“EB! I told you to check in the new recruits!” Nova stepped into the theater.
Sitting in the front row of seats, EB pressed a button on the armrest and the screen shut off. “Just seeing if there was any news on the Renn Eye. I’m so Jonesing for updates! I want one of those soooo bad. I mean, imagine the stuff you can do with it. It’s supposed to have the best camera on the market, and it will have two terabytes of space for games alone. I plan on downloading all the games, I will kick newbs right in the...”
“RECRUITS!” Nova bellowed.
“Oh, right. My job. Yeah. Sorry. On it.” EB bolted away at top speed to the docking bay where people were likely waiting patiently for him to greet them.
Dr. Henderson walked in with a tablet in her hand. “I could take your pulse and blood pressure just by looking at you. Must have been yelling at EB again.”
“You guessed it.”
“You need to cool it around him. You’re going to have a stroke.”
Nova sat down in one of the theater seats, “I am under so much stress every day. Having to work with him is sometimes more than I can handle.”
She took a seat next to him and started writing on a slip of paper she pulled from her pocket. “EB is like a child sometimes...“
“All the time.”
“Okay, so he has a childish mentality. But, you have to admit that he rarely makes a genuine mistake. He always gets his work done... though not always on your schedule. And he has saved heroes, BADGE, and the world on more occasions that most leagues can claim.”
Nova sat back, “You have a point.”
“I’m saying you need to cool off a little around him. A real friend is something to treasure, not scream at.”
Nova gave a half smile, “But I kinda like yelling at him.”
“Try to soften a little. And...” She handed him the slip of paper, “Here is an order from your doctor to take some time off and relax. You may be some kind of immortal being that defies all science, but you also are a tight ball of stress.”
“I will take your suggestion into consideration. Right now, we have even more new recruits to assess.”
She held up her tablet. “I got a list of twelve more people coming in today. That makes forty-seven this month alone. At this rate, every human on Earth will exhibit a morphon signature.”
“We have a ways to go to reach 8 billion. But this is a little alarming.”
Dr. Henderson sat back and looked at the names on her list. “If we don’t find the reason for this increase, we might face some serious problems. I worry that someone will gain significant powers who don’t have any moral compass.”
“My concern as well. Now, let’s look at that list.”
They sat in the theater and read over the initial reports before the recruits arrived to demonstrate their powers and start the assessment process.
***
The docking bay hummed with the voices of dozens of new people as they disembarked the special shuttles for unregistered morphonic people. BADGE agents, robots, and a few civilian workers helped organize the chaos.
Arx guided the new morphon infused people into place so they could get registered and processed before heading into the station for their initial assessment. “Okay, people, I need everyone to get in an orderly line. This won’t take long. Yes, this way.... no, don’t... that is an airlock hatch. Yes, right there. Thank you.”
Krystal Fae joined him. “You sound like an elementary school teacher trying to get a class in line.”
Arx huffed and then laughed. “Yeah, it’s kinda like that. You wouldn’t believe most of these people are adults.”
“This is a stressful and wondrous situation. I doubt anyone coming up here for this has ever even been on a space station, or even a shuttle.”
“True.”
“Do you always wear that toga?..”
“It’s a chiton. These things are comfortable and match my name.”
Krystal gave him a smirk. “And it lets you show off your hunky chest.”
“There’s that.” He admitted, “now, where’s EB? He’s supposed to be helping me. Or did Nova send you in to help?”
Krystal held her hands up. “Not me. I’m here to meet someone, and not a recruit.”
“Well, EB has all the arm badges and...” A white blur blasted by with a faint voice on the wind.
“SorryImLate.”
“Here you go, and you, and you, and you, and you, oh you are a big’n, you get two, and one for you, and you, and you...” EB zipped by everyone and slapped the arm badge on them that would help the computer keep track of them for their own safety. Each person also found a special chocolate egg in their hand just after the badge appeared.
After what seemed like four and a half seconds of dashing, EB stopped right next to Arx and declared, “I’ve tagged everyone.”
“Great. You didn’t have to startle them like that.” Arx saw the frazzled look on the people’s faces as they examined the badges on their arms with a touch of confusion.
“Well, I got sidetracked watching the news. They had a special report about the new Renn Eye. I thought it would be a full report with all the details. But it was just another blurb. When will they give us more info? Hey, next time Nova sends someone down to investigate those sphere thingies, how about I go down and do some snooping myself? I could look over the Renn Tech HQ for info and maybe take a moment to sneak a peek at the new Renn Eye. That baby is gonna be soooo cool, I can’t...”
“EB!”
“Oh, good one. You almost sounded like Nova.” EB grinned at him. He then jumped up on a table where a robot would check each person in. Speaking between his paws, his voice boomed through his powers, “Okay, all people with energy powers, lane one. All people with physical powers, lane two. Let’s get this show on the road!”
A man asked, while holding up his tagged wrist, “Do we gotta wear these all the time? They are annoying.”
Arx answered, “No. Just until you choose your path. Once you are part of a trainee team, your instructor will watch over you and you don’t need to be tracked. But, for now, that will help us keep you from entering dangerous areas of the station. Now, please get in line.”
Another shuttle lowered into the shuttle bay.
“There aren’t more recruits?” Arx looked at his tablet.
“I think that’s who I’m here to meet,” Krystal answered.
“Who is it?”
“Don’t know. Nova just said I was to meet them and then join him in his office.”
The shuttle door opened and Krystal beamed with a bright smile. “ALEX!” She ran over to her husband and gave him a big hug. They walked back over to Arx before heading out.
“Arx, this is my husband.”
Alex put his hand out. “Alex Fae-Murphy, glad to meet you. You’ve been doing a great job with the ATLAS program.”
“Thanks. Heard a lot about you and Gem.”
“Yes, the little one keeps us up at night. But she’s a treasure.”
Krystal smacked him on the shoulder. “I told you, no dad jokes.” With that, she said to Arx, “We need to get going.”
“I have a room full of pre-heroes to babysit.”
All three said to the other, “Good luck.”
Arx watched them leave and then felt a tap on his bare shoulder. He turned to find a woman standing there with bright green eyes, sandy blonde hair, and a cute smile. “Can I help you?”
“I, uh, don’t know where to go. I don’t know which line my powers belong in.”
He happily guided her. “Tell me what you can do and I will show you.”
0 Comments