Prologue: O, Say Does that Blood Streaked Banner Still Wave?

~

Dear Prospective Student,

We would like to happily inform you of your acceptance into Unity Academy. Your interest has in turn sparked our interest, as we wish to include only the best and brightest into our fold. Tuition is not a problem in the first year of your education here. Come spring, you will all be asked by your personal school counselor if you wish to continue courses here, and if so, which courses you will take.

We cannot wait to meet you, and wish you a good rest of the summer.

Signed,
Unity Academy Administrative Team

~

Carlos awoke in a dimmed auditorium, sitting on a stage. The last thing he remembered prior to awakening was setting foot inside Unity Academy. The auditorium looked barely used and looked relatively new, but at the same time held a certain layer of fakeness about it. As if it was a parody of what a school auditorium was supposed to be.

Looking around him, the golden-tongued teen noticed fifteen other teenagers surrounding him. One dressed in religious garb, one in cosplay, one in camouflage, and others with more subtle quirks that told more than they probably knew.

"...What happened?" The normally smooth-talking man finally spat out.

~

"...What happened?" That was the prime question in Ryan's mind. He thought maybe he slipped when he entered the academy and blacked out, but he felt no oah whatsoever. He just felt tired and groggy if anything. He ran a hand through his blonde hair before standing up and staring out at the auditorium.

....Cardboard cut-outs lined the chairs of their "audience". It gave a semblance of cuteness but had the presence of an uncanny valley. Like something didn't just feel right. He knew at least a few of the other fifteen students felt the same.

Was this real? It felt real. But it seemed like a dream.

"Permission to ask if anyone knows what is going on here?" His mannerisms as a cadet did not falter too much.

After having set foot in Unity Academy Nova woke up in an auditorium. What the crap just happened? she looked around. 15 other students. Fifteen other... People!
"Permission to ask if anyone knows what is going on here?" She heard someone ask.
"Like hell, if I know! I really knew what was going on here, do ya think I would be here? NO!"Nova shouted at the blond boy. She was unhappy and terrified. There were actual people here. She hoped they didn't have to introduce themselves.

Samuel was happily snoring away his life, unbeknownst to what was happening around him. The smiling face soon turned into a terrified expression, as he seemingly began to have a nightmare. He was faintly uttering the words no to himself, but with each passing moment he began uttering no, louder, and louder, until he finally screamed no one last time before ricocheting upwards, jolting himself awake.

"Ah, ugh... It was just a nightmare," he said, staring at his knees, before slamming back down onto the ground, hitting his head. "(Ugh, that didn't help the drunkenness I was feeling, but hey... At least I can confirm that this is not a dream.) Sam sat up, and glanced at his surroundings. "What the hell... (Where am I?)" he thought to himself as he pushed himself up from the floor. "(Wasn't I just standing in front of the academy?)" Sam pushed himself up from his knees, and took a look around. "What the heck is going on?" he utters, staring at the 'audience,' and the other students in bewilderment.

Only one word came to Christian's mind as he came to in a room of some sort. It seemed to be an auditorium of sorts. He looked around the stage at the other people there, many of whom were very... peculiar, to say the least. He saw that everyone was waking up confused just as he was. His mind groggily racing, he thought of what could have possibly happened. After arriving inside Unity Academy, he couldn't recall a single thing. Wait a moment... arriving at the school...
"Are we in Unity Academy?" Christian blurted out, immediately saying what come to mind.

"Are we in Unity Academy?" Another boy blurted out.
"Oh wow, you'd think that if I knew I would have done something, like.. Oh I don't know... Telling everyone! But, if you must know we probably are, but I have absolutely no proof," Nove braked back. She was getting annoyed at all their questions. Couldn't they just shut up and wait to find out. Someone was bound to tell them what was going on.

"You don't need to be rude about it lady," Samuel grumbled as he rubbed his forehead. "But you do have a point... Someone will be bound to know something," he said, removing the hood obscuring his face. "But," Sam said, "don't you find this a tinge bit creepy with the cardboard cut-outs?" Sam gestured to the 'audience' before them.

"Now to start my amazing adventure into a new academy!~" Luna happily skipped through the doors of the academy, unbeknownst to her the horrible fate that lay in waiting.
"Oh.. uh wha.. my head. It hurts..." The room spun around, making Luna lose her balance and fall to the floor. She quickly nodded off into a deep sleep. Only to be awoken by a kid later, he tapped her on the shoulder, surprising her!
"BWAA!" She was shocked and got up to get a good look at her surroundings. They were in some sort of auditorium, maybe? Her head was feeling really fuzzy, thinking was starting to give her a migraine.
"Does anybody else feel like they've been hit by a truck? my head hella kills!"

---

Theodore bit his knuckle. He was truly afraid. Only moments ago he walked in through the front door of Unit Academy, but his vision hastily became blurry, his head began to spin, forcing him to drop to the ground. Only to later wake up next to a girl in some type of angel cosplay. He went over and tapped her on the shoulder so she would wake up.
"Bwaaa!" She threw her hands up in the air, it cause a little bit of a scene.
In response to a guy who had asked, 'Are we in Unit Academy?' Theodore just shrugged his shoulders, but he did point at a flag which hoisted an emblem on it.

"Does anybody else feel like they've been hit by a truck? my head hella kills!" A girl said. Man, I wish they would just shut up,
"Sorry, little girl, but can you please shut up, it's pissing me off. And I swear I will punch whoever asks where we are next in the face," Nova said. Man, she had to start being nicer. Oh well. But, she seriously was going yo punch someone.

"(Someones got an attitude problem,)" Sam thought to himself. He took a look at the newly awakened students, studying them for a bit. "Yeah, my head kind of hurts... But that's only because I banged it on the ground," he said chuckling awkwardly. "Anyways, since we are waiting for someone to tell us what the heck is going on, we should get to know each other... I mean, we are going to be classmates I presume," he said smiling at the others benevolently.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Isis Iphigenia slowly awoke. She had a headache that could rival a god’s, and she felt dizzy and disoriented. Opening her eyes, she found herself on the hardwood floors of some auditorium, with her black messenger bag laid out on the floor a foot away. Realizing she was on the ground before all else, she scrambled to her feet and immediately began to dust herself off. Without looking around her, she furiously began to brush off her blazer and skirt, before moving to pick up her bag and start shaking that off as well. But as she bent down to retrieve her belongings, she finally noticed exactly what was around her.

They were indeed in an auditorium, of which she could assume belonged to her new school, judging by the banners flanking the high ceilings of the room. The windows were oddly barricaded, and there seemed to be cardboard cutouts of people in the audience. Perhaps the windows could be explained due to construction work and the people for a school project, but it was odd nonetheless. However, it was the people that put Iphigenia on an edge. It was less of a homogenous student body and more of a “motley crew,” and the better portion of them were either unconscious or barely conscious. Perhaps most striking was a girl in cosplay and a guy in full military fatigues. They were clearly as confused as she was, but everybody was speaking at the same time. There was arguing, yelling. An obnoxious looking girl had already dropped into a fighting stance. The situation was bizarre. It seemed out of control. What the bloody hell was happening?

Without hesitation, Isis instinctively felt for the switchblade she kept in skirt pocket.

Thankfully, the blade was still there. She needed to make more sense of the situation. The rag-tag band of half-conscious people in the room clearly had little other idea about what had happened. Iphie sighed; it would have been nicer if they were all still unconscious, or even better, dead. It seemed the best course of action was to wait, so with that in mind, Iphie began to check the rest of her belongings. She pulled out her phone, one of the most recent Android smartphone models, and turned it on with a swipe of her finger. She would call the school and see what the hell was up.

[NO SIM CARD INSTALLED.]

Yelling, so much yelling...Why is there so much yelling? James shot his eyes open and looked around, grasping around him, He felt disoriented, and a bit nauseous, otherwise he was okay. Slowly picking himself up to his feat he watched as the others in the room started to get up, ask questions, and give dramatic outbursts back in response. Was violence really necessary?

"...Uhmm..." James would attempt to speak, but as he soon realized that there was a group of 15 strangers in a room with him, and that the windows seemed to have been shut by some makeshift barricades, he slowly found himself sinking to the ground, huddled with his knees at his chest, "...Oh God..." he managed to get a few words out, this was worse than a nightmare. "A...a-a-am I going to die?" He slowly rolled over till he was full out in the fetal position on the ground. His thumb soon found his lips as he bit it, the taste of dirt from under his nail bringing a slight comfort to the distraught boy. His head started to spin more than it had before. He just wanted to go to school, why was he trapped building? why was he with a group of strangers and no teachers? why was he just waking up? Did they drug him? OH GOD! What could they have done to him while he was out?! Panic stricken James started to whimper, it would be hard to make out what was leaving his lips with a thumb wedged between them, but it was something along the lines of wanting out, and wanting to be in a garden.

Well shit. This certainly wasn't how Anna had expected to be spending her first day of school. She would've guessed something more along the lines of unruly classrooms and boring introductions, and less getting knocked unconscious and waking up inside some random building with a fifteen other kids in the same situation.

Not wishing to remain laid out on the hardwood floors any longer, Anna sat up and looked around the room. It seemed to be an auditorium. Albeit one that had barricaded windows and an audience full of some uncanny cardboard cut-outs. There also seemed to be a gathering of lucid students over yonder.

'Jeez. Couldn't the person who'd done this at least placed me in one of those damn chairs?' Anna thought, rubbing her temples to either get rid of the headache, or at least dampen it a bit, 'And could those stupid kids please shut the hell up?'

Once her headache finally subsided, Anna stood from the ground and dusted her suit off. A quick examination of her surroundings indicated that they were still in Unity Academy and not some random auditorium in the middle of nowhere. That was slightly reassuring. Perhaps this was all some kind of freshman prank, but the blonde thief doubted that notion. After all, knocking someone unconscious - let alone fifteen of them - was probably grounds for some kind of lawsuit.

Anna patted herself down and felt for her belongings. It seemed everything she usually had on her was present. Phone, strangely lacking any battery; wallet, absolutely nothing removed; her watch, level of accuracy unknown; and her lockpicks, still in working order. At least some things were looking bright. She started moving towards the other students...

...Before deciding that the subsequent headache wouldn't nearly be worth the amount of knowledge she may or may not gain from interacting with the obnoxious children. Best to keep to herself for now.

Gwen held her head, she already had a splitting headache. and the panicking that James was doing yelling and scared about being trapped within the gym, she walked over to James and grabbed him by his shirt with both hands, then began to shake him back and forth, " Calm down, calm the crap down, or I'll calm you down boy." Gwen threatened." I've got one of the worst headaches in the world right now and yelling won't help me recover from it so chill out or be chilled out."

Gwen let go of James and felt around her waist feeling her belt but noticed that she didn't have her tool belt on her or any of her tools, she had a puzzled look on her face wondering where they went, soon Gwen noticed that they were all in gym and noticed the large pates on the windows." What the crap is going on ? " She asked, she then noticed the fifteen other students and her mind began to think about how she gotten to the school, but thinking about it only made her headache worst," Ah man thinking doesn't help me here." She added.

---

Nika got up off the floor wiping herself off, she watched everyone quietly not wanting to be a real bother to them, she then witnessed Gwen go off on James talking about how he's not helping by screaming, her silent gaze soon turned over to Anna who was checking herself for something, Nika looked around and counted everyone seeing that there was fifteen of them all together, when she heard Theodore ask if this is the school and pointed to the flag Nika began to speak," I'm-I'm pretty sure that this is the school the letter I remember getting had a seal that looked a little like it." She told him. " And please don't get mad at me but could someone please tell me why did we wake up in the schools gym ? " She asked

A wooden floor, she hasn't been sleeping on a wooden floor for ages. How come she is laying on one now? "Wh-What happened... where am I?" Maria slowly opened her eyes, she noticed she was in a giant room, filled with many chairs. As she opened her eyes completely she saw 15 other people present in the room. Some were already standing while others were sitting or still asleep on the ground. She was caught up in a series of people asking questions to each other, of which none had an answer for. Something which irritated one girl in particular. Even to the point where she began cursing to other people without a solid reason. She suddenly heard someone else going crazy taking the Lord's name into mouth multiple times.

Another girl approached him, telling him to calm down, shaking him repeatedly in the process, before letting him go. The nun stood up and dusted off her habit. Maria walked up to James, a bit worried. "Are you all right mister?" she first asked. "You don't have to worry. God is watching over us, and if you didn't commit any sins, he will protect you and prevent that you will be send to the fiery pits of Hell." she said to calm him down. Whether is helped was another question.

---

Silas was really drowsy as he opened his eyes. He probably was one of the last ones to awake as everyone he could see was already walking around, talking with each other and so on. Silas yawned and stretched out. It wasn't the first time he had fallen asleep on a... weird place. It seemed very weird as he still could remember that he entered this building. And not much time should have passed inbetween... if he was right. He suddenly heard his belly making a lot of noise. How long has it been since he last had a snack? It must be a very long time, as his belly was trying to get out of his body to find some snacks itself.

Silas quickly jumped up. "Okay where is the food!!!" he shouted through the auditorium. Ignoring anyone's response that didn't tell him where he could find food, Silas rushed to the chairs. He dived to the ground and looked underneath the chairs... the ground was as clean as is could be. He could even see his reflection in it. So there was no food underneath the chairs. He ran up to the door at the end of the auditorium, unfortunately it was still locked. He couldn't jump out of the windows, as there weren't any. He walked back to the podium... head hanging down and feeling depressed. He suddenly looked up again. "I want some food!"

Sam turned his head towards the other awakened students, distracted by their conversations. "(Yes, that's what we totally need at the moment, more pissed off people scaring the crap out of others,)" Sam thought annoyingly to himself as he pivoted around and began walking towards James, and the others. "(At least someone is trying to calm him down, however the firey pits of hell doesn't help because I'm pretty sure most of us here have committed lots of sins,)" Sam thought as he approached the three.

"Hey, dude, you need to calm down, and lady, beating up someone isn't going to get us anywhere at the moment," Sam said calmly, his voice quivering for a bit. Despite the fact that he had a cool head, he was scared as hell. His heart had been beating profusely ever since he woke up, and the anticipaton was just making it even worse. "I'm sure most of us here are confused and scared as you are, but keeping calm in this situation like this is the best thing we can do right now," he said, as he glanced at the audience nervously. Sam turned his head back to James, and extended a hand out towards him. "Here, let me help you up."

A little shocked by the girls response, Theo steeped back abit. Suddenly his phone fell out of his pocket and fell on the ground. The phone was an Apple Iphone with a purple hard case over it, so there was no visible damage. "Ah!"
He quickly swiped it up and checked to see if it still worked. In turning it on, he noticed there was strangely no battery Icon anymore. His first choice of action was to ring his mum. Unfortunately, all he could get was a dial tone, which is strange considering how modern his phone was. "Mmmm".
Theo walked past the two girls and sat down near one of the cardboard cut outs. "C-c-creepy..." Theo put his head down and had a small think.

---

"Aww sweetie, I'm afraid I have no clue. Maybe its just some sorta practical joke or something ahaha..." Luna forced herself to laugh.
She noticed a few people get into a little struggle. She strutted over there to converse with them, her fluffy skirt swaying as she walked over.
"Helloooo~ Yes, um I don't think fighting is going to help us in this kind of situation!" Luna pointed at the plated windows and person trying to open a locked door.
"But honey..." Crouching to look at the guy on the floor. She winked at him. "Honey you need to calm down, panicking never helped anybody haven't you eva' seen a thriller movie ahaha!"
It was pretty obvious her over the top peppiness was getting on peoples nerves.
"What we gotta do, is remain calm! That's what happens in the movies ahehe"
Luna twirled her long blonde hair. She then realized she was missing her bag... She remembers bring it in with her... But thinking about that moment started to really hurt her head.

Nova heard Maria ask where they were. She calmly walked over to a chair and picked it up. She had had enough with their stupid questions and impatience. Nova headed toward Maria swinging the chair.
"You don't know how pissed off I am right now," Nova said as she got closer to the girl. All of the sudden Nova grinned, she had had a mood swing, "But maybe I can let you go just this once... Is probably what your hoping I was going to. Say, but bashing in someone's head with a chair will be fun as well." Nova swung the chair at Maria's head

Sam had barely been holding his hand out for 10 seconds before hearing the girl utter that phrase. "Oy, fighting isn't going to help..... Us," Sam said, turning towards Nova, retracting his hand from James. He stared at her, his eyes were wide open and fixated on the chair she had. "(Is she crazy?!)" Sam thought, worried about what would happen if he didn't intervene. "H-hey, wait a minute," Sam said, but before he could finish his sentence, he did what his gut told him to do. He turned towards the girl Nova was fixated on, and without warning, attempted to dash into her, hoping to push her out of harms way.

Carlos was deep in thought. None of this was in no way normal and every single student seemed to be in the same boat. No recollection of what happened, no anything. Could they have been drugged or gassed? It seemed the most likely to him at the moment.

"Everyone, if you would, calm yourselves--"

"Say, but bashing someone's head in seems fun as well."

Carlos stopped and turned in the furious female's direction as she swung a chair at the nun. He watched as a nearby boy tried to tackle the devout to the ground.

~

Ryan wasn't very happy with what he was seeing. Everyone was in an awful mood and it was spiraling from bad to worse by the moment. It didn't help that they had someone with what seemed to be a spitfire temper to deal with. He inhaled and tried his hardest to muster up as loud of a voice as he could, but exhaled uselessly when he saw what was going on with the trio in the conflict.

"This isn't getting us anywhere! We need to sit down, discuss who we are and what's going--" He was cut off when he saw Nova swinging her chair. He made his way towards the three, knowing he wouldn't make it in time to make it told he chair but at least he could try and calm the others down.

While Nova was in Mid Swing, Gwen stepped infront of Maria to take the hit instead, she didn't want to see a fight start especially with a nun, the chair hit Gwen on the shoulder and just made her angry, her shoulder was sore from the hit then she slapped the chair out of Nova's hands," If your gonna pick a fight with someone, fight me, don't go messing with the nuns, also just so you can tell people who whooped your ass later, I'm Gwen, Gwen Meadows." Gwen informed Nova. Before Gwen could ball up her fist Nika appeared beside the two," No guys we shouldn't fight, we should try to figure out how this happened, and how we got here." Nika said trying to stop them from fighting.