The Khalanium Blades

Chapter 8: The Specials

Jane was already pretty tired after stretching and a few laps around the training room. For some reason, though there were no air conditioners, the environment was still quite cool and evaporated every drop of sweat. Rob clapped his hands, and the three teenagers were called back for a drink. "It feels weird, ya know, since we usually have about a hundred other kids running with us at school." Jane uttered to the two other boys in between her breaths. They agreed, rapidly gulping the cold water they had been provided.

Rob walked over to them. "Now a few programmers and I have prepared an activity for you all. It will involve falling, unfortunately, but your powers have given you increased stamina and will lessen the impact of your falls." The boys were clearly excited, while Jane was horrified at the thought of falling multiple times. But she didn't want to look like a wimp, so she just said, "Sounds interesting." Rob smiled.

He turned back and shouted to the walls, "Obstacle Boxes." The teens didn't understand, until technology showed them clearly. The big square white tiles that composed the walls and ceilings suddenly protruded out. Now multiple big boxes floated around in a straight direction from where they originated. When all got to a specific place in the middle of the air, they stopped stood still. All three were amazed and shocked at how the seamless boxes did that.

Rob walked towards the small group of three and explained the "activity". "Here you will see all these random white boxes all floating in mid-air. Now you may be asking, 'How did you do that?' but all that is unnecessary for now."

He faced the boxes and stared at the nearest one, which was floating the lowest. "Now the goal is to never stop jumping on top of these." He ran and leaped for the lowest. Then he instantly hopped onto another. "But once you stand still for more than eight seconds, the box will turn red and you will be tossed aside. Ray could finally see the worry in Jane's eyes. "It's fine," He said

Sam threw up his hands. "Come on, let's just get this over with."

Rob came down and started the stopwatch on his watch. "Sam, you go first, then Ray and Jane." Sam locked his eyes on the first one; he wasn't intimidated by the meaningless warnings. He ran and jumped like there was no tomorrow. All his energy built up by the time in bed was almost overpowering himself. One foot was already off the box, almost losing balance. He gathered momentum for the second one.

The rest followed and soon they were jumping around like a bunch of tall monkeys. Soon Jane slipped and gently landed on her feet and hands, Sam's overconfidence and energy overthrew him, and Ray stood victorious, being the winner just before he lost his balance and fell. They took a break while Rob congratulated them all for doing better than any other "test subjects". Rob squatted. "Okay. Look, this test has been passed successfully and from now on, you three will be training with me for the next two weeks."

The trio looked at each other. Some expressions said it was fine, while others said it sounded tiring. "Well, it sounds interesting, as long as we finally get back home, our real home, once we complete our purpose." Ray said, standing up. Rob nodded and put his hands on the boy's shoulder. "Of course, of course." Sam and Jane smilied. It didn't sound that hard, besides, they were going back home! But how long could their parents survive without them?

* * * 

"It has been two full days in the hands of PROTECT," Jane wrote in her new journal Rob gave her. She was sitting on her bed, legs crossed, trying to remember the events that had happened during that period. She was going to continue when she heard laughing on the other side of the wall. It was her noisy neighbors. "Hey! Keep it quiet over there!" She yelled, and all of a sudden Sam and Ray shut their mouths. But Sam couldn't hold it. "Like you aren't. You're louder than both of us!" They once again burst into laughter. Jane didn't know what was funny.

"Tomorrow we were told two new teens would be joining us after training. I wonder what would happen after that," She wrote. "Well, here goes another sleepless night, hopefully without tears this time." And with that she turned off the lamp that stood on the desk she requested. But Sam and Ray were already asleep. Slight sounds of Sam snoring were audible from the other side of the presumably thin walls. But something happened in the night the three would never know until morning.

A bright light awoke Jane's senses. She stirred until her head was off the bed. She was now fully awake, quickly reaching out to turn the lamp off. Wait. I didn't turn the lamp on. She realized. The desk was moved further away from her, in the exact middle of the room. What really shook her momentarily was the fact that there was another twin bed, placed adjacent to hers of the left corner. The outline of a body was visible under the blankets.

She stood up and wanted to see who was her new roommate. A leather book was found at the feet on the person, identical to her journal. She slowly uncovered the person's face which was hidden by the sheets. An innocent teenage girl's face was all she saw. She had brown hair and brown eyes. Nothing much to describe. Jane quietly backed away, trying to figure out what time it was. Surely if she woke then it would have been six in the morning, but it was the lamp.

Then, as she returned to bed, trusting anyone to wake her in time for breakfast, the mysterious girl rose up in an instant. She looked at Jane, who was returning the stare. "Um...hello?" Jane said, watching the girl's sleepy face. "Hi. I'm Sarah," she said.

Jane smiled. "I'm Jane. And for all we know it could be around three in the morning, and I know you're very sleepy, but right now I think we both want answers. Right?"

Sarah nodded, and slapped her face to keep her from sleeping. Jane sat face to face. "So Sarah, how did you get here? My friends and I all came just after we all got struck by lightning and got superpowers."

At the mention of "superpowers", Sarah's eyes brightened up. "You have superpowers? Cuz my twin brother and I have them too!" Now both were intrigued as they felt a connection between them. "For some reason, I was also zapped by lightning and could shoot laser beams out of my eyes. My brother is plainly an enhanced ninja, master of all the fighting styles known and unknown. And he's faster than usual. Like a ninja."

Jane nodded. "I can blow literal people away and maybe create tornadoes, while my friends, Sam and Ray, has superhuman strength and heat powers respectively." She was proud of her powers, though she did think shooting lasers was also very cool. Now the two girls talked long into the rest of the night, while the boys also had their surprise.

Sam and Ray met Carson, Sarah's twin, who then engaged conversations like the girls. No one, though, really understood what the twins arrived for. The five Specials were going to be made into a formidable team indeed.