Levi had a very interesting conversation with his bosses.
They sat him down, alone in an office and drilled him with questions. The only reason they let them go unsupervised was because they were assured that it would be quite easy. All they had to do was pretend to be mall cops, and make sure nothing would happen. The media had gotten news of the event, and hailed Fenton as a hero.
Everyone else was seen as incompetent, and Levi's bosses agreed. Levi agreed as well.
After drilling him with questions they told him that they were impressed that not as many people died as we expected, and we didn't get that many lawsuits. They simply spent about an hour, antagonizing him, and making sure he wouldn't think that he was in the clear simply because their boss was his father.
Levi knew all this, he knew why they were bullying him, and he sat in the chair, answering all their questions, choosing his words carefully.
After an hour they finally gave up on making him crack and he was allowed to leave.
It had been three days since their first mission and word had spread around on campus. Some teams were jealous, thinking that Levi had gotten a harder mission because his father was in charge. Many were impressed, and no longer thought of them as those rich kids who will be out of here in a few years.
Levi just wanted people to stop bothering him for ten minutes, to stop asking him questions, to stop calling him at odd hours of the day, and to finally have his team mates stop squabbling with each other, like seals fighting over a small patch of land to sunbathe on.
He was grateful that for sometime they had no more practice missions, that all they had to do was take their basic required training and classes until the end of the year. Then his only worry would be about making sure they wouldn't accidentally shoot themselves in the foot, literally and metaphorically
. Levi walked down the busy halls, angry and tired, wondering what he had deserved to be cursed with imbeciles.
Sometimes I think dad gave me all these idiots just to mess with me, Levi thought.
He wasn't wrong.
Levi's father, Maximilian, took great pleasure in bothering others. He liked to say things in everyday conversation just to see the look of disgust or shock on people's faces. They either gave a fake smile, or pretended like they heard nothing, because of the money and power he held over anyone that was unlucky enough to come through his path.
Levi tried to understand what he had done to anger his father this time as he made his way out the front gates and to the library.
Fenton and Santos had kept their promise, to meet up at the library once a week. Fenton was adamant, he would not let his recent injury stop him from protecting his friends, and proving Candice was a monster.
He was also preoccupied, wondering how Ace would disappear. Fenton snuck a bag of beef jerky into the library and was slyly eating it, hiding it underneath his backpack as he sat in one of the library booths.
Like all astrals every time they used their ability too often they lost iron, suddenly had a craving for meat and sometimes changed in appearance.
Their Neuman gland released chemicals in their blood that reacted with the iron to use their abilities. Once it was dangerously low, they couldn't use it any more, their body more concerned with breathing than if it could perform an overflorfied magic trick.
Fenton groaned as he shot up an entire two inches, and his legs ached. A side effect of sudden overuse of abilities was growth. The Neuman gland pushed up against the pituitary, and it wasn't odd for most astrals to be ridiclously tall, hairy, big chested, overtly sexual or quick to anger.
Fenton had barely gotten any sleep, from the growing pains over the past three days, and silently prayed, for the first time in his life, that he would not grow any taller. Ace was jealous, as for an astral he was ridiculously small at five feet eleven, and wondered how short he would be if he were a regular person.
Levi found Fenton in the corner, groaning, his pain killers wearing off, grumbling to himself and eating jerky. He sat next to him, and they waited for Santos to arrive.
"You know," Fenton mumbled. "None of that was supposed to happen."
"I know," Levi groaned. He laid his head on the table, exhausted from little hours of sleep and the constant pestering of those around him. "I messed up," Levi said. "I'm just happy that none of us died."
"That's not what I meant," Fenton explained. "All of this has already happened." Levi turned to look at him, head still on the table, enjoying the cold library air. "Santos said he's lived through all of this, but this never happened. Ever." Levi sat up, knowing that something was wrong.
"You don't believe him about-"
"I know what he is and it terrifies me," Fenton interrupted. "Don't lie to me. I can read your mind."
Levi shifted in his chair and tried to avoid another uncomfortable conversation. He stared at his hands clasped on the table, but it was no use. Fenton continued, angry and bold. He had almost died three days ago and no longer cared. He would make sure to meet his goals before he died.
"I don't like you, and I don't like Santos, but I work with you to get rid of her," Fenton said. "Don't lie to me, because I already don't trust you enough as it is."
"I've never done anything to you," Levi snapped.
"Yes you have," Fenton growled. "You're always bothering Ace. Always bullying him."
"No I-"
"Yes you do," Fenton hissed.
"Just because he makes your dick feel funny doesn't give you a right to pick on him." Levi felt hot as he now knew that Fenton knew. "Stop reading my mind," Levi whispered.
"Stop picking on Ace," Fenton snapped.
"I just try to push him to be his best," Levi mumbled.
"I don't like being lied to," Fenton said coolly. "I don't care if you refuse to deal with your own emotions but don't push them onto my friend."
Levi said nothing back, and he sat next to Fenton, avoiding his gaze and praying that Santos would not be late.
He of course, in his usual fashion was ten minutes late, as he was to almost anything, because he took nothing seriously. Fenton leered at him as he arrived, listening to music too loudly in the library, dancing as he walked, not caring who saw. He finally turned his music off and sat down with them, as they all went over what little information they had.
"I've seen her true face," Fenton shuddered.
"Rikka saw it too," Levi replied. "We have to figure out how to take a picture and show everyone."
"That won't work," Santos sneered. "People will just think it was edited on a computer."
"He's right," Levi mumbled. "What else can we do?"
"We have to catch her in the act," Fenton declared. "I caught her eating fingers on the ship!"
"I told you," Levi shouted.
Other patrons in the library shushed him and he quickly sunk into the booth, trying to avoid any more attention. It was quite impossible, since he was an already large and tall man.
"Santos, what's going to happen next," Fenton asked.
"No clue," Santos sighed. "Everything is different now. Maybe we fixed it!"
Fenton shook his head. "It is never that easy," he said. "We didn't even catch her!"
"How do we know it's her doing all this," Levi asked. "It could be someone else."
Fenton and Santos were thrown for a loop as they never even considered this. "We could catch her and everything could start all over again," Levi continued. "Shouldn't we find that person first? Then we can get her."
"That makes more sense," Fenton agreed. "How do we even find this person?"
Santos stared off into space, trying to rack his head if he knew anybody who could do such a thing, but out of the many people he had met over eons, he had not.
"Let's check the directory," Levi suggested. "It has every person on campus and all their abilities."
"What if they're not on campus," Santos asked.
"I think Candice is trying to find the same person we're looking for," Levi explained. "Why else would a monster hang out at a military academy?" They all nodded, as it seemed to be the easiest answer.
"So we find whoever has this ability, and then we can trap her," Fenton concluded. "Yes," Levi grinned. He slid out of the booth and was excited. "Let's get to work."
The directory for everyone who worked for the Defense Program, their trainees, and those who attended Slater Academy was online and quite expansive. Not everyone was on there, for obvious security reasons, so Levi gave Fenton and Santos the public directory while his job was to find the actual directory.
He knew it would be on paper. Even with all the technology Earth had procured after being colonized by the Empire, as some things could never be replaced. Keeping information on paper, in one singular place, stopped hackers from stealing their most important data.
After getting a giant 30 oz. mug of black coffee with espresso shots, he made his way to his father's office.