Seeing the confused look appear on the faces of his friends, Victor tried explaining what he had seen.
"A multicolored hand on a metal plane. It looks almost the same as it does in real life." Darius commented.
Victor then had a thought. 'Darius must have been the one who lifted me out of the training area and that was why I saw his ability.'
It was at that moment Rosa walked forward and stretched out her hand with a curious look on her face. "Well, can you tell me what my ability looks like?" Given that her ability was mostly invisible, she was the most curious about how he would see her ability in that strange space.
'If my ability activated via touch...'
Victor reached out to hold her hand, ready to activate his ability and test.
"Do you really want to do this again?" Darius asked.
"It's fine as long as you wake me up in a bit. Just please don't use your metal hands this time." Victor teased before activating the first component of his ability.
Once again, Victor returned to the area with the black hole surrounded by debris. Once again the metal shards were vibrating, and strange symbols were glowing. Intuitively, Victor knew that this must be the manifestation of the first ability's component.
This time he noticed another space at the edge of his vision different from the metallic plain. This time, as his awareness extended into the other space, he could feel gusts of wind blowing by despite the fact he didn't have a physical body. This place featured a white background and was quite barren, besides the object at the center of it.
There, floating in the middle of space, was a pinwheel. Strangely enough, each of the blades of the pinwheel featured sharp sword-like blades curved to conform to the shape of a typical pinwheel. Currently the pinwheel was not spinning despite the vicious winds.
'This must be her ability. In comparison...' Victor looked back into the darkness. 'My ability then looks quite strange.'
Victor floated back to his ability space and reviewed it once more. 'Seeing as how her abilities manifest in real life, it was a breeze to guess what everything was supposed to represent. The blades of the pinwheel probably had to do with the second component of her ability, and if I had to guess, the first component is connected to the body of the pinwheel. Looking at mine though, I have no idea what this is supposed to represent.'
Unfortunately, just before Victor could begin another round of brainstorming, he was abruptly brought back to reality, this time with both of his cheeks hurting.
"There. That should make you even now." Elaine spoke with a satisfied expression.
Victor found himself opening the treatment kit once again and navigating the contents with familiarity. He quickly found a small bottle and sprayed his cheeks, which were now swelling like a pig.
Victor then provided Rosa a brief description of what he saw in her ability space.
"Pinwheel with swords as the blades? How strange." Rosa said thoughtfully.
"Do me next!" Elaine volunteered, reaching out her hands in a way that gave Victor the impression that she was attempting to get her palms read.
Victor scoffed. "You know I would love to, but my face has taken enough beatings for one day. Plus..." Victor quickly glanced at the time. "...We should probably head to class now, or we're almost about to be late."
Elaine pouted in disappointment, but everyone understood the importance of this first class, so they quickly left the training room and agreed to meet again after.
Victor smoothly entered a light jog. He intended to arrive a bit early so that he could ask the teacher some questions. Victor soon arrived at the building for his classes with a few minutes to spare. However, upon approaching the building, Victor observed an unusual sight.
'A transport vehicle?'
Victor slowed to a walk and continued observing from a distance. While he had seen teachers use hover scooters to travel, very rarely did he see a student use any method of transport besides their legs. The only exception he remembered was when the champion of a Star Legends tournament had won a hover scooter of their own. Yet right before his eyes he saw the back doors of the transport vehicle open, revealing 20 completely unfamiliar students inside.
Immediately upon seeing them, it was incredibly obvious they looked out of place. From the dull complexion of their skin to their weaker stature, it all looked unfamiliar to Victor as someone who had lived all his life here. Yet despite this, there was a boldness about the way they carried themselves that gave him the impression they looked older or more mature. This was a strange contrast, given that they all appeared to be one to two years younger than him.
Victor watched as all 20 students climbed out of the truck before walking toward the school entrance. It seemed he wasn't the only one who noticed the newcomers, because many other curious students paused to satisfy their curiosity. As the group came closer, none of them seemed to crumble under the numerous gazes. In fact, many of them seemed to take it as a challenge. One male student in particular looked over and locked eyes with Victor.
The moment they locked eyes, Victor instantly came to one conclusion. These guys were dangerous! It It seemed that the student could read Victor's thoughts, as he sneered in response before looking away.
Several other students independently reached the same conclusion as the nearby students began to back away from the newcomers, creating a clearer path into the building for them.
'What the hell was that?' Victor stood stunned, not understanding what that look had meant as the students disappeared into the building. The transport vehicle then pulled away, leaving Victor standing outside alongside the other bewildered students.
A thoughtful expression crossed Victor's face before he shrugged, headed into the building, and navigated the halls to his class. Victor quickly found a seat before opening up his group chat. At At that point, he was no longer in the mood to ask the teacher questions.
Victor: I just saw a transport vehicle drop off around 20 strange-looking people at my building.
Darius: Really? I also heard some people in the halls talking about some weird-looking children. I thought that was just at my building.
Jax: I'm pretty sure I passed by a group of them in the halls. The vibe they give off is a bit threatening.
Elaine: I just heard some people had gotten into a fight with some strange-looking guy.
Rosa: I've heard about that as well. I think I saw one of them being taken down to the teacher's office.
There were five buildings that held classes for the students, lettered A to E. Victor was in building B. Jax and Darius were both at building D. Rosa and Elaine both attended classes in building E. From what Victor gathered, his building wasn't the only one this happened in.
Just then he heard some whispers from his classmates. "Did you notice we have two extra desks at the back?"
"Some strange people come to our school, and all of a sudden we have extra desks?"
"Does that mean we have to be classmates with those scary people?"
"I really hope not."
Victor quickly shot a text to his friends.
Victor: Are there extra desks in your classes, too?
Almost immediately he received four affirmative responses, but before he could respond, he felt a strange sense of foreboding as his teacher, Miss Mallor, walked into the classroom.
"Good morning, everyone. Before we start, I would like you to meet the two new students who will be joining our class for the rest of the year. These two are transfers from off-planet. Both of you, please come in and introduce yourselves."
Miss Mallor waved towards the door as a girl and a boy walked into the room, both sharing a strange look. As both students scanned the classroom, those sitting in their seats all got the impression the newbies were looking at fresh meat.
While sizing up the transfers, it was obvious they had never been taught how to wear their school uniform properly. The girl had a short-haired cut and looked quite pale. The boy couldn't be described as skinny like the other transfers. However, he was not as well built as the average student at their school.
When the boy and Victor met eyes, they recognized one another right away. 'That's the arrogant kid from outside.' Victor frowned as a grin crawled up the boy's lips before he spoke, "The name's Doak."
"I'm Kera." The girl chimed in. Seemingly unimpressed by their new classmates, the two declined to share any further information. Victor and the other students exchanged looks, yet none of them said anything.
The teacher calmly directed the pair to their seats, seemingly anticipating this response. At that moment Lelia, another student in Victor's class, asked a question.
"Miss Mallor, why are we getting transfer students this year?"