"Did you have that tranq gun this whole time?" Tera asked Mr. Ross on the way back.

"Yes," He replied curtly, keeping an eye on the two students carrying a new mutation type or a young teenager with great control over her powers who acted like a wild animal. Once she had fallen asleep from the tranquilizer darts, she had transformed back into a human. Now I think about it, her ears, eyes, teeth, and tongue has remained the same even after transforming into a mutated lynx. Has she been living here her whole life? How did she survive this long? And why was she here anyways? She's been living so close to the powered mutes... It doesn't matter. Either way, we either gain a valuable research subject, or a powerful student with... special needs.

"When will we arrive to the meeting point?" Tera's brother, Terry, asked. The pair was very, very obnoxious and annoying, in his opinion. 

He sighed. Why did they choose him to be the main teacher for this class of uncontrolled but talented hormonal teenagers?!

"In about 10 minutes if we keep up this pace," He replied. He glanced back at his class, and noted how they were chatting amongst themselves noisily. I'll have to teach them a lesson in mutated wilderness survival. What they're doing now is the perfect recipe to get killed. He sighed again. Why, just why did he have to teach them?! He didn't even have a fucking teaching certificate! He almost sighed, but held it back. I need a smoke. 

After a while of tracking through the thick snow, and ignoring his students' complaints, he stopped in a clearing, and announced, "We have now arrived at the extraction point. The transportation should arrive within two minutes." Cheers resounded across the clearing, and the mutant/human stirred. He smoothly unholstered his gun once more and shot her again. She fell limp without any more trouble.

His radio crackled to life, and a voice said, "Extraction team approaching with grade three restraints and tranquilizers." 

"Copy," He replied. Whirring quickly filled the clearing as a previously camouflaged hover plane appeared over the clearing, and landed slowly. A team of uniformed soldiers filed out, and one approached him quickly. 

"Is the unconscious girl the one in need of the restraints and tranquilizers?"

"Yes."

Without another word, the soldier gestured to the other soldier, and the team carried her away and into the hover plane. 

"Students, follow me," He said, gesturing for them to follow him. He could hear the gasps of admiration and shock as they took in the hover plane's interior and exterior. 

He smiled slightly, with his back turned on them. 

The Academy was, after all, considered a major asset of the military.

-==-

"That was so cool!" Jorge yelled, after he had disembarked from the hover plane. Alex couldn't help but agree, but she kept her other thoughts to herself.

"I want to pilot a hover plane one day!" Tera gushed. Alex tuned them all out. She kept her eyes on Mr. Ross. He was talking quietly to the lead soldier about something, while the mute was being moved into a container. What will they do to her? She wondered.

"Alright, class. It's already 8:13 pm. Your parents should arrive at the front of the school anytime soon. You should know the way," Mr. Ross yelled, then walked away without a word. 

Alex sometimes disliked Mr. Ross for his lack attitude like right now. They did, theoretically, know the direction to the front entrance from the hanger, but had she actually walked the way before? No, no she has not. Alex sighed, scratched once at her head through her short, neck length hair, and began walking in what she thought was the proper direction.

"Hey, Alex!" Terry shouted. Alex sighed again, and turned towards the voice. 

"Wanna join us?" He asked her. This was one main reason why Alex hated it when boys decided they liked her. They paid attention to her, which meant that the girls, in turn, also paid more attention, which meant that she wouldn't be able to fade into the background if her classmates paid attention to her. Sometimes, she wished that instead of fire manipulation, her power would instead be teleportation, or shadow manipulation, or some camouflage ability. That would be nice.

"No," She answered curtly, and continued walking away. Class 1 of the Heroic Preparatory Academy was from grade 1 to grade 12, with the school then feeding into the Heroics Academy. Any powered discovered within the nation would be sent to the Heroic Preparatory Academy, or the HPA for short. Class one was considered the cream of the crop of the grade with both theory and practical application. Though mostly theory. The real training only began next year, in grade 11. 

Alex was pretty sure that this was so that powered toddlers wouldn't go around breaking everything, and to also control the students. Only after they had been sufficiently brainwashed for the nations use, will they be taught how to use their powers properly and freely, since it was against the law to use any form of power without going to HPA and reaching grade 11. Or maybe everything was in her mind and their nation wasn't a dictatorship hidden under false democracy and bureaucracy. 

She managed to find the right entrance after two attempts. She promptly began walking to the apartment she had bought using her nation given credit loans with a yearly interest of 5%. Which isn't that bad on paper, but living expenses, groceries, bills, and everything else pile up, and considering that I've been on loan for...8 years. And after the HPA, there's the HA, which makes the interest go from yearly to monthly, and the courses aren't cheap at all. Yep. I'll be under a lot of debt once I graduate from HA. I should really get a job as soon as I could. 

The legal age of employment was, sadly, at 17. I swear, this is all a big government conspiracy to have their future citizens be under massive amounts of debt.

Alex sighed again at her most probably future of debt, and entered her apartment.