Academy for Specials; The Ash Legacy

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6

Ivan only laughed before pushing me off.

"You really are ignorant, Ash." He stared at me like I had suddenly become something interesting.

"I wouldn't be anymore if you tell me."

I bet my parents knew about Chorazin.

I bet they knew a lot of things about this school and hid it from me.

"Well, if you insist…." He laughed, sitting on the bed in the room.

"Chorazin is your prototype." One simple answer was enough to confuse me.

"What does that mean?" I remained in my position.

"Every special whose abilities are inherited have their prototypes. For instance, both your parents were specials so your prototype is Chorazin. It was your mother's prototype."

He seemed to know a lot about my family so I decided to question him further.

"What about my father?" I asked him, becoming more relaxed with him in the room.

"He didn't have any special abilities but he was a Special." There was a look of respect in his eyes and I could imagine him thinking about my father.

"How did you know them?" I wanted to know more about the Chorazin but I wanted to know how and why my parents had anything to do with the academy.

"They were my trainers. Without them, I would have never adjusted to being a Special. Your parents were…" As if suddenly realizing what he was doing, he stopped talking about my parents.

"What were they?" I pestered him.

"You wanted to know about Chorazin, didn't you?" His expression that had softened when he talked about my parents hardened again.

"You were telling me about…"

He cut me short before I said anything else,

"Chorazin is the strongest prototype any Special could have. With Chorazin flowing through your veins, you can do pretty much everything. If you wanted cows to fly, they would fly. But then, it's one thing to have a rare and amazing prototype as Chorazin. It was a different thing to be able to wield the power Chorazin offered its host. Can you do that, Ash?"

For some reason, he sounded taunting like he had looked into the future and had seen me fail in using Chorazin.

I was so used to being underrated but something about his mocking tone made me angry.

It made me feel compelled to prove him wrong at all cost.

"So if I wanted to make you disappear for good, I could do it?" However, I didn't let him see that he had gotten through to me.

He rolled his eyes and snorted, "You wish you could do that but newsflash Ash, you can't. You might have Chorazin flowing through your veins but that didn't mean you couldn't end up a low grade Special."

I didn't need any more confirmation, Ivan was going to be my first enemy in the Academy and I was already determined to prove everything about him wrong and possibly make him disappear for good.

"I want to know more about the academy." I demanded but the look in his face showed that I wasn't getting anything out of him on that topic.

"You'll learn that at the Orientation."Was his response.

There was going to be an Orientation meant there were other Specials that had been brought in today.

"Your classes would commence soon; sooner than you expect and then we'll see if you're worth all that Chorazin your mother left you with. But until then, please feel free to lazy around." This couldn't be all the information the Principal instructed Ivan to relay to me but this was the only thing he was going to say.

I had to look for Magda real quick.

"How does one leave the academy?" I asked him when I remembered how the doors had magically disappeared after I found myself in the academy.

"Why? Are you planning on leaving the academy, Ash?" He was taunting me, of course.

"You actually really want to know." He placed his hand on his chin as if thinking but I knew he was only having fun in all of this.

"I'm sorry Ash but I wouldn't be able to tell you that. Maybe when you qualify for missions then you can know how to leave the academy and return." He smirked before walking away.

I was agitated and he had seen it.

The Principal said something about a portal.

That had to be the gateway to and fro the academy.

If only the piece of shit would let me know what I needed to know.

"Missions." I repeated.

"What do you think this academy was all about, Ash? Just collecting Specials from all over the world and storing them here?" He sounded angry.

What the hell was wrong with him?

If he told me more I wouldn't have to assume anything about the academy, would I?

"Well, this academy was created to fight whatever threatened the safety of humans." He stated and I made a mental note of that.

This wasn't just an academy, it was more like a Superhero agency.

What could possibly threaten human safety that would need Special graders to fight it off, anyway?

"The other disgusting thing you said your could do was taking other people's forms, right? You can literally impersonate people. That's quite a Special ability." I taunted him back but he did nothing more than frown.

Before waiting for another question from me, Ivan strolled out of the dorm rather than just teleport.

It wasn't until he left that I realized that I didn't know how to leave the dormitory since Ivan had teleported us here.

That bastard.

Exhausted from all the real life fantasy, I sat on the bed.

So clearly, my parents weren't ordinary humans and they had supposedly passed down some prototype to me.

I was a Special according to a superhero academy I never thought could exist until now.

I had decided to use my powers for good so I was going to have to go on missions and fight bad guys.

What could possibly be my grade?

Since my parents were Q-graders then I might be one too, right?

The way Ivan had been so sure that even with Chorazin in my veins, I was going to be useless made my skin crawl.

Everyone had looked down on me before but Ivan's made me more uncomfortable.

Still thinking about how my life had transitioned from normal to impossible, I fell asleep.

While in my sleep, I had the weirdest dream there could be.

I was still in the academy but somehow, no longer in the academy.

It was dark here.

While the Academy had been filled with warmth even though I had denied it, this place just felt cold and foreign.

"You should have been here instead, Kastian. If you had, maybe they wouldn't have died. Maybe I would have spared them and maybe your parents would still be alive."

The mention of my parents made me panic 

I didn't see the owner of the voice, I only heard it.

I looked around, frantically searching for my parents, anyone.

All I saw were dead bodies of people wearing a certain green uniform with some black on it.

No, no, it couldn't be.

They were Specials from the academy.

"No, no!" I screamed, rushing to them but before I got to them, they faded away.

The next image I saw was Sidon.

"If you had simply joined me, I would have spared your city, Kastian." The angry voiced boomed from somewhere through everywhere.

Sidon was in flames, there was chaos in the city as people kept dying.

I even saw Justin die.

"Stop. What are you doing? Stop!" I screamed at whoever, tears running down my face as I saw my parents house which was now my Aunty's, up in flames.

"Stop?" It laughed.

"But I'm only just getting to the fun part, Kastian."

The next image were my parents in a car, the car they were in on the same day they had died in the accident.

"Get out from there!" I yelled at them but they ignored me and continued chatting away.

Or maybe they couldn't even hear me.

"Leave the damn car mom!" I screamed, running to the car but couldn't catch up.

"You're never going to be able to catch up, Kastian. While I'm going to be three steps ahead, you're always going to be five steps behind but close enough to watch me burn everything you ever cared for." It didn't just sound threatening, it sounded threatening enough so I understood that these weren't empty threats.

"Stop the damn car!" I continued running after the car but my supernatural speed seemed to be failing me.

I ran even faster but my legs were already slowly giving out.

I screamed until I could scream no more.

"Stop!" I screamed but this time, I was back in reality.

I was panting, sweating, panicking and crying.

The pillows were soaked in the same sweat that glued my hair to my face.

"It's all a dream." I comforted myself, getting out of the bed.

I tried to do something to get the dream off my mind but everything I did failed.

It was just a nightmare but I felt like a failure.

How Special could I really be?

Was I even worthy of being a Special?

My heart bled of doubt as I showered and changed into the uniform that was in the closet.

A screen appeared in my room out of nowhere.

It was just like the screen I had seen before entering the academy.

"Kastin Ash, admitted into Academy for Specials on the third week before the first mission of the A-grade specials. Kastin Ash isn't currently ranking in any grade and his special abilities are still not defined. Kastin has a record of saving two Humans in Sidon town. Kastin has been invited to join the Orientation for newly admitted Specials. Does Kastin Ash accept to join the Orientation?" I read out what was displayed on the screen.

"Yes." I mumbled, clicking on the green button.

I left the dormitory afterward to locate where the Orientation was holding.

It didn't take me too much time to find a large conference room with five confused Specials.

They must be the new ones.

"Hi." A brunette greeted me shyly.

I waved back with a tight smile.

I really couldn't get the dream out of my mind, not even for a second.

"Welcome to the seventeenth Orientation for new Specials in the Academy for Specials." That voice, it was the Principal's.

I looked around for him but he was nowhere in sight.

Out of the blue, his face appeared on the screen in front of the room.

"You may all have your seats as the Orientation has begun." We all sat; three males and three females.

"Once again, I welcome you to the Academy for Specials." He smiled on the big screen.

"You all have made the greatest decisions to be here. There were more of you but only you six could make it here." He started.

Why could only few make it here?

Could it have anything to do with the damaged portal?

"Your special abilities could either be a blessing or a curse. It becomes a curse when you use it for the wrong purposes and a blessing when you use it for the right purposes which is why you're here today." He continued.

"You would be have class schedules for trainings to help you grow your abilities and as you advance to higher and tougher classes, you begin to go on more difficult missions. No Special would be allowed on a mission higher than his grade so be rest assured, your safety is our concern." He smiled.

So there were really going to be missions.

"You would be put in classes according to your grade. Before the end of the day, your grades would be reported to you and your class schedules after that. Academy for Specials is your new home so feel safe and free to make friends."

"However, it is still a school so there are a few rules that you must abide to as a member of this academy."

He went on to talk about the rules which we all listened to attentively.

Well, maybe I didn't listen attentively.

I badly wanted to know what my grade was.

Would I be Q-graders like my parents were said to have been?

"You can think of yourselves as Superheroes saving the human race."

Again, what was about to happen to the human race?

It worried me, especially because of my dream.

We were dismissed soon enough and while the others were excited, I was nervous.

Ivan and the dream had gotten to me so much, I doubted that I was going to do anyone any good by being here.

I ran into Magda while touring the school on my own.

She had been preparing for a mission so I refused to bother her however, I asked her about the grading.

FLASHBACK

"How does the grading work?" I asked her.

"You'll be scanned and then graded. I never used my ability before coming to the school but they had known I was a banshee even before I ever used my ability." She answered, smiling as always; as expected.

"And who does the grading?" I asked her.

"The Principal, maybe? I don't really know." She shrugged.

"Before coming here, I had superspeed, the ability to set things on fire and good regeneration and hearing abilities." She looked fascinated as I told her.

I hadn't been able to use my hearing abilities since I spoke to Magda.

"Where do you think I would be ranked?" I asked her.

"You have amazing abilities, Kastian but it's not about the number of abilities one has, it's about the length at which those abilities can last during missions." Her excitement had died down.

"Look over there." She pointed at a guy with salt and pepper hair sitting, looking lonely even though he was in the midst of so many other Specials.

"That guy used to be an A-grade Special with good healing abilities but after his first mission, they realized that he could only heal few injured other Specials."

I dreaded asking her this question but I did so anyway, "What's his rank now?"

"He dropped to being an E-rank Special." She answered.

"I have to leave now. I hope you get ranked in a good grade." She flashed me another smile before leaving.

Nervous, I returned to my dorm.

It was only a matter of time before I would be scanned.

Soon, the time for me to be scanned came.

The same screen appeared in my room and a green beam poured from it over my skin.

It stopped after a few seconds and I moved closer to read what was on the screen.

"Kastin Ash, Chorazin prototype host not ranked under any grade."

What?!