Vincent woke up the following morning due to someone banging on his door. He woke up still lying on the floor on his face. Standing up Vincent immediately felt his body weakening. Like he is exhausted. He scratched his head and opened the door. Outside revealed Champ with a very concerned expression in his face.

“Do you know what time it is?” he asked.

Vincent then looked at his watch, his eyes widened. It is already 7:40 in the morning, and their class starts at exactly 8. Without anymore questions, Vincent hurried to the bathroom, brush his teeth, washed his face then quickly wear his uniform. He then went outside after locking his door and both Champ and him ran to their classroom. Luckily, they made it early with 5 minutes left. After talking with Champ, Jamie and Faye, the bell rang and all of them sat on their respective seats. Mr. Brown went in and immediately started his lesson. Today’s lesson is all about

“HERO SQUADS: ORIGINS”.

This lesson is all about how the Hero squads were formed and how they were maintained. First is that the creation of the Hero Government Association led to the creation of squads or it was widely known back then as “guilds”. Those guilds consist of 50 to 100 heroes since superheroes aren’t that many back in the day when the golden age is still starting. There were originally 7 formed guilds and those were the Majestic Lions, The Dragons, The Assassins Organization, Amazonian Tigers, Noble Knights, The Bulls and the Brown Bears. These seven are the first guilds to be created and these guilds still stands as squads today. All are still famous and high ranking except for one. Mr. Brown didn’t tell what that squad is since he assumed that all students knows what the squad is. He continued his lesson. Then he told them that as time goes by, guilds turned into squads since numbers of heroes keeps on increasing. Back then, the total number of heroes recorded are about 500, but since it has been many generations since the start of the gold age, the numbers skyrocketed and the total of active heroes now is about 3 million and above. And Mr. Brown told the students that each squads has its own territories to protect. Mayors from different cities choose a certain squad as their protectors, therefore the hero squads are obligated to save and protect the citizens under their jurisdiction. But such requests don’t go that. It doesn’t work like when a city picks a squad as its protector, it will still pass-through hearings and be approved by the President himself soon, meaning is that both squads and city mayors needs permission from high officials in order to be protected or to be protected. Mr. Brown added that in this city the students are in which is the Central Empire alone has about 10 squads protecting it.

He was about to say the names of those squads when the bell rang. He gathered up his books and left the room without saying goodbye to his students. Vincent put his notes back in his backpack and thought to himself that their lesson in this subject is getting more and more interesting, since he loves studying history more than anything. Ms. Michaella entered the room. Her discussion is about powers again and their definition. She told her students not to worry about constant changing in lessons since power classes are designed for physical and actual use and that classes will start after 5 months. The bell rang and every subject goes by. Vincent was scolded in almost all of his classes as he didn’t bring any of his assignments and saying that he suddenly passed out last night is not working since it only sounds like he is just being lazy and wants to sleep. Their last class was mathematics, and that is the subject that Vincent dislikes the most as he is not good at this subject. Meanwhile, in the 10th floor hallway was dozens of men wearing angry expressions on their faces and at the front left of the pack was Leonard. He has bandages almost all over his body due to the beating he received from Vincent yesterday. They were walking through the hallway when a student unfortunately went outside. The man with a flat-top hair and dark skin tone who was in the middle suddenly pulled the student and lifted him up while holding the collars of his uniform.

“Let me ask you one thing.” Says the man.

Although scared and shaking, the student nodded.

“Where is the classroom of Vincent Miles?” the man asked.

The student pointed at his left “Th-The o-one with a open door, that’s h-his classr-room. “ says the stuttering and scared student.

The man smirked and let go of the student who quickly and nervously crawled back to his room and closed the door. Then all of them went to that room. Vincent is now trying to right down notes for him to better understand the lesson even though he is feeling very dizzy for some unexplainable reason. And all of a sudden, dozens of men walked inside the room, startling students. The teacher then approached them with a angry approach.

“I am having a class, get out of this cla-” his words were cut as the man squeezed his face, lifted him up off the ground then slammed him on the chalkboard.

All of the students who are in the front row seats quickly stood up and ran while screaming towards the back. Vincent, despite being dizzy and weak stood up and balled his fists. He then looked at Champ.

“Champ, go to this side of mine. You guys too!” ordered Vincent as all of the students went to his side of the room.

Vincent, not hesitated and went to the aid of the teacher. He carefully took the teacher out of the hall in the wall and asked Champ to get him quickly. After that, Vincent stood face to face with the man and everyone can see the determination in their eyes and the thirst to fight each other.

“Are you Vincent Miles?” asked the man.

Vincent who is feeling dizzy answered “So what if I a-” before he can finish his words, he was punched on his right by the man and it made him flew away and hit the wall and went through it.

He was launched to the other classroom which students were shocked. A wall has stopped him from going through another one. And with just that one punch, he is bleeding from head to toe. He fixed his 3 broken ribs and his jaw. He is now breathing heavily and his dizziness just become worse. He stood up and ordered the students to get out of this room right now since it won’t stand anymore after this. The students are now outside and Vincent saw the man now advancing towards him. Vincent hardened his arm as the man jumped and performed a superman punch, Vincent received that attack with his own punch. Their fists collided. And this when Vincent realized that he’s doomed

“Oh, shit.” Cursed Vincent as his arms snapped.

He bellowed in pain but that doesn’t stop there. The man’s fist hit the chest of Vincent and with the strong impact, Vincent was sent down as the floor he is standing on collapsed.

Sophia on the other hand is now studying in her classroom and their subject science. She suddenly felt the ground rumble. She looked up and saw dusts coming down. And as she stood up, a hole suddenly appeared and someone was falling along with the debris. With someone with wind power in her class, the guy used his power to clear the dust. And there on the floor is Vincent who is bleeding and breathing heavily. Sophia gritted his teeth and looked up to see a man who jumped from the top floor and is now falling down fast. She raised her arms slowly, trying to control every metal on her floor when Vincent yelled

“Sophia, don’t interfere! This is my fight!” Vincent yelled as the man dropped on his chest and sent him down until Vincent reached the ground floor.

Vincent is now laying on hard debris and panting. He can’t maintain his consciousness any further, he is about to pass out. This where Vincent knew that he stands no chance against this guy who is a total monster and is now standing on his chest smirking. The man jumped off and picked Vincent by the neck, he spat on his bloody face.

“That’s what you get from messing with my men.” Says the man.

And without any hesitation, the man ran and slammed Vincent on the nearest wall. He lifted him high and once again slammed him on the floor. The man then dragged Vincent and threw Vincent out of his grasp. Vincent hurtled down the hallway and stopped as he slammed on the wall at the end of the hallway. Vincent landed on his buttocks on the floor. His body is bleeding all over and he feels that a lot of his bones broke. He can’t stand up anymore, he is too weak to do so. This is the first time he has ever been put into this kind of condition in a fight. He is too weak to fight and seeing is also being difficult since blood from the cuts of his head are flowing down his face. He just sat there, spitting up blood as he bleeds. Students gathered from both sides. Sophia is at the back of the man who is beating up Vincent. She is waiting for Vincent to be knocked out so she can fight herself. The man then suddenly laughed.

“This is the guy who defeated the 9th strongest student in this academy? Pathetic! “ he yelled “Look at this fool! He can’t even block any of my attacks. And I just did simple attacks and look at his condition right now, he is almost dead!” he added.

He then quickly ran towards Vincent to finish him. He was halfway through when the ground suddenly started to shake. And on the floor the man is standing, rocks erupted and wrapped around his body, trapping him. All the students looked at the outside of the building and saw a angry and furious Mr. Brown.

“How dare you touch my student?!” he snapped. Although his speaking is still calm, you can hear the rage in his tone of voice.

Mr. Brown quickly approached Vincent who is now out of conscious. He called Sophia to help him bring Vincent to the clinic. Ms. Michaella and Norman arrived at the scene, both of the restrained the man. Sophia and Mr. Brown hurried Vincent to the clinic, and as they quickly head to the clinic, they come across Champ and the other tenth-class students. Mr. Brown forbid them to go with them, instead they should go to the headmaster’s office to report the incident. Sophia was annoyed that her brother ordered her not to interfere even though he is all bodied by that oaf. But deep inside he is hoping that Vincent will hang in there. Meanwhile, inside Vincent’s dream or whatever he is seeing right now is a dark room with no lights. Vincent stood up without any problems. He looked around on his location right now, but it was futile as this place is too dark for anyone to see. And as he look to his left, he saw a door open and bright light suddenly came out of it. Because of the blinding light, he stumbled and accidentally sat on the ground. He narrowed5his eyes to see better, and there he saw someone standing in front of the light. It was a silhouette of a man. Vincent was about to ask who is that man when

“So, you’ve finally reached this plane, huh?” says the man.

Then the man suddenly walked towards Vincent slowly.

“I’ve been waiting for years to once again experience this plane. It looks like you’re the one?” says the man again as he moved close to Vincent.

His footsteps are echoing. Although he can’t quite see the man since he is much more of a shadow to Vincent, he can somehow see the man smiling.

“Who are you?!” asked Vincent.

The man laughed.

“You may not know me now, but soon you will. It is still not time.” Answered the man as he moves closer and closer.

Vincent stood up and asked again on who is the man, but he didn’t answered his question.

“You’ve been longing for powers and I can feel that. Do not worry, it will come and be awaken. The interferences have disappeared and been controlled, nothing will stop them to be awaken now. “ says the man with a happy tone.

Vincent doesn’t understand a thing the man is saying so he barraged him with questions, and the man does not answer any of it. He was about to ask another question when he heard someone calling his name. The man and Vincent looked around.

“It looks like we haven’t got a lot of time. Well, don’t worry, we’ll have time to talk someday, but I’ll say one thing before you wake up,” says the man as Vincent waited for the man to speak again.

Even though he’s confused, Vincent still waited for the words.

The man then laughed. “The time has finally come! Young hero, be prepared, everything will change, everything! Ready your heart, mind and body! They will finally be awakened! Use them well, young hero. Farewell. “ says the man.

It was like magic because the man suddenly was going backwards without walking. Vincent ran towards him and chased after him with no sign of effectiveness as the man is too fast.

“What doe that mean?! “ Vincent screamed.

The man just smiled at Vincent.

“You’ll find out soon, young Phoenix. “ says the man then disappeared with the light.

Vincent was again alone in the dark room. He looked around again to see another door when the floor he is standing on disappeared, he then fell and as he reached the ground he suddenly woke up from his long sleep, full of sweat and breathing heavily. Vincent looked around and saw his father looking worried, Sophia, Margarita, Champ, Jamie and Faye. He was in the clinic. Vincent then memorized what the man has said. He has no intention on telling it to anyone.

“How long was I out?” Vincent asked.

Margarita laughed weirdly again “Why, Mr. Miles, you’ve been asleep for two weeks.” She says.

Vincent just can’t believe it. It’s been two weeks but he felt that he is just asleep for a day. But one thing is for sure, time works differently in that so-called plane where he received confusing and impossible to understand messages. And another, he just made his father worried sick because he was beaten up by some man for revenge. Vincent realized that he is not strong enough to defeat a guy like him. To Vincent, that man is on a completely different level, that guy is strong and he can’t beat him with his level of strength right now. But before he could overthink, he slowly laid back down and slept a dreamless sleep.