The Great Hero betrayed humanity.

Vincent let more time pass than he meant to, just standing in the rain. The day had truly been too much, and he understood that his mind and body needed rest or he was likely to crash in a dangerous way. Maybe he already had.

Thankfully the rush of power and adrenaline that came from Manifesting was keeping him on his feet, and allowing his thoughts to stay focused enough to ask the important questions. Knowing he was burning time, Vincent knelt next to Gary and checked his pulse.

He was alive.

Vincent didn’t really know how to feel about that, and it led to a difficult conundrum…could he afford to leave his attacker alive? Vincent had never wanted to be a killer, but he’d be lying to himself if he claimed he hadn’t expected it to be necessary some day. This world didn’t let Adepts have easy lives, and he’d chosen a path that would make his own much harder.

But this was never how he’d imagined the situation would arise. A dark, wet alley, someone who–older than him or not–was basically just a kid, and one that Lucia would be quick to argue was a victim as much as anyone. It would be one thing if Vincent’s newly emerged powers had simply ended Gary’s life mid-fight, it was quite another to have to execute someone completely helpless.

Still, he risked more lives than just his own, here. Was there any chance at all that Gary had sent the message? Vincent discarded the thought immediately. Still, at the very least the bully had seen him Manifest, and even if he hadn’t, if Vincent was accused of trying to kill him, Operation Daylight was over.

Vincent punched the wet ground, his anger needing some kind of outlet. His mind was made up: this had to be done, and he’d deal with the consequences later. Leaning forward, he covered Gary’s mouth and nose, preventing him from drawing a breath.

His would-be killer made no reaction to being unable to breathe, and his eyes kept staring up blankly. Vincent’s emotions were a chaotic mess, and part of him kept chanting stop, stop, stop, while another soberly intoned, this has to be done.

Only a few moments had passed, however, before he heard the sounds. Splashing, feet on cobblestone, maybe voices. Vincent let go immediately, and part of him was glad for the excuse. He tried to think back to the fight, and quickly realized that Gary had made no effort to keep their confrontation quiet.

There was almost no time to think, and Vincent strained to picture the guard patrols in his head. Which would have been close enough to hear? What direction would they be coming from? They might have called in another squad to help…think, think, think.

Without his usual confidence, Vincent tore off to the East, away from the center of campus. He did his best to disguise his own footsteps, hoping the much larger guards wouldn’t hear him over their own splashing advance. Vincent passed a few more bland, concrete buildings, desperately hoping he was remembering the positions of the cameras in this area correctly, and at last he reached the open area between the compound and the wall.

Whether it was luck or providence, he managed to avoid any patrols on the way, but as soon the cover of the buildings left him behind, he saw the massive spotlights of the nearby watchtowers sweep in his direction. Packing, he sprinted away as quickly as he could, trying to be as far from the site of the attack as possible.

Several times he had to duck back between the buildings to allow a searchlight to pass him by, but he couldn’t slow down for long. It could only be a student involved in the attack, and anyone could figure out where a student would retreat: the dorms. He needed to find a safe place to stay for the night, and there weren’t many options–certainly no comfortable ones.

He could feel the patrols right behind him, and several times he heard shouting and barked orders above the constant fall of the rain. At last he came to the only option that made sense–East Training Yard. It was the oldest of the facilities made for Adepts, and it had one feature that made it special.

It was largely an open area, created in a corner between two other structures, one for storage, and another for repairing campus vehicles. Vincent felt his feet dig into the sandy floor as he awkwardly stumbled across the yard, dodging around countless weights and machines as he made his way to the corner where the two buildings met.

At last he slowed to a halt at the indistinct black mass he’d been looking for, and started feeling his way around. This was what he needed, a relic from when the Farms had actually tried to train Adepts after they Manifested. These were weights too heavy for anyone on campus to move; berserker Bob would have struggled to even shift them.

Vincent had taken note, however, that they were stacked at an angle against the wall, leaving a small space underneath. It had also become a place to toss smaller weights people didn’t want to bother storing, so he only had to find–there! He pried away a few smaller loose plates, and scrambled inside the gap, feet first.

Pulling the plates back into place left him alone in a tiny coffin, and his relief turned to panic almost immediately. Vincent didn’t like to think about his claustrophobia, as he couldn’t do so without remembering where it had come from, and he’d thought about the night his mother died more than enough for one night.

To control his breathing and push his mind away from the memories, he pulled out his K-Device. It was relatively dry under the enormous slabs, and he could easily see the screen–though he turned his body to make sure to block any light from leaking outside.

K-Tech Device rebooting…

Starting in [Initiate] mode…

Pairing with Harness…

Evaluating…

Attention: restricted class detected!

Querying Credentials with Network…Admin access approved!

Attention: unable to upload user-data to NGG registration!

Populating interface…

Name: Vincent Villari

Class: Specter [Restricted]

Rank: Initiate 1 [Recently Manifested]

Primary Attribute: Intellect

Unlocked Abilities: Phantasm

Physicality:

* Strength: 11 (+2)

* Agility: 9 (+2)

* Endurance: 11 (+3)

Mind:

* Intellect: 21 (+4)

* Empathy: 4 (+1)

* Ingenuity: 18 (+4)

Vincent read and reread the interface, letting his curiosity and fascination slowly push aside his anxiety and fear. Thunder and the occasional lightning strike had joined the downpour, and he hadn’t heard any guards for some time, but the attack had been less than an hour earlier, and still weighed heavily on him.

He thought that his broken rib was nearly healed by the burst of energy that accompanied his Manifestation, but the pain was getting worse as his adrenaline faded. He also imagined his own burst of energy couldn’t compare to someone like Gary, who not only took his Gamma doses, but tried to drown himself with as much as possible.

Vincent had never put much thought into how he’d cultivate his strength after manifesting. ‘Stay balanced’ was a mantra meant for an early Adept, in order to avoid growing addicted to Gamma and getting stuck with a common, strength based class–an almost guaranteed ticket to the army. But now he was in uncharted territory, with a class he’d never even heard of.

“Specter…” he whispered, needing to hear the name out loud, wanting to make it his own. When he’d seen that he had access to a restricted database, he’d assumed he’d be able to dive deeper into class abilities, and maybe get into parts of the Network that civilians couldn’t.

But if the truth was that there was an entire database of Classes that Adepts weren’t even supposed to know about…Veridicus’ broadcasts had even more power than he thought. Vincent put those thoughts aside for a moment, not able to hold his own curiosity back. He selected his first ability, ‘Phantasm’.

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Ability: Phantasm

Rank: Initiate 1

Mastery: Effects of Mastery unknown.

Description: The Specter is able to extend their will beyond their physical body. This ‘Phantasm’ is capable of passing through solid objects, disrupting the molecules of said objects, and uses the Specter’s intellect to determine its strength.

Once again Vincent found himself reading the description a number of times. ‘Disrupting molecules’ was a particularly disturbing piece of information. Although the Farm’s educational standards were laughable, they did have several libraries, and Vincent had studied everything he possibly could, having little else to do before now.

He had a reasonable understanding of physics and chemistry, but that only left him more confused by the description, as ‘disrupt’ was hardly a scientific term. The fact that ‘effects of mastery’ were unknown led him to a curious conclusion–even the mysterious restricted database didn’t seem to have much information on his class.

There were a number of things that could mean. It might just be that this particular ability was poorly documented–there were a number of potential skills for each class, and if there was a deterministic factor for the order they unlocked, it wasn’t common knowledge. Maybe no one had used it before?

There were other possibilities, of course. Even the restricted database might not be everything the NGG had on file…or maybe no one else had this class. While that appealed to his ego in an embarrassing way, the practical effect was actually very inconvenient.

Whatever he was capable of, he’d be figuring it out all on his own.

***

Vincent was shocked to realize he’d fallen asleep, only waking up when his KD began vibrating his alarm from where he’d dropped it on his chest. Apparently exhaustion could overcome fear and anxiety if it was strong enough. He looked and saw that it was 6 am, his normal wake up time.

He was incredibly relieved to find that his mind felt fairly clear, with yesterday’s madness feeling more like a dream than a debilitating reality. For better or worse, he had a lifetime of repressing painful memories to help him get through moments like this, and he immediately began planning his next move.

Thankfully it was still raining, and after checking to make sure he was alone, he dragged his weary body out of the oppressive hiding spot he’d used as a bed, and let the rain wash the mud from his filthy hair and clothes. Unfortunately the dim sunlight revealed that his shirt had a great deal of blood on it, and he was forced to bury it under some sand beneath the leaning weights.

Now he was shirtless, and drenched, and his many bruises and injuries were on full display, though thankfully berserker Bob had made sure those wouldn’t draw too much attention. Still, he would have to travel half the campus shirtless in the rain.

He began jogging toward the dorms, which wasn’t entirely unusual for him; a number of students ran in the mornings. They didn’t normally do it shirtless, or in the rain, but while Danny might say he looked like a ‘douchebag, showoff’–an exact quote he’d heard from his friend–Vincent at least wouldn’t be immediately recognizable as a newly Manifested attempted murderer.

He did his best to appear unhurried, and was pleasantly surprised to actually see a few other jogging students–though they all had shirts. Still, he arrived at the dorms without drawing too many looks, and quickly retreated to his room.

It was empty, as he expected, and he hastily gathered some fresh clothes. Next he picked his KD back up and hammered out a quick message to Danny and Lucia. Part of him desperately wanted to tell them everything that had happened, but his clearer mind was far more concerned with their safety.

I need a few days to myself. I’m angry and I need to think about mom.

He had to grit his teeth to even write the message, but he was sure the other two knew him well enough to understand he would never openly say something like that unless it meant something else. Right now he had no idea who had messaged him claiming to know his plans, or whether his messages were hacked, but he wouldn’t risk his crew.

That taken care of, he hurriedly went to the showers, and scrubbed his remaining clothes at the same time, just in case he’d missed any blood. He also managed to inspect himself in the mirror when he was alone for a few minutes, ensuring his Manifestation hadn’t made any physical changes.

Same black hair, same mismatched eye color, same pale skin from his mother’s side. He did look slightly more muscular, but thankfully he didn’t do enough ‘douchey’ shirtless jogs for anyone to be able to tell the difference. His injuries weren’t too alarming either, save for a bruise covering almost his entire side where his rib had rapidly broken then healed.

Satisfied, he hurried to the cafeteria to grab some food. He planned to grab it quickly and eat in his next class, as he didn’t want to risk crossing paths with his sister or Danny. He did spot them talking to one another in a corner, but refused to make eye contact, and grabbed as much food as he could without looking suspicious, and hurried off.

He couldn’t help himself and started eating as he walked toward Invader Studies. He was starving, likely from the transformation and rapid healing. He’d heard that higher ranked supers could metabolize the Alpha radiation that had permeated the atmosphere, but for now he needed calories the old fashioned way.

Vincent felt slightly nervous when he passed a number of huddled groups of students on his way to class, and he had to keep reminding himself that there was an enormous amount of gossip to go around right now. After what he’d gone through, Annissa’s death and Legacy’s visit seemed like a lifetime ago, but it had only been yesterday.

He was still relieved to take his place in the back of the Invader Studies classroom, stuffing his face as the rest of his classmates slowly shambled in. Instructor Cassidy was a few minutes late which was normal; she often remarked that she wasn’t a morning person. Vincent genuinely enjoyed this class, however, as the Invaders were a fascinating subject, and a compelling mystery.

Instructor Cassidy leaned against the board for a long moment, luxuriating in her coffee. She was a brown skinned woman with short hair and glasses, and she was relatively young compared to the rest of the faculty. “Good morning, class. You know the drill. I hate talking this early, so the veterans get to educate the newbies.”

She blearily looked around the class, at last locking her eyes on a redheaded student near the front. “Mr. Edwards, tell the class why the invaders are interesting.” The boy looked uncomfortable, likely due to the vague nature of the question–it sounded like a test.

“Um…a bunch of reasons?” he began, and Instructor Cassidy looked at him in disapproval over the rim of her coffee while she sipped. He scrambled for a better answer, “They…invaded Earth, to put on a weird gladiator tournament?”

“Yes!” she nearly shouted between sips. She pointed to the next student in the row, “Why was it weird?” The tall dark haired girl seemed better prepared. This wasn’t an unusual occurrence in this class, and was part of the reason Vincent sat in the back.

“They didn’t speak our language, but somehow managed to explain the tournament to the participants, then broadcast it around the world.” Cassidy was making a ‘keep going’ gesture from behind her coffee.

“Well, if the participants understood correctly,” Cassidy looked particularly happy at the word ‘if’, “then the tournament was a chance to defeat the invaders without them actually coming down to the planet.”

“Correct!” the instructor said happily. “There’s still some debate as to whether we truly understood the stakes, as every participant other than the Great Hero was killed, or exploded from Alpha exposure. And how did the tournament go…Miss Allen?”

A blonde girl in the middle row answered hesitantly, “Uh, most of them were killed or exploded, like you said?” The instructor just waited patiently, “Except for the Great Hero, of course. He… well he beat a lot of them, but then…” Vincent understood her hesitance. This was a taboo subject.

“The Emperor blasted a hole right through his chest!” Instructor Cassidy finished, the coffee obviously kicking in. “The attack was apparently so strong that it launched the Great Hero all the way back to earth from the Watcher, where he spent years underground healing. When he finally emerged, the world had been conquered!” She turned back to the board and with a command a map appeared. “Let’s chart the route he took in taking back the planet…”

Vincent tuned out at this point. The Great Hero’s journey was a story he’d heard enough times. It was one of the few things about the invasion the man had been willing to talk about. He had to choose targets for nearly a decade, leaving entire countries–continents even, suffering at the hands of the invaders while he systematically eliminated them kingdom by kingdom.

Vincent let his mind wander to the numerous issues weighing on him. What he really wanted to be doing was exploring his new abilities, but it was far too dangerous right now. Instead he thought of the message, of the facility he needed to break into, and of the state of his small crew.

His attention was pulled back to the present when class was nearly over. “...which takes us to the question of what was left behind. We’ve all seen–whether in person or in pictures–the structures of the invaders. But that wasn’t the only thing they left behind!”

Vincent leaned forward. He knew a bit about invader artifacts, but every time Instructor Cassidy brought them up he hoped to learn something new. She pulled up an image of a small piece of the Invader tech. It was a combination of stone, strange looking circuits, and invader writing that glowed with an internal light.

“This is an Invader artifact. While many of the invaders were capable of vast feats of power, much like our own supers, others somehow utilized these artifacts for a vast array of strange effects. No one has been able to activate these unusual pieces of technology, not even Tecnico or his Tech Knights!”

She turned and gazed at the image, shaking her head with wonder. “What mysteries are contained in these mysterious devices?” she said, as if to herself, then turned back to the class. “Well! Maybe the answer is out there! More are discovered every day, especially in sites of old battles. Perhaps they even hold the key to visiting the asteroid ourselves some day!”

She looked down at her watch. “Okay! We’ll call it here; it’s nearly time for the Pledge. Off you go, don’t be late!” Vincent gathered his things, and threw out the trash from his small feast. He joined the mass of students slowly filtering out the door, where he overheard an exchange.

“Did you hear what happened last night?” Edwards said, and Vincent had to concentrate to keep his face neutral. They’re just talking about Annissa, he assured himself. It’s okay. No one knows you Manifested, no one knows about Gary. We’re getting out of this place.

“You mean that girl making a run for it?” a male student replied.

“No, everyone’s heard about that by now. I mean the Gamma stores. Someone broke in!” Vincent’s eyes widened, and several other students turned around, trying to hear.

“It’s true! They’re trying to keep it quiet, but my buddy Randy was near the stores this morning. Not only were there way more guards there than usual, but he heard them talking about it too.”

“Who would be crazy enough to steal Gamma?” asked another student. “I mean, now that berserker Bob is gone, that is.” A few students laughed.

“Who knows?” Edwards replied. “But they’re gonna get found out for sure.”

“How do you know?” a girl asked.

“Simple, Randy heard them: they’re bringing in the pet Psychics,” Edwards replied, and Vincent’s world fell apart.