“Ready?”

“Hella ready, my man.”

“I’m ready~”

“Alright,” Jeremiah said, “Go!”

Ashley began pushing her arms out and pulling them back in a push-up motion. The invisible force of her Color-Kinesis began pulling at the cat’s loose skin covered by black fur. The cat instantly sank its claws into the branch once more, barely batting an eye this time.

“Cocky jerk.” Ashley sneered.

“Ashley, do you think you can shake her around faster, more erratically?” Jeremiah asked as he approached the trunk of the tree.

“Totally!”

Ashley grit her teeth in a much more ferocious expression, clashing with her doll-like appearance. The cat matched her ferality, angrily hissing as it began to swing back and forth with the branch. The giggling coming from Ashley as she did this was sort of scary, but Jeremiah ignored it. He looked to Isaac, who stuffed his pockets full of stones in case of emergency. They nodded at each other.

“You got this, my man.”

“I hope so, or this will get pretty embarrassing.”

Jeremiah began scaling the tree. He silently thanked his childhood self for spending so much time by the river, away from everyone. He hadn’t climbed a tree in a long time, but the expertise was still there. He made it to the branch in a matter of seconds, leaning against the trunk, hovering over the calico.

“Damn, Jeremiah! I thought you looked more like a toad, but all I’m seeing is a tree frog!” Isaac cheered.

“Just get ready to shoot!”

“Born ready! Just do your thing, my man!”

“Can you, like, hurry? I’m getting tired here!” Ashley whined.

The cat was distracted by the tug of war with Ashley, but just as it gave a moment to notice the rotund human near its branch, Jeremiah had already ejected his stomach.

Directly onto the branch.

It snapped like a twig.

With the branch becoming nothing more than a stick, and Jeremiah’s stomach now affected by gravity, both cat and boy fell.

It’s all up to Isaac now, Jeremiah thought, closing his eyes as he fell. That’s a scary fact.

Jeremiah fell as gracefully as expected. His stomach hit the ground first, and his face landed on his stomach.

Or so he thought. He opened his eyes, realizing he was being held. Jeremiah saw the Instructor, face twisted in exertion. He also saw Isaac holding the cat, doing his best not to get clawed in the face. And lastly, he noticed that Ashley was attempting to help Instructor Hill, the invisible force of her Blessing pushing up against his black slacks.

As gently as possible, Instructor Hill placed Jeremiah down by his stomach and said, “A bold strategy. A dangerous strategy. Possibly a suicidal strategy if you fell wrong, but a successful strategy as well.”

Jeremiah hastily sucked in his stomach, breathing hard.

“Is that a good thing?” Jeremiah huffed.

“I can’t say for sure, Jeremiah. But what I can say is, you did what you could. I cannot ask for anything more.” Instructor Hill smiled. “But I will ask you to keep it up.”

Ashley dramatically collapsed on the grass. Her makeup ran down her face like a death metal singer.

“Ugh, did we pass? I need to go home and, like, fix myself.”

“And I might need to get checked for rabies because this cat is hella feral, my man.” Isaac said, his head blurring as he dodged the claw strikes of the cat.

Instructor Hill pulled out an archaic flip phone and dialed a number.

“The cat is acting up, could you bring it back to the neighborhood? Perfect, I appreciate it.” Instructor Hill promptly closed the phone and put it back in his pocket. Jeremiah and Ashley shared a look of bewilderment, until Isaac said, “What the heck?”

The cat was complacent now. In fact, it was calm and contemptuous again. It patted at Isaac’s hand as if it were saying, That’s enough of that, you can let me down now. Isaac, awestruck beyond belief, obeyed.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“I said it was an opportunity,” Instructor Hill said, “But not for me. It was an opportunity for you three to get acquainted with each other and your respective Blessings.”

“So. . .” Jeremiah said, just as awestruck as Isaac, “That cat was—”

“Being controlled, yes. I called in a member of my old class to help out. She can remote control animals from up to a mile away, seeing through their eyes as if she became the animal. Isn’t it neat?”

The trio couldn’t find the words to respond.

“Well, that finishes Introduction and Team-building,” Instructor Hill beams as he scratches something off on his list. “Now I have a list of chores for each of you all, made for using your Blessings for the sake of your community. Have at it!”

He passes out a piece of paper to each student, the three of them still in shock but taking the papers nonetheless.

“Have them done and return to this spot in the next 8 hours! You don’t want to miss curfew!”

As the three of them shuffled away from Instructor Hill and out of Hunting Park, Jeremiah shared a distant look with Ashley and Isaac.

“Really, who is that guy?”

----------------------------------------

8 hours later, the three were sitting side-by-side on a park bench facing away from the same tree that sheltered a mind-controlled cat earlier. The sunset peeked through the thick leaves of the tree that provided merciful shade for the future students.

“So,” Isaac said, the exhaustion sapping all spirit from his voice, “What’d you guys do?”

He was answered with silence, interrupted only by the distant honking of cars and plane turbines leaving and entering Seraph City. The capitol that knows no rest.

“I did deliveries for a pizza place who couldn’t get a delivery driver,” Isaac volunteered, “That was kinda cool.”

He sighed before taking a bite out of a cold pizza slice. The soggy cheese threatened to slide off, but Isaac smushed it back on.

“For the first hour, I guess. Then it got boring.”

It was another moment of silence before Ashley said something.

“I painted walls all day,” Ashley said. “Like, all day. The brush handles were black, so. . .”

The two boys nodded.

Then, Jeremiah spoke up.

“The deep freezer for an ice cream shop broke suddenly, so I kept the cartons cold. Didn’t even know I could do that, so I guess that was cool.”

“Nice one.” Isaac said, still monotone.

“Nice what?” Jeremiah said, equally monotone.

“You said that was ‘cool,’” Isaac said. “Like ice cream. Cool.”

“Oh.”

Another moment of silence.

A snort from Ashley.

A chuckle from Isaac.

Suddenly the two were laughing hard. Jeremiah looked at the two by his side. He was about to ask what could possibly have been so funny, but as he moved his mouth, he realized he was smiling.

He started laughing with them. They laughed until their eyes were wet.

“Maaaan, this sucks.” Isaac wheezed. “I’m laughing at a joke this lame?”

“It wasn’t intended!” Jeremiah laughed, trying to catch his breath.

“O-M-G, that was not funny at all~” Ashley held her stomach.

Eventually the laughter died down. They gradually remembered why they were there.

“Is he normally late?” Jeremiah asked.

“No way. His Blessing is probably being a super stiff.” Ashley replied.

Jeremiah pursed his lips.

“You guys don’t know his Blessing?”

The blank stares from Ashley and Isaac answered the question. That’s a new level of secretiveness, Jeremiah thought. Some Blessings weren’t revealed to the public for all sorts of reasons—especially privacy—but for public Agents of T.H.R.O.N.E, that tends to only make them more suspicious and less approachable.

Then again, Instructor Hill wasn't an Agent.

I’ll try asking him when he gets here.

Isaac suddenly shot up from the bench.

“Hey. Since he’s not here yet, and we’ve been valuable members of the community, why don’t we treat ourselves?” Isaac said.

“To what?”

“I know this place that serves a good flan for cheap! Come on!”

He began pulling at the two, who groaned in protest.

“Where do you get this energy from?”

Once again, the trio left Hunting Park and made their way down the crowded streets of Downtown Seraph, painted orange and yellow by the setting sun.

“What do you think he’s doing right now?” Jeremiah asked.

“You crushing on him or what, Froggy?”

“That’s not—” Jeremiah cut his words short as he noticed Ashley’s jeering expression transformed to confusion.

“Guys, stop.”

He followed her gaze to the opposite sidewalk from them, separated by a busy street leading to a busier intersection. There was a man in all black, assailing an old lady. The man roughly knocked her onto the sidewalk. With her purse in hand, he began to run off, turning his back to the woman’s cries. Is this seriously happening? Jeremiah thought.

“That’s too cliche, man.” Isaac said, laughing nervously.

“No worries, I’m already calling the cops.” Ashley pulled her flip phone from her own purse.

“Wait!” Isaac brought his hands over the phone.

“The heck do you mean ‘wait,’ idiot!” Ashley snapped.

“Like I said, man! It’s too cliche.”

Jeremiah narrowed his eyes, reevaluating Isaac in his mind.

“Isaac, you don’t actually think. . .”

“Yeah, I do,” Isaac said, pulling out his slingshot. “After the cliche ‘cat in a tree’ thing, Teach is doing the cliche ‘thief steals granny’s purse’ thing.’”

“I knew you were, like, stupid, but not this stupid.” Ashley said.

“Well, this idiot is gonna actually be a hero. Feel free to call the cops while Teach thinks of me first when he picks his students this year.”

With those words, Isaac fired a pebble and blurred after the thief.