The S-Force

6: Kylie

"My name is Catherine Iman." The woman who walked in was tall. Very tall. She even towered over the boys in the room. "I shall be your instructor while you train to join the Super Force. There is no special treatment in this room. Once you step into this room, you are just like anyone else. Your names are as unimportant as your abilities to me. I will not go easy on you at all. You are not up to the cut... YOU'RE OUT! IS THAT CLEAR?"

"Yes ma'am!" We all said.

"I said... IS THAT CLEAR?"

"YES MA'AM!" We bellowed so loud, the room practically shook with the force of our voices.

"Very good! Lesson number one. They better you take to instruction, the better your chances of making it to the Super Force. Let's begin."

A man who couldn't have been more than four years older than me stepped forward and got into a fighting stance before her.

"Your powers can be manipulated in several ways but it also has its limitations. What do you do when you're facing off an opponent and your powers refuse to cooperate?" She walked around the young man then got into a fighting stance in front of him. "You use your brawn and your brains."

She moved quickly and locked her arm around her opponents arms effortlessly. "You must think on your feet. Look out for vulnerabilities and spot them fast."

She swiped her opponents legs with her foot and pinned him down to the floor. "This will keep you alive." She raised her head up slowly and scanned through all of us with her eyes. Her eyes full of deadly concentration. "You over there!" She called out.

Everyone turned over to me. I could feel their collective shock licking at me like a fiery furnace. "You mean me?" I asked dumbly.

"Yes you. Step forward!" She ordered.

I took a step forward, praying to whatever force was out there that my body wasn't vibrating from the fear I felt.

She stood up and faced me. "Stand before me."

"Yes ma'am." I did as I was asked.

"Let's see. You're quite petite but your arms are surprisingly toned. Let me guess... your powers are super strength."

"Oh! Um... telekinesis and extra strength actually so you're not far off."

"Extra strength huh?" She said, obviously bemused. "Impressive."

"Thank you ma'am."

"Now this petite trainee has extra strength along with telekinetic powers." She turned to face the other trainees. "Now unlike super strength, extra strength has more limitations but it's invulnerable which super strength isn't. You can't run out of extra strength and there is no known weakness of extra strength." She turned back to me. "Now lift me up." She ordered.

"Ok ma'am." I hesitantly. I lifted her with ease and raised her into the air, her body laid out across my hands.

"Now when facing an opponent with extra strength or super strength, you use their strength against them." She manoeuvred herself and slipped off my hands, destabilising me completely. She landed on her hands and attempted a kick at my face but I caught it just in time sent her spinning to the floor.

The gasp everyone let resounded throughout the room. I took a step back in fear of what I had done. Was I going to be punished for what I had done? What if what I did was wrong?

"Impressive." Catherine stood up, dusting off her clothes. "Stand aside from the rest of the trainees."

"Yes ma'am."

"You there!" She pointed at a boy with mousy hair. I watched as she put him and a few others on the floor all in a second, feeling sick to my stomach about my fate. Hopefully I got to plead my case.

She directed me to follow her out of the room into the one next to the training room. There was a glass wall that gave us a look inside the next room.

"About what happened back there I-" she raised a hand, putting a stop to my apology and my train of thoughts.

"I am far from angry young trainee." She pulled a lever beside the desk she stood behind and a stone slab slid out of the ground. "Let's see."

I cleared my throat nervously. "Sorry." I apologised when she turned to look at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah here we go." She picked up a slip and clicked it with the top of the stone slab. "Candidate 19X. Kylie McCoy. From the North American facility. The only candidate standing amongst those who came in the same year as she did." She read out from the holographic page that projected out of the slip.

"Uh... yeah... that's me..." I said nervously.

"Impressive."

"Oh! Uh... thank you."

"Abilities are telekinesis and extra strength. Weaknesses: To Be Discovered. So you have no known weaknesses?"

"None as far as I can tell ma'am."

"Well." She clicked the slip closed the same way she'd opened it and put it way. "Discovering your weaknesses should be fun."

I swallowed at her words while she sat down behind her desk and pulled the lever that sent the stone slab back down into the ground.