Inside a building called a Warp Station, a loud hiss was coming from inside one of the cutouts in the wall. A purple line appeared in the cutout's center that grew wider forming a oval. An older woman with a kind face stepped out.
"I am Tina, the highest-ranked rescue member in the entirety of the rescue squads."
The elderly woman standing at 5 ft 2 said while looking at the students. She grinned while pointing at several different students.
" If I had to guess, I'd be taking you all"
All of the kids mouths dropped.
"H...How did you know?"
"I've been working as a rescue squad captain for over 200 years. I think by now I would know what a rookie looks like."
With a snap of her fingers all of the students vanished.
"Young boy, next time, teach these runts to respect me."
Mark let out a nervous laugh. He began to sweat as the old woman stared him in the eyes.
"Yes granny, sorry."
"Good"
Tina vanished, followed by the purple split in space.
All of the kids stared at Mark with their eyes wide in surprise. Eram was the first too recover, blinking a few times.
" Are you two related, if not then why were talked down to?"
Mark let out a small laughter, looking at the sharp young man.
"First no, we're not related. To answer your second question, she's saved me more times than I can count. Lastly Tina could have handed my ass to me without even trying."
Eram's mouth went agape while he looked at Marks stomach, were the stab wound was at.
" That's insane."
Two more warp gates appeared, with two men stepping out. One man was elderly while holding a cane, while the other was a young man with bright yellow hair.
"I'll go first since I have fewer students."
The elderly man stretched his back out.
" My name is Elias Goodwin, and I am the principal for Ann."
He then looked at all of the students, after a second he then pointed at some of the students.
"Are you the ones coming to my school?"
The kids mouths went agape, looking at the old man with magical powers. Mark let out a laugh. Mark then pulled out one of the little girls from the back of the group.
"Yes, but there is one more."
The young girl, had a disheveled appearance and looked raggedy and poor.
Elias let out a sad chuckle while he looked at the girl.
"Damn, I'm still not as good as that old hag,"
The other young guy that came through the other warp spoke confidently, while pointing at all but 2 students.
"I guess it's my turn, you, you, and you"
Mark laughed at him and said
"Incorrect, these two,"
He then pointed at Kalla, the girl with the dimensional sphere, and Gunther the one that could lift the light object by what seemed to be reversing gravity a little bit.
"are coming with me. Next time don't forget to introduce yourself"
"Damn, I had a feeling, I guess I got a little greedy. My name is Liam Strider, and I'm the most talented of my generation,"
He let out a heartly laugh while making a bright light appear behind his head.
" I am also the youngest of all four of the advanced explorers you saw today. Sadly I am slightly weaker than that geezer there"
He then pointed at Elias and smiled. Elias smiled while closing his eyes for a second.
"You jest. though we don't hold a candle to Mark or Tina."
They both grinned, then directed the students to go through the warp. Liam spoke up for both of them.
" Sorry, neither of us has the ability, or skills, to just warp you to ourselves so you'll just have to walk through the warp."
As soon as all of the students passed, the warp gate disappeared. Seeing warp gate vanish Mark looked at the remaining four students.
"You four are coming with me. This is going to the first day of your Future."
He then placed his hand on a spot on the wall. Just like the others a purple line appeared and spread open to make a purple oval.
Mark smiled as he thought about when he first came to Xell.
"Just follow me young ones."
Mark walked through the gate with the four students following.
The group was bombarded with a cold sensation as they stepped though. The light from the portal getting brighter the closer the students got, until they had to close their eyes.
What stood before the students was a massive super complex more than ten stories high. The building was so large and vast that the massive trees looked like saplings.
Eram then looked around at the other students, noticing their mouths were drooping like a bunch of idiots. He then looked at himself, realizing his mouth was also agape, he quickly shut it.
Mark laughed, then started walking towards the building. Mark turned around only to be greeted with four kids brain dead.
"Guys, come on."
The stone path was minimally bumpy, and the air smelled like what you could picture as the perfect summer. The trees spread out, creating the best shade one could ask for, there was also a steady breeze which kept everyone including Mark feeling comfortable.
Three minutes of walking went by before they got close enough to see other students there. The students looked older, but seemed to be spending their time practicing with their cores.
The students kept walking admiring the views and the people around. The whole group was smiling.
Upon reaching the doors, Mark spoke up.
"Welcome to the Grand Academy of Xell. As one of the professors I am excited to have every one of you guys here with us today."
Eram clenched his fists, stared directly at Mark, and said.
"This pace is huge, I heard we were going to be living here, but I feel as though i will get lost through the halls?"
Mark let out a laugh while looking at all of the concerned kids.
"Boy relax. We will get there, but first, we have to visit the principal's office. Just follow me, I will explain everything."
The other kids nodded sweating while looking at the front doors, which seem to touch the sky.
Mark opened the massive doors, letting the air from the inside rush past.
Their was gigantic hallway 70 feet tall and 50 feet wide adorned with statues of all the statues paintings and little info plaques with information about the statues they were attached to.
On the ceiling, there was massive chandeliers and giant columns as well. The flooring were giant slabs of polished marble. One could even hear the echo of footsteps as the group walked.
Eram looked at the statues, seemingly sucked in. The entirety of the hallway was covered in prizes trophies and the occasional door. Mark then turned to one of the doors, and proceeded to open it. There was yet, another Warp.
"We are going to enter this warp. It will send us straight up to the principal's office so we don't have to take the stairs. I hate climbing stairs."
Eram led the students through the gate as Mark held open the door for everyone. After everyone entered the gate they found themselves inside a room about 30 feet tall and 50 feet in every direction with a man sitting at the desk on the far end of the room.
The room was covered in decorations and tapestries with a gold-lined marble floor. However what all the students were paying attention too, was the man standing in the middle.
" My name is Cedric Thorn, you can call me Principal Thorn."
Cedric had Beautiful thick silvery hair, his voice sounded like gold. He stands at about 6 foot 7 and wears flowing robes in shades of silver and gray, with an embroidered sash that shows his authority and achievements stitched in.
He had on glasses that were round and had many rings on his hands. He looked to be around 60 years old and had the kindest smile.
Mark had a stunned look while staring at his boss.
"Hello Cedric, have have four amazing students here. They all need a board and instructions,"
Cedric gave a gentle smile.
"Of course."
He waved his hands and small lights of all different colors appeared in a beautiful ensemble and slowly formed into square shapes. Within a few seconds, they became physically bored with writing on them.
Mark had on a child-like smile while watching.
" I have just created each one of you a board with your core affinities on them. I know you do not know what that is yet, but you will just go to the courtyard in a second and you will join, or create a party of 5 people."
Cedric started to pop his fingers. He then walked around the desk to give each student their board.
There needs to be at least one of the words Body, Heart, or Mind on there. As you can see Eram has a Body, Mind, and soul, so all he has to do is make sure at least one person in his party has a heart word on the board. Do y'all understand?"
Gunther quickly spoke up.
"Of course we understand sir, I will make you proud!"
He then looked at his board with confusion as to why he only had Heart written on it.
When the other students noticed Gunter looking at his they decided they should look at theirs. Kalla had Heart and soul, the other student just had Mind.
"Well since you all understand good luck."
Cedric said with a smile and waved his hands causing all of the students to vanish.
Mark started laughing at the situation.
"They didn't understand, but they should be able to figure it out. That school had many talents in it, didn't you hear."
"yeah, I got a call from Tina. She got some amazing students. I'm proud of you finding them."
"No problem sir, had a friend in one of the classes that's why I was able to get to there before school started."
"Good, we need to teach them as much as we can, too many people die each year."
***
In the courtyard that the students just appeared in.
Eram looked around at the insane number of students.
'There has to be around 18 thousand people here this place. It's packed, how am I supposed to find the people I'm going to spend the rest of my life with.'
"Hey Eram, Kalla want to team up,"
Gunther said with a huge grin.
"No thanks."
Eram said to Gunther leaving him dejected.
But much to Gunther's surprise Kalla responded
"Of course Gunther you were always good in class, this should be no different. Let go find others"
Gunther yelled at Eram causing Kalla to laugh.
"See ya stinky!"
Eram yelled with enough venom to kill an elephant. To his dismay, they stuck their tongues out at him before walking off
"Hey, that's not fair!"
Eram started walking around through the crowd looking at groups trying to see if he got a feeling from any of them, but unfortunately he did not. He kept looking and trying to find anyone or anything that would help him. He started to sweat as the world around him started to close in.
He was about to panic and give up but instead he decided to close his eyes and breath. He kept breathing and feeling the air for about a minute and then opened his eyes.
He saw some Hair that was white, with black and grey streaks. He was confused, but most importantly drawn towards the hair.
Eram slowly sped up his pace as he walked towards the group, then he looked at the group. The group of four had their boards flipped over. Eram looked at them getting a feeling that this was his team.
"Hi, my name is Eram, can I join?"