Guardians Academy, Pandora's Ark, N.Y.C.
When she finally awoke, Lacey Fallon jolts upright to find she that really did return to her normal dormitory bedroom. In the dark room, faint glimpses of city lights glowed in the distant outside of her curtains.
(It was just another nightmare...)
Realizing she is no longer trapped within the nightmare, Lacey clutches the sheets against her face, drying off the remaining cold sweat. Her heart is still pounding and her eyes feel dry and puffy.
She's had similar lucid dreams over the past few months, each feeling so real that they made her question her own reality. Scrambling over herself, she checks to see who she is at the moment.
Her hair is a mess from waking up, but she could still tell it is her normal brownish blonde instead of white. Her arms are still covered in the silk-like bandages she wrapped on the night before.
For a moment, Lacey is relieved to have woken up, but as she took a look the room around her, she feels an intense migraine beginning to grow.
She reaches inside the nightstand next to her bed and pulls out a bottle of yellow pills. She reaches on top of the stand for a water bottle, she gulps down 2 pills with some water while holding her head upward.
The effects are almost instant as the throbbing ceases and she is able to think clearly again; not that she has much to think about anyways. All she wants to do is clear her mind and push out the horrible vision she had. As the medicine takes it affects, the memory of the dream fades away.
Placing the bottle back Lacey looks at her bedside alarm's glowing holographic screen.
4:39
She'd set her alarm for 5:30, but Lacey, who is in no hurry to go back to sleep, crawls out from her covers and begins stretching out her limbs to warm them up. As she finishes, she falls to the floor and begins doing morning exercises. Holding her face forward, she focuses her eyes around the dark room, letting her vision adjust to the darkness.
While staying in the academy, Lacey was assigned one of the smallest dorm rooms specified for single occupants. The room was designed for a single occupant, but unlike other school single dorms, it was very spacious.
The floor plan was already larger than the average household's living room, giving Lacey enough space to move around without any restriction, making floor exercises more accessible.
The room itself was made up of more than just an area for bedding and dressing, but also included personal washroom, a small kitchen space, a personal fitness section with a large variety of exercise equipment, including a treadmill and weight training equipment, an entertainment center lined with shelves of restored books and media formats from within the last century.
Even her study corner is state-of-the-art, being that her desk was equipped with the most sophisticated holographic monitors and excelling processors available for students.
Along with her 10th story view of the ocean and a sparkling city by the sea, any person would think that this room would be from a 5-Star luxury hotel. After all, this was Guardians Academy, one of the most prestigious schools in the world. A school for the best of the best.
Because the academy had extremely high standards for their students, all of these luxuries were provided to Lacey with no questions. But she never asked for any of it to begin with. Lacey wouldn't care one bit if the entire room were to go up in flames. The only reason she was here was to graduate and leave as soon as possible. To Lacey, felt like a gilded cage locked from the outside.
As Lacey finishes her first workout, the alarm buzzes 5:30. Twilight breaks over the distant horizon, which illuminates the room in a warm glow.
She shuts off the alarm and starts her official morning training and jumps on the treadmill for a few miles.
When she finishes, she washes up in the bathroom and takes a good look at herself in the mirror.
She's still herself, which is no surprise. Though her hair and body are different from the fragile girl's in her dream, they still share the same face with the blank expression and dead eyes. It's like they're the same person but completely different at the same time.
After Lacey gets dressed, she goes into the kitchen side and prepares a balanced breakfast. While she eat she turns on the New World News Report.
"...Today in Italy, casualties are rising to new heights and authorities caution the citizens of Riccione and Cattolica to follow the new curfew. Advising them to remain indoors after sunset to avoid, authorities are resorting to stricter methods in handling the recent rise in gang related violence."
"Correct, Ashley. The San Marino authorities suspect that this new crime wave is only the beginning of a turf war between the local crime family factions. Civilians and tourist are also advised to avoid the Shipping and Exportation docks along the seaboard at all cost. This is where most of the conflict is center."
(Seems like the news is just as bad as yesterday's. Well, that is to be expected.)
Lacey thought this as she chewed her bacon. The reality people believed in was no longer as peaceful as it was made out to be years ago. Not only in the stories that made the news, but in every community and civilization, there's always some form of criminal activity on the rise that's not publicized .
"When we contacted the Guardian Guild to comment on these events, their spokesman, Stirling Steel, stated the following: "We have our best men [and women] looking into this serious matter. While cooperating with the local authority and heroes, we aim to reach a resolve this situation as speedily and safely as possible.""
"Our station did try to contact the local independent heroes of San Marino, The Fritz and Zodiac Woman, but both were unavailable for comment. San Marino authorities stated that they area already in the midst of fighting for the their safety."
(Those two, again? Ugh! They're probably off somewhere drinking wine and sharing a "romantic" evening together in someones vineyard with their holocoms off. Someone should fire them already.)
Over the last century, the number of individuals categorized as super-humans have slowly risen to the point where almost half the world population had some form of superhuman enhancement. And since then, the career of of Superheroes became the most sought after. At least for a while.
People soon started realizing that having power didn't mean they had obligations to fight dangerous criminals and put their life at risks. Some used their powers to get more sensible and profitable careers, such as construction, acting, and even basic law enforcers.
Acting is an especially tempting career since it overtook hero work as the number one sought-after career for super-humans, since they could pretend to be heroes on screen. Construction is still the highest paid career for Super-humans since a handful of certain powered individuals could help build entire towns and neighborhoods within a year, which makes them able to reach retirement a lot faster.
But the main reason most people lost interest in becoming superheroes wasn't just the better job offers elsewhere, but the controversy.
For example, the 2 mentioned heroes, The Fritz and Zodiac Woman, were both notorious for bad press. Aside from the rumors their numerous affairs, both have have frequent disputes with their local law enforcement and other heroes. There are also rumors of embezzling, but it was never brought up by the media.
These rumors are almost unimaginable since most heroes receive extremely generous payment for their work, whether they work solo or on a global scale with the Guardians Guild.
Still, though the number of lawsuits these two faced from victims of their hero misconduct and other misdemeanors, they're praised as great heroes by the people in their cities.
Being a hero isn't like being any celebrity, where you could break the law and people would still love you and say you're the hottest #&$% ever. Heroes are like any cop, needing to be held responsible by the people they serve for anything they get caught doing wrong.
Of course, not all superheroes act like dirty cops. In fact, the majority of heroes only became heroes because they wanted to make the world a better place. But Lacey would only think "Good for them".
After a few new stories about the government and the economy, all sounding as dreary as the last, Lacey turns off the projection and walked to her desk to begin her daily studies.
The time is now 6:42 and Lacey has already had enough hero crap for today.
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