"I envy you." Lana sighed then smiled. "We never need to go back there again."
"Exactly."
They ate and talked about the pending changes in their lives and the potential outcomes so they would have plans no matter what happened. They knew bullying happened in Military school as well, but the extent was heavily muted. In the military, it was called hazing and was used on those that were not performing to standards. What those standards were, remained to be seen.
Soon after the sun went down, Lana and Dobin went into their shelter where they slept the most peaceful sleep they had ever experienced even though they had no blankets or pillows.
The twins stood outside an audacious house Sunday morning, dressed in their brand-new uniform that was sent to them upon draft registration. It was chrome in color, but it was not to be confused with a space suit. This uniform was monster clothing with an active skill of camouflage.
Monsters were magical creatures that roamed other planets. During the war, it was discovered these monsters had crystal cores that could be used to generate power, create weapons, armor and even clothing. Monster clothing, like monster armor and weapons had the potential to have an active skill. Like camouflage. With the right talent, it was pretty much a guarantee.
When these monsters died, they always left behind a crystal. Sometimes, they left behind something else, a whisker, a toenail, maybe a tuft of fur. The military was willing to pay for such items as they often had uses as well. Sometimes they were pharmaceutical. Sometimes it just made life easier such as augmentation to fertilizer for healthier plants. Either way, the hunting of monsters had become a profitable business.
A bus pulled up and a large, muscular man with a cigar hanging out of his mouth stepped off. Lana couldn't keep her eyes off him. Even his muscles had muscles! Dobin gulped as he stared in fear of the rigid man.
"Lana and Dobin Plantwell, I presume?" came his squeaking, high pitched voice. It was not the sound they expected. They looked at each other wanting to laugh but not daring to. They forced a straight face and nodded, not trusting their voices. "Do you live here?"
Again, they nodded. "Why do your backpacks look so wretched?"
Lana was quick, "My brother has no magical ability. We were afraid bullies would destroy his nice things, so we decided to keep our old ones. Our new parents are so wonderful, we didn't want to disrespect them by allowing our nice things to potentially get destroyed."
She gave the husky man a charming smile and he waved his hand toward the bus.
"We don't have all day. Get a move on." As they started to move, he stood behind them hollering "Move it! Move it! Move it!" until he was satisfied, they were seated, and the bus could safely move.
They were first to be picked up, so they chose to sit in the very front. It decreased the pressure from the man with the cigar. His hat reminded them of a bear that warned about forest fires in comics when they were little.
Some time had passed, Lana didn't know how much as she was too busy trying to quiet her heart. Fear and nerves wanted to get the better of her, and she was lost in battle. Dobin was asleep next to her; he was out within 30 minutes of getting picked up.
She didn't like the military. In fact, if she were to choose an organization to work for, she'd rather be a maid for a vampire, something that didn't even exist, than go near the military. They were brutal to those they deemed weak. Having watched her brother endure such hardships, she knew the military simply saw people as a number.
Since the tenuous peace was declared with the Walkers, a mandatory draft was initiated. At the age of 17, all children must attend military academy for one year. Signing on with the military upon graduation was not a requirement but learning combat basics was. It was vital for those remaining humans to be ready in case the tenuous peace was broken.
Breaking herself from her stupor, Lana noticed there were no more seats available as she looked around. She had no idea when that was accomplished, lost in her own thoughts as she was. She noticed she was getting tired and as she faced front again, her last thought was that he actually did look like a bear. Then she fell asleep.
Once Sergeant Kodiak noticed everyone had succumbed to the sleeping gas, they pulled into a parking lot and hit a button on the dashboard. The bus changed into a cigar-shaped ship. The driver piloted the ship into the air and headed to the east. Not long after, an island came into view. The entire exterior was a mountain with peaks making it look like the open mouth of a long-dead monster with ravenously sharp teeth.
Beyond the mountains was a large land. There was a vast forest that had a town carved into it. The forest continued around a rather large military base. Mechs could be seen in a field as soldiers trained on how to use them. Soldiers in physical training (PT) gear could be seen running in formation, neat rows, singing in cadence.
As she awoke, Lana looked around and was still on the bus. However, she noticed she had no idea where they were. This terrain was nothing like the area she grew up in. It looked like they were literally encircled by mountains in the distance. There were no mountains on the continent she lived on, not after the War anyway.
Lana noticed her brother sleeping beside her. She patted his cheek until he woke up. Then she looked around and noticed a few faces that were seated behind her were still behind her. She looked out the window and realized there were many more buses, all lined up.
The large man stood up in front. "When I call your name, come forward, get a badge and deboard. Form a line along the bus in the order I call you."
"Dobin Plantwell." Dobin rose from his seat and was immediately in front of the scary man.
The man scanned the screen then scanned a badge. He watched sternly as Dobin put it around his neck, a necklace that held the weight of his future. He then had Dobin wait until a number 0 appeared and annotated that on his tablet. Dobin was then permitted to deboard.
"Alto (All-toe) Funnel." A 5'6" boy with sandy hair and glasses stepped forward with little confidence. The sergeant repeated the process. When the badge showed a number 2, he entered that.
"Ability?"
"Water, sir."
The sergeant looked at the screen then gestured for him to deboard.
"Almin (Al-Min) Dester." Next up was a 5'11" boy with purple hair. The process repeated with his badge stopping at 3.
"Ability?"
"Acid, Sir."
The number and ability were checked and he deboarded.
"Kattie (Cat-tee) Beastiary." While there was nothing remarkable about her plain face, an inch taller than Lana, long black hair hanging down to the small of her back, what was remarkable was what was sitting on her shoulder.
It was a monstie, as Lana called them. It had shiny, jet-black feathers that seemed to glisten into shades of green and blue looking polished. It had three deadly toes in the front, one gripping toe in the back. Its long, wide beak was geared for death, little ridges like a saw were the most prominent feature of its bill.
This monster clearly was a carnivore. Its observant eyes looked wiser than many humans Lana had encountered in her short number of years. Lana preferred plants and animals to humans.
The sergeant followed the same procedure and noted a level 3. He didn't ask her ability since it was sitting on her shoulder. She was obviously a monster tamer. This meant she was from an Original Family but her family was not very strong or big. They did retain their original status, however, by refusing to share their ability with outsiders.
"Lana Plantwell."
Lana's ability level was at 6 because she wanted it to be. She understood, unlike others, if she used her ability to do what she called cool things, her mana cells would increase. She hated the term as well as its abbreviation, MC, and simply called it energy. The problem with calling it energy, though, was the many kinds of it in the world so she understood the need for the distinction.
"Ability?"
"Plants, sir." Moments later, she deboarded.
As Lana stepped off the last step, she noticed the passengers of the bus next to them were lining up along side them. The one who was just joining the line was 6'4" with dreamy blue eyes and shoulder-length, shiny blond hair that reminded her of silk. When he moved his head just so, his hair slightly covered the side of his face.
"Move!" She heard from behind her. She realized she was blocking traffic and moved to the end of her line. This eye-candy of a boy was touching everyone, introducing himself. She couldn't keep her eyes off him as she thought, he can touch me anytime.
A woman soon appeared and pulled the first 5 students from each row.
"Everyone, stand inside that circle," Susan stated as she pointed to either side of herself. As soon as everyone was inside it, they were teleported to the front of the school with what looked like a teacher standing in front of them.