I was shook awake with what felt like a small bomb, I looked to my left and to my surprise it was indeed a small bomb.

Huh.

I suppose most people in this scenario would be at least the slightest bit concerned. But me, well, I've kinda gotten used to it. Assassination attempts are just a part of everyday life for me, much like eating food or going to the bathroom. I'd probably be a bit more concerned if my would-be assassin was any good. But as you can she missed blowing me up with what I can only assume was a grenade while I was asleep at my desk. Where she found a grenade is beyond me. I suppose in this day in age you can practically get anything, so long as you have the money.

That being said everybody is rich here, a nice private academy for all the kids of millionaires. The pretentious atmosphere can be a bit suffocating at times but it's made up for when you're hanging out with friends they end up paying for everything. As you can probably tell by now I'm not exactly cut from the same 10,000$ cashmere cloth.

I got here on somewhat of a scholarship, I say somewhat because to be frank I don't know why I got it. My grades aren't anything special and I'm not a prodigy in any field. I didn't even apply for any kind of scholarship. But sure enough when I got a letter in the mail saying I could go here tuition free I couldn't exactly refuse. I mean, even if I don't exactly fit in here that doesn't matter, because having this on my record is practically a guarantee to get into any university I want. I'm pretty sure I know why i was invited here but I'll get to that later.

Where was I?

Oh right! The assassination attempts!

The girl who I was referring to was no other than Lily Freedmen, I say “no other” like you're supposed to know her but honestly I’d be surprised if you actually did. She's just the daughter of some semi-rich CEO of a shipping company. Semi-rich in the way that she's nothing special amongst her peers but compared to me, heh, I could only wish.

Now to the why.

Why is Lily trying to kill me? Beats me.

Ok that's not entirely true. I have a fairly good idea why she's doing all this, I just can't say for sure because she always talks like she's in an anime where everything is some vague battle of morals or whatever.

She can keep rambling about justice and heroes for as long as she wants because I know it can only really be one thing.

So how do I explain this without sounding like an idiot…

Oh well you know what they say, “honesty is the best policy”.

Sometime in the summer before entering my second year of high school I gained some sort of power…

Alright, whoever “they” is needs to shut up because that sounded awful. But yeah, I'm not sure if I should call it a supernatural power or what. And don't even get me started on why on earth me of all people would be bestowed with this power.

Regardless, I have it and it seems some people don't want me to have it. That's where Lily comes in. I don't believe she's one of those people, it's more like she's being manipulated by whoever they are. I wonder if they're the same “they” who said the honesty thing?

Before I could finish my thoughts a laugh was heard outside in the hallway

“Ahahaha I've got you this time!”

This voice of course belongs to Lily

She bombastically slammed open the door. Striking a stupid pose in an attempt to look cool.

Her blonde hair got caught in her face but she didn't seem to mind.

She was wearing a bastardized version of our school uniform, fitted with various accessories and a scarf despite it being spring.

“Nope, I'm still here, also stop yelling so much. There's still after school classes going on.”

“Wh-Wha-”

“Shhhh.” I put my finger to my lips.

Striking another embarrassing pose. “Oh sorry, how did you manage to escape my Authorial Explosive Magic Type 2?”

“Don't call a poorly placed grenade magic!”

“The hero always has magic!”

“Your action are more in line with a terrorist then a hero…”

“Quiet fiend!”

Fiend?

“My heroic actions may be questionable to some, but you're definitely the villain so that's all that matters.”

“Why the hell am I the villain?”

“Hey! Watch the language!”

“You just tried to blow me up with a motherfucking grenade, I think I'm allowed to use profanity.”

“See you are the villain, only villains curse!”

“You know that's not true.”

“Hmph” She pouted and turned away from me. There was a bit of an awkward silence.

“What's the matter? Not gonna try and blow me up again?”

With a quiet embarrassed voice. “I'm out of grenades.”

I let out a sigh.

“Then just go home.”

With no response given, I began to leave myself.

“Fine then I'll go home.”

She began to spout out a bunch of nonsense about why I can't leave. I ignored her as usual, it wasn't worth the energy. Although I knew one day I'd actually have to confront her. Not because she's a threat or anything but I'm slightly more concerned with the people who put her up to it. Then again if they thought using her was a good idea then maybe I don't have to worry so much.

I shut the door behind me, yet I was able to still hear her.

While I'm still pondering where she gets all this military grade equipment from, I'm more concerned why the school hasn't done anything about the small explosion that have been going off, on and around the school because of her.

I think some of the higher ups are in on it, that's why i was given a scholarship here. But still, I'm sure some of the teachers aren't in on it. I mean, are you trying to tell me the goddamn janitor is also part of some conspiracy plot against me?

Yeah right, I guess the teachers here really don't care about explosive ordnance going off on school grounds.

The real question is what anyone would accomplish from eliminating me?

Something tells me Lily is just someone they tricked to scout my powers, that's why I haven't used them yet against her.

I'm sure they'll send someone formidable soon enough. That worries more than any attempts on my life from Lily.

My powers aren't exactly suited for direct combat. Being a target and all you'd think I'd have some super strong power, like the protagonist of an anime or video game or something.

Alas, cold reality is never so convenient. If I could just snap my fingers and destroy everything in my wake, I certainly wouldn't be so worried about what's next.

To activate my ability there needs to be a set up of sorts. When facing against someone or something I need to mentally set a condition. Through testing my power on some stray cats I found, I learned some restrictions.

For one thing, the condition needs to be somewhat specific, so something like breathing or blinking doesn't work. Luckily for me, there is a bit of a leeway. It doesn't have to be as specific as saying your mother's maiden name, something like turning your head around to look behind you will work. Although, once a condition is met, it can't be used again.

Just my luck, I wasted the easy ones like looking behind yourself and sitting down. Now I'm stuck with weird complex ones.

Anyways, once activated I'm sent to some other world. Perhaps dimension is a better word for it since nothing lives there and it doesn't follow any conventional laws of science. Because if my powers weren't difficult enough the dimension i’m sent to is completely random with each one having their own unique properties. For example, one time I was in a world filled with number 2 pencils floating around in zero-g. But when a force was acted upon it, the pencil gained a velocity similar to that of a bullet. The next time was just a field full of flowers, like that's it, just fucking flowers.

Good thing I was testing on cats, if I had to fight an enemy there I'd be killed in an instant.

Really my power is just inconvenient. If any of my enemy's could just summon fire I'd be burnt to a crisp before I could even make them wink or some bullshit like that.

Knowing my power makes me all the more confused why they're targeting me.

Sure if I could cause earthquakes or travel at the speed of light I’d be able to understand why they might want to eliminate me as a threat, but with this power I can't imagine being a danger to anyone except maybe Lily.

Hell, I've given up on any notion of being a “hero”. I just want to live out my life quietly and act like I don't even have a power.

It seems that's impossible though.

So for my safety and future prospects I've decided to search for other people with powers, in order to form a defensive pact of sorts. As I am now I couldn't take on anybody, but if I was allied with some dude with super strength I might be ok.

I'm sure there are others out there, whoever is trying to kill must have some power users with them. So the trouble arises not so much in finding other power users but in users who aren't with the enemy.

So what was my plan to find them?

A voice bellowed from down the hall.

“Jacob Harroway! What is the meaning of this!”

The student council president, Alicia Vasquez, held a flyer in her hand. Standing with rigid formality, her black hair draping down to her back. Straddling the line between beautiful and rip-out-your-jugular terrifying.

The words on the flier brazenly spelled out. “looking for fellow power users to form an alliance. (if you're one of the people trying to kill me I'm not interested) Contact Jacob Harroway in class 1-A.”

Okay so maybe it's a bit blunt, but it might just work. Think about it, the enemy will be to flabbergasted to answer and only other power users will look at that crazy talk and view it seriously

“Well it's exactly what it looks like.”

Her furious pace positioned her right In front of me, holding the flyer in her right hand, trembling from anger.

“We do not tolerate such pranks here at this fine academy”

But you tolerate hand grenades?

“Alicia you seem to have the wrong idea, this is no prank.”

“Oh really? Then what is it exactly?”

If I told her the truth she's never believe me. Luckily, I'm not the type to miss any bases. I have an excuse primed for this.

“This is a club recruitment poster. You see I'm starting a club.”

“And what kind of club would that be?”

“A role-playing club.”

“Role-playing?”

“You know, like when you pretend to be someone else.”

She let out a sigh.

“I know you're a helpless troglodyte but can't you make a normal poster like the rest of the clubs?”

“Hehe sorry just trying to keep it in the spirit of the club.”

She looked out the window, only to be bathed in the rays of setting sun.

“It's getting late, man children like yourself shouldn't be out after bedtime.”

“I was just on my way… Also could you stop with the snark?”

With that I parted and headed to the exit. I have enough to deal with, the last thing I want is the student council getting involved. Being so close to the teachers, I can't trust them in the slightest.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I shouldn't have to wait any more than a day for a response to the flyer.

I shouldn't have to wait anymore than a day yet…

I've been waiting for a whole goddamn week!

I don't get it, my plan should have been foolproof. But so far the only people to respond have been people laughing at me and Alicia making smug comments. This would be fine if I atleast got a lead out of this, but so far the closest thing i got to one is Lily and her so called “explosive magic”

It seems like I have no choice but to be more active in my search. It's not exactly an easy task but I have no other options. The real question is where to begin? I suppose I could go up to everyone I see and ask but that's no different than the poster. Plus, I'm already trying to nurse my bruised image back and that just seems counterproductive. Lily might know something but I run the risk of it being one of my enemies, or worse, some delusional kid like her. Gah, I shudder just thinking of more than one Lily.

I don't like the idea of it but it seems I'll have no choice but to ask Alicia.

The sign above reads “student council room”. The two knocks on the door seemed to resonate through the room behind the thin layer wood in front of me.

“The door’s open, come in.”

My head was already down. I knew the onslaught of Alicia's trademark snark was about to rain down like hellfire

As soon as she saw it was me, her eyes sharpened and a smug grin ran across her face.

“Wow, good job! You managed to open the door!”

I don't even have time to breath with her.

“Shouldn't you be saving the world from evil with your club?”

Of course, I'll try my hardest to not humor her. If I speak with deadpan sarcasm she might drop the attitude

“Ha ha ha, wow, you’re so funny Alicia. How do you do it? You should be the class clown instead of the student council president!”

“Why thank you, but you see, being in my position only amplifies my comedy.”

“How so?”

“Well things are always funnier when you don't expect it from the person who says it. For example, if your friend comes up to you and tells you a dirty joke you might not think much of it. But if your grandma says it then it's marginally funnier.”

“That may be true, but a joke still needs to have some semblance of comedy for that to work.”

“Hmm, not bad. So why is it that you're here?”

It’d be easier to just tell her the truth outright but I need to stick to my club ploy.

“Uh well it's about my club, you see I'm having trouble getting members…”

“Well I might just be able to help you out there.”

“Huh? Really!”

“Yes, I know one of the teachers at the elementary school down the block. I'm sure one of the 7 year olds would love to play pretend with you.”

Damn, she got me when I let my guard down.

“Yeah yeah, but I'm being serious. Aren't you supposed to help out your fellow student?”

“Well my job usually falls within the realm of student-teacher meditation but… Have you tried Lily Freedman? She seems a good fit and if I'm correct you have regular contact with her.”

“Anyone but her, god… wait how do you know I know Lily?”

“You must be mistaken, I've never said anything of the sort.”

“No, I'm sure you did.”

Ignoring my conjecture she checked her phone for the time.

“As much as I'm enjoying our little banter, I must go to a meeting. The only thing I can say is look at failing clubs, maybe one is similar enough that you could merge.”

With that she took off. It's impressive how she can go from a smug bastard to a stern professional in a matter of seconds.

“Failing club”? What does she mean by that? And one that's similar to a made up role playing club at that seems unlikely. Despite my doubts it was my only lead so I left the room and headed down the hall to the club bulletin board. It was located close to the entrance of the school. I passed a few students, some of who shot me glares. No doubt in response to the poster. Man it's gonna be annoying to fix my reputation.

The Bulletin board was covered in various posters and flyers stapled to it. One of mine included.

I should mention that at this point I figured out what Alicia meant by a “failing club”. You see, at our school, clubs need at least four members to become a club. But sometimes a club may lose a member or two during the year so if by the next semester they don't have enough members to fill in the quota, they'll be disbanded. You can usually spot these clubs by their desperate posters that haunt the board. They’re like mine, but actually trying the save their clubs instead of probing the student body.

I began to look at paper amalgamation.

Let's see we've got the “rock club”, “home ec club”, and “chess club”.

Alright, nothing special here, and no crossover appeal for my “club”.

“Creative landscaping club”, “mountaineering club”, and “Classical Greek literature club”.

Uh ok, a little more niche, but sorta understandable. Still nothing similar though.

And lastly “Yugoslavian war tactics club”, “cereal appreciation club” , and… “European renaissance plumbing club”?

Wha- how did these clubs even have enough members to begin with?

This is baffling to say the least.

Uh anything else?

“Jacob Harroway is a stupid man child club”

Who in the hell?

My eyes furiously glanced around the flyer. They were stopped in their tracks by the words “Approved by the student council president, Alicia Vasquez”.

I should've known.

It's honestly impressive how far she goes for the joke. For someone in her position to risk defamation charges is honorable. Although she probably only did it because she knows I'd be praising her for her conviction like I am now. Damn she's good.

I noticed that her poster was stapled directly on top of another club poster. I ripped off the poster leaving just the staples. Beneath Alicia's passive aggressive, no scratch that, just plain aggressive poster there was an overly gaudy flyer.

The flyer read “magic club” and was covered in stock images of top hats and wands. It seems this is more about performance magic then whatever the hell my power is. Regardless, this must be the club Alicia was eluding to. Her poster placement was on purpose I'm sure.

I read its location and headed to the room. It was on the second floor of the school.

The front of the class was decorated with leftover string lights from Christmas. A heavy curtain was draped in front of the door.

Pushing aside the curtains, I entered into a dark room. It was lighted by the same string lights as outside. There was three rows of four chairs in which all but two were empty. In the back of the room there was another curtain that blocked off what I can only assume a stage. The two people in the front row turned around and waved me in. I took a seat next to them.

“Did I miss the show?”

The two girls turned to me in tandem, they looked like twin sisters. Both were way to happy to be sitting in this dark room.

They would speak one after the other.

“Nope!”

“He never starts a show until at least three people are here.”

“Sometimes no one shows up and he just doesn't do the show.”

How full of himself is this guy? Also why do these girls know so much?

“You two seem to be here a lot”

“Yup!”

“We're here everyday!”

“Every...day?”

How anybody could show up here everyday is a mystery to me. Even if this guy has the best amateur magic show on the planet, you'd have to get bored of it sooner or later.

With a sudden jerk the curtains blocking the stage were pulled away revealing a brightly lit stage. In the middle stood a boy decked out in a full suit complete with a cape and top hat. Despite his cliched look, there was a certain passion in his eyes. A passion that burned brighter than the curtain that just caught on fire next to him.

Oh shit!

Mr magic scrambled for the nearest fire extinguisher and put it out. But not before fumbling around with for twenty seconds and then getting slapped in the face when the hose was pushed back. All the while the two girls gave off little reaction, implying this happens often.

The stage light heated up and caused the curtain to catch fire. Seems to me like that's a safety hazard. I guess I'm expecting too much from the school that doesn't give a shit about explosions. There was also a noticeable lack of any fire alarms or smoke detectors going off. I should really complain to Alicia about this.

After the whole commotion with the fire he regained his composure. He looked and smiled at the three of us.

With a strong bravado he proclaimed.

“I am the great illusionist, sir David himself!”

Both girls began to violently clap. I found myself giving a small golf clap as well. Something about him just impressed me. Perhaps his charisma or lack of shame.

“For my first trick I will pull flowers out of my hat!”

He took off his hat and held it in one hand. In the other he flicked his wrist, extending out a wand. He began to say whatever it is you call it when magicians say the thing before the trick. A spell? That doesn't seem right.

“Abracadabra, Alakazam, I summon thee into the world to aid a mere mortal man”

He waved his wand over his hat and before my eyes, a bouquet of flowers appeared out of his hat. He threw them into. The audience. They were fake.

Ok that was a pretty good trick I'll give him that. He seems to know his stuff but is he really the person I'm looking for? I'm only here because Alicia mentioned it. There never was any solid lead that he had powers like me. But maybe there's something more to his power…

“I'll now take a request from the audience.”

As if following a script, the girls jumped up and began raising their hands saying things like “Oh pick me!”.

He looked at them with apathy and quickly shifted is attention to me. He let out a smile and asked.

“How about you? Have any requests?”

Hmmm. I was feeling a bit assholeish so I decided to ask for the impossible.

“How about a picture of me?”

Flowers were so cliched, I'm sure if I asked for something expected like a rabbit or one of those infinite scarfs he'd be able to do it. But a picture of myself? There is no way he could've prepared ahead of time for that. I felt a bit bad for trying to embarrass him, especially since he's pretty decent.

He was pushed back in slight astonishment for a moment but quickly regained his confidence. He smirked like he was thinking “interesting, a challenge”. However, he didn't say a thing and simply readied himself for the trick.

He began to stare at me, it made me a bit uncomfortable. The girls fell back into silence as the intensely watched the performance in front of them.

“Abracadabra, Alakazam, I summon thee into the world to aid a mere mortal man!”

A poof of smoke came out of his hat. He slowly lifted a small piece of paper out of his hat and then flung it at me.

Wha-what? H-how?

The small paper that was thrown at me was in fact a Polaroid picture. On the picture there was an image of a person. Despite the blurriness of the figure it was undeniably me in the picture.

I looked up to him with a mix of shock and confusion.

He looked so self-satisfied, normally that kind of attitude would piss me off but in this case I couldn't help but feel he deserved to be. It's the sort of feeling you get when you lose in a video game after your friend did something amazing. Like sure you're upset you lost but it was so impressive how you lost you just kind of accept it.

“Another awed audience member! But of course, all are in awe after the Great Illusionist, Sir David does a performance! With that ladies and gentlemen, I bid you a goodnight.”

And with that the charred curtains closed on the stage and the room lights went on. The two girls were clapping so hard their hands were turning red.

I got up and headed for backstage. I don't know how Alicia knew, but there is no doubt about it after that “trick”. This “Sir David” is, no doubt, in possession of a power like mine.

I don't know the specifics but it seems he is able to conjure things into existence.

I stepped behind backstage to try and talk to him

“Hey uh-”

“Before you even ask I'm not telling you the secret to my trick.”

He cut me off before I could say anything. I'm sure he gets that question a lot so I don't blame him for taking the precaution.

“Well it's not that exactly…. How do I say this?”

It's truly a hard decision to make. I no longer believe “honesty is the best policy” after how awful it sounded last time I tried that. If possible, I'd like to let him be the one to admit to the powers. I guess I'll try and drop some subtle hints and see if he picks up on it.

“So… That's a pretty good trick. It's almost like you had some sort of magic power bestowed upon you that allows you to conjure things into existence so long as you meet the requirement of an arbitrary rule beforehand.”

I think that was good. Nice and subtle, I'm sure he'll be able to pick up what I'm trying to say if he has powers as well.

“You….”

“Hey bro! Great show as usual!”

He was cut off my the two girls entering in behind me. I guess they're his sisters.

It's obvious he was affected by my subtle hint. He gave his sisters little attention and clearly wanted to answer me.

“Thanks you two, but I'm actually in the middle of an important conversation so can it wait till after?”

He came up close to me and whispered in my ear.

“Let's finish this conversation somewhere more private.”

He pulled me out of the room. His sisters looked disappointed but slightly intrigued. Possibly getting the wrong idea about us.

I kept following him as he walked down the hall and up the stairs.

I was confused on where he was taking me but I soon realized once we reached the top floor.

The door to the roof were pushed open revealing the Sun's downward fall.

David walked ahead a bit then turned to me.

“I love you….”

“WHA-”

“I'm just messing with you! You should see your face, it's completely red.”

This bastard, playing with the heart of a fair maiden like myself.

David was holding back tears of laughter.

“Sorry, it's a little strategy I do. Plus it was the perfect setting. I mean the roof at sunset, that right out of a trashy romance novel!”

“A strategy for what?”

“Huh? Oh I can't say what it is, if I gave away the meaning It'd be useless.”

Strategy? Does he think of me as an enemy? Or at the very least a potential enemy?

Now that I think about it, I just assumed David is unaffiliated with any group. There's nothing to say he's not working with the people who are trying to kill me, like Lilly.

You don't think… The real reason he took me to this isolated roof is to kill me?

But as my mind was wracked with speculation and paranoia, David slowly stopped laughing from his teasing and became more casual in posture.

“So, you have powers too?”

“Ah I see my subtle hint worked.”

See! I knew “they” were wrong. Fuck honesty, hints are where it's at!

“Yeah, I wouldn't call that subtle, in fact I'd say it's the exact opposite.”

“What? It was totally subtle. No one would know what I was talking about unless they had a power themselves.”

“People not knowing the true intention of your words because they sound like the ramblings of a crazy person isn't subtle.”

“Well it worked so who cares.”

My fears of David being one of my enemies had complete dissipated. It's clear by our conversation that he means me no harm.

“Then does that mean you do have powers? You never really answered my question.”

“Yes I do have a power, although it's different then yours.”

David walked over to the railing and began to look at the sunset

“I'm not alone huh?”

An earnest smile streaked across his face.

“Does that mean you haven't meet any other power users?”

“There are more?”

I guess David is the first power user I've meet too besides Lilly, but I'm reluctant to call throwing small explosives a power. I'd call it a felony or domestic terrorism, but not a power. I suppose I don't know for certain that whoever is trying to kill has powers of their own, I just assume that they must.

It's strange that they haven't targeted David at all. I'm sure he's not lying, you can't fake that kind of earnesty. Then if he's telling the truth that must mean my power is something special or at the very least a threat to them.

But really I can't imagine my power being any better than David's. He can summon things into reality! That a thousand times better then my bullshit power.

It's true I don't know his requirements, but the fact that he was able to use it on stage without me noticing means it can't be that bad.

There must be something more to my power, I might have to do some more testing.

“Well I'm being targeted by someone, and while I can't confirm that they have power, it makes sense that they would. Do you know Lily Freedman?”

He shook his head no.

“Blonde, crazy, thinks she's in an anime”

“Oh yeah I know her!”

“Yeah well she's trying to kill me and someone put her up to it.”

He became shocked by that revelation.

“Kill you? Because of your power? Am I in danger too?”

“Yeah I'm pretty sure. You're probably fine for now since they haven't tried anything yet. Eventually though they're gonna realize Lily is incompetent and they'll send someone more skilled. I don't know what’ll happen then.”

“I see… So why is it that you reached out to me?

“For the sake of mutual security I suggest we make a collation of sorts. In case either one of us is attacked, we can back each other up. I figured we can merge my made up club and your club.”

“Well, that sounds good to me.”

He put his hand out to shake. I reached out and grasped it.

“Nice to work with you. I never properly introduced myself. I'm David Lawrence, hope we get along.”

“I'm Jacob Harroway, same to you.”

With that hand shake, a pact was formed between David and myself. I feel a lot safer with him on my side.

“You know my power but what's yours?”

“You might want to find a place to sit down, it's a bit convoluted.”

Seems like things are going as planned.

I slowly closed the door.

I suppose I worried for nothing. Of course those two would hit it off. They were bound to meet and form some sort of alliance even without my help. I guess I'm just impatient. I'm sure Jacob will come to me asking something like “How did you know?” Completely forgetting his role-playing club farce.

My phone began to ring loudly.

Shit.

I quickly answered the phone and checked to see if Jacob or David heard me.

They didn't.

“Hello sir… A meeting now? Right, of course. I'll be right there.”

I hung up and put the phone back into my bag.

It seems I need to hurry up this process after all.

I began to walk down the stairs, back into the darkness of the halls.