03x01: Class of 11

The School Year Opens with a bang as Austin meets his new classmates.

CLASS OF ‘11

 

     It was the afternoon of June 14, 2010. A 13 year old boy was in a large, futuristic basement. The walls were lined with white gridlines with a single energy sphere traveling through the lines.

     His name is Ryan Austin Fernandez. He was a sophomore student in Elizabeth Seton School. School would be starting tomorrow. He was just finishing up his “summer project”.

     “Come on. It’s been two months. This has to work,” he thought to himself.

     He twisted the band on his left wrist, The Black Band, to pyrokinesis. The band regulated his superpowers, allowing him to use them one at a time.

     Years ago, back in December 2008, there was an “earthquake” in their school. It wasn’t actually an earthquake but rather a release of stored energy that has been building up for millions or even billions of years.

     He started out with one power but eventually, four traitors pushed him in the Dome of Power, and overloaded him, effectively giving him all the powers but making him unstable.

     To solve this problem, he made the Black Band, which allows him to regulate his powers, only allowing one “spoke” at a time.

     Last year, he was attacked and the attacker destroyed the band, turning Austin into a raging lunatic. His friends got him under control though.

     He reached into the opening and grabbed the thin silver rod inside it. He fired up his hand and the entire thing just burst into flames. He doused the flames and the entire thing went back to normal.

     “Finally! Man, this was one long summer,” Austin said to himself.

     He went in the elevator at the back of this giant room and pushed up, bringing him back to the Base, a rather simple name for his hangout and research facility.

     He went out of the Base, sealing the mechanical doors shut as he stepped out onto the Island. Well, since the entire student body got superpowers, they couldn’t just stay in the city, so Austin relocated the entire school to an uncharted island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

     He went to the hotel on the far side of the island. This was where all the students stayed during the school year. Some of the students stayed here even during Summer Vacation but very few did.

     He went to the fourth floor which was where his suite was located. He went inside and laid down on his bed, falling asleep a few minutes later.

 

The next day, he woke up early, at around 4:30 in the morning. He switched the band to space manipulation and teleported to the front of the school.

     Elizabeth Seton School was on the other side of the island. Actually, this is merely a duplicate but with a few added features. For example, all the rooms had an Anti-Radioactive Shield made of Anti-Radioactive Material or ARM for short. This was to prevent cheating in class or other mischief.

     He focused on creating a teleportation field in front of the school that would be connected to the school in the city. He did this last year as well, for the new students who enrolled that year. They were also given the choice of a superpower, thanks to the Dome of Power.

     He faced his back to the school and waved his hands through the air, creating a field in front of the school. He went through this field and found himself in a space loop. He forced the surroundings backwards, maneuvering himself to the city, right in front to the real Elizabeth Seton School. He exited the Space Loop here and created the other side of the field. It was very early in the morning and he took great care so no one will see him.

     He switched the band to psychic powers and created an illusionism in the school, so if anyone sees a car or a person going through the gates, it will look perfectly normal. He went through the gates and, as he planned, he was back on the island.

 

After an hour, people finally started arriving. The guards were already there, ready to calm down newcomers. The old students were not surprised as they calmly marched to their classrooms.

     Austin decided to wait in the front gates for his friends but especially for a certain person.

     Like most kids his age, Austin was in love. This girl was Janella Deabanico. They were classmates last year and they slowly built a relationship. Right now, they’re in Mutual Understanding or MU in Filipino culture. This means they “like” each other.

     After a few minutes, a lot of old students were already entering the campus. Austin opted for a bigger surprise by meeting her in the campus. He used his Psychic Powers to fly over to the building at the far end of the campus, the Mindanao Building.

     He went to his classroom, COMPOSTELA VALLEY. When he was the class listings, he was really disappointed since all of his friends were in DAVAO DEL NORTE. In fact, he barely had any friends in his new section, which could be called CV for short.

     Well he had one friend there already. Ibarra Libosada, a part of his old gang from first year. He was the silent type and he liked to draw. He was one of the best artists in their batch.

     A mother and her son soon walked through the hallways with a bewildered look on their faces like they just went through hell. Obviously, these two were new.

     “Umm… excuse me? This is Compostela Valley, right?” the mother asked.

     “Yes ma’am,” Austin said, pointing at the sign for confirmation.

     Her son entered the room, with an intimidating look on his face. He wasn’t that tall though and a bit quiet. He sat down and dropped his bag beside him.

     Austin went out looking for anyone to talk to. He went over to the Davao Del Norte or DDN room for short. He knew two people there, Ernst De Vera and Johan Tan.

     He met Ernst in first year. He, Ernst, and another guy named Joel were essentially best friends although the butt of all the jokes in the group was Ernst.

     In the fourth quarter though, Joel decided to betray Austin and started flirting with Janella. Austin didn’t take this well and everything came crashing down. Throughout all this crashing, Ernst stuck with him and he has been one of his best friends ever since.

     Johan was a member of their group and was also in the group who helped Austin when he was a psychotic monster due to the Band being destroyed.

     “Hey, Austin!” Ernst said.

     “Ernst, long time, no see.”

     “I mastered my laughing gas thing. It’s all under control now. Three months was a long time you know?”
     Obviously, Ernst’s power was releasing laughing gas.

     “Good. Anyway, have you seen Janella?”

     “No, why?”

     Austin gave him a look that said, “Isn’t it obvious?”

      “Well, she’ll be here… later.”

      “Anyway, looks like Maan is my classmate.”

     Obviously, Maan was Ernst’s Juliet. He wasn’t that much of a Romeo to begin with but hey, who cares?

     “Well, how about you watch over Janella? I mean we’re only going to see each other eighty minutes a day so I need you to"“

     “Speak no more, hey; you can do something similar in exchange. Wait a minute; you can use your psychic powers to protect her!”

     “I agreed to a no power clause with myself on this whole thing. It’s personal.”

      “Oh.”

     At that moment, Bianca Blanco entered. She was also part of their group back in first year. Her super power was to charge things with enough kinetic energy that they would bounce a lot easier.

     “Hey guys. Hey Ernst.”

     “My friends and Zoidberg!” Ernst said.

     “What the hell are you talking about?” Austin asked.

     “Nothing.”

     “Hey Bianca, remember that girl you talked to during the Intrams,” Austin asked.

     “The one you were crazy about?”

     “Yeah, Janella.”

     “I remember.”

     “Did you see her on the way up?”

     “Nope. Why?”

     Ernst gave her the look Austin gave him but she did not mind him.

     “Never mind. I’m going back to CV. Get to know some people there.”

     Austin went back CV and it had definitely filled up a little. He saw some of his old classmates. Sean Asprec, a member of the band DRIX, consisting solely of Sophies and an MOR student who attended the BUK farewell party a few months ago, was there. Maan and Ymara were there already. There was one guy who looked stuck up alone beside the intimidating guy earlier. He decided to check out the section in between CV sand DDN.

     This was DAVAO ORIENTAL or DOR for short. Austin had a bunch of friends here like Ivan Chan, one of his best friends since preschool and Michael Chua, a member of the party that went to save him from his lunacy last year.

     Alyssa Estrella was also there. She was also part of a group known as the “Patola Family” which Janella was a part of.

     “Hey, Austin, did you see Janella yet?”

     “Sadly, not yet,” Austin said calmly. He immediately broke the calmness however. “I can’t help it anymore! It has been THREE MONTHS!”

     “Calm down. She’ll be here soon.”

      Austin looked back towards DDN and to his supreme delight, she was there.

      She was in DDN along with another Patola member, Nica Ambrocio. Janella and Nica were face to face as Austin went behind Janella, nervous as hell.

     Nica saw Austin, of course, and continued the conversation. Austin moved a little bit more to the right as Nic finally pointed out to Janella, Austin’s presence.

     They sort of just stared at each other in utter speechless delight for what seemed like five minutes.

     “Hi…” Austin said.

     Janella did not reply.

     “Well, say something!” Nica said teasingly. She was a contender for Number One Shipper of Austin and Janella to be honest.

     “Hi!” Janella said. Austin couldn’t help but look at her beautiful hair, which have been let down and straightened as opposed to last year’s curly and tied up. He was falling deeper and deeper into this little pit of love.

     Unfortunately, this is where the bell rang.

 

They all proceeded to the Gymnasium. Their gym had three floors.

     First floor was a Canteen and activity area.

     Second floor was a board game area, another activity area (commonly used for Taekwondo), and a bridge leading to the north wing of the Mindanao Building.

     The third floor was the gymnasium itself with the basketball, volleyball, and badminton courts rolled in one with bleachers at the sides and the scoreboard. In front was the stage.

     CV and the rest of the second years were led to the left side of the back half of the gym. He was behind a guy that looked like Clutch from behind but under further observation, it was the stuck up guy from earlier.

     He looked over to DDN where all of the people he wanted to be with were there. How he wished he was there instead, finding nobody to talk to here.

     Soon, the assembly began and they began the routine of prayer, national anthem, Panatang Makabayan (The Filipino’s Pledge of Allegiance), and they were asked to sit down.

     Dr. Delia Navasa, the Unit Head of the High School Department read some new rules for the school year. These were basically no cyber bullying, no exclusion of single persons from groups, and other stuff. Apparently, the newcomers didn’t find this very interesting and they just wanted to know what the heck was happening.

     Dr. Suarez, the President and Owner of the school, came in to save the day. She took the mic.

     “Welcome, Parents and Guests. It appears as if I have gotten my expected reaction from you. Anyway, welcome another year in Elizabeth Seton School. I can see that most of the newcomers here are wondering what happened earlier when you entered this very place. You went from the city to this island. Well, let me tell you.

     “We are all gifted with extraordinary powers,” she said with her mouth closed.

     There were audible gasps from the audience but these eventually settled down.

     “Now, I know, can you back out? Of course but when you enrolled your children into this school, you were informed beforehand of this. This information was cryptic but nonetheless information.”

     Everybody was surprisingly calm.

     “You are now given a choice, you may allow your child to get power of their own or you may just choose to go back to the city where well will erase any evidence of your visit here. Trust me; this might be the safest place to be right now in times like these.”

     “Hey Austin,” someone said from behind.

     Austin turned around and saw his best friend there, Kyle Gomez. Austin went to him and they went out of the Gym.

     “Well, buddy any news from you undercover operation?”

     “None, it’s been a wild goose chase for three months.”

     “Oh, anyway, it’s been a project for three months for me. Wanna see my top secret project later?”

     “Sure, where, in your suite?”

     “Hahaha… Kyle, if I took by top secret project in my suite, my suite would cease to exist. In the Base, I will show you my Magnum Opus.”

     “Sure, 5:00?”

     “Indeed.”

     “Anyway, why’d you call me?”

     “Oh, um, Berna and I arrived at the same time and"“

     “Save it for later. They’re probably calling me as head of the Power Regulation Unit. You can only have so many good stories at one time right?”

     “I’m pretty sure Janella will be proud.”

     “So am I. HAHA, PWNED!”

     “See ya later, gotta get to school.”

     Kyle had an undercover operation right beside the school but back in the city. He studied in Merry Treasure for the meantime.

     Austin went back in the Gym.

     “Our new Activity Coordinator is, Ms. Nanette Nicerio,” Doctor Delia announced.

     Applause rang throughout the entire gymnasium.

     “And finally, the Prefect of Discipline is, Mister Dan Labajo!”

     They all bowed on stage and went down.

     “Now for those who wish to get their powers, the process will be held at the base, slightly off campus at the Base. You can get there by meeting up with the Head of the Power Regulation Unit, Ryan Austin Fernandez,”

     “Oh crap,” Austin thought as he needed to get to the stage quickly. He switched the band to Space Manipulation and teleported to the stage.

     “Austin, that is not what we meant by Power Regulation,” Doc Del whispered.

     “Sorry, Ma’am, I was all the way back.”

     “You can meet up with him tomorrow at 12:00 noon in front of the CV classroom. He’ll take you there.”

     Austin began to teleport again when Doc Del gave him the look. He decided to walk to his place instead.

 

When they got back to their classroom, he sat behind Ibarra since the seat beside him was taken by Sang Woo Gwun, a Korean.

     Behind him were Owen Cantillas and Jasvir Camiguing. Owen was dark-skinned and rather large while Jasvir was flesh and rather fit. They were the main source of hilarity when there was no one around.

     Eventually, Adrienne Acosta, a classmate of Austin from last year sat beside him.

     “Hey Austin, long time no see.”

     “Hey AD. I see all the seats are taken.”

     “Yes, yes they are.”

     “Okay class, good morning,” their teacher said. As standard protocol in this school, they stood up to greet her but they did not know her name.

     She wrote her name on the blackboard.

     “Again, good morning, CV.”

     “Good morning, Miss Mac.”

     “Take your seat.”

     Ms. Mac seemed nice. She explained the basic stuff. Eventually, their other adviser (all classes had two advisers) arrived.

     “I would also like to implement the haircut rule for the boys,” Ms. Mac said.

     “Yes, all the boys should have their hair cut regularly in accordance Republic Act 123.”

     Everyone laughed really hard at this joke. Even though the joke wasn’t really that funny, it was the delivery that completely sold it.

     “CV, this is Sr. Jojo.”

     “Good Morning, Sir Jojo”

     “Now Usually Sr. Jojo is the comedian while I’m a bit more serious but"“

     “I am different during classes. Don’t expect to see this during classes.”

     “Okay, now Sir Jojo and I would like to encourage open communication. If you ever want to talk, just feel free to go to us downstairs.”

     After the hour they spent together, CV grew to love Sr. Jojo and Ms. Mac.

     Austin still couldn’t help but wish he was in DDN.

     Nonetheless, this year was already looking pretty good but Austin just couldn’t let go of the past and wanted to be with Bukidnon again…