Vatican City (I)

[We will be taking a twenty-four-hour rest period to do maintenance on the train as well as to restock!]

Bellona quickly changed clothing and put on her shoes as the conductor continued speaking.

[If you want, you can stay on the train, but I recommend wandering around! It's a great city, after all!]

'I need to get the guys, we're gonna go look around.' Bellona thought to herself with determination in her mind and her heart ablaze. 'I've never been out of New York, and I am damn well not letting an opportunity like this get away!'

Bellona looked into the mirror and examined her outfit with utmost scrutiny, if she's going to experience a new city, she's going to do it right. With proper clothing!

Bellona decided to go simple, because simplicity was best, she didn't need to go overboard with her clothing, rather, she just needed to be presentable in most situations.

So she outfitted herself with a pair of black jeans, white t-shirt, and a black blazer. Of course, she had her mother sew a great amount of pockets in the blazer as well as her jeans. 

Her jeans had four deep pockets, two in the front and back. Her blazer had two pockets on the front, one breast pocket, and an inner breast pocket. Tying the entire ensemble together was a pair of black shoes, well, they used to be red, but after the rooftop battle, they were dyed black from the old blood. 

The surprising part about the pair of shoes that Bell picked out was the stench of blood didn't stain the shoes. 

Feeling good, Bell took a few steps towards the door, opening it to explore a new world that she found herself in. As Bell had slightly expected, Mona was already waiting in a similar outfit to Bells' own. 

The core differences was the color scheme, Mona was wearing nearly exact opposite colors to Bell. The belt buckle that Mona wore was golden instead of silver, and the outlines of her clothing were embroidered in golden threads as well.

Bell remembered her dream from a few nights ago. The gigantic golden threads, how Mona was somehow in it. 'What's the correlation?' Bellona thought as the two began walking towards the cafeteria.

Most of Bell's group were heavy sleepers, and teenagers who chronically slept in. With this knowledge, it was a pleasant surprise to see the four Eriksons emerge from the elevators as Bell and Mona passed.

Even more surprisingly was the fact that each member of the group was decked out in presentable and comfortable looking clothing.

Michael wore a thick, unbuttoned red flannel with a black t-shirt underneath. The ensemble was closed with a pair of well-worn jeans, leather belt, and work boots. 

He greeted Bell and Mona with a tone of similar surprise, "Wow! Didn't expect you guys to have some nice clothes!" He was quickly met with glares of disappointment by the other three Eriksons, and changed his words equally as quickly, "I mean, you look very nice."

He coughed into a closed fist immediately after, as if giving a compliment without an equal insult physically hurt him.

Pyralis wore a similar outfit, but wore a blue flannel and a white tee shirt. The two wore nearly the exact same worn jeans, leather belt and work boots. 

The taller boy slapped his rude brother on the back as he greeted Bell and Mona, "Good morning, Michael's right, you look very nice." 

Bell smiled and politely waved to Pyralis, "Good morning, Pyralis, and thank you. You don't look bad, yourself, you know?"

Strella adorned herself with a black long-sleeve turtleneck with a pair of dark jeans and a similarly colored belt but with a silver buckle and a pair of black sneakers. On her side was a large satchel bag slung over her shoulder and resting against her hip.

Strella's long hair was tied together into a tight high bun with a black tie. Not to dissimilar to her sister, Hilia's current hair style.

Hilia had a light tunic and a pair of dark pants on with leather sneakers.

The two greeted Bell and Mona at the exact same time, "Good morning!"

They looked at each other and nodded before continuing:

Strella complimented Bell, "Bellona! Your blazer looks awesome!"

While Hilia complimented Mona, "Mona! Is that real gold?!"

Well, Hilia asked more of a question than giving a compliment, but Mona looked happy either way.

Mona then pointed towards her belt buckle and asked a question of her own, "Does it look like real gold? I just got this from a thrift store..." Despite the belt coming from a thrift store, Mona looked thrilled that people thought that the buckle wasn't gold-plated, rather, real gold.

After their greetings, the group started heading to breakfast, where they quickly met with Torm and Jude who wore the exact same outfit.

That outfit was of high class, nevertheless. The two wore similar tuxedo's with black blazers and white button-ups underneath. A green and yellow tie adorned Torm and Jude's button-ups respectively, and they wore black slacks with similarly black dress shoes.

Michael found a way to word a compliment without insinuating an insult as he said, "Good morning, you two, looking mighty fine for today, are we?" Michael then turned to face his three siblings to mixed reviews on his performance.

They didn't seem entirely convinced that he was complimenting without the intention of insult, but quickly gave up on their notions. 

Bellona walked into the line, quickly followed by Mona and Pyralis as she noted to herself, 'Does he do this often? I mean, he hasn't been like this in the past few days...'

She picked up a plate and started filling it up, but didn't overfill like she usually did. 'I'm gonna save some room for the city's food.'

By the time that the three sat down, the other Erikson's finally got in line.

Before anyone got another bite in of their food, Mona spoke up, "So, what's the plan for town today?" After her question, Mona and the others at the table looked towards Bell, seemingly looking for an answer from an assumed leader role.

Bell looked up from a forkful of green scrambled eggs smothered in enough hot sauce to melt someone's tongue. After blowing on it and taking a bite, she spoke while chewing, "I think we should go our separate directions, and if anyone wants to tag along, then they can."

Bellona resumed devouring a small feast as she thought, 'Weirdos.'

Mona shrugged and mouthed something, probably something along the lines of, "Whatever the boss lady says."

The others sat down and they began planning their day in a new town.

Bell planned on wandering the town and looking around. Mona and Jude elected to follow Bell in her long journey to nowhere in particular.

Strella had found a large mall on the internet and planned to go there and explore the giant building. The rest of the group planned on following Strella, forming two smaller groups that would split up and go in their separate directions.

Mona started looking on the internet for anything interesting to do nearby, and just after Bell finished her meal, Mona spoke up, "There's this tarot shop nearby, the reviews say only good things about him. You interested?" To which Bell only looked with an empty expression.

Bell cleared her throat and drank a cup of water before replying, "What's a tarot shop?"

Mona pushed an imaginary pair of glasses up the ridge of her nose, "Tarot cards act as a spiritual map for our destinies! And there's these shops that have a bunch of specially trained Tarot card readers to tell us our futures!"

Bell didn't seem entirely enthusiastic about her future being dictated by a bunch of cards, but didn't have anything better to do. She shrugged as she wiped her mouth with a napkin, "Sure, why not?"

Mona smiled and then continued to eat a small plate and bowl of fruit and cereal. It wasn't too long after that the rest of the group started finishing up their meals.

Before they got up to head to the exit, Teacher Brutus's voice appeared on the intercom:

[All Terrarium students, if you want to leave for the day, come to the downstairs lounge.]

The group then stood up, pushed their chairs in, and continued their various conversations on foods, jewelry, and metal? As they began their short journey to the downstairs lounge.

Upon descending the steps, a pretty large crowd of similarly excited and pretty alright dressed students surrounded Teacher Brutus. Against the wall behind him was a billboard with around fifty or so cards. 

He seemed to be speaking to the large collection of students, but upon seeing Bell's posse, restarted his speech.

"Alrighty kiddos! Since you're down here, I'm going to assume that you are going to explore Vatican City as repairs are completed on the bullet train."

He pointed behind himself with a thumb and towards the billboard.

"There are exactly fifty identification cards here, your parents have given us a recent copy of your face. Not only that, but they have also given us a copy of your birth information as to give us the best possible chance of identification."

The students seemed to get slightly worried just beneath their shining excitement for exploring the new world just ahead of them. 

"But you don't need to worry, it's not like we put all of that information on this card, you just need to carry the one with your name and birth date on it. We'll be using these cards to identify you when you return to the train."

He picked one up and read the contents before announcing to the crowd.

"Is Charybdis Smith in the crowd?"

A hand rose just above the heads of the taller students, and that raised hand started wiggling its way through the crowd of students. After a few moments, the small frame of the spearman appeared before Teacher Brutus.

It almost looked like the giant man was going to smite the petite girl into oblivion, but after a moment, he pushed the card against her forehead. To Bell's surprise, the outline of the card started beeping green.

With a chuckle and a smile, Teacher Brutus continued, his voice being carried across the entire lounge, despite having no obvious tool to help him.

"Alright, that proves that you are indeed Charybdis Smith. As you all can see, you will have to press the card against any open skin to allow it to confirm that you are, in fact, you."

He stopped pressing the card against Charybdis, then lowered it. The small girl grabbed it with both hands gently and began retracing her steps to her spot in the crowd.

"All I can say now is to do the following!"

He raised a finger.

"First! You will be law-abiding teenage students! You are representative of the entire Terrarium, and we will not tolerate actions that tarnish our esteemed image!"

He then raised another.

"Second! You will not get injured or even die! Do not feed The Hive anything! You have been accepted to the Terrarium for your exceptional talent and promise as powerful challengers in the near future!"

Afterward, he raised his a third finger.

"Third! You will report to the train car before midnight tonight! You are allowed to do anything legal in Vatican City before your turn-in time!"

Bell had thought that Teacher Brutus had ran out of things to say, but he raised a fourth finger.

"And finally! You will have fun! Your duties as Terrarium students haven't started yet, so enjoy this time!"

He didn't raise a fifth finger, but after a brief pause, he continued.

"It might be the last fun time you will have in a long, long time. You are dismissed."

Teacher Brutus then made way for the crowd of students to pick up their identification cards. It didn't look like they were phased by his final statement, hell, it didn't look like most of them even heard it.

'Am I going crazy? It wasn't only me that heard that, right?'

Bell shook her head and followed the rapidly shifting crowd to pick up her identification card.

It didn't take long for her and the rest of her gang to pick up their cards, however, in the process of grabbing their cards, they had been lost to one another. 

Bell looked around and started gathering her team once more before they all headed towards the double doors leading out of the train. After a long three minutes of waiting had passed, they finally made it out of the bullet train and into the train station of Vatican City.

Bellona smiled at the different air that she breathed.

'A new world.'