First Generation Kindergarten

"Mr. Daniel, why did Morker have to leave? He was about to teach me how to fly!" Alex whined, darting to the teacher's side as soon as he stepped into the room, tugging on his hand.

Chase looked up from his computer. "Apart from having Alex here keep asking why Morker had to go away, you didn't miss much. Oh, but Mai did create another hole in the classroom, this time the ceiling. Apparently a pencil lost control magically and flew through the roof surrounded by purple mist and she didn't do it. Or she's not saying she did anyway. How's the little monster doing? Still sleeping, I hope."

He didn't want another incident like the one that happened outside. Since they were inside now, he didn't know what would happen if a black hole was made, especially with other kids around that would probably run towards it. Well, not all of them. But some of them definitely would. And he did not want to lose kids on the first day.

Maybe, like, the second week would be okay to lose a couple students. Maybe. Give or take a month.

"Flying is a lot to learn on your first day here. Maybe he can teach you another day, but he needed to go keep Iris company right now."

Daniel looked up at the small hole in the ceiling and then glanced at Mai, but didn't say anything to her. She was only sitting quietly next to Aura, like the two had been doing all day. No sense in making her feel bad about using her powers.

Daniel faced Chase again when he asked about Zero. "He is asleep for now, but I don't know how long that will last. Right now, we might as well continue with what we had planned next." Turning to the class, he raised his voice a little so everyone could hear him. "Everyone take your seats and Chase will explain what we will be doing next."

He walked to the front of the room and leaned against he front of his desk, looking at Chase to begin speaking.

"But I wanted to learn to fly no-owww." Alex whined before releasing the teacher's hand and sulking away, unintentionally changing into a duck that looked suspiciously like the sad Ugly Duckling as she padded back to her desk.

The dragon twins had been talking enthusiastically with Liz, Joey, and Ryan, but at Daniel's request they broke off their conversation and went to their seats, inseparable as always. They always did everything together, Chase had already noted. The siblings' feet moved at the same time, like a military march, and they even took their seats at the same time. If it hadn't been for the bracelets around their wrists, the teacher was sure he wouldn't have been able to tell them apart.

"That's good." Chase said, shaking his head from his thoughts before turning to the class. "Because of recent...circumstances...the schedule for today has changed slightly. We have worked on trying to control your powers, but now I want you to get together and talk about them instead. Try and think of what you want to do with them in the future, how it could work in subtle ways to benefit others without completely revealing the nature. Maybe even think of some things that you hope to be able to do. For example, maybe the twins want to see if they can change into a full dragon, or Joey can travel through light sockets and telephone wires - don't try that yet. Group up!"

As everyone went to get in their groups, Chase sat down to watch. Fifteen or twenty minutes had probably passed when he got a bad feeling. "Crap." He muttered before looking at Daniel. "I think something's happened with the little monster. Maybe he woke up." He paused for a second before adding, "What are we going to do with him? He doesn't have a home to go to..." He trailed off before nodding in the direction of the door. He could think about it on the way.

Daniel watched as the students began to split up, Seeing Joey turn eagerly to Ryan and start talking to him. He heard Joey's excited, and quite loud, voice clearly over the talking of the other students. "I didn't even think I could travel through electricity! That would be so cool! I want to be able to control it without causing things to blow up... What do you want to do with your powers, Blaze?" Daniel noticed that Joey had used the nickname 'Blaze' instead of Ryan's real name, which he remembered Ryan's step sister saying no to do.

Liz moved from her seat over to where the twins were sitting. She seemed a little shy, but was as nice as she had been all day. Daniel doubted he would ever see her act rude or angry. She smiled at them as she sat down beside one of them, though she couldn't really tell which one. "What do you two want to do with your powers?"

Lastly, Daniel noticed that two students hadn't moved at all. Aura and Mai were still sitting next to each other at the back of the class. He wasn't sure if they had even said anything since the assignment had started, but at least they were near each other and not being completely anti-social. Then Aura said something in a quiet voice that he would have completely missed if he hadn't been listening. "I don't want to hurt people with my powers anymore..." Then there was silence again from the back of the room.

As he observed all of this, Daniel had started to zone out, simply listening to the different discussions. He turned his head sharply when Chase spoke, as if he had been snapped out of a trance. Daniel stopped leaning on his desk and looked toward the door when Chase said something about Zero. "I suppose I should go see how Iris is doing with him..."

After saying that, Daniel simply melted into the shadow under his desk and disappeared from the room.

^*^

After Zero had been put into her room, Iris had gone about her business, organizing some things in her office and sorting through files of the students, taking some time to read through each of them.

After Morker had come into the room, he perched at the top of the bed that Zero was laying on. He kept an eye on the boy and when he started to wake up, Morker hopped down onto the bed next to him and cawed at him, tilting his head to the side in a curious way.

Ryan practically exploded out of his seat at the nickname. Someone had called him that. He had an overwhelming urge to plant a foot on his desk like he had killed a mighty beast and shout it to the high heavens, but for once he refrained. if he did so, his sister would just glare at him, and he didn't like it when that happened.

"I want to be able to light myself on fire and SCORCH THE BONES OF MY ENEMIES!" His voice had started off normal but all of a sudden raised to a shout as he spread his hands to the ceiling. Ice suddenly covered him and he looked down to see his sister glaring at him across the room and he scowled, lowering his hands again. "I mean I want to be able to protect people." He said almost grudgingly.

The ice vanished.

~~*~~

"Well-" one twin, Jazz, began.

"Like what Mr. Chase said-" the other, Jaza, interrupted.

"We think it would be pretty cool to learn how to turn into a dragon." Both twins said at the same time.

They shook their heads. "But that's probably-" Jaza started before her brother took over and said, "impossible. So right now maybe,"

"Maybe we could learn how to control our fire-breathing." Jaza said.

"And definitely the flying."

"Yes, yes, the flying."

"And it would really help-"

"If we could control when we get our episodes." Jazz finished, referring to the attacks they got where they transformed partially.

As if on cue, Jaza's skin suddenly became laced with scales and her eyes became bright yellow. Her teeth and nails also sharpened and her voice was raspy when she spoke, although she continued like normal. "What about you?"

"What would you like to do?" Jazz spoke again, looking at Liz.

~~*~~

"I don't know what I want to do with mine." Mai said in an equally quiet voice. Her and Aura were one and the same, with powers that were way too powerful for them to handle. Both were too easy to lose control. Even by looking at a loose sheet of paper on a desk, it glowed faintly of purple and fluttered in an imaginary wind.

She quickly looked away. "I can't...I can't control it. And when I try, I lose it. Someone could have died today if they weren't already dead."

Mai shook her green hair suddenly and fell silent. She had begun to feel her face mold into self-pity and pain but immediately straightened it back into emotionless again.

~~*~~

Zero's black and white eyes blinked open suddenly and he shot straight up into a sitting position. It was a room. He was in a room. It was a small room. The walls began closing in on him and his breathing became shallow and fast. Only when he whipped his head to the side, trying to look for a place to escape did he notice the crow sitting next to him.

He cocked his head at the bird in a similar fashion, studying it. After an eternity, he whispered, "Daniel bird? Daniel bird?" His snow white hand reached out to touch the crow and when one of his fingers touched the down feather's of the crow's back, his eyebrows furrowed. "Daniel." He said, confirming it to himself.

He kept his finger on the bird's back and after several seconds, his other fingers twitched before resting on the crow's back. "Black. Black bird black black Daniel bird." Zero said to himself. "Bird black, Daniel?"

Joey hardly noticed when Ryan had started speaking so loudly, then again, it was the normal volume for when Joey spoke. Then he saw the ice form around Ryan and he looked in the direction that Ryan had started glaring, seeing the girl that he was looking at. His Step sister.

When Ryan sat back down, Joey spoke quietly, as if he was telling Ryan a secret. "You know, if you could do that, I mean scorching enemies, then you could protect people. You would be like a super hero, or something!"

Joey jumped up out of his chair. "And then I could be one too! I would zap the bad guys with my powers!" Joey pointed around the room as if it were full of back guys that he was zapping. As he did this, a current of blue electricity jumped from the light bulb of the lamp on Daniel's desk, connecting with Joey's fingers.

Joey let out a small yelp of surprise and quickly sat back down as the electricity disappeared, leaving a surprised Joey and yet another broken light bulb. "But yeah, that would be cool..."

^*^

Liz looked back and forth between the twins as they spoke together and finished each other's sentences. It reminded her of earlier in the day when they had first met.

She blinked when one of the twins suddenly changed, seeming to begin changing into a dragon at the perfect moment in the conversation.

Liz was still surprised at the sight when they asked her what she wanted to do. She had to think about it a moment. "Well... I'm dead. So there isn't really much I can do for this world. I mean, you're all alive..."

She had never really thought about how she wanted to help people. The most she had done was watched people and observed how time had changed since she had been alive.

"Maybe I can help dead people? Sometimes I meet other ghosts, but I don't think they know that they are ghosts. Usually I find them in old houses and buildings, but its really hard to talk to them when they don't even know they're dead."

Liz looked at the ground for a moment then back at the twins, wondering if they even understood what she was saying. It was hard for living people to understand ghosts sometimes. "You know?"

^*^

Aura stared at the desk in front of her and glanced sideways at Mai as she spoke. "I guess we just need to learn control. Then the world would be better off..."

Aura sat in silence for a moment, thinking about what they wanted. The both wanted to accomplish the same goals and it seemed like it was impossible. Both of them were afraid of hurting others.

Then Aura thought of something that she thought might make Mai feel better. "You know... I'm not afraid of you. I mean, I don't think that you're going to hurt me. And maybe, you have more control than you think. You did hit the dead person, right? In a room full of alive people, you chose the only dead one to aim for... That's gotta count for something."

^*^

The bird cawed and hopped slightly when the boy suddenly sat up, but he stayed on the bed. Iris turned to watch what was happening, seeing Morker move out of the corner of her eye.

When Zero touched Morker, Morker cawed one more time, but didn't move. Instead he tilted his head to the other side in a confused manner, not sure what the boy was doing.

As this happened, Daniel opened the door to Iris' office. Seeing the door open, Iris turned her head to see who was entering. "It is awfully bright in here, Iris, you might want to do something about that." Iris simply rolled her eyes at the comment and began to sign to him, making sure to go a little slower so he could keep up.

This is my office and I won't make it dark and depressing just for you! Zero just woke up and he seems to like Morker.

Daniel looked at the two on the bed and chuckled slightly, seeing Morker's reaction to what Zero was doing, though he thought it seemed a little odd too. "Hello Zero."

Ryan punched the air with his fist, speaking fast with excitement after watching another lightbulb explode into fragments. "That was awesome! How did you do that with such control? Hey, maybe we could be superheroes together! But no sidekicks or anything. Those are just lame." In his excitement, his hair had caught on fire and was flickering upwards in flames. The heat didn't faze him in the slightest and it was like he didn't even notice it there at all.

~~*~~

"Can you appear to humans?" Jaza asked.

"Like, become tangible?" Jazz said after his sister.

"Because if you could-"

"Then you could probably do-"

"Psychology." Jaza finished the sentence for the two. "And where better to hear it-"

"Than from someone who actually died themselves?"

Jaza's voice was still raspy sounding, but the scales and claws had begun to fade slightly everywhere but her face, which remained dragon-esque.

"But ghosts are really cool too!"

"We've never seen a ghost-" Jaza began.

"But we don't believe the stories about them."

"After all, you're here and not killing us right?" Both of them spoke, cocking their heads in opposite directions in unison.

~~*~~

Mai looked up at Aura, allowing a sliver of shock to flash across her features. "You're..not scared of me." It was phrased like a statement, but there was an underlying question, as well as doubt. "But...anyone of the accidents today could have easily been you. With the notebook, the ball, and then the pencil. And I don't even know what else I can do. What if our powers aren't finished?"

She fell silent again before whispering, "You know, I'm not scared of you either. Your power is pretty cool. After all, it doesn't randomly try to kill others at least."

~~*~~

Black black bird Daniel black Daniel bird black. The words kept playing over in Zero's mind until he heard a door open and his head snapped to it. His eyes stayed locked in front of him, so he had to physically move his entire head to look.

As soon as he saw the familiar figure of the teacher, he scrambled off the bed and over to him. "Daniel teacher black Daniel." Zero clamped down on the tall man's leg before pointing to the crow. "Daniel bird black bird safe. Black Daniel safe."

Joey looked at the ground in embarrassment, not wanting to admit that it was a complete accident and he was lucky no one had been in the way of the current.

As Ryan talked about being superheros together, Joey tried to smooth down his hair, which had started standing up again from the static. As he did this, he noticed that Ryan had started to catch fire.

"Well if we're going to be superheros, then we need cool names. You're already Blaze, but I don't have a name. What's a good name for me? And not Sparky! That was my dog's name and I don't want to be named after a dog!"

^*^

"I can't really look like a real person... It takes too much energy. And some of the ghost stories are real. And the tv shows! Not all of them, but I can tell which ones are fake. Some ghosts are pretty mean too..."

Liz thought for a moment about what they were saying, the part about never seeing ghosts. "If you want to see more ghosts, I can take you to a place that has lots. Its an old abandoned factory, I went there once, but I didn't stay long. My parents get worried when I'm gone for too long. Do you want me to take you there?"

^*^

Aura gave Mai the slightest of smiles, one that would have been missed by someone who wasn't looking for it. "It could have been me, but it wasn't. I don't think it was an accident. Besides, if someone gets hurt, Iris can heal them."

Aura's mood seemed to change at the last thing that Mai said. While it was a compliment, Aura seemed to grow more serious. "As long as I don't touch anyone, my powers are fine... So I guess I have some control."

Aura seemed to think for a moment about what she had just said and about what Mai had said before. "You know... I think we might actually be able to learn control." It was the most optimistic Aura had ever been about anything, which wasn't really saying much about their situation.

^*^

When Zero left the bed, Morker hopped back, spreading his wings and seeming offended that the attention had been drawn away from him. Daniel looked down at Zero and cleared his throat, looking back up at Iris, who just shrugged.

Daniel crouched down so he was closer to eye level with Zero to talk to him. "Zero..." He sighed slightly, not really sure what he was going to say. He didn't have a plan on what to do with Zero. "If I leave again, are you going to be okay here with Iris and Morker?"

As he heard his name, Morker glided down from the bed and landed next to Zero, looking up at him and cocking his head to the side like he had done before.

Joey's question made Ryan sit still in his seat for longer than he ever had before, which totaled up to the grand number of about five seconds before he started bouncing up and down again, his hair remaining on fire. The good part was that it hadn't spread to his clothes yet, so it was fine.

He looked around the room, trying to figure out a good name when he noticed Joey's hair beginning to stick up in any which way as a result from electricity coursing through it.

"Ooh, ooh, what about Tastic! Wait, no, stait. No stratis..." Ryan's eyes squinted as he tried to think of the word, becoming annoyed with himself. As his temper grew, so did the flames on his head because they were soon eating at the fabric of his shirt, turning the edges black.

In an instant, Chase was there trying to pat the fire out. "Static?" He suggested.

Ryan's eyes lit up. "Static! Yeah! Blaze and Static!"

~~*~~

Both of the twins' jaws dropped and they turned to each other, not talking, but seeming to have an entire conversation with their eyes and then turned back as Jasmine's dragon features finally faded away.

"That would be-" Jazz said.

"Amazing!" Jaza finished. Both of them were already incredibly excited, trembling at the thought of meeting real ghosts. "Can all ghosts-"

"Fly like you can? Or-"

"Touch objects in real life like you?"

~~*~~

If Mai hadn't looked up, she would have completely missed the small smile that came on Aura's face. She felt her own mouth relax, as though it had been tense before, but didn't smile. She hadn't for a long time. Not since she had been found anyway. Her 'mother' always told her that it was unnatural for a child her age to not smile, but she always responded with 'I'm not natural.' before her mother would give up.

"Yeah. Maybe." Mai agreed, but her voice was doubtful, like she didn't believe it for a second. Which she didn't. Her powers were like a curse.

~~*~~

Zero looked over at Iris, his face confused as if just seeing her. Had she always been there? Where had she come from? Before long, he became uninterested in the woman, but didn't retaliate towards her. Instead, he acted as if she hadn't been there at all.

"Daniel black bird safe." Zero said, lowering himself until he was standing on only his toes with his knees bent before him. His head mimicked the crow's. "Black Morker bird safe. Safe safe safe." His hand reached out like it had before, going closer to Morker with every inch before he poked the bird on his beak. Abruptly he stood back up, grabbing Daniel's hand and tugging him back over to the bed. With jerky, unsure movements, Zero clambered up onto the bed and curled up into an almost inhumanly tight ball. "Protect safe Daniel teacher, bird black Morker." He whispered to himself before shutting his eyes again. He wasn't asleep but he was as still as a statue.

Joey tilted his head to the side, not really sure what Ryan was trying to suggest. His eyes grew a little wider when the flame started to grow and he wasn't sure what he should do. Thankfully, Chase was there to put the fire out.

"Static..." Joey seemed to think about the name for a second before starting to get a little more excited about it. "Yeah... I like that name! That's a great superhero name!"

He bounced up and down in his seat. "We're going to be awesome when we learn to control our powers!"

Joey looked at Chase after saying this. "When are we going to start learning about our powers?"

^*^

Liz looked back and forth between the twins as they talked. "Well... Most of the ghosts I've met are either too far gone to make as much contact as I have. I'm pretty far gone too, but I never really settled down in the graveyard, so I'm not stuck there.

"There are also ghosts that don't really know they're dead. Those ones don't talk any sense, though..."

Liz thought for a moment, as if she was trying to think of what kind of ghosts there would be at the factory. It had been a while since she had visited it. "I don't really remember what kind of ghosts I met at the factory, but it was cool I think."

^*^

Aura didn't respond to what Mai said. There wasn't really an appropriate response and she didn't feel like Mai really needed one anyway. Instead, Aura looked around the room at the other students.

They were all chattering excitedly about different things. Aura was sad for a moment, wanting to experience that. Being excited about something with an equally excited friend. But then she realized that she wouldn't be able to do that. Not when she had to distance herself from everyone. It was just too dangerous and she didn't want to risk it.

^*^

Morker watched the boy suspiciously as his hand reached toward him. When Zero suddenly poked his beak, Morker hopped backwards and cawed at him.

Daniel let himself be pulled by the boy, unsure what exactly he was trying to accomplish. When the boy laid down and curled up, Daniel looked uncertainly at Iris, who simply shrugged her shoulders in an 'I don't know either' kind of way.

"Um... Zero. I need to go back to the rest of the class... Would you be alright if I left you here with Morker and Iris? I won't be gone long."

Daniel hoped that this wouldn't upset Zero too much and he would ask Zero to go back to the class with him, but he wasn't sure if that would be the best, or safest, choice.

Ryan had to resist standing up and grabbing a curtain to tie around his neck like Batman, but it was taking all his might. That is, until Joey asked Chase when they were going to start learning.

"Yeah, when are we going to? This is school, right? Aren't we supposed to learn?"

Chase raised an eyebrow. Kids that actually wanted to learn. That was a new one for him everyday. Though not all kids were magic, in a magic school to learn magic, so there was that. They still lived in a world where the government worked tirelessly to try and find their school so they could harness the raw power of these kids.

He shuddered just at the thought. However, when he began talking, his voice as was cheery as ever. "Don't you worry! We'll be beginning to learn how to control your powers soon enough, but it's almost time for school to be over, so you just have fun and talk with the others until your parents come to pick you up. They should be coming within the hour!"

~~*~~

"Wow, that's-" Jazz began before his sister took over.

"Really cool! They can all fly,-"

"Right? Because maybe-"

"We can learn a thing or two!" They both simultaneously turned their heads to look at their wings, which were out at the moment. The dark green scales shimmered under the light.

"It seems like we'll never be able to fly." They sighed together.

"But Mary says they're growing-"

"So maybe we'll fly soon!"

~~*~~

"Morker black bird good!" Zero's eyes suddenly opened and his mouth stretched into a grin. "Good good good!" His white hand reached out and rested lightly on the crow's back, his fingers curling slightly into the soft black feathers. His skin seemed to glow against the crow's dark color, the burns on the back of his hand contrasting greater.

"Bird bird bird good good good!" He almost sang the words, smiling at Daniel brightly, like a kid at Christmas. Any recollection of the incident of the black hole was gone from his memory for the moment.

Joey looked a little sad when Chase said 'soon enough' instead of 'right now!' like he had been expecting.

His sadness didn't last that long, though, and he looked at Ryan again. "I'm gonna go home and practice my powers! Mom is always funny when I try to practice my powers, but she doesn't ever yell at me! She just tries to figure out how to turn the lights back on..."

He thought about the last thing he said, but shrugged, already making plans on what he was going to practice and how.

"We're gonna learn everything really fast and then become the best heroes ever! Right blaze?"

^*^

Liz thought about what they said for a moment. "Well... I think its different from flying... I don't really have a body so it doesn't work the same as you two..."

She looked at their wings. "Maybe you guys just have to wait a little longer. Like with birds. They have to wait for their wings to be good enough for them to fly... Right?"

Liz thought again for a moment and nodded. "It's bad to try to fly too soon."

^*^

Daniel watches as Zero starts to pet Morker, who simply sits there happily at the attention. He couldn't help but notice the extreme whiteness of Zero's skin, but didn't say anything about it.

Instead he glanced up at Iris, who was looking at him with a raised eyebrow. She quickly signed to him, "Go ahead, I can handle this."

Daniel signed back, "thank you" Before quickly stepping out of the room and disappearing into the shadows, reappearing by his desk, which was place in a particularly dark area of the room.

He stepped forward, looking to Chase. "Did I miss anything important?"