Somewhere in the state of Nevada, there was a series of mountains known as the Gracemer Peaks. Now this range of mountains weren’t the highest or the most treacherous but rather, they had the best scenery. And because of that, the government built a magnificent school at one of the smaller peaks. This school was officially titled Gracemer Academy.
Gracemer Academy was a special private school where all of the sons and daughters of well-known celebrities, famous politicians, and wealthy businessmen attended their lessons at. A gathering of children born with gold and silver spoons would bound to stir up raging storms of trouble. Thus, because of their rowdy behaviors and troublemaking tendencies, the school had been notoriously dubbed by both students and faculty alike as Wild Academy.
Wild Academy was a school that combined both middle and high school together. Its staff members were not the best of the best but most of the teachers of the required class subjects like mathematics and science had PhDs in their respective fields. As for classes like art or PE, well, there was some room for the more common folk.
Today was like any other day. A well-to-do gentleman in a dark green suit and tie was greeted enthusiastically by a group of high school girls. The man conversed with the girls briefly, causing a few of them to swoon over his charming smile. A group of baseball students were seen running around the school followed by a dull-eyed scraggly man lazily riding a black mommy bike. Meanwhile, a few boys in non-standard clothing were seen kneeling with their hands in the air while a plump man in a blue security uniform berated them for their lack of proper fashion.
Suddenly, all male eyes turned almost simultaneously as they landed on a curvaceous figure strutting on the cement-paved path. It was as if time had stopped for that one moment. The mesmerizing figure wore a red business dress adorned with golden buttons and carried a large handbag slung over one shoulder. The woman smiled enchantingly at the googly-eyed men and confidently entered the school building.
A sudden cough broke the trance as time started moving again. The obese security guard wiped off some slobber with the cuffs of his uniform and turned towards the source of interruption. A young woman wearing a yellow blouse disgustedly peered at him while she hugged her briefcase. The security guard blushed with embarrassment and tried to retort, but the young woman had already walked past him.
She turned and looked over her shoulders at the kneeling students. “Class is about to start. I think they learned their lesson. Let them go so that they can get to homeroom on time.”
“A-Alright Miss Sylvia.” The security guard stammered.
“Miss Pembroke! Don’t call me by my first name. We’re not that close.” The young woman harrumphed before walking towards the academy doors.
Berated for a trivial reason, the security guard reddened with shame and awkwardness. He turned towards the snickering youngsters and roared. “What are you laughing at? Get to class before I give you all another demerit!”
Seeing the teenagers run off into the distance, the security guard muttered angrily under his breath and reached over to close the school gates. Suddenly, a tear in the void above appeared and seven wisps of darkness burst out with chaotic energy. As quickly as the tear appeared, it disappeared immediately after the seven wisps seeped out.
The seven wisps, each with its own distinctive disorderliness, flowed through the school gates unbeknownst to the security guard. As the chubby man returned to his booth by the gates, the seven wisps flowed and zigzagged into the academy and invaded its premises. Each wisp split up from the others and headed towards a location as if searching for something or someone.
At seven different locations, the seven wisps found their targets. With unrestrained ferocity, they penetrated deep into the targets’ soul, stirring chaos and engendering corruption. The targets squirmed slightly as their countenance changed. No one around them could spot the difference as these targets fully synchronized with the seven wisps. Indeed, they were the perfect representatives.
As soon as the seven wisps of darkness had assimilated with their targets, they incubated within their hosts and quickly hatched into powerful parasitic entities. The powers of each entity were released briefly in order to signal the others of their location. However, because of such timely releases of raw energy, they did not escape detection from other sources. Somewhere deep within the academy, in a room on the top floor, an alarm interrupted the tea session of an elderly man.
Surprised by the sudden noise, the old man knocked over his cup of green tea and spilt the contents on the floor. But the old man did not pay attention to that. Instead, his eyes were glued to the second drawer of his wooden desk as a grimace of shock curled up on his face. A scene of the past surfaced from his mind.
*FLASHBACK BEGINS*
“Mr. Jones, do you know why I called you here?” A woman with graying hair looked at a middle-aged man and urged him to sit down.
The man was a younger version of the current principal with less wrinkles and a headful of luscious brown curls. He had just taken up the position a couple of weeks ago. The woman sitting by the desk before him was the previous principal. Her stern expression told the man that something serious was about to happen.
“No ma’am. Please enlighten me.” The man sat with a curious look.
“Since you have taken up this position and it seemed that you are more than willing to continue with this occupation, it is high time that I tell you another set of duties you must follow as your role of principal of this academy.” The woman began to narrate. “Gracemer Academy was founded exactly three hundred years ago during the last few months of the great Civil War.”
“At the time of the founding, a shaman from one of the few remaining Native American tribes living within the vicinity approached the founder with a warning…a prophesy of what might happen hundreds of years later.” The woman continued as she tapped the desk with her fingernails.
“And we believe it? Isn’t it just superstitious mumble jumble?” The man interrupted which brought a glare from the woman.
The man closed his mouth and gave an apologetic nod while the woman responded. “The founder thought it was fictitious as well, but the shaman was able to predict his future for the next couple of days. Such a series of astonishing occurrences forced him to reconsider the prophesy.”
“W-What was the prophesy about?” The man tentatively asked as he tested the woman’s reaction.
Luckily, the elderly woman didn’t mind his interruption this time. “The prophesy stated that hundreds of years in the future, seven great powers would rise from the darkness. These powers are known as Corruptions and their goal is to corrupt the young minds of the students and transform them into an army of evil. On the outside, they would look like any other child. But on the inside, they would be demons waiting to expose themselves to the world. These children, if released back to their homes, would infiltrate the higher society and cause irreparable damage to the community.”
“And our mission is to stop them?” The man inferred. “But how?”
“I’ll tell you how.” The woman responded. “The founder had a number of connections. With the help of his friends who believed in him, he was able to draw in enough funding to kickstart the Reformation Program. The program was divided into two parts. The first part was the Research Division. They were tasked to develop technology to help combat the impending threat. The second part was the Elite Division. The division was created to gather and train a group of elite teachers who could use the developed technology to defeat seven Corruptions. They will be known as the Masked Reformers.”
“Masked Reformers…then, who are the candidates? I’m sure the previous generation of elites might be too old to handle the threat should it happen today.” The man asked.
“You’re right. Replacements happen every twenty years. The current group had already retired or switched jobs. The Elite Division had already trained a new batch. They will arrive at this school in a few days. You can assign to whatever teaching position you have available. I heard this new batch is the best group they’ve trained so far.”
“Alright, I understand.” The man nodded with expectations.
“Good.” The woman smiled and prepared to leave. “May the Lord bless you with success.”
*FLASHBACK ENDS*
Principal Jones shakily wiped some sweat from his brow with a handkerchief before reaching deep into his coat pocket to bring out a steel key. With a deep breath to calm his nerves, he unlocked the drawer and pulled it open. What was inside was nothing but a red button protected by a clear plastic dome. The principal lifted up the plastic dome and pressed the red button and the alarm stopped abruptly. The principal closed the drawer and readjusted his tie. He straightened his back and waited for the door to open.
Meanwhile, in five different classrooms, five elite teachers were busy teaching their students. They were John Grimmer – a world-renown mathematician and a 10th dan karate expert, Janet McDonald – a biologist who studied and lived with lions, Elia Cale – a chemist who won a Nobel prize, Kevan Hartley – a rocket scientist whose works have sent people to Mars, and Curtis Mills – a historian with more adventures than Indiana Jones. Suddenly, the five teachers heard their phones ring a special ringtone. It was the sound of a…no, THE code red.
With no hesitation, they quickly told their students to study alone while they excused themselves. The five headed towards the principal’s office, acknowledging each other as they met along the way. Everyone could see the excitement and anxiousness in each other’s eyes. Today was the day they had trained many years for. Soon, the five teachers arrived at the door. With a gentle knock from Janet, they announced their arrivals and entered the room.
“Is today finally the day?” Curtis couldn’t help but ask as he parted his dirty blond curls to the side.
“That’s right.” Principal Jones nodded while wiping away some more sweat. “Our sensors have detected a series of anomalies…seven different chaotic energies within the academy. The Corruptions must be here!”
“Do we know where they are? Can we pinpoint them?” Elia asked.
“Unfortunately, no. They are within the school for sure, but we can only track them down to their most recent location whenever they release some of their energy.” The principal sighed at the inconvenience.
Principal Jones stood up and walked towards a painting of the Grand Canyon. After giving it a gentle push, he parted the painting to reveal a safe on the wall. With experienced fingers, the principal dialed in the code and turned the handle. Inside the safe was a small briefcase. Principal Jones grabbed the briefcase and brought it over to the desk where the teachers crowd around eagerly.
“This is it.” The principal replied as he opened the briefcase.
Inside the briefcase were five distinctively colored student handbooks. The colors were black, green, red, blue, and yellow. Each handbook had a metallic covering to protect it from damage. In addition to the handbooks, there were five metallic rulers. Principal reached in and handed out each handbook and ruler to a teacher.
“John, for your physical expertise, I present you the black handbook. You are the Black Reformer and the leader of the team. Janet, for your bravery, you are the Blue Reformer. Elia, for your intelligence, you are the Yellow Reformer. Kevan, for your innovations, you are the Red Reformer. And lastly, Curtis…for your survivalist skills, you are the Green Reformer.” Principal Jones assigned as the teachers received their handbooks with bright smiles and anticipated minds.
“Now, to use this, open the handbook and read the first page. Once you have done so, tap your ruler on the handbook and it will voice out the trigger words.” The principal explained.
“Do we need to do any initial movements like striking a pose or something?” John asked, half-jokingly.
“Of course not! Be serious! I think you’ve been watching too many superhero shows.” Principal Jones retorted as he gave the mathematician a stern look. “Once the trigger words are voiced out, the handbook will disperse into many particles, which will then be wrapped around you and transforming into your battlesuits. The rulers will transform into ruler-shaped swords. They will be your standard weapons. Do you understand what to do?”
“Open handbook, read first page, tap with ruler, transform…got it!” Curtis summarized with a nod.
“Good!” Principal Jones clapped his hands.
Just as he was about to dismiss the five new heroes, the room turned red and an alarm rang out. The intercom buzzed in and started reporting an abnormality among the students in a PE class.
BZZT! WARNING! WARNING! DETECTED SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNTS OF CORRUPTION! LOCATION: PE CLASS AT THE TRACK AND FIELD! BZZT!
“You heard the intercom! It’s time! Go test out your new abilities and show me your success!” The principal urged on with a mixture of excitement and worry.
The five teachers quickly rushed towards the site. They arrived just in time to see a monstrous-looking demon scaring away some students and adults while corrupting other students nearby. The monster was hideous! It had a bulbous body with tumors and swelling body parts everywhere. The green fur and stubby arms made it even worse to look at.
Sensing the arrival of the five teachers, the swollen monstrosity smirked before aiming its hands towards a couple of frightened and dazed students. An overdose of chaotic energy seeped out of its fingertips and enveloped the students. The corrupted children writhed about in pain as their bodies absorbed the energy. With unnatural distortion and transformation, the corrupted students turned into costumed imps wearing crying masks.
“What do we have here?” The bulbous monster sneered, its voice high-pitched like a whining baby. “Five brave teachers coming to rescue their beloved students? Well, that’s not gonna happen! What can you weak humans even do?”
John glared back at the monster before turning to his fellow teammates. “Let’s do this!”
Each of the five teachers whipped out their handbooks and rulers. One after the other, they opened the handbooks and read the first page out loud.
“Body of the Educator! Green Reformer!” Curtis roared as he tapped his ruler on his handbook.
“Heart of the Educator! Blue Reformer!” Janet tapped her ruler on her handbook.
“Soul of the Educator! Yellow Reformer!” Elia tapped her ruler on her handbook as well.
“Force of the Educator! Black Reformer!” John struck a weird pose before linking his arms together in a cross shape and swiped his ruler across his handbook.
“Passion of the Educator! Red Reformer!” Kevan roared with Curtis while tapping his handbook with his ruler.
DING! TO DEVELOP AND TEMPER THE PERSONALITY AND MIND OF THE STUDENT!
A mechanical voice rang out from all five handbooks before they scattered into millions of brightly colored particles. The particles of each color surrounded their respective users before solidifying and transforming into the teachers’ battlesuits. Their suits were similar and rather fit the theme of professional teachers. Goggles covered their heads, providing simplified HUDs.
After transforming, the five teachers positioned themselves for a group pose before introducing themselves to the enemies. “For the safety of Gracemer Academy, we are the protection and the discipline! We are Masked Reformers!”
“Masked Reformers? What bullshit!” The monstrosity snorted as it spat out a glob of black mucus. “You wannabe superheroes, I’ll let you taste the wrath of I, Tuberous! Sulkers, attack!”
