Ben10 & Digimon Tamers

Heroes and Humanity

Part 01: Heroes and Humanity

Chapter 10

Originally Written: November 26, 2011 510PM to November 27, 2011 - 742PM

"Professor?"

Albedo looked up from his chili fries. He propped his head up on his hand against the table. His chili fries lay untouched amongst a slew of pens, pencils, spiral notebooks, binders, laptops, tablets and textbooks. Said table was fully occupied by young teenagers working studiously.

Gradually over the weeks, the number of Albedo's prospective "students" rose from four to about sixteen at any one time. All through the grapevine flowed stories of failing students coming across a teacher, and within a few sessions, their grades improving considerably. As it stood now Albedo had to set down some ground rules:

1. First come first serve; I've better things to do. If the table is full when you arrive don't think you'll stand about like a low ranking animal waiting for a scrap of knowledge from the table.

2. With that said, don't you come if your guardians don't know you'll at least be here. I won't be sued because one of you brats didn't say anything and they believed I kidnapped you like the fools they'd probably act like if they discovered one of their children were missing.

3. Yes, I can cuss, don't do so in front of me. I'm assuming your guardians have raised you to be somewhat civilized. Elder's versus young brats and all that other nonsense.

4. No shenanigans is what I'm saying for the really slow people.

5. No, I'm not asking if we're clear on this. If you're not you can find someone else for this task.

He looked at the shy girl sitting next to him. From what he understood, not that he cared, she absolutely insisted on being educated even though her failing eyesight made it nearly impossible for her to be taught by traditional means as she also insisted. She was working towards using her intelligence for an academic competition in the hopes of winning some funds to help pay for the operation costs to repair her sight. She looked up at him through her thick glasses.

Albedo waved his hand. She handed him the small netbook members of the growing study group pitched in for her. There were only sixteen teens here from Albedo's knowledge but from what he understood these teens actually had a head on their shoulders and spread the information he gave them to other students. He met someone new approximately every two weeks. He didn't keep good track of them. He had too many things to do besides that.

He checked her answered over as he listened to the students helping each other out whispering to each other. A smile came to his face. Her technique for solving the questions was usually not traditional, but she usually got them right regardless. She would start off with the technique he or her teacher taught and a few problems later deviate off to something that wouldn't make sense to someone without Albedo's intelligence levels.

He took the stylus and touched the screen, correcting the problems. He figured she didn't really need tutoring, but rather the teachers thought they were holier than thou, didn't understand her thought process and figured this half blind chick somehow had eyesight good enough to copy someone else's answers.

He looked over to her. She was still looking at him, "What?"

"Are you alright Professor." She whispered.

Albedo raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"You're nicer than usual."

The boy next to her snickered. Albedo leaned forward and set a stern glare his way. The boy "meeped" and slumped in his seat returning his attention to the work. Albedo leaned back, sitting normally.

The girl sat twiddling her thumbs, "It just seems like there's something on your mind..."

"The fact that there appears to be something on my mind," Albedo slid the netbook in front of her, "doesn't change the fact you got questions three, five and twenty-nine wrong. I'll give you fifteen because you're only off by five. That's a three, not an eight. Not bad out of thirty."

"Thank you professor." She nodded her head low. The teens next to her and Albedo had turned their attention to them.

"Are any of you done?" Albedo grabbed a couple of chili fries smirking as they went back to work. Chewing, he folded his hands under his chin. He lowered his eyes in thought, staring at the chili fries.

Jenrya had purchased them for him before quickly running off to his appointment. Albedo tapped his foot against the ground. If he was honest with himself, they didn't taste as good this time. He grabbed another fry and popped it in his mouth. Then he wrapped up the rest. The moments ticked on slowly and he wasn't quite sure why.

He looked at the teen sitting across from him. Decked out in a myriad of bright colored clothes, accessories (bracelets, rings, a few chokers), black nail polish and a hint of makeup you had to look closely to notice, the male looked as though he dressed in blinding light and just grabbed whatever he could reach. His blond hair was wild, just barely tamed by the sweatband/hat thing on his head. At least he was easy on the eyes, unlike some of the girls. He didn't even care what the style of dress was called.

The boy looked up from his work. He shied under Albedo's gaze. He looked up at his friend sitting on Albedo's side.

'I'm not interrupting him,' The boy mouthed.

The brightly dressed boy straightened his back and broadened his shoulders. He stared at Albedo, locking his eyes to Albedo's red ones. He breathed in deeply, yet silently.

"What are you doing?"

The boy jumped so much he dropped his pencil, "Y-you were staring-."

"If you don't like me looking at you, you shouldn't have taken that seat."

One of the older teens pushed a few strands of hair from her eyes, "No disrespect Professor, but would you please go see him already," her eyes glinted as Albedo looked at her in confusion.

"Excuse me?"

"You're always with Mr. Wong. He left on some errand and you've been flipping between jerk and nice guy ever since. You gave us like sixty questions. We'll be fine 'till you get back."

The other teens burst out into snickers and giggles.

"Man, I thought I was the only one who noticed that."

"It's so cute."

"I can't believe you said that to his face."

Albedo stared at the girl. She reminded him of a strange cross between Rika and Kazu, if that were possible. He stood quietly grabbing the chili fries, "I'm not bailing any of you out of prison, got it?"

The students watched him walk away. When he disappeared from view nearly all the teens pulled out cellphones and other communication devices.

"Akira, we got him to leave. The next exam is like two weeks from now, on the twenty-ninth. After that the next test is...next year? Are we doing it now?" Saya, the one who got Albedo to leave looked at him.

"This is a pretty big leap, Saya," Akira, from the diner Albedo had stayed at the other night spoke, "My mom says he needs a place of residence in order to do it, and-"

"Shit..." Saya paced, "I don't think he has one."

A boy sitting next to her shrugged his shoulders, "Mr. Wong or someone is taking him in on a regular basis now, unless the owners here started kicking him off the property. Tell 'im to chuck down their address."

Saya smirked, "Heard Jay? That just may work."

Aimi, the girl with the glasses, spoke, "But if he's caught won't he be rejected or imprisoned?"

"Dude's a fucking genius." Another boy spoke up, "Any district he gets into will be stupid to fire him. We've got Ken Ichijouji post Sam's passing pre-digidestined good guy here."

Saya put her phone on speaker.

"What if he gets it and is transferred to another city?" A younger girl questioned, "For the first time ever I'm getting an A in Math. I don't want to lose that."

"We can ask him not to, but if we're gonna do this he needs time to prepare." Akira spoke over the phone.

"Prepare for what?" A few teens asked.

"You heard James. He's a genius."

"He's homeless. This is a prestigious test we're helping him sign up to take. Him wearing what he wears now to the exam is like going to the T'elos wearing a school uniform." Saya rolled her eyes.

"He'll be rejected before he gets through the door."

"Forget through, how about to the door? Brother needs a suit and I'm out on funding for that. My mom thinks I spent my money on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3." Kyle smacked his head on the table, "Fuck man, I needed that shit so bad."

The surrounding students watched him repeat the process for a little while.

Saya sighed, "Look, we don't have time for debate. This can't wait until the next meeting. He won't have enough time. You're gonna show up Akira?"

"You betcha."

"Don't forget the forms."

"I'm only stupid in math and science."

Saya stood up on her chair. She clapped her hands twice silencing the group. Tell everyone to meet right here in a," she looked at her watch, "half hour good?" There were a few moments of conversation and then a chorus of nods and sounds of affirmation. "Great!" Saya sat back down, "Half hour it is Akira."

"I'll be there Saya. He's not gonna believe this."

A/N: If I remember right, the wildly dressed boy is either inspired by a photo I saw of the singer Miyavi, or the group LM.C, both based outta Japan. -refreshes her memory- Ah! Visual Kei style. Yes, this story is a bit...old.