The Square

Hordes of students settled into place, chattering amongst themselves, freshers making nervous introductions, returners still recounting the ups and downs of the summer. Stepping onto the temporary stage, the Dean cleared his throat and tapped at the microphone that had been set up. The chatter softened and the small, bald man in the neat suit peered over the top of his glasses at the assembled mass of students.

‘Thank you! Hello everyone,’ he said, ‘and welcome – or welcome back – to your new year at Capital City University! It is an honour to have you all here and an honour to be speaking to you all like this, which is a very rare occasion for me. Normally, of course, at the start of the semester we’d leave you all to get on with things. This year, though, you may have noticed something of an additional presence on our esteemed campus.’

Behind the bespectacled man, two figures stepped into the Square. They were humanoid, but not human. Tall, metal figures, shining silver and red in the bleary September sun, with blank black visors where their faces should be. Guardian Drones.

‘Now, I’m sure many of you will recognise the Guardian Drones as a peacekeeping force,’ the Dean said, raising his voice as a rumble of noise emerged from the watching students. Some were whispering, gasping excitedly, others murmuring in worry, others turning to outright booing. ‘Now. Settle down! The Guardians are here for your protection.’ The Dean would not mention the recent rise in instances of superhuman combat and rising anti-superhuman sentiment, but all the students knew what had led to the drones’ presence on campus. ‘But to introduce them properly, we have a very special visitor.’

The Dean threw his hands up to the sky. Even the most outraged students fell silent as, with a sound like an almighty thunderclap, a figure dropped from the sky at impossible speed. The red-cloaked, heavily muscled, sleek-armoured superhero they had all seen endlessly on the news stood before them.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ said the Dean, ‘CAPTAIN OMEGA!’

The students erupted into ecstatic and infuriated noise.

‘Thank you!’ said Captain Omega, apparently ignoring the students who chose to jeer and boo. ‘I am here because your safety is our number one priority at Olympus. We watch over this city, this country, with the sole purpose of defending all of you from threats that, until the advent of the superhuman, we had never even dreamed of. These are frightening times to be alive. I will not deny it. The rising prevalence of superhumans has brought with it many new dangers, yes. But it also brings with it new hope for humanity. New hope for all of us.

‘For instance, Olympus’s own elite defence team recovered and stabilised the Quantum Sphere that is now resting in the Vertex Centre on this very campus, powering the Quantum Wave Repulsor Engine that will be turned on this week in hopes of answering our universe’s greatest questions and perhaps solving some of humanity’s greatest problems! We stand on the crest of a new era and such times of change bring risk with them. To show you all that we will not overlook these dangers, myself, my fellow Olympians and our collaborators in the Ministry of Defence’s S-Quadrant have decided Guardian Drones will be stationed on CCU Campus until such a time that we believe the Vertex Centre and all the students of this campus, are not at risk.’

The screams and jeers were growing louder and louder.

The Dean said his closing words and, with a bright smile, a wave and a show-off shockwave, Captain Omega took to the skies once more.

Please, thought the superhero to himself, please let us be doing the right thing.

Beneath him, a new era was about to begin.

Lucio stood in the crowd, half paying attention to the suit and the super. The other half of his mind was busy swearing profusely at the cold weather. Despite wearing a coat, jumper and scarf he was still bitterly cold. "If this is September weather, how the hell am I going to survive in deep winter?" He thought to himself.

He focused his attention on the spandex-clad Captain Omega. He had heard the stories, of course. How he had saved the sinking cruise ship Anna Maria and left it in the field outside the house of the man responsible by nautical safety standards, or when he defeated Meertrax the Destroyer over Glasgow. The comics detailing his adventures were popular all over Europe, after all. Seeing him in the flesh though was somewhat... Disappointing. Lucio didn't know why, but Captain Omega just didn't seem to exude quite the aura of nobility and goodness that his stories made out.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, the Tellasite considered going to the SU. At least it'd be warm, and he wanted to see the protest he'd heard about in the few days he'd been in Britain.

Aurora wasn't at the announcement at first. She was on the way to Café Go while the Dean's voice reverberated around campus. She couldn't make out what he was saying and she didn't care; until she heard the reaction of the audience. Aurora turned to the direction of The Square curiously. At that moment something fell from the sky!

No, it didn't 'fall', it was far to controlled to be a fall. With an inner sigh that she was about to abandon her traditional motivational coffee, Aurora jogged toward The Square.

The pink-haired woman joined the back of the crowd and tried to peer over the heads. She couldn't see the stage but she could hear the voice. “Is that... Captain Omega?”

Another student turned around to look at her. “Yeah.” They grumbled, less than pleased about the superhero's presence.

Aurora tried to get a glimpse. She had never seen a Superhuman in the flesh before. She wasn't about to either. “Damn it, what's the point of having a stage if the people right at the back still can't see?” She whispered under her breath.

The other student gave her a funny look. “Do you talk to yourself often?”

“Since studying psychology... yeah.” Aurora nervously shuffled away from the student and tried to find a gap between the heads to see Captain Omega. She still couldn't see anything, but what they were talking about on stage suddenly made her heart sink. 'Idiots!' she thought. 'Why on Earth would they keep such a thing on a university campus?' She continued to keep her thoughts to herself.

After a show-off shockwave, Captain Omega took to the skies again, without Aurora getting a good look at him. The good thing about being at the back was that she was able to slip away from the crowd without getting stuck or slowed down. She decided it was time to head to the Café. However, her heart still lay in the pit of her stomach. Even if the campus' facilities were brilliant, why would they put something with so much potential danger there?

Ed stood off to the side, easily able to look over the crowds at her height. The crowds roiled with excitement, with outrage, and she wanted none of it. She read the papers, she know what they were keeping on campus, and Ed was here to see how much of The Truth would shine out through the PR bullshit they were about to feed them. They were scared of the crowds' phones, already out and prepared to tweet the whole thing; supervillains could topple a city but nothing scared a politician like the ugly truth.

She pulled out her notepad and untucked her pencil from behind her ear when the campus' illustrious leader took to the stage. The Dean was the exact kind of grey-faced man who ran these kinds of things, unremarkable and unremarked. Ed made little note of him or his speech except to snort at the honour of speaking to a crowd where half of them looked ready to eat him. He was just a mouthpiece, but even Ed's cynicism couldn't hold up to the sight of a real live superhero coming in on a thunderclap. She stood for a moment in awe of the costume, and the flying, and wow.

Shame Captain Omega had only the same perfectly worked speech-by-commitee to say. Who were they protecting the campus from? They didn't know, not really. There wasn't even the usual bloviating about supervillains or vigilantes that was the S-Quadrant's regular MO when giving empty speeches. Nobody would know anything until they turned on the -- Ed checked her notepad -- Quantum Wave Repulsor Engine. Maybe it would answer all their questions, and maybe wild optimism was all it took to gain superpowers these days. Ed tucked her notepad away when Captain Omega took off, probably feeling like his job was done and all the citizens felt reassured or whatever inane crap went through a superhero's head when they did these kinds of gigs. Now, where did someone have to go to get a panini around here?

Chris jumped the next few steps as Herbert's sudden arrival startled her greatly as his voice unexpectedly resonated round her ears. "Whoa it's gonna take a while to get used to that," she gasped.

They continued to walk a few steps when Chris began to address Herbert: "So are you okay? You seem a little tenser than from five minutes ago. Yeh nevermind, we've all had a rough day. You come to help me out?" she back tracked over what she'd just said. Chris did have a nasty habit of opening her mouth and shoving her flat foot in it.

Chris was taken aback by what Herbert said. He didn't seem the kinda guy to be confrontational, it kinda made him seem more manly to her though, must be the northern imprint on her.

"Hmmm, yeh well he doesn't seem to like me so much. I'm only so smiley and cheerful because I've seen enough of people lying in a gutter suffering. Crying and getting all upset and depressed doesn't do anybody any good but a smile, a smile can pick up a person's spirits you know?" she said as she rubbed Herbert's shoulder, smiling to him softly, "Sorry here I am jabbering on," she turned away blushing, "we should probably get a move on, don't Alex getting more annoyed with us do we?" she laughed.

Chris felt herself warming to Herbert's charm but she suddenly stopped dead and surveyed the area.

"Hey you're right," she said with surprise, "there should be way more people here. What's going on?" She continued to walk towards the tents to get a better look. There some Drones scattered about, patrolling, but only a few other students sat around on the floor. Chris had expected the area to be packed, she couldn't figure out why it was so empty, surely these weren't the only other survivors?

"Okay Speedy let's go investigate!" she shouted as she began to jog towards the tents.