Chapter 04: Circle Hero Academy(05)

"What did I get powdered sugar on my clothes or something?" Kai looked at his shirt, seeing nothing there. Then looked back up at John with his expression forming a slight frown as he sensed the student council president standing directly behind him glaring at his back..

'Oh great. The rich pampered kid is right behind me…'

John once again heard Kai's voice in his ear even though his lips didn't move. "A heads up would have been nice."

Kai then noticed Pyro's lip twitch slightly as he continued to walk to the Freedom Force booth.

John looked at Kai shaking his head and laughing in amusement.

"Well now that you've managed to insult like half the school, how about we catch up while we check out the dorms. Grampa already told me we don't have to be present for the final send off for the families."

"Oh, good."

'I don't want to keep pretending we don't know our grandparents, even though they're here for our entrance ceremony.'

With that, John and Kai walked toward the dorms while checking their holo-devices and catching up.

Still looking at his holo-device as they walked, John suddenly looked over at Kai.

Kai's hands were a blur.

As they had walked he had been connecting his personal holo-device to the schools so that he could increase the processing speed.

"Dude… Are you trying to get expelled on your first day?"

"Huh? No, it's OK to do this. I checked the school rules and regulations. I'm just pairing up the RAM, processors, and other internals. I'm still using the school's software."

At this point John's eyes opened wide as realized that Kai's voice had come from in front of him.

"Why do you keep using wind manipulation to talk?"

"Hmm… Oh yeah, it's a lot easier to just make the sound with wind rather than modulate the waveform of the sound. It's hard enough just doing that with the incoming stuff… Didn't your Gramps teach you how, so you could use it during high speed combat?"

"Wait, you're perceiving everything at hypervelocity right now?"

"Yeah. I guess… I mean. It's just regular velocity for me. This is as slow as I've managed to get it ok. Don't give me too hard a time just because you figured it out first."

"Dude it's not easy for me to maintain that sort of operational speed. Is that how you practice it? Just use it nonstop so it becomes natural? That's genius!! How long can you usually keep it going?"

"..."

A look of total and utter confusion filled Kai's face. "What do you mean? Are you seriously giving me a hard time because I can't perceive as slow as you yet?" Really dude?"

John's face went stiff. "Can't? As in, you're just like that? Just… Always… Dude, that is amazing! Seriously! I don't perceive stuff at those speeds without serious effort…"

Kai noticed the look of forthrightness on John's face. Realizing he had misunderstood he decided to just drop the subject.

"...Oh, you were serious. My bad… So what dorm do they have you in?"

John glanced over at Kai. "Oh, umm… Gray dorm floor 3 room 3."

"Great. Looks like they have me pretty close. Room 2. Well I'm going to get my room set up. Want to meet me at the cafeteria for lunch?"

"Yeah. Does noon sound good? Oh here, let's exchange contact info."

Kai nodded and John activated his hollow screen and selected his contact info then shared it with Kai. Then

Kai messaged him.

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Stud.ID#1005-0108. Sept.06

Boo!

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"Alright John, I'll see you at lunch."

Kai then disappeared from John's view leaving only a slight gust of wind. "He's really fast. Still the same Kai though. HaHaHa! This is gonna be great. We can finally both become heroes."

John then went into the large gray dorm building.

After Kai watched John walking in from his dorm balcony. He activated his holo-device.

'Let's see what the class syllabus has in store… Well at least they show what assignments are coming up. Hmmm… looks like the first week is mostly reading assignments as far as homework goes. Cool, we pick hero names during this week too. Good thing I already have one picked out. Let's see if they let me pick it now.'

Kai then proceeded to register his chosen hero name.

'Well I guess I better get used to being called Vector.'

He then went back into the syllabus and checked the schedule for the second week.

'Really? A 2 page essay due at the start of the second week?'

'Formation of the Academies huh? Looks like all that reading will pay off. I'll just finish up the first couple of weeks of homework now, so I don't have to worry about it.'

Kai sat at his desk, set his holo-device up for typing and got to work as the world slowed down around him.

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Birth of the Academies

By: Vector

After the awakening, it was discovered that powers would start showing during puberty with the exception of increasing one's strength, durability and speed through exercise.

Some scientists thought it was caused by a solar cycle event, others by some still unknown geological phenomenon.

As long as you did high intensity exercise, you could get really strong, fast, and durable. You could also absorb "cosmic power" from the environment through meditation and breathing exercises to increase your power over time.

It turned out that the entire population was born with an elemental attunement. Anyone could achieve F rank as long as they exercised enough. Around 10% would manifest C rank or higher abilities when they awakened.

The sooner training began the better. This was because the stronger you were before awakening the more likely your powers would manifest at a higher rank after awakening.

If you trained hard enough you could potentially increase your rank after awakening.

If you could make it to C rank then you would be able to control your element you were attuned to outside of your body. This led to those who were C rank and above being dubbed as controllers.

Controller powers usually manifested between the ages of 10 and 13. Though in rare instances some were just born gifted and would manifest as early as 8.

People could awaken at different ranks. A kid might awaken at anywhere from F rank all the way up to S+. With S+ ranked people composing around 0.000 000 2% of the population.

Another thing that was discovered was that the higher your rank the longer you could potentially live. They estimated that an S+ could live to be around 300 years old.

Pg. 1/2 - Birth of the Academies

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Vector

People started dressing up in costumes to try and stop crimes committed by powered criminals. Governments began recruiting the "powered" for various purposes. With many powered individuals running around, the power structure of governments changed.

There was a World War 3, though it only lasted a week before the S and S+ ranked powered in the various countries involved stepped up, and said it wasn't happening. Now, in most cases the powered didn't try to take over. They simply prevented the opposing forces from attacking each other or refused to fight one another.

Major cities all ended up with walls surrounding them. These had gun and missile emplacements stocked with penetrating rounds running along the outside. This was due to the ever increasing beast populations which in turn resulted in beast waves and attacks.

On the plus side, thanks to all this the world did start using a lot more clean energy, every country still in existence adopted the metric system. There was a worldwide nuclear disarmament, and they started a new calendar. This resulted in there never being a year 2020 CE, just a 0001 PA(post-awakening).

"Hero" became a legitimate job title. Though in reality a hero was equivalent to a mercenary, S.W.A.T. member, or special forces. The various new governments with the help of high ranked Heroes started training programs for those that wanted to become Heroes in the form of schools.

These schools would be dubbed as, "the Academies".

Pg. 2/2 - Birth of the Academies

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After finishing his homework for the next two weeks Kai read through all the information the app had on the school. Then went to his closet and set his backpack inside, then put on one of the dark gray suits that each had a copper school crest sewn onto the chest over the heart.

'Looks like I've still got an hour before I have to meet John at the cafeteria. Might as well explore a bit.'

As he began to step off his balcony, he suddenly stopped.

'Oh, right we're not supposed to fly unless we are at least a silver badge. Guess I'm staying on the ground for the next year.'

Kai then dropped off his balcony. As he landed he looked towards the other dorms. There were multiple red, white, and blue buildings with students wearing uniforms that matched the color of the dorms coming and going.

'Wow they really like segregating everyone by power rank. Red uniforms are all D rank, White are C rank, and the Blue are A and B rank. At least Red Faction's group name makes more sense now.'

He then looked back at the singular gray dorm building behind him, then down at his uniform.

'So dark gray for S ranks apparently.'

Kai then walked around aimlessly simply exploring the campus.