For what felt like hours an unusual feeling of calmness flowed through my body, as if all the troubles of the world were gone, not even a twitch could be felt, my vision hazy yet I can still make out the shapes of my room.

My body felt different in this land, what should have been darkness was replaced with an acute awareness of my surroundings.

I desperately wanted to sleep, sleep for hours on end just to find an exit to this nightmare that I found myself in and yet not even the world of dreams could be found, only nightmares resided in their absence.

As if my body knew I wanted to get up I found myself leaving the hazy world of sleep, finding my vision returning, my once dull and aching muscles feeling great and my weariness gone as if I had slept for many hours, checking the cloak I found myself only have slept for an hour.

A few minutes passed, simply enjoying the comfort of my bed before I decide to get out, the springs crying out as I left their embrace.

*Groan of the metal door*

"So I said to her, cheetah gonna cheat and that's how I got this bruised arm" The sound of laughter came from the open door as the sound of two men entered.

"Hey wanna go prank the new guy? he should be asleep right now" one of them said in a hushed voice.

Silently inching myself as close to the wall as possible, hiding near the doorway I waited for the footsteps to get closer, the dark room providing ample hiding spaces.

Slowly the two people  tiptoed into the dark room, not even glancing towards my hiding place, I watched them as they snuck up to my now vacant bed.

"WAKE UP NEWBIE! GET UP GET UP GET UP!" A baldish fellow screamed as he shook the bed, his buddy flipping the light on.

The surprise of nobody being there confusing them I took my moment and launched my counter prank.

*Ahem*

"Oh clever, you heARD WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING! HOOOLY FUCK!" baldy screamed his buddy remaining silent but turning just as pale as his friend.

"Hello there, scared of a little insect hehehe" I said jokingly seeing that they were scared shitless.

"Holy fuck you got us there mate, that's a really good getup, how'd you even make that?" The bald man said between wheezed breath.

Slowly walking up to me he pets my face "Wow th-this is pretty realistic, I can't even see any zipper or anything"

"Yeah that's...really realistic, how'd you even convince them to let you bring it in?" his friend said.

"Its not a costume, its my ESP" I said calmly feeling rather amused at their reaction.

A few seconds passed as they processed what I had said.

"Ehhhhh...WHAT!" they said in unison, baldy retracting his hand almost slapping himself.

After a few minutes of explaining yesterdays events.

"We're really sorry for our behavior, we really didn't mean to make you feel bad especially after what you've been through

We've not even introduced ourselves! I'm Zack codename Cutting Edge, my bald friend here is Henry or as he'd like to call himself PointBlank"

"HEY I'm not that bald" he said as he slapped his friends shoulder.

In the light I could finally inspect my guests.

Zack sported spiked black hair, his soft face matching his green eyes his outfit consisting of grey vested jumper over a buttoned shirt matched only with dark blue jeans and boots he stood at least 5.7 foot.

His friend Henry was completely opposite, polished head his only hair being a short stubble beard, his brown eyes and rough face giving him an aged look, wearing a grey tank top displacing his muscled arms with blue jeans and boots, standing at 5.9 foot.

"Sooo... we're really sorry for our behaviour, we really didn't mean to make you feel bad especially after what you've been through" Zack said.

"Oh its fine, I'm still shaken up with the whole ordeal really...."

*ClINK* the metal door opening revealing another person.

"Hey Zack I just remembered there's a new recruit today, no pranks you hear" A women's voice calling out from the hallway, her footsteps closing in before reaching my room.

A women with baggy grey clothing and blue jeans stood at the doorway with short brown hair blue eyes, her tall figure nearly touching the 6 foot high door before stepping in before us, although wearing long clothing and jeans what should have been hands and feet were revealed to be golden furred paws that were dotted with black spots.

"Hey I though I told you no pranks and you bought some scary mantis statue" as she turns to glare at Zack.

"I'm not that scary to be honest..." I said in reply.

"See Zack if you scar...." cutting herself off for a few seconds, she remained silent until turning to me.

"...Oh s-sorry I didn't mean to be rude, your honestly not that s-scary" she said unconvincingly with unsteady feet.

"So anyway welcome newbie, my names Sarah or Cheetah...yeah I'm original ok! and these two are..." 

"We already told him Sarah" Henry said.

"Oh, well...*Punch* that's for scaring me!" she said while punching Henry in the shoulder.

With that the three of us continued to chat, the earlier uneasiness eventually lifting until we all casually talked, we talked about many things like hobbies, past life experience and just general things.

Zack discovered his ESP when he was 17, his ability can give himself or an object a razor sharp edge, essentially able to make a piece of paper cut through metal, apparently he was minding his own business when he "accidentally" cut through his exam paper....and table he was taking the test on.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Henry at the age of 20 discovered his ESP, although he's not entirely sure on the limits his power is acceleration, although limited to his hands he can change the direction and speed of anything he touches, objects have different speeds but generally he can make objects travel around 60mph, he discovered his power when he apparently sent a squirrel blasting off into space....

Sarah's is a bit tricky, apparently she had hers since the age of 15, just like me she's a former, having Cheetah mimic's she's apparently able to move faster than normal along with the razor sharp claws, when she had gained her ESP she was at a karate championship, almost won it as well if she hadn't started transforming in the locker room.

"So Max, have you though of a codename? I was thinking... Greeny" Sarah said.

"How about Praying Green Mantis" Zack said

"Oh here's a good one, Giant Green Insect!" Henry called out.

*cold wind blowing through*

Really? this is the best you guys could even come up with....

"Hmm, I was thinking just Mr Mantis?" I wasn't really interested in a complicated name.

"hmmm... Yeah" they all said.

"Hey why don't we take him to the training hall, it should be interesting for us all" Zack said to us.

Curious I agreed to go along with them, despite it being late at night they were more than willing to go to the training hall, the added bonus of going now was there was less people in the hallways.

A rather uneventful trip towards the hall, travelling through the corridors we had met a few people, the majority were just freaked out at the sight of me while one person actually fled off somewhere, a few twist and turns was all it really took until we got to the training hall, a rather plain looking area that was brightly lit, it size was nothing to scoff at with an area as large as ten football fields.

Staying true to its name the training hall had many articles of equipment ranging from simple gym equipment to full on running fields and training dummies.

Following Sarah's lead we made our way to some rather large range of sad looking dummies, each lined up with a variety of material, some were made out of simple straw while others made out of rock or metal.

"Think of this as an initiation, we normally have the new guy take a swing at one of the dummies, you'll use these in the Academy anyway so it'll be fun to just have a few fun swings"

Sarah went up towards one of the dummies, the light colours suggesting it was made from stone, stopping a few inches from it as she prepared herself, *WHACK* with a quick jab her paw found its mark, leaving a chunk of the stones chest crumbled at where she had connected.

"See nothing too complicated"

With that Zack and Henry both stepped up towards a random target, zack making a chopping motion with his arm aimed for the dummies neck *Slink* as his hand cut through the dummy, the head landing with a thud by his feet.

Meanwhile Henry had picked up a few pebbles, with a lazy throw they blasted off like bullets towards the target *Plink Plink* as they connected, smallish pebble sized holes embedded themselves inside their victim.

Spurred on at the surreal sight before me I decided to join in walking up towards a dark black dummy, with a quick glance at my arm scythes I put my attack into motion with a quick flick of my arm aimed for above the dummy I swung my scythed arm in a diagonal from the dummies right shoulder.

"WAIT!" they shout, their faces cringed as my blade inched closer and closer.

Too late for me to stop my blade connects with the dummy *SLINK* my scythe continuing through the dummy as if it were paper before exiting on the other side, a second passed as the unsupported dummy slid off, its thud breaking the silence.

"Hey that was fun, is there any more?" I said turning towards their shocked faces.

"Holy shit" Henry said his jaw almost reaching the floor.

"What? did I do something wrong" I asked turning around to see the somewhat shocked faces.

"That's 10cm thick Maraging Steel that you just cut in half!" Zack said as his eyes almost popped out.

A mix of confusion, excitement and fear sprung as I stared at my scythed arm, its sharpness even scarier than I had imagined.

"Oh so there you are!" A familiar voice called out, turning around to see Agent Firelance walking towards us.

"Testing the new guy I see, have you shown him Breaker ye......oh wow, Zack did you cut it?" as he closed in he bent down to inspect the now slain dummy "that's a pretty clean cut you did as well..." he said while rolling a finger down the smooth cut.

"Erm sir, I didn't cut it" Zack said, unable to tear his eyes away from the slain dummy.

"Don't be silly who else could have cut it other than Max....you cut it didn't you Max" his gaze directing at me.

"Erm...sorry about that, did I ruin it for you Zack?" I said apologetically.

"Oh no...its just that you cut something that nobody's been able to even dent this let alone cut it in half" Firelance said as he stared at my scythed arm.

"So Mr Firelance, what brings you here?" I ask....

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Authors Note:

So how did you like the new cast of characters? good / neutral / bad, let me know