A flood of high school students entered the academy, sporting their school uniforms in different colours. Excitement rose as they got closer and closer to the doors where the annual SKY Academy Exhibition was being held.

 

The double doors opened, revealing hundreds of scientists in white lab coats working on their stations. The high ceilings were littered with drones – some were the size of a shoe box and some were as big as two one-litre bottles. Each station had their own holographic screens to show the process of their work, a few had robots or a student – or both – from the academy to demonstrate their scientific findings.

 

Jiwon lets her class venture on their own, as long as they meet at the entrance at the promised time, as she herself looks around too.

 

She was mostly fascinated by the work that goes on building up to the final product. It helps her learn and understand more about these regular people with powers – it definitely helped her manage to live in a house filled with five other girls with powers.

 

“Jiwon unnie!”

 

The high school teacher felt the wind get knocked out of her system as Chaeyoung clung onto her, lifting her up from the ground.

 

“Careful Chaeyoung, you were thisclose to slamming her into the ground,” a voice behind them said.

 

Jiwon couldn’t make out who was behind them, but she can tell by the voice the person was a female.

 

Chaeyoung gave Jiwon another hug, before putting her down slowly.

 

Jiwon fixes her top before turning around to greet, who she assumes to be, one of the professors in the academy.

 

What she didn’t expect was a woman with the softest complexion, greeting her with a smile.

 

“H-hi!” She stutters out, taken completely by surprise.

 

“I’m Park Jiwon, I’m a BioChem teacher at OTR High School,” Jiwon reaches her hand out to introduce herself.

 

“Likewise. Song Hayoung, I’m one of the scientists and professors, here in the academy.” she said in a slow manner.

 

Hayoung reaches out her hand to shake Jiwon’s.

 

“You must be one of Lee Chaeyoung’s guardians. I’m glad to finally meet you. Chaeyoung is an excellent student here, though I do have to remind her to tone it down sometimes — but other than that she’s a good student.”

 

Jiwon was so distracted by her smile that she just nods at what the scientist said and forgot to let go, until the other woman did first — luckily Hayoung didn’t seem to notice.

 

“That’s good to hear,” Jiwon said with an awkward smile, placing her hands in her pockets.

 

“I don’t know if you’re aware. Chaeyoung actually has detention today, so, as her punishment she is my personal assistant for today.”

 

Jiwon makes eye contact with the younger girl. Even though Chaeyoung was a foot taller than the older girl, she felt rather tiny under her gaze.

 

“I see…Well, I hope she learns her lesson after this.”

 

If this were a scene from an anime, Jiwon would have her eyes darken while her eyes were transformed into diamonds and Chaeyoung would transform into a chibi version of herself with a giant sweat drop on her forehead.

 

“Would you like to check out my station?” Hayoung asked, breaking the small tension between the two.

 

Jiwon’s expression changed like a flick of a switch.

 

“Sure! Tell me more about it,” Jiwon makes her way beside Hayoung.

 

Chaeyoung gagged at her older friend’s obvious crush on her professor.

 

Hayoung leads the two to her station. Like everyone else, she had a robot – it guarded her spot using its detection system, and holographic screens behind a white table which played animated videos and notes about her experiment.

 

“It’s a drug that me and my team have been working on for the past four years. It’s called ‘Dextroamphetamine’ It was an old experiment that has been left unfinished in one of the file cabinets back at HQ,” Hayoung said.

 

Jiwon seemed skeptical at what the scientist said, specifically her last sentence.

 

“Is there a reason why it was unfinished?”

 

Hayoung simply shrugs. “On the notes it just said no one was willing to try the drug,”

 

“Until, I decided reopen the experiment.” She said proudly.

 

The brunette opens a metallic briefcase filled with pill sized capsules. “These tiny capsules are the prototypes,”

 

“And these, are the actualdrug.” She pulls out a smaller metallic briefcase, filled with the same looking capsules.

 

“It took a year and a half of research, six months to produce the prototype, another year of making the actual product, and since then we’ve been testing them with supers – and came back with good results.”

 

Hayoung takes one from the small briefcase and tosses one to Chaeyoung. After a nod of approval from the scientist, the younger girl swallowed the pill with no water and waits for it to enter her system.

 

“It takes about thirteen point four seconds for the Dextroamphetamine to enter the system. Dextroamphetamine is a stimulant that helps enhances a hero’s performance – in Chaeyoung’s case, her strength. It’ll also increase the hero’s ability to pay attention and stay focused on their activity.”

 

As if on cue, Chaeyoung does a backflip, extending one of her legs – completely splitting one of the bigger drones in half. From there, she jumps on one of the broken halves, doing a spinning kick knocking down two more drones, and landing back on her feet. Next, she runs towards the wall, jumps and bounces back in the air and punches through two smaller drones, and lands on the floor with her fist extended out – leaving a dent on the ground.

 

Everyone’s attention was briefly turned towards Hayoung’s station. The spectacle that just happened catching everyone’s attention.

 

“I wouldn’t call it a downfall, but this only lasts for less than five minutes. My team and I are figuring out how to make the Dextroamphetamine last longer, because it seems as though a person’s power extracts a huge amount each passing second!”

 

Jiwon’s jaw dropped at what just happened. She knew Chaeyoung was strong, but she didn’t know she was able to do all those moves – the younger girl just started learning how to control her powers.

 

It was impressive how the human species has come this far, and how much science has contributed to it – from walking on all fours to almost half of the population not using their feet or technology to get from one place to another.

 

“So, how does it dissolve without water?” Jiwon asked.

 

“Inside the pill is a powder. So, you don’t even have to swallow it, you can split it in half and inhale it too,” Hayoung said as she picks up one of the pills without breaking eye contact with Jiwon. Not noticing that she picked one up from the smaller briefcase.

 

The shorter girl examined the pill up close. Half was white while the other was transparent, almost plastic-like. Out of curiosity, Jiwon breaks it in half and spills the content on the palm of her hand. The powder was a dark purple colour.

 

“I’m going to check up on Chaeyoung. Do you mind just looking after my station?” Hayoung asked.

 

Jiwon nods with a smile, watching Hayoung disappear into the crowd before bringing her attention back to the Dextroamphetamine.

 

She brings it up to her nose to get a sense of how it smells. Jiwon flinches when the powder seemed to have hit the back of , coughing shortly after. Her eyes were starting to blur, there was a loud ringing sound in her ears, her head feels like it was about to explode, and breathing through and nose was a struggle. It felt like she was trapped in a plastic bag.

 

“What’d you think unnie? Did I look cool?” Chaeyoung asked with a grin, standing with her hands on her waist proudly.

 

Her question was left unanswered as Jiwon drops to the floor, clutching her head while panting.

 

“Jiwon-ssi? A-are you okay?” Hayoung rushes to her side, cupping her face in her hands.

 

The younger woman was now breathing heavily through , with tears running down the sides of her face.

 

“H – Ha – “Jiwon tried to call out Hayoung’s name.

 

With each passing second, it was getting harder and harder for her to breathe. The pain was slowly consuming her whole body.

 

Hayoung sees the capsule clutched tightly in between Jiwon’s fingers, and purple powder on the side of Jiwon’s nose. Her brows furrowed as she takes the pills and takes a closer inspection.

 

DEXTAPH01

 

.

 

“Chaeyoung take her to the lab now!” Hayoung said with urgency.

 

With no hesitation, Chaeyoung picks up the struggling Jiwon with ease. Her worry grew when Jiwon felt lighter in her arms. The older woman curls into a ball in Chaeyoung’s arms, as her hand shakily reaches out to grab a hold of the taller girl’s shirt.

 

“H-help,” Jiwon manages to say in the quietest voice.

 

Chaeyoung grits her teeth and runs into the crowd. Not bothering that she was pushing people.

 

“This is an emergency! Move!”

 

Hayoung runs closely behind her, with the same amount of worry – if not more – on her face.

 

A regular dose of Dextroamphetamine for a person with superpowers is equal to a human overdosing in Adderall. The Dextroamphetamine is not meant for humans. Though, we cannot prove it, it’s too dangerous and risky to do so.

 

It can lead to death.

 

-

 

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