Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

John Doe would like to say he is smart. That doesn't mean he is good in school (the only subject he doesn't struggle to even pass is English) but in terms of his knowledge of how society truly is and how it affects people, he would like to say he's smart or at least knowledgeable. Of course it helps that he has been at the bottom (a worthless cripple that was beaten, bloodied and bruised by the cruelty of kids who thought they were powerful) and the top (a monster who beat everyone no matter their ability or level. A monster who hospilised more of his peers than he has fingers and toes.).

His father helped his knowledge grow the most with his writing. His father, the mysterious author W. H. Doe of the banned book unOrdinary. His book has helped him realise that he wants to put an end to it. An end to the hierarchy in school's. An end to the authorities and their clear oppression of low tiers. An end to low tiers thinking they're powerless to everyone.

And what better way to do all this then by going to the strongest school in the country, a school that produced countless authority officials and scientists, a school that has produced the strongest students to date. Like his mom, Jane Doe, who graduated at a staggering 8.7. It is a school with one of the best newspapers to exist being sold around the town to help fund the school (not like it needs the help). His father, William Doe, had set it up and had once been the sole writer.

Now John Doe, their son, stands in front of this very school. Welston High School. A second year again at the age of sixteen. He liked to joke he would carry on his parents legacy to his dad, but they both knew that was a lie. John could write well and sometimes when his father looked at his writing, he would joke that he would steal it for his own books, but they both knew John had no confidence in his writing, not anymore anyways. He could technically beat his mom's record with the rate his ability develops but there is one slight issue. He can't activate it.

Anytime he tries his brain feels like it will implode as the movie reel of all John's mistakes flashes in front of his eyes. his heart feels like it has stopped and like it is beating too quickly at the same time. His stomach turns inside out and  his throat burns as the bile rises to his mouth. His spit feels like it is too thick and tastes like iron. Like one lung collapses and the other explodes. And he can see them, the auras that were once colourful and beautiful, turning muddy and brutal in his hands.

So not only is he a student at Welston High School. He is practically a cripple. He is grateful for all the martial art lessons he got from his dad and various other instructors in his life, he will be able to defend himself at least. He is also grateful for his passive ability, which allows him to analyse someone's ability once they activate it and predict how they will use it. So he isn't completely defenseless but he is still a cripple, and if that isn't bad, he is also a cripple with an attitude, no impulse controll and a strong hatred for the very system that everyone swore to uphold.

But it doesn't matter who he is at the moment. What matters is how he's going to find his way to the principal's office. He probably should have printed the map of the school last night like his dad said he should. But alas he didn't so now here he is, wondering the ground floor for the office or a student to help him.

It is empty in the hallways, of course, since class has already started around two minutes ago. He's just hoping for someone to be little late but somehow everyone in this school is extremely punctual, why? John does not know.

He thinks he has found his guardian angel when he hears talking beyond the corner of hallway. The thought of his guardian angel quickly wears of as he sees that one of them has their ability activated and he hears a slap and a boy whisper shouting " I thought I told you to have it done by today, bitch!"

John doesn't like the guy already, the guy's ability seems to allow him to shift his stats between two forms. In one form, he has higher attack and speed but low defense and recovery. In the other form, he has higher defense and recovery but low strength and speed. If John were to amp the level of it up he would probably be able to use more forms. The guy's ability level is also quite high at 3.9, making him an elite tier.

He considers stopping the fight but he knows it would not do him any good. If he steps in he will probably be beaten up by the elite tier. He couldn't get in to fights so soon anyway, he doesn't want to get a reputation for himself.

He looks down the hallway where the elite tier is to check for the principal's office. John really needs better luck. At the very end of the hallway there ks a door with a sign saying "principal's office". He looks at the fight to check if he could get around it. Of course he can't the elite tier is holding the girl he was bullying up by the collar and looks like he is prepared to slap her, in the middle of the hallway. There is no way for John to pass.

John really doesn't want to be too late so he starts walking hoping the elite tier won't notice him. He does, because really what does John expect - for something to go his way for once? No, not at all.

The elite tier laughs obnoxiously and John can smell his cologne from ten steps away. The elite tier has blue long straight hair and green eyes that shines bright with aura. John likes to say all auras are beautiful but when he looks at the guy in front of him he wants to puke at his neon green aura. The guy drops the girl at his feet and smiles at John "I don't think I've seen you around here before, my name's Zeke I'm a third year and the King of Welston. What's your name?"

"It's John" he answers, the guy is definitely lying Welston is known for its strength a 3.9 could never be king here. He ignors Zeke's lie, instead he looks at the girl at his feet. Her hair is dark pink, a shade darker and it would be red, her hair is styled in pigtails tied with green beeds. Her eyes are the same dark pink as her hair. Her right cheak is swollen with the beginning of a bruise. He looks up at zeke again "I'm a second year"

"Shame we're not in the same year, Johnny boy, I could have showed you around." Zeke seems to notice how he was looking at the girl because he gestures to her as he speaks "you want to know what she did"

John hums, he doesn't really care. He is already clenching his fist to refrain from hitting Zeke. Zeke however takes this as a yes.

"This low tier bitch here didn't do my homework for me, she disobeyed me, her superior!"

John stares down at his own feet clenching his fists and eyes shut. He can hear the mocking voices of student from New Bostin middle and high school telling him he will always be weak. He can hear the voice of Keon telling him he will always be a failure no matter how hard he tries. He mutters something so unintelligible that he doesn't even understand.

"What'd you say Johnny boy?"

"Asshole" he says, raising his head and opening his eyes to look at Zeke.

"I know isn't she" Zeke agrees looking at John, he looks concerned when he sees John's expression. John doesn't even hesitate. He raises his fist and punches Zeke in the nose as hard he can. The asshole doesn't even get a chance to react even with his ability active. He is already lying on the floor, unconscious and unable to do any more harm before a second passes. His nose is bloodied and probably broken. John doesn't realise it but a smile had formed on his face when he had looked up at Zeke. His smile stays as he glares down at Zeke.

He said he would get involved and now look at him he has made enemies with an elite tier. At least he can go to the principal's office now.

"What the heck just happened‽" He hears a feminine voice say and looks at the girl who is apparently not as unconscious as John thought she is, she just knows how to play dead. She is now standing and looking incredulously at John and Zeke "How did you just‽ He's an elite tier!"

John shrugs still smiling "he was an asshole so he got what he deserved. As for how, I punched him, nothing too complicated" he holds out his hand for her to shake "I'm John Doe, I'm a second year"

"My name's Evie, I'm also a second year" she says shaking his hand still looking slightly stunned. However her expression quickly changes to something of resolution as she grips John's hand tighter, she has a very, very strong grip. "Please teach me how to fight"

John smiles, he loves fighting maybe they could start sparring together when she gets good enough. He nods and her expression of resolution changes, to one of the brightest smiles John has ever seen (Adrion's smile would always be bright in John's mind even if he knows Adrion wouldn't smile anymore around him, he hadn't in a long time), John jokes in his head that her ability is light related if her smile is that bright. "I'll teach you how to fight"

He looks down at the principal's office door. He really needs to go

"Hey Evie, I'll see you at lunch and we can talk about when and where. For now can you take yourself and Zeke to the infirmary, I need to go to the principal's office."

"I will, see you at lunch John!" She says picking Zeke up and throwing him over her shoulder with ease turning around and walkind away. He guesses he doesn't have to do too much strength training with her then. But he shouldn't think of that right now.

Now he has to see the principal.

Chapter Text

John knocks on the door to the principal's office. He had met the man twice before, once during a video call and once during John's entrance exam and interview. The man had been nothing but kind and welcoming but still gave off an aura of power. He hears the principal shout "come in" so he opens the door.

The office is nothing too special; the only thing that stands out about it is the amount of books, on the left and right wall there are massive bookshelves that house at least a hundred books each.

Principal Vaughn sits at his desk and smiles when John comes in. The man hasn't changed a bit since he last saw him, not that he expected him to, he still has the same green hair, the same gold eyes and the same glasses that he had. The man gestures to a seat in front of his desk as he speaks.

"Welcome to Welston Private High School, Mr. Doe." The man says as John sits down "it's wonderful to see you again but it concerns me that you're late, do you have a reason?"

"It's good to see you again as well, sir." John really hates formality but he doesn't want to make a bad impression. "Yes, I do have a reason. you see, I encountered some bullying on my way and had to step in."

He watches as principal Vaughn expression changes and his foreheads wrinkles become more pronounced as his brows crease. He stares at John as if just by looking at him he can see his very soul. John knows he probably couldn't since his ability is gravity but he still feels a shiver race down his spine and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"I hope to clarify with you before you start getting in more fights that this is not new Bostin, I will take necessary measures if needed." Principal Vaughn warns "however I do believe that my students need to learn how to sort out issues on their own so I don't often get involved in student issues or fights''

John internally rolls his eyes, what kind of principal just leaves his students beat the shit out of each other, his old principal did and look at what happened to new Bostin, it went to hell and John became the devil.

"It does interest me that you stepped in, high tiers typically do not stand up for low tiers, I've had students in the past who have but they have been rarer than a blue moon in February"

"I think we know that I'm not your typical high tier, sir." John answers, curious about the past students that seemed to share his opinion

"Yes, we do. It will be great to have someone as considerate for low tiers as the king" principal vaughn compliments him. John can't help but to chuckle, does Vaughn seriously expect him to be king, after new Bostin, even if he is able to use his ability he does not want to be king.

"I'm sorry to say sir but I won't be king at any point of my attendance here"

Vaughn stares at him with his soul reading stare again "may I ask why?"

"It's for two, no three reasons, I can't be king" John starts. "Firstly I don't think I suit the position of king, I am a horrible leader and I doubt I have the confidence to either. Secondly recently I have found I am unable to use my ability and prefer to fight without. Lastly and most importantly I have no intention for there to even be a hierarchy in welston private highschool by the time I graduate."

Principal Vaughn now stares at him with curiosity in his eyes, at which part of John's statement he doesn't know.

"Do you know why I have let you be a student here even with your record for violence and your expulsion, Mr Doe"

John shakes his head, he thought it was because he is strong, a 7 is an extremely high ability level, schools around the country would ignore his record just so they could have someone so strong as a student.

"It is because of your experience in life" principal Vaughn explains as he stands up and goes over to his book shelf looking for a book. " You have lived as a cripple and experienced the cruelty and oppression that our governments encourage.

You have also lived as a god tier, a level seven, something that's just as rare as being a cripple, and you experienced the privilege that society gives you and you've seen the blind eye they give to your violence.

Do you know how rare it is to be a cripple? 2% of the population. Do you know how rare it is to be a god tier? 0.001% of the population. Do you know how rare it is to be a late bloomer? 0.0001% of the population. That's around only 8000 people in the whole world. In America there's only around 331 people and you're one of them."

Vaugh takes a pause in his speech to put a book he had taken from his bookshelf in front of John and sits back down, he doesn't smile as he says his next words.

"If you do the maths, you, a late bloomer and a god tier, statically, shouldn't exist. That means you have the rarest viewpoint on earth. It also makes you different, special, something society is cautious of and hates. You've already seen how they're scared of you. Haven't you? in your readjustment classes."

John doesn't know what to say, he has so many questions. If he shouldn't exist then why does he, how the fuck doed he know about the readjustment classes and why is there a book in front of him. He also feels like crying, not because he was just told that society hates him, he already knew that even as a cripple. But to be told that society would be cautious of him, that everyone should fear him, it makes him want to vomit. No wonder Keon said he would always fail, he isn't even supposed to exist. No wonder Clare and Adrion thought he was a monster. No wonder they were so reluctant to end his classes at the readjustment facility.

He asks the one question he can without crying and shouting at Vaughn. "Why did you give me a book with a blank cover" there is nothing on it, it just has a plain black hardback cover, nothing written on it, not a title nor the author's name. nothing and the book had to be around 300 pages.

Vaughn smiles, something John is starting to find concerning instead of comforting. "I think it'll help you. To regain your ability. To tear down the hierarchy like you plan to. To find the reason why someone like you even exists. Who knows maybe you are the chosen one that a lot of people have been waiting"

Now John is confused is Vaughn encouraging him to fuck with the government and authorities. He doesn't need permission but at least he knows there will be someone in his corner. He is also confused about how the book will help him with all that. He looks at Vaughn for a second before simply nodding in understanding, which he very much isn't

"I want you to finish this book by the end of the year and write something about your opinion about it. You can write as much as you want in any format, your dad's told me you're a good writer." Vaughn smiles "we don't want you to be too late to your first class so we will end this conversation for now

Here's your locker number and your schedule. Also take this, it's a note explaining your lateness"

Vaughn hands him three pieces of paper which John takes, grateful that this conversation is over. "Thank you, sir"

"You're welcome." Vaugh says, nodding at him as John stands up and walks over to the door "and remember Mr. Doe, my doors always open."

John smiles and nods as he leaves the room, closing the door. He breathes in and out. What was that conversation? Why did principal Vaughn want to help him? He looks down at the book and opens it to look at the first page.

It reads;

Dedicated to every joker in a deck of cards

John chuckles at the pun. The royals and hierarchy are based on a deck of cards so why can't all those who oppose it not be as well.

He smiles, he already can't wait to read more, but right now he has a class to go to.

Chapter Text

John knocks on his classroom door; he is officially 20 minutes late. His first class is history which was luckily easy to find the classroom of, but really, history first thing on a Monday morning, great. He just hopes his history teacher is nice.

The door opens after a second passes by a middle aged woman with coral pink hair in a bun and brown eyes. She stares at the note in his hand and snatches it off of him.

“So you're the new kid?” she asks, walking over to her desk. John nods in response, he has a feeling she already doesn’t like him. Just great. She clears her throat to get every students’ attention. Not like she needed to, everyone was already looking at john like vultures “everyone, I know it's a bit late in the year but we have a new student joining us today! Please introduce yourself.”

“Hello!” he greets the class, slightly nervous. Do they always stare at new kids like vultures? “My name is john. I'm looking forward to meeting you all! And I hope we can get along!”

His teacher tells a girl called Seraphina to raise her hand so he knows where to sit, right next to her. Seraphina looks like the very thing people expect a high tier to look like. Her magenta hair, perfectly straight in a ponytail, her fringe straighter than a ruler. Her blue eyes, cool and calculating. Her posture is so perfect she could pass as a doll. He looks at her notes and sees small writing so perfect that it looks typed, her notes are neatly organised as well. If John believed in the concept of perfection, he would be looking right at her.

The lesson itself passes by with no interruptions. His teacher (that he really needs to learn the name of) is strict but fair and so far a good teacher. John has probably learnt more from her in the last 40 minutes than he had ever learnt from his old teachers in New Bostin.

When class ends he starts packing up his bag, he has double maths next, or in other words, a double class of confusion and daydreaming. He finishes packing up his bag as a girl with blue hair and green eyes comes over. She also has a fringe, do all the girls have fringes or something?
“Hi, john!” she greets “I'm elaine. Welcome to Welston! How's your first day so far?”

“Not bad, I guess…” he answers, not wanting to explain how he really feels, he still hasn't fully recovered from his talk with the principal.

“Wonderful! So which school did you transfer from?”

“Oh! I transferred from new bostin” he answers watching her face pale, she looks concerned for him “erm, are you okay elaine? you went kind of pale.”

“Yeah i'm fine, it's just… my cousin went to new bostin and well you were there for the shadow king so you probably know what happened” she answers and john very much wants to bury himself in a hole, hopefully she was related to someone he didn’t beat up, which is unlikely, he beat nearly everyone up in new bostin. “ he hospitalised him for 2 months, he was expelled after that but still my cousin transferred out of new bostin, too many bad memories.

“Does he go to school here now?”

“No, he went to agwin, he's in his last year there now”

“What's his name i might know him” john asked, hoping he doesn’t

“I hope you know him, he used to be king before the tyrant king,” fuck “his names Zirian”

Of all people Zirian, john stops breathing for a second as all his fights with Zirian flash in front of his eyes, as the comments Zirian made ring in his ears. He can feel the fantom cuts on his knuckles. “Of course I know him.”

“Enough about new bostin.” she says as John regains his breath. “So, john, what kind of ability do you have”

Every student turns to stare now. They didn't even glance at Elaine and his conversation when it was about her cousin getting hospitalised but the minute she asks about his ability they turn into vultures again.

“Well to be completely honest” he smiles, glancing around the classroom. One kid with orange and black hair has picked up a notebook and pen and has started writing in it while his red haired friend elbows him. Their pink haired friend just glares at the two boys, she doesn't actually look too concerned about John's ability. “ i dont have one.”

Everyone instantly reacts. They all look horrified or disappointed. The three friends who were arguing a second ago are now all still, their jaws on the floor. Seraphina simply sighs and mutters something about him being a waste of time. Eleaine is horrified, asking him to repeat himself. When he does she backs away and screams

“I can't believe this!”
John reaches his hand out to comfort her, asking “are you alright?”

“Don't touch me '' Elaine screams, a bit dramatic in John's opinion, and shoves him harshly. He doesn’t budge she may have quite a high level but he is naturally strong and he has good balance, it would take a lot more to knock him down

“Gross. I can't believe I just spent all that time talking to someone like you!”

“Oh, and I thought we were bonding. How sad.” john says putting fake disappointment in his tone and smiling as she walks away in disgust

“If you're a cripple then how,” he hears someone say and looks around to see Evie speaking “how did you beat zeke?”

Everyone now was staring with horror and intrigue, even Elaine and seraphina.

“I punched him, nothing too difficult. It's quite a basic form of offence. I thought I told you that already?”

“You did, I just thought you had a strength ability or something.”

The orange and black hair boy looks like he is losing his mind while his two friends seem grateful to John for beating up zeke. Seraphina stands up from her seat and walks over to John standing right in front of him.

“Isen, activate your ability to check if he's lying.” she calls and the orange and black haired boy jumps out of his skin. After a second he activates his ability and john cant help to stare at Isen’s aura.

His aura was orange and looked to be around the level of 4. His ability itself gives him a wide range of abilities like enhanced senses, x-ray vision, telescopic vision, enhanced speed, and strength enhancement. His stats are well rounded. He probably uses his ability to use physical signs of lying such as a change in heart rate, breathing pattern or even a change in voice pitch. It's a nice and diverse ability.

Seraphina interrupts his thoughts with a question “did you, a cripple, beat zeke, seventh ranked student, in a fight?”

John pauses, they didn’t really fight. Zeke is a bully and an asshole so john punched him zeke didn't have a chance to put up a fight. “No, I saw that he was a bully and an asshole so I punched him. But he did have his ability activated so he should have been able to react since he was using his speed and strength form but I guess I punched him too quickly for him to react.”

“True.” Isen says in awe

“Wait, if I beat him the seventh ranked student, does that make me the seventh ranked student?” John asks the class, he doesn't want to be but it would be funny if he is.
“No!” seraphina says clearly annoyed and frustrated that he punched a high ranked student “as long as you're a cripple you will always be powerless”

John stares at her for a second before shrugging, it isn't his problem if she's annoyed he pickles his bag and starts to leave the classroom “sorry i have to end the investigation but i have to go to maths, see you at lunch”

Chapter Text

Thankfully maths passed without harm for John. It was unfortunately a double class but at least he didn't have to awkwardly talk to people between classes or listen to the whispers of gossip in the hallway.

At least for a second anyway now all he can hear is the suffocating gossip that fills the halls of Welston. It reminds him so much of New Bostin and yet it is completely different. No one parts way for him and bow their heads but still the talk about the royals, especially the queen Seraphina, grates on his skin. It does help though, now at least he knows who not to piss off. He already has a good amount of information about the top ranking students and he hasn't even been here a day.

Firstly, there is the ace and queen of Welston, Seraphina. She bears the brunt of the judgement. She became queen in her first year, setting a terrifying record as the youngest queen. She is already well on her way to breaking John's mother's record as she is already a 7.5 with an ability called time manipulation. John will probably have to learn to shut his mouth around her if he wants to avoid getting thrown into a wall.

Next is her counterpart, the king of Welston, Arlo, a third year. Known as the defence king for his ability, barrier, and his passive that gave him iron like skin. He is a level 5.9 and is known for being unwavering in his rule, not one person will be a step out of line as long as he rules. John definitely can't get noticed by him or at least he can try to avoid him.

The third royal is Remi the jack of Welston. She is also in his class like Seraphina but unlike her two superiors she is known for her kindness and compassion. She has never been seen to look down on anyone less powerful than her and even has been seen helping them. Her brother, the previous king, was also known for his compassion and apparently brought in a system that gave everyone equal say and safety in Welston (he was probably one of the past students Vaughn was talking about). She shares an ability with her brother called lightning and is a 5.1. she can always be seen with her two friends Blyke and Isen within a two metre radius of her

After Remi is Cecile, someone John is already cautious of. Not only is she a level 5 and ex-jack of Welston, she is also head of the newspaper and is known for her intricate system of informants and gossip. She may not be queen or even a royal but John thinks she might be the most powerful influence in all of Welston, that along with her ability, conjure: vines, makes her a terrifying enemy to have.

Then there are Remi's best friends, Blyke and Isen. Blyke is next in line for king and has a level of 4.3 with the ability energy beam. Isen is part of the newspaper club and often has his articles on the front page. His ability is hunter and he has a level of 4.3 along with Blyke. But due to his avoidance of responsibility he is not considered next in line for king. And if Remi always has the two of them within a two metre radius of her, apparently the two of them are worse and are attached by the hip. This has caused rumours about them dating but the student body still has yet to confirm it.

The fact that John is able to get this much information without actually trying proves just how bad the gossip in Welston is. The only other piece of gossip John heard was about a chocolate cake, that is so delicious that it starts intergenerational feuds. It is only served one day a month and John has luckily arrived on this lone day. To say it in short, he is ecstatic. Not only is it cake, but it's chocolate cake, there is no way he isn't getting to eat it.

Safe to say he arrives in the cafeteria in mere seconds after hearing about the cake (did he jump out a window to avoid student traffic on the stairs? Yes, was it worth it? Absolutely.) As he joins the queue he can already see two people duking it out over a slice. It takes him a second to realise the two people are Arlo and Remi. The king and jack. Their abilities are no joke however John wishes he could tell Arlo to be more creative with his ability . From what John can tell the guy only uses his ability to create domes. If John was him he would mould the barriers around his body to create armour. John however ignores the two for now, he is next in line for cake and bless his luck he got the last slice.

Now all he has to do is find somewhere to sit, hopefully Evie is already sitting down somewhere.

"Give it." A cold feminine voice demands behind him. He turns around to see who's talking to him and because his luck is back to being horrible again, Seraphina is standing in front of him, her hand out to take his cake.

"Give what?" John asks feigning ignorance

"Your cake, I want it. Now." She demands again

"Why?" John asks internally, frowning as he sees the crowd of people beginning to stare, why does everyone seem so interested in him, can't they just mind their own business.

"Because I'm the queen and you are a cripple. All my wants out weigh your needs." Wow, talk about a superiority complex.

"Your ability, time manipulation, does it allow you to reverse the digestion process of food?" John asks a plan formulating in his head

"What does that have to do with anything? Just give it." She says "and if it's really any of your concern, not permanently." John smiles and begins to hand her his cake with one hand. He can see the coldness if her expression thaws out slightly as his plate sits on her hand she had put out. "Now that wasn't so hard."

John grabs the slice of cake with his left hand. He stuffs the cake into his mouth, chewing for less than a second before swallowing the slice. And whoever made this cake is John's new god. The taste is heavenly.

Muttering erupts from the crowd of students around John and Seraphina. Some look to be losing their minds and others look eager to see how their queen will handle the cripple.

Seraphina herself looks completely lost. Not only had John disrespected her, he just ate a big enough slice of cake in one bite.

John sees it, the moment her stance shifts. She's going to kick him in the stomach. He turns his body as quickly as he can before Seraphina activates her ability. In less than a millisecond he is up against the wall. His right side feels like it has just been ploughed by an elephant. That is probably a fair analogy of her strength.

John stares up at her and smiles, his vision is fading quickly and there is no way he isn't getting the last word. "Well done, you kicked a cripple" he coughs, his side is burning with pain "how impressive, ace."

He blacks out at the sight of Seraphina staring horrified at him and mutters of the rest of the student body. It was worth it though, he got his cake.

Chapter Text

John wakes to luminescent lights and stressed muttering. He sits up and looks towards the source of the muttering. The lights are too loud, they are giving him a headache, he wants to turn them off. The muttering comes from a thirty year old man. The man has navy messy hair, matching navy stubble and golden eyes with dark shadows underneath them. He looks worse than John did after his readjustment classes.

"Hello" John greets, squinting because of the lights, could someone please turn them off. The man stares at him tired, burned out gold eyes looking him up and down.

"Hello" the man says "my name is Dr. Darren, do you know where you are and why you are here?"

"I'm in the infirmary because I got into a fight and got my ass kicked" John answers, he blinks as he realises that his side doesn't hurt, the lights are still burning his eyes though. "Do you know that being kicked by a god tier is like being stepped on by ten elephants"

Doc stares at him unimpressed "no, I don't, because unlike you I don't antagonise people"

"I didn't antagonise her she tried to take my cake so I verbally defended myself"

"It's all the same to high tiers" doc hums "now how is your pain on a scale of one to ten?"

"I'm all good doc, I can't even feel it!" He can feel the lights causing him a significant headache though

Doc nods, frowning slightly more than he usually seems to. He points at John's shirt "can you lift your shirt for a second" John does with little hesitation, the area he was kicked is unblemished, no bruise or swelling. This seems to concern Doc. "Your passive, does it accelerate healing?"

"No, it allows me to see aura" John pauses before realising why he healed so quickly (if only he could get rid of the lights that quickly). "Did you use aura based medicine or technology?" Doc nods "because of my ability I have unnaturally high amounts of aura stored in my body, around triple that of a typical god tier. It allows aura technology to absorb more of my aura to work quicker"

"How come that's not stated in your records" doc says understanding "you must have visited the infirmary at least once"

John freezes, he visited the infirmary a lot in new Bostin high school after he started fighting more, it's just that nurses and doctors were to scared if him to let him stay they usually just gave him a shot or pill and let him on his way avoiding him as much as possible, after that he ended up just healing himself (or sitting in the pain of his injuries reminding himself he was human and not a monster, monsters don't feel pain), done with the faces of horror once upon seeing the destruction he left. He doesn't say this to doc though instead gives some bullshit explanation about how it must have developed after he stopped going to infirmary when he began to prefer healing himself.

Doc looks speculative but moves on and writes a quick note explaining John's absence from class. While doc writes the note John looks at his watch and fuck it is already two o clock, he already missed half of his double English, he only has last class of the day left and then he'll be home free.

When he gets handed the note from Doc he quickly leaves shouting bye and thank you. Thankful to leave those bright luminescent lights. He quickly gets his books from his locker and practically runs to his English classroom. It is quarter past two when he knocks on the door, entering with a mumbled sorry and giving his teacher a pretty woman with coral eyes and hair, she looked young enough to still be in college. She smiles kindly at him and tells him to take his seat, right next to the person who knocked him unconscious.

The atmosphere goes tense and everyone stares at him and Seraphina, their eyes flickering between them. Seraphina grips her pen so hard that her knuckles are whiter than freshly fallen snow. John ignores all of this and looks at his English teacher.

"Like I was saying before John came in, over the next three weeks you will present three projects on each of the Shakespeare plays we have studied over the year so far. The presentation can be in any format you like as long as it's three minutes long and you are speaking, you can read me an essay, do a PowerPoint or even act out a scene and analyse it. The presentation will be in two's." The announcement of group work causes an eruption of whispers asking people to be each other's partners. The English teacher clears her throat "for fairness and to avoid fights that I know will happen" she says staring pointedly at Blyke and Isen "I have already chosen the partners"

She rolls her eyes at the groans of annoyance "I know I'm a monster, but I have to do this to prevent fights happening, remember last year? I don't want that happening again"

John's kind of curious about it now, what happened, it has something to do with Isen and Blyke he'll have to ask someone about it after class.

"Now for your pairs, if you have a problem with who you're partnered with, come up to me at the end of class" she assures the looks of doubt and worry. "Remi and Evie, Roland and Terrence, Elaine and Aurielle, Alden and Juni, Isen and Blyke, Brea and Misa, Gavin and Dylan, and lastly John and Seraphina."

A pin could drop and everyone could hear it, or maybe no one could with how deafening the silence is. John however really doesn't care, she can hit him as much as she wants as long as he can get these projects done it doesn't matter to him. Seraphina seems to have a different opinion though with how her hand shoots up into the air immediately. The teacher smiles.

"Yes Seraphina, do you have a problem with your partner or the project"

"John is a cripple" she says, getting straight to it.

"Yes he is, is that a problem?"

"It is, firstly he will definitely mess it up and secondly I am a god tier we shouldn't have to associate"

"You didn't care about associating your foot with my side at break," John says, raising his eyebrows. Seraphina glares at him but doesn't say anything.

"Even though being a cripple and incompetent has no connection, John performs well in English, his father is also a very popular author and even set up the newspaper in Wellston."

"My father is a cripple like me by the way" John clarifies just in case.

"So what if a cripple started it, high tiers run it now like they should" Elaine says mockingly in front of him.

"High tiers may control everything but their success is built by low tiers and mid tiers" John bites back

"That's a lie, the high and elite tiers created our and they rule it just like they are designed to and low tiers and mid tiers listen like they are designed to" someone else chips in

"The only thing humans are designed to do are eat, shit and sleep" John says "free will exists everyone is just too stupid to realise apparently"

The class shuts up and John pauses, it's not like what he said is extremely out there (well maybe it is) for him it felt like common knowledge but for people here it seems like an alien concept made up by people who were tinfoil hats that shout about the end of the world

His teacher clears her throat "is it okay if you and John remain partners, Seraphina. I don't see any viable reasons to change your partners"

Seraphina nods stiffly looking at John with a look that has so much disgust and anger in it but if John was seeing it correctly, want and admiration are so perfectly hidden in her face, John is only able to notice them from the years of poker he played with his father.

John looks down at his desk and smiles, she wants to be free. She wants to be herself. John wants to help. John will help no matter how difficult she makes it.

Chapter Text

John regrets ever noticing Seraphina's want for freedom. She is making it very hard to help, no scratch that, she is making it very hard to even interact with each other.

The whole forty minutes their teacher gave them to plan who did what work for the project was spent in complete silence. The only words spoken were Seraphina saying "I'll do the work, you just speak from the cards I give you"

And John saying "you can try to make me but I won't. I didn't come here to get a free ride."

After that it was complete awkward silence of John staring at her waiting for Seraphina to respond and Seraphina pointedly staring out the window like a petty child who didn't get their way.

John is happy that class ended and he can leave the awkward atmosphere behind him and go home or maybe he should go to the library and start his homework and assignments so he isn't crushed by them later. He probably should find out about the homework he missed from his classes while he was unconscious.

He looks around his class searching for someone to ask when he makes eye contact with Evie. She smiles brightly, waving at him to come over. She is standing with a group of people from their class. He walks over as she introduces him.

"Guys this is John, he saved me from Zeke this morning" she says. Her group all look at him with different expressions. The friendliest looking is on her left, he has blond hair and purple eyes and smiles as he approaches them. The other two look a bit less happy to have him near them. The blue haired and gold eyed one, looks at John with apprehension and worry. The one with brown hair and brown eyes looks at John sceptically and with curiosity. "John this is Dylan," the blond one "Roland" the blue haired one "and Terrence" the brown haired one.

John smiles at each of them and greets them with "hi, nice to meet you guys"

"Nice to meet you too!" Dylan says as Evie elbows both Roland and Terrence so they stop looking so apprehensive. "Evie says you'll teach her how to fight, can you teach me as well?"

"Yeah sure" John answers, the more the merrier right. "When do you want to start?"

Evie and Dylan look at each other for a second before looking back at John. Evie answers for them "neither of us have any clubs on today, we can start now if you want"

John smiles "do you know where there's a gym?"

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

The gym is quite big in John's opinion, it even has a whole boxing ring. They don't even need to pay for entrance or to use it since they're students at Wellston.

Even though Roland and Terrence never explicitly said that they want to join in John's teaching they still came.

He finds a punching bag and sits down next to it, the others follow suit.

"First off, can each of you tell me about your ability?" He says and see's the confusion on all there faces

"I thought you're going to teach us how to fight without our abilities, I mean you fight without one" Evie asks

"I fight without one because I have no choice, ye fight with out one because you think you'll lose anyway with or without it" John says reminding them that he is a cripple "everyone's ability is useful, sometimes you just don't know how to use it"

He watches the looks of understanding pass over each of their faces, he smiles, maybe he will be a good teacher.

"I'll go first then" Evie says "my ability is illumination: I can generate a bright, white light from my hands. I'm a 1.5"

John pauses, that actually sounds really useful in a fight, she could probably blind her opponents and take them down while they can't see. "Is it only your whole hand or can you concentrate it to your finger tip?" He asks

Evie looks a little shocked at the question "I actually don't know"

"Can you try now, it's okay if you can't" John assures her

Evie's brows furrow as she activates her ability. John smiles as she does, he was right, she can do it. Still he watches as her brows relax and a triumphant look spreads across her face. One of her fingers shines an extremely bright white light.

John reaches his hand forward to touch the light and smiles as he feels his finger burn from the heat produced by her light. This'll be useful in a fight.

"You can deactivate your ability now" John says "in a fight you should blind someone immediately and then take them down. If they get a hold of you, do what you just did there, and grip they're arm. They'll let go once it gets too uncomfortable or painful for them."

The four of them stare at John for a second considering his words.

"Why have we never considered that before?" Roland asks the group, dumbfounded.

"I don't know why I didn't, but I think it's because you're stupid" Dylan says, sticking his tongue out at Roland.

"I can't believe, I didn't think of that." Evie smacks her forehead "it's so simple that it's stupid"

Terrence doesn't say anything, instead he stares at John as if analysing him. John ignores the way the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as Terrence stares.

"Maybe since you've been told your ability is useless and weak, you started believing it yourself and stopped trying to fight back" John says smiling in sympathy at the four Infront of him. "Now, who's next?"

Dylan went next and then after him was Roland. Dylan's ability is a simple enhancement, he had enhanced accuracy. John told him to learn the most painful areas to punch/kick or to learn pressure points since he had a eighty five percent chance of hitting them dead on.

Roland has sixth sense and which allows him to sense danger when his ability is active. However due to his low level he has a hard time keeping it active for a long time. John recommended that he learn how to block efficiently or to learn how to use someone's force against them, so he can end a fight quickly before he tires.

Now he is staring at Terrence. Terrence told him his ability is invisibility and he's a 2.1. John is staring because right now that is the most blatant lie John has ever seen. He's nowhere near a 2.1 he's a 4.2.

Chapter Text

John stares at Terrence. Well not really Terrence since he's invisible but he stares at his aura. He shakes his head for a second and hopes he recovers quickly enough from his shock that none of them noticed but unfortunately he can feel Terrence drilling a hole into him with his eyes.

He takes that feeling and rolls with it "there's no point in being invisible if I can feel you staring, Terrence"

“Oh! Sorry.'' Even though John can't see Terrence, he can tell his meek unassuming facade is back. It is starting to irk John a slight bit that this guy is not only lying about his ability but also about his personality. Johns thoughts pause, that is kind of hypocritical of him isn’t it

“It's okay” John assures “just remember even if you are visually invisible doesn’t mean you are invisible to the other senses. Get too close or too panicked and I can hear you breathing. Don't move too quickly or step in places that can leave traces, you’ll be heard and your footsteps will be seen. You shouldn’t stand too near a direct light source either, it makes your shadow too visible. Invisibility is the ability to reflect light, not the ability to completely disappear from the world. You're still a person, normal things such as shadows apply to you” he can practically feel the way terrence rolls his eyes, what is his problem? “Also you need to calm your expression and the staring i can practically feel it”

“So not only do i have to disappear from all the other senses i have to also disappear from your mystery sixth sense” terrence asks as he turns visible again his ability deactivating

“Pretty much,” john says “even if you do master that i wouldn’t recommend going up against someone with an ability like Isen, who has enhanced senses”

“The day any of us fight someone as strong as Isen is the day one of us die”evie says and the others laugh “not you though john, i'm pretty sure you're batshit enough to not even hesitating to fight cecile”

This causes an even bigger laugh to spread through the group and John can't even help but to join them. He ignores the memories of New Bostin that try to intrude his mind and ruin this moment. He has friends now. Friends who care about him not because of his ability but because of him being him. Not even the voice in the back of his head that screams at him to get away from terrence can change his mind. These are his friends and no one will change that

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

Although teaching his friends how to fight has definitely improved, going back to school this morning has definitely ruined it. His first class he has is aura science. Maybe it is because of his ability but John loves aura science. It was actually another reason he chose this school, because it is one of the few schools that offer it as a subject. The teacher is nice, her ability is aura detection, basically what John's passive is. He even has a nice seat, in the back row next to the window, no one in front of him is too tall.

None of those are the issues though, the issue is that he didn’t realise that he is taking the class with the third years and not with his fellow second years. He gets that his knowledge of aura and abilities is probably better than most scientists that study it for a living and that he is technically supposed to be in third year, but still why?

To make matters worse it seemed like not only Zeke is taking the class but so is Arlo, the king of wellston, and Cecile, the head of the press and ex jack. His bad luck doesn’t end there of course, why would it? he’s john, he has unlimited bad luck. He’s sitting right next to Cecile and in front of him is Arlo and someone who is likely his friend is sitting in front of them.

John wants to throw himself out the window.

Luckily enough both Arlo and Cecile are diligent students and didn’t try and talk to him during class. Unluckily today aura science is a double and the teacher decided to give them a break between classes. In almost complete synchronisation cecile and Arlo both turn to face him, he also hears a chair screech and sees zeke walk over and sit on johns desk.

John doesn’t give any of them the satisfaction of him raising his head to look at them, instead he continues to write down a training plan for Evie, Dylan, Roland and Terrence. Zeke doesn’t take this well and snatches John's notebook of training plans and their and other’s ability stats.

“Wow what is this?'' Zeke says holding John's notebook for all to look at, he flips the pages of the notebook and stops when he finds a page that satisfies him. John momentarily looks up to see that it is his notes on zeke and his ability, he dies inside as zeke starts to read it. He’s going to get killed “Zeke, third year; age 16. Ability: ?, 3.9, allows him to change between two forms. One has high defence and high healing stats. The other has high speed and offence stats. Has a high understanding of ability. Potentially if ability level rises he can unlock new forms.

Strengths: ability can change to fit situations. Ambition: has led him to have a high mastery of ability. Highly charismatic, possible future career in authorities or government

Weaknesses: arrogant, thinks he’s above others causes him to underestimate opponents. Greedy; will do anything for power, lied to me about being king so he could hold power over me. When in one form his other form’s high stats are weak

How to fight him: pretend to be taking hits when he is in offensive mode and while he is distracted punch him in either nose or jaw to know him out. If in defensive mode, anger him into charging and use his own force against him and run. If available, throw him out a window.”

John can feel the whole class staring at him now. He finally looks up to see Zeke looking at him in horror and shock. Arlo looks like he is about to behead zeke. Cecile just looks at him with curiosity and if john was right she seems to be forming a plan

“What did you say to him, zeke?” Arlo asks and Zeke's horror changes from being directed at John to being directed at arlo. “That you’re king of wellston. That's like saying a worm is the strongest animal in the world. It’s an obvious lie, it can't even be compared because the difference is to great”

John watches as zeke shrinks back from arlo, shaking in fear. Zeke bows his head down, eyes focused on his shoes. Submitting to Arlo, the oh so powerful king of wellston.

“You.” arlo says looking directly at John “you're the cripple who refused to listen to seraphina.”

“That would be me,” John says, he smiles at Arlo, a stark difference from Zek's bowed head. John doesn’t fear Arlo, he doesn’t respect him for his power, he refuses to bow down. “And you must be?”

The obvious shock that crosses every single face except for Cecile's makes John want to laugh, he swallows and looks back up at Arlo, faking oblivion.

“My name is arlo, i'm a 5.9 and king of wellston”

“My name is john, i'm a 1.0 and resident cripple of wellston”

The teacher interrupts whatever arlo tries to say “okay breaks over, zeke give john his notebook”

Class resumes with zero fuss. Nothing interesting happens, all the teacher does is drones on about the potential of abilities being replicated as drugs and people being able to inject themselves with, no one’s been able to do it yet though. She mentions something about a family with high level aura abilities but John has blocked her out of his head already. He learned this already, when he was like 13.

It's after class that is interesting. Cecile talks to him.

“How did you know so much about zeke?” she asks, tapping her nails against her desk.

John stares at her and their two pairs of calculating eyes meet each other “i think we both know how rumours run rampant in wellston.”

He smiles at her as she smiles at him. An agreement passes between them, they will use each other just as the other will.

“How would you be interested in joining the press club, as either an informant of mine or as a writer yourself?” cecile asked

John hums, is he interested? He knows that being in a club is mandatory in wellston, but he could just put forward that teaching his friends to fight is a club. But there’s also that feeling, that itch to write, he is his father’s son after all. The way worlds can be created or destroyed with a single stroke of a pen has always entertained john. It is in terms of destruction that the pen and sword are equally mighty

“I would be very interested” he answers

“I expected nothing less” of course she didn’t have heard the rumours, everything always ends the way she wants. She’s powerful enough that things such as consequences are merely predicted and dealt with in the ways she pleases. She’s powerful enough that the press exists outside of Arlo's rule and strictly on her own. She also sees value in her members to make sure that they can’t be touched by arlo. The press is a haven and a hell of her own creation. “There is a club meeting after school today”

John watches as Cecile walks off, a mix of regret and satisfaction fills him. Maybe he shouldn’t have done that.

(maybe he's still hungry for power, forever a monster. always a failure)

Chapter Text

Unsurprisingly, Seraphina is just as uncooperative in English today as she was yesterday. When John asked questions or tried to talk to her she would ignore him. The only reaction John is actually getting from her is her grip becoming firmer on her pen each time John spoke. She seems to be writing points on the book on flashcards while also editing something on a laptop. John is getting tired of the whole ignoring thing so he does the only thing he knows how to do; be a little shit.

While she turns to type on her laptop, John snatches the flash cards and starts reading them while she is unaware. The information on the flash cards is compiled perfectly, it’s almost a shame he is about to do what he is.

He picks up the first one and rips it, not destroying it or ripping up the information just tearing into the sides. It’s enough for Seraphina to completely look at him. He picks up another one and does the same thing, except this time he stares directly into Seraphina's eyes. Her eyes twitch slightly, glowing a bright blue for a split second which alights her thick and complicated magenta aura; it’s beautiful and horrifying. 

Her aura is gone again within the second and any annoyance she displayed in that second is gone with it, replaced with her icy glare. She asks “what are you doing?”

“Tearing the flashcards” John says nonchalantly. Her grip on her pen becomes firmer,

“Why?” 

“Because it annoys you into actually paying attention to me” john sighs picking up another flashcard, this time he draws a smiley face in the corner 

“And why would I pay attention to you, you’re nothing but a worthless cripple” she rolls her eyes

“Oh yeah, and you’re so perfect” John laughs, picking up another flashcard and drawing a tree “you’re a teenager, what’s so perfect about that?”

“I am the queen of Wellston, the ace. I’m a 7.5, a god tier” she huffs. John draws a crown onto a flashcard “of course I'm perfect. What else would I be?”

“I don’t know, but none of that makes you perfect. Nothing can make you perfect.” he scribbles out that same crown he had just drawn and replaces it with a stickman drawing of a smiling Seraphina. “Perfect doesn’t exist. Only opinions do and you’ll never please anyone enough, no matter who you are, what you do or how you look”

“And what would you know about people’s opinions no one cares about how you act, you’re nothing but a cocky and arrogant cripple who thinks he knows everything about everyone”

John raises both of his eyebrows and stares at her. She seems to realise a second later how she contradicts herself and glares at John harder and colder. The bell rings to signify next class. 

John sighs as he stands up to leave he looks at Seraphina as he speaks “what point is there in being perfect, how does that help anyone. How does that help you? You’re strong, why should it matter that people want you to be perfect too? Just think about it, okay?”

He hands her the flashcards he had teared and scribbled on. He finds her staring at one of his most recent. A stick man version of both of them and John's other friends. Talking and smiling. He turns to leave as he hears her grunt and tear up the drawing, several times as if to enunciate her point. They will never be friends . 

When he leaves the classroom. He feels an aura activate. Magenta; beautiful and horrifying. He laughs before walking up to Evie and the others. The drawing probably isn’t so torn up anymore. 

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

John is half terrified and half thrilled as he walks into the press club’s clubroom. He found out earlier that day that Terrence is also a part of the press club. He mainly works as an informant for Cecile but sometimes he also publishes anonymous reports in the newspaper. 

The club itself is nothing like John imagined from his previous conversation with Cecile. It is lively and conversation rings out through the club room. No one is alone as they work on their reports. Some are helping their friends edit their reports, others are helping carry the already printed Wellston Weeklys. Some just sit in the company of their friends as they write theirs. 

A group sits around a pile of photos. John looks at the photo’s to find that they are pictures of him. One when he punched Zeke (he didn’t even know anyone was there), his confrontation with sera in the cafeteria over the cake even pictures from his aura science class this morning is already printed out (he has to hold in a laugh at Zeke's absolute terror of Arlo and Arlo's indignation at john asking who he is)

He wants to shout at them from taking pictures of him without his consent before he remembers the notebook that he has in his bag on people’s abilities that he’s seen so far. He keeps his mouth shut and walks past the group. He looks to where Terrence stands and realises he is no longer there. He is as John quickly realises standing next to Cecile talking in hushed tones.

John walks up to them smiling, they quickly quieten. “You weren’t just talking about me were you?” he ask

“Look around you for a second john” Cecile scoffs “of course we were, you’re the new kid. Which means new information, everyone wants to know who you are and why you’re here”

John does look around and sees that each report being written is about him. He bites his tongue, different school, same attitude. He ignores the growing anger that wells in his stomach and instead laughs. “So if I write an article about myself will I get the front page?”

Cecile considers this for a second “not necessarily, what you want to reveal about yourself may not be as entertaining as what people uncover about you.”

“Good thing I'm great at keeping secrets, especially about my self” 

“Doesn’t matter how good you are” Cecile laughs “isen hasn’t gotten a front page article in weeks and is out for blood. He’ll hack into your previous school’s records if he has to”

Joh freezes even if he knows isen will find nothing, not unless he is willing and able to hack into the authorities they have covered up the new boston incident as much as possible from the public that sometimes john wonders if it really happened. 

“He can certainly try. He just has to be aware that if i don’t care about standing up to Seraphina that I certainly won’t care about fighting him. Doesn’t matter how well rounded his ability is, it has a weakness, every ability does”

“Even Seraphina's?” Terence asks, finally contributing to the conversation. 

“Yep” john smile’s “there is no person who has a no weakness because of their ability”

Terrence looks doubtful and asks “what about mind control?”

John thinks for a second. Not only is this the first time Terrence feels actually genuine without being angry at john but also mind control is an extremely rare ability that usually has a high ability level, normally only high tiers have mind control, john ignores Terrence as he says something about john not having to answer about it and that it is a silly question. Why is Terence so concerned about someone with a mind control ability, why is he lying about his ability level, why is he putting on a persona. What is up with him? How can John help him?

“To beat someone with mind control?” He considers “electricity or willpower.”

“What?” Terrence asks as Cecile mutters “Remi and rei are all set then”

“Mental abilities are all about connections” john explains “you either have to over power their will to break the connection or, and more dangerously, you have to charge your body and brain with enough electricity that the connection basically short circuits”

“Won’t that also short circuit your brain?” Cecile asks

“Probably but that’s why I said it’s the more dangerous option” 

Terence hums in consideration, he turns slightly and announces to Cecile and John in a quiet voice that he is going to write his own report now. Leaving Cecile and john to their own conversation, Cecile explains about the days the meet, deadlines, how your work gets published, about how john can always can give information to her, about the topics they can write about (practically any topic, however they might get overruled by the royals if they don’t like it, Cecile might be strong but even she has to bow down to Arlo and Seraphina sometimes).

John’s to say the least happy about his decision to join. The atmosphere is nice, everyone's friendly, the creative aspects and freedom sounds nice the only things he dislikes is the rumours and how that what this newspaper is, but if he can’t stop rumours he might as well help control and guide them

Chapter Text

It's Friday when Seraphina talks to him again, in their previous English classes she had just let him doodle on her flashcards (he notices she never rubs them out or tries to get rid of them. Sometimes he sees her staring at them with a soft and melancholy smile when she thinks he is distracted with another doodle). Now on Friday the day of their presentation she speaks

"Here are flashcards with your lines" she hands him a few flashcards, his little doodles placed randomly on them. "All you have to do is understand the signals I give you so you know when to speak"

John takes the flash cards she gave him and considers doing as she says. Not putting any effort in and letting her carry him and his grade. It would be easy to just give in to her. To give her the perfection she desires. To just give in like all the others do just because she's stronger. 

John, however, doesn't do things the easy way. He never has before. Why should he now? He smiles at a doodle of Isen and Blyke arguing and smiles as he shoves the flash cards into his blazer pocket and takes out his own. 

"No thanks." He smiles "I would like to use my on flash cards" 

"But they aren't organised to fit with the PowerPoint" Sera states "nor are they compatible with my mine" 

"I made a PowerPoint to fit them" John says

"Just stop. We are using mine and that's the end of it" she hisses glaring at John

"Fine, if you really want to" John concedes 

She doesn't answer verbally, just gives him a small nod.

When they go up to give their presentation John leaves her flashcards on his desk and takes his own up with him instead. Seraphina doesn't notice until it's John's turn to speak.

John's best subject may be English but Shakespearean English is absolute bullshit to him. When he was reading the book he understood about five lines. When he had to re-read it to make notes he understood even less somehow. He thinks it's safe to say what he's saying at the top of the class as they present their presentation is all false and gibberish, he's not even sure he got the characters' names right. From the look on Seraphina's face as he speaks, he clearly has. 

Their classmates don't laugh at his mistakes, they're too scared of Seraphina to do so. Their teacher just looks at John with both confusion and sympathy. Seraphina stares at him impassively, she's in front of their class, she has to maintain her image, no matter how much John's tried this past week to help her, he understands she can't just change in a second.

When their presentation is over, Seraphina quietly and calmly walks over to him and whispers "meet me on the roof after class, or else you are a dead man."

John smiles at her and gives her a thumbs up. "Yes Ma'am"

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

The roof is nice, it's clean and spacious. Most importantly it's quiet and undisturbed. A perfect place to murder someone. if Seraphina so wanted John would be dead and no one would know the killer.

John hopes that won't be the outcome. The glare Seraphina sends him as he walks into the roof has him considering if could survive the fall. 

"Why did you do that?" She asks 

"I told you that I wanted to use my flashcards" he responds 

"You also said you'd use mine if I wanted"

"No I said I would use your PowerPoint I never said I'd use your flash cards"

"What?" She looks more confused than angry "yes you did"

"No I didn't" he shakes his head

"You did"

"Didn't"

"You did"

"Didn't"

"You didn't"

"Did-"

"If you say "didn't" one more time I am throwing you off this roof" she threatens "it does not matter if you did or didn't anyway. You have already done it."

John peers over the edge of the roof he would probably survive the fall. He take his chances "I know I've already done it but still I didn't say it" 

She stares at him exasperated "didn't I just say-"

"Yeah you did" he interrupts " but I don't care, you're not a bad person, you wouldn't do it"

"How do you know I'm not a bad person" she sighs "I could do it"

"My dad says I'm an excellent judge of character" he laughs. Seraphina looks at him in doubt before sitting down. Her blazer falls off her shoulder on one arm. She doesn't try to fix it. 

"Why are you so different?" Seraphina asks John

"What do you mean?" John cocks his head to the side and sits next to her, leaning his head back against the wall, the sun blinding him a slight bit, so he closes his eyes.

"You're a cripple and yet here you are talking to me as if we are equals" she says, he opens one eye and sees she's shut hers as well, he closes it again. "You don't care what anyone has to say about you. You stick up for others even if you're weaker. You punched Zeke, denied me and even decided to mess with Arlo. Why don't you care?"

He waits to make sure she's finished before answering. 

"Well for starters, I do care about it. About what they say. Each word of rumour grates against my skin. They think it's okay to insult and gossip about people just because they're weak and deserve it or because they're strong and can take it. It angers me so much. Makes me want to punch them all until they can't say another thing" he clenches his fists "but I can't, because then I'll really deserve it so I just refuse to listen and refuse to give them what they want. They think I'm a cripple and therefore weak. But I'm not so I prove them wrong and refuse to bow down to stronger people. 

Like you said I act as if we are equals but have you ever considered that we might be. We're human we can never be perfect, so fuck any who thinks we have to be. We'll never fully be equal in terms of strength. I mean you can manipulate time that's strong as shit. But we're still human, we still make mistakes, we still cry, get angry, get scared. We're equal because we're human and we're vulnerable, no one is invincible. Not even to rumours"

They sit in silence after he finishes his little speech. He opens his eyes as Seraphina gets up, fixing her blazer. She looks as impassive and apathetic as she did when he first saw her. 

"After school on Monday when you're free we'll read the book together in the library. We better get an A or else I will really throw you off the roof. I don't care if you think I'm a good person."

"Okay, see you on Monday seraph

ina" he nods as she walks off. He closes his eyes. He just skipped class didn't he? Shit

Chapter Text

John has to say seraphina has become a lot more tolerable after their conversation on the roof. They met in the library during lunch and read the book together. She helped him with the words he didn’t understand (practically all of it) and he, well, provided motivation (he doesn't really know he’s useless when it comes to shakespear) he also did a bit of drawing in his copy while Seraphina talked him through the scenes. He drew different characters and different scenes as she explained them. She noticed them but didn’t say anything. Muttering something about including them in the presentation. John just agreed off-handedly, he didn’t think they were particularly good. Just a hobby he took to help with his anger issues. 

His dad had recommended him a journal to write down his thoughts, and sure he may be great a writing but seeing what he thought written down on a page that made it all to real all too much of a reality. It would show him just how much of a monster he really is. So instead he started drawing. Anything from scribbles to random characters in his dads books. He drew different abilities and how he would use them in a fight or just general usage. That’s where his current notebook came from, filled with all the aura’s he’s already studied and how to fight them. 

During class seraphina isn’t even half as kind. Keeping up her cold queen aura around the others and dropping it a bit around him. John has actually seen her smile openly at him as he finally understood one of the scenes without it being explained to him (he had googled it the night before, but the less she knew the better). His friends joined them at the library for lunch before their presentation on friday and seraphina hasn’t said a single offensive thing yet. She hasn’t said much at all really. She could nearly give Roland and Terrence a run of their money. Dylan and Evie are ranting quietly about a group of mid tiers that had attacked them while on their way here. John glares silently at the table, he should walk with them more to prevent this shit. The teachers should probably actually monitor it more so they could prevent bullying entirely. He says as much to the group. 

“They're just preparing everyone for the real world,” Seraphina says and the group nods. John clenches his fists 

“Maybe if they prevented it in schools people wouldn’t become ass holes in the future” john says a little too loudly

“Just because one school prevents it doesn;t mean every other school will. People will just have false hope”  seraphina argues back 

“What if someone takes it too far”

“Too far, people are ass holes but theyre not stupid” 

“But let's just say what if?” 

“the n i teacher will stop in and stop them” she huffs 

“But what if they can’t?” he says a bit louder 

“What do you mean can’t” dylan asks voice shuddering slightly 

“Can't stop them, i mean” john clears up 

“Then they should...” seraphina pauses eyebrows crossing in consideration 

“Exactly, not everything can be stopped” john says “ but things can be prevented”

“Is this because of the tyrant in your old school, he was a god tier and no one could stop him not even the teachers” dylan asks 

“I heard that he beat all of the top students in his school,” evie says 

“That was a special case” seraphina says, causing all eyes to look at her, even johns.

“How so?” he asks, what made him a special case 

“High tiers are taught from birth what their purpose in society is” oh yeah, that did make him special “the tyrant though is a late bloomer, he was destined to fail from the beginning, he knew nothing about how to act. He’s like a kid drunk on power”

John's hands shake, she’s right. Of course she is, it’s seraphina, but why does it feel so… so heartbreaking. Like glass breaking all around him.

“A late bloomer?” terrence asks “what’s that, i've never heard of it” 

John stares at him, liar, he definitely has.

“It’s someone who gets their ability after they turn seven” seraphina explains “ they usually level up really quickly and are elite tiers. Their around 0.0001% of the population”

“Thats rare” Evie says

“Yeah” seraphina agrees “that’s why the tyrant in new boston was so frightening.”

“Because it’s rare” dylan asks 

“Because he statistically shouldn’t exist. The chances of him being a god tier and late bloomer are like  0.000000001%, that is around 0.08 people statistically” 

“Then how come no one knows his name if he’s such a phenomenon” terrence asks 

“The authorities are really private about cases to do with minors, no pictures of the guy, just a placeholder name of ‘john doe’.”

John Doe has never been more grateful for his name than right now. Dylan giggles “it’s just like your name”

The rest of the group except for seraphina laugh. John breathes out his nose because what the fuck. (he ignores terrence’s curious and calculating stare)

Chapter Text

John knows he could have done better. Maybe he could have just ignored their stupid conversation in the library and not have fucked up the presentation. Maybe he could have just let seraphina do all the work from the start. Then he wouldn’t be looking at the B+ on his desk as seraphina glares at him.

“What happened?” she asks, concern and accusation mingling in her tone to create disappointment. John wants to bury himself so far in the ground that his blood boils in the heat of the earth’s core. 

“I don’t know,” he croaks out. He does though and that makes it all worse 

“That’s not enough” seraphina says disappointment churning into anger “i know you john doe and you’re not the type of person to get stage fright over an english presentation”

That ticks John off a bit more than he likes to admit “You know me!? Really!?”

“Yes, just like you know me” 

“What exactly do you know about me?!” he yells and he ignores the way students gather around them, because of course school is over and everyone wants to be entertained

“Enough to know you aren’t like this” she states 

“Like what?” he stands up 

“Hey guys maybe ye should try to calm down” Evie tries to mitigate, tries.

“Shut up” both john and seraphina say

“Come on answer me, like what?” john shouts desperate to know what seraphina thinks of him

“Like a failure” she says and it feels so much louder than it is 

Failure?

Him?

Of course, why wouldn’t she think that, he is after all. Always a late bloomer, always a cripple, always a failure.

He’s not completely aware when goes in swinging. Fist clenched with fury, mind full and sense blank.

He only regains them when a beam of pure energy shoots between them.

“Hey guys, stop” Blyke, the redhead future king, calls out “if you continue like this its just going to end like last time, maybe worse”

John withdraws his fist and seraphina deactivates her aura that he never noticed her activate. He can hear an obvious sigh of relief wash over that gathered crowd 

“Why do you want to fight me instead?” seraphina asks Blyke and the previous relief is replaced by fear

“No, no, not at all” Blyke fumbles “i'm doing this for his sake not yours, no offence”

“Then i guess i’ll fight you instead”  John interrupts impulsively 

“What?” both the crowd and Blyke ask 

“I mean if you were interrupting for my sake, i doubt you’d mind fighting me” John reasons 

“You are aware I'm a 4.2, right?” 4.3 john corrects in his head 

“And i was aware of Seraphina’s level when i tried punching her” john reminds 

Blyke seems to consider it for a second, his friends having different reactions next to him. The Jack, Remi is shaking her head profusely trying to persuade Blyke not to. His other friend and rumoured boyfriend, Isen, on the other side is nodding vigorously muttering into Blyke’s ear about a front page article

“Sure i’ll fight you” Blyke agrees cracking his knuckles beforing looking around the room in doubt “but do you really want to do it here”  

John looks around at the large crowd. It is definitely to his advantage if he stays. Blyke would be too conscious of hitting bystanders and would surely be an easy win for john. However John has never been one to consider the consequences. 

John looks out the window at the courtyard and smiles “we’ll fight in the courtyard” 

“good. “ Blyke smiles back and turns towards the door of the classroom, the crowd parting for him “then let's go”

John picks up a chair, to everyone's confusion “Sure,”

He throws the chair through the window and smiles at the shocked screeches that bleed from the crowd

“what the actual fuck?” seraphina asks, who had surprisingly enough been quiet since blyke’s interruption 

John stands on the window ledge. His back facing the courtyard. “I’ll meet you down there, future king”

He falls backwards. Luckily he was only two stories up when he fell or else the pain he would be feeling tomorrow would be felt now. He does a backflip to fix his landing position and does a superhero landing. Why? Because he can.

“Holy shit!” he hears Evie exclaim from the classroom he was in seconds ago 

“Oh my god! That was so cool!”  Dylan cheers next to her.

John can see that Rowan looks seconds from fainting and Terence has that analytical and curious gaze he always has when John does something surprising. Seraphina just shakes her head scoffing before walking off.

Blyke does not waste any time jumping out after him. Using his energy beams to cushion his fall, which gives John the perfect opportunity to analyse his ability.

He smiles at the untouched potential in the boy. If he copied it, Blyke wouldn’t stand a chance.

“You may have a cool landing but you still broke a window” Blyke says as he lands

“We go to a private school that values independence over everything else, something tells me it won’t be a problem”

“I guess” Blyke says unsurely

John doesn’t wait a single second. In a matter of seconds he’s so close to Blyke that he can see even the tiniest strands of aura. 

And just like that, Blyke is trapped. Nowhere to escape. Everytime Blyke tries to gain distance he closes in even more. Watching his aura charge before each beam and his body twitch before every move. He can read every move and gas the speed to trap him. Blyke unable to shoot incase he seriously injures john maybe even potentially kill him with one of his beams

He lands the first hit. A punch to the nose that makes the redheads eyes water. Blood streaming from both nostrils, Blyke instinctively reaches up to his nose. John smiles. He sweeps the leg, causing Blyke to fall backwards.

John is on top  of him in seconds. Clasping Blyke’s hands with the palms facing in on each other, forcing the above the boy's head as he sits on the boy.

  If the boy shoots out of his hands the other hand will face the same damage john does. If he shoots using his feet it won't matter because of john’s grip on the redhead’s hands. If only he was a tad stronger maybe then he could beat john. 

“Surrender?” John asks, smiling at his win. The boy is his complete opposite in a way when it comes to fighting. John doesn’t care about injuries or how close he brings someone to death’s door. Blyke does though, he cares enough that he would shoot John without knowing for certain that John would seriously suffer, even when his ass is being handed to him.

Blyke smiles back at john. Why? He couldn’t tell you. “Yeah i surrender”

John gets off of him, releasing his hands and standing up. He puts his hand out, letting Blyke grab it as he gets up “good fight”

“Yeah it was” Blyke smiles “might have to hide with shame though, i mean i was beat by a cripple”

John hums at the back handed compliment 

“How did you learn how to fight like that?” Blyke asks 

“My dad” John answers, not really wanting to talk

“Cool. is he a cripple as well?”

“Yeah”

“Your mom?”

“What?” john asks 

“Your mom is she a cripple as well”

“No”

“Oh what's her level then?”

John is to busy thinking about he’ll get his bag for his class that he answers honestly “ i think she was a 9 or something” 

He realises his mistake when Blyke suddenly goes quiet. “Don't tell anyone that, please”

“Sure” Blyke says still clearly in shock, “ can you teach me how to fight”

“No” john answers short and simple as he gets his phone out to text his friends, texting them to bring his bag down and meet him at the gate

“What why?”

“I already have too many students” johns answers “if my attention is that divided, it would be more beneficial for you to become a vigilante”

Blyke nods and john starts walking towards the gate “I’ll see you around then, john”

“Sure '' John answers, checking his phone to see several different messages from his friends (and Cecile because of course she has already heard). He focuses on one. 

Seraphina

Sorry. 

John smiles

John Doe

Sory to u too

Chapter Text

John throws himself on his bed face first. Today had been… it had been a lot. His friends talking about him in the library. His fight with Seraphina. Telling Blyke his mom is was a god tier. 

And yet he couldn't help the warmth in his chest that threatened to make him smile. Evie and Dylan's reactions to him fighting. Seraphina apologising. Fighting Blyke. 

Fighting. 

He liked it. For the first time he can remember he actually enjoyed it. He still remembers the bitterness and growing anger that used to come after fighting but right now he can't be more happy to fight Blyke.

He may have been bitter afterwards but that was only because of his fight with Seraphina.

Ding!

He looks over at his phone 

Cecile: unread message

He sighs as he opens his phone to read it. He may have ignored her before but if she's left on read for too long he's scared she might look just a little too close into his past. He still doesn't know how she got his number in the first place but priorities.

Cecile 

You fought Blyke

You fought with Seraphina

Do you have a death wish John Doe?

John

Yes I fought Blyke 

Yes I had a fight with Seraphina

And I'm still not sure about a death wish

at the moment no

But I might change my mind

Depends on my mood

Cecile

Arlo is going to lose his shit

Well done

John

Thanks

I think 

Cecile

It's a good thing

I've been waiting for him to get his feathers ruffled since I met him

And you seem to be the perfect candidate to do just so.

Already have

John

I think this is the first and last time I've ever been called perfect

Cecile

On the topic of perfect

Seraphina?

What happened with her?

John

Are you asking for information

Or are you concerned for my well being

Cecile

Both

Now answer my question

John

Aww I knew we're friends

Cecile

Not friends 

You're a valuable asset

Do not overestimate your value

John

Dam

Way to vrwak a man's heart

*Break

Cecile

Stop ignoring the question

Or I'm coming to your house

John 

I was about to say you don't know wherw I live but I gues that's not true 

Cecile

John

Answer the question

John

It was nothing 

Just a little fight about our grade on our project

Cecile

You started throwing punches because of a grade

John

Hey!

I've seen fights started over less

But yeah I did over react a little

Cecile

At least your a bit self aware

Now Blyke

John

Our fight 

To be honest I liked it

It was fun and exhilarating

Cecile

At least you like fighting 

Because every elite and high tier will be after your ass for beating him

John

i look forward to it

Read

He smiles, he truly does mean it, the adrenaline the way he can just smile and be free. He can just fight and be. He doesn't have to think about his ability, about new Boston, he can just fight.

(As long as he doesn't use his ability anyway).

He spent the rest of the night texting his other friends. Except for Seraphina, she still refuses to interact with him outside of the project, except for today anyway.

He's just about to fall asleep when he looks at his bedside table.

The book that Vaughn gave him looks back.

He should probably read it soon. 

He falls asleep, lulled into the world of dreams and nightmares from the happiness from his friends and the excitement of fighting. 

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

When John goes back to school on Monday, he doesn't know how to feel. His friends are beaming at him in the hallway and Blyke waves at him whenever he passes, Remi does as well. Isen on the other hand looks at John with unfulfilled hunger, he's curious. And fit John that's dangerous 

Isen isn't the only one who watches him. Low tiers become wary. mid tiers glare at him, jealousy brimming from each creese in their frowns. Elite tiers look him up and down, considering if they can fight him, doubting Blyke.

Arlo however is the worst. Just like Elaine said the boy looks close to losing his shit when he sees John talking to Seraphina or Cecile or waving at Blyke and Remi.  

John smiles when nobody's looking. It's funny to him. How fragile is the king of Welstons stupid hierarchy? That he just disturbs it in less than a month.

The week goes by quickly. Head down in the library with Seraphina. Fighting with Dylan, Evie, Roland and Terrence. Talking with Cecile and Terrence about their articles and sometimes they ask him about people's abilities (especially Terrence).

Soon enough he stands at the top of the class room as he and Seraphina present their project, this time his drawings were in fact put into the presentation he had tried to get Seraphina to not but she insisted muttering about the only two things he can do are fighting and drawing. 

They present their project confidently and steadily, not tripping up at all. They smile at each other when it's finished. Seraphina walks to her desk confidently. John mutters thanks to the class.

And now the waiting game starts. Watching each presentation while worrying about your own grade. John fidgets with a button on his jacket sleeve as he looks between the current presentation, his English teacher and Seraphina.

They need that A. He needs it, to show her that cripples aren't worthless and that low tiers are useless. That she isn't always perfect. That she can fail too.

As class ends and they're handed their grades John wants to laugh and cry at the same time 

A+

Average grade: A-

They had done it. They've got an A.

He practically runs over to Seraphina.

"We did it" he cheers "we got an A"

"It's an A-" Seraphina says glumly

"Same thing" John pouts

"No it isn't" she denies

"Well I say it is"

"It isn't though"

John pauses looking at her exasperated "I'm not arguing with you over this A or A- we're going to ce

lebrate"

He watches as the glum expression that coats her face slowly fades into a small smile

"Where to?"

"Ever had Boba?"

He beams as she looks at him in confusion.

Chapter Text

It’s dark outside as John walks home after getting boba with Sera (it took about ten minutes of debating with Sera for him to be able to call her that nickname). He idly kicks a piece of the curb that had been chipped off as he walks. He was on the bus originally but quickly realised he had gotten the wrong one. Leading him further away from his apartment than towards, he had decided to walk instead of chancing the same mistake again.

He probably should have chosen a less dodgy way to walk but alas here he is. Rats scurrying around, glass broken and bins overturned. He ignores all the obvious red flags and keeps walking. It's quiet as he walks, even though the appearance would make you assume otherwise. Too quiet.

That is until he hears a pained strangled scream.

He would like to say he debated whether to ignore it or to run towards it. He would like to say he thought about the consequences of running towards the scream. He would like to say so, sadly he can’t.

Luckily he did have the forethought to obscure his face using a U-mart cap he had in his bag (why he has it he does not know)

It takes him less than a minute to arrive at the scene of the crime, literally, the scene of a crime. Four people were standing in an ally only lit by a flickering street lamp. The two blocking the entrance wore all black, one had purple hair and green eyes, his aura the same shade of green, and the other had blonde hair and yellow eyes like her aura. 

He pauses as looks at their aura. They have two abilities and they both have the same secondary ability, flame claw. What? The aura of the second ability is weird as well; it's weaker as if diluted and it’s so obviously not belonging to them. It’s as if it's trying to reject them, trying to escape to the original owner. Their first abilities have quite a high ability level, both high tiers at least. 

The man has an enhancement ability, boosting his endurance and strength, but it looks like it isn’t working from the way he’s clutching his side, probably the one who had let out the pained strangled scream.

The woman’s ability is a barrier ability, she is a 7.5 and her passive seems to give her stone like skin. But the scratches on her body don’t match the information John is getting from her aura.

Their secondary ability is the only one that seems to be effective or activated even though both auras are activated.

The other two are backed into a corner. Thankfully their auras seem normal. 

The first has mint green hair and gold eyes, his lower face is covered by a mask. His ability is lightning with a level of 5.6, his aura is a bright blue just like lightning. He has burn marks and scratches all over his body. He’s positioned in front of the other man, taking the brunt of the attacks.

The other man has long blue hair tight into a ponytail and bright green eyes. Blue blades of aura surround him floating in the air waiting to take aim. He's wearing a masquerade-esque mask. 

None of them see John as he walks into the alley. All too wrapped up in their current fight and injuries to notice him.

“Hey!” John calls. “What are you doing!?”

The four people turn to him. All of their eyes blown wide in surprise. The mint one is the first to recover from the shock.

“Hey kid, get out of here before you get hurt!” he shouts “it’s not safe”

“Uhm no” john says nonchalantly “I'll stay thanks”

The two men with normal aura look at John with confusion and surprise. The two with the fucked up auras don’t hesitate to start attacking again. The blonde one jumping at the two men and the one with green eyes jumping at john.

John barely dodges the flaming claw that tries to scrawl at him. His tie isn’t so lucky, half of it falling to the ground as the man jumps at him again. 

Shit, john swears to himself, the man is skilled, even with his messed up secondary ability he doesn’t let john even get a single second to catch his breath. John tries to keep as much distance as possible. Unlike Blyke, this man doesn’t care if John is killed. If anything the man is trying to do just that. 

He can predict each move but with the attacks added range from the claws and heat make it hard to completely dodge. He takes a second to glance over at the two men and the blonde woman. 

The guy with the ponytail is clutching his side which is dripping red as his friend seems to be losing his composure, the woman is getting in more hits than she should.

John barely dodges another slash, he can’t fight like this. He can't do this without his ability. He may be strong and his fighting skills may be polished and experienced but his is not fireproof, he’ll get hit eventually and then his intervention would have been useless. He has to do it. He has to use his ability. 

John takes a breath as he dodges again. Slowly he looks at the two men, then at the other two. He takes another breath, the smell of blood and smoke fill his lungs. He takes one last breath as his eyes burn with a golden aura. All he sees is gold.

Black flaming claws grow from his fingers, sparks of lightning fall from each of them. Black blades appear around him, two flaming and two charged with electricity. He feels his skin harden into an impenetrable material. 

The green eyed man swings his claws once more at him. He doesn’t even complete the motion before two blades stab him in the shoulders pinning him to the wall. The man screams, electricity flowing through each nerve.

The two men and woman stare at John in horror. John doesn’t stare back, he’s too busy steadying his breath as memories flash through his brain. Another wave of electricity flows through the purple haired man. 

“Stop!” the man screams. “Stop, please!”

The woman doesn’t come to assist the man instead she speaks into what looks like a microphone. John looks at her impassively, daring her to come at him. The woman mutters into the mic. 

In seconds the woman scales one of the surrounding buildings and runs. John gets ready to give chase when he feels a hand grab his shoulder. He turns to slash at the person but is met with a blade parrying his claws. 

“You can stop electrocuting the man now” the mint haired one says “he’s already unconscious”

John turns slowly to the man that is still being held up by his blades, his head has fallen and his aura has deactivated. He slowly deactivates his own ability, claws and blades disappearing and his skin returning to normal. 

He falls to his knees as acid threatens to surge from his stomach. Gasping as images of his previous school fill his mind. He distantly feels a hand soothingly rubbing his back, muttering something to him.
When John is not five seconds from throwing up anymore he looks up at the two men again.

“Who are ye?” he asks the men, scanning each injury they got.

“Who are we?” the mint hair asks incredulously “who are you!?”

“What do you mean who am i?” john asks “you’re the ones who were nearly dying while fighting and also i asked first”

“Fair enough, sound logic” The mint one nods his head in acceptance while his friend looks at him in disgust “my name is X-Static, i’m a superhero and he’s Ponytail, he’s also a superhero”

“I told you i don’t agree to that name” Ponytail rolls his eyes

“Wait X-Static as in ecstatic?” john asks ignoring Ponytail

“See he gets the pun” X-Static points out to Ponytail

Ponytail doesn’t respond instead he shakes his head and gives up in trying to deal with his friend

“So how about you, what's your name?” X-static asks “also what was that during the fight you kind of went uhm…”

“Ballistic?” john suggests

“I was going to say… i don’t know what i was going to say, but it wouldn't have been offensive” X-static assures “just answer the question”

“It’s nothing, just a side effect of my ability” john half lies, it did only happen because of his ability but it only happened because he had fucked up too much and left himself like this, a monster

“Shit, you must be powerful if that’s the side effect of your ability” ponytail says

“Arlo’s side effect wasn’t in proportion to his ability level though” X-static mumbles and something in john’s brain clicks, lightning ability knows Arlo, overly happy and protective of his friends. 

“Holy shit, you’re Remi’s brother!”

Chapter Text

“Holy shit, you’re Remi’s brother!” John exclaims, probably a little too loudly for a conversation in a dodgy alleyway, with an unconscious man, two vigilantes and a teen who beat up said unconscious man. 

The two vigilantes look between each other with an expression that says ‘oh shit’. 

“Whaaaat?” X-static rolls his eyes “Noooo” 

Ponytail face palms sighing “seriously?” 

“Yeah” X-static sheepishly shrugs 

“Can we get back to the fact that you're Remi's brother? we can get back to your shitty lying later” John asks 

“There’s not much to say about us being siblings- wait, how do you even know?” X-static asks 

“He literally has a Wellston uniform on” Ponytail points out

“Still, i have a disguise on” 

“Lightning ability and referencing Arlo” John answers

“ If you know who i am, can you tell me who you are?”  X-static asks

John considers it, he checks his watch. It’s late, he needs to get home and ring his dad before bed and his dad won’t be happy about him being late. Also he isn’t completely sure about telling two strangers his ability, they already know too much. His ability already outed to two strangers because he values human life more than his own sanity- at the moment anyways.

“Sorry, stranger danger” john shrugs and starts to walk away

“Atleast give us an alias” ponytail reasons “i don't want to have to call you Umart kid in my head” 

John almost tells him he can keep referring to him as Umart kid but the reference of the book Vaughn gave him flashes through his head (a book he seriously needs to stop procrastinating and just read).

“Joker” John answers with finality “you can call me joker”

John walks away with a smile plastered on his face. 

He laughs when he hears X-static sigh “that’s such a good superhero name, why didn’t i think of it”

“Because X-static and Ponytail were soooo much better” Ponytail answers and john can hear the eye roll oozing from his tone "also what are we going to do with the body?"

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

John spends ten minutes thinking about who to text about Remi's brother and his friend so he can find out their actual identities. 

He could text Evie, Dylan or Rowan but they would probably be curious about it and he doesn't want to deal with their puppy eyes when he says no.

He could text Remi herself but that would be outright suspicious, he hasn’t even talked to her in real life, texting her out of the blue about her brother would be downright weird.

He laughs to himself when the thought of asking cecile or terrence flashes through his mind, they would stop at nothing to find out why.

He could text Blyke or Sera, though Blyke would think he’s stalking Remi and Sera would be extremely suspicious and mock him about it. 

After crossing every other name off his list of contacts he lands on his final option. He gives up on reasoning and clicks on it sending the question before he can overthink it

John

Does remi haev a broter?

I saw soeone that looled like he.

Isen

???

How did you misspell so much shit but still remember punctuation

Also how do you have my number

John

Wrllston wekly group chat.

Isen

Fair

About your question 

Yeah she does his name is Rei

He was king before arlo

John

Doese he haeve a lobg blue haited fiend, who a guy?

Isen 

I think youre talking about the jack before arlo

kuyo 

John 

Tanks

Isen

Wait why ask me though

Why not anyone else 

We’re not even friends

Delivered 22:09

Isen

Dude.

Delivered 23:04

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

John is in the middle of texting Isen when his dad calls.

“Hello” John says into his phone

“Hi john” his dad greets back

“How was your day, dad?” John asks, his father sounds tired. His father is never tired, which is annoying at 6 am in the morning when the man decided to hoover 

“My day was good” his dad answers with a tired laugh “ how was yours? ”

“dad, dont lie” john pushes “you sound tired”

 “It’s nothing, john”

“Dad, please” john pushes more

“Do you know my book, unordinary” His dad starts 

“Yeah of course i do it’s great”  john answers, he loves his fathers book. He always has loved his fathers writing but this book is special. 

“The authorities are, well, to make a long story short ” his dad says and John's blood freezes. What is with today he uses his ability and the authorities are bugging his dad “ they’re banning it”

“What?” John asks genuinely confused “why?”

“They’re saying it causing high tiers to become vigilantes ” His dad answers “they say it's the reason valuable members of society are getting themselves killed”

“Killed?” john asks “Dad what are you talking about”

“It hasn’t been shared with the general public yet but apparently a shadow organisation called Ember are killing vigilantes”

John freezes. The people in all black with messed up auras and burning claws. The two vigilantes, X-static and Ponytail, Rei and Kuyo. Ember. 

He shakes his head, clenching his fists “shouldn’t they be going after ember and not you?” shouldn’t they be doing their job instead of coming after you?”

“John i know your angry but you have to not do anything” his dad tries “you don’t need to be caught up in this, it’s not your battle”

“But it's yours-”

“John, please” his dad sighs “i've already lost one of you, i can’t lose another”

His mom. Abandoned him when he was barely one and left him alone with his broken ability. Left his father to grieve his wife and raise a headstrong and selfish son. He sours at the mention of her, he takes a deep breath and listens to his father

“It’s okay dad i won’t do anything”

“Thank you John,” his dad breathes a sigh of relief “ so how about you, how was your presentation this week?”

John ignores the obvious change in conversation. 

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

It’s nearly three am when John decides it, four hours of tossing and turning. It doesn’t matter what his dad says, he’s fighting this battle. 

Maybe he can use his new alias joker a bit more. Ember has it coming after all.

Chapter Text

John half regrets becoming a vigilante. Unfairness, he left his apartment in a hurry, umart cap in hand. Barely awake enough to read words and he was already on the bus hoping it would take home to ember.

The bus didn't take him straight to ember obviously but it did bring him to a run down part of Welston. He could hear cats meowing and smell the alcohol in the air. Faint music could be hard drifting through the air if he strained his ears hard enough.

He decides to walk around hoping to catch sight of a criminal or better yet ember. His passive gives him nothing. No abilities activated or anything. It almost maked it more ominous. Sure most people don't know how to use their abilities through daily life and sure it's the early early morning but still it's eerie, not a single aura.

He keeps walking ever vigilant hoping to catch something, anything. He's a busy school student; he can't just lose precious sleep for nothing.

Something flickers in the distance and his passive immediately zones in on it.

A strangled light blue, worn out and aura banks near empty. The level seems to be around 2.1. Probably a mid tier abusing their power (just like he did).

He doesn't run unlike last time, he walks instead. The aura may be weak but he could tell from the way it flickered that the person had yet to give up.

He's there within two minutes. The aura still flickering is sitting limp from exhaustion, leaning on a building's wall. Their hands are tied along with their feet.

John walks over to the person, pushing up their sleeve to check their pulse. Not as strong as average but not faint either. He takes the blind fold and gag of the person.

Their eyes blow wide in shock. They try to speak but all that comes out is croaky gibberish. He winces at the bruises on their throat.

"I'm Joker" John says gently trying to calm the distressed person as much as possible "I'm here to help"

The person seems to calm a little. John takes in their features. Androgynous, blue hair, red eyes, young. Probably younger than him.

"Vigilante?" The person croaks out whimpering at the pain of speaking

"Yeah" John nodded, "can you point to where the person who did this to you went?"

With a little bit of struggle and a furrowed brow the person begins to point, then they freeze and scream.

John only misses the kick at his head by an inch.

He turns around quickly to see his attacker and to shield the person.

His, no, their attacker is a middle-aged man with blonde hair and pink eyes. He smiles sickly sweet, John shivers.

The smile irks him just as much as the zero aura this man is outputting, not a single drop John can sense.

The man goes in for another kick this time to John's knee. John blocks the man's leg just in time before using his momentum to flip him. He only half flips but a win is a win.

"You know how to put up a fight" the man says smiling "lucky me"

John shivers, disgust painting his face at the man's smile. The man stands up straight as if about to speak again. John doesn't hesitate and boxes him in the nose.

While the man leans forward from reflex, John shoves his elbow into the man's neck and then kicks the man in the groyne.

The man is on the floor in seconds, confused in where to place his hands in pain.

John blinks at the downed man and the back at the person from earlier

"He didn't use an ability?" John asks

"His ability is mental, his smile lulls people into a fall sense of safety, it's constantly active and only works on those lower in level than him" the person manages to croak out

John shakes his head of couse the first ability is a mental one, at least it was a low tier.

"Do you have a phone?" John asks

"Not anymore, he smashed it" the person groans clearly over getting beaten up and instead mourning their phone.

John wanders over to the man searches his pockets, smiling to himself as he finds the man's phone

"Here, call the police and get to the hospital" John hands the the phone

"Thanks" the person takes the phone "I suppose I should say you weren't here"

"And explain the beaten up body?" John laughs "nah, tell the joker saved you"

The person nods and looks down at the phone and starts typing.

John is already gone when they look up.

Chapter Text

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who has supported this fic and me through kudos and comments since this fic recieved 100 kudos (now 103!) . 

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Chapter Text

"Why do you look dead?" Is the first thing someone says to John when he comes to school. In all fairness to Evie it is said with a touch of concern (and a lot of laughter)

In response John glared at her before sitting down and slamming his head into the table. He really shouldn't have stayed up all night.

"He looks worse than Isen ." Terrence comments, causing Evie, Dylan and Rowan to jump in surprise. John is too tired to even be shocked - he doubts he'd be shocked if Terrence came in and killed one of them, he's just so tired.

"Sneaky, nice" John mumbles into the table. It is a good accomplishment, but something about it ticks him off. Terrence was struggling a lot with being sneaky, but now ,he's mastered it within two weeks.

"What's wrong with Isen?" Dylan asks more concern in his voice than when he was laughing at John's tiredness.

"Saw him walking to the press room, he was white as a ghost" Terrence says calmly, his tone ticking John off. Terrence was doing that a lot today. Whatever, he's probably just too tired.

"Is he okay? Was there blood" Rowan says, anxiety leading him to believe the worst

"His an elite tier, I couldn't ask even if I wanted" Terrence points out. John would also like to point out that Terrence has no qualms about speaking to Seraphina or Cecile, two people much stronger than Isen. "John, I think you should go and see Cecile?"

John froze in his thinking "what?"

"Yeah she wants you to come see her"

"Why? John asks in confusion, press club isn't till two days' time and his article isn't due until next week.

"I think Isen told her something" Terrence said in a low voice, close to John's ear

John's mind immediately goes into panic mode- or at least it would if he wasn't running on zero sleep, anxiety and one painfully drank coffee (no matter how much sugar and milk he adds it still tastes bitter).

Instead he just slowly stands up to start going to Cecile, completely unconcerned by Terrence's hushed warning

He pauses at the door "aren't you coming with?"

Terrence looks mildly concerned before following, the others remained behind looking more confused than John does doing algebra.

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

John knocks on the press club door before entering.

He honestly can't say he's shocked when he sees Isen ensnared in Cecile's vines, hanging from the ceiling upside down. Terrence however makes a choked boise behind him.

"What's going-" John tries to ask before getting interrupted by Cecile

"I'm going to give you one chance John Doe" Cecile says, voice colder than polar water "tell me the truth"

As if the coldness of her voice shocks his brain awake, he's suddenly very aware of why Terrence and Isen are shaking with anxiety.

"What truth?" He asks, taking notes of which exit would be the quickest. He may not fear being beat up by high tiers but having every nitty gritty detail exposed about him by a very angry Cecile, that he fears.

"About new Boston, about last night, about your ability" Cecile lists "the press club is about one thing-the truth, I will not have a liar writing for it"

John freezes. How did she find out?

Isen.

"What did you tell her?" He asks, dropping whatever happiness he has been given and worked for and instead switching to his tyrant voice and face.

He wants to laugh when Isen squeaks out an "I'm sorry!" He looks likes he wants to piss his pants

"Answer me John" Cecile demands

"What did you tell her?" John asks

Isen squirms

"John!" Terrence shouts causing everyone to freeze. John turns around to face him "just tell them"

John feels the floor fall from beneath him. He feels the air be pushed out of his lungs. He can't feel it being pulled back in.

"You know" he manages. Breath quickening while also not breathing at all.

"Yeah, we all do" Cecile says

"How-"

"Isen's a stalker" Cecile and Terrence say at the same time

"Terrence is worse than me!" Isen yells back, a vine trails up his neck and covers his mouth.

Laughing doesn't help John's lack of air and pounding heart.

"Hey John, you need to calm down," Terrence says, putting his hand on John's shoulder. John shoves him off.

"Yeah, your not breathing properly" Cecile tries "it's okay, in mean what you did in New Boston is like Arlo during his emo phase just a little more extreme"

"Did Arlo ever leave his emo phase" Isen scoffs, somehow escaping from the vine that stopped him from speaking.

John's too tired to have a panic attack and deal with all this. He turns around to leave.

He ignores their shouts all the way to the infirmary.

He laughs when he sees that Doc looks just as tired as him.

Chapter Text

“You better not make your visits here frequent,” Doc grumbles as he forces john to lay down on an infirmary bed “i already have to deal with injured teens everyday, don’t want one of them to think we’re friends or something because they spend all their time here; i’m talking about you by the way”

“Aww, you’re like the mom i never had,” john jokes, having already calmed down from his panic attack and is currently in a state of limbo, anxiety still causing his hands to shake but not actually panicking “and don’t worry, you’re like fifty why would i want to be friends with you

Doc pauses before sighing “I'm a doctor for physical problems not psychological, talk about your mother issues with someone else. Also i’m thirty not fifty”

“Did you just say I have mommy issues?” John asks, incredulous at what he has just heard “I don't even know my mom, she left when I was barely even able to walk and left my dad. Why would i ever even care about her”

Doc raises an eyebrow instead of answering and John splutters.

They are interrupted by a knock on the infirmary door and a voice shouting “it’s cecile”

“And Isen” another voice calls, presumably Isen “oh and terrence is here too i guess”

Doc rolls his eyes and John sighs. They're here now, to talk about his past. at least now he’s prepared.

“You can come in” doc says back to the three outside the door

The door bursts open suddenly. Cecile looking disgusted at Isen while Isen is white as a feather profusely apologising to seemingly everybody in the room. Terrence stands meekly to the side, laughing nervously.

“Well i’m going to my office, ye four can talk it out yourselves” Doc mutters as he walks toward his office before very loudly saying “if punches are thrown im throwing that back, got it?”

Cecile and Isen nod but terrence starts to speak “but sir, isn’t that-”

“illegal? Yes. but so is what i assume is hacking into someone's personal files” Doc says back closing his office doors

“We’re so going to get into trouble for that aren’t we?” Isen asks awkwardly

“You’re used to it by now” cecile scoffs “with the amount of trouble you and your boyfriend get into”

Whatever Cecile is referring to takes a second to compute in Isen’s head. After ten awkward quit seconds a light bulb lights i his bread as he groans “how many times do i have to say Blyke and i aren’t dating”

The other three of them raise their eyebrows at Isen in sync. Cecile answers “the only way he isn’t your boyfriend is that you’re actually dating both him and Remi. That’s the only other thing I'll believe.”

“Didn’t Remi electrocute Arlo for implying that she was dating one of them. She looked really disgusted while she did it as well” Terrence add

“Yeah” Cecile looks delighted as she reminisces “it was a great event to witness”

They all stay in silence for a few seconds. John lies down awkwardly on the hospital bed unsure how to contribute to the conversation. He agrees with Cecile though, it would be great to witness. It’s also shocking that Remi is able to produce enough electricity to shock defence king Arlo.

“We should probably talk about it, shouldn’t we?” Isen asks and the mood sours

They all mutter varying degrees of ascent.

“I guess i’ll go first” cecile starts “first off i would like to say i'm sorry that we caused you to panic john however i am not sorry about confronting you or doing a background check on you. I am head of the press, I will not have any unknowns.”

“I’ll go next” Isen says, making sure not to leave any gaps for john to speak, guess they will hear from him at the end. “I started researching you after you texted me and because of what you told Blyke. And then I ended up stalking you last night when I was driving back to the dorms and saw you out and about. That’s how i figured out the vigilante thing”

“My turn then,'' Terence mutters “i uhm, i had a friend from middle school who ended up going to new boston for high school. We are in contact with each other again and text sometimes. I mentioned that you used to go to his school and once he heard your name he told me about everything. Your rule of new boston, your expulsion and everything else”

They were all telling the truth, John thinks so anyways. Terrence is a little fishy but he always is. He could probably ask for the friend’s name but John didn't ever bother to learn the names of his peers even after he became king, especially not after he became king.

“Thank you for saying sorry” john starts, unsure what to say “i know you’re all into getting information and stalking people so i can’t really fault ye for treating me like everybody else, if anything i appreciate it.”

Awkward silence spread between them. Seconds pass and no one makes a move to fill it

Joh surprisingly, to both himself and the others, takes the initiative to do so “do you have any questions?”

“So many” Isen says

“If you really are okay with answering them” terence assures

“Always” Cecile grins

“Then ask away” john smiles softly “i won’t answer them all but i’ll try”

Chapter Text

“Damn your life is wild”  Isen mutters. Both Isen and Terrence are now sitting on John's bed while Cecile stays standing.

“I know, try living it.” John shrugs

“To recount: your mom is a 9.1 and your dad is a cripple” terrence starts trying to grasp john’s life story

“Yep” john nods 

“You were a cripple till you were thirteen, when you awakened your ability, between then and your second year of highschool you were able to cultivate your ability into being 7”

John nods “pretty much”

“With your growing power came arrogance and vengeance. You went batshit as king and became the so-called ‘tyrant’ of new boston. But eventually your friend organised your downfall along with sixteen other people, which you fought against all at once and won. Then your other friend, Adrion called the authorities and you were arrested, but they left you off because of your level and instead you were simply expelled”

“Yes” John says, ignoring the way their bloody faces flash in his mind, monster. He chose not to tell them about the readjustment classes, he isn’t ready to talk about them, not yet.

“Bull” Cecile says “the authorities are biassed in regards to abilities and levels but they know when someone has taken it too far, they would have made you an example, arrested you and made it a big showing. And yet there was no news with your name and face, just one report about the incidence. Why? Do you have some kind of backing or some shit?”

John sighs internally of course cecile would realise he was left off too easily. He still doesn't understand fully why either. All he knows is that it doesn’t just apply to him but also his father. With what he said about his book he should have been jailed or at least go to court and yet they just want to ban the book. 

“I don't fully understand why either but I think it has something to do with my mom or at least her side of the family.” john answers truthfully

“Your mom?” Isen asks “i thought you said she left”

“She did, it’s just… the way she left, it was unusual.” John explains “whenever I look at pictures or my dad talks about her, she always sounds so happy with us and yet she still left. My dad went through all of her things, there’s no proof of her planning to leave, she didn’t take any of her things, didn’t leave a single trace. She just disappeared.”

“And you think the authorities have something to do with it?” Terrence asks, there’s a strange look of eagerness on his face like a plan is already forming in his head. Cecile and Isen seem to notice as well because they both raise an eyebrow at each other after looking at Terrence. 

“Yeah, the authorities have never been big on my family. People barely befriend people outside their own tiers, except for elite and high tiers who mingle with each other, so marriage between the lowest and highest tiers, it’s absurd. It goes against everything society stands for, separation and strength in power not unity.”

“But why leave you behind, you're the result of their union? And why your mother and not your father, he’s weaker?” Isen points out

“They probably took his mother because if they took his dad they would be targeted by a very angry and very powerful woman, who would stop at nothing for revenge.” Cecile explains, taking the answer off of John  “You've seen the difference between Arlo and Seraphina and there’s only around 1 level between them. Imagine someone nearly two levels above Seraphina, who had the love of her life taken away from her” 

“Yeah I would shit my pants.” Isen shivers 

“The reason why they couldn’t take me, well, there’s two that’s possible” john says “One, they made a deal with my mom to let me and dad go if she went quietly”

“Makes sense” Terrence nods “using you and your dad as an incentive, it’s smart, cruel, but smart” 

“Yeah it is, a god tiers biggest weakness will be their pride, we were my mom’s apparently” John agrees “Then there’s reason two, and i don’t know for sure but i don’t think i have been removed from the line of succession” 

Cecile looks at him, hard “are you being serious?”

“Completely” john nods, grimacing 

Isne and terrence both look at the two of them confused as cecile takes a seat on Johns bed with the others. 

“Line of succession, is that bad?” Isen asks looking between John and Cecile

 “The name ‘god tier’ exists for two reasons” Cecile says “Firstly, because god tiers tend to be capable of natural disaster level destruction and because they are a one man army. That’s what most people mean when they say god tier.” The other three all nod “The second reason comes form traditional family’s like seraphina, arlo and john’s mom’s families. Families like theirs believe those who have God tier level abilities are blessed from god. The succession doesn’t work like usual, it doesn’t go from firstborn to firstborn. It goes from the most powerful person to the next. As they are the closest to ‘god’. If john is right and he still is a part of the line of succession then that means if he becomes stronger than the current head, he will become the head after a rank battle”

“But wouldn’t that be a good thing, to be the family head. You’d get a bunch of money and power” terrence states 

“Seraphina and arlos’s family where do they work” Cecile asks 

“Seraphina’s family are all high level politicians and scientists at Nxgen and Arlo’s family are all high authority members” Isen says

“And its stays that way because they’re good at representing their sectors and families, the authorities approve of them and the head of their families, Seraphina’s Dad and Arlo’s aunt.” cecile explains “but if john were to become head of his family, the authorities will despise it. He’s a high tier with no training and is very much firm in his belief that we, no matter our ability level, should be equal. He’s a problem child, to be frank. The authorities treat late bloomers as failures, but john wouldn’t be one is he was family head, he would be ‘blessed by god’ not a failure like society dictates”

“It would cause outrage among high tier families and government officials”  john finishes 

“But john would have to actually be stronger than the head right, if they were okay with disowning your mom when she was a 9.1 when i say they have someone much stronger than you capable of keeping a likeable head of the family for the authorities” Isen points out 

“The disaster theory” Terrence says

“What?” Isen crosses his brows 

“It's yet to be proven yet but it’s been the discussion for the last ten years among the science community. With every generation there are less cripples and more high tiers.” Terrenece explains “ for god tiers alone what was once, one in a million is now one in a hundred thousand. Cripples used to be one in a thousand, now they are one in fifty thousand. As well as that, the average level used to be 3.1 but now it's 3.5. If the statistics are true, we are all destined to be stronger than our parents and our children will be as well.”

“So John's more than likely going to be stronger than a 9.1.”  Isen sighs “ but can’t they just not fight him and keep their current head, i don’t know about you but john doesn’t seem like he’s brimming with excitement over this.”

“I’m not” john agrees “but it’s like rank battles, they can’t just not out of pride, like i said a god tiers greatest weakness is their pride, they will have to challenge me once my ability is high enough even if i don’t make my move” 

“So to conclude, the authorities hate you and you are well on your way to becoming part of a very powerful and influential family, which is bad because you might cause actual change in society” Isen sumarrises

They all give various degrees of assent 

“Great.” isen huffs

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

They leave the Infirmary ten minutes late, all having to go to class. They hadn’t been able to talk about much else since they didn’t want to have their conversations interrupted by the need to go to class so they just talked about a random incident that happened in the club last week. Two girls were fighting over a boy. Apparently said boy was zeke and they were fighting over who was the one who had to go near him to interview him. One of them looked like they were on the verge of vomiting each time they had to say his name. John could understand why.

They are five steps away from their class when Terrence asks “is any one around?”

“Hmm? Why?” john asks, the all ways are empty except for them since Cecile and Isen are in different classes and class already started 

“I want to talk about something” Terrence says 

“There’s nobody” john looks around with his passive “go ahead”

“You probably haven’t heard about it or anything, it’s better that you actually haven’t to be honest” Terrence says and whatever image of a meek but slightly fishy boy is gone, replacing him is a teen with a calculating face “have you ever heard of spectre?”

Chapter Text

“Have you ever heard of spectre?” terrence asks as the two of the stand outside of their classroom

John scrunches his nose trying to think if he has, he shakes his head “not at all. Cool name though” 

“Spectre believes in the same things as you do john” Terrence explains “they believe everyone should be equal” 

John nods even though something about Terrence’s wording makes him uncomfortable, should be not are. He also really needs to go to class. He’s already had to repeat a year once he doesn't want to do so again. He voices this concern to Terrence. 

“Look Terrence, I really do want to hear about Spectre but I’ve already had to repeat a year once I don't want to have to again” John explains as he moves his hand to open the door to their class. 

Terrence's hand comes forward and catches John’s in place before he can open the door. His grip is stronger than John thought it would be. He stores that information away for later. John raises an eyebrow at Terrence who immediately retracts his hand with a muttered “sorry”

“This is just really important john, one class doesn’t even matter in comparison” Teerrnece says and not going to lie that did pique john’s interest however john was a stubborn as a mountain he did not budge

“Terrence we have maths now, remember last time ye guys helped me with my homework?” John smiles as a look of horror washes over Terrence's face as he remembers their study sension in the library “Yeah I need this.”

“How the hell did you think forty-nine was a multiple of eight?” He shudders “It’s an odd number, John, eight is even. How would it even be possible?”

“Blame my teachers, not me” he shrugs at terence

“Your seventeen john, i blame you”  he sighs

John lets out a small laugh as Terrence smirks. Terrence is still suspicious as hell and whatever spectre is about makes him even more suspicious but… John doesn’t want to lose a friend ever again, not like he lost Adrion, not like he lost Claire.

He bumps his shoulder against Terrence's as he opens the classroom door. “You can tell me about spectre later, we’re friends, you can tell me about anything, Terrence”

He doesn’t see the flash of guilt that crosses Terrence’s face as he apologies to their teacher for being late

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

John walks out of school with his friends, laughing as Dylan almost face plants into the ground as he trips over his loose lace. He realsies as the group walks that he may not be able to talk to Terrence for a while, they always started together as a group. The two of them were always with either Evie, Roland, Dylan and Sera or with Cecile and Isen. 

He would probably be able to ignore the fact they needed to talk if it wasn't for the fact that terrence keeps staring at john, his eyes asking for them to talk in private. John ignores his request, instead focusing on his other friends as they laugh. 

John looks over at Sera, a small smile growing on his face. She’s come out of her shell a lot. Whatever strings that were holding her back from being herself seem to have loosened, her cardigan falling off her shoulder, she doesn't fix it. 

She catches his eye as he stares at her. 

“What are you so happy about?” she asks with a raised eyebrow

“Nothing” John answers, smiling as she scoffs in fake annoyance, or maybe real, it’s hard to tell.

Whatever happy moment the group was having came to a halt as terence speaks up “Guys john and I have something to do, so we have to go” 

JOhn raises an eyebrow as Terrence speaks, well at least they can talk about it now.

“What? No,” Evie complains “ we have sparring lessons now”

“Yeah john was supposed to teach us about-” dylan complains with her before being interrupted buy seraphina

“I can teach ye guys” she assures them “i’m not queen because i can’t fight, even without my ability i say i can beat ye” 

Evie smirks, cracking her knuckles “oh really? Challenge accepted.”

Dylan whoops as Sera smirks. Roland looks on in silent horror. John really needs to help him build up his confidence, he’ll never win a fight if he’s so worried about losing.

“I guess I’ve been replaced” John says in mock hurt. Th group don’t comfort his mock hurt instead they all nod muttering various levels of assent 

John places a hand over his heart, mocking pain as it ‘breaks’, as he turns around to leave with Terrence “come on terence, let’s go” 

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

“So where are we going?” John asks once they are far enough away from the group. 

“You like boba right?” terence asks and john nods, although love would probably be the better word for his addiction “then let's go to woba boba”

John whoops loudly, he probably needs to get his addiction to boba addressed. 

Terrence seems to share this sentiment as he goes red as people turn to stare at john

“Never do that again.” Terrence says

John doesn't answer, just smiles at Terrence innocently as if he has no idea what he’s talking about. Terrence sighs, dragging a hand across his face.

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

“So, besides wanting everyone to be equal what else is spectres about” John asks terrence as they sit down in a booth with their drinks, he glares at the black coffee that Terrence has in his hands “like is it a social activist group that does protests or an online group that talks about doing stuff and how we should change the world but then never actually acts?” 

“Its a ghost organisation, hence the name spectre, that recruits people to retrieve information and fight against the authorities, government and society” Terrence explains

“So it’s illegal” John states not really bothered by the fact it may be, he had lost all respect for laws when he had first been beaten for his cripple status. 

“Yes,” Terrence nods “it does break several laws to do what we do”

“We?” john raises an eyebrow at the confirmation that terrence is a part of the organisation

“Yes, we” he affirms 

“And your job is to recruit people, to hide within schools and befriend students before convincing them to join”

“Yes”

“And our friendship, was that only a means of recruitment?” John asks, but he isn’t anxious. He knows the smiles they shared were genuine, he knows terrence’s concern this morning was genuine. Even if the beginning of their friendship was fake, a way of recruitment he knows now it is a genuine bond. He isn’t scared for the other boy’s answer.

“No, befriending you was coincidence, however me finding out about your past was not, it was purposeful. I needed to know if you were recruitable” terrence explains

“recruitable? "How many people do you have on your radar?” 

Whatever answer John was expecting wan’t for a folder of paper to be pulled out of Terrence’s school bag. He watches silently, chewing on a pearl from his mango boba, as Terrence pulls out the sheets from the folder.

His eyes scan each sheet as Terrence displays them. 

Sera, Arlo, Remi, Cecile, Blyke, Isen, even fucking Zeke, had whole sheets dedicated to them, he also had one along with other elite tiers he’s yet to meet, Ventus, Meili and Holden. 

The only people he’s shocked to see are Doc and Principal Vaughn.

The sheets list their abilities, family, backgrounds, grades and even a personality assessment done by Terrence. If John didn’t have his own notebook dedicated to people’s abilities he would be severely judging Terrence. But he does so instead he picks up the sheets to read them, mainly the personality assessments. 

Sera’s recruitment status was negative, but from the description JOhn could tell Terrrence might begin to change his mind on that. 

It read:

“Extremely powerful with great influence. Highly intelligent. Shows cold shoulder to others. Recently began to befriend low tiers and is beginning to see flaws in our society. Still believes that power determines worth. Predicted to be head of family in coming years”

He read Arlo's next. Another negative.

“Excellent leadership. Calculated. Inflexible. Strict on ranks. Has many loyal followers. Connections with authorities. Predicted to become head of family after aunt dies”

Then Remi’s. Unsurprisingly, it was positive. He’s seen her stop as many fights as she could.

“Optimistic. Caring. High Battle IQ. positive reputation among low and mid tiers. Good judgement. Naive”

He’s not all that surprised when he sees a negative for cecile.

“Good leadership. Loyal following. Power oriented. Intelligent. Ambitious. Self-serving. Treats her own well but other lower tiers negatively. Information regulation specialist.”

Blyke has a different status than the rest: unsure.

“Impulsive. Loyal. Proactive. Quick to handle conflict. Believes in superiority of status but is not outwardly cruel or enforcing”

Isen has a negative as well but John's pretty sure that’s due to his own personal  bias and not unbiased judgement. 

“Information Specialist. Curious. Avoids responsibility. Stickler for detail. Harsh critic. Intelligent. Complains a lot.”

John raises an eyebrow at Terrence who just shrugs in defeat.  

And then his own recruitment positive.

“Secretive. Highly intelligent. Befriend both low and high tiers with cripple status. Influential. Stubborn. Anger issues. May have PTSD. Negative view of authorities. Helps train low tiers to fight. Stands up against high tiers. Great fighter, can beat elite ties without ability”

John can’t exactly say he can disagree with any of it.

He doesn’t bother reading anymore of the files even if he can admit to himself he’s curious about Vaughn. 

As he goes to hand them back to Terrence the boy says “You keep them, I have online copies at my dorm.”

John nods, shoving the pages into his bag rumpling them slightly as he does. He laughs slightly as Terrence winces. 

“So what do you think?” He aks 

“How illegal is illegal?” John asks instead of answering

“I can’t tell you until you confirm you are joining”

“Please” john chances 

Terrence doesn’t budge “Your answer or no answers”

John nods in defeat “then I say…”

Chapter Text

John walks home from Woaba Boba stuck in his head. He keeps thinking it over. Was it really the best decision to make? What if he said- no there isn't any point in thinking this over now. He’s already made his decision, he can’t take it back now. 

He takes out his phone from his pocket, he needs a distraction right now before he spirals. 

He presses on Isen’s name

John:

Remi’s brothers nubmer pls.

It took a few seconds for him to come online 

Isen:

???

why

John:

now. 

Isen:

If you have a crush on the guy he’s like four years older than you

John:

3 yrs 

I gto hld back remeber.

Isen:

Still…

John

Jut give it.

Isen:

Here *** *** ****

 Read

Isen:

Not even a thanks 

Delivered 

Isen:

Night i guess

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

John sighed as he rang the new number, it’s probably not the best idea to go out vigilante-ing right now especially not with people who could very well expose him for being a vigilante 

“Hello unknown number, this is Rei speaking” Rei greets

“Do you greet every potential scam caller like this?” john sighs

“Just because they scam people doesn’t mean they’re not people” Rei answers without hesitation

John rolls his eyes “well at least i know where Remi gets it from now”

“Wait! How do you know my sis…” Rei trails off, thinking. John can practically hear the dots connecting in his head “Your Joker!”

“Yeah-” 

John tries to speak but is interrupted by Rei loudly announcing to someone on the other end, presumably Kuyo “Hey! It’s Joker!”

A hushed mumble later and Rei speaks again “Kuyo wants to know how you got my number?”

“With ease” john says

 Rei laughs “So why are you calling?”

“I’m going vigilante-ing and was wondering if you'd like to join me” john asks 

Another hushed mumbled conversation later rei answers “sure, meet us by **** train station at 8. We’ll be on a roof nearby, so we’ll see you”

“See you then” 

“See you”

John hangs up and checks the time, it's 6 o’clock now. Excluding travel time he only has an hour to get prepared. The train station they’re meeting at is quite far away since wellston is such a built up area vigilantes aren’t often needed but in areas that are more concentrated with low tiers there aren't many authorities patrolling so crime runs rampant. Just another example of their shitty government.

He looks down at what he’s wearing, his school uniform not the best for committing illegal crimes he must admit. He thinks for a second before deciding on what to do, he needs to go shopping for a vigilante costume!

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

An hour later of indecisiveness, contemplation and money spent John finally has his outfit bought. He’s bought a skin tight exercise shirt, a black hoodie and cargo pants with a bunch of pockets so he can store medical supplies. He also bought a black ski mask, both for the aesthetic and for keeping his identity hidden. 

He finds a bathroom to change into everything except for the mask, then it’s time for the train.

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

Which he nearly missed, he only got on with seconds to spare thankfully an old lady was taking her dear old time getting on while one of the employees helped her so he was able to quickly jump on. 

The train station he arrives in is dirty and has flickering lights everywhere which is bugging him severally. He realises as he walks out of the building he has gotten zero sleep all day. between vigilante-ing last night, Cecile, Isen and Terrence finding out about his past and Terrence telling him to choose he’s had a busy day that he’ll most likely have a break down about soon. Luckily tomorrow's a week end and he can sleep all day. 

A slips on his mask as he scans the rooftops around him. He quickly catches bright blue hair and mint green hair practically alerting everyone surrounding they were there. 

He watches them descend as he rolls his eyes, everywhere wear but their most noticeable feature covered, the idiots. 

“So joker, what are we doing today?” Rei asks as he joins john’s side

John smiles, he had done his research on the train over “did you guys ever hear of a high tier from here named adam?”

They both turn to look at him, eyebrows raising as they smile. 

“Lead the way” Rei cheers and suddenly they’ve all taken to the rooftops

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

Adam, am elite tier who strangely chose to live in a low tier populated area. Of course he had his reasons, those being to abuse the fear of low tiers and his power to make sure that they all gave him money and all other resources. 

John couldn’t find any information on his ability but apparently he’s a 4. Which means John will probably have to use his ability to take him down. With the amount of hidden person’s reports that come from this area it’s obvious that he doesn't have any morals, so John can hardly manipulate him like he did Blyke. 

He’ll have to use it, aura manipulation. He’ll have to risk it. The chance he’ll go berserk. 

That’s the main reason he has brought Rei and Kuyo with him, just in case he goes berserk. 

He explains as such to the two as they make their way to Adam’s place of work. Rei nods in understanding while Kuyo asks 

“If you don’t mind me asking, why do you lose control?” 

“Yeah your ability is insanely powerful but to just lose control over your whole being as a side effect. That’s just completely… well, fucked” rei adds 

John considers how he would phrases it “i’m a late bloomer” he says with no other explanation

“Really?” Rei asks in shock “your like what a 7, what age did you get your ability at?”

“Yeah im a 7” john confirms as he thinks of what age he got his ability at “14, i’m seventeen at the moment”

Rei misses the next jump.

“What?” He asks as Kuyo helps him up from where he hangs onto the building for dear life “you went from being a cripple to a god tier in 3 years, you went up like 2 levels each year”

John nods as they arrive at Adams work building “pretty much”

“So you go berserk because you never had the proper conditioning growing up to be a god tier” Kuyo concludes

“Pretty much” john hums   

They all stand in silence as Kuyo and Rei consider his words

“What now?” Rei asks “what's the plan?”

“Waiting game for now” john says “we’re waiting for him to leave”

They both nod and John watches as Kuyo pulls out a pocket size notebook and starts writing down what seems to be biology notes. He looks away as his phone buzzes. 

It’s a message from terrence, he opens his phone and stares at the message

Terrence 

Orren said he’ll meet you at 12 near the fountain in wellston park next saturday

He says he’s happy you have decided to join us, you will be welcomed with open arms

John 

Tellhim ell be haapy to join if he chooses later meating times.

John puts down his phone as he sighs. This better have been the right decision.

Chapter Text

It doesn’t take long for Adam, their target, to exit the building. John, who had been playing a random pig game on his phone quickly turns it off and turns to signal to his companions that their mission is a go. 

The two elder vigilantes quietly follow John, his honesty about his ability and past seemingly encouraging trust and loyalty for him. He smiles inwardly about this. It’s nice to be trusted, he thinks. He never had that under his rule of New Bostin, maybe this is how it’s supposed to be, honesty and kindness, standing up against bullies and those who abuse their power instead of being cruel and brutal, conforming to society even if it meant abusing and oppressing others. As much as he used to think he was different from all the others during his rule of New Bostin, not just treating low tiers like dirt on the sole of his shoe but everyone. It's clear now that that isn’t the case, he should have been kind, should have helped change the system instead of just blaming it for his actions. 

But now… now he has a chance to do all that. One motherfucker at a time. 

He smirks as he jumps off the roof directly on to the back of Adam, knocking him over. Minions quickly run out of the building their leader had recently exited, to come and help, they quickly circle John and Adam but Rei and Kuyo are quick to follow suit as they join him on the street. Rei quickly takes out six minions with a blast of electricity and a laugh. 

Adam usually would only have an ability level of 4 according to john’s short research, someone rei and Kuyo could easily deal with but from what  John can tell from Adam’s freshly activated ability he has jumped to a 6, a 50% increase. his aura is all jumbled up, flickering in places, just like those Ember agents from when he met Rei and Kuyo. His ability in itself is annoying enough, superspeed, along with his amplified ability level and john’s aversion to using his own ability, it is all in all going to be an annoying fight. 

At least it would be, if they were playing by the usual rules. Such as y’know, don’t attack someone with their back turned. But those rules don't apply to shit heads. 

So as John stays happily seated on the man's back, carefully restraining each limb with rope he had bought while shopping even as the man bucks and shouts trying to shove John off, he laughs. Super speed is no good if you're restrained, you may be able to outrun a rocket but that’s no good if you’re a sitting duck. And in a battle of strength, John wins (As long as his opponent doesn’t have a strength enhancement ability, of course). So Adam stands no chance against him. 

Even if John did fight a fair fight, he still presumes he could win. The drug that the man used to enhance himself is probably extremely expensive which means he’s only had a few chances to use it. A jump from a 4 to 6 is drastic, so the man would probably run into a wall and knock himself out, unadapted to the drastic increase in speed, before John could touch him.

Adam seems to quickly realise this as he stops struggling against john. 

“Hey Joker!” Rei calls him “we’re finished over here”

John looks over at his two fellow vigilantes, the two of them are surrounded by at least a dozen bodies. Rei smiling brightly and Kuyo looking satisfied.

“Same here” John says back, he then pats Adam on the shoulder “isn’t that right adam?”

When no answer follows John's question he pats harder, almost hard enough to be considered hitting. 

This gets Adam to grunt out an answer “yes”

“Gather them up” John orders the others “it’s time to teach them how to treat others kindly”

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

The lesson goes quite well if John can say himself. He and his companions somehow manage to convince Adam and his lackeys to an agreement that will stop abusing their power and their community as well as atone for their behaviour by volunteering at the local community centre to help those they had previously harmed. In exchange, John, Kuyo and Rei had to agree not to beat them up (again) and to not report any of their misdoings to the authorities (Kuyo had helpfully downloaded information from some of the lackeys and Adam’s phones and used it as blackmail). 

All of this seemed too easy to John, much too easy. Sure John Kuyo and Rei are strong but they hadn’t gone ridiculously over the top, as to scare them shitless and everyone knows the authorities don’t care about what people do as long as it’s not disrupting the current hierarchy. 

He voices these thoughts to Adam, who he was currently helping to untie after their agreement had been shaken on. 

“Hmm, I guess that's all true” adam hums “the authorities wouldn’t care usually no.”

“Usually?” john asks, noticing the emphasis 

“I'm sure you did your research on me since you knew i have a speed ability” john nods to adam as confirmation “than you’d also know that i’m a 4”

“Not tonight” john interrupts “your a 6 right now at least”

Adam gives him a look but continues on “ so they did mean it when they said a 50% increase” 

“They?” john asks

“Ember, a shady organisation that gives out these drugs that enhance your ability by 50%, call them ability amplifiers. Some lady called Volcan hands them out to gang leaders like me and let us use our power to further enforce the hierarchy. They’re even rumours that Ember has drugs that allow them to transfer abilities.” Adam explains 

“What does this have to do with the authorities?” he knows they’re ignoring Ember to instead chase his dad, that’s why he got into this whole vigilante business. To fuck with them.

“Two things, the drug users and their gangs, like myself, have to agree not to get reported or put on the news lest we want to die by ember’s hands”

“Makes sense, a secretive organisation wanting to stay secret, not that unusual.” even though they've already made some headlines 

“The second reason is that they’re some interesting rumours going on about the authorities and Ember at the moment. Talks about them being connected. Some even think that Ember is a secret department of the authorities. If the authorities find out we got reported then we’re practically getting reported to ember at the same time and like i said previously, they’ll kill us” 

And this makes an unusual amount of sense, with the authorities lack of action and Ember’s amount of resources. 

“Why do all of this if you’re so scared of dying” john asks as he unties the last restraints

“Well usually when your ability level has been enhanced to that of a 6, one would think that not many could go toe to toe with them and therefore would not get caught. That is y’know until a kid and two high tiers take down your whole gang down within a minute, one without using his ability at all” adam laughs 

“A kid?!” John asks offended

“Yes, a kid!” the man laughs “which means it's past your bedtime”

John glares at the man and begins to walk off without saying goodbye

“It’s joker right” the man calls out to him “i’ll be keeping an eye out for you in the news, something tells me ember will be making a move soon, so watch out”

John stills his walk but slowly starts walking again, ember, the authorities, spectre and homework. He’s never going to get a second of shut eye is he?

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

The minute John gets home he practically collapses from exhaustion. He dazedly thinks that if he sleeps for 24 hours he might actually have energy to do his homework.

Chapter Text

John wishes one day he'll wake up to the rising sun gently sleeping through his curtains filling his bedroom with it's warm light. Today is sadly not one of these days.

Instead he is woken to someone pouring water over his face. He finds himself coughing and hurriedly wiping the freezing water off his face as he blinks open his eyes.

Four smiling faces stare down on him and another one looks at him with mirth. He glares back at them before rolling over and pulling his blanket back over his head.

"No no no, dont do that!" Evie laughs and tugs the blanket off of him.

"Come on man, we're going shopping" Dylan explains (also laughing the little shit) 

"It's 11 am, it'll be busy soon with other people" Seraphina adds her shoulders still shaking with mirth at John's disgruntled appearance

John, exasperated, finally sits up throwing a pillow at seraphina (who catches it with ease).

"How did ye even get in here?" He asks the five of them. "Ye better have not have broken my door open"

"I picked your lock" Terrence shrugs as if that's a casual everday skill, the others don't even looked slightly concerned about their friends invasive ability.

John sighs "could ye not have called ahead at least"

"We did" Seraphina confirms 

"You never picked up" Evie chirped as she gave John his phone, showing a combined total of 29 missed called and 46 messages (about forty if which were Dylan and Evie spamming him with his full name in all caps).

"I tried to stop them" Roland's quiet voice admits 

John thinks for a second before standing up and walking over to Roland, hand on the other boys shoulder he declares "Roland you are officially now my favourite person in this world. If anyone ever hurts you, I will destroy them"

Roland goes bright red as Evie and Dylan screech in offense, shaking the poor boy and John in desperation, trying to get him to admut to lying. Terrance smiles, giggling like the little shit he is as Seraphina huffs, hiding a small smile.

This isn't his dream morning, with a gentle rising sun and lazy yawning but it is nice, it's something he'd like to get used to.

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

After a quick breakfast, which ended in burnt toast and a broken toaster (don't ask him how), the six of them quickly board the bus and head to the mall. All of them brimming with excitement, even Seraphina.

Like Seraphina said, the mall has yet to become packed with busy shoppers so the six of them are allowed to quietly walk around shops without any interference from anyone. 

Sadly John found out three things

    1.Seraphina is a shopaholic 

    2.Evie is a fan of horror movies 

    3.Both of them bond over messing with John, and the others but mainly John.

But hey! at least their bonding he thinks to comfort himself after get another jumps are in the movie their watching, he's given up on all of his pride as he clutches both Dylan and Roland's hands.

I have created a duo that even gods hide from, he thinks dramatically as he sees Terrance's concerned stares at Seraphina and Evie's laughing forms. 

None of them are ever going to live this down are they?

Another jumpscare and Terrance turns invisible as a reflex. This sends the two angelic demons into another fit of laughter and John can't help to join in, giggling at Terrence's reaction (the little shit deserves it, so can you blame him?)

~♣~♠~♥~♦~

When he's back home later that day, carrying bags of shopping that he's not even sure of the contents (Seraphina threw clothes at him so he could “improve his style”, he tried to argue that he's just fine but when she looked him up and down with the most judgemental look known to man he conceded pretty quickly), he thinks to himself things can't get any better.

As he plops onto his bed after throwing his bags on the floor declaring them tomorrow's problem he finally picks up the book Vaughn gave him and begins to read.