After seeing his casual display of power and feeling the signature of his ability, she quickly agreed, unlike the last recruit he had gotten. She really was smarter than most.
While conquering someone stronger than you was an immediate popularity boost, to serve under someone stronger would give you stability for a long time. This girl understood that.
To work in the system, that was how you would thrive. And the system was built on strength.
Problems arose when those at the top misunderstood those they considered to be on the bottom. No one was ever fully beaten down. Complacency was the goal, not domination of will. One was achievable.
But Regus didn't care about that. He would do what he would do when the time came, and always for himself. The future held what it held, and Regus would accept it, and either enjoy it or fight through it.
The system itself would bear him to the top based on his strength, and then he would take everything else. It may be that the future wrote on his scroll, but no one else could erase it.
Regus moved on with his two new followers, and approached the final person who he considered likely to be at least partly useful. This one was a confident-looking boy with a mask over half of his face. He smiled when Regus approached, and held out his left hand. On his right was a glove that ran up to the elbow, and he was wearing a boot on his right foot but a simple shoe on the other. His shirt had long sleeves that went halfway down his forearms, and a turtleneck, as opposed to the normal simple structure of the school uniforms. His hair was golden-blonde, but on the right side of his head it was a deep cocoa brown.
Regus shook with his left hand. The boy's hand was cold. He wasn't in a group yet. He had refused every request, of which there had been many, apparently waiting for Regus. Now, this one was a danger. Regus couldn't feel his ability beneath the heavy, complete covering of the right side of his body.
"I look forward to working with you," The boy said. "I'm John, John Stan."
"Hashim Kamal. But you can call me Regus," Regus said.
"Bold," John noted with a smirk, crossing his arms and leaning back against the bench behind him. Regus noticed that his right leg seemed to be hanging limply, or not responding, and his right hand was quivering slightly, as though he couldn't control it fully. The covered ones. His ability must be truly incredible to do that to his body. There wasn't a question of who was stronger, not verbally. But Regus would have to deal with John eventually.
Now they were just one short. Regus turned and looked at the other two, who quickly scurried around to stand next to John. They were both nervous, but the girl was less so. If he was right about her motives, then she was playing a delicate balancing game. She wouldn't want him to know that she needed to eventually get rid of him. Of course, it didn't matter. He already knew.
He looked over the three of them. It certainly wasn't bad, but he would do much better, hopefully soon. They just needed a fifth member to fulfill the directive. Regus looked around, and almost everyone was in a group already. The only one who wasn't was a young, skinny boy. No one had wanted him, and Regus could see why. He had some power, but his ability was useless.
Regus thought about it. There was a high chance that he could pick anyone he wanted. With this team, he doubted anyone would refuse. But he didn't want to.
With a smirk, Regus pointed at the boy, then motioned him closer. As if he couldn't believe them, the boy rubbed his eyes and gaped, then hurried over with a squeak. He probably hadn't been chosen for anything special, ever. True, he was here, but it could have been on merit or grades.
Whatever way it was, Regus didn't really care. He had his eye set on that energy level.
When they shook hands, Regus could feel it rushing into him. He was receiving energy from the people he touched. So that was his ability. He hadn't been around long enough to discover it yet, but it was nice that he could figure it out so quickly.
The only question was what he did with that energy. And with the display he had put on earlier, he thought he knew.
"Thank Atrius," John said. "I thought I was going to have to convince you to take on my brother."
They were brothers. That would help Regus figure out John's ability. It had to be something similar to this boy's. If they were brothers, and they were both in the first year, because they had no badges, that meant that they were likely twins. The dynamic was that this boy always looked up to John, and so his ability was similar, but partially inferior. That much was obvious, from their power levels. Regus assumed that John was better able to manage his energy, and had a stronger outlet. This boy's power built up because he didn't have a good enough drain. It was like expecting a lake to empty itself because there was a river pulling water out, when there was another, much larger river feeding into it. Or like breathing in forever, if there was a hole in your lungs. The air could escape, but not fast enough.
Eventually, it would build up and then burst. The boy might be useful after all.
John's seemed much more tame in terms of energy generation. He would have to see during the testing, but his guess was that John could turn off his power generation. Meaning that he could turn it on, and then suddenly flare up with power. Power that Regus could use.
These two would be interesting allies. Regus had the beginnings of a new faction within the Academy. And it would grow.
Since all of the groups were formed, they were told to separate and go to different testing areas.
They were set up around the Puddles and in Building Four.
Group Fourteen was one of the first to gather into groups, likely motivated to snatch up powerful allies by Regus's intense and specific selection. The others in this group would already be feeling inferior. But it was about time to show them just how inferior they were.
The testing had four different stages, and their power output was measured by the special gauntlets throughout all four.
The first was a simple test of strength. They were to hit a machine as hard as they could, and it would measure explosive power, theoretically. This was where Regus assumed John would shine most.
The second phase was a simple foot race. John would likely be at a disadvantage here, because of his uneven footing. Regus had noticed it upon first glance, and watching him as they walked, he was limping slightly. It likely had something to do with why half of his face and one each of his feet and hands were covered. To have such definite disadvantages to his ability...
Regus paused.
He had felt John's strength as one of the four strongest in Group Fourteen. And if he was right about John's ability, although Regus had initially felt his ability at about fourth tier, that was its limited form.
John was much stronger than Regus had assumed. He might even be one of the four who weren't allowed to use their abilities. Come to think of it, why else would he be allowed to have a modified school uniform? His ability, maybe his power generation, was based on his skin being exposed. That was why he was covering half of his body, so that he didn't generate as much power. That would mean that he could easily have around twice as much power just by taking off his mask and glove, boosting him to fifth tier, maybe even sixth. And if he had one of the normal, short-sleeved shirts that were the school uniform, it would be even stronger.
The third test would be a full-contact battle with a real captured beast and it would involve all of Group Fourteen, and the fourth was just emitting as much power as you could within ten seconds.
Regus thought back to his earlier train about John's ability. He really was an incredible find. And even if he had to host his brother, that was a small price to pay to make use of John's strength.
Regus's faction was even stronger than he had thought, even faster than he had imagined.
But that did mean that he had to pull out all the stops for this performance. Otherwise John might think he was stronger. He might even be stronger, and then he would take over this group. Regus would rather not have to resort to unsanctioned violence, at least not too soon. But of course, he would do it if he had to. Laws, and his own conscience, would not get in the way of his plans.
The group stopped, and Regus moved to catch up with them. He had a part to play.