“Evaluating results from student Alexa Saintsworths….”

  The CRADDLE person kept saying that, but it didn’t evaluate anything! The CRADDLE person was being a cheap stake!

  “Accurately describes complex psychosocial and interpersonal problems and provides a viable means of solving the issue. Uses local assets to solve the issue without incurring social or financial debt. Shows proof of said assets…Accurately shows evidence to transform an issue into a non issue…”

  Alexa did all of that?

  “Final assessment …A+.”

  Yay! Alexa got the first letter of her name!

  “...CRADDLE, did you assign extra points to her because of her heritage?” The teacher person said narrowing all his eyes at the ceiling, both the ones on his physical body and those on his non physical bodies.

  “Negative, extra computational time was taken to re-analyze all activities taken by Alexa Saintsworths; she currently has given full authority for all time monitoring. As such all her activities after leaving her home were taken into consideration and no falsehood or evidence of her accessing school data with the goal of cheating were found. As such, extra points were given.”

  The CRADDLE person saw everything that Alexa did?!!?!? Her secrets! Her secret Mango Stash was in danger!

  “CRADDLE person! Don’t stalk Alexa!” Alexa said, standing up and pointing at the ceiling, to the same exact point that the teacher person was staring at.

  “Noted, reducing assets allocated for monitoring. Will only evaluate activities done within classroom and school setting.”

  The CRADDLE person materialized atop Alexa’s desk and said, as such. Afterwards it gave a small bow with its small body and disappeared once more.

  “Well, since Alexandra already gave us a viable way to deal with the issue then that is that.” The teacher person said sighing, “With that out of the way, you as the future of our society will have to think. What is the next step, should you find yourselves in a position of power what would be the next step that should be considered and done.”

  Pushing a button using the stick he was using to walk, the teacher person made the big television descend from the ceiling once more. On it, the map that Alexa had used to know the layout of the bank was shown; there were some areas painted red, others yellow and finally the last ones blue.

  “Red areas show the places that got heavily damaged or are expected to go out of business because they lost too many employees, mostly are buildings near the fight between the [Villains].” The teacher person said pointing said areas with his stick, “Yellow are probable high risks, areas in which there is evidence of Minion and [Villain] activity. Places there are confirmed sightings of Minions vanishing in thin air…or [Villains] doing the same.”

  Alexa knew some of those spots! One of those was where they had arrived from!

  It was closer to the blue area than the yellow, but it was near!

  Also there was one of the safehouses there, should Alexa tell [Billy] or [Eleanore] about that?

  “Finally, blue zones are the ones that got almost no damage or [Villain] and Minion presence, the good areas.” The teacher person ended up pointing at some of the blue buildings. To be precise, the teacher person pointed at one or two buildings away from the spot where Alexa had arrived after leaving the [Elevator] from the base. “Let’s go from top scorer and start from there, Alexandra? You are up. What is the next step?”

  Alexandra? But she was Alexa! She wasn’t the naggy one!

  “Hmm….” Alexa hummed, even so…should she answer?

  “Yes.” “Probably for the best if you do.”

  Both the naggy and the mean one said so. So Alexa decided to do one of the sigh things and answer.

  “Le sigh…” Nailed it, or at least Alexa thought so, “Next would be…getting people to work on the red areas?”

  Alexa was not sure why they were designed red, not like they got destroyed…as far as she had seen there wasn’t much destruction going on during the whole fight between the scrambled guy and the theater guy. Most of it had been done by [Golem] if what she remembered from the plans was to be trusted. And even that was limited to vehicles and some light poles being used as weapons by [Golem].

  “Actual things to do, Alexandra, saying ‘Let’s just go back to work’ doesn’t fix the issue.” The teacher person said back to Alexa.

  What did he want from her?

  “But…there is nothing to fix.” Alexa grumbled while crossing her arms atop her chest, “Nothing was destroyed, right? All the damage was from the people turning weird.”

  “....CRADDLE?” The teacher person said pointing at the big tv, “Add a new color, paint it purple. Show the damage to buildings.”

  “Updating heat map.” The CRADDLE person said and…nothing really changed. Besides a small dot in one building. “Update complete, current damages are as listed…One satellite dish destroyed by a discharge of electricity from one current new Hero.”

  Oh, the Railgun thing that Alexanders did damage something? Heh, Alexa would remember that…or Ale would probably, since she was the one dealing with the Alexanders guy.

  “I’m not!” “Well I don’t want to deal with him and Alexa is out by default.” “Ughhhhhhh….”

  “...That is your answer?” The teacher person said, turning to Alexa again.

  “Nothing to fix, so just get people to stop being silly.” Alexa nodded her head and said her part, she couldn’t understand what the deal was with these people, they only changed a little their [Consciousenss Stream] she did that all the time!

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Couldn’t they just share?

  The gall of some people!

  “Fine...CRADDLE, log the answer and prepare the evaluation. Next Harmonia, you are up.” Teacher person said turning the attention to Alan.

  Alexa noticed that Alan recoiled at being singled out like that, but he recomposed easily enough.

  “I would start by buying out any building open for selling in the area, people wanting to start a new life would probably want to get rid of the buildings easily enough.” Alan said turning to the screen, “Can you show us the properties that are expected to go out of business or are intending to sell?”

  The CRADDLE person didn’t respond, so the teacher person sighed and said, “CRADDLE, update the map following the query, continue updating so long the questions are productive to the class.”

  The CRADDLE person said as instructed and added a symbol of an [$] on some of the buildings; weirdly enough, most of those were those with red color, half of those with yellow color, and a couple of buildings close to the blue zone.

  Weird, why would they want to sell those in the blue zone too?

  “There, I would set up new businesses that don’t require clients to sustain themselves, perhaps office buildings?” Alan was less sure about that answer.

  “CRADDLE, log the answer. You may sit down Harmonia, your answer is good enough for now.” The teacher person said, he seemed more happy with that answer. “Now, Blackthorn, this is your chance to recover from your previous answer. What is your opinion?”

  Alan sat down as fast as possible and the attention shifted to Glory, the girl didn’t waver as much as Alan and merely stood.

  “Thank you Teacher,” First she said that and gave a small curtsy, why was she doing the weird curtsy thing? “First, as Alexa stated, the buildings are in perfect condition, so there is nothing wrong with them.”

  Alexa nodded, there was no reason to do anything! The [Humans] were being silly! Silly she said!

  “And as Alan showed us, it is perfect time to buy some properties,” Alexa didn’t know why but she got the feeling that Glory would not use the same approach that Alan had followed, “So my suggestion is to buy wholesale, buy all the properties within the same area and build a shopping mall, create new buildings mixing the lots and create a new shopping district.”

  That was…she wanted to eat the whole cake and the dish plate too!

  Glory was ravenous!

  “So while Harmonia’s plan was to move the purpose of the building away from those that required public, you are going the opposite direction. Why?” The teacher person said turning his attention to Glory, all of the echoes behind him doing the same. That looked creepy, creepy Alexa said!

  “Alexa said as much, there is no reason to get hung up on why or what [The Scrambler] did, the same goes for [The Theater Master]. We know for a fact that those affected by [The Theater Master] aren’t dangerous and more often than not can continue their life as if nothing happened.” Glory said, getting a nod from the teacher person.

  “But the same can’t be said about those affected by [The Scrambler], while they aren’t a danger per se to other people. They are greatly affected; their lives are no longer what they used to be. They are quite literally people with no memory of living here, closer to foreigners settling in a new city.” The teacher person said in a sad tone.

  “Exactly,” Glory nodded too, “They don’t know anything, have no memories of living here and all they know and remember starts from the moment they woke up.”

  “So?” The teacher person said, motioning to Glory to elaborate.

  “Well, if we build a shopping market and some facilities near the first place they woke up. The place that they will continue going to, people will start going there too. It is guaranteed success since the people affected by [The Scrambler] will not have the instinctual fear that most of us have. And since they will go there, the normal people will go too.” Glory said, nodding her head. “As Father would say, monkeys do as monkeys see.”

  That was a dumb monkey, Alexa couldn’t believe there was a monkey as dumb as that!!

  To do something just because they saw someone else do it…

  “...” “...”

  ….Alexa felt that she was being judged! But heard nothing, so surely there was some misconception around.

  “[...]”

  Yes, Alexa was sure of that!

  “I see, well that is one interesting take, probably encouraged by your peers I assume.” The teacher person said to Glory, to which she nodded, “Acceptable, CRADDLE log the answer!”

  The CRADDLE person once again didn’t answer or say anything. Weird, was the CRADDLE person sleeping?

  “As stated by both Harmonia and Blackthorn, there are no reasons why these businesses should close. And if you have the buying power you should take this chance to increase the profit on the area.” The teacher person said turning the image on the big screen to the next, “Be it by buying all the plots and making super mall centers or condensed office space.”

  Alexa…didn’t like either option to be honest, she liked how the street looked with multiple buildings of different colors.

  “The most promising one is the super mall as it offers the opportunity to not only renovate the whole place down but also increase the amount of variety and public attendance.” The teacher person said, and the next image shown on the screen was one of a big building with multiple small types of establishments.

  Alexa cared not for those, though.

  “MANGO!” For she screamed to the high heavens as she noticed one of the buildings had a mango depiction and was offering Mango services (Mango Ice Cream).

  “...Yes, Alexandra Saintsworths, there is indeed one establishment selling kid’s candies among those.” The teacher person said, stopping for a second.

  “Establishment selected is a private enterprise that is scheduled to be released to the public in four days; it is expected to sell multiple types of food, beverages, and candies focused on mango-related products. Named ‘Mango Paradise INC, patent pending.’ “ The CRADDLE person said, but Alexa was not paying attention! (She was paying attention and recording everything)

  “CRADDLE person! Send the relevant data to Main Core! Also, schedule Alexa for a mango Ice cream!” Alexa said, pointing to the image and nodding her head.

  “Scheduled appointment has been finished. Sending corresponding tickets, data and location to Alexa Saintsworths email labeled as ‘Main Core’...Done.” The CRADDLE person said to Alexa’s relief.

  “Say…was the Artificial intelligence governing our school life always this…Pitiful?” Alexa heard one of the students near her whisper to someone else.

  “...My father said that if the Saintsworths released it into the stock market it would increase their worth by at least a couple billions…” Other students said as much.

  “And here it is…” The first student said, frustrated. “Scheduling tickets for a candy store…”

  “The world, more often than not, is weirder than fiction.” The teacher person said in a loud voice, making everyone focus on him, “Haven’t I told you that time and time again? This very class is such an example, for you all should be aware that the average five to six-year-old kid is not solving the type of questions that I field for you to solve.”

  Alexa…was painfully aware of that, if not for Main Core helping her cheat, she very much doubted that she would have any chance, at all. To survive in this class environment.

  “But there must be a limit to such ridiculous things in a day,” The first student said.

  “Ridiculous you say? Are you implying that a Saintsworths Heir is acting…strange?” The teacher person said with some mirth in his voice.

  “...I stand corrected,” The previously angry student said in a defeated tone, “I had forgotten for a second whose family we spoke about.”

  What?

  “What?” Alexa asked confused.

  “Don’t mind it Alexa,” Glory said standing up and moving her chair closer to Alexa.

  “It is the perils of being above the rabble, as the people from your family would say,” Alan added as he also moved his chair closer to Alexa.

  Now Alexa was sandwiched between her friends! Alexa would have more people to play around with!

  No wait, was this legal? Could they do this?

  “So, what did we learn in this instance? Alexandra?” The teacher person said, turning the attention back to Alexa.

  What did Alexa learn?

  “That the Saintsworths sometimes can do good things?” Alexa asked pointing at the mango enterprise developing right now.

  “Harmonia?” The teacher person ignored Alexa’s answer and turned to Alan.

  “That while some may think that having a last name doesn’t change us. It can very well explain many things.” Alan said, nodding sagely.

  Alexa wasn’t even sure what that meant!

  “Blackthorn.” The teacher person nodded and pointed to Glory this time.

  “That the genius of some people can be interpreted as madness by others.” Glory said, smiling at Alexa. “And I personally learned that there must be a reason behind the madness. Even if I can’t see it.”

  “...I don’t think there are many things hidden behind this particular madness though.” Alan quickly added in a small voice.

  “Good, all good lessons. You are free to interpret [Madness] as you wish, but that is up to you Blackthorn.” The teacher person said. “But you must be ready to accept that not all that is hidden behind [Madness] is a well-thought plan.”

  The teacher person said the last part, staring at Alexa…not through his normal eyes, but using the eyes of all the other people hidden behind the cracks in reality.

  “But Alexa doesn’t have any hidden plan…” Alexa said tilting her head to the side cutely, why cutely? Because it was Alexa!

  “Or anything at all.” The teacher person said, nodding his head, “CRADDLE! Finish the calculation of today’s points!”

  It was time! Alexa would know how she did today!

  “And with that, let’s move to the next part of the schedule…The Exam War preparations, I assume your representatives and members are ready? Blackthorn? Harmonia?” The teacher person said turning to Alan and Glory.

  “Yes sir,” “Ready to go.” Both answered.

  What?

  “Good, then let’s move on. We have plenty to explain to your new teammate.” The teacher person said as he motioned at the big screen, “CRADDLE, show us what we can expect for this year’s first exam wars.”

  “Acknowledged, displaying currently scheduled war scenarios.”

  “And this students, is what true nepotism feels like. Embrace it.” The teacher person said, pointing at the screen.

  “That is information that we should not be able to see.” Glory said aghast as her pen danced across her desk recording all the information.

  “Hello, mother of all the illegal data…” Alan said from the side eyeing the screen and unlike everyone else, he did turn to look at Alexa, “...And hello to you Princess.”

  Princess?!?!?!

  Alexa was a princess?!?!?

  She didn’t know what that was, but it made Alexa’s face feel hot and made her [Consciousness Stream] all tingly.