Endless Skys

Chapter 2

Serra watched at chunks of concrete retracted into the ground as stations emerged. They ranged in size with the biggest one seeming like a bomb shelter. Everyone seemed intrigued by it and be an gravitating towards it. A woman in a spaghetti strap shirt and shorts walked out. She introduced herself as Dr. Melissa, but said we could just drop the doctor. She then explained this was the room to test new skills so that we wouldn't destroy the other stations or get a jump on other subjects. Clearly no one had learned anything new yet but they were all curious as to what the others could do, so Serra proposed that they would each take turns removing their rings and demonstrating their new gifts. They they didn't go in any real order, but Serra was amazed that the powered ranged from new body parts like wings, tails, and gills, to things like a protective field, or even the ability to allow certain body parts to pass right through things. As it played out she was the final person to remove the ring. Her heart began to pound, as even she herself didn't know exactly what she should do. She prepared herself, and whipped off the ring.

Her reveal was extremely uneventful compared to others, and Serra was surprised when she didn't have any new visible changes, although she didn't falter as not everyone did. She apologized as she suddenly felt incredibly self conscious. She then proceeded to focus all of her attention to different objects that laid scattered around, or places that she wanted to be. Sadly nothing worked.

"Come on Serra! We all showed you what we could do, now you show us." A girl names Pricilla said. She seemed like one of those popular girls that fed off the attention of others.

"Im sorry i cant seen to be able to do anything... Maybe I was a failure?"

"Clearly you were. Here we all are showing how amazing we are now, because of the radiation unlocking our greatest potential, but clearly this was as far as you could go" she sneered. It seemed pretty obvious that this chick had issues that she had been dying to release for the past week or so, and had found her as an easy target. The Witch,as Serra would now call her, and a lot of the others then walked off, leaving only Tyler, a tall gangly boy named Phillip, and a short energetic girl who called herself Sparky remaining. Serra paced nervously in circles, trying to think of anything that she could do. She began snapping the strap of her shirt, an old habit that she couldn't seem to break, as she saw a discarded piece of mirror on she ground behind her. She also noticed that she had an intricate... What looked like a tattoo on her back. Among a second look it revealed that they were in the shape of wings, and she had a similarly intricate but tiny drawing of a keyhole on her stomach area. She knew that she hadn't had this before so she focused all her energy on the designs. They started to glow a pale white light, and suddenly with a burst of wind, very common to Tyler's, she felt a new power flowing from her back. She heard a collective gasp from her viewers, as Tyler too removed his ring. They hung them on chains around their neck, so they wouldn't loose them, and almost in perfect synch, the two ran out the door, and hurdled into the sky. Serra watched Tyler preform beautiful dips and spins as he danced through the air, and she felt invigorated. She now realized that she could now get a perfect view of the building and gazed down marvelling at the scenes around her. Serra saw the bright blue ocean as the light reflected off it, she turned around and saw on the opposite side of the building there was a sprawling forest, with massive trees and birds gliding through the air. It was then she realized that they no longer needed an escape plan. They could go now!

"Tyler!" She yelled as she waved him down

"we can be free! We just have to fly out!" Tyler instantly shook his head. He didn't speak, just pointed up where birds seemed perched on thin air. "There's a shield..." She moaned. Tyler nodded his head.

"We should go back down." He responded, finally talking

"But I'm not sure how to land" he added.

" let's race! First one down wins!"

"You're on!" Tyler roared as he immediately tucked in his wings and began to dive.

She too had fallen into a dive and was now plummeting towards the earth. She didn't want to risk going... Well SPLAT! like a bug, as did Tyler, so the began easing their wings open as not to catch too much wind. Serra finally reached the ground and opted for a roll, and perfectly executed it, landing gracefully. Tyler, however, was too going to fast, and ended up crashing into a pile of boxes near the buildings entrance. He bounced up and walked away quickly, admitting defeat, but turning and smiling. It warmed Serra to see a smiling face again.

Now she was left with the task of finding out how to return her wings to her tattoos. She bent forward and make awkward positions, but to no avail. She then arched her back in an attempt to stretch, only to hear a "woosh!" As her wings retracted into her back. Because she posed no harm, the instructed allowed her to continue without her ring, so she decided to visit an unused station. This was a difficult choice, as here were many different skills to learn. She finally decided that she wouldn't want to be alone so she joined Phillip at a rest station, which caused her to laughed to herself, as he hadn't done anything but already needed a brake. She walked up and said hi. They started talking and she found out that he was from Canada, as was she, and he lived in Vancouver. They began to open up about their feelings. Like how they felt about all this and if they missed their old lives. He grabbed a can of pop from a cooler and tossed it at her, but she had turned her head to look at another station where the Witch was expertly throwing spears at a dummy. She instantly regretted getting on her bad side. Phillips yelp brought her back as she caught glimpse of the can flying towards her before it disappeared through her top. She instinctively lifted it, only to reveal a perfectly fine abdomen.

"what was that!" She yelped.

"I was just going to ask the same thing!" He croaked

"could I try that again?"

"Ummm sure? Why not..." Serra said hoping he would hear the uncertainty in her voice. Phillip then picked up a second can, and tossed it at her. She tried her best now to flinch just in case it would effect the outcome. She looked down just in time to see it fly fight through her stomach, with ease. They both stood in shock, until Serra remembered that her ring was still hanging around her neck

"Phillip! This must be another mutation! The keyhole must turn my chest into something like a storage area! Or a black hole..."She squealed with excitement as hoped it wasn't the second option.

"Wow now I'm really beginning to become jealous, but look what I found out" he looked around, checking that no one was watching, removed his ring and hung it around his neck, shut both his eyes, clenched his fists, and was gone. He reappeared a few feet away, smiling like a schoolboy, and then quickly teleported back. Serra noticed that every time he teleported, he left a little mark on the ground as if it had been hit my a mini lighting strike. "Isn't it cool? I was really shocked when I had forgotten to put the ring back on and teleported out of the test area. Its a little awkward at first but you get used to i-" he was suddenly cut off by what sounded like an explosion come for the test area. They gave each other a concerned.

"We should check that out" he said

"Can you teleport others too? Like of you touch hem it affects them too?"

"I dont know, but want to try?" Phillip had that schoolboy grin back as he gently grabbed her hand, not waiting for an answer. He shut his eyes and Serra followed. She was suddenly frozen, then back to normal. She opened her eyes, and they were now in the test area. Before they could continue their discussion hey noticed sparky lying on the ground, being attended to by the outraged Melissa who was furiously barking orders into a walkie-talkie, Serra was glad she wasn't on the receiving end. She looked around and saw the witch talking to her groupies, clearly either oblivious or had something to do with the situation. The witch turned her head to look at the mess of a girl that was lying on the ground, giggled, then noticed Serra. She saw her whisper something and was suddenly in a what seemed to be a void. Two options suddenly popped up. 1. End her own life, 2. Kill Phillip. She heard a voice in the background

"this is my new power, how do you like it? What happens is that I force you to make a choice, and once it's made you must carry it through. If you cant decide, you blow up, or if you don't carry it through. Just like your friend over there. Tsk tsk. Such an indecisive girl. Though she's pretty tough to have stayed in one piece, but i doubt she'll survive. Anyway, who's life will you end? Better hurry up, times- a ticking."