The Apex

**The Apex** was a band of delinquent raiders led by Grace Monroe and Simon Laurent. Its members were passengers of the Infinity Train who believed that the train belonged to them and, as such, they could do whatever they wanted on it. The group was dissolved during the events of "The New Apex."

## Appearance

The Apex seems to dress as a kind of post-apocalyptic society from the clothes collected from the raided/looted cars of the train, and they all possess a red wave pattern drawn on the middle of their faces with lipstick. When the Apex heads out on a raid, they don Harpoon Packs to travel between and within the train cars.

## Organization

The Apex looted other cars of the Infinity Train and terrorized its denizens. The Apex called all denizens of the Infinity Train "nulls" and believed that since denizens did not have numbers, they were not real living beings.

The Apex also believed passengers should not lower their numbers and instead raise them since, in The Apex's group, high numbers conveyed strength. The members with the highest numbers were the leaders of The Apex.

The Apex seemed to have some kind of special salute made by a superior before they were addressed or given any task. The receiver of the salute would take a knee and the giver would move two fingers in the same oscillating patterns of the face of the receiver.

Part of the Apex's code was never to trust adult passengers.

Lastly, The Apex maintained the false belief that One-One was the one who usurped control of the Infinity Train and not Amelia.

## History

### Origins

Seven years before Amelia was removed from her position as the train's new conductor, a younger Grace Monroe saw Amelia inside her robot suit taking control of the Steward inside the Pumpkin Car and immediately after ordering the Steward to do her bidding: "Take what we need from the car!" Grace couldn't help but also notice Amelia's arm glowing bright green on account of her enormous number. In little time following that encounter Grace erroneously came to the conclusion that Amelia (unaware that she was a woman on account of her voice modulator altering her voice) was the true "human" train conductor and, worse still, that the train's function is to get the passenger's numbers as high as possible so that they can live onboard it indefinitely.

Eventually, Grace saved a ten-year-old Simon Laurent from a Ghom and later passed on her false knowledge about the train's function. The two children moved into a mall-themed car and some years later started recruiting a large number of children to whom they fed their false knowledge to.

Fortifying the mall car into a base of operations for multiple children, and continued to harass denizens, steal from various cars whatever they needed to survive, and in some cases murdered denizens, often by throwing them off the train and into its wheels, an action they called "wheeling."

### Fate

After Grace learned that One-One is, in fact, the true conductor, that passengers are supposed to bring their numbers down to zero to leave the train, and that the beliefs she helped create, led to the death of Tuba, the trauma of Grace's new friend, Hazel, and Grace's childhood best friend, Simon's tragic death, she decided that the Apex and its beliefs should be dissolved permanently. The former members of the Apex then formed a new, currently unnamed group, that would focus on helping each other bring their numbers down instead of raising them.

## Episode Synopsis

### *The Train Documentaries*

#### "The Wedding Cake Car"

Four members of the Apex are seen running in the Wedding Cake Car. One-One, who was in the car and doing a train documentary at the time, tossed down bouquet cake ornament at the members, to which they all huddle around and appear to investigate it.

### *Book Two - Cracked Reflection*

#### "The Lucky Cat Car"

When they arrive at the Lucky Cat Car, Jesse and Lake compete with a mysterious masked gamer to earn one thousand points in order to win access to the exit door from The Cat. Once they earn enough points, Jesse and Lake get distracted by Alan Dracula and the mystery gamer gets to the door before they can. The mystery gamer then reveals herself to be Grace, a passenger, and leader of the raider group "The Apex" and opens the exit door, letting in other Apex members who proceed to ransack the Lucky Cat Car, much to The Cat's chagrin. Grace then invites Jesse and Lake to hang out with her in the next car, to which they agree.

#### "The Mall Car"

Grace introduces Jesse and Lake to her clan, the Apex; children who want to stay on the train and worship Amelia's takeover before One-One regained his place as Conductor. Grace takes Jesse under her wing and they visit the next car while Lake stays in the Mall Car to look for Alan Dracula, who has been taken by the rest of the Apex. Grace tells Jesse that they consider Lake and the train's inhabitants as "nulls", a person who does not have a number and therefore isn't a sentient being. They convince him to act recklessly which causes his number to slowly rise. Lake rescues Alan from the rest of Apex, but they decide to throw them off the train. Jesse arrives in time to rescue her and Grace unleashes the Flecs on them. Jesse rescues Alan and Lake, causing his number to go down to zero and the portal back home to open. However, Lake cannot enter it and despite his efforts to turn back, Jesse is forcibly sucked back home, leaving a distraught Lake to be cornered.

#### "The Wasteland"

After Jesse unwillingly exits the Infinity Train, leaving Lake behind, Grace expresses disappointment at Jesse's choice. Simon calls Jesse weak but Grace corrects him claiming that Jesse was only misled.

### *Book Three - Cult of the Conductor*

#### "The Musical Car"

Grace and Simon prepare to lead them on a raid of a Musical Car. The Apex trash the stage, brutally attack the denizens inside and then set fire to the car before taking a bow to open the door.

Back at headquarters, the Apex show their offerings to Grace and Simon when Lucy asks if she can keep a Stage Light Person she brought back, both tell her it isn't a person and Grace tells her to destroy it, however, Simon tells her she can set up it in his room.

Moments later, the Apex raid another car, the Unfinished Car, as it is being repaired by the turtles and corgis. However, the car starts to move, and Grace orders everyone back to headquarters. As they run, Simon is trapped under rubble and Grace frees him. As she uses her Harpoon Pack to get her and Simon out. As she gets them out a cord snaps and they end up forty-seven cars away from the Apex.

#### "The Jungle Car" - "The Origami Car"

Separated from their comrades, Grace and Simon embark on a long journey back to the Mall Car. It is unknown what the rest of the Apex did without their leaders in the meantime.

On their way, Grace and Simon came across a passenger with an inactive number named Hazel and a denizen named Tuba. As it would speed up progress, and wishing to recruit Hazel, the two groups agreed to cooperate. However, after Simon had an encounter with Samantha, his former companion who left him for dead, it triggered his paranoia toward denizens and prompted him to "wheel" Tuba. This, in turn, greatly upset Hazel and caused her to transform into a turtle-like denizen in front of Grace. However, Grace had already grown so attached to Hazel that this revelation changed nothing, and the two agreed to keep her true nature a secret from Simon.

Grace and Simon were using a Number Tracker in hopes of it leading them back to the rest of the Apex. However, it instead led them to Amelia Hughes, who had the highest number on the train at the time. While initially not realizing that she was the "conductor" whom they worship, her true identity was eventually revealed. Amelia then proceeded to break down all of Apex's beliefs by revealing the true purpose of the train, the numbers, and that One-One is, in fact, the true conductor. While Grace was, through with some difficulty, able to come to terms with these truths, Simon remained a staunch defender of Apex's now-defunct philosophy.

In the end, the situation finally came to a head when Hazel's true identity was revealed. Grace played dumb as to not anger Simon, which shattered Hazel's trust in her and prompted her to leave with Amelia, leaving Grace extremely heartbroken. Afterward, having learned how to extract Memory Tapes from Samantha, Simon looked at Grace's and learned of her deception. This sends his paranoia into overdrive and prompted him to incapacitate her using her tape before going back to the Apex on his own.

#### "The New Apex"

After breaking free of the tape, Grace arrives back at the Mall Car to discover that Simon has taken over and has turned the Apex against her, causing Simon's number to increase until it exceeds Amelia's. As the confused members reluctantly try to get rid of her, Grace stalls by talking about Amelia and then fights Simon on the linking bridge. Simon nearly falls, but Grace rescues him. Simon kicks Grace off, shocking the rest of the Apex and causing his number to extend up to his face and down his legs, but the origami birds that Grace helped earlier rescue her and bring her to the shocked Apex. A Ghom Grace fended off earlier in the battle flies up and sucks Simon's life force out, killing him, and explodes to the horror of all watching who mourn their fallen friend.

Grace approaches the Apex tells them the truth about the train and that their numbers need to go down to zero, and what they been doing the train and its denizens was wrong. Grace admitted she was wrong to lead them and Apex's beliefs led to Simon's death, saying they need to dissolve the Apex and they must all find their own answers and they need to work together; they all agree, causing their numbers to decrease, much to their enthusiasm.

## Trivia

* The Apex insignia is based on the oscillating eye of Amelia's robot suit.
* "Apex" is a Latin word meaning tip, summit, or the highest point, as in the highest point that can be reached. It is used in referring to someone or something reaching the absolute limit of their progress, or in a more literal turn from something to be positioned as high as possible in space. In zoology "apex" is used to define an animal that sits highest in the food chain, virtually having no competition or not being threatened by other animals.
	+ Grace claims she gave the organization the name "The Apex" after having stumbled upon this word in a book.
* All of the Apex children were designed by Megan Phonesavanh, who modeled some of them on childhood photos of members of the crew. A few were also modeled after the Lost Boys from the 1991 film *Hook*, particularly the characters Rufio and Thud Butt.

## References

1. ↑ Lindsay Katai. "The Apex kids were designed by @meganimation and she based some of the designs on crew photos!" Twitter. August 16, 2020.

Tulip Olsen • One/One-One • Atticus • Jesse Cosay • Lake/Mirror Tulip • Alan Dracula • Grace Monroe • Hazel • Tuba • Ryan Akagi • Min-Gi Park • Kez

**Antagonists**
The Cat • Amelia Hughes/The Conductor • Steward • Ghoms • Mirror Police (Agent Sieve • Special Agent Mace) • Marcel • **The Apex** (Simon Laurent) • Bug Cowboys (Caterpillar Sheriff/Judge Morpho • Beetle Bailiff • Grasshopper • Mantis) • Pig Baby/Pig Toddler • Docent • Morgan

**Minor Characters**
Andy Olsen • Megan Olsen • Mikayla • Mirror People (Mirror Atticus • Mirror One • Mirror Medics) • Giant • Greige • Khaki Bottoms • Nancy • Randall • Pencil People • Tiny Wizards • Mildred the Tyrannosaur • Turtle People (Aloysius) • Alrick Timmens • Ben Greene • Nathan Cosay • Terrance • Sashay • Porters • Lucy • Chandelier • Octopus People • Cubey Denizens (Driveway) • Origami Birds • Parka Denizens • Judge Morpho • Cow Creamer • Nigel • Paco • Brando • Spiceman • Beehive • Morgan