Heroes

Chapter 8: Exam

"Ahhhhhhh."

"Perfect, thanks."

"Is this really necessary? I mean, do people actually do this at check-ups?" I thought this was just something they did on TV. But no, Bruce -who was apparently a well-qualified doctor-  has put me on a cold stainless steel table and checked my eyes, ears, nose, breathing, and he had just finished sticking a something-or-other down my throat. I apparently hadn't slept late at all, so we began the examination at about 8:30 am.

"'Well... yeah. You've never had a check-up before?" Bruce looked troubled by this. I shook my head and his scowl deepened. He turned around and grabbed another tool from the cupboards behind him. It was that rubber-hammer-thing that they hit your knee with.

I chuckled, "I think my reflexes are satisfactory, but go ahead if you want to be kicked in the stomach."

He rolled his eyes and sighed, "We need it for the records. Please just do it."

He seemed so exasperated; I felt bad that he had to deal with me. I shrugged and let him use the rubber mallet. He tapped it against my knee and, as expected, my foot jerked forward instantly and sunk itself into squishy flesh. Bruce grunted and doubled over clutching his thigh. My kick luckily hadn't gone into his stomach, and with my unnatural strength, I was just grateful I didn't break his leg.

Instantly, 2 uniformed agents burst into the 10-foot-wide room, wielding guns. Surprisingly, they didn't point them at me, but rather, they gestured for me to leave the room. I frowned, but I had no idea what was going on, so I let them usher me out. I immediately wondered if I was in trouble for something. I was pretty sure I had plausible deniability for anything that happened; I had warned the doctor about this. But in my experience, authority figures generally don't believe me, which usually leads to near-smiting incidents.

I heard Bruce's voice coming from inside the exam room, "I'm fine, really, I've got this."

The agents stepped out of the room and gestured for me to go back inside the all-white box. I was beyond confused, but I cautiously approached the doorway and peeked my head in. Fortunately, there weren't any alien heads or gruesome creatures, so I walked in and plopped back down onto the table.

"You've got a nasty kick, kid," grunted Bruce. He was still leaning forward to offset the pain in his thigh.

"Sorry, and please don't call me kid," I said. These heroes seemed to have a problem with teenagers and I was going to get it straight before it became a habit. Many terrible monsters have called me 'kid' and I just refused to put up with it.

"So what happened back there? Why did they get guns out?" I asked and watched his reaction closely.

"Nothing you need to worry about yet. It'll be explained along with the rest of our story. Moving on," he clearly wanted to move to a different subject, "Just for the record, how old are you really? And what age did you used to be?" asked Bruce, self-consciously, as if he was insulting my religion.

I hesitated. I wanted to wait before I really revealed anything about me, but this seemed harmless enough.

"I'm immortal at 17, but I'm actually almost 20," Gods, that sounded weirder out loud. "I'm kinda new at this whole, 'god' thing."

My proclamation was received with a series of rapid blinks, as if he was forcing the thought into his head. "I suppose all gods were young at one time. It's just weird to meet a god younger than me," he smiled shyly and with renewed curiosity.

"So, what's the next part of this exam?" I asked in an attempt to break the one-sided awkwardness in the room.

"Since we've gotten the normal check-up done, now we move to the more military-style assessments," he said. That set off warning bells in my head. The only 'military assessment' I've been through is war games with Camp Jupiter, and those didn't exactly go well. But they were pretty fun. With mounting apprehension, I followed Bruce out of the room and into a new room with, surprise, white-brick walls. The floor had school-style carpeted floors and was furnished with a pull-up bar, treadmill, yoga mat, bench press, and a set of metal weights ranging from 10lbs. to 300lbs. How many people do they know that can curl 300 pounds?