Elvira was wearing the same sort of clothes that she’d worn when she visited Lexie’s school–a long skirt made of some wool material, a formal blouse with long split sleeves, and a high turtle neck. And of course, her winged glasses were perched on her nose, which somehow made her eyes look ...
2025-02-20 20:54:10 +0000 UTC View PostHi all! Thank you so much for being here and being patrons of Ace of Capes. Your presence encourages me to keep writing and pushing this story to be the best it can be!
So this is just to announce that the Villain tier is now completely populated! We are now officially...
2025-02-20 09:10:40 +0000 UTC View PostWhen she got to the kitchen, Lexie found Aiden busy baking something. The TV was on in the background and he was intensely watching the cooking queen again, so he’d likely not even heard Lexie’s call.
He finally turned when she patted him on the shoulder, glancing at her. “Hey, honey ...
2025-02-20 08:59:19 +0000 UTC View PostIt seemed elementary schools weren’t the only ones interested in disaster preparation drills.
Aiden and Luke also prepared a similar seminar for the Hovelton inhabitants, but this one was on dungeon emergencies and what to do when an unstable dungeon spawned near you.
The seminar wa...
2025-02-19 22:04:11 +0000 UTC View PostSounds of yelling echoed above Dewie.
The shrill female voice rose higher than the male's, dominating it until the male one retreated into angry, protesting silence. Dewie knew that pretty soon, the male voice would start up again when she landed a deeply emotional blow. The argument ...
2025-02-19 15:54:16 +0000 UTC View PostSo much changed in the next few days.
The day after the bombing, Lexie and her father received a system mail from Everstone Elementary detailing the catastrophe that happened the day before. It was mostly a reiteration of what the news was already saying, and also some follow-up from ...
2025-02-19 08:39:07 +0000 UTC View Post“What do you mean the dungeon disappeared?” Aiden inquired as the furious-looking Max paced. “You mean, you got rid of it?”
“No. If I meant I got rid of it I would have said that.” The terse response was punctuated with a glare. He then rubbed his forehead. “It&n...
2025-02-18 17:23:34 +0000 UTC View PostAiden jumped out of the way and shielded Lexie with his body as the alleyway behind them burst into flames.
Lexie’s mouth dropped in horror. The entire alleyway entrance was engulfed in fire, licking at the brick rising higher and higher. Luckily, the street was empty and Aiden had jumped...
2025-02-18 15:03:51 +0000 UTC View PostMouse didn't seem to know what to do about the newcomer.
He clearly didn't like the fact that Theo was there, but he didn’t attack him outright, his weapons still swirling around the kneeling Aiden.
“This has nothing to do with you [Hero],” Mouse finally said. “Thi...
2025-02-18 08:56:42 +0000 UTC View PostMax drummed his fingers on the shiny hardwood table, over and over again. As his fingers left behind marks on the sleek brown surface, he wondered briefly what the cleaners used on it to get that sheen. Wax, or Loretta’s oil polish? Max used the latter recently to pretty up his Beretta-Junior a...
2025-02-17 16:17:08 +0000 UTC View PostLexie liked to think that she had a quick reaction time.
She wanted to say that, when faced with an imminent bomb, she jumped out of her seat and flew to the ground, or shielded her head or did anything but blink dazedly at the fireball that exploded in her face.
But the latter ...
2025-02-17 11:09:38 +0000 UTC View Post5 Minutes Before Disaster
Aiden sighed and wiped the beads of sweat off his brow. His back ached from bending over nearly the entire day, scraping grime out of the pavement in front of a hair salon. People had been walking in and out as he worked, throwing him odd looks, likely bec...
2025-02-16 15:11:35 +0000 UTC View PostLexie emitted a loud yelp and hopped up in her excitement.
The <Hustle and Shuffle> card also gave her a boost that made her jump nearly nine feet in the air before she landed.
“I did it!” She couldn’t believe it. She jumped up again and again, the buoyancy only adding to ...
2025-02-16 08:32:47 +0000 UTC View PostAN: This chapter is...a lot. It's also fairly technical and I've adjusted it three times today just to make sure that it would be more easily understood, but I feel some parts may be still confusing. So please don't hesitate to let me know if there's anything that needs clarification. 2025-02-15 20:16:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Lexie's breakthrough came sooner than she had expected. And it began with one special visitor who came to their History and Politics class the next morning.
Elvira Ernest didn't look like she wanted to be there, talking to a bunch of middle schoolers on a Thursday.
In Lexie's op...
2025-02-14 19:08:52 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: A few name changes occur in this chapter which I will retroactively also change in prior chapters.
Mrs. Webber (History and Politics teacher) is now Mrs. Partridge
Trixie (girl who sits in front of Lexie and argued with Dewie about gnomes) is now M...
2025-02-14 10:38:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe call tab on her system interface rang incessantly.
The president of the PR agency, her publicist, her assistant, her grandmother, the head of the hero's association, the headmaster of Victoire, her brother... it seemed like everyone in the world wanted to talk to her.
...
2025-02-13 16:42:54 +0000 UTC View PostLexie didn't remember the notification for almost another week.
In her defense, she was pretty busy. Apart from her endless black hole exercises, her first few class tests were inching closer and closer and there was quite a bit for her to study. World history. Interplanetary relation...
2025-02-13 13:58:39 +0000 UTC View PostLexie went to school the next school day in good spirits despite what happened the last time she was here. Aiden didn’t walk her to the gates because he had to head to his cleaning gig early that morning but Lexie was okay walking to the gate by herself.
"Hi, Mitch." She waved at the secu...
2025-02-12 22:57:17 +0000 UTC View PostLexie shot up in bed, excitement making her heart beat faster. She immediately materialized the cards but Aiden halted her by shaking his head.
“Leave that alone for now,” he said. “We’re not using that.”
“Oh?”
“No. That’s only going to make it harder and...
2025-02-12 21:11:24 +0000 UTC View PostLexie’s first breakthrough came after two weeks.
Ironically, that was also the day of her first major hiccup in school.
Things had actually calmed down by that point. After the first few days of questions about her memory loss and the pre-awakening, most of her classmate...
2025-02-12 19:36:17 +0000 UTC View PostLexie blinked at Veronica stunned and a little embarrassed. How did Veronica know she was pre-awakened? She wasn't planning on broadcasting it, simply wanting to keep a low profile in middle school. And the only one she told was…
She instantly turned to Xena, who like most people in the c...
2025-02-12 16:52:50 +0000 UTC View PostMonty drummed his fingers on the table, but the sound was drowned out by the general din of the busy bar that sat at the corner of 5th and 6th Avenue Crest City, Arcadia.
A hard, loud tune was playing on the radio, from some musician he’d never heard of and it clamored over the wooden lod...
2025-02-12 16:12:52 +0000 UTC View PostAiden kept to two-hour practice time for the next week.
But in the morning, Lexie would wake up early to do the meditation exercises she found on the net, trying to move her mana without the use of a card. One person advised her to pretend like she was pulling a string from her body with he...
2025-02-12 14:56:59 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning, after breakfast, Aiden taught Lexie about cloud awareness and mana shaping.
He did this by first having her hold onto one of the cards. Then, he instructed her to push mana into the card without actually activating the card. It was a funny thing to do, directin...
2025-02-12 13:58:37 +0000 UTC View PostMuch later that evening, after said nap, the card lessons officially began.
Even though Lexie had pestered Aiden right after he woke up from his nap in the early evening, he'd insisted they have dinner first, and told Lexie that she had to eat all her asparagus before he taught her an...
2025-02-12 12:58:57 +0000 UTC View PostLexie stared at the tall golden-haired woman, wondering why she felt the urge to weep for joy in her presence.
Not just weep. She felt like getting on her knees and thanking her for being alive. And then confessing every bad thought she’d ever had, every naughty thing she’d ever done. S...
2025-02-12 11:06:02 +0000 UTC View Post“Crazy Kids Crash Hero Party. Monty Ward saves the day.”
Lexie took a deep breath, the euphoria from the match win fading. She'd indulged in that for long enough. It was time to face her problems once again.
She clicked on the video.
It was a clip from the p...
2025-02-12 11:04:34 +0000 UTC View PostAiden didn’t come home all night.
He didn’t leave the hospital at all and volunteered another nurse called Rowena to take Lexie home and babysit her for the night. Rowena was a little old and a little bent, and had a stern croaky voice. She also expected Lexie to go right up to her room...
2025-02-12 11:00:38 +0000 UTC View PostMonty Ward was the only telepathic spell-caster in all of Orinia and maybe the entire ninth district. As such he typically got a lot of questions at parties like these.
Questions like:
What's a telepathic spell caster? Does it mean you can recite spells with your mind? Can you see...
2025-02-12 10:56:28 +0000 UTC View Post