Oli stared up at the school in front of him. Now that he was here, it was rather intimidating. He blinked as he felt his phone ringing, and he answered the call quickly. "Hello?"

"You at your lame hero school yet?" It was Lauren (also known as Lauren ZSide), Oli's best friend (well, she called herself his best friend- the term was debatable).

"It is not lame, and I'm about to go in." Oli retorted swiftly, pulling his tongue even though he knew the black-haired girl who could control the amount of stars in the night sky couldn't see him.

"Aren't you worried you won't be able to catch up?" Lauren's voice rang out from the phone, sounding rather curious.

"I'll be fine!" The blonde retorted swiftly.

"I mean, you are starting a little late..." His friend trailed off.

"Hey, it's not my fault I'm late starting in the school year." Oli said pointedly as Lauren laughed.

"I meannn you did borrow the power of a guy with fire powers and almost light yourself on fire, so..." He could imagine her rolling her eyes.

"Still not my fault!" He yelped. "I have to go now, byeee." Oli ended the call quickly. Maybe I am a liiiittle worried, but I'm Oli Orionsound! I can do anything anyone else can. I can probably do it better!

His train of thought was interrupted as someone cleared their throat, and his gaze flicked to the person he had failed to notice approaching him. The boy had somewhat messy dark brown hair, dark blue eyes, and he was clutching a piece of paper.

"Are you the new kid?" The boy asked curiously. "Oli Orionsound?"

"That is me, correct." Oli said, grinning.

"Ah, I see. My name is Pix. I've been tasked with showing you around. I think you're in my dorm and classes anyway- E2, right?" When Oli nodded, Pix continued. "Okay, great, that makes this easier." Why is he looking above my head? "What?"

"Oh, did I say that out loud?" Oli blurted, laughing awkwardly.

"Uh... yeah. Also, I'm- it's part of my power. I can, uh, see how long it is till something breaks- or how long it is till someone dies. I can also tell how old someone is. I can do both of these by looking at someone or something." Pix added awkwardly.

"How old am I then, hm?" Oli asked curiously.

"Sixteen years, seven months, thirteen days, eleven hours, forty-two minutes and three seconds- four seconds- five seconds- you get the point." Pix said with a laugh. "I'm not going to tell you how long it is till you die, though. Most people don't want to know that."

"Yeahhh, I don't want to know that." Oli reached forward. "Do you mind if I just-" His hand brushed against Pix's and he took a step backwards, staring as two phrases appeared above Pix's head in writing that presumably nobody else could see.

Seventeen years, two months, nineteen days, two hours, three minutes and forty-nine seconds of age.

Sixty-seven years, eleven months, twenty-six days, nine hours, fifty-eight minutes and eleven seconds until death.

Oli stared as the seconds on the number for Pix's age went up and the seconds on the number till Pix's death slowly ticked down. "Oh, wow. How do you deal with seeing that above the heads of everyone you run into?" The blonde asked, wincing slightly.

He made an odd gesture and a sphere of dark blue light appeared in his hands. The sphere made its way over to Pix before slowly fading away.

"What did you- how- I've been told that you can just freeze stuff in place by making noise, and that you have one other unspecified power. I presume that was something to do with the unspecified one?" The brunette asked skeptically.

"Yup. I can, like, temporarily take people's powers away from them and use them myself. I can borrow them, I guess." Oli added as an afterthought, grinning.

"I... see. Well, I'd better show you around then. Follow me." Oli nodded, glancing around and quietly humming a song to himself ('Curses' by The Crane Wives, in case you were wondering). He blinked awkwardly as Pix froze in place and he stopped humming.

"Uh, sorry, I forget sometimes- I can like, turn it off." Oli closed his eyes briefly before opening them again. "There- now I can hum without freezing anyone, yay! Continue the tour."

——

They were about halfway through the tour, outside the door to the common room between the girls' dorm and the boys' dorm when a boy with messy dark brown hair that had a green streak, brown eyes and feathery white wings pushed past them, walking out of the room with a muttered apology.

The wings were certainly not the most unusual feature of this boy- it definitely had to be the small raincloud above the boy's head that was currently soaking his hair that took that spot. The boy stopped, staring at Oli. "Who's this, Pix?"

"The new kid, Oli. The one I told you about in the dorm meeting that you said you were paying attention during, Joel?" Pix added, raising one eyebrow.

Joel laughed awkwardly. "Ohhh, yeah, that dorm meeting. It's not like you have one every day or anything." The brunette added under his breath.

"Why is there a cloud above your head?" Oli blurted, trying not to stare.

"Because I can control the weather and I'm in a bad mood because FWhip is annoying as hell and thought that fighting me was a good idea." Joel informed him wryly before walking away.

"FWhip?" Oli echoed, glancing at Pix.

"Skrunkly little goblin man with super senses." Pix told him with a sigh, opening the door to the common room.

Oli paused as he took in the scene around him.

Two boys were sat on a couch towards the back of the room- one had neat brown hair and baby blue eyes and was wearing a gray t-shirt and black leggings, and the other had ginger hair, dark blue eyes and green skin as well as incredibly large ears (presumably the latter was FWhip, the goblin). FWhip was wearing a cyan hoodie and dark gray pants.

The boy sat next to FWhip was running his finger gently over cuts and bruises on FWhip's arms, neck and face and- much to Oli's surprise- as soon as the boy touched the injuries, they disappeared.

Sat on the other side of the room playing some sort of board game were a girl with long black hair and dark grey eyes who was sporting a hoodie that was split down the middle (half pink, half dark grey) and a skirt and a boy with dark blonde hair, brown eyes and was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. He also had what looked like a toy sheriff's badge pinned to the shirt.

The dark blonde was being cheered on by a boy who was sat to the side with cyan/teal hair, heterochromic blue and yellow eyes and a patchwork blazer, shirt and pants that were such a mix of colours it made Oli's eyes practically bleed. A small calico cat was sat next to the cyan-haired boy, meowing loudly, and it turned to look at Oli as he entered the room.

Suddenly the cat was gone and a girl with messy pink hair, calico cat ears and tail and patches of calico fur on her arms was in its place. She was wearing denim overalls with a white t-shirt.

Pix cleared his throat. "Everyone, this is the new student. His name is Oli. This isn't everyone, by the way." Pix added quietly to Oli.

It turned out that the boy healing FWhip's wounds was called Sausage, and he had healing powers.

The girl playing the board game was Katherine, who could control light, the boy playing thhe board game was Jimmy, who could blow stuff up by looking at it, and the boy cheering Jimmy on was called Scott, and he had the ability to manipulate plants and plant growth.

Finally, the girl who was sat where the cat had been was called Lizzie, and apparently she wasn't sat where the cat had been, she was the cat. Lizzie could turn into any member of the cat family (including, but not limited to, any breed of cat, lions, tigers and leopards).

Apparently there were other members of Class E2 (some people called Joey, False, Shelby and Gem, apparently) but Oli was sure he would meet them later on.

New au, woo :D

Also this is greatly inspired by 'A Mile In Another's Shoes' by bumblvee go check it out /nf :D

Anyways, that's all for now :)