“So, Gwen is it?” Tom said as we walked down the corridor, the beginning of a smirk hanging on his face. I rolled my eyes at his attempt to provoke me and gave a meaningful look at his hair.
“Yes Henrie. By the way I am loving your new hair.” I retorted; Tom chuckled but made no further comment. I felt a little uneasy walking beside him with our new look; I had always been sure of who I am and what I represent, but the new identity and hair had thrown me completely off.
“You look good.” Tom said after a while of silence, as if reading my thoughts. “We could barely recognize you; which meant people who don’t know you probably won’t at all.”
Sighing I nodded. Blushing a little at his first sentence. It was like he was complimenting me! Then I mentally slapped myself; what on earth am I turning into? Just because I look more girly doesn’t mean I have to act girly.
“What do you think it’s out there waiting for us?” I asked, kicking a loose pebble on the smooth concert floor and watched it bounced in front of me. “And what’s it like in POE Academy?”
Tom stayed quiet for a bit and I stole a glance at him; he really did look quite different, so much more mature, and also slightly creepy. I suppressed a laugh at the last thought. He would probably kill me if he knew about it.
“Honestly? I don’t know.” He said, then smiling as if remembering something nice. “But as long as we all stay together, we will be fine.”
I blinked. “That was the most positive thing I had ever heard you said.” I stuttered a little, my brain slightly overwhelmed by the sudden display of affection from Tom.
As if realizing what he just said Tom coughed and the signature frown was back on. I rolled my eyes; who was he fooling?
We walked the rest of the way in silence. Tom was too embarrassed to talk again after his little slip of emotion. I stifled a laugh at the memory and stole another glance at him.
“This is you.” Tom said as we halt in front of a door marked with metallic numbers of 213. I nodded and waited for him to go; however he just stood there.
“Um…I guess I will see you later?” I said uncertainly after a few seconds; I didn’t think it would be a good idea for Tom to be seen with me when I open the door, we weren’t meant to know each other.
Looking like he had just snapped out of a dream Tom’s whole body jolted and his right hand flung upward to scratch his hair.
“Okay, um, right, er good luck.” He mumbled quickly before literally running away. I blinked his sudden departure. What just happened? Was I being too mean? I was only trying to keep our cover.
Shaking my head I took a deep breath and told myself to calm down. Gingerly I place my hand on the door knot and twist, opening the door.
“There she is!” someone exclaimed loudly as I peeked through the door, startling me so much that I jumped into the room like someone had electrocuted me. The room was small and bare, illuminated by a single light bulb in the center of the ceiling; a group of seven was standing in the middle of the room about a meter away from me.
“You scared her.” A girl with red hair and bright blue eyes reprimanded the oriental boy to her right, who shrugged at her without taking his eyes off me.
Feeling uncomfortable under the stare of so many people I scanned their faces quickly trying to find the person in charge. Judging from the name on the slip he must be Chinese, and I assume he would be older, probably in his thirties. I was surprised to see that most of them looked quite young, around my age apart from two men, and one of them were Chinese.
“Mr. Ho?” I asked uncertainly at the man; he had a kind face and looked to be in his late thirties. He smiled at me as I walked forward to hand him the slip.
“Mr. Kwan, actually.” He said with a slight trace of Chinese accent. “But everybody call me Ho.”
Blushing at the mistake I took a step back joining the circle. There were three girls in the group including me and the red head. The other girl was a pretty brunette with blue eyes who gave me a calculating look when I saw her. I frowned at her attitude. What was her problem? Before I had time to assess the rest of my new team Ho spoke.
“Since we are all here, let me welcome everyone.” Ho said, beaming at us. I found this slightly odd that a mercenary would be so cheerful. Don’t they all rob each other or something? Surely the wilderness would have dampened the spirits. Or maybe it’s just a façade to us newbies?
“It’s a tad strange to have so many new ones in one group – but the Ganesh family wants new recruits trained as soon as possible so we are running a huge basic training.” The others around me all nodded, obviously aware of the facts already; but these were all news to me and I found this new world of families and mercenaries fascinating.
“This will be a hunt and gather mission.” Ho continued, looking at each of us in turns. “We will be with eight other trainee groups and five professional groups. The route we are going on had been used by many throughout and we seldom encounter any problems.”
Five professional groups. My heart warmed at the thought of Nirmal going through so much effort to get us back. Maybe I didn’t know much about this world, but I was certain that five groups of professional were a substantial force even in a big family.”
A collective intake of breath from everyone else also confirmed my suspicion. Ho smirked, enjoying the effect of his words on us. An excited chatter broke out between some of my group mates.
“Our main purpose is to get you trained in the survival and team work.” Ho said, “We have three days before we leave and I would like you all to get to know each other’s power and come up with your own plan of defense. So now, introduce yourselves to one another. We have a lot of training to do for the next few days. You can start first.”
Ho’s eyes then turned to the red-headed girl next to him, signaling her to start. She smiled confidently and straightened herself, enjoying the attention. “My name is Kailey Smith.” She said as she curled her fingers around a strand of her hair to the side, making the guy to my right swoon a little. “I am seventeen from Australia Citybase. My power is emotion control.”
Emotion control? I wondered briefly how she would be useful in a real life situation; then I realized that she would probably be good for moral. God knows we thought we were going to die on several occasion when we were out there alone. Depression can kill a team if you are not careful in the wild.
Next to her was the Oriental boy who announced my entrance earlier; he smirked and flicked his hair and I resist the urge not to gag. Fred and him would become great friends.
“My name is John Kuo. I am eighteen from Hong Kong Citybase.” He said, winking at the brunette who winked right back at him. God, what’s with the raging hormones? “My power is gravity control.”
Gravity? My thoughts immediately sprang back to Elise. I hope she was one of those who got saved in the test.
“Vladimir Makinon.”The brown hair boy next to him said; he had blue eyes and was the tallest of us all. For some reason he reminded me of Oscar, they both had the same silent brooding look going on. “I am nineteen from Moscow. Power is energy.”
Ho quirked his eyebrow at his generic description but didn’t say anything. The brunette next to him smiled and bumped Vladimir on the shoulder before speaking.
“Hi everyone, I am Emily Haynes. I am seventeen from Paris Citybase.” Emily fluttered her eyelashes as she introduced herself, I couldn’t helped but mentally rolled my eyes; she is such a flirt. “I can control plants.”
And now it was my turn. “I am Gwendolyn Nightingale. I am eighteen from Somerset Citybase.” I said; my voice ended up smaller and shyer than I felt. “My power is Telekinesis.”
Finally it was the guy that swooned at Kailey. He had dirty blond hair and unusual green eye; maybe that had something to do with his power.
“I am Jeremy Karoullis.” He said timidly, “I am seventeen from Athens Citybase. My power is poison.”
Woah. Poison, that’s something new. I couldn’t help but stole a glance at him. Poison. Green eyes. I am a genius! Argh…just kidding.
“Good. Since you guys arrived today I am going to give you the evening off.” Ho said, I noticed that Steven hadn’t said a word at all throughout the whole meeting. Then and again he was too formidable.
“However, I think you should all get to know each other.” Ho added, making circular gestures with his fingers for us to mingle. Everyone chuckled embarrassedly; this guy is kind of blunt.
Steven whispered something to Ho who nodded, his face turning serious. “We need to leave now, you kids get to know each other. “He said, then hastily exited with Steven in tow.
An awkward silence befell us after they left; no one seemed to be able to think of anything good to say. Looking down to my shoes, I shuffled around a little, trying to ease the tension.
“Let’s sit down.” Kailey said breaking the silence making everyone jumped a little. Everyone proceeded to settled down on the floor. I sat cross legged, scooting to ensure my legs wouldn’t touch anyone else.
“Why don’t we do a little bit of a power show?” she chirped excitedly, John shrugged and no one made any objections.
“I will start!” She declared happily and suddenly the atmosphere of the room changed; I began to relax and felt at ease, excited even. I saw Kailey’s eyes had turned into a misty blue; she must be using her power.
“Oh my god…” Jeremy whistled next to me, I quirked an eyebrow at him and that made him blush. He was crushing on Kailey fast.
“My turn.” John said; and the room suddenly felt heavy, like the weight of my body had just increased tenfold and were pulling me down to the ground. The next thing I knew I was floating off like a feather, floating as if carried by some unseen forces.
“That’s awesome!” Emily said, her eyes sparkling with excitement. John smirked, looking extremely pleased with himself. I knew this guy for like five minutes and I could already see that he was the most arrogant person I had ever met (subject to debate when it comes to Fred Bowen). This could potentially be a problem if we are to work as a team. Hopefully he’s only arrogant when it comes to impressing girls.
Everyone turned to look at Vladimir; he sighed and extended his left hand. Everyone was watching him intently and the air above his hand started sizzling and looked distorted.
“You will make a good heater.” Emily mused and everyone laughed. Vladimir’s lips twitched a little but he didn’t say anything.
Without further ado Emily straightened up and plastered on a big smile. She took something out of her pocket and raised her hand in front of her mouth. Making a show out of it, she opened her fist slowly to reveal a small seed resting on her palm. Smiling innocently, she proceeded to blow on the seed and it started growing right before our very eyes.
“This is amazing.” I gushed, genuinely impressed by her powers. Emily gave me a triumphant look for no reason and I forced myself not to roll my eyes at her. For a girl with such a sweet power she sure doesn’t act nature-loving.
Looking around the room I tried to find something that I could move. To be honest everybody knows what telekinesis is, was there any points for me to show it at all?
Sighing inwardly I closed my eyes and focused. I shouldn’t show too much of my power otherwise I will draw attention to myself; on the other hand telekinesis is such a common power that there were bond to be at least five other people in the big group who has it. Taking a deep breath I tried to find something in the room that I could safely move.
“Anytime now.” Emily’s snarky comment beside me made me snapped. Gritting my teeth I gathered up my strength and created a circular metal wall in the middle and started pushing it out. This is a cheating way to move people, because with a wall it pushes everything out of its way, alive or not. Within seconds I started to push everyone out forming a bigger, wider circle and I could hear gasps coming from them.
Opening my eyes I noticed everyone was gaping at me. They probably thought I could only move light stuff. Smirking inside I blinked innocently at them and turned to look at Jeremy.
Snapping out of his daze Jeremy scratched his hair. “I don’t think I should use my power, in case I poison everyone.”
“Can’t you produce the anti-dote?” John asked in surprise. Jeremy smiled weakly in response.
“I can’t always produce an antidote.” He said, the smile in everybody’s face froze a little. That sounded kind of dangerous.
“Gwen.” Emily suddenly turned to me, “Can’t you contain his poison?”
I couldn’t help but raised my eyebrow at her. Seriously, what is this girl’s problem? She had been rude to me ever since I entered the room.
The thing is, I could probably do it, but not because someone like her asked me. Turning to Jeremy who was actually looking at me hopefully, I sighed.
“Do you want to give it a try?” I asked and he eagerly nodded. I think he wanted to impress is new teammates. A lot.
“Right hand?” I asked and Jeremy nodded again. Extending his right hand with palm facing upward, I created a mind field isolating the air surrounding his hand. A green smoke started rising from the middle of his palm, it started rising upwards turbulently, dispersing into the air around it. When it touched my mind wall, it started to dissolve it.
Taken aback I gasped and strengthened the mind wall; the green mist was actually very captivating to watch however I was starting to worry if I could contain it all.
As if sensing my predicament, Kailey leaned forward. “Stop.” She said, and immediately green mist stopped coming out of his palm.
Shrinking the force field I started to compressed the poison. Everyone watched in fascinating as the gas compressed and became denser and denser. And finally to my utter surprise, it condensed into a solid cube about 1cm in diameter.
Dropping the mind wall, the cube fell into my hand. I made sure I had a mind wall lining my hand in case the cube itself was poisonous.
“Oh my, this is amazing!” Jeremy said, his eyes wide as he took the cube from my hand. He started inspecting it as if he was a child fascinated by his new toy.
“Had this ever happened before?” I asked and Jeremy shook his head without taking his eyes off the poison cube.
“Is it poisonous on contact?” Vladimir asked and Jeremy shrugged, proceeding into hand it to Vladimir. Without hesitation Vladimir took it from him; everyone gasped when his hand made contact with skin and a sizzling sound immediately filled our ears, with an acidic taste drifted from his hand.
Without even frowning Vladimir dropped the cube which landed safely on the ground. “Are you okay?
Emily asked, leaning forward quickly and grabbing his hand. Jeremy shot forward as well put his hand on his injured palm. Taking a deep breath he held Vladimir’s hand with both of his hand, making Emily dropped hers; pressing down on his palm using his thumbs and green smoked started coming out of his palms and dissipated.
“Well, at least we found one way to work together.” Kailey said as Jeremy released Vladimir’s palm. Vladimir flexed his hand and nodded to indicate he was fine. Jeremy beamed at me and I gave him a small smile in return.
“We are going to make such a great team!” He exclaimed, making Kailey and John laugh. Out of the corner of my eyes I cast a doubtful glance at Emily, who was putting up a good show at laughing heartedly. Maybe I should read her mind.
“Let’s go to the common room.” John said, standing up from circle and putting his hands in his trousers pocket.
“Let’s show them what a good team we are.” Emily bounced up and swung her arm around Vladimir, who seemed completely unfroze by it. Did they knew each other beforehand?
Shaking my head I followed them out of the room, decided that I was not worth my while to get caught up in their drama. I shouldn’t even have showed off my power; what I needed to do was to keep a low profile, try not to get too involved and focus on getting back to the POE Academy.
That shouldn’t be too hard, would it?
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Here we go! New chapter and new characters :)
I used three people from the contest on here - Kailey Smith by kaileylynn003, John Kuo by thunderdelrock and Steven Clarke by Silence1.
I will dedicate this and the next 2 chapters to you guys ;)
My exams are finished (woohoooo) - buttt I have a field trip on 18th which is going to last 2 weeks :( sorry for this again. But that's pretty much it and wattpad will receive my full attention throughout summer.
I am working out a way for the beta reader thing for those of you who are interested so stay tune for more news.
Another thing is I have made a blog - eeek. Knowing my attention span I don't know how long I will keep doing it for but it's a general blog - so everything that I like to do etc - if you guys want to check it out I am going to put it on the external link.
Hope you guys enjoyed the little Tabigail moment and hope you are ready for the next leg of their adventures :) things are about to get interesting during this trip ;) x