On the arrival of the two remaining students, Naomi felt a small surge of relief. She remembered Irina and Kalte as two students in which she saw great potential. Irina came from the blood of two of the greatest heroes who ever lived. Even if her powers hadn't developed fully--even if Naomi could sense the incredible burden her heritage placed upon her shoulders, she knew in her heart that this girl had what it took to be a hero.
And Kalte... He was a stone golem of a man. His presence made her feel much better, simply to know that there was someone who could help her keep her students safe. The suit of cold steel which he wore around him would be a barrier between them and death. Even if he was inexperienced himself, she could feel a powerful sense of duty and purpose from within him.
Naomi brought the two of them up to speed and answered the questions she could, doing whatever she thought would help these heroes come to terms with this horrible news. It warmed her heart immensely to see some of them trying to cheer each other up. She allowed them to write on the board, knowing that words of encouragement would mean much more coming from people who were just as scared as they were, rather from the one in charge.
Although she would never say it or let it show, Naomi was just as scared as the rest of them.
"Okay. I'll try and bring everyone up to speed before we go." She said. The girl plucked the piece of chalk out from Angel's fingertips, and with her other hand she took a piece of twizzler, providing a warm smile as she stuck it in her mouth. "According to the Headmaster... what has emerged from the Tumor is an enormous fortress. We don't know much about it yet, except that it seems to be producing a constant stream of... some sort of intelligent monster? They're incredibly hostile and have been seen using teamwork and tactics as they tried to break through the world's forces surrounding them. But so far they can't do much but make a lot of noise and give us a hard time.
"There is far too many types of them for me to describe, but..." Naomi drew a small perfect circle on the board, labeling it as the Tumor. Around the circle, she drew another line of wavy smoke around it. "The real threat is a sort of Curse that seems to be spreading out from its center. It covers the sky and blots out the Sun, and everything underneath the smog of this curse becomes effected in strange ways. Missiles aimed at the Tumor lose their targeting and veer away--people lose their minds and become no different than the other monsters, turning incredibly hostile while retaining their intelligence. This curse is spreading, day by day, and it will only be so long before the smog reaches the world's lines of defense. They'll have no choice but to fall back, and as they do that things will become worse and worse." Continuing, Naomi drew a third circle around the waves of smoke.
"Being forced to spread out further will weaken the world's defenses. Eventually, that will lead to our lines being broken and cities becoming swarmed by these creatures. If this front line falls, the country will descend into violence and chaos. The curse will only continue to spread, and..." In a swift motion, Naomi erased her drawings and drew in a small sketch of the Earth itself. "If it expands at the rate it is right now, the rest of the world would only have one or two years left before the smog reached them as well. Life as we know it will be over." For a second, Naomi allowed her voice to become hard as iron. "This is why it's so important that we do what we have to do. It is up to us to go to the heart of this Tumor and destroy its core, while its forces are distracted trying to break through our front lines. We are the only ones who can do this."
Silence reigned. Naomi allowed minutes to pass by, letting everyone absorb this information. It was to Naomi's surprise that Sidnee was the first to speak up. "If... If this Curse thing makes people turn evil when they're underneath it..." She hesitated, as if scared to hear the answer. "Won't that make us turn evil too?"
Naomi smiled. It was a good question. "No. For some reason, those of us who have been gifted these powers seem to be immune to it." The smile turned to something almost smug. "I know this because I've been there myself. That's why they've decided for me to lead you, even though I'm not the strongest out of us. I'm the only one on the planet who has been to the Tumor, and lived to tell the tale."
"How, though?" Theo spoke up. "Aren't there, like, hordes of monsters coming from there?"
"Yes. Definitely. But they were far too distracted to notice me." Naomi guiltily noticed her own smug satisfaction, as if she were bragging. "Besides--my own abilities make me very useful for infiltration. Speaking of which..." She turned to Isalah. "I'll make sure to tell you what they are. Soon. But now that everyone is here we have much more important things to figure out. Such as today's Mission."
Naomi erased the picture of the Earth, and she hastily drew the outline for a small checklist.
"Today, we are going to secure a small base behind enemy lines. A place where everyone can rest and eat in safety. Where we can safely bring supplies in via helicopter and brief you on every new mission. The military is going to do everything it can to help us while we're new." As the first bulletin on her list, Naomi wrote Secure a Base.
Beneath that bulletin, she wrote more points beneath it, writing as she talked. "First, we're going to all going to enter a Helicarrier which will take us to the other side of the country, next to where the front lines are currently. From there..." More jotted notes. "We'll be smuggled into enemy territory, where we'll need to find a good place to set up a base. Easy enough, right?" She gave the class before her a reassuring smile. "And then..."
Although strained, she did not let her smile fade away. "And then we're going to have to secure the building ourselves. It will be up to us to kill whatever monsters we may encounter. Before the end of today, we are going to see combat. We're going to have to kill--even if it's the lives of monsters who want to destroy the world. They're going to try and kill you, too."
She allowed another moment of silence. "But, everyone... They won't stand a chance against us! They have never seen the likes of us before. We have powers that defy the laws of nature." She could feel the fires of determination within her. "They'll see us and think we're no more than a harmless band of students, and as they underestimate us, we will win! We will grow stronger, and with that momentum they will struggle and fail to find an answer to us as we penetrate deeper towards the Tumor, until it's too late and we're already there. Together, we'll be unstoppable, and we'll enter its heart and take out the one in charge of everything. With his death... every single living monster beneath him will die as well." She made the plan sound so simple, even if it wasn't.
All they had to was travel to the Tumor and kill one guy in charge, right?
Yeah... It would be much more difficult than that. But it didn't matter to Naomi. Everyone would become stronger and stronger, battle after battle, and she believed in her heart that they had what it took to succeed. Even if few others shared her thoughts.
"For now..." The girl spoke up again. "Everyone, please make any preparations that you haven't already. We have thirty minutes. The Helicarrier is waiting for us on the roof of the Academy, and we'll meet there to begin our first mission. And please..." Naomi looked every student in the eyes. "Please come to me if you need someone to talk to while all this is happening." She provided one last smile of encouragement. "It would be impossible to overstate how much I care for each one of you."
