Barcode: Cavern of Youth (34 page)

I slip under the water and mumble something that they can’t hear. Dennis grabs my head and pulls me out, gesturing for me to repeat myself.

“I said, what the hell is wrong with all of you and these patented names? You guys love making us become new people.”

Carmen articulates, “Payne. P-A-Y-N-E.”

Dennis shouts, “Override and cancel.” Shaking his head he snaps, “No!”

Even I laugh at his motion.

“Okay. Love. L-O-V-E.” The phone accepts the entry and Carmen’s officially divorced. “Now, can you marry me and my feuding husband?”

Dennis says something, but my world turns black. I think I’m falling asleep. My body was so overexerted after turning into my old self that I can’t move a muscle. Well, at least my hair grew back. A bit short, but I’ll take it.

Twenty Five

Chants from the stadium echo in my head. The sounds of fans cheering and stomping their feet dominate my world until more data flows into my eyes. That’s when it hits me. Our finals have already begun.

Seth and Richard are arguing. Their voices aren’t clear yet, but it seems that they’re unsure which pair should fight in the first match. They exit the gates, towards the center of the battlefield.

I’m resting on a bench inside one of the arena’s locker rooms. Carmen’s sitting on her knees and rubbing my forehead. Jamie’s glaring at her a few feet away. The beautiful goddess kisses me and light rushes into my eyes.

Jamie eases over to us and places her foot on the back of Carmen’s head. With a hint of aggression in her voice, she menaces, “If you kiss him one more time, I’m going to kill you.”

“But he’s my husband. I can do what I want.” Jamie slowly retracts her foot and roughly kicks Carmen in the shoulder. Carmen rolls over from the force. “That’s the first time you’ve spoken to me, by the way. You could at least say something nice.”

Shiva. Get Jamie to wake me up. Hurry.

Not a second after I finish my thought, Jamie shoves her fist into my stomach. I wheeze loudly while holding my abdomen. Jamie immediately bends down and rubs my head. “Are you okay?”

“Why would you do that?” Carmen yelps.

Seth and Richard are facing off against Yukio and Abby. As Thomas announces the fight, I run to the end of the locker room and peek my head outside of the cage.

“Forfeit!”

“What?” Seth and Richard shout together.

“Forfeit!”

“Has he lost his mind?” Seth turns to Richard, throwing his hands in the air. The teddy bear responds by shrugging his shoulders.

“Do it! Trust me. Raise your hand now.”

Yukio and Abby charge the two. They barely dodge the team’s first assault before raising their hands to quit the match. The crowd screams loudly and boos the two men. As they walk back towards me, I know I better give the best explanation of my life.

The group surrounds me near the student lockers. The lockers are huge because they have to hold some of the largest armor in the world. When I’m pinned against one, I don’t take up ten percent of its space.

“Morning.”

“Talk!” Carmen sneers.

Jamie turns her head towards the girl and nods. She’s impressed by Carmen’s audacity. “But you still are not suitable for him.”

“What?”

“Ladies. Savages. Allow me room to explain. Please.” As they back away, I briefly lift the golden pearls from my chest so I can have a little more air to breathe.

“Those were gray stones when you first got them,” Jamie points out.

“Yes.” I turn to the others and motion for them to sit on the benches. They refuse. “Okay. Tournament rules state that you have to win majority of your matches in order to participate in the finals.”

Richard grits his teeth. “Hurry this up. I’ve been working damn hard on my speed and you just gave us our first loss. You’re cool Kay, but I’m not above squeezing you to death.”

“Speeding up it is! There’s also another way to the top, from the bottom. The lowest ranking team has an opportunity to fight their way back up the ranks.” No one says a word. The musty smell of the locker room assaults my nose. I wonder if I’ve done a good enough job of convincing. I don’t want Richard to hug me again. “These matches will roll over into tomorrow evening. While everyone else is fighting, we’ll be resting.”

“What?” Seth sounds upset, but the demonic grin etching across his face lets me know that I’ve already convinced him. One down.

“When tomorrow comes, the top fighters will have less matches. True. But all we’ll have to do is win every single fight in the morning and we’ll be in the finals by night.” Jamie’s face moves an inch. “That’s a smile! A big one.”

Carmen twists her lips and rests her hands on her hips. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”

“I hadn’t decided until after last night’s events. Though I want to fight and get a good chance at Malik, it’s not worth seeing you guys hurt.” I rest my head against the locker. “People call it the Mark James. He’s the only gladiator that’s risen from the bottom ranks in the two-day finals. He was also the only person without a team. Some say he did it purposely. Others believe he was too stupid to think of something so brilliant.”

Combing through his hair, Seth mumbles, “But if we lose one fight tomorrow.”

“It’s over. Can we do it?”

Everyone nods and we watch the rest of the matches for the remainder of the day. We’re booed heavily every time we approach the field.

Dennis eventually makes his way to the locker room. He calls me from the entrance, but I don’t respond. Slowly, he walks in and taps me on the shoulder. “What are you reading?”

Instead of looking up, I continue flipping through various documents on my phone. “Some of Jules’ research on the Cavern of Youth. I’ve searched through his work three times and just can’t understand why he hasn’t found it yet. Every mission he sends Monte on seems more like an opportunity to kill someone than to gain more knowledge.”

“Wait. You know about the Cavern of Youth?” I finally stop reading the documents. “You know where it is, don’t you?” Dennis rubs his chin. Excitedly, he asks, “Where?”

I place my phone in my pocket. “Don’t you have work to do? You’re normally busy during finals.”

“No. I handed all the work to Vincent. He’s struggling to keep up, but I’m sure he’ll manage to only destroy half of my work—” My phone rings loudly, catching everyone’s attention. I turn it off and read the message. “What’s that? It sounds bad and your expression isn’t any better.”

“It’s just my cell’s dramatic way of telling me it found information.”

“Like what?”

“Just a question I asked about people who invented or worked on sniper suit tech.”

“The armor the assassin was wearing that attacked you and Carmen?”

“Yeah.”

“What did you find?”

“It’s not important.”

Dennis sits next to me and grips my shoulder tightly. I wonder if he’ll activate his barcode again. He doesn’t. I guess it’s like being burned by fire. “You’ve been really distant lately.”

“Force of habit. You’ve been wearing armor a lot lately.”

“Time to start new habits. The technology is very different from the last real armor I wore in war eleven years ago.” He slaps his thigh to test its strength.

A loud crashing sound stretches from the battlefield. We all watch Angie and Monte crush two other god-level students within a matter of seconds.

“Kay—”

“I love you, Dad. I don’t need some long speech or hug. I’m not that type of guy.” After thinking for a bit, I correct myself, “Well, when I’m near Hayley I am, but that’s not me with anyone else. You can be hard on me and yell, if you want. I’m not Spencer. I don’t need you to show me love on a daily basis.”

“Then, why are you blocking yourself from me and others?”

“It’s what I do. I don’t trust you fully, but I deserve that.” I’ve wanted to tell him that forever. It’s nearly liberating to get off my chest. Then again, all my pent up aggression definitely helped me when chopping off body parts last night. “You’re using me too. You even got me to separate Carmen and Vincent, didn’t you? That’s why you opened the Colt annulment application within seconds. You were waiting.”

“Sorry.” I realize that he may be at war with his own brother as well. Vincent reeks of evil and lies. He’s the type of businessman that I imagined my forefather fought against when creating this war. My dad trusted me enough to draw them apart and save Carmen’s life.

Ms. Love watches us from the gate. I kind of feel stronger with her eyes on me.

I rub the back of my neck while processing this year’s events and all of my strange relationships. Hardly moving my lips, I confess, “Though I feel responsible for what I did to your real son, I’m not going to beat myself up about it. You’re a great guy and I don’t mind being a part of your plans, but I’m also the type that will kill you if I don’t like them. That’s what I’ve been fighting. Myself.”

“You’re just as guilty of making mistakes as me. You think about Spencer too much and you adjust your behavior because you assume I want you to be like him. Kay, I never felt like either of you were my real sons. Remember, Spence and I weren’t that close. But I can still treat you like my kid.”

“A kid? Remember what the news report said I did? I’ll be the death of you.”

Dennis punches me in the arm and huffs air through his nose. “You’re kind of the bad guy to everyone’s story, but you have a good heart. I don’t want to change who you are, so if you hate what I’ve got stirring, do what you have to.” Winking he teases, “Be warned, if you come after me, I won’t go down without a fight.”

“You’re the perfect dad for me.”

Dennis and I return our attention to the field. It seems that Monte took things too far and their opponents are being carried away on stretchers. My team looks distraught after seeing how easily the duo knocked out two very powerful god level warriors. With their heads hung low, Carmen, Richard, and Seth drag their feet to me. They’re waiting for instructions or motivation. I doubt I’m the right man for the latter.

I listen as the fans talk about various topics including the stupid team that continues quitting their matches. I think the others can sense the crowd’s displeasure too, but there’s no need to worry about them. We’re our own unit and we’ll have to stay strong to win.

Dennis playfully runs his hand through my dreads. “I know you wouldn’t pass up a chance to fight. You must be going for the underdog rule.”

Carmen’s smile warms my heart a little. “If it’s what Kay decided on, it must be the best plan.”

Seth adds, “I’m with the idiot in whatever he does. His training is murder, but he’s pretty smart. I guess.”

Richard nudges the drunken nerd. “He’s probably smarter than you.”

“He is,” Jamie mechanically confirms. Her words cut him the deepest. I see a resolve build on his face. He’ll spend the rest of his life proving to her that I’m not.

Dennis leaves his seat. “You all should be sleeping in shifts already. The sun’s setting. If you want to take advantage of the rule, you’ll have to manually forfeit the fights. You can’t just skip them. Start winning your matches at five in the morning. Don’t lose one or it’s over.” He checks his phone. “And luckily for you, the other team that lost all of their matches just won their first one ten minutes ago.”

“We know,” Carmen sighs in a low voice. “We were the ones screaming insanely loud for them.”

Holding onto the pearls around my neck, I convert them into a brighter gold. “Don’t worry, Dad. We’ll be ready.”

As night approaches, Richard taps me on my shoulder, meaning it’s my turn to fall asleep. Within seconds, I’m out. The others adjust their schedules to make sure I get extra rest. Carmen told them about my rescue mission last night. They give me the most amount of time and wake me up immediately before the first fight.

“We have two minutes, Kay.” Richard offers his hand and pulls me up from the cold bench.

Okay. We can do this. Maybe.

“Here’s the deal. Seth, I need you to go to the field with me to fight Patrick and Selena. They’re our first combination. Even if we beat them, they’re still high-ranking so we’ll see someone from their team later. But there’s a problem. I need you to do most of the work.”

Seth sounds hostile, “What?”

“Dude. Patrick’s practically murdering everyone he’s fighting. Selena hasn’t even thrown a single punch. I need you to go after him. Think of him as your boss-level character.” Turning to the others I project, “I’m not fighting because I need to face off against Malik or Angie, whoever comes first.”

I program our entry on the phone and Thomas screams our names. The other two approach the field with huge smirks. They’re ready for us to forfeit again. Patrick’s in great shape. No one has put up a good fight for him thus far.

If this were a match between only the gods, he’d have many more scars. But with the entire school involved, he’s yet to cross anything that can pose a threat to him.

Seth rigidly glues his eyes onto the field. He can see his opponent and ex-boyfriend clearly from where he’s standing. I’m sure he’s more knowledgeable of Patrick’s abilities than all of us.

I’m unable to hide the diabolical grin stretching across my face as an immoral idea crosses my mind. “Seth. Take a swig of X-Eyes. I know you’ve been training drunker than you should’ve.”

He holds up one hand while yanking the bottle from his pouch with the other. “Cool. You don’t have to tell me twice.”

Sipping more than he should, Seth holds the bottle at a low angle. Then, I rush behind him and point the bottle up. The others scream at me as I force him to drink over half the alcohol in a matter of seconds. Directly in his ear, I whisper, “I’m sorry to do this to you, but you’ve been holding yourself back in training. When you were pissy drunk, you beat the hell out of me. So, I’m going to reprogram your brain.”

Richard yells, “Dog. You’re going to kill him!”

Once the bottle is empty, I shove him out of the gate with the others still yelling at me. Turning around I show them the bottle. “Anyone ever notice that the two X’s on Seth’s drinks are always scratched off? I wondered why at first, but realized that he’s shooting them off. He’s the only person with the skill and capability of taking on Patrick.”