Going to the airport after school on that Friday, there was another mob of protestors that needed to be cleared out. They assumed their battle stations and engaged them in violence. Once they were dealt with, it was time to go inside. Manny did not look pleased. "All this protesting is cutting into our profits." he warned them. Anna just looked at him. "It's alright. They will get the hint soon enough." she said. It was time for the delinquents to take their knowledge test on their plane of choice. It only took an hour and a half for all of them to pass. Benson was on the border, but Manny decided to grade him leniently seeing as he was just coming back from a surgery. Anna looked at Manny and said "They boys will take their practical flight exams all day tomorrow. We want this done as quick as possible, so all hands need to be on deck." As a Diamond Aviator, she had the right to demand this from him. Even though he was the manager, she far outranked him. He was just a Gold rank. The very next day was exactly as Anna had dictated. The Silver ranks and above took turns giving the exam.
Having all hands on deck was the right choice. Emanuel Heath(aka Manny), was the branch manager. Brain Ballders and Oscar White were the other examiners here at the Silver rank. Anna's group were all at Gold rank or above. It was fine. Anna made it clear that the 12 delinquents were all going for the Private Pilot license. Last time, it pissed her off when they screwed the omegas over with the lesser license. That was not the case this time. All of the delinquents passed the exams. They had the stats for it from all the missions and combat experience. Manny looked like he sucked a whole sour lemon as he handed them their full licenses. He also awarded each and every one of them the Bronze rank. On Sunday, they did the standard 3 shifts. That meant they had 26 successes to their names. That was enough missions for them to all be given the Silver rank. All awards were made public by law. It would not be good for someone to defraud the public for charging people for things that they were not allowed to do or overcharging them by claiming they had a higher rank than they did.
It caused a complete meltdown in the media. Many people were debating it all over the news. Traditionalists and Conservatives hated it. Liberals were fine with it. They believed in freedom. Progressives want more to follow in their footsteps. There was indeed a rise in lower class guild membership by omegas. One example featured in the news was the Hospitality Guild. That guild ran all the local inns, hotels and motels in the country. It was probably not going to lead to much. They would not have the stats to actually achieve much. Still, if you only needed to survive 5 missions to rank up to Copper, that was well worth it. The parents of the delinquents were largely proud of their sons. They were not supposed to be delinquents in the first place. It was a major mistake on their parts. Disappointing their parents were the least of their worries. Being mounted so hard turned them into omegas. Their parents all but lost hope in them. They were hiding scared in school and not attending classes. Actually turning the 12 lives around and achieving something like this was like a major miracle.
