During their free period in the afternoon, Numba decided to go off ahead on his own, heading towards the dormitory. Having found out what his father was going through, he couldn't get it off his mind. A part of him was afraid that if he stayed around the others, there was a good chance that he would just blurt something out by accident.
Before Numba had met the others, he hadn’t really been someone who would filter his speech, a trait which hadn’t exactly gotten him a lot of friends in his life. Exactly for that reason, the last thing he wanted to do was get his new friends involved into his family’s mess. On his way, a student with a beanie was standing in the hallway, leaning up against his room.
“Hey, you’re Numba, right?” The student asked while chewing a piece of gum. “My name’s Mike. Miss Patel sent me to fetch you.”
The Goat Altered didn’t recognise this student immediately. There were only so many students in a class, yet there were multiple classes due to number of students fluctuating depending on how fast someone was able to ‘graduate’. Numba knew that he had only focused on the students that had come in just before their batch. That way he could compare his progression to theirs.
“What does she need me for?’ Numba replied.
The student shrugged his shoulders. “Beats me, I’m just the messenger boy. My guess is that it might have something to do with your absence this morning. If you wanna know, just ask her.” With that, Mike walked ahead.
Numba didn’t think much of it, because that theory was quite sound. After all, he hadn’t informed her about his absence nor had he requested time off. He followed behind Mike who seemed to be showing him the way. However, when they ended up in an outside area, only then did Numba start to suspect that something else was going on.
‘Wait a second, I’m pretty sure the teacher’s office should also be in the same building, so where is he taking me?’ Numba wondered. Of course, there was the chance that Miss Patel might be somewhere else, but in that case what would be important enough that it couldn’t wait for when she was back at her office? Besides, was there really a need for a student sent to pass on the message and to guide him, rather than just tell him where to go?
“Hey, I don’t want you wasting this free period. How about you just tell me where she is. I can head there on my own.” Numba suggested carefully.
Mike stopped dead in his tracks. they were around ten metres away from the main academy building.
“I thought that this would be a simple, easy job.” Mike turned around, still chewing the piece of gum. “Look, all you need to do is follow me, okay? And before you think of running away, let me tell you that there is a particular girl with curly hair who is waiting with my friends for you to show up. Surely, you don’t want her to get hurt just because you didn’t show up, right?”
Numba’s heart thumped louder for a second, hearing that name. Whoever this person was, or this group, they had to know a bit about them, because they knew that Numba and Izzy were friends.
‘How…did this happen? Izzy and Ian are nearly always together. How did they manage to split them apart?’ Numba wondered as he proceeded to follow ‘Mike’.
Sure, there were plenty of strong students in the academy, but in a lot of cases, Numba would classify Ian as a better fighter than he was. The two of them would also have been in school, so Ian would have been able to do something for them to get away.
———
“Ah!!” Ian let out sigh as he pushed the toilet door open. ‘I really needed that, I don’t know what it was that I ate yesterday… Huh, Izzy?’ Ian turned his head left and right. ‘I swear she said she would wait for me? Maybe yesterday’s food didn’t agree with her either. Anyway, they say it’s best to stay put when separated, so I guess I’ll just stay here for now.’
——
Eventually, Numba was led to an outside part of the school that not many would walk around. It was in between the main academy and where the debut students would go. So the only people that would go back and forth were the debut students, but they would never go around the building and instead would go through it, so it was a pretty good spot for whoever planned it all to do whatever it was they wanted.
When turning the corner, that's when Numba could see it, ten students, a mix of some he had seen, and others he might have only noticed in passing. The group consisted of only males, the only odd one out was Izzy who was up against the wall. There was a blood mark on the wall, and her face was beaten and bruised, with somewhat dry blood around her nose. Her eyelids were swollen and it looked like she had passed out.
“You basta*s!” Numba screamed. “You wanted me, right? Why would you hurt her?”
Seeing like this the rage was too much, and Number had already started to transform as a long white fur was grown g on his arms, and horns on his head appeared.
In an explosive takeoff, Numba blasted his way right to Mike, throwing out a fist hitting him square in the face, sending him flying through the air and on the group, blood dripping out his mouth, and not getting back up.
“Hahaha!” One of the other students laughed while turning around, it was the one who was closest to Izzy. He was tall, and had a skinny body, with bags under his eyes. When looking at him closely, it looked like he also had bruised knuckles, compared to everyone else.
‘That's him, he must be the one that hurt Izzy!’ Numba thought.
The Goat Altered started to run forward towards her, but his explosive power would only take him so far, before he slowed down. It was more like an explosive kick from the ground, and then he would need to kick off again.
At the same time, this greatly tired out Numba doing something like this. When he started to slow down in speed, though, all the others had transformed. This wasn’t just a gang of ten teenagers one would meet in the city, nor a group of thugs loitering around school. This was the AFA, an Academy for Altered where the best came to train, and that's when Numba realised the situation he was in. A strange long wet looking limb whacked him right in the stomach.
At the same time, something he couldn't even see had hit him from the top of the head. Before he could even recover, he felt like he had been lifted by another pair of arms and slammed on the concrete. Straight after, not even being able to lift his hands, he was getting hit and kicked from multiple sides.
‘Why…why is this happening, why are these people attacking me?’ While thinking of this, Numba remembered the words of his father, that he had to be careful in the academy. It was too much of a coincidence to just ignore. He had been going through his academy days fine until this point.
‘That man, the one that I saw at Notsburg! His eyes, I knew they weren’t normal. This gang, it's one that's related to Sty… is he the one behind this? Even if he isn’t, he will surely know something about it, but first I need to survive this!’
The group of nine didn’t stop, and Numba’s vision was getting hazy from the blood loss. ‘Because of me… they hurt Izzy… I’m the worst type of friend.’
“Stop!” The man's voice from far back, next to Izzy, was heard, and the rest had stopped. Looking at Numba on the ground, he was in no condition to fight or get up. It was unclear just how many bones they broke in his body, but it was obvious he would need weeks to heal.
“It was a great idea to bring her here, don’t you think? Seeing your girlfriend like this was a sure-fire way to get you to attack us first.” The man gloated. “One of the first things you learn about this part of the academy is that no fighting is allowed in the academy between students allowed without a teacher’s permission.
“However, there is one addendum to that rule. Students are allowed to act in self-defence. You, Numba, were the first one to strike us, so you got nobody to blame but yourself.”
Numba, unable to move, could only move his mouth slightly. “Why… are you doing this to me…why are you doing this to my family?!”
“Oh, so it looks like you figured out why this is happening to you.” The man laughed again. “Either way, it looks like, you might no longer be in the AFA after this.”
The group started to laugh again, until they heard a grunting voice. “What are you guys doing?”
As they turned their head, they could see a green haired teenager standing next to a grey haired girl.
“Oh, are you a friend of his? Well, too bad you can’t get revenge, otherwise you will get kicked out of the academy as well.” The man laughed.
Gary’s eyes were beaming red, as he looked up and shouted at them, his body starting to transform.
“You think I give a f*ck about following the academy’s rules when scum like you attack my friends? I’ll kill you all!!!”
*****
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