Metro 2: Running With A Devil (Part Four)

by null0trooper

"Teacher said that every ending is a new beginning."
"Teachers can be wrong."

Chapter 7: Rolling Bones

Tuesday afternoon, January 29, 2008,
Team Tactics I Planning Briefing, Laird Hall, Whateley Academy

Alexander Peters ('Sandy' to his close friends, 'Gravedigger' for this exercise) paged through his sketches, shaking his head at how his assignment was panning out. The advice he'd gotten from his team had been limited to "As long as it makes that queer-bait Holm look bad, it's good enough in my book!" and "Sandy, just try to keep it simple and play to your own strengths." Thanks, guys.

"Miss Everheart? You do realize that I'll be catching hell over this exercise, no matter how it goes down?"

A Second Generation Whateley Academy Story

Rises the Sun

By Andrew “MageOhki” Norris
With assistance from Elrodw, Nightelf (for some scenes previously written before this became a canon project), JG, and the rest of the Generation 2 crew.

Chapter 5:  Contraction

“Mutants, paranormals, metahumans. All People. My job as educator is to educate them, and not view them, as several other institutions and so called leaders have, as weapons. When I became headmistress, part of my duties as I understood them was to be aware that I would have some students who were raised to be weapons. As well as to remember, they don’t know how to be children, so to learn to be adults, they would have to be first taught how to be children again. This is why I want to accept these students. Not because they need to learn to fight … but because they need to learn to play.”

Dr. Carson, to the board of Trustees, 2002, on the situation regarding several young paranormals from Africa that were rescued by SOCOM units and delivered to Whateley Academy.

A Tale of the Star Wars

Burdens of the King

by

E. E. Nalley

3627 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin)
Hyperspace, aboard the Aces and Eights, en-route to Ruuria, Outer Rim Territories

I sat and watched my apprentice, wanting, desperately to intervene, and yet holding myself in check, knowing that I could not. She sat in the lotus position on the floor of the galley of the Aces and Eights, her eyes closed and she was all but glowing in the Force. I felt her reach out, even here in the desolate void of Hyperspace to feel the connections of all living things. Her mouth opened, but I whispered, “Don't speak, stretch out with your feelings, feel the Force flowing through you. It knows what you want, you know what you want it to do. Let go, ride the current of it.”

A Whateley Academy Tale

Out Foxing

by

E. E. Nalley

And mother always told me
Be careful of who you love
And be careful of what you do
'cause the lie becomes the truth …
Michael Jackson, Billie Jean

October 3rd, 2007
Livingston Hall, Benjamin Franklin Academy, 147 Seaman Ave, New York, NY

Alex tried desperately to lose himself in the crowd of students making their way through the doors of the brownstone building. If he could just make it to the tennis courts he would be safe. Tennis was the preferred sport of Ben Franklin Academy and there were nearly a dozen courts in the park that adjoined the grounds of the school. The schools team always did well against the other private schools around New York and there was a certain amount of prestige to be had if one played the game well enough to make the team.

Alex wanted very much to make the team.

Anything that would improve his social standing in the school meant he was interested. While the well-heeled parents who put their children in a private school like Ben Franklin Academy paid to have teachers on staff who would not tolerate bullying, that just made the bullies smarter. Despite his money and 'trust fund kid' status that would normally put him near the top of the social heap at a regular school, at BFA, that was a minimum entry level kind of thing. It also meant the bullies couldn't be bought off. They weren't extortionists, this was sport as far as they were concerned.

A Battletech FanFiction

With a lever big enough I can move the world

by

Andrew “MageOhki” Norris

Chapter 2

See Chapter 1 for disclaimers and other information

Find your footing.

When dealing with those who are powerful, sly and cunning, much less rulers of interstellar policies of great size, be bold, is not always a good strategy. But the timid don’t win.

Bluffing and lying work, but sooner or later, your bluffs will be called, and your lies will be exposed. Be prepared to cover them. Better yet, only do it when you have to… and still have a plan B.

There are three things you can always trust to screw you over. A person’s greed, a mule’s stubbornness, and your own inability to recognize when you’re over your head.

Be careful with trusting people, even family. Even if they have loyalty to you, a question you must ask is… who else are they loyal to?

Letting anyone into your heart is a risk, you might get it broken. But being alone is so much worse.

From the journals and notes of Kikyo Onishi, New Avalon Press, 3291 AD, as part of the “Century of Chaos: The Movers and Shakers.” series.