Kaia the Argent Wing

I found the room where my friends had been told to sleep pretty quickly. Unfortunately, I also realised that I left my sleeping bag with my pack in that barrel behind the shop. Crap. My friends were still on guard duty, and the only other people in the room were two firefighters who were resting. I decided to follow suit and sit down with my back against a wall.

Closing my eyes, I just sort of let my mind wander over everything that'd happened. The earthquake was wild, especially the way it tore up the ground and the buildings that weren't required to be up to as strict a code as the school was. Then… the angel. I spent most of today walking around as a woman, and the crazy part was that I didn't hate it.

I wondered if my brother was okay. He was smart enough to figure everything out and survive. I hoped so. My parents were probably dead, though. My gut twisted with too many clashing emotions to understand how I felt on that subject. Sad, but not overly so? Freed from their expectations and demands? That too. It was a lot to unravel.

Plus, I was just sort of overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of what was happening. A whole new set of governing universal laws had just been inflicted on the whole world. Electricity was unreliable, monsters were everywhere and seemingly without mercy, and all we had to understand it were mysterious telepathic vibes and shit. It was nuts.

Honestly, the very fact that enough people could think and act fast enough to fortify the high school was a miracle. I didn't want to imagine what was happening in other areas without people like the captain or Charles.

What was scarier than everything else though, was the future. It was very clear that this was only the beginning. This was the prologue to previously unimaginable hardships, horrors, and strife. Mysterious imperialists hinted at by dying angels, the further breakdown of the social contract, and resource scarcity were all on the horizon. Like yeah, the squirrels were scary, but the idea of someone with malice in their hearts and time to figure out the new system? Nightmare fuel.

I must've fallen asleep against the wall, because the next thing I knew, Alec was shaking me awake. "Hey there Kai, tough day?"

He was smiling to pull the punch on the morbid joke, and I laughed groggily. "Yeah."

He was so close, leaning down to check on me like that, and I couldn't help but trace the line of his jaw with my eyes. My heart began to speed up as he frowned and checked me over again. I must've looked like a drunk moron, the way I was basking in his sadly platonic care. Fuck, I was so touch starved, staring at everyone and judging how well I'd fit in their arms.

The answer, as always, was not well. I was built too tall, with too many odd angles and bones sticking out and… yuck. I couldn’t fit in anyone’s arms, let alone Alec’s. Plus, I knew that he was straight. I’d seen him take a dare to kiss another dude before and he’d been so bland over it. I sighed.

“Sorry, I’m okay, just processing everything,” I said, and motioned him out of the way so I could stand up.

“Yeah, it’s been a lot, huh? Did your folks…”

I shook my head. “My brother is on the coast, and my parents were both in the city working… I have no idea where they are now. What about you?”

“We went around getting everyone’s family before coming in,” he said. “Ollie’s dad, Scott’s dad, and Camilo’s mum were in the city working too. We don’t know where they are… but most of the others are safe in the gym. My parents are both in there, although neither got combat classes. It seems like the more you were set into your hobbies or career paths, the more your choices were specialised and narrowed. Tons of younger people like us got like, one choice to do with our hobbies, then two combat classes.”

Camillo came in right as Alec was talking about classes, and pulled three chairs over from where they were stacked against the wall. Camillo was a rarity in these parts, which meant that he was mixed race and obviously so. We'd had to back him up a few times when racist slurs were thrown his way by our classmates and things got… intense.

He was one of the most emotionally tough and emotionally intelligent people I knew, so when he immediately sat down and asked about my brother, I wasn't surprised. Of course, he got the same answer I gave Alec—I was scared, and I had no idea.

"He'll be fine," Camillo said with a confident smile. "You said you got Tinker for a class, right? What class do you think your bro chose?"

Huh. I hadn't actually thought about that. Marc was kind of a wild dude, even if his personality seemed mild when you spoke to him in a chill setting.

"He definitely got a few combat options," I said, then laughed as a thought hit me. "I wouldn't be surprised if he got some sort of drunken master style class."

"Oh true!" Camillo agreed, his deep brown eyes dancing with amusement. "Except it would be for adrenaline, not intoxication. The more hyped up he gets, the faster he goes and the more damage he does."

"Sounds like an ADHD flavoured barbarian," Immie said as she and Ollie joined us with chairs of their own.

"No cap!" Camillo laughed. "It totally is. Okay, who wants to bet that when Marc gets here, he's got something like that for a class?"

"Alright," Ollie said, bouncing forward to the edge of her seat so she could offer Cam a hand to shake. She was so relentlessly cute, like holy moly. Her excited smile, the way she never stopped moving… adorable. "I'll bet that he picks a casting class. If he gets that option, he'll for sure think it's cool as heck."

They shook on it, and Scott walked into the room a moment later, completing the group. He came bearing gifts, too. Blankets!

"Oh, shit!" Ollie said, jumping to her feet to rush and grab a blanket right out of his hands. "Thanks for being the planner of the team, Scotty boy!"

"Not all of us can keep warm by running in circles endlessly like you do, Olivia," Scott teased her.

Oh no. She hated being called that.

The tiny girl squawked in indignation and hit him with the still folded blanket. "Excuse me?"

"Nothing," he grinned, dodging a second swing.

We laughed while we all settled in for the night, and I decided I would rather not sleep sitting in a school chair. At least the floor was carpeted.

"So what classes did you all choose?" I asked once we were all settled.

"Mine is called Rioter," Ollie declared. "I get the vibe that it's blunt weapons, improvised weapons… and like, counterspells? I haven't figured out how to do it yet, but I think I can use a bat to hit spells back at enemies."

"You probably need a blunt weapon with magic imbued properties," I mused. "Could get a baseball bat and attach a bunch of squirrel armour plates to it."

"That sounds awesome!" She said sitting up to smile over at me. "Can you do that tomorrow?"

"Find me a bat and yeah, easy peasy," I said, basking in my friend's indomitable enthusiasm.

"I call mine the Dissector," Immie said, emphasising the name with a mock spooky voice. "I can see weak points and stab them. I think I'll also be able to cast spells? I'm not sure."

"Magic imbued stuff again," I said. "Spell casting needs something to channel the magic through."

"Oh, good to know…" she replied, receding into a contemplative silence.

"Don't worry, I'll figure out weapons for all of you," I said, laughing as I caught a few hopeful glances.

"Well, I'm a cheerleader," Alec said with a guffaw. "It's more like a bard, but… it's confusing—"

"I found that yelling at the interface gets results," I interjected.

Alec took my advice to heart immediately. "How the fuck do I cast my spells?!"

There was silence as everyone waited, then he began to laugh… and laugh, and laugh. "I have to hype you guys up! I have to literally shout encouragement or whatever, unless I want to find a magic instrument which I can't actually play."

"Guess you're gonna be learning then, fam," Scott chuckled. "I'm not sure how much of your verbal 'encouragement' I can take."

"Ha ha, very funny, asshole," Alec replied, but you could hear the smile in his voice. "What's your class again, then?"

“Combat Prankster!” he said, throwing his arms in the air dramatically. “I can tie people’s shoelaces together with magic. I also decided to yank out a squirrel tooth and wave it at the enemies. The idea was intimidation, but I think it’s why I was able to use my magic today.”

“Fucking typical Scott, accidentally coming up with the solution,” Ollie muttered grumpily.

“Mine is a healer, but it’s like… I take people’s pain, physical and emotional, and I can turn it into a buff that negates the original wound?” Camillo explained, speaking over the top of Ollie and Scott who continued to bicker. “So like, if someone gets stabbed, I can heal the wound and reverse the damage, giving that person a boost to their power? I don’t know how it works really, I can only do really small spells right now. I guess I’ll need a magic casting weapon too?”

“Probably,” I agreed, already planning out the gear I would make for my friends. Ollie was obviously getting a club or a mace. Alec… I think I would give him a dagger for now, but it might be worth having him learn an instrument. As for Immie… I think more than one knife for her. Maybe a whole bandolier of them, ready for stabbery. Scott could get, like, a wand or something, because he’d find that hilarious. Camillo… I wasn’t sure, healers usually had staves, right? Blech, that would do for now, but it wasn’t very inspired.