The bus was long and quite spacious. One could easily walk through the aisle without colliding with the chairs. The clamour of students filled the bus. They were all excited about their camp trip.
It was something everyone looked forward to. The excitements of exploration that the city side couldn't offer were enough to cause excitement.
Nyx wasn't a fan of any of this. He didn't like the fact that he had to come on this trip. Never had he ever gone on any of these trips. But here he was. His mother persuaded him to and he only agreed because he was trying to avoid being at home.
If he was home, he'd most likely be asking to end his life. His mind still thought about what happened to his friends.
"Yo!"
Nyx raised his head up. Another boy called out to him from the back. The boy was light skinned compared to Nyx who had a rather tan looking skin. His hair was twilight purple and his eyes, a dazzling pink. He was a Nexus, there was no doubt. He had a bronze coloured hoodie and ash joggers.
The boy patted the seat beside him as if telling Nyx to come sit there. Nyx smiled and walked to him.
"Didn't think you'd actually make it here, Nyx," the boy chuckled.
"It's a lot of this and that," Nyx sat down.
The boy paused. "Nyx, I saw on the news man..."
"It's nothing serious, Orion."
"Look, dude. Don't you think it's getting a bit too much? I know you're all against this shit going on, but just you fighting against it ain't gonna do nothing."
"Fine." Nyx answered with a sigh.
Orion looked at him with a confused look on his face. "That's it? It's just 'fine'?"
"What? Should I start another war in here?"
"Nah, it's just that you accepted it too easy." Orion looked up as a girl walked down the aisle towards them. She sat in front of them. Nyx's eyes grew narrow and he looked down.
"Oh my fucking God, man," Orion scoffed. "How long are y'all gonna keep this up?"
"Orion, not now..." Nyx sighed.
"Bruh. Look, this isn't gonna fix itself, just know that."
The bus became a bit quiet as a tall man entered it. Everyone stared at the black haired man. They knew who he was. The kind of trip they were set on warranted his presence.
They were on a camp trip. It was something that was normal. The trip most times had a remote place as the final destination. This seemed normal, but there loomed a huge problem.
The world created above the earth, directly orbiting beside it, Xania, as it was called had a twist effect on earth itself. The creation of this planet warped earth's natural attributes. It brought about what they called, 'The Xanian Scar'. It was simply a mutation that changed the overall appearance of most things that were living. It was caused from the radiation emitted from Xanian reaching earth's atmosphere due to it's closeness to the earth.
This made organisms such as lions to appear bigger in size, have strange colouration and possibly odd abilities that regular lions wouldn't have. That said, the original species on the earth weren't extinct. That is, lions still existed.
This made it somewhat dangerous going into those areas. However, a legionnaire had to accompany them. He was simply a Nexus who worked for the government sworn to protect the earth with his abilities.
That was why this man was here. His long blue coat rested loosely on his shoulders as he sat down in the front seat beside the driver. He didn't say anything. Another person, a human this time, came after him. It was their instructor.
"I hope everyone is here now," he asked.
"Wait!!"
A voice came from outside the bus. A girl came running in after falling intermittently and tripping over her luggage more than three times. She placed the bags and ran into the bus shyly. Without asking, she plopped in the seat right beside Nyx.
"Okay..." The instructor sighed. "Anyway, now that we're all here, I'd like to introduce Mr. Claudius June. He's of course a legionnaire of the SR rank. He'd be accompanying us on this trip for reasons you all should know by now."
Claudius didn't look back at the murmuring teenagers. He simply ignored them and kept rubbing his palms. Everyone couldn't get over the fact that he was an SR rank legionnaire.
There were ranks: VR, GR, LR, UR, SSSR, SSR, SR, CR and R, in the descending order of strength. Although he seemed somewhat low-ranked, an average legionnaire was quite formidable due to the training they receive.
Everyone was bickering about this piece of information. Everyone except two people in the bus.
Nyx wasn't in the care about whatever they were saying, reason being that he didn't even want to be on this bus. But he rather be on it than being at home.
The other person however was another boy too carried away staring at Claudius. Nyx found that quite unsettling. He watched as the boy slowly turned his head and met his eyes.
They were both staring at each other now. It's not like Nyx didn't know who he was. It's because he knew who he was that made him guarded around him.
The boy in question was Kerith Cornerstone. He was the strongest Nexus in their class. This was because of his birth ability and Nexus abilities.
They were two very simple, yet opposing abilities: Cut and Mend.
Mend, being his Birth ability, was the more formidable one compared to Cut. It simply did what it was. Cut was to sever through attacks and defence. Mend didn't serve as a direct defence but a healing effect. His body healed faster than most Nexuses.
Nyx looked away as soon as the bus started up. He realised he was in for a hectic weekend.
"Hi," the girl sitting beside him stretched out her hand, offering to give him a handshake.
Nyx reluctantly took her hand in a loose handshake. She smiled wildly.
"I'm Frieda," she continued.
"Nyx," he replied reluctantly.
Orion who sat on the other side of Nyx stretched out his hand and shook her with more reception than Nyx did. He introduced himself thereafter.
"I haven't seen you around. You sure you're in our class?" Orion asked.
"Of course," she chuckled. "I just don't make my presence known that's why. Moreover I don't always attend class."
"And you still ace. Lazy genius are you?"
"Lazy genius? No!" She laughed out loud. "I can listen to the class wherever I am. In school, that is."
Nyx looked at her again. "Wait," he spoke up. "I know you. You're Frieda, that deaf girl from 5th grade."
"I'm shocked you even remember that we've been in the same class since then," Freida smiled.
"What?!" Orion exclaimed. "But aren't you like deaf?"
"That's the irony. My Nexus abilities allows me to focus on at most 3 sources of sound so I can hear you both at the same time. So I'm still deaf, it's just that I can hear selectively."
Nyx looked down at his phone. He pretended to be doing something when he wasn't. Everywhere he turned, he was constantly reminded that he had no powers whatsoever.
"That is so cool!" Orion said.
"Oh, it's not that much of a big deal," Frieda blushed. "What about you, Orion?"
Orion leaned back and sighed. "It's nothing amazing for real. It's basically something I call 'Heighten'. I can just increase a particular sense of mine, or natural ability. Like increasing my strength or speed momentarily."
"What do you mean?! That's pretty useful."
"Except that I don't know how to use it for a long period of time so it's pretty much useless."
"The Legionnaire Academy could help with that. You're looking at something like that, aren't you?"
"Totally! Like college is ever going to be my thing."
Frieda tapped Nyx's shoulder. "What about you?" She asked.
"Sorry to disappoint you but I've got none," Nyx dryly said.
Frieda paused. "You're kidding right?" She gave a little laugh hoping to humour his joke.
"Uhm, he's not," Orion sucked his teeth.
Frieda exhaled. "How is that even possible though? Every Nexus is entitled to one."
"Well, since 5 years ago I didn't get mine," Nyx blinked his eyes slowly.
"I don't believe it," Frieda said.
"You better do," Nyx glanced at the Legionnaire in the front. He noticed Orion smirk. He knew what that meant. "What're you doing, Orion?"
"Sir Legionnaire!" Orion spoke up.
The entire bus kept quiet and stared at Orion. There was a mix of thoughts flying through their heads: they wondered if Orion was mad for calling him out like that and they were curious to know what he was going to say.
"What is it, kid?" Claudius answered.
"I've got a question," Orion continued. "What is it like being a Legionnaire?"
A sharp black material engulfed all the students, tying them in a tight grip. They struggled to break free but it was too strong.
Claudius got up and moved through the aisle as the bus continued it's journey.
"Break free if you dare," he taunted scarily.