Special thanks

First I would like to thank my friend Charlotte for her support to keep going and all her ideas. I'd also like to thank Marjolein for being an amazing friend and getting the best out of me and others. Isolde, Marjolein, you are some of the best friends and without you this story would be much more sad. I also want to thank everyone that has read my book already and gave their opinion, your criticism and compliments made some things right. If you thought I'd forget you you're wrong.I highly praise Isolde for giving up her free time to translate this book to English. Keep up the good work!And a last thanks goes to my best friend Juri for being an endless pit of inspiration.

This book is entirely independent and isn't in any way or form related to the Avatar series.

The story line

I saw how he stood up as he was roasted alive, I saw how his hands curled into claws and his arms stretched out to an invisible power. I saw his natural hair colour changing from blond to the black of the clouds and how the lightning whipped his face, leaving wounds on his arms and long deep scars on his back.

The story is about Flora who lives in an academy, in a kind of cyber world.Everything seems to go well until she discovers that she has medium gifts, and strange dreams about a teenage girl for example, or dreaming how an ex-pupil is preserved. All these dreams seem to be very important as her own world and the human world are threatened.

A story about friendship and sacrifice that touch your heart. Together with her friends Jack and Rayda, Flora goes in search for the missing student Zephyr, but they find him not in the right state of mind ...

Index

1. The nightmare Part 1: Dreams2. The academy3. The simulation4. Danger from the other side of the world5. What happened while Flora was asleep6. Taejo?7. Zephyr?8. Infection9. The terrible truth10.Strong diplomatics Part 2: Thunder and lightning11. Inhumane12.Secrets13.Rayda and Jack are in trouble14.Missing15.Viper

Important message

Firstly, this is suitable for all ages over 12 years but I am 100% sure that adults with imagination will love this story. Let's face it, your parents are not too old for Harry Potter, are they? It is required that the reader has some knowledge of fancy words and should know what an "adolescent" is.

Furthermore, the story is not written in chronological order so that means that there are multiple narratives to keep track of and will sometimes mix. People who frequently read (detectives or other complicated books mostly) will not encounter any difficulty reading. So only for experienced readers! With lots of hidden clues, this story will offer a lot sensation! It is wise to read with a clear head because everything and every sentence has to do with something in a later chapter.

Part 1: Dreams1. The nightmare

While the clouds darken filled the sounds of thunder the air. The air chilled.A stranger wrapped in shadows came closer. The guardian.

Far away in another world, away from the stormy place was a young teenage girl playing with a ball together with her brother. The girl kicked as hard as she could.The ball bounced into an alley. Syntia step into the alley and looked behind the garbage bin. ‘’You don’t fit there Syntia!’’ yelled her brother Danny to her.‘’Of course I do! I am thin enough.’’ she yelled back. While she pushed herself between the two garbage bins she hit an unexpected thing. ‘’Danny help me I am stuck!’’ Danny raced towards her. Danny grabbed Syntia’s back and pulled. ‘’HmmpfI am not strong enough Syntia, let me seek some help.’’ Said Danny to her.Syntia rolled with her eyes. While Danny ran away Syntia took a closer look at the obstacle. She pulled it towards her. It looked like a heavy wired plate.It started to glow at her touch. She was highly surprised. What glowed was now a dazzling light. Danny came back. ‘’Hey Syntia I have got a spade.’’ Said Danny smiling. ‘’Syntia?’’ No answer. Danny walked towards her. ‘’Wow… holy shit!’’‘’That is awesome isn’t it? Right in front of Syntia’s face was a small whirlpool of unknown symbols. ‘’Uhm Danny I don’t think this is a…’’ Syntia never finished her sentence. Syntia disappeared in a huge soundless flash. Danny was panicking.He grabbed the wired plate. It looked similar to a teleporter. One you find in games. Danny jumped onto his bike and brought the thing home.

‘’Wow where am I?’’ Syntia was floating around in a huge whirlwind of numbers and codes. Syntia was too shocked say anything. Mysterious, fascinating and deadly.It feels like she didn’t thought that last word. Syntia was light as a feather and she floated gently trough the tornado of data. She hesitantly opened her eyes, the clouds(if it were clouds) were as black as the darkest night in the Australian outback.Unlike the clouds, the floor was giving of some light. Flashes of lightning darkened the sky. Wait a second… lightning is not supposed to darken the sky!Syntia woke in a total shock: she was not dreaming. She was not home, not on Earth at all! Suddenly the gravity returned and Syntia felt hard on the ground.A shadow mastered the environment. Syntia gave a tiny scream, the environment was one vast plain. Some dead trees where spread over the area and shadows were lurking for someone. Syntia was still in the tornado of data. One of the shadows came towards her. ‘’Whuaaa!’’ Syntia screamed. The shadow revealed himself; it was a boy or a man or something between. He lifted his weapon. His weapon was a… well I don’t know, atleast it looked like a sword. Syntia was filled with fear, she pathetically crawled away for that dangerous person. ‘’Mum, Help me…’’ Her voice was nothing more than a whisper. He changed his mind and dropped his weapon.He reached out to Syntia. There was nothing left of his threatening aura. Syntia hesitated and took his gloved hand. It felt warm and safe to take his hand.‘’Who are you?’’ Asked the adolescent nicely. “Welcome to the Plains” the adolescent said grinning.

”My name is Taejo, guardian of the Vortex, not that will mean anything to you.” he said. With her eyes wide open Syntia looked at the strange long man. “I want to go home.” Syntia whispered hoarsely.

2. The Academy“Whoas!” Flora awoke in an instant. “ Oh Motherstorm, never again. Quick, I need to get dressed. Oh never mind...” She was too late, the buzzer went and a voice echoed through the speakers: “Flora Lansbergen cadet 5170 needs to report at Section A1.” “Oh no, I'm late after all” She hurried herself to section A1.“That's the third time you've been late cadet 5170!”“I'm so sorry sir Shen.”“As a punishment you need to oil the robots starting at hour 142 'till 150! Let this be a warning to you Flora!” he said her name with disdain.

“He is one of the most annoying programmes.” Flora mumbled.“Barrack” she read out loud “that's where I need to be.” She opened the heavy doors, hundreds of robots were waiting for a good cleaning.She started on the first one she saw, a small one that looked like a trash can. “This one looks fun I'll start with this one.” She opened it and discovered ... trash; chewing gum, wads of paper, pencilgrams, and even denture! “Gross I'll leave this to the Ultra-animals.”So she started on a quite dirty looking droid, but this one had no unhygienic dirt in it at least. Flora couldn't even remember how long she had been scrubbing, and as exhausted as she was, she went to the next one.

“Hi, Flora.” a nice voice said “Oh hi Jack, are you here to pick me up?” Flora asked. “Yeah, you're right your punishment is over.” Jack said. “What class do you have the next two hours?” Flora asked. “A simulation test, want to come along?” Jack said. “Yeah, let's go!” Flora cried.

Okay, just to clear things up, I, Flora wasn't very clear now, was I?

So, Jack is my best friend. I found him shortly after the disaster. The disaster was, to keep it short; an apocalypse, not for me or the rest of us, but for the Different ones.There were, way before I came, professors whom created a revolutionary system. A system which was able to copy molecules. That way anyone who loved gaming could make a virtual copy of themselves.The system was completely new and untested, that was when the disaster came: the virtual space became reality! After that happened the people that had survived made a machine that could take them back in time so they could save themselves.

But this happened a long time ago, it's somewhere in the history archive. Jack lived through the disaster but he's over it already. I found Jack when I was patrolling in the Kekuatan forest. He was hunting something he calls a 'rabbit'. After loads of talking I finally convinced Jack to come with me to the Academy and give up his old life; with the motto: adjust yourself, if you want to stay alive. That was enough to bring Jack from his little dream world.

But I'm keeping you readers from the story, so let's continue.

Jack and Flora walked together through the corridor. “Hey Jack, would you look at that! That sword, that plasma sword!” Flora cried. “Something wrong, bitch?” the passer-by called. “Huh? What's his problem?” Flora whispered to Jack. “I dunno, that's Liander he is always this moody.” Jack said.Unperturbed the duo made their way to room C354. “Best cadets this machine is very sensitive so I expect that all of you that you will be careful. Because the school fee is running out.” sir Wakuri said.

Wakuri Hattari is a Chinese who created Shen Hattari. Shen is one of the key programs that keep the Academy system running but don’t be fooled by his appearance! He walks in a (apparently) human body. Wakuri is also the schools governor and Shen assists him in this hard job.

“Ahem!” Wakuri cleared his throat. It was silent in the classroom in an instant. “Today we're substituting our usual lesson for a team to team fight in the simulator. I expect that nobody will get hurt with this.” sir Wakuri said loudly. Astonished as the cadets were, they all looked at the huge machine that towered above them (mostly because they had to sit on the floor while the teacher talked). The simulator was about 9 feet high and the door was around 6.5 feet wide. This so that no student would get stuck when they had had a growth spurt, at least that's what Wakuri says (I don't believe him).“Okay, we'll make two teams, Alfa and Beta, as default teams, has anybody a question? No? Good!” Wakuri said. It seemed to take an eternity for him to set up everything. “Oh, and this machine has a password, just in case of curious students.” Wakuri looked at Rayda in particular.

Rayda was the guy, well actually the girl, whom (by accident) beat a bully to death. And she also set a classroom on fire (also on accident). Strangely these things only happened when she carried her plasma sword with her, which she always does. She even has it under her pillow when she's asleep. She is a girl but she acts more like a guy, even her physique is more guy like. She used to get bullied about that, until she beat that boy to death (by accident).I still wonder why she isn't expelled yet, with all these tantrums she has had. Okay, she saved my life 5 times while she was mad. Like that time when we fought against those metafections(*). A whole troupe I tell you, it was like the 2 of us against 10 or more of them. That was when she still had her training sword, after one of them took it from her she got so mad that she beat the thing to a pile of goo with her bare hands. After him she took her anger out on the rest of them. She took his weapon with her, because those things you have to make yourself. And knowing her, she can't really do that. In the years after that her ADHD or whatever it was had only increased, but all in all she is a fun girl. With whom you can have loads of fun and mischief. We're even friends nowadays!

(* Metafections are the people whom have been infected with computer viruses)

“Are you paying attention Flora?” sir Wakuri asked angrily. I snapped out of my reverie. I stood up and meekly followed the stream of people into the simulator. “Flora, we're in the same team!” Rayda and Jack said at the same time. “Just you wait, I'll turn your bones to dust!” Liander hissed to her. He said this with such a cold stare that I didn't doubt that he would do just that if this wasn't a simulation.I instinctively swallowed the lump of fear that was in my throat. While I was walking Rayda and Jack at my sides I noticed that the teams were bigger than I originally thought, 12 against 12 is a lot.

“Flora, because you're the oldest of the class, you will be the leader of team Beta. I shall be the leader of team Alfa, but most of all I will be the referee.” sir Wakuri told us. “The rules are easy, the team with the most points wins, to get these points you have to kill an opponent.” A look of apprehension and some murmurs went through both of the groups. “Just remember that none of you will really die, because this is a simulation.”

There were a lot of relieved sighs following that statement, there was also one person that looked quite disappointed (three guesses who). “If someone dies they'll be brought back in the game after five seconds.” the teacher said. Someone raised their hand “Yes, Rayda?” sir Wakuri said, “Do you feel anything if you get hurt?” she asked, to everyones surprise she was very serious about this.

The teacher had to think a few minutes about his answer to that question, then he said “That depends on how real you want your simulation to be, in this case you won't feel a thing.” With a serious face Rayda sat down again, “I've got the feeling that something is very wrong here. That there's more to this and that something terrible is going to happen.” she said.If everything was normal I would have laughed at her, but after all the times she'd saved me and after her question just now I didn't doubt her. Jack got shivers from what she had said.Both groups stood up again and walked into the simulator for real.

The inside was even more impressive than the outside, we were in some sort of glass dome which looked out over our battlefield, which was simply the worse part of my neighborhood. With the rotting shed, the dirty square and the open sewer. That thing behind that box there looked like it had once been a trash bin.There was also a sturdy looking side building, it looked like it would start to rain soon because of the tinted glass. “Are you ready? Do you know the rules? Oh, and before I forget you're allowed to use any weapon and you can take as many as you want!”. Wakuri yelled above the nose, it seemed like Liander didn't mind that at all.

“Okay we start now!” sir Wakuri yelled enthusiastic.

3. The simulation

With a speed and power we didn't expect we were teleported to the floor of our battlefield. I had a good landing but some others didn't have that much luck, like Rayda whom had landed in the sewer. A hellish kind of screaming of pure anger and so much swearwords that I'd never heard before came out of the sewer. Wakuri Hattari shook his head ashamedly, while our class was shaking with laughter. I didn't want to know what she was screaming but I couldn't resist to take the hands that I had put over my ears off. “DIRTY FILHTY PIG I WILL HIT YOU ON YOUR DAMNED MOUTH!” she yelled at the second years of our class. This went on for a while until sir Wakuri had enough. “Alpha starts at the side building and Beta at the shed!” Wakuri yelled. Apparently Rayda heard it as well and ran off with us.From a speaker we heard “We start in 1, 2, 3!”. It seemed like someone switched a dial in my head, because I thought of nothing else but fighting and surviving. Our team fought like a freshly oiled machine and we gained more and more points. The only real thought that showed up in my head was 'where the hell is Liander?'. I played opponent after opponent to 'the other world' with my laser sword.

A bloodcurdling scream sounded throughout the street, the scream of Liander. Suddenly the face of Rayda appeared in front of me and her words of earlier: “there's more to this and that something terrible is going to happen. Be prepared.”. Prepared for what? I wanted to scream back at my memory, but it was to late. Together with both Alpha and Beta I ran to where his scream resounded. Liander was bravely dying fighting against metafections. Really dying.

“Zephyr, pl-please stop.” hoarsely he repeating his words. I stood there nailed to the ground, the euphoric feeling of the battle drained from my body and was replaced by a cold sweat from fear. The kind of fear you feel when your family gets killed by your best friend. Rayda was the first one of us to be able to move again.What she did was simply indescribable, heart wrecking and above all; lethal.Rayda attacked with a strength I still can't believe she had. Her plasma sword pierced Zephyr's body like a knife would pierce butter. With an inhumane double voice Zephyr screamed in anger and threw Rayda through a concrete wall.

The gloomy sound of breaking concrete and bones mixed with the psychopathic double voiced laughing of Zephyr. I felt my blood start to boil and I felt like a fury, a fury of pure anger? I don't know how to describe it, just furious. I groped for my automatic energy gun and shot energy through his head until I didn't have any more ammunition. In the corner of my eye I saw that Rayda was still conscious. But Zephyr still wasn't dead, and to think, this all happened in mere seconds, way to quick for the others to help us.

3. What happened when Flora was asleep

With a voice that was hoarse with emotion Wakuri Hattari announced that the simulation was over. There wasn't any hostility left between Alfa and Beta, together we helped to carry the wounded. Liander was pretty well of for an accident with a metafection (a few cracked ribs and a light concussion is the least you can get when fighting against 10 metafections, and I know it from experience). Rayda was much worse, with internal bleeding and an open fracture. Something or someone must have hacked the system, Flora thought.

A few other teachers came to take away Zephyrs body. Which wasn't even decoded yet. With them were Taejo (a very talented guard that even teaches cadets to become guards), Miss Eugenia that teaches the classes about mental health, Shen Hattari (whom guides newbies and assists Wakuri) and Bianca, she teaches dodging and agility. Yes the Academy is pretty much a school where you learn to kill.'Psst! Flora, apparently Taejo has been called away from his job at the Vortex.' Rayda whispered. I rolled my eyes, 'Of course he's been called away, how would he be here otherwise?' she didn't know an answer to that.

Together the four teachers carried the ambrosinian casket with Zephyr to the portal.