My name is John Harolds. I was a junior at the Sacred Soul Academy, a prestigious academy that churned out hundreds of alumni who would one day become the pillars of society. Something happened that year. My classmates and I became involved with something big that could threaten the very social order of the world we lived in and we ended up being hunted by the police, the military and everyone we had ever trusted. This is the story of the greatest escape of our lives. What if you were told that the life you had led was all a big fat lie? A wedding! I still can't believe it. A wedding, of all things! Wait, it's actually 3 weddings. I hope there's not a funeral. Escape! Chapter 4 By Shinieris

"Hey Carl, how about some chocolates?" I asked while looking at the selections they had in the chocolate section of the mall.

We were in Chicago City, on our way to Mineshaft 6, near Los Angeles City. We were looking to resupply our dwindling foodstock after a full day of riding. Sure, we still had those MRE rations our seniors packed, but those tasted like shit and we'd rather leave it for real emergency in case we had nothing better to eat. Seriously, how could they expect us to eat something so disgusting?

"Not important, but if you have the money to spare. Sure, indulge yourself," he said.

"Will Van Meld do?" I asked as a picked up a large bar of Van Meld Black and White Rhapsody.

"Of course, pick whatever you like, it's your money."

"I'm actually thinking of sharing. It's been days since I last had chocolate melting on my tongue."

"Share? But... can't you finish it yourself?"

"You know I vomit everytime I eat more than half of a large bar of chocolate at any given time."

"Actually, I don't know that. 'They' probably forgot to include that detail into my memory. You can keep it to eat later."

"Sure, but we don't have refrigeration. The chocolate will melt after a few hours."

"Then take a smaller one?"

"I would love to, if they sell a smaller portion. Look, do you like this flavour or not?"

"I suppose. I don't have any favourite."

I pushed the bar of chocolate at his chest. "Then shut up and just put it in the trolley."

Anya looked at us in a weird way before she picked up a Darmello White Chocolate and placed it into the trolley that Carl was pushing. Yuu and Nanako weren't with us. They were at the electronics and engineering section, looking for things that they could turn into makeshift weapons or bombs, in case we needed them in the future. We agreed to meet in front of the second floor washroom in half an hour. They told us to buy some food for them too, with heavy emphasis on fruits and deeply fried foods, like hamburgers and chicken nuggets.

"Carl, how about some perishables?" I asked as we entered the grocery section.

"As long as it's nothing we need to cook, sure. Preferably something we can eat raw. Having heavily preserved cornstarch and potato snacks isn't exactly healthy for my body."

"Ever eaten fish raw?"

"No please, don't even suggest it. It's disgusting."

"Fish are very soft when eaten raw," I giggled slightly.

"It's also slimy and disgusting. Please do not suggest it ever again. How about some cabbage?"

"Cabbage? Carl, are you a goat?"

"I assure you, with some salt and mayo, raw cabbage taste good. Better than those MREs, at least."

Both of us groaned at the thought.

"Hey, I need to go to the bank for awhile. Let's meet in front of the second floor washroom later," Anya said as she dropped some sweets and drinks into the basket.

"No," I said while dropping a bunch of apples and strawberries into the shopping trolley.

"Excuse me?" Anya said, sounding very shocked.

"I said no. If you need to go, we'll go later," I said it again while dropping a bunch of oranges and mangoes into the trolley.

"I wasn't asking for permission."

"And I'm not going to give your permission, whether you ask it or not. Carl, do you think we should get some of these roasted beans? Smells good," I said as Carl grabbed a packet of the already packaged fresh roasted beans.

"I don't need your permission, Jane," Anya argued.

"Oh you do actually. You're still underaged," I argued back while checking out some cheddar cheese.

"Helloo, you're underaged too."

"I'm at a marriable age. Meaning I get to do whatever I want, even get married and get a job if I want to. Carl, I'm not familiar with these brands, you have any favourites?"

"Try the Dairymaid," he suggested.

"Hey, don't ignore me like a married couple. Don't be such a control freak, you're only a year older."

I turned towards Anya, pressing my hand on her shoulder a little bit hard until she winced in pain, I said, "Well, you look like an 8 year old, how exactly will you convince people that you're 14 looking like this?"

"I'm only going to open a bank account!"

"We are going together, Anya. Do not argue."

"But Yuu and Nanako get to go off on their own!"

"Yuu and Nanako are two people. As long as they don't separate, there's no problem. There's only one of you. If we separate, we will not be able to verify if you're you."

"But, they could be both replaced at the same time!"

"Anya, listen to your mother," Carl said with a chuckle.

I smacked him with a cucumber in response.

"We really need to have a better way of verifying each other," Yuu remarked as he pushed down the hem of his shirt over the 'flaming horseman' tattoo to the left of his bellybutton.

"If you have a better idea, I would like to hear it," I said as I pulled up the back of my top, then pushing it back down once everyone had a look.

"Tell me about it. Having to show this much skin in public places is embarrassing," Nanako said as she pulled down her shorts, revealing her pale green lacy panties and the 'skewered dolphin' tattoo on the inside of her left leg.

"Hey, at least you guys can get away with showing a little skin. I have to raise my dress to show my proof. All the others are at much more secret places. I really need a new wardrobe," Anya said as she raised her dress, showing her white cotton panties and the stud on her bellybutton.

"Nobody ever said you should put those in such out of way places. Watch my tat," Carl said as he showed us the tattoo of my face on his upper arm and flexing his muscles the tattoo as if to make a point.

"Get over yourself, stalker," I said once everyone was verified.

"So should we get back on the road?" Nanako said as she pushed open the door of the emergency staircase and went out first.

"Not just yet, I need to charge my particle wand. It seems like I've been using it a bit too much," I said, almost forgetting that my IL52S was 10% depleted.

"But even without charging, it will still be a long time before it's depleted, right? Mine still has 97% charge," Yuu said as he put his hand on the IL52S inside his right pocket.

"It's best if we prepare for everything. Besides, we can take this chance to rest. I'm not used to camping outside and I need a soft bed once in awhile, or a couch. I'd kill for a couch," Carl said while rubbing his shoulders.

"Shall we get a hotel room, then?" Nanako asked as she told Anya to find a good hotel in Chicago City.

Yuu agreed. "Might as well. This may be our last stop before we reach Mineshaft 6. That will be a long ride, my body will no doubt be sore all over."

"Once we reach Mineshaft 6, we can get our hands on that awesome piece of engineering," Carl said excitedly.

"That Mirialis Corvette will no doubt be useful, even without its integrated stealth capabilities. It will be like a mobile base for us, with warm beds, full kitchen and real guns. It has a crew complement of 44, including the commanding officer, executive officer and five lower officers. With only 5 of us, we can have entire rooms to ourselves," Nanako added.

"We can treat it like a real-life Tactical Command Center," Yuu nodded.

"TCC is copyrighted by Evil Android Games through their game Metallic Fury. We need to name it something else," Carl remarked.

"My dear friend, we are being chased by the military, with guns, cannons, tanks and bombers. Copyright infringement is the least of our concern," Yuu argued.

Carl shook his head. "Lawyers are worse, man. Lawyers are worse."

"Hey, I found several hotels but I narrowed it down to two. Better service, more comfort but higher priced; or cheaper, but service is like, meh?" Anya said suddenly.

We all agreed on the hotel with better service, more comfort but higher priced. With everyone pitching in, we could afford to get a double bedroom for the whole month and there would still be a lot of money left over. She made the reservations through her tablet using her new debit card. After fixing everything we purchased to the bike, we rode leisurely through Chicago City's busy streets while following the speed limit of 50km/hour.

"Oh man, I miss this a lot!" Carl said as he jumped down on the bouncy bed.

"Yeah, I regretted not using Jimmy's bed when we were there. God, I miss this softness," Yuu said as he laid down on the other bed with a bit more control than Carl.

"Umm, excuse me, you boys are gonna have to share a bed," I pointed out.

Yuu and Carl looked at each other before they both said, "No way," at the same time.

"I'm not here to sleep with a guy," Yuu stated.

"I'm not gonna sleep with him, period!" Carl said.

"Then where the hell are we going to sleep?!" I asked.

"I can sleep here," Nanako said as she took off her jacket and got onto the bed before putting her neck on Yuu's arm.

"You can sleep with Carl. Don't worry, you're both boys," Yuu said with a chuckle.

"I don't mind, really," Carl scooted over, leaving the left side open.

"I'm just gonna go lie down on the couch," I said as I turned around.

Before I could even take a step though, Carl got up from the bed and pulled me down, saying, "Don't be silly. It's big enough for both of us."

I looked up at his face as he hovered over me on the bed. I really did feel good having a soft bed under my back. It felt so good that eyes got droopy and I was about to fall asleep when a sweat from his forehead dripped onto my cheek. Shocked awake, I quickly sat up only to have my forehead banging against Carl's chin causing me to fell back on the bed.

"I'm taking a bath!" I said while rubbing my forehead.

In the end, it was decided that Yuu and Nanako would be in one bed, Carl and I would be in another and Anya would sleep in a kid's bed. We called the service counter for both the bed and a room service to deliver dinner. The clerk promised that it would be delivered within half an hour. The bed was delivered at the same time our dinner arrived, exactly half an hour later. No wonder this hotel had very good reviews.

I was woken in the middle of the night by some very curious sounds. On the other bed, where Yuu and Nanako were sleeping, the sound of rustling sheets and subdued female moaning caused me to strain my ears. As their shadows shifted under the light of the table lamp at one corner of the room, I finally realized what was happening.

"They're having sex," I whispered to Carl as I saw the shadows of both Yuu and Nanako silently doing the nasty on the other bed.

"Yeah, I heard," Carl said as he got closer behind me before putting his arm around my waist.

"What are you doing, Carl?" I said as I felt his breath on the back of my neck.

"You hair smells so good, Jane," he commented.

"Thanks, I washed it earlier," I said as he smelled my hair a little more. His breath on the back of my head felt quite good for some reason.

He hugged me around the waist a little tighter as he pulled himself closer until we were spooning so tightly without even a tiny bit of space between us. I tried to ignore it as I listened to Yuu and Nanako's passionate cries on the other bed. Suddenly I felt something hard on the crack of my butt as Carl moved his hips in a suspicious manner.

"Carl! You're humping my butt!!!" I scolded which surprised everyone in the quiet room including Anya, who was actually feigning sleep.

"Don't worry, it was funny as hell," Yuu said awhile later with a laugh, after both he and Nana wore their clothes again.

"Come on, man. You guys were having sex on the other bed. I only got Jane! And she doesn't even have boobs I can play with!" Carl said as if trying to defend himself.

"If you want boobs, how about I give you a pair?" I said, referring to the pair of breast gels that Annamarie intended for me.

"Yes please, it will make you perfect!" Carl said, totally misunderstanding the meaning of my words.

"Maybe we need to reconsider the sleeping arrangements," I remarked.

"We're not reconsidering," Yuu said as he pulled Nanako to him.

When I fixed my gaze on Carl, he somehow understood what I was thinking as he said, "No! I'm not going to sleep on the couch. We have a perfectly good bed here!"

"I don't want to be humped in my sleep, Carl," I stated.

"I promise! I promise I won't hump you in your sleep anymore. Just don't kick me to the couch! Please!"

"Maybe we should order another bed?" Yuu suggested.

"Already asked, there's a strict policy on that, no additional adult beds allowed in the room. But... nah," Anya said.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about something, don't worry about it," she said as she made a little grin.

"Anya!"

"Don't worry about it, Jane. Just go to sleep, with his arms around you, hehehe."

"Come on, Jane," Carl knelt in front of me with his hands clasped together between us, "We've been friends since we're kids."

"That memory was fabricated," I stated.

"Yeah true, but we're still friends," he said with hope.

"Sure, you're the friend who wants to hump my butt."

"I won't do it again. Please! It will be a long ride, who knows when I'll get to sleep on a bed again."

I was adamant about forbidding him from my bed, but then the idea that we'd be riding for two to three days nonstop made me reconsider. Not only would we not have any beds to sleep on, we would actually be sleeping on our bikes! "Alright, you can sleep with me. But stay on your side and no funny business!"

"Thank you, thank you! I swear I won't do anything that will make you laugh," he said as he jumped onto the bed face down.

The next morning, we headed down to the hotel's restaurant for our complimentary breakfast. It was kind of weird to see the hotel staff pausing as we passed and bowing like we were some kind of royalty. Even at the restaurant, the staff were very courteous, asking if they could fetch us anything from the buffet table. We settled at a corner round table for eight people, because the ones for five looked so small. We ordered drinks (which were unlimited complimentary, though no cocktails) and asked them to deliver each of our separate orders. I ordered sausages, toast and strawberry jam as well as a large serving of baked beans.

"That was weird. I've been to hotels with my mom and dad before and I've never seen such service, at a buffet breakfast at least," I said.

"Not surprising, actually. Look around," Yuu, who was more accustomed to high-living suggested.

We looked around and didn't find anything weird.

"What did you want us to look at? There's nobody around," Carl stated.

"Exactly, we're the only ones here. Well, except for that couple on the far end over there," Yuu said as he gestured at the couple on the far end with his cup of green tea.

"That doesn't explain their attitude," Carl said.

Yuu sighed. "It's autumn," he stated, as if it was the answer that solved everything.

When he saw that we didn't understand, he added, "Nobody comes to Chicago City in autumn. There's nothing here. Business must be very bad for them right now, so they're making the service a lot nicer, to get good ratings. Geez, people! We're the only customers in the hotel right now!"

"The whole hotel? Surely not?" I asked as one of the restaurant staff handed Carl a newspaper, the Chicago Daily.

"Probably not to that extreme. I'm sure there are others. They either arrived for breakfast early, will arrive late or not coming altogether."

Just then, the woman on the far side of the restaurant got up. I looked up at the woman a glance and was shocked to see her face. Quickly I got up and before I could stop myself, I shouted, "Miriam?!"

The woman looked at us and was shocked as she looked at me, "Anna?!"

"Miriam, you're alive-" I got off the table as Miriam raced forward and hugged me around the neck.

"Anna, how... I thought everyone's dead..." Miriam sobbed into my face.

"I'm... not Anna, Miriam," I said softly.

Miriam disengaged. Then she took out her particle wand. "Shapeshifter!" she accused.

The others quickly took out their particle wands and pointed it at Miriam and Yannick, who was next to Miriam. He held his own particle wand, pointing it at us. He was slowly pulling Miriam back with concern on his face.

"Miriam, I'm not Anna, nor am I a shapeshifter. Annamarie is my sister," I said, trying to diffuse the situation.

"Liar! Annamarie only has a brother on this planet. We would know if they brought her younger sister here too," Miriam said as her thumb edged closer to the trigger.

"You know she has a brother here?" Carl asked.

"Why wouldn't I? Anna was my best friend. She was supposed to be my maid of honour."

"Miriam, stand down," Anya said as she stood next to me. Her particle wand raised but not pointed to either of them.

"You're that little girl we found in the storeroom! I knew we couldn't trust you. Where are the others?" Miriam asked.

"What others?" Anya asked.

"John Harolds, and the real ones of those fake ones behind you!"

"Did she just call me a fake?" Carl asked the others.

"She sure did. Can't blame her, you do look like you were photoshopped," Yuu joked.

"Miriam, we ARE real. I am John Harolds. Annamarie is my sister," I stated.

Miriam looked at me, as if something just clicked in her mind. Then she said, "Impossible! John Harolds may not have been manly..."

Ouch.

"But he didn't look like Annamarie!" Miriam shouted.

"We didn't think she looked like Annamarie either, until she wore girl's clothes and got the same hair as Annamarie. We were surprised at the resemblance," Anya said.

"Yeah, if she had tits, she would look exactly like Annamarie. OW!" Carl interjected, which earned him a double smack from both Yuu and Nanako.

"If she is John, why are you calling him a 'she'?" Yannick asked.

"Because that's how she look like now and at her age, it will be suspicious for boys to play around anymore, especially after what happened the past few days. If she is a girl, then we can say they're on a date or doing a trial run for living a married life," Anya explained.

"Name's Jane now. Me being a girl was Annamarie's idea. She didn't present me a choice in the first place," I said.

"I did ask her how two boys would be able to justify themselves going across the country on 120k dollars hoverbikes. You and Carl were not supposed to be in the class because we couldn't find you each a female partner. She hacked into Andy's computer and added both your names in and made an order for two more hoverbikes and equipments under Andy's name. So that was her solution," Miriam said as she lowered her wand.

"Yeah, I doubt even Andy knew how you were both in the class. He looked real shocked when he realized you were both there," Yannick added.

"Andy can be a scatterbrain sometimes. Anna always played him like that. Anna always said that Andy hadn't proposed because he was afraid that Anna would hack his account and run off with his money," Miriam said with a laugh.

"As if she needed to be married to pull that off," Yannick too laughed loud.

"Come sit with us, Miriam," I said as I pulled her to our table.

Miriam's face softened as she looked at me. Once she sat at the empty chair, she said, "You look just like Anna, but I guess that's where the similarities end. Anna would just say, 'sit and don't get up until I tell you to'."

Both Yannick and Miriam laughed.

"But we need to get going now. For all we know, the hotel staff may have called the police," Yuu said as the foods and drinks from Miriam and Yannick's table was moved to ours by the restaurant staff.

"Nah, don't worry about that," Anya said.

"Why should I not worry?" Yuu asked.

"Why do you think that out of hundreds of hotels in Chicago City, I narrowed it all down to two? Despite the city being in a dearth of tourists and this is not the best hotel in the city?"

"Enlighten us," Carl said.

"This hotel and the other one are famous for servicing known criminals and shady characters. The Underground Resistance has even used this hotel as a base of operation several times. The staff here has a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. As long as nothing gets damaged or nobody died, they will just treat it as some kind of internal dispute. We're not in danger," Anya explained.

"Well that takes a load off my mind. I actually chose this hotel because of the high rating. I didn't know about this cloak and dagger stuff. I'm a normal person, you see," Yannick said.

"We're both normal people. Henry, Andy and Anna, now they were very close with the Underground Resistance," Miriam said as she put a hand on Yannick's arm.

"Still, we should get going. After we finished breakfast, at least," I suggested.

"So, to Washington City then?" Yannick asked.

We stared at them.

"Why would we want to go to Washington City?" Yuu asked.

"Is that not where we're going?" Yannick asked.

"Stop joking, Yannick," Miriam said as she smacked Yannick in the back, "There's no point in confusing them any further. Our objective is somewhere else."

Yuu stared at them, as if intent on burning a hole in their heads. "You called us shapeshifters, but the shapeshifters could be you," Yuu accused.

Both Yannick and Miriam stopped eating.

"Are you accusing us of being shapeshifters?" Miriam said, looking red in the face.

"You did accuse us first, remember?" Carl said.

"It's simple to prove, really. Just let us see you bleed. Shapeshifters don't bleed," Anya stated as she drank her glass of chilled grapejuice before asking for another glass from the staff.

Miriam took the steak knife from the table and wiped it on a napkin until it was shiny clean. Then she slashed something under the table as she winced and then showed us the bloody knife. Yannick who was sitting on her left side looked at her in shock.

"You didn't have to slit your tummy, you know. A finger would be enough," Yuu said.

"Do you need first aid?" Carl asked.

"I didn't slit my tummy, idiot. I just slit my thigh," she said as she took one of the paper napkins under the table.

"Your turn, Yannick," Yuu said.

Yannick then pulled his hands from under the table. He grabbed the steak knife Miriam just used and stabbed at his middle finger from above. Then he turned his hand around so his palm was facing us and showed us his bleeding middle finger with his other fingers folded.

"I think he's trying to say, 'fuck you', Yuu," Carl laughed.

"Wow, the blood flow is too strong it's bubbling from his wound," Anya remarked.

Yannick hastily pulled his hand back and sucked at the bloody finger. "Your turn," he said.

Anya went first. She stabbed her palm so hard that a large gash formed, releasing lots of blood. She showed it to us.

"Would you please stop showing off, Anya? Unlike you, we're not Wolverine," Carl said as he went next. He pricked his finger a little, showing us the blood flowing slowly.

"Wimp!" Anya said with a grin.

I cut a little of my wrist. Just a little, and it didn't hit any veins. I just didn't like having my fingers in pain. Then I showed it to everyone.

Yuu and Nanako followed suit. They both made small but noticeable wounds on their fingers. Then they asked the staff for plasters for our wounds. The staff graciously obliged and returned with a medikit where he proceeded to treat each of us, except for Miriam, who refused his treatment and Yannick, who had already healed. Anya simply had her hand bandaged because she thought the staff looked cute, despite her godly regeneration.

"So what are your plans?" Miriam asked as Carl went back to reading his newspaper.

"We're planning on riding straight to Los Angeles City, where our ride will be waiting. Then we go to the objective," Yuu said. He didn't tell them of the corvette, probably not sure yet if he could trust them.

"Los Angeles? That would be like three days on our hoverbikes!" Miriam stated.

"Correct. We weren't planning on stopping. We were going to ride directly there without stopping," Yuu said.

"But you can't possibly stay awake for that long, even if you didn't stop for breaks," Miriam objected.

"Unless you're using the autopilot?" Yannick guessed.

"Yes, but instead of full autopilot, one of us will be awake and riding in front. The other bikes' autopilot navigation will be tied to the one in front. We're going to take turns being the pilot," I explained.

"That can work, and since our hoverbikes almost perfectly protect the occupants inside a shell. I even managed to have my dinner during my travel here," Miriam said.

"Yeah, having a vehicle like that really puts the mind at ease. Still, we should probably go soon if we want to get an early start," Nanako said.

"Guys, we may have a problem," Carl said as he handed the newspaper, a kind of lower grade e-paper that were normally used as a disposable newspaper because of its low price, to Yuu.

"Police checkpoints at every exit?" Yuu exclaimed as Nanako peeked in.

"Due to the bombing of Sacred Soul Academy near New York City by a terrorist group, Chicago City will be under lockdown until otherwise informed. All trafic into or out of the city will be subjected to extensive checks by the Chicago City PD. Police are looking for teenagers with no identification using Type-89 Soharachi Hoverbikes and urge all lawful citizens to report to the police if they found somebody fitting that description," Yuu read aloud.

"Shit!" Yannick cursed.

"I knew we shouldn't have come here," Nanako mumbled under her breath.

"None of us have identification and we're using Soharachi Type-89. We will surely be caught," I said.

"Waiting is not an option either, who knows how long these checkpoints will be there," Anya said.

"Wait, doesn't it feel strange to you that they know exactly what to look for? The only thing more exact will be to have our mugshots here," Carl said.

"I've always been afraid of this possibility... but with this, what I feared may have come true," Yuu said.

"What do you mean?" Anya asked.

"Some of our classmates have been caught, and not just one of them. Listing the hoverbike we're using must mean that they're very sure that we're all using the same hoverbikes. Which means that more than one of our classmates have been caught," Yuu answered grimly.

"We must save them! We can't leave them to the military. The military will kill them!" I said.

"If the military kill them, then they're lucky. The military don't kill their prisoners, at least not so soon. No, if they're caught, it will be about a week until they're tortured to death," Anya said as she placed her hand on my thigh.

"But they're just kids. We're just kids," I sobbed into Anya's shoulder.

"Well anyhow, rescuing them isn't an option. We don't know where they are and whether they're even sent to the same place. We must take care of ourselves first," Miriam said.

"Miriam, Yannick, I need to ask you a few questions," Yuu said.

"Shoot," Yannick said.

"Can the military hack into the database of each hoverbikes' mainframe?"

"Yes, definitely. The mainframe has the typical protection that Soharachi company uses. Even if they can't hack it, they can still tell the Soharachi company to extract the information within," Yannick answered.

"Can they tell who was supposed to leave the academy?"

"They can get the names of those who are supposed to leave the academy, but without a database, they can't tell who those people are," Yannick replied.

"What do you mean 'without a database'?"

Miriam answered. "Just like other semi-autonomous learning academies, the student information of each students are kept only inside the lowest level of the academy. A couple floors below the nuclear reactor. Since the nuke most definitely took care of those, the database is gone. Unless you're a very high profile individual, they can't possibly know who you are, since children is not registered as a citizen."

"Wait, the academy got nuked?" Carl asked.

"Yes, didn't you read the news? The military blamed it on the 'terrorists'," Miriam said.

Yuu asked again, "So even if they got our names, they can't know who they're supposed to catch. So they're catching everyone who fits the description?"

"Yes, I believe so. Of course, not all your classmates would be anonymous, Jennifer Carter for example, is a well-known celebrity. If they have her name, then they know her face too," Miriam answered.

"So since none of us here are famous, we should just make ourselves not fit the description. Then we can leave freely," Carl suggested.

"Yes, so this is where we part ways with our hoverbikes," Yuu stated.

I disagreed. "No way! It has carried us faithfully this whole time. We couldn't have arrived here without our hoverbikes. I won't leave it behind!"

"Jane, don't be sentimental. Yes, it has brought us here. It helped us a lot in many ways. But right now, it is a burden! Remember what Andy said," Yuu argued.

"I will not leave it behind! It's mine!"

"Jane..." Carl said as he sided with Yuu.

"It's not that rare! Just yesterday I saw many Soharachi Type-88s and Type-89s. They are not rare!"

"It's a burden, Jane! We leave burdens behind! We need to reach the objective, even if we have to leave the hoverbikes behind!"

"Jane, we'll get that soon. It's okay to leave the bike behind," Anya looked up at me with her fingers clutching my sleeves.

I ignored Anya as I said, "No, Yuu! If you call it a burden, then I am a burden too! Why don't you just leave me behind?!"

That shut everyone up.

"There is another option," Miriam said.

"What?" Nanako asked.

"We get identification," Miriam said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I don't know anyone here who can make us fake identification," Anya said.

"Not fake, real identification."

"How? Even if we took a job, it will take us 2-3 days before we can get an approved identification. We can't stay here for that long. Who knows what the Chicago City PD will do in that time," Yuu said.

"No, you kids seems to have forgotten the other method. A marriage certificate," Miriam said with a small smile at the edge of her lips.

"That takes even longer. You need to submit the marriage application a week in advance and only after that can we get married. It will take a couple more days before we can get identification," Nanako said.

We all looked at her.

"What? I like to read," Nanako said as she tried to justify herself.

"Then you have overlooked something, Nanako. In all your reading on marriage, did it ever say anything about Chicago City?" Miriam asked.

"Chicago City?" Nanako appeared lost in thought until her eyes went wide as if she suddenly remembered something. "The Wedding Capital of the East!"

"There you go! That's why we came here in the first place, actually," Miriam said.

Yuu asked her what it meant.

"She's right! People come here to elope, Yuu. There's no approval period, anyone can come here and have a wedding in just a few hours. The identification can be ready in half an hour!" Nanako said excitedly.

"Wait, a wedding?" I looked at Carl, "A wedding with him, you mean?"

"Who else? You're not marrying my Yuu," Nanako answered as she hugged Yuu's left arm.

"But we're both boys," I argued.

"Nobody knows that. It's not like anyone will check your equipment," Miriam said.

"Put on the tits though, so nobody will be confused," Carl said.

I smacked Carl at the back of his head with the newspaper. "You just want to have a big titted bride!"

"I never said big-titted!" Carl said as he tried to block my blows.

"You didn't say it, but you wanted it. You want me to have tits as big as Annamarie, don't you?" I said as I hit his head with the disposable e-paper again.

"That would be perfect! Thank you," he said as he snatched the newspaper from my hand.

"You will still need tits if you're going to wear a wedding dress, Jane," Anya interjected.

"Wedding dress?" I said, horrified.

"Of course! You're not going to get married in these rags, are you?" Anya asked.

"Either that or leave the bikes, Jane," Yuu said, as he tormented me with choosing the lesser of two evils.

But which of those two choices is the lesser evil?

"Do you, Carl Miller, take Jane Larssen as your lawfully wedded wife?" the priest performing the ceremony asked.

"I do," Carl said as he looked at the priest.

We were inside one of Chicago City's many cathedrals. It wasn't as big or as grand as the Grand Cathedral of London City, but the St. Valentine's Cathedral was just as elaborately decorated. With its high spires, tainted glass windows and the long carpeted walk to the aisle, it was the very image of a romantic wedding. Not something that I had ever dreamed of. We were only here because Miriam said she had always wanted to be married in St. Valentine's Cathedral.

Carl was wearing a black tux with bowtie that looked dashing on his well-formed muscular body and handsome looks. His clothing was easy, as he had no preference and picked the first one that caught his eye. The wedding dress that I wore however, forced me to go to three different wedding boutiques before the girls found something that matched my hair, my face and my newly formed boobs and ass. I almost strangled Anya to death when she used the 'assimilation gels' and turned me from a flat-chested and small-assed boy into a girl with C cup tits and ass that begged to be spanked. To fit my new body, the girls chose a lacy one-piece wedding dress with built-in push up bra that forced a very obvious cleavage under my low cut chest area. As for the length, the skirt was very long. At first I was worried that I would trip on the skirt and embarrassed myself. When Anya promised to help hold the train, I was a little glad.

I've always wanted to get married. I just never imagined that I was going to be the one to wear the wedding gown. A wedding gown and a pair of clear plastic high-heels.

The voice of the priest woke me from my recollections. "Do you, Jane Larssen, take Carl Miller as your lawfully wedded husband?"

I looked at Carl. He was smiling so dreamily, as if this was the best day of his life. How could I have the heart to break that angelic smile? "I do," I said to the priest.

"Then I proclaim you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride," the priest said as he gestured for us to turn to each other.

"Wait, we have to kiss?" I asked.

"Eh?" Carl made a shocked sound.

"I suppose if you don't want to, it's fine. But if you love each other, I believe that's what you want to do?" the priest said as he was taken aback by my question.

"Oh believe me, we love each other very much," Carl said as he put his fingers around my chin, pulling it a little so my face looked up to his as he lowered his lips on mine.

The world disappeared from my mind as his lips touched mine softly, then urgently as our lips mashed together. The smacking sound of our lips and the moans from my throat the only sound I heard as our tongues touched each other, dancing inside our mouths. It was only when I heard the sounds of clapping and cheering did I opened my eyes and our lips separated, with only our saliva connecting our lips. I didn't realize I had put my arms around his neck as my face blushed in embarrassment.

"We're very much in love, father. She's just shy about kissing in public," he explained as he carried me down from the aisle in his arms.

"Time to throw the bouquet, Jane," he whispered.

I didn't even look where I threw it. I just threw, until I heard the priest's cry of pain. Apparently I threw the bouquet of flowers directly at his face. He said thank you for the flowers and put it to one side as he called for the next couple. Besides us, there were about twenty other couples, probably elopers. We waited until the others were done with their weddings before we went outside, my hand never leaving Carl's.

"Alright, so we're all happily wedded men and women now. So what's next?" Carl asked once we were gathered outside the cathedral, still in our wedding attire.

"We go to the registration center, show our wedding certificate and get our IDs," Nanako stated.

"Guys before we go, I must say that we can't thank you enough for being here with us. The whole student council should've been here. Annamarie was supposed to be Miriam's maid of honour. Calvin was supposed to be my best man. We couldn't have them here, but having you guys here is a godsend nonetheless. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart," Yannick said as we all hugged them one by one.

"I think I speak for all of us, that we're glad to be here, Yannick, Miriam," Carl said as he gave Yannick a manly hug.

"We still have a problem though," I said as I disengaged from Miriam, "What do we do about Anya?"

Everyone's eyes were on Anya.

"Oh you worry too much, mommy. I'll be fine," Anya said as she typed something into her tablet.

It was about half an hour later that we understood why she said that she'd be fine.

"Anya, you're my daughter!" I exclaimed as I saw Anya Miller being listed as my 8 year old daughter. Oh by the way, I was listed as being 18. So I gave birth to Anya at 10?

"Of course! We look a little alike, aren't we?" Anya said as she looked at me with her doe-like eyes.

Apparently, one of Anya's skill was hacking into government networks. Made me wonder why she didn't just hack into the government network and gave us identification in the first place. Or was she enjoying seeing me getting married to Carl?

Regardless, it worked. Soon after the policemen at the exits checked our IDs, they let us go. Of course, we had to separate into couples, with Anya sitting behind me to avoid suspicion from having a group of recently wedded teens on a 'wanted' hoverbike leaving together. We could still see each other though, with me being in front, Yannick and Miriam a couple vehicles behind and Yuu and Nanako a little further behind. And no, I changed before we rode out, I did NOT wear my white wedding gown through the police checkpoint.

We met at the park just outside the city. We got onto our hoverbikes once we confirmed each other's identity, except for Yannick and Miriam, who were not aware of such methods. We decided that we'd have to get Yannick and Miriam their own tattoos on our next stop, IF we ever stopped.

Yuu took the first pilot assignment that day as the rest of us programmed our hoverbikes to travel in a single column behind Yuu, following his trail.

Mirialis Corvette, here we come!

"Hyaaahhhh!!!!" Jennifer Carter, former student of Sacred Soul Academy's Special Advanced class, screamed in pain. Around her head was a helmet, very much like the one she once wore before her escape from the academy, except this one was even more severely modified.

On the screen in front of her, pictures of the academy flickered, together with a hundred other pictures of her life at the academy. This helmet wasn't made to improve her intelligence. This helmet was made to take whatever information she was thinking and display it on the screen in front of her.

"What is your objective," a man with glasses holding a staff that looked like a cattle prod asked.

Jennifer Carter knew from experience that the prod wasn't ever meant for cattle. No cow could withstand the pain from the pain prod. Yes, pain prod, it was the name she coined for the staff.

"What is your objective!" the man repeated as he jammed the pain prod into her belly, sharp end first.

Jennifer Carter screamed as a hundred images appeared on the display screen. Though the information was so well protected, it had been eluding them for the past two days. Jennifer Carter, formerly self-proclaimed class princess and the beloved daughter of James Carter, owner of the largest tech firm in New York, had been tortured for two whole days since her capture.

"What is your objective?" the man said as he jammed the sharp end into Jennifer Carter's stomache again, causing pain that transcended skin, transcended nerves. She felt it even in her organs as her body glowed yellow with yellowish light shining from her eyes, her mouth, her ears and her wounds.

As the display screen in front of her cycled through a hundred images, a single image caught in her eye. She wondered if Josh was alive. She wondered if Josh managed to escape. She hoped Josh had escaped. As the picture of Igor and Olga appeared on the display screen, she wondered if Igor and Olga managed to escape, of if they were also captured like her.

"What is your objective?" the man shocked her again with the pain prod.

She screamed as she remembered her daddy. In her pain, she called for him, for her father, the only person who loved her unconditionally. The only man who had been with her all throughout her life.

"Isn't that James Carter? President of Skyfall Industries?" one of the men, a man in white doctor's uniform stepped into the light.

"Yeah, this girl here was his daughter," the glasses man poked her with the pain prod again as Jennifer screamed loudly.

"'Was' being the operative word," the man in white chuckled, "I received word that Washington City isn't actually their target."

"So what is their target?" the glasses man asked.

"No idea, that's what we want to find out from this monkey," the man in white said.

"Best of luck with that," he poked the prod into Jennifer again as she screamed herself hoarse, "Seems like the information is too well protected. I think if we want to find the secret, we need to find the device that created the wall in the first place."

"Assuming that the device was left at the academy, no chance of that. You just have to be more forceful, maybe," the man in white said.

"I've been trying," the man said as he prodded Jennifer Carter again, filling the room with a yellow light emitted from Jennifer's body. Jennifer screamed again, calling for her daddy over and over, like a mantra.

The man in glasses appeared lost in thought before he said, "So you want to talk to daddy then? How about we give her a chance?"

"No problem," the man in white made a call before he brought his cellphone forward, "He's on the line."

"Hello?" came a voice from the phone as soon as the man in glasses brought it to Jennifer's ear.

"Daddy?" Jennifer said when she heard the voice in the phone.

"Who?"

"Daddy, it's Jenny. Please daddy, please save me. These horrible men, they tortured me, daddy. They beat me, they cut me up and they tortured me, daddy... please save me..." Jennifer Carter cried for the first time today.

"Look kid, I don't know who you are, but if you're looking for some kind of ransom, then you made a mistake. I don't have a daughter."

"No daddy! It's me, it's me! Jenny! I'm your daughter Jenny!" she yelled into the phone as the glasses man prodded her with the pain prod again, making her scream into the phone.

"As I said, kid, I don't have a daughter. If that little act was meant to get sympathy points from me, obviously you don't know me that well. Just give up."

"Daddy..." Jennifer Carter sobbed, "Please save me, please save me, daddy."

"Stop acting kid. You won't get a dime from me. Don't call me again," the voice in the phone said as he hung up.

"Daddy..." Jennifer cried.

The two men laughed as they high-fived each other above her body. Then the man in white said, "Seriously, girl, we put you into his brain. What makes you think we can't get you out of his brain in the same way?"

"Just tell us what we want to know and maybe we'll reunite you with you 'daddy'," the glasses man said with a laugh as he high-fived the other man again.

"Daddy..." Jennifer whispered.

"Well, now that you know we can do that, how about just tell us what we need to know?" the glasses man poked her a little deeper into her stomache.

Jennifer Carter, former queen bee of the academy. Formerly class princess and the beloved daughter of the wealthy billionaire James Carter made a scream of pain for the last time. As her body surrendered to the torture, her mind shut down. Her organs shut down as her body lost its will to live. Her soul, feeling the biggest betrayal of its life, escaped her tortured body. Jennifer Carter, formerly respected, envied, wanted, had become nothing more than a corpse in a dirty room.

*As usual, please leave me your feedbacks and comments. Praises helps me write faster, constructive criticisms helps me to write better. Thank you for your support.
**For those who only started reading. this will be one of my first entry into Kindle, if it ever got completed. If this book sells well, it will also likely be my cousin's entry to Hollywood. So I would very much appreciate your help. If this works, I may even force my cousin to add bigcloset to the credits for the movie. Who knows.