The doctor came out when he heard yet more students come in. There were no beds for them. He muttered to himself about the first Friday of a school year. Blaine was getting ahead, though. Even with more coming in, the number of students in the infirmary was going down.
The infirmary had two sergeants attached whose sole job was to teleport to the critical injuries and teleport them back to the infirmary. This information was received through the watch and was not always accurate. They had been working overtime for about 20 minutes as the combat classes started. By the time the hour was up, the beds remained full but the floor was finally clear.
"Do the two of you think you could stay the next hour? It's going to be bad as well."
Blaine looked at the doctor, "how can you predict that?"
He sighed, "every year, those who don't perform well at PT in the first 3 sessions are hazed, beaten up. It continues periodically until they either improve or are moved to a support role where they are treated like second-class citizens. If they have an ability or not, it doesn't matter. The same happens for those that don't progress in the combat classes"
Lana and Blaine stared at each other. Neither could stand what they were hearing and fire was glowing in their eyes.
------------------------------
Meanwhile in room 2303, a young man named Paul was trying hard to work on his inventions but he was struggling to pay attention. His focus was on the words hovering in front of him.
[PROGRESS TOWARD FRIENDSHIP: Lana Plantwell 10%]
This was listed under:
[Quest received: Make friends 0/3
Rewards: ???]
This showed up upon meeting Lana in front of the school when they first got there. He wondered what was up with this girl. He now had three quests thanks to her. The other two were:
[EXPAND CULINARY HORIZONS: 1/30 dishes
Rewards: ???]
And
[Assist another with an experiment
Reward: Instant level up]
Paul's people skills were lacking and his sense of humor was not like that of others. As a result, he lived his life away from others, secluded where he could focus on his machines. His ability made computer programming easy and his inventions often were composed of mini robots he called oomlaut. These were flat hexagons that had legs that sprouted under them when movement was required. These are what he has considered friends for years. Now his system was betraying him and telling him he needed a change. It felt like his circuits were frying.
He tried to pull his hair out and realized it was too long because he was actually able to grab a handful. He preferred his hair to be no more than an inch long. It was easier to maintain that way. Using his system, he contacted a machine in his room that walked his direction. It leapt to his shoulder then stood on his head. It was very light. Within moments, Paul's hair was once again the length he desired as the machine clipped every strand of hair to exactly 1-inch long.
His head felt lighter even though not much hair was removed in comparison to people in everyday society.
Paul finally settled on sending a certain female a message.
[Could I ask a favor? While we wait for your experiment to get approved, could you bring me whatever you cook for yourself? Starting tomorrow?]
---------------------------------
Lana looked back at the doctor, "Do you need to contact Sergeant Tanaka to get me out of Beast Weapon Class?"
"Us," Blaine corrected her, "get us out of class."
"Us," Blaine again corrected, this time the doctor.
Doctor Tall smiled. He pulled his watch up toward his mouth and hit a few buttons. Soon a familiar face was in view in a hologram above the watch face. "Kai, I was wondering if you mind if I keep a couple of your students through your class. They were instrumental last hour and I could really use them during the rush."
Sergeant Kai Tanaka looked at his students, "You may. Have a good weekend, you two. Stay out of trouble."
"We will!" Lana replied.
Inwardly, Blaine was wondering if it was possible. If he were to see any of this hazing personally, there was no guarantee he could behave.
It wasn't long before the infirmary filled back up. For the next 45 minutes, they were all moving non-stop. When it was all over, they all sat down at a table.
"Doctor Tall, is every Friday going to be like this?"
He shook his head, "no, just the first 3 or 4 weeks. This is something sanctioned by the higher-ups to encourage what they consider slouchers to get fit enough to fight. If they fail, they will be taken out of combat class even if their ability is suited for it and placed in a menial roll like the kitchens. I've seen level 6 ability users stuck on kitchen or latrine duty. Can you imagine having to clean bathrooms as your contribution to the war because you can't get in shape to fight?"
"It sounds extremely lazy. How can people get in shape if they aren't shown how?"
Blaine looked sharply at Lana, "do you aim to train all these people?"
Lana sat there thinking about a better way to solve this problem. "I don't suppose you can give us a list of all those who were in here today?"
Lana looked to Doctor Tall for an answer. He simply shook his head. She nodded sadly. She looked at her watch and noticed it was time to get going.
As she stood up, "thank you Doctor Tall, this experience and knowledge were invaluable."
As she headed toward the exit, Blaine rushed to catch up. "You have a plan, don't you?"
"Morning PT on days when there is no PT, my way."
"Count me in. We need to contact those in our classes and see if they want in on this."
Lana nodded as the door closed behind them. They quickly marched to their dorm building and went straight to her room. They were both quite tired as they spent 2 hours healing people.
Blaine announced Lana would not be cooking to everyone, including a shocked Lana.
"Excuse me?" she said.
"I'm ordering us all food I won't hear any argument. You have exhausted yourself. If I'm this tired, then I know you are as well. What does everyone want to eat? Pizza? Italian?"
Lana looked at everyone, "Pizza and a movie?"
Their faces all lit up and they all nodded. Blaine looked at her, "your face is pale. Go lay down, we'll be in there is a second."
Lana looked at him like he was an idiot. But her brother joined in, "You look like you're about to fall over. Go."
She sighed as did as they requested. She got the blanket from her brother out and covered herself with it as she sat on her bed with a book. Blaine got their orders then came in and sat next to her to ask her when her watch dinged.
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