“Congratulations!”

“Good show, students!”

“Guys, I need help, guys!”

Behind that piece of white cloth was a well-lit auditorium with five other people sitting together at a large round table. The puppet body of Derek remained completely motionless on the floor, suggesting. Though Amelia couldn’t help but run over to touch the X on the cloth just in case. Strangely, the cloth acted almost as a light deterrent, as the light that came from the auditorium only lit up the spots in the room there were in with Derek in the places where it was torn.

“Amelia, you passed!” Krista shouted as she fell to her knees, completely exhausted, “You did it!”

With tears in her eyes, Amelia took into Krista’s arms, “No, we did it. Thank you, Damien. If you hadn’t pushed me to let you help me, I doubt- I know I couldn’t have done it without you two.”

“I only did what any friend should do,” he said while holding out his hand for a shake.

“No, there’s no way you’re getting out of this,” Krista commented as she pulled him into a group hug.

“I guess this is happening now,” he replied with fake reluctance, “Okay, Amelia passed, so what’s next for her, and who are-” A wave a nausea washed over Damien as he fell to his knees, a side effect of the way he used his wattiez.

“Damien!” both the girls cried.

“I fine… fine, I’m fine,” he said to the two, “Just a bit sick is all.”

Like a snake, a long object slipped its way up Damien’s shirt, an arm. A tall middle aged woman with tan skin and short black hair with orange highlights, and a long green dress had stealthily approached him from behind apparently to caress Damien’s body. She also seemed to have little sense of shame or special awareness as the dead stares from the three prospective students did little to deter her.

“Hey, get off of-” Krista started before she was quickly stopped by Amelia.

“Krista!” Amelia hurriedly exclaimed, “Don’t you know who this is?! You must have seen her portrait on my walls, this is Dr. Ornate! She’s a famous archeologist, and she’s the head of the Historical Studies department.”

Thinking back, Krista could somewhat remember seeing a poster too, though in the picture she was thinking of, the woman was covered in soot, “Fine, can we help you?”

“I’m just surprised that he’s still conscious,” the woman answered, “Your aura was running rampant so don’t be surprised if you end up looking like this guy.”

Sprawled on the floor was a small and skinny man wearing an oversized shirt and baggy pants. Amelia and Krista would have simply put him off as a sickly man in dire need of medical attention, had it not been for his familiar facial features and blindingly bald head.

“Derek?!” exclaimed the three.

“In the flesh,” he said weakly, “The overheating slowly dying flesh- Matilda would you help me already?! I think I’m losing consciousness here!”

Derek’s pleas were directed towards the woman caressing Damien’s tired body, but she paid him no mind. Prodding the boy and writing in a small notebook as she did so. Rather, it was a short man wearing a well fitted suit for his admittedly heavyset size who pried the woman from Damien and forced her over to Derek’s side.

“I apologize for my wife’s behavior, she gets like this whenever there is something new to be discovered,” the man said.

“Come now, Hector, don’t tell me you aren’t interested yourself,” Matilda said indignantly.”

“Of course, in fact, I’d say I’m absolutely fascinated!” Hector protested, “Do you understand how much restraint it’s taking me to not talk about how much I want to dissect him!”

From behind the two, creeped in a short pale skinned woman wearing a long, dark dress, “As you may have guessed, Professor Reman heads Anatomical Studies. A pleasure to meet you, my name is Marylin Moonflower, architecture. Congratulations on passing our little test, with a whole 20 minutes to spare to boot!” Contrasting to her gothic outlook, Marilyn was surprisingly chipper.

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“Not to mention with only a three-person team,” A tall, lightly tanned skinned woman spoke to them in a low grizzled voice. An older woman, her dark red suit and diamond earring served to create a striking appearance, well that and the eye patch.

“That’s right, Darjla!” Marylin exclaimed excitedly, “Out of nearly 100 wanderers, all but five other group took the test in groups of at least five, and less than 30 have passed including you, but they also took quite a bit longer… If I had to rank you, I’d probably place you three as 2 nd , just behind the two Teller twins.”

“I’d have to disagree,” Darjla argued, “Mr. and Ms. Teller completed the test faster and with less people, yes, but their teamwork and creativity paled in comparison to this group here. We’re here to gather the best and brightest to lead the next generation to be all the better than the last. I do say that I’m most impressed with Amelia, I’m sure Reymalia would be proud.”

“Y-You’re Headmaster Redeemed…” Amelia said dumbstruck, she was about to go into her usual fangirl mode until Darjla’s words finally registered to her, “Wait, how do you know who my mother is?”

“How could I not, you’re the spitting image of your mother, my former mentor,” Darjla said with a hint of nostalgia, “Though you do share your father’s eyes, unfortunately, regardless I expect big things from you Ms. Heart. From all three of you.”

“Y-Yes ma’am!” responded Amelia.

“Just so you know, I don’t have any plans to attend your university,” called Damien from the floor, “I was just out to help a friend.”

“Same here,” Krista chimed in, “I may or may not have broken some ground rules with my parents by coming here, so I’d really appreciate it if you forgot I was here at all.”

“You two do know that you are being admitted to the most prestigious school in all of Stellar?” Darjla asked while raising an eyebrow, “Thousands of people apply to attend this University, out of them, less than 10% actually get to attend every year, and you’re just going to give that all away?”

“I have more pressing matters to attend to,” simply said Damien.

With her one good eye, Darjla looked into Damien’s own. She had seen his type before, in fact, she once found herself in the same place that she saw him. Only back then, she still had two good eyes.

“I understand, but listen, Damien was it, I’ve been-” she started.

“No, No, No!” Matilda protested, “This will not do at all! Headmaster please, how could you let a specimen, excuse me, student such as him just go free? I don’t know if you just couldn’t see it, but that boy has six affinities! That’s untouched ground, I want to be the first to examine, excuse me, mentor such a person!”

“I think I’ll stick to my decision,” Damien said sharply.

“Yes, I can see why you’d say that,” Darjla sighed, “Shame, I guess we were trying to cut down on the amount of students who attended this year, especially after the influx of students from last year.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Derek called from the floor, “I was in a period of transition.”

“Yes, balding, what a tumultuous time you must have gone through,” Marylin snidely commented.

“Because of you, we had the highest rate of dropouts in our history! Darjla shouted, “By Vitnova, that damn toupee of yours. Back then, it was just Derek proctoring the test. The experimental puppet Hector and Matilda made wasn’t built yet, and the X didn’t have one of Marylin’s sigils.

“You ever thought maybe last year’s applicants were just more competent than other years?” argued Derek.

“30%,” Darjla said angrily, “We had a 30% drop out rate, just from that year!”

Derek knew when to shut his mouth. Saying anything further, at this point, would only cause him to gather more ire with his superior. Not a set of circumstances Derek wanted to find himself in.

“If the toupee was a problem, why did the puppet’s hair come off like that?” asked Krista not realizing the flame she was adding to an already raging fire, “If not for the sigil we would have passed just like the others did last year when Damien blew it off.”

“It’s definitely on there better than Derek’s actual hair, but I’m a perfectionist,” Matilda responded, “Honey Bear and I take care to keep our products as close to the real thing as possible, of course with a few slight improvements.”

Darjla could only bring her palm to her face as Matilda spoke with a completely straight face, “I’d fire the both of you if you weren’t so brilliant, regardless, Amelia if you would follow me, I’d like to fill out some paperwork to officialize your enrollment. As for these two, Derek, would you bring them to the infirmary?”

With a burst of energy, Derek jumped to his feet from off the ground and began stretching, “That, I can do.”

As he stretched his aura became much more noticeable, it was far smaller than what he was producing when he was using a puppet, but it surrounded his body so tightly that it became a bloody red color.

When he finished stretching, he bent down to lift Krista, but she stood to her feet, “I can at least walk to the infirmary.”

Derek just shrugged and lifted Damien who didn’t struggle at all. Just allowed himself to be limply lifted onto Derek’s shoulder. A strange sight as Damien was a far larger person.

From Derek’s shoulder Damien took a good look at Amelia, who was excitedly conversing with Darjla. Understanding that his work was done, Damien said some parting words to Krista, “I think that I’m just going to take a little nap,” before things went dark.