Chimera Phase

[Mumbling2]

New to this section of the forum. Let me know if my formatting is wrong or anything.

Anyway, this is a story I've been working on for a while. I actually wrote a full rough draft a year and a half ago, but never got much feedback on it. Looking to get a critique.

Enjoy

Chimera Phase


Prologue

Spoiler:

A very large college campus sat at the foot of a very large hill. It resided in a city that was very much like Los Angeles, even in name, but not quite. The city was located in a country that was nearly identical to the United States, but missed out on a few key details that made it just different enough. If we were to simplify things, we could say that this country was located on the planet Earth. In this situation, the relationship between simplicity and accuracy is shaky at best.

However, there are a small number of things about this college that can be said with precision:

1. It occupied exactly four hundred acres.
2. One percent of its students thought highly of themselves.
3. Ninety-five percent of its students thought too highly of themselves.
4. The remaining four percent were not liberal arts majors.
5. Very few people noticed when one of its students spent three years there changing the world.

Of course, the relationship between the “changing the world” and “accomplishing nothing” is shaky at best. Or at worst. No one in either Los Angeles could seem to agree.

Chapter 1

Spoiler:

Kasper was not smarter than most people. This worked out fine because most people were not smarter than him either. At some point in the existence of human beings, the universe decided the scale of human intelligence would follow a standard bell curve. It had also decided that in order for this plan to work, a single human being would have to be placed at the exact peak, lest the distinction between above average and below average become blurred. Civilizations rise and fall on a human being’s ability to determine whether they are superior to another. Unfortunately, people ended up coming to the wrong conclusion ninety-five percent of the time anyway, making the one way the world revolved around Kasper inconsequential.

This story is how the world came close to revolving around Kasper again, but missed and settled on orbiting around a philosophy major who coerced the event through sheer will. We will call this lover of Aristotle and Kant “Ted.” Kasper’s story is still much more interesting than Ted’s, thanks to the attractive brunette who was staring at Kasper from across his desk.

She was just sitting, staring. Kasper tried to ignore her. It became clear to both them within seconds that he was failing. He could have sworn that she was timing her blinks so that whenever Kasper looked up from his data entry, her brown eyes would bug out, never shifting their gaze. After she tired of that trick, she got into the habit of squeaking her chair. Her stoic demeanor aside, Kasper was sure she was amusing herself.

Kasper was comforted that the girl was at least keeping her mouth shut. When she did open her mouth it was…well, Kasper had not decided exactly how to describe it. Frightening was not the right word. Unsettling was closer, but somehow inadequate. At best, he could describe it as the feeling one gets when they are comfortable and safe, but has a sudden urge to dwell on their own mortality. When Kasper told the girl this years later, she argued that this was an idiotic reaction. Of course she meant to be frightening.

When she walked into the student employment office a few minutes earlier, she said two things: “We’re going to melt your skin off today” and “I’m interested in your office job.” She quietly sat down afterwards. Had these two sentences been related, Kasper could have convinced himself that the rest of his day would be normal. However, being of average intelligence, he knew he was about to be inconvenienced.

A blonde girl approached Kasper’s desk from the back of the office. She took note that the appearances the two staring partners were surprisingly similar. They had the same soft-looking face with matching eye and hair color. Her years working in customer service had taught her a thing or two about assessing minor features of other people. It also made her skilled at ignoring others, which she proceeded to do with both her co-worker and their current customer.

Kasper watched as June settled into a nearby desk, disregarding the situation. She shuffled random papers around to confirm that she had little interest in helping Kasper with his situation.

Several months ago, June had told Kasper that the majority of customers in any line of work were entitled scum. Ordinary scum at least knew their place. Kasper preferred to think of anyone in the office who gave him grief as misguided or stressed. Of course, there was no reason to think highly of them, but it was worth attempting to remain civil. On a good day, he could even be helpful.

Kasper leaned over.

“June,” he whispered.

“If she isn’t asking for anything, we don’t need to do anything,” June replied. She showed increased interest in shuffling her current stack of papers two inches to the left.

June had a point, but Kasper had little appreciation for her aloofness. Just as he readjusted himself in his seat, she froze. The door opened near the brunette girl. June nearly leapt to her feet and walked quickly to the back of the office. She could tell when a bad customer was approaching. Kasper wondered just how long she had been working customer service jobs and how many other co-workers she had made of habit of throwing to the sharks.

A stocky guy sidled up to the front desk, blocking Kasper’s view of the brunette. Kasper looked up at his stubble and dark, slick-backed hair.

“Gel,” Kasper muttered. He was about to stand up when his stocky customer slapped a small slip of paper on the desk’s surface. It was a check. The design was the same as the one distributed to all work-study students at the DAW University. This was either going to be very simple or very painful.

Kasper forced a smile.

“Welcome to the Student Employment Center. How can I help you?”

“Fix it,” the customer said, grinning.

Kasper looked down at the check. It was made out to “Brendan Hart” for the amount of $474.88. He inferred, based on the amount paid and hours worked, that Brendan was likely a graduate student. Brendan’s cockiness all but confirmed it.

“Fix what?” Kasper asked. He tried his hardest not let any ire slip into his voice.

Brendan took a deep breath in preparation for the laborious task of conducting communication. June’s instinct was infallible.

“They took too much out in taxes. I should be getting way more than this.”

Kasper relaxed. He grabbed the check and folded it out. The tax information was still attached. Resolving this was going to be painfully simple.

“Are you a part-time student?” Kasper asked.

“Yep.”

“Then this is normal. If you only go to school part-time, you pay more in taxes. Your government at work.” Kasper started to hand the check back.

“But it’s wrong!” Brendan said.

Ah, so this was going to be just simply painful.

Kasper was not sure what to do to get rid of Brendan. He was terrible at convincing other students he was right about these things. More accurately, he was terrible at convincing them they were wrong. Still, he had to try. He gathered all his courage to respond. The effort, while brief, took so much concentration that he barely noticed that the brunette girl had walked up behind Brendan. She was now silently leaning her forehead on the small of his back.

Brendan jumped a bit and turned around.

“Oh hey, umm, sorry… I can…” Brendan said. Kasper had little to contribute to the situation. Someone in the office was about to cause trouble for him and that fact took up most of his focus.

“I don’t feel so good,” the girl said. Her voice resonated against Brendan’s back. She grabbed his shirt at the shoulder. “Could you please move aside so I can use the phone?”

At this point, it should be mentioned that this girl came to the office to complete a single task and to not deviate from such. She wanted to regard herself as a professional. But, she also hated rude people and wanted to make that clear to any and all offenders. As someone who was not an employee of the office, she had no reason not to pull any punches. This is why she tossed Brendan over her shoulder, slamming him into the row of chairs behind them.

Kasper was still occupied deciding which one of them would cause the most grief. He was starting to get a better idea.

Brendan was dazed, but rushed to his feet. On reflex, he clenched his fist. At that moment he started to note how attractive the girl looked. This was giving him mixed signals. On the one hand, the girl had tossed him across the office, unprovoked. She clearly made up the story about feeling ill. A taunting smile was even creeping across her lips.

On the other hand, she was hot.

Brendan walked over to the girl. He started to put his arm around her shoulders and smiled.

“Sorry, I was off-balanced when you put your weight on me. I didn’t mean to fall like that.”

The girl smacked his arm away.

“Don’t touch me. I told you; I’m sick.”

Kasper snapped out of his focus and was about to intervene when he heard a grinding sound. It was followed a wet clapping sound, almost like rain, but louder and duller. He was still prepared to step in until he noticed that sounds were coming from the girl.

Both Kasper and Brendan both stepped back. Neither could bring themselves to run from what they saw. The girl’s skin was peeling off. It fell to the floor in moist thuds. At the same time, she grew taller, nearly matching Brendan’s height. The grinding sound grew louder before petering out.

When all the noise faded, the girl looked completely different. She was taller and slightly more bulky. Her faced had narrowed, not that it mattered too much since every other facial featured had changed as well. Kasper tried to look for some familiarity in the eyes, but they were mostly obscured by long, black bangs.

The girl paid Kasper little attention as he fell into his seat. She whirled around and faced Brendan.

“See?” she asked.

Brendan tripped twice. Once on his own feet and again on the chairs he had toppled earlier. He was out the door before he could start brainstorming excuses for his clumsiness.

The girl shrugged and turned to Kasper.

“Hi!” Kasper yelled, not knowing what else to say.

“Hey Kasper, look at the ceiling,” the girl said.

Kasper almost made himself dizzy as he brought his eyes to the ceiling. He lowered them back to the girl just as quickly. His heart pounded in his chest as he looked in the girl’s eyes. She was, in every way, back to her original self.

“Hi, I’m Maya,” she said. “I’m your cousin.” She held out her hand. Kasper’s hand shot out, trying to remember what step came next. Maya shook it anyway.

“I told you there was going to be some skin melting today,” Maya said. She grimaced and released Kasper’s hand. She rushed back to the mess of chairs and dug through it until she produced a small notebook. She flipped to one of the first pages and scanned it. She hummed a small tune before shutting the book and running up to Kasper again.

“So apparently, the first thing you’re supposed to know is that you’re a Chimera. Apparently.”

Not many things happened at Kasper’s job that were worse than getting yelled at by a smug graduate student. Kasper suspected that Maya was going to take a good run at it.

Chapter 2

Spoiler:

http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t...=1#post2552681

Chapter 3

Spoiler:

http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t...=1#post2564509

Chapter 4

Spoiler:

http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t...=1#post2579169

Chapter 5

Spoiler:

http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t...=1#post2592760

Chapter 6

Spoiler:

http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t...=1#post2733187

Chapter 7

Spoiler:

http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t...=1#post2763537

Chapter 8

Spoiler:

http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t...=1#post2782865

Chapter 9

Spoiler:

http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t...=1#post2834367

[trappedolphin]

...

I really like this.

The story's a tiny bit weird (I bet that was your intention, though, so congrats) but I love your style. A bit heavy on description, but it fits your style. I'm not sure how you might continue from here, but I'm definitely looking forward to reading more!

Oh and you should definitely consider submitting this for the monthly competition. :)

[ChesCa]

Can't think of any good details to critique, but I do love how the voice of the story still treats everything in an ordinary, non-romanticized sense. Makes the extraordinary that much out of place, and I'd like for things to continue in that direction. Gives an 'everyman' tone to the tale. Simple and lovable. I guess my only complaint is when the word apparently is used twice in Maya's sentence, but that could be her and not your mistake.

[Kylor]

Well, that's it folks, best story in the writing forum. We can all go home now.

Seriously though, the first chapter is awesome, and I hope you keep it up. Looking forward to seeing where you go with it.

[Mumbling2]

And on to chapter 2. My idea is to try to get a chapter out every two weeks. We'll see if I stick to that goal.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I wrote the first draft of chapter 1 almost two years ago and it was almost twice as long back then. I'm glad that I managed to tighten it up and still make it enjoyable. Maybe after I'm done with this draft, I'll post the original draft in its entirety since it's nearly at novel length. It could be interesting to see what ideas and story elements I added or dropped. But at the rate I'm getting this out, that's a long ways off.

Chapter 2

Spoiler:

“So you’re saying this check is fake?”

“Yes.”

“And it wasn’t distributed by this office?”

“No.”

“Huh.”

At the same time Brendan had walked into the student employment office, another, more civil, altercation was taking place. On the opposite side of the office, Tobias, the associate director of student employment, sat at his desk in his own corner office. He rubbed his temple. Across from him, Robin sat and examined her check. As she twisted and scrutinized her payment, Tobias could tell the piece of paper was flimsy and low-grade. Robin could infer this as well, but had little understanding as to why this made any difference.

Robin ran a hand through her long red hair and sighed. She stuffed the paper into the pocket of her sweatpants and turned as the office door opened.

June quickly closed the door behind her and sat in the chair next to Robin.

“Can I help you June?” Tobias asked.

“Nope,” she replied. “Just felt like observing you help a student. What better way to improve my job performance?”

Robin looked at June’s blank expression. Intuition told her it was the expression of someone trying to get by at her job with as little effort as possible. Granted, the campus was littered with 25, 000 undergraduates so Robin would have driven herself insane if she let every single person with that attitude irk her.

Such a demeanor bothered her a little more today since it was largely responsible for her situation. She had been DJ-ing a mixer for an infamous student group on campus, the Guild. It had been understood by both parties that her rate was a flat two hundred dollars for the night. What one party failed to understand, however, was that the other party had a reputation for penny-pinching, short-changing and handing out the occasional fake check. Like June, they put little effort into all of these activities, which was why Tobias was surprised Robin had been deceived in the first place.

But isn’t the occasional error in college acceptable? After all, it had been dark. Loud music and strobe lights diluted Robin’s senses. She refused to drink while on the job, but the smell of liquor everywhere still produced a bit of negligence. A student in that situation could wake up the next day in a ditch with a missing garment or three. Robin just woke up with a bad check that was strangely absorbent.

The student employment office was the only place Robin thought could help after her bank refused to cash the check. She relayed the story to Tobias for a third time. For a third time, Tobias said there was nothing he could do about it.

June held back a laugh upon hearing of Robin’s naivety. Robin did not have time to be offended as a huge crash came from the other side of the office. Tobias snapped his head up and looked at June.

“It’s probably nothing,” she said. “I’ll take care of it.”

She fumbled with her hair and stretched her legs. With little urgency, she exited the room. Tobias had a suspicion she would just find another office to hide in, but decided to let it go. For all he knew, it was just someone tripping over a stack of chairs.

Robin had already disregarded the crash. If she was anything, she was impulsive. It was extremely counterintuitive for her mind to brainstorm long, thought-out solutions to a problem. She lacked admiration for obstacles that could not be overcome in a few seconds and her trip to the office had taken several. The next course of action was decided.

“So you’re saying that I need to confront the Guild and get paid through a little persuasion?” Robin asked.

This conclusion astounded Tobias, as it was not at all what he said.

“You do know that’s the Guild you’re talking about, yes?” Tobias asked. Robin was already halfway out his door.

“I’ll let you know how it turns out,” she said and left.

Tobias hoped she would not. He had no intention of getting involved with the Guild, even if only by word of mouth.

It is rather ridiculous for any faculty member of a university to be wary of a student organization. Sure, no one wants a member to be passed out on their lawn on a Sunday morning, but anything bordering on fear makes little sense. Still, they did live in a world where tuition makes incredible leaps each year while the value of a diploma keeps slipping. A good opportunist would realize that in the illogical world of higher education, anything goes. The Guild was pretty savvy in that regard.

[Mumbling2]

Ok, so it looks like I'm falling behind on the personal schedule I set for myself. Behind by about, five days...?

Anyway, presenting chapter 3!

Chapter 3

Spoiler:

“No really, how did you do that trick back there? Were your arms covered in plastic wrap?”

“I’m a Chimera. You’re a Chimera. We have the ability to transform into other people.”

“Right, right. But seriously…”

Maya had not foreseen this difficulty. None of her training had taught her how to prove to Kasper that her transformation was anything but an illusion. Being prepared with an explanation made sense now, but Maya had never met anyone who did not know of Chimeras, much less someone who did not know he himself was a Chimera.

Following their brief introduction in the student employment office, Maya had suggested they escape and find a place to talk. “Escape” was the appropriate word since Maya figured she would be in an odd situation if anyone else in the office found her and Kasper standing next to a pile of dead skin. She resolved to be less theatrical for the rest of her training with Kasper. That resolution was to be shattered in less than twenty-four hours.

Now they stood in Lo Duca quad, one of many quads at DAW University. Maya chose to walk to this one in particular because it was littered with redwoods. With the sun’s rays peeking through the trees, it looked like a miniature forest and it allowed her and Kasper to be discreet.

Additionally, not many students came to this section of the college. In the days when it was appropriately called Redwood Quad, it was frequently populated. However, one student, Mary Lo Duca, had the nerve to ruin it for everyone and get crushed when a poorly maintained redwood toppled over. Kasper had heard this story as a freshman and felt it gave the place character. At any rate, the story was tame compare to what he had witnessed minutes earlier and he had no qualms about entering the faux forest.

Maya was tired of the questions. She put her hand over Kasper’s mouth.

“I figured you would be more surprised to hear you have a long-lost cousin,” she said. “Family’s supposed to be somewhat important in this country right?”

Maya recoiled in shock when she felt Kasper’s tongue stick out and slap against her palm.

“Great,” Kasper said. “You being family made doing that a lot less awkward.”

Maya looked at her hand. In all honesty, Kasper had barely touched it and made his tongue as dry as he could, but it disgusted her. Maya was not one to dirty her clothes, especially the new, designer jeans she currently wore. Vowing to get back at Kasper, she wiped her hand on a redwood instead.
“That makes a nice segue,” said Maya, sticking out her own tongue. She dabbed the tip of her right ring finger and touched it to her forehead. In an instant, she turned back into the tall, bulky girl Kasper had seen in the office.

Kasper nearly jumped back in shock, but had subconsciously realized that the hand Maya licked was the same one he had prior. Fear and humor collided in his brain and balanced him, resulting in a mere stumble and a bout of speechlessness.

Maya consciously realized her mistake and had to force herself to speak without rage.

“See?” she asked. “None of that funny skin stuff. Just a pure transformation.”

Kasper’s eyes flicked side to side, trying to find another soul to confirm that the young woman facing him was real. He steadied himself on his heels. The question Maya was waiting for escaped his throat.

“Who are you?”

Maya smirked. She licked the same finger and touched it to her forehead. Immediately she assumed her own body.

Heart thumping and blood boiling, the speech began.

“I am Maya, your young, but perfectly able, Chimera teacher. For years I have studied education theory and human biology. Not only that, but I have nearly mastered the art of being a Chimera. ‘What is a Chimera?’ you might ask? Oh, nothing much. Just a special species of human, a subspecies, if you will, that has the amazing, unique ability to take on the bodies of other subspecies. We are capable of surpassing the limits of nearly any other living being on this planet. We alone, make up one of the most powerful groups you can imagine. We can make a mark on the world that would require a normal human several lifetimes. And you, Kasper, have been chosen to come along on this journey with me.” She held her hand out towards Kasper. “Will you, take this new life I am offering you and mold it into something great?”

Energy ebbed and flowed around Maya. Most likely it was the static generated by her wool jacket, but she was not being picky. All she knew was that her fire and charisma burst forth and was leeching into her cousin’s very soul.

“Ok,” Kasper said, diverting his eyes.

Maya waited for a gleam of power and understanding to shine in his eyes. There was nothing.

“That’s it?” she asked, lowering her arm. “You don’t seem excited.”

“Well, I’m kind of a people pleaser,” he said.

“You just licked my hand.”

“Not a fan of being touched.”

“So you’ll go through the motions of everything I said, but with no enthusiasm? Are you lacking in serotonin or something? I wasn’t supposed to mention it, but there are a lot of things I’m allowed to ‘prescribe’ you. And when I say a lot…”

Kasper held both his hands up.

“No, no I don’t mean that,” he said. “Being a Kira…”

“Chimera.”

“…Chimera…sounds amazing, it really does. It just sounds really dangerous. I’m just beginning to wrap my head around all the things that could go wrong.”

He stopped and stared at Maya. Now her eyes were the ones that were downcast. Truthfully, Kasper was an accommodating fellow. He could not stand watching someone with hurt feelings.

His cousin, however, was doing a good job of faking her sadness. If her act did not go anywhere in the next few seconds, she would have to unleash her trump card: brutal honesty.

“The Chimera thing…it might be best if we just pretend we never talked about it,” Kasper said. “But if we’re really family and you want to get to know each other, I guess that would be fine.”

He stumbled a bit over his words towards the end. Family was a strange thing for him to mention. He had little experience with familial bonds and relationships, which gave him a warped view of the concept.

Incidentally, Maya was just about ready to warp what little experience he had of being a Chimera.

“You don’t have a choice,” Maya said. “If you don’t pass a some sort of test to show you’re proficient with your Chimera abilities, you’ll be banished to the same island I’m from.”

Kasper was not sure of the expression on his own face, but he noticed Maya’s expression had changed from sad to indifferent far too quickly.

“That information didn’t really gel well with the speech I had planned out,” she admitted.

***

The majority of Vita Island was reminiscent of a tropical resort. This proved to be a source of contention among those who preferred to relocate the Chimera to a less pleasant home. After all, “banishment” did not normally conjure images of white beaches and sparkling ocean waves. The powers that be were not looking to challenge that notion.

However, Chimera were considered to be dangerous, even among other subspecies. Combined with a certain group of lawmakers, who were considered lazy even among other politicians, a quick fix was better than no fix at all. There was something to be said for imposing brutal oppression with a light touch. Such an act is effective, just not seen often.

The Chimera test was another facet of the underground world of subspecies that was not seen a great deal. This had little to do with its vague methods of evaluation and the hushed planning of it behind closed doors. No, the rarity of the event mostly had to do with the fact it had never been held anywhere at any time.

It was only a few years ago when a Chimera at a public forum asked, “Why do all of us have to be here? It’s impossible for every single one of us to be dangerous.”

Following the incident, three things were concluded unanimously:

1. Yes, all Chimera were dangerous.
2. Something would have to be done to keep the banished Chimera placated.
3. They never should have allowed Chimeras to hold public forums.

So it was decided that a test would have to be organized: a test to allow any willing Chimera to display proficiency in their abilities. It was reasoned that any Chimera who had control of their ability would be less likely to experience bouts of unpredictable behavior.

Additionally, the decision to send the Chimera to paradise would pay off in spades. Very few wanted to leave their homes and if the test were made difficult enough, the cushy lifestyle of Vita Island would ensure no test applicants would pass even if they tried. There were a few troublesome individuals who had been preparing for just such an opportunity, but as long as they remained on the island, it was easy enough to monitor them and take steps to ensure their failure.

This is why it was horrible timing when the one Chimera that had been considered missing for years was found shortly after this plan was set into motion. Luckily, for the sake of the plan, Southern California was not running short on beaches.

***

Maya communicated all this info to Kasper. Upon hearing it, Kasper realized something peculiar in her story.

“That part, about me being from Southern California?” he asked. “Doesn’t that mean they’re pretty confident we’ll fail at this? Assuming everything you said is true, they’d drag me to your island right now if they thought there was even the slight chance I would pass this test, right?”

“There are a few reasons why they’re letting you stay,” Maya replied. “That’s why I’m here. No Chimera will be happy if the last of our kind is sent to Vita Island because he didn’t have proper instruction.”

“I don’t think living in California qualifies me as ‘the last of our kind’ when everyone else is alive and well in the tropics.”

“You’ll be amazed at the causes people will gather around, justified or not.” Maya clapped her hands together and smiled at her audience of one. Kasper slid his hands in the pocket of his jeans and pursed his lips. The information his cousin had conveyed was ricocheting around his head. It was not going to stop anytime soon and he would not feel comfortable taking any sort of action until his mind settled. This is why Maya made sure the only things more unsettling than his brain’s activity were her eyes boring into him. Those deep, brown pools were not going to let up until some progress was made with her pupil. He made several false starts before he let his words flow.

“Ok, Maya,” he said. “I’ll believe all of this for now. I’ll even let you teach me whatever is required. But you have to promise that you’re not lying about any of this.”

“You have my word.”

Maya was not lying at all. Omitting? Most certainly. If it were possible to omit through your teeth, she would have chipped an incisor. However, given she had already shattered Kasper’s perception of reality multiple times in the span of an hour, lies of omission were for the best. The tricky part would be figuring out when to tell the whole truth. Who would reveal this to Maya was uncertain, but odds were stacked heavily in favor of humanity’s good acquaintance, hindsight.

“Fine,” said Kasper. “So how do we start this?”

Maya slipped the small notebook she brought from her pocket and thumbed through it.

“Normally I would have you read this, which goes over all the basics of utilizing your ability. But…”

“But?”

“I had the author of the guide print it out in Spanish and Portuguese.”

“What…I…Why would you do that?”

“Funny thing about you Americans; when you refer to America, you neglect to differentiate between North and South.”

Kasper held out his hand and Maya handed over the notebook. He examined the contents. Indeed, typed out in its pages, were two languages he knew were not English. He searched for any familiar words, but came up empty.

“Weren’t you reading it right before you told me I was a Chimera?” Kasper asked, his nose still in the notebook.

“I can read a few basic sentences in Spanish,” Maya answered. “If I couldn’t even do that it would be hard to take me seriously, wouldn’t it?”

Kasper glanced up and lingered on Maya before looking back into the guide.

“How do you even make an error like this?” he asked.

“I was assigned to teach you two weeks ago. You try researching an entire region’s history and culture in that span of time. It would be like cramming for the SATs in five days and expecting to do well. As it happened, a misunderstanding led me to believe that taking the SATs was required to enter a college campus, so that was five days of research wasted right there.”

Kasper wondered whether he still had time to make it back to the office and reconcile Brendan’s check issue.

“At any rate,” Maya continued, “I ordered another training guide in English. It should be here soon.” She yanked the notebook out of Kasper’s grasp and pocketed it. “But if you have any general questions now is the time to ask.”

“I have a lot of questions.”

“If you have one or two questions now is…”

Kasper held up his hands. “Ok, ok. Fine, I just have one question for now: you’ve mentioned other ‘subspecies’. Are there other ones besides Chimera?”

“Yep.” Silence persisted for a few seconds.

“Well, are there other islands with them?”

“Of course not. They live all over the world.”

Kasper furrowed his brow. “That doesn’t make sense. Why are Chimeras banished and not them? And wouldn’t I have seen another subspecies at some point?”

“You’ll come across them one of these days.”

Maya’s body jerked downwards. In one swift motion she scooped up a small rock at her feet and hurled it past Kasper’s head. He could hear it whistle past his ear. The next sound he heard was an annoyed “Ow!”

Kasper spun around and saw a spectacled man in a grey suit nursing his shoulder.

“Or today,” Maya said.

Kasper was less surprised and more appalled at Maya’s action. He was still unsure how trustworthy she was and he knew for certain she was incompetent. Now she was spouting nonsense and throwing rocks at people. She just implied that he would be meeting a subspecies today, but it did not explain her attack. The man in front of them did not look out of the ordinary at all.

Kasper stepped towards Maya’s victim; anxious to make sure he was ok. However, he halted when the man’s cold stare met his eyes.

The man lifted his right arm and began to shrink. No. Kasper’s perception was deceiving him. It was not the man that was shrinking: it was his arm that was growing.

Kasper froze in place as the man’s arm rippled and bulged while extending, as if made of boiling rubber. After a few seconds, the man was now holding up an arm that was longer and bulkier than his own body.

The man was looking a little less ordinary.

[Mumbling2]

Chapter 4

Spoiler:

“Hey now,” Maya said. “This is quite lucky for you Kasper. I wasn’t going to introduce you to other subspecies until months down the road.”

“Personally, I’ve always been a fan of accelerated learning for my students,” said the spectacled man as he waved his giant arm.

“Hear that, Kasper? Why can’t you be more agreeable like him? Kasper?”

Maya tapped Kasper on the shoulder, but he was far more concerned with the threatening limb that hovered only a few yards in front of him.

The arm suddenly fell to the man’s side, kicking up a cloud of dust as it slammed into the earth. Probably sturdier than any tree in the forest, the man used his own arm to prop himself up as he nonchalantly leaned against it. The act was far less practical than the man made it look, but you don’t go through the trouble of enlarging your arm without using it for something. Well, something other than threats.

A lot of emotions were welling up in Kasper. Strangely, it reminded him of how he always felt after a test in high school. He thought back to the post-stress he felt remembering questions and being tempted to look in his textbook to confirm whether he had botched his exam or not. In a mild act of cowardice, he never checked. This decision would always be a regretful one once the final exam rolled around and the exact same questions would reappear.

It occurred to Kasper that now might be a good time to ask questions.

“Who is he?” he asked Maya.

“Professor Cooper,” the man interjected.

“A Kraken,” Maya said.

Krakens were one of the earliest subspecies discovered. They were also one of the earliest to be documented in history due to their strange ability to enlarge their limbs. In the 17^th century, it was believed they often boarded ships in search of loot, threatening its inhabitants with their massive arms and legs. Unfortunately for them, the prevalence of disease on the high seas made them appear less as monsters and more as contagious sailors with deplorable hygiene. Krakens had a difficult time explaining the misconception over the noise of a dozen pistols unloading at once.

Since those early days, Krakens were not known as a subspecies that commanded respect. It did not help that their ability lacked subtlety, especially when rumors began to circulate that Krakens could manipulate the size of more than just their arms and legs. Krakens never went through the trouble to prove otherwise, despite the increasing number of scientific literature that set the record straight (the most notable being the journal article Krakens: The Colossal Disappointment, Subspecies Today vol. 34 issue 5).

Kasper lacked any knowledge of Krakens and feared Professor Cooper more than a Chimera should in his situation. He hoped that Maya and Cooper’s calm demeanors meant they were acquaintances. They both laughed at him when he asked. The validity of asking questions was becoming doubtful.

“Of course we’re not on friendly terms,” Maya said. “Chimeras and Krakens aren’t the most popular in the eyes of other subspecies, but that doesn’t instill a sense of solidarity between us.” She tilted her head to the side and looked at the professor. “However, I’m curious myself as to why you’re here Mr. Cooper.”

Cooper’s eyes narrowed as he scoffed.

“That’s Professor Cooper young lady,” he said taking the weight of his body off his enlarged arm. “And I’m here because I will not allow any Chimeras to set foot on this university.”

“Are you the campus police or something?” Maya asked.

“I’m simply an English teacher here who was tipped off to your presence on campus.”

Kasper thought back to what happened in the student employment office and how Brendan had run out in a panic. Maya’s careless behavior was making it harder to trust her.

“I don’t know why the two of your are allowed to be here or what this test is, but all I know is that Chimeras are dangerous. I will not have them at this university.”

“Paranoid much?” Maya asked.

Maya’s question was rather rhetorical. Though the notion had an inkling of prejudice, it was well known amongst subspecies that Krakens had paranoid tendencies. Unbeknownst to normal humans, a Kraken had been the catalyst to World War III. Historians continue to work out all the facts, but it involved a Kraken approving multiple pre-emptive strikes against a nuclear superpower after said superpower won a few too many medals during the Winter Olympics. Along with redefining the term “pre-emptive strike” and outlawing the Winter Olympics, the event also led to the publishing of several philosophy books regarding the nature of man and the prevalence of war. As one text put it, “…a mildly popular athletic event resulting in 70 million casualties will not be the last great folly man commits.” Other subspecies were quick to point out it wouldn’t be last great folly a Kraken commits.

Cooper was not about to let history interfere with his plans.

“Was the fear of ‘The Beast’ mere paranoia in Lord of the Flies?” Cooper asked. “Was Holden Caufield’s outlook on the world paranoia? How the about the persecution of an innocent black man in the town of Maycomb? Regardless of what preconceived ideas you have about Krakens, young lady, don’t dismiss me. You and I both know that nothing good can come from you being here.”

Maya shrugged. “Big words professor. What do you plan to do to us then?”

Cooper grunted and began to lift his large arm.

Kasper was beginning to snap out of the daze he had experienced since his cousin first met him in the office. A plan was brewing in his mind. He did not have the ability to alter his limbs, or his entire body for that matter, but every college student possessed the same trump card when it came to dealing with difficult professors: the filibuster.

“Wait!” Kasper yelled.

Cooper had only lifted his fist an inch off the ground. He stopped and let it spike the earth. Light gleaned off his glasses as he stared at the nervous college student.

Kasper composed himself and allowed his mind to dismiss the insanity of the day’s events. He had only one shot to shut Cooper down. It would have to count.

“If you’re truly an English professor at this college,” Kasper began, “why do you only reference books any average student should have read in high school?”

A gust of wind blew through the threes as Kasper waited for logic to crush his adversary. While impossible, a nearby bird managed to let out a nervous cough.

“Did you know there’s a remedial English class for freshman?” Cooper asked.

Kasper looked at the ground. “I tested out of it.”

“Good for you.”

Maya let out a low-pitched whistle.

Cooper tried to lift his arm again as Kasper contemplated the benefits of filibustering from a distance.

I'm hoping to get chapter 5 out soon. It will likely be a short chapter like this one so it won't take long if I'm diligent. Hope anyone who reads this is enjoying the story so far.

[ChesCa]

Finally back in the game (what game?):
In chapter three, you mention the word quad a lot. You should find a way to fix that.
The breaks in character POV to explain the world's history is really jarring and confusing. Try sticking to a POV and going through history from there.
The paragraph in chapter 3 where she does explain everything goes on for a bit too long. Add some body movement or reaction so that the audience doesn't just have the image of the two standing there and talking.

That said I do like the premise and am genuinely interested in seeing where this goes. Good luck.

[Uncle Kenny]

As part of my great reviewing mission, I'm starting with Chimera Phase. I'll go ahead and review each chapter individually so things will be a little more clear.

Chapter 1

Spoiler:

The prologue was pretty nice, I liked it. As for the chapter itself, aside from a few minor grammar mistakes there doesn't seem to be any glaring flaws. I would recommend reading it over again and correcting those mistakes though, as this style of writing requires a little more concentration from the garden variety. Because of that, the mistakes are that much more apparent and take the reader out of the moment when they occur.

I'll admit I had trouble figuring out where everyone was at first since, when I hear "desk", the first thing I think about is a school desk, like in a classroom. Once I realized they were in an office, everything fell into place afterward. It's a little jarring but it works so I don't recommend any changes there. In some instances, though, it might serve your purposes to be a little more clear about what's going on.

Those minor issues aside, the first chapter is amazing. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's truly a marvelous piece of writing and you should be very proud of yourself because of it. The voice, the flow, the presentation... all are excellent. And the humor is actually humorous.~

Chapter 2

Spoiler:

The second chapter seems a bit shorter. All in all though, it's pretty good. As with the first chapter, I don't see any glaring mistakes and I'm already liking Robin's personality. You have a real knack for bringing your characters alive and that you do this in such a short time is truly a spectacle.

No complaints on this one. It was a great installment.

Chapter 3

Spoiler:

I see what Cuddles means about the word "quad". I'd highly recommend changing that because it really takes one out of the moment. Use synonyms or similar description to replace a few of those quads. There's also a few grammar errors again, just like in the first chapter. Same advice, look it over and fix them. They're small mistakes but it takes away from the flow.

I feel like some of the descriptions are a bit shaky here and there as well. It almost seems like you were rushing at some points. But besides that, there's nothing too terribly wrong. On the upside, the plot is picking up and I have to say I'm very interested in all the goings-on in this chapter. It's nice to see that you've built up on the society of this world beyond just casual mentions.

Chapter 4

Spoiler:

Some more grammar mistakes. Honestly, I'm surprised at how you managed to dodge the cliche of a monster instantly raging from an unprovoked attack. That's... a little long but it is a cliche.

Anyways, you dodged it and managed to even make it original and interesting. I loved Kasper's attempt at stopping Mr. Cooper with logic. And all the new information on Krakens is pretty interesting and really puts into perspective the kinds of relationships the subspecies of the world share, as well as the regular world's view on them. This was a good chapter.~

---

There you have it. Aside from a grammar run, I'd say that this is an excellent piece of work with a very interesting premise. I happily look forward to the next chapter. =)

[Mumbling2]

Quad, quad, quad, quad... Luckily that was an easy fix.

Thanks for the feedback Cuddles and Kenny. It helps a lot. I would have thanked you sooner, but I try to limit replies in this thread to when I actually have a chapter to update. Regardless, the comments are always appreciated.

I am a bit worried because I'm starting to realize that my ability to find grammar mistakes is poor. I think I need to find a proofreader.

Anyway, here's chapter 5, which is way, way longer than I thought it would be.

Chapter 5

Spoiler:

Clout: the level of power and influence wielded by an individual or group; a force that encompasses every institution of higher education.

While Kasper’s tale centered on his effort to prove himself as a Chimera, his struggle was not unique at DAW University. A college is nothing but a collection of young adults trying to justify their existence. Clubs, grades, honors classes…these are nothing but tools used amongst peers to silently rank one another. This constant urge to judge others gave them something to do once they realized the workload at a safety school afforded them some free time.

Similarly, a college itself will utilize all its resources to justify its existence and gain a higher rank above other colleges. In fact, it often will do the practice one better since, in the process, they will manage to pull in a hefty profit from tuition bills.

A common method for beefing up a school’s reputation is expansion. An official at DAW University looked up at the one of its many parking garages and thought, “You know what this garage needs? Grass.” It wasn’t a common idea or a sensible one. This was exactly the point. Once you spend thousands of dollars on converting the top of a parking garage to a field, you can claim it’s “The Largest Field/Garage Combo on the West Coast,” or something like that. Marketing failed to come up with a description that looked good on a brochure, making Negus Field wasted space. As many pointed out: vertical expansion has rarely gone noticed since the human species stopped living in trees.

This monument to the university’s hubris was where Kasper, Maya and Professor Cooper stood after a short march from Lo Duca quad. Cooper was not so much standing as he was reclining against a wall near the stairs that led down to the rest of the four-story garage. Kasper and Maya were standing, but staying on their feet was made more difficult due to the heavy shovels they held. Kapser had few qualms about being forced to dig a large ditch in the middle of a large, vacant field. It was what would come after their labor that worried him.

He looked over at Cooper, who was deep into his copy of Fahrenheit 451. The Kraken’s arm was back to normal, which came as a slight comfort to Kasper. A semblance of normalcy in the situation gave him enough courage to address his cousin.

“Why’s he making us dig?” Kasper whispered.

“Let’s see…” Maya said without stopping her own shovel’s movement. “Our instructions were to make a deep hole, six feet in length and three feet in width. Looks like we’re digging our own graves.”

“What!”

“Old-school, I know.” She looked at the mounds of dirt piling up behind them. Her own pile was much larger than Kasper’s. After giving him a disappointed look, she sighed and continued digging.

There was a certain amount of respect Kasper had for anyone who could stay composed in a dangerous situation. There was also something mildly infuriating about them that kept that certain amount of respect limited. He would have ran if it were not for two reasons:

1. Despite her claims being unverified, she was his cousin. Kasper did not have much of a family to which he could demonstrate his loyalty and figured he could summon the courage to stay faithful to at least one of them. Abandoning Maya to whatever Cooper was planning was not an option within his moral code.

2. He was pretty sure Maya was faster than him.

At any rate, his only discourse was to work with her to figure out how to get out of their predicament.

“How can you remain so calm?” Kasper asked glancing at Cooper to make sure he was still enthralled by the work of Ray Bradbury.

Maya stopped digging. She planted her shovel in the ground, clasped her hands on the handle and weighed her chin on top.

“For starters, I doubt he’s really going to hurt us. Mr. Professor was pretty specific about where we should dig. He’s most likely just intimidating us while getting some free labor out of the deal.”

She looked backwards and reached into the mound of dirt. When her hand emerged, in it sat a grey rock the size of her palm. She brought it up close to Kasper’s face. He flinched when she snapped her hand closed. A bone-shattering crunch was heard as the rock nearly fell apart under the pressure. The rock now had deep indents from each of Maya’s fingers.

Eyes gleaming with excitement, she motioned up to the sky. Kasper obliged and looked towards the heavens. A simple flick of Maya’s wrist was enough to send the rock reeling upwards far above their heads. It disappeared into the clouds. They waited for it to fall back down. It didn’t.

The small rock made a big impression on Kasper. He was too surprised to figure out the point of the maneuver, but wonder and awe tend to cloud a person’s mind.

“And,” Maya continued, “to dry a river, I’m much…”

“To dry a river?”

Maya paused to consider what she said. “Sorry. Foreign idiom. Funny thing, the English language.”

“Hilarious.”

“My point is that giant arms or not, I’m way stronger than this guy,” she said nodding towards Cooper. “He can’t do anything to you as long as I’m here. I humored him because I was curious what you would do in this situation.”

Kasper looked at Cooper.

“What I would do?” he asked.

“Your training starts here. Just try something. Anything is better than what you’re doing now.”

“And you’ll help me if things get dangerous?”

“Here’s the best piece of advice I can give you: trust me.”

Kasper realized his hands were shaking. He relaxed them and carefully placed his shovel on the ground. Softly, his right foot took a step forward. And then a second… The professor heard nothing and continued reading. At this rate…

A shadow briefly passed over Kasper and Maya’s heads. A body fell in front of Kasper, its knees bent and braced against the impact of the ground. Its back was turned to them and as it stood up straight, both the Chimeras realized it was a girl. At least the long, red hair gave that impression.

Cooper jumped in surprise and dropped his book when he heard Robin land. Acting upon instinct, two giant arms suddenly replaced his normal limbs. They plummeted to the ground. Kasper stopped moving as felt the dirt under his feet shake.

It was not Cooper’s large arms that surprised Kasper. He had seen those before. Even the girl’s crash landing had not thrown him off. After seeing Maya throw the rock, it was consoling to see proof that gravity was still in full effect. However, Robin was making quick strides towards the professor. It was unsettling to observe someone that lacked a healthy sense of fear. He still had no idea of what a Kraken could truly do offensively, but after looking at Robin’s shoddy T-shirt and sweatpants, Kasper believed she was underdressed for the occasion.

“Finally!” Robin yelled. She was only a few yards away from Cooper. “I should have known the Guild’s moderator would be as elusive as the rest of that sorry club!”

“Moderator?” Maya asked Kasper.

“They supervise student groups,” he replied. His response would have been more detailed, but he was watching nervously for Robin to get crushed by a giant arm.

Surprisingly, Cooper was not making an attempt to move. Actually, he was starting to look very Kraken-like. In other words, a shade of terror was sweeping over his face.

“Stay away!” Cooper yelled.

“Your club owes me money,” Robin said, still approaching.

Cooper’s arms bulged as he began to tense.

“I’m fully capable of tearing you apart!”

This…this was tiring. Robin was not angry. Just disappointed. She felt like she had performed a good night’s work for the guild. She went through the proper channels to receive her payment. She even made sure to confront Cooper during what were technically his office hours. And yet, no one was interested in helping her. Not only that, but being threatened was uncalled for. Plus, she knew it was an empty threat, which was just insulting.

Robin stopped couple of feet away from Cooper and glanced at his arms as if noticing them for the first time.

“Another subspecies?” she asked. Kasper, Maya and Cooper each choked back a gasp upon hearing her comment. “Good. There’s no reason to hide things then.”

Kasper noticed the back of Robin’s shirt lift up slightly. It revealed a small slit at the top of her sweats, near her tailbone. Well, she should have had just a tailbone there.

A brownish-red object whipped out from the slit and wrapped around Cooper’s left wrist. It lifted the arm off the ground and the professor thrashed wildly in an effort to get free.

Kasper could tell what it was: a tail. About three feet in length, it was…actually, it was one of the more normal things he had seen all day and it provided a decent distraction. A retreat seemed appropriate, but a strange sensation came over him. He began to move forward, curious to inspect the tail further. It was not just because it was attached to a human girl. There was something else about it that fascinated him.

An arm clamped down on Kasper’s shoulder. Maya let out a growl as she held him in place.

“Don’t even think of moving,” she said. Her tone was curiously appropriate for the situation. This was worrisome.

“Why?” Kasper asked while simultaneously realizing several perfectly good answers to his question.

“Because that’s a Dragon. I don’t know what she wants, but I don’t want to risk a confrontation.”

“You don’t seem as cheery as when the Kraken showed up.”

Maya gripped Kasper tighter.

Back near the wall, Cooper was still struggling.

“Please,” Robin pleaded. “I really need that money.”

Her captive’s flailing continued. In a panic, he head-butted Robin. The strike barely hurt, but it caused her to reflexively constrict her tail around his wrist harder. A rock-shattering crunch sounded out.

“Crap!”

Whatever solidarity was to be had from four subspecies shouting the same word at once was lost among Cooper’s screams.

Robin unwound her tail from his wrist and backed away.

“Sorry! Sorry! I just meant… Your head just…” She looked towards the Chimeras. Kasper shook his head and shrugged. If Robin had been observant, she would have realized Maya’s look was a scowl. Instead, she read it as an expression of encouragement. Robin was apt to think well of people and even more likely to believe people thought well of her.

She swung around towards Cooper.

“I can fix this!” she exclaimed. Cooper had already shrunk his limbs down to normal size. He ran down the stairs clutching his left wrist.
Robin turned back to Kasper and Maya, her tail hovering a foot above the ground.

“Well, I could have,” she said walking towards the holes they dug.

Kasper prepared to say something, but his cousin began to pull him back. He watched the tail with interest as Robin jumped in the hole Maya had created and scooped through the dirt furiously. After a few seconds she tugged on a thin, black tube. There was a snap as she broke it and examined its interior.

“An audio cable,” she said. “A cheap one.”

Maya tensed as Robin jumped out of the hole and made a perfect landing in front of them. Kasper realized just how high of a leap this girl could execute.

“I was hoping he was having you guys bury my money,” Robin said.

Kasper was really hoping his cousin would crack a joke to lighten the mood. Really just for old time’s sake since their meeting at the office already seemed ages ago. He sensed a sudden role reversal and decided not to fight it.

“But that would have been kind of old-school, huh?” Kasper asked.

“Exactly!” Robin exclaimed with a smile. Her tail made an excited flick upwards.

“I’ll ask the questions,” Maya said, clutching Kasper with greater force. “And I’ll do it with my own words.”

Fearing that the next sound heard would be a Kasper-shattering crunch, he obliged.

“You know we’re Chimeras, right?” Maya asked.

“I do now,” Robin said with a wink. “I figured you must be some subspecies, if that Kraken was willing to show off his big arms in front of you.”

“But you understand we’re Chimeras?”

“Yes.”

“And that doesn’t bother you?”

“No.”

Maya’s demeanor suggested she did not believe their new Dragon acquaintance. She decided to reserve that line of questioning for later.
“You mentioned something called a guild. What is that?”

“A particularly annoying student group that owes me money.”

Maya let go of Kasper and furrowed her brow. “This isn’t good. That Kraken said someone tipped him off about us. Could it have been someone in that student group?”

“I don’t know,” Robin said. “I just want my paycheck.”

“But only subspecies are supposed to know about other subspecies. If I’ve already blown our cover, we’re in trouble.”

Maya held out her hand. She lightly elbowed Kasper and he did the same.

“I’m Maya. This is Kasper. I’m his superior.”

“She’s my cousin,” Kasper said.

“Quiet.”

Robin shook both their hands.

“Robin,” she said, smiling “I’m happy to have an opportunity to meet Chimeras.”

Maya nodded and walked towards the stairs.

“Come with me, Robin. I need you to tell me everything you know about this group.”

“Absolutely,” Robin said and fell in line behind Maya.

Kasper stood in place, dumbfounded. A thought occurred to him.

“Wait, Robin!” he called out. The two girls turned. “Why weren’t you afraid to confront that guy with the huge arms? You could have been killed.”

Kasper was starting to suspect that when two subspecies came together, they only did so to laugh at him. They vocally expressed their amusement at his question.

Maya answered for Robin.

“It’s one thing for a group to be born with a unique ability. It’s an entirely different matter for that ability to actually be useful.”

“Come again?” Kasper asked.

“Again from what?”

“Right, idioms…”

“Oh, I understand. I meant that Krakens arms are too heavy to even move. Most subspecies have useless abilities. Of course, there’s a way to fix that… Anyway, you’ll learn all about it eventually.”

“Define ‘eventually’”

Maya fished in her pocket and produced the small notebook she had been reading from earlier. She tossed it at Kasper’s feet.

“Now,” she said. “Read through it.”

“We’ve been though this…” Kasper said.

“Then watch a few telenovas beforehand. I’ll get you an English copy soon.”

“Shall I reserve it at the student bookstore?”

“You're getting a little too comfortable.”

---------

Later that night, Professor Cooper kneeled down in pain inside a small and barren room. It was dark. The only light came from a computer screen on the desk in front of him.

The monitor obscured the face of the young man typing away at it. The glare from his glasses hid his eyes. Even without seeing his expression, Cooper knew he was angry.

“Quit whining, Cooper,” the young man said. The rapid clicking of the keyboard never ceased. “Why should I go after whoever broke your wrist? I told you to help fix our surveillance equipment. I’m not doing anything after you botched the job. What were you doing with some random students anyway?”

Cooper looked down. “I’m not allowed to say.”

The young man stopped typing. He pulled open a draw on his desk and produced a small, shiny object. The light of the computer prevented any definite identification of what it was, but Cooper had an idea and quickly rose to his feet.

“Never mind then,” he said backing away. “I’ll just wait for the Guild president to come back.”

“You know Professor Cooper, I think you’re forgetting what it means to be the moderator of this guild. I know on the school debate team or glee club, being moderator would actually mean something. Here, however, you’re a figurehead; someone we need for the sole purpose of keeping in line with university rules. But time and time again you keep spreading your wings as if you have a greater purpose.”

The young man grinned. There was no point in severely punishing Cooper. A little discipline however… He tossed the object in his hand.

“I think, professor, you’re getting a little too comfortable here.”

A small explosion was heard in the night. Luckily for Cooper, it was not of the Kraken-shattering variety.

Still hurt like hell though.

[ChesCa]

One big technical issue is that you jump POVs from time-to-time, first Kasper then Robin then back to Kasper. It's a little sloppy.

You're technique overall is improving though and the introduction of the Dragon species as well as hints at 'useless' abilities and a human knowing about non-human beings does make me want to read more.

[Mumbling2]

No one's more surprised that I started writing again than me.

Chapter 6

Spoiler:

“It’s been a while…but I’m back!”

Kasper looked up at his cousin. Normally he stood a few inches above Maya, but his current position of hiding behind a set of bushes like a child playing hide and seek afforded him little height. This annoyed him.

“Yeah, it has been a while. What happened to you? The mailroom can’t be more than a ten minute walk away.”

“A very nice guy stopped me on my way back and asked me to lunch.”

Kasper’s stomach growled.

“And what was this gentleman’s name?”

“Dunno,” Maya replied, tossing the small parcel she was carrying over to Kasper. Crouching was not the best position for catching a flying object, so he received a smack to the head instead.

Kasper grumbled and left it lying on the ground.

“You know you want it.”

Silence.

“The fifteen phone calls you made to me in the last three days asking if the package arrived yet say otherwise.”

Without looking, Kasper grabbed the package. He slowly tore off the brown paper, but not slow enough to hide his excitement. He flipped the box upside down and its sole content fell out on the ground: a small, black portfolio binder with “CHIMERA” printed on the front in large, red letters.

“I could have sprung for better binding, but I felt this gave it more character,” Maya said.

Whether the binder’s appearance was a result of practicality, aesthetics or frugality meant little to Kasper. It was lying in front of him, filled with secrets of his abilities. He snatched it up and flipped to the first page.

“Whoa!” Maya yelled. She pushed Kasper down and his body flopped facedown into the dirt.

“Mmmrghfgh!” Kasper shouted back.

“I’m aware, but if you’re going to open up classified information for the whole world to see, at least hide yourself better.”

Kasper lifted his head up. “Because hiding conspicuously in some bushes right outside a school entrance was a great idea in the first place, right?”

He had a point. Not only were they perched in front of the school, they were just across the street from a very dangerous place: the Guild’s headquarters.

It was a six-story complex that clearly used to house that formerly housed a fraternity. Rumors floated around DAW University about the story behind the frat’s eviction, but it was hard to verify. Everyone who had been personally involved was sworn to secrecy, either by the Guild or by their psychologist who reluctantly agreed that some memories were best kept repressed.

Other than its height, nothing was very amazing about the building’s exterior It was fairly old and wooden. Occasionally a member would enter or exit through the front door. It made surveillance very boring.

Still, Maya had a hunch that someone in the Guild had been informed of her and Kasper’s identities. She needed to find a way to sneak into the building and find out who was on to them.

As part of her assignment, she had enrolled in the university and had signed up for class after class. Her goal of investigating the Guild complemented her desire to procrastinate on all the homework she now had to finish.

A car approached the driveway that made up one of the university’s many entrances. Maya pushed Kasper back down. He was ready and stopped his face inches from the ground.

“Besides,” Kasper continued, “if it’s so secret, why is she here?” He motioned over his shoulder.

“Yo,” Robin said and gave a small wave without looking away from the Guild’s property. She was perched next to Kasper and, unlike him, had no trouble staying steady in her crouch and comfortably hidden.

“Don’t ask me,” said Maya. “I didn’t invite her.”

Despite obtaining a good deal of information from Robin about the Guild, Maya still could not bring herself to trust the Dragon. It was against her nature and the situation complicated matters.

Robin remained perfectly still, except for her tail, which was twitching on the ground. Its constant distraction was the only thing that pacified Kasper’s boredom while he had been waiting for Maya. As a matter of fact, he could not help but to constantly stare at it. His inability to ignore it was unsettling to him.

“Put that thing back in your pants!” Maya hissed.

Robin’s concentration broke. She smiled nervously while grabbing her tail and stuffing it back in her sweats.

“Come on! Kasper, you nonchalantly opened that notebook and she constantly has that tail hanging out, which may as well be the least of our problems since she’s a Dragon! Am I the only one taking everything seriously?”

“What exactly is your problem with Dragons anyway?” Kasper asked as he glanced at Robin. “Of the three subspecies I’ve met, she’s the only one who hasn’t injured me.”

“You consider a few empty threats and getting pushed in the dirt injuries?”

Kasper reflected on this and it bugged him that Maya was right. He had gotten through her antics unscathed. Common sense dictated that he should stay as far away from his cousin, but in practice… In any case, the underground world of subspecies had interested him and he had not been excited about anything since the time he discovered cable TV.

“Fine,” Kasper said, “but that doesn’t change the fact your Dragon friend hasn’t done anything.”

Robin chimed in. “I have a name, Kasper.”

“What’s Robin's ability?” he asked.

“I thought you wanted to know about Chimeras,” Maya said.

“Wouldn’t want to reveal top secret information to all these prying eyes,” he said, gesturing to the bushes past Robin which were clearly empty.

Maya groaned.

“Fine. Move Over.” She shoved Kasper to the side as she crouched behind the bushes herself.

A passing driver caught sight of the three subspecies stumbling around in the bushes and shook his head. Kasper caught sight of this and wanted to offer an explanation that things were not what they appeared. He hated feeling embarrassed.

Maya interrupted his thoughts. “I can summarize a Dragon’s ability in one word.”

“This will be amusing,” said Robin.

Maya glared at her, but continued. “Superhuman.”

Kasper looked unimpressed. “And that doesn’t describe us?” he asked. “Or is there a level of expectation that you haven’t beaten into me yet?”

“Trust me, with your coy attitude the beatings will come soon enough. However, the ability to change bodies is a bit more extreme relative to normal human capabilities. Do you remember how Miss Dragon leapt over our heads and easily crushed that professor’s arm?”

“That was an accident…” Robin said with a grimace.

“Simply put, a Dragon’s strength and physical abilities are both top notch. If they’re decently trained, they could surpass an Olympic athlete in any field by a factor of ten, no, twenty!” Maya looked at Robin. “Back me up here, will you?”

Robin furrowed her brow and concentrated. “Well, my parents said I could walk once I was five weeks old,” she finally said. “That was pretty cool.”

Maya sighed. “A little understated, but it illustrates the point.”

Robin playfully scoffed and showed a slight grin. “An abridged point.”

The two women shared a look. It lasted a brief moment, but Kasper caught it. He realized that neither of them was who they appeared. Robin was not as laid-back as she let on. Maya wasn’t… actually Maya was fairly consistent in straddling the line between trustworthy and dishonest. If she was pretending to commit to either side of the spectrum, she was doing a poor job.

So in the brief moment that encompassed Maya and Robin’s staring contest, Kasper decided his goal, in addition to learning more about Chimeras, was figuring out why Dragons were so dangerous. He forgot that being a teacher sometimes meant withholding facts from students under misguided pretenses. Being open was far too easy and logical.

At the very least it was Saturday and Kasper didn’t feel like dying on a weekend because he was misinformed about Dragons or any other subspecies. Once Monday rolled around, he’d reevaluate his decision to become more proactive.

“So Dragons equal danger,” said Kasper. “Got it.”

The contentious atmosphere passed all to soon and the two women settled down, disappointed.

“Now let’s talk about us, Maya,” he continued. “And hurry because I’m starting to cramp back here.”

Robin graciously hopped away from Kasper and gave him an opportunity to shift his weight and stretch his legs out.

“So I clearly know what Chimeras do, but I don’t know how.”

“Simple,” Maya began. “If you---“

“Hey!” Robin interrupted. “Fair is fair. I get to explain this time.”

“Yes, I suppose ‘fair’ is ‘fair’, on account of both words being the same. I’m not entirely sure what that means or why---"

“So you have ten fingers, right Kasper? Well, eight fingers and two thumbs…” Robin continued. He nodded. “Great, so to copy a person’s body all you need to do is touch them with your finger or thumb.”

“And that’s it?” Kasper asked.

Robin thought for a second. “Actually, if I remember correctly…Yes! There are definitely two conditions involved. First, you have to lick the finger you want to use to copy the person.

Kasper cringed at the thought, but then remembered that he had seen Maya doing the exact same thing when he saw her transform.

“Second, the person you are copying must be knocked-out, asleep or otherwise unconscious. Then, all you have to do is lick the same finger, touch it to your forehead and ta-da! You will be able to transform into that person and you’ll have access to all their physical abilities!”

“You know a lot about Chimeras, Robin,” Kasper said. She looked away and gave out a nervous laugh.

“Oh well, you know…never know what Chimeras you might meet, hehe…!”

Of course, if his cousin’s story was to be believed, Kasper knew that the odds of anyone meeting a Chimera were close to nil, but he let it go. Any further inquiries would cause Robin to act even odder and he was reaching his limits for the day.

“Hold on!” Maya yelled as she rose to her feet. This act made her fully visible if anyone had been looking. There was: a single Guild member was opening the door to their headquarters when he heard Maya’s shout from across the street. The two locked eyes with each other. Kasper heard a groan escape from Maya as the Guild member quietly slipped into the house. Robin snorted.

“Anyway…” Maya said, trying to mask her mistake, “she forgot to mention one of the most important things, Kasper. Once you assign a transformation to a finger, it’s permanent."

“So that means I can’t have more than ten transformations ever?” Kasper asked, trying to keep an eye on the Guild’s front door. He was certain they were going to end up paying for Maya’s mistake.

Maya held up both of her hands and fanned out her fingers. “Never have I ever heard of any Chimera acquiring more than ten transformations.”

Robin let out an even louder snort. Even Kasper had to struggle to keep from laughing.

Maya raised an eyebrow. “What’s so funny?” Kasper tried to explain.
“You see, there’s this game where people raise their hands and then they think of…err, well, forget it.”

Maya rolled her eyes. “There’s one last thing you should know.”

Kasper held up his Chimera binder and looked at her in disbelief.

“I mean for the time being,” she continued. “Trust me, there’s plenty of things in there that we’ll go over later. However, there’s something you should know now about other subspecies. Normally, you’d be able to use another subspecies’ ability when you copy them.”

“So if I tried to copy Professor Cooper’s body, I’d be able to make my arms gigantic?” Kasper asked.

“Yes, but that’s only because he’s a standard transformation and that’s not always the case. If you look at, say, a Dragon, then that’s an example of a incompatible transformation, a subspecies that we can’t transform into.”

“Not that a Chimera could catch us off our guard,” Robin said with a wink.

Maya ignored her. “And finally, there are chronic transformations, subspecies that will affect our bodies even if we’re not transformed. You have to be especially careful when copying those.”

Kasper held up three fingers. “So there’s chronic, standard and…wait, but what’s the point of any of that?”

“Excuse me?”

“You said the other day several subspecies have useless abilities. Remember how Professor Cooper couldn’t even lift his arms?”

“True. Most subspecies abilities are useless or have huge downsides. But that’s not an issue for us.”

“How so?”

“No matter how strange they get, all subspecies are still human. As such, there’s a high chance any weird mutation will do more harm than good. Krakens developed the ability to grow their limbs, but they can’t grow their muscle mass to the point where they can make use of their arms.”

“But you two won big in the genetic lottery,” Robin said.

“Right,” said Maya. “Not only can we use our ability effectively, but it makes our cells very volatile and adaptable. If you were to copy Cooper’s body, you’d be able to control his arms only after a few weeks of training. In other words, not only can we take on a subspecies’ body and ability, but we can make them better.”

She went on with further details, but Kasper wasn’t listening. Not that the multiple revelations that transpired behind the bush weren’t doing anything for him. On the contrary, they were filling Kasper with grand ideas, excitement and even a small amount of self-esteem.

However, it was this swelling of optimism that was the problem. After a year in college, Kasper had become privy to the fact that most other students had the single-minded goal of keeping up appearances. Whether it was a matter of exceling in looks, academics or charisma, they had long since forgotten about the genetic lottery and were aiming to win at the game of life. He had sworn to never get caught up in all that and lay low. This philosophy was ingrained deep within his upbringing. It kept him out of trouble and from becoming the kind of person he hated.

But the promise of excitement was…promising? Exciting? No. Different. And frankly, despite meeting two people who he figured would implode due to their self-generated chaos, Kasper was beginning to suspect stability was overrated. Any species with poor genetics would argue otherwise, but it’s easy to ignore critics when most of them died in a previous geological era.

“…And that’s why I charge a premium for my audio-related services,” finished Robin. Kasper had no idea how she had taken over the conversation or what had caused the conversation to segue into the current topic.

“Enough,” said Maya. “Kasper and I don’t need your help. Thank you for telling me about the Guild, but nothing is worth the irritation I feel right now.”

“You know we have a pharmacy on campus for stuff like that.”

“Go home!”

Kasper was starting to feel a little agitated too. He hated listening to other people argue about anything other than himself. If he were involved, then at least there was enough stake in the conversation to hold his interest. It was the same reason why he only liked to watch sports if he could bet money on the results. Of course, betting made him rather anxious, to the point where he would pay out his bet long before any game concluded just so he wouldn’t have to think about a potential loss.

So in addition to injecting some excitement in his life and finding out what Maya was hiding from him, Kasper had a third goal: making the two people next to him shut-up. The method of achieving all three of these was so obvious he was a little underwhelmed when the idea came to mind.

He looked across the street towards the Guild. The outlandish stories about their misdeeds had to be exaggerated. At least that’s what he assumed. However, if, there was even a little truth to the tales, the Guild might just be what he needed.

“I’m not leaving until I get paid,” said Robin.

“If you go right now, I’ll pay you,” said Maya.

“I want their money, not yours.”

Maya rose to her feet, not caring who saw her. Robin did the same out of pure reflex. The two slowly backed away from each other without putting too much distance between them.

“If I have to force you out of here then I have no qualms about doing so, Dragon.”

“A fight?”

“Well considering my strength and Chimera abilities, it would barely qualify.”

“After that glowing overview you gave on Dragons, I’m surprised you’re underestimating me. But, ok…” Robin put up her fists. “Rock my world.”

Maya cracked her knuckles and fixed her gaze on her opponent. “No problem. As soon as Kasper tells me what that figure of speech means, I’ll do just that.”

There was a pause.

“Explanation please, Kasper,” said Maya. “I can’t be the teacher all the time.”

The pause came back in full force.

“Hey Dragon, you won’t sucker punch me if I turn around for a second and give my cousin a disappointed look, will you?”

Robin lowered her fists a little. “If you can’t trust me as a friend, you might as well trust me as an enemy.”

Maya shrugged. It sounded logical to her. She turned around. Kasper was gone. She looked back at Robin.

“You didn’t see him leave?” Maya asked.

“No, I was focused on our argument. I was quite focused since the topic pertained directly to me.”

“Of course.” This made sense to Maya as well.

She started looking around to find out where Kasper had gone. Robin followed suit. Almost simultaneously, their eyes shot across the street towards the Guild’s housing. And there he was.

From across the street, they could see Kasper gingerly trying the knob to the front door. It opened. Not a single beam of light could be seen in the house, but in a surprisingly impulsive move, he stepped into the darkness and closed the door behind him.

No sound could be heard inside. All seemed quiet and normal. The silence was only broken by Maya’s delight.

“Ha!” she said. “You see what a good teacher I am? My student went from not wanting anything to do with me to confronting our situation head-on!”

“Without telling you,” said Robin.

“It’s all part of the curriculum!”

“You know, I enjoy running into danger as much as the next subspecies, but this is Kasper we’re talking about.”

“And?”

“Considering he hasn’t taken either of us seriously these past few days, I doubt he believes he’s actually in any danger.”

Maya gave Robin a sideways glance.

“Is he in danger?”

Robin returned the look.

Five seconds later they were at the Guild’s front door. As Kasper had shown, there was no trick to entering. Maya grabbed the unlocked door and pushed it open. She could see nothing. The blinds were drawn and the only illumination came from their side of the doorway.

Robin was about to step past the threshold, but Maya held her arm out and blocked her. She pointed to the floor.

“Look.”

A few feet inside, they could faintly see a square opening in the floor. The hinges on one side made it clear that it was a trap door.
Robin cleared her throat.

“So upon completion of your curriculum, do you give your students a diploma or just a death certificate?”

She expected to get a rise out of Kasper’s teacher, but the Chimera instead turned to her and grinned.

“You know quite a bit about Chimeras,” said Maya. “So don’t get cocky and underestimate me.” She walked to the edge of the trap and stared down into it. “Kasper doesn’t think much of me either. He probably thinks I’m here to help him avoid any problems that could arise for a Chimera.”

Robin cocked her head. “And you’re not?”

“It’s never been my strong suit. However, I didn’t rise through the ranks by preventing problems.”

“No?”

“Nope. My specialty is fixing problems.”

Almost casually, Maya jumped feet first into the trap door and disappeared.

Not to be outdone, Robin leapt from a standing position at the entrance and cleared enough distance to dive headfirst into the opening. There was no one to see her perform this feat and walking up to the door would have only taken a second longer. However, she knew from personal experience that the harder one works for a paycheck, the greater satisfaction it brings.

Following two Chimera around was more dangerous than jumping into the unknown anyway. And danger means little when you’re tailing someone who specializes in cleaning up a mess.

[Mumbling2]

I'm slowly decreasing the gap between chapter releases. Chapter 8 might even be out before 2013.

Yeah right...

Chapter 7

Spoiler:

You can spend every day of your life feeding the homeless, teaching children or planting trees and still be kind of an ass. The Guild owed their existence to this fact. Long ago, their organization was once dedicated to volunteering and performing acts of generosity around Los Angeles. They were a charity club of sorts.

Only its highest-ranking members know how exactly they went from becoming a charitable bunch to harbingers of doom. To everyone else, the details are sketchy. The founders have long since left DAW University. Even the professors with the lengthiest of tenures regard the transition as a mystery. However, from the depths of the unknown came a rumor. It is said that within the Guild’s cauldron of greed and conceit a tiny drop of empathy remains from their original form.

This is why Kasper landed on a thick pile of mattresses instead of cracking his skull on the Guild’s basement floor.

“My spleen!” he cried out as his butt hit the padding. The Guild had skimped on more quality mattresses.

He looked around into the black emptiness. The basement was even darker than the first floor. A small window in the upper right corner of room allowed some light. It was of little help.

Before he could become too displeased with his situation, Kasper heard a crash at his left side. He jumped away and was almost hit by another unseen object ricocheting against the wall behind him. It slammed into a few more walls before crashing right in front of him. Staying still seemed to be the safest strategy for him.

“Are you alright, Kasper?” Maya’s voice rang in the darkness.

“I haven’t been alright in a week,” he answered.

“You guys, did you see how I landed?” Robin asked. “First I bounded off the wall behind the mattresses, then twisted my spine so that…”

“How am I supposed to see that?” Kasper asked. “It’s dark.”

“Oh right, you can’t see in the dark. That makes me sad.”

“I’m sure it was mediocre,” said Maya.

“Never mind that,” Kasper said. “Don’t you have some sort of transformation that can create some light, Maya?”

“Maybe… I’m not really in the mood though.”

“What kind of excuse is that?”

Kasper couldn’t see, but he could her Maya shrug dismissively.

“Dragon, make yourself useful and find a light switch,” said Maya.

Robin scanned the wooden walls of the room until she saw a switch across from where she stood. She walked over and gave it a flick.

A single, dim light bulb flickered and appeared above them. A single red wire connected it to the ceiling. It was the kind of ornament that suggested the room was for use only by people for which the host held a sort of hateful indifference.

However, the fourteen bodies lying on the floor were much more unnerving.

Kasper stiffened, unsure of what to make of the scene.

“Huh, I never thought being trapped in a box and starved was the way I’d go out,” said Maya.

“That’s not funny,” Kasper said. He looked across the room and saw a few stairs leading to a door and, surprisingly, an elevator. No doubt, both were probably locked, but it gave Kasper hope that the basement was deliberately built to have exits.

“They’re not dead,” Robin said. “Otherwise it would smell really bad here.”

A groan emerged from one of the bodies. All three of their head turned as a young man began to slowly rise up. He looked at them, his eyes fluttering and straining against the light.

“We would appreciate you guys keeping the noise level down,” he said sleepily.

There was a murmur of agreement as everyone who had been lying on the floor stood up, yawning and stretching their arms. Some stared at the subspecies trio with half-opened eyes. Others scoured the room, hoping that one of their companions had abandoned a more comfortable spot on the floor. They were currently at a point in their existence where an afternoon nap was more important than questioning unknown students falling through the ceiling. Even in the depths of a dreary, unfurnished basement, a small slice of heaven could be obtained via a comfortable spot on the bare floorboards.

Kasper seized the opportunity to take control of the situation before Maya ruined it with her unique brand of introductions. He stepped in front of her and spoke.

“Who are all of you?”

The individual who had first awoken scratched his light brown hair and straightened up. His body was quite tall and lean. He had no trouble looking down at Kasper.

“New recruits of the Guild. I’m Stephen as you can see,” he said, pointing at the paper nametag stickered to his red shirt. “We’re stuck here, so everyone figured we might as take a nap before our abuse resumes.”

Kasper’s eyebrows rose at the mention of their status as Guild members. None of the sleeping members fit the crude rumors that normally applied to the Guild. Sure, some of the them looked to be wandering in an endless haze with faces that expressed a contempt for anything living and healthy, but most college students referred to that as “Tuesday.”

What surprised Kasper most was that there were quite a few women in the room. He did not doubt a woman could participate in the campus’ most powerful organization. However, it was curious that amongst all the Guild’s faults, misogyny was not one of them. It made little sense.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kasper saw one of the male members motioning to a female comrade who had been sleeping a few feet away. Kasper’s initial reaction was to become guarded, remembering he had gotten himself mixed up with the Guild. Then he realized the guy was merely making a lewd gesture that was normally reserved for close romantic partners and chimney sweeps. The woman turned away in disgust.

Now it made sense.

“You’re trapped down here too?” Kasper asked, trying to ignore what he just saw.

“We’re going through our ‘rush’ process,” said Stephen. “Lots of hazing to prove we’re worthy of becoming full-fledged members.”

“So what? Are you asking us to perform fisticuffs on someone to liberate you guys?” Maya asked.

“Why is fighting always your solution to everything?” Kasper hissed over his shoulder.

Robin stepped forward. “Isn’t rushing something for fraternities and sororities?” she asked. “I’ve never been to familiar with the Greek system, but that’s what I’ve heard.”

“The Guild doesn’t hesitate to adopt methods it finds useful,” said Stephen. “Our captor is fairly skilled at thinking of elaborate, but surprising legal, torture methods.”

“Such as…?” Kasper asked.

“You know how cooking a full course Thanksgiving meal can lead to permanent injuries?”

“No.”
“Yeah, I used to think that too.”

Kasper thought for a moment. “Wait, how…”

“Seriously, how in the world did they booby-trap salad tongs? Salad tongs!”

The other members shared the memory and cringed. Kasper heard Maya chuckle behind him. He feared she was making a mental note to herself. Shifting the topic seemed to be the best course of action.

“If everyone here is so miserable, why did you willing come to this basement?” asked Kasper. “Why even apply to be in the Guild at all?”

Stephen lifted up his gym shorts slightly exposing most of his left thigh. Although Kasper very rarely considered thighs to be a defining feature, he noticed this thigh was very trim and muscular.

“You see my leg?” Stephen asked.

“I’d really rather not go down this path,” Kasper said.

“I would,” said Robin, eyeballing the muscles.

Stephen rolled his shorts back down.

“I’m part of the track team,” he said. “I don’t want to sound vain, but I’m pretty darn good at the sport. I’m the best this school’s had in a long time.”

He motioned to a girl at his right.

“Jane here is the news editor of the campus paper. Next year it’s likely she’ll become editor-in-chief and have her hand in everything they publish. Do you see where I’m going with this?”

Kasper thought about it. He paused a little longer than Maya’s patience could handle.

“You know, Kasper,” she said. “You were so adamant about tackling this organization headfirst, I thought you’d have a better understanding of the minds we’re dealing with.”

Before he had walked through their front door, Kasper thought he had a vague understanding of the Guild. He believed they were harmless, if not a little eccentric; their absurd reputation had to be fabricated. But now the possibilities were looking a little more numerous.

Everyone in the room got tired waiting for Kasper to conjure a guess.

“The guild’s only interested in recruiting members with power or influence,” Stephen said. “It’s one of the ways it manages to survive year after year. They’re also strong enough to force membership upon anyone that catches their interest. If they ever followed through on even half of the threats they made toward me…”

Robin gritted her teeth. “I’m starting to like this group even less,” she said.

“Clearly, they’re afraid to fight back,” Maya said. “Well, I’m sure this group will survive their plight somehow.” She looked at Stephen. “So who’s in charge here? We have business with your superiors.”

“The majority of the Guild officers are gone,” said Stephen. “They’re off on a retreat somewhere in the mountains.”

“A retreat?” Kasper asked.

“Apparently, even members of the Guild need personal bonding time. Though considering their lust for power, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of usurping goes on there. The only ones left are our treasurer, Crow, and our secretary, Aaron.”

Kasper cocked his head. “His name is Crow?”

“Yes, and he’s one of the worst. Aaron’s a fairly reasonable guy, but Crow is ruthless. He’s a biological chemistry major and mainly absorbed in his academics. However, I heard that when he’s bored, he subjects lesser members to all kinds of experiments. The only things he cares about are his major and money. He considers everything else trash. Or so they say.”

Robin interrupted. “Money, huh? Perfect. I’ve got a few choice words to communicate once we find him. Is he in this building?”

“Top floor,” said Stephen. “No way to get up there though. The elevator is turned off and the door to the stairway is locked.”

Robin looked up at the small window that connected the basement to ground level. She pointed at it and Stephen shook his head.

“I thought of that too, but Crow warned us he’d have a way of stopping anyone who tried that.”

“I see the hot shot track star has already been neutered,” Maya whispered to her cousin.

Kasper was not fond of someone as literal-minded as Maya using the word “neutered" and felt it was best not to ask and confirm just how far line of thinking extended. Plus, he was pretty certain she was trying to exert that same amount of dominance over him.

“I wonder…” Robin said as she meandered toward the window.

A sharp crackle emerged behind the wall, next to the elevator. Everyone turned to the noise as a stream of static began to dissipate.

“Damn right I can stop all of you from using an escape route as pedestrian as a window!” yelled the voice of a young man.

“What a lousy PA system,” said Robin.

“Crow!” said Stephen in shock.

“Thank you for explaining my ruthless nature Stephen. You know I hate to be misrepresented.”

Kasper saw Stephen’s thigh muscles tighten and clench. It was unlikely that the track star was just performing leg exercises.

“But all of you will soon be members of this wonderful organization,” continued Crow’s voice. “I suppose I should show a little mercy… I’ve got it! If all my future subordinates down there lend Stephen a hand in ‘subduing’ the intruders, I’ll forget you ever entertained the thought of fleeing. And I’ll even assign an easier rushing assignment this evening. Sound fair?”

Several eyes locked on Kasper, Maya and Robin simultaneously.

“His method was to use fear to pit everyone against the potential escapee,” observed Maya. “I admire simple and effective solutions.”

“Not a great time to compliment the opposition,” Kasper said as he started to shy away from the Guild recruits. They remained silent, but began closing the gap between them and Kasper. The thought of cooking another meal weighed heavily on their minds.

“Do your best,” said Crow. There was a click as the hidden speaker shut off.

Robin adopted a fighting stance. Maya, however, elected to let out a loud yawn instead.

“Dragon, find the light switch again,” she said. “I’d hate to have to look at my student get torn to shreds.”

“In films, the horror of violence is conveyed through both the visuals and the audio,” Robin said.

“Just do it.”

The Guild recruits rushed towards Kasper. He fell back and as he hit the floor, he saw Robin dart for the switch. A familiar darkness fell upon him.

[Mumbling2]

...marries the kind of humor you'd expect for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to shonen adventures.

Would you believe that my original draft had several times more shonen in it? I think by this point I had at least three fight sequences.

But thanks for the kinds words and the nomination. Here's a chapter for ya!

Chapter 8

Spoiler:

Crow was the kind of man who felt the pleasures of life were only to be divided among the worthy. He was glad to bestow these gifts upon others, but his standards were high. At the end of the day, he knew only one person who deserved a share of life’s treasures.

So, reclining on a couch, he shared a chuckle with himself. Humor was a treasure in itself and his order to the basement dwellers was sure to produce it in spades. There was something about playing the role of puppet master that brought a smile to his face.

And he would be remiss if he wasted his good mood by sharing it with his cohort Aaron. There was smugness to him that Crow could not stand. Not that he disliked a smug person. He just felt that he carried his own superiority so well, it was insulting that anyone else tried to do the same.

“I love it when new members forget their place,” said Crow to himself, though he spoke quite loudly and projected across the room exactly in Aaron’s direction.

“Hmmm…” replied Aaron.

Crow glared at Aaron who was sitting at his desk and focused on a small computer monitor. The guild’s secretary was quite tall and muscular. His blonde hair was long enough to barely cover the back of his neck. He wore a red sports jersey that further emphasized his athletic build. It was a shame he did not play sports.

Crow was the opposite. Bespectacled with short, black hair, he had very little definition in his build. Even his oversized lab coat did a poor job of hiding his scrawny body. His arms looked like sticks poking out of a toilet paper roll.

If it were not for Crow’s incredible ego, he would be tempted to consider Aaron an adequate excuse for a human being. Sadly, he did not and took great offense to his partner’s apathy.

“What do you think we should do with those three who broke in here?” Crow asked. “I mean, I have some good ideas, but if you want to give some input, I guess that would be ok.”

Aaron’s eyes maintained fixated on the monitor. Crow leapt off the couch and walked towards him.

In all fairness, the monitor was the most interesting thing for Aaron to look at in the room. The top floor of the Guild’s dwellings was large, but surprisingly bare. A computer, desk, mini-fridge and couch were the only furnishings. If the Guild had maintained their roots as a kind and peaceful group, the room could have represented a life of simplicity and asceticism. Truly, it would have been an unsuspected commentary on the hustle and bustle of everyday life and westernized values.

The real situation behind the room’s appearance was that the elevator broke the day the Guild moved into the building. After hauling four items up six flights of stairs, everyone called it a day and considered the room condemned. No one bothered to point out that the label was usually reserved for entire buildings.

Crow stopped behind Aaron. “Someone’s not in the mood to be a team player today,” he said.

Aaron sighed and looked over his shoulder. “Hey kid, did you notice how one of those girls said they have business with us?” he replied.
Crow gritted his teeth. “You know I hate it when you call me ‘kid.’ I’m not that much younger than you!”

“You’re the one always playing dress-up every time I see you. And most boys get self conscious about wearing a white dress when they get older.”

“I told you before, this is not a dress! It’s a lab coat! It’s just a little big on me that’s all.”

“A tiny kid like you should have gone a few sizes smaller.”

“Five feet, six inches is not tiny! It just takes longer for me to gain weight…”

“Kid?”

“What?”

“We should find out what that girl wanted.”

Crow threw his hands up in the air. “If we entertained every request at this school the students here would never learn their place.”

“She’s pretty serious.”

“What makes you say that?”

Aaron pointed at the monitor. It displayed a blank, black screen.

“Why is it turned off?” Crow asked. Suddenly it flicked back on.

“It wasn’t off,” Aaron said. “One of the girls turned the lights off.”

“And why is everyone except the intruders sleeping again?”

“They’re not sleeping, kid.”

Crow squinted and analyzed the motionless bodies that were splayed on the floor of the basement.

“They appear to be knocked out.”

“I knew you science majors were smart.”

***

The familiar scene of bodies lying around him replaced the familiar darkness Kasper had experienced moments earlier. Neither was very desirable.

He looked and saw Maya standing several feet away in front of the elevator door. Robin was back by the light switch she had just flicked back on.

While his comrades were relatively calm, the quick string of “thuds” unnerved Kasper as several bodies hit the floor moments before. He was not disturbed by the knowledge that Maya and Robin had been knocking people unconscious, but the rapid pace they accomplished the task.
Maya’s quiet giggling during the whole event was creepy as well.

“I thought you couldn’t see in the dark, Maya.” Robin said.

“I memorized the layout of the room,” she replied. “I know you Dragons value your physical abilities, but Chimeras always keep in mind to exercise our minds as well. Just a little tip.”

Even Robin’s normal cheerfulness and patience was beginning to wane in the face of Maya’s passive-aggressive insults.

“Well, make sure to improve your memory next time. I had to keep doubling back to hit all the people you missed.” Robin looked over at Kasper, who was still sitting on his butt. “Maybe I should be the one educating your cousin.”

Maya grumbled and turned her back to them.

“We need to find a way out of here. Come over here and look at this elevator, Dragon. Kasper, you can chat with Stephen or whatever.”
Kasper looked at the ground in front of him and saw Stephen crumpled at his feet.

“You didn’t seriously hurt these guys, did you?” he asked.

“Naw,” said Robin as she strode over to Maya and the elevator. “We just gave them a tap. They’ll be fine.”

She reached Maya and the two looked the elevator door over. Before they could do a thorough check, a soft hum began to sound behind the steel. There was a quiet “ding” and the door parted open.

The interior was average, just a gray carpet and silver, metal walls. There was nothing menacing, but nothing comforting either. If Kasper had been paying attention to the elevator, he would have been judgmental about its neutral appearance and rightfully so. However, he was not attentive at the moment. It would have mattered little since Maya put his decision-making skills on probation ever since he fell through a hole in the floor.

“Well, if that clown on the loudspeaker is on the top floor, I say the elevator is the quickest way up,” said Maya.

“Yeah…I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Robin.

“Don’t you want to get your money?”

“It looks like a trap.”

“Who would rig an elevator?”

“The same people who put a trapdoor in the middle of a room.”

Upon hearing the word “trap” Kasper looked up. He saw the twisted expression on his cousin’s face.

Maya was having trouble controlling her emotions at this point. Kasper attributed this to Robin’s presence. This was fitting considering Maya had also been losing control of whatever she had planned for Kasper since the Dragon’s introduction. Of course, that was assuming Maya’s lesson plan did not include sitting around in a dark basement smacking college students in the back of the head.

It didn’t and Maya was beginning to hate Robin as a result. And like most people, recovering her pride was more important than making good decisions.

Everything worked out in the end, which was her excuse for not apologizing for the events that transpired during the next fifteen minutes.
“Kasper, we’re taking the elevator up,” she said, glancing at her cousin.

He rose to his feet and nodded. Nothing in the basement had been a pleasant occurrence and he was eager to get out. Like Robin, he felt the presence of a working elevator was too convenient. However, pride appeared to run in the family and Kasper knew the sooner they ended their current situation, the sooner everyone would forget about his earlier faux pas.

Robin shrugged. “I’m climbing up the side of the building,” she said, motioning to the small window in the corner of the room. “It’s not big, but I should be able to fit through. I don’t think either of you would have too much trouble slipping out of it either. Maya, you probably have some transformation that allows you to climb, right?”

“I can climb as I am right now, thank you very much,” she said. “Even a normal human can climb the side of a building with a little practice.”
Robin took a brief second to forgive Maya for her arrogance. Unexpectedly, it took her an additional five seconds for the forgiveness to be fully realized since she had to make amends with Maya’s lack of common sense as well.

She left her companions to their own devices, walked to the window and made a smooth leap through it. It would have looked impressive if anyone had actually been looking.

Maya been longing for an opportunity get rid of the Dragon and turned her back to Robin long before their conversation ended.
Kasper had already become numb to the sight of amazing physical acts. He now viewed them as an omen of horrible things to come more than anything else. As such, he had little desire to see how Robin made her exit. Plus, he was smart enough to know that she and her antics would return anyway. He was drawing a blank trying to figure out how or when, but that is to be expected when someone is merely working with average intelligence.

Maya sighed contently. “See, Kasper? Isn’t it nice it’s just us family again? Two Chimeras ready to face adversity and take on the world?” She playfully slapped him on the back.

“Both of you have been pretty on par with one another when it comes to annoying me,” Kasper replied, trying to pretend that the slap did not hurt.

“By ‘both,’ I’m going to assume you mean me and my charisma because I can barely remember there was even another person here.”
Kasper walked into the steel box in front of them and turned towards Maya. “I seem to recall you being a big fan of this elevator?” He pushed a button and the doors began to close. His cousin’s quick reflexes allowed her to slip through the narrowing gap with ease.
Maya gave Kasper a dirty look. “And I seem to recall that something bad happens anytime you take action on your own.”

“I’m trying to redeem myself,” Kasper said.

He really was.

Maya pressed the button labeled “6.” The elevator hummed and rose up.

Elevators are awkward devices. They function fine, but the social situations they generate are deplorable. Any conversation taking place inside of one automatically becomes uncomfortable due to the close proximity of its inhabitants and their compulsion to face forward. Chimeras were not known for their social graces and neither Kasper nor Maya felt like breaking new ground for their subspecies.

Kasper had a lot to think about in his few seconds of quiet reflection. He thought about how after a few days he still had not gotten to experience the wonders of transformation. It caused him to question Maya’s teaching abilities. Speaking of Maya, he questioned his decision to take her claim that they were related at face value. He wondered if there was a way to prove that…

Eventually, his worrisome nature got the better of him and the word “trap” re-entered his mind. Despite the elevator’s best effort, Kasper decided to speak.

“Do you think Robin was right about this being a trap?” he asked, looking as the numbers above the elevator door counted up. The number “3” had just lit.

“Can we not remember the unpleasant people who have entered our lives?”

“It just seems too of easy.”

“We’re not breaking into a prison here, Kasper.”

“Good point. The guy on the loudspeaker seemed a little eccentric though…”

“You’ve been reading too much fiction. People don’t really set elaborate traps all around their houses. A hole in the floor is one thing, but no one is going to rig an entire elevator. These are college kids, not evil masterminds.”

The number “6” lit up.

“Trust me,” Maya continued.

“That’s what you said when we met Cooper.”

“And not a single hair on your head was harmed. Now get out of here. I’m tired of sharing such a small space with you.”

The elevator door remained shut. Kasper felt a sinking feeling in his gut. He pushed the “Open” button on the side panel. Nothing.

“Maya, what would be the easiest way to turn an elevator into a trap? Hypothetically speaking.”

“They could lock the people inside.”

“Sounds plausible.”

“They could blow it up.”

“Sounds less plausible but significantly more terrifying.”

“And if they felt liking taking a page from an action movie, they could…”

Kasper heard the sound of a latch being released. At least he thought a latch was being released. He heard a definitive “click.” It was hard for him to concentrate. Focus is difficult when one is plummeting to the ground from six stories up.

If Kasper could settle down and think, he would have spent his few precious seconds figuring out just how effective the elevator’s thin, grey carpet would be in breaking his fall. Of course, its capabilities were close to zero. Kasper’s estimate probably would have been a lot more generous and provided false comfort.

Again, average intelligence can only get you so far.

[Kitsune Inferno]

You sure do know the way to my heart

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

Aaaaaaaand Chapter 8 is a fine example of why I nominated this story.~ You'll get my review of 6 and 7 with the Monthly of course, but just know that, at least when it comes to Chapter 8, I really, really enjoyed it!

Ace work, as per usual.

[Keo2309]

Just finished reading this last night, and meant to post my review but I kind of... fell asleep... lol. Anyway, I like it. The premise is really cool, and I like the way you've already given enough details about Chimera and the like to get us hooked, but still make us wonder. I agree with Kitsune that it totally reads like a shonen series. Each chapter is like a manga chapter, so if that's what you're aiming for you're doing well. You really do have a way with making characters come alive and seem unique, something I could totally learn from as all my characters tend to seem like the same person in a way. The tone of the story is also really good. Having never read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I vaguely recall seeing the movie...) I wouldn't use that as an example for your humor, but I'd say maybe a less dark Chuck Palahniuk or perhaps Christopher Moore. It's definitely chuckle worthy at points though.

On to the criticizing.... There's still quite a few grammatical errors. Luckily, most are simple fixes that I think would require just a second eye to proof read it for you. Also, I don't mind your changes in POV like earlier commentators seem to, but the paragraphs suddenly explaining history did seem jarring. I don't know if you like the idea, but I was thinking you could introduce it as if they were all coming fro the guidebook, or some other book like it. For example segueing into it with a simple: "From the Excepts of The Chimera Guidebook, pg 12" or something. Not sure if that'd work for you or not.

With that being said, I look forward to seeing where you go with this, and how things turn out. The characters are pretty fun, and I actually feel invested in learning more about other subspecies and the world in itself. Continue with the good work man.

[ChesCa]

Aside from the omniscient narration seeming to switch POV a tad I found nothing really wrong with this chapter content wise. I love how Crow sees his partner as arrogant just for not giving a shit about him. XD

[Mumbling2]

After a quiet February, it seems things are picking up speed in this subforum. I'll try to help keep the momentum going!

Hopefully, I can do some more proofreading and editing on this chapter before the Monthly Writing Contest deadline.

Chapter 9

Spoiler:

Kasper felt all the air in his lungs get pushed out as something squeezed around his gut. He gasped for air, not having time to realize that his fall to the ground had been stopped by mere inches.

Once his struggle to breath stopped, he turned around and saw Maya with her right arm around him and her other arm grabbing a rail in the elevator. Her face showed displeasure at the situation though it took her little effort to hold Kasper up. Normally she would have been amused at the ridiculous sight of him being held up like a sack of flour. As it was, she was not in a laughing mood.

Embarrassed, Kasper struggled to his feet. He stood up with his back to Maya, but she kept her arm around him.

“You can stop doing that now,” he said.

“Not even a thank you,” she said, shaking her head.

“You should have just let me hit the ground. My spine could have been injured doing that.”

“Does your spine hurt at all?”

Kasper arched his back anyway, testing his spinal health. T o his surprise, he felt nothing.

Maya motioned to her legs. They were spread far apart with the knees bent.

“Do you see what I’m doing?” she asked.

“I don’t really want to comment.”

“Don’t be gross. It’s a technique I learned to absorb the greatest amount of impact from a fall. I know it just looks like I’m bracing myself like normal, but it’s actually an elaborate position. It allows me to brace your fall as well.”

“Why not just obtain a transformation that can be used to protect against falls?”

“There’s no point in messing wasting a transformation on something I can just train my body to do.”

There was a lesson somewhere in there, but Kasper refused to learn it. Transforming still sounded appealing to him and could not understand why Maya was so hesitant to do so.

Kasper looked at the top of the elevator. The number “2” was lit.

“They didn’t drop us to the first floor,” he commented.

“I don’t think they want us crashing down into the basement. Given how old this building is, it would probably cause too much damage.”

The elevator hummed and started to slowly rise back up. The number three lit. Four soon followed.

“You think you can survive several more drops?” Maya asked.

“No.”

The number "6" shone bright above them.

“I hope you’re wrong.”

What the elevator did next was predictable, but very effective.

***

On the top floor, Crow giggled with delight each time the elevator rose and fell. He and Aaron had switched places and he was now on the computer while his cohort lounged on the couch. With a few simple keyboard commands, the elevator would begin an automated ascent to the sixth floor and then fall, stopping right before it hit the bottom of the shaft.

“Do you have to laugh each time?” Aaron asked after the elevator finished its fourth drop.

“Don’t be a killjoy,” Crow said, looking at Aaron. “Admit it, you’ve never seen something as cool as an rigged elevator in real life.”

“I’ve seen it all, kid.”

“Unlikely. At any rate, hiring a team of engineers to set this up was one of the best financial decisions I’ve ever made.”

“I’ve seen our budget and I’m surprised you didn’t cut corners.”

Crow turned back to the computer. “Whatever. Let it be known I spared no expense.”

Crow input the keyboard command and he heard the elevator rising. After a few seconds, a loud screech was heard and Crow jumped in his seat. He looked at the elevator door and listened intently. Nothing.

“I question your hiring choices,” Aaron said.

“Shut up. You don’t think they got up to this floor, do you?”

“That would be bad since the elevator could drop at any moment and destroy the building, right?”

A cold sweat began to run down Crow’s back.

“And it would definitely kill the two people inside, making you liable,” Aaron continued. “Especially since there are a few engineers who could point the finger at you.”

Crow’s hands started to get clammy.

“I guess the only important question now is: how well would you do in prison?”

“Enough!” Crow yelled. “I’ve made an executive decision.” He jumped up and pointed a finger at Aaron. “Go in the elevator shaft and fetch the intruders.”

“Why me?”

“Because you’re the most calm one here. Your stupid comments got me too riled up and now I’m in no condition to scale an elevator shaft. Normally it wouldn’t be a problem…”

Aaron tuned out whatever lie Crow was about to tell. It was true that he still kept a calm demeanor. He had seen enough in his life that little fazed him. It also meant that there were not many situations that could entertain him. His peaceful lifestyle bred boredom. Venturing into the elevator would grant him a slight reprieve from his monotonous life. It was for that reason alone that he followed Crow’s orders for the first time ever.

Aaron slowly pulled himself off the couch and walked towards the elevator.

He stood in front of it and stuck his right hand between the sliding doors.

“Make sure you knock them out before bringing them in here,” Crow said.

“Why would I attack them and then save them?”

“I don’t want them to hit me once they’re up here and recognize my voice.”

Aaron had also heard enough in his lifetime to make a man wish he did not have ears. He muttered something rather vulgar, yet creative, and forced the elevator open.

***

Maya looked up at the ceiling, towards where the screeching sound had come from. Her arm was still wrapped around Kasper who was slumped over.

“What do you think that was?” she asked.

“Maya, I’m so nauseous right now, I don’t care.”

Maya looked at the elevator counter and the number three was illuminated.

“They usually take us up to the sixth floor before dropping us,” she said. “Meaning…”

“The elevator’s stuck,” Kasper said, gulping back whatever his body was trying to reject.

“Isn’t sweet how we’re starting to finish each other’s sentences?” Maya said as she released her cousin. He caught himself and stumbled over to the railing and clutched it with both arms. The quiet hum of the elevator helped distract him from the storm brewing in his stomach.

She looked up and saw a small square etched on the ceiling.

“Well, there’s our emergency exit. Kasper, give me your cell phone. I’m going to use it as a light and climb up the shaft. If we’re lucky, we’ll be near a door and we can get out through it.”

“Just use your phone,” Kasper said regaining his composure a bit.

“I don’t have it on me. It doesn’t fit in my pockets and I don’t like lugging a purse around.”

“How do you call people when you need find them?”

“I’m a pretty girl. People find me.”

Kasper had no desire to extrapolate on her statement. He dug his phone out of his pocket and tossed it to her. She swiftly caught it and smiled.

“Hey, you are trusting me a bit more, Kasper.”

“Just because I gave you my phone?”

“No. You wouldn’t have tossed it to me if you didn’t think I could catch it.”

Kasper rolled his eyes and squeezed the railing tighter.

With Kasper’s phone in hand, Maya jumped on the other end of the railing and balanced herself. With the palm of her free hand up, she leapt forward and pushed the ceiling hatch open. Back on the ground, she climbed back on to the railing and made a final leap, grabbing the edge of the escape hatch. She hauled herself up and stood on the roof of the elevator.

Kasper called up to her. “My phone has a built in flashlight in the back. Just flick the switch on the right side and it should turn on.”

Maya followed his instructions and turned the light on. She pointed it up. Two stories above her head was the illuminated and annoyed face of Aaron who was climbing down the set of cables that held the elevator.

Kasper let out a small yelp at the sight of a person descending towards them.

Maya grinned up at Aaron. “See, Kasper? I told you: people find me.”

Aaron stopped his descent and remained still. He locked eyes with the chimera below him.

Aaron called out to them. “I’m here to save you.”

“That’s unexpected,” Maya said.

“But I need to render you unconscious first.”

“That’s more like it.” Maya squinted and started waving the light rapidly over Aaron, who shielded his eyes. To Kasper, it looked like she was just trying to be an annoyance. However, face in her memory was what compelled her to perform further investigation on their savior.

She finished her analysis and stopped moving the light. Her eyebrows raised high. “I thought I recognized you from somewhere. Wow, it looks like this school isn’t short on subspecies.”

“A subspecies?” Kasper asked.

“Yeah,” Maya replied. “I’ve never met him personally until now, but he’s pretty well known. He…”

For an instant, Aaron lost his composure. His body twitched in agitation. The hairs on the back of his neck raised up and his hands tightened around the elevator cables as if he were trying to strangle them. He was pretty enraged for someone who had not even met Robin yet.

The moment was over in a flash and Aaron’s command flowed through his mouth like a gentle stream. “Not another word.”

Maya was not a people pleaser like her cousin, but the malice in those words caused her to freeze for a second. However, she got over his maliciousness quickly. After all, her first instinct against any opposition was to antagonize them.

"Sorry Kasper, but our friend here is a little sensitive about his ability, mainly its drawbacks. I think spilling his secret would send him into a fit.”

Although he saw Aaron was becoming irate, Kasper was at ease. His cousin stood between him and the mysterious subspecies. Based on past experience, she was more than enough protection.

“One warning though,” Maya continued. “This is one subspecies you don’t ever want to copy.”

“Why not?” Kasper asked.

“Let’s just say you’ll regret it for a very long time.”

Kasper thought for a second and then grinned. “Well considering his life has led him into a situation where he’s feebly climbing down a dark elevator shaft, I don’t think I’d want to imitate any part of him anyway.”

Aaron growled. Undeterred by the revelation that they were chimera, he slowly began to approach them.

“Nice one Kasper.” Maya said. “However, rumor has it he’s ridiculously strong. I might not be able to stop him if he decides to obliterate you for that comment.”

Kasper’s face lost a shade of color as he looked up and realized Aaron was getting closer. His stomach tightened.

“So you’re just going to let him come down here?”

Maya sighed dramatically. “I suppose, I’ll do what I can.” She scanned her very narrow surroundings. “This should be a really interesting fight though. A small, dark area with lots of vertical space… now that I think about it, this will be pretty awesome. Not trying to exaggerate, but you might want to find the record function on this phone.”

“There is none.”

“Well then pay close attention because this battle might just make it into the history books.”

“What were you saying about exaggerating?”

Aaron climbed down the cables faster, eager to silence their inane banter. He was only one story above the two when he heard a SNAP. Something rushed past his face and collided with the wall of the elevator.

He inspected the area below him. The small amount of light from Kasper’s phone barely allowed him to realize what happened. A cable had snapped and nearly tore off his face. This would have fazed Aaron, but he had long ago decided that any major injury would have made life more interesting or at least more challenging. His boredom knew no bounds.

Kasper and Maya looked up.

“What was that?” Kasper asked.

“Elevator cable broke off,” Aaron replied.

“What! Are we in danger?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it. These cables are thick and there are several of them. They take so many safety precautions when designing these things. It’s why stairs are statistically more…”

Another cable below him snapped, this time nearly severing Aaron’s right arm. He tried to regard the event with as much indifference as possible, but even he was starting to worry.

“Err, give me a second,” said Aaron as he climbed up the remaining cables as fast as he could. Once he reached the sixth floor he leapt through the open elevator door and landed in front of Crow who had been listening from a distance.

“What’s a subspecies?” Crow asked.

“Yeah…not answering that. What kind of second-rate engineers did you hire to rig this elevator?” Aaron asked.

“I found the greatest civil and mechanical engineers Los Angeles has to offer.”

They heard another cable snap.

“Well, ok, they were just some senior mechanical engineering students from this school,” Crow clarified.

Another one pinged against the sides of the elevator shaft.

“They may have been freshman mechanical engineers.”

SNAP.

“Freshman environmental engineers.”

Kasper’s voice echoed out from the elevator. “I think I caught the tail end of that and I feel as if some poor choices were made. Just an observation.”

Aaron and Crow looked at the shaft and then looked at each other. Crow cleared his throat and pointed towards the elevator. It did not take a deep bond of camaraderie for Aaron to understand Crow’s silent command. His general dislike sufficed.

If Aaron could have his way, he would have thrown Crow down the elevator, ordered him to save the two chimera, crossed his fingers and hoped for the best. However, he put more value in human life than his fellow Guild member. No part of his preferred scenario would have helped him sleep better at night and he was not much of a morning person to begin with.

He dragged his feet back towards the shaft, grabbed what remained of the cables and slid down. Feeling the cables as he came down, he determined that there were only about three more left. Time was running short.

Back in the elevator car, Maya was in the process of pulling Kasper up through the escape hatch. He eventually managed to scramble through and stood up.

“Is it a good idea for me to be up here with all these cords flying around?” Kasper asked.

“I’m trying to think long-term here,” Maya replied, handing him his cell phone. “Ever heard of gravity?”

A loud thud echoed as Aaron landed on the elevator next to the chimera. The sound of a cable snapping soon followed. Two were left.

Aaron raised his voice. “You kids. Climb. Now!”

"Are you strong enough to help me throw a human up a few flights?” Maya asked. She pointed to her cousin. “This one isn’t exactly an Olympic qualifier.”

Kasper’s self-preservation instinct prevented him from taking offense. Through the darkness, he stared at Aaron with hopeful eyes.

“Fine,” Aaron conceded. He had enough confidence in his physical strength. “But we have to move now. This building is old and mostly wood. I doubt it was designed with an elevator in mind. A huge impact at its base could send the whole thing crumbling down. We need to time to climb up and escape the building. We can’t afford any distractions.”

A sharp crack rang out near the sixth floor at the back wall of the shaft. Streams of light trickled in and illuminated a clenched fist. The fist retracted and a few seconds later it was replaced with Robin’s face and a mess of red hair.

“The dragon!” Maya muttered through gritted teeth.

“A dragon?” Aaron asked. “Why would a dragon approach two chimera?”

Robin looked around her new surroundings and groaned. “This is embarrassing. I forgot that there was an elevator between this side of the building and the rooms.”

The young dragon brought her feet through the opening she created and jumped down on to the car. This had the unfortunate result of relieving another cable from its duties.

“Idiot!” Maya yelled.

“So, I think I was able to hear you guys through the wall and I’m pretty up to speed on…” Robin began.

“We’re out of time!” Kasper interrupted, trying to keep everyone on track. He realized that he was the only one who needed assistance in escaping and was not keen on the idea of infighting.

The thought of Maya and Robin’s physical abilities suddenly brought back a horrible memory: the memory of several Guild members being knocked out in the basement.

"Wait,” said Kasper.

“No!” Aaron yelled.

“But the other members of your guild are still down there!”

Maya and Robin both became stone-faced. Aaron looked taken aback as well. For a brief moment, they were all silent.

Crow called down to them. “Just leave them.”

“Shut up, kid!” Aaron yelled back. He turned back to Kasper. “I hate to say it, but he may be right. There’s no guarantee we’ll survive if we try to go down there. That cable could snap any second.”

Robin gripped the wall around her and scrambled up.

Maya looked at her. “The dragon’s made her choice. Your turn Kasper.”

“But the people down there!” Kasper yelled.

Maya avoided looking Kasper in the eye and grabbed his shoulders. Aaron grasped his legs and lifted him up.

Before he knew what was happening, Kasper sailed upwards and towards the sixth floor. As he reached the apex of his flight, he quickly came to his wits to and grabbed the edge of the entrance. With his adrenaline pumping, Kasper pulled himself into the room. He then came face to face with Crow.

Crow backed away. “You’re not going to hit me, are you?”

Kasper scowled and said nothing.

The force Maya and Aaron used to toss Kasper was too much for the remaining cable. A slight whine was heard as the tension started to take its toll.
Maya and Aaron each grabbed a wall and darted towards the sixth floor. Aaron reached it first and sailed through the entrance. Maya followed close behind and just as she made it through the last cable snapped.

No one had time to brace for the inevitable impact. They did not even have time to commence with the usual bickering to which they had all grown accustomed. All four of them raced for the door, only stopping when they heard a strained voice behind them.

“I got it!” Robin yelled.

Maya and Kasper turned and ran to the elevator entrance and looked down. The small amount of light allowed them to see Robin hanging between the two broken ends of the cable, holding the elevator up. Neither had noticed that she had stayed behind.

Kasper was amazed and whispered towards Maya. “Just how strong is she?”

Back at Robin’s level, she breathed heavily and grunted. She had been born with amazing abilities, but not supernatural ones. Holding up an entire elevator was testing her limits. For one of the most talented people on the entire campus, she was running on borrowed time. Life was funny that way.

Despite her pain and intense effort, she was able to croak out a few words. “Go help them!”

Kasper looked to Maya for guidance, but she was already gone.

She slid down the wall and muttered. “Is she trying to get herself killed?”

Once she reached Robin’s level she jumped and grabbed the portion of the cable above Robin’s right hand. Reaching down, she then held the part of the cable below Robin’s left. It required her to stretch her arms far wider than the dragon and their awkward position caused their bodies to nearly get tangled as they swung around, but neither of them cared.

“You don’t think, do you?” Maya asked.

Robin grinned, some relief coming to her face now that she had help holding the elevator up. However, both women knew they could not keep up the feat forever.

“You have two minutes, Kasper!” Maya called up. “Don’t let her effort go to waste!”

He understood and looked towards Aaron and Crow.

“I’ll leave this to you,” Aaron said, eyeing an open window. He was already thinking about his own escape.

Crow smiled. “And now we have two full minutes to salvage anything valuable in here!”

“Have fun,” Aaron said and started towards the window.

Realizing they would be no help, Kasper ran to the door leading the stairs. He closed it behind him and looked at the palm of his hand. With little fanfare and even less thought, he licked his left pointer finger and placed it on his forehead.

Skin slowly sloughed off from his body. Upon seeing this happen, his heart rate increased and he inadvertently caused his skin to peel even faster. After a few seconds, the top of the stairs was flecked with his outer layer. Cleanup was not an issue since the building was about to meet a convenient demise.

Once the process ceased, Kasper looked at his arms. They definitely looked different. He was happy that there were no mirrors around because he knew the sight of himself would be too disorienting. However, even without looking at his face, he knew who he now was. He was Stephen, the school’s track star.

It had only made sense to Kasper to copy someone with high athletic abilities, especially when one had been lying unconscious in front of him. And he had done it without Maya’s permission, which was a small victory. With the clock ticking down to their demise, there was no perfect moment to try out his new ability. With Stephen’s well-toned body and speed, he would have just enough time to run downstairs wake up and escort the Guild members out of the building.

Kasper took two steps forward. The first step went well. The other left a lot to be desired.

He tumbled down the stairs only stopping when he reached the fifth floor. Trying to ignore the pain, he tried to get to his feet. This only succeeded in launching himself down another set of stairs until he hit the next floor.

The sad display went on until finally Kasper crashed into the door leading to the basement. His bruised hand reached up, undid the bolt that had kept the door locked, grabbed the knob and fell into the room.

He estimated about a minute had passed. Pain rushed all over him. He was not sure he could get the job done in a minute and prayed Maya had more physical strength than faith in his abilities. If she dropped the elevator at two minutes on the dot, he might not make it.

He looked up to survey the almost futile task that lay before him. There was not a single soul in the room.

Kasper was not sure whether to be elated or enraged. He had spent the last minute in agony for no reason. For the life of him, he could not figure out where everywhere in the basement had gone. On the other hand, now all he had to do was escape.

He picked himself up and tried to climb the stairs. Although the pain made it difficult, it was not the only force working against him. He felt Stephen’s body completely doing the exact opposite of what he intended. He fell back on to the basement floor. Taking the stairs and escaping through the front door was not an option.

Thirty seconds left. He looked at the small window in the basement. Slowly he managed to trudge towards it, barely controlling Stephen’s body. Finally he reached the bottom of the window. He now had about ten seconds to jump and pull himself through the window. He took solace in knowing that if he died the building replacing the Guild would probably be named after him.

***

A minute earlier, Crow scrambled to unhook the computer and figure out a way to get it out of the building safely. Right before he unhooked the monitor, he saw an image of the basement and realized no one was there. He considered running to tell Kasper, but thought better of it. He had worked long to establish his persona as the Guild’s heartless treasurer and playing the hero would have been dishonest. Besides, it had always seemed to him that other people’s troubles had a tendency to work out without his interference.

Personal problems were a different matter. Those required a bit of effort.

He turned the computer off and grabbed the desktop. He ran to the window and looked down the six stories. Aaron was already gone, but he saw his emergency escape device that he had placed in the backyard several months ago: a tall, large trampoline.
In retrospect, his plan was shortsighted.

The desktop would make a decent practice run. His weak arms lifted it up. Luckily, the trampoline sat right below the window and Crow was able to toss the desktop squarely in the center of it.

The black rectangle sunk into the trampoline before rebounding and sailing six feet across the small backyard and over the wooden fence that bordered the area. This was a promising result.

“Now!”

Crow heard one of the women shout from inside the elevator. On pure instinct, he scrambled on to the window frame and jumped feet first towards the trampoline.

As he sailed towards the earth, he made a quick calculation of his chances of clearing the fence. He was not heavy, but nowhere near as light as a computer’s desktop. He could either make the safe bet of landing somewhere in the backyard or try and get over the fence. The latter would save him precious seconds for his escape.

He made contact with the trampoline, bent his knees and made his decision. If his calculations were correct, he would have a seventy-percent chance of making it out of the backyard in a single leap.

Crow was almost right. Seventy-percent of his body managed to avoid contact with the fence.

***

The elevator fell and made contact with the bottom of the basement. The wooden structure began to break and fall apart. Its destruction was not instantaneous though fast enough that anyone close knew to get out of the way.

Kasper had managed to pull himself through the windows just a few seconds before impact. His muscles still failed to work properly. Unable to pull his body off the ground, there was little he could do but roll away. He tumbled across several yards belonging to houses on the street.

The moist grass and cool air felt refreshing as it they smothered his body. They almost made him forget that bits of debris were falling all around him. A small plank embedded itself in the grass next to his head and prompted him to continue his graceful escape.

After he felt he was clear out of range of the splinters raining from the sky, Kasper stopped in a yard several houses down and lay on his back.

There was not have much time to reflect on the state of his life. He could already hear sound of Maya and Robin’s footsteps quickly approaching. He did not even bother to turn his head: it had to be them. Peace and quiet was too much to ask for.

“Stephen!’ Maya yelled as she ran up to him. “Have you seen Kasper?”

Kasper looked at his left pointer finger. He brought it up to his mouth, licked it and touched his forehead. The skin on his face began to peel off and his own mug was revealed.

Maya let out a sigh of relief. Then, she scooped up a pile of dirt from the yard, molded it into a ball and dropped on Kasper’s face.

“Hey!” he cried out trying to avoid a mouthful of dirt.

“You idiot,” Maya said. “When did you acquire a transformation for that Stephen guy?”

“When he was passed out in front of me. When you two were checking out the elevator.”

“Why?”

“He’s athletic. Much more than me. I thought that maybe…”

Kasper was beginning to read the tone on Maya’s face. It was unpleasant.

“So let me get this straight, Kasper. Not only did you acquire a transformation without my permission...”

“You never said I needed your permission.”

“… you got it without my permission and even after I told you there were dozens of subspecies out there with better abilities?”

“Is there a rule stating I can’t copy regular humans?”

“No, but why would you? Now you just completely wasted an entire transformation. Happy?”

Kasper jumped up and glared at her face to face.

“No, I’m not happy,” he replied. “I almost got killed trying to save the other guild members. They weren’t even down there.”

Robin’s face turned red. “Yeah…about that…” she began. “When I was knocking them out, I made sure to only hit them so that they would be down for less than a minute. Any longer can cause brain damage.”

Maya nodded her head. “I made the same consideration.”

“I guess in the heat of the moment I just forgot to mention it,” Robin continued. “They probably were playing possum until we left the basement. Apparently they found the courage to escape once we they realized we were distracting their superiors.” She smiled weakly.

Kasper clenched his fists and groaned. He looked down and realized that he was on his feet.

“Hey, I can stand,” he said.

“And I’m guessing that’s another reason why you almost died,” Maya said. “After walking around in the same body for about twenty years, you can’t expect to walk around in another one that has a completely different weight, height, center of balance and so on.”

“Yep,” said Robin. “Dragons are lucky enough that we only have to focus on mastering our own body.”

“Of course,” said Maya, “I’m guessing you were too panicked to realize that and transform back into yourself.”

Kasper bit his lip and looked down at the ground. “Well, I did make it out five or so seconds before the elevator dropped.”

Maya pointed at Robin. “Then you’re lucky she insisted that we hold the elevator up for a few extra seconds.”

Kasper looked up at Robin. “I guess you were right to not have too much faith in me.”

“That’s not it at all,” said Robin. “I thought you were out long before we dropped it. Guess I was wrong though.”

“Then why did you two hold it up longer?”

“Well, while we were hanging there, I thought about how Maya basically saved me. Otherwise, I would have lost an arm holding that thing for everyone. So, I needed the extra time.”

“Why?”

Maya groaned. She knew what was coming.

“To say ‘thank you.’” Robin responded.

Maya cringed. “Alright, alright…I told you to stop acting weird,” she said. “You’re way too polite in situations like that. Besides, you were the one who grabbed the elevator cables in the first place. Just consider us even, Robin.”

Robin grinned. “The two of you are both way too impersonal. I can see how you’re related.”

Kasper looked away from both of them.

“You’re still being weird,” Maya sighed.

Sirens were heard in the distance. All three of them perked up at the sound.

“Let’s go,” Maya said. “Those guild idiots have probably fled and I’d rather the three of us not be the only ones on the scene.” She stuck her finger in Kasper’s face. “Don’t even thing about transforming again.”

Kasper scoffed. “As if I would now.”

They took off as fast as they could. Well, Maya slowed down a bit for the sake of not embarrassing her cousin too much. She hoped that holding herself back would not be a permanent arrangement.

After several blocks they stopped. Kasper leaned forward with his hands on knees and took heavy breaths. He looked about as disheveled than the crumbling remains of the guild’s former abode.

Maya looked back and could barely see anything among all the dirt and dust that the collapsing building had kicked up. She turned around and was surprised to see someone missing.

“Where did Robin go?” she asked.

Kasper shook his head, laboring to get any words out.

“Well, I’m sure she’ll turn up again.” She let out a small groan. “But we never even found out if that kraken was sent by that guild. However, I’m starting to suspect that wasn’t the case.”

“What makes you so sure?” Kasper asked, finally getting enough air back in his lungs.

“The subspecies we met in the elevator wanted nothing to do with us. I doubt he would allow a member of his guild to confront us if he knew we were chimera. And that other guy didn’t even seem to know we were chimera.” Maya shrugged. “I guess we’ll resolve the situation if ever get another lead.”

Heart thumping and his senses heightened, Kasper sniffed the air. The musty smell of dust and wood wafted from the destroyed building to his nose. The only thing counter-balancing the odor was his clothes, soggy and damp from rolling on the grass. They were ordinary scents, yet everything around him felt unnatural and foreign, as if his life was starting to take a completely unexpected direction. At the same time, his experience of transforming into Stephen afforded him an uncommon sensation: excitement.

Suffice to say, Kasper had mixed feelings about the past week. However, no one seemed to care about his feelings and he figured trying to change that was futile at best, hazardous at worst.

“Well, that’s that,” Maya said, pulling Kasper out of his thoughts. “I’ll forgive you for wasting one of your fingers on a useless transformation. We are family after all. Now, let’s stop wasting time dealing with random college students and professors and begin some real chimera training! The day’s still early, after all.”

Kasper looked down at his left pointer finger and smiled. Strictly speaking, a smile is not always indicative of happiness, but it does a good job of tricking the body into thinking that is the case. Kasper could not figure out if his emotion was real or fake, but considering it was only a matter of time before Maya’s next plan went awry, he’d take whatever happiness he could get.

***

As the two chimera walked back towards the campus, another conversation was going on several blocks away from them. Robin leaned against a street sign with a cell phone to her ear.

“You know those chimera I told you about?” she said into the phone. “False alarm, turns out they weren’t subspecies at all. They were just some regular people causing trouble. What? Yes, I followed them around quite thoroughly. What? No, why would I lie? You know I was raised better than that.”

She looked around the corner and saw the figures of Kasper and Maya fading into the distance.

“Of course I’m telling the truth. It’s not like I would find following around two chimera irresistibly fun… Ok. Sure. Alright, bye.”

Robin shut the phone off and stuffed it in her pocket. She looked at the campus, chuckled to herself and pursued her new friends with a completely unnecessary degree of stealth. It was more amusing that way.

If I was a more dedicated writer, I would make sure to have another chapter ready for this story's one-year anniversary. However, Metal Gear Rising has great replay value so screw it.

[ChesCa]

The part where Robin first punches through the wall then peeks through the hole is confusing. Might want to work on that.

The gag with the elevators and the frat boys escaping were hilarious and you've improved your character interactions and narrative. Good job. :)

[Mumbling2]

Well, that's that.

Chapter 10 Billion

Spoiler:

10 years later…

Kasper and Maya stood outside where the Guild’s headquarters once stood. You would have hardly known a building had been there at all. After all these years, it had been left untouched.

Kasper cleared his throat and spoke.

“You know, it’s funny…” Kasper whispered.

“What is?” Maya implored.

“That time we destroyed this place. It was, by far, the most exciting moment we shared,” he exclaimed.

Maya chuckled.

“I must say so,” Maya said. “You know, all the training we did went smoothly after that. A little too smoothly for my taste... But as your teacher, I guess I can’t complain.”

Kasper’s black, velvet cape fluttered in the cool Los Angeles wind. Kasper no longer wore his civilian clothes, but was now adorned in battle gear, his trophy for passing the Chimera test several years ago.

Kasper looked at the ground and looked forlorn. Maya noticed.

“What’s up?” Maya asked.

“Just looking at this place makes me miss them,” sighed Kasper.

“Who? You mean Robin, Noel and Nolan?” inquired Maya.

“Yeah,” Kasper explained. “After this little incident, they all supported me throughout the rest of my training. It took some time for us to really become close…but still…it was the first time in my life where…I think…well…um…I felt I had friends... When I was around them, I didn’t care what happened or how strong I got. I realized that none of that mattered as long as I had friends I could rely on.”

Maya smiled.

“Yeah, you sure know how to pick ‘em, Kasper,” Maya concluded.

“I hope they’re doing well, wherever they are…” Kasper whispered.

“Yeah, me too…” Maya said in agreement.

The two of them took a last look at the vacant plot of land, turned and headed back towards DAW University.

“Come on, Kasper,” Maya urged, “I parked the APRL-41 on the campus. We need to be half-way across the country in two hours.”

Kasper sighed.

“I guess a Chimera’s work is never done,” he said wistfully with a tinge of forlorn regret.

“As the only Chimera allowed in the country, you have certain responsibilities,” May alleged.

“I suppose,” Kasper chuckled.

“And you promised to carry on the legacy of your father” Maya reminded him.

“That too,” Kasper laughed.

Kasper put on his sunglasses and stuck his hands in his pockets.

“Well, DAW University,” Kasper said coolly. “Ciao.”

And with that, the two Chimera walked off, the first week of Kasper’s training etched into their minds. It was a week they would never forget.

Final Thoughts

Spoiler:

Thanks for the support everyone! Look forward to my next work! I'll get started on it as soon as I get all the achievements in Metal Gear Rising! Oh and...

Spoiler:

April Fools...