Chapter 5 - 5. Neighbor

"Hello, I am Asher Ronan and I just got my power today too. I'm not sure what it does but I look forward to figuring it out with all of you." Asher expected someone to laugh or make fun of him since this was the normal reaction when he spoke to almost anyone in his previous life but instead found only silence.

"Alight, sounds good, welcome to the class. That seat over there is yours." the teach pointed to a middle seat next to another boy who seemed lost in his own head. " For those of you that are new, My name is Mr. Smith. I will be your teacher for as long as you are in class one. This class is known as the class full of odds and ends. This is only because a lot of your powers are a bit hard to wrap your head around or like our newest addition here have yet to be found in a human." Mr. Smith erased the chalkboard, freeing up space.

"Since the class has doubled to ten members let's get the basics out of the way, listen up I will only say this once." Pulling a pristine piece of chalk from his jacket pocket he tapped it on the board twice. "Now we all know powers are an integral part of our society. The real question is how do you find your place within this society? The answer is simple, since the start of the evo shots there was a lot of chaos. Understandably many went wild having gained their powers. This was problematic so all the world's governments got together and decided to found a new organization, Hero corp. This overarching organization brought together the former police, firefighters, hospitals, legal systems, and even trade groups. There is much much more that make them up but those are the most notable that you all should have learned in daily life." The list was written in perfect penmanship by Mr. Smith on the board. Most students were not paying much attention to this as it was basic knowledge.

Asher soon found that these very things were within his own memories. This world was so different now, he still had trouble piecing it all together.

"Psst….pst, neighbor." The spiky haired boy to Asher's left was hiding his face behind his hands whispering to Asher for his attention. "The name's Art Mathews, nice to meetchya. I got my power today too."

Asher was trying to figure out when this boy would pull him out of his chair or spit on him or even throw something at him to start the normal school torment. However he found that the boy was eagerly awaiting his own introduction...could he want to be….friends?

"Erm I'm Asher Ronan, I got my powers today too. My arm's still a bit sore." His face twitched with awkwardness but this did not deter his desk neighbor in the slightest.

Art reached out his hand to shake Ashers' but as soon as he leaned over, the desk started to follow.

CCRRAASSSHHH!!!!

Art hit the floor in a tangle of limbs and desk. "You joined this class today and you are already fooling around! You just volunteered yourself to clean up after school!" Mr.Smith put down firm judgment to the struggling Art who could barely right his desk.

"Waaaaa, why? I was just-"

"No complaints now listen close!" Mr. Smith cut off Art before any argument was made. Some of the students let loose a few giggles but Asher just sat there a bit apologetic. He knew exactly what it was like to be the center of attention and to be laughed at. He would try to make Art feel better later.

Mr.Smith continued on with the lecture explaining how society had changed from the addition to the evo shots. Many of the gangs and criminal organizations had tried to use their powers to boost their own goals. This led to a higher crime rate which was combated by the funding of police forces.

The problem was that every country had different laws at the founding of the hero corp. The name they had chosen was to be the "Hero" of the common man uniting all the important life saving groups. This being the case brought the word Hero to a new title for specialized law enforcement.

Heroes were important buffers between the investigators and detectives of the police forces who would go after those with less dangerous powers. The heroes who had more developed and stronger powers themselves would go after the organized gangs and powerful criminals. Fittingly these culprits came to be known as villains.

Asher found this to be right out of the comic books he had read as a kid when he found them in the trash. He could not read them very well due to their poor condition but the scenes that were visible spoke of pure hearts and dastardly deeds. While Mr. Smith explained the law enforcement aspect for a hero and their ability to operate across nations Asher was daydreaming about saving maidens and defeating monsters.

"Now who can tell me the average category for a super power?" Mr.smith surveyed the room finding the daydreaming Asher. Deciding that he wanted to teach another new student in his class how things worked he chose, "Asher your answer?"

Asher was startled and opened his mouth to reply, he bit his tongue only getting out one letter, "Ee-'

"Yes that is correct, the E ranked superpowers are the average of society. There may be the F ranks below them but they are those who have yet to get an evo shot or for some reason refuse to get one." Mr. Smith was kind of impressed that someone who was lost in their own head knew the answer to his question so fast.

Asher on the other hands was too distracted cursing his bad luck for biting his tongue. He was nursing the pain only thinking that life was still an unforgiving place, nothing had changed.