Elijah got up and moved through his house, tidying well before dawn. Even things like housework were more fun when they could be done in 3 minutes instead of 30.

The best thing about the extreme agility bonuses he got with his powers was that he wasn't just faster at running. He was faster at _everything._ His hand speed was like a 20-year veteran pianist on Crack. The dishes were done in 2 minutes, and the floor was swept and mopped in a minute and a half. The counters were wiped in 30 seconds, and the stove and oven took another minute.

He stood back and looked over at the clock. He'd been awake for 20 minutes and had already showered, made his bed, gotten ready for the day, and deep cleaned the entire kitchen. Living life in fast-forward was nice. But he was going to need a hobby if he could clean this fast.

He got on the internet and surfed for a bit. There were already champions posting on social media, staging meet-ups, and getting thousands of followers. Celebrities were made over night, there were people making YouTube videos of them using their powers, and there was even one guy who got picked up by the FBI after showing off his mind control powers on YouTube. Evidently, the guy was a third year psychology student and wound up as an A Rank- Mind Crawler. The official press release stated that power use on normal citizens will not be tolerated, and this guy had broken moral lines by mind controlling others against their will at Venice Beach.

He got off and went outside with his smoothie and sat on the porch to have his daily talk with his dad. After that, he shot a text to Marcus.

《So, what's the plan? How do we come out of the superhero closet?》He decided to head into town a little early. Glancing down at his smartwatch, 7:15, maybe he'd take the scenic route this time. He didn't need to be in school until 8:20, and he was now either the fastest or one of the fastest beings on earth.

He took off down the road at a leisurely jog, going about 30 miles per hour. He went out the back way this time the roads were winding, and there were some hills that reminded him of the waves on Lake Michigan in the way they rolled. It ran alongside a small river for some ways. He stopped on the side of the road as a reply from Marcus came in.

《Chaunsey's in 15, and I'll explain over breakfast pizza.》He took his time getting there pulling the hood up on his jacket when he was running faster than any human ever could so nobody would recognize him. The feeling of the air rushing around him as he ran was exhilarating.

He turned on 'Feeling springy' and rushed down the center line of the main road heading into town. The cars he was running beside moved in slow motion as he rushed past them as a green blur in his olive green cargo pants and lime green windbreaker his mom had gotten him years earlier for his birthday. He couldn't stand it, but his mom liked it, and he never wore it out in public, so it was the perfect thing to wear to avoid suspension while running in public.

He peeled into the alley a block way from the Chaunsey's gas station. Swinging his backpack off his shoulder and onto the ground, he unzipped it and pulled out his U of I hoodie. He'd picked that up at an Illini game last year. He swapped them out, stuffing his windbreaker into his backpack. He took a nice lazy walk down the sidewalk, which, compared to everyone he was passing, was still a brisk pace.

Elijah stared through the windows as he walked along the front of the building, spotting Marcus sitting at one of the tables with 2 slices of pizza infront of him and one in front of the empty chair across from him. The door chimed as he walked in "Hello" the station attendant said in an obligatory tone as he strolled in. Elijah gave him a small wave as he moved his attention to Marcus.

"So, what's the word?" Elijah blurted out as he sat down in the seat. Marcus was stuffing a slice of pizza in his mouth with a groan of pleasure and had his forehead covered with a beanie currently. But he'd noticed something odd on his chest. It was a badge that had [Marcus Bennett - B Rank] inscribed on it. "Oh, what's that?" He pointed toward his chest.

Marcus looked down confused for half a second before he realized what he was pointing at. He replied through a mouthful of food. "I was thinking of how to introduce ourselves, and I asked." He swallowed and took a second to think, "I asked my assistant for ideas, and they brought up a name plate feature. A name plate feature you can type _anything_ into." He leaned forward and took a aggressively took a bite of his bacon breakfast pizza to emphasize his point.

"Stop being weird. But that is a good idea. It leaves options open." He was trying to be inconspicuous about the conversation because it seemed like the cashier was trying to listen in.

Marcus stood up to leave, grabbing his second slice of pizza with his free hand. "We should start walking to school soon. I need to be there early." He stuffed the last of the first slice into his mouth as he headed towards the door. Once they were on the sidewalk, he started talking again. "If I'm correct in my assumptions, it was between 1 in 80 to 1 in 100 teenagers who were selected." He took another bite and chewed it a bit and pocketed the food in his cheek before mumbling on around it, "Almost a third of all posts I seen online of people trying to get super hero clout were from F rankers, and the scarcity only got higher as the ranks increased. In short, we got lucky in being as high rank as we are."

"Well, our school has about 1,400 people in it. If your calculations are correct, that would mean what, like, 15 kids in our school? We got lucky to even be selected in the first place." He stuffed the crust of his pizza in his mouth at the end of his sentence. Elijah was trying hard to match his friends Snail pace and finding it incredibly frustrating.

"Actually, I don't think we are lucky, I'll bet that when we get to school, the other kids with powers will all be exceptional in one way or another." They were coming up to the school. "Put on your name plate, I'm like 99% only other champions can see it. It'd be a good way to spot out any other super-powered teenagers. Just look for the ones who are treating your chest like you're a woman."

Elijah shook his head at the comment and pulled up his system menu with a thought, "Nameplate." He spoke aloud as a menu popped up in front of him.

[Eli James - A Rank Sniper]. He typed into the bar first. He didn't care for it. It was misleading for what he could actually do. [Elijah - Speedster]. Ehh, this one was arguably worse, but Speedster was closer to what he wanted. Yes, he was fast, but he is also 6'7" after the framework installed and gave him an extra 3 inches of height. His strength had increased off the charts, he was beyond peak human, he felt like if he punched a tree the tree would be hurt worse than him. That was not a feeling he was used to having.

[Elijah "Eli" James - A Rank Agility Type]

That would have to do for now. As they approached the school, they noticed a crowd had gathered by the auditorium doors. He and Marcus walked up to their other friend Zach, who was waving like a loon at them.

"GUYS, WHAT'S UP! DID YOU HEAR THAT ALIENS ARE REAL?" He yelled at them as they approached, throwing his arms up in the air to emphasize the yelling.

"Shut up alien humper!" A voice from the crowd yelled back.

Ignoring them, Elijah replied to his friend, "Hi Zach, yes, I think unless you live on North Sentinel Island or the Amazon rainforest, I'm pretty sure you know about the Alaxid." His friend looked up at him and looked Marcus dead in the eyes, confusion flashing across his face.

"Did I get shorter? I swear I was taller than you on Friday," he pointed at Marcus, "and not _that_ much shorter than you." He moved his hand to Eli. "This is bullcrap you guys get a weekend growth spurt, and I get left out."

"Well, you see, buddy," Marcus started, "Eli and I actually met up on Saturday night and made a deal with the devil to be taller."

"Marcus knock it off and just tell him the truth." Marcus looked at him mildly concerned, but he assumed it was mostly because of the crowd. Elijah didn't think he actually had an issue with them telling Zach. "We didn't get taller. He got shorter. I know you're trying to spare his feelings and all, but we should be honest with our good buddy."

Zach tried pushing him, putting his hand on his shoulder, and tried shoving him away only to move himself. "I just saw you 3 days ago. You weren't built like a brick shithouse. What changed?!" He was starting to get upset.

"Shhh, chill out," Elijah hushed him as he started getting loud and drawing eyes their way, "its just... a new protein powder. I'll give you some later. Just relax."

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"Protien powder my lily white a-" he got cut off by the principle stepping out of the auditorium doors.

"Alright, everyone!" His principal, a middle-aged short bald man named Mr. Wilson. "First off, I want to thank you for coming to school and not running around the streets yelling the world is ending. That shows a level of maturity a lot of adults aren't showing. We are going to start school today in the auditorium. There will be a short assembly and a unique schedule for today that will be given to you in leaflet form as you enter school. Please enter in a single file line through one of the 4 doors." The doors opened behind him, and standing at each door was a student with a stack of papers ready to hand them out.

The students all kind of penguins shuffled forward in a slow moving line. The first bell rang while he was still trying to make it into the auditorium. That was the breakfast bell letting everyone know they could come get food. "Do you think they'd be upset if I went and checked if the cafeteria is open? I didn't eat breakfast this morning." Zack asked the girl, Gina, handing him a paper as he shuffled past her.

"Probably," She pulled a granola bar from her back pocket, "Mr. Wilson gave each of us two of these this morning, but they're basically salty rocks, and I refuse to subject myself to that again. Want it?"

Zach took the granola bar begrudgingly. "Not really, but I was so stoked to see if any of our classmates got powers that I forgot to eat."

Zach kept walking and waited at the edge of the bleachers waiting for his friends. Marcus walked up next with Eli right behind him. Gina noticeably paused and stared at their chests for half a moment before plastering a fake smile on her face and handing each of them a leaflet. Eli gave her a polite nod and kept moving forward. He got into the gym meeting up with Marcus and Zach and moved to the top of the bleachers, settling in away from others.

"Do you guys think Gina got taller, too?" Zach asked right before crunching into the granola. Eli couldn't decide whether it was his teeth or the food that made that noise, but it sounded painful no matter which one it is.

"Are you sure you didn't just get shorter?" Marcus teased.

Zach flipped him the bird as he continued crunching on his granola.

"Good morning, young ladies and gentlemen and everyone in between." He paused as about half the kids said it back to him out of obligation. Elijah being one of them. "I understand that everything that has occurred over the course of the last 24 hours has been stressful and scary for many of you, and I suspect incredibly exciting for a select few of you.

Today is going to be an early out," his sentence was interrupted by a cheer from the student body. He let the calm down, waiting patiently for them to stop before he began speaking once more. "And there will be no traditional classes today. There will be counciling and guidance offered. Otherwise, it will be a free day. There will be dodgeball in the gym, snacks in the cafeteria, and study hall in the library. The rest of it is written on the papers that were handed to you. Some teachers are running games, and others are offering chuckling or guidance advice."

《Room 405?》Elijah looked at the text box that popped up in his vision and then down at the paper in his hand. Room 405 - Mr. Wilson - Champion guidance.

He shot Marcus a text back. 《Do we bring Zach with us and tell him?》 They both looked over their friend as he stared at the ingredients of the granola bar that seemed to be made of gum by the amount of chewing he was doing.

"Hey Zach, what are you feeling like doing?" Marcus asked.

"I was thinking about heading up to the cafeteria and getting food that isn't a bona-fide torture device and coming back down for some dodge ball after everyone else is all tired and hopefully find someonew with super stamina playing dodge ball. It will be easy to pick them out once everyone else is tired, and they're not its genius. Y'all wanna join?" He asked enthusiastically.

Elijah shook his head, and Marcus declined verbally "No I was gonna head up to Professer Muellers classroom and see if I could hide out and work on a project in private."

"You're loss." Zach hopped up and stepped down the bleachers popping the last bite of the granola bar into his mouth.

"How much do you wanna bet he's still chewing that next time we see him." Elijah and Marcus laughed together as they got up and headed for the stairs where they climbed four flights of stairs to room 405. By the time they got there, they were catching up to a crowd of kids all crowded around room 405 trying to peek in the window of the room. Elijah positioned himself at the back of the crowd, looking over the sea of heads to see Gina and another boy already in there talking to Mr. Wilson.

《Do you want to push through or just walk away?》The text from Marcus filled the bottom right of his vision. Without giving much of a thought, he waggled his finger at Marcus, motioning for him to follow. They pushed through the crowd together with Marcus trailing through behind him, stepping into the gap behind Elijah before anyone else could take advantage. Elijah had cut his way through the crowd, physically moving those who didn't get out of his way on their own.

The door swung open, and Mr. Wilson looked up from the two in front of his desk. "I certainly hope this isn't a bid to look at champions, the ones outside I understand, but the two of you I expect better from."

"No, they're legit." Gina said as she turned to look at them. "Are you guys really A and B Rank?" Elijah nodded nonchalantly as Mr. Wilson moved a couple of tables together.

"We were just chatting about little things while we were waiting to see if any more students came in." On cue 3 more students came in, and in total, by the time they had all sat down and gotten comfortable with each other's presences, there were 9 people sitting around the table, including Mr. Wilson. "Well, everyone is here, I suppose -" Just then, another student busted in the door.

"Sorry if I'm late for this. I just started in this school last week." Elijah looked at him for a moment before it clicked. This was the same redheaded kid that had offered his vape to me a couple of days earlier.

"Nick, right?" Elijah piped up.

"Oh hey! You're the scout sniper kid from outside the Marine recruiting office! Elijah!" He exclaimed as he pointed at his name tag.

"The one and only in the flesh." Elijah replied.

"Okay, as i was saying, now that everyone is here, let's get started with introductions." He gestured to his right to Gina to begin.

She stood up with a squeak from her chair. "Hi, I'm Gina Davis! D Rank Appeal type champion. My class archetype is beautician, and with my powers, I can do anyone's makeup or hair _instantly._" She sat back down as she finished clearly proud and happy with her abilities.

The next stood a skinny dark skinned kid with a black bowl cut. "Hi, I'm Ankit Patel. F rank intelligence type. I'm a fucking calculator. This is so stupid." He plopped back into his chair with a huff as he got scolded for his language, not that it looked like he'd particularly cared.

They went down one end of the table and up the other where Marcus, Elijah, and Nick all sat in a row. None of the kids that had gone before them had been a high rank. There had only been one C Rank strength type there that was worth noting. Most of the rest had utility based powers. It was Marcus' turn.

Marcus stood up and cleared his throat. "HI, I'm Marcus Bennett, B Rank intelligence type. My current class Archetype is Psychic Herbalist. I have 3 abilities, one that summons a pocket dimension that I can store stuff in perfect stasis. One that makes plants grow at a rapid pace and one that lets me talk to plants and animals." With that, he took his seat and took off his beanie, that was hiding the third eye on his forehead.

"Oof, good luck living a normal life with that one. You're almost destined to be a crazy cat, dude." One of the F rankers had piped up with a giggle that he quickly stiffled when nobody else laughed.

Elijah stared at him with a cold blank expression until he was finished. He then stood up, "Elijah James. A Rank Agility type, class Archetype is Shifty Sniper. I have 3 abilities two are movement based, and the other allows me to give projectiles a homing effect when I throw them." He felt awkward. He never really did well in crowds of new people, and he really didn't like public speaking even to small groups. He was grateful his turn was over and the attention turned to Nick.

"Hi I'm Nicholas Gallagher, but you can call me Nick. I'm an A Rank Strength type, my Class is called Pyre Brawler. I have 2 abilities, one allows me to heat my fists up to 500°C. The other ability allows me to grow stronger the more physical damage I take." Elijah was honestly shocked. He'd seen online that A Rank was one of the most rare outside of the S rankers that there were only a few dozen known about in the world currently.

"Now that we have our introductions out of the way you can break off into groups and discuss your futures together and I'll call you up one by one and do my best to guide you though this unique situation." With that he moved over behind the desk and plopped down in the chair.

Marcus and Elijah broke off and went over to a corner, Nick followed them over. "You guys mind if I sit with you? Elijah is the only person in the room I even recognize."

"Yeah, that's fine." Elijah replied. "So I guess we should have some idea if what to say to him when he calls us up. I'll start with my plans. Marcus and I are going to Peak Empowerment Academy together. It's a superhero school in Washington state that the government set up with the aliens before the big reveal. I got an email about it yesterday."

"When exactly was I being filled in on this?!" Marcus exclaimed at Elijah. "Why wasn't I told about this sooner I'm your best friend!"

Elijah shrugged. "You'll come with me won't you? They gave me a stipend to spend weekly once i move out there, and they said I could bring 2 other Champions. Honestly you were just complaining last night how the aliens ruined all your plans as the world's greatest inventor."

Marcus took a deep breath. "Elijah, we've spoken about this before. You can't make life plans for me without talking to me. Have you told your mother about this yet? I need to talk to Momma if I'm going to go out to Washington with you. She may not worry about me because I'm pretty self sufficient but she does love me. When are we leaving anyhow?"

Nick piped up too. "I don't want to be weird about it but I actually got an invite there too and another one in Türkiye. But I won't lie a school for pyros set that close to the middle east doesn't sit _quite_ right with me."

"So are you planning on going to Peak then?" Elijah turned and looked at Marcus "I told you you'd come with me."

Nick responded filling the gap in the air as Marcus inhaled deeply, getting ready to chew Elijah out. "I actually came here to get guidance on whether or not I wanted to do that or continue on my path to the marines. It was always my dream to serve my country, every man in my family has served for since the Civil War. It's got me conflicted, uphold the family legacy I've worked my whole life for or break tradition and become the greatest yet and start a new family tradition of heros."

"I mean wouldn't the best person to talk to in the scenario be your dad or grandpa?" Marcus asked trying to be helpful.

"Normally yes, but grandpa died in the Vietnam War and my dad isn't the same anymore. Afghanistan broke something in him, if I suggested anything but the military my father would kill me himself." Nick looked down at his hands.

Elijah looked up from his phone where he'd been texting his mom about the invitation he'd gotten. "Well that seems a little harsh, surely he wouldn't kill you. That's just illogical."

"He's been training me to be a warrior primed for killing since I was 7. He will accept nothing else for me." Nick lowered his head further resigning himself to it. "This was just wishful thinking honestly, I know what I am." He moved to get up and Elijah clamped his hand onto Nick's shoulder.

"Sit. Your dad isn't here, listen to Mr Wilson, and if you do decide to go to Peak Empowerment I'll go with you to help pack. He may be a trained killing machine but what exactly will he do against two super beings?" Elijah was staring into eyes.

"Three." Marcus chimed in.

Nick looked up, tears flooding his eyes. "Why? You don't know me?"

"We grew up reading comics and watching marvel movies. That's what heroes do right? They step up to help those that need it. We've been given the powers but it's on us to live upto the ideals that the world will expect us to embody." Marcus looked at him with concern on his face. Elijah nodded in agreement.

Nick whicked away the moisture from his eyes with his sleeve. "Thank you, I think I'll take you up on that offer and join you guys at Peak Empowerment Academy. But I need to confront my dad about it myself." He flicked around in the air using his hand and then jabbed with one finger. "I've officially accepted my invite. Now I need to spend the next," he looked back down into open air. "240 hours looking for some people to be my sidekicks and talking to my dad."

Marcus glared at Elijah, finally turning his attention back to him as Nick got called up to Mr. Wilson's desk. "You really need to start specifying things like that. I swear if you ever refer to me as your sidekick, I will shove you into my portable pocket ability and never let you back out. Do you have any idea for a third for our Champion party? That Nick kid sounds kinda alright, but I don't need Daddy issues combined with a literal fire power guarding my back."

"I have an idea for a third. Her name is Olivia. She reminds me of you." Elijah said, leaning back.