New Friends and action

Ch 9 (E)

"Hey! Don't mean to interrupt, but ya mind if we take a seat? All the other tables seem to be filled with a buncha posers," A boy's voice broke the two from their conversation.

Lucas felt the table rock as two people sat down opposite Allison and Lucas.

The sudden interruption caused Allison's grim complexion to change to a forced smile. Pulling her face and body slightly away from a squished Lucas.

The boy that asked the question was pushing 6'4 towering above a smaller girl. His short dark-purple hair rested just above his eyebrows, large muscles threatened to break through his uniform.

The girl beside him was a sharp contrast to his appearance, white hair flowed down her back. Large circular glasses adored her small face, covering her warm black eyes.

"Ah- where are my manners? My name is Peter," The boy said reaching his jam-covered fingers toward Lucas.

Not wanting to cause a scene Lucas grabbed his hand and shook it, feeling slightly nauseated by the display of self-respect- or lack thereof.

"Oops, sorry about that," he said dragging his fingers across his white shirt that peeked through his uniform.

'This guy is a whack job…' Lucas thought.

Noticing that he didn't get any jam with his meal, getting butter instead 'Today's just full of disappointment isn't it.'

"Umm, My name is Allison- I'd shake your hand but…" Allison said stumbling over her words, her face still in a state of confusion.

"Nah it's all good, ooh- this is Aliyah by the way. She is my partner in crime, aren't cha" Peter said nudging her arm and causing her to look up from her food.

"She's… not much of a talker, and is pretty shy to new people but- she'll warm up to you, and I tell ya once she starts talking it's-," Peter said still trying to get her attention.

The kids exchanged awkward glances as they became quiet.

Peter, not caring about the situation, scarfed down each bite. His demeanor resembled a starving pack dog, the way he stuffed his face was so barbaric that it left Lucas and Allison gawking.

As if sensing the stares from his newfound 'friends',

"My powers use up a lot of my energy, also they are half passive So I can't turn them off even if I wanted to," Peter said, furrowing his eyebrows in over-the-top sadness.

dribbles of sauce rolled down his chin, stealing any sympathetic factor the group could give him.

Aliyah grabbed a napkin, wiping Peter's face with it. To Lucas, it looked like they were dating.

"Are you guys dating?" Lucas asked straight to the point.

"W-w-why would you think that?!?" Aliyah finally spoke as her face flushed red.

"We get that a lot, why the hell does everyone think that?" A dejected face showed on Peter.

"Don't say it like that or they'll get the wrong idea" she whispered audibly.

"Okay, I didn't quite mean it that way" he retorted.

Lucas and Allison giggled at their interaction. Their moods soured as they realized they could be seen in a similar light.

This didn't go unnoticed by Aliyah as she opened up with a similar question,

"What about you guys, you seem pretty friendly"

"No" before Allison could even respond Lucas had already answered for her, effectively Killing the playful mood.

The rest of their lunch was uneventful as they exchanged contact info using their id cards and discussed some of the class topics.

Soon after Lucas and Allison quickly left the canteen and headed to their next class, Combat 1-2.

--

At the table still sat Peter and Aliyah.

"What is up with them, they're kind of weird but they seemed nice and fun at least," Peter said as he sipped his drink.

"Why you are so dead set on being their friends, but I can tell it will be a lot of work" He added.

Aliyah paused for a second before responding,

"I felt something with that Lucas boy. My powers always depend on you… but for a second. It felt like I could almost make a connection with him too," she said.

Peter's face froze, if she stopped depending on him, he wouldn't need to be such a glutton and she could stop siphoning off his energy.

"Sounds like a win-win to me," he said flatly.

--

Lucas and Allison walked down a long hallway, passing double doors every couple hundred yards. The size of this facility still baffles the two.

A door soon approached with the number 4 – 1-2.

They had tried to arrive a couple of minutes early so as to not cause an incident like earlier. The door opened as the two made their way into a room the size of a football field.

Professor brill stood in a corner as a couple of students sat on the soft turf around him.

"I see that you two took my advice," Brill remarked as Allison and Lucas sat down behind the students. It was a rhetorical remark so neither of them responded.

As time passed more teams walked in and sat down. Observing the students that walked in Lucas realize just how muscular they all were in comparison to him.

The familiar faces of Peter and Aliyah also made their way through the door,

'I didn't even notice them in our homeroom' Thinking about it, the class they were currently in was twice the size of the one in their homeroom.

"Okey dokei, I can see that you all are confused about why there are so many unfamiliar students," Brill said as everyone snapped to attention.

"Instructor Katwa, as half of you know is- relatively old. And had to attend to an important matter concerning Academy 0" Brill seemed to be watching his words, clearly fearful of the old man.

"So, I offered to merge the classes while he is away, this will ultimately help both parties as you will have more people to pair up with to test your abilities against"

"Now that that's explained let's get started. As you can see, we are in one of the twelve combat fields used for both testing and drills. Today we will be assessing everyone's composition as well as establishing an understanding of how effective each of your powers is against a live target" Professor Brill gestured for the students to follow him as he walked away from the corner and into the middle of the field.

"We will start with something simple, every one of you either arrived with a buddy or received one upon arrival. The importance of cooperation between teammates is crucial and I cannot stress this enough" Brill looked at each group of students to emphasize the point.

"Now as I know, many of you have never fought another person with abilities because it is explicitly banned state-side. No matter the reason. This won't come as a shock to you but here we run a little differently, Ha-ha" chuckling to himself.

"Okay, let's get you guys into groups of four." He stated.

Brill was already an expert when it came to everyone's powers so he tried to make the matchups as even as possible to avoid a group that could instantly win.

"Let's pair Allison and Lucas up with…" Brill placed his hand on his chin, concentration befell his face.

"hmm, Peter and Aliyah." He walked over to Aliyah and said in a low voice "Take it slow in the beginning and I'll let you be the judge if Lucas can handle more,"

She didn't fully understand what the teacher meant but still took heed of his words. Brill then handed out two sets of red and blue armbands for team recognition.

As the familiar group of teens met up again, they had very little time to reacquaint themselves as brill began to speak.

"Now that all of you are paired up, we will have one team fight in the middle of the field while the rest of us observe, I can't watch each and every one of you at the same time, so this is for your safety as much as it is for my technical observation" Brill pulled out a large version of the id as he began to type.

The first recruits to take the stage were a group of girls, the two took opposite sides of the field as everyone watched in anticipation.

The blue team consisted of a tall and Muscular blonde girl and a shorter girl Japanese girl who had long deep purple hair reaching all the way down to her waist, a long-sheathed katana hung from her belt.

Taught earlier today, Lucas learned that a lot of Japanese students attended this academy because of the war in Japan paired with the base's close proximity. Over 50% of students were from Asian countries because of this.

On another side of the area, two more girls were preparing for the fight.

A recruit with a large amount of curly green hair stood firm, her partner crouched behind her as if she were a shield. A long black dagger hung from one of her many belt loops.

'The hair colors of the people of this academy are wild, even compared to back home' Lucas observed. Strange and unrealistic hair colors usually signified signs of powerful ability.

This was also learned in history class; it was a surprise to Lucas that there were only four or five natural colors before the war.

The information taught wasn't so much as secretive as it was informative at this stage, he couldn't wait for the juicy stuff, just imagining it was exciting.

"The goal of each team will be to remove the opponent's Armband. Now- I Don't care how you do it as long as abilities make an appearance. Weapons are allowed, but again… you need to use your abilities in tandem" he said as he shielded the crowd behind him from any potential stray attacks.

"Reece, Yuta, are you ready?" The blue team nodded in determination while they took fighting stances.

"Nicole, Hail, what about you?" The small girl with the dagger looked fearful but still nodded in response.

"Alright, Ready… and… GO!" Brill yelled as he threw his arm down.

The teams wasted no time as they both dashed toward each other, splitting up so as to create one on one fights.

Nicole's legs bulged against her pants as her ability activated. Her strides became longer as her speed increased drastically.

The rest of the class looked on in astonishment as strength-related abilities of this caliber were highly sought after in the early stages of the war and still remained so to this day.

With the increased speed, Nicole quickly reached her opponent as the blond girl- Reece Braced her arms for the impact. Although Nicole seemed to have the characteristics of a runaway train her footwork and flexibility quickly disproved that.

Reece's arms seemed to glow silver as Nicole arrived within attacking distance.

Nicole kicked off the ground as she rotated her leg, Still managing to speed up in the process.

BANG

A Loud clap resounded in the room as Nicole's Kick contacted Reece's arms. Their powers perfectly countered each other.

'Even in this short amount of time professor Brill was able to fully understand our capabilities and pit us against natural opponents' Lucas, to be honest, was enamored by the fight. It wasn't every day he could watch two high-grade supers fight outside of a school disagreement.

As the two tall girls traded blows, each one more precarious than the last. Yuta and Hail just managed to reach each other.

Yuta had a long katana on her side while hail held her dagger behind her. Yuta quickly drew her sword while a red right left her hand and flowed into the katana.

The first swing was heavy as Hails dagger skidded across the sword, redirecting it towards the ground. Hail's fighting style benefited the most the closer she was to her opponent.

Yuta knew this however and was constantly being pressured by the small girl.

"Stop trying to get all up in my face- damnit!" Yuta Changed her fighting style as she made a larger leap backward, easily clearing ten feet.

Hail jumped into the air to follow.

Finally making her move Yuta's Katana cleanly sliced the air as it struck downward, a long fiery scythe erupted from the blade of the sword headed at Hail's face.

"Unfortunate," Hail's voice was quiet, barely heard as she dropped her dagger in the air.

As it floated, unmoving Hail used it as a bar to correct her trajectory, narrowly missing the blade of fire.

"Wow, a telekinetic!"

"I haven't seen one in years"

Of the other students, few had seen the powers of a complete telekinetic, most of their users branching off into one of the subsets instead.

Brill was frivolously typing every movement each student made. The fight raged on as both groups wore each other down.

In the end, the bout concluded with the red team's victory although the match was close.

"Way to go, we can discuss some of your combat strategies along with more effective ways to implement your powers into your fighting styles later today," Brill said, finally letting up on his typing,

", Group two?" Brill asked, another group walked into the middle of the field this time consisting of only boys.

Lucas watched as the competition started and ended just as fast, one of the boys could fly while exhibiting a small amount of super strength. Having two abilities wasn't uncommon per se but the total power they produced would equal just one ability from a peer at the same level.

Another of the kids was able to will the turf around them to move around easily incapacitating the flying boy. Out of the other two one was able to get the upper hand using a ball of water they summoned out of thin air to slow down the attacks coming at him.

"Very good, next" Brill was still focused on his tablet.

The next couple of fights came and went, and each time Lucas paid careful attention to how everyone moved in combat. Because he was in a wheelchair, he was never able to properly attend combat classes at his last school.

All these fights lasted a few minutes since deadly force wasn't permitted and the teams quickly realized how tiring it was to fight with abilities.

"Group 6," Brill announced looking at Lucas and his group.

The recruits tensed up, scared of the spotlight being on them all. Peter leaned over to Allison and Lucas as he whispered

"I'd wish you guys luck but, we're gonna mop the floor with you, hahaha" Peter's words lightened the mood as they got into position.

"Yea right muscle man" Allison quickly rebutted his statement.

It was finally time, Lucas and Allison stood side by side facing the 'enemy'. Lucas was still very nervous and all he knew was that he needed to find that feeling- the one that made him all tingly and light.

"You all ready?" Brill asked causing both teams to nod in response.

Lucas looked at Allison, her posture poised, and eyes set.

Lucas knew that if they lost Allison would have a metaphorical brain aneurysm. Lucas closed his eyes, concentrating on his powers. His mind wandered to an unused part of his brain.

On the other side of things, Aliyah was also planning to try something new.

"Ready-and-GO!"