Combine Academy was a mediocre school in the heart of South Caster’s Landing. Children from the ages of ten through eighteen attended the school. The Campus was a massive old Duna building that was said to be a school in the old times as well. Thousands of students were swarming around the campus plaza as classes were about to start. Some walked, and others some were dropped off by mana carts. There were groups of children who liked to come to campus well before school started to hang about. Most groups simply went to be around friends. To laugh and play and grow and love. Others came to prey on that. It truly painted the picture of humanity. The way some choose to be in the light while others like to hold on to the dark. For every one man willing to grow something worth protecting, there is another who would poison that for a taste he has not earned for himself. And so, there was Glen Dunbas and his group of shit eater friends. They were an unruly bunch. Always taking and never giving. If they ate in the street they would leave the bones of their meal untended. The boys lacked forethought and so, the decay they spread in the lives of others would go noticed by all except them. Glen Dunbas, Eric Strattler, Quinn Lituli, Durlin Dooney and Frances Willet were on the prowl today. Of course they would go for the easy pickings. They found little Jon Wit. The unknowing 13 year old was reading a book alone under the tree. When Isaac, Demi, and Damon arrived at the plaza they were greeted with the sight of the shit eating quintet plucking the book from Jon's hands. As the boy shrank at the wall of tainted humanity that towered above him, holding what was his in their hands; Demi Ryker quickened her pace and walked straight into the predator’s den.
“Give that book back, Glen! Is your life so dreary that your version of fun is taking things that don’t belong to you?” Demi berated, as she stormed into earshot of the group.
The Duna boy looked up at the Ryker girl. His yellow irises pierced into her green eyes. His puffy knotted face contorted into a grimace. The boy's head looked like a clenched fist with hair.
“You think you can tell ME what to do?! You tiny lit-”
“She does and you’d do well to listen you big dumb ugly fuck.” Isaac sneered.
Damon glowered at the boys. His brows were furrowed enough to darken his eyes. He said nothing and only offered the crack of his neck as he readied his stocky body for work. Everyone of the shiteaters except Glen shifted nervously.
Glen was an 18 year old three element Duna with an affinity for stone, wind, and fire. This made the boy the strongest in Combine Academy. His stone element was already developed enough for him to coat himself in rock formations when he used it, and even if you could hit him hard enough his wind attribute made him a hard target to track. Despite this, Isaac, Damon, and Demi always stood up to him. Glen had learned throughout the years that Isaac and Damon were anything but easy. Not like little Jon Wit was easy. The two fought with Glen and his crew tooth and nail no matter how the odds were. Damon could heal whatever they threw at him and no one could land a hit on Isaac. Demi wasn’t much of a fighter but she was always the first one to open her mouth when she saw the Duna boy bully the other kids.
Glen spit on the ground and handed Jon his book back. It looked like he wasn’t willing to get into a dog fight today.
“They won’t always be there to save your skinny ass, Mr. Wit.” Glen said as he waved his crew to follow.
Jon ran up to the trio as they all relaxed their posture. “Thanks guys! You really saved my hide back there!”
“Don’t mention it. Fighting those guys is second nature for us at this point. They’re like cockroaches. I don’t get how they have the energy to keep going like they do.” Damon replied.
Jon was a Barcan. This meant unless he had a hesper tree or hesper tech, he was relatively defenseless, especially against a group of older boys.
“Keep an eye out from now on, Jon. Dumbass Dunbas is relentless once he picks someone to torment. And he is right. We aren’t always around.” Isaac stated as he stuffed his toy gun into his bag.
“How do you guys do it? How do you keep fighting them? You never even win.” Jon asked, starry eyed.
“But neither do they. They haven’t gotten me to give up once. No matter how hard they hit.” Damon interjected.
“They can barely even touch me. And the few times they have were never enough to take me out. They eventually just get tired and give up. If you make it hard enough for kids like them to push you around they won’t wanna continue. Feel no shame and show no weakness.” Isaac added.
“Easy for you two to say. I’m a Barcan. I can’t just heal everything and I’m not fast enough to just dodge them.” Jon lamented, with an expression of hopelessness.
Isaac, Damon, and Demi gave each other a knowing look and nodded in unison. Demi wrapped an arm over little Jon’s shoulder. And they all started walking towards the main building of Combine Academy. It was shaped like an enormous trapezoid. It was made up of perfectly cut massive squares stacked so precisely together that it was hard to tell that there were even separations in the walls of the building.
“You think these two could fight those boys from the beginning? Years ago Isaac was their punching bag. He was a skinny little half breed orphan, why wouldn’t they? Damon and I had no idea Isaac was going through that until half a year had passed. You see, Isaac is all mouth unless it's about the things that really bother him. He’s the suffer in silence type. Well, one day Damon catches them shoving Isaac around like they were playing catch and… Damon ran right into them. They were even younger than you back then and those dumbass street vermin are a year their senior. They came home broken and bloody that day. Our parents were furious and wanted to call the school up but Damon stopped them. He didn’t want to run from fights, even the ones he knew he couldn’t win. So, almost everyday Isaac and Damon fought Glen and his goons. Almost everyday Damon would heal himself and our little half breed freeloader after coming home beaten to a pulp. After a year they stopped coming home so broken. After a year and a half Glen started avoiding them. After two years, Damon and Isaac started the fights for sport because well… Glen’s a dickhead. Our father says we Rykers fight for the goodness in men. After the Century War we went from frontline Duna raiders to a family of healers. Elias Ryker was the family head at the time and he swore to never fight to take from others like the Duna did ever again. He had a motto that’s been passed down our family throughout the years. ‘The civility of man is the willingness to die before allowing oneself to hurt another for gain.’ People like Glen are our enemy and behavior like that has no excuses to a Ryker. If they corner you, fight them, Jon. Fight like a Ryker. When you get hurt we’ll heal you for free.”
Jon Wit nodded at Demi with a confident but nervous look in his eye as the four entered the school. The interior looked like the rest of the old buildings in Caster’s Landing. Pale polished stone in simple minimalistic shapes made up nearly the entirety of the building. Hesper roots wired their way through the building, giving the lighting fixtures energy. Most of the old Duna buildings relied on natural gas powered torches for lighting before they were conquered and hesper tech was introduced to the masses as something other than a weapon. This meant that making a wiring system that seamlessly blended in with the old megalithic Duna structures would be challenging. So instead of cutting through stone in order to hide the innards of new technology, Barcan architects opted to manipulate beautiful root systems throughout the old buildings of the Dunabad Empire.
“Alrighty let’s get this day going!” Isaac cheered.
Jon and Demi went to their respective classes. Damon and Isaac had their first class of the day together. Social Progress Class.
“You ready to have politics shoved down our throats?” Isaac sarcastically chirped.
“You could just play along, Isaac.” Damon remarked.
“I’d sooner drop out and sell drugs.”
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