NOVEL NEXT 48: The Crossing of the Graduate-Undergraduate Boundary
Before Ryker could make it to the door, two other hooded figures appeared in front of him to block the way. The rest of the class, by now—bar Angelica—had also gone on guard. Knees bent with their arms up. They stood in a circle as two more hooded figures walked up and took a seat beside the blonde woman who had scared Ryker.
“We mean you no harm, don’t worry,” The blonde woman raised her hands up. Her eyes wandered, searching for a second before coming to a stop on Nyssa’s face. “I’m Scarlet by the way, are you the new student?”
“Y-Yes,” Nyssa stumbled over her words as she looked towards the other hooded figures. Without realizing it, her hand wandered over to Celeste’s arm where she clutched onto her sleeve. “I’m Nyssa, who are you all?”
“The graduate students,” Celeste sighed. She used her other sleeve to cover the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “They have a habit of pranking us... So, was this the surprise, Angelica?”
“Indeed it was. They asked me a couple days ago if they could come in. Of course, I agreed, they’re still students after all,” Angelica laughed with her hands in her pockets before turning to the other four graduate students. “Hoods off and lights on though please, now that the prank is over.”
“You got it teach,” The tallest figure by the door pulled down his hood while flicking on the lights which revealed his orange hair and bright smile. “Orion here, long time no see fellas, has everyone been lifting?”
“Ignore him,” The other hooded figure by the door pulled down her hood to reveal a girl with brown-hair and sleek glasses. “My name is Isolde, happy to see you all.”
“I’m Thalia!” The woman with short, but messy black-hair cheered from beside Scarlet, having pulled her hood down at the same time as Orion. “I’m not used to seeing so many people in Class Zero, we’re really in a period of prosperity aren’t we? Lots of people to torment the other classes with.”
“Why is that the first thing your mind wanders to,” A man with gray-hair shook his head. “My name is Ashe. Nice to see everyone doing well.”
While his fellow graduate students gave their own introductions to Nyssa, Orion tiptoed back over to Ryker, who had now begun playing dead on the floor. He hoisted Ryker onto his shoulder before carrying him back over to Angelica who helped Orion set Ryker down in a chair with an exasperated smile.
“My, Ryker’s not doing so great is he?” Scarlet put her hand on her cheek as she walked over. She came to a stop beside Ryker and looked at his slumped over figure playing dead. “Angelica, do you think we need to take him to the infirmary? If he’s suddenly developed anemia I can donate him some of my bloo-”
“Nope, no, no, no, definitely no need,” Ryker popped back to life, raising a hand and waving it in Scarlet’s face. “Definitely don’t need a blood infusion.”
“Are you sure?” Scarlet smiled while leaning in closer.
As the two conversed, Nyssa couldn’t help but lean into Celeste’s ear and whisper a few questions. “Are they siblings? They look... very similar. Also, what’s with all this blood talk all of a sudden?”
“Yeah, they’re siblings,” Celeste nodded back as Orion began a conversation about hitting the weight room with Albion, Titus, and Conrad. “The blood talk is because of Scarlet’s powers. Everyone in this group except Orion has some... interesting powers. But for Scarlet, you know how Ryker’s body is quite deadly? Because he can just... detonate like a bomb? Well, Scarlet’s is also dangerous because her blood disintegrates everything it touches.”
“Ah... that... does seem mildly related, I can see how they’re siblings,” Nyssa mumbled, a little nervous as the graduate students kept looking over to her. It seemed like they wanted to start a conversation...
“Yeah, they also both have the same freakish healing factor,” Celeste shook her head. “Well, Ryker needs it a lot more than Scarlet does.”
Nyssa snorted, unable to suppress a chuckle from leaving her lips. As the others looked over, she waved them off with a “Don’t worry” as Thalia and Ashe walked over. Isolde, meanwhile, joined Orion and—in a surprising turn of events—began adding to Orion’s argument by lecturing Albion, Titus, and Conrad about the best exercises, good lifting technique, and diet nutrition information.
“How are you two?” Ashe opened up the conversation with a tired, but gentle smile. “Long time no see, Celeste.”
“Yeah! Long time no see,” Thalia winked as did a few dance steps.
“I’m doing well, nice to see you too,” Celeste nodded her head as she answered with a polite smile. “I’ve actually been doing quite well since the start of this school year. It’s been nice having another girl who’s closer to me in age than Electra. Plus, it balanced out the class a little more.”
“That’s important, I’m glad you’ve been doing better,” Thalia smiled, reaching over and patting Celeste on the shoulder. “It really was becoming a bit of a sausage fest before Nyssa showed up. How are you Nyssa?”
“Well,” Nyssa bobbed her head up and down a few times. “Just hanging out. I uh... am settling in. The class gave me a really warm welcome.”
“I’d hope so, we tried to leave a legacy of class unity,” Ashe stared out the window. Before he could continue though, Thalia cut him off.
“You know, you all still aren’t getting the true version of Ashe?” Thalia leaned in with a conspiratory smile. “Even us graduate students haven’t seen it for a month or two.”
“I don’t quite consider that my true self... perhaps just a different side of who I am,” Ashe denied with a shake of the head. “With the underclassmen, it's better to be polite to keep a good impression.”
“What’s this... true self then?” Celeste inquired with a curious look to Thalia, ignoring everything Ashe had just said. The candle of interest had been lit in both her and Nyssa’s mind. How different could this tired-looking gray-haired man be?
“It’s very different,” Thalia stroked her chin with a wise expression.
“Okay, you have fun, Thalia,” Ashe shook his head and let out a helpless sigh before turning to walk off with a wave. “I’m going to go talk to Angelica for a bit.”
Thalia waved him off with a couple “have fun”s before leaning back in. “Alright, so listen carefully. Ashe’s power is a strange one. To the naked eye, you wouldn’t think he needs to be in Class Zero. He has a pretty classic baseline strength boost. Plus, he has an extreme natural talent with weapons that got brought out by Angelica. This is just known information, I’m just giving you some background Nyssa.”
“Thank you,” Nyssa nodded before falling quiet once more to let Thalia speak.
“What you should know though, is that he actually has a much more powerful main power. One that allows him to get stronger the more pain he feels. He actually has a regeneration ability just a step lower than Scarlet and her brother,” Thalia explained while tapping her chin. “So they put him in Class Zero with us because they wanted to make sure he didn’t lose control and hurt himself on purpose. For the most part, they succeeded, but if his pain crosses a certain threshold...”
“He goes crazy?” Celeste guessed.
“Pretty much,” Thalia laughed, putting her hands on her hips. “He becomes a total adrenaline junkie. Wayyyy more energy than me! And the biggest prankster of the group!”
“Good... to know,” Nyssa scratched the side of her face. “You all have some interesting powers.”
“Yeah, there is a certain body theme when it comes to our powers,” Thalia shrugged. “We were nicknamed the class of disgust for a reason.”
