Only You Can Stop Invasions
Fenton, unlike Ace, spent his 3,653rd Monday trying to learn instead of pretending he was learning. He went to the Academy to save money for college. He had six older sisters and a brother.
There was no way he was going to college unless he was getting a full ride, and the Defense Program would give it to him.
After his minimum requirement of six years of service, of course.
He worked his butt off, taking advanced classes. He wasn’t necessarily smarter, he just knew what to study for, when, which teachers to schmooze and which to simply say nothing to.
If it weren’t for Fenton’s hard work, none of it would have rubbed off on Ace who was always more preoccupied with Candice, food, or how long he could get away with nothing.
After his last training session and his Calculus class, Fenton made his way to the library, hoping he could get everything out of the way by Thursday.
At the library he saw Santos, sitting in the corner, back in the biography section where no one went. Fenton took a deep breath to work up his courage.
He knew he had a crush on his roommate. Santos probably knew too because Fenton crumbled like a cracker whenever he was near.
Fenton walked up to the section Santos was sitting in. "
Hey", said Fenton. "Mind if I sit here"?
Without even looking up Santos grunted "Sure".
Fenton wanted to talk to him about his screaming but wasn't sure how to bring it up. He decided to just ask.
Fenton got out a book and began to study. He was at the academy on a scholarship. Time is of the essence when he took advanced classes.
Why not interrogate and study at the same time?
"So…", said Fenton. "Seems like you're having a hard time adjusting to campus". Santos looked up from his phone, with a puzzled expression.
"You know, with the morning screams", Fenton explained.
"Oh, that", Santos sighed. "It doesn't matter. Soon you won't remember any of it anyway. It's my way of getting rid of the stress of repeating every single day".
Fenton could read thoughts, auras, and move objects. He had an innate sixth sense. Even if he couldn't read someone's thoughts, for some reason a few he couldn't, he could still tell if someone was lying.
Santos was not lying when he said that he would not remember any of this.
That troubled Fenton greatly.
"What do you mean I won't remember anything", asked Fenton. "That's preposterous".
Santos berated Fenton like one would berate a child for doing something they shouldn't.
"Fine, I might as well tell you. Since this will probably just happen all over again", Santos huffed. "November 1st never comes", said Santos.
.
"That's crazy", Fenton scoffed. "What do you mean".
"I've lost count of how many times it repeats. But it's a lot, "said Santos. "At first, I didn't even notice.I've been alive for so long now every day feels like the last. But then I started to notice that everything was the same. Conversations, events, even the weather".
Santos put his phone in his pocket and sighed. "I tried to figure out what was going on, but I couldn't. I even tried telling people, but it wouldn't matter. Soon everything rewinds back to September".
Fenton looked scared. He knew Santos was telling the truth, but it sounded crazy.
"Even this conversation doesn't matter", Santos groaned. "I haven't found anyone else that's realized everything is repeating".
Fenton gripped his pencil and forced a smile, nervous that he was sitting next to a very mentally deranged man. "That's silly. If you've been through all of this before, prove it", said Fenton.
Santos took the pencil from Fenton's hand and ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook.
"Hey", objected Fenton. "My notes".
Without hesitating, Santos wrote down everything he remembered that would happen that day, everything that he was forced to live, again and again.
"These will be your most important notes from now on", said Santos. "Hopefully this will help you understand I'm not lying".
Fenton took the note from Santos and tucked it away in his pocket. "If all of this doesn't matter, how come you're bothering to explain all this to me", asked Fenton.
"Because", smiled Santos. "Out of the thousands of times I've lived these two months, this is the first time anyone has asked me first. So maybe there's hope".
Fenton was too enamored by his smile to notice the two protruding fangs from his mouth.
Santos got up from the booth and was about to leave.
"Wait", said Fenton. "One more thing".
Santos turned around but couldn't hear what he was saying. He mumbled and stared at the floor, his face turning red and his voice starting to crack.
"Speak up, man", he said. "It's a library, not a funeral".
"Your number. In case anything happens."
Santos and Fenton exchanged numbers and Fenton was quite sure that it was more important than the list Santos had given him earlier.
"See ya later man", he said.
Fenton had finally gotten Santos' number.
He was trying to tell himself it was of course, for something important.
No ulterior motives.
His crush was starting to waver, worried that he might be insane, but the thought quickly went out of his mind because he had a place to be, and wasn't looking forward to it.
Fenton was one of the first to arrive in the empty classroom they had reserved to discuss what they would need on their first mission. The moment he walked in he saw Levi, whose face went from hope to annoyance. Whenever Fenton was around, so was Ace. This time they were not together and Levi was displeased.
Fenton hated that he knew why and was tired of hearing every inane thought of everyone within 300 yards. Slowly the class room filled up, and as usual Ace was somehow last, an impressive feat for someone who could be wherever they wanted with the blink of an eye. Fenton smirked as he watched Levi try not to smile the moment Ace walked into the door. Instead Levi looked like he was having a heart attack, his lip twitching and his eyebrows arching up.
Everyday, Fenton got a front row seat to the internally conflicted young man, Leviathan Slater. The second best highlight of Fenton’s daily life was watching Levi pretend he wasn’t trying to undress Ace with his eyes. The best highlight of all was throwing it back into his face everytime Levi would become irrationally angry that he was with Candice instead. Levi finally composed himself and tried not to get irritated as he saw Fenton sneering at him in the front row.
“As you all know on Friday we’re heading out for our first mission,” Levi grinned. They all cheered, happy to finally do something, that their hard work would soon be paid off.
“That doesn’t mean we’re in the clear yet,” Levi cautioned them. “We still have the matter of actually passing the end of year test.” They all groaned and Levi held up his hands, used to being the one to control them. “I know. It sucks. I’m sure if you guys stop cheating we can all pass, so-”
Immediately everyone started claiming various things, shouting over one another. Levi was prepared for this, and he was simply amazed he got four sentences in before they all started shouting at each other. When they were done, as they always were, they looked at him and he told them that he was tired of shouting.
“You guys are going to think I’m a jerk when I say this, but please bring your Fealty Rings. Just do it. They have trackers so if you get lost we can find you," Levi said.
“I never wear mine,” Candice boasted. “I don’t need it.”
None of them really needed it. The Fealty Rings they give the trainees were somewhat useless. They had trackers inside, and it gave them a slight boost to their abilties, but it wasn't as good as the real thing that would make them almost unstoppable. The rush of power however, was too strong upon the first poor soul that the ring was given to, so they slowly worked the trainees up to stronger and stronger doses.
Levi ignored Candice's comment and continued on with his presentation.
"We all know that some of us are here because we got help," Levi said, without naming names. "So let's just review this video for the history part of the exam and we'll have one less thing to worry about. Got it?" He picked up a remote from the desk and pressed a few buttons until the wall changed, it’s built in screen coming forth. They grumbled in compliance, a few them knowing that they had earned admission thanks to the wonderful donations of their parents, pure coincidence, of course.
They all zoned out as the cheerful video explained to them what they already knew.
“Do you want to help your community,” said the cheerful actor on screen, from a video that looked like it wasn’t even from the same decade they were in. Fenton laid his head on the desk and mouthed the words along, already knowing the video by heart.
“You too can join the Defense Program,” it said. “You just need your parent’s permission!”
Why did they show us this video when we were thirteen, Fenton wondered. Was that even legal?
It was not.
The cheerful actor made it look how easy it was for one to get their parents to simply allow their children to train for five years and then enlist in a private company contracted by the government to do all the things they legally weren’t allowed to do.
“Only you can prevent invasions,” Fenton whispered to himself, mocking the terrible video with horrible CGI and out of tune music.
The video was clearly outdated by the slang it used that no one had ever heard of such as, pog, and its many references to current President of Earth, Bill Gates VII.
“Well I don’t think I should join Mr. Johnson,” said the adult actor played to dress and act like a child, that clearly didn’t look like one. Suddenly horrible CGI ships appeared in the sky.
“Oh no,” said the overpaid and washed out former child actor. “They’ve returned. The Empire.”
Everyone’s favorite part of the terrible informational video was when The Empire attacked. The horrible CGI re enactment of an actual and historical event just made everyone giggle. The only one who seemed to take the scene seriously was Levi, whose grandfather had fought in the war against the Empire and had told him many stories about it.
The Empire came two hundred years ago, and Earth had learned many strange things in a short amount of time. The first being that there were aliens. The second being that there was more than one universe. The third being that they were at the bottom of the food chain when it came to science, and that what other planets had that looked like magic to them, was simply things they hadn’t discovered yet. 200 years later and Earth was the equivalency of a developing nation compared to most other planets.
The least surprising of all was the birth of many children with the same abilities of those who came from the Regal Empire, after of course, the Regal Empire had shown them what true democracy and freedom looked like. Of course the video glazed over the fact that most of those children weren’t born by choice after many incidents that occured by Empire soldiers against the women of Earth.
It didn’t mention the scores of abandoned children left by women who didn’t want reminders of their assaults looking at them every day, and that Levi’s grandfather, a great war hero was one of them. It also glazed over that the war against the Empire was mostly won over the course of many years, but boiled it all down to a single thirty second explanation.
“Only you can stop invasions,” boomed the video, as Fenton rolled his eyes so hard they almost receded into his skull. 200 years after they had left, the Empire was still affecting them, their history washed down and diluted to a video that would make the horrors of war easier to digest for their descendents.
“Our plight will never end,” said the video. “The Galaxy must become one, under the Union’s watchful eyes.”
The Regal Empire was simply replaced with another omnipotent entity that would colonize and tax them, but at least this one wasn’t assaulting their people. At least not yet. Fenton tuned out again as his favorite part of the video was over, and he hoped that he wouldn’t have to watch it again, at least for another few weeks.
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