Permafrost

Chapter Three

As everybody filed in through the doors, tension was high in the air, ready to snap at a moment's notice. Of course, excitement was sprinkled in, and maybe a little anticipation, but it was happening.

The tests were about to begin.

Purpled took a look around the building, trying to absorb every detail of the place. He had an inkling of what was going to take place, something about a fight, but he didn't know who it was going to be against, or how it could push their powers out if they had one.

"All right, class!" a voice barked out, making a few students flinch. A tall man with messy black hair held up with a white bandana marched into the room, and Purpled recognized him immediately.

"Sapnap!" he heard the other students exclaim softly to themselves, and they grinned at the realization.

The man's fiery eyes scanned everybody, and when they landed on Purpled, he laughed, flashing a wide smile. "Well! Dream finally managed to drag you out of the house!"

Feeling the eyes of everybody, he pushed his hands lower into the sweater's pockets and mumbled, "Yeah."

Nodding, he walked into the center of the room, arms behind his back. "It's good to see you here. Now, take a seat everyone. It's time we review on our history."

The soft groans voiced exactly what everybody was feeling about a history lesson, but slowly settled down on the hard stone floor to listen in. Purpled himself already knew everything about their history, as he had been interested in it ever since he got his ice powers. It was a very colorful history, too, but he frowned at Sapnap, wondering how he was going to make this fight seem like a life-or-death situation.

"So!" Sapanp clapped his hands together, and it made an echo across the place. "Welcome to the arena! It's just another room inside of his ridiculously large castle, but it has been home to many students just like you who have suddenly come out with their powers, completely surprising them. Can any of you guys tell me what it is exactly that makes a power come out?"

A student raised his hand, and when Sapnap nodded to her, cleared her throat. "It can be different things," she started, letting her words roll over the room. "But for the most part it's when a person feels a very strong emotion, whether that be joy, anger, or grief. Rarely, though, can somebody find their power through a natural circumstance."

He nodded. "Beautifully said. Now, I will mention that a lot of you guys may not have powers at all. The majority of the world doesn't. So, if at the end of the day you find out that you can't bend plants to your will, don't be upset. But, with these fights, our aim is to try and get you to feel any certain emotion that will help you to show your powers."

The thing stuck in Purpled's throat hardened and fell like a rock into his stomach. Sapnap didn't know that he had powers. He also didn't know that he wanted the said powers to stay hidden forever. He had requested that Dream tell nobody, not even his closest friends.

Sapnap, no matter how often he tried to hack at him to get them out, still didn't quite believe that he had no powers. Sadly, he wasn't wrong, because Purpled had been able to form ice since he was five. Which he was forced to learn to control ever since then. When Dream adopted him at age eleven, he was able to hold back his magic so that anybody who knew him would never have guessed he had powers.

It had been . . . a tactical move. As he was reading through their history, he learned that some people who had powers could eventually lose it as they grew older, and even though he had been eight at the time, he knew that was exactly what he needed to make everybody think happened to him.

He wasn't stupid. His last parents, plus Punz, made sure of that. But now they thought he was weaker than he really was, which was honestly just fine with him. Unconsciously, though, he shifted his cat's watch, feeling the cool, bumpy texture and calming his jumpy heart.