Barcode: Legend of Apollo (24 page)

Leaning in for a closer look, I notice his armor is pretty advanced. I’m not familiar with Ape gear, but his equipment looks revolutionary. Blake seems just as interested as me. We both quietly stare at the close-up on the hologram.

“That’s an East Coast company,” Blake says, clenching his fist.

Eve downplays the comment, “So? New York companies aren’t allowed to sell in SoCal?”

“They shouldn’t be. Helios controls everything and everyone that comes from his territory.”

“Stop it. You’re just stereotyping a group of people. It’s the same thing that happened to you.”

“And you’re acting like someone you’re not, as though the boy can’t tell.”

There’s obviously more problems between this couple than the average marriage and I’m too young to want to understand. Still, if I had to choose between being married to a woman like Eve and death, I’d have to ask Hades about his vacation spots.

Over the loudspeakers, Patrick squeaks gleefully. Members of the audience laugh at the sound. He grabs the microphone and shouts, “Oh man, guys. When you all hear the news just handed to me, you’ll wet yourselves.”

At that moment, I receive a text message from Michelle.

I’m so excited! Your data is connecting with the world. I’m jealous! It’s more advanced than mine. But hey, don’t use it on me, kay?

Grinning, I put the phone away and listen to Patrick’s announcement, “I hope you’re all ready to witness a spectacle that’s only occurred seven times in this sport.” From that hint, the crowd clamors to confirm their suspicions. “That’s right, a prophet will step on this field to fight as a gladiator.

There is a scramble throughout the arena as people pull out their phones. They excitedly start texting friends and family. I send a message to Dennis to find out whether Talib would ever choose to fight in a gladiator match. He’s never taken longer than three minutes to reply. I get no response.

Over the next thirty minutes, the spectators at the arena are left on the edge of their seats. Which prophet would fight as a gladiator?

I’m pretty sure nobody is paying much attention to the school band and the cheerleaders. The anticipation levels are high, until finally Patrick’s voice comes back to announce the fight.

“Ladies and gentleman, parents and students, it’s about to go down! Coming to the battleground are Los Angeles’ most feared mortal level gladiators of all time, the Colt and Yang Arena warriors.” As he draws the last syllable, the spectators scream louder than ever before. The audience can’t wait to see if the rumors are true. “Coming from the golden gates, Yang warriors Kim, Wei Long, Michael, and Steve!”

The four men exit their cages. Though boos echo throughout the amphitheater, visitors from Yang Arena scream wildly to voice support of their gladiators. “Coming from the black gates of Colt Arena are Eze-Eke, Marcy, and...” Patrick lets his voice trail off. I have to admit, he’s great at drawing out the suspense. The warriors find their way to the field and my eyes search for Talib. As he enters the arena, the crowd cheers more frantically than before. I can barely hear Patrick yell, “Talib Lion!”

The cameras follow Talib across the field.

“As though this match wasn’t exciting enough,” Patrick continues, “And Jermaine James, best known as Jay Jay, finally returns after the spinal injury he suffered two years ago.”

I get that annoying muffling feeling in my ear from all the shouting that surrounds me. Even the parents cheer for Jay Jay. I wouldn’t know of his existence, if I hadn’t seen his face in Cell D with Kode. I’m shocked to see Jay Jay is Bubba.

Yanking my phone out again, I take a picture, and open Gods&Men, another application created by the liminal owls. With the photo, I’m instantly able to see stats of his previous fights and comments from his fans.

According to the app, Jay Jay is on his way to holding the record for longest living human gladiator. He’s never even lost a sparring match, and has eighty-nine wins in Colt Arena. I skim through hundreds of comments, and my eyes stop at the mention of a rumor. Supposedly, he’s one of the three students from Payne Gym that managed to survive in Southern California without fleeing to another state.

I tuck my phone back into my pouch and watch Blake focus his gaze onto the field. He’s showing as much of an interest in this fight as me. I’m sure the look on his face would be considered a smile for him. But to me, it’s just another scary expression.

By the time I’m paying attention to the field again, the match is underway. The opponents from Yang Arena rush our gladiators. Two of Colt Arena’s men are slain before they can even lift their swords.

The spectators fall deathly silent. Even the gladiators from Yang Arena are in such a shock that they must take a moment to figure out what’s happened. Their leader on the field, an exceptionally large man with a huge scar on his belly yells at the others, “Stop staring and surround the last two!”

The gladiators gather their bearings, and do as instructed. One of the men takes a sword from the fallen and throws his shield aside. Double fisting the swords, he’s the last to fall into place as they form a diamond offense around Jay Jay and Talib.

Visitors from the other side of town all root for their warriors. Their chants and stomps take over the small cheers from the Colt Arena fans that are crushed to see their Ape hero become outnumbered. Even worse, he doesn’t look too much better than his fallen comrades.

Fallen.

Poison.

Jail.

Uncontrollably, I make a gasping sound. I know Blake is watching me curiously from the corner of his eye, but I manage to regain my composure while processing my thoughts.

I watched a hundred men from Colt Arena die in a jail cell, only to hear from Dennis that nothing happened in the prison. Yet there were still remains of blood in their cells. This has to mean I’m not as crazy as Kode would allow me to believe.

Those men did suffer something horrible in front of me. It wasn’t a dream, but it wasn’t death either. Kode poisoned them to catch my attention. The men he infected must have been the warriors preparing for battle today. In the prison, he said if I agreed to help, he’d stop the killing.

In awe of the situation on the battlefield, I watch as one of the men run past Jay Jay, slashing his calf. He falls to one knee. Talib calmly takes a seat on the ground and bows his head in prayer. He doesn’t want to fight, and the fans aren’t very happy about it.

My suit enhances my rapid perception and I watch as two members from Yang Arena charge to finish their opponents.

For Kode’s ears only, I mouth the words, “If you’re listening. I’ll help.”

Before I can finish my last sentence, I watch the barcode on Jay Jay’s neck turn bloody red. He catches the blade of his attacker with his bare hand. The warrior from Yang Arena that has yet to fight retreats and fires projectiles from his extremely large armor.

Jay Jay ignores the bullets and throws the warrior directly in front of Talib’s attacker. As fate may have it, the unlucky bastard lands on his teammate’s two swords.

Patrick shouts, “Finally! Colt Arena is back in the game. It looks like the rumors about Jay Jay must be true. The only people with skin that tough are Arnold and warriors from Payne Gym, and I don’t think Arnold trained you, did he Jay Jay?”

Continuing his assault, Jay Jay’s chocolate skin transforms into a different treat, red velvet. His skin glows so brightly, he appears to light on fire.

Jay Jay brutally destroys each man from Yang Arena. With each kill, he seems to become more possessed by rage and his instinct to kill increases. By the end of the match, the heavily armored warrior is crushed in his own suit and the others are motionless at various parts of the arena. I still feel sorry for the person that tried to run.

Jay Jay storms the battlefield, cheers echoing throughout the arena. He doesn’t stop his rampage until the glow from his barcode fades. Then, he returns to Talib, helping him from the ground.

Once the camera focuses in on Talib, the crowd boos. They limp away with people screaming how they wasted their money to see a liminal being with no heart or fight. Those that bought tickets just for this match are the most belligerent. Not even the amazing announcer can contain the group.

Suddenly, a rumble shakes the entire arena. Arnold rushes out of the same door that Talib and Jay Jay just exited. His bellow is enough to immediately silence the entire stadium.

Patrick fumbles over his words to announce the next match between Arnold and a demigod challenger from Yang Arena.

An equally sized man marches onto the field. Patrick exclaims, “Feng Yang brags openly about how Kwan Choi has been bred, mutated, and trained for the specific purpose of killing Arnold.”

The entire crowd screams and applauds. Arnold smiles anxiously and can hardly stand still. He watches the savage slowly approach the center of the amphitheater.

Patrick’s voice blares over the megaphone, “Kwan has a barcode tattoo on his back that once exceeded the legal amount permissible to any human. Before he was taken to prison, he ripped a chunk of his flesh and handed it to the arresting officer. Legend says he never flinched in pain or screamed, but was rushed to the hospital by his staff to stop the bleeding.”

The audience claps and cheers. Arnold searches for the piece of flesh removed. He finds it near Kwan’s lumbar.

“On your mark. Get set. Go!”

Kwan’s barcode shines a bright yellow. With a whip of his right hand, he smacks Arnold in the face. Arnold hardly budges but returns with his own left hand to Kwan’s shoulder.

If it weren’t for the crushing sounds echoing across the stadium, I wouldn’t be able to focus on the match. I’ve hardly looked at the field since Talib has walked off. I can’t understand why he’d even agree to become a gladiator.

Michelle sends me a text:
Didn’t you say your liminal being was Talib?

I respond with a simple yes.

Five minutes into the match, Arnold looks pretty beat. He walks away from Kwan once or twice in order to gather his strength.

The crowd stops cheering and starts moaning over how Arnold seems to have lost his vigor over the years. I hear someone mention that he might be too old for the sport. But watching Arnold, it appears he couldn’t be enjoying himself any more. He’s laughing after every punch, applauding the tenacity of Kwan.

That all ends when Kwan connects a right hook that causes Arnold to raise his eyebrow. Though it looks brutal to everyone in the audience, Arnold isn’t amused. He stops laughing and screams at Kwan to hit him again.

“What the hell is this?” Arnold shouts angrily, “Is that all you’ve got? You’d have to punch me all night at this rate.”

Kwan shows emotion for the first time. He cocks back and releases a punch that smashes hard against Arnold’s face. Even from our distance, I hear the snap of bones breaking in Kwan’s hand. The pain isn’t enough for him to stop, but now he can only swing with his right fist.

Fed up with the weakness of his opponent, Arnold grabs Kwan’s head with his left hand and ends the match with his right digging deeply into Kwan’s temple. His barcodes blazed a red much more violent than Jay Jay’s.

The emergency response team leaves the field to call in Professor Gonzales. As she carries Kwan’s limp body, I wonder what creature I’ll find in class next week.

Twenty Five

I escort many of the parents to their chambers and then make my way to Casey’s classroom to train with Michelle. We’re on the final two marbles, and they’re heavier than I could have ever imagined. Simply transmuting the seventh ball strains my body.

On my stroll to the classroom, I run into Kode. He approaches from the shadows.

“No offense, but you aren’t the type of person I’d like to see sneak up on me in a dark hallway.”

“I can understand that. My codes leak this murderous data sometimes, and no matter how many baths I take, it just won’t wash away.” He sounds depressed. I can’t help but believe he doesn’t want me to see him like this. “I’ve looked worse, right?”

“Not really.”

I’ve seen him come from various trainings with Angie. Occasionally, they would spar three doors down from Casey’s room in Professor Jules’ class. Once, I stood outside of their sparring session, peeking in the cracked door. After Angie won the match, I noticed the appearance of death written over their bodies. Kode looked beat to hell, but he still tried dragging her out of the room. Unable to muster the strength, he collapsed alongside of Angie. After putting in a lot of effort to stand to her feet, she ended up helping him walk down the hall.

A few times, I’ve seen him broken and beaten after finding his way through Professor Gonzales’ mazes. Because he was the first to emerge from our group in her most difficult labyrinth, she challenged him with what sounded like a horror flick. The monsters were screaming from every corner of the maze. The few creatures that did survive fled to their cages. Kode emerged with his armor destroyed, but he was laughing frantically.

I’m sure I’ve never seen him look this bad. His arms are wrapped in bandages that appear to have black ink spilled over them. As he leans against a wall, I feel a bit sorry for him.

“You didn’t kill anyone, did you?”

“No.” His voice is harsh.

“So what happened to you?”

Kode lifts his head and gazes in my direction. “When I was a kid, I was given a poison similar to the one I gave Jay Jay and the others. The liquid contains magnetic particles that expand when the host is near. Hurts like hell when her magnets activate the liquid stuck on my organs.”

“I don’t understand. You’re being poisoned?” The concern in my voice upsets him.

He shouts, “I’m not being poisoned! I had my ass beat by the person with the magnet.”

“Your language,” I tease.

Kode laughs, but doesn’t sound amused. “Anyway, what’s taking you so long to live up to your side of the deal? Don’t know how to pit two women against each other? Let me tell you, just say you’ll take the strongest one on a date and bring both to the battlefield right now.”