• “Matthew! Wake up!” The silence of the morning shattered by the voice of Joy Royce, Matthew Royce’s mother. Matthew had dirty blond hair, green eyes, and you could never picture him the slightest overweight. His mother Joy had pure blond hair, blue eyes and shared the same weight ratio as her son and husband, Jacob Royce who had brown hair, green eyes, and has been thin since he was born. Now Matthew was 13 years old and as anyone knows teenagers never wake up the first time. “Wake up Matthew! Today is the beginning of the school year!”
    “History is SO boring though.” Matthew muttered in his sleep.
    “That was at your old school, your thirteen, your going to Tyronius’ school!”
    “OH CRAP! I ALMOST FORGOT!” Matt swore as he bolted out of his bed. Sprinting to the bathroom he got dressed then started to comb his hair while brushing his teeth. He then sped to the kitchen where he grabbed a slice of toast and his bags containing his clothes and equipment. He jumped into the car where his parents were waiting for him to head off.
    “So, honey, how is the research going?” Joy asked her husband.
    “ I found his hideout we leave as soon as we drop Matt off at school.” Jacob answered in a hushed tone.
    “Whose hideout?” Matt asked.
    “Um… our uh… Travel Agent!” Jacob answered nervously.
    “Why so nervous?” Matt implored.
    “I’m just worried about you.” Jacob lied he knew he would do great.
    “You were thirteen when YOU went, so I think I’ll be okay.” Matthew reassured his parents. After a few more minutes of silence the Royce’s drove into a dark tunnel that broke into a T.
    “We’re here.” Joy announced as they parked the cross area.
    “Where is it?” Matthew asked looking around the shadows of the tunnel. Seconds later his question was answered as his father walked to the wall to a brick in the wall that looked as if there was a number pad carved on it… there was. Jacob proceeded to punch in an order of numbers and a section of the brick wall rose into a small passage way.
    “Well, this is it.” Joy said trying not to tear up.
    “We’ll miss you.” Jacob said doing the same.
    “I’ll miss you two, too.” Matthew said hugging his parents. Matthew let go and stepped into the passageway with his luggage. He found a small one-man shuttle with a section to put his bags in which he began to fill. He then squeezed into the tiny capsule-like shuttle when suddenly a deep booming voice shouted: “VOICE KEY REQUIRED!!!” Matthew jumped in his seat looked around and hesitantly said “…G-God?”
    “He he, no sorry about that Matthew Royce, I’m Tyler, I work all the shuttles. I just do that to scare the living daylights out of kids.”
    “You know my name?”
    “The voice key confirmed it was you.”
    “Oh.”
    “Now. Sit back try to get comfortable because your estimated time of arrival is (WARNING: Hypothetical 4th Wall Destruction) how ever long it takes the reader to finish the next couple of sentence’s.” Tyler finished explaining.
    “Wait…Reade-?” but before Matthew could finish his question, the shuttle took of so fast his cheeks were flapping wildly. Before he knew it Matthew was zooming past sharks, coral, and clownfish. He was under water! Suddenly he surfaced and found himself in a room where other shuttles were left. He noticed a strange pad on the ground and closely examined it when out of the blue someone appeared on the pad. “WOAH!” Matthew screamed jumping three feet into the air.
    “WOAH!” shouted the kid who appeared on the pad just as surprised as Matthew was. “Of all my years of teleporting that was a first.” The boy who teleported into the room had very short blond hair and faintly blue eyes and was tall and strong but not too agile.
    “Sorry.”
    “Oh that’s alright. I’m Eric. You must be new here. Well c’mon I’ll show you around.” Eric offered.
    “Alright let’s go, oh and by the way my name’s Matthew,” Matthew accepted. “So you’ve been here before?”
    “My whole life.”
    “Wow. Related to the principal or a teacher?”
    “Yeah, you could say that.” Eric replied as he started to walk down the hall. “This is the math room were you learn about stuff with battle simulators and perimeter of battle arenas and stuff like that.”
    “Wow... sounds pointless.” Matthew complained.
    “Ah, next is the history room.”
    “Oh great, yeah yeah learn about history of warriors and stuff.”
    “Yep. Oh next is the chemistry lab.”
    “SWEET!”
    “Um…you like chemistry?”
    “I LOVE IT!”
    “Well then you’ll feel right at home here. Oh great! Next it looks like we arrived here at our dorms.” Eric said walking up to a double door with a big sign saying Boy’s Dorm.
    “Whoa, should I put my stuff in here?”
    “Sure just stick it right inside the door.” Eric said as Matthew put his luggage inside the room. After a while of touring past the cafeteria, the offices, and girls’ dorms (Which there was quite a bit of tugging away from the cafeteria) they finally ended at the gym. Eric and Matt sat down in the bleachers when Eric said that orientation would start soon. Soon kids started piling in to the gym to where the seats were crowded with chattering girls, loud guys, and a few teachers down at the front row. A boy with blue hair and brown eyes sat down next to Matt and looked a bit nervous.
    “You okay?” Matthew asked.
    “Yeah, I just don’t know how I’ll do.” The boy answered.
    “Don’t worry you’ll do fine.” Matt reassured the boy.
    “Really? Thanks, I’m Josh what’s your name?” Josh introduced in which Matthew followed. Suddenly the gym went quiet as a man roughly in his 30s walked into the center of the gym.
    “Welcome students, and newcomers to Tyronius’ School of Melee and Long Range Combat! If you would reach under your seat you should find a schedule of your first day here at school. Accompanying it should be a number that says what dorm room you are in and a ticket with a number on it.” The man was obviously Tyronius. Matthew reached under his seat to find a ticket with the number ten and a dorm room key with the number ten on that too. Matthew laughed at the coincidence. Then the man went on about rules like no fights unless in the gym during class or special events, only two slices of pizza on pizza night,and curfew at eleven.
    “Now let’s start the competition!” Tyronius shouted.
    “Wait, the what?” Matthew asked.
    “Two people go up and fight to see what rank they go into.”
    “Oh…Wait! What if someone gets killed!” Josh asked immediately, eyes widened.
    “Don’t worry there are medical nano bots in the air, even if someone gets a hole through their hand, BOOM! Healed instantly. Now holes in stomach or limbs cut off… about a week in the nurses office.”
    “Oh.” Josh gulped deeply trying not to think of the pain.
    “Will both ticket number 10s come up please!” Tyronius asked.
    “What about one!” Matthew and a kid down three seats shouted standing up. The other kid had short brown hair and brown eyes and looked just as shocked at the sudden calling of their number as Matthew was. They hesitantly walked down to the center of the gym when Matthew noticed: He didn’t have a sword!
    “Not to worry Matthew,” Tyronius reassured as he lugged a claymore over to Matthew. “This was used by your father, we don’t know how he did it, but he was able to carry it with ease so much so it looked as though he was a child holding a wooden stick.” Matthew went to pick it up but it slammed on his foot, but Matthew wasn’t able to scream in pain because before he could feel the worst nano bots (obviously) came and healed his foot. “Yeah I thought it would do that, we were never able to unlock its secrets.” So Tyronius pulled out a heavy box, opened it, and pulled out a broadsword and handed it to Matthew. The boy who was battling Matt walked toward him and went to shake hands.
    “Hi I’m Sean, it looks like I’m supposed to battle you. Well good luck!” Sean said as Matthew shook his and introduced himself as well. Before Matt knew it the buzzer went off to start the match and Sean disappeared but reappeared behind Matt. But Matt hadn’t battled with such intense warriors. There was a bit of dodging and sweating on Matthew’s side but Sean was speedily slashing at Matthew without breaking a sweat. Finally out of dumb luck Matthew made one swift movement and struck Sean squarely in the head. Slowly Sean’s bright calm mood turned to a dark anger in which his eyes proceeded to change red. Struck with terror Matthew dropped his sword and bolted out of the gym. Matthew was found in his dorm after Eric and Josh’s matches were finished (Both got Star ranks.).
    “Matt you in here?” Josh asked and Matt tried to hide himself under the bed, but he was soon found after they said that there was going to be pizza for dinner after all the kids were in the gym.
    “Why did you bolt out like that?” Eric asked.
    “I gave up, I couldn’t beat him.” Matthew said looking at the ground.
    “Uh dude, you tied. For Star!” Josh announced.
    “How? I left before the buzzer buzzed to end the match.” Matthew said confused.
    “You didn’t hear it?” Eric asked.
    “No.”
    “Huh, what happened down there?” Eric asked trying to figure everything out. Matthew told them everything that happened during his battle.
    “So I guess I just bolted out… in fear.” Matthew admitted.
    “Well come on lets get dinner.” Eric said walking toward the cafeteria with Josh. Matthew stayed behind shortly before finally following them. He knew in his mind that he DID lose to Sean.