“While the flow of time itself remained stagnant, countless cycles of creation and destruction elapsed on the planet-mother's surface. Each just a blink of an eye in the planet's perception, but for her unfortunate progeny, centuries and often times even millennia elapsed. Empires rose and fell within these cycles, alternate and ultimately false histories playing out before they each reached their inevitable fates. To be discarded; their very existences erased and their achievements turned to dust in order to make way for their more favoured successors. Such were the cruel hands dealt to each of these proto-men.”

In the aftermath of the battle between Roun and Xavier, the students of Titan Academy slowly began to trickle in. Soon, what had been a deserted facility for the past three months, turned into a bustling hive of activity. Long-time friends and new comers alike converged on this central hub of learning, designed specifically for the physical, academic and channeling elite of the small island province of Merricent.

New students made their way to the various matriculation activities and returning ones met up with old friends, venturing back to their usual hangout spots to form the cliques that were a staple of the school.

It would take Roun some time to be capable of doing such, but in the end he and Tyler were no different, making their way over to the small courtyard just outside the lecture theatre that held most of their old classes. This was the same room they’d occupied when the cataclysm struct some three months prior and while it was decimated in the event, like the rest of the historic sector, the two arrived to find it completely and quite accurately restored. In fact, this entire area was completely unchanged visually. Despite the renovations, the building retained its thick walls, built from the highly sought-after coral-stone that was quarried in the south of the island. These stone walls were a part of the ancient architecture, built some five hundred years prior as homage to building designs another three centuries older than that.

As a result, in these more modern times, the building stuck out quite a bit – and it was meant to. Standing some fifteen metres tall and with just a single storey, the entire construct was grandiose by design and the courtyard in front of it was no different. Massive pillars upheld sweeping arches that overhung the veranda, while elaborate stone tiles adorned the ground in front of it in patterns that harkened back to the ancient hieroglyphs of the natives of the island.

Beneath these sweeping arches sat the two remaining members of Roun’s and Tyler’s core group, a tall but stocky young man sitting in a baggy hoody at the side of the veranda and a petite young woman standing to the side of him.

“Well you look pretty terrible.” The large man spoke as Roun and Tyler approached, his eyes now fixed on Roun, who was still visibly shaken from the altercation with Xavier. “Your energy signature’s also sporadic as hell. I’m guessing this isn’t still an effect of that ZPD?” He questioned.

“No, this is definitely new.” Roun started, only to be cut off by the woman standing next to him.

“He’s just been fighting with Xavier again, apparently.” The petite young woman replied, drawing a sharp side-glance from Roun as he closed the distance between them.

“Reading my mind, Elf, really?” He questioned with audible displeasure.

“Wait, isn’t that pretty much impossible with you—” Tyler interjected, turning her attention to Roun. “—your mother’s a heroic-tier telepath. Your mind is a vault.”

“Normally it is—” Elf affirmed “—today however he’s practically broadcasting his thoughts; I’d have to try not to hear what he’s thinking.”

The large young man just laughed at the revelation. “Stryke did always have a knack for getting in your head.”

“Under my skin is more like it.” Roun scoffed loudly.

“So, what was the fight about this time?” He inquired with a sigh, his voice laced with disappointment.

“Nothing, Jinn, as usual.” Tyler interjected once more. “Those two don’t need a reason to fight, they just have to look at each other long enough and before you know it, someone’s throwing a punch.” She sighed.

“Yeah I remember that all too well – it’s one of the many reasons I got off the military placements track of our program.” He explained, circling his ear with his index finger. “It’s a breeding ground for crazy people.”

And Jinn was right.

While combat scenarios such as the one between Roun and Xavier were relatively common place between applicants competing for military placements, they were neither encouraged by the academy nor did they contribute to any aspect of the school curriculum. In fact, they ran counter to the code of conduct of the institution. Despite this however, students were seldom penalised for these scuffles, and in fact they were often indirectly rewarded. This was because these confrontations provided useful data for military scouts – and many of these scouts made up the majority of the academy’s board of directors.

The resulting disparity created an interesting social dissonance. Scholarships were often awarded on sheer combat proficiency rather than academic grades; granting impressive combatants access to prestigious academies, run by the same military factions that they were each trying to get into. This usually led to pre-placements, where students were fast-tracked for acceptance to specific factions even before completing the academy’s program. As a result, combat-oriented channelers at the academy were acculturated by older students into engaging in these kinds of brawls from their very first year, creating an almost toxic culture of hyper-aggression that led to these kinds of confrontations. Roun’s generation was no different – this was merely the most recent in a long line of bouts between these two particular channelers and it had come to an all too familiar outcome.

“Every other day it was like ‘say that shit to my face’ or ‘1v1 me bro’…” Jinn’s mocking tone caused Elf and Tyler to burst out laughing. “Couldn’t even imagine doing that for four years, furthermore the rest of my life.” He stated before turning his gaze back to Roun and Tyler.

“Well, despite the meat heads that apply for these placements, military factions still do more to shape the course of history than most governments do.” Roun explained. “They’re run by literally the most powerful people on the planet. So, at the end of the day, if you wanna make a difference they’re where you need to be.”

“Well, good thing I don’t give a shit about any of that.” Jinn shrugged. “I’m sure that’s why Stryke’s doing it though.” He added sarcastically, drawing light laughter from Roun.

“Everyone knows Xavier’s just in it to stroke his own ego. The only thing that boy’s ever cared about was rubbing his superiority in everyone else’s face.” Roun conceded. “But I’d like to think that he’s the exception and not the rule.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Jinn scoffed. “Falco, Dark, Maverick, Fury – I’m sure I’d run out of fingers before I ran out of ego maniacs in our first year of placements.”

Roun chuckled lightly in response.

“Okay first off, Jayce isn’t an ego maniac so much as just a plain maniac – that boy is legitimately certifiable. And as for the others, they’ve all dropped out.”

“Dropped out.” Jinn reiterated with air-quotes. “Maverick ‘found god’ or whatever, and like me, Brad and Davius just realised that they could probably make money if they switched tracks from special placements. Eitherway, that still leaves Jayce and Stryke among your group of potential world changers.”

“That’s true, but those two are balanced out by me and Tyler.” He countered with a smug smirk.

“I’ll give you Tyler.” Jinn smirked in return, drawing a scowl in turn from Roun. “What? You’re one of the crazies, bruh.”

“Kanrei is also pretty much the nicest guy on the planet and Brian is super chill.” Roun continued, ignoring Jinn’s jabs. “Nikolai risked his life with me to save strangers and I’d bet most of the others would’ve done the same. Honestly, barring Xavier and Jayce, the remaining students are generally pretty decent people.”

“Pretty decent, hyper aggressive, anti-social, xenophobic people.” Jinn jabbed once more. “The entire lot of you could just as soon be axe-murderers.”

“You’re ridiculous.” Tyler chimed in. “Elf, back us up here.”

“Don’t drag me into this.” She shook her head. “I barely even qualify as braver so I was never even going to be in in your ‘elite program’. I don’t know half of these people, so I can only vouch for you two.”

“And me, of course.” Jinn added, but Elf just caught him with a side-glance.

“It’s probably best that you dropped out honestly.” She giggled. “I don’t think you’re cut out for that life.”

Jinn growled lightly at the statement.

“You honestly seem a lot happier playing Blitzkreig than you do fighting—” She explained “—and you should do what makes you happy.”

“I’m pretty sure he was plenty happy fighting before he realised that his signing bonus as a pro-ball player was like ten times what he’d make as a soldier.” Roun weighed in on the real reason behind Jinn’s departure from the special placements program.

“That wasn’t the only reason – but a man’s gotta have his priorities.” Jinn smirked deviously. “Not having to take orders from crusty old men who think I’m expendable, is just a bonus really.”

Elf in particular giggled at the irony statement.

“To each their own, I guess.” Tyler shrugged. “When you’re rich and famous, you can get us free tickets to games. Me and Roun will make sure terrorists don’t blow the stadium up, and Elf can make sure that none of us go crazy while we’re trying to become rich and famous, gain incredible power and/or save the world.” She laughed.

Elf just nodded along.

“Speaking of which, if I actually want to be able to practice psychology, I should probably get to class.” She added, looking down at her watch.

“Is it that time already?” Jinn now questioned, as he whipped out his phone and let out a long sigh. “I should also get going. I’ve got a physical training session in ten minutes.”

“Oh yeah, I’m supposed to be hitting the gym with you this semester, yeah?” Roun inquired, drawing a quick nod from the large aspiring athlete.

“That’s the plan.” He affirmed. “You teach me some of that kung fu stuff and I put some muscles and on that scrawny frame of yours.”

Roun just smirked.

“I guess we’ll hammer out the details later on this evening.” He suggested.

“Yeah, I shoud be done training by six.” Jinn speculated, before turning his attention to Elf. “What time do your classes end?”

“Around seven, I think.” She replied, still trying to get familiar with her new timetable.

“That works out.” Roun chimed in. “Tyler and I should also be getting away from training around that time.”

“Yeah, we can probably meet up at the Watering Hole around 7:30 and pick this back up.” Tyler suggested, drawing nods from all present.

“Alright, well I’ll see you folks later tehn.” Jinn finished before turning and making his way off to the gymnasium.

This prompted the others to do the same. Elf headed off in the same direction as Jinn, both having their first sessions in the historical sector of the campus. Roun and Tyler on the other hand, made their way off in the opposite direction towards their own class.