As the engine of the helicopter hummed and the blades chopped through the air, Mikkish sat and went over in his head how he wound up in this situation. Maniacles Corporation was quite innovative, so the helicopter they were in looked futuristic, not unlike those vertibirds from Fallout.

Maniacles was supposedly the reason guns were now so cheap, and affordable to anyone. His own glock was only $50. When they weren't selling and manufacturing guns and other technology they were hiring and selling mercenaries for wars overseas.

Yes, there were wars, even despite the Pests. Mikkish reluctantly worked a fast food grill and killed god knows how many Pests in his life. As far back as he remembered, everyone owned a gun, a pistol at least. He himself kinda sucked as a marksman, being gifted in hand to hand combat instead, particularly MMA.

He wondered what they were off to go study. What "magic?" Clearly it was meant for young people. Would it be college like? He always wanted to go to University, but never could scrape up the money. He looked around at the others in the big helicopter, and wondered what was up with them.

Alexis was excited to be on the helicopter. She could finally do what she never did in her life because of her running. She could go to college. Who cares if this "magic" thing is not really. She was happy. A big smile on her face. Her Desert Eagle was at his usual at her hip holster , the new paint job really looked good. She loved her weapon , even named her Turli , for who knows what reasons ?

This Maniacles corporation really knew how to make good weapon and her ex-boyfriend gunsmith made it better. Going at the range was her favored thing of the day , besides the morning practice. Every now and then Pests would come to the track and she had to shoot'em. Good target practice as she called it.

The helicopter was full of people. She didn't knew anyone there but she saw confusion on some faces and on others ? Excitement.
She plans to make full of this opportunity. She only hopes that there is a shooting range at the campus or maybe a Pest attack occasionally.

Most of the people on the helicopter ride were quiet, even those that looked like they had the jitters. One, though, you couldn't get to shut up.

"Magic is real. Magic is real. Gonna be a wizard. Magic is real. Wingardium Leviosa, Hokus Pocus. Magic is real." Charlie mumbled under her breath as she tapped her feet in tune with the muffled WHUP WHUP WHUP WHUP that the helicopter blades made in the air. Charlie was a big believer in the concept of thought affecting the body. Not in any hippy dippy mystical placebo effect kind of way, no, in a practical way. She'd read in a book that when you repeated and ruminated on an idea the neural pathways related to that idea got stronger and stronger, like working out a muscle, so that in the future information about that topic was easier to carry and it allowed you to accept the ideas much easier.

The book had been about suicide clusters. Good read, but a little overwrought.

She looked around at the people in the cabin, still mumbling to herself, and wondered for the tenth time today whether this really was on the up and up. Those things where they slapped an explosive collar around your neck and made you fight to the death didn't actually happen (at least on this scale, she wasn't willing to rule it completely out of existence), but there were those weird sex islands that big businessmen and politicians occasionally owned.

Maybe Amos had been right about this. She hadn't exactly gotten her uncles permission to go on this trip.

She should have bought a phone before coming out here.

"Magic is real. Magic is real. Weird sex island battle royal. Abracadabra, avada cadarva."

Mikkish smirked.

"Holy shit, Battle Royal. Thats what this reminds me of." He said, breaking the ice with Charlie.

Just then, a man in a suit entered the passengers section of the air craft.

"Ahem. Uh, sorry to interrupt, but just want everyone's attention real quick."

He paused a second as Mikkish and several others turned their attention.

"My name is Mathew Williams. You may call me Matt. I just wanted to go over, real quick, some details of whats going on. First off, you all know about the Pests, right? Well you may or may not have heard that they have been increasing in number over the past decade, despite how much people are killing them and all of the actions taken to bring their population down, there are more Pests each year than the last. In addition to this, not all of the Pests are the sizes of puppies like you have probably seen. Many of our mercenaries have died fighting some which we believe to be breeders for the Pests. I don't really have my projector with me so I cant show you, but these breeders are huge, from elephant sized to large building sized. These larger ones are a lot more reclusive though. You wont find one walking through a city, most likely." He explained, "Any questions so far?"

"No? We all good? Good." Matt said, as he continued.

"So, Maniacles Corporation has been in contact with various little hidden towns all over the world for years, but only recently have they agreed to do business with us. You're probably wondering what hidden societies I'm talking about. Well what if I told you there were people all over the world who could read minds, set things on fire by blinking at them, and even cause a dead body to walk and act alive? Well as crazy as it sounds, these people have formed hidden societies all over the world. They are called "mages." But the most amazing thing about this is not that there are mages. The most amazing thing about all this is that almost anyone, any average Joe or Julie, can become a mage through practice. These abilities that mages have can destroy Pests much more efficiently than a glock or even an assault rifle could, and now people can be trained and develop these abilities. There are even colleges in these towns. Towns that, for the record, have no Pest problem, or at least a very low infestation problem. When I say college, I do mean university, by the way, meaning room and board and learning magic in a classroom setting." He paused

"Any last questions?"

"Alright then. Just a few more details to go through, there is a chance of injury or even death if instructions are not followed strictly, and anyone who's GPA falls too low will be kicked out of the program and sent back home.

Another couple of agents began passing around papers, which asked for signatures. It included being paid while in the program, what benefits they had access to, the risk of injury and death, notification of what can get someone kicked out of the program including murder and too much damage to Maniacles property, and a GPA falling too low.

Mikkish, of course, signed without really looking. He just wanted the pay and the college girls he just figured out he would probably meet. He never could afford to go to university, now he was being paid to go experience something he didn't think he would get to.

Sooner than anyone thought, the helicopter started to land, and the doors opened, revealing they had landed on the roof top of a tall building, overlooking a city of high rises and sky scrapers. It looked more like a smaller NYC than anything out of Harry Potter.

"Welcome to Malficus City, found on Malficus Island. Somewhere West of Northern California. The academy is at the other end of the city. Hope you're all in the mood for some sight seeing." Said Matt.

It was late afternoon. The neon lights of the city would be visible soon. Mikkish grinned. He never lived in a big city like this, and wondered what transit was like. He especially couldn't wait to see what clubs he could get into.

Charlies feet pounded on the roof as she hopped out of the helicopter, walking over tho the edge and looking down over the sweeping city. Definitely not a sex island then. You didn't build all this when a summer camp sufficed. Had magic built all this? She shuttered. She hoped wizards weren't all dicks and idiots. Wizards in fiction tended to be either dicks or idiots. They could take out pests and had hidden that from the world. That definitely leaned dickish.

Anyway, she did was she came here to do and signed her form on the safely railing, walking it back and handing it over the Matt before turning back to the crowd of students. "Anybody got cell reception?" She asked out loud. She didn't have a cell phone herself. Nobody to call. If there weren't any bars here that was a suspicious sign that this might still be a weird, murderous hoax. "If you do that means we're definitely not fighting to the death or something."

I was sitting in a corner of the helicopter, as far away from the others as I could. I was clutching a bow, a quiver of arrows, and a small case full of my personal belongings. It wasn't because I didn't like anyone, or that I was a cold person or anything... just... a bit socially awkward, or shy, I dunno... a lot of people back in my old town didn't really like me. Probably because they thought I was weird a bow instead of a gun... or that I was always reluctant to attack pests... or... my presence... some people even spread nasty rumors that I was a form of pest that puts its prey into a relaxed and defenseless state before killing them. I took a deep breath, that's over now. It's a new start.

I didn't have that many questions, so I stayed quiet and stared out the window in silence. When the sheet was handed to me, I read through the paper quickly and then signed.

When we landed, I got out of the helicopter, slipping my bow and quiver over my shoulder, and walked to the edge of the rooftop. "Whoa... how... could this have been hidden for so long...? Magic's amazing..." I looked at the city below and took a deep breath. This was going to be my home from now on. I never really thought I'd be able to go to college. I mean, I had great grades, and I qualified some scholarships, but for the most part they wouldn't take care of everything, and I couldn't very well work a full time job and do college full time... before this, I had merely been saving up.

"Catch up!" Shouted Matt, giddily, as he walked down a flight of stairs into the building.

He lead everyone down through the Maniacles building and out into the city streets. As soon as they got out...they came to find a city much like any other. For Mikkish, and perhaps a few others, this didn't dull the excitement of being in a city. But cars whizzed by occasionally, the city was very pedestrian friendly though. Occasionally, a person would by seen wearing a witch or wizard hat along with normal clothes. Some could be seen lighting cigarettes with flames on the tips of their fingers, or blasting themselves with cold air right from their hands to cool themselves in the heat of the day.

"Like I said, these mages were here, having their own modern society when we got here. Not sure how." Matt said, he turned around to Charlie as he kept moving "We are trying to keep our operations with these mages as discrete as possible. The only cell reception is for cell phone companies found on the island."

They passed two men who were throwing punches at each other lightning quick, seriously like something right out of DBZ. It was impossible, for a normal human being to move at these speeds. Matt moved around them casually. Mikkish did similar, but stared with great curiosity.

"A-Ah, sorry!" I called out, before turning around and rushing after the group. I looked around in amazement, my town hadn't really been this big or bustling. It was a bit dizzying... I hope that I don't get lost later. I tried not to stare at people, wearing weird accessories, clothing, or doing impossible things. However, I did stop when we reached the two fighting. "S-Shouldn't we try to stop this? O-One of them could get hurt." I clutched the locket around my neck, twisting it slightly in my grip. It was an unfortunate nervous habit of mine...

But Matt ignored Joe as he lead the students on.

"Damn dude, are we there yet?" Mikkish said, annoyed by the heat and humidity.

"Oh no, we got about another hour of walking ahead of us." Matt said, a hint of insincerity in his voice.

Ahead was a couple of buildings on a hill. The lawn was freshly and neatly mowed. The sidewalks swerved in an intentional, organized pattern. Young adults stood or sat, chatting or studying about the lawn.

"Hey wait...an hour? You're telling me this ain't the school?" Mikkish asked intuitively.

Matt, of course, ignored as he continued into the school grounds.

I was a bit taken aback by his lack of an answer. |"B-Be assertive Joe, these people could get hurt if we don't do anything! We can't just ignore this." I stopped, trying my best not to seem nervous. "H-Hey! I-I asked a question! W-We should try to stop this, shouldn't we!? These people could get hurt, couldn't they!?" I tried to keep my voice and body from trembling. I usually never raised my voice, and I tried to always keep my emotions in check...

"Statistically most street fights that don't involve weapons end before one of the fighters is seriously injured." Charlie said casually. "It's a dominance thing, a way to see whose dick is bigger. Those guys are either going to get picked up by the magic cops, ones going to walk to the magic hospital with a broken nose, or they're going to stumble back into the magic bar they came from as best friends. I know how hard it is to act against the diffusion of responsibility, and it's really cool that you are swimming against that stream, but we're on a magic island full of magic people and none of them seem worried about it."

Matt, of course, ignored Joe as he lead the new students into the campus.

Mikkish smirked. 'I wonder who hasn't figured out hes screwing with us.'

"Its a fight, happens all the time who cares?" Mikkish asked Joe, but then turned his attention to the school...and the ladies who walked past. "Hey whats up?" He said to one girl as he extended a fist for a fist bump. The girl smiled excitedly and fist bumped him with a "Heyy, whats up?" of her own. Her friend called her, though, and she said "I gotta go." But walked off with a smile.

'At long last: college chicks.' Mikkish thought.

Matt lead them all into the halls of one building and up to a desk.

"We got the new kiddos" Matt said to the lady at the desk, who did a little computer magic before a printing machine began dispensing multiple forms.

"Alright, take one and pass it on." Matt said, handing it to the student closest to him. The forms revealed themselves to be their schedules and the start date, which would be the day after tomorrow. The actual class schedules read like this:

New "Student" Class Schedule
8am Physical Conditioning, Mon-Sat
9:30 Science of Magic, Mon,Wed
10:30 Application of Mathematics, Mon, Wed, Thr
11:30 Philosophy and Mental Conditioning, Mon
1pm Magic Demonstration and Evaluation, Mon-Fri
2pm Sparring, Fri (A single unexcused absence may result in expulsion from the program)

Mikkish' excitement about the school faded a bit. He loved a good work out, but hated waking up early...and now he had to wake up before 8am six days a week?

"Hey man, we gotta show up at 8am every day but Sunday?" Mikkish asked, a tiny bit pissed.

But Matt turned to him, his expression not fully visible due to the sunglasses he still wore, but his mouth was cirved into an amused smirk.

"Thats what you all signed up for." He announced happily.

I reluctantly followed after the others after casting a glance back towards the fight. "Just because it's a fight doesn't mean that someone can't get badly injured... and it's not just normal people fighting, they're using magic to enhance their speed and very well their strength. One wrong move and they could accidentally kill one another." I crossed my arms and remained silent for the rest of the time.

I finally looked at the schedule and frowned. "Mental and physical conditioning... uh... that seems like... erm... brainwashing. Yeah?"

"If you want to know whether someone is trying to brainwash you pay attention to how much you're being fed. You're more malleable when your hungry and tired, so a brainwasher will try and keep you in that state." Charlie said, looking down at her own schedule. She frowned at the very last item on the list. Sparring? She'd have to fight other people, and it was mandatory? She wasn't exactly to thrilled at the prospect. She had a weak constitution and bruised really easily, but that wasn't what worried her. What if she enjoyed it? Like, a little too much? She'd read about it over and over again, once you made a mental connection between pleasure and hurting people you were done. May as well but a hockey mast and build a torture shack out in the middle of the desert because you'd just bought a one way ticket to slasher land.

She needed something to distract herself from that thought. "I'm sure it's just so mystical mumbo-jumbo though. Sitting under waterfalls and finding inner peace and all that jazz. If you ever get really scared that this is some kind of cult thing, try to quit. If they just let you leave it's safe. If they try to shame you into staying, or keep you anyway, it's probably a cult MK Ultra sort of thing."

"Yeah man, Maniacles is gonna let us bring our guns, walk around with our guns, but then "force" us to join a cult. That makes sense." Mikkish said sarcastically to Joe and Charlie.

"Oh yeah. That's our plan." Matt said, clearly amused, but with no facial expressive hints "But of course, you are not truly initiated until the after the blood orgy, which you must attend each time you rank up."

Mikkish looked at Joe and Charlie briefly, to see their reactions to Matt's comment, then turned back to Matt.

"So I hope this cult doesn't let its new recruits sleep on the sidewalk." He said, snickering at Joe and Charlie and their paranoia about being indoctrinated.

"Right." Matt said in realization "The dorm rooms are big, but cramped due to the amount of bunk beds pushed together. All you men in this group are in room 223, and all the ladies are in room 123. Its in the same one dorm building, but we separate genders by what floor they are in." Matt began walking off "Right this way."

Matt lead them all out into a courtyard in the middle of the lecture buildings and the dorms. They dorms looked like some sort of Inn from the early 1800s from the outside. In fact, some of the buildings they saw when they walked through the city looked pretty old. It begged the question of how long ago this school was built.

They were lead inside, where it seemed much bigger and more modern. Mikkish felt relieved when a rush of cold air from the AC hit them. In front of the entrance was a small sitting area with a couple couches and a fireplace that looked like it had never been used. Right next to it on the left was a stair case, and further off was a hallway to some dorm rooms. Off to the right was an open doorway that read "Dining Hall." Some commotion could be heard from there, either putting things away, or cooking.

"Alright, so this is where I will leave you guys. If you have any questions you can go back to the front desk. Most of what you need to know is on that sheet I gave you. I need to get back to my office." Matt said, and with that, walked off casually.

Holy shit.

Mikkish couldn't believe it.

He was being left to explore not only an academy, but a magic academy, in the middle of a city, on an island with beaches. But first thing was first.

"Guess its time to take a look at our room." He said to the other guys, and made his way upstairs...to room 223, which included six bunk beds crammed into a barely-large-enough room without even its own bathroom. No. The one bathroom in the hall was out in the hallway. There wasn't even a trunk to prevent anything from being stolen.

"Home sweet home..." Mikkish said 'I hope none of these dudes are gay.' He thought.

I gave them a blank look. "It's quite rude to try and mess with someone that's adapting to an alien environment." I crossed my arms and sighed, walking behind them as we were led to the dorms. I looked around me quietly. "That... feeling again." I took a deep breath and tried to ignore it. It... doesn't mean anything. Just paranoia, or maybe wishful thinking. Everything... is as it's supposed to be... right?

I walked ahead of everyone the second we entered the dorms. "I'm going to go to my room, good evening, everyone." I began walking towards the stairs, but then stopped, turned around and cast my gaze towards Matt, just before he left. "Oh, yes, I forgot to elaborate my point earlier. Silly me." I smiled and then my gaze grew cold as I clasped my hands together in front of my lap. "Mental conditioning is just a rather... malevolent sounding term, no? It makes me think of trying to make people change their thinking and behaviors to suit those that wish it so. I mean, it could refer to turning people into obedient remorseless little killing machines. Perfect little soldiers to fight the pointless little wars of man, for the profit of those that can see the potential in all of this. Soldiers that can decimate enemies with magic, a potent weapon indeed something that would put mercenary companies far ahead of the game and put them into high demand." My gaze... seemed to pierce his very soul. In a second, my expression lightened. "That's all I wanted to say, good evening, Mr. Matt~"

With that, I turned on my heel and ascended the stairs. I walked to room 203, unlocked the door, and went inside. I took a deep shuddering breath. "...Ah... I hope... I hope this'll be alright..." I shut the door, got onto the top of one of the bunks, setting my bow, quiver, and suitcase next to me. After a little bit of silence, the door opened. I saw one of the boys from the group walk in. "Oh, hello."

"Alright, sure, Nice detective work kid." Matt said before walking off "You sure got me."

All the while, Matt wondered how Joe could come up with such an idea to begin with. Maniacles didn't need magic in order to beat out other mercenary companies. It was the other companies that would attempt magic to win against Maniacles, and probably still fail.

Everywhere a person looked in the United States and many developed countries, there was some Maniacles product. They got a very high profit selling guns for cheap to the average person, receiving government funding, and of course, selling mercenaries to quell high-infestation scenarios. That wasn't all they had, though. They even sold their own brand of energy drinks, tobacco products, and hell, even had their own shops throughout cities dedicated to selling various merchandise. Maniacles was everywhere. You saw more Maniacles ads than even Coca-Cola ads.

In fact, Mikkish was just taking a sip from a can of Power Bolt (the energy drink brand owned by Maniacles) when he walked back into the dorm room to find another dude sitting on the bed. Before answering, he walked in a bit to make sure his bag was untouched and still there, then answered.

"Hey, whats up? Ever been to a place without pests?"

I tilted my head, putting a finger to my chin. I thought about it for a second, casting my gaze to the side. "No. It's basically impossible not to run into some type of pest. I mean, even here, while we may not see them out and about, there's likely some sort of pest around, something that's managed to slip through the cracks."

I paused for a second. "Hey, I know that we've just met, but... could I ask you a question...?" Without really waiting for a response, I started. "Doesn't it sometimes feel like the world we live in... just feels wrong? Like, you don't belong here, or that something that is, should not be? Perhaps that... you weren't meant to be born in this world, but another one?" I chuckled and rubbed the back of my head. "On second thought, never mind, it's a silly question. I guess... this whole pest business has never sat well with me, that's all..."