"Honestly, I am glad the Framers exist, my family got saved by a Framer once from one of them Drakker. Nasty creature that was, size of a large car. The monster tore apart my truck and damn near killed us all. We were lucky a Framer turned up at that moment to kick its ass. Sent the darn thing flying. Anyway, yeah I know that there are some bad Framers out there but there are bad humans out there too.

Sure they are more powerful but its not like we were doing perfectly before The Expanse you know. So, yeah I dont hate the Framers, sure they are scary but a politician is scary too. Their power is just not as direct."

~ interview of a man from Mesa city, on the topic of the positives and negatives of Framers.

Combat class was what they had next on the day’s packed schedule. It was located at the outdoor field of the gymnasium.

“Ha, quad affinity, bow down to me lowly triple affinity peon.” Parth sighed at the girl lording over him.

“Those affinities better be of use.”

“Oh don’t worry you would notice their applications.”

“And what about the others?”

“What about them?”

This woman…

They arrived at the field, the rest of the class was also chatting among themselves as they streamed through the gate. The instructor was already on the field waving them over to her. It was Isabel.

“You are all here. Good!” She was dressed in a black and red tracksuit this time. “You should all know me from the gathering this morning bunt I would reintroduce myself.”

“I am Isabel Gritton, your combat class instructor. Just call me Isabel I don’t like the titles.”

She went on to explain that they would be measuring their physical abilities.

“As you should be well aware of, even Pre-Alpha Framers have physical abilities beyond that of even the most physical gifted mundane humans. You would run faster, hit harder and be more durable. As Alphas all these abilities would get stronger.

“It is only after the Theta level where your physical abilities stop growing. Even so there would always be differences between each Framer even at the same level.”

The started with a race, four-hundred-meter distance. They went in two waves of ten. No abilities and no HLE.

They were allowed to change into tracksuits of their own beforehand similar to Isabel’s

Parth was third lane in the first group as well as Constantine and Everleigh.

“Don’t hold back, this is just your pure physical ability. Begin!”

The instant she said those words they were gone.

Parth had done tests of his own during his free year. With his burst sprint he could cross a thirty-meter distance within a second, the problem was that after the burst he would be far too tired to sprint the rest at full strength. So he decided to save it for the last thirty meters. He might not have seemed like it, but Parth had a bit of a competitive streak to him.

Over twenty meters of the track was eaten up quickly and Parth found himself ahead but with Constantine and one other Framer that he did not know catching up, he could hear them gaining on him.

He pushed onwards with Tey embarrassingly cheering him on but found himself falling behind eventually. Constantine and the unknown Framer, her black hair in a ponytail.

With just over fifty meters left he could see that he would be cutting close and so in a slight panic decided to use his technique early.

Thirty meters was crossed in a second and he easily rushed passed the ponytail girl only to reach the finish line and see Constantine waiting for him.

Seventeen point five seconds was displayed on Constantine’s lane. Seventeen point eight five seconds on Parth. The ponytail girl came in at Eighteen point zero two.

“Interesting technique you had there, mine was just better.” Constantine grinned at him.

He should have seen that coming as a swordsman Constantine likely had an actual technique to Parth’s street made improvisation. He shrugged with a slight smile as he rested in a crouch, huffing slightly.

“I wouldn’t really call it a technique just something I was able to do before my awakening which pushed it to a higher level.” It was very inefficient beyond a ten-meter distance however.

“Your own technique? Even more impressive then.” Constantine helped him up as Tey reached them, though weirdly he seemed slightly wary of her.

“Damn, I thought you would win especially with that sudden burst of speed, but then Constantine had something similar.” Giving him a side glanced.

“Ehem, a movement technique of my family’s combat arts.” He said nervously.

“Good job Constantine.” The compliment came from Stella as she somewhat nervously approached the group, he smiled back.

“Hmm, not bad the maximum time was twenty point five seconds. This group is quite talented. On the battlefield speed serves you well, remember that.”

“Miss-I mean Isabel. Didn’t those two not use abilities? I thought that was disallowed.” Maverick had also been in the first group and came in seventh, two places behind Everleigh.

“No, they did not use Framer abilities, but movement techniques used withing various fighting styles. However, I believe I might tweak this lesson somewhat as you should all be able to use HLE again after your last class.” She nodded thoughtfully.

“After we do the strength rating, I would be teaching you all a Framer movement technique that uses HLE. It would be much better than whatever you may have learnt beforehand and is a staple to Framer combat. Next ten!”

Tey came in seventh just ahead of Stella much to Parth’s amusement, with Legias drawing in first with another girl at eighteen seconds.

“Trying to catch a snail at that speed?” He teased, she turned her head away with an annoyed huff.

“Hmm, no disappointments in this class. If anyone had gone above twenty-six seconds they would have needed additional training to get to a suitable level.” A particular person, thin in stature shook like a leaf as Isabel stared right at him. He had caught it close by a millisecond.

“Physical strength test next.”

They were brought up to a set of machines with large pistons connected to a flat padded board.

“You would hit these as hard as you can, and the machines would give us the force of your attacks, again no HLE or abilities. Remember, we are just testing your physical abilities. Alright there are five machines so form groups of four, then take turns to swing at the pads. You get three tries each.”

Parth ended up with Tey of course, Constantine and Stella joined their group of two. The others also formed up in groups.

“I’ll go first. Since I won the race.” Constantine smiled, or at least it looked like he did under the mask.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“Rub it in why don’t you.” Parth replied with a slight shake to his head.

Constantine stood in front of a machine working his right arm in circles as he readied himself. His golden eyes shone, and he threw a punch at the padding, the explosion of sound rang throughout the track.

A moment later a number flashed up on screen.

Nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand newtons.

Constantine tilted his head slightly and went for another attack.

Then another.

His best turned out to be his second try at one point four million newtons.

Parth went next and ended up edging out at just over one point seven million with his third try much to Constantine’s disappointment.

Tey and Stella went next, with Tey hitting for four hundred and twenty thousand and Stella the lowest at just over one hundred thousand newtons.

Unsurprisingly Legias had the highest score, somewhat surprisingly however was the score itself.

“Eighteen million newtons.” Isabel whistled. “Not bad at all, I can see why you were so confident in facing me.”

“What about you Isabel? You did not show us what you can do neither did you do the racing.” The ponytail girl asked.

“Lucetta. Hmm, well simply put, the devices in this room would not be able to measure my capabilities. They are only for low level Alphas after all. As for the running, it is the same situation but also what would be the point in showing off?” She was nonchalant in her explanation, no bragging at all came into her tone of voice.

“Don’t worry you guys would soon see some of what I can do after all your midyear test would involve me.” She said with a somewhat evil grin.

“Can we at least know your affinities?” Tey asked.

“…Sure. That shouldn’t be a problem.” She said somewhat carefully. “I am a dual affinity Body Activation and Projection. Though I have also managed to learn some World Examination and Precise Manipulation formations.”

“Alright, I now have all the data I need and you guys happen to be in groups of four, what do you know. So, from here on you are going to be in these groups for any projects in your classes.” They followed her back to the track, she stood at the starting point.

“Now for the first technique you would learn from this Institute, it is called Hyper Stride. You use your HLE to generate what is essentially a slipstream in space for your body to follow. Simply put, you create an invisible track for you to traverse like a train and-”

She was gone, appearing over a hundred meters away in a split second and then back. It was like she teleported, but we could see her ready herself to move in whatever direction she ended up in. The only signs of her movement beyond that were the slight visual effect of HLE that briefly outlined her body and her destination in a faint prismatic glow before she was gone.

It was impressive and she had used it twice in a row with no problems thought he suspected that had to do with the fact that she was a Theta class.

“I want you all to practice this. It does not have to be on the track. Focus on making the slipstream first before doing any movement and start with just a few meters of distance.”

“A few words of warning though, it might look like it. But I am not teleporting. This means that obstacles are still just that, yet you can only move in a straight line for each use. This also means that enemies that know of it are doing can catch you mid-movement. The further you move, the more HLE you have to use for the slip stream, and this is exponential. This is also the same with how often you use it without pause due to the build-up of HLE clinging onto your Astral body.”

“HLE build-up?” Everleigh asked.

“Yes, this is left over HLE that drags you down as you are forced to move it as well as your body with the new slipstream you make. This increases the HLE use each time so make sure to disperse HLE when the build up gets too much.”

“Miss Isabel, is this a formation?” Constantine inquired.

“Just Isabel is fine but I guess it is better than Professor.” She scoffed. “This technique is not nearly intricate enough in its application to be called a formation but I guess it could be a start.”

They began.

Parth thought about her description, of using HLE to build what was essentially a track for his body to move through before coming out of the other end. Calling HLE from his Astral body, the surrounding grew prismatic.

Connecting his current position to his destination four meters away was the hard part. It felt like trying to build a bridge between two positions but with no access to the other end causing the HLE track to collapse. He knew it was not going to be easy however and wasn’t discouraged.

“Ooh, good job Parth. You already formed the path on your end, well your profile did say that you had the best control over HLE, it’s unfortunate you don’t have affinity for Precise Manipulation. You would have been one hell of a Caster.”

The next person to come close was Stella, she managed to form something of a track before Parth did. But, traversing it turned out to dangerous as she found herself flat on the ground on the other side. Also, it took her a few seconds to make and to even travel through it. Meaning that just to move six meters she took around ten seconds. Not very useful but a success all the same.

The rest of the class was able to somewhat copy her and slowly everyone was able to do the Hyper Stride, though only a few could make it quickly or a long enough of a distance to make it useful. Parth’s group being part of those few as well as Legias, Maverick, Lucetta and a couple others. Only the slim man was unable to complete the task in time much to Isabel’s annoyance.

“To be honest, this group is almost too good. I guess my expectations are getting skewed already.” She said with a shake of her head.

“Your next class should be combat tactics. A word of warning, do not underestimate the professor of that class…well really don’t underestimate any of us, including Samantha but he in particular. Dismissed.”

They went back to the changing rooms and were back I their uniforms a few minutes later. Their next class was the last for the day which was more packed than usual based on the schedule. There were still a couple more courses they hadn’t been to classes for but just didn’t have the time to fit in the busy day.

They walked back to the main building and as they approached the door to the room they heard a voice.

“Come in. Come in.” An old south American drawl in the tone. An accent you don’t hear often after The Expanse.

Maverick pushed the door open and stopped at the doorway, a shocked looked on his face.

The class piled at the doorway to look inside.

The man who they assumed to be the professor was sat in front of a projector table like the one in Samantha’s class. His legs were crossed and lay in the table as he leaned back in his chair. There appeared to be tiny women about 6 inches in height of different colours flying around on butterfly like wings and feeding him grapes from a bowl on the table, giggling along the way.

There were four of them. Red, blue, purple and yellow. They seemed to be naked but thankfully their bodies had nothing questionable to see weirdly enough.

Upon everyone entering the room all but the red one disappeared into motes of light.

The man sat up on his chair putting his feet to the ground. He was quite handsome with long brown hair that went down to his shoulders, and he had a black blindfold hiding his eyes. He was also dressed much like Nicholai had been earlier in the day except there was a metal black spear on his back. A modified soldier?

The tiny red woman looked over the class suspiciously as she bobbed up and down in the air to his right.

“Hey everyone, the name’s Drayton Foxall. I am a modified soldier of the Empyrean platoon.” He said standing up a wistful smile on his face, the woman flew across and sat on his right shoulder before whispering something into his ear.

Awkwardly, they could hear her…however it was not any language they could understand. It sounded like a piano playing.

“Yes, yes I know.” He said to her with an apologetic tone. “Sorry, she doesn’t like it when people stare.”

“Her name is Hermione by the way. A fairy, or at least that is what we call them.” She giggled at the second sentence.

“Fairies? Like in stories?” Maverick asked.

“Well, not exactly. We know they appeared just about the same time after The Expanse. Much like some non-Drakker monsters but non-hostile to humans. They look just like fairies from the stories and they would not tell me what they actually are.”

“Why are they with you sir?”

“I am unsure, they have been attracted to me ever since I had been born. Hermione in particular has been with me all my life and they lend me their power. Oh, you can all sit down.” He pointed to the desks and the students followed.

“Sir what is that above your head?” Now that he was moving around Parth had noticed a slight hazy mist shaped in an open circle above him.

“Ah this? Its Haze produced from my body, it coalesces and shapes itself just like that above me.”

“Why is that?”

“I am an old model type and so quite inefficient in my production and use of Haze you see. The Haze above me and its shape is why the few of us left, are called the Empyrean platoon. Not that I feel very heavenly, haha.” He ran a hand through his hair.

“The Empyrean platoon? I think I have read about you.” Maverick’s eyes widened. “Wait how old are you sir?”

“A bit of a personal question to ask no? Well, not that I mind. I have been in service for seventy years, since I was sixteen. Fought alongside Jyllian a couple of times if you could believe that.” He took out an old-style cigarette turning to the fairy. “Hermione could you-”

She shook her head adamantly.

“Ah, forgot myself, force of habit.” He said putting it away.

“Is your er, age why you use a Haze-tech spear and not a gun?”

The early Haze weapons were costly to both make and use. Range weapons originally fired bullets imbued with haze meaning that every shot was even more costly and so melee Haze weapons came to being. They still used up Haze but much less was lost in comparison.

“That is right…well that and the fact that at a certain level projectiles are simply too slow to keep up with Drakker. Lasers are well and good, but use too much energy and are too unwieldy for fighters like me. As for my age…well it does have some advantages.” He nodded sagely.

“I have learnt to use the downright inferior Haze to copy some HLE formations, it takes much longer to for us to replicate but with the time I have. I put it to some use.”

“One more question sir.” It was Constantine this time. “What about your eyes?”

“Slashed out by a B-rank dragon type Drakker a few decades ago.”

“Shouldn’t a replacement be easy to do?”

“Normally this would be the case yes, now for the disadvantages of being an old model.” He started.

“My biological and cyborg modifications are too archaic compared to new technology on top of my Haze emissions complicating things, fixing me up is far more difficult especially with something as complicated as eyes.”

“That is not to say that they didn’t try.” He lifted one side covering his left eye revealing a mechanical eye with white pupils. “It is still assimilating however and apparently would take a few more months before it is done.”

He stopped and looked around.

“No more questions? Now we can start.”