Spectrum: Act 1 recap

This chapter is to remind you guys (And me) of the current plot.

Spectrum Recap: Act 1

Maria Roth's parents were killed just after she got back home from school, when a Riftfallen Phoenix like creature burned down her home, she narrowly escaped with her life as she was placed in a hospital for the next 2 years to treat both her burns and the Ash Syndrome, a disease only people who get Ash, a magical artifact inside all Riftfallen inside of her bloodstream.

Maria; Who is now 15, gets out of the hospital and is sent to a boarding school, where she didn't make any friends, she heard of a school called Spectrum, a place where teenagers and adults can learn to combat the monsters themselves, since you have to be either a member of Spectrum or the Military to gain legal access to weapons, Maria joins for the sake of vengeance.

Her sister Sienna, a 5 year veteran at the school realizes that Maria is joining the academy and speaks to the higher ups to get her on her team, along with Maria's childhood friend and heiress to a large weapons manufacturing company, Lily Sterling, a somewhat tomboyish girl, Morgan Leland and a member of the house Goldshore, a remnant of the former collection of small fiefdoms that took up Rosewall before a counsel took over.

They hold a small fighting tournament using sword like weapons to gather information about how each one fares in physical combat, after losing two times in a row, Maria challenges Morgan to a fist fight instead, which the brash Morgan accepts wholeheartedly. Maria manages to win even with the size disadvantage thanks to a mixture of her recklessness and perseverance, but she pays the price and gets injured.

She wakes up to Lily in the hospital 3 days later, who helps her out of the hospital and lets them meet their sister team, a second team who will do missions the most often with them. This team had Jonah Delaney, a somewhat meek, but smart kid. Gabriel, who was friendly but also somewhat of a headcase, Erika Wolfe, who was friendly but quiet. And Florence Goldshore, Robin's younger brother and somewhat of a naive boy.

Sienna also introduces the other teams instructor, Ashley Willows; a woman missing one of her eyes. Thanks to Maria's injury, the exam was postponed a couple of days until she recovered from her head injury, but they are still able to get their weapons. Maria gets upset over her lack of funds and walks off after getting her weapon to go rest.

Morgan makes a quick detour to her old orphanage she grew up in, using some extra money Lily gave her to buy some food and donate it to them out of kindness. The kindly woman running the orphanage displays concern for her, but also notes her brother is seemingly missing. Morgan reassures her and leaves to go back to her dorm, where Robin tells her Maria is sleeping. Morgan complains to Robin after learning of her motivations that she was only in Spectrum to protect her brother, who seemed eager to go that she isn't motivated.

A week later, Maria has a nightmare and wakes up to realize that she was seeing a small apparition of a phoenix. This phoenix, named Gale, is a manifestation of a small amount of Ash from the phoenix after it partially possessed her as a last resort before it's defeat. It has somehow regained some aspects of his old personality and seems apologetic, Maria snaps and attacks it, partially destroying her room before storming off, where she finds Jonah. Jonah tells her to go eat to make herself feel better and she promptly agrees. She meets an Astrian named Cassandra and they get to know each other, sharing a sandwich before meeting up for her exam.

The exam is to retrieve a trophy hidden inside of a temple buried into a mountainside, they are given armbands that will extract them from the area if they're too wounded to continue. They get placed into pairs and everyone leaves in intervals of a couple minutes. Morgan and Lily, known to argue a bit about politics are paired together and it is nearly an hour of uncomfortable silence.

Morgan insults Lily over her inaction and the ethics of her father, Lily is insulted and it turns into a fight where Lily reveals that she was used to being bullied like this. Robin eventually shows up to stop the fight from getting any more violent, and Lily storms off wanting to quit. After leaving, Lily finds Maria, who convinces her to continue with her team instead.

Lily, Jonah and Maria are walking down the forest path before coming across a river, they attempt to cross it and are moderately successful until Jonah misses the rope and is carried downstream. Gabriel and Erika then arrive to come and help them, and they team up together to get to the temple. The sun sets and they are forced to camp for the night, Maria struggles to sleep and it awoken by the sound of Riftfallen wolves stalking the camp.

She warns the rest of her team and a skirmish ensues, everyone gets lightly wounded sans Maria, who's attempt at a gambit left her with a massive gaping wound in her arm that forces her vital warning to activate. This forces Maria to extract from the mission and leave the total group to 7. Lily gets a huge scar on one side of her face, but is still able to continue.

In the morning, they all arrive at the temple and head inside, they decide to split up in the labyrinthine temple to get each artifact, Robin and Lily leave together to discuss their lives and find it for themselves. They manage to get it, but it turns out that from the heavy rainfall the entire underground temple was really a sinkhole, and they were forced to hurry before it could collapse with them inside.

After waiting, everyone manages to get their relics and head back home safely.

Maria gets out of the hospital one night later, still quite wounded but able to walk, Sienna comes to meet her, but she's acting suspicious. Sienna asks Maria to come with her to Maria's dorm so they could discuss an issue together and Maria reluctantly accepts.

Sienna is worried about Maria's mental state, as her disposition is different from 2.5 years ago and it seems like she doesn't have a sense of personal safety, so she offers an ultimatum. Maria will leave Spectrum and go back to her school where she is safe, or Sienna will report her for mental issues and force her to leave instead. This upsets Maria, who then slaps Sienna and storms out of Spectrum in a rage presumably to rather quit than be kicked out.

Maria, now more calm and somber decides to visit said school to reminisce, before heading to her parents graves as she hasn't gone there before. Gale manifests and they discuss how his possession works, him revealing that since he technically possessed Maria, her being a living creature and possession being the main way Riftfallen tend to manifest, theoretically possible. Decides to tell her that he considers his lack of actions penance for him ruining her life.

Before returning to her boarding school, Maria decides to go look at her home one last time, even if it was rebuilt and repainted. She gets the feeling to explore the basement, since she's never been inside anymore. She finds the tattered remnants of her mother's scarf, and Ashley in a car who revealed that she's been following Maria at Sienna's request. Maria decided to go back to Spectrum under Ashley's team, instead of Sienna.
Lily also leaves Sienna's team to be with Maria, leaving them with Jonah and Gabriel, Maria's weapon is confiscated and she inherits Ashley's old weapon, named Sangris.

A couple of weeks later, Maria and her team decide to go eat lunch together, when Maria stops someone from bullying Cassandra. They have idle chat about school live and electives when Maria reveals that she's having some major money issues and doesn't want to rely on Lily for everything. Cassandra mentions they have an advanced cooking club that offers discounts and Maria gets psyched to join it.

Maria fails the cooking class horribly, so horribly she gets kicked out. Cassandra offers some condolence but Maria finds out a bout a club for people who like to fight, and as a boxing fan, Maria decides to join it. She finds Morgan as a member and a strange teacher named Sebastian Ritters manning the whole thing. The woman who was bullying Cassandra earlier said she was going to be there, so Maria challenged her to a fight as soon as she saw her.

The fight is vicious, but thanks to Maria's built in toughness and the anti-advice of Morgan, the fight ends in a draw and Maria gets to stay. Then thanks to Lily, she gets a pet cat, Snowy, along with a set of depressing and hypnotic cooking DVD's to watch to help her be more self sufficient.

Physical training begins and after 5 months of work, their training begins on using their weapons Pulse ability. Pulse being the main way to combat monsters, Gabriels sister dies in a Riftfallen attack, and is forced to leave Spectrum to be with them. Caleb, a childhood bully of Jonah joins the team in his stead and to Jonahs protests, and they continue their training after Morgan's team leaves.

Morgan gets a phone call just after training by her brother, Nick, to meet him outside of the school for a private conversation. Nick reveals to her that he was working for the Rosewall syndicate, but ended up being intimidated into joining a terrorist offbranch of the syndicate and was afraid to leave, saying that it'd be best for Morgan to consider him dead. Morgan gets upset as he walks off, but Lily encounters her and they make up for their spat over 5 months ago, Maria gets nachos.

A week later, Maria has her birthday just before the end of the year. After training, Maria heads back inside to find that her sister brought her a cake and wished to speak with her. We find out that both sides felt bad about the entire situation with Maria leaving the team, and also decide to try and make amends even if the situation was still rocky between the both of them, Lily gets Maria a cat sweater.

Morgan asks the head of Spectum, Chancellor Steele to consider assistance for saving Nick from being in the terrorist organization, Silent fall. But she is disappointed to find out that he only asks her to recuse herself and have him go to jail instead. They get an emergency signal and are requested to join their first mission.

They are briefed that while they aren't strong enough to wipe out the riftfallen in the area, that they could run evacuation on people who were currently trapped in a mall. They get on the helicopters and are deployed in the area. The mission goes smoothly until a mother reveals she left her son and husband in the mall, Maria decides to go get them.

The husband is dead, but thanks to her and Gale, they manage to get the boy to come with her after she finishes off some stragglers by herself. They are forced to sneak around the alleyways due to a resurgence in Riftfallen as Lily gives them a distress signal and requests for help, Maria too trapped to help her.
Lily attempts to stop a robbery of a store, only to find out that Maria couldn't come and she was vastly outnumbered. The leader of the robbers reveals that he is Wolf, the leader of Silent Fall. He explains his motivations and promptly knocks Lily out using his goons, and Lily is extracted from the mission. Maria encounters a huge group of monsters and tries to lure them to fight her in small groups while issuing a distress signal.

Help arrives and Maria and her team manage to get back to the extraction point with the boy safe, Maria goes to check on them before leaving herself.

3 days later, Caleb adopts a dog named Sasha and tells Maria to come see him and Jonah for a surprise later, Maria goes to pick Lily up from the hospital. Lily was disheartened by her lack of ability, and Maria is forced to attempt to give her some confidence. They head back to the dorm to a surprise party with drinks and ice cream, but are forced to sit at the kids table as a prank. Maria gets mad and leaves as Lily notices that Morgan is missing.

Morgan, later that night goes downtown to meet the leader of the syndicate, Stella Rousell. She explains that the leader of Silent Fall is a man named Elliot, and offers her a cell phone in exchange for her assistance in saving her brother, as Spectrum won't lift a finger for her. Morgan agrees before leaving to await her phone call to reveal what exactly she's going to do.

Spectrum #14: Smile

Spectrum: You put that **** on everything.

Chapter 14: Smile

Maria yawned and sat up out of her bed, now on the lower bunk instead of the top because she constantly fell out of it. Snowy climbed off of her lap and ran over to drink some water as Maria rubbed her eyes. She felt extremely sore, but she was pretty used to waking up feeling like she was about to split in half from just how much they've been forcing her to work out along with training and sparring with the fighting club. She didn't bother to make her bed and just pulled open her drawer to find her uniform for the day.

She glanced up at a mirror, realizing that she hasn't cut her hair in five months as it was getting down to her neck and shoulders in length, but was still somewhat unkempt since all she did was comb it. “Morning!” Lily spoke from a desk with a small chair to Maria's left. She looked up at her while rubbing a free eye. She was sitting at the table, writing in a small book with a cup of coffee in a white mug sitting beside it. She took a sip as Maria walked over to glance over her shoulder. “What are you doing?” She said, groggily.

“I kind of forgot I was supposed to do a journal.. I guess all the working out got me distracted.” She replied and sat the mug back down while writing in the journal. Maria felt kind of cold since unless you shut the blinds, the cold early winter air would start to seep through the big window in their dorm room, so she started to put on her shirt and jacket along with her dress pants to have less skin hitting the air than her normal sleeping gear of pajama pants and a tanktop. “Journals are for children, Lily. Aren't you old enough to not write one?” She said, leaving her jacket unbuttoned as she sifted around for her scarf.

“Well.. I chose to write one because I could. You're never truly too old for anything.” She argued with a friendly tone, shaking her pen since the ink is slowly beginning to run dry. It was the same one she was using for her history classes. “Well I'm just condemning you by saying it's pointless.” Maria snarked back, slinging her long red scarf around her neck. She wasn't usually the type for style, she doesn't wear make up or do much to make herself look any different from day to day, but she wore that scarf nearly every day since it was repaired.

“...Where did Jonah go?” Maria asked, noticing that he was oddly absent, he usually wakes up at about the same time she does. Lily finished her coffee and turned her chair to face Maria. “He left early to go see Ashley.” She answered, Maria walking to the door and pulling it open as Lily quickly got out of her chair and stared up at her. “H-hey! I'm not ready yet!” She stammered, but Maria lightly shrugged her shoulders as she turned to face her. “I'd rather just get this over with.” Maria answered before shutting the door behind her.

Lily huffed and finished the rest of her journal quickly, running out of the door to catch up with Maria, who was just walking down the red carpeted staircase. “...What do you want for your birthday, Maria?” Lily asked Maria, as Maria's birthday was actually only a couple of days away. “My birthday...?” Maria drifted off a bit when she spoke, she actually forgot her own birthday was coming up so soon. “Yeah Maria... Your birthday, it's on Memoria, remember?” Lily reminded her, Maria looking away as they head out the front door. The blast of cold air hit both of them and made them shiver. It was cold, but not snowing. It's the kind of sharp cold you could only get when there was clear skies.

“I can't believe I forgot...” Maria commented, was it not that important anymore? She was born on a national holiday so it usually overtook her birthday in importance, but she's not sure she celebrated a birthday since the year her parents passed away. It was quite miserable in that hospital she stayed in.

“It's fine Maria. People usually pick the national holidays over some random person's birthday.” She consoled Maria, who shrugged her shoulders as they walked down to the parking lot, the area they were supposed to meet. Jonah was sitting on a chair as 5 more people were speaking to each other and began to walk away from him.

It was consisting entirely of familiar faces, Sienna, the instructor. And her students, Erika, Florence, Robin and Morgan. They stopped just beside Maria and Lily to speak to one another since it didn't appear that Ashley had arrived. “Hello you two.” Robin said with a smile, Lily smiled and nodded her head. “Hey Robin!” She greeted her with a smile, but then turned to face Morgan. “Hey, Morgan.” She also spoke, she was still trying to get Morgan to slowly try and make up with her by just being friendly, Morgan lightly nodded her head to acknowledge her. “Hey.” She replied flatly, there was no disgust or disdain like there used to be, but it was still nowhere near a friendly atmosphere.

“Sienna taught us so many cool things, Lily! I didn't know pulse did so many things.” Florence said with the excitement of a school girl, bouncing on his toes and clenching his fists in joy. Lily gently nodded and gave a friendly smile. “I'm excited, too.. I can't wait to actually learn how to fight monsters like a real Slayer.” She replied, gently brushing some of her blonde hair out of her eyes as the winter winds blasted the cold morning air. “Good luck, you two.” Morgan said, reaching up to punch Maria casually on the shoulder as they left.

Well, most of them left, Maria usually just chuckled at Morgans light roughhousing since it was a friendly gesture, but she couldn't break her stare from Sienna. As she was just glaring down at her younger sister with her icy blue eyes. Maria glared back at her, slightly narrowing her eyelids as they quietly leered at one another with no silence. While this was only for a brief couple of seconds, it felt like almost an hour for both of them, including Lily. The air got uncomfortably cold for Lily, the hairs standing on the back of her neck as she knew the situation between the both of them was never patched up. It was just a glare of disrespect for each other.

“...Later.” Sienna spoke tersely, breaking eye contact and walking away without saying a single word more. Maria watched her leave as Sienna lightly slung her long white coat over a shoulder, turning a corner to get back to her own group. “W-what was that for?” Lily quietly asked Maria, who just turned back and walked toward the bench with Jonah sitting in it. “It doesn't matter right now.” Maria shrugged off the question as Jonah smiled, standing up to wave at both of the girls. “You finally made it!” He said with a mixture of joy and impatience, his longer hair pulled back into a somewhat loose ponytail to keep his long bangs from getting in his eyes.

“Yeah, sorry we're late Jonah. Maria slept in again...” Lily commented as Maria quickly glared at her with a grumpy sneer. “Hey, screw you...” She complained, but Lily just gave a teasing chuckle as Maria folded her arms and looked away. “Eh, it's fine really. She isn't here yet anyway.” Jonah commented, standing up and stretching as Lily walked over to sit on the same bench. “What were the others here for?” She asked him, her arms resting together on their lap as Maria started to practice her shadow boxing with the air while Lily and Jonah spoke to each other.

“They just got done with the instructor teaching everyone about how to use pulse, Sienna didn't want me to interrupt them so I just kind of sat here until they were done.” He explained, Lily stretching just a bit as she watched Maria try and smack around the air like it owed her some money. Lily glanced up and saw Ashley walking up with a large bag slung over her back, walking around Maria and placing it at their feet. “We're gonna need your weapons for this.” Ashley stated as she unzipped the bag, revealing she got all of their weapons beforehand.
Maria stopped striking at the air and knelt down to pick up her twin short swords, they were on a belt that wrapped around her waist, the sheathes crossing to make an X near her back to quickly pull out and slash in one motion. She quietly strapped them on as Lily grabbed the scabbard to her straight sword, holding it in one hand while Jonah grabbed his sword and buckler as Ashley began to address the three of them.

“Now, I didn't tell you three this since we were so busy with physical training.” She started, everyone now with their weapons properly sheathed and standing so their feet pressed together, backs straight on the cracked pavement of the parking lot. “And that is, I think you need to all understand the reality of this situation before we continue.” She added, lightly looking over the three of them. It's only been a week since Gabriel was forced to leave and Lily and Jonah were put down by it, though she couldn't really read Maria about it. “Gabriel is just an example of how things can never really go your way, so I feel you all need to know this final warning before we even begin to progress.” She warned, everyone looking at her and not yet asking a question. The air once again grew heavy as her expression grew dour.

“I want you to keep one thing in mind, do not be a hero. Heroes are reserves for comic books and children stories on the television. Heroes are the thing people tell you when they want you to feel like you have the potential to be special just by eating your vitamins and saying your prayers. You are NOT special, you will NEVER BE special. Just because the world is from your own perspective doesn't mean you're exempt of it's rules. You burn, you bleed, and you die.” She stated, slowly pacing between the three as they didn't break their gaze from her.

“Don't focus on being a hero, focus on your own self preservation; Because at the end of the day, your body is all that you get and there are no refunds. Every single time you get hurt is a bigger risk of you dying, and since dying is something you probably don't want.. keep this in mind. If you think that risking death is worth it if you become a hero, then you don't deserve to be here and you can leave if you wish. I implore you, please don't risk your life for a cause you don't believe in. I'd hate to see any of you get killed because of it.” She finished, stopping to look at the three of them. They gingerly nodded at her in agreement, though it seemed like no one was second guessing her speech.

“I want to hear from each of you the true reason why you're here, be honest about it and don't give me any bullshit about duty or honor... Everyone in life has a goal and being here isn't the place to hold your regrets.” She asked of the rest of them, Lily raising her hand so Ashley would recognize she wished to go first. “Go ahead, Sterling.” She observed, Lily taking a deep breath as she looked back at Maria. “...My father changed when my mother divorced him. He drowned himself in his own work that I don't think he could ever escape, he completely pushed me out of his life and.. every single day I realized that all I was to him was pretty much an extension to the lifespan of his company. I was just another Sterling, the fact that I'm Lily didn't matter.” She started to confess, Ashley placing her hands onto her shoulders as she listened, Maria lifting a knee onto the bench to rest her chin on it since she didn't feel like standing in the salute position for an hour.

“I... wanted out.” She stammered, gulping quietly as since it was the first time she admitted this to someone else, and it was proving to be a bit difficult. “But... No matter where I went, all I would be known as is the heir to someone who's holding a death grip on an entire market so he's the only competitor.. I would be a laughing stock if I tried to work somewhere modest like a library or a restaurant, they would see it as some kind of publicity stunt.” She continued, the cold making her shoulders shiver softly as the cold wind swept through the flat parking lot, making the leafless trees begin to creak behind her.

“I felt like Spectum was the only place where I wouldn't live under his shadow anymore, everyone knows I'm taking this seriously when I help rescue them from a burning wreckage, or a monster infested home...” She looked straight as Ashley as her eyes shone with a mixture of somber determination. “I'm here to earn everyone's respect, I'm here because I want to feel like this is a difference I've made in peoples lives without having to sling money at every problem and hope it goes away like the rest of the world tries to do.” She finished, walking back to the bench and take a seat. “That's plenty good enough, Lily.” She said with a smile, looking at the other two as Jonah stood up for his turn.

“Uhh... Well...” He stammered, trying to come up with the right words to say, before lifting a fist to his mouth to cough into it awkwardly as everyone stared at him patiently. “Uhh... Okay, here goes.” He recollected himself, smacking his cheeks with his face once or twice to get himself to focus. “My family history consisted mostly of people who entered the medical field. When your parents are super into something, you kind of pick up some knowledge from them before you even attempt to get training.” He spoke calmly, putting a hand on his heart to make it seem more important to him.

“Though... Eventually it got to the point where entering the medical field was pretty much family tradition, But, I was born with an immune deficiency and I grew up sick for most of my childhood. I was bullied and every lunch I had to pop down 10 pills along with the lunch my mom packed with me, I ended up being stuck with 'Pillboy' as my nickname.” He said with a forced chuckle at his own expense, though he didn't hear anyone laugh with him which made him quickly stifle it.

“It got bad enough that I had to drop out at 14, then I was pretty much stuck being home schooled while my mom and dad groomed me into being a doctor. I didn't like to have a constant expectation floating over my head that I'm forced to meet. It felt like I didn't get to choose what I wanted my life to turn into.” He explained, lightly lifting his arm to lightly rub his other shoulder in a fit of awkwardness. “I wanted to break away from the predestined thing and gamble how well I do, I'm tired of just being the school wimp...” He bowed his head, walking back as Maria stood up to take the spot he was in, though the look on her face just looked incredulous.

“...Do I really?” She asked, with some semblance of disrespect, she thought the entire thing was just cheesy and stupid, and to be honest she shouldn't really bother. “Yes, you do.” Ashley replied, leaning her weight onto one leg and shaking her head as she waited for her. “Why?” Maria asked in annoyance, Ashley chuckling and patting her once or twice on her head. “Having a goal is the most important thing you could have to actually make you work your best, You might as well give yourself one.” She chastised, Maria groaning and rolling her eyes before attempting to come up with a reason to be here.

“I'm here because I want the Riftfallen dead. They took something important away from me, they took something away something important from so many people that they deserve WHATEVER is coming to them. And I'm planning on giving them hell personally...” Maria began to rant, glaring back at the three people surrounding her as she spoke. “Yet, People always try to deter me from getting what I want. The teachers at the boarding school advised me to wait a couple of years before I joined because apparently this wasn't the wisest decision... They can go fuck themselves. My sister tried to take hold of my life and force me out of doing this in hopes to protect me... Fuck her too. Even the head council at Spectrum have chastised me for both my age and how I've been acting;” She continued to raise her voice, pacing the ground back and fourth as she used expressive gestures with her arms to facilitate her emotions. Her slightly rough but young voice becoming a bit more coarse as she yelled.

“And they can go fuck themselves too! I'm fucking sick of people telling me WHAT I WANT! I know what I want! I want them dead! Every single fucking one is on my list and I swear to the maker that I'll BURN THEIR EVERYTHING THAT THEY HAVE EVER LOVED! I WILL BURN THEIR FAMILY, AND THEIR WORLD, EVEN THEIR OWN GOD WITH MY OWN TWO FUCKING HANDS!” She began to scream at Ashley in a furor, Lily beginning to shivering from Maria pretty effectively losing her shit in front of her. “Is that enough motivation for you, you motivational book reading fuckwit!? DON'T YOU EVER DOUBT ME AGAI-” She choked before the last word as a pain began to erupt up her entire back, causing it to constrict along with her shoulders as a pain formed on her face.

She dropped to her knees and fell forward, face planting into the rocky asphalt underneath her as she began to growl in pain, hands lifting up to her face to keep it up. She began to cough viciously, an uncomfortable amount of blood spraying onto the ground below as she effectively hacked up a lung. “Maria!” Lily shouted, getting off the bench and kneeling down to place a hand on her shoulder, hoping to maybe help her out. “What's happening!?” She squeaked in a panic as Maria kept coughing up blood, before it finally subsided, though she was in enough pain to roll into one side and curl up into a ball.

“I forgot Maria suffered from Ash Syndrome.” Ashley stated, reaching down and rolling her onto her back so she looked up at the sky. “A symptom is severe pain along with some internal bleeding, which can either because at random times or caused by periods of extreme emotions...” She explained, Maria coughing some more before settling back down. “Knowing Maria's instability... It's kind of a lethal cocktail.” She stood back up and walked over to look at a nearby tree. Sticking her fingers into her mouth and blowing for a sharp whistling sound.

“What do we do!?” Lily asked still afraid of what was happening, holding Maria in her arms as she tried to push her off, she didn't like having people so close when she was pissed off. “It will subside, leave her be for now.” Ashley stated, Lily nodding her head and letting go of Maria as she shivered in a ball on the ground. From behind the tree, a man walked out. He was tall with a broad physique, his hair was a short but slicked back dark brunette, he had a scruffy face full of stubble, but not yet a fully grown beard. His eyes were brown and he was wearing the standard Spectrum student uniform. In one hand he was holding a large heater shield, in his other and he held an Axe, about big enough to swing with either one or two hands.

“Wow, I could hear one of you yelling from all the way over there.” He joked, placing his hands on his hips as he looked at Maria currently trying to recollect herself on the ground. Jonah looked up at him and squinted just a bit as he actually looked kind of familiar. He didn't exactly know why just yet but it was still a feeling he was getting. “Uhh... You okay miss?” The man asked, standing much taller than anyone else in the group. He even had 5 or 6 inches over Jonah in height, as he was the tallest one of the four by a couple of inches.

“Shit...” Maria muttered under her breath, finally feeling the pain subside as she stumbled back onto her feet, Lily offered to help, but Maria just lifted a hand to push her away. “And who the hell at you?” She asked as her eyes caught him in a glance, her arms rubbing her chest from it being still pretty sore. He grinned at her, pointing a thumb at himself as he announced himself like everyone knew who he was already. “Caleb Callahan, a pleasure to meet all of you.” He claimed, Jonah's face suddenly just sunk into a huge frown from the realization. “Oh god... Not you.” He exclaimed quietly as the tall brown haired man walked up to look down at him. “Hey there, Pill boy!” He said jokingly, Jonah just glaring down and away as he looked at him. “Oh come on, Jonah... No love for an old friend?” He wondered, Jonah looking up at him with a glare. “You were more of bully than a friend, Caleb.”

Caleb raised his brow at that, tilting his head to one side and lightly stroking his beard. “Oh come on, Jo. You're just exaggerating, aren't you?” He tried to brush it off, but Jonah got frustrated and pointed at him in accusation. “You beat me up and took my money whenever I had any, you called me names constantly and on top of all of that, you STUFFED ME INTO A LOCKER 17 times!” Jonah ranted, Glaring up at him as he raised his arms up and lightly waved them both to try and get him to back off. “Okay, okay, fine. I was pretty bad when I was a teen, okay? I had time to cool off..” He said, he was only 18 but it's been nearly 3 or 4 years now, at least they could admit that they've both matured.

“I dropped out and became home schooled because of your crap!” Jonah yelled at him, his hands trembling just a bit as he felt like his spine started to come back him. He felt like Caleb was going to punch him in the face, but it never came. “Wait, THAT'S why you left?” He wondered, being somewhat surprised that he could have had such a profound effect. “Yeah, I left because of you... You dipshit. Why are you even here?” He asked with some venom in his voice, some of Maria's derisiveness rubbing off of him after being around her for months at a time.

“I was actually here for about 2 years now, I heard you've joined from your parents only a month ago and I wanted to join your team when you had a spot opened.” He explained, Jonah frowning and looking away. “Gabriel left because his sister died and his parents wanted to be with him...” Jonah spoke with agitation, wondering how long he waited to take an opportunity. “I'm sorry about that, but you were down to 3 people, you can't be a team unless you have 4 or more people. This is so you guys don't get strapped with a stranger.” He tried to justify his actions, but Jonah just turned to walk away from him and walk over to the brick walled outskirts of the academy at the side of the parking lot. “I'd rather have a stranger.” He commented.

Caleb sighed to himself as Ashley shook her head from annoyance, looking at her students and speaking in a loud, commanding tone. “In line!” She shouted, they have had that command burned into their minds by the 5 months of military style training they've been undertaking, and all drop what they were doing to stand shoulder to should while Ashley began to pace between the four of them. “Caleb already knows this, but I'm gonna introduce the rest of you to the concept of Pulse.” She began to explain, looking up at everyone as Maria seemed to have calmed down and was listening as well.

“Pulse was invented by a man who realized that he had powers when wielding it, and eventually this was turned into one of the biggest advantages we have over the Riftfallen in the 40 years the rift has been opened.” She explained, vaguely mentioning Lily's father, Alexander Sterling. “The way pulse works is that having Red Ash near you allows you to propagate your own natural energy into two different forms. The first is the Pulse itself, the next is what can be referred to as 'magic.' The actual scientific term is long and boring and pretty much no one uses it unless you want bonus points for being formal on an essay or some crap.” That last comment got a chuckle out of Jonah, since he was used to practicing formal writing whenever his mother made him write anything.

“The most basic one is Pulse, which will be the one we learn first.” She said, stopping and drawing her blade to let it dangle in front of her while it rested in her left hand. “Pulse is comprised of the natural energy your body and soul uses to allow you to do basic functions. This is the same energy you use for your stamina, which means it's technically based on your metabolism. Making sure you have a decent sleep schedule and diet is crucial as it allows you to use your pulse and stamina more effectively.” She spoke to all three of them. To Maria, this all sounded a bit absurd to her, she's never seen how it works at all and it seemed so abstract and stupid that she couldn't wrap her head around how it could even work. “Keep in mind that using Pulse drains your stamina, so you each need to find a balance between magic, pulse and physical combat that suits your fighting style. Unless that is... you want to pass out.”
“Channeling your Pulse allows you to repel objects away from you, like an invisible armor. Though crafty Spectrum members have found out they can use Pulse to repel THEIR ENTIRE BODY away from the ground. This allows them to dash and leap at insane speeds, along with dampening their own descent speed to survive long falls with little to no damage, it's kind of like being your own spring loaded catapult.” She said, walking up to the tall Caleb and patting him on the shoulder. “Leap over that wall.” She ordered, He nodded and stepped forward.

“Caleb is going to show you guys an example, that wall is about 10 feet high and nearly impossible for someone to leap over. But with Pulse...” She trailed off, as Caleb broke into a run, planting his legs on the ground and bending his knees as what felt like a gust of wind blasted beneath his feet, before launching himself nearly 12 feet into the air, clearing the tall fence of bricks like it was just a speedbump. Maria just looked confused as much as Jonah was, but Lily's eyes lit up like diamonds. “Woooooooow!!! THAT WAS AWESOME!” She shouted like an excited 12 year old, hands to her face and bouncing on her feet to try and contain her joy. As Caleb leaped back over, landing in a 3 point stance before dusting his coat off from any excess dirt. “It's not a problem.” He said, finishing the sentence for Ashley.

“So... How the hell do we do it?” Maria asked, Pulling her twin swords from the scabbards strapped to her waist, spinning in both of her hands and using her typical reverse grip style, since they seemed more comfortable to her that way. Ashley smiled and gave a short laugh. “I enjoy the enthusiasm to try already... Focus your mind and imagine a fire near your heart. Push it away from you and towards wherever you need it.” She explained, lightly patting Maria on the shoulder as she was glad to see her fully recovering back to her normal, if grumpy, self.

“It's pretty abstract at first, but eventually it becomes something you don't even think about doing. It's kind of like breathing that way.. it becomes a thing on it's own.” She continued as Maria tried to concentrate, before breaking out into a run. She bent her knees and got ready to jump, but as she leaped, she realized that she DIDN'T USE PULSE AT ALL. Smashing face first into the wall hard enough that Lily thought she might need to be peeled off. She fell back onto the ground and stared up to the sky as her vision blurred from being suddenly dizzy.

“Well.. We have a lot of progress to make.” Ashley said, reaching down as Maria's vision realigned, leaning down to stick out her hand and help Maria back up. Maria stood back up and shook her head to try and recover a little faster.

“Well that was bullshit..” She commented sardonically, before Ashley went to begin the true training.

Spectrum Intermission: Winter

This chapter takes place between 13 and 14

Intermission 1: Winter
Decem 14, 534 Post Bellum
Journal Entry #39

“It's been so long since I've written in this journal. The last time I wrote in this was when I decided to leave for Spectrum. I can't believe it's been six months since I ran off from my home. There are so many things you lose track of when you join here, and one of those is time.

The next five months after we got accepted were devoted entirely to physical training and conditioning our bodies to actually be ready to fight real threats at the our physical best. We were woken up at 5 AM every morning by our instructor, typically with some kind of air horn which at first I feared to be waken up by, but eventually I became desensitized to it and it just started to get on my nerves. It got me up pretty consistently, so I guess that the airhorn is doing it's job.

The first thing we would do is go for a 10 mile run, this was required by everyone who was enlisted by Spectrum and mostly a requirement for the 4 month physical training period. The entire run would take about an hour, though at first it took me more than an hour due to just not being used to it. To be honest, I'm kind of surprised at how out of shape I actually was.

I mean, I thought I was healthy but as soon as I got about a week in I realized I'm kind of... weak. Eventually I was able to keep pace with Maria, I'm kind of surprised she spent so much time on her physical rehabilitation, but I guess when you have no family and spent all of your time cooped up in the hospital, all you do is run or work out.

The next thing was running along a pretty big obstacle course, it was full of things like jumps, swings, stuff to climb and sidle across to pretty much test your maneuverability. The first time I completed it.. I was in the bottom 20 with my total time. Keep in mind that there is currently 852 students at the academy so... that's pretty dismal to be honest. Maria eventually got into the top 40 times, since it's mostly a speed and agility test and she has that down pat. Jonah also scored as low as I did, though Gabriel managed to hit the top 100 as well.

After that, We do this weird thing called Yoga, it's mostly just stretching and breathing exercises. The rooms tend to fit about 50 people and ours is ran by a guy named Joseph Page, he seems excited about everything especially when it comes to doing glute exercises. Something about holding back the hands of time, that notion makes absolutely no sense and I wonder why they hire such eccentric instructors for all of these sections of physical training.

After that is sparring, we had wooden versions of our weapons made, though I swapped back to a straight sword when I realized that the Scimitar wasn't working out. Luckily for me, my fencing training is starting to integrate with the sword training I've been getting from Instructor Willows, I pretty much always win our little practice sword fights with other first year students, though sometimes I'm still surprised by how many different fighting styles people seem to have. It pretty much means I have to memorize each person's fighting style and how to beat them, which can be pretty mentally taxing and I'm sure no one else thinks about these things that much.

After all of that is EVEN MORE RUNNING, another 10 mile run to top it off. I understand that we need to be in fighting condition, but I was starting to get really bad blisters on my feet from just having to run constantly all day with only one break for eating lunch.

Maria's starting to get a little better, she still has her moments where she'll get mean or upset for no particular reason. She has this weird habit sometimes of not sleeping all night, just leaning against a chair and sipping a glass or water or a cup of coffee and not really looking at anything in particular. She's told me that it's mostly her not being able to sleep, though one or two times I heard her mumbling to herself, almost like having a conversation with someone who wasn't there. She doesn't seem to be getting worse or anything, so I guess you take the bad with the good.

She does a couple of things that seem just absurd to me if she's pretty much burning about 6 hours of workouts every single week. On top of that, every weekend she puts in about 2-4 hours in that fighting club she joined. At the end of the week, she's so drained I pretty much have to pull her out of bed. I guess the good thing that comes out of that is she just doesn't have enough energy to complain to anyone anymore.

Jonah is a bit odd sometimes, he seems a lot more solemn than he lets on. It's like as soon as he's done interacting with people he'll just sink his head and wander off somewhere alone for a couple of hours before coming back. I don't really know if something is bothering him because every time I ask, he'll just say everything is fine and thank me for caring. But how am I supposed to know what's wrong if he doesn't tell me?

He enjoys knitting club though, I'm really glad he's found something in his life that he can enjoy even when hes going through troubles like he is now. Otherwise, he's just been struggling with his physical training, apparently he was sick most of the time when he was a little kid and he grew up missing months of his school just not being able to leave the house. Luckily, his parents are both doctors and taught him a lot of stuff themselves.

Morgan is very taciturn with me, I don't think we've ever had a conversation longer than 2 or 3 sentences ever since that fight during our initiation exams. I could understand why with how irrational I got when she accused me of being a crook, but well.. You think one of us would try and patch it up already. I've tried but to be honest I'm actually a little nervous to do it, I keep thinking I'm just going to end up making things worse...

I'm not sure I've interacted much with Erika, though she seems very kind and helpful to her team and everyone seems to tolerate her pretty well, I would like to come hang out with her once all this physical training is done, to be honest I've been working out so much that every day has become kind of a blur in my own head consisting entirely of me running, it's absurd.

Florence and Robin come to visit us sometimes and both seem to be pretty enjoyable to hang out with. I am kind of jealous of Robin's bravado sometimes, I wish I could become as passionate as she is when it comes to dealing with other people's situations. I sometimes see her with me whenever I go to my history class for college credits. She keeps me awake after that one time I fell asleep during class and ended up with a piece of paper attached to my face. That doesn't seem to be a problem after autumn began when it started to get colder

Since winter kicked in, I realized that I didn't pack any winter outfits with me when I moved out of my dad's manor. I guess I assumed that the dorms were heated enough for me not to worry about it, but my hindsight makes me sound like a complete idiot. To be honest it would make me miss home if it wasn't so cold and dead where I've lived the past couple of years. But I digress, this isn't really the point of this journal.

Gabriel's sister's home was destroyed by invading Riftfallen, he got the phone call just this last week. His parents got a hold of him and requested him to leave Spectrum academy and he acceded to leave. He was very upset about the entire thing because well.. He spent enough time with us to actually consider us his friends. So unfortunately that leaves us one person short, but Ashley spoke to us yesterday about finding a new person to join our team. Apparently he's been here for about a year or so and knows what he's doing. He left his own team to join this one, but I'm not exactly sure why, so here is my reminder to remember to talk to him about this. If I forget, I'm stupid.

This entire thing is just a reminder to me that we're in danger nearly every single day by just being here while the black split in the sky looms overhead. You can have a normal day and then just have it ruined by what seems to be a natural disaster. It isn't ever out of malice, it's just... doesn't care what gets destroyed. Both this and what happened with Maria are only reminders of the times we live in now.

Oh, I forgot to mention the fact Maria is alive. I'm kind of wondering how I wrote about Maria's mood improving when I thought she was dead for two and a half years and that her being alive would be a much higher priority. It makes it sound like I found her corpse and it's behavior is 'better' than before. Well, Maria's alive. There, I said it. Maybe I'm just so used to her being not dead that I forgot I thought she was dead; Life is weird.

She really loves her cat.. Which she's called 'Cat.' She refuses to call it Snowy for some reason, even when I asked her to get it's nametag and collar she insisted on calling it 'Cat' instead of Snowy, luckily I superseded her and managed to get it's proper name printed on it's cute pink collar. Then I found out it was a boy... My bad. It's actually funny, Snowy climbs onto Maria's shoulders like a parrot when they are together, it's the strangest sight I've ever seen.

At first I missed my home, but eventually I got used to not having all of luxuries I got accustomed to, at first I didn't know how to live without all the things I was used to. People to clean up my room, cook my food, parcel out my day into a schedule, tell me where to go, tell me what to wear, tell me what to say... And all of that left in an instant, I still have access to my savings account, which is probably more than what most students have here since Maria never seems to have enough money for her own food some days without my help.

But after a while, it's been kind of freeing. For the past couple of years I knew that my father didn't really see me anything more than just my last name. As soon as he passed away all I would have is ownership of the company, but I'll still be living the same way I live now, with everyone picking everything best for me. I don't consider myself a rebel, but I don't think I could go back to a life where I don't get an option to decide how I live.

It's all thanks to my butler, Alistair; who probably acted more like a father to me than my own dad ever since he divorced my mother and bent the rules so they couldn't take any of his claim. He got me out of there, gave me my bags and gave me places to go. Because of what happened to Maria, I felt like I should do something that felt more real... defending others instead of sitting behind the scenes, ignoring everyone and everything like they're ants on an anthill.

My therapist told me that these were originally to help me cope with my life issues in a clean and timely manner, but as I was writing this I kind of wondered why I continued to write them.

Sometimes at night I do think that maybe being in Spectrum will kill me, it keeps me up and makes me restless in my bed until I'm forced to get out and walk around until I calm down. I guess that's a fear everyone here has, but at the same time we're the only people with tools to help stop them. A new doctrine was passed with heavy financial backing by my own father to make it so these tools can only be used by people affiliated with Spectrum, Sometimes I feel like I'm writing my own memoir instead of a journal...

I'm still not 100% sure about how Rosewall treats weapons. Back when they had much looser laws, we nearly erupted in a civil war after the Astrians invaded, and suddenly these weapons used to combat Riftfallen were stripped from anyone who owned them. Maybe I don't know enough about ethics to actually comment, there are professionals for these things and I'm just some rich girl trying to fight alongside with a bunch of people willing to risk their lives.

Today is the day our physical conditioning ends and we enter specialized combat training. Apparently Ashley is going to introduce us to the new team member along with showing off something that is supposed to be the entire reason the Ash weapons allow us to fight off Riftfallen, it's pretty interesting to see that in action, but it's also really exciting for the possibility to use it myself.

I should stop here, Maria's annoyed that we're going to be late to go see Ashley.

Things to do:
Meet sister and mother
Think about job after Spectrum
Buy clothes that aren't REALLY INAPPROPRIATE FOR WINTER – Priority.
Help Maria find hobby that doesn't involve punching strangers in the face. – Also a priority."

BONUS JOURNAL
Maria Journal Entry #1
Decim 15, 534 Post Bellum
Journals suck.

What am I, twelve?

SPECTRUM: 4

Somehow updated more than once a week.

Chapter 4: Reason

Morgan took the money she got and quickly pocketed it. Maria insulted her on her way out but honestly she was thick skinned enough to know that wasn't even close to the worst thing she's ever heard. She had the rest of her day free to do whatever she pleased, so first she headed back to her dorm to put up her huge sword somewhere safe. She crossed Maria who was busy leaning up against a wall and staring at the sky, so she didn't even bother to talk to her on the way in.

She opened the door to the closet in her side of the dorm, slipping the blade into a big carrying case and zipping it up before leaning it against a wall. When she opened the door, there stood the somewhat shorter angry teenage redhead everybody 'loved' Maria. “What is it?” Morgan asked her, leaning against the door frame. “Nothing... Just.. Nothing.” She said, turning her shoulder and grazing past her quickly.

Morgan shook her head and slowly went over to grab one of her own bags she used to unpack a couple of days ago. Maria climbed onto the upper part of her bunk bed, the carrying case for her weapon in hand, Morgan said nothing to her and gently closed the door behind her. 'She's really inconsistent...' She thought to herself. Maria always seems to flip back and fourth between quiet, sarcastic, loud and sad at pretty much random times. She's never really gotten to talk to her before, but she's not even sure it would be anything pleasant, it's probably more likely to be an argument.

It's not like she hated Maria or anything, Maria had a lot of bad shit happen to her. You can't really get out of that and end up as the same person you were before. But even then, if she's going to have the same room as Maria does, she'd rather have Maria actually be pleasant to be around and not just... whatever the hell she currently is.

Morgan headed out the front door of the dorm, walking along the courtyard and into the parking lot placed just to the side of the front gate. She pulled a key from her pocket to pop the seat open to her dark red colored motor scooter, pulling out a helmet and pulling her black hair out of the way of her eyes while she put it on her head. She replaced the seat, and turned on the ignition, getting on it and twisting the gas handle a couple of times to warm it up. She slipped the bag onto her shoulder and slowly pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road.

The shadow hours began while she was driving. The sun would drift behind the rift around noon and last a couple of hours, making it look like a mixture of a sunset and an eclipse, luckily it wasn't really too dark and she could drive without turning on the lights. She finally got to her first destination, a small corner market she could get supplies from. She turned off the engine and climbed off, with the bag over her shoulder and resting under one arm, the pushed the door open with one hand, hearing a little bell ringing that was attached to the door swinging.

“Welcome!” An elderly man said at the front desk, Morgan walked up and nodded her head. “Do you mind if I use this big bag for what I'm going to buy?” The old man nodded, adjusting the cap on his balding white haired head. “Oh it's fine, Missy. Just remember to pay for it.” She turned away and began walking the small aisles. “Of course I will.”

She walked into the canned goods section, looking over the price tags and grabbing what she could, stuffing them into her big shoulder bag.

She wouldn't stop filling it until it was much heavier than before, stacked to the brim with cans of soup, pasta, fruit, vegetables and sauce. She carried the entire thing to the front, placing it in front of the elderly man with a soft thump from the weight of it. “Do you have something I could take on the go?” The old man nodded. “You could probably get one of those milkshakes from the refrigerated section. “Go ring that up, then. I'll get one of those milkshakes for myself.” He nodded, pulling out cans and slowly scanning each one.

“What do ya need all these cans for? You doin' a picnic or something?” Morgan shook her head, grabbing a milkshake and placing it beside him for him to scan after he was finished. “I had some left over money, so I wanted to give it to some people who need it more than I do.” He nodded, scanning the last and charging her the money. She slipped him the 100 Geld note and he gave her back a couple of coins in change, she pulled them over her shoulder and waved to the old man as she left. “Have a good day, lil' lady.” He shouted to her as she closed the door.

The scooter started back up, chugging a bit from the extra weight, but once it got going, everything was mostly back to normal. Getting to her next destination was quite the long drive, and those bags would probably start hurting her shoulder after a while but honestly she didn't mind it much.

The city was quite a nice place to live in, it was one of the bigger cities in all of Rosewall. It received a lot of attention recently for being one of the biggest economical powerhouses after Ash was introduced along with Spectrum being built. But that brought good attention along with the bad. People began to sell Ash weapons in unofficial channels, knowing that most people had no right to use it unless they had an academy license to do so.

Citizens didn't like how they were so restricted on using these weapons to protect themselves. They had people to protect them, but they always had to rely on someone else they didn't even know for their safety. So people actually protested it at first, saying that they wanted to be able to protect their own homes and families without having the Academy have to travel there and possibly fail.

People have come to accept it more recently, but some people use the ash weapons to hurt more than protect. This caused a massive rift in the community and a lot of violence broke out over it. Even a war between Rosewall and Astra, a country to the north over how important the weapons were going to be. Morgan knew Lily's father was pretty much the main driving force behind that choice, refusing to license anything that wasn't directly sponsored by him pretty much caused a monopoly on the whole market.

Her thoughts continued to wander, looking at the construction workers slowly repairing a building with their huge construction tools, the monster attacks have been causing less collateral damage in Riverside, but she wished that was the news in the rest of Rosewall as well. The damage and death has been nice and steady on the outside, these academies were still being built and they've only been starting to get marginal success recently.

She pulled around a corner and parked her scooter once again, hiding her helmet and tucking the keys back into her pocket when she turned it off. She kicked the stand and walked along the sidewalk, before coming before a rather large building amid the suburban homes. It looked like a re purposed church, the walls were slate and made of stones, held together by mortar. The windows formerly used to be stained glass, but were replaced with oddly arched windows instead.

She walked up the staircase, it was stone and lined with more stone on each side to lean onto, she got up to the wooden door, hefted the bag back up to her shoulder and gave it a couple of heavy knocks. There was a silence, but the door slowly creaked open with a sound that only a couple hundred year old church could only make.

A woman stood in front of Morgan, she was in her 40's, her hair was a silver shade of gray and pulled into a low ponytail. Her skin was tanned, and besides a wrinkle or two on her lips and forehead she still seemed healthy for her age, She smiled at Morgan, stepping aside. “Welcome back, Morgan.” She nodded her head, stepping inside and looking around.

“Wow, this place never seems to change.” She commented softly. The older woman nodded, giving a slight chuckle. “Yep, Greyhill Orphanage has been pretty much the same for decades now. Same old stone and mortal walls, same hard wood floor as it's always been.” The older woman said, looking at the bag over Morgan's shoulder as she hefted it onto the table. “What did you bring?” Morgan opened the back, grabbing some of the cans and pulling them out, holding them in her hands. “This place is still non-profit, right?” The woman nodded. “Well, since I came across a bit of money recently, I wanted to make a donation of food to you guys.”

The woman smiled and ran over, gently patting on Morgan's shoulder, Morgan kind of had a couple of inches up on her since she was pretty tall compared to the older woman. “Oh thank you, sweety. I know most people who live here usually want to get out when they become an adult, but I'm really happy you seem to enjoy actually coming back.”

Morgan nodded, taking the bag again and shrugging her shoulders. “I've lived here most of my life along with my brother Nick. I felt like I should thank you guys for taking care of us when no one else would and donating seems like the best way I could” The woman nodded some, leaning onto a table. “Well there is another way you could help, Why don't you just volunteer here?” Morgan shook her head with a sigh, grabbing some of the cans and taking them to a nearby food cabinet. “I'm sorry, Annette. I'm with Spectrum now, They don't let people work on the side or anything. All I can do is these short visits and not much more.”

She nodded some and grabbed some cans as well, putting them up along with her, but letting Morgan get the higher shelves thanks to being a good 5-6 inches taller. “Yeah... But that academy is dangerous. You're risking your life to help people when you could just help here instead.” Morgan shook her head, finishing the cans Annette couldn't reach, walking over and leaning against a nearby wall. “Nowhere is safe, Annette. One of the people on my team had nearly her entire family killed off while they were at home. I'd rather just... face the problem people are suffering from head on instead of just repairing and providing relief in their wake.” Morgan explained, her voice much calmer than whenever she spent time with her team.

Annette closed the cabinets, turning to face Morgan as she walked toward her, placing her hand onto Morgan's shoulder. “I know, Morgan. You always wanted to look your problems in the eye. But still... I helped raise you with my grandmother, before she died. I just don't want to see people I took care of getting hurt.. That goes for you, your brother and anyone else who ever walks through these doors when they need help.”

Morgan smiled with a sigh. “Honestly, I'm still glad this place is still up and running.” Morgan said with a smile. Annette nodded, releasing her shoulder and crossing her arms as she kept talking to Morgan. “We barely scrape by usually, it's pretty consistent even if we can only just barely make the expenses every month.” Morgan frowned at that.

“Only barely? Was it like that when I was here, too?” She said, concerned a little bit, but Annette gave a soft nod to that. “Same as it ever was.” Annette replied, grabbing an apple from a fruit basket sitting on a nearby table, taking a bite into it. Morgan sighed and sunk her head. “Look, I want to help. I'll give you half of my paychecks from Spectrum to help you pay the bills” Annette looked a little apprehensive and walked up to her, raising her hand slightly.

“I couldn't do that to you, Morgan. I don't want to take money from you to help this place running, that's your livelihood I'm cutting into.” Annette said with concern, Morgan shook her head and replied. “There was something I learned from living here for 12 years of my life. We take what we get for granted. What people usually need is not what they want, because the truth is, all they need is food, water, a place to rest and stay warm, and clean clothes on their backs. Spectrum has all of that, free of charge. Anything else I get isn't really a requirement. I'm offering this to you out of kindness, not out of spite.”

Annette nodded again. “If you want to do that, then I can't stop you.” Morgan smiled again, and Annette Turned away to check behind a door. She saw some toddlers play with their toy blocks before closing the door quietly and looking back at the young raven haired adult. “Have you seen Nick recently?” She wondered, Morgan shrugged her shoulders at the question. “He apparently met some friends who got him a job, but he hasn't been answering my phone calls. It's been nearly 4 months now, and I still heard nothing.” Annette sighed and shook her head. “Well try and find him, tell him I sent my greetings.”

Morgan lifted her head to nod, before noticing a door pop open, and a child's head poke out. The look on his face suddenly got excited, the dark brown haired kid running up and hugging around Morgan's waist tight, his cheek pressing against her stomach. “Morg!” He shouted, She chuckled and rubbed his head a couple of times to mess up his hair. “Hey Johnny.” She said with a smile. “You got taller in the past couple of months, didn't you?” He nodded a couple of times. “I'm 9 now!” He said with excitement, he let go of the hug and looked up at her, she bent down and grinned. “Well a happy birthday to you, then. I got you guys a bunch of food, but I'm sorry I couldn't get you a gift or anything.” He nods a bit. “It's okay!” He said with enthusiasm.

Morgan stood back up. “Well don't you worry, I'll get you something when I come back next week, alright?” He nodded again when she said that, and she grinned a bit. “You know, I'm sorry to cut this short, Annette.” She started. “But I can't be away for too long before people start wondering where I left, so I'm going to head on back.” She smiled and walked up to give Morgan her own hug. “Take care of yourself, sweetie.” Annete said, Morgan quietly hugged back. “Of course I will.” She said, pulling out of the hug and turning back around to head outside the door.

She went down the stairs as the door closed behind her, she got back onto her scooter and rode quietly all the way back to the academy. She headed back inside the main dorm and headed up the stairs to their room once again. Robin was standing in front of it and gave a soft bow of her head. “Just a heads up, Morgan.” She said calmly. “Maria seems to be falling in and out of consciousness from her head injury. I suggest you stay quiet and try not to wake her up.” Morgan shrugged at that and gave a friendly chuckle. “She's a big girl, she can handle being woken up from nap time.”

Morgan blinked some, before adding to that previous statement. “Well big in the age sense, she's pretty short.” Robin stepped out of the way of the door to let Morgan in, but she stayed still and looked up at her.

“I have a question for you, Robin.” Morgan stated, folding her arms and leaning against the door frame. “Yes, Morgan?” She replied, reaching up to adjust the bun in her hair to be a little cleaner looking. “Don't take this the wrong way, but why did you join?” Morgan asked her, a look of curiosity on her face. Robins lips pursed and moved more to one side, tilting her head and pondering some. “You might need to rephrase that, what do you mean?”

“Well... you're 22. I'm not calling you old or anything, but wouldn't you have figured out what you wanted to do with your life a couple of years before that? You're a freshman but you have nearly 4 years on me and 2 years on our instructor.” Morgan observed casually, Robin's face plastered with a somewhat unsure look on her face, placing one of her hands onto her hip and looking up at her. “To be honest, originally this wasn't what I wanted to do. But... My brother wanted to do this. I joined so I could keep a close eye on him.” Robin revealed, blinking a couple of times as they stood only a couple of feet apart, looking up at the much taller black haired girl.

Morgan frowned a bit, she didn't expect that kind of answer from Robin. “Florence is pretty young, but didn't you trust his decisions at all? I'm pretty sure if he really wanted to do this then he would have been prepared for it.” Robin sighed, walking over to a nearby water fountain across the hall and taking a sip from it before turning back around to reply. “He's still not an adult, it's my responsibility to make sure nothing happens to him, since I'm really the only one here he knows.”

Morgan shook her head, pinching between her brow with a look of irritation. “I think you're only just coddling him, how is he supposed to learn anything if you can't even let him do anything on his own?” Robin scoffed some at that, lifting her chin and lidding her eyes some. “I'll teach him anything this academy doesn't, I don't see what the problem is.” Morgan tilted an eyebrow at that.

“That isn't what I mean, haven't you heard the proverb? 'Learning is hearing, knowing is watching, understanding is doing'? He's not going to understand any of this unless he does it himself.” Robin placed her hand onto Morgan's shoulder, her face cracking the veneer of calmness and looking just a bit upset. “I just want my only brother to not get killed, please don't tell me how to raise my own family. They aren't your problem.” Robin protested, her voice raised slightly from getting called out by Morgan.

Morgan lifted her hand, pushing Robin's off of her shoulder and furrowing her brow a little bit. “Suit yourself if you want to think that way. But for you, Robin? You need to come here for your own reason, not someone else's. If you don't come up with your own, you're just going to end up regretting everything you've done.” Morgan turned away, slowly walking down the hall as she spoke. “Spectrum is no place for regret, I hope you keep that in mind next time.”

Robin sighed, opening the door and heading back to her dorm room to check on Maria. She was out of her school uniform and in a pair of night clothes, a simple black pair of pajama pants and a tank top. She was on her back, breathing deeply while she was out cold. Robin walked in and held the back of her hand to Maria's forehead. It was clammy and hot, as if she almost had a fever. Robin sighed some. “I should probably get her some food.” She exited out the door and began to walk back down the hall.

“My own reason...” She muttered to herself. 'What's the problem with not having a specific motivation for joining into a good cause?' She thought to herself, heading down the staircase slowly. 'Isn't me being on the front lines enough of a reason for me to be here? People are scared and they need every person they can to fight back against those monsters...”

ADA Chapter 1: Prologue

Now gluten free

Chapter Zero: To Ashes

Two young teenage girls were walking down the sidewalk, one was slightly shorter in height, with long, red, wavy hair just past her shoulders. She was dressed in a male school uniform, a blue suit jacket, with the emblem of a hornet on it, along with a white dress shirt, a black tie, blue dress pants and black slip on shoes. A red scarf was wrapped around her neck, both ends swayed freely in the evening breeze. The taller one was also slightly lankier looking, with straight, platinum blonde hair wrapped up in a loose ponytail low on her head, the long locks swaying as she walked. She was also wearing a suit jacket, but a more feminine one, with a more dramatic curve for the jacket, and a black skirt that went to the knees, she also had long leggings up to her thighs, and a pair of black heels.

The two girls walked through the swaying hills and curving roads of the nicer district in town, the shorter girl spoke, her voice young, but deeper than the taller girl's. “Why do all the rich people live on hills?” The taller girl gave a friendly giggle, her voice was a bit more formal in tone. “Good question, Maria! Maybe they pay for the view, you can see the rest of the city from here.” Maria chuckled at the girl, turning around and starting to walk backwards to see if she could get such a view. The city was fairly large and pretty looking, Maria could see the glass skyscrapers shimmer, surrounded by smaller buildings of the city district. The large, wide buildings of the market district, and on the other side was the suburbs, where it became a grid upon grid of smaller square houses. She glanced off to one side, and a couple of miles down the road on the horizon was the battle academy that was built a couple of years ago. “I see what ya mean, Lily. Though it just makes me think people up here just wanted to look down on people.” Maria said to the girl, now known as Lily. Maria turned back around and looked at her while she talked. “Lily crosses her arms and gives a friendly smile. “Well that's one way to take it...” Maria walked up and patted her on the shoulder.

“C'mon, you and your dad live up here.” Maria said in jest. “Don't tell me he didn't do that at least once.” Lily sighed and shook her head from Maria's joking assertions, commenting on what she said. “I do, but that doesn't mean I look down on anyone... My dad is rich, that doesn't make me any special.” Maria laughed, looking at the mansion on the hill coming up in front of them. It was Lily's since Maria knew it was the biggest damn house she'd ever seen. It had at least a hundred rooms, and it was on the top of the highest hill that the brick paved roads can actually take you to.

“Whatever you say, lil' miss big bucks.” She remarked, walking up to the front gate of her home, it was a bit overkill to Maria. It was a security checkpoint with a motorized gate, two security guards standing at the gate. One guard was in the front, he had a standard looking guardsman uniform, and a sword strapped to his belt. He was in pretty good shape, as it looked like he was trained to combat any troublemakers who showed up. The other guard stood behind the gate, in a little control room full of buttons to control the gate. They both stopped in the front, where one of the guards addressed Lily. “You're late in getting home, Ma'am” Lily nodded and responded to his statement. “Oh, I know Rudolph. I just wanted to walk home with my friend.” The guard immediately announced in reply “I see that, but he still worried about you being 2 hours late.” Lily sighed, a palm rubbing her face as she returned to looking up at him. “Well, I'm sorry.” The second guard pulled the leaver, the automatic barred black gate swinging open, showing the brick road up a long curving path to the massive white mansion. “Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Maria. Are you gonna be at my Violin recital tomorrow?” Maria crossed her arms, shifting her weight onto one leg as she answered. “I'll ask my dad to drive me, hopefully I'll make it in time.” Lily smiled at Maria. “Great! I'll see ya then!” She said with unabashed joy, walking through the gates and having them close. The guard looked at Maria, but she just turned around to walk away, heading down the hill and back into the city.


Maria was walking down the road, thinking to herself quietly like she always did whenever she didn't have anybody to talk to. Lily was always a pretty nice girl, she was kind, friendly, and always tried to be at least a little bit humble about her money. But because of the name she gotten from her father funding weapons for the war that happened a couple of years ago and making a fortune off of it, the children at school would always insult and bully her. She would sit alone in the playground, barely holding back her tears from all the mean things they'd say. Maria chose to protect her, standing up for her when she couldn't. Ever since she did that for the first time when Maria was 8, they slowly became best friends. Maria didn't mind the money, she was more about getting to know Lily as a person, but sometimes being friends with a rich girl had it's benefits. Maria got to go to an awesome banquet for Lily's 14^th birthday a couple of months ago, it was probably the best day of both of their lives. Apparently being the only friend of Lily is a title worth being respected for, as everyone was kind to Maria, even though Lily's father was too busy on the phone, away from the table to enjoy Lily's birthday with everyone else. Though, Maria wondered if he was always like that or not.

Maria, now finished with her thoughts on Lily, was just getting back into the city, she had to walk through another district before getting to her neighborhood, it was probably going to be another couple of miles. She looked up at her surroundings, cars slowly driving past her, homes on the left and right slowly passing by her, people busy living their lives as usual. Then then peered up into the sky, locking her gaze with the most noticeable thing. The rift....

Ever since she was a little child, the sky always had a strange feature to it, a massive black rip in the sky. It was like the sky was a picture, and someone pulled it apart at the seams to show what was behind it... A monstrous black rip that extended from horizon to horizon. Whenever it hit noon, the sun would fade behind the tear, making a 1 hour night. While people didn't know why the tear was there... where was at least a reason why. Strange monsters started appearing, falling from it and terrorizing cities with strange, almost magic abilities. That huge academy she saw in the distance was erected back when she was a little kid, it was supposed to be an academy for people who were learning to fight back the monsters, that's really all she knew about it. But she knew that at least while that school was there, she might be able to sleep at night knowing she wouldn't be attacked by those monsters, since she hasn't ever seen one before, maybe they were doing a good job.

The sun was starting to set, the colors of the sky changed from the light blue, to a dark and rich gold color, She smiled to herself, the winds were starting to get cold regardless if she was wearing a coat or not, but she loved how beautiful the city could get with the right conditions. She hummed quietly to herself as she approached home. Her home was pretty standard, it was in a neighborhood that had a bunch of houses build nearly exactly the same, as it was cheaper. It's pretty lower middle class, but she didn't care as long as it was comfortable. The outside was painted a pale blue color, the roof had black shingle tiles atop it, it was two stories, and she could see her bedroom on the second floor, facing the road and the city.

She walked up the stone walkway, gently knocking on the door before coming in, saying casually. “Mother, I'm home.” After a brief delay, a brunette woman, appearing to be in her late 30's came stepping out of the kitchen walkway, smiling at the black haired girl at the front door. “Welcome home, Mary! Dinner is about to be ready, so get out of your school outfit and meet me in the kitchen.” She said, Maria nodded, but asked a question or two before she left. “Where's dad?” The mom answered. “Oh, Michael is in the bed room, you know how much he likes that new TV...” Maria responded with a light chuckle, before asking again. “Did Sienna call?” The mother shook her head for no, Maria sighed quietly to herself. Her big sister was always busy at Spectrum, it's been 3 years since she left and she only visited home 2 times, she pondered to herself if they must be that busy, or maybe she just didn't want to visit her baby sister anymore.

Maria feigned a smile at Lorrie, walking up the stairs to her bedroom, shouting that “I'll be down soon!” She walked down the second floor hallway, seeing the door to Sienna’s empty room before heading to her own. Opening the door and heading inside, Maria didn't really care for style, it was a simple bedroom with walls a soft sky blue shade, a simple oak dresser and a small walk in closet to one side. Her bed was propped up on a metal frame with white pillows and dark red, stripped sheets. She kicked off her slip on shoes into the corner of the room, open the closet to look at her normal at home clothes. As she isn't one for style or standing out, her pallet tended to be very mute colors, she slid off her school jacket and dress pants into her tank top and shorts. She grabbed a maroon colored, long sleeve buttoned up blouse and a pair of gray colored jeans, staying in her socks as she sat onto her bed with a bit of a bounce. Her room was quiet, the only sound was the low hum of her ceiling fan.

But that wasn't the only sound for long, she heard a loud shriek, she jerked lightly from the sheer volume of it, it's cry sounding slightly muffled through the insulated walls. She leaned up out the window and noticed something strange... A jet black bird flying around. She tilted her head inquisitively, wondering if it was a crow who got lost from it's flock. But it was odd... It wasn't moving the speed she thought it should go.. and that shriek was so loud. The black bird flew over the house, before a loud crashing sound was heard, the entire house rumbling as dust knocked from the ceiling fell to the ground. There was another massive shriek, this one was so loud that it caused the window of Maria's room to shatter into dust, falling into the yard below, she stumbled forward, landing on her chest before getting back up. The room started to feel hot, and the sounds of muffled screaming erupted within the house. Maria flew into a panic, running to her door to open it. But the smell of smoke began to seep through the crack of the door and she wondered... “Did whatever hit my house just cause a fire?” she thought that was just her mind, but she realized she mumbled it as well. The shrieking again pierced her ears, her hands began to tremble and she started to fear what was on the other side of this door. She needed to find her parents and help them get out of the house, every single second she waited was another moment she wouldn't have, she turned the knob and opened the door.

The other side of the hallway was ablaze with a strange red flame, the fire spread quickly, she had a short window of opportunity, but as the staircase wasn't ignited unfortunately, the other side of the room that was ablaze was her fathers room.. She thought to herself, he couldn't have survived that... The blast of heat on her face knocked her from her thoughts. She rushed down stairs with an agility she's never experienced before from just the pure adrenaline stemming from her fear. She rushed past the living room, trying to make her way to the kitchen before she heard a rumble... The flaming hallway collapsed into the kitchen, causing a massive billow of ash, smoke and debris to fly out at Maria, the collapse was enough for her to nearly fall from the force. She waited for a second, covering her mouth as the entire house was ignited with the flames, turning dark, smokey and red. There was no sounds... no screaming, no breathing.. nothing but her own heart beat, the crackling of the flames and the burning of her home. She felt the tears well up in her eyes, she really didn't know if it was the smoke or the feeling like she just lost both of her parents that was making that happen.. but it sure felt like both factors were valid at this point.. Unfortunately, the door was covered with a massive billow of flame, she'd be cooked if she went through there, the kitchen was the only way to get to the back door. She decided to head back up the stairs, feeling the structure begin to collapse as she crossed, panicking and making a leap just as the stairs crumbled into the inferno, the stumbled to her feet, running to the door of her room and pushing the door open with her shoulder.

Her room was in pretty good condition, the smoke and the flames began to mar her personal belongings, but it was still intact. She needed to head out of the window and hope for a soft landing, she walked up, opening the window and pressing her back against the wall, getting ready to make the leap. She broke out into a run, but as she did, she saw... something she never believed. It was the head of a black bird. A bird so big that it's entire face covered her only escape.. It was jet black, red flames billowing where it's plume would normally be. It's eyes glowed an eerie red as it shrieked loudly at her, she screamed, leaping onto her stomach and sliding as it shot a monstrous amount of red flamed into her room, searing it black. The fire licked at her clothes, burning through them and searing her flesh. It hurt like a pain she could never have possibly imagined, it was like her skin was being boiled away to nothing. It was only a blast of fire lasting a couple of seconds, but it felt like forever. Her skin on her neck, back and arms were nearly melting off the bone, leaving just blood and exposed muscle, the charred remains of clothes barely staying together on the rest of her body. She heard a massive flap, the bird began to fly away... She was in so much pain that she couldn't believe it, she stood up on shaky legs, climbing into the seared frame of the window before her weak body gave out, sliding along the short tiled roof and falling 10 feet to the grass and broken glass below. She groaned, clawing into the grass and pulling herself further and further away from the inferno.

She got near the sidewalk before she passed out from the pain and injury, eventually, members of Spectrum showed up along with firefighters and an ambulance to pick up Maria and help the rescue of anything else left inside the home. Maria felt a stretcher underneath her chest, a slight rattling as people began to talk. “Is she the only one?” A male voice called out. A female one replied. “Unfortunately, we found the remains of others in the building.. this was the only one who we could recover.” the man pulled out a clipboard, writing something down on it. “To be honest, this girly is lucky enough to be alive...”

Chapter one: Welcome Home

Two girls were sitting in their dorm room, one sitting on one of the bunk beds, the other one sitting on the floor. They were hostile with each other and shouting insults as they debated. The skinnier, light haired one shouted at the other girl. “That very notion is appalling and you know it, My father is a good man! He wouldn't be stirring up things without any regulation like that.” The more athletic, taller girl contented that “Well, it still happened and my entire family was part of it. Your dad didn't curate or anything... He just sold to any buyer. He funded the whole damn war!”

The light haired girl scoffed, her bright emerald eyes looking with scorn at the black haired girl, they both appeared to both be young adults. The light haired girl had long, flowing platinum blonde hair to her shoulders, brushed to a shine like beaten silver from how pale the blonde really was. Her face had an oval shape to it, her features were slight and graceful, standing at 5'6 with a light frame, she was dressed in the female school uniform for Spectrum academy. She opted for a long sleeved white shirt with a deep burgundy vest over top of it, a neat white lace ribbon wrapped around her neck in a bow, a burgundy skirt went down past her knees, meeting a pair of stockings coming up from her shoes. Her eyes were rounded, her nose thin but slightly long to fit her face, her lips about average and her skin the color of a peach. The white haired girl stood up, crossing her arms. “That's just a baseless assumption... He wasn't the only person selling weapons.”

The girl in black was a couple of inches taller with a stronger build, wider shoulders and larger skeleton, built with some muscle under her athletic but sleek frame, her hair was longer and wiry looking in an unkempt way, pulled into a low ponytail with no bangs so they didn't get in the way. Her face was heart shaped, her eyes somewhat slanted looking like a narrow almond with a warm dark brown color. Her skin was tanner and rougher, she would be medium skinned if it wasn't tanned olive from often being in the sun. Her lips were rougher and slightly thicker. She was in a similar uniform, but was wearing a leather jacket over her white shirt and vest, her brow furrowed at the prissy rich girl. “Yeah, but he still did, and hes guilty of it! Your dad was a war monger, deal with it.” Lily clenched her fists, she hated hearing her family insulted.. She opened her mouth, inhaling and getting ready to shout at her as the door knob spun, slowly cracking open.

“What the hell are you two doing?” The woman at the door said in a raspy and slightly deeper voice than Lily. They both looked up at this girl, she was a slightly younger looking girl with a rounded face, standing at about 5'4. Her eyes were an unnatural red color, Lily knew this was common to people who received exposed to ash for an extended period of time, her father made her read all the brochures about safety protocols for handling the substance. Her skin was pale.. not fair, but nearly milk colored, she had slight tinges of red where the blood stream came closer to the surface of her skin, but it was still an oddly ghostly pale. Her eyes were rounder than Morgans, but still almond shape, her nose a bit shorter and slight on her face, her lips were thin but smooth, the corners naturally turning to a frown. Her hair was a deep crimson red shade, like a pomegranate. chin length but slightly unkempt, like someone cut it short and let it grow out naturally, her hair naturally parting to the right side to give her slight bangs to one side that covered most of her face. It had a slight luster to it, but it was still a bit disheveled looking. She was wearing the male school uniform for spectrum, a long burgundy cotton blended suit jacket with a black button up blouse underneath, a deep red tie over top of it stuffed under the buttoned up jacket.

Lily's eyes widened in surprise, it was Maria. It's been three years since she's even seen her, that would make Maria 15 to Lily's 16, but it's still be such a long time. “Maria!” She said, standing onto her feet and running to her, wrapping the slightly shorter, but more medium built girl into her arms, Maria sighed, not returning the hug but not really pushing her away either, her face remaining stark. Lily said with a huge smile on her face, like her father just got her a pony made of diamonds. “Oh gods.. I was so sad when I heard what happened... I'm so sorry I didn't visit you.. I don't know where they took you after you got out of the hospital...” Maria sighed, taking a step back and breaking away from the hugging. “I was taken to a boarding school.” She said, a matter of fact kind of deal. Lily thought how stoic and cold she sounded was a bit odd. “I'm so sorry about what happened to your parents...” She said, with a hint of sadness in her voice, the annoying girl sitting on the floor and looking up at the both of them didn't matter for a short while, until she stood up behind Lily and questioned them both. “Who's the goth chick?” She said, the dark rings under Maria's eyes gave her a somewhat look akin to that, but she wouldn't call lack of sleep any kind of new fashion trend. Lily turned and sighed at Morgan, explaining herself. “This is Maria.. She was my best friend for years.” Morgan rolled her eyes, shifting her weight to one side. “Great, another rich girl I can spend my life with for the new few years.” Maria glared at her, speaking with the same coldness she gave to Lily. “My parents died when my house burnt down and I have burns on over 50% of my body.”

Morgans lips curled into a slight frown, she didn't really expect that for a response. Lily walked over to the bed and sat back down on it, looking up at Maria as the red eyed girl carried her two bags over to an empty drawer. Lily questioned Maria a bit while she unzipped one of her bags, folding up some of her clothes and placing it into an empty dresser on the other side of the room. “If you survived, why didn't you contact me?” Maria responded flatly, it didn't have any malice or annoyance, it felt like she was just really distant. “I cut all my ties. You didn't contact me in the hospital so I just... didn't bother.” Lily frowned, her voice gaining in volume as she sounded somewhat frustrated by her aloofness. “Why though? We were friends. I could've asked my dad to adopt you or something.” Maria just quietly spoke while finishing the first bag, pulling out the other one for some of her other personal belongings. “And that didn't happen. Past promises tend to be hollow ones.” Morgan chuckled a bit as Lily's expense. “This is what you call a best friend? She seems to hate you as much as I do!” She said, with some bitter humor to her voice. Maria set down her bag, walking over to Morgan, leaning forward to look eye to eye with her, Morgans hazel eyes meeting Maria's deep red ones. “Just to let you know, I don't like you either. Don't you fucking laugh at either of us again.” She said, with a hint of malice in her voice. Morgan leaned back on her seat just a bit, wondering is this girl was out of her mind or something. “Or what? You even try to beat me up and you'd get expelled.” Maria didn't even flinch, or change her expression at her. “I'll show you my version of diplomacy.” She let go, the black haired girl stepped back and steadied herself, glaring at the angry little redhead.

“You got a lot of mouth on you, kid.” Morgan said, adjusting the lapel of her coat since it was all wrinkled by the girls balled fist grasping it. “Just who do you think you are?” The red head shifted her weight onto her other leg, crossing her arms and looking at the two of them, Lily stood up and looked over to her confused by her strange temper. “Maria Roth, and I assume you're my two dormmates?” She stated flatly, reaching up to adjust her tie. The damn thing was uncomfortable as hell. “Morgan Leland.” She stated, before pointing over her shoulder at Lily. “She's Lily Sterling... And also a liar.” Lily frowned, sighing frustrated at Morgans antics. “I've had enough of your childish antics...” Lily turned to Maria, looking at her blood red eyes. “So... Why did you join Spectrum?” Maria shrugged her shoulders, returning to her bag, placing a photo of her and her older sister, before Sienna joined spectrum in the first place. She answered, half busy unpacking her clothes and folding them into the empty drawer in front of her. “I came to learn how to kill those beasts with my own two hands, along with anything that will get in my way, Nothing more and nothing less.” Morgan sighed at Maria, her eyebrows lowering as she spoke. “Well you're just an exemplar of sanity, aren't you?” Morgan said sarcastically. Maria finished packing, placing her backpack over her shoulder. “The receptionist told me that our instructor was going to meet us on the dorm rooftop in 10 minutes, Let's get going.” Maria said, leaving the dorm room and leaving the door open as she head up the staircase of the four floor building. Morgan and Lily both followed as well.

They got to the top of the stairs, Maria pulling the bar to the door to creak it open, and upon the gray fenced rooftop stood a lone woman. She was staring away across the campus. She had long, dark red wavy hair to her shoulders, a black beret resting on top of her head and was wearing a white coat, with a long white skirt down to her ankles along with a pair of dress shoes. She turned around, her eyes were a soft blue color and she had a slight smile on her face. “I'm glad you've arrived early.” She said, her voice was gentle and friendly sounding, but one thing Lily noticed about her face. She actually looked very similar to Maria. Even though she was probably a couple of inches taller, and about approximately 6 years older from her more womanly facial features, if she had to guess. The woman turned around, crossing her arms at the three who arrived. Maria's eyes widened, as she just realized who this woman was. “Oh god, no...” The woman was actually Maria's older sister, Sienna. “Hey, Little sis!” She woman shouted at Maria, Maria quickly burying her face into her hands from the overwhelming surge of shame flowing over her like a dam ruptured via explosions. Morgan began to laugh loudly at the exchange, jokingly commenting. “Looks like the Nepotism Express arrived right on time!” Maria shook her head, briefly leaving the palms of her hands to complain to her. “Just shut up... It's not nepotism is I don't want i-.” Which Morgan quickly interrupted with the most mature response she's ever said. “Choo choo!”

Sienna smiled at them both. “I admit, I did pull a few strings to get me to be your instructor. I've set up this arrangement weeks before, when you sent in your application papers. The same goes for you, Lily ” She said, looking at Lily. Lily smiled and ran up to hug Sienna, which she quickly reciprocated. “I thought Maria having a team with people she knew would help her out a bit.” She explained, looking over at Maria, who is still trying to inspect the lines of her palms, by stuffing them both in her face.

“Anyways,” Sienna said with a smile. “You guys are a little early, and your fourth teammate hasn't arrived. We need a minimum of 4 people to actually be called a team.” Lily let go of the hug, walking over to a nearby bench and sitting down. Lily raised her hand to ask a question. “Why do we need four people to make a team?” Sienna smiled at that question, knowing she totally read the brochure on common questions people would ask an instructor, and that was number 2. Along with 'What the hell is with the white coat?' She answered calmly. “The team requirement is 4 to 8 people, it allows the academy to split up enough people to finish the job, but not enough to pool all our resources and slow down how quickly we can react to emergencies. It's just the most efficient thing we can do.” Maria raised her hand to ask her own question. “What the hell is with the white coat?” She wondered. Sienna answered bluntly. “Instructors wear it, Maria.” Maria blinked a couple of times before flatly replying with “Oh. Why didn't I know that before...?” The door swung open behind Maria, She turned her head back to see a woman with sand colored, wavy brown hair slightly past her shoulders.

“Salutations, Madams.” She said, her voice was a bit... archaic. It sounded like those noblewomen Maria used to watch on those educational recreations. Those sucked by the way. She was wearing a frilly white long sleeved shirt with a pair of black colored dress pants. She was the second tallest of the group, being slightly shorter than Morgan, but taller than Lily. She had a diamond shape to her face, with rounded eyes and full lips, along with a warm hazel color to her eyes. She gave a friendly bow to the four girls sitting atop the roof. Morgan replies to her greeting first. “Who still calls people 'Madam' these days...?” The brunette scoffed, crossing her arms and walking past her to stand in front of Sienna. “Well you should go and see a linguist, as most people have forgotten how to talk like a proper lady.” Sienna smiled at the girl before speaking. “And that must be Robin, we're all here, so we can begin the initial test as soon as possible!” Maria stood up, walking up to Sienna as well. “Initial testing?” She pondered aloud, Sienna walking past them both and looking at the door. “I need to see how well you do in a fight so I can actually set up a training schedule. Meet me in the gym.” She said, leaving briskly.


All four girls began to follow her downstairs and out the gate, eventually getting to the gymnasium.