My eyes open and I awaken to the beautiful world we live in, filled with color and majesty. Now, it’d be great if my eyes showed me that stuff. Instead I’m presented with a pretty bland ceiling and the general darkness of my room. “Welp, nothing to do but get moving.” I exclaim with a grin, sitting up and shoving myself out of bed. I whirl through my morning routine and barely finish drying my hair from my shower when the door opens. “Morning teach!” I call out, turning to face Mr. Virgo.
“Mhm.” He says despondently in return, leaving my room without a word. It took a while but I figured out that the teachers rotate each day of the week to check on the students. Mr. Virgo’s the most calm, and the Kraus’s were the worst. They had a vendetta against me for no reason! I swear, they fail me on purpose. I close the door behind Mr. Virgo and can’t contain a small chuckle.
“Holy shit you were right.” Mercury murmurs from under my bed, pushing himself out from his hiding hole onto the floor. “Why didn’t he check the whole room?” Mercury whispers to himself in disbelief.
“Dude it’s been like four months, I’m a genius. I got a psychological profile on the guy ok?”
“Yeah I’ve known you for four months and I don’t believe you actually know what a psychological profile is. Now get me back to my room before they sound an alarm.” Mercury’s annoyance is shown bluntly on his face, but his gray eyes show off a little thing I like to call tolerance. It is my saving grace.
“Haha! Yeah yeah yeah, let’s get to it then.” I jump onto the ceiling and walk along it towards my vent. Fun little trick I learned with my Emblem! One of my old lives came up with it, but basically as long as I can get one mark on a surface I can walk on it, by just placing and using marks each time I take a step. “Viola!” I exclaim, opening the vent and reaching down to Mercury. He rolls his eyes and takes my hand, getting into the vent and sliding along it at crazy speeds. He uses his Emblem to generate a thin layer of slick ice along the vent shaft, and he already has one of my marks on him, so I simply repulse him and he can slide through the vents between our rooms in a few seconds.
“You two are children.” She kicks open my door, would’ve knocked it off the hinges if I had locked it. Her arms are crossed and those red eyes are accompanied by their signature red flare of anger.
“Nia! This might look bad but consider the following.” I begin stalling for time by just spewing verbal garbage, watching her face to see when what I say hits a chord with her if anything does. After a minute of my talking she rolls her eyes and walks up to me. “-the scarcity of interaction between mammals such as ourselves is something that we as a species should be more aware of. I mean if we go our whole lives only knowing about our family-”
“Shut up.” She says coldly, bringing her knuckles down on my head. “If I report you two I can get you kicked out of the class.”
“But!” I refute, a hand on my head to try and calm my pounding head. “If you do that, then they’ll hear about the time that you broke into-”
“WHATEVER! That was one time and it was barely even a felony, you goaded me on and Mercury was an accomplice so you can’t even act like that would completely absolve you of wrong-doings!” She scoffs, cutting me off and turning around, storming out of my room and towards our first class.
“She’s nice.” I think out loud to myself, probably joking. She’s gotten nicer, at any rate. Objectively nice is totally a stretch.
=================
“Mercury?” Mr. Virgo calls out, and with my heartbeat fast but my breathing controlled I sit up in my bed as though I’d been there all night.
“Yeah. I’ll get to class.” I respond, pushing myself off my bed and starting to get into more reasonable clothes. When he leaves I sigh, because the idiot forgot to close the door. I reach out with my foot and push the door shut, leaving me alone in the same stupid room I’ve had for years. I turn to my sink and look at the mirror, which is outlined almost entirely in stupid sticky notes that TJ left. They all have something on them. Stupid drawings, or little phrases and stuff. I brush my teeth slowly while reading through my favorite one that just says, ‘Why is it called a building if it’s already built?’ It’s so stupid. Just like him.
“Blegh.” When I spit out the toothpaste some of it splashed up and almost hit me, which would’ve been just my luck. “Gross.” I murmur, putting the toothbrush away and walking out of my room to get to class. I’m exhausted, I made such a stupid choice. TJ wasn’t tired last night and asked me to sneak into his room, and when I didn’t do that he snuck into mine and basically dragged me through the vents. He ranted all night about actually nothing, but he never stopped talking. It was the worst.
“I’m not in the mood today, I swear if TJ doesn’t keep his mouth shut at the lecture I’m gonna kill him.” I can’t help but overhear Thomas rambling to his only two friends in the school. I speed up and step on the back of Thomas’s shoe, causing his foot to tumble out of it as he stumbles forwards.
“Whoops. Sorry, didn’t see you there.” I lie without a change in my expression, moving forwards past Thomas. I mean for goodness sake, he’s such an…“Asshole.” I murmur quietly.
Thomas glares at me and gets his shoe back on his foot, “What did you say?” I didn’t say that out loud did I? Given his two cronies who surround me I guess I did. “Mercury you’re just some snide rich kid acting like he’s gone through everything, thinking that you’re above all of us. I’m not an asshole, you’re just egotistical.” He says flatly, walking up to me with his fists clenched. “I’m gonna show you that we both inhabit the same world here.” He adds on coldly, reeling back a fist.
There’s no way I can win a three on one, I might not even beat Thomas one on one. So whatever, it’s not like he’s gonna use his Emblem. Plus, given how stupid his retort was, I already won any psychological fight here when I just said one word. When he punched me it became really clear I was losing the physical one, and the tears in my eyes accompanied by the crazy pain in my nasal cavity told me that I totally had a broken nose. The scent of metallic water and the warmth of blood spill out of my nose and onto my body.
“Go rot.” Thomas demands, walking past me and getting to our class. I reach up and feel my nose, the blood that meets my fingers showcases the broken nature of my nose. Whatever, it would heal in a few minutes.
“Mercury! Been a while.” TJ exclaims with a smile, jogging over to me and playfully punching my shoulder. “Woah woah wait look at me,” He demands, taking my chin and angling my face to stare right at him.
I bat his hand away and tsk, looking away and rubbing the blood off my nose. It’s stupid hot in this place. “Dude calm down. I tripped off the elevator and got a nosebleed, thanks for making the whole place aware.” I say flatly, getting into a staring contest with the wall.
“Oh? A likely story I suppose, but also something that a liar would say! What actually happened?” He pesters, god he’s so annoying. It’s nothing of consequence, I don’t need him doting over me.
“It’s nothing. Honest. Stop acting like my mom and let’s get to class.” I respond. TJ’s emerald eyes flicker with concern and his mouth is in a childish pout because I’m not giving him a satisfying answer.
- - - - - -
I couldn’t tell you when the cafeteria became so loud. It was quiet a majority of the time in my memory, people just eating by themselves. Siblings eating together, two teachers standing by the entrance and watching the situation with unfeeling eyes. White floors, gray walls, gray tables with dark blue chairs. Nothing about the cafeteria has physically changed. There’s still the support group that eat in the back at their designated tables. The teachers still stand by the entrance, and the food is still first come first serve.
“Mercury let’s go! Chicken sandwiches today, and I know for a fact Nia’s gonna take 6 of them.” TJ exclaims with a grin, dashing through the cafeteria and disappearing into the horde of people.
“Dude…” I sigh and shove my hands in my pocket. We get our own breakfasts and dinners, tailor made for ourselves. Until two months ago we got unique lunches as well, but TJ got in a huge argument with Mr. Kraus. Something about the support class not getting equal treatment, and the disregard of these things called the Geneva conventions to acquire new Emblems for the US. As a result, nobody gets their own unique lunch. I guess that’s fair, the support type never got them. People got pissed for about two days, even I chewed him out for a day, and I remember something happened to TJ with Mr. White ended up having to step in. Everybody ended up kinda getting over it though, it’s small, and TJ didn’t bring that up again.
“MERCURY!! DUDE WE HAVE KETCHUP PACKETS TODAY!!” He shouts back at me.
“GET OUT OF MY WAY!!” I shout at the dense group of people between me and those sweet succulent ketchup packets.
=================
“They’re so immature.” I murmur to myself while watching the mob of people crowding around the lunch-line. TJ’s face is unsurprisingly enough in the middle of it, but Mercury’s pale face is actually kind of surprising to find in the sea of people. “Whatever. Crystal, let’s go.”
I hate eating in the cafeteria, it lumps everybody together way too much. I don’t deserve to be eating with these idiots. “Ms. Cadmium, where are you going?”
“My room.”
“Why is that?
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“To eat.” Obviously.
“With Ms. Lopez?”
I turn and look over at Crystal’s slightly nervous face. “Yeah.” I respond, looking back over to the teacher while raising an eyebrow. They’re new. I think they’re in charge of the class three years under us. “What about it? Gonna stop me?”
“Yes, actually. You’re not to-”
“Shut up.” I intervene, stepping to them with a glare. My black hair starts feeling slightly lighter and I can tell I’m burning the ends of it, which happens all the time when I’m pissed. “I’m Nia Cadmium. My grandfather Steward Cadmium runs the USEF, my mother Kandace Cadmium is a member of the E.E.E. squad, my father Jackson Cadmium is the leading Vein scientist for the United States. My hair costs more than your job, and my life is incomparable to your own. Thank you, and kindly, do fuck off.” Their eyes grew wider with each addition I made to my family line, and he kept his mouth shut as I walked out of the cafeteria dragging Crystal along.
“Nia…” She begins as we get to the elevator. “They are a teacher, that might not have been a good idea.” Technically, she’s right. For anyone but myself.
“Everybody who’s ever heard that speech shuts up and backs off. Especially in this boarding school, which my grandpa funds. There’s no way he was going to do anything.” Well, technically everybody but one. But he’s the biggest dumbass I’ve ever met, so it scarcely counts.
The rest of lunch went by too quickly, and led us into the fourth block of the day. Combative training. I was the first one to show up, Crystal basically attaching herself to me and showing up second. Today is an important day, and I take my seat while staring blankly at the clock. We’re going on our first real mission tomorrow. Out of country, that is. We have to collect the lightning Emblem from India, and since the EEE is going to be taking care of the military themselves and separating that Emblem from the others our class is getting this mission. It’s just an unfair fight, apparently the current evolved is only 17. Another reason our class was picked - Same age. Granted, only the members of class with a winning record in the sparring matches would be going.
My eyes flicker over to the whiteboard where all our names and records are written out, and with a sigh they linger on my own. 49-1-3. I was the best in the class by a few wins, and Thomas was right behind me. It drives me insane somebody as brutish as him can manage to actually win fights in this classroom.
“Hey Nia! Today’s the big old rematch huh?”
“TJ, if you say one more unnecessary word to me in class nobody will be able to find your corpse.” He’s actually stupid. I can’t believe he’s one of the only people who I’ve never beaten in a fight. Especially because his record is awful. He’s literally not going to go on this mission, he’s 15-1-14. Once he loses to me today he’s dropping to an even record, and not coming with us. “Mr. Virgo, can me and TJ fight before everybody else?” I call out, raising my hand and watching Mr. Virgo coldly. He’s going to say yes.
His eyes meet mine and I can see his tongue stretching out his cheek. “Hmmm...TJ, is that alright?” What?
“Yeah! Sounds great, if I win I get to go to India with everybody, right? So it makes sense that they should watch haha!” Eh? Why did he ask TJ, I already asked. Whatever, it’s not a big deal . He’s gonna be overconfident coming into this fight, so I’ll be able to destroy him without a problem. Plus he already said yes, like an idiot.
“Good luck Nia.” Crystal calls out with a soft smile.
“Yeah. Thanks.” Granted, I won’t need it.
================
‘You’re fucked.’ He says. ‘She’s way more skilled than you.’ He complains. ‘You’re the stupidest person I know.’ He groans. And yet, it’s my choice to make, stupid though it may be. “I’ll be fine Mercury! Worst comes to worse, I’ll like…Die. But come on! Let’s be optimistic here, if I win I get to come with you to India!” I exclaim with what I can only assume to be an award winning smile. It lingers for several seconds, and Mercury’s face doesn’t turn any less annoyed or pale. “Dude, I’m flashing you an award winning smile. What gives?”
“I’ll bring you a souvenir from India.”
“Shut up and watch me win.” I respond with a small laugh, turning to Nia and walking towards her. She has her arms crossed, a sneer on that disappointingly beautiful face, and anger omnipresent in those jarring red eyes. It’s almost like I’m facing down Diablo, given the tone of the room. Well, we can’t use Emblems, so there’s actually nothing that bad that could happen. Plus me and Mr. Virgo are pretty chill with each other. I’ve had to do a lot of make-up training with him and Leo given that almost everybody else here has been here their whole life. I’m close though! I’m basically average in the class now and it’s barely been four months. It’s a shame Leo can’t help me out anymore, but Mr. Virgo said he’d love to keep giving me private lessons. At any rate, I’m fairly confident I can get to a draw with Nia. I've won 10 of my matches in a row and Mercury’s only had to escort me to the hospital ward like 4 times in the last month.
“Oh, since this match is going to dictate if you can go out to India, Emblem use is allowed. If either of you die though there will be severe consequences.” ….Eh?
“Oh…” Nia smirks and her eyes seem to glow like embers, with that raven hair flickering with auburn shades as it seems to defy gravity. She uncrosses her arms and her fists burst into flames. “Oh, I feel really good about this development.”
“I don’t.” I remark with a nervous smile, kneeling down and marking the floor under me to be about my body length in radius. “If anything I think I’m definitely against that, but I get it.” Damn you Mr. Virgo. It was bad enough to have to just play with Nia, but to have to face off against her Emblem too? Look if I was facing Diablo before, now it’s just objectively Satan.
“That’s ok, I’ll feel good enough for both of us beating you senseless.”
“Thank you for proving my point.” I murmur with a chuckle, standing up and hopping once or twice on my mark. “Well, no point delaying the inevitable, eh?”
“TJ, Nia, start on 3. 1…2…3!” The world turns to a colorful mush as I whirl through the air and land on the ceiling, placing my hand on it and sticking to a mark I place simultaneously. I repulsed myself from the first mark I made to get this started, a wise call because I can feel Nia’s flame even from 20 feet above her. She totally would have landed that first punch if I didn’t use my Emblem. It’s crazy, she has a physical enhancement Emblem that ignites her body as well. I only take slight satisfaction from hearing her tsk at the first try not drawing blood.
“You wouldn’t be so kind as to go flame off, would you?” I’m not the biggest fan of touching fire personally.
“I’d love to.” She says with a flat smile and a monotone voice, with the flames licking her body dissipating into the air. Huh. Guess I was wrong earlier, she really has gotten quite nice. I kick off the ceiling and dive towards her while reaching out a hand, the world besides her turning into a blur. “Dumbass.” She lights back up, which was to be expected honestly.
“What a cruel mistress,” I rebuke with a grin, suspending myself in mid air by repulsing my body from both of the marks at once, causing the kick Nia had planned to meet me with to hit only air. Before she fully regains balance I get myself to the ground and totally kinda scamper away to get some space. She could knock me out in one blow, I’m pretty confident in that. But if I can get my mark on her I win, but to get one of reasonable size and power on Nia I’d have to be in contact for just over 2 seconds. Not happening, under normal means. Ok! Now that the planning is finished I can turn back to the fight and realize I’ve totally ignored that Nia’s right next to me and has a huge punch wound up. “Tsk.” I bend back while reaching out, and as soon as my hand touches the ground I get a mark going. Her fist is already coming into contact with my chin so regardless of its size I use it’s attractive property to slam myself against the ground before she can fully hit me. Thank god we have some protection against extreme temperatures due to those ‘evolved shots’ or whatever. I push towards Nia and repulse from my mark to bullet across the floor and take out Nia’s foot, her other one was raised to try and stomp my stomach. I get back to my feet in time to see Nia’s fist again taking up my whole vision. I don’t even have time to get a mark going so I blindly throw my hands up to lessen the impact, the acrobatic witch I’m fighting must’ve used my leg sweep to flip in the air and land cleanly. Or something?
My arms burn, and then I swear they shatter and I fly backwards crashing pretty definitively into the wall and making a rather large dent in it. I think the fire in my lung is the most surprising part, after all I was expecting my arms to be totally out of commission. The blood I cough up is surprising though, not quite as shocking as my hands, which I move around and figure out I can still clench shut and open. “My nerves aren’t fried.” I murmur with a smirk, glancing up at Nia who’s laughing at me.
“Hey TJ, want to resign? It’s the only out I’m giving you.” Oh boy, quite the dubious plot hatches in my brain. With a hesitant smirk I look up and raise my hands, holding one out to her. She turns off the flame and walks over, holding her hand out to help me up. I take it and instantly instill my mark into her, because, I am quite the rat boy. I’m supremely stupid, and honestly, I’m an, “Idiot…” Nia murmurs with her eyes wide, either getting one last insult in on me or having a moment of self-reflection.
“I’m good, thanks though.” I say with a smirk, Nia’s arm gaining what looks to be a tattoo of black ink spreading and writing across it, climbing to her shoulder before her hand snaps away from mine and flies towards my mark on the ceiling. She impacts against the ceiling with a crash and a small cloud of dust falls to the floor. I mark the wall behind me and summon Nia to it, reaching out my hand casually to basically high five her stomach as she flies by and crashes into the wall above me. I get to my feet and start jogging away from her, summoning her to the first mark I made and again light tapping Nia as she soars through the air. Each touch means a mark, and with that, I think my victory is assured since I can simply attract the blood around Nia’s body to those marks. She’ll pass out in no time, but that technique was technically made by my uh…Third former life? Whatever, point being she made it to kill people, which I find in poor taste. “Nia, Nia, Nia.” I say lightly, walking over to her with a small smile on my face, because, I won! “Now I have the winning record between the two of us!” I exclaims brightly, sticking my tongue out towards her and taunting her by standing a few feet away from the mark. So close, but so out of reach, since she’s still bound to it. Hey wait, how come I’m replaying the scene where her fist took up my whole view from earlier? Ohhhh wait no I get it. Nia’s Emblem makes her require way more of my mark’s force to keep in place, since I diverted the energy to 4 different marks she broke relatively free of it and managed to-
- - - - - -
“My nose hurts…” I murmur quietly, opening my eyes to the now pretty familiar hospital ward ceiling. A very pleasant sky blue actually. The rest of the room actually seems to be in a state of disarray, with ash on the floor in a few places and soot smeared across the wall.
“Makes sense, your nose was completely shattered and your skull got fractured.” Sitting at the foot of my bed going through some document or another on a tablet is my guardian angel. His skin is significantly paler than when I first met him, but his piercing blue eyes and indifferent face remain the exact same. “The real challenge was keeping Nia from killing you. Apparently, you pissed her off with some low blow or another. Mr. Virgo called me in until you woke up, in case she got any ideas.”
“Did she?” I blurt out, my eyes flickering to the black stains around the room.
“Oh…” Leo snickers and then places the tablet face down on the bed. He puts a hand to his chin and closes his eyes, furrowing his brow and bringing his face to a standstill of emotion. “No, no…None of consequence to you at any rate, but of enough consequence to prod me into asking what you did to piss her off that much.”
“Well, she was winning the fight and pushed me against a wall. Ever the egotist, she told me to surrender and I smiled while holding my hand out. Now, I never agreed, but I may not have been in a big rush to correct Nia into thinking I did surrender so…She took my hand I used my Emblem and kinda rag-dolled her for a few minutes there.” Leo opens his eyes and turns to me with a smirk, pushing himself off the bed and then picking up his tablet. He does some quick typing on it, and then reaches a hand out to me.
“You’re a smart ass, but a clever one. Lucky for you I’m on your side. Jay Jeremy Jones, it’s my pleasure to announce that you have been selected to the mission of lightning retrieval, overseen by yours truly, taking place in Ahmedabad, India. Pack whatever you want, we’re leaving tomorrow morning.”