**December 12, 2023 – 04:17 a.m.**
The first warning came as a low, sub-audible thrum that rattled fillings and woke every super within a five-kilometre radius of Neelin High. Michael's eyes snapped open in the dark of his bedroom. The crimson glow of his aura painted the ceiling like blood on snow. He was already moving, bare feet silent on the cold hardwood, when Aunt Uche's voice crackled over the house intercom:
"Portal breach. Downtown. Class-3 signature. All hands."
Alvin burst through the connecting door, flames licking his shoulders. "It's big, Mike. Real big."
Michael pulled on tactical gear: black compression shirt, reinforced cargo pants, fingerless gloves. The aura slid over him like liquid metal, hardening into a second skin. He felt the rift before he saw it: a pressure drop in his chest, the way the air tasted of ozone and rot.
Outside, the sky over Winnipeg had split. A jagged wound, thirty metres wide, hung above the Red River. From it poured beasts: shadow-wolves the size of city buses, crystalline wyrms with diamond spines, and swarms of insectoid horrors that clicked like broken glass. Sirens wailed. News drones buzzed. The city's emergency broadcast looped:
**"EVACUATE TO SHELTERS. SUPERS TO FRONT LINES."**
**Assembly Point – Portage Avenue**
The Neelin crew arrived via Assurance's portal: a shimmering oval that spat them onto the barricaded street. Snow steamed where Alvin's feet touched it. Emily's telepathy linked the group in a silent net:
*Devin, left flank. Vera, freeze the river—slow the wyrms. Kate, duplicates on crowd control. Paul, merge and anchor.*
Michael's aura flared crimson, washing the snow red. He felt every heartbeat within a kilometre: civilians panicking in basements, soldiers loading rift-busters, beasts converging.
The first wave hit like a black tide.
A shadow-wolf lunged at a fleeing family. Michael blurred, aura-boosted speed turning him into a comet. His fist met the beast's skull. Bone exploded outward in a gory halo of black ichor and teeth. The wolf's body slid thirty metres, carving a trench through asphalt.
Alvin followed, blue flames spiralling into a whip that lashed through three wolves at once. The smell of charred fur and molten tar filled the air.
Devin roared, white tiger form ripping free of his uniform. Claws the length of swords carved a wyrm's belly open; crystalline entrails spilled like shattered chandeliers. Vera skated across the frozen river, ice spears erupting from her palms to impale diving insects mid-air. Kate's duplicates herded civilians into buses, five Kates per vehicle, voices overlapping in calm commands. Paul's merged form stood ten feet tall, a living battering ram that punched a wyrm into the sky.
**The Alpha**
At 05:11 a.m., the rift pulsed. A deeper shadow detached from the tear: a Class-4 Alpha, a chimeric horror stitched from wolf, wyrm, and something older. Its hide shifted between shadow and crystal, eyes burning with rift-light. It landed on the Assiniboine Bridge, cracking concrete.
Emily's telepathic scream hit the net: *It's intelligent. It's hunting us.*
Michael felt the Alpha's gaze lock on him. The aura in his veins surged, hot and hungry.
The beast charged.
Michael met it head-on. Aura cloaked him fully, speed and strength dialed to eleven. The collision sounded like a bomb. The Alpha's claw raked his chest; aura hardened, turning the strike into a glancing blow that shredded his shirt but not skin. Michael countered with an uppercut that lifted the beast off its feet. It crashed through a billboard, metal screeching.
Alvin's blue flames formed a cage around the Alpha, superheating the air to furnace levels. The beast roared, shadow-form flickering. Vera flash-froze the flames, creating a prison of superheated glass. Devin leaped, claws sinking into the Alpha's neck. Kate's duplicates swarmed, each planting rift-buster charges. Paul's merged form grabbed the tail, anchoring it.
Michael saw the opening. He poured aura into his legs, leaped. Mid-air, he spun, aura condensing into a crimson drill. He struck the Alpha's core: a glowing rift-heart pulsing beneath crystal ribs.
The explosion was silent at first. Then the shockwave hit. Snow vaporised in a perfect circle. The Alpha disintegrated into shards of shadow and light, sucked back into the rift.
**Aftermath**
By dawn, the rift had sealed, but the city was scarred. Buildings gutted, streets cratered, the river steaming. News choppers circled. Headlines flashed globally:
**"WINNIPEG TEENS CLOSE CLASS-3 RIFT – VALKYRIE ACADEMY RECRUITS?"**
The group stood on the bridge, bloodied and steaming. Michael's aura flickered, exhausted. Emily leaned on him, her mind brushing his: *You okay?*
He nodded, voice rough. "We lost three soldiers. Could've been worse."
A military medic approached, eyes wide. "Kid, that aura… what *are* you?"
Michael didn't answer. He was staring at the sealed rift scar: a faint shimmer in the sky, like a healing wound.
### 5
**Valkyrie Academy – December 20**
The written exam was held in a warded auditorium. Questions on rift vectors, beast taxonomy, ethics of lethal force. Michael aced it, aura enhancing memory recall. Emily's telepathy linked the group for moral debates.
The oral interview was brutal. A panel of heroes, including a stone-faced Homelander, grilled them.
Homelander's eyes bored into Michael. "You closed a Class-3 with raw aura. Explain."
Michael met his gaze. "Potential made manifest. I grow with every fight."
Homelander's lip curled. "We'll see."
**Physical Test – January 5, 2024**
British Columbia's coast. Valkyrie Academy perched on cliffs, wards glowing like auroras. The test: survive a simulated rift incursion.
Michael's team deployed into a forested valley. Holographic beasts materialised: wolves, wyrms, Alphas. Real stakes: live ammo, real injuries.
They fought like a single organism. Michael's aura cloaked the group, boosting speed and resilience. Alvin's flames lit the dark. Devin's tiger form shredded. Vera's ice trapped. Kate and Paul duplicated and merged, forming living shields. Emily's telepathy coordinated every move.
Mid-battle, Homelander's son Jason, alias Homeboy, enrolled late. Eighteen, arrogant, powers mirroring his father's but weaker. He flew in, heat vision carving through holograms.
Michael and Jason clashed over a simulated Alpha. Jason's flight gave him air superiority; Michael's aura countered with ground speed and resilience. Jason's mistake: underestimating aura's adaptability. Michael phased through a heat blast, reappeared behind Jason, and delivered a precise aura-infused strike to the solar plexus. Jason dropped, winded.
Homelander watched, fury in his eyes. He descended, grabbing Michael by the throat. "You dare humiliate my blood?"
He slammed Michael into the ground, super-strength cracking ribs. Pain exploded. Michael's aura flared instinctively, healing fractures in seconds. He stood, crimson eyes glowing. "Test me fairly, uncle. Or not at all."
Homelander's heat vision charged. Then Principal Chen's telekinesis intervened, pinning him. "Enough. The boy passed."
**Results & Dorm Assignment**
January 10. All seven passed. Valkyrie's dorms: four houses, ten students each, central hub with gym, library, cafeteria.
House 1A:
- Michael (Aura King)
- Alvin (Inferno)
- Emily (Mindweaver)
- Devin (White Tiger)
- Vera (Ice Queen)
- Kate (Dupli-Kate)
- Paul (Multi-Paul)
- Isaac (Copycat) – new, copies powers temporarily, can't copy Michael
- Logan (Bolt) – super speed, generates electricity
- Sierra (Healer) – Isaac's girlfriend, advanced mending
The bullies: Billy (Muscle Fiber), Rick (Ironclad), Gerald (Minotaur), Jason (Homeboy). Assigned to rival houses.
**First Night in Valkyrie**
The dorm was a fortress of glass and steel, wards humming. Michael's room overlooked the ocean. Emily slipped in after curfew, telepathy silencing alarms.
They didn't speak. Aura and mind intertwined. Clothes hit the floor. The first time was slow, exploratory: his aura a warm cocoon, her telekinesis lifting them weightless. Crimson light danced across her skin. When they finished, she traced the scar on his chest. "You're growing," she whispered. "I can feel it."
Outside, the ocean crashed. Inside, the rift scars in the sky pulsed faintly.
The beasts were just the beginning.
Valkyrie was home.
And the real war hadn't started.