4: A Protagonist’s Dramatic Entrance

Cracking his knuckles, Albion looked around the room. “Sure. Surprised Conrad isn’t here though. He’s next and... should be here right?”

“Yes, he is not marked to be absent today like the upperclassmen,” Angelica answered while typing away on her laptop. “He’s not often late. So... Well, we’ll see, won’t we? You all know as much as I do.”

Spinning his fingers as ice traveled down his hand, Albion’s pale-blue hair crystalized over. “I’m Albion. Eighteen years old. Just like Titus. I’m the youngest of too many siblings. My powers are... quite simple. Cryokinesis. More than just control, I can also turn things into ice. For people it’s kind of energy dependent though. But for objects, yeah, I can turn anything into ice. Alchemist style.”

Watching a faint, misty-white breath leave Albion’s body, Nyssa raised her eyebrows as she felt a chill run up her spine. He was cold—both in body and in personality. As for his body, she could feel it even though he was sitting opposite to her. His natural body temperature must have been around freezing at all times!

Making a mental note to avoid casual touches with his skin, she gave Albion a faint thumbs up as everyone else felt a wave of cold wash over them.

It didn’t help with the energy. For a Monday morning with warm, but dim lighting, feeling cold made everyone lethargic. So... lethargic. Nyssa, herself, couldn’t help but feel the urge to nap begin to claw its way back into her mind. It certainly didn’t help, of course, that there was a perfect cat-sized patch of sun on the windowsill...

Slapping her own cheeks with a faint laugh, Celeste gave a quick double-thumbs up to Albion. “I’ll go next, stay alive everyone! We’re almost done with introductions.”

“It’s not the introductions, it’s Albion’s air conditioner for a body,” Ryker sneezed while rubbing his body with dramatic hand motions. “Early January is not the time for his perpetual aircon to be going.”

“I think it's quite fine I’ll have you know.” Albion grumbled while looking away.

“Of course you do,” Electra clicked her tongue before motioning towards Celeste. “Continue, sorry.”

“No worries,” Celeste smiled as she hid her hands into her sleeves. “So, Nyssa, as mentioned before, I’m seventeen. I’m more mundane than these other people perhaps. My father was a hero, but retired, and my mother is normal.”

Bobbing her head up and down a few times while acknowledging Celeste’s words, Nyssa furrowed, then raised an eyebrow as everyone else chimed in with a chorus consisting of: “She’s rich.” “She’s absolutely loaded.” “Normal my ass.”

“... Yeah, that’s not the point though. Everyone here’s pretty rich,” Celeste looked away while speaking through her sleeve. “My powers though are a little more complicated. I have what the doctors? Experts? Call a star engine for a heart. Let’s say I lose control of my emotions, or I activate it, it begins to pound through my chest and glow. It then does something like a forced ascension.”

“It’s scary,” Ryker chimed in with a shake of the head. “Quite unfair to fight against too.”

“It’s not that unfair. It just gives me flight, enhanced strength, Ryker levels of regeneration, and energy blasts. A kind of basic set of skills if I do say so myself. I’m not super great at controlling it though...” Celeste trailed off with a faint downtrodden look. “Sometimes when I’m in that form, energy uncontrollably starts shooting through my eyes and mouth.”

Offering Celeste a high-five, Nyssa felt a faint laugh slip through her lips as Celeste took her up on her offer. “Fancy powers. Is it... uh... my turn then?”

Craning her neck towards the door, Angelica shrugged. “I guess so? Conrad isn’t here ye-”

Footsteps...

With the faint sound of running and shouting bleeding through walls, Nyssa, along with everyone else, perked up to look through the window. Watching a black-haired boy sprint across their vision, come to a screeching stop by the door, and throw it open, everyone fell silent.

“I’m HERE! My sincerest apologies, Angelica. I decided to take on a side-quest this morning and it ran a lot longer than expected!” The boy saluted before bowing and doing a flourish towards their little circle. “Never fear though! Everyone, your class president and protagonist has returned!”

“I... Is that Conrad?” Nyssa leaned over and whispered into Celeste’s ear. “I... didn’t expect him to be like this.”

“Yeah, that’s him, he’s interesting to say the least,” Celeste smiled as Conrad slid his way towards the circle as Angelica gave him a silent death stare.

“Al...righty then. Nice to see you too, Conrad. Please show up on time next time.” Angelica sighed before motioning towards the rest of the circle. “We’re doing introductions right now because we have a new student, Nyssa. She was about to begin her introduction. Would you like to go first since we skipped you? Or listen to hers first?”

“I”m fine with anything,” Conrad nodded while sliding over a pillow. “As the class president I’m usually one to keep order and moderate these types of activities. Yet... I have failed. So, I think I have ceded my right to speak about this situation.”

“We never gave you the right anyway,” Albion hummed as he made some space for Conrad. “Nyssa. You should go first. That way Conrad can see what he needs to do.”

“S-Sure!” Nyssa nodded before going pink from her stutter. Clearing her throat, Nyssa fixed her posture and straightened her back. “I’m Nyssa! I’m uhm... sixteen right now. Though I’m less than a month away from being seventeen! I’m the third adoptive child of Kaiser Ravenstein. I wanted to come here to make some friends...”

Trailing off as she confessed her motivation for coming to the class, Nyssa felt a cough of embarrassment slip out as she made eye contact with Celeste and her teasing smile—she tried to hide it with her sleeve, but it was clear as day!

“As for my powers,” Nyssa traced her fingers along her necklace. “I can pretty much transform into any animal I want. Fictional or real.”

“Fictional?!” Ryker bolted up from his half-laid down position. “Ayo... what?”

“That sounds very overpowered.” Albion murmured as the others chimed in with their own voices of agreement.

“There’s a limitation, don’t worry, don’t worry!” Nyssa panicked as her hands gestured with wild motions in an effort to articulate some feeling non-existent in any language’s dictionary. “Energy mostly, mass I guess contributes to that, but so does unbelievability and power.”

“Interesting,” Conrad tapped his chin while staring off into space. “I shall have to add you to my database.”

“Database?” Nyssa tilted her head as Conrad continued to murmur to himself.

“Why don’t you do your introduction right now,” Electra jabbed Conrad in the side. “So you can also explain your database.”

“Ah, yes,” Conrad pushed his glasses up. “Both of my parents are business people. Many say I’m quite ordinary, but in fact, I’m quite extraordinary. I hold myself to a high bar of excellence at all times.”

“Evidently not this morning, though,” Angelica murmured as Conrad coughed and looked away.

“My power is as follows. I can view the world as a system most often seen in games. My health is a bar, my energy and stamina is a bar, and my various physical capabilities are numerical stats. I can level up and continue to become stronger while taking on quests designated by my system.” Conrad raised a finger, explaining his system in full detail while what Nyssa could only describe as pure nerd energy began to waft off of him.

Of course, she had nothing against nerds, she was probably one herself, but watching Conrad made her realize exactly why ‘nerd’ was a derogatory term in the past.