>10 years ago.
Ghazul strolled on nervously into the bus. The idea of putting superheroes, well soon to be superheroes in a bus was really weird. He's very sure half these kids could fly.
Just as Ghazul entered, all eyes went to him. He was 17 and had a very striking appearance. His sunken cheekbones, strong jaw and very very intense red eyes made him stand out. He could feel people's gazes lingering on him.
It was weird but he always tried not to pay attention.
He kept walking looking for a free sit. Many of the people here already knew eachother.
' Found one '.
A free sit next to another kid. He had really spiky and bushy purple hair. And wait, two lollipops in his mouth at the same time.
' So cool '. Ghazul already found someone interesting. This kids arcane was as high as mine. And Ghazul was older by maybe a year or two.
The two of them sat together, no speaking, no greetings. They just sat.
They garnered the attention in the bus as it sped up to its destination.
No one wanted to fight those two. They wouldn't stand a chance.
Ghazul sat awkwardly and for the first two minutes he just stared into space. The purple haired kid was playing sudoku on his phone while sucking at his sweets loudly.
" Hey ".
Guile turned to the voice. He thought the guy would just be quiet. For sure this is the only one here who could stop him from getting first place
" Hello ", He said without looking.
" Whachu doing ".
Guile waited for a second. Clicking and tapping at his phone aggressively with undivided attention before answering, "Playing sudoku".
' I mean doesn't he know the game '.
' My how long has it been since I did small talk?' Ghazul asked himself.
" You know ", he repositioned himself on his sit moving closer to Guile, " You're strong aren't you comrade?"
Guile turned off his phone. He was losing anyway. Then he turned to Ghazul. The kids red eyes were the first he'd ever seen.
" Well you are too. And it's Guile ".
" Ghazul Alexander ", He replied smiling resting his hands on his face.
Guile merely nodded and sunk in deeper into his sit
" Well what's your second name?"
" Don't have one ".
" Interesting ", Ghazul said enthusiastically. His eyes and eyebrows opening up. " When's the last time you were on a bus?"
' Well what do you know. First person who didn't ask why '
Maybe this guy was interestjng after all.
" Ehh. Last week ", Guile muttered weakly.
" Why not just fly?".
" I don't know. I like the feeling of a car I guess?". Guile turned back to Ghazul and asked. " What about you. When's the last time you were on a bus ".
" Probably years ago. Like when I was a toddler ".
" Hmm ".
" What do you want to do after this ".
" What do you mean "
" Well you're going to pass and become a hero. After you do what then. Climb up the ranks or is that not your goal?"
" Make a lot of money. Kill many Fiends. Save a lot of people. The usual stuff ", Guile lied. The real reason was so he could change the corrupt nature of the hero association.
Ghazul knew he was lying.
" Really? Come on what're you scared off?", he was urging Guile to say it. It was pointless to lie to a person like Ghazul.
Guile kept quiet.
" Well I won't pressure you ",
He leaned into his seat and put both his hands behind his dark hair. " For me it's so I can fight ".
" Fight?"
" Yes. Violence ", Ghazuls eyes went feral with excitement.
" I want to battle the most powerful fiends and criminals. Be killed by one of them annnd..," his voice went back to normal almost joking. " Save a lot of people along the way ".
Guile couldn't help but snort.
" Weirdo ".
" Look who's talking comrade ".
" I said it's Guile ".
" What you say doesn't matter ", Ghazul said grabbing a sweet from Guiles pocket and putting it in his mouth,"I'll call you comrade ".
Guile let out a snort.
Ghazul didn't know why till he felt his tongue. He spat out the sweet and caught it before it touched the floor.
" What's this?", he said in a horrified expression.
" Lime flavoured ",
" Why ", He cleaned his tongue with his fingers. " Why do you take this stuff ", Ghazul said in distress.
" Ya should've just asked for a sweet men. Should've just asked ".
Guile put his hand in his pocket and removed a yellow sweet still in it's transparent leather wrap. " Here ", He handed it to Ghazul," mango flavoured ".
Ghazul stared at it. Then at Guile in an analysing expression. He grabbed and tore off the wrapping. Then tasted it
" Pretty good ".
He dipped the whole thing in his mouth and tasted his fingers.
" Do you know a bus is supposed to be free ".
" How'd you figure?"
" Bus comes from the Latin word omnibus which means for everyone. Yet buses only carry those with money ", Ghazul said rubbing his thumb and index finger against each other.
" So it's just for the rich in a way. Those who can afford transportation ".
" Exactly ".
Ghazul said writing fast on his notebook murmuring each word.
" What you writing ".
" A new move ", He looked at Guile in a smirk " It's a secret ".
" You really like fighting huh?"
" More than you have probably assumed ".
" That isn't very hero like ".
" What's hero like and what's not depends on intent, not action.
" Everything does ".
" Think about it. Say murder. Very very bad thing but one man murders 23. The other 200. The first did it for his pleasure while the other did it for his country. One was killed the, other was celebrated.
Intent justifies murder. That's how powerful it is ".
Ghazul scratched his neck and kept on writing.
" Make the excuse that one was a soldier but murder is murder.
It's all about intent comrade ".
" Then what's your intent? Do you enjoy violence so you can protect yourself? So you can hide in chaos?
Ghazul roared in joy, " To enjoy myself!"
" I said intent defines the actions not that I had a justifiable one myself ", He continued laughing. " I mean if you're going to beat monsters to death and put your life on the line. Time and time again. Enjoy it to the last because then you get to put more effort into being a hero ".
" Wow", Guile looked out the window, "That last part about being a hero was bullshit right?"
" All the way comrade. All the way ", A smile appeared on Ghazul's face "I guess you could say I love to inflict pain and have just as much inflicted upon me ", Ghazul had a sadistic smile on his face as he finished that sentence.
" You know, that's something a fiend would say ".
" Is it. Well lucky for humanity that I'm a human ".
" Hey how's that working out "
" What?"
" Being fiend like?"
Ghazul smiled and didn't answer.
The bus stopped. Both of them looked outside to a large grey building. Looking more like a minimalistic punishment prison than a training centre.
Ghazul whistled loud enough for everyone one to turn.
" Gonna break a lot of bones here comrade ", Ghazul said licking his sweet.
The other students gulped as they went off the bus.
" You know this is really really good ".
Guile let out a tired sigh. Why did there have to be another powerful battle obsessed student here.
He stood up ready to leave the bus since Ghazul was seemingly way too comfortable taking the sweet.
Ghazul moved his knees to let Guile pass.
" Now a question of etiquette. As I pass do I give you the ass or the crotch?", Guile said turning to his back as he went in-between the sits. Almost laughing as he did.
Somehow he enjoyed this weird kids company.
Ghazul couldn't hold himself from bursting out in laughter. Before getting up and following Guile.
" Hey..,Oh god...Hey kid wait up?"
The two were know their own clique. A duo of abnormally strong weirdos.
They were led to a large room. Filled with couches and drinks and even hot meals. Seemed like a lounge and definitely contradicted the other grim training rooms they saw on their arrival.
" This didn't seem so bad ", Guile muttered.
The trainees all looked to obtain their hero licenses. The whole room was filled with young up beat energy. Some people even fell asleep from the long bus ride. They were given an hour to freshen up before their training began.
If the knew what was to come they would have made more of it or maybe just run away for their lives.
" Here he comes ".
The crowd went wild with excitement.
There was a ridiculously muscular man clad in an all white skin tight suit that looks like they only accentuated those meteoric biceps. What are those 60 inches.
As for his triceps?
I don't think the ruler would be long enough.
Behind him was a long, long bright red cape that was bellowing heroically.
" There's no wind here ", Ghazul snorted in disbelief.
If your eyes didn't naturally drift to that war honed physique then they certainly went to his lush snow white hair that bounced off his abs. His face was strong. I know not any other words to describe.
Strongest face you'd ever see. A jawline wide, a dimple on his even wider chin and sculpted cheek bones enough to sharpen, well anything.
His eyes sunken and down turned analysing all the weaklings before him. Weaklings he would take much pleasure in breaking.
Like a handsome buffalo, if that made sense. And just like the buffalo, this white haired man had a neck as wide as the grand canyon. " No ties for him, that's for sure ".
Everyone knew he was.
One of the most handsome men on the planet who was a bit of an internet sensation for his masculine let striking visage. Only thing? Doubt you'd have the guts to tell him or look at him funny. He'd rip your tongue out and tell you to jump rope with it.
Thick eyebrows like long rows of bushes clearly tweezed to perfection. And he acts like superherodom is all he cares about. The dark colour of his eye brows went just well with his long lush white hair.
This man was one of the world's most powerful and decorated heroes. The 34 year old no 1 ranked sentinel.
Sir Orion the great one.
His crowning as a captain was in months. Wonder if he'd still host the training program then?
He gave a speech. A rather scary one. A had a timid women just next to him.
He introduced her as Baileer. Seems she was a sentinel.
Really? Ghazul thought even he could take her.
Those glasses? Tha timid stance? Is that really a Sentinel.
" Baileer?", Sir Orion bellows turning to her. As if waiting for her to do something.
The small woman dressed in a grey suit and skirt was lost for a while, lost and sweating. She clearly didnt seem comfortable in front of a crowd.
When she realised now was her queue, her shoulders jerked up quickly.
" Oh right ".
Then she snapped her fingers and each trainee was teleported to a different section of the training centre.
It felt like she just moved them through a dark dimension.
" Ok forget what I said ", Ghazul was laughing, " These heroes are monsters ".
While most of the trainees were in awe of her power Guile was studying where exactly she teleported them to. He had a gnawing feeling in his gut.
He was the first to notice the cages. About 3 metres tall and 2 metres wide on the left side. Each had..,
" What the fuck ", Guiles eyes squinted in disgust," People?"
Now other kids were realising where they were. To the right were even more cages and there were real Fiends in them.
Not robots. Real Blood thirsty Fiends.
Each cage layed on a platform. The platforms were horizontally set on the wall. There were like 14 of them on each side and each was wide enough to hold an estimate of 50 cages.
Basically a lot of lives on the line.
The murmurs and horrified gasps echo through the grim hollow space. The animalistic Fiends were roaring to escape and the people in the cage were screaming for help.
When Guile looked closer he saw that they didn't look really good. Some of them had tattoos and piercings. Some of them had grim pasts ( Guile saw glimpses into the past of a handful of them ). And they were all clad in a yellow jump suit.
" Prisoners ". Ghazul stated the obvious.
How he still had a readying smile on his face was oblivious to Guile
" Silence!", commanded the strongest.
Orion's tree trunk hands were folded on his planet sized pecs. " These people you see across you. They are convicts sentenced to serve this state as a realistic training experience".
" Realistic training experience?"
' That's the most fucked thing I've ever heard '.
Guile felt like just going up there and smashing Sir Orion's face in. He would probably get offed in seconds.
He needed to be smarter. And yet, this anger was eating him apart.
" Whether you see their lives as valuable depends on you. The exam couldn't care less ", Orion said rubbing his fingers against eachother. He truly didn't care.
" What the exam does care about is that you act like you do. Save as many as you can and kill as many Fiends as you need to. If you die then you die. If you live then you go on to the next stage ".
He was done. He looked back to Baileer.
She nodded quickly and just before snapping her fingers she said, " Good luck ".
Then they were both gone.
Guile was dumbfounded. This wasn't a work in the park. These were people. He didn't even know a sentence like that exis_
" Aghhrrrrr!", Roared one of the Fiends so loud everyone went into disary.
It's like they were only behaving cause Sir Orion was around.
The prisoners ran out like rats in a cage, freed after years of anguish. They were all looking for a chance to escape.
Guile noticed how impressive it all was. It was grotesque and evil sure, but it was effective.
This is the closest the state could go to showing wannabe heroes what the job looks like.
Real Fiends, real lives to be lost.
Now some prisoners were already getting ripped apart and most of the people here didn't know how to stop it. ' Our average age is 17. Most of the people here were still just kids learning their power..,
" Well what are you blanking out for comrade?"
Ghazul said holding on to Guiles shoulders and shaking them so hard, Guile thought they would break.
" Let's fuck up some fiends and save some prisoners yeeeehooooo ".