Of course, there are cameras all over the front entrance and presumably every other door too. Not to mention the potential risk of coming in contact with a person of unknown origin. Better to find a window or some other such form of entry to do my recon. By now I already had a pretty good idea; judging from what I could see from my spot, most of the windows were sealed shut except for a small greenhouse with skylights left open, probably some kind of science or gardening room. In both cases there would likely be some sort of weapon inside. Taking advantage of the cameras' blind spots, I make my way toward the greenhouse *page_break It's just a simple matter of climbing up... And jumping down into the building. Probably one of the easiest infiltrations I've ever done, which makes me uneasy at first, until I remember that this isn't a military complex, or even a violent territory. Daniel made sure to specifically choose an area that had as little conflict as possible, including a remarkably low crime rate. These are all surface thoughts; my primary focus is on surveying my surroundings. It appears I was correct in assuming this was a greenhouse, there is a wide variety of vegetation in the area and sharp tools designed for tending them. The tools are what interest me, but unfortunately they're all too large and bulky for me to be able to use reliably; the hand shovel had promise but was less effective than just using my hands. Determining that there was nothing useful in the room I made my way to the door. The first thing to remember when opening a door is to never do so unless you know what is on the other side. Digging up what I can remember from the movies Daniel showed me, there will probably be hallways and teenagers doing a musical number about the power of friendship. Pressing my ear against the door, I don't hear any music so I guess they haven't gotten to school yet, but the hallways will still probably be there. No footsteps either, so I can reasonably certain that I'm the only one infiltrating the building. With a decent knowledge of what I'm running into, I of course... *fake_choice #Slowly edge the door open Stealth is what's key in an infiltration like this so of course I want to go as slowly as possible. Given that, the door is heavier than expected; still well within my ability to open, but I still wince at the audible creek that rings through the building as I move. Given by the level of the sound, I'd guess these doors hadn't received any form of maintenance in at least a decade. #Open the door as quickly as possible Everyone assumes slowly opening a door is the most quiet way, and with well-maintained doors they would be correct; but few people actually perform any type of maintenance on their doors causing the hinges to creak when opened without an adequate amount of pressure, so quick is the only quiet way. Plus, this way if there is someone on the other side, I can react instantly before they have time to process what's going on. Luckily, the hallway is empty and I'm able to step out without any incident. For the first time I get a clear view of what's around me; the hallways are well-kept, shiny floors meaning they've most likely been waxed recently, a variety of posters on the wall advertising events and...security cameras. Lots of security cameras. As soon as the thought is processed, I hear voices calling and rushing footsteps from behind me "Hold it!" I turn quickly to face them; two men wearing security outfits, with belts equipped with an array of non-lethal defense equipment. Recognizing the sight of a taser I realize that attempting to run from this distance would result in me being electrified and captured; even if I made a run for the open door, it would take 1.3 seconds for me to make that distance and the average time it takes a highly trained operative to fire a weapon from their belt is 0.9. I doubt either of these men are highly trained, but it is best to not take chances and wait until they are in closer range where I have the advantage. "What kind of student breaks into a school?" said the one who called out to me, "Just what do you think you're doing in here? The day doesn't start for another hour!" The other one looks like he recognizes me, "Hey, isn't ${he} the transfer student we were told about? I'm pretty sure Gardner wanted to speak to ${him} when ${he} arrived." It sounds as though if I went with these two they would take me to whoever they answer to. On one hand, turning myself in is rarely a good strategy; on the other, learning who is in charge would be a vital step in my reconnaissance. *fake_choice #I place my hands up, "I surrender. Take me to your commanding officer." *set report_submitted true *set combat -1 *set explosives -1 *set reflex -1 *goto_scene 1-3nervousprincipal-1 #This is my chance. I make my move while they're talking to each other *set bored +1 *set early_incident true *set incidents +1 Two security officers are hardly even a challenge. They're looking at each other while talking, which means the closest one isn't prepared when my elbow connects with his throat; the damaged airway will make him struggling to breath for at least 60 seconds. The other officer reacts by reaching for his taser, I predict this movement and counter by taking his allies' and firing it into his abdomen before it's out of his holster. By this point, the remaining officer is still struggling to breath and thus offers little resistance when my palm (always palm, only amateurs and masochists use fists) makes impact against his temple. The impact knocks him out. The encounter took around 6 seconds. Given how quickly it took for those two officers to react to a lost student appearing on their security cameras, I estimate that I have 30 seconds before reinforcements arrive. If I hope to continue my reconnaissance, I will need to find the security room and disable their camera system. Alternatively, it may be time to make a tactical retreat and leave the way I came... *choice #I'm in too deep. It's time to make a tactical retreat. *goto_scene 1-3escape-1 #I haven't learned anything about the environment. I can't leave yet. *set report_fight true It's too early to think about retreat when I haven't gained any actionable intelligence on the area. Before I can do anything, I need to figure out where their security room is and find some way to sabotage it; if given a few seconds, I could probably complete my reconnaissance by memorizing the images presented by the camera feed and save myself the time of running around the entire school. It's unlikely that those two officers were sent directly from the office. More likely they were in the area and contacted by radio as to my whereabouts. Knowing that, I search their belts and surely enough I find the radio and turn it on. "Officers down on Hallway 3!" I hear through it, "All officers converge on the transfer! Suppression is authorized!" *set school_radio true Hearing all this, a question rings through my head: why the hell does an American High School have this much security? Then a more pressing question rings through my head: Where would a security room most likely be? *page_break Next The location of the security room typically depends on the institution it is placed in. In a prison, security rooms are far from the cells so that in the case of a riot there aren't any weapons near the inmates. In a military complex, the security room is typically somewhere in the center or where it can be easily accessed by personnel from all over the base. The purpose of a school is to protect and educate the students, and though it wasn't the case in my last school they usually don't have weapons on site because there isn't typically any need of them, so there's no reason for it to be placed out of the way. Any threats would typically come from outside, so it would make sense for the security room to be near the entrance where an assault would typically start from so that the officers can respond quickly before reaching the students, which means the security room is most likely right by the front entrance. Knowing this, I immediately run towards where I remember the front entrance being, keeping my sense alert to any potential threats. "Hallway 4, the transfer is heading straight towards you!" Almost immediately after he's done talking I see a single guard with his ear to his radio come into view. He hasn't seen me yet, so of course I... *fake_choice #Throw my radio at his head It hits him squarely in the forehead, breaking the radio but knocking him unconscious almost instantaneously. I was honestly only expecting the radio to serve as a diversionary tactic, not to actually remove the threat altogether. I mentally scold this institution's training regime for producing such inadequate soldiers; it's almost a professional insult. *set school_radio false #Close the distance before he notices me He's heard my footsteps, but by the time he registers who I am I'm already less than a foot away. Using my momentum I land a knee squarely into the groin and, while he's kneeling over, follow up with another knee into his face, probably causing several fractures in his skull. He falls unconscious almost instantly and I spend the next few seconds recapturing the momentum lost by stopping to deal with him. "Jesus Christ, where'd this kid transfer from?! Iraq?!" Why does everyone always assume Iraq? There's lots of countries in perpetual war; I should know, I've fought in most of them. *set school_radio true Judging by the distance I've covered, I calculate that I'm 27 seconds away from the front entrance. *if (school_radio =true) "Hold on...guys, I think ${he}'s coming here! All units, get to the security office now!" Seems like I'll have less time than I'd hoped for. That's alright, though; as long as I can find the screens quickly, I can easily memorize them in a few seconds and escape through a window. As I turn the corner I can see through the glass doors where Daniel dropped me off about 10 minutes ago. Almost as soon as that thought registers, I see an officer come out from the door to the right holding a taser. He fires at me; I have just enough time to dodge out of the way, and luckily the taser is a one-time use. If he were using an automatic firearm I would probably be dead right now. Need to fix that later. *if not (school_radio =true) I rush to close the distance as quickly as possible. He sees me coming and raises his hands as a guard, likely remembering how well his friends were able to defend themselves. Upon reaching close range, I hit high as a feint; when his arms move high to block I place a kick into the groin. He kneels over almost instantly, and I follow it up by bringing an elbow onto the back of his head, knocking him out. *if (school_radio =true) I turn the radio in my hand into a ranged weapon and throw it at him; he sees it coming and dodges but the radio was only meant to serve as a diversion as I closed the distance and kicked his feet out from under him. Once he's on the ground I kick him in the side of the head, removing him as a threat. *set school_radio false *page_break Next I immediately run into the room that he came from and almost instantly recognize it as an office of some sort. On one door I see the nameplate "principal Gardner" and assume he must be the commanding officer that the officers from the start were referring to. What catches my eye more, however, is the large screen of computer monitors, with rotating footage of the entire school. I quickly began looking at each monitor, committing the images to memory. *set memorized_school_layout true With my reconnaissance finally complete, I have a choice; do I want to just leave, or should I destroy the system so that they can't use it to see what my escape route is and move to stop me? *fake_choice #I need to be safe; take a nearby cup of coffee and pour it on the keyboard With that done, I act quickly as I hear the sounds of footsteps running toward me, and I take the nearest office chair and throw it through the nearest window to create my opening. *set destroyed_school_security true #No, I need to move fast; there's no time to waste on this Acting quickly as I hear the sounds of footsteps running toward me, I take the nearest office chair and throw it through the nearest window to create my opening. #Wait, why am I trying to escape? Class starts in less than an hour *set explosives -5 I'm honestly curious as to why I didn't ask this question sooner? What the hell was I doing, this was my school now! And in that exact moment, my phone went off. The phone Daniel gave me. "What the hell are you doing?" He said the second I answered. "Recon." "Why am I being told that you've assaulted three security officers?" "Four now, actually." "God dammit," I could hear him sigh in frustration on the other end, "Just...go to the principal's office. We'll talk when you get home." *if hatedan >0 I'm about to say something back but by the time I can think of something he's already hung up. Bastard. I can't just completely ignore a direct order, not if I want to keep my status as a foster child instead of a felon, so as soon as I see the guards rushing into the office I bitterly hold my hands up in surrender, "Fine, I give up. Just take me to the damn principal." *if (hatedan =1) His tone is distinctly final and I'm highly reluctant to continue pressing my luck with him. Looking back, I probably shouldn't have let things escalate this quickly in the first place. I just hope Daniel doesn't revoke my status as his foster child... The security officers gather around the door and nervously poke their heads in. When they do, they see me holding my arms up in surrender. *if (frienddan >0) and (daddan =0) I probably went a bit far with this one...I know he'll probably forgive me but still, I prefer to not get on Daniel's bad side when I can help it. Honestly, I'm not sure how things escalated to this point in the first place. Not wanting to upset my guardian further, I put my hands on my head as soon as I see the security officers timidly approaching the doorway, "It's okay, I surrender. I'm ready to see principal Gardner now." *if (daddan >0) "Daniel...I'm really sorry," I try to say but he's already hung up before I can get the first syllable out. I feel like I really upset him this time. He told me very clearly to go straight to the principal's office; such simple instructions... I put up as little a fight as possible when the security officers come breaking through the door. It goes against every instinct, but maybe if I surrender and be nice to the principal Daniel won't be as angry with me *page_break To the principal's office... "You hospitalized four of our security guards *if (destroyed_school_security) and destroyed a $10,000 security system!" *if not (destroyed_school_security) !" Principal Gardner was less than pleased with how I was starting my first day. For the most part, his lecture was consisting of reminding me of things that I'd just done less than half an hour ago; did he think I forgot and needed to be reminded as some sort of side effect of my PTSD? I've heard of some conditions that can cause that, but I'm pretty sure I don't have anything like it. *if (hatedan >0) "If I were you, I'd use it an excuse to start a daily training regimen. You shouldn't accept such low-quality guards." This made him angrier for some reason. I guess some people just don't like honest constructive criticism, "Now listen you...I'm well aware of your...history, but I will not accept psychopathic rampages through my school! What if the other students had been present!" *if (hatedan =0) I sit solemnly through his lecture, trying to avoid saying anything or making any facial gestures that might further antagonize him; right now, I just want this whole thing to blow over so I can get on with my day. My silence seems to work since eventually he starts to calm down. "Now look, I'm well aware of your...history, but I simply cannot accept rampages through my school. What would have happened if the other students were there?" *fake_choice #I typically don't kill people who aren't posing a threat to me *set tactics -1 #Their interference wouldn't have changed the outcome in any significant ways *set bored +1 He winces when I speak, "You see? That's the kind of cold-hearted, callous analysis we're trying to fix." He sighed, "Well, seeing as how nobody died, and the CIA will be paying for the damages...we'll consider this a 'one-bite allowance' sort of thing. But if I hear anything about anyone getting hurt, especially a student, there will be consequences, understand?" "Yes." "Yes, well...good. Anyway...seeing as you'll still be enrolling here, you will need this," he said, digging through his desk drawer for some sort of paper and handing it to me. At the top was my name... *fake_choice *if (female =true) #Jane *set firstname "Jane" *set fullname "Jane Decker" My name, ${mr} ${fullname}, printed at the top with big bold letters. It was weird to think of it as my name; nobody knew what my actual name was, if I ever had one, so Daniel ended up picking one out for me. He said the name Jane suited me; as in Jane Doe, the woman with no name, no past, no identity. Perfect for a fresh start; or so he put it. *goto lamer #Henrietta *set firstname "Henrietta" *set fullname "Henrietta Decker" My name, ${mr} ${fullname}, printed at the top with big bold letters. It was weird to think of it as my name; nobody knew what my actual name was, if I ever had one, so Daniel ended up picking one out for me. He told me I was named after some woman from a long time ago named Henrietta Lacks, whose cells had managed to live long after she died and survive multiple splits. A testament to their survival instinct, although I didn't understand a word of it until we started my biology lessons. *goto lamer #Joy *set firstname "Joy" *set fullname "Joy Decker" My name, ${mr} ${fullname}, printed at the top with big bold letters. It was weird to think of it as my name; nobody knew what my actual name was, if I ever had one, so Daniel ended up picking one out for me. *if hatedan >0 I'm pretty sure the name is meant to be ironic seeing as how I haven't smiled in...well, I haven't smiled. If he meant it to be serious then he had a very poor sense of judgement when he named me. *if hatedan =0 At first I thought he meant the name as a joke until I asked him about it. He said his hope was that someday the name would fit, and so every time I heard it I would be reminded of where I was trying to be. He wasn't sentimental very often so that moment always stuck out to me. *goto lamer #Jeannette *set firstname "Jeannette" *set fullname "Jeannette Decker" My name, ${mr} ${fullname}, printed at the top with big bold letters. It was weird to think of it as my name; nobody knew what my actual name was, if I ever had one, so Daniel ended up picking one out for me. He said I was named after an American girl named Jeannette Walls, who was able to grow up in some of the worst conditions possible and still come out as a person, and even wrote a book about it. I never got around to reading it, but I admit I wouldn't mind swapping stories if I ever met her. *goto lamer #Joan *set firstname "Joan" *set fullname "Joan Decker" My name, ${mr} ${fullname}, printed at the top with big bold letters. It was weird to think of it as my name; nobody knew what my actual name was, if I ever had one, so Daniel ended up picking one out for me. He named me after a woman who became some kind of holy soldier a long time ago. I don't know much about holiness, but I recognize the soldier part all too well; which is why I suppose he figured it would be a good name or me. *goto lamer #It was slightly misspelled, so I corrected him *input_text firstname *set fullname (firstname&" ")&lastname "${mr} ${fullname}, you say? Well, I'll be sure to have them fix that," he said somewhat annoyed at either the printing company or at me for pointing it out. It was weird to think of it as my name; nobody knew what my actual name was, if I ever had one, so Daniel ended up picking one out for me. *goto lamer *if (male =true) #John *set firstname "John" *set fullname "John Decker" My name, ${mr} ${fullname}, printed at the top with big bold letters. It was weird to think of it as my name; nobody knew what my actual name was, if I ever had one, so Daniel ended up picking one out for me. He said the name John suited me; as in John Doe, the man with no name, no past, no identity. Perfect for a fresh start; or so he put it. *goto lamer #Pinocchio *set firstname "Pinocchio" *set fullname "Pinocchio Decker" My name, ${mr} ${fullname}, printed at the top with big bold letters. It was weird to think of it as my name; nobody knew what my actual name was, if I ever had one, so Daniel ended up picking one out for me. I found out in our literature lessons that I was named after a fairy tale character who started out as a lifeless puppet but through hard work and a little help managed to become a real boy. I suppose he was trying to be poetic. *if (daniel_warden =true) I thought it was a really stupid story. *goto lamer #David *set firstname "David" *set fullname "David Decker" My name, ${mr} ${fullname}, printed at the top with big bold letters. It was weird to think of it as my name; nobody knew what my actual name was, if I ever had one, so Daniel ended up picking one out for me. He chose David from the old biblical story, David and Goliath. Supposedly about a man who, with a slingshot, killed a giant with the help of his father, though the story didn't explain how his dad helped him; I assumed he provided some kind of sniper support from far away and let his son take the credit, though apparently he didn't coordinate this to his son because the son kept telling everyone that it was actually his father that killed the giant, but they made him a king anyway. I didn't really get it but apparently this kind of stuff is very popular in America. *goto lamer #Rommel *set firstname "Rommel" *set fullname "Rommel Decker" My name, ${mr} ${fullname}, printed at the top with big bold letters. It was weird to think of it as my name; nobody knew what my actual name was, if I ever had one, so Daniel ended up picking one out for me. Daniel was apparently a history buff, cause he named me after a German general in a war from a long time ago. Apparently he was pretty good cause he wrote a few books; though if you ask me, he couldn't have been that smart if he wrote down all his tactics in a book for his enemies to read. *goto lamer #Bruce *set firstname "Bruce" *set fullname "Bruce Decker" My name, ${mr} ${fullname}, printed at the top with big bold letters. It was weird to think of it as my name; nobody knew what my actual name was, if I ever had one, so Daniel ended up picking one out for me. Bruce was apparently the most boring and unassuming name in all of America, which made it perfect for blending in. I could see the reasoning behind it and thought it was pretty smart of him. *goto lamer #It was slightly misspelled, so I corrected him *input_text firstname *set fullname (firstname&" ")&lastname "${mr} ${fullname}, you say? Well, I'll be sure to have them fix that," he said somewhat annoyed at either the printing company or at me for pointing it out. It was weird to think of it as my name; nobody knew what my actual name was, if I ever had one, so Daniel ended up picking one out for me. *goto lamer *label lamer Below my personal information (that luckily never got too personal) was a series of times and classes that were supposedly going to be my schedule for the next school year 1st hour: Family and Consumer Science 2nd hour: Personal Finance 3rd hour: Algebra 4th hour: Art 5th hour: Language Arts Lunch 6th hour: Psychology/Sociology 7th hour: History It said that I was going to be placed in the Freshmen class, since I was 14-years-old. That probably wasn't true, but since nobody knew my real age my appearance was the best clue as to how old I was, and apparently I looked 14 to most people. "Now then," said the principal once I was done reading, "That's all we really have to discuss...I suppose you'll just stay here until classes begin...I hope we can keep the rest of the year incident free." *page_break First hour... *goto_scene 1-4first-1