Chapter 89:

For a while, the party was fun, Ace enjoying himself with various classmates, there was some drinking, but it was not a huge problem, and most seemed to be able to control themselves. The 'while' ended once various interested parties realised thatAce had not actually taken on Thomas' offer, the smile was for something else. As soon as Ace noticed people began to look for him, and make his way to him once they found him, he ghosted.

He thanked Amy for the invite to the party, and left, saying bye to Sophia on the way to the door. She told him to stay, but he had 'things to do'.

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He could wait for a car, but it would take a while to get there, so instead, he just decided to skate home, it should be about half an hour. However, it was relatively warm for a winter night, so with his enhanced body, and his hoodie, he would be ok as long as he kept moving. Furthermore, the silence and chilly wind felt great, a complete 180 to the hot, humid and packed atmosphere of the warehouse.

He had been skating for about 15 minutes when he noticed on the road adjacent to his, a group of three guys giving him the side-eye.

'Well, I guess some exercise would be ok to keep the body warm.'

They had their hoods up, and then spread out, blocking the path in front of him. At this point, Ace was sure of what was happening.

Ace got off the skateboard.

Before they could even begin to make threats or get whatever pocket knife they had out, Ace stopped on one side of the skateboard, which made it jump to grab with his hand. He then pivoted, and hit one of the to-be offenders on the jaw with one of the wheels of the board, he was knocked out instantly.

Ace continued the pivot, and lashed his foot out in a reverse turning kick. Instead of hitting with the sole of his shoe - where the ball of the foot would be, he hit him with his heel right on the temple, another knocked out.

By this point, there was only one left standing, and he was shocked at seeing both of his friends knocked to the ground.

"Don't move! Give me your money! I have a knife!", he proceeded to pull the afore-mentioned knife out. Ace acted shocked, "No! I am sorry, I will give you what you want!", the offender seemed content with that, and got close to him, knife out in a straight grip.

'Amateur', Ace pushed the knife away from him faster than the other person could react, a simple slap on the wrist was enough to do so. Then, Ace kicked him in the side of the leg, hard. Once he went down, Ace kicked him in the head, knocking him out in a brutal manner.

Then, he called the cops.

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"Detective Morales", Detective Morales was pretty pissed off, she had been working overtime for about a week now, trying to catch a group that was involved in a series of hit and runs. She sighed, and put down her coffee, looking at the eager cop that had called her, "Yes?", and after a brief pause…"Officer Hans.". The cop's smile became even wider, seemingly believing she had remembered his name, and not just read it off his badge.

"We have just gotten a call about a mugging with a weapon!"

"So? Get a squad car and go."

"Well, this one is a bit special, he said that he threatened, but managed to overcome his attackers. They wanted you to come, to ensure that what he was saying was coherent."

"Seriously? Can they not just bring him in? Or check CCTV?"

"Well, there seems to be no CCTV. And he is a minor, so it is a bit complicated, Sergeant Holmes wishes for you to go, so that this can be solved quickly."

She sighed, first the overtime, and now this? "Ok, let's go."

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"So, you are telling me that you took down the three attackers, all bigger than you, without getting hurt?"

"That is what I am saying.", Ace wanted to go home, but it did not feel right just leaving these guys on the street, who knew who else they would hurt. "Look, Detective, I could have just left, but I didn't, because I wanted these guys brought in, they have probably done it before. It is up to you to do what is right, all I will say is that I took them down, once they wake up, ask them what happened - if they remember that is.", Ace began to walk off, when the Detective called him, Ace turned around.

"Where are you going! You do know I can bring you in right?"

"Yes. And I want you to know that I can take your job.", Ace turned around, and skated back home.

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"Why did you let him go?", Officer Hans was clearly confused, probably angry too, at the disrespect shown at one of his role models.

"It just was not worth the hassle, he obviously took them down, he does not have a scratch, and they did have a knife. It is simple, once they wake up, we will ask them what happened, if it smells fishy, we check for mugging incidents around the area, if the description matches, case solved, if it doesn't, we put them on watch, and let them go. Me? I'm going for the first one. They were clearly not going to ask him for the time, they had their phones on them. And plus, what are 3 guys doing with five wallets?"

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Ace woke up early the next morning like always. Who would think that another year had come and gone?

He had ended up reading his way into the New Year, no celebration, no fireworks, just a good book.

Most would call it a dreary affair, after all, who wishes to welcome the New Year on their lonesome? But Ace was more than fine with it, it was all just another day anyways, the truth was, that it had no impact on his life.

School would begin in a week, and while most would either be enjoying their last days of holiday, or working hard to try and get a headstart, Ace was just enjoying life, doing what he had the most fun doing.

"Hey chat! Happy New Year!"

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"Good morning students, I hope you had some wonderful holidays, and were able to recharge your batteries in preparation for the rest of the year.", the principal proceeded to explain a few new things, and gave some announcements. Luckily, he kept the speech short, and they soon left for their homerooms.

Today was supposedly the day where Kristina would join the school, she would do so in Homeroom 2, but the outlines should help her to move up by next week's tests. She had apparently been working hard, and was looking forward to being in the same class as all the people she knew.

Once he got to the homeroom and sat in his customary chair, he had to wait a few more minutes for the teacher to arrive. As he waited, classmate after classmate filed around, hoping to wish him a happy new year. It was ridiculous, but luckily, it was put to a stop when the teacher came. Everyone went back to their seats.

"Good morning class, I hope you had some fantastic holidays!", she was bright and cheery, which to the average student would be annoying, but to the focused pack of hyenas that was most of her class, it was devastating.

"Ok, ok, calm down. I hope you are ready, because more opportunities will soon be available to you. Clubs will soon begin various competitions, and it is a great way for all the talented to gain extra points. Also, teachers will be expecting even more of you know, so get your boots on, and strap on, because this is going to get even wilder.", she had a smile on her face, pure evil that one.

Ace was only paying attention half-heartedly, so he was slightly surprised when the teacher called his name - not that he showed it. "Ace, please see me after class."

As the bell rang, all the other students went to their respective classes, and Ace stayed behind, moving forward to the desk where the teacher was sitting.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Yes. I have received various messages."

"Ok…"

"They are relating to your choice in an alliance."

'Ah, I see, they want her to 'inform' me on what a good choice would be.'

"I am sure you understand exactly what they are asking me too, most of the time, it would only be one or two, which makes it easy to speak about them, however, every single one of the groups that were able to cash in a favour did so. Although I will tell you, you are not the only one, Sophia and Amy have as many people asking about them."

'It is not about the number, but the person that is asking, but I won't point that out.'

"So", Ace began, "Where do you think I would fit in?"

She smiled and sighed, "You will fit in wherever you want to be, which is why this is so annoying. I am unsure as to what your future aspirations are, so all I can say is to join a group that could maybe make your path easier or more accessible, even if I do not see how it would be so in the first place."

Ace nodded, "May I know who it was that asked for me?"

"Yes, I was going to tell you anyway.", she handed him a list

'They most likely wanted me to know that they will spare no expense on me, they were not really hoping to rope me in through this method.'

"Thank you."

"Also, some were able to get me to deliver a letter personally."

"Hmm… Thank you."

"You are welcome, make sure to make a smart decision."

'Ah, there it is.', most teachers were alumni of schools that had this level of prestige, which meant that they had come in contact with various alliances in their past, and probably belonged to some of the more powerful ones as well, they were not normal teachers, and their salary most likely reflected that. Therefore, Ace was expecting her to show some sort of favouritism over the group she belonged to in the past. Her last words, and her tone she had placed on the word 'smart', was all the clue she knew he would need. This was her true recommendation, outside of what she had been asked to do. Ace would not take it too seriously, but would give them points for effort, and luck. They had managed to get a past member to become the tutor of Rank 1 Homeroom, not a small feat at all.

He made his way to his first class, English, his homeroom teacher would send a note, so there would be no problem with arriving late.

As he opened the door, he smiled, his seat was empty. People now knew where he liked to sit, so just left that space open, even new members of the class would know about it, being warned by their fellow classmates.

He said hello to the teacher, who smiled back, and waited for him to get to his seat before continuing the explanation. Ace tuned out immediately, and only kept an ear out for pertinent information that could be something not found on the textbook he had memorised.

He pulled his Noxia out, and opened the language app he would be using in school. He worked on it during the 45 minutes left of the lesson. He made his way to his next lesson, and did the same thing.

During the break, he went into his Homeroom class, and went through all the messages and offers from groups, luckily, most had decided they had no chance in the competition for him, so they had not sent him anything, only a well wish, informing him they looked to working together, and hoped he would make a good choice. He went through various offers, declining them politely, he gave reasons as to why, and while it only took him less than a minute to type, they were 'long' replies, where he actually told them places where they could improve the contract and so on. Some people would become very surprised once they read his message.

Instead of the usual: [You are not worth my time], he gave polite and well-crafted responses to each, something that only increased his standing in their eyes.

He proceeded through them, and after 10 minutes, he was done.

Then, he proceeded to look at the letters he had received.

He opened the first one, it was from the Brotherhood of the Red Flame, a collective of individuals that were 'driven by ambition'. They had an interesting offer, they could assure him success in the future, and if necessary, could clean up any issues with police and officials. An interesting offer, that came accompanied by the usual points they could offer, merits and so on.