Scion

Chapter 23: An Uneasy Truce?

Chapter 23: An Uneasy Truce?

Alexa looked around the huge bedroom. There was a device built into a wall, that looked like some of the food and beverage devices in the Verso common room back on campus.

"What's this?" Alexa asked.

"That's a duplicator, it has patterns for every food known to humanity stored in the computer's memory files. Go ahead and ask it for something, it responds to voice command."

"Root beer!" said Alexa, and a moment later a glass mug of root beer appeared. Alexa took the mug down, and took a sip. "This is the best root beer I've ever tasted!"

"Look at this computer screen," said Roxie, as she turned on a monitor with a remote control. Alexa watched as people stood in line; an android in the front of the line was inoculating them, one by one, with a strange device.

"That device he's using on them cures all known diseases," said Roxie. "You've got a lot of catching up to do, to learn about all of the advances Morgan introduced to this reality."

Meanwhile, back at the academy, Victoria was looking through Alexa's backpack, and found the device that could de-activate all of Morgan's machines. Victoria took it to the research department and had Valence, their top scientist look at it.

"It seems to have a kill switch built into it," said Valence.

"What exactly does it do?" Victoria asked.

"It will de-activate all of Morgan's technology," Valence replied.

"Could it be a trick?" Victoria asked.

"I don't think so," Valence replied, "I think this was a contingency plan to make Alexa look like our savior in case we were coming close to defeating Morgan Lefevre."

"If that's the case, then activate it, and prepare an invasion force!" said Victoria, and Valence complied by pushing the button on the device.

Back in the new reality, Morgan's androids fell inoperative wherever they had stood. Across the globe, all of Morgan's technology shut down. Back in Alexa's bedroom, Roxie looked at her signaling watch.

"Something's wrong!" said Roxie. "All of our technology is shutting down!"

"How could that have happened?" Alexa asked.

"Did Morgan give you a device with a kill switch?" Roxie asked.

"Yes, I have it in my backpack... wait a minute, I left my backpack in my bedroom back at the academy!"

"Someone must've found it and activated it!" said Roxie.

The two girls walked to the balcony and looked out the window. An invasion force filled the sky above them, with Victoria's fleet there to conquer and subdue Morgan once again.

"I need to end this right now, before we get into another futile time war!" said Alexa. She went to the elevator followed by Roxie and went to the first floor, then walked through the living room andexited the house.

Victoria's flagship landed in Griffith park, not far from the house. Alexa approached the flagship, and Victoria and Valence disembarked.

"We need to form a truce!" said Alexa. "We can't get into a never ending time war! First you won, then Morgan wins, when will it stop?"

Victoria was close enough to speak to now. "I have no plans pof making a truce with Morgan Lefevre!"

"She has done a lot of good on this world!" said Alexa. "She has cured all diseases, and poverty has been eliminated!"

"Morgan Lefevre is not to be trusted!" said Victoria.

"At least call a temporary truce, for a year, and see how things go. Morgan only wants what's best for this world!"

Valence whispered something to Victoria.

"My top scientist agrees with you," said Victoria. "But only a temporary truce! We will see how Morgan does over the next year, and if she has turned over a new leaf as you have claimed, then maybe we can forge an alliance between her world and ours."

"Thank you, headmistress!" said Alexa, "I promise you she won't let you down. I'll go get her to come out and talk with you."

Alexa ran to get Morgan inside the house. Morgan was trying to get a control console to function.

"Morgan, I've convinced Victoria to forge a temporary truce with you! If you keep your nose clean for a year, they won't do anything to you."

"How did you manage to swing that?" Morgan asked.

"I told her about all of the good things you've done for this world. You've eliminated poverty and disease, Victoria is impressed by that. Come out and talk with her."

Morgan followed Alexa outside, where Victoria and Valence were waiting.

"This time war can go on forever," said Victoria, "or we can call a truce right here, right now. I can allow you to keep this world, you can make it over in your image, but I'm only giving you a one year truce. If you can maintain good behavior for that period of time, we can make the truce permanent."

"I agree to your terms," Morgan replied, and the two shook hands.

Alexa leaped into the air and shouted, "Yes! The time war is over!"

"Alexa," said Victoria, "I need you to come back to Southridge academy with me. I can't let you remain here."

"Are you serious?" Alexa asked. "Can't I stay here part of the time?"

"Your education is important," said Victoria. "If your parents agree to let you spend the summers here, then you have my permission to come back here."

"Okay," Alexa replied. "Maybe I can spend part of the summer here, and the other part with my parents."

"I can allow you to come back for part of the summer," said Morgan. "As long as your parents give the okay." Morgan handed a communication device to Alexa. "Here, this is how you can contact me." Alexa took the device and thanked Morgan.

Not too long afterwards, after everyone said their goodbyes, Alexa was back on Victoria's flagship. Morgan's devices were re-activated, and Alexa was strapped in with her terrarium and her miniaturized captive. The flagship rose vertically into the air, and took off into space.

"I still don't want you alraming the other students by letting them know about everything that happened with Morgan these past few days," said Victoria.

"I won't tell them," said Alexa.

"And another thing,' Victoria continued, "I don't want you to ever speak of the reality splicer she built. When my device destroyed it, I erased it from her memory so she remembers nothing about it. Do we have a deal?"

"Yes," Alexa replied.

Once they landed back on campus, Alexa took her terrarium back to her dorm room. She set her terrarium on her desk, and got her captive out.

"It looks like we are the only ones who know what truly happened the past few days," said Alexa.

"The faculty know what happened," said Terry the captive. "If you're anxious to talk about it, you can speak to one fo them."

"I know, but I really wish I could talk to Stratus and Gamma about it, they're my true friends here. Ion and Flux don't even remember helping me."

"What's the purpose of having a shrnken man as a pet?" Terry asked.

"I don't know, I've always wanted one, a lot of girls I knew back on Earth talked about it, but it was only a pipe dream to us then. Here, we can make it a reality. Have you gotten used to being my shrunken captive?"

"As used to it as I'll ever get," said Terry. "When I was a kid, I always wanted to be shrunk like this, and have some beautiful woman capture me."

"That was part of the paramenters I set up," said Alexa. "Umbra helped me with that. I only wanted a willing captive, that's why you were chosen."

"But how would your computers know something like that?" Terry asked. "I never volunteered that information online."

"The Futurians have satellites orbitting Earth, but in other dimensions. They have thwa capability of reading the minds of the potential targets. It read your mind, and found that you were submissove, and would be a willing captive."

Over the next couple of weeks, Alexa went about her usual routine, attending classes and Aerial Aquatics. Eventually, April 13th came around, Alexa's thirteenth birthday. Some of her Verso friends had arranged for a surprise party for her in the common room. She was surprised when she walked in and they threw confetti and streamers on her. There was a huge cake and punch bowl.

"Happy Birthday, Alexa!" they all shouted.

"You guys, this is so awesome!" said Alexa.

They sang happy birthday to her, and gave her presents. One present, from Stratus, was a container for her shrunken captive that was made from platinum, and there were diamonds and other jewels built into the container.

"This is really nice!" said Alexa, and she hugged Stratus.

"The one you already have can be used for emergencies, but this newer one you can use every day," said Stratus. "When the container is empty, it has a red ruby on the front. If your shrunken captive is inside, there is a built in cloaking device that will shield him from view. so when you open the container and he's inside, but you can't see him, the red ruby turns into a blue sapphire. That's how you'll know he's inside despite him being invisible."

They celebrated until late into the evening. That night, Alexa went outside to get some fresh air, and Carlos was waiting for her.

"Happy birthday, Alexa!" said Carlos. "It's too bad your birthday wasn't on a Friday, then it would be Friday the thirteenth!" Carlos handed her a present.

It was a case for her communicator, and it was hot pink.

"This is perfect, Carlos! Thank you!" said Alexa, and she kissed him on the cheek. "Do you want me to bring you a piece of cake?"

Carlos nodded, and Alexa went inside to get cake. When she came back out, Carlos was seated on a bench. Alexa gave him some cake, and he started eating.

"I have a question," said Carlos. "Do you remember talking about a boy back home?"

"Santiago?" Alexa asked.

"Yes," Carlos replied. "Have you made a decision about whether or not you're choosing him or me?"

"I'm too young to choose who I'm going to marry," Alexa replied. "But I'm keeping all of my options open for the time being. I might choose you, or someone else."

"I guess that's fair," said Carlos.

Later that evening, Alexa was alone in her dorm room with her captive. She had him standing on her desk.

"I'm thirteen today," said Alexa. "I'm officially a teenager."

"Congratulations," said Terry. "I hope I'm still with you when you're a hundred and thriteen!"

"And hopefully I won't look a day over twenty one!" Alexa replied.

Over the next few weeks, finals came around, and everyone was studying. Some of the older kids took over the library and stayed up late studying. Alexa, Stratus and Gamma formed a study group, because they had some of the same classes together. The last day of school was in mid May, so everyone was looking forward to summer break.

Alexa was able to help Gamma and Stratus with math, while Gamma and Stratus could help Alexa with subjects she was deficient in. During finals week, there was a final on a different day in each class, sometimes two finals on the same day. At the end of day one of finals week, Alexa was exhausted, but didn't give up. On day two, she had two finals. Normally, class was 45 minutes long, but each class was two hours for finals. Since the finals were graded by computer, the students received their grades the same day.

By the end of the week, Alexa took her last final and then relaxed. She had passed all of her finals, some of them with extremely high grades. The following day would be the first day of summer break, so everyone was packing and getting rready to take the rocket sled with Ozymandias back to where they lived. Some of the students lived in far flung places like San Bernardino and Riverside.

The next morning, after breakfast, Alexa got all of her things ready, and said goodbye to her new friends, and to Carlos. She planned on staying in touch with Stratus and Gamma and Umbra, she still had her communicator to contact them with.

She stood in line with her luggage, Terry was inside the portable container that Stratus had given Alexa for her birthday, and the terrarium was minaiturized down to a more portable size. When Ozymandias notified Alexa that it was her turn, she got in and he took her to her parents home in southern California.

She went inside and was greeted by her parents.

"So how was your first year at Southridge academy?" Alexa's mother asked.

"It was unusual," Alexa replied. "Morgan Lefevre recruited me and wanted me to help her take over the world. She got defeated by the faculty of Southridge academy, but then Morgan fought back, and now they have a truce. I'm the only student who knows what really happened, their minds have been tampered with so tehy don't remember. Is that anything like your experience at Southridge academy?"

"No," her mother replied. "But I'm glad you're safe. I baked brownies, would you like one?" Alexa's mother held out a tray of brownies, and Alexa took one, and took a bite.

"I've got a question for the two of you," Alexa asked, "Could I spend half the summer here, and half in that new reality Morgan Lefevre created? I need to help her get things organized there. She permanently got rid of poverty and diseases there."

Mr. and Mrs. Lockport looked at each other. Mrs. Lockport replied, "We can talk this over, we need time to think about it."