In the corner of her classroom, Ferain was sitting at her desk with her cheek nestled in one hand while the other held onto the base of a lightbulb. She had a lazy look in her glowing eyes as she pushed power into the small object. It glowed for several seconds, flickered some, and then strengthened again. All around her were either broken bulbs from previous attempts, or ones that had just simply fried up and were now completely useless. The one in her hand steadied and looked as it should have done, bright and constant. Her eyes widened as she rose from her resting position and she stared intently at the light. Suddenly, there was a small pop from the other side of the room, causing her to lose her concentration. The bulb exploded in her hand, startling her and sending a small flurry of shards down to join the others.
“Damn it.” Copper cursed.
“That’s what I want to say.” Fera thought, looking over at him as he gripped both sides of his head in frustration.
“You almost had it, man. Here, try again.” Marrow said, holding out another crimson die.
“Fuck it!” Copper howled, swatting it away. It flew and hit one of the other students in the side of the head, causing her own experiment to blow up in her face, quite literally.
The girl’s small balloon popped as she put too much heat into it and she glowered at the boys.
“Get over it.” Copper growled, noticing her dirty look.
“Get over yourself.” the girl snapped back. She rose and moved to grab another balloon from the teacher’s desk.
“What are you looking at, Prodigy?” he then snarled, realizing that Fera was watching him.
“Nothing special.” she replied, turning her attention back to her own task.
She reached down, took another lightbulb in hand, but when she held it up, a small pebble shot through it and caused more glass to rain down. The lights flickered in the class as Fera’s eyes glowed but after a quick breath, she calmed down and let the lighting return to normal. Looking back at Copper only revealed his dumb, smirking face. It made her want to hit it as hard as she could.
“Callus!” came Yakuma’s sharp tone. She didn’t sound happy, but she also didn’t leave her desk, so Copper was safe from punishment at the moment. “Get back to work and stop sabotaging the other students. Any more of that and we’ll have a round in the dueling arena, got it?”
“Yes, Professor.” he said, halfheartedly.
“What was that?” Sara howled, rising and slamming her hands on her desk.
“Yes, Professor!” Copper yelled, sounding much more responsive this time around.
“That’s what I thought, asshole.” Sara growled, taking her seat again.
Fera thought that she was in a particularly bad mood this morning, but she didn’t know why. She made a note of that, deciding that today was not the day to get on her bad side. She grabbed another lightbulb and held it up again, retaking her bored posture, and pushed more power into the light. This task was difficult, and she was still trying her hardest to get this right. However, that didn’t stop it from being boring and repetitive. It was now March, the third month of the school year. She’d been doing this little party trick everyday since first receiving this increasingly annoying task, and it didn’t help that Copper and Marrow were always present and making a ruckus while she was trying to concentrate. Still, even with them, she was steadily getting better. It seemed that Anita’s lessons were finally paying off. Their last lesson required Fera to keep a ball of lightning in her hand for as long as possible without it popping, flickering away, or outright exploding. It only lasted three minutes before it did a mix of all three, but it was more than she was ever able to do before.
Still, this was a completely different beast. Anita’s lessons seemed to be teaching Fera how to not fear her powers, and how to get used to using them. Professor Yakuma’s lessons were about control and how to not let her powers run rampant. The bulb in her hand began to glow again, and like last time, it was steadily bright. She held it there for five minutes, keeping it going the entire time, but now she didn’t know what to do with it. Should she try another one or should she show the teacher? She didn’t know. Instead, she compromised. She held onto this one until Sara noticed it and came over. It was rare for this professor to have a pleased expression, but she wore it now.
“Hmm, I’m surprised, Hirigaya. Maintain it for the rest of class and I’ll know you’ve got it down. Tomorrow, we can move onto the next test.”
“And that is?” Fera was stupid enough to ask.
“A bigger bulb.” Sara replied, while smirking like a villain from some cartoon.
The bulb grew brighter for a second and almost popped, but she kept her powers contained and reduced the flow of energy she was letting off. Meanwhile, Copper blew another die into pieces and threw what remained at the window beside him. He was getting too frustrated, and when Fera met his eyes, he looked murderous. Quickly, she avoided his gaze and went back to her task, trying to not take too much pleasure in his consecutive failed attempts. When lunch came around, Fera was sitting with Anita at their usual table. She was late getting there because she was looking for Mana, but she seemed to be avoiding Fera ever since the day she woke up in the hospital. Fera imagined that Mana felt guilty for some reason over what happened, like it was her fault. Whenever they did talk, the conversation was kept brief and Mana would find some excuse to wander off. She was kind about it, but it still didn’t feel good.
“How long do you think she’s going to keep this up?” asked Fera, resting her head on the table.
“Mana?” Anita asked. “Hmm, not sure. She seems really stressed out lately too. What do you think she’s up to?”
“You think she’s up to something?” Fera questioned.
“Has to be. From what you overheard in the hospital, and from how she’s been acting since the attack, it only makes sense. Plus, she knew you before you two ever met, and that detective guy is her dad, right?”
“Cross Key.” Fera muttered. “So what, do you think she was tasked with keeping an eye on me or something? She’s only fifteen, right? I don’t know if some secret agency from the Crown Nation would hire teenagers to do some international investigation. Besides just that, how could they have known something like this was going to happen? She came here at the start of the year, not with her dad.”
“Oh,” Anita gasped, snapping her fingers. “Maybe, just maybe, the people responsible are some kind of dangerous terrorist group and you’re their primary target. So, bear with me, the government hired special investigators to keep you safe secretly from some outside threats.”
Fera gave her a stern glance and sighed. “You watch too much television, Anita.”
“You don’t think it's possible?” asked Anita.
“I’ll say this. If that’s the truth of what’s going on, I’ll be your personal servant until the day I die. I have so much confidence that you're wrong, I’ll do whatever you tell me to whenever you tell me to do it.”
“Oh, like an unlimited Fera-Ticket. I can get behind that.” said Anita.
Ferain shook her head and lifted a fork from the table. Her golden eyes began to glow softly as blue static started coursing around the silverware.
“You’re getting better.” Anita noted, grinning proudly.
“Slowly, but yeah, I guess I am. I’m not as afraid as I used to be, but I’m still not strong enough. We lost Autumn’s team challenge last week because of me, and I lost that sparring session a few days ago."
“We’re getting there, and we’ve been working on your new style these last few weeks too, so you should be seeing some improvement.”
“Yeah, about that, Anita. I feel like you’re just doing that to make me look like an idiot. I mean, fighting on all fours? I feel like a fool.”
“For now. You’re small, you’re agile, and your balance is pretty good when you’re lower to the ground. Your hits pack a punch but I’ve noticed that if you’re allowed too much freedom of movement, you panic and swing wildly. This stance and style makes you more unpredictable and plays to your strengths. Plus, you don’t have to start every fight on your hands and feet, it’s just a way to get you used to the movements. It also makes your body limber, stretching in different ways. You’ll see. You’re really coming into your own, Fera, and I couldn’t be more proud of you.”
“That’s really saying something, Caswell.” came a boy’s voice, one that Ferain recognized.
“Copper.” she grumbled, turning her face to see him standing at the edge of her table. He had a menacing gleam in his dark eyes. “What do you want?”
“I want to know how long you’re going to keep up the lies. I mean, you even have your own partner fooled, don’t you, prodigy?”
“She’s not lying to anybody.” snapped Anita. “Get out of here already, jerk, or I’ll blow you away.”
“Like you could,” said Copper.
“I’m a lvl-2, you arrogant fool. I didn’t think I needed to remind you, but that’s a higher rank than yours.” Anita said.
“A fluke, no doubt. But you’re not why I’m here, Caswell.” said Copper, before looking at Fera again. “I’m here to prove you’re lying.”
“And how do you plan to do that, exactly?” Fera questioned, glowering at him.
“Like this.” he replied, smirking widely.
A sudden pillar of earth shot up, breaking through the tiles of the floor and smashing into Fera’s body. Fera was sent skyward and she flew into another table, causing her body to crash through it.
“Hey!” Anita shouted. “You aren’t supposed to–”
“Stay out of this, Caswell.” interrupted Copper. “You want to know what she’s hiding, right? Everybody does. I want to know what she’s really capable of. So, come on, bug-zapper, show us all how strong you really are!” he yelled, causing another pillar of earth to rise up and bring Fera up with it.
It struck her stomach and threw her aside again. She landed on the ground and rolled to a stop, clutching her sides and gasping for air. As she rose up unsteadily, another column appeared, but it suddenly exploded into a cloud of electrified dust. Debris went in every direction, and everything around Ferain was a hazy cloud of dirt and rubble. She rose, unsteadily, her eyes glowing brightly behind the smoke. Her entire body became engulfed in electrical currents that snapped and arced. Her hair grew more wild looking, and even the inside of her mouth was starting to light up with blue static. The aura she gave off was one of an entirely different person. Her look was serious, determined, and somehow, no longer frightened. All was silent in the cafeteria. Apparently, everybody around dropped their conversations and focused all of their attention on Copper and Ferain.
“You want to fight me?” Ferain asked, growling the words. As the smoke began to fade, she looked up into his eyes and for a second, he seemed unsure of what he’d done, but he quickly regained that confidence he always had in himself.
“I do, prodigy. Your game is up now. I’m tired of playing it. Come on, let’s settle this, you and me. Whoever is left standing is the winner.”
“Fine.” Ferain hissed, lowering her body slightly to ready herself to attack.
“Fera, no!” Anita shouted, angrily. “We can’t fig–”
A pointed spire of earth suddenly shot up towards Anita, but in a flash of blue light, it burst into rubble. Fera was suddenly standing there, panting as she shook the dirt from her electrified fist. Anita fell backwards and looked too stunned to speak.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” Fera stated, coldly.
“She wouldn't shut up. And, judging by the looks of things, you can’t move that fast too often without wearing yourself out. A couple more of those and you’ll be a piece of– Gah!” he shouted suddenly, as Fera’s foot delivered a powerful kick to his stomach.
It happened in the blink of an eye, in the time it takes for a bolt of lightning to strike the Earth. Copper flew backwards and flew into a vending machine, which cracked and began dumping soda cans around him. Fera almost dropped to one knee as she panted heavily from the effort of using that much speed. She still wasn’t used to using that, and using it twice that close together was probably a mistake. Copper’s chest was smoking where her foot connected with it, and he was struggling to draw in air. She began walking towards him, her fists clenched tight and radiating energy that caused all of the lights in the cafeteria to flicker or completely explode from their sockets. A wall rose up in front of him, which she was about to punch with all of her strength, but just as she drew her fist back, another spire shot unexpectedly from the wall towards her stomach. She barely stepped aside in time and then another one came from the top and tried to go for her face.
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She moved her head in time to just let it graze her right cheek and then jumped up to leap over the wall. Copper rose and held up his hand, causing a solid column to come from behind the wall and this time it got her. She felt the impact in her chest and it sent her backwards. Ferain flipped and landed sloppily on her hands and feet, sliding across the tiled floor while her electrified nails burned and scarred the ground. Copper’s destroyed terrain began receding as he stepped forward. Fera was somewhat sprawled out from her unbalanced and ungraceful landing, but her eyes were only focused on him. As Anita taught her, she watched his entire body for even the most minute movements. She tried to recall the fight up to this point as well as some others she had seen him in, in order to predict his next move. It wasn’t hard, he was a simple fighter. He thought power was all you needed to win a fight, and he had a lot of it to throw around.
Ferain waited for an opening, and it soon came. As she thought, Copper grinned, raised his leg, and stomped his foot down. Beneath her, a spine began to grow from below the tiled floor, and she decided that would be her time to act. It went straight up towards her heart, as if he was trying to kill her now. She shifted aside from it and then launched forward. She leapt from one spot to the next, and then lunged as she became a blue electrified blur. Copper put up another wall but as she reached it, she held her hand over the ground and shot a blast of lightning from it. The power that was released while she was airborne was enough to send her upwards and she flipped over the wall. Fera landed clumsily on the other side, right in front of the now turning around Copper, but she was still quicker. She kicked backwards and drove her foot into his chest. With a flash of light, he instantly hit the wall a foot behind him, causing an indent where he landed. He started falling again but Fera spun and sent another kick to his stomach, driving him back into the wall again, this time nearly collapsing the entire thing. He was now sitting in the crater his body made, but she wasn’t done. She didn’t want to be done.
She remembered all of the bullying, all of the hatred he had always shown her, and then she was being fueled by not just Copper’s actions, but the entire schools’. When that still wasn’t enough, all of her pent up rage from before she ever even came here started bubbling to the surface. All of the lights went out, either by frying their circuits or simply exploding them. Her body was smoking and she was feeling the stinging pain of overuse, just like she had done back during the team event. Her anger and rushing adrenaline was enough to numb her to the pain, and she drew her right arm back as it became a sort of electrified blade.
“Ahhhhh!” she screamed, furiously, driving her hand towards his heart.
Suddenly, something grabbed her arm and stopped her short of delivering the final attack.
“Don’t.” came a cold, deep voice. “He’s beaten.” Fera looked and to her surprise, black and red lightning flickered around the boy’s hand, and her powers didn’t seem to be affecting him at all. “Stop or you’ll be hurting yourself.”
The boy had crimson eyes that seemed just as cold and empty as his voice was. He had short black hair that was nearly as messy as her own, and he wore the boy’s uniform of the academy. Ferain seemed to suddenly come back to her senses. She realized what she was doing, what she was about to do, and almost instantly felt sick to her stomach. Her powers flickered out and she stumbled backwards, pulling her arm out of the boy’s grip. The unexpected force of it caused her to fall onto her butt and she scurried back from Copper’s body, the one that was cradled within a crater of his own making. His eyes were closed and he was as still as a corpse. The smell of burning flesh was in the air and the entire front of his shirt was singed away, revealing light burns in the multiple places she had kicked him.
From where she was, she couldn't tell if he was breathing, and her eyes grew tunnel-visioned as she stared at his lifeless face. Her chest was heaving and even now, she still didn’t feel her own injuries. She had blood seeping down her cheek from the attack earlier, and there would most definitely be more damage from all of Copper’s attacks. None of that mattered, of course, all that mattered was what was in front of her. She panicked, and her eyes went wide as she recalled the night in the alley ten years ago. She heard her parents’ voices, mostly her mother’s screams in her final moments. A loud crack played in her ear that sounded a lot like a gunshot and she winced, and the smell of roasted flesh only grew stronger in her nose.
“No.” she cried. “No, no, no.” came her whimpers, as she looked at the scene.
“Copper!” Marrow cried, rushing over to his friend’s motionless body. “You killed him!” Marrow screamed, accusingly. “You murderer!” he howled, and Ferain felt it in the pit of her stomach, like it was an arrow that was now lodged there.
Unable to stop herself, Ferain scurried to her feet and ran. The black haired boy that stopped her let her go this time, and nobody else tried to get in her way. When Ferain left the building, she didn’t know exactly where she was running to. She just knew she had to get away, so she kept going until she couldn't any longer. Where she wound up was the gym storage room, where they kept the nets for volleyball and the rest of the equipment for their other activities. She curled up and her mind was in scrambles. Her powers were sporadically rising up within her, causing her eyes to periodically glow and dim repeatedly. Her childhood incident kept replaying in her mind and she felt like she was actually back there, physically watching it play out as an observer, unable to stop it from happening every time. Fera was tucked away in the darkness as every little sound broke her down, and all over, she saw Copper’s face showing up.
It wasn’t until hours later, or, it at least felt like hours, that she was found. It wasn’t Anita that found her, it was two different people. There was the black haired boy, and then there was Guji Hakamura, the headmaster. Ferain looked up at them with bloodshot eyes and absolute terror swimming in them. Guji held out his hand and smiled down at her.
“Come on, Ferain, I would like to have a word with you. Come now, it’s okay.” he said, calmly.
“C-copper?” she asked, hoarsely. “Is he…”
“He’s alive,” said Guji. “Come on, we need to talk. You’re not in any trouble.”
Not too long after, Ferain found herself in the headmaster’s office for the first time that year. She was sitting in a leather-backed chair on one side of his desk, while Guji sat across from her on the other. The black haired boy was sitting in a chair along the right wall. Around them, she saw pictures and various other decorations, like snow globes for some reason. It was a tidy office, one that wasn’t too overbearing and it wasn’t too small. The headmaster gave her a smile, but when he saw that she wasn’t about to reciprocate the expression, he sighed and clasped his hands atop his desk.
“It’s not your fault, you know,” he said, quietly.
“I almost killed him.” Ferain said, before looking back at the boy. “If not for you, I might have. I… I…”
“You lost yourself,” said Guji. “Yes, you did. But, he started the fight, yeah? You were defending yourself, and naturally, as is common with teenagers, they cannot prevent their emotions from driving them to do stupid things. I must admit, I am stunned by how stupid what you were about to do was, but I understand it. You have carried a lot of weight on your shoulders since you were a child, and this burden has not been made any lighter by coming here. Here, you are surrounded by people that are better than you. They have more training, more knowledge, more confidence in themselves. You came from a life that taught you to only ever be afraid of what you could do, and you were left to your own devices since you were a child. I’m not saying that your life is the only one that was made difficult by their powers, but your life was not one that set you up well for any of this. With that being said, I know why you did what you did, and I know why you were about to… harm him.”
“Don’t speak like it was just a normal school fight.” Fera snapped. “He could have died.”
The headmaster stared into her eyes and gave her an inquisitive look, as if he was searching for information within them. “And he almost took your life, yes? I heard what happened, what he almost did. If you didn’t move out of the way, he would have skewered you to the cafeteria floor. I am willing to write this off as nothing more than overheated emotions from children, and that is all I will say on the subject any further. You, and Mr. Callus, are not in any trouble for your actions. Since it all ended with zero casualties, we will just move on and take this as a lesson learned for the future. In fact, his worst injury is the one to his head where it hit the wall he erected. You were magnificent in holding back your full power so I am actually inclined to praise you. Had you not tried to kill him, our discussion right now would be a completely different one. However, like I said, I’m moving on from this topic. I have other things I wish to discuss with you.”
Guji then gestured to the black haired boy, who stood up and bowed his head to both of them.
“My name is Yarin Olira.” he said, blandly.
Guji smiled and the boy took his seat again. “Mr. Olira here is the first lvl-1 of the first-year students. On top of that, he is a scholarship student like yourself, and he shares similar abilities to you. You have been training with Ms. Caswell, am I correct in assuming that?” he asked, to which she nodded in response. “I figured. She has done a wonderful job in getting you to where you are now in such a short amount of time, but she is not fully capable of teaching you all that your powers can do. Normally, I like students to discover their capabilities with their own hands, but having this recent killing, and after what happened today with Mr. Callus, I am thinking that it is time for a different method with you. From this point on, you will also be training with Mr. Olira. You may continue with Ms. Caswell, of course, but you are to take lessons from him as well, starting tomorrow. I want you to have three lessons a week, at the minimum. It will be hard work on both of you, but I need your cooperation in this in order to clear up a lot of this mess.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to expel me, Headmaster?” asked Ferain.
“Is that what you want?” he replied. “Do you want to give up so easily? One thing happens and you’re already tucking your tail between your legs? Ferain, I… I will not let you leave this school. I have high hopes for you here, and you’ve already shown massive improvements. To come from nothing to what you have now, I would say that your nickname will soon no longer be a mockery. Have some faith in yourself and give this a chance. Mr. Olira is one of the strongest and most skilled lightning-users I have ever met. Learn from him, take in what he has to offer, and I guarantee that by the time the advancement tests come up, you’ll be strong enough to pass it. Well, that is all I wanted to discuss for tonight. Ms. Hirigaya, I will be seeing more of you, I promise you that. For now, I want you two to form a plan with one another, and then you can be on your way. I’m sure you’ll be fast friends.” Guji said, and with that, he kicked them out of his office.
It was after school now, and pretty much all of the students had gone home already. Yarin and Ferain walked alone in the halls for a while, making their way to the exit and eventually the checkpoint between districts. While talking, she discovered that he lived in the same building as she did, and they eventually made a plan to meet at the gym by their dorm to train, which was the same one Anita always took her to. After they crossed through the checkpoint, Yarin looked at her.
“I have to go meet someone so I’ll be parting with you here.” he said. “I’m assuming you can make it back on your own.”
“Yeah, I can.” Fera said. “Yarin.” she said, as he was turning to leave. He stopped and gave her a sideways glance. “Thank you… for stopping me, I mean. That isn’t usually like me. I don’t… I never wanted to actually ki… Anyway, thank you.”
He gave a silent nod and then continued off down the road, stuffing his hands in his pockets and vanishing around a corner. For the first time since the team event incident, she was alone. Due to her ‘house arrest’, she always had to have somebody with her. Guji must have assumed Yarin would stick with her all the way back home, and Yarin probably didn’t know about her restriction of being alone. Because of this, she was the only person around. Dusk was falling already, so everybody else was probably back in their dorms for the night. Apparently, she had spent more time than she knew in that storage room. Ferain didn’t like this feeling of being alone, so she hurried towards her dorm, where Anita would hopefully be waiting. Luckily for her, her partner was there. Anita rushed forward and gave her a tight hug, one that caused all of her injuries to flare up. She forgot to get them looked at before leaving.
After a quick shower, she was sitting in a chair in the dining room, wearing only a pair of cotton pants and a black pullover bra. She had bruises all over her chest and sides that looked like black and purple splotches. The gash on her cheek was small but puffed up and red. She had washed away all of the old, dried blood already, but she didn’t know if she preferred it clean and visible or bloody and hidden. At least behind the red stains, it didn’t look so bad. Anita put a bandage on it and smiled.
“You’re a real mess.” she said, kindly. “You didn't have to do that, you know? Why play his game in the first place?”
“I don’t know.” Fera admitted. “Maybe I felt like I had to prove myself. Ever since coming here, I’ve been labeled an outcast for every little thing I do. When I do well, I’m lying about my powers. When I do poorly, I’m also lying about what I can do. A kid gets killed and I’m suddenly guilty because of my past. It doesn’t end. Maybe I also wanted to lash out a bit, you know, vent my problems a little.”
“I… I can relate.” Anita said, quietly. “I know I’m just a rich, spoiled girl, who had a fancy private school and anything I could have ever wanted at my beck and call, but I did have problems of my own. I’m not saying they compare to yours, mind you, but I had issues that made me angry at the world as well.”
“Yeah?” asked Ferain, curiously.
“Yeah.” Anita said, sounding happy that somebody actually seemed to care. “I told you about how my parents were never around. Well, I guess this sort of just added onto that. Obviously I never felt like I mattered in my family’s eyes. But school only made things worse. At my school, money and power were all that mattered. It’s why I never had friends before, not real friends anyway. The girls that had more money than me looked down on me because I wasn't good enough for them. The girls that had less than me seemed to only want to know me because they had something to gain. Nobody was genuine there. It was that kind of school. After a while, it all kind of started getting to me. I felt that I only had everything I had because of my parents’ money. I had my education, all of my belongings, and even my very few fake friends, all because they pretty much bought them for me. I didn’t have anything besides my body and my powers that were actually mine. I don’t know, I just started feeling resentful and secluded because of that. Everything felt fake and I started getting mad at everything around me. To you it probably sounds pretty stupid or petty, but…”
“No, not at all.” said Fera. “I think every problem should be heard. I don’t care how small it is, I don’t feel like it should be compared to others. Because, to that person… to you, it really affects your life. My problem is mine and yours is yours, one shouldn’t put down the other.”
Anita smiled warmly and finished with Fera’s treatment. “You don’t know how much it means to me to hear you say that. Well, you’re all set. You can get dressed now. We’ll have to take it easy for a few days on your training while you get healed up.”
“That’s fine.” said Fera, rising and pulling a white shirt over her body. “The headmaster wants me to take some lessons with another lightning user starting tomorrow. I can swap out your training for his for a couple of days.”
“His?” asked Anita. “You, alone with some boy, I don’t think so. I’ll be coming along too. Besides, you’re still on house arrest, so to speak. I’m supposed to be with you anywhere you go.” Anita said, which made Ferain giggle.
“I never said anything about leaving you behind.” she pointed out, playfully. “I was actually hoping you would come with me. To tell the truth, he makes me a bit nervous.”
“Who is it?” asked Anita. “They must be pretty strong to rock your nerves.”
“Yarin Olira.” Ferain replied. Anita’s eyes went wide in shock. “What?” asked Ferain.
“You’re getting private lessons from the strongest student in our year?”
“I don’t know if he’s really the strongest. He’s just the first lvl-1 of this year.” said Fera.
“No, Fera, he’s the strongest. Nobody has beaten him in any sparring matches, his power assessments have all been through the roof, and even in team events, his team’s been unstoppable.”
Fera rolled her eyes as she walked over to the couch and eased herself gently onto it. Anita sat beside her, seeming restless at the news. Besides her nerves, Fera really didn’t see how it was such a big deal. The only thing she was thinking was whether she would be able to keep up with him or not during training. If he was so powerful, it was obvious that he’d been training since he was young, where Ferain just recently started. Little did she know, that would be the least of her problems when the next morning came. As they walked to school the next day, there was a commotion outside the District-A checkpoint. It was backed up with muttering students that were all either clambering away from the group in a panic, or trying to get a better look at whatever it was in front of them. When Ferain finally saw what was going on, her heart sank and she never wished she was somewhere else as much as she did in that moment.
Hanging by a thin black cord in the small opening between checkpoints was Copper’s body. His face was pale, his eyes were wide and dull, and he had a look of shock that seemed permanently burned into his features. His clothes were a tattered mess and in the center of his revealed chest was a massive burn with a web of scars that resembled a lightning pattern. Fera nearly dropped her bag as her hand covered her mouth.
“Fera?” asked Anita, who finally caught up with her and saw for herself what was dangling in front of the crowd. “What the…” she gasped, going silent and joining the rest of the crowd in their stunned state.