It was the first day of training and they were to meet in the main hall of the Institute.

Parth was in his full uniform, the black suit jacket with red highlight up and around the collar and edges. It was open to reveal the white button up shirt with a small black and red tie. The left breast had a small badge with a number one on it to indicate his year. He also had black trousers that were slightly form fitting.

He strode out of the first-year boy’s dorm hands in pocket as he reached the halfway point between the boy’s and girl’s dorms. He only needed to wait a minute for Tey. She had said they should meet at that point before heading to the hall.

Tey was in her uniform from before now with a similar short tie to his.

“Hmm, the uniform suits you.” She said bluntly, she was not one to hold back her thoughts…at least when it came to him. He found it almost weird how she seemed so free when talking to him, he had not seen her talk much with others. In fact, she seemed quite similar to him in that regard, but she was quite guarded when she did.

They began to walk towards the hall.

“Thanks, I can say the same to you.”

“I didn’t expect that response from you.” She said with a self-satisfied smile.

“Advise from my older brother.” He replied turning away.

Reaching the walkway where the fight had taken place there was still some clean up being done by maintenance bots.

“I suspected it wasn’t something you would do normally.” She laughed. “You have the looks but not the personality to give such compliments.

“He said the same thing.”

“Your brother is a wise man.” She nodded sagely.

“I know.” His face was serious.

They walked into the large hall as they talked. Other first year Framers coming in ahead and behind them. One group being that of Everleigh’s. He had not seen the three of them since their battle.

Upon noticing him and Tey they stopped. Parth prepared for another verbal attack only to be surprised at the expressions on their faces, almost like they had seen ghosts. Everleigh especially looked at Tey in horror before hurrying to find a seat as far away from them as possible.

Parth glanced at Tey who shrugged back nonchalantly and went to the closest seat with him in tow.

He contemplated asking about it but decided against it. If she wanted to tell him she would have.

A few minutes later after they found seats, the large digital clock at the front hit 8:30.

The lights in the hall dimmed and the lights at the stage brightened up. Where there was no one, two people stood.

A pale, white-haired man, so pale he was almost anemic in appearance and the Theta class woman.

The man wore a large black coat with red highlight that reached below his knees. Looking closely a large white horn reached protruded from the front of his head and curved around the right side following the head shape to curl up at the back of his head ending at a point. His eyes had a tired look to them. His gloved hands were held together in front of him gripping the top of a short staff, almost like a walking stick.

The woman was dressed similarly to before, she had a tablet held in her arms against her chest.

The man opened his mouth.

“Hello, hello. Can you all hear me? Good.” The projection of his voice reached the entire hall with no visible mic. He wasn’t shouting either, but it was projected somehow. It was also possible he just had a hidden mic. His voice was deep but not too much so and it sounded almost lazy in tone.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Introductions are in order. My name is Nicholai Heiman. And this is my assistant and one of your teachers Isabel Gritton. I am the head of your year and so would be overseeing your progress over this year. You can call me Mr. Heiman and she is Mrs. Gritton.”

He scanned the hall around, the lazy uninterested look never leaving his eyes.

“I would keep this brief, this is essentially a military academy for Framers. You are here to be taught like students and trained like soldiers, to benefit humanity. Be under no illusion, death is a possibility. Of course, we would not send you into danger without attempts for your safety but always keep in mind that for a variety of reasons what you would be doing here is dangerous.”

They all knew as much when being signed up to join the Institute.

“Listen to your teachers, follow the rules, for everyone’s sake…and most of all yours. We are harsh with punishments.” His eyes took on a dangerous look and yet he still managed to look lazy while doing so. “After a year of mostly training you would be sent on some missions related to destroying the Drakker and would be obligated to join these missions for the next five years.”

Then he held up a small device, it looked like an earpiece.

“You will be handed devices as you leave the building. They have information on your curriculum and you can use them to communicate with each other. They are more secure than your communication devices and so you can have sensitive information related to your Institute activities in them. I am urging you to keep information related to the institute, stored exclusively in these Hyper Logical Information Devices. You can call them HLID for short.”

Parth supposed that was what Isabel had used to talk to the mysterious person last time, which now that he thought about it was likely Nicholai. Their private devices had been confiscated when they had first arrived and it seemed they were being replaced.

“I am supposed to give some rousing uplifting speech, but honestly, I can’t be bothered. So, I would just say this. You might have thought that the Pre-Alpha training showed you your abilities and strength, let me tell you something, it is not even close. Do your best. Don’t die. And you can rise to amazing new heights as a Framer. The possibilities are truly endless.” He stopped before turning to Isabel.

“Am I missing anything?”

She turned to him and whispered into his left ear.

“Ah yes, you are now permitted to leave the Institute into Mesa city.”

A few cheers rang out.

“Make sure to wear your uniform when outside for ease of identification. Travelling anywhere outside of Mesa city requires you to send in a permission request via your device to be approved of first. Take care to mind this rule. That is all.”

After he was done, he put a hand on Isabel’s shoulder, it made for a funny sight considering he was shorter (although she was simply a mini giant). A moment later the two of them seemed to lose color before becoming transparent outlines and disappearing completely.

A hologram? No, the pair was definitely there a moment ago. Invisibility? They were also definitely gone and there was no point in doing so. So teleportation then. Teleportation was still in a somewhat experimental stage its creation coming about due to the study of the Drakker and also Framers and their HLE developing a new type of technology. It currently required preparation ahead of time and a lot of machinery. On top of that a portal was always visible. In fact, it looked like what he did was a reverse of the forming of an HLF. Interesting.

***

“Thoughts?” Nicholai was curious about a few of the students in the group.

They sat in a large comfortable looking office. A large mahogany desk in front of him and seated across it was his Isabel. She held her tablet in front of her and its screen flashed on.

“A promising if somewhat rowdy group this year sir.” Isabel replied.

“Any specific individuals?”

“Constantine Davidson, he is the best weapons user in the year with his sword mastery which is no surprise as he trained since he was a preteen in his family’s gym. His use of HLE is also beyond his level as an Alpha-1. His Hyper Logical Ability is an interesting one, apparently he is capable of storing attacks in time? I wonder how that is meant to work.”

“Hmm, that is an interesting one I can’t wait to see it in action, quite powerful sounding for his level. Who else?”

“His opponent from a couple days back, Legias. Very high physical ability again beyond a typical Alpha-1 so he leans towards a purely physical combat style like myself. His body is sturdy and he can further enhance it with a powerful energy-type ability. Beyond that he appears to have issues controlling himself.”

Nicholai looked at her intently.

“That why you went so hard on him.”

“Yes sir.”

“Continue.”

“Everleigh. Powerful wind control ability. And decent in the physicals department. Quite arrogant however and prone to anger with ease.”

“Ah the Norell daughter, make sure to impart on her that her name means nothing here.” There were a lot of things he did not like but conversely very few things he actually hated. Arrogance was one of them.

“Of course, sir.”

“Good.”

“The twins, they have no last name as it seemed they were abandoned but follow Everleigh after they met in the Pre-Alpha course. They are a rare existence being clearly sisters but both awakening into Framers. We wonder if the fact they are identical twins helped in that regard. Regardless, both have water-based abilities. They have an interesting combat strategy with each other where one goes on the offensive and the other supports her with waters barriers and summons.”

“Mmm, I have seen them fight…they need some changes to their strategy.”

“Agreed.”

“Next we have, Parth Hall.”