Seeking Strays

The bell rang as students rushed down the halls all around me. A kid darted past me and slid in through an open door a moment before the teacher shut it. Said teacher did not look happy, though didn’t say anything.

I’d just come from a meeting with Quinn and Dean Willicker, the man in charge of the entire Silverport Academy. She went on ahead while I took a walk down memory lane. It’d been a long time since I’d been here. I thought I’d never come back.

It was still the same in a lot of ways. In others, it was like a totally new environment. Everything had been updated and replaced. Silverport Academy was one of the defining features of Silverport considering the surrounding cities sent Awoken here to study, so there were no expenses spared on this place.

A sharp impact jolted me, and a White Rabbit that’d been too busy looking at an itinerary ran into me. She dropped a bundle of papers, and crouched down to the ground to pick them up. “Oh, I’m so sorry!”

“It’s fine.” I crouched down beside her and handed her a few sheets of paper. Were the classes already handing out homework? It was just the second day. I tried to think back to my time in the academy, but honestly, I couldn’t remember much.

“Thank you.” She accepted the papers, and adjusted a pair of round-frame glasses. Her eyes immediately widened, and she shot upright. “You’re late too, Sylvie?!”

”No?” I stood back up to my full height—only for her to stand taller than me. I wasn’t necessarily short, but she was incredibly tall. Her height totally didn’t match the bookish look she had going on. “You know my sister?”

”Oh!” Her eyes snapped to my arm-band, and her confusion abruptly cleared up. “Canary Vargriev? Why didn’t she tell me her sister was the famous Canary? I’m an Awoken in Cohort 3 alongside her.”

Cohort 3… Quinn and I were in that one too, back then. Of the four Guardians and Canary duos in the cohort, we were the only ones still alive. My tail curled down around my leg, and I forced my expression to lighten up. No point bogging down one of my sister’s classmates with baggage.

“Yeah, well…” I rubbed at the back of my head. I really didn’t like the sudden fame I’d found myself with. I didn’t deserve it. It should’ve died off while I was in a coma, so why was it still going so strong? “You better get going to class.”

“I’m trying! Can you please help me, instructor?” She clasped her hands in front of her face. Her cute white ears flopped around, and framed her face in a way that made her look oddly pitiful. “I’m so turned around.”

“Where are you trying to go?” I asked. It’d been a while since I was here, but I doubted they’d changed much since then.

”Um…” She lifted up her itinerary and adjusted her glasses once more. “Beyonder Combat Basics.”

”I’m headed there too.” Quinn asked me to meet her there. “You can just follow me.”

”Yay!” She hopped around behind me, and stuffed her itinerary back into a bag. “Can I ask a question?”

”You just did,” I muttered under my breath, and once more hugged Vigil to my chest. The stuffed animal had been oddly quiet, though he did say something about interfacing with the academy's systems when we first arrived.

She didn’t seem to hear me—no, a White Rabbit definitely could’ve heard that. She just pretended not to. “What was it like in the Mire? I’ve read the stories, ‘course, but my dad always says the media can’t compare to first hand experience!”

”Wet. It was extremely wet.” A chill went down my tail just from the memory of it. I was dry now, but I could still feel the muggy moisture clinging to me like a second skin. “And cold. I got lucky that it was during the tail end of a Mire Tide, though, so there weren’t many Calamities out there.”

”Ah that totally makes sense! I was wondering how a Canary managed to make it across the Mire like that…” Her ears twitched, and she side-eyed me. “No offense.”

”None taken.” I stopped in front of a door into one of the gymnasiums, and pushed it open. “After you.”

“Thank you, instructor!” She bounced into the room, and I followed the peppy girl a moment later. It was a good thing it was a short walk. She felt like she’d be exhausting to deal with.

“Vanessa! You’re late!” The gruff voice of the Beyonder Combat Basics instructor shouted at her as soon as we stepped into the room. Mr. Leeroy, I think. The old stooge that used to run this class had been replaced since me and Quinn came through here.

“Sorry, sir! I got totally turned around.” Vanessa shot off to join the rest of the class doing stretches. Having practical combat classes first thing in the morning was seriously unlucky.

Sylvie waved at me from where the rest of the students were set up. I waved briefly, and kept moving so I wouldn’t distract her. I’d sooner kill myself than mess up her training. If she was injured in the future because I was a hindrance to her growth, I didn’t know what I’d do.

I headed up toward the stands where Quinn was, and took a seat next to her. For a while, neither of us said anything and just watched the new students work. “What even is our job? Do we not have a classroom of our own?”

Quinn laughed and shook her head. “We have an office… We're supposed to give practicals and take them out into the field, so we don’t need a classroom. You remember doing field assignments when we were back in class?”

”Faintly. Tori died during the first one, didn’t she?” It’d been a long time since I thought about any of our old cohort. We didn’t end up doing any more field assignments my entire freshman year after that. Losing an Awoken within the first two weeks of the semester starting was a seriously bad look.

“Yeah.” Quinn went silent and looked away. Her voice took on a strained quality. “It’ll be our job to ensure no repeat incidents, and let them get experience. The more we do now, the higher their chances of survival later.”

We were basically the ones giving loaded firearms to children and hoping for the best. Oh, and throwing them into an active battlefield while we were at it. No pressure. “You have a plan?”

”I figured we’d start slow. Check up on all of them individually, and then plan accordingly.” Quinn shrugged. “I’m trying to get into contact with a guy to acquire a captured Calamity.”

”Quinn…” I sighed. The trading of Calamities, especially still living ones, could only be the black market. “I’ll take care of it.”

“You sure?” She looked over at me in surprise.

”I’ve got contacts, anyways.” She knew about my life as a gang girl before the academy, so it wouldn’t be too suspicious when I managed to get one. ‘Sides, I really did have some contacts. “You just focus on them?”

”Deal. There’s an abandoned amusement park near the west wall. Figured we’d let it loose there, and watch over them as they hunt it.” She pulled out her phone and sent me a location ping. “I got my dad to buy it out. It’ll be our private hunting ground.”

I set Vigil down in my lap, and pulled out my phone. Probably for the best I head there beforehand to make sure there wasn’t anything going on. It seemed like the perfect place for an Anarch to hide out. Or a Calamity. I wouldn’t have to worry about sourcing it in that case.

”You’ve thought this out quite well, huh?” Student’s files, planned curriculum, student observation—since when did shebecome the responsible one? It was good, but I kinda missed my layabout friend that barely budged until she had to.

“I’ve had a lot of time,” she said. And she was right. While this was all new to me, she had a month to plan out everything for us.

“Yeah…” My tail swished around, and curled onto my leg. The tip of it traced soft circles around my knee as I tried not to think about just how horribly this could all go in a flash.

I needed to get a Calamity that wasn’t too dangerous for their first time, but one that was definitely still threatening. Oh, and this could be my chance to collect some Vitae. The Calamity would be sourced from the black markets anyway, so I could blame missing hearts and cores on them.

She patted my tail, and it stilled under her palm. “It’ll be fine, Reyna. We’re getting a massive pay increase on top of it, too.”

”So you keep saying.” I still hadn’t seen a single dime outside of the reward funds for surviving the Mire. Oh, and the bounty for raising an Awoken. Horizon paid guardians quite handsomely for the achievements of students.

“Just trust me.” She smiled, and poked my cheek. “When have I ever led you wrong?”

I bared my teeth at her, and my canines flashed dimly. Her finger shot back away from my face. “Do you seriously want an answer to that?”

“No…” Quinn melted in her seat, and half flopped onto my lap. “Can’t you just be nice to me for once, bestie?”

“I haven’t thrown you down the seats yet.” The tip of my tail flicked around as she hugged it to her chest. “Isn’t that nice?”

“Yet?” She let go of my tail, and sat up straight. “Yet, Reyna?”

“What do you think about them?” I shifted the subject, and nodded down toward the kids scattered around the gym. Although four of them were mundane people training to be Canaries, they all did the same workouts.

”They’re alright. Could take ‘em all on without a sweat.” Quinn slumped back into her seat and stared up at the roof. “How are we supposed to turn these kids into elites?”

My eyes narrowed on a boy next to Sylvie. He looked like a budding flower. Give it a few more years, and he’d be a heart-breaker. I could see it now. He had that curly black hair that teenage girls went wild for when I was back in school.

The kid moved over to my sister, and demonstrated the proper posture for one of the workouts. After a bit of back and forth, he hesitantly reached out and helped her fix her posture. I had half a mind to charge down there myself and enforce a five-paces rule.

I wasn’t sure at first, so I’d been keeping an eye on the class. Maybe he was her Canary? My nose curled. The initial assignment was random, but why’d they have to give her a boy? Teenagers couldn’t be trusted. Especially when they were the opposite sex.

I pointed out the kid next to Sylvie. “What do you know about him?”

She followed my gesture down to the kid, and pulled out a tablet. She paused just before doing anything with it. ”Your sister’s Canary-to-be?”

“Let’s not call him that.” It wasn’t too late. Maybe I could write up a formal complaint or something. It would be much better if I went through the list and preapproved a few for her. Right, I couldn’t let her team up with an inferior student.

She shrugged and tapped around on the tablet. A moment later, a full dossier popped up. ”River Rondale. Straight A’s all his life despite a rough home environment. He was accepted into Silverport Academy under special provisions and full scholarship.”

“Which kinds?”

“Same ones that you had back then.” She dropped her tablet into her lap, and nudged my shoulder. “Why? You jealous?”

Maybe at first. I was an adult, so I could admit that. “No.”

She laughed, and lifted her tablet back up. “His dad died in an Anarch attack, and his mom’s a waitress at a diner on the east side of the city. He volunteers at a local food pantry, and worked as a bus-boy for the past two years.”

”Are those records real?” What the hell? No way, right? Poor and still volunteering? That couldn’t be right.

“Yeah, they’re real.” Quinn smirked, and tossed the tablet onto the seat next to her. “He’s got a clean disciplinary record.”

”That’s hardly an achievement.” And it was clearly suspicious.

”He rescues abandoned puppies every Sunday.” Quinn couldn’t keep a straight face, and broke into laughter. “Okay, that last one wasn’t real. River seems like he’ll make a good fit for Sylvie.”

The more she talked about the kid, though, the more wary I grew. He entered the same way I did. He was supposedly a top-class student, but papers could be forged. Mine certainly were back then. What were the chances he was a syndicate plant?

I stood up, and shuffled away down the stands to get some privacy. “I’ll be back in a sec.”

”Take your time.” She lazily flopped a hand in my direction. “Doubt we’ll be doing much these next couple days… we should get a couch in the office.”

”Dean Willicker might have a problem with that.” I’d only talked to the man briefly when I was introduced by Quinn this morning to him, but he didn’t seem like the kind to appreciate that kind of thing.

“Eh, my dad will make a sizable donation to the school. He’d let it be after that.” Quinn, for the first time in a while, looked like an alien in my eyes. Rich people really did live by totally different standards, didn’t they?

My ears curled back, and I tapped Vigil’s head. When he didn’t respond, I put a little more force in it. I turned away from Quinn, and whispered to him, “clanker.”

”What, Operator.” His voice, despite its total emotionless neutrality, sounded incredibly annoyed in my twitching ears.

“Check out this River Rondale guy for me, m’kay?” I didn’t like the look of him. ‘Sides, even if it wasn’t from Hades, it wouldn’t hurt to learn a little more about the—about my students. Heh, right… I was an instructor now too.

“… Operator Reyna, this unit can not condone violating a citizen’s civil right to privacy.” His glowing red eyes flicked briefly toward the kid in question before resettling on me.

I stared down at the silver wolf plushie with wide eyes. Did I grab the wrong one when I left the apartment this morning? “Who are you and what did you do with Vigil?”

As per usual, my words seemed to go right over his head. “This unit is VGL-09. Remember, Operator, Vigil the Ninth is just an alias.”

“You—ugh, nevermind.” I dropped my head into my hand, and rubbed gently at my temples. Why were the people around me so hard to deal with?

Vigil’s eyes flashed twice, and he spoke up again, “this unit will access publicly available records.”

”Thank you.” I sighed, and looked back just in time to catch Sylvie laughing at something he said. It could just be paranoia—it probably was just paranoia. I couldn’t be too safe, though. Especially not in times like these.

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