Omnitranyl (Ben 10 Alien Force)

"You, the redhead, step forward and introduce yourself!"

"Phillip, my lord," said Kevin. "Pageboy and future eternal knight."

"An ambitious young man, I must say," Sir William, in his silver armor and red cloak, stared at Kevin, I mean, Philip. He smiled and continued "That's good, without ambition you can't achieve anything! You, the tall one, step forward and introduce yourself!"

Kevin invaded the castle of the Forever Knights. Using an ID mask, he adopted the identity of Philip, a young red-haired man with freckles, a broad nose, and a great dream of one day becoming an Forever Sir. But for this, it would take a long journey as a page, to one day become a squire and, after much dedication, rise to the rank of knight. How he would earn the title of Sir was already something that his imagination did not allow him to think about when creating the lie.

At this moment Kevin was standing in a line with nineteen other young pageboys, with their backs to the main gate of the castle. Sir William walked briskly from one side to the other, his judgmental gaze wandering over the fearful expressions of the new recruits. Beside the knight, a squire with a clipboard took notes on the new members of the order and walked at the same pace as his lord.

Of the twenty young men, who at this moment were struggling to keep their urinary bladder functioning, only two besides Kevin (Phillip) are relevant to the story: Theodore and George. And why? Because they were the only ones that Kevin addressed. Actually, no. They were the ones who brought up Kevin, but after three grunts, two snorts with their nostrils and six disapproving looks, the Osmosian finally responded with words.

"... and should one of you be caught breaking any of these rules, gentlemen, expect no pity or mercy," Sir William concluded his instructions to the new recruits.

Sorry not to put the instructions at the beginning for you to follow, dear readers, but it is enough that the poor pages are forced to listen to several minutes of blah-blah-blah; "you can do this, you can't do that"; "you will be beheaded" and a bunch of other nonsense.

Finally, the knight concluded:

"Are we clear?"

"Yes, my lord!" they all replied at the same time.

"My Squire will show you to your quarters. Dismissed!"

The row of pageboys opened a space between their members to allow the knight, in his flowing red cape, to pass, as he went outside the castle. Then the Squire ― a young man a little older than the pageboys, with curly black hair and wearing a ridiculous red and white outfit ― asked for everyone's attention and began:

"I would say 'good day' if it was a good day, but having to deal with their nasty faces first thing in the morning is bound to kill the 'good' side of any day."

The stewards looked at each other, confused. Was this a great example of Small Power Syndrome?

The Squire continued:

"If you have any questions, keep them to yourselves. If you have any complaints, keep them to yourself. If you have any compliments, keep them to yourself too, because I don't care what you like or don't like. Are we in agreement?"

"Yes, sir..." they all answered at the same time.

"Great, keep up with me" And he followed through the row, bumping into the arm of one of the recruits.

Theodore tilted his head toward Kevin (Phillip) and whispered:

"Nice guy, huh?"

Kevin answered nothing and continued walking quietly.

"Please tell me that all this "friendliness" is not contagious?" said Theodore.

***

"You three will be responsible for sweeping the yard." The other page boys were also divided into tasks, but Phillip, Theodore and George were left with the task of cleaning the huge area of the courtyard. The upside is that it would be a large amount of time to be allocated to just one task, which would allow Kevin to concentrate on his next steps now that he was inside the castle. The downside is that Theodore and George were the talkative types and wouldn't shut up for a second, preventing Kevin from thinking.

"My father said that my name was inspired by the Knight-Founder of the Order," said George. The young man with curly hair and glasses held his broomstick like a sword pointing to the sky.

"Really? I thought Jorge was the name of the Founder?" said Theodore. His physical features of Asian descent allied to his height, tall for his age, made him stand out among the other pageboys. At the moment he had his head resting on his hands that held the top of the broom and kept it upright.

"This depends on where you hear the story. In my case, it was inspired by the British version."

"Cool. My name was not inspired by anything, I guess." Theodore turned to Kevin and said: "And you, Phillip? Is your name a tribute too?"

Kevin answered with a frown and continued sweeping.

"Are you going to continue to be the quiet one? Then fine..." said Theodore.

"You should be sweeping instead of wasting time chattering," said Kevin finally. "If Sir William shows up..."

"You've decided to talk at last!" said George.

"He's right, George," said Theodore, "let's get back to work before Sir or his annoying Squire shows up."

The quiet movement of the courtyard was suddenly changed by the arrival of the truck. As soon as the gate opened, the yard was lined with knight-soldiers: some to escort and secure the cargo, others to unload the truck and some just to satisfy curiosity. The fact is that in a matter of moments, all the attention in the castle turned to the vehicle and its mysterious cargo.

"What's going on?" asked Theodore.

Kevin approached his colleagues. He could not continue sweeping, as the crowd and his curiosity would not let him.

"Won't tell anyone," George whispered, "but it seems that they discovered some mysterious technology in the west castle and are transferring it to ours for safekeeping."

A square container reinforced with seals was taken from inside the truck and carried through the courtyard, with a sort of floating platform, into the castle. Riders escorted the cargo with guns at the ready.

"What did they found?" Kevin asked George.

"I don't know much. But from what I found out by snooping around my father's office."

"Your father?" Kevin interrupted.

"My father is one of the Sirs of this castle. Responsible for tactical planning. Sir Gustav, have you ever heard of him?"

Kevin remembered punching a chief knight in the face a few months ago, if his name is Gustav he couldn't tell. George continued:

"He has a flaw in his right eyebrow and a patch of gray hair on the sides."

Yeah, he's the one I punched in the face indeed.... he thought.

"I don't know him." said Kevin.

"Anyway, they were after an ancient object called Chaotic, which according to them possesses a technology still unknown on planet Earth."

"And what does it do?" asked Theodore.

"I don't know, man, but it must do a lot of damage. Otherwise they wouldn't be so careful..."

Kevin kept his gaze fixed on the reinforced doors that closed soon after this Chaotic entered the castle.

I'm sure that's what Albedo is after? He thought. The question now is how to stop him from getting...

"Hey, you useless!" the Squire's voice coming from one of the castle windows was still annoying no matter if heard from near or far. "Stop wasting your time and get back to work before I put you to work cleaning all the windows in the castle too!"

"Come on, guys," said George, "we don't want to annoy the little king any more..."

Kevin went back to sweeping, both the floor and his thoughts. With a new objective in view, he had to rework his plans from the beginning...