Rachel and Lauren had always said they were going to see Pacific City together.

  That was the end goal of their scheming and scrounging around Callis. To make enough money that they could escape Callis and make the escape stick. They would learn how to surf, and eat baskets of fried food, and probably work at restaurants that didn’t ask too many questions. And at the end of the day, they’d climb onto the warm roof of their home together and watch the lights of the city glow.

  That was the plan before the sisters were both taken. Maybe not a great plan. But it was something to look forward to. Lauren never imagined she would be seeing Pacific City for the first time like this.

  The BASTION helicraft banked over a steep incline, and the city came into view below. It was immediately clear that Pacific City was not a flat place. Multiple high, broad hills dominated the landscape, with buildings and neighborhoods following their curve. Mist clung to the lower reaches of the city, hiding them from view. It was so green, too. It was hard to picture a city this big would have so many trees. The suburban neighborhoods they flew over on the outskirts of the city clearly took their gardens and parks seriously. Near the water, a cluster of skyscrapers rose from the surrounding buildings to form what must have been the downtown district. On the far side of the city, to the north, was a massive bay with multiple islands.

  Lauren was securely strapped into a seat in the body of the helicraft, but she strained to take in all the sights. Two years of isolation in a sterile lab had left her senses starved. She felt the fresh wind on her face as it passed through one door of the craft and out the other. She breathed it in deeply. For the first time in a long time, she felt alive.

  Agent Hogan sat across from her. He wore a bulky headset over his ears, with a microphone that reached around to his lips. Lauren wore an identical set. His voice came through the headphones.

  “We should make it just in time for the first day.”

  Lauren gave a thumbs up.

  It had been a few days since Hogan and BASTION had picked her up in the desert. From the lab, they traveled northwest in a caravan to a BASTION base in California. There the staff spent a day scanning Lauren and asking her more questions, nominally to determine that she was healthy. They also made no secret of wanting DNA samples for testing. After she was cleared and released back to Agent Hogan, together they boarded a hybrid helicopter/plane vehicle the likes of which Lauren had never seen before. Shielded rotors on each side of the wide craft folded down and carried them up into the air to take them to this supposed “school for heroes.”

  “What are you thinking?” Agent Hogan asked her.

  Lauren mulled it over. What was she thinking? A lot of things. She picked a thought to share.

  “My sister and I always wanted to come here,” she said carefully.

  Hogan nodded. “We’ll find her.”

  That was his response whenever Lauren mentioned her sister. He couldn’t imagine how important she was to Lauren. For so much of their lives, they only had each other. They had shared this horrible experience of being experimented on. Rachel was taken for whatever reason, and she might know more about what they had done to Lauren. Finding Rachel was the only thing she cared about. She never told Agent Hogan that if his special school were located anywhere else other than where she expected her sister to be, Lauren would have run away. That was another secret she was keeping to herself: deep in her gut, or maybe her brain, she could sense Rachel. The sense got stronger as they traveled toward the city. It was more than the bond of twins. It had to be some effect gained in the lab. Lauren was almost certain her sister was somewhere in Pacific City. Why the elusive scientists would have taken her there, she had no idea. For all the time she had spent with them, she truly knew nothing about her captors. Nothing except the name and face of Dr. Smythe. And Isaac, the goateed one. He was their jailer when the doctor wasn’t around. One mean son of a bitch. Lauren was ready for a rematch with him.

  The helicraft traveled around the outskirts of the city, before turning inland towards one of the outer forested hills.

  “Are we close?” Lauren asked.

  “Yeah,” Hogan said. “The Rosewell Academy is just outside the city, in the woods for a bit of privacy.”

  Lauren nodded.

  “Lauren?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I would like to ask you a favor,” Agent Hogan said. “I’m going to do everything in my power to locate the people that took your sister. While I’m doing that, I’d like you to keep an eye on the school for BASTION. We’re the ones funding and running this place.”

  “You want me to spy on the school?” Lauren asked.

  “I’m not asking for daily reports on everyone you meet,” Hogan said. “I just want to know that if anything happens that we don’t know about, anything that seems life-threatening or a potential danger, you’d tell us. This is our first year running this program. We’re worried that putting so many powered youths together might make for volatile situations.”

  “Why me?” Lauren asked.

  “Everyone else that’s gonna be there, they come from somewhere. They have their own agendas, their own people to please.”

  “And I’m a blank slate,” Lauren finished for him.

  “Basically. Can I count on you to help with this?”

  Lauren thought about it. She thought of something that seemed stupid to say out loud, but she wanted to ask it anyway.

  “How can you trust me with all of this?” she asked. “You don’t know me. I could be brainwashed for all you know. You could be putting a fox right in the henhouse. And you want to trust me over anyone else?”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Again, she didn’t explain where these feelings were coming from. The violent instincts that had overridden her were still somewhere inside. And before that, what had she been? Just a street kid doing odd jobs and illegal shit for money. She didn’t belong at some school for superheroes.

  Agent Hogan only tapped a finger on his knee.

  “I might know more about you already than you’d imagine,” he said. “Intelligence gathering is most of my job. And, well, in my line of work you have to learn to trust some unlikely people. You have to see potential. If you don’t, you end up alone. That’s a bad position to be in.”

  No shit. Lauren was feeling more alone than she ever had, even when her parents died. Something about Hogan’s bluntness resonated with her, though. It made her want to be trustworthy.

  “Alright then. I won’t let the school blow up under your nose.”

  “That’s all I ask.”

  They rode on in silence as the helicraft began to descend. They passed over acres of towering trees. Up ahead, a wide cliff with a structure built atop it came into view. The main structure was a large, new-looking building, several stories high, with fresh wood paneling and large glass windows that overlooked the forest and the city. A circular part of the building protruded from the corner and hung over the cliff. Dotted around the cliff were several smaller, but equally-new rectangular buildings that must have been dorms and other facilities. A high fence surrounded the edge of the property, cutting off the forest.

  “The fence kind of makes it look like a prison,” Lauren noted.

  “It’s to keep things out much more than it is to keep you in,” Agent Hogan said. “A lot of different actors are gonna have reasons to access a school for superheroes. And you’ll have plenty of agency to come and go from campus grounds. It’s just to keep you safe.”

  “If you say so.”

  The helicraft began to descend in a slow, circular arc over a black tarmac runway that took up much of the campus grounds to the east of the school. A jet was already parked at the end of it.

  “Are you really sure you want me to do this?” Lauran asked Agent Hogan one last time. “I don’t know anything about being a superhero.”

  “I may not work in education, but I’m pretty sure you don’t build schools for people who already know things,” Hogan replied.

  “You know what I mean.”

  Hogan looked out over the school as they descended.

  “I know this seems to be happening really quickly. I truly don’t have a better place for you at the moment. If you hate it here, we can talk later. It’s serendipity we found you right as we’re opening. Just try it. I think it’ll surprise you.”

  “Alright. I’ll try.”

  The helicraft touched down, its rotors rising upwards to tuck in. Agent Hogan unbuckled himself and came over to help Lauren.

  “Now listen,” he said, “I’m not gonna be around much after today. Every faculty member at the school works for BASTION, more or less, but your main contact to us directly is going to be BASTION’s liaison to the school, Agent Trish Dodds. She knows about the emergency-reporting deal we have. If you can’t trust anyone else, trust her. Got it?”

  Lauren nodded as she freed herself from the buckles.

  “Got it.”

  “Good. Let’s head in.”

  Agent Hogan guided Lauren out of the aircraft. Together they walked towards the school.

  As they headed towards the building, they passed a parking lot positioned between the main school and the dorms. Cars were coming in from the fence’s main gate, and those already parked had people unloading items and carrying them to the dorms. It looked like a mix of parents and school staff assisting them.

  “People bringing things from home?” Lauren guessed.

  “Just clothes and optional things. All the dorms are furnished.”

  Lauren felt a strange pang in her gut. She didn’t even have clothes to bring here. She never owned that many outfits to begin with. Lauren never felt bad about not having much, but her only friend growing up was her sister in the same situation. On top of everything else, this school was probably going to teach her to be ashamed of growing up as a street kid. At least she had this new outfit she was wearing, which BASTION provided. A hoodie, t-shirt, jeans, and a nice pair of boots.

  “Don’t worry about clothes, Lauren. They’ll be waiting for you in your dorm. We also set up a bank account with some spending money, and a new phone is charging by your bed.”

  “Thanks,” she said quietly. Apparently all it took to get a nice life in the city was losing her sister and being imprisoned for two years.

  The pair walked to a set of doors which others were trickling into, attached to a warehouse-sized unbroken rectangle portion of the school. From what little Lauren knew about schools, she guessed it was a gym.

  A kind-looking man, large and bald, was greeting people at the door as they came through. He had a clipboard in his hands and a lanyard around his neck. He smiled as Lauren approached.

  “Name?” he asked in a deep voice.

  “Lauren,” she said without making eye contact.

  “Lauren…?”

  Agent Hogan put a hand on her shoulder. “She’s a recent find, probably not on the sheet. I know where to put her.”

  The large man nodded. “Sounds good, agent.”

  Hogan led her in. It was indeed a gym on the inside. People Lauren’s age sat on the bleachers, but not as many as she was expecting. Maybe forty on each side. Adults milled about on the edges around the bleachers. Probably a combination of faculty and parents.

  “You’re sitting on the left, Lauren. The process should be pretty guided from here. If something comes up today, ask for me. Tomorrow you’re in Agent Dodds’ custody. Other than that, good luck.”

  Agent Hogan walked around Lauren and left her side without further ceremony. In just a few steps, he blended in with a group of similarly-suited agents off in the corner.

  Lauren suddenly felt very exposed. Was this how all kids felt when they were dropped off at school for the first time? It was surprisingly terrifying. She didn’t know Agent Hogan that well, but at least he had been a constant in her life the past few days. Now she was in the system. Rachel had always taught Lauren the system was bad. The system would separate them if it ever caught them. And wherever she was, she was proven right.

  Lauren took a deep breath. The bleachers to the left. She was just a few steps away from it. And now she was one of the last students to take a seat. She had to find a spot before it got weird. Was it already weird? Jesus, when did she start caring if things were weird!

  She huffed and marched to the bleachers. No one seemed to pay her much mind as she stepped up and looked for a place to sit. There were plenty of seat options, given there were only forty or so students, but they were naturally clustered toward the center. She hovered at the edge, ready to just plop down by the stairs.

  “Hey!”

  Lauren glanced up. Near the top of the bleachers, a guy and a girl were sitting together. The girl was waving at Lauren.

  “You want to come join us?”

  Lauren stepped up to them, grateful for the in.

  Both of the teens were attractive people, but they looked friendly. The guy had short, dark hair, a light complexion with a couple freckles on his face, and a nice, if shy, expression. The oddest thing about him was that one of his eyes was a dark hazel, and the other was a bright whitish-blue. The girl was very athletic looking. She had tan skin and long, brown hair with a reddish tinge. Lauren sat down next to her.

  “Hi! I’m Thalia,” the girl said. “Thalia Wild. This is my friend Adam Atlas.”

  The guy next to her leaned around and waved hi.

  “I’m… Lauren?” Lauren said. She moved close to Thalia. “Were we uh, supposed to pick out a codename before coming here?”

  Thalia laughed. Lauren noticed some long incisors in her mouth.

  “No, those are just our eccentric family names. I think everyone else has more normal names.”

  “Oh. Okay. So, you guys already know each other?”

  Thalia put an arm around Adam and squeezed him.

  “Adam and I are old buddies. We don’t know anyone else here though. At least, I don’t think so. So, where are you from?”

  “Uhmm…”

  Lauren didn’t exactly know how to answer that. She wavered for a moment, before the gym lights dimmed and everyone focused on the front.