Chapter four: The first day of school

Sora came down to the kitchen, dressed and clean, to find Roxas wearing one of his shirts and a pair of his shorts, which fit perfectly. He and Sora's mother were both eating a bowl of cereal, with the morning news on in the background.

"Hey, mom, you seen my backback?"

"Yes, dear, it was on the cat," his mother quoted, with a rather bad British accent. Roxas shot a quizzical look at Sora and opened his mouth to say you don't have a cat, but Sora finished his sentence for him

"We talk in movie quotes sometimes," he explained. Roxas seemed to have a satisfied expression, so Sora looked around to his mother, "so,…..?"

"I think I saw it in the living room." She answered. Sora looked, and found it in the corner of the living room, from the kitchen he could hear his mother exlaim,

"Oh my god,….."

"What's wrong?" Sora shouted from the living room.

"London was attacked!" she called back as Sora made his way to the kitchen.

"Honestly, mom, your accent isn't that bad."

"Come look!" Sora obliged, on the screen of the small TV in the kitchen, a news organization was showing footage of Big Ben crumbling in the middle of the night.

"What?" Sora didn't know what to say, he, Roxas, and his mother were all flabbergasted. Sora poked his head back into the living room and looked over it thoroughly, there was definitely neither a decorated tree nor wrapped gifts.

"But it's not Christmas! Are you sure they attacked?"

"Of course I'm sure! They say it happened last night! But it wasn't aliens this time, they're saying it was mutants." She explained. Sora leaned in closer to the small TV, listening to the broadcast.

"And this footage was taken just a few hours ago when the alleged mutant, or mutants, froze an entire army section, that's right folks, what you're seeing on your screen now is solid ice, these pictures were taken of the city after the attack, as you can see, all the buildings are completely leveled it's like someone took some giant scythe to the city of London. We are being told that the president intends to issue a statement today in public addressing whether or not America intends to aid in the relief efforts. The British prime minister issued a statement earlier this morning…." The newscaster's voice droned on with all the same usual things they heard every year when London was attacked by aliens on Christmas. The most recent Christmas crisis had involved everyone transforming into the former prime minister for a short period of time, followed by a gigantic orange planet almost knocking earth out of its orbit. Sora was glad they were only memories, but still, he felt like he had experienced them.

"up next, is mutant aggression on the rise? Is the human race heading towards a cross-species war? All that and-" the newscaster was cut off by eyes only. Eyes only seemed to be some sort of crusading journalist, he started broadcasting a few months ago and ever since then has been exposing all kinds of corruption, and other hidden truths. Nobody knew who he was, his broadcasts only showed his eyes, an extreme close-up with the top and the bottom of his face were always blocked by an information bar of some sort. And the trick seemed to work, in all the time he's been broadcasting, all the toes he's stepped on in pursuit of truth an ideals, nobody's ever found out who he is. And his messages always started the same way. "Do not attempt to adjust your TV set. This is a streaming freedom video from the eyes only informant. It cannot be stopped, it cannot be traced, and it is the only free voice left in this country. The cable hack will last exactly sixty seconds. I'm sure you're all aware of the recent attack on the city of London, and wouldn't it be convenient if we could simply blame it on all mutants as if they were terrorists…." As eyes only continued his exactly one minute monologue, Sora knew what the basic gist was from the start. He sighed.

"Is he on every channel?" he asked hopefully.

"Is he ever not?" responded Roxas.

"Let me know when it's over. I'm gonna go pack my bag," he said leaving.

"NO YOU WON'T!" exclaimed Sora's mother. "You think I'm letting you go to school on a day like this? No! I'm keeping the two of you safe here with me! You're not going to school today!"

"But, it's the first day! And it's not like our school is a major target or anything!" Sora argued

"No! you have the flu today. And so do you, Roxas. You're both highly contagious and you can't go to school."

"Mom, I'm fine."

"NOT TODAY YOU'RE NOT! DID YOU SEE WHAT THEY DID TO THAT CITY! Besides, if the principal has a problem with it, I'll just give him a note from Dr. Andrew Jackson."

"Unless we've been analyzed by Dr. Benjamin Franklin and his five twin brothers, I don't think the school is going to care," Added Roxas.

"Mom, you know nothing is going to happen, and if it were any other day, I'd be the one trying to fool you into thinking I was sick, but today, it's the first day. If we miss today it only goes downhill from here," Sora tried to calm his mother down, eventually she agreed to let them go, provided that if anything bad did happen, they would come straight home right away. As the two boys were walking out the door to the bus, Sora's mother stopped Roxas.

"If that father of yours gives you anymore trouble, you don't hesitate to tell someone alright? If you ever need to stay here again, you're welcome to do so," she said.

"Uhhh, thanks," said Roxas, and turned to catch up with Sora. As Sora's mother watched the two boys leaving, she realized,… only one of them had a backpack. Roxas' stuff was still at his house. Her eyes widened as she watched the two of them get on the bus. Roxas saw his brother and sat down next to him. Sora, a little disappointed, sat down with Riku further back

"Hey, Wind." Said Roxas as he sat down. Roxas and Sora were the only ones that ever called Ventus wind, to everyone else, he was Ventus or Ven. Likewise, Ventus and Roxas were the only ones that Sora let call him "Sky"

"Hey, so where were you all night?" Asked Ventus.

"Staying at Sora's, You?" Replied Roxas.

"oooohhhh, how did things go at Sky's house?" Teased Ventus playfully, Roxas hadn't told him that he had a crush on Sora, Ventus just sort of worked it out on his own. Roxas still refused to confirm definitely that his suspicions were true, but Ven didn't need much confirmation.

"oh, shut up," Roxas teased back, lying back in the seat with his hands beind his head like Sora frequently did. That's when Ven noticed it.

"Uh, Roxas,…. Where's your stuff?" Roxas sat upright, no longer relaxed.

"Ahh!, must have left It at home. Great, first day of school and I forget my stuff. Just my luck," Said Roxas.

"What are you gonna do?" Ven asked.

"… I don't know, maybe I can teleport home, grab it, and get back before first class starts,"

"Dad's not gonna be happy when he finds you," warned Ventus.

"You mean if he finds me," corrected Roxas. Ventus paused for a moment,

"If,… If is good," he commented. The bus stopped again and picked up Nico, River, and Noah.

Earlier that day, while the three off them were having breakfast, and River was calculating breakfast, Nico spoke to Noah.

"How did your little meeting with Aanthoni go?" he asked as Noah downed his third energy shot. He placed the empty bottle next to the other two.

"guess," he said.

"Bad?"

"Mild understatement. We destroyed London. Well he did, I only had a part in the clock tower and the pinecone one, and some other skyscrapers, but just three or four."

"umm, don't you think some people might notice that?"

"Oh, people did. I think it's on the news. Eyes Only should be talking about it too, oh, I've told you about Eyes Only, right?" Nico nodded. "Good, anyway, I don't think anyone saw our faces, or really any other part of us for that matter," recounted Noah.

"did you find out what he did to me?" asked Nico hopefully

"No, he wasn't exactly in a divulgeetory mood, if you know what I mean."

"Divulgeetory isn't a word," commented River, whose head was laying on the table, looking closely through her glass.

"You going to come out of the water anytime soon? Join us up here on dry land?"

"Noooo, I like it down here," said River, not peeking up from behind her glass, "I will return to the surface for air in approximately five hours," she said.

"We're going to have to catch the bus," Said Noah.

"Does it have a periscope?"

As the three of them waited at the bus stop, Noah was still a little tired, and trying to absorb energy.

"Noah, shadow," reminded Nico. Noah looked down and saw that Nico's and River's shadows were parallel to one of his own; they were parallel to one because each of them had only one, while Noah had six. He was absorbing energy in the form of light.

"Nobody's going to notice," defended Noah.

"I did," said Nico.

"Me too," said River, who seemed to be fixated on a tree nowhere near Noah's shadows.

"Nobody who's not a Hades child or a prodigy is going to notice," defended Noah, but he withdrew his extra shadows anyway.

As they got on the bus, Nico sat across the aisle from Noah and River. The three of them quickly overheard the conversation going on behind them. A senior seemed to be taking to a friend of his, the one doing the taking was wearing a cloth hat and a long white coat. The person he was talking to was very large, in the muscular sense. He had a tan complexion, square features, and short black hair.

"So, did you hear mutants attacked London? I can't believe the government isn't doing anything about this. They should just round 'em all up and get rid of 'em if you ask me," he said.

"Yeah, great idea, that way plenty of innocent people get persecuted while the resources are used up on them instead of the ones that are actually dangerous, brilliant," commented Nico.

"Did I ask you?" asked the boy.

"No, but if it turns out he's a mutant, I would think your attitude toward him might change a little," Said Noah.

"This is none of your business, blondie," Seifer retorted.

"you're talking to my friend, which makes it my business," said Noah, turning around in the seat. He snatched the hat off of Seifer's head, "And you're not exactly in a position to go using that as a derogatory term," he added.

"HEY! That's like, Seifer's hat! Y'no?" said the brawly friend.

"Un-cool," added a girl with silver hair sitting across from them. Noah returned the hat, which was quickly restored to its head. This was when River chimed in.

"They say you shouldn't throw rocks if you live in a glass house, they say you shouldn't be a hypocrite, they say the rocks might get thrown back at you and break your house, we have to get him out before the shards slice him to ribbons. Why throw rocks at all? Why don't they say 'don't throw rocks' why does the real-estate matter? Whose property is it? Whose isn't it? Why buy a glass house at all, just live outside with trees and leaves. Trees and leaves don't shatter, don't break apart, or do they?"

"Random," commented the silver-haired girl.

"Is your girlfriend talking at me?" Seifer Demanded

"Incorrect preposition," River continued, "I would hardly call this talking."

"It was only two mutants anyway, that destroyed London. It's not like they're all ganging up on humanity," added Nico.

"Oh yeah? And how do you know that?" asked Seifer.

"Cornered," came the silver-haired girl again. This time River read her mind and found out her name was 'Fuu.'

"Because Noah was one of them," River answered simply. Seifer laughed.

"If Noah's a dangerous mutant, then I'm Mickey Mouse!" Seifer Retorted.

"Nice to see you again, your majesty!" Shouted Sora from a few seats up. This got a few confused looks,

"Non-sequitur," commented Fuu. Noah turned to look at her.

"Do you ever use more than one and a half words at a time?" he asked sincerely.

"Never," was her reply.

The First thing Roxas did when he got to school was go to the bathroom. Well, not really. He actually stepped into a stall, locked it, teleported to his room, grabbed his backpack, teleported back to the stall, and left. Teleporting isn't something most of the students at the school can do, even the ones that are mutants. The rest of the school day went by without a hitch for Roxas. Nico, Noah, and River all found that, although they weren't always in the same classes as each other, there was always at least one person in each of their classes that was on the top of the clock tower the other day, or Ventus and Vanitas, who seemed to have all the same classes as each other as observed by Noah.

The highlight of Nico's school day was learning how not to make a friend. He was sitting in English class doing not much of anything when an extremely goth girl walked in. she had short black hair, kept down in front of her eyes. She was wearing a black sweater, even though it hadn't even begun to get chilly yet, black jeans, even black gloves. Not thick gloves that would restrict her movement in anyway, they seemed thin enough to allow her to function as if she weren't even wearing them. She looked about as old as nico, probably in the same grade, and Nico could see he had a dim life aura. Not a dark one, just a dim one, not very much energy of either kind. She wore black lipstick too, and an excessive amount of eye shadow.

"I think I left something in this class," she stated flatly to the teacher.

"Perhaps your soul?" Nico muttered to himself under his breath. She turned to look at him anyway.

"That's funny," she said flatly.

"I think you left your binder over there," The teacher pointed her in the direction of her misplaced goods.

Later on, Nico had lunch. He got himself some food, paid for with his special wallet. You see, Nico's father, Hades, He's not just the god of death, he's also the god of wealth. One day, for Nico's birthday, Hades gave him the Hoodie Nico always wears to this day, and the wallet that always has ten dollars in it no matter how many times you pay for things. The Hoodie happened to have void pockets, that is, pockets with a void portal pressed to the inner lining so that you could store nearly infinite amounts of objects in them. Nico always carried around the essentials: a tent, his stygian Iron sword, a camera, a phone that Noah had modified for Nico to be able to use (without attracting every Greek monster in the city) by coating the SIM card in celestial bronze, some Ambrosia, a psychic-command sonic screwdriver that Tyson had built for him (basically a Swiss army knife, and so much more…) some firewood, a couple cheap protective amulets, and a panacea. Noah had made the Panacea in an emergency once, he mixed regenerative blood from his father into Nico's canteen of Nectar, a few drops of that could cure almost anything the universe could throw at you.

Anyway, Nico had his lunch tray, as he walked toward Noah and River's table he saw them talking to each other, he couldn't help but wonder what they were talking about. He would find out later that River thought Noah was working himself to hard, and would be taking him out to dinner to help him relax that night. On his way to his friend's table, he heard someone call his name. He turned and saw the girl he had referred to as soul-less earlier sitting with a few other kids sporting the Goth/emo look.

"Come here," invited the goth girl flatly. Nico hesitantly walked over to the table. There were two other students there, a boy who was probably a senior. He had long grey hair combed down in a…. in a something over his right eye. He was wearing a purple t-shirt, but had several black-and-white rings. He had his nose in a small pocket-sized book which he was holding with one hand. The other kid was a girl, probably a freshman. She had light brown hair and glasses, but dressed totally in black and red and wore plenty of punk jewelry.

"Sit down." The girl with the black hair still refused to acknowledge and presence of emotion in her voice.

"This is the kid?" asked the other girl.

"Of course he is," said the Boy. He looked up from his book and sniffed the air. "your reputation precedes you, Mr. DiAngelo. I've heard a great deal about you through my,… shall we say,… employment?" he didn't speak much like a goth kid. More like a pompous nerd/geek.

"Trust me, just nod when he stops for breath," suguested the other girl. "I'm Reggie, this is Z, and you've already met Poppet." Nico sat down slowly.

"Those are some odd names," he commented. Reggie spoke.

"Well Z is just short for his long name, which he refuses to tell anyone. And, well, Poppet, nobody knows what her real name is either. Nobody's ever called her by it, and she never bothers to correct anybody."

"Don't people ask what her real name is?"

"She keeps saying she can't have a name," Explained Reggie. Nico looked again at the girl with the dim life force. He wondered if it was because she was terminally ill, normally, people as young as her don't die of old age, and death by accident or murder wouldn't be affecting her life force early.

"Look, I'm sorry if what I said earlier offended you, I wasn't really thinking—"

"Followed an impulse?" asked Z, peeking up from his book again.

"What are you reading?" Nico asked.

"Twilight" he answered with a sarcastic smile, and tone, "I take it you're not big on reading?" he asked.

"No," responded Nico, "not really,… how did you know?"

"Don't mind me, please continue," Z stuck his nose back in the book. Nico turned back to Poppet.

"Well, anyway, I didn't mean to insult you, your soul actually isn't entirely in bad shape, all of you actually,"

"What do you mean?" Reggie Asked. Nico realized he had begun talking about seeing people's souls. He looked over at Noah and River again, they were still talking.

"Um, well, I can sort of see people's souls, I gotta go now bye," He started to get up trying to get away before this got out of hand.

"Oh, so are you like one of those mutants?" asked Reggie.

"Yeah, you could sort of say that—" said Nico, as he started to walk away.

"Firstly, I believe they prefer the term 'genetically empowered' and furthermore, you could also say he's a half-blood" added Z. Nico stopped and turned around to look at him. He was still reading, but he put the book down after a moment. "Oh, come now, wake up and smell the perfume, look at you! You go around speaking of your ability to see people's hearts, your micro expressions in regard to literature indicate your dislike for the subject- most likely due to dyslexia, further your eye movement and minor muscle twitches are typical to those of ADHD patients, your facial structure and physique suggest a hint of Greek ethnicity in your heritage, and frankly, you smell," Z sniffed the air. "Ozone, O3, typical of oxygen-deprived cells, you've been dead before, not entirely uncommon in and of itself, people are resuscitated on an hourly basis worldwide, but not all of them happen to have the psychological disorders of a demigod nor the enzymes and pheromones indicative of abnormal blood chemistry; quite literally a 'half – blood' not to mention traces of methane and other simplified stable organic compounds common among the products of a decomposition reaction" he finished. Nico looked worriedly at Reggie and Poppet, Reggie nodded, now that Z stopped for breath. Poppet was probably astro-projecting for all she moved. Z looked at their blank expressions and went back to his book,

"Troglodytes," he whispered under his breath.

"Last I checked only monsters could smell half-bloods," said Nico, beginning to worry that Z might morph into a dracne or something.

"In a way, aren't we all the real monsters? Oh, never mind that. That's a debate for another day. Perhaps a day when you're a little more prepared for some verbal-sparring." Nico Wandered off toward Noah's table. He sat down.

"Made some new friends?" asked Noah.

"Not entirely sure, what are you two up to?"

"Noah works to hard," said River, "Works to long, brain is like a light bulb, runs on electricity, use it to long it burns out. He said himself, think too much and your head will explode, I'm taking him on a date."

"Oh, that's nice. I hope you two enjoy yourseves… wait, when did Noah say that?"

"Nineteen forty two" answered River. Noah suddenly looked up at her face rather than down at his equations written in Gallifreyen,

"How can you possibly know that?" he asked.

"Also, I like steak," River added.

The highlight of Noah's school day was leaning how not to catch a bad guy. It happened during one of the passing periods. The school bell rang, its harsh apathetic tone signaling students everywhere that they were free for the next 24 hours from the chains of whatever boring class they were in, and could proceed to the shackles of the next. Noah walked out into the hallway, like a city street, it was crowded with bodies all going about their business trying to get to the next class, except one. One body, standing about eight feet away from Noah, just stood there, staring at him through the crowd. Noah saw this body and froze up for a moment, staring back, wondering what would happen next. Everyone seemed to simply be unaware of the unmoving figure in the middle of the hallway. Nobody bumped into him, nobody asked him to move along, everyone just walked past him as if the immediate space around him didn't exist. Aanthoni's voice spoke in Noah's mind as he started to move.

You going to chase me, or what? Noah always kept his guard up telepathically, but he always did allow for speech messages to penetrate his mind in case someone had to contact him. Just as Aanthoni transmitted the thought to Noah's mind, he reached out, and brushed his fingers on the arm of a passing girl. Noah felt his stomach to a back flip as he realized what was happening. Aanthoni casually turned around and started walking with the crowd, away from Noah. Noah looked at the girl Aanthoni had touched, and committed her features to memory as he started to chase after his rival. Aanthoni rounded a corner, a few minutes later, Noah did too. He looked over the crowd, trying to pick out the face in the mass of moving students, he saw her. Aanthoni turned her head around to shoot a quick glance at Noah, he had shape-shifted to a copy of the girl he got a genetic imprint off of. Her eyes flashed red for a quick moment, as she turned around and started walking again.

"EXCUSE ME! PARDON ME!" Noah demanded passage through the crowd as politely as he could, never let it be said that he let his manners slip for anything. Annthoni tapped the shoulder of one kid going in the opposite direction, Noah memorized his face. She high-fived a friend of the girl she copied, Noah memorized her too. Aanthoni rounded another corner; Noah struggled through the crowd, turned the same corner, and started scanning the crowd. The words of his father talking to a mutant-hunter rang in his ears

"You chased a shape shifter, you don't get it do you? You don't chase a shape shifter,"

Noah couldn't find either of the new faces in the crowd; he started to panic, had he lost him? Her? Whatever it was at the moment? He would have slapped his forehead if he had the time when he saw Aanthoni hadn't changed form at all that time, he saw the girl heading into a bathroom. He rushed forward, the crowd starting to thin out as people got to their classes, he was just about to burst through the door when a teacher on hall-duty stopped him.

"Excuse me sir!" Noah stopped as the teacher grabbed his arm. There were probably a million ways Noah could have escaped, but he wasn't going to start a problem for no reason.

"No, listen, there's someone in there that I really need to find!" Noah tried explaining, leaving out the part about both of them being 'genetically empowered' and the fate of the universe depending on it. A girl walked out of the girl's bathroom. It wasn't the one Aanthoni walked in as, but soon another girl walked out and went the other way. Noah had no way of knowing if either of them was his target, or which one, but he soon found out; neither.

"Let go of his arm," commanded Aanthoni, back in his old voice and old body, fading into visibility behind Noah. The bell rang. They were officially late for class. Aanthoni's voice was layered with another tone, a deeper sound that vibrated off of Aanthoni's voice; a telepathic command. The teacher's hand dropped off Noah's arm to her side, a blank expression on her face, Aanthoni continued, "And when you go to sleep tonight, your sheets will constrict you, suck the life out of you, smother and suffocate you," as odd as this might sound, the illusion of not being able to breathe would actually cause asphyxiation in the body through the same principal as hysteria, or auto-suggestion.

"Forget that!" commanded Noah, with the same undertone in his voice, "you will be absolutely fine tonight!"

"He's right; you'll suffer a heart attack at the end of the next class"

"No, you won't!" Noah rushed to cancel out Aanthoni's mind control.

"Oh, right, it will be at noon"

"You won't have a heart attack!"

"Instead, you'll have an aneurism" aneurisms could be created by the subconscious as well.

"Your body will be fine!"

"At the moment the school collapses on it in two minutes,"

"The school won't collapse, don't obey any more commands from him!" Noah regretted the words as soon as they came out, Aanthoni's trap worked,

"Don't ignore any further commands from him, and don't die painfully sometime in the next minute," Aanthoni turned and started walking away casually, as he did, he addressed Noah "Good luck with that one, given you can't influence her anymore, you could probably figure it out, but which is more important? Her life, or my capture?" Aanthoni walked away, already knowing the answer. The teacher simply stood there with a blank expression, she hadn't snapped out of zombie-mode yet. Noah carefully examined Aanthoni's exact phrasing in his memory,

He used the word "Him" would shape shifting into a girl let me control her? No, I'd have to change my gender identity for that. I can't pull the opposites trick like he did, he's using ignorance, not defiance, hold on, maybe,…

Noah looked around, there was a late student walking to class nearby. Noah invaded her mind and poured psychic energy into her. Using his new psychic puppet, he forced the student to mind-control the teacher

"What room is the source of your previous command in?" Noah used his powers to make a hologram map of the school in front of the dazed teacher, she subconsciously pointed to a room. Noah committed the number to memory. Noah had taken care of finding Aanthoni, now all he had to do was fix the teacher's mind, "Disregard all telepathic instructions received previous to this one." Noah released his control over the teacher, and then pulled his mind out of the student back into his own head. Both were a bit dazed. Noah tried to teleport, but an odd shock ran down his entire body, it felt like every fiber of his being was being scrambled. He hadn't moved an inch, he figured Aanthoni was probably doing something to prevent teleportation to him; Noah would have to do it the old-fashioned way. He started absorbing every photon of light that hit his body and emitting the exact same pattern on the opposite side, basically, he was invisible. He ran right for the room the teacher had told him, literally a beeline to the stairs, fazing through anything that got in his way. Up the stairs, then straight to the destination room, running invisibly through numerous classrooms and passing right through walls without leaving so much as a mark. Finally he reached the empty class he was going for, key word: empty. Aanthoni wasn't there. Noah became visible and looked around, there was a silvery-metal mine-like object sitting on the windowsill emitting a high-pitched frequency. The frequency was too high for even dogs to hear, but Noah recognized it as the pitch that would resonate with Rhondium particles, just like a voice can shatter glass, and prevent teleportation. Noah ran to the window and picked up the gadget, turning it off. He wondered how Aanthoni could have separated his mind from his body and put it in this room, after all, the teacher was indicating the presence of his mind, with no possibility of inaccuracy. As Noah looked up from the device, he saw Aanthoni out the window. Not right out the window, but in another room. The way the school was constructed, some of the rooms have that face a sort of empty courtyard in the middle, with hallways all around it. Through the window and across the courtyard, behind the window of another class, Aanthoni was standing, looking right at him. Noah used his shapeshifting to dialate his pupils. His vision zoomed in on Aanthoni's face, trying to get a better look at him. Aanthoni removed his large dark sunglasses and revealed his blood-red eyes. The gesture brought Noah's attention to them; they had been switched. Aanthoni had physically taken his eyeballs out and replaced them in the opposite socket; he was seeing a mirror-image of the world. And Noah was in the classroom exactly opposite Aanthoni's: the reflection. Aanthoni teleported, Noah lost him, but he got the message. Noah knew Aanthoni wasn't actually trying to kill a random teacher, he was taunting him.

Noah teleported to the class he was supposed to be in and erased the occurrence from their memories.