The Innates (Book #1)

Chapter 21

Three days have passed and my new ability is still not harnessed.
"Hey, Jess, you ready?" Jackson asked about the test. It wasn't just any test, it's more like an experiment/ examination.
"Yes, let's get this thing over with." I said. "So can I please get out of this bed? I kind of miss moving around a lot."
"Sure. And the test will take hours, you might want to do all the things you want to do before it starts."
"Can I walk around the mini-city?"
"Just don't get electrocuted again."
"Okay." I laughed. I stripped off my hospital gown and put on a fresh new shirt. Good thing my pants were on the whole time, if they weren't, it'd be a catastrophe. " Man, I smell like hospital!" I said. Jackson laughs while fixing my bed.
"You better get used to the smell, you're probably gonna return if you resume your training."
"Don't say that!"
"No, I'm serious. They're gonna teach you how to tolerate pain."
"All kinds of pain?"
"Some kinds."
"Whatever, I need to run."
"Have fun!" I closed the door behind me.

All the energy that was reserved for the past three days, I finally released. Surrounded by all the impossibly possible wonders, I was resuscitated from my emotional demise. I had so much to learn here, not just academics, but morals about life. I can't afford comparing myself to those ignorant humans.
"Watch out!" My head was slow enough to rotate, that I got knocked over to the grass by an unknown student.
"Ow!" I whispered to myself. I looked for the girl's body on the hot grass, she's not there.
"Watch your volts, kid." She said, her feet weren't flat on the ground.
"Sorry, wait... I electrocuted you?"
"Yeah, can't you harness your powers?"
"Said the girl who knows no gravity."
"I'm not a Flyer. I'm a Controller, I'm practicing to defy gravity."
"Watch where you're going, I just came out of the hospital."
"Wait, so you're the guy who hit the Academy's forcefield? And... and you survived!"
"It appears so..." She slowly backed away anxiously.
"Sorry, the students say to get away from you."
"What, why?! We're all frightened and alone before all this, and now you guys neglect each other?"
"Uhm... I gotta go" She tried to run, but she tripped and fell. Her powers automatically manifest and stopped her very own source of gravity. I didn't want her to suffer from her own anxiety, as a result, I ran back to the hospital. As I was about to go through the doors, I bump into Jackson, triggering the pain from earlier.
"Hey, hey, calm down. You alright? You just went for a run and now you're all tensed." I nodded. "And the bruise on your forehead needs--" He took out a strip of band-aid and gently put it over my slightly bumpy bruise. "Something happened?"
"No, no, no." My eyes widened as we talked. "Yeah... um, let's do the test. I don't want to take long."
"Sure... you sure you're okay?"
"Don't worry about me, okay? I'm thirteen years old, I'm not a kid."
"You're an adolescent, so you're kind of a--"
"All right!" I said with a louder tone. "Let's just go, where's the test?"
"The academy building... sorry." What was that? What's happening to me? I'm starting to notice that this type of change is not good. It's not bad. It's like a malignant outbreak of a new kind of virus. The rumors spread like bacteria. Nevertheless, I will still keep my vow no matter what happens.
The two of us ended up on the last floor.
"I'm gonna test here? No, absolutely not!" I said.
"Easy, Jess, this isn't the underground." As the lights get dimmer, Jackson opens a brand-new door to a brand-new room.
"This is a room that just finished its construction. Feel free to look around." I step down a few stairs and walked through a hallway with thin, metal and holed floors. There are three doors on my left and two doors on my right, the first one seems to lead directly to a certain room, then a unisex bathroom and a
completely different door at the left side at the end of the hall. The two other doors on my right remained a mystery to me.
"You tell me to feel free to walk around, but all I see are doors. Doors!"
"Why don't you try opening one of those doors, smart one?"
But the first door on my left opened by itself, it simply turned out to be just a tall lady with her hair tied back in a bun. She has pouty lips, bony cheeks, and I'm sure one of her eyebrows are fake, I'm just not sure which of them is the real one.
"Sorry to interrupt your conversation but, testing starts in two minutes. Better get Jess ready, Jackson." She said with a raspy and masculine voice. She closed the door back as Jackson escorts me to the last door.
"Bricks and cinder blocks, why am I here again?" But before I knew it, Jackson bangs the door shut.
"Testing starts in a few moments!" I know his head is pressed against the titanium door. Oh, fine... I'll just take a look around. The ceiling looked ordinary and normal, no problem with that. My left side was different from all the other iron-bolted metal walls, it was completely pitch black. There was a chair sitting at the opposite side of my left side with electrodes hanging from its backrest.
"What am I supposed to do here? I was just kidding about agreeing to this, I'm not really ready. Jackson? Jackson! Way to abandon your friend!" I looked straight into the pitch black wall as I walked around the rubble-rough floor.
"You ready, Jess?" He yells from another room. Even when I'm surrounded by these debris of isolation, I could still find some spaces.
"Nope!"
"Here goes nothin'." He said.
I squint and back away from the blinding light, I was wrong, it was not a pitch black wall. It is a huge glass barrier that separates me from the people who are currently staring at me. Inside, Jackson stood with the white lab coated adults. It made them look like professionals, but at the same time, they look like homicidal criminals in disguise.
"What am I doing now?" My thighs shook in nervousness and anxiety.
"Sit down, please."
"Okay." The chair was between rough and smooth.
"How fast can you deflect bullets, Jess?" The same woman with the fake eyebrow asks from a not-so-far distance. She sits in a swiveling chair with the other examiners, surrounded by computer desks, machines with wires and a bunch of other technology-related objects. I can't keep up on gazing into their multiple eyes.
"How would I know? Bullets travel at more than 700 mph if it's a handgun, I'm not fast."
"Jackson told me you're a runner. Is it true?"
"Yes."
"Then you must be quite sly." I chuckled sarcastically.
"No, seriously, what are you gonna do? Shoot me so I can electrocute the bullet in midair and melt it?"
"Mmmm... not necessarily melt." She said, tilting and adjusting her glasses.
"Okay, Jess--" The man with an extremely large beard that looks like a hedge who sits next to her with a pen clasped between his ear began. "what are your fears?"
"Will this count as my grade?"
"No... let's just focus on the questions, okay?"
"Sure, uhm... my fears include, confined spaces, the dark, dying, losing control, being neglected or isolated, and losing myself."
"Interesting..." He said. Are they psychologists or what? "tell me more." I'm surprised they are capable of hear me with this glass blocking is transparently.
"Speak your mind, dear. There should be no filter in your brain." She said.
"This feels weird." I said.
"Good job, son, keep doing it, keep doing it."
"Do what?"
"Just... try to infuriate yourself and let's see what happens."
"Let's try something here, uh... I've seen your report card, Jess." Jackson said.
"Really? What did I get?" He holds out a short sheet of white paper and reads through the lines.
"You got a "C" on Science, a B on English, another C on Math, a B- on History, and an F on P.E."
"What? That can't be right!" I shouted. "B-b-but, the teachers must've created a mista--"
"You're such a failure, Jess! I thought you did the best you could. I thought you belonged to this school. I was wrong."
"No! You're just faking!" He flips the paper for me to read. I scanned the entire paper studiously. He's right, I got a "C" on Science, my most precious subject.
"Now, Jess, please attach the electrodes behind you to your head." The bearded man said. I reached for my back and grabbed four pieces of wire from behind the chair's backrest.
"Okay, good, now... stick the first two to the side of your head, close to your ear. Then, attach the other two to your jugular veins. You know what those are, right?"
"It's connected to my pulse." I said.
"Good job. Okay, you're set." The woman said.