In a small cafeteria in Calibri, two youths sat eating as they discussed in hush voices.
"According to what I know, less than 0.5 percent of the students in this school are enrolled in the Superhero Training Program," Tris said. "Odds are pretty good that we are the only people with special abilities here."
Mage's eyes widened in surprise, "Less than half of one percent? That's really low."
"And this is even with Calibri being one of the more popular Super schools. I heard the percentage is even lower in some of the other schools." Tris said. "So what can you do?"
"Why would I tell you that?" Mage immediately refuted.
"What's with all the secrecy? It's not like I won't find out sooner or later. Heck, I'll probably find out tomorrow."
Mage was stunned at first; he had refused to tell Tris his superpower out of habit. Back where he came from, no one would voluntarily tell others their powers if they had any. One more secret kept was one more trump card others knew nothing about. This wasn't Oreo anymore though.
"Ok, but you'll have to tell me yours first." Mage said after a moment of silence.
"That's more like it." Tris sipped his soda. "My Superpower is communicating with technology. Not exactly exciting in a school full of kids who can lift cars and breath fire, eh?" He smiled wryly.
"Not at all," Mage hurriedly shook his head. "Your Superpower has a lot of potential. If you work hard in the future, I'm sure that it won't be impossible to become an official Hero."
Tris gave a wry smile, "You don't have to console me, I know my own potential well enough. Besides, I don't believe am the one with the most useless power this batch."
Mage's expression immediately turned awkward at that. Tris noticed it immediately as a thought formed in his head, "Don't tell me… What's your ability?"
A little embarrassed, Mage cleared his throat. "Uh well, I steal things."
"What do you mean 'You steal things'?"
"I meant exactly that. Let me show you." Mage said as he lightly brushed his hand against Tris's. He then lifted his left hand to show the item in it, it was a wallet. Tris's wallet.
Tris's eyes widened as he patted himself down to find out that his wallet truly had disappeared. "Nice. So you steal things."
"Yeah, as long as I have physical contact with a person, I can steal almost any item on his body. It's a little more than parlor tricks actually." Mage was still feeling a little embarrassed and inferior. After all, compared to petty thievery, communicating with technology was a Godly skill.
"Forgive me for being blunt, but with your ability, I don't think you could have passed the screening tests. So how did you get in?" Tris looked puzzled.
"Well, I am here now." Mage replied succinctly.
"Ok" Tris said. How could he not notice Mage avoiding the subject? He just kept quiet to respect the other party's wish.
"Geez, would you look at the time? We had better start heading back." Mage said suddenly.
"Good call," Tris played along.
Mage sighed and pushed away his tray tat still had a few potato chips on them. Picking up his can of soda, he walked away from the table and dumped his refuse in the bin as he made his way to the exit.
Interesting… Tris murmured as he stood up and quickly went after Mage. "Hey, wait for me!"
…
In a large expanse of land in the middle of somewhere, there stood a large mansion. There were two sentry towers in front of the mansion gates and armed guards patrolling the estate.
Sounds of intense fighting could be heard from a particular room in the mansion as a young man tapped on his game controller. "C'mon, C'mon…" He muttered as he furiously tapped away at his pad. "NO!" He suddenly cried, smashing the game controller on the floor and scaring the silent man in servant garbs standing near the door.
Just then, there was a knock on the door. The man standing near the door recovered and asked, "Who?" There was a pause, before a voice sounded from the other side of the door, "It's me." The man dressed as a servant must have recognized the voice, for he opened the door immediately.
An elderly man stepped into the room. He was dressed in a black suit; he also had a white towel hung over his left arm. He respectfully came over to the side of the young man and bowed as he said, "Young master, it's almost time for the orientation ceremony to begin. You should get going if you're to make it in time."
"How long exactly?" The young man turned to look at the butler.
"The dean will give the opening speech for freshers in exactly…" The elderly butler looked down at his watch, "… 7 hours and 15 seconds… 14 seconds."
"I can make it in 5." The young man replied, staring longingly at the smashed game controller.
"The master instructed me to make sure you were gone 7 hours before the ceremony begins." Said the butler.
The young man frowned at the words, "I've made up my mind. There's still time for one more game."
"But…"
"You may leave" The young man interrupted with a cold tone.
Sighing helplessly, the butler bowed and proceeded to leave the room. Watching the man leave, the frown on the young man's face disappeared as he softly commanded, "Bring another controller."
The man near the door moved with great familiarity and brought out a new controller which he handed to the young man. Moments later, there was another loud shout, followed by the sound of something being smashed into the floor.