Ace was swimming inside a world of darkness from his perspective. He'd have like to know what happened next, but it seemed fate would not be so kind. He had no idea how long this was going to last, but he seemed calm. "Its up to the rest of you now."
An unknown amount of time passed before he felt something tugging on him. He thought it was a little weird, but did not let it concern him and got back to his rest. It was only when the tugging became more and more aggressive, and he started hearing things, that he got more and more concerned.
It got to a point where he was silently screaming to absolutely nobody. He couldn't even hear himself.
But then the voices turned into something he could understand. "alex. Alex! Its me ALEX!!"
On that final chant, Ace was shocked to not only be on a bed, but with a young boy, no older than 12 standing over him, seemingly trying to shake him awake. Looking at him were other children on bunk beds, getting dressed.
"Can you please not scream when we try to wake you up? It was either us, on the grown ups sent in security." Looking at his own body, instead of seeing a well built man, he too saw a child. The only thing that stayed the same about him was his darker skin complexion.
"…..Huh?"
–
After the most confusing wake up hed ever had, Chase was now walking across what seemed to be a hallway of a giant lab. Every wall was a pale white, glowing lights embedded into the roofs could be seen, as well as rooms with windows, through which he could see people in labcoats discussing things he couldn't quite make out.
He was in a group of kids, led by a man in a button up shirt and tie. Two men walked behind the group of around three dozen children carrying batons. The ones in the back were terrified, eager to push to the front.
Next to him was a boy named alex, the first person he woke up closest to. Ace turned to him. "This is certainly the weirdest ive felt in a while. Please excuse the scene ive made."
"Are you alright now? I know its not easy to adjust.
Most of us are at the age to know something isn't right, were just both powerless and without any knowledge beyond what they'll allow us."
Alex looked immensely frustrated. Ace was Looking around, he saw most of the people around him were of the same mindset. Scared and unfamiliar with where they are now.
Eventually the group got to a giant classroom.
It was similar to a classroom only larger scale for the number of people. The two men who were behind them stood guard outside behind the doors.
Everyone got into desks and looked towards the man who was jn a nice button up shirt.He turned around with the most fake smile you could ever see. Like one you would find either in a kids commercial or on a news anchor.
"Everyone, find seats. I'm your instructor, Mr. Baron."
Ace found a seat in the middle of the classroom and alex found one right next to him. Once everyone was seated, the man turned on his smartboard.
Ace wasn't focused on the screen, the words coming out on his mouth were his main focus, his head was down as he was trying to process everything happening at the moment.
"As you all know, long ago we thought the world was coming to an end. Monster attacks, objects of immense power, and other things had us in uproar.
One of those things are the fact that some people started to develop abilities. It could be as simple as shining light from your hands or it could lead to you wiping out everything the eye can see on accident.
That is why all of you are here now. You will learn to master your abilities, and we will help you in that journey."
"And how long has it been since this period of uncertainty?" Just based off of the description, Ace knew at least he didn't go to some alternate world, so how much time has passed?
Mr. Baron turned to him. "Good question. And to answer it, it's been around eighty years since Mantacorp stepped in and gave us the tools we needed to fight back against the forces of the dark….you alright son?"
Ace was visibly very confused. His eyes widened as he placed one of his hands on his head. "I'm fine sir. It's just a lot to take in"
'It's been eighty years… and mantacorp is still here?'
"Well then. Make sure to get some rest. Now class, the reason you are all here is because you had in incident. You unlocked your powers in a not so nice manner and we were called to scoop you away.
So get ready, me and a few instructors will be
Helping you manage your abilities and become great fighters in the near future starting now."
Everyone was escorted to a room with
"Alright! All of you will find an opponent
In one of the instructors here. Don't worry they won't fight back. This is a test to see what abilities we have at play."
A man in military gear stepped up to Ace, putting his hand up in a defensive Stance.
"Show me what you got kid."
Ace was unsure of everything happening here but still went forward with it. holding out his hands in front of him, ace tried to make some fireball, wind gust anything shoot from his hand.
Nothing happened.
Turning around, ace saw a few kids actually using their powers. One kid activated an ability that let them partially take on a lizard like appearance.
His hands had green scales on them and they had elongated claws. He scratched at a man who was defending, though the man was having a difficult time.
It seems like enhanced strength speed and durability was almost a default across the board with powers like these and he could barely keep the kid off of him scratch marks appeared on his body little by little.
Looking towards Alex, he saw him pull out knuckle busters from thin air, seemingly summoning them. the instructor was more skilled, but the hard hitting punches were clearly giving him trouble.
"Do you actually have powers or did those callers make a mistake?" The instructor was now standing there with hands on his hips.
"Maybe." Ace was tired of this whole thing. If he could leave this place now it'd be great.
Memories assaulted him one by one. He saw a vision of him getting home from school.
His bus had just dropped him off.
As he was walking, he'd noticed someone else had gotten off with him. Multiple people.
Three students followed him.
The one in the middle had a bowl cut. His name was Andy. He asked ace to help with his work back at school to which Ace furiously sent him away.
But, Andy was a popular student. And the person whose body Ace resided in, was very smart, but also had an ego.
He looked at other people struggling in school and thought it was pretty funny. When people wanted help he demanded payment.
So it was quite easy for Andy to spread rumors about him through his friends who spread it to theirs.
He spoke first. "Hey man, I know my request was a little rude looking back on it. I'm sorry."
Ace turned around, his face a bitter scowl.
"I don't care. Do you think that changed now that you're little servants are behind you?"
This was much to the offense of the other two boys to his sides, who got angry but said nothing. The young boys did start to get closer to him however.
Ace quickly saw what was happening.
They probably were going to take his book bag forcefully to search through his notes.
"On second thought, I have something for you, it'll definitely help." Ace said as he walked towards the young man in the middle.
Andy's face relaxed as he sighed in relief. "See? I knew you'd come arou–"
*CRAK*
Ace sent a punch flying, hitting him straight in the mouth, making him stumble and fall.
The young boy to his right barely had any time to recover from shock before a punch was sent his way too. He didn't fall completely however.
The third one struck, hitting Ace in the back of his head. It was aces turn to almost fall over now, and to make it worse, the two boys he hit were already standing up.
Not to mention the third who was constantly trying to push him onto the floor.
Andy stood up and saw the blood leaking from his mouth. "Oh…it's over for you."
The other boy had already made his way toward Ace. A barrage of punches he couldn't block sent him to the floor where even then they didn't let up.
And went up and kicked at his face, damaging Aces arms even more for having to block it.
A few more kicks and Andy was feeling himself. "Man. It must suck to be you, your totally get sued after this."
A smile was plastered on his face, though one of the teeth in it was chipped.
But that smile soon faded.
When he decided to look up, he saw what seemed to be a skinny creature. Its skin was black and it had a cloth like material wrapped over its eyes.
It was very short and had a sinister grin.
It was behind some kind of split in the very fabric of the world, like the air itself opened up.
The small creature pulled the opening just a tad, and slipped it's way through.