Innocence turned Killer - Book 2 - Call of the Multiverse

Chapter 19 - Birth of A Wicked Heart

The past week had been something that no one ever expected to happen. A week ago, it was just another normal day for the entirety of Bayside Academy, when out of the blue, a portal opened in the sky, and two powerful enemies constantly attacked each other. While they were mostly out of the way of civilisation during the ten minutes they were in the world, it only took one minute for them cause damage to the Academy, and leaving them without a principal.

It was the early morning of Wednesday when the entirety of the school was called to the Great Hall for an announcement from the new principal. He had remained fairly anonymous since he was chosen, so this was the first time Riley had seen him. Sitting down alongside the rest of his friends, their new principal stepped up to the podium.

"Hello, students of the Academy," he spoke. "My name is Mr Trent, and I am your new principal, as you can tell. And I have gathered you all here today to inform of my first change to the Academy."

"We have far too many troublemakers here who aren't being punished properly as of recent times, and are still being treated the same as the those of you who are striving for your very best. Which is why I will be implementing a new system that separates those who are good to those who create trouble, with the board and parents backing this."

"Each one of you will be given a rank based on your grades, skills with power, and behaviour. The better you are at these things, the higher you go, and if you struggle at them, the lower you'll be. Of course, you'll be able to move up and down these rankings, although it'll be hard to do so for some of you."

"These ranks will also dictate what you can and can't do, with those who behave well be more rewarded, will others will be punished for their wrongdoings. We have all carefully considered where each one of you will be amongst the rankings, and you will receive your rank this afternoon, alongside information on the rank. Starting tomorrow, all of tis will be in effect. You are now all dismissed."

The hours passed by as the afternoon rolled around, as Riley was exiting the school alongside Zachary and Adam when the messages came through. Simultaneously, they all looked at the message and read out their rank.

"Wow, you and I are both in the third highest rank," Zachary said to Adam, peering over his shoulder. "What bout you, Riley?"

"I'm only middle rank?!?" He responded in shock. "I thought I was doing much better than this and be in the same rank as you guys."

"I'm sure it's probably just an error," Adam assured him. "One of the teachers said if we had any problems or queries, we could talk to principal about."

"And that's exactly what I'm going to do tomorrow."

The next day rolled around and before he knew it, he was in the principal's office with Mr Trent. He had rarely been to the principal's office before, since he was never in the bad book of the former principal, but he could that it had been changed to suit Mr Trent. The room was filled with silence for a moment, with the only sound echoing through the room the ticks of the clock.

"So," Mr Trent finally spoke, a small amount of disgust in his voice. "What'd you want?"

"I wanted to talk about the ranking I was given.  I don't know how you see over this and how you actually ranked it, but I do feel it is a bit low."

"Hmm, what rank were you given, and your name."

"I was given rank 5 and my name is Riley."

"There's glitch or whatever the hell you think it is, this what we gave you. While your grades and behaviour are strong, and your powers are some of the finest I've seen, your lack of confidence in fighting others holds you back. You're too scared about injuring or even kill someone, that you don't use your full potential."