I was lying in the hospital bed, again.​
Other than a couple of bruises as scratches I was as good as new, although Dr. Cherrylove strongly insisted that I rest. True I was tired, and the doctors told me I may leave as soon as I was rested. It was night outside and the lights has been turned off. I was alone (except for the 24/7 hospital monitor of course). The air felt dry, the bed was soft; altogether it was perfect conditions for sleeping. I closed my eyes and I slept like a corpse. But the night didn't end there.

***

​When I opened my eyes again, I saw myself standing on the top of a building overlooking a city below. All of it seemed familiar to me, too familiar.

BOOM!

The ground beneath me shook as smoke rose from across the horizon.

No...it's just a dream, just a dream...

A single beam of blue flashed below me.

Curses!

Next thing I knew, I was running towards the door and rushing down the stairs as if they were a single long slide.

"ILLYRIA!!!"

It was just like that time, It couldn't be helped...I couldn't help it...

It all happened like last time, I threw a rock at the death walker. I ran. Ran down the streets like the very physical embodiment of wind its self. Unrestrained and uncontainable.

Why can't I stop!?

It was almost as if my brain had been hijacked or like this whole dream was just some kind of film, the one where they strap you to a chair to watch but not to interact. If it were that case, then I demand at least a Stardelight new Smores to sip on at the same time.
I entered the building. I ran up the fire escape. A storm of lead chased after me as I make a narrow escape.

CAN'T BREATHE!!!...

I was suffocating, yet my feet has long betrayed me and developed a mind of their own as I ran on like an automation. Before I could protest I was already halfway through; running across the parking lot of the 3rd floor.

No...not this again...

A hole erupted from the floor, concreate and dust were blasted everywhere. I was coughing, I felt something sharp pierce on my right cheek. This was real as it got, if not more so.

CURSES! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!

My cries were no use, they were as good as a fart in a blanket (its bad trust me). I looked down at the twenty foot iron behemoth below me; it stared back. The fear was genuine, I reached out for the nearest thing I could grab: the car bumper. It felt cool in my hands, it felt heavy. This was the very instrument I used to slay the Deathwalker pilot.

CURSES! WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN! CURSES!

I was screaming and howling in my mind, yet all I could do was watch myself pick up the bumper and charge over the ledge.

AGRHHHHH!!!

I was falling once again. Bullets wrapped around me in the air like a steel tornado, there was no way out, only downwards. Then I saw it and never in my life could I erase this part of my memory:

A face, an ordinary face just like millions of others individuals walking on the street stared back at me through the dark visor. His expression was one of fury, with enough rage to blow up a thousand suns. The face the man had looked so familiar it could have been my cousin, my brother or even twin. But one look in his eyes told me he was desperate; desperate for his life. He wanted to live, he didn't want to die.
The face was mine.

I woke with a start.

***

"Are you alright?" Dr. Cherrylove asked, the worry lines on her forehead clearly visible even within the dark lights of the tunnel.

"I am fine," I lied, rubbing my eyes, as I turned away and looked outside the car window.

"If you are tired we can just head back..."

"Please, no need."

"Alright, just don't overwork yourself ok?"

I paused, then turned and stared at my lap. That moment all I could manage was a lazy mutter:

"K."

For the remainder of the trip, I just looked and out window and stared. Time seemed to stretch out endlessly just like the tunnel itself, a moment felt like forever, each centimeter infinity. Just when I thought I would never see the end of this tunnel in my life time, a light appeared. Daylight, at the very end of the tunnel. My eyes brows arched. Up to that moment I hadn't cared, not about this trip, not about the incident, or anything. But as soon as we passed through the light, there was a moment of blindness. It wasn't sure it was the brightness or heat, but for a moment I was stunned. And when I could open my eyes again, my worries and troubles melted away, as the scenery before me sucked me in.
A pure-white tile building in the shape of a spire loomed before us. It was so tall that as we got closer, it even blocked out part of the sun.

"Ah, that's the student reception center." Dr. Cherrylove said.

"You must be kidding..." I half muttered, half replied.

"No, no, I am not kidding! It's even more amazing inside, come on I will show you!"

The car stopped at the bottom of the spiral building, a moment later we got off as I procced to following behind Dr. Cherrylove.

"IIMT is the world's most technologically advanced and magically profound school. Here we have over 10,000 thousand students on campus from 10-12, and another additional 10,000 students from the higher institute studying or working around the world." She said walking through a pair of automatic doors.

"Dang," I said following her deeper into the complex.

"Today we will only be visiting the east campus, since that is where you will be living for some while. Alright, allow me to introduce this place again. This is the student reception center, if you have any questions, just come to here, I am sure they will help you out."

"Huh...I see."

"Is there a problem?"

"No, it's just..."

"I understand, it can be quite unnerving sometimes."

I understood what she meant, Elementals where just like humans: they talked like humans, they dressed like humans, they ate like humans, but they were different from humans. Elementals are beings born with magic, unlike humans who are born with none, on top of that magic is only attainable through birth. Magelings are the result of the crossbreed of humans and elementals. Although it's true that there is an extremely tiny population of 'pure' elementals, but the border line to be identified as an elemental is actually way less strict. A person with a 90% and above of elemental bloodline is considered an elemental, whereas 1-89% of elemental bloodline is considered a mageling. Race was a touchy subject, not so much in the city I lived. Ayre, which was human predominated, though a very large portion of our mage squad was made up of magelings and a few exceptional elementals. Though I have to point out that throughout the globe, humans take up about 3/4 of the world's population and the magelings and elementals combined take up the rest of the quarter. But the main thing is, humans usually don't mingle with magelings, much less elementals. There is this image, this fear, that they were stronger than humans, that they will turn on us one day when we would be least expecting. Ironically enough, there has been more terrorist attacks done by human extremist group against elementals throughout the past than elemental attacks. We really can be huge hypocrites sometimes.

"Alright here we are." She said, leading me to what seemed to be a skytrain platform.

"It should be here anytime now." Dr. Cherrylove said scanning the surroundings.

"Dang...this school even has its own sky train?" I blurred out.

"It has five, if you also include the subway."

I was simply speechless. The shock only left me as the announcement from the speaker came up:

"Train will be arriving in one minute. All boarding passengers please stay back and stand behind the yellow line. Thank you for your cooperation."

For the next minute we stood in silence, except for the occasional breeze strolling in carrying a scent of sea salt. Then a sleek white body of steel charged into the station, and stopped as quickly as it came. However, the most impressive part about it was the fact that the whole stopping process sounded like minor electrical buzz rather than the amplified version of ruining your nails by scratching the blackboard.

"Come on! There's lot to see!" Dr. Cherrylove said, as she signaled me to follow.

It appeared that we were the only ones around that time, as I could even guess most of the students were in class that time.

"Ok." I replied as I reluctantly looked around me one last time, before finally stepping on the train.

"Come! Sit here!" She said with a large cheerful smile, as she patted the seat beside her. With not much of a choice I sat down in the window side seat beside her, then looked around again.
Apparently we were one of the handful of passengers aboard this train and none of the other passenger seemed relative to my age.

"So about the special program you mentioned earlier..." I asked curiously and suspiciously.

"Ah!...Don't worry about that, you will see soon enough."

The door closed behind us and the train began to move.

"Um...could you at least give me a hint of what it is?" I continued.

"Ha..." She tapped her chin as though, trying to find the right words. "I am 100% positive that you can do this, because I believe you."

"Thanks?"

"Your welcome."

Honestly I was still as clueless as a bat during the day, but I decided not to ppress thinking it would be pointless. She would tell me all in her own time. So for the rest of the way I just rested my head on my elbow and stared out the window the whole time; to my right were sci-fi looking skyscrapers and to my left was a vast blue sea stretching out all the way to the horizon like a vast blue carpet. 

"We're here." Dr. Cherrylove got up all of a sudden and walked out of the train. I followed her quietly out of the train station a moment later. I saw a couple of students in uniform passing by as we walked. A few of them actually stopped and looked in my direction, but none of their eyes lingered longer than a couple seconds as they quickly turn back to their own business again. As we traveled further, the population of the students became fewer and were instead replaced with blue collared workers and technicians. I noticed the buildings became more squat like, the road became more uneven, until we enter a zone with a bunch of warehouses. Then in front of a particular warehouse Dr. Cherrylove stopped and said:

"We're here."

***

It was an ordinary warehouse: made of a dull grey metal, four stories tall and twice as wide. Rust crept in from the edges of the massive twin steel frame door, it was as week as the ancient lock and chains that held it together.
"You probably have a lot of questions, but I am sorry I am out of time. I will have your mentor explain the rest of the details to you. And I believe you two have met before."

"Wait! Where are you going? And what so you mean by the two of us have met before?" I said, sounding more confused than ever.

"Good luck and have fun!" And with a wave, she turned on her heel and began to leave. Feeling frustrated and cheated I waited for my mentor to appear. I was about to run after her when a voice called out to me:

"Aren't you the dumb meat from the morning?" The voice sounded loud and irritated, in an instant I turned to the owner of the voice.

She was about six feet tall, about the same height as me. Her eyes were gray as a storm, her long pure white ponytail waved back and forth in the wind. She wore a pair of black combat boots and camo pants, along with a white tank top showing off her abs. A tattoo was showing on her right arm, though I didn't quite catch what the symbols meant.

"I don't think we have met before..." I pointed out awkwardly.

"I need to confirm one thing first, are you Kardusenn Romello?"

"Yes?..." Before I could even finish trailing off the word, a fist landed squarely on my stomach, causing me to double over on the ground and curl up like a whimpering puppy.

This is bitch is out of her mind!

CURSES!!!

Tears clouded my eyes and when I looked up again, she was still there looming above me and staring down at me like I was some sort of generate life form not even worth the dirt in her shoes. And never in my life I would forgot that cold contemptuous look her eyes, and I swore I will never be looked down upon like that again.

"I am Isa Seifi, I will be your instructor from this day on." A pause. "You will address me as sir, nothing else. Do you understand, fresh meat?"

This bitch is crazy. But under the duress of being harmed, I had to abide.

"Yes...yes sir!"

"Good. You will do as I tell you, unless you want to become dead meat." She sneered then commanded: "On your feet now meat! Even my crippled mother is stronger than you!"

Crippled or not, I might as well be dead.

Q: Do you look forward to a military career?