Episode 12: Are you a god?

Deeno just briefly introduced Liam and Paisley to their assigned instructors, Raijo and Bella, before taking Travis and Brittany off somewhere. Raijo was a little on the shorter side, but one could tell that he was in incredible shape and the same could be said about Bella. However, there was a huge difference between the two. Bella was a bit of a giddy and giggly character, while Raijo owned more of a 'no nonsense' attitude. Bella was decked out in a full pink dress, with white ruffles underneath, that dropped to the top of her knees and a white and pink pair of leggings. Her pearly white shoes were almost like track shoes in the way they wrapped her feet. She had on elegant white gloves and her dirty blonde hair was tied up in pigtails. To everyone that met her, she seemed to be a little more on the childish side. On the other hand, Raijo sported black and grey attire. From head to toe, he seemed to be in light bullet proof armor. The off putting thing was he had on bifocals that didn't match the rest of his look.

"Oh my days, it's so great to meet you both! Deeno ruined my surprise! I wanted to introduce myself. Stinky Deeno!" she said while stomping her foot as if she was having a tantrum. "Anyways, hi guys, I'm Bella and you must be Paisley and Liam right?" Bella said while twirling one of her pigtails in a circle with her finger. "Bella, don't waste their time. I'm sure these kids are tired. Please, both of you follow us and we will show you your rooms." Raijo then started walking while Bella waited for the kids to go ahead before following behind them. They didn't have to walk very far because they arrived at an elevator just around the corner. Raijo swiped some type of card to the left side of the doors before…

Ding

The doors opened and they stepped inside one by one. Bella just couldn't help herself and squealed, "Oh this is so exciting! I get to tell you guys all about the Citadel. And!" Raijo interrupted her, "And all of that will have to wait for them to get some actual rest." The elevator voice spoke somewhat robotically, "You have arrived at floor forty six."

Ding

They stayed in the same order they got on the elevator when they got off of it. Raijo led the group to a set of rooms numbered forty six seventy three and forty six seventy four. "Seventy three is your room Liam and seventy four is Paisley's. We won't keep you guys and take all the time you need to rest. When you both are ready, go down to floor five and we will be waiting." With that, Raijo reached out his hand with his palm up. There were two cards just sitting there. "Take them. They are your identification cards. These are only meant to be used within the Citadel and to prove who you are to other members out in the world."

Both of the kids took the card that had their specific face on it. Liam looked half upset. "Is there a problem?" Raijo asked. "This says my last name is Gray. Right now I can't use that name. I lost my mom and my dad with that name. I don't want it back until I can protect the people around me from bad people like that man." "Listen, that name is just used within our organization and…" Raijo's voice trailed off until he stopped talking entirely. A heavy red color branched out from the pupils in Liam's eyes. As if they weren't mesmerizing enough, after throwing red in the mix they were breathtaking and intimidating. Liam looked at the card with such an intensity that it would have terrified most people. Everyone standing there noticed the card catch on fire, but it wasn't the whole card. Only the part that had the name 'Gray' printed out on it was burning and in the next moment the flames died out. A new name had plastered itself where the old one used to be. The name was 'Sanely' on display for everyone.

"What? How did you do that?" Bella asked. All of the happy go lucky vibes were snatched from her in an instant and replaced with confusion and a stunned look. This kid wasn't even seven years old and yet he had an ability? She couldn't fathom it. Bella wasn't the only one. For the first time in a long time, Raijo had an expression on his face other than the usual serious one. If ever there was a poster child for the emotion of shock, he would definitely be it right now. "You two, rest. Bella, come with me. We need to talk right now." Both instructors speed walked back to the elevator and disappeared behind the doors.

Liam turned to Paisley, "Let's check out our rooms together. I don't want to leave you alone right now." It was funny because Paisley was thinking the exact same thing after his little pyromaniac episode. They decided to go into Paisley's room first. She swiped her card on the reader to the left of the door and it made a similar, but slightly different sound than the elevator. It was more of a 'ping' than a 'ding'. They walked in and saw that the room was pretty plain. Basic furniture and commodities were neatly placed throughout in a way that gave the room the most free space it could have. "I think all of the rooms might be set up like this. Let's check real quick." Liam said as he walked back out and swiped his card in front of his room. When they walked in, it was exactly what Liam thought. "Well, it looks like you were right, little bro. I'm kind of tired to be honest. What about you?" Paisley just wanted to lay down and close the troubles of today out. "Yeah, I think I need some sleep pretty badly. I can tell you need some too just from how crazy your hair looks." Paisley quickly put her hand up and tried pushing her hair back down into place. She stuck her tongue out, "Nobody asked you, small fry." Liam snapped back, "But I'm bigger than you. Doesn't that make you the small fry?" She huffed and stomped her foot after realizing she could have come up with a million other insults, but she had to pick the one that she knew just wouldn't work.

"Hey Pay, I think we should really get some sleep so we can meet the instructors later. I think they want us to be ready. Remember Deeno saying we had to train?" Paisley shook her head and felt like she understood now that resting was for more than just their beauty sleep. She agreed and went back to her room to go to bed, which left Liam alone with his thoughts. He eventually fell back and dozed off into a deep sleep.

Raijo was in his room and Bella was pacing back and forth so hard it seemed like she would make patterns on the floor if she kept it up. "What did we just see? He's not ten! That much is painfully obvious. I mean, has there ever been any other person that has been able to get an ability before they were of age?" She looked down at Raijo sitting on his bed just staring off into space. It was clear he couldn't get away from his thoughts. Bella snapped her fingers directly in his face. "Hello!?! Am I boring you here? I'm freaking panicking! Say something! Did you even hear me?"

Just then Raijo shook his head and gazed up at Bella. He said while sounding unsure, "I heard you, but… No… Um no I… don't think so. He might be the first." He started scratching his head. "This has me all turned around. Bella, if he has an ability…" he was interrupted, "Open your eyes! Of course he has an ability! Do you think he did that with luck and effort? You saw how he was staring at the card! And what was that with his eyes?" Raijo continued where he left off, "Okay. So since we know he has an ability, we have to train him completely differently than Paisley. I don't understand what's going on. I want to call a meeting with the org head. I think we need to come up with a new plan. All we have figured out is the physical training, but he needs to learn a whole lot more than that, don't you think?" Bella sat down in a chair and covered her face with her hands and bent forward with her elbows on her knees. She just couldn't believe the situation that landed right in front of them. They would be the ones who had to get hands on with their new students.

Bella sat up and stared at Raijo with her mouth open as if she figured something out. "We can have that meeting, but let's wait and test him out ourselves." Raijo was confused and she could see it. "Oh, come on and catch up dummy. You're supposed to be the smart one. Let's actually test him. I mean let's test his power level. It would be a good start. After we get an idea of what's happening with him, we can even play a few games to see what he can do!" Raijo couldn't believe something so 'common sense' came out of Bella. "I'm in! I think that's brilliant. We need them to rest now and come to the training room ready for a true workout. This might be a spectacle." They both smiled and headed off to get things set up.

Liam was laying in bed, tossing and turning. He made some grunting noises as if he was in pain. He was having a nightmare of his parents dying. It was like a movie playing the horrific scene over and over in his head. Out of nowhere, Liam sat straight up heaving deep breaths in and out. His eyes were wide and it looked as if more of the color in his eyes were black that slowly retreated back into his pupils. He realized that he was crying and that made him even more angry that his parents weren't there to comfort him.

Liam got up, washed himself from crying and felt like he wanted to go check on Paisley to see how she was doing. He walked out of his room and began knocking on her door. "Hey Pay, are you awake yet? I'm out here and waiting for you. I just woke up." No noise was heard. No response. He backed away from the door for a second and walked in a small circle in patient boredom. Then he thought about what he could do. Then he thought that he wanted to be in her room. In the blink of an eye, Liam was no longer outside of her room, but instead, was inside, right next to her bed. Paisley rolled over and Liam caught sight of a messy haired girl who had drool running down her cheeks and all over her bed sheets. He started chuckling a little when she rolled over again onto her side and a small toot left her. "Ew!! Paisley! That's so gross! I'm standing right here!" Liam couldn't hold back his words after that. He felt like he needed a shower after what just happened. Paisley jolted awake and looked around before spotting Liam standing there, uninvited, in her room. "What are you even doing?! I didn't let you in so why did you come in?" she said half frustrated and half embarrassed. "What you need to be asking yourself is why your butt talks more than your face does! I came to get you because we've been sleeping for a long time, and all you do is fart in my face. Okay, I think we should go to the fifth floor and meet our instructors there like they said." Paisley, still embarrassed, nodded as if she was agreeing with him. "Alright then. If you can stop talking about my poot, we can go. Just let me wash my face so I can wake up real fast."

With that, Paisley and Liam got their stuff together and made their way down to the fifth floor. When they got there, Raijo and Bella were already in the large open room and they had quite a bit of stuff laid out on a table. Raijo was the first to spot the two kids walking in. "You guys finally made it. How was your rest? Did you get enough?" Liam looked at Paisley who gave him an evil side eye. Liam said, "Some of us did, but I had a pretty rotten nightmare. I'm fine though." Bella chimed in, "I really hope so silly! We are going to have a lot of fun!" Raijo said, "What she means to say is, we are going to do some training, but it will feel more like we are playing games."

Raijo walked over to the table and picked up a device before waving to the kids to come over. He held up the item, "Do you know what this is?" Both kids shook their heads no. "I'd be surprised if you did. This is a device that we have named the 'stennerometer', and it measures someone's ability strength. Liam, we want to test you with it, is that okay with you?" "Yes sir, you can. Can I ask you something? What if I fail?" Bella laughed, "Kid, you actually can't fail. You already have an ability, knucklehead! All the stennerometer will do is tell us how strong it actually is." Liam felt comfortable being tested, but wasn't completely sure what that meant. "Unfortunately, we are going to prick your finger and have you drip a drop or two right here on this end where the little bowl looking piece is. If I may ask, little man, do you know what your ability is?" Raijo asked. "I don't really know what it is, but I can do things that I want to do. Does that help?" Both Raijo and Bella raised their eyebrows at this answer. They nodded their heads to at least give him an answer. If that was true, then this test should be interesting.

"Place your finger right here and I'll press down really fast. You probably won't feel much, but if you do, it'll be a small pinch." Raijo was just so curious and excited that his emotions almost betrayed him and the stoic personality that he built up over the years. Liam walked over without hesitating for a second and put his finger up near the stennerometer. Raijo did the rest for him so it would be quicker. As he pushed down on Liam's finger, blood was drawn, but even more shock appeared on the two instructors' faces. "His blood isn't normal! Wait, is that iridescent?" Bella asked. Raijo didn't mean to say it, but he could only handle so much, 'different', at once. "Liam, are you some kind of god?" Bella smacked the back of his head, "Are you kidding me? He is just a little boy! Pull yourself together man. Liam, just don't listen to him. He's lost his marbles." Liam smiled for a second before asking, "Do you know the JK man? He's the one who did this to me. I only know what it's like to be me like this. I know I'm not normal, but this is my normal."

Right then, a beeping was heard and it came from the stennerometer. Raijo spoke, "Let me explain one thing before we look. The normal numbers for an adult on this thing is about sixty, if you're power is average, and eighty if you're considered really strong. There are special cases that go above that, but the highest we have ever seen was a ninety nine. That's the current king. Even our org head is at ninety seven. Let's check now." Raijo was the first to look down. His eyes shot wide with disbelief. The numbers read out thirteen million nine hundred fifty two thousand seven hundred thirty three. Bella saw his face and immediately snatched the device from him to check for herself. "Oh my damn. Kid, are you a god??"