Scowling at him intently, “Yeah Peter, not cool. Nice to know you can’t be trusted.”
Jeonwoo Yong-hwa, or Wu, as he had everyone call him since no one ever pronounced his name correctly, was somewhere between reserved and perpetually distrusting. From what Peter had gathered, he had made no attempts to get to know, or even speak to anyone outside of their group. Peter wondered if they had not been in the same tour group for hours if he would have ever gotten the opportunity to know the taciturn boy.
Despite his acne, he was quite attractive, even if he was very thin. He was definitely the person that came from the least affluent background in his group, but that did not stop him from always appearing well put together. While he might not stand out in a crowd due to his sheer presence, his teased jet black hair that stopped just above his shoulders, and rare but infectious smile made him a welcome addition.
Murmuring just above a whisper, “I don’t know if we should all be ganging up on Peter. All of our mentors told us we should take the class. That may be why it was so full.”
Genevieve St.Patrick was pale and rail thin, with an oddly round face and striking strawberry blonde bone straight hair that was sparse, but cascaded down her back. Peter had seen other girls far prettier on campus, or that put in the time and effort to make themselves up such as Shonte. Something about her good natured personality and unassuming looks gripped Peter though, and he had already found himself falling for the girl.
“See! Thank you Genny! You make it seem like I twisted your arm or something! Everyone agreed it would be a good idea. At least Leo isn’t blaming me.”
“I honestly don’t really care. I passed so it doesn’t bother me. Hungry as fuck though, had I known, I would have eaten more for breakfast.”
Leo Youngblood had to either have a massive tapeworm, or his stomach was a black hole. Despite how much he ate, he was the leanest person Peter had ever met. His brown skin with deep red undertones gave him a striking look, which Peter assumed was because he was so lean you could practically see the blood running through his body.
His body was a mismash of angles, from his perfectly defined jaw, to the many contours visible from the sinews of his muscle. Not at all a bad looking man, he tended to not care much about his appearance, though he did not care about much of anything, so it was not unexpected. Out of everyone, he was usually the one to lag behind, not because he was unintelligent, but more so because he did not pay attention most of the time.
“Of course your ass is hungry! When are you not hungry?! Ooh, I can’t stand you ole trifling ass Fire Affinities who can eat all day and still look good. Do you know how much it takes to be serving you all this body?!”
“Shonte you are a Fire Affinity too, it isn’t my fault you don’t have as high a metabolism as most of us.”
Glaring at him as she brushed the bangs from her face, “You about to make me come over there and beat that ass. Don’t test me.”
Feeling the need to bring things back into focus, Peter clears his throat, “So how did everyone do? I failed. Not how I imagined my Sophangence career starting.”
“I failed too. I think I got trampled. I am so sore. It was impossible to make any sense of what was going on.”
“Sucks you weren’t on my team Genny, I could have at least stopped you from getting so banged up.”
“Thanks Wu, I don’t think it would have mattered much. I thought we would just be learning about different roles and attunements the whole class. I never expected to be fighting.”
“Well I spoke with Anaar just before coming here which is why I was late. Apparently he knew this would happen.”
“He knew we were going to get assaulted on our first day and didn’t tell you? What kind of mentor is he? Recommends something without giving people the full details.”
“To be fair, it seems none of your mentors told you about it either.”
Mumbling almost inaudibly, “You are right, none of them can be trusted.”
“You think they set us up with that class on purpose so they could laugh at us?”
“I don’t know Petey-pie, but next time I see any of them, I’m hitting them in the face. Except yours. He too damn fine for that and from what I hear he is number 2 in the school even though he is in his first year too.”
Tilting her head with curiosity, “Speaking of which, why do you have a first year as a mentor anyway? I get he is number 2 in the school, but how does that help you?”
Sighing dejectedly, “Well I actually have two mentors, the other one is appropriately a third year and an Air Affinity. I believe they just gave me her for appearances though, because she is nasty and does not like me much.”
“Wait, which one is your mentor again?” Before Peter could answer, Leo gets up from the table, no doubt to retrieve more food.”
“Leo always asks questions he doesn’t want to know the answer to anyway. We need to work on that.”
“I know right?! He be rude as shit! I just don’t even pay him any attention since chances are he ain’t paying you no damn attention anyway.”
“I don’t think he means anything by it, he is just a bit of an airhead. He seems like he has a good heart though. Probably.”
“Genny girl, you too damn nice. That is how you fuck around and get taken advantage of! Don’t let that sweetness get you hurt!”
Seemingly pleased with her words, Wu nods quietly in agreement. “Everyone is out to get you. If you aren’t careful you will get burned.”
“Ok now, don’t go listening to Wu ole paranoid ass neither. Let him tell it everything we know is a conspiracy.”
“It is though.”
“No, it isn’t. I know you ain’t have a good life growing up, but there are good people out there all around. Look at me, nobody thought the ghetto girl from Alpharetta could make it into Sophangence, but I had enough people in my corner to help me make it through!”
“You made it in so they could use you. You just haven’t woken up to see it.”
“You damn right they want to use me! They want to use your ass too, or I guess you thought all those grants and shit was out of the kindness of their hearts to uplift us poor folk? Just cause you an Earth Affinity don’t mean you have had it so much worse than I have. I mean Genny and Peter though…”
“I beg your pardon! We are not extremely wealthy!”
“The fact that you had to put the word extremely before it tells us all we need to know. We see you in your little outfits all styled up. That is money right there.”
“There is nothing wrong with being put together! You are always well dressed yourself! And your hair always changes!”
“Baby I got two good wigs, the rest of them is real shitty, I just know how to make dirt look like diamonds. You get used to it growing up the way I do.”
As they continued their back and forth, Leo had reappeared, a plate piled with food in his hands. Sitting back down at the table he begins shoveling food into his mouth contentedly all the while unaware of the stares from everyone at the table. Finally not able to take any more, Shonte bursts out much louder than she expected.
“Leo, you and your damn inner fat child need to be put in timeout!”
Looking up after a few moments when no one had said anything else, “Who has a kid? Someone in our class already has a kid.”
With sighs of exasperation resounding from the entire group, he seemingly hears none of them as he continues eating. Since Leo had returned, Peter thought it would be a good opportunity to address something that occurred to him during class. He had never thought it was very important to ask usually, but he was quickly learning in this new environment, there was a lot of information he did not have access to.
“So Anaar took me to meet Dr. Darst the other day, apparently he is his apprentice or something, and they said something interesting. Our class has almost double the number of Quintessences of any other class. At least percentagewise. If you look at sheer numbers, I do believe it is double since we have a f
ull class.”
Not sure what exactly he was trying to get at, Genevieve was the first to speak up. “What does that even mean?”
“According to their account, 70% of our class are Quintessences. That is quite astronomical considering only about 3% of the world are Quintessences. That means 70 of us have manifestations.”
Squinting suspiciously, Wu asks the question everyone else was thinking. “Why does that matter?”
“It matters because we have known each other for days now, and not once have we discussed what we can do! There is a good chance four out of five of us are Quintessences. Do you not think it would be smart to know what the people closest to you are capable of?”
“Why the sudden interest?”
“To be quite honest, Anaar and Dr. Darst completely talked circles around me with all their back and forth about attunements and echelons. You might not know this, but I pride myself on my intellect-”
“And who thought that shit was a secret?! Your uppity ass swear you are better than everybody else!”
Gasping in shock, Peter is surprised even Leo seemed to be agreeing. “I do not think I am better than everyone else, but I did get the highest score on the entrance exam-”
“And you are already failing, so what? You may be smart, but you forget we at a combat school baby. You gotta have some fight in you too.”
“I know how to fight!”
“He did take out that really rude guy the first day…”
“Thank you Genny! None of this was the point! What I was trying to say is that we should share what our abilities are! What if we get put into another situation Wednesday where we must fight, but this time we get to choose our team? I would rather fight by the side of those who will value me and I know how to work with. My team completely disregarded me!”
Mumbling through a mouth full of food, “It’s because you are little.”
“It’s definitely because you are little. I wouldn’t trust you in a fight either.”
“Yeah, you aren’t exactly striking fear into anyone’s heart…”
“It’s sad but true. Sorry Peter.”
Wounded beyond belief, “I cannot believe all of you! Even you too Genny?!”
“So what exactly can you do then since your ass want to be all full disclosure over here. No offense, but I did not take you for some master martial artist, but you definitely have some moves on you. Then you are an Air Affinity so you damn sure ain’t taking a hit with your little ass.”
Grumbling under his breath, “Yes I am an Air Affinity, obviously, and I am indeed a Quintessence. I have a unique manifestation called Inquest.”
Sitting there expectantly for a beat, Wu speaks up. “If it is unique, we clearly have no idea what it does. What are you trying to hide?”
“I am not trying to hide anything! I just thought perhaps maybe someone had heard of it.”
“Peter you said it is unique. I am not good at this stuff, but even I know that means you are the only one known to have it. While that is cool, there is no way we can know what it does unless you tell us. If it were just rare like mine, maybe we would have an idea.”
“What is yours then Genny?”
“You first. You started it.”
“Fine… I have the ability to obtain information on, well most things that are public record. I thought it was much more formidable than that, but my mentor and Dr. Darst very surgically knocked me down many pegs.”
“How do you get knocked down further than you already are?”
Genny immediately giving Wu an angry squint, “Enough with the short jokes Wu. You know how sensitive Peter is about his height.”
“I am not sensitive-”
“Bullshit! Go on. Since you have already gotten the opportunity to learn more about your powers what did you find out?”
Finding Shonte had quickly shut him down and had no time for his attempts at posturing, he continues explaining. “Anaar explains it as my ability being like a search engine. The more known and publicly available, the greater my chances of being able to obtain it.”
“So where did you learn to fight?”
“My powers allow me to essentially download fighting styles into my body temporarily.”
“Oh that is actually pretty dope. You are still little, but you are our little guy so it is ok.”
“Thank you Shonte, I appreciate… Wait a minute!”
Snickering all the while giving him an apologetic look, Genny then follows up. “If you are an Air Affinity, we learned today all of you are Synestates, even if it is very minor. What is your Synestate power?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“Oh no you don’t. I will pick your little ass up and shake the shit out of you! You brought this up, you have no choice but to tell us now!”
“How can you expect us to trust you with our secrets if you won’t tell us yours.”
“Everyone has a point Peter. It is only fair. Don’t you agree Leo?”
“I think you are right, I do need to get some more food…”
“Don’t you dare go get another damn plate you fatass!”
Mumbling something under his breath, no doubt meant for Shonte, she gives him a menacing look that quiets him down.
“Well you can’t tell anyone, I don’t particularly like sharing this with people, but I have the ability to sense when people are lying.”
“Aww damn! Why we get the travel sized human lie detector in our group!”
Putting his finger to his lips, “Keep it down! I would rather people not know about that.”
“Well that is pretty cool, it helps when trying to figure out if people are trustworthy. Can we like, rent you out?”
“No!”
“You are right, you would probably be expensive and that is money most of us don’t have. Maybe we can set up days of the month to have you on duty.”
“I’d be up for that!”
“Me too.”
Looking around at them in disbelief, “You cannot be serious! Leo, say something!”
“You gonna eat that?”
Giving him a blank look, Peter slides his tray over to Leo which he immediately brightens and happily accepts. “I agree with anyone who is going to give me more food.”
The entire table slides their trays in his direction which causes him to give an apologetic look to Peter. “Leo is on our side now, your tiny ass is ours! This is so good! No one will suspect a thing in your cute little outfits!”
“This is absurd!”
“You started it. Maybe you will think twice before asking things like this of people in the future.”
“Gah!! Whatever! Genny you are next!”
“Well, I’m a Regenerist of course, but not a very good one. I would definitely recover faster than someone who isn’t a Regenerist, but I’m pretty low on the scale. Technically I would be considered a Medic, but my ability is more complicated than just healing people.”
Wu, looking at her from his staring at the still merrily munching Leo, “What type of Medic doesn’t heal people?”
“Well that is why I say it is more complicated. You know how Medics can’t just heal infections from viruses and bacteria and stuff? They have to treat the infection with medicine then they can heal the resulting damage potentially?”
Everyone shakes their heads, clearly not aware of the intricacies of Medics and how they work or why they still need to take regular classes to become doctors.
“Well that is how it works. It still isn’t completely clear, but most Medics seem to be limited to certain types of trauma. Outside of that usually it is conventional medicine. Just increasing someone’s regeneration does nothing if the virus is still in there causing trouble. That is why so many people still suffer. My ability is super rare and is called Purification. Essentially, I can expunge foreign agents from substances, including people.”
“How does it know what is a foreign agent?”
“That is where it becomes tricky and is still unclear since
so few people have ever had the ability. Part of that is controlled by me, but I can’t exactly erase someone’s liver from their body. It recognizes that as being part of the person. However, if someone had a heart transplant, technically I could cause it to completely shut down and break away. The same goes with things like good bacteria in the body.”
“Girl, that shit sounds scary and overly complicated. What good does your powers do then if you can just mess people up?”
“Active healing Medics can cause damage too, so it is not out of the ordinary. I can cure many usually non-curable infections because of it, and I can also use my powers on objects too, like dirty water.”
“So you have a built in water filter?”
“Technically yes, but the water I purify becomes literal pure water. There are no longer sediments or other things that you would expect clean water to have. In that case it no longer functions as conductor.”
“Yeah, that shit is definitely way too complicated. Why did you come to a combat school if that is all you can do?”
Scrunching her face up defensively, “Lots of traditional non-combatants come to this school! If I graduate from here, I can be much closer to my dream of having a clinic without national boarders where people who are suffering from disease that is usually not treatable, or at least easily treatable can come. I also want it to focus on those who can’t afford proper healthcare since there are so many suffering out there. With the credibility I get from graduating from here I can do so much!”
“That’s just like you, sweet and all, but you better be careful. I hear this place can be ruthless, and people won’t care that you have a heart of gold when we are on the battlefield honey.”
“What about you then Shonte? You seem quite proud of your abilities.”
“Oh baby I’m proud of everything I am, so don’t you forget it! Me, I ain’t no dainty little Water Affinity like Miss Genny over here. Don’t let the nails, makeup, and all this ass fool you. You mess with me and I will knock you the fuck out.”
Apotheosis (Song of Sophangence Book 3) Page 4