Unfrozen: Alone

Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets. Paul Tournier’s quote made people seem like the loneliest beings on the planet, for who does not have a secret or two to keep from everyone else?

Hyrum saw Artemis running off towards the Cafeteria, they must have interrupted her getting a good meal, he followed her down the halls. Artemis did go into the cafeteria and grabbed two apple to eat, along with some chocolate brownies. Then turned to leave, Hyrum hid within the showers but got thrown an apple by Artemis, and instantly caught it in his left hand.

“If you’re going to keep track of me, can I go to the garden? That way I’m contained to one area.” she bounced happily over to him and got too close for his liking. Her stance was completely stupid, she was leaning forward with her hands behind her back, and had one leg crossed over the other. It reminded him of those ridiculous Jap cartoons his soldiers watched, of how the school girls would ask any question to a guy. He glared down at her, why must she be so annoying?

Artemis was unaffected by her companions harsh glare and took off running to the Gardens. He growled, and followed her, why he had to babysit a seventeen year old girl was beyond him, even if she was a genius. Although technically speaking she was fifty seven, and not seventeen, he rolled his eyes at his own thoughts, what difference did it damn well make? She was ten in her own mind and that was the problem!

Artemis got to the garden and was amazed at how well they made it, there was a stream, some bushes, an oak tree that was apparently well kept up, to not grow very tall, an array of flowers, even grass, a stone walk way. Everything that she would have wanted in her home design was here. Artemis giggled happily and went running through the garden at full speed. Not long after did Hyrum enter the garden and chose a sitting area to lie down at while she spent her time pointlessly frolicking about. When she was in his sights he took care to study her, when he noticed something rather odd. Regardless of her being kept by the military, she was still a civilian, but her breathing was that of a Olympic runner. She breathed in through her nose while running, and out through her mouth. Allowing for more oxygen and expulsion of carbon dioxide, it was no wonder she didn’t tire or ever seem out of breath, even at her top running speed she was oxygenating her blood enough.

Hyrum then remembered her saying that General Marceau had taught her a few things, no wonder, in combat that way of breathing is just as useful as to marathon runners. Hyrum watched Artemis run about from where he was laying, and learned more of what Marceau taught her, she could compete with half of his well trained men as far as running. When someone is running, it is generally best to keep one’s hands straight,so when someone is running, arms must be at their sides, parallel with their body, as to reduce wind drag, as to maintain velocity without getting buffeted from the speed, itself. Furthermore, the stride of a runner must extend their leg forward, bringing the knee and thigh to a 90 degree angle, in regards to being perpendicular to their adjacent parts. All of which Artemis was doing naturally when running from spot to spot in the garden.

Hyrum sat up and took more notice to the girl in front of him, forty years in cryos did have its side affects, her body was beginning to gain the weight she needed to be considered healthy, but she was still far too skinny for her own good. Hyrum then recalled seeing her eat in the cafeteria a few times. Large portions of lean beef, vegetables including Romaine lettuce, as opposed to iceberg. Cabbage, carrots, broccoli which had lots of fiber in them, and Potatoes, which would provide the starches, to maintain her body heat. Hyrum stared at the female, he could not believe it, she was getting herself into prime condition on her own. Probably another thing she picked up from Marceau.

It was apparent as well that Artemis was fast, but agile as well, she was able to bound and leap over things with great ease. Artemis finally looked up at the tree and decided she wanted to climb it, when someone entered the Garden.

“Artemis!” a voice called out. Artemis lit up, she knew that voice, and dashed right up to Aaron and hugged him happily.

“Aaron! Have you come to play with me?” she said excited.

Aaron liked Artemis’s enegery alot, it was a welcomed change from the all serious military, he smiled brightly,

“Alright, I’m off duty anyways.” he said easily and then saw Hyrum and stood at attention.

“Sir!” he said immediately. Hyrum looked at him boredly,

“I don’t care what you do, I’m just here to babysit.” he growled.

Aaron looked at Artemis who immediately darted off,

“Aaron come on! Let’s play!” she said happily.

Aaron soon forgot his commanding officer was with them, he soon found that Artemis was truly the fastest person he knew. No matter what he tried he just couldn’t keep up with her. Finally she stopped running, and bounded up to Hyrum,

“Hyrum I have a quesiton.” she chirped.

Hyrum glared at her but waited.

“Is my teacher still alive?” she asked.

Hryum raised an eyebrow,

“General Marceau? I believe he is, no one’s seen him though, so he could be gone.” he answered evenly.

Artemis lit up,

“Hooray!” she said and bounded to Aaron who looked shocked.

“Wait, Artemis you knew THE General Marceau?” he asked astonished.

Artemis nodded, but looked confused,

“Yep. He was my teacher. Why?”

Aaron was fumbling for words,

“He….he taught you? I thought he hated teaching!” he stuttered. Artemis began climbing the tree again,

“He did.” she answered simply.

Aaron raised an eyebrow,

“Why are so excited then?”

Artemis smiled to herself, but didn’t answer Aaron, if there is no official documentation of him dying, he wasn’t dead. He was just avoiding everyone, he hated people. Marceau was very much alive somewhere, and he would find her, when he was good and ready to. Five years of training with the man, Artemis knew him better than most, he did things his own way, on his own time, colder than the ice caps on the north and south pole. But he was damn good at his job, and chances are he didn’t simply let her fade into the back of his mind. He never forgot anything, or anyone, although she was annoying to no end in his opinion he simply wouldn’t forget a girl he had trained diligently, and when he found her, she’d be in some form of trouble or another.

It was safe to say Artemis loved her teacher more than anyone else, he taught her a lot. More than just fighting, but he taught her about life, he was harsh and cold man, who’s own son had disowned him for never being there. He was a hardened military soldier, who should have never had a kid in the first place, he regarded people with disdain, and only respected those who were his superiors and his best friend, and it just so happened at the time, he only had one superior, and his best friend was dead. Artemis always remembered one line that he had told her, a lesson she regarded the most important he had taught her,

“Be a best friend, tell truth, go to work and break your back. And don’t ever outsmart your common sense.”

Artemis fondly remembered sitting in front of him and listening to him for hours, he would berate her for never being serious, but he would tell her about how to make it in life. How to analyze people, like she would a computer, how to rip people to shreds only by words. Artemis learned from him unshakable confidence, and freedom from fear, one thing he had exunated in her was the freedom from fear, Artemis didn’t fear much to begin with, and he only gave her more foundation to the reasons why. Artemis snapped out of her thoughts long enough to hear Aaron and Hyrum call to her.

“Artemis, come we have to get dinner.” Aaron called.

Artemis didn’t realize it had gotten so late, and immediately jumped down, Aaron immediately panicked. Artemis just jumped a good seventy feet down. Artemis hit the ground in a roll, and stood up after a complete rotation. She smiled brightly,

“Let’s go!” she chirped happily. Hyrum unlike his subordinate hadn’t panicked, being trained by Marceau the girl would know how to land from a measly jump like that. Following the two happily chatting kids in front of him, Hyrum wondered why Marceua would take such an interest in the girl, she certainly wasn’t someone he would easily tolerate for no good reason. Although her association with the General explained why she was immune to Hyrum’s cold attitude, and it would most likely explain why she didn’t mind be thrown. Hyrum couldn’t imagine Marceau taking it easy on her in training simply because she was a girl.

The three of them walked in and a voice called to one of them,

“Hyrum! Come eat with us!” Elfriede called standing up.

Jane was sitting across from her and waved to Artemis.

“Artemis you come too!” she called, missing the dirty look that Elfriede gave to her. Artemis, Aaron and Hyrum got in line and began to grab food. Hyrum watched carefully as Artemis got a few vegetables and milk.

“Is that all your going to get?” Aaron asked worried

Artemis smiled, and nodded, but when she looked over at Aaron she patted him on the head,

“Aaron for forty years I’ve been frozen, my metabolism is still booting itself back up to normal. Although I am taking in two thousand to twenty five hundred calories per day, I still can only eat in short bursts. Normal size meals will take me a few more weeks. Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.” she explained happily.

Aaron raised an eyebrow,

“Then shouldn’t you eat some meat as well?” he asked.

Artemis laughed,

“Yes, but my body can’t handle a full T-bone. It would be a waste of food.” she explained and got out of line and sat down with the other two females, much to Elfriede’s annoyance.

Hyrum grabbed two steaks, vegetables and water, then sitting across from Artemis and next to Elfriede who was overly delighted. Aaron hesitated but walked over to the table and carefully sat down. Artemis was happy she was actually having a meal with people, she rarely ever got to eat with people forty years back. Occasionally if he could, Dr. Keaton would have either dinner or lunch with her. She smiled to herself, remembering if he was in a good mood, or if it was a special occasion General Marceau would eat dinner with her, it was truly a rarity, but she would always enjoy it when the occasion happened.

Jane smiled, Artemis seemed very happy,

“So Artemis what are you doing tomorrow?” she asked happily.

Artemis shrugged,

“I don’t know. I don’t have to meet with Dr. Octavian, so whatever Hyrum wants me to do is fine.” she said happily.

Elfriede swallowed,

“Hyrum? What does Hyrum have to do with your activities?” she asked suspiciously.

Hyrum sighed,

“It’s a long story, that at present time, I’m not allowed to tell. But what I can tell you, is she knows things that she’s not supposed to, by accident, and until I’m otherwise told, I’m her baby sitter.”

Elfriede raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question him further, if he could reveal more to her, he would. Unfortuantely with such a vague explanation it only made her more suspicious of Artemis, and dislike her more. Artemis looked up from her meal to notice Elfriede observing her with disdain, Artemis continued eating, she didn’t understand what she had done to upset Elfriede. Perhaps when her and Jane had sometime alone, she would ask her, or perhaps Dr. Octavian, he knew people a lot better than they knew themselves, just like Dr. Keaton, maybe he would explain it to her.

Hyrum cut one of the t-bone steaks in half, stabbed his fork in one half and put it on Artemis’s plate, much to everyone’s surprise. Artemis cocked her head to the side at Hyrum,

“You’re too skinny, because of the cryostasis. You can’t gain any weight just eating vegetables, and what weight you will gain is just fat, you hate wasting food, so there. A portion you be able to manage without getting ill.” he growled.

Artemis smiled,

“Thankies!” she cheered and cut some of the meat and began eating it. Hyrum rolled his eyes, she butchered the english language.

Elfriede, Aaron and Jane were all beside themselves, bitter cold Hyrum doing something genuinely nice? Now that was unheard of.

Hyrum glared,

“All of you got that I’m her babysitter right? Well my ass will be chewed if the damn girl doesn’t get healthy soon. Don’t look like fools, I am doing my job, all of you should know by now that means more to me than anything.” he snapped.

Aaron looked down, Hyrum had a point, so long as he was in charge of her, it meant her health too. Jane slightly smiled, job or not, that was nice of Hyrum to think of Artemis, and give her some of his own food. Elfriede pitied Hyrum, to have to be in charge of someone so blatantly muddle-headed was tough. To put a spy as skilled and inteeliginet as Hyrum be given the mission of babysitting? Shouldn’t something like that be given to his subordinates, like Aaron?

Artemis ate her meat happily, the steak was excellent, and a meal with friends was even better. Artemis listened to the others chat about their work casually as she thought about Dr. Keaton. She wondered how he was doing, forty years ago he and his wife were having troubles having a child. She hoped he had one, he would have made a great dad. That brought her thoughts to her inheritance, she would have enough money to be able to live comfortably on, but besides the renovating of her new home, and the equipment she would need to begin creating new technology for the military she had no idea what to do with money.

Artemis finished her meal and half listened to Jane explaining a funny mistake one of the new kids made, there was a more pressing issue that was pulling at Artemis. Everything surrounding her and her mother’s past, it was fools wish to believe that no one would find out about Dr. Scalese’s fraud, the fact that in the forty years that Artemis was frozen it hadn’t been discovered. No matter, people would begin to wonder why Artemis was living here, breaking the laws that had been set up. Which meant that people would begin to investigate her, and find out everything eventually. Artemis laughed along with the others, except Hyrum who didn’t find anything amusing about Jane’s story. Artemis could imagine what would happen if the rest of the country got word that their entire way of life was made by a seventeen year old, no matter how anyone would look at it, many people wouldn’t be happy. Among those people, were the twelve generals. It was due to Artemis’s beliefs that they were put into power, she didn’t think some of them would be too pleased with that thought. And then of course there was her mother, it was quite obvious that not even General Miakone knew the whole truth about the saint Dr. Scalese, but all lies eventually come to light, no matter how deep they are buried.

With her mother revealing the truth about Artemis, there would be an investigation into exactly who Dr. Scalese was, and everything she did. Which would end up in the revelation of some secrets Artemis had. Artemis had to get prepared for all this, tonight she would need to find out when the other eleven generals were coming to Baring Eight, General Miakone had an obligation to tell the other eleven generals about what had been discovered regarding Artemis and her beloved mother. Artemis sat back, she could access Connie anytime she wished, even from the place she was staying, but what she had noticed, is the room she was staying didn’t have a projector to display holograms. This was vital because Artemis wanted to find out more about the other eleven generals, Miakone seemed to be taking in all he had learned with some grace, which was good, he did run Baring Eight, but he was outnumbered.

Artemis did not have the upper hand in this situation, she couldn’t ask for a computer pad that would give her access to everything she needed without alerting people to suspicion of her, she glanced at Hyrum, and he was not about to let her out of his sights. Anything she did, he would report, the only private things she had were her thoughts, and those would only get her so far. Artemis had no choice, she would have to be patient, until she had her own space with her own equipment, there was little she could do. If she poked around too much with Hyrum on guard it would only cause more problems.

While Artemis continued to analyze the situation she was in, and the problems that would arise another was observing her. It was wise of Artemis to begin planning counterattacks of what would come, because Elfriede was already becoming increasingly suspicious. The girls situation made no sense, a science experiment? Jane had explained what she could, Artemis was in cryos for over forty years with the very same program that had costed the lives of hundreds of soldiers and was fine, but if that were the only reason she would be contained in one area, not free to roam about as she pleased. More importantly she would have two to four cadet soldiers guarding her, not an elite spy like Hyrum to follow her around.

Everyone was getting up, and throwing there trays out. Jane turned to Artemis after both of them threw their trash away,

“Artemis, Liam wanted to ask you a few things, would you mind coming to the lab with me?” she asked nicely.

Artemis lit up, Liam was an interesting person, and she did want to help them so she turned to Hyrum.

He rolled his eyes,

“Better than you running around pointlessly.” he growled.

Artmeis smiled brightly,

“Ok! Let’s go!” she said happily and grabbed Jane’s off, and took off.

Jane was panting when she got to her lab, she was not accustomed to running, and Artemis was no slow slug. While Jane swiped her card Artemis turned to Hyrum,

“What am I allowed to tell him?” she asked.

Hyrum looked at her, well one more credit given to her, she was not foolish enough to believe she could tell anyone anything.

“What he asks, is what you answer. Nothing more.” he replied evenly.

Jane raised an eyebrow, apparently there were things that Artemis knew that were classified, which struck Jane as odd. Regardless the trio entered the lab and immediately Artemis ran over to Liam and hugged him from behind where he was sitting, the man to his credit didn’t move and continued typing on the holographic keyboard.

“Good evening Artemis, thank you for taking the time to come and see me.” he said calmly. Hyrum shook his head, Liam was the type of guy who took things in stride, he was a scientist of extraordinary skill, and his belief was everything should come to be a surprise but one should not be startled by this.

Artemis looked around happily,

“So why did you want to see me?” she asked cheerfully.

Liam noticed she was looking for something to do, Octavian had warned him about Artemis’s need to do something while being asked questions. He pulled out a tablet that had holographic capabilities and handed i tot Artemis with a slight smile on his face.

She immediately sate down corsss legged in front of him and booted the tablet up. Liam turned back to his own computer,

“Artemis when I and Jane found you, we tried getting into the computers that you hooked up to, yet we could not, we could not even get to the desktop. Jane is the best hacker we have and not even she could crack the code. It was very apparent someone was blocking us out. Did your mom tell anyone else where you were?” he asked.

Artemis brought up a hologram of Baring Eight and went about to one of the smaller circles that she knew wasn’t being used, well only for junk storage, that she would convert to her living space.

“No, mom never told anyone else that she was going to put me into cryos. I didn’t find out until the very moment I was being placed in.” She answered evenly.

“Did your mom have any confidants that she would have told after putting you under?” Liam asked.

Artemis shook her head,

“Mom was not too much of social person. She stuck to her work, and if she had any friends they didn’t know about me. She wasn’t really allowed to talk about me, since I was an experiment. And she never told me about any close friends she had, mostly we just talked about my schoolwork, and my sessions with Dr. Keaton. I would tell her about my creations and she sometimes took interest.” Artemis replied blowing up the room that she wanted and studying it to find out how she wanted to design her new home.

Forty years ago she didn’t really have much of a say in how the wear house where she lived was designed, but now she had free reign, and plenty of money to do whatever she wanted.

Liam seemed trouble, then who was blocking their attempts to get in. “Acme rules” was the password, but why? If the person was a friend of acme’s which is what that password pointed too, then why didn’t they just come forward.

“Artemis the password that got us in was “ACME Rules”, do you know why that is?” he asked.

Artemis decided to build a bathroom first, she always wanted a really fancy bathroom, now was her chance to have one.

“Yes. I didn’t know who you people were so I kept changing the password. When that was typed in I realized that ACME meant no harm to me, as my mother worked for them before she died. So I allowed you access.” she answered happily.

Liam swiftly turned to her,

“You…Allowed us in? Artemis that is not possible.” he stuttered out.

Artemis began to look up different types of baths to put in her bathroom,

“Yes it is. I had complete control over the computers and network system I was hardwired into for thirty seven years. Jane couldn’t get access because I wouldn’t allow it, although I give her credit, she did a good job trying.” Artemis explained laughing.

Liam looked to Hyrum, who sighed

“Look Liam there are a lot of things that this girl knows, and is/was capable of. Perhaps you should speak to the General before continuing.”

Liam raised an eyebrow, but slowly nodded. Hyrum relaxed, that would clear up a lot of issues of who is allowed to know what. At least for the time being. Hyrum looked at the hologram,

“Washboard, what are you doing?” he asked.

“Designing my new home.” she answered excitedly.

Hyrum looked at Liam,

“Mind if she keeps that for a bit? I am ordered to look after her,and it would be much easier if she would stay in one place.” he asked.

Liam rose an eyebrow,

“I see no problem with it. We have plenty here, so she can keep it as long as she wants.” he replied. He wondered why Hyrum would be assigned such an odd task.

Hyrum looked at Artemis, he was noticing something more and more. With Aaron, at the table at dinner, in the General’s office, Artemis always seemed to by herself, alone. it wasn’t just that she was doing her own thing then answering questions, or joining the conversation, it was as if, surrounded by people she was alone for some reason. Hyrum had no idea why he noticed this but it was true, she was overly friendly, and nice, but that didn’t seem to matter. What made this one girl seem so isolated? Was it her personality? Or was it something else?

Artemis felt Hyrum studying her, being a spy made him do so, and since they would be around each other a lot, he would be analyzing her more and more. In that sense he was very much like her beloved teacher, Marceau, always studying people, figuring them out. General Marceua knew her better than her own mother, and more than likely even more than Dr. Keaton did. That never bothered her, not once, being figured out was never a frightening prospect for Artemis. Even now, she had secrets that were not too pleasant, but having someone figure them out, would actually be a relief for her. Hyrum was not an easy person, nor was he the type to let things slide, but that was a good thing, it gave Artemis comfort.

This world, she both knew a lot about, and knew very little about. Forty years is a long time to be gone, many things had changed, and the life that Artemis knew was stripped from her. She always appeared playful and carefree, but in her mind she was frightened, it was not in her nature to show very much of her emotions to anyone. As far as anyone here was concerned she had one side to her, playful, fun loving, people person Artemis, and that was all they needed to know at the present time. Her own mind twisted and tortured her enough on its own accord. The other intricate sides to her personality would come eventually, but not until necessary.

Alone for Artemis was no different than breathing, the way her life went forty years ago, and now that fact had remained the same. Trapped in her own mind, or contained in a room, she was alone. Five years of her life, were heavenly, where she didn’t feel alone, because she had her teacher. Dr. Scalese, held mother by title given through blood, but it was nothing more than a title, General Marceau was Artemis’s mentor, father figure, and crush. He was both her ally and enemy, never gave her more than she deserved, never punished her more than she earned. He had no predispositions about her, regardless of what he heard from anyone. At the end of the day, Artemis was Artemis to him. Her genius meant nothing, her skills were nothing, she was not an experiment, she was not a lab rat. All she was, all she would ever be was his student Artemis Scalese, nothing more and nothing less.

For that reason Artemis loved him above all others, and it was for that reason she hated herself. Artemis had failed the one person she never wished to become a disgrace to. No punishment would ever be severe as the guilt she had, she had wronged her teacher, and the worst part was, no one knew. Not General Marceau, not ACME, no one was around to hold Artemis accountable, not yet at least, but the time would come eventually. Artemis knew she would have to face her teacher eventually, face him with the guilt she had, but she wondered if she really had the strength to.

Unfrozen: Revealing the Truth

Aspire to be a hero than merely appear as one. Baltasar Gracian meant in that quote that if your just a facade then your no one’s true hero, you are simply a liar and a fake. But what if the true hero would have never been believed as one, would they create a facade for people to look up to? To give them hope at the price of never having the glory.

Artemis entered the General’s office and immediately ran to Hyrum,

“Hyrum!” she yelled and hugged him, before being grabbed by the arms and chucked diagonally into the couch. Artemis slammed into the couch and sat up smiling,

“Yay! I landed on something soft this time!” she laughed. General Miakone stood up at once and swiftly turned to Hyrum,

“Captain Hyrum that was highly unnecessary! I though I had discussed this with you” he scolded. Artemis looked alarmed and jumped off the couch,

“Don’t scold him! I have fun!” she whimpered. Miakone rose an eyebrow as he turned to look at the girl and opened his mouth to say that when his secretary opened the door,

“Oh Artemis you’re here. I am sorry General for no letting her in myself, I was away from my desk.” she said softly.

Octavian, Miakone, and Hyrum all looked at her wide-eyed,

“You did not let her in?” Octavian asked.

Jeanette gave a blank look,

“No I did not.” she replied immediately and walked out. Dr. Octavian looked at Artemis and sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk,

“Artemis we need to discuss something with you. But you need to be completely honest with us.” he said gently. Artemis pounced on the couch and sat down on her knees with her hands in front of her, much like a dog would,

“Ok. I don’t lie.” she said happily.

Hyrum snorted,

“Sure you don’t. You’ve been lying about how smart you are this entire time.” he growled.

Artemis giggled,

“Actually no I haven’t. No one asked how smart I was, had they asked I would have told them my IQ is 170.”

General Miakone sat down,

“That is not information you should hide.” he said gravely.

Artemis cocked her head,

“I was not hiding it. If none of you ask, I will not speak about myself. My personal business is mine to either keep or share.” she said easily.

The General was about to blow a valve when Octavian gave him a look and shook his head, and turned back to Artemis,

“Artemis how did you enter the General’s office when it was locked?” he asked.

Artemis smiled,

“Connie has a master password, that allows access to anything she controls. I have that password, and used it to enter.” she replied happily.

Dr. Octavian smiled gently,

“How did you get that? Not even we here at ACME have it.”

Artemis looked around the office, this was getting boring,

“Well of course not. Dr. Scalese didn’t have it, I never allowed her to. But since your asking me, I am guessing my mother left some kind of record that she didn’t create almost anything that she’s credited for. So could you just cut to the chase? I want to play.” she dully and rolled on her back on the couch hanging her head over the arm rest.

Hyrum rolled his eyes,

“You’re such a child.” he grumbled.

Octavian openly ignored Hyrum, and sat down in the available cushion next to where Artemis was laying,

“Well Artemis, if I play a game with you, may we continue asking questions?” he asked happily. Artemis bolted right up and bounced over to Hyrum,

“Only if you play too Hyrum!” she said tugging his sleeve.

He slapped her hand away, but got one look from the General and mumbled,

“Oh very well. I will join.”

Artemis jumped up and down,

“Yays! What game?” she asked.

Octavian though a moment,

“Ah. I know. It’s strategy game, Hyrum is extremely skilled at it. Here is the basic idea, Connie will bring up a hologram of an area, each of us will have miniature armies, and will conduct battles with each other to gain more land. Sound fun?” he asked. Both Hyrum and the General looked at him, that was not a game, it was a simulation used to teach soldiers basic military strategy, and spot for potential squad captains. He made it sound overly simple when it was anything but, to gain more land you had utilize the area to utmost, in order to do so you had a private Connie pad on your lap so that other players could not see what you were planning. You had to equip your soldiers with a variety of military gear, make a base camp, and send out scouting units, and a plethora of other military operations. Basically for anyone to use it properly and succeed in any of the areas they had to go through about a year of military strategy, history, and ground training.

Octavian just smiled as Artemis bolted to the floor and was eager to begin. Hyrum looked at the General who just shrugged and got from his desk the computer pads and handed them out. The game began quickly afterward,

“So Artemis how did your mom start stealing your ideas?” Octavian asked.

Artemis didn’t look up,

“She didn’t steal them, I gave them to her. I found out that she was taking too long on the R.M project, and that the military was considering letting her go. So I simply gave her the blue prints to my ideas.” Artemis explained.

Hyrum looked at the girl,

“Why the hell would you do such a stupid thing?” he asked. Octavian inwardly sighed, Hyrum was too damn corse for his own good.

Artemis began to equip her men for the desert that they were in,

“Self preservation. If mom got fired, I might just end up in an orphanage. Dr. Scalese was not fit to be a mother.” she simply replied.

Hyrum paused at that thought, born after that age didn’t mean he didn’t know what an orphanage was, he had heard the horror stories in history. He concentrated back on the simulation, he admitted perhaps it wasn’t such a stupid thing to do.

Octavian nodded as the game had now truly begun,

“So in order to keep a roof over your head, you gave her your creations?” he asked.

Artemis nodded and added,

“Well that and to get free rein in supplies for my ideas. With me supplying mom with new technology for the military I also had leverage against her to get anything I wanted.”

General Miakone cut in,

“But that’s not much of an exchange, your mother made a killing off everything you created. You now have nothing.”

Artemis smiled as she sent a unit to do recon,

“Not true necessarily. Let me ask you, is Dr. Keaton still alive?” she chirped.

Dr. Octavian raised an eyebrow,

“Why yes he is. Why do you ask?” he said curiously.

Artemis looked up,

“He is my mother’s beneficiary and executor of her will until I turn the rightful age of eighteen. Everything my mother earned is now mine. Including this facility.” she said happily.

Octavian and Hyrum froze and turned to the General who just sighed,

“What she says is technically true. Dr. Scalese was for lack of a better term our land lord. She built this place, and allowed the military to use it, but it was rightfully hers.” he said defeated.

Octavian sat back for a moment, and asked,

“Artemis, this place wasn’t meant to be a military base was it?”

Artemis beamed, and clapped her hands,

“Yays! You’re figuring it out. Half of my creations were never meant to be used for the military. I used to create things to have fun with, mom saw some of them and asked me to change their plans to best suit the military. Baring Eight was originally my house.”

Hyrum shook his head,

“Repeat and explain that last one?” he asked.

Artemis smiled,

“Baring Eight was originally my home. I’ve been secluded from society my entire life, and I was quite satisfied in keeping it that way. So Baring Eight was smack dab in a place no one even liked, the baring sea. This place would have everything I would ever want. A garden, a gym, a science lab, fun house, movie theatre, and other things. Mom must have changed the plans when she put me cryos, to better fit the military’s need.” she explained shrugging it off then added happily,

“But I am glad the design is precisely the same as I made it.”

General Miakone fell silent, this spelled trouble, Artemis by law was fifty-seven, the money now did belong to her, which meant she stood as the wealthiest woman in the country, not to mention she could if she chose kick the military out of this place in a heart beat given that she was now their new landlord.

“You said half of your creations? If they were not for the military what were they for?” Octavian asked, proceeding to deploy some of his units. He was truly never good at this, but he had to make an effort.

Artemis read what her recon had brought back on Dr. Octavian’s army,

“My personal use and fun. I was very lonely as a child, so I use to create things that would keep my mind busy, Connie originally was made to be my friend, but as I got older, I used her more for databases. Anytime my mother needed a new military device she would look over my blueprints and/or creations and ask what they were used for and brainstorm with me on how I could change them for military use.” she explained liking that she could easily overthrow Dr. Octavian.

Miakone sighed and leaned against his desk, now what the hell was he to do? The New Axis comprised of twelve general’s forming a council who controlled UCNA, would have to be informed of this. Which would lead to finding out that Dr. Scalese was a liar, which would lead to many other things. Rewriting history books, that and this country might fall into disarray once more, a seventeen year old who is responsible for their way of life, would probably not go over well with society. He sat on his desk, crossed his arms and began to think about what move to make next.

Hyrum was lazily playing the game, he had mastered it in his early teens, and very few could beat him, but something was bugging him,

“Are to tell me that the military never figured out your mother was a liar?” he asked.

Artemis deployed her plan and looked up,

“Yes and no. The military as a whole never did. One General in particular did. General Antonio Sloan Marceau, found out when I was about eleven that I was the creator behind my mothers success’s.” she said simply.

General Miakone’s head shot up, General Marceau was also considered a great hero, he was one of the primary reasons that over a million people escaped death. He was also a genius regarding military tactics and strategy, in the USA he held the position of Secretary of Defense for a term of President Arora Delaine. Of course that was prior to Artemis’s birth.

“He knew? And said nothing?” he stammered.

Artemis shrugged,

“Not a word. He was one of the grumpiest people I knew, but he always came by and trained me from the time I was twelve to when I went into cryos. Hyrum reminds me of him, with his cold attitude toward everyone. He said he had no interest in revealing a liar, society wouldn’t except my creations if they knew about my age. It would also put him in a terrible position, the military was making a lot of money through what I was doing, if foreign countries stopped wanting the secrets to my inventions because of my age they could not get as much revenue as they were raking in, there in by risking General Marceua’s position. Making the military lose money by the billions is a good way to get yourself demoted or forced into retirement, which was not acceptable for him.” she explained.

Octavian noticed immediately that he was defeated and sat back,

“I want to ask you about the society we live in today. It is your idea, how did you create it?” he asked. Although he knew that the General and Hyrum would want to know more about General Marceau it was better to jump around subjects with Artemis, she was less likely to get bored, and wish to halt the conversation, which was in her rights.

Artemis studied what she gained from overthrowing Octavian, and was glad she struck before Hyrum, he had the advantage in this game, knowing all about it, and she needed to catch up quick, if she had any hope to win.

“Like I said before to you, military is all I know, I was very familiar with it, which made the assignment easier. But it was more than that. Just because I was kept from society didn’t mean I knew nothing of it. I spent many hours with the television on the news while I worked on my ideas for inventions, I learned quite a bit, mostly about how corrupt people could become. I was sickened by the fact that the elected officials would say one thing, but when elected would do another. Even the best politicians didn’t stay untainted for long, and it taught me something, whenever there is power gained corruption will follow, and swallow its prey whole. People with power forgot they had responsibilities along with it, and only paid attention to the one’s that gained them more influence or money. With the military, although corruption is not unavoidable, it weigh’s more heavily on those who succumb to it. With the military you cannot simply pass off your responsibilities to someone else, because they will lead back to you, and the more power you have means you decide if people either live, die, captured, or even work. Morally right and morally wrong are constantly at the fore front of anyone serving. You are the protection of the people, but does that mean you should become a monster to do so? Politicians become monsters but most don’t have to worry about their own men turning against them and shooting them for the sake of the mission. For politicians more responsibility means more paperwork, and press conferences, for the soldier it means life and death for yourself and your men. Loyalty is a stronghold in any military faction, and trust, another important aspect, is earned based upon your actions, for a soldier having both of these is vital, and in order for either of those, truth must be told, even if it means someone gets into trouble, including yourself. A commander is far more likely to trust a soldier with his back who screws up a lot and admits to it immediately, than a skilled soldier who hides his wrong doings. For those very reasons I believed the military should run things. Those who are corruptible yes can and will leak through, but even if they do, they’re for more likely to be caught.” she explained happily, devising a new plan. This one would definitely need intricate planning, Hyrum would not let her win easily, and had top defense with evasive maneuvers to trap her.

General Miakone could see flaws in her logic, but she had a point, and her reasons for the most part were justified. That is also the reason she probably had twelve generals in power. For even if a few are corrupted the majority probably wouldn’t be. No one person, or even cabinet had too much power. He frowned, but her mother’s plan for this young girl to be this country’s hero, what exactly did that mean? Did she wish her daughter to take over? Or just be the true “founding mother”? His jaw clenched, he knew one thing though, something about the way Dr. Scalese spoke of her daughter implied she had far greater plans for Artemis, and even though that woman was a liar and a half, he knew for a fact she knew how to plan, even if it meant she were not here herself.

Hyrum looked at the girl, waiting for her move, but then asked,

“And what about Baring Eight?”

Artemis looked up and blinked,

“The military is free to continue using it as a base. Eight hundred people live and work here, it would be cold of me to put you all out.” she explained and deployed her plan while looking at the General,

“But there is a catch. I need to you to find Dr. Keaton, he has my lawyer, and I will have a contract drawn up.” she said happily. Then she turned back to the game and realized Hyrum’s defenses weren’t even getting a scratch. She smiled, and deployed four missiles. Two straight for the obvious spots, and two in their shadows aiming for the base of the walls. Hyrum destroyed he first two missiles but failed to stop the other two, and the barrier fell. He admitted that was pretty smart, if only it hadn’t been obvious. He had allowed her to do so, and sent out four units to dispatch of her measly defense.

Octavian looked at the General who seemed a bit perturbed.

“Artemis what do you want?” He asked gently.

Artemis didn’t look up from trying to create a strategy,

“To stay. That’s it. The contract will be simple, I get one of the unused sections of Baring Eight to myself, among the eight circular structures there’s also smaller one’s used for storage. One is completely not in use, I can outfit to be my private quarters. I wish to continue making my own inventions, and when I see fit I’ll contract them out to the military, whether I like it or not, I am extremely skilled in making weapons. In any case, I’m more of use inside this facility then if I were out in society.” she explained happily.

Hyrum looked at her,

“And what do you plan to do with your little area?” he asked curiously, deploying his army to attack her base.

Artemis defended her little fort against Hyrum’s onslaught, waiting till just the right moment to activate her traps,

“The top half will be a sleeping area, loft style, and the rest will be my lab.” she explained activating the traps around her fort, sinking the ground, and making the explosives go off. Hyrum raised an eyebrow at both her and her strategy.

Octavian watched the two battle it out deciding what to ask next, but Artemis beat him to it.

“Did you know Connie has a hologram of herself?” Artemis asked.

Octavian perked up,

“No I didn’t Artemis.” he answered.

Artemis nodded, but said nothing further. Hyrum realized then he knew why Connie had a hologram, the girl said her mother was not fit to be a mother, so she had created an AI to take the place as mother, confidant, and friend. He studied her for a time, she kept her hair always down, but what was more interesting is that unless she felt the need to, she didn’t look people in the eyes. Not having much contact with society, and only a computer program would do that to someone.

“All anyone would have to do is ask Connie to show herself, and she would. I modeled her after a picture in a magazine Dr. Keaton brought to me once.” Artemis went on to say. With her traps all gone off, Hyrum deployed his air strike to attack from above and destroy her fort on the inside. Artemis responded turning all her guns on his planes, and sending her own out. She checked the wind conditions and made three of her planes deploy gas which carried through the wind to Hyrum’s fort. Hyrum raised an eyebrow, that would risk her own men, but it was pretty crafty of her, to use the weather conditions to her advantage.

Artemis looked up to Octavian

“What about my mom’s R.M program, did she ever complete it?” she asked curiously.

Octavian looked at the General, who nodded the ok to tell her.

“Yes and no. She completed it, but by the time we were able to do the prototype your mom and passed away. And I’m afraid it was a failure.” he explained carefully.

Artemis cocked her head to the left side,

“How did it fail?” she asked.

Hyrum remembered seeing the last few experiments, they were insane, tried to kill everything around them.

“They were no longer sane men. They tried to kill everyone, it was like a wild snake had taken hold of their minds and ate away the good soldiers that they were.” Hyrum answered before Octavian had a chance to explain.

Artemis paused at looked at Hyrum, immediately Hyrum knew that she had figured out why she was being held her, instead of just being released to society. But her eyes neither showed anger, shock or sadness. It was knowing look, as if he only had confirmed what she knew, her heterochromia eyes looked so calm. She turned back to the game and propped her chin against her hand and studied whatever knew strategy she was coming up with, but Hyrum knew that stance.

“What do you know?” he growled.

Artemis had her head down but raised her eyes,

“Mmm?” she said.

“I’m a spy you washboard. I study people for a living, you know something.” he growled. Octavian was about to reprimand him for using such vulgar language, but then looked at Artemis, she had a bright smile on her face.

“I know why the program failed, but I am a success, and I know the reason why.” she said simply.

The three men looked at the girl before them in bewilderment, not even their best scientists knew why they went crazed.

“In cryostasis your brain is placed in neutrality. Different emotions are caused by different chemical levels in the brain triggered by events in our lives. While hooked to computer you don’t feel emotion, not anger, not sadness, nothing. And your brain gets used to this, so what happens when you get out? You get emotion back, only problem is your brain is not used to those chemicals being present anymore at those same levels. When you’re hooked to that computer, the computer dictates what you learn, you guys have been putting soldiers who have been trained to follow orders without question. If you do that with a computer, of course you’re going to lose your mind when you get out.” she explained and leaned back.

“Two years after I went in, mom died. The computer was programmed to keep me up with the times, by the newspaper, articles, and everything. I read my own mothers obituary, that’s when the computer could no longer keep my mind in neutrality. It took another a year in order for me to gain complete control over the computer network that was connected directly to me.” she explained and looked at her strategy. Her main plan finally came back with recon, a spy, who had planted bombs within Hyrum’s facility. She waited a little longer while she got her troops in order, and planned her next strike.

“So basically you guys need a new program, how to teach soldiers to override the computer from their mind power alone. If they do that, they cannot be placed in neutrality. I believe I can create something like that to help you out.” she finished happily.

General Miakone rubbed his eyes, her explanation seemed so simple, the autopsies showed normal chemical levels in the brain, they never thought about the soldiers brain not being used to the “normal” doses. They were looking to see if there were overdoses of the chemicals. Artemis detonated the bombs and then attacked at full force, one from the back, and then from the side. Hyrum was startled, most didn’t know how to properly create a spy, which is the only way she could have set bombs inside his fort. Whether he liked it or not, she had outwitted him, because he paid attention to her age and personality and disregarded how smart the computer said she was.

Octavian stared at the screen, Artemis had beaten Hyrum, which was a quite an accomplishment. Artemis was bouncing up and down,

“Hyrum I won!” she said happily. Hyrum wasn’t too much of a competitor, so he just nodded. Artemis jumped up and hugged Hyrum from the side, and then she was on the opposite side of his chair on her back. She coughed a few times, having the wind knocked out of her but smiled brightly at Hyrum who had his an eyebrow raised.

“Don’t touch me. One of these days you might seriously get yourself injured.” he stated calmly. Artemis stuck her tongue out playfully,

“Nope.” she chirped and got up and looked at Octavian like a dog who looked ready to play fetch.

“Can I go now? I want to have fun exploring!”

Octavian didn’t need to look at the General,

“Of course Artemis, run along. Just remember you’re scheduled appointment with me day after tomorrow alright?” he said gently.

Artemis nodded and then bolted out the door. General Miakone sighed,

“I’ll get into contact with Dr. Keaton and get him here. Hyrum you know your mission, do not let that girl wander about as she wishes, you are to keep her in your sights until I say otherwise, as for you Dr. Octavian please share this information with Jane and Liam, I’ll have to get into contact with the Axis Powers, we will decide what to do about Artemis.” he commanded. Hyrum nodded and got up to go follow the girl, and Octavian left to his office.

General Miakone sighed, the Axis Powers were probably not going to like this too much.

Unfrozen: Dr. Scalese

The General stood up,

“Dr. Octavian that accusation is very serious. Your talking about the woman who helped shape this country. She designed the plans for this base, she created Connie, and created dozens of other things this military still uses to this day.” he said firmly.

Octavian nodded,

“I am well aware General, but I have proof. An admission of guilt by the Doctor herself, on record.” he replied. The General promptly sat back down,

“You have the floor.” he immediately said. Dr. Octavian took a chair and sat it next to the General and sat down,

“Connie play the same tape you played for me please. And lock the door to the General’s office, this is not for other ears.” he ordered.

“Of course.” Connie replied, the locks clicked and a large hologram began playing. A woman in her forty’s appeared on screen, it was clearly Dr. Scalese with her jet black hair, high cheek bones, and green eyes. But her face looked sunken, and pale,

“Hello, as many know I am Dr. Scalese, I found out a couple months back that I have cancer….damn cigarettes, could never kick the habit. Now that death is practically waiting out on the front lawn for me, I thought I would make this last memo. Because I feel terrible, ten years ago, Syria and its allies wiped out the United States. Everything is still in ruin, but there are plans which are being made to help us. I am apart of those plans, but I won’t live to seem them bloom. But my success is not what I wanted to talk about. I feel bad because I have placed my only child, my daughter in cryostasis. Now I won’t live to see her come out of it.” she breathed and sat back on her chair and lit up a cigarette after taking a long drag her voice significantly hardened,

“I should be crying about that shouldn’t I? Well, I’m not fucking going to. What I feel bad about is I’ll never know if I succeeded. My daughter is named Artemis Kamiko Scalese, and she is seventeen, more importantly she is my experiment. The government prior to the attack contracted me for my invention of A.R.M, Alliance Reprogramming Method, of course back then it was just abbreviated R.M, Reprogramming Method. It is the idea that the military doesn’t have to spend thousands of money training soldiers in strategy, military tactics, history of war and other such things. They would only need to train them physically. My daughter is the first experiment of this program. But many are probably wondering why her? Well first off if you found this tape, you found her. If she is alive and well then continue to watch, if she is not don’t bother. You won’t find anything participially interesting.” she said easily. She smiled a little,

“If you have found her, and she’s alive, then you have probably noticed that she is anything but average. If you think she’s crazy, well don’t. Artemis is hyper, child like, and a ball of energy, I have had her psych evaluated since she could hold a conversation and be understood. Nothing is mentally wrong with the girl. In fact quite the opposite she’s extraordinarily gifted. When the military contracted me there were still a lot of bugs, calculations and other such things to be worked out, but what they needed the most was an experiment. Two actually, one was what made a good soldier, exposure, or seclusion. Well they had thousands of soldiers who were exposed to exposure, hell growing up outside the military was exposure. What they needed was an experiment of seclusion. Their hopes is when I finished the R.M project they would evaluate the effects side by side of a exposed person, and the secluded one. Problem was, how would they seclude somebody that much from the world and get away with it?” she paused and chuckled taking another drag and coughing, once she was done she smiled again,

“I came up with the perfect solution. I would have a child, and that child would the secluded. They couldn’t believe I had even suggested it, but that’s what they needed and according the US law at the time, secluding a child from the rest of the world didn’t necessarily mean abuse, the child I would have would get the best food, the best schooling, exercise and nice little amenities to keep any child happy. So they found a sperm donor and you can do the rest. And on June 15, 2115 Artemis was born.” she cracked her necked a few times,

“But I am a scientist before I am a mother, I did not care for her, a nanny did, until she was old enough to look after herself, which happened around the time she was eight. But that comes a little later. By the time she was born they had cleared out a large warehouse on Fort James in Washington, I was flown there from California a month before Artemis came into the world. The warehouse had been built up a little to accommodate two floors. The first floor holding, kitchen bathroom, and indoor gated pool, small gym, small library, and office, while the second was her room, a large window with telescope to keep her busy when she grew older. And that is the only place Artemis ever lived. Not once in her lifetime with me did she ever step a foot outside those bolted doors, until the day I put her cryos in a cave near Alaska. During her lifetime I was working on the specs of the A.R.M project, if anyone know their history I was also working I.C.E. Lazer, which Instant Cauterization Energy-based Laser, the Teddy or P.A.N, Personal Acclimating Node, which warms people from the core by attaching a small patch to your chest, alleviating first stages of hypothermia and a variety of other projects that I got patents for. Including the Connie system, and this is where things get a little embarrassing.” she explained, but her face fell,

“The A.R.M project I was developing was going slower than planned, by the time Artemis was eight, the military was doubting my intellectual prowess. I was going to lose everything I had been working on, it was then that I realized upon meeting Dr. Keaton Artemis was encouraged to keep herself occupied during the times she wasn’t doing her schooling to be inventive. With Artemis’s IQ already being higher than most of the general population she began to create things at a phenomenal rate. It is then I realized my chance, in order to prove to the military I could finish the A.R.M project I need to get other patents, so….” Dr. Scalese took a drag of her cigarette,

“I stole from my daughter. Her ideas were ingenious, and the military, they ate it up. Of course I had to tweak a few things, she was eight years old, her diagrams were sloppy but by the time she was ten, she had perfect neat blueprints, formulas, and built her own prototypes. I claimed them as my own, in exchange she got whatever she desired.” she laughed.

Octavian looked at the General who’s mouth dropped open, and Hyrum who had turned away from the hologram to look outside the window, had now turned back and looked at the woman like a hideoius beast.

Dr. Scalese nodded,

“I stole from my very own daughter. Everything. If someone were to look back, every invention from 2123 and on were all my daughters ideas. The Connie system which I released this year 2142, had actually been completed since Artemis was about fourteen, she had begun to create it when she was seven, one of the few creations she had started prior to her meeting Dr. Keaton. But after putting her into cryos I got smart, and gathered all of my daughters things and patented them when I felt necessary. And the funny thing is Baring Eight which has recently been completed, and Connie installed within it, was actually never a military base at all. Originally in my daughters plans it was her home, she had blue printed it to be her home completed with everything. A gym, a fun room, a invention room, everything she could ever have wanted would be placed there. She designed it when she was fifteen, upon finding those blueprints while she was working on them, I asked her to replicate them and instead make it a military base, of course when I asked her how she proposed to make the steel hold up against the baring sea, she showed me her creation that she had developed four years prior, the Mythral Steel. I couldn’t believe my daughter had single handily made a steel that would not erode, but instead was strengthen by salt water.” she explained almost proudly.

Hyrum just shook his head, this woman was despicable to his eyes now, but now he was trying to wrap around his head the fact that Artemis, that twerp, was this fucking smart. The General could not believe his ears either, she had lied to this entire country, and what was worse, she had used her daughter to make herself ridiculously rich, and here Artemis was only had two outfits and one pair of shoes.

Dr. Scalese laughed,

“Now everyone’s probably wondering why the hell I would do such a horrible thing? Well I will tell you. In the world when my daughter and lived in appearance was everything, position matters, when I was going to lose my contract with the US military I needed to reassure them that I belonged as a head scientist and when this country rose again it was even more important, everyone was lost and confused, I needed a definite place, somewhere I rightfully belonged. Problem was the country was lost, I could not find my place if the country didn’t first. Thankfully I remembered my daughter had just so happen to have a nice map made out of her definition of a perfect society. I found it in her things I had hid when the war broke out, all I did was hand it out, and society, and officials of the three countries that were left grasped onto it like a life raft and I was proclaimed me its founding mother.” she stretched, obviously getting tired from sitting in a chair for so long.

“Now why would my daughter even create a complex society map as I called it? Simple as I have said she enjoyed having fun and her teachers learned quick as to how to make her grasp subjects and excel further. A Sociology college professor had been teaching her about how societies work as a whole, with laws, people, officials, you get the picture, upon realizing she was getting bored, he challenged her, to use what she knew and create her own detailed society. I remember well when she was working on it, she was so motivated, creating every scenario she could think of to challenge her own laws, to make them better, to improve the life of her fake citizens…” Dr. Scalese was huffing and began to cough, for a full five minutes she did nothing but cough and hack blood into a handkerchief.

After being able to breath for a bit she looked at the camera again, she appaeared so tired and wragged,

“Dying, it really wakes someone up. I am a proclaimed genius when in relaity I barely understand half of anything my daughter created. I am horrible for so many different reasons, one that I will take to my grave. Besides that, and more importantly I never understood Artemis, I didn’t want to. She thinks differently from everyone around her and that honestly frightened me, knowing that I never knew what she was thinking. Artemis thinks like a child, but according to her views on society, the one that existed to the one that she created, she has a deep understanding of people as a whole.” Dr. Scalese was huffing and wheezing, she was clearly at the end of her rope.

“I can’t tell you much about my daughter, what I can tell you is she’s incredibly intelligent, but also ignorant. I can say honestly she has no idea what it means to have a friend, or family, she never once realized that Dr. Keaton actually honestly grew to care for her. I am leaving her in cryos for a reason, this country needs a hero, an icon, someone who they can look to, not a soldier, not a bureaucrat, not one of the twelve generals who run this country now, this country needs a bright eyed girl who sees the world differently from everyone else. I leave this on record, I am not the hero everyone has made me out to be, that I made myself out to be, I leave my daughter to be the true idol. I have lied, I stole from her, but she will steal everyone heart’s on her own power, even without this video, I do not want her to be my shadow, because it was I who was always in hers.” she said strongly, and then the video went black.

The General just sat in silence for awhile, not believing what he had just learned, Octavian now had watched this video three times over, and looked at the older man. General Miakone had known Dr. Scalese personally, had gotten to know her, and relatively enjoyed her company. Now he had just found out that one of his friends had lied to him the entire time he ha dknown her. Hyrum sighed,

“So let me get this straight, that hyperactive fluff ball is one a genius, and two is responsible for our way of living?” he growled.

Octavian nodded,

“It would appear so, which would explain why she has memorized this facility in a matter of days, and why she didn’t need instructions about the holocard. That idea was hers originally and her mother stole it.” he explained standing up.

Hyrum slammed his fist into the metal wall,

“Dr. Scalese was the wealthiest woman in this country, she could live ten lives and still not have to work a day in her life. Artemis has nothing, and she would be a hero twice over if everyone knew.” he barked.

Octavian understood Hyrum’s anger, Hyrum at one point had a idea for a mission once, how it should be run, but another soldier, Numel, stole the plans right out of Hyrum’s room and lead the mission, there in by becoming a hero. The General and known Dr. Scalese personally, and considered her a dear friend, it was hard to believe his friend had lied to him all these years. While the three men were in silence pondering over what they had just learned, the girl in question was having fun trying to pick out an outfit. It’s not like they had a wide variety, this was still a military base, most of the clothes were outfitted for that but she couldn’t decide on the tank top she wanted. One was a fitting black tank top that wouldn’t lift, or move around as she was running around everywhere, while the other was more loose and green. The pants were easy to find, it was good she liked camo so much, otherwise it would have been difficult, but she had chosen the desert style. Upon reflecting on it she chose the black as it matched better and put the green one back. She would have to ask the General eventually if packages could come into this place, of course they would have to be thoroughly screened, but they were clothes so it shouldn’t be too hard.

Artemis went up to the register, payed for her new outfit and changed out of the wet one, as she was walking out of the store Jane came up t her,

“So this is where you were. Oh you look cute in that outfit! Ready for lunch?” she asked happily.

Artemis smiled brightly,

“Yes! Let’s go, I think I have to go see the General afterwards.” she said happily. While they walked to the mess hall Jane looked over at Artemis,

“Why would the General want to see you?” she asked curiously.

Artemis shrugged,

“I think Dr. Octavian found something, and its probably related to my past, so I’ll have to answer lots of questions.” she giggled. Artemis was happily bouncing along side Jane, she just5 couldn’t walk normally, she ahd to practically run or skip everywhere, Jane smiled, it was nice to have someone who was so different from everyone else. Although people had a habit of staring at Artemis, she didn’t seem to care, or even notice.

“Jane! Jane wait up!” a woman’s voice called. Jane stopped and Artemis happily turned around, maybe she would meet someone new and fun. A woman in her mid twenties with her light brown hair in a bun, wearing scrubs, and light blue eyes came up.

“I though we could have lunch together, and invite Hyrum.” she said happily, her voice was a octave deeper than Artemis’s own voice. Artemis looked at the woman, she was really pretty, she had light eyeliner on, and she had the hour glass figure every girl wanted. She then turned to Artemis, who smiled brightly at her, eager to get to know who this woman was.

Jane smiled,

“Well I don’t know where Hyrum is, but you can join me and Artemis for lunch. Artemis this lady is one of the best nurses we have, her name is Elfriede, Elfriede this is the girl I was telling you about, you might have seen in her the medical bay.” Jane politely introduced the two.

Artemis eyes were glowing,

“Hi! You have a really pretty name!” she hurriedly said, it was very clear she was excited.

Elfriede looked at the girl up and down, with a slightly confused look, what was this child still doing here? Then she knew, of course Artemis was an orphan, and orphans always are assigned into a section of the military, she wondered where the hell they had decided to put this one in.

“Hello Artemis, it is a pleasure to meet you. And thank you, I believe it is a wonderful name myself.” she said sweetly, but her voice portrayed it as she was speaking to a small child. Artemis slightly cocked her head, why did people do that? She could clearly understand them, they didn’t need to baby her. But she let it go, no reason to to stir up trouble over something stupid.

Elfriede looked to Jane,

“Do you know where Hyrum is so I can go invite him?” she asked happily returning to her natural tone.

Even Jane raised an eyebrow, Elfriede was a nice person, but she tended to be a bit full of herself at times, but she never turned away someone in need. She would proably come to like Artemis, it was hard not too.

“No I haven’t seen him.” she replied easily.

“He’s with General Miakone and Dr. Octavian discussing something in the General’s office right now.” Artemis interjected happily.

Elfriede looked at Artemis, and gave her a look as if she was a mother giving her child a scolding look for interfering, but replied nicely,

“Ah well then, he’s busy. Then let’s go.” and she began to walk with Jane and Artemis following her. Jane looked over at Artemis and whispered,

“Most of us aren’t use to new people, go and talk to her a bit more.”

Artemis nodded happily and bounded next to Elfriede,

“So what’s your name mean?” she asked happily.

Elfriede suppressed a sigh, girl was so naïve she didn’t take a hint, but she had to be friendly,

“It’s German, meaning elfin strength.” she answered.

Artemis lit up,

“Wow. That’s a really cool meaning. No wonder your so distinguished.” she laughed.

Elfriede raised an eyebrow,

“What do you mean?” she asked suspiciously, she could not tell if this kid was trying to suck up, or being sarcastic.

Artemis continued to bounce around happily as she explained,

“Our names have an influence as to who we are. Your scrubs are in pristine condition, clean and crisp, there’s not a single hair out of place in your bun. Also your nails are kept up, perfectly even cuticles. Your posture is also elf like, shoulders back, and head up, but you walk softly. So you are elf like. You pronounce your words with perfect enunciation indicating highly educated, and a sense of respect for language. It also implies, you want to be taken seriously, and wish to be heard no matter the subject matter.”

Jane who was walking beside Elfriede was impressed, apparently Artemis noticed a lot more than she let on, if she noticed all that in a matter of minutes.

Elfriede looked at the girl who eyes darted everywhere at once, it was apparent she wasn’t intending to offend, she just observed.

“Then why don’t you portray your name more? Artemis was the Greek goddess of the moon, inherently calm and wise.” she rebutted, this girl got on her nerves, so she immediately wished to get into an argument with her.

Artemis giggled and put her hand behind her back, and walked backward, easily dodging people she couldn’t even see.

“Not really. The moon controls the ocean, and the ocean is one of the most unpredictable forces of nature in this world, and especially here in the Baring Sea, its almost never truly calm.” Artemis chirped.

Jane smiled, Artemis was quick on her feet, and mind.

The three arrived at the mess hall before Elfriede could think of a counter. Each having gotten what they wanted they sat down at the same table, a few minutes passed as Artemis, Jane, and Elfriede began to eat their food. Elfriede eating a chicken salad put down her fork and took a drink of her soda before asking,

“So Artemis, what division have you been apprenticed to?” she asked curiously.

Artemis swallowed her food adn then cocked her head,

“Huh?” she asked. Jane smiled,

“Elfriede, Artemis isn’t assigned to one. She is here to….” Jane paused, uh oh, how could she say to be obeserved and for lack of a better term, used?

“Oh, I’m here to be used for the A.R.M. program, since I didn’t lose my mind their probably going to start running tests on my brain waves, and other such things, so I’m just a lab rat.” Artemis said easily. Jane mouth hung slightly open, apparently that didn’t bother Artemis at all.

Elfrieded narrowed her eyes,

“So let me understand this, you will be living here, as a civilian, and basically not abiding by the law?” she asked suspiciously.

Artemis cocked her head,

“If you are referring to the Orphan Militarian Law, the one that states that should a child be orphaned they are to be turned over ot the military and assigned to a specific division according to their abilities, with provided schooling until the age of eighteen in which case they can choose to opt out of the military or continue serving, then no in a way I am abiding by said law in a different manner. My circumstances are quite unique, in this case I will be providing information to the technology division, and possibly medical considering they also handle the psychology of soldiers.” Artemis replied happily and began eating again.

Jane looked at Artemis,

“Artemis, I wasn’t aware you knew the laws since they have changed so much in forty years.” she commented surprised.

Elfriede looked at Jane,

“Well I should say at least she takes some responsibility, after all it was her own mother who created such law, was it not?” she said snidely.

Jane smiled,

“Well I suppose you do have a point.”

Artemis stopped chewing for a moment, they didn’t know, and they weren’t about to figure it out. She resumed chewing, well that was good. The only people who knew her mothers dark secret was her mother, herself, and Dr. Keaton, and by Artemis’s request, he did not speak a word of it. As for Artemis, well unlike her mother she just wanted to have friends, fame, money, heroism held no interest for her. Then something at the end of the Cafeteria caught her eye, she lit up,

“Aaron!” she called.

Aaron came over immediately,

“Artemis! I’m sorry to interrupt ladies, but General Miakone wishes to see you immediately.” he breathed as if he had been searching everywhere.

Artemis smiled and got up,

“Ok! Why don’t you take a break then?” she said patting his head and ran out of the cafeteria.

Elfriede hmphed,

“Does she run everywhere?”

Jane and Aaron looked at one another,

“Always.” they said together and laughed.

Artemis was at the General’s office in less two minutes, but his secretary was not there to inform the General of her arrival and it was clear that the door was locked. Artemis rolled her eyes and went to the security box and punched in the code. What could the General possibly want with her now?

Unfrozen: IQ

Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible. Doug Larson must have either thought about people who made things by complete and utter accident, or by children who are unaware that impossibility exists. The second one, must always be applied to Artemis.

Artemis was waiting outside Dr. Octavians office, leaning against the metal wall when he came walking up,

“Hello Artemis, come in.” he said swiping his card and the door slid open and both walked in. He took off his black coat and set on his chair, Artemis seemed exicted,

“Do we get to play?” she asked happily.

Octavian smiled and nodded,

“Of course we can Artemis, there’s actually a game I would very much like to play with you. Its a simple game called blocks. Its a holographic game, and the way you win is the computer gives certain codes, and hints and you are to build what you think it is. We compete against each other, while we play I’d like to ask you some questions. Sound like fun?” he asked.

Artemis seemed excited,

“I like creating things!” she squealed. So Octavian slid over two chairs across from each other and typed into his desk something and the game started. He sat down and began to work on his project, it was a “by touch” game, meaning the could literally reach out to the hologram and hold in their hands, and mold it to whatever they saw fit to.

A few minutes passed and Artemis then spoke after adjusting to the game,

“Dr. Ketan use to do this with me. Well not this game, but if he wanted me to talk to him, he would play a game with me. Did you find this out through the videos that my mom recorded?” she asked happily molding a block into something according to the code that she had deciphered.

Dr. Octavian looked across to Artemis while molding his own block into a cylinder,

“No, I haven’t even seen his videos. Is it safe to assume if I play games with you I can ask questions freely?” he asked.

Artemis nodded,

“For the most part, I like having my own secrets, but I tell you about my life prior to being in cryostasis. What do you want to know?” Artemis explained happily.

Octavian relaxed a bit, this would be a little easier than he anticipated,

“Well let’s see…” he wanted to start out with something relatively easy to talk about for her.

“Tell me about what you liked to do?” he asked.

Artemis glanced at the doctor, he went for something that would be easy for her to talk about, her hair was cascaded around her face, she reminded herself to cut it, it was a bit too long, but it allowed her to observe him freely.

“Well, to be honest my day was scheduled out. From six to twelve was my schooling, then I had a lunch break, then it was time for an hour and half work out session, then an half an hour break, then Dr. Ketan came to talk to me three days out of the week, so I would meet with him, if it wasn’t a day I would meet with him, I usually had the rest of the day off, unless some random event happened, like mom coming to visit. But when I had the days where Dr. Ketan didn’t come I usually just tinkered.” she explained happily, the clue she was on was number 12 out of fifty.

Octavian was on four,

“What did you like to tinker with?” he asked.

Artemis smiled, it was bit a mischievous, but still kind,

“All kinds of things. I loved to create new toys for myself, and I was really good with technology. So usually I had two to three projects going on building things.” she explained.

Octavian looked at her,

“Technology? So how did you get the parts?” he asked focusing back to the game.

Artemis giggled,

“Easy silly, the military. Anything I needed all I had to do was make a request to mom and she would use the budget to get me whatever I wanted. Dr. Ketan also brought me things to fix of his home.”

Octavian cocked his head,

“Well it seems like you liked your psychiatrist. Was he nice?”

Artemis expanded a board like shape,

“Yep, he was my favorite.”

“Favorite? You had other psychiatrists?” Octavian asked curiously.

Artemis nodded,

“Five actually. Dr. Ketan was lucky number five, and stayed with me until the attack. I started getting Psyche evalutaed when I was about five.” she said easily.

Octavian hesistated with the next question, he didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable,

“Might I ask why did you go through four?” he asked gently.

Artemis looked at him, and her face seemed like she was wondering if he was ok,

“I didn’t like the first four. So I told my mom to get rid of the. I was eight when I got Dr. Ketan.” She puased seeming to remember a fond memory and then smiled at Octavian,

“Don’t worry about offending me with your questions. If I don’t want to answer, I simply won’t. Some questions I’ll hold off on answering until I know you better.” she giggled.

Octavian studied the young teen in front of him, granted she acted relatively immature for her age, but she seemed to have a mature way of handling psychiatrists. She also seemed throughly entertained at the game.

“Alright then. Do you know why your mom listened to you? I mean you were quite young to be deciding that on your own.” he said casually.

Artemis rolled her eyes seemingly amused,

“I was old enough to know I didn’t like them. Dr. Scalese listened to me because at the end of the day she knew if her and the military wanted to make sure their experiment was going well, was to make sure I was happy. I just used that to my advantage when I could. Dr. Ketan was the only psychiatrist who tried to understand me before asking me deep questions. Our first few sessions were of him asking my favorite color, or bringing movies with him for us to enjoy. It wasn’t long before he found out how much I liked to have fun. So he proposed a deal, if he played with me, then could he ask more deep questions. I liked him a lot better than the other four, because he didn’t treat me like the experiment, he saw me as an individual. Of course I soon found out, he wasn’t get paid by the military, but by Dr. Scalese privately.” she chirped continuing her building which was actually beginning to mold.

Octavian raised an eyebrow, she had switched from referring to her mother as “mom” to “Dr. Scalese”. Artemis didn’t look up from molding the next piece when she said happily,

“Curious as to why I refer to my mom like you would? Because at that time, that’s who she was. My mother was a mom of convenience, she only acted like “mommy” when it best benefited her, or when it was convenient and didn’t interfere with her busy schedule. All the other times she was just another personnel charged to look after me. I figured that out around seven years old, after I had observed my mom come in and out of my home, sometimes cheerful, and wanting to give me hugs, then serious and asking only relevant questions, such as my school work, health, and psychiatric evaluations. I cried about it for awhile, but eventually I jsut came to accept that’s how things were, and probably would always be. So depending on what event I am relaying to you, I will switch between calling her by her name or by the title she bore to me.”

Octavian nodded in understanding, to be honest this fascinated him beyond anything else. He was already beginning to understand that it was in fact true she acted much like a child, but her understanding of people was far more advanced. Which both impressed him, and saddened him. He know understood better what being confined did to her, she had to accept a lot of unpleasant things which mature her in someways but without being around peers her own age, she remained playful and relatively carefree. He decided then he would allow her to dictate what they talked about most of the time, it seemed like the best method only asking questions when she seemed to have nothing to say.

Artemis looked at Octavian,

“Anyways, Dr. Ketan came to me when I was eight, and stayed with me, he never overstepped his authority. And often brought me treats in secret. We always played games together, or I would show him whatever project I was working on. He soon learned that the military and my mother never allowed me outside of the building, and he tried to protest it, but it didn’t work. The thing was I never really minded being confined, I mean yes, it was relatively lonely, my teachers often got annoyed with me anyways because I wouldn’t sit still, but I was allowed to do as I wished once I finished my studies, and excursuses. I was allowed to create things, which is my most favorite thing to do.” she explained.

Octavian nodded in understanding, things were slowly coming together, a slow complicated puzzle. With many pieces, and most definitely and intricate picture. He continued to work on his side and was deciding what to ask next, then he knew one of the age old question that he asked everyone,

“So Artemis what are goals? How have they changed from when you lived alone to now?” he asked.

Artemis began laughing, it sounded like bells in the wind,

“They haven’t changed at all. I just want to have fun, and create things! Unfortunately I amn going to have to find a way to preoccupy my time until I convince the General I’m not a threat.” she breathed out.

Octavian cocked his head and his face got more serious,

“Don’t you have career goals?” he asked.

Artmemis sat back at her finished creation,

“Doctor, I didn’t have options forty years ago. I was looking at a life of expermintaiton. I was not expected to become anything but that, and was allowed free reign with my creativity. I don’t want a career with the military, or anywhere else. I’d be perfectly happy staying here and being whatever test subject they needed, so long as I was allowed to be inventive.” she chirped happily.

Dr. Octavian looked at her,

“Well I don’t know how to put this nicely, but you simply won’t be allowed to “free load” as they call it. The military won’t stand for it.” he chided gently.

Artemis looked at the time, her hour was nearly up, she smiled and turned to Octavian, then leaned forward,

“I can prove to you that the military will want to do just that, and how it would benefit them.” she pulled out a piece of paper with a list of things on it.

“Get every item on this list and tomorrow I’ll show you how and why I am so confidant.” she remarked, then got up and ran off.

Octavian looked at the list, all the items were parts to something, he went to his desk and sat down putting the paper in his drawer. He tapped his desk and it lit up with his desktop, he tapped an icon that was symbolized ACME, it was hands holding sword together at their tips.

A computerize female voice came in,

“Welcome to ACME’s Computer-Operated National Network Integrated Electronic system, how may I help you Dr. Octavian?”

“Hello Connie, I need you to analyze the Bricks Intelligent Aptitude test that Artemis just completed.” he said. Connie was developed to assist ACME, a highly advanced computer brain, that handled most of the databases and work aboard Baring Eight.

Immediately a hologram popped up in front of his desk showing Artemis’s picture, information and her IQ score. Dr. Octavian took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, then put them back on,

“Connie is that score correct?” he asked.

“Yes Doctor. My programming demands each order I take in be processed three times. Each time this number came up.” the computer replied.

Dr. Octavian shook his head,

“Connie get me every aptitude test in Baring Eight and compare it to hers, also examine her aptitude score and decide out of any job where would she fit in.” he ordered.

“Yes, of course.” Connie replied. Octavian took a breath and pulled out the paper Artemis had given him, and then looked at the number.

174.

That number single handily meant that if it was true Artemis was not simple minded as everyone took her to be, b ut in fact a genius, which would definitely explain a contributing factor as to why her mom put her cryostasis. But it only partially answered that question, and then led to a dozen or so more. Octavian sat back in his chair and sighed,

“Artemis my dear you truly are a mystery aren’t you?”

Octavian waited for Connie, and finally after several minutes later,

“Dr. Octavian results show that Artemis Scalese IQ wise is the smartest person on Baring Eight, in addition with her IQ she could do any job here with the appropriate training.” Connie boomed him out of his thoughts.

“Thank you Connie, that will be all.” he whispered. He tapped the phone on his desk, and connected to Liam,

“Dr. Octavian how are you?” Liam answered coming onto Octavian’s desktop.

“Doing well. Hey I’m going to type something out, a list of items I need do you think you can get them to me by tomorrow?” Octavian asked looking down.

Liam raised an eyebrow,

“Of course. Is something the matter?” he asked curiously.

Octavian shook his head,

“No, just curious about something. I’ll keep you posted.” he answered and sent the file he had just typed out, and hung up. Connie brought up a new hologram showing a diagram of the high ranking jobs on HQ that would be perfect Artemis, most of which involved science, or intelligence, or weapon making. All required high IQ’s and mastery of comprehension of the data fed to them. Octavian drummed his fingers,

“Connie new plan, go through all the videos of Artemis, find anything related to IQ, and I look at those clips first.” he ordered.

“Of course sir. It will take an hour to process through all of the data. Is this acceptable?” the computer answered.

“Yes.” he replied, leaning forward and began to journal Artemis’s first session.

Artemis meanwhile was running around looking for her favorite soldier, and was having little success in finding him so she rounded about and went to Jane’s division, Technological Advances, a sister division to the Weapons Department. In the baring eight there were eight building connected to the base. Two were living quarters, one for the soldiers, and then one for the other personnel, the other four sections were Intelligence, Medical, then there was the dual division of Transportation and communications, then lastly, Operations Management. Transportation and Communications were solely responsible for the incoming transmissions from other bases, also the airships, and boats coming in and out of the Baring Eight, and a variety of other similar tasks. Operations Management was the Baring Eight’s Knight in Shining Armor when it came to power, since the entire base ran on three energy sources, solar, wind and water, it was the Operations Management to make sure the power was balanced for all of the tasks needed, it also made sure equipment was working properly, plumbing, cooling system, and other such things were in proper working order.

Baring Eight was shaped similar to an Octopus, with one large circle where the cafeteria, shopping area, the General’s office, and living quarters were, then if someone was in a plane they would see large tube like structures jetting out of the main circle to eight different ones. But these weren’t the only structures, among some of the eight building plus the main one were smaller ones, mostly housing equipment, or commodities for the employees such as a spa, a movie theater, the garden, a small shopping district. Most of the employees either had families that they rarely saw, or their spouse lived on the base already and was employed here as well. Others were single, and were solely dedicated to their work.

Artemis swiped her card and the access was denied, she shrugged and hit a button to make a key pad pop up. She dialed in a few numbers and the screen immediately read ACCESS GRANTED. The metal door slid open and she saw a lots of people hustling and bustling around many computers, and devices. She walked in and began to look around for Jane. After a bit she soon found her friend typing away on desk and looking at a large hologram.

Artemis hugged Jane from behind,

“Jane! Do you know where Hyrum is? I am bored.” she asked happily. Jane jumped slightly then relaxed when she knew who it was. Question was, how did she manage to get in here? Then she knew, she had probably snuck in when one of the other employees had opened the door, she was crafty like that.

“I am not sure, probably in his room. Artemis did you already memorize Baring Eight’s map?” she asked.

Artemis sat on the floor and put her back against the desk,

“Yep, ages ago. So whatcha doing?” she asked curiously.

Jane laughed,

“Well if your interested, I am one of many people figuring out your mothers network system. Computer-Operated National Network Integrated Electronic system, also more commonly known as Connie. Connie is so complex that we don’t even have access to all her programs, and files. Your mom allowed to have passwords, and change those passwords, but she had the master password, which she died with. Its my job and some of my coworkers job to decipher that master password.” Jane explained.

Artemis smiled,

“Sounds hard.” she chirped.

Jane nodded,

“You have no idea. Your mother created this system five years after placing you in cryostasis, two years before she passed away, and to this day there is not a more complex coding in the world today. And without the master password we have no idea what files or programs are hidden from us.” she sighed then turned to Artemis,

“Did your mom ever speak to you about her creations?” she asked hopefully.

Artemis gave a blank look,

“Mom didn’t talk to me much to begin with, I rarely ever heard of her creations, the only time I would learn anything about them is if she successfully pitched it to a company to get a patent and then sell the product off to the military and make lots and lots of money.” she said simply.

Jane nodded, well that was to be expected, Artemis probably wouldn’t understand any of the coding process.

“Well that’s alight then. I didn’t really expect you to know anything. Look I have some work to finish, but in an hour do you want to have lunch with me?” she asked.

Artemis’s eyes lit up, and she nodded vigorously,

“Yeah! That sounds like lots of fun.” she squealed, then stood up waved and ran out of the department. Jane shook her head, a ball full of endless energy described Artemis perfectly. Artemis was running through the halls dodging people left and right when she heard,

“Artemis!” young mans voice called out. She stopped immediately and turned around, Aaron finally caught up to her and she hugged him,

“Aaron!” she squealed, besides Jane Aaron was the only other one who was really friendly to her, and didn’t seem to mind her enthusiasm.

“Hey I was going to go to the gym for a nice swim. Want to race?” he asked happily.

Artemis smiled brightly,

“I love swimming! Let’s go!” she grabbed his hand and took off, taking Aaron by surprise at the speed she took off at. He kept pace,

“Your going to wear yourself out running like this before we even get there!” he called out as they both dived and dodged people, who were becoming quite disgruntled at the new comers constant hustle.

Artemis laughed as she ran beside him,

“Not a chance! Keep up!” she called out and picked up her speed easily overtaking Aaron. Aaron could not believe this girls speed, he tried as hard as he could, but he simply could not catch up to her and soon she was out of sight.

When he got to the gym, Artemis was waiting for him with a triumphant smile,

“How the hell did you get so fast?” he huffed.

Artemis giggled,

“I was in a building at all times, when I had nothing else to do, or I was stuck on a problem with one of my inventions I use to run. I’d run until I found a solution. My speed naturally increased, now come on, I use to love to go swimming! Five laps.” as she swiped her card and entered.

The gym had work out equipment to spare, and a large pool. Artemis wearing a tank top, pants, and boots. She immediately ditched the boots and socks and waited for Aaron who was changing in the dressing rooms. The military had not issued her any clothes, so all she had was two outfits a nurse had given her in the hospital, and a pair of boots. Without credits, she could neither by clothing or food for herself, she had to devise a way to get both. Aaron came out of the dressing room and immediately jumped in the water, Artemis quickly followed and the race was on.

After four laps Artemis was once again the clear winner, both got out and sat down on the chairs panting,

“Damn your good.” Aaron breathed out, then noticed Artemis’s attire,

“Artemis do you not have any swim wear?” he asked.

Artemis cocked her head, her black hair dripping wet,

“I have two outfits.” she said easily. Aaron looked thoroughly alarmed and stood up,

“Im getting dressed and taking you to Hyrum. We’re fixing this.” he said firmly and ran off to get dressed. Artemis looked down, her hair was so long, it needed a cut. She loved long hair, but down to her waist was a bit much. If she could get it cut to just below her breast, it be far more easily manageable.

“Let’s go.” Aaron said coming up to her, she cocked her head,

“Aaron its fine.” she said simply. He shook his head and grabbed her hand leading her to the exit,

“No it’s not.” he growled.

Ten minutes later they were at Hyrum’s door and Aaron went to the key code and pressed a white button, a few seconds later Hyrum came on the screen, rolled his eyes, and the door slid open. With Hyrum looking quite displeased to be disturbed on his day off,

“What do you want Aaron? And why are you with the brat?” he asked gruffly but just after he said that Artemis went,

“Hyrum!” and attempted to hug him, she was immediately flung to left of the corridor landing on her side.

Aaron looked at Artemis then upon realizing she was laughing he turned his gaze back towards Hyrum who was glaring daggers at Artemis,

“Sir is it not your orders to look after Artemis?” he asked sincerely.

Hyrum raised an eyebrow,

“Careful Lieutenant, I know my orders, and whether or not I like them, I take them seriously. On the other hand she fucking needs to learn her place and not to touch me. Getting thrown hardly does her any harm as you can tell.” he snarled.

Aaron flinched,

“I was not referring to that sir. Are you aware that Artemis has only two outfits, and one pair of shoes?” he asked.

Hyrum was going to tell Aaron to get lost, then looked at the girl, she was soaking, they must have went swimming, immediately giving away she had not other clothes. He snapped his eyes back to Aaron,

“Dismissed Lieutenant.” he barked.

Aaron opened his mouth but took one look at his captain and knew better, and gave Artemis an apologetic look and left. Hyrum sighed annoyed, moving away from his door,

“Get in here. Now.” he ordered. Artemis happily got up from the floor and entered Hyrum’s room. It was simplistic, with the bed at the far right, a desk across the door, and what looked to be a bathroom off to the left and closet. Hyrum left the door open, but went to the closet and pulled out a towel and roughly through it at Artemis, eh didn’t say a word but dawned on his boots, and Military jacket.

“Now let’s go.” he ordered as he walked out. Artemis wrapped the towel around her and followed him obediently. She walked happily up beside him.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

He kept looking straight,

“General’s office.” he said evenly.

“Why?” she asked.

Hyrum stopped walking and looked at the girl,

“I don’t know if your stupid or just foolish. You need more clothes. And I;m guessing you don’t have any credits for food.” he growled.

Artemis seemed unfazed by the harsh captain’s words or glares,

“Nope. But I can manage.” she said happily.

Hyrum shook his head, he swiped his card to the General’s office, immediately the General came onto the screen, looking surprised, the door immediately slid open.

“Hyrum you rarely come see me on your days…..hello Artemis.” the General began before Artemis bounded up to his desk.

Hyrum rolled his eyes,

“General we have a bit of a problem…” he began to say when Octavian entered the General’s office,

“General we need to….Hyrum…good your here too. Artemis? Why are you here? Why are you wet?” he had orginally sounded urgent and went straight to confused.

“I went swimming with Aaron and I have no other clothes other than two outfits.” Artemis replied happily. Octavian raised an eyebrow got out his card, pressed a few buttons,

“I have credited you 400 credits from my account. Go buy a new outfit and get out of those wet clothes. I need to speak with Hyrum and the General in private.” he said easily with a smile. Artemis looked happy, hugged him, and ran off.

Octavian waited till the door was shut, and then turned to the two men,

“We have a serious issue. Dr. Scalese lied.”

Unfrozen: The Meeting

Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset. Saint Francis de Sales said that, and it seems wise as he was a Bishop of the Catholic Church, it would be wise, if one did not apply to it Artemis Scalese who was anything but a calm spirit.
One week after being released from her frozen prison Artemis had passed every test with flying colors. She was in top health, and cognitive. On top of that, Dr. Octavian Juts was now in charge of her mental health, and his preliminary examination came to one conclusion, she was sane.

Well sane was stretching it a bit for most of ACME, Artemis now fully recovered had regained her personality, and a personality it was. She was hyper, loved to have fun, and acted very much like a kid. One week at ACME and the military was about to bust its formation of order.

“Are you quite certain this girl isn’t a danger?” General Miakone asked, thirty years in the military, and he hadn’t seen anyone break so many rules in such a short time period.

Octavian who was sittign in front of the general desk smiled, he had black hair that fell around his face, glasses, and was slender,

“Oh I’m quite certain. She means no harm, she just likes to have fun, and will not do any physical harm to anyone here. Quite the contrary she seems ot be gettign more bruised up than anything. Dr. Liam has found hundreds of videos on the computers she was hooked to, and both of us have to come to the same conclusion.” he explained taking off his glasses and cleaning them.

There was a knock on the door, and Hyrum, Liam, and Jane entered. Hyrum stood in the far left corner behind the General and looked out the window at the raging sea, while Liam and Jane sat down at the couch to the right of the room.

General Miakone nodded to them and asked,

“And what is that?” he asked.

Liam nodded to Octavian for him to explain, Octavian took a breath,

“From the few that I have viewed, its apparent Artemis was not just Dr. Scalese’s child, she was also an experiment.” he sighed.

Hyrum raised his eyebrows,

“She used her daughter as a science experiment? How so?” he asked gruffly.

Octavian looked at his most stubborn patient,

“Liam was completely on the money when he thought she was a prototype, but in her life she was…conditioned perfectly for cryostasis.” he explained.

The general narrowed his eyes,

“Condidtioned doctor?” he asked.

“She’s in supreme health, but she was isolated, its apparent the only ones who had direct contact with her are her teachers, three doctors, and her mother. She was kept a small building outside of the Gredane Military base in Washington. That building was heavily guarded, it had every amenity anyone could imagine. Gym, pool, garden, kitchen. She was never allowed outside of it. Military personnel kept constant watch over her.” he explained.

Hyrum turned his body around from looking at the window,

“Why so much goddamn security for one little fucking girl? What’s so special?” he barked.

Octavian smiled a little,

“Think about it, a minor who’s mother is giving the military full reign over her own child. This is when the A.R.M program was being first developed, they needed a controlled experiment, and around the time Artemis was conceived, which from what I gather not only in the several video tapes I viewed that but the computers files as well that her conception was planned and as part of the A.R.M program it was in Dr. Scalese’s contract that she was given whatever she needed to complete the program in exchange for her daughter being the test subject.”

Jane looked horrified and finally spoke up,

“Hang on one second, human experimentation is illegal, even now. Why…?” she was cut off by Liam.

“It was then too. But the law has several loop holes, human experimentation is for the most part defined as genetic testing, there’s no law against physcoholgical testing so long as the subject is not exposed highly traumatic experiences that would prove to be permanently damaging the psyche. Keeping her in a building, giving her high protein foods, exercise regiments and the best education that you won’t find even in most colleges is hardly grounds for prosecution. True it may be unfair for her not to interact with people her own age, but that wouldn’t do much to mental damage.” Liam illustrated.

Jane shook her head and sat back allowing Octavian to continue.

“As I was saying very few had contact with her, but there’s good news for me at least, its apparent through the documents she had a psychiatrist who regularly saw her. So she’s accustomed to talk to mind doctors like me.” he chuckled.

The General spoke up,

“Does her isolation have anything to do with ehr being able to keep her sane mind intact during the forty years she was fed information, and logistics through computers?” he asked.

Octavian slipped his glasses back on,

“I can’t say for sure, the A.R.M program, Alliance Reprogramming Method, being the super soldier program that was shut down ten years ago but was highly studied. The goal was as we all know to shorten the time period to train a soldier. By taking an ordinary civilian wiht no knowledge of strategy, or combat training, and plugging them into a computer for six months to year and having them come out fully capable of leading their own unit, spy missions etcetera. The problem ACME found out was when the human brain is connected to the computer it gets…overridden in a sense. By that I mean they get so accustomed to not feeling anything to all of a sudden gets swarmed by emotions, and the chemical overload that comes with those emotions gets overdosed and the soldiers end up going into homicidal psychosis. Which is the exact reason the program was shut down. Dr. Scalese might have found a way around that, hence why Artemis is so stable, and is not being overcome by emotions. Liam is looking into everything that was pumped into Artemis’s body while she was in cryos to see if he can find a connection along with the files I have, he has a copy of them and will reviewing them along with me. I have all the tapes and if I find something of use to him, I’ll report it. Together we should be able to find the missing link of what Dr. Scalese did to prevent Artemis from losing her mind.” Octavian breathed.

General Miakone stroked his greying go-T,

“Sounds like it will take some time.” he said quietly.

Liam stood and came closer the desk,

“Yes it will. That’s why were making a formal request, let her stay here as a civilian. She’s only seventeen, and from the looks of it, being confined isn’t going to bother her too much. That way we can figure out precisely what ACME was doing wrong with the A.R.M program, and get more details as to why she was hidden for so long.” he asked.

General Miakone sat back on his chair, and folded his hands in front of him, pondering this, all of the eight hundred people in this facility were military personnel, no civilians lived here, not even the families of the personnel. Baring Eight was the ACME’s lead base for military technology and spies. To have a civilian on this base was strictly prohibited.

Jane saw the General considering saying no, so she decided to speak up,

“Sir, I have gone over the databases that Liam hash;t yet, you should keep her here. She’s a liability to us.” she said, she cared for Artemis, over the course of the week since they found her, she found the seventeen year old to be refreshing and kind. But yesterday she found something quite disturbing, that could get Artemis treated like a potential terrorist, but it was the only way to keep her here.

Everyone turned ot her with confused looks, the General stood up,

“Speak.” he ordered.

“I found out yesterday that Artemis was directly linked to ACME’s files, personnel, weapons, and even plans, all have been fed to her. I’m not sure if she is aware or not. I honestly don’t think she would use them against us, but if our suspicions are correct, being that someone was deliberately blocking me out of those computers, they could come after her.” she stuttered out, not accustomed to the General’s brashness.

He looked alarmed,

“The girl needs to be contained, I’ll allow her to stay, but no outside access….” he began to bark out when the door to his office busted open and Artemis bounded in heading straight for her favorite soldier, Hyrum.

“Hyrum!” she meowed happily, and hugged him.

Everyone blinked and all of a sudden Artemis was thrown across the room straight into the door she came through. Jane was horrified, Liam also looked a bit unnerved, but the other two men in the room weren’t surprised at all. Hyrum despised being touched, and would throw even a girl with no remorse.

Artemis got up instantly and was wearing a bright smile,

“That was fun!” her voice was light, and she seemed unfazed by the fact she just slammed into metal with her back. She then saw Jane who she ran up and hugged,

“Jane! I got out of the hospital today! They said I could run around now!” she giggled. Then saw Octavian who she promptly tackled to the floor. She looked down at him playfully like a puppy,

“Dr. Octavian! Can we play today? Please?” she piped up.

Octavian had the wind knocked out of him but patted her head,

“Once I’m finished debriefing the General here I’ll find something fun for us to do.” he laughed. Artemis’s smile grew brighter and jumped off Octavian and looked at the General, and cocked her head to the left.

“Why am I to be contained?” she asked curiously. The General’s face hardened, Artmeis just giggled,

“I eavesdropped, after all its my life your playing with. So why?” she chirped. The General knew when someone was being sarcastic with him, or smart, this girl, was not. She was being straight forward with him.

“Well at least your honest, that I can respect. You don’t need any access to computers because your at high risk to reveal something to our enemies.” he explained.

Artemis looked confused,

“That’d be stupid of me.” she said simply and then proceeded to pounce on the couch and look around the office.

Liam turned to the cub like girl,

“Why would that be?” he asked.

Artemis rolled onto her back and hung her head over the couch looking at them,

“Well think about it. My mom kept me from the outside world my entire life, the only time I ever saw outside of my home was if I looked out the window. Now I’m forty years into the future, where I should fifty seven, I’m no longer in a world I’m even remotely familiar with. Sure I read newspaper articles, blogs, was fed countless of information on updated technology, but its nothing but words and data to me. I’m use to being contained, but I like some freedom. I won’t betray ACME, simply because I am afraid of the outside world. This life, around some form of military, with rules, and set space is what I’m use to. If I betray you, I lose my security.” she cheerfully said, as if it was the most obvious thing the in the world.

Hyrum glared at the girl, he was still pretty upset with her trying to hug him, though it wasn’t the first time it happened, it was the second. But she did make sense, fear was definitely something that would make her not turn traitor, but it wasn’t a guarantee. He looked at the General who seemed to be thinking on what she said.

“I cannot trust you with the safety of the eight hundred lives on this base.” he said evenly. Artemis looked at the General and smiled,

“Ok then, do I get to at least roam about the base as I please?” she asked happily.

Octavian looked at his new patient, she was quite compliant to something she didn’t particularly like. He supposed that she quite accustomed to being told what she could and could not do. The General tapped his white desk twice and it became clear and see through where everyone could see a key board, and a variety of other buttons, in front of him a hologram screen appeared and a woman with red hair smiled,

“Yes General what can I do for you?” she asked happily.

“Jeanette, please get a Holocard for Artemis Scalese, just basic access.” he said.

She smiled and nodded, then the hologram was gone, he looked over to Artemis,

“The card your about to…” he began explaining before Artemis rolled of the couch, stood up and said,

“It’s a holocard, it has all my personal information on it, medical, and its also my ID card. I swipe it into the card readers at each entrance I want to go, and it documents that I am there, and if I am allowed in. The one’s who control the access is you. It’s also used as a bank account for the currency here, which is military credits, one credit of ACME is in the real world 3 credits. Its also highly advanced technology because no one else can use your holocard once it has been programmed directly to your finger print, and should it be lost, its easily replaceable with no worry on anyone stealing your information. A basic one will allow me to get into the cafeteria, gym, recreational center and garden.” she recited.

Octavian’s eyes grew wide, forty years in cryos and she knew technology from this world, he shouldn’t be surprised honestly, it was proven she was given daily updates on the world. But it still was impressive.

Jane’s mouth dropped, and Artemis cocked her head at her friend,

“Did you not think I memorized everything I was fed?” she asked happily. Artemis seemed thoroughly amused at the people around her, and enjoyed taking them by surprise. Hyrum rolled his eyes and went back to his corner, just then Jeanette came in with Artemis’s card, and handed it to her. Artemis seemed excited and looked at the card, it looked like clear glass but then it lit up with her photo on the left and her information on the right, including the class of the Holocard, which was Basic Access, she put her finger the card and swiped upwards, it read SKILLS, but had a blank, then she did it again, the words changed to OCCUPATION and it read below NONE, she did it once more and it went to CREDITS, that one had two columns, MC and UC. Unity Credits were the normal kind, outside the ACME. MC stood for of course, Military Credits, both columns were at zero. The next swipe would take her back to her ID.

There were several level of access, MILT. B, which stood for Military Basic, gave a person access to the shooting range, strategy and debriefing room, any of the simulator rooms, and the hangar. Then there was MILT. A, which was Military advanced, which allowed access to the weapons testing facility, the UCNA meeting room where all the leaders met, and ACME got their orders from, and the underwater study facility which was 300 ft below sea level. After the military holocards, there came the SCIEN. B, Scientific Basic, which allowed access to most of the main testing facilities, then Scien. A, Scientific Advance were allowed into the more dangerous facilities, such as the genetic analyzation, bio threat testing/cure and other such areas. Then came the last of the SCIEN group which was SCIEN. S, which was strictly for the Sea, and those were allowed all access to the underwater facility and deep sea diving. There were plenty of Holocard groups, those were only a few that Artemis remembered off the top of her head, but either way she would need to be granted more access to have more fun.

Artemis smiled at everyone, the General shook his head,

“Alright Artemis, I’ll get Dr. Octavian to you once I’m done with him, now will you please go and do something and not eavesdrop on us?” he snorted out.

Artemis giggled,

“Ok!” she said and ran off nearly knocking Jeanette down. Everyone turned to the General who just shook his head, he had a distinct feeling that girl would give him more headache’s than the three hundred soldiers coming in and out of this base. Octavian looked at the General,

“What else did you need to speak to me about?” he asked.

The General looked at the psychatrist with a serious look on his face,

“I know you have the patient/doctor confidentiality clause against me. But I want to make this clear to you Octavian, should she say anything on endangering this base you are to tell me immediately, if she knows anything that would endanger this base, you are to tell me immediately. She was hooked to twelve computers, who connected to the internet, and Liam has yet to figure out how much information was fed to her in those long forty years.” he ordered.

Octavian wore a smile on his face, and stood,

“General you have known me for a good thirteen years now. If I honestly thought there was a threat to this base, I would without a doubt risk my license to save it, and the employees within it. Now if you’ll excuse me.” he said easily.

“One more thing Doctor. I want someone to keep a daily eye on her, not follow her around, but to check in on her everyday, just to make sure she’s not up to anything. Do you have any suggestions?” Miakone asked.

Octavian turned and pointed at the man in the corner,

“If you want her to feel comfortable with someone checking in on her day in and day out, I recommend Hyrum. She likes him, and won’t mind his presence, and it will reduce the risk of her feeling resentment against ACME.” And with that Octavian left the room.

Hyrum was infuriated, out of anyone in ACME Hyrum admitted he favored Octavian, although being a goddam shrink he never pried to deep unless he felt the person was in danger of harming themselves, but he was also reasonable, on the other hand, it was incidents like this that reminded Hyrum, the shrink had one fucking sick sense of humor, and redefined the meaning of torture.

General Miakone waved for Liam and Jane to go, and so they did and he turned to Hyrum.

“General, you can’t be serious, I’m a spy for ACME, I go on missions for days at a time. And now what? You want me to start to babysit this little girl?” Hyrum argued turning around. Usually Hyrum wouldn’t question his commanding officer, but this was insane.

Miakone looked at him, he considered Hyrum like the son he never had, so the few times that Hyrum ever did speak up, even if it was a out of turn, Miakone usually let it slide,

“Hyrum you and I both know the risk that girl presents to this base, Octavian is right, she seems to be ok with you, even though according to some very upset nurses after she first hugged you threw her into a tray filled with needles and other sharp objects, yet she is unfazed by your attitude. Your also one of my best spies, you can read people like a children’s book, if she pulls anything you’ll be the first to detect it.” Miakone voiced out.

Hyrum glared at his General, and turned away to look outside the window, he knew he couldn’t say no to a direct order,

“So be it, I’ll look after the brat. But you are on your own when I have missions. I won’t pass them up for her.” he growled.

Miakone let out a deep laugh,

“Yes. Of course.” he said easily.

Hyrum headed out of the office, he was grumbling under his breath, a trademark habit of his. He could not believe that he was to look after a seventeen year old brat, it was up surd. And to make matters worse is she didn’t even act her own age, she acted like a ten year old high on pure sugar. It made no difference, he had survived getting captured twice, this was going to be no big deal. How much harm could she do anyways? The only real threat she posed was the access she had to ACME, without it, she was just a petite little freak. Hyrum scanned his holocard to his room and lied down on the bed with arms behind his head, he made a mental note not to do anymore escorting jobs, all they did was bring him more fucking trouble.

Unfrozen: Prologue

This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper. T.S Elliot said that in one of his poems and he couldn’t be more right. People think that things can’t change over night, those who think that clearly have never seen war. In 2132, when Syria joined forces with North Korea, and Iraq overnight the once proud USA was brought to ruins in a single night. Canada fearing the wost had tried to help and was swiftly dealt with in a matter of hours, along with Mexico. But what the new found alliance hadn’t counted on two countries, America’s original ancestries, England and Spain. When the two countries got word America, Canada, and Mexico had fallen to tyranny and they swarmed all shores of North America the following day, and ten day battle resulting in North Korea, Syria, and Iraq lost 3/4 of their military. The last quarter of the three countries military was on their home soils, narrowly escaping the vengeance.
What was left of the US military joined with what was left of Mexico’s army and Canada’s and decided enough was enough. North America would be reborn as a united country. England and Spain came to the meeting and offered their hands to help and together three countries named their new home UCNA, United Colonies of North America with a brand new military called ACME, Allegiance Colonies Military Effort that would also be the new government.

40 Years Later, Year 2172.

A soldier with brunette hair, blue eyes, and a boxed beard kicked down a metal door into a large room with about 12 computers covered in absolute filth, and to the left of him was a large tube covered black with dust and filth. He pointed his gun, the new standard Piercer GX Lasher, state of the art bullets capable of blowing up a car in a single shot of a bullet about three inches big.Even though he had his rifle gun over his shoulder he preferred his hand gun. His squad of four men came in as well, he stood straight and clicked the communication device in his ear,
“We’re clear here. Come n in Dr. Dexton, Dr. Heran.” he ordered in a gruff scratching voice. A man in a white lab coat who was in his mid forties came in, along wiht a heavy set woman in her thirties with long brunette hair came in.
She smiled,
“You know Captain Hyrum you can call me Jane.” she said, she wasn’t flirting with him, but she was a people pleaser even though she was a scientist.
Hyrum sent her a glare,
“No. Now what are we looking for?” he asked the man.
“Well Captain, we found records of someone being stored her prior to the attack of North America. But as you know anyone who has been hooked to a computer, as the case of our failed super soldier program, they go insane when they are released. We are to see if the archives we found tell the truth if someone was actually….” he began explaining before Jane cut him off.
“They are, Liam. Look.” she had gone to the tube and wiped some of the black grime off to reveal a young woman’s pale face, eyes closed, crystalized in her cryogenic sleep.
Liam looked at her, and then reached into the bag he had brought and poured the bottles of water onto a towel to soke it and began to clean off the grime to find the genetic code located on the glass. Jane went to the computers and did the same with a dry towel. WHen she foudn out something strange,
“Doctor,she’s connected to each of these, and all are stil working.” she said surprised. Liam eyes widened, and turned to Hyrum Blake,
“Captain send out one of your men, there must be a generator around here. Have them find it, but whatever you do, don’t shut it down.” he said. Hyrum nodded once and turned to the youngest in his group,
“Jacob you heard him, go.” the young egyptian boy nodded and went out the way the came to find the generator. Jane meanwhile sat down on a crickety chair and began to try and access the computers databases to figure out who this person was. Liam finally found the number on the glass it read, 2132AKS18274T658. Liam paused and straightened, looking pale. Hyrum came to stand beside him rifle in hands,
“Problem Doctor?” he asked. Liam turned to him,
“The records we found were on a secret database hidden within the old USA’s files. I hsould correct my statement, we didn’t find them, they were opened on their own, someone had devised a program to shut down to a particular date then reappear, not too difficult, but we had combed through all computers, databases, anything of the three old countries, our people should have found hidden shut down programs, but somehow this one slipped through.” he explained.
Hyrum raised an eyebrow,
“There’s a program that finds those other correct? Well programs miss things, we all know that, and with techonology getting better at an hourly rate almost, of course someone found some way to outsmart the damn thing.” he gruffed out.
Liam shook his head and pointed,
“The first four numbers of any cryogenic container is the year that the person in it was placed in it, then their intials, then the ID number the partitcular tube, and lastly the makers personal ID code. Look at the four first numbers of this tube.” Hyrum looked and his eyes widened a bit, Liam continued,
“Forty Years. Forty years ago the coding to hide such programs that shut down, was not invented as of yet, or so we thought. Programs that shut down and then suddenly boot up at a given date, have been common for nearly seventy years, but people haven’t been able to hide them up until about five years ago. Somebody was massively ahead of their time, and wanted to hide this person probably from the attack that happened.” he explained. Hyrum looked at the woman,
“But why her?” he asked. Liam shook his head and looked at the computers,
“I am goign to find out.”
Jane spoke up,
“Good luck. I am the best hacker at HQ and I can’t crack this.” she said.
Liam raised an eyebrow,
“Never thought I’d here that.” he said coming by her side and looking down.
Jane glaread at him,
“I can’t even get into the BIOS to remove password encryption.” she huffed. Liam looked at her,
“But that’s like cake walk for you.” he said, she shook her head and a command prompt box appeared saying Master Password,
“And this keeps showing up, I’ve tried everything.” she said. Liam pulled out of his bag a small computer, and hooked it into the the computer that Jane was tryign to hack. Her eyes widened,
“Is that the Hacker SSN 2.3? Those aren’t even out yet, not even for the military.” she said looking at him.
He shrugged,
“The guy who creates these just happens to be a friend of mine.”
Hyrum looked aht the device,
“Not to be meddling, but isn’t her brain directly hooked to those computers if you hack it won’t it harm her?” he asked.
Jane shook her head,
“No, that device will elimante any program that could be in there that would kill her.” she said happily. Liam booted the program and they all waited, two minutes later Liam’s computer began to wind and the there was a terrible buzz before the screen went black and smoke came out of the device. Liam yelped and unplugged the Hacker, flipped it over and opened the bottom to look on the inside. Everyhting was fried.
He glared at the older computers,
“What the hell? These things are forty years old, and they just wiped out a system that hasn’t been released yet.” he growled. Right then Jacob returned,
“Sir I found the generators. Those thing’s are huge. And there’s four of them.” he said to Captain Hyrum.
Hyrum nodded,
“That make’s sense as to why the system got activated, those generators probably produced power up to ten years each. Now the last one is about to run out.” he said nodding. Jane sighed,
“Yes, you are right, but we can;t even get onto the computers to release her. Aaron a toned, blonde male who was a lieutenant shifted back and forth,
“Why can’t you hack it again?” he asked.
Jane pointed to the screen,
“I need the master password, and I can’t get around it, I’ve accessign the BIOS but its blockaded by what I’m guessing a very strong program that is designed to keep people like me out. What I can’t understand is, this lady has been here forty years, and these computers are actually older than that, about fifty years old, and I know that they can’t run a program of that power along with the programming she’s hooked up to.” Jane explained to him.
Aaron laughed,
“So brainy girl can’t hack outdated computers, ACME will be upset they have a dud.” he joked. Hyrum shot a glare at him so fierce that Aaron flinched,
“Sorry ma’am that was uncalled for.” he said immediately and hung his head.
Jane smiled gently,
“I don’t mind, it actually is surprsing.”
Liam’s face hardened,
“No, its disturbing. If you can’t hack the system that means someone from the outside has access and continually changes the password and blocks your hacking.” he mumbled more to himself than the group.
Aaron looked alarmed,
“But I htought you guys said the program activated because of the generators going low.”
Liam shook his head,
“That;s jsut one speculation. About a week ago ACME started shutting down old power plants as everything has succesfully been converted to wind, water and solar energy, one of them was probably supplying energy to this place when whoever is behind this realized that probably typed in an activation key which booted up the program, knowing we would come and investigate it.” he explained his smooth voice sounding a bit stressed.
Hyrum narrowed his eyes,
“So we might have some sort of spy working either near HQ or worse in HQ, and for some reason hid this woman here?” he asked.
“Quite possibly.” Jane replied.
“Then why block you?” Aaron asked.
Jane bit her lip,
“Well Liam might have missed something in his explanation, that being maybe it wasn’t just our databases that had the hidden program, maybe antoher organization did, one that has the master code, its just we beat them here. So when I didn’t know the master code, I instantly gave a way I wasn’t said organization and osmeone on the outside is now working against me. Awaiting the ones they meant to have here.” she happily piped in.
Hyrum harumpged,
“Well then they shouldn’t have put it so close to HQ. ACME deliberately put it right in the middle of the baring sea, and they place it in a cave just off of Yule Colony?” he snapped.
Jane shrugged,
“Well techinically it use to be Alaska, a state of the US according to those numbers on the tube.” she quipped.
Hyrum grumbled incoherently something about “woman” and “attitude”.
Jane giggled, Liam ran his fingers through his grey hair,
“Well we should report back, there’s nothing here we can do.” he said turning away. Aaron went up to the computer and playfully typed in, ACME RULES! and hit enter.
“I just had to.” he smirked at Jane, who shook her head, while Hyrum just growled.
The computer went dark for a several moments, almost as if it was processing the password, and then on the screen came a box, but not the same one, this one asked for “ACME Personnel Identification Code” and left the same blank to type in. Jane looked at Liam in shock, Liam reread the words and nodded to Jane,
“Well its worth a shot, put in your ID that you use at HQ.” he ordered. Aaron backed away, he meant to type that as a joke, he never thought it would grant them access, he looked at his captain who seemed more curious in the what Jane was doing, which meant he wasn’t in trouble. Jane typed in her ID and hit enter, once more the screen went black but then it popped up Jane’s personal file with the military, her age, height, pictures, strengths, even her psychiatric evaluations since she had joined. Jane’s eyes got wide, and Liam looked at the computer,
“These files are protected securely no one has access to them except the higher ups. How did whoever is doing this get this with your just your ID?” he gasped. The computer went through all the files in the matter of a few minutes and two words popped across the screen, ACCESS GRANTED. And the other eleven computers and the one Jane was sitting in all went to their own desktops.
Liam stood up straight,
“Well whoever was blocking you Jane apparently doesn’t mind ACME. So perhaps they did just open the program to us, we just had to prove it was us to begin with.” he turned to Aaron,
“Good thinking.” he complimented. Aaron grinned, he was only eighteen, but had been in the military since he was eleven, when the US fell, CPS no longer existed. So any orphans went into some branch of the military, of course they could leave when they were eighteen, with no repercussions but Aaron decided that he liked the military and would become a lifer, much like a certain Captain of his. Hyrum had lost his parents at two, now nineteen years later he stood as a Captain and the number one ranking spy of ACME.
Liam looked at the woman in the tube,
“Jane, begin to unplug this girl from these computers. Captain, please have your guns ready and loaded, as we all know when we attempted to teach soldiers more we connected their brain to computers, but after six months of being hooked to a computer and then let out, they went insane and tried to murder everyone else. This woman has been in here for forty years, if she attacks, shoot and kill her. I will take responsibility afterwards. When we release her from the tube be ready.” he ordered. He went to the back of the tube and waited for Jane,
“Ok Doctor, you can do the cords to her brain now.” she said. Liam went to the small monitor connected to the tube and typed in the order to remove the cords. The cords were disconnected and the needles carefully pulled out by the machine, he checked the life monitor, everything read normal.
“Doesn’t this take hours to defrost them?” Aaron asked.
Liam shook his head,
“Perhaps ninety years ago, but even forty years ago it takes only about half an hour, these days it takes about ten minutes.” he explained.
Twenty five minutes later the ice was gone, and the tube opened through the bottom and the woman slid out gently. SHe only wore her undergarments, Aaron, Jacob and in front Hyrum all aimed their guns at her.She was in a sitting position with her legs to the side and her head was hung, her black hair was to her waist, and her pale skin glistened with the remaining dew of the ice that kept her prisoner. She made a small light groan and slowly opened her eyes.
At first she made no move to pick her head up, adjusting to the light in the room, but slowly she raised her head and looked at the guns pointing at her. Hyrum and Aaron were caught off guard, the girl had heterochromia, having a green right eye, and left blue. She looked dazed as she looked at the guns, but then cowered in fear upon realizing precisely what they were.
Hyrum examined her, and lowered his gun and motioned for Aaron and Jacob to do the same, when they looked at him strangely he said a little shocked,
“She’s nothing but a teenage girl.”
Liam spoke up,
“Doesn’t mean she won’t harm us, you know….” he began before Hyrum looked at him with “you got to be kidding me” look and said,
“She probably barely stands at five four, although she’s slightly toned, the girl could not weigh more than 120 pounds if she could even break that, what the fuck is she going to do? Nip us? Its apparent she wasn’t given steroids in her imprisonment, if she attacks, all we have to do is sit on her, and she’ll be rendered useless.” he snorted.
Jane was typing away at the computer, when she spoke up,
“Liam, is he correct. The girls name is Artemis Kamiko Scalese, and she’s only seventeen.”
Liam walked over to Jane where she had pulled up the girls file, Artemis had turned her head to where she had heard her name, but then turned back to three large men in front of her. Her body began shaking,
“Ha. She’s afraid.” Jacob laughed. But Hyrum shook his head,
“No she’s not, she’s cold.” he said. Aaron looked at her and gently put the coat over her shoulders and backed away. Artemis looked at the jacket and slowly raised her shaking arms, it was apparent that in her forty years of ice she had forgotten basic functions. Finally she was able to direct her hands after missing several times to clench the jacket and wrap more firmly around her.
Aaron eyes softened,
“Why doesn’t she say anything?” he asked.
Jane answered him immediately,
“Its an after effect of cryos, she’s not going to be able to speak or move very well for at least seventy two hours. Her body has not functioned properly and needs time to adjust. We will also have to get her into medical soon, she’ll have some difficulty with eating and processing food correctly.” she explained standing up and allowing Liam to take over. Aaron nodded and knelt down close to the girl,
“Hello Artemis, my name’s Aaron and these other are Hyrum, Jacob, Jane, and Liam.” he said pointing to each one. Artemis looked at him and it seemed as if she was studying his face.
“I;m a lieutenant and Hyrum here is my captain.” he explained.
Artemis looked up at Hyrum, who even though he knew he could take her on, was still standing as if poised for attack, he just wasn’t holding his gun.
She took a breath and opened her mouth, her voice rasped as she tried to remember a language she use to speak with ease,
“I……w…won’t….a….a…att…attack…c…c..Cap…Captain.”
Everyone stared in amazement, Jane spoke,
“Or perhaps she’ll just recover quicker than I thought. Most cryos patients that weren’t part of the super soldier project couldn’t speak until much later, apparently this girl is in no mood to wait till her vocal cords adjust.” she said. Liam stood and walked to her,
“Well if she were going to attack she would have done it by now, and its apparent through the computers she wasn’t being drugged up with steroids. But it is obvious that she was directly linked to twelve computers. She should be insane, yet she seems relatively coherent and reasonable.” he chewed on his thumb.
Jacob spoke,
“That’s impossible though. Computers are strictly numbers and logic base, any human that has their brain directly plugged into any network, ends up going to insane the moment their unplugged because the computer overrides the human emotion and its too overwhelming. For Christ’s sake the military performed hundreds of tests with trying to create soldiers with higher IQ’s with that very system, now your saying this girl….”
“What I am saying is she might be different, we won’t know until we have her analyzed by Dr. Octavian, our best Psychologist, I believe he is best suited for this. The A.R.M program was blueprinted around the time of the attack, and as it seems apparent this girl was frozen around the same time, its entirely possible we are looking at the prototype.” Liam cut off.
Jane smiled,
“Oh he’ll do just fine! So shall we go?” she laughed happily.
Liam nodded,
“I’ll have someone come here and collect all the computers, I will track who was blocking us.” he growled. Hyrum looked at the girl, there was no way she was going to be able to walk to their aircraft outside, he knelt down and picked her up bridal style. She immediately snuggled against him shivering, and whimpered he growled at her not liking being touched to begin with so he handed her off to Aaron. Who smiled at her and followed his captain.
Artemis looked at the people around her, she only knew one of them, the others were foreign to her, but they were military. She snuggled closer to Aaron, what was going to happen to her now?
Jane looked at Liam,
“Doctor, the girls last name, Scalese….wasn’t it Dr. Imelda Scalese that created the blueprint of the A.R.M program?” she asked quietly.
Liam nodded,
“Yes, and I bet both of PHD’s this girl is her daughter.” he stated.
Jane looked back at the girl,
“But that would mean…..” she whispered.
“She used her own fucking daughter as a goddamn science experiment.” he snapped, Liam had two daughters, both of which had since passed away.
Jane was horrified, what kind of life had Artemis lived prior to being frozen? Octavian would have his work cut out for him, that’s if the military didn’t up and decide to kill Artemis. Artemis though would decide that for herself, only if she proved that she hadn’t retained her sanity would her death sentence be handed out. The group climbed into the aircraft and headed back to HQ. Hyrum kept an eye on the girl in the back, while flying, if it came down to it, he’d shoot her in the head without hesitation. Named after a goddess or not, she wouldn’t get back up from three bullets to the skull, screw Zeus with his lightening. He landed the aircraft, and escorted the group into the base. Now for the real work to begin in finding out who this girl was, how Jane was hacked out, and precisely what was going on forty years ago around Artemis.

Twin Mistaken 7: Lunch

Lunch finally rolled around and the new founded group of friends gathered togehther and sat down at a table. Isis looked over at Travers,

“You never mentioned you had a girlfriend.” she said happily.

Ben laughed,

“Oh yeah. Trixi? She’s a nice girl, her and this guy have been dating for six years straight. Everyone thought they were crazy starting to date at ten years old, but they’re deciticated to each other through and through. She should be joining us for lunch too.” he explained.

Isis lit up,

“Really? That’s impressive. Does she have any unique skills?”

Angelica laughed,

“Yeah, one big one, always trying new things. She’s really good at poetry, and she’s aiming to become the lead dancer in the schools dance class. I don’t know what other elective she’s taking along with dance though.”

“Oh that’s easy Angelica I’m taking an art class. Hi Travers! Oh Isis your sitting with us now? Cool.” Trixi stated coming up from behind Angelica and sitting across from Isis and next to Travers.

Ben who was sitting next to Isis and Serenity nudged Isis,

“Looks like you do have a friend in art. Trixi she’s also taking art, and you should see her work! It’s really good. She’ll probably be the best in the class.” he declared.

Isis smiled, and then saw a gleam in the girls eye,

“Might kind of tough for her.” Trixi giggled.

Isis raised an eyebrow and foldered her hands under her chin, cocking her head to the right,

“And why is that?” she asked curiously.

Trixi smiled,

“I’m also quite good. Been practicing since freshman year. My grandfather taught me.” she explained.

Isis smiled and began to eat,

“Who taught you?” Serenity asked quietly.

Isis looked over at her, she could not yet determine if this girl was on her side or on the side of that overly joyous fairy sitting across from them.

“I taught myself.” she answered.

Serenity smiled,

“That’s really cool, that’s how my mom learned the violin, now she travels around the world with different orchestra’s. That means you have natural skill.” her voice was a little louder than normal. So when she was enthused about something she got a little more confident.

“So Isis is like Ms. Keshen? Where even if you just see a different style you can mimic it because of your natural ability? Like she does where she hears a muscial piece once and she can play it back to you perfectly?” Travers asked intrigued.

Angelica nodded,

“Pretty much. The more natural skill you have in somehting the easier it is to pick up on more advanced techiniques in it.”

Trixi smiled,

“Well then this Art class should be a piece of cake for me and Isis then. And a big problem for the teacher.” she joked.

Ben looked at Trixi,

“And why is that?”

Trixi smiled,

“Cause she’s going to have a tough time between deciding who’s the top of the class, me or Isis here.”  she stated confidently.

Travers wrapped his arm around Trixi,

“Oh I can guess who will win.” he siad nuzzling her neck.

Trixi quickly glanced over at Isis, her eyes said it all.

Isis smiled, challenge accepted. If this Trixi pixie wanted to start a fight with her, then so be it. She would lose, but why make it so easy for her to lose. Isis wanted to crush her. This wasn’t part of her plan, but she would have to make it a part of it, because hse was not about to let this high maintence, overly arrogant pixie run the show.

Trixi opened her mouth and Isis slipped in pretending not to notice,

“So how is the Latin teacher Angelica? What is he like?” she asked.

Angelica shrugged,

“Mr. Rhinelire is pretty laid back for a teacher. You have your latin book and then your workbook. Basically he writes out what is due at the end of the month. Then he teaches what is in each section of the homework that’s due then you are on your own to work. You work at your pace just as long as you get it done at the end of the month. Of course if your having problems he;s more than happy to help, and if he notices a lot of students are having difficulty with the same area, he’ll teach that part over again and do the work book with us.” she explained.

Isis raised an eyebrow,

“Sounds like my kind of teacher.” she commented.

Trixi looked at Isis and narrowed her eyes,

Isis raised an eyebrow,

“Problem Trixi?” she asked, and everyone turned to look at Trixi.

She easily got a smile on,

“I was thinking, how about you sit at my table in art. There’s a spare seat, and it would be great if you would take it. That way we could get to know each other.” she said excitedly.

Isis smiled,

“Of course.” this worked well, and the girl wasn’t as foolish as she seemed. She wanted to assess Isis, after all knowing your enemy makes you a better predator. But this girl was targeting not prey, but a fellow predator. When two predators meet a battle ensues where the strongest, and smartest of them wins. The girl was younger than Isis mentally, and physically Ember could defeat her with as little training as she had. The threat of her actually doing bodily harm minimum. The threat of her interrupting Isis’s plans and reputation at this school, maximal. She had a good standing it appeared not only with this group but with the teachers, Ms. Stine spoke to her after class quite friendly, and she saw her consorting with other students and appeared to do just fine. Which meant she was social threat to Isis.

While the group talked, Isis thought, it would take her awhile to build a solid reputation and even then this girl was a local, in order to eliminate her, everyone of importance would have o see her do or say something that would make them take Isis’s side. If she flat out attacked Isis that would be even better, catch was Isis could not openly provoke her. At all times she would have to pleasant to this female, nice, and friend like. That way when Trixi did strike everyone would be angry with her, why did she feel the need to attack someone who was always nice to her. Isis gripped her glass a little tighter than usual, how she hated to play the victim, but in this scenario she had no choice, like it or not she didn’t have the upper hand in this, Trixi did.

The incredibly precarious problem was provoking Trixi without looking like she was provoking her. Isis had to be careful how she did this, but Trixi already laid the first stone to go across the river. Art class. She wanted to compete with Isis, and it did not appear she was use to losing. So the first step would be to make her feel inferior in art. That wouldn’t be a problem. Of course Travers would have to play a big part in this little scheme of hers, somehow Isis would have to get him involved, which wouldn’t be hard, the hard part was making sure he didn’t realize it.

The bell rang and the group split up to go to different classes. Isis walked along side Angelica and Serenity, she loved Latin, but what she was looking forward to was Art class. And it wasn’t for what the teacher would be instructing.

Locked

Locked

No one likes be locked

Not locked in

Or locked out

Why is that though?

Is it because we fear what we’re missing?

Or is because we don’t like being told no?

But everyday we are locked

Why?

Because we do it to ourselves

Locked away in our thoughts

Locked away at a job

Locked and Locked and Locked

Yet we are bitter when others do it to us

Why?

Because what we do it ourselves, is not acceptable for others to do

If we treated ourselves better

Then others would follow

We are locked

We get locked

Its not until we create a key to ourselves

That we get granted access to others

The Spirit

In the world there is a spirit

It lives dormant, watching the lives of others

It feeds on sorrow, it feeds on happiness

But where does this spirit come from?

Within the hearts of men

And the souls of women

Parts of it rest

This spirit is powerful

But it is frail

You can build it, or break it

The choice is entirely up to you

We are all connected in an infinite circle

But we choose to fight wars

We are different

We are the same

But until we can see what is to behold

We are doomed to harm the spirit

And thus

Hurting each other

Twin Mistaken 6: Class

Monday finally came around and Isis was up early, she needed ot make an impression the first day. She wasnt going to put all her eggs in that one basket of peoople she met the other day. She stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her body and headed for her room. She needed the perfect outfit, so she opened the doors of her closet and looked at the clothes. She had sorted them perfectly for before the reveal and after. So she looked at the before side and decided on a Calvin Klein dress. It was black, went to mid thigh, tight with belt, and it buttoned up in the front. Had four pockets two on the side, and two where her boobs were that were snapped closed.

She pulled out the dress and some nice black heels and turned to look at the dress pressed against her, it would do. Sophisticated yet sexy. She undid the towel and ignored what she saw in the mirror, and dawned on her bra, panties, deodarant and put on the dress. She looked in the mirror and decided to curl her hair a bit. Just to make it wavy, nothing too over the top. After that was done she looked in the mirror again, how was she to do her make up?

She grabbed her eye liner and placed it on her under eye lid, and made the classic wing at the end of her eyes, then the maskara, and looked at her wide selection of eyeshadows. She decided on the silverly blue she had with a touch of green, it was perfect her eyes were really highlighted, she put a medium shade of red on her lips and smiled. This was perfect, time to make herself the spotlight of everybod;s interest. She grabbed her bag and headed downstairs.

“Hey mom, hey dad.” she said sitting down to her bowl of cereal waiting for her. They both said there greeting and continued to eat their own breakfast.

“Isis do you want a ride to school today?” her father asked.

Isis shook her head,

“No. I’ll be alright. I’ll be home probably a little late, I want to see if I can meet up with the people I met the other day.” she quipped.

Her parents exchanged glances, when her father opened his mouth, Urna placed a hand on his and shook her head and he reluctantly closed it. Isis smiled at her mother and grabbed her bag,

“Well I’m off. Wish me luck.” she said going out the door.

Isis walked easily to her new school and looked at it, it was a decent size, red brick made up most of the building, but it didn’t appear to be falling apart which was always a plus.

“Isis! Hey Isis! Wait up!” she heard a voice a call. She turned around and saw Travers quite literally bounding towards like an impudent deer.

“My my…he’s quite joyous.” she whispered under her breath but flashed a smile.

“Hello again. Where are the others?” she asked.

“Their waiting for me at my locker, come on. Do you have your class schedule yet?” he asked walking with her.

She shook her head,

“Have to find the office to do so.”

He nodded and linked his arm through hers, and she raised an eyebrow,

“Well then your coming with me, we’ll pick up the others and we can all go to the office and see if your in any of our classes that way you don’t get lost.”  he said happily. Isis allowed herself to be lead down several walk ways and into a hallway, where Serenity, Angela, and Ben standing against the lockers. Angela smiled broadly,

“Hey Isis! How are you?” she asked as the two walked up.

Isis smiled,

“Good. Just have to get my class schedule, but Travers wanted me to come here first.” she explained.

Ben laughed,

“Good! We are not letting you a new person in town get eaten up by these savage creatures. We will protect you!” he said proudly. Serenity leaned in close to Isis and said in her light voice,

“He’s got a Knights of the ROund Table complexion, just play along.” she said. The group laughed as Ben blushed,

“Oh come on guys, having a slight obsession with Medieval Chivalry isn’t that bad.”

Angela and Travers looked at him dumbfounded and said in unison,

“Slight?” 

Ben just glared.

The group moved on to show Isis what was in this hallway which mostly consisted of English classes. Her analysis previously had been for the most part correct. Travers was definitely the leader, but because of his short comings in though processes sometimes Angela was basically his back up. Though clearly not in love with him, she looked at him like his big sister did. Ben clearly was the person that the group ran to when they needed light heartedness in the day, with no questions as to why they were upset. Serenity true to her nature apparently was the go to person if you had a secret, and needed to confide in someone. All in all, this group was very stabilized, each having their own place and job. In this group she could easily establish her own place, and by doing so, they would become her cover, and her their sword.

They led Isis into the office, where she picked up her schedule and took a look. English, then Math, then Science, then History, lunch, Latin then Art. And before she knew it that schedule was being passed around the group. She rolled her eyes, but let it happen. Travers smiled,

“Looks like I have you all to myself in math. Ben has you for history, which your lucky, he’s a major history buff if you hadn’t noticed. Then Angela and Selena have you for Science and Latin. But looks like your on your own in Art class. We all take music.

Art. Alone. Fantastic, just how she wanted it. She could easily make her own little group of friends in art. And have a back up group in case this one didn’t work out well.

“Great! I won’t be lonely, but will one of you do me the favor of showing me where the art class is when seventh period rolls around?” she asked nicely.

Serenity smiled,

“The guys meet up with us outside Latin class, and then we have to pass the art room to get to the music room. Since its a pretty small school its convenient.” she explained. Isis nodded and the group split once the bell rang and Travers led the way to math class.

“The teachers ok, she’s strict but if you get on her good side she’s pretty cool to deal with. Since I am doing well in the class, I am pretty sure I can get her to let you sit next to me.” Travers explained.

Isis smiled,

“Looking out for me because were friends, or do you still feel guilty about pushing me down?” she asked looking over at him.

He shrugged,

“A bit of both. Oh Ms. Stine! Wait up a second.” he said to a red haired mid forties woman about to head into a classroom. She stopped as Travers pulled Isis to her,

“Ms. Stine this is Isis Skall, she’s the new student who just transferred. I’m helping her get settled, is it ok since she’s missed two weeks of class she sits next to me so I can help her out. We won’t disrupt class I promise.” he explained.

Ms. Stine turned to look at Isis who stepped forward and held out her hand,

“It’s nice to meet you ma’am. Here’s my schedule for you to double check that I am enrolled into your class. Algebra 2 right?” as Ms. Stine shook her hand Isis also handed her the schedule.

“Yes, I was informed you would be joining us, and I see you’ve made acquaintances with one of my better students. Well, if you two keep your words on not interrupting class I suppose you could sit next to him. If Holly has an issue she can take it up with me. Ms. Skall if Travers tutoring is not sufficient enough to catch you up we do have tutoring and as you are new student I also wouldn’t mind catching you up if you should need it. Just ask, alright?”

Isis nodded and followed both Travers and the instructor into the classroom. Ms. Stine gently put her hand on Isis shoulder,

“I want to introduce you, yes it’s embarrassing but bear with me.” she whispered. Isis smiled and nodded. This was anything but embarrassing. This is precisely what she needed, and entrance, to show everyone who she was. She thought about how she would go about things, she began to map out every answer to any question anyone had. She would be vague, but answer all questions that were posed to her. Some she would go into detail about, while others she would seem to care about. She ran her fingers through her hair, and deliberately looked bored.

Once the class was seated the instructor stood beside Isis,

“Class, this is Isis Skall she is our new student. Isis tell us a little about yourself.”

Isis smiled,

“I’m from California, no I am not a fashion diva, a surfer girl, or the next pop artist. I do like to draw and paint. Travers currently is the only person I know in class, you should pity me for that, because he knocked me to the ground a few days ago, so help the only person I know is a barbarian. And thats all I want to say.” she said easily in a half bored voice. The class laughed and Travers playfully glared.

“Tattle Tale.” he called out.

Ms. Stine shook her head,

“Holly would you mind sitting next to the window so Isis can sit next to Travers?” she asked.

A girl who also had black hair but cut like a boys stood up,

“No problem. Sorry Isis, you have to sit next to a barbarian.” she teased and moved. While Isis was moving towards the seat a girl stood up, she was Isis’s height, had layered light brown hair, dark eyes, and had light make up on. Isis raised an eyebrow,

“Hi, I’m Travers girlfriend Trixi. Its nice to meet you.” she said holding out her hand. The look in her eyes, Isis identified with it immediately. She shook the girls hand, allowing her to dominate over her own,

“Its a pleasure Trixi.” she said with an easy smile. Trixi handed her a notebook,

“Here, Travers told me you might be in the same level of Math as us, so I made a copy of our notes so far in this notebook for you to keep.” she explained. Isis took the book and reviewed it quickly,

“You have excellent penmanship. You’re a writer?” she asked.

“Poetry. Travy loves it.” she laughed. Isis looked up, this girl was friendly.

“Well thank you for the trouble.” she purred and went to her seat. Class started and Isis reviewed the notes, they were very well done, she couldn’t fault the girl for that.

“Hey…If you need help with anything  just let me know. Usually we get pop quizzes every Wednesday, I can go over with you whats probably going to be on the next one at lunch if you want. Their pretty tricky most of the time.” Travers whispered.

Isis smiled,

“Yes, that would be gre….” she saw out of the corner of her eye Trixi watching them. Isis smirked at her while saying to Travis,

“That would be great. I always love a good challenge.” she whispered back.

Trixi turned away, as Travers asked,

“You like challenges, and your athletic? Are you secretly a jock too?” he laughed, clearly unaware of what just happened. Isis looked at him wearing that same smirk,

“A jock? No. I’m something completely different other than an artist or a jock.” she said getting out her pencil and math book. Travers leaned in trying to stay quiet,

“And what’s that?” he asked.

She leaned into him, their faces were close,

“Stick around barbarian, and find out.”