by R. J. Ross
"Yes," Adanna says.
"And as most of you have been informed, we have a slight problem in the area," Nico goes on. "Which is why I'm going to ask you to bear with me, Adanna, when I say I'd like you to have an escort back and forth from school. I can do it, if you want, or we can have one of the supers that live in the same direction as you do meet up with you."
"No," she says. "I am a super villain--"
"Right now you're just a kid," Nico interrupts. "What side you choose in the future is just that--in the future. At this moment you are a student of the school, and we will keep you safe. If any of you teachers disagree with this I'd like for you to speak up now so we can find a replacement. I won't have the prospective villains treated any different from the prospective heroes, do I make myself clear?"
"If they break the rules, I expect them to be punished for it," Banshee says. "Regardless of what side their family is on."
"That's perfectly acceptable," Nico says.
"We do have the right to try and persuade the kids towards heroism, though, right?" Taurus asks.
"Persuade, maybe, shove it down their throat, not at all," Nico says. "I actually think that should be something the kids decide for themselves. But we will make sure they learn proper cape protocol--I don't want any of them winding up in the Cape Cells."
"Why don't we go straight to the matter," Mega says abruptly. I'm surprised he's been quiet up until now. "Technico is an ex super villain. We all realize it. That means he's biased towards super villains, his kids will become super villains, his grandkids--"
"No they won't," Nico says, startling Mega. "I wouldn't mind if Zoe would, honestly, but Sunny probably won't be, no matter what someone else says. Will you, Sunny?"
"Nope, even though it might be entertaining," Sunny says, looking up from his sunbathing. "I decided earlier."
"And what will you do, be a hero?" Mega asks curiously.
"Well, in a way," Sunny says.
"He is taking this far too lightly," Adanna says sharply. "It is an honor to continue your family's position in the super world."
"Oh, he will be," Nico says. "Just not mine. But regardless of your personal choices we aren't here to pick and choose who gets taught better than another. I'm here to make sure that each student learns to be the best super they can be, I hope the rest of you are here for the same."
Sunny flops down on his back without even bending his knees, resting his head on his hands and letting out a happy sigh as the sun hits him straight on. The rest of the group just stare at him for a long moment before Mega asks, a bit hesitantly, "Is there something wrong with that boy?"
"He's solar powered," I volunteer. "He needs to charge up." Max starts laughing. "I swear he's getting stranger by the day, though," I admit, walking over and crouching down next to Sunny. "Hey--hey, Sunny, wake up, man." Sleepy green eyes open, looking at me.
"I've already had the tour," he says. "Wake me up when you're back."
"Alright," I say, standing. "He says he's going to skip the tour."
"That is--" Mega starts out.
"Fine," Nico says. "It's either we leave him here or someone carries him anyway," he adds. "Now if you would all follow me--"
I glance back at Sunny, wondering if leaving him in contact with the ground like this is smart, considering. But if he's asleep nothing can really happen, right? With that thought I shrug and follow the rest of the group.
***
Several miles up, hiding among the clouds, the white haired man floats, watching the scene below. It took a little bit of staring, but he can see through the strange bubble that hides it now. It's a school. He's read about schools. They sound like a lot of fun to him. But he's been close to that school before, and he got shot for it. It stung a lot, and even did some damage to his arm, so he can't go.
Instead he just floats there, watching the boy lying on the ground in front of the buildings. There's something about that boy, he thinks, something fascinating. Just as he decides that, the earth under the boy lurches upwards, lifting him up and cradling him in an oval shaped bed. Tiny flowers sprout from the dirt bed, surrounding the boy.
The man laughs in wonder. Yes, he thinks, this is what the world should be like! He needs to convince Star that more people need powers like this so everyone can sleep so perfectly! He flies off at top speed, leaving the school behind to go do just that.
CHAPTER EIGHT
We make it back to the front of the campus about half an hour later, and I can't help but stare at the bed that's built itself for the still sleeping Sunny. Thing is, I'm the least reactive of the group. The supers themselves are crowded around the bed, poking the construction as if something other than dirt and rock is there.
"What?" Sunny mutters, yawning hugely as he sits up. He almost falls out of the bed. "Wh--what the--" It collapses underneath him, dropping him on the ground. "Whoa, wasn't expecting that," he says.
"Good to see you're finally awake," Nico says. "Get up, it's time to do the course planning."
"Yeah, yeah I'm coming," Sunny says, standing up and dusting his pants off. He stretches his arms over his head with another yawn. "That was a great sleep, though," he says. "Hey, Trent! Did you carry me this morning?"
"Unfortunately," I say, wondering why he's so cheerful now. You know how I said he was solar powered? I'm positive he is, now. Not a doubt in my mind about it.
"Thanks!"
"And it's decided, Sunny's first hour is a nap in the sun," Nico says dryly. "This is the first time I've seen him this awake since... ever."
"Isn't he your son?" Mega asks.
"Yeah, but he doesn't tend to take naps outside. Usually he sleeps in until we use the airhorn. But thinking of it, I'm not that surprised."
"How is a nap part of a training process?" Mega demands. "Let him sleep in the sun on his own time."
"Do you want to borrow the blowhorn for every class you've got him for?" Nico asks. "Because I don't know about you, but my hearing is too good to have to put up with it that often. Once a day is about all I can handle, honestly."
"Fine. And what about the others? How do you suppose we train them while keeping their education levels high?" Mega asks as we head into the dirt area of the second building. Nico heads to the side of the room and pulls a machine out of the wall, motioning me forward.
"Trent, you're the most rounded, I'd say, so come here for a bit," he says. I have to weave through the crowd but I make it to the front quickly enough. He starts taping small suction cups to my skin, arms, under my shirt, forehead, even my legs, then starts typing on the computer attached to me. "Let's see..."
I peek over his shoulder, seeing a line drawing of a male that's color coordinated to indicate certain things--it's mostly red, and obviously me. He taps a few buttons and brings up a chart listing several things, such as muscle density, flexibility, denseness, and other.
"What's the other?" I ask.
"I'm not sure," Nico says, tapping on the word. "Huh... a touch of empathy," he says. "Not much, which doesn't surprise me, considering, but I wasn't expecting it at all."
"And how did you get all this information on abilities?" Mega asks, looking at the screen as well.
"I hacked into the Hall during my time in the Cape Cells," Nico admits shamelessly. "I've had it on mental record for years, so I figured I might as well use it for the school project. Certain tells are present in the muscle and brain wave structure of each super--if you see similar tells in the kids, there's a good chance they've got the same. We've got information from generations worth of supers, after all, the database is huge. Nobody was doing anything with it, though."
"And how did you hack the records when you were never given access to a computer?" Mega asks.
"Mega, haven't you realized?" Nico says, starting to pull the tabs off of me. "My brain is a computer. Max, you're next!"
"What does it mean, though?" I ask. "I'm an empath?"
"Just enough to unconsciously pick up on emotions, not mu
ch more than a dog, really," Nico says bluntly. "You won't be able to do much with it--except, considering you're a hero, talk people down from tall heights, maybe. Other than that, well, it's pretty useless. We can develop it more if you want, but it'll never be something you can call a proper ability."
Max is putting the tabs on himself, distracting Nico from our conversation. "Can you tell IQ with this?" Max asks.
"Only if the enhanced IQ is super power related," Nico says, letting him do the work for him. I'm curious, so I stick around to see his outline. There's a decent amount of red, but the majority of the color is light blue. There's a few lines of yellow, as well. I have no clue what that means other than he's got enhanced strength. I'm guessing the blue indicates his gravity powers in some way. "Yeah, I expected this, too," Nico says.
"What?"
"You've got your Dad's telekineses--I'm thinking it manifests in your gravity powers, and you've got latent telepathy."
"Seriously?" Max asks. "But I could never get it to work! I've tried!"
"Most likely your instinctive shields are too strong. We'll work on it," Nico says. "Emily, you're next, kid," he says. "I'm looking forward to this one, honestly, I've only got a bit of information on creation types. You're almost as rare as an elementalist in your own way."
She nods and goes forward, helping put the tabs on and looking at Nico expectantly as he brings her up on the screen. He stares at it, taps on the keyboard a few times, then looks at her. "Some of this I expected," he says after a second. "But you're a telepath--then again, I expect the two versions of you do communicate well, so it makes sense. You've got decent strength but nothing near the boys', speed is C class... extreme healing abilities, like you said. It's the creation lines that fascinate me--the levels are close to A class. Have you tried creating anything other than Ditto?"
"No, but I'd like to," she says.
"We'll work on it."
"Okay," she says, grinning wickedly. I can only imagine what she'll make when she can.
"Adanna," Nico says, motioning her forward. He doesn't say anything about her abilities, only reaches up and pats her on the head. "Sunny," he says. Sunny saunters foreward, walking right past Adanna, ignoring her totally, and starts putting the tabs on. Nico moves every single one he puts on. "You weren't paying attention, were you?" Nico asks.
Sunny pokes the one on his forehead curiously. "So what's this going to tell you about me, anyway?"
"Not sure," Nico admits. "I've only got a few elementalists on record." He starts typing, bringing up Sunny's form. A long whistle escapes him.
"And your findings?" Mega asks.
"He's strong," Nico says. "Honestly, as far as I can tell, he's in the middle of a power growth spurt. I expected it somewhat, considering his age, but this is... I'm not sure I can graph it until it stables out. I'll have to do this over a time period and compare the results to even have a clue where to start. Now..." He lets out a sigh, looking at Zoe. "Zoe, honey, I want you to be extremely calm--does anyone have something she can read?"
Taurus steps forward, handing over a sports magazine. Zoe takes it, not looking too enthusiastic, and starts flipping through it as Nico attaches the tabs. "Everyone step back," Nico drawls.
We all step back as he starts typing. Then he curses, groaning as the digital representation of her on the screen starts looking around. "Hey," it says, "what just happened?"
I look at Zoe, but she's gone perfectly still, her eyes look lifeless.
"She hijacked it," Nico says. "Zoe, can you hear me?" he asks the computer.
"Yeah, I can hear you. Dad where am I?" she asks from inside the computer. "Wow, there's a lot of interesting stuff in here! Oh, wait, I'm not exploding the computer! Dad, I'm not exploding the computer!" The avatar is jumping around like a cheerleader. "Hey, can I get on the net from here?"
"NO!" Nico yells.
"Darn it," she pouts.
"Well while you're in there hold perfectly still for a second, would you?" Nico says. "I want to take your specs."
"Okay."
He starts typing, as if having his daughter in a computer is a mere hinderance rather than a terrifying experience. Maybe for him it is, I realize. "Turn around, kiddo, I might as well take advantage of the situation," he says. The avatar turns around and he nods, bringing up her charts. She peeks around the window with her charts on them, looking at them curiously.
"Looks like you're growing at the same rate as your brother," he says. "Now out! Focus on your physical body."
"Can't I play some games first?" she asks. "You've got a couple on here!"
"Maybe later. Now out of my computer."
"Okay, okay," she says. A second later her eyes change and she blinks, looking around. "That was pretty cool," she says.
"It scared the crap out of me," Max mutters. He's right next to her. "You're all the way back, right?"
"Yeah, think so," she says. "Relax, it didn't blow up!" she brags.
"Yeah, yeah," Max says, wrapping an arm around her waist. "Warn me before you do that again."
"Sure, but it's not like I knew I was going to do it ahead of time," she says. "He's got games," she adds. "I think he's been in it himself."
"Makes sense, it's like the ultimate digital reality game, right?"
"Yesss," she says.
"Looks like Zoe's got a new hobby," I say.
"Actually," Nico says. "We'll make that your first hour class," he decides. "For everyone we'll go specialized for first and last hour, we have enough teachers. Then we'll have the basics, math, english, mad science, lunch, then go into history--"
"Science," Mega says. "Not mad science. Just science."
"Where's the fun in that?" Nico asks. "Whatever, actually, you guys can figure out the middle hours yourselves. I expect you all know enough about the subjects to make sure they know how to read and write by the time they graduate. But for first hour and after three, I want to set them up with their training. In the morning Sunny gets nap time, Zoe, game time, Adanna, you'll spend it in shifted form--"
"But--" Adanna says, looking worried. "It's--um--"
"You can choose to do so wherever you want, and do whatever you want, while shifted. And seeing as you're a shifter as well, Taurus, can you oversee her training?"
"Yeah, I can do that," Taurus says.
Emily, you'll spend the first hour trying to create people other than Ditto," Nico says. "Pranks are perfectly acceptable--if you can get someone else blamed, then you get a gold star."
"That is absolutely not accep--" Mega starts out, only to be drowned out as everyone else starts to laugh.
"No hurting people, of course, and no slitting clothes, okay?" Nico says.
"Okay!" Emily says excitedly.
"I'd like for you all--both students and teachers--to help her out with this," Nico adds. "She's going to need help observing ways of moving, talking, walking, everything. Max, Trent? You two will be sparring on the field," he says, looking to us. "Do it up, we'll bring in some buses, other things to throw, but keep it on the field and controlled, understand?"
"Yeah, we get it," Max says, grinning widely.
"This schedule will last until I say it's time to move to the next stage," Nico says. "Probably a month or two for most of you."
"Hey, do we all get gold stars?" Emily asks. "What do we get to do with them?"
"Hmm... if you get enough gold stars we'll have an ice cream party or something," Nico declares. "Oh, and Trent, I still owe you a car."
"It can wait until things have calmed down," I say, shrugging. "So is the last hour the same?" I ask.
"No, for the last hour or more we'll start training on obstacle courses," Nico says. "Since Jeanie and Liz are so intent on teaching the girls girl power, or whatever, we'll toss some of that in once a week, too. And teamwork plays for you and Emily."
"And music?" Banshee asks.
"Zoe can't carry a note in a bucket, but if you want to teach them to sing I'm willing to let you suffer thro
ugh it," Nico says. "Honestly I think you're here for a kid that Double M hasn't gotten yet, but maybe he knows something I don't."
"So he's planning on getting more kids?" she asks.
"Yeah. He's got one he says he wants from the west branch--an orphan like Emily," I say.
"A guy," Sunny adds.
"I see," she says. "Then maybe musical instruments if anyone's interested."
"I'd like to learn the guitar!" I say.
"I want to do drums!" Sunny says.
"Do we have a bass? Any bass players here? I've almost got a band," Banshee says.
"I'll do it," Max says.
"Now we need a singer," she says. Her eyes fall on Adanna and Emily. "Can either of you sing?"
"Not a clue," Emily says.
"I would rather not," Adanna says.
"We'll have tryouts," Banshee says happily.
"Fine, and since it's a small group all around the same age," Nico says, "we'll stick them all in the same classes to begin with. Are we good?"
"Today was supposed to be the first day," Mega points out. "Shouldn't we do an actual class? Or several?"
"Sure. Kids, go do your self studies, we'll let the teachers draw lots for what hour they get for their classes," Nico says.
"Sure," I say. "C'mon, Max, let's spar."
"I sortta want to watch Zoe--" Max starts out. I grab his arm, hauling him along behind him. "But digital Zoe--" he says. "She's so cute--"
"Get over it," I say. "Good luck on your training, Em!" I call over my shoulder.
"You too!" she says, already heading out to find someplace to work.