Chapter 2
Viktor POV
I have never asked for much in life. Probably because if I did I would just be laughed at and would probably be beat up for asking. My life has been one big disaster after another from the start. My mother died giving birth to me and I'm pretty sure that my father blamed me for her death. I know it's the truth because I blame me for my mother's death, so it's kind of hard for him not to. My older brother Zane was my hero up until he lost his mind. He taught me everything I know about the real world and more importantly the streets. When I was nine, he gave me my first and last taste of alcohol because he didn't want me to become an alcoholic, and the same thing with cigarettes and marijuana. Amazingly, all his methods seemed to work because I made a vow to myself that I would never touch the stuff again. It would be three years later before Zane would eventually get sick of poverty and rob his first bank as the new villain Mayhem. After that Dad kicked him out of our lives forever but when he left he told me to be my own person.
When I found out that I had superpowers I figured it was just another thing about me that would make people instantly dislike me aside from the fact that I had a brother who was in a super prison. But instead thanks to my next door neighbor, Mrs. Lei, I ended up getting registered in the D.S.A.'s data base and going to sky high. So it was Monday morning that I had gotten dressed in black jeans and my favorite gray skull and bones t-shirt and walked out the door with a few note books in hand. Unlike most freshman attending Sky High this year, I had no misconceptions about Sky High simply because I didn't care one way or another. I had one mission and that was to be a hero. Everything else was just extra, and that included having an enormous social life so I decided that I would mostly be keeping to my self with the exception of those few who prove to be a good choice in company, unlike the moron who was asking if this was the bus to Sky High. I took who I hung around very seriously, especially after that whole business with Zane.
I stepped on to the bus and I locked eyes with the kid and made a conscious decision right then and there to stay away from that preppy idiot. I sat down in the seat behind him and started on the meditation techniques that Mrs. Lei had taught me. Mrs. Lei is my next door neighbor and she used to be a superhero by the name of Mistress Yin who worked as a crime-fighting duo with her twin brother Master Yang. She has long since retired after her brother had died on a bad mission. The twins' power was that they could communicate telepathically with each other no matter where they were. They had tested it when they were literally a whole world apart. Don't ask it's a long story, but anyway I guess the communication thing was really strong because Mrs. Lei said she talks to her brother all the time, which I think is pretty cool.
By the time I was done reminiscing, the bus was already off in the air and flying at high speeds. All the freshman were screaming their heads off except for the preppy kid, who had a faint expression of happiness on his face. Well, I guess he isn't as spineless as I had initially thought. But that wasn't really saying much because this wasn't even that dangerous to begin with. I have done way more dangerous stunts than this which can only be explained by the simple fact that Mrs. Lei was very thorough with her training techniques. She may not have much in the way of actual super powers, but she was an absolute genius when it came to martial arts. She's been teaching me everything she knows with the help of her brother for the past year ever since she found some bullies trying to pick a fight with me after a walk home from school, which coincidentally was the first time that I had powered up.
I stepped off the bus and I just felt this overwhelming sense of... readiness. Sky High was just the institution where I could learn to be a hero, and taking a good look at it I had to say that I was impressed. First it's a school in the sky so I guess that means they have pretty good security, although I could probably hack it in about seven minutes flat. It had thick outer walls that were beige-ish, horrible color choice , and the words Sky High in big orange and blue lettering. Walking into the double doors, I felt like I could take on just about anything and anyone at the moment. We were ushered into the gym for the welcome and the beginning of power placement. I listened intently as Principal Powers explained the new system and how it worked. She also explained the expectations for the school year and wished us good luck before taking off in a ball of light, and I vaguely remembered Mrs. Lei telling me that she had worked with The Comet on occasion.
I waited patiently as the long list of names was called and watched with intense curiosity as the name Julius Grey was called. I watched as he climbed onto the stage and demonstrated his power of telekinesis and I have to admit it was kind of impressive the way he caught that car. I'm pretty sure that his ego has to be huge so I would honor my agreement to stay away from him, but I would watch him when I could because one of the things Mrs. Lei had taught me was that one of the many aspects that contributed to being great at martial arts was the ability to read people and react based on the situation. So it was actually a good thing that I was pretty low on the list of names because I had been systematically categorizing every superpower that I saw. Then finally my name was called.
"Viktor Rade, you're up." I heard a few collective gasps and I figured those were the few people who knew who my brother was. I walked on to the stage with a mask of neutrality plastered on to my face, ready for anything.
"Alright kid, what's your power?" he asked writing something down on his ever present clip board.
"I have extreme reflexes which applies to reading body language. Also I'm good at martial arts." I stated. He nodded and pressed a button on the pad he was also holding, and I found my self launched toward a pillar at a break neck speed but I twisted my body so that I landed safely on the side of the pillar and used my momentum to help me spring off back toward the stage and flipped and dodged a couple of the disks that were suddenly thrown at me in mid-air. I landed back on the stage without breaking a sweat. This was nothing compared to the stuff Mrs. Lei had me doing.
After everyone was finished, I went to wait with the others in the auditorium for our class schedules, and was surprised by mine.
Name: Viktor Solomon Rade Student#:00852743 Starting Class#: Class 4
Graduating Class: 2014 Status: Freshman
Schedule
1. Accelerated Math I
2. Hero/Villain History
3. English/ Literature and Composition I
4. Physical Training/ Power Control
5. Lunch
6. Free Period
7. Ethics/ Philosophy I
8. Physics I
I looked everything over and figured it wasn't a bad place to start. Besides, from what Principal Powers had said we could always move up a class should our skill or grades improve. That's when Coach Speedy announced that we would be going directly to lunch since power placement had taken up most of the morning and a little of the afternoon. I ate quickly by myself and left to go explore the school and get familiar with the lay out of the place in case of an emergency. It was during these explorations that I discovered a tiny confrontation going on between preppy and some sick kid that I had met two weeks ago named Devin Day. When I had met him, he was burning his finger tips for some odd reason and I had written him off as one of those people who got some sort of sick pleasure out of causing pain to himself and others. Apparently preppy had caught Devin beating up on some innocent kid for god knows what reason and was confronting him about it and I was silently praying that preppy would stop talking and just pummel the guy already and if he got into trouble, I'm sure that I would back him not only because I didn't like Devin but also because it would be the right thing to do. Guys like him didn't deserve any kind of warning and I was sure he would doing some serious damage before the end of the school year.
I inwardly groaned as I watched Devin walk away and was disappointed to see that preppy had let him walk away unscathed. I decided I would keep my eye on both preppy and Devin. Preppy as a potential ally and Devin as a definite enemy. It was with that thought that I resigned to come back to this later and went to class as the bell rang.
Authors Note: Thanks for reading and please review. I can only get better if you tell me what I'm doing wrong or they could simply be words of encouragement, but please review. Thank You.