Chiron Academy

Chapter 3.5- The Tour

They pulled into an empty spot and hopped out.

"I'm going to leave you here," Agent Lucas said as he grabbed Wyatt's bag from the trunk, "but if you walk in through the front door there, they'll take care of you. Most everyone should be here by now. Hope you enjoy your time here, Wyatt."

Wyatt took his bags from Agent Lucas and walked in the front door. He entered what looked a lobby. It looked for all the world like an old business front from the 1970s: Pea green shag carpet on the ground was complemented by wood paneling covering the walls. Wyatt thought he saw a few dark spots on the carpet in different places. A glance up at the ceiling revealed new paneling over the dark spots.

Hmmm, Wyatt thought. Must be water damage from before they replaced the tiles.

Wyatt figured the building hadn't been cared for some time.

At odds with the vintage look was the modern technology and decor that had apparently been brought in recently. An antique front desk was manned by a man who was typing hurriedly on a desktop with a wide-screen monitor. Behind him a flat-screen tv was hanging on the wall, displaying the message 'Orientation' with an arrow pointing towards a hallway. Wyatt tried to lean over as much as he could to see down the hallway but he was called to attention by the man behind the desk.

"Welcome. May I see your ID?", the man said with a friendly smile.

Wyatt hadn't been sure what to expect when he walked in, but he still felt blindsided. the agent hadn't mentioned this.

"Oh," he managed. "Will a driver's license work?"

"Yup," the man replied dully.

Wyatt fumbled for a moment, trying to remember where he'd put his wallet. Was it in one of his bags? Before remembering that he had put it in his back pocket. He reached for his wallet and handed his drivers to the man.

The man accepted the card and held it up to a scanner on his desk. Out of the corner of his eye, Wyatt saw pictures of himself flash up on the monitor.

"Head right down that corner, Wyatt," the man said pointing down the hallway Wyatt had been peeking down a moment earlier."They're just about to start."

"Thanks," Wyatt mumbled, heading down the previously mentioned hallway.

As he made his way around a corner, he came nearly face-to-face with a small squad of armed men. The six of them lined the hallway, gun in hand, facing towards the way he had come. Wyatt felt briefly alarmed. It was not every day he came across uniformed men with assault rifles despite his activities as a superhero. In Wyatt's experience, if men had guns, they were usually trying to shoot him with them.

However, these made no move to attack. Wyatt decided that they must be merely guards. Still, he reassured by the strength he received from his sword, hidden in his backpack.

He emerged into a much larger room. A decently sized crowd of teenagers milled about the room. Finally, he would actually meet the other people at this school he'd come all of this way for. He scanned the crowd but Wyatt saw no one he immediately recognized.

One corner of the room contained a large pile of luggage that he assumed was the belongings of everyone here. No one seemed to be doing anything important, so Wyatt opted to take the opportunity to shed his bags onto the pile. As he walked in that direction, he glanced around the room.

He hadn't noticed at first, but he now noticed that the decor here was different than the previous rooms. Either they had replaced the vintage look or had completely renovated the space. The mousy carpet had been replaced by a white linoleum. In place of the wood paneling, the walls were now adorned with a simple gray paint with white trim. Lighting fixtures lined the walls and instead of the old furniture, the room was filled with various couches and tables. Where the previous rooms had felt slightly out of place, this space felt much more comfortable.