Lots and lots of strange faces. She felt like a little fish in a big pond, luckily she sighted Justin the guy from earlier. And he had not been unfriendly.
'Hey Suzanne!' he waved at her. She stood by him. 'Hey! What's going on?' she asked.
He smiled. 'Nothing much. The instructor was just briefing us on the rules of this place and explaining the different rankings of a hero. And Slads like us too. Besides where'd you run off to?' he asked.
Suzanne scratched her head. 'Umn....Sorry I kinda got mixed up in all the excitement of arriving here. I guess I just kind of ran off.' Justin laughed warmly.
'No worries. Besides what did you do to that blondie over there? The girl from the bus?' he pointed discreetly so she wouldn't see him. 'She's been glaring at you every two minutes since you ran in.'
Suzanne had a good idea of who it might be.
'Does she oogle at a blue-haired guy every ten seconds?' she asked, head tilted to her right. Justin looked surprised. 'Yeah! You know about that too?!'
Suzanne sighed and nodded. 'Yeah...,' she replied with a groan.
Justin laughed. 'Silence please,' the instructor cautioned.
Justins' laughter died down when he received a stern glance from the instructor. The man flipped open a document.
'As you know no one can survive without another to rely on; the hero league has decided to group you all into foursomes as a squad.'
Everyone's attention was gained.
He continued, a bit pleased. 'This has been the way things has been since way back in the days. You tend to bond with your teammates at the end of the day.'
Someone raised a hand but he waved it away.
'No questions now please. Let me end the talk.'
The hand went down.
'Each squad would have a supervisor who is part of ranking B. As I've explained earlier on, there are five rankings, irrespective of what category you belong in.'
'We have the Shades, our topmost agents. They are a little different from Hero league corps as they are...extra special. They are only dispatched on urgent duties and the most risky missions. It's rare to see them here as they have a different training facility.'
Someone yawned.
He continued, undisturbed.'Those of you who show extra-ordinary potential would be trained on that level. Then there are the A-ranks too.'
'Then we have the B-ranks. The B-ranking is a very tough position to get to and those that are there take on dangerous situations and handle the training of the Slads too.'
'He's going all the way to E-ranks?!' Suzanne whispered, alarmed. She was already worn out. Justin stifled a laughter. 'Yeah...'
She groaned.
'The C-ranks are the ones whose district is out of the city. They take on external missions, missions that require traveling and going to dangerous places.'
'The D-ranks stay within the district. They handle everything internal.'
The instructor went on. 'And we have the E-ranks. They go on casual missions. Missions that earn money for the hero league. And also they carry relevant messages from the top politicians and from anyone important.'
'So we are E-ranks?' Annabelle asked despite his instruction not to ask any question.
He frowned but replied anyway. 'No. You are Slads. The beginner's level. Namely all what you do basically is train, increase your skills and learn to be independent and have a strong teamwork.'
'Foundation is the most important key,' he added.
'Now I'll continue,' he shot Annabelle a nasty look. 'You'll be grouped right now according to how your abilities flow with your team. This is from the headquarters, so no complaints if you please.'
'Squad 1..,' he started.
'I hope we end up in the same squad Suzanne,' Justin said. 'Yeah me too,' she smiled sweetly at him.
The ones who had been grouped were in a separate corner arguing or getting along with their new team mates.
'Squad 4, Justin Carter, Annabelle Clarence, Edward Rin, Wallis Timber.'
Justin's face fell. 'Gee...I'm with the mean girl.' 'Cheer up, Justin! She's not that....' the word 'mean' refused to roll off her tongue. Suzanne refused to lie to him, she knew that Annabelle was meaner than mean.
'I mean you'll be fine,' she tried again, unsuccessfully.
'Carter join up with your Squad now please, time's ticking,' the instructor said. Justin put up a brave front and walked up to meet his team.
Suzanne watched him give them a little wave and felt pity for him. It sucks to be on Annabelle's team.
'Squad 10, Ryan Zintez,' most of the girls' ears perked up. Who'd get to be his 'lucky' team mates?
Annabelle huffed. 'Seems I'm stuck with you losers...' she moaned, eyeing her group members. Justin rolled his eyes. What a drama queen!
'Ethan Joan, Andrew Frankstin....,' the instructor continued with the grouping, oblivious to the dissatisfaction the 'headquarters grouping list has caused in some groups.
Suzanne laughed at the newest group list, which she had silently christened 'the team of the century', for the group members were completely opposites, all of them!
'And Suzanne O'Izzy!'
The instructor went on calling other groups but Suzanne froze for the second time that day.
Her eyes travelled to where they all stood. Andrew, looking bored as he skimmed through a small book, Ethan glaring at Ryan who didn't bother to acknowledge him but looked the other way.
The only thought that could come to her mind was...
Those guys?!
This was a huge mistake. Suzanne's feet refused to move.'O'Izzy please join your team mates,' the instructor told her, a bit annoyed. 'Um....you're...you're sure those are my er ....squad?' Suzanne asked uncertainly.He looked quite irritated now.Andrew scoffed, not looking up from his book. Ryan didn't even glance at her or look in her direction. Only Ethan waved. 'Oy! Over here!''That, O'Izzy is your squad for sure now stop asking rather dumb questions!' the instructor replied sternly and stopped what he was doing briefly to focus his undivided attention on her.Suzanne gulped. 'Kay,' in a small voice, noticing that every one was now staring at her. She felt several jealous eyes of the other girls piercing her as she remained rooted to the spot.She walked towards them and it seemed like slow motion as she moved.She fina
'Silverstin?!' Suzanne quipped, amazed.The guy that stood before them was the hero league's best student. It was rumored that he had worked for Shades for a while but his power was too much for them to contain and in order not for him to be eaten up by darkness he was sent back to the hero league since they'd assumed being around his mates would bring out his positive side.Nothing changed.He was the most popular hero. Even new born babies knew his name.But he was rumored to be strict and rules-abiding. He also didn't do anything fun.He was a Rolex. His powers weren't fully known yet but so far, he could turn people within a sixty mile radius into ice. He mainly dealt with ice-based things.When he was still a kid, about three different series of painful experiments were run on him by his dad, who worked for the rogue heroes.He
'Let's go,' Aiden said to the rest of Squad 10.'But...' Ethan looked in the direction Suzanne had run out through. 'She'll come around soon,' Aiden said without looking back as he kept walking away, the rest of the squad tailing him.Reminds me of Ryan. Ethan thought.Aiden led them round the building, getting them more familiar with the grounds.He gave them each a map in order for them to survey the whole place on their own.Afterwards he led them to a spot outside the garden where they'd meet up with their coach.'While we wait, I'll like you to keep me acquainted with your skills and strengths,' Aiden told them.'Shouldn't you be more concerned about our weaknesses and ambitions?' Andrew asked. Aiden scowled. 'A hero has no weakness, so if you think you're hero material you'd know that fact!'
Suzanne got down at her bus stop.'Bye Suzanne, till tomorrow!' Justin waved from the bus. 'Yeah. Bye!' she waved back and started walking home.She heard quiet footsteps, she looked out of the corner of her eye. Someone was following her from the shadows.She frowned. I can't conclude yet. He might be a passer-by.Suzanne took the next turn and walked left and suspiciously, the steps also moved in the same direction.She hid behind some buildings and as the person moved forward she rushed behind him with a dagger aimed for his side. She secured a tight grip on him but was unable to see his face.'Care to tell me why you're stalking me?!' She asked in a low, dangerous tone, or at least what she thought was a low dangerous tone.He scoffed. 'Why would I stalk you?' She quickly released him.That voice
Suzanne woke up quite alarmed. She was feeling quite odd today. She freshened up and went downstairs to get her breakfast. She munched her cereal slowly.Why did it feel like she was forgetting something? Something important?Shane looked puzzled when he saw her downstairs.'Um--' he started. But Suzanne continued slurping her cereal. 'Call me loser one more time and I promise to cut off your tongue!' she said to him.He scratched his hair.'Actually that's not it. You know I always skip first period in class everyday, so I go late.'He replied.'So?' Suzanne asked, irritated. He was stating a fact she already knew.He smirked. 'So if I, a usual late goer am headed out by this time, what does that make you?' he asked cockily.Suzanne gasped and dashed into her room.
'Your goal is to--' Gwen was interrupted by her emergency signal. 'I have to take this. Aiden's in charge now.'She faced Aiden. 'You know the basics, you'll submit the report of their trial at the end of the day.'He nodded curtly.'Sure.'Gwen did a little salute before she took off. Aiden turned to them a cold frown on his face.'Okay. Here's what you have to do,' he started. They moved closer to him. He showed them some gems and had it passed around before he collected them again.'Buried in the soil are these objects; rubies, diamonds and sapphires. Now you'll get a mark depending on which you find first. If you find a ruby you're disqualified and if a member is gone you all fail. If you find a sapphire you're not going to participate anymore which means you're also disqualified.'He smirked. 'As you know if one of you is
Ryan stopped by a tree and crouched to assess his situation.The whereabouts of the gems were unknown and if he just started digging anyhow there was a 50% chance he could stumble on the Emerald or any other gem.It was too risky to gamble.He got out a blindfold. I'll just have to work with my other senses then.He'd seen the gems and felt them. While the other two were sort of rough-ish, the diamond was rhombus in shape.He could use that. His eyes strayed towards were he'd left the others.He hissed as he tied on his blindfold. Who needs those losers?As long as he doesn't trigger the alarm that'll sense he'd found any other gem than diamond he should be fine.He turned on his gadget and started blasting the ground making a hole emerge.This would be quick.I'll find th
Andrew checked his watch, time was almost up but he had found the diamond.He marked the spot with an X. Now to find those guys before they accidentally found those other gems.He looked at the tracking devices he had secretly planted on each of them.He sighed and started heading towards them. He could tell from their yells that they weren't really far away, or maybe they were but they were just really noisy.He shook his head at that thought and sighed again.Watching over those guys was really annoying.~~~Ethan growled again struggling in Suzanne's grasp. 'Let me go, Suzanne! I've got to teach this moron a lesson!' he struggled on.Ryan scoffed. 'Get out of my way, both of you!''You know Ryan--he kinda has a point. I mean you were blind folded and the instructio