V is for Victim

Chapter 7
Chapter Seven

Chapter 7

“So wot’s your name again?”

Addison, who had been staring at the walls (they were now covered in those things that had been mentioned before, and it was quite distrating) turned to his guid. “Excuse me?”

“Your name, Wings? You know, your moniker, alias, go-by, designation?”

“Oh, it’s Addison. Addison Wol...Kol...” he finished lamely. He had to be more careful, if he slipped, something bad would happen! It was just like pretending, he thought to himself.

“Addison Wokol. That’s an odd one.” The boy shrugged, tugging on his multi-colored scarf. “Do you know anything about where we are going, our destination, place to be?”

Addison shook his head.

“Right here,” Zylo said, pointing at two large doors at the end of the pathway that Addison didn’t even realize he was walking down. “Zylo Gie, by the way, that’s my name.”

“Nice to meetcha,” Addison said, starting for a door, only to be stopped by his new ?friend’.

“Ah, man, that’s the girl’s changing room...”

“Oh,” Addison said, backing quickly away from that door. His companion gave him a sideways look, but just shook his head.

The inside of the boy’s gym room was just like any other locker room in this universe or the next. Well, it may have been cleaner then most. Gray concrete made up the floors and apparently, the walls, and green and red tiled showers could be seen lining the walls. More lockers were sparsed here and there, some big enough to fit a student in.

Addison stood gaping, his little tail wagging behind him. This was so cool! These were things he’d never been able to see on the outside, or as an adult. What a story he’d tell when he got back. His editor wouldn’t believe a word!

Thinking about the paper made Addison instinculaly reach for his camera, and as he groped around his neck, he realized in a flash of horror that it was missing. His mind raced back to the moment of his introduction to the class, and he remembered feeling the tugging at his neck. The principal must have taken it!

Almost near tears, he looked over to Zylo, and was shocked to find the boy stripped down to his underwear, standing half naked in front of him. The cheetah cub neatly hung his blazer and shirt in one of the bigger lockers. Catching his notice, the boy pointed to Addison’s clothes.

“Oh, c’mon, Wings! Hurry and get those off, or we’re going to be late for class! Pyri or no, don’t think I’ll run laps for you if you can’t keep up.

“But...but...” the cameraless photographer started in a shuddering voice. “I don’t have any clothes...to change into.”

Zylo smacked his head. “You’re serious? We get issued our uni’s over there...c’mon!”

Addison’s worries about his camera were fading, replaced by rationalizations as to why she had taken it from him. She probably didn’t want me to lose it, or get it broken...what a nice lady, looking out for me, he thought to himself. Now, of course, his concerns were of a more...adult nature. Despite getting used to the inconvience of having to strip naked for the Slider, Addison was still a very private person and a bit of a prude. He really wasn’t comfortable with the idea of being half naked in a room full of kids, and to a lesser extent, he wasn’t sure if the uniform that had suddenly appeared on his form came with undergarments.

Something akin to a breath of cool air puffed around Addison’s face, startling him and causing him to blink. Rubbing his nose, he grinned. The sensation tickled.

Zylo stood glaring, tapping his foot.

Oh that’s right...he had to get dressed. So what if he was undressed in front of children. Isn’t that what he was at the moment? Shrugging that care to the wind, he began to fiddle with the buttons at this collar and loosen his tie. Finding an empty locker, he gently eased his clothing off of his thin body and over his wings. A quick peek before he unbuttoned his pants at least confirmed that he was wearing some measure of underwear.

As he stood there, bare as he was, that same breeze kicked through, ruffling his fur. He shook himself, shivering, and the feeling that he got from that made him smile. His fur poofed out, making him bigger then he was, and he giggled to himself as he noticed a mirror set into the wall across from him. Then he noticed Zylo, who still wore a frusterated frown. Smoothing his brown hair down, Addison turned and quickly dashed after the other boy, trailing the last bit of stragglers.

Winding around the lockers, Addison looked up to squint into the rows of florescent lights that illuminated the small changing room. As he did, he noticed up ahead there was a set of lights far brighter then the rest. Gazing over there, he watched as one by one, the unclothed children would stand beneath the light, press his paw on a nearby terminal, and the machine, with a low hum, would flash. When the light cleared, the child was left garbed in a nice-looking red shirt, and brown shorts. The shirt had green and yellow trim around, and looked quite nifty. Addison eagerly took his place in line, distantly aware that Zylo was talking to him.

“So you see, we’re only allowed to have two sets of clothes stored in our Omni-Store, and usually, it’s our home clothes and our physical education gear. Due to some glitch in the silly thing, we can only check our uniforms back in for our home clothes, so we end up having to use the lockers here to keep things neat, in order, tidy.”

“Oh, cool!”

Zylo wanted to ask if the boy had been raised on the prarie, but stifled it. Despite his oddness and excitability, Zylo didn’t really see anything wrong, different or unusual so far with the ali-fox kit.

Finally, it was Addison’s turn to stand beneath the Omni-Store, and placing his paw onto the dias, the thing rumbled to life, flashing. Shaking his head at the weird fuzziness that descended on his mind (an uncomfortable but somehow familiar feeling) he looked down and was amazed to find himself garbed in the same red, green and yellow uniform as the rest. The only difference, though, that he could see was in place of the Tiera Raev Seal, which sat on a gold badge over the child’s heart, A black letter ?V’ stood boldly etched in a bronze setting. He looked up as Zylo made his way through, wearing a new scarf, this one, the color of the green grass.

“V?” Addison asked, fingering the letter.

“V is for Visitor, Addison! Y’know, out-of-towner, vacationer, person traveling in a land not their own?”

“I got it, I got it. What next?”

“Well, we take that elevator...oh, hold the darn thing, will you?” Zylo sighed. “Well, we take an open elevator up to the field, meet up with the instructors, and then we start our games. We’ve been doin’ a study on human games; some are kinda fun, but others are just plain dumb.” A chime rang as one of the metal doors slid open, allowing them inside. A few other students came in as well, but aside from a few curious glances, the newcomer was ignored.

There were no buttons in the room, and the elevator was big enough to comfortably fit about ten or so students within. Rumbling, Addison was almost jolted off his feet as instead of moving up, the elevator climbed at an angle, shuffling diagonally upward. If you’ve never tried it, that form of transportation is incredibly awkward and disorienting.

With a snap, the elevator finally settled into place, and hissing, the doors slid open. Expecting it this time, Addison held one paw over his eyes as the sunlight poured in, bathing him in comfortable warmth. Again, he wished that he had his camera...the scene in front of him could have made front page.

They were outside the Academy walls, Addison saw at once, as the tall stone walls rose up some distance ahead, casting a medieval spell on the area. Upon a field of dark grass, Theran children of various races ran about and played, yelled, squealed and tackled one another, chasing each other around. Tall, evergreen trees ran around the perimeter of the playing field like a protective fence, and the mountains in the background made the picture even moreso like something straight out of a beautiful national park. This is what King’s Canyon should look like, unspoiled and pristine, but no, human growth and pollution had stunted the land, and it would probably never be like this. Ever.

Zylo interrupted the boy’s thoughts. “So, have you ever been to Earth?”

The question caught Addison by surprise. “Uh...no, why?”

“Well, we kinda have a choice as to what we can play. Like I said though, it’s all human games today, so I was just wondering if you knew how to play ?um.”

Addison breathed an inward sigh of relief. “Oh, I know how to play a few of them...I actually...” Like a heart beat, something resonated in Addison’s chest. What was he thinking?

When Addison was fourteen years old, he had been in a rather nasty accident involving himself, a skateboard, and a beat up Ford pickup truck. Without going into detail, Addison’s leg had been badly fractured and never quite healed properly. Even now, at twenty-seven, (despite what he might look like at the moment) he still had the slightest of limps, and any physical exercise might really hurt. He took great care to hide this from Theresa, as it seemed the injury was universal, existing in his Theran body as well. He looked down at his knee.

“Um...Zylo, I don’t think I can play,” he started. “When I was little, I kinda hurt myself..my leg doesn’t work that good.”

Zylo gave him a queer look. “You’re walkin’ just fine, ain’t you? You were skipping along to get changed in the Omni-Store a second ago.” His eyes narrowed. “Are you sure you’re hurt?”

“I...well...I think so...I dunno,” he said, stepping hard on his left foot. Before, that simple act could elicit a groan from him, but this time, there was nothing. Nothing save a slight breeze that blew through his ears and ruffled his hair.

“Well, we’ll test it. I wanna play soccer today, and it’s starting over there,” he said with a gesture. “Race me to it.”

“I don’t think...”

“Tag! You’re it!” Zylo yelled suddenly, smacking the fox kit on the shoulder before dashing away. As though controlled by an outside force, Addison found himself propelled suddenly, as though the cheetah boy had a magnet on his person and Addison were made of metal.

The kid moved at a blur, and it was obvious that Addison had no chance of catching him, but suddenly, that didn’t matter in the slightest. Feeling the wind on his face, flow through his clothing and between his wings, feeling the soft dirt grind beneath his bare paws as he ran along the grass, the easiest way to describe it was a sort of euphoria. So caught up in his dash was he that he almost over shot the gathering of students. Huffing and puffing, he gave a big, silly grin to Zylo, who hadn’t broken a sweat.

“Slow poke.”

Addison pointed to the ground. “Your shoe’s untied.”

Instinctually, the boy looked down. “Shoes?”

The fox leapt forward, planting his palm on Zylo’s head. “Tag, you’re it!”

“Oh, you sly little...”

They began to push each other, laughing and yelling, but suddenly, they were interrupted by the teacher’s bellow. “Children! Welcome to another fine day of Physical Education. I am Coach Kyrarde, and I will be supervising the soccer game for today.” The teacher looked simply monsterous, as he was no mammal this time, but an enormous lizard-like creature. Some part of Addison’s mind told him ?banded iguana’, and strangely, despite the scary appearance, he wasn’t afraid at all. There were games to be played.

The teacher went about, separating the kids into four different teams with about six children each. Addison found himself with Zylo, luckily, while the bored looking fox he had sat next to in class was on another. Boys and girls mixed freely on the field, laughing and talking to each other as they took their places on the field. Addison didn’t know a whole lot about soccer, save for the fact that you were supposed to kick a ball into a net, but he knew he’d be fine.

Addison noticed a tingling sensation around on his body, and looking down, he was surprised to see the color of his uniform changing from the red color to green. Looking around, he saw that the other members of his team underwent a similar transformation. When it was done, there was a red team, a green team, a yellow team, and a colorful combination of all three.

“Oh, cool!” he exclaimed, holding the front of his shirt up to see it.

Zylo groaned and pulled his shirt down from him. “Calm down, kid, you’re embarrassing me here. If we wanted to flash us, y’know, we’d ask!”

Laughing, Addison let go. “Heh heh, sorry. Let’s play!”

The game went as wonderful as he imagined it would. He was right in thinking that it didn’t matter that he didn’t know the game very well...once the whistle was blown and the ball dropped onto the field, everyone just kinda ran after it in a frenzy. A few of the bigger kids would sweep by and snag it after a while, and those usually formed the majority of the points scored.

Again, Addison found himself longing for his camera, just to be able to take a few shots of the Theran children. This was a side of this beautiful world that he had not been privy to, and oddly enough, despite certain intentions, watching and playing like this actually made him feel old.

He had been a little shocked at the choice of ?children’s literature’ in the last class; he knew that the Thera were advanced thinkers, but that was a little hard to grasp. In his head, he had gotten an image of super intelligent kids running around in business suits, and laughed inwardly at that. However, looking around him as they played, he realized that despite their accelerated academic skills, they were still children. One of the girls was the recipient of a nasty slide tackle, and as she got up, tears welled up in her eyes. This soon led to outright bawling, and the coach quickly called time to go and consol a bruised knee. In the manner of children, the incident was quickly ignored, and the game continued, moving to completion. They played about four games, each time changing teams, and Addison found himself dressed in his original red shirt. He had done pretty good for himself, he thought, having been able to score a few goals mainly due to the fact that once he had figured out the general patterns of the rest, it was easy to hold on to the ball. His team cheered and hollered when he pulled the ball away from an ursine defender, and as the ball sailed into the net, they ran up to celebrate.

The game was tied, however, and according to the coach, time was just about out, which led to a shoot-out to decide the final winner of the match. The same raccoon-faced fox from his class was chosen as the kicker for the opposite team, and Addison eagerly looked around to see who was going to kick for his. Zylo, who was on another team which concluded their game, shoved him forward.

“Get in their, Wings, they’re calling your name!”

“Me?” he asked, dumbfounded. He hadn’t been tthat good...”I can’t...”

As he protested, the other members of his team surged forward, pulling him onto the field to face the other team’s defender. More then a little nervous, his wings stood straight out from his back, and had there been a rough breeze, he might have flown away.

“Ok...ok, Addy, you can do this. He’s just a kid...with scary purple eyes...you can take him...you’ve got this...” On one hand, Addison might have felt kinda silly talking to himself like that, but more importantly, he couldn’t let his team down. It didn’t matter that he really wasn’t a little kid, no, what mattered was the victory. He stepped back to kick.

Two out of three shots made their way past the goalie, the third only stopped barely by a beautifully executed dive. Not bad! His team whooped out as he took his place as goalie, and Addison felt no pressure whatsoever. They had this. They...

The first ball went flying by his head at speeds almost unimaginable. Blinking several times, Addison placed a paw on his ear and could feel the warmth from the soccer ball’s flight. One down. “Ok, that won’t happen again,” Addison thought to himself as he set his feet, getting ready. This time, he saw the kid dash forward to kick the ball, but the result was the same. Another easy score. Things were tied again, and they had one kick left.

Can’t let them down, gotta win...c’mon! As the kid moved back to kick, everything seemed to move in slow motion. The kick came, the ball came rocketing towards the unprotected left corner, and Addison found himself in the air, launching himself forward to catch it. His hands stretched out, he was perfectly on target, but suddenly, the ball seemed to acquire a mind of it’s own. With an odd curve, the flight path changed, and now, the speeding projectile was aimed for his head.

It connected quite solidly, snapping his head back with a dull thud. Stars flared up in his eyes, and the world spun. Before he blacked out, his eyes painfully noticed that his head had saved the game. It rolled out of the net, ending that shootout in the time. Another one would follow, but he wouldn’t be the one responsible for it. Closing his eyes, all rolled to darkness.

 

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