Adam breathed out a sigh as his mom finally let go of him. They were at the Bus Depot, the loud announcements calling for people to board the busses drowning out many heartfelt goodbyes.
"Remember, three times a day, oh, and if you get hungry-"
"Bus twenty-three to Space Shuttle Bay Thirteen departing in five minutes! Bus twenty-three to Space Shuttle Bay Thirteen Departing in five minutes!" Blared over the air, thankfully interrupting his mom.
"I gotta go!" He yelled over the announcement.
"What?" She shouted back at his retreating figure.
"I need to go before it leaves!"
"Then just remember-"
"I got it, Love you!" He shouted back before his mom disappeared behind the bus. He quickly handed his ticket to the driver who punched it and handed it back. He wandered through the aisle, luckily finding an empty seat that allowed him to take a seat near the window.
He found his mother waving at the bus goodbye, he waved back, but it was clear she couldn't see him through the tinted windows. His attention was brought to the spot next to him as a tall and muscular man who looked around the same age sat next to him.
"Hello, Name is Vashyr" The man spoke in clear Russian. Of course, Adam didn't speak Russian, having lived in the American Sector for all of his life. Since the age of psionics language barriers had become non-existent as the general intent of words could be sensed by anybody with a PCI of five.
It was the reason why the federation was formed nearly seventy years ago. It unfortunately didn't make lying impossible, only more difficult, which caused mass political shifts in certain countries. Other countries formed closer alliances until eventually, before anybody knew it, forming a worldwide federation was proposed. Those who opposed were outnumbered by those who agreed, and they were forced to join to have a say or start a third world war, and there was no doubt they would be reviled if they lost.
"Adam, so you're Russian?" Adam said as he shook the man's outstretched hand.
"Yes, Moved here around three years ago from the Russian sector," he responded, putting his bags next to Adam's in the overhead cargo trunk. "You also going to Mars University?"
"Yeah, I'm, uh, kinda nervous. I never thought I'd be going to a Combat University." Adam laughed, embarrassed.
"No worries, this is my second year, I came back to earth to spend time with my parents. I'll help you get sorted, What's your Major?" Vashyr asked as he sat down.
"Major? Was I uh, supposed to be put into one?"
Vashyr frowned at Adam's question. "What's your PCI score?"
"Uh... Twenty... One..." Adam trailed off, once more embarrassed.
"Did they lower the entry requirements for you? You must be a telepath, right? They sometimes do that for guys like you since it's so rare to have." Vashyr laughed, leaning back in his seat.
"I'm uh, actually a... uh... Special Exemption Student..." Adam eeked out. he felt embarrassed that he didn't know more, but knowledge on Espers wasn't exactly freely floating on the internet. Information on Realised Espers was heavily policed. the common citizen wasn't the target of this policing, as that would infringe on the rights the federation granted, but rather the Espers themselves were policed. He knew that once he stepped foot on mars any communication equipment he had was going to be confiscated and replaced with a processor the school would give him. This was why he didn't have his own on him.
"Really? They already handed out a Special Exemption? You might be the earliest in the University's history. Are you disallowed from telling me the reason you got it?" Vashyr's gentle cockiness turned to surprise as he spoke.
"Uh, I don't think so? Part of my brain has already ossified, uh, undergone Realisation, naturally. The Vice Principal... I think his name was Meng Fu? Arrived at my house a few days ago to tell me and my mom personally."
"Shit, Old Meng actually left campus? wait, huh?! You already underwent Realisation!" Vashyr suddenly shouted, attracting the attention of the other passengers. The driver yelled at him to calm down.
Adam took the opportunity to look out at the city passing by, the bus had started moving sometime during their conversation and Adam was already starting to doubt getting on the bus.
"Stop worrying so much Adam, I am still here. I may not be familiar with how your psionic potential works, but the general theory is still the same." Prime spoke up, allowing Adam to take a breath to center himself. Soon, Vashyr leaned back, thoroughly scolded by the driver.
"Anyways," Vashyr began, clearing his throat, and the blush on his face. "Even partially, that's still amazing, most of the people I know who entered the academy already undergoing Realisation graduate early. Though it is surprising that your PCI is so low, since you need an Index of at least a hundred and fifty to start the process."
"You mentioned a Telepath? uh, what's that?" Adam asked, trying to steer the conversation away from Prime.
"Ah right, well. I probably won't get in trouble for telling you. See, Espers have three types of abilities, Manipulation, telepathy, and Psyching. While officially the only requirement to get into Mars University is a Psionic Index of twenty-two, Unofficially, you're put at the lowest priority on recruitment if you haven't developed an ability in one of the three categories."
"How many per year start with more than one?" Adam asked, curious.
"More than one? In the University They tell you to major in one category because it's hard to develop a new ability!" Vashyr laughed in absurdity. "There's a third year at the school who's said to have entered with two, he was also a Special Exemption Student, but after his first year he decided to be a Psycher, and abandoned his manipulation ability."
"It's... hard? Do you know why it's hard to develop a new ability?"
Vashyr scratched his chin in thought. "Well, it's kinda like, I guess changing your personality. Each ability requires a certain... headspace to use. It's not enough to change your personality of course. I do know a fire mana student who is kinda shy, but she gets forceful when she manipulates fire."
"Fire mana?" Adam asked. "What does that mean?"
"Well, remember that there are three different types of abilities? Well, Espers who specialized in each one are called certain things. for instance, if you use Psyching abilities, which is the ability to enhance things with psionics, you're called a Psycher. Manipulation Espers are called Mana Espers."
"Like videogame mana?" Adam interrupted Vashyr to ask.
"Yeah, that's where it came from, they like making jokes about it. And finally, Telepathy Espers are called Telepaths. Though Telepathy isn't exactly accurate, as it's an ability of Telepaths, but really anything that involves the mind is put under the telepathy category."
Their conversation was interrupted by the bus going over a particularly large bump, jostling their bodies, and making them leave their seat for less than a second.
"Damn, ow, sorry, bit my tongue," Vashyr spoke with his tongue out, gently feeling it with a finger. "Anyways, that's probably about it, any questions?"
"What ability do you use?"
Vashyr chuckled at his question. "About time, watch."
Under Adam's eyes, Vashyr grabbed a candy wrapper out of his pocket and unwrapped it. Popping the candy into his mouth he held the paper wrapper between his hands by two fingers on each end, staring intently. a few moments later he handed it to Adam. "Try and tear it apart."
Adam took it and tried pulling to apart in two directions. The paper didn't give. Using more force, Adam tried his best, grunting with exertion. When that didn't work, he tried tearing it lengthwise, twisting in opposite directions, yet the wrapper still didn't tear.
"Man, that's actually awesome!" he said, handing it back, now noticing a small sheen of sweat on Vashyr's brow.
"Yeah, but it's not as impressive as you might think..." Vashyr said as he took it back and put the wrapper in his pocket. "I'm obviously a Psyker, but I can't really affect anything bigger than a square foot, and my Index is only a Hundred and twenty, so my psionic reserves aren't that great..."
"It's more than I can do," Adam said, laughing, and watching Vashyr cheer up at his words. "So, how do you get your PCi that high though?"
"It's not really that high, as I said, the bare minimum to become an Esper is a hundred and fifty, but most people who graduate will wait until they reach three hundred. That way they become at least a D-class Esper. Anyways, you'll be allowed to practice visualization techniques at the University... I guess it's kinda like a certain way of viewing the universe?"
"Class-"
"Ask him if there are different grades of visualization techniques first." Prime spoke up, startling Adam at his interest. Normally Prime was silent as Adam went about his day and during conversations, doing... whatever Prime does as an entity trapped in his brain.
"-es of Esper? Actually, scratch that, first, does the technique matter? Are some better than others?" Adam continued.
"Not really, Visualization techniques work differently for different people. For instance, I have one that views the world as an extension of myself, I quite like it, but my PCI growth isn't solely determined by how much I like the technique sadly." Vashyr made a Pa sound with his mouth before continuing. "Visualization techniques also have a compatibility with the technique you're practicing. Practicing an ice-based technique while practicing fire manipulation won't get you very far."
"Makes sense..." Adam said, suddenly realizing something. "So is that why people don't practice multiple different abilities?"
"Pretty much, there's still some oddities who do so anyways, but they're either a genius or fail spectacularly. I hear the geniuses basically invent their own techniques, but there's no one like that at Mars University right now. Though there's two at Europa, both of them should be second years now."
"So I'm trying to think of what some techniques could be, I can imagine some for Manipulation, and you gave one for Psykers, but how do you visualize for a telepathy ability?" Adam asked. Actually, Prime was the one who wanted to know, though Adam would admit he was curious as well, he just hadn't thought of it.
"That actually comes up to the difficulty of each ability to train. see, Psykers actually have it the easiest. I'm on a bit of a harder path since I'm training to enhance objects. Most enhance their bodies, which is really easy to imagine since we've been doing it forever. Mana Espers are the second hardest since you need to manipulate concepts that we use technology for, such as fire, ice, and even gravity. Finally, Telepathy abilities are basically untrainable."
Adam frowned. "Untrainable, why is that? how are there telepaths then?"
"Well, Telepathy abilities are discovered by chance, nobody has been able to purposefully awaken one. As far as I know, each ability requires the Esper to create a technique themself. It's why the combat universities usually make exceptions for Telepaths. Well, except for Europa..." Vashyr trailed off in dislike.
"The Vice Principal seemed like he didn't like Europe either... is there a reason for that?"
"Well," Vashyr began. "Aside from being our rival school, Europa is basically like only of those old military academies, you know, before the federation formed? Mixed with a Christian school. The students need to follow really strict guidelines, with teachers that treat the future espers more like soldiers than future leaders."
Adam leaned into his seat and blew a raspberry. "That sounds awful."
"Yeah, but they somehow keep pumping out really strong espers, so Europa gets away with it. Listen, since you're a Special Exemption student, the teachers will give you special lessons. So if you get picked for-" Vashyr was interrupted as the screeching of tires and the screaming of the passengers up front deafened them both.
They both stood up slightly, peeking over the back of the seat in front of them. There was a man twice their age who stood up front next to the driver, his right arm hidden from sight behind the driver's seat, but his blue shirt and brown pants, along with his face were speckled with red. The man turned to look at the students, a large, sadistic smile on his face, and glasses speckled with the same red dots. Adam realised what it was as his blood felt ice cold... Blood.
And as the bus began to swerve off the road, Adam realised what that man had just done... He had killed the driver...