Shadow Angel: Volume 1

The Hawk Tower Incident: Part 1

Hitching his breath, Milo smiled at his friend and asked, "Whoa! You like this?"

Looking up at the purple-haired boy, Cody replied, "My friend used to do this whenever I got stressed. Please don't stop."

"Okay, I'll keep going," Milo chuckled.

As Cody felt the other boy's fingers wiggle through his hair, he smiled as a tear fell out of his eye. After all, when he was still a Raven Eldritch, Real Cody would move his hands through his neck feathers to comfort him.

~~~~~

Cody was surprised that training to be a Slayer came with a field trip. However, he figured that the trip was reserved for freshmen only. In three to four buses, the freshmen were taken to separate places in the city. Cody and his classmates from Class 1-4 were taken to one of the tallest structures in Morningstar City: Hawk Tower. There, they all stood at the top, with six telescopes perched on the railing like birds. Supervising the students was Emma Chandler as well as their teacher, Mr. Kim.

"Uh, excuse me," Autumn said, raising her hand and getting the adults' attention. "Can you please remind us why we're on Hawk Tower?"

"Well, since all of you joined a squad, we wanted to show you how they get it done," Emma answered.

"What do you mean by that?" Cody asked, turning to look at the fiery-haired Slayer as his body leaned against the railing.

"Once a year, we show freshmen how the squads they chose work together to defend Morningstar City from an Eldritch," she explained. "We do this to showcase what kind of people they are on the battlefield, how they interact with one another, and how they get the job done."

"Okay. And how are we supposed to know which one is our squad?" Autumn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"And how do we know when an Eldritch is coming to attack the city?" Magnette added.

Before Emma could answer both of their questions, Nigel jumped up and shouted, "I heard something!" With that, everyone turned to look at him.

"What did you hear?" Milo asked.

"I-I heard a rumbling sound from below," Nigel answered before he pointed downward. "Right at the parking lot next to the tower!"

"What?" Emma marched to Nigel's area and looked down as soon as she was near the railing. With furrowed eyebrows and squinted red eyes, she examined the parking lot, moving her eyes from side to side in search of irregularities. Yet, nothing happened.

Looking down beside her, the pink-haired boy whimpered, "I swear, I heard something. I-"

Emma shushed him as she kept looking down at the parking lot. Then, she turned around at the other students and said, "Where's Thomas? I need him over here."

"Oh! Coming!" Replied the bowl-haired boy of Class 1-4, now known as Thomas. He quickly made his way to the fiery-haired woman's area. Once he made it, he asked, "What's up?"

"Your ability allows you to see far distances, right?" Emma asked.

"Yes, ma'am," Thomas said with a nod.

"Perfect. I want you to look down at the parking lot where Nigel said he heard a noise." She pointed downward as the bowl-haired boy obeyed him. "Do you see anything irregular?" Emma asked.

"Hold on." Thomas squinted at the parking lot as his vision drew closer to the ground. As he looked closer, he quickly took notice that the pebbles on the asphalt were slowly beginning to shake and jump. With wide eyes and a gasp, Thomas looked back up at Emma and said, "There's pebbles on the ground of the parking lot! They're beginning to shake and bounce!"