her eyes - like neon apparitions born of her wishes.

Juniper was filled with an increasing sense of urgency; a growing feeling of desperation. She forced herself to close her eyes.

To calm her mind.

To feel only the inhale, the exhale.

Her heart rate began to slow; the desperation faded from her body.

When she opened her eyes again, Juniper felt sufficiently calm. She was thinking rationally, her thoughts were cold and calculated and razor-sharp once again.

Still, she felt the small nagging of doubt, of worry - chewing, chewing, chewin at the corners of her mind.

If a capsule didn't awaken within one of the subjects, it would mean that this whole mission would be a waste.

The first invasion of the school, the second penetration of the force field... both would be for nothing.

The Forum would be furious.

Surely, she would taste their wrath.

But, worse than that, it would mean that she had failed the Onyx League.

That she had let them down.

The same way that the world had let her down, that it betrayed her.

Juniper's hands curled into fists.

That could not happen.

That would not happen!

Far, far away, in the middle of a Californian school, something changed.

Among the frightful warzone of fleeing students and fighting teachers and attacking agents and incoming police officers, something had awakened inside the body of one of the students.

Adrian Matthews - a Cryokinetic, a student of Psionic Academy's first-year class, the brother of a particular Ava Matthews - stirred.

He had been resting, lying down on a soft couch in the empty quiet of Miss Strod's classroom.

But now, he stood.

And he was different.

Something was building in his mind. A crescendo of advancing light, an augmenting corona.

Adrian felt worried; he felt cold and sick.

He clutched his head in his hands.

Suddenly, there was an explosion of pain in his pupils. For a moment, his eyes were blazing blue-white. Then the dazzling light failed and faded and drained away and was finally gone.

Adrian fell back down to his seat.

He was left with a hint of stabbing soreness - a waifish ghost of the true agony that he had felt; the agony and the light that had come without warning, and had vanished just as fast.

Adrian breathed heavily.

He was left sitting, sitting in the remnants of the blinding pain, sitting in the residue of the glaring light.

On the monitor of an Onyx League control room, a reading fluctuated. Juniper broke into a grin; a flush of relief and exhilaration flooded her system.

All it had taken was for just one capsule to turn on, just one test subject to be functional.

Juniper almost cheered with the joy of it, the victorious rush, the noble completion of the mission.

Now, the purpose of the Onyx League's invasion had been achieved.

The NanoJoin Experiment was now successful.

They were victorious.

Deep inside her, deeper than her thoughts or her nervous flutterings, she could feel it.

It was inside her mind, inside her brain.

A chaos of dynamite inside her blood.

It coursed through her veins, flooded her arteries.

She could feel it.

And she knew.

It was awake.

She knew it.

It was now awake.

It had awakened.

***

Sylver here! I hope you enjoyed this new part of Psionic Academy. In this chapter, the purpose of the Onyx League's invasion is revealed - to complete the NanoJoin Experiment. Leave your theories and thoughts on this experiment in the comments below! And I hope to see you in the next upcoming chapter, where we go back to Shane and his friends in the middle of the action.  

Please make sure to leave your thoughts on this chapter in the comments - and stay tuned for more upcoming chapters of Psionic Academy! If you've enjoyed reading this story, don't forget to vote, comment and add it to your reading lists. If you have any tips on how I can improve my writing, or what I did well this time, please feel free to tell me. Thanks for reading!