Another Day come to an end...
The majority of the students eventually retire to their rooms, some with heavy hearts, and others with their hearts floating on air. Emotions are charged, perhaps out of the close quarters, but at least things feel, and seem calm.
Kiyana is nowhere near as nervous as James, and seem to enjoy the shopping escapade throiughout the virtua web, matching a variety outfits together for the hapless James. Kiyana also shops through a variety of dresses, and outfits, and find s afew she likes, but decides to wait to see if she can find a better deal later on.
For others, questions are raised, with no answers in sight, and the answers percieved may not be the ones they would want to see. Th truth was sometimes harder to bear then fantasy...
The Intervening Three Days…
The students are divided into teams; Billy, John, Mark, Ryan, Cassandra, and Anika have been assigned to Team Alpha. These teams are similar to the classes, but the training is much more intense then what the normal students have been receiving, with a heavy dose of ethics, tactics, and public relations instruction. Mr. McCallister is a different teacher then Jun Min, where she is encouraging and somewhat forgiving, Mr. McCallister is a harsh taskmaster, full of criticism, constructive but still biting. The days are long, twelve to sixteen hour days, with early starts, and intense power training.
The students are pushed to succeed, but also to respect the fact that they are not immortal, that despite their powers they are putting their lives on the line, and if this is the path they wish to take, then they must take it seriously. It is obvious that Mr. McCallister and Jun Min share a reservation that putting young adults in the line of danger may be a mistake but it seems that the powers that be, are pushing for the team to go active in the next few months. It seems that the negative press about baseline violence by elites is affecting the image of elites everywhere negatively, and the United Nations feels that a new team of young elites may be the shot in the arm that can turn things around.
But that brings little solace, when the students suffer a stern berating by Mr. McCallister, for lack of restraint, or foresight, or any number of faults. Jun Min is reassuring, of course, and seems suitably impressed with the progress, but Mr. McCallister has no illusions, he knows the team has a long way to go, before they are ready to take on the world stage.
The Black Room
Mr. McCallister paced back and forth, the tapping of his cane ominous in the long hallway as Team Alpha stood, in their shiny new Synthetic Polymorphic Uniforms, Ivana Renoir originals. The material is highly durable and capable of shifting shape by matching the resonant energies in the elites body, allowing it to survive transformations, and even altered through concentrated effort into actually clothing, or uniforms. Jun Min, Tommy, and a portly man with balding blonde hair, and dubious blue eyes are in attendance.
The portly fellow is dressed in a business suit, and seems to be observing the team, he watches idly as Mr. McCallister paces for long moments before speaking, “Alright, this morning, we are going to introduce the lot of you to the next logical step in your training, a full out combat training exercise. But don’t think of this as a brawl, that would be entirely too simple, life is rarely a brawl, there will be objectives, and these objectives often take precedence over just beating your opponent into submission.”
He pauses to let the words sink in, “This is a test, your first test, it will be graded, and I will be observing your ability to adapt, to stay calm, and to follow the objectives. It sounds simple but it won’t be, trust me on that, nothing in life is simple. I call this test Evolution, the terrain will be an urban sprawl, a city, though the city will be non-specific. You will be brought in by Aerodyne, and dropped off approximately 3.8 miles from the target. What is the target? It is a military facility, currently housing black technology, technology that goes against the strictures of UNSAC*, and therefore must be shut down. The actual facility is a tower, a twelve-story office building, within a controlled area. Most of the opposition will be baselines, but we have inserted four elites for intense combat assessment purposes.”
Mr. McCallister paused to let all that sink in, then continued, “The Rules of Engagement will be standard Justice Elite protocol, Lethal force is not authorized for any reason short of averting massive loss of life. You are not judge, jury, and executioner, you will engage only to remove the enemies capability of attack. If there is a fatality, the exercise will be terminated, there will be no exception. At this time it is unknown what the capabilities of the four elites may be, but we suspect that they may be Charlie** class. You will have to bypass the personnel, the elites, and any internal defenses, retrieve the Black technology and then return to the drop point for pickup. You will have 120 minutes to complete this test.”
Mr. McCallister turned to the team, “If you have any questions now is the time…”
Editor’s Notes
*UNSAC stands for United Nations Scientific Advancement Council
* Elites are often measured by class, in power; Alpha is typical a novice or very weak elite (PL 7 or lower), Bravo is often a raw talent and fairly powerful elite (PL 8-9), Charlie is a powerful elite, many o the more popular elites are in this class (PL 10-12), Delta are very powerful, and often dangerous (PL 13-15), and for all other Omega is simply used, there is no elite on file, or on record that has abilities that constitute an Omega rank, it is suspected Cardinal the leader of Pantheon may be this powerful…
