“How should I call you now?” asked Lure, raising her voice while she and Sinistra were moving to their very first class at 10 am in the morning. Noisy teenagers were jabbering nonstop and eating their smelly salami breakfast.

Yesterday, the headmaster had promised to train them secretly, for he needed his ‘evil minions’ – how he called the girls, affectively, while laughing as if it was some funny joke. With good reason, he had asked Sinistra to change her name since it sounded too villainous.

“When I stood up, it naturally came to me: Sin.”

Lure replied, raising her eyebrows, “Is that how you imagine heroes to be? Sinful?”

Sinistra shrugged. “In my defence, it could be Spanish, meaning ‘without’. It is a nice abbreviation of my real alias and I could pretend to be a paragon of justice, smiting every sinner.” She posed as a majestic paladin, feigning a gravitas, that she could not possibly possess, as she was far too skinny and a head smaller than Lure.

“I am not sure if the last part makes sense. “She made a pause while tipping her forehead. “Wait, I got it.” She moved her fist in her palm. “What about Sinn, meaning ‘sense’ in German?”

“That’s great. I have always thought that our obligatory German language classes were pointless. Sinn, Sinn, huh.”

They finally arrived in front of the training hall, ten minutes late, because they underestimated the distance between different sectors. The dorms were located in the southern part, which was geographically in the west, which further confused them. In the geographically south was the training hall located, which was obviously the western part of the school; it was as easy as that.

Without knocking they entered the hall, optimistic and enthusiastic.

“You’re late. Entering without knocking is rude.”

“I apologize,” said both girls in unison.

“Fine, since this is your class now, you should introduce yourself,” said the teacher, a busty woman in her forties.

Lure walked in front of the twenty curious pairs of eyes and started speaking, “Lure, D-ranked, sixteen. From 3N, Glory district.”

Voices started whispering since she had just made a preposterous statement. During the Awakening, everyone on earth over a certain age had a chance to immediately become an Empowered, few even achieving A-rank on the spot. Nearly everyone growing up later started, however, as an F-rank. It was thus highly unlikely for a sixteen-year-old teenager to be this high-ranked.

Perplexed, the teacher demanded, “Explain yourself, your file says E-ranked.”

Unsure if her answer would appease her audience, Lure was searching for an excuse, choose then to tell the truth, though, since she was posing as a heroine after all, “My father is an A-ranked Seeker, I started off as an E-rank, ten days ago. I nearly died, while watching a fight between two B-ranks, thus got an epiphany.”

Silence. Then, explosions. Somebody dropped bombs, the cacophony did not stop.

“Lure, I love you.” A freckled boy shouted. “I love you too”, another one exclaimed.

“Lure, Lure, Lure”, clamoured the whole class; the praises did not stop. “You are so beautiful.”

A speechless Lure did not know how to reply, she looked at Sinistra, who could only helplessly shrug.

“I should apply for an increase in my salary,” remarked the defeated teacher. “I’m Icecrown by the way, your new teacher for battle practice. You can sit.”

Lure followed the request and sat on the ground near a window, a little away from her newfound fans. Reflecting on her mistake, she realized, she should have lied. She had admitted that her father was an A-ranked Seeker. Since a Seeker is someone who did not Renounce, Strider, her father, could become an S-ranked at any moment. While this was remarkable, it meant that her father – if he achieves S-rank via contemplation – could become the first SS-ranked hero, a mere possibility, but a possibility nonetheless.

She admitted it, though, she really appreciated being popular. Relinquishing this attention would not please her vain teenage heart. A queen, no the queen of the school. She smiled.

“Now, please it’s your turn.” Icecrown pointed at Sinistra, who started introducing herself in the standard way for empowered beings.

“Sinn, E-ranked, seventeen. From 3N, Khalut district."

This time, they were mumbling. It wasn’t more spectacular than Lure’s claim, but Sinistra still claimed to hail from a villain district, which was a rarity for a hero these days. It was obvious that she probably used to be a villainess.

The poor teacher, scratching her head, sighed, “Well, ok, now we test your combat abilities and then we close this lesson. I got a headache. Sinn and Ura.”

A girl, quite the oddity with waist-length pink coloured hair, stood up.

“Introduce yourself,” the teacher demanded.

“Ura, E-ranked, sixteen. From 3N, Glory.”

Lure’s eyes lit up. Another girl from the capital and the same district as her, in which only wealthy people and heroes lived. It was the safest place in the US, people claimed.

Challenged, with a nod Sinistra greeted her opponent, who reciprocated the gesture.

“Duel. Rule: standard. Oh, and your school uniform is enchanted vs physical and magical damage, and most importantly is self-cleaning. So, go full out,” the teacher said.

Pointless. Anyone, even a non-Empowered, knew the duel rules, no need to precise it. Lure gave her friend a thumb-up, though. You can do it. Internally she felt unsure, fearful – for Sinistra’s opponent. Her friend’s abilities weren’t particularly damaging, but effective, devious, for she was fighting dirty like a villainess.

In a duel, every adversary always spoke first the name of his gifts out loud, before using them. That was basic chivalric courtesy, albeit not for villains. Nevertheless, Sinistra upheld the custom.

“I start, Mindspeak,” Sinistra announced, grinning evilly.

Lure burst out laughing, while the rest of the class baffled at her display. Disconcerted, however, was truly only one person. “Stop, I concede. I can no longer,” a panting Ura begged.

Flabbergast, the teacher asked Ura, “Did she use more than one gift?”

Ura chuckled, “No, Madam.”

The mystery intensified. The rest of the class couldn’t solve the conundrum, both Lure and Sinistra thought, “Heroes.”

Heroes have on average stronger Powers, but villains always find better applications, a universal truth. In fact, Sinistra had indeed only used her ability Mindspeak.

During the duel, Sinistra had kept a mind link with Lure too.

The mischief was real: “I love you too, can we have sex? Alea iacta est. HAHAHAHAAAHAHAH. RATATATATATATATATATATAT.”

Sinistra first confused her target, then amplified her voice to the level of a jackhammer. In her mind Ura’s inexistent earlobes busted. Classical psycho terror. Nobody had ever claimed that her ability was to be classified as belonging to the telepathy category, even though this was the first and standard application.

After Ura had set again, the helpless teacher asked Sinistra, “Dearest Sinn, might you please be willing to demonstrate your other abilities too if this does not exhaust you too much?” There was no way that Lure would be asked too, no this would be too much.

“Nope. I can.” She stretched her hand. Shadowdance. Nothing happened. “Well, there aren’t any shadows in here.” Now the class started chuckling as this was simply too hilarious of a coincidence. Regulate. “Oh, and this is a passive one.” There was a hole in the duel etiquette. A proper hero would have announced the passive too, yet theoretically, it wasn’t required, as not many people had a passive gift and would choose to lose honour.

Not many were surprised by her villainous behaviour since she would become a proper hero in time, or so they thought naively.

“The fifth?”

“No, the sixth, I believe.” Lure took the bouquet and graciously rejected another boy. “This has become a plague. I didn’t think that popularity would be this strenuous.”

Sinistra replied, “I only got three.” She theatrically covered her eyes, as if she was crying.

Their display had made gigantic waves the next day. Especially, since someone possessed both Mindlink and Vision too, a perfect television. Their success was now their biggest enemy.

The cantina was the most advanced they had ever seen, with even robots, who brought what they had commanded. Lure didn’t like noisy rooms, but it was sadly the only place for eating lunch in a radius of 80 km.

“We are lucky, though we have missed out only two days of the new school year, which started the first September.” It was Wednesday, 6.7.2034.

“That would be the case if we really cared about becoming superheroes, right?” replied Sinistra.

Lure nodded.

Ura, the girl that had sparred with Sinistra yesterday, moved to their table.

“May, I sit?”

“Of, course,” replied Lure.

“I only wanted to convey my feelings about yesterday. I am not angry at all and am happy that you actually imparted me with a valuable lesson. It seems that my mind is simply not fortified enough.” She was looking Sinistra in her eyes, who was nodding.

Not all responses to yesterday’s events had been favourable. Quite a lot of staunched conservative heroes found Sinistra’s behaviour unacceptable, especially since they had learnt that she was supposedly on her path of redemption. A minority, but a loud one nevertheless. Sinistra was grateful for Ura speaking up to her as this would bring her less trouble, which everyone in her position would like to avoid.

Ura left amicably and both villainesses were interested in making further friends.

Next came another suitor, or so Lure thought, not letting them finish eating.

A young man with brown hair, probably around 1.90, introduced himself, “I am Bastion. Can I please sit near you lovely ladies? I have a proposition – no an official announcement.”

Both Lure and Sinistra didn’t know what to think of him, the latter replied, “You may, but behave yourself.”

Confused, he tilted his head, as if he was thinking, “For whom do you take me?”

He sat and started mumbling something: “Hmmmmm…”

“What?”

He gasped for air. “Ok give me a moment, it’s difficult to say it.”

The girls already knew what kind of message he was trying to convey...

Puffing his chest, he finally took his courage in both hands, “Your father has approved of our engagement.”

Lure.exe stopped working.

Silence.

Bastion scratched his head. “Look, my father is an S-ranked hero. You know that children from two empowered parents are more likely to become empowered too?"

Silence.

“I know, this sounds weird, but we can at least just pretend to be together; you would have no more suitors this way.”

Sinistra clasped her hands ostentatiously. “So, when are you two gonna get married? Do you think it will be a boy or a girl?”

Lure grunted back, “Please Sinn, this is serious business.” His and Lure’s eyes crossed for a moment. “Did my father really acknowledge this…” Her skin started itching.

“It was an idea from our headmaster. It is a means to protect you. Two superhero families that are allied via bonds are a far mightier entity.” He added, “I am embarrassed too, you know, we can always annulate the engagement later on.”

The heart of the visibly agitated villainess calmed down, her previously nervously running eyes found tranquillity too. “I see, it’s just business. You got no feelings for me, right?”

“I…I didn’t claim that. You are lovely you know. You’re a, no…, the most beautiful, cute girl in this school and I do really admire your strength. I am D-ranked too, though one year older than you.”

This was simply too much for the shy Lure who started blushing. Sinistra chuckled when she saw her behaviour; normally her friend would have angrily riposted, being tame was a rare sight when confronting a suitor.

Lure inspected her fiancé: He was wearing a white shirt and blue pants like every other boy in the school. His facial traits were somewhat prominent, decent looking, although she preferred softer ones. In his eyes, she saw no dimness, but eagerness, a common trait in heroes.

“I accept, though, please do tell the headmaster that I have an ax to grind with him if you happen to meet him.”