I was discharged the next day. The medical staff had me tested before I left, but I felt it was more procedural in nature than one out of necessity or even concern. They were just glad to get rid of me in the quickest manner possible.

It was still late in the morning, and while most of the senior officers would still be resting from their overnight missions, most of the young cadets were already up and about attending classes. 

I had not taken two steps out of the common hall corridor when a bullet whizzed past my face and struck the wall on my right with a large, audible crack. I turned my head to glance at the wall. I was unsurprised to see a pellet, and not a bullet, that was wedged into the wall. The sniggers from my left had indications that this was not an accident.

The ones responsible were a group of fresh cadets who had just joined the Institute. Even in this organisation where rank plays such a big part, when it came to the famous Unattuned of the Institute, nobody actually gives a fuck. Given my rank, I could have easily gotten these brats punished but respect only came to those who earned it, or to those who could enforce it. Since neither of the students nor the instructors here were on my side, I was no better than the rats who lived in the sewers. 

Another pellet flew towards me again, but I was ready for it; the pellet ricocheted off easily the throwing knife I held as a dagger to deflect the projectile. Though the pellet was hard, there was hardly strong propulsion force behind it. Judging by the choice of weapons these cadets used, they were probably Hooke followers who had just learned how to manipulate the spring constant behind their slingshot weapons. 

It would be almost like child's play to take them down...

But before I could do any taking down,  I felt something extremely hard collide against my stomach, sending me down to the ground with an insane amount of force. My world turned into blanks as I struggled to caught sense with whatever that was going on. The attack was so sudden, and so lethal that I had completely not expected it. My injuries from my earlier mission had not completely recovered, and I could taste blood in my mouth. I spat out the blood onto the ground, coughing as there was a lot more where it had came from.

'Tut, tut. Dear Ciel-y, you shouldn't be carrying weapons around, kiddo. For a moment, I thought there was someone attacking our young cadets over here. You have to forgive me. I'm so sorry.' 

There was so much sarcasm loaded in that voice that guy could have been a variety show host. I spat out more blood and gritted my teeth angrily. I looked up and saw Tyson, one of the senior officers who took it as his life mission in the Institute is to make my life as miserable as possible. He was both an Archimedes as well as a Darwin follower, which meant that he could control his own body's density as well as shape-shifting into anything that he wants. That punch from earlier was probably due to a combination of both of his abilities. Tyson was definitely a fearsome warrior, that much was certain. 

Unfortunately, he was also the bane of my life too. 

My abdomen was still feeling the brunt of the attack from earlier, and I was feeling very weak. I got up slowly with much difficulty. The young cadets were jeering, clearly enjoying the attack. Tyson was just standing there, a smug look on his face as he watched me get up with much difficulty. He rolled his head to one side, and I had this mad instinct to tear off his neck. Unfortunately, he was a fully-fledged Captain, whereas I was merely a 2nd Lieutenant. To commence an attack against him would meant treason. 

Tyson took a step forward, and I hastily stepped back. His expression turned dark immediately.

'Silly Ciel-y,' he said, 'what's wrong? I just wanted to make sure you're okay. Why are you so afraid? Unless... It's true? You were really meaning to hurt these cadets?' He cracked his knuckles menacingly, and cricked his neck as well before continuing. 'Looks like I, as a senior ranking officer, will have to mete out some punishment.' 

But before he could even launch another strike at me, I felt the air cackle a little, and I felt a slight relief. I knew what this meant. There was only one person in this Institute that could make such a thing happen. 

Tyson morphed his feet into the legs of a wolf, and dashed towards me with his left hand braced back for a powerhouse punch he was preparing to throw at me, but I did not flinch. There was a mad glint in his eyes that told me that he was lapping up this moment like a hungry hound and had not noticed current flowing through the air. 

There was a buzz, and static filled the air. I saw it being over before it even happened. One moment Tyson was flying towards me, and the next he was sprawling on the floor, and in uncontrollable spasms. Marks of burning were visible along his arms, and there was a slightly burnt smell. 

I knew very well who did this and I looked straight up, behind where Tyson was previously standing. 

A man, slightly older than me, with hair in a dark shade of blue and eyes built in the colour of shocking emerald, stood there in jeans and a tank top with his arms outstretched. His palms were open, and smoke was encircling them. He was grinning a lot too, and I flashed him a warm smile. He put down his hands and walked forwards towards Tyson. He crouched down next to Tyson's head and put his hand on Tyson's forehead. 

'And it looks like I, a more senior ranking officer than you, will have to mete out some punishment as well. Looks like you've been trying to take discipline in your own hands, Tyke. Now fuck off before I send you something more tasteful. a 10,000 voltage perhaps?' said Jax in an exceedingly gentle voice, but he and I both knew this was meant to serve as another warning.

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Tyson barely said anything; he had recovered from the spasms and got up quickly. Before saying another word, he ran towards the Military Sector, back to where his common room was. The other cadets had fled too; probably off to share the embarrassing tale of Tyson who had tried to haze the Unattuned but got his ass shocked back Heaven instead.

I turned back to walk towards my common room, clutching my stomach where it still throbbed. Thankfully, no more blood found its way up my throat, but the feeling was still uncomfortable. Jax caught up to me and looked me over with concern. 

'Oh man, sorry I was too late. If only I had gotten here on time, none of this would have happened.' Jax tried to apologise but I waved it off nonchalantly. 

'It's okay. I mean, you can't be by my side 24/7 either. This was bound to happen. I should be thankful that this time round it was just him, and not his usual gang.' We turned towards the Centre Park, where this was a shortcut towards our common room. 

'Besides,' I added, 'you had the intention to cripple him right? And don't try to deny it. That was definitely not an electrocution to stun. How much current did you really give him?' 

Jax didn't answer, but the look on his face was clear. Back then, he had meant to injure Tyson, but luckily there was still some sense in him to hold back.

Luckily for both him and Tyson. 

The walk back to our common room was short, and pretty uneventful compared to the incident earlier. With Jax by my side, nobody dared to attack me or try anything funny. News spread fast in the Institute, and by the time we had reached our common room, Case was already regaling us with the stories she had picked off from the Intranet. I didn't wanted to hear any of them; I had just wanted to take a cold shower and go to sleep. 

Our common room was a nice and cozy place, and it was shared amongst myself, Jax, Case, Valera and another girl who adopted the name of Gun. Gun was out for a long distance mission, and she would not be back till the end of the year. We each had our own rooms, and there were a couple of toilets. We had a kitchen too, and a communal area where we had our meals and watched TV. The Institute had many spare rooms on site, and most of these rooms were converted into living quarters instead, seeing as lessons and trainings were mostly conducted on open grounds or in laboratories. 

I loved our common room. It was the only place in the Institute that I could truly call 'home'. Other than the small flat my mum and I shared, of course. This was the place I looked forward to the most after spending a grueling day out training and getting slammed by almost everyone. I loved how we had set up the communal area to be filled with bean bags instead of normal furniture, how we had decided to go with brilliant orange as our wall paint, and how we never stuck to our own rooms as much as we could. 

Tonight was, unfortunately, an exception. Valera's door was shut, but I could see light from underneath the door frame. Clearly, she still did not wanted to talk about the previous day's incident at the wing. I headed straight to the bathroom, and briefly undressed. Because of the medical ability of the medical stuff, we hardly ever used bandages anymore, but even curative sciences had a limit when my body was pushed down like that. 

My old wounds had opened again, and even though I was bleeding earlier on the way back, it had stopped now. I turned the shower head, and warm water flowed through. I gasped in pain as the water seeped into my injuries, but the pain gradually passed. 

I took a pretty long shower; Jax had threatened to electrocute me through the water supply and I came out after about 30 minutes. I headed straight into my room, and landed directly on my bed. I had recently purchased a set of light-absorbing curtains from Edison Industries, whose owners were all Thomas Edison followers and were thus inventors of their own right, and even in the middle of the day, I could turn my room into night time if I wanted. 

I dozed off soon after putting my head onto the pillow, and sleep came for a few hours. I was awoken by the pounding on my door, where Case had briefly shouted that dinner was ready. I got up, still groggy from my nap, which had taken me away for 4 hours into the evening. It was half past six, and if Case was the one cooking today, dinner would always be served at this timing.

I pulled on a sweater from my wardrobe, and walked out of my room. Someone had decided to switch it up; the communal area was illuminated by a warm orange. It did nothing but make me all the more drowsy.

I took the bean bag next to Jax and glowered a little at the spread that Case had prepared. One of the dinner plates had been chipped off and I guessed it was Case who had dropped it while cooking.

For the klutz that she was, Case was an amazing cook too. She had said that if not her scientific power popping up, she would definitely had gone into the culinary world.

We all sat in stony silence as we stared at the food. Case kept glancing at her watch and at Valera's door, which was still shut tightly. There was a beep, and Jax took out his mobile phone. He put it down almost immediately after, and reached out for the food.

'Well,' said Jax as he piled his plate with food, 'Valera's not eating with us so we might as well start to eat.'

I felt uncomfortable. Valera was mad at me, and not them. I got up, but Jax put a hand to sit me back down. He handed his plate to me and reached out for another, saying, 'just sit down and eat. You know how she is; once her mind's made up, only an atomic bomb would destroy that obstinacy of hers.' I knew Jax was right, but it still did nothing to assuage my feelings.

But my stomach growled then, and I decided to fill it first. Dinner talk was mild, since I wasn't in the mood to talk. And then Case stumbled into something interesting. She hastily caught both my attention and Jax's by shoving her tablet in our faces.

'Look, look!' She almost screamed.

Bemused, I took the tablet from her, and stared at whatever she was excited about. It was a digital poster, sent from the Institute events team. Apparently, the Winter Games were approaching and the registrations were open. Participants had to form teams of four, and the competition would be held on a 'last-team-standing' basis. It would be perfect for our gang, now that Gun would not be back soon too.

Jax was just thrilled, and the two of them immediately discussed their battle plans. I let them go into it while I switched on the TV. The news channel flashed on the screen. I frowned as I glanced at our home clock.

The news usually don't come on till 10pm... What's going on?

The news caster was a woman in her mid 30s, and the headliner came at the bottom. It read 'Youth murdered on Institute grounds today.' Case let out a gasp and covered her mouth with her hands, the expression of shock visible still. Jax was solemn as he stared intently at the screen.

'Not much was left of the remains,' said the news caster, 'since most of the deceased's features had been brutally destroyed.'

The news caster stopped talking as she pressed onto the listening device next to her ear.

'Hold on. This just got in. We have identification of the deceased.' She stopped again as another message got in.

We all stared with bated breaths as she nodded her head on the screen.

'The deceased's name is Tyson Delta. I repeat. Tyson Delta.'