WING: The Heroes Of Vacuo

WING: Chapter White Part 1: Time To Fly

BZZT! BZZT! BZZT!

The day had thus begun as my eyes slowly peered into the morning.

BZZT! BZZT! BZZT!

I clasped my blithering scroll and silenced it with one smooth stroke of my finger across its glass vizor. My half glazed eyes droned over the numbers I greet every morning.

5:30 am.

The morning chill sliced through the snowy clouds of Atlas as the sun peered through to shine it's periodical warm rays upon those living on Solitas. Usually creatures of nature would greet the coming warmth with it's quiet jovial tone, but this morning was more quiet and perhaps somber than usual.

Fitting weather.

I grabbed my white rimmed wing point glasses and graced through my morning routine as follows: plant my two feet on the ground, collect my thoughts to my scroll; peering through my itinerary once more, tend to my morning hygiene needs, change into my appropriate outfit and make my way forward into the day.

"Well you look ready to head off," a voice gently spoke.

"Father," I simply noted.

My father stood before me with a rat's nest of hair atop his head and a somber broken smile cracked through him.

"Your mom just left..." he said with a tinge of deep disappointment.

"I see..."

My father placed a step closer to me.

"Don't take this too personally Dove, your mom is just worried about you and-"

"-Let's save all those messy details for later, dearest father. I wouldn't want to be tardy to my deployment and you have pressing matters with the Atlesian military, don't you?"

My father's face was now mixed with swashes of anger and longing joining the base disappointment forming a collage of negative expressions. He placed a few firmer steps closer to me and embraced me with what I've defined as his "we have to talk about this or else we're lost" embraces.

It was unfortunately a futile effort on his part.

"Don't give up on your mom, Dove," he solemnly ordered.

"Roger that, officer," I coldly replied.

Instantly, my father let me go from his embrace of desperation and his eyes were framed with disbelief as he quietly stepped away to his morning routine.

An hour passed into the void and I found myself facing an Atlesian Plane that would deliver me to the lush kingdom of Vale. The steps I took inside the passenger cabin felt unfamiliar and cold, better to keep myself distracted from these emotions. I adjusted my glasses to keep my composure.

Once I planted myself at my seat, I conjured up my scroll and immediately tallied myself as successfully present amongst all the other transfer students that were required to log their progress throughout their transfer. It seemed with the recent Fall of Beacon there were more checkpoint tallies that were mandatorily required, for better or for worse.

My scroll's clock buzzed the numbers 7:45 am, I had adequate time to think before the next checkpoint.

I settled into my seat, took off my glasses and closed my eyes for a moment.

It hadn't been too long since Gwen committed suicdie. My former huntsman team WING was formally out of commission with Irene refusing to retake her mantle as a Huntress. This is why I have set myself on a path to Vacuo. Atlas was no longer the home I felt safe and warm within, Beacon had fallen and Haven was far more dangerous, given how the destruction of world peace began at that huntsman school.

All that was left was Shade.

My mother wasn't too pleased with my decisions and felt her dramatic gesture of absence was appropriate for this eventful moment, but it was futile nonetheless. Father supported my path and eventually she would come to understand my decision. Atlas is bound to fall and I was not going to get myself caught up in its internal affairs. Atlas had fallen heavily from grace as the seeds of corruption rooted within its people and degraded them beyond comprehension, but this was bound to happen any day.

BZZT!

Time had flown past me due to my overindulgence of insight.

It was time to study the kingdom of Vacuo and Shade Academy.