Chapter 05: A year as a bronze crest(03)

Vector raised his hand.

Riptide nodded in Vector's direction. "Go ahead…"

"Sir, so what happens if we score really high?"

"Then your schedule will need to be changed. You'll have to pick either optional advanced academic courses or they may let you take silver or even gold crest courses.

The courses you have available to choose from will be decided on by your academic counselor. Their contact information should be in your contact list on your device already. "

Vector activated his device and clicked on the contacts.

"..."

His face stiffened.

'Why does this have my grandma's number as my academic counselor contact?'

"Is everything alright Vector?"

"...Yes, I just thought I recognized the number for a second. Haha…"

Vector smiled and looked over at Justice.

Justice looked back towards him and read the number he had listed for his academic counselor out loud.

Vector blinked a couple of times maintaining his smile. ('That's totally your grandpa's number. Mine is grandma's.')

He turned to look at his teacher. "Sir…"

"You two should get going before you end up being late."

"Yes sir."

"Yes sir."

Both boys stood up from their desks and walked to the door. As they left the building and the door shut behind them Vector looked at Justice with a grin. "Wanna see something cool?"

"It's not gonna almost put me in a coma, is it?"

"..."

"..."

"Just hold your breath…" Vector then stared at Justice.

Justice sighed and then took a deep breath. At this point Vector disappeared from his view then everything blurred and he was standing in front of the auditorium doors with kids in school uniforms staring at him like he was a ghost. As small currents of pale silver electricity danced across his skin.

Looking around he saw Vector standing next to him grinning from ear to ear. "Are you OK man? Nothing's broken right?"

"..."

"What?"

"Did you just use me as a lab rat again?"

"Oh no. I've tried it on a few people. But every time I tried it on an S rank something broke. Grandma threw up the first time I did it. So you did better than h…"

Justice ran to a bush and puked his breakfast up. Vector appeared beside him and patted his back. "Hmmm… thought for sure holding your breath would help with the nausea. "

"... Vector."

"Yeah John?"

"Please don't ever do that again unless I'm about to die…"

"Fine but just remember we aren't allowed to fly for the next year. If you just run around at full speed you'll make a sonic boom. Wait… you control light and can manipulate magnetic fields. Hmmm…" Vector started rubbing his chin.

Justice backed away. "No… No more uploads. Tell me like a normal person."

Vector got a dejected look on his face. "Fine but uploading would be faster."

"DUDE, IT COULD HAVE PUT ME IN A COMA!!!"

"No need to yell… No more uploads unless it's an emergency."

"KAI!!!"

"Fine none then…" Vector then went towards the auditorium entrance stopping at the doorway. ('No uploads but, you gotta practice telepathy so we can at least communicate when we are moving at hypersonic speeds…')

Justice sighed in exacerbation. "Ugh… Fine, you've got a good point. I'll try to learn it."

"Great!"

Vector and Justice then proceeded through the doorway and down the hall towards the auditorium.

"Shen will be glad. He's been getting kinda whiny lately."

"Who's Shen?"

Vector looked around suspiciously. Then reached into his uniform's interior jacket pocket. When he pulled his hand out it held something about the width of his pinkie finger and about 40cm long that was slithering around his fingers.

"..."

"... What?"

"Your grandma doesn't know you brought that, does she?"

"Like I'd tell grandma I was carrying around an S rank beast… Do you think I'm crazy or something? "

"... Did you just say S rank?"

"..."

"You totally did… Why do you have an S rank creature chilling in your pocket? Better question: what happens if 'Shen' gets free?"

Vector put the grey snake back in his pocket. "Well we have an agreement to prevent that. He doesn't cause trouble and I don't shake his head so fast his brain turns to soup. So it's totally safe."

"That thing could literally wreck half the city in a matter of seconds."

"... Fine."

He pulled the snake back out holding it between his hands as silver light shot out from between his fingers for a moment. Then he grabbed Justice's wrist and placed something in his hand before walking towards an open seat.

Justice looked at his hand seeing a pile of black dust.

He quickly wiped the dust off his hand and followed Vector and sat down. "Dude how did you do that so easy?"

"I removed the chemical bonds holding its atoms together and then cooked it with high intensity plasma."

"..."

"What? I'm pretty sure you could do something similar using magnetism…"

"Dude what the hell type of training have you

been doing the past few years?"

"Cultivation and physics mostly. Other than that just the normal stuff."

"You know you're like a mad scientist. Right?"

"I don't really see it."

"..."

Justice sat there for the next few minutes rubbing his temples.

The test took the rest of the school day. Only breaking for lunch. As the final bell rang, all the students taking the test were released.

—---------------------------

5 days later at the cafeteria

Vector and Justice were having lunch as usual, when Matt walked up to them wearing a white uniform.

Vector looked over at Matt smiling. "Oh, hey Matt how have you been?"

"Extremely good thanks to you. Ummm… Listen. Is it ok if I teach the rest of my group that stuff you put in my head?"

"Well it's your head. I don't see why I get a say in what you do with it. Not gonna form your own personal army and start slaughtering civilians right?"

Matt shook his head vigorously in denial. "No. Of course not. I just want to help my group to get stronger. We tend to get bullied by the other groups because we are almost all D rank."

Vector tilted his head to the side in confusion. "But, you're a C rank now."

Justice grinned ear to ear. "HAHAHAHA!"

Justice laughed and slapped his knee in amusement. "Hey Vector, wanna join a group?"

Vector smiled and looked at Matt who had a confused look on his face. "You guys accepting new members?"

Matt nodded his head. "You guys seriously want to join Red Faction?"

Justice grinned. "You said some schmucks are messing with you right? Let em try that with us around. We'll Crack their heads open and pour some sense in."

Vector got a confused look on his face. "I thought we were supposed to go easy on the other students so we don't accidentally kill them?"

Matt's face turned pale. "..."

Justice looked at Vector. "Dude, it's a figure of speech. We'll just scare the pee out of them and beat them up a little if they mess with Matt's people. Comprende?"

Vector's face became a malicious grin. "Comprende…"

"Vector…"

"Yes, Justice?"

"I said, if…"

"Fine…" Vector said as he crossed his arms and looked away like a child that had been told they couldn't go play until chores were done.

"Definitely a mad scientist."

—---------------------------

The following Monday in Class 1-A 07:40(CST)

Vector and Justice were sitting in class talking about the specifics of the body refining method Vector had 'uploaded' to Justice.

Justice sat there staring at Vector with a look of utter shock written on his face. "So this body refining thing is like quasi-suicide? I'll need to destroy my body but heal it faster than I kill myself?"

"Well when you put it like that it sounds crazy."

"SOUNDS CRAZY?!"