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[Color=silver]I think it's clear to see, I'm trying to run away from my own two feet. If I don't touch the ground, there's not a soul on earth that could track me down.[/color]


Axel was outside that morning, making his way to the alumni village. He had been here before, two years ago, after he and his dad had their little road trip to Crestwood. He had seen the campus, the village and even the dormatories. Gotten the whole tour ahead of being asked to come here. Mister Lehrer had extended his hand with a warm smile as he welcomed him into the 'family'. But frankly, at that point, Axel had had enough of this kind of family. He was more interested in grounding himself with Talia. Living a normal, mundane life. Living down to earth seemed like a good plan. Down to earth. That was exactly what she had always asked of him - to be here, and now. On the ground. With her.

There are things you cannot do, not even for the people you love. Objects are set in motion, and once an object is in motion, it shall stay in motion. Axel was now back in the village, not to come by to knock on the fancy door that adorned his father's lodge. He wasn't there to pop in, tell Viktor

[Color=silver]"Hi dad, I'm recently divorced, is it cool if I come and crash on your couch before I start school at your work?"[/color] and then swig a couple of beers on the sofa before he'd pass out. It was too late to decide to jumpstart the father-and-son rodeo. He had done his part, and it would be up to his father to do the next.

 He was there to see another alumni of the school. Theron Demetrios. The only hyperhuman who had ever made any sense about their place in the world.  Theron sat on his porch, drinking a cup of coffee as he saw Axel walk by. He greeted the young man and nodded to go around back, into the lawn where another student was also waiting around. Theron smiled, this wasn't the first 'training' session the two had, but it was the first one where another student besides Axel was involved.

Axel shook the girls hand, she was a foot shorter than him, in good shape and had long silver hair with blue undertones. He nodded politely as he did away with presentations.

"Axel, this is Maeve Summerhold, Maeve, Axel Bordeaux"

"Like Vik-" she began.

"That's a touchy subject." Theron interrupted before Axel could fumble the session by awkwardly explaining his relation to the man a few blocks away.  "Axel has been here a few times since he moved to campus. Nobody ever taught him to fly, he taught himself. It is impressive. Yet flawed. Flight isn't like speed or strength - which you both have in spades. It's unintuitive. It's about breaking down barriers as humans - mammals, even. We haven't been able to fly so our perception of flight is jaded. Either by animals or machines, or by fictional stories about mighty beings who could break free of the shackles of gravity." Theron spoke, and as he finished, he lifted off the ground, a few feet.

[Color=silver]"What do you mean, exactly?"[/color] Axel asked

 Theron smirked. "None of those things captures the sensation. Newton tells us that an object set in motion stays in motion until affected by an outside force. Movement on the ground can only ever go in one direction. A boxer learns that the single most important part of throwing a punch is what?"

"Comfiting to sending all of your weight into the punch. Moving with the motion. Getting leverage off the ground." Maeve spoke, and Theron chuckled. "Exactly. Leverage off of the ground. You two are the only students at campus who are able to fly unassisted, like me. It's been a gift, but flight is so much more than a power. It transforms life itself. The greater conciousness of humanity cannot comprehend it. Not truly. It is my honest belief that by inspiring others in the way that this freedom can inspire us - we can change the world." Theron spoke softly, nodding for the two of them to join him in the air. Maeve flew first, as Axel soon followed. They flew around for a couple of hours, chit-chatting. Staying within campus grounds, but a decent bit out of sight for all but the most astute of skygazers. 


Upon arriving back in the yard of Theron's lodge, the professor smiled at the two students. By looking at the sun in the sky, he knew what time it was, Axel figured it was also part of the lesson he was trying to teach. The semester was about to start, Axel was a freshman, Maeve was a junior. They were both due to be off in any minute.


"We do not need leverage from a singular direction. Newton could never imagine the world like we see it. Flight is absolute freedom of mobility, of movement. Movement is life, after all." He nodded, throwing a bottle of water to each of the younger Hyperhumans, who were quite winded from their flying endeavor. Axel was older and had had his powers for longer, but Maeve was certainly far more formally trained, able to fly a lot faster. 

Theron piped up again after taking a sip of water himself, looking at the two spent students.
"When you are out there, remember that your powers shall allow you to take a fight from an approach nobody else can match. You could throw a punch from any angle, not just as a jab or an uppercut. Professor Roth, or indeed Bordeaux Senior will teach you that certain issues are to be handled as directly as possible, but there are times where perspective makes a difference between saving a life and taking one."

"For the rest of the day, I want both of you to remain airborne as much as possible. Consider it philosophy homework." 

[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][hr][CENTER][img]https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1070792705547980842/1080127198557651024/Axel_Banner.png[/img][/CENTER][indent][sub][COLOR=lightgray][B]Location:[/B][/COLOR] [I]Pacific Royal Collegiate & University[/I] - [I]Dundas Island, Western Coast of Canada[/I][/sub][sup][right][COLOR=lightgray][b]The Homecoming Trials #1.01:[/b][/COLOR] [I]Don't touch the ground[/I][/right][/sup][/indent][sub][hr][/sub][INDENT][sub][color=lightgray][B]Interaction(s):[/B][/COLOR] [I][@PatientBean], [@Lord Wraith][/I][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][COLOR=SILVER][b]Previously:[/b][/COLOR] [I]None[/I][/right][/SUP]
[INDENT]He had been blowing off seeing Mister Lehrer since he got here, intended to do so after he had gotten a little more settled in. Last time he had met him, Axel had been angry and disrespectful. Pumped full of adrenaline and far from ready to face what he was. He had mellowed out in the last couple of years, he would like to think.

Instead, he had fixed himself out of his training clothes from the mornings flight session. Dressed in the appropriate attire, Axel began moving to the infirmary. He was tending to the overexertion wing of the ward, that is, hyperhumans who had overextended their abilities on campus and now lacked vital minerals and electrolytes at best - at worst, they were missing blood or calcium. Axel was tending to a speedster who had ran until he fainted. Providing him with an IV. Axel cursed as the puncture wound from the needle kept healing before the IV fluid could enter his bloodstream. 

[Color=silver]"How do we fix this?"[/color] He asked to no-one, before he remembered the training he had gotten when he signed up for this job. Using an inhibitor would have made sense - but it was pretty clear that putting an inhibitor on someone else without their consent was a violation of their integrity and grounds for severe disciplinary actions. Most hypeabilities provided the person with incredible healing abilities, so disabling them would do more harm than good in terms of injury. While perpetually hovering about four inches off the ground, he moved towards the supply cabinet. Getting out a needle labeled with a toxic symbol and a single letter, he opened the package and attached it to the IV. This time it entered the skin. It was a specific poison that would in the short-term distract the antibodies in a Hyperhuman immune system, allowing the IV to enter the circulation of the barely conscious speedster. The bag that Axel hung up above the medical bed had three clear letters on it. "HZE"

He tended to a few sprained ankles and popped one guys shoulder back into place before it was time to head to the ceremony. But first, he need to change clothes.  Heading home, he remained in the air, getting a few stern looks from people, one guy in particular blasted him a finger-gun. He never quite got used to people not freaking out upon seeing him use his after all rather mild powers. Out in the real world this had always cause him trouble. Things were truly different, he supposed.

As he changed clothes and got ready to head to the ceremony, he felt different. He was tired in ways he hadn't been in a very long time, not since he had taken Talia to the roof of the world, that was one of the few times he had truly exerted himself. Well, that and Crestwood. He slept for a week after returning to New Lilith.

During the ceremony he remained in the air, fatigued. Flying above the stadium thanks to the open roof.  Having a retractable roof seemed overkill. As Jonas's speech got longer and longer, he found himself short of breath. Theron met his eyes and nodded in approval. Axel looked to the side, and on the other edge of the stadium he saw the blue-haired girl, Maeve. He waved awkwardly. She did not seem nearly as bothered as he was by their homework. It sparked a competitive edge in him, and he felt a second wind coming on.

The speech ended, he stayed in the air chit-chatting with Maeve as he side-eyed his father, leaving the stadium along his fellow faculty members, talking to some of the older members of his house, Lynx. Maeve's friends were calling her as she bid farwell of Axel, who was about to return to his room - completely forgetting about the rest of the activities planned for the rest of the day. On his way there, he stopped in the air above the particular fountain.


She took his attention. He had seen the statue, back in Crestwood. He had seen it from the ground. But from up high? She looked different. Something about her looked different. Sadder. On the ground, he spotted his bunkmate Cassander, and a fellow member of their little strike force-to-be. He was coming down, not entirely intentionally, he was losing steam once more.

[color=F796A9]"I guess it's nice to look at, but I wouldn't be caught dead having my likeness used as a roundabout way of saying 'look at me, I have money to burn in a world where people are dying on the streets'."[/color] The girls spoke and Axel landed right next to the two, without much fanfare in doing so. He looked up, the fountain turning into her again. By the time he landed, his ears were ringing so he couldn't make out the following statement. A grim look on his face, he piped up. 

[Color=silver]"Her name was Vanessa, she was killed, brutally. They all were."[/color] Axel was panting quite heavily as he sat down, catching his breath. 


He really should have pocketed one of those HZE bags, a bag in box of that stuff would have done him good.
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