Dare smiled a little bit at the girls new question. He remembered what it was like to make it back home. The world had changed a lot.<br/><br/>"That's a good question," he said, "let's answer it as we move. This way, if you please."<br/><br/>__________________________________________________<br/><br/>The island looked fairly frosted from the dock, and the port area looked like a small town, but only a few yards into the tree line, the rest of the islands city became visible. The whole thing was actually very impressive as well. None of the buildings were very tall, three or four stories at most, but all of them had many underground levels, making the whole thing fare less noticeable. There were, however, a few impressive buildings, such as...<br/><br/>"Here to your left is the main signal tower," Dare explained as they passed a fairly tall building with all sorts of antenna's and dishes on it. "While it's possible to tune in to most radio signals most anywhere on the island, this tower is the main way we receive cellphone reception, internet access, and the receiver for our own local radio stations." Dare turned to address the girl form before as he added, "It's also attached to the Academy's computer system that scans for any Hero Child related news. It might have been kind of obscure when some of you left this world, but now a Hero Child's departure and return is a newsworthy occurrence, and we make it our job to know about it."<br/><br/>In truth, Hero Children were a well known phenomenon when Dare 'left,' but some children were taken earlier or from more obscure parts of the world, and were still making it back to earth (if they did at all). Dare was sure that this girl must have some reason for not knowing this, and decided to let it go without mention. It was bad enough of a time coming back, it wouldn't do to make it harder on her by drawing too much attention to her ignorance.<br/><br/>Dare noticed Char flying overhead and already heading in the direction of the school grounds. The little dragon always seemed to know where Dare was going to be, and often times Dare used him as a sort of compass as to where to go and when. Now was no exception.<br/><br/>"This way if you please," he said, motioning towards a path up the hill.<br/><br/>_____________________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/>Much to Tyler's chagrin, he had to admit that the tour was interesting.<br/><br/>The main town/city (it was hard to gauge the real size, as most of it was underground), was interesting on its own, being so ecologically sound, nothing like the buildings in Neo Angales. The whole island seemed to be made to be some sort of paradise, which was pleasantly calming. Tyler didn't trust it in the least. The last time he was told some place was a utopia, he ended up getting shot at a LOT, and leading a rebellion against the standing government. He was hoping this wasn't the same way, that this place was actually working towards a real kind of peace, but that was yet to be seen.<br/><br/>It was when they made it to the Academy Campus that Tyler really started to appreciate the tour however. The whole campus was built into the side of a rather large hill, each building seemingly made part of the land scape without disappearing into it or being difficult to spot. From the specks and statistics the tour guid was spouting off, it seemed like they were impressively stocked with all sorts of research equipment and staff as well. Tyler didn't need anything explained more then the tour was providing, but he was curious as to what questions the others were going to ask. A man's (or woman's) questions could tell a lot about them...