The Aberrations of S.I.D.E.

No. 7: Research Project

"All right, everyone," Ms. Roswell announced, pushing the doors open to the Library. "You've got forty-five minutes to get as much research materials as you need. This place has everything you need to know about Anomaly history, regardless of which topic you picked, so this should be enough."

Virgil looked around the Library, trying to look as awed as the rest of the students. He'd been here before, obviously, but it was still really cool to be able to use this as an actual resource.

Janus took an obligatory selfie with the Deception fountain, then pocketed his phone. "All right, team, let's get moving."

"So, what exactly are we researching, again?" Virgil asked.

"Our project is on demonic possession in the late Victorian era, and how that partially inspired much of Gothic literature back then," Logan answered.

Virgil stopped in his tracks. "Say what now?"

Logan gave him a disapproving look over his glasses. "You said that you were paying attention when we decided on our topic, Virgil. If you were, you wouldn't be surprised."

"He was texting Roman, Brainiac, give him some slack," Janus called over his shoulder.

"Okay, look, I'm all for doing a research project on demonic possession, but why exactly are we doing it?"

"Ah!" Janus turned back around, grinning. "You see, the first person to teach history here at the Academy, a young fellow named Dominic, was famous for his ability to summon demons from a separate dimension. So we thought that if we did a project relating to one of Ms. Roswell's predecessors---"

"Extra credit," Virgil concluded. "Gotcha."

"Not to mention, it's incredibly interesting," Logan added, plucking a book off of one of the shelves. "Even if you disregard the fact that there's really no way of telling where the demons came from, they apparently had an entire culture in their home dimension that we've only been able to get bits and pieces of. It's beyond amazing." He laughed slightly. "It almost makes me wish that my powers allowed me to tap into other dimensions like that."

"That power is exceedingly rare," Janus reminded him. "Everyone who's been able to do that was never able to produce a legacy line, or even an antilegacy line, and we've still got yet to find an Aberration who has an interdimensional power like that."

"I have never been happier to be an Anomaly," Virgil murmured, stopping by one of the holographic screens. "You think we could look up stuff about them on here?"

Janus started thumbing through a book called---Virgil did a double take---From Eldrich to Hominoid: The Classifications of Various Demons Throughout Anomaly History. "Maybe. A lot of the more modern stuff's classified, though, and the Canadian government probably won't vibe with us hacking into their systems for extra credit in History class."

Virgil pulled up the search bar on the screen. "Hey, L, what's the keyword I need?"

"Type in 'mindless mania 1800's,'" Logan replied. "There's an entire website made by college students dedicated to figuring out the mysteries behind it---and they source all of their information."

"I fucking love this school." Virgil typed it in---and the first result that popped up was a website called "The Mysteries of the Mindless Mania."

After several minutes of scrolling through and busily taking notes in the notebook Virgil had bought over the summer, his internal score of the Academy had gone from its already very high point to near infinite-coolness. It wasn't every day that you got to do a research project on fucking demons.