117: Strange Similarities

A horn signified the start of the race. All the participants, who had been mulling around on the pitch and chatting with their friends, felt a jolt run through their spines as the announcer, still in his dapper outfit, began shouting at people to run. The few who could fly, began soaring into the air, taking to the skies to escape the stadium. Those confident—maybe even overconfident—in the durability of their bodies, a group smaller than those who could fly, avoided the main crunch beginning to form in the exit routes, sprinting up the stairs to leap out of the stadium from the top of the bleachers.

Nyssa and Celeste watched as a student from Class One raced up the bleachers, sending a gust of wind outward in his wake as he passed by. Once he reached the top, he spread his arms out to the side, and leapt off without a second of doubt.

“A perfect swan dive...” Nyssa trailed off before turning her attention back to the center of the arena where the vast majority of the students had now crunched up by the exits. Shouting filled the air. Jostling could be seen even from where she and Celeste sat. Bright flashes shot into the air as some bodies went flying into the stands, ejected by their classmates who wanted to exit faster.

A few minutes later though, she felt her interest begin to fade. The sun’s warmth enveloped her in a warm blanket, and, once she closed her eyes, she felt sleepland begin to drag her away. Resting on Celeste’s shoulder, the shouting made for great background noise as she wandered dreamland with a blissful expression on her face.

“It’s really impressive how she does it,” Alecto turned around, putting her elbows on the bleacher below Nyssa and Celeste and propping her chin up. “I’ve never seen someone able to fall asleep so quickly, so consistently.”

“In all your years of existence?” Olivia asked from beside Alecto.

“Nope, not in all my years of existence. Unless you count people who were severely sick, addicted to drugs, or had powers heavily dependent on them being asleep to use them,” Alecto counted on her fingers. “It almost feels like her default state is asleep, rather than awake. She could probably sleep for a week straight if given the freedom to.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Celeste smiled, sitting still to keep Nyssa’s headrest comfortable. With her other hand, she reached over and brushed her hand through Nyssa’s hair with slow motions. “I hope she can sleep her fill in the future. Because I don’t think attending the academy will let her do that.”

“Mn... yeah,” Alecto murmured after staring at Nyssa for a few seconds. She turned away and went back to wrapping herself around Olivia, staring down at the now half-empty field.

Now, only the non-students who wanted to participate in the guest race remained. Roxanne and a few of her guildmates had registered, and many executives—those still in shape—had also done the same. They had come prepared, wearing suits to accommodate their powers under their business suits. Similar scenes now played out across the pitch as people in suits took off their formal wear, handing it off to an assistant, or to a colleague not participating in the race. Ages ranged from youthful adults who could still pass as students to white-haired, back-hunched business executives who looked as if they hadn’t left an office chair in the past three decades.

Celeste channeled some energy into her eyes to improve her long-distance vision, and scanned the participants. Her eyes, of course, lit up when she saw Angelica patting Roxanne on the back. Among the other participants though, she didn’t notice much.

“Angel wings... those are probably very advantageous. “

“Goop... form? That seems near useless... I guess you could go into drains. But like... ew... I’d never use those powers if I had them.”

“Sword related...? Or is that just a weapon for combat purposes. That is a viable strategy after all.”

“Mech suits?”

“Yeah, that’s quite uncommon isn’t it?” Ryker leaned back and crossed his arms. “Mech suits usually mean that you’re sealing off the use of your powers because they can’t withstand side effects of power usage.”

“I mean it could work for some people,” Celeste stroked her chin, squinting at the mech suits as they seemed to trigger a faint itch of recognition in the back of her mind. “Like, I bet Conrad would work great in a mech suit, since his powers are only more supplementary after all.”

“True, but even then, he’s strong enough, and fast enough, from his powers, that he’d tear through most mech suits while moving at his max speed,” Ryker leaned side-to-side as he rolled the thought around in his mind. “If it was custom made, I could see it. Other than him though, I don’t know anyone else in Class Zero though. The rest of us would just destroy it.”

Distracted by Ryker’s conversation, Celeste stopped searching through her memories, shaking her head to clear her mind. Whipping Nyssa in the face with some hair, she apologized with a few soothing brushes, smiling after Nyssa’s troubled sleeping expression relaxed once more.

“You think this is a marketing stunt though?” Ryker nudged Electra, who had been staring off into space with a disinterested expression. “If they perform well, or even manage to win, their company will probably win a lot of investment. Nobody’s been able to build a widely useful mech suit so far after all.”

“Ehhh, I think a lot of investors are treating it as a dead end. You know my parents right? They’ve been auto-rejecting most high-tech related investment requests. There’s just been a bit of stagnation in the industry.” Electra shrugged, looking down at the pitch to examine the mech suits after Ryker pointed them out to her. “Those do seem very cutting-edge, I haven’t seen much like it before, but who knows how advanced those internals are... That’s kinda what matters more. The artificial muscle fibers, that type of stuff.”

“Damn, you know a lot,” Ryker whistled as Electra continued on with her analysis, pointing out which parts, and which metrics they should pay attention to.

“Of course I know this much, my parents still are considering handing the company to me after all. That’s dependent on whether I decide to not go down the path of being a hunter or hero though,” Electra paused her explanation for a second to reply before jumping right back into it.

... It honestly kind of looks like the tech we saw at that underground bunker...

Celeste, who had refocused on the mech suits, couldn’t help but to notice a few underlying similarities.

Pure white plates, blue glowing eyes, black under joints.

They just... seem so similar to the automata we fought. Well, a lot more advanced though.

Then again, that’s just a classic ‘futuristic’ look, so they’re probably totally unaffiliated...

Gah, I just didn’t expect to run into such a similar thing so soon. Should I ask Angelica about this? She’s probably noticed though, and like... she’s having a good time with Roxanne, so It’s probably fine.... Yeah. yeah. It’s chill.