Chapter 5

Grade: This is an illegal organization that has existed for almost fifty years. They are known for buying children and grading them according to their strength and type of ability with numbers and colors. The children bought are then trained to be cold, calculating, emotionless killers; children who are too stubborn to comply are punished, and those who are deemed useless are immediately exposed. Those who try to escape are also severely punished. Although there is a rule for those who want their freedom, they are required to complete a near-impossible task that would most likely kill them to gain their freedom.

The children purchased range in age from 6 to 7 years old, just before first grade. Then the children are brutally trained until they are 10 years old, when they are finally graded. The grades ranged from 1 to 10, and anyone after 10 would be immediately disposed of. The colors were to show which lab they would be in and where they would be trained for another three years before getting sent out into the field.

Two years ago, during the Breakdown Disaster, the organization was said to have been destroyed by an unknown individual single-handedly when they launched an attack on the empire. This individual was one of their own and one of the few to have escaped the organization alive. This person was White 000, the most powerful grade in the organization, currently known as Collin Scotts.

~~~~

While Nathan and Jake evacuated the people outside the amusement park, Fiona and Collin prepared for battle. They heard a loud clapping sound. Suddenly, two women appeared out of nowhere. Collin was happy to see them, though. "Anna, Venessa, nice to see you again," he said.

Anna is the blonde woman with a pixie cut and ocean-blue eyes, while Vanessa is the brown-haired woman with neck-length hair and dark under-eye bags under her doe-brown eyes.

"Little White!" Anna cheerily exclaimed as she dashed forward to attack Collin. Collin also rushed to attack her as well. They clashed in the middle. "I'm so happy to see you."

"Me too," Collin said, jumping back as he saw a large energy blast heading his way.

Anna, also known as Gold 001, is a double-S-class energy manipulator. She is able to manipulate the energy around her to attack her opponents.

Collin stopped the blast; his hands were a bit scorched. "I thought you guys were dead," he said.

Vanessa was with Fiona. She was dodging the spikes Fiona threw at her at bullet speed. "Yeah, thanks for almost killing us, by the way," she said sarcastically.

Fiona felt herself being lifted off the ground. Anna was laying on the ground in a large carter; she stood up easily and cracked her neck. She was going to attack again, but she found herself being held in place. Vanessa was as well.

"Hey, little White, release us. This isn't fair," Anna whined. Vanessa would slap her head if she could move.

"Are you being serious right now?"

"Gold 001, and Blue 001?" Fiona said in surprise. She has seen these two people before, but from afar. They are one of the strongest grades the organization has to offer. And it seems like they are familiar with Collin. She was gently put down, and she saw Collin's face brimming with happiness.

"Oh my goodness, you guys, you have no idea how happy I am to see you." Of course, Collin would be happy. He has been carrying the guilt of mistakenly murdering his friends for two years, and now that he sees that they are alive, the guilt in his heart is finally lifted.

"Too bad we can't say the same for you," Vanessa said.

But Anna said, "Don't mind her; she's a terrible liar. When we woke up after you almost killed us, Vanessa stated that she was very proud of you for defeating us. Although she was a bit sad after a while."

"Anna, for crying out loud, shut up." Vanessa said.

"Aw," Fiona said.

Collin has a soft smile on his face; he has truly missed them, but there's no time for that. "I would like our reunion to go longer, but shall we cut to the chase?" he said. Vanessa and Anna aren't known as the best fighters in Grade for an unknown reason. Anna is a killing machine, who always has a smile on her face as she maims her victims before killing them, and Vanessa is the best fighter in the organization, having both brains and brawn as well as being beautiful. "You two are enough to break out of a telekinetic hold, and if you wanted me dead, you would have fought harder. What is your plan?"

Anna smiled, as well as Vanessa, and they both broke out of Collin's telekinetic hold, as expected of someone of triple-S strength.

"Don't be fooled, though; I could barely break out," Anna said, rolling her arm. "We were asked to show ourselves as a warning to you. Someday, you'll be brought back to the organization, but now is not the time," she said, her overly cheerful voice fading to a serious one. "Before, we were going to use Emerald 003, and the crown prince as hostages to lure you out; luckily, you came here before we could do anything."

He knew that was what would have happened. In his vision, he saw that two people attacked the amusement park, one of them holding an injured Fiona and Nathan, and the amusement park around them would be destroyed with the blood of innocent people on the ground.

This is what would have happened if he didn't arrive on time.

"Now that we've delivered the message, we have to leave," Vanessa said as they slowly vanished.

"Bye!" Anna said, waving to Collin before they completely vanished.

Collin was very happy to see his old friends. He first met them when they kidnapped him. So far, they are the most friendly in the organization; they were both sixteen while he was six. They were his first friends and his teachers. It was fun learning the arts of torture from Anna and martial arts from Vanessa.

It's always nice to see some old friends again.

But that isn't the point now. Grade is rising again, and they want him back despite destroying the organization. It is obvious why they want him back. He's the crown prince's bodyguard, and he's the most powerful grade the organization has ever had; that's why he was given White 000. His ability is to copy abilities and use them perfectly without any of the side effects that are normally associated with using an ability. The only side effect for him is that whenever he copies an ability, the ability affects him for a day. So if he copies a fire ability, his temperature would be extremely high, especially with his ability class, a triple S-class ability.

And he can't let word get out that Grade is back and they are after him, or else his highness would find an excuse and keep him isolated from the outside world. Or what he likes to call prison. It happened once when the emperor first came to meet him. He had a taste of prison and decided he never wanted to go through that again.

So he decided to do the best thing for himself.

When he returns home that night, he goes straight to his room, pretending to be tired. He sat in a meditative position and closed his eyes. This way, he would be able to easily replace the memory of what happened tonight for everyone who knows about tonight's incident. Everyone would forget about tonight.

~~~~

Monday...

Nathan and Fiona were holding hands on their walk to school, while Collin and Jake were behind them. While walking behind them, Collin suddenly felt like he was being fed bowls of sugar.

Jake noticed that Collin wasn't looking too well. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes," Collin replied. "But I feel like I'm being forcefully fed sugar," he said.

"But I thought you liked sweets?"

Collin found a bush and threw up in it. Fiona heard Collin throw up.

"Oh, my grass, Collin, are you alright?" she asked. Collin glared at her.

"What do you think?" he said. Jake handed him a bottle of water. "Thanks."

"Wow, Collin, I've never seen you sick before," Nathan said.

Collin would normally roll his eyes or say something sarcastic to Nathan, but now is not the time. "You and big sister have been displaying your love, making Jake and I forcefully eat the product of your affection," he said. Jake also nodded in agreement.

Fiona and Nathan blushed in embarrassment. "I never thought I'd see the day the great and powerful crown prince would blush in public," Collin said.

"Whatever," Nathan said, then grabbed Fiona's hand. "If we don't hurry up, we are going to be late for school," he said, running.

Collin felt another rush of sweetness rush toward him as Jake ran after them. "I'm happy for them," he murmurs.

~~~~

In school, word has already gone around that the crown prince, Nathan Henry Belwere, is dating the daughter of a middle-class family and nature's bride, Fiona Leeway.

Nathan's fans were angry. Furious. Devastated. Fiona began to get bullied by mischievous students who pulled pranks on her by pulling her hair and pouring water on her, soaking her from top to bottom.

By the end of the day, Fiona returned to her home soaking wet, and locked herself in her bedroom, crying.

Jake called Nathan, saying it was his fault for getting his older sister bullied. Collin had just returned from his part time job when he heard Jake on the phone with Nathan. Fiona is getting bullied, and the bullies are walking away scot-free. Well, not for long.

Collin hacked into the school's surveillance system and found several students there who were bullying Fiona, but there is something he knows: these students are nothing more than minions. And what is the use of going after minions when you can go after the masterminds themselves? They were smart enough not to expose themselves to surveillance but rather to send instructions through messages or phone calls.

Luckily, he knows all of these minions and was able to hack into their phones.

Evalynn Blight, Gideon Jamie, and Mary Smith are the masterminds of the bullying. The sons and daughters of high-class families are not too far from returning to the middle class. Normally he wouldn't go after people's families, but the families of these three are involved in illegal practices like drug and human trafficking. They were also responsible for masterminding the assassinations of several business geniuses. How does he know this? Well, that is because he was the one who assassinated them. He didn't know who had hired him then, but now he knows, and he has use for them.

Very soon, these families would be going down, and the children would have to drop out of school due to a lack of funds. Unfortunately, the process would take about five days to fully break down the company and put their parents in prison. All he needs is for Nathan to protect Fiona for a while, and he knows just how to convince him.

<quillbot-extension-portal></quillbot-extension-portal>