Aegis Academy - Chapter 3

For the next twenty minutes, the two men scouted the area for any reinforcement to follow. Michael suspected they did that simply as a formality, because their demeanour told him they were certain no one will come. They came to rest around the campfire after they finished scouting and started brewing tea.

“You know they’ll try again. Soon” said the more serious looking of the pair.

“Ahh Vlad, if we had a nickel for every time that happened” replied the other.

They then both started laughing hysterically leaving Michael feeling awkward and confused.

“Sorry about that young soldier. Inside joke”

Then they started laughing even harder once more “Funny every damn time!”

Michael felt like they completely forgot about him being here and thought maybe it was his chance to escape, but then he remembered he isn’t the only prisoner here. And the men in front of him – granted, their current episode of laughter degrades from their aura of danger- can easily subdue them once more.

The nearer of the men had noticed Michaels train of thought. “Sorry about that. Now where were we?”

“You were about to tell me why we came to kill you” said Michael and this time he didn’t bother hiding his impatience with the man.

“Really?” said the man with a quizzical expression “ah that’s right. The new Council members did send you to eliminate us I suppose, right?” then followed carelessly.

“What?! How did you know who sent us?” Michael thought back very hard on his conversation with these men and did not remember ever revealing that information, he was never that careless. No, these men must have some affiliation to the academy. None but the board members should have known about this mission.

“We confronted the new Council members about their recent exploits and got nothing but deaf ears. I made an educated guess about what would follow, and the lovely company of you and your squad in this humble part of the forest confirmed it”

“And what exactly made you think they would listen to some unknown men opposing their business. Their word is absolute” replied Michael systematically.

“I can’t really bother with explanations right now so listen properly and do the thinking yourself” said the man and turned to face Michael with an unyielding expression printed on his face. “The Academy was created to police the world into a better more peaceful path yet they gave all its power to a handful of humans and called them The Council. Humans make mistakes; even Council members aren’t immune to the human condition, so do you really think the founders hadn’t thought of that?”

“Well, that is true” Michael said “but what can anyone do? We can’t allow such power to fall to democracy; that will create yet another country ruled by majority votes with dispersed ideals and views on justice. The power will be much too diluted to effect any real change in the world. The Council is made up of some of the smartest and most influential people on the planet that have a better chance of affecting change with this power.” Michael was proud of his Academy, and proud to have had this opportunity to boast about it.

“And that’s exactly why we exist my young friend; To make sure The Academy Council does what the founders intended for it” replied the man with a smirk on his face.

“We are the hand of God” Michael turned his head to see Vlad looking up at the sky full of pride. Then looked down directly into Michael’s eyes and said...

“We are The Guardians”

******

Michael stared at the pin for longer than he intended which did not go unnoticed by Johnson or Jack. “Sir, is everything alright?” asked Johnson worryingly.

That seemed to have awoken Michael from his temporary trance. He looked up at Johnson “Yeah. Yes, Johnson I’m fine” then turned his attention towards Jack with curiosity.

“This is quite an interesting pin, is it yours?”

Jack straightened his back against the chair to have a better look at what Michael indicating. “That? Yeah it is mine but I don’t see anything interesting about it”

“Let’s call it a difference of opinion then shall we” Michael replied. “It looks quite old, you probably got it from some flea market I guess” Michael hoped his indirect question didn’t raise any suspicions from the boy. He was wrong of course.

Jack wondered why the man was so interested in this junk, it looks just like a normal, albeit very old pin. Jack decided to answer the man’s intended question and see what the situation leads to next. It looked like Michael recognised the pin, so Jack had to confirm it.

“No actually, it was my father’s pin up until a few days ago. If you ask me where he got it, then I’m afraid you’re out of luck because I don’t know”

If Michael understood anything from what Jack said he didn’t show it. His expression remained as it was. What jack didn’t know is that what Michael showed physically was a far cry from what he was thinking.

Michael went back and studied all the aspects of this boy’s appearance, and what he knew about the symbol on the pin.

This symbol is the Guardian’s insignia. The Guardians are apparently a group created to act as police to the Council and make sure they are working towards the overall target, which is a better world, and of course to ensure they do not use their tremendous power for personal gain. When he encountered the two Guardians, they insinuated that the Council members were corrupt, which is why they had confronted them. He didn’t believe them of course... but that was only at the beginning.

When they let him go, he became more sceptical about the assignments he was given and started noticing some questionable orders. This had started to build up some misgivings in him about the Council ever since. He only accepted his current role because he wanted to continue his search and prevent his beloved Academy from going down the wrong path; of course that decision was met with shock and awe amongst Academy affiliates, because someone of Michael’s calibre would have his picks of important and much better paid positions, but he kept his resolve and took the post after 10 years of outside world experience and searching for clues. After the scarcity of information that he came by on the outside, it became clear that the best way to continue to investigate was from inside the Academy itself.

Now twenty years after his encounter with the Guardians come a boy that was somehow smuggled into the Academy, bypassing all defences, while carrying the Guardians insignia on his person. Michael thought that maybe The Guardians reached the same conclusion as him and decided to go undercover into the Academy, however something about this situation bothered Michael a little.

The boy sitting across from him showed no sign of any knowledge about any of this. Is it possible he’s wrong? Or maybe the Guardians have another purpose for the boy. It was even possible that all of this has nothing to do with the Guardians and Michael was only grasping at straws because his own search had yet to yield any result.

There is one easy way to find out of course. He had to test the kid somehow to determine if he is connected to the Guardians in any way. This boy was of average height and build, going into the academy can be suicide for him. The training methods within are not forgiving; they are harsh and long, and someone of this boy’s appearance may sustain heavy injuries or even lose his life during training. If Michael was to let this boy in, he needs to know he can handle it.

He needs to create an opportunity for this boy to escape, but he couldn’t come up with anything, so for now, he is going to turn the heat up a little and scare the boy.