Make Love Not War: Dragon Fire

The shuttle continued along the line of posts until a larger column came into view. It was white and made of stone and on top of it was a chrome structure similar to the stations that they had stopped at previously. The shuttle lined up with the station, and then touched down on the platform below. Professor Oolong’s face then appeared on the television screens once more.
“All students, please disembark from the shuttle, please remember to bring all your belongings from your cabins but do not worry about your suitcases, they will be taken care of.” She said and again there was a sense of automation about her voice. Once her picture had faded out Kristina, James and Mark walked out of there cabin and into the small corridor which was now full of students slowly moving along. They finally reached the end of the corridor and exited the craft. As Mark disembarked from the shuttle he noticed that in front of him stood three chrome arches. Standing next to each of the arches were two men dressed in the same helmets and blue uniforms as the men who had accompanied Professor Oolong onto each of the stations that the shuttle had stopped at.
“You must all pass through security. The scanners will detect anything contraband that you may be concealing as well as weapons and any other unsavoury items.” Professor Oolong explained coldly. “Line up single file and we will get through this as quickly as possible.” The students did as they were told and Mark, who was in the middle of the line, watched as each student in front of him was scanned. It all looked painless enough, the student would stand in the archway and one of the men in the blue uniforms would press a button on the side of the arch. A green light would then be emitted between the two sides of the inside of the arch, starting at the bottom and working its way up until it had reached the top of the head. Once this had happened the student was free to go and walked to the other side and wait for everyone else. The students took it in turns to fill the three scanners and then waited on the other side with Professor Oolong. When it was Mark’s turn he walked forwards and stood inside the arch. He felt a tingling in his feet which slowly moved up legs and across his chest and up to his head and then it was over, he moved forwards and stood with the other students.
When everyone had been scanned Professor Oolong instructed the students to follow her and led them into a room which contained another scanning device and four doors which were on the other side. As Mark got closer he could make out that each door had writing on it. One said “Brunel”, the second read “Da Vinci”. The third was Phoenix and the final door had the professors name “Oolong” written on it.
“Now gather round students I will say this only once. We will call your names out one at a time to be scanned by the computer again. Instead of checking you for contraband however this computer will scan your brain and choose which house you shall belong to for your entire stay at Assam University. There are four houses at Assam. They are Brunel House, Da Vinci House, Phoenix House and Oolong House, which was named after my grandfather the founder of our school. After your house has been chosen by the computer, please walk into the respective houses rooms where you will find your school uniform in your house colours.” She continued. “Please change into it and then pass through to the other side”.
“John Ace” she began. And a confident young man stepped forward and into the scanner. It scanned him in much the same way as the security scanner except that the beam was violet in colour and instead of moving up his body it focused on his head.
The computer whirred for a second before announcing “Brunel” and John walked through the door marked Brunel.
“Eliza Bo” Professor Oolong continued and a small thin ginger haired girl stepped forward.
“Oolong” the computer said.
“Kayleigh Cox”. A tall and big breasted blonde girl stepped forward blushing as she stood inside the scanner.
“Phoenix”
“Itali Chimbonda” A tall dark skinned girl strode confidently forward.
“Oolong”
“Sakina Croft” A small Asian girl stepped forwards.
“Brunel”
“Chris Lockett” A boy with curly hair stepped forwards.
“Da Vinci”
“Humphrey Frodich” A blonde boy wearing glasses stepped forward.
“Oolong”
“Leonardo Fry" Leonardo stepped forwards.
“Da Vinci”
“Squall Jameson” A tall boy whose dark hair covered his face stepped forwards.
“Brunel”
“Mark May”. Mark stepped forwards. He wasn’t sure which house he wanted to belong to. Leonardo who he had met at Emerald Hill station had been chosen for Da Vinci, so at least he would know someone there if that was chosen for him. He was pretty sure however that he did not want to be in Oolong as the Professor scared him a little. Taking a deep breath he stepped into the scanner and felt the slight tickle of the scanning beam on his head. The computer whirred for what seemed like an age before announcing loudly. “Phoenix”.
Mark smiled, although he hadn’t known before what house he wanted to be in it now seemed obvious that it would be Phoenix and he stepped forwards towards the door that had Phoenix written on it. As he was walking towards the Phoenix room he noticed that the other three door names that he had read from across the room before suddenly seemed very blurred so much so that he couldn’t make them out. He shook his head putting it down to nerves however and walked through the door marked Phoenix. On the other side there were two benches opposite each other with rows of school uniforms neatly laid out on them. At one bench stood the girl he recognised as the blushing blonde Kayleigh Cox. Mark blushed himself when he noticed that she was still getting changed into her uniform. The girl’s uniform consisted of a white blouse and a short pleated skirt and knee high socks. Kayleigh was pulling on her white blouse and looked up to see Mark looking at her. Mark expected her to call him a pervert or something, as his friend Erika always said whenever he was caught looking at a beautiful girl but she simply blushed and smiled at him and Mark caught a glimpse of her full black bra as she buttoned up her shirt. He immediately turned around embarrassed and walked quickly to the other bench which held the boys uniforms.
The boy’s uniform consisted of black trousers and a white button up shirt. The Phoenix tie meanwhile lived up to its name, fiery red and yellow at the bottom which from afar almost seemed to be real, as though the tie itself was on fire with the flames rising up with two large red phoenix wings emerging from the flames. Mark waited until Kayleigh had left before getting undressed. He pulled off his sweater and his trousers and was just wearing his boxer shorts when suddenly the door behind him opened and Kristina entered. Mark turned around startled.
“Looks like we’re both in Phoenix” Kristina smiled at him. “Nice boxers” she grinned cheekily watching Mark’s face glow bright red before moving over to the opposite bench and removing her coat and shirt.
Mark turned around and eager not to be half naked around Kristina anymore quickly pulled on his school trousers. But in his haste he pulled them on too fast twisting them and falling over with a crash. He looked up saw Kristina standing over him and felt his face redden deeply, not only had he embarrassed himself by falling over but she was standing over him dressed in only her bra and underwear. He had never seen a girl dressed in so little before and he was unnerved by the way the sight of the blonde girl in front of him was making him feel. She however seemed not to care that they were both wearing so very little and offered her hand to pull him up.
“Don’t be embarrassed, Mark” She said sweetly seeing the redness in his face, “I’ve got five brothers; you haven’t got anything I haven’t seen before.” She smiled sweetly as he accepted her hand and got to his feet.
“Th... Th... Thank you” he stuttered.
“Don’t mention it” she giggled before walking back over to where she was getting changed and pulled on her blouse.
The two friends were shortly joined by another boy called Paul, who unlike Mark seemed perfectly comfortable taking his clothes off with people watching and once they were finished getting changed they left the room together and lined up next to their fellow Phoenix house members.
The Phoenix students were stood next to the Brunel students and Mark noticed their ties were significantly different to those of Phoenix. The Brunel ties were blue in colour and featured a spectacular bridge which had a steam locomotive travelling across it. To the other side were the Da Vinci students and Mark could easily pick out Leonardo who he had met back in Emerald Hill. The Da Vinci ties were cream in colour and featured blue print designs of various bird based aircraft being drawn on them. A few minutes later an Oolong student exited the changing rooms and Mark noticed its distinctive tie was purple and featured the portrait of a man saluting. Mark theorized that this man was Professor Oolong’s Grandfather.
The final student to exit the Phoenix changing rooms was James, but he had forgotten his glasses and had to run back inside and get them. The Professor looked at him disapprovingly as he returned before waving over four of the blue uniformed guards each carrying several black briefcases.
“In these briefcases you will find everything you will need during your time at Assam” the Professor stated opening one of the cases. “This is your panel” she said lifting a large flat glass object out of the top of the case. “Your panel should be with you at all times, and it will be where you do most of your work. It is also where you can read the student press and communicate with your fellow students via the Assam forums and private messages.” She continued pointing her hand at the top right hand corner “Just press here to turn it on for the first time. Once it is switched on you must give your name and student I.D. number which will be on the I.D. cards I will be giving you shortly. You will then have to draw a picture with your finger. Once this is all set up you must draw this picture on the panel every time you wish to turn it on.” She placed the Panel back into the top of the case and it clicked to place. Next she picked up a card made of glass and held it up. “This is your Credit Card.” She said. “Each student has been awarded one thousand Assam Credits for the year. You will gain credits if you perform well in school activities and will lose credits if you break any rules. Credits can be spent in the school cafeteria between regular meals or in any of Assam’s Upper City Districts.” Her voice suddenly became stern. “Older students may tell you to go down into the lower city to spend your credits. However this is NOT permitted for first years and anyone who is caught going down into the Lower city below could face expulsion.” Mark swallowed, he already felt like he’d done something wrong and they weren’t even there yet.
“Now students each take a case off of these lovely Ceylons and then follow me to the I.D. checkpoint.”
“What are Ceylons?” Mark and Kristina said to each other as they walked over to take their cases.
One of the blue uniformed guards had obviously heard them. “Ceylons are the Corporation Security Forces” it said in a robotic voice. “We are sworn to protect Assam and all its students”.
“Protect us from what?” Mark wondered silently.
The students followed the professor to the I.D. checkpoint where they lined up and were each given an I.D. card with their name, I.D. number and house name on it. It also contained a holographic image of the person it belonged to which was clearly part of the scan that had taken place earlier. Mark thought his looked like it was trying to keep a straight face whilst being tickled which was exactly what he had been doing whilst he was scanned. Meanwhile James thought his glasses looked lopsided and noticed that his shirt was not tucked in and complained that his mother would shout at him for it. Kristina wasn’t any happier with hers, noting that her cheeks looked oddly pink in the hologram and whilst Mark couldn’t see it himself he did notice for the first time just how much paler Kristina looked next to James now that they were in daylight.
Once all of the I.D. cards had been handed out the students followed Professor Oolong to the next shuttle which was circularly shaped with windows all around the edge and a small staircase leading into it. Before they could climb aboard however they had to pass through yet another security check, this time flashing their I.D. cards at a security droid at the entrance. Professor Oolong then stopped in the shuttle doorway.
“Inside there is a circular corridor which runs around the outside of the shuttle. In the centre there is a room for each house. Please go to your own houses room and stay there until we land at Assam” she instructed before moving out of the way and letting the students walk past her. Mark, James and Kristina walked around to the Phoenix room the door of which featured the same design as their school ties. They swiped their I.D. cards through a card reader on the side of the door and entered.
Inside the Phoenix Room they found to their delight that it was full of comfortable chairs and sofas with lots of games dotted around the room, including much to James’ delight a Kamui table. The room was also filled with food and drinks, whilst a screen on the centre wall depicted the Phoenix Houses fiery emblem and a skylight in the ceiling bathed them all in sunlight. Soon the three friends were joined by the rest of the Phoenix students. There was Kayleigh and Paul who Mark and Kristina had met in the changing room as well as Tom, Hannah and Selphie who had been scanned afterwards.
The shuttle launched with a jolt but it was barely noticed by Phoenix Housemates. They were all much too busy getting to know each other. Kristina discovered that Tom was from Cloverfield which was the neighbouring village of Ifing City. Paul meanwhile showed everyone that he had tattoos on his back of two large wings and Kristina and Hannah both admitted that the sight made them quite weak at the knees. Mark and James meanwhile played a friendly game of Kamui with James’ cards which was unsurprisingly won by James, whilst Selphie showed everyone her portfolio of paintings and asked everyone if they wanted to model for her when they got to Assam. The group were having so much fun they almost didn’t notice the sky above them darken suddenly.