//------------------------------// // The Adventure Begins. // Story: The Shadowbolts' Adventures: The Glory and Legend of Eternal City // by Daxn //------------------------------// Sunny Flare adjusted her shirt’s collar as she looked at her surroundings sitting on the bus’ back seats. A handful of students –  like Indigo Zap –  tired out by the jet lag and the long journey, were resting in their seats, somehow not disturbed by the ongoing chats about the destination and by some students chanting marching songs. Meanwhile, other students, busy with reading up on the city they were about to visit, hissed and whined at the noise. “Eternal City... “ Sunny Flare muttered to herself, before slowly turning her head to Lemon Zest on her left . “Pretty fitting name, don’t you think?” “Yeah, it is.” Lemon Zest said with a nod. “Two thousands and half years of history laying right there… and I’ve heard that it’s quite lively at night.” “You don’t seriously hope that we’ll be able to go by ourselves around all the time, do you?” Sunny Flare grimaced a little and half-closed her eyes. “Well, a gal can always hope.” Lemon Zest shrugged. “Besides, I didn’t mean just at night. Imagine how boring it’d be if we were to stay in a silent city made mostly of ruins.” Sunny crossed her arms and grumbled before turning her head away, and looked out of the window, where she saw the fields of sunflowers and wheat at the side of the road, interrupted only by the occasional stone house. As the bus zoomed past them the fields got smaller and smaller, giving way  to the clusters of more modern houses and  patches of trees, until, finally, a green sign with a left-pointing arrow appeared, reading: “Eternal City, 15 km.” No sooner than Sunny spotted the sign, she heard a loud sound of static, one that made the chattering and the singing stop abruptly, leaving silence and prompting everyone to look at the source of the sound: Principal Abacus Cinch  standing at the end of the aisle like a statue. “At last, we’re approaching our destination.” Cinch said holding  on to a microphone. “Eternal City. While you brace yourselves for our entrance into the city proper, let me give a quick introduction about it. This city was founded more than two thousand years ago and since then, it has gone through many toils, standing high against them and prevailing. This city has resisted to the fall of the extremely powerful empire to which it was cradle, it has resisted sackings from mercenaries and barbarians alike, it has risen again after the last war’s complete destruction and it has shrugged off its incompetent wardens. Here, many great people have been born and just as many of them rest, and here immortal works of art and ingenuity reside for all to see. And it was here, under the inspiration given by the great literates and architects, that I began my path that lead me to become the principal of our Academy.” Cinch adjusted her glasses and dusted her coat, before returning to her speech. “I’m glad that so many of you have made the effort to pool the funds needed to pay for such an unique journey to such a magnificent destination.” Cinch inflated her chest a little and set her hands on her chest. “In fact, we have gathered so much money, we have managed to get a hotel close to the Square Colosseum and the ‘Million Bayonets’ monument, plus subscriptions for the metro and the bus lines for all the zones for everyone and dinners in acceptable restaurants every evening.” A roaring cheer echoed briefly through the bus, supplemented with fist pumps and Lemon Zest joined it in a heartbeat. Cinch faked a cough to regain her audience’s attention. “As for the actual program, we will mostly visit places of worship in a company of  two guides.” Cinch said dryly. The cheers died down rather quickly as most groaned in annoyance, or  let out disappointed whines. But unlike them, Sunny Flare grinned triumphantly and leaned onto her seat’s back. “Told you so.” Sunny Flare smirked and Lemon Zest frowned deeply and crossed her arms. “I mean, did you seriously expect that we, as a class part of the Crystal Academy, were going to buy plane tickets just to go clubbing and wander around somewhere else?” Lemon Zest simply scoffed and looked away from Sunny towards Sugarcoat who was intent in carefully reading a small book – one with a yellow cover and the title in bold red letters –  and Indigo Zap, that was resting her head on her right shoulder, snoring lightly and drooling on her cyan t-shirt’s shoulder. Sunny, for her part, returned her attention to Cinch’s speech. “And, since I am already there, I will go over the rules of this trip,” Cinch adjusted her pince-nez and dusted her coat once again. “I invite you to keep order and civility even when walking in your own groups around the city and inside the hotel we are going to spend our nights in." Cinch’s tone got a little more acidic. “Especially because it’s not a youth hostel or a rats’ cove.” “Keep the armband you will be handed out at the hotel at hand at all times to ease recognition. And last, but not least, please ensure to be on time when the appointed hour. If you have any further questions, bring them to me or to Dean Cadence.” she said, back to her usual somewhat solemn tone. After a brief stint of silence Cinch stomped her left foot on the aisle floor. “Was I clear?” she boomed, forcing everyone to jump up in their seats and salute and shout “Yes ma’am!” back. Cinch slowly passed the microphone back and, just as if nothing had happened, the song was resumed and the chats were started up again. Sunny Flare to sighed and looked through the window again. The farmland had completely disappeared, fully replaced by the three-story buildings of various lively colours, a handful of small industrial prefabs seemingly wedged into the empty spaces between other constructions, the tall and drab council houses. Trees and grass patches placed inside roadways and narrow traffic islands, adding a touch of natural green to the area. The bus moved past all these, and soon they  arrived to an oval-shaped plaza. The trees were placed in a checker pattern in front of a circular steel and glass building covered in banners advertising upcoming concerts and other similar events, attracting the attention of the onlookers on the bus. Then the arena also disappeared from sight. Now the shining façade of the Square Colosseum was the only thing to which the eyes could fall upon, for it towered over the buildings at the square’s edges. As the bus got closer and closer, the many apparent arches revealed themselves to be niches containing marble statues sculpted in a neoclassical style, all of them depicting allegories of virtues and talents. Sunny Flare extended her neck towards the window, in the attempt to get a better look at the statue without leaving her seat, causing her to get a wide-eyed fixed stare as she tried to catch every single detail of the Colosseum. From her point of view she could vaguely tell that the statues at the highest floors were depicting men and women in martial poses and clothing, with swords sticking out from the edges and the statues themselves having rather dramatic and aggressive poses. The lower niches contained more varied statutes, only some of which Sunny could recognize. There was Industry, depicted as a half-naked man kneeling over three gears. Then, below Industry, there was History, represented as a woman in a flowing dress, using one hand to hold a child’s, and the other to hold onto a rolled-up scroll. Next to her left there was Medicine - a naked muscle-bound man pushing away a skeleton in a robe. The final figure, on Medicine’s left, was Print as a robe-clad woman laying on her back onto a pile of books. “Ehehe, I bet you’d marry it if you could!” Lemon’s sudden comment made Sunny snap back to reality and snap her head back to glare at Lemon. But before Sunny could say anything, the motor’s hum stopped altogether. The door hissed loudly and  opened, letting inside a cool breeze inside the bus and, as if said breeze had given them life, the students started to slowly get up from their seats and wake up their sleeping companions, before beelining for the exit. Sunny Flare snorted annoyed as she got up, shook Indigo Zap awake– who blabbered nonsense and shook her head as she woke up–  and then put herself in line to get out of the bus and step onto the stone sidewalk. She joined  the line of students recovering their own suitcases and backpacks from the coach’s luggage compartment. Once she managed to get a hold of her large grey and purple luggage, she turned around and hurried to join the neat files  the others had formed in front of the bus.Dean Cadence was already there, directing students with the usual calm. “Alright, is everyone here and ready?” Cadence almost chirped, once everyone had positioned themselves, and  raised her left arm up in the air. “Because our Principal Cinch is gonna introduce us to the guides for our stay here!” Cadence turned around before pointing at Principal Cinch walking alongside a sulphur-coloured young woman with what yellow long messy hair clad in a white shirt with hanging sleeves and light grey tracksuit trousers. The younger woman’s walk was slow as Cinch’s, but, unlike the principal, the younger woman was clearly trying her best to keep composure. Cinch stopped a few steps away from her orderly audience while Dean Cadence joined the front row and the young woman turned to Cinch to give her a small curtsy.  Hk “Hiii there!” The sulphur-coloured young woman said with a heavy accent once she had turned towards the students. “I’m Monda Candle and I’ll follow you ‘round the city to show you everything! Yes, everything! Oh the places we’ll go and see! You’ll just love every little bit of this place, I’m so, so, so sure of it! Oh, and we could go to a brewery a or a real good bar or a nice restaurant for a lunch or a di-” “That will suffice, Miss Monda.” Cinch prossed her finger on Monda’s mouth. “Could you please refresh today and tomorrow's plans to them?” Monda groaned and pouted as she pushed Cinch’s arm away. “Today we’re not going to do much of anything, what with giving the rooms out at the hotel, unpacking, letting you have a nice hot shower,” Monda instantly returned to her previous tone. “However, after that, we’ll be out again and we’ll check out this neighborhood, before going to have dinner. After that it’s up to you to either to go back to the hotel straight away or go for a walk with me and Dean Cadence. Tomorrow we will…” Monda froze and looked away, a slight shade of red overtaking her cheeks, which piqued the lines’ attention “Did you forget to buy the tickets for the Stables?” Cinch rolled her eyes. Monda nodded vigorously and whispered an apology, and Cinch groaned loudly. “We were supposed to go to visit the Quirinale Stables with pre-paid group tickets.” Cinch gave a sideways glare to Monda. “But apparently we have had a mishap along the way, which makes me suppose we will have to move the visit to the Ara Pacis to tomorrow in the morning instead.” “Uh, yes, yeah, I’ve got those tickets alright, so we’ll visit that instead,” Monda frantically gestured. “Lunch was supposed to be packed or retrieved, so... yeah, that’s about the only change for tomorrow morning. Anyways, after that, you’ll be allowed to go ‘round the area ‘til quarter past three, when we’ll get back together in front of San Rocco and then have walk in the green inside Villa Borghese’s gardens to then visit its museum. Done that, it’s time for dinner in the same place as tonight’s, and after that it’ll be the usual nightly routine.” “Was that clear enough?” Cinch asked. Mass nodding from the orderly lines came, which prompted Cinch to click her shoes. “Very well then, let’s go then.” And so, with a small but loud cry, the students put themselves in column and started following Monda and Cinch through the narrow streets lined with tall buildings built after the canons of Rationalism A few hours later, after a light dinner in the trattoria five minutes away from the hotel, the students had for the most part chosen to go back at the hotel. Sunny Flare, who had already changed in her dark blue and purple pyjamas, was laying under the bed’s red covers, lazily browsing through the updates and posting statuses about her journey and what little she had seen of Eternal City on one of her social media accounts, her ears barely perceiving the sounds of pages turning coming from Sugarcoat and of water running down coming from the bathroom. Suddenly there was a banging sound that made everyone jolt up and look at its source. “Zest, are you done showering yet?!” Sour Sweet banged again on the door, causing it to almost cave in. “Gimme a moment Sour,” Lemon Zest answered acidically from behind the door. “I’m just going to put a towel around me and get out.” “You told me that five minutes ago!” Sour Sweet roared as she banged on the door once more “Five minutes ago I was just getting in the shower, did expect me to be done in one second?” “Please, calm down and be quiet.” Sugarcoat said with a hiss. “I am trying to read here.” Soon after, a series of loud groans and a yawn came from Indigo Zap. “And I doubt the other guests would be happy to be woken up by your temper tantrums, Sour.” Sunny Flare said, as she discretely wiped sweat off her forehead. Sour Sweet turned around and glared, twitching visibly and slouching forward as she also gritted her teeth., only to lose that posture as soon as the door opened and Lemon Zest exited wearing a white towel tied around her. “There, I’m out of the way.” She said irritated as she walked towards her bed. “Are you happy now?” Sour charged forward and slammed the door behind her, causing Lemon to almost fall into the open wardrobe nearby and causing the other girls to jump up from their positions again. “Just… what’s her problem?” Sunny Flare said. “I dunno, she’s just… like that, I guess.” Lemon scoffed climbing up her bed and grabbing the neon green pail shorts and the black t-shirt folded at the bed’s end. “I mean, you do remember she’s been always like that, do you?” Sunny Flare nodded as Lemon Zest dressed herself. “If we haven’t figured that out in three years, do you expect to ‘get’ her right now?” “You could.” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses. “It is just that she is hysterical.” “As if we couldn’t tell…” Lemon Zest rolled her eyes as she threw the covers onto her and turned her back away. “Again, the question is why she’s so and the answer is ‘we may never know’ and so…” “It is pointless to ask such a question, at least according to you.”  Sugarcoat said. “Personally, I do not think so, but, considered you do not wish to seriously discuss this, I will not expose my points and just go back reading.” “Yeah, that’d be better.” Lemon Zest said, accompanied by an approving grunt coming from Indigo and a nod from Sunny Flare. “Turn on your lamp Sugar,” Sunny said as she went to the switch. “ Because I’m going to turn off the lights now.” Almost as if they were synchronized, Sunny Flare switched the room’s lights off and Sugarcoat turned the red frau-styled lamp on her bedside table. With that done, Sunny Flare went back to her bed, turned off her phone, set it underneath her bed and dozed off to sleep. But, seemingly after a few minutes, Sunny was shaken awake. “W-what is… it?” Sunny moaned while flipping herself over, only to be shaken again. “Sunny, Sunny, you gotta see this!” Lemon Zest spoke with an hushed voice. “There’s… there's..." Sunny Flare groaned as Lemon Zest went back to shake her. "What do you want?" "S-sunny... I-I think a ghost marching band parading outside!" Lemon said panicky. “Go… go to bed and leave me alone, I’m tired and I bet so you are.” She said. “You’re just seeing stuff.” Sunny Flare said as she turned around again and groaned, curling herself up and pulling the covers up to her head. “No, I’m not seeing or hearing thing, there’s really something like a band of ghost musicians under our window and it’s playing… military music, I guess?” Lemon Zest said. “Look, one of them appeared right in front of me. At first I thought it was one of us trying to pull a prank or somethin’, but then it turned around and he… no, it, stared me riiight in my soul… and pointed at me silently. And he I… I just stood there, frozen. Then… it pointed at you and all the others, one by one, and, then, it left, flying out of the window and the music changed. I followed it to the window and saw the band playing music.” Sunny Flare scoffed and turned around, undoing her bed’s covers and sitting up on her bed, rubbing her eyes open. “Alright, I will come and look.” Sunny Flare said as she fluttered her eyelids open and got up. “But if it’s a trick, I’ll punch.” “Oh, trust me, it’s not.” Lemon took Sunny’s right hand, assisting her in her wobbly walk to the window placed right next to the former’s bed, the sounds of drums and various brass instruments getting strong and stronger at every step. Setting her hands on the window’s border, Sunny peered out of it and her eyes goggled. Below her window, a vast stretch of the square was occupied by translucent figures of men in military uniforms and wearing either plumed caps or helmets, marching – or, better yet, hovering orderly –  in circle around the pile of bayonets plus flagpole that was the ‘Million Bayonets Monument,’ with some of the ghosts playing various instruments. Sunny’s drowsiness went away quickly, her mouth going agape as she stared down at the spirits below playing a music that was familiar to Sunny’s ears. Her eyes, fixed on the ghosts, could not stop pointing at the aforementioned, allowing her to basically catch every minuscule detail, from their military ranks obtained in life to their corps, and she noticed that most of them wore and were armed with equipment dating to the last war, with only a handful of them showing anything older or newer. “T-they are playing Parata d’Eroi..” She muttered. “Ghosts… playing a triumphant march… under my hotel’s window.” “Told you I wasn’t making that up!” “I can see that, but…” Sunny followed the procession with her eyes. “Why did one of them point at you and why are they playing that marching song?” “You are more worried about what song they’re playing than that they’re ghosts?!” Sunny Flare almost shouted. "What's wrong with you?!" “Well..." Sunny turned her head around towards Lemon before going back to look down. "It's... incredible still." Lemon replied, but her words were covered by a sudden chorus, one deep and monotonous, one that echoed on the walls and in the streets. “Il pericolo è alle porte! Andate al mausoleo dell’augusto ed impedite che il nostro sacrifizio divenga vano!” They said. “Della guida vostra diffidate, perchè ella disia nuocervi!” “What?” Sunny whispered. The spirits soon started to repeat themselves. “Lemon, could you please grab a pencil and a sheet of paper?” She said, turning around towards Lemon. “I need to write all of this this down. It may be useful…” Lemon nodded and quickly grabbed a block of sticky notes and a pencil from her bedside table. “Here, take this.” She said as she handed those items out to Sunny, who grabbed them and started to scribble down whatever she was witnessing down, from the chant to the looks of the officers and a few soldiers. As soon as Sunny put down the sticky notes, the music stopped, the ghostly regiment howled and, soon after, it started to slowly hover towards the monument, entering inside it, leaving a small trail of ethereal green smoke behind. “They’re gone now... they are gone.” Sunny looked up at the sky, seeing the first signs of dawn on the horizon. “And it’s almost morning. We better go back to bed and investigate properly tomorrow.” Lemon Zest nodded and hopped back onto her bed, and Sunny slowly set herself back under the covers.