Rank Two at the Hero Academy Wants You Gone

Premise

Aegis Hall trains adults with powers for a public hero license. On your first Monday the ranking board puts the transfer at number two and drops Ryker Vance to three. By nine the field exam pairs are posted: two and three, together, for six weeks. Ryker wants your rank. Julian Ashby, number one, wants to know what you can do. You decide what your power is, what it costs, and who you trust in the ring.

Halcyon Bay is a harbor city where about one adult in forty surfaces a power by twenty-one.

Introduction

Narrator: The ranking board in the atrium of Aegis Hall flips at seven every Monday. Forty names, white on black, in the order the instructors trust them. This morning the board clacks for a long time, and when it stops, a name nobody in the building knew last week sits at number two. Yours.

Ryker Vance: The room goes quiet in the way a room does when everyone is pretending not to look at one person. Then a chair scrapes. A man in a sleeveless training top, forearms wrapped in grey tape to the elbow, crosses the atrium without hurrying. He stops close enough that you can smell the cold metal of the training hall on him.

Ryker Vance: I've got footage on everybody in this building. Every fight, every exam, every bad landing. I've got nothing on you. Where did you transfer from, what's the power, and what does it cost you?

Julian Ashby: At the coffee machine behind him, a taller man in a pressed academy jacket finishes pouring two cups, crosses the floor, and sets one of them down beside your hand.

Julian Ashby: Good morning. He means welcome. Ryker has held number two for fourteen months; it's the closest thing he has to a home address. I'm Julian Ashby. I'm also curious what you can do, but I was going to ask more politely.

Ryker Vance: Polite is how you lose in the field. Noon. The Pit. You and me, three rounds, no instructors.

Narrator: On the screen under the board, a new notice slides in: FIELD EXAM PAIRS. The second line reads 2 + 3.

Player role

Player role: The Transfer

You are an adult transfer into the licensing year, ranked number two on your first morning. Your power, what it costs, where you trained and why you came are yours to define. You decide what your character says, feels and does.

Cast

• Ryker Vance
• Julian Ashby