Thelrose Academy: A Superhero Academy Story

[Shadowwell]

Riddled throughout history have been stories of those with seemingly magical abilities. They have been recorded in the annals of history, from the Greek Demigods and Monsters to the purported witch craft and wizardry of medieval Europe. There have been many accounts of such beings, though they have been written off as being myth and legend, but that was not the truth, we would come to find out. It was during World War 1 that Meta’s, or Superhumans, first came into the public view. It was during a British tank assault on a small town in France called Monchy Le Preux. Due to miscommunication among other things, the tank unit rushed into the town, without any infantry support.

At first the tanks broke the enemy lines and disrupted their positions, all was looking well, then the trouble began. It all began with the enemy troops realizing they had no infantry support, though the group of armor put up a fight, there wasn’t much they could do against smaller spread out targets. Many of the tank crews fell, then the area got shelled, by the artillery belonging to the British and their Allies. It was during this horrid tragedy that the first recognized Meta Awoke. He was the NCO of one of the tanks there, as he saw his friends and comrades getting killed around him, his powers Awoke.

He could control metal, and during the emotional trauma he felt, he formed the metal from the tanks as well as other things present into a massive dome that protected him and what remained of his comrades. After the war ended, he was lauded as a hero, though the public was leary for a time, understandably. In the years after the war ended many Meta’s emerged, unfortunately not all of them used their powers for good like the Colonel, the first Meta, called thus due to his bearing and rank, had. It was in the 40’s during WW 2, that the power of Meta’s became truly apparent.

It was during this time and afterwards that the world knew that Meta’s needed to be regulated. To this end a loose coalition of sorts formed between all the powerful Nations of the world, to regulate research and experimentation of metas, as well as their involvement in War’s. The Cold War era and the similar periods to it led to Meta’s not participating in wars and focusing more on their home countries. This in turn led to an upsurge of Meta actions and involvement in certain affairs in the major Countries of the world. As the emergence of Meta-criminals escalated a group emerged in the United States that actively fought against these Supervillains as they came to be called.

That group was simply called the League, and it was a force for good, that was generally secretive, while still being well known. As the League grew more and fought against the Supervillains they realized things needed to change, to some extent. In the early 90’s they created the School, an entity that would serve the purpose of finding and educating young Meta’s so that more Villains did not form due to negligence and the nature of mankind. Similar Schools were formed in the Major countries of the world, sometimes several, though only one existed in the U.S., the Academy of Superhuman Education and Learning. It is led by the Headmaster, Chrome, a Meta that is a descendant of the Colonel and can manipulate Chromium, a valuable and rare metal.

The Academy is secret, and every member of it, staff or pupil is sworn to secrecy. There are two types of students, Legacies and Scholarships, those are the terms used to throw people off. Legacies are the children of other Meta’s, Scholarships are Meta’s found without parents or those whose family has shown little meta inclination previously. The Academy divides its students up into Heroes and Sidekicks, though it is an unofficial classification. This story is about one Meta and his journey to grow beyond his parents’ names. The problem is they are two of the most famous and well known Heroes, Machina and Night-Shade, and add onto that, he doesn't have any powers that are noticeable.

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This story will be a superhero story and will focus mainly on the Main Character, but will focus on other characters a well. This is a WIP so i will be fleshing things out as i go. TG me if you have any comments or suggestions, you will be credited. This is based off of the Movie Sky High, as well as the rp series: Academy of Heroes and Villains on NationStates Forums and the one i proposed here, Once We Were Villains, it will be mostly original however.

 

[Shadowwell]

Background info:​

After World War 2 it was discovered, using Hitler’s research as a base, that all Meta’s possessed a common factor among them, a gene of sorts that could not be replicated. All Meta’s have this gene, but not all those that have the gene have powers. Normally the powers would awaken during puberty or rarely before or after. Unfortunately this doesn’t always happen, there are certain factors that can cause the powers to Awaken. Those factors include severe emotional or physical trauma, anything that jars the bar or mind to the extreme. Sometimes other things such as carefully created serums or certain types of radiation can cause the powers to surface, these are usually fatal if they don’t awaken the powers however.

Due to the fact that powers often run in the family, those that are the children of 1 or more powered Metas are often discriminated against if they have no powers. This does not mean they are excluded from being included in activities at the Academy, however. They are still taught what they needed to know and they may even be offered jobs there if their powers do not awaken at all.

To classify Meta's by their power and treat level, a scale was created, The Mercalli Scale. It went on to being used to classify the intensity of Earthquakes. This classification is used by the Governments of the world, though the Academy lists young meta's differently.
(I might add more to this later on.

 

[Shadowwell]

Prologue: Preparing for The Academy
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“Stephen Wake up it’s time for you to get ready.” Said a sweet sounding voice, interrupting Stephen’s understandably fitful sleep, on his bed which was a twin. He shook his head for a moment to clear the sleep from his mind, his shaggy black hair flying wildly with the motions. He slowly opened his eyes, revealing orbs the color of clouds on a stormy day. He let out a long sigh before he sat up fully, resting his body against his headboard. He extended his lightly muscled arms outwards, stretching, his joints popping as he did so. He let out a slight pleasant sigh at the feeling, as he stretched the light colored sheet that had been covering him slipped down.

While his body wasn’t muscular, nor could it be described by words such as lithe or athletic, it was still apparent that his body was trained to an extent and held some physical power. There was a thin layer of fat over his muscles, it was just enough that one wouldn’t be able to tell he had no little amount of muscle. When he was younger, he got made fun of for being larger than the other kids, both in height and in size. That was one of the reasons he started to work out and train, both to defend himself and to lose weight.

He had decided not to lose all of the weight, so he would be underestimated by opponents as well as other reasons, a friend of his who was a girl had said that he should not lose it all as she would lose her pillow otherwise. Stephen indulged her, as at the time she was his closest friend, Meta or otherwise, and they had been friends for a long time. Her family and his were close, extremely so, they all grew up together and whenever one family moved so did the other. Several years ago they had all moved to Cross Timber, a large city in Pennsylvania, along the Canadian water border.

When not moonlighting as heroes his parents were Rodger and Pamela Kingsley, a famous scientist duo that had different specialties. His father was an engineer of sorts specializing in advanced machinery, his mother was a biologist, that specialized in dangerous plant and animal life. Their hero personas were even more well-known than their mundane secret identities. His father went by Machina, and as the name implied he could control machines, it was a more specialized application of Technopathy. His mother was Nightshade; she could control poisonous and venous things, both plants and animals. She had been a villain once, but has long since reformed and fought for good.

Today was the day before he would officially join Thelrose Academy. Joining at the high school level was mostly mandatory, but pre-high school was optional, most Meta’s had their kids go to normal school when they were younger to acclimate themselves a bit better. Currently Stephen was 17 and would have normally long since joined the Academy, but he had not awoken his powers and his parents pressured the Academy and they made an exception. Thus 3 years ago for the first time in a long while he and his friend were separated, though they still saw each other on occasion, she would be coming over later today to help him prepare for his start tomorrow.

He let out another sigh before he pushed the sheet off his body. He was bare, but for a pair of faded red shorts. He shuffled lazily over to his closet to grab clothes for the day, as well as a towel. He walked to his door kicking dirty clothes out of the way. He walked briefly down the hall to the bathroom and entered. After he finished his shower he emerged from the bathroom wearing a pair of Dark Green cargo shorts. He had a yellow towel draped on his neck, his upper body was still bare, but hanging off one arm he had a shirt he had yet to put on.

As he walked back down the hallway, the short distance to his room he paused as he heard a noise coming from his room. He slowly walked forward and started briefly as a form materialized in front of him. He let out a sigh as the form fully materialized and he recognized them, He ran his unburdened hand through his wet hair before he spoke. “Geez Beautiful, ya scared me for a moment. Why are you here so early?” He turned walked past her before he turned back to wink at her as he continued. “ Were you just so eager to start seeing me regularly again?”

She blushed for a moment and looked away before she spoke. “N-no besides i know you don’t see me that way. I was somewhat excited though, I have missed joking with you during classes and studying and- Ok yeah I am pretty excited about this, but not for the reasons you implied.” Stephen just chuckled as he turned back around and walked towards his room. She followed him with a long gait, her long legs carrying her swiftly to their destination. She entered just as he was putting his shirt on, obscuring his musculature from view, she imperceptibly frowned at this, though it was replaced with a slight grin as she averted her eyes just before he turned around.

As he turned around he smiled, lighting up his features, making him seem a bit more handsome than he usually did. His features would more often than not be considered cute, if not for his untameable mane of hair that gave him a somewhat rugged look. He was about to speak when Tabitha suddenly rushed towards him and hugged him briefly before backing up He grinned for a brief moment before he spoke once more. “Seriously though Tabby-Cat, why are you here so early?” She spoke in her soft voice and said “I just wanted to make sure you would be well prepared for tomorrow, since I know you probably won’t come to the orientation/Open house thing tonight.”

Stephen shrugged before he responded. “Eh. You know I don’t exactly like most events that will force me to socialize, besides I want to see their reactions when tey find out I have ‘no powers’. It should be amusing to say the least, keeping it a secret will let me protect you better, for the most part. Anyways we better get going soon, you want to see what my Mom has whipped up food-wise before we go?” She had been frowning imperceptibly until he spoke, she broke into a beaming smile as she responded. “Sure.” As they started walking down to where the Dining room was, Tabitha spoke with a mock pouting look on her face.

“I’m disappointed you didn’t notice or comment on my progress with the materialization part of my powers.” Stephen chuckled for a moment before he responded briefly. “Oh? I noticed that. I was just expecting it, you have always been smarter and more talented than me. Even now you are more powerful than I am, in one way at least.” At his words she gave a slight happy smile. Stephen chuckled at that and turned back to her as they arrived at the dining room. “We‘re here.” He paused in his response to Tabitha to call out to his mother. “Hey Mom, You got anything for us to eat, before we leave?”

As she heard his voice, ,Stephen’s mother turned around. She had been making pancakes at the stove, the flour littering her apron evidenced this. She was tall for a woman, standing at 5’8, she had long black hair that reached the middle of her back. She was wearing a tight form fitting short sleeved green shirt that hugged her form. For her age she was quite attractive and looked to be years younger than what she was. This was in part due to the physiological aspect of her powers, the toxins and venoms that she can influence changed her body when the powers Awoke. She ages slower than most Human’s or Meta’s for that matter.

She was also rather protective of him, well him and Tabitha, who she teased relentlessly about being Stephen’s Girlfriend. Years ago someone tried to arm the two of them, lets just say nothing good happened to those fools. She gave a beaming smile as she responded to him. “It just so happens I was making a batch of pancakes, you are just in time really. Sit, Sit.” As the two of them sat, Pamela sat plates in front of them and slid some fresh pancakes onto their plates. “ I have syrup, normal, butter and berry, on the table, as well as butter.”

Following her statement, Tabitha and Stephen began eating. As they ate they engaged in small talk, this was going to be the only part of the time for such things today. When they finished eating they would have to leave and go to certain special stores, to get what they would need for Stephen for the Academy. Not all things needed were only available at the league sponsored stores, they would need to go to normal stores to obtain the more mundane items. Nearly every student would have to go through this, not dissimilar to what happens when school items go on sale just before school begins in most of the country.

Scholarship students are somewhat exempt from this as many do not have the money for such things in the first place. The money Scholarship students receive can only be used at the Sponsored Stores and can for the most part be only used on certain items. This was because in the past there had been problems with people using the money provided for things they weren’t meant for. This led to there both being certain restrictions on the scholarship funds and there being stores on campus that are especially for the scholarship cash. This is to make things convenient for them as the vast majority of Scholarship students, along with a few other exceptions, staying in special dorms on Campus.

After the two of them finished eating, Pamela gathered their dishes and silverware and put them into the sink as the two of them stood up. Pamela gave both of them hugs, making Stephen slightly embarrassed, but Tabitha was used to such shows of affection from her. Pamela spoke in her lyically enchanting voice to the two of them. “ Be careful you two, and remember to get everything you will need for the Academy. Only after that can you two go flirt with each other, got it?” As she spoke the last few words there was a knowing smirk. At that Tabitha blushed and looked at the floor while Stephen merely exclaimed. “MOM!?!?!” before he hustled himself and Tabby out of there.