Duke was sitting at his desk, filling out paper work as well as preparing some other things for when a certain someone would visit. He wasn't reprimanded for the incident with the second years aside from enforcing security, which he had a lot of control over. Due to the fact that there wasn't a strong connection between him and Momo, the boy who officially started the assembly incident, Duke got a telling off to keep better track of his students.
Things were good again, he got a first year student his earth ability books, he had a nice cup with soda and ice in it, and he didn't need to worry about anyone catching him.
Then, the fire alarm went off.
A loud sound blared across the halls, causing Duke to nearly crush his computer mouse into pieces. He got up from his chair, and grabbed a small device for counting students. He was legally required to leave the building during a fire alarm, even if he didn't want to. There would also be a waiting period for the local fire department to show up, and investigate the cause of the alarm.
"I swear, if it's one of those damned kids pulling a prank," Duke muttered under his breath. This whole thing was annoying.
He left his office, and headed out into the halls. However, the halls were surprisingly chaotic. Despite the students here being second years, it was like as if they forgot all about the fire alarm drills from the first year. A student with blue glasses even bumped into him with something damp getting on his arm.
"I'm sorry sir!" The student said before running off.
Duke was about to tell him off when more students bumped into him. Some were sprinting, others were pushing their peers, he even saw a few use their abilities to head outside faster. Because the alarm happened after class, the students were stray and didn't have a set teacher to follow. It was almost like a stampede.
When looking at his arm, however, Duke saw that the wetness wasn't there anymore. He grumbled to himself. Unfortunately, he had a job to do, and he had to do a proper headcount, as was procedure. This whole thing was annoying.
—
The boy with the blue glasses ran back to duke's office, his hand covered in mud. Soon following behind him was a brunette girl.
"Did you get it, Quinn?" Layla asked, no longer whispering. It would've been hard to hear otherwise with the loud noises.
Quinn held his hand up and nodded. On his hand was mud that had some very small grooves in them that held a unique pattern to them. He had managed to copy Duke's very own finger prints. Quinn held his muddy hand up to the finger print sensor and pressed against it. Sweat formed on his head. The mere moment of waiting to see if the sensor registered the finger print felt longer than it should've.
*Beep*
They both let out a sigh. The door was unlocked, and they went inside.
The office was square like in shape, with only the blinds to let in sunlight. On the walls and shelves were medals and honors Duke had gotten over the years. There were even a few pictures of family. In the center of the office was a desk with a computer.
"Did you make sure to—?" Quinn began.
"Don't worry, with my telekinesis, there is no way anyone would've seen me pull the alarm," Layla quickly replied, "Now lets get on the computer."
Quinn moved the mouse, and the monitor screen turned on. Thankfully, it hadn't been enough time for the computer to require a password. Layla sat down in the chair and started searching through it.
There was a window open for the yearly schedule, but when tabbing out of it, there were several folders on Duke's desktop. Each one seemed to be very important with their names.
"What do we search for?" Quinn said as he looked at the desktop.
There were folders named Classified information, Marks, Student List, Schedules, Special Visit List, and more.
"You said there wasn't anyone at the portal room, right?" Layla repeated, "I think we should check to see if there was meant to be any guards."
Opening the folder for schedules, they saw it open up a window which had a few sub folders, including one named "Guard patrols." Opening it, there were several excel files sorted by time. Searching by the name of the portal room as well as yesterday's date, they opened the the file, and saw that there was in fact a scheduling conflict. It was done so that when the guards would change shift, their replacements wouldn't arrive.
However, what was strange was that the scheduling conflict was marked a bright red. It was so obvious that even Quinn and Layla knew what the issue was despite being unfamiliar with the format.
They were both in shock, and didn't quite know what to make of the information. They knew that there was some sort of corruption going on in the military, but this was just confirmation of it. Quinn wanted to know who was bothering Peter so he could try teaching them a lesson, and Layla had her reasons of wanting to know, but this meant they couldn't do anything about it.
This was the head of the second years responsible for all of this, someone untouchable to a pair of level 2 students. Even if they told a teacher, then how would they answer the question of where they got this information? Or if that teacher wasn't somehow under Duke's thumb?
Layla was biting at her lip, and Quinn was similarly just as nervous. If they were caught right now, this would very much put them in a worse situation than getting expelled. Perhaps they would even be sent to the dungeon deep under the school.
Quinn shook his head, "We can't worry about that now, we have to help Erin."
That snapped Layla out of her shock.
"Right."
Looking through the computer, they found that one of the open windows had a staff wide message saying that two students had gone through a red portal planet. The portal being one that led to planet Pioletic. Unfortunately, they couldn't find any more information about the planet.
"Pioletic…" Quinn whispered.
It was then that they heard several people chatting and enter the building all at once. They were running out of time.
"Quick, let's get out of here!" Layla whispered yelled to Quinn.
Quinn nodded, and they were about to leave through the only door out when they saw a part of Duke's body turn the corner through the small door window. They both quickly ducked down and looked at each other frantically.
"What do we do?" Layla mouthed.
Quinn's eyes went across the entire office room, looking for something, anything to hide in. Should they hide in a closet? Under the desk? It all sounded like bad ideas. Then, he felt his hand touch the ground.
One of the things that made the earth ability so desirable was the fact that you can make a good living working as a construction worker with its power. A lot of people went into this job as a result, and with the military handing out earth ability books, it further made the job a common one.
Being a construction worker was not important in this moment. What was important was what this had led to. A lot of buildings were made using the earth ability, as it was quick, sturdy, and cheap. Plus, with the military's personnel mostly consisting of earth ability users, most of its buildings were made nearly 100% of stone.
Quinn put his hands on the ground and quickly made a large enough hole that could fit both him and Layla inside. It would be a tight squeeze, but they would much rather be squished together than get found out.
They both jumped in, and Quinn closed the hole above them. They heard a door open, then footsteps above them very faintly.
Layla's face grew a little red now that it seemed like the coast was clear. Their bodies were kinda squished together.
"Hey, um…" Layla whispered, barely audible, "Do you think you can make this hole little bigger?"
However, there was something much more pressing on Quinn's mind. In his vision, he saw something startling.
{Erin} I'm sorry.
Quinn's voice cracked, "We're… too late."
[Erin's HP has reached 0 due to hunger]
[Transformation will now begin]