Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Two years ago my father wrote a book

It was about a man with great power in a world of Cripples

Who used their strength to help people

But it was not great strength alone that made him a hero

It was the wisdom that their power granted them

Wisdom that in the end, helped them build a better world

Another day lost to the infirmary, Claire thought grimly as she gingerly rubbed her arm, cursing her luck.

All she had wanted to do was use the bathroom and of course the first one she went to just happened to cross paths with Elaine and Remi tearing up the hallway, well Remi was the one tearing things up. Elaine had mostly been trying to dodge the bolts Remi was throwing with reckless abandon, not caring if any innocent bystanders like Claire were caught in the crossfire. Still that wasn’t why she was in the infirmary. 

No, the second bathroom was much worse. Not only was there yet another pointless fight, it was a mid tier beating on a low tier. So naturally Claire decided to intervene, it just so happened with her luck that the bully in this scenario was Gavin. Now from experience being a cripple, Claire knew most mid tiers seemed tough but couldn’t take a couple of strong hooks punches to the face. Unfortunately, Gavin’s stone skin came packed with a defensive boost so that strategy went right out. So some quick thinking, a bit of taunting, and a nearby window were needed to get him out of her hair. Only at the low cost of a broken arm and some broken glass.

Now Claire was in the infirmary wasting the rest of her school day and dying of absolute boredom. But not all was as grim as it seemed! For she had used her phone to send out a lifeline to the one person who might care enough to join her in this dire hour.

Great not the other one, Doc thought as the imposing figure of Arlo camly stepped through the Infirmary's door and strutted towards Claire.

Arlo looked down at Claire with a bemused expression, “I was told there was an emergency”

“Yeah, a boredom emergency,” Claire replied indignantly

“Tch, you made me walk all this way, just because you were bored-”
Claire interrupted, “Oh please, I know you were just wasting time on the roof. If anything I’m doing you a favor, getting some circulation going in your legs”

Arlo smiled, “You’re right, I should walk more, perhaps this time away from the infirmary”

Glaire replied with her own devilish grin, “Really, even if I could beat your score in Puzzle Crushers”

Arlo shrugged his shoulders still smiling, “Well I suppose I can’t let that slight slide”

He sat down across from her on the bed and pulled out his phone. The two proceeded to spend the next fifteen minutes in a furious silent concentration until Claire broke the silence.

Unveiling her phone with triumph she shouted, “Hah, beat this Arlo,” proudly displaying the A rank she had gotten on the level

“Heh. not bad,” Arlo replied, “But mines better,” revealing his own phone and the shiny S rank he had received.

“What?!? No way! You must have cheated-”
“WILL YOU TWO KEEP IT DOWN”

Claire gulped, “Sorry doc”

Arlo leaned back with a self satisfied expression on his face, his superiority in this matter firmly asserted. Just then the lights flickered and the sounds of crackling electricity could be heard. 

“STAY IN HERE,” doc shouted at the two before stomping angrily towards the door muttering a continued string of curses

About two seconds after doc left Claire spoke up, “Wanna get out of here”

“Let’s”

The two made their way out of the infirmary as doc was distracted. Towering over the two very guilty looking girls.

“Would you two care to explain what you were doing causing this much racket, in the middle of classes no less!”

Elaine spoke first, “Well sir, I was just minding my own business before she just came up and tried to zap me for no reason!”

Remi shot her a vengeful glare, “No reason! I know that you stole my favorite shirt!”

“I did no such thing! You lost it!”

“Did not! You’re the only one who's had access to my wardrobe, it has to be you!”

“I don’t even like that shirt it looks tacky-”
“Why you little-”

At that point doc had enough and clonked their heads together before turning around towards the infirmary, dragging the two behind him while a deafening silence hung in the air. A silence that was then broken when he looked over at Claire’s bed.

“WHERE THE FUCK DID THEY GO”

Outside Claire took her first steps towards glorious freedom before hearing a familiar angry voice.

Gavin’s foot steps clacked loudly as he ran towards Claire and shouted, “I GOT YOU NOW BITCH!” grabbing her by the collar

Claire put her hands up non-threateningly, “Hey there’s no need for that now, you got injured, I got injured, lets call it even”

Gavin raised his fist and Claire braced herself before a yellow barrier intercepted it causing Gavin to cough up blood.

Arlo gazed down at Gavin with a look between amusement and contempt, “I would strongly advise that you put her down Gavin,” He said coldly

Gavin dropped Clair looking twice as pissed, “Oh you think you’re tough eh? I know only weaklings associate with cripples so let me teach you something-”

Gavin was cut off as a section of barrier slammed into him sending him flying across the yard. The combined impact of the barrier as well as the reflective damage from Gavin technically slamming into it left him a bloodied mess on the ground.

Arlo turned to Claire and smiled, “Let’s get going,” he turned towards the school gates

“Y-yeah” Claire muttered looking away from Gavin and following after Arlo

“So where to?”

“Woaba-Boba?”
“Sounds good, but you’re buying”

Chapter Text

An awkward silence hung in the air as Arlo and Claire sipped their Boaba. The noise of small talk could be heard around them, as well as the droning of the news on the shop’s tv.

Arlo spoke up suddenly, breaking Claire out of her concentration, “So what did you do to get Gavin so angry?”

Claire was taken aback, “Nothing really”

“You’re a terrible liar”

“Ugh, fine, he was beating on some kid, I had to step in,” She answered

Arlo took on a neutral expression, “You didn’t have to get involved”

Claire looked down her drink, “Of course I did, I couldn’t just stand by and watch him get beat into a pulp”

“Even if it means becoming a target”

“You don’t get it Arlo, I already am a target. I don’t need to provoke anyone, the beatings come anyways, might as well do some good”

Arlo was unconvinced, “Still wouldn’t it be easier to get someone else to help-”

Claire interrupted, “No! People with power don’t always help others, they can’t always be trusted”

From how Arlo immediately looked away Claire realized what she had just said unintentionally.

She tried to apologize, “Hey I didn’t mean you, it’s just that so many of the mid to high tiers-”

Before she could finish she was cut off by the owner turning up the news, “The mysterious organization known as Ember has claimed another victim. This morning the body of vigilante ‘X-Static’ was found in an alleyway in Lovun.

Claire’s entrancement with the news was broken as Arlo spoke up, “Another superhero getting themselves killed huh?” he shook his head, “They really should leave this to more qualified individuals”

“He was trying to help people,” Claire muttered, “If the authorities were able to handle the situation than there wouldn’t be so many superheroes”

Arlo remained silent at this and went back to his drink, Claire stared out the window deep in thought. Arlo… You’re learning, but still don’t realize how few actually care to help people like me

Chapter Text

Claire had high hopes when she first enrolled into wellston, the entrance exams were hard but she was studious by nature and passed without much difficulty. She had hopes that academics would be the focus of this school and that maybe, just maybe she could have some peace and quiet. On her first day this hope was quickly shattered.

“Class we have a new student today, please take the time to introduce yourselves”

Claire beamed with her twin braids, “Hi! My name is Claire and I hope we can all get along”

“Alright Claire take your seat. Let’s begin, everyone.”

Class passed by uneventfully and Claire soon found herself packing her bag and trying to remember where her next class, math, was located.

She barely noticed a red haired boy walking up to her and introducing himself, “Hey, I’m Blyke welcome to our school! How’s it been going so far?”

Woah, he’s kind of hot Claire though blushing slightly, “Not bad so far”

“Where are you from?” he inquired further

“New Bostin, but I was homeschooled before so this is all new to me”

“Oh wow, never met someone homeschooled before”
“Well I felt the time was right for something new”

“Well, Wellston is one the best schools in the country,” he said half boasting, “but that's besides the point,” his tone began to shift, “So, what’s your ability?”

The room went silent as everyone waited in anticipation.

Claire’s heart began to race as she stammered out, “W-well thing is, uh I don’t actually have one.” she cast a slight downward glance at the floor.

Blyke and the rest of the room immediately took on a different tone. His friendly and unassuming face was replaced with one of disgust and irritation.

He shoved past her violently, “Ugh, don’t waste my time cripple”

The class soon became a chorus of similar sentiments, “Well so much for that”

“Dumb new girl, getting our hopes up”

“I give her an hour before she’s in the infirmary”

Claire could only stand up silently, look down, and walk out slowly, trying to take deep breaths. Why, why does this always happen?

The day did not improve from there as Claire found herself cornered by two students on the school premises.

Claire raised her arms defensively and protested, “Hey, there’s no need to fight just let me go on my way.”

The green haired one snarled, “Listen here, there’s hierarchy at this school and everyone falls in line. You fall at the bottom so you gotta listen to us and do what we say!”

Just then out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse at a blond boy she had seen in the halls.

In desperation she shouted to him, “Hey you can help me out here!”

The purple haired boy gave a cruel laugh, “Did you not just hear what he said? Besides that’s the king you’re talking to”

“Yeah,” the green haired one said raising his fist, “Now listen closely”

Chapter Text

Claire awoke to the sound of her phone ringing, she slowly turned over in bed and answered it.

The voice on the other end spoke, “Hey Claire, I’m running some errands at the mall today, will you accompany me?”

“Arlo it’s like 9 and I want to sleep”

There was a pause, “Ok first off it’s 12, and second off I need you to carry things”

Claire scrambled to think of an excuse, “Uhhh I can’t, I scheduled today for cleaning”

“Well, i'll help you out then,” There was a knock on the door.

“YOU’RE ALREADY HERE!?!”

After twenty minutes of frantic preparation a disheveled Claire opened the door to a smug Arlo. 

He strutted past her before she could say anything and found himself in a pristinely clean room. He smirked and walked over to a pair of training gloves on the floor and put them on the shelf.

Turning around to a despairing Claire he said, “Well then, I guess we can go now”

Arlo had not lied about running errands, it's just that Claire didn’t quite realize how many errands he was running. After about 4 hours Claire was carrying more bags she could count and her strong arms were beginning to sag.

“Arloooo,” she protested, “You didn’t tell me you were buying out the whole damn mall!”

“Tch,” Arlo responded dryly, carrying his own bags, “Look we’re almost done, I just need to buy a few new shirts and we’ll be on our way out”

After about an hour of seeing Arlo try on dozens of near identical shirts they were finally on their way out. Claire and Arlo dragged their excessive amount of bags out of the shop before something caught Claire’s eye.

Tugging on Arlo’s shoulder Claire exclaimed, “Hey it's an ability gauging booth”

Arlo was not impressed, “Seriously? Those things are never worth it”

“Cmooon, let’s do it, you’ve got a super strong ability”

“Will it get you to stop complaining?”

“Maybe”

Arlo sighed, “Alright, one last thing before we leave”

Claire was for the first time that day, excited. This mood would last about two minutes before the women in front of them opened her mouth.

“What do you mean I only got a four!”

As the two walked out of the mall Claire could not help but feel somewhat dejected. Yet again someone with a higher number could threaten violence to get what they wanted with little repercussion. Not even the adorable teddy bear Arlo had gotten for his level of eight could raise her mood. They walked home in an oblivious silence until finally reaching Claire’s house. The two walked in and breathed sighs of relief as they put down their heavy bags.

Claire moved towards the kitchen calling out, “It’s pretty late, I’ll make us some dinner-”

Arlo looked at his phone clock and responded, “Nah I think I’ll just head back to the dorms”

“Are you crazy?!, there’s no way you can carry all that stuff. Just stay here for the night and I’ll drop it off with you tomorrow”

Arlo shrugged and sat back down on the couch, until his eyes wandered to a very particular book, “Huh, I guess that makes sense,” he looked over his shoulders at a confused Claire while raising the book slowly, “How did you even acquire this? It was banned almost two years ago”

Claire responded, “My dad got me some copies before that”

“Wait, your dad is the infamous W.H Dupont?”

Infamous? Claire winced a little before speaking,“Yeah, I guess”

“I always wanted to give this book a try, wanted to find out what all the fuss was about”

“Well I suppose if you are interested-”

Arlo interrupted “What could motivate people to throw away their lives like that?”

Claire almost shouted in response, “They’re aren’t throwing their lives away, they’re standing up for a cause!”

Arlo contemplated this before chuckling dryly, “You sound like you wanna be one of them”

Claire frowned, “Look you can read the book or not, but you better read it for more than morbid curiosity”

Arlo thought on this a little more before sighing, “You know what? I’ll read it, I’ve had a lot on my mind lately and this might help keep me distracted”

Claire smiled slightly, “Who knows? It might give you some perspective”

Arlo nodded at this. Maybe she’s right, ever since I stopped being king…

I’ve had no idea what to do with myself

Chapter Text

She’s so pathetic!

Pin her down!

I'm gonna teach you a lesson!

Hey, are you alright?

Arlo had multiple reasons to suspect that Claire may have not had an easy time sleeping. First he was suspicious that she had woken up so early that she had already gotten breakfast from a nearby convenience store. Second was the very obvious bags under her eyes, indicating that she probably woke up even earlier than he first thought. Third was the distant silence that permeated the room as she stared out the window eating her breakfast. Arlo wondered if he should speak up but decided against it, better give her space for now .

Their walk to school passed uneventfully as the two made their way to Arlo’s dorm. Claire dropped off the bags at the front and bid a quick goodbye, resolving to get out of there before there were any incidents, willfully ignoring the dirty glare Blyke shot her as he greeted Arlo.

Turning to Arlo with an accusatory glare Blyke spoke up, “Jesus man where were you last night? I texted you like twenty times!” he paused as Arlo lowered his bags, “You didn’t spend the entire night with dumb cripple did you?” his frustrated rant turned into a shout, “What is it with you two! Don’t you realize she’s destroying your reputation-”

Blyke froze up as a cylindrical barrier tightened around him, Arlo gazed directly at his eyes, “I may no longer be king but you of all people should know that you have no right to dictate how I choose to spend my time nor the right to speak about either of us in that manner.” He took a deep breath and deactivated his barrier, “Now would you make yourself useful, I have a lot of bags to carry”

Blyke nodded silently, waiting until Arlo turned away before pulling out his phone and sending a quick text.

Just as he had finished bringing in his bags, Arlo heard a knock on the door.

Opening it he was immediately greeted by Wellston’s queen Seraphina, “Hey Arlo, looking handsome as ever-” Arlo immediately moved to shut the door before Seraphina held it open, “Wait this is important’

Arlo sighed, “Fine what is it?”

“I need you for the Turf Wars-”

“Goodbye”

Seraphina activated her ability to quickly dash behind Arlo and continue the conversation, “Look, Agwin challenged us, they have a new queen on the roster”

“And why do you need me?”

“Look, Remi is out, family emergency, and Isen is tagging along with her”

Arlo raised an eyebrow, “To a family emergency?”

“He’s family friend,” Seraphina sighed, “Look I’ve already asked Cecile sub in as our Jack, you don’t even have to do anything, i'll clean up the weaklings”

“Fine”

About six hours later the group found themselves on the train heading to the field. Wellston’s modified roster was certainly interesting with Arlo as returning king and Cecile as a neat total newbie. Soon the four were off the train and walking to meet their opponents.

When they arrived the King of Agwin, Broven, shouted with irritation, “Finally! If you were gonna challenge us to a turf war you could have at least bothered to show up on time!”

Arlo looked to Seraphina with irritation as she responded, “Oh please, have some patience”

Broven’s expression did not change, “Cut the crap Seraphina, you beat us last time, why are you instigating another one now?”

Seraphina grinned, “Well word is you have a new queen on the roster, I want to see how she performs”

Broven sighed, “Very well than I suppose you want to do the one versus one-,” he paused looking at the rest of Wellston’s team, “Hey! You’ve switched things up to, who are the new people?”

Sera’s grin grew little larger, “The girl is Cecile, she’s subbing in for our Jack, and this man here,” she gestured dramatically, “Is Wellston’s returning King, Arlo”

Broven’s eyes widened, recognizing Arlo, That man defeated our entire roster without moving an inch!

Seraphina turned away from the shocked Agwin roster and announced with a sharp arrogance in her voice, “Well then, we know the rules. First round, Jack versus Jack”

Chapter Text

While Cecile was a novice at turf wars she was no stranger to fights and excellent at strategizing. As she heard Elaine announce the first she was already formulating a plan, Alright, they told me Gou has a strength enhancement, if I can lock him down from a distance this’ll be easy . Raising her hand several energy whips emerged from the ground and immediately wrapped around Gou’s legs, several more reached for his arms. Cecile smirked, too easy . But Gou was more than dumb muscle, pushing against the ground with his super strength he ripped apart the whips and propelled himself into the air.

Cecile barely had enough time to dive out of the way as Gou slammed down, creating a large crater. Dammit he’s faster than I thought, I need to pin him down quickly! Before Cecile could act on this thought Gou picked up and hurled a large chunk of debris straight towards her. Materializing another whip Cecile slashed through the rock shattering it a few feet in front of her. She hissed as a few rock shards impacted her body with one making a slice across her cheek. 

Cecile began to dash backwards, away from Gou while plotting her next move. I need to trap him in a better position, I’ll get him to leap again . Repeating her opening move Cecile tried to once more entrap Gou in an attempt to have him jump again. It worked, Gou smirked and once more ripped himself free of the ropes and blasted into the air. This time Cecile ran and dove towards Gou, causing him to over shoot his jump. Just as he impacted the ground Cecile spun around and summoned several whips. Caught off guard the ropes pinned his arms and chest to the ground while his legs were tucked under him. Unable to push off of anything Gou was forced into submission as the ropes continued to squeeze him.

A voice rang out, “Stop! We forfeit this round,” shouted Broven

Gou breathed a sigh of relief as the ropes loosened around him and he gingerly walked towards his team to be healed.

Sheepishly Gou apologized to his King, “Sorry I wasn’t thinking straight and-”

Broven cut him off, “It’s quite alright, Rein will take it from here”

The queen of Agwin nodded and marched onto the field as the second round began.

Cecile was already exhausted from having made so many ropes and now she was face to face with a new opponent with unknown capabilities. As the call was given Cecile began with her standard lock down opening. Rein responded with a chuckle of amusement as two spider legs emerged from her back and tore away the emerging ropes. Cecile looked on in shock, before said legs shot out at her. With little mobility Cecile couldn’t hope to dodge and was left with two nasty gashes. The legs continued widely swinging at her, desperate to get them away Cecil tried to summon more ropes to distract her opponent. In response two more legs emerged to tear at the ropes before pushing Rein up into the air as her other legs pinned down Cecile.

Looking down with amusement Rein questioned the substitute Jack, “Your team really isn’t going to call you back? Do I have to knock you out? Seems a bit excessive.”

Cecile snarled in Response trying to push against the legs.

Arlo looked over to Seraphina whose smug smile had become an almost sadistic grin. Arlo looked on in a mixture of dismay and disgust, Really Seraphina, I leave and you make the Turf Wars into your little amusement show.  

Arlo had enough, “We forfeit this round, the victory is yours,” he called out to Agwin

Seraphina turned to him in shock and gave him an Enraged glare before turning around again and instantly returning to her smug aloof persona, “Very well then, I suppose It’s my turn!” she said a little too eagerly.

Having evaluated her opponent Seraphina had one thought as the match began, there’s no reason this shouldn’t be a perfect victor y. As Rein’s legs emerged from back Seraphina smirked and activated her ability dashing forward. Rein’s calm demeanor turned to panic as Seraphina moved in a blur past her spider legs. Before she could react Seraphina delivered a devastating flying punch that sent Rein flying across the field. Acting on instinct Rein summoned 4 more legs which shot out to break her fall.

Now with some distance between her and Seraphina Rein began to think of a plan. She’s way too fast for me, I need to catch her off guard . Rein lowered herself to the ground and raised her spider legs in an attempt to bait Seraphina. It worked and Seraphina once more charged towards Rein. But just as Seraphina committed to a punch Rein suddenly dropped her legs down forming a sort of shield. Seraphina, having already committed to the punch, sent her arm straight towards it, pain erupting as the sharp edges of the legs left several deep gashes. Eyes wide Seraphina leapt backwards in shock. Rein remained stationary cocooned in her shield of sharp appendages.

As Seraphina rewound her injury her expression darkened, That bitch! This was supposed to be a perfect victory. No this won’t do . Seraphina sped up further than before pushing her limits and began racing around Rein. She can’t defend everywhere at once, I need to find an opening and then….

I’ll make her pay

Sera quickly found her opening. Diving forward using her ability to duck and weave between the gaps in the wall of legs. Once she was in range she delivered a devastating punch into the panicking Rein’s side. Once more she was sent flying but this time Seraphina was ready to make a follow up. Leaping into the air she tackled the recovering Rein onto the ground and began pummeling her, each enhanced punch making a sickening impact. Delirious Rein could barely move her legs to defend herself as she felt Seraphina’s hands wrap around her throat.

“WE FORFEIT THIS ROUND IS OVER!” Broven shouted from across the field, panic rising in his voice

Seraphina ignored it, afterall she had a message to deliver. She tightened her grip.

Arlo’s voice pierced through her bloodlust, “That’s enough Seraphina, let her go now!”

Seraphina looked up in anger as dark thoughts swirled through her mind, So you think you can just leave and still order me around huh? Well prove it Arlo, prove that you’re still in control-

A massive section of barrier slammed into her, launching her across the field. As she impacted the ground Seraphina sat up and saw that Arlo had encased her in another barrier, barely giving her the space to move.

He spoke with authority, “I said, that’s enough”

A nervous laughter could be heard from Broven, “Hah! I’ve never seen a team fight itself before! How embarrassing”

Broven’s brief bravado shrunk away as Arlo fixed his cold gaze upon him, “Now, you can forfeit this turf war immediately or…” Arlo paused, “you can fight me”

Broven gulped and surrendered quickly. After the Agwin team was clear Arlo lowered his barrier around Seraphina who had already rewound her wounds. The Wellston team proceeded to leave the field, a deafening silence hanging over them.

Chapter Text

For a good fifteen minutes there was nothing but total Silence as they took their seats on the Train. Arlo had very deliberately sat on the other end of the cabin and Elaine was too tired from healing to desire involvement in any arguments. Seraphina on the other hand was fuming and it was only a matter of time before she began to whisper to her confidant Cecile.

“So…” she began keeping her voice low, “What the hell has happened to Arlo?”

Cecile gave a non committal shrug, “Not sure, one day he was model king, now he skips classes and doesn’t give a damn about what anyone says to him, not even the school press.”

Seraphina gave a frustrated sigh, “Not even Blyke can get through to him, don’t know why I keep that idiot around anymore”

Cecile pondered a bit before resuming, “It’s that cripple girl, Claire, ever since they started being friends it’s like he’s decided everythings pointless”

“Claire eh?”

“Yeah, they’re close, he even spent last night at her place”

“Cecile, watch out for any gossip on from the student body, in the meantime I’ll have Blyke keep an eye on Arlo”

“And Claire?”

Seraphina grinned, “I’ll deal with her”

Thus the silence resumed as both girls began to think about their new respective tasks. The rest of the ride passed uneventfully as Arlo unceremoniously parted ways with the rest of the team. Seraphina pulled out her phone after hearing it vibrate. She smiled once more as she saw the name and the message.

Remi: Me and Isen are back, sorry for leaving so long!

Isen’s back eh? Time to go to work

The next morning as Claire walked to class trying to do some last minute review. Her head stuck in her notes she was completely oblivious to her surroundings as she bumped into a girl with Magenta hair.

Claire looked up and began to apologize, “Ah sorry I wasn’t looking where I was going”

Claire began to walk away before the other girl with teal hair started shouting, “Where do you think you’re going! You bump into the queen and just say I’m sorry”

Claire paused before responding, “Yes, I apologized, is that not an appropriate reaction?”

Cecile flared up, “You little-”

Claire interrupted, “It’s up to her if she deems it acceptable, are you trying to speak for her” she continued, “Can I go? I have a history test next class”

Cecile’s anger turned to shock as Seraphina weighed in, “She might have a point Cecile, accidents happen. Claire is it? I accept your apology, good luck with your test”

“Thank you”

Seraphina watched her depart ignoring Cecile indignation.

So that’s who the mysterious Claire is. How interesting…. Not a hint of fear topped with sarcasm. I think this investigation will prove fruitful.

Chapter Text

Arlo needed space, that was for certain. After the fiasco at the turf war and poor nights sleep he found himself instinctively walking up to the rooftop once school started and plopping himself down. In a desperate attempt to clear his head he opened up Puzzle Crushers and began playing. His mind entered a haze clearing level after level before something finally jolted him out of it.

Congratulations, Your rank has increased!

Rank

For all my life everything has been about rank

“You’ve been given great power Arlo,”

“With an ability like that he should have no trouble becoming King”

“You know your parents were royals when they were your age”

But when you rise to the top everyone changes

Those once on your level get pushed away

“Oh I just assumed you were busy with king stuff”

“Arlo’s so unapproachable, when he shows up it’s like whole room just dies”

“I’m sorry I just feel scared when I’m around you”

“You should make new friends Arlo, one’s that are your level”

“My mom says it’s dangerous to hangout with you, sorry”

And the leeches line up

“Anything for you my king”

“Of course my king, you always make the right moves”

“Are you impressed, my king? I did it in your name”

So the best option is to let the distance grow, to let power change me and become what they want.

I put down dissident, crushed challengers, aced tests, and won every turf war. I ran myself ragged trying to make myself the perfect royal.

But by then, I was no longer me. I was the King.

Until she showed up

“Now listen closely”

As the green haired kid swung his fist Claire dodged to the side and kneed him in the gut. She turned to see the other one readying to launch some sort of ranged attack. Grabbing the green one again she pulled him violently in front of her as a barrage of needles flew out the green one crying in pain as he absorbed the volley. Acting on instinct Claire kicked the green one in the stomach sending him on a collision course with another one. As Arlos watched this unfold he could only think one thing, What in the world is going on? 

His train of thought was broken as Claire ran past snidely commenting, “Useless king”

Useless king?

Though he had denied it at the time those words cut deep

But no matter how hard I tried to be a perfect king, the distance only grew and my achievements stopped being my own.

“Arlo got a one hundred on the last test”

“Of course he did, you know the teachers give favorable scores to royales”

“Of course Arlo won the Turf wars, his abilities so overpowered”

And any attempt to close this gap becomes a sign of weakness, or another rumor

“Did you hear how he went off on those gossipers, I thought he was above that stuff”

“I heard he helped someone pick up their papers, is he going soft on us?”

“Does he even have friends or anyone he hangs out with?”

“Nah I heard he just trains”

“I heard he got scratched in the last turf wars, that can’t be good for our rep”

All this work and all this pressure, and what do I gain from it?

Arlo tried to keep calm as the rumors floated around him, he had to stay composed, he was supposed to be above this. Moving through the cafeteria he spotted to his dismay that they were already out of cake. Scanning the cafeteria his eyes locked onto a girl with green hair and twin breads holding a piece triumphantly.

“HEY!” he shouted across the room, the girl turned to him, her look turning to one of contempt, “Give me that cake!”

Claire pulled the cake closer to herself and shouted back, “No. I don’t care if you’re the king, as far as I’m concerned you're just as useless as the rest of this school. So get your own piece”

Arlo’s eyes glowed as he walked towards her, “I’m already mad, give me the cake and I might forgive your earlier slights”

Claire gulped nervously and began inching the plate towards Arlo. Then all of the sudden she hurled it across the room. Arlo stood in a stunned silence.

“Did Arlo just get tricked”

“Cripple just signed her death warrant”

“All brawn and no brains, that’s our king alright”

Before Claire could begin to turn away the wind was knocked out of her as a giant barrier slammed into her, sending her flying across the room and leaving a crack in the wall where she landed. He ran over to her and picked her up by the collar and began pummeling her, his passive making every punch hit like a rock.

He screamed, “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE WALTZING IN HERE AND TELLING ME WHAT TO DO! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD I WORK TO KEEP EVERYTHING GOING!”

He continued punching her as whispers grew louder, “Jesus christ he’s snapped”

“All this over a cripple?”

“I knew this would happen, it was a matter of time really”

Arlo let go of Claire as he clutched his head, mind racing as his breathing became shallow and rapid. My rank, my reputation, all of it! What's the point? Why can someone like her stand up to me without fear? Why do I always have to be careful? Why do I always have to be one step from falling?

Why don’t I get to live for myself?

Arlo was broken from his chance as his phone vibrated with a text from Claire.

Claire: WOOHOOO that test is done! Wanna get some celebratory lunch?

Arlo smiled and exited the roof, as he walked down the stairs he heard the latest rumors buzzing around.

“Did you hear Arlo went friendly fire at the turf wars?”

“Whaat?”

“And he’s been skipping classes too”

“Doesn’t he care about his reputation? Or Wellston’s reputation?”

Just then he walked past and watched them squeak as they noticed him. Holding his head high he smirked as one thought rang clear in his head,

No, No I do not.

Chapter Text

Arlo closed Unordinary with a hearty sigh after having spent that last several hours fixated on it. He tossed it on his bed and stood up, stretching his legs. I need some time to think .

Stepping out of his dorm he was interrupted from his state of deep thought by Blyke, “Hey Arlo I was just thinking of making some coffee, want any?”

Arlo wasn’t paying much attention and idly responded, “Maybe later”

“Oh, uh alright, i'll put some on now”

Arlo ignored Blyke as he stepped out into the hallways and made his way outside. Wandering around campus he began to gather his thoughts. 

A man in a world of cripples, with power that would make him a god even among us. Yet he does not rule. Instead he uses his power to offer advice and council to a world in need. No matter how strong he is he never once takes up arms against those who oppose him, instead appealing to diplomacy and reason. And when that fails he shows mercy and restraint even to those who have wronged him.

And in the end, when he passes on it is not him alone who changed the world, but rather the people who listen to him and rally to carry on his legacy.

I see why this book was banned

It challenges our society at its core

And tells us that strength isn’t everything

 Returning to his dorm from this insightful excursion Arlo calmly sat down at his desk and opened his laptop preparing to finish his assignments. Only after fifteen minutes did he notice the now cold cup of coffee left by Blyke and the very obviously exposed cover of Unordinary.

In the library Elaine was absorbed in her own assignments, oblivious to the two people sneaking up behind her.

“BOO!” shouted Isen as Remi tackled Elaine from behind 

“Eeep” Elaine exclaimed and Remi squeezed her in a hug

“Long time no see Elaine!” Remi said cheerfully

Elaine quickly regained her composure and spoke up, “Jeez guys it’s good to see you again but did you have to sneak up like that? I’m trying to study”

Isen grinned, “Well we assumed that you’d be dying of boredom by now, so why not liven things up a bit?”

The two took their seats opposite of Elaine.

Remi eagerly began her questioning, “Soooo Elaine, what’s the scoop, anything exciting happened while I was gone?”
Elaine’s eyes darted around the room before leaning closer, “Well I’m only telling you this cause your royals but Arlo went friendly fire on the turf wars and beat up Seraphina”

“Boooring” Remi said, “That’s old news, we found out like ten minutes after getting on campus”

Crap! Elaine panicked internally Seraphina’s not gonna like that at all

Elaine decided to redirect the conversation, “So why did you guys both leave all the sudden?”

Isen and Remi’s cheerful demeanors evaporated and silence gripped the conversation.

After an awkward minute Remi was the first to break it, “My brother… he was murdered”

Elaine gasped, “Oh Remi I’m so sorry”

Isen nodded grimly, “I’ve always been a close friend of Remi’s family, Rei in particular, they knew he had always been an inspiration to me so I was invited as well”

“Oh, I didn’t know”

“Yeah, his work in the Wellston press team was legendary, even after he became King he’d still find the time to write articles to spread his message. Once he graduated I followed his career as an independent journalist fanatically. Reading every single controversial but true article.” he sighed looking down at the table

With that the silence returned til Remi spoke quietly, “Let’s just focus on the work, we have a lot of catching up to do”

Isen and Elaine nodded grimly and the rest of the session passed uneventfully.

The rooftop was silent as Arlo waited for Claire to sit down next to him.

Once she was settled Arlo began to speak, “So, about your copy of Unordinary,” he paused awkwardly, “I will not be returning it”

Claire turned to him with a look of disbelief, “Someone saw you with it didn’t they?”

“Perhaps-”

“Jesus Arlo! I told you to be careful! You know for someone so calculating you sure do make a lot of dumb mistakes!" she put her head in her hands, "Jeez"

Arlo waited for her to finish ranting before speaking up again, “Yes I am well aware of the magnitude of my error. I have disposed of the book and will take all efforts to ensure that you are not implicated in any investigation”

Claire sighed and tilted her head back, “But what about you?”

Arlo smirked, “I find it highly unlikely that they would expel the most powerful student in school over some minor contraband, I’ll be just fine”

“So what did you think of it”

“Honestly I couldn’t fathom why your dad bothered to write it-”

“WELP glad to see you learned nothing goodbye!” Claire began to stand up again 

“But I found it likely I was missing some context, could you perhaps enlighten me?”

Claire sat back down and began to speak, “Well for me the most admirable thing about the hero was their ability to inspire others with their message. Sure it was their strength that put them on the map but only through the collective actions of others were they able to make a difference.”

“What message exactly do you think your dad wants to inspire others with?”

“Well, that people should help one another, that strong or weak we all have an obligation to help as best we can, to make a world we don’t always have to lower our heads in fear of those who are stronger. I think that’s why all these superheroes are popping up, they want to spread that message too, they want to give people hope.”

Arlo smiled as he took this in, he couldn’t help it, it was rare to see Claire so passionate about something.

His smile turned to a guilty expression as Claire began to wind down, “I really am sorry Claire, I realize now just how much that book meant to you”

“Yeah yeah, it was only a matter of time really. At the very least I hope it gave you some perspective.”

Arlo smiled again as he looked up, It certainly did

Chapter Text

As she walked through the halls Seraphina was deep in thought, I knew Arlo would be lost when he stepped down as king, I told him as such but he never listened! But is he turning to Unordinary of all things? That book is dangerous, it must be making him irrational. Yes... that would explain why he’s spending time with that cripple-

Her train of thought was interrupted as she collided with Claire, great, think of devil . Seraphina looked down mildly irritated as Claire bent down to pick up her papers.

“You do know binders exist, correct?” Seraphina said sarcastically

Claire gave a short nod, “Yeah, I keep most of my papers in order it's just that I was looking at my report cards and-”

 Claire stopped mid sentence in mild shock as Seraphina bent down and helped gather the papers. After an awkward silence Seraphina handed the stack to Claire.

“Ah, thanks,” Claire murmured

“No problem, but please watch where you're going next time,” responded Seraphina with a hint of a smile.

As Claire walked away Seraphina’s eyes followed her, Good grades, but far from perfect, this is gonna need an investigation

When it came to meeting places the Royals had no shortage of empty classrooms available. It was in one of these empty spaces that Seraphina had called for a meeting among the current roster.

As Isen and Remi walked in Seraphina started the conversation, “Welcome back Isen and Remi, I hope you two were able to get everything sorted during your absence”

The two gave a short bow as Remi spoke, “Yes Seraphina, there shouldn’t be any more reasons for us to leave again. Sorry for being gone for so long”

Seraphina gave a smile and a chuckle, “nonsense I handled everything just fine while you two were gone”

Isen grimaced internally, really? Everything minus Arlo going friendly fire

Seraphina continued, “But as to why I called you here, I’ve come to ask a favor to make up for you absence”

“Really now, what do you want?” Isen questioned with suspicion

Seraphina gave a fake smile, “See as you may be aware Arlo has been acting strangely this past while. Stepping down as king, skipping class, etcetera.”

Isen interrupted, “Yeah, we know. What are we supposed to do about it?”

Seraphina’s expression darkened before returning to its exaggerated chipperness, “It’s simple really, this irresponsible behavior started once Arlo began spending time with that cripple, Claire.” 

“Seriously? She’s just a cripple who got lucky, she might be infamous but it’s not like there’s a conspiracy-”

“Isen, let me finish,” Seraphina glared at him and he shut up, “As I was saying, due to her unusual behavior, high levels of confidence, good but hardly noteworthy grades, and general refusal to show respect for the hierarchy I believe she may be hiding something. Furthermore I believe this secret she is hiding may be key to Arlo’s behavior and that she may be manipulating him for her own gain at the expense of his and the school’s reputation.”

Seraphina waited as Isen and Remi processed this information. 

Remi was first to respond, “geez, that sounds awful! What do you think we should do?”

Isen had reservations but before he could voice them Seraphina was already answering, “It’s simple I just need you two to conduct a simple investigation, I’ll do the rest of the heavy lifting.” she smirked before continuing, “Remi, I want you to do some info surfing, look up her name, find photos, her records, etcetera. In addition make sure to observe her and keep up with any gossip.”

Remi nodded obediently, “I understand, I won’t let you down Seraphina!”

With that she bolted out of the door eager to repay any perceived debts to Seraphina caused by her absence, and though she did not acknowledge it, she was also eager to have something to take her mind off of Rei.

That left Seraphina and a very unconvinced Isen in the room who quickly objected, “Look Seraphina, you might be able to manipulate Remi while she’s vulnerable but I know your not doing this for Arlo.” he paused and watched as Seraphina’s chipper facade turned to one of malice before continuing, “you have some weird grudge against that cripple and you want me and Remi to invade her privacy cause you want to ‘expose’ her or something.”

Seraphina took a few steps closer to Isen glaring at him, “Isen listen here and listen good, before that Cripple showed up everything was perfect. Wellstone was number one with a mighty king and a mighty queen,” she paused and tooks some deep breaths before continuing her rant, “Now the King has stepped down and even worse attacked me during the turf war, our reputation is in shambles!” she jabbed a finger at Isen, “And you! Are going to help me fix it”

Isen stepped backwards starting to sweat a bit, Damnit she’s scary but I’m still King I can’t let her push me around like this!

He straightened up and continued objecting, “Hey! I’m still not gonna raid some poor girls privacy just because you have a hunch, I need a real reason to do this”

Seraphina leaned back in annoyance and pondered this before adopting a devilish grin, “Well I for one think this would make for a fascinating article, I might even be able to help you make front page”

Isen put his hand in his face and sighed, “Seraphina our press team is a joke, they don’t care about truth or integrity and I’m not gonna feed them some sensationalism just for clout not to mention the fact that Holden just hates me.”

Seraphina gritted her teeth, she so hated it when Isen decided to have a spine for once, “Very well then,” she paused considering her options, “If your issue is with the press team itself I can help you. Do your investigation, keep it between us, and I’ll help you clean up and reform the press team, simple”

Isen looked down pondering this offer, damnit I hate this but there’s so much bullshit in our press team

He looked back at her, “Fine, I’ll do it. But when this investigation turns up nothing you still need to hold up your end!”

With that he stomped out of the room as Seraphina smiled to herself, All the pieces are being put in place, now I wait

Claire clenched her teeth as she read the flier hands crumpling it as her grip tightened. “Super Hero Death Pool”....
What the hell is wrong with people!

Treating people’s death like its a game

Her breathing became rapid as anger consumed her. 

“Please stop! I worked so hard on this!”

Claire’s gaze shot up from the flier and zeroed in on the scene. A mid tier was beating on a low tier and destroying their papers. No words only actions, Claire charged forwards and roundhouse kicked the mid tier right in the face. He cried out in pain and fell to the side, Claire didn’t wait for him to reorient himself and slammed him against the lockers.

A coldness permeated her voice as she spoke looking the disoriented mid tiers in the eyes, “You’re pathetic, while others are spending time improving themselves and contributing something of worth you sit here stomping on those who are weaker than you. You’re nothing but scum”

“SHUT UP CRIPPLE!”

The mid tier held out his hand and began chagrin a beam. In an instant Claire grabbed his arm and pulled him into an armbar, dragging him to the floor. As she readied to bring her fist down on the back of her head she froze and stopped as memory hit her like a truck. She took a deep breath trying to calm herself as she looked at the pinned defeated mid tier. Taking care to not release him till the last moment she stood up and took off down the hallway.

Unbeknownst to Claire among the general gawkers two students were closely observing her closely. Remi looked from behind the corner in a state of minor shock the gears in her head turning, Seraphina is right there’s no way she’s just an ordinary cripple!

On the other end of the hallway Isen observed cautiously, Jeez I wonder what set her off like that-, his train of thought was halted as he looked at the crumpled flier on the floor. Picking it up his eyes widened as he recognized the name. Fighting back tears he slowly crumpled up the flier and threw it in the nearest trash can. It's better that Remi doesn’t see this…

Chapter Text

Isen and Remi were silent as they walked through the halls of the Wellston boys dorms, with Rei’s death and Seraphina’s odd task they both had too much on their minds to have their usual pleasant conversation. Isen approached one of the doors and knocked.

“One moment,” came a voice from inside and a second later Blyke stepped out. He looked at the two royals a little stunned, “Oh Remi and Isen, what are you two doing here?”

Remi spoke first, “We wanted to talk to Arlo”

“Oh he’s here, do you want some coffee or something”

“No this will be quick,” Isen responded

The two made their way to Arlo’s room and knocked, “Come in”

Isen and Remi quietly walked into Arlo’s sparse and organised room. Arlo was sitting at his desk doing some work, not even looking towards the two. Immediately feeling the awkwardness Isen glanced around the room trying to distract himself in Arlo’s very plain room before his eyes zeroed in on an adorable stuffed animal.

Isen coughed into his fist, “So uh, nice teddy bear”

“It was a gift,” Arlo calmly replied

Remi butted in wanting to get this done quickly, “We were just stopping by to say thank you for subbing in during the turf wars, I know how much you hate working with Seraphina”

Arlo shrugged, “I suppose it’s only fair, I gave you and Isen significant additional responsibility when is resigned”

Isen put his hand behind his head, “Yeah but still thanks a bunch”

Feeling like there was nothing more to be said the pair left and soon parted ways as Isen continued to agonize more over the task laid before him.

By the next day Isen still hadn’t worked out what his next step forward was going to be. His investigation had so far proven fruitless and he struggled to find something that would satisfy Seraphina. So she’s a cripple, she’s clearly skilled in hand to hand combat, and she’s willing to use those skills to fight back. He paused to consider this information, Damnit! That’s nothing, plenty of mid tiers fight back against people who are stronger why would this be different? He sighed and put his face in his hands, I should stop, this is already unethical enough as it is. He took a deep breath and clenched his fists, But I still need Seraphina’s help. The press team is a joke and Holden’s held a grudge against me ever since I dethroned him and even worse when I voted with Arlo to make Remi Jack because Holden is shady as hell .

His brainstorming continued to go nowhere for several minutes until it finally struck him. Wait, why do I need to be so shady about this? Can’t just ask her some questions myself! Hell it might even make an interesting article…

Later that day Claire was walking down the halls of wellston reviewing some notes from class, oblivious to the King approaching her from the side.

“Hey, Claire right?”

Claire looked up from her notes a little startled, “Oh you're speaking to me?”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to take my role as king more seriously and decided that some perspective might be useful. Would you mind if I asked some questions about the low tier experience? I might even turn it into an article”

Claire stammered a bit as she took a moment to process, “O-oh that sounds great! When do you want to do this?”

Isen shrugged, “right now”

Claire gave him an incredulous look, “Are you sure? My class is about to start and-”

Isen interrupted, “Don't worry about it, as far as the school and I are concerned you’re helping me with royal business and have permission to skip. Besides,” he smiled, “If we can wrap up early then we can just chill for the rest of the period”

Claire considered this tempting offer for a moment before responding, “Oh what the heck, why not?”

“Great follow me” and with that Isen turned around and walked as Claire followed behind.

Leading her into a small side room Isen slid into his seat behind the desk and extended his hand, “Glad you could make it Claire, please have a seat”

Claire snickered at this overly formal introduction, “Well considering I followed you it would be quite unusual if I didn’t make it,”

Once Claire sat down Isen grabbed his pen and notepad, “Remember regardless of whether or not I make this into an article, I do really want some genuine perspective so feel free to speak your mind”

Claire beamed a little, “Will do!”

Well here goes nothing

“So,” Isen began, “Where are you from?”

“New Bostin”

“Damn! That’s far from here”

“So you went there before going to Wellston?”

“Oh no, I was home schooled before this”

“So why’d you decide to switch?”

“Well honestly I was just getting lonely, I wanted to try at a real school but dad was protective of me”

“So how has it been as a low tier?”

Claire gave a heavy sigh and looked down, “Honestly, it's awful.”

“Could you elaborate?”

“When you’re a low tier you’re nothing, you have no rights and trying to do anything to stick up in yourself can mean trip to the infirmary,” Claire’s hands clutched the table slightly as she continued her rant, “Some days it's fine but most of the time all it takes is for some angry mid tier to decide you’re their punching bag and it’s over. No one looks out for us, they’re either indifferent or treat us like dirt!”

Claire paused as she choked up a little her hand moving to cover her eyes. As Isen looked up from the notes he had been taking to take this all in he could only think, Well that’s just depressing, I guess I never realized how bad things could get

Seeing her emotional state, Isen tried to redirect conversation away from this with a different question, “So what do you do to make it through the day?”

Claire took a moment to regain her composure, “Oh well most of us try to lay low, avoid trouble and all that uh stuff”

“I take it you regret enrolling in one of the highest tier schools in the country?”

Claire sheepishly put her hand behind her head, “Yeah I was hoping academics would be the focus here”

“So what do you think us high tiers could do to help?”

At this Claire sat up straighter, “Well for starters I think the best thing you could do is set a good example! People look up to you and you have the authority and the platform to spread a message.”

“And what do you think that message should be?”

“Well simply that everyone deserves to be treated equally and with respect. That people don’t deserve to be outcast and tread on just because of how they were born”

Isen made sure to write down this last part, “Alright, well I think that’s good for now. Thank you Claire this was very eye-opening”

Claire smiled as she stood up, “I’m glad I could get to you, sorry for getting so emotional there I-”

Isen waived away her concern, “Relax I understand completely, enjoy the rest your free period”

With that Claire gave a smile and a wave and went out the door. Isen watched her leave before looking down and gathering his thoughts. Well, that was pleasant all things considered, she really did seem passionate about the topic. She made some good points too, if I could set a good example now it could go a long way. A second thought entered his mind, This would make a great article! I’ll write up something real quick, maybe have a follow up with Claire then I’ll submit it to Holden and then…

That was when he remembered why he had done this in the first place

He’ll reject the article cause of his grudge unless I get Seraphina to force him which’ll only happen if I do what she wants which was to gather info on Claire DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT I HATE EVERYTHING

Exasperated he fell back into his chair with a loud groan. I need to give her something or else I can kiss any chance of getting this article published goodbye…

Alright alright did I get anything suspicious from the interview…

Wait a minute! Laying low, keeping out of it, that wasn’t what I saw at all!

Ok ok it’s probably nothing, maybe she just got frustrated and got the drop on somone, it’s not that much different from a mid tier

Alright i’ll give Seraphina what little I have here, she’ll realize it's not enough to go off of and drop the investigation. Then I focus on my article and get Seraphina to hold up her end of the deal. 

Hopefully this’ll all be over soon

In the library there was a near complete silence, except for the rapid clicking of keyboards in one of the corners. At one keyboard sat Elaine, diligently doing one of her assignments. At the other sat Remi who was currently attempting to uncover Claire’s true origin story. At least that’s what she tells herself she’s doing, on the outside it looked like she was trying to stalk someone from across the country. As she scrolled through photos of New Bostin middle school classes she furrowed her brow as a thousand thoughts raced through her mind. There’s gotta be something here!

School event photos… Nope!

Sports photos… Nope!

Picture day photos… Wait a minute, there you are!

“Gotcha!” she shouted out loud

This was immediately met with a, “SHHH, I’m trying to work Remi” from Elaine

Indignant Remi pulled Elaine over so she could show off her discovery.

She pointed at her screen towards a class photo, following her finger Elaine met the gaze of a girl with short green hair, “Look when I said to stop stalking boys from other schools I didn’t mean that you could still stalk girls” she said annoyed
“No it’s Claire! You know, the Cripple”

“Just because she goes to our school doesn’t mean you can stalk her”

Remi face palmed, “No it’s not like that!”

“Then why are you looking at an old picture of Claire?”

Remi was about to give the straight answer when she remembered how Seraphina tended to react when gossip got out, “Uh nevermind”

“Ok so it is like that”

“Shut up! Don’t you have work to do”

“Whatever weirdo”

Just as Elaine settled back into her seat there was a loud shout from the librarian, “You two get out of here now!”

The next day after class Isen nervously fidgeted as he waited for Seraphina. With no more time to delay it was now or never to get Seraphina to drop the investigation. He jumped as the door creaked open and Seraphina calmly walked in.

Seraphina approached him with a spreading smirk on her face, “Well well well Isen, I’ve given you plenty of time, what have you learned?”

Isen tried to play it cool, “Look I don’t know what you were expecting, she’s just a cripple, I even asked her some questions directly and there wasn’t anything that really seemed off”

Seraphina frowned, “Really, nothing at all? Not even a minor discrepancy”

Crap I was afraid she’d say that, “Well I guess that she might be a tad bit more assertive from what I’ve heard than she described in the interview-”

Seraphina glared at him, “A tad? That girl has enough confidence to look me in the eye without faltering, she has to be hiding something!”

Isen stepped back and put his hands up, “I mean there’s plenty of times when a mid tier has tried to pick a fight with you even though they knew how powerful you are. I don’t see why this would be any different”

Seraphina furrowed her brow as she considered this, she hated it when Isen made sense.

Isen seeing this decided to continue, “You’re a pretty reasonable queen with a good reputation, maybe she just knows that if she doesn’t provoke you there’s no reason to be afraid?” he hoped a compliment would satisfy her ego enough to convince her.

Seraphina sighed, “Very well then, if you went so far as to interview her but still found nothing I suppose that’s enough for me to keep up my end of the deal- hold on.” she paused, “Where’s Remi”

“What? Of I’m not sure I haven’t seen her since class-”
Just then a certain pink haired girl burst through the door.

“SERA SERA SERA I GOT SOMETHING” remi shouted pulling some photos from her bag

Seraphina’s smirk returned, “Easy now Remi there’s no need to shout, now what do you have for me?”

Remi beamed, “So you know how Claire says she was home schooled?”

“So I’ve heard”

“Bam!” Remi held up the photo, “New Bostin middle school graduating class! See this girl right here?”

Seraphina leaned in and saw the younger Claire, “Hmm different hair style but very much our Claire”

Remi grinned, “Yeah and look at her! That cold piercing gaze, if she was willing to lie about her past then there’s no way she couldn’t also be lying about something else, like an ability!”

Seraphina chuckled as she held the photo recontextualizing every interaction with Claire. I’ve got you now. Isen could only watch this unfold in a stunned silence.

Remi was quite happy to have fulfilled Seraphina’s request and asked eagerly, “So what do you want us to do now?”

Seraphina looked at her before folding up the photos, “No, I think you’ve done enough I can handle it from here”

Isen grew very concerned, “And what exactly does that mean Seraphina?” he questioned

“Isen please, this matter is now out of your hands. Now if you’ll excuse me I have an important call to make”

With that she left the room before Isen could muster up a reply.

Remi turned to Isen and spoke cheerfully, “Well I guess that’s that!”

Isen could only shake his head

Remi....

What the hell have we just done?

Chapter Text

The school day began like any other with the usual quietness as tired students took their seats for their first classes of the day.
“Arlo please report to the main office,”

Immediately all eyes in the room shot to Arlo as he calmly stood up and made his way out of the classroom. Moments after the door closed the whispers started.

Blyke sat nervously outside the headmaster’s office, having received the order to report the book from Seraphina he had done so without question. Now the gravity of what he had just done was beginning to sink in. Just then the door slammed open and Arlo briskly walked in shooting a harsh glare at Blyke. Blyke visibilly recoiled from his gaze and averted his eyes as Arlo opened  the door to the headmaster’s office.

Headmaster Vaughn greeted Arlo as he entered, “Greetings Arlo, please take a seat,” Arlo did so in silence trying to remain calm, “Please relax, this is just going to be a series of simple questions from Ms. Nadia. It’ll be over in no time at all”

The woman to Vaughn’s left began her spiel, “This is an official interrogation on behalf of the authorities, all questions will be recorded and any falsehoods given will be detected and will result in an expulsion, do you understand?”

Arlo kept calm, “Yes”

Vaughn smiled, “Alright Nadia, you may begin”

Nadia activated her ability and began the questioning, “We were informed of your possession of the book ‘Unordinary’ is that true”

Arlo nodded, “Yes”

“How long have you had this book for?”

“About twelve days now”

“Where is the book now?”

“Destroyed”

Nadia nodded and then stood up straighter while leaning forward slightly, “And where,” she paused for emphasis, “Did you acquire this book?”

Arlo furrowed his brow and considered his options, Alright she doesn’t seem to be a mind reader likely just a true false lie detector. I can’t let Claire get involved so I need to think of something quick

“I got it after helping someone at Kovoro mall” he began, “There was this booth that I decided to check out although upon reflection the man running it seemed somewhat suspicious, ” Arlo paused momentarily to gauge her reaction, seeing none he continued, “Anyways he was being harassed by someone, she got mad when I told her to stop holding up the line and tried to start a fight. This got security to intervene and resolve the situation, even though we didn’t really do much for him he seemed appreciative and afterwards I was given the book as a gift” Well several hours later is afterwards

“Why did you accept the book?”

Hmmm “Well when I first saw I didn’t realize what it actually was” It was on Claire’s table that whole time but only when I looked closer  did I realize what it was

Nadia focused in closer, The boy is not lying

“When did this incident take place”

“Not sure but probably around 7, I didn’t check the time til I got home”

“Was anyone else with you at the time?”

Arlo panicked internally at this before Vaughn interrupted, “Ms. Nadia, please respect my students time by asking relevant questions to the matter at hand”

Arlo gave an internal sigh of relief as Nadia paused before resuming, “Did you read the book while it was in your possession?”

“Yes”

“What did you think about the book’s content?”

Arlo paused to consider this question and chose his words carefully, “I could not fathom why the author chose to write it”

Nadia smiled, “Well that’s good to hear,” she turned to Vaughn, “Now if you’ll excuse us there I matters to which I must discuss with the headmaster”

In class Claire intensely scribbled notes as the lecture went on and on. Suddenly she was broken out of her concentration as her phone vibrated with a text.

Arlo: Come meet me by the gates

Claire rushed out to see Arlo holding two suitcases and standing next to a car. 

Claire looked up at Arlo and down at the suitcases, “What's all this for?”

“I’ve been suspended for a month, they want to ensure I’m ‘cleansed’ of UnOrdinary’s ideology,” Claire grimaced at this, “but on a more positive note I successfully fooled the lie detector, you will not be implicated in anything-”

Claire interrupted, “That doesn’t matter! You should’ve told the truth, if you’d been caught lying you would’ve been expelled! Nothing could have saved you then!”

Arlo gave a small smile, “I appreciate your concern but it's behind us now, once this month is over it’ll be like nothing had occurred at all”

Claire sighed, “I guess that’s true, but still I don’t like having such a close call”

Arlo was about to say something in response before the car honked causing him to jump, “Looks like were out time here, I’ll be back before you know it”

With that Claire gave a small reassuring smile as Arlo turned around and stepped into the car. Once he was out of sight Claire turned around towards the gates of wellston, despair overtaking her as she dreaded the coming month.

In under four hours that dread had been justified after receiving a black eye from a vengeful Gavin. The only silver lining was that Doc had gone easy on her for once thanks to winning a cruel bet he had made with Keene. Then once she left the infirmary she was almost sent right back as a group of mid tiers had cornered her until Doc scared them off. But that was over. Now she was back home and after seeing Arlo’s text she reached her finger to the call button.

Arlo hated flying, as someone of his height he rarely ever had a comfortable amount of leg room and often found his legs squishing or his back having to rest at odd angles that made him ache. When he had stepped off the plane after several hours it came as a great relief to his aching joints, but it also came with a great uncertainty as he found a taxi waiting to take him to his Aunt's house. 

Arlo wasn’t surprised to hear that his Aunt was the only person currently available to house him during his suspension. As a child he had spent a lot of time at his Aunt’s place while his parents were off busy with work. But ever since he began attending Wellston he hadn’t stepped foot in the place. Now it was late in the afternoon and he was face to face with the front door. The building was relatively small but very modern and sharp. Taking a deep breath he rang the doorbell. A few moments later he was face to face with his Aunt.

Her expression was cold and authoritative as she greeted him, “Arlo”

“Valerie”

She stepped aside and let Arlo into the house. Arlo looked around taking in the once familiar sight of his Aunt’s home remembering the summers he once spent here.

Arlo’s reminiscing was cut off as Valerie spoke, “Arlo, I have heard much from the Authorities and the Wellston administration, you may take your bags to your old room and unpack. Then you may rest, I will be gone for a few days due to work, when I return we will have much to discuss”

Arlo nodded silently and climbed up the staircase with his suitcases. Entering his old room Arlo unceremoniously dumped his suitcases onto the bed and began unpacking. Once he had everything in order he decided to send Claire a quick text to let her know that he had settled in. Only expecting a quick text in response he was surprised when he saw that she was calling him.

He quickly answered the phone and asked smugly, “Miss me already?”

On the other Claire chuckled and managed a small smile, “Yeah, it's been a long day”

Claire slapped her forehead, “Dammit I never got the homework!”

“They’re emailing the assignments, I’ll forward you a copy”

“Thanks a bunch!”

“The work shouldn’t take too long”

Claire smiled, “So what’s being home with your family like?”

“Well it's really just my Aunt, my parents are always busy so she’s the only available to house me”

“Oh I see, well what is she like”

“She works with the authorities”

Her smile disappeared, “Oh”

“But so far she’s been to busy to say anything, but I suspect I’ll be receiving a lecture at some point”

“Sorry for getting you into this mess” Claire said sheepishly

“Its fine, on a more positive note I found a new game for us to play”

“This isn’t one of those stupidly complicated games you trick me into playing so you can beat me?” she inquired with suspicion in her voice

Arlo smirked, “Of course not, it's called Stalluras its a space strategy game where you build and control an interstellar empire”

“That sounds exactly like one of those stupidly complicated games”

“Cmon it may seem complicated but it's pretty simple once you get into it, trust me”

Several hours later Claire realized that Arlo may have in fact lied about this game being simple but at this point she was too enthralled to stop. About a hundred years had passed and Arlo had conquered a third of the galaxy, meanwhile Claire’s economy was collapsing.

Claire’s eyes strained as she looked over various menus and saw several red numbers, “How are you doing so well Arlo?”

Arlo shrugged, “Surprisingly enough when you annex a planet rather than destroy it really does strengthen your economy”

“But I don’t want even more micro management! Besides those xenos had it coming when they insulted me and then attacked!”

“Whatever you say, either way you might want to think of a solution tomorrow”

“Why?”

“Cause it’s two am”

“Oh”

Despite everything that happened to her Claire went to school the next day smiling at her phone as Arlo practically wrote out an entire strategy guide for improving her performance in the game. Seraphina observed this when she stopped Claire from bumping into her and decided it needed to be corrected.

“Hey Cripple think fast!”

Just as class ended and Claire was trying to quickly make her way to the next one she was ambushed. One of the attackers shot a tornado of sharp wind at her which grazed her leaving several nasty cuts. Acting on instinct she took off down the hallway.

The one with the wind shouted, “Get her Meili!”

Claire turned around to see Meili, ability activated with glowing red claws riding the tornado straight towards her. Claire tried to pick up the pace. I just need to turn this corner! . As Claire was about to escape she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head.

Meili snarled pulling on one of Claire’s braids “Nice try cripple”

She slashed sideways and kicked Claire straight into the wall. She landed with an impact that left cracks as Meili turned to her companion, “Heh, that was underwhelming, thanks for the boost Ventus”

“Yeah, I was expecting more”

“Well she is a cripple”

“Let’s go, were done here”

In the infirmary Claire could only look down at her feet and zone out as doc went off on another rant. When he left with a “You of all people should know how to avoid these situations,” Claire breathed a sigh of relief and smiled as she took out her phone. The smile vanished when she saw the cracks

CRASH

Doc shouted, “WHAT THE HELL IS NOW-” he cut himself off as he beheld Claire standing with a murderous look.

As she walked towards the door Doc put his hand on her shoulder, “Where do you think you’re going”

Claire sent him a cold stare, “Doc, I came here to Wellston to learn, not sit in an infirmary bed all day, I’m leaving”

“Don’t take another step, you’re just gonna get in another fight”

“Next time it won’t be me in the infirmary”

“Well either way someone’s going to get hurt and if you respect that I want as few injured students as possible you’ll go back to the bed!”

“Fine”

As he watched her go back to the bed he could only wonder, Claire, how long are you gonna let this happen?

As the end of the day approached Claire was finally let out of the Infirmary and had some time to retrieve the assignments she needed from her classes. Just as she had gathered the various papers and was on her way out someone shoved her violently causing her to trip and spill the papers. She grit her teeth as she picked them up trying not to hear the various insults thrown her way. As this happened the trio of Isen, Elaine, and Remi walked by the scene.

As Isen took in the sight he immediately felt guilty. Is this what you wanted Seraphina? And I let it happen. It's only been a day and she already looks so roughed up, I should at the least help her here…

He shifted his direction and walked towards her to the surprise of his two companions.

As he bent down and reached towards the papers he spoke, “Hey Claire…

“Are you alright”

Claire’s eyes widened and her hold body tensed up as she remembered those words, remembered him.

She swung her palm out at Isen on instinct, “LEAVE ME ALONE YOU BASTARD!”

In an instant Isen felt a spike of adrenaline and he immediately leaped backwards to dodge the slap. He looked at her and his heart began to beat faster as a familiar feeling overtook him. One that he only experienced after developing his passive, one that told him that he was in danger. But how? She’s a cripple? Unless…

As Isen processed this Claire snapped back to her senses and realized what she just did.

She tried to apologize, “Wait, Isen I’m sorry I thought you were someone else and-”

Just then she felt a strong pull on her wrist and she turned to see that Elaine had grabbed her, “What the hell do you think you're doing!” she shouted as she tightened her grip, eyes glowing

“I-uh”

“That’s enough Elaine, let her go” Isen said trying to keep cool

“But she-”

“Look she already said sorry, let’s just leave her be”

Elaine frowned, “Fine” she said as she dropped Claire's wrist and began walking away

Claire looked down at the ground again as Isen gave a sad look before walking off. 

Once they were out of earshot Remi, who had closely watched the whole fiasco unfold turned to Elaine, “Elaine I just remembered Isen and I had some quick royal business to discuss in private, could you give us a minute?”

Elaine nodded, “Oh sure, catch you guys later”

Once Elaine had left Remi turned to Isen, “You see what I mean there was no way she was just a cripple”

Isen took a deep breath, “Yeah I guess but there was more to it then that”

“What do you mean-”

“Remi,” he grabbed her shoulder, “When she tried to slap me I felt my passive trigger, I’m don’t what exactly what Seraphina is trying to achieve but I think she’s making a huge mistake”

Remi gave a worried look, “So what should we do?”

Isen pondered this for several moments, “As much as I hate it I need you to keep looking into Claire, if were going to convince Seraphina to stop but we’ll  need hard proof to get her to listen”

Remi considered this skeptically, “Do you really think that this is such a big deal? I’m sure the Seraphina knows what she’s doing”

“Yes, I am certain, I’ve only felt my passive flair up that strongly when I met Seraphina. I don’t know why she might be hiding an ability but if being an amateur journalist has taught me one thing. It’s that people keep their secrets for a reason”

“You didn’t text me at all today, I was worried you’d gotten really hurt”

“Well I did get hurt but not particularly badly, it's just that the two assholes broke my phone in the process”

“Ah I see,” Arlo focused in more on Claire’s expression and took in just how pissed she was, Normally she just shrugs this stuff off, never seen it weigh on her for this long

He decided to try and change the subject, “So you get any better at Stalluras?”

A bit of Claire’s signature smile returned, “Yeah I think I did, I decided to enslave the xenos instead of killing them and now I’m doing much better!” Arlo gave a small chuckle at this, “What’s so funny” Claire inquired?

Arlo grinned, “I thought you would drop the game, but your always so determined and adaptable, it's very admirable”

Claire felt her spirits lifting as the conversation continued through the night, maybe she could get through this afterall.

Chapter Text

After a few days Arlo had begun to settle into a routine. Wake up, make breakfast, do his assignments, and then play games until Claire gets online. Then they’d talk and he’d do his best to keep her spirits up despite the various new bruises and bandages she’d acquire each day. But one day, just when he had finished some of his assignments and was checking to see if Claire was back yet he noticed that something was wrong. On his laptop monitor was displayed a prominent warning box with red text.

“The service you are using has been blocked by the network administrator”

Confused by this he went downstairs to see his aunt’s coat hanging up on the wall and the door to her office opened. Hesitantly he made his way to the open door and found himself facing the back of his aunt’s chair as she idly typed away at her keyboard.

Arlo coughed slightly and greeted Valerie, “Auntie, your back?”

Valerie turned around with a cold but neutral expression, “Arlo,” she began, “We have a lot to talk about”

Arlo shuddered, “I suspected as much”

Valerie stood up and approached him, “I would like you to know that I was very disappointed to hear that my own nephew was suspended for possession of contraband. Your parents were also quite distressed.”

“Look, I’m not gonna become of superhero, once this is over I’ll-”

Valerie’s eyes narrowed, “Do not interrupt me!” Arlo flinched slightly and went quiet, “That is not all I wish to speak about. When I inquired to the school for further details I was quite personally disturbed to hear that you had abdicated from your rightful role as king. Do you care to explain yourself?”

Arlo straightened up and prepared to defend his actions, “Being King was pointless, just a meaningless title and a collection of additional responsibilities for no benefit”

“The benefit comes in the prestige and assertion of authority,” Valerie stated matter of factly

“What prestige? They already know I’m the strongest, being king just means they talk about my back and then ask me for petty favors”

Valerie shook her head, “I see what’s happened here,” she walked closer to Arlo and looked him in the eyes, “You’ve gotten distracted, and based on what I’ve heard from your school and my own monitoring of your internet activity-”

“You’re monitoring me!”

“As an aunt concerned about her nephew’s career and prospects it is well within my right!” she continued, “I’ve seen the time you waste on that social media site, such places are breeding grounds for laziness and the corruption of youths, I’ve taken the necessary precaution to shield you from such distractions”

“You can’t just-”

“I will do whatever I deem necessary until you remember your place and duty as someone given such immense gifts”

“Well what do you want me to do then?”

“I want you to take these weeks to reflect on your actions, in addition I have extra materials I would like you to take read through as a supplement to your school work. Hopefully by the end of this you will remember the importance of asserting yourself”

Arlo gritted his teeth as he began to dread the coming weeks until one panicked thought came over him.

I’m leaving Claire stranded!

Claire got home from another excruciating day at school. Settling down at her desk she quickly logged on only to see Arlo was still offline. This was unusual but she thought nothing of it and decided to get a few hours in on Stalluras.

Several hours later Claire had hit another roadblock and really wanted some of Arlo’s advice. Checking once more she realized to her confusion that Arlo still was offline and in fact had not been online the entire day.

Realizing this Claire began to worry a little, Arlo, where are you?

Seraphina didn’t come to the rooftop often, she was a busy woman but when she visited she did enjoy the peace and quiet it offered. With a full view of her kingdom below her it was an excellent place for reflection.

Perfection is not an art, it’s habit

It is achieved not when you do it perfectly once but when you can do it perfectly every time without effort

To be a perfect leader once most not only act perfectly but ensure perfection in the system you control

Wellston is my system

The hierarchy is a well oiled machine

The strong rise to the top

The weak learn their limits and toe the line

Everyone finds where they belong and soon perfection is achieved

And then she comes along

A wrench in the gears

What is to be done with a stain that refuses to wash out?

Seraphina was brought out of her contemplation by the sound of a door opening. She turned around only to see the very subject of her frustration.

“What are you doing up here?” Claire asked calmly

Seraphina observed her closely. She saw her cold intense gaze and remembered the photo.

So is this who you really are Claire?

Seraphina gave a fake smile, “I’m sorry if there’s been a misunderstanding but I believe that you are the one who shouldn’t be here. The roof is for royals only so you’ll have to leave”

Claire didn’t falter, “I’m only here to eat my lunch, feel free to ignore me”

As Claire walked towards her and sat down Seraphina dropped the smile, “I’m not sure if I made myself clear, you are to leave”

“If I’m bothering you so much you can go to the other side of the roof, there’s plenty of room”

Seraphina was taken aback, All this attitude, and the audacity to tell me to move!

“You’re a brave one aren’t you?”

Claire responded without looking “Why do you ask,”

“Well I could decimate you in an instant”

“But why would you do that?”
“I find removing annoyances to be satisfying”

“Really? You find it satisfying to beat someone weaker than you? There’s no satisfaction in a fight you have no chance of losing”

Seraphina scrutinized that statement closely, How the hell would you know that?

Seraphina brought herself down to eye level with Claire, “I think there’s a bit of miscommunication here,” seeing that she now had Claire’s full attention she continued, “You see, I’ve been given the responsibility of maintaining a system. Everything is working as it should, every piece falls into its proper place. Except for one. One tiny insignificant piece that refuses to cooperate, a gear that refuses to turn. One that has the audacity to talk back to me and deny its role in the greater whole. If you were in my shoes, what would you do about this flaw?”

Claire shrugged, “I’d let it go”

Seraphina's eyes widened, “Excuse me?!”

“You said it yourself, it’s an insignificant piece, so long as the rest of the machine functions you should be satisfied. Why waste time and energy on something so small?” 

Seraphina was taken aback further, What in the world is she going on about

Claire began to stand up, “Nothing in this world is perfect”

Seraphina could only stare in stunned silence as Claire walked away. Once the door had closed her mind began racing.

What is with her?

She misunderstood me completely!

No fear, no apprehension, nothing

Only someone with power can have that kind of confidence

So who are you Claire?

Arlo lay at his bed staring at the ceiling. With the restrictions put in by his Aunt and her regular check ins there was nothing worth doing once his work was finished. So he found himself intensely scrutinizing the plain white paint that made up the ceiling.

A voice broke him out of his bored stupor, “Arlo, I think it's time for you to get back to work”

Arlo lifted his head confused, “I’ve already finished my assignments there’s nothing else for me to do”

Valerie shook her head, “To ensure that you engage in the proper reflection I’ve taken it upon myself to provide you with extracurricular assignments.”

Arlo then took notice of the large stack of books and folders that his Aunt has assembled, “And what do these assignments entail exactly?”

“I wish for you to read these provided works and then complete the corresponding worksheets. In addition I would like for you to write a reflection on each work and how it applies to you.”

With a heavy sigh Arlo stood up and grabbed the stack.

Valerie watched him sit back at his desk before leaving, “I expect you to work for the rest of the day, you may come down at dinnertime but once that is done you will resume”

Arlo nodded and with a heavy heart began to read through the first piece.

After several days of this Arlo felt like dying, having spent the last several hours reading Authority sanctioned “Thought pieces” that provided a non subtle message about his “proper role as someone blessed with gifts.” He hated it, he hated all of it. The message the same story how people like him were destined to rise up above the others and lead. He breathed a sigh of relief as he finished one of the reflections and placed it onto the stack. Each one filled with lies that he hoped would placate his Aunt. As he reached for the next reading he stopped and rested his face in his arms, exhausted.

This is awful

I haven’t done this much work “willingly” since last year

This kicked of something in Arlo and he began to reminisce more

Back then I always did as much work as possible

I neglected my health and friendships all for a meaningless rank

I may have been the king, but I was a puppet to everyone around me

Until she showed up

Arlo tried to remain calm in class. His mind raced as he tried to piece together the incident at the cafeteria. 

He remembered slamming the new girl with his barrier. How’d I let myself lose it like that?

He remembered breaking down as he beat her to pulp. What did I keep going? How the hell did she provoke me like that?

He remembered the cafeteria staring in awe and fear. Great, so much for “the perfect king” It’ll be months before people stop talking about that. All because of that Cripple

On cue Claire abruptly opened the door the tonics had clearly done some work but she still had several large bandages on her face, “Sorry I’m late, I had to take a trip to the infirmary”

The teacher stopped her lesson, “Yes I can see that, please take a seat”

As Claire made her way over to her seat she briefly made eye contact with Arlo and gave him a furious glare.

The teacher continued, “Anyways for this assignment you will be working in pairs who are as follows. Auriel and Blyke, Elaine and Remi, Hower and Mardin, Arlo and Claire”

At this the two groaned and put their hands in their face.

Ten minutes of silence later neither one had said anything to the other. A few minutes in Claire who was still pretty exhausted from having the snot beat out of her idly rested her elbow on Arlo’s desk.

This would lead to Arlo breaking the silence, “Get your elbow off my desk”

Claire scoffed at this, “Really that’s all you have to say”

Arlo was not amused, “Did you have anything in mind”

“An apology would be nice, then I might consider taking my elbow off”

Arlo glared at her, “I don’t owe you anything”

“Suit yourself then, though if you beat me up that means I can’t help with the project”

“You are mistaken, I will not need your help for this project”

“What’s that supposed to mean, it's a partner project”

“I can not risk having my grades compromised by you, I will do the project in its entirety and give you notes to read off of for the presentation.”

“Are you serious,” Claire paused, “Wait you’re serious?! I refuse! I came here to learn-”
“That is irrelevant, the matter it out of your hands”

“Like hell it is!”

Arlo’s eyes narrowed and began to glow, Claire backed down, “As I said, it is out of your hands”

With that Arlo stood up and left the classroom as Claire glared at him the entire way out.

Chapter Text

After several nights of hard work on the project Claire entered class with a look of steely determination.

Arlo failed to notice as he walked over to her seat with a stack of note cards in his hand, “These are the notes I have compiled for the presentation, read off of them and follow my cues”

Claire took the notecards from his hand and promptly tore the stack in half.

It took all of Arlo’s composure to not shout, “What the hell are you doing!”

Claire pulled out her own notes, “I said it before, I came here to learn. Since you didn’t communicate I went and did the whole thing so let's figure out who’s saying what”

After a round of intense negotiations Arlo had allowed her to summarize the plot of the story while he would talk about the important themes. Normally she would be unhappy with this, summarizing was the boring part of the presentation. But right now Claire was fine with it, she had a plan and this arrangement would let her speak first, which was all she needed.

Naturally when the time came Arlo insisted on giving the introduction, “The book we covered was ‘Hamlot’ by Speareshake. The book has many themes, of which we chose to focus on its central themes of the price of ambition and loyalty, fate, and the difference between perception and reality. But first my partner will give a brief summary of the plot”

Claire grinned she’ll give a ‘brief summary’ alright

“The story begins with the victory by two generals over invading armies. The generals encounter three witches who give a prophecy to ‘Hamlot’ proclaiming that he will one day become the new king, hence the theme of fate and freewill”

Arlo nodded silently as she continued, So far so good, maybe this’ll work out after all

Claire continued, “Initially he is skeptical but once a piece of the prophecy comes true events spiral further as he seeks to fulfill the rest of it, culminating with the murder of the king.” Claire continued her summary of the story moving on to the second and third scenes. She paused and saw the room was sto;; ostemomg, “Now there is some key symbolism here I want to highlight, first is the symbol of blood which highlights the guilt experiences by Macbeth and his wife after the murder of the beloved King. Next is the witches who intertwine with the questions of free will…”

As Claire continued Arlo’s eyes narrowed and he furrowed his brow, Wait! That’s supposed to be my segment! 

Arlo tried to get Claire's attention coughing into his fist, Claire only briefly paused to give him a knowing grin before resuming.

 She knows! What the hell is she doing!?

Claire continued with her summary, in each section giving an in depth analysis of the symbolism and its connection to themes as well as the historical context of the play. Several times Arlo tried to butt in. He knew he couldn’t be too forceful about lest others think he was actually being challenged by this Cripple, no they had to think this was part of his plan. Unfortunately Claire knew this, allowing Arlo to get in a few flustered words only for him to be quickly overrun by Claire’s constant steam, How in the world can that girl talk so fast?

By the time the summary had finished Claire had already said almost everything leaving Arlo with a few final pieces to contribute.

When their grades came back Arlo was not happy despite the shining A they had gotten. Meanwhile Claire was quite satisfied with what she had accomplished and turned her head over to glance at Arlo. Just at this moment Arlo had stood up unceremoniously and briskly walked out of the classroom.

The teacher called out to him, “Where are you going Arlo?”

“Library”

Once class properly ended Claire decided to follow him wanting to get a proper start on the next project. She began to have some regrets as she moved through the halls, maybe that was a bit much. I did make him look kind of bad but it was his fault for not wanting to communicate.

As she finished this train of thought she began to pay more attention to the murmurs around her and suddenly everything became clear.

“Did you hear? Arlo did like nothing during the presentation”

“First that cripple stands up to him, and now he doesn’t bother to do his work? Are we really supposed to follow him?”

“I bet he made her do all the work”

Claire clenched her fist as she heard all of this. So it happens here to huh?

She thought back to her first encounters with Arlo recontextualizing everything. How he seemed so arrogant and untouchable. Yet here it was, one minor thing happens and suddenly the whole school is talking behind his back.

People like him can seem invincible

But apply enough pressure and anyone will break

The library was a relatively open space so finding Arlo was easy. As Claire approached she looked over him carefully. At this moment he was reading the assigned story with a look of furious concentration.

Claire didn’t want to break his concentration but she really wanted to have a better start for this one, “Hey, I’m here. Let’s get to work on this next one, if we communicate well I think we put together an even better presentation”

Arlo took one look at her, slammed the book on the table and activated his ability. Two portions of barrier shaped almost like large staples materialized and slammed into Claire’s arms, pinning her to the wall. 

He stood up and walked closer to her, “Listen here, I will do the project and when the time comes you will do as I say”

“Or else what?”

“Or else…” the barriers on her wrists tightened, “I will ensure that you will spend every day in the infirmary”

Claire gave a chuckle, “That’s just a normal week for me, besides, I gave you a good grade last time!” her eyes narrowed, “If you wanted I could just flub it next time and bring us both down”

Arlo gritted his teeth, “If you do any such thing I will ensure that every moment you spend here will be a living hell!”

Claire sighed, “Please, I’m a cripple my life is already a nightmare”

“Then what the hell do you want, I’m giving you a good grade with no strings attached”

“What I said to you the first time, I want to learn without free loading off of others,” Arlo was taken aback and she continued, “When I came here I decided I wanted to live how I wanted, I don’t care what people say about me, I don’t care how many try to stop me. Nothing will prevent me from living life the way I want to”

Arlo was stunned, stunned by her audacity, her delusion, her determination.

“It’s not a bad way to live, Arlo, maybe you should try it sometime,” Claire saw the look of confusion spread across his face as he processed what she said, “You’re stronger than all of them, so why do you let them control you?”

Arlo raised his fist, Claire didn’t flinch, “How dare you-” he suddenly remembered what happened in the lunchroom. took a deep breath and dropped his hand, “Just shut up and do your work”

He deactivated his ability and went back to his seat. Claire gingerly rubbed her wrists and took the seat opposite of him. Both spent the remaining time working in silence.

As Arlo went to lay in bed he couldn’t stop thinking about what Claire had said to him. He knew it was delusional yet he couldn’t get it out of his head. Frustrated and without answers he slipped into a restless sleep.

The next day despite his near overwhelming desire to not have to face the delusional cripple Arlo found himself sitting down across from her in the library.

Claire who had arrived early looked up with an air of mild amusement, “So you do want to work with me afterall?”

Arlo groaned, “Want is a strong word”

“Well like it or not we are working together, and we are going to get an A together”

“Just do your job”

With that the two continued to do their work in silence much like yesterday. Arlo was content with this, Claire was not. Last time they both had to do twice as much work because Arlo wouldn’t communicate. Once they both finished their reading and took notes on the plot she knew that the same thing would happen unless she took action.

Once she finished her plot notes she waited for her opportunity. A short while later Arlo would leave to use the restroom, that was her moment. She grabbed Arlo’s paper and began to read through his notes, trying to piece together his perspective and what they could turn into a presentation. Claire was impressed, his notes were clear and concise with excellent handwriting. 

This is some pretty good work, but his interpretation here is completely different from mine. Maybe I should ask him about it-

“Excuse me, what are you doing?”, Arlo glared down at her, arms crossed

Claire jumped in her seat, “Ah Arlo…” she regained her composure, “Well since you seemed so unwilling to communicate last time I decided this time to take things into my own hands”

Arlo’s expression darkened, “Are you trying to imply something?”

“No no no I just uhhh,” Claire tried to think of something to turn this around, “I just wanted to ask you a question about your interpretation here”

Arlo was taken aback “Excuse me?”

“Well I was looking here and I realized that your analysis seems to assume that this story was meant to be a satire”

Arlo scoffed lowering his arms, “Well obviously, to think that our protagonists such reckless action without forethought could be anything but a mockery of such tropes is absurd”

“Really I saw it more of a celebration of it”

Arlo gave a frustrated sigh as he sat down, “Well you see when you consider the historical context…”

Arlo wasn’t really sure how long the two spent hotly debating the issue but as the two were forced to leave the closing library he had a sudden realization.

Am I having fun?

It didn’t make sense. Logically speaking he should have been very frustrated considering the fact that he spent the last few hours trying fruitlessly to prove his point to Claire. Though he had to admit he was impressed with how effective she was at debate. At some point they had both restored to frantic searching on the library computers in an attempt to validate their perspectives. This had gone nowhere as it seems the scholars of the internet had relatively little consensus about the topic as well. But that wasn’t what Arlo was hung up on. No, what confused him most was the question of why he cared so much. Most of the time if someone disagreed or talked back to him all he needed to do was activate his ability to get them to shut up. He couldn’t remember the last time he was compelled to defend his points with so much energy and passion. There was something about the way that Claire talked back to him and challenged him without a hint of fear or hesitation that was different. It was almost exciting…

Claire broke him out of his contemplation, “So I take it from your stunned silence that you have conceded to the superiority of my argument.” Claire said smugly

“What? No! I was just”

Claire laughed, “Just kidding Arlo, I was making sure you were still in there”

Arlo sighed, “Well considering that neither of us was willing to concede I don’t know what we're supposed to do to put together a coherent presentation”

Claire smiled, “Well actually I had an idea,” Arlo looked down at her, “If we can’t agree on it then why don’t we make it part of our presentation”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ll split it in two, once we summarize it we’ll present our perspectives. The themes of the piece at face value, and themes of the piece if interpreted as satire.” Claire clarified

Arlo considered this, “I suppose that is an option”

“Well I’m already set on it so deal with it!” and with that Claire took off. Just as she was about to round the corner she shouted down the hall, “see you later, Asslo!” and dashed out of sight leaving Arlo to contemplate what they discussed.

Well it’s not a bad idea. It shouldn’t be too difficult to put something good together and she is certainly intelligent enough to hold up her end…

Wait…

What did she just call me!?

When the day of the presentation came they were on point. They gave an eloquent summary and transitioned smoothly into their discussion of themes. They had plenty of back and forward between their interpretations and all in all it was surprisingly interesting for Arlo. When he got the A back from the teacher for some reason he felt something he hadn’t in a long time, satisfaction. When he looked over and saw Claire’s own smile as she looked at her paper he knew she felt it too.

For the next project their library work improved as well. Rather than an awkward silence there was a regular discussion as they made their way through the third book. They talked about the plot, the themes, how weird the characters were, and by the end even Arlo found himself quietly chuckling at a few of Claire’s dumb jokes.

A few hours later they were both a good way through the book with several pages of notes between them.

As Arlo finished another chapter and moved to jot down some more notes he was interrupted by a noise from across the table.

Claire stood up and stretched her back, “Alright this seems like a good place to stop,” she looked at Arlo, “Want to take a break, maybe get something to drink?”

Arlo raised an eyebrow, “A break?”

Claire chuckled, “Yeah a break, you know? Stop working, take some time to refresh yourself, avoid burnout before you get to college.”

“Yeah, wait what?”

“Nevermind”

Arlo sighed, “Yes I know what a break is, but unfortunately one is not in the cards for me”

“Awww why not?” Claire pouted slightly

“I have finish my work here,” he said matter-of-factly

“Cmooon, what's the rush? We still have plenty of time finish”

Arlo shook his head, “Maybe you do, but I have to do training at 4”

Claire tilted her head, “Training, what for?”

“My ability”

Claire gripped her sides and began laughing.

Arlo was very indignant, “What’s so funny?”

Claire took some deep breaths trying to control herself, “Nothing, it's just that why would you of all people be training your ability?”

“I can not risk being defeated, I have to continue my training lest someone dethrone me”

“Are you serious?! Wait you’re serious,” Claire breathed a deep sigh, “Look Arlo, you’re like what an eight right? You’re already more powerful than like, 99% of everyone. What do you even train anyways?”

“Endurance mostly, I try and see how long I can keep my barrier up for an extended period of time”
“Seriously?! That’s all?”

“Yeah”

“That sounds super boring”

Arlo shrugged, “I do what I need to do to stay on top”

“How long do you do this for?”
“Normally until dinner time so about 3 hours”

“And after that?”

“I study”

Claire face palmed, “Do you have any free time or anything? Hobbies?”

Arlo shook his head, “I don’t have time for such distractions as King I need to stay focused and set a good example, you wouldn’t understand”

Claire crossed her arms, “I don’t have to be you to understand what’s going on here. There’s no way in hell you actually want all this work and pressure. You might be the King but you are not in control”

Arlo glared, “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Claire wanted to take this further but decided against it.

She exhaled loudly and stood up, “look you’re right, I probably don’t know everything that’s going on with you and I can’t control your decisions. I’m gonna take a break and go to the Woaba Boba in town your free to join me should you change your mind,” she began to pack up her bag, “But while you're here, please, for you sake think about what you’re doing and if this is really what you want out of life”

With that she left and Arlo was left to stew on what Claire had just told him. He made an effort to continue his work but his mind was still racing.

Is this really what I want?

After a few minutes he decided he needed to take a walk to clear his head. He got from his seat and began to walk out of the library and through the school’s halls. As he walked he tried to purge his mind and get himself back to his “Proper” state when suddenly he heard voices from around the corner.

“Who the hell do you think you are, butting into our conversation like this! Of course we’re talking about Arlo making a fool of himself! It’s all anyones been talking about”

“You’re wrong!”

Arlo turned the corner to see Claire crumpled against the wall but staring defiantly at the two girls standing above her.

“Arlo works really hard, harder than most of this school! You have no right to judge him considering how all you can contribute is petty gossip!”

She’s defending me

This remark earned Claire another set of bruises as the girl blasted her into the wall again.

The other one sneered, “Yeah right! We’ll talk about whoever we damn please. If anyone here has no rights it's the useless cripple crying in front of us!”

Claire looked down at the floor, her vision blurry and her breathing heavy when suddenly she saw a glow out of the corner of her eyes.

SLAM!

A rectangle of barrier slammed into the first girl sending her flying into the wall. The other turned around and became pale as she saw Arlo walking calmly towards them. In an instant she turned and ran leaving her recovering friend on her own. As the girl gingerly rubbed her forehead and stood up her jaw dropped as she made eye contact with Arlo.

As a barrier formed around her and began closing in she dropped to her knees, “A-arlo!? I didn’t know uh I didn’t mean that-”

The barrier tightened further, “Really? Are you sure you didn’t? You seemed quite certain just a few moments ago,” he turned his head to look at Claire, “And who gave you permission to assault my partner?!” the barrier forced the girl onto her knees and continued to press in.

“PLEASE FORGIVE ME! I’M SORRY I’M SORRY”

Arlo sighed and dropped the barrier watching with disdain as the girl scampered off. Once she was out of sight he turned around to see Claire slowly trying to pick herself back up.

Arlo offered her a hand, “I’ve reconsidered your offer, I’d like to accompany you on this break”

Claire gave a weak smile, “I knew you’d come around eventually,” she took his hand, “But could we go to the infirmary first?”

An hour later the two were sipping the boba that Claire had insisted on paying for. Arlo mused on this strange turn of events.

Taking all this time to do nothing productive. I should feel anxious or worried but for some reason it feels good. Is this what being a teen is supposed to be like?

As Arlo lay at his desk recounting the events he couldn’t help but think about the person who changed his life.

That day she made me realize something, that rank and reputation aren’t everything

Claire…

Even with the odds stacked against you, you always play the hand you're given

Stubborn to a fault

You give everyone a chance to show what they can contribute

Even me…

Thank you

For everything

Chapter Text

Claire was tired, so very tired. Everyday of the past few weeks had been the same routine. Go to school, get beat up, go home and repeat. Before, Arlo had been there to keep her anchored but now that he was gone the pressure was building. Something had to give.

As Claire stepped into her home and dropped her bags she did her best to stay calm. She tried to take deep breaths as she clenched her fist rage boiling within her. It didn’t work. She turned to her exercise equipment eyes locking with the punching bag. As she walked towards it the stream of thoughts she had been trying to suppress spilled forth.

Why do I put up with this!?

She let loose a right hook, the bag recoiled backwards

She remembered the jeering crowds at Wellston. More punches flew.

They’re all pathetic!

She remembered the countless times someone ran away when she helped them, she struck it with her knee.

The cowards who crumple and fold at the first sign of a threat!

She remembered people’s stares as she was pummeled time and time again, she let loose a roundhouse kick

The ones who wouldn’t lift a finger to help anyone!

She remembered the countless petty bullies, another string jabs and hooks

And the ones who think that because they were born with a higher number, means they can treat others like dirt!

She remembered him, and raised her fist again.

Even the one person I trusted!

She remembered Arlo, and dropped her fist

She clutched her head and groaned trying to steady her breathing. Slowly she made her way to the bathroom and turned on the sink. She splashed some water on her face and stared at the mirror. She looked down at her hands, bruised from the beating she’d just given to her bag and slowly raised them to her face. She slowly felt each and every bruise and cut she had acquired. Running them through her hair she grimaced at the bump she had gotten the last time she was thrown into a wall. When she felt her braids her expression darkened.

She remembered when those two mid tiers broke her phone. She remembered the one with claws pulling on it. She had thought these braids would be cute and non-threatening but no…

They were a liability

With a new resolve she began to undo them, and then grabbed a pair of scissors

Remi had a lot on her mind. Ever since that disastrous encounter with Claire that ended with Isen looking more shaken than Remi had ever remembered. She’d taken care to avoid encountering Claire in the hallways since then and had begun to do the digging that Isen had asked for. Unfortunately finding someone's old records was a lot harder than finding their picture. New Bostin was a small public school that didn’t have the need to boast about its lack of prestige, especially, in stark contrast to Wellston which regularly advertised the prowess of its royals and the high academic achievements of its students. The situation as a whole had grown quite nerve-wracking for Remi and doubts were beginning to creep into her mind.

Is there really anything certain? Maybe Isen’s passive just had a fluke, that can happen right? I mean it's never been wrong before but could something dangerous really be hiding behind a facade like that-

She was broken out of her internal rant when she caught a glimpse of a familiar face. Remi's eyes widened as she saw her. Claire, hair cutdown to neck length with a cold authoritative stare, just like the photo. Remi found herself unconsciously shrinking down trying to avoid crossing that gaze, as she observed Claire walk through the crowds with a sense of quiet fury. Only one question raced through Remi’s mind.

Is this the real Claire?

Getting ambushed when walking between the school’s building was nothing new for Claire. Still, it wasn’t often she was this outnumbered. Tanner and his gang of three were quite a notorious group of bullies. While most hot-headed mid tiers were too prideful to work in anything other than a duo at most these four were seemingly inseparable, when one was spotted the others weren’t far behind. But having all four converge on one target was a rarity, Claire needed to plan her moves carefully. 

“What the hell are you looking at Cripple?!” Tanner yelled

Claire backed away quickly making sure each one of the gang was within her sight.

Claire held up her hands and shouted back, “Leave me the fuck alone!”

Tanner and the rest laughed at this and he stepped forward backing Claire into a corner, “”Leave me alone’ pffft! Did you lose your brain along with your dorky braids? As the strongest I’m the one who calls the shots here!”

As Claire ran out of room to back away with, she went over the plan.

Injure his pride, get him to fight you first. Then focus on the rest

She shouted, “Oh yeah? Then prove it!”

Tanner looked a little confused, “What?”

“Fight me, one on one, don’t hide behind your lackeys!”

Tanner’s expression darkened, “Why you little!” he threw a punch.

Claire reacted instantly; she dodged to the side while grabbing his wrist. With her left hand she gripped his shoulder and used his momentum to redirect him face first into the wall. Before he could react Claire grabbed the back of his head with her left and slammed it repeatedly against the bricks. Tanner tried to wriggle out of her now loosened grip, pushing off against the wall he managed to turn himself around only to be met with a powerful shove sending the back of his head against the surface. Claire reached out with her left hand and gripped it around Tanner’s throat as she readied hand to deliver more blows to Tanner’s bloodied face.

Tanner managed to shout, “Get her off me!”

Claire turned her head to the right to see the rest of the goons rushing at her. In a moment of pure adrenaline, her eyes began to glow. And suddenly she was back in the field.

She gripped the boy by his collar forcing him against the ground. Behind her were the unconscious bodies of some of New Bostin’s most powerful students.

“Claire please! I didn’t-” he pleaded

“Didn’t what, John? Didn’t realize I was smart? Didn’t realize I wouldn’t fall for you tricks.” he stayed silent at this, “You really had me under your spell, saving me, helping me discover my power, training me, inspiring me…”

“But you knew from the start didn’t you”

John’s eyes widened, “No! It’s not like that-”

She shoved him again knocking the air out of his lungs “Stop lying!”

John coughed and looked up tears beginning to form in his eyes.

His voice was small and weak, “Please…” he coughed again, “I didn’t want this to happen,” he reached his hand out, “I just wanted you to stop hurting people,” he made eye contact…


“You’re becoming a monster”

Claire snapped. “YOU DON’T KNOW ME, YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING!”

She raised her fist and delivered one final punch.
And she snapped back to reality, the glowing in her eyes fading.

On the bright side her punch had been enough to finally knock out Tanner. On the not so bright side she still had three mid tiers to deal with. She took a deep breath and reoriented herself.

I’m at Wellston, I’m being attacked, I have a chance…

This is real

The red-haired girl, Illena, surged forward with two glowing fists. Reacting instantly Claire grabbed Tanner’s body and threw it at her. Illena gave a loud grunt as the two collided her momentum bringing her to the grounds with Tanner sprawled over her. Claire rushed forward. The last member of the gang was standing far away, blocking her escape while charging two projectiles. Seeing this Claire narrowed her eyes and sprinted at him waiting for the moment he released. The second he did she leapt to her left while twisting her body, the projectiles barely missed. She continued moving forward before remembering an important fact.

Wait, there was supposed to be four of them…

She turned around just in time to see the blond one delivering a flying kick. Claire raised her hands to block, absorbing the blow she stumbled but wasn’t stopped. But that was enough, another two projectiles hit her sending her to the ground. Claire tried to get up when suddenly she heard a yell.
“I GOT YOU NOW!” Illena shouted as she delivered a kick to Claire’s side

Claire was sent flying into the wall, the wind was knocked out of her and she coughed up blood. Her ears were ringing and her vision was starting to blur as the three stood over her.

Illena grinned wildly, “Well now, time to finish the Job”

She raised her hand for one final punch and Claire braced herself for the pain. It never came. In the few moments before she lost consciousness Claire could make out a blur of purple sending Illena flying into the wall.

Then everything went dark.

The rooftop of New Bostin high school was always a calming place for Claire. Sure climbing the ranks had its various benefits but compared to some vague notion of  “Prestige” or “respect”. The rooftop was concrete, a tangible reminder of how far she had come, how hard she had worked.

A small voice broke her out of this contemplation, “C-Claire,” it was Adrion

She turned to face him, “What is it”

Adrion trembled slightly as he met her gaze, “It’s John, something bad is happening, something real bad-”
“Cut the crap and get to the point already!” she stood up suddenly

Adrion gulped, “Yes, sorry! It's that I think John is planning something!”

Claire grabbed him by the collar, “What do you mean!”

“I saw him talking with the Jack! He said that he could sense your aura from the start”
“What!?”

“That’s why he helped you! He knew you’d be strong and wanted you as an ally!”

“YOU LIAR!” she threw him to the ground, “YOU THINK THAT AFTER EVERYTHING WE’VE BEEN THROUGH, HE’D THROW IT AWAY!”

Adrion cowered before her, “Please Claire, listen to me! I’ve been with you from the start. Zirian’s been training and they’re rallying people as we speak-”

She kicked him, “Why should I believe you!”

Adrion shook, “Claire I know you don’t like using your ability to that extent but please, if you just looked you’d see-”

She stood over him causing him to go silent, “I’m not subjecting myself to that just because of your stupid lies!”

“You have to! You’re the only one who can see what's going to happen and stop it!” he took a deep breath, “If things continue, you might lose everything!”

She slapped him, “Do you even know what you're saying!”

“I can never lose!”

Claire awoke with a rage in her eyes throwing a punch at the air. She looked around the room frantically before focusing on Seraphina. The purple haired girl was sitting in a seat next to Claire’s bed. She had been idly looking at her phone when she heard the noise of Claire violently waking up. 

She opened her mouth, “So you’re finally awake-”

She was interrupted by a fist flying her way. With an unnatural speed she calmly caught the punch in her hand and looked up. 

Undeterred Claire used her free hand to grab at Seraphina’s collar and began shouting, “Why did you save me!? What are you playing at!?”

Seraphina gave a long sigh and pried off Claire’s grip, “Don’t be full of yourself,” she stood up “Not everything is about you,” Claire backed off, “And another thing. Consider yourself lucky that I’m fast. If you had actually hit me I would have been far less lenient.”

With that Serphina left and Claire was left to consider what she had done. She tried to calm herself with deep breaths.

What is wrong with me!

Remi typed away furiously at her laptop. After several hours she had finally made a breakthrough and had gotten access to Claire’s old files. If there was anything that would confirm or deny Isen’s fears it was this.

“Hey Remi what are you looking at-”

“Agggh!” Remi jumped and covered the screen, turning around to face Elaine, “Jesus, have you ever heard of privacy?!”

Elaine got a look at the screen and frowned, “Are you still obsessed with that Claire girl?” she shook her head, “Not only is it creepy she’s kind of a jerk. too! I mean remember when she slapped Isen?”

Remi grabbed her lap top and waved away Elaine, “Yeah, yeah look I can’t really talk right now, what I’m doing is super important!” she walked towards her room, “Talk to you later”

In the privacy of her own room Remi breathed a large sigh of relief as she re-opened her laptop and resumed reading the file. That sense of relief soon vanished.

What the hell she was expelled?! She’s stronger than Seraphina!

Her eyes rapidly scanned the file searching for an explanation.

Excessive violence? What in the world did she do?!

‘For details on expulsion, see next page’ she did as such.

Remi felt her stomach drop as she read said details. She started panicking.

This is bad, this is so fucking bad!

Isen was right!

Whatever the hell Seraphina is doing…

It needs to stop!

Or who knows what’ll happen!?

Seraphina once more found herself on the roof, reflecting on recent events. She had been observing Claire closely during her scuffle with the mid tiers. In a brief moment Seraphina had finally had her suspicions confirmed. For a second Claire’s eyes were glowing. She was quite disappointed when they stopped. Still now with her hunch confirmed she was still at a loss to understand Claire. To hold all that power but choose instead to be beaten time and time again. It was unthinkable.

Seraphina heard the door to the roof open a crack behind her followed by a familiar voice, “Hey Sera, are you here?”

Instantly she activated her ability and rushed over to slam the door shut, “Go away!”

Expecting her order to be heeded, Seraphina deactivated her ability and began to move away when suddenly a force pushed the door open and an arm shot through the crack.

Not wanting to dismember the girl by using her ability to close it again Seraphina was forced to listen to Claire while attempting to use her normal strength to keep her out.

Claire cried out as she tried to force her way through, “Look Sera, I’m wedging my arm through a door to tell you I’m sorry!”

Seraphina sighed, desiring to end this encounter as quickly as possible she let her in. Claire almost fell over not expecting the resistance to give way so suddenly.

After dusting herself off an reorienting herself off she looked at Seraphina and began to speak, “I’ll make this quick I promise”

Seraphina crossed her arms, “You better, and don’t call me Sera!”

“Look I just wanted to apologize for what I did”

Seraphina rolled her eyes, “Is that all?”

Claire stammered, “N-no it's not just that…” she took a deep breath, “I wanted to thank you too, it’s rare that someone actually tries to stand up for up for people like me and I really do appreciate it”

Seraphina paused to consider this before shaking her head, “I believe there is a misunderstanding,” she stepped forward to stand over Claire, “I did not rescue you out of some sort of personal affection. I rescued you because those mid tiers were making a disgrace of themselves”

“What do you mean?”

“By ganging up on you they demonstrated cowardice that I simply could not tolerate. Had you the chance to engage them one out of time I believe that encounter would have gone quite differently”

Claire put her hands up with a disarming chuckle, “Nah me? I’m just a cripple. There isn’t really much I can really do.” she waited to see if Seraphina would respond. When she didn’t she continued, “Look I still want to make it up to you, are you free after school? There’s this great boba place and-”

“No”

Claire pouted, “Cmoooon! It’ll be great, they have the best drinks in town!”

Seraphina gritted her teeth, “Will it get you out of my hair”

Claire nodded up and down, “Yeah, definitely! One hundred percent!”

Seraphina sighed, “Very well then. But only this once!”

With that Claire left, and Seraphina began to plot her next move.

Chapter Text

Following Remi’s panicked exit and subsequent failure to leave her room for the rest of the evening Elaine was left with with nothing to do but return to her own room and reflect on recent events. Elaine was not happy about how her chat with Remi had gone. Not only was she weirded by Remi’s strange obsession with the school’s cripple, Remi's quick exit had reflected a greater trend in their current friendship.

Her and Isen too, they’ve both been so distant lately

She knew that they were still dealing with Rei’s death but even then, the behavior they had shown recently seemed more akin to a constant anxiety or paranoia rather than grief.

No something else must also be bothering them, but what?

She racked her brain trying to think if anything unusual had happened in the past few weeks.

There was a little disruption right when they came back, but I thought that everything went back to business as usual afterwards.

She was correct, for a while things had been normal, well as normal as one could expect. Sure there were times they both seemed distant or disconnected from their surroundings but that was understandable for people dealing with loss. No she was worried about the worried looks in their eyes when they walked to class, how they constantly seemed to be scanning the crowds, and how they started taking unnecessary detours between classes.

I give up, whatever's happening they clearly are trying to keep it to themselves…

She sighed

I just wish they would talk to me about it

She lay down in her bed and stared at the ceiling, mind going blank. Then she had an idea. If she couldn’t get them to tell her then the least she could do was get their minds off of it. Excitedly she got out of bed and made her way to her laptop. She had the perfect way for all of them to unwind and it started with this new movie that was showing in the nearby mall…

Isen really didn’t know if they should be doing this. With all that was going on currently he really didn’t think that now was a good time to go have a fun day at the mall. Remi had similar reservations, doubly so considering the bombshell she had discovered last night. Now she had a dilemma, Isen had told her to share any info for the purposes of dissuading Seraphina. Remi had been quite willing to do so at the first opportunity but now having a night to think about it Remi had her own doubts about that plan. Knowing Seraphina any attempt to confront her directly was just as likely to galvanize her as it was to get her to back off and she really didn’t want Isen to end up in her line of fire. Another factor was the fact that Arlo’s suspension was going to be over soon. Still she knew some confrontation was going to happen, no secret like this could feasibly stay hidden forever. This needed to be handled carefully, She resolved to share the info with Isen as soon as there was a good opportunity.

So for now she sat on the information and begrudgingly agreed with Isen that indulging Elaine for now was better than getting her involved in the mess. After all what is the harm in waiting just one day?

“Seriously? That’s the movie you picked?” Elaine asked while raising an eyebrow.

While going to the mall cinema was Elaine’s idea, Remi had insisted on picking the movie. Now the two were waiting at the front of the school for Isen.

Remi smiled back, “Trust me”

“Are you sure you couldn’t have picked a romance movie or something?”

Remi raised her finger and winked, “Cmon, you know Isen loves historical dramas”

Elaine sighed and shook her head, “Whatever you say”

“Sorry I’m late guys!” they turned around to Isen in his casual clothes

Elaine smiled as they set out for the mall. It was nice to all be hanging out again.

The movie was alright, ok Elaine had to admit it. It was really freaking good. She didn’t think a story about long dead politicians doing politics could be interesting but she had her eyes glued to the screen the entire time, not that she was going to admit it to Remi. Now as they exited the theater the two girls found themselves bickering over the film while Isen looked at his phone wanting to do his own further research on the movie’s story.

Elaine, rolled her eyes, “I suppose the movie was decent enough”

Remi smirked, “Yeah right, I saw you, you were fixated the whole time!”

“Was not!”

“Yes you were! I had to tap you three times to get you to pass the popcorn!”

Their argument ended abruptly as they saw a weird booth. Next to it was a tacky sign with a five dollar price and a claim that prizes were awarded for those with a high rank. The two made eye contact with each other and unceremoniously began to drag Isen over.

Isen was quite startled, “Woah what in the world are you two doing!?”

Fortunately for Remi he didn’t struggle as he was put in front of the reader while Elaine slapped down the money.

Elaine pointed to Isen, “We’d like to have him read”

Isen slowly walked up and seeing the outstretched hand of the man nervously extended his hand. The man's brow furrowed as his ability activated.

After a few moments he smiled, “Quite remarkable!” He looked up at Isen, “You’re at least a 5.2!” He reached under his desk and pulled out a stuffed bear, “A handsome bear for a handsome young man, perhaps you might share it with one of your lady friends?” the man gave a wink

Isen rolled his eyes and reached out to take the bear, “Yeah whatever-” 

He froze as his hands briefly made contact with the bear in the reader’s outstretched hands. His stomach dropped as he felt his senses flare up as his passive activated. He started breathing rapidly, hyper aware of everything, the noise of the crowds, the feeling of the fur, the over enthusiastic smile of the booth owner.

His sudden hesitation was not lost on anyone, the booth owner’s wide smile faltered somewhat, “You alright kid?” he said with concern in his voice.

Isen took a deep breath and tried to play it cool, “Yeah I just uhhhh…” he tried to think of an excuse, “I just had a little static shock, that's all”

“Oh, good, er…” the owner tugged at his shirt, “Well take it now, don’t wanna hold up the line”

Isen cautiously took the bear feeling no more flare ups and slowly turned around and walked away. Remi and Elaine who initially were arguing over whether the prize could be considered worth the five dollars they had spent were now staring at Isen who held the bear like it was a bomb. Without a word they followed him.

When they turned the corner and were out of sight of the booth Isen released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

Elaine walked up to him with a concerned look, “Are you alright Isen? You look pale”

Isen composed himself and took several deep breaths, “Yeah, I think I am but…” he held out the teddy bear, “There’s something wrong with this bear”

It was Remi’s turn to be confused, “What do you mean?”

“When I touched it back there it triggered my passive” both Remi and Elaine’s jaws dropped.

He began to squeeze and prod at the bear trying to feel if there was anything off. Running his hands along the back he felt a small hard square.

He turned to Remi and handed her the bear, “Can you activate your ability? I wanna check if there might be something electronic in it”

Remi nodded and her eyes began to glow. After a few seconds they widened and she suddenly ripped open the back, pulling out a small device.

The three stood in stunned silence before Remi spoke, “It's a transmitter”

Isen’s heart pounded, “Whoever that was, they were trying to track me!”

“So what should we do?” Elaine asked eyes shifting around

Isen considered his options carefully, the man’s ability was weak but if he was working for someone powerful then there would be real danger.

After a minute of deliberation he decided, “We’ll get security”

Elaine and Remi who were considering confronting the man themselves and throwing the thing in the trash while booking gave a, “What?” in unison.

Isen explained, “It’s simple, we get one of the security guards, then we confront them. Not only will we have strength in numbers, if anything happens we won’t get in trouble”

Elaine and Remi both nodded and they quickly moved towards the first guard they saw. He was a tall man with green hair and a stern expression.

Remi volunteered to get his attention, “Excuse me sir!”

He turned to face her, his harsh expression unchanging, “What is it kid?”

Remi flinched a little under his intensity, steeling herself she raised the bear and the tracking device, “That man over there” she pointed at the booth, “He’s giving out these prizes with transmitters in them!”

The man's eyes widened as he registered that he was receiving a genuine report, “I knew that man was suspicious!” he shouted. He grabbed his radio and pressed the button, “Merin this is Payton, moving towards the booth. Would like some backup, over”

With that he nodded towards Remi and began to move towards the booth, the trio followed closely behind. As they approached the man in the booth saw them and went pale.

“W-what is the problem officer?” he stammered out

In response Isen slapped the bear and the transmitter onto the table, “Care to explain why you have a tracking device implanted in your ‘prize’?”

“What?! I know they were there! My boss gives me these toys and…”

Isen narrowed his eyes focusing on the man's body, his pulse was highly irregular.

Isen turned to the officer, “He’s lying, I can tell with my ability”

The officer nodded, “Alright listen here mister, your going to come with me quietly and answer some questions-”

Suddenly Isen felt his passive spike once more. Everything slowed down as he hyper fixated on a noise. Among the buzz of the crowd there was the sound of something small and metal being pulled. In an instant of pure adrenaline he turned around to see a smoke grenade being hurled through the air. With his enhanced speed and reflexes he leapt up to catch it and turned around to hurl it straight into a nearby trash bin. A cloud of smoke began billowing out of it as the entire crowd went silent. Then everyone started panicking. Isen turned around to see the booth owner trying to flee. In the commotion he had gotten some distance but not enough. Isen dashed forward and tackled the man to the ground placing him in an armbar. He looked up to see Elaine and Remi following as the guard talked into his radio.

“I need all officers on standby, suspect has accomplices, be cautious accomplices may be armed, over” he ordered with an air of calmness.

He looked over at Isen and the man pinned under him and sighed, “Well this went to hell quickly, still,” he put his hand on his chin, “At least we got one, we’ll take him into questioning but were still gonna need statements from all of you”

As the adrenaline faded and the ringing in his ear subsided Isen could only faintly nod as the officer walked over.

Arlo was done, not just done with the reading, he was done with everything his Aunt had been putting him through. Done with the excessive workload, done with her condescending talks at dinner, and done with having no control of hos ;ofe.

Claire…

No matter what happens, no matter how bad it is…

You never give in!

Whenever there’s a wall in front you...

Nothing in this world will stop you from getting to the other side!

If you can do that without an ability…

Than nothing should stop me

The next morning Arlo played games on his laptop. It had been a while since he had done something actually fun, and it was a good way to pass the time before his Aunt’s morning check in. As he heard the door click open, he took a deep breath and steeled himself.

His Aunt’s voice was cold and authoritative, “Arlo, how is your work progressing”

Arlo didn’t make eye contact, “It isn’t”

“Excuse me?!”

He replied in a monotone voice, “I believe that I’ve done enough work”

“That’s Impossible! I gave you enough to last the rest of the week!” she replied with irritation

He finally stood up and faced her, “You misunderstand, I am done.”

His eyes glowed and suddenly a cylinder of barrier surrounded his Aunt.

“ARLO! How dare you!” she shouted, pressing her hands against it, “What in the world are you doing young man!?”

He smirked, “I think it should be quite obvious, you told me I needed to learn to assert myself. So I’m asserting that you have no control over me.” Arlo watched with satisfaction as a look of sudden realization overtook his Aunt, “Furthermore I am asserting that I will stay here no longer.”

Valerie stood in stunned silence before making a hasty reply, “You can’t! The authorities ordered-”

He tightened the barrier slightly, silencing her, “You said yourself that the weak should listen to the strong, so listen closely. You will get me a plane ticket back to Wellston, as far as anyone is concerned, using your own judgement you deemed me sufficiently cleansed and wished for no more disruptions to my education.” he paused to let her process his demands, “And if you refuse, I will simply have to find my own way.”

“You can’t! Your parents-”

“Would be quite pleased that you were able to ‘guide’ me so effectively in this ‘crisis of faith’, or if my demands are not met, would be quite displeased to see that I have strayed so far under your guidance. Which would you prefer?”

Finally Valerie was silent, she knew she had been had. If word got out that she let someone of Arlo’s caliber become corrupted under her watch it would destroy her reputation, especially with his mother. She gave a defeated sigh as Arlo dropped the barrier and shamefully turned around to leave the room.

“One more thing,” Valerie froze and Arlo smirked, “I will flying first class, you know how uncomfortable I get without the extra leg room”

When she left the room and closed the door Arlo released the breath he had been holding.

I did it Claire

Chapter Text

Seraphina found herself on the roof a lot these days. The boba with Claire had been an excruciating endeavor but she supposed it had been somewhat enlightening. From their interactions she confirmed her suspicions that Claire was as stubborn and idiotic as she had suspected, still Seraphina had been caught off guard by her directness. It started simply enough, Seraphina only needed to ask a few prodding questions to get Claire to tell her how she had managed to befriend Arlo. But then Claire turned things around and managed to get Seraphina to admit her admiration for her predecessor, a secret she divulged rarely. Seraphina had certainly learned a lot about Claire but not enough to satisfy her No, more drastic action would have to be taken.

A loud voice rang out from the stair entrance, “Ah Sera, what a surprise!”

Seraphina turned around to see Claire’s beaming smile, “I told you not to call me that,” she responded drly.

Claire chose to ignore that remark, “So did you enjoy the boba?”

“No,” Seraphina lied, the boba had been surprisingly good

Claire looked her in the eyes and her smile grew “You’re lying”
Seraphina not wanting to pursue this line of discussion further decided to change the subject, “You said the boba would get you out of my hair, what are you doing here?”

Claire sighed and chuckled, “Just taking a break between classes, I definitely didn’t know that you would be here.”

Seraphina shook her head, “There are plenty of other places that you could go”

“If that’s what you really wanted then I wouldn’t have gotten this far,” Claire responded with her usual lack of fear

An awkward silence began as Seraphina averted her eyes.

After a few moments Claire coughed, “So, why do you like it up here?”

Seraphina gave a forced smile, “Well you see, normally this is a place where I can get away from nonsense,” she gave an exaggerated sigh, “But alas my peace has been once more disrupted”

Claire full on laughed before checking her phone, “Crap! Gotta go to class!” she began running before stopping, “Wait! Are you free after school?”

“I have errands”

“Can I tag along?”

“No”

“Cmooon, errands always go faster when you have someone with you! Here meet me by the gates after school if you accept my offer!”

And with that Claire dashed through the door.

Claire wasn’t sure what she was expecting. Seraphina reminded her in so many ways of Arlo, yet there was something different. Still Seraphina chose to go with her to get boba and their recent conversation had given her hope.

Maybe I’m getting through to her after all?

There was only one way to test this. Once school ended she raced out and nearly jumped for joy when she saw a certain student waiting by the gates.

“YOU CAME!” Claire shouted

Seraphina flinched, briefly losing her immaculate composure, “Jesus!” she took a deep breath, “Alright no need to deafen the student body, let's just get going”

Seraphina stayed silent as the two rode out on Wellston’s train system. Claire had initially bombarded her with questions but eventually stopped as Seraphina refused to elaborate beyond ‘errands’. So she spent the latter half of the ride staring out the window at the passing city. As the ride dragged on Claire became a little confused. She was expecting to have gotten off the train already but now they had already passed most of the city's shopping centers and other services. Claire began to wonder what errands Seraphina could possibly be running this far out of the city.

Things didn’t become any clearer when they stepped off the train and Seraphina led the two to a featureless field.

Claire’s curiosity once more got the better of her, “You do errands in a big empty field?”

Seraphna smirked, “Not just any field, this is Wellston’s turf war field”

Claire’s eyes went wide, “Woah, are you sure about this, you know I’m not exactly built for this!”

“Relax, so long as you’re with me nothing bad could happen to you, all I’m doing is meeting some people”

Claire quietly nodded and the two continued walking. Eventually they began to approach two people, one with purple hair, the other with burgundy hair.

By the time Claire recognized them it was already too late.

They’re the ones who broke my phone!

“What’s going on Seraphina?” she asked with a hint of panic in here voice

Seraphina activated her ability and was suddenly standing behind them.

She snapped her fingers, “Lock her down”

One cue the two charged at her, Claire raised her fists to defend herself but it was hopeless. The purple haired one blasted her with tornadoes while the other slashed her arms. Soon she was on her stomach with the purple haired one pressing his knee on her back.

Seraphina slowly walked towards Claire, “This is Ventus and Meili, they make quite a pair. Breaking phones is one of their many talents”

Claire's eyes shot open, “How did you know-”

“Because I told them to,” Seraphina replied

Claire’s eyes shot wide open as the realization fully set in. Seraphina had been lying, Seraphina had betrayed her.

“Why?” Claire managed to croak out

“As I said before, you are the gear that refuses to fall into place. As leader it is my duty to ensure you realize where you belong,” Claire remained in stunned silence, “It was hard playing the long game, suspending Arlo, rescuing you from those mid tiers, and indulging you at that awful boba place.” her smile only grew as she continued her monologue, “But you here you are, now there is finally nothing in the way of us ingraining this lesson in your head”

Seraphina continued but Claire’s racing thoughts had already drowned her out. She remembered the note, the ambush, the battle, and the aftermath. She closed her eyes as the scene played over and over again in her head.

It always happens

I just wanted to be free

Why?

Why does everyone who I trust…

Betray me in the end?

She remembered her first day.

I came here to leave my past behind

I didn’t hurt anyone

I didn’t seek power

I didn’t do anything

She remembered the countless beatings.

But it always ends the same

She took a deep breath and came to terms with it all.

I was never the monster

They are!

“Did you get all of that, or would you like me to repeat?” Seraphina sneered

Claire mumbled something under her breath.

“What was that?” Seraphina leaned down

Claire mumbled slightly louder but it was still inaudible to Seraphina.

Seraphina sighed angrily, “Stand her up Ventus, let's hear what the cripple has to say”

Claire was slowly brought to her feet with Ventus having one hand on her shoulder with the other holding her wrists. No longer having her breathing constrained she was able to take a few deep breaths while keeping her eyes closed.

Ventus shoved her lightly, “Cmon spit it out”

Claire finally opened her eyes, they were glowing.

Then she spat in Seraphina’s face.

Seraphina was cocky, cocky enough to not have her ability activated. She cried out in disgust as the spit landed in her eye, causing her to stumble backwards. Claire activated her ability and time slowed to stop, she focused herself as visions of the coming battle flooded through her head.

Ventus was able to pin her down when he had leverage. But standing her up was a mistake. His grip won’t hold.

Claire planted her feet and thrust her hips back, displacing Ventus’s center of gravity. Before he could reorient himself she jumped backwards, twisting her body to drop kick Meili slamming her shoulder into Ventus’s jaw and sending them both to the ground. In the tumble Ventus released his grip on her allowing her to quickly reposition herself over him. Before he could retaliate Claire brought an elbow down on his nose nose, breaking it. She prepared a follow up when another vision overtook her.

Sharp claws, Meili locks her down, it hurts

Claire jerked her body to the side, almost going prone to dodge Meili’s strike. The claws grazed her as Meili over shot her leaping attack and landed several feet away. Without hesitating Claire stood up and ready to charge at Meili before her ability activated again.

Powerful wind, Ventus recoverss while she’s fighting Meili, his wind sends her up into the air, it hurts
He must be dealt with

Without looking away she raised her foot and stomped down on Ventu’s head, knocking him out cold. Meilie cried out in rage as she charged at Claire once more. Time slowed again as Claire carefully analyzed her opponent's motion. 

She’s gotten angry, its making her predictable

Claire slowly moved time forward as she waited for the exact moment when Meili committed to her attack. When the moment came Claire reacted instantly. As Meili stabbed forward with her claw in slow motion Claire carefully ducked to the side while grabbing her arm. The second she had her hands on Meili’s shoulder she wrenched it with all her might. There was sickening noise and a painful cry as Meili’s shoulder was dislocated but Claire had no time to hesitate. Maintaining her grip she forced Meili’s claws in another direction, sending them straight into Meili’s own stomach. Paralyzed by pain Meili could only cry out as she collapsed onto her knees.

She looked up in horror at Claire, “B-but you s-supposed to be a cripple!”

When was silenced by a roundhouse kick to the side of her head that sent her onto her back. Before she could vocalize a plea for mercy Claire brought her foot down, knocking her out for good.

During the brawl Seraphina had angerly wiped the spit out of her eye before repositioning. At first she was exhilarated, witnessing Claire’s glowing eyes and violent outburst, but now she was somewhat confused. In an impressive feat Claire had taken down both of her underlings. But she hadn't actually done anything that a cripple couldn’t do. The only thing Seraphina had noticed that could be significant was her avoiding Meili’s attack without seeing it.

Is it some kind of mental ability?

Now the two stood opposite each other, there was no else left to interfere, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Claire clenched her fists and began to gaze into the future once more.

Attacking her is hopeless, that fact is made clear after a dozen painful futures. Claire has to get Seraphina to make the first move .

Claire took a deep breath and steadied herself, she needed to be calm and confident for this to work.

“Was this really the best you could do?” Claire spread her arms out, taunting Seraphina

Seraphina was dumbfounded, “What the hell are you talking about?!”

Claire smirked, “All this planning, all this preparation, to ‘teach me a lesson’, yet here we are, your two lackeys are bleeding on the ground and I haven’t learned a thing!” when Seraphina did not respond she continued, “And here I was thinking you were supposed to be perfect”

That got a reaction as Seraphina lost all resemblance of composure.

She activated her ability, “SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” she shouted as she began to charge towards Claire, slowing everything else down. Claire knew what she had to do, there was no way she would be fast enough to deflect Seraphina’s attack, nor did she have any chance of dodging. Claire looked through the countless possibilities, witnessing the dozens of ways she is beaten, each time it hurts a little less and she understands a little more. As every movement of Seraphina’s reckless charge was analyzed Claire finally reached the threshold and everything became clear.

The paths spilled out in front of her, forking out like endless rivers based on Claire and Seraphina’s choices. Through these possibilities Claire finally found what she was looking for, a future where she won. The whole process was draining, but Claire could not deny a certain satisfaction.

When it came to control of time Seraphina for all her might could only control the boat, speeding it up and slowing down as she saw fit. Claire on the other hand....

Claire could control the river

So she held that future in her mind’s eye, and willed it to happen.

Seraphina charged forward without a doubt in her mind. Claire may have beaten Wellston’s most famous duo but Seraphina knew she was no match for her strength. Seeing Claire’s painfully slow movements that had no chance of intercepting her attack only served to reinforce this idea. So as she raised her first and committed herself to a strike that would silence the one who dared insult her perfection she was caught completely off guard when one of her feet failed to plant itself properly and sent her spiraling downwards. Adrenaline shot through Seraphina as her mind registered that she was tripping, but unfortunately, no matter how much she slowed time she couldn’t stop herself midair without any leverage. The best she could hope to do was land properly, so she put her hands out to break the fall. The pain in her wrists when she landed told her that was a mistake and the pain in her ankle told her that she had twisted it on the way down. Her mind raced a mile a minute.

What the hell was that! How did I trip?! Nevermind If I can just rewind these injuries-

THWACK!

Seraphina was not used to pain, having fixated so much on her injuries and choosing to rewind them she had ignored a flaw in her ability, the inability to rewind injuries while maintaining a  slowdown. So she was caught off guard when Claire delivered an axe kick to the back of her neck. Seraphina collapsed onto her stomach coughing violently. Claire wasted no time pinning her arms down and locking her in place with her knee. Claire checked her visions frantically, she had to be careful, one mistake and Seraphina could reverse the situation. But Claire held fast and maintained her position, it didn’t matter how fast Seraphina could move if she couldn’t generate leverage.

They stayed like that for several tense seconds as Claire planned her moves and Seraphina tried to process her situation. The latter was not used to losing and combined with the pain was in a state of shock. But Claire knew it wouldn’t last. If Seraphina could just rewind any injury, then she needed to do something different to end the fight.

RIP!

Seraphina cried out in shock as she felt the sleeve of her uniform tearing.

She strained to turn her head around and gave a panicked shout, “W-What are you-”

She was cut off by Claire slamming her face against the ground, “Shut up and listen!” when Seraphina went silent she continued, “You can’t rewind a uniform, and if you do anything else against me,” she raised the torn piece of sleeve, 

“Then everyone will know that you’re not perfect”

Claire managed to maintain her composure until the turf war field was out of sight and she was off of the Wellston train system. As she finally returned to her neighborhood the reality of what had happened finally hit her. After everything she had done, all the restraint, all the kindness, everything she had built for herself had collapsed. Now here she was, a pathetic excuse of a human, limping home with bleeding wounds. 

First John, now Seraphina…

Everyone I trust

Betrays me in the end!

WHY?

DOES IT ALWAYS END LIKE THIS!

She felt a throbbing headache as she shut her eyes, vivid visions of the past assaulting her. She opened her eyes and she was back in New Bostin, standing over a quivering John. She blinked and she was in Wellston High, a class staring and judging the new student. She blinked again and she was back in that room…

She almost screamed when she saw him.

A familiar voice snapped her out of it. Arlo was there, sitting on the front steps of her home.

“Claire” Arlo called out to her, “I hope I haven’t been gone to long-”

Arlo’s smile vanished as he saw Claire fall to her knees.

He stood up and ran towards her “Claire! What happened to you!?”

His words barely registered as Claire tried to steady herself.

This can’t be real!

It can’t be!

It has to be another vision

He’s not supposed to be here

He’s not supposed to see me like this…

“A-arlo” her voice came out weak

Arlo had been ready to ask a million questions but he stayed silent as she suddenly placed her hands on his shoulders.

“A-are you real? Are you here with me right now?”

Arlo took a deep breath, “I’m am, I’m here for you”

She pulled herself closer to him, as he slowly returned the embrace she finally allowed the tears she had been holding back to flow freely into his shoulder.

Chapter Text

When the trio returned to school after the crazy incident at the mall, they were hoping to put it behind them. They were certainly less than happy to find that news of the incident had spread to the school’s papers. Isen especially was displeased at the exaggerated and sensationalist content of the article. Still the three had managed to avoid any severe punishments from Vaughn once they had cleared up the situation.

Nonetheless the whole ordeal had stuck with Isen. That man in the booth, a false smile hiding some sinister intentions. The idea that he had come face to face with someone so dangerous. Someone who had people willing to toss a smoke bomb of all things at a moment's notice. Whatever he had stumbled across Isen was sure he didn’t like it. Not to mention the article in the school’s paper. Now that he thought about it, something wasn’t right. The incident had been over the weekend, how did someone write an article about it in time for monday morning? Had someone been watching them?

“Earth to Isen”

Isen was jolted out of his state of focus by Remi poking him in the cheek.

“What?” he shook his head, they were exiting their last class of the day, he’d been so caught up in this that he hadn’t been paying much attention to his surroundings.

“Well I was planning on following you to the dorms but I realized that based on the direction you're going you're either headed to the cafeteria or the gym.”

Isen stopped walking and finally took in his surroundings, he realized that Remi’s observation was correct.

“Sorry I’ve just been thinking about the mall and-”
Remi waived her hand, “Yeah I get it listen,” she turned her head around as if checking to see if people were listening in, “I have something I need to show you”

The two found an empty classroom and Isen waited as Remi rummaged through her bag.

“I found this while doing some digging last night,” a slight revision to the actual timing of her discovery, but Isen didn’t need to know that.

She pulled out two pieces of paper, on the front was a photograph of Claire with a large EXPELLED in red pasted over it. Isen’s eyes widened as he took the paper and began to read.

NEW BOSTIN HIGH SCHOOL

NAME: Claire Dupont

Birthday: June 27th

Previous School: NBMS

Graduation Class: 201X

Rank: 1 (Queen)

Ability: Future Manipulation

Rank: 6.5+(See next page for details)

Comments: Academically gifted student; Does not get along well with others; Answers Questions in class but rarely engages. NOTE: Claire is to be approached carefully in all situations, generally her ability causes her to behave in a detached, irritable and highly unpredictable manner. Should intervention be necessary staff with strong defensive abilities are recommended, said staff are to minimize “Risky” actions as much as possible.

For details on expulsion see next page.

Isen nervously turned the paper over.

Ability Details: Claire’s ability allows her to perceive a theoretically infinite number of potential futures and make decisions based on their outcomes. In addition Claire is capable of altering her perception of time, speeding up or slowing down as she sees fit allowing her to effectively instantly respond to any threats she is capable of perceiving. Lastly her most potent and least understood ability is the capacity to alter future events. While there is no direct measure of this, in difficult situations the rate of accidents and unlucky coincidences sharply increases. Due to the uncertain and volatile nature of these abilities combined with the general difficulty in ranking mental abilities Claire’s exact rank is undetermined. But her demonstrated ability to handle multiple midtier opponents at once warrants at minimum a 6.5.

Expulsion: Claire was expelled following an incident at the School’s turf war location. Utilizing her ability and a nearby blunt object Claire severely injured over a dozen students who would need hospitalization. Claire was detained in the immediate aftermath by the Authorities and questioned. During her questioning Claire refused to deactivate her ability despite multiple requests and in a state of apparent delirium was unable to answer any questions in a coherent manner. Following her sentencing to three months of readjustment classes New Bostin High School had no choice but to expel Claire.

Isen looked up from the paper, his eyes meeting Remi’s. 

The two remained silent for several moments before Remi spoke up, “So what do we do?”

Isen gulped slowly, “Well I can see why Claire was willing to play cripple,” he shook his head, “I just can’t reconcile this with the Claire I interviewed. Whatever happened since then, somethings changed her”

“And if Seraphina brings out the old Claire?”

Isen shuddered at the thought, “Whatever reason Claire is choosing to hide is her own. What matters is that we stop Seraphina,” he began to walk out of the classroom stuffing the papers in his bag, “I’m gonna try and find her, if you see her let me know”

Unfortunately for both of them Seraphina at this time was no longer on the school grounds. After all she had some ‘errands’ to run.

Chapter Text

The airport was crowded, it was a particularly busy day and the airport was a small one ill suited to this high level of passenger volume. Most of them were business travelers, making connections to places across the country. But out of a crowd of smart business people in their well maintained suits and light travel bags there were two who were very much out of place. With their t-shirts and shorts they looked like they should be in school rather than alone in a busy airport in the middle of the week.

One struggled with a set of heavy bags, “C'mon man! Are you sure you can’t help me with these?”

The other shook his head, “No way! I helped you carry everything to the check in! My arms still feel like they’re made of lead”

The one with the bags groaned at this as they made their way to the terminal. 

While the two had spent the whole ride talking to each other non-stop, the fact that they were approaching the terminal had caused them to go silent. The knowledge that this would be the last time either one of them would see each other for a very long time hung heavily in the air. The one who was free of needing to carry bags shook his head, they had been inseparable for years, sure things were changing but hey, video calls exist. It wasn’t like he’d completely disappear, who knows? If things play out right he might be able visit real soon. These thoughts comforted the both of them as they finally made their way past the endless overpriced convenience stores that beckoned them to buy not so cheap snacks. 

But soon they had reached their destination and it was time to say goodbye.

As he approached his seat he placed the bags on the ground with an audible sigh of relief. But that was short lived as a physical burden was traded for a mental one. In this moment he was now staring his future right in the face and honestly, he felt like blinking. All of it, working a real job, being on his own, and trying to set himself up for the future, it was all a bit overwhelming.

The other boy looked at his friend with concern, seeing the worry and doubt in his face he decided to put a reassuring hand on his friends shoulder, “Don’t worry man, you’re gonna do great”

He gave a small smile in response while clearing his throat, “I know it's just…” he took another deep breath, “It’s just a lot, like what if I mess it all up? What happens then?”

“Don’t say that stuff dude, you remember what that lady was saying during the interview. You know this stuff at like a college level! Give it a few years and I’m sure you’ll be working with the best of them.”

“I dunno man, I mean it is a pretty small company”

He shook his head, “Yeah but I’ve read what they’re doing, you’re gonna be part of something incredible! I just know it!”

His friend smiled at this, “Yeah, I think they can really help people”

“Also you’ll get paid”

He snickered at this, but it was an important factor. With all things added up he would be making a decent amount for someone his age.

“Now boarding group three”

Both of them jumped a little as one looked down at his tickets and confirmed that this was in fact his group.

“Well I guess this is it…”

Nothing else needed to be said as the two gave each other a tight hug. They stayed like that for several moments, wondering when they would see each other next. Inevitably one broke away to pick up his bags.

The other gave a small smile, “I’ll miss you man, stay in touch alright”

He nodded, “Of course I will”

“I mean it ok? You better call me as soon as you touch down!”

“Are you serious?! Dude, it’s gonna be like 2AM when the plane lands”

“No excuse”

With that for the first time since entering the airport they both gave big hearty laughs. As the two waved goodbye to each other the one boarding the plane felt a little lighter as he took the steps towards the next stage of his life.

Chapter Text

Elaine was used to receiving calls from people needing her ability. It made sense considering that she was a powerful healer and Wellston high was not a peaceful place. Still getting a call from Seraphina was unusual. Seraphina’s own healing factor combined with her general lack of mercy meant that if Elaine wasn’t there from the start she likely wouldn’t hear about the poor recipient till much later. But regardless sometimes Seraphina was responsible enough to call a healer when necessary, so Elaine wasn’t scared by that. No, she was scared by the shaking in Seraphina’s voice when she called.

Her heart was pounding as she dashed across the pavement to Wellston’s turf war location. When she saw Seraphina on the ground, unharmed she breathed a sigh of relief. This was contrasted by the gasp she let out when she saw the state of Meili and Ventus. Bloodied both had broken noses with blood and their hair was matted with blood. Meili’s arm was twisted with several bloody gashes in her stomach. Neither one was conscious as Elaine activated her ability, and assessed the damage.

No burns, no cuts, mostly blunt force trauma. Did Seraphina do this?

No there’s multiple bruises, Seraphina could take them down in only one hit.

And what are these stab wounds? I don’t see any on Ventus, did Meili stab herself or something?

At a loss, she looked up from the two injured students, “What happened? Do you know who did this Seraphin-”

She froze when she saw the tear in Seraphina’s uniform. Looking Seraphina in the eyes she saw they were puffy, as if she had just been crying.

“D-don’t say a word,” Seraphina stammered out

Elaine gulped slightly and went back to her healing. Who on earth could have beaten Seraphina? After a few minutes Ventus and Meili were patched up and she wanted to get the hell out of there. Her phone vibrated as she stood up, it was a text from…

Arlo?

Arlo: Come to this address.... it's urgent.

“Uhhh Seraphina?”

Seraphina looked up, barely registering Elaine’s presence.

“I have to go, someone needs me” Elaine turned around

“Elaine,” she stopped in her tracks as Seraphina mustered up the strength to speak with her usual authority, “Don’t let anyone hear about this”

Arlo hadn’t been optimistic about how things had been for Claire while he was gone. But he wasn’t expecting this. After bringing her inside and sitting her on the couch Claire had curled up into a ball while Arlo had sent a text to Elaine. In the meantime he found himself staring at her as she buried her face in her knees. He had a million questions.

I’ve never seen her like this before…

Claire’s always been able to bounce back

But this?

His phone vibrated and he checked to see a confirmation that Elaine was arriving. Deciding to do something productive headed towards the kitchen.

In the meantime Claire was trying to collect herself. She took deep breaths and tried to stop shaking.

I’m home

Arlo is back

This…

This is real

“Water,” Claire looked up to see Arlo extending a glass

Gingerly she took it and managed to stop shaking long enough to gulp it down. 

They spent a few moments in silence before Arlo spoke again, “What did they do to you?”

Claire shivered slightly before righting herself and responding, “School cripple doesn’t have her ace, everyone goes after her”

“Just a few minutes ago you weren’t convinced that I was real,” he narrowed his eyes, “what happened?”

“What happened to you?” Claire tried to deflect and change the subject, “You just stopped getting on all of the sudden”

“I know you’re trying to change the subject but you do deserve an answer to that question, my Aunt installed filters and began monitoring me closely when she decided I was ‘Distracted’

He stared down at her expectantly.

Sensing no way out Claire finally acquiesced, “I had a hard time, without you.” she forced a smile, “But it's ok now, you’re here, and everything can return to normal”

Arlo was about to respond before the doorbell rang, “That must be Elaine”

Arlo opened the door to find Elaine panting, “I ran as soon as I could, I was meeting with Se-, I mean Meili and Ventus!”

“What did those two get themselves into?” Arlo said while letting her in

Elaine scrambled to think of a lie, “Training accident, you know how those two are

Arlo gave a dry chuckle in response, “They never do know when to stop”

Elaine breathed an internal sigh of relief, Arlo had bought it.

“So what do you need?” Elaine finally decided to survey the room they were in immediately spotting Claire.

Her eyes widened,  “What’s she doing here?”

“Elaine she lives here”

Arlo left the two to unpack his bags, unaware of the awkward situation he just put the two girls in. In their years of attending wellston the two only had one memorable interaction and it was not a good one. A fact that was not lost on either of them as Elaine slowly approached Claire and activated her ability. Elaine wanted to be mad at Claire for nearly hitting Isen when he was trying to help her, but seeing her in this state made it difficult.

“Alright listen, I’m gonna heal you but when you get back to school I want you to apologize to Isen”

Claire was taken aback not expecting Elaine to say anything, “What?”

“He was trying to help you and you tried to smack him!”

Claire sat up a little straighter, “I told you! I thought he was someone else…” she trailed off averting her gaze.

Elaine sighed, “Look, whatever it is Isen seems pretty torn up about it, if you apologize then we can put this behind us.”

Claire huffed, “Fine”

“Good now show me your other arm”

Claire rotated, without realizing what she had just done. Elaine also didn’t realize it for a good several seconds until she noticed how familiar these injuries were.

Jesus, who’d she run into this time?

Claw slashes and small cuts…

Meili and Ventus?

But that would mean…

There’s no way!

Elaine did a poor job of hiding her shock and Claire noticed. Before she could react Claire activated her ability.

An actual fight is gonna be dicey in her current state, she needs to scare Elaine straight

In an instant she shoved her hand over Elaine’s mouth, “Not, a, word”

Elaine finished healing her and left as soon as she could without making a sound. 

Eventually Arlo returned, “Oh Elaine left?”

Claire shrugged, “Said she had somewhere she needed to be.”

“Ah, I see,” he hesitated for a few moments for a few moments before continuing, “Claire I would like to apologize”

“What?” Claire blurted out, taken off guard, “Apologize for what?”

“Several things, for starters I don’t think I ever apologized for beating you in the lunchroom”

Claire shook her head, “That was over a year ago! You know I’ve already forgiven you-”

“That’s not all,” he continued, “Reading Unordinary has given me some perspective. Looking back I realize now that I could have been doing much more to help and protect you…”

“You’ve been doing plenty”

Arlo shook his head, “I was too passive, I merely fought off whoever was idotic enough to attack while I was around, I did little for the countless times you ended up in the infirmary, and these attacks during my suspension make this clear.”

 Claire tried to interject, “You really don’t have to-”

“But I want to. For all my power I spent most of my life being controlled by other people, wasting time on distractions that don’t matter. But this, this matters I have a responsibility here, not as a king, but as your friend.”

Claire gave a small smile, “Guess that book did do some good for you after all”

“I like to think it did”

Isen was one hundred percent not calm as he walked to his second period class the next morning. Not only had not been able to locate Seraphina, she hadn’t responded to any of his texts either. Something was up, and though he tried to suppress the thought, part of him feared the worst had come to pass and that she had gone through with her plans and he was too late. And what didn’t help his mental state were the rumors floating around the crowded halls.

“I hear Isen got in trouble, called up to head master even!”

“Apparently he caused an incident at the mall!”
“If Agwin catches wind of this we’ll never hear the end of it!”

He shook his head, the last thing he needed to focus on was the incessant gossip of the student body. Instead he tried to unravel the nagging feeling in the back of his head going over the events in the mall.

After we paid he grabbed my hand

Then he gave me a teddy bear of all things

But there was definitely something familiar about that teddy bear…

Where have I seen it before-

Arlo!

He froze in place, the teddy bear in Arlo’s room! Ok it was a long shot, but if there was any chance that Arlo had also gone to that booth then there was a chance that he was in danger. They needed to dispose of that bear! But Arlo’s room was locked ever since his suspension...

Claire, he needed to find Claire and tell her so she could tell him. It didn’t matter how poorly things had gone last time or the power Claire was hiding. Their friend was in danger.

Claire turned out to be easy to find. Isen needed only to follow the sounds of insults and mocking laughter to find Claire with two mid tiers standing over her. When he saw it he froze, it was difficult to reconcile this image of Claire, beaten down by two mid tiers, with what he now knew about her. There was also the fact that she could potentially go off at any moment.

 They both sneered “You should watch where you’re walking, I'm gonna need to visit the dry cleaners after bumping into you!”

Without skipping a beat Claire looked them dead in the eye and calmly replied, “Fuck off”

“What did you just say!” both of them activated their abilities

Isen stopped hesitating, “That’s enough you two!”

Both of them turned to face him with fury in their eyes, only for it to turn to panic as they realized who they were up against.

“Isen!?”

“Get to class”

With that they scampered off. Isen looked at Claire who so far hadn’t acknowledged his presence, he coughed awkwardly but she didn’t react and began to walk away.

Isen realized he couldn’t beat around the bush any longer, “Claire! I need to talk to you about something”

She turned around with him a harsh look filled with suspicion and a bit of anger. Isen winced but then saw it soften slightly, as if Claire was conflicted about something.

“I’m sorry,” she blurted out

“Wha-”

“I shouldn’t have tried to hit you”

Isen paused considering his words carefully, “It’s fine, it was an accident,” he cleared his throat, “But that’s not what I needed to talk to you about”

Some of the suspicion returned to Claire’s face.

“It’s about Arlo, I think he might be in danger”

In the span of second expressions of confusion, suspicion, and surprise crossed Claire’s face, “What? What do you mean?!”

“Ok this is gonna sound weird but hear me out. Did Arlo, by any chance get a teddy bear at the mall?”

Claire’s eyes widened, “Yes! Wait, how do you know about that?!” she jabbed a finger at him

Isen put his hands up, “I saw it in his room a few weeks ago! I went to the mall last weekend and went to a weird booth. They gave me a bear that looks just like it and I found a tracking device in it!”

Claire froze unsure of how to respond to that, “A what now?!”

“I know it sounds ridiculous but you gotta believe me! When I tried to confront the vendor about it someone threw a smoke bomb! Whoever they are they want to track the locations of high tiers.”

Claire didn’t have a reply to that, she had a million questions and could tell from his face that Isen didn’t have any answers. Suddenly the bell rang, and now they were both late to their next class.

Claire shook her head, “I’ll tell him”

Isen nodded, and after an awkward pause, both parted without another word.

As school ended that day Isen felt a little more at ease knowing that Arlo would be informed. Afterall who could touch a god tier of his caliber? Realistically speaking he should be worried for whoever was dumb enough to try and take him down. But as he made his way towards the exit and to his room he couldn’t help but pick up on a different rumor that was circling the student body.

“Did you see Seraphina in class today?”

“Nope! You think she skipped? I mean, the royals do it all the time.”

“Sure, but we had a test! She never skips those!”

“I didn’t see her in lunch either”

“Come to think of it, I didn’t even see her leave the dorms”

That nagging part of him that told him he was already too late only got louder.

Arlo was playing games on his laptop in Claire’s living room. It was nice to have free time again even if he didn’t have anyone to spend it with. It was early in the afternoon, a little before school should have ended. Suddenly the doorbell rang. 

Arlo turned his head and called out, “Claire?”

He was quite surprised to see a grown man in the doorframe.

Chapter Text

The man in the doorway was tall with a slim but athletic build. His appearance was largely plain with a simple t-shirt and shorts with an exception of the braids tied in his hair.

“You’re not Claire,” the man with a bit of surprise

“Neither are you,”

Both went silent for a few moments before Arlo had a realization.

“Oh, you must be Claire’s dad”

“Ah, then you must be that Arlo boy”

Arlo got up from the couch and extended his hand. The two shook and Arlo took extra care to not squeeze the man's fist too hard on account of his passive having a chance of leaving bruises if he wasn’t careful. 

The man chuckled, “It’s good to finally put a face to the name Arlo”

“Indeed, mister…”

“Just call me William,” he said with a smile

Arlo nodded, “Claire speaks about you quite often”

“Speaking of Claire, where is she?”

“Still at school”

“I see…” William realized something was off, “Then why are you here?”

Arlo looked off to the side, “I have been, suspended, for the time being”

William crossed his arms, “Suspended? Don’t tell me your some kind of delinquent”

Arlo smirked, “No just somewhat caught for reading a, let’s say, controversial piece of literature”

“And by that you mean?”

“I must say you’re quite a good writer”

William’s eyes widened, “Oh,” he said with a guilty expression

“Do not be worried, my suspension ends this friday. I’ll return to the dorms as soon as possible.”

So Claire’s been keeping a boy at her house all this time? We definitely have a lot to talk about

“I’m surprised they let you off that easy, schools like wellston tend to care a lot about their reputation”

Arlo shrugged, “Our headmaster is a surprisingly reasonable man, besides,” he grinned, “I think they’re quite willing to make exceptions for their rank one”

William shook his head.

Those exceptions only got Claire so far

“I guess Claire wasn’t lying, you must be quite powerful. But I’m curious, who's stronger?”

Arlo raised a confused eyebrow, was this some kind of joke? Before he could respond with an inquiry to the matter the door swung open.

“DAD?!”

William turned around to see Claire in the door frame with a dumbfounded expression.

“What are you doing here?!” Claire nearly shouted

“Can’t a father visit his daughter after she drops off the face of the earth for a month?”

Arlo, not wanting to intrude on what was likely going to be a personal conversation decided that now would be a good time to let them talk things out and unceremoniously exited to the kitchen.

“You could’ve at least warned me!”

“You think I didn’t try?”

Claire sputtered indignantly. Turning around to see that Arlo was not in the room William decided now was a good time to change the subject and discuss something else important.

He lowered his voice, “So you’ve had a boy living with you this whole time?”

Claire averted her gaze, “It’s not like that! He’s only been here for a day, I can’t just leave him with nowhere to stay!”

William looked unconvinced, “I’m suuuure that was your driving motivation. Anyways he seems like a good kid, a bit reckless to get caught with my book, but a good kid. We talked for a bit about it and which one of you was stronger-”

“YOU WHAT!?” Claire shouted slightly making William wince a little.

“What would you rather I asked what his intentions with my daughter were?” he responded with a smirk

“Daaaaaaaad!” Claire facepalmed

William shook his head, “I don’t get what the big deal is, I was just curious and you never told me when I asked about him”

Claire froze up before making a decision. She took a deep breath and steeled herself for the lecture that would follow.

“I’ve been pretending to be a cripple…”

It was William’s turn to shout. “Are you crazy!? Why on earth would you do that?! You know damn well what happens when you’re powerless!”

Claire looked around nervously, “Not so loud!” she took a deep breath, “It’s better this way, back then…

The memories hit her like a truck.

“Everyone judged me and no one recognized me, they’d always be talking behind my back.”

She remembered all the times she beat someone into the ground, she couldn’t remember if it was self defence at that point.

“I was paranoid, every morning I wouldn’t even enter the school until I had seen every possibility.”

Everything blurred together in her head.

“Nothing surprised me, I was barely living. Some days I could barely tell what was real and what wasn’t, I have almost as many fake memories as real ones.” She tried to keep herself composed, “This power, I don’t deserve it, I can’t use it responsibly, I can’t go back to that.”

Williams stern expression didn’t change, “Like it or not this power is a part of you, you can’t seriously think that you can hide it forever.”

Claire looked him in the eye, “Maybe that’s exactly what I intend to do, it’s better this way. I get to live my life, Arlo doesn’t judge me or treat me differently because of my strength, and he’s there for me in a pinch.”
William was not convinced.

A house of cards can’t be supported by one person…

“Claire…” He considered his words carefully, “I said I would always support your choices, but this…” he gestured around her, “This can’t last, you can’t keep lying to people, and the longer you wait, the worse it'll be.”

“I know!” Claire raised her voice again, “It’s just, it’s not a good time ok?”

William sighed, seeing that their conversation wasn’t going anywhere, “Fine, I’ll drop it”

With that their talk was over and William would let Claire keep up her charade for the time being. He wanted her to be happy but he couldn’t help but think that Claire was setting herself up for a hard fall.

Oh Claire…

There’s no such time as a good time to reveal a lie

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully, Arlo and Claire had finished their homework, with the former having settled into playing games on his laptop while the latter watched. In the meantime William had fallen asleep on the couch, only stirring awake in the later evening.

“Are you two still playing those video games?!”

Claire jumped a little, looking in William’s direction, “Uh, yeah? It's a pretty long game”

“And you’ve just been sitting here, not even playing?”

“I just think it's interesting to watch”

William facepalmed, “I did not fly all this way to watch my daughter have her face glued to a screen! Where’s the poker set?”

William stood up and made his way to one of the cabinets while Claire groaned and buried her hands in her face.

Arlo smirked closing the laptop, “You’re dad is quite interesting Claire”

The mood at the table was tense, despite never having played New Texis Holdem he had proved surprisingly adept. Well to be fair, he had also, much to Claire’s frustration, gotten pretty lucky so far. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem for a seasoned player like Claire but she was not expecting Arlo’s impeccable poker face that left her unable to read any of his moves. A few bad hands combined with her own stubbornness later, and one turn where she had been certain he was bluffing she was now out and watching Arlo and William face off.

It was an intense matchup, Williams' experience against Arlo’s stoneface. Arlo had been having a good time, he wasn’t great at reading people but he was good at weighing up different possibilities in his head and people often had trouble reading him, so it was fair as far as that went. William on the other hand was skilled and had gone up against many tougher opponents, and while it was amusing to see Claire get knocked out by a lucky hand from Arlo he had no intention of going down like her.

After about another hour it was over. Arlo had succumbed to Williams' prowess. William had played the long game, allowing Arlo to grow complacent. But at a pivotal moment he switched it up. He subtly adjusted his body language to mislead Arlo on his true intentions. With false confidence Arlo bet more and more until the final reveal showed his mistake. With a flush William took the pot.

Arlo couldn’t believe it, “I don’t understand!”

He looked up to see William’s smirk, “You’re pretty good kid, but you're not quite ready to beat the master.” William responded

“But I thought I had figured out your strategy.”

“Never get complacent kid,” William responded while packing up the chips and the cards, “Where’s Claire by the way?”

The two turned around to see that she had fallen asleep.

William turned to Arlo, “It is getting late, mind helping an old man with the air mattress?”

As Arlo lay in the bed generously left for him by Claire the game and its outcome stayed in his mind. 

I had a strong start and pushed that advantage as far as I could

But I got content

Never expected that even someone as unlikely as William could string me along like that…

The next morning, far away in the Wellston girl’s dorms Seraphina groggily opened her eyes. Was it morning? She couldn’t tell. She barely been able to sleep last night, nor the night before that. Her eyelids were still heavy and her back ached from the position she had fallen asleep in, curled up against the wall. The memories of the last few days played back in her head as she tried to focus herself.

After Elaine had finished healing her on the turf war field she had waited nearly an hour for Ventus and Meili to wake up. She managed to pull herself together enough to threaten them into staying quiet about the whole thing. After that they boarded the train back to Wellston in silence while Seraphina desperately tried to shut out the people staring at the tear in her sleeve. When they were back on campus she activated her ability and ran straight to her room, she couldn’t risk anyone seeing her, not like this. Nor could they be allowed to see her the next day, with her tangled hair and puffy eyes. Had she been crying? She could barely remember. So she spent the day in her room, no one had come for her, no one had called for her, no one would question her. At least for now. Eventually it would be noticed, in fact it had most likely already been noticed. She only had so much time before someone came asking, before everyone would find out that she was not perfect. But she couldn’t afford to think about that now, right now she needed to keep it together.

So here she was day two of whatever this was. She rose to her feat unsteadily from where she had been sitting her back and legs stiff and aching. Slowly she made her way to the kitchen, she hadn’t eaten yesterday and her stomach ached with hunger. But first she got herself a glass and filled it with water. With trembling hands she raised the glass to her lips and began to drink, the water soothing her parched throat. She got halfway before a particularly hard tremble caused some to spill out onto her face making her stumble back coughing. She slammed the glass down while clutching at the table breathing heavily.

“Pathetic!”

That voice…

How long had it been since she last heard that voice?

“First you fail, and now you allow yourself to languish in this state!”

Seraphina instinctively reached a hand to her cheek, even though there was no stinging pain this time.

“I expect better from now on, lest you end up like your sister…”

Seraphina managed to reorient herself. Slowly she regained her composure and began to stand up straighter as she took deep breaths. She suppressed the wave of emotions building within her, she had to focus, she needed to think logically, she needed a plan. She began to reason things out.

Claire, Ventus, Meili and Elaine

Claire is committed to her act

The rest won’t tell if they know what's good for them

Arlo is coming back soon…

She wouldn’t tell him.

No one has to know

Everything just needs to go back to the way it was

She just needed to remain calm and in control, everything would be ok.

This state of calm lasted for a few minutes before she heard a knock on the door. Instantly that state of desperate paranoia returned. Who was it? Were they just checking on her? Did they know? She didn’t respond, hoping they would just leave.

The voice was uncertain, “Seraphina? Are you in there? It’s Isen, we need to talk.” she froze, she had forgotten about him and his involvement. “Whatever you’re doing with Claire, it needs to stop.” his voice was growing more assertive, “You’re making a mistake!”

Seraphina couldn’t handle it, being confronted right now…

Not in this state, not in this moment. She needed him gone, no questions asked. So in a single unthinking moment, she picked up the glass and threw at the door. It shattered instantly on impact leaving shards on the ground and a wet patch on the door. Isen went silent and Seraphina could hear the sounds of nervous footsteps backing away. Eventually there was silence again. And Seraphina was once again alone.

Chapter Text

It was dark out as the three of them waited for the taxi, due to the tight schedule he was operating on William was gonna be catching a light flight and arriving back in New Bostin very early.

“You sure that’s everything dad?”

William smiled in response, “You know I’m the master of packing light”

Claire frowned slightly, “You sure you can’t stay another night? We never got to play another game!”

William shook his head, “Maybe next time, in the meantime I’m sure you can get plenty of practice with Arlo.” he looked over to the man in question who had been standing there in silence, “Besides I only came here to make sure you were ok, but at least now I know you got someone looking out for you.”

Arlo finally spoke, “You can rely on me sir,” he approached William to shake hands again, “It’s been a pleasure meeting you, I can see where Claire gets her courage from.”

William rubbed the back of his head, “Geez Arlo no need to flatter me, your making me blush”

Arlo shook his head, “It’s not flattery, I find your story very admirable, despite your unfortunate situation you have gone on to have more impact on our society than most could ever dream of.”

William snorted in response, “I suppose that is one way to describe publishing ‘dangerous extremist literature’”

The two finished shaking hands after which William pulled Claire into a hug.

“Daaaad,” she protested verbally before giving in and returning it.

After releasing Claire from the hug William realized he still had something he wanted to say.

Quickly pulling Claire aside as he placed his hands on her shoulder and spoke to her in a low voice, “Don’t forget what we talked about”

“What?” Claire was confused by this sudden turn

“You’re uh, recent ‘lifestyle choices’. No secret like this lasts forever, trust me. No matter how bad you think it’ll be if you tell him, it's gonna be a whole lot worse if he finds out on his own.”

Claire removed his hand while looking away, her smile disappearing, “I know what I’m doing,” she looked him in the eyes, “I can handle it.”

Before he could reply the taxi arrived, checking his phone clock William realized he couldn’t afford to stretch this out any longer. So he gave them one last smile and wave as he stepped into the car. 

As it drove off William found his pleasant mood somewhat soured as his worries about Claire overtook him.

Claire, I want to believe you, I really do

But for someone who can see the future, you sure can be short sighted

For both you and Arlo’s sake…

You have to stop building this house of cards

Claire breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she and Arlo went back inside and plopped down on the couch, as much as she loved her dad the possibility of him revealing her secret through his own bumbling nature was not great for stress. For a while they sat in silence as Arlo looked at his phone and Claire tried to push her fathers words out of her mind.

It’ll be fine, I don’t need to go back to that so long as Arlo is around

She was broken out of her thoughts by something pressing into her side. She turned left to see Arlo, legs stretched out across in an effort to take up as much of it as possible.

“Asslo!” she shouted as she shifted to her right in an effort to get away.

Interpreting this as a sign of weakness Arlo only stretched further pushing her even farther until she was squished up against the arm rest.

“If you could move a little more Claire that would be wonderful, I do need the leg room after all.” he said with a large smirk on his face.

After a few more minutes of this Claire eventually relented and relocated to the floor. Arlo immediately returned to his previous normal seating position prompting a furious glare from Claire.

They stayed like this for a few more minutes before Claire spoke, “Well I guess this is one more reason why I should be glad your suspension is ending tomorrow.”

At this Arlo frowned.

Claire noticed, “What? Surely you must be a little happy to be back?”

Arlo sighed, “Not particularly, as bad as my aunt was it was nice to get away from all the petty nonsense of the student body.”

Claire silently conceded that he did have a point there. Considering how often the pettiness of the student body ended with her in the infirmary she had to admit that sometimes she also wished she could leave it all behind. Especially with everything that had happened in the last month. Actually now that she thought of it…

Wasn’t I supposed to tell Arlo something?

Oh right!

“Arlo!” she said a little louder than she had intended.

“Yes?” Arlo looked down at her a little concerned.

“There’s something that Isen wanted me to tell you”

Arlo tilted his head, “Isen? I didn’t know you were familiar with him.”

Claire flinched remembering the unfortunate encounter.

Ok, he doesn’t need to know everything

Claire shook her head, “I wouldn’t say that, he just knows that I’m your friend and wanted to make sure this got to you quickly.”

“So what is it?”

“Ok this sounds crazy, I barely believed it myself but apparently,” Claire took a deep breath, “Apparently he went to that same booth as us and got a reading. He got a teddy bear like you did and discovered a tracking chip inside.”

Arlo’s eyes widened, “A tracking chip?! That would mean…”
“Someone wants to track high tiers,” Claire said, finishing his sentence

“That is, disconcerting”

They both sat for a few minutes stewing on this information.

Arlo spoke slowly, “I guess it’s good that I'm moving back into the dorms then.”

Claire gave a half hearted chuckle, “Yeah, I guess”

Seeing Claire go quiet again made Arlo try again to improve the mood, “I mean whoever they are, they can’t be that capable if they were found out by Isen just like that.”

Claire nodded, “I suppose”

Arlo gave his own confident smile in response, “Besides, what are the odds that they have someone more powerful than me?”

Claire’s normal smile returned, “Yeah, you’re right! You’re probably the most powerful person in this state!”

Seeing that the mood had lifted Arlo sat up to retrieve his laptop and motioned for Claire to follow, “C'mon we still have a few more hours to kill before we face reality, lets have some fun.”

Arlo was bored, very, very bored. Once Claire had left and he had played on his laptop until he was thoroughly burnt out all there was left to do was pack his bags. And once that was done he really had nothing to do. So after checking his phone for the umpteenth time and realizing he still had two hours left until he had to return, he decided to go get some boba. The conversation from last night only briefly resurfacing as a mild concern. But he quickly reassured himself, he was the king of defense and even if he was caught off guard the average mid tier could barely bruise him with his passive. What could possibly happen?

As Arlo walked out of the store, Boba in hand he was largely unaware of the world around him. Unaware of the women walking behind him slightly faster than normal. Unaware that she had been looking at him as he walked in. And unaware that she had gotten up to leave at the exact moment he passed by her.

“Excuse me young man!”

Arlo stood up straight as he turned around to see a woman with long blond hair, “Yes?”

“Do you have the time? I was so worried about missing an important meeting that I forgot my phone at home.”
Arlo nodded not really caring for the conversation as he reached out to hand the women his phone. Then something happened. Arlo wasn’t sure what it was but suddenly it felt like everything, his movement, his breathing, his heart, just froze for an instant. In shock he dropped his phone and didn’t even react as it cracked.

For a moment the two of them just stood there until the women spoke.

“Oh gosh! It cracked! I’m so sorry!”

Arlo didn’t respond as he slowly picked his phone up, still disoriented from what had just happened. Gingerly he pressed the on button and confirmed, much to his relief, the phone was still working. 

“It’s about two thirty ma’am”

“Oh! Thank you so much young man!”

With that she sped of leaving Arlo confused and disoriented.

What the hell was that?

Even as he was walking away from the scene Arlo was not able to pull himself together. His hands were shaking slightly and his steps were slow and careful like he could lose balance at any moment.

What in the world is happening?

Suddenly he heard the sound of a car horn and screeching tires he turned around to see a van barreling towards him. He reacted instantly leaping away while putting up a partial barrier between him and the van. 

SHATTER!

The van broke through his barrier becoming dented and the process and slowing down to a stop mere inches from Arlo. The effect was instant as Arlo coughed up blood and felt cuts materialize across his skin. Arlo was left in a state of pain and pure confusion.

I’ve stopped heavier and faster objects without a scratch!

How could this van just shatter it like that!

“Holy shit! Are you ok?!”

Arlo turned to see people exiting from the van, something wasn’t right.

One of the men took notice of Arlo’s injuries, “Oh god! We didn’t hit you did we?!”

Arlo straightened himself out, “No, you didn’t hit me, this is just a ‘quirk’ of my ability. I’ll be ok.”

“Are you sure? You’re not looking too hot kid. We should take you to the hospital just in case…” they all began to walk closer towards Arlo.

“No, I am quite alright.”

“Please no need to be hostile, we just want to help.”

Arlo had enough and activated his ability, something was definitely wrong here, but even if his ability was acting up there was no way that a bunch of random people could just-

Arlo gasped as someone grabbed him from behind and put him in a chokehold as something  sharp painfully poked him in the neck. He turned his head to see a man behind him holding a large syringe with a frustrated expression. From this he learned two things. One, based on the fact the needle had not gone in, his passive was still working. Two based on the pain he still felt, his passive was working at a greatly diminished level. Before he could act on this information he felt the needle jab into him again with greater force, this time piercing his skin. 

“Got you!” The man shouted as he began to push the plunger down.

Acting on instinct Arlo threw his head backwards while jabbing the man in the stomach, stopping the injection half way through as the man stumbled back, releasing Arlo. Before anyone could react Arlo created two barriers, one in front, and one behind him and sent them out, crashing into his attackers. Now that he had a few moments in a fluid motion he pulled the syringe out of his neck and hurled it against a wall. It crashed open and the remaining half of its fluid spilled onto the ground. 

Arlo panted heavily as he assessed the situation. His attackers were still on the ground after being sent flying into either the walls or their own van. Believing that the threats to his person had been neutralized he walked towards one with a fury in his eyes and encased the man and himself in a barrier. 

The man coughed violently as Arlo approached, “What the hell did you just do to me?!”, when the man didn’t respond Arlo only got angrier, “Answer me, now!”

The man looked up with anger in his eyes, “You’re in no position to make demands. Come quietly and it’ll only get worse for you.”

Arlo couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “Give it up already!” he shouted, “You’re ambush failed there’s nothing else you can-”

Arlo heard a shout from behind. He turned his head and saw women chagrin towards his barrier with a knife ability activated. Arlo guessed it was some speed enhancement. 

What’s she gonna do, stab my barrier?

The women stabbed his barrier, piercing it and creating large cracks all over the rest of it. Once more Arlo felt sharp pain. The second stab hit Arlo. Reacting on pure instinct he delivered a fist straight into the woman while creating another barrier as the others charged at him and sending it slamming straight into them. Their momentum caused cracks that made Arlo wince but at least they were down for the count. Looking to his left at the one on the ground he delivered a sharp kick to the man's stomach leaving him a coughing mess. Certain that he now had an opening and Arlo dashed out of the alleyway

As he bolted across the sidewalks Arlo could feel his consciousness fading. He had one singular destination in mind, Claire’s house. That was where he would be safe. Well not really safe, but safer than here, away from all of these crowds. As he ran his eyes twitched around nervously for any sign of danger. His bloodied appearance and crazed look drew stares but he had no time and ignored anyone who was brave enough to ask if he needed help. Eventually, after running for god knows how long he was in front of Claire’s house. He gripped the handle smearing it with blood and collapsed into the living room. He reached to pull his phone out of his pocket and with trembling fingers turned it on and reached for the contacts. He knew what he needed to do. He would be ok...

If he could could

Just 

Make

This
Call...

Chapter Text

Claire was quite glad that it was friday evening. Despite everything, she had made it through the week and now had two days to rest and recuperate. Plus Arlo was moving out which meant that Claire could finally have her house to herself again, as much as she enjoyed his company she really could use some alone time. 

Still , she thought smiling to herself, we should have some time to kill before he’s let back into Wellston. I wonder if he’ll need help with his bags...

She was so caught up in her thoughts that it wasn’t until she grabbed the door handle did she notice the blood on it. She yelped and pulled her hand back as she felt it make contact with the red stain. She stared, eyes wide at her own hand.

Blood?! What the hell’s going on?!

She opened the door in a panic and shouted, “Arlo are you ok?! There’s blood on the door and-”

She went silent with shock as she saw, lying on the ground in a small pool of his blood, Arlo.

“ARLO!” 

She ran to his side.

H-how, w-who?!

She turned him over and saw his unconscious face, it and the rest of his body we covered in small cuts.

Barrier injuries?! But that would mean that someone broke his barrie-

She looked down and saw the knife lodged into his side; she nearly screamed before getting a hold of herself. No she couldn’t panic about that right now, she needed to get help. She looked around frantically, she still hadn’t had her phone replaced and her house didn’t have a landline. 

THERE!

She spotted Arlo’s phone, its screen had bloody finger prints, Arlo must’ve tried calling before. Acting quickly she grabbed the phone and pressed the on button. Success! It was still unlocked, that meant that he hadn’t been in this state for too long. She made her way to Arlo’s contacts and scrolled down searching for a particular name, she needed a healer and only knew one from Wellston.

It was normal for the trio of Elaine, Isen, and Remi to walk out of school together. They shared their last class and would normally enjoy some lively conversation on their way back to the dorms. But today was not one of those normal days. Today they walked in dead silence each one of them caught up in their thoughts.

Elaine in particular was still shaken from what she had witnessed yesterday.

To think that she could beat all three of them!

And she’s just been hiding that this whole time.

But why?

She remembered their interaction from last week followed by her threats from yesterday and shivered.

And what if she’s still angry

“Elaine? Are you there?”

Elaine shook her head and looked up to see Remi staring at her with a questioning look.

“Oh sorry, I just was thinking about something, what did you say?”

“I was just asking if you could help me out with the work today, I barely understood any of it.”

Elaine sighed, “Sure, but you need to start paying more attention in class. What about you Isen? You want help too?”

Isen looked distant for a moment before responding, “I’ll have to pass, I have some other work I need to do.”

“Are you sure you don’t need help? You’ve been going straight to your room all the time these days.”

“No, it’s not like that, its a personal project, for uh, the paper”

“If you say so.”

With that they went back to the awkward silence and Elaine went back to piecing things together. 

Wait a minute wasn’t Remi stalking Claire a while back before suddenly stopping?

And they’ve both been acting super weird lately…

Could it be?

“Hey Remi remember when were in the library and you looking up stuff about-”

Before Elaine could finish this question she was interrupted by the ringing of her cellphone. 

She stopped walking and reached into her pocket pulling it out and was a little surprised, “Arlo, wonder what he could want.”

Both Isen and Remi also stopped walking with their own curious expressions. 

Elaine pressed the answer button, “Hello? Arlo?”

She did not hear Arlo on the other end, “Elaine! Get over here now!” Claire shouted

Elaine turned slightly pale, “W-what why?

Claire was practically screaming, “We don’t have time for this! It’s Arlo! He’s hurt”

“O-ok, on my way,” Elaine replied before Claire hung up.

She looked up at Isen and Remi who had their own worried expressions.

Isen spoke first, “Are you alright Elaine? You look pale. What was that all about?”

Elaine shook her head trying to focus herself, “That was Claire, I think Arlo might be injured!”

Remi and Isen’s eyes went wide, “Arlo? Injured? How?” Remi stammered out

Isen focused himself, “We have to go now! Do you have an address?”

“Yes”

“Then let's go!”

Without another word then began to run down the hallway and out of the school gates with Elaine leading the way.

About fifteen minutes later the three had managed to huff and puff their way to Claire’s house. Isen and Remi, with their greater combat experience, had somewhat better stamina than Elaine, but all were panting heavily as Elaine stopped at the front steps.

“Is this the place?” Isen managed to choke out between heavy breaths

“Yeah…” Elaine replied resting her hands on her knees.

After a moment she took a deep breath and steadied herself only to turn slightly pale at the sight of blood on the door handle.

“Is that-?” Remi said with horror in her voice

Elaine gulped and slowly grabbed the handle, opening it to see an image both surreal and horrifying. On the middle of the living room floor, Arlo lay there, unconscious with a bloodied mouth and dozens upon dozens of small cuts. A large red patch had stained his side where a knife stuck out of his side. Claire held his head while applying what pressure she could to his injuries. As she met their eyes a look of slight relief passed over her.

“Arlo!” Remi and Elaine shouted simultaneously as Elaine rushed to his side. 

She looked at Claire in fear, “How did this happen!?”

“I don’t know! Just heal him already!” Claire shouted back

She activated her ability and assessed the damage, first things first was the stab wound, that needed to be treated immediately. Grimacing she healed around the wound for a few moments before grabbing the knife and readying herself. She had to be quick or else this was only gonna make things worse.

In a fluid motion she pulled out the knife and began healing immediately. The gaping wound closed quickly and after a moment the worst of Arlo’s injuries were gone. There was a palpable sense of relief as Elaine moved on to the more minor of Arlo’s injuries.

With things calming a little and Arlo seemingly no longer in critical condition Isen had a few moments to think. First thing he did was activate his ability and focus on Arlo. A slow but steady heart rate and a slow rate of breathing, to be expected of someone sustaining severe injuries, but something was off. What it was he couldn’t say for sure, it was one of those instinct things that happened with his ability. He shook his head, he shouldn’t be focusing on that right now, Arlo was alive and that’s what mattered, though on the other hand…

Who could have done this?

I’ve only met a few people who could even crack his barrier

So how…

He realized this was going nowhere so decided to ask some questions, “Do you know what happened Claire?”
“I don’t! He was just like this when I got here!” she responded with agitation in her voice.

Realizing just how on edge she was Isen decided to drop this line of questioning as Elaine finished her healing.

Elaine breathed a large sigh of relief, “That should be all of it.”

“Then why isn’t he waking up?” Claire questioned angrily

Elaine panicked a little hearing how angry Claire was, “I-I don’t know! He should be healthy but-”
“Godammit!” Claire shouted, clutching her head.

All of this was getting to be too much for her. Without another word she moved to pick up Arlo, attempting to support him on his shoulder. Unfortunately despite Claire’s own strength Arlo was six feet three inches of dead weight. Claire grunted in exertion accordingly.

“You want help with that?”

Claire looked up to see Isen with a nervous expression on his face.

Claire narrowed her eyes before sighing, “Yes”

Isen walked up and raised Arlo’s other arm. With both of them carrying his weight they were just able to start moving with Claire leading the way.

Remi and Elaine watched the two head up the stairs in silence.

But once they were gone Elaine wasted no time, “Remi…” she began, “I think there’s something we need to talk about.”

The tension in the air was palpable as Remi, Isen, and Elaine sat around Claire’s living room table.

“So you two just knew this whole time?” Elaine said with a hint of bitterness in her voice.

“Well only for a few days really, well after that incident with the papers.” Isen clarified

“But you were still just sitting on this information!”

“Yeah...” Isen rubbed the back of his head.

“We were hoping that we could keep things from escalating until Arlo got home.” Remi added, “ We didn’t want you to get caught up in this, but based on what you told us about what happened yesterday, we’re already too late in that regard.”

Elaine nodded, “So what now?”

“Well first we get some answers from Arlo and hope that whatever happened to him was just some big fluke. Afterwards if nothing else happens, I don’t see why things couldn’t go back to being somewhat normal, Claire seems committed to her act.”

“Do we let her know that we know?”

Isen and Remi looked at each other considering what the best course of action would be.

Before they could answer they froze as they heard a voice from behind them, “Know what?”

They turned to see Claire walking down the stairs with furious glowing eyes.

They narrowed in on Elaine, “Did you tell them?!”

Elaine scrambled to her feet, “N-no I didn-”

Isen stood up as well and put his hands, “She’s telling the truth! We found out on our own.”

Hey eyes turned to Isen, “How!”

“W-when you slapped me! My passive warns me about stuff! You gave off the feeling of a powerful ability user!”

Her fists clenched tightly, only Seraphina and Elaine were supposed to know! Now all three of these idiots were in on it! Letting out a cry of anger she turned and launched a fist straight into the wall. She hunched over breathing heavily while the rest of them looked on stunned. She wanted them to leave but she knew she couldn’t kick them out yet. She had used her ability to look forward, just a little. She would need them for tonight.

Looking up to face them head on she composed herself after taking a deep breath, “This never leaves this house, understood?”

They all nodded slowly.

“Good, because we need to prepare.”

“What?” they said in unison.

Claire took a deep breath, “The house is going to be attacked tonight, here’s what we need to do.”

Chapter Text

Isen drummed his fingers against the window pane nervously, staring out into the dark streets of Claire’s neighborhood intently before stealing a glance at the clock on the wall, it read 1:32AM. Just half an hour ago Claire had woken the three of them up and went over the plan again. 

“They’ll arrive at 1:43, for the first part we’ll need Isen on lookout. With his ability he can relay their movements to you two.”

So here he was, tired from the lack of sleep, but still running on pure anxiety and adrenaline. He looked at the clock again, a few minutes had passed and he decided now was the time to activate his ability. He closed his eyes and focused himself, throughout the surrounding neighborhood he could sense dozens of people, their heart rates slow and calm as they slept through the night. Isen had to admit he was envious as he strained to try and detect anything unusual.

After a few minutes, at 1:39 he felt it, an unusual presence, a cluster.

They’re approaching fast, they must be in a vehicle

He turned around to see Elaine and Remi slowly entering the living room, “They’re coming, get ready.”
They both nodded and activated their abilities. Remi took position in the center of the room where she could watch the entrances while keeping her distance. Elaine crouched next to the door.

“Remi should keep her distance, Elaine’s gonna want to get the drop on them to take them out quickly.”

Everything Claire had said made sense, but it was somewhat surreal hearing it so nonchalantly from her. Isen never took her for a strategist. Still there was one thing that concerned him more than anything else.

“Watch for the dampener, it’ll trigger after about 3 minutes.”
“What dampener?”

“Right I forgot that this is the first time I'm explaining this to you. They have something that weakens abilities, you’ll feel it when it happens. I think it's what they used to get Arlo, fortunately it’s indiscriminate so they’ll be weaker too.”

Isen shook his head, trying to shake off how unnerved he felt seeing Claire state something so groundbreaking like it was supposed to be obvious.

The vehicle was getting closer. It was moving relatively slowly as it rounded the corner and finally entered Isen’s line of sight.

They must be trying to make as little noise as possible

He turned to the two girls, “Three of them, just like Claire said,” he turned to the clock, it read 1:43, “Right on schedule too.”

He stepped away from the window and took position in the room.

Elaine turned to look at him, “Are you sure we should just leave Claire on her own?” she said trying to hide the nervousness in her voice.

“She seemed insistent, angry too, but from what I’ve read we have no choice but to trust her visions-”

They all froze for a moment as a strange sensation caused them to all stop breathing for a moment.

“Was that it?” Remi asked in a panicked voice

“I-I think so,” Isen responded

He activated his ability again. Everything was foggier, he could barely detect the people in the van and…

Wait, was one scaling the side of the house?

He called out, “Wait, that wasn’t in Claire’s vision-” He was interrupted by a man with a knife materializing in front of him.

Isen shouted and punched the man directly in the face. He stumbled backwards but not before sending out a wild slash that nicked Isen’s arm. Remi and Elaine scrambled to activate their abilities.

Claire was right! My punch should’ve sent him flying! That one only broke his nose

Remi was second to react, sending a bolt of lightning out at the man. Well it was less of a bolt and more of a glorified taser as it seemed to fizzle out somewhat by the time it reached him. It seemed to stun him a little, which was good but a far cry from the powerful lightning blasts Remi was used to dishing out. Fortunately it was enough for Elaine to take him down with a running tackle that sent them both to the floor. Isen moved quickly to help her pin him down, powering through the pain he felt in his bleeding arm.

“Got him!” Elaine announced as he locked his arms

The three of them breathed a collective sigh of relief as Isen got in to take a closer look. The man was plain in appearance and had a mask covering his face. Isen shivered as he saw the knife on the floor.

Did Claire say anything about a knife? No, she didn’t, come to think of it, she didn’t say anything about him teleporting in either, just that his ability wasn’t strong…

He shook his head, he’d get answers later but first, “Who the hell are you and what do you want?!” he shouted to their pinned attacker.

There was no response, “Hey Isen…” Isen turned around to see Remi holding the knife, “This is the same kind of knife that Arlo had! He must be with them!”
He turned to the man who only sneered in response. “You’ll get nothing out of me!”

Isen grabbed his collar and raised his fist before taking a breath remembering the other thing Claire had said.

“They won’t crack, at least not initially, we’ll need to defeat all of them before getting a chance to talk.”

“Can’t you just look ahead more to find out what they know?”

“It’s too far out, I'm already having trouble keeping track of all the possibilities for the next few hours.”

A lot of good that did for them now. They needed to find a way to secure them, Claire told them that she had some rope in the closet that they could use.

Wait…

Wasn’t one climbing up the side?

Isen’s eyes widened, in the panic he had completely forgotten! He was about to call out that they should back her up when suddenly there was a crash and shout from up stairs.

Claire grimaced as she felt the dampener take effect. Even though it didn’t have any physical effect on her it certainly still didn’t feel pleasant. Experimentally she tried to activate her ability, the effect was noticeable. Her visions were blurry and unfocused, only showing some vague signs of motion. This didn’t worry Claire, she knew what was going to happen, Arlo would be safe, and hopefully she’d finally get some answers.

So here was, hiding under the bed with a kitchen knife in one hand. She fiddled with the blade in anticipation, she didn’t technically need it but she wanted to take the intruder down as quickly as possible, besides the knife might come in handy when it came time for interrogation.

So she waited, and waited, and waited. Wait, something wasn’t right, according to her vision, someone should have materialized in front of her by now-

Her train of thought was interrupted by the window opening, her breath hitched as she saw a pair of shoes drop down onto the floor.

This wasn’t in my vision! How?! They’ve never been wrong!

 She steadied herself, now was no time to panic. Wrong or not she still had to protect Arlo. She held her breath as she watched the man approach Arlo with unusual speed. When he walked right in front of Claire’s position she sprung into action.

She let out a battle cry as she leaped out from under the bed and stabbed the man in right in the thigh. He cried out in pain as the knife sunk in deep, before he could react Claire kicked out and sweeped his legs out from under him, sending him straight to the ground. She pulled the knife back and looked down as she stood over him. She activated her ability again, trying to see if she could see his next move.

It’s too blurry, but there is some kind of a struggle, he’s not done yet

She decided to be cautious as she walked towards him, in response he began to slowly scoot away.

She glared and stomped her foot down, “Alright listen! You’re going to talk now, or else I’m really gonna lose it.”

The man only responded with his own glare and before Claire could do anything else he leapt at her pulling out his own knife with his ability activated granting him enhanced speed. But Claire had dealt with faster opponents and she was ready. She ducked to the side of his stab before checking him in the shoulder sending him stumbling back. As Claire reset her position she found herself standing opposite of him as he clutched the window sill.

Their ears picked up as they heard a shout from outside the window, “What’s taking so long?! Get the target and get out! We only have so much time!”

Claire grinned as something from the rest of her visions clicked, “You’re on the clock aren’t you? You can’t keep this up, once we're full power you’re done for.” The man hesitated with a look of genuine fear, “Give up already, we’ve won.”

The man looked down and took a deep breath, then he jumped out the window.

Claire reached out and shouted, “NO!”

She rushed to the window to see the man run towards the van, she saw another man materialize next to him and both leaped into the open door before speeding away. Claire scrambled down the stairs to see the trio in a state of panic,

“He just disappeared!”

“Why didn’t we knock him out?”

“I don’t know I was panicking and-”

They went quiet as they turned to see Claire walk in, bloody knife in hand. There were no words needed, there was only one thing on their collective minds.

What the hell was that?

In the heat of the moment each and every one of them had been just about ready to shout and try to figure out what had just gone down. But once the adrenaline faded and Elaine had healed any injuries, exhaustion hit them collectively like a truck. There was an unspoken agreement, they could discuss this tomorrow in depth, but for now, they needed rest. Hopefully Arlo would awaken, and they could plan their next moves from there.

The next morning got off to a dreary and dreadful start with Isen and Elaine being woken up to the sounds of Claire shouting, Remi had gone to get breakfast from Claire’s cupboards and the latter was not happy. After some tense negotiation she allowed the three access to the cereal and milk, now the four of them were sitting around the table in dead silence.

After several minutes Isen worked up the courage to break it, “So…” he cleared his throat, “About last night…”

There was no immediate response, everyone knew what he meant and no one felt like responding.

But eventually Claire relented, “I don’t know, sometimes my visions miss out on details but I’ve never had one so inaccurate since…” something clicked in her head, “Since I was a mid tier!”

“It was the dampener?!” Remi replied

“But you looked ahead before the dampener got anywhere near us!” Elaine responded

Claire rubbed her eyes, “Yeah, and everything happened how I saw it would until…”

“It activated.” Isen said, finishing her sentence

“Wait,” Remi replied, “So somehow when the dampener was activated…” she put her hands on her head, “It retroactively affected your visions?”

The silence returned as the ramifications of this theory sunk in.

“Ugh, my head hurts.” Elaine replied, “I don’t even want to think about how that works...”

“Ugh, my head hurts…” The group turned around to see Arlo coming down the stairs hand clutching his head.

“ARLO!” Claire shouted rushing to his side, “Are you alright?! What happened?! I saw you passed out and bleeding and-”

She was cut off from her ramble by Arlo raising his hand, “I’m ok Claire, just have a bit of a headache. Can I get some coffee?” he smiled down at her before looking out to see the rest of the house’s occupants, “What are they doing here?”

Arlo took a large sip of his coffee, “And the next thing I knew I woke up in Claire’s bed with a splitting headache.”

The rest of them stood in stunned silence taking in what Arlo had told them.

“To think that someone with the power to take down a god tier, and the ability to dampen abilities could fly under the radar like that.” Isen murmured

The others nodded their heads in agreement.

Remi spoke upm “But what about the injection? You said the needle went in, are you sure you’re ok?”

“I mean other than this headache I feel fine, though now that you ask my skin feels softer for some reason…” Arlo paused for a moment before his eyes widened and he activated his ability.

A medium circle of barrier emerged in front of Arlo as he visibly strained himself.

“Arlo what’s wrong?” Claire asked with concern in her voice

“I can’t make it larger!” Arlo shouted, he gritted his teeth and turned to Isen, “Isen, activate your ability and punch my barrier!”

“What? I’m not doing that!” Isen shouted in response

“Just do it! Elaine can heal you if you hurt yourself.”

Isen gulped and activated his ability, not in the mood to defy Arlo. He raised his fist and threw a punch straight towards Arlo’s barrier. It shattered instantly. Immediately Arlo coughed up blood eliciting a yelp from Claire and Elaine who ran over to treat him while Isen stared down at his hands in awe.

How?! I’ve only ever barely cracked Arlo’s barrier! Is he still weakened?

“Are you alright?” Isen looked up to see Claire holding onto Arlo’s arm as Elaine healed him.

“The injection…” Arlo’s breathing grew rapid, “My ability, it’s weakened.” Claire could see the panic entering his face, “What did they do to me!? What am I supposed to do?!”

Claire placed a hand on his shoulder trying to reassure him, “Hey, hey, it’s going to be ok, you just woke up after being attacked. This is going to wear off. We just need to wait it out.”

Arlo seemed a little reassured as did the rest of them.

“So…” Remi started, “What do we do in the meantime? Do we tell someone?”

Claire stood up, “First things first, we call doc.”

Chapter Text

“Heart rate is normal, blood pressure too.” Doc shook his head, “In an ideal scenario I’d be able to put you under one of those new ability testing instruments but this is a high school infirmary not a highly funded research facility.”

“They have those?” Claire asked

Doc shrugged, “New development, I read about it in an article a few months back, it's experimental and expensive as hell.” he stood up, “By the way have you gotten around to reporting this to Vaughn?”

Arlo nodded, “Isen, Elaine, and Remi are doing as such.”

“That’s good, either way, if this is any ordinary drug it shouldn’t last for more than a few days. If your ability hasn’t recovered by mid next week, come and see me.”

“Understood,” Claire replied

Arlo grimaced at the thought of this lasting for that long.

“In the meantime, I suggest you keep this to yourselves.” He looked Arlo in the eyes, “If other students find out, they will most certainly try to take advantage of the situation.” He gave Claire a harsh glare, “And I really don’t need anymore trouble.”

“H-hey we’ll be careful!” Claire replied somewhat indignantly.

Doc’s expression did not change, “Good,” he turned away, “Never call me again!”

Arlo and Claire looked at each other nervously as doc walked away ranting to himself about how much he hates his job.

“And finally, when Arlo woke up his ability wasn’t working right.”

“Could you specify what you mean Isen?”

“Well for starters he said he couldn’t make anything larger than a medium sized disk. Then when he told me to punch it I was able to shatter almost instantly with my ability. I’ve only ever made small cracks before.” Isen explained

Vaughn raised an eyebrow, “You cracked it?”

Isen realized the implications and stammered to add, “Elaine treated him right after!”

Vaughn let out a sigh, “Good to see you three are being responsible. Still, this is quite an unnerving development, I’ll notify keene right away. In the meantime, stay safe, and be on alert.”

After that Vaughn had sent the three away, now they only had one destination in mind as they walked through the school halls, their dorms, where they could finally get some rest.

“This…” began Elaine, “Has been too much.”
“What?” asked Isen
“Sorry I was just talking to myself.” Elaine sighed, “I just can’t wrap my head around all of this, first Claire’s not a cripple and now…”
She didn’t have to finish that sentence, they all knew what she was referring to.

“Hey not so loud Elaine!” Remi blurted out, “Someone might hear you!”

“Remi we’re in school on a weekend.” Isen replied, shaking his head.

“Oh right.”

Isen shook his head, “I know it's a lot to take in, but right now I think we all need to take a moment to rest before we think about it too hard. I don’t know about you two but I did not sleep a wink after those people left. Besides, I trust Vaughn and Kene. They’re powerful and capable.”

Remi and Elaine murmured in agreement before Remi spoke up, “And what about Claire and Arlo?”

Isen shook his head, “Claire seems committed to her act, so long as Arlo recovers things should go back to normal.”

Remi gave a small smile, “Yeah your right! Nothing has to change.”

With that they the exited the school and were on their way to get some much-needed rest.

“May I speak with you Vaughn?”

Vaughn turned around to see a familiar green haired student entering his office. Despite it being the beginning of the school day he had been expecting her to show up at some point.

He smiled, “Ah Claire, what brings you to my office today?”

“Well sir,” Claire began while taking a seat, “I wanted to talk to you about the notice you sent me today.”

“What about it?”

“Sir, with all due respect, you can’t just move me to the campus’ dorms! I chose to live in a separate space for a reason and am doing just fine on my own-”
“Claire,” Vaughn interrupted, “I understand that you may be upset but this is non-negotiable. The arrangements have been made. Keene will escort you tomorrow and help transport your belongings.”

“I hardly see why this is necessary-”
“After hearing what occurred over the weekend I will not spare any precautions, here you will be protected by Wellston’s staff.”
“I can protect myself!”

“If Arlo, in addition to several more of my top students, struggled against this threat then you certainly can not handle it on your own.”

“Then let me move somewhere else!”
“No.”

“Please sir, I really don’t want to be around others students-”
“Claire, as I said, this is non-negotiable, I know you are unhappy but my position is final.”

Claire looked down defeated.

She took a deep breath before standing up, “Fine then!” she shot Vaughn a glare before turning around and slamming the door shu.

Vaughn could only sigh and shake his head as she left.

If there was one thing that Arlo had going for him, it was that despite everything, the rooftop was still a place of respite. If there was one thing he didn’t have going for him, it was that his phone had a large crack in its screen.

“Hey Arlo!”

He looked up to see Claire opening the door with one hand and balancing a lunch try in the other. He nodded in acknowledgement as she took a seat next to him.

“So…” she began, “How was your day?”

Arlo sighed remembering his walk through the halls earlier that morning. The instant he stepped foot inside the building he could feel everyone’s eyes on him, the whispers followed soon after. 

“It's…” he looked off to the side, “more of the same.” he sighed, “second I step foot in the building and everyone’s talking, trying to find out what the big story is.”

“Yeah, just make sure to stay up here as much as you can and avoid people alright?” Claire replied with a concerned smile, “In fact, just to check, are you feeling alright, nothings acting up?”

Arlo shook his head, “No, though that means my ability hasn’t been fully restored either,” he gave a longer, heavier sigh, “Are you sure this is necessary? Changing my schedule, it doesn’t feel warranted. Besides, even if someone finds out I still have about half of an ability. What’s the worst that could happen?”

He went back to his phone as Claire finished swallowing her current bite.

When she turned to reply, her expression darkened, “Please, just trust me on this Arlo, you really don’t want people to find out.”

“Why? I doubt that they’ll be foolish enough to challenge me.”

“You don’t understand, they’re foolish, and they’re spiteful. They won’t pass up this kind of opportunity.”
“Excuse me?”

Claire clenched her fists and looked down as she talked, trying to suppress the memories that nearly made her boil with rage, “People hate it when the strong tread one them, I know because I hate it too. And if I know one thing it’s that most people would give an arm and a leg to have a chance to fight back even once, logic or long term consequences be damned.”

“Claire…”

Claire snapped back to reality and sat up straighter, “Yeah?”

“Are you alright?” Arlo tilted his head with concern

“What?”

“I’ve never seen you get this intense over the prospect of some potential injuries. This seems like quite a departure from your normal attitude.”

She sighed, “Look, it's not like I want to have broken bones, but it's unavoidable for me, for you on the other hand, it is very avoidable.”

Arlo shrugged, “I can handle pain, my barrier used to break quite frequently when I was younger.”
Claire shook her head, “It’s different, when you can’t fight back like this, it messes with you.” she gave him a pleading look, “Please Arlo, for both of our sakes, I don’t want you to go through what I’ve gone through.”

She’s definitely changed, all because of my absence…

“Alright, I promise I’ll do my best to avoid trouble.”

“Really?” Claire beamed

“I promise.”

With that Claire went back to her lunch and Arlo went back to his phone. When the bell rang Claire exited the rooftop and made her way to class. On the way she saw a low tier being bullied.

She moved past it without saying a word.

The rest of the day passed surprisingly uneventfully for Claire, Arlo’s return had put something of a dampener on the random attacks in the hallway. Still this did not mean that Claire was in a good mood. The second school had ended Claire was approached by Keene and informed she had a few hours to pack her bags before Keene would arrive and move her to the campus.

So here she was, walking with a very full backpack while Keene carried two suitcases that held the rest of her most essential belongings.

Keene turned to her “Are you excited to move in Claire?”

 Claire shot him a look, “No, firstly you didn’t give me a choice, and secondly, if I had any interest in moving into the dorms I would have done so already.”

Keene gave a nervous chuckle and awkwardly looked off to the side, “Sorry, just felt like I needed to ask.” when Claire didn’t respond he continued, “But look on the bright side! There’s plenty of benefits to living in the dorms!”

Claire rolled her eyes, “Such as?”

“Well for starters…” Keene began, “No more morning commute?”

“But I like walking.”

“W-well there’s plenty of space for that on the campus and-”
“Keene I’m not gonna start just walking around the campus like some idiot-”

A voice interrupted Keene’s desperate attempt to salvage the conversation, “Heeeey!”

Claire recognized that voice, but she couldn’t quite pin it. She turned around with Keene and her stomach dropped as two familiar looking girls approached them.

“Ah Illena and Wenqi, I hope you two are doing well today.”

The two gave each other a knowing look before Illena put on a far too eager smile, “Oh we’re doing good Keene. More than good in fact! Wenqi and I were just so excited when we heard that Claire was moving to the dorms.”

Claire gritted her teeth in response.

Great, these two idiots are probably already plotting something, stay calm, you can’t have an incident in front of the staff.

Keene responded with an oblivious smile, “I’m glad to hear that, I hope that you and the other students get along with her well”

“Suuuure we get along great! In Fact we have a lot to talk about!” she responded, maintaining shooting Claire a menacing look that went unnoticed.

“Wonderful! Anyways, Claire and I should get going, I hope you girls don’t mind my presence, I’ll be in and out as soon as possible.”

“Oh relax you know you’re always welcome Keene.”

They both gave a chuckle and Claire did her best to remain calm as they walked off.

Elaine sat at her desk pencil in hand. Now that she had finally gotten a good night's sleep and had taken the rest of the weekend to relax and recover, she was finally in a state where she could resume some sense of normality. Sure she was still on edge over what had happened, but now that Arlo was back on the campus and Vaughn was handling the situation she was confident that things would go back to normal.

As she finished the last problem in the set she looked up at the clock and remembered something.

Hey wasn’t I supposed to be getting a new roommate?

On que she heard a knock on her front door.

Oh, that must be her!

She stood up quickly and began to walk towards the door, several thoughts running through her head.

Why are they moving in on such short notice? Is it a new student? Should I make some orange juice? No, if they were a new student I would’ve been told well in advance. Then it has to be…

She opened the door and her suspicions were confirmed.

“You know Claire I’m surprised you only needed three bags.” Keene rambled off

As Claire met Elaine’s eyes she froze as she realized who her new roommate was.

Of all the people, it has to be her!

“Ah, there you are Elaine, this is Claire, Claire Elaine.”

“We’re familiar.” Claire muttered under her breath

“Yeah…” Elaine replied

There was an awkward silence before Keene spoke loudly, “Then why are you two acting so cold?” He grabbed Claire and Elaine’s wrists and brought them into an awkward handshake.

Neither Claire nor Elaine liked this very much but they both decided to play along so Keene would leave them be.

“Well I should get going, Elaine help Claire with her bags ok!”

“Sure.”

With that Keene took off and now the two were left with each other.

“Soooo…” Elaine began before realizing she didn’t have much to say.

Claire sighed, “It looks like we're stuck together until Vaughn decides I can move back to my own apartment, if he ever does.”

“Right…” Elaine fidgeted awkwardly, “Want help with those bags.”

Claire shrugged, “Sure.”

Chapter Text

“So Elaine huh?”

When the morning classes had ended the next day Claire took the first opportunity to march to the roof and complain to Arlo about her situation. She had spent several minutes ranting about how much more she was gonna get beat up, how she was literally greeted by two mid tier bullies, and how oblivious Keene was before she finally actually told Arlo who her roommate was.

“Yeah, it’s so awkward, especially since we only met when I accidentally tried to slap Isen-”
Arlo raised an eyebrow, “You tried to slap Isen?”

“Oh, right…” Claire looked off to the side a little ashamed, “I thought he was someone else and I acted on instinct and-”

Arlo gave a chuckle, “No wonder you two looked so tense when I called you over. You really are good at pissing people off.”

Claire pouted, “Hey! Where’s my sympathy here? Why do you gotta take her side?”

Arlo sighed, “Well for starters she’s been a pretty damn good healer. Second, even if you think it’s awkward it’s not like she’s gonna do anything to you short of getting someone else to beat you up for her. And she wouldn’t do that.” 

Claire huffed and looked down without a reply.

Arlo smiled, “Who knows? Maybe this is your chance to ingratiate yourself to Wellston’s healer, give old doc a break?”
Claire shook her head, “No way, you know how pissed off doc gets with my visits and he’s paid to heal me!” she shuddered at the thought.

“Ok maybe not, but my point still stands. It could be a whole lot worse. Besides, you approached me didn’t you?” he asked, “While being quite annoying,” he added under his breath.

“What did you just say-”

“Elaine can’t really do anything to you so why are you so dismissive? What happened to Claire the who could face anything with a smile?”

Claire looked away, she didn’t want to admit it but Arlo had struck a nerve. She felt it, she was slipping, slipping back to who she really was.

No! I can’t go back, not in front of Arlo...

She gave him a weak smile, “I-I guess, you’re right.”

Before Arlo could respond the bell rang.

Claire jumped from where she sat and stood straight up, “Crap gotta go!”

With that she took off and Arlo was left wondering if Claire had meant what she said.

A few minutes later Arlo decided he had had enough of the roof and decided to actually go to class. With only a few minutes of the passing period left the walk was blissfully free of the usual gossip and prying eyes of fellow students. However, like all good things, this was destined to not last.

“Please! I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry!”

Arlo grimaced as he heard the pleas of some poor student down the hall. He turned away as he saw a student with long blond hair towered over a girl with two pink pigtails.

“Oh suuuure your sorry! Like your presence here isn’t an affront!”

“Please, I have an important class to go to!”

“Pshh, yeah, like anything you do is important.”

Arlo racked his brain to see if he could even remember the name of the poor girl. He felt somewhat guilty when he realized he couldn’t.

Have I really been that neglectful?

His guilt began motivating him to act. He turned towards the two and nearly opened his mouth before he remembered what Claire said.

“Please, Arlo, for both our sakes”

He turned away again, later, he promised, later he’d take action.

SLAP!

Ok that was it.

He turned around and marched towards the blond girl.

“Look at you, groveling, can you do anything helpful-”
“Are you quite done?”
“WHO-” the student turned to see Arlo who had activated his ability. 

She froze, Arlo turned to see her victim with a similar fearful expression, “You, get to class.”
The girl stood up and scampered off leaving Arlo alone with the mid tier.

“And you,” she flinched, “Would you kindly stop making an infernal racket and wasting everyone’s time. Besides, don’t you also have a class to go to aswell?”

The girl had no response and merely stood there stunned, the jeers of the crowd soon followed.

“Damn she got told!”

“Maybe she’ll stop screaming in that awful voice for once.”

“About time too.”

Satisfied Arlo turned around to make it to class, if he hurried he should have enough time to-

“YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO LOOK OUT FOR THE REST OF US!”

Arlo turned around to see a green light heading straight towards him. A circle of barrier formed in an instant blocking the projectile before it reached Arlo. But after a moment Arlo realized his mistake, as the energy blast dissipated it left a series of tiny cracks. Arlo took a deep breath, he couldn’t afford to react to the pain. He quickly dissipated the barrier, fortunately, no one seemed to notice the oddities. Still the situation had just gotten complicated, with his abilities in a reduced state Arlo couldn’t do any of his usual moves for dealing with his opponents. After a moment he decided that intimidation would be the best option.

“You,” he took a deep breath and stood up straighter while walking towards the shaking mid tier, “Are very, very lucky that you didn’t actually hit me.”

“Please I’m sorry and-”
“Get out of my sight.”

She sprinted away without a word to jeers of fellow students and Arlo sighed. A few moments the bell rang signaling the start of the next class. Very much not in the mood to continue doing school, Arlo made his way to the front door and stepped out. As he did he checked his phone and noticed something, a text from Valerie?

Valerie: Arlo, call me when you can, it’s important.

He shrugged his shoulders and considered ignoring it before remembering something.

Valerie never texts me…

I should probably check it, just to be safe

He pressed the green call button and waited. After a few moments Valerie picked up.

“Arlo?”

“Yes, it's me Valerie. You said you wanted to talk?”

“Yes, something happened a few days ago…”

Valerie sighed and pressed her palms together, it had been a few days since it happened but the memory of Arlo’s actions had kept her quite distracted. She knew how these things went, someone would ask questions and Valerie would have to move carefully lest it cost her. Still it was too late to go back now, she had a reputation and a family relationship to preserve, and she didn’t get this far by second guessing herself and backing out. No she played the hand she was dealt, no matter what doing so entailed.

Her ear pricked up as she heard a vehicle pull into her driveway. Without hesitation she approached the door as she heard someone knock. When she opened it she was unfortunately met with a familiar face.

“Keon”

The man had red hair and was wearing a formal beige coat with a tie. Valerie had worked with Keon before in the same department mostly bumping into each other when it was time to file reports. Outside of that they rarely interacted with Keon mostly dealing with ‘troubled youth’ already detained while Valerie did more ‘field work’. Behind him was a man with Teal hair who Valerie did not know the name of but had seen once or twice before.

“Agent Valerie,” Keon replied formally. There was an awkward silence before he coughed into his hand, “We’ll know that that’s out of the way I believe you are already aware why we are here. Once I speak with Arlo and have certified his state we can begin arrangements for his return.”

Keon motioned for her to let him in. 

Valerie didn’t and took a deep sigh, “I’m afraid that won’t be necessary, Arlo has already been allowed to return to Wellston.”

Keon’s eyes narrowed, “Why is that? Why were we not informed?” his volume increased a little as his questions continued, “If the campus is still off limits where is he staying? Were you not in charge of his safety and-”
Valerie remained calm and composed, “Keon, if you will allow me to explain,” she took a deep breath, “After an initial three weeks of isolation and regulation I determined that Arlo was sufficiently ‘cleansed’ of the book’s influence and that it would be beneficial for his studies for him to return to Wellston early.”

Keon’s eyes widened, “Valerie! That is a complete overstepping of your position and a violation of-”
“Keon,” Valerie responded sharply, “Are you doubting the judgement of your superior?”

Keon stepped back with a bitter grimace, while they hardly worked together Valerie’s position as a god tier gave her greater authority when it came down to it.

“I see…” Keon muttered before locking eyes with her, “It’s because he’s your nephew isn’t it?” he said with a hint of an accusation in his voice.

Valrie ignored it, “Of course not, but as his aunt and thus someone who knows Arlo intimately, I believe there are few other people more qualified to make judgements of his character.”
Keon gritted his teeth, “Very well,” he turned to his partner and nodded, “I suppose then you’ll have no qualms with coming with us filing a proper report.”

It was Valerie’s turn to grit her teeth, “Of course not.”

“Eventually the department accepted my decision on a condition, Keon would arrive at the school to give his own evaluation.”

“You couldn’t overrule him?”

“My authority only extends so far Arlo.”
Arlo sighed and looked up at nothing in particular, “I understand, thank you for informing me Valerie.”

“It’s on you now Arlo.”

“Yes,” Arlo moved to hang up, “Love you auntie.”

“Love you too”

Arlo ended the call and put his hands in his pockets biting his lip. Things had just gotten a lot more complicated.

As Claire walked to the dorms she mentally went over what had happened with Arlo.

“What happened to the Claire who could face anything with a smile?”

She closed her eyes, took deep breaths and tried to pull herself together, Arlo was beginning the facade, the mask was slipping.

No! It’s not a mask! I’ve changed!

I’m not a monster!

When she finished, she resumed walking along her prior path. She was so calm that she almost missed the noise of rapidly approaching footsteps, almost.

“Think fast Claire!”

Unfortunately for her attacker, Claire did think fast jerking her head to the side, narrowly avoiding the punch. Immediately Claire sprung into action, grabbing the extended arm and thrusting her hips out to displace her attacker’s center of mass in an instant she flipped them over and they landed hard on the ground and Claire finally got a good look. She recognized the long blond hair and the speedy overconfidence.

Wenqi…

She knew what that meant, the other one wouldn’t be far behind-

“Welcome to the dorms!”

Before Claire could let go of Wenqi she felt a crushing blow to her back. She flew several feet and felt the wind get knocked out of her as she landed. As Claire tried to rise to her feet and recover Wenqi got up and the two walked over to Claire who had just about risen to her knees.

“I have to admit I’m impressed” Illena sneered, “Here I was thinking you couldn’t get any stupider!” she punctuated this with another punch to Claire’s gut.

Claire barely managed to deflect the blow sustaining a nasty bruise to her arm. She shot up right afterwards and raised her hands, preparing to put up at least something of a fight.

Illena only laughed in response, “Really Claire? Just what are you going to do here?”

Wenqi joined her friend, “Yeah! No Arlo, no nothing here to get in our way! You’re on our turf.”
Claire gritted her teeth, she had no response, her options were narrowing and fast.

“Tell you what, I’ll be generous, get on your hands and knees and beg for forgiveness. Then I might just let you go for today.” Illena took another step forward.

Claire saw her opportunity and took it. She grabbed her backpack and hurled it straight towards Illena before pivoting in place and bolting in the other direction.

I think I can make it, I just need to get a little further-

She felt a violent shelve and stumbled, barely catching herself before falling. She turned to see Wenqi with her own sneer.

“Really thought you could try to pull that again Cripple? Now you’re really in for it!” she taunted.

In an instant she dashed behind the recovering Claire and locked down her arms as Illena approached. Claire struggled against Wenqi’s grip but to no avail, Claire was tired  and her prior injuries were weakening her. Illena wasted no time when she got in range and punched Claire straight in the gut. Claire coughed and wheezed as Illena followed it up with a hard kick.

“You know I really was gonna let you go if you just listened to what I said, even after you pulled that stunt with Wenqi, but here we are.” Claire took labored breaths as she fought to stay conscious, “You really thought you had a chance didn’t you? But here we are, now that you’re here we can give you a full taste of reality.”

Claire looked up and saw it again, that cruel look, that sense of reckless entitlement, the thing she hated so very much.

“You pathetic bitch!” Claire shouted

“What was that cripple!” Wenqi yelled in response pulling back on Claire’s hair.

Claire didn’t stop, “Is this the only way you can feel accomplished! Ganging up on someone who can’t fight back! You couldn’t even beat me on your own!” Claire spit on the ground, “You’re just gonna end up the punching bag of the next elite! Then you’ll really be like me. Another piece of trash in this world who’d be better off killing themselves!”

“Shut the fuck up!” Illena shouted raising her fist one last time

“What are you doing!”

Illena paused and turned her head to see…

“Elaine? What are you doing here? Come to welcome the cripple too?” Illena inquired

“For your information that ‘cripple’ is my roommate. And by extension I am responsible for her wellbeing, so back off!”

Illena and Wenqi both gave loud groans, “Seriously? And what if we don’t? You can just heal her afterwards.”

Elaine shook her head, “Unless you never want to get healed again you should do as I say.”

Illena and Wenqi traded glances and after weighing up the pros and cons released Claire, “Fine,” Illena turned to Claire, “You’re lucky that you found someone else to suck up to.”

With that they walked off and Elaine cautiously approached an injured Claire. When Claire said nothing she activated her ability and began healing, Claire continued to stay silent.

Internally Claire wanted to pull away, she didn’t want this help, this aid that only came because Elaine knew her secret. She knew how things would have gone had Elaine not known. But for now she was in too much pain to say anything.

“So what, Arlo made a circle instead of a dome and you’re telling me that this is supposed to be some big story?”

“That’s not all of it! I saw cracks too! I know something’s up!”

“Right you ‘know’ how about you come back with some proof, then we can talk.”

“R-right away sir!”

Chapter Text

Elaine was not sure what to think about her new roommate. Sure, Claire mostly kept to herself which was nice, but that couldn’t overcome the general feeling of tension that hung in the air. Of course this tension was natural Elaine supposed, when one was living with one of the most powerful people in the school, a most powerful person who Elaine had antagonized in their first meaningful interaction(Though she still felt that she had been justified in being angry). So she supposed that she should count herself lucky on that front. Still, this feeling of walking on eggshells was not nice!

To complicate things further Elaine quickly discovered that she and Claire would share the same route in the morning to class. So on this awkward walk Elaine was quite relieved to run into Remi.

“Remi!” she shouted maybe a little more enthusiastically than was needed.

“Elaine.” Remi replied trying to keep her voice low, “Is everything alright with Claire.”

Elaine paused and inhaled deeply, “Between me and her, I guess, but the others…”

Elaine recounted the story from yesterday.

Remi’s eyes widened, “W-who did that?!”

Elaine, sighed, “Illena and Wenqi you heard of them?”

Remi thought for a moment, “No?”

“Two mid tiers, I think they normally hangout with two others but they weren’t there, anyways they beat up Claire pretty badly before I got them to stop.”

“And how was Claire afterwards?”

“Once I healed her? Like a ball of barely contained fury.”

“I see,” Remi and Elaine both paused, “Do you think they might push her to, you know?” Remi continued

Elaine shook her head, “I don’t know, guess for now we do our best to make sure nothing happens.”

A short distance away at the entrance male dorms, not much was happening. The usual crowds of students diligently made their way to class with Arlo among them. Unbeknownst to Arlo a certain student was watching his every move.

Juni considered her options carefully, she needed proof, hard undeniable proof of her suspicions or else this was gonna be the worst mistake of her life. Unfortunately for her, her ability was much better suited to running away from dangerous foes rather than forcing a confrontation, and she suspected that even with Arlo’s suspected weakened state she could do little to overcome his barrier. Still, this left one other option. Nervously, she fiddled with the small rock in her hand and took a deep breath before activating her ability. A brief vision flashed before her and confirmed her suspicions. Normally Arlo’s passive would allow him to shrug off most ordinary blows without a second thought. But the vision told a different story. Taking a deep breath Juni turned and hurled the stone straight towards him. It sailed in a perfect arc and beaned him straight in the forehead.

For a moment everything was silent as everyone froze in place and turned to stare. Arlo himself was also frozen in shock.

What just happened?

Slowly he raised his hand to his forehead and felt it, blood. He followed the trickle to its source and felt a nasty gash. He looked down at the floor and saw a small bloody stone.

Who?!

“Is Arlo bleeding?”
“Shouldn’t his passive have deflected it?”

“Oh shit someone’s in trouble!”

Arlo snapped back to focus.

So my passive is really gone?

“I’m so sorry!”

Arlo turned around to see Juni running towards him.

“I didn’t mean to hit you! I was just practicing my aim and-”

“Juni,” Arlo’s eyes flashed with his ability

Juni gulped.

“Please be more careful next time.”

With that Arlo turned away and Juni felt the biggest wave of relief wash over her. Then once he was gone, she let another feeling wash over her. One of triumph, she was on the right track, now for the next step…

Claire had woken up that morning with achy muscles and joints, the longer term pains of being beaten senseless. Still she had managed to get up out of bed and get ready for school only having to deal with the usual awkward silence between her and Elaine. Despite yesterday being awful, today had been a relatively good one for Claire, she had managed to get to class and then to the rooftop without being jumped even once. Still, once she was there she couldn’t help but replay the events of yesterday and feel that rage bubbling up to the surface.

Keene, Vaughn... 

Idiots!
Don’t they realize why I avoided the dorms!?

And Elaine…

Claire took a deep breath.

She’s only helping me because she’s afraid, she wouldn’t have done that if she still thought I was a cripple.

 She was broken out of her rumination by the sound of a cough.

“Earth to Claire? I repeat earth to Claire?”

She looked up to see Arlo standing over her with his trademark smirk.

“Oh Arlo! You’re late…”

His smirk faded, “I had to make a quick stop,” he pointed to his forehead and Claire saw the bloodied bandage, “at the infirmary.”

Claire’s eyes widened and she clenched her fists, “What happened?! Who did this?!”

“Some mid tier with buns in her hair, I was unable to catch her name. I also learned that my passive is no longer functioning.”

He looked down to see Claire with a dark expression on her face.

“It was most likely an accident as she apologized right afterwards, I have been very careful to maintain a low profile.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Arlo raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

Claire looked him in the eye, “She did it on purpose.”

“What?! How can you be so sure? You weren’t even there.”

Claire shook her head, “Arlo, think about it.” she pointed at the bandage, “A clean headshot, against you, the tallest person in the crowd.”

“But she apologized afterwards.”

“It was an act, no one would dare claim responsibility for injuring unless they somehow knew.” she gave Arlo a glare, “What did you do? You must have given yourself away!”

“I assure you, I have taken every necessary precaution-”

“Arlo! You’re being careless.”

Arlo sighed, “I fail to see what the big concern is, even in the worst case scenario I still have an ability, even a weaker one. Besides, once I return to full strength-”

“But you haven’t yet! And having a weaker ability doesn’t mean much if the whole of Wellston is gunning for you when they find out! People will take any opportunity they can get! Even yesterday I was attacked the second people heard I was moving into the dorms! This is not a joke Arlo!”

Arlo had no response for that and instead chose to awkwardly stare off into the distance through the rooftop fence.

The silence remained for a few minutes before he spoke again, “What really happened while I was gone?”

Claire looked up in surprise, “What? What does that have to do with anything-”

“Claire,” Arlo narrowed his eyes, “Don’t think that I haven’t noticed anything, ever since I’ve come back you’ve been acting like someone completely different, I didn’t want to pry after seeing you like this...” there was hint of pleading in his voice, “Please, tell me what happened, I want to help you.”

Claire paused for a moment before sighing, “Ok, but you have to promise not to do anything stupid.”

“Very well,”

Claire took a deep breath before continuing, “It was Seraphina,”

Arlo raised an eyebrow, “Seraphina? What on earth did you do to get involved with her-”

“I'm getting to it!” she continued, “After you left I started bumping into her and-” she swallowed hard for a moment, “I tried to befriend her.”

“Are you serious-”

“I know I know! It was stupid in naive but I thought there was a chance. When I bumped into her she never gave me trouble like the others, and she even saved me from some mid tiers one time.” she choked up, “But it was all an act, she got me to come out to a secluded spot and had her goons beat me, told me to act my level, that she despised me. Then she told me to not tell anyone, not even you.”

Arlo was stunned.

Seraphina! How dare you!

“I’m sorry,” Arlo began, “I should have known she’d try something.”

“No Arlo, it was my fault, you couldn’t have known.”

Arlo shook his head, “You don’t understand, Seraphina’s had it out for me for a while. You should have been there when I announced my abdication, the look on her face was priceless, the subsequent shouting match was not, she thought that I had betrayed her and her ‘perfect system’.” He scowled, “Since then she always been trying to get me to return, all sorts of schemes and other bits of manipulation, still…” he looked off into the distance, “I never thought she’d try and go after you.” he rubbed his forehead, “What was she even thinking?! It’s not like this would’ve made me come back!”

Claire chuckled, “Thanks for clarifying that.”

“You know what I mean! I just don’t understand, was really so spiteful that she’d go after you even though it would provoke me?!”

“I don’t know, maybe I am just that juicy of a target.” Claire murmured bitterly

“Well regardless I think that her and I are going to have a talk.”

“Arlo!” Claire shouted, “You promised not to do anything stupid!”

“Relax, I know Seraphina well and she knows my power well, she wouldn’t dare attack me unless I attacked first, which I have no intention of doing. For now at least...”

“I don’t know Arlo…” Claire rubbed the back of her head, “she seems kind of unstable, I think it would really be best to play it safe for now.”

“No, the longer I wait the more she’s gonna think she can get away with this, I’m done not asserting myself.”

Claire clutched her head “Ughhh you can do that when your power is back! You’re impossible you know!” she began shouting “This is why I don’t like telling you stuff!” 

Claire cupped her hand over her mouth as she realized what she just said. After a moment Arlo turned and began away.

“A-Arlo wait I didn’t mean that I just…”

Arlo looked back over his shoulder, “It’s ok Claire, I understand, please just trust me ok? I can handle myself fine.”

Claire looked down at the floor again not wanting this to continue she relented, “Fine, but please, just be super super careful, ok?”

Arlo nodded and with that he left the rooftop.

Seraphina had enjoyed a blissfully uneventful last few days. Despite her run-in with Isen which she had shoved into the back of her memory she had recovered and was able to return to school without anyone suspecting a thing. Doubly fortunate was that Arlo’s return had drawn attention away from her when her composure had still been a little shaky. But now she was back, as perfect as ever, so long as nothing changes-

“Seraphina.”

Seraphina froze as she recognized the voice, she took a deep breath and turned around to face Arlo.

She tried to force a pleasant smile, “Oh Arlo! It’s great that you’re back, I did my best to handle your responsibilities while you were gone-”

“I know what happened.”

Seraphina went slightly pale, “W-what?!”

“Claire told me everything.”

A million panicked thoughts and possibilities raced through Seraphina’s mind all at once.

She didn’t sell me out did she?!

No, there's no way she told him that I lost.

Seraphina coughed awkwardly and looked off to the side, “What do you mean by that.”

Arlo’s glare intensified, “You lured her out to the turf war fields and ambushed her, beating her severely all for trying to befriend you.”

Seraphina tried to get some reply out, “You don’t understand I-”

“I don’t want to hear your sorry excuses, fortunately for you I will not punish you immediately but be weary, should you so much as lay a finger on her I will hold you accountable.”

With that he turned away while Seraphina breathed heavily.

So he doesn’t know the full truth! He doesn’t know that Claire is lying! But if he finds out that I lost…

“One last thing,” she looked up to see that Arlo had turned around, “I’m going to be making some changes to how we run this school.”

“What?! What on earth are you talking about?!”

“I’ve recently had a change of perspective, seeing things now I find myself quite disgusted with the school’s current state and how things have deteriorated. Starting sometime soon I will reassert myself and change things accordingly.”

Seraphina’s eyes widened and rage began to build up within her.

After everything I’ve done, after you abandoned your role in the system you have the gall to tell me to change it!

She glared at him with simmering rage.

“I have no intention of removing your titles,” Arlo continued, “But seeing how things are with you as the only effective royal I believe further cooperation is required between us.”

Don’t you pin this on me! I did everything the way I was supposed to!

Seraphina had enough of listening to this talk, enough of being talked down to.

I’m not the screwup!

In a desperate moment of rage she activated her ability and lunged at Arlo.

On instinct Arlo activated his barrier before realizing his mistake.

Seraphina braced herself for the pain that usually followed her attempts to fight Arlo. But it never came. Instead her first sailed straight through and smashed the barrier. The effect was immediate and Seraphina froze in place, stunned as Arlo collapsed onto his knees and began to cough blood. Seraphina looked down at her fists in shock.

What? How? I’ve never broken it in one clean hit like that!

She was so shocked she had almost forgotten that she had just attacked Arlo, almost. As the realization set in Seraphina had only one thought as memories of what happened last time flooded through her.

I don’t know if that was a fluke or not…

But I need to leave, now!

And with that, she used her ability again and vanished, leaving Arlo to slowly pick himself up and stumble to the infirmary. Unaware of a certain student who had been watching the whole thing.

Chapter Text

Doc’s hands shook slightly with a mix of anger and a hint of fear as he handed Arlo the tonic.

“W-what on earth happened to you?”

He was unused to the surreal sight of Arlo sitting with multiple bloodied bandages, frankly it was something he was used to seeing in the poor bastards who tried to fight him.

“I had an, altercation with Seraphina, I wanted to voice my displeasure over the state of the school and-”
Doc groaned as he face palmed, “Seriously!” he began to raise his voice, “I TELL YOU TO LAY LOW AND YOU WALTZ UP TO THE SECOND MOST POWERFUL STUDENT IN WELLSTON?!” he took a deep breath, and continued with a mumble, “You really are Claire’s friend…”

Arlo flinched, even without his ability activated Doc was scary, besides Arlo did have to admit he felt a little ashamed.

“Did anyone see you? Other than Seraphina?”

“No, and Seraphina won’t tell, she has no reason to suspect that this is anything other than a fluke, she has managed to damage my barrier before and can even crack it with multiple strikes. She has no reason to expect that my ability has been compromised in any way.”

Doc sighed, “Fine, but you better not make a habit of coming in here, I get that enough with your friend.”

Arlo nodded, “Understood.” Doc turned around and began walking towards his desk.

Just as Doc was about to sit down Arlo spoke up again, “By the way, while I’m here should we do another round of tests?”

Arlo waited nervously on the bed, it had been a few hours and while Doc had told him he could head to his dorm already Arlo would rather wait, besides he had only almost finished healing. He looked up as he heard footsteps approaching and saw Doc with a grim, well more grim than normal, expression.

Doc coughed awkwardly, “Arlo…” he shuffled his feet a little, “I hate having to be the bearer of bad news but…” he made a vague motion to some papers, “Based on this round of tests, whatever is in your system isn’t coming out.”

Arlo’s eyes widened, “What?!”

Doc put up his hands, “I don’t understand it either but from the test your body has not flushed out whatever is in your blood,” he sighed, “But from what I can tell at the very least your condition seems to be stable, you haven’t felt any further decreases in ability power either right?”

Arlo gave a hesitant nod.

“Good, I’m still waiting to hear back from the hospital, until then, do a better job of staying low.”

Arlo left the infirmary shortly after with many troubling thoughts in his head.

What if it doesn’t go away?
Is that even possible? A drug that lasts forever?

Maybe I shouldn’t have skipped so many classes…

His breathing became more rapid

Does this mean I’m gonna be at this level forever

I mean…

I still have some power, but what about my family, what are they gonna say?

He remembered someone important.

NO!

I can handle this!

If Claire can do this as a cripple…

Then I can handle this as an elite
I just have to be smart about it

With that bit of confidence restored he made his way to the dorms.

This confidence would not last as Arlo was called up to the headmaster’s office the next morning. He knew what was at risk and what methods they could employ, he couldn’t be caught up in a lie about his return or else both he and his Aunt would pay. Even worse he couldn’t let things be linked to Claire lest she get caught up in this.

“Are you quite alright Arlo?”

He looked up to see Vaughn with a concerned look, “I am fine, just nervous like last time.”

“Don’t worry, the representatives will arrive shortly and I am certain that we will be able to put this behind us.”

Arlo tried to put more confidence in his voice, “I hope so too sir.”

With that they went back to waiting.

After a few hours Arlo heard footsteps from outside the door.

Vaughn heard them too, “Ah that should be them.”

The door opened and the familiar face of Keene peeked in, “Sir, two representatives of the authorities are here, they say they have a scheduled appointment.”

“That is correct, you may let them in.”

Keene nodded and withdrew his head, a moment later a man and a woman stepped in. Arlo recognized Nadia from his last interrogation but the man with red hair and the suit was new.

Great, knew they’d bring back the lie detector, but what’s this guy doing here?

“Hello my name is Nadia and this is Keon representative of the Department of Readjustment. You will be asked a series of questions, answer truthfully or else you will be penalized…”

So his name is Keon? Have I heard of him before?

Arlo zoned out of the pre interrogation speech instead trying to remember. After a moment it came to him, his aunt had mentioned the name Keon a few times in the past, from what Arlo remembered the two didn’t particularly get along.

“Arlo,” Keon began his questioning

Arlo snapped back to focus and stood up straighter.

“What did you do during your suspension?”

Arlo took a deep breath, “I continued my school work from home as well as completed supplemental material provided by my aunt which she hoped would help aid in the process of ‘purging malignant influences’.”

Keon raised an eyebrow, “What materials?”

Arlo shrugged, “Pamphlets, essays, and all sorts of material covering ethics and responsibilities of high level ability users.”

“If your aunt was so keen on ensuring the efficacy of your punishment, why did she allow you to return early?”

“I thought she would have told you,” Arlo replied

“We want to hear your side of it,” Keon countered

Arlo sighed, “While the material did have the desired effect-”
It certainly motivated me to be more assertive, he added in his head.

“-I didn’t like the environment, while my aunt and I have been close since childhood she is often busy with her work and I found the sense of isolation weighing on me and my efforts to study.”

Keon looked over at Nadia who nodded before motioning for Arlo to continue.

“I discussed my frustrations with her and we were able to come to an agreement, after some negotiations I was allowed to return to Wellston one week early.”

Once more Nadia nodded and Keon gave an almost disappointed sigh, “Very well, that is consistent with what your aunt said. Now,” his stern look returned, “During the week you returned, you did not stay at Wellston, where did you stay?”

Arlo paused, he didn’t want to bring Claire into this but he also needed to not get caught in a lie.

“I was attacked shortly after returning, an unknown group managed to ambush me and attempted to either abduct or kill me, in the process they administered an injection that has reduced the strength of my ability.”

Keon and Nadia’s eyes widened slightly and they shot each other confused glances, “H-he’s telling the truth sir.”

Arlo looked down, “Since the incident I have had difficulty with my ability, my barriers are both weaker and smaller and I have far less flexibility in manipulating them, in addition my passive has disappeared entirely.” he looked up, “If I had to guess I’m about as strong a mid range elite tier.”

Keon looked over at Vaughn, “You were informed of this?”

Vaughn nodded.

“Do you know who attacked you?”

Arlo shook his head, “I couldn’t make out any distinguishing features; they appeared to be everyday civilians sir.”
Keon looked back at Arlo, “Were you injured during this attack.”

“Yes.”

“Where did you go once you managed to evade your captors?”

Arlo clenched his fist while trying to keep a straight face, he was stuck now, “I have a friend who lives off-campus, I was able to enter their house before losing consciousness, when they returned home they were able to get me treatment.”

“Who is this friend?”

Arlo panicked internally, “What?”

“Your friend, if what you say is true then it may be pertinent that we ask them for a statement.”

Arlo had been truly cornered, “He took a deep breath, their name is Claire.”

Keon’s eyes went wide.

The same Claire? After all these years?

He put his hand under his chin.

If someone as powerful as Claire is even tangentially involved with Unordinary that could be serious. It could undo all the progress she made!

“Is your friend connected in any way with Unordinary?”

Arlo scrambled to think of something to say, “She is…” he hesitated for just a bit too long, “Aware of the book and knows of its involvement in my suspension.”
Keon was unconvinced, “Did you discuss the book with her?” he began to raise his voice more, “Has she read it?!”

Arlo put his hand up, “Please, one question at a time.” he tried to stall, “I discussed the illegality of the book with her,” he tried to think of a good way to put answer the second question, “After I acquired the copy it never left my possession, she wouldn’t have been able read it in that time.”
Keon looked over at Nadia who gave a slow nod. Arlo breathed an internal sigh of relief, he had made it!

“Finally one more question,” Keon leaned in, “Do you believe in the book’s philosophy?”

Arlo tensed up and considered his words carefully, deep down he knew that part of him had begun to agree with the book’s ideals. But how to voice them without being expelled or worse?

“I…” he began, “Believe that the book has taught me something, about authority.”
“And what exactly do you mean by that?” Keon leaned in

“I’ve come to realize that I have been irresponsible, selfish even, with my powers. I have realized that with the gifts I was born with I have responsibility. From here on out I have every intention, especially once my ability returns to ensure the order and security of our school environment.”

Keon was taken aback, “That is…”

“What all good kings should aspire to do!” Nadia interrupted for the first time with a smile on her face.

Arlo decided to latch onto that, “Exactly, I now realize the importance of asserting my authority.”

From there Arlo waited as Keon stared off in contemplative silence. The man was hard to read but Arlo could tell that he wasn’t entirely convinced. Still Arlo had done his best and now he had no choice but to wait for the verdict.

After a few moments Keon looked down and gave an almost disappointed sigh, “Very well then, I believe we are done here.”
Arlo stood up and opened the door to leave. He breathed a large sigh of relief before remembering his one mistake.

Dammit! I still ended up bringing up Claire…

I should tell her as soon as possible in case that man wants to talk to her as well.

Chapter Text

For the past few days Isen had fallen into a routine.

“Following this first appearance the hero, going by the moniker ‘Shatterstack’ was notable for…”

“Hurricane’s early success has often been attributed to their unpredictability when…”

“Radiance put on a stunning display for the press and onlookers making a dramatic entrance during a raid by…”

After school, once he had completed his work, or at the very least worked until he could no longer ignore his curiosity, he would open up his laptop and continue searching. Over the last few weeks he had accumulated dozens of tabs across several windows full of news reports, articles, and even forum posts, all centered around two subjects, superheroes, and Ember.

“Tragically Spectre met their end and was found dead with burning claw marks in an alleyway in…”

“In a development that has left many shocked, Superhero Equinox has been murdered…”

“After the recent set of killings a common modus operandi and insignia has been identified among the victims, the media believes this to be the result of an organization that has currently been dubbed, ‘Ember’, more tonight at…”

“Another vigilante throws away their lives!”

He had tried to keep the information organized in a spreadsheet. But that wasn’t working for him and eventually he found himself relying on the classic bulletin board with red string. It covered a good portion of his dorm with a messy overlapping network of photos and printouts, not to mention that it would make him look like a maniac but from here Isen could finally begin putting something together.

Or at least he could try. The story had started simply enough, 

Superheroes start popping up once Unordinary hits the best seller mark. There’s a media sensation.

Isen looked over at the reports and statistics.

For a while there’s even a small drop in crime, especially in low tier districts. But then…

He looks at the frontpage article he had printed out and attached in a prominent position.

The first superhero dies about a month in, but that wasn’t Ember. He was being overconfident, and his ability was high elite tier at best, no match for the crowd he took on.

He follows the red string to the next collection.

The media runs wild, it's even more intense than when the superheroes started popping up. But now it’s in the opposite direction.

“The Dangers of Vigilantism!”

“More ‘superheroes’ found dead!”

“Are superheroes actually helping?”

Things died down a bit, most of the elite tier heroes either dying or retiring quietly. But even then high tiers and the occasional god tier continued to make headlines. 

Isen grimaced as he looked at the photos in the next sections.

But That’s when Ember starts appearing.

“Her body was found covered in scorched claw marks, a prominent sigil was also burned into her torso…”

“Similar to the previous victim a prominent sigil was found on the corpse, police are already investigating potential links to organized crime or…”

Soon high tiers started dropping one by one, every week there was another article and another victim. Isen reminisced as he remembered his own reactions to the news. It was a shock to be sure but he had paid little attention at the time until the big players started dropping.

Then the authorities stepped in

He remembered when he read it in the morning paper, the headlines stared at him then just as it did now.

“AUTHORITIES DECLARE VIGILANTISM ILLEGAL!”

After that the paper trail begins to dry up. Articles about superheroes become few and far between, and soon even deaths stop making the front page. Isen had needed to start digging deeper from here, scouring obscure sites and few less than reputable forums for any information. It was less than ideal but what he was able to find still gave him a piece of the picture. It was once he got his hands on the corresponding police reports that a strange pattern emerged.

Everytime a superhero pops up in a neighborhood there’s a decrease in crime…

But then after about three days it shoots up in the neighboring regions

But why?

At first he thought it might have been criminals fleeing and setting up shop away from the hero. But it didn’t add up.

But they’re always well within the hero's range.

Why don’t they go further?

His suspicions were further confirmed when he looked over the suspect reports. Each of these new criminals who popped up were locals.

It's like they all spontaneously decided to pick the worst time to be a criminal.

Then there was Ember. Everything about Ember left Isen dumbfounded. If superheroes were fading into obscurity then Ember were ghosts in their own right. In all his searching he’d only been able to find scraps of plausible speculation.

The media was quick to label them a criminal organization…

But how can they be so certain?

How come we’ve never heard of them before?

No matter how hard he searched he could never find any history. He clutched his head, none of it made any sense.

If they wanted to stop heroes disrupting operations, sure…

But why would such a secretive organization kill them in such a public manner?

No records, no incidents, not even a region of operation

They just show up everytime…

It’s like their only purpose is to kill superheroes-

His train of thought was interrupted by a loud banging on the door.

“ISEN! ISEN! Are you in there?!” it was Remi

Isen almost fell out of his chair as he tried to regain his bearings. After a moment he resolved that it was better that for now his friends didn’t see this, at least not until he could put together a coherent theory.

“Jesus christ! I’m coming, give me a second!” he shouted as he adjusted his shirt and made his way to the door.

Isen opened the door slowly, being careful to not reveal too much of his room. He peeked his head out to find himself face to face with Remi and Elaine.

Isen rubbed his forehead and squinted, “What do you two want?”
Remi took a step forward, “Elaine’s been bothering me about you.”
“Hey!” cried Elaine, “I was just worried and wanted to see if I could help!”

Isen sighed, “I told you I’m fine, just been busy with some work but everything’s ok-”

He moved to close the door but Elaine stopped him, “Isen, we’re not idiots. You’ve been avoiding us, you barely talk at lunch anymore, you haven’t even mentioned wanting to write an article or anything. I know what happened was scary but I don’t want you to have to deal with it alone.”

Elaine gave a pleading look which Remi decided to imitate after a moment. That hit hard for Isen who felt a wave of guilt wash over him. 

They were there with me…

While he had long dismissed any connection between Ember and the group that had attacked them, if only for the lack of flaming claws he still felt bad for leaving them in the dark.

But it’s more complicated than that…

The last thing they need is to be dragged into more trouble, especially when I don’t even know what-

Unfortunately his internal monologue had taken enough time that Elaine had decided to just push the door open. When Isen scrambled to pull the door closed on a reflex he knew he had made a mistake.

“Ok now you’re just acting shady,” said Remi who joined Elaine in keeping it open

“Please it’s nothing!” pleaded Isen

Elaine sighed, “I know we can’t force you Isen but if you’re doing something risky then you should tell us.”
“Yeah! I don’t want to be caught off guard like last time.”

Isen considered for a moment using his ability to keep them out but at the last moment he relented.

“Fine,” he began, “Just promise you won’t think I’m crazy.”
He stepped back and turned around as Elaine and Remi followed. After a moment he approached the blanket he had hastily thrown up and after taking a deep breath pulled it down. Remi and Elaine’s mouths opened in shock at the expansive cork board that covered Isen’s wall.

“Isen…” began Elaine, “What the hell is this?!”

Isen rubbed the back of his head, “It’s something I’ve been working on…”

Remi walked up and got a closer look, “You’re…” her eyes widened, “You’re investigating Ember!”

She stood for a moment shaking slightly clenching her fists.

Isen approached, “Remi, I didn’t mean to-”

Remi turned and slapped him, Isen made no effort to dodge.

“You asshole!” Remi shouted as Isen stumbled back.

When he opened his eyes he saw faint tears in Remi’s.

“After what happened to Rei! You were just gonna look into this without me!”

Isen tried to explain himself, “I didn’t mean to I-I,” he stammered before taking a deep breath, “I wanted to tell you, I just wanted to make sure I had something worthwhile first.”

Remi looked away and took a few deep breaths.

Seeing that things had calmed down Elaine piped up still looking at the board, “And none of this stuff was worthwhile?”

Isen shook his head, “Not really, I’ve been looking for weeks for any more information but honestly they’re like ghosts.”
“What about the people who attacked us and Arlo?”

“I don’t think they’re Ember but I’m not sure.”

“What about the guy at the mall?”
Isen sighed, “I considered it but by the time I called to ask they had let him go, apparently they had no way of proving he knew the bears were tracked and getting an actual lie detector would have taken too much time.”

Elaine and Remi both gave frustrated moans, they had also been curious about getting some kind of followup to that.

“So what now?” asked Elaine

“Well I’ve put together a pretty interesting timeline but other than that I’ve hit a real dead end. Unless you two have any ideas.”

“I have nothing,” replied Elaine, “What about you Remi…”
She turned to see Remi staring intently at the board, Elaine followed her eyes to see the article she was looking at.

‘Super hero X-Static found dead!’

“Oh Remi…” Said Elaine putting her hand on Remi’s shoulder

“All this time…” Remi began, “After Rei died I put my faith in the authorities but I never heard a word from them afterwards. And in the meantime I’ve just sat here and done nothing.” she looked down.

Isen approached again, “Don’t beat yourself up over it, it’s not like-”

Remi stared Isen in the eyes, “I’m not done yet!” she shouted before taking a deep breath, “Isen, I think I have an idea for how we can find out more about Ember.”