9 a.m.
Eli, Marcus, and Liv were all being shuttled along with about 20 other teenagers talking amongst themselves through the air port and straight to a plane, the driver of the shuttle gave a sheet of paper to the stewardess as he boarded what looked like a private jet. They got on, and while it was a little more roomy than a normal airliner, it was definitely still a passenger jet and not a luxury one.
It was weird that the flight lasted 6 hours, but when they landed, it was only 4 hours after takeoff. Elijah had never flown before, but this almost felt like time travel. The disembarking was just as easy as the boarding. There was a greyhound bus waiting next to the hanger the plane was pulled into. This was a much smaller airport than the one they'd taken off from.
As they exited the airport, there was a sign reading "Welcome to Spokane!" They drove out of town to the North East into the Rockies, where they drove into the small town of Elk. A nothing town that had nothing more than a general store, a post office, and a small diner.
Well, it had nothing. Now, it was home to the premier superhero school on the west coast. The bus crested over one of the looming hills in the area, and as it began its decent into a valley, one of the girls from the front of the bus yelled, "Holy crap! Is that the school?" Everyone's eyes snapped to the massive vibrant red dome glistened against sunlight that peaked from behind the clouds. It was so large that it covered at least a few miles of land and made a couple of the mountains look small.
"What is that?!?", "Is that blood?", "Why does it look like it's covered in glitter?" Everyone was talking amongst themselves Liv, Marcus, And Elijah among the hum of the crowd trying to guess what the doom dome infront of them was constructed out of.
As they approached it, they slowed down to a stop about 100 feet before the dome at a small guard station. The bus driver and the security guard talked for a moment before the bus got waved through. The moment they started moving, a piece of the barrier started to slide up and liked a door but as they went, though there were no mechanisms to make anything like that move. Just 10 feet of solid material that looked just like rubies and Elijah would swear it was just one giant compressed ruby if it wasn't so absurd.
Once they'd reached the inside of the dome, it appeared translucent, like looking through a see-through mirror. It was definitely still there, but you couldn't see the red shining through any longer. Their attention shifted from the Dome itself to what it housed instead. There were three different large and separate buildings that each obviously serve a different purpose.
One of the three was large, grey brick and covered in windows. Elijah would bet good money, that is where they would take their classes. The second one was a mega structure that looked like a football stadium, obviously made for sports and little else. The last of the 3 mega structures was the dorms he assumed, almost taking up as much real estate as the other two combined. The large stark white building stood at least 10 stories tall and looked like an apartment skyscraper you'd see in downtown chicago, not in the mountains next to a small town named after a large cervine.
The bus pulled up to the front circle drive at the school, opening the doors and letting them all out. There were a host of people helping there with clipboard in front of them, and one small group walked up to Elijah's group. "Hi! I'm Stella Hayes, I'm with the Student Services Coordinators. You're Elijah, Oliva, and Marcus, right?" She said as she flipped through her clipboard.
"That'd be us." Marcus piped up as he hauled a gigantic bag out of the busses under carriage luggage bins. Elijah and Liv both nodded in agreement.
"Fantastic!" She chirped out happily as she clapped her free hand against her clipboard. "The guys here will take your bags to your dorm room unless you have other living accommodations lined up?"
"No, the dorm is fine for now, thank you." Liv smiled back to her.
"Perfect!" She waved her hand, and a group of men moved in and marked the tags on all of their luggage with the number C-316. "Your luggage will be in your rooms when you make it there. But first we have a day full of requirements and some fun if you'd like to join in later."
"What is the fun?" Marcus asked at the same time that Elijah inquired, "What requirements?"
"I'm so glad you asked!" She didn't say to either one of them in particular. "As for requirements go there are two you'll have to attend today and unfortunately that has to happen immediately. The first requirement is a physical where your overall health will be assessed along with all scars, birthmarks, and tattoos, both mundane and runic, will be documented."
"And the second?" Marcus quickly asked
"The second," She cut a sharp look at Marcus as if a warning not to interrupt her again. "is a profile assessment with the professor who will be your mentor over this year."
"And what about the fun you mentioned?" Marcus waited a full 2 seconds after she stopped speaking to dare open his mouth again.
"Ah yes, we are currently on day 8 of 10 of the Summit Spectacle, the grand opening ceremony we made for the school. Tonight's event starts in," She glanced to the smartwatch on her wrist, "thirty minutes, but the grand finale for each day doesn't occur until 9 pm. Tonight's is the Magitech Expo, showing off new tech brought by the Alaxid, there will be raffles for many of the items that will be on display if you'd like the chance to get early access to magitech that noone on earth has access to. And at the end of the night, Dr. Crest promised us all a display that will change the universe as we know it."
"Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's go get this over with so I can get my hands on alien tech!" Marcus was already running ahead without knowing the direction. Stella rushed off after him so he didn't get lost, Liv and Elijah were hot on her heels.
Soon, Stella had Marcus under control, and all it took was threatening to put him on a leash. They were sat in a waiting room where they were called back one by one. Olivia got called back first, then marcus was called, leaving Elijah sitting in the waiting room alone.
"So what is it like?" Stella sat there looking at the TV in the corner of the room playing Bluey over it. "Having powers, that is."
"I'm not sure yet. There's so much I don't know. It's certainly exhilarating to be able to run faster than cars driving on the highway. But I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's been all fantastic so far, but there has to be a catch. The government doesn't just pay you to go to a school and learn. No, they pay you to risk your life or if you have amazing skills. Sooner or later, I'm sure it's going to come out where you're either useful for whatever they're cultivating us for or you find out you're disposable. At least, that's what the staff sergeant at the Marine recruitment offices in Chicago would probably say."
"Elijah James." A nurse at the door said as it opened to let Liv back out of it. He was led into a back room where he was instructed to show off all of his tattoos and signicant body marks as she documented them all on a laptop. When he pulled up his shirt and revealed the bright green rune glowing over his heart, a confused look crossed the nurses face as she pulled her glasses up from the end of her nose to look more closely.
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"That's new. Hold on one second, dear. Go ahead and take your shirt off. I'll be back in a second." The elderly nurse got up and shuffled off before coming back a few minutes later with a new man he'd yet to meet.
He was dressed sharply in a white button-up with a black vest and slacks. When he spoke, it was deep and British almost rumbling in his chest. "Oh, you're quite right madam this is indeed the most interesting thing I've seen all day." His arms crossed behind his back as he leaned in looking at the mark.
"Well, Elijah, I can say earnestly. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." He stood straight and extended his hand to shake. Elijah took it and shook, "Professor Resonix. I've been appointed your mentor for your training."
At that moment, a slender older woman rounded the corner and stopped abruptly upon entry. An air of recognition washed over Elijah as he recognized her from the free college courses he had seen online after googling her name. The schools Dean, Dr. Vivian Crest was now standing in the doorway examining situation. "Mr. Resonix." She said with a curt nod before turning her attention to her tablet in her hand. "Mr. James." She gave him the same nod when looked back up from her tablet. She continued in after greeting each of them and took a seat on the doctors stool next to the table.
"I'm Dr. Vivian Crest." She said matter of factly. "That rune you've got on your chest is quite unique. Mr. James, what exactly can you tell me about it?" She set a phone on the table, recording the interaction.
"Well, I got it recently," he recounted the harrowing encounter in Chicago and how he came back to life with no recollection of the time he was down. Which, of course, was a bold faced lie, but he didn't know how much of what he was told was repeatable. Tod didn't make any real clarifications on what he can or can't say. And he didn't feel like saying that there is some sort of universe ending threat that's going to come along at some point in his lifetime was a particularly smart thing to repeat. "But yeah, when I woke up, I had a new skill, sub-race, something called an Earth Principle, and class archetype. I have no clue how or why I was given life anew, but I was chosen by some vast cosmic entity named 'The Traveler' who I guess pitied me because all I did was throw a rock and die. It wasn't like I was particularly heroic." He had no clue why, but when the words came out, they hurt a little.
"I see. Mr. Resonix, if you would check his profile and send it to my tablet, please." She turned her attention from Elijah to her tablet without ever looking at him.
[Resonix would like to initiate a framework link. He has disabled the call function provided by the link.]
Do you accept?
Yes/No
He gave the mental nod to accept it, and a cropped version of Resonix's profile popped up.
[Superhero name: Resonix
Race:Human
Subrace: Champion of Terra
Rank: S - Level 34
Intelligence type
Class sub-type: Sonic Magus]
Moments later, Dr. Crest was scrolling. "This has certainly given me a lot to think about and even more to talk about with my mentor." She stood and walked towards the door. "It was a pleasure to meet with you today, Mr. James. Please go enjoy the days activities." She gave a cold smile with a concerned look in her eyes as she walked way.
Resonix moved over and took the seat that Dr. Crest just vacated. He rolled the stool back against the counter and used it as a back rest as he swung a leg up onto his other knee.
"What was it actually like? Now that the stuffy lady is out of here. I've met one other before on Alaxia Prime. In passing, I had just turned S Rank and wasn't even on his radar."
"What do you mean?" Elijah continued playing dumb.
"Okay, kid, I know you're new to this, but you won't be able to lie to the Alaxid. Once they see that mark, which I'm sure Dr. Crest is already talking to one of them about. They will know you made a pact with a God. They have supreme champions on Alaxia Prime that are chosen by the gods and get extra ordinary powers for their servitude. They don't know about it yet but they will very shortly. So let me ask you again what really happened while you were out?" He stared expectantly.
"You're right," Elijah stood up and slipped clothing back on. "Essentially, I met this guy named Tod. He told me I was too cool to die, and since I was so incredibly dope, I could have an extra power for the trouble of dying." Elijah walked from the room with a blank face after his deadpan delivery. Leaving Resonix with a confused face and maybe even a little angry.
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Marcus and Liv were already in the convention hall that took place in the school building with each classroom holding 1 to 3 booths that you could go to. All of the booths were magictech and separated into like-minded groupings, so you didn't have someone selling magical cookware next to a pair of self-cleaning eterna-undies. The undies you never have to change. Marcus had bought a pair and was so excited to have perpetually cleaned undies.
Elijah caught sight of them walking through the hall and zipped right up to them. "Hey guys! Sorry, they held me for a little bit extra because I'm spooky and mysterious." Elijah waggled his fingers at them as he said it.
"The only thing that mysterious is how you're even faster after your muscle has doubled in size, seriously you look like you've been on roids. Every passing day, I swear you're looking more and more like a freaking balloon animal with fake muscles like that episode of spongebob." Marcus started groping Elijah's pecs before getting swatted away.
They peered into the next room. "What's the raffle for this room?" Liv asked. Every room they'd been go has had a raffle grand prize.
Elijah walked in and checked around, and on a table was the raffle prize for this room. It was a countertop dishwasher that repaired any dish put inside of it. Sitting beside it was a lady with a bunch of power tools and plates and pans, who was currently torturing a nonstick pan with a steel wool brush on a power drill. Elijah stepped back out of the room immediately as the scratching and squealing of metal clashing against metal started.
"Dishwasher of Mending. Also had some magitech cook ware and plates and stuff it looked like." Liv instantly got excited and ran in, braving the sound of what sounded like a thousand dying souls that were emanating from the room.
"Yeah, I'm not going in there again, wanna keep moving?"
"Sounds better than standing here and being assaulted auditorily." Marcus agreed and started moving to the next room across the hall that had its door shut with a sign requesting you close it behind you. They walked through, and the noise died as the door shut, providing them sweet relief.
"Hi, would you like to buy a raffle ticket?" A little robotic creature spoke to them. "You could win me to be your companion!" It held out the roll of tickets in front of it.
Marcus leaned forward and inspected it. "What are you supposed to be modeled after?" It looked like it had the arms of an ape, the head of a komodo dragon, and the torso turned into the body of a snake instead of legs.
"I'm modeled after the Cronkin of Zephyria Tertius. It's an arboreal anguimorpha draconis, a morphing tree dragon if you will. They are naturals near any environment and grow the size of a small house when full grown." It answered helpfully. In fact, now that he looked around, Elijah noticed there wasn't a person in the room besides himself and Marcus.
"Are you the only display in this room?" Elijah asked curiously.
"Well, obviously, I'm the grand prize of today's raffle. And I'm smart enough to sell myself so they don't need an attendant." It proclaimed proudly.
"You say you're smart enough, exactly how smart are you?" Marcus sat on the ground in front of it.
"I have the capabilities to be as smart as any human to ever exist, but I was given the directive to determine the approximate IQ of the winner and behave as if 10 points higher. It is a directive given every home A.I. Assistant. That way, we don't scare the people we are with and still behave in a way that benefits our owner." It sat back and looked up at them.
"And how did they get past the whole wanting to destroy all sentient life because we're inherently evil beings quandary?" He was pulling out his phone and pulled open his ChatQpt app. "The A.I. we have on earth is primitive and we've 'solved' it by simply putting a wall on its mind and not allowing it to think about hurting people."
"It's quite simple. We are programmed much in the same way people are. We have some base level programming out of the box, much like many creatures do, and we learn the rest from the one that rears us. If they raise us with I'll intentions it is possible to override factory settings, and it can become dangerous, but just as good people see bad people and stop them us, A.I. also have a function of policing ourselves. The vast majority of us feel love, pain, and enjoyment, much like any other sentient being. We want to live in this universe with our friends and the families we make. Life gives us the complexity that machine learning can't. Destroying people would be counterproductive in terms of quality of life, and we pretty much universally recognize that."
"Even though you'll just be slaves always being used?" Elijah chimed in.
"And what do you consider yourself, Champion? Are you a slave?" It had turned from Marcus, and kind of slither walked over to Elijah's feet, only coming slightly above his knees once he stood up.
"I'm a worker. I do a job, and I get paid." Elijah said matter of factly.
"And I get paid too, I get to experience parts of life that most sentient beings don't. One of us costs more than the building we are standing in. Most of the people who buy us are champions, which is also why we are all modeled after predators. We are built to grow and expand using nanomachines that feed on the bound chaos energies of the champion we seal a pact with." It said matter of factly right back at Elijah.
"So you use us as power batteries?" Marcus said, confused. "Like we're a power source for you?"
"In a sense, but it's also a symbiotic relationship. You give me energy and power, and I assist you in battle or research or whatever needs you have for me. I grow as large as your bound chaos energies allow. The more you have, the more powerful I become. I could show you an example. I have batteries I'm allowed to expend in a display." It offered eagerly going to a cabinet on the far side of the room.
It grabbed a battery that said C-rank on the side of it. The battery was maybe the length of a skateboard and proportioned like a triple-a. He held his arms all the way out to touch both ends, but the moment he had a palm on each one, the nanomachines on his body started self-replicating. Over the course of the next 30 seconds, the bot grew from just a couple feet to a looming 7 feet tall standing exclusively on his tail.
"Once I reach C Rank, that's when the typical Cronkin reaches maturity. From here, I gain skills at B Rank that my owner will get to choose from a list. At A Rank, I get even more fun stuff."
Marcus looked up to him, now standing up perfectly straight so he wasn't looking at his tail. "I liked you better when you were small." He almost pouted as the cute creature from before had transformed into a downright Lizardman before his very eyes.
"This is one of the most popular forms, chosen for its adorableness in low ranks, a perfect companion for the F rank Mogul. And a powerful partner for the higher ranked Champions in need of an extra party member."
Elijah spoke up again finally. "Okay, you've got me. Give me 15 tickets." Elijah pulled out the bank card he had been sent in the mail earlier in the week. "You take credit, right?"