Horizon University
Prologue: Sin Sandro

"Mr. Sandro?"

Helson Sandro rose from his place on the seat in the waiting room of Meddon Hospital. His black eyes weighed with worry, heavy bags just under them, his raved colored hair was wild due to the fact that he'd been running his hands through them in an attempt to control his raging emotions. He had a baby face despite his age of 37, but as it was he looked aged with uneasiness and anger. Though what he was angry at he didn't know yet.

"How is he?" Helson's voice shook, concern and weary clear in it. "How is my son?"
The polite nurse with the blond hair and brown eyes that had first attended to him when he came into the hospital now smiled reassuringly at him. That calmed Helson if only slightly.

"Sin will be alright, Mr. Sandro." She stated carefully. "It was lucky his young friend brought him here before he lost too much blood. We would not have been able to save him had be lost anymore." Helson sighed with relief, sinking back into the seat he had occupied a few seconds before. The nurse continued to talk. "It is really sad that we have been getting more shooting in this town lately. Sin wasn't hit in any major organs, but his heart will remain a tad weak. He did have pneumonia when he was younger, is that correct Mr. Sandro?"

Noting he'd been asked a question, Helson looked up, frowning at the nurse who still stood there. "Yes." He answered shortly, not in any particular mood for a conversation with anyone, not to mention that it was a lie, what Sin had when he was a child was not exactly a human illness like pneumonia. Then the words she had said before come back into his mind. "You said a friend brought Sin here?"
The nurse nodded.

"Did he happen to leave his name?"

"He said his name was Lybell Thunder; came in yelling for help with Sin passed out in his arms. The poor boy was covered in blood with eyes as wide as dinner plates."
Helson paused, thinking the name over. Lybell. He remembered Sin mentioning him as being another Shifter too. Nodding in satisfaction, Helson stood again. "Can I see my son?" It did not come out as a question, but more of a demanded. It made the nurse pause for a second, and then she had on a smile once again, motioning for Helson to follow her.

"This way Mr. Sandro."
They walked, in silence, turning in corners and halls that Helson did not even bother to try and memorize. His mind remained on his son. He could smell blood in the air, along with the slight sent of medicine. He didn't like it.

Finally, they stopped at a door, the name plate stating to Helson that his son was the current resident of the room. It brought back a memory he had no desire to remember. The name of his wife, plastered on a door just like the one he stood before now. Helson had hoped he'd never see a Sandro name this way again, but his son had managed to force the image into his mind. Not to mention that she had also died of the same reason Sin was in that room right now.

The nurse knocked on the door softy, receiving a small 'come in' from the other side. When the door was opened, Helson swallowed and walked into the room swiftly. He had had twelve years to get over his dislike of hospitals, but he was still weary of them.

"Hey, old man, didn't think you'd come. I know just how much you hate hospitals." On the white satin bed laid a smiling, dazed looking Sin. It was merely in relief that Helson smiled back at his son, for in no way did he apprise at being forced to return to the same hospital in which his beloved wife had died.

"Quiet down Sin. Tell me what happened so that I can go after the bastard that put you here." Helson called back, letting his tone come out calmly despite the call in him to kill the one who put a part of his family in this hell whole, he had not avenged his wife, but he would not let his son's shooter get away that easily. The teenage boy, who looked like a copy of his father, fell silent. He, in no way, wished to tell his father of what had happened, though he knew the old man knew whyit had happened.

"It was just another run-in dad. It's been happening to every Shifter who refuses to go to that stupid school. We knew this was going to happen eventually." That was true, Helson had been fearful that his own flesh and blood would be at the end of a gun barrel since the first Shifter was shot. After all, the shootings were only warnings. The people, who did it, wouldn't aim for any manger organs or vital spots, just a place where it would get a Shifter's attention.

Both Sandros heaved a sigh. They knew what they had to do, it was inevitable to avoid.

"I want you to enter this school Sin."

The teen frowned, about to protest, when his father pulled him into a gentle embrace, silencing whatever Sin was going to say effectively.

"I know it's a school far from here Sin. I know you don't want to leave your old man here all by his lonesome, and I know you have some human friends you don't want to lose. But damn Sin, I don't want to lose you. You'll be far, but at least I know you'll be alive." Helson whispered into the dark mane of his son. He had thought about this in the waiting room, and he wasn't going to budge on it. Sin could sense that it seemed because he kept all protest in his own head, and just hugged his father back.

Sin was not about to fight his father. In truth the shooting had frightened him greatly. He had been on his way to Lybell's house when he was just jumped. Knocked out and shot, Sin had expected to die, of course he did keep in mind of what a worry wart Lybell was and half expected the older Shifter to come looking for him. Looks like Lybell didn't fail him yet. Sin was by no means, weak, but when one is jumped by at least 8 human males, even as a shifter, fighting is difficult. If going to this school would insure his own safety as well as the safety of his father, then he'd go without a fight.

The only problem now, would be warning his human friends, and convincing his shifter friends to join him at Horizon University. Great, why didn't those damn humans just shoot him dead back there?

"You're not joking are you. You're really going?"

Sin Sandro sighed as he stared at a few familiar faces. His human friends had taken the news rather well, saying that as long as he kept in touch, they'd support him all the way; which was to be expected, since the humans with open minds often left those minds elsewhere.

"Yes, Aldray, I'm going, and I want all of you to join me." Replied Sin to the question from the small kitty on his lap; (Aldray always does this when someone is nervous or in need of some form of contact.) "I know it's not the first thing you guys would want; Aldray with you mother, Lybell and his folks, Trigger and his step dad, but I do think that when the humans come after you guys, they'll do more than hospitalize you."

He looked around the room; setting his eyes on Trigger, who was leaning against the wall by the window to his right with arms crossed and eyes closed, first before moving to Lybell who sat beside his bed, and lastly to the kitten in his arms. "This school is the only way to insure that the humans will no longer harm us. And it's not only the Shape-Shifters, it's the Vampires, the Were-Wolfs, the Demons, it's every being that has been categorized as a danger to human life."

"We know that Sin, but can you blame us?" Lybell pleaded. "They want to gather us up like bugs and then what? What do you think this school is really for? What'll happen if we go and they…I don't know, blow it up?"

"Bell!" Cried the jet black kitten, freeing herself from Sin's hold to jump to the floor. Once all four paws were firmly on the floor, the kitten shifted hands and feet replacing paws and fur leaving the body as it grew. "Don't say things like that! Our parents…our parents fought for a place where beings like us can belong. If this, Horizon University is the place then I'm on Sin's side! Let's enroll."

Trigger pushed himself off the wall and moved forward, taking off his coat and draping it over Aldray's shoulders, covering the thin, pale skin that had replaced the black fur. "It's not that I don't agree with you Dray, it's just too odd to connect." He said as the girl zipped the coat up. On Trigger it was waist high, but on Aldray it reached up to the middle of her thighs. "The humans offer us sanctuary after years of fighting with the denial that we even exist. They must have ulterior motives for the creation of this school."

Running a hand through his dark brown locks, Trigger returned to his post by the window, this time staring out into the darkened night sky.

"If you really wish to enter Horizon University Sin, then I shall have to come with you."

The hospitalized shifter sent the stony Trigger a warm smile, then turned a serious look to Lybell, the eldest of the group.

"And you Bell. Will you join us?"

Under the intense gazes of both Aldray and Sin, Lybell sighed, putting his hands up in a surrender fashion. "Alright, I give, you win. All of us will enroll in Horizon University. Let's just keep faith and hope there are no ulterior motives."

Smiles spread through the faces of all three listening intently for his answer, and despite his instinct to frown, he found himself smiling back.

"Then we shall take care of this when Sin is discharged." Trigger continued smiling. "Besides, I have a few friends that are already enrolled; you'd all enjoy meeting them I'm sure."