“Okay, let’s see now. Hero applicant number fifteen…Ace Harada, age fourteen?”

Roxanne adjusted her glasses to get a better look at the young boy sitting in front of her. The unkempt brown hair hiding beneath his baseball cap and the red jacket combined with the nervous green eyes darting around the sterile walls of the review room didn’t exactly scream seasoned hero.

“That’s me, yeah.” Ace nodded.

“Okay, okay.” Roxanne nodded. “So, any idea what your greatest skill would be?”

“I guess drumming?” Ace replied.

“I see.” Roxanne nodded, jotting it down with a quick ‘rhythm-based combat?’ next to it.

“And you were brought here because of the housing attack on Sandala, correct?”

“Yeah.” Ace replied.

“And do you have anyone you can go back too?” She asked. “Relatives in other housing ships?”

“A couple, probably. But working as a hero in Sandala sounds cool as well, I guess.”

“I can recommend it.” Roxanne nodded. “But it is a lot of hard work to achieve, especially in the higher levels.”

“Yeah, but I could probably pull it off. I’m a wielder, too.”

“Oh, that’s interesting.” Roxanne said, looking up from her notes. “What kind of ability?”

Ace stood up and moved the wooden chair he was sitting on to one side. He breathed in, pushed his hands outward, and a small bubble appeared around him.

“Ooh, an astral bubble.” Roxanne nodded, jotting it into her notes. “It’s a bit thin, though. How long have you had it?”

“Only about two years.” Ace replied, sitting back down. “But it gets thicker if I’m in trouble.”

“I see, I see.” Roxanne said, adding that detail. “Well, you seem like a decent candidate for the hero program. But if things don’t work out, you can just go back, right? I’ll look over your papers, and you’re free to go. You can take the cans on my desk if you want.”

Ace hopped off his chair and left the room after taking a few cans of soda, leaving Roxanne alone in the room. She yawned, looking into the mirror to see if she looked more tired than usual. She looked more or less the same. Deep black skin with shoulder length frizzy black hair and thick circular glasses, and a wine-coloured sweater and basic denim jeans. And to top off the outfit was an octangular necklace with a purple gem embedded in it. So with nothing else to do, she went into the canteen for a coffee.

She went next door from the interview room into the canteen. A pretty sterile place with white walls and some tables to sit people down. On one half of the room was kids left orphaned from the Sandala attack. There were around fifteen including Ace discussing things among themselves. A lot of the time it’s gloomy, but these kids were discussing hero life and where they could end up.

On the other side were the workers. Just people made to look after the ship and the kids. Only about five in a circle talking about the state of their small airship. And sitting alone was Julian, casually drinking a grape soda while looking down at the clouds.

“So I’m guessing Cass is coming back soon?” Roxanne asked from behind him.

“Yeah.” Julian nodded. “Med room is pretty slow today, so I’m relaxing here.”

His eye met hers. His other eye was lost in the very first invasion of the New Legion, and a strand of jet-black hair covered what was lost. Other than that he had a red beanie and a black hoodie with a black and pink skull on the back. It was honestly surprising that he was allowed to wear it during work hours.

“Say, speaking of Cass, wouldn’t be a good idea to shower before she gets here? You know, make yourself at least a little more presentable?”

Working as a doctor with an ability in necromancy meant he was extremely interested in testing the limits of his abilities. This meant he had to surround himself in dead bodies as a hobby. And somehow, he always smelt worse.

“Eh, she’ll manage as long as my clothes are clean.” Julian shrugged. “Wait, is this the hat I wear or the one I store parts in?” He took the hat off and put a hand in there.

“It’s the body part hat.” He whispered to himself.

Roxanne tried not to vomit as the smell worsened with his statement, but it quickly left as the doors opened and a bombastic “We’re back!” Was announced so loud that the higher-ups upstaits probably heard it.

Julian ran down once he heard it. And at the door was the adventuring team with bags in hand. And Cassandra’s wild ginger hair was right in the centre of it.

“Julian!” She yelled once they locked eyes and hugging a second later.

“Cass!” Roxanne announced, and they too hugged. “How’d it go?”

“Well, we lost two people. But we secured the axe. And we got enough generators to keep the place afloat for a while, anyway. Got a new spear, too.”

“Wait, you got the axe? Can I see it?” Julian asked.

Roxanne silently opened up the case the weapon was held in, and Julian was awestruck at the axe inside. Even he could tell the details of the axe were immense. And how fine crafted it was, too.

“So you gotta report this, right?” Roxanne asked.

“Not if there’s a medical emergency.” Cassandra replied, moving her hair to reveal her lost ear.

“You got your own?” Julian asked.

Cassandra took her dismembered ear out and showed it to him, and Julian nodded.

“Shouldn’t be too hard.” Julian replied. “Follow me.”

The three went to Julian’s room. Outside of the barely visible window displaying the clouds outside, it was almost pitch black. Black walls with neon white lights lining the walls. The window was being covered by a pile of books, with some jars of crawling creatures sitting next to it. And when Roxanne looked inside, she noticed a bears corpse lying on the bottom bunk.

“Is that a bear?” Roxanne asked.

“Experiment.” Julian replied quickly. “It’s dead for now, so don’t worry.”

“For now?” Roxanne asked, her eyes widening at the bear tucked away beneath the sheets.

“Perpetual life force. I’ll explain once Cass can hear again.”

Julian took the ear away from Cassandra and went over to the crawling jar. He took out a black beetle from inside and crushed it in his palm. Julian covered the edge of Cassandra’s ear with the now glowing liquid from his hand and stuck back on.

“Okay, hold that in place for ten minutes and we should be good. You’ll know when your ears pop.”

“Thanks, Jules.” Cassandra said with a peck on the cheek. “Now if you excuse me, I gotta drop something off at my room. Roxanne, I’ll need you for this.”

Roxanne followed her across the hall to their room. Both Roxanne and Cassandra had their own beds on each side of the room. While Roxanne’s was quiet, with only a cassette player with a small pile of cassettes alongside a dresser and wardrobe, Cassandra basically had a small armoury on her half. All of them were weapons from her travels. The most impressive on her wall, with the more common weapons on a small pile on the floor.

“So, you need my help hanging up a new weapon?” Roxanne asked.

“Nah. I managed to find the goods in Sandala.”

Cassandra opened up her bag, and inside it was a stack of magazines, which she handed to her. Roxanne opened the first one, with the shirtless man greeting her with his deep green eyes. She flicked through the pages of men, all in extravagant poses and as little clothing as possible. She  kept looking through it…

“I’m not feeling it.” Roxanne said, looking up.

“What do you mean?” Cassandra said, looking to the page. “Do you not see the abs on that guy? Or this dude?”

“The physique is good, yes. I’m just not freaking out over them.”

“Right, right.” Cassandra sighed. “Well, hopefully you’ll find somebody during the world tour.”

“Hopefully.” Roxanne sighed in return. “Wait, it’s still on, right?”

“Well, we have a relic weapon now. I’ll probably pawn the responsibility to the higher ups here, but it might take a few months if I have to stick around for the Grand construction.”

“You serious?” Roxanne moaned, looking into the sky.

“Yeah. But hey, you’re only eighteen. True love can wait a long time if you’re dedicated enough to it. Anyway, I gotta report to the higher ups.”

Cassandra walked up the spiral stairway into the management room. Secretly dreading the hour long talks about construction she’d be stuck listening to for three hours. Physically anyway, she’d last half an hour mentally, tops. She knocked on the door in the middle of the floor to begin.

No response.

The clock said 16. They were always available this time. Something happen to one of them? She tried opening the door. Locked.

“Oh, doors locked. Must be some kind of trap set in place.”

A bored sounding voice was on the other side of the door. Sounded like a woman, anyways.

“I’ll take care of it, don’t worry!”

A man’s voice was heard next, followed by rapidly approaching footsteps. Cassandra leapt back as the door was destroyed, shattered pieces of metal dropping next to her like bullets brushing past her. The stench of blood emanating behind her as soon as the door opened.

“Hey, there’s someone here!” The man yelled. A pale bald wall of pure shirtless muscle holding a battle hammer, with a smaller tanned woman next to him in a plain black turtleneck. The two guards stood in front of the door, and with a single swing of his hammer their bodies were shattered in a mass of cracking noises.

“She’s the one who led the Sandala expedition. Kill her.”

“Don’t gotta tell me twice!”

Cassandra ran and the two gave chase. She jumped down the spiral stairway once it was safe to do so. As she dropped to the floor, the shockwave of the hammer’s impact shook the building.

Cassandra ran into the main hall, where Roxanne stood in front of her trying to adjust her glasses.

“Get the kids on a ship!” Cassandra yelled. “We’re under attack!”

Roxanne ran towards the canteen, and Cassandra jumped to where the axe was being stored. She shoved past the men guarding it and grabbed it. The energy coursing through her body once again. She ran out, and the two attackers were in the main hall to meet her.

“So that’s the Sandala axe!” The man yelled out. “So we can just take it, right?”

“Naturally.” The girl by him nodded. “Just don’t take her lightly.”

“Wait, what are your rankings?” Cassandra asked.

“Number six!” The man yelled.

“Number three hundred on the dot.” The woman replied calmly, with her hands behind her back.

Well, shit. If she could barely escape number twelve, then fighting number six was going to be a problem. She readied her axe and waited for the pile of muscle to make a move.

“Miss, I regret to inform you that we are using a relic weapon. So if you value the lives of everyone involved in this operation, you’ll hand it over.” Three hundred said calmly.

“Yeah, not letting that happen.” Cassandra replied. “If I lose, you gain another weapon to terrorize the world with. If I win, you lose a major relic.”

“Whatever you say.” Three hundred sighed. She removed her hands from behind her back, and before Cassandra knew it there were a set of sharpened fingernails in her stomach. She stepped back, and the wound was already starting to heal. Cassandra swung her axe downwards, and three hundred was already behind six. The axe left a dent in the steel floors of the airship.

Julian burst into the room, a jar of bugs in hand. “Are we getting invaded?”

“You sure are!” Six yelled out.

“I’ll be back in a minute, just hold him off until then!”

Six swung his hammer to the ground. Cassandra felt the air around her vanish. She was suddenly floating, and six and three hundred were suddenly above her.

Six swung the hammer downwards, and Cassandra fell to the floor. She coughed up blood, which stuck in the air as a puddle. The room went back to normal, and the blood landed next to her, barely missing her face.

“Okay, I’m back!”

Julian burst into the room, and a bear joined him in. The bears small eyes were glowing white.

“What’s this, then?” Six asked.

“It’s my reanimation project.” Julian replied calmly.

“Okay, the kids are all in an escape ship!” Roxanne yelled.

“Roxanne, get out!” Cassandra yelled back.

“No way. If this place is getting invaded, I’m joining up with you guys!”