Carmody and the Electric Dragon

10th District Junior High School, Pan City

By mutual agreement, the friends all met for lunch in the school cafeteria. The large open space was a riot of noise and movement as costumed students from across all three years chatted, yelled, screamed and occasionally ate their lunch. The holo-projectors overhead were showing scary movie clips from the last fifty or sixty years, all edited to be suitable for the age of the viewers.

Achmed was entranced, identifying each movie scene as it played to Lilly, who was sitting close to him as always but refusing to look up. After another evil monster leapt out of the holo-field in terrifying 3-D, she added her scream to the many that surrounded them and clutched the boy’s arm tightly.

“Hey, it’s Okay” he assured the trembling girl. “The monsters aren’t real!” He tentatively put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned in against him. Her warmth made Achmed blush uncontrollably and he went to move his arm away.

“Don’t” Lilly commanded so he left it there, looking helplessly at his friends.

“That has got to be the scariest thing I have ever seen!” commented Sarah, looking wide-eyed at her two oldest friends. “Nick Knox, Net Detective making out with the Ghost Girl!”

“He’s a Net Diver Detective” Lilly corrected Sarah. She had cut a mouth hole in her sheet so she could eat as well as see, and her mouth was a grim line as she regarded the other girl. “It’s a good series and you shouldn’t knock it” she added.

“So you watch the Anime as well?” wondered Achmed, meeting Lilly’s eyes beneath her white sheet. “Did you recognise my costume this morning too?”

“Of course, you stupid boy” she sighed and leaned back against him.

All their friends made an effort to look away, talking among themselves, yet every one of them was dying to keep watching the new couple.

“Hey, Carmody, do you wish you had come as a Ghost today?” Sarah leaned close and whispered to her. “I think it has made Lilly super brave or something”

“I think you had to be brave to come to school wearing your pajamas” Carmody retorted with a laugh.

“Watch it, I am a lion, King of the Jungle” she warned the other girl and clawed menacingly at the air with her hooked fingers.

“Nope, you are a Zombie Banana” declared Carmody loudly and the others at the table laughed, even the unusually quiet Eric had a smile.

Carmody realised she wanted to talk to him, to talk about how she felt, when a fanfare of spooky music played and the lights all went dim, even the holo-projector shutting down. Then there was a crash of thunder, a flash of lights and a half dozen bat shaped drones buzzed into the cafeteria, followed by a figure with a long flowing black cape.

Quick as a flash, Carmody had Excalibur in her hands and she stood up, ready to defend her friends.

The lights came back up to reveal Miss Abrams circling high over the tables, astride her broom once more.

“Happy Halloween!” she shouted to the assembled students and started throwing out handfuls of candy from a sack tied to the broom. The bat drones, all being run by members of the school’s Remote Vehicles Club, ejected their payloads of brightly wrapped sweets too, showering them down over the delighted students.

Everyone was scrabbling for the free treats as Carmody calmed herself, lowering her bat with an embarrassed expression on her face. Then her eyes met those of Eric, standing also with his feet braced, the 5mm Caseless Automatic Pistol in his hands. He saw her and grimaced then slid his weapon back into the holster under his jacket.

Without a word he walked from the cafeteria, shouldering his way brusquely through the other students who were all scrabbling on the tables and floor for the candy. Carmody followed him, using the trail he had forged through the sugar-crazed horde.

She caught up with him in the main hallway, standing quietly against the big glass fronted cabinets that held the various school trophies and awards.

“Why do you have your real gun, Eric?” she demanded, standing right up close to his face, her bat held at her side.

“It’s nothing you need to worry about” he said flatly, his eyes refusing to meet hers. “You have dropped out of AURA so you don’t have to do anything”

“Look, is this because you were upset I left the Project?” Carmody asked him angrily.

“I don’t get upset, Carmody” he replied. “I am half machine, don’t forget”

“Yeah, well, the other half is a stupid boy and I think that part was upset when I quit. I told you, the Project doesn’t need me. I am just a silly little girl with a cricket bat”

Eric looked at her at last, his expression intense.

“You’re wrong” he told her. “The Project does need you and you are not a silly girl. You are the Dracoris Terminus, whether you can accept that or not”

“Is that so?” Carmody seethed. “It’s always about what the Project needs, isn’t it? What about what you need Eric? What do you want?”

His eyes were still locked with hers, so close their faces were almost touching.

“I want you, Carmody” he said, “I want you to be happy!”

Carmody and Eric heard a gasp from somewhere behind them. A clatter of wrapped sweets echoed from the floor and tiles as they were dropped in shock and bounced around the yellow gumboots of their owner. They looked up and saw Sarah standing there, her yellow painted lion face twisted in anguish.

“Oh, Sarah, wait a moment” Eric said but the girl turned and ran off, her yellow tail bouncing behind her.

“Eric, you are so hopeless at this stuff” Carmody muttered and ran off in the same direction as her friend. The boy stood there, alone and forlorn until the siren sounded for the end of lunch break.

He was still standing there as a sea of students jostled past him, lost in his thoughts, until Lilly and Achmed took his arms and lead him to the next class.

=====

Carmody found her friend where she expected to, sitting on the school roof and dangling her feet over the edge. Stanley was crouched beside her, puffing steam gently from his nostrils as Sarah stroked his long snout.

“I didn’t know that Lions and Dragons could be such close friends?” Carmody said as she sat down next to Sarah.

“I’m a Zombie Banana” Sarah replied, “Everybody likes bananas”

“My brother Vance doesn’t. They make him hurl really bad. Loves Kiwi Fruit though” Carmody observed, kicking her padded legs idly against the roof edge.

“Are you trying to cheer me up?” asked Sarah. “Because you are sucking at it so far”

“I am sucking at a lot of things this week” Carmody answered. “Like being your friend”

She dug around in a pocket and pulled out some of the candy that she had recovered. They were all wrapped so she reckoned the ‘five second’ rule did not apply. Carmody offered one to Sarah, who smiled and unwrapped it before popping it in her mouth.

“Thanks” she said simply and the two girls gazed out over the school and the city beyond. “You are actually doing a great job as a friend. Eric is just doing a lousy job at his end”

“Yeah. I think he is having a hard time deciding which one of us he likes the most” Carmody replied. “It would be easier if only one of us liked him, but that is not case is it?”

“Maybe you should both perform the Courtship Dance for Eric?” suggested Stanley.”Then he could respond with the Dance of Agreement to whichever girl he likes the most”

“Why is there dancing involved?” wondered Carmody.

“Forget what he said, we are not having a dance-off for Eric” Sarah told them both in no uncertain terms.

“Then how will you decide which of you claims Eric?” asked Stanley, who only really wanted some of the candy. He leaned his head around to examine the dwindling collection in Carmody’s lap with despair.

Sarah and Carmody exchanged a look of understanding and smiled at each other.

“We’ll both tell him how we feel, tonight at the Festival. Then when he is ready, he can let us know how he feels” Sarah said.

“Agreed” Carmody answered. “Although for a boy with a super computer in his head, he can take a while to reach a decision” Both girls laughed at that and unwrapped another candy each, popping them into their mouths.

Stanley looked forlornly at the last candy that remained. He sent a sad little puff of steam from his nostrils which wafted over his two companions.

“Did you want the last candy, Stanley?” Carmody said apologetically. She had completely forgotten to offer him any she realised with a sense of guilt.

“Why yes, that would be nice” the dragon said with a happy smile. The girl unwrapped the candy and placed it gently in his open mouth. He closed it and began chewing, then stopped with a horrified look on his face.

“Yuck” he declared and spat it out over the edge of the roof.

“Hey, what gives!” Sarah shouted at his bad manners. “I thought you said Steam Dragons could eat anything!”

“Anything but Aniseed!” he replied and continued to make hacking and gargling sounds. “I think I need some nice black coal to get rid of that taste” he announced and went scrabbling back to his house.

The two girls stood, brushing the dust off their costumes and regarded each other.

“Still Besties?” Sarah asked.

“Still Besties” agreed Carmody

Hand in hand, the Zombie Banana and the Greatest Batsman Ever headed to their classes.

=====

School classes ended at Three PM today and like a wave of oddly dressed locusts the students descended in a giant swarm upon the outdoor food stalls, games and entertainment stages. Eric Hargreaves stood watching from the school roof top with F-Zero-Three, who apparently now asked to be referred to as Fiona. The young boy suspected Carmody had a hand in this change and wondered how his brother Two would react. It was against Guard policy for them to have any name other than their Squad Identification number.

For now, he scanned the surrounding area, alert to any threats to his friends and their fellow students.

“It’s all clear for now” Fiona said. “You can spend time with the others, the Guards will remain alert”

“I’m just worried about what will happen if the Emissary does make a move during the Festival. There will be a lot of students here and after Four PM we’ll have their families as well”

“Jericho-Two and yourself have planned as much as you can” she reminded him. “Ideally, nothing will happen at all and everyone down there has a great evening”

Eric looked at the clone Sniper, dressed in her dark blue uniform, armour vest and cap in place as usual. Today she had her long barrelled sniping rifle slung on her back and a pistol in a holster at her hip. All of the five clone squad were armed and ready for whatever might happen this evening.

The young man had asked his older brother Two about sending more Guards to the school, but in the end they agreed that it would make the students nervous. They had gotten used to seeing the existing five Guards around the school grounds, so increasing their numbers now would tell everyone they were expecting trouble.

“By the way, Fiona, I wanted to thank you” Eric said nervously.

“For what, Master Eric?” she enquired.

Eric turned and faced her, bowing from the waist in a gesture of respect.

“For looking after Carmody the other day” he said humbly. “For giving her comfort when I could not”

Fiona regarded him steadily, her eyes unblinking.

“It is what we are here for, Master Eric” she answered. “My brothers and I are meant to keep you all safe from harm. Even from a broken heart if we can”

Eric smiled at the Guard clone and nodded his head.

“That seems a very unusual order for my brother Two to have issued?”

Fiona gave him the barest hint of a smile in return. It lit up her face regardless Eric thought.

“It was a very flexible order” she agreed.

=====

Carmody was late getting out of her last class as it was her turn to help tidy the homeroom. It was just her luck to be rostered on for cleaning duty the day of a big event like the Festival she thought to herself. She finally finished the work with her classmate Jasmine and only had to run the waste bins to the recycling chutes.

Jasmine waved her thanks and dashed off to join her friends, leaving Carmody the only one still on the entire floor she was certain. Outside she could hear the steady roar of noise from a thousand excited students, easily drowning out the music playing from the main stage. With a sigh she trudged to the waste chutes at the end of the hallway, lugging the plastic bag full of recyclables.

As she neared the junction at the end of the hallway she heard a heavy tread approaching from around the corner. With sudden horror she remembered Excalibur was still leaning next to her bags in the classroom. If this was some rogue robot coming after her, there was no-one around to help her and nothing to fight the monster with!

Trying to control her suddenly hoarse breathing, Carmody clutched her bag of plastic cans and wrappers tightly and huddled close to the wall. She edged as near to the corner as she dared, hearing the heavy steps come closer. It sounded way too heavy to be one of the teachers, but maybe it was a mechanical soldier, a Sentinel that had gone rogue?

A massive shadow preceded the figure as it turned the corner and Carmody screamed and swung the trash bag with all of her might.

The bag burst on impact, showering bottles, cans and pieces of plastic across the tiled floor. Guard Unit F-Zero-Two stopped his forward motion, shielding his body with his raised forearms as the trash exploded all over him.

Carmody stood there, breathing hard and turning a bright shade of red from her forehead to her shoulders in embarrassment.

“I am so sorry, Zero-Two!” she cried out, hands raised to her mouth. She was glad she had been too scared to use her Kinetic Enhancer on the bag of trash as it might have caused him an injury.

“Good afternoon, Miss Brentwood” said the clone. “I remain fully functional so there is no need to apologise” He shook off some clinging pieces of wrapper and slung his rifle across a shoulder. “I will help you recover the items for recycling”

“Okay, thanks!” breathed Carmody with relief. In a short time the two of them picked up all the scattered rubbish and fed it into the recycling chutes. Once the hallway was clean again, the girl regarded the armed and armoured Jack.

“Zero-Two, why are you on patrol inside the school building?” she asked him.

The clone soldier had been about to resume his patrol, so he turned back to the young girl.

“All of the Guards from the Post are on Security Patrols for the Festival” he explained.

“You are expecting trouble, aren’t you?” Carmody told him. “That’s why Eric was armed too”

The Jack did not answer and actually looked torn, as if he wanted to tell her something but couldn’t.

“Has Eric ordered you not to involve me?” she asked outright.

Zero-Two did not reply, or couldn’t, but that was answer enough for her.

“Thanks, Zero-Two” Carmody said and would have dashed off herself if the clone did not suddenly call out to her.

“Miss Brentwood, I have a favour to ask you” he asked. “I would be grateful if you would assign me a name”

“Oh, I meant to plan for this” Carmody remembered. “Um, well we can’t call you Two as that is the name of Eric’s brother. How about ‘Deuce’?” she suggested.

“Deuce?” pondered the Jack. “That has a good sound to it. Thank you, Miss Brentwood!”

“You’re welcome, Deuce!” she replied and with a wave ran off to her classroom, eager to recover her bat. She had a feeling she was going to need it later that day.