Seltron Super Academy Interlude I - Review Session

Janet Fontaine/Nursegirl POV

I woke up at the chirping of my alarm, groggily, but shaking it off fast. Turning over, I shut up the incessant beeping and worked on getting out of bed. It was 6 AM, which felt far too early. C’mon Janet, focus, I thought to myself, and soldiered on, getting dressed quickly.

A light touch of make-up and one of my regular floral dresses would do. The white dress with the yellow flower pattern was a bit low-cut, but nothing scandalous, and I didn’t have time to carefully pick through my wardrobe for something better before the meeting. Maintaining a sense of decorum was the most important thing. Not like Maka Truble - she was busy blowing bubble gum throughout the testing yesterday.

That had really irritated me - she was younger than I am, but only by a year or so, and even though we were all new to teaching, she really should have behaved better. It’s the kind of thing I’d expect to be chewing out the kids for, not my fellow staff. Not that she could even try to do that then, as Headmaster Kiren had made it very clear that we were to present a united front while dealing with the students. Maybe it’s something I can bring up during the meeting.

The cafeteria was still busy prepping for breakfast, so I stopped by one of the staff rooms to get a quick snack before running into Erik Ordel, a messy mop of blond hair in pajamas, stumbling towards the coffee machine.

“Erik, I’m surprised to see you without your usual vigor. What would your students think if they saw you without that usual inspiring energy?” I teased my former teammate and friend. He grumbled something about it being too early as he filled up his mug and took a sip.

“Thaz why they won’t see me like this. They can be inspired when my first class starts at noon.” He shook his head clear from some of the grogginess. “It’s way too early for this. Why did I ever agree to this job again?”

“Because your last job was killer, and this one has great dental. Which will be excellent for all the coffee you drink.” My mind flashed back to when I had last seen him ‘in the field’: The hero, Canonblitz. Proud, bright, and epic, a larger-than-life proper hero figure. Also, torn up and beaten, his gold costume shredded and lying in my arms, near lifeless in a pool of his own blood as I desperately shouted out the name of my friend.

“Yeah, Brian told me to thank you again for helping get me out of that. He also reminded me to invite you to dinner sometime; we should get together again.”

I hummed noncommittally. It wouldn’t be bad to get out, but there’s always just so much work to be done. Still, it’s been a while since I’ve seen Erik's husband, and relaxing is important too. Maybe next month.

Erik shook his head, likely recognizing it for what it was, but thankfully being too tired to push. He finished the rest of his coffee while I grabbed a granola bar. “Welp, let’s see what this meeting has got for us.”

“You make it sound like some great test. It’ll just be a review of the first day.”

“Well, if it’s just review, mind if I borrow your notes?” He asked with a cheeky grin.

I scoffed. “We might be back in school, but no, I think you had plenty of opportunities to take your own.” He laughed, and we walked down the inner corridors. The students had been shown a lot of the basic features of the school, but I knew they hadn’t been told about this part. I’m not sure I approve of having to have secret passages to move about without the students able to know, but I can see the points in favor of it (and it’s not like I really have any say in the matter).

We entered the conference room in the center, taking our seats as we waited for the rest of our colleagues to arrive. Derrick Beachwood and Layla Sevrein were already there, along with the dour Ryudo Chow.

I gave a slight nod to Ryudo and smiled as much as was necessary to be polite. The way he carried his gun so openly at his side, not quite flaunting it but constantly making its presence known... it unnerves me, even if I get that the head of security and his people are around for our protection first and foremost.

Layla jammed her glasses angrily up her nose. “Honestly, Mr.-" She cut herself off with a sigh and continued informally. "Erik, how do you plan to teach our students dressed like that?” She waved her hand angrily at Erik’s fuzzy pajamas.

“I don’t, but that’s cause I had the foresight to book all my classes for the later half of the day. So loosen up.” I can agree with the sentiment, but my friend really could phrase it better. Layla didn’t deserve to be nettled; she was just a very serious person, not mean or scary-

Gunther Kiren strode in from the far end of the room, and I whipped my head around for a moment. I didn’t hear the automatic door open- has he been here the whole time and we just didn’t notice?

Gunther took his seat at the head of the table. “Why aren’t Pedro and Kendra here? This meeting was supposed to have everyone’s input.”

Everyone was silent for a moment before Erik offered the same thoughts I had. “It’s possible they didn’t read the email before going to bed last night,” he said, and I saw a slight tick as he bit back another word. Probably avoiding calling him ‘sir.’ We’re far closer to the age of the students than the headmaster’s age, but it wouldn’t be right in this setting. I had only noticed the message by finding something to busy myself with while the two girls had been eating in the front part of my office last night.

His lip twitched downward ever so slightly in displeasure before straightening itself out. “Unfortunate. They were the ones who could have learned the most from this discussion, given the main topic of the day and how they were busy yesterday.”

“Eh, it’s not like they’d have much to contribute to the fights then.” Derrick offered, and I envied how casual (yet on point) the man could be. He felt like he fit in this place. All of them seemed to, except me and Erik, but even my friend managed in his own way, breezing by any complaints or worries but knowing when to be serious. I’m the only one in over their head with all this, and definitely the one who sticks out like a sore thumb. Then again, they’d all been ‘real’ heroes.

Oh, people had called me a hero too. ‘Nursegirl’ they oh-so-originally dubbed me, but I hadn’t been a hero. Not like them, out in the thick of it, fighting for their lives and the lives of innocents every week. Always in the back, to patch people up after a fight. This was new, and I was glad to take this position, but I can’t help but worry if I’m doing a good enough job.

Derrick brought me out of my thoughts, continuing. “Besides, Maka didn’t make it either, and she was actually there.”

“Maka couldn’t make it, but she did send me a compiled list of her thoughts on all the matches.” All of them? I had assumed Maka was a bit of a weirdo (a ‘crazy bubblegum chick,’ to use Erik’s words), and I hadn’t thought the woman had been paying much attention yesterday. Maybe she’s not as bad as I thought, though she still needs to at least present herself better to the students- we can’t have them getting the wrong idea.

“I’ll summarize her thoughts for this meeting. As for the others...” Gunther began pressing buttons quickly on his tablet before laying it down in front of him on the table. “We may not need their input, but they should hear this. I’ve attached all of the video files on the matches from yesterday and will record this meeting for them to review in their free time.” I did not wish to be them; there was already so much to do in my own workload, and having to find more free time for that review too would be killer.

With a finger raised in the air, Gunther said, “Erik, you brought up a salient point: Everyone will need to check their emails before going to sleep and upon waking up, every day." You don’t need to spend every waking moment on a device, but there may be important messages for everyone to respond to.”

He put his finger down on the tablet, and a mechanized voice came out of it. “Transcribe mode, activated.”

“This is the first official faculty meeting to review the running of Seltron and the classes within. Given that, we shall start with the first day. Derrick Beachwood, you covered orientation; what were your thoughts?”

“I showed them around, what’s there to say?” He sighed before looking at Ryudo. “Where were you, anyways? I thought you’d be the one to greet ‘em at the front.”

The man in question simply shrugged. “I knew my people had it handled. Might even have been more personable than me.” A weak excuse, and I knew instantly why he wasn’t there - he didn’t want the students to know who he was, just in case.

Derrick rolls his eyes and continues. “Nothing special there, really. That strong girl helped-”

“You’ll have to be a bit more specific there, coach,” Erik quipped.

“You know who I mean,” he grumbled back. Gunther raised his hand at that.

“Enough. I suspect we do, but we should be clear here,” he said, gesturing to his tablet. “More than one young woman demonstrated a level of enhanced strength yesterday.”

“Alright, fine. It was Alexandra; she was the one that was carrying pretty much everyone else’s bags by the end of our trip up to the school.”

“Even Camila’s bags? Another girl with enhanced strength,” Layla clarified for the recording.

Derrick shook his head at the older woman’s question. “Nah. The shapeshifter girl, she carried her own bags, was at the front of the pack all the way through. Only a few others showed any real fitness to them. I’m going to have my work cut out for me with this bunch,” he said, muttering the last part under his breath.

“If there were no worrying signs on the orientation, then let’s move to the tournament. We should go over the powers displayed during it. Was any student demonstrating something outside of what they listed their ability as? Anyone fail to demonstrate their power?”

“Martha Suru’ti didn’t use her power at all during it, and when I talked to her afterwards, she said she’d been worried about accidentally hurting someone. A couple others didn’t, likely because they were taken out too fast or didn’t see it as effective in the match. Ezekiel Hellmsman and some of the other boys complained about it after losing their respective bouts.” I said. “All of that seemed to make sense; I can’t think of other reasons why people would have hidden their powers.”

Beachwood added, “As for things outside the norm, nothing I could see that couldn’t have been an application of their power, some trick they didn’t bother to mention, or something they figured out in the moment.”

“Mmm. Well, let’s hope that’s all it is. On to the individual matches. I noticed that Sarah reacted slowly, while her opponent, Raymondo, was erratic and scattershot with his powers. He will likely be a danger to others currently if out in the field.”

Layla added, “Kadir Kartenski showed a good deal of skill and adaptability, combined with his teleporting to great effect, even if he wasn’t successful in his second fight. His attitude, however, was sorely lacking, showing flippancy and arrogance. He left the arena after his fight without even getting healing, teleporting out of sight.”

“Good points, though we should stick to the bouts in order so as to not get confused,” Gunther said. “Major Edderton showed great potential in practice, but his hesitancy to use his powers against others indicates either an ineptitude towards combat or a sign that his control is not-” Beachwood’s hand came down heavily on the table, cutting the headmaster off.

“We don’t have all day to go through every single fight those br- those kiddos went through. Let’s skip to the meat of the issue.”

“Everything is important. A demon could be hiding as any of our students; we cannot ignore some because a few are flashier.” I also thought that we shouldn’t skip over any of them because all of the students should be seen as precious and important, but I didn’t voice that opinion.

“Any Demon that ain’t strong enough to make a splash probably won’t be a problem for them. Look, we can review it later, but we do got classes to run, and there’s only one fight that really raised warning signs.”

The headmaster of Seltron sighed thinly. “Fine. Before we begin on the Alexandra versus Camila fight, let’s go over some of the other noteworthy ones. Quickly.”

“Uh, this ‘number 7’ robot dude showed something pretty neat. He faced, uh, Tessandra,” Erik made a face at that name before continuing. “Who has an ‘electromagnetic ability?' I couldn’t see what was up with it, but it seemed to mess No. 7 up a bit, its limbs moving out stiffly before it knocked her out. Which, okay, robot and electromagnetic, makes sense, but the weird thing is, when they faced Eligor Dracovich in the next round, I could have sworn Number Seven was trying something similar against the general’s son. Also, after Eligor zapped the robot, some men in white suits came by and picked it up, carrying the robot off somewhere, apparently having keycard access. You want to finally tell us what that’s about now?” Gunther sighed at Erik’s pointed questioning.

“The school was always built on certain compromises. No. 7’s handlers are simply one of them. They have their own sections, and they’ll be able to fix any damages caused to him. It. Whatever pronoun the machine uses.” He still seems annoyed at Camila undercutting him during the tournament announcement. “As for what the machine did, yes, it copied the power Miss Laverign used. It will likely copy many other powers with its ‘adaptability,’ which I believe was already mentioned in its files.”

Erik gaped at that. “Yeah, it mentioned the word ‘adaptability,’ but that’s a bit more- what stops it from being a robotic...?”

“The similarities are there, but we don’t need to worry. It, at least, does not need to kill someone else to use their power. Just studying them, though apparently defeating an Empowered in a fight does make it easier. I’ve also been informed it can only use a single ability it has copied at a time.” That was... a lot to take in. I hadn’t noticed any of that, having been busy with healing other students then, and I vowed then to pay a lot closer attention to all the files we were sent regarding the students.

“The fight between Percy Hunt and Henry Washington had the two boys show a lot of aggression to each other. Maximus Hun showed the same with his fight against Kadir,” Layla mentioned. “None of their powers are particularly troublesome in the immediate future, but we should keep an eye on their behaviors and make sure that nothing untoward happens.”

The headmaster waited a moment for any other questions before continuing. “Alright then, let’s talk about the semifinal match Coach Beachwood is so keen for. Both girls demonstrated a great deal of power in their fights, and we saw how destructive they could be. Even with the gym’s design meant to withstand such rigors, it still ended up with permanent damage we had to fix afterwards.”

Ryudo broke his silence, speaking up. “Alexandra poses a challenge. If she, for any reason, were to strike at the school, I’d be hard pressed to take her out, even with all the weaponry and hardware here.”

“We can’t increase the budget there or get additional weaponry. Not on the scale you’re talking about, at least, Gunther said flatly. And thank the gods for that. More weaponry? This school already has enough to level a small country. Maybe even a medium-sized one.

He went on. “They are strong, but we anticipated some outliers in the class. That’s what we’re here for.” To say that, so easily... I didn’t know how to feel. I had some martial arts training, but fighting like that? It felt unreal. Even if I want to believe both girls were good people- and I do! Not that it necessarily matters how good they are; fighting someone as strong as that would be like going up against a hurricane. I’d be blown aside in an instant. But getting more weapons isn’t the answer, we have to make sure to teach and raise them properly.

“Still, I recommend we put a list of those who are that strong. Ones whom Ryudo’s forces and the school’s defense system can’t be relied upon with complete certainty to take them down. In the case where they go rogue, he and his men should direct the students to us. We can work out strategies for specific students later, but right now I think only Camila Einsburgh and Alexandra Herron need to be on the list.”

“Camila too?” Layla asked curiously. I was curious too. Camila’s strong, but she seems more skilled than the incredible brute power her winged friend has. She could be taken out by enough heavy weaponry if we had to, Light forbid.

“Consider her a precaution. The level of power she showed was very close to Alexandra’s, and while she did lose the finals-” Something I greatly wondered about. Gunther was not too happy about those two girls changing up his tournament plans, but things ended up playing out very well for him to say how a boy won the tournament instead of a girl, despite the fact that Trevor was likely weaker than the two girls in question.“ -She still showed power and skill enough to deal with most conventional weaponry. Plus there is the question raised on her application.”

Right, the one of whether or not she was a demon. There were a few red flags raised in reading her power in the application, though the school hadn’t found any signs in their background check.

“She was quite skilled,” Beachwood mentioned, rubbing his scruffy chin. “Could speak to having more experience than a kid. If a demon stole that power...”

“Can’t be a stolen power. Did you see how fast she shifted? Way too strong for that. Also, her acid was neat, but I think that was just an enhanced version of stomach acid. All of her tricks had that biological element to them,” Erik objected.

“It could be that she’s just worked hard and is quite gifted. Her grades are excellent all around, and her parents mentioned that despite having many friends, she’d often spend her time alone, practicing her powers. Kadir showed a similar level of technique in his fighting skills, when he wasn’t acting lazy,” Layla pointed out. Gunther’s face was blank, but he seemed... not quite unconvinced, but troubled, perhaps.

“Putting that matter aside for the moment, let’s get back to Miss Herron.” What was being raised as another matter? Kadir or Camila? I couldn’t get how Gunther Kiren’s mind worked sometimes.

Erik spoke up again, seeming a lot less sleepy now. “Alexandra might be stronger than some of us, but with no restraint. Even if we can take her down together, she could easily kill another student, or several, if she gets mad at them. It’s good to have contingencies, but I wonder if we should even let a ticking time bomb like that here in the school. It might not even be intentional, but should we put the rest of the class at risk for her sake? I’m certain it would make things easier if we just sent her back home now.”

I felt betrayed by his words, but taking a moment to think about them, I realized where he was coming from. He hasn’t seen Alex and Cam in anything other than their fight. “She’s not like that, Erik.”

Gunther raised an eyebrow. “It seems like you have a bit of insight on the matter. Please share.” Despite how he worded it, it was not a request.

“Ah, well, Camila brought Alexandra by to my office after the fight to make sure the other girl was healed up, and they chatted quite amicably,” she explained.

“Hmm, perhaps it was as Camila suggested at the fight then. It does not make Alexandra’s actions acceptable, but they would be less worrisome. The escalation was fairly steady, and while she appears to have a slight temper, she was hit fairly hard in the face. It’s understandable for a teenager to react like that, and she quickly stood down when I intervened.”

He paused, musing over the fight again, then pulled up the video and projected it in front of them, fast-forwarding to the part where he intervened, then focusing in on Camila- the tape went out for a minute, starting up again as Alexandra ran away. “Blasted machine,” he muttered under his breath, so low I could barely make out the words. It is odd that the camera would fail like that, considering how new they are, but a lot of exotic powers and effects were thrown about yesterday.

“Is something the matter?” I asked. He turned to me and shook his head.

“There was something I was wondering about, but it doesn’t matter. I take it we have no clue if Camila was involved in any vigilante activity before this?”

Ryudo shook his head. “Nothing that says she does, but there are always a few independent heroes or even well equipped civillians running about in any city these days wanting to 'play hero.' With her powers, it would be impossible to trace it to her if she was one.”

“Fine, though keep an eye out for if any of the known ones have disappeared from her home city as she’s come to Seltron, it could be a clue. Back to Miss Herron... I agree that she has some control issues, but lacking any sign of malevolence, I am disinclined to take further action now. Some problematic powers and the like are things that we’re here to deal with, provided the student truly desires to be a hero.” He stood up from his chair, walking around slightly, tapping his cane back and forth.

“These students are young, teenagers. They are not veterans with our experience and skill, and they will need our close guidance. But I see within them vast potential. They may have rough edges, but we can grind those down and polish them to perfection. We will show the world how vital, how remarkable Seltron can be through these students, through the heroes we transform them to be.”

He stops, turning to look at me and the other staff, each in turn. “At the very least, we can all agree that young Miss Herron has an exceptional amount of potential, for good or ill, and I refuse to throw away such potential so early. The same is true for Camila, and Number 7, and many of the other students in our care. At the end of yesterday, everyone was healed and well. It sounds like some of them even forged strong bonds over my tournament.” Is he actually trying to claim responsibility for friendship by citing his tournament?

Sitting back down, Gunther finished by saying, “Keep an eye on them, obviously, but for now we’ll let things lie and see how the students develop. Any more questions or observations about the fights?” 

There were a few more of them, but no issues that were anywhere near as big or discussion worthy as that semi-final match had been. The meeting wrapped up with fifteen minutes left to spare before I had to teach my class. Which I dimly recalled was on the other side of the building. Great. 

As the meeting came to a close, Gunther called everyone’s attention back to him. “Remember to stay vigilant. We’ve had a promising start, and while no extremely worrying markers have been raised yet, and I mentioned wanting to guide our students well and not give up on them, we must also not hesitate if they cross that line. We cannot let ourselves get too attached to them and let that blind us. None of them may be demon right now, but that doesn’t mean none will become one. In that case, I trust you all to do what has to be done.” 

I gulped as I heard his words and remembered this man as he truly was. Not the overly stern headmaster of Seltron, but Null, the invincible hero. He wasn’t as flashy as other heroes, and his power lent more to defense, but his words were as sharp as the legendary sword in his cane, and it reminded me that he wouldn’t hesitate to swing it if evil reared its head. 

I also remembered the rare time he was taken down by trickery, nearly killed by his archnemesis before any fight had begun. I healed him that day, saved his life, and while I’d love to believe that none of their students could be so vile and do something like that, the truth was I wouldn’t know until it’s too late. 

I focused on that thought and nodded grimly, determined to do my part, however small it might be. I’ll never be some great fighter, but I could make a difference. Hopefully by preventing any issues from arising and being vigilant, but there are weapons and defense systems I can use here too, to do my part against any villain that tried to hurt my students... even if that villain turns out to be one of the students themselves.