The SA building was situated in the heart of the town, in the most prestigious zone. It spanned over a few hectares, with a big wall that stretched out in a diamond shaped design.
There were two gates, one main and big gate for most of the superheroes passing through, and a small one that was considered a private gate for the leaders of the SA different department.
After passing through the main gate, a big garden was there. It was filled with trees and nice-looking plants and flowers. But this morning, the grass was covered up with thick carpets, with wooden pillars rising up and carrying a huge tent.
Many decorations made out of colourful papers and lights were hung over the outer walls of this tent. When Thomas arrived with Jax, he found lots of people standing inside, chatting among each other as if they were friends or something.
Thomas didn't need any explanation or introduction from Jax to know they were members of the SA department. They were wearing different uniforms, made out of leather, with badges on their chests, the same badge he got from the resources department before.
What surprised him though was the number of these superheroes. He thought the entire department would have one hundred superheroes or something, but there were hundreds of them.
They all wore different pieces of metal over their faces and necks. Few had beautiful looking pieces, with sparkling red, green, and blue colours. He even spotted two with gem-like stones embedded in these metal pieces.
At the far end of this tent, just opposite to the entrance where he and Jax came from, there was a big and high stage. It was circular in shape, rising up for ten metres, enough to accommodate a hundred people there.
"What's their thing with high stages?" Thomas commented in his mind about this. He recalled back at the test, the leading superheroes also stood over a high pillar, one that looked like a very high stage or something.
"See there? They are new recruits, just like yourself," just as the two of them walked inside the tent, with literally no one paying attention to them, Jax motioned towards one direction where a group of young superheroes stood.
They were nine in number, with few looking doubtful and even scared from this situation. Thomas noticed that four of them looked calm, as if they knew what was going to happen, as if they didn't care about anything or anyone here.
"You finally came," just before Thomas would ask Jax about the reason they were gathered beside the stage, Trevor shouted, walking from another direction towards them, "hurry, go and stand with other new members. The ceremony will start soon."
"Hi boss," Thomas greeted Trevor, trying to make a face for his superior in front of Jax. Even if the latter was his friend, he belonged to another department. And Thomas used to keep a good eye over such trivial details back on earth, as such useless things usually mattered for people in power like Trevor.
"Hi Jax, stay away from my kid and don't bring him any more trouble," Trevor turned to Jax, and his face slightly changed. It seemed he still held a grudge against what Jax caused to Thomas, while the latter disagreed with that.
Even if Jax ended up putting him in danger, he also made Thomas gain lots of fruits for free.
Thomas left Jax behind, trying hopelessly to justify what he did. As he arrived at where the other nine were, he examined them one by one, and they also scanned him back.
"Our last newbie is here," one of the four who looked collected and calm spoke, in a tone that didn't appeal to Thomas.
"Don't mind him, Lok, he is a loser who works at the investigation department," a girl who had very short hair, one that reminded Thomas of the military personnel back on Earth, said.
"Oh, he is going to serve me then, hahahaha!" The one called Lok laughed in an arrogant way, before turning all serious as he added, "Ellisa told me your department is slaves to us. Don't talk back to me and do everything I say."
"Go home and screw yourself," Thomas didn't act in any courtesy towards such arrogant and useless youth. He even raised a middle finger in the face of Lok. The moment he did and said that the entire place turned deadly quiet, not just the new members like Thomas, but everyone standing inside the tent.
They all looked at Thomas in a weird way, seeing a youth who wore a simple leather outfit, with an open vest and carrying a weird looking glass shaped thing on his back with a leather belt.
He looked a bit weird, as if he didn't belong here. Yet Thomas didn't care about anything, and simply glared back at the other two in defiance, looking at everyone without putting any in his eyes.
He didn't act like this because he was just feeling immense rage, but thanks to his superpower. Since the moment he learnt that it could be used for offence, not just a useless superpower like everyone here thought, he felt weird confidence and power inside.
"It's time for the ceremony," just before Lok would retort back, or a fight would erupt, the old man leading the entire SA department boarded the stage and spoke in a calm and yet loud voice.
"Another time then, dead kid," Lok winked to Thomas, promising him bad times later on.
"Anytime, anywhere," Thomas shrugged, turned towards the old man on the stage, and totally ignored everyone around. Even the old man gave Thomas a thorough look, as if he was someone asking for a bad life willingly, a fool in their eyes.
"We are here to welcome our new superheroes, please give them an applause," the old man said, and everyone around started to clap for the ten new members who joined their SA.
"I invite everyone to come on the stage, introduce themselves, and show their powers in front of us. I hope they are going to be a good addition to our SA, let's all thrive together for the better. May the superpower be with all of us."
His words gained another wave of applause and even cheers with the slogan he said at the end. Thomas watched everyone, feeling like they were acting like a cult or something.
"I'm Lok, and I'm a C grade superhero," Lok climbed the stage first, speaking in arrogance as if he was the leader of the entire new batch. When Thomas heard his grade, he knew why he acted this arrogant.
He was a C grade superhero, and his superpower was releasing fireballs from his palms. It was indeed quite flashy and effective, strong and deadly in any fight.
But when Thomas recalled how his superpower could turn things to powder, he didn't feel that much impressed like everyone else. More members went to the stage and performed their superpowers, announcing their grade and the department they belonged to.
The four who acted calm were actually part of the Villain Hunter department. Just when Lok boarded the stage, Ellisa appeared, wearing a wide gown that made her look like a fancy peacock in Thomas' eyes.
The four were all C grade superheroes, with two fiery superheroes, one could release needles made out of iron, and the last one could form a tornado of air around himself, protecting him and others in a fixed area of five metres around.
The four had good superpowers, ones that could be used in actual battle combat. Thomas could even guess what roles they'd do in any battle, but he wasn't that impressed by them.
He saw the mad demon, saw how he acted and fought against two strong superheroes effectively. Even if Thomas didn't actually take part in any war on Earth, his dealing with military personnel all the time made him acquire lots of experience about combat.
The next batch weren't as dazzling as the initial four. They were all D grade and lower, and their superpowers weren't that great.
No one had a fighting superpower, with two having healing superpowers that might have proved useful if they were a C grade.
In addition to that, there was also one superhero who had a detection superpower, one that could detect the presence of any superhero within a few kilometres around. He was an E grade, and Thomas heard comments that if he was a B superhero, then he'd have been able to even gauge the strength of any superhero in a huge area. Such ability would have been useful for the Villain Hunter department and would have changed this youth's fate entirely by then.
The rest were superheroes with useless superpowers, like someone who can attract paper to him, another who can release fireworks in the air. There was a girl too with unspecified superpower, one that could shine her hair brightly like it was on fire, without doing anything else.
And then it came down to Thomas' turn, attracting eyes from everyone here. He took a deep breath, moved up the stairs, stood on the stage, and started to activate his superpower.
He trained in the past two days to better control his superpower. He knew no one back at the test area could detect anything, didn't see the black threads coming out from his hands. But he didn't want to risk anything and exerted enough control to retract the threads to a few centimetres only.
His hands turned black, but nothing else happened. Everyone looked at him for long moments, before a chuckle of mockery came from Ellisa.
"As expected, a pathetic useless superhero again," she shook her head as if she was disappointed by Thomas' performance.
"Nonspecific superhero, grade D…" the old man leading the entire SA said.
"A D grade? That's a waste," Ellisa spoke again, seemingly adamant at taking back what Thomas said and did to Look.
"Thanks boss," Thomas ignored her and nodded his head towards the old man, before coming down the stairs where he found Trevor waiting for him with Jax.
"You know Villain Hunters are like kings and queens here, right?" Trevor said, with a tone carrying lots of warning.
"Without us, what can they do?" But Thomas didn't share the same worry as Trevor or Jax. The latter kept looking at Thomas as if he was seeing a madman or something. Then out of the blue, Jax raised a thumb to Thomas.
"Tsk," Trevor shook his head, "let's go, the ceremony is about to end, and you are now formally part of our department. Come, let's go and bring your new colleague."
"There is another superhero joining us?!" Thomas was surprised as he thought he was the only one who got accepted in the Investigation department.
Yet when he saw the new member of the team, he felt this was quite expected. There were five who didn't say their departments as they just arrived today and didn't have time to know what department they were going to work at.
She was the girl who could turn her hair brightly without doing anything else, the other superhero with nonspecific superpower, Lucy!
She was a nice girl, easy going and cheerful. From the first moment Thomas saw her, and a big smile never left her face for even one second.
Not to mention her voice was the type that was so soft and low, one that would give anyone the impression she was singing and not speaking.
"The Admission Ceremony is over. Let's head inside and start our work," the old man said just after Thomas met Lucy and Trevor made the introduction.
"See you later," Jax left towards his department, feeling more energetic as there was one new recruit who just joined his office.
"Listen up, here are your SA contracts," Trevor led them back to their department, and then took two scrolls out. Thomas checked his contract, to find everything related to his job, his working hours, his official vacation days, his allowed vacation days in the entire year, his salary, and much more details.
"They even mentioned the money I took from Jax," Thomas sighed, and Trevor laughed.
"What? Do you think we work for charity or something? This was an advance payment deducted from your monthly salary, to help you settle in and start your new life."
"I thought this is a gift," Thomas shrugged, before signing his name on the scroll using a brush on the desk.
"You are now officially part of my team, welcome onboard," Trevor took the scrolls back, stored them inside one locker before adding with a beamed smile, "now let's start our work. From now on, you two are on a test period, one that you can say as a training session for the two of you."
"Are you going to mentor us?" Lucy was smiling like always.
"What will we do?" Thomas was eager and quite impatient to get out of here, travel away from this town, and go towards the place of the train incident where the rest of the team was.
"You are going to read through old records," Trevor gave Thomas a long look, seeing through him, "you'll see how we collect data about any incident, what's the right way to write them down, the general procedures we have to do after that…"
Trevor kept speaking for ten minutes straight, mentioning lots of things any of these two youngsters should learn during this week.
"... After this period, you need to memorise all the standard procedures by heart, try to catch any investigation skill, and then we can start putting you on the field."
"That sounds like fun!" Lucy was so eager and excited, unlike Thomas who knew he was going to stick here for an entire week.
Yet when they started their work, Thomas found lots of documents about the train incident. It was the latest mission the department accepted, and it was still ongoing.
Once he started reading the reports sent back from the team members out there, his worries died down. They weren't making much progress even after all this time.
The most difficult problem they faced was a simple question they didn't know the answer to, why?
According to the reports he read, the two superheroes who got attacked on the train, him and the mad demon, weren't that important in the entire sector.
Mad demon might be a troublemaker, hated by many for lots of things, like his attitude and bad temper, but he didn't hold anything significant at all in the sector.
Thomas was surprised that he didn't have much authority in the sector, not like what he previously imagined about him.
The team was trying to solve the mystery behind this incident, especially after discovering the identities of the two superheroes who attacked them.
"They are labelled as Maniacs? That bastard... For real?!!" Thomas felt a cold shiver down his spine, feeling like he was in front of the doorsteps of death without even realising it.
If not for the mad demon to be present there, stopping them, then things would grow south. And yet this didn't match what truly happened. He got that mad demon stole something from them, and their actions didn't match what he read before about the Maniacs.
Maniacs weren't sane people to begin with, not the type to ration or speak with. The two Thomas met on that train didn't match this, and he couldn't help but think about who they truly were.
He knew all this came from the mad demon testimony, one that was written in one scroll. He also found another scroll with the words he said back then.
"That bastard… He misguided everyone by what he said," Thomas knew the mad demon did this on purpose, leading everyone away from what really happened.
His department had to investigate the entire incident based on false data. And the worst thing was that in all these scrolls, no one ever doubted or tried to double check the mad demon's story.
Thomas found out that the process of running an investigation in this world was quite similar to the one he used back on Earth. They were like hunting dogs, looking for their prey by sniffing and following the scent or any track left behind.
Trevor noticed Thomas focus over this incident, and yet he didn't say anything. Part of the reason he didn't want Thomas to get involved in this investigation was because he was a witness in the incident. So, he just let the youth satisfy his curiosity with reading the reports and said nothing to stop him.
As for Lucy, she was like a cat, jumping from one drawer to another, reading through lots of scrolls, asking tons of questions. She was genuinely curious about this new life of hers and was truly excited about everything.
Thomas simply gave her a look before deciding to ignore her. He spent the entire day reading the train incident reports, getting a full grasp of the entire picture.
"They are lost, made zero progress, and had no clue about what truly happened," he muttered this to himself after returning back from the SA. he was in his apartment, sitting on his bed, with the wallet he got before in front of him.
"What shall I do? Shall I interfere and tell the truth, help them out, or keep my lips shut?"