John's House

**John's house**, located at XX Walnut Street, was the home and haven of John Doe when he moved from New Bostin to attend school at Wellston. After a long day of torment at the hands of his schoolmates John came here to train, relax, and mentally prepare for the next day's challenges. He was forcibly moved from these lodgings after it was revealed that the building was being monitored.

## Plot

### Beginning

John slept in during the weekend at his house, reflecting on his time at New Bostin High School. He was still in bed at 2:04 in the afternoon when Seraphina called his phone.

### Kovoro Mall

She wanted him to accompany her while she did some shopping at Kovoro Mall. John wasn't keen on going shopping, so he tried telling her that he had to clean a huge mess in his house. Unfortunately for him, Seraphina was just outside his door, ready and willing to help him clean it. She found it spotless, save for a pair of training gloves on the floor. After picking them up an placing them on the table, she dragged an unhappy John to the mall with her. After a harrowing escape from an invisible stalker who followed them out of the mall, Seraphina and John returned to his house. Seraphina wanted John to tell her how he knew they were being followed. He claimed he just had a gut feeling. Seraphina wanted to head back to the dorms, but John insisted that she stay the night in light of their recent brush with a stalker. Seraphina agreed, and sat down on the couch while John prepared ramen for two. Seraphina noticed that John had left his copy of Unordinary on the coffee table. She wondered how he had obtained a copy of the illegal book. To her surprise, the infamous W. H. Doe was none other than John's father. Seraphina decided she would like to borrow it.

John and Seraphina eventually turned in for the night. As they slept, a mysterious group had observed that their target had remained idle at the house's location for some time. They marked it for future operations. Back at the house, John had nightmares of the abuse he once suffered back at New Bostin High School. When the girl he trusted extended a helping hand to him, John woke up in a cold sweat. Unable to go back to sleep, John decided to head out to the Convenience Store for a bite to eat. He still couldn't get the memories of Claire out of his head, so he headed back home in a bad mood. Seraphina woke up just as he got back, and they both sat down to eat the food John bought for the both of them. Seraphina was concerned that John wasn't his usual talkative self, and tried to get him to open up. John snapped that he was fine, which Seraphina took as a cue that he wanted to be alone. She took the book and the teddy bear she won at the mall and left a guilty John alone with his issues.

### Investigation

John had just finished up a training session at home when his father called. William wanted to know if John had heard about EMBER's nefarious activities and whether John was planning to do anything reckless. John told him not to worry and to stay healthy. They bid each other farewell.

### Suspension

After Seraphina's suspension caused bullies to torment John more frequently, his house became more significant as a refuge from problems at school. After post-school workout, John texted Seraphina to see if she wanted to chat. She responded with a call, to John's joy. Seraphina forwarded some homework assignments to John after learning he forgot to pick up them after leaving the infirmary. With that taken care of, John asked Seraphina about how her home life was going. She said her parents were off on a business trip, leaving only her and the servants. She spent most of her time playing games like Angry Pigs. Seraphina wanted to play with John, so she urged him to hurry up and finish his assignments. John became frustrated with the game, only for Seraphina to tell him he might do better if he made use of the game's sturdier equipment. John stubbornly opted to remain the path of greatest resistance. Seraphina shrugged and told John he could at least wait until he was back from school, pointing out it was already 2AM.
They resumed their interactions after school the next day, which became more limited in the wake of John's phone getting broken. Seraphina noticed that the normally chipper John was in a bad mood that's lasted longer than any other in the time she's known him. To get his mind off his troubles, she told hime that phones are replaceable, and turned the subject to John's progress in Angry Pigs. Cheering up, John boasted that he beat a few levels with wood-only runs, and wanted to see how far he could keep it up. Seraphina snickered, telling John that his upbeat attitude was always refreshing.  The next day John came back to his house following another bad day at school. Only this time, Seraphina wouldn't be able to comfort him. For reasons he was unaware of, Seraphina wasn't online. He decided to pass the time with a few rounds of Angry Pigs, continuing his wood-only run. He eventually got stuck, wondering if there really no way he could make further progress without relying on stronger resources.

### True Colours

With Seraphina completely cut off from him, John found returning home offered nothing to look forward to. After a particularly bad day, an injured John decided to vent his many frustrations through a rigorous training session with his punching bag. With each blow he thought of all the people that angered him. He wrote off everyone as worthless before he remembered his best friend. Calmed down, he went to his laptop to check if Seraphina was available. She still wasn't online, but his dad was. He called him, and his dad decided to send him some money to replace his broken phone. John asked if William could send another copy of Unordinary as well. William replied that all remaining copies were destroyed for his safety. The fact that John would request a second book alarmed William, so he asked John if everything was really alright. John lied and said it was, so he hung up on his very concerned father. William tried to call back immediately, but his attempt was ignored.

### Aftermath

John was nearing his house, bearing deep physical and emotional wounds as a result of Arlo's machinations. Thinking back on the people who betrayed his trust he wondered where all the worth in the world was. He threw his backpack to the ground, which caught the attention of an unexpected visitor. Seraphina, who had managed to secure an early return to Wellston, had been waiting on the stairs leading to John's front door. John collapsed at the sight of her, causing his alarmed friend to run up to him and ask what had happened to him. He begged her not to look at him right now, prompting Seraphina to bring him inside.  Seraphina offered John some water and insisted he tell her what caused him to break down like that. John claimed that it was just the increased bullying he suffered after her suspension. Seraphina doubted that would leave him in such a state of despair, but John insisted he'd be fine now that she was back. Elaine arrived at the house after receiving a summons from Seraphina, not knowing who lived there. After Seraphina brushed aside the fact that Elaine outed her to The Headmaster, she had her heal John. A shocked Elaine demanded to know what he was doing there, to which he replied "*B\*tch I live here.*" As Seraphina unpacked in the other room, Elaine bitterly used her powers to heal John, making her usual cold remarks to him. It wasn't long before she recognized his injuries and came to a horrifying realization about what she'd seen earlier that day. Before she could verbalize it though, John clamped his hand over her mouth and threatened her into listening to his demands. By the time Seraphina reentered the room, Elaine was gone. She was puzzled that Elaine had left without saying goodbye.

William traveled to Wellston to check in on his son after a week of having of his calls ignored. He arrived at John's house only to realize John was nowhere to be found. Seraphina was there though, and the two got to know each other while waiting for John to return from school. William asked Seraphina if she was more powerful than John. She laughed and assumed he was joking around. Just then, John arrived, and was very surprised to be greeted by his father.  Seraphina agreed to give the two some private father and son time, so they went outside to debate what business William had coming to check up on him. John was upset when he found out that William implied to Seraphina that the two best friends could rival each other in terms of strength. Likewise, William disapproved of John lying to Seraphina by claiming he was a cripple. John defended himself by saying after his experiences in New Bostin High School, his life was better the way he had built it up. William still didn't approve, but he dropped the issue for the time being. Later that night William woke up after sleeping off his jet lag, disappointed that John still hadn't finished his homework. He insisted they drop everything to play poker.  Seraphina found herself losing the card game. This was in no small part due to her inability to read John's usually expressive face. She first folded, only to find out she would have won if she didn't. Then she went all in, with her Straight losing to John's Flush. Seraphina later contemplated how Poker was applicable to John's life, bluffing his adversaries out and winning despite being at a disadvantage.  John was up bright and early the next morning, working on the homework he'd put off the night before. When he finally finished, he let out a cheer that woke up his father and Seraphina. He went off the school, while William chose to go out for a jog. Seraphina opted to go back to bed.  It soon came time for William to head back to New Bostin. Seraphina told him she was glad to have met him, and that his story was inspiring. Taking John aside, William warned that the longer he kept his secret, the worse things would become when it finally got out. John blew off this warning, and told his father to just get home safely. Later that night John and Sera were sitting down on John's sofa. Seeing as how there was only one day left of Seraphina's suspension, John asked if she was excited to go back. Seraphina admitted that, after living so carefree at John's house, she wasn't excited to return to Wellston High to become the most popular subject of everyone's gossip.

### Rage

Seraphina had finished packing for her return to Wellston's Dormitories, and saw that she had two hours before John returned from school. Rather than wait for him at his house all that time, she decided to go out for some boba.  On her way back to John's house Seraphina was ambushed by a group who managed to inject her with some strange drug and stab her with a knife. She struggled to make it back to the house, as the attack somehow compromised her Time Manipulation ability. John eventually arrived back home to help Sera move back to her dorm. He became alarmed at the sight of blood on his door handle. When he entered his house, he was met with the horrifying sight of Seraphina collapsed on the floor, bleeding out next to a bloody knife.

John failed to rouse Seraphina from her stupor, so he grabbed her broken phone to call Elaine. The sound of his voice scared her into attempting to ignore his calls. In response to this, John called Arlo and ordered him to bring Elaine to his house. When the two arrived, they were shocked by the state Seraphina was in. Elaine accused John of doing this to her, only for John to smack her across the face and demand that she heal Seraphina. Elaine successfully healed the stab wound, but Seraphina remained unconscious. John threatened to violently express his dissatisfaction, terrifying Elaine. Arlo grabbed John's arm and told him to calm down and figure out what was wrong himself. John's first instinct was to tell Arlo to let go of him.  After Arlo did so, John looked at the trembling Elaine. This reminded him of an old victim of his from New Bostin, which made him regain his composure. After he duplicated Elaine's ability, he scanned Seraphina and managed to detect a tiny wound that Elaine wasn't able to find. Arlo determined it was an injection wound left behind when Seraphina's attackers managed to somehow drug her. John wanted nothing more than to find out who did this and make them pay. While he took Seraphina to lie down in his bed and watch over her, Arlo and Elaine stayed in the living room. Elaine asked what would happened now that John knew they were aware of his secret. Arlo reminded her that they agreed to not upset John and go on pretending nothing had changed. The two decided to remain at John's house for the night, and drifted off to sleep in the living room while John did the same at Seraphina's side. Later that night, the van transporting Seraphina's attackers pulled over outside of John's house.

The attackers fired a beam which weakened the abilities of the occupants of the house. One of the attackers teleports into the house and attempts to kill the students in their sleep. Elaine however manages to wake up in the nick of time and rouse John and Arlo to action. The students notice their abilities have been weakened, but they didn't have time to figure out why. The intruder that tried to kill them turned out to have also been a diversion, as the sound of a window breaking in John's bedroom alerts John to Seraphina being in imminent danger. While he and Elaine rush off to rescue her, Arlo knocks out the intruder. John enters his bedroom to find an accomplice carrying the unconscious Seraphina through the broken window. John's ability hadn't regained the strength to duplicate Arlo's Barrier, but he managed to mirror the kidnapper's ability in order to give chase. Arlo arrived and successfully got his own Barrier to confine the kidnapper in the same small space as John. Suddenly, the kidnapper pulled out a knife and held it at Seraphina's throat. He demanded that John and Arlo deactivate their abilities, lest he kill his captive.  John attempted to call out the kidnapper for bluffing. The kidnapper responded by pressing his knife down on Seraphina's throat, drawing blood. Nervously, John turned to Arlo and told him to take down the barrier. For obvious reasons, Arlo wasn't keen on the idea, but then he saw John wink. He told Elaine to go outside and wait on standby. Realizing John is stalling in the hopes that the kidnapper will lower his guard for a moment, Arlo traded verbal barbs with John in order to buy more time. John finds his opening, and in an instant uses the kidnapper's own ability against him to free Seraphina. John proceeds to beat down the kidnapper while Arlo allows Elaine through the barrier to grab Seraphina. At this point John is stabbing the kidnapper with his own knife, when suddenly the van rams the barrier at full speed and breaks through it. It hits John, and the intruder from earlier exits the vehicle helps his wounded accomplice escape before their time is up. John, surviving the attempt to kill him with a van, gets up and at last manages to project a barrier of his own. Despite being more powerful than Arlo's, the van breaks through it as well and escapes.

Suffering injuries from their barriers being broken, Arlo is healed by Elaine while John mimicked Healing to tend to his own injuries. John blamed Arlo for not being strong enough to hold the killers, while Arlo shot back that John's lack of focus was to blame. John punches Arlo, but before the conflict escalates to an all-out brawl, Elaine implores that they stop and determine what was going on. Arlo determines that they could not have overpowered two high-tiers without somehow weakening them. John adds that he overheard them saying they had a limited time to do their job until the weakened abilities returned to full strength. They conclude the same thing happened to Seraphina, and Arlo remembers how they could have tracked her back to John's house. Arlo tells John what he learned from Remi: the bear Seraphina won at Kovoro Mall had a tracking device in it, which led the killers to the house. John didn't want to believe that his house was being monitored for Seraphina's return all this time, especially since he already had one long-term schemer attempt to ruin his life. No one could figure out what they wanted with Seraphina in the first place.  Elaine pointed out that despite everything that had occurred, Seraphina still hadn't woken up. She wondered whether they should call the hospital and report the incident to the authorities. Arlo thought this was a good idea, but John was against it. He said they would call Doctor Darren in the morning and report to Headmaster Vaughn instead. Seraphina awoke the next morning, surprised to see Arlo at John's house. She then recalled the attempt on her life, and was over come with the urge to vomit. She bolted towards the bathroom, which woke up the others. After throwing up, Seraphina attempted to use her ability. She became frightened when her attempt failed, but John assured her that they would go see Doc so he could take a look at her. Just then, Arlo entered the room. When Seraphina asked why he was at John's house, John replied that he was with Elaine when he called her for help. He also told her of the intruders who came back for her and their ability dampening capabilities. Arlo gave his phone to John so he could call Darren, and the Doc reluctantly, angrily agreed to see Seraphina on the weekend.

### Secrets

In the wake of the attempted kidnapping incident, Vaughn had John and his belongings relocated from his house to Wellston Private School's Boys Dormitories. John went to see the headmaster in the hopes of changing his mind. John insisted he could take care of himself, only for Vaughn to refute that this claim was no longer valid considering what had happened. John asked if he could at least be relocated to another house away from the aggressive environment of the campus, but Vaughn put his foot down and declared that his decision was final. John was dismissed, and he angrily left the office.

## Bonus Episodes

### Scary Movie

John is at his house with Seraphina watching a scary movie. John is frightened by the monster onscreen, prompting Seraphina to use her ability for a photo prank.

## Gallery

John in his bedroomJohn's living room.John in his kitchen
## References

1. ↑ Chapter 62
2. ↑ Chapter 7
3. ↑ Chapter 8
4. ↑ Chapter 11
5. ↑ Chapter 12
6. ↑ Chapter 21
7. ↑ Chapter 31
8. ↑ Chapter 33
9. ↑ Chapter 34
10. ↑ Chapter 40
11. ↑ Chapter 57
12. ↑ Chapter 58
13. ↑ Chapter 62
14. ↑ Chapter 63
15. ↑ Chapter 64
16. ↑ Chapter 65
17. ↑ Chapter 66
18. ↑ Chapter 67
19. ↑ Chapter 69
20. ↑ Chapter 70
21. ↑ Chapter 71
22. ↑ Chapter 72
23. ↑ Chapter 73
24. ↑ Chapter 74
25. ↑ Chapter 75
26. ↑ Chapter 76