Zap! (M. Clifford/5SOS)

Chapter 4: Close As Strangers

Monica's P.O.V.

"My group in Classroom C, please!" Avalon shouts throughout the giant practice room. We just finished up training for the day but apparently Avalon wants to talk with us. This happens often when the trainers are informed of serious news from Calypso that needs to be discussed with us. When we were younger, we used these classrooms like regular school rooms to learn about the history, science, and other subjects of Galaxies, but now we're mostly studying spells and practicing them since there's not much more to gain in the other subjects.

I should also mention to you about the whole group thing before it becomes confusing. When you first begin training at nine or ten years old, you are put into your age group, which basically means that you are with all of the other nine and ten year old Galaxies also starting training. Since there are a lot of us in one age group, they split us up into two or three different clusters, depending on how big the entire age group is and how many trainers they have available. Once you are assigned a group and a trainer, you stay with that group and trainer throughout your whole Galaxy coaching, which ends when you're eighteen, meaning you're with the same people for eight years. It's almost the same as a year/class in school, but we also have the same teacher. It does get a little boring hanging with the same Galaxies and trainer year after year, but it's nice because we all understand each other's strengths and weaknesses and help one another become better Galaxies.

My group gathers their things and we follow Avalon to the classroom, settling in on the comfy spin chairs lined neatly by each table. Once we're all inside, Avalon stands at the front of the room and begins his speech.

"All of you know about the Acerbus Procella and we have some interesting news about that," he starts. "Our scientists have been predicting it over the years and now they've come to a conclusion that it will hit the east coast soon. They didn't give an exact date or what they mean by 'soon,' but it's coming."

Okay, before I continue, I need to explain this to you. Remember that scientist I told you about that created Galaxies? Yeah, well he's the same one who created the Acerbus Procella, although he wasn't expecting it to become a big issue like it is now. All he wanted to do was make a cloud, like a legit, puffy cloud you could hold in your hand. He succeeded but as time went on, it grew. That's the part he didn't intend on doing. It continued to increase in size and soon, it covered his entire house and wiped out the island he lived on after he achieved making Galaxies. The Acerbus Procella, Latin for "dark storm," interfered with the weather patterns and now it's a powerful storm, and Acerbus Procella is the name the scientists came up with when they discovered it. Unfortunately, the original scientist died when it destroyed his island and it's still out there today, growing into a larger problem for the world. In reality, people just think it's a huge storm, like a hurricane, but we know it's something more than that. If it's not treated soon, it can demolish the Earth, but the only way it can be treated is by magic, which is where we come in.

"Now, as you all know, it has to be killed by magic. The only problem is is that the Galaxies who are going to take on this mission have to be strong, skilled wizards, otherwise it won't work. And the strongest wizards are between the ages of sixteen and twenty," Avalon progresses.

"Why are those the ages?" one of the guys questions.

"Because as you get older, you lose strength in your wizardry if you don't continue practicing magic. You perform magic every day, excluding weekends, unless you do practice over the weekends. It's just like if you were working out or playing a sport. If you suddenly stopped playing your sport or you work out less than you have been, you begin to lose a lot of the strength you've built up. It's the same here. Now, you've had six years of training and that is a great amount. That is the minimal amount you need for this mission because we feel that you've had plenty of training to understand how Galaxies all work, which means all of you are qualified for it," Avalon explains. "And there's more. Only ten people are going to be chosen for this mission. The scientists have figured out how the Acerbus Procella can be stopped and they only need ten Galaxies between the ages of sixteen and twenty. Now, in order to be picked, you need to have performed outstanding work in the past couple of months and we will be keeping an eye out in the next week or so. After we have chosen the ten people, they will be training together and working with the scientists on this mission. If one of you are selected, you will be departing from us until the mission is over, which means you will not be training with our group until the Acerbus Procella is destroyed. All I ask of you is to not make yourself look dumb and try to impress us with anything. We've had you for six years and we know how well of a performer you are. Are there any questions?"