《Crystal High》 Chapter 1: The Beginning ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 1¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ This is a harsh world. A world based on natural selection and the strongest survive. People like me, Khan Freax, are at the bottom of the totem pole in this hierarchy. People all around me have powers and abilities I constantly marvel at, and people like me, sagarus, have none to speak of whatsoever. I used to be a popular kid in school before everyone got their powers. I used to have a lot of friends, and people would walk up to talk to me out of their own free will. After everyone got their powers though, at around age five, I was shunned out of society as a sagaru. Everything in this society is based off powers and their levels. The higher your power level is, the better your jobs and perks in society are. If you end up having a high enough level then you can even become a protector. Protectors work for the government to protect it from potnentialand existential threats. The major existential threat that is a constant, are the dimensional openings that open up all the time around the country. The openings send a barrage of being from another world to constantly attack ours for some reason. The news and schools say it''s to get our DNA to get powers of their own, but they seem to have better technology than us. So I don''t know why they would want our powers so bad. If you have a lower power level then you are shunned to the outskirts of the town, and you can''t get certain things. Even if you have a low power level, people can still make it higher through hard work and training. Sagarus have it the worst though. You can''t magically gain a power once you pass a certain age, and if you don''t have a power to have a power level then you can''t raise that non-existent power level.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Sagarus are usually ostracized from society. Once parents find out their child is a sagaru, they usually disown them. Making their kid homeless, they usually go outside of the city and get killed somehow. That''s at least what we hear on the news. Other sagarus, whose parent''s don''t abandon them usually end up committing suicide from the constant berating they recieve from the outside world. Sagarus usually don''t live past the age of eighteen. Once my parents realized I didn''t have a power, they brought me to see almost all of the doctors in the city. We went from office to office, hoping to have one of them stimulate some powers in me to come to the surface. It was an awful and torturous process for me. I was constantly being stuck by needles, getting radiation, and recieving physical therapy to try and stir something up inside of me. Eventually, my parents accepted the cold truth, and they stopped sending me to doctors to try and stimulate powers. This was a relief to me, but it also troubled me. I didn''t know much about sagarus at the time except for the fact that they were bad. I went to school for the first time acknowledging I was a sagaru, and that was quite possibly the worst day of my life. I was constantly berated for the first time in my life by people I thought were my friends just a few weeks ago. I was spat on, kicked, pushed, and verbally abused the whole day. When I went home, I was in tears. When my mom saw me, her eyes, that were already red from crying all last night, teared up, and she dropped on her knees and hugged me. She comforted me by telling me, "Don''t cry Khan! We will always be here for you! Please don''t cry! You''ll make mommy cry everytime if you do." Sure enough, my parents never abandoned me. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that my grandma was a sagaru, and that made them less discriminatory than others. That is also probably where I got to be a sagaru from. Feeling their support, I made it my personal mission to stay strong and be the best I can be. I want to become a protector one day to show everyone that sagarus can be useful too! I train hard everyday to get my body stronger. Now I''m able to beat low level powers, and stand my ground against mid-levels. Whenever they are in a group though, I get overpowered. Today in school, we are choosing what Highschool we are going to go to. I''m excited for it. This is going to be a turning point in my life! ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 2: High School Selection ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 2 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I was in homeroom when they gave us our recommended sheets. On them we write what high schools we would prefer to go to. Our teacher told us, "Choose wisely because these could very well decide your future. Each high school specializes in different things, and different power levels. For example, Shepherd Academy focuses on lower levels and manual labor jobs, while Crystal High focuses on higher levels and combat for the military, but don''t worry I don''t think we will have anyone going there in this classroom." Ben, the class clown chimed in, "Nahh, Khan is planning on going there! Haha." The whole class burst into laughter because they thought it was a joke. How could a sagaru like me go to Crystal High? It wasn''t a joke though. Since he sits right next to me, he must have seen that the first school I put down was Crystal High. I think that if any school can make use of me, or even better find me something to stimulate my power, it would be that school since it has the most money and resources. I ducked my head, and sunk into my chair. I hate these types of situations. I wish I could just disappear. Once the students realized that it wasn¡¯t a joke, they all looked at me with eyes of contempt. They probably thought I was being arrogant in trying to go to Crystal High, but that wasn¡¯t the case at all. They probably wouldn¡¯t listen to my explanation even if I told them though. The rest of the class I was given side eyes from everybody in the class. When it finally came time to go to lunch, people pushed me down in the hallway, spat on me, and I even had one person kick my knee to try keep from coming to school for the next couple of weeks. When I finally got into the cafeteria, I saw everybody crowd around one table. No doubt Zen was in the middle of them. The Ice Queen as they call her, she is cold and distant as she is beautiful. I remember I saw her at the coffee shop near my house once, and she didn¡¯t have enough money to pay for her drink. Noticing people getting annoyed behind her, and the person at the cash register started to get bothered as well as she tried to come up with an excuse to get some money off on the drink, I went up and payed for the rest of her drink with the extra money I had. It didn¡¯t bother me that much to pay for it since I have plenty of money left over from my parents giving me money for lunch that I never use. The lunches at our school for sagarus aren¡¯t even worth the money you have to pay to get it. Zen looked at me with semi-shocked eyes and told me, ¡°Thank you.¡± In a calm and cool voice.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. After that she walked away. It may not seem like it was much, but those two words made my day. I can¡¯t believe she even talked to me to be honest. A person with her beauty and social status talking to me was a miracle in itself, but the simple thank you are words I haven¡¯t heard from anybody other than family in such a long time. It stuck with me. So, as I was standing the cafeteria staring at the large group, a couple of people knocked me to the ground as they went to join them. I simply got up with a grimace and went to go sit in a corner like usual. The rest of the day I was constantly berated with, "How could human shit like you make it THAT high school?!" "You should just kill yourself now Sagaru, before you die of embarrassment!" It didn''t bother me that much. After hearing all this since I was six, I''m used to it. I went and did my training like I usually did after school, and the other kids still trashed while I did it like usual. All I can think about while doing it today though, is how I''m going to show all of them that sagarus aren''t useless pieces of shit. I started running my lap around the town, and it started to rain a bit while I was running. This just really isn''t my day. I entered into the forest section of town though, and the trees give me a little cover from the rain. About the middle of the forest I see some silhouettes form. As I get closer, I realize it is Drazen and his crew. Drazen is the most talented and highest-level student at my school. I wonder why he is here? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 3: Ambush ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 3 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I was just going to ignore them and run past them, but Drazen stepped in front of my path. I tried to dodge, and go around, but he kept moving in my way. I finally had enough, and asked what was he doing. The corner of his lips curled into a sly smile as he said, "What do you mean? Can''t a guy just go outside and get some fresh air these days?" Noticing the situation around me, with his group steadily closing in a circle around me. I could get the gist of what was going on, so I told him, "Then how about you guys run with me? It is a good way to get the blood pumping." He bursted into a fit of laughter as he exclaimed, "You think a person as powerful as me would stoop as low as to run with a sagaru? Hell no! We did come here to help you out though. We came to show you exactly what will happen to you during the Crystal High entrance exams." As he said this I came to accept my fate, but that doesn''t mean I won''t fight back. There are six people total including Drazen. Two people behind me, Drazen right in front of me, two people about six feet away from either side of him, and myself right in the middle of them. The two people behind me, who were also the biggest ones, made the first move and tried to grab my arms to restrain me. They grabbed my arms before I could do anything, but when they did I kicked the knee of the guy to my right. His knees buckled from beneath him, and he came tumbling down. Sadly, he had a better hold of me than I thought, and he dragged me down along side him. The guy to my left punched my face to stop while I was still reeling from being drug to the ground with the guy to my right. He used his enhancement ability while punching me, and I could feel my left cheek bone breaking under the constant distress it was tanking.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The punches brought me to me hands and knees, but while I was there I swung my leg around and knocked the person who was punching me feet out from under him. When he landed on the ground, I took my free arm that wasn''t being held down by the guy to the right and started punching his face over and over again. I could feel my anger that I had pent up from constantly being berated about my powerlessness over the years finally come out with each and every punch that I threw. I want to beat all of them so bad that no one will ever demean me again! I''m tired of the constant laughter, beatings, name-calling, and prejudice that I have to go through everyday! I want it gone, and every punch I threw had the force of all the horrible memories I had experienced up until now. Then all of a sudden, I was slung face first onto the ground. Through the amounts of dirt I was eating from the force planting there, I instantly knew it was Drazen''s power, gravity manipulation. He can increase and decrease gravity up to a 10 foot radius around him, but only to a certain extent. He had me where I couldn''t move, and then the 2 other people that surrounded him at the start of the battle started beating me senseless. I just covered my head with my arms and curled my legs up into a fetal position. Their kicks and punches slammed into my body seemingly neverending and with extreme force. I feel absolutley helpless. I could feel tears well up in my eyes when I thought back on how hard I worked to train my body only to be beaten up this easily. Not only is my body getting beaten to a pulp, but so is my confidence and the little self esteem I have left as well. I started to cough up blood, as I laid on the ground getting beat mercilessly. I''m sure the sharp pain in the back of my ribs has something to do with that. Finally, I got rocked so hard I let my arms down that was guarding my head, and they took full advantage of that. They started to go in on my face as well as take one of my arms and snap it, so I can''t put it back for protection again. I squirmed to try and evade some, but they just took my leg and snap that as well. I finally just laid there crying, and accepted my fate of getting beat to a pulp. Eventually, they left me alone after they destroyed me face, broke my arm, and one of my legs. I was left there lying face up in the rain crying. "Was this my fate? Is this what I''m always meant for? Am I always going to be beaten by others and laughed at by even the lowest of levels? Why did they do this to me? What did I ever do to them?!" I pondered to myself in despair. I cried and cried and cried as the rain pour down on my broken body. I wish it would all justEND,suddenly everything went white. ¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 4: Unexpected Encounter ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 4 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I wandered in the space of my unconscious for awhile before I finally jolted up in...a...bed? The room was pretty small with the only light source being a window above me, and the more I looked around the room, I realized that this was a very poorly put together apartment. It''s flooring and walls seemed to be barely put together, and it only had a small oven for a kitchen and a TV in the left corner for entertainment. From the looks of the shabby abode, This has to be on the outskirts of town where the lower levels live. All the places here are way worse compared to the other areas in town. No one seemed to be home, so I wanted to look around a bit. I got up and looked at my reflection in the broken black TV screen. Apparently, my wounds have healed, but I still have a bandage around my torso. My body felt fine, and I wasn''t aching anywhere. In fact, How am I even walkingright now? I know I felt my leg snap during the gank.I wonder why I''m healed this much? How long was I out for? Just when I was about to put my shirt back on that was laying on the bed post, someone entered the room. It was a girl that looked about my age, that was about as tall as me (5''5"), had long red hair with a ponytail on the side, and skin that was snow white with a few freckles sprinkled on her face. "She is beautiful." I marveled in awe to myself. No dought that she will be disgusted when she finds out I''m a sagaru though, so I can''t get my hopes up. She wore a shocked look on her face when she turned around from closing the door to see me standing there with my shirt in hand and asked, "H-how long have you been up for?" I must have been seeing things because I thought her face went bright red when she saw me before she turned back around. Maybe it''s just the poor lighting? I answered back, "Not for long. I just got up. Do you know how I got here, and how long I have been asleep for?"This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. She looked kind of surprised and responded back while still facing the opposite direction, "Oh, I guess you wouldn''t know Haha. I was walking back from school when the rain finally let up, and I saw you lying on the ground in the forest section. You looked fine, but you had a nasty burn on your torso. I didn''t know what to do at the time. Police don''t come to the forest section and the hospital was too far away, so I just decided to take you back here to my place. You haven''t been out for long. After I bandaged you I went to the general store to get some pain relievers, and when I got back you''re up! Are you feeling alright." I was taken aback by this. No one besides my parents have ever showed compassion to me. I felt my face grow red as I thought about her kindness, followed closely by a sense of depression at the knowledge of what she will do when she finds out I''m powerless. I hurredly put my shirt on and managed to mumble out, "Thank you for everything you have done. Really it is umm, it means a lot." I don''t think she knew how to respond to that, so we just sat there in silence for a while when she turned back around. Finally she turned her head and asked, "Maybe you want to stay for dinner? We don''t have much, but I''m sure my parents don''t mind!" She was so cute, and as much as I wanted to say that I couldn''t bring myself to lie to such a beautiful person. So I looked down and told her in a monotone voice, "I''m sorry, but I''m a sagaru. You probably feel bad for helping now, and I get it. I''m sorry for causing you this trouble." She looked shocked, which I normal I guess, but then she did something unusual. She smile and stated, "be that as it may the offer still stands." I looked at her in confusion and just blurted out, "Uh, what was that?" At that moment her parents came home from work. I quickly put my shirt back on. Her parents had a lot of questions naturally. Eventually they calmed down though, and we all sat down to eat. Apparently her dad is a sagaru as well. While her mom is a high level 7, but even though she is a high level she still has to be in the slums since she married a sagaru. Lainey is also a higher level for her age as well, a level 5. She is planning on taking the Crystal High entrance exam as well. She apparently doesn''t make that many friends at school either because of her father, so her parents we shocked she brought a friend home, much less one with his shirt off. I quickly told them it was a misunderstanding, but they still kept a weird smile on their faces. I started to leave after we ate. Lainey walked me out, even though it was only a fifteen foot walk. I told her thank you so much for the food and help, and told her we should talk some more. She smiled said, "Yes, we definitely should." As I was walking away I told her, "Oh. By the way, I''m taking the Crystal High entrance exam too." She looked back from going back inside to implore why, but I was already gone. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 5: Entrance Exams ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 5 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I ended up getting home late that night. My parents were so scared that something had happened to me, and I jsut shook my head no when they asked and comforted them. I hid the knowledge of my fight that I had and the dinner I already ate from them, and I just told them I spent an extra amount of time working out today. They gave me a full hour long lecture about responsibilities and time management that I had to sit through as a consequence for making them worry, and I also wasn''t allowed to do anything for the next week which was a problem since the Crystal High entrance exams were in two weeks. I really need as much training as possible, but I know my parents will never allow it. They don''t like that I''m trying to get into Crystal High anyway. I saw the bright spot in it though, and thought I could use the time to study for the written portion of the test. The wound on my body healed after a good night''s rest, and I still don''t know what caused a burn mark on my body. Maybe I got struck by lightning and it made that wound? What happened to my other wounds though? I contemplated these thoughts as I went back to school. It was another day of insult hurling students taking shots at me again, but with a few more physical altercations because of where I want to go to highschool. It''ll be tough getting into Crystal High because of the practical and written exams they give. I wasn''t the smartest kid in school, but I was in the top 10 in my class. It''s not like that alone will get me in, but it will probably help. I need to prove myself in a fight though. I just hope the practical test won''t be that hard. I passed Drazen in the hall going to class, and I couldn''t hold back a chuckle from the look of shock he gave me when he saw my lack of injuries. His two bigger cronies are still in the hospital from the wounds I gave them, one with a broken leg and the other with a broken face, so he looked a little more mortal today. I need to quickly go home after school today though, so I don''t get caught by him again.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. The two weeks passed by faster than a normal two weeks it seemed. I guess that would be logical because my nerves were so worked up for it. I went to see Lainey one time when I got free from my parents punishment, and we talked some. We were too afraid to go anywhere because of our social status. We would probably get bullied, and there is something about insults and physical altercations that dulls the mood. It was super awkward sitting in her small apartment again though. We were the first people of the opposite genders we have ever had full conversations with, and it really went awkward when she wanted to confirm what high school I was going for to which I dodge the question quickly. I didn''t want her worrying about me, or make fun of me for my choice. The mood steadily got better though. When we started talking about our favorite protectors out now and their guilds, we continued the conversation for several hours. I eventually left after we ate some dinner, and told her I''d see her later. She gave me her phone number in case I ever got one, and we departed ways. Hopefully I won''t see her at the Crystal High entrance exams because that would be an awkward conversation. The day came for the entrance exams, and walking to Crystal High was probably the longest walk I have ever taken. The campus had a ring of buildings on the outside, and a large crystal like structure in the middle where we were going. It also had other structures outside of the ring for training and research. Inside of the crystal structure was several floors. The examanees went to the second floor(The one the the most width)and in it was a large auditorium. Students were separated alphabetically and according to our schools. Of course with my luck I was sat right next to Drazen because there was only three people including me and him that applied to go here. The other one was our school''s beauty named Zen. She had white hair, brown eyes, fair skin, a really good figure, and a calm and cool personality. Since she had a cool personality, she never talked to me. Which I can''t blame her I''m a cool killer guaranteed, but she never insulted me or assaulted me. That gave me a kind of reverence and respect for her which I usually don''t have for people. She had the ability to turn the moisture in the air to ice. She was known as the ice queen. The exams finally started when the principle came into the auditorium and started to explain what was going on. What he said was mostly standard, so I took the time to try and look for Lainey. I eventually saw her near the bottom rows looking in awe at her surroundings. I couldn''t really blame her this place was amazing. Right when I was looking around too, the principal said something shocking. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 6: The New Exams ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 6¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ While I was thinking and looking for Lainey, the principle was giving the normal orientation for the exams. He talked about how he appreciates all of us for showing up, but only a few of us will make it into the school. He talked about how this school specializes in power enhancement, training, and understanding, and how this school gets students ready to be the protectors of the country and pioneers in power understanding. Which is true if you want to specialize in any of those, Crystal High is the number one place to go. Right after he said all the formalities he told us all something we never expected. He told us all, "Now that all the formalities are out of the way. It is now time for the exams to start. We are doing things a bit different this year. Instead of having everybody take the same written and physical exams, this year you will be taking different tests based on the field you want to enter. Power training and enhancement fields will be taking a written test with more combat and strategy questions, with a more intense physical examination. The power understanding field students will take a written test that requires more in-depth answers about powers and how they work, while taking a less intense physical examination." Some students were relieved, while others who were more average at everything got worried. I only had one question going on in my mind at this point. Which field will I choose? I have some of the highest grades in the country, and I can do most light physical activities, but I don''t really want to research powers though. I want to be a ray of hope to all the sagarus out there that they can do anything people with powers can, and I can''t do that if I''m holed up in a lab all day. I have to prove we aren''t useless pieces of shit. I looked at Drazen, and he already looked like what he wanted to do. I looked at Zen, and she still had the same face on as she usually did. She was impossible to read. Looking over at Lainey, she had a confused look on her face. Which was the normal reaction everyone had when I looked around at everyone. My two classmates were just abnormal.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The principal started to explain everything, "Now I know most of you are confused, and that is a normal reaction. We will try as best as we can to make this transition from previous years as smooth as possible. Now let''s get into the separation of fields." Just then two people came out from under the stage where the principal was standing. On his left was a woman with black hair put up into a weird ponytail, and a a lab coat on. On his left was a man with sunglasses and a black coat on. He had greasy, slicked back, black hair, and a strong build to him combined with his tall figure. The principal went on, "These are two of the teachers here at Crystal High. The woman on my left is Dr. Liza, the genius who discovered the link of powers and genes, and the man on my right Mr. ShadowFox, the famous assassin protector. Dr. Liza will take all of the power understanding students to their exam and Mr. ShadowFox will take the power training and enhancement students to their exam. You will be called out by school, and when your school is called please line up either to the left of the auditorium with Dr. Liza or to the right with Mr. ShadowFox." With the the school''s started to be called out in alphabetical order, I waited patiently for mine to be called out. I watched as students walked to there respective choices, and I thought to myself what I should do. When Lainey''s school got called, she went to the right for the power training and enhancement fields. "I wonder what her power is?" I thought to myself. I need to ask her that next time we talk. The principal eventually got to our school, and we had to choose what we would try to do for the rest of our lives. Should I take the safe route, or should I follow my dream and go into power enhancement and training? Zen and Drazen quickly walked toward the power training and enhancement side without hesitating. I stood in place for a minute hesitating. I could feel the hundreds of students eyes on me, watching what I would do. Suddenly my legs started moving by themselves. Before I knew it I was on the power enhancement and training side. Since everyone didn''t know that I was a sagaru they didn''t see anything wrong with it, but there was a look of shock on Drazen''s face. Even Zen''s normally calm and cool expression showed a bit of surprise. I looked at where Lainey was at, and her eyes were full of worry it seemed, apparently she saw me walk up. Even I felt my face trembling a little with worry. They finished up the rest of the schools soon after our school was called, and the different fields went their separate ways. No turning back now. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 7: Power Level Rankings ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 7 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Mr. ShadowFox led us out of the huge crystal building and into one of the buildings that surrounded it. When we entered the building, it was a lot bigger than it looked on the outside. It was a huge hallway with doors adjacent to one another running through it. We were separated into groups of twenty into each of the rooms. We each had to sit down at a desk, where the written exam was already laid out for us. There was no need for a monitor in the room since the principal''s power covered that. His power is to be able to set up crystals in a specific area, and he can see through the crystals to that area. We were made aware of this before we entered the building. It is a really amazing recon power. He has to be there in person to set up the crystals though. It is a power very befitting of Crystal High though. The written exam was really easy. It was just a series of questions about power training techniques, battle strategies, and personality questions. It was nothing compared to what I prepared for coming into this. After everyone completed the exam we all lined up outside of the building. Mr. ShadowFox told us what we are doing next saying, "Now, I''m sure most of you are getting worked up for the physical exams now, but there is something we have to do first. Everybody follow me over to the giant Crystal that you see as soon as you come into the school." We all walked there in confusion. What is going on? When can we start the physical exams, and what is so important about this crystal? Once we got there Mr. ShadowFox explained it by telling us, "This crystal measures the power level of the person who touches it and exerts there power, even by just a bit. This will give us expectations for certain people in the exam, and you are advised to meet them. Who will be up first?" Of course Drazen walked up first without hesitation, and he placed his hand on the crystal. As he exerted some of his power the crystal absorbed it, as it started to light up. Mr. ShadowFox studied the crystal, then eventually told him, "Seven and a half. Pretty high, so don''t fail those expectations." Drazen confidently retorted back, "Don''t worry old man. I won''t." Seven and a half is really high. Most adults aren''t even that high. The average for a person is about a 4. Any lower than that, and you are a low level. The level 8 and above makes you God tier. One by one the other students went up to the Crystal to test their level. No one was able to match Drazen''s level yet though. Zen eventually went up to the Crystal to test her ability. She was always pretty close to his level. I wonder if she can finally beat him this time. She put her snow white hand on the crystal, and ignited her power. The crystal lit up like it did with Drazen''s. A little smile crossed Mr. ShadowFox''s face as he stated, "Power level of eight. You might give me a little trouble on a bad day. Don''t disappoint me."The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Zen said nothing as she calmly walked away with people in awe of her. Lainey was the next one up, and it caught my attention. I wonder if she made improvements since she last got her power level checked at 5. She gingerly touched the crystal, nervous from the eyes watching her. The crystal began to light up, and Mr. ShadowFox told her in a very monotone voice like he does everyone else, "Level 6. Pretty high, so don''t blow it." I guess I should go next. I really don''t want to be last. That would make me being a sagaru even more awkward than it already will be. I went up to the crystal, and put my hand on it. In my mind I was thinking maybe I will have a power. Maybe all of the doctors and treatment specialists I went to all these years were wrong! I closed my eyes and imagined what activating my powers would feel like. I started to hope beyond all hope there was some power, any power, I could say was mine. I want to blaze a path for a sagarus, but deep down I just want to be normal. Have a normal life and normal friends. Maybe I can become friends with another lower level person. That will be the second friend I ever had after Lainey. I honestly just want to be accepted into society, and even though low tiers are discriminated against too. At least they have some rights and friends they can hang around. Sagarus have nothing and no one. I can feel everyone''s eyes staring at me and the crystal. I can feel Lainey''s worried gaze, Drazen''s sly smirk, and Zen''s never changing eyes. I could feel everyone, and as I looked up at the crystal. It showed barely any light at all. It was probably just a default light, that happens when a life force touches it. I took my hand off of the crystal and looked at Mr. ShadowFox. He looked surprisingly puzzled. He finally looked at me and told me, "Kid you have a power inside of you, but it''s dormant. This is the first case I have ever seen this. You are basically a sagaru. Have you ever used this power?" I looked at him with eyes full of hope all of a sudden. Drazen''s and Lainey''s eyes looked kind of shocked while Zen''s looked a little curious. Everyone else was just confused. I quickly told him, "No I have never used it before, sir." I didn''t want to disclose that I never knew I had this power before. He looked back at me and smiled as he said, "So you came into this knowing that, and you still chose the power training and enhancement field? You got guts kid. You''ll probably die out there, but I''ll keep an eye on you." As I walked back I felt like everyone''s eyes was on me. I really didn''t care though. I actually have a power even though it isn''t active! I scanned my eyes through the crowd of students that gathered around the crystal, and almost all of them looked at me with disgust. They all realized I was a sagaru and made there judgments already. The only ones that didn''t react that way was Drazen, who had a smug grin on his face, Zen, who was as emotionless as always, this girl with black hair and tan body that looked at me with curious eyes, and this one kid that looked at me with excitement. I was so excited that I didn''t care what everyone looked like or what else happened, and the rest of the time went by fast. When everyone had their turn at the Crystal, Mr. ShadowFox told us, "Okay! Now that that''s done let''s get to the physical examination!" ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 8: The Start of the Physical Exams
¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 8 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„
Mr. ShadowFox led us to a large arena on the outskirts of the campus. It is located away from the buildings surrounding the large crystal building, and it has other large arenas and buildings made for training beside and around it.
The outside of the arena was made out of bricks, and a tin, white top for a roof. The arena here was huge in size, and it was a circular dome in shape. It reminded of a basketball dome for professional athletes.
We entered the arena through the enormous glass front doors, and we made our way through the marble and high-tech halls. Eventually, we came across an opening you would see professional athletes walk out of to go onto the field, and we entered through it. Only instead of walking out onto a field, we walked into what seemed like an environment that came from outside. ¡°Did we go through the building and back out again?¡± I asked myself as we walked through the forest landscape.
Eventually we walked out of the forest, and I realized what exactly this was when I took a look at my surroundings. We are still in the arena, and it has four different areas in it that met in the middle. There was an Urban area, Forest area, Swamp area, and Ocean area. It was really a sight to behold.
Mr. ShadowFox in blur went to the stands of the arena. He really earned his name as The Quintessential Assassin. He then started to explain the rules to all of us. He explained, "Now the goal of this exam is to see if you have the physical capabilities to be in the power training and enhancement field. You will be trying to keep standing until the end of 30 minutes. We will have 30 of the 75 of you here to pass. If there are more than that still standing by the end of the time, then we will start passing people based on how many points you get. Every person you knock out it will be 50 points, saving a person from an attack will be 10 to 50 points depending on the severity of the attack you saved them from, and you will also get 5 points for every minute survived in case there are less than the 30 people standing. We will keep track of everything and everyone through cameras placed throughout the arena. You have 5 minutes to spread out into the area of your choice. Once the 5 minutes is up you will then be able to fight each other. If anyone is killed during this you will be disqualified. Is all of this clear?"Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
We all shouted yes sir in response. I may be able to stand a chance with these rules. I go to a remote area near the forest and swamp border, and wait out the time limit. Maybe if there is a person or two there, I will be able to out maneuver them with my experience in the forest areas of the city I run in.
We started as soon as Mr. ShadowFox shouted, ¡°Begin!¡±
I immediately ran toward the area I thought about. I saw that Drazen go to the urban area, Zen went forward the forest area close to the urban area border, and Lainey went to the ocean area. Looks like I won''t have any help from her. I''m going to be on my own once again.
I got to an area to where on my left there are towering trees, and on my right is a marshy swamp with vines. I could see some quicksand out in the swamp, and multiple trees in the forest to climb up and attack from the treetops. Mr. ShadowFox broadcasted that the 5 minutes of grace was up, and the chaos began almost immediately. I could loud Kaboomsfrom where I was at in the woods from all the different areas. I began to gather vines for about 10 minutes, and then all of a sudden, I heard the explosions start to get a bit closer. I gripped the vines with determination.
¡°It''s about time I started to fight for my place here.¡± I thought to myself
¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 9: Homerun Swing ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 9 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I rooted myself up in a tree, and I waited for the people to eventually make their way to me. I watched as the explosions get steadily closer to my position. I was watching just for the slightest glimpse of a person, so I could pounce into action. Finally I saw the cause of the explosions. A black haired girl run like a blur through the brush in the forest. It looks like she has a speed enhancement power. She was followed closely behind by a large red haired guy shooting out balls from his palms. Whenever the balls he produced from his hands touched another object, it exploded. There was also another another blonde haired guy running beside him. It appeared that he had a power that lets him stretch his body out like plastic. This was going to be more difficult to deal with than just a normal strength enhancing power. I immediately thought to go after the two boys first. Maybe if I get them then I can get rescue points for saving the girl, and maybe we can form a team like the two boys if I''m lucky. As the girl ran past me I stayed still in my perch in the pine tree. I had a vine in my hand from the swamp. If can time this right then I can get to KO''s at once. I waited until the two of them were going to be perfectly lined up with the quicksand when I get there, and then I swung. I wrapped the vines together to form a strong rope, and then tied it to the tree I was in. I then jumped the opposite direction of the boys to get the most momentum by going around the tree. I kicked the ball explosion boy straight into the pool of quicksand. I made him fly off the ground about 50 feet into it. All those years of physical training appears to be paying off. The elastic boy managed to contort his body out of the way though, but this was not accounted for in my plan on the spot. Because I thought that there would be more people coming here, I set up multiple trees with the same vines. After I knocked the first one into the quicksand, I quickly dove into some bushes, so he couldn''t grab me. Then I climbed into one of my trees again ready to pounce once more. The elastic boy naturally was going to save his friend for the rescue points, and then they would both go after me since I don''t have any powers. While he is saving his friend from the quicksand though, I will come in and knock him in the same way I did the first kid. It should work this time since he doesn''t have his friend''s body giving him a warning now. Before I could do that though, something unexpected happened. The black haired girl from before rushed in and pushed elastic boy into the quicksand. He fell face first in it, and explosion balls was going off on him saying, "You bumbling idiot! How could you not watch your back at a time like this! You powerless piece of shit that kicked me in here better remember these words! When I get out of here, I, Julius Dremen the Third will personally send you to a hospital! I always get my way so you better fucking remember that! Tremen, use your arms and grab onto that limb to get us out of here!"Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. So their names are Julius and Tremen huh? They must be apart of the upper class if he "always gets his way". I wonder what the girl''s name is. She seemed shocked when Julius said that it was the powerless sagaru who kicked him in there. There isn''t any time for that now though. Tremen was already reaching up with his arms to the limb. I quickly jumped from the tree, and ran multiple circles around it to gain sufficient momentum. I then launched in the direction toward Tremen''s arms. I wrapped the vine around and around them, incapacitating them. It seems he can''t control his body that well the longer it is. He became completely discombobulated. I wrapped the vine around and around him, until right when I was about to hit the quicksand. I then let go of the vine, and it flung me to safety in front of the girl. That should be two KO''s for me, which puts me in a safe spot. They won''t die because the quicksand only goes up to the bottom of their head. I looked back at the girl in front of me, and now that I had a better look at her, I could easily see that she was beautiful and that she was the girl that gave me a curious look back at the crystal. She had tanned skin to go with her black hair, and her slender, athletic body made it easy to see she was probably really popular in her school before this. I instantly shot down my chances with her in my mind before I even got my hopes up. But I still kept a confident appearance up for her because now it''s time for negotiation with the girl. I turned and looked at her while Julius was still cursing me and asked, "Want to make a team?" She looked at me with a blank expression and responded smuggly with, "You are a sagaru though. Why wouldn''t I just knock you into the quicksand with them, and get your points?" I responded back quickly before she could make a move, "Because I saved your skin back there, by kicking him into the quicksand and distracting elastic boy there, so I objectively have some use for you. It may just be as an extra body for peple to get to you, but it is some use. Plus I''m smart, so I can come up with some plans to get KOs easier. What do you say? Strength in numbers right?" She looked me up and down with her coal black eyes and finally responded with a sigh, "Fine, but don''t slow me down." Thus began a beautiful friendship in the middle of the physical exams. We still needed more points to get into the top 30 though. We need to KO hunt now. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦ Chapter 10: The Plan ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 10 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I looked at the girl and explained to her, "We need more KO points for both of us to make it into the top 30, so we should go to the middle of the arena to get those. From there we''ll be able to see where the most explosions are coming from and go in that direction. Does that sound good?" She looked in the direction of the center of the arena and told me, "I was in the center fighting when those two teamed up on me. Most of the strong people are there fighting it out. The strong ones felt they didn''t have to run from anybody, so they just stayed there to fight it out. I thought I could outrun everybody with my super speed, and steal some easy KOs. Those two messed that up for me though. They were doing pretty good there until they got KO thirsty and followed me in here." This makes things interesting since most of the stronger ones are in the center. I stood there pondering the situation for a minute before an idea popped into my head. I looked back at her and proclaimed with a smirk, "I think we can get a lot of KOs then. Listen to this carefully... " I explained the idea I had to her, and a surprise look popped onto her face. I guess she was a little shocked that I came up with the idea. She thought about it for a moment and stated, "I guess it could work. It will be a gamble though, but I guess a gamble is better than being a guaranteed to lose. Let''s do it." I smiled and let out a sigh of relief that she agreed to it. I responded to her by saying, "Great! What''s your name by the way?" Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. She looked back at me as she went out to gather the vines, and she told me, "You can call me Via. That¡¯s what everyone calls me except for my parents and grandparents." After that, she superspeeded off to gather more vines for ropes. I shouted back at her in courtesy, "You can call me Khan if you like!" With that I was off to get some sticks and a good view of the center on top of a tree. After I got the sticks, I immediately went to the top of a tree to see the center. The trees in the forest were tall, but I stilld struggled to get a good look at the center of the arena. I could barely get a glimpse of one half of the center from the tree. There were two people fighting there in that small area. In fact, it seemed like Drazen and some guy shaking the earth beneath him were the ones that were fighting. He seemed to try and shake the earth beneath Drazen¡¯s feet to knock him off balance, but he couldn''t get close enough. Drazen''s power range was farther than his. There were three people laying around them. They seemed to be the losers of previous fights. I started to look around those two that were fighting, and I could see explosions and dust from the other half I couldn''t get a good look at. From the different explosions there seemed to be at least 3 more people still active in the fights. We need to get there fast to pick up some KOs before they are already gone. I jumped back down from the tree. Via was there with the vines ready. I told her the situation, and that we need to get there fast. She seemed to grasp the situation, and right when I was about to run with the sticks in hand. She picked me up and ran at superspeed there. My head flew back from the shock of it as I howled out, ¡°Ohhhhh myyyyy Goooodddd!¡± My lips curled away from my teeth at the speed, and when we finally stopped, I wasn¡¯t surprised to find out we covered about 400 yards in 10 seconds. When we got there, I could see the things I couldn''t in the tree. The three people still in the game on the other half happened to be 6. There was also about 10 people lying on the ground already KOed. They all seemed oblivious that we were there watching them because they were too caught up in their separate fights. ¡°This may actually work.¡± I thought to myself. I quickly turned to Via and told her, "This should work with these six people here. Whatever you do though, don''t go near Drazen and Mr. Rock your world over there. This won''t go over well with them." She nodded, and handed me the one vine I needed. Then she was off, executing the plan. I hope this all goes well. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 11: The End Battle ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 11¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I immediately got to work on my part of the plan. I slammed a stick into the ground just on the outskirts of the Forest section. The stick went about halfway into the earth which made it plenty sturdy for the plan. I then tied the vine around it near the bottom, and ran straight across the border of the forest section. When I was finally at the end of the rope, it was just in time. While I was doing this, Via went around to the six people fighting on this side, and individually hit every single one of them to get their attention. She was too fast for them to catch her, so she easily completed this task. Once she did that, she ran over near the border of the forest, and mocked them. She flipped then the bird and exclaimed, "All of you are all bark and no bite. None of you can catch me, and if you did you would al just fight each other instead. Honestly you are all pathetic losers. You should all just quit now to be honest because you''ll never make it at this school." This got all of the riled up, and one even shouted back, "We''ll show you how strong we are bitch! We won''t even have to waste a lot of time beating you, so we won''t miss out on much time of getting points. Cone on guys! First one to get her, gets all the points for themselves!" They all started moving as one unit toward her. They spread out, and ran side by side to cover the most ground. I have to say I''m pretty impressed. I didn''t think that they would be this wiling to work together. I guess the power of bruising egos works on high levels. I laid the vine one the ground, so it was unnoticeable. Via went of the vine with no problem, and when the group of six got there I pulled it up. Five out of six of them went tumbling down. This was the moment it all came down to. I figured some would be slower than the others, and they wouldn''t fall down. This was all about speed. Via immediately went superspeed, and started tying up those on the ground with the vines. The one still standing started to aim an attack toward Via, but he didn''t notice me. I quietly stood up from my position with a large stick in hand. I gripped the stick like a spear, and threw it at the one standing. The stick nailed him in the side of the head and knocked him out. This also served as a distraction for Via because even she wasn''t fast enough to tie up everyone before they reacted. She got to the first three, but the other two started to react. They paused and turned around when they saw their fallen comrade go down by me though. Those few precious seconds of hesitation was all Via needed to knock them out, and tie them up. I then ran over and knocked one of the first three out with a stick, and she knocked the other two out. We were now even in the amount of knockouts we have in the exam. I went over the one that didn''t fall for the trap and started tying him up. Via looked at me with a curious gaze and asked, "How did you know this would work?"This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Continuing to tie, I answered, "I didn''t. There were a lot of ways this could have gone wrong. More than one person could have not fallen for the trap, making it way more difficult for us to get them all. The two that you didn''t initially tie up could have not gotten distracted by me either, which means that you would have gotten hit by one of their powers. I made a gamble based on my entire life experience of being underestimated. No one expects a Sagaru to be able to do anything. Maybe they did notice me, and didn''t think they should worry about me. You never really know until you ask them, but I have to admit one thing. The part where I knocked the guy standing up out. That was completely improvisation. I just through it and hoped for the best." She continued to look at me in bewilderment. Just then I felt an immense pressure come over me. Via and I both went to the ground. I managed to look my head up, and there was Drazen smiling down on us. He smiled as he gloated, "I have to admit I''m impressed Khan. You managed to get someone to do the work for you. I would''ve never thought someone would work with a piece of shit like you." I looked at where he and the earthquake guy was fighting. It seemed he used his gravity to flatten the earth as soon as it would become uneven. It was only a matter of time before he got within range of Mr. Rock Your World and knocked him out. How could it end like this. I worked too damn hard for it to end like this. I looked at Drazen with hate in my eyes. All my life I was always beaten by High levels like him. They always thought they were better than me, and now that I have a chance to prove them all wrong it was going to be taken away from me!? No fucking way I''m going to let this happen. As Drazen got closer and closer to me I could hear Via shout out, "BASTARD!" He stopped and looked over at her. He gave her a little smirk as he said, "Don''t worry babe. I''ll get to you after I finish playing with him." He then continued to walk to me. My anger grew the closer he got. When he was right up on me I think I could see some faint blue flames come out of my fingers, but I couldn''t be sure. Just as he got there a wall of ice shot out from the ground at a monumental force, knocking him away. I looked in the direction it came from, and there was Zen standing on the edge of the city district. Drazen looked at her and mumbled, "Bitch." Just when I thought everything was about to go to hell. Mr. Shadowfox shouted out, "Time! That''s the end of the physical part of the exams, and the exams in general. You can all go home now. We will let you know if you won or not by this time next week at least. I''ll show you out, and get those who have been knocked out to the health department don''t worry." The thirty minutes was already up. I tried to give Via a hopeful look, but the truth is I don''t know if we made it. Was four knockouts enough to pass? It was a long walk home after that. I couldn''t stop worrying about the exams, and was I hallucinating when I saw blue flames? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 12: The Wait
¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 12 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„
When I arrived home, my parents were all over me at once. They bombarded me with questions about the exam. I tried to answer them the best I could, but honestly my mind was still racing from the adrenaline rush from the exam.
I didn''t know what to think about anything anymore. Apparently, I have a dormant power, that I don''t know if it will ever come out. That completely flips my life upside down. Everything I was taught and told about myself are wrong. Are sagarus just people whose powers are just dormant and need to be awakened? Can we somehow find a way to manually awaken them?
I made a new friend during the exam, I think. Will I be able to see her again? She seemed pretty nice, and she didn¡¯t ignore me and trash me just because I was there at the exam. She seemeddifferentfrom everybody else. What¡¯s this feeling?
Did Lainey do enough to pass the exam? I didn¡¯t see her the rest of the day after the exam. Did she end up getting knocked out? I hope she did well. Even if I don¡¯t make it into Crystal High, I would want her to make it to help her family.
Why did Zen go out of her way to help me back there too? She definitely had more than enough points to not need to have the rescue points from rescuing Via and I. I never talked to her before, and I could never get close to her to even get a good look at her because her fan club would always surround her. Is she just that nice of a person to everyone?
What were those sparks that I thought I saw coming out of my hands? Was that just a hallucination due to traumatic stress? What could I have done better in the exam? At this point my parents questions have become white noise, and I drowned myself in my thoughts and questions.
I finally told them that I needed to get some rest, and tried to say it''s just because it''s been a long day. They wondered if I was hungry, but I shrugged it off. I couldn¡¯t get my mind to stop racing, and I just needed to relax in a hot shower and go to bed to get my thoughts in order.
I laid in my bed wide awake for a couple of hours in silence. I could hear my parents talking about various things that had happened today in the city and on the news. Sometimes I hear parts of them talking about how Max Powers saved the day again from a dimensional rift threat near the edge of the country, and how there has been a string of terrorist attacks in the city involving multiple power research facilities. I also over heard them talking about how the tensions between us and the neighboring country of Peak State is rising. They always wanted our greater knowledge and understanding of powers. I guess now they are starting to get more forceful in wanting that information. With my mind finally starting to calm down, I slowly started to drift asleep while they were talking.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
They next week seemed like a blur. School seemed meaningless now that I''m waiting for the results of the exam, and I was almost sleep walking through it. I tried to say thanks to Zen for the help at the end of the exam on the first day back, but her flock of fanboys and clout chasers blocked me. They all just pushed me down on my ass and sneered at me when I got close. Some even jeered, "Don''t even dare come over here, and contaminate Zen''s presence with your defectiveness. Go back to the shit hole you came from!"
Through the crowd of faces, I thought I could see Zen''s eyes meet mine, and I felt my breath leave me when I saw her beauty. Her eyes seem to look at me apologetically, but I didn¡¯t know why she would be apologizing to me for. This is normal for me, and I¡¯m used to it. It¡¯s me who should be apologizing to her if anything because I put her in a situation at the exam where she had to help me.
Drazen didn''t talk to me at school at all. He gave me scornful looks in the hallways, and his stooges bumped me and stuff. Overall though he seemed pretty tame. He probably went back to his holier than thou persona from before the exams, and now he probably will just ignore me for a while.
I still got picked on, and beat up like usual though, during and after school. It has just become a part of my life now. My mind is no longer worried about the normal everyday beatings for once though. I just go back to my training and studies. For once in my life, thanks to the exams, I had the feeling of hope.
Lainey didn''t text me to meet up at all after the exams. I started to get kind of worried. Was she embarrassed that she didn''t do as good as she thought she would on them? I texted her that she couldn''t have done worse than me. She still didn''t text back though. I debated on whether or not I should visit her house, but I didn''t want to intrude on her. I know that I would feel weird if people showed up at my house without asking, so I left her alone. This went on for 2 weeks.
I don¡¯t know if I did anything to her or what. I started to feel really bad about myself again because of this. The first friend that I¡¯ve been able to make since I found out I was a sagaru has suddenly started to ignore me. I could feel my shoulders getting heavier and my feelings getting more depressed as the days went on without talking to her or anyone else aside from my parents.
The worrying about the results of the exam, how I could have done better on the exam, and Lainey, all took a toll on my mind. All while my mind was filled with this, I was also constantly hearing about the terrorist attacks and rising tensions on the news. Most of the protectors couldn''t do anything about it because they had bigger dimensional rift problems to deal with, so it was left up to the police. This created a large buzz around the school and city. Finally, at the end of those 2 weeks, the results finally came. This was going to be the most stressful moment of my life so far.
¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 13: The Letter ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 13 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ When I got home from school at the very end of two weeks, my mom rushed to me holding a letter. I immediately knew what it was. My blood pressure rose with excitement, and I could feel my palms getting sweaty from nervousness. I snatched the letter from my mother''s grasp, and bolted to my room. I went to my desk and got the scissors out. I cut the letter open, and drug the note out of it slowly. I was hesitant to unfold the paper from the fear of what it contains. When I unfolded it I read the fateful words. At the middle top of the paper was the school insignia, and the first words on the paper was the words Dear Khan Weeks. Right under that were the beautiful words of Congratulations. I jumped up in the air in excitement. All my dreams, all those times I was beat up, and made fun of, All of my hard work, I finally have some validations and hope to show for it. I finally can stand as a signal of hope for all sagarus. I started to tear up as I read the rest of the letter, and it all started to sink in. The rest of the letter told me what class I was going to be in, when school started, the materials for class, and what the core education material will be about. My mom came bursting into my room and saw my tears. She immediately thought the worse, and went to comfort me. She put her hand on my back. I shrugged her hand off my back, and told her, "No I made it mom. I got in." Her mouth dropped open in shock. She started to tear up from joy at the news as she grabbed the letter from me and read it. I started to think again about all the shit I had to go through. I finally have a reason to hold my head up now. I wonder what people will say at school once they find out. Probably not nice things. Good thing I start to go to Crystal High in a week. I hope I have Via in my class. She should have made it since she and I had the same score. It would be nice having someone I know in the same classroom with me that wasn''t actually disgusted by me. Maybe Lainey made it too, and she will also be in my class.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. When Dad came home from work, and he was just as ecstatic as mom at the news. They completely forgot about the drama in the city, country, and work, and had pure joy in their lives. The next week went by extremely fast. When the school found out, everyone was in shock. People mocked me for it, and Drazen and his goons looked at me in disgust. I got beaten harder than I ever had at school because people were trying to discourage me, and prove a point that I''ll never mate it at Crystal High. I didn''t really mind though. I already had my validation and invatation. Who gives a fuck what they do now, I won''t see them ever again in a week. A strange thing happened though. Zen walked up to me during lunch. She parted her fanboys and clout chasers like Moses parting the Red Sea. She looked at me with her cool blue eyes, and uncharacteristically had a slight smile. She told me, "Congratulations on making it in Crystal High. See you at school." She walked away after that. I think people were more shocked at this, than the news that I made it into Crystal High. I got clowned and looked down on the rest of the day by her stans. All the while I was in total and utter confusion as to why she did that. The rest of the week was just my parents and I getting the materials for school. My parents actually got me a phone too. They got it under the pretence that they would use it, but they actually got it for me. They told me to be extremly careful when using it because if I get caught, I could be in some serious trouble. I wasted no time in getting Lainey''s contact information and my parents. The rest of the days went by slowly. I sat in my house doing nothing, texting Lainey with no response, and passing the days by waiting impatiently for Crystal High to start. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of the Crystal High campus entrance on the first day of school. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 14: Crystal High ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 14 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I walked slowly throughout the campus again. No matter how many times I walk through this campus, I don''t think I''ll ever get used to the prestige images of this school. I walked down the hallway of the school building on the right side of the huge Crystal building. There are three buildings total surrounding the crystal in the immediate vicinity of it. The building on the right hand side was the building for power enhancement and training students. The building on the left hand side was for power understanding students. The building in front of the Crystal is for equipment and understanding student''s labs. I finally made it to my class. I have been put into class P-B. I stood in front of the door, and took a deep breath. This is the first step to proving everyone wrong. With that, I walked into the classroom. The classroom was empty. I guess that''s to be expected though since I got here an hour early. I always wake up 2 hours early for school, so I could go train a little bit before school. I didn''t want to go train today though in case we did something physically active today, but I guess I should have still slept in. Guess I get my choice of a seat this way. After about thirty minutes had past, students started to come in. The first person to come in was a boy who was smaller than me. He had straight black hair, and had a slender build. He looked at me and stated, "So the sagaru is first to class huh? Guess you have to be good at something. How the hell did you pass the exam anyway?" I guess I made an impression during the exams. I looked back at him and smiled, trying to seem friendly, and told him, "I don''t really know myself. I hope we can get along though. What''s your name?" He glanced at me as he walked to a seat, and mumbled, "Jack." I tried to start a conversation with him, but he just ignored me. We sat in silence until more people started to show up. Everyone that showed up managed to give me a weird look, and sit as far away from me as possible. Via eventually walked into the room to my relief. I waved to her, and to mine and everyone else''s surprise she actually acknowledged me and waved back. She walked over to me, and sat in front of me which surprised everyone else even more. I asked her, "Do you know anyone else here?" She looked back and responded, "I know some of the people here. The girl right there with the pink hair and violet eyes is Mina. She can shoot lasers out of her eyes, and her level is 5.5. The guy right there with the blue hair is Harry. He can perceive things faster than the normal human, and takes advantage of this by using a sword and pistol during combat. People can rarely hit him, and his level is 6. The girl standing in front of him is his girlfriend. Her name is Liza, and she can teleport in distances of about 5 feet. She can''t do it for long, but it''s enough to be a problem. Her level is 5. It''s a pretty average level, but she probably made it in with the help of her boy toy in front of her. That''s about it, the rest are new to me too. What''s been going on with you during the wait?"You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. I looked at the people she mentioned. Those are some pretty amazing powers. I went into deep thought about them for about a minute, and then I responded to her eventually by saying, "It went super slow. Everything seemed to go in slow motion. The news about the terrorist attacks, protector news, and school was all so slow. By the way you never told me your power level. What is it?" She smiled, and with a cocky look on her face gloated, "It''s a 6.5. One of the highest here." That was pretty impressive. I didn''t think it would be that high when we were out there on the exam arena. I guess I have gotten to used Drazen''s and Zen''s amazing levels. We talked for a while longer, as more people walked in. I ended up catching a glimpse of Lainey walking by the door. I guess she got put into class P-A. I told Via just a second, and walked to the door. Lainey was still walking down the hallway when I spoke up, and asked her, "What''s up Lainey. How have you been?" She gave me a glance, and continued to walk to her classroom. It was like my voice was just a whisper in the wind. Did I do something to make her mad at me? I turned to walk back into the room, and I saw Zen walking down the hallway. She looked as beautiful as she usually does. She seemed to smile at me, which I responded with a smile back. This is weird, the most popular person at my old school is actually acknowledging my existence without trashing me. Maybe those times in the past few weeks, where she actually acknowledged me in school weren''t hallucinations. I walked back into the room to my seat behind Via. Everybody in the room still sat as far away from us as possible. Zen walked into the classroom, to my surprise. Everyone in the room immediately went to talk to her. She had the same expressionless face as she usually does on now. They were offering her seats to sit by them, but she walked by them. She walked closer and closer to me. She eventually sat down in the seat behind me. Everyone was even more surprised than when Via sat in front of me. They immediately started gossiping with themselves about the situation. About the most surprised person in the room was me though. My eyes were wider than they have ever been. Via hit my shoulder, and asked me, "What''s your problem, huh?" I shook off the shock, and responded to the hit by rubbing my shoulder and saying, "There isn''t a problem, but looks like you aren''t the highest level here anymore." She went on a rant after I said that. It stopped though, when a red haired guy walked in the room and sat down in the seat right across from me. He talked to me first saying, "You are the sagaru right? How did you pass the exams? What''s it like being a sagaru? You are the super speed girl right? Have you ever used super speed to steal stuff? How many KOs did you get? You are the Ice Queen right? How did you manage to get your level so high? Is your face permanently emotionless? Soo many questions too ask!! The three most interesting people in the room all sitting together how interesting!" I was taken aback from the abruptness of the questions. I saw from the corner of my eyes Via was like me, but Zen was as unphased as usual. I asked him back hesitantly, "And what''s your name?" He hurriedly responded and told us, "I''m Thomas, and my power is Moisture Manipulation. I can manipulate the moisture in the air, and control the water from it. I can kind of control regular water, but I lose control the more water it is. I can''t freeze water either, or manipulate ice. I get really excited meeting new interesting people as your found out, so sorry haha." I told him it was fine, and we started talking about the exams. Until finally time came for class to start. Right on the dot when it was supposed to start in walked our teacher. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 15: Introductions ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 15 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ It was a averaged height slender man that walked in the door. He had black hair covering his right eye, and a black cloak covering his body. He had sky blue eyes, that seemed a little vacant of life. He walked up to the front of the class and told us all with a monotone voice, "Good day students. My name is Mr. Grey, and I am an assassin type protector. This is my first year here teaching. I''m not as famous as Mr. ShadowFox of class P-A, but I have just as much experience. Now that I have told you introduction why don''t all of you introduce yourselves in front of the class so we know each other. It shouldn''t be a problem since all fifteen of you are here. State your name, power, power level, and one goal. You Airhead in the front, you go first." He pointed to the blonde haired girl sitting on the far right corner of the room, who was staring off into space. She looked up at Mr. Grey, and blinked twice at him before realizing what happened. She stood up at her desk, and told the class, "My name is Trea, and my power is to be able to create explosive bubbles with bubble gum. My power level is 5.5, and my goal is to become a famous protector of our country." She sat back down, and next in line was a blonde haired boy. He stood up, and with a smile told the class energetically, "My name is Wayne! My power is to produce electric shocks through the palms of my hands, and my power level is 6! My goal is to become a famous protecter too, and make loads of money." As expected most people''s goals are going to become a famous protector and make loads of money. Next up was a brown, curly haired boy named Bume. Once he stood up I realized he was the boy who shook the earth, that was fighting Drazen during the exam. He is pretty powerful. Next up was a purple haired girl named Itsuki. She seemed pretty shy. Her power is being able to solidify air for a short period of time, and move it around. She can''t solidify large areas of air, but it seems effective. Her power level is a 5. Next up was a spikey, green haired boy, whose name was Grease. His power is being able to send laser like slashes, from out of his fore arms. They seems to travel pretty slow though. His power level is a 6. Next in line was a freckle faced, red haired girl named Heather. Her power is being able to see into the future by five seconds. It''s a really powerful ability, but she can''t control when she is able to use it most of the time though. She passed the exam with the help of her classmates. Her power level is a 5. The last person I didn''t know the name of was a gruff boy named Lee. He had pretty normal strength enhance ability, but it is increased several fold from a normal person''s. He has a power level of 6. Next up was Jack. He said he had the power to disappear and reappear in shadows. A prime candidate for an assassin type protector. He has a power level of 6.5. The rest I already knew of, and everyone pretty much had the same goal. When it finally got to me, I didn''t really know what to say at first. After I thought a bit and gathered some resolve, I stood up from my seat and stated firmly, "My name is Khan, and I am a sagaru. I don''t have any powers. I have a power level of 0. I made it to where I''m at due to hard work and determination. I don''t have any talent to speak of, but that leads me to my goal. My goal isn''t to become famous or make a lot of money, but it would be a nice plus if I did. It''s to become a signal of hope to everyone out there, that anyone can do whatever they want in life. No matter what social status or power they are birthed with."Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. I sat back down. I could see Mr. Grey''s eyes light up from curiosity how I got here. Thomas stared at me with eyes full of life. People started to chatter a bit. Via and Zen seemed to be unphased from it though. Via saw what I could do, and Zen has heard it so many times now she is already used to it. She stood up after me, and went straight into her monolog speaking firmly, but beautifully, "My name is Zen. I can manipulate moisture in the air and water into ice. My power level is 8. My goal is to become not only just a protector, but a hero for everyone in this country." She sat back down, and the conversations people had immediately shifted from how defective I am, to how amazing Zen is. Which is true she is the most amazing person I have met in my life. Even though I never talked to her, I can tell she works her ass off to improve. Being able to increase your power level to be that high at such a young age is no small feat. Mr. Grey seemed to have the same expression throughout everyone''s monologs though, except for Zen''s and mine. Which his eyes seemed to be just a little less vacant for a couple of seconds during it. After everyone was done, Mr. Grey told the whole class, "Now everyone follow me. In order to teach and train you, I need to see where everyone is at in person." Wayne perked right up from his seat, and told Mr. Grey, "But Sir! We have orientation we have to go to in ten minutes." Mr. Grey looked a bit surprised as he exclaimed in a monotone voice, "Oh! I just got the news I was accepted to be a teacher last week, so I don''t know what goes on here. I guess you should probably go to orientation, even though it''s a pain in the ass. First day on the job, and they are already messing with my teaching methods." We all stared at each other in bewilderment of the teacher until it was time to go to orientation. He was a pretty weird one. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 16: Orientation ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 16 ¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ When it became time to go to the orientation, we lined up in front of the door. I was at the back of the line. We watched as class P-A went in front of us down the hall then followed behind them. We all marched straight into the big crystal auditorium. We took our seats, and the principal (Mr. Watch) started the orientation speech. I kept an eye on our new teacher though. I was curious about his origins. I never heard of a protector with a name of Grey before. He seemed like he has been through some shit, but I would have thought that I would have heard of it. I''m a big fan of all things that involves protectors, so there is rarely one that I don''t know. I watched him with curious eyes as he gazed off into the distance, not paying attention like me to the speech. I can get the feeling his mind is on bigger and better things than just a regular high school orientation speech. As the air conditioning was blowing it was moving his hair, and I could notice a scar across what would be his right eye. His cloak was covering his arms and body, but I can imagine by the look of him that it is also scarred a bit too. There is also the fact that he didn''t mention his power during introduction that makes him even more mysterious. Who is this guy? Once the orientation was over, most of the students went back to their classes, leaving our class sitting their in silence and awkwardness. Mr. Grey kept us in the auditorium, and when everybody left he stood up and commanded all of us cooly, "Now that everybody has left, everybody follow me. We will now see what you all can do. This will show me who is further along than others, and who can make it in my class. If I deem you incapable then you will be let go. This is my first year here, and I have heard glowing reviews about how this is the best highschool in the country. Please don''t let down my expectations."This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Everybody in the class except for Via and Zen looked directly at me when Mr. Grey stated the information about letting the incapable ones in the class go if they didn''t meet his requirements. It discouraged me at first, just now getting here, and now there is a chance that I will go back to square one. I immediatley thought afterwards, that I will make it through though. I have come to far to go back now. Mr. Grey led us out of the crystal auditorium, and past the middle building behind it. Past the middle building there was what used to be an open field for a bit until you got to one of Crystal High''s training facilities, but now it''s different. Now the once open field is cut to have lanes, cameras set up for video, cones setting up boundaries, and painted markings indicating distance. What happened here? We all lined up in front of everything that had been set up, and Mr. Grey walked out calmly in front of us. He looked out at everything, gave a nod of approval, and turned back toward us holding a clipboard and stated dryly, "As you can see I kind of got paranoid last night, this being my first day and all, and woke up early this morning to set all this up to test you. I want this to at least be semi professional to get the best results possible. Now let''s start the tests." ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 17: Physical Assessment ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 17¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Mr. Grey looked down at his clip board, and read out the names of Liza, Mina, and Itsuki. He lined them up on some cut grass with painted white lines separating three lanes. There were cones on both ends signifying the beginning and the end. He times us as we go across the lanes to the end. The distance we traveled was 40 yards. Itsuki solidified a small patch of air, and she climbed on that and moved the solidified air to the finish line. Mina ran the race normally because her laser eyes don''t give her any propulsion, and Liza teleported rapidly to the finish line. Liza got there first, followed by Itsuki, followed by Mina. This continued for the rest of the class. I ended up finishing in the top half of the class since half of the students powers weren''t applicable to this type of test. It also helped that I train my body everyday. Via ended up getting first though, with her super speed. The next test up is the grip strength test. Lee excelled at this test since his power is an enhancer power on steroids. I came in second to him on this one though, which impressed most of the other students and Mr. Grey. The next test up was a slicing test. We have to use a sword given, or our powers to see how fast we can cut a foot wide concrete block. Students like Mina and Grease (who can shoot laser like slashes out of his arms) excelled in this one. Lee and Zen also excelled in this one. Lee used his enhanced strength with the sword, and Zen used her ice abilities to destroy the block entirely. I did okay in this test. The next test up was a reaction time test. We were placed in the middle of a circle, and a machine threw 5 balls at us at 200 miles an hour. You can use whatever means necessary to dodge them, or block them. You also had to stay inside the circle. If you leave it then you automatically forfeit this round. Students like Itsuki, Heather (with her power to see into the future for a short time), and Harry (with his enhanced reaction time) excelled at this test. A lot of people also just blocked them. Like Wayne just used his electric shock palms to create an electric barrier the balls would hit before they hit him. Some people got lucky and only got hit by a few, but I did horribly and got hit by every single one.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. The last test we did was a throwing test. People could use their powers to propel the ball, or just throw it normally. Trea got creative on this one and used her explosive bubbles to propel the ball. She sent out several bubbles out, threw the ball at them, and the ensuing explosion sent the ball flying. I ended up placing in the bottom half of this event. When we got done we were all anxious for the results. We didn''t know if any of us will get let go or not. Surprisingly I''m not the one that''s on the chopping block, and it is Jack instead. His ability didn''t really help him during any of these events, and he doesn''t have as good of physical strength as I do. Mr. Grey stood there looking at his clipboard. Then after several minutes of excruciating silence and expectations, Mr. Grey finally told us the results in his usual monotone way, "Well none of you will be getting let go today. I will have the results of everybody''s score tomorrow morning. You will be able to use that to see your starting point, and improve from there. You can all go back to your class now. Your English teacher is probably in there waiting for you, and be prepared for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the day you decide on your work suits. Goodbye." After that, he just disappeared. How the hell did he do that. That was such an unenthusiastic goodbye too. Did we disappoint him? We went through the rest of the day like a usual school day with regular classes. At the end of the day I finally exchanged contact information with Via. I saw Lainey on the way out, but before I could say something to her Zen came up to me. I thought I may have annoyed her sometime during the day, but she asked for my contact information too. Imagine if this happened at my old school, everyone would have gone crazy. It''s probably so I could help her on some math questions though. She was having trouble with the quadratic formula, and I was helping her. I need to focus on what my suit is going to look like tomorrow though. That will decide what I look like when I''m out protecting the country for the rest of my life. I need to take everything into account. Tomorrow is going to be awesome. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 18: Uniform Creation Day ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 18¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I couldn''t sleep all that night. I played in my bed in nervousness and thoughtfulness. I got up at my usual time and went to go for a quick run before school. When I eventually got into my classroom, I was the first student there still, but there was Mr. Grey sitting in the front of a class reading a book. He looked at me, and in an attempt to try to start a conversation I stated kind of cautiously, "Hey Mr. Grey. Having a good day?" He looked back down at his book, and murmured an melancholic, "mm" in response. I went to my seat, and sat in silence for a little while Mr. Grey seemed to be engrossed in the book hr was reading. It didn''t have the name of it on the cover, so I couldn''t tell what he was reading. Eventually he spoke to me while not looking up from his book telling me, "Today when you go to make out your uniforms, you will be going in pairs. I''m going to be pairing you up with Itsuki. She is really shy, so she doesn''t talk to anybody. Maybe if she is paired with you she won''t feel threatened, and open up a bit. You seem to be able to make friends with people who actually talk to you anyway." I responded stuttering saying, "Yes... Yes sir!" I didn''t know I could be complimented and insulted at the same time like that. He basically said I can make friends, and I may actually have a chance of helping her open up because I''m so weak. It went back to an awkward silence after that. People started to come in a couple of minutes later. Everyone seemed to be in a better mood than yesterday due to the uniform creation today. I asked Via what she wanted her uniform to be, and she told us that she wanted it to skin tight to reduce wind resistance, and she wanted to get some boosts on her legs to get a little increase in speed. I asked Zen the same thing and she told us she wanted to have a warm suit, and places to put extra water in case there wasn''t any water around and the air was dry. She also said she really wanted it to be white though because it would go with her aesthetic. Thinking about how beautiful she would look made me blush a little. Thomas thankfully perked up and told us what kind of uniform he wanted before anyone noticed I think. Via immediately hit him on the head shouting back at him at the same tone he interjected saying, "No one asked ginger boy." They started to go back and forth with each other, and I couldn''t help but chuckle a little bit. It makes me wonder if this is what it''s to have friends. It''s nice. When everyone was in the class Mr. Grey told everyone we will be sent to decide our uniforms in pairs, and that you can choose who is your partner. Via immediately reached for my arm and asked me if I wanted to be her partner. It kind of flustered me with her eyes looking sincerely into mine. This has never happened to me before. I quickly turned away rubbing the back of my head with my free arm, lips smiling, and told her, "Sorry I can''t Mr. Grey has already paired me up with someone when no one was here."If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. She shot a gaze at Mr. Grey that would''ve killed, but Mr. Grey was still reading his book though. Zen leaned forward close to me and asked, "Who did he pair you with?" I was flustered again because she was so close to me, but she still had that same melancholic face on. Her eyes seemed to say something else though. She could entrance anyone with her gaze. I guess she wasn''t called the ice queen at our school just because she had a high power level. I would''ve gotten lost if I looked at her any longer, and I turned away and started to answer when Mr. Grey spoke up saying, "First group Itsuki, Khan, head toward the labs behind the Crystal Auditorium. People should be there waiting for you." I looked back at Zen and told her with a smile, "Yeah her. Hope your uniform creation goes well." She told me you too with a forced smile. She probably smiled to be polite since I did it to her. Something was different in her eyes when I looked back while heading out of the class with Itsuki. It was different from when she asked me who my partner was. All these years of being ostracized by society really hasn''t helped my people skills. I looked to my side at Itsuki, and she looked tense. I tried to lighten the mood by asking her what she wanted as her uniform. She seemed to jump when I spoke, startled by my voice. She responded in a quiet voice barely above a whisper saying, "Just a normal suit for girls I guess, but with a heart monitor on my wrists. If I use my ability too much my heart rate gets up, and it could get dangerous. I would also like a helmet because my sense of where I''m at in the air isn''t that good, and when I''m on my solidified air blocks I hit my head sometimes on the ceiling. What about you?" Her red hair flowed in the wind of the outside air, and she looked at my with innocent eyes of curiosity. I think I can get her to open up. I guess I really must be a worthless threat. I looked forward and off into space and told her, "I can''t have a normal uniform like you since I don''t have an amazing power like yours haha, so I''m going to have to have a lot. I want to have a sword on my back for melee, a couple of pistols on my side for range, a knife attached to a boot on my leg, and some loose black clothing since I need to be dressed stealthily to be an assassin. I know we still have a while before we decide what class we will be, but I don''t really have a choice. I can''t take a lot of damage or deal out a lot, so being a tank and Paladin is out. I can''t support people from behind so being a support is out. That just leaves assassin. Being a sagaru is pretty constricting, but I don''t want to be a normal assassin though." We walked around the Crystal Auditorium, and when we did the wind picked up. As it did I thought I heard Itsuki say that I was amazing. I glanced to her and asked, "Hm?" She told me nothing. When we got around we could see the two other people from class P-A going to make their uniforms. It was Lainey and Drazen. My eyes lit up when I saw Lainey, maybe I can finally ask her about what''s been going on. Drazen is going to be a pain in the ass. They walked in first, and Itsuki and I walked in next. This is it. My first big step to being a symbol of hope for everyone. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 19: Uniform Creation ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 19¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Itsuki and I walked in the the lab building, and it was amazing. Drazen was silent when he saw me, but gave me a look that could kill. Lainey contrarily just avoided all eye contact with me. Inside the building there were machines everywhere, and constant noises being made. On one side of the building you could see some capsules, and on the other side were rows of microscopes. Where we were there was two chairs set up by the door. A woman with dark blue hair and glasses came up and took Drazen and Itsuki further into the building to get their ideas for a uniform and told Lainey and I to wait in the seats. For the first couple of minutes there was a really awkward silence between us. I finally broke the silence with, "So you made it into Crystal High huh? Congratulations. How have you been doing?" She still sat there in silence. The awkwardness was killing me. It was also pretty depressing how she has been ignoring for all this time. Maybe this is what it feels like to actually lose a friend. She still sat there not even looking or acknowledging my existence. I finally got the nerve up to say what I feel. I could feel something was wrong with her, so I just blurted out, "Well if you need to talk to anyone, anytime, I''ll always be able to listen to you. I know that you may be embarrassed to talk to me now because I''m a sagaru and we are in a very prestigious school, but I promise I''ll get stronger to the point where it isn''t a problem to be a sagaru anymore. I think a friend should always be there for another friend, so if you are ever threatened or feel embarrassed by associating with me I understand. You said that you got bullied at your last school because of your dad being a sagaru, I wouldn''t want that to happen to you here just because your associate with me. You have my number though, so if you ever need to talk to me just text me." I turned to look at her, and I could see a little stream of tears on the side of her cheek mostly covered by her scarlett hair. She murmured a little, "Thank you." at this, but I couldn''t help but feel there was something deeper behind this. Just then the woman walked back up with Itsuki and Drazen in tow. She gestured toward Lainey and I to go there. We walked through the masses of robotics and noise. We eventually were split off into two separate rooms. There was a man in the room with a clipboard and multiple weapons and fabrics on the table in front of him. He asked me, "Are you as ready as that last guy about your uniform design?" I laughed a little bit and told him I have a few ideas. I said that I wanted a some loose fitting but firm black clothing, black combat boots with a knife holster attached, a cloak like Mr. Grey''s but fireproof, a sword attacked to my back I can use, and dual pistols with them attached to my thighs. His eyes seemed to light up a little when I mentioned the pistols. He immediately reached down to a pistol on the table and held it up as he told me about them. Apparently they are battery charged, and you can charge them anywhere. They shoot out a laser that is as quiet as a mouse, and you can also set them to stun. They do however emanate a slight blue glow though. They also can shoot up to 50 rounds before you have to recharge them. These sounded like they could have way more uses than a normal gun, so I chose to have them over a regular pistol, though they are a bit bulkier. After that, he got my measurements and sent me on my way.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. We walked back through the arrangements of assorted machinery, and Itsuki and Drazen were sitting the seats wait for Lainey and I. Itsuki got up immediately and wanted to go. I could tell she felt really uncomfortable, so I obliged and walked toward the door. Drazen stood up fast though, and went in front of me and bumped me on his way out. Lainey followed after him keeping her head down. Something is definitely up here. On the way back to class I asked Itsuki if Drazen said anything to her. She said he asked her about me and started trash talking me. She didn''t say anything back to him though because she was too shy too. She started to apologize for not defending me against him, but I quickly cut her off and stated calmly, "It''s totally fine, really. I don''t want you doing anything you don''t feel comfortable with anyway, plus we just started talking like thirty minutes ago." She looked back ahead and stated quietly that I wasn''t as bad as he said though. I got curious after this and asked her why she decided to go to Crystal High out of all the other schools. She kept walking forward as she spoke shyly, "Well I come here from an orphanage. My parents abandoned me when I was kid. The orphanage I go to is pretty run down and there is always problems with it. I came here because I wanted to have the best chance to make it big as a protector and take care of the orphanage and kids. It''s not as grand of a reason as getting filthy rich and famous, but I hope I can be able to do it. Sorry you probably think I dream to small." I looked back at her and responded, "Hell no. Why should I? I think that it''s pretty awesome and kind that that is what you want to do, and it''s always nice to have goals big or small." After this we entered back into the classroom and we both went back to our separate seats. I found out that Via and Zen paired up as partners. I thought about Zen''s uniform idea, and kind of off handedly said that she should probably go with a more cooler blue along with white instead of all white. If she wore all white it would make her very visible during night operations, and it would make her the focus of a lot of attacks. She probably would still go with the all white to make more of a show for fans though. She probably would still get just as many fans with the cool blue though because of her beauty, but I don''t think she values my opinion that much. Via asked if I had any ideas with hers, and I told her maybe she would want to get some explosives to go along with her uniform. She goes fast enough where no one be able to see her when she attaches the explosives, and that could come in handy. Thomas asked what about him, and I told him you never told me your uniform idea remember. Everyone went and got their uniform measurements pair by pair and eventually everyone got it done. Mr. Grey told everyone that as son as we get the uniforms in we will be training real battle situations so be prepared. I sat through school the rest of the day and the three days it takes to get the uniforms done in excitement. I can''t wait to prove that I belong here. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ BONUS CHAPTER: Vias Uniform Creation Day ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UBonus Chapter¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ ~~~~~~~~~~chapter told in Via''s POV during uniform creation~~~~~~~~~~ Khan had just left with Itsuki to go get his uniform created, and I immediately turned toward Zen and asked her, "You like him, don''t you? Don''t try to deny it!" She just looked back at me with her annoying expressionless face like always. What is with this girl? Does she think she is above everybody else? She didn''t even say anything in response. I continued on to try to provoke her saying, "Well don''t get the wrong idea, I don''t like him. I just feel like I owe him. I''m only here because he helped me during the exams, so don''t think that I want to be with him other than to help him out. Do you got that?" She was still silent and expressionless. What is with this girl? Am I too weak to be able to talk to her or something? I''ll show her one day. She finally said something, and not even seemingly directed toward me, stating quietly, "Yeah, he is nice."Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. I looked back at her, and wondered wvhat she means. I mean yeah he helped me, but I it was beneficial for both of us. So it wasn''t just out of the kindness if his heart right? He is pretty amazing though, fighting wise that is. Mr. Grey looked up from his book once again just then, and asked the class, "Has everyone got a partner? If you don''t raise your hand and I''ll pair you up." Just then I realized that I didn''t have a partner. I reluctantly raised my hand, and Zen and Thomas both had their hands raised. Great that means I have to be paired with one of those two. One of them is and idiot and the other is stuck up. Mr. Grey looked at us, face emotionless, and stated, "Zen and Via, you two will go get yours together. Thomas, you will go with me. I need to get some repairs and updates to mine anyway." Great, this will be an awkward walk to the lab building. Just then Khan and Itsuki walked back into the room. Finally someone to talk to that will actually talk back. We talked about our uniforms again. He gave us a few more ideas to add to our uniform. I got to say Khan seems to be a combat genius and reliable. He suggested I add some explosive devices to my uniform that can be planted and explode using a device on my other wrist opposite of the heart monitor. I''ll definitely use that on my uniform. It eventually was my time to go create my uniform and of course the whole way there and back was silent. When we got back and Mr. Grey and Thomas got back, Mr. Grey started to explain what would happen when we get our uniforms. Apparently we will be having real scenario battle training. I can''t wait for that! I have to prove I''m better than Miss Ice Queen, and give her a slice of humble pie! These three days can''t pass fast enough. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UEnd of Bonus Chapter¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 20: Training Day ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 20¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ The three days went by faster than I expected them to. I woke up on the morning of the third day pumped to get going. Their was a slight mist in the air today which made it perfect for my morning run. People were bustling about through the town as I ran. Trying to get to work, getting some breakfast, or checking the local newspaper. I could hear the local gossip about the terrorist attacks, and theories about who it is. There haven''t been that many attacks recently. Maybe the terrorists are getting bored because they aren''t getting any attention from the protectors? The other reason is that they could be planning something bigger, or they already got what they were trying to accomplish. I continued my early morning run, and near the end of it I could see Zen walking out of the local coffee shop right beside my apartment building. I wonder if she goes there often? She didn''t notice me it looked like. Does she get up this early everyday? If she does I don''t know why she doesn''t show up to school when I do. Maybe she is a little nervous for today too. Who knew a person as strong and seemingly confident as Zen could get a little bit nervous? It makes me feel a bit better about myself for being nervous. I quickly changed my clothes, and I got my backpack and headed to school. The atmosphere this morning seemed pretty peaceful. Like the calm before the storm. I walked into the classroom, and Zen and Mr. Grey were sitting there in silence. Mr. Grey was reading another book, while Zen satin silence looking at her phone. I have yet to get a phone because my parents don''t make enough money to afford me one. Plus phone companies don''t like to give them to people with levels below 2. I walked in, and sat down in my seat. Both Mr. Grey and Zen looked up from what they were doing, and Mr. Grey promptly looked back down uninterested while Zen asked me a question. She asked me, "Do you always get to school this early?" This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. I let out a sort of embarrassed laugh and responded, "Yeah, I have gotten used to waking up early and going running then going to school right after. What about you? Why are you here this early?" She let a slight smile creep on her face as she replied, "I''m a bit excited for today, it being our first time putting on our costumes and doing training exercises, it makes me a bit nervous to be the best out there." I chuckled a bit and told her, "You don''t need to be that nervous. You are the best out of all of us. I already know you will do well, but I do know how you feel. I''m pretty nervous to prove my worth today to everyone. I want to prove I belong more than anything." Zen told me as soon as I stopped talking that she knows I''ll do well since I did so well on the physical exams. I told her thanks, but a thought crossed my mind. Did she see everything that happened near the end of the physical exams? That would explain why she helped at the last second there, but I don''t know why she didn''t jump into that mess. With her power level she could have easily gotten all those KOs that Via and I took. She is pretty mysterious. Zen and I continued to talk as more of the students walked into the room. When everyone eventually was in the room Mr. Grey looked up from his book and stood up. He commanded the room with his monotone voice saying, "Everyone follow me now. We will be going to the Urban training center in Crystal High. Your uniforms are already there. You will be divided up into two teams for this exercise. I will also give everyone their results from the entrance exams, both written and physical. From that maybe your team can choose a leader. The goal of this exercise is to capture or incapacitate everyone on the enemy team. You will have special rope made by the Crystal High lab department that can''t be broken by anyone in this classroom. It will also let off a signal on your uniforms that will let me know who has been incapacitated once everyone on your team has been incapacitated you have lost. I will tell you your team when we get there. Now let''s get going. I wouldn''t want you to be late for your very important English studies." This should be good for me. I should excel in team activities. It means I will have protection from targeting people who want to eliminate me first because they think I''m a weak link. I only hope I have a good team. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 21: Teams ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 21¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ We followed Mr. Grey out of the Physical Training building, and went in the direction of the Power Understanding building. We went past that, and went up to what looked like a massive gymnasium. Mr. Grey turned around and faced us and told us, "This is the Urban Training Center. The two teams will start on opposite sides of the building, and start when the bell rings throughout the building. I will be watching from a control center overlooking the training area, outfitted with camera angles everywhere. The first team will go through the doors in front of us here, and I will take the second team and show them where to go in. The first team will be Zen, Khan, Itsuki, Jack, Mina, Liza, and Wayne. This team will have one less person than team two due to your exam scores being overall better than theirs. Now team one go through those doors and wait for the bell. You will find two doors for boys and girls. Inside of those doors are lockers you will find your uniforms. From there you just go out of the only other door into the training area, and wait there. You can discuss strategies or do nothing, I don''t care just don''t move from that spot. Those who I didn''t call out follow me." He also walked toward me and gave me the folder with all of our team''s exam scores and powers. I don''t know why he gave it to me, but it will help me out coming up with a plan to use all of our powers to the max. We walked through the doors and got our uniforms on, and waited outside. Wayne had a depressed face on the whole time. As we walked through the doors into the training area. Wayne started complaining, "Why do we have to be stuck with less people? I mean we already have one less person anyway without him giving them an extra because of ol'' boy Khan here. This whole thing is fucked for us. Zen you will have to carry us." Liza tried to tell him pretty unconvincingly, "Don''t say that. He passed so he had to have done something." Wayne unphased responded by telling her a matter of factly, "Naa. He just rode Via''s coattails to get a passing grade. He''s honestly probably worse than having one less person. He will just get in the way. Damn, I hate sagarus and low levels."Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Everyone else was in silence. Jack getting his uniform fixed, Mina was just staring off into space, Itsuki had her head down in shyness, and Zen had her usual proud, stoic, and beautiful face one surveying the landscape. I was too wrapped up in reading the results and power lists we had to care to respond. I looked over at Zen, and realized that she took my advice and went with a less glamorous look and had the cool blue colored cloths with white wool lining. I didn''t think she would do it to be honest. I personally didn''t think my opinion would change her mind since she is the best one here. I nudged her shoulder with a smile, and teased, "You look good with the blue cloths." I told her that thinking nothing of it. I was trying to help reaffirm her decision by telling her that she looks just as good with this, than if she would have went with the more elaborate uniform. I thought it was just a playful tease, but when the normal serious Zen blushed a bit and told me thank you, I realized it seemed it a bit more than that. I immediately backed away feeling awkward, and tried to explain myself and save it. I suddenly felt really hot, she looked even cuter when she had a blushed embarrassed face. Before I could really save it though, Wayne grabbed my arm and asked me, "Hey are you going to be the only one to hog the scores? At least let the people who are actually going to due something see it." Liza piped up a hey in protest, but I waved her off and said it was fine. I gave him the papers and told him, "Zen has the highest score here with a near perfect score on the written exams, and 15 knockouts. I have the second highest here ironically with a perfect score on the written exam and 4 knockouts. Next is Jack with a 65 on the written and 6 knockouts. Then it is Liza with a 80 on the written exam and 3 knockouts. Then it''s Itsuki with a 90 on the written exam and 2 knockouts. Then it''s Mina with a 90 on the written and 1 knockout. Then last funny enough is you with a 40 on the written and 5 knockouts." He grabbed my shirt and shouted at me, "Just because you made higher on the exam doesn''t mean you are better than me! You just got with Via and got your knockouts that way, and of course you got a perfect score on the written exam! With you being a mistake you can''t fight, so you put effort into studying fucking nerd." This was a situation. Then the person who everyone least expected to speak up spoke up. Itsuki put a air barrier between us and talked in a normal voice (which is like shouting for her), "Stop that now. He is my friend, and if he made it this far I have confidence in his abilities. Please get along." I couldn''t help but have a slight smile on my face, while everyone else had a shocked look on theirs. I told everyone, "Now that that''s settled. I think I have a good plan to give us a flawless win." ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 22: The Crossroad ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 22¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I guided my team through the streets when the bell screamed throughout the training building. I was leading the group to a very specific place, but we needed to find the entrance. Suddenly, my scanning eyes caught the sight of my goal, a sewer cap. I stayed outside and kept watch as every one of my teammates went down, except for Liza. I needed her to stay out to lead the other team to us in the sewers. I trusted her to get back in safely with her teleportation abilities. She can''t do it for long, but she won''t need to use it for long. I stayed back and made sure she knew exactly what to do, and then took my leave to the sewers. The others were down there waiting for me. Wayne started his complaining again saying, "This is disgusting, and I can barely see anything down here." I calmly looked back to him as I started trudging through the sewer water and told him, "That''s the point sparky." He immediately went to shout back, but Mina knocked him over the head before he could and stared at him with her crimson eyes. We walked until we came upon a four way cross-roads in the sewer. It had plenty of water and sludge in the middle like we need. We all lined up behind Zen in one of the corridors. We could hear banging in splashes get closer throughout the corridors. Just then Liza came running into the sewer crossroad. She spotted us and immediately teleported behind Zen. I looked at her and asked how far was Via''s team behind her. She looked up, with a face that looked out of breath, and told me, "Via was right behind me most of the time, but when I entered the crossroads I think she went back to her team for back up. I barely was able to keep teleporting ahead of her. I am exhausted." I smiled at her and told her comfortingly, "It''s fine your part is done. Knowing that team''s personality they will come barging in here once they regroup." Sure enough a couple of minutes later the sound of multiple people trudging through the sewer could be heard. As they get closer and closer, I can feel my heart beating faster and faster. The excitement of the battle is getting to me. This is the moment we can win this thing. Via led her team into the center of the crossroads with everyone else following close behind. Zen immediately froze the water, and they had ice all the way up to their thighs. I pulled out my twin pistols that I had set to stun earlier, and quickly started shooting the biggest threats to break out, Lee - the strength enhancer power on steroids - and Bume - the boy who can literally shake the ground within a certain radius. It took two shots of the stun shot to knock Lee out, but only 1 for Bume. Grease sent out a slow laser slash toward us, but Itsuki set up barriers of air, blocking off the exits. The slash hit the barrier and dissipated. Jack grabbed Wayne by the arm, and used his shadow powers to move them through the dark shadows of the sewers the Via''s team in an instant. Jack dropped him off, and went back behind the air barrier. Wayne started using his palm shocks to knock everyone out with it. He started with Grease knocking him out. Then went to Trea and knocked her out next because of her ranged ability of using bubble gum to create explosive bubbles. With that they no longer had any range abilities so Itsuki let the barrier in front of us down, but kept the others up. This still relieved a lot of stress from her though. I went up to Via, who was struggling with the ice with all her might, and asked her, "Will you let me put this rope around you peacefully or do I have to stun you? Your uniform looks good by the way."Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Flustered, but not deterred Via answered back, "You think I''ll say yes just because you complimented me? I''ll find a way out of this!" I smiled. I expected no less from the strong willed girl I know. I pointed my gun to her, but before I fired I told her, "I wasn''t complimenting you because I had an ulterior motive. I legitimately think it looks good." With that I shot her with the stun. I walked up to her and put the roped around her hands. I took a look at her explosives too. Looks like the device controlling when they can be exploded can be taken off her wrist, and the explosives themselves are barely noticeable. They also seem to have a stun function like my pistols. Just when I thought it was over, and was waiting for Mr. Grey to end it, Wayne shouted, "Hey this guy didn''t get caught in the ice trap!" I was the closest one to him, and as I looked behind me he was fighting with Liza''s boyfriend - Harry - the guy who can perceive events way faster than normal. He must have moved out of the sludge and water before Zen''s ice got him. Damn I should have thought of that. I knew that Heather probably wouldn''t be able to use her premonition power and that Thomas wouldn''t be able to manipulate the ice Zen made or the large amount of water in here, but I didn''t think that Harry''s perception powers were powerful enough to perceive Zen''s ice that goes so fast. How could I overlook this!? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 23: Improvisation ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 23¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Wayne immediately reached out his palm toward Harry to shock him out. As he was about to touch Harry''s shoulder, Harry dodged out of the way and grabbed Wayne''s arm. Harry yanked Wayne''s arm over his shoulder, and through him to the ground stunning Wayne. I immediately ran over when he had his back turned away from me since he was looking at the downed Wayne. I sprinted over to him, and outstretched my right arm, with my hand the shape of a fist. Harry turned around just as I did this though, and flipped me like he did Wayne. I had a softer landing though since I landed on Wayne. He then cut his eyes toward me and spit out the words, "Do you really think you, a sagaru, had chance when even Wayne couldn''t take me down. You are pathetic." Just then Liza, his girlfriend, came whirring around the mass of ice and knocked out people. When she saw Harry she pleaded to him saying, "Just give it up Harry. You are outnumbered and outmatched, there is no way you can win. I don''t want us to hurt you, so just surrender." He laughed, and shouted back, "Why should I take that advice when I already took down two of your team by myself. Those idiots on my team walked right into a trap, but when you don''t have the element of a surprise it seems your team is weak. I''ll finish this myself." I couldn''t help but have a smirk on my face and chuckle a bit. When Harry cut his eyes over to me once more and asked what with malice, I held up the trigger device for Via''s bombs up. He looked confused and shouted back, "So you have a watch, what of it? I must have knocked you harder than I thought." I looked back at him straight in the eyes, and told him confidently, "There were a couple of things you got wrong in your assessment of the situation. First of all you can''t win this, in fact you already lost, and secondly you didn''t beat me. I let you throw me because I wasn''t trying to hit you, just get close to you. I knew I stood know chance against you in a fight since you can dodge anything I throw, so I did some little trickery." When I finished this I pressed the trigger device, and an electric shock got sent throughout Harry''s body, immobilizing him. When I was studying Via''s explosive device, and heard Harry and Wayne going at it behind me, I quickly took off the trigger device and grabbed an explosive that was set to stun. I held the exploring in my right hand, and when he grabbed me I planted the virtually unnoticeable device on him. Since he thought so less of me, he never suspected it. It was a perfect plan. When I tied him up, Zen and the rest of the team member came whirring around the ice and asked what was going on. I told them it had been handled, but I think Wayne hit his head against the side of the pipes when he got thrown so he might be dazed for a bit. Mr. Grey then came on to the speakers and told everyone, "Now that the entirety of Team 2 has been incapacitated, I want everyone on Team 1 to go back to your lockers, and get undressed. There will be healers waiting there if you need them. After that, wait outside of the building where we were before this started. I will have special healers come and get Team 2 out of there, and we will meet you back at that spot to head back to the classroom the discuss the results."You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Jack and I grabbed Wayne from the floor and put one of his arms around us, and carried him toward the lockers. As we all walked back, we talked about the results. Mina started it off by saying, "You were amazing Khan! How did you know that plan would work? I''m kind of jealous of the rest of you guys though because I didn''t use my powers, but that was totally awesome! It was so exciting, and we totally rocked it!" I smiled a bit and responded, "Thanks, but the truth is the plan didn''t work perfectly because Harry got out of the trap. It''s fine you didn''t use your powers though, I know you would have if the time and situation needed it, but I''m just glad it didn''t." Liza spoke up telling me, "Sorry for not acting sooner on attacking Harry. I let my feelings get in the way, and I hesitated." I smiled to her and tried to comfort her, "It''s fine. I didn''t expect you to attack him right away, so don''t let it get to you. Everyone did amazing today. Itsuki your barriers stopped Harry from getting away, Zen your ice stopped everyone on Team 2 in their tracks like expected, Jack your instantaneous teleportation in the shadows was critical to get Wayne there in time to do some damage, and Liza you did amazing with your teleportation and getting team 2 in the sewer. Everyone has these amazing quirks, honestly I''m the one jealous haha." Zen walked up beside me and looked at me with a slight smile and told me in her melancholic yet beautiful voice, "You shouldn''t be though. You clearly led us to a near perfect victory. You don''t need a power to be just as powerful as any of us, and honestly I think that that''s amazing." My chest tightened up a bit. That''s one of the nicest things a person has ever told me that wasn''t my parents. I told her through blushed cheeks thanks, and everyone continued their conversation about the events. Everything after that seemed like a blur to me though. I think it must be the adrenaline from the fights has finally caught up to me, and I''m on a high. We eventually got to the lockers and gave Wayne over to the healers and got changed. Wayne hot healed almost instantaneously and went back to his old energetic self, asking what happened, why I took so long to help him out with Harry, and why are we back in the lockers. I couldn''t help but laugh a little bit. When we got finished we eventually walked out front and waited like Mr. Grey told us, so we can discuss the results. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 24: Results ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 24¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Mr. Grey finally walked up with the other half of our class, and the atmosphere surrounding them was not pleasant. They were either looking down, or giving us death stares as they walked. Mr. Grey looked over at as, put his hand up, and waved for us to come on slightly. It was an awkward walk back to the classroom, full of silence. Via had her head down the whole time with a look of defeat, Harry still had his furious eyes on even though Liza tried her best to cheer her up, and everyone else except for Thomas seemed to be down. Thomas had his usual pep in his step, just seemingly glad to be apart of everything. It was weird though, he should have been able to do something to help his team in the sewers now that i think about it. There was definitely enough moisture in there for him to control some water. Something is up with him. We finally made it back to the classroom after the long and gloomy walk. Mr. Greg entered the class first, and I was going to be close behind him. All of a sudden I got shoved out of the way, and I landed on my ass. I looked back up, and I couldn''t tell who was the culprit. All I saw were people either ignoring me, looking at me angrily, or not paying attention. The only one that stopped was Zen, who looked at me with her warm eyes. I eventually got up on my own power, and nodded to Zen as a thanks for recognizing my fall. I walked into a room that was full of a dark pressure that was so stiff it was hard to breathe. I sat in my seat, and Mr. Grey was just sitting on his desk, swinging his legs. His eyes scanned over the room, and finally he spoke to us. "I hope this opens everyone''s eyes. It doesn''t matter how many people you have, or the powers you possess, if you don''t know how to use them or plan. You don''t have a chance in hell to be successful. Team 2, you were sloppy, emotional, too head strong, too confident, I''ll prepared, and too slow. Team 1, good job for the most part, but your plan had holes in it. Don''t think that plan will work against experienced opponents who know what they are doing, and most times you won''t know the powers of your opponents to prepare. Don''t rely solely on planning to solve all you problems. Now I want Team 1 to choose their MVP of this exercise. I want to see who you think did the best." When he finished, there was a long pause of silence in the room. No one wanted to single out one person who did the best. I was wondering why he would force this on us. He was watching the whole thing, so he knows everything that happened. What''s the purpose of this? Harry finally spoke up saying, "I think Zen was the MVP."This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Not skipping a beat or looking different, Mr. Grey calmly asked back, "Why?" "Without her ice we never would have captured them long enough to do anything," Harry said "and she was clearly the most powerful person their too." Thomas spoke up next, "I second it. I think Zen was the MVP." Mr. Grey looked around the room. He asked all of us, "Does anyone feel differently about Zen being the MVP, or all you all in agreement?" I looked around the room of silence. No one spoke up or said a word of protest. After about a minute, Zen spoke up and said, "I think Khan was the MVP." With what seemed like a little sparkle in his eye, Mr. Grey still calmly asked, "Why?" I could feel everyone''s eyes shoot toward my direction, both angry and confused. This was not a comfortable feeling. Why couldn''t Zen just take the MVP? No one is going to like the fact that a sagaru got votes to be a MVP of anything. They are already pissed off that a team with a sagaru beat them. Zen looked up at everyone with her warm eyes, and spoke firmly as she said, "He was the one that came up with the plan. Everything we did was based off of what he told us. He encouraged us, and kept a cool mind the whole time. Even when one person escaped my ice, he kept his cool and ended eliminating the lone person. He did everything right. He deserves it." Everyone was quiet. Mr. Grey looked around the room, and finally said, "Looks like Team 1 has a decision to make. Since everyone has heard the reasons why the person should be the MVP, I want the whole class to vote. Everyone who thinks Khan should be MVP, raise your hand." Only Zen, Via, and Thomas surprisingly raised their hands. Via still had a grave look on her face, while Thomas was still as happy as ever. Once it was obvious those were the only three, Mr. Grey said, "Now for Zen." Everyone else raised their hands. I can''t blame them. If word gets out that they voted a sagaru MVP for anything, they will be ostracized from society totally. Only Zen and Via can get away with it because their power level is so high, I don''t think Thomas has a social life to lose. Once it was clear Mr. Grey seemed indifferent and told everyone, "Congrats Zen, you get bonus points on a test of your choosing. The winning team gets to have extra lunch time." You could hear Harry go yes across the room at this, and the depression intensify from the losing team. Mr. Grey continued, "Well I''ll leave you guys to your English studies now. Oh and Khan the lab rats want to see you for some reason. Go ahead an head on over to the place where you got your uniform made." Another reason for everyone to put their hateful eyes on me again. Why would the people in the power understanding department want to see me for? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 25: Attack! ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 25¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I walked out of the classroom like prison I was in, and waddled outside in the open air. The air seemed to be different than it was this morning during our training. The mist had disappeared from the air, it had gotten much hotter than before, and there is a strange atmosphere in the air now. Something feels... Off. I realized finally that the birds stopped chirping and the bugs were silent. As I uncomfortably made my way to the lab, I felt a steady uneasiness rise up in me. Maybe it was just my nerves acting up from the training exercise. Yeah, that is probably what it is. I made my way through the beating sun, and eventually got to the lab building''s front doors. I think walked through the doors, and was again greeted by the same young woman that I met when I got my uniform done. "Hello! It''s nice to see you again." She greeted, "Now I''m sure you are wondering what this is all about, but no need to worry. Follow me and you will understand all of this." "Uhhh, okay?" She walked back through the array of machines, steam, and lab equipment, as I followed behind closely, hoping not to get lost in the madness. We walked back to the rooms where we had our uniform creations in. As she opened the door; however, instead of a one man and a table, it was multiple men and a dentist like chair. All of the men had surgical masks and plastic gloves on. All of this freaked me the hell out. One of the men walked toward me, with his hands up in a defensive position, as if to say to me not to be afraid. He told me, "Hi, I''m doctor Cole Ray. I am the power understanding specialist at Crystal High. There is no need to be afraid, me and the other doctors are only here to examine your body today. I have a unique power that gives me the ability to see powers inside the human body, how they flow in the body, how powerful they are, what basic type it is, and if it is dormant or active. You had an interesting result at the entrance exam, where you had a dormant power at your age. This is unheard of. Did your parents have this problem?"Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. "No they were normal," I responded, "at least as far as I know. I am the one that''s different. I have been told I am a sagaru my whole life." Doctor Ray''s brows furrowed, as he went into though. Finally he looked at me and asked me if I could sit down in the chair in front of me. I hesitantly sat down on the fateful chair, worried about the masked men around me. Doctor Ray activated is power, and a camera in his eyes projected what he saw on a screen on the wall for the other men. They all gasped at once. What was so exciting over there? I tried to get a look, but the screen was blocked for me by the wall of men. I looked at Doctor Ray, and his eyes began to get wider and wider. I looked at him with questioning eyes, and he finally stammered out, "This... This is amazing. I have never seen anything like this before in all my years!" Puzzled I asked him, "Have you ever looked at a sagaru with your powers before?" "Well, no. Not exactly." he responded, "But I don''t think they all are like THIS though, with just dormant wondrous powers." "What IS my powers?" I asked, "Is there a way to activate my dormant power?" Before he could respond; however, there was a massive explosion. It knocked me forward on the ground, and there was smoke going everywhere. I looked up, and there was a group of about five people walking through the room. Their silhouettes looking more intimidating than almost anything I have ever seen. There are three guys, one looked massive with his oversized muscles, and the other two were scrawny. The other two were women with very good builds, and were definitely in shape. Are these the terrorists attacking power understanding and health clinics in the country? Why would they ever dare to attack Crystal High of all places? Yeah it''s the most advanced site out there, but also the most dangerous with all the protectors, and protectors in training here. Are they getting desperate? The leader stepped forward as the one in front of the others. He was wearing a black trenchcoat, a light grey shirt, black cargo pants, and had a huge scar across his face covered by mat, black hair. He raised his hand, and as he did a red light began to illuminate from it. "Everyone stay calm! We just want some DNA! HahAhaHa!" ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 26: Interrogation ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 26¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ The leader put his hand down as the red light slowly dissipated. He walked slowly and determinedly through the room and looked down at Dr. Ray. "This is that Doctor that knows where the vials of DNA are at here, right Scarlett?" One of the girls moved away from the shadow of the dust from the explosion. She had red hair, green eyes, pale skin, and was dressed in a sweatshirt and sweatpants. She seemed like she was no older than me. She looked right at the doctor, as if she was looking into his soul. Suddenly she looked back at the leader and said, "Yeah that''s him Claudius." So the leader''s name is Claudius? A creepy smile crept onto his face as he said, "Good... Wayno, do what you do." One of the slender men stepped to the doctor. He wasn''t physically intimidating, but with his straight green hair, red eyes, and scarily lanky body. He had a very creepy aura about him. "You got it boss." He said as he put his arms toward the doctor. With the other doctors huddled in another corner, and with me sitting on my ass watching everything happen. I could feel that something bad was going to happen. I had to do something. If I don''t do anything right now, do I have any right to call myself a protector later on. I tried to think of something, anything to try and get out of this safely. Nothing came to mind, except cause a big enough distraction to bide time for help to come. I mustered up some resolve to make the move. I started to run toward the fallen Doctor to knock his attacker away when I was snatched out of the air by arms. As I was dangling off the ground, I looked up to see the hulking figure of a man looking down at me. He asked me in a raspy voice, "Just where do you think you''re going?" "I was er... Just getting a closer look?"Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Claudius turned around to look at me, still having that creepy smile on his face, he said, "By all mean Bruno, bring the lad closer to enjoy the show." "That''s really not necessary... " "Oh, but I insist. Come on. Get the show started Wayno." As Bruno brought me closer to the scene, I could see Doctor Ray quivering as Wayno lowered his hands toward him. Wayno put his hands over the Doctor''s temples, and a white glow started eminating from it. I watched in horror as the Doctor grew whiter and whiter. When Wayno finally pulled away from him, the doctor was drooling and as white as a ghost. I asked in horror, "What did you do to him you bastard?" Claudius chuckling a bit answered, "Oh we just needed his memories, that''s all. Wayno where is the DNA safe?" "Three more rooms to the right, the safe is hidden behind a wall of machine parts. The password for the safe is 12173." "I''ll head there myself. Everyone else watch over the kid and doctors, and give me some time to look over the vials in case any help comes before I get done." I don''t get it. I know Crystal High has DNA research for powers and the technology here is more advanced than anywhere else, but surely the government buildings they hit had a wider range of DNA than Crystal High. I had to ask, "Why are you guys looking for DNA here. Surely the places you hit had a wider variety of DNA than here right?" Scarlett turned to me with a puzzled look, and asked, "What do you mean? They get everyone''s DNA when you enroll here. They send a vial for you to pee in with your acceptance letter. Do you think we''re idiots? Crystal High probably has the widest range of the most powerful powers." What!? I didn''t know they did that. I guess they didn''t bother to send me one because I was a sagaru. They must have seen my puzzled expression. The second the girl with short blonde hair, glasses, and a tanktop looked at me strangely. She was probably in her twenties. She kept staring at me as she told Scarlett, "I don''t think he knew about that." "What do you mean? They do that to everybody." "What''s your power kid?" I didn''t know what to do. Should I tell them I''m a sagaru or should I fake a power. Either way I don''t think they''ll believe me. The bald headed hulk that was grabbing me said, "I don''t think he has one. He probably would have used it by now." Scarlett looking even more confused exclaimed, "What!? You''re saying he got into this school as a sagaru?" Everyone''s faces now, except for Scarlett''s with a look of shock, had a smile creep on their face. Scarlett still dumbfounded asked, "Doesn''t he know what we are doing will help him then?" Wayno responded saying, "Well, we don''t exactly make our purpose known." Before I could ask what they were talking about, a bolt of lightning popped right in front of the hole in the wall. Out of that bolt of lightning stood... Mr. Grey?! ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 27: Mr. Grey Attacks ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 27¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Mr. Grey stood there with a hint of extra annoyance added to his usual melancholic face. There seemed to be a powerful aura of lightning surrounding him as he walked toward the shocked members of the terrorist group. The hulking figure of a man holding me off the ground, Bruno, set me down and walked toward Mr. Grey. "I got this punk," he confidently gloated, "Scarlett, you keep an eye on our little friend there." "Sure thing." Scarlett pulled out a knife and held it to my throat as she pulled my right arm behind my back. I winced as I told her, "Easy on the arm there. I need that for later." "Shut up." She pulled the knife closer to me as she pulled my arm tighter, making me wince even more. The bald giant was inching closer to Mr. Grey while Mr. Grey seemed to be just standing there staring. All of a sudden Bruno started charging Mr. Grey. What was his plan? Scarlett saw my anxious expression and told me, "You seem confused. Don''t worry your teacher will have a quick death. See the more and more speed Bruno has the more powerful his hits are. Just from this distance I''d say getting hit by him will be getting hit by a Bullet Train." This makes fighting this guy head on impossible! Mr. Grey has to move! Before I could shout anything, it was already too late. Bruno already arrived at his target, but he didn''t hit anything? There was just some faint lightning where the mysterious teacher once stood. Before anyone knew it Mr. Grey was standing beside Bruno looking downward, hair covering both of his eyes. He then casually reached out his hand, and out shot a bolt of lightning from his outstretched arm. Bruno was sent flying into the wall, almost bursting through it, but still knocking him out. All of the terrorists were shocked and took a step back. "Just how fucking powerful is this guy!? Bruno was a 17 and he took him down like he was nothing!" the second girl gasped, eyes wide.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Mr. Grey looked up at the fearful terrorist bystanders, and casually commanded, "Surrender, I really don''t want to kill people today. It''s a pain in the ass to report." Mr. Grey then proceeded to walk forward slowly. I could feel Scarlett''s grip on me loosen from fear. I took this opportunity to make a move. I whipped my head back knocking Scarlett while simultaneously grabbing the knife hand from cutting my throat. I ripped my right arm free, and turned around and faced her. Still reeling from my head butt she was staggering. Still holding the knife hand, I whipped my left leg around her and swung at her legs. I swept her legs and she went toppling down. She dropped the knife from the impact of the ground, and I grabbed it as a whirled around to see if there was anything else I needed to do. When I turned around; however, Mr. Grey already had taken down Wayno. I could see Wayno lying down next to the door, bloodied and knocked out cold. Mr. Grey was moving toward the second girl, slowly, and with his hand in his pockets. His lightning aura around him still existing, made him even scarier since he isn''t even trying. He just stared her down with his lone eye, and it was shining pure bright blue! The air pressure around him was suffocatingly dark and angry. As I was in awe of Mr. Grey, a red beam and an ensuing explosion landed on top of Mr. Grey. In walked Claudius holding a vial in his hand. He had a worried look on his face as the smoke cleared, and Mr. Grey stood there unfazed by the beam. Mr. Greys lone eye shone bright blue as he stared down Claudius. Claudius quickly turned to the girl and shouted, "Get us out of here NOW!!" In an instant the second girl disappeared along with her teammates, but not before Mr. Grey moved almost instantaneously toward the second girl and seemingly barely touched her before she disappeared. I looked around the rubble of the once lab room, and was in shock of what happened. Now that the moment was gone, my adrenaline stopped, and I started to shake and feel a little queezy. Mr. Grey seemed to power down his killer lightning aura, and walked toward me. He knelt down to my level, and his eye net both of mine. He put his hand on my head, and told me, "You did good today kid. You are lucky I was on my off period. You feeling alright?" "Yeah I''m fine. I don''t think Doctor Ray is though." "It''s good that you feel fine. You''ll have a lot of questions to answer, along with these doctors, to the principal soon." I looked at Mr. Grey in a new light now. I never knew he would be so powerful, and yet still compassionate at times despite his melancholic exterior. As this was going down, more teachers and protectors arrived on the scene. Next thing I knew I was in the principals office... alone. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 28: Explanations and Questions ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 28¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I sat in a seat, staring at an empty leather chair in front of me. Alone with nothing but the ticking clock to keep me company as I sat there in awkwardness. The constant tick tick gradually made me feel more and more anxious. I have so many questions. I hope the principal can help me get some answers at least. I looked up at the monotonous clock to check the time. The hands pointed near 6:00. Have I been at this school for that long? I walked into this office at 2:00, and I know the principal probably has a lot to do but this is ridiculous. Just then, the principal finally walked in through the door. He was a shorter man, about 5 foot 5, with a suit and tie on. He wore round glasses that made his eyes look big, and black shoes. His hair was a light blue and cut into a bowl cut. He had a cheerful expression as he walked into the room, and told me as he walked by me to his seat, "Sorry for the wait, the police and government officials were a real hassle to deal with. They kept asking and asking questions, it was really bothersome. Anyway, I won''t keep you here much longer. I just need to know what they were talking with you about in there." I gave him a confused look. Was that all he needed to know? I asked the principal, "Wouldn''t you need to know what happened with the fights and everything too?" He chuckled a bit, and told me, "No, no. I saw everything from my crystals. The one downside is that they can''t hear any sound. Plus I asked Mr. Grey about everything too, and he told the police about that too so you didn''t have to. So, what did they say?" I relaxed a little at his words, and told him, "They just told me they were just here for DNA. They also said something about trying to help me when they found out that I was a sagaru. Do you know why hey said that?" His expression didn''t change from his cheerful expression at all. He merely brushed it off saying, "I haven''t the slightest clue. Not a lot is known about this terrorist organization. If that''s is all they said then I am truly sorry for keeping you this long. You can leave and go home now. I''ll see you tomorrow at school!" He gestured his hands towards the door, signaling for me to leave, but I still had things I wanted to discuss with him. I blurted out, "Wait, I still have some questions. Why is Crystal High collecting DNA from every student that enters? Why was I called to see Doctor Ray for? Speaking of is he okay? What happened to him? Do you know if those five terrorist member are the only members of the terrorist organization? Can you tell where the terrorists went after they escaped? Can you please tell me something please!"Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. My curiosity is getting the better of me, but there is so much to know! There is so many questions I have that it hurts my head. I''ll never get any sleep if all of these questions go unanswered. All the principal did was laugh cheerfully. He looked at me with his bulging eyes, and told me, "You sure are a curious one huh? I am the same way, so I kind of understand. Doctor Ray is fine physically, but all signs point to him being brain dead from now on sadly. He was one of the best in his field of power understanding. It is a big loss for our school. As for the rest of your questions, I either can''t say, or I don''t know. The government is very secretive about these things, and even though I know a lot, I''m not omnipotent. I''m sorry I can''t tell you more. I''m sure you''ll know soon enough though. Now I really do have work to do. Having to answer questions all day really out me behind on work. See you tomorrow." I got up from the seat, and left the principal and the monotonous clock behind me. I went back to my class to get my bag, and when I entered Mr. Grey was there in the dark staring at something on his desk. I walked in and said, "Hey Mr. Grey, I came to get my bag. Thanks for saving me back there." Continuing his gaze on whatever he was working on he told me, "No problem kid. You did good back there keeping cool. Next time though, run away instead of helping when I''m there. You''d just get in my way." I pondered over this as I got my bag. I guess I probably just slowed him down, but I still helped out a little right? As I leaned down to grab my bag, I asked him, "What you working on?" "Classwork." "What are we doing tomorrow?" "Find out tomorrow." I started to walk out the door, giving up on the hope of having a conversation, but then I remembered something. Maybe I could ask Mr. Grey some of my questions, and even more! I turned around and asked, "Hey Mr. Grey, do you know anything about why the terrorists would want some DNA? Do you know why Crystal High has so much DNA? Do you know if those five are the only member of the terrorist group? Do you know where the went to? Is there any reason that they would help me? How did you get so powerful!? You overpowered all of them like it was nothing!" "God you''re annoying. First of all I got powerful by working my ass off. Secondly I bet you asked the principal all of those questions, and if he didn''t tell you anything neither am I. Thirdly what the fuck do you mean about them helping you. There is no reason why they would help you idiot." "Well they told me that they were trying to help me when they found out I was a sagaru." His eye looked up at me for a split second when he heard this then went right back down to his work. He responded to me in the same annoyed tone saying, "Go home and get some sleep. You are clearly tired." I looked away, thinking about his reactions, and walked out the door. I walked through the night back to my parents'' home. Juggling all of my thoughts as I walked, I let the night air rush over me through the streets. As I neared the coffee shop near my home, I saw a lone figure sitting at the table outside of the shop. Thinking none of it, I continued on my path. When I walked close enough, I realized something that shook me to the core. The person that was sitting there... was Zen! ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 29: Back Home ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 29¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I saw Zen sitting there in the night air sipping steaming coffee, and I didn¡¯t know what to do. Should I say something to her, or should I just walk by and wave casually? I never been in this type of social situation! I never been in any social situation anywhere near this with the type of feelings I have going through me right now! Between my bustling thoughts about the attack and my weird feelings, this is confusing me more than any test ever would. I slowed down my walking pace immensely after seeing her, so I could gather my thoughts. She looked in my direction unfortunately when she heard someone walking, and her hazel brown eyes met with my blackish brown ones. I immediately looked down instinctively for some reason. I continued to walk forward slowly. She stood up with from her seat and asked me, ¡°How are you feeling? We could hear the explosions from the attack in our classroom.¡± ¡°I¡¯m feeling fine right now. I may feel a little sore tomorrow though. How long have you been waiting here?¡± ¡°Not long, I usually go here later in the afternoon to get some coffee and release some stress. I didn¡¯t know you come by here though.¡± ¡°Yeah my parent¡¯s apartment is near here. I walk by the shop every day to and from school. If you haven¡¯t eaten yet, I¡¯m sure my parents have something cooked up to eat if you want to join us.¡± Her hazel eyes eyed me intently. Eventually she told me, ¡°Sure if it isn¡¯t a bother. I¡¯ll text my parents.¡± ¡°It should be fine. My parents always cook more than we can eat.¡± What did I just say? Did I really just invite a girl over to my house to eat? I didn¡¯t realize what I did until after I did it. The whole situation hit me like a brick wall. I could feel my face getting red and flush with warmth. We walked a couple more apartment buildings down until we got to mine. ¡°Sorry about the appearance.¡± I told her. ¡°It¡¯s not the best apartment out there, but it could be worse I guess right?¡± She looked at me and back at the building and told me, ¡°No it¡¯s fine. Honestly, it¡¯s a lot better than people say it is. People back at the old school used to say you lived in the slums because they saw you down there.¡±Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Saw me down there? Oh yeah, it must have been because they saw me at Lainey¡¯s house there. I wonder what she thought about the whole terrorist attack situation? Zen and I walked up the stairs to my apartment, and opened the door. As soon as I opened the door my mom hammered into me with a hug. I fell back onto the floor, and landed right next to Zen¡¯s feet. My mom started sobbing telling me, ¡°Oh my God Khan! Never scare us like that again! We saw what happened on the news, and I was so worried Jesus. Until the school called and told us you were okay, I thought you were dead!¡± ¡°Thanks for the confidence mom.¡± My dad looked down at us on the ground, and then he looked at Zen standing above us with slightly wider eyes than her normal melancholic gaze. He looked back at my mom and me on the ground and told her, ¡°Umm, Dear. Our son has brought a visitor.¡± My mom looked up from me and directly up at Zen. She moved up faster than I have ever seen her moved before, and told Zen, ¡°I¡¯m sooo sorry for losing my composure. It¡¯s been a long day.¡± Zen smiled a bit, and instantly my day got better. Any positive expression from her is rare, and every time I see a one it seems it gets cuter and cuter. Zen told my mom, ¡°It¡¯s fine. I completely understand. I can come back another time if it¡¯s better?¡± My mom told her almost at a shout, ¡°NO! Umm¡­ No please, come in. We have some food prepared. Don¡¯t worry we always have plenty to eat, so please eat as much as you want.¡± Zen helped me get up from the ground, and our eyes met yet again. This time I didn¡¯t look away from her gaze. Our eyes locked, and this time instead of feeling anxiety and fear. I felt a calmness and serenity from it. I got up and almost saw a little bit of red flush on Zen¡¯s face before she turned and walked into my home. I think I noticed my mom and dad give each other a long and knowing glance, and for once I felt like the dumbest person in the room. We sat down and had dinner for the night, and talked about today¡¯s training events. I didn¡¯t want to talk about the attack, for fear of making my mom go crazy again. Eventually, dinner was over and I walked Zen out the door. We told each other bye, and she gave away another smile which I savored for the rest of the night. I walked back in the house, and my parents were staring at me. ¡°What?¡± I asked, kind of annoyed. My dad just looked at me with a smirk, ¡°You know what, you sly dog.¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t. If you are talking about Zen, we are just friends sorry to inform you. She is way too good for me, and probably doesn¡¯t even notice me.¡± My dad responded with a knowing hmm, and my mom changed the subject back to the attack. She looked at me and asked, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you respond to anything on your phone? I called you like five times.¡± My eyes went wide. My phone! I have been so caught up in the events and my thoughts that I have completely forgotten to text people I¡¯m okay! I told my mom, ¡°I¡¯m soo sorry. I have been completely wrapped up in today¡¯s events that I completely forgot about it.¡± ¡°If you aren¡¯t going to use the phone then why are we paying for it, Jesus. Just remember next time to text us PLEASE!¡± She started to tear up again. I went and gave her a comforting hug and answer. I then went and got ready for bed. As I laid in bed, I took my phone out and looked at my messages. I texted back Via that I was okay, and told Thomas what happened. I looked at my latest message, and it surprised me. I had a message from Lainey saying, ¡°I heard about what happened to you, and I hope you feel better!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but smile at this. At least she still knows I exist. I texted her back thanks, and went back to my thoughts about earlier today. I wonder if I¡¯ll ever see that terrorist group again? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 30: The Rainy Day ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 30¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I woke up the next morning, and I could barely move my right arm it was so sore from the arm twist that ginger terrorist girl pulled on me yesterday. I went into the bathroom to clean up for the day, and I had a lot of small cuts and bruises on my body from the debris from the broken walls, glass, and machine parts. My adrenaline was pumping so much yesterday, that I didn¡¯t notice all of these in the moment. Looking back, I probably should have gone to a healer to heal up. I put on some shorts and a t-shirt and went on my morning run like I usually do. My parents tried to protest this because they thought I should rest after what happened yesterday, but I convinced them that if I want to succeed in being a protector, I can¡¯t take days off just because I had one rough day. I ended up running my usual route, though admittedly I did run it slower than I usually do. It was a cloudy and misty day today, almost mirroring the mood that I have now. My thoughts about yesterday¡¯s events combined with my aching body made today¡¯s run miserable. I got back home and put on a sweatshirt to cover up all the scratches and bruises for school, and I also put on some jeans to compliment it. I didn¡¯t want to get made fun of more than I already do for having so many wounds from just debris, and then not having the common sense to use a healer afterwards. After I got ready, I started to head towards Crystal High like I usually do in the morning, but when I got to the coffee shop close to my parent¡¯s apartment, I saw a couple of my classmates sitting at the table outside of it. Is this coffee shop really that popular? I never really paid any attention to it, but maybe this many people normally go here? My classmates sitting there were Harry, his girlfriend Liza, Mina, and Wayne. I paused for a second debating whether I should go up and try to talk to them or not. Liza and Mina were nice enough and Wayne was okay if you aren¡¯t on his bad side I guess, but Harry is completely unapproachable for me. He probably hates me the most out of the class. It¡¯s honestly confusing how such a nice girl like Liza can be with a guy like that. I get it¡¯s probably because of his powerful level, but I still would think she could find someone else who is powerful who isn¡¯t as much of a dick as he is. She is a pretty cute girl, so I think it wouldn¡¯t be that hard. It¡¯s whatever though. I¡¯ll probably just walk by them and ignore them. I put my hood on to cover most of my face and try to walk by them without being noticed. The girls sat facing away from me, and the boys sat looking at me as I walked toward them. I can only guess that Harry saw me before I put my hood on as he said, ¡°Yeah I heard that sagaru got into it with the terrorists yesterday at the lab department. People said he got out with only some scratches though. Maybe he finally learned that being a protector isn¡¯t meant for useless shit like him? He should run back home to his mommy. He doesn¡¯t belong here.¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. I know he said that just to get under my skin as I walked by them, but it still hurt nonetheless. I put my hands in my pocket and trudged forward on my way. I didn¡¯t stay long enough to hear responses, nor did I want to. All of them would probably just pile on to shit on me like they did with the MVP voting earlier yesterday. When I walked onto the Crystal High campus, I put down my hood and walked into the building. All the teachers and students that were there already all had their eyes on me as I walked through the hallway to my classroom. This was probably the most uncomfortable I have felt coming to this school aside from the first day. I walked into the classroom and there was Mr. Grey still reading that book he had, and Via was surprisingly already here sitting at her desk. Jack was sitting at his desk too along with Lee at his. Jack kept his head down, most likely asleep, while Lee¡¯s and Via¡¯s eyes followed me to my desk. When I sat down, I looked over at Via and told her, ¡°You¡¯re here a little earlier than usual.¡± ¡°Yeah, that terrorist attack from yesterday got my blood rushing for a fight, and I couldn¡¯t sleep a lot last night. I¡¯m itching for a fight now, so I can prove myself after that failure yesterday. I got up early, trained, then came here afterwards. And why didn¡¯t you answer my texts yesterday for the longest time? It¡¯s not like I was worried, but I was curious about what happened.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t say you were worried¡­ Well my phone didn¡¯t really cross my mind until I got home. My parents freaked out too because I didn¡¯t answer them either. You also shouldn¡¯t be so ashamed about your loss yesterday at the training arena. It was our first day actually working together and using powers in a real-world setting. You have a lot of time to improve.¡± She looked down, as if pouting a bit, and mumbled, ¡°Yeah, I guess.¡± I chuckled a bit, and felt a little hot too as I looked at her pouting face. It has to be this sweatshirt. It¡¯s near the end of summer, but it¡¯s just as hot as the middle of it. I asked Via, ¡°Is it hot in here to you?¡± A look of confusion crossed her face, ¡°No, not really, but I¡¯m not wearing a sweatshirt either. Why are you wearing a sweatshirt? It¡¯s like eighty degrees Fahrenheit outside.¡± Searching for an answer I stated hesitantly, ¡°Umm¡­I saw the clouds and mist and thought that this might come in handy.¡± She nonchalantly told me, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you just bring an umbrella? Besides, your inside now so take it off.¡± Trying to find reasons to keep my sweatshirt on to hide my wounds, I said, ¡°What if Mr. Grey has us doing something outside as training again today. It¡¯d be too much of a hassle just to put this back on. Hey Mr. Grey what are we doing today?¡± His one visible eye looked up from his book half open. He let out a sigh and then said in a monotone voice, ¡°Pop Quiz.¡± Shocked I exclaimed out loud, ¡°He answered me?¡± Via on the other hand, had her mind on other things. She let out a moan and said, ¡°Pop quiz?! I suck at pop quizzes, and that also means I won¡¯t have a chance to redeem myself today. This is the worse.¡± She went back to pouting, and I chuckled again at her face as the heat attacked my body again as I looked at her. I wondered to myself, ¡°I wonder what this pop quiz is on? We haven¡¯t really gone over anything with him.¡± ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 31: A Revelation ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 31¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I looked at Via and tried to comfort her saying, ¡°You really shouldn¡¯t worry that much. I¡¯m sure that the pop quiz won¡¯t be that difficult.¡± ¡°That¡¯s easy for you to say! I heard from others about your score on the written exams. You¡¯re a certified genius. What¡¯s your secret? Do you have some inside knowledge that nobody else knows about?¡± I laughed at her comments, even though I was flattered a little bit by them. This is the first time someone has commented positively about my grades. I just shook my head and told her, ¡°No, I just work hard like I do with everything else to get good at it. I¡¯m not a naturally gifted genius, but just like my body I work it to where it¡¯s a well-oiled machine. Not everyone can be perfect, and have everything given to them because they have powers haha.¡± ¡°Well not everyone has the time to work their mind to that extent either.¡± She retorted. I chuckled as the rest of the class walked in, seemingly all at once. I told Zen and Thomas about what we are doing today for Mr. Grey¡¯s class, and they were shocked. Not at the fact that there was a pop quiz, but at the fact that I managed to get Mr. Grey to tell me what we are doing today. Thomas, with his eyes wide and mouth open, asked me, ¡°How did you manage to get him to tell you? Do you have something on him that you can blackmail him with?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just as shocked as you. I didn¡¯t think he would tell me either. Maybe we had a bonding experience yesterday?¡± Zen¡¯s eyes went from wider than usual to back to normal as she shook her head and said, ¡°Not likely, He doesn¡¯t seem like the type to be effected majorly by that kind of stuff.¡± ¡°Yeah you¡¯re right, I¡¯m just trying to be hopeful haha.¡± Via darted her head looking at all of us with eyes wide, and said in an aggressive and exasperated tone, ¡°That¡¯s what you are all shocked by?! Not the fact that we have a pop quiz today, and we have no idea what it could be on?¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Thomas unfazed told her flatly, ¡°Not really, I¡¯m good with tests in generally.¡± Zen followed in suit as she said, ¡°Same here, I¡¯ve always thought they were pretty easy. I¡¯ve never studied for anything.¡± ¡°I¡¯m surrounded by geniuses.¡± Via said in a defeated tone. Once everyone was in the classroom and seated, Mr. Grey got up and told us, ¡°As most of you have probably already heard, you are taking a pop quiz today. It isn¡¯t going to be your normal run of the mill pop quiz though. I hope you all appreciate this because it took me forever to plan all of this and convince the principal after the events of yesterday. How are you feeling by the way Khan?¡± Through the sneers and snickers on the other side of the classroom, I replied, ¡°I¡¯m feeling fine sir, thanks.¡± ¡°Good, you all will need to be feeling good for this pop quiz. Everyone gets up and follow me. We are going to be going back to the facility where your first day of training was yesterday.¡± We all got up and followed him back to the training facility we were at yesterday. Via, Zen, Thomas, Itsuki, and I were all in the back of the group of students. I went over by Via and told her, ¡°Looks like you may get your chance of ¡®redemption¡¯ after all.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get my hopes up. We may just be going there to watch some videos of yesterday or something.¡± Thomas had a confused look on his face. He asked Via, ¡°What do you mean redemption? It wasn¡¯t your fault we failed so miserably yesterday. It was all Harry¡¯s idea, and you even stood up to him a lot until he got Lee to grab you and threatened.¡± Now it was my turn to have a confused look on my face. I looked at Via with concern and confusion as I asked, ¡°What?! What happened over at your team?¡± Her face looked forward, eyes distant, as she said, ¡°Nothing, I don¡¯t know what Thomas is talking about. He probably needs to shut it though.¡± ¡°What do you me-¡­¡± ¡°I said shut it water boy!¡± I looked at Via¡¯s face, and I have never seen this face from her before. It was a combination of disappointment, anger, and sadness. It looked exactly like my face when I found out I was a sagaru. Recalling very unpleasant memories, I shuddered at the thought of them. I put on a comforting smile and nudged her arm. She looked over at me and demanded, ¡°What?¡± I knew what this was too. It was her trying to hide her real emotions from others to either save face, not make others worry, or both. I did the same thing at first with my parents when I went through all of those tests when I was little. I told her softly, ¡°I¡¯m here if you ever want to talk about it. I know how it feels, so maybe I could give some advice. You can text me if you don¡¯t feel like talking about it in person.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? I already told you nothing happened yesterday, so stop showing pity on me idiot.¡± I laughed a bit and tried to change the mood, saying, ¡°Like I could ever show you pity haha. You are one of the toughest and stubborn people I know.¡± She shoved me away and walked ahead a little faster than the rest of us. I looked over at Zen and Itsuki who were behind us the whole time, and Itsuki had her head down with her hair covering her eyes while Zen held her eyes down with a gloomy aura around her. Looks like that little revelation ruined the whole mood. Even Thomas, who is usually hyper and energetic, seemed a little calmer now. I really hope this doesn¡¯t affect the pop quiz results. From Mr. Grey¡¯s tone and words, we need to have a full tank for this one. I wonder what this pop quiz will be about? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ BONUS CHAPTER: Vias Training Day ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UBonus Chapter¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I woke up this morning super anxious for the events to come today. I will show everyone that I¡¯m the best one in the class and not Zen. Ever since the first day, all I have been hearing is how Zen is so amazing and she can¡¯t do anything wrong. Well, today I¡¯m going to show everyone that she can. I went into my parent¡¯s basement after I put some clothes on, and I started to work out to get some adrenaline going and get warmed up for the training today. We have multiple workout stations in the basement, punching bags, and a boxing ring. I got a good sweat going then went and cleaned up to go to school. I put my hair in a fishtail braid, with the braid falling over my right shoulder, and then I headed toward school in the misty cool day. When I got there, I saw that Khan and that annoying girl, Zen, were already sitting here having a conversation. I waved hi to Khan, and then I took to my seat and sat in concentration. I was quiet the rest of the time before Mr. Grey told us what we were doing. I was focusing everything into doing my very best during training. After a while, Mr. Grey finally got up and told us to follow him to the urban training center and that the goal of this exercise is to capture and incapacitate everyone on the other team. We then headed toward the training area. I thought to myself, ¡°So this will be a team exercise huh? I hope I have Khan on my team. We work well together. I really hope that Zen is on the other team too, so I can prove I¡¯m better than her.¡± When we got to the training center, he assigned us into our groups. I was assigned to a group with Thomas, Harry, Lee, Grease, Bume, and Trea. Mr. Grey told us that he will be watching over everything using monitors from a control center at the arena, and that our team needs to follow him to the other side of the arena to start. Our team apparently had more people because our results weren¡¯t as good as theirs. We walked through the doors and entered separate locker rooms for boys and girls to put on our uniform. My uniform was just like how I envisioned it. A skin tight suit, black in the middle of my body, and on the outside, it had pink. It had a heart monitor on one of my wrists, and a controller for the assortment of explosives/stun devices attached on my waist. I walked out of the locker room with Trea, and the boys were already waiting outside for us. Harry looked at us with an annoying look and asked us, ¡°What took you so long?¡± ¡°We were just getting ready chill.¡± I responded just as annoyed. I looked at his hands, and he was holding our teams results for the entrance exams. I walked over to him and leaned over to see the results, but as soon as I did he moved them away. I asked him, ¡°Who had the highest results on our team?¡± ¡°That¡¯s none of your business.¡± He said snarky. I snapped back saying, ¡°Ummm, yes it¡¯s kind of it. I want to know what I made, and plus how will we know who should be captain of our team if we don¡¯t know who had the highest score.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t need to know who had the highest score to determine the captain. I¡¯m the captain.¡± Shocked and annoyed, I asked him, ¡°And who decided that?¡± Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! He looked at me with cutting eyes and answered in an annoyed tone, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what scores I had. It doesn¡¯t take a genius to realize Zen is the only real threat on that team, and maybe Harry and Jack. They have the bitch ass sagaru on their team though so that¡¯s a free capture. We can just overpower them honestly.¡± Annoyed and angry I responded to him, ¡°No we can¡¯t do that you idiot. Even though you may not think it, Khan is really capable, and he will probably have a plan. We can¡¯t just walk in there.¡± Harry looked at Lee, and he grabbed my arms and lifted me off the ground. I struggled to get free from his grasp, but it was no use. He was too strong. Harry looked at me with intent eyes and told me, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you calling that sagaru by his name, and giving respect to him? Relax this¡¯ll be easy.¡± I want to win, and this isn¡¯t going to win. In a last-ditch effort of defiance, I protested, ¡°That won¡¯t work dumbass. I already told you.¡± He whirled around, and he struck me on my face. Trea gasped, Thomas, Grease, and Bume, eyes grew wide, and even Lee loosened his grip a bit as the bell sounded to start. Harry shouted at me, ¡°Yes it will bitch! Don¡¯t question, and go scout around since the bell just rang.¡± There wasn¡¯t anything I can do to protest him anymore. I¡¯m stuck here. I lowered my head in defeat, and muttered, ¡°fine¡­¡± Lee put me down, and I went out to scout. I ended up spotting Liza, and followed her as I ranted about what happened in my head. She went down into a sewer, and I went and brought my team to it. Harry and the others immediately went into it as I thought to myself that this was a trap and we are going to get hammered. I ended leading the charge in the sewer as Harry took the back because he ¡°wanted to cover our rear¡±, but he was really just scared. Sure, enough we got to a crossroads, and Zen froze us all in the sewer water. They then started to pick us off using stuns. Khan walked over in front of me and told me, ¡°Will you let me put this rope around you peacefully, or will I have to stun you? Your uniform looks good by the way.¡± As much as I wanted to give up, I couldn¡¯t give up yet. A defender wouldn¡¯t just give up in a situation like this. I put on a defiant face, and started to try to move my legs more. I looked up and told him defiantly as my face felt hot for some reason, ¡°You think I¡¯ll say yes just because you complimented me? I¡¯ll find a way out of this!¡± I looked down at my feet, and I desperately tried to move them more. I heard Khan say, ¡°I wasn''t complimenting you because I had an ulterior motive. I legitimately think it looks good.¡± I then went unconscious with those words whirring in my mind. He¡¯s such an Idiot. When I woke up, I was back in the locker room with medics around me. I took my uniform off and went back to the front of the training center with Mr. Grey. I was in total dismay. I didn¡¯t pay much of attention to anything on the way there or back to the classroom. This was supposed to be the moment I stood out, but because of someone else¡¯s stupidity I failed miserably. I was lost in my thoughts as I walked through the door of the classroom as I heard some faint laughs probably from the winning team that was in good spirits. I took my seat, and I was out of everything until all of a sudden, I heard a loud BOOM! I came back to reality and looked around. I noticed that our English teach was here and Khan was gone. I turned around to Zen, and she had her eyes wide. I never seen her shook this much, it was kind of satisfying in a way to know that she is human too. I asked her, ¡°Where is Khan!¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t you paying attention? He went to the lab building!¡± Thomas answered me annoyingly. I turned to him and angrily answered him, ¡°Did I ask you?¡± The next events were a blur. Our teacher told everyone to stay calm, and then went out of the classroom. We were without a teacher then for most of the day as most of us began to speculate about what the boom was. Finally, we had a teacher walk in, and we were dismissed home. What exactly happened? When I got home, my mom hugged me and asked if I was okay. I asked what she meant, and she told me that the terrorists attacked Crystal High and made a big hole in the laboratory building. ¡°A hole in the lab building?!¡± I accidently said out loud. She asked if I knew about, but I didn¡¯t listen to her. I went straight to my phone and texted Khan if he was okay. He didn¡¯t answer me for the longest time, and I started pacing and went down to the basement and worked out to release my stress. My mom walked down to it, and asked me, ¡°Was someone you know in the lab building when the attack occurred?¡± I didn¡¯t answer her. I was focused on getting my thoughts calmed down. Why am I this worked up over this? Yeah, I know Khan is probably okay, but why didn¡¯t he answer me then? For some reason, this bothered me so much, and I don¡¯t know why. Finally, when I was about to go to bed, I got a text from him saying, ¡°I¡¯m fine, sorry for worrying you! I¡¯m sorry about not answering, I didn¡¯t use my phone a lot!¡± I texted him back, ¡°I wasn¡¯t worrying. I was just curious.¡± I smiled as I went to bed and thought to myself, ¡°Idiot, I¡¯m going to let you have it tomorrow.¡± ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UEnd of Bonus Chapter¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 32: Into the Arena ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 32¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ When we got to the urban training center, there was a person standing there waiting for us. He wore cacky cargo shorts, a grey t-shirt, fingerless gloves, and glasses. His hair was messy and a brown-red color. Mr. Grey walked up to him and shook his hand. He turned around to us and said in a bored voice, ¡°This here is Mr. Wey. He is a professional protector of this country, and he is here to help out with the pop quiz today. He helped me many times during missions, so he is very reliable, no need to worry. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re all wondering what you are doing for the pop quiz, and it is basically what your first day of training was. After your training was done and the terrorist attack happened, I realized a couple of things. One, a lot of you have a hard time working together as a team. Two, most of you fold under the pressure of moments, and that is deadly in a protector¡¯s line of work. Three, a lot of you don¡¯t pay attention to your surroundings, so you get into unfavorable situations. This pop quiz is going to push those weaknesses, and get you to either adapt or fail this quiz. The grade you get is determined by how long you last. Lasting over ten minutes gets you an A. There will be beep every minute heard throughout the arena, so you can keep up with your time.¡± People started to look around in confusion. Wayne finally popped the question that was on everyone¡¯s minds, ¡°So, will we all be trying to survive against Mr. Wey for ten minutes?¡± Mr. Wey kind of chuckled at this, and Mr. Grey let a slight smile creep onto his face. He looked at us with his one uncovered eye and told us, ¡°Oh no, you won¡¯t be going up against him. See Mr. Wey¡¯s power allows him to create portals from one position to another. He will be up in the control center, and get anybody that gets knocked out or clearly captured throughout the quiz. The person you will be fighting is me.¡± A murmur spread throughout our class. Everyone always wondered what Mr. Grey¡¯s power was. Since his missions was never reported on the news, no one really knew much about him. The class was kind of excited to finally see their teacher in action. I, however, already knew what his power was, and knew just how ridiculously powerful he was. I looked down in despair. Our only hope of getting the time, is hiding and hoping he doesn¡¯t find us for ten minutes. Zen must have noticed my expression, and went over and asked me, ¡°He¡¯s powerful, isn¡¯t he?¡± ¡°You have no idea.¡± I answered. ¡°We¡¯ll be lucky to get past five minutes, much less ten.¡± Via then elbowed me in the side, making me reach for it. She told me, ¡°What¡¯s with this negative attitude now? Weren¡¯t you the one that was trying to cheer me up before? Don¡¯t be getting all down now. Since we are all on a team together, I think we have a good shot to get to ten minutes.¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Thomas piped up, ¡°Yeah, you should relax. This¡¯ll be a piece of cake. I doubt he¡¯ll be able to run as fast as Via anyway, so at least we know she¡¯ll pass.¡± ¡°Who asked for your opinion dumbass?!¡± Via said as she knocked him over the head. I just simply shook my head. None of them have any idea what¡¯s going to hit them. If all of those terrorists couldn¡¯t even get a hit on him, what hope do we have? We have to run, make distractions, and make it as tough as possible for him to get us. I could hear Harry, Lee, Wayne, and the others up in front of us talking about how this should be easy, and I just shook my head. Mr. Grey eventually spoke up with a smile, cutting off the classes conversations, saying, ¡°That¡¯s enough with the conversations. Enter through the door and get your uniforms in the separate locker rooms. Wait outside the locker room doors in the arena until Mr. Wey tells you to begin. I¡¯ll be heading on the other side of the arena. Good luck, many of you will fail.¡± We walked in through the doors and into the locker room. Putting on my uniform was more a chore than it probably should have been due to the fact Harry didn¡¯t want to change next to me, but his locker was next to mine. I eventually just took my uniform off to a corner of the room and just changed there. I don¡¯t have the mental focus to care about this petty stuff today. I put my uniform on and went outside. We had to wait for the girls for a bit, and Harry let them have it once they got out about how they shouldn¡¯t take so long to change. After that, Harry told us, ¡°Okay when the time starts, we need to all head over to Mr. Grey and take him down with numbers. He can¡¯t be that powerful if he has never even made the news for being a protector, and we will be able to overpower him with numbers.¡± ¡°No, you won¡¯t.¡± I muttered. Harry turned to Lee and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry did you hear something? I think it was probably just the wind, though right?¡± ¡°I think so.¡± Lee agreed. I put my head down as I thought and tried to come up with some resolve. I have to say something. If I don¡¯t say anything, they will all get destroyed in less than a minute. I looked back up and protested again saying, ¡°I said, ¡®No, you won¡¯t.¡¯ You won¡¯t come close to stopping him. Do you even have a plan on how you should attack him? You don¡¯t even know his powers. I know his powers, and how powerful he is from the terrorist attack. He¡¯ll beat all of us without even breaking a sweat. Our best chance to survive ten minutes, is to run, hide, and make it as difficult as possible for him to get to us.¡± Harry answered snarkily, ¡°Spoken like a true sagaru. You want us to run and hide? You are just afraid. You probably are even overexaggerating his power from what you saw. Stay here and cower if you want. We are going to take the fight to him.¡± My face was burning with anger, and my fists were clenched tightly. He¡¯s going to ignore all information on our opponent, and neglect advice given from a person who witnessed them in battle, just because I¡¯m a sagaru? Of course, he is. I just grounded my teeth, and kept my feet planted in the ground. I will not move from my position and go on a suicide mission. Everyone was staring at me again. It felt like it was back in the hallway at the beginning of school. Except these stares felt more like knives piercing through me. It feels like it did when people first learned I was a sagaru. All of a sudden Via spoke up saying, ¡°If he is staying here then so am I. You are being ignorant Harry, and I had enough of your arrogance and stupidity yesterday. I actually want to get an A today.¡± ¡°Fine then. You aren¡¯t powerful anyway. You two would just hinder us. Anyone who wants to stay and be with this failure can, but if you want to pass follow me.¡± In the end Thomas stayed and Itsuki stayed. Harry¡¯s side, and even Harry, got a little hesitant in leaving when Zen stayed, but still left anyway. The last person who stayed with us was kind of a surprise, it was Jack. I wonder why he decided to stay here? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 33: A Plan ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 33¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Shocked at Jack¡¯s decision, I looked over to him and asked, ¡°What makes you want to stay here with us?¡± He side eyed me, and told me, ¡°Because even though I don¡¯t like you, I¡¯m not an idiot either. I realize that charging straight in to fight him will lead to all of us getting failing grades. Don¡¯t read too much into my decision. I¡¯m only doing what¡¯s best for me.¡± I scrunched my face up, and nodded my head in understanding. ¡°I get it. Well thanks anyway for staying, we can use your power.¡± I don¡¯t really care why Jack stayed here. We can really use his power in alleyways and in buildings. I don¡¯t care if Jack likes me either. It kind of puts me at ease that he doesn¡¯t, and he is level headed enough to see the stupidity in charging straight in to fight Mr. Grey head on. Our class¡¯s two groups then split up into the teams outside of the locker room. When we got into our group, I told them, ¡°Thanks guys for staying with me. I know that it was probably a hard decision based on me being a sagaru, but thank you.¡± Via told me in an annoyed voice, ¡°No thank you. I would rather be with my grandparents if it meant I wouldn¡¯t have to be with that prick. Now stop with the heart to heart and get to a plan or at least describe Mr. Grey¡¯s powers.¡± I nodded in agreement. We don¡¯t have time to talk for long, so we need to make the most of this time. I looked around the group, and explained, ¡°Mr. Grey is a really powerful assassin class protector. His power I think is lightning based. He can enhance his strength with it, and shoot it out. He can also increase his speed as fast as, if not faster, than Via. I think our best option is to stay in a shaded area, and a place that isn¡¯t enclosed. If we are ever trapped then it¡¯ll be an automatic game over. I¡¯m thinking we should go to the park over on the east side of the urban arena. It¡¯s shaded, open, and it gives us some cover with the trees. It also has some water to use for Zen and Thomas. If worse comes to worse we can head into the alleyways of the buildings next to it and use Itsuki¡¯s air barriers to at least annoy him. What do you guys think?¡±Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Sounds good to me.¡± Via said. ¡°This is the plans you can come up with? Where have you been all my life?!¡± Thomas exclaimed, and he was then quickly hit by Jack. Jack asked, ¡°How are we supposed to retreat into the buildings around the park if Mr. Grey is as fast as you said he is?¡± ¡°How many people can you carry with you when you use your shadow power again?¡± ¡°Two people, if they are small.¡± I looked at him, and told him, ¡°We¡¯ll probably have to rely on you to carry two people, and we need to come up with a distraction and an obstacle for the rest of us to get out of there. I think we may need to have Zen create an ice wall helped along with Itsuki¡¯s air walls.¡± Jack looked down in thought, as I thought more about our positions in the park. I looked at Itsuki, and she looked worried. I went over and asked her, ¡°How do you feel about this plan?¡± ¡°I-it¡¯s fine I guess.¡± ¡°You sure? If you don¡¯t feel like doing anything, or have an issue with anything you can tell me. I don¡¯t think I know it all, and I want everyone¡¯s opinion.¡± She lifted her head up, for what seemed like the first time today, and looked at me with her timid eyes as she said, ¡°I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll be able to put up all those barriers for you and be useful. From what you described, Mr. Grey is unstoppable, and we are just delaying the inevitable.¡± I looked at her hands, and they were visibly shaking. The poor girl is scared shitless. I can¡¯t really blame her that much either. I put a comforting smile on though, and put my hand on her shoulder and told her, ¡°It¡¯s going to be fine. Even if he manages to get us with all of the measures we are going to have, I¡¯m sure he won¡¯t harm us bad, if at all. You won¡¯t have anything to worry about. Besides I¡¯ll try my best to get everyone here to pass, and as long as you try your best, that¡¯s all I ask for.¡± She looked back down, but this time she had a slight smile on her face as she did. Her hands also stopped shaking for the moment, and seemed a little more confident in her movements. Zen moved beside me and asked me, ¡°Since when were you able to comfort people like that?¡± I smiled and said, ¡°Since I started to talk to people for the first time in a while, and pick up on social ques.¡± Her normally melancholic face brightened up a bit, and she went to comfort Itsuki some more. Thomas was discussing something with Jack (probably the hit that jack gave him), and Via was staring at the other group off by herself. I walked over to her and elbowed her arm like she does me as I asked, ¡°Feeling a bit nervous now? It should be me that stresses about stuff like this where powers are in use.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not nervous.¡± She protested. ¡°I¡¯m just trying to get myself focused for the ¡®Pop Quiz¡¯. You really think we can win?¡± ¡°Well it isn¡¯t about whether we can win or not, we just have to survive for ten minutes and then, I assume, it¡¯s over. Don¡¯t worry I¡¯ll try to get you your first A on a pop quiz haha.¡± Via, offended, told me, ¡°I¡¯ve gotten as before on pop quizzes. It¡¯s just hard for me to. I won¡¯t need a lot of your help today to. You can rely on me today. I will do good today.¡± I looked at her in wonder. She really does seem determined. Her eyes focused, and her body language stiff and on alert. I wonder why she is so much on edge. I know it¡¯s training and she wants to do good and get an A, but she seems even more determined than a person normally would. Just then a bell rang throughout the arena. The quiz has begun, or should I say hunt? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 34: The Quiz Begins ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 34¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Both teams went their separate ways. My group went immediately to the park on the right side of the arena, and Harry¡¯s group went straight to Mr. Grey. We rushed through the buildings and streets. I knew that we wouldn¡¯t have a lot of time to prepare for Mr. Grey¡¯s attack. We finally made it to the park, and I could already hear the havoc that Mr. Grey was causing on the other group. After every explosion and shock, I heard, I just imagined the ease at which Mr. Grey was dismantling their group. I hurriedly started to tell my group what to do to make inconveniences for Mr. Grey. I had Zen and Thomas set up on either side of the fountain in the middle of the park, and I had Jack and myself on the left side of the fountain in the shade of the trees. Itsuki and Via was set up on the right side of the fountain ready to carry people away and block our way-out using air barriers. I held a thumbs up over in my position to see if everyone was ready, and everyone else responded with a thumbs up back. We got set up in our positions none too soon too because just when we did the explosions and shocks from the middle of the arena stopped. An eerie silence blanketed the urban training area for about a minute. I could hear every breath I inhaled and every movement that my group made. I watched us all become restless as we waited for Mr. Grey to make his way over to the park. It has only been four minutes, and he already finished off everybody in the other group. This is going to be a long six minutes if we want to last. All of a sudden there was a loud boom coming from in front of the fountain, and a cloud of dust sprouted up from the explosion. I saw blue light start sparking and emitting from the dust cloud, and I shouted out, ¡°NOW!!¡± to Thomas and Zen. Thomas hurled water into the dust cloud, and Zen immediately froze it on when it contacted something. She also hurled some ice from the water in the fountain into the cloud. I also pulled my twin pistols out and fired into the blue lit cloud. Via also threw one of her explosives into the dust and exploded it for good measure too. The blue light disappeared for a split second, and we foolishly calmed down a bit. Right when we calmed down, Mr. Grey rushed Thomas and had his right hand around his neck in a blink of an eye. Lightning was back surrounding him, and his free eye was radiating a blue color. ¡°Give up.¡± He demanded of Thomas.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Thomas responded to the demand by throwing water from the fountain on his face which Zen immediately froze. Mr. Grey didn¡¯t flinch though, and he just used his electricity to get rid of the ice just as fast as it formed. Mr. Grey then shocked Thomas using his lightning in his hand, knocking him out. I then tapped Jack on his shoulder twice, signaling that it was time to bail out. I put my twin guns back into their holsters and latched onto Jack as he moved through the shadows to where Via and Itsuki were. Moving through the shadows with Jack was an experience. When we were moving, it felt like we were in nothingness. All around us was nothing but darkness. I wondered how Jack could navigate through all of this. When we got to Via and Itsuki, I motioned to Zen to head toward us. She used the water and created a massive wall of ice between her and Mr. Grey. He immediately destroyed it and walked through it nonchalantly. This stopped Zen in her tracks as she threw up another ice wall. Mr. Grey destroyed this as soon as she put it up as well as he continued to walk toward her. A loud beep could be heard throughout the arena at this time. Five minutes have passed since the start of the quiz. Zen turned around as she made another ice wall and manipulated, she already made to go in front of Mr. Grey. She also used the moisture from her sweat to send spiked shards of ice at Mr. Grey. She looked back at us and shouted, ¡°Go! I can buy you some more time! All of us won¡¯t make it if we continue like this. Someone has to sacrifice for everyone. I have good grade anyway.¡± She turned her back on us for the final time, and I couldn¡¯t accept what I heard. I knew we would have to sacrifice one or two people for time but not Zen! I was thinking maybe Thomas, Jack or even myself, but I wanted Via, Zen, and Itsuki to finish with a passing grade for the quiz. I lowered my head in defeat and almost ran out there to help Zen, but Jack grabbed Itsuki and I and carried us through the dark abyss of the shadows. We reappeared in the real world on the edge of the park. I could still hear the explosions Mr. Grey was causing by destroying Zen¡¯s ice walls. I felt off. I felt remorse coursing through me and regret for not being able to get Zen out of there. We didn¡¯t have time to be dwelling on the past though. I pushed down my feelings and decided to continue with the mission. I looked at everyone and pointed toward the alleyways in front of us. ¡°We need to go through there, keep to the shadows, and hopefully find a good hiding spot.¡± We then proceeded to run throughout the alleyways while the explosions were still happening. Zooming in and out of the alleyways, we heard another buzzer go off signifying the passing of six minutes and also the stoppage of the explosions. I guess Zen finally got caught. She held out for a minute which is better than anybody else here could probably do. As we turned another corner, Mr. Grey was standing there waiting for us. His eye was full blue, and he had lightning jumping off of him onto the ground. How did he get here so fast? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 35: A Sacrifice ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 35¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ We turned the corner of the alleyway, and Mr. Grey was standing there waiting for us. He had his back leaned up against the wall, and his lightning jumped from him to the ground. All of our eyes grew wide from the shock of seeing him. How did he get here so fast? ¡°Did you guys think you could get away that easily?¡± Mr. Grey said in his monotone voice. ¡°Maybe?¡± I retorted in an exasperated tone. As Mr. Grey straightened up from leaning against the side of the building, I looked toward Itsuki and told her, ¡°We need an air barrier now!¡± She nodded and put her hands up, signifying she made a barrier. Mr. Grey waved his hand, and with a single lightning bolt he walked through the barrier like it wasn¡¯t even there. He continued to walk forward at a steady pace, and I turned to Itsuki. She looked in dismay and shocked. Her head was down, and she looked completely defeated. I quickly ducked down to her level and hurriedly tried to comfort her saying, ¡°It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s okay Itsuki. This is just training. If you can¡¯t go further, or you can¡¯t put up a barrier strong enough, that¡¯s fine. I can only ask of you, what I ask of myself every day. Just to do your best and get better every day. We¡¯ll figure this out, but if you still got something left, we need it right now. We won¡¯t all be able to get out of here if we don¡¯t have something stopping him for a couple of seconds. Do you think you can put up one last barrier?¡± She shook her head denying that she could, and the situation fully sunk into my head. I wanted to survive until the end, but it doesn¡¯t look like I¡¯m going to get the chance. I mustered up my courage, and I turned to face Via and Jack. I told them in a grave voice, ¡°You guys get out of here. I can hold him off for thirty seconds if I¡¯m lucky. I¡¯ll be burden anyway since I can¡¯t use any powers. Try to keep to open areas with lots of obstacles since we know he can find you easily in alleyways. Go now!¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Via looked at me like I was crazy, and Itsuki managed to murmur out a quiet, ¡°what?¡± as she looked up at me. I turned around to face Mr. Grey as he steadily made his way over to us. Before I could bolt to him though, Itsuki dashed in front of me heading straight to Mr. Grey before I could react. I stood there in shock as she put up a barrier to climb on top of and was going all around him. Next thing I knew, Jack grabbed my shoulder, pulling me into the realm of darkness. Before I got pulled into complete darkness, I saw Mr. Grey destroy one of the air platforms Itsuki was on, and he grabbed by her foot and hung her in the air. We reappeared in front of the entrance that we took to get into the alleyways. Via eventually made it beside us. I sat in silence for a couple of seconds, reminiscing on my almost complete failure on my goal going into this pop quiz. Now the only person that I wanted to help pass that is left, is Via. I feel utterly helpless in this situation. Mr. Grey just overpowers us every step of the way, and there isn¡¯t anything we can do about it. How are we expected to last ten minutes? Via started shaking me to get me back into reality, and I got out of my thoughts to the sound of her saying, ¡°Khan! Khan! Where do we go?! Hello?¡± I shook my head, getting back to my senses. I told them, ¡°Right, we are still in this. Same plan as the plan I told you before Itsuki made the sacrifice. Try to stay in an open area with as many obstacles as possible. We should probably head back to the park. That is probably the optimal position.¡± We turned to head back toward the park when a loud boom was heard from back in the alleyway. I couldn¡¯t help but look back, and I saw a streak of blue lightning shoot up into the sky. The streak landed in front of us with a loud KABOOM! A dust cloud rose up as the ground below our feet became unstable. Before I knew it, we were falling down into a hole. I tried to reach for the stable ground before it was too late, but it was no use. I was already too far down. Via used her superspeed to climb the falling rubble up, and Jack used the shadows to move back into the alleyway before he could fall. I was the only one out of the group to have fallen into the hole. I was stunned by the fall, but luckily no rubble fell on me. Through the dust that was stirred up by the explosion I could hear someone cough through the smoke. It was Mr. Grey! I could hear him complain in his signature voice saying, ¡°Goddammit. I didn¡¯t know there was a subway system here. I got too carried away and used too much power. I honestly shouldn¡¯t be going this hard on them, but I can¡¯t help it. I get carried away too easily. You understand don¡¯t you Khan?¡± He knows I¡¯m here?! I have to stand up and try to fight back the best I can. I have to give Via and Jack enough time for at least one of them to last. I Picked myself up off my ass using the rubble around me, but when I put pressure on my right leg, I felt a sharp pain shoot through it. I winced and immediately went down to favor the leg. This isn¡¯t looking good. Mr. Grey looked at me and told me, ¡°So how ¡®bout it kid? You going to just give up, or you going to make this be annoying for me?¡± I gripped my twin pistols tighter. I¡¯m ready to fight and prove myself right now. I will show everyone that a sagaru can do just as much and more as everyone else. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 36: The Subway Tunnel ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 36¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I Leaned up against some of the rubble around me, so I don¡¯t have to put any pressure on my hurt leg. Mr. Grey was steadily coming toward me, eye aglow. I lifted up one of my state-of-the-art pistols, and I shot a stun shot at him. His electricity aura around him just absorbed the shot like it was nothing. I fired off about ten more shots consecutively at him to see if I could slow him down but to no avail. He just kept on walking toward me. He was about ten yards away when I had an idea. I turned my pistols off of their stun mode and pointed them at the walls of debris and rubble. I fired a couple of shots at the walls, and the debris and dust from it kicked up. Some of it fell on him but not enough to slow him down. I stumbled across the rocky and loose ground made by the debris. I don¡¯t want to go out this fast. I have to make more time for Via and Jack to get some distance, and I want to, deep down, pass the quiz too. Behind me, I could hear Mr. Grey speak out saying, ¡°Just give it up Khan. You are clearly injured, and you can barely walk. Don¡¯t make me have to hurt you even more than you already are.¡± I ignored him, and I managed my way to the very edge of the perimeter of the hole Mr. Grey created in the subway tunnels. I looked up at the cliff separating the streets and myself under the ground. There was still dust in the air making it hard to see the edge of the peak of the cliff. I could hear the crunch and rummaging of the debris Mr. Grey was causing getting closer and closer behind me. I hurriedly reached in my belt for the rope and hook the lab department gave me as a part of my tools in my belt. I put the hook into my pistol and fired off a shot at the top of the cliff. I tugged on the rope the hook was attached to, and I felt the rope go taught. I gripped the rope, and started to climb up the rope. When I just started to climb up the rope though, I felt a hand grab my ankle and pull on me. I looked down, and I saw Mr. Grey¡¯s glowing eye and melancholic face staring back at me. ¡°Trying to leave so soon?¡± Mr. Grey retorted.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Thinking quickly, I grabbed the knife attached on my other ankle, and stabbed it at Mr. Grey¡¯s arm. It connected. The knife went into Mr. Grey¡¯s forearm, and I could feel his blood spurt from his arm onto my own. He let go from the shock of it, and he took my knife with him still embedded in his arm. His lightning powered down a bit as he went back down to the ground of the subway tunnel. I immediately started to climb back up the rope. Left hand over right hand, left hand over right hand, I scrambled to get back into the daylight and main ground. I could already hear Mr. Grey¡¯s lightning power back up from the ground below me as I eventually reached the peak of the rubble and debris cliff. When I got to the ground on the main land, I looked around to see what my hook had latched onto. I followed my rope to the hand of Jack holding the hook! Via was standing beside him, smirking, and she told me in a sarcastic tone, ¡°You didn¡¯t think that we would just leave you here did you? Just be glad we found your hook when you shot it out.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but smile at the sight of them despite the situation we were in. Another beep went out throughout the arena. ¡°Only seven minutes have passed?¡± I said out loud in an exasperated tone. ¡°Actually, eight minutes has passed. A buzzer went off when you were trapped in the hole.¡± Jack told me. That is a pleasant surprise. I then remembered that Mr. Grey was about to pop up out of the hole too, and lay into us. I tried to get to my feet, but fell from the pain in my leg. Via caught me before I could hit the ground, and I grumbled a thanks through the pain I was feeling. I put my arm around Via¡¯s shoulder as I told them, ¡°We need to start running. Let¡¯s head into a building and try to wait out the remaining two minutes if we can. Preferably a building that has a lot of shadows and no light, so Jack can move freely inside of it.¡± I got onto Via¡¯s back, and we went into a building almost instantaneously. It was an office space that was on the second floor of a building near the park. It didn¡¯t have a lot of light in it either which made it a good spot for Jack too. I limped my way to hide under a desk with Via, then we waited. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 37: The Last Minutes ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 37¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Via and I sat under the desk trying to get our breath. As we were sitting there, my body began to ache more and more. I winced a little at my growing pain in my body, and I could see that Via was uncomfortable too. Jack is crouched down, moving around the shadowed office room, keeping an eye out for Mr. Grey. I could hear Mr. Grey¡¯s lightning make an ear popping crack outside, and a boom as he landed on the ground outside of the hole he had made earlier. I shivered a bit when I heard him. He surely isn¡¯t happy that I stuck my knife in his arm. I only took solace in the fact that it will take him some time to find us. We didn¡¯t leave any hint at where we would go. It would have to take a minute even for him to find us. I looked at Via, and I noticed that she was visibly shaken too. I gave her a comforting smile. I will get her to pass this quiz. I reached at my pistols in my pocket and gripped them tight. I don¡¯t want to be caught off guard by Mr. Grey again. BOOM! A loud crash rang throughout the building we were in and on our floor. It couldn¡¯t be Mr. Grey already! How did he find out where we were so fast?! I peeked from out under the desk to see what happened, fighting off Via¡¯s hand trying to keep me back, and I saw Mr. Grey holding Jack up in the air by his neck with a hole in the floor beside them. I instinctively got my pistols out and fired shots, but they did no damage again as Mr. Grey¡¯s lightning aura was back in full force. Mr. Grey shocked Jack, and he was immediately knocked out. Jack fell limp on the floor, and I stood their dumbfounded. Mr. Grey turned towards me. He had a different look on his face than he did when I saw him in the sunken subway tunnel. This look was more serious, more¡­ focused. He shot towards me, and he was behind me before I could even react to him. He picked me up by my cloak, and I could feel his lightning aura encase around me. I closed my eyes in anticipation of the shock that was coming to knock me out, but I didn¡¯t feel anything other than the regular electric aura. I opened my eyes, and I saw Via running around us and kicking Mr. Grey. None of her kicks seemed to have any effect on him though. He just tanked everyone she threw, and he just watched her. Still holding my pistols in my hand, I turned them off of stun and onto the regular shot. Instead of shooting Mr. Grey though, I put the pistol up to my cloak and shot off the piece of cloth Mr. Grey was hold up. I dropped to the ground, and I immediately dove forward out of the way of Mr. Grey and Via. I shouted back at Via, ¡°Get out of there!¡±Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. It was already too late though. Mr. Grey already had his hands on her neck, holding her up in the air. Gathering my resolve, I limped toward the both of them. I had to get there before he knocked her out. Without having anything on me that could affect Mr. Grey even a little bit, I just lunged my entire body into his legs. It was like I ran into a brick wall. He didn¡¯t even flinch at my body being hurled into his legs at full force. He glanced down at me on the ground as I looked up at him. I felt a shiver run down my spine as I stared at his total blue eyes and watched as Via struggled to get free from his grasp. Feeling the hopelessness of the situation seep in, I have one last ditch attempt to help get Via out of here. I pointed my pistols at the ground, and fired multiple shots at the ground. Making a hold in the floor, we all fell down to the floor below. I landed on my stomach, knocking the breath out of me, and Mr. Grey somehow landed on his feet to my dismay. He let go of Via though, and I pushed her legs on the ground and shouted, ¡°Go!!¡± She ran at super speed a couple of yards away and then stopped. She turned around and looked back at me as Mr. Grey picked me up. She shouted, ¡°I can¡¯t just leave you!¡± Looking straight into Mr. Grey¡¯s eye, I responded to her saying, ¡°Yes, you can. If you stay here then you¡¯ll fail the quiz. You need to run and don¡¯t stop running until the time is up.¡± The next thing I knew, Mr. Grey was holding Via in his other hand. Did she run straight toward him?! I looked at her and she looked back at me and said, ¡°Well, I did run. Sorry about stopping though.¡± Struggling to find words, I started to hit the stab wound in Mr. Grey¡¯s arm I created to try to get him to let go of Via. She has to pass! I can¡¯t let everyone fail this exam! Especially not Via, who was so excited about this at the start. As I kept hitting the wound, I saw darkness in the next few seconds. I was blissfully unconscious from all the pain of my body, but with one painful thought circulating in my head. I failed. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 38: Medic Room ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 38¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I woke up in an all-white room. My uniform has been taken off, and my regular clothes back on. My head is pounding and my leg is sore still. My scratches I had before school though, had been healed. How long have I been out for? I put my hand up to my head to feel it, and I felt a rag on my forehead. I peeled it off, and I sat up and began to look around the room. There were beds lined up, and everyone from my class seemed to be here laying in them. People in lab coats were also bustling around the beds too. They must be the medics. My bed is positioned in the corner next to the door. It must be the people who got out first are farther in the room than the ones who got out later. Jack is laying right beside me still unconscious, but curiously Via isn¡¯t next to me at all. In fact, I didn¡¯t see Via anywhere in the room. I could hear people talking near the door. I could hear a person say, ¡°Don¡¯t you think you went a little too hard on them Grey? Shit, most of them will be out for the rest of the school day, and they will still leave for home with bruises and scratches! Next time you do this, you will use double the normal restrainers instructors would normally use to spar students!¡± Mr. Grey¡¯s monotone voice spoke up in defense sayings, ¡°They need to learn that they need to work as a team to complete missions. None of them are strong enough to fight things head on. I also did go easy on them. They have little to no experience fighting people who know what they are doing, and it shows. This is a learning experience for them.¡± ¡°This will scar them for life!¡± ¡°If they get scared by this then they shouldn¡¯t be a protector.¡± As I was listening in to their conversation, a medic rushed over to my bed. He was a slender guy with blonde hair, and he had a weird pattern on his right eye. He grabbed my shoulders, and looked at me with wide eyes as he asked exasperated, ¡°How the hell are you conscious again so soon? We just fully healed you as best as we could five minutes ago! You should be out for the rest of the school day at least! I don¡¯t think you had a durability power or healing power, did you?¡± Putting a confused look on my face, I answered him, ¡°I¡¯m a sagaru, so no, I don¡¯t¡± Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Is it really normal to be out that long from the injuries I sustained? I heard the conversation that Mr. Grey and the person he was talking to that everyone else is probably going to be out that long, but I thought there would be others like me waking up early. The medic¡¯s face beside me widened in shock. ¡°How is this possible?¡± He pondered to himself. While he was lost in his thought, one of the medics finally moved out of the way of a bed she had been standing over for a while, and I could finally see who was laying there. It was Zen laying there unconscious. My breath caught short when I noticed her, and she seemed to radiate some type of beautiful icy aura even when asleep. I noticed a big bruise on the side of her face though. No doubt, it was courtesy from Mr. Grey. I looked back to where the blonde hair medic was sitting to see if he still had a shocked face, but he wasn¡¯t there when I looked. Next thing I know, the person who was talking with Mr. Grey was by my bed talking to me. ¡°How you feeling kid?¡± A little confused as to who this person is, I answered him, ¡°I feel fine for the most part. I am a little sore though, but I feel fine other than that. Who are you?¡± He laughed a little bit. He was an older man with glasses and grey hair. He told me, ¡°You probably wouldn¡¯t know me since you haven¡¯t been to the medic bay yet huh? I¡¯m the head medic at Crystal High, Dr. Trey. No one gets healed here without me knowing about it.¡± Mr. Grey walked up behind Dr. Trey and looked at me with his uncovered eye. I asked Mr. Grey, ¡°How¡¯s your arm?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine no thanks to you. How are you back conscious so soon after you got healed?¡± Is this really a big deal? Don¡¯t people just recover from things differently? ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± I told them. ¡°I just woke up. I didn¡¯t do anything different today that I normally wouldn¡¯t do. Also, where is Via? Did she already wake up too?¡± Mr. Grey lowered his head. He told me, ¡°She is back in the classroom waiting for me to get back there. She is the only one who passed the quiz. Right after I knocked you out, and I was about to knock her out. The last buzzer went off. Honestly, I went too easy on you.¡± Dr. Trey hit him in the gut and scolded him saying, ¡°No, you did not Grey Summers! You went way too hard and you know it! The day after a terrorist attack on the school too!¡± ¡°Summers?¡± I asked in bewilderment. Dr. Trey turned towards me and told me, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s Grey¡¯s last name. I was a medic when Grey went to Crystal High himself. He visited me often when he was here. Oh the stories I could tell about him. Did you know that he¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s enough Doc. I¡¯m sure that Khan would like to go talk to Via about their experience on the quiz. I can send you Khan¡¯s file if you want. It should have everything you are looking for. Khan are you comfortable enough to walk?¡± Dr. Trey turned toward him saying, ¡°Nonsense Grey! The poor lad just woke up! At least give him some time to gather his bearings.¡± Wanting to talk to Via about the quiz though, and I wanted to see how she is doing after it. I moved around my legs to see if they were fine and looked at Dr. Trey and said, ¡°I feel fine Doc. I can walk back to the classroom.¡± ¡°That¡¯s beside the point Khan. You may feel fine, but you may not actually be fine.¡± Mr. Grey ignored him though, and he tugged me out of the bed. As we walked out of the room, he told Dr. Trey, ¡°I¡¯ll send those files to you soon.¡± Mr. Grey and I then walked through the hallways back to our classroom. I wonder how Via is doing? I really want to see her and apologize for not coming up with a better plan. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 39: Back in the Classroom ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 39¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ While walking back through the hallways, there was an awkward silence between Mr. Grey and I. Mr. Grey was quiet normally, but there was a certain tension now. Maybe it was just me, I do feel a little guilty for putting my knife in his arm. I am also a little curious about why everyone was so shocked that I woke up so early. I looked up at Mr. Grey¡¯s intimidating figure, and I remembered the scary image of him during the quiz and terrorist attack. Quickly looking back down, I asked him, ¡°Is it really that abnormal that I woke up so soon after getting medical treatment? During our first training day, the other team didn¡¯t seem to take that long to get healed, so what is different this time?¡± ¡°Well, they got hurt a lot worse today than yesterday.¡± He explained, ¡°And I don¡¯t know if you healing is abnormal or not. It may be normal for a sagaru to heal that fast. Crystal High has never had a sagaru here before, so we don¡¯t have anything to base it off of. Maybe since you don¡¯t have any powers to use, it helps the healing process along. In the end, it isn¡¯t anything to worry about. I would just forget about it to be honest.¡± I nodded and looked down in thought. I guess that makes sense. I have a lot of other things to think about, so I shouldn¡¯t focus much on something that is relatively unimportant. We moved through the hallways, and I could see people looking at us through the hallway. Compared to this morning though, I felt the eyes move toward Mr. Grey instead of me. As we walked down the hall, we passed Mr. Shadowfox¡¯s classroom. Mr. Shadowfox noticed Mr. Grey through the open door, and he walked outside to him. He asked Mr. Grey with a shocked face, ¡°Is what I heard about what you did to those kids today true? Did you actually brutalize those kids that much?¡± Mr. Grey continued to walk right past him as he said in his usual voice, ¡°Maybe, it depends on what your definition of brutalize is really. I think I did what was necessary to provide positive results.¡± Stopping for a second at Mr. Shadowfox, I rushed to get back to Mr. Grey¡¯s side. Mr. Shadowfox responded to Mr. Grey in a stern voice saying, ¡°I always thought you were insane. You are going to get your kids killed doing that!¡± Mr. Grey turned to go into our classroom, and he turned toward Mr. Shadowfox and looked at him with his nonchalant face. He told him, ¡°You have your teaching style. I have mine.¡± After he said that, he walked into the classroom. I gave Mr. Shadowfox a guilty smile to signal a sorry for Mr. Grey¡¯s rudeness to him, and I followed Mr. Grey into the classroom. I have spent so much time with Mr. Grey over the past couple of weeks that I forget how standoffish and rude he can be sometimes to some people. As I walked into the classroom, Via¡¯s head lifted off of her desk. I noticed that her cheeks and her eyes were blood red. Mr. Grey commented as he sat down at his desk, ¡°I guess you two would like a couple of minutes to talk about the quiz. We probably won¡¯t do anything else today though seeing as how most of the class won¡¯t be here for it. I can¡¯t let you go home early either, so you two just sit and keep semi-quiet. I really want to finish this book today.¡±The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I walked over to my desk, and Via got up and hugged me. I didn¡¯t see this coming, and I was shocked by it. I didn¡¯t wrap my arms around her body like she did mine at first too. I think this is the first time a person other than my family has hugged me. I could hear her nose sniffle into my chest as she grasped me. Her hair was out of the braid she had it in earlier, and it was down. I heard her say, ¡°Idiot! Don¡¯t do that again.¡± Not sure what she said, I looked down and voiced a, ¡°Hm?¡± She let go of me, and we went to sit down in our seats. She told me, ¡°Never mind.¡± As she let go of me. We sat down in our seats, and she asked me, ¡°Where are the others? Aren¡¯t they going to be getting out soon too?¡± I chuckled a bit as I told her, ¡°Apparently not, I recovered quicker than the others somehow. Everyone else is still in their bed unconscious. Mr. Grey said it might be because I have no powers to use as the reason why I recovered faster. I don¡¯t know myself to be honest. It¡¯s best not to worry about it. What happened once I went out?¡± ¡°Well, after you went unconscious, the last bell rang out through the arena. Mr. Grey set me down, and he told me to go back and get changed in the locker room then go back to the classroom. After that, He shot up through the air carrying you. I had no idea how badly hurt you were, or if you were going to be okay. Why were you trying to get him to let go of me at the end anyway? Shouldn¡¯t you have been trying to get him to let go of you?¡± Embarrassed a bit at my reason to hit the arm holding her, I looked away from her earnest face. I told her in a quiet voice, almost a mumble, ¡°Well I wanted you to pass the quiz the most since you were worried about quizzes so much and wanted to do well today. What happened to you yesterday at training got me fired up too to help you do better than the rest of your former team.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± She responded simply, and there was a long silence afterwards. Trying to pick the conversation back up, I asked her, ¡°Did you know that Mr. Grey¡¯s last name is Summers? Apparently, he was a student here too, and he got hurt A LOT.¡± She smiled, and exclaimed, ¡°No way. You mean to tell me that monster we just fought got hurt a lot?¡± Off in the front of the room, Mr. Grey piped up his voice in defense saying, ¡°I just didn¡¯t know how to control my power! That¡¯s why I¡¯m going hard on you guys, so you learn how to use your powers most effectively and level up fast.¡± We laughed at his objection to the subject and he turned back to reading his book. I looked at Via and told her, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for not coming up with a better plan today. If I thought of a better plan, and I executed it better then maybe Zen, Itsuki, Thomas, and Jack could have lasted to the end.¡± She put her hand on my shoulder and comforted me saying, ¡°There isn¡¯t any plan you could have thought of that would be able to stop that.¡± Mr. Grey looked up at the weird phrase that was used to describe him. I nodded my head, but I thought in my head that there is alwaysa plan that can work. Via and I continued to talk about how to better ourselves the rest of the day and eventually Via and I walked out of the school together talking about the same thing. We were both tired from the day, and walked slowly on the way to our homes. So much has happened today, and my mind was shot from the events. I was so shot from the events, that I didn¡¯t see the figures following behind us. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 40: Kidnapped! ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 40¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ As Via and I walked down the road, she asked me, ¡°How do you come up with your plans anyway? Is there some sort of secret to be able to do that?¡± I shrugged my shoulders and told her, ¡°Not really, I just take ideas from what I¡¯ve read in books about past exploits other protectors have used and implement them in my plans. I guess it would take a while to read all of them though. I can¡¯t work them out to their most efficient because I¡¯m powerless though.¡± She bent over and looked at my face, her silky black hair falling to one side, and told me with sincere eyes, ¡°They seem to work really well though. I¡¯ll stick to just fighting though and leave the plans to you. I don¡¯t feel like reading history.¡± I felt my chest tighten up as she stood straight back. Is this from the injuries I received from Mr. Grey? I remembered then about everyone else that were still unconscious when I left. I told Via with a smile, ¡°Sounds good to me. I wouldn¡¯t last that long in a head on fight. I wonder if the people that were injured during the quiz are conscious again? They all seemed really out when I saw them laying in the beds.¡± Via confidently said, ¡°I¡¯m sure they are fine. Crystal High probably has the best medics out of any school.¡± I nodded. She is right. I¡¯m probably worrying for no reason. Looking back, Zen did look really peaceful laying there. I still regret that I couldn¡¯t get her to pass the quiz. Even if Via is trying to get me to move on, it still hurts that I failed. I don¡¯t want to feel like this again. Stolen novel; please report. All of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain go across the back of my neck. I felt my legs go numb, and I started to fall to the ground. I could hear Via turn quickly and look at me and say, ¡°What¡¯s the matt¡ª¡° When I landed on the ground, Via landed right beside me. She looked at me, eyes wide with shock, and exclaimed, ¡°What¡¯s going on? Who¡¯s there?¡± I tried to look up, but I couldn¡¯t move my head either. My whole body feels numb. I could hear people talking above me as I struggled on the ground to move my body even a little bit, and Via¡¯s demands to know who our attackers are. One of our attackers, a male, told someone, ¡°There I paralyzed him and the girl. You just told me I had to paralyze the guy. You never mentioned there would be a girl with him.¡± Another voice came in response to the first one saying, ¡°I didn¡¯t thinkthere would. He¡¯s a sagaru. I didn¡¯t think anyone would want to associate with him.¡± Via shouted back a retort saying, ¡°I guess you though wrongthen.¡± ¡°Why does Via have to be so strong willed?¡± I thought. ¡°She is just going to make this worse.¡± The second voice reprimanded her saying, ¡°You better be quiet girl, or I won¡¯t be as nice as I was planning to be. Your voice is getting really fucking annoying.¡± Just then I recognized the second voice. It was a female voice. I probably wouldn¡¯t have recognized it once a couple of weeks has passed, but since I just heard the voice yesterday, it was fresh on my mind. I yelled out to the girl, ¡°Hey, you are that red-haired girl that was a part of that terrorist attack yesterday! What do you want from me? You don¡¯t have anything to gain by doing this.¡± I could hear the girl say in a matter of fact tone, and feel her breath next to my ear as she bent down to me to respond saying, ¡°Actually, we do have something to gain by taking you.¡± She got up from being near me, and directed her words to her partner as she told him, ¡°We need to carry both of them with us. The boy for our original purpose, and the girl because we don¡¯t want to have any witnesses. We need to hurry and head out before our cover is blown that Genna gave us.¡± Come to think of it, shouldn¡¯t have somebody have walked by us by now? It isn¡¯t really late, and we aren¡¯t off in an alley or anything. There should at least be other students from the school walking by on their way home. What¡¯s going on? I felt the man pick me up, and he put me on his shoulder. He did the same with Via, and he put her on his other shoulder. Now that I could feel the man¡¯s body, I realized that he was a pretty big guy. Not as big as Bruno though, the other big guy in the terrorist group, but this one was still pretty large though. He carried Via and I like it was nothing, and we just walked down the street like it was normal. I could hear Via hurling insults and demands at them over my thoughts, and I stayed in silence, trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually the red-haired girl grabbed Via by the hair, and lifted her head up to look at her, and she shouted, ¡°No one can hear you! Look at this, HEY, LOOK AT ME EVERYONE! WE ARE KIDNAPPING THESE TWO! See, no reaction. No one knows we are here, so can you please shut up!¡± How do people not know that we are here? Why are we being taken somewhere? What the fuck is going on?! ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 41: The Walk to the Base ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 41¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Via finally became quiet after the red-haired girl¡¯s tirade. The red-haired girl walked behind the large man carrying us, and she moved directly in front of me. She grabbed my hair, and she forced my face to look up at her. She stared at me intently with her emerald-green eyes. ¡°Do you remember my name Khan?¡± She asked. ¡°You¡¯re an interesting guy. I didn¡¯t even expect you to remember my voice or appearance.¡± Annoyed and troubled at the current situation I was in, I told her in such an aggravated voice, I almost spat out the words, ¡°I just remember things easily, but no, I don¡¯t remember your name. I didn¡¯t care enough to remember yourname.¡± Which is true, I only remembered the names of the people I thought were important from the event. She seemed like a relatively small piece on the chess board the terrorists have. She giggled a bit and said, ¡°Well, it¡¯s Scarlett. You can remember it because of my scarletthair. You¡¯re probably wondering why we are taking you away huh? In short, you will be our sort of lab rat, but it will help people like you in the end. Our goal is to bring down the tyrannical government that is in place now, and put in place a government where low levels and sagarus aren¡¯t constantly discriminated against. It will be wonderful won¡¯t it?¡± I stared back at her with dead eyes. ¡°How na?ve she must be.¡± I thought. I answered her saying, ¡°That¡¯s not going to happen. You will never overthrow the government because of the protectors, and even if you did, it won¡¯t change much socially. People don¡¯t change easily. There will still be discrimination no matter what you do. People have grown up their whole lives being taught that sagarus and low-level people are the scum of the earth. People aren¡¯t just going to forget what they have been taught their whole life. Especially since you are using violent measures to achieve your goals, the people will not want to support it even more because of that. Your logic is flawed.¡± She swung my limp head back down against the body of the man that was carrying us, and she scolded me in an angry tone, ¡°You just think thatnow. Once you see what we are doing, you will come around. I guarantee it. You too loud mouth, even though you are high level.¡±This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. I could hear Via mumble under her breath, ¡°Yeah right.¡± It went back into silence for a little bit, and I got sucked into the steady rhythm of the man¡¯s walking pace. My mind started to wander about the purpose Scarlett said they had for kidnapping me. What does she mean by a lab rat? Does this have something to do with the DNA that the terrorist group has been stealing over various locations? How are people not seeing us walk down the street either? I asked out loud, wanting either of them to answer, ¡°How do people not see us walking down the street? It¡¯s now like we aren¡¯t noticeable.¡± I could hear Scarlett giggle playfully as she said, ¡°You would be wondering why, wouldn¡¯t you? I guess we can tell you since you are coming with us anyway. One of our members has the power to make people seem non-existent to the outside world. She can endow certain objects with that power, and all the people who have the objects can become invisible to the outside world. The only people able to see them are the people with the other objects she has endowed with her power. We slipped a coin that she gave her power to in both of your pockets when we grabbed you. The process takes a while to do and wears off in about thirty minutes, so it isn¡¯t that effective in a fight though. For the purposes we are using it for though, it is just about perfect.¡± Another member of the terrorist organization?! How many members do these guys have? ¡°Well what about our paralysis?¡± I asked. ¡°Why can¡¯t we move?¡± ¡°That would be Ford¡¯s doing. He can paralyze anybody for about forty-five minutes depending on the person with his power. He can paralyze people by shooting darts generated on his fingertips.¡± We turned a corner then, and we headed into a dark alleyway. I could hear some dogs barking from what seemed like the end of the alley, and the humidity rise in the dark place. Suddenly, we seemed to have stopped at a door, and I heard Scarlett knock on it three times. A response to the knocking could be heard on the other side of the door saying, ¡°The time is eleven fifty-eight¡­¡± Scarlett responded to him by saying, ¡°And we are preparing for high noon.¡± A door could be heard creaking open, as we walked forward into a shaded room. A sleezy man¡¯s voice rung out through the darkness asking, ¡°Why do you have those two kids with you? Don¡¯t tell me you did what Claudius specifically told you to not do.¡± ¡°Well¡­ I just couldn¡¯t help it. He seemed like such and interesting guy, and we needed more sagarus anyway. This is the perfect guy for the job, I know it!¡± ¡°Mhmm, sure, Ford can you set them over there against the pillar until Claudius comes back? Thanks.¡± Ford turned to his right, and he carried us towards a pillar and sat Via and I down. When he did, he let out a relieved sigh and said, ¡°Finally, they were starting to get really heavy.¡± Trying to take this opportunity to lighten the mood, I retorted to him, ¡°You really shouldn¡¯t judge a girl¡¯s weight like that.¡± Via let out a, ¡°Hey!¡± in protest, but the jest did a good job in lightening the solemn atmosphere in the air. The place we were in erupted in laughter and giggles. I looked around with my eyes at my surroundings, since I¡¯m still not able to move my head or neck, and the place seemed like a large warehouse. There were structures, boxes, and cat walks all around the warehouse. I let out a sigh in disappointment. This really is just a generic villain¡¯s hideout from comic books huh? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 42: Conversation with Claudius ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 42¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Via and I were laid up against one of the pillars in the huge warehouse. Our heads lay against one another as the numbness was still present in our bodies. I watched as the people apart of the terrorist group bustled around us, doing various tasks. Scarlett, however, sat in front of us just staring. It¡¯s kind of creeping me out. The low light level helped with the creepy mood too. I asked Via, ¡°How many people do you think are in this terrorist group? Every time I think that¡¯s it more people come out of a tunnel or door somewhere. It¡¯s like they are ants.¡± ¡°Maybe they have a cloning machine?¡± She retorted. A giggle could be heard coming from the direction of Scarlett. I moved my eyes at her, and her white teeth could be seen forming a smile in the darkness. ¡°You two are funny.¡± She stated flatly. Via let out a sneer as she responded saying, ¡°Thanks for the compliment.¡± Scarlett ignored the retort and told us, ¡°Our organization is living. We are always growing, always finding new members to join our cause. ¡° Curious about it, I asked her, ¡°And what is your cause exactly?¡± As Scarlett opened her mouth to respond to my question, a person covered her mouth before she let anything out. I looked at the figure closely, and I realized that it was Wayno from yesterday. His long fingers wrapped around her entire face as he leaned next to her ear and hissed into it, ¡°Don¡¯t say another word. What are theydoing here?! You had very specific instructions to not go after him. I knew we shouldn¡¯t have brought you along on the Crystal High mission. You are so impulsive. Claudius is not going to like what you did here.¡± A voice rang out through the warehouse, and the entire building went quiet at the sound of it. It seemed eerily familiar as it said, ¡°What am I not going to like here? I go away on a scouting trip for a couple of hours and something has already happened? I can¡¯t leave any of you alone for a min¡­¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. It was Claudius. His words trailed off when he saw Via and I sitting there helpless against the pillar. He calmly but menacingly let out, ¡°Scarlett! What did I say about bringing the sagaru here? We will have a conversation about this later, and you will learn to never do something like this again.¡± His slender figure walked towards us in the dim light, and it sent a chill down my spine. He bowed to us, and he told us, ¡°I¡¯m terribly sorry for this inconvience. I had no intention of kidnapping either of you.¡± ¡°But Scarlett told me that you intended to use me as like a lab rat though, and yesterday you guys said that you are trying to help people like me. What does all of this mean?¡± Claudius sighed, and he bent down to my level. His rotten teeth showed, and his mangled scarred face peered into my soul. He told me, ¡°We do need your help to achieve our goals, but we don¡¯t want to force you to do anything. That isn¡¯t what we like to do. I find that people who willingly join us are far more loyal than those who are forced. Our goal is for equality for all which I¡¯m sure you have already heard from the loud-mouthed ginger there. We intend to accomplish this goal by augmenting people¡¯s powers and creating an army of super powered individuals with multiple powers. With a sagaru like you, we would have a clean slate to work with. Usually, we have to work around certain genetics since certain powers won¡¯t work with each other, and nine times out of ten the person won¡¯t be able to use the new power to it¡¯s fullest potential. With you being a sagaru, we believe that we can get the most out of multiple abilities since you don¡¯t have any to block the effects of them. You would be a valuable addition to our organization. You would be appreciated here unlike the way you are at your school now. Even if you manage at the school, the government won¡¯t allow it in the end. They like order and the system. They will abolish anything that goes against it.¡± I looked at him, and he seemed sincere even though his physical appearance was jarring. I already made up my mind though. Just by overthrowing the government, it won¡¯t change anything in the end. I also want to prove that everybody has chance to do anything in the system now. I have to show people it is still possible to be successful if you work hard enough. I told Claudius, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but my answer is still no. You can ask Scarlett for my reasoning behind this.¡± Claudius stood up, and turned around towards Scarlett and Wayno. ¡°Well, I will stand by my word. I¡¯m not going to force you to do anything. Wayno get Terry and Bruno down here. You know what to do from there.¡± Wayno escaped into the darkness, and Claudius grabbed Scarlett by the arm and shoved her into one of the rooms in the warehouse. Wayno eventually came back with the hulking Bruno and a small kid. The kid walked up to us, and he told Via and I, ¡°Don¡¯t worry this won¡¯t hurt that much. Just make your head fuzzy is all.¡± Via and I looked at each other with worried looks, but after that I was unconscious. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 43: The Walk Home ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 43¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I suddenly woke up from the hazy abyss of my subconscious to find myself laying on the sidewalk in the dark. I moved my hand to comfort my aching head as I was thinking to myself, ¡°What happened?¡± I had no recollection of what had happened the past couple of hours. I moved my free hand behind me for support to sit up, and I felt someone else¡¯s hand laying beside me. I looked down beside me, and I saw Via laying there unconscious still. What happened to us? I remember walking down the street to head home when a hole in my memory started. Via started to twist and mumble on the ground beside me, and I knew that she was about to regain consciousness again. I shook her a bit to help her awaken, and I realized with the movement of my limbs that my joints were super sore. Luckily, Via woke up pretty fast, and I slowly moved my arms back to support my sore body. Via sat up with a hand on her head, and she asked me, ¡°What the hell happened?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I was going to ask you. I don¡¯t remember anything that has happened in the past couple of hours. Is it normal to have short term amnesia after a training session? Maybe it was the medical attention I received, but you would still remember what happened. This is weird.¡± Via laid back down on her back and put both of her hands on her head. She let out a groan as she said, ¡°My head hurts, my body is sore, and I don¡¯t have any memories of the past few hours. I just want to go to sleep and get my mind right. What time is it?¡± I looked down at my watch, and it said the time was six o¡¯clock. I told Via the time and thought to myself, ¡°It¡¯s been three hours? Were we laying here the entire three hours?¡± Just then, a person walked by us on the sidewalk, and they looked at Via and I like we were crazy. I realized then that we did kind of look nuts since we were just laying in the middle of the street at six o¡¯clock in the afternoon. I managed to get to my feet slowly, and I looked down at Via still laying on the ground with her hands still on her head. I couldn¡¯t help but give off a warm smile, and I asked her, ¡°Can you get up and walk?¡±The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Not really¡­¡± She responded, ¡°I feel that if I try to walk, I¡¯ll throw up. I don¡¯t know if my legs have enough strength yet either.¡± I let out a sigh and went crouched down slowly to her side. I picked up her arm and put it around my head. I gradually picked her up off the ground and onto her feet. She groaned as she was lifted up and asked me, ¡°What are you doing? I¡¯m telling you I can¡¯t walk or stand.¡± I ignored her and asked, ¡°Where is your home at? I can help carry you there.¡± She held her head down as she said, ¡°It¡¯s near here. You need to keep walking straight into town, and then take a right at the city hall. After you take a right, you¡¯ll see a neighborhood of houses, and that¡¯s where I live. Don¡¯t get mad if I throw up on you since you are doing this.¡± I looked at her downward looking face and slumped body and told her, ¡°It¡¯ll be fine. You just take it easy.¡± She was clearly out of it. I followed her directions to her house, and I was in awe of the buildings around me. I have been down the center of the city where all the high levels lived before, but it has been a while since I saw firsthand the magnificence of the buildings here. Compared to the house I live in, it¡¯s like I¡¯m living in medieval times, and my house is in the mid-level part of town. Comparing this to Lainey¡¯s house was even more of a jarring comparison. Via ended up throwing up mid-way like she said she probably would, and I then managed to put her on my back and piggy back carried her the rest of the way. She told me her address, and I carried her the rest of the way as she slept on my back. I finally managed to get to her house, and I rang the doorbell. Via¡¯s mom opened the door, and she seemed just as relieved as my mom did yesterday when she saw me home from school. Her parents were really grateful to me and asked me to come in to feed me, but I refused their request. I still haven¡¯t told my parents where I have been yet, and I really need to get home. I also didn¡¯t tell her parents that I was a sagaru, and I can already see the conversation come up while I¡¯m eating about what power I have. Since they are high-levels, I can imagine they won¡¯t take too kindly to me being a sagaru. Via was also out cold asleep, and I would feel even more awkward since she wouldn¡¯t be awake to accompany me with her parents. They told me thank you one last time, and I went out back into the night. My body has become a lot sorer from carrying Via, and my parents are probably worried sick. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket to call them, but when I did, the call went to voicemail. Maybe their phones are dead, or they are already out looking for me? I went through the streets in the dark, and the night seemed quieter than usual. No one was at the coffee shop tonight, and the people walking down the streets seem to be less than usual too. I traveled up the stairs of the building to my parent¡¯s apartment, and when I got there, the door was open. Were they expecting me? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 44: Murder ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 44¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I walked up to the open door, and peered into the lit-up apartment. What I saw next will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. My parents were sprawled out onto the floor of the living room, and their bodies were cut open, spilling blood everywhere. Their bodies were naked, and they were cut in half in the waist. They also had many cuts on other parts of their bodies, and they seemed to have a formation like they were on a cross. They were mutilated. I was frozen where I stood, and I went down to my knees. I couldn¡¯t yell, and I couldn¡¯t even say a word. I sat there with my mouth half open, and my eyes started to drip with tears. Who would do this?! Could it have been the terrorist group that attacked Crystal High yesterday? Did they come here looking for me to silence me, but since I wasn¡¯t here, they killed my parents instead. Why would they mutilate them this much though? I eventually tore me eyes away from the bloody scene only to be greeted with a message. Written in blood on the wall was a message saying, ¡°Leave Crystal High!!!¡± I reached my shaky hand in my pocket to get my phone out. I was still barely in the door, and I turned my back from the scene and faced the walls of the apartment complex. I dialed the number for the police, and described to them the best I could of the scene in front of me. I broke down in tears twice while on the phone with them, and the person on the phone stayed and comforted me while the officers were on their way to the crime scene. When the officers finally got to my apartment building, I hadn¡¯t moved from my spot facing the walls of the apartment complex. The officers rushed in, and I heard exclamations of, ¡°Oh my God!¡± and ¡°Holy Shit¡±, as they witnessed the scene for the first time. The officer on the other side of the phone finally hung up on me after telling me, ¡°Go talk to the officers there. Tell them what happened.¡± I dropped my hand holding my phone to the side of my body, but I didn¡¯t move from my position staring outside of the room. I don¡¯t think I can keep my sanity if I look at the scene one more time. My parents, the only people who always believed and encouraged me, died. One officer walked up to me and put his hand around my shoulders. He led me outside of my parent¡¯s apartment, so we could talk out in the hall of the apartment complex. I told him exactly what I did today, and what I saw when I got home from school. As he was finishing off his notes, he asked me, ¡°And what¡¯s your power level?¡± Why would my power level have anything to do with this? I asked him in an annoyed tone, ¡°Why do you need to know mypower level?¡±The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. I can understand why he asked my parent¡¯s power levels, but why would he need to know mine when it isn¡¯t at all necessary for the investigation. His eyes didn¡¯t leave his notepad, and he explained to me, ¡°It¡¯s just standard protocol. It determines a lot of things, so I just really need to know it. What is it then?¡± I reluctantly and quietly said, ¡°I¡¯m a sagaru¡­¡± ¡°What was that?¡± I again told him quietly, ¡°I¡¯m a sagaru¡­¡± ¡°What was that? Speak up son!¡± This time I spoke up in a normal voice with a sense of pride rising in me and told him, ¡°I¡¯m a sagaru.¡± The officer looked up from his notepad for the first time since the interview started, and he looked at me with bewildered eyes. He put his pen back in his chest pocket, and he went back in the apartment room as he told me, ¡°Wait here.¡± I waited patiently outside as the officers were inside the apartment. Soon after he went in though, he came out along with all the other officers that were inside investigating. He walked up beside me and told me, ¡°The cleaners will be here in just a bit. Sorry for your loss. We¡¯ll contact you later with what we found about the murder case.¡± Were they just going to leave me here? They all left the apartment complex, and didn¡¯t look back. Do they even know my contact info? They didn¡¯t even ask the neighbors if they heard anything happen. I decided to ask them myself. I first went to the neighbor to the right of my apartment, and ask her if she heard anything happen over at my apartment throughout the day. The person that lives there is a freshman college student that moved in early this year. I never really see her come out of her apartment, so she has to have heard something. I knocked on her door, no answer. I knocked on it again a little harder, still no answer. ¡°Is she asleep¡± I thought. I knocked on it again as hard as I could, and I still didn¡¯t hear even a stir come from her room. After this I gave up, she is clearly a deep sleeper. I will just come and ask her tomorrow. I went over to my other neighbor¡¯s apartment, and went to knock on their door. In this apartment, a young couple lives there. They moved in three years ago, and I have seen and talked to them a couple of times before when I see them at the coffee shop near our apartment complex. I knocked on their door, and the husband opened the door. Before I could even ask him if he heard anything, he quickly told me, ¡°Go away kid. You don¡¯t know what you¡¯re messing with right now.¡± With that, he shut his door in my face. Right after he did that, the sound of footsteps could be heard marching up the steps to my apartment. I turned to the stairs and up walked the cleaners. The cleaners didn¡¯t even acknowledge me as they marched into my apartment. They didn¡¯t allow me in to see what they were doing. They were in there for about thirty minutes before they marched back out. They walked out in the same manner as they walked in. I hesitantly looked into my apartment room, and it was like a murder didn¡¯t even occur. The room was spotless. Was this a by-product from one of their powers? How am I going to have a funeral for my parents though? I dialed the police again, but this time no one answered. I suddenly felt completely and utterly alone in this world. I didn¡¯t turn the lights out, and I didn¡¯t go to my room that night. I simply curled up into a ball on the rug in the center of the living room, and cried myself to sleep. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 45: The Dream ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 45¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I was in a dark room. There were three groups of people in front of me with the lone lights shining on them. Max Powers, Mr. Shadowfox, President Jen (The President of my nation), and a couple more heroes who weren¡¯t in the light fully made out the group on the right side. My parents made up the group in front of me, and the terrorist group, with Claudius at the head, made out the group on the left. They all looked at me with no expression of emotion or any notice that I was even standing in front of them. I tried to run to my parents and hug them. I just wanted to at least tell them good-bye! My legs were stuck on the ground though. As much as I tried to move forward, my efforts seemed to be useless. It was like my feet were stuck to the ground with glue! Tears streamed down my face as I tried in vain to get to my parents. I shouted to them through tears, ¡°Mom¡­Dad! I¡¯m over here and can¡¯t move! Please Just come to me! Please!¡± They didn¡¯t respond to my pleas at all though, and I watched helplessly as they ignored me. All of a sudden, a flash of light went out through the dark room¡ªblinding me for a couple of seconds. When I finally regained my sight, the room was dark again, but when I looked at where my parents stood, they weren¡¯t standing there anymore. Instead of them standing there, their bodies lay there exactly the way I found them tonight, naked, cut in half, cuts all over, blood spewing everywhere, and their bodies laid in a cross like position. I went down to my knees, and shouted, ¡°NOO!!¡± I don¡¯t know if I can take this. I¡¯m feeling so sad, but an anger is rising up within me too. I¡¯m angry at the people who did this. I¡¯m angry that I was powerless to stop it. I¡¯m angry that it looks like this happened just because I¡¯m a sagaru going to Crystal High. I¡¯m so angry and so sad, but I don¡¯t have anyone to take out my anger on or listen to me vent my sadness. As I stared at my parents¡¯ bodies again and was thinking all of this, a blue flame rose up and engulfed them. They were almost instantly burned to ash. A blue flame then rose up and engulfed Max Powers and Mr. Shadowfox¡¯s group, and they were also instantly burned to ash. This surprised me because of the power levels of them. It wouldn¡¯t take any ordinary flame to do that to them. Then the blue flame then engulfed Claudius and the terrorists, and it burned them to ash instantly. I was shocked, and I watched the blue flame in awe as it burned brightly throughout the room. Next thing I heard was a click reverberate throughout the room. I looked behind me, and Mr. Grey and my classmates was standing behind me with a light shining down on them. The blue flame then moved from the ashes of the three groups that was in front of me, and it moved around me toward Mr. Grey and my classmates. I tried to lunge forward to stop it, but my feet were still stuck on the ground. I reached out my hand to stop the flame, but it didn¡¯t have any effect on it. The flame bared down on them at amazing speed. When it finally got to them, Mr. Grey and the others didn¡¯t burn to ash though. The blue flame encircled them, and the flames rose up high above them. Instead of burning them though, the flame seemed to protect and care for them. The flame, unlike before, seemed to glow in the dark with a beautiful hue. No smoke was emitted from it, and it actually had a nice fragrance coming off of it. Where the other scenes just moments before gave me feelings of anger, sadness, and panic, this one provided me with feelings of peace and tranquility. With these warm feelings filling my body as I watched the scene, I woke up.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I woke up still curled up in a ball on the living room floor with tears flowing down my cheeks. My living room couch to the back of me, and the kitchen and table in front of me as I¡¯m facing the TV and the doors to mine and my parents¡¯ room. The floor in front of me was charred black for some reason. The smell of smoke resonated in the room, but there wasn¡¯t any smoke coming from the charred floor. I looked behind me, and the floor was perfectly fine. The charred floor was just in front of me. I got up slowly to my feet, and my head was pounding throughout my body. ¡°What time is it?¡± I thought to myself. I looked over at the clock sitting on the desk beside the couch, and it said that the time was ten thirty-three. I put my right hand up to my aching head and scratched it. I¡¯m so late for school. Should I even go to school anymore? The message on the wall told me I shouldn¡¯t go anymore, but I don¡¯t really feel like I have anything to lose anymore either. I wiped away the tears on my face, and I went and took a shower and put some new clothes on. I went back into the living room, and I sat in the middle of the floor again. I didn¡¯t feel like I could eat, and I didn¡¯t feel like I could do anything today. I looked at my phone, and I had messages from Zen, Via, and Thomas all asking why I wasn¡¯t at class today. I didn¡¯t feel like responding to them though. I didn¡¯t feel like doing anything. While I was sitting in the middle of the floor, a knock came from the front door. I didn¡¯t want to get up at first, but the person kept knocking louder and louder. I got up slowly and gingerly again, and I went to the door. I opened the door, and I found the landlord to be standing on the other side. He looked at me with lifeless eyes, and he told me, ¡°Hey kid, I need you to head out of this apartment. You have thirty minutes before I call the police. I gave you time to sleep and everything which is nicer than what most people would do. Hurry up and get out. I don¡¯t think you want to spend the day in a jail cell.¡± With that, he left down the hallway. I stayed put in the doorway, dumbfounded by what he said. I just lost my parents a few hours ago, and now I¡¯m not going to even have a place to stay? I reluctantly went in my room, and I got a backpack. I put some spare clothes in it, my toiletries, my phone charger, and I also had my school materials inside of it. I headed back to the door, and as I was walking out, I looked back and recalled all the memories I had of my parents and childhood here. I reminisced at my struggles, and the good times and loving memories of this place. With a couple of minutes reminiscing, I started the slow walk out of the apartment complex. Where am I going to go now? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 46: The Chase ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 46¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I stumbled my way down the barren streets outside my apartment in the middle of the day. Everyone seemed to be either at work or at school. My whole body was aching, probably from the few hours of sleep I got on my living room floor, and my face felt sore from my crying last night. I don¡¯t have anywhere I can go right now. Most of my parents¡¯ friends avoided me because I was a sagaru, and I don¡¯t have any friends I can stay with. I could ask Lainey, but I haven¡¯t talked to her in a while. I could ask Zen or Via, but their parents¡¯ don¡¯t know me well or that I¡¯m a sagaru. It seems like I¡¯m going to be homeless for a while at least. I could hear thunder sound off in the distance. The gloomy weather seemed to be back again. A mist started to come down while I was walking, and I put my hood up and mindlessly walked straight ahead. There are so many thoughts going on inside my head. The last forty-eight hours have been a whirlwind of emotions. A group of construction workers passed by me on the road, and the knocked me around like a pinball until I was sitting on my ass on the sidewalk. I looked up at the group as the passed by my, and they ignored me completely. It¡¯s like I wasn¡¯t even there to them. They continued on their way laughing while I was left on the ground with my head down. I thought about just sitting there for the rest of the day. I wasn¡¯t hungry at all. I felt that if I ate something, it would just come right back up. I already feel emotionally and physically drained for the day. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to do¡­¡± I thought to myself. ¡°Hey, kid! Get back here right now!¡± I turned my head, and I saw a man running from the direction of my old apartment building. ¡°The landowner?¡± I thought to myself, ¡°What does he want from me?¡± The landowner was running at me fast, and I realized that it must be because of the burn marks that was left on the floor of the apartment. I really don¡¯t want to get in trouble. He will never believe me if I say I don¡¯t know how it happened. I hurriedly got to my feet and started running in the opposite direction. ¡°I¡¯m going to kill you, you little shit!¡± I could hear him yell from behind me.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I continued my run away from him, and when I turned around to see where he was, I saw that the gap between us hadn¡¯t widened a bit. Just how fast was this guy?! I looked back in front of me, and I tried to run even faster. This backfired on me though when a group of what looked like college kids turned the corner. I ran right into them, and they all tumbled down like pins at a bowling alley. I crawled over the fallen students, but as I was about to get back up and start running again, I felt someone grab my leg. Did the landowner catch me? I looked behind me, and it was one of the college kids holding onto my leg. ¡°Just a second mate, you don¡¯t think I¡¯ll let you leave without apologizing huh?¡± He told me. I started to shake my leg and told him, ¡°Sorry for the trouble, can you please let go of my leg?¡± I looked past the people on the ground, I could see the landowner steadily gaining ground on me. I started to try and shake my leg more frantically to get free, but the guy kept holding onto me! He asked me, ¡°Why are you so adamant in leaving?¡± A familiar voice asked out in the chaos, ¡°Is that you Khan?¡± I looked at the direction of the voice, and I saw that it was Jane¡ªthe college student that moved in to be our neighbor earlier in the year. I quickly told her, ¡°Yes, can you please tell your friend to let me go?!¡± She looked down and told him, ¡°Hey, it¡¯s cool Denny. Let go of him.¡± ¡°What, but why?¡± he protested, but it was too late. By the time he had asked that, he loosened his grip, and I used that opportunity to wiggle free of his grasp. I quickly got back onto my feet and went back to running again. I could hear Jane behind me ask, ¡°Hey, Khan¡­What¡¯s going on? Hey!¡± She yelled out an objection as the landowner bumped into her and shoved out of the way as he passed by and yelled out a strict, ¡°Move!¡± to her. I had to shake this guy somehow! The rain increased to a sprinkle now instead of a mist. I turned the corner at the end of the street, and I saw that there was a path extending away from the main road with a wall surrounding the area. I immediately took that path when I got to it, and I hid behind the wall. I could hear the feet of the landowner keep running past the entrance of the past and down the road. I breathed a sigh of relief as I let my body loosen up. I walked away from the wall and went back to the main path to look around. I realized when I got there that I¡¯m standing on the Campus of Crystal High! Did I subcontiously travel here when I was walking earlier? ¡°Well if it isn¡¯t Mr. Khan. How do you do on this rainy day?¡± I turned to see where the voice came from, and I saw the principal walked down the path towards me. Am I going to be in trouble? I heard another set of feet run up the street entrance to the path. Did the landowner find me? ¡°Khan!¡± the voice yelled. I turned around and saw Jane standing there at the entrance. I heard the principal say, ¡°Hmm¡­This is interesting.¡± ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 47: A New Resolve ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 47¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I looked down to the ground, and I thought to myself as I scratched my head, ¡°This whole day is confusing and tiring. It¡¯s just one thing on top of another. What is the principal doing here, and why did Jane follow me? Why did it have to be that this path led to Crystal High? I didn¡¯t want to come here again after that note written in blood I saw last night.¡± ¡°Why are you late for your classes?¡± I heard the principal ask. Jane snapped her head toward me as her eyes widened, and she asked, ¡°You go to Crystal High?!¡± I mumbled a, ¡°Yeah¡­¡± in response. I didn¡¯t feel good all of a sudden. My head started to get real light headed, and my vision started to go blurry. I looked at Jane, and I saw her mouth moving but no sound came out. I gave a confused look, but I couldn¡¯t say anything. My mouth wouldn¡¯t move. Suddenly, I was no longer looking at Jane, and I was looking at the cloudy sky. I¡¯m just so tired. Emotionally and physically, I feel like I¡¯m bogged down. I eventually just closed my eyes as I saw blurry figures look over me. I just wanted to hide away from everything. I want to find a different reality. All of the constant physical and emotional abuse I go through on a daily basis is so hard to handle, and I don¡¯t know how I can handle it without the solid foundation of my parents. I wish I lived in a world where everyone didn¡¯t have a power. I feel like it would be so much simpler, and people wouldn¡¯t emotionally abuse others over things that the other person can¡¯t control. I don¡¯t want to fight for my place in this world anymore. I just want to go away and live alone. I thought about all the other sagarus then, and I thought about what would happen to them. I thought about what all the past, current, and future sagarus and low levels have to go through, and it isn¡¯t any worse than what I have been through. I have to continue this journey for them. This is bigger than just me! I felt a wave of anger wash over me as I thought about the actions people take to belittle people that they perceive lower than themselves. I hate the people that mutilated my parents. I hate this abusive system! I will change this system for the better, not for me, but the hundreds of thousands low levels and sagarus after me! I woke up in one of the medical beds I was in yesterday with a new found resolve inside me. I instinctively tried to get up from the bed only find out that I was held in restraints. There were burn marks on the bed I was laying in just like the floor last night. What¡¯s the reason behind those marks? I looked around the room, and I didn¡¯t see anyone in the room around me. ¡°Uhh¡­Hello?¡± I asked out in the empty room.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re awake!¡± I heard a voice come from behind my bed. I heard some footsteps come around to the side of my bed, and I saw that it was the principal. ¡°Why am I in restraints?¡± I asked him. He ignored me and told me, ¡°You¡¯re an interesting guy. Do you know that? So many things revolve around you, and you don¡¯t even seem to realize it sometimes. It really is quite fun to watch most of the time. Don¡¯t worry about that Jane girl. She is waiting outside to talk with you. Apparently, she is really excited that she knows someone that got into Crystal High.¡± Confused, I asked him, ¡°What are you talking about?¡± He ignored me yet again, and he asked me, ¡°Tell me, why were you late today? Dr. Trey said he didn¡¯t see anything wrong with you aside from extreme exhaustion, and you don¡¯t seem to be the type of person to miss without a good reason. You also had clothes and toiletries in your school bag. Are you running away from your home?¡± I sat in silence for a minute, deciding on whether I can trust the principal or not, and I finally came to a conclusion. I looked up into the enlarged eyes of the principal due to his glasses and asked him, ¡°Is it possible for Mr. Grey to come here? I¡¯ll feel better if he is here.¡± I felt that if Mr. Grey was here, I would be able to talk about what happened last night more easily. For some reason, I feel as if he and I are a lot alike, and he has my best interests in heart. It¡¯s a different feeling from all the other teachers I have had in the past. He may be scary and mysterious, but there is something about him¡­I can relate to. The principal gave a warm smile, and he looked at his watch, ¡°Let¡¯s see he shouldn¡¯t have a class at this time.¡± His glasses grew white, and he said, ¡°There he is. Mr. Grey may you please come to the medical room as fast as you can please? Thank you.¡± I gave a confused look, and the principal giggled at my gaze. He said, ¡°It¡¯s how I look through all of my crystals in the school. My glasses is like a computer screen, and I can lookat all my crystals and communicate through the crystals with them. It really is useful for being a principal.¡± Mr. Grey then walked through the door of the medical room, and the principal greeted him saying, ¡°Ah, there you are! Thank you for coming here on such short notice, but I think you will be interested in what one of you students has to say.¡± He looked at me with his one eye, and he told me in his melancholic voice, ¡°You missed class. You have one day to do the make-up work before it becomes a zero.¡± The principal chimed in with his chipper voice, and told him, ¡°Now, now, Mr. Grey¡­Let the poor boy talk.¡± He looked back at me and said, ¡°Go ahead son. Tell us what happened.¡± I proceeded to recount the events of the past twenty-four hours to them. Mr. Grey¡¯s face remained unchanged while the principal¡¯s twisted in horror. I broke down recounting how my parents were mutilated, and the principal put his hand on my head to comfort me as he said some soothing words. I told them about the note on the wall, the dream I had that night, the burn marks on the floor of the living room, the landlord kicking me out, and the chase had occurred that morning. I told them everything. I wonder what they will do about it? Will they do anything about it? I¡¯m just a sagaru after all¡­ ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 48: Living Arrangements ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 48¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ After I finished recounting what I remembered, the principal seemed to get lost in thought. Mr. Grey gave me a blank stare, and I couldn¡¯t read him like usual. The principal eventually told me, ¡°Since you are awake now, I¡¯m going to get these restraints off. Grey can you come with me out in the hall? We need to discuss some things.¡± The principal released me out of the restraints, and he put his hand on Mr. Grey¡¯s shoulder as they walked out into the hallway. Why did I have restraints on me anyway? I rubbed my wrists to get back the blood circulation that was lost because of the restraints, and I sat up in the bed and stretched my legs. I heard the door open to the medical room again, and I expected the principal and Mr. Grey to come back in but that wasn¡¯t the case. Jane was the one that walked into the room with me. ¡°Why are you still here?¡± I wondered out loud. ¡°I¡¯m your neighbor, and neighbors help each other where I¡¯m from. That and that principal asked me to stay.¡± she answered, ¡°Besides, You¡¯re an interesting guy. Why did you never say that you had a power? I could have swore that you told me that you were a sagaru when we first met. I thought that was pretty cool to be honest. Since I¡¯m from the country, I have never saw a sagaru before, but I¡¯m pretty close to one my power level is so low haha! I was only able to get that apartment and into my college because of my parents.¡± I looked at her with a confused an annoyed look. What is she talking, and doesn¡¯t she know that teasing me right now just isn¡¯t the right time? ¡°I am a sagaru.¡± I told her in an annoyed tone. It was her turn to look confused now as she asked, ¡°What do you mean? You seemed to be one of the most powerful people I have seen in my life.¡± ¡°What is this girl talking about?¡± I thought to myself. Before I could ask her what the hell she was talking about, the principal and Mr. Grey walked back into the room. The principal saw Jane and up-beat said, ¡°Oh, hello Jane! I was just about to call you back in here. Grey this is Jane, Khan¡¯s neighbor I told you about.¡±A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Mr. Grey nodded his head toward her as the only acknowledgment of her existence to him, and he looked back to me after that. The principal proceeded to talk with Jane again saying, ¡°Jane do you mind if Khan can stay with you for a while. I know this is a bit sudden but his parents are currently out of town for a while, and he needs to stay here for his studies. Don¡¯t worry we will help provide you with the means to buy extra food and supplies for him to live with you. We¡¯ll talk to the land lord for you. It seems like you are familiar with each other too, so it won¡¯t be that bad.¡± Jane seemed to hesitate a bit, and she said, ¡°Umm¡­I don¡¯t know if I can or not. My parents are the ones that pay for the house, so I¡¯ll have to ask them. Even if they accept, I¡¯ll need a day to clean up my apartment. I¡¯m sure they would allow it if you asked them principal, but why not just ask the couple that lives next to him? I¡¯m sure they won¡¯t mind.¡± I was reminded then, of how that same couple abandoned me when I asked them for help. Animosity rose up within me, and I told the principal, ¡°I know that beggars can¡¯t be choosers right now, but I won¡¯t stay with them.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­Fine, Jane let¡¯s go outside to call your parents.¡± The principal said, almost unphased by my hard rejection of the other neighbor idea. Jane and the principal walked out into the hallway leaving only Mr. Grey and I in the medical room. There was an awkward silence for about thirty seconds until Mr. Grey said something to me. He looked at me and said, ¡°I know how it feels¡­to lose what seems to be everything. The whole world seems to get darker, and you don¡¯t feel like doing anything. You just want to hide away from the world. I¡¯m not good at consulting people and helping them emotionally. I can only tell you what I did to help go through it. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s the best way to deal with it, but I just lost myself in work and training. From dawn until dusk, I trained relentlessly to make sure I could protect everyone close to me. I¡¯ve had a lot of sleepless nights, and I still do. This is something that will live with you forever, but you have to move on sooner or later. You can¡¯t stay living in the past because you¡¯ll miss out on future opportunities and the people still alive that care about you. I don¡¯t know how you can somehow move on from this horrible incident, but I know that you¡¯ll find a way. This is a turning point in your life. I know it. The question is¡­Will this break you or will you overcome this and come out stronger?¡± I turned my head from him back to the ground as I thought about his words. What am I going to do to move on with my life? How canI move on with my life after something so gruesome? I have so many emotions spinning around in my head right now. I just want to lay down and think things out. ¡°We¡¯re back!¡± The principal said as he and Jane walked back into the room. ¡°It¡¯s settled.¡± He told me, ¡°You are going to be staying with Jane for a little while, and you will stay there today. I managed to convince her to allow you to stay tonight too as long as you help clean up. You don¡¯t have to stay the rest of the day at school. From what I¡¯ve heard from Jane, you have a lot of cleaning to do. You are discharged to leave now. I suggest you get to work as soon as possible. I¡¯ll talk to the landlord before you get there to get that situation sorted.¡± I got up from the bed and stretched my appendages, and Jane leaned toward me and whispered, ¡°It¡¯s not thatbad.¡± I gave her a cautious look. If someone says that, that usually means it really isthatbad. I got my bookbag, and as we were walking out of the room, I heard Mr. Grey say, ¡°I expect you to be at school tomorrow.¡± Oh yeah, I have to come up with some explanations to give to Via, Zen, and the others. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 49: The Walk Back ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 49¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Jane and I walked back down the street on the rainy day. My body aches have returned with the lack of adrenaline from my sleep last night, and I was dragging behind Jane since I feel physically and mentally exhausted. Feeling guilty about being a sudden burden to her, I told her, ¡°You don¡¯t have to do this. I know this is a bother to you, and you were probably going to hang out with your friends before I ran into you¡­¡± She cut me off before I could finish feeling sorry for myself, and she said, ¡°No, no, no¡­You aren¡¯t a bother at all. I don¡¯t have many visitors, so it gets pretty lonely anyway. And we were just going to get coffee anyway, so it¡¯s not that big of a deal. I¡¯m not really close with them either. It¡¯s usually just me off silent in a corner while they all have a conversation. The struggles of being an introvert, am I right? Hehe.¡± I didn¡¯t really get it. That seemed pretty normal to me to be left out of group conversations, but I¡¯m a sagaru too so that also effects my social interactions. I think she could see that I didn¡¯t really get why she was laughing for, and she quickly changed the subject. She asked, ¡°Soo where are your parent going to be for the next couple of months? The principal would never tell me.¡± ¡°Shit!¡± I thought to myself. I still need to come up with a reason for that. If I tell her the truth, she will probably never allow me near her home, and it¡¯s still hard to talk about. I don¡¯t want people to worry about me either. I may tell people in time, but I don¡¯t want people bothering me about it right now and reminding me of what happened by saying they¡¯re sorry for me. I feel like that is incredibly selfish of me, but I can¡¯t bear it right now. I stuttered out, ¡°Uhhh¡­Ummm¡­They are on a business trip out of the country. They are the sales rep for their company, and they were asked to pitch a product to a fellow company over there.¡± ¡°Really? I thought they worked a desk job. It has been a while since we last talked though, so I may have forgot.¡± Jane wondered. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. I hurriedly covered the lie by saying, ¡°They recently got a promotion!¡± I blurted out, ¡°This is the first job they got in their new position, so they had to take it.¡± ¡°Ohhh¡­That makes sense then. Want to go get some coffee before we start to clean up. I¡¯m going to need my energy.¡± I breathed a sigh of relief when she accepted my explanation without question, and I told her, ¡°Sure, I never had coffee before, so I¡¯m going to trust you to get me a good drink.¡± She darted her head back to me, and her eyes grew wide. ¡®You never had coffee before?!¡± She exclaimed, ¡°How do you survive the day?¡± ¡°I just have a lot of natural energy I guess.¡± I said in response. She turned back forward, and she picked up her pace to my aching body¡¯s dismay and said, ¡°We are going to change that today. Hurry up! We need to get there before the lunch rush. I know exactly what to get you too.¡± I suddenly became a little worried. What exactly is she planning? I eventually let it slide though, and I focused on trying to keep up with her. I didn¡¯t have any adrenaline right now to keep my body from aching, and I was struggling to keep her pace to the coffee shop she was going to. ¡°Where is this coffee shop at?¡± I asked her through exhales. ¡°It¡¯s the coffee shop right next to the apartment complex. It¡¯s the best one in town!¡± She grabbed my wrist and pulled me faster down the street. She is clearly excited. When we finally got to the coffee shop and entered, I was hit by a wave of coffee bean smell. I looked around the cozy shop, and I realized I have never actually been inside before. Jane ordered the drinks while I was looking around the room, and she gave me the drink when she got it. We started to walk out of the coffee shop, and she asked me in an anxious voice, ¡°Sooo, how does it taste??¡± I put the coffee cup to my lips, and I took a sip of the drink. My mouth was immediately filled with a warm flavor, and energy was sent throughout my body. I suddenly feel like I can do activities now. A slight smile grew on my face as I told her, ¡°It¡¯s good.¡± Her face became filled with a sense of accomplishment as we entered the apartment complex. We walked past the landlord on the way up the stairs, and he pointed his finger at me and snarled, ¡°You got lucky son¡­¡± I eyed him and hurriedly flew up the stairs. I didn¡¯t stop until we got to the floor of Jane¡¯s apartment. When she caught back up to me at the top of the stairs she said, ¡°I guess the energy boost has hit you from the coffee haha.¡± ¡°I guess haha. By the way, what¡¯s your power? You have never said.¡± I asked. I remember that her level is low, but I still don¡¯t know what her power is specifically. Jane looked down from what seemed like embarrassment as she fumbled for her keys. ¡°Umm¡­It¡¯s a weird power.¡± She confessed, ¡°I have power that I can¡¯t train easily, so I have stayed a low level my entire life. I can hypnotize people for a short period of time when I kiss them. I only found out about this when I kissed my family goodnight though. I never had the courage to use it in a useful way.¡± A warm smile grew on my face as she finally managed to get her keys out to unlock her door. I almost forgot about the tragedy that happened just one apartment down. Her seeming lack of knowledge on social situations puts me at ease knowing I won¡¯t be the only one getting into awkward situations. She opened the door into her apartment, and as I walked into the apartment, I saw trash and clutter everywhere. It looked horrible. ¡°Not thatbad huh?¡± I said. This is going to take a while. ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 50: Cleaning Up ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 50¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I stared in dismay at all the clutter in the room. There were pizza boxes lying all over the ground, and coffee cups on top of books and other clutter on desks and shelves. She walked through the maze of clutter and oddities on the floor, and she went and picked up a postcard sitting on an empty pizza box and said, ¡°Sorry, I like to collect souvenirs to show my family back home. I also have some stuff from my home, so I don¡¯t get homesick.¡± I walked over and picked up an empty coffee cup and asked in a sarcastic tone, ¡°Souvenirs huh?¡± She bounded determinedly toward me and snatched the coffee cup out of my hand as she commanded, ¡°Shut-up, the cup¡¯s design is unique okay?¡± ¡°Mhmm¡­You¡¯re a classic horder.¡± She looked at me and defiantly said, ¡°I am not!¡± I went through the apartment, stumbling across the random items here and there, and looked around at the kitchen area that was covered with unfinished meals and dirty dishes, and I nodded and said, ¡°Of course. Well¡­Where are we going to start cleaning up?¡± She looked around the room and let out an exasperated sigh. She pointed at the front door and said, ¡°I guess we should start at the front door then move on throughout the apartment.¡± I stumbled back across the apartment, and I told her, ¡°We need to throw some of this stuff away whether you like it or not. Can you go get a trash bag? I will start to gather up trash. You can keep the actual souvenirs, but the coffee cups and uneaten pizza boxes have got to go.¡± She turned back to the kitchen to get a bag and defiantly said, ¡°Fine¡­¡± This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. I finished up my coffee, and I started to put the trash in a group off by itself with the energy the coffee gave me. I doubt that Jane would have gotten all of this cleaned up in one day without me. I thought about when I knocked on her door last night. She probably would never have managed to get to the door to open if she even managed to hear the knock through all of this clutter. I shook my head in empathy. I can sort of understand this mess. She has never lived alone or even been in a city before. It¡¯s only natural this much of a mess piles up I suppose. Jane bounded back to the front door with a trash bag in hand, and a new resolve to clean up this mess. She set the trash bag up and said, ¡°Well¡­let¡¯s get started.¡± A twinge of pain was in her voice, but she helped nonetheless. We were cleaning up the rest of the day and only stopped to eat some pizza for dinner. Over the meal, Jane told me about where she got all of her ¡°souvenirs¡±, and it was surprisingly interesting how she got some of them. She got a tea set from an old lady in the poor-low level part of town, and she got a silk scarf on her travel from her home on the countryside to the city. She even managed to find a golden necklace in her bed when she got here. No one has come to pick it up yet, so she has just kept it as her own. After we finished eating, it was already really late. We had cleaned up from the front door all the way to about halfway through the kitchen. We still have the room to clean up, but we decided to clean it up tomorrow. I¡¯m feeling very weary at the moment. The energy from the coffee is gone now, and I¡¯m feeling the crash from the caffeine. I walked slowly to the front door with the empty pizza box, and I placed it in a trash bag. There were about ten trash bags set up beside the door full of useless junk and empty food boxes. I let out an exasperated sigh and started to pick one the bags up to put them outside in the garbage. Jane walked next to me and picked up another as she said, ¡°Are we going to take these down to the alleyway, and you¡¯ll burn them to get them out of the way? You surely have enough power to turn them to ash instantly. You can probably turn anything to ash instantly.¡± ¡°Again, with the power talk?¡± I thought to myself. I looked at her with annoyance as I said, ¡°No¡­We are taking them down to the trash can in the alleyway and leave them there for the garbage men.¡± She laughed at what I said, and she asked, ¡°That¡¯s a joke right?¡± I looked back at her with the same annoyance as before, and I told her flatly, ¡°No.¡± I guess that could be her social situation unawareness showing by thinking that was a joke, but I have had enough with the power thing today. Every time she brings it up, I think about how my parents wouldn¡¯t be dead right now if only I had a power. After we finished putting the garbage away, she went into her room to sleep, and I went to bed on the couch. Before she went to her room, she apologized to me saying, ¡°Sorry about the sleeping arrangements. I¡¯ll get an extra mattress later tomorrow.¡± I waved her off and calmed her down saying, ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯m just grateful to not be sleeping on the hard floor or outside in the cold and rain.¡± I drifted in and out of sleep on the couch. I kept having the same dream as last night about the blue flame engulfing my parents, the terrorists, Max Powers, and protecting my classmates and Mr. Grey. I eventually just ended up laying there in the darkness thinking about school tomorrow. I hope it won¡¯t be anything too extraneous. I don¡¯t think my sore and weary body will be able to take it. All of a sudden, a loud THUDrang out through the darkness. The sound came from Jane¡¯s room. Is there someone here to kill her now? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ Chapter 51: Back at School ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UChapter 51¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„ I stumbled off of the couch, and felt my way to the door to her room. We luckily cleaned enough up for me to not make any loud sounds stumbling across clutter as I made my way there. When I put my hand on her door handle, I found myself to be breathing heavily, and my heart to be pounding in my chest. I grabbed my chest and breathed in and out deeply to calm myself down. ¡°It¡¯s going to be okay.¡± I thought to myself, ¡°Even if you die here, you¡¯ll be reunited with your mom and dad, but you can¡¯t just let Jane die.¡± With my nerves calmed down and my resolve strengthened, I swung the door open wide, but I didn¡¯t find the horrifying scene I was expecting. Instead, I found Jane lying on the floor, wrapped in a tangled mess of covers and on top of random oddities. I let out a sigh of relief, and I looked around the cluttered room. ¡°It¡¯s even worse than the living room.¡± I thought to myself. At least the living room and kitchen had pathways to where you could get across, her room was completely covered with clutter. I couldn¡¯t even see the floor! I started to go back to the couch, but I turned around and looked back at Jane laying in a very uncomfortable position on the floor. I shook my head and took pity on her. I stumbled my way to her, and due to the unsteady ground from the clutter, I ended up throwing her back onto the bed. Unsurprisingly, Jane didn¡¯t skip a beat in her deep sleep. I stood back up uneasily next to her bed, and I started to turn around to head out of the room. Before I could take one step, I was launched back on to the bed. Jane had grabbed the collar of my shirt and now had me stuck in a bear hug. I struggled to get free from her grip, but she was stronger than I thought. She only gripped me stronger when I tried to get free. She buried me in her arms, and I heard her let out, ¡°Bobby¡­¡± ¡°Bobby?¡± I thought, ¡°Who is Bobby?¡± Eventually I got tired of struggling to get free, and I resigned myself to my fate of being a replacement Bobby. It ended up being surprisingly relaxing. The feeling of being held in another person¡¯s arms seemed to strangely comfort me, and before I knew it, I was asleep on the bed¡­In her arms.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I woke up to a loud shriek that made me jump out of the bed. I face planted into the floor of clutter, and I asked out through pain, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°Why was I holding you in my bed?!¡± Jane cried out. I got up from the floor, and I told her, ¡°I don¡¯t know. I heard a loud THUDduring the night, and when I came to check on you, you were sprawled out asleep on the floor. I put you back in your bed, but before I could leave, you grabbed me and hugged me for the rest of the night. Who¡¯s Bobby by the way?¡± ¡°He¡¯s my little brother¡­B-but that¡¯s beside the point.¡± She stuttered, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t walk into a lady¡¯s room.¡± As I was walking out of the room, I told her, ¡°I know that now. I¡¯m sorry.¡± I¡¯m feeling much better than I did yesterday, and I don¡¯t want to get into an argument now. I¡¯ll just walk out and pretend none of this had happened. Before I could leave out of the room, Jane called out, ¡°Wait¡­Aren¡¯t you going to take a shower?¡± I paused about a foot away from the door, and I turned around. ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right.¡± It has been two days since I last took a shower. I stumbled my way across the floor of clutter to the bathroom in front of Jane¡¯s bed, and I asked Jane, ¡°Could you get my bag for me? It has my clothes in it.¡± After I took a shower and put 2ndset of clothes on, Jane and I had breakfast at the coffee shop by the apartment complex. We sat there awkwardly for a couple of minutes, both embarrassed about the night before, but before long, I asked her, ¡°So, what are you majoring in college?¡± Between bites of her pancake, she answered, ¡°I¡¯m majoring in English. It isn¡¯t that high paying of a job, but it¡¯s the best I can do for my power level. Not everyone can be as powerful as you haha.¡± I ignored the remark about powers and we continued to talk about her major. She mainly went into the major so she can travel all across the country. I guess staying in a small country town most of your life gets your appetite to see new things up. After we finished eating breakfast, we both went our separate ways. She told me after she gets out of college, she will get a mattress for me. Even if the principal talked to her about keeping me, I still find myself admiring her and being really thankful she is doing all of this for me. I ended up being the first person to class again today. Mr. Grey acknowledged my existence by saying, ¡°Welcome back.¡± When I entered the classroom in his normal melancholic voice. As my classmates began to enter, most of them didn¡¯t even acknowledge my existence. They probably didn¡¯t even know I wasn¡¯t here yesterday. When Via bounded into the room, she let me have it. She went off on me, much like my parents, about answering my phone and responding to text messages. I apologized to her profusely, and after she finished her levture on me she abruptly went to her seat and didn''t really look my way. Thomas seemed to get a laugh out of her actions, but I don''t really get what''s so funny. When Zen walked in, she didn¡¯t question why I wasn¡¯t here yesterday, she just looked at me with a confused and slightly comforted face. Even though she didn¡¯t say anything, I could tell by her eyes that were peering into mine that she was wondering where I was at yesterday but also relieved that I was here today. After everyone was in the classroom, Mr. Grey wasted no time in starting class. He stood up and said in an almost brush offish, ¡°Let¡¯s waste no time in starting the individual training for today in preparation for the upcoming tournament. Khan, I know you¡¯ll probably confused, but I¡¯ll explain everything to you. Let¡¯s start heading out.¡± Tournament? Training? I looked at Via who gave me a comforting smile. What the hell happened yesterday? ¨„©¦¨€¨U¨„¨U¨„¨UTo be Continued¨U¨„¨U¨„¨U¨€©¦¨„