First Day

11 years have passed since the Shoron left Earth. With nearly 3 billion people across the globe dying in the war, Earth lost almost 30% of its population. The heavy losses left a lot of orphans, and feeling responsible, the government decided to create living spaces for orphans to live before they go off to military school.

Rafe Nilsen is one of those orphans. He never knew his mother or father, as they were conscripted into the war just like nearly every other able bodied human. The only pictures he had ever seen of his parents were the ones that were taken for military ID when they were conscripted. Rafe's parents were poor and ability-less, so even though most orphans received some inheritance, allowing them to buy even the weakest of abilities, Rafe had no such opportunity. Throughout his school career, he was bullied and tormented by the other kids with abilities. The teachers didn't care as well, because one ability-less orphan doesn't matter anyways.

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Present Day

September 7th, 2056

Rafe turned 16 this year, and it is currently his first day of military academy.

He is about as average as you can get. He has a weak body compared to ability users, an average face with black hair, and he is a social outcast because he has no ability. His most striking feature are his eyes. They are a bright blue like sapphire, and almost seem to have a non-humanly glow to them.

According to schedule, Rafe woke up early in the morning, showered, ate, and packed all his belongings, which didn't consist of much. From the email he received from the government, he was supposed to be at a certain teleport shrine at 10 am sharp. Tardiness was taken into account and those who showed up late are to be punished.

Gathering at the shiny blue teleport shrine, Rafe saw the many other 16 year olds also in attendance. While you couldn't tell what abilities they had, you could gauge their strength by the clothes they wore, as the stronger ability users were more commonly at the top of the social ladder, allowing them to wear more expensive garments.

After waiting for around 10 minutes, the clock finally struck 10, and a huge, muscular man in a military outfit walked in front of the gathered students.

"All right gather up!" The man's voice boomed, startling some people. "We are going to be registering you all in the military academy's system, and you will get a wristwatch that will serve as your ID during your stay. This wristwatch is your best friend in the academy, so do not remove it, and do not lose it. It acts as a life monitor and GPS tracker, so if you are to get injured or die, soldiers will be sent to either come retrieve you or your body as well as track the suspect. It also acts as your wallet, and will allow you to purchase anything you need during your stay at the academy. Lastly, it measures your ability rating and relative power level."

Men and women in military uniforms began lining up in behind tables with hologram stands saying what letters of the alphabet they are for. Soon after, all the incoming students began lining up at the tables that were for their respective surnames. Of course, Rafe lined up in the line for the table that was for the last names starting with N. After about 5 minutes, it was his turn.

The table had a woman registering the new students. She was quite attractive, as she had a pretty face, blond hair, and blue eyes, the stereotypical western features.

"Name" she says in a cold voice. She seemed quite irritated because her job for the day consisted of registering students and giving them their wristwatches.

"Rafe Nilsen" he replies.

"Rafe Nilsen, orphan with no ability. Is that you?" She asks with a sour tone as registering people without abilities is a waste of her time.

"Yes ma'am" Rafe says respectfully.

"All clear. You are registered. Here is your wristwatch" she hands him a wristwatch. It is silver and has a screen which displays his heartbeat, power rating, and the amount of credits he has, which at the moment is a measly $234.

Putting on the watch, Rafe follows the other students towards the military grade teleporter. While watching from the back of the line, he sees that approximately every 50 students are teleported at a time. Once it was his turn, he boarded the circular stand and waited until it was at its maximum occupancy. Rafe's vision went completely white, and before he knew it, he was standing at the entrance to the academy with the other 49 students that were teleported with him.

This time around, it was a handsome man in a military uniform, and he walked in front of the teleporter and waited for all the students to pay attention to him.

"Alright everyone, now that you have received your wristwatches you have to register for which division you are going to enter. To the right is the science and research division for those who excel in their studies, to the left is the combat division for those with attack type abilities, and straight ahead is the support division for those who have support type abilities. Please go to whichever you wish to sign-up for" he smiled before ushering them off the platform.

Rafe was never that good in school. He got average grades, so he knew he wasn't suited for the research division, and that only left the combat and support divisions. Since he doesn't have an ability, Rafe decided to sign up for the combat division.

Walking to the left, Rafe soon came to a booth with a single person working behind a holographic screen. Every time a person walked by, their wristwatch screen flashed dark green, indicating that they have signed up for the combat division. Rafe followed the procedure, his wristwatch flashed green as well, and gave a number, which everyone was told would be their examination room.

The examination would be the core of their entrance to the school. Within the exam, the students are tested on a variety of combat simulations. Strength, agility, and ability. The ability section is separate, and the student is given a letter A-F regarding the power and uniqueness of their ability. The grades they receive on each test will be added together and will be shown as a numerical value under their power level on their wristwatch.

After searching for a bit, Rafe found his respective examination room and walked in. Inside there was an instructor and a couple other students. After a few minutes of waiting in an awkward silence, the instructor finally looked around at the group of 15 students and nodded.

"Welcome everyone. My name is Mason Farrel and I am your examiner today. While many of you may already know, I will still give a brief explanation for what this examination is for. This test is to determine your power level and ability ranking. Ability rankings go from A-F. A is the most powerful abilities while F is the weakest. Power level is sum of all the test grades you are given. The power ranking is very important for your time here at the academy, so I advise you to try your best."

The examiner Mason was a hulking middle aged man with brown hair and a short military haircut. He stood at an impressive 6'6 with broad shoulders and huge, well-defined muscles bulging from his tight shirt.

He began walking up to a punching bag of sorts.

"This here is the strength examination. It's quite simple, all you have to do is punch the red mark and the machine will display your strength in a numerical value" he spoke before walking up to the machine and punching it. His punch sent out slight shockwaves, ruffling the students hair while they stood there with the mouths hanging open.

His score wouldn't stop going up.

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

Before finally stopping at 8345. Everyone had sparkles in their eyes while watching how powerful the examiner was.

"There you have it, all you gotta do is punch it" Mason gave a sheepish smile while rubbing the back of his head. "For reference, a standard non-ability person could get anywhere from 0-1000. A rank F ability can go from 1000-1500. Rank E goes from 1500-2500. Rank D goes from 2500-4000. Rank C goes from 4000-6500. Rank B goes from 6500-10000. Lastly rank A goes from 10000-infinity. From all the research thats been done, there has been no cap on power level for a rank A individual."

Following Mason to another section of the room, the students stood before a raising section of the floor with four pillars on the corners of the square. It looked similar to a boxing ring but without the ropes to hold people in.

While watching the students stare at the raised area he began to speak.

"This is the second test. It is the agility and evasion section. All you have to do is stand in the middle of the ring and wait a couple of seconds and then the four pillars will begin firing holographic balls at you. All you have to do is dodge the balls for as long as you can."

Scanning the group, he asked, "Any questions?"

Everyone was silent.

"I will be taking your silence for you having no questions. Ok, let's get this started."

Each person went one by one, and the tests went by quickly. From the 15 people who were in the group, 12 have already taken their tests. 4 got F rank, 4 E rank, 3 D rank, 1 C rank. Rafe was number 13. Walking up to the strength testing machine, he couldn't help but be nervous. Most people in school had abilities, and because he didn't have an ability, he was bound to be bullied and tortured. He knew the results of his test. No ability. He will become an instant target for their anger relief and entertainment.

Punching the red target on the machine, he heard people behind him start to laugh.

"Pfft- did you see how weak that punch was."

"Hahaha that was weaker than my grandma."

Rafe quickly tuned out the comments as he was used to them by now and just watched as the numerical value slowly went up. Stopping at 593 he knew it was both the beginning and the end of his normal school life.

After the strength test was agility. He stood in the middle of the platform and holographic balls started flying from all directions. At first it was easy for him, but after around 45 seconds or so of dodging he was finally hit by one.

Waiting until his final score was calculated, he heard a ding noise come from his watch. Looking at the screen, he could see the number 613 signifying his final power rating. Also in another section of the screen he could see the letter X in bold showing that he did not have an ability.

Walking to the back of the group he heard the students laughing and making fun of him but chose to ignore it because he was so used to it.

Waiting until the rest of the students finished their tests, he watched as the remaining two got rated as Rank E and D.

The only rank C in the group was a boy named Cameron Sinclair. He was the classic rich noble type playboy. He had short wavy blond hair, blue eyes, and he wore expensive clothing indicative of his social standing. All the rank D people were crowding around him trying to get his attention and he seemed to absolutely love it. Cameron seems to be the type of person that loves attention.

The Sinclair family is a family that is well known for their strong telekinesis ability. While telekinesis itself isn't rare as an ability, the Sinclair telekinesis is easily 4x stronger than the generic version. Most common telekinesis abilities may only be able to change the direction of an arrow slightly, but the Sinclair telekinesis can maneuver weapons like swords and daggers in the air freely during battle.

Mason finished finalizing the results and turned to the group.

"That is all for the examination. In 10 minutes you will receive your dorm room number and your class schedule. Classes start tomorrow so get some sleep. Keep in mind that curfew is 11:59 pm so you better be in your room before that time or soldiers will be dispatched to the location on your watch."

Walking out of the examination room, Rafe decided to walk around campus before the dorm room numbers are released.

The academy was huge. It is covered in neutral colors consisting of white, grey, and black. While the outside didn't look special, the insides were extremely futuristic and Rafe couldn't help but gawk at how amazing it looks.

'The military is completely loaded' he inwardly chuckled.

While walking through the school alone he couldn't help but notice how pretty much every other person in the school had already begun making friends as there were groups of all sizes walking and talking around campus.

The school pretty much had everything a student could want while they were there for two years. Rafe saw convenience stores, shops of all kinds, and even entertainment like VR and movies.

Looking at the measly $234 that were displayed on his watch, he sighed thinking about how unfair life was. While others had everything they could ever want, he had to scrape by with the bare minimum. Even if he wanted to enjoy the VR gaming stations that are offered he would have to spend $50 per two hours which would bankrupt him faster than he could blink.

After ten minutes of wandering the campus, Rafe got a notification on his watch.

Rm 1345

It must be his new dorm room. Deciding to go to his room first before exploring the rest of the campus, he began walking towards the living quarters on campus. Along the way, he saw other students with the same idea as him. His room was on the first floor because it was in the 1000's. Each floor had a different starting number, so 2000's were the second floor, etc. Scanning his watch on the lock, he heard the mechanisms opening. Walking through the door, he saw his room. It was the absolute bare minimum required for students. A bunk bed up against the left wall so that him and his roommate have a place to sleep, two large closets where they could put their belongings, a desk, and a basic bathroom.

Choosing his closet, he placed his backpack with all his belongings inside and sat down on the bottom bed. A moment later, he heard the door unlock, and his roommate pushed open the door.

The boy who walked in looked even more pitiful than Rafe. He was short, reaching just 5'7, he had brown hair that went down and covered his eyes, and he was wearing rectangular shaped glasses. Peeking at his watch, Rafe breathed out a sigh of relief.

[583]

This boy's power level was even lower than his! Rafe wanted to jump up and do a pose, he wasn't the weakest in the school!

Deciding to be friendly, Rafe stood up and introduced himself.

"Hey you must be my roommate, my names Rafe it's nice to meet you" he gave a warm smile and stuck out his hand.

The boy looked at Rafe's hand and took it, lightly shaking it.

"N-n-nice to meet you as well. Um, my name is George. George Meritt" he said quietly while looking at his feet.

"Haha you don't need to be so shy, we are going to be roommates for this whole year so we might as well get used to each other, I'm just glad that you aren't some stuck up a*shole with a good ability" Rafe laughs.

George looks up a little and notices Rafe's power level displayed on the watch and also sighs in relief. Loosening up a little bit, he begins to put away his belongings in the remaining closet.

"George do you prefer top bunk or bottom bunk?" Rafe asks.

"I don't really care, I'll take whatever you don't want."

"Ah man loosen up, are you really that shy, we are in the same situation here. If you aren't gonna pick then I'll take bottom in case I need to take a piss in the middle of the night" Rafe jokes giving George a light punch on the shoulder.

Seeing his roommates disposition, George was happy, as he was expecting to get an ability user as his roommate and be forced to do errands against his will.

"So George what division are you in, I'm in the combat division"

"Um I'm in the science and research division. I've never been good at fighting, and I don't have an ability so I had to go with that one."

After getting acquainted, both boys ended up deciding to have a "roommate bonding session" to get to know each other better.

Talking late into the night, they discussed many things about their lives, what they plan to do in the future.

George was from a relatively poor family. While they weren't in a terrible situation, they still didn't have enough money to be able to buy an ability serum for George. He talked about how he has always been quiet, but it got worse during high school because he was bullied by the ability users. In the future, George wants to become a respected ability-less researcher, and develop cheaper alternatives for people who can't afford the ability serum.

Rafe also talked about his life, but as he has no future aspirations so he left that part out.

After they finished talking and getting to know each other, George pulled his YS9 gaming console out from his bag. He said he bought it with his own money after saving for a couple years. They played shooter games and racing games for hours, and Rafe had a great time, as he never got to play video games in his past because he never had enough money to buy the consoles.

Stopping at 2 am, they both finally went to sleep with smiles on their faces.

Rafe couldn't help but be thankful that he got such a nice roommate.