When Kat and Gene arrived at the docks, they expected to see a bus, or perhaps someone with a teleportation power waiting to take them to their destination. They did not expect to see a boat.
A worn-down speedboat was idling in the water with a poorly disguised person relaxing at the helm. They had a massive, scruffy fake beard obscuring their entire lower face, and sunglasses and a ballcap covering the top half. A jacket far too puffy for the mild morning took all form from their body. All of this subterfuge was rendered useless, however, by the constant rustling under the puffy jacket, obviously denoting something unusual with this figure in the dilapidated speedboat.
Gene stood next to Kat, both of their arms full of luggage, unsure of whether or not to approach this person, or to wait for the person to approach them. After a few minutes of silent deliberation, they walked toward the boat and continued to stand without speaking.
The baggy figure looked up at the two of them, and spoke in a gruff voice as poorly disguised as the person themselves. “Well, toss in your luggage, don’t want to be late.” Kat looked at Gene, shrugged, and spread open her arms, letting all of her bags drop into the damp floor of the shoddy speedboat. She climbed in after them and, in the absence of any seats or bench, sat down on a suitcase. Gene watched all this, and after one more moment of decision, did the same. With all their luggage onboard, the figure at the wheel gave the boat some gas, and they were off.
The driver’s jacket didn’t stop moving and shuffling throughout the ride, and the two passengers took note of it. They also noticed that they didn’t seem to be headed to any real location out on the water, but were traveling more into just the ocean itself. After a few minutes of travel, quiet except for the sputtering engine, the driver turned around, taking their hands off the wheel entirely, and said, maintaining the gruff, disguised voice, “I really hope you two are Kat Starling and Gene Simon. I probably should have asked you before we took off.”
Kat and Gene nodded, still unsure of their situation on this boat. Best to answer everything truthfully, for now. “Well, that’s a relief,” the driver continued, “I guess I can take off this disguise now.” The jacket suddenly flew off the driver’s body, followed by the beard and hat. All these pieces of camouflage were lost to the wind, except for the sunglasses, which the woman now standing in the speedboat removed carefully, and hung on her belt. She was wearing a purple and yellow jumpsuit with grey-armored sections, but the most noticeable feature was the purple, scaled wings spread triumphantly behind her back. She smoothed her stylishly short, blonde hair that had been ruffled by the baseball cap, and brushed away a few fluffy pieces of fake beard before giving her passengers a dashing smile. “Lady Drake,” she said, and extended a hand down to them, “They tell me that I’m to be one of your instructors.”
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They each shook her hand in turn, trying not to wince from the pressure she grabbed each of them with before giving each a quick jerk of approval. Gene had heard of Lady Drake before. She was a famous Welsh hero, known for fighting huge monsters, armed with her magical flail. Besides her weapon, her armor was magical, and some people speculated that Lady Drake herself had a magic bloodline. Seeing her in person, Gene could believe it. She was at least a head and a half taller than he was, and obviously muscle-bound under her armor- not to mention the wings that were seemingly sprouting right out of her back.
“Oh wow, we’re having superheroes as teachers?” Kat asked, rubbing feeling back into her hand. “I kind of guessed that we would, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up.” Lady Drake threw back her head and laughed, the sound echoing out over the open waters. “I’m not sure you have your hopes high enough, then. Did they not tell you kids anything before they sent you out here?”
“Not… really?” Gene answered, realizing that the two of them hadn’t come to the docks with any real idea of what they were getting into. All they knew was that their classes were cancelled for them, and that they’d be getting some kind of advanced training over a few months.
“Well then, get ready to be impressed.” Lady Drake grinned, removed the shining flail from her belt, and walked to the very tip of the speedboat. She flung the flail behind her, its chain clinking against itself for a few seconds as it hung in the air, and then whipped it down into the water under her. She was pulled behind the heavy, spiked ball at the end of the chain in an instant, disappearing completely into the dark sea. Kat and Gene scrambled to the front of the boat and searched the water frantically for their new instructor, but didn’t see any sign of her.
“Well, there goes our one chance of getting some real training, not to mention getting out of the middle of the ocean,” Kat sighed. “I guess we’ll just have to eat our luggage to survive. Might as well get started.” She slid back into the boat, picked up a suitcase, and lifted it to her mouth. “It’s okay if I start with yours, right?”
But Gene wasn’t listening to her. He had more important things to pay attention to at the moment- namely, the huge, dark shapes moving towards their run-down speedboat, causing massive ripples to course through the water as they got closer to the surface. The boat was rocked severely by one of the ripples, rolling Gene over into the back of the vessel. Kat noticed the menacing shadows at that point as well, and the two of them stood up to look at them once the boat was stable.
As they watched, the shapes rose slowly out of the water. Each was nearly 500 feet long and tube-shaped. Kat and Gene realized that these mysterious objects were two massive submarines, bobbing in the sunlight. A hatch opened on one, and Lady Drake’s head popped out of it, waving her hand to the stranded recruits.
“Hello, kids! Ready for class?”