Sun and Shadow

Chapter 5 - Power Placement

Jude looked around not sure what to expect, but the plain white room wasn't it. He stepped down from the platform and saw Lena stepping down as well. They looked around and saw a young man standing at a console smiling at them.

"Adams-Foster?" the young man asked. "I am Transport specialist Jones, but you can call me Bill. Welcome to Sky High!"

The doors to the side open and they see Layla walk in smiling. "Hi Jude, Lena. Welcome" she said.

"Thank you" Lena said. "That was definitely different" she referred to their transportation.

Layla smiled "You should have seen the school buses. Like a roller coaster and rocket ship combined in one. This is so much better...less exciting maybe...but allows Sky High to enroll students across the West Coast. You ready for your tour?"

Jude just nods, still not believing he is here. They walk out and Layla starts describing the school. They are both surprised by how...normal it looks. The transport building is outside the school so they walk outside and realize that they are currently in the sky by the clouds surrounding them. Walking up to the school there is not a lot of people here as school hasn't started yet.

Just when he thinks it is normal, Jude sees two students come out of the main doors and the girl is flying! The boy, about Jesus's age, suddenly drops to all fours and blurs suddenly and a large wolf is standing there. Holy Twilight! Jude thinks.

Layla shows them around the school and it is pretty normal. There are classrooms, the cafeteria, and the library. The halls are lined with lockers and they see the administration office with no real surprises. Then they are blown away. They walk into the tech lab and Jude wonders if NASA has this much tech! It looks more like Star Wars than high school. They see more labs that they don't understand, Lena really hopes that Layla was kidding about the death ray class.

They walk into a room that looks over the gym and Jude sees a group of four older kids stretching on the floor. "Why do you have an observation room for the gym?" Lena asks Layla.

"Just watch" Layla smiles "and don't worry, the glass on the wall is not only bulletproof, it's also pretty much everything proof."

Jude and Lena look skeptical about that and then all of sudden they aren't worrying about the glass anymore. The gym explodes in insanity. There are buzzsaws, flamethrowers, giant metal balls, and more things than Jude can describe. It's like a crazy death trap from a comic book. But what's even more amazing is the students down in the gym. One of the two guys is on fire blasting anything coming near him. The blonde girl is a blur, spinning like a top she is flashing across the floor smashing into stuff. The other guy suddenly grew and is about 15 feet (5 meters) tall and appears super strong. The last girl, the brunette, sprouted butterfly wings and is flying around in a blur. It is so AWESOME!!! Jude thinks.

"They are doing team training" Layla explains. "Seniors area allowed to use the gym during down times to hone their skills. This group is pretty good, but let's mix it up." She smiles and reaches over and types in a code at a terminal. Suddenly a row of doors open along one wall and jets of water blast out across the gym knocking down both girls and the guy on fire. The giant is able to stay up but he was blasted in the face. They manage to recover, but are working harder now than they were before.

Layla smiles and turns toward Jude and Lena "There are safety protocols in the gym that limit injuries, but it's not harmless. Broken bones, burns, and other injuries are possible so normally most students are not allowed to work without supervision. These four are pretty advanced though." She turns and leads them out of the room.

"It is time to get you to Placement" Layla tells them as they walk out.

Moving to the second floor over the main office, Layla tells them that Placement testing is connected with the infirmary so they are able to see the rather large facility. "This place is huge, like an ER. Is it really needed?" Lena asks nervously.