User blog:Dark Seeker Kotsu/The Power

Foreword
Okay guys you are all very lucky. You get to read some of the backup book I am writing, known by me as ''The Power. ''I first invented Beckett for this story though his name used to be Ike. You are the first people in the world who get to read it. It is not yet finished but it is a work in progress.

The Power-Chapter One
This story takes place far in the future. The world has changed so it is hardly recognizable. There are now lots of monsters in the world, vicious brutes unlike anything you could imagine. Our hero is not your typical hero. He is only fifteen years old and for those of you who are fifteen years old or was only a short time ago, you know how completely average fifteen year olds are. Now I’ll allow you to see our hero’s story for yourself and besides, things are more interesting if you take a look at it from his perspective.

My name is Beckett Ian Gavin Howell IV. Not that it matters to you. I am half Welsh from my dad, Harper and half Chinese from my mother, Anna. I am fifteen years old. I have black hair and cold dark eyes. For a while I lived with my father, as my mother died a few years ago. I should have had an older brother but he died when I was only four and I can’t remember him at all. I used to live in Arbiter City, which was kind of a small town in my opinion, but okay. My story is a complicated one but if you have the time, it’s one worth hearing. I just want you to avoid a future like mine. I’ll begin right where this adventure begun for me.

It was a regular overcast day at my high school, Arbiter High. Everything seemed normal enough. I was walking outside, by myself again. I hated it here. Here I had a school full of incompetent fools. I was the genius of the ninth grade, no probably the genius of the school. In testing the highest score attainable was a 5, I was a continually raising 6, considered impossible until I showed up. I had just been “punished” with the method known as exile. Of course, I didn’t care. I almost preferred exile. Exile is where the administrators put you in a room with no teachers, no students and no work. I didn’t care and this troubled the school. The whole time I was in exile I sat there looking at the two way mirror. Even though I couldn’t see them, I knew there were examiners hiding on the other side, watching me.

I walked to my house. Once I entered the house my father greeted me. “Hello Beckett.” he said, smiling at me. I nodded in reply. “Why aren’t you at school?” he asked. There was a tense silence then I replied. “I got exile again.” His face became a mask of concern and sorrow. “Why?” he asked in a melancholy way. “There was some ignorant fool who kept beleaguering me.” I replied sullenly. We were silent again, unable to look at each other. “You’d...you’d better go back...the testing is going to start.” he said. I nodded and walked back to school.

Once I returned to school I waited outside of our exams gym, which didn’t look like a gym it was so large. All schools had an exams gym, which had to be big enough for all of the students to fight in at once. Exams gyms have special effects examiners can select that make it more difficult to train in. And today was testing day for all of us students. The guards in front of our entrance, the Freshman gate, let us in a few at a time. It soon came time for me and nine or so others to be allowed in. It looked like a laser tag room, making it more difficult for us to find others throughout the maze. They led us into the exams gym.

As soon as I entered I flitted carefully through the maze, far away from any noise. I waited for a moment. I edged along walls, slowly easing myself from the isolated sector until I heard my target moving slowly down a passage around the corner and to the right. They were very stealthy, but my strikingly aberrant hearing allowed me to pinpoint exactly where the target was. I looked at my sensor-watch, which showed me a map of where I was. On it, now that I had recognized someone was around, it read “Now entering your area: Male Senior Derek De La Cruz” and below that it read “All students have entered the test”. I paused, cautiously aware that the target had stopped. I sensed a very quiet slap of hand on wall. It would’ve gone unheard but my precise hearing picked it up. I heard the steps coming towards me. Hiding in the shadows I saw the boy in front of me. He was tall and looked more like a man, clearly a senior. He turned his back on me to view another passage, inadequately unaware that he was in plain view of me. I ambushed him, knocking him unconscious and his own sensor watch set off a flare which could only be seen by the gatherers, who wore special goggles that allowed them to see these flares so they could collect students eliminated from the challenge. This was too easy for me.

The rest of the test went pretty much like that. Again the teachers thanked us and dismissed us right from there to lunch. I hung around on my own of course; I was feared by many students as I was the best this school had. I was too good, I knew when results came out at the next rally I would be the first name called, as I had the Placement One spot on the ranking. The teachers often debated whether I should be required to take the test, as I always came out on top. When the bell rang I went to Hunting Intuition class, which doubled as our Math class. I, of course, had the best grade on a math test we had received yesterday. I got a perfect score. After the other students did corrections on their test with Mr. Richardson, he took us outside for training. I easily met my goal and was allowed to train on whatever level I liked. I trained on Level 4 while the rest of the class took on Level 1. The levels went up to 9, but seniors only got up to 4 in the curriculum. My classmates looked on, watching admirably how I avoided the opponents and obstacles with ease. A trainer came out, making a lunge at me. I jumped and kicked my leg out to bounce off the wall, using the propulsion to get air which I used to take out multiple enemies at a time. A few of my classmates applauded; the propulsion walls were only found to be used in an advanced course for Seniors. Mr. Richardson let out a hearty “Bravo!”, despite his old age he had been in the Military and only an elite few could use the propulsion walls, even at a young age. The training was finished.

Before I could retire to watch the other students at their attempts in Level 1, an office assistant excused me from class, telling me to go to Mr. Kennedy, my Survival Aptitude teacher. I walked into his room, which had a dearth of students because it was his free period. I noticed he was standing with three older boys. I could tell by the colors were garbed in. Our school had colors assigned to each grade level. This year Black was the Freshman Color, Green was the Sophomore color, Blue was the Junior color and Red was the Senior color. When this year’s Seniors graduated, the incoming Freshmen would be given Red as their color. One was taller than me and well-built, he had golden brown hair and he was wearing Green, so he was a Sophomore. The other was slim and had dark hair underneath a baseball cap and he wore Red so he was a Senior. The third was well-built too, and he also wore a baseball cap, only his cap’s bill was backward facing and he wore the blue of the Juniors. The three of them looked friendly enough. “Beckett…I have decided to make you a part of a squad. These are your new teammates.” He said. “Top Sophomore Jett Malone,” as the boy in green raised his hand in salutation; “Top Junior Kev Corbett.” The boy in blue waved; “And Top Senior Kian Armadan.” He added, and the final boy in red nodded in acknowledgement. I shook hands with all three, I recognized their names alright. They always came after me in score only their placements often changed.

Then Mr. Kennedy explained that the three of them were moved into my classes and that I had been removed from Technological Aptitude class because I was already too adept in the class. Instead of going to that class I would be attending an Aptitude High and Low class with them. Aptitude High and Low, also called A-H-L is a class only for those with the highest or lowest rankings in the school. I was glad to be out of Technological Aptitude class, it had grown boring because I was too technologically advanced for the class. I was to spend time with them. “Seems easy enough.” I thought.

The next day was the first I got to spend with them. In the morning I met them at school. I walked over to them. “Hey Beckett.” Kev said, adding a friendly nod. Jett and Kian added their welcomes and I responded to each greeting. We talked for a bit and I found that I liked them already. We distanced ourselves from other kids all the same. The first class of the morning was AHL. In it I got to meet the others. There was Eve Kearney, a short blonde girl who was the highest ranking girl at Placement 9 on the ranking. I shook hands with her and she seemed glad to meet me. Then I met Jade Forrest, a medium height redhead, second highest ranking girl at Placement 10, and Cindy Barrett, a brunette who was third highest ranking girl at Placement 11. I also met a tall black boy who turned out to be Sophomore Zeke Dorsey at Placement 8. The boys at Placements 5 and 6 were in another class instead of this one. Then there was the lows. Drek Uhler, a short black Freshman, was ranked at 2000, the worst score as there was 2000 kids at this school. I also met Lan Tong, an Asian boy who had a score of 1500 but was in the class because it helped his ranking. He had been allowed to enter the class so as to maintain his Placement. Everyone else in the class was so bad I didn’t bother to get to know them, aside from Tyson Shires, a brunette Senior at Placement 7.

In that class we mostly did work and then Kian, Kev and Jett followed me to my Hunting Intuition/Math class, which I…I mean we went to twice a day. My classmates gaped at the new additions; it was unusual to see the four best Placements in the same class. We all sat together. We were given a test. I felt the indifference of everyone’s eyes on me as I walked up to hand in my test first. Almost everyone that is. Jett was right behind me and Kev and Kian were too engaged in their tests to notice. Jett and I handed our tests in to Mr. Richardson and went back to our seats. Kev and Kian finally finished and a few minutes after them the other classmates started handing theirs up. After the math lesson, a very simple lecture on the Pythagorean theorem, Mr. Richardson had us prepare for training. Kev, Kian and Jett would be training with me.

We reached the training grounds. The four of us separated from the class and went to the advanced court. “Let’s try level five.” Kian suggested. I selected Level 5 training. We all walked in and the trainers lunged at us. I used the propulsion wall again, after I ricocheted off of it I kicked a trainer right in the chest. I saw Kian take down four of them using the propulsion wall’s corner, bouncing back and forth where the two walls met to kick at the trainers. Kev, who was the biggest of us, was using his size as a benefit, as was Jett. Kian and I were both small and skinny and could use the propulsion walls to our advantage but Kev and Jett were bigger and taller and used their size to hold their ground. In this manner we easily beat the challenge, my classmates watched with awe. I was content, for I had finally found my equals.

Afterwards we then had to go to Perception class. The class was small, it consisted only of three other boys except us. There was a Niko, Andrew, and Daniel. Andrew wore the black of the Freshmen like me while Daniel was in green and Niko in blue. Andrew was a small dark-haired boy with glasses. He was a weedy boy but he was very intelligent and often was up there with me in getting the best marks on the written exams. Despite his small stature Andrew was a mastermind in the Perception classroom. Daniel on the other hand was a bigger boy with dark hair with a slightly messy look to it. He was a good competitor when it came to Hunting Aptitude, he had a natural talent when it came to hunting instinct and was observant. Daniel also enjoyed playing cards in his spare classroom time, if Ms. Raja would allow of it. Niko was different from the first two. He was a bit on the weedier side but he flourished the most in Technological Aptitude class. He could often be found fiddling with the computer, something that often irked Ms. Raja when it was during a lesson. I could afford to miss lessons because I knew it all but I copied down the notes anyways and often let Andrew or Daniel borrow them for future reference. Andrew had more trouble in the actual training part because he was so weedy but I treated him in a way as though I regarded him my little buddy, which often saved him from the ridicule of other students.

After the brief lesson in Perception class we had our final morning class, Hunting Aptitude. Hunting Aptitude was the equivalent of what used to be Physical Education. Mr. Brett, our teacher, was going to teach some techniques to the class. He excused Kev, Kian, Jett and I from the lesson as we were already far more competent in the lesson than expected. After another, more rigorous training session, in which we tested level 6 and got close to our goal, we went to lunch. We left early and first grabs for lunch, which turned out to be hamburgers. Zeke joined us at the table outside of the AHL classrooms for lunch. The AHL classrooms were in portables rather than the main building like all the others. It was enjoyable, more so when Drek left for a club meeting. Drek annoyed us because he was oblivious to the fact that he was the worst. Lan idolized me but he was a cool guy. He had a short mess of black hair and wore the black of the Freshmen. Lan brought his elite handheld gaming system the I-420. He played a video game enthusiastically while Kian and Jett listened to music and Zeke and Kev and I joked around. The teachers from the AHL room came out and told us we weren’t going to our afternoon classes, but rather that we were going to be in the AHL room with them.

It was a good lecture followed by a silent work time. Drek had a large pile of work to do and would be working long through the afternoon because of his abysmal grades while Zeke and I, the first ones done, got to play around. Lan finished next and we were moved into the next room. They put on an “educational film” and left us in there but we ended up wadding paper balls and having a war with them. The senior named Tyson joined us once he was done. “I call dibs on Zeke!” I cried, so he was on my team and Tyson and Lan were on a team together. We threw the wadded up paper at each other and Zeke acted out a very dramatic death scene each time he was hit. The tall thin boy was an asset to my team though and he made me laugh a lot, something someone had never been able to do. “No fair.” Lan cried as again his round glasses were knocked off of his face. When we heard the teachers we made a mad scramble into the nearest seat and acted as though we were enjoying the film, oblivious to all of the wadded up paper on the ground. A blonde teacher gave us this look but left back to the other room. As soon as they left we continued the paper war and when Kev entered, finished with his work I claimed him on my team. “Fine but I call dibs on the next person in the room.” Lan added. The next person happened to be Eve Kearney. “I call next.” I called out, deftly throwing a paper which nearly hit Tyson. Kev, Zeke and I cheered and whooped when that person turned out to be Kian, though we had to get back in our seats and fake an interest in the film again. We kept calling people in that order and I ended up getting Jett on my team too. After school had ended I realized that for the first time in my life, I actually enjoyed it. Sure my class wasn’t perfect but well, it’s a start.