Powerless

The moment Kin stepped out, I took a deep breath, holding it as I watched him,  intently looking at his bent face trying to make out what his expression was and deduce the results of the test from it.

Only for me to freeze as I saw the big red X appear on the second door of the bunker Kin had just gone into.

Shocked, all the hope I held immediately deflated into nothing in one go, seeing Kin raise his head at that moment with huge tears in his eyes as he zoned his gaze at me trying his best to smile at him but before he could even do that,

Two red-collared generals with many lapels on their shirts, known to be in charge of the Red prison appeared and surrounded him. 

For the last time, he was quickly pushed into the third room with me hoping with everything I had that he had a low rank. That was the only way he could get a low Villain percentage. Anything higher than 50% and he would be taken away.

"Please let your rank be low… Please let your rank be low…" 

I was still muttering under my breath when the door tinged and I watched kin walk out with a downcast expression on his face.

"Power- Melt, Rank S( 90% Villain)" the automated voice said as everyone around me gasped in shock. Rank S was rarely seen even among heroes.

Without a moment's delay, the two soldiers forcefully grabbed Kin by his shoulder without allowing him to take another step by himself before pulling him out of the room.

Rage was all I knew, as I felt my hands shake beside me knowing fully well that if I had gone before Kin and got my powers, I would have used them at that moment.

"I will never be WEAK," I thought unclenching my hands as I moaned at how powerless, I was. In front of all the people in front of me, I was currently an ant that didn't even exist in their world.

I watched in anger and despair as they dragged Kin away watching him look back at me, his eyes begging to be set free, while I simply stood transfixed at the spot, feeling powerless, knowing that truly, " I was powerless."

Kin was barely out of the room, boxed in on both sides by two big and powerful men when the otherwise silent room was pierced by a loud and familiar automated voice.

"100,"

"Number one hundred," it said aloud, enunciating and repeating its words a second time when it got no reaction from any of the students as everyone began wondering who it was and if the person was even still among them.

Annoyed but still sane enough to know that I had to do the examination, I step out from behind the people waiting for their turn, and I begin to walk towards the center of the room where the cylindrical tube was.

I wasn't even anxious as my mood bothered on apathetic as they placed me gently in the tube covered with thick wires, placing a metal-crown-like conductor on my head before closing it and leaving me there,

It was bliss. I expected to feel pain or something at least to relieve the bottled-up emotions inside me but instead I felt nothing like that.

"I hope this stuff is working well and it's connected," I thought as I lay down in the tube waiting to be brought out, wondering if how I felt was what everyone else went through.

After what seemed to be a long time, the tube popped open and I was helped out of it, before being directed to the first box, which I quickly entered.

Two round and shining bracelets were clasped around my wrists before the man beside me in charge of the first safety test spoke.

"Use your power," He said gesturing his hands towards the closed bunker we both stood in with open windows.

"It'll come to you,"

I stood there silently for more than ten seconds staring at the walls of the bunker, even raising my two hands pointing them at the walls for effect wondering what exactly was supposed to come and why it was taking so long.

The silence was slowly eating me alive as for the first time in the entire day, I felt drops of sweat on my brow, using my hands to quickly wipe them off.

"Try again," came the voice of the man who was a soldier from the well-ironed uniform I saw him wearing the moment I entered.

"For some people, it takes a while but your ability is supposed to come to you as easily as breathing in oxygen," he said as he continued to speak to me from behind.

"If it was as easy as breathing in, I WOULDN'T BE STRUGGLING, NOW WOULD I," I yelled in my mind as my mind slowly went crazy thinking of the implications of not getting any powers.

I live in a world where everyone has them, even I knew that it was better to have disastrously world-ending powers that I couldn't control or better still be in the red prison than to live in such a world.

"Even robbers rob people using their abilities," I moaned within me as I kept throwing my hands forward, trying to ignite whatever dormant power within me to work.

I kept taking deep breaths and shaking my hands trying to figure it out when the man behind me spoke again, as I turned around to see him stand up from the seat he had been seating on.

"Time's over kid," he said as I clearly made out the sad tone in his voice.

"You didn't fail but you didn't pass either. Here...," he said passing a white card to me, as I stared at the words written on it the moment I collected it.

"Temporary No-Ability Card," it said as my heart began beating heavily inside my chest, struggling to hold myself together and not yell to try again or beg for another chance at the cylindrical tube.

"It's not the end of the world, Kid," he continued seeing the blank expression on my face and immediately assuming that it was sadness in its raw form which it was.

"You might just be a late bloomer and I have heard of people who got their powers five years after their examination. And in the meantime, the government and the superheroes will protect you," the man said trying to comfort me in his way, but I joke not, the moment I heard him mention being protected by clowns in jumpsuits, I felt a tear drop fall from my eyes, and glide smoothly down my cheeks, and again, I, Ray, was too powerless to stop it.