Biohuman

The Next Day

The bell rang. His Specialization was ending for the day. He let out a sigh of relief. He had been working on getting used to his new Dark Matter outputs. Glass Specialization class allowed him to mess with more ideas. He could feel that he was finally comfortable in his ranged use of his powers.

"Alright everyone. I hope you're ready for your field expedition tomorrow! Remember there won't be actual classes. You'll be on the field all day! I'll see you guys after Thanksgiving!" Ms. Winters waved the students goodbye.

"Ugh, I can't wait for tomorrow." Chloe's smile was bright. Lee Seng, Liz and Chloe walked together out of the gym. "We're going on an actual Guild mission. This is gonna be so cool!"

"You're very excited about it." Liz elbowed Chloe.

"Of course! Usually we just get sent to random areas to help with volunteer efforts that nobody wants to deal with. This year," Chloe looked around before motioning them to come closer. They all stopped in their place and Lee Seng and Liz leaned in. "They're actually allowing us to go outside the gates. This year is a test of teamwork. We actually get missions outside the city!"

"Is it always not like that?" Lee Seng asked. Both of the girls shook their heads.

"No," Liz answered. "It's usually popping into one of their field test zones and securing a specific thing or doing clean up like Chloe mentioned earlier."

"Ahhh, that's why you're so pumped about this."

"Yeah, it's going to be a great experience!" Chloe chuckled. Her watch beeped and Chloe looked down. "Oh, right, I'm gonna be late!" She looked up at Liz and Lee Seng. "We have one more team practice before tomorrow. Since Lee Seng is back, I'm guessing you guys are gonna have your big team training session today, too?"

"Yeah. Things didn't go as planned but at least we get to shake off the rust." Liz nodded.

"What're you guys planning to do?"

"Mmm, I think Manny was pulling some strings for that. I think he wanted access to one of the Field Test zones. Maybe we'll get to practice on actual moving objects this time."

"Ahh," Chloe nodded. She glanced at her watch again. "Well, I need to go, so I'll see you two later."

"I'll come with you." Liz told Chloe. She turned to look at Lee Seng. "I'll meet you in the usual spot."

"Alright." Lee Seng waved.

Lee Seng had brought clothes to switch out into after classes ended. He had taken a shower out of habit, even though they were gonna train more, and was waiting near the entrance/exit where he and his friends usually used to come through and/or met up at. Lee Seng wore a gray hoodie with his coat, blue jeans and sneakers. He wore a silver ring on his right ring finger with intricate blue lines moving around it. He had his cracked school watch on, still, and tapped away on his phone.

"Oh, there he is!" Olivia pointed Lee Seng out. "Lee! Hey!" She began to wave, pulling his attention from his phone over to her. Lee Seng waved at Olivia, Evan and Ritsuka. They made their way through the crowd and huddled around each other.

"Where's Liz?" Ritsuka asked.

"She might be saying goodbye to her friend." Lee Seng answered. He clicked his phone off and slipped his phone into his pocket. "We're going back to the dorms to drop things off first, right?"

"Mmm, that's what Manny said to do." Evan nodded.

"Come on, Manny! You gotta come out afterwards! The party's gonna be a time!" One of Manny's friends' voices pleaded. Lee Seng looked up. His eyes scanned the crowd and noticed Manny with his usual set of friends. The one who was talking was Ty. Manny usually hung around the usual group of guys. Ty, Dean and Winston. They seemed to follow him everywhere and Lee Seng was surprised Manny didn't join their expedition group.

"I dunno, man. Dad wants me to bring Lee Seng back home for Thanksgiving." Manny told the group. The guys all groaned as Manny noticed Lee Seng and the others.

"The expedition test will be over by then. You only need to be there during the evening. Just swing by before you go!" Ty pleaded.

"I'll think about it, alright? I got training with my expedition group, so I'll talk to y'all later, alright?"

"Fine." Ty grumbled. "See ya."

"See ya, Manny." The other three waved. Manny split off from his group and walked over towards Lee Seng and the others.

"Seems like I got here before Liz did." Manny chuckled. "Where is she by the way? Didn't you have class with her today, Lee?"

"She wanted to go with Chloe. She probably saw her off at the telepad and is probably close to here by now." Lee Seng looked at his watch.

"Sorry, I took so long!" Liz's voice popped up through the crowd. They all turned to see her breaking through the crowd and waving at everyone. "Chloe wanted to chat about Thanksgiving plans."

"All good." Manny smiled. He let Liz join their small huddle and turned his attention onto everyone.

"So, what're we doing today? Regular gym training?" Evan asked.

"I told you I'd arrange something for today." Manny smiled. "Let's debrief while we're walking to the dorms. I'll tell you what we're doing today." They all started to walk back to the droms together. "Activate your comms." The group all switched their comms on.

They had all gotten it when they came to school. It was an accessory they kept on them at all times. Lee Seng twisted his ring. He could hear it activating.

"What's the input number?" Ritsuka asked.

"275A6L." Manny replied.

Lee Seng tapped away at the holographic screen in front of him. A chime was heard and a voice had told him he had successfully paired to "Manny's Channel."

"Can you hear me?" Manny asked, testing the comms out.

"Yup." Each member replied.

"Alright. Well like I mentioned last night, I put in a request to use one of the Field Test zones. I thought we could use one of the forest zones since we're more than likely going to be going outside the city walls for our expedition mission. The request was approved for usage. We'll be going to the Field Zone that you four actually used on your Solo run." Lee Seng snickered. He didn't think he would go back there any time soon.

"The main focus of our training is to get a handle on our team formations that we've been trying to  work on. If we can get this down, I believe we'll do fine even if we're sloppy." Manny explained. "Any questions?"

"What's the goal in the field zone then?" Liz asked. "Is there going to be a goal in mind?"

"Mmm, I just thought we could run team formations. We have very little experience when it comes to being in a team. Four of us are transfer students while two of us used to be Mercenaries. We're going to need to get the kinks out."

"So we're just going to fight some monsters and focus on team formations." Evan repeated.

"Correct."

"I guess that means we'll try to fight some of the group monsters in that forest." Olivia guessed.

"Correct! Plus, most of those monsters are low F and D-rank monsters. There shouldn't be anything higher than a handful of C-ranks. I think we'll average around a high C-rank so it shouldn't be a problem for us." Manny nodded.

They opened the back door, switching off their comms.

"We'll meet at the telepads?" Olivia's voice echoed.

"Yeah. We'll meet at the telepad at the top like usual." Manny nodded.

The group split. The girls continued upwards while the boys all filtered into the third floor doorway.

"Are you guys sure you're okay?" Evan asked Lee Seng and Ritsuka. "Don't push yourselves too hard. It's just training. The real thing starts tomorrow."

"I'll be fine." Ritsuka brushed Evan's concern off. "I've been taking those meds the nurses gave me for the soreness. I'm not feeling that bad especially after my Specialization class."

"I feel fine." Lee Seng glanced over at Evan. "I'll be careful to not push myself too hard. Need to give 110% tomorrow, anyways."

"Mmm, the goal is to just understand formations today. Once we kinda get an idea of how we all fit into this puzzle piece, we can work on it accordingly." Manny nodded. They reach the horizontal-connecting hallway and turned as they started to split. "We'll see you guys up there in a bit then." They waved at each other as they split off.

"My only concern is how we're gonna protect Liz since most of us are close combatants." Lee Seng commented as he stopped in front of the door and punched the door code in. It beeped, flashing green, and he pushed through. Manny held the door behind him as they both entered and moved into their areas to set their things down.

"That's the thing I'm worried about too. You, me, Olivia, Evan, and Ritsuka all work well in the front. I just want to make sure Liz is okay in the off chance she can't protect herself." Manny added.

"I guess that's why I'm here." Lee Seng smiled. He grabbed his katana and strapped it onto his belt. "We'll just have to figure that out and implement precautions to deal with those situations in the future."