The Captain led me out of the station with several officers flanking us, mostly me, after . It was an understandable situation given my old profession and my power level classification. The police and agents that had been involved wanted me fully shackled and in power blocking manacles. However the Captain vouched for me and I ended up only in a pair of dampening bands. The entourage followed us all the way curbside where a long distance travel bus for Orion Academy sat waiting for me.
Captain Valor, who identified himself as Richard, dismissed the authorities as he removed the bands and parted with me on the bus. Honestly I didn't sign the paper because I was feeling remorse or guilt. The people I killed shouldn't have expected a long or free life, but this was an opportunity to get out of the business and stop getting contacted by people wanting families wiped out or some sort of soup kitchen person talking to the wrong person.
Surveying the bus revealed there was no one else onboard save myself and the driver implying this was the first pickup location. Having the whole bus to myself and no personal belongings I chose a seat in the back of the bus near both the bathroom and two of the emergency exits. "Ya got any luggage kid," the driver asked in a genial manner as he looked up into the mirror above the dashboard.
I glanced toward the mirror and responded lazily with a simple, "Not this time." With that he leaned over and closed the door. After a few checks of traffic he pulled into the right lane and we were soon leaving the Marlin City Police Station behind. Knowing that this was going to be a long trip I decided to kick back and get comfortable.
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At some point I had fallen asleep and the bus's sudden stop woke me up. We were parked outside a gated community and there was a few kids waiting with suitcases and a backpack each. A few moments after the doors slid open the driver got up from his seat and headed out to load their stuff. There wasn't much special of them but it seemed like there was an age diversity. From elementary to high school age.
Most of them were fairly regular but one of them was obviously very spoiled. She had five different sized suitcases that all seemed about to burst. I was just about to get up to load the vehicle when the driver showed off one of his powers. Telekinesis. He seemed quite adept at it maybe a high level gamma or low level beta.
The girl, garbed in a white frilly dress and carrying a matching umbrella, made no motion to help load her stuff. She started to walk towards the bus, well perhaps walk is the wrong word she was gliding towards the bus. While her movement was graceful she seemed to also carry herself with an air of superiority.
Boarding the bus she approached me, took one look at the casual clothes I was wearing and wrinkled her nose. "I see they let any random person off the streets into Orion Academy," Her voice as haughty as she looked. "Well, no matter peasants should sit with other peasants. I require your movement peasant. You have happened to choose the optimal location in this bus."
"Well first, I didn't just happen to pick this location. Second I'm not a peasant. Third I was on here before you showed up so I'm not moving." I had a feeling that I was not gonna like her.
"The insolence!"she shrieked as she recoiled with the back of her hand covering her mouth. "To think that a plebeian like YOU would dare defy an Elingston! I'll Show you what consequences that reaps," she nearly shouted as she raised her other hand and started to form a ball of energy just as it was starting to get big and appear dangerous I reached my up my own hand and snapped dispelling the energy that she was projecting and manipulating. The look on her face was priceless. "H-h-how?"
I paused as I analyzed the type of energy. It was some sort of mixture of thermal and kinetic. it would have caused an explosion which means it was reckless. "Why would you create an explosion in this confined space. Think before you do these things. You would have blown up the bus and us along with it. Even if we survived how would we get to the academy. Now pick a different seat and shut up."
Following exactly as I said she sat almost directly across from me in a childish fit. Everyone else had apparently gotten on and seen the spectacle cause they were all applauding. One of the other high school age kids started making his way towards me. He was a little chunkier than other kids but seemed to keep his appearance up more. He was wearing a black shirt under a plaid button up pairing with dark jean pants. His skin had a constantly shifting skin tone probably had something to do with his powers. Not only did he decide to sit down in front of me he twisted himself so he could talk to me. "That was amazing guy she's supposed to be a top tier alpha. The rest of us wanted to do something about her as well but, we find her a tad on the intimidating side. My name's Garrick, what's yours."
"If how she behaves intimidates you than you might not want to become to a superhero. They'll be facing a lot more dangerous or intimidating people than that," I replied before continuing. "My name's Mordecai. Nice to meet you."
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The remainder of the trip was mostly pleasant Garrick and I conversed for a little while between stops. Eventually twenty six of the forty seven seats were filled and most of the remaining space was taken up by backpacks. The girl who sat across from me, whom I learned was named Lilliana, remained where she was and whenever she wasn't talking with some of the other spoiled types would look over and glare at me. Where as My area was joined by; a twin brother and sister pair going to Orion Academy's middle school campus, Darcy and Dean Dark; A high school freshmen, Penelope; and a boy same grade as me, Uriel.
The rumor of how Lilliana's yearly seat choice had been thwarted by me had spread quickly throughout the bus. Thus a little group had formed around me. Every once in awhile I would glance around and take in my surroundings to break things down. A habit that I would not let go away. While the spoiled bunch weren't weak, no one on this bus was, they weren't particularly strong either but their families were well acquainted with the Elingstons clearly at the top. Everyone else seemed to be clustered more towards the front of the bus out of intimidation. It seemed that the groups surrounding me and Lilliana were some of either the more well known people or seemingly intimidating.
Eventually we reached a tunnel that seemed to go underground. The entrance was guarded by a gate and about seven uniformed men. I recognized them as members of the four hundred strong hero group, Battalion H, which has a very militaristic structure. Two of them walked forward as the bus approached at which point the the driver opened his window and handed them some documents.
After a few moments chatting one of them raised their hands with a few hand signs and the one manning the gate flipped some switches or pressed some buttons, I wasn't sure which, and the gate began to slide out of the way. Our driver inched forward and as we passed through and entered the tunnel I was met with a bright light, swirl of color, the feeling of falling. When I reopened my eyes we were making our along a what was essentially a small city street.
Hey there audience Thank You for reading the first chapter sorry this one didn't come out sooner I had some technical difficulties on my end. Hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I did making it.
The academy campus was huge. Everything basically screamed city. That's what happens when you make an international academy for alpha children and those wanting to be heroes. You have to make the place large enough to hold that many students. Even though I had been around the world for various missions this sight was still quite impressive.
"You're new here?! I wondered why I hadn't seen you before. There is no way an Alpha is starting this late in their school career. That must have been a lucky shot earlier there's no need for me to be afraid of a Beta." Lilliana practically spat that at me as she stood up and pointed at me.
"I guess you'll just have to find out then won't ya, Princess" I retorted with a little bit of bite in the new nickname I had decided to give her. She bristled at my comment as her shoulders tensed.
"P-PRINCESS!" she yelped and for a moment I could have sworn that her hair had turned into flames. "I will not have a Beta transfer be running their mouth spoiling the name of Elingston! YOUR HEAD IS MINE!" It seemed she was preparing to start a fight again when suddenly the bus stopped in front of a building that appeared to be in the center of a section in the academic city.
She ceased the buildup of her attack as the bus driver looked into the mirror and said "Alright everyone off. Your luggage will be delivered to your rooms now get off my bus before you try to break it so I don't have to break you," the driver said with just enough force in his words and a slight glow around him to make his point. It would make sense for the staff to be able to handle some rowdy Alpha power teens.
The other students and I unloaded from the bus to be greeted by an mass of people making their way into the massive building before us. As I looked around the courtyard of this Gothic assembly hall I realized that what was happening was the opening ceremony for at least this section of the city. There was a large sign above the entrance that read Assembly Hall.
The rest of my bus group started making their way inside the building, however I decided to canvas the outside briefly first. The hall had a decent sturdy structure that would be simple but not easy to scale like most architecture of the same style. I took my time as I headed inside the building. The interior had a vaulted, arched ceiling with colored light pouring through the stained glass windows. Finally the Hall was filled with chairs, students and faculty. Glancing around the room I was able to spot four different exits than the one i came in. In the far end of this grand hall was a raised stage with two rows of tables and faculty members at each one.
At the back of each section of students there were labels for the individual grade levels. I made my way towards the one with the label of High School Junior. Finding an empty seat took a little time but i eventually found one. There were twelve sections of chairs for the audience portion with the youngest grades closest to the stage and the oldest grades closer to the door. There was a big screen rolled down just behind the stage and soon it was projecting the image of the faculty on the screen.
After a short period of time a lady in her mid thirties approached the podium in the center of the stage. The lady was wearing a black formal jacket over a purple blouse with matching skirt and leggings. Her hair was tied up in a tight bun and had a streak of grey down the middle.
"Greetings North American Students of Orion International academy. I am Headmistress and director of Orion Academy City. You may call me Director or Professor Winona. We welcome all new students and will be having the student council give a brief welcoming speech as well as give a rundown of the most important rules, the basic layout of the city and finally lead us in the School Anthem."
Several students made their way up onto the stage. The two in the lead were a male and female The male was short, stocky and built with a healthy pale skin tone and his hair was raven black. He was wearing brown vest over a dark grey dress shirt and black pants with a pair of horn rimmed glasses on the end of his nose. In contrast the girl was slender and tall. While she was thin framed her figure was elegant and the blue midi dress she was wearing worked very well for her. Her rosy pink hair flowed down around her golden shoulders (I don't mean that figuratively her skin was the color of gold).
The girl stepped up first and introduced herself, "Greetings Alpha's and Beta's. My name is Jennie Marigold and I'm the Head Student Council Vice President of Pantheon City. Every year we have such amazing people and abilities populate our city and I just want to say that this year is no different from any other." her singsong voice continued on in her speech for a while before she stepped to the side. "Now I'll turn it over to the Head Council President. Marty come on up here."
With that the president stepped up to the podium and cleared his throat "My name as some of you know is Martin Dawson. You will refer to me as President Dawson or Martin NOT Marty. And I'll be going over the most basic part of the rules, for further information refer to the handbooks that will be given out at the end of the ceremony. The most important rule is for the students to behave as heroes would. Remember you don't have to be a registered superhero to do the right thing. This means stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves and be willing to help your fellow students. Obviously there are other rules as we are part of a city and that means there are laws in place to protect weaker students. and faculty civilians."
He paused a moment before he continued. His talk wasn't nearly as long as Jennie's. Partially as he seemed more straightforward and a little less sociable than her but also honest and sincere. For the most part his speech was similar to just about every other school. "Next we'll have our council secretary go over the lay out of the school. Your turn Diego." He stepped back and a new kid stepped up.
The new guy seemed to be of Hispanic origin both based on name and skin tone. He was wearing a blazer the color of eggplant over a white shirt with a pair of slacks the same color as his shirt. When he spoke it was with a flawless American accent telling either how much effort he put in or that he was born and raised in the States. "As you just heard my name is Diego and I'm the Secretary. First off I'd like to say thank you for this opportunity."
"Now to begin. The city is designed to hold students from elementary to high school across every country that is part of the Mortimer Accords. There are multiple districts in the city. You will be provided a map once dismissed however I will go over the most Important districts. The most important districts are as follows; Academic, Entertainment, and Residential. Most of you will be spending a lot of your time in these areas. With that It's time for our Secretary to lead us in the Orion Anthem."
The final person to step up to the podium was another girl she was nowhere near the same personality level as the others. While the first three were very bold or outspoken in various ways she seemed to be very reserved. Her skin was a dark brown color and a deep blue hair color that, because of the Miraclinon, was hard to tell whether it was natural or dyed. She was wearing a very subdued long sleeve sweater dress. Upon reaching the podium she shrank into herself a little. "U-um, h-hello my name is Ingrid and I'll be starting our song today." Her voice was very pretty but was barely audible and once she did start singing was drowned out quickly by the rest of the assembly hall building.
The song lasted about a minute and afterwards the students were dismissed. I hung towards the back of the crowd as everyone made their exit and was soon approached by the vice president. "Hey, there. Mordecai right. Your actually scheduled to come with us before being taken to the dormitories."
Hey, here is another chapter. This one is a bit more wordy as I realized that I was a little lacking in description for characters and location as such I will be going back through the others to describe some of the major characters. Thanks for waiting and I'm glad I'm only one day late to my self imposed deadline instead of two. Hope you enjoy.
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