This is how the HIVE Academy works:
Your father is an infamous villain, super powered or not. He'll give the Academy million dollars and his child, the younger, the better.
Not that way.
The younger children are, the more impressionable they are, the easier to mold.
That's the more respectable way in.
.
The other way is this:
Brother Blood hears about you, through his network of alums. You're special. Special things happen when you're around … maybe because of you. Brother Blood will want you for the Academy.
Usually, the families are so willing that they'll just give you away. Sometimes, it requires a little money, a job promotion, a favor, all for a child. Not just any child. A special child.
Sometimes, the house is burning down around you and men in robes swish you away and tell you no one else made it out. Congratulations! It means your family loves – loved – you enough to refuse. Unfortunately, refusals mean nothing to Brother Blood.
Some of us are glad to be out, hated the fear of everyone around you; some of us don't remember; some of us miss our families.
.
Technically, all students are treated the same, regardless of our origins. Still, all the villain spawn know each other and most of us bear scars from that horrendous fire that destroyed everything, domestic abuse that we never deserved, or self-inflicted harm because we felt so worthless and hated.
We're the orphans. Which one am I?
I don't remember.
"Try again, Jinx." Brother Blood says to me. His face is the same as it is usually but I detect exasperation.
"I've BEEN trying. I did all those exercises you told me to do."
He sighs, scrutinizes me, and then dismisses me. I'm free for another month. One of the other brothers – hard to tell which with the hoods on – escorts me back to my room, and locks it.
Yeah, "free".
.
I hear a murmur and some footsteps above me. Someone new is moving in! I wait half an hour. The brothers will be explaining the rooms to the newbie before leaving him or her alone.
There's the sitting room, and beyond a locked door lies the hallways of HIVE Academy. Another locked – electronically – door leads to the bedroom and bathroom. Every student gets these three rooms. Food gets left in the sitting room, three times a day. I'm not allowed to retrieve it until after 30 minutes, just in case I feel like attacking the delivery monk. Yeah, right, like I'd risk the punishment. After thirty minutes, the door from my bedroom to my sitting room slides open. The sitting room is furnished with a table, two chairs, and a painting of someone getting electrocuted, so I eat there. Much less depressing than my room. The bedroom has one small bed, a dresser in the corner, a wardrobe on the other side of my bed, and a desk. Every week, I get my homework in the sitting room and leave it finished in the sitting room. No human contact except for the monthly examination with Brother Blood.
.
Finally, I hear the faint beep of the door locking above me. I climb on top of my desk and tap a ruler on the ceiling vent. Whoever is up there freezes.
"Hello?" I whisper. I hope the sound carries.
It does! "Hi," he says cautiously. "They didn't mention anyone else living here."
"They never do," I mutter softly. "How old are you?"
"Twelve."
"I'm eleven. You're lucky. You missed the monthly examination." I mime a gagging motion, exaggerating the sounds.
"What monthly examination?"
.
Every month, Brother Blood calls me into his office and checks to see if my powers have manifested yet. I definitely have them, Brother Blood assures me, or he'd have never enrolled me into HIVE. So I have to demonstrate them in his office, and if I fail, I go back to my rooms. If I pass, I join the thousand or so students in the main HIVE Academy. The halls and rooms I live in are apart from the main building, and I've been here a long time.
"Mammoth. That's what my mother calls – " he chokes a little " – called – me, lovingly. I'm sure." He sounds wistful.
"I'm Jinx." I choose to ignore the comment about his mother. It'll be easier for him to get over it. "So, what's your power?"
I always ask whenever someone moves in. Maybe it'll give me a clue to my own powers. Not too many have moved in, and it's hard to tell when there is someone new. They think that if we're bored, we'll start experimenting with our powers. Thus, no human contact at all.
They even schedule everything to the second to make sure no one meets another soul. But sometimes, when all the rooms on my floor are full, they move people on the second floor, where Mammoth must be. The brothers obviously don't check for vents, like mine, or they'd have never moved him there. I have talked to others before, though. I just have to slip a piece of paper, folded 8 times before the electronic door locks, and hope the brothers don't notice. The door to the hallway is hardly anything special, since they think they're the only ones who can go in and out as they please.
There was a young five year old, boy three years ago who never stopped crying, and another girl who absolutely refused to show her powers to Brother Blood. But I never saw them after a few months. They must have gone on to the Academy. Lucky.
.
"I'm strong. I eat a lot. Not too smart." He says. "Clumsy."
"You'll pass the monthly examination for sure." Brother Blood loves muscle. "But if you know already, why aren't you in the main building?"
When you meet Brother Blood for the first time, you either show him your powers and immediately get put into one of the dorms or you come here if you can't. Like me.
.
"I fought against the monks who were supposed to bring me here. I didn't know what was happening." He falls silent. "Gonna explore now."
"Okay." I whisper cheerfully. He may have been dismissing me (because, really, what fun could there be in exploring three rooms?), but I've never talked to someone for so long. Usually, I have to go in the middle of the night and only when half the brothers are in Jump City retrieving supplies, instead of patrolling the corridors. These nights are scheduled randomly, too, so I take pride in that. I'll be a wonderful villain.
.
Another week of boring homework, meals, and staring at the walls goes by. Of course, there's Mammoth, but he's not very talkative. And he says his homework takes a long time; even though he's older, he's doing homework five levels below mine. Of course, I'm a grade ahead of others my age, but still.
.
There's a sharp rap at my door. It's not meal time and my work's due tomorrow. What is it? A moment later, I hear one of the brothers step into the hallway and the electronic door slides open, much sooner than usual. A folded piece of paper has been left on my table.
Make yourself presentable in ten minutes. Brother Blood has asked for you.
This, by all accounts, is unusual, since I just saw him last week, when I failed his examination again. I pull on slacks, since I just lounge around in my pajamas. I feel all of eleven when I stiffly stand, waiting.
"Jinx," says Brother Blood. "This is Mammoth, a resident on the second floor."
Mammoth is tall and bulky and a bit … furry. I can see why his mother nicknamed him Mammoth. So this is my friend, whose crying I pretend not to notice late at night. We shake hands, feigning the awkwardness of the first meeting. Brother Blood smiles at the door.
"I have a new test for you, Jinx, and I think it'll be very effective."
The brothers wheel in a large tank of water. It glows eerily. And suddenly I'm yanked off my feet and plunged into the tank. I can barely see or hear but there is one thing I hear clearly: the lid of the tank shutting with a click. Trapping me in.
.
I blink once and try to keep my eyes open, but it's difficult. I see flashes of what's going on outside of my freezing prison. Brother Blood looks expectant. Blink. Mammoth is stunned, then I see him pulling his hand back. Blink. His fist is right at my face. Blink. I'm gasping for air but only bringing in water. My vision flickers between the scene and darkness. A final flash of light fills my sight. A loud crack. I crumple.
She is small and pale and cat-eyed. She is slight. We shake hands and she feels so soft. Weak. Her pink pigtails swing around her face when we both turn to see a fish tank wheeled in. Only it is taller and circular. And then Jinx is dropped in by her ankles, so fast I'm stunned when the lid is put on.
She's gonna die.
Unless I do something.
Air bubbles float from her mouth as she tries to breathe in. She blinks, trying to keep her eyes open. My fist moves before my mind does and smashes into the glass. I see cracks form and spread like a spiderweb. I feel relief, a second hit should break her out. Then the cracks disappear and a monitor flashes a number at me. 16126 N. And the tank is still intact.
The last thing I see before a blinding pink light comes from the tank is Brother Blood's greedy face.
After the light fades away, Jinx is sprawled on the floor, water seeping into the carpet and the room. Brother Blood's face isn't greedy anymore, it's pleased.
"Congratulations!" he says.
Jinx coughs. She shivers.
Brother Blood impatiently gestures for the monks to bring us away. He says one last thing.
"Welcome to HIVE Academy!"
.
.
.
.
A/N: I'm also planning on updating 3.5 minutes, only I felt like this more. Anyway, read and review. Open to suggestions. Open to character suggestions as well. Sorry about the periods, as usual, the enter key cannot be used to skip lines.
Planning on going through years at HIVE! Since Jinx starts at 11 here, and Lightspeed takes place when she's 15 (in my Titans-verse), that's four years of fun. Thanks for reading!