NEW YORK CITY
Three weeks ago
“Is this new class ready, so soon after the Disaster of Sixteen? Are they going to turn out like the last one? We’ve found in a whole new group of names but we haven’t changed out methods. We haven’t changed anything to make sure that these kids are ready, because that’s what they are. Kids. We threw them out of the frying pan and into the fire before they were ready, sure, but maybe we should be looking at ourselves for failing to get them ready. We haven’t made any changes, so what will stop the second class from becoming like the first?” asked the man who was standing in front of the window and looking over the New York City skyline. He was, of course, the one that they called Brooks. It wasn’t a first name, and it wasn’t a last name. Just Brooks. “We’re asking for another incident.”
“The Disaster of Sixteen was an out of the ordinary event,” said the tall Asian woman standing besides him. The one that went by Eris. “We didn’t have any choice but to send those students in there, and we might not be here right now if it wasn’t for hitting the Vigilante League with everything that we had. The kids weren’t the only ones that took losses. We all did. I lost people that I knew, and you did, and everyone else in the Society did. But we did what we needed to do for our survival, and it won’t happen again.”
“Says who? The kids took more losses than anyone else, because their training wasn’t up to par. What says that won’t happen again with something else? The Vigilantes are always working on something new, that we need to deal with.”
“The kids took losses because of the situation. Their training was fine. The numbers look deceiving, but the numbers always look bad after taking a strategic defeat to reach our goals. As for the training… I wouldn’t have sent them out there if I thought they weren’t capable. We can’t help it that certain things fell in a certain way.”
“We could have done more-”
Eris put a hand on Brooks’ shoulder, stopping him. “You’re getting too close to the school. You’ve put too much time into this project and now you’re starting to think of these kids as if they were your own. Cut it out. You know what? You should go back to the main wing of the Society and make me the Director at the school. I won’t let my feelings get in the way of doing what needs to be done, but you know I won’t be unfair to the students either. If you let me run the school, I won’t be soft, and you won’t have to worry about them not being ready when situations like the last one come up.”
Brooks shook his head. “I don’t think it’s time for my self imposed exile to end just yet, while you could make an argument that I have allies in Britain who would like to have me back. At least with this project, I can do something I enjoy-”
“If you enjoy being around the kids, that’s a problem. They’re your students, not your friends. We’re not an ordinary school, we’re trying to create hardened criminals. And you’re not helping with this attitude about how we don’t value them enough and how we shouldn’t have sent them to battle. Why did we recruit them if not to have them fight for us eventually? You’re slipping, Brooks. You’re not the analytical decision maker that you once were. That got you into this leadership role in the first place.”
“Thank you for your advice, Eris.”
The woman sighed and stepped away, in defeat. “Run the place however you want. You’re the boss, I’m just the Head of Enforcement, so what would I know? But we don’t have any choice but to bring in a new group of students. Our numbers are so depleted that if the new class doesn’t come in early, the classrooms are going to be half empty every day. Making matchups for team based training will become a nightmare-”
“No, I understand. And it’s not that I want to seem overly concerned or too sympathetic, it’s just that we lost a large chunk of our future. And that’s what concerns me, really.”
There’s a long pause, before Eris nods and starts walking towards the door. “We’ll bounce back. We always do.”
***
WESLEY ROBSON
Germany, 2016
“Get out of here!” shouted the girl, Cassandra, as the battle continued to rage around them and it became more and more clear that the only victory in this situation would require someone to sacrifice themselves. “Go! You’re only going to die, just go with the others and let me make a run at the core room. I take that out, and we win even though we couldn’t capture the place-”
“We’re not leaving,” her sister, Candace, said. “And you’re not going to die. I can heal you. I can fix this-”
“With this much blood loss? I’m only still walking from adrenaline right now. I’m dead once that runs out,” Cassandra replied, before looking to the boy in the suit of powered armor. Wesley. “Get her out of here. And as many others as you can. Get across the bridges before they destroy them. And Wes, you should be able to call for evac before you cross over to the mainland.”
That was the thing about attacking an island base. There were only three ways in, and now that the Vigilante League was winning this battle by a lopsided margin, after the students had been deployed to take the flanks while the Society’s main force took the middle, they could simply destroy the bridges and trap them there. Where they could deal a death blow to their greatest enemy, weakening them enough for an attack of their own in a few days time. “We can’t leave you, Cass-”
“I’m not giving you the option. I’m one of the few who can get to the core and destroy it completely-”
“Yeah, and you’re going to die in the process.”
“It will be quick. I’ll just… I’ll just breathe in some of the smoke, once the place is burning. It’s better than bleeding out. Now go. There’s a battle going on, there’s not a ton of time to talk-”
The wall behind Cassandra exploded, as if to prove her point. In a battle between superhumans, standing around was the quickest way to get killed. “I…” Wesley started, before realizing that there was truly no changing her mind, and that there was truly no other way out. If they all fled, it would be a total defeat. If some stayed behind and Cassandra sacrificed herself, they might gain a slight victory. If they all left but they were defeated, however, the latest project from the Vigilante League would likely wipe them out later. The students didn’t know the details, other than the fact that Project Purificent would supposedly change the game completely for the war between superhumans.
“I won’t forget you, Cass. I’m sorry it had to end this way,” Wesley said, before using his armored strength to pick up Candace. He knew she wasn’t going to leave any other way, and even though she was kicking and screaming, she knew the same thing that he did. She’d saved so many others that day with her abilities, but it was somewhat ironic that she couldn’t help the one person that was the closest to her.
***
While the island base was still a battleground, the students had received the order to back off and return to the mainland the way that they had came. Especially because they now had to worry about the German authorities, whose presence across the way was only getting stronger with every minute that they waited. The entire mission was botched, and Wesley found himself forced into a role that he hated. Leader. “Keep moving, everyone, don’t worry about the explosions that you hear. It’s too far away to affect us,” he was saying, waving others forward down the bridge and taking up the rear. And he was still keeping a close eye on Candace, making sure that she didn’t dart off.
“Apollo, call for evac,” he said to the AI inside of his helmet, though with the German forces gathering around the mainland road, he wasn’t sure that there could be any evacuation. Boats were the backup plan if air travel was imposible, and it looked like it was. This wasn’t supposed to happen. They were supposed to take the island, copy and then destroy the enemy’s data, and then get evacuated before the authorities showed up. Now that the plan was botched, Mission Control would likely be scrambling for another solution. “Make sure to say that we have about… I think there’s sixteen, including me and Candace.”
“I will inform them,” said Apollo, and the group continued down the bridge. Or they did, until the bridge itself was rocked by an explosion this time, that knocked Wesley off of his feet. Suddenly, it looked like a long way down. Wesley’s first instinct was to grab Candace to keep her from falling over the edge, but as he went to do that, another explosion rocked the bridge. They were on their way down, and the only thing that Wesley could do was hope that his armor would protect him from the fall. It wasn’t a lethal height, but there was always the chance of hitting the water and then getting crushed by debris, or pinned under the sea by them…
“Making impact with the water in three… Two… One…” Apollo warned, and the boy and his armor crashed through the sea, their descent slowing as they cut through the water like a stone. It was oddly peaceful. Under the water, the sounds of conflict and death were just a little bit further away, and under the water, it seemed like life was moving slower. “Return to the surface for oxygen soon.”
Wesley took the warning and kicked his way to the surface, knowing that the suit wasn’t designed for diving and breathing underwater. Not yet, anyway. Candace was still alive, next to him, and he saw that some of the others had made it to the surface. There were also others who were still underwater, but Wesley didn’t think he could do anything to help them. That was when he heard the approaching sound of helicopters, and realized that their evac was here after all. A bit late, but better late than never. And if evac was here, that meant he’d survived.
But when he looked off into the distance, he also saw something that everyone else saw. A large explosion, that shot debris into the sky, outwards from the center of the island. There was only a single person who could create something like that, and Wesley knew who it was immediately. Cassandra. She’d made her sacrifice, and done what she had promised, destroying the spot at the center of the island where the terabytes of data and research were stored. The research that could have eliminated the Society for good. But Wesley still felt bad, because of one thing. He’d survived, while one of the few people that he was close to didn’t.
He’d survived the bloodiest day in Society history, even if he sometimes wished that he hadn’t.
***
Wesley awoke in his dorm/workshop, which he didn’t share with anyone else, and realized that he’d fallen asleep the night before while working on improvements for his armor. Specifically, a way to mount some kind of ranged weapon to the gauntlet. He’d fallen asleep with a tiny screwdriver in hand, and he set that and the gauntlet down and went through a quick morning routine. Shower. Quick breakfast of junk food. Change into something that didn’t have oil stains on it. And then he realized the day.
This was the day when the new class was showing up. They’d been locked in the auditorium until today, with some of them staying for a full day as the rest of the class was brought in. Now, however, the second class was finally going to see the campus for the first time. Shit. Wesley didn’t know if he was ready to see new faces on the campus, after how long it had taken to get used to being around the first class. And now, so many of them were dead. Would he even bother befriending any of the new people?
He tossed his armor, which was in its smaller storable mode, into his backpack and threw it over her shoulder, and stepped out into the hallway. That was when he bumped into someone familiar. Candace. He hadn’t really talked to her much since the thing that they referred to now as the Disaster of Sixteen. And he felt bad for that, because he knew that she looked at him as if he was the one who had killed her sister, because he’d let her go off without stopping her. “Candace.”
“Wesley,” she said coldly, before walking off in the opposite direction.
“You don’t want to see what’s happening with the new students?”
“No. Not at all.”
She stormed off, and Wesley sighed and continued towards the outdoors, exiting the dorms and moving towards the part of campus where the auditorium was. That was where the new students were going to be coming from, and he figured he might as well check them out at least and make sure that none of them tried to claim the other half of his room as their own. After all, he needed the extra space for his projects, since he didn’t like the shared labs where other students constructed certain creations like his. He liked his isolation, and if he needed someone to talk to, he had Apollo.
Besides, he’d definitely need more space for the project he was working on in the coming weeks… The one that everyone claimed was impossible.
