Mr. Abrams: "Ah, shit! Oops – ah, fuck it. Who cares if I swear right now, just run for it, everyone!"

Noel: "Mr. Abrams just use your telep-hmph?!"

Mr. Abrams: "I said No! This is good for your health!!"

Oliviera: "HUFF... HUFF... Huff, What? Getting chased by your...huff, huff.... fans??"

Mr. Abrams: "Yes! Think of them as motivation!"

Oliviera: "..."

Eventually a massive...no.

Such a word isn't fit to describe it.

A Gargantuan Dome came into view. Fitting 88 football fields would still leave it room to spare for well – positioned, fairly - comfortable seating arrangements. Its half-circle roof appeared as if it had been pried open with brute force, appearing to have frozen mid-way during its descent from the top.

The glorious light tones of white, gold and teal decorated the outer walls. Each window appeared in remarkably pristine designs that reminded one of a strong and vivacious work of art - made for the sole purpose of admiration instead of natural protection from the weather or looking through.

At the fore of this great Colosseum, were a pair of guards. At the rear? An army of lovely, yet extremely terrifying fans.

It's safe to say that their decision was a very instant and anti-climactic one...

Rise: "Move outta the way you fuckers! Move it or die!

mean get beat up very harshly."

Random Guard #1: "Eeek!"

Random Guard #2: "Back... STAY BACK! We... WE HAVE TO VERIFY YOUR IDENTITIES FIRS- AAH!"

Mr. Abrams: "Shit. My name is Houdini Abrams, just make sure you write down that this was an absolute number 1 emergency! I can take care of the rest."

The two guards saw Mr. Abrams and luckily right in time, as they both allowed the 14 access inside by deactivating the runic barrier blocking the door. When the students saw this: they were absolutely awestruck.

The interior was massive. There was plush royal carpeting that seemed to lead directly to important parts of the building. There were eight in total, creating an octagonal illusory pattern.

Aria: "Umm... teacher."

Mr. Abrams: "Yes?

Aria: "Can I... take Ophelia to the nurse's office?"

Mr. Abrams: "Ah. No problem, just make sure that you actually ask or directions when you get lost."

Aria: "..."

Ophelia: "..."

Ian: "I'll go with you girls! I have a map of the important places at school. My mom forced me to download it."

Aria: "Again: you have a smart mother."

–

{Okay, Alyandrea went off somewhere in the stands, Wayne, Elijah, Li Shun and Leos followed after them.

Brennan and Mr. Reeds followed the girls plus Ian to the infirmary...

So that leaves me with...}

Rise: "Hey. Who are you really?"

{...With Rise. And also Mr. Abrams, who keeps watching me like a hawk. Jeez, I finally ditch my brother's suffocatingly tight grasp ONLY to hook myself another babysitter.

Haah, how horribly tragic. Just let me be free already!}

Noel: "...My name is Noel Tyler. Age 12 and-"

Suddenly the ground splintered with audible recognition as Rise lunged at Noel by using a speed faster than the human eye can see!

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Well, the normal human eye. Noel simply allowed the long – haired male to lift him up a little and speak.

Rise: "Who cares about your damn age! I'm talking about you! Who are you behind this facade of a defenseless schoolboy. And why *Sniff* do you reek of blood?"

Noel: "!! *Sniff* You lie! There's NO WAY I can smell like blood when I haven't even killed anybody in—Ah."

Rise: "..."

Noel: "In..... In-In-In ever...

Obviously, Duh.

Because I'm a twelve year old..."

Rise: "...Hey."

Noel: "...Yeah?"

Rise: "...You from Villain Haven, too?"

Noel: "Oh, You're from villain Haven?"

Rise: "Answer the damned question!"

Noel: "No. I'm not from that nest of barbarians."

Rise: "...Heh. *Puts Noel down* Barbarian's nest, huh? That's a fitting name for the place."

Noel: "..."

Rise: "...Sorry. I thought for a second that you were here to track me down or something."

Noel: "Wow. You make it sound like you're on the run from there, Heh-heh."

Rise: "...Something like that."

Noel: "...Are you a witness? Or did you kill someone yourself? Or maybe, possibly-"

Rise: "What about you?"

Noel: "..."

Rise: "Yeah, the sentiment's the exact same for me. I did nothing that I feel like sharing with people."

Noel: "...You're mistaken. My name's Noel Tyler, age twelve. I like sharing my-"

Rise: "...Whatever. You can keep the lies to yourself. I can just smell that reeking stench of bloodshed from you. It ain't something you or me, or even that cool-looking teacher of ours can hide from these senses of mine."

Mr. Abrams: "...(The hell kind of superpower is that? I don't like being smelled by little kids.) Are you two done talking yet?"

Rise: "I gues- ah! Hey, your smell changed! How'd you do that?!"

Mr. Abrams: "...Stop smelling me. Let's go."

Noel: "'Kay."

Rise: "Alright. And I wasn't ACTUALLY smelling... haah. Forget it. There's no point in arguing."

...

Noel: "Hey. Mr. Abrams? Mind telling me how the grade systems work? I wasn't really told too much about this by my famil—err – I mean, by the man who found me."

Mr. Abrams: "(Hmph! Lazy family couldn't even save me that amount of labor.) Fine. It actually isn't hard to remember.

There's Z Grade – entirely useless and will never grow. Not fit to be a hero'.

There's F Grade – this one's a bit better than the last one 'Z' Grade, but almost as useless as well. This one, though can evolve.

After these two are D grade. It's weak and somewhat severely limited to small – scaled attacks with poor Area of effect coverage...that's AOE for short."

Noel: "Got it."

Mr. Abrams: "Next up is C grade. This one's much harder and more complicated to defeat, and a wide variety of students here have this level of power. This is the type you'll be working with very closely.

B grade is when things start to become much more difficult, for everyone involved. They have a higher arsenal at their disposal. They have a much bigger energy pool that could allow them to tap into higher reserves of power. They can release much larger attacks and in wider varieties as well. Finally there's A. It doesn't start off as powerful as B ranked abilities, but it has something the others don't.

It's an ability that can grow. Yes that means the ability can grow stronger and reliably surpass the others without question. Not only that, but it does in fact start off close to B grade's maximum output, as its minimum.

And when an A grade reaches its full max potential: it can evolve into S grade. This is currently the top tier ability grade that can be developed, but rarely born with. Anybody with this grade of power is already set as a Hero in the top 50s, if not 100s. There's no chance an S grade power won't help somebody succeed in life. They're a grade that surpasses every other lettered grade in power, performance, speed, duration. Quantity, energy reserve etc. None of the other grades can come close to it. It's just that powerful and rare."

Rise: "...... I see."

Mr. Abrams: "Now, past the S – Grade powers are actually only two grades. The first, being Myth Grade superpowers. These power-holders are extremely rare and rarely seen around, if ever.

It has the 'growth' ability from A Grade: and a higher Maximum output than B grade. Myth grades can easily range differently from Country – buster to World - decimator. They're not graded by numbers, because they've surpassed their limitations. We don't know yet what the upper limit of Myth Grade people are, so tests are always being done on them."

Noel: "Hmmm. Hey, what's the last one then?"

Mr. Abrams: "The last one is Unknown. There are, unfortunately, certain powers that just can't be classified. At least not yet, anyway. One day, we can probably identify powers that trouble us, but for now, it becomes a temporary holding point for unheard of super powers until we can study them well enough and then finally identify them. These grades apply to every single power out there without exception.

So, say there's two fire users fighting a battle at the colosseum. Well, the one with the higher grade of fire is most likely going to be the winner. Now, obviously there are other factors involved, but the thing is, those with higher grades to their powers means those people have a stronger 'quality' of the same power than a lower grade has.

There's something popular with 'super soldiers' and cyborgs called 'Enhancement Attributes' that don't have grades to them and are just forcibly altering your physique to match certain qualities, but I'm no expert in that field."

Rise: "Has a lower grade ever triumphed against a higher grade in here, before?"

Mr. Abrams: "I have no clue about that. Whether a lower grade could ever beat a higher grade is strange to think about, but it's probably not unheard of. One major factor in fights is skill, with the other being 'experience'. Lack those and you'll fail a million times over in a fight with a veteran.

.

.

Anyways, that's the Grade system. Everybody gets their 'power' graded, to distinguish the ranks and better assign tasks to the proper person. It'll be silly to assign an S Grade required mission like launching an assault on Villain Haven, to a bunch of C grades and below. That's just suicide."

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