Chapter Text
All is quiet, all is dark. A young man stands obscured within shadows. Until FLASH a bright light pierces the darkness the young man stands wearing a black coat and black pants. He’s in a decently sized room with two beds. In one of the beds a young man stirs and mumbles under his breath, “Turn off the light Mike.” Mike responds “Do you know what today is?” The young man is already back to sleep. Mike approaches his roommate’s bed and raises his hand. A Smack breaks the silence; this young man now has a bright red mark on his face. He looks back at the one he just slapped ; it was his roommate and best friend Raymond Light. “Hurry up Ray you’re gonna be late” Mike says as he leaves in a huff. The young man’s name is Micheal Voss. He grabs his phone and sees the time and date January 12nd 101 AC 5:45 AM. He walks out the building and sees two others. Aminata (Ami) Nathan,Micheal’s cousin and Seneca (Sen) Anderson, Ami’s best friend and roommate. He waves to them but before he has chance to say anything they hear Ray yell out “Oh Sh**!” soon followed by the sound of something falling on the floor. Mike looks up at his window and then looks at the two in front of him. “So the usual.” Sen says while pointing her thumb at the window. “I hope he doesn’t hurt himself today’s very important it would be awful if he were to get injured.” Ami says. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Mike says. As he says that Ray comes bursting out of the dorms. “Oh you're finally awake, sleeping beauty.” Micheal remarks. “F**k off.” Ray says as he raises his middle finger. Ray greets the two with a Hi. Sen nods. “Hey are you okay?” Ami asks. “Yeah why?” Ray questions. “Your shirt’s on backwards.” Sen chuckles. As Ray fixes his shirt he starts to walk down the path, Ami and Sen start walking alongside him. Mike stays behind for a moment and takes in his surroundings he looks back towards the dormitory, the place he called home for four years. This navy blue building is where he and many others stayed during their journey to become members of the Spirit Control Unit. He looks down towards pathways leading to dusty dirt fields, the Snowball their training complex. Then he looks towards his friends, their breath visible despite the darkness. Ami and Sen are wearing the winter uniform, a long sleeved dress shirt and black pants just like him. Ami is wearing a blue one while Sen wears a gray one. He looks at Ray, he’s wearing a plain gray short sleeved dress shirt, the spring uniform. Ray never had trouble with the cold unlike him. Mike looks at his heavy coat. It keeps him warm but it’s a bit hard to move. Finally he looks straight ahead towards this brick and mortar school building surrounded by black metal fence. Despite the building’s obvious weathering it’s still standing strong. He looks at the golden plate affixed to the left side of the gates that says: “Making Heroes since Year 2 A.C.” By the time he realizes where he is he’s already there at the gates that he’s opened so many times to reach his classes. Without realizing it he had started walking towards his destination. These gates are where he made those first steps all those years ago. He looks at his friend’s faces and they all have the same expression as him. A mix of joy,sadness, and fear for reaching the end of their journey, for leaving the place they called home for four years and for the unknown because once they take those last steps there is no turning back. The four of them all start walking ahead, Mike thinks back to where he was in his past and where he is now and he can’t believe how far he’s come. He truly can’t believe it, so he freezes and looks down at his left hand bandaged tightly as always. Ami notices and starts to walk towards him. His face drops and he clenches his fist tightly. Sen soon also notices and turns towards him. As soon as Ray reaches for the school door handle he asks “Are you sure?” Ray turns towards him, Ami is the first to speak up. “What do you mean?” she says with a concerned look in her eyes. Micheal elaborates “Are you sure we can do this?” Sen responds “The tests are just everything we’ve done before we got nothing to worry about.” Micheal yells “I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE TESTS!” Micheal lowers his voice but the power behind his words remains the same. People’s lives are going to be in our hands. If we fail we might die and not only that others might die, our friends and family might die! “ Mike with a defeated look in his eyes asks again “Are you sure we can do this because I don’t think that I can, especially with this” Mike pulls up his left sleeve revealing bandages going past his elbow. Ray walks up to Mike, fist clenched he winds his arm back and delivers a punch to the right side of his face. “SHUT UP!” Ray yells as Mike falls to the ground. “The f**k was that for!” Mike yells back. “Payback for this morning. Number one and Number two. If you were thinking this way you should’ve left a long time ago.” Ami places her hand on Mike’s shoulder. She looks him dead in the eyes and tells him “Mike you can do this, you've been working the hardest out of all of us. You tried your best at everything and when you couldn’t do something the right way, you did it your way.” Mike retorts “But what if…” Sen swiftly cuts him off “Don’t worry about it.” Ami helps him back on his feet and Mike looks at Sen. “Mike you’re strong, we all know this.” Ray and Ami nod in agreement. “Do you remember why we’re here?” Mike once again looks at his bandaged hand and the look of defeat leaves Mike’s face. “To protect those who can’t protect themselves.” Mike responds. He walks towards the door and opens it alongside his friends beside him, they enter the school without an ounce of doubt in their minds. Mike turns to his friends and puts his fist out and says “Thanks for that.” They bump fist with each other and Ray says “Don’t worry about it.”