“Psh, what are you going to do?” the kid taunted.
“Ignore him Warren.” Urich said.
“You stay out of this Stern.” The boy snapped.
“So what is your name? I like to know who I’m tearing to pieces before I do it.” Warren said, his upper lip quivering, he didn’t like this kid; he needed a lesson in respect. “Then again don’t I’ll just call you stupid, cause that is what you are.”
“Why you!” the kid said, throwing a punch at Warren, which he intentionally let hit. Warren laughed.
“You hit like a five year old girl.” Warren said, “This is a punch.” And brought his fist back, the kid barely even blinked before Yumi and Urich were holding both of Warren’s arms. “Get off me.”
“Don’t this only causes more problems.” Yumi said to Warren, and then turned to the other kid. “You’re going to get seriously hurt if you keep this up Herb. I know what Warren is capable of and you seriously don’t want to be on the receiving end of it.”
“She is right, you insist on picking a fight with a guy that can kick you across the football field.” Urich said, struggling to hold Warren.
“Right, and I am the King of England.” Herb said. “Besides he is probably some low bred individual that has some little piece of dirt for a mother.”
To this Warren jumped up and landed hard on Yumi’s and Urich’s feet, hard. Yumi yelped and grabbed her foot, and the distraction was all that Warren needed to break out of Urich’s hold. He lunged at Herb, his eyes burning with a fire that looked like it was going to burst out of his eyes. Just as he was about to tear into the kid Jim grabbed him and held him back.
“Herb Pichon, principal’s office now.” He barked, trying to hold Warren back. Jim held Warren for a couple of minutes, enough for him to calm down, then let him go. “ I heard the entire thing. Now go to your room and wait for me to call you.” Warren nodded, grabbed his stuff, and headed off. “Are you two going to be ok?” Jim asked Yumi and Urich.
“Yeah, we’ll be ok.” Yumi said. As Jim headed off to the principal’s office she turned to Urich. “I knew that he was strong, but not that strong. As soon as he has cooled off a bit go and talk to him. I need to get home.” Then walked off with a visible limp. The others looked at each other.
“That kid has quite a temper.” Jeremie said, pushing his glasses higher on his nose.
“Yeah but did you see that he really reacted when Herb mentioned his family, that might give you a pointer.” Urich said, massaging his foot. “I think that he wasn’t really going to hurt him till he insulted Warren’s family, just ruff him up a little bit. But as soon as he insulted them he reared up like a monster.”
“Right, lets go find out about this kid.” Jeremie said, and then pulled out his laptop, a few seconds later he had Warren’s info on the screen, and started to read. “Says here that he is a real good student, just isn’t very good with homework. It also says that he has been diagnosed with ADHD and depression, and…” Jeremie stopped for a second, as if trying to figure out if the information was correct. “No wonder he blew up, his mother has Multiple Sclerosis, I’ve heard a bit about it and it isn’t good. His father works, as he said, for a company that defends people under the ADA, which is the Americans with Disabilities Act. He has one sister, who is four years younger than him, and that is it.” Jeremie closed his laptop.
“Let’s talk to him as soon as we can, Warren might be a powerfully ally in our fight.” Odd said, “If we can make him see that our fight will help them and he can fight until he is sick of it.”

Warren stormed to his room, fuming. He grabbed his CD case and pulled out the Green Day CD “International Superhits”. He slammed it into his boom box and turned it to track 18, Minority, then turned it up to block out his thoughts. He couldn’t believe that guy, Herb, he had always treated newcomers with friendliness, not aggression, but then again there were types that he avoided at all costs. Anyone knows the rules of verbal torching, and family is the last thing you touch before you get your face rearranged, especially for Warren. After a bit he calmed down a bit and let the music take him, unaware that he was singing along, his normally baritone voice rising into the tenor level as he sung. Eventually he got up and changed the CD to the “Newsies”, and put on Seize the Day, lightly singing along when someone knocked on the door. Warren smiled, “some one was smart, they waited till I had changed the CD to a better tune.” He thought.
“It’s Open” Warren said, turning from the door to pull out one of the notebooks for the hunter of darkness.
“You have a good way of expressing yourself.” He heard an unfamiliar voice say behind him. Warren turned around to see a guy with a guy just a little taller than him with graying hair in a brown dress suit.
“Music isn’t just an art, it is an emotion, and each piece has its own character and emotion to it. Like with this one, it has the voice of tension, but not anger, plus the person who was writing this along with the people who are singing it are having fun.” Warren said. The guy’s bushy eyebrows rose.
“I was told by Mr. Della Robbia that you have a thing for music and told me to wait till the song changed before I came in. Now, I am Principal Delmas, Jim told me that you had a confrontation with Mr. Pichon.” He said.
“At my old school if you did what he did you got jumped right then and there.” Warren said “And if he keeps that attitude up, he will get jumped by some person he ticked off.”
“What did he say to you?” Principal Delmas asked,
“You’ve read my file right?” Warren asked, and Mr. Delmas nodded, “He insulted my family, you have seen what my parents go through, and you know my problems as well… and I am not going to let some kid talk like that about my family without knowing them. I can take the basic joke but he went to far.”
“Have you talked with a councilor? I’m sure that they can help you.” Mr. Delmas said.
“What councilor is better than music? In any case I have been to so many I practically am one myself.” Warren said, and started to flip through the CD case again.
“Music is just a small thing, life needs more than one outlet.” Delmas said.
Warren pulled out a CD. “Well music is one of my ways other than going running that I cope… I can run for miles, just thinking.” He said as he put in the new CD. “Now listen to this. This is one of the songs that can describe me in a good way. I don’t need to change any of the words to have it fit.” He turned it on and “Welcome to my Life” by Simple Plan. Halfway through the song there was a tap at the door, Warren opened the door to see Odd and Jeremie. “One sec.” Warren said, and then closed the door. “Now what are you going to have me do as a punishment for my blowout?”
“Detention, on Tuesday, you get to help Mr. Hendricks set up a new bunch of computers.” Mr. Delmas said.
“Repetitive programming right?” Warren asked, again Mr. Delmas nodded, “Natch, no one will let some kid handle a new computer that he could drop at any second. Plus you have read that I like to be on computers, and am often talking with one friend or another on one of the forums that I go to.” Mr. Delmas said nothing, just nodded once again and left. When he exited the room Odd and Jeremie stepped in. They were both a little tense, and for good reason, Warren had just shown them how much damage he could do when he got upset.
“So what do they have you doing?” Odd asked.
“Repetitive programming with the new computers for Mr. Hendricks. But at least it is on Tuesday” Warren said, sitting down and once again pulling out his CD case.
“Sounds fun.” Jeremie said.
“Yeah I know…listen I’m real sorry about what happened back there. I completely lost control, and you guys have the right to know why.” Warren said, pulling out an Eagles CD, which he put in the boom box.
“We already know why… now to figure out how you must come with us.” Odd said, and then motioned for Jeremie and Warren to follow him. Warren frowned and then followed the other two boys, who led him out of the school proper and into the woods that were on it’s boundaries. Though he followed without question, Warren subconsciously tensed, he was nervous about where they were taking him. They had given him no reason to be afraid of them, and that was a good reason on why he followed. The four entered a clearing, where Urich was standing, waiting.
“Good you’re here, now we can finally get moving.” Urich said, turning and then bending down and lifting a manhole cover. Urich and the other two descended into the darkness below, Warren followed, uncertainly. After a long time of silence and semi darkness, they emerged right by the river; the others ascended the latter and led on. They entered the old rickety building, and Warren got a flash of some scene where he saw Sissy, only she was different. The four kids entered an old elevator and Warren waited for what they had to show him.
“Normally when we come here the AI of the supercomputer, called XANA had attacked, through using a network of towers on the surface of the programs ‘land’.” Jeremie said. The door to the elevator opened, and there was a huge room with a holographic projector in the center, along with Aelita and Yumi standing next to it.
“Welcome to the Factory.” Aelita said. The holographic projector came to life and showed a picture of four areas, in a virtual world. “And welcome to the group.”