One week in time has passed already as I'm finding myself just now, striding my way to the stage arena ten minutes from four o'clock, wearing a casual pair of baggy, dark purple sweats, an open jacket of the same color that showcases a gray shirt with light blue patterns with pure white shoes. Seems like we're all here. Not much time passes before we hear a jet outside of the school and a man, about 6'2, wearing a police-style uniform comes up to us. His hair is ginger and his eyes are olive green to match his seemingly white skin. Olivia, who hasn't taken her eyes off of me ever since I got here, quickly switched her focus to the man and ran up to hug him. "Eskavor!!!!", She yells, "Little sister!!" the man says. They hug for a while before Olivia's older brother, Eskavor, tells us to come outside of the colosseum to where we see a small, black jet that we heard a bit beforehand.
All seven of us, looking excited to arrive at HQ, get in the 8 passenger vehicle ready to fly away. Ulagur, a tall, straight haired guy with white skin is the first one to hop on the jet. Next was Izial, a guy that is around the same height as K'yun, being six feet. Izial steps in the jet with his belongings, tossing them down and sitting next to Ulagur. Pyoko sits across from Ulagur, but next to me, and Olivia sits on my other side. K'yun sits next to Olivia and Juno across from him. We're all on board now, and the ride has begun. The trip is a total of eight hours to get from the east side of the continent, to the middle.
The first two hours were spent by all of us talking and getting to know each other. With Ulagur starting the conversation.
"I wonder…", Ulagur suddenly says. "What are all of you guys' powers?". The six of us all turn our heads to Ulagur while he is still talking. "See me? I have a curse that allows me to produce acidic blood. I can also manipulate it, shape it, harden it, and multiply it by dividing my blood cells rapidly at will. ..Now that I told mine, who's next?". A second of silence fills the air. Out of nowhere though, K'yun goes next. "I myself have two blessings. One, is geokinesis. I have the ability to create, control, and manipulate all forms of rock to my will. The second, is a transparent barrier that I can wear like a second skin, with this, I'm able to casually walk through hurricanes."
Juno then goes next, with everyone looking more lively, the tension in this confined space has finally been executed.
"I have a blessing and a curse. One, my blessing, I have the ability to create life from thin air. I can also manipulate and alter the aspects of said life I create. For example: In freezing environments, I could alter the rule of a plant to have it grow in such weather conditions. Or, could manipulate the shape to form it into a weapon, or everyday objects.", "Wait so you could, if you wanted to, make a flower grow in heated conditions like the middle of a volcano?", Asked Olivia. "That's right! I also am cursed with the ability to create deadly liquids. By using my own bodily fluid, mostly blood, I can create poisons and deadly acids for me to use whenever.
These poisons are controlled by me at all times, and they can range from silly weed killer, to a deadly dose of bone-eating poison that can decay a whale into nothing with just a few droplets.". Izial looks at her confused as he speaks. "Have you…you know, tested this on a whale before..?". "Well yeah, how do you think I know what it can do? …..Okay, I was fighting someone who could control sealife, and I so happened to get stuck in a whale's mouth. So I decayed the body from the inside-out.", Juno explains as we all stare with mixed emotions spreading across all of us.
"Alright I believe it is my turn, dontcha guys think?", says Olivia. She perks up her chest to maybe further increase the sound of her voice as her curly red hair sways back and forth. "I have a blessing. The unique ability to pull ancient weapons from an imaginary vault at will during any time, such as: A bow, a broad sword, basically any form of blade, ancient firearms, and blunt weapons as well." Without even knowing myself, I stare at Olivia, meanwhile she continues talking. She looks at me dead in the eyes and forms her full lips to a smile that shines brightly before ending her turn.
"That's all for me, nothing too special you guys. Who's next?" Izial then sits up, prepared to go next. And with a cold voice, he says, "I have a curse that allows me to transform into a reptile or reptile hybrid at will. I'm granted increased stats when I transform, I trained to the point where my stats when transformed are the same as when I'm in human form. I have aspects from all kinds of different reptiles as well.". Izial sits back and drifts to sleep shortly after and Pyoko then speaks a low tone as usual. "Puppeteering. My curse-like blessing is puppeteering. By absorbing the life force of animate objects, I can turn them into powerful wooden puppets to aid me however I like. You're the last one Ex-shin, tell us what you can do.". I sit up slowly as everyone looks at me, eager to hear about my abilities.
"Well…for starters, I have the unique ability to utilize the concept of destruction as a weapon. Meaning, that if it can cause harm or chaos in any way, shape, or form, I can use my own version of that as a weapon. My own versions of these things, ideas, or concepts are made with destructive energy that my body constantly produces thanks to this curse..". Olivia, from my right, slightly raises her hand and asks, "Soooo..does that mean you can create objects by making your own concept of them using your destructive energy?".
I ponder that question for a bit. "Actually yeah! I haven't thought about that before, you're smart y'know. I'll work on that, that's a good idea you had there. Right now, I currently have only two concepts I made mine. The concept of HOT and the concept of something being SHATTERED. See, my imagination is the source to the creation of these concepts. Whatever I think is the most destructive way to express these concepts, that's what my brain takes and molds into an/multiple abilities. Once these abilities are made, I can alter the purpose and the destructive power at will.". Juno looks at me with her large afro covering her eyes. "That's not all Ex, spit it out already.". Well sheesh, "Someone's impatient…." I say under my breath.
"This next ability of mine is a blessing. At will, I can create, control, or manipulate Space and Time. I would tell you guys how it works, but I would rather show y'all later.".Before I could get another word in, the whole gang appears to be asleep with the exception of Olivia who seems to be in a talkative mood for me. Asks me questions, genuinely trying to get to know me as she herself tells me things about her. She's pretty cool, we like the same things and have a lot in common. Olivia is a real sucker for fighting Though she doesn't look like the type to be fighting all like that, she is very battle smart. After about an hour of interacting with the young black lady I know as Olivia, she drifts to sleep on my shoulder.
Meanwhile, I scroll through my phone to pass the time for a bit before I doze off on Olivia's head that was laying on my shoulder. With the last thing I saw on my phone being a photo of my mother posing in front of a massive mountain of what looks like…bone? My mom is awesome!
5 hours later…Time: 12:00 a.m
"Hey lovebirdssss~", Juno says with K'yun before she lets Olivia and I know that we're here..N.G Headquarters. We step out of the jet to see a skyscraper-like, business designed building, towering the other surrounding buildings as the moonlight somehow perfectly hits our destination. Its seemingly 50 floors causes the group to stare in awe for a second.
The National Guard Headquarters: A dormitory-like building with many floors that are durable enough to withstand explosive blasts and gunfire with ease. In this building, successor assistants who work from the inside help out those who are out on missions. Their main goal is to navigate the guards to the location of the mission, either on foot or on plane, the guards choose what'll get them there faster. This building has everything you need and want as a guard, assistant, or even a visitor. A training ground that uses simulation to process a battle scene with precision, 10 star dorm rooms that are equipped with everything you may need or want, pool rooms, gymnasiums, workout rooms, food courts, grocery stores, a mall, and more! Many secrets also reside in this place such as hidden passages and rooms.
All eight of us walk through the large sliding doors towards the elevator. We all, along with everything each of us packed, squeeze into the elevator doors with Eskavor pressing the 48th floor. About five minutes later, the elevator dings to signal us reaching the 48th floor. The doors pry open to show a massive lounging area. State of the art furniture on clean, soft, gray carpet. TVs and consoles fill up every corner as National Guards all around are just chilling. Hundreds of Guards flooding from different openings begin to circle around the seven of us. Coming from bathrooms, and kitchens, and hallways, or portals, super speed as well.
They all show various ways to be present around us, analyzing and asking questions. Some are excited, others are underestimating us with looks, but all are definitely interested. "What the hell…" I whisper under my breath, with the rest of us juniors except for Izial who clenches his jaw and walks to a nearby futon on Eskavor's orders. "Step away everyone. Allow the newcomers to get comfortable before we all start dogpiling them with an interrogation, dontcha guy's think?".
Eskavor Ryshikigama: Olivia's older brother. His age, 29. He is a Divine Guard with the ability to gather and store energy from the sun and use it to increase his own stats, or to perform deadly attacks powered by the sun.
With a sigh of relief, the group and I sat down, trying to get comfortable with the amount of eyes watching our every move. One female Guard with both of her eyes shut, a bald head and an apron on, tattoos rolling down her arms in a contorted but neat manner, rolls a cart full of concealed dishes. Soothing but somehow cold her voice is, speaking with a smile drawn across her face. "Well looky here. Seven beautiful, young, active specimens! And don't you all look amazing~!! I know that such a long ride here has made you guys so hungry.". She sets down about eight platters of exquisite meals instantly at one time. So fast, neither of us from our group even noticed her use her curse until a random guard said so. "Bon appétit!" she says, revealing steaks meals, seafood plates of bite sized appetizers, sides that smell just as good as the main meal, and mineral water so we can wash the excess food down.
The food smells like heaven. But it seems as if we're all too tense to eat around these people. A moment later, literally a second passed before Juno takes a knife and cuts a piece of steak on her plate. She eats the piece, and with silence filling the air, she quickly digs in and finishes the whole plate. No hesitation from the rest of us as in a matter of seconds, we also finish our plate. We then fill our plates with the sides and the appetizer. Only about five minutes it took for us to finish all the food the lady had made for us. "Whoa these kids are already proving to be more interesting than we thought…" I hear from the crowd. The shut eyed, bald lady with tattoos approaches us and asks for our names.
"Izial Dormatus", he says with a cold stare out to the universe. "Juno Takata", she spells out by growing vines to cursively write her name. "K'yun Oshima", he said, a slight smile painted on his face. "Ulagur Locknel", he said, as he plays with a fingerboard made from his hardened acidic blood. A puppet, coming from Pyoko's energy, forms and writes on the table, "Pyoko Juzrin", saying it also, in a light, echoed voice. A fierce, bright, smile that gets everyones' attention is put on display, "Olivia Ryshikigama!" she says with tons of joy. "And you?", the bald woman speaks before pointing at me.
I look up seriously and eye her down, beforehand, stopping time and smirking. In a swift manner, I write my name down on the giant chalkboard neatly with doodles plastered around it. "Ex-shin Yamamoto" I resume time after sitting down back in my spot with a bag of chips in hand. The tattooed, shut eyed woman speaks with a small smile once more as she sends us off with Eskavor being the escort. "You all seem like promising Guards, full of potential and growth. The fiftieth floor is where you all will sleep. Get cozy because sunrise will be the time you guys enter…The first step.".
The elevator closes in a ding the same time a portal opens. Ruching out is a brown skinned woman with a short afro, police-style uniform, and glasses on. She looks towards the chalkboard and sighs in disappointment, chuckling beforehand. "Someone could've told me my son was here..you bastards.."
Aaliyah Yamamoto: Ex-shin's mother and also a Divine Guard that is captain of her own crew. She is at the age of 33 and is among the strongest members of the entire Successor Guard community.
Aaliyah has just completed an S rank mission at the brand new landmark made by her called King's Peak, and hurried back to her work home when she sensed a familiar presence there…her son, Ex.