“I like your cut G,” Damian was in the middle of playing Scriabin- Étude in D-sharp minor, Op. 8, No.12, when his head was suddenly rocked forward, and with a loud slap sound to accompany. His older sister, Gianna stood above him with a satisfied grin on her face and before Damian shot up from his seat and started chasing his sister, she already started sprinting downstairs. Damian ran after her with purposeful strides intending to give the biggest tap in the head ever. The hallway he ran through seemed almost endless. No, it was endless. As Damian stopped running and focused the hallway stretched on and on. In an instant, Damian was in his room again, playing the piano, but now he was coming to the last few bars of the piece. Gianna smirking, teased Damian saying,

“That was a pretty crappy illusionary technique, what would happen if I decided to go really crazy with it? You would probably be stuck in it for eternity. Come on let’s go downstairs for breakfast.”

Damian simply responded with a roll of his eyes; his sister never hesitated to show off her illusionary prowess. Damian and Gianna rushed downstairs for breakfast where they met their mom and dad making a hearty breakfast while showing, what Damian and his sister liked to call, GIPDA, which stood for: Gag Inducing Public Displays of Affection. Damian pulled their father away, while Gianna pulled their mother away and Damian and Gianna shouted at their parents with mock disgust,

“People are gonna eat here jeez, enough with the GIPDA!”

Damian then with a mock lecturing voice, various shakes of his head and several wags of his finger said,

“Is that how you two should be carrying on? Right in front of your children, such disgraceful behaviour, hmm and you showing all this GIPDA can make someone make a mess. It is like trying to get two horny teenagers away from each other jeez and ages.”

Damian’s parents and Gianna responded with a chorus of laughter, a sound that Damian, as the foremost comedian of his house, was used to hearing. For breakfast, the Tesla family had English muffins and pancakes with Damian’s signature creamy eggs and bacon cooked to perfection. In addition, their father made a cheese sauce to compliment the English muffins. Gianna made frappes with each family member’s favourite flavours and toppings. Meals at the Tesla home were always a family effort which was why it was usually elaborate. As they ate, they discussed various topics, every few sentences there were chuckles and laughs.

Damian and Gianna, after breakfast, kissed their parents goodbye and rushed to school. Despite their home being relatively isolated and quite a distance from the school, Damian and Gianna walked to school. After a half hour of walking, they met up with their friend Akiko, who was wearing a skirt that was definitely shorter than it should have been. Damian had an... appreciation for thighs, which Akiko had no shortage of.

Unknown to Akiko, Damian and Gianna were having a full-blown telepathic conversation where Damian was at the end of teasing. That conversation ended when Akiko broke the perceived silence by asking Damian and Gianna what they did for the summer vacation, both answered at the same time,

“Nothing much, read a few books and we watched some anime.”

Damian and his sister were always close, basically the ideal image of a sibling relationship. After that, Akiko and Gianna started having their girl talk and Damian quickly tuned out, putting on his earbuds and playing his playlist of future bass. Soon enough they all reached school, Damian and Akiko went to their class in the ninth grade block while Gianna went to the tenth grade block. Damian took his seat at the back of the class and discussed his weekend with some of his friends. Akiko on the other hand was socialising with her group of friends at the front of the class.

Ten minutes later the bell rang, and the homeroom teacher briskly walked in and called out the announcements, then she did roll call. Five minutes later, the class started their first subject for the day. In the fifth period, right before their lunch intermission, a note appeared on his desk, it was from Akiko, it said, ‘There is something I need to tell you, meet me at the gymnasium.’ Damian was no longer able to concentrate, and his mind was now preoccupied trying to figure out what possibly could be so important for Akiko to seek such a private space and one that if they were found in, at a time like their lunch break, would get them in serious trouble.

Could this be one of those scenes from those romance animes, Damian finally seemed to start to catch on, a love confession, but Damian reeled himself back in, Or she can probably want to tell me about a guy she likes who she wants me to help her get with, if that is true, well then, I better not get my hopes up it can be something totally off base... Guys in anime basically look like they were the personification of depression itself. I shouldn’t get my hopes up, that kind of disappointment is something I do not need in my life. Damian simply avoided emotions that so much as gave him the desire and hope of a love confession.

As the bell rang Damian took out his lunch, ramen, and he ate it just quick enough not to waste time but was still able to savour each slurp and bite he took. Afterwards he jogged to the gymnasium. As he entered, he spotted Akiko in the middle of the gymnasium stuffing her mouth with a slice of pizza. When she saw Damian approaching, she finished her pizza, cleaned her face and then started to tentatively play with her hands. When Damian was directly facing her, she breathed in deeply a few times and began in a quiet voice,

“As I said there is something that I need to tell you and that is…”

There was a pause and then she shouted,

“Fight me!”

At that Akiko drew out an energy saber, with a blade that resembled a katana that glowed with a green hue. Akiko advanced at Damian and swung her blade at Damian's head, which he swiftly dodged. Damian took out and activated his saber, which was modeled after a wakizashi. It had a black blade with glowing dark blue-purple patterns, he jokingly called it his Shawty, but he tended to simply refer to it as a wakizashi. Damian and Akiko went on dodging and deflecting one another’s blows, both evenly matched. But over time mistakes would happen and Damian was fully aware of that, then an opportunity presented itself. Akiko had swung too forcefully, and Damian dodged it causing Akiko’s blade to lodge into the gymnasium floor.

Damian almost instantaneously swung the dull side of his blade at Akiko to temporarily incapacitate her. Just as his blade was going to connect with Akiko’s head, she disappeared right before his eyes and was now several meters away from him. Damian smiled, she had the ability of teleportation, a tricky ability to have to deal with. Damian reasoned in his head, If she had such a useful ability that puts me at such a disadvantage, why didn’t she use it to pop up behind me and crack me in the head? She is trying to draw out the fight and probably because of my refusal to inform her of my abilities and now she is trying to see the full extent of my abilities.

Damian realised he had to get a little more serious, therefore, he took out his katana-like sword, he called it Onyxcalibur. Its blade was mainly black with small specks of white throughout and its sharp edge glowed white. Damian was going to utilize Niten Ichi-ryū, a two sword technique devised by the legendary samurai, Miyamoto Musashi. With this Damian's left eye glowed with a color exactly as his wakizashi, as he activated his Gakushanome. The Gakushanome is an ocular ability that grants the wielder the ability to analyse data. Lastly, and most importantly, Damian put on his earbuds and started to blast some future bass music.

Akiko charged towards Damian, Damian predicted that Akiko would want her sword back and he swung his wakizashi in the direction of Akiko’s sword that was to his left-hand side. Surely enough she teleported to her sword but seeing that Damian had swung there she immediately dropped to the floor avoiding Damian’s blade and then she dislodged her sword and deflected Damian’s second swing from his right hand. Akiko and Damian resumed their sword fight, but Akiko was no longer on equal footing. Damian now had the advantage of having one sword for defense and the other for offense.

Damian studied Akiko’s movements and her next moves were becoming clearer and more accurate in his mind. Damian attempted to take advantage of a small weakness that he noticed Akiko had, she would involuntarily allow her hands to relax due to the fatigue caused by fighting with the sword. Before Damian could even begin his swing Akiko raised her sword in a way that would perfectly defend against the strike he was going to give. In that moment Damian’s Gakushanome detected the use of a secondary ability, it was identified as being accelerated probability.

As for the weaknesses and limitations of Akiko’s abilities, Damian was still analyzing her for those. With his Gakushanome, Damian read Akiko’s movements somewhat accurately and Damian's reaction time suddenly increased. Akiko would blink and find herself with small cuts on her body and she was incapable of using her secondary ability to predict what he would do due to Damian’s exceptionally calculated actions that seemed random. She soon realised that Damian was no longer trying to avoid hurting her, as far as Damian was concerned at the moment, avoiding hurting her was irrelevant and troublesome.

Akiko teleported behind Damian, deactivated her sword, placed it back into its holster and grabbed both Damian’s swords and made them teleport, each to a separate corner of the gymnasium. Akiko then reactivated her blade and swung at Damian’s head who nonchalantly caught the blade with his left hand without even a sign of an injury. Damian lunged at Akiko and gave her a quick punch to her gut that sent her reeling across the ground and she dropped her sword involuntarily.

Damian placed Akiko’s sword in his holster and turned the fight from a sword fight to a hand-to-hand combat fight. Akiko ran and delivered a flying back kick at Damian who blocked her foot and pushed her back, Akiko gracefully landed with a midair backflip. Akiko charged yet again, but this time she faked going for another flying back kick and instead dropped low to do a sweeping kick. Damian jumped and attempted to do an axe kick in midair and it would have hit Akiko, but she teleported a few millimeters from its reach. Akiko and Damian went in for a punch, one with their right hand, the other with their left. Just as their punches were going to connect, Damian disappeared. Damian was above Akiko, bringing down a punch from above her.

Damian’s fist connected with Akiko’s back and she hit the ground on her stomach, knocking the air out of her lungs. Akiko was stunned and Damian took that opportunity to trigger pressure points which resulted in Akiko’s legs and arms being paralyzed. Damian dragged Akiko to one of the walls opposite one of the basketball rings, he then went and found a rope to tie Akiko with, just in case she was able to move sooner than he had anticipated. Damian looked at Akiko and inquired,

“What was the whole point of that?”

Akiko panting gave a pained smile, and breathily said,

“You need to wait till the end of the day, to go to the principal’s office,”

Damian froze, fighting was never condoned within school grounds unless sparring matches were being done in P.E. Class. Akiko noticed the slight amount of worry on Damian’s face and reassured him,

“Don’t worry Damian, you are not going to get in trouble. That much I can tell you.”

Damian picked up his swords, untied the rope around Akiko, put her on his back and carried her to the nurse’s office, where they were both completely healed immediately and somehow their clothes were restored to normal, it was as if nothing had happened. The nurse did not even inquire as to what happened, it almost seemed like they didn’t care. Damian and Akiko returned to their classroom with just a few minutes to spare and they both decided to eat something extra. All their classmates watched Damian and Akiko in amazement as they both ate their food like they had not seen a meal for years. Afterwards their homeroom teacher took the evening roll, and they had their two evening periods.

After school ended for the day, Damian and Akiko headed to the principal’s office, with some students occasionally stopping Akiko to say goodbye. As Damian and Akiko reached by the door of the principal, Damian gave a silent prayer and then they entered. Inside the room stood Gianna and some other boy her age with her. Damian flashed a raised eyebrow which was returned with a shrug from Gianna’s shoulders. Damian and Akiko greeted everyone inside the room. The principal turned his chair and with a silvery voice said,

“I know Gianna and Damian who are here right now wondering if you are in trouble for something, and no you are not, you all have done nothing that would deserve punishment,”

Damian and Gianna looked at one another remembering the time they purposely caused the school to not have electricity, allowing them to have a free day. Thankfully, no one had noticed that the electrical equipment in the school had not been faulty but actually tampered with. Damian and Gianna gave a very audible sigh of relief. The principal continued,

“To put it simply, Gianna and Damian, you two were being assessed. You see Akiko and Raijin were evaluating you two on behalf of a school. Random fun fact they are siblings. Anyways, due to you two passing the fighting ability assessment and all the others, which were quite inconspicuous, you have the opportunity to join. We will first need to talk to your parents to ensure that we have permission and discuss other matters. You can go now, Damian and Gianna.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Damian and Gianna walked out of the office in a daze. As they walked to their house, they were finally able to process what they had happened and decided that the silence had to be broken one way or another,

“So, Gianna what was your battle like?” Damian enquired.

“Oh Raijin, is an electrokinetic. That made it difficult to use telepathic techniques, because of the interference that his powers created. So, I had to get creative, but the solution was honestly underwhelming,”

“And how did you get creative?”

“I lured Raijin to the pool and telekinetically pushed him in, which interfered with his powers, also Raijin didn’t know how to swim either. It was a pretty boring resolution, but it worked so that’s that. So, what about you, Damian?”

Damian recounted his whole battle with Akiko. Damian finished the story just about the time they entered their home. Gianna proceeded to make an after-school snack when she started teasing Damian saying,

“I can’t believe you didn’t pull your punches; didn’t mom teach you to never hit girls, but here you are going full force. I am so disappointed in you little bro,”

“Oh sure, I’m going to stand there and become a living, mobile punching bag. Look sis I am a firm believer in gender equality, so I treated Akiko how I would treat any guy who tries to jump me. Plus, Akiko wasn’t holding back.” Damian retorted while rolling his eyes,

“That’s true, she did make you get kind of serious. For her to make you activate the Gakushanome and use Niten Ichi-ryū testifies to her skills,” observed Gianna.

Damian grabbed himself a plate of sushi from the fridge and slumped onto the couch in their living room, utterly exhausted. Damian switched on the television and put on a new anime, which caused Gianna to rush into the living room,

“Ooooh love the art style and character design, so what is this anime about, Damian?” Gianna enquired.

“It’s an anime about some powerless kid who gets really cool powers from his sensei and breaks his bones almost every time, and he goes to this school to become a superhero. Akiko said it is pretty hilarious and one of her favourite animes. She also told me as a by-the-way-thing, that the fandom is a whole new level of toxic.” Damian enthusiastically responded.

For the next hour, Damian and Gianna could be heard dying of laughter even through the front house door. As soon as their father and mother came home, they immediately joined Damian and Gianna to watch the anime and the laughs kept coming. After a few episodes, the family started to make dinner, for that night they were having katsudon. Damian prepared the pork whilst the family made the other ingredients. Soon the entire family were at the table eating. This is when Damian and Gianna related to their parents what had happened that day. When both siblings had finished giving their respective experiences, their father enthusiastically exclaimed with a broad grin,

“I can’t believe it; you all are getting accepted! I was waiting for this day forever; I honestly was wondering how come the school had not contacted me or something, but I guess they still do that secret evaluation crap still. Also, very impressed with the way you all handled your situations.”

Their mother had gotten up from her seat and smothered Damian and Gianna with kisses and a stifling hug. Their mother had literal tears of joy and pride running down her face.

“So, I am guessing that you know something about this school, care to share what this is about?” Gianna inquired.

“Well, your father and I attended the school. While we would love to tell you Lil Peanut, we can’t, we are not sure as to how much information we could divulge to you all, so your father and I have decided that it is best we say nothing until it is clear how much we can tell you all,” responded their mother almost apologetically.

Damian shrugged his shoulders, as far as he was concerned it made this school all the more interesting. As soon as dinner finished, Damian packed the dishes in the dishwasher while his sister rinsed them. As they were doing this Gianna opened up a telepathic connection with her brother. They were now in a completely white expanse; Gianna called the Mental Void. The Mental Void allowed Gianna to hold something like a conference with others, within this place, time was experienced at a slower rate,allowing full blown discussions to occur in mere seconds. Gianna asked Damian,

“Hey you think that there are any clues in some of mom and dad’s albums or something maybe as to what this school looks like?”

Damian shrugged his shoulders and answered,

“To be totally honest I haven’t actually looked at them very seriously. Maybe after this I can look at the album with my Gakushanome but I doubt mom and dad would have left anything there for me to find”

Surely enough when Damian and Gianna checked the family albums there was nothing they could find that pointed to the mysterious school that their parents attended. Damian timidly fiddled with his finger and soft-spokenly asked,

“So, um Gianna, would you probably be able get into mom and dad’s minds? It is the only place we could find the information we need.”

“Are you nuts, Damian?! Mom and dad both have some serious mental walls and traps and if I am caught, I. Am. Dead!” Gianna shouted, dramattically gesturing with her arms and hands.

Damian could not argue with that, getting caught by their parents trying to go in their minds and get information was simply asking to die at a very young age. Damian, though, was not going to give up just yet, Damian would have been satisfied with any little he could get.

“Okay Gianna, did you at least sense any emotions empathically?”

“Well yeah, obviously pure joy and happiness but under that some anxiety, not really much to go off on. I guess mom and dad let some of their emotions leak but they were sure not to allow any thought echoes from being released,unfortunately. I didn’t try to actually lightly skim their thoughts which would have probably allowed me to hear some thought echoes, sorry.”

“No need to apologize, G, it would be totally ludicrous to think that our parents wouldn’t be prepared for something like this,” Damian disappointedly responded.

Gianna sighed and reluctantly started to cut off the connection. Suddenly they were forcefully kicked out of the Mental Void. For a few seconds Damian and Gianna laid on the ground of their kitchen completely dazed. They both looked around them to see they were surrounded by fire. Their parents came rushing through the kitchen and escorted them out the house.

As the family stepped out, they were bombarded by a wave of fire. Thankfully, Mrs. Tesla had put up a psionic force field. Their mother released the force field and followed her husband who had started walking towards the origin of the fire. Damian and Gianna began to follow their parents until their mother telepathically connected with both of them and commanded,

“Damian and Gianna stay back and get a little further away, your father and I do not intend to hold back.”

Damian and Gianna obeyed their mother and got some distance between them and their parents. Mrs. Tesla caught up and joined her husband. They briefly held hands and then she moved a few meters away and put up a psionic force field in front of her husband and herself to stop any attacks that may have been thrown at them.

Mr. Tesla started to take in several deep breaths and then his deep purple eyes dilated. What looked like steam started to be released by Mr. Tesla’s body and each breath released a small cloud of steam, his muscles became defined as if he were a sculpted stone statue. Dark Red electricity started to pour from his body and eyes and what resembled tattoos started to form throughout his body. The tattoos glowed with a menacing red and a black armour formed around his body, still allowing the glows from his markings to show. As the electricity danced around Mr. Tesla, small pieces of stone, water and more started to float and a mysterious heat emanated from his body.

Mr. Tesla sinisterly smiled and in an unusually deep and inhuman voice chuckled and then bellowed,

“I honestly am a nice guy, but you just blew up almost one million dollars in sweat and tears, not to mention you endangered my family,” Mr. Tesla dramatically sighed and continued, “So let’s cut the chit chat and dance!”

In an instant one of the individuals responded by sending a large wave of fire towards Mr.Tesla. Mr. Tesla pulled his fist back, cracking the ground in the process, and punched the air. A sudden gust of wind followed, and a thunderous sound followed as well. As the air hit the approaching wall of fire, the fire slowed, stopped, and froze for a second and then blasted back away and dissipated.

“Is that all you got buddies, common,” Mr.Tesla taunted.

Mr. Tesla charged only appearing as a blur and started effortlessly throwing his opponents around. It was like seeing a grown man fight little children. Mrs.Tesla was not just going to stand there and do nothing, she sprinted forward and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with attackers who had decided to focus on her. With each blow, she enhanced its strength by releasing psionic energy at the last second of contact. All you could have seen at the moment were countless bodies going here and there.

As for Damian and Gianna, they had problems of their own. Two individuals had attacked them, unfortunately, the fight only lasted a few seconds as Gianna telepathically incapacitated the two individuals. Out of nowhere, Akiko appeared, Damian and Gianna simply gave her a raised eyebrow, Akiko responded,

“I was sent to get you guys to safety. You all being around is causing Mr. and Mrs. Tesla to somewhat hold back. So, we have to go.”

Just as Akiko finished the man who had shot fire earlier mischievously smiled and said,

“Earlier Mr.Tesla you asked if that is all I got. The answer is no, I have something else specifically for you, I call it Solar Flare.”

The man then manifested a blue flame in the palm of his right hand and at that Mr.Tesla stopped smiling. Mr.Tesla telepathically shouted to his wife,

“Honey! Cover the kids now!”

Mrs.Tesla immediately charged towards the man, who patiently raised his hand. Just as Mr.Tesla was going to flatten him, the flame in the man’s hand went forward and became a large wall of fire. The force of it shook the ground violently and as it was coming towards Damian and Gianna it was stopped by a large invisible wall. The wind blew forcefully with a blistering heat. Mrs.Tesla grunted loudly with the effort it took to hold back the flames. Despite the great effort that Mrs.Tesla put up; it was not enough. The invisible wall started to crack and crumble, and then it gave way. In an instant Gianna put up a psionic wall over Damian, Akiko, and herself. Just as she did, the flames engulfed everything around them, and a large explosion followed.

Akiko, Gianna, and Damian laid on the ground completely dazed, and each heard a strange ringing sound in their ear. Dust and ash were everywhere, so Gianna telekinetically cleared it all. Their parents laid on the ground not moving, Gianna reached out telepathically but she didn’t even get static, just a crushing silence. Gianna began to sob, and Damian quickly understood the situation. Although Damian understood, he was speechless and could only manage to get out an incoherent mess. The man had a woman who stood by him who was resting her hand on him, clearly stabilizing the man.

Damian quickly activated his Gakushanome and scanned the man and woman. Whilst the man had fire-based abilities, the woman was the polar opposite she had ice-based abilities. Then it hit Damian, every power has a limit or really the body has its limits. The man had hit his, under normal circumstances the man would have overheated and probably been clinging to life, but with the woman there, he can be stabilised and possibly use his ability again. Damian hurriedly croaked,

“Akiko, Gianna, this guy is gonna unleash another one of his Solar Flares. We have to leave…”

Before Damian could finish, the man started to walk towards them, fully recovered. He stopped, picked up Mr.Tesla and smiled with a sickening satisfaction. Cracks suddenly started to form on their father’s body, he broke down into dust and was carried by the wind. The man hoarsely cackled and then tuanted,

“Well, that was underwhelming, huh. Your father came out guns blazing like Rambo, but look at him now. Oh wait, you can’t!” the man gave another cackle and continued, “Well at least you won’t have to cremate him, your welcome by the way. When I use my solar flare maybe I can cremate your momma too in the process. It will just be a mass cremation.”

Damian shook and trembled with rage. How dare this man laugh at the death of my parents! Damian inwardly yelled. A sudden heat started to emanate from Damian’s chest and soon the heat had spread throughout his body. Soon this heat became excruciating but for some strange reason Damian relished it. Damian took in a deep breath and then he breathed out a thin and small cloud of steam. His eyes dilated and there were crackles of purple electricity emanating from the Gakushanome as strange markings formed around his body. Small pieces of debris started to come off the ground around him and a sudden heat started to emanate from his body.

Sleek white armour with patterns in gold covered Damian, black electricity was flowing through where the markings had been, jumping at random moments and then a mask formed over his mouth and nose. Damian took a single step which caused what looked like an explosion, dust and pebbles flew up into the air. Damian gave a deep roar as if he were a monster, clearing the dust in the process.

Gianna thought that in that state, Damian would not be thinking straight. She reached out empathically and sensed an intoxicating anger but also an eerie sense of calm. She reached further into his mind to stop him from using this power. As she entered deeper into his mind, there laid two adjacent doors that resembled Damian’s armour and when she tried to open them, a disembodied voice boomed,

“You do not belong here, be gone!”

Gianna was instantly thrusted out of Damian’s mind and collapsed under her own weight. Then she completely blacked out, at that, Akiko teleported Gianna with her away from Damian and the fight that was sure to occur. When Damian saw that there was no reason to hold back, Damian launched himself into a full sprint that made him a blur. The man raised his hand in the exact same fashion as he did before and released another wave of fire, but it was not as forceful as the Solar Flare.

Damian pulled his arm back and punched the air causing the fire to dissipate in all kinds of directions. The man expected Damian to be defeated by his lower-level attacks but such was not the case. The man gave a sinister grin and the flame in his hand became blue and he pointed his hand towards Damian and released a Solar Flare. Yet again an explosion occurred rocking the ground. When the dust and smoke cleared there was no sign of Damian. Subsequently a voice that sent a chill down the man’s voice came behind him,

“You can take this back buddy!”

Damian was behind the man in midair with a blue flame engulfing his right hand, he roared and threw a punch to the man’s back. As it connected a great heat was released, melting the ground around them, a blue light flashed and then an extraordinary explosion, that made the Solar Flare pale in comparison, occurred. Yet again there was a thick cloud of dust and ash in the air and as it cleared it revealed trees that glowed orange with heat, the ground itself was glowing orange and the spot the man would have been, was simply a large crater with almost molten rock. Damian stepped out of it. He then in his mind said, Thanks Akiko and dad for your power, oh and of course gotta thank solar buddy for allowing me the opportunity to return the hospitality. Damian’s clothing dissipated and he collapsed, blacking out.