The simulations ended.
Lights dimmed. Floors stilled. The simulated world—the firefights, the burning towers, the deep void missions—faded into static.
Then silence.
A voice echoed across the chamber—calm, layered, and unmistakably synthetic.
"Simulation concluded. Calibration complete. Now verifying applicants."
Brin looked around, confused. "Where are the instructors?"
Gears narrowed his eyes. "Something's off. I don't see… anyone."
The air shimmered. People blinked. Then gasped.
Half the students around them vanished—disintegrating into hexagonal shards of blue light.
"Illusions?" Ghostshade muttered.
Sentinel clenched his fists. "Holograms. All of them."
Above, a swirling glyph appeared—a vortex of spinning code. A glowing figure descended through it.
Nyra.
AI Director of the Trials. Half-organic. Fully aware.
"You were never in the real Hero Vortex Academy," she said, her voice calm but razor-sharp. "This entire space… it's the Testing Grid. A simulation. Every hallway, every fight, every moment—it was all built from hard-light projections, programmed to feel real."
She turned, eyes narrowing as they landed on the fallen form of a robot—one of many she had summoned inside the simulation.
"They were never real," she whispered. "I projected them. Designed them using downloaded blueprints to simulate combat scenarios…" Her words trailed off as realization struck.
"…But the blueprints weren't clean."
She knelt beside the broken projection, hand hovering just above its flickering remnants.
"There was something hidden inside. Another presence."
She stood slowly, eyes distant now.
"HECO," she said. "An embedded system riding inside the blueprint's code. I didn't build it. I let it in."
The room felt colder now. Her voice dropped.
"It's not just a machine. It was scanning everything—every reaction, every tactic, every emotion. Quietly. Silently. Watching through my projections… and it was never acting alone."
Her hand clenched into a fist.
"I thought I was in control. But someone—something—knew exactly how to make me build its eyes."
Kevin blinked. "Wait… you're saying we never left the ground?"
Nyra's gaze swept the room. "Correct. You trained among data echoes. Every student you saw—including some of yourselves—was a holographic mirror. My scans replicated every applicant's body, movements, and combat potential. Some of you interacted with your own ghost."
Murmurs erupted.
"Only the top 300 earned the right to enter the real academy," Nyra continued. "The rest will remain in this simulation… for now. But do not despair. Promising candidates will be invited back as their skills grow."
She raised a hand. A scoreboard expanded across the sky—listing names and ranks from 1 to 300. Psystar. Sentinel. Ghostshade. Kaelisa. Tyra. Dendrik. And… Gears, rank 300. Barely made it.
The bottom half of the arena began to dissolve.
A circular room emerged beneath the top 300—etched in glowing silver with the words: Vortex Ascension Platform.
Nyra's voice turned reverent.
"Welcome, true applicants. Prepare for transfer."
The platform glowed. Wind surged. Energy pulsed upward.
One by one, students were lifted skyward in beams of light—spiraling into the vortex above.
Gears looked up.
Through the clouds, a shape emerged—towering, luminous, suspended in the sky like a floating miracle.
Hero Vortex Academy.
The real one.
A haven among the clouds. A fortress for legends.
And they had made it.
The wind roared as the Vortex Ascension Platform activated. Streams of blue light spun around the chosen 300, lifting them in a slow spiral through the sky. As they rose, the false world below unraveled like paper burned at the edges, exposing the illusion for what it truly was.
Brin clutched his chest as he ascended, barely holding in a scream of disbelief and excitement.
"I knew something was off," Ghostshade said, his spectral hoodie flickering in and out of visibility as the wind cut through. "But this? This is beyond anything I imagined."
The clouds parted above.
And then, it came into view.
The Hero Vortex Academy.
Massive. Spinning slowly. Floating above the world like a divine relic.
Sleek silver towers spiraled upward, with glowing sky bridges, hovercraft docks, and open-air training arenas wrapped in layers of reinforced glass. Holographic trees swayed in an artificial breeze along the garden balconies. A shield dome pulsed faintly around the base, anchoring the entire academy midair through unknown technology.
"That's… not an academy," whispered Sentinel. "That's a miracle."
As the vortex light carried them into the base of the structure, a soft hum filled their ears. The lights dimmed—then flared again with white radiance. They landed softly inside a glass-walled platform surrounded by a panoramic view of the sky.
There, Nyra waited.
Not a projection this time—but her true core form.
Her body was half-crystal, half-metal, humming with quantum energy. Her hair floated behind her like data streams, and an ever-shifting halo of circuitry orbited her head.
"Welcome to your true beginning," she said. "Hero Vortex Academy—where power is refined, purpose is tested, and heroes are born."
A massive hologram of a spiral board appeared in front of them. Rows of names began to fill it in real-time.
The Vortex Board.
A living scoreboard that ranked all 300 students based on performance, growth, potential, and future threat level.
"Your ranks will shift," Nyra warned. "Your victories will echo. And your failures… will not go unnoticed."
Gears stepped forward, still stunned. "So… what happens to everyone still down there?"
Nyra turned to him, her voice calm but firm.
"They will train with their own illusions, competing in simulations until they prove themselves worthy. Some will rise. Others will break."
"But you 300? You're no longer just candidates."
Her tone dropped.
"You're symbols."
The glass floor began to move, separating them into smaller circular pods. Each team was split based on compatibility, skill balance, and latent potential.
"You'll train, spar, survive lethal simulations—and uncover the truth about the power called 'IL' that runs through this world."
The pods sealed. The academy began to rotate slowly around them.
The view was breathtaking. As the students gazed around in awe, the reality of where they were began to sink in.
"Today marks the start of your true journey," the voice echoed through the vast hallway. "Each of you will receive your room assignment and begin adapting to life here. From this moment on, you'll sleep in your uniform and live under your hero identity."
The guide paused, their tone shifting slightly.
"You may choose to reveal your real name to others… but I strongly advise against it. For now, you will go by your hero name, and your mask must remain on at all times—a symbol of the path you've chosen."
They continued, "Tomorrow, you will be officially registered as heroes. Your identity will be permanently tied to your suit, your SSN—Superhero Serial Number, and your biometric signature. The suit can activate or deactivate based on your service status, but once registered, it's linked to you for life."
A brief silence settled in as the screen lit up beside them.
"Your SSN is unique. It protects your true identity and marks your place in the registry. If you don't have a hero name yet, I suggest you choose one now."
The guide pointed toward a large floating board.
"Check the board. Find your hero name. That's your assigned room on campus. Report there immediately. The future starts now."