Forming Groups

Getting to school, the students got down from the Seetle and went straight to the building for third years. They had already spent more than half of the school hours obtaining their abilities at the facility –Trydon Inc.

Back in the hallway where they first assembled, Miss Summer had an announcement to make.

"Can I have your attention?" Summer said after she had gotten onto the podium. "Lessons will begin properly tomorrow. The remaining school hours of today will be used to arrange you all into groups of five and teach you the basic things you need to know now that you have obtained your magic. Do you want to choose your group members or should we do it for you?"

"We'll choose the group members." the students answered.

"Okay, you can start now. You must know the type of magic each member of your group has, the risk of anything bad happening on the expeditions is reduced when you are in groups and when you know what the people fighting beside you can do."

Moving and going to meet one another, the students were organising themselves into groups of five.

"So who should the other two members of our group be?" Kevin asked.

"What makes you feel you need only two more members?" Jake asked him.

"Well you, me and Smith, that's three isn't it?"

"How do you know I won't join Cat's group?"

"Are you joining Cat's group?" Smith asked.

"No. I was just kidding, I told you I got your back." Jake said patting Smith on the shoulder.

With his hands still on Smith's shoulder, Jake saw a system message and decided to read it while Kevin was still looking for the remaining two members of their group.

[Condition to mimic magic has been met]

[You have successfully mimicked Healing magic]

[You will lose mimicked magic after 24 hours at your current level]

[Hidden Quest Completed: Mimic one magical ability]

[Reward: Magic +1]

[Magic: 14]

'This is strange. How did I mimic Smith's magic? Was it as I touched him? No that can't be it, I've touched him after I got my magic.'

"No luck guys." Kevin said as he came back. "Can't we ask Cat to join our group?"

"No." Jake answered. "She's gonna want to stay in the same group as her friends."

"Then we'll have to wait till everyone's done forming their group. The people who aren't in groups yet, we'll tell them to join us. Sound good?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah."

The students were almost done grouping themselves when a girl, as tall as Jake, her hair tied up in a ponytail with rainbow coloured eyes came up to Jake and asked if she could join his group.

"Sure. What's your name?" Jake asked.

"Diane." she answered.

"What magic do you have?" Jake asked.

"Colour magic. That's why my eyes are like this."

"I noticed. They're beautiful, like a little rainbow twirling in one place." Jake said.

"Thanks." Diane replied blushing.

"Ehem."

Turning around, Jake could see Cat standing there with her arms folded against her chest.

"Cat." Jake said.

"Can you excuse us for one moment?" Cat asked Diane already grabbing Jake by his arm and dragging him away.

"What's the matter?" Jake asked when Cat stopped moving.

"They're beautiful?" Cat asked trying to imitate Jake.

"What? Her eyes are beautiful. Have you seen them?" Jake asked.

"Oh really."

"Yes." Jake said.

"Sorry to interrupt you guys," Smith said, "but Jake we have the last member of our group."

"Who?" Jake asked.

"His name is Max." Kevin said as he brought the most recent member of their group.

"Hey." Jake said to Max. "What type of magic do you have?"

"I have Force field Generation. I'm pretty sure you already know what I can do from the name." Max said. "How about you?"

"I have Magic mimicry." Jake answered. "Diane what can your magic do?"

"I can control colours." Diane answered.

"But what exactly can you do by controlling colours?" Kevin asked.

"Everyone uses colours to see, so according to Dr. Thomas, I can make a person colour-blind, depending on how strong my magic gets I can make a person see every single colour at the same time."

"Not bad." Kevin said.

"That's good but did you say you have magic mimicry?" Max asked Jake.

"Yeah and I would appreciate it if you don't tell that to everyone."

"Sure but that means you can mimic the magic of other people." Max said.

"Wow we got a genius here." Kevin said clapping his hands and pointing to Max.

"Sorry but it's just so awesome." Max said. "Being able to mimic the magic of others. Can I see you use it?"

"I don't know how to use it yet." Jake said to him.

"So our group has force field magic, colour magic, healing magic, possession magic and magic mimicry." Kevin said. "I think this is good. When we learn how to use our magic properly, we might be one of the best groups."

"Kevin you're right." Jake concurred with what Kevin had said. "Max with his force field will be protect us from attacks, Smith can heal anyone that's been injured, Diane can create a distraction, Kevin you might be able to possess whatever it is we're fighting and me, well basically I can do anything you guys can do."

"Oh wow Jake." Kevin said. "That's really modest."

"Jake's right." Smith finally spoke. "It's not his fault his magic is the best in our group."

"See Kevin, it's not my fault." Jake said. "Cat is your group complete?" he asked as he turned back to Cat.

"Yes." Nikki answered from behind Kevin.

"Nikki," Kevin said, "I didn't see you there."

"Hi Kevin, bye Kevin." she said and walked to meet Cat and Jake.

"Come on." Kevin said. "You can't still be angry about that date."

"I'm not. That's why I'm not hitting you in the face."

"Am I missing something here?" Jake asked looking back and forth between Kevin and Nikki.

"Why don't you tell him Kevin." Nikki said.

After a long sigh, Kevin told Jake why Nikki was upset because of him.

"I asked her out on a date twice and I didn't show up for anyone." Kevin said.

"Damn bro." Jake said laughing a bit. "That's wicked. How could you do that to a girl?"

"Is something funny Jake?" Nikki asked with a straight face.

Jake stopped laughing immediately and replied "No. Nothing's funny."

"But this was at least a year ago." Kevin said in self-defense. "And you practically humiliated me in front of the whole school."

"Which did nothing to ruin your reputation."

"Can you guys not do this right now?" Jake interrupted.

Coming from the speakers was the voice of Miss Summer.

"Students? Your attention please. I assume you all are now part of a group. Three groups will be assigned one teacher."

Getting onto the podium and joining Summer were five teachers.

"These are the teachers who are going to teach you how to control your magic. You will also be going on the expeditions with them and they will be responsible for your safety along with a few guards that will follow you on the expeditions. Now they will introduce themselves and select the three groups they will teach. We will identify each group with the letters you see on the cards I give to the group."

After assigning letters to the groups in no specific order, Jake's group was Group G while Cat's group was Group I.

Moving forward, a female among the teachers introduced herself. "I am Miss Anna, my magic is Shapeshifting. I can change my form or my appearance." she said that as she changed her hair colour from blue to pink to orange then changed it back to blue. She also changed her form from a human to a four-winged animal called Peelers then reverted back to her real form. The humans called them Peelers because they peel their own skin and eat it.

Moving forward now was a man, "I am Mr Nilt. My magic is Zoopathy. I can control various animal life-forms. I don't want to bring animals here just for the sake of showing you kids what my magic can do."

"Hope he doesn't pick our group."a student said to another and Mr Nilt immediately looked in his direction. "Do you think he heard what I said?" the student asked nervously.

"My first group is Group M." Mr Nilt announced.

"You just couldn't keep your mouth shut could you?" the student's group members chastised him.

"Next groups are Group N and Group O."

Groans could be heard coming from the students in the groups Mr Nilt had chosen. He looked like he was going to be a very strict teacher and they didn't want him to be their teacher.

Anna stepped forward again to pick the groups she would teach. Most of the groups were trying hard to get her to choose them because she was as beautiful as a goddess and also looked like a max teacher, but she wasn't looking in their direction, she was looking at a particular student who didn't seem to care who picked his group.

The student she was looking at was Jake, his arms were folded and he was leaning on the wall trying to tell Kevin to stop embarrassing their group by also trying to get Anna's attention but Kevin wasn't listening.

"Dude she's looking this way." Kevin said to Jake when he saw Anna looking at their group. "Wait, is she looking at you?"

Looking up, Jake saw Kevin was right. Anna was looking at him. "Why is she looking at me?" Jake asked in a slightly nervous tone.

"I choose Group G." Anna said. "Groups E and B."

"Jake she chose our group." Kevin said with felicity.

"Yes Kevin, I can see that." Jake said. 'Why was she looking directly at me when she chose our group though?'

After the other teachers introduced themselves, Summer made another announcement.

"Classes will be over in a few minutes and you will not be able to learn anything within those few minutes." Summer said. "You will start learning about how to use your magic tomorrow, you are all free to leave."

"Thank god." Kevin said as he followed others and began moving towards the exit.

Moving towards the exit with Smith, Cat and her friends, Jake was also glad they were free to leave now. Today had been a long day and he just wanted to go home, take a shower and sleep. Maybe talk to Sky for a while before sleeping.

***

"Ma'am, subject 1 has acquired magic." Veer said to Kalvrie through the strange communication device.

"What kind of magic?" Kalvrie asked.

"Magic mimicry ma'am."

"Magic mimicry?" Kalvrie asked shocked.

"Yes ma'am."

"Okay. Keep following him and report anything you find out to me." Disconnecting the call with Veer, Kalvrie walked as fast as she could through the forest with red trees. Walking past the guards at the gate, she opened the doors to the house that was glowing blue and went to the dining room of the house.

"Sir Lumian." Kalvrie said as she bowed her head to the man sitting on the chair at the farthest end of the long dining table still wearing a long blue overcoat. "The Aramante I sent to Veda just reported to me that Jake has acquired a magical ability."

Still eating, Lumian did not reply her.

"Sir the ability he acquired is Magic Mimicry." Kalvrie said when Lumian did not say anything.

Dropping the utensils he was using to eat, Lumian looked up at Kalvrie. "I told you Kalvrie, I told you things would get interesting in a few years. But it looks like a few years is too much, magic mimicry is very powerful magic and in the hands of a Xendor descendant, let's just say something needs to be done about that boy. And it has to be done quickly."