change

9 - research in my face.

The yellow bus was going through the highway as it passed fields, trees, and a couple cars. Chris' entire class was packed inside, going on a field trip to a public laboratory. Conveniently enough, they took a tourist bus instead of a school bus, as they had to journey outside the city.

Chizuru was sleeping on Chris' shoulder as he stared out the window on his blue seat. He saw the green hills and the farmers harvesting their crops, before catching the silhouette of the laboratory in his eyes. It was massive, as if someone stabbed the earth with a glass shard that slowly became a hollowed-out block of concrete.

"Remind me why we're on a bus again?" he heard Arielle ask from behind him. She was wearing the same blue outfit she usually wore while going anywhere, now that she was free from the restrictions of the school regulations.

"No one in the school has a teleportation ability unlike those guys I've faced before."

"Then why aren't they picking us up?"

"I don't know either. What are they doing bringing us somewhere the old-fashioned way?"

"My legs are asleep," said Klein, trying to shake himself awake.

"And so is she, right here." Chris pointed to Chizuru right as the bus took a sharp left, prompting it to turn a little. They were sitting on the left side, so the latter was about to fall out from her seat. Luckily, Chris caught her by the hand. He pulled her back and let her rest on his shoulder again as the bus went on the final stretch to the laboratory.



A few minutes later, they arrived and everyone got down. Looking in front, the laboratory looked way larger than they thought it would. A researcher stepped out from the glass doors, her hair curly and afro-like, her skin seemingly tanned from the numerous experiments she made. Her build was slim, and she wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

"You've all arrived on time. Let me introduce myself. My name is Adele Albeheir, and it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Good morning, Adele. Kids, won't you say anything?" the teacher said. He saw that all the students were either half-awake or talking with each other, aside from Chris, who was distracted by the size of the lab.

"It's alright. They just got out from the bus, so it'll take them approximately 5 minutes to get themselves running again."

She turned around and walked back to the doors, but none of them followed her. Looking back, she said, "Why wait? Come on in. I'll give you a tour."

Chris got in first, followed by Klein and Arielle, then the rest of the class. The air was cold and the lights were kind of bright. A reception counter stood in the middle of the room, and behind it was a girl wearing a green shirt underneath an unbuttoned lab coat. She was typing away on a computer as her forehead glowed green until she noticed Adele and the others.

"Hi, mom," she said. "Are they here for the field trip?"

"Yes, dear. Everyone, this is Vidya, my daughter. She's the fastest thinker you'll ever see."

Vidya smiled gleefully, crossing her arms together. "I'm the reception for this lab. Please excuse us if there's any loud explosions going on. We're just doing experiments that are slightly destructive."

One of the nearby rooms exploded, smoke coming out from the broken door. An evacuating researcher threw a water bomb into the room, causing the smoke to immediately dissipate.

"Damn, how ironic..." Arielle thought, holding herself back from laughing.

"The first place I want to show you is down this hall. Please follow me," Adele said, gesturing for the class to come along. "By the way, Vidya, have you had lunch yet?"

"No, I haven't."

"Have a few bites, will you? The other researchers will help take care of the reception in the meantime."

The group walked down a flight of descending stairs until they came to a metal door. Adele opened it, revealing a massive and tall hallway lined with equally tall gray drawers. They marveled at the sight.

"Miss Adele, how are you gonna get the files in the higher cabinets?" asked a student.

"Simple."

With a wave of her hand, one of the higher drawers came out and flew to her front. She picked a document out and made it fly back to its original position.

"Only those with authority can move the drawers. That includes me, the researchers, and Vidya. Of course, I can give you temporary authorization, but not in this place."

They moved along until they reached a door on the other end. Behind it was a massive room with a domed roof.

"Now, some of you may or may not recognize this place. This," Adele said as she spread her arms wide, "is the Weather Hall."

"This looks like a place where my father used to take me for sparring," Klein said, looking around.

With a snap of her fingers, the dome turned into a grassland divided into 2 halves, one covered in winter, the other covered in summer. "Depending on the authority level of the user of the dome, the things the user can create range from a few testing items to an entire landscape."

They were about to move on when Vidya quickly ran through the door, panting and out of breath.

"Vidya? What happened, dear?" Adele asked.

Catching her breath, Vidya shouted, "Terrorists!"

As if on cue, the wall behind her exploded. Klein used his abilities to block the shrapnel heading towards Vidya.

"Warning," a robotic voice sounded from the speakers. "Critical damage has been made to the Weather Hall."

The landscape immediately turned back into the gray floor. Arielle grabbed Vidya and ran back towards the group as the smoke cleared and they got a clear view of the attackers. All of them were wearing black armored outfits and a black headband, except for one of them wearing a red headband instead.

"Damn. It's the elites from the Secretives," Adele said.

"Oh, so you know us," the red headband guy said, his voice sounding like a man who intimidated others for fun.

"Who are the Secretives?" asked Chizuru.

"I think y'all deserve to know, seeing how you survived our initial attack. We have the same goal as the lads here at the Fairweather Research Facility, only that we tend to do it a little... spicier."

"Their leader is a man named Cain Johnson," Adele replied, following up their answer. "He's a force to be reckoned with, seeing how he can manipulate space to his will."

"That's right!"

"Now, shut up, will you?"

A flask with a gray liquid appeared in Adele's right hand, which she threw at the elites heading for them. Upon impact, a smoke cloud appeared. Taking the chance, she said, "Anyone who isn't trained to fight, head out the back door! The rest of you, stand your ground!"

Half of the class, including Vidya, ran towards the door at the back of the dome, only for half of the gang to teleport right in front of them.

"Klein, boost me!" Arielle shouted, dashing towards them. Klein gave her a push hard enough to send her to the other side of the dome, and she prepared a massive punch.

"Muay Thai: Kradot Chok!"

She landed a flying punch hard enough to knock one of the assailants out and send the rest flying with a shockwave, but it broke her hand in the process. Meanwhile, the leader smiled and pulled out a red button on a stick before pressing it. Explosions rang the place, but nothing seemed to have happened. That was, until they opened the back door.

A large pile of rubble blocked the exit.

Back at the main fight, the leader strengthened his fists and prepared a punch. Right as Chris landed a strike with a blood sword made by Klein, the sword broke and he got punched straight through the roof, making a hole.

"You damn..." Klein said, his hair turning white.

Adele quickly threw a red potion at him, causing his power surge to break the floor. He screamed as he threw a punch at the attacker, breaking his guard and sending him through the door to the cabinet hallway. Adele quickly assisted by running in and slamming numerous cabinets on him.

The man survived, however, and broke a few of them as he got back into his fighting stance. He disappeared into thin air, suddenly appearing behind Klein, but realized he couldn't do anything. His body was paralyzed, as if an electric user had done something to him. As it turns out, the mysterious girl was behind him, grabbing him by the neck as she constantly surged electricity through her body.

"You came," Klein said, reverting himself to his original state.

"These Secretives are getting out of hand. If the elites are revealing themselves..." she said as she threw the leader behind her back.

One of them was about to take Vidya out, but the girl stepped in, taking the blow for her. Blood came out from her mouth, but she wiped it and said, "Adele will help you get out."

As the group ran, she paralyzed the entire group of assailants, before gathering them together and blasting them out the dome the same way their leader did with Chris. Now that the threat was resolved, she thought, "I really need to pee right now," and zipped away.



Chris walked out from the laboratory, having finished his business inside. His class was waiting for him there.

"Yo, Chris, how'd you survive?" Arielle asked, her arm getting patched up by one of the healers in the class.

"The girl helped me. I walked back in just because I had to pee."

"Really? We just saw you flying for a second on the security cameras before suddenly blinking away," Adele said, checking the camera replays on her tablet.

"Maybe she's too fast for the cameras to catch her?"

"The cameras can definitely catch lightning."

"Well, everyone's always improving some time or other. She might have been able to outspeed the cameras."

"...Fair enough."