The All-Alex Rejects Chapter 3

The Rejects looked behind them to see who said “Hello” to them. They saw a rather skinny girl behind them with blonde hair. She was dressed in a lab coat and wore a tie. There was something strange about her eyes… “こんにちは、友人。” she said, while bowing. The Rejects screamed and fell on the ground. She walked closer to them and they crawled away from her in fear. “Please do not be frightened. I mean you no harm,” she said. She walked over to Morgana and stuck out her hand to help Morgana get up. Morgana looked at her hand and grabbed it. The girl lifted Morgana up.

“Well,” Alex Jr. said, “If Morgana trusts her, I trust her.” He held out his hand to get her assistance. She helped Alex Jr. up.

“Well, I don’t trust her as much,” Mars said. He took out his sword as the girl approached him. “Who are you?” he asked, “And what are you doing here?”

The girl momentarily froze, her smile fading away. She angrily grabbed Mars’ sword and was able to pull it out of his hands, tossing it aside. She turned back to face him, smiling once more. “There is no need to act so hostile.” She stuck out her hand in assistance. Mars reluctantly took her help to get up. He noticed that although he has clasped her hand, she had not. He went over to get his sword. The girl then helped Paeton up. Now that all of the Rejects were up, she introduced herself. “Hello. I am Alice. I am in charge of greeting guests here.”

“Where exactly is ‘here’?” Alex Jr. asked.

“You are in the Hippocampus.”

“What?”

“The hippocampus. It is the elongated ridges on the floor of each lateral ventricle of the brain, thought to be the center of emotion, memory, and the autonomic nervous system. You left the Hall of Memories. If you follow the road to the right, you’ll go to the Memory Bank, where memories are kept safe and secure. To the north is the Emotion Engine. Just down the block to the left is our signature diner.”

“Ooh! Food,” Alex Jr. commented, “I am kinda hungry. Anyone else?”


The Rejects were the only customers in the diner. The place was eerie with no one else there. The walls were white and the tiles on the floor were white with some black ones placed in a pattern. The menus had red fabric borders.

“See anything you like?” Alice asked.

“This bacon cheeseburger sounds good,” Alex Jr. said, “I’ll take one of those.” He handed the menu to Alice.

“May I please have the Soup de Jour?” Morgana shyly asked, “And water for my flower?” She gave the menu to Alice.

“I’m not too hungry,” Paeton said, “Just gimme a cup of ambrosia and some ice cream.” The angel gave Alice her menu.

“And I’d like to do the Breakfast special,” Mars said.

“How would you like your eggs?” Alice asked.

“Sunny-side up.”

“Bacon, sausage, or ham?”

“Sausage.”

“Toast, pancakes, or waffles?”

“Toast. Whole wheat. With cherry jam.” He gave his menu to Alice.

“Thank you,” she said, “I will get these orders in right away.” She walked over to the kitchen.

As she was walking away, Paeton turned to Alex Jr. “I’m surprised you’re not ogling her,” Paeton said to him, “It seems you love anything female.”

“It is weird,” Alex Jr. said, “It’s just that…there’s something weird about that girl. Something’s wrong with her eyes…”

“She’s a robot,” Mars said casually.

“Yeah, she’s very robotic in how she acts.”

“No, I mean she’s actually a robot.”

“So what is your deal with women?” Paeton asked Alex Jr. in annoyance, “Why are you so obsessed with them?”

“They’re sexy,” he said smugly, “And I know they’ll eventually succumb to my charms. They did with Dad.”

“What do you mean?”

“My Dad, Alex…He’s, like, the most popular sex god in the world. I just know he’s constantly surrounded by women, all of whom want to have sex with him.”

“What in the world gives you that idea?”

“When you live inside your Dad’s mind, you just know these things.”

“But you’ve been inside that tiny ass room for a long time and have probably never seen anything outside of it. As far as you know, he could have no interest in sex and have romantic interest in one, maybe two women at the most.”

“How dare you speak that way about my father!”

“I’m just being realistic.”

“Well, stop it. It’s Mars’ job to be the realist/pessimist.”

“It’s true,” Mars said, taking a sip of water, “I know that anything that can go bad will. It’s why I’m imagining that something horribly wrong is going to happen now that we’ve left. And something bad will happen very soon.”

“Hello once again,” Alice said, carrying a tray full of cups, “Sorry for the delay. We’re awfully swamped here.”

Paeton looked around the diner. “We’re the only ones here!” she pointed out.

“Yes. We normally don’t have so many customers.” She set the tray down and handed out the drinks to the Rejects. She gave Paeton a cup of ambrosia and water to everyone else. “Ah, you requested water for your flower,” Alice said to Morgana. She walked over and took the plant from her.

“No, don’t do that!” Mars suddenly warned. But it was too late. As Alice was walking away, Morgana became nervous about her flower and the anxiety turned to rage. She gritted her teeth. Her eyes went from light green to blood red. Her hair became untame and frizzy and even started moving around. Her hands, which were bunched into fists, became covered with reptilian scales. She tore out of her chair and ran towards Alice. Alice heard the loud footsteps behind her and turned around just as Morgana was about to attack. Similar to when Mars pulled out his sword, Alice’s smile faded into a defensive frown. She blocked Morgana’s attack with her arm, while still holding onto the plant with the other. The two began fighting in a way that might be entertaining if the author was able to write a fight scene competently. It climaxed when Morgana grabbed Alice’s arm and began tearing it out. Mars and Alex Jr. got out of their chairs when they saw her doing this. Alice was so taken aback by this that she lost her grip on the plant. Morgana saw this and let go of Alice’s arms. She slid underneath the plant and caught it just before it hit the ground. She held the plant close to her face.

“I’m so sorry,” she said to the plant, “Mommy won’t let it happen to you again.” She began reverting back to normal. Morgana stood up, still holding her plant. She turned around to see Alice. Her left arm had been completely torn out of its socket. Alice didn’t have much of a reaction to this. They all looked at the socket. To the surprise of everyone (but Mars), she wasn’t bleeding; instead, her socket was sparking.

“I knew something bad was going to happen,” Mars said. He took a sip of water. “I also knew she was a robot.”

“I am not a robot,” Alice defended, “I am obviously a human.” She picked up her arm and put it back on. She flexed it to ensure it was still working. “There. See? I am a human.”

“THAT ARGUMENT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE!” Paeton yelled.

“Shh,” Mars whispered to her, “I don’t think she wants to hear it.”

Alice turned to Morgana. “I am very much sorry, Ms. Morgana. I will avoid taking the plant from you in the future. May you please follow me so that we may water it together?”

“Okay,” Morgana said. She and Alice walked back into the kitchen with her flower. The other Rejects lifted their chairs up and sat back down on them. Alex Jr. started trying to use the straw to get an ice cube out of the cup.

Morgana soon returned with her Dainty Morgana watered. She looked down at the flower. “Did you enjoy your drink?” she asked the plant, “Now Mommy needs a drink herself.” She sat down, placed the flower next to her, and took a sip of water.

After sitting around in awkward silence for a few minutes, Paeton broke the silence. She asked Mars, “So why are you so damn pessimistic?”

“Call it pessimistic, I call it realistic,” Mars said. He took a sip. “But the reason is because I’ve been stuck here almost as long as Alex Jr. We’ve seen many others who stayed in our home for awhile who either later became characters or just disappeared altogether trying to find a way out like we did. I guess being so unloved and ignored for months, maybe even years, takes a toll on one’s optimism.”

Paeton looked over at Morgana, hugging her plant. “And you. What is with you and that flower?”

“It-It makes me happy,” Morgana said, “I’ve had it for as long as I can remember. It’s just something about its bright pink petals in that cute little watering can that puts a smile on my face.”

“It’s a stupid flower!”

“Don’t say that! It’s my favorite thing in the whole world.”

“Gimme that thing so I can prove to you how worthless it is!” Paeton tried to take the flower out of Morgana’s hands, but Mars and Alex Jr. grabbed Paeton just in time.

“Bad move, Paeton,” Alex Jr. said, “If you take her Dainty Morgana away from her, you’ll end up like Alice, except you can’t reattach your arms.”

Paeton took a deep breath and calmed down. “Sorry. I just…I can’t control my anger that good.”

“Well, work on it,” Mars said, “It could get us into very big trouble.”

“Friends,” Alice said, “I have brought you your food.” She was carrying a large tray with four plates on it. She set the bacon cheeseburger with fries in front of Alex Jr., the Soup de Jour in front of Morgana, ice cream in front of Paeton, and the Breakfast Special in front of Mars. She also set out salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce, ketchup, and mustard. They started eating.

“This is a really good burger,” Alex Jr. commented.

“Junior, don’t talk with your mouth full,” Mars reprimanded. Mars was cutting up his eggs and put some jelly onto his toast. Paeton took a bite of her ice cream. Morgana took a small spoonful of the soup.

“Mmm…” Morgana commented, “I think it’s a baked potato soup with bacon and cheese.”

“May I please try it?” Alex Jr. asked. She allowed him to. He picked up his spoon and filled it with some of the soup. After sampling it, he smiled, “That is pretty good. I also taste a bit of cheddar in it.”

“Really?” Morgana asked. She tasted it again. “It does have a rather sharp taste, though I’d say it’s more like Colby than Cheddar…”

“Hey,” Paeton said to them, “Would you two shut up? I’m trying to eat here.”


After finishing their food, Alice walked over to pick up their dishware. When she returned, her smile was gone. “Friends, I have some bad news,” she said, “When I went into self-defense mode, an alarm was triggered in Brain HQ. Several men were sent out to find what threat occurred and eliminate it.”

“So that means…” Paeton started.

“There is no time for you to explain what it means. It means that if they find you here, you’ll be quickly and efficiently terminated. I must get you all to safety.”

“But I didn’t have dessert yet,” Alex Jr. whined. Mars grabbed his arm and dragged him along as the Rejects all left the diner. Alice led them to a train station. The train was very similar to an amusement park train, with wooden benches all in a line and easy access because there were no doors on the cars. There was an engineer working on the train’s engine (“working” meaning “banging it with a wrench in an attempt to improve it”).

“Hello, Dave,” Alice said.

The engineer turned around. “Ah, Ms. Alice,” he smiled, “It’s good to see you. Who are your friends?”

“They are trying to get away from here. Can you take them for a ride in the Emotion Engine?”

“Sure thing, Alice. Any friends of your’s are friends of mine.” He got into the cab of the engine. They could hear the sirens approaching.

“I must go now before they track me to here,” Alice said, “Good-bye, friends. I wish you luck on your journey.”

“Good-bye,” Morgana said. She turned to get on the train. “Wait!” She turned and ran towards Alice. Alice turned around. Morgana gave Alice a hug. “Stay safe yourself, Alice.”

“Thank you, Morgana.” Alice hugged her back. Once the embrace was over, Alice turned Morgana around and gently nudged her back to the train. Once safely on the train, Alice waved good-bye to the others and ran towards the sirens. Dave started up the train.

The train started moving rather slowly and the sirens were still getting closer. “Why aren’t we going faster?” Paeton angrily worried. She started climbing over the seats to get closer to the engine. When she got up to the front, she asked Dave, “Can’t you make this thing go faster?”

“Well, yes, I can, miss, but-“

“THEN MAKE IT GO FASTER!” Paeton looked at the lever labeled speed. She pushed it forward.

“No, don’t!” But it was too late. The lever was pushed very far forward. The train sped up to such incredible speeds that it became red-hot. “Stop it!” Dave said, “You’re going to make Alex angry! Stop it!” He pushed her back and slowed the engine down. The train slowed down to a more moderate speed. The train also became covered in water on both the outside and the inside.

“Now what’s this?” Paeton asked.

“The train needs an automatic cooling session after such intense speeds. So now you’ve made Alex angry and then you made him sad. Nice going.”

“You know what, shut the hell up.” Paeton walked back to where the others were sitting. Morgana was squeezing Alex Jr. incredibly tight from fear. Alex Jr. had taken his vest off from the heat. Mars looked over at Paeton.

“You were awfully rude to the engineer,” he said to her.

“He was going too slowly. If I hadn’t made the train going that fast, those sirens would’ve caught up to us and who knows what would’ve happened then?” She wrapped her angel wings around her body to keep from getting cold and wet from the cool-down water.

The train came to a stop after a few minutes of driving. The Rejects all got off the train. They all walked to the engine. “Thank you very much,” Alex Jr. said.

“You’ve been a big help,” Mars added.

“We’ll never forget you,” Morgana finished.

“Good-bye,” Dave said. He started the engine up again. He waved good-bye as the train went away and disappeared into the dark forest.