Chapter 15: The Hazing of Verso House!

While Alexa and Carl were in the library studying about the history of Morgan Lefevre, the girls from Recto house were planning their attack. A sixth year student who knew how to use a mind control device retrieved the password to the Verso house common room from the mind of a Verso girl who was sitting outside on a bench. The Verso girl had been completely unaware that her mind had been scanned.

Once the password was distributed, the Recto girls went in groups of three, so they wouldn't arouse suspicion. They infiltrated the Verso house common room and the girl who had gotten the password used that same mind control device to put everyone in the common room to sleep. The Recto girls began going to the various dorm rooms and wreaking havoc. One of them went into Alexa's dorm and ransacked her room; they found the transponder Morgan had given Alexa, and took it. Within twenty minutes, all of the unoccupied rooms were infiltrated, and several more items were taken from various people. They were gone before anyone woke up.

When Alexa and Carl split up after returning from the library, Alexa was the first to arrive at the Verso common room as the girls began to awaken.

"What happened?" Alexa asked.

"We got hazed!" said Umbra. "We were infiltrated by Recto house!"

Alexa went to her dorm to check on the transponder. Her room was in disarray, but no matter where she looked, she couldn't locate the transponder that Morgan had given her and told her to activate. Luckily, she still had the other device in her backpack along with her electronic tablet.

Stratus and Gamma entered Alexa's dormitory. "Did they take your shrunken captive?" Gamma asked.

"No," Alexa replied, holding up her portable captive container attached to her necklace. "I had him with me, since the games earlier today."

"Did they take anything else of yours?" Stratus asked.

"Yes!" said Alexa. "They took an electronic device from me, a transponder that Morgan Lefevre gave to me."

"You've actually met Morgan Lefevre?" Stratus asked. 

"So the rumors are true!" said Gamma.

"She is about to unleash her weapon on the world," said Alexa. "She has an alternate timeline generator, and a reality splicer."

"A reality what?" Stratus asked.

"A reality splicer," Alexa replied, "it switches the futures of one reality with another. Somehow it will allow her to rule both realities, but if someone turns off that transponder she gave me, then all of the Futurians in this world will be duplicated!"

"And that's bad?" Stratus asked.

"Yes!" said Alexa. "The transponder gives off a signal so that none of us will be duplicated. If we do get duplicated, we might be seen as usurpers by our counterparts!"

"So, they might try to destroy us because they think we're the imposters?" Stratus asked.

"Exactly!" said Alexa. "Morgan is almost about to unleash her plan! We have to find that transponder before it's too late!"

"It's a good thing you told me and my cousin Gamma," said Stratus as they exited the dorm room. "We can keep all of this a secret!"

"How can I keep the transponder a secret from Recto house and the faculty, seeing as to how they have it now?" Alexa asked.

"My sister Umbra knows some of the older Recto girls," said Stratus. "She can make them cough up the transponder!"

The three girls walked to the Verso common room and told Umbra what had happened, then the four of them walked to other side of campus, where the Recto girl's dormitory was located. They marched past the front door, but were stopped when they had to enter a password. They waited nearby, until an unsuspecting Recto girl entered the building, then they pounced on her and forced her to let them inside.

Once within the Recto girl's common room, Umbra made an announcement.

"Girls of Recto house, we know you conducted a hazing run at our dorms tonight! We need all of the items you took back, or there are going to be problems!"

"What can you do to us?" asked a Recto girl. "The head mistress won't be on campus until tomorrow morning!" 

The other Recto girls began laughing. Two of them pulled out neutrino dissimilator pistols. Alexa pulled hers out, and Stratus pulled hers out.

"No one better get shrunk here tonight," said Umbra. "Alexa and myself are members of the student government, and we can and will make your lives miserable for a considerable length of time if you don't give back all that you took from us."

The two Recto girls who had been pointing their shrink ray pistols at them lowered their weapons.

"It was just a practical joke," said one of the Recto girls. "We were going to give the stuff back, eventually."

One of the oldest Recto girls barked orders at the younger girls; within five minutes most of the stolen items were returned and placed at the feet of Alexa, Umbra, Stratus and Gamma. When they were done, Alexa looked through the purloined items, and didn't find her transponder.

"There's something of mine still missing," said Alexa. "It's an electronic device."

One of the older Recto girls had something in a duffel bag. She pulled it out, and it was the transponder Morgan had given to Alexa. As Alexa walked up to grab it, the girl withheld it from her.

"I can't give this back to you," said the Recto girl. "This looks like Dark Mistress technology. I'm handing it in to the Head Mistress tomorrow morning."

"You can't do that!" said Alexa. "That belongs to me!"

"Then tell me where you got it?" the Recto girl asked. "You didn't get something like this on campus, I would know about technology like this."

"If you don't get it now, we won't be able to get back in here, Alexa." said Umbra.

"Where did you get this technology?" the Recto girl asked again. "I won't ask you a third time. If you can convince me this isn't something given to you by Morgan Lefevre, then I'll give it back to you, but if you can't, then I'm going to keep it and give it to Victoria Valerius in the morning." 

Just then, a boy's voice from behind them said, "Simon says, go to sleep!"

Alexa and everyone else in the room fell into a deep sleep. Alexa was awakened by a boy's voice.

"Alexa!"

Alexa woke up to see a cute third year Verso boy with her electronic device in his hands. "I believe this is yours!" said the boy.

"Who are you?" Alexa asked as she took the device, making sure it was still on. "Cool, it's still on!"

"I'm Simon, I used a mind control device to put everyone in the room into a deep sleep. Come on, we've got to get out of here!"

"Wake up my friends, too!" said Alexa, and Simon aimed a device at the heads of Umbra, Stratus and Gamma, and they awakened.

"We've got to get out of here!" said Alexa to the other three girls. "I've got the transponder!"

Simon walked the four Verso girls back to their dormitory building. "Alexa, a lot of us really look up to you. I know you can't publicly admit that you're working for the Dark Mistress, but I just wanted to say that ever since I learned of what she tried to do fifty years ago, I've always hoped something like that would occur when I was a student here!"

"Thank you for all you've done to help us," said Alexa.

Once back at the Verso common room, Alexa hugged Simon and said goodbye. The other four girls spit up; Alexa went straight to her dorm room, and the other girls went to theirs. Alexa got to work straightening out her room. She placed her shrunken captive back in his terrarium, which had been untouched by the hazers.

Stratus returned to Alexa's dorm. "Those girls are going to turn you in to Victoria tomorrow, whether or not you got the transponder back!"

"I know, I have away of dealing with this," Alexa replied. "Just let me go into the bathroom by myself, and don't let anyone else in there while I'm in there, okay?"

"Okay, but why?" Stratus asked.

"I'm going to contact Morgan Lefevre!"

"In the bathroom?" Stratus asked.

"I have a way of contacting her in there, trust me!" said Alexa.

Alexa took her backpack and went inside to make sure nobody else was inside, then walked through the mirror as she had done before. She felt a sense of vertigo as a mirror image of the bathroom appeared in front of her. She asked for Morgan, and she came out of a blind spot and addressed her.

"What happened?" Morgan asked.

"Recto house hazed Verso house, and some of the girls stole the transponder you gave me. It's only a matter of time before the Head Mistress gets a hold of it tomorrow morning, when she returns to campus!"

"That does put us into a bit of a bind," said Morgan. "Do you have the transponder with you?"

"Yes, it's in my backpack. There's something else I need to tell you, I told my friends Umbra, Stratus and Gamma that I'm working with you!"

"I gave you strict orders to keep this all a secret!" said Morgan.

"I know, but I didn't have a choice! The only way to get the transponder back was to tell someone what it is and what it does. A third year boy named Simon knows now, too. He got it back for me."

"I'm prepared for this type of eventuality," said Morgan as she pulled out a tool kit from one of her jacket pockets.

"What are you going to do?" Alexa asked.

"I'm taking out the functional part of this device, and giving you a dummy. People who have seen this will think it's the same device, but anyone who takes it apart won't be able to find anything functional."

"But what about your plan?" Alexa asked.

"I'll have to postpone everything until all of this blows over. When people aren't as suspicious of you, we can try again."

"But everyone is suspicious of me!" said Alexa. "Everyone in both houses think I'm working for you." Alexa held up the necklace transponder Victoria gave her to wear. "This thing makes everyone think I'm working for you!"

Morgan seemed to be ignoring Alexa as she pulled a disk from the cylindrical transponder device. "I've got it! Now, if Victoria Valerius takes this thing apart, there will be nothing to incriminate you."

"When will you proceed with your plan?" Alexa asked.

"I'll contact you when I'm ready," said Morgan. "You obviously can't keep a secret very well, but what could I expect? You're twelve."

"I'm sorry for letting you down, Morgan!" said Alexa.

"Just take this and go back through the mirror," said Morgan.

Alexa did as she was told, and returned to the reality of the academy. She exited the bathroom with the deactivated transponder, and Stratus greeted her. "What happened?"

"She took out the brains of the device, so if the faculty take it apart, they won't find anything that can connect it with her."

"Was she mad that it got taken?" Stratus asked.

"Not really, but she wasn't thrilled, either." said Alexa. "What could happen to me if I got caught with technology given to me by the Dark Mistress?"

"I don't know, I'm just a first year student," Stratus replied. "But you could go to the library and look it up. I know kids who are in there studying past midnight on weekends."

"I just might do that!" said Alexa.

Ten minutes later, Alexa was at the library with her backpack and electronic tablet. She got on a computer station, and looked through the school rules. After about ten minutes, she found what she was looking for. It seemed that a student could get suspended for a period of time, but never expelled.

"That works out perfect!" said Alexa out loud to herself. "If I get suspended, I could spend time with Santiago and Roxie and Tricia!"

A Recto boy who had been listening to her came over. "It's in house suspension," the boy informed her.

"What?" Alexa said.

"If you get suspended, you have to stay on campus. You still go to class, but electronically. You stay in your dorm, and food gets delivered to you. Nobody goes back home when they're suspended."

"That sucks!" said Alexa. "Thanks for letting me know!