20 20: Orientation: FIN I

"Chase wake up!" Iris urged shaking me. I grumbled and opened my eyes to see Iris standing over me. I was lying down on the bench in the ready room. After we won the last fight and secured our spot in Baset's class I was totally wreaked. I was out the moment my head hit the wood.

"What time is it?" I asked groggily.

"It's three am." Jane replied with a yawn. I groaned and covered my eyes with my hands.

"Fuck my life! I only got two hours of sleep!" I griped. Iris slapped me on my shoulder.

"Get up! Nigel's here."

I rolled over to see Nigel standing at the door with a amused look on his face. With another groan I sat up and managed to convince myself to stand. I stretched loudly then rolled my shoulders till I heard a cracked.

"Someone finally win?" I asked.

"Yes, about a half an hour ago. The dean suddenly broke into this long winded speech about how everyone in attendance could become as all of you if they devoted themselves to studying."

"I'm surprised that went over well. The dean basically said that everyone there is weaker than me." I said with a chuckle.

"Lets just say that there wasn't a standing ovation." Nigel chuckled.

"Baset wants to see us doesn't she?" Jane asked. Nigel's smile faded as he nodded.

"She wants to see you all in her office, follow me." Nigel said then turned to walk out of the door.

The girls and I followed after Nigel as he lead us through the coliseum's hallways. To our surprise he lead us outside the coliseum steps where a steed shuttle was waiting for us, this one had a driver. Nigel opened the door for us and we all piled in. The ride to Baset's office took about thirty minutes. I was shocked when the shuttle pulled up to the building, it was a massive spiraling tower, that was at least twenty floors.

"This is a pretty big office." I said.

"Andromeda has granted Lady Baset her own personal lecture hall with various facilities." Nigel explained.

"This building is a little big for a lecture hall." Iris observed. The shuttle pulled to a stop and Nigel stepped out and held the door open for all of us.

"It's not just a lecture hall, first floor contains the main lecture hall, second floor has various rooms for training magic, third floor has a more specialized library for magic, fourth floor is entirely dedicated as a gestation room for splicing evos, fifth and six floor are arenas for training with evos, seventh floor has a food court, eighth floor has another library specialized for evo gene research, floor nine through seventeen are one gigantic terrarium for evos that Lady Baset has created, floor eighteen is Lady Baset's private office, and floor nineteen is her living quarters." Nigel explained.

"Geez!" I exclaimed as I looked up at the tall spire.

"Baset has to be the envy of every professor here." Jane said.

"Of course she is, she's a Paragon." Nigel said as he closed the shuttle door. Everyone followed Nigel inside to the lobby.

The lobby was open and spacious, directly across from the entrance was a set of double doors that probably went to the lecture hall. In the middle if the lobby sat a security desk which I bet at any other time someone would have been staffed there but it being three in the morning whoever was supposed to be there was probably doing their rounds. To the right of the entrance sat two sets of elevator door s that had a side black bench between them.

Nigel led us to the elevators and pressed the button to head up. The elevator doors opened instantly and everyone stepped inside. The walls of the elevator were coated with a reflective brass coating.

As the doors closed I finally got a look at myself. I looked like shit. I had dark circles under my eyes, sand in my hair, a few bruises were starting to form on my face and arms, my shirt had a tear and a few scorch marks on it, and my jeans were caked in dust.

'Wow I really do look like a peasant.' I thought as I looked at myself. 'Too bad I lost my backpack when I got knocked off Jingles, I could have changed in the ready room before we left.'

The ride up to Baset's office was silent and but nerve-wracking. Both Iris and Jane were practically shaking from nervousness. Without thinking I grabbed Jane's left shoulder and Iris' right shoulder and gave them both a reassuring squeeze. The action surprised both them and me. I half expected them both to slap my hand away but they didn't. Jane squeezed my hand back and smiled appreciatively at me. Iris turned her head away and lightly petted my hand.

Soon enough the elevator came to a stop. The doors opened to a long hallway and at the end of the hallway was a set of double doors. The walls were covered in picture frames both large and small. We continued to follow Nigel as he walked toward the door. I glanced at one of the pictures that adorned the walls and was surprised to see what looked like a young Baset smiling in the arms of a much younger Nigel with a evo-viper coiled around her arms. Her face beamed with pride as she showed off the little thing.

As we made our way down the hall I saw more and more pictures of Baset with not just Nigel but all of the other guides. They were taken in various stages of her life but in every single one of them Baset was smiling with one of them. When we reached the double doors I saw one picture that shocked me, it was Baset with all the guides standing in a semi-circle around her. All of them had either their sleeve rolled up, pants leg pulled up, collar pulled down or short raised slightly all to show off a farm crystal.

'Nigel's a splicer?!' I thought! Nigel opened the double doors ad motioned for the three of us to head inside.

Baset's office was spacious and filled wall to wall with shelves covered in books and tomes and sigil cards. There were several piles of boxes marked various things in random places around the room. Seated in a leather chair in front of a massive oak desk was Baset, eight of the ten guides stood behind her in a semi-circle. Nigel closed the door behind us and took his spot behind Baset.

"Come closer." Baset said and waved us closer. We did as we were asked and stopped a few feet in front of her desk.

Baset eyed me up and down, her gaze stopping for a moment when she saw my farm crystal. She then gave the same treatment to Iris and Jane. Her eyes were cold but sharp, it felt like she'd examined me down to my genes and now knew everything about me.

"I was certain that we had come to a understanding Ms. Yearwood and Ms. Stone?" Baset eyed the two of them with a ferocious gaze.

"They never said yes." I said. The look she shot me froze me to the spot.

"I was talking to the young ladies." She said sternly then looked back at the girls.

"Chase is right! We never said yes to anything." Iris spoke up. "You just assumed that we'd go along with your deal."

"Well it certainly looked like you were at the beginning of the first fight. You both ran off and hid while he fought a half feral liger shark." Baset countered. "And as impressive as it was for you to tame a evo in the middle of the fight it doesn't change the fact that you know nothing about being a splicer. This is still a advanced course and the only reason you are here is those two helped toy."

"Lady Baset with all due respect were you even watching those matches?!" Iris asked. "Chase took on a Splicer who had stated repeatedly that he is his better and not only beaten him but tamed a evo that he brought out to fight with. Armed only with a spell that he learned this afternoon."

"And throughout every fight Chase and that evo fought like they were two brains sharing one body. Perfectly in synch!" Jane added.

"That doesn't change two facts. One: he's a unqualified peasant lacking in even the most basic knowledge. Two: I don't want him in my class!" Baset said.

"He's not a peasant!" Jane and Iris snapped. Baset's eyes widened.

"He might be uneducated, loud, annoying, smart mouthed…."

"There a point to this Iris?" I interjected.

"But he's not a peasant. He's talented. More so than me, given enough time he'll surpass everyone in this class." Iris concluded.

"The potential to surpass everyone in this class huh?"

"Exactly, he has a Star shaped farm crystal! You know how those are viewed in the splicer community." Jane added. Baset took a moment to think or at least look like she was thinking.

"Well since the two of you think so highly of him. You can both attend the normal classes with him."

"No!" I exclaimed. "They deserve to be in your class. You don't want me in your class, fine. Your loss."

There was a long moment of silence as Baset looked at each of the guides.

"To that I say. Congratulations. You passed your final test." Baset said. Nigel and the other guides started clapping, broad smiles on their faces.

"I'm sorry…what the fuck?"