A Certain City of Espers

BIANCA

I ended up being LAST on the bus, and the only seat was next to a complete stranger. Oh well, you have to talk to strangers to make friends. I plopped down next to him.
"Hey, I'm Bianca." I held out my hand. He shook it reluctantly.
"Ren." He smiled a little.
"Anxious for exams i see." I said being sarcastic. He smiled again.
"Oh yes because melting metal all day long is my favorite pass-time."
"Well, i have better things to do with my time then push my limits and get knocked unconscious." He rolled his eyes, like he already knew what my power was.
"Like what?" She smirked.
"Play sports or something, I don't know. I think anything is better then that."
"Sports in a skirt." I rolled my eyes.
"Laundry day."

Cait never rode the bus. She hated it; it was too cramped, too noisy - well, the noise wasn't the bother, really, it was just an excuse she used. But her claustrophobia was real; being part of the wind, she hated being constricted, confined; it made it hard to breathe, to move, to think.

She had been up at her usual time, around 6:30, and got ready for school. A little after 7:00, she mounted her bicycle and rode easily down the street. At the pace she used - sometimes reinforced a little by a mysterious breeze - she should arrive at the Academy by half after. Then the bus would get there, and she'd be among the crowd again.

Not that she minded. It was always fun flirting, hanging out with the others, getting caught up in the daily routine of proving who was stronger among them.

Oh, wait... She sighed as she remembered: it was exam day. "Perfect..." she mused. Easy as her exams tended to be, they were still a pain, straining her voice and breath support for a week...

Takeo

Aha! Take that Mr. Alarm clock who was of course now residing against the wall. Way to teach that stupid, ridiculous piece of machinary a lesson! That would teach it to - oh wait. Oh bummer. Was it broken? Takeo cracked an eye open to take a look and groaned. Yup. He'd need another of those. Yawning, Taki sat up and rubbed his eyes sleepily. Great. Another exam day, just what he needed. Like his power wasn't awesome enough already. It clearly was.

Pulling his clothes on, Takeo located his tooth brush and stared at himself dully in the mirror. Then he grinned widely and quickly brushed his teeth. The girls would be waiting for him at the bus stop, yeah! Grabbing a jacket, he hurried out of the room and down to the station which fortunately wasn't far away. Taki was always cutting it close! As he arrived, the bus pulled up and he quickly joined the queque then chose a seat near the back.

"Hey hey!" Taki grinned around at the other students. "So. Exam day, stupid right?"

Lena had watched the other two students as they got on the bus, although she did not talk to them, she knew who they were. Their names were Ren and Bianca. She had no idea what their powers were but she did catch something about one of them being able to control fire.

Getting on the bus Lena tried to get a seat near the back, but to no success. She ended up sitting near the front next to the two who got on the bus with her. At least she was in a seat by herself. Scooting closer to the window, she began to look out it. While looking she heard the simple talk that they were having across the aisle.

Right when everything was settling down, there was a loud yell on the bus. The boy who was called Takeo, had just taken the empty seat in front of her, and was now yelling very loudly about how stupid the test was. Giving a soft sigh, she rolled her eyes. It's that she did not agree with him, it was just...did he have to be so loud about it?

Ren thought, Ah yes, how could I forget? Takeo, the loud-mouth telekinetic. From what Ren knew, Taki was the only person who took this bus that was a level 3. The first time he saw him he didn't really like him, since he has a problem with his ego regarding the fact that he thinks he's the best. But as time went on Ren started to enjoy watching the kid make a fool of himself.

"You could say that again," Bianca said. "These exams are such a waste of time, I'd rather be doing something else right now."

"So, what's your exam like?" Takeo asked.

"It's an endurance test to see how far I can teleport and how long I can keep doing it. What about you?"

He sighed. "The same boring stuff they always make me do. Bend this bar 47 degrees, moving this weight, blah blah blah." Taki looked at Ren next and asked, "What about you, Sunglasses?"

Ren lifted his sunglasses before answering, "I've got to melt a piece of iron."

Ayaka

As soon as the bus arrived, I pushed to the crowd of students and sat on an empty seat near the window. As usual, the bus is filled with noise-the loudest came from the back, a boy I recognized as Takeo, from his red highlights. I would like to yell back: Don't worry, the exam will be fine!, but I decided to keep my mouth shut.

I looked outside the window and saw a girl riding a bicycle. I envied her, wishing I could be outside, away from all the noise inside the bus. But I don't have any choice, since I don't have a bicycle.

Lucky girl, I thought.

The bus ride to the school was pretty uneventful, other than Takeo going on and on about how he was going to ace the tests with his eyes closed. The bus arrived in front of their school, Osaki High, one of the hundreds of schools in Academy City. It seemed the testing was already underway, as kids were being tested on the school grounds.

The moment they stepped off the bus the ground shook from what seemed like a massive explosion. A pillar of water rose up from the school's pool so high that they could see it from the other side of the grounds.

"Whoa, what was that!?" Bianca shouted.

"They must be testing Railgun right now," Ren said calmly.

"Railgun?"

"That's what they call Mikoto Misaka. She's an electricity user and one of the Academy City's level 5's."

"Seriously?" Another explosion, and another pillar of water rose up from behind the building. "I had no idea someone like that came to this school!"

"She doesn't, she goes to Tokiwadai Middle School, the rich girls' school," Ren explained. "Their pool is being repaired right now, so they're using our pool for her tests."

Takeo hopped off the bus and said, "Man, I'm actually jealous. She must be one lucky girl to have that kind of power."

Ren shook his head. "From what I heard she started off as just a regular level 1. She got to be that powerful through her own hard work." He sighed as he reached into his pocket for his work gloves. "Well, off to inflict some burn wounds onto myself," he said as he slipped on the gloves and made his way into the school.

BIANCA

I looked up at Takeo.
"Time for me to go and knock myself out. See you later, i hope." He smiled as i ran off, I looked back once i was at the school door. He smiled and waved as he came walking towards it. I concentrated on the foot ball field, where i did the exam every year. I only had to concentrate if i wasn't used to teleporting there. I opened my eyes and i was standing on the field, my legs felt like jello. I plopped and sat on the ground. The instructors weren't here yet, so i pulled myself up and went and sat with the other students. They weren't all here for the same test. Just a test that requires great distances.

"Hi guys. Lousy exam day." I said nonchalantly as i sat down.
"You can say that again. Like i want to spend all day running from one end of the field to the other!" One guy complained.
"and like i want to knock myself out and get sent to the nurses office like six times today." I smiled making it apparent that he didn't have the worst exam. He scoffed and turned towards the field. I looked over and saw the instructors coming. "Here we go." I muttered standing up.

Cait came to a stop in the courtyard and chained her bicycle to a tree. She stood up, shaking her pom-pom hair as she approached the crowd getting off the bus. She recognized Ren immediately, and have him a smile and a wave. He smiled back faintly.

She headed out toward the abandoned, worthless greenhouses, near the pool. She knew was going to hate this; she despised Railgun with a passion, all because of her skills and attitude. The was basically the female exponential of Takeo...

Cait sat down outside an empty greenhouse, humming to warm herself up a little. She was supposed to open the door, pop out specific screens without breaking them, and then shatter the whole building with her wind; if she wasn't tired after the first one, they might push her to do another one today. They had been promising that...

She sighed when she saw the instructor come around the side of the building, clipboard in hand.

Takeo

"I'm counting on it," Taki told Bianca with a quick wink and a smug little smile. He watched as she walked away and waved when she turned as he knew she would. Ah, so easily done. He could see her blushing from here, no lie.

As they all went their different ways, Taki strolled nonchantly to the building and burst inside. It kind of sucked that his exams always took place in a private classroom but it was probably to boost his concentration or something. Idiots! Like performing alone would do that, where was the audience to impress, the girls?!?! Instead he had to settle for his rather dumpy, easily distracted tutor. She was leaning against a desk when he entered and a vague smile touched her lips.

"Takeo. So nice of you to join me."

"It is, isn't it?" Taki asked with a grin. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked around the room. "What will it be this time? Something fun?" He gave her a hopeful look and then sighed dramatically when she shook her head. "Can't blame a guy for trying," he mumbled.

"I want you to lift the three weights and hold them for as long as you can. That should do for starters." With a confident nod, Taki reached out with his power and dragged the weights up into the air. That was the easy part though. Lifting was always so much better than holding. Holding was... well it was tough and he could feel the strain of it already.

(Just so you guys know, Mikoto, or Railgun, has a short temper, but is generally a nice person. Keep that in mind in case you decide to have an encounter with her.

Also, I won't have access to a computer for the weekend, as I am going camping with my parents starting Friday. Ayumi will be taking control of my character in my absence from Friday to Sunday. In the meantime, focus on establishing your characters and having them get to know each other. When I get back we may start the plot.)

Cait

When Cait's instructor came over she said, "All right Cait, are you ready for your first test?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," she said, frowning. "But why is Railgun here? Shouldn't she be at her own school?"

"Tokiwadai's pool is currently under repair, and we're the closest school with a pool big enough for her testing."

Cait glared over at Railgun who was standing on the diving board. She had short auburn hair, brown eyes and wore Tokiwadai school uniform which was a white dress shirt under a light brown vest with a black skirt, as opposed to Osaki's white and blue uniform. Just by looking at the girl she could tell she wasn't taking her test seriously.

"Isn't there some other rich school besides her own that has a pool she can use?" Cait asked with heat in her voice.

The instructor looked at her oddly. "What's the matter? I thought everyone would be excited to see one of Academy City's level 5's? If you work hard, you can be just as strong as her one day."

Cait snorted and turned to face the garden shed. "Whatever, let's just do this."
________________________

Ren

Ren came to the east side of the school by the caretaker's shed where iron bars were set up on wooden horses, which were stands used for cutting wood. Some of the other pyrokinetics were already getting started, with various staff members timing them with stop-watches.

Ren went to one of the unoccupied stations and started to warm up. An instructor came up to him with a clipboard and watch and asked, "Name?"

"Ren Ozu."

He scribbled something on his piece of paper before saying, "Your last testing concluded you as a level 2, although you were dangerously close to degrading back to level 1. Are you ready for the test?"

Ren nodded. "You may want to get a chair, though. This may take a while."

The teacher ignored him as he gripped his stop-watch. "Whenever you're ready."

Ren sighed as he brought his hands together and pointed his palms toward the bar. Fire spawned from his hands and blew onto the iron. He didn't have to melt it into a puddle of steaming ooz, the test would be over once the bar falls off the horses. But even that, for him, would take forever. His only consolation was that the instructor would have to sit through it along with him.

(Don't let me stop you guys from doing your characters' testing.)

BIANCA

"ok who's first?" One instructor asked, clapping his hands together. I stepped forward.
"Let's get this over with. Is the nurse in her office?" He smiled.
"I'll take it your Bianca then?" I just nodded. He pointed to the giant -10. I went over and stood on it. He walked over with me. "Ok, last time you made it to the thirty on the far side without fainting. We'll start with the thirty on this side." I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. When i opened them i was standing on the -30. I stagger and fell over. I sat for a minute, pulling myself to my feet and walking back to the -10.

"Okay, to the -50 this time." I smiled, i just wanted to go to the nurses office all day. So i would push it, just so i could get out of it for a while.
"Could I go father?" He smiled encouragingly.
"Of course! How far." I smiled evilly.
"I want to go all the way to the other side." I said pointing that way. He waved his hand.
I took a deep breath and focused, when i opened them i fell over and darkness caved in around me. I couldn't even move,i have become numb. I fell unconscious.

***Lol, no problem. And note to all non-music people: disregard all the details other than knowing a G is a lot higher than an A on a regular scale, and the larger the number, the higher the pitch. ***


The instructor took out a pen and got ready to begin the test. "You ready?" Cait nodded. The instructor continued. "Open the door."

That would be easy enough. It was a horiztontal lever handle, easily dislodged by the wind. She had seen it occur many times, half those times her being the influence. She hummed an arpeggio, starting at the B-flat-2 and working her way up to the octave. She breathed in deeply, supporting her voice as a playful breeze came in from behind her. She hummed a slide back to the middle-C. The breeze followed her guide, pushing the lever down and dislodging it. A steady F-3 pushed the door inward, easing it open.

Cait looked at the instructor, smiling slightly. She nodded back. "Very good. Let's take it inside."

((Sorry for the mistake.))
Lena
Getting off the bus Lena looked around. Suddenly the ground shook with a great velocity, and a large pillar of water rose up from behind the school, where the pool was located. Automatically she knew who it was, Railgun. She was a notorious level 5 lightning bender; but she went to another school. A rich school.

Walking through the school Lena arrived at the pool area, and there was Railgun. Some of the other students watched as pillar water rose up. She could see the electricity pulse around the water. It kind of looked like a water spout. Many of the kids eyes gleamed at the mere thought of having that kind of power, one day. After a couple minutes of waiting beside the pool, she heard her name called.

Standing up she walked over to the proctor, a very serious women who wore thick black glasses. Staring down at Lena the women looked at her, “Your Lena Golden, right.” It was a statement, not a question, but she nodded anyway.

The women looked down at the paper and marked something off, “And you’re a level two, last time though, you were close to a level three.” Again it was another statement. And again she nodded. She heard the lady mutter something, the she heard, “Okay. To start off
I want to you take to water in the pool and make a sphere. Then turn the sphere into a long stream and bend it around the area outside.”

Right after that Lena walked over to the pool and started her exam, she could already feel the long day beginning…

(I guess I should have made it clearer what Railgun was, my bad. She's an electric user and he strongest attack is flicking a coin with her thumb and turning it into a railgun-like projectile, hence her nickname. The reason she's using the pool for her test is because the water absorbs the impact of each projectile, keeping the test as safe as possible for everyone around her. If you could edit your post to accommodate for that Undertaker, that'd be great.

It's late for me right now, so I'll post something in the morning.)