Project <Genome> [IC/Not Accepting/PG-16]

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

 

The Island - Undisclosed South Pacific

 Sunday, September 10th, 2028

0843 HAST

 

An older man, apparently somewhere in his 60s, stood upon the front balcony of what could only be described as a small castle, leaning over his walking cane. His attire was not unlike that of a military officer some century or so in the past, a dull, almost muddy green. The primary detractor from this appearance was the shawl he wore, fastened to the front of his jacket almost like a cape. As if in rebellion against his otherwise rugged outfit, the loosely-fitting cloth was ornately patterned, a brilliant blue that made every other feature fade into shades of gray. Stitched into the tightly-woven silk, an expanse of golden threaded tendrils twisted and twirled across the length of the fabric, forming a filigree mesh so complex it is difficult for one's eye to focus upon. Reaching into his pocket, the man retrieved a watch, glancing downward as it flipped open. The watch was plated with gold, and had a fine winding design upon it to match the shawl, etched in a bluish copper patina. "Any moment now..."

 

Directing his gaze back up toward the sky, he could see the plane making its final descent, lining up with the personal runway he paid to have constructed on the island he acquired with an unspeakable amount of money. The purpose the island served was far more important than any worldly possession, so he did not hesitate a moment before moving forward with the purchase. Closing the watch, he stowed it back in its assigned pocket, a hint of a grin teasing the corners of his lips. He was going to save the world. Turning on his heel, he retreated into the building, making sure everything was in place to welcome his guests.

 

 

Sam was tired, and bored. The flight had departed from Hawaii at around 5 am, and it wasn't his first flight in 24 hours. Since the super fancy island they were headed toward was sovereign, regular airlines did not fly there. Instead, all of the students were flown to Hawaii (with the sole exception of some kid who looked like she glued a tree branch to her head, who made quite a big deal about being from there) and caught a connecting flight on the rich guy's personal passenger jet. Who the hell has a personal passenger jet anyway? Not to mention said flight departed at 5 am. Sleep was basically the only piece of human behavior Samuel retained, so he wasn't exactly pleased to be deprived of it in such a way. He would have been able to sleep during the flight, but he was one of the unlucky passengers to have someone sitting beside him. With 290 seats and 200 students, the odds weren't exactly low, but it still sucked. Not to mention the jabroni took the window seat before he even got on board. From what he could tell, she was a few inches shorter than him, and damn was she pale. White skin, white hair, Sam would have probably be amused by the whole black and white dichotomy if he gave a sheet. All he gave a sheet about was that she was sitting right there, looking out the window he was hoping to have a view through, still as a statue. At one point his arm brushed against hers and she felt cold as ice. Freak.

 

"Students, we are now making our final descent. Please fasten your seat belts and turn off any electronic devices you may be using."

 

Samuel hated that voice. Sweet as honey soaked in saccharine, like someone made it in a lab. Too cheerful for his own comfort. On the bright side, the pilot's announcement at least assured him that he wouldn't have to sit next to this ice cube much longer. Shrugging, he put his phone in the pocket of his hoodie, not bothering to turn it off all the way. The risk was nonexistent, anyway. The landing was rough, as could be expected from an impromptu airbase. Standing up from his seat, he glanced back at the girl who stole the window seat "Try not to melt in the sunlight, ice cube." 

 

It seemed the pilot played double duty as a stewardess, as the same dreadfully happy voice directed him out of the plane, down a set of stair in lieu of a terminal. "Don't worry about your possessions, they have already been shipped and placed in your respective rooms! Make your way right down here to meet the headmaster!" The bizarre pilot/stewardess hybrid monster had a perfectly-drawn smile, evidently having rehearsed this greeting a few thousand times. "Make your way right up there to the dormitory, Mr. Henry is waiting for you all in the concert hall!"

[Super Chaos Sonic]

-Sweet Emotion-

 

-BGM-

 

"Students, we are now making our final descent. Please fasten your seat belts and turn off any electronic devices you may be using."

 

He could feel the jet making its descent, his stomach lurching slightly, forcing him to open his eyes. Lloyd did his best to rest the entire trip to Hawaii, if only to keep the use of his power to a minimum, if one could even call what he had a power. Here he was, on a jet filled with many different individuals with extraordinary mutations and powers, only to have him literally be the one black sheep of the students.

 

Hell, he couldn't technically be considered a black sheep...there was already one guy who was literally a walking x-ray, so if anything he'd be the technical black sheep.

 

Lloyd sighed, finally standing up from his seat, noticing X-Ray Man moving from his seat and talking to the one female in his row.

 

"Try not to melt in the sunlight, ice cube."

 

Well, guess we found the ass of the group. Lloyd thought, noticing a faint pink aura around the man. Looks like he was pretty annoyed with that girl. Lloyd blinked a bit, shaking his head before rubbing his eyes. Great. Already using this stupid power again...

 

Moving out from his seat, Lloyd reached in the overhead compartment and grabbed his bag, which he slung over his shoulder. Before he walked off the jet, however, he noticed the person sitting behind him. It was a young girl with some obvious aviary features. Now this was something cool! It almost reminded him of Angel from the X-Men comics he read. Just...the minor differences being her wings were on her hips...not on her back. Nevertheless, Lloyd knew he probably should wake the bird girl up.

 

"Oi...oi!" Lloyd said, gently shaking the bird girl's shoulder with his right hand, a little disgusted to see the six fingers on his hand. At this point, his eyes began to shift colors slightly to a purple. "Nap time's over with. Jet landed already, we're being kicked off."

[Ren✧]

Laurent's fingers were white as a he clutched the armrests of the chair. Every muscle in his body was tense and sweat rolled down his forehead. Laurent's lips moved silently, his eyes closed in what may have appeared to be prayer. In truth, he was singing the alphabet over and over again in his mind, but this may as well have been his plea for divine intervention. As a general rule Laurent tried to stay out of motorized physicals as much as he could and when it couldn't be avoided, he never, never, used public transportation. It was too dangerous. One misplaced thought, a single ill-intention, if he just lost control for a second, people could get hurt. So, the fact that he had to ride in a plane, not once, but twice today had him extremely stressed out. 

 

The letters dancing through his mind helped occupy his thoughts, made it easier to ignore the gentle hum of the plane and all of its electronic systems. Before boarding he had heard the plane, talked with it a bit. It reminded him a bit of the typical jabroni he knew all too well from high school. The well-intentioned kind, but an jabroni born of ignorance and arrogance, nonetheless. On the edges of his mind he could still feel it transmitting him data about wind speed, altitude, and arrival time. He could almost swear that it seemed proud to be ahead of schedule in its flight plan, boastful even.

 

"AAAGGGH!" Laurent grunted in frustration as he felt his thoughts begin to stray. For a moment the image of a burning bus flashed through his mind. People screaming, the smell of burning rubber. "No...F...G...H...I...J..." He shook his head violently to try and clear his mind of the memory, gripping the armrest even tighter. 

 

"Students, we are now making our final descent. Please fasten your seat belts and turn off any electronic devices you may be using."

 

Laurent felt a couple voices blink out as the others on the plane turned off their devices. Before long, they were on the ground, causing a sigh of relief to escape Laurent's mouth. He relaxed his death-grip on the poorly cushioned chair. The girl beside him gave him a strange look, or at least Laurent thought she did. Her irises were slits, like a snake's, so it was hard to tell just exactly what her expression meant. Laurent didn't care what she thought though. They had landed without incident. 

 

Disembarking the plane Laurent quickly looked at his phone. He saw that he had three unread messages and his heart was set aflutter. Maybe Erin had finally messaged him back. His hopes were dashed though as he opened the phone to see that all three messages were from his mother. 

 

"Siri...text Mom back. Tell her I finally landed." 

"Do it yourself, you lazy ass."

 

Laurent rolled his eyes incredulously. If people only knew how rude their phones actually were. 

[Astolfo]

Luana yawned. Even for someone like her who was a fairly light sleeper, waking up while the moon was still up so she’d have time to wash herself and get dressed wasn’t something she particularly enjoyed. Especially when the water at that time was freezing cold. It was what it was though. The trip to the far more populated side of Hawaii where she would be picked up was a fairly long one as well, and she had to account for that into her waking time. Grumbling a bit, she immediately jumped off the boat the second she arrived, tired of staying in the same boat for so long.

 

Upon entering a world of electronics, bustling crowds, and overwhelming noise, she stumbled back involuntarily. The guide that was with her took her hand so she wouldn’t get separated as they tried to ease their way through the crowds. Completely entranced as she took in all the sights of things she had never seen before in her life, she was silent as the morning dew. By the time they arrived at the airport terminal, Luana’s eyes were as wide as saucers. She was told that the others would be arriving as well shortly, before they transferred over to another flight.

 

When two hundred something people of all colors and figures filtered in though, she was again lost in shock. She had been expecting only a handful at most. I didn’t think there were so many like me... Clapping her hands to her face to snap herself back to reality, she wandered over to them, wondering if any would be approachable enough to start a conversation with. There was a tall, green haired boy with a bandanna and weird metal things around his neck, but upon walking near, his expression looked scary, causing Luana to shy away. As it turned out, most of the others looked strange or creepy enough that Luana lost the desire to talk to them. Her mother’s words of telling her to not judge based off just appearance drifted back into her mind, but even so, she couldn’t help but shake the feelings of apprehension and wariness. After a few attempts, Luana eventually just returned to her own seat and buried her head in her lap as she waited. It wasn’t working out.

 

When the time came to transfer over to the plane that would take the group to the private island though, Luana caught her first glimpse of what a plane was. The pure surprise at seeing a gargantuan metal beast-like creature that was hundreds, if not thousands of times bigger than she was, took away all her exhaustion.

 

“Nui!”

 

Her jaw dropped open at the incredible size and deafening roars as the weird “plane” thing landed. She was told that a ‘plane’ would pick her up, but until today, she didn’t realize those tiny specks in the sky were this big. As the large group slowly went into the plane, Luana looked around for a seat next to someone that wasn’t so scary or weird looking.

 

Starting to look more and more like a lost lamb, Luana walked around aimlessly until she finally found someone that looked enough like a regular human, and a girl at that. The girl was wearing a cute blue rainjacket and rainboots with white polka-dot designs. It was a little weird because it wasn’t forecasted to rain at all that day, nor did it rain earlier that day, but Luana shrugged it off. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Luana walked over timidly, calling out with a quiet voice.

 

“Hi… Can I sit next to you?”

[Yui]

---

"Don't forget to call me." The voice was deep and gruff. The voice of a big man, but at the same time, it was soft. If Elly could compare the voice to an inanimate object, it would probably be the voice of a sledgehammer. It was the voice of her father, seeing her off at the airport. Elly wasn't usually one to get by on little sleep, but the idea that once her plane trip was over, she'd be in a safe place away from the sneers and unwarranted hate of others, with people like her, learning how to control her powers so that she could show to society that not all Genomes were bad...it was pretty exciting, to say the least. She probably couldn't have slept even if she wanted to. The time had finally arrived though. Elly was there, in the airport, ready to go, donning the new raincoat & boots she got for the trip. After all, with her power, her stay on an island surrounded by ocean would be uncomfortable if she didn't have them.
 
"I won't," Elly smiled back, giving the rather round fellow before her one last hug goodbye before it was time to take off.
 
"Say your prayers."
 
"I will."
 
"Attagirl. Have fun out there, and God be with you."
 
"And with your spirit." A quick kiss on the cheek, and Elly was off! Off to a whole new world for her; one where she could finally fit in! And she'd finally be able to learn how to properly control her power and be rid of the constant humidity and nigh-constant (up to now) raincloud. Plus, no doubt there would be cute girls there who would-Nonono, bad Elly! One thing at a time. The cute girls would have to wait. Elly grabbed her luggage and got onto the plane. She opted for a seat closer to the back of the plane, away from anyone that had already shown up and where most people who got on later wouldn't think to go all the way back to. The first few flights and stops were pretty normal things. However, Elly could have lived without the cloud that slowly formed over her head.
 
It even rained on her for a bit not long before arriving in Hawaii. Sitting in a wet airplane seat was not comfortable, and Elly accordingly changed seats once her own personal drizzle came to a close. Only for it to briefly rain on her again while waiting in the airport for the connection flight. It's just getting started too...oh boy. Once the plane had arrived, Elly didn't waste much time once again opting for a seat near the back, away from anyone who could be inconvenienced by an in-flight drizzle should her cloud act up again. When, suddenly, somebody spoke up to her. Quietly, but audibly.
 
"Hi… Can I sit next to you?"
 
Elly looked at the girl who'd asked and-Woah, she's cute. On the one hand, Elly didn't want to inconvenience a cute girl with some potential in-flight rainfall. On the other, it was the first time since becoming a Genome a stranger had asked to sit next to her, let alone a cute one. Elly had a plan, which wasn't a plan so much as some common sense. Nodding softly, Elly replied to the girl with what little confidence she could muster. "U-Uh, sure, if uh...if you don't mind. Just a sec." Elly reached into the backpack sitting at her feet, pulling an umbrella from the side of it and holding it out to the girl with one hand. Pointing above her head, to the cloud just above her, Elly said "Just in case, hang onto that while you're with me, okay?"

Luana nodded, taking the gift and looking it over. It was long and slick to the touch, with a curved handle. The other end tapered down in a cone to a point., but tilted her head slightly, motioning at the umbrella. “What is this…?”

Elly, meanwhile was thrown back a good bit by her sudden guest’s lack of knowledge on a simple item like an umbrella. After a bit of hesitation and trying to figure out how to even respond to such a question, Elly answered with a stuttered "It’s...an umbrella. You use it to keep the rain off you; just put your hand at the base of the handle then, uh, push up on it to open the umbrella. I hear it’s bad luck to do that inside though, s-so try not to do that unless you have to."

“Um...brell-a. Umbrella.” Enunciating the words slowly, she looked to Elly for approval. Disregarding, or rather immediately forgetting the last part of what Elly said however, Luana immediately tried to open up the umbrella inside. When it expanded directly into her face however, she let out a shriek of surprise, unsure of how to close it again, and unable to see well in the small space of the airplane seat, her vision obscured by the umbrella. “Ueehh… Help me please!”

"This piece here," Elly said, stifling a giggle at the events unfolding before her and resting a hand on the knob-like piece of the umbrella’s handle. "Just pull it back down and..." To demonstrate, Elly pulled the piece back down, closing the umbrella. To think people who don’t know what an umbrella is still exist.

The younger girl let out a sigh of relief as the umbrella folded back into its smaller and narrower shape. She grimaced at it, as if the umbrella was somehow to blame instead of her own reckless curiosity. Luana bowed her head towards Elly. “Thank you for the help! S-Sorry… I get really clumsy sometimes… it was my first time seeing an umborelluh.”

“It’s fine.” It was then that Elly realized. Although the time the two had spent talking was short, they didn’t know each others’ names. Probably a good thing to know if they were to be setting next to one another for this entire flight. “I’m Elly by the way. Elly Hale. And yourself?”

“Oh, my name’s Luana. It means happiness in my language. N-Nice to meet you, Elly.” Luana looked up towards Elly shyly, unable to stop herself from a small but warm smile on her face. She did it! She made a friend, right? Without realizing she wasn’t in her hometown any longer, Luana did the traditional Hawaiian greeting of placing her forehead against Elly’s, although she had to stand on her tippytoes to be able to reach.

“N...Nice to meet you,” Elly smiled in response, having to stop in her tracks when Luana's forehead was pressed up against her own. Oh my goodness, what am I supposed to do here!? U-Uh, um...keep calm. Calm, calm...calm...phew. Despite the relatively hectic start to things, the rest of the flight to Genome High for the two actually passed pretty quietly. It didn't rain on the two during their flight, and even as they landed, although the cloud had grown a bit thicker, it didn't start letting loose any water...yet.

 

"Students, we are now making our final descent. Please fasten your seat belts and turn off any electronic devices you may be using."

 

As if that were its cue, the cloud above Elly let off a small drizzle. Not much, but enough to prompt the umbrella now in Luana's hands to be opened, despite the superstitions around doing so. Combined with the hood of Elly's coat being pulled up over her head, it was nothing more than a miniscule inconvenience, and the two girls were guided off the plane by that same super-sweet voice.

 

"Don't worry about your possessions, they have already been shipped and placed in your respective rooms! Make your way right down here to meet the headmaster! Make your way right up there to the dormitory, Mr. Henry is waiting for you all in the concert hall!"

 

"Are you nervous?" Elly asked. It was more to herself than anyone else, and honestly she was nervous. A total wreck, even if it didn't necessarily show. At least back home her powers weren't...well, so obvious. She'd have to ask the headmaster about her idea with the tent she'd brought with her. Elly made a mental note to bring that exact concern up whenever she got a chance to meet the guy.

---

Canada wasn't so bad. Naomi could live without the cold, since it made flight a bit more of a hassle, but what's a girl to do? Although they clearly didn't trust her for a second, being a Genome and all, the folks at the airport weren't too bad either. One even gave her some book about something Naomi couldn't read. It was in French. Go figure. Not really wanting to be rude and throwing it away, Naomi kept the book in her luggage despite having no real use for it. The sights of Hawaii were pretty good to look at from above, though Naomi had kind of wanted to fly over it in person instead of in a big flying metal box. Once she got a seat on the connection flight to Genome High, however, Naomi buckled up, got comfy in her seat, and let herself sleep. She hadn't slept in a couple of days, for a myriad of reasons. Her dream wasn't bad either, in fact.

"Highlord Blake, the dark lord has invaded our lands again! What shall we do!?"
 
"Leave this one to me." Naomi grinned, oozing confidence from every pore, socket, and feather on her person. Clad in the most pristine of golden armor, and brandishing an immaculately-crafted greatsword of the finest and most thoroughly blessed silver in the land, there were few demons, undead, or worse that could stand before the might and fury  of such an epic paladin. Just as she was about to embark on her journey, however, it became clear she would not have to seek out the evil. The evil had come to her instead! The door on the opposite end of the room was kicked in, and in its place stood a monstrous figure, donning armor that seemed to suck in all the light around it and left only darkness.
 
"The mighty Highlord Blake. It has been many years."
 
"Silence, monster! I've never seen you or any of your foul ilk that have lived to tell the tale!"
 
"Do you not recognize me? How...disappointing." The massive clawed gauntlets of the dark lord's hands reached up and removed the helmet from their head, revealing...
 
"Y-You! But...that's impossible! You..."

"Nap time's over with. Jet landed already, we're being kicked off."
 
"How could you sell your soul to the darkness?" Naomi weakly muttered as she slowly returned from the dream world to reality. As her hand swung up to catch the one on her shoulder, Naomi felt...this didn't feel like a hand. There was an extra piece. Opening her eyes and looking at whose hand was on her, Naomi actually flinched a bit at the sight of the sixth finger. Then she soon remembered, Wait, I have wings and ugly bird feet. This dude's got it easy. Naomi racked her mind for references or jokes that could be made about his hand. How better to break the ice than with those, right? And of her options, only one stood out above the rest.
 
"You have six fingers on your right hand," Naomi grinned, as if she'd just told the cheesiest pun in the world and was savoring the collective groans and jeers of everyone suffering before her comedic genius. "Someone was looking for you."

---

[Super Chaos Sonic]

-Sweet Emotion-

 

"You have six fingers on your right hand. Someone was looking for you."

 

Lloyd just blinked a bit, staring at the bird girl, trying to take in what she just said to him. Did...did she just make a reference? And not just any reference...did she make THAT reference? To be honest, he was surprised it was that line and not the immediate line he knew in which he could appropriately respond to.

 

Silence kept between the two individuals for a bit, before Lloyd sighed with a small smirk. At this moment, his eyes changed colors from purple to a shade of light orange, showing interest in this individual.

 

"Heh...well I'll say that's the first time I've heard that particular line." Lloyd said, moving his hand from the bird girl's shoulder. "And here I thought you would've made the other Princess Bride reference...'I don't mean to pry, but you don't by any chance to have six fingers on your right hand?'...to which I would be able to respond with...'Do you always begin conversations this way?'." He shrugged before chuckling lightly. "Still...gives me a break from the status quo on hearing the same six fingered man line."

 

Lloyd finally turned around and shoved his hands into his pockets, beginning to walk off the jet. "Anyway. Unless you want another fly back, ya might want to hurry and get off the jet."

[a bad post]

"Try not to melt in the sunlight, ice cube." Sabrina was snapped out of her daydreaming at the rude awakening of the boy who had been sitting next to her.

 

"Casse-toi, sil-vous plait..."  Sabrina replied barely giving the boy a side eye. Not really caring how fast she got off the plane, and not wanting to deal with the hassle of trying to force her way past other passengers Sabrina elected to continue staring out the window. Once the plane appeared to have cleared out sufficiently Sabrina finally stood retrieving her bag from the overhead compartment. Sabrina walked briskly to exit the plane barely even acknowledging the few other passengers than remained.

 

"Don't worry about your possessions, they have already been shipped and placed in your respective rooms! Make your way right down here to meet the headmaster! Make your way right up there to the dormitory, Mr. Henry is waiting for you all in the concert hall!"

 

"Merci..." Sabrina smiled out of politeness before departing the plane. Moving to the side to make sure she would be out of the way of anybody exiting the plane Sabrina fished around in her bag until she finally found her book. With the practice of someone who had done this many times before Sabrina dodged around her soon to be classmates all the while reading her book. Following the crowd of people, Sabrina eventually made her way into the concert hall taking an aisle seat near the back.

 

[Astolfo]

The plane attendant soon gave the alert that they were nearing the destination. When the cloud above Elly’s head did indeed rain, Luana looked on in surprise before remembering to open the umbrella. Brushing off droplets of water that had clung to the ends of hair and clothes as she exited the plane together with Elly, the same plane attendant stated that their belongings would all be shipped.

 

Not that I have any belongings really anywa-.

 

"Are you nervous?"

 

Luana grinned, her familiar glow returning quickly. “ʻAʻole, I-I mean, no.” She looked ahead at the vast facility in front of her eyes. Everything she had thought was big before was continually getting smaller and smaller as she saw more and more. “I’m a little excited actually… it’s my first time meeting so many people like me. Some of them seemed a little scary though, so I’m glad I found you.” Luana gestured in front of her vaguely, pointing towards the dormitories. “I hope we’ll be in the same room!”

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

0859 HAST

 

As quickly as the to-be students were rushed off of the passenger plane, they were corralled and led by the pilot-turned-flight attendant-turned-welcome committee-turned-tour guide along the stretch of tarmac up toward the mansion that sat before them. Though its architecture was archaic, it was apparent that every stone of its construction was as new as could be, appearing as if it had been polished and touched up only minutes before. The environment seemed to repel dust as if by its own nature. As she crossed the threshold of the building, the guide disappeared from sight. Of course, as each student stepped inside, they would see her once again, somehow in a new outfit. "Right this way, please, we mustn't keep the headmaster waiting! He has prepared a wonderful speech for you all!" Hurriedly ushering the teens through the first door on the left past the entrance, she nodded briskly at each one, as if counting them in her head as a precaution against stragglers.

 

The concert hall was massive. It had apparently been dug somewhat into the ground, as the tiered seating went a few dozen yards above the stage at its highest point. The room was well-lit, showing far more seats than were needed for such a group. Hopefulness for future years, perhaps. The stage was empty, with the exception of its sole occupant - an aged man, shrouded in a brilliant blue drape - Leopold Henry. His eyes were calculating, surveying each student as they entered the hall, standing quietly as they each reached the seat of their choice. Once the entire class had settled, he cleared his throat, demonstrating his voice having been amplified by some not immediately apparent means. The acoustics of the room allowed speakers to be hidden very cleverly. Should some child somehow be capable of reading his emotion, it would be clear he exuded anticipation.

 

"Students. My name is Leopold Henry. I am the founder of this school, and will be serving as your headmaster hereafter." For a moment, he paused, glancing down at the floor before taking a breath and looking back up at the 200 mutated teenagers. "The world is experiencing an unprecedented crisis. The very definition of humanity is called into question." The lights covering seating slowly dimmed, as a spotlight covered the speaker. "I expect at least some of you would have learned about genetic diseases in your previous schooling. Just a single error in a single strand of DNA can lead to catastrophic failure of the human body. Disaster. Humanity has developed precautions, though. DNA is tested at birth, allowing us to find these... imperfections... and treat them as best we can." As he spoke, his gaze drifted beyond his audience, as if he was engaging in a soliloquy rather than a high-school orientation. "Many have likened you all to a disease, I'm sure you are more than aware. Just a few out-of-place anomalies, somehow able to bring humanity to its knees, despite individual insignificance. You were introduced to the organism of humanity, and now it is running a fever in an attempt to expel you. Did you know that, when you are sick, the symptoms - what causes you pain and suffering - is not the virus? It is in fact your body's attempt to fight it. The pain is in the conflict, not the intruder. This is why many medicines, rather than attacking the virus, control the body's immune response. They lower fevers, reduce inflammation, clear congestion. They stop the pain. There are many efforts to make peace, to create acceptance between human and genome. This is the medicine." He paused for a moment, as if there was more he had to say, before his attention snapped back to the crowd, his posture stiffening. "Final preparations are still underway on your boarding. While the rest of that is sorted out, you may leave your carry-on baggage in the foyer and visit with each other. Maria will inform you when your accommodations are complete." At mention of Maria, the headmaster vaguely indicated toward the edge of the stage where the incredibly widely talented assistant miraculously managed to be standing, this time in a traditional maid's outfit. 

 

"Welcome to Genome High. Make yourself at home."

[Super Chaos Sonic]

"Right this way, please, we mustn't keep the headmaster waiting! He has prepared a wonderful speech for you all!"

 

Lloyd let out a small sigh, seeing the same girl who flew the plane and was the flight attendant. He really wondered if this place had the funds for a full roster of staff or if she was the lucky individual to end up playing multiple roles like a child playing dress up.

 

Does she even have her piloting license? ....probably should've thought of that before ever thinking of getting on the plane. Lloyd thought, logging a mental note away, just in case. Nevertheless, he was ushered into the concert hall by her along with countless students.

 

Too many students...and way too many emotions he could see. It was literally a sea of rainbow to Lloyd, who instantly closed his eyes after he sat down. Shaking his head a few times, he opened them back up to see everything was now back to normal. Looking down at his bag, he rummaged through it to find his water bottle and a small bottle of aspirin. After popping the bottle, he downed two aspirin and chugged some of the water behind it.

 

Ugh...it hasn't even been one week and I've already got a splitting headache...fan-freaking-tastic... he sighed, putting the aspirin and his water bottle back in his bag.

 

"Students. My name is Leopold Henry. I am the founder of this school, and will be serving as your headmaster hereafter."

 

Lloyd's attention was now caught by Leopold Henry, the big help to Genomes himself. He began a long drawn out monologue which made Lloyd assume he had most of the villain monologues in the countless comics he read beat. Honestly, if Lloyd wanted to hear something about 'make peace between humans and genomes, this is the medicine, yada yada yada'...he would've pulled one of his X-Men comics from his bag and read it.

 

At least they come with some amazing artworks in order to keep the boring speeches somewhat exciting... Lloyd thought, before hearing him finally end his long monologue. Thank God...

 

"Final preparations are still underway on your boarding. While the rest of that is sorted out, you may leave your carry-on baggage in the foyer and visit with each other. Maria will inform you when your accommodations are complete."

 

Seeing the SAME woman as the last few times now being pointed at by Leopold, now called Maria, Lloyd wasn't surprised in the least. It only further solidified his thought that she might've been the only staff member here at this school for gifted kids.

 

As the assembly was finally over, Lloyd stood up and slung his backpack over his shoulder. Rubbing his eyes a bit, he stretched some in order to try and wake up a little bit. The jet lag must've been hitting him now or something.

[Yui]

---

"Anyway. Unless you want another fly back, ya might want to hurry and get off the jet."

 

"Right this way, please, we mustn't keep the headmaster waiting! He has prepared a wonderful speech for you all!"

 

"Then let's get going," Naomi nodded, getting up to her feet and following the other students off the plane. The first thing Naomi could say about the school she'd walked into was it was big. Really big. Like "Most buildings I've been in before could fit inside this one room" big. Even the speech the headmaster had presented them with was overwhelmingly huge.

 

"Welcome to Genome High. Make yourself at home."

 

So that lady's name is Maria, huh? was Naomi's immediate thought. However, the chance to visit each other - not to mention an opportunity to finally stretch her wings - sounded good to her. Once again rising to her feet, the first thing Naomi did was unfurl her wings and stretch them out to their full span, then stretched them very much the same way as one would stretch their arms. With freshly-stretched wings, Naomi propelled herself upward with wing and leg alike, taking to the air above her and glancing around at the students. Lots of different kids were gathered here, but where was...There he is! The six-fingered boy was Naomi's target, and she flew the short distance between her and him before landing just in front of him, wings at full span and a big grin on her face like it was something to be proud of.

 

"So I thought about it a bit, and just having six fingers isn't really an impressive mutation. Can you do some cool trick like shooting laser beams from your eyes or making somebody your slave just by thinking at them? What's the deal...er..." Crap, what's this guy's name? I don't think he ever said it! "Come to think of it, what's your name anyway? I'm Naomi, and unless you want me to just call you Rugen all the time..."

---

“ʻAʻole, I-I mean, no. I’m a little excited actually… it’s my first time meeting so many people like me. Some of them seemed a little scary though, so I’m glad I found you. I hope we’ll be in the same room!”

 

"Are you sure? It could be...well, problematic." To make her point more specific, Elly pointed just above her head. "Nobody wants to wake up to a sopping wet bed and water all over their floor, you know?" To that end, Elly had an idea. One she'd have to bring up with the school staff, and it was honestly pretty unorthodox, but it was an idea. Not that she didn't want to share a room with this little ball of huggable cute or anything. Elly just didn't want to inconvenience anyone with her uncontrolled power. And if she shared an actual bedroom with someone, it would be an inconvenience. As she and the other students were ushered off the plane, Elly noticed something. They weren't going directly from the plane to the school; there was a stretch of outside air first.

 

Island air. Surrounded by the ocean. Well, here goes nothing. Elly pulled up her hood as she stepped outside, just in time to keep her head from being pelted with what quickly became heavy rainfall from the cloud above her head. Why did it have to be a remote island? Why not someplace drier like the middle of a desert? Elly understood the reasons and all, but it sure did make things complicated that didn't have to be complicated. While her own personal raincloud stepped down in intensity as she stepped indoors, by no means did it stop entirely. Elly opted for a seat away from the other students but still in the front row, not wanting to be a hassle, then listened to the speech presented by the headmaster.

 

"Welcome to Genome High. Make yourself at home."

 

He seemed like a good person. "Excuse me Mr. Henry sir." Elly said once the speech was over, getting up to her feet and raising her hand. "If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to ask for an exception to normal dorm arrangements due to my mutation. I packed a tent and everything if that's okay. I don't want to get the floors and everything all sopping wet while I sleep is all. Is that alright?"

---

[Super Chaos Sonic]

-Sweet Emotion-

 

Lloyd was planning to move a bit from his position, probably find a nice quiet place to at least relax. However, he turned to his right, just in time to see the bird girl he talked to on the plan flying towards him.

 

"So I thought about it a bit, and just having six fingers isn't really an impressive mutation. Can you do some cool trick like shooting laser beams from your eyes or making somebody your slave just by thinking at them? What's the deal...er...Come to think of it, what's your name anyway? I'm Naomi, and unless you want me to just call you Rugen all the time..."

 

Staring at the girl a bit, Lloyd just blinked some before sighing heavily. Oh boy...she wanted to know about HIS power. He rolled his eyes a bit, before staring at the bird girl...or Naomi, as she introduced herself. "It's Lloyd...Lloyd Jones." he said, before rubbing the back of his head. "And yeah, your right about the six fingers being a non-impressive mutation. Honestly, I think out of most of the Genomes out there, I got screwed hard." At this point of talking about his mutation, Naomi would soon notice Lloyd's eye color changing to a purple color.

 

"As for my Genome ability that I got..." Lloyd said, seeing the obvious aura that surrounded Naomi. It was colored in a shade of yellow. It was exactly full blown yellow, which he knew indicated ecstasy, but rather joy. "I can tell your pretty full of joy at the moment."  He watched Naomi get puzzled at this, to which Lloyd rubbed his eyes with a sigh. "I'll try and explain it. Ya see...I have clairempathy, I can pretty much see people's emotions. To me, they sorta wear it around themselves as a specific colored aura. And with the colors, I can determine them by that wheel of emotions. Annnnd apparently I show off my own emotions by use of my own eyes. They change colors...whoopdeedoo..."

 

He groaned a bit as he rubbed his eyes a bit more. "The purple in my eyes, literally means I'm disgusted. I get that way every time I talk about this Genome mutation I got. It literally sucks. Especially with the huge drawback to this thing. I get huge massive headaches and seeing the multiple emotional auras around, it strains my brain." Lloyd looked back at Naomi and sort of threw his hands up in the air in a shrug. "Yeah, go ahead and tell me how I got shafted hard on this stupid thing."

[Astolfo]

At Elly’s concern about her rain ability, Luana shrugged. “I don’t mind. I’m used to rain and water back where I live anyways. It’ll be my first time living inside a building like this.” As the plane touched down though, Luana’s attention was immediately taken by the grandiose architectural work of art in front of her. Never having seen anything like it before, she walked around in a simple daze as she tried to ingrain every detail into her mind. Dazedly following along the guide, they entered a beautiful concert hall.

 

The air of royalty and formality were almost palpable as the great man himself who brought all the Genomes together stood on the stage. Nodding along excitedly as she listened to his speech even if she didn’t understand a lot of the words, it took her several moments before she realized it had ended. This was to be her new home? THIS ginormously gigantic-o-big super awesome place? Despite traces of worry she would be homesick from earlier, the excitement swept away any left-over feelings of doubt.

 

She had so many questions she wanted to ask the man, but as she got up, he turned away and left, presumably to take on some other amazing work. Pausing as she debated what to do next, Luana decided she could try asking the maids later for a chance to talk with him. It seemed as if Elly was occupied, so Luana decided to try and take the chance to open up to some of her fellow classmates-to-be.

 

Wandering around, she ended up bumping directly into a boy in front of her, and fell flat on her rear. As she blinked and looked up to apologize, she saw nothing. Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate. The boy was definitely there, but she could see nothing of him besides his clothes and hair. The rest was entirely pitch-black, darker than the darkest night skies and the deepest caverns. Unsure of what sort of expression he had, Luana hurriedly bowed her head repeatedly.

 

“Sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going and um, I’m Luana and nicetomeetyouandIwanttomakefriendsandhowareyoudoing?”