Terran Worldwide News Station #1

Henry Cooper looks around nervously at the five chairs seated in a semicircle in front of him, with a glass table between him and the tables. He doesn’t show his nerves though, as that would be unprofessional and – in the case of these four individuals, one of the five seats being empty – career suicide.

Of the four individuals, Blue can be seen wearing a blue and black suit and tie as he stares at Henry without a single hint of emotion on his face, making him look almost dead inside. Meanwhile Red has a bored expression on his face showcasing just how little the two care about being here.

Red probably just wants to go back to the front lines and fight, doesn’t he…?

Looking at Black, Henry can’t help but feel nervous. Mostly because the man keeps fading in and out of existence with a mischievous grin on his face. One that makes him look very much like he’s up to something. And Purple is the opposite, her eyes glowing purple without any sorts of pupil, iris, or sclera to tell where she is looking, simply making her impossible to read as she sits perfectly still.

Ever the seer…

Henry looks last at the empty chair and sighs.

No White again. Just like the last year. And the year before that. And basically every year before that… the woman just refuses to go out in public.

After seeing the light flash on, Henry immediately begins his spiel, keeping his eye on the camera and not on the Knights watching him, “And the time has finally arrived! The time for this year’s Interschool Tournaments! A time that everyone on the entire planet can never get enough of!”

“As for the four sitting across from me, I’m sure you don’t need an introduction to humanities greatest heroes of all time,” he says, indicating the four Knights. “Now this year is going to be just like the others in a lot of ways, but I’m sure you’re all very interested in some of the new up and coming Guardians!” The screen next to the five people turns on, bringing the attention of the four Knights to it as it immediately shows a man with long hair wearing striking red armor akin to what one would see on a gladiator from the old world. “And to start things off, let’s introduce Thomas Carter!”

On the screen, the man can be seen rushing through hordes of Class III demons with cat-like claws made out of shadows coating his arms.

“Thomas has a special magic called Shadow Beast, which lets him control shadows and create animal-like vestiges of shadow that can either attach to his own body or be used separately,” Henry explains, very few of the Knights actually paying attention, Blue simply staring at him with that dead expression on his face, Black still playing around, Purple being just as unreadable as before, and Red beginning to glare at Henry out of his likely desire for him to finish this quickly. So Henry hurries up a little, moving on to the next Guardian as the screen changes to show a woman wearing a simple set of high-tech looking magi-tech armor with purple plating covering all of her important areas and cloth covering the rest. She also has a few noticeable items thrown into the mix such as a sword and a hairband to tie the girl’s hair back out of her face as she twirls the blade around, cutting apart demon after demon in a Class III Fracture at a park. “Next up is Caroline Winters! The number one ranked student at the also number one ranked Guardians University, Lion’s Heart! This beauty has the power to cut space itself! Which includes even Gates!”

This comment finally gets a reaction out of some of the Knights, particularly Red and Black, who stop what they were doing to look at the screen finally. And Henry takes that as his cue to continue speaking, “She is the current number one student suspected to win the entire Class III Solo Primary Tournament this year, and the daughter to Astra, the Guardian of the Stars!”

Henry takes a moment to glance at the comments on the livestream that’s running concurrently with the tv broadcast, only to let out a mental sigh of relief at seeing them all positive. So he moves onto the Class II Guardians that are suspected to come out on top. But since the current generation of Class II Guardians aren’t as impressive as the new generation of Class Is, or the current Class III generation, he moves on rather quickly, only introducing a single name – that of a student from Lion’s Heart, of course.

“Now, this year we’ve had plenty of new Class I Guardians who have been making quiiite the name for themselves,” Henry continues, smiling slightly despite the looks he’s getting from the Knights while wishing he didn’t have to take this job. But someone had to, since it’s an annual thing, and he’s proven himself to be able to deal with the Knights – all of whom have psychological conditions that built up over the centuries they’ve lived along with their time on Tartarus.

One of the many reasons I never ask the Knights any questions until the very end. Because all the people really want to see is their ‘heroes’ in the flesh and not on the battlefield for once. They don’t want to hear them talk. Especially not Blue. Although I think some might want to see Black talk, but only one of his personalities.

The screen changes to show a young man seemingly in his early twenties wearing a simple set of magi-tech armor that looks like a regular old T-shirt and shorts as he clearly uses death magic to fight a horde of demons inside of a park.

“First up for the Class Is most likely to make it places in the tournaments is the frightening Necro! A user of death magic and something else,” Henry says, smirking slightly as he sees the Knights turning to look at the screen, only for their eyes to widen at the sight of the man using void related powers. “This young man is currently being sponsored by the city lord of a Tier 3 city on the outskirts of the North-Eastern Continent of Ter called Novlan, and I’m sure he has some very interesting tricks to show you all.” The screen then changes again to show another student from Lion’s Heart that Henry quickly introduces as Sentinel. Following which he goes through a few more students from other universities before declaring, “Okay, we have two more students remaining on our list. Both of these two are the current top runners for the betting rings on the victors of the entire Class I Solo Primaries, one being the candidate from Lion’s Heart and a character I’m sure many of you recognize, and the other a student from Aquatic Pride, the number two Guardians University.”

The Knights – including Blue, who seems to show a modicum of interest at the mention of Lion’s Heart’s Solo Primary Candidate – glance over at the screen right when it changes to show a man in a set of full black leather armor with glowing red eyes and various markings streaking across his skin as he charges forward, shapeshifting his arm into that of a black bear’s paw to slash straight into a demon captain, killing it after what looks to have been a long battle.

“This is Lucas Walsh, the Class I Primary candidate from the Aquatic Pride Guardians University designated the number two Guardians University and located in the Middle-East continent of Uras!” Henry exclaims, the interest of the Knights slowly beginning to lower after seeing him, but not enough for them to look away. “He has Shapeshifting magic that lets him turn into different animals and beasts, other people, and even demons!”

That comment peaks the interest of the Knights a little bit more. But despite that, Red begins to turn away.

Henry briefly glances at the chat only to almost do a double take at the realization that the Scarlet Wolf’s fans have basically taken it over and are rushing him to finish talking about Lucas and move on to her.

Poor Lucas.

But he does what they desire, making the screen change to show a beautiful girl with black hair streaked with crimson, glowing red eyes, and – most importantly, according to the viewers – wolf ears, before he immediately states, “And here we have the Class I Solo Primary candidate from the Lion’s Heart Guardians University for this year, Scarlet Asger!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Henry notices each and every one of the Knights stiffen up slightly at both the sight of the girl and the mention of her name. And one of them – Blue – even stands up from his chair while staring at the screen with his eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

Henry stiffens up, not knowing what he’s going to do. But all he does is walk up to the screen to the bewilderment of both Henry, the set crew in the room, and the viewers, before staring at it for a few seconds and then going back to his seat without saying a word.

No one says anything for a few seconds with even the chat pausing for a moment before immediately blowing up with debate over what that was about. But then Blue focuses his dead eyes directly on Henry, prompting him to continue, “Scarlet Asger has shown herself time and time again to be a Guardian who enjoys battling the demons, fighting over and over again in every single Fracture she can find and always coming out on top, even in the most ridiculous situations that would normally never happen!

Henry continues throwing praise on the girl for a bit, making sure to keep an eye on the Knights only to find all of them seemingly focused solely on the girl while listening to his words.

Just what is it about her that has them so entranced?

However, after taking a glance at Blue, Henry blinks in surprise, suddenly stopping his spiel for a moment. But he picks it up again soon enough.

Is it just me… or does Scarlet share a few similarities to Blue in appearance? Not many, and not enough to be his daughter or something, but some, that’s for sure…

He shakes his head at the thought while playing it off as a nod instead to go along with his words.

This session is going so much differently than I expected it to…