Seltron Super Academy Chapter 10

I sat back in my chair, waiting for class to begin, idly experimenting with the tablet in front of me. It was fancy, even fancier than my SuperTech smartphone, and user-friendly too, but I still liked the feel of a pen and paper in my hands more than these computers.

Alex sat beside me, seeming to have fully regained her natural cheer now, practically bouncing up and down as we had walked to class. Breakfast before with the rest of my class had been good, but I didn’t have time or the portions to eat nearly enough to restore myself to my usual mass/weight, but that and the dinner before at least had me feeling somewhat better.

All the students were at the cafeteria for breakfast, but it looked like this class, the first on my list, only had about a third of the other students in it. A quick comparison with Trevor and Alex had shown that we had some classes together, but not all, though we all were given the same courses in the end.

Janet Fontaine finally entered the room, sweeping in about two minutes before the bell. She flashed the class a smile as she entered, sitting down behind her desk and pulling out a tablet. As she was getting ready, two boys to my right started whispering and making motions in front of their chests to emphasize their thoughts. I rolled my eyes at the crude actions. Accuracy aside, that’s just incredibly rude. I can’t believe how this generation is being raised. I turned to my left to talk to Alex. “I can’t believe those boys.”

“Huh?” Alex said, tearing her eyes away from Fontaine. Well, at least she’s not intentionally being rude about it, even if she’s still distracted by her hormones. Then the bell rang, a metallic tone piercing out through the entire school. It was mildly annoying to my ears, but not too much so, and it certainly got everyone’s attention.

“Greetings class, I am your teacher. For those of you who didn’t hear it yesterday, I’m Miss Fontaine, and this will be an Introduction to Powers.” She stood up, flicking something on her tablet and the tiny projector overhead with a copy of the document that had suddenly appeared on all of our screens, the class syllabus with the title of the class.

“Before we begin, this will not be a practical class experimenting with your powers; you can save that for Coach Beachwood and some of your other teachers. We will go over the basics of the theory behind what is known about powers and how they work. This is a field that, despite having been studied intensely over the past, still has many mysteries.”

“Oh yeah, it’s so complex to figure out.” Maximus, one of the boys to my right, whispered too loudly. Janet obviously heard him, however, and turned with a grin that was just a notch too bright.

“Mr. Hun, if you have something to share, then please, share.”

Put on the spot, Maximus mumbled for a moment before saying louder “Uh, how can they not know how our powers work? I mean, they’ve got those scanners at airports that can tell if we try to pass through.”

“And how do they do that, exactly?”

“They use, umm, they detect the Q-waves, right? The energy that we give off.”

Janet sighs, keenly mirroring my own feelings. “No, they do not detect ‘Q-waves.’ Those are, in fact, not a real energy type, merely a plot device used in the movie ‘Cape Knights.’ I advise you pay more attention to what matters.” The boy flushed red with embarrassment as his classmates tittered and laughed at him. Perhaps a little more strict than necessary, but obviously she had heard him before the class began.

Miss Fontaine moved on, pressing another button and moving through a few slides, explaining the general course of the class, before showing an image of an old book. ‘Powers: Where They Come From and How They Work, by Dr. Straus Gleeman.’ It’s certainly a... well-known choice for the topic.

Something on my face must have shown that, as Janet turned to me, pausing in the middle of her prepared speech to ask, “Is there an issue here?” She sounded more curious than about to give a reprimand, like she did to Maximus. That and the help she had given her yesterday had me deciding to answer honestly.

“I can’t deny it was the basis of later ‘superpower research,’ but the work as a whole is a rather dry read that ultimately has very little of actual substance on how powers worked. Of course, it was written many decades ago, only a few years after the world at large had realized that people with incredible abilities existed. It’s also only been surpassed in a few areas by the newer research, but still. It’s out of date,” I finished. Rather than being upset at my critique, she seemed pleased at the thought behind my answer.

“It’s good to see you’re so well read. That’s an interesting view. I think it’s still a valuable resource and the one we’ll be using for this class, but I’m glad that you felt comfortable enough to share your opinion.” Turning her head slightly to face the entire class more fully, she said, “I hope everyone will be willing to do so. This class, and all of Seltron, will work at its best when you take the time to fully engage with the material at hand and each other.”

I’m impressed; she’s obviously put a lot of thought into this class and has the presence to draw the attention of all the students. Even if her choice in literature is terrible.

“With that out of the way, class, let’s begin by looking at page 3 of the textbook, which should be fully loaded onto your tablets.” She continued on for a bit, explaining a bit about the early days of powers and what was thought of how they worked.

“As was mentioned, for a long stretch of time it was believed that there might be a certain energy given off by those who used powers, but this is not the case. It is, in fact, a lack of energy surrounding Empowereds, the minute biomagnetic fields surrounding anyone being non-existent or undetectable on an Emp (the exact nature of which is up for no small amount of debate). This is why the scanners designed by SuperTech™ can tell if someone is an emp or not but cannot tell if they’re a demon. More powers do not give off a ‘greater’ lack of energy.”

“Are we going to discuss demon’s in this class?” Alexandra asked, an odd energy in her voice.

“Yes, we will, eventually. But those discussions will be saved for later; I am going to begin by introducing you to the basics of the energies of Supers and the theories. Demons will be discussed more in your history class."

"Now, as I was saying, the lack of these energy fields has led some to say that powers drain this energy to fuel the abilities used, but others think that the powers may actually give out energy without any cost and that the lack of bioelectric fields is merely a side effect of the phenomena...” Miss Fontaine continued. It was a decent enough class, I assumed, but it was all well known to me.

On the way out to our next class after the bell rang, I asked Alex, “What did you think?”

“I think it was really cool! All the fancy stuff, like the textbooks instantly downloaded onto these tablets they gave us, plus there were some neat stuff about how powers worked that I didn’t know. I’m... curious about demons. You hear about them rarely in the news nowadays, but they show up as Big Bads in books and t.v. shows all the time, and I’m pretty sure all of what’s said about them can’t be true.”

I snorted lightly. “You’ve got that right; demons in the media are used as nothing more than a cheap plot device, nowhere near the truth most of the time.”

“Wow, sounds like you know a lot about them. Have you ever met a demon before?”

I had to nip that line of thought in the bud fast. There was no story that could feasibly prevent rumors or stop her from digging uncomfortably deeper if Alex knew even a sliver of the truth. “No, I’ve just studied quite a bit before coming here. My parents worried a lot, so I wanted to make sure I had the facts straight so I'd know how to avoid them.”

I do know how to avoid them, but honestly I'd been trying for the opposite before getting here. I had kept myself as open as possible to see if I could lure any out for the past 7 years, but not one had even been scoping around. It made sense; very few demons were around these days, and those that did tend to be quickly taken out by the heroes.

Trevor joined us for the next class, mentioning how Physical Education had been ‘brutal.’.

“Sorry to hear that, bud. We’ll do our best to struggle through it,” I said in mock commiseration, sharing a laugh with Alexandra.

“Oh, ha ha. Just you wait; you might both have physical-type powers, but Coach Beachwood pushed us through the courses without any powers. He catches even a whiff of you using powers, and you get zero for his little test.” Alexandra’s face got paler at that. She had mentioned something about the difficulty in controlling her abilities, and it looks like that will be put to the test already. Or, after lunch at least. The three of us had a history class and lunch first.

History class was taught by Layla Sevrein, who did a roll call at the start. Turned out to be a good idea, as Kadir was missing, having decided to skip the class, much to our teacher’s chagrin.

Once that was done, she went over a broad overview of the class subject. The history course was a focused one, explaining more about super powered individuals and their actions in the world (and the responses from various governments) over the decades than our broader Social Studies class later in the week.

Layla didn’t do anything wrong, but there was a certain lack of energy in the class from her introduction and course outline compared to Miss Fontaine’s, at least until we got to ‘The Dark Age of Demons.’

“What was it like?” Alex suddenly asked, quickly adding, “Uh, Missus Sevrein.”

She paused, looking down at the girl. “Next time raise your hand if you have a question, Miss Herron. The exact feeling of the times shifted and changed as events went on, but for most it was a time of fear and mistrust, with plenty of death. These were called the ‘Dark Age’ for a reason.”

The class looks worried, and Trevor raises his hand. “Yes?”

“What were demons like back then?” Layla frowned at his question, seeming to think it over for a moment.

“I planned on talking about the Dawn of Powers and early reactions, but I suppose the first demon (or demon as they’re also commonly called) was found then, though that term wasn’t coined until later. Given these questions, I suspect some of you might not know the truth of demons - the news doesn’t talk about them much these days.”

“Demons came from a portmanteau of the terms Differently Empowered Individuals and ‘monsters.’ Called ‘deimons’ and then later condensed to just ‘demons’ - much like Empowered and ‘emps’ have been - the term is used to describe those who steal powers from other people by killing them.” Everyone stiffened at that, listening more intently.

“This was first discovered by the criminal called ‘Mad Dog’ Charles Howler almost six decades back in 1648, a few years after it is widely agreed to be the start of people gaining powers. He ate the heart of Herman Culler, a man with a pyrokinetic ability, and soon demonstrated the ability to wield fire of his own, in addition to the large, razor-sharp teeth he had from his original ability.”

“In those days, society lacked many of the technological communication advantages taken for granted in this new century, but word still quickly spread around of this incident. It was soon tested and proven to be true: Any Empowered could kill another and rip out their heart for power.” Silence fell over the class. I did my best to ‘remain stoic’ - it felt like the best play here, as reacting too much either way could be odd. Some were like me, not surprised but not happy about the subject matter. Others were shocked, which just made me weep (internally) for the state of the current public education system.

“With time, more facts were rooted out amongst the many pieces of fiction roaming about. The ability can be gained by eating the heart or simply holding it in your hand for a moment and concentrating on taking the ability. Every ability taken causes an immediate mutation. The exact nature of which is wholly random, but it can range from tentacles for arms to horns to a forked tongue and more. The change, plus the sign of multiple abilities, are clear ways to detect the presence of a demon. This led to-”

“D-demon!” One student shouted, pointing at Alex. “She’s got wings and multiple powers- she’ll eat our hearts!” Alexandra grew pale at the accusation and began spluttering out denials while the class was in a frenzy, wondering and whispering about it. I just sighed at the foolishness.

“Please be quiet and take a seat, Mr. O’Flannigan- I said to-” No one listened to Layla until she shouted out, “BE QUIET!!” Waves of sound erupting from her, causing all of us students to stop and clutch our ears, save for Alex. When the boy tried to speak out again, the teacher just snapped her fingers, and no words came out.

“Take a seat, Shawn O’Flannigan,” Mrs. Sevrein said coolly. When the boy did, and the rest of the class fell in line, she cleared her throat and waved her hand, allowing sound to come from him again as he took gasping breaths. Drama queen, she only made it so we couldn't hear you; I felt the air being pulled in and pushed out around you.

“There is no need for those theatrics, Mr. O’Flannigan. I merely stopped you from shouting, not from breathing. This is not a topic taken lightly, not even one you will truly dig into in your first two years here at Seltron. True demon study is a third-year-only course, and for good reason. Most of the time, talking about demons only incites panic and misunderstanding amongst civilians and even your fellow heroes.”

“Alexandra is not a demon. demons take abilities from others and experience changes, but some abilities will naturally change someone’s appearance. Coach Beachwood, for instance, can turn into a draconic form, granting him scales, enhanced strength, wings, fangs, claws, and fiery breath, as well as a number of other minor physical changes. It would be easy to think ‘changed form’ and 'multiple abilities' and come to the conclusion of demon, but that is not the case. The same with his ability. Would anyone care to explain why this is?”

The rest of the class was still silent, looking between each other, so I took it upon myself to answer, raising my hand perfunctorily before doing so. “Everyone has only a single ‘ability,’ but that can be misleading, as our abilities can be very versatile; the best heroes usually have quite versatile abilities. The ‘ability’ is based around a single concept but can often be used in many ways by a skilled user, like you did just now. You made a loud sonic shout, then stopped Shawn from talking, or rather, any of us from hearing him. Both aspects of some Sound Control ability, I’d venture.”

“... that is correct, Miss Einsburgh,” Layla said, giving me an odd look. Is she just impressed with my knowledge and intellect, or something more? I can’t tell. “As such, the abilities Alexandra has demonstrated, combined with her wings, may simply be manifestations of an ‘angel’ ability or some other concept. This was another factor that led to fear and tragedies during the Dark Age of demons; many heroes lashed out at each other, fearing dark, cannibalistic monsters and not having enough knowledge on how to respond correctly.”

“Seltron is our attempt to move past such unenlightened times. demons are at a historical low; we know far more about powers, and the staff has been trained to protect you from any demons that might try to break in and hurt you.” A good attempt to encourage the others, but I could see students eyeing each other warily now.

Alex raised her hand, to which the teacher wearily said, “Go ahead.”

“Can- Is there any way for someone to gain more powers aside from killing someone else?”

“No. While profound versatility can occasionally be found within a single ability, it will always relate to that core concept. demons are the only way to truly gain a different ability, and they can only do so by killing people. If any of you ever come across a person claiming such a thing, they are lying, and you should report their presence to me or the other teachers immediately. You should do that in any case where one of you has come into contact with a known or suspected demon.” 

The teacher affixed us all with a serious glare to make sure the message sunk in before clearing her throat. “These questions are getting off topic, however. If no one has any other pressing questions, we’ll get back to the syllabus.” When no one raised their hand, she continued, launching into a small overview of the class, though several students seemed distracted, to say the least.

Class was dismissed, and everyone left in a nervous mood, even those who already knew most of the specifics, infected by the attitudes of their fellow classmates. Lunch might be a bleak affair with Trevor and Alex obviously heavily contemplating demons and their implications. Ugh, it’s not like the teacher just mentioned that demons are super rare nowadays or anything, but they’re glancing around like any of us could be a demon in disguise. Alex looked the most worried about it, her usually pale skin a ghostly white.

“C’mon, guys, no need to look so glum. I know Coach Beachwood is gonna put us through the wringer, but if Trevor made it through his class, I’m certain Alex and I can.” My light jab did no good, not managing to really get them in brighter spirits. I can’t see why they were taking it so personally. If anything, I have way more right to be upset about it than them; they didn’t live through the worst of it or routinely deal with and fight demons in their pasts.

Just when I thought lunch would be a huge brood-fest, a bright figure sat down suddenly, replying to my comment. “I too wonder about the Coach’s class,” Number Seven said as it sat down, placing its empty tray in front of it at the table. “Most of my innate qualities will count as ‘enhanced’ by his metrics.”

“Well, hello there, uh, Number Seven. Nice to have you join us,” I said, munching on my food. “I think we’re all wondering how that one goes.”

“Is ‘Number Seven’ really your name?” Alexandra asked.

“Yes! My proper designation is, I have been told, a mouthful. Number Seven was given to me as the seventh attempt in creating Artificial Intelligence by my Creator and his staff.” I expected to see sparks and wires or some other facet of uncanny-ness that denoted No. 7’s robotic nature, but nothing showed to my regular senses. Only my structural integrity ability noted the oddness with their density and toughness hiding past the hyper-realistic skin suit it wore.

“Naw man, ‘Number Seven’ still won’t do as a name. It’s gotta be something a bit shorter, snappier. Less like a thing and more like a person,” Trevor said. “Let’s pick a name that suits who you are.”

“I had never thought of that. I don’t know ‘who I am.’ I’ve studied much literature and media before coming here, but I never encountered what helped humans figure out who they are. In fact, going from most sources, any such tales seem to be arbitrary and often contradictory.”

I chuckled. “Like people ‘know who they are’ instantly. Most of us go through our entire lives not fully knowing that one. Just go with ‘Seven.’ Without the word ‘number’ in front of it, it’ll do just fine as a name.”

Trevor just looked at me with disbelief. “That’s so lazy. We can come up with a proper name, don’t you think?” He asked Alex, who seemed on the spot but far more relaxed now that everyone was distracted from their previous class and talk of demons.

“Uh, I don’t know. If he’s- or she or they, are fine with it...” she said, gesturing over to the remarkably human-looking robot.

“I believe I am fine with ‘Seven’ as a name,” it said, looking up. “I also have no preference on gender pronouns.”

“Oh, right. Cool then,” Alex said.

Trevor grumbled at his ideas being rejected before he could even get to ‘mega robot man/boy.’ He recovered quickly, saying brightly, “Ah well, we can save those names for when we get our hero names. I was thinking ‘Blackout’ for myself, what about you guys?” 

Many names were bandied about from there, with some further explanations of their powers. Seven revealing its ‘Adaptive Mimicry’ technology had Trevor mockingly bemoaning the unfairness until it was pointed out that the very nature of Trevor’s nature made it impossible for the robot to copy his ability. Then he was insufferably smug about it for 2.3 seconds until Alex reminded him that he’d still have to deal with being tired and worn out from P.E. for the rest of the year. 

Alexandra had ‘Angel’ as a fallback name, but even I could agree that was too generic for a hero name. I suggested ‘Seraphim’ for her, which was mostly the same but sounded cooler (Seven took many notes on ‘coolness’ and its importance in superhero names, much to my amusement). Personally, I had way too many good naming options to pick just one.

“Shifter is too on the nose and makes people think of animals when I’m really not the best at that. Chimera is cool, slightly closer to the villainous side of names, but not bad. Imposter is right out.”

“Don’t want them guessing what you can do?”

“Exactly,” I answered Alex’s question with a chuckle. “Changer is too generic, Protean... I actually really like that one.” Before I could continue, the warning bell rang, and we got ready to head to their classes.

As the others stopped to put away their lunch trays, I stepped back and took a moment to talk to Seven. “Hey, I’m curious, who exactly made you? If you don’t mind me asking, it’s just you must be really advanced as an artificial intelligence.” Are you, or the ones who made you, the source behind all these crazy advanced technologies here at Seltron?

Seven shook its head. “I’m afraid I can’t. I’ve been ordered to secrecy on that project as well as some others; I hope you can understand.” Thought it might be too easy to figure out just by asking. Still, it didn’t hurt anything to try. I nodded and then went with Alex to face gym class.

***

Gym class really wasn’t too hard. Admittedly, I shifted myself to be near peak human in most areas of athleticism and flexibility before the class began, but who’s counting? Even at less than my usual full mass, I’ve got more than enough power for World Tournament levels of fitness. Beachwood kept a close eye on me during the class to ensure I wasn’t shifting around for an advantage, but I hardly needed to once I had set my body right. He did seem to be glaring at me suspiciously throughout it, though at least I didn’t get yelled at like Maximus for trying something obviously like growing tree trunk-sized legs in the middle of the hundred-yard dash.

It took place in the field, not underground in the gym where the tournament had been held, which was more for the ‘combat’ classes (though apparently there was some back and forth between the two). It was a nice day, and getting outside really let me appreciate the glory of the little island paradise the school was situated on. I wonder what the rest of the island is like. I can’t wait to get the chance to really explore this place. Most others had far less time or energy to appreciate that sentiment.

Alex faced some issues; as much as she tried to keep herself to regular strength and speed, her lack of control cost her, Beachwood calling her out a few times until giving up near the end when her standing long jump carried her twenty meters farther than anyone else. She explained, panicked, that she couldn’t control her powers and that she wasn’t trying to cheat.

He seemed exasperated, but realizing that she couldn’t hold herself to a 'normal' standard, he waived her grade for the class, giving her some extra ‘studies’ in the gym beneath the school. I heard from her later that it had some features that he hoped would push even her powers to their limits to get her some actual exercise and assigned her stretches for the rest of the class, hoping that having to move against her own body would push her. It didn’t push her perfectly, but it also didn’t risk her breaking the obstacle course again.

Kadir swore more than once about the drills but managed to push himself through them, leaving me wondering why he hadn’t decided to skip this class of all classes. He actually did fairly well, especially considering how much his power must take away from any need to work out regularly, but he didn’t use his power once.

What pushes you this far, and only in these certain ways? You’ll skip a history class but have enough drive to push yourself in physical education when you have a power that can deal with most physical obstacles? I was sure he felt my eyes on him, or someone’s eyes on him at least, but whenever he looked around, I remained stoically impassive to any attempts of his own to read me.

Derrick stared at Seven at the beginning of the class and muttered something about the issues of what a machine ‘would get from this class’ and other things.

Seven had stated they ‘got benefit from going through the activities, improving their own physical action subroutines through practical practice.’ The coach had shrugged off those words with a grumble and not bothered checking in on the robot from that point on. I had a few times, and whenever my eyes flickered over to Seven, I saw it staring out at their classmates, eyes flickering rapidly. It was subtle, but I could pick up on it. How far does that ‘adaptability’ of yours go, robot? You mentioned powers, but the other skills you pick up might be just as impressive.

I kept an eye on the other students too, but most of them weren’t very interesting, being regular teenagers when they couldn’t use their powers. Most were scared enough to not use their powers after Maximus’ attempt, but some still tried to use them in minor, less noticeable ways. Like a kid with elastic limbs taking suspiciously long steps when the coach wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t bother bringing it up with the coach, though; no need to pull the wool back from Dickless Derrick’s eyes.

I waved goodbye to Alex as we went to take different classes (and she did her make-up session at the gym), not seeing the winged girl again until dinner time. The classes in between were... so... boring. It was the only way to put it. We’re at superhero school, I don’t want to waste my time with regular math and English lessons! But of course, it is a superhero school, so they need to at least cover the basics for the others. Doesn’t make it any less upsetting, though; I’ve had to suffer through these boring lessons I already know for the past seven years thanks to my cover, I’m not looking forward to doing it for three more.

The worst part is I won’t be getting my usual perfect marks unless I actually give it my all. The material is advanced and thorough enough that I at least need to try for that, and it’s hard to put my heart into it. A minuses wouldn’t stick out too much on my report card and I could probably bump those up so long as I made a schedule to allot some time to study those courses every week. Which is exactly what I did after finishing my classes in the afternoon, despite my itch to put things off and explore the island.

After dinner, I hung out with Trevor and Alexandra in one of the student study areas on the higher floors. Not a ton of studying got done (especially from Alexandra, who seemed to have real problems focusing), being the first day and all, but it was a decent way to unwind. Seven wandered around from group to group, though they didn’t seem to fit in as well with any of the other students as he had with us at lunch.

Just like that, it was getting to curfew time, my first full day of classes at Seltron coming to an end. It wasn’t as high action as the tournament, but I felt content with how things had gone as I was heading to bed. My classwork is good; the material shouldn’t be too problematic as long as I stay vigilant, and I’m confident in any performance based on my ability. I went to bed ready for whatever might come the next day.

I wasn’t ready for the nightmares that plagued me that night.