Moving In

I am now able to carry and use weapons at my discretion. Great. Another thing to worry about. I was going to be an outcast. As if I didn’t already have enough problems.

“What’s wrong? You seem down,” the girl walking me out of the station commented. She was the one I talked to before. I had gotten a pair of swords, now held on my back by sheathes. The girl’s name is Matilda. She would be my instructor for sword fight. She had mastered almost every weapon.

“I was always so popular. Everyone likes me. Now I will never see the school again,” I said, “not to mention that my lab is at my house.” I was informed that I would no longer live in my house. There was a very slim chance that I would ever see the school again.

“What about your family?” she asked.

“Honestly, I would have run away if I decided not to build my lab there,” I replied. I wanted to keep my inventions though.

“Your… contraptions will be saved. Some agents are heading in to your lab and retrieving them.” She said. Uh. That was bad. They could die. I had also gotten Karin’s watch back.

“Karin, undo all security programs.” I said, hoping it wasn’t too late.

“Of course! What about the gravity reverse engine?” She said. Once you stepped out of the elevator, you would have to get your feet above you because I reversed the gravity as a last security protocol. However, If it were shut off, then all of my inventions would be crushed under the tables they were on.

“Send them a warning in the elevator,” I said, “give them the video.”

“Yes ma’am!” She replied.

“Also, tell them where to find your mainframe. Prepare for transport!”

“Well… if you say so.” She said, sounding sad.

“What are you doing?” asked Matilda.

“Well, if I didn’t do that, then your ‘agents’ would be burned alive. Even if they got past that, they’d be crushed in the elevator. If they got past that their heads would be crushed by the ceiling as soon as they stepped out of the elevator. If they got past that, then my inventions would be crushed.” I informed her.

“Oof. ``why?” she inquired.

“Security protocol.” I replied. By now, we had reached a car outside of the station.

“Well. I can tell that you’re serious about protecting your stuff.” she said, climbing into the vehicle. It was a popo car. We were headed to a school where you learned about weapons and how to use them. I would have my own house near it, my own salary, and would have to take care of myself. Well. It was better than what I had at my house. I was a good cook. I was good at cooking. I could take care of myself. Hey, it would be kinda like college.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Matilda asked.

“Well, nothing, I just look upset when I’m deep in thought,” I replied.

“Okay…” she trailed off. We rode the rest of the way to the “school” in silence.

Once we reached the place where I’d be living, Matilda and I climbed out of the vehicle.

“Welcome to your new neighborhood,” she said, “the rest of these houses belong to other shapeshifters, though most aren’t too friendly. We made your basement like a lab, and your stuff should be here soon. We will pay the electricity and water bills, but you should be able to take care of yourself otherwise,” she gave me an envelope, “Here’s your house key and the keycodes to the garage and front door. You can use Either the key or the code to unlock the front door.

“Thanks,” I replied. I didn’t expect to be given an entire two story house so that I could learn how to use my powers.

“No problem. The house is pretty self-explanatory, you’ve got a closet of clothes with the same ability as those that you’re wearing, a kitchen, dishes, and a bedroom. You also have a TV and recreation room. We already put a double bass, clarinet, television, couch, pool table, and weight set in your recreational room,” she said. Wow. I wonder how they keep from going broke.

“Cool,” I replied.

“Well, I gotta go, hope you have fun here,” she stated, climbing into the car, “oh! Almost forgot! If you need anything, here’s my phone number, we also got you an A-phone 11 pro plus,” she handed me a box, “it’s already set up.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Bye!” she said.

“Bye,” I replied.

She left, and I went into the house. It was amazing! So much better than the crushed shed I used to live in. There were reclining couches, actually, they were a lot more than anyone would really need. They even had chargers in the armrests, and thy had drawers holding soft blankets. The television was huge, especially compared to the tiny one that Karin made. I hoped she liked living here with me. The bathroom was simple but elegant. There were gold paint accents, but the rest of it was white, but tinted a little bit blue. The bed was like a big marshmallow. I was used to sleeping on a carpet at most, but with an actual bed, I couldn’t sleep better. This was amazing. I hoped that the actual school would be even a quarter as pleasing. That would be amazing. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

After a few minutes of exploring, there was the sound of a doorbell. Ding Dong. I opened the front door. Some of the agents who captured me were there. They were holding boxes of stuff. Probably my inventions.

“We retrieved all of your stuff,” one of them said. Yup I was right. They were the ones who went to get my unfinished inventions. They looked tense, I could attack them at any time, and they were carrying things. I could kill them. However, we’re friends now, so I wouldn’t.

“Come in,” I told them. They relaxed visibly, then walked in.

“Where do you want us to put your stuff?” One of them asked.

“I need Karin’s core, then she’ll have the zombots move everything in,” I said. One of the agents set down his box and dug out a metal sphere. That was her.

“Reactivation sequence,” I said to the sphere.

“Reactivating…” it said in the robotic tone that I had made it with. It had adopted a more human tone, “reactivating…”after the next “reactivating…” there was a click, and Karin’s voice emanated from the sphere. “Dang. I never expected the reactivation sequence to be so... weird.”

“Karin, can you still connect to the zombots?” I asked

“Yes!” she said, “they’re close.”

“Please have them load everything into here.” I said.

“Oh… wait… The connection isn’t doing so good. It seems that Norbert and Ilene are far away. Probably still at our house.” she delivered the bad news.

“Give them a command to teleport here.” I replied.

“Got it!” she said. Within seconds, the two leader robots were in front of the house. After that, the zombots in the truck moved things downstairs into the so called lab. I finally got a chance to see the basement. The zombots didn’t use their full speed to move things because my inventions were fragile. The lab was amazing. It had plenty of tables on which the zombots put things, and where I could work, the lights were long and efficient. They effectively covered the whole room in light. I also had a storage room.

Within the next hour, the zombots had unpacked and organized my stuff, including their chargers, and were currently charging.

Tomorrow was my first day of school. I was very nervous.

I went to bed after plugging Karin into the house. She manipulated the electricity system to integrate her into the house. The speakers, tv, even the chargers for the robots- anything plugged into the electrical system was now controlled by her.

I woke up to Karin’s voice.

“Hey, Alise, you should probably wake up, it’s 6:00 already. You would have already been up and cleaning by this time,” Karin informed me.

“Okay,” I said lazily, getting out of bed. I took a quick shower, and put on a jumpsuit. That was all I had. They would be able to turn into a harness as I transformed into a leopard. I put my hair in a tight bun and went into my lab. I grabbed some binder clips, tacks, and paper clips, and started working on my lightweight flight suit. It would allow people to fly, as if using a jetpack, and it would have a lightweight pressure sealer suit. It would have wings so that you could glide if the flight part of the suit fails, and would allow for a controlled flight. I was still working on the flight part, not the wings. I bent some of the paper clips and started to place them in my invention when I heard another one of Karin’s alers.

“Intruder alert!” She said, way too loud, I was so focused on my invention, it made me jump and drop the things I was working with, luckily the tiny jetpack was still on the table.

She pulled a video of the person on my watch. It was another agent. “Let him in,” I commanded. She unlocked the door, using the front speakers to tell the agent I was in the basement lab. He came down to meet me.

“It’s time to go to school,” he stated as I finished placing my out-of-shape paperclip.

“Alright, coming,” I replied as I stood up and walked over to him. He turned and went upstairs. We left the house and Karin locked it. Then, I followed him down the street. One by one, who I presumed to be the other kids slowly joined us. I got a lot of “jeez another one?” and “look at the newbie,” I ignored it. We soon reached our destination. At the end of the neighborhood was a huge building. Standing in the doorway was Matilda. All the other kids stopped around me, and the agent walked around the building.

“Hey students! Guess what, we have a new student! Her name is Alise Rachel Hayes, come here Alise,” she said, waving me up towards her. I came. “Do you mind showing us your animal form?” She said as I made my way to the front.

“The last one was a black turtle,” one of the kids said.

“Yeah, I wonder what it is this time,” another responded.

“It’s probably not the leopard. We won’t be fooled by this ‘exciting’ attitude of hers this time,” another said.

I was now up next to Matilda. I transformed. As my body morphed and changed colors, there was quite a few gasps. I shook my head. Everyone’s jaws dropped open. What was wrong? Is there something special about being “the leopard”?

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