The moment this ball fell from up there, it floated and headed directly towards the youth standing on top of that tower. Thomas was standing far from that dude, and so he couldn't even tell the exact details of his face. But he could already see his red hair, long stature, and what happened next.
That ball didn't keep floating freely like this. In fact it didn't even move away from a direct descent path towards that youth's redhead.
And when it got itself attached to him, wonders followed.
Thomas always wondered about how he was going to get his superpower locked door opened. And right now, in front of his eyes, things started to show themselves in the most simple way.
The moment this ball attached to that red haired youth, his body started to jolt as if he was convulsing or something. Thomas then saw different things happening to this dude at the same time.
First of all his eyes started to shine. Thomas saw many superheroes already with glaring eyes. But this time, he finally saw the famous scar everyone kept speaking about.
The moment that youth's eyes shone in bright pink colour, part of his face skin started to shine by the same light. At first it looked as if some sort of a pinky star was lying underneath his cheek. But the next thing that happened was for the skin to peel off, and ugly looking scar appeared.
"Agh!" with it, that youth screamed like he was getting tortured and his body was cut in the most painful way. Thomas was shocked to see even parts of his flesh fall off, turn into dust as if this part of his body was made out of paper and just contracted fire.
Then the ball moved!
The moment it moved, it pulled alongside the body of that youth. For the next few minutes, that youth kept shouting and screaming, while his body was convulsing and fiercely twitching in midair. Thomas didn't know what was the purpose behind such a weird move. But soon enough, that ball returned the youth back to his spot.
*Sizzle!*
As he landed and got freed from that ball, his body started to burn in pink coloured fire. His wound that was just created seemed to get burnt down by this fire, turned into something with pink cherry red callus covering it.
Yet it never healed, never returned to normal again.
"Congratulations! You scored C in the test," a voice suddenly came from the ball, startling Thomas and many down below, "descend and follow a mentor out. He'll tell you what to do next."
By these words, the ball returned slowly back into the hole in the ceiling. While that youth shouted in excitement, before hurrying down the stairs as if he wasn't just screaming in pain moments ago.
Thomas watched this youth run all the way towards one path before he vanished behind it with one of the mentors.
"Weird…" Thomas recalled how this dude screamed, the ugly looking wound that turned into such ugly scar. And then he couldn't help but recall how everyone spoke in weird excitement about this, "don't tell me… All the superheroes are masochists?!!!"
Thomas didn't take such thoughts seriously at all. From his understanding of the superheroes in this world, he could early tell that they were desperately seeking power.
If that scar was something that drove them excited, then it got something to do with the overall ranking and strength of every superhero. Yet it felt weird for him to dream about suffering such torture to get stronger. Especially when he'd end up being ugly.
Then as he was lost in his own thoughts, more youths started to take the test.
Soon enough Thomas started to notice that not everyone was the same. The ones who didn't suffer the same hellish experience like the red haired youth mostly ended up being F grade superheroes. And only a few of them ended up being an E grade.
"Damn! So should I start praying to get a scar or what?" Thomas didn't like being in the place of such people who got scars. But it seemed it was a needed thing for any C and higher grade superheroes.
Few after that red haired youth suffered from the same hellish experience, with two who experienced much more than all. These two were one male and one female, with the scar appearing not at their faces but at their chests.
The male got a weird burning like thin marks that stretched all over his chest. He didn't get the same ugly scar, but Thomas was sure he got more suffering per the screams he shouted. In the end, part of his clothes got burnt out, showing the spider web like shining mark on his chest.
He scored a B grade. As for the girl, she suffered something different.
"This… It's a hole! A damn hole in the middle of her chest!!!" Thomas witnessed her loud screams echoing for half an hour. During which, she experienced the same spiderweb mark like the B grade male from before. Yet this mark kept shining brightly until it finally ate part of her clothes, away with a circular part of her flesh!
It left a hole there, but it wasn't filled with blood or something. It was made all of pure yellow power, looking like it was some sort of sun in itself.
It looked awesome! And as it looked great in Thomas' eyes, this girl scored an A grade on top of that.
"Good looking, great shaped star in the chest, with an A grade… Damn! I want that combo!" Thomas felt excited, dropped any worry or care about scars and focused only on hoping to get such a star in the chest.
Soon enough, his turn came, and he climbed the stairs without the need for anyone to tell him anything.
"Phew! That's it!" he placed his tree pot on his back, hoping it'd absorb more Qi from this weird test.
*Crack!*
The ceiling opened, and that ball fell. The moment it got attached to him, Thomas started to feel warmth coming out from his body.
It looked as if something resonated from the depths of his soul. In the next few minutes, he closed his eyes, prepared himself for the upcoming torture and pain.
Yet nothing happened!
"Sh*t! Don't tell me I got f*cked up!!!" he felt instant scare and worry when nothing happened. He slowly opened his eyes, to find himself still standing in his place without getting pulled over.
All the ones who enjoyed this weird journey, blessed by the ball to float all over the place, ended up with at least C grade. But all who didn't enjoy this, scored F at most.
"What is that?!!!" just when he got scared that nothing happened, he felt the same heat moving towards his hands. When he raised them on impulse, he was shocked to see his two hands dyed slightly black, with faint black threads coming out from there.
He released three threads from each hand. And each thread didn't extend more than half a metre in length. It looked like spider web, but felt different in his eyes.
"What's that?" he felt more curiosity towards this. Yet the next moment, the ball got released free from his head, before these threads vanished.
"No!" he shouted in panic. Yet his screams vanished with the deep voice that came like usual from the ball.
"Not bad! D grade superpower. Go down there and follow a mentor."
"D… D grade! I scored a D!" he shouted, raising his fist even in the air as if he was celebrating such a victory.
He didn't believe himself even when he ran towards the bottom. He didn't act any differently than anyone before. When he reached the bottom, he saw Linda waving at him from a distance. And without any hesitation, he literally ran towards her.
All he was thinking about was his tree balls. They managed to help him score a D grade. And that just told him if he had more, he'd score even higher.
If he knew if he gave himself a few more days for his body to digest all the Qi energy harnessed from the tree balls, better to be a week, then he'd even score a C without any issues.
But that wasn't important for him. He felt like a dead person who got revived after passing the gate of death.
"Congratulations," for the first time ever meeting her, Linda gave him an encouraging smile, "it's indeed impressive for someone without a backing or any family with superheroes to score a D at his test. Like this, reaching C grade won't be a dream for you."
"Thanks, I just got lucky, hahahaha!" he laughed, referring to everything he experienced since meeting that old lady. But Linda mistook his words.
"It's not luck, it's destiny," and what she said was something that Thomas also agreed upon. He recalled the pendulum that mad demon used before to determine if he deserved to live or die and couldn't help but nod firmly on Linda's words.
"Come, let's go to the portal," she turned around before adding, as if she guessed what Thomas was about to ask, "this portal will take you to your new home, the place with an SA department where you are going to work from now on."
Thomas nodded and kept following her through a long corridor. This time, the corridor was heading up, not down. For a reason, it felt like Linda's ice broke by the grade Thomas scored.
"Remember, don't stir any trouble and follow the orders of your superiors all the time. Make us proud, superhero!"
"Thanks… But can you tell me what my superpower is?" As she was warmly speaking to him, Thomas wanted to ask about this.
They were now standing in front of a closed big wooden door, enough for a group of hundred people to pass through it at once.
"Well… I saw black things coming out from your hands," she paused before adding, "by my experience, I can tell that activating your superpower from both hands helped you to score higher in the test. As for what your superpower is all about, you have to ask the ones you'll meet at your new home. And also, don't stop trying to assess and research your superpower. After all, even the weakest form of superpower can be useful in a way or another."
"Thanks," Thomas nodded in appreciation as she advised him honestly just now. As for her advice, he already planned to do everything she said before she even said anything.
He wasn't a youth like others, wasn't filled with the raging fire of youth and impulse. He got lots of experience at work, and so he didn't doubt his ability to handle any situation there.
As for his superpower, no matter what it was, he planned to keep nourishing it with his three precious balls. If not for being suspicious, he'd lay down his tree pot and examine his tree, see if new fruits got developed there or not.
But with Linda here, and the locked door up front, he didn't have any time at all. He simply pushed the door, and it opened smoother than what he initially expected.
"Good luck," Linda left while saying her wishes. Thomas would swear she was a totally different person after that test got concluded. He didn't know if this was thanks to him scoring a nice grade, or because she got relieved from his team.
But he knew for sure she'd return to be the same b*tch with the new team she'd handle. He threw all this behind his head, pushed the door opened and got inside.
There he found a slightly wider place than he initially expected. It looked more like a study room with all the shelves on the walls, filled with lots of scrolls and books. The place got two superheroes standing there. One of them was old and the other wasn't older than twenty-five years or something. There was a circle drawn on the ground with white chalk or something.
It wasn't just a normal circle, it got three overlapping triangles, making a sort of six headed star. There were many writings and symbols on the edge and inside this circle. But Thomas didn't have the time to properly inspect these.
"Step in the middle please," one of the two said in a deep tone, while the other stepped forward, handed Thomas a letter and a badge. When Thomas examined the two, he found D letter over these two items.
"Keep them with you tightly," the old man said in warning, "you are going to travel a long distance. And for sure this is your first time doing this. Last thing you want is for your certificates to go missing during this journey."
"Does it hurt?" Thomas placed the letter and badge in his vest's pockets, then buttoned the coat while asking this.
"No, not at all," the young one said, before motioning with his hand towards the circle, "step in there and wait."
"Where am I going?" Thomas knew he was going to a place where he'd live the rest of his life at. He hoped it wasn't going to be a shitty place, something like the settlement he first arrived at when he came here.
He hoped for it to be a nice-looking town like Retto town. "You'll figure out when you are there," the old superhero seemed to be quite impatient to send Thomas on his way. As for the younger one, he told Thomas a few more things while the latter moved towards the circle.
He learnt that he'd go to a good place as he scored good. There he'd find few superheroes waiting for him, and they'd take the task of explaining his future there.
Thomas stood in the circle, took a deep breath, and prepared himself for what to come. But what came was something he never expected at all!
The first thing that happened, which was something he already expected, was for the circle to start shining up. The letters shone brightly in silver light, before the circle and triangles inside shone as well. Then the entire world around Thomas started to look hazy, with all the sounds getting muted.
He saw the old man suddenly stand up, while speaking without any voice reaching his ears. He first mistook this as the old man wanted the next superhero to be sent over. But when the walls started to crack, the library looking shelves fell, and holes appeared there, Thomas knew something wrong was going on.
"Sh*t! Don't tell me I'm going to die while getting teleported away!" Thomas couldn't believe that something bad would happen just at the moment of sending him far away.
But luckily for him, the circle kept working as if it got a will of its own. He got sent away, and images started to fade fast. Yet that didn't prevent him from seeing five cloaked people coming in from the big holes in the walls, and a fight seemed to start out there.
Then all Thomas saw was a blank silver world, flashing fast in the form of parallel long lines, without a single sound at all, until he finally hit something and fell.
He realised when he arrived there the earlier warning of that old man. In the middle of getting teleported, he felt many forces trying to grab him, taking him away from the silver world he was in. luckily, he got nothing in his hands, or else he'd definitely lose them in the middle of that traction forces battle.
*Cough!* *Cough!*
Thomas landed on the ground, coughing while feeling like all his guts were twisted and moved to his throat. When he gained control again over himself, he realised that he was leaning on two hands, falling to the ground, while panting for breath.
The first thing he felt was his cold sweat covering his forehead and body. For some reason, the wind appeared and that made him feel a little cold and wet.
"Welcome…" he heard an alien voice that made him turn his head to see three new faces there.
One was a middle-aged superhero sitting on a big seat like a throne or something. There were two other superheroes who stood by his side, who seemed to be in their thirties.
"Help… Help…" Thomas tried to speak, to find out to his surprise that he was feeling feeble, and his voice came hoarse. It felt like he was struggling just to say this word over and over again.
"Easy there," the middle-aged man smiled in a warm way, "there is nothing to fear. All of this is quite normal. I bet this is your first time taking such a ride in our world, hahahaha!"
"No," Thomas felt more power with more seconds passing, "I meant… Help the Retto town… The place there… The test facility… It's under attack!"
"What are you talking about?!" This time, the three of them turned sharply towards Thomas and gave him a deep look.
"Cough! Cough! I just saw a glimpse of it… Just before coming here… The place there got attacked by weird, cloaked people…"
Thomas tried to say a complete sentence in one breath but failed. He kept coughing whenever he tried this, ending up stuttering like a kid or something.
"Ellisa…" the middle-aged man abruptly stood up, looked at the lady and said her name.
"Tsk! He is a loser anyway," she gave Thomas a sizing up and down gaze, one that made the latter feel a little bad for no reason, "he is just a D superhero with an unknown superpower. Trevor can have him."
"It's settled then," Thomas didn't realise that his future was sealed by these little words, "come with me then. We need to check things out," the middle-aged man moved, while that lady followed after giving the man next to her a snort.
She didn't miss to give Thomas a haughty look, one that superior people would give to dogs and beggars like creatures. Thomas didn't know why he gained such hatred from her, and he didn't like her at all.