Author's Note: I own nothing!
23 Instruction
Cooper smiled nervously out at the classroom. He'd been at the Plumber Academy for barely a week and was already being asked to show his inventions to several of the classes. This particular invention was relatively new and he couldn't claim all the credit for it. He'd just finished sharing how he'd put the gun together and was now showing them the video he'd taken of Jen testing the weapon. A whisper had rippled through the classroom at the sight of her. The whole Max Force had learned quickly that Jen was something of a hot topic around the academy. Many a cadet had originally joined because of Jen's initial defeat of Vilgax. Manny was a little peeved to learn that a large portion of their tactics course included being able to adapt on the fly and often used Jen as an example. Cooper watched the recording smiling to himself at the appreciative gasps as the DNAlien skin sluffed off revealing an unharmed human.
'But I have enough for seven, if we're lucky.' Jen on the recording nodded to Cooper.
'Between all of us that will have to be enough.'
'We have seven people against an army?' The recording cut off here, with Jen reaching over and shutting off the recorder. Cooper flicked a finger at the screen which went completely dark. The room was silent as the lights came back up.
"Any questions?" He asked hoping there weren't any. He wasn't so good at talking to groups of people although the academic setting did help. A few appendages shot up. Cooper pointed at the werewolf like alien.
"Did she really head an assault against the Highbreed with only seven people?" Murrmers echoed around the room and the professor cleared their throat.
"Keep it relevant to the course please, this is advanced mechanics not tactics." They did look curious though, multifaceted gold eyes glancing at the holo-box in Coopers hand as though hoping he had recorded the battle.
"It's fine with me Professor." The Necrofrigian sighed and nodded.
"Very well."
"There were eight of us present for the initial assault on the Highbreed base in Los Solidad. But I only had enough time to complete seven guns in time for the fight." The mutters swept though the room again. Cooper continued. "We did get some backup later when Magister Tennyson showed up with his team. Of four people." Cooper admitted that last part nearly silently but the admission echoed around the room. Another hand shot into the air. This one belonged to a bug-like alien who bore a distinct resemblance to a giant bipedal cricket. Cooper nodded and pointed at them.
"Yeah?"
"You guys fought the Highbreed with eleven people?" They sounded incredulous. Cooper shrugged.
"Technically ten, one of the people we had was less than trustworthy. He ran off not too far into the fight. And technically only Kevin, Gwen and Jen fought the Highbreed themselves the rest of us were using these guns to take out the DNAlien army." Another impressed murrmer passed through the room. A third hand lifted and Cooper nodded to the alien. This one he recognized as Rook Blonko the upperclassman who'd shown the rest of the Max Force around on their first day at the academy.
"I do not understand. Why did no one attempt to contact the Plumbers for additional assistance?" Cooper ran his hands through his hair.
"We did. Jen was sending the previous Magister in our sector regular updates. He never got back to her. He deputized her team and left. He was…" Cooper floundered. A new voice echoed around the room.
"I believe Jennifer's words describing him were, to quote verbatim, 'a fucking bureaucrat more interested in procedure than actually saving anyone.' She's not wrong." A small figure appeared on the Professor's desk. The class gasped. The Professor scrambled to clean the papers out of the way of Azmuth, the first thinker. The Galvan didn't spare him a glance though.
"You must be Cooper Daniels. I want to speak to you about these guns of yours." That was all the warning they got before Azmuth tapped a device he was carrying and he, Cooper and the information Cooper had brought to the presentation with him vanished in a teleporter beam. The professor rolled multifaceted eyes and let out a breath frosting the papers in their hands.
"The First Thinker of the Galvans everyone. Class dismissed."
