Olympus Academy: The Final Bell.

Chapter 7: Rock You Like a Hurricane.

1.

Jake was still distracted when Mason bumped into him on their way to third period. Mason had been running, and Jake's books had consequently scattered across the corridor.

'Oh, hey Jake!' Mason helped Jake gather up his books. 'Sorry about that, my mind's all over the place... literally. I wasn't watching where I was going.' Jake registered Mason's presence and seemed to snap out of his trance.

'No, it's cool. I was...' Jake looked Mason straight in the eye. 'A girl called Neramani goes here.' Jake sat with a thump against the lockers, letting the back of his head hit the door as he dropped against it. 'I think she might be...'

'... I know. My dad told me.' Mason said. A second Mason discretely melted out of him, and made his way to class. Mason shuffled next to Jake, handing him his books. 'Her name's Leah. She's... she's Dante's daughter.'

'I guessed that much when she burned down the firing range,' Jake dusted some ash off his shirt to prove his point. 'with me standing in it. What are they thinking letting her go to school here?'

'She's not her dad, Jake. Don't you think she deserves a chance?'

'She's a Neramani. She'll burn the whole place down, soon as my mom's back is turned.'

'You don't know that. Look, I get it, okay, I do, but that was your dad's fight, not yours. If we carry our parent's baggage, where's the progress, where does it end?'

'I don't know... I'll figure it out.' Jake got to his feet, resting a hand on his friend's shoulder. Mason smiled back up at him. 'Now, move your butt, you don't want to be late for one of Dr Storm's classes.' He offered a hand to Mason, who took it, and pulled himself to his feet.

'I'm already on that, I've got a me en-route.' Mason watched Jake walk away toward his own class, half turning and waving as he went. They had grown up together, both losing a parent to the good fight. After his mother's death, Mason had no intentions of spending his own life getting bounced from one epic, climactic battle against evil to the next; if for no other reason than they weren't needed anymore, humanity could take care of itself and that was fine with him. But Jake? He seemed desperate to live up to his dad's legacy, like he felt cheated out of his own destiny to be a champion.

2.

While Mason watched his friend walk slowly away; head held down by the burden of his own aspirations, another Mason was arriving at Dr Storm's technical design class. The door was closed, and class had begun. Mason peeked through the metallic mesh in the small glass window of the door. His classmates were hastily pulling laptops, notebooks, and pens from their bags as Dr Storm stood at the front of the class, arms folded, glaring out at his teen-aged audience with true, unmistakable contempt. Dr Storm was everything Mason had been told to expect; tall, slim, and young, with wispy blonde hair that looked like it would drift away if you blew on it hard enough, and thick glasses that rested halfway down his nose as his eyes dealt out righteous fury to any who felt brave enough to meet them. Mason's hand reached out for the door handle, he took a deep breath, opened the door a fraction, and slid inside.

Mason slipped along the perimeter of the classroom. So far, so good. He could see an empty desk calling to him from the back of the class. A long way to go, but much easier to avoid detection. He quickened his pace a little as a couple of his classmates spotted him. Chip Sette looked up from his own desk. Chip's face was bruised and his right eye had swollen from what looked like a pretty bad kicking. The small rat-faced boy grinned and maliciously released a short laugh. No... Shut up, don't draw any attention to...

'Master Spencer.' the words flew from the mouth of the bitter, scarecrow-like man at the front of the room, locking all of Mason's muscles in an impenetrable grip. Mason winced, as his neck retreated in between his shoulders. He turned slowly to look into the eyes of the storm.

'Sorry, I'm late, Dr Storm. I'm taking four classes simultaneously right now, and...'

'I've neither the time, nor patience to waste on your excuses. Sit down and do not dare arrive late to my class again.' Mark regained control of his muscles, which propelled him toward the empty seat. His face was red, and flustered as he fumbled his own laptop from his backpack. He became aware of Chip's eyes on him. The sniper that had taken him down without a thought. Mason allowed himself to turn in Chip's direction. The skinny little worm was smiling at him. Oh, you think it's funny to get me into trouble?

While the Mason in Dr Storm's class took his seat, over in the school library another Mason's hands swept across a keyboard like hyperactive tap-dancing spiders. Within seconds he'd found Chip Sette on the school directory. Mason blew his lanky black hair away from his nose, and by the time it had drifted back down to its original spot of irritation, the hyperactive tap-dancing spiders had ascertained Chip's login details. Both Masons smiled as the Mason in the library hit the return key, granting him total remote control of Chip's laptop.

In Dr Storm's class, an unaware, smug Chip was still smiling at the other Mason.

'Yeah, keep up the grin, Mr sunshine.' Mason breathed. While Chip was preoccupied with Mason, he didn't notice the Mp4 app open up on his computer screen, and the volume slider moving up to full. At the front of the room, the title page for today's lesson appeared on the smartboard. Dr Storm's hands came together with a painful sounding, bony clap, drawing the attention of the entire class.

'Right! This term we're going to be looking at the formation of basic AI, and how recent developments have brought the prospect of a truly sentient program a possibility within your doubtlessly pointless lifetimes.' The cover page was replaced with a slide showing far too many figures and statistics to copy down before Dr Storm blew through to the next slide. 'As you can see from...' The entire class was jolted from its manic, failed attempts to copy down information, as Poison's Rock You Like a Hurricane blasted out of Chip's laptop at full volume. Chip flinched away from it, his eyes darting up at Dr Storm, as he gathered upon the scrawny boy. Chip finally reacted, slamming the lid down on his computer ending Poison's proclamations with clump. 'Sette! What are you playing at?'

'It wasn't...'

'Report to the head of your house. Immediately. Inform him that you are from this moment on excluded from my class for the remainder of the term.'

'What?! But I...'

'Now, boy! Get your things together and get out!' Storm's open hand struck Chip's desk with a crack. The sound quickly cured him of his temporary numbness, and Chip scrambled his things together, and made haste for the door. He dropped a pen, and a calculator as he left, but didn't dare stop to pick them up. Bewildered, with tears in his eyes, Chip Sette rushed out of the class.

Mason watched on from his desk. This wasn't what he wanted. He was just trying to get his own back for Chip ratting him out. He spent the rest of the class trying to convince himself that his actions were justified, that Chip got what was coming to him, but failed spectacularly. The bell rang for lunch, and Dr Storm's Basic A.I class hastily gathered their things together, before escaping into the hallway, thankful to finally be free from their teacher's brooding gaze. Mason was the last out, pausing in the doorway for a moment, considering owning up to hacking Chip's laptop, but thought better of it, sighed, and left to join his friends in the dinner hall.