Seltron Super Academy Chapter 9

Once I trusted myself enough to shift my voice box back along with remaking a left arm, I walked over to the young healer, Miss Fontaine.

“I can’t approve of how far you pushed yourself in that fight,” the teacher chided me as she raised her glowing hands over my body. “Even if you can heal yourself. The fact that you’re coming to me for help tells me there are some serious limitations.” Jumping to conclusions much there, or just putting your own power on a pedestal? Not like it matters much; there are some limitations, but I never planned to be fighting after this. If it weren’t for Null... Her healing hands cleared up any pain in my mind and helped me focus, but aside from fixing any possible concussion I might have gained, I didn’t feel much different after it.

“It’s usually better, I just lost a lot of mass in that fight.” Which apparently didn’t count as something Miss Fontaine could heal with her own ability. The result left me skeletally thin under my ‘uniform’ and haggard. “Thanks for the healing, Miss Fontaine.”

“You’re welcome,” she said. “Just promise me not to get as badly injured in your final fight.”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” I replied as I walked back. Beyond having ‘learned my lesson,’ it was literally true too; I had nowhere near the mass to make something like that huge arm again, so if I lost even close to that amount again, I’d be dead. I’ve got to be really careful now. Luckily, Trevor seemed to rely on blinding his foes, and the changes needed to enhance my other senses didn’t take a bunch of spare ‘material’ just an advanced knowledge of biology, something I had studied ever since I’d gotten this power.

I enhanced my sense of smell and hearing, even my sense of touch, to feel the vibrations through the ground as I walked over to the arena. It’s not perfect. I’d hardly match a bloodhound or owl without making at least minor outward alterations, but it’ll give me the edge I need against Trevor. It wasn’t pleasant to say the least, taking in a whiff of all the sweat and blood that had been shed in this tournament, but if I could struggle through it for just a few minutes longer, then it would all be over.

Gunther was looking at me impatiently as he gestured for me to go down to the arena, which I did, holding back my glare until I was turned away from him. I walked forward to stand opposite Trevor, but before we could exchange even a few words, Gunther was announcing the beginning of the fight. “Camila Einsburgh versus Trevor Hawthorn, begin!”

I scoffed and ran forward to Trevor, the boy seeming more caught off guard by the sudden ‘go’ hologram between us than I was. I saw his field expanding from him a few meters away, then nothing. No lights, no sounds, no smells,... Absolutely nothing. I didn’t even know if my lunge towards him had contacted or if I was standing or lying down on the ground.

Damn.

Commanding my body to thrash about, shifting some claws to tear the air around me, didn’t help my slight sudden panic diminish at all. I can tell that I’m telling my body to do these things, and I’ve seen people still moving inside it, but there’s no feedback from my attempts to move, no sign to tell my mind that my body is moving.

Realizing I couldn’t fight like this, I shifted again, turning my arms into wings and trying to fly up, into the air, and hopefully above his- smells and noises overwhelmed me as I broke free of the sphere into the anticipated light. I could feel the air again, the roar of the crowd of students, and- the shimmering sphere rose from my feet to swallow me and my senses once again in darkness. I was ready this time, commanding myself on practiced motions to swoop down and out, breaking free from the field again, turning tightly around it to escape its expansion for a moment and plan.

Trevor was running towards me, his field expanding as he ran, moving out towards me, but evenly in all other directions too from what I could see of the shimmering lights marking its boundaries. He seemed to be careful to keep it away from the edges where the other students were while trying to catch me back in it. If he can’t shape the field as he pleases, then maybe...

I dove down again, guiding myself straight and fast as I could, aiming myself to try and smash into him. Void took over my senses once again as I entered, but I held faith in my aim, commanding my body to punch out as best I could from where I landed.

There were a few moments of nothingness where I tried to strike out when suddenly my senses came back, the field drawn back completely to Trevor, lying underneath me. It worked!

The joy didn’t last long, though, as that moment of disorientation from the lights coming back, being able to perceive things again so strongly, combined with regaining my bearings, made me hesitate for a second. Trevor used that second to throw a punch that broke my jaw. It wasn’t even a very hard punch, just one too tough for my body to handle at the moment.

Rolling off to the side, I sent a ripple to heal it, preparing myself to move forward or back depending on how Trevor would play the next move- then fell down halfway from getting up, my body collapsing. The flight, my last charge, it was all too much. Even for a shapeshifter, I didn’t have infinite energy, and the previous fight had pushed me too far.

“Hey, are you like, ok?” Trevor asked, remaining a sensible distance away in case this was a trick on my part, lightly clutching one of his arms, a few light red lines of blood trickling down it. Concern for his foe, but pragmatic enough to not throw caution to the wind, that’s probably a good trait for a hero to have. He’ll make a decent one... and for the moment, a better one than me. I can’t beat him, not without raising eyebrows or getting really vicious. As much as I’d like to mess with Gunther’s plans...

“I surrender,” I said. My voice was low, but Gunther was quick to leap on the opportunity.

“Camila Einsburgh has forfeited; Trevor Hawthorn is the victor!” The headmaster announced, turning on the ‘match end’ display. The class started lightly cheering over the proclamation, and Trevor moved over to help me up.

“Well done, Mister Hawthorn,” Gunther said, his emphasis not lost on me. “I’m glad to see the best student of the first class of Seltron Academy. Keep a good eye on this young man, students; he is whom you will have to surpass. Never stop aiming higher.” With that speech out of the way, he pivoted, cane clicking against the ground.

“Miss Einsburgh, Mister Hawthorn, you can get changed and join the rest of us in the dining hall for dinner. And don’t be tardy.” His head was half turned, gaze firmly on me for a moment. Then he led the rest of the class off, back to the elevator to the surface.

In the silence that followed, Trevor just looked at me awkwardly for a moment before managing to say, “I- ah. I’m sorry.”

“What for? You won that match, fair and square.”

“Yeah, but- he was your idol!” Right, that lie, back to haunt me. “I should’ve, I dunno, let you win or-”

“Like he wouldn’t have seen through that in a nanosecond.” I held up a hand to forestall further argument. “I appreciate it, but don’t ever apologize for fighting to the best of your ability.”

“Alright, I guess. Did you really need to surrender there? Not that I’m questioning it or anything; I just saw you fight way harder against Alexandra and-” he hastily added.

“Yeah, I did fight harder against her, which is why I had way less to give during our fight. I’m tired, and my mass is way down. I’m going to need some time and a lot of food to recover.”

“Ok, that makes sense. The way you two were going at it... that was just crazy, I hadn’t seen anything like it. Not even from the few clips I’ve seen of heroes fighting on t.v.” Trevor offered me a shoulder to lean on as I hobbled to the changing rooms on the other end of the room.

“I haven’t fought that hard i- ever. Alex is crazy tough. Still, you weren’t bad yourself. Your power is incredible, able to block out everything like that.” The number of demons I could have easily taken out back then with it... but it still wouldn’t make a difference against Null.

“It blinds people, sure, but... I mean, you two have super strength.” I shook my head. Boys always tended to get sidetracked by the pure physical might over the other, more potent and useful abilities and applications at my disposal whenever they saw my shapeshifting. Not that it isn’t flashy, cool, and useful to be able to lift a car over my head, though.

“It does way more than that. I don’t think you realize how much having all your senses shut down in a fight sucks. I had so many tricks planned to get around it if it just blinded me, but then I had nothing. At least the flight came in handy. Couldn’t have even done that one if I had as much mass as I did for the fight against Alex.”

“Oh, so do you think I could have won even if you were at full strength?” He asked, a bit of a cocky tease in his voice.

I snorted. “Not a chance. But hey, at least you can enjoy being the Ace of a class for a little while.” He groaned at that.

“Ugh, did you see the way everyone was looking at me? I’ll have a target on my back for sure.” Trevor complained, and I clapped him on the back.

“Hey... better you than me,” I said with a cheeky grin. He shoved me off to the side in mock anger, but I had recovered enough to not stumble (much) from that.

“Get lost,” he said without any heat, and I waved him away as I entered the locker room and got changed quickly (shapeshifting really helped for skipping things like ‘showers to remove all the blood on you’ in a pinch). I was about to leave when I heard a muffled sound from the stalls. I could just leave, pretend I didn’t hear anything, but I recognized that voice.

Sighing heavily, I turned around, walking back to the change stalls, and knocked lightly on the only closed one. “Go away” was the response I heard a few moments later.

“Alex, what’s up?”

“Camila? Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean- I mean, you probably want to leave anyways,” Alex’s broken voice came out from the stall.

“I would like to go and get some dinner, so why don’t you head out of there and we can get going, ok?” Will I have to listen to this girl’s whining or be able to skip all that and- and she’s sobbing again. Great. I sat down on a nearby bench, feeling this might take a while.

“I just- I hurt you so bad, and then what Gunther said...”

Could this be an opening to cover my mistake earlier? “ Yeah, he was really rude. I’m beginning to rethink-”

“No, no! He was totally right! You’re too kind. I don’t- please don’t think badly of him on my behalf.” Well, there goes that chance to set things straight. Why do you have to be so infuriatingly nice?

“I mean, I messed up, hurt you, wrecked the arena, and this isn’t the first time. I try to control my strength, I really do, but it’s just- everything breaks so easily, and... Should I even be here?”

That was... a lot more than what I expected. Obviously there were more issues to unpack here than just Gunther berating her, but... should I? Alexandra was the strongest classmate by far, one of the few who could challenge me, even if I went all out. It was tempting, for a moment, to press Alex further along those thoughts. If she leaves the school, then my place at the top would almost be guaranteed. No one cares about second place after all; that’s why I have to aim for the top by any means necessary-

Those words weren’t mine. They were Gunther Kiren’s. He had always been the one among our team to be focused on ‘being the best.’ That we would be ‘the next Miracle Squad,’ he had always said. Sure, I had gone along with it, and had thought it would be nice to be a famous hero (still do think that last part) but...

Silence reigned over the changing room for a minute before Alex spoke up. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be burdening you like this, especially after I hurt you so bad-”

“Stop. It’s fine; I was just... caught up in thought. Nothing about you, just stuck in my own head. Look, I can’t tell you what to do, but if you want to learn how to control your powers, here is probably the best place to do it.” I will be a hero, and a great one, I know it. But I won’t do it by tearing others down, that’s his way. Even if this doesn’t end up well, I would regret not helping this young girl out here. “For what it’s worth, I think you have a lot of potential.”

“Ok.” The words were quiet, but they seemed steadier than those before. Alexandra opened the door after a moment, her face a bit red and splotchy, but she seemed alright. Alex gave me a weak grin, and then I took a proper look at her.

“Wait, did you not get any healing?” I asked as I saw that one of the feathery girl’s front teeth was still broken almost in half, diagonally, with chips among several of the other teeth.

“Oh, I, uh, didn’t think to get it fixed,” Alex said, rubbing her tongue experimentally over her teeth. “It feels a bit weird. Does it look bad?”

“I think you mean ‘painful.’ Come on, let’s find Miss Fontaine and see if she can fix you up.” If I’m going to be late for dinner anyway, then we might as well go all the way and miss out on seeing Gunther’s spiteful face. Hopefully the teacher can help convince the staff to give us a good snack.

Miss Fontaine’s office took us a while to find, not having been covered directly in the tour. At least Alex had perked up a fair bit to her usual state by the time we got there. The healer had been quick to rush over and help Alex, waving her hands over the girl’s face once and restoring the damage I had caused in our fight. So little real damage to her. Sure, I had plenty of tricks up my sleeves I didn’t use there, but still... her strength and toughness are off the charts.

“Of course I can get you something to eat,” Miss Fontaine responded when I made an inquiry about food. “Both of you missed dinner, caught me right as I came back from it, but I’m glad to see you’re taking your health seriously.” The teacher seemed to have concluded that out of the pair, Alex was the one who was bad with taking care of herself. I doubted that the other girl would ever need Janet Fontaine’s powers again after this fight, at least not until after we had graduated.

“I can get the staff to bring up some leftovers for you two. The cafeteria will be closed, but you can eat here. I’ll just be in the back of my office, doing some paperwork.”

When the food arrived, Alex gaped at the amount of plates brought to them. “This is practically a feast!” I looked more dubious. This might be enough for just me. Though I do eat a fair bit more than anyone else.

The two of us ate quickly, myself ravenous by the time the food got there and Alex worried about the curfew. Alex still seemed to be thinking about the match and was quiet, not talking much before we headed off to the dormitories. She wasn’t crying, though, or even looking too upset, so I figured I’d done my part.

It was an exhausting day, I thought to myself as I collapsed onto my new bed. Informative and exhilarating in its own way, being able to fight at that level. Very few of my previous battles had felt that way before, more hit and run, desperate struggles for life decided in an instant or two than true clashes. Then again, things are very different here. Things will be different here; I’ll make sure of that. Even with the presence of that hated man, I will be a hero, like I always wanted to be, so long ago.

As I fell asleep, I softly whispered, barely audible by even my own ears, “I’ll make you proud, sis.”.