For the first two days of dorm life, I barricaded myself in my room, refusing to see anyone. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. I didn't know how to conduct myself around the others. Do I greet them everytime I walk into them? Do I treat them as family? As friends? As coworkers? Is it rude if I cook for myself or should we eat as a group? Do we indulge in group activities together? At least I had my own bathroom in my room. Speaking of rooms, the house was fitted out with seven rooms, one for each of the Squad Members, one for Nick if needed, and then one spare, since squads usually consist of three to six people.
Our dormhouse is nice, big, too, with a kitchen, living room, and dining room on the first floor, and our bedrooms on the second floor. I suppose we're supposed to use that to train, not that I have yet. Each bedroom was small, but has our own personal bathroom to make up for that, which is fair. The entire basement is a large gym with isolated, reinforced walls, so that we can train both our muscles and our Cursed Power. Grover and Austin have been practicing with their Cursed Abilities a lot, and Jamie has been forcing Ella to sue the gym. As for me, I haven't yet. I'm not sure where to start. I don't know much of anything about Cursed Power, I'm just sitting here, twiddling my thumbs, and waiting for Nick to teach me.
As for Nick, I haven't seen him since we first moved into our dormhouse, But about a week after living here, the five of us are randomly called into the kitchen one day, to see Nick standing there in our doorway.
"So how's it been, guys, enjoying your new dorm lives?" Nick cheekily asks.
"Not at all."
"Grover ate my Poptarts!"
"Austin blew up my bedroom with one of his intentions!"
"Well I didn't want to risk blowing up my room."
"I feel like my arms are going to fall off…"
Nick laughs, ignoring all of our complaints. "Yeah, it's going to be like this for a while, until you five get adjusted to one another! But luckily for you guys, I have a perfect team building exercise for today!"
Grover's eyes sparkle. "What is it?!" He giddily asks.
Nick smirks, before spreading his arms out wide to his sides. "It's time for you five to go on your first mission!" He booms.
Grover and Jamie cheer. Austin adjusts his glasses as a conniving grin spreads across his face. Ella fidgets, looking nervous. As for me, I raise an eyebrow at Nick.
"Isn't a little early to be going on our first mission. Shouldn't you have trained us first?" I ask.
Nick shrugs. "Meh. No better training than real combat," he answers, before turning back to the rest of the group. "Have any of you heard of the Lincoln Correctional facility?" he asks. No answer. "Probably not. Well, it's a maximum security prison that has seen little to know action within the past decade and a half. But now, out of the blue, a few of the inmates have developed Cursed Power. This only happened around three days ago, so they are going to have little to no control over their Cursed Power. There were rumors of a coup d'etat and a prison outbreak, so your job is to go in and be the shields for the powerless prison guards in case things go out of hand."
"So it's our first mission and we aren't even fighting demons?" Grover asks.
"A large part of Pro Slayer work is suppressing rogue Cursed Abilities users, not just slaying demons," Nick explains.
What the Hell, is he serious? We may be fighting inmates of a MAXIMUM security prison! Shouldn't this be left to, you know, strong people?! Adults? PRISON GUARDS, maybe?!
"Um, isn't this...dangerous?" Ella whimpers. "There's a reason these people are in a facility such as that one."
"You would be surprised," Nick replies. "Regardless of age, those with more control and experience using their Cursed Abilities will almost always have an advantage. Besides, you kids are only investigating rumors. And upon seeing Pro Slayers, there's a little to no possibility that the inmates will try to revolt. And finally, only four of the inmates have been stated to develop Cursed Power. You all will be fine."
"And what if the inmates do break out, how can we go to stop them? Can we...kill them?" Austin asks. I peer into Austin's eyes, and am met with pure, utter bloodlust. I shiver and look away.
"Austin…" Jamie whines. "You're scaring people again!"
"No, Jamie, Austin has got a point," Nick says, as he turns to face Austin. "The life of a Pro Slayer is a bloody life full of pain and strife. Every time you have a job, assume that you are allowed to kill the target unless instructed otherwise. So yes, if you need to...kill the inmates."
The five of us are left speechless again, until I slowly raise my hand into the air.
"Yes, Luis?" Nick asks.
"Well…what about those of us who don't have control or experience using Cursed Power? It's not like I'm a master over here," I ask.
"Well then, you'll fight the weaker inmates," Nick laughs, causing me to sulk. It's like he's forgetting his promise. Bastard hasn't trained me in a lick of Cursed Power yet. "Besides, these Inmates have no experience in Cursed Power. You have some, and some teaching. I doubt they even have Cursed Abilities," Nick explains. "Well then, if no one has any more questions, let's head out!"
"Wait, we're going now?!" I cry.
"Not even any time to prepare?" Ella asks. "Mentally…"
"Well…when else would we go?" Nick asks, completely deadpan, as if he's saying the most simple things in the world. "Meet me outside. I'll drive ya'."
The five of us gathered our equipment before heading outside and climbing into Nick's SUV. Austin in the passenger seat, Ella and Jamie in the middle, and me being forced into the back by Grover. During the ride, Grover tried chatting to me constantly, I don't think he took a single break during the whole hour-long ride, but I couldn't hear Grover over the shitty pop music the Nick was blasting, and crappily singing along to, so I just ignored Grover. I could see Ella squirming her seat the entire time as Jamie tried to talk to her. But sensing our lack of enthusiasm, Grover and Jamie ended up talking to each other instead. Austin sat in the front, in silence, tinkering with his goggles.
Eventually, we make it to the Lincoln Correctional Facility, and Nick parks out front. The six of us get out and stretch. It's a frigid September morning, and not even my hoodie can save me from the cold. Due to the low temperature, it's hard to wake up and my body feels sluggish. A chilly wind then blew through my bones, reminding me of the scenario that I find myself in. "I can't afford to be sluggish here," I say to myself as I pull my hood off and turn to peer up at the Lincoln Correctional Facility, a giant brick-built campus consisting of fourteen different buildings and spanning over twenty five acres in diameter.
Boy, am I not excited to go in there.
"Well, shall we head in?" Nick asks as he leads us through the front door of the facility. Upon entry, we first have to give some form of identification. Nick flashed his Pro Slayer License which permits the lot of us to go inside with ease, no questions asked. Huh, when am I going to get one of those? After getting past the multitude of security measures and metal detectors, a plump, cheery man walks up to us.
"Hello and welcome to the Lincoln Correctional Facility!" He says. "My great grandfather, George Lincoln created this facility over a century ago! And I, Jonathan Lincoln, and its current owner!"
"I'm Slayer Hachi, the Slayer dispatched to deal with your predicament," Nick explains. "So can you tell us a little more about the status of the inmates?"
"Oh, yes! That! You see, out of the blue, four of our inmates developed Cursed Power. On top of that, Inmate Zero, the most psychotic, hardened criminal that this institution has ever seen, has been awfully restless as of late. But don't worry. Inmate Zero is locked inside maximum, MAXIMUM security, so there is no way that he'll ever get out. Since none of the guards use Cursed Power, we are unable to determine the current strength of the inmates. And that's where you Pro Slayer come in. We need you all to prove your worth by demonstrating your strength to the inmates, scaring them out of the attempt at a prison outbreak," Mr Lincoln explains, before leaning over to Nick. "I highered Pro Slayers, what are these kids doing here?" I hear him whisper to Nick.