CHAPTER 19: ACADEMY GROUNDS

Hiro stepped through the portal and she had to stumble to catch herself at the gravity change. It was roughly the same as Earth's gravity. If anything she felt a little weighed down. Moria followed her and stepped heavily into the room. Adjusting with apparent ease. A half smile on her face as she held in a chuckle at the staggered Hiro.

"Ah yes, Hiro Skylark?" The person who had been in the room turned to them. Their voice was raspy under the interface helmet. They wore slightly different clothes than what she had been used to seeing on Sparks. A skirt with a fitted waist but flared at the bottom covering their feet. Instead of the shirt they wore a cardigan with a diagonal zip up across their chest. A little gold badge was pinned to it. The strange spiraling script that had marked the doors at the out base was engraved onto it.

"Yes, that's me," Hiro waved her hand awkwardly. She had quickly become distracted by her surroundings. Her internal monologue was running wild. What color were those stones? It had so much depth! Did they refract light through them? Were they made of crystal or were they artificial? She didn't know but they seemed super cool. The way they were cut and stacked meant they pulled in light from around them and bounced it around until they seemed to glow. Hiro wondered if she could do that once she figured out how to fix her magic. Would that make her a human glowstick?

"Excellent, And You are Moria Kinross, her escort?" The covered face turned to Moria.

"Yes, professor." She said with formality. She straightened at being addressed.

"Good, no others coming through?"

"No Professor," Moria replied. She had turned her head to Hiro watching her watch the wall curiously.

"Excellent I can turn the blasted thing off. It's so noisy!"

Hiro looked back at the quietly humming portal. It didn't seem louder than a ceiling fan with a dirty gearbox. She shrugged as the professor spun down the portal and took off the helmet. She had to hold back a gasp. The professor had large bat-like ears, traveling up the side of her head. Her nose was upturned and wrinkly. Small claws tipped her fingertips. Finally, it was apparent to Hiro that she was female now. There was a name in English hanging above her head.

"Professor Anastasia Daubenton; She/her; Gold Ranked Professor of Morphology and Physiology."

She blinked at the name a few times. She was unsure what startled her more, the name appearing or the pointed bat ears on the professor's slightly fuzzy face. She tried to dismiss the name mentally like she closed the UI when she was setting it up and was pleased it closed without her having to say anything to Button.

"Hmph, I am Professor Daubenton, you did better than the other new spark upon seeing me." Professor Daubenton remarked, "Still I can hear your heart racing. When you take my 101 class I'll teach you how to control your responses and harness them. I saw that you also have some summoning abilities. While that is more my cohort's domain, I'm excited to have another summoner in our ranks."

"Um, thank you?" Hiro said unsure of how to respond. "It's nice to meet you."

"Indeed. Come along, I am to take you to get outfitted, and then show you to your quarters. Ensign Banks will be pleased to learn he no longer has to look after your pet. That will be your responsibility to manage from now on." She turned and walked off expecting the two of them to follow.

Hiro glanced at Moria who indicated with her chin to follow. She hurried after the professor ending up following along a step or so behind her shoulder as they exited the double doors to the portal room. They swung open in a more conventional manner, but with rollers on the corners in little channels to keep the heavy gem-like doors stable.

Hiro had thought the moment the world slows as a character steps out into a new world and stops as the camera pans around to cinematically set the scene was something that only happened in movies. Her breath hitched as she stepped out of the portal room and she froze, mouth open. She realized something important about those scenes. A single person could not take in everything a camera could in a single sweeping look. There was distance between the viewer and the camera. There was nothing insulating her from the assault to her senses that came from walking out of the portal building.

The smell was odd, both familiar and foreign, too complex to place what was what in the moment. Earthy and stale, fresh and fetid. All of it mixed into an unhappy scent that vaguely brought up the idea of a city to mind. Her eyes agreed with the concept of a city. Hard to describe buildings that rose out of the planet. There were some floating in the sky with rocky bases chained to other buildings. Some had the now familiar hexagonal build. Some looked large and stately while others hugged the shadows of their larger cousins.

They had stepped out into a wide blue-green field of some sort of low-cut grass or ground cover. Trees lined either side with the building hovering over the greenway all around. There was another crystal-like building on the other end of the field that spanned at least two football fields. Strange vehicles moved across the ground, through tubes filled with water, and through the sky. They weren't as loud as cars could be, but the city was loud. It was like every fantasy city had been smushed together into one massive disorganized mess.

Not only were there vehicles, but there were people. All the different races Moria had mentioned, pointed-eared elves, short dwarfs, even some folks like her with clear gills and frills on the sides of her head ran about. Some doing business, and others looked young and were playing some sort of game on the greenway. There were insect-like folks as well.

Just as she was getting used to the view her vision filled with text. Identification tags started popping up over buildings, vehicles, signs, and some people. She closed her eyes, in a grimace, but the words were still there superimposed over nothing. "Button! The tags are too many! Turn them off!"

"At once Miss." Her vision went blissfully blank. She kept her eyes closed.

"For now only turn on identification for people I'm talking to or interacting with and turn the rest off please." She asked Button.

"Your settings have been updated. Apologies Miss. The visual interface was never tested in such a densely tagged area as Academy Parkway."

She opened one scrunched-up eye to see Moria looking into her face concerned. "You alright? You look like the fry learning how to breathe air for the first time."

"Yeah, just a bit overstimulated with..." She tapped the crystal behind her ear and then gestured at the thrumming metropolis around her. Moria just nodded. Just behind her, she saw the Professor waiting patiently for them to be ready to follow her again. Her eyes were a bit distant and she had tilted her head as if it was listening to something. Now that she was thinking about it, how did the gemstones and bat ears even work?

Moria caught her gaze again before reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder. "I know it's a lot. But I'm here with you, and your pet is waiting. Let's go get your welcome gear and get you settled in."

Hiro nodded and together they caught up with the patient professor. She gave Hiro a sympathetic look. "I use my PGA to tune out some of the noise from the city. If there's too much stimulus, you could think about looking into that."

"Thanks, I'll discuss it with Button."

"Are you one of those odd ones that name their PGA? I never did understand that. I wonder if they ever did a study on who is more likely to personify their AI." She began muttering about getting published as she led them to a vehicle. It was a tube with bulges on either side. The side swung up like a DeLorean and two bench seats faced one another with a middle alley. There was no helmet like Hiro was used to. Moria climbed in after the professor and Hiro joined Moria on her seat. The door swung close and the whole conveyance rose into the sky.

"I have several questions," Hiro said with wonder as she looked out of the tinted window.

"An inquisitive mind. Excellent! You will fit right in with the rest of the academy! We have a short journey I will try and answer some of your questions."

"How is this vehicle controlled without a helmet? Where is the academy? Is it like a college with a lot of buildings? Is it part of the headquarters or in a different city? How is this thing flying? Is it machine or magic?" It all spilled out in a torrent. She had a professor willing to answer her questions. She was going to start asking.

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The professor cocked her head to the side considering where to start. Moria had a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Well, I am controlling the hovercraft after a fashion. I instructed my PGA to tell the vehicle to go to the Quartermaster's. It gave it the command now it flies itself. If everyone flew themselves there would be collisions all over. All flight is automated on Headquarters unless there is an emergency. This hovercraft is mostly machine if I understand it correctly. I don't know what percentage, but there are magic enchantments on it as well. It's indistinguishable after a certain point." She waved her hand in dismissal. And the academy is on Headquarters of course. It's the Academy District. That is the name."

"So there is an academy district and I heard about the technology district. How many districts are there? How big is this city?" Hiro asked.

Moria snorted and then began laughing. Both Hiro and Professor Daubenton looked askance at her. "I just realized. You don't know! We never clarified. Kids learn about it in grade school. Professor, can you ask the AI to take the sky route to the Quartermaster? She needs to see the planet's surface."

Professor Daubenton's had a look of confusion but she opened her mouth and said something inaudible. The hovercraft began to rise in the air through the lanes of air traffic. Soon they were above many of the tallest buildings. Some still floated above, but soon they rose past them.

Hiro's face was glued to the window. She was curious to see what Moria wanted her to see. At first, she was confused, the buildings were odd, but it looked like a city. She was reminded of movies like Avengers and she felt like she was flying through and over New York City. As they went higher and high it dawned on her. "Where's the edge of the city? How big is it?" she whispered.

"That's the thing, Hiro, The planet is Headquarters. The whole planet is a city. Our Academy grounds stretch from that floating subdivision to the river way over there." Moria pointed out a massive collection of floating rocks with buildings clinging to the surface out of one window, to a river out of the other.

Hiro slowly turned to her. "The planet's name is Headquarters? Your academy is as big as some of the cities in my world?"

"Yeah. It's the most densely populated planet in this universe and one of the top one hundred in the multiverse. Some of the hive planets in other universes have us beat. It's the heart of the Spark Network. Where all the infrastructure and training collide. Families and people who maintain the structure for Sparks all live here as well as the home to many Sparks when they are not on rotation. It also has the first and largest stabilized tear right under the Greenway. The other side, from where we came in is the entrance. It's the best training dungeon we have."

The hovercraft had begun its descent and the small snapshot of the world faded from Hiro's vision. She was stunned. Her thoughts whirled at the implications. She was on some city planet. In a magic-wielding society of protectors, she could make light swords. She was a Jedi confirmed. She began giggling. There was a manic edge to it. The scale of everything she just learned was insane and she was thinking of Star Wars.

Moria's face went from amused at her misconception to alarmed at the manic laughter. "Um, you alright Hiro?"

Hiro took some breaths between laughter trying to calm down. "Yeah, it's just a lot. Of all of the stories I wished to be whisked away into I was banking on being on the wrong side of an Agatha Christie novel before a Star Wars fan fic. Please tell me there's no emperor or anything?"

"Emperor? No, the Sparks have a Council of three heads of state guided by a large congress of representatives from the different main systems. There are some systems with royalty though." Moria was confused now and a little worried.

Hiro took a few more deep breaths and waved her off. The Professor seemed content to watch their interaction head slightly tilted large ears quivering. After a few beats, they lowered further into the city and the view was completely swallowed as they approved one of the fattest buildings Hiro had seen from the sky.

Professor Daubenton broke the silence. "We are about to land at the Quartermasters. Where all the starting equipment for new Sparks is distributed and where when you move up the ranks you will get upgrades to the equipment you found the most useful to you. Some equipment you will get in training and is awarded through merit. But we make sure everyone is well equipped to suit their personal needs before you leave our care at the academy. The most recent cohort has already started and the next one won't be for another cycle so we are putting you and the other New Spark on a Remedial course to catch you up with the the group in front of you and to fill in the gaps in your knowledge of the multiverse."

Hiro just nodded, she had questions, but she was still processing the glimpse of the planet she had. She needed to sit with that before asking more things. The hovercar flew into an opening in the side of the building and opened. They all got out and it took itself to an empty bay in a flying vehicle parking garage.

Daubenton led them through the building. She had parked them near one of the dispensary levels and it didn't take them long to reach the wide open room with a desk on one end. Painted lines made a queue on the floor with benches in rows near the entrance. "Lucky for you, you didn't arrive with your class. You won't have to wait for dispensation, we can go right on up." The professor seemed to stand a little taller as she said this. Marching their group right on up to the desk a short man sat with a visor over his eyes.

"Quartermaster Dalen; He/Him; Bronze Rank Quartermaster" helpfully popped up until she dismissed it. The man was perhaps four feet tall, though it was hard to tell with him sitting. A sign over his head said, now serving: two. His eyes were flicking and Hiro caught flashes of a game in the visor overhead.

"Take a number," he said pointing to a stand at the end of the queue they had marched past.

"Really? We need a number when we are the only ones here?" Professor Daubenton said incredulously.

His eyes still flicked as he played his game. "It's protocol so that it records who gets what. Please take the Iron Ranker to get their number."

All of her fur seemed to get fluffier and the professor muttered under her breath that this was the last time she agreed to show a late arrival around. She instructed Hiro how to register her PGA with the quartermaster. "Most of this is done AUTOMATICALLY," She raised the pitch of the last word almost squeaking it out, "But they want everyone to know how it works and how to request gear through the terminals. When there are a couple hundred new Sparks, numbers make sense but when there is only one, the system knows who is who and that you need the iron rank starter gear quite easily."

"I get it, when you have so many people in one place you have to organize things somehow," Hiro said with a shrug.

Hiro selected the iron-ranked starter pack and then received the number two.

A light flashed on Quartermaster Dalen's desk and he took the visor off with a sigh. "Now serving number two."

The three of them walked back across the massive room, footsteps echoing. When they stood in front of him again he sighed and in a broad voice he started speaking as if he was reading off a prompter. "Welcome new iron ranker. Now that you have unlocked your powers it is my job to outfit you to use them. To start we will use scans from your PGA installation to get sizes for your clothing or any other coverings required by your race. Then we will give you a wide assortment of other equipment. Once you get through orientation we can narrow down your equipment needs. Please keep your gear in good working order. A rusty blade serves only anomalies. Please step through the door behind me to receive your gear. Welcome to the Network's illustrious ranks."

He pressed tapped a few things on the desk. "Hiro Skylark, please go through the doors to get your gear. When you are done please come back through the same doors instead of continuing through to the transit room. The shuttle to housing is not currently running. It doesn't look like you are flagged for any special measurements so my services will not be needed. Have a nice day." He pulled the visor back over his eyes and tuned them out.

"Um ok," Hiro said. Why was he even here if he just rattled off a script and nothing else?

Moria reached out and grabbed her wrist as she stepped forward toward the door. "The system has a big mechanical arm system back there, pretty standard as far as distribution centers go. But don't be spooked. Don't pass over the caution lines on the floor and you'll be fine."

Hiro went through the door. A table sat to her left a wall to her right. A large spider-like contraption of ten long metal arms hung from the ceiling. Past the table, the floor was painted with white stripes. A screen in the center of the spider's mass lit up and Dalen's face showed up. He was playing some game in a split screen but the spindly arms sprung to life and began to reach behind it. Shelves and racks were going back into the room behind the arm contraption. A Bag landed on the table moments later. Some objects floated and others were grabbed as various clothing, weapons, and boots were grabbed. She spotted under the floating objects small robots skittering away as they deposited things from shelves further back in the room. Soon the arms had packed everything in the massive duffle bag and the arms' went silent.

"There's your equipment. Have a nice day." Dalen said in a dry tone.

"So that's what he does," she whispered as she left the room the way she came. Laidend with a heavy bag.

They walked back out of the long hall and once the door swung shut behind them the Profesor clicked her tongue. "Shameful. It took him much too long to get your equipment. No wonder he hasn't moved up to Silver rank yet."

"He had all that packed in just over five minutes?" Hiro asked confused. It had been five minutes twenty-six seconds actually.

"Yes, well on welcome day, they get through each person in just under two minutes. Where's the pride in his work?" the professor said disgruntled.

"We were the only ones there. I don't mind."

"It's the principle. Where's the pride his teachers should've instilled?" She shook her head.

Moria chimed in, "He was playing a combat training simulation. Maybe he'd rather have a different assignment."

"We all have roles to play," With that the professor walked a little faster and led them back to the hovercar.

The flight to the living quarters she was assigned to didn't take long. Just under fifteen minutes. The complex they descended into was several circular rings of buildings interspaced with wide central circles of greenery in the middle. It looked like what a few drops of water lading in a calm pond might look like. The circle would interest in some places.

Daubenton talked as they walked from the landing pad to an entrance. "This is called Ripples. It's where the majority of the cohort we wish for you to catch up to live. You live in the same block as the other new Spark. We gave you a first-floor bedroom adjoining the green space. You will find pet waste bags in your room. Please dispose of your pet's waste in the proper systems."

They had walked through a great arched opening to the green space at the center of one of the rings. Happy barking rose from the green space. "Oh no! Come back you wild beast!" followed the barks.

Hiro smiled and tears filled her eyes as she saw the first truly familiar creature since this whole ordeal began. She knelt as her dog, body thrashing wildly with excitement bounded in her arms whining. She hugged the wriggling body of her furry companion close. "Niss! I missed you!" She sobbed into her fur.