Most of the week since getting out of the hospital had been a lot of preparations. Being a last-minute inductee into the Special Case program meant that a lot of things had to be done really fast; application forms, medical records, dealing with the charges I would have been dealt as a vigilante getting dropped, and so on. From what Dad had told me, the last bit would be dealt with by Angelo and The Union’s own legal department, and the rest was up to us.

  So it was a frantic week; getting the forms printed, getting them signed and sent back, getting my medical records in order, all of that whizzed past us. Angelo, despite Dad’s obvious dislike of him, had been a big help in making sure that everything was set up and ready for me.

  At the same time, I’d been messaging Elena on and off the whole week; she seemed chill about it all. Honestly aside from the Slaughterhouse stuff she always seemed like she was pretty chill with most things.

  Angelo had also advised Elena and I to think of ideas for costumes and to let him know as soon as possible. I’d sketched a bunch of them since my powers first manifested, with some leaning into a much more feminine aesthetic that made me look like some kind of skeleton princess, while on the complete opposite end of the spectrum I had ideas that looked closer to some kind of zombie biker. The makeshift costume I’d worn on my vigilante night out was the closest I’d come to what I think I wanted; something that made me look ‘cool’ (or as cool as someone like me could look) while still feminine and looking like a hero.

  So naturally, I’d spent a lot of time working on that sketch; the idea was a black undersuit with white segments in the vague outline of a skeleton, with a white helmet that covered most of my face, except for the mouth. I’d also added a streak of red to it, a red ribbon tied around the neck like Mom’s scarf. Not for any practical purpose, just for myself.

  Most of the nights I’d just lie awake, sketchbook in hand, reworking the design over and over.

  But just as quick as all of this started, the start date rolled around. We had it all planned out: Dad would drive me and Elena there, and then we’d be in the hands of the Campus for the rest of the day.

  Naturally, I was even more of a bundle of nerves than normal. Not just from the anxiety, but from genuine excitement. I’d not slept much at all, so I’d been up early making sure that everything was perfect; the fact that I was only commuting to and from the campus every day rather than living there didn’t change that.

  But eventually we set out on our way, grabbing Elena on the way.

  “So, how you feeling?” She asked me after she climbed into the back, smirking.

  I felt a smile crawl across my face. “N-Nervous, even worse than last t-time.”

  Elena laughed. “Yeah dude, same.”

  Dad got into the car next, turning around to look at us.

  “So, you two ready for the first day of the rest of your lives?”

  As we drove, I found myself staring out the window, excitement buzzing. But at the same time, a single thought kept cropping up in the back of my mind: what if it all went wrong?

  Young Defenders Training Facility, Meritas City. September 30th, 2014, 10:30AM

  This is overwhelming…

  That was the first thought that went through my head as we came up to the main entrance of the Young Defenders Training Facility. I’d seen the place from a distance a lot over my time living in Meritas, looking like this half-school, half-military base that dominated the southern edge of the city amongst the more run-down houses, sticking out like a sore thumb.

  Even before we got close, we could see the massive perimeter walls dominating the area, towering slabs of metal and reinforced concrete about twenty-feet tall each and marked with security cameras, and the watchtowers atop them that guarded it from the outside. The walls were painted with lines of red and gold, and emblazoned with the massive shield insignias of The Union and the Young Defenders, just to make sure you knew who this place belonged to.

  Now that I was here, actually physically here, I felt microscopic.

  The main entrance itself was this wide armored archway built into one of the walls. A team of armoured guards stood at attention, armed with scanning wands. It was the first day of the new year, so there were easily a hundred students in line, as well as their parents or guardians who themselves looked either nervous or excited.

  Some of the students wore their own full, professionally designed hero suits with glowing visors, sleek and cutting-edge fabric, carbon-fibre armour-plating, and so on. But others - in fact, the majority of them - were either wearing makeshift costumes cobbled together from their own clothes like the ones Elena and I had worn on our night out as vigilantes, or they were just dressed in our own clothes.

  The line moved quickly; Students were scanned one by one; quick waves of the scanner, bags opened and zipped, then ushered through with a clipped “Welcome to campus.” It felt smooth, almost mechanical, like it was second nature to these guards. I caught a glimpse of a boy three spaces ahead of me - easily seven feet tall with glowing teal skin - checking in through the front gate, his body glimmering in the sun.

  As my turn came around, I took a breath. For some reason I started panicking; did I have something illegal on me? Had someone slipped something on me without me noticing? Had-

  The scanner let out a friendly beep.

  “All clear, welcome to campus.” The guard said, cutting off my train of thought. I gave him a shaky “T-Thanks.” before heading forward, turning to wait for Elena. She just let herself be scanned like it was no big deal.

  How does she do it? I thought. How does anyone do it, being that cool with everything?

  She strode towards me, smiling.

  Finally, we were through, crossing through to the gate at the other side. It was so much to take in, like the whole place was alive.

  Wide boulevards branched off in every direction, lined with metal benches, glass-paneled kiosks, glowing digital signage, and perfectly-sculpted rows of hedges shaped into humanoid silhouettes. Intercoms buzzed out regular announcements in three languages.

  We could see a series of large buildings dotted across this massive campus, each one designed completely differently from each other, with large suspended bridges of reinforced glass connecting many of the buildings together. Students and faculty swirled and milled around us in a sea of excited motion, with some staff members already waiting to meet students.

  I found myself glancing around frantically, my eyes catching on different students; one girl with grey feathered wings soared between buildings like she owned the skies before gliding smoothly into a crowd, a younger boy hunched over a planter box tapped a flower and made it bloom wildly in seconds, erupting into colourful blossoms.

  Everything felt busy and loud. It was overwhelming, and it took me a second to reorient myself and focus.

  Immediately ahead of us was a building marked as “Administration”, a beautiful, three-story structure with sleek beige stones and a red trim, its sharp corners softened by long glass windows and sculptural flourishes. The roof curved upward gently, almost making it look ceremonial like a cathedral.

  “Angelo told us to meet him there, right?” Elena asked from behind me, snapping me out of my awestruck trance.

  “Y-yeah, I think so.” I responded, making a slow step towards it as I heard her speeding up to walk next to me. I was trying to keep my breathing steady to calm my nerves.

  “You doin’ ok?” She asked.

  “Y-yeah! Just that…it suddenly became very real.”

  She just laughed next to me. “Yeah I feel you, but no turning back now unless you want to spend your life in a cell.”

  I let out a nervous laugh, as we approached the door to the Administrative building. It was busy, as expected; it looked like all of the new students had made their way here the same as we did, most with their parents but some without. I could see a series of lines leading to different booths where people were being talked to by different faculty members.

  As we stepped through, the first thing that struck me - aside from the sheer amount of people which was making me feel claustrophobic - was the wall at the very back. It was a massive bronze panel, easily about fifteen feet from top to bottom and about thirty feet from end to end, with a series of plaques that were affixed to it, each plaque having a flickering blue hologram of a different person’s head in the centre with a name below it, the name and plaque changing after about fifteen seconds. A few people were standing at it, looking up and pointing to different faces. Emblazoned in the centre was a single statement: “To those that fell in the line of duty.”

  I took a few steps towards it, staring up at the wall, at this massive memorial to fallen superheroes. A lot of these were old heroes from the first generation, people that everyone knew: Lady Liberty, The Adept, Vagabond, Buccaneer. A lot of the others were ones I’d heard of, ones I’d been a fan of: Skydancer, Heartbreaker, Stone Angel (I remembered crying for days when he’d died). I also noticed that some heroes had both their hero name and their real name displayed while some didn’t.

  A lot of the people here were relatively young when they’d died; Lady Liberty was one of the first public superheroes and even she’d died when she was only 45 back in 1990, but Skydancer and Heartbreaker weren’t even 30 when they’d been killed.

  As I stared up at this wall, my eyes flickering back and forth between the different names and faces as they changed, I felt a heavy sadness sit in my stomach. There was someone I wanted to see up here, see her name and her face. One question echoed in my mind:

  Would Mom’s name be up here?

  Almost immediately I realised that it wouldn’t; she’d retired as a hero, and she hadn’t technically died in the line of duty. I had no idea if that mattered, but it still felt disheartening to know that I’d not be able to see her face. I just wanted to see her there, a flickering hologram of a face I could barely remember, a plaque of her name, just something that she’d mattered, that someone aside from Dad and I still knew who she was.

  “Skye, I- oh shit, you good?”

  As I turned to Elena, her face fell. I realised that a couple of tears were rolling down my cheeks.

  “Yeah, I- sorry its just I-” I wiped the tears from my face.

  “Someone you know up there?”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I th-thought there would be but- but she retired before she died so-”

  “Oh shit. Who?”

  I paused. Did I open this can of worms now? Talking about it wasn’t the issue, it had been over ten years since it had happened, but it just came with a lot of baggage.

  I sighed. “I’d re- rather not now, sorry.”

  Elena just nodded before giving me a tap on the shoulder. “Hey, it's ok dude. Anyway, Angelo’s here.”

  I turned around, and sure enough, there was Angelo. He looked almost exactly the same as he did last week; same close-cropped, slicked-back black hair, same suit under the same jacket, only difference was that he’d grown out his facial hair a bit.

  But it wasn’t just him, there was someone else floating next to him. I recognised her immediately, a fairly new hero that had popped up about two years back: Red Rabbit. She was wearing a suit of hi-tech powered armour which was sleek, feminine, and angular, like something that had walked directly out of an old Japanese anime. It was bright red with yellow accents running down the sides and around the face, with a helmet that looked like a metal fishbowl that completely obscured her face, and a display screen built into it that was currently displaying a pixelated smiling face. The helmet topped with a pair of what looked like rabbit ear-shaped antennae that were constantly rotating and shifting, and a pair of long fins jutted out from the shoulders at an angle, looking almost like wings and glowing a soft yellow.

  “Skye…Elena! Good to see both of you again, hope the last week hasn’t been too stressful.” Angelo said as we walked over to him and Red Rabbit.

  “Eh, it’s been fine,” Elena said with a shrug and a smile. “Sorry that all of my stuff was in such a state.”

  Angelo waved his hand nonchalantly. “No need to apologise, Elena, given the circumstances. To be honest your affairs were more in order than half the second-years!” He said with a laugh.

  I wasn’t looking at Angelo, instead I was looking at Red Rabbit, feeling a bit starstruck.

  “Oh God, where are my manners?” Angelo laughed. “Introductions are in order. Skye, Elena, allow me to introduce you to Red Rabbit, the supervisor of the Special Case program and your primary teacher and mentor.”

  “Hi guys!” Red Rabbit said, holding out a hand to shake; her voice was pretty high-pitched and felt very exaggerated and animated, almost like a cartoon. There was also this slight tinny filter to the voice that made it sound mechanical. “Pleasure to meet the pair of you!”

  “I-It’s an honour, Red- uh, Miss Rabbit.” I said, fumbling with what exactly to call her.

  “That’s too formal, everyone just calls me Red.” She responded, laughing. Even her laugh had that metallic, high-pitched, almost cartoony sound to it.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  It was strange, almost disarming. Seeing her on TV was one thing, but being up-close to someone who sounded like a cartoon character and looked like a child’s mecha drawing brought to life was very weird.

  “So!” Angelo said, clapping. “Red and I will show you around, give you a quick once-over of the various facilities here, then we’ll get you introduced to your future classmates. Sound good?”

  Both Elena and I nodded, as Angelo and Red Rabbit led us out of the administrative building.

  Much of the next couple of hours was a dizzying tour around the campus, with both Angelo and Red Rabbit giving us a bit of an overview of each of the different buildings and their history. I honestly didn’t take all of it in, but the basic gist was all I really needed.

  The main building in the centre was the Academic Hall, the architectural heart of the campus; it was a towering mass of curved glass, interlocking steel beams, and panels that reacted to the light, shimmering under the sky. The building itself somehow felt alive, like it was shifting as the sun shone. Angelo mentioned that it housed the facility’s classrooms, lecture halls, and simulation labs were all stored. He and Red proudly boasted that the Academic Hall was designed to be able to withstand direct attacks from a high-power superhuman. It made sense, but it made me feel an instinctive pang of dread, as if a supervillain attack was something we were going to have to expect.

  Just behind it was the much more brutalist structure: the Training Complex. It was all harsh lines and reinforced angles, looking like it was designed by someone who expected, maybe even wanted it to be hit by a superhuman, just to prove it could take it. Its grey-white exterior was dense, with strong metallic panels and reinforced glass; even from the outside, we could hear the muffled THUDS and CRASHES of combat practice, and something heavy slamming into the wall, which made me flinch.

  It made me realise just how intimidating this place is; it felt like a training facility, sure, but it also felt like it was ready for an apocalypse of some kind.

  Then there was what they called “The Quads”, a massive open-air, grassy space between the training building and the dormitory, which felt more like a park than part of a training facility; grassy fields, sports courts, shared walkways lined with towering trees, and a massive pond that shimmered gently. It felt weirdly peaceful, like you could forget that this place was designed to train us to fight villains and monsters. Students were lounging in the grass, sitting at picnic tables, even training quietly in corners of the lawn. One girl was sitting under a tree, floating about three inches off the ground while meditating. Another group was in one of the sports courts, launching a basketball with enough force to bend the fence before launching it back.

  But despite how idyllic and peaceful The Quads felt, the paths were lined with emergency lights, glowing signs were dotted every ten or so yards providing little news bulletins and showing maps, even the benches looked reinforced. As we walked through The Quads - with the exception of Red Rabbit, who was flying around and greeting students and faculty - Angelo spoke up.

  “So, last main stop on the tour - unless of course you’re hungry for a library,” he said with a smirk, “Is the dormitories. Elena, you want to look at yours, see how it feels?”

  “Sure, sounds good. Have I got a roommate, or am I doing it solo?”

  That made me pause. Elena was staying on-campus, and she’d not said anything about it. Almost immediately, I felt myself spiraling.

  Why wouldn’t she tell me?

  Surely it's not that big of a deal.

  She’s staying with someone else?

  Is she going to drop me for some new person?

  I didn’t know why I was thinking about it so much, that was the worst thing. I wasn’t going to be staying on-campus, I’d said as much from the start, but I couldn’t get over the thought of why she hadn’t told me. I guess I’d assumed she was just commuting, and I’d never thought to ask.

  But this always happened, all it took was one comment, one little thing to send me spiraling, overthinking the little things over and over and-

  “Skye, how’s that sound?” Elena asked.

  I snapped back to reality, trying to mask the fact that I’d been in my own head. “S-Sorry, sure sounds good!”

  “Wonderful,” Angelo said, “I’ll let Red take care of you both then. If you need me, come by my office anytime; door’s always open.”

  With that, Angelo headed off. I suddenly became aware that I had no idea what I’d actually agreed to. I also couldn’t see Red Rabbit, leaving just Elena and I standing in the middle of this path.

  “So…what do you think?” Elena asked, sidling up close to me and nudging me with her elbow.

  “Of?”

  She waved her arms dramatically. “This whole place, dude! It’s huge, there’s so much going on!” She then leaned in, whispering. “Guess we have Slaughterhouse to thank, right?”

  That got a laugh out of me, at least.

  “S-So dorms next, right?” I asked.

  Elena looked at me, confused. “…Didn’t you hear? Angelo thought we should meet the other Special Cases first, then Red’ll take us up to the dorms. Apparently I lucked out and got a room to myself.” She said, shimmying in place with a grin.

  For some reason, that made me feel less anxious.

  “You sound p-pleased.”

  “‘Course I am. Don’t have to worry about some rando being a pain in my ass for the next three years. Plus, keeps me away from home for a bit.”

  That made me tilt my head. “Is home th-that bad?”

  She scoffed. “Yeah you know, parents’re always getting in my business.”

  “Wait I thought you- I thought they were f-fine with you-”

  “Yeah they were fine with it.” Elena said, way too quickly. I just looked at her, realising that she was looking around the campus around her as she talked.

  Is she lying about her parents? I thought. She’d said her parents were chill before but now she was saying they were always in her business? Something wasn’t adding up.

  “E-Elena are-”

  I stopped. Was I prying? Was I already screwing this up by needing reassurance-

  CLANG!

  I practically jumped out of my skin as something landed next to me. Spinning around, I quickly saw that it was Red Rabbit, who had dropped to the ground beside us.

  “Sorry!” She said, giving an exaggerated bow. “Got caught up in seeing some of the new faces. You ready to meet your new classmates?”

  Academic Hall, Young Defenders Training Campus, Meritas City. September 30th, 2014, 13:00PM

  Within a few minutes, Red led us back through the campus towards the Academic Hall. The building already looked big from the outside but felt massive and labyrinthine on the inside, with hallways feeling like they stretched way longer than they should’ve. It wasn’t busy here - most of the students were either still getting inducted or were just in other parts of the campus - but there was still an energy to the place, with teachers bustling from room to room.

  As we approached the Special Case’s room, which was a bit out of the way from the main classrooms, a thought occurred to me.

  “Red, w-what do we actually c-call ourselves? Our real names, or our hero names?”

  Red turned to look back at me, her screen projecting the image of a cartoonish man thinking. She was still gliding in the air, she’d barely touched the ground since we’d met her.

  “Up to you!” She said, her voice still as peppy as always. “Your costumes aren’t ready yet because they were a last-minute order, so keeping yourself secret will be…harder for today. Campus policy is that personal identities are on a need to know basis, but we’ve got strict policies against students or faculty trying to antagonise you if they do know your identity. The other Special Cases are all on a real-name basis with each other if that helps.”

  I nodded. That made me feel a bit more at ease.

  “Besides,” Elena said quietly next to me. “I feel like saying ‘Hi, I’m Skullgirl, the chick that punched a hole through Slaughterhouse’ might get you some weird looks.”

  “I st-still really want to use Skullgirl…” I said, dejected.

  “You still can!” Red said as she touched down, coming to a stop by the door. “It’s not an officially licensed name yet, so the name’s yours if you want it.”

  I nodded.

  “So, are you both ready?”

  Now that I was standing outside the door I suddenly felt my nerves come to life, making me feel sick.

  But, I was ready.

  “Y-yeah.” I said.

  “Yep.” Elena said, sounding as confident and nonchalant as always.

  Red pushed the door open.

  Almost immediately, the sound of two voices spilled out of the door. Both voices - one male and one female, by the sounds of it - engaged in a heated conversation.

  “-you are, how do you say, ‘insane in the brain’ if you think Champion could not beat Darwin!” The male voice shouted, with a very strong accent that sounded Eastern-European?

  “Are ya fuckin- Supernova couldn’t beat Darwin, Ant, and that bint has the sun shining out of her arse!” The female voice retorted, sounding exasperated before going into full-on passionate yelling; what struck me was that she had a very strong Irish accent.

  “Ah, the Supernova is uh, holding back, you see.”

  “She turned half of him to ash, Ant!”

  Red knocked twice on the open door, hard enough to make a loud clanging noise. Immediately the girl let out a loud “What!?” before spinning to look at the door, seeing us standing there.

  She was short, barely a couple of inches taller than Elena, with messy brown hair that grew just past her jaw, the ends wild and frayed. She was wearing what looked to be a costume, jet black with pieces of armour around the chest and abdomen, with jagged yellow lines like lightning bolts curling around her legs and midsection. She was also looking us both up and down, scowling.

  “Ah, I am assuming these two are the new friends?” The male voice said. He poked his head out from where he was sitting before standing up. He was a little taller than me, easily six feet, with a lean build. His hair was short, smooth and jet-black, and he had a warm, inviting smile to his face. In short, he couldn’t have been less like the girl he’d been talking to if he tried. Like her, he was wearing a costume of his own; dark blue, with a series of white wavy string-like lines extending from his left shoulder down to his right thigh.

  “Correct. Our new first-years!” Red said, waving her hands like she was trying to present us. I felt myself almost physically shrink down as she did that.

  The girl took a forceful step towards me, looking up at me, squinting. Then she held out her hand to shake.

  Tentatively, I reached out for it, before shaking it. Almost immediately, I felt a sharp spark like a jolt of static electricity across my entire hand. I felt myself flinch for a second, which got a grin out of her.

  “Jesus you’re a tall glass of juice. Really know how to make a small girl feel even smaller, Red, with these two beanpoles.” She said, pointing a thumb back at the other guy.

  “Apologies, new friends.” He said, stepping forward to shake Elena’s hand. “Battery is a little bit rough around her edges.” He then clapped a hand on the girl’s - Battery’s - shoulder, but clearly got that same static shock as I did as his hand jerked back.

  “‘Battery’ can introduce herself..” She growled. “Name’s Battery. Or Siobhan, if you like. Gonna be real, don’t give a damn so long as ya don’t piss me off.”

  “As for me,” the tall guy interjected, “Hero name is ‘Puppeteer’. But just call me Anton. Or Ant, everyone is calling me Ant.” He still had that smile on his face and was standing very coolly and casually, which when standing next to the scowling Siobhan, made for a very stark contrast.

  “Elena.” Elena said, smirking. “Going with the hero name ‘Spitter’, but not sure on it yet.”

  “And you?” Siobhan asked, looking at me. Everyone was looking at me.

  “I- uh-” I stammered. “Skye. G-going by Sk-Skullgirl once I get my costume.”

  “‘Skullgirl’, huh?” Siobhan responded, nodding.

  Red glided towards a small podium at the other end of the room, allowing the rest of us to get seated. The room itself was small, clearly closer to a kind of common room than a full classroom, at least as far as I could tell. A couple of large tables were placed either side of the room, with chairs spread evenly across them; clearly meant to manage a group of closer to ten, rather than the four that were in here at the moment.

  Elena hopped into a seat, and I followed behind her, slipping into the chair next to her and trying to look like I belonged. Siobhan and Anton slid in across from us on the other side of the table.

  “So what were you two yelling about?” Elena asked.

  “We were arguin’ about who could take down Darwin.” Siobhan responded, drumming her fingers on the table.

  “I believe the word for it is…uh…Power-something…?” Anton stopped, clearly struggling with the word.

  “Powers- Powerscaling?” I asked, nights of arguing on forums about the very same topic suddenly taking centre stage in my brain.

  “Yes, that is the word, ‘Powerscaling’! You are familiar, then?”

  I blushed, suddenly feeling embarrassed. “I- I mean I g-guess…Darwin’s a bit of a lost cause because he c-can’t really be hurt much anymore.”

  “That’s what I was sayin’!” Siobhan shouted, turning and gesturing between me and Anton. “The bastard’s taken so much shit over the years and adapted so much that I don’t think ya can do anything to him!”

  “I am just saying,” Anton interjected, “You are thinking too simply! They should just launch him into space!”

  Siobhan and I just looked at him, incredulous.

  “B-But then he’d be immune to the vacuum of space…” I said. This was an argument I’d had online before; Darwin was one of the most infamous supervillains there was, with the ability to heal from seemingly any injury and adapt so that it would do less harm the next time.

  So naturally, people online - myself included, embarrassingly - debated endlessly about who or what could take him out.

  “Come on now,” Anton said, rolling his eyes with a smirk. “There must be something he cannot adapt to.”

  “If there is, nobody’s found it yet.” Siobhan said.

  “What about…the Marianas Trench?” Anton asked.

  “He grew gills in his first year.” Siobhan responded, not even looking at him.

  “But the pressure?”

  “U-Unless you teleported him down there and even then-.”

  “Removing his heart?”

  “Redundant organs kick in.”

  “His brain?”

  “Same pro- problem.”

  “Dropping him into the sun?”

  “There’s the vacuum of space issue again, but also he could just adapt to that.”

  “...Nuclear bomb?” Anton asked, sounding increasingly like he was desperately fishing for something.

  “W-Well it’s been considered, and people think it could work.”

  “Why not that then?”

  “B-because what if it doesn’t work, if he survives?”

  Anton just looked at me blankly.

  “There’s barely any nukes left.” Siobhan said, sounding exasperated.

  “T-That, and if he survived a nuclear explosion, you’d have a Darwin who’s immune to getting nuked, as well as everything else he’s already immune to.”

  There was a pause, as that realisation hit Anton. He let out a bit of an exasperated groan.

  This was the issue with talking about Darwin: most of the arguments ended the same way, with someone going ‘he’d probably just adapt to it’ and bringing the conversation to a screeching halt.

  “...you think about this a lot?” Elena said, turning to look at me and giving me a playful nudge. She’d been watching this conversation like a game of tennis, her head swinging back and forth between us.

  I felt my face burning red as I sank into my chair. “O-Only sometimes…”

  Red Rabbit was drumming her hands on the podium, her fingers making a rhythmic clanking. She turned to look at Siobhan and Anton, the display screen on her helmet displaying a blinking question-mark.

  “Where’d the others go?” She asked.

  “They were here,” Anton said, “But they went to get drinks about ten minutes ago; Jessica said things were taking too long.”

  “She’s just twitchy.” Siobhan muttered. “She’s been off since she got here today, dunno why.”

  “S-Sorry, who are-” I asked.

  “Jessica and Maddie, the two third-years. Special even by Special Case standards, especially Jessica.” Siobhan interrupted, her voice oozing with sarcastic venom.

  “Siobhan she is- what is the word- biased against Jessica!” Anton said, nudging Siobhan.

  “Maybe I wouldn’t be ‘biased’ if she wasn’t such a cocky bi-”

  The door to the room opened with a clack, cutting Siobhan off.

  “Sorry, sorry~” A girl’s voice chirped from the doorway. “Jessie was being indecisive, again, even though she always gets the same thing every time.”

  This girl - Maddie, I guessed - was dressed in her own costume too. Hers was pitch-black with purple accents on the outside of the legs and arms, with an insignia of a pair of purple cat’s eyes and a wide purple toothy smile emblazoned just above her left breast. She was also wearing a pair of black metal cat ears nestled into her wild, shoulder-length black hair.

  Three people - four counting Red Rabbit - in costume, and I was starting to feel increasingly out of place.

  Maddie turned to look into the room proper, looking at Red Rabbit. “Sorry Red, blame Jess.” Her eyes then scanned the room, waving at Anton and Siobhan - he waved back enthusiastically, she gave a half-hearted wave back - before her eyes crossed over to Elena and I.

  “Oh so you two must be the two new first-” She stopped, her eyes locked onto me. Her head tilted, quizzical.

  I shifted in my seat, skin suddenly crawling. “H-Hi?” I said, voice tiny, increasingly worried why this girl was staring at me.

  “Have we met before…?” She asked.

  “N-No I don’t think so?”

  There was a pause. Then her eyes widened, and her mouth stretched into a mischievous, toothy grin, like someone who had learned something she wasn’t supposed to.

  “Oh.” She said, sounding equal parts excited and worried, her voice shifting to a slight giggle as she spoke. “Oh no!”

  “W-What, what?” I asked, increasingly nervous, feeling like ice had shot through my ribs. Siobhan and Anton were looking between me and her, Elena was looking at Maddie, trying to figure her out.

  Another figure stepped in behind her, taller than Maddie. She too was in costume.

  A black and golden dress with a star across the chest.

  A golden translucent visor covering her eyes.

  Long, annoyingly perfect blonde hair.

  “Shit.” I heard Elena hiss from next to me as Glory stepped into the room.

  “Mads, don’t pin this shit on me just because-” She stopped, looking at Maddie. “What are you staring at-”

  Her head turned to where Maddie was looking. Directly at me.

  I felt my heart skip a beat in my chest. My throat went dry.

  The room went silent, like someone had sucked the sound right out of it. I saw Glory’s face shift. She looked surprised, then angry.

  I felt my heart racing in my chest. Siobhan and Anton were looking between Glory and I, confused.

  Suddenly there was a loud crunch and an explosion of fizz as the can she was holding crumpled in her suddenly-clenched hand like it was made of paper.

  “You?” She said, sounding like she was about to explode.

  Her brow furrowed, her jaw tightened, as she took a step closer to me.

  “What the hell are you doing here?!”