Chapter one, And so it begins.
I was looking at a cave entrench that I didn’t recognize. I looked to my left, and saw the ground drop off into a blanket of clouds. I looked to my right, and saw a girl who I had never seen before. She looked to be about my age, had honey blonde hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. I looked back at the cave entrance. The girl walked into the cave. I chose to follow her. We came to a wall with a body of writing carved into it. The girl read it aloud. “Celui qui entre est juré de protéger.” She said. The cave entrance closed and everything went dark.
*Beep beep beep*
I shot up as I woke. “What the- oh, it was only a dream.” I said with relief. Something about the dream sounded familiar. I tried to think, and then it clicked. “Celui qui entre est juré de protéger” I muttered to myself. It was French for “He who enters is sworn to protect.” I looked at my calendar. My eyes went wide as I realized just what today was.
“Oh crap” I thought. Today I was moving to a boarding school in France. “I’m going to be late!” I thought. I started to pack my things into a suitcase.
After I finished packing, I walked downstairs, put my suitcase into the trunk of my aircraft. And yes, I own an aircraft. I already had my pet in the back seat. I said goodbye to Mom and got into the pilot’s seat.
I closed the canopy and began to go through the various pre-flight checklists. I tested the rotary fans and the main thruster, checked the fuel, inspected the wing flaps, and turned on all the instruments.
After I finished all of the checklists, I opened the hangar door and started up the engines. I will admit that the whole cargo elevator to an underground hangar is kind of unnecessary, but I think it looks cool.
I wait for the lift to reach the surface, and then push the throttle forward as far as it will go. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention who I am. It will be a long flight anyways, so I might as well tell you. My name is Ian Ward. I have a fascination with aerospace engineering and foreign languages and places. That’s one of the reasons that I joined the royal academy of France.
I am currently flying in one of my creations. It is an interceptor with two turbofan engines in the rear. It also has rotary fans in the wings, allowing me to use it as a gyrocopter. Think something along the lines of the helicarrier from marvel but scaled down. I gave it a sort of electronic camouflage that works by making a hologram around the aircraft.
I could go on for hours about the internal designs of this thing, but there are two other dots on the radar, and there approaching fast. That’s saying a lot, because I’m flying at Mock 5.
I turn on the sonar nodes. Now I know what you are thinking. “Sonar? That’s useless in the air!” and in most cases, it is. But not in this one. The sonar scans bounce off the pursuing objects, giving me a 3D scan of them.
“Great. Just great!” I said to myself. The objects are atlas drones. They are one of my older designs, but the military stole them and retrofitted them to shoot down fighters.
I slowed down, making the drones fly right past me. I designed all of my creations with a weakness so that they couldn’t be used against me. For the atlas drones, that would be no countermeasures against missiles.
I launch a pair of missiles with magnetic warheads. They lodge themselves into the targets, and then magnetize them, making them collide with each other. They fell through the layer of clouds and a distant splash could be heard.
“In your face, CIA!” I yelled over the radio.
I sped back up to mock 5 and continued going to France.
I should probably explain why the CIA is after me. When I was in 7th grade, the U.S. government came to me trying to hire me for their black projects research team. I refused, even after they threatened to kidnap me. Eventually, they did try to kidnap me, the key word in that sentence being tried. At that point, I had two choses. Keep this under wraps and live like a normal boy or tell the public and expose the government. I chose to expose them, leading to a riot in my home state. Ever since then, the CIA has been trying to detain me.
Iris barked, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Hmm? Sorry. I’m just thinking about how nice it will be to finally be out of reach from the CIA.”
Oh yeah, Iris is my pet fox. She has a white coat of fur and green eyes. She is extremely intelligent and can be a little bit sassy when she wants to. I found her when I sabotaged a black market in New York specializing in animal poaching. She had lost her front right paw in a trap. Her prostatic foot was one of my first creations in the realm of medical science. I named her Iris because she loves to run around in irises from my garden.
I guess that I got so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t notice that Europe had come into view. I slowed down to enjoy the scenery. I flew over London and snapped a picture of Big Ben. I then set the plane to autopilot and started to relax. Iris curled up in my lap and I started to pet her.
I heard something on the radio so I put Iris in the back seat and turned it up.
“Attention private aircraft, pleas adjust your flight path. You are on a collision course with a 747.” The flight director on the radio said.
I moved the plane so that it would not hit the 747, and then made o note never to trust my autopilot.
[30 minutes latter]
I was landing at my new school, when some random kid shot a paintball rifle at me.
“I should have brought the point defense turret.” I thought to myself.
I opened the canopy and started yelling at him in French.
“Hey! Savez-vous combien de temps j'ai passé à peindre cette chose?” I yelled.
Once he saw that I was a student he dropped the rifle and apologized. What surprised me was that he spoke in English as his first chose.
“I’m sorry but I don’t speak French.” He said.
“then why are you going to a school in France?” I asked.
“My dad made me go.” He said.
“Oh. That sucks.
You do know that you’re still cleaning that up, right?” I said.
“Dang it.” He said.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Carter.” He said.
“I’m Ian, and this is Iris.” I said taking Iris out of the back seat.
I took my stuff out of the trunk and walked towards the main building. Once I entered, I went over to a staff member and asked them where I could find the buses. She told me to go straight out the main doors. Once I got outside I saw the buses, but I also saw something else.
A sign on my bus that said: “All animals must be on leashes.”
I looked at Iris. She was wearing her collar, which had a magnetic link to my wrist band, but I’m not sure if it would qualify as a leash.
I decided to just take a 2-meter piece of paracord and tie one end to her collar and the other end to my wrist band. “Eh, good enough.” I said. Iris shook her head trying to figure out why her collar was suddenly heavier. I thought it was cute.
We boarded the bus and sat down.
[1 hour latter]
I stepped out of the bus and look around. I see my new school, Excalibur academy. Why the heck would someone name a school after a weapon? Ignoring my thoughts, I walked into the main office and spoke with the attendance secretary at the front desk. She gave me my schedule and a access card for my dorm. She told me that my dorm number was on the back of my schedule and that I had two roommates. I asked her if pets where allowed and she said yes, if they are trained.
I walked out of the office and took out a map of the school. The dorms where in the middle of the canvas. I looked towards the middle of the school. I was surprised with the dorms building.
It was one of those townhouses with red brick walls and dark blue shingles on the roof. The map said that it had a courtyard in the middle with a well-kept lawn with trees dotted throughout the yard.
I was assigned to dorm #06. It is one of the rooms on the second floor and has a great view of the courtyard. Each of the 4 walls have 4 dorms so each floor has 16 dorms. Altogether there are 3 floors, so the building can hold up to 144 students.
I slide the access card into the lock and the door unlocked. I opened the door to find two kids.
“They may be my roommates, but one of them was a girl.” I thought.
“In this school, it doesn’t need to be only boys or only girls in a dorm.” The boy said. “Was I thinking out loud again?” I asked. “Yeah. I do it too.” The girl said in a Scottish accent. “You said that out loud again.” The boy said. “Oh, sorry.” I said. I walked in and the door closed automatically behind me.
I recognized the boy. He was the one who shot my jet with a paintball rifle. I didn’t recognize the girl. “Who are you?” I asked her.
“I’m Megan." She answered.  “Who’s that little cutie?” Megan asked. I held up Iris. “This is Iris.” I said. “Aww, she’s so cute!” Megan said.
Carter led me to one of the bedrooms and opened the door. “This is your room.” Carter said to me. “Thank you.” I replied.
I put my stuff down and started unpacking. “Also, make sure that you are done in one and a half hours. Megan and I are taking you around town.” Carter said before he left the room.
I opened all my boxes and started to arrange my things. The only real challenge was figuring out where to put Iris’s bed and my daggers. Normally I would get expelled for having these, but because of my history with the CIA, I am allowed to have them with me.
I looked at the clock. It was already 14:20. I had ten minutes to get ready. I opened my dresser and picked out my casual outfit. I was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt with thumbholes in the sleeves so that it covered my palms, a pair of grey track pants and a red jacket with black shoulders and grey sleeves. I also took off my glasses and put in contacts lenses.
Megan knocked on my door. She was wearing a purple and grey jacket like mine, black leggings and a skirt that went down to just below her knees. She had also taken off her glasses for contacts lenses. “Ready to go?” She asked.
“Yes. I’m just trying to find Iris’s collar.” I said. “It’s behind you.” She said. I turned around to see Iris holding her collar. “Thanks.” I said.