Covert and Clandestine: The Secret Academy of Iron City

It’s a chilly but sunny day in early fall in Krasnoyarsk-26. Near the edge of the Yenisei river stand the high stone walls of Iron City Academy. At 0530, the bell rings to call the students to their morning drills. Unlike most mornings, many students leap out of their narrow beds and hurry down the narrow stone staircases to the practice grounds. Rumor has it that new students have arrived and that this will be their first morning out.

Among the newcomers was a boy in his late teens, Noah Teufel, who had undertaken the most unfortunate travel experience ever to get to Iron City. The men who escorted Noah were beset with unexpected delays time and time again. Each of these valiant men should have been given medals of honor to compensate for the sacrifices they had to make during their arduous journey.

At times weather was either too hot or too cold, too rainy or too dry, and some days it was a complete clusterfuck such as when they encountered a tornado on a hill which is exactly what it sounds like or that time when their tents caught fire after staying in the sun for too long. This was not the end of their troubles, since half of the men sustained major life-crippling injuries throughout the trip. That figure alone should have been enough for a sane mind to emphasize the difficulty of this misadventure. Hell, even a trip to purgatory would have been much easier.

Yet to skip all the details and not marvel at hardship that they endured would bring great injustice to these heroes. In spite of the adversities that challenged their sanity, they bumped into miracles that restored their faith not only in humanity but in God as well.

One man was caught by a tornado on a hill, helplessly flung hundreds or thousands of meters up into the air and he finally dropped to the ground after suffering the wrath of the wind spirits. When his concerned colleagues went to inspect the body, they found that he was alive and well. Then there was another incident where everybody ate lethally poisonous berries but suffered no repercussions whatsoever. Someone found books to be astonishingly tasty. (No, literally, he was hungry so he ate it. It tasted like chicken.)

Unbeknownst to them, the source of their troubles was not God, not luck, and certainly not karma being a bitch; it was the very boy they were escorting, Noah Teufel, who could warp reality around him with a random thought. It was hard to believe that this youngster could destroy their lives as easily as he could revive them from the dead. Nevertheless, the impact Noah had on their lives was so profound that most of the men would be talking about this adventure for the rest of their lives.

Noah arrived in Iron City via a truck, and this time it didn't suffer an engine failure. Upon entering the steel gates, he bid his escorts farewell with a wave of his hand and marched in line with the other new students.

I'm going to miss those guys, Noah thought as his escorts departed.

edited 6th Jun '16 2:07:40 AM by Victor_Skye

Erika felt a distant stinging feeling on her cheek. As usual, she had a hard time waking up, an unfortunate side effect of her medication. She felt dizzy and the pain on her cheek came closer every second as she became conscious.

"Ow… So who did...?" she murmured, still half asleep. Apparently someone had tried to wake her up by slapping her in the face.

As the other students were rushing outside, Erika heard someone shouting ”Get up already! The new ones are arriving today!” at her direction. The level of excitement among the students was unlike anything she had experienced since the day she first arrived, which happened to be exactly one year ago.

Erika opened her locker, put on her training uniform and joined the stream of students who were rushing out to the morning drill with the hopes of catching a glimpse of the new students.

Kasparas let the waxing light of the sun shine down upon him as he read his book on the train ride. As his eyes passed over the same line for the fourth time, he put away [i]The Mother[/i]. He was nearly to his stop anyway, so he began packing his things. He had mostly slept on the way there, but he had accumulated a decent-sized stack of novels in the eight hour trip. As the train ground to a halt, he picked up his luggage. He stepped out of the car, and before him loomed the skyline of the Iron City.

Kasparas spent the bus ride to the academy contemplating his new life. He was putting his career as a dancer aside so that he could serve his country. He was more or less at peace with it. What he'd really wanted, deep down, was to be famous. Still, he was going to be a soldier, and he had no idea how he felt about the fact that he might have to kill another person. These dark thoughts were with him as he approached the academy.. He had on a red tank-top with a brown leather jacket over it, and his golden blond hair went down past his shoulders.

Alena woke up, stretched and almost went back to sleep, before someone yelled about the new students. Muttering and procratinating, she rolled out of bed, and on to the floor.

"Oof!"

Despite the influx of new people, the excitement of having a different life, and the overall splendor of the Academy of Iron City, Noah was unimpressed with his new life. East Berlin was a prison and so was Iron City. He was just transferred from one prison to the next and nothing changed much. But he didn't care, he just wanted to settle right into bed and have a hot meal or two to relieve him from the strain of travel.

He observed the faces of every newcomer, a few of them were lively faces for they were happy to be here, some were downcast faces for they evidently were not happy being here, some were anxious faces for they were worried of facing the unknown dangers of Iron City, while there were some people like Noah who were just gawking at the rest of the students wondering why the hell they were sent here.

"Move along, boy." One of the Iron City guards shoved Noah with the rest of the others when he saw that Noah was staring out into space.

Understandably, Noah frowned at the guard and shot a disgusted look at him. The guard, just wanting to do his job with the least amount of trouble just pushed Noah again into the crowd. Finally, after looking straight at the guard in the eye, Noah complied and walked with the others.

"Young people these days," The guard muttered under his breath.

"Fucking asshole," Noah said to himself.

edited 6th Jun '16 9:19:53 AM by Victor_Skye

"You know, I could be curing world hunger or solving the energy crisis right now, but motherfuckers have me at some bummer-ass high school in the ass-end of nowhere." A girl on the opposite side of the bus's aisle from Kasparas snarled—Ruth Ornstein. She wore some bright red-and-white Zubaz, a dark pink tank top, and a sour expression. She hadn't had enough time to sit down and get her morning coffee until just now and she was sure as hell feeling it. She fixed it quick; she extended a hand, and a steaming mug of coffee appeared in it. A few seconds later and she dropped three sugar cubes into it, stirring the whole thing with a small spoon, all of it conjured out of thin air. She nodded over at the kid. He certainly wasn't hard to look at.

"Hey, dreamboat, you want some?" She offered, dinging her index finger against the cup. "We gotta be on our A-Game if we wanna survive here. I got cream and sugar too."

At exactly 0530, the same time every day for as long as he could remember, Spartak woke up instantly. Long years of waking up at the farm taught him to get up fast in order to beat the rooster, and some things never change. He sat up in his bed, got out, and passed by another Spartak who was patiently waiting by the bed, reading a book on proper tank maintenance and operation of the T-80 main battle tank. The second Spartak closed his book, set it down on the nightstand, and then got into the bed, falling asleep as instantly as the previous occupant had woken up.

He went to the restroom in order to wash up quickly, a third Spartak who was on his way out holding the door open for him. Once he had cleaned and dried his face, he left the facilities, and a fourth Spartak handed him the homework he had completed. On his way down the stairs, he passed by a fifth and sixth Spartak, on their way back from a tiring night of practicing their Sambo, as well as a seventh who was coming back from an invigorating run. He made it to his locker, where he put his homework for later, and then headed towards the practice grounds, where he would patiently wait.

New students were rumored to be coming in today, but it didn't faze him much. It was always the same. Some would be hot, their minds not yet conditioned to control the fire in their blood. Some would be cold, their will to live seemingly nonexistent as they merely went through the paces. Few would even be like him, a rock - willing to endure whatever they had to deal with in the academy without breaking, yet not without that inner spark that made life worth living. However their personalities wound up looking like, it wasn't of much consequence, as the school and the government were far more experienced than he could fathom at getting unwilling individuals to do their bidding.

But most importantly... the Tank Club could always use new members.

edited 6th Jun '16 7:47:06 PM by nman

Just as she was passing through the doorway out to the corridor, Erika noticed that the third year student Alena Masayenia had fallen out of her bed, so she turned around and asked “Are you all right?”

The line of new students seemed small from where Erika stood in the dormitory, and as there were quite a few walls in the way of her senses, the picture became somewhat blurry and distorted. Usually the new students came with a bus that invariably would arrive ten to fifteen minutes late but there had been cases of students arriving by other means. One such boy was being escorted out of an armored truck and he had an incredibly sour expression on his face.

edited 6th Jun '16 11:23:11 PM by IsaacTheRed

On the practice field stands a man in his fifties, with close-cropped dark hair that has just begun to turn grey and a clean-shaven face. He wears something that resembles a Sovetskaya Armiya officer's uniform, but with subtle differences- a darker shade of fabric here, a different collar there. Returning students recognize him as Vitaliy Ryzhkov, the school's headmaster.

He faces the side of the field where the new students have been deposited. "Welcome," he says in a tone that contains nothing particularly welcoming. He's nearly shouting to make himself heard across the yard. "To the Iron City Academy. Join us for our morning drills, then find another student to show you to your dormitories and then to the gym for placement testing."

After a brief pause to make sure he is understood, he begins to walk back towards the steps of the main building where he waits just outside the door to watch. Another man, this one in a similar outfit but slightly shorter than the headmaster's average height, takes his place. His hair is also cut in a short, practical style but retains its black color. "I am Comrade Minzhe, the hand-to-hand combat and physical education instructor," he yells in slightly-accented Russian. "Form two evenly sized groups. The first group is to line up in front of me, the second by the main entrance." He points at it, then crosses his arms over his chest, obviously expecting to be obeyed instantly.

"We have to hurry! The Headmaster is addressing the new students." Erika half shouted, half whispered to Alena.

Nodding to Erika, Alena pulled herself up.

"I'm fine. Thanks."

After a two years, the novelty of the new students arrival had worn off a bit, but the Headmaster was about to start talking, so she grabbed her stuff and quickly got changed. She walked towards Erika, looking at her with concern when she noticed the handprint-ish shape on Erika. Taking the opportunity to help, she offered her hand to Erika, before realising that she could do this later, and headed down to the practice grounds, checking behind her to see if Erika was following.

When she got there, she joined the group by the entrance, again looking for Erika.

Normally, Spartak would like to be nearer to Minzhe so that he could get a better view of whatever technique was being taught, but he figured that since there would be new students today, it might be more prudent to give them a chance instead. He walked over to the entrance, turned around, then stood at the ready.

Kasparas inclined his bright brown eyes to the girl. He was fairly tall, but even sitting down, he could tell she was a fair amount taller than he. While normally he'd get fresh with her, her height was intimidating, and if she decked him he would probably come out of it with a black eye. And he couldn't show up to the academy on his first day with a black eye. And he just generally wasn't quite in the mood, for hitting on the ladies or coffee.

Still, this was the first time he'd seen another aberration in person, though he had seen them on TV. His eyes followed the implements that she created intently.

"No thank you." He finally said. He spoke very softly, as was normal for him. It was about this time that the bus lurched to a halt. He checked his watch, and he still had time to get to class. "I appreciate it, but I doubt I could keep it down." It was about then that the bus stopped. He picked up his luggage and headed out with the rest of the class.

"I take it you're a student at the Academy? My name is Kasparas. I hope to see you there." He said, smiling sunnily as best he could before heading off. It took some navigation, but he found himself in the practice field just a little bit before Vitaliy Ryzhkov. He'd seen a photograph of the headmaster before, and he could tell even from that that the principal of this school was an imposing man. Though Comrade Minzhe was certainly imposing too, he'd much rather get in a scuffle with him than the schoolmaster.

As he recieved his instructions, Kasparas looked back and forth, unsure which one he was supposed to do first. At loss for what to do, he decided to go stand over by the group at the entrance, by Spartak. He looked like he knew his way around the school.

When the school's headmaster made his welcoming address, Noah was busy daydreaming about a major communist revolution in the United States and did not listen to his instructions. He snapped out of it when the physical education instructor came in, and he ran to the main entrance to avoid the muscle freak. So you can imagine his disappointment when he saw that his group were packing boys that had big arms.

All Noah could boast was that he the had small, delicate hands of a beautiful woman. (It was still bigger than a woman's, but they were rather small for a man. It could still pack a punch if it landed straight in the face though.) Standing beside his groupmates, he felt that he was totally outclassed by these more muscular youngsters. In a fight, Noah was much better at running than brawling. He could tire out his opponents by scurrying from one corner to the other until they were exhausted. Noah placed much more emphasis on endurance rather than strength.

Unsure of what was happening around him, he decided to ask, "So, what's going on?"

edited 7th Jun '16 4:06:21 AM by Victor_Skye

A slightly short figure emerging from the very back of the bus wearing rather bulky clothing brushed past Ruth, the hood of her overcoat drawn up over her head giving her only a tiny window to peer out of.

"Watch it," Anna said.

She steered around Ruth, careful not to cause her to spill coffee. Anna walked up to the front of the bus and stepped outside, small backpack in hand. Loosening the hood, she threw it off and ran her hand through her messy brown hair, straightening it up enough to stay out of her face. She let out a deeply held sigh, her breath fogging in the chilly air around her.

It only took a few minutes asking around to get to the practice field. Joining slightly late, she peered around and then promptly lined up by the entrance without really knowing what Minzhe's instructions were. With a quick glance around to spot the line forming at the entrance, Anna pulled her hood back up over her head.

edited 7th Jun '16 4:42:30 AM by opnerf

Seeing the small girl (Anna) approach their group at the entrance, he tried his luck, "Hey, do you know what's going on here?" Noah was utterly clueless of the situation, so he was horrified of not knowing what to do on his first day.

Then he turned to some pretty boy (Kasparas) and asked him the same question, "Uh, what's happening?!"

Then he turned to a taller guy (Spartak), "Has the world gone insane?"

Noah was afraid of being punished by the instructor if he asked him, so he approached the students instead.

edited 7th Jun '16 5:18:50 AM by Victor_Skye

That the bus had arrived on time was a pleasant surprise that meant less unnecessary waiting than the previous year. Erika ran down the narrow staircase and joined the group at the main entrance. “Sorry for making you wait.” she said to let them know she had arrived.

The boy who had traveled in the armored truck looked confused and exclaimed “Has the world gone insane?” with a scared voice. Erika tried to calm the boy down and said cheerfully “No, why would it? It’s the morning drill. The highlight of the day if you ask me!”

"Highlight of the day you say? They are going to force me to exercise." Noah replied grimly as if physical education was some sort of euphemism for special forces training.

Unfortunately, this was not the worst of it. Whenever he was panicky, he could exaggerate things to the point of absurdity that it was almost comical. Regardless of his complaints, Noah was a good runner, but he had bad upper body strength.

edited 7th Jun '16 6:14:51 AM by Victor_Skye

"Arright, no problem man." Ruth nodded to Kasparas and got up from the bus. Another girl bumped her too, but hey, no harm done, she didn't spill her coffee or anything. As she grabbed her luggage, Ruth reflected that she probably could have just memorized all her shit before coming then just duped it here, but she felt it would be a waste or something to do that. So she had a big brown suitcase in one hand and that same mug of coffee in the other as she lined up with all the rest of the abominations or whatever they were called and took a spot in front of Minzhe, sipping on her mug the whole time.

Anna looked back with a scowl on her face.

"Huh? You're the one that's gone insane, clearly."

She turned her attention back to the front of the line, hunching over slightly and stuffing her hands into her front pockets. What kind of morning drills did they have at a school like Iron City?

"Line up and don't think about it too much."

Kasparas looked to his side as a scrawny guy with a fedora came up to him. He was joined by a short girl. He was pretty sure he had at least a head on her. Combined with how she was hunched over, she looked nervous, and so did the fedora'd young man. Somehow, it made him feel a bit better.

"We're going to do drills, and then we're going to find our dorms." Kasparas said, shrugging. He wasn't sure why Noah was so scared of exercise. "Nervous?" He asked Anna and Noah.

Having seen that Erika got there fine, Alena moved forward to the group. She got there in time to hear one mew student asking two new students if they're nervous.

"Don't be nervous. It's not hard."

Then she turned towards Erika, beckoning towards herself.

"Erika, come here."

Erika ignored the armored truck-boy but she couldn’t help agreeing with the girl who stood beside him, he was insane. She wanted to spare herself the trouble of starting a conflict with someone who not only was incredibly unpleasant but also very unstable.

Fortunately that train of thought was quickly derailed by Alena. "Yes?" Erika replied as she moved toward Alena.

Alena lifted her hand, placing it on Erika's face. Erika would feel the pain from her cheek fade and disappear. The shadows under Alena's eyes deepened and darkened, but not by much.