Studying Abroad Ch. 01

***

Eight hours later, they were back in the classroom, for the sixth time, reviewing a portion of the equipment they had been learning about. They were going over the details of one of the assault rifles for the third time, and Liam and Felix were obviously feeling a little overwhelmed by the amount of learning they were doing.

"So when do we get our super powers?" Felix asked, trying to compose a healthy dosage of entertainment for the day to make up for the ridiculous amount of lecturing they were undergoing.

"Excuse me?"

"Well I just thought, you know, if anybody has superhero, enhancement procedure things it's you guys, right? I mean that's a reasonable assumption."

"Yeah, I was actually thinking the same thing," Liam nodded his head in agreement with Felix.

"And, I mean, this mission seems super important. So, if ever you guys have a reason to do those procedures, it would be now, right?"

"You know, he's got a point here, Wallace," Liam added before turning to Felix. "What's your superhero name gonna be?"

"I was thinking 'Black Panther.'"

"Too late man, Marvel already used that one."

"Shit," Felix said, incredibly disappointed. "I'm still getting the super speed though."

"Hey, can you give me the super strength power?" Liam asked, turning back to agent Wallace.

"No, we can't give you the super strength power," Henry added with a dumb look, clearly being irritated by this whole super powers shenanigans.

"Well if he gets the super speed power, then I want the super strength power. I mean it's only fair. That's not too much to ask, is it?" he asked, turning to Felix again.

"That's fair, I'm okay with that."

"Thank you."

"But I think I should get two super powers then, because super strength is like-"

"Enough!" Henry stopped the repartee. "You aren't getting any super powers! This is some serious shit. We can't just-"

"Henry!" Agent Wallace interrupted with a loud voice, but a calm tone, much like a teacher would use when trying to quiet the kids in the back of a classroom.

"I think we've had enough for today." Wallace continued. "Furthermore, the people who will be able to teach you the most about the planet are already there. And it's important that you get plenty of sleep. Transportation is scheduled for six hundred hours tomorrow morning, so I will see you then."

"Roger that," Felix said, as he and Liam began to leave the room, exhausted from the schooling they had gone through that day.

After they left the room, Henry exhaled heavily. "That's just my luck. We get the two most irresponsible comedians on the fucking planet."

"Well, they do kill people for a living. I think we can be grateful that they have a sense of humor at all. And I wouldn't say they're irresponsible. They've been living lifestyles full of dangerous feats such as this." Wallace assured him. "At their age, I think they adapt to the lifestyle and try to add humor wherever they can."

"I'm sure you're right, as you usually are about these things. I guess I'm just tired and irritated." He stood up and began to leave the room. "I"ll see you in the morning."

***

The next morning, the three of them were in black jumpsuits and ready for action at a quarter to six. They were standing in front of a circular, elevated platform and waiting for Wallace to return from the control room so they could get the green light for operating the machine by which they would be traveling.

The platform before them was about five feet above the ground and twenty feet in diameter. On it, they saw three cylindrical, human pods in the center that were back to back and facing outward. Other than the pods, there was nothing on the platform. Connected to the outer rim on the base of the platform were four mechanical pillars that looked like they had come from one of Tesla's crazy designs.

Wallace finally returned with a few of the engineers. Before continuing with the send-off, he stopped to say some words to Liam, Felix, and Henry while the engineers prepped the pods.

"It's time gentlemen. What happens next is going to be painful, but let me remind you that what you're doing is extremely important for the advancements of humanity and we thank you for it."

Liam and Felix followed Henry up the stairs and to the pods where the engineers were waiting for them. They stepped into their pods, were strapped in by the engineers, and given a mouthguard to bite down on. The lids to the pods were shut and the three of them were left with nothing to do but stare out of the little windows on their pods.

Nothing happened for several minutes until the mechanical pillars on the outer rim of the platform began to revolve. They accelerated quickly, and started emitting branches of electricity. The pace of the pillars quickened and the prevalence of electricity with it.

The pods weren't moving at all, but the three teleporters started to feel the pressure of gravity like they were on an extreme roller coaster ride. This pressure built until it felt like they were in a rocket ripping through the atmosphere and building enough speed to escape Earth's gravitational pull.

The electricity shooting out of the revolving pillars had continued to grow more severe. Felix kept his eyes open as long as he could until the light emitting from the pillars seemed to build into an explosion and forced him to slam his eyes shut.

He felt like the energy was being ripped from his body. His head was pulsing with excruciating pain, his heart was beating faster than it ever had before, and he felt like he was being punched in the kidneys by Mike Tyson. Finally, he passed out from the pain.

What felt like immediately after, he woke to the same pain in his head and torso he had been experiencing before. Now he could only hear a loud ringing noise and couldn't see anything, but the building pressure had stopped. He felt the straps come off, spit the mouthguard out, and fell out of the pod and onto a solid metal floor. This would've come as a shock to him (considering the platform he was just standing on consisted of a grated floor) but he was too overwhelmed to notice and was too disoriented to remember where he had just come from.

He had no idea what was going on around him, and all he could manage to do was hold himself up on all fours while he tried to cope with the pain in his stomach. His stomach pain subsided only after he vomited. His sight also started to return to him after he vomited, but his vision was incredibly narrow. He couldn't see anything in his peripherals and still could only hear the loud ringing.

'What the hell is happening to me?' he thought, after seeing that most of what he vomited was actually blood. He noticed that the metal floor he was crawling on was part of a box like room. As far as he could tell, there was nothing in this box/room until their pods arrived.

He looked to his right and saw Liam huddled in the corner of the box. His eyes were shut and he was screaming like someone had just ripped his testicles off. He also noticed there was blood coming from his ears. Felix lifted his hand to his ear to find that it was still there, but when he looked at his hand, he saw that he was bleeding from his ears as well.

Even more concerned now, he looked to his left and saw an unconscious Henry lying on his back. Someone was kneeling over him performing CPR while another person rushed in with a defibrillator kit.

Felix's sight began to fade again before he passed out and collapsed onto his side.