"You must be the freshmen Steven mentioned, right? I am Charles Xavier, the dean of Dream College. You can call me Professor Xavier. Since you're already here, we can start sorting for school right now."
Little Bruce and Barry were truly lost. Again with the school? And the sorting?
Before they could prepare, a flash of white light shone, and they appeared in a vast hall. There was a chair in the middle, on which lay an old gray hat.
As guided by the voice, Little Bruce sat on the chair. The moment he put on the hat, he heard an extremely dramatic voice.
"My God! What have you jammed inside this noggin of yours? Absurd, bizarre yet filled with talent, wisdom...A high level of wisdom! There's also a profound darkness...Of course, you should enter—Stark College!"
Then it was Barry's turn. The voice, which frightened him, spoke again, sounding as odd yet exaggeratedly theatrical as before.
"You possess a tenacity that most can't match, along with a predestined gift, which could be...but now is difficult to judge, I can sense your ability, you'll find a place here— Xavier College, without a doubt!"
While the two children still felt dizzy as they left the hall, another gentle voice seemed to sense their confusion, crudely stuffing heaps of memories into their heads.
Barry was utterly dazed, but with his high intellect and strong comprehension skill, Bruce managed to get a grip on all this information in a short amount of time.
"So it's both colleges, with daytime classes at Kamar-Taj, and nighttime at Dream College?!" Little Bruce found this outrageous. "How do the students here survive? Aren't they exhausted to death?"
"The knowledge you learn here will not be entirely remembered, it will blend into your subconscious, accelerating your comprehension the next time you come across it. The details can be explained later; Stark's physics class is about to begin, you will regret missing it."
Although Little Bruce scoffed and headed for the classroom, he murmured to himself, "No teacher's class would be so brilliant that I'd regret missing it."
About half an hour later, Little Bruce overtook Stark and halted his leaving action. "Wait a second, Professor Stark! The point you mentioned at the end of your class about the effect of integrating magic energy and the Arc Reactor, can I interpret it like this..."
Before Little Bruce could finish his sentence, Stark sized him up, and as soon as he recognized his face and eyes, he was shocked. "Bruce Wayne?! What's your relationship with Bruce Wayne? Are you his illegitimate son?"
"You know Bruce Wayne?"
"Yes, we are...considered friends. In fact, he's a friend of a friend. What's the matter? Why are you here? He didn't say anything about me taking care of his kid!"
Getting impatient, Little Bruce shrugged. He didn't want to explain anything about being an illegitimate son anymore. "The effect of combining the Arc Reactor and magic is..."
"That was just a flippant remark of mine. This is not something you should be learning yet. You need a solid foundation first..."
"I've already got a solid foundation." Little Bruce looked at Stark seriously, "And I don't think you have anything more insightful to talk about."
Nodding his head, Stark inhaled sharply. As he rolled up his sleeves he said, "You must not have been taught that way by your father, right? Didn't he tell you about the astonishing wisdom of the great Stark?...Alright then, since it's come to this, I'll personally teach you!"
The next morning, Barry woke up Little Bruce. Barry shook his awake, anxiously saying, "Wake up! The senior who was supposed to wake us left ten minutes ago. If you don't wake up, we'll be late!"
When Little Bruce sat up, Barry saw his pale face. Shocked, he exclaimed, "Oh my God, what happened to you? Why are you so pale?"
Still not fully awake, Little Bruce vaguely replied, "No, nothing, my brain just received too much information. The system...uh, its system is not functioning properly."
"Really? I just remember having a dream about going to school last night. Dreams usually reflect daytime activities, so it's not strange, right? Anyway, get up quickly. We're really going to be late."
Barry almost dragged Little Bruce out of bed. After pushing him into the bathroom, Little Bruce appeared slightly alert after washing up. Despite still appearing somewhat sluggish, at least he could walk on his own.
Barry rushed him to the dining hall. By the time they arrived, it was already packed.
Spotting a familiar face in the crowd, Barry waved and called out, "Sheryl! Sheryl!"
The Indian girl turned her head and strolled over. Barry stared at the huge dark circles under her eyes and asked, "What happened to all of you? Did you not sleep all night?"
"Almost." Sheryl nodded. Her face was streaked with worry. Her hazel eyes glanced around. Pulling Barry away from the crowd, she warned,
"There was an incident last night in the seniors' quarters. A student mentally broke down and injured another student with his wand. You two better be cautious."
Barry's heart tightened. Ignoring Sheryl, he scanned the crowd, looking for Harley. At that moment, Harley entered the dining hall with Helen.
"Did you see the student that was carried out?" Helen asked in a low voice. "The incident happened quite close to our quarters."
Harley frowned and said,"I think he had gone crazy. He was absorbed in his madness."
"How do you know?"
Inhaling deeply, Harley answered,
"No one understands madness better than me in this cosmos."