A chill wind that was either winter’s last breath, or one of spring’s first, had fallen upon the republic of Oskar. Covering all the leaves and stems of the republic’s flora with a crisp, thin, and silvery layer of frost. It was the middle of the afternoon, a collection of youths in their late teens, and early twenties, ran round and round on a massive track. Many of them moving faster than your average automobile. Amongst them, ran Brenna “Brandy” Kane.

Once upon a time, she would have expected to be running at the back of the pack, but a lot had changed in the last two years. Now she ran near the front of the pack. Her long, even, strides carried her at a pace that was somewhere in the neighborhood of 370 to 380 miles per hour. With young Brandy potentially being able to go faster, if it weren’t for the fact that this was just gym class, and if it weren’t for the fact that she was surrounded by dozens of other superhumans, the speed she was running at now, would already be extremely unsafe.

The twenty-year-old had not only discovered her powers, but she’d grown increasingly adept at using them. Ther two employers, her two friends, her only family in this or any world, had not only opened the lock on her cage, but they’d also helped the caged bird learn to fly. Thus it was that Brandy learned that puppet-threads could be used to control not only the war-dolls that she secretly carried everywhere, but also her own body. Psychic powers were heavily influenced by mental state and point of view. It only took a small shift in perception for someone with Brandy’s powerset to learn to think of themselves as a living puppet, so they could imbue themselves with a mantle of psionic energy.

Add to this the sheer amount of top-grade natural and supernatural treasures, treatments, and items, that Brandy had been given nearly unfettered access to, and even without the use of her psionic abilities, Brandy would have been capable of thoroughly superhuman feats. The point being that Brandy was no longer the shy, withdrawn, girl that she’d once been. Okay, she was maybe still shy, and maybe she still got nervous around crowds, but she definitely had a lot more confidence in herself than she’d had before.

Enough so, that as she found herself surrounded by a small number of unfamiliar faces, the former-debutant didn’t fall into a swoon, or retreat into herself. Calmly answering a few questions, before finding an appropriate excuse to scurry away and escape. Those unfamiliar faces were scouts from various factions. The miniature superhuman olympic tournament, that the Winthrop-Carlyle Academy and College had made its students take part in for the last two weeks, had finally ended. Now the scouts were allowed to step forwards and make their offers to the school’s elites.

More than a few scouts were showing interest in Brandy, because even if none of her results were particularly attention-grabbing, she’d been consistently near the top ranks throughout the entire tournament. What’s more, it was notable that she’d used her two allotted rights of abstention to bow out of the combat, and power demonstration, parts of the two-week-long trial. Making many people believe she was either totally lacking in those regards, or hiding a powerful secret.

*************************************************************************************************************

Luckily for Brandy the scouts and reporters were kept out of the academy proper, so she only needed to withstand them until she’d managed to head into one of the lecture buildings.

“Ugh! I kind of hate you now. You’re not even out of breath after all that,” said the soft and brassy voice of Eva Rutledge. After almost two years of association, she and Brandy had gone from being merely close-friends to being best friends. Though Brandy eventually expanded her social circle to include more of her fellow students, and the occasional regular at the store, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Eva was in a special category, right below her benefactors the Holsts.

“I-, I ran out of breath...I just recovered quickly is all...And how about you? You did pretty well in the weight-lifting and endurance events,” said Brandy. Smiling faintly.

“Psh, I’m 7-foot-1 and a Rutledge, if I couldn’t do good on those events they might make me turn in my family name,” laughed Eva.

“So...Ladies, did anyone get any good offers?” said another voice. Light and mellow and just a little sly.

It was Nala. Nala Odom. A young woman of around 20 years of age, like Brandy. Short with an average build and creamy brown skin. The woman had a lean face, a flat nose, thin lips, and sharp eyes. Her short brown hair was curly and generally slicked back. She often wore a leather jacket over her academy uniform’s blazer.

Nala was one of Eva’s other friends, and in theory a friend of Brandy’s as well, though Brandy generally got the sense that Nala was less her friend, and a more a friend by proxy, a good(?) acquaintance who’d managed to become more than just a friend of a friend, after multiple interactions.

“Eh, I got a few. There were the usual industrial companies looking for workers that are tougher than the bots, there’s were scouts from our good republic’s military of course,” said Eva

“Of course,” said the two other girls. Laughing lightly amongst themselves.

“And then there were a couple pretty well-known guild-companies,” said Eva. Sounding satisfied with the amount of attention she’d managed to attract.

“Wow. So lucky, the only real attention that ‘I’ managed to attract was from a little company by the name of the Dorothea-Oz Corporation,” said Nala. Doing a bad job of sounding casual.

“No fucking way,” said Eva. In an excited whisper.

“You managed to get scouted by the Dorothea Clan?” said Eva. n

“Well, I got scouted by one of their biggest subordinate corporations anyway,” said Nala. Practically preening at this point.

“Well, how about you?” said Nala. Turning Brandy.

“H-, Huh?!” said Brandy. Taken aback, even though she ‘had’ been following along.

“Did ‘you’ get any interesting offers?” Eva.

“Oh, er...Maybe? I, uh...I wasn’t really paying attention,” said Brandy.

“Eh?!” said Eva. Looking bewildered.

“What do you mean you weren’t paying attention?” said Nala. Sounding shocked and a little outraged.

“Er...Well, I kind of already know what I want to do, and I’m already with the group I want to be with,” said Brandy. Unable and unwilling to go into depth and explain that right now she made more money, and enjoyed better benefits, as a store clerk, than some royalty and captains of industry would ever get to enjoy.

Brandy was acutely aware that as wretched as her home life had been, financially speaking her life story was a riches to rags to even greater riches sort of story. Which sometimes gave her the misapprehension that she had no right to complain about her terrible upbringing and experiences. Though Josephine was quick to explain to her that things didn’t really work that way, and that her problems and her experiences were valid regardless of how things might have been for her, and how well she was currently doing.

“Ah, I got it. You got that family gig you’ve had going for you,” Eva. Seeming to understand a little of what Brandy was alluding to.

“Oh, family,” said Nala. Also, seeming to understand. The fervor of the scouts was largely due to the extreme difficulty that came with drawing true talents from whatever preset futures their clans and households might have planned for them.

“Yeah...Family. The offers might have been pretty good, but I wouldn’t trade that for the world,” said Brandy. Speaking of the kind-hearted blond werewolf and the incredibly handsome shopkeep. Feeling warm inside as she thought of that little store and its not-so-little confines.

“I get that. Welp, we best shut up...Don’t look now but the teacher has been giving all the chatterboxes in class ‘murder’-eyes this whole time...Which is fucking dumb, I don’t know why they even bothered having classes after the last two weeks, the term’s almost over, and everyone is either sleeping, or talking about their future prospects,’ said Eva. Snorting good-humoredly.