Kade finished tossing out everything he had that would go bad in eight weeks, hoping he got it all, then wading into his room and grabbing his revolver, loading the bullet into it, and shoving it into his pocket.
'If I need to use my ability, I can just utilize this.'
Kade stopped for a moment, just 24 hours ago he was crying over his research, and tried to kill himself. After studying time abilities for a mere five years, he concluded that he would never reach the goal. In retrospect, he was profoundly disappointed in himself and made a silent vow to think logically in the future, at least to the best of his ability.
It also seemed unbelievable to him that he had already decided he was fine with this ability. He felt he should be feeling more emotion, after all, his life was about to change, no?
Dismissing the thought, Kade smoothed his shirt over his jeans to hide the outline of his firearm, then left his building, placing all his savings and a note in the landlord's dropbox on the way out, just to cover the rent for a while.
Walking through the street, he didn't see much out of the ordinary, once in a while, it was easy to spot business centered around people with abilities that could be used to provide goods and services, such as the aforementioned master culinary skills, or even furniture stores founded by people who could manipulate wood and such.
Soon, a large walled-off area came into view, with towering metal gates, making it almost look like the entrance to a prison. There was a small line of people in front of the gate, most of them seemed to be Kades age, while some were older. Specifically, there was a man who looked to be in his late 30s standing awkwardly in the middle of the line. On the contrary, a kid was near the back of the line, he had red hair and looked to be around 13, and was noticeably shorter than his peers.
Stepping to the back of the line, Kade saw a man with a laptop sitting at a plastic table, asking a young woman questions, scribbling into his journal every time the woman answered. Soon, the man nodded and had another man who was wearing a gray suit open the gate, allowing the young woman in before closing it with an audible thunk. While Kade was inspecting the line, his train of thought was derailed by a loud whine, diverting his attention to the source of the noise, he focused on the red haired kid from earlier. The kid looked unhappy and was staring up at a guy who was laughing quietly. The kid spoke.
"I promise! It's really strong! I'll show you later!"
The guy he was talking to was an older teen, he had his back to Kade so it wasn't possible to see his expression, but it was easy to guess that he was smiling.
"Okay okay, sure kid, I believe you. I'm sure you can create super strong windows and hit people with them."
"Shut up."
'huh, so he can make windows? As in only windows or clear things? Glass or plastic manipulation and creation would definitely be useful..'
Kade zoned out and became lost in thought, soon enough, the line shortened, while a few more people joined it behind him. Soon enough, it was his turn to speak to the man at the table. The guy looked up at him, sizing him up, and didn't seem very impressed, which hurt Kades feelings a bit. Turning to a different page in his journal, the man spoke without making eye contact.
"Name?"
"Kade Banner."
He scribbled something down.
"Age?"
"17"
"What is your ability, kid."
Zane hadn't thought of this, it was extremely short-sighted, his mind raced and he mumbled something out.
"uh p-prediction"
The man raised an eyebrow. "prediction? Of what"
"I can... predict a targets actions"
"Interesting. Put this on your shirt and head on in." The man handed Kade a purple pin, which he quickly fastened into the fabric of his clothing. A nod to the gate worker from the man was all it took before he opened it up and let Kade through.
The area Kade stepped into wasn't very unique, it was just a common area, littered with about 40 people that was enclosed in a dusty but sturdy building. Up front was a stage, and on the right of the standing area was a set of green doors. The people around Kade seemed as confused as him, but it was clear they were supposed to wait here.
Most of the people around him seemed to isolate themselves, so it was oddly quiet except for a few outliers. There was a girl around Kades age walking around and looking for someone to talk to but was disheartened when nobody around her seemed willing to converse. She had a slender figure, with black hair that was mingled with white stripes, making her hair color reminiscent of a zebra. Kade was sure the white was the result of dye, nobody has hair like that, but it certainly wasn't displeasing to look at.
Shifting his attention, Kade saw a duo of people sitting on the floor talking with each other. One was a young man who seemed a bit older than him, and the other was a slender woman with silver hair and odd orange eyes who was mostly ignoring the guy. Getting a better look, it seemed to be less of a conversation and more of a speech from the guy to the girl, as she wasn't saying a word. Kade could swear he saw a wireless headphone in the girls ear.
Before he could look around further, people stopped coming in the gate, and soon, an older man came out from behind the stage, stepping onto it. He looked pretty lean at first, but it was soon clear that that wasn't the case. Muscles rippled under the man's loose shirt as he walked to the front of the stage, scanning the crowd.
"Welcome!"
The man's voice boomed, he didn't even need a microphone, it seemed he knew how to project his voice with astonishing volume.
"As you all know, this is a training place for the Improved! Over the next eight weeks, you will all be tested and taught, as well as enlightened to the responsibilities of one who has experienced a Revelation!"
The man waited for a moment, his grin widening.
"In this institution, we have a particular voluntary tradition to determine the rankings of every one of our students regarding each other. They say a fight is worth 100 hours of training, and a mock fight is worth half that, how many of you would agree? No, a better question, how many of you are going to try and prove that to me?"
About three-fourths of the crowd raised their hands, clearly happy that they could get a chance to show off.
'Idiots. You don't even know how to use your abilities do you?'
Then, Kade looked to his right and saw his hand raised in the air to his dismay. Looking past it he saw the zebra-haired girl from earlier holding it up for him, smiling mischievously.