The air hanger was enormous. A dozen women and men in military uniforms stood in the centre of the hanger. The highest ranking among them was a tall powerfully-built woman. She held in her hands a stack of documents, information on the first group of candidates to join the Civillian Special Forces Training Scheme, C-S-F-T-S.
One of the soldiers' groaned. He held his head in his hands and complained, "Babysitting, that's what it is. Bunch of kids with egos bigger than my ass. Superpowers or not, doesn't change shit."
The tall powerfully-built woman looked down at him. The other soldier was burly and broad-shouldered, but the seven feet of lieutenant standing next to him made him look small by comparison.
Lieutenant Rodgers eyed the soldier coldly, "The assignment is to teach them. You don't sound like a teacher."
The soldier wanted to disagree, he wanted to retort angrily and try to talk some sense into the lieutenant. He held his tongue. Disrespecting a commanding officer wasn't a simple offence. The punishment wasn't simple either.
The hanger doors opened. A soldier lead a group of young women and men inside. The groups' expressions ranged from excitement to irritation.
"Lieutenant Rodgers!" The soldier saluted and addressed his superior officer.
Lieutenant Rodgers nodded in acknowledgement. The soldier saluted again and turned to leave. The fading footsteps echoed loudly in the silent room.
The doors swung shut behind the soldier. The hanger was silent again.
Lieutenant Rodgers looked across the thirty unfamiliar faces. From their posture, body language and expressions, she formed an initial impression of each candidate.
"My name is Lieutenant Rodgers. The individuals behind me will introduce themselves to you as, and when, is necessary. You will address them as sir or miss." Lieutenant Rodgers addressed the group.
The group's attention was fully focused on the imposing soldier in camoflauge uniform. Her voice was the only sound in the hanger. The invisible authority that surrounded the lieutenant temporarily subdued the various emotions in the group.
"Your first lesson is situational awareness. All of you, stand behind an officer." The lieutenant instructed.
The group looked about unsurely. Then, a young man with messy brown hair stepped out and lined up behind one of the soldiers. The rest of the group stopped hesistating and did the same.
The lieutenant looked at the recruit who'd stepped out first more closely. She recognised his face from his file. Two supernatural incidences, both violent attacks from unknown threats. Both neutralised while protecting civillians on the scene.
The record wasn't the most outstanding among the ones she'd read. In fact it was perhaps the least noteworthy of them all. Every other individual in the group was gifted in one way or another, they could do things that an ordinary person could only dream about. Alex's file stated excellent physical fitness and tactical thinking, after a few months of basic training, any new recruit could be described in the same way. The section for superhuman abilities was left empty.
"Good. Officers, please begin drill number one." The lieutenant commanded.
The soldiers nodded in unison and began moving towards their designated section of the hanger. The two or three young people behind them followed. The only sound in the hanger was footsteps.
The lieutenant remained in the centre of the room. She watched the officers lead their candidates to their zones. She wondered how they would react to the first drill.
The soldier Alex had stood behind was a woman of medium height and slim build. There was no special reason he'd stood behind her, she'd simply been the closest to him.
The carefully layered restrictions on his muscles and bones were still operating silently, but his senses functioned at a level nearly twice as acute as a regular person. Alex smelled a faint salty scent from the unknown soldier.
After his enrollment into the programme a week ago, Dr Molay had sent over a more detailed description of the scheme. He wasn't entirely sure why she'd offered him a place.
The term civillian in the course title was misleading. The people who made up the group, all of them between eighteen and twenty-three, weren't ordinary people. All of them possessed superhuman abilities. He stuck out like a sore thumb.
'Maybe she's testing me.' Alex thought to himself.
He didn't know what Dr Molay's motivations for placing him in the scheme where. If she suspected that there was more to him than an ordinary boy from Detroit, then he would make sure he proved her suspicions were incorrect.
The soldier stopped. The concrete beneath her boots bulged slightly. Something was hidden underneath. She stomped her foot and the ground began to shake.
The shaking spread across the hanger as the other officers did the same action. Buildings began rising from the floor. Within a minute an entire town had risen up from beneath the earth.
Alex could hear the whine of machinery straining beneath the ground. The appearance of the buildings was the result of clever engineering, not supernatural powers.
The soldier leading Alex's group of three smiled. Alex didn't detect any friendliness in the expression. She addressed them, "We're going to play a little game."
"I need a volunteer." She asked.
The other two didn't move. Alex raised his hand. He didn't know what the soldier was planning, but he wasn't afraid. He was used to situations spiralling beyond his expectations.
The soldier smiled at him, "Perfect."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a handgun. The eyes of the other two in the group widened.
"Catch."
Alex caught the gun easily. He turned it over in his hand.
The soldier slammed the side of her fist into a lampost. A hollow ringing sound was produced. The lampost hissed suddenly and opened to reveal two hunting rifles. The soldier grabbed both and threw one each to the other two candidates.
The rifles had calibrated sights and polished barrels. They were much larger than the handgun alex was holding.
"Don't piss yourselves. They're rubber bullets." The soldier said. The look in her eyes and tone of her voice suggested that she was dissapointed at the decision.
The false enthusiasm with which she spoke was heavy and uncomfortable. She sounded like a parent persuading a child to get into bed, "We're doing a treasure hunt! Two teams. Team two you're lucky, you've got an extra player!
The nifty town we're standing in is a simulation-zone. Everything in those buildings is exactly the same as you'd see in the real world.
Team one, you're on your own. You get a head start! In those buildings are treasure chests with goodies inside. Find em' and you might not get shot in the ass!
Team two you're trying to hit him. Team one you're trying to survive for as long as possible. You get time added onto your score if you hit em' back. I've got cameras everywhere so there'll be no cheating."
The two candidates blinked and looked down at their weapons. Alex quietly took the safety off his gun. Volunteering had put him at a disadvantage. For searching buildings and shooting guns, two was considerably better than one.
"Any questions?" The soldier asked.
Alex raised his hand, "Can I only use a gun?"
The soldier smiled knowingly, "Good question. We weren't allowed to give you guys anything you could kill one another with. The vests you're wearing judge impact force. Hit em hard enough with anything and it'll register."
Alex nodded and replied, "Thank you."
His eyes roamed about the town. Colourful red lines divided up their section from the rest of the buildings. He analysed which buildings had the most easily accessible escape routes.
One of the candidates in team two raised their hand. Both of Alex's opponents were women. One had spiky hair dyed purple and the other had oddly long arms that dangled almost to the floor, "Can we use our powers?"
The soldier smiled and nodded, "Go crazy kids."
The woman with spiky hair and her teamate with long arms exchanged wide smiles. It was the first time in their entire lives an adult had told them to let loose with their abilities.
"You've got sixty seconds. Run!"
Alex's shoes squeaked and he pushed off the ground like a sprinter. His speed made the two opponents he was up against consider him more seriously.
Alex hurried to leave his opponent's vision. He ran for nearly twenty seconds before turning a corner and dissapearing out of their sight. He knew he didn't have much time. He spotted a coffee shop complete with everything except customers and dashed inside.
Mannequins sat at the tables stiffly holding cups of motionless brown liquid. Alex scanned the room for a treasure chest. The soldier hadn't provided any description of what the chests looked like, he could only hope that she was speaking literally. He glanced out the front door. His internal clock told him he still had thirty more seconds.
The stairs slowed him down only slightly. He burst out through a set of doors onto the second floor. In the centre of the room was an old wood chest. He grinned and quickly threw open the lid.
Three grenades were nestled in the bottom of the chest, alongside a cartridge of bullets. The cartridge didn't match his handgun but he grabbed it anyways and stuffed it into his pocket. He picked up the grenades and noticed the word smoke written on all of them in small red letters.
There was nothing else in the chest that could be used. He stood up and raced back down the stairs. Before he left the shop he snatched an jar from the counter. The sticker on the jar read tips and contained a handful of fake plastic change.
The streets were the best playing field for him. The sprint he'd shown earlier was at the level of a world-record runner. That kind of speed could only be caught up with by an equally gifted athlete or a suitable superpower.
The woman with long arms likely had some sort of enhanced strength. There was no obvious giveaway as to what the powers of her teamate with spiky hair might be. The fact she was in the programme meant she either wasn't strong or smart enough to be a superhero. Neither of his opponents looked like they'd recieved systematic training. Their postures were sloppy and they unguardedly displayed their emotions.
"Go, go, go!"
Alex heard the soldier's shout. He gripped the handgun tighter and moved his thumb to the pin of the smoke grenade. He'd put at least a hundred meters between himself and his opponents.
The spiky-haired woman and the woman with long arms dashed forwards in the direction Alex had gone. They were both grinning happily. The idea of conserving their energy or pacing themselves hadn't occured to either of them. They sprinted as fast as they could.
Within fifty meters their chests started to burn. The woman with spiky hair gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep running, but her teamate with long arms staggered and had to stop. Her knuckles touched the floor as she stood bent over and panted.
The spiky haired woman's impatience surged, "Come on!"
The woman with long arms cursed under her breath and looked up. Her glare towards her teamate was fierce, but she suppressed her irritation and started to run again. This time more slowly.
The hunting rifles both had a small screen that displayed the number of bullets inside in red lettering. The gauges read twelve.
Suddenly, they heard footsteps. Around the corner from them, Alex raced off into an alley.
"Follow him!" The purple haired woman yelled and hurried to catch up. The woman with long arms gritted her teeth and followed after her. The soreness in her legs grew more painful and she swore loudly.
Alex's opponents could hear him. And he could hear them as well. He burst out from the alley and onto a new street. He ran to the corner of a building and listened intently for the sound of footsteps.
His opponents stumbled out onto the same street. Sweat had plastered the hair of the long-armed woman to her forehead. She looked as if she were about to pass out. The spiky-haired woman was less out of breath, but breathing rapidly as well.
They suddenly spotted Alex peek out from behind a building at the end of the street. He looked at them for an instant and then was gone.
The spiky-haired woman swore and pulled the trigger. The rifle jumped back as it recoiled and slammed against her shoulder. She swore again, this time from pain. "Fuck!"
The woman with long arms took great gulps of air. She steadied herself against the side of a building, "This isn't working. He hears us coming and runs. My arms are strong but he's too far away for me to throw anything at him. We need to move quietly, if he can't hear us, he won't know where we are, we can get the jump on him."
There were short gaps between each sentence as she caught her breath. The purple-haired woman bit her lip, the adrenaline in her veins urged her to keep chasing. After a few moments of internal struggle she grunted in acknowledgement of her teamates explanation, "You're right."
Alex hid a few streets away. He waited for the sound of footsteps to appear again. He realised after a minute of waiting that his opponents had changed their tactics.
'Smart.' He thought to himself.
The heavy footsteps and noisy breathing gave away their positions before they could get anywhere near to him. So far they'd only managed to fire a round into empty space. They were smart enough to realise that they needed a better strategy if they wanted to catch him.
The fact he was being pursued didn't make Alex feel afraid. The thrill of walking on a tightrope between retreat and attack was gradually revealing itself to him. He listened to his heart thud in his chest. The feeling it gave him was like listening to a beautiful piece of music.
He scanned the street. He spotted a reflection in the glass pane of a clothes store. The purple hair was unmistakeable.
He sprinted back the way he'd came. His opponents only managed to catch sight of a flash of brown hair before he vanished into the network of streets and alleys.
The game had been going for just over five minutes. In one of the other zones a man laughed wildly and flew through the air. He joyfully unloaded his rifle at the ground below. A figure below crouched and cried out with pain. Webs emerged uselessly from his mouth and covered the shop windows of the stores around him.
Games of cat and mouse were taking place in every zone. Nearly half had already ended. The hunting teams with two players had a significant advantage. The candidates who still hadn't been caught displayed either quick-thinking or remarkable abilities.
The lieutenant watched a young woman spray fire from her palms and force her opponents to stop firing. The young woman then hastily escaped while her opponents backed away from the raging flames.
Scenes from across the huge anger were displayed on the tablet in her hands. She looked at the feed of the young man who stood out amongst the superpowered candidates.
He was being pursued by two other candidates. His pursuers had switched their hunting rifles for larger semi-automatic guns. The situation was precarious.
Alex still only had the handgun and smoke grenades he'd found in the first treasure box. His opponents had been silent for several minutes and then reappeared not long ago wielding sleek semi-automatic weapons. Every so often a hail of bullets would ricochet off the corners of the building he was hiding behind.
Twenty minutes had elapsed since the game ended. The other teams had all finished now. The candidates had reassambled in the centre. The soldiers under her command all stood behind the liuetenant, watching the single remaining feed on her tablet with focused expressions.
The candidates looked at one another and began to whisper. They couldn't see what was happening on the lieutenant's screen, but they knew that three members of the group were still missing.
The lieutenant noticed the whispering and the subtle change in the atmosphere. She whispered a command into a microphone in her collar.
A light on the ceiling flicked on. A machine whirred to life and beams of light appeared from all directions. The beams flickered and gathered together. A hologram was constructed in mid-air.
The candidates stopped whispering and focused on the screen.
"Come out you slippery fucker!" The woman with spiky hair roared and fired her weapon.
The bullets shattered the window of a store. The glass collapsed noisily and glittering shards scattered across the pavement. Alex had already ducked around the corner by the time the weapon fired.
The crowd laughed as a hand suddenly poked out from the corner. The trigger was pressed and the gun fired. The hand dissapeared just as swiftly as it had emerged. The spiky-haired woman groaned painfully and doubled over, clutching her stomach. The vest she was wearing beeped to notify her that a fatal impact had been detected.
Pride was a volatile emotion. The spiky-haired woman screamed, "I'll fucking kill you!"
She brought her hands together. Arcs of crackling purple energy leaped between her palms. Her spiky hair floated up as if some invisible wind was blowing.
The spiky-haired woman hadn't used her powers until this point in the game. The building energy between her palms was powerful, but without being able to hit the target it was useless. She shouldn't have used her abilities, just like her teamate's long arms they simply weren't suited to the task.
Her thoughts were so clouded with frustration and anger that she didn't care. The energy crackled even more fiercely and reached bursting point. She screamed and released it towards the building where Alex had last been standing.
The purple energy surged forwards with a blinding flash. The temperature of the air soared. The energy blast struck the building. The windows that hadn't already been destroyed by gunfire shattered instantly. The blast threw up thick clouds of dust that washed across the street.
When the dust cleared, the charred exterior of the building was revealed. Everything inside was blackened as well. Arcs of purple energy still occasionally jumped between the mannequins who'd been positioned as shoppers browsing the grocery store.
"The first drill is now over. Officers, return with your recruits to zone zero. Candidates, do not attempt to fire your weapons or use your abilities. Violation of my order will be considered insurbordination and you will be asked to appear in military court." The lieutenant's voice echoed through the hanger. Her voice was broadcast through speakers in the walls.
Alex wiped the soot from his eyes. He caught sight of his reflection in a pane of glass and laughed. He looked like a panda with white eyes and black fur.
The candidates looked at him intently as he returned to the center of the hanger. They'd watched on the hologram as he relied on superior fitness and tactics to leave his opponents helpless. Bullets meant nothing if they couldn't hit the target. They'd fired off hundreds of rounds, but not even one had come close to hitting him.
The lieutenant's judgement hadn't changed. Any recruit with a few months of training and exercise could do what Alex had did. His opponents had been unfit and undisciplined civillians. Their advantage in numbers had only served to create opportunity for infighting betweem them.
Alex's performance was merit-worthy. If he'd been a recruit from basic training he would've impressed her. But the playing field wasn't even. Without a superpower, Alex would only ever be suited to play damage control while powered-individuals tackled the threat.
The lieutenant was aware of her own bias. She knew that tactically, Alex's perfomance was by far the best in the group. His only weakness was being an ordinary person.
'Sometimes being ordinary isn't enough.' The lieutenant thought to herself.
In this drill, the conditions had favoured maneuverability and stamina. Alex happened to be paired against two opponents who lacked both. In the next drill he wouldn't be so lucky.