First Generation Kindergarten

Daniel gave Chase a smile, seeing the deadly look in his eyes. He didn't think that Chase would be happy about being around Iris, but it was probably better to have two adults outside with the students. Especially one that could easily heal any injuries that might happen.

He looked at Aura, who was as excited as he had seen her that day, though there still wasn't much emotion. When Chase finished speaking, She nodded and said, "Thank you!" Before going back over to Mai.

Daniel looked back at Chase, still seeing that look of hate he had, which was almost disguised by his smile. "Don't worry, I doubt Iris will bother you much. Have fun at recess!"

Daniel walked to the edge of the cafeteria that led back to the hallway, where he stopped and waited for Mai and Aura.

^*^

Aura quickly walked over to Mai and pointed over toward the hallway. "Come on, they said it was okay! As long as we don't do it a lot, but we can go to a classroom with one of the teachers today."

Aura waited for Mai to follow her before she went back over to where the teacher was waiting for them. He stopped once in a room where Iris was sitting, quickly signing something to her. Iris nodded to him and smiled, signing something back to him before they continued down the hall.

She continued to follow him until they reached the first classroom that they had been in, which was still somewhat dark from the electric kid making the light bulbs break.

When the teacher entered the room, he let out a slight sigh and walked over to his desk. "Alright, you two wait here, I need to get some extra light bulbs. Don't forget that Morker is here watching, so don't do anything you're not supposed to." Daniel pointed over to his desk where a crow was perched, its feathers ruffled as it looked over at the two students.

The teacher walked over to a darker area of the room, where he quickly disappeared. Aura sat down at the back table, where she had sat down before, and looked at Mai. "See, it was definitely worth asking if we could stay in here instead of go to recess."

As soon as Aura finished talking, Daniel walked back from where he had disappeared, stepping out of the shadows like it was just another part of the room. He set down a box and pulled out a few light bulbs, stepping up onto a table to start replacing the broken ones.

"No, but she'll be there." Chase grumbled, watching Aura walk away towards Mai and both of them go after Daniel. He was glad that the girl had found someone that she could relate to, even if it was the other girl who looked like she wanted to blast everyone to bits with her purple elf magic.

Grumpily, at least on the inside, the teacher waited until Iris walked in before announcing to the students, "Okay! It's time for recess! Please don't everyone bolt out at once! I'm going to go in front of the group with Iris," he looked at the nurse for this, making sure she could read his lips, "at the back. Let's go!"

He grinned at the students and walked out of the door, leading them to the playground. Chase had just turned the corner when he saw something that made him stop mid-step. He whipped around to face Iris, ignoring his hate for a moment. "Get Daniel."

"Hey, who's that?" Alex darted away from the group and over to the boy that sat on the stump of a log, looking at the ground.

"Alex, come back!" Chase's voice rang out and the little girl stopped in her tracks, returning to the group as if in a trance. "Everyone else, stay here." He ordered, power leaking into his voice as he focused his attention on the strange boy.

His hair was pitch black against his paper-white skin and two earrings decorated his ears, one black and one white. Each of his hands, which were folded in his lap, had a burn with the markings 00 on the backs. His clothes were also entirely black and white. However, when Chase got close enough to see the boy's eyes, he started.

The boy's eyes were wrong. All wrong. Where it should have been white, the eye was black and instead the pupil and iris were pure white. White as snow.

Iris nodded when Chase told her to walk at the back of the group. She wasn't offended, knowing that she wasn't his favorite person in the world. She still wasn't happy with the way he treated her. It wasn't bad, but she could tell he didn't enjoy having her around.

Still, she went along with it, walking at the back of the group to make sure no kids were left behind. She wasn't exactly sure why the group stopped at first, but she could tell by the expression on Chase's face that something bad must have happened. She nodded in response to what he told her, turning to go and find Daniel.

She quickly made her way to his classroom and burst through the door. She looked around, first seeing the two students and then seeing him on one of the tables. He turned to her, about to say something, when his expression changed, seeing her frantic behavior.

Iris signed to him, her hands moving quickly as she tried to say that Chase was outside and there was something wrong but she didn't know what because she was at the back of the group and she left... Iris hadn't even noticed the confused look on Daniel's face until he grabbed her wrists to stop her and she saw him say, "I'm not that good at signing."

Iris nodded in understanding and pointed toward the way she had come. She hoped that it would be obvious that it had something to do with Chase and when he was taking the kids out to recess. Daniel pointed to the two students and started leaving the room. She wasn't sure if he said something or not because he wasn't facing her, but he was out the door. She looked at the two students and and smiled, trying to seem reassuring.

^*^

"You two stay here with Iris." Was the last thing Daniel said before he left the room. He started walking down the hallway, not sure where Chase was. From Iris' signing, he had understood that it had something to do with Chase and the students, but he wasn't sure if they were already outside or if something else had happened.

He walked down the hallway, passing through the empty cafeteria and then down another hallway, which led outside. He saw the group of students standing at the door and he carefully made his way through them.

When he was outside, Daniel saw Chase by another boy. At first, Daniel tried to determine which student it was, but he then realized that it wasn't a student. As he got closer, the different characteristics of the boy started to stand out. His eyes were what stood out the most.

It took Daniel a few seconds to recompose himself, but he looked from the boy to Chase. "I'll stay with the boy while you take the rest of the students to my classroom to stay with Iris. It might also be wise to contact Mr.(Whoever the head of the school is). He might know something about this. Has he said anything to you?"

Mai and Aura hadn't been in the classroom long, only a few minutes really, when the nurse, Iris, burst through the door, frantically waving her hands about at Daniel until he finally grabbed them. When she pointed towards the door, apparently he got the message because he turned around and instructed them to stay with Iris and bolted out.

"I wonder what the problem is." Mai said to Aura.

~~*~~

Chase watched the boy, who hadn't moved a muscle, until Daniel finally came out and he turned to him and shook his head. "Not a word. Hasn't even budged. he's just been staring at the ground. And the Director hasn't told me anything about this. I get the feeling he doesn't know because just before school started he contacted me and told me the number of students we would have and that he had to go away on an emergency."

Chase looked at the by against before looking at the students, all huddled in one group and straining to see what the adults were blocking. "I'll bring them inside." He said, striding over to them and ushering them into the school building.

~~*~~

The boy didn't move at all, staring at the ground. He knew that the other kids had gone away and that the one adult had been replaced by another. With a sudden, sharp movement as if he were stiff, the boy turned his head and stared straight at the adult. "Who are you?" He asked quietly.

Daniel watched Chase lead the other students back into the building. He saw a movement out of the corner on his eye and looked down at the boy. The boy was then staring up at him and Daniel heard him quietly ask, "Who are you?"

Daniel cleared his throat, trying not to seem to uncomfortable. He crouched down next to the boy, making it so they were at the same height. "My name is Daniel and I'm a teacher here. What's your name?"

^*^

Iris was sitting at one of the tables at the front of the class, glancing every once in a while toward Mai and Aura to make sure they weren't doing anything bad. They were just sitting there talking to each other, though. When Iris wasn't looking at the students or at the ground, she was also glancing up at the door, wanting to know what had been going on.

She stood up when she saw the students walk into the room, followed by Chase. She walked quickly toward him, signing, "What's going on?" and hoping that he would understand what she was trying to say. And that he would actually tell her what he knew.

^*^

Aura sat quietly for a moment, feeling uneasy every time Iris would glance over at them. Aura was about to ask, "What do you think is going on?" When the other students walked into the room.

A few of them looked confused and Aura guessed they didn't actually see what had happened. Whatever it had been. It took her a moment to bring herself to speak to them, but after a moment, she asked, "Hey, what happened?"

One of the students, Joey, turned to her and looked at her as if it was the first time he had seen either of the students sitting at the table. He hesitated before answering. "Well... I didn't really see for that long. But there was some strange kid outside. Just sitting there. I don't think they knew who he was."

The boy remained perfectly still as the teacher crouched down to his eight, nothing moving except for his eyes that followed him. After a moment, his head followed. He didn't answer for a long time, just studying the man before him with an expressionless face. A long stretch of time later, he frowned, white lips turning down slightly.

"My name?" He said it softly, casting his gaze back to the hands upturned in his lap, as if he didn't know. Almost as an afterthought, he turned one of his hands over, exposing a dark purple-black burn mark that faded into his skin and formed the shape of two zeros. "Zero." He said suddenly. "My name. Zero."

~~*~~

Hatred forgotten between himself and Iris for the moment, Chase said distractedly, "There's a kid out there. I don't even know where he came from. We have no idea who he is." He shivered slightly when he recalled the boy's eyes. "And he's strange. Definitely a supernatural."

Daniel waited patiently as the boy took his time to answer. He was in no rush to go back inside and he wasn't even sure if taking the boy inside was the best idea. The kid seemed... Different. And Daniel didn't want the other students to crowd around him and start questioning him.

When he finally did answer, Daniel saw that he had flipped his hands over to show the marks that made zeros. They looked like burns, but he couldn't be sure. Daniel also couldn't help but think he had a strange name. It fit him though. Everything about the situation was odd.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Zero." Daniel glanced back toward the door, hoping that Chase would be think to just start class if he wasn't back right away. Or maybe come looking if he didn't come back at all. He had no clue what Zero was capable of. "Where are you from, Zero?"

^*^

Iris tilted her head to the side after Chase had talked. A strange kid outside? That didn't even seem like it was possible, or at least the odds of that happening were very low.

She thought about signing more to Chase, asking him if she should go out there or if he wanted her to stay in the room with the kids. However, she decided against those choices. Instead, she moved back to the front of the room where she had been and sat down in one of the empty chairs as the students went about the room, talking and playing like it was still recess.

Zero fell silent for a moment, this time shorter than he had before. His gaze remained on the burn mark of his single, upturned hand. "I..." his voice faltered, "...don't know." He turned his other hand over, revealing an identical set of burn marks.

His eyes widened and he looked up to Daniel. "They left me. They left me here and they aren't coming back."

His strange eyes flickered to the side suddenly and he got up, darting behind Daniel's shoulder. Zero's hands gripped the teacher's shirt as he said quietly, "The voice man is coming."

Just as he said it, Chance rounded the corner and stopped a few yards away, a cautious expression written on his face. "Have you found out anything about him?"

Daniel waited patiently again for the boy to answer. He glanced over his shoulder once or twice, seeing if Chance or maybe Iris was going to come back out to check on the situation. After the second glance, he assumed that class had started again. As Zero answered him, Daniel noticed that he had also turned his other hand over to show an identical mark.

Daniel stared at the two marks, wondering who would put them there. Obviously it had been on purpose, not an accident. Then the boy sounded slightly panicked as he talked again, his eyes widening a bit. Daniel was going to make an attempt to comfort him when Zero's eyes suddenly looked toward the building and he moved to behind Daniel.

Daniel looks curiously at Zero for a moment after he mentioned the voice man, then turned to see Chance walking around the corner. Daniel stayed crouched for a moment longer until Chance spoke to him. He stood up, staying slightly in front of Zero and wondering why Zero had seemed scared of Chance.

"He says that someone left him here and aren't coming back... I'm not sure if he means his parents, but that's all he said. Oh, and his name is Zero." He glanced down at the boy, who was still behind him gripping the bottom of his shirt.

As Chase rounded the corner, he was instantly drawn to Zero's eyes. He shivered slightly, muttering something about how creepy they were under his breath before noticing what the boy was clinging to. His eyes travelled up until they reached Daniel's grey eyes. He couldn't help but grin. "Well, at least that's news Mother Duck."

He took a few steps closer before stopping when he saw the boy's -Zero's - hands clench harder on his friend's shirt. "He seems scared of me but he's attached to you - quite literally in this case." Chase observed aloud. Not wanting to scare him further, Chase bent down on his knee to get closer to Zero's height.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. Neither of us are" He spoke softly, letting some of his power trickle into his voice in order to make the boy calm down. Instead, it seemed to have the opposite effect.

"Bad, bad. Voice man controls people. Daniel teacher safe." Zero said frantically, shaking slightly as he pretty much buried his hands into Daniel's shirt.

"Maybe it's best if you talk to him." Chase suggested. "It seems you've made an attachment with him." He noticed the marks on his paper white hands. "What are those?"

Daniel glanced down at Zero again, still wondering why he didn't like Chase. Sure, Daniel wasn't too fond of being controlled occasionally for Chase's amusement, but he didn't dislike him. He looked back up at Chase and raised his eyebrow at the 'mother duck' comment, but didn't say anything.

When Chase spoke directly to Zero, even he could hear the soothing tone in it, but it didn't seem to work. Zero only cowered more. Daniel could feel him shaking as Zero held on to his shirt.

Daniel didn't even have to see what Chase was looking at to know what he was talking about. The marks on his hands. Daniel crouched down again next to Zero, turning slightly so he was facing Zero, but could also easily look at Chase.

"Zero, could I please see the marks on one of your hands?" Daniel's voice was soft as he held out his hand to look at Zero's hand, hoping that Zero wouldn't be afraid or unwilling to show the marks in front of him or Chase.

"Voice man bad." Zero whispered softly. "Voice like them. Daniel teacher safe." When Daniel started kneeling down, Zero panicked at the movement and leaned away from him before resuming his original position once he had stopped, realizing that he wasn't doing anything against him.

Zero cocked his head to the side when Daniel asked the question, not moving for a minute or two before lifting his hand and placing it into Daniel's, exposing the purple-black markings clearly to him.

Daniel smiled at Zero as he placed his hand in Daniel's. He looked at the marks more closely, seeing that his first guess was right. They looked like burn marks, but it still didn't make sense. "I'm pretty sure they're burn marks, but they couldn't have been an accident."

He glanced over at Chase as he spoke and then looked back at Zero. "Do you remember how you got these? Or why you got them?"

Zero's hand curled in Daniel's until it was a fist, the back still facing up as he looked down at the ground. "T...They did it. They said...I was first. The first. They burn me. Call me Zero. Horrible horrible HORRIBLE!" He let out a scream, jerking away from Daniel and turned, only managing to run a few steps before crumpling to his knees and clasping his hands to his head.

Chase watched with widened eyes and lurched forwards towards the boy, jolting to a stop when he started screaming again.

"Voices voices VOICES! BAD BAD BAD! HORRIBLE HORRIBLE VOICES!" He shrieked, grabbing handfuls of his night black hair into his hands, his eyes jammed shut.

Nearby, the wind picked up a little, swirling into a cyclone as the air around it began to darken.

"CONTROL CONTROL ZERO ZERO!" With each shriek, the wind picked up stronger and the air darkened until it was a grey color in the definitive shape of a sphere.

Daniel tilted his head slightly to the side at what Zero was saying. Who were 'they' and why did they do this to him? He was only a child.

He stood up when Zero let out a scream and ran a few steps away before falling. He saw Chase begin to move forward, but then stop when Zero yelled more. Daniel watched closely as he felt, and even saw, the wind begin to pick up. A certain spot even began to grow darker, swirling together to form something new.

At first, he wasn't sure what it was, but the air began to grow darker and became a sphere. Daniel looked toward Chase and then back to Zero, wondering what exactly they could do to stop whatever it was Zero was making happen.

After a moments hesitation, Daniel began to move toward Zero. When he reached Zero, he crouched down beside him, not touching him though. He remembered how nervous Zero had been when Daniel had asked to see his marks.

He spoke softly, like he had before, but still loud enough to be heard over the noise of the wind. Whatever he was forming was becoming stronger and Daniel was afraid of what it might do to the school and the other students.

"Zero... You need to try to stop this. Don't think about anything else, just breathe deeply. Focus on making this stop." Daniel hoped that what he was saying was actually getting through to Zero. He really had no clue how to stop Zero's power if Zero couldn't do it himself.

The sphere was getting darker every second, beginning to suck in air around it like a vacuum when Daniel started speaking, his voice cutting through the storm in Zero's mind. At first, he didn't even process the words, but only the tone in which Daniel spoke.

Daniel safe. Daniel will protect. Zero's mind echoed the first coherent words before registering the rest of what Daniel had said. Stop stop stop stop stop stop stop.

With jerky movements, he flung himself at the man, wrapping his small, thin arms around one of Daniel's larger ones. Daniel safe Daniel safe Daniel safe.

As Zero began to calm down, the wind began to get calmer as well, the sphere no longer sucking it in. After a few minutes, it faded completely and everything turned back to normal.

Daniel had stopped even looking at what Zero was creating. As he talked, he could tell that it was still getting worse. He could feel the wind begin to change again as it was being forced toward the sphere that Zero had created.

All while he was thinking about the sphere, he didn't stop talking. He kept his voice calm and steady, thinking that if he started to panic, it would only make things worse with Zero.

Then Zero suddenly flung himself at Daniel, making him stop what he was saying and look up at what Zero had created. He saw that it was going away, the wind no longer as strong as it had been. When it was completely gone, he let out a long breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

He looked at Zero, who was attached to his arm and then looked over his shoulder at Chase. "I don't think we should ask him any more questions about his past... For now, at least. Agreed?"

Chase watched with widened eyes at Zero's creation as it grew and then shrank as Daniel talked to him. It had been like a vacuum, sucking in the air around it. If it had been any bigger, it probably would have began sucking in physical objects.

Like a black hole.

"Agreed." He said, voice slightly shaky.

The teacher looked at the boy again, clinging to Daniel's arm. "I don't think it would be a good idea to separate him from you either. I don't know why, but you've made an impact on him. It's almost as if he sees you as his parent. Doesn't seem like the people who had him last even remotely cared about him."

He thought for a second before adding, "What do you think he meant by the first? Do you think there are more like him?"

Zero didn't seem to be even paying attention to what they said anymore, his eyes screwed shut as he clung to Daniel's arm like it was the only thing rooting him to Earth.

It was clear that Zero was determined to stay attached to Daniel's arm, so instead of trying to get up, Daniel simply sat down in the grass next to Zero. He rubbed his eyes with one hand as he listened to what Chase was saying.

He nodded along, agreeing with what Chase was saying. It didn't seem like a good idea to separate them, especially after seeing the reaction that Zero had had when he saw Chase. "Yeah, he can stay with me."

When Chase asked his last question, Daniel looked up at him, moving his hand down from his eyes to over his mouth while he thought. After a moment of thought, he shrugged and dropped his hand from his face. "I'n not sure what he meant. If there are others like him, then they aren't that old. He said he was the first."

He looked down at Zero again before continuing his conversation with Chase. "Do you think we should keep him separate from the other students?"

Chase nodded. "I wonder just how many there are...and why 'they' left him here." He used his fingers to put quotation marks around the word. "And I don't think it would be a good idea for the other kids to see him. They may begin asking questions and he could have another meltdown. I don't really want to think about what would happen."

He wasn't sure what he had seen, but after thinking about it for a split-second, he decided to explain it to Daniel. "I'm not sure if you saw what he was creating or not, but I don't think it was good. It was powerful, I can tell you that much. And it began sucking in the air around it when it became darker. I'm not sure what it could be."

The teacher looked down at the strange little boy again to find him limp against Daniel's arm. "Did...did he actually fall asleep? After that episode? On you? Geez you really are the Mother Duck."

Daniel stayed sitting on the ground as Chase spoke, still looking up at him and nodding along with everything he said, somewhat lost in his own thoughts while still listening to what Chase had to say.

Daniel nodded again, this time actually seeming to be paying attention to what Chase had said about what Zero was creating. "I didn't see it. Honestly, I tried to ignore it, but I did feel it. The air, I mean, being sucked into it. It may have been something like a black hole, which we would definitely want to avoid in the future..."

When Chase pointed out the fact that Zero was asleep, something that Daniel had failed to notice, he looked down at the boy passed out against his arm. "Can you blame him? I think that was more stressful for him than it was for either of us."

Daniel stood up, picking up Zero as he did so he wouldn't wake up. "It's probably better if he's asleep anyway. I'll take him into Iris' room and leave him there to sleep, she should be able to look after him. I'm not sure if I'll be able to stay with him all the time, though. That might become a problem if he can't trust anyone else."

"Who knows who he'll take a liking to? I mean, he obviously didn't like my awesome self." Chase remarked, trying to lighten the mood a little. After a moment though, he went back to frowning. "I don't know. You could probably stick Morker in there with him. Since he bonded so well with you, I'm sure he would bond with that demon crow as well."

He stared at the black and white child for a minute before sighing. "Maybe once he wakes up again, we could even introduce him to the kids one by one. He might suddenly decide he trusts one of them, which would help a lot during the school day because they would be able to help keep him calm."

Daniel started walking in the direction of the school after Chase had finished speaking, carrying Zero with him. "Alright, then I'll leave him with Iris and Morker and we can get back to class. Hopefully that was the worst that will happen today..."

They entered the school building and Daniel made his way to the nurse's room. He laid Zero down on the table and sat down in a chair in the corner. "I'll join you after Iris gets back to watch him, Chase. Also, have her bring Morker."

Daniel sighed when Chase was gone and rubbed his eyes again. He really did hope nothing else would go wrong. At least for the rest of the week.

"Oh sure, leave me to get the deaf witch...." Chase grumbled, walking out of the room to go and get Iris. Of course, he knew why he had to be the one. If Zero woke up and it was him in the room instead of Daniel, who knows what kind of meltdown he would have.

Why doesn't he like me...I mean, what's not to like? He thought, smiling slightly to himself before composing himself as he walked into Daniel's classroom. Instantly he was greeted to the sight of a bunch of supernatural kid's stares and one supernatural deaf nurse. He jerked his thumb out the door. "Daniel needs you. And he wants you to bring the demon-er, Morker too. Where is the thing anyway?"

He did a quick sweep through the room to find the crow over near the silver haired girl. Alex, if he remembered correctly, and the one who could shift. Figures she could talk to animals too.

Iris had been watching the door, waiting for Daniel or Chase to come back. She stood up straighter when Chase entered the room, wanting an explanation, but only getting orders.

Instead of signing something to him, which would have been pointless anyway, she let out a quick whistle and held out her arm. Morker cawed as he hopped to the edge of the table and then glided smoothly to perch on Iris' arm.

After she had Morker, she left the room and quickly made her way to her own office. When she entered the room, she first saw Daniel, Morker leaving her arm to land on his shoulder. Then she saw the boy laying on her table. Daniel simply stroked Morker's feathers, as if nothing strange was going on.

After a moment though, he began signing, and saying because his signing was not that impressive, "Chase found him outside, I talked to him, Chase came back, he panicked and started to create a black hole type thing, but I got him to calm down and then he fell asleep. I need you and Morker to watch him until he wakes up because he apparently doesn't trust just anyone."

After Daniel finished speaking, he tapped the table with his fingers and looked at Morker, "Stay here, Iris might need your help." The bird hopped down from his shoulder and he walked out the door, turning and saying, "Thank you very much for this."

He went quickly back to the classroom, opening the door and seeing all the students and Chase. "Well, did I miss anything exciting in here?"