Back to School [Training, Done]

Rain was pouring down, filling the streets of Paris with clear water, which soon became dirty from all the filth that was on the ground. The people who cleaned the streets didn’t seem to be doing a good job. No one could blame them though, since their superiors weren’t even slightly better than them. If the rain could wash out all the filth off the politicians of this city, it would be a while before it would go down the drains and into the dirty sewers where it belonged. Bella didn’t enjoy rain at all. She was more of a girl that was into sunny weather, when everyone could wear as little as possible. That made her feel beautiful, much more beautiful than long raincoats and knee-high boots. One could hear people grumbling, cursing the foul weather as they rushed along the wide boulevards of the French Capital. They didn’t seem happy at all.

The young girl stood on the pathway near the street, a large white umbrella spinning in her hand. She was waiting. Suddenly, the traffic light nearby went red and several cars stopped in front of it. Bella started scanning the machines, and the people inside of them. One of the vehicles caught her eye, a metallic black Aston Martin with a young blonde guy as its driver. The girl smiled as she walked towards it, avoiding other cars that were in her way. Bella liked everything that was beautiful, and this car sure was gorgeous, somewhat like the guy driving it. She knocked a few times onto the window, as the glass slightly lowered and the man looked at her. “I really need a ride. Could you please help me?” she asked. The girl pulled the handle of the door, not even waiting for an answer, as the door easily opened and she went in. “Thank you” Bella said, putting on the seat-belt and unbuttoning a few buttons on her long black coat. This was one of the good sides of having superpowers like hers. Everything was much easier, and you didn’t have to worry. With a smile, the girl sent her new chauffeur a mental message of where she needed to be and told him to hurry. Of course, he couldn’t refuse.

Isabelle was headed to the “Marie-Ange Colbert Memorial Academy”. To the Government, it was known as a regular high-school, somewhere mid-table in the ranking, and without any notable sport teams. You’ve probably guessed that it was a mere mask, set to fool the public. In fact, the school was oriented on teaching “special” students. It was the largest superhero school in the country, with over 200 people enlisted. Bella was invited to come as a guest student in order to decide if she wanted to join the school permanently. At first, the girl wasn’t sure if it would be wise for her to accept the offer. She was afraid that her privacy would be jeopardized. She liked living in anonymity, and if the kids had told anyone about her she would have to register herself with the Government, and who knows what kinds of missions and jobs they would assign her to. That wouldn’t be something the girl would enjoy. After some thinking, Isabelle decided to accept the offer anyway. She was getting rather bored as nothing interesting was happening in her life and this was a perfect way for her to learn something new and increase her powers which were getting a bit rusty. Besides, she could always work something out to avoid the potential troubles. She was a telepath after all.

The Academy itself was located on a huge estate, around 30km from the edge of Paris. The black car went through a large gate and stopped itself on a circular widening, right in front of the main gate of the school. Through the fence one could see a huge building, surrounded by several smaller ones and beautiful parks in between the buildings. As the car stopped, Bella gave the guy a kiss on the cheek before opening the door and walking out. Her heels made some noise as she walked over the stone square and trough to the building at the gates. A young looking African-American guy walked out with a big smile on his face. “Miss Beaulieu, we have been expecting you. Please, stand here for just a moment” he said, slowly guiding Bella and positioning her against the white stone wall of the gates. He put his right hand at his temple and slowly began scanning the girl from head to toe. Few moments, and several scans, later, the guy would smile once again and approach the girl. “Sorry about that. Standard procedures you know, what can you do.” he said as he took out a white plastic card out of his pocked and hooked it onto the girl’s coat. It had Isabella’s name on it, alongside the note “Guest Student” and he logo of the Academy. The girl assumed that the guy had just scanned her for any dangerous items. Just as he said, you can never be sure who might try and destroy a place like this. It was better to be safe. “Now, if you would please follow me” the guy said as the gates started slowly opening and he walked through them, stopping for a second to check if the girl was following him. She turned around for a second to see her new friend parking his car out and driving away. Perhaps she could meet him again one day. With that, she turned towards the gates and followed the guy who was obviously assigned to show her around until the principal was ready.

As she walked through the gates, Isabelle was surprised how many people were present in the park around them. Probably seeing her confused look, the guy smiled and said, “It is quite remarkable isn’t it?” The girl could only nod and smile back as several groups of students of all ages walked past them. “Most of them chose to stay and live here as well. It is far more convenient than driving to school every day and better for their “talents” too, if you know what I mean.” Bella knew exactly what the man wanted to say. This way these kids could work on their powers at all times, seeking better ways to improve their abilities without the fear of being spotted and teased by others. Superheroes were legalized in the past years, so there was no need to hide, but many chose to stay anonymous either way, as the life was far better that way. Government gave heroes some benefits, but they still used their talents as weapons and an additional military army. You couldn’t say no to their requests, as they knew how to make your life much harder than it actually is. It was even more dangerous for the ones like Bella who didn’t get enlisted in the Department. Perhaps she would do it someday, but that just wasn’t on her list of priorities at the moment.

“Ah Miss Beulieu, I see you have arrived” a man spoke as he slowly walked towards Bella and the security guy. He was somewhat short, although most of them looked short when compared to her, and looked as if he was in his early seventies. His head was bald, and he had a nicely trimmed gray beard. You could say he looked just like a principal should look like. Black suit and a tie, a perfect grace in movement, he was a man of authority, the one to be respected. With a big smile on his face the man extended his arm and shook the girl’s hand. “I am Principal LeBurge, it is a great pleasure to meet you. Now, please follow me” he said, slowly starting to walk forward. The two engaged in a slight chit-chat and soon reached the entrance of the main building. The place was sure beautiful and it reminded Bella of a huge mansion. As they set foot into the main hall, the principal lead Bella to a lady who was sitting behind a desk, doing some paperwork. “Jacqueline, this is Miss Beulieu I was talking you about. Please do the necessary procedures and make her feel at home.” he said, and with a slight pat on Bella’s shoulder he turned around and quickly walked away, disappearing in one of many hallways that lead to this room. He must have been a really busy man, running this huge school and everything. Bella knew how some kids reacted when they first received their powers, so she realized how hard it must have been for him.

“Oh, hey there darling, my name is Mrs. Fontage, but feel free to call me Jacqueline if you please.” the woman said, as the girl faced with another handshake. Mrs. Fontage was a woman in her mid-forties. She was what you could call a typical secretary. Dressed in a tight gray knee-length skirt and a white skirt, she had brown hair and characteristic black-framed reading glasses. She gave the impression of a really pleasant woman, who loved her job, or was paid rather well. “Well, today we will give you a slight tour of the school, you will stay in for a few classes if you’d like, and then you can decide if you want to join our program and become a full student here” the woman continued, not taking the smile off her face for a second. Yes, that was indeed the plan, but Bella had already partially made her decision. She had nothing against occasional lessons, but joining as a full-student would be somewhat too much. She could train most of her abilities herself, as she had experience using them, so having someone tutor her for eight hours a day would be just pointless. Besides, the only reason she even agreed to come here was because of her father. He and Mr. Leburge were old friends, and as soon as he noticed Bella’s powers he tried convincing her to come here for a talk. She decided to agree solely because he was getting rather annoying. She would come here, spend some time, thank the kind people and walk away. That way her father couldn’t say that she didn’t try, so he might get off her back for some time.

“Now, here are some forms you have to fill in. You know, just the necessary regular stuff. Everything will be kept in uttermost secrecy and won’t be sent to anyone under any circumstances” Mrs. Fontage was quick to introduce Bella to what had to be done before she could even start getting the tour of the Academy. As she was handed several sheets of paper, Bella walked to the nearby couch and sat down, taking the pencil from the desk next to it and made herself comfortable. The questions were quite diverse, ranging from the usual ones such as name and address, to the, in Bella’s opinion, unnecessary ones like height and weight. She was here to get a simple tour of the school, so she had no idea why would anyone be interested in her measurements. However, she didn’t have much choice if she wanted to please her father, so she filled all the fields without complaints. Some of the questions weren’t that simple and required some thinking. One of them was regarding her powers and their classification. The girl understood that was necessary so that they could assign her to the corresponding class, but putting her abilities into words wasn’t as easy as she thought. Sure, she could have just written “Can make guys do whatever she wants”, but that wouldn’t be appropriate now would it. After some thinking she found a good way to explain her powers. Under the “Power Category” she checked Telepathy, as that was one of her main powers and she was interested in the ways she could improve it.

As she filled all the necessary fields with information about her, Bella walked back to Mrs. Fontage. The woman nodded and smiled once again, as she took a quick look over the pages and then got up from her chair. “Wonderful” she said as she got out from behind the desk, “Now, follow me; I’ll take you to your class.” She showed Bella to follow her as she walked towards the right-most hallway. The woman probably thought it was the best to immediately put Bella into a class, so that she could see how it felt and decide whether she likes it or not. She followed the woman to the end of the hallway, and then a bit right until they reached a classroom with number 19 on it and the note “Telepathy and Mind” written under it. The woman waited as Bella caught up to her before opening the door and letting the girl in.

The room was a mess. Inside were around twenty students, about Bella’s age, who were yelling and running around like crazy. It was pretty much like the regular classroom in any High school in the country, but the Bella was just not used to it. Mrs. Fontage slammed the door shut and suddenly everyone went quiet. “Oh my, Mrs. Jacqui, you scared us! We thought it was the teacher” a blonde boy from the back row said with a smile on his face, letting out a small laugh before turning back to his friend. “I know Marc, but sometimes I have to do stuff like that so you bunch would get just a tad quieted.” the woman replied as she took Bella’s hand and lead her towards the blackboard. “Now, everyone, this is Isabelle, she will be joining us today as a guest student. Please, make her feel welcome and try helping as much as you can.” Mrs Fontage said before patting the girl on the back and walking away, waving a bit to the class before closing the door. Well, that was embarrassing. Now Bella was just standing there, with people thinking she needed help. She was hoping they would just leave her alone so the time would pass faster and she could go home.

All of a sudden, all eyes were on Bella. But most of the people didn’t seem to be rude, but were smiling instead. Perhaps her powers worked on the guys here as well. She didn’t intend to manipulate them today, but at least she knew that worked if she needed any help. A black haired boy dressed in a whit tank shirt and acid-green shorts came up and introduced himself. “Hey there, I’m Tony if you need anything. You know… rawr” he said before getting hit in the face with a notebook by a blonde girl who just approached the two. “Shut up Tony.” she said with an angry face, “She is a new cookie, don’t touch her you pervert.” With that she took Bella by the hand and pulled her away, towards two empty chairs. “Sorry about him,” the girl said as she sat down and signalized Bella that she should sit too, “He is just, ugh. I am Mina by the way, cute top.” Bella smiled at the girls words and returned the favor by complimenting her new friend’s skirt. The two began chatting a bit and it turned out they were rather similar. Mina was the daughter of a wealthy businessman as well, and was forced to come here too. However, she told Bella that it was actually nice here and that you get to learn many new things. The guy who just approached her seemed to be the local jock, trying to hook up with everything female that moves. In a slight weird way he was somewhat like Isabelle, but there was no way the girl was going to admit that now.

Mina talked Bella trough with everyone in the class, so that the girl was now aware of who was worthy of her time and who wasn’t. She even decided to have some fun with the jock-guy. Using her telepathy, Mina sent him a message by using the voice of a girl who was sitting behind him. She told him something about how cute he was and how she wanted to meet him after school. The guy turned around and winked at the girl saying “Sure”, and she just replied “Sure what?” He looked so confused, but realized what happened once he saw Mina and Bella laughing their behinds off, and pointing at him. Luckily, he seemed to be able to stand a joke, so he just created some water out of thin air and splashed the girls.

Just as the two were getting to know each other better while drying their clothes off, the door got slammed once again, and this time two guys walked in. One of them was in his thirties, rather good looking with a three-day beard and the other was much younger, around 22 maybe with short brown hair and green eyes. “Well, hello class. How was your day?” the older guy said while the younger one just waved to the students. Everyone replied that they were fine, and Bella learned that the teacher’s name was Mr. Coully. He seemed to be the kind of laid-back teacher everyone liked, but also had that strict line in his eyes that made you respect him. The younger guy just sat on the window edge, staring outside and looking remarkably uninterested. “I see we have a new student today,” Coully said as he looked at Bella with a smile on his face, “I hope you enjoy it here.” With that the man took out the grading book and started reading trough the names of the students, checking if everyone was present.

“Well, now that we are done with that” he said, “Let’s get down to business. Today we are doing practical lessons so everyone grab a partner so we can start.” Bella smiled as she was extremely glad that she came to the school exactly today. She would probably get bored in theory lessons, as she always was, but now that they were going to practice their abilities this might as well be fun. Without too much thinking, she and Mina decided to be a pair so they pushed the desks against the wall and positioned their chairs so that they were facing one another. Bella could see that some students weren’t participating in the exercise, but were sitting on the desks alongside the walls. After asking why that was, Mina explained her that not everyone here had psychic abilities. This was one of the obligatory classes that everyone had to go through, no matter what their powers were. This was so that they would learn the effects of telepathy, so that they could fight against it one day if they had to. Once you think about it that does sound logical and quite convenient.

The first lesson they were going to do that day was try to manipulate the emotions of your partner. Anyone who got their partner to cry got a plus in their grades, and who collects five pluses gets an A. It wasn’t like Bella had to try because she wouldn’t get graded anyway, but this was somewhat fun and she decided to at least give it a chance. Mina decided to try first, and just a several seconds after she began concentrating, Bella was already on the edge of tears. She tried fighting to urge, but in the end she started crying. It was a rather weird feeling, not being able to control emotions no matter how hard you tried. Mina explained that they already did this exercise several times, and that’s why she could do it so fast. It was now Bella’s turn and the girl started focusing her telepathic energy and emitting it at Mina. After a few minutes the girl was already started to get worried because nothing was happening, but her partner told her to just relax and try her best. It wasn’t easy at all at first, because one had to focus and manipulate the emotional energy in their target so that it becomes moldable and then edit it in a way that they wanted. After a few more minutes the blonde was starting to get sad, and after a few seconds burst into tears. Bella rushed and hugged her partner, as she finally did it and it was the best she felt in days.

“Now, everyone, can I have your attention!” professor started speaking, “Now that you have practiced manipulating emotions you are ready for the next step. That step is manipulating relationships. Use the same way as before to enter the target’s mind and you will see many bonds he has formed with other people. Some of these bonds are good, such as friendship bonds or love bonds, and some are not that good such as bonds of hatred. The others are neutral, meaning the target hasn’t yet formed a bond with a certain individual. Now, using your telepathical powers you can alter these bonds, create new ones or even destroy the existing ones. That should be fun and it shouldn’t be too hard as you already know the basics.” Bella smiled at that. It was rather hard for her to even manipulate emotions, so this didn’t sound as easy as the professor claimed it to be. Their assignment was to first break the bond they had with their partner and then repair it. Bella was the one to start this time so she immediately started focusing. Using the principles of entering the mind from before, she was able to somewhat easily infiltrate the mind of her partner, but it took some time to find out a way to destroy the bonds. In the end it turned out to be rather easy, something similar to cutting a ribbon with scissors. She knew she did it well once Mina stopped smiling at her and got rather uninterested. Repairing the bonds was even easier then destroying them. All it took was several seconds for Bella to fix the bond she just broke and make friends with Mina again. That was rather fun as it made Mina be able to amplify her skills even more.

All of a sudden an explosion could be heard and a gigantic slug-like monster crawled into the room and started firing acid from its mouth, making the walls start melting. Everyone went into a state of panic and several students even tried opening the door and running away, but it seemed to be locked. Bella was confused and she and Mina withdrew to the wall furthest away from the monster. That’s when the girl noticed something strange. Neither the professor nor his assistant seemed to mind the monster much. In fact, they were just sitting there like before, not paying any attention. “What’s going on?” she yelled towards the two, “What is this? Why aren’t you helping?” The professor just let out a small laugh, as white smoke filled the room and once it cleared out everything went back to normal. The walls were there, without holes or anything similar and the windows weren’t broken anymore. “What you just witnessed was an illusion,” the man said with a smile, “But you should have recognized it if you had done the homework I assigned you yesterday. Considering you didn’t you got scared today. Illusions are basics in every Telepaths arsenal, as they create fake images in the targets mind which can greatly help in battle. To successfully do an illusion you have to concentrate and remain focused, while thinking of an exact image to press into the targets mind, and stay focused once again so that it can last.” With that, the group was ordered to try some illusions with their partners. Bella and Mina had much fun, as Bella made Mina thing she was surrounded by baby white rabbits, and Mina made Bella think that she was turning into a spider. In the end, Bella realized that this could be one of the vital powers to use in battles, to cover up your movements.

“Well done everyone!” the professor started after almost an hour of them training, “Now that you know that, it won’t be hard for you to do this next step. It will actually be two abilities in one this time. First of all you will have to tire out your opponent. And no, I don’t mean by mass physical exercises, but by using nothing but your brain power. This is called sedating the mind, and is immensely useful in combat. Using this skill one can make the opponent feel exhausted, decreasing their speed and reaction time, and hence leaving them open for attack. To do so you will have to enter the mind of your target and then focus on the center of the brain in charge of keeping the target awake. By using several mental waves you can increase the tiredness of the target. Once you do that the target will be ready for the next step, which is memory manipulation. I know it might seem like we are doing much but hear it out. Using this you can manipulate the memory of your target, either erasing it, just seeing it, modifying it or implementing new fake memories. To use this you must be extremely focused. This is one of the hardest parts of the training of telepathy.” The man kept talking and talking, and Bella had gotten a bit overwhelmed. She was hoping they were going to get a break soon as they were studying for around three or four hours now, but that didn’t seem to be anywhere near them. The professor was sure to exhaust them as much as he can before sending them away. Sure, he only wanted them to learn but he was doing a bit too much. However, Bella was determined to get this done as she realized it was the only way he was going to let them go. She started focusing and trying to enter Mina’s mind once again. From all the constant entering today she felt as if she knew the girl’s brain better than her own. The other girl didn’t seem to be as tired, as they were probably used to this tempo of practice. After a few moments of Bella messing with her brain, the girl suddenly got sleepy so Bella knew she did well. Still focused on keeping the girl sedated, she entered her mind and started reading her memories. It was rather interesting to feel what other people felt and see what they saw. The professor ordered them to only erase some unimportant memories, so the girl decided to make her partner forget what she had for breakfast that day. It was soon finished, and after asking the question Mina didn’t know the answer. This made Bella extremely proud. There was no time to celebrate though, as it was now her time to be the guinea pig. As soon as the other girl started entering her brain, Bella got extremely sleepy, and at one point she fell asleep.

Bella slowly opened her eyes. Kneeling above her was Mina, who smiled at the girl and helped her get up. She explained that the girl had fallen asleep because of her telepathy, and they didn’t want to wake her up as they were just on a break. Bella wasn’t too pleased to miss that but at least she got some rest as well. “Alright, the last thing for today,” professor yelled out what Bella was hoping to hear all day, “Now that you know how to attack using mental powers, you have to learn how to defend too. One of the most effective ways to defend are psionic shields, aka barriers. Putting up a barrier is quite easy. Just focus inside your own mind and try to expand a shield that will protect all parts of it from external attacks. Now, I’ll give you a few seconds to try it out and then we should have a little test.” This sounded a bit rough, but Bella assumed it was easier to access her own mind than someone else’s. She began focusing and soon managed to begin putting up the shield. It took her some extra time to actually make the thing stand on its own, and she hoped it would last and put up a good defense. After a few moments the professor came and looked straight into Bella’s eyes. Suddenly the girl felt a strange sensation in the brain which soon passed. “Very well Miss Beaulieu, you are free to go” he said, leaving Bella confused for a moment. Obviously her barrier worked. Bella waved to Mina and the others before walking through the door.

The girl went down the hallway and found herself in the main hall. Mrs. Fontage was still there and she approached Bella as soon as she saw her. “So honey, what do you think? Will you be joining us?” she asked with a big smile on her face. Bella just looked at her and said that she will need a little more time to think about it. With that she walked out of the main building, across the park and trough the gates of the school. She was probably not going to go back ever again, but at least she now got some new powers she could train and improve. If only she could now find a ride home.

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