Chapter Two:

The Grand Tour

Already, it'd been an hour since the train had stopped at the station and let us off. Trish immediately led us to the girl's dorm and showed us where our rooms are after we'd found out that we had assigned rooms. Vi and I weren't in the same room, but I didn't mind. Just as long as my roommate didn't annoy the living daylights outta me, I was content.

And then, Trish told Vi and I to wait while she went to see when the opening ceremony would be. That was half an hour ago.

"Did she die on the way?" Vi complained, falling onto my bed. "God, you'd think that she was kidnapped and went on a grand adventure while we're waiting here!"

I shrugged. "Well, we're not gonna go after her. She knows this place better than we do."

Vi propped herself up on her elbows and frowned at me. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Over there," I said, pointing absolutely nowhere, "with the last shit I gave."

Vi frowned. "Ha, ha. My sides're splitting."

"I'd be disappointed if they weren't." I tapped my chin in thought. "Hey, Vi, maybe you can tap into the school's security cameras. See where Trish is."

Vi grinned. "Now, why didn't I think of that before?"

It took Vi a few minutes, but she managed to get into the cameras "heads", as it were. I waited patiently while she did, tapping my fingers on the bed to make a quick beat. I loved music, but I didn't see how I could get into it without making a total fool of myself. Suddenly, Vi's head jerked upward.

"Trish!" she yelled.

I practically fell off the bed at her outburst. "W-What?"

"Trish's in trouble! Some people… I think I recognize some of 'em from the train!"

I leapt off of the bed and grabbed Vi's wrist, dragging her along with me out the door. "Where is she?"

"I thought you didn't want to go lookin' for her!" Vi exclaimed.

"She's in trouble! I'll make an exception! Now where is she?"

Vi pointed. "Behind the library. Follow me!"

We ran swiftly through the campus, avoiding other students who were headed to the main hall. By the time we reached the library, it was evening.

"D'ya think we missed the entrance ceremony?" Vi asked as we rounded the corner.

"Probably. I'm not so sure though," I replied. "C'mon; we're almost there!"

We slowed and peeked around the corner. No one. Not a single thing. Only trees.

"Are you sure that you got it right?" I asked Vi.

She pointed to a camera. "See that? I'm not wrong."

"Then that means they got away with it." Inside, I felt so useless that it felt like nothing mattered. That was a whole lotta useless. "We should investigate the area."

"Who made you Sherlock Holmes?" Vi asked sarcastically. "Fine, but we'd better hurry. We don't want anyone coming back to clean up any mess they left."

Vi and I looked around carefully, but the best I found was a bit of blood on the bricks. It was still fresh.

"You wouldn't happen to be a beast Conduit, would ya?" Vi asked. "Because, if you are, we can find 'er with just that."

I frowned. "No, I'm not a beast Conduit. Damn, maybe you can tap into the security camera again and see what happened?"

"It'll only go back so far without anyone in the security room noticing," she said.

"Well then, we'd better stop wasting time."

Vi nodded and concentrated. A few seconds later, her face scrunched up, letting me know that she was in. When she opened her eyes, she smiled.

"It isn't Trish's blood. A guy rushed at 'er and she flipped over him like a ninja. He rammed his face into the wall and got a nosebleed." Vi giggled. "Gotta hand it to 'er; she's good at acrobatics."

"She was—is—a gymnast. Going on twelve years now, right?"

"Mhm." Vi rubbed her forehead. "Maybe we should head back to the dorm."

"If we can find our way back," I said. "We can probably ask for directions. I'm sure that there's someone still out here."

My hunch proved right; there was a boy about our age reading on a bench. Okay, I admit, he was kinda cute, but I could tell that Vi was already head-over-heels for him, so I ignored it. He had wavy blonde hair that barely reached his shoulders and really nice blue eyes, but his complexion showed that he rarely went out in the sun.

"Hey! Excuse me!" Vi shouted from across the yard.

He looked up as we were getting closer and smiled. "Yeah? What's up?"

"We're looking for the girl's dorm," I explained casually. "Can't seem to find it."

The boy glanced quickly at his page and shut the book. "Well, I can help. I've got nothin' to do until the entrance ceremony."

So we haven't missed it, I thought with relief. "Thanks, we appreciate it."

He shrugged. "Well, I do what I can to help out first-years." He extended a hand. "James Alexander. Call me Jay."

"Kayce," I replied, taking his hand and shaking it. "Just Kayce."

"And I'm Violet," Vi said as he extended the courtesy to her. "But everyone calls me Vi."

"Well, Vi and Just Kayce, follow me."

I facepalmed as Vi snickered. In a few minutes, Jay had led us all the way back to the girl's dorm. I wondered why it'd taken so long for us to get to the library in the first place, but then I remembered that Vi's sense of direction was about as bad as a super-villain's chances to take over the world.

"And here we are. Maybe you'll remember the way now," Jay chided playfully. "This place is easy to navigate once you get used to it. And that doesn't take much, believe me."

"Thanks!" Vi exclaimed gleefully. "Maybe we'll get to see you again?"

"I don't doubt it. I mean, I'll get to see you two when you step up on the stage for the entrance ceremony, right?" He smiled when we nodded. "Well then, I need to get ready for the ceremony. It's always great to see new students come to the school."

We waved when Jay walked away. Vi was the first to go inside, and as I looked over my shoulder at Jay, he'd turned around and smiled one last time. I followed Vi in and sighed.

"Well, maybe Trish is—."

"There you are!" Trish exclaimed as she descended the steps of the girl's dorm. "I've been looking everywhere for you! The entrance ceremony's about to start, so we gotta go!"

"We don't have to wear fancy clothes, do we?" Vi whined.

Trish shook her head and shoved us out the door. "Nope. It's pretty casual. Now, let's hurry up!"

I wanted to ask Trish about what'd happened. Why was she attacked? Who attacked her? Why would someone do it so stupidly in front of a security camera? But I didn't ask. Unlike mom, I wasn't exactly the adventurous type. I remembered, when I was little, mom used to take us to the most remote places just so we could spend some time together and learn about the world. I didn't exactly dislike it, but I didn't prefer it, either.

Finding out my mom was a Conduit was probably one of the hardest moments in my life, actually. Mom and I didn't have any secrets between us, and learning that she actually did nearly ripped me apart. I was angry at her, at first, but then dad managed to convince me that it was to protect Jace and I. Unfortunately, I got a bit angry at my mom afterwards after learning that someone had written an entire comic book series about her, and to keep it hush-hush that it was actually my mom, they titled it "Heat". Thank-you, MARVEL Comics. You know more about my mom than I do. Then again, Trish's dad, Cole, got his own comic book deal. He didn't want a fancy name. Uncle Alec, however, said that if anyone tried to make him into a comic book character, he'd shoot them in the head. Instead, he makes regular guest-appearances in mom's and Cole's comic books. The fans are petitioning to see more of Alec, but the editors know how good of a shot Uncle Alec is with a sniper-rifle.

The main hall was… well, it was big. There were chairs set up in neat rows for the students, while the faculty sat at the front behind this massive table. I could swear it was mahogany. I wasn't sure if all the teachers were Conduits, since there weren't many of us, but I didn't mind. We needed a few normal people around. Or, at least, I thought we did. I wasn't sure about everyone else.

"You guys have to stand over there," Trish said, pointing to the mass of other first-years. "They'll call your name and order you into different teams. They'll explain, since I really don't have much time to find a seat." Trish waved. "See you guys back at the dorm. And have fun up there! I'll be watching, and I hope you're on my team!"

I was confused. How could they order us into teams? What teams?

"This is sounding like a movie I saw once…" Vi mumbled as we walked to the first-years.

"What movie?" I asked.

"It was called 'Harry Potter'. This crazy-ass hat sorted the first-year kids into different houses that they'd represent. At least, I think the concept's the same, only they were Wizards."

"Hey, we're people with superpowers. There's barely a difference."

Vi and I stood together in the mass of first-years. A few of them actually looked older than us, but I decided that it was probably because of the type of Conduit they were. I'd noticed that, upon getting my powers, that I'd grown a bit taller in the past week, and I'd had other… significant changes.

"Well, here we go," Vi muttered.

I nodded. "Yep. Maybe this'll actually work out."

"What d'you mean by that?"

"Maybe there won't be a big-ass disaster, because anything involving a large school with super powered humans seems like it'd bring some sort of disaster."

Vi shrugged. "True dat."