Author’s note- Hi! I told you I’d see you tom! So, enjoy~

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Start of the Class

We walked inside; I had a disappointed frown on my face, while dad had a bright smile. Mom was currently cooking breakfast, and when she saw my frown, I could tell she misunderstood.

Mom- “Nathaniel, you don’t have to be so disappointed that you lost. Your father has always beaten you, what makes this time so different?”

I opened my mouth to explain, but Dad ended up speaking for me.

Dad- “I lost.”

Mom- “Then why are you gloating? And why does Nathaniel seem disappointed?”

Dad- “I don’t know why he’s upset; he’s so much stronger than I was at his age! And I was training to become a professional, while he is half assing things! With so much potential, I can’t have him waste it. He will now be devoting a lot more of his time to training. Under my supervision!”

He glared at me, daring me to contradict him. And mom only awkwardly smiled.

Mom- “Well, that’s your dad. Don’t tell me you didn’t expect this.”

Me- “But I didn’t expect to win…”

Dad- “Son, this is a great thing! No need to be upset. Tell you what. Come to my dojo after your errand is finished, and you can reduce some of your training time tomorrow there.”

He made it sound like he was doing me a favor…

****************

I ended up walking out of the house at 8:00, after eating breakfast and texting Chloe that I was going out on governmental business. She seemed upset, but I know she understood.

Arriving at the back of the gas station, the ‘gang’ members that stood there before were now gone without a trace. No ciggarette buts, no nothing.

That was to be expected. To my knowledge, they weren’t ability users. They could not be allowed to see what I was about to do next, even though they probably knew the significance of my existence.

I entered into the fake wall, and walked down the steps. Once I had entered through the blast doors, they closed shut behind me. Meaning I had to do something in this room.

I gathered a flame point in the palm of my hand and ignited it, seeing what would happen next. A purple light started to pulse from areas of the ground, and an arrow was formed followed by an inscription.

‘By the light of a wisp, you shall see the the path. Stand on the path, and it shall lead you to your destination.’

After I had read those words, the arrow and inscription morphed into a perfect circle, pulsing with an eerie purplish light.

Knowing I probably had to stand in the center of the circle, I stepped forward onto the light. And another circle appeared in front of me, with an inscription below. It said,

‘Activate your ability here, and the transportation will begin.’

With a thought, the flame moved into the center of the circle.

Suddenly, the light brightened, and the pulsing light grew in intensity. The disk started to spin, and the world seemed to twist and distort around me. After another moment, the purplish light had completely enveloped my surroundings and crystallized around me. A humming seemed to come from all directions, and my ears popped. Was I entering a higher altitude?

The light started to fade away after a minute, and I noticed I was in a different room. The light shone in from a window behind me, and there was a table to my right. An asian woman was sitting at the head of which, staring in my direction. To my left was a couple of couches with people relaxing around.

The asian woman, I assume, was Joyce Kim. And those on the couches were other people under her instruction, classmates if you will. Deciding I would first greet the instructor, I smiled.

Me- “How should I address you?”

Joyce- “You may address me as Mrs. Kim. Being early, you should sit at the couch there. We will introduce in half an hour, so make yourself comfortable.”

I immediately made my judgements on how to act in the presence of the woman. She certainly seemed pretty normal at first glance, but I could tell she was somewhat put off by my greeting. Not a friendly type.

Nodding to Mrs. Kim, I walked over to the couches. I made an assessment of the people there to decide who to sit with.

The first person assessed was a high school aged girl. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and let off a friendly air. She was currently engaged in a mostly one sided conversation with another black haired girl of a similar age, who looked somewhat annoyed. There was room next to them, but I feel like the blonde would try and engage me in conversation once she got bored of pestering the black haired.

The second person was a boy, who looked to be in middle school. He had brown, wavy hair, green eyes, and glasses. He seemed upset, and was engaged in a violent tapping war on his phone. He was probably playing a game, or texting someone. Either way, he was a wild card. I didn’t know what he was going to do.

The third option was a middle aged man. He had black hair, brown eyes, and glasses that seemed to be a bit crooked. He let off a smile when he saw I looked over, and he seemed to be just sitting there doing nothing. He would probably try to engage me in conversation, but I doubt he would go too far like the blonde girl. I decided he would be my best bet out of the three.

I gave him a smile, and I walked over to sit next to him. He scooted over a bit, and I sat down.

???- “I’m Adam Kepler. Your name?”

Me- “Nathaniel Belair. Nice to meet you.”

We shook hands, and dove into conversation.

Adam- “So, how did you get here? I saw you come in through the teleportation post, but I mean as in getting in this organization.”

Me- “I was approached by C.H.I.B.I. after 2 incidents where my ability was activated subconsciously. Things happened, and after reviewing the general missions, I decided to take on this one. I don’t want to kill if I don’t have to. What about you?”

Adam- “I was a commander of a mercenary force, working for the USA. An ability user was eventually hired against me, and I was awakened while fighting against him. Luckily, he was one of the weaker ability types, a body enhancer.”

Me- “Ability types?”

Adam- “You’ll learn all about that kind of stuff in this mission. It consists of miscellaneous terms such as types, signature, and ranking. And this mission isn’t considered ‘complete’ unless you can pass a theoretical and practical test of what you’ve learned. Oh look, someone else is coming.”

A purplish light expanded in all directions, and a crystal suddenly appeared in mid-air, creating a shockwave of air that blew our hair backwards. Then it all faded away, leaving a human silhouette that rapidly became clearer as my eyes adjusted.

Adam- “Ah, there seem to be a lot of new people today. I guess everyone else passed it, while I was the only one that failed.”

I nodded absentmindedly to his words, while I continued to observe the figure. It was a high school age girl, and she had long black hair with blue eyes. She turned to the instructor first, and the instructor let out a warm smile. Strange. I didn’t take Mrs. Kim to be that sort of person. But I soon knew why.

Mrs. Kim- “What brings you here today, young mistress?”

???- “Please, just address me by my given name, Viola Lynch. I came today to solidify the families teachings and to obtain experience from the real world.”

Mrs. Kim- “Ah yes, the century old no exposure rule of the families. So you came of age?”

Viola- “Yes.”

Mrs. Kim- “Well then. Make yourself comfortable with the awakeners. I will begin class shortly.”

Viola- “It starts at ten, doesn’t it?”

Mrs. Kim- “As of now, you were the last one on my roster that was scheduled to come today. And we can’t keep a Lynch waiting, can we?”

Viola- “I see.”

She sat at the couch with the other girls, and I stopped paying attention to her any longer and went back to my conversation with Adam. Out of curiousity, I asked,

Me- “Adam. What’s your ability?”

Adam- “A body enhancement. It allows my strength to triple at the cost of losing some rationality. You?”

Me- “I’m not entirely sure. It seems to be telekinesis, but it has some strange properties.”

Adam- “Show me?”

Me- “Sure.”

I ignited a flame point in the middle of the room, and the flame drew all eyes towards me.

Adam- “Isn’t this just creating fire?”

Me- “Well not quite. If you move around a bit, you’ll find that it’s colder in here than it was before. And it draws from the ambient temperature in the area, so I’m not really creating anything.”

Adam- “Cool. In my case, I end up looking like an ape...”

I smiled and dispersed the flame. And in the next moment, Mrs. Kim went in the middle of the couches and announced,

Mrs. Kim- “Socializing time is over; the lesson starts now. You all may address me as Mrs. Kim, and you will attend my class every weekend day at this time. Our organization will make the necessary arrangements. Did you hear all of that, Mrs. Rose?”

Her voice had taken on a dangerous tone at the end, as the blonde was still whispering.

Talkative blonde- “Eh?”

Mrs. Kim- “I guess I’ll have to let you all know early on, that not listening has it’s consequences.”

Her hand lashed out like a springing viper going in for the kill. The blonde tried to move back, but the woman only required a touch. The moment her finger touched the blonde, the blonde’s eyes rolled back, and she slumped into unconsciousness.

The hairs on my back rose up, and I made 3 mini flame points to surround my body for protection. They weren’t on fire yet, but disrupting them would only take a thought.

Mrs. Kim- “Lesson two. Never let a someone from the charm division touch you in a non-activated state because once they do, you are under their mercy. Any questions?”

Everyone was silent.

Mrs. Kim- “And now it is time for introductions. State your name and a description of your ability. Viola?”

Viola- “My name is Viola Lynch, and my ability is barrier. I can create 2 barriers to fuse together, creating a sharp edge.

Black haired girl- “My name is Stella Page, and I am acquaintances with the knocked out person there, Natalie Rose. My ability is Cat body, and it basically changes part of my body structure to that of a cat. You know, the ears, tail, whiskers, and I have more flexibility and a faster reaction in that state.”

(Author’s musings- I couldn’t resist, ok!? Leave me alone!)

Middle school kid- “My name is Stewart Clayton, and my ability is Iron creation. The name is self explanatory.”

Adam- “My name is Adam Kepler, and my ability is Ape transformation. It increases my size and strength, but at the cost of some rationality.”

Me- “My name is Nathaniel Belair, and my ability is a form of telekinesis. I can create flames and cause people to rapidly deteriorate at a touch. The second ability has been lethal in every circumstance.”

Mrs. Kim- “Good. Now that that’s over with, follow me.”

She walked to the teleportation circle, put her hand within the circle, and activated it.

Mrs. Kim- “You will all go through this to our practical location, as I have to see what you know and teach accordingly. Viola. You may go first.”

She nodded, and walked up to the circle. She disappeared soon after.

Mrs. Kim- “Adam. You’re next, but bring Natalie with you.”

After that, Mrs. Kim called the names one by one, and they all were sent to an unknown location. The last one was me.

Mrs. Kim- “Nathaniel. I have to say, I’m looking forward to seeing your results. I heard about you from Daydream, and I heard that not even mercenaries or hunters were your match. I trust you have improved since then?”

Me- “I have.”

Mrs. Kim- “Well, get in the portal. I’ll have to see for myself.”

I walked into the portal, and I disappeared from that area. And after the light had faded away, I observed my surroundings.

We were situated in a cell style arena. The arena itself consisted of a half-transparent springy substance that would cushion the impact of falling and hard looking tiles made of an unknown metal underneath. The arena’s boundaries were defined by four large cone shaped pillars, and the people from our class surrounded me.

Natalie, aka the talkative blonde, was laying in front of me, while Adam and the others stood in a group to the side. I walked over to their group, and in the next moment the purple light came again.

Joyce appeared, and she waved her hand for silence. The surroundings became quiet.

Mrs. Kim- “In order to judge your strengths and weaknesses accurately, you will engage in combat until I decide a winner. The battle will be king of the hill style, and I will allow anything that does not maim or kill your opponent. Adam and Viola will be fighting first, as the examples for how this will be run.”

Viola looked indifferent to it, but Adam’s face changed drastically.

Adam- “You’ll have me fight with a lord from the Lynch family! Isn’t that a bit of overkill?”

Mrs. Kim- “Do I need to explain myself?”

Adam- “No…”

Mrs. Kim- “Then fight!”

We all backed up, and Adam glanced hesitatingly over to Viola. She did not seem perturbed by this, but instead she flipped her hand to the side, holding out 2 fingers. A red light emerged from her fingers and formed into the shape of a blade. She spoke nonchalantly,

Viola- “Don’t waste my time, or I’ll end you.”

Adam nodded his head, and threw his hands back, looking towards the sky. And suddenly, black hair emerged from all areas of his body, and his muscles pumped up like he was on steroids! His shirt ripped open, and his shorts stretched out to fit him. He growled and smashed the stage, but it didn’t do any visible damage to the tiles. Then he pounced towards Viola.

Viola however, dashed forward to meet him, extending her fingers towards his chest!

She slashed and Adam jumped back, howling. A giant bloody line extended from his right chest to his left arm, and it looked like it hurt.

Viola- “He’s not on my level. What is all this strength if I can cut through him like paper?”

Mrs. Kim- “Viola wins. Nathaniel, you are next.”

Viola- “And what’s up with sending me more people to fight? You know he’s going to lose.”

Mrs. Kim- “Adam was just there to show him what your ability can do. However, Nathaniel’s not a greenhorn like Adam. He’s systematically slaughtered a whole team of mercenaries and two ability users, with barely any damage done to at all. I would be careful.”

I could see Adam and the others visibly recoil at that statement, but now Viola’s eyes shone with some interest.

Viola- “Well then. Don’t dissapoint me. Mrs. Kim?”

Mrs. Kim- “Fight!”

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Author’s note 2- Oh yeah, I’m not sure if anybody was confused by this, but I abbreviate tomorrow as tom. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.