Chapter Four
After Candace and James parted, he headed towards the first building he had classes in. It was pretty much just an add-on to the main building, that was how close it was, but was considered separate due to the short distance between them. It was much smaller than the main building, but still impressive in size, being akin to a large church or small cathedral, though far from either in style.
The building housed a series of rooms akin to lecture halls, with only a few hallways connecting to the rooms on either of the two floors. James glanced about as he entered, taking in the room, the walls were made of carved stone, much like those in every building on campus. The desk located at the front of the room, not far from the door, was a large wooden affair made from solid oak.
The room could seat 40 to 50 students, more if the others stood, the seats were arranged with the seats in the back being of a higher elevation, with each row after that being higher than the last. Each seat had two cushions, one for the seat itself, then one for the back of the chair, along with a small desk attachment that was removable which folded up and down for easy access to the seat.
The room was decorated with superhero memorabilia, as that was what the class was about, Supers and their History. The instructor was a normal human, but was an expert in the field of superhumans, and was once a researcher on several projects trying to find the source of the M-gene. They were unsuccessful, as far as they could tell, the gene just naturally occurs. Presumably it has been occurring throughout human history, if the legends of monsters and such were taken to be stories about those with powers.
James had just settled into his seat in class when the instructor made an announcement. The Instructor was an average looking middle aged man with light brown hair. He was wearing a suit or something akin to it at the least, it was dark gray in color, formalwear was the equivalent of a uniform for the teaching staff of Darkholme, for the most part. His voice was monotone, as dull as his suit was in appearance, so his voice was in tone and inflection.
“Hello Class, we have a new student, recently transferring from New York, please welcome Jessica Rogers.”
At that name, James twitched near imperceptibly and gazed at the door, moments before she entered the room. The room seemed to get brighter, and all those in the room, even those still half asleep or working off a hangover from partying the night before, perked up and were at perfect attention drinking her appearance in. Several of the more flirty individuals called out to her while others whistled and catcalled at her. She winked at them and gave a sensual smile as she walked up to an available seat, her hips twitching as she walked, entrancing most of those in the room.
The silence was broken by a loud thud as the instructor slammed a heavy tome against his desk. The sound and rumbling echoes causes those who had been staring after Jess to look away, many with embarrassed or sheepish looks on their face. Jess ignored their reactions and the sounds as she walked slowly about the room, glancing for the right place. Her eyes sparkled as she spotted James, before picking up her pace and heading near him as fast as she could. Her voice was gentle and enchanting, though held a nervous hitch to it, which was far from normal.
“H-hello James.”
James ignored her, looking away before returning his head to the position it had been in before the Instructor spoke, cradle on his arms. At his silence she walked to the side before sitting in the seat to the left. As she did the Instructor started speaking in his dull and monotonous voice.
“Today class, we shall be discussing the Era in which Supers first publicly became involved in WW 2, our discussion will begin with the Commander, Andrew West. “
James tuned out the droning of the instructor as he lazily turned his head to face Jess. Though it would not be apparent for most who gazed at her, James could tell that Jess ad been crying recently and was even now trembling, not from sadness, but from fear, a far cry from the flirtatious teasing persona she had worn when they last met. James gave a weary sigh before speaking, his voice was low and quiet, and few would be able to hear him or know he was speaking unless they watched his lips move.
“Why are you so afraid Jess? If I was so inclined to violence as I once was, I would have killed you then, on that night. You deserved less than the mercy I gave you for what you did. Candace can barely hurt a fly normally, and she did not deserve what you did. You know what fire does to her and her powers, yet you played around with that Super, made him attack Candace and I. You then compounded your sins by trying to kill her, it may have been pleasant, but she would have died regardless.”
At this point, Jess was near to tears from the words he spoke. As no matter how true they were, they were rather harsh. She cleared her throat before opening her lips to speak. The sensual quality of her voice was dampened, nearly nonexistent really as guilt and shame overtook her voice.
“I… am sorry, I am, I had no choice, I couldn’t not do it at tha-“
The continuation of her words, which had begun to sound rather important, were interrupted by the monotonous droning of the Instructor.
“Mr. Williamson, I know you are doing well in all your classes, but do you think that allows you to ignore the current discussion and to bully Miss Rogers?”
James glanced at Jess for a brief moment before raising his head and looking towards the Instructor, before responding. He had a tired and frustrated tone in his voice as he spoke.
“We both know I have no real need to listen to most of the monotonous drivel you spew, even less of a reason today. You were speaking about the Commander, others know him as Andrew West, and I myself call the old man Gramps. There are very few things recorded about him that I do not know, that I have not heard from the man himself. I could tell you about members of his Team including Blackbird who went missing soon after the Berlin Wall fell, or about how he first met Robert Gregory, the Metal Manipulator hailed as the first publically recognized Hero.”
James paused for a moment to take in a breath, as he did many students around him started laughing at his words. The Instructor was livid; his skin was turning red from embarrassment and rage. He was about to speak when James continued speaking, uncaring about the reactions of anyone.
“Those are just the things I am legally allowed to speak of. And do not begin lecturing me on my rudeness and threaten me with meaningless reprimands. Even if I was in a mood to care currently, the Headmaster would not allow any punishments against me, even if they did, my family as overprotective as they are, regardless of the fact that I cut ties with them due to differing opinions, would end you, this school, and anyone else involved.”
James gave another sigh, this one filled with a longing and tiredness only heard from those long past their prime reminiscing about the good old days.
“I apologize for my outburst, but please continue, I am sure that at least few of those here actually are interested in the censored view of history you teach and believe in, so please.”
As James returned his head to the cradle of his arms, there was a somewhat stunned silence, and then a few of those that were more familiar with James and his way of doing things began laughing. Soon enough even those who were initially shocked by the seen began laughing. Even Jess who had been nearly in tears not long ago was smirking at him, while giggling softly, in awe of his antics. James turned his head towards Jess, a gentle smile on his face; it gradually disappeared as he appraised her.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Haaa. We can speak after the day is over Jess, I feel you were about to say something important before he interrupted. We’ll meet under the oak in the Courtyard, ok?”
Jess nodded slowly, seeing that she agreed to it, James nodded slightly in return before closing his eyes. Once he did Jess gave a sad little smile as she gazed upon his form before turning away, sniffing slightly, to pay some amount of attention to the Instructor, who had begun speaking again.
While the two of them endured the still somewhat awkward atmosphere in the class, Candace was doing things in her class as well elsewhere on campus. Her class was rather small, and had few people in it, only around 7 in all, including Candace and her teacher. Candace and the teacher, were remarkably similar, they both had plant based powers, though uncommon, that was not too much of a rarity. What really made them seem similar were their appearances.
They both had long flowing red hair, Candace’s a dark red, while her teachers was a burnt copper. They were both rather pale, with smooth white skin, though Candace lacked the freckles her teacher had in abundance. They both had the same soft curves, though her teacher, whose name was Sofia Rigby, had a more filled out build. Candace had blue eyes, a rather rare pairing when coupled with her red hair, Sofia, had green eyes, but they were a peculiar hue, not the typical emerald green, but the soft green of chlorophyll.
Many who met or saw the two of them together often thought they were sisters or even mother and daughter. They were different personality wise however, while Candace was shy and demure for the most part. Sofia was nearly the exact opposite, being the stereotypical fiery redhead most of the time. Another way they differed was their powers, while plant oriented, Candace’s were currently limited to manipulating existing plants, while Sofia could generate and practically conjure new ones as needed.
The Greenhouse was large, though not comparable to most of buildings on Campus. It consisted of one large room, which held an assortment of different plants below the Glass roof, as well as a half dozen other smaller rooms that were used for private projects. Candace was in such a room, she was still wearing the same outfit she had been when she and James walked to Darkholme. Unlike when gardening at her house, this required a more hands on approach, quite literally in fact.
This was much less messy because of it; she had just started reexamining her project when Sofia opened the secured heavy door and entered. Sofia glanced at Candace’s attire for a time before opening her mouth to speak. Her voice was strong and brash, an unexpected thing for one of her appearance. As she spoke a mischievous twinkle emanated from her green eyes.
“So, I can assume by your attire that you have finally decided to pursue your young man? On a more school appropriate note, what are your plans with your rose? I am excited to see what plans you have for it, your abilities are more suited to much finer plant controlling than mine.”
Candace paused what she was doing and turned around, a blush spread across her face. She looked down for a moment before meeting Sofia’s eyes. She gave a nervous chuckle before speaking, an equally nervous tone in her voice.
“You remember the woman I told you about, Jess, the one who was friends with James before something happened and she tried to kill me?”
Sofia gave a loud raucous laugh, though unladylike, it gave her a certain charm. Her laughter faded before she responded.
“Ha Ha Ha. Yeah, I remember you telling me about her. I myself would probably of done something similar, very few women would be like you and do what you had planned to do. I would not expect such a thing from you though, that was rather surprising when you first told me.”
The blush that had been fading from Candace’s cheeks returned full force at Sofia’s words.
“Well, I was becoming close friends with the two of them, and did not want to lose either of them. It happened anyways, luckily after a while James and I have become closer, but it still isn’t the same as the time the three of us were together. He grew up with her, practically, they had known each other for years. She has arrived in Cross Timber recently, and I am worried that she could take him from me, regardless of his reaction to what she did.”
Sofia gave a sigh before she patted the worried Candace on the shoulder and responded.
“You must trust James, besides the results might surprise you. We all have reasons for the things we have done. Enough about this though, tell me about your rose.”
Candace had been about to speak when Sofia changed the subject. She sighed and closed her mouth before turning back to the rose and gesturing for Sofia to stand next to her.
“What I am planning on doing with it is make it much more aromatic and able to periodically release bursts of its fragrance, kind of like a natural air freshener. The stem holds thorns that are normally invisible, lying flat against the stem, but when carelessly touched, by most anyways, they will pop out. They act much like stinging nettle barbs and inject some chemical irritants. I thought that would be useful for a defense mechanism if I introduce them to the wild.”
Sofia smiled and nodded repeatedly, before she spoke, awe and admiration lacing her words.
“Very impressive Candace. I especially like the thorns bit, no rose should be without its thorns. I look forward to the final product. I have been here with you long enough, I must check the other less skillful plant enthusiasts.”
Candace nodded and focused on the flower in front of her, she laid a hand on it, stroking it gently as she went to work. Plants were complex and primitive things, at the same time. They were similar to humans in a way, having similar parts, ‘veins’, ‘skin’, ‘organs’, and though plants were not sapient or even sentient by any means, they were interesting objects in many ways.
Soon enough time passed during the day, the sun made its way across the sky before ducking slightly beneath the horizon. Most students transferred between rooms for their classes James and Jess included. Jess only had that first class with James, and she had assorted other classes afterwards. Candace was one of the few who had the same class, technically, throughout the entire day. As long as she occasionally created things of use to Darkholme, they had no qualms with what she did.
Most of the students and less important staff were in the process of leaving by the time Jess and James met. The custodial staff was going about the halls and rooms, cleaning from building to building. During this the Headmaster and the main staff, well the majority of them were there, a few were busy finishing up with other endeavors. The Courtyard was located in front of the main campus building; incidentally, inside the building was also where the staff was holding their meeting.
The campus of Darkholme was intertwined with stone paths leading from building to building. The Courtyard as it was named, had several paths going through it, they circled around and towards a series of benches and a stone amphitheater. The area between the main building and the amphitheater had a massive oak tree located in the middle of it. On either side of the sprawling tree were small fountains, only 8 feet wide, with a stone rim around the edge of each to allow for sitting.
There were rows of much smaller cherry and birch trees along the straight portions of the stone paths. The paths crisscrossed and circled around the Oak tree and each fountain before meeting each other to form one path leading to the main building and the Amphitheater. Jess and James were meeting under the Oak, James was already there. He was sitting with his back against the trunk and one leg flat against the grass while the other was bent at the knee.
He was sitting with his eyes closed, waiting, he opened his eyes as he heard a set of familiar steps approach him. He gazed at Jess for a moment; she always had been beautiful, even before her powers awoke. Even now, her nervousness and anxiety lent a haunting beauty to her features. That was one perk of her abilities; she could practically never not be beautiful. As she got closer to him, James called out to her and stood up. His voice had a caution and weariness to it as he spoke.
“You can stop there Jess, now what did you want to say?”
Jess stopped as he had told her to do, before nodding in affirmation. She shifted around nervously for a few moments before she opened her lips to speak.
“James, that night, I was not exactly in control. What I believe caused my actions began during a meeting with the other Five Sins.-“
Her words were interrupted by massive rumbling and crashing sound as a section of the wall surrounding Darkholme crumbled as a massive earthen form forced its way through. Two other much smaller forms followed Golem through the giant gap created in the wall. Candace had just left the Greenhouse when she saw James speaking to Jess in the distance. She froze, but once the wall exploded, she rushed towards them after being momentarily distracted.
At the noise the remaining dozen or so students, not counting Jess and James, as well as most of the remaining staff rushed out and over to see what the noise was. Most of the staff were cautious, as while capable, they knew that anyone foolish enough to do what the 3 in front of them did, would most likely either have good reasons, legal authority to do so, think they do or be astonishingly powerful.
“Do not be alarmed fair citizens, I am Shaman, a member of the local League branch. We are here to apprehend a suspected Villain as allowed by the Villain Apprehension act of 1982. Do not stand in our way or we have the authority to apprehend you as an accomplice.”