Barcode: Legend of Apollo (20 page)

My suit shifts a bit in the process, making the sprint more comfortable. Leo’s armor glows as he takes the lead. I sense a hint of jealousy in my gear as it competes with his to configure the best settings.

Suddenly, my boots feel as though there were springs in them, and I shoot past my competition. On my way ahead, I say, “If I win, you have to tell me what Antonio really is.”

Leonardo grits his teeth in a determined but playful way.

On the last quarter mile, my lead increases. From behind me I hear, “Analyze upgrade.” Two beams shoot out at my armor. The first is green, and it only lasts a second. The last one changes colors too quickly. I can’t register them in my brain. Luckily, the strange light scares the students in the hall, clearing my path for the final stretch, but Leo’s suit changes dynamically. How do I know? I have a clear shot of it running ahead of me and, damn, it’s so much cooler than mine.

As though my suit could read my thoughts, steam pumps from it. Its appearance changes as well. The edges round off, it loses the various colors and glows, black and red. Then, a force like the one I felt rage from Angie pushes me forward. I begin gaining on Leo. He huffs, “If I win, you say what’s really going on between you and Michelle.”

We both pump our arms feverishly and leap for the door. A projector shines from both our chest plates showing the time of the run. Leo’s reads 1 minute 37.02123 seconds, and my suit shows 1 minute 37.02122 seconds.

Leo laughs as the sweat drips from his nose. I attempt to manage the bit of air remaining in my lungs. We both open the doors to witness the entire class watching us. I guess a thud that loud would grab everyone’s attention.

We pull our desks next to each other and Leo says, “Antonio’s my friend.” I look very displeased with his answer. After taking a deep breath, he exhales with a humming sound. “I use his data to keep him alive in the computer.”

That’s out of this world.

While Professor Gardezi begins his lecture, I’m compelled to ask one more question.

“How’d he die?”

Leo gazes deeply into my eyes before turning away. He doesn’t want to deny hearing the question, but even I can tell it’s too painful for him to talk about.

I’m well aware that the results were technically a draw. Thus, I mumble, “I don’t know what’s going on. She’s a good friend though.”

“And the girl you’ve chased for four years?”

I shrug my shoulders. I’ve tried asking Hannah out a few times after school, but she’s always in a rush to get home. I’m sure she knows how I feel, but she doesn’t seem as interested. That isn’t to say I’m into Michelle or anything. Things are just a lump of mess.

***

After class, several classmates gather to ask who won the race. They compliment Leo numerous times for his ability to keep up with me. Leo humbly attributes his success to the suit, and says he wouldn’t have come close without the gear. Professor Jules’ son, Malik, informs him that no one on campus, with or without armor, has come close to beating me in a footrace. Michelle’s the only student that holds records near mine, but gods and demigods aren’t allowed to challenge each other.

As we head to our next class, Yukio warns us about the irritable Apes on campus. He tells me they aren’t behaving normally. Most are even avoiding the gods they typically harass.

Once our second period ends, Kyle heads towards Monte’s desk and asks, “Hey, are the Apes behaving a bit strangely to you? In other words, are your groupies around?”

Monte watches me while speaking to Kyle, “Not one spoke to me today.”

Kyle sighs, “That’s weird. You’re like the Ape superhero on campus. If they’re avoiding you, something must be wrong.”

Patrick interjects, “You guys haven’t checked MeeToo? They’re pissed.”

He blushes as everyone faces him. He and Leo’s eyes connect briefly, which oddly causes him to flush even more. Casey walks over and says, “I looked at my account this morning, but didn’t see anything.”

Kyle nudges me and says, “Your grandad uses MeeToo?”

“MeeToo was created by someone my age, you dick. Learn how to piss straight before you call me a grandad.”

Kyle chuckles underneath his breath. He gets as much pleasure agitating Casey as I do with Dennis. Casey does normally manage to keep a cool head on campus, but Kyle’s like family, so he speaks pretty freely around him.

Casey asks Patrick, “So what happened?”

“I don’t know. Someone’s got them riled up about the segregation at our arena. They’re leaving hate messages in all kinds of data rooms. Someone even left digital graffiti in my storage. It said:
gods of what?
It took me hours to delete it.”

I notice a few other god level students check their MeeToo rooms. Hannah finds her storage tagged with the same graffiti, while Kyle, Selena, and Yukio find it in their rooms. Angie’s entire dimension is hacked so badly, she has to create a whole new account. Leo promises to release a homing virus to return the favor to the hacker.

MeeToo is broken into dimensions, towns, rooms, and storage. Dimensions are where everything’s kept—it’s like a personal space for each user. Towns are where we share information with each other. Visit someone’s town, and you can exchange data with their friends and see what’s going on in the owner’s life. Rooms are personal spaces that you can enter only after invites. You generally don’t tell others if you’ve visited a room because it’s only meant for private discussions to keep others from seeing your conversation. Storage is just what it sounds like. It holds the files you share with others. This can include music, pictures, and videos. Storage is an area just for the owner.

Ironically, storage is the easiest area to hack as long as you’re adding something. If you want to steal information, generally people head to towns and gather the roaming data between friends.

Most of us had purchased the top shelf of security features, but Angie’s new to the community data sharing realm. It’s pretty obvious that her page would break the easiest.

“I can’t believe my entire MeToo got hacked. I mean, I’m thankful that you’ll get me a new account and everything, but I had it decorated the way I wanted and my town music was so nice. Everything was pretty.”

Kyle pulls up a chair next to Angie and says, “Wow. The warrior princess is hurt? I’m here to comfort you.”

He tries placing his hand around her shoulder, but is instantly shut down. “If you touch me, I’ll demonstrate how grandfather taught me to crush every bone in the human hand with my elbow.”

Casey smirks and nods his head. Kyle, withdraws his hand cautiously.

Hannah tries reaching for my phone, but I pull it away. “I just want to see how much damage you have.” She tries starting a play fight, but I roll my eyes and hand her the phone. “Geez you’re getting boring.”

I’d probably flirt with her if my butt didn’t hurt so much. I hate how tight my glutes get after leg workouts. “Sorry. Just tired I guess.”

Leo adjusts his glasses while saying, “All that late night one-on-one training in awkward positions.”

I scratch my ear with my middle finger while Hannah stares at Leo, wondering what he could mean.

“You’re training? I didn’t know that.”

While nodding my head, I shoot Leo a firm expression in hopes that he’ll understand the predicament he’s placed me in. Luckily, it doesn’t take him long to register the mistake he’s made.

“Oh. And I’m emailing everyone right now.”

“Emailing what?” I ask readily. Hannah probably suspects my desire to avoid her question.

“I’m giving all of you my personal security protection for MeToo.” The genius tinkers on his desk tablet. “No one should be able to hack into your stuff with my virus protection.”

Kode watches us without saying a word. Kyle turns to Monte and says, “Does he need to send one to Kode too? He hasn’t
said a word
about being hacked.” The idiot laughs at his own joke.

Monte folds his arms. “Yeah right. They’d get a deathnote.”

Everyone’s eyes widen, even Leo. Deathnotes are high class security features that only arenas and government agencies have. It’s like a homing virus in every aspect, but it automatically launches after a threat. The note can actually connect to each of the hacker’s electronic devices, instantly gaining control of them.

“How’d he get those?”

Monte shakes his head, “Don’t know. He won’t share any with me.” Monte playfully punches his brother, and the two wrestle on a desk for a few minutes. Kode laughs as much as his brother. They really seem to enjoy each other’s company. Disgusting.

***

The small group of us walk to the cafeteria for our first break. Before we can get any food, loud cheers rise from outside. Our group gravitates towards the ruckus.

There’s a few hundred Apes gathered around a fourth year student, Abby. Though her family originated from the Philippines, her nationality’s very difficult to determine, which is common amongst Apes.

After many years of war, most soldiers found themselves scattered across various countries. They began killing off the men and mating with the women to spread their seeds. This was such a wide practice that ethnic origins became a blur. Only those rich or powerful enough to fend off this epidemic were able to trace their heritage. The majority of the population can’t be sure of their true nationality. Thus, most people define their cultures by their birthplace.

Abby occasionally claims to be American, but she more often refers to herself as Filipino. I think her vibrant attitude should make her an Olympian. She’s the only Ape I’ve ever respected as a gladiator, though I can’t say I care that much for her on a personal level. She’s never backed down from a demigod or god, and she’s mysteriously ended up in the hospital numerous times for it. Still, Abby’s never reported one of her attackers.

Holding a hand over her heart, she speaks like a true leader, “They call us Apes. Apes! I don’t remember being a liminal being. Do you?”

The crowd responds with a unanimous, “No!” That’s when she notices our presence. I have to admit, she’s a better person than me. Instead of directing her attention towards the gods, she continues her speech.

Sarcastically she shouts, “Even some demigods have respected and acknowledged our power. Why not the gods? Are they too good for us? I know. I know. We’re not worthy enough to be in their presence.”

The hundreds of students continue their rants. One voice stands out from the rest. I can hardly see through the crowd, but I know his hair is dyed bright orange.

“We were all created equal! That’s what The Writer says!”

“Exactly, we are equal, but because their power comes from birth and not liminal beings, we’re separated. They prohibit any human from having a barcode their size. It’s too dangerous for us so we’re given tiny stamps from the liminal beings. Who set that up in the government?”

The crowd rages and I foresee another civil war starting from this very arena. Little does she know, Apes were given many opportunities to wear barcodes like ours. I watched as Professor Gonzales and a few Moreno members worked on the seventy-third floor of our skyscraper. Those that could handle the painful tattooing process had exploded. Others lived extremely short lives.

Masks were created centuries ago to give humans the power they thirst for. I will admit it’s not fair that only slaves are allowed to wear the mask, but that’s an ancient law. The two options for Apes are to give up their rights, or live powerless.

Kyle leans his head next to mine and says, “This is really bad timing.”

“Why?”

“Finals are in three weeks.”

“So?” I ask before realizing his point. At the same time we say, “The parents.”

Kyle’s making this a laughing matter, but it couldn’t get any worse for Dennis. If parents arrive with a revolution on his hands, they might pull their students from the school. The wealthy parents are the most likely to attend Parent Month, and losing them means losing many donations.

I find the more I listen to Abby, the more I actually feel sorry for Dennis.

“We all got
our words
from The Writer this morning. Hold it up for everyone to see!”

Suddenly, hundreds of phones project a short and sweet message. Most of the Apes’ projectors flicker or have a grainy appearance, but a few are so clear they look solid. The text reads:
These self-proclaimed gods are humans too. Do not stand for injustice.

Behind me, I listen as Kode says, “I could have done this much better, but I was in a rush after talking to you last night. You have any ideas for the next one?”

I spin around hard enough to nearly knock Kyle over. Everyone watches as I stare at Kode ruthlessly. Anything I say to him will make me appear more crazed than the look on my face already makes me seem. So I push through our group and bump Kode roughly as I pass by. Neither of our shoulders move much. I wish I had hit him harder.

Monte rushes to start a fight with me for disrespecting his brother, but I can hear how tightly Kode grabs his armor.

I whisper, “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

He calmly replies, “Maybe not, but I’m just starting.”

Twenty One

The school day ends with a quiet, but chilling sound from the bell. The Apes don’t spend much time lingering or sparking another debate. In fact, they leave the school so orderly; I nearly expect a bomb to drop. A few teachers lean their heads into the hallway and watch in amazement. More surprisingly, other instructors exit the campus just as neatly.

I watch most of my friends load into their military cars. As I’m waving to Kyle and Wesley, mystically soft fingers cover my eyes.

“Hannah.”

She pouts, “You cheated didn’t you? When did you learn how to control your barcodes anyway? Class has been boring since you started turning them off.”

I tease, “I don’t need barcodes.” Then, I point to her voluptuous woman parts and laugh.

Gasping, she punches me in the arm. Twirling her hair like always, she covers her twins with one arm and headbutts my armor before leaning on me. “You haven’t asked me out in two weeks.”