Batch

09-19-2013 -- Starts out as some sort of Harry Potter dream, though we're going through training that is a little more intense than you usually see at Hogwarts. I can't say if I am Harry Potter or not, but whoever I am, I am very powerful, and oddly, I find I seem to be able to do things nobody else can do.

Somewhere in our training (which seems to involve fighting our way through various rooms, destroying everything in our paths) we end up being attacked by real bad guys, and I manage to kill several of them, which leads to my being suspended or something. The higher ups don't like that I did this, and because of this, they are trying to block the rest of my training and lock me out of what is turning into some sort of military organization.

I end up consulting with Tom Drick, who explains that I have made some very powerful enemies, and I am probably doomed as far as the regular chain of command works ... but ... I already have most of the skills, I mostly need the knowledge that goes with them. There are certain tests that, if passed, and backed up with enough knowledge and power, can bypass the regular education channels. If I can pass these tests, and show the required skill and power (which I already have, so I should be able to do so again) then I will have earned a place in the 'army' that they cannot deny me.

I decide that could be a good way to go, and I soon find myself on what seems like a college campus (not Fullerton College, but it has a lot of that feel to it.) I am walking up the staircase leading to a library, where I need to go in and request the books and things to study what I need to study, and I am also supposed to meet some sort of retired general that Tom arranged a sort of introduction to.

Problem is, there are a lot of older students hanging out around the door to this library, and I am not sure who is waiting in line, and who is just hanging, but since they don't seem to be forming any sort of obvious organized line, I try to walk right past them and through the door into the library. A couple of the punks seem to object to this, and they start messing with me, demanding to know who I think I am, and why I think I can use their library when I am obviously too young.

I try to explain my situation slightly without going into too much detail, but they catch on completely, and tell me there is no way in hell they are ever going to serve under me. They are so intense about it that it becomes obvious we will never be able to work together, and they will obviously oppose me at every opportunity, regardless of the consequences. I am left with no other option but to kill them. I take out my gun, they draw their weapons, and we begin to fire on one another.

One of them, I manage to draw a bead on, and shoot and kill very easily. The other is farther away, and I just seem to miss, almost every time. But I am dangerous enough that he kind of stalks off to find somewhere out of the way to hide and plot for a little while, to regroup. But he is wearing a very rich blue (think Carl's PT Cruiser) shirt that nobody else has, so I ought to be able to spot him fairly easily. I continue into the library to get my study materials.

But it is now more like a bank counter, or perhaps a court counter at a courthouse (with just a hint of the ice cream counter at Thrifty's thrown in.) I walk up to an older gentleman who I recognize as the one Tom arranged a meeting with, and start to explain things, but the word of the the guy I just killed and the other one I was shooting at has spread, and everybody wants to know what is going on. So I explain exactly what happened, and why I did what I did, and the old guy agrees that I probably did the right thing ... but I have made even more enemies, and the guy says I probably need to take the tests and things to push me even higher in their society. He starts to lay out workbook after workbook on the counter, until I have maybe something like a ten inch stack of books and forms and papers and so on.

I walk back out of the library/office, and find myself in a small cafe next to a pizza parlor that seems like one of the pizza places that I always dream of in the New York dreams, and while I try to find a spot to sit in the cafe, I can overhear the guy who got away a few minutes before in the pizza parlor. He is going on and on about what he plans to do to me, and meanwhile they are giving away blue shirts that look just like his, which is going to make it more and more difficult for me to recognize him. It's kind of like they are going to be firing the shirts off into the crowd with t-shirt guns or something.

So I leave my books and stuff, and go hunting him immediately. As I start taking shots when I have a clear one lined up, he starts running again (and firing back) and we have soon made our way to a cross between the wide open space of a large hotel with a huge inner courtyard (think the Renaissance Sea World or the Embassy Suites you once worked in) and a shopping mall. I am looking across the way to another floor, and taking shots at this guy, though the shop he is hiding in is turning into more of a hotel room.

But there is something odd. I hit the first guy so easily, and my shooting was so on. This guy, it is like everything is clear and sharp until my gun is trained on him, then it just kind of fuzzes up, and it is like I can't get a lock ... almost like he has got some sort of magical anti-targeting system on. He is dodging around his hotel room with the door open, and putting things in the way to make my shot more difficult, and I ought to still easily line up a shot, and make it, but it just doesn't work.

Eventually, he has run off from the area entirely, so I guess I am at least too scary to stay around, but I know I will have more trouble with him later. Meanwhile, I have to get back to my books and my meal at the cafe, but it is now several hours later, and near closing. When I get back, I find no sign of my waitress, and have to hunt a bit to find my stuff. I have to leave payment and a tip, but I have no idea what would be a good amount, considering the weapons fire, and how many hours my stuff has been here and in the way. I want to tip well, yet I can't afford to go overboard, and I don't even know what my bill was for.

I pull out a $20 bill and hand it to the waitress, and am waiting to see what her response will be, and she seems at least reasonably pleased, so I am happy, though I find myself thinking back to where I was originally, during this time period, and find myself thinking it is the late 80's, and recalling eating a decent meal at Athenian Burgers for about $5 bucks, and $20 on $5 would be a 300% tip. That feels a little short, but pretty decent, for the circumstances.

Then I come across the actual receipt, and find my bill was only $2, so I feel even better about how much I paid, though I am still running around on the street mumbling to myself about what I paid for meals 'back in' 1987. The older people in the vehicle (a van or bus) that I am traveling in are looking at me and starting to comment on my wording, and saying I must be part of some government time travel program. But they are all past government workers, so they aren't horrified or disbelieving or anything, just kind of interested.