Alvin glanced out the window at the sea of clouds traveling below. In his hand he held seven sheets of paper with eight-hundred and twenty-five numbers on each. He had already done as they requested and discovered the hidden pattern on each of the seven papers.
^Seriously, this is what they use to test my "super brain" a patterns problem?^ Alvin thought inwardly. According to the "special agent" Gilliam, if that was his real name, Alvin was a hypercognitory processor. Which when translated to regular English basically meant Super brain.
^Hypercognitory processing, a fourth grader could solve this problem.^
Alvin was still a little bit reluctant to believe them. Sure he was smarter than most sixteen year-olds but since when was, being a little smarter, a superpower? But as the plane flew further and further from his home in Tallahassee, the more real this whole circumstance seemed. Alvin turned to look at the only other passenger on the plane: Agent Gilliam. For a moment he was tempted to ask Gilliam more questions but he had made it clear that he wouldn't answer anything until they had arrived at whatever undisclosed location this plane was headed to. As he suspected the bureaucrats did not provide him with access to a phone, computer, or anything else that would give him a connection to the outside world. Well, at least they provided comfortable seats. Alvin leaned back into the cushion and let his mind slip into unconsciousness.
He woke to a hand shaking him. Agent Gilliam stood over him, even though his mind was still foggy from sleep he could tell something was wrong. In his half-asleep state it took him a good 10 seconds to process the lack of movement.
"Did I sleep through the landing?"
"Yes, come with me, the other planes have already arrived. It would be bad luck to be late for the reception."
Alvin followed Gilliam out of the plane.
Outside he came to a Giant field that was converted into a macshift air port. Their were several other passager plains.
Suddenly Alvin felt a strange mental sensation.
"Are we in Oklahoma or Kansas?"
"Kansas... how did you know?"
"I'm not sure" And he really wasn't. It was almost like his mind had calculated so fast he didn't know what formula he had used.
"It must just have been a wild guess"
In reply Gilliam just smiled.
The facility was rectangular shaped, painted perfectly white, and without a single window. Gilliam approached the only door and keyed the numbers 1-4-6-3-7 into the electric lock, the door opened and Gilliam stood aside letting Alvin enter the facility. The inside of the facility was painted a dull grey. It appeared that whoever did the interior designing of this place was somewhat lacking in creativity. He was standing in some sort of landing area. Around him were several other kids around his age. In the middle of the landing sat an elderly man who, by the way he stood, indicated that he had the fitness of one much younger. He stood before a microphone. Below the landing was a training arena complete with a shooting range, sparing ring, and obstacle course. In the back of the training arena there was a set of doors that led to unknown parts.
The man on the podium opened his mouth to speak
"Hello there, my name is Colonel Dolce." He began. "You are about to make the most important choice of your life. When you woke up this morning you were ordinary, but now you have a chance to be beyond ordinary. Each one of you has a gift, today you must decide whether or not you will use it. The choice put before you is simple- you can turn around, go back to your plane we will fly you back home to your parents, back to the life you are familiar with. From then on you will live your life, a good one, but an ordinary one. Or you can follow me take a step of faith into the unknown and get a chance at the type of life all seek to have but few get. An extraordinary one."
With that Dolce stepped down from his podium, past the training arena, and through the door at the back. Everyone in the room followed him.
