The next day, Adrian walked to school. His mind was filled with thoughts. Initially, he thought that his ability was some kind of sensory ability. It was almost creepy how he could exactly pinpoint the nature, strengths, weaknesses and type of an ability user within his vision, yet, the previous day's incident caused him to question if that was the extent of his abilities.
That red crystal, if Adrian wasn't mistaken, was a crystallized version of the drug that Cody had taken. The blood of the so called dragon. Yet, the peculiar flame in his body had refined it and turned it into physical strength of his body. The effect wasn't much, Adrian's body was still very much within human limits, but they almost had reached peak human strength and flexibility.
As he entered the campus, however, those thoughts were wiped away. He felt the curious and peculiar gazes of students around him, with few wanting to maintain eye contact with him. Adrian ignored the awkward behavior of others and walked into his class, which turned awkwardly silent on his entrance.
The awkwardness continued for half a day, before things began to normalize. Though, people still avoided him and looked at him with vigilance. During lunch break, a brown haired, spectacled girl walked into the class.
"Adrian Miles?" She asked pompously as she scanned the classroom, to find the boy in question. "Follow me." She continued when her eyes met her target.
Adrian smirked when he saw it was. He knew the girl. She was the current head of the school's News Club, a girl who had constantly irritated him in the previous academic year for gossip about Sarah.
Walking out of the class, he looked at the spectacled girl with a smile. "Seems like you still remember who I am, Gloria?" Adrian asked.
Gloria shrugged. "You know me. I chase a story. Past few months, you had no story, so I didn't chase you."
"And now I have a story on me?" Adrian asked with a chuckle.
Gloria took out a small notepad and nodded. "You are once again embroiled in the biggest story of the year in our school. I want to know everything about 'the' battle. The student council won't talk to me, so I can only turn to you, the raison d'etre of the incident." She explained as she adjusted her glasses with her index finger.
Adrian looked around himself to see a lot of people silently stopping to listen to the gossip. He coughed. "Not here. Let's go somewhere more quiet."
---
"So..." Adrian spoke in an exasperated manner. "The student council basically saved me. Cody had gone totally nuts." He explained without going into the details.
"Wow, tell me more about Lear's moves! What about Janice..." Gloria continued with sparkly eyes as she rapidly noted down information.
Adrian rolled his eyes at Gloria's eagerness. Just then, the two heard a slight cough. Gloria stopped to turn and found that it was Cran.
"Ugh..." Gloria stuttered.
"Gloria, I warned you not to irritate him, right?" Cran asked seriously.
"Ehh, I wasn't really irritating him. Was I Adrian?" She asked as she turned to look at Adrian with pleading eyes.
Adrian rolled his eyes again but shrugged. "Not really." He replied.
Cran ignored the play. "Gloria, there is a reason the incident is being gagged by the school. Investigations are still on going. Don't interfere in the matter again." He said seriously.
Gloria nodded with puppy eyes. Cran turned to Adrian. "Adrian, can you come to the student council room? We'd like to talk to you."
Adrian nodded and followed Cran, leaving the puppy eyed Gloria behind.
In the student council rom, Adrian saw the giant like body of Wheeler gorging on cale, while Trix seemed to be dancing around alone, like a crazy woman. Janice was relaxing on the couch, while Lear was sitting by the desk, looking at a few papers.
"Adrian" Lear spoke up with a smile when he noticed the entry of the two. "You've returned to school. I hope you are doing fine now?"
Adrian smiled back. "Yes, I'm doing fine. All thanks to you five for saving my life at that moment."
Lear shook his head. "It should be us thanking you. If you weren't immune to mental attacks and took action at the last moment that day, none of us would have survived."
Adrian smiled. He knew that Lear was being perfunctory. Adrian had no delusions about who saved whom that day. He guessed that the student council was given a high merit mission to protect him by the school, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
Lear's smile contracted as he changed topics. "I believe you've also been briefed by the Security Division? The Eucalyptus group managed to escape and even stole Cody's transformed corpse. For now, they've hushed the matter up completely. The school is only aware that Cody tried to attack you and that you were saved by us."
After Adrian left the room, Lear looked at Janice. Who had been eating oranges, but her eyes were thoughtful.
"He seems different." She said simply.
"What do you mean?" Lear asked.
"He seems... more confident?" Cran ventured.
Lear shrugged. "He's probably relieved that Cody has disappeared from his life? His father made a huge issue of the bullying with the school's board. Really hypocritical, considering he tacitly allowed it to continue till now."
Janice snorted. "You are still inside the school. Walls can also have ears." She warned.
Lear ignored Janice's verbal jab. "The Briggs conglomerate was sanctioned by the government for not cooperating with the Security Division, and Miles-Teller swooped in to wage an economic war and swallow the company. We almost lost our own lives as pawns in the interest of these adults indulgence."