Chapter Two

After half an hour of increasing boredom, someone finally approached him.

"Hey there, are you a student here?" Damian looked up and saw a boy with light brown hair, a pale complexion and a big smile. The boy put out a hand and Damian pulled himself up

"Uh, I'm trying to be a student here but I don't know how to get in." Damian said in a disgruntled tone.

"Ah, so we've both tripped on the first hurdle then," the boy replied, "well, stumbling together is better than stumbling by yourself. Now, who are you?" the boy asked, shaking Damian's hand.

"Uh, Damian. Damian Carmine, from Torchlight, a small mining town." Damian replied.

"Hello, Damian of the mine. I'm Nathan Glas, up and coming huntsman legend!" Nathan said, loud and energetically.

"Oh, are you now?" Damian chuckled. He and Nathan exchanged pleasantries and stories of their lives for a while longer. Unknown to ether of them, they were being watched by a hooded figure skulking round the corner of the street.

"What do you chuckleheads think you're doing?" The two of them looked round to see a short and rather bothered looking boy.

"Can we help you?" Nathan asked

"Yes you can." the boy replied. "Move out of the way, I'm trying to get to the academy!"

"Well, you are here." replied Damian and Nathan. The boy drew his weapon, a long pole with a blade on the end. Some kind of spear, Damian thought. Then, without warning, the boy launched himself forward, narrowly missing Damian and Nathan who just managed to jump out of the way. Damian jumped up to counter the attack, and saw that the gate had been split in two. Nathan had drawn his weapons and was pointing them at the boy who looked pretty proud of himself.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Nathan shouted.

"You could have killed us!" Damian added. Calmly, the boy said:

"I was only removing the walls between me and my objective." Nathan looked speechless, but only for a moment. Then he shouted:

"You wana fight?! I'll bring it, just ask!" With a quick flick of his thumbs Nathan's safeties were off and his fire rate was on auto.

"Yeah kid, I think you've messed with the wrong people" Damian said, trying to hold his anger.

"Do you intend to stop me?" the boy asked as if the very notion surprised him.

"We intend to make you pay!" Said Damian, his temper rising. In one move he pointed his weapon at the boy, slapped in a missile and flicked off the safety. "The question is… you ready to rumble?" Damian asked, his eyes glistening.

"Oh, I'm ready," the boy said, spinning his weapon in one hand as it transformed into a rifle. Then came the deafening sound of gun fire and explosions, creating a dust cloud from which the boy launched himself thirty feet into the air with the force of his rifle. Nathan stopped firing and shouted:

"Get down here you chicken!"

"If you insist," the boy replied with a cackle. He pointed his gun behind him, to the side, and shot himself to earth at a stupendous speed with his blade pointing at Nathan. Damian jumped, pushed Nathan to the ground and covered him with his body. The boy missed them and hit the ground, causing a shockwave which sent his targets flying across the street into a wall. The boy walked up to them as they got to their feet. Then there was a scream.

"Stop!"

All three were blinded and knocked backwards by a force that erupted between them. Damian tried to move, but his body was numb, and his current position only allowed him to see the red speckled pavement.

"I'm really sorry!" A voice called out, crying. Who was it? Then a hand grabbed him roughly by the shoulder and pulled him around to face a tall figure. It took a second for Damian to recognise him: he was tall, with a white coat, an equally white complexion, and a stone cold expression on his face.

The three boys were carried into the school and dumped in an empty classroom, where they sat and waited in silence. Seconds crawled by and turned into minutes. An hour had passed by the time the silence was broken. The tall, white-suited man from earlier walked into the room, followed by a girl in a red, hooded body-warmer. The girl sat down on one of the seats at the front, and the man walked to the teacher's podium.

"Good afternoon. I am Professor James Ironwood," his calm voice changed to anger mid-sentence, "and I want you three hooligans to give me one reason why I shouldn't remove you from Atlas within the next sixty seconds."

The boys all tried to speak at once, but neither one could be heard over the others.

"Silence!" Ironwood shouted. "Can't you even form some order amongst yourselves!" Damian stood up tall and straight. "Mr Carmine, would you like to speak first?" Ironwood asked, almost as though he were trying to taunt him.

"Yes…" Damian spluttered, "I was defending myself from that boy in the green." He pointed to reinforce the point. Ironwood turned his gaze to the other boy.

"So, Mr Lu, is this true? Did you unjustifiably attack Damian?" Ryu squirmed in his seat. It would seem his ego did not extend to the point where he saw himself as greater than Ironwood. He avoided speaking for as long as possible, before muttering:

"Maybe." Ironwood scowled.

"Are you saying that you could have done that much damage, caused that much carnage, and that it may have slipped your mind?!" The Professor barked.

"No, Sir." Ryu muttered, "It's just I was having a bad day and I thought these two were trying to mess with… I see now that my actions were a bit extreme. I'm sorry." He said solemnly.

"What's your story, Mr Glas?" Nathan stopped smiling. He must have thought he'd almost gotten off scot-free.

"My story is fairly similar to Damian's"

"Okay, but did you not instigate the fight?" Ironwood replied slyly.

"Well, I guess… Wait, how did you know about that?" Nathan asked, now quite flustered.

"Oh, you see, I've been given quite a detailed account of what happened by the fourth member of this brawl." Ironwood stated plainly.

"Fourth?" The three boys replied in unison.

"Yes," said Ironwood, "she saw all of your idiocy and put a stop to it. Whether that was a good idea or not is yet to be seen." The girl in the red hood stood up.

"Yes, I am the one who stopped you all from fighting. My name is Gagana Arkid." Her voice did indeed seem familiar to Damian. She's must have been the person who had screamed for them to stop

"Good." Ironwood said, his voice now sounding much lighter in tone. "Now that introductions are over, all of you should head to your dorm."

"Why did you say dorm as singular?" Ryu asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ironwood replied. All four shook their heads. "I'm putting you four in a team together."

"Why?" Ryu asked.

"Yeah, aren't the group assignments usually in the form of a test or something?" Damian added.

"You are correct, Damian. That would normally be the case, but I've decided to keep this band of misfits together. I added Miss Gagana so that you have at least one cool head between you." Nathan shrugged.

"Oh well, at least we don't have to do the group-up activity."

"And that's where you'd be wrong. You're doing it anyway." Ironwood corrected him.

"Why's that?" Ryu enquired.

"The placement test will build character and help you learn to work as a team." Ironwood replied "Now, get going. I have important business to take care of, like fixing the gate."