120: A Fountain of Red

Somehow, Nyssa, Celeste, and Olivia had free choice of whatever seating they wanted. The event had no assigned seating, and the entire rest of the guest list—including the star of the show, Roxanne—had decided to show up late.

“No, we’re just early,” Celeste checked her watch. “There’s still twenty minutes before the event formally starts.”

“... Oh, you’re so right...” Nyssa coughed after taking a second glance at the clock on the wall. One deep breath later though, her faint embarrassment faded and she continued looking around the room.

Empty round tables dotted the room like polka dots. Snow white tablecloths, ironed to perfection, covered each table. A vase with a singular flower sat in the center of each table, with each flower’s splash of red, violet, or yellow opening up the room’s space. The room itself had a high ceiling, with chandeliers hanging from it, casting warm lights throughout the room. Other than the solid wall with the double doors to let people in, all three other walls had hosted floor to ceiling windows overlooking the now-festival decorated institute's campus.

“Want to sit in the corner?” Nyssa proposed, pointing to the table farthest off to the side, by one of the windows. “I don’t really want to be the center of attention.”

“Are you sure? You won’t be able to talk much with Roxanne that way,” Celeste pointed to the one table in the center reserved for Roxanne. “We could also sit at the table right beside her.”

“... Yeah, I don’t know, that seems like so much work. We’ll probably get grilled, and Roxanne, I assume, won’t have much time to talk to us anyway. She’ll be chatting with the executives... and probably Angelica,” Nyssa grumbled, seeing the seat right beside Roxanne’s also reserved for a certain ‘campus guide.’

“Well, then I’m down to follow your lead, I don’t particularly want to be the center of attention either,” Celeste sighed, turning on her heel and weaving through the sea of tables to arrive at the corner pick Nyssa had taken. Cupping her hands, she called out to Olivia who stood by the window, just staring off into space. “Olivia! We’re sitting over here if you want to come join!”

Snapping out of her trance and turning towards Celeste, it took Olivia a second to process what Celeste had said. Once the light of enlightenment entered her eyes, she nodded, flashing an ‘ok’ hand sign before turning back around to continue looking out the window.

“... Let’s just leave her be,” Celeste murmured as Nyssa bobbed her head in agreement. Together, they ended up sitting in a similar quietude with one of Nyssa’s hands on top of one of Celeste’s, and before long, others began to trickle in.

Ryker and Electra ended up finding their student cards. One’s card had lost a corner, and the other’s had somehow folded in half without snapping down the middle. Now in the venue though, they scoped out Olivia, dragging her over to the table and forcing her into a chair. Roxanne and Angelica came next. Roxanne, spotting Class Zero in the corner, flashed a smile and waved by moving her index finger up and down.

Not a moment later though, Roxanne got pulled into a conversation with Kaiser who entered right after her, and as they talked, business executives of all walks of life began filing into the room. Some joined the conversation, and others settled down, choosing the table they’d sit at for the evening.

Just before the event’s scheduled start though, Nyssa, Celeste, Ryker, and Electra felt their phone buzz. Electra, the fastest to pull out her phone, sighed and read out the text. “It’s from Titus, he says ‘we’re not going to be able to make it because of some reasons that are probably not good enough to actually justify skipping so don’t worry about us.’ Man just don’t skip then!”

Suppressing her laughter, Olivia just raised her eyebrows. “Is this a Class Zero group chat?”

“Yeah, well, it’s more of a messaging server everyone in Class Zero uses. So, technically the graduate division students are in it too. But there are separate channels for every year’s class that are private, so we’re talking in there,” Electra explained with a shrug, flipping her phone to show Olivia. “You’ll probably be added soon enough. I don’t know how, or who has admin privileges, but it’ll probably happen when you commit to the program.”

“Good to know, good to know,” Olivia smiled before leaning back in her chair. She fell back into silence as Kaiser took the stage.

“Thank you, thank you, I’d just like to thank everyone for making it out here.” Kaiser clapped while sweeping his eyes over the room. “Tonight we have a seven course meal planned, with our best chefs on the job. Please just enjoy. We’ll have some talks about the institute throughout the night, with two presentations two go along with them. We hope that you all continue your support of our institute, it's all of you that make this wonderful place respected all across the world. So, I’ll keep this short, let’s begin the food!”

---

The dinner proceeded without much issue. A couple minutes after the first course, waiters and waitresses wheeled out another legion of carts. They brought with them teapots brewed just minutes before with faint wisps of steam still escaping through the neck. A few more rounds of dishes later, they began pouring each of-age adult a glass of wine before bringing out the steaks. As the main course, each had been aged, then seared. Juices flowed out and pooled on the plate as cutting the meat open revealed a wonderfully pink and tender cross-section.

“This stuff is amazing...” Ryker murmured to himself. “Man, if only I could cook. I’d make a steak like this every day.”

“There’s nothing stopping you from cooking,” Electra retorted as Olivia nodded in agreement.

“I mean, it’s just hard,” Ryker sighed. “Sometimes I get too excited and accidentally blow up my hand, and then like... poof, there goes my hard work. It’s happened a few too many times and I don't know why I keep failing.”

“That just sounds like you’re too hungry,” Celeste cut into her own steak with bright eyes. “Everyone’s powers get a little haywire when they’re too hungry.”

“True...” Ryker sighed, gobbling down another slice of his steak. “I’ll ask Angelica about some tips sometime.”

“That’s probably smart,” Nyssa filled in the gap of conversation. As she opened her mouth to continue talking though, the lights dimmed. Roxanne had gotten up to give a short presentation about the school’s resources.

“I’ll be adding in a few short anecdotes as I present,” Roxanne stretched while walking up to the stage. “I hope you all don’t mind, right?”

A chorus of “no”s rang out. Smiling, Roxanne pumped her fist with a teasing laugh. “That’s great, I hope you all don’t get too bored then.”

Yet, the moment she arrived at the podium, time seemed to come to a stand still. The moment she rested her hands on the podium, all the lights in the room went out. Sparks of electricity crackled, and a blurry figure shot out from the podium.

While a spurt of red sprayed against the wall and presentation, every chair in the room transformed into a pure-white automata. Everyone sitting fell to the ground with a thump, while five businessmen sitting at the three tables closest to Roxanne snapped their fingers, getting enveloped in mecha-suits.

The blurry figure buried itself into the wall, pinning Roxanne against it as well as it lanced through her shoulder, only missing her heart by an instinctual lean on Roxanne’s part.