Destiny can be a strange topic to dwell on.
On one hand, the idea that one’s future is predetermined, even if only a little, can be haunting. To feel as though one does not have control over their own future, as though their choices are ultimately meaningless, that they were born with impossible dreams that others are fated to fulfill in their stead. It can be a scary concept, and perhaps to some, an absolutely disgusting concept.
For others, destiny represents hope rather than cruel shackles. The hope that despite one’s current poor station in life, something amazing awaits them on the other side, so long as they keep going just a bit further. Something to make all of the past suffering worth it; something to make a nobody into a somebody.
Many people can give you their stance on the topic straight away. “I don’t believe in that crap; I control my own life” or “Yes I believe I’m destined for greatness”. But others are a bit less certain on where they stand.
Some, like young Zeo, desperately want to believe in a great destiny for themselves, but may not find the idea all that realistic, given their own experiences with life. They learn that many great successes and failures in life can be traced back to some point of origin, and it’s never one quite as fantastical as an ancient prophecy. A traumatic experience in one’s youth shifting their perspective on the world, the presence and absence of wealth and opportunity, being among the right and wrong people, winning and losing a battle etched within history books; those were some of the things that created and destroyed great people, not far-off magical visions.
Zeo awoke that morning from yet another dream of being a great man; this one ripe with images of him battling ancient evils, awakening incredible, dormant, secret powers from within himself, and, of course, gaining the admiration of men and adoration of women….
Unfortunately, that dream world he would have loved to stay in forever did not last, ripped away from him with the cruel chiming of his alarm clock. His hand instinctively shot out and silenced the thing, and his chest heaved out a heavy sigh of disappointment.
Back to living in a stuffy apartment. Back to waking up at 5 in the morning to attend school. Back to not being a legendary hero. Back to reality.
It was almost 5:30 AM when he finished showering, eating breakfast, packing his things, and began heading for the front door. On the way there, he passed by the living room couch, where his older brother Garo was found sprawled about, body halfway to slipping off the thing entirely.
“I’m heading back to the Academy,” Zeo said flatly as he started unlocking the door, not even certain that Garo was even awake.
The elder brother did turn out to be, though, groaning as he shifted around on the couch to an upright sitting position. “Man, drained all that pep already, huh?”
Glancing over his shoulder, Zeo asked, “What do you mean?”
“When you got back from your little vacay, you were all smiles, bouncing around the place like a hyper little rabbit.” He stretched his arms above his head until a pop sound seemed to satisfy him. “Now you’re back to being all doom and gloom.”
Zeo gave a half-hearted chuckle. “That obvious, huh?”
Garo grinned. “C’mon, pep up! You’re eighteen! You aren’t supposed to have given up on life until, like, your mid-twenties.”
“Well, that’s encouraging….in its own way,” the younger brother responded.
“I’m guessing you’re bored as hell now that you’re back to your regular ol’ life, huh? Way less exciting than being out in the world with your friends.”
Zeo nodded. “Pretty much, yeah. Feels like I’m just counting down the days until our next meetup, to be honest.”
Garo kicked his feet up onto the ottoman, leaning his head back onto the cushion. “I get ya, bro. But you gotta keep your head up and your eyes open for opportunities.”
“Hm?”
“Normal life is boring, I get it. But if you just stare at the ground and daydream all the time, you’re never gonna find a chance to break outta that boring shit.” He yawned, and scratched at the scraggly beard forming on his chin. “Don’t give up, alright? ‘Til your mid-twenties, at least.”
He’s right….I can’t just do nothing waiting for the next ultrapulse meetup….I’ve gotta find an opportunity….
That managed to get a genuine laugh and smile from Zeo, who nodded his head once more. “Gotcha. Thanks, bro.”
* * * *
ULTRA DESTINY
* * * *
The Frieden Battle Academy was a world-famous school for combat training; widely regarded as the second-best in the country, second only to the Lionheart Institute in the capital. And unlike the Lionheart Institute, students were not immediately recruited into the Leoteran military after graduation, and could choose to pursue other avenues in life.
That being said, many students did ultimately decide to enter into the military, but the freedom of choice was a plus regardless, and it was the reason Zeo ultimately decided to choose the Academy over the Institute. While he did not know where exactly he wanted to take his life post graduation, he didn’t think the military was a very likely choice.
He did wish to become a proficient fighter, however, which led him to a combat school as his next step after graduating high school. Almost all ultranians had a deep inner desire to be a fighter of some kind, and Zeo was no exception, but he also wanted to be a great hero of legend, and those were almost always skilled warriors, after all.
Despite the prestige of the Academy, on the outside, it was a fairly humble-looking facility, in contrast to the Lionheart Institute, which was essentially a castle town all to itself. It was only comprised of a few buildings, all of which were only two stories tall, and a few stretches of open fields to conduct combat exercises.
The primary reason for that was that the Academy constantly sent its students out on training missions all over the country, keeping the number of bodies within the building at any one time fairly low, which reduced the need for a huge campus.
Even the auditorium, which Zeo found himself sitting within for the return ceremony, was on the smaller side. All of the students in Zeo’s current class were present and seated, totalling maybe fifty-something individuals.
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The instant the clock hit 6 AM, all of the students chattering amongst themselves fell into unified silence as Headmaster Sylvia Orion stepped up to the podium.
She was a legendary general in the Leoteran army for most of her life, and as such commanded much respect; however, even before and after her career in the army, she was an intimidating presence without having to even speak a word. With the permanent scowl on her face, piercing pale blue eyes, blonde hair tied back in a ponytail without a single strand out of place, and, of course, the famed Starcutter katana strapped to her hip, it was impossible to ever really feel at ease around her.
“Welcome back, freshmen class. I hope you all enjoyed your time off, because you won’t be getting another break for quite some time.”
Normally, Zeo would find himself making some joking response to his seat neighbor at a line like that, but he just couldn’t find the nerve to do so. The very idea of whispering something sent images of Headmaster Orion slicing him in half before the words could leave his lips dancing across his mind, and he kept his mouth shut.
“During your break, we finished going over your entrance exams, sparring sessions, and combing your histories and have ranked you all based on your performances. From here on out, you will be grouped into squads of four, with your teammates rounding out the shortcomings in your current abilities.
“For the rest of the year, you will train not only as individuals, but will also be sent out on training missions with your squad members to develop synergy, and to learn the fundamentals of combat amongst a team.”
Orion’s eyes began scanning over each and every individual pair in the audience, and when they crossed Zeo’s, he felt a shudder run up his spine.
“Before we assign you to your squads,” the Headmaster said, clearing her throat. “I believe congratulations are in order for this class, as history has been made.”
Zeo watched as one of the combat instructors he had worked with during his sparring sessions, Instructor Kirk, walked over to the front of the stage before turning to face the students. In his hands were a stack of what appeared to be green-and-black clothing garments of some kind.
“Each year, students are given a rank based on their overall performance and capabilities,” Orion continued. “The majority of the student body score from F to A. However, there is also a rare S-Rank that can be achieved by the most outstanding of students. To put things into perspective, the average class usually produces only one single student of S-Rank caliber, if that, and the most a class has ever had is two.
“This year, an astounding four of you managed to achieve an S-Rank score, bringing the overall average to the highest this school has ever seen.” The students couldn’t even smile at the praise, they were so intimidated by Orion’s cold stare. “As you can imagine, we now have very high expectations for this class as a whole.”
The Headmaster held her hand out in Instructor Kirk’s direction. “When I call out for the four of you who achieved an S-Rank score, you are to come up to the stage and receive a jacket from Instructor Kirk, which signifies your status.”
“Kairos Galleo.”
A tall, tan, and thick-muscled student rose up from his seat and made his way over to Instructor Kirk, and took the jacket. Zeo recognized him from the sparring sessions; while he hadn’t battled him personally, he remembered watching the big guy obliterate his foe with ease, and didn’t find it the least bit surprising to see him as one of these elite “S-Rank” students.
“Aurora and Luna Byrne.”
A pair of twin girls was next, identical at that, although they certainly helped others differentiate between them with Aurora’s dyed-red hair and Luna’s contrasting blue. Zeo hadn’t seen either girl during the entry period, but he did find himself admiring how pretty they both were, and how perfectly in-sync they moved as they both took the next jackets.
“Zeo Ryder.”
Both of his eyebrows perked up at the calling of his name. He’d remembered doing alright during the entrance exams, but he definitely wouldn’t have thought himself to be among the elites in the class.
Almost not believing it, Zeo slowly pushed himself up from his chair, glancing around at the other students. Maybe he’d misheard and it was actually someone else? But no, it was only himself standing.
Headmaster Orion cleared her throat. “Quickly now, Ryder. We don’t have all day.”
“S-sorry!” he mumbled before jogging over to Instructor Kirk, receiving his jacket. While he wasn’t the most fashion-conscious person, he did have to admit they looked really nice, and truth be told, he felt pretty damn cool after putting it on.
Instructor Kirk then began to hand out paper packets to each of the four S-Rank students, and on the front page of his, Zeo saw not only his name and rank, but also the words “CAPTAIN OF BOLT TEAM” underneath.
“The four S-Rank students will be designated captains of their squads, while the remaining squads will determine leadership amongst themselves and with the recommendation of their designated instructors.” Orion waved her hands out to the far sides of the room, where there were tables lined with other packets. “Find the packet with your name on it, determine your assigned squad, and meet up with your teammates.”
All Zeo could seemingly do at that point was stand around at the front of the auditorium waiting for his teammates to come to him. He did take a step forward as if to start searching for them personally, but Luna, who was standing immediately beside him, muttered sharply under her breath, “Let them come to you. Take your position as Captain seriously.”
“Oh, I….guess you’re right?” He wasn’t so sure of his agreement, but didn’t push the issue any further.
Within a few moments, he was approached by a fellow student for the first time, and she was certainly one to remember. Her hair was long and had so many streaks of various colors throughout it that it was difficult to tell what her actual hair color was. Couple that with the various ear piercings and the wide variety of bracelets on her wrists, and she certainly made a strong first impression. “Yo, what’s up, dude?! I’m Roxie!”
He smiled and held his hand out. “Zeo. I’m guessing you’re on my squad?”
“You know it, dude!” She jerked the front of her packet out in front of his face, nearly smashing it into his nose, completely forgetting to meet the handshake. “Bolt Team! That sounds pretty tight, yeah?”
Figuring it was best to make small talk to kill time, he asked, “So, where you from?”
“My mom!”
“….Yeah, I guess I can’t argue with that.”
As Roxie started howling at her own joke, much to the apparent annoyance of Aurora and Luna, two more students approached, and their body languages contrasted greatly with Roxie.
The first was another girl, and a tiny one at that, barely passing five feet. For the most part, there wasn’t much that stood out about her; she had medium-length brown hair and pretty indistinct brown eyes to boot, but upon closer inspection, one would notice that she had two big floppy dog ears that were drooping so low against her head that they blended right into her hair. “H-h-hi….”
He held his hand out, which actually caused her to jump in place, her ears momentarily flick up in surprise before returning to their position. “Oh, sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you!”
“It’s okay! I-I’m not scared!” She threw both of her own hands around Zeo’s and frantically shook it up and down with ferocity, nearly tugging the arm right out of the socket. “I-I’m A-Amber! Nice to meet you, C-Captain Zeo!”
He ended the handshake as gently and quickly as he could in order to not risk startling her or having his arm decapitated, nodding at her in the process. “Great to have you, Amber. Am I right in assuming you’re a Beasterizer?”
“Y-yeah! D-D-Dog symbol, specifically!”
Roxie suddenly intervened, clapping her hands over Amber’s cheeks. “Oh my gosh, you are so cute! Do you have a tail, too?!”
“N-no, just the ears, s-sorry!”
Thank you Roxie, Zeo thought to himself as the two girls continued speaking to one another. That left him with the remaining student, who appeared to be a somewhat slim boy with white hair, yellow eyes, and a bored expression on his face.
He once again held his hand out. “Guess that leaves the best for last, huh? Haha. I’m Ze-”
“I know your name. The Headmaster announced it,” the boy said, cutting him off and ignoring the handshake. “And it’s on our packets.”
“Ah, I gotcha. My bad,” Zeo replied. “So how ‘bout you? What’s your name?”
“Clyff.”
“Nice to meetcha, Clyff! Welcome to Bolt Team!”
“Mhm.”
Recognizing the obvious fact he wasn’t going to get much more out of him, Zeo glanced over at the other S-Rank students. Most of their teams seemed a bit more coordinated and “professional” right away in contrast to his own, which did stir some initial feelings of doubt in his squad, but he did his best to brush those thoughts from his mind.
Instead, his attention lingered on the conversation he’d had with Garo before leaving the apartment that morning. Find an opportunity, he told himself. Maybe this is a chance to be something great….