Introductions

A man walked along a hallway.

Each stride had a purpose and with each step he took, people turned to face him. He had tied-up blond hair and blue eyes, though his facial hair was not kept well. He wore a white suit that had three gold stars on them, a sign of authority.

His eyes were narrowed and his vision locked in front of him. That was the face of a man on a mission, a man ready for whatever war was he was to be faced with. That man was Viktor Lostania, an officer from the army.

Viktor marched into the office of the Principal. He saluted, greeting, "Good day."

The Principal looked up from his desk to smile at Viktor, who was being stoic. The Principal greeted him, "Ah, Viktor, it's great to see you again!"

"I was told that I have been assigned here," Viktor explained. "Is there a need to defend the school? I can bring my boys over if there's a need."

"No, no," The Principal shook his head. "This is a much different matter."

"Anything you need."

The Principal chuckled lightly before raising a piece of document toward Viktor. Viktor rigidly took the document to read.

"You've been assigned here to be an instructor," The Principal finalised.

"Pardon?" Viktor squeaked.

~Three years later~

It was a special day for many around the world. The world-renowned academy had just gone through a selection process and accepted over a hundred students ranging from the ages of 18-25. It was the day when these cadets shall be reporting to the Academy to begin their training on the first day of school.

The cadets were split up into Squads of ten, with specialised instructors bringing them through the theory and practical segments of the Academy.

Of those Squads, one was seen to be much worse than the others. Rock bottom, Squad 13. Eight students consisted of four males and four females. All of them had caused trouble in the past, and they were put in the same Squad to ensure the safety of other cadets.

Understandably, none of the instructors wanted to take this class.

"Okay, okay," Hajin, the Skills Instructor calmed everyone in the office down.

All the gathered instructors quietened down to listen to what Hajin had to say. Hajin breathed a sigh of relief before continuing, "We are all adults here, so let's think this through sensibly. Some of us can choose whether or not to take that Squad, but there are some of us that don't have a choice."

He gestured to the only hand-to-hand combat instructor, "Ms Jira doesn't have a choice."

Ms Jira audibly groaned as she suck into her seat.

"So let us start from the beginning," Hajin said calmly. "First, we need a Skills Instructor for the class."

"Why don't you volunteer?" One of the other instructors questioned.

"Got my hands full," Hajin stuck his tongue out, putting his hands up. "I'm already taking two classes."

There was some chattering amongst the instructors.

"Wait, do we even have enough Skills Instructors?" Someone brought up.

"We got six, no?"

"But this is Squad 13, someone needs to take a third class."

Hajin put his hands up, an idea suddenly popping into his head. "Wait, I got just the idea!"

Hajin vanished from where he was standing and reappeared right outside the office. Sitting on the ground with his back against the door of the office was a blond man with blue eyes. His clothes were sloppy, a shirt that was left untucked, loose trackpants and a pink hairband that loosely tied his hair up. He was clean-shaven, which was probably the only neat thing about him.

"Oh great, the teleporting man," The man sighed, looking away.

"C'mon, don't be so cold to us, we're one big family, aren't we?" Hajin joked.

"Go sneak up on some other person, I'm not interested in anything you have to say to me," He said lazily while half-yawning.

"I'm gonna recommend that you take Squad 13 as their Skills instructor," Hajin explained.

Several other Instructors had started to gather at the other side of the door to see what was going on. The blond man got onto his feet with much difficulty, shrugging Hajin off. "I'm not a Skills Instructor, I'm just a Janitor here."

"I'm going to suggest it to the Principal," Hajin teased.

The man froze for a second after hearing the Principal be brought up. He rubbed the back of his head slowly. He then kicked the wall to the side. He whispered a couple of things to himself before exclaiming, "Fine, fine! I'll take a Squad, I'll teach them the shit, whatever."

He walked off.

"Are you sure?" Jira, the hand-to-hand combat instructor stepped out of the office. "I mean, Viktor has taken classes before, but you know how they ended."

Hajin shrugged before guiding Jira back into the office.

"Okay, now we got to work on who the Arts Instructor is going to be!" Hajin announced.

What followed was a collective groan.

Meanwhile, Viktor had been walking away from the office, hands shoved into the pockets of his trackpants. He was muttering to himself, "Why do I of all people have to be stuck in this Academy? It doesn't make sense!"

"Yeah!" Came a voice.

His shadow was moving on its own, shifting to the wall so that it could basically stand up. His shadow told him with its arms crossed, "We could be out there saving lives!"

"Saving lives and doing what we have always wanted to do!" Viktor added on. "What? Teach? They'll figure it out eventually. I mean, I'm a three star officer, and they want me here?"

"Look pal, all we gotta do is show how incapable we are," His shadow suggested.

Viktor shrugged. "We've already tried that several times over the past three years. Hasn't worked at all. That Principal is such a pain in the ass."

"So why don't we flip the switch then?"

Viktor stopped in place, his shadow stopping as well. Viktor rubbed his chin, raising an eyebrow. "You're telling me I should be an actual teacher? Seems kind of counterproductive."

"Sure, but after that accident..."

Viktor pointed at his shadow angrily. "We don't talk about that!"

He sighed, giving up. His shadow returned to its normal position. His hand drifted to his left shoulder where he once wore the three golden stars, the sign of authority and power. Instead, he was reduced to an Instructor in some dumb Academy.

"God help me," He muttered as he walked.

The cadets were gathered and split into their Squads.

After a short wait, a couple of the Instructors went on stage to greet the students. Hajin tapped the Microphone before speaking.

"Good day to all the new cadets we will be having at Vition Academy," Hajin began the opening speech. "I am sure many of you are acquainted with your abilities, but here, we aim to hone and sharpen those abilities! We must always remember who our enemies are!"

While the speech went on, there was a small commotion.

All the cadets were grouped into their Squads. There should have been ten cadets in each Squad, and 8 cadets in Squad 13, making it a total of 128 cadets.

There were four women and three men. One of them was missing.

The commotion began when a cadet spotted a figure standing atop the roof of the school building. He was slim and rather short as well. He wore the uniform of Vition Academy, and wore shoes that had a painting of wings on them. He had curly black hair and black eyes that glistened with playfulness.

Soon, more cadets noticed him until the Instructors had to take note.

Hajin looked up at the cadet on the roof. He said in a monotonous voice, "Could the cadet on the roof please return to the ground?"

"Nope!" The cadet laughed.

Obviously, no one could hear him from the ground. Hajin rubbed the back of his head. He could easily do something about it, but it was the first day at the Academy, and he didn't want to make too big of a scene.

"Um... anyone willing?" Hajin asked the other instructors, pulling the microphone away from him.

After a few seconds, Ms Jira sighed. "Fine, I'll go."

Jira shaded her eyes from the sun with her hand, making sure to get a good view of the cadet. In an instant, the cadet was on the ground, staring up at the roof where a female Instructor sat. He blinked a couple of times. "Eh?"

Hajin placed a hand on his shoulders, telling him, "I would really appreciate it if you went back to your Squad. Let's follow procedures, okay?"

The cadet put his hands up in surrender before jumping, levitating off the ground for a moment before flying over to Squad 13. The other members of the Squad just gave him looks.

Hajin then found himself sitting on the roof. He sighed, appearing on the stage instantly. He grabbed the microphone once again, Ms Jira already blending in with the other Instructors.

"Y'all will be meeting with your Instructors today, so be nice," He annouced.

They all moved to a building. It was the dorm room.

Fifteen floors in total. Each floor had ten rooms and a commonspace where Squad members could hang out with each other. The ground floor was a cafeteria. Next to the dormitory, was a larger complex where training would be held. Fully equipped with gyms, swimming pools, Lecture Halls, Racing tracks and even a flying range.

Whatever they needed, they had.

Each squad split up and headed toward the commonspace of each floor, one Squad occupying one floor. Starting right above the cafeteria, on the first floor, was Squad 1. Following that sequence, on Floor 13, was Squad 13.

At the commonspace, the members were just hanging around.

The cadet that had sat on the roof levitated slightly off the couch.

"What's your name?" The person next to him asked just to break the silence.

"Hermes," He replied.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, my Mom and Dad saw the cards I was bestowed and went 'oh you know what we should name him? Hermes!" Hermes joked.

"Saw that you can fly."

"Kind of, yeah."

An Instructor entered the room. Hermes instantly recognised her as the teacher that got him down from the roof.

Ms Jira stood there, looking at all 8 members of the Squad in turn. Hermes cross-legged was on the couch. To Hermes' left was the person who had just spoken with Hermes. He had long straight black hair and green eyes. The cadet sat slouched down, his arms folded and his legs spread.

Also on the couch to Hermes' right was a female cadet. She had choppy brown hair tied into a ponytail. She had an obvious scar along the bridge of her nose. When Ms Jira looked at her, she looked away in response.

The biggest couch was L-shaped, and only three people were sitting on it. To the side, sitting on a couch designed for one person, another female cadet was seated. She sat with poise, a sort of refined posture not often seen. She had straight black hair and black eyes.

Seated on the carpet was a male cadet. He was hunched over, his arms laid across the coffee table. He had shockingly red hair and brown eyes. He wore necklaces and had several piercings as well.

There was a female cadet also seated on the carpet. She sat near the female cadet with choppy brown hair. The one on the carpet had black hair that faded to pink. She had an inkling of tattoos at the exposed part of her wrist which her uniform sleeve failed to hide. She wore glasses, her eyes blue in colour.

Seated on a chair clearly taken from the dining table, was a female cadet. She sat with the backrest of the chair in front of her. She rested her arms and head on top of the backrest. She had blond hair and brown eyes. Along her wrist were several bracelets, and she had a ring on each index finger.

The last cadet of the group was seated on the other couch fit for one person. He had one leg slung over the other, and his elbow rested on the armrest. He was bald and his eyes were dark brown in colour.

"Good day to all of you cadets," Ms Jira greeted. "I will be your hand-to-hand combat instructor for your entire time at Vition Academy. If you are wondering why me, it's because Vition Academy couldn't afford to hire another hand-to-hand combat Instructor."

She got a few snickers.

"Could you do that trick again?" Hermes asked excitedly. "The one where you make me teleport!"

"No," She said firmly.

"Are you teaching the other classes as well?" The girl on the carpet asked.

"Yes."

Ms Jira checked her watch. She started moving out, telling them on the way out, "Be informed that training will start tomorrow. All cadets to report to the Training Grounds at six in the morning."

There was a collective grumble.

On the way out, Ms Jira passed by the Arts Teacher.

"Mrs Eboti," Ms Jira greeted.

Mrs Eboti smiled, giving Ms Jira a wave.

Upon her entrance, she said kindly to the students, "Hello! I'm Mrs Eboti, I'll be your Arts Instructor."

"Arts?" The male cadet sitting on the single couch asked. "What do we even need that for?"

"Don't worry about it," She waved his question aside.

She chatted a bit more before leaving.

The next Instructor was supposed to walk in, but no one showed up. The cadets just hung around, all of them awkward around each other. Eventually, the Instructor they would be spending the most amount of time with walked in.

"Good day," He greeted with a yawn.

Viktor walked in and faced the 8 cadets. He made a face, then tried to find a seat. he pulled one over from the dining table and placed it in a way which he could see all of them. Viktor pulled out a clipboard and started calling out names.

"Hermes Leorna," He called.

"Here!"

"Verosika Swift."

The blond girl with brown eyes raised a hand lazily.

"Rachel Kolym."

The girl on the carpet with black hair that faded to pink put her hand up. "Present."

"Tom Lengthford."

The male cadet with red hair pointed the middle finger at Viktor. Viktor simply nodded, tipping the pen toward Tom. "Very cool."

"Sumika Raj."

The female cadet sitting on the single couch put her hand up gracefully.

"Jennifer Kalze."

The girl with choppy brown hair and the scar across the bridge of her nose put her hand up. "I'm here."

"Harry Henson."

The male cadet to the left of Hermes put his hand up. "Present."

"And finally, Ash Mothdre."

The bald male cadet on the single couch raised a hand.

"Great, that's very cool," Viktor told them while putting the clipboard aside. "That's very cool of all of you."

"Who are you?" Harry demanded.

Viktor shrugged, leaning back into the chair. "I'm supposed to be your Skills Instructor, meaning I'm gonna be seeing you guys a lot. But hey, not my choice, not your choice either, we're kinda in the same boat here."

Before anyone could say anything, he started listing off instructions.

"Alright, so I'm sure your hand-to-hand instructor told you to go down for training at 6 in the morning?" Viktor asked, looking around. "Is that true?"

"Yes," Jennifer confirmed.

"Alright, so let me just leave the weekly schedule on the floor," Viktor muttered, placing a piece of paper down on the ground. "No worries, there's a bunch of leisure time for y'all to get to know each other and try out the food here. Seriously, the cafeteria food? Best thing about the school in my opinion. I mean, it's free, so that's a thing."

"Right, so regarding Skills Training," Viktor said, already resisting the urge to either yawn or sigh. "I guess we'll be having Skills Training about... three hours a session, three times a week. Lesser than other Squads because I can't really be bothered. If you want extra training and stuff, you can try to find me."

"I think all of you received a map of the Academy?" Viktor continued rambling on in a bored voice. "You're gonna need it. First Skills lesson is the day after tomorrow, at around..."

He stared at the clock.

"Let's say 11 am, sounds great? Great! Great chat guys."

Viktor left without saying another word.