The Black Box

26

Kevin switches places with Sophie and gets tested.

"You're a very good enhancement that will help us against The Alliance, Kevin," says Noah, still looking at his screen.

"What is it?" asks Kevin. You can see that he's nervous.

"Oh. You can control the shafts of caves underneath the ground and summon stones. You don't have gray eyes though."

"Am I supposed to have gray eyes?"

"Not necessarily. Like I'm an intellect enhanced and I don't have yellow eyes."

"Yellow eyes?"

"Who knows."

"I guess it's your turn now Annabeth," I tell her. She looks at me like I should go before her. She goes up to Noah and gets her finger pricked and eyes scanned.

"Hmm," says Noah after looking at his screen. He's looking at Annabeth.

"What's making you hum?" she asks.

"That you have more than one too."

"Are you kidding me? I think I've gotten my history messed up or history got messed up," says Jess.

"Jeez Jess, calm down."

"I will not," she says before she storms out of the room.

"What's she going to do?" I ask Noah. Everyone's looking at the doorway where Jess stormed out.

"Probably kill something," says Noah, going back to Annabeth's test results. "Or punch a punching bag until it breaks."

"Ok, so Annabeth, you have a very interesting combination of enhancements," says Noah, looking at her.

"What's the combination?" she asks.

"That is...If I can name it," answers Noah.

"Name it?"

"Yeah. Your enhancements have never been...discovered, I guess, and I cannot tell you your end result because I have a lack of information."

Annabeth has a very placid face right now. She might be screaming inside and just not showing it. Or she's taking it slow, making it seem less serious than it is.

She has enhancements that have never been found before.

"Well it's your turn now Peter," says Annabeth with a smug look on her face. Jess comes back, putting a dagger into her belt. I saw a glimpse red on the blade.

I take her place next to the machine. Noah takes a needle and pricks my finger. It hurts a little but not too bad. He puts my blood on a tray and takes something that resembles a pen. He puts it to my eyes and I see red for a couple of seconds. He takes it away and I can blink the black dots across my vision away.

He inserts the "pen" and presses something on his screen. He scrolls through what's on the screen.

"Does anyone want anything to eat?" asks Jess.

"I'll go," says Adam.

"Me too," says Kevin.

One by one everyone left. The only people left were Jax, Noah, and I. I didn't even notice that Navi was in the room the entire time until he left.

"You have very life-saving enhancements Peter," says Noah when everyone is gone. His eyes are obviously glued to the screen.

"What are they though?" I ask, trying to understand what's on the machine's screen.

"You can withstand subzero and blazing hot temperatures without hesitation. Basically, you're someone that cannot be frozen or burned severely."

"So if I shoot him with one of my projectiles, it won't hurt him?" asks Jax, looking at me. He clearly wants to try me as dummy and fire his projectiles at me for practice.

"I'm not finished Jax. But yes, you could," says Noah. "Peter, you can also heal at an amazing rate."

"Heal at an amazing rate? Does that mean if I get stabbed, I can heal automatically?" I ask him.

"Kind of. Not quick enough that you could grow back an arm in a blink of an eye. Depending on what kind of injury, it takes different amounts of time."

"So a cut would take, like five minutes?"

"More or less."

"And not leave a scar?"

"It could, like regular injuries. Or not. That enhancement is very rare so we haven't studied it very often." Noah presses a few buttons on his machine and turns it off. "Well, we can start your training right away if you want."

"Training?" asks Jax.

"Yeah. You have to be taught how to use your enhancers. It also prepares you to go against The Alliance. We all know that we're headed for war. Now come on, let's catch up with the others."

Noah motions us towards the door and we walk into the hallway and into The Shaft.