4 Pit of death

The two arrived outside. It was windy. The lack of trees and greenery made the scenery feel dull, windy, and stone cold.

The woman had led them outside to a training field. It was a large gravel field, with marks of use. Mainly burn marks and dents in the ground. And one mark stood out most of all. A long line in the ground that spanned the entire length of the field, the size of which was at least two football fields. The line was as wide as a car and could easily fit one depth wise too.

"Do you see that line?" the woman asked Seth.

"I do, yes."

"You can probably guess who left that here, right? So don't worry, go all out. This field is meant for grasping the limits of your power."

"Ok, wow."

Seth was dumbfounded by the insane power display clearly done by Aria. He felt a slight urge to compete with her achievements but also a slight fear towards what his best friend had become.

"Now, let's get to business, shall we? I will teach you how to release your powers with the fume prop," said the woman and walked deeper towards the middle of the field.

Seth followed her. They both had to jump over the crevasse Aria had cut through the middle of the field. The two found a somewhat undamaged area on the field and faced each other.

"To release the power of your fume prop, you must again think of the images you saw before. All of those images are somehow connected to your personality and past. Do your best and remember a few memories that might relate to the images you saw."

Seth closed his eyes and thought back. 'A grave…' he thought and remembered some hazy memories of him and his grandpa standing in the rain in front of a grave. His chest started burning again. He remembered how back then, his vision was black and white, he was feeling incredibly dizzy, and his chest burning the same way it did now.

His eyes started to ich just remembering what they felt like.

This must have been it, but Seth couldn't remember what this memory was about. Maybe it was related to his parents.

"I think I thought of a memory that might be related to the grave, and simultaneously to the eye too."

"Great!" answered the woman, "two in one is very good! Now, when you thought back, did you feel anything inside your chest? Any weird feeling?"

"I felt a burning sensation."

"Good. Focus on that burning and try to bring it into the shovel. When you feel like you have transferred a bit of the burning into the shovel, try to think of an attack that a shovel could be used for. Literally, just be creative, your power is your power. The way you use it is up to you."

Seth walked a few steps away from the woman and concentrated. He held his shovel in front of him. It helped him concentrate better. He thought about the memory again. It brought the burning back. He tried his best to direct the burning into the shovel. It was difficult at first, but when he succeeded after a few tries, the shovel felt as if an extension of his own body.

He took the empowered shovel, now glowing orange, and struck the ground with it. The shovel started to glow even more vibrantly.

'It seems I underestimated him…' the woman thinks, seeing the amount of light the shovel exerted. Normally only strong abilities exerted this much light.

A relatively big hole opened up in front of Seth. At first sight, it looked like it could fit around ten people inside. The hole had a menacing vibe to it, until,

...

That was it.

'That was it?' the woman and Seth thought simultaneously.

"Well what did I say," said the woman, "It seems that your strongest ability is the ability to dig a hole. I think you should try your other abilities too and if they are as useless as this, which they probably are, then I think you should go back home after all."

"We'll see," said Seth, and took his shovel out of the ground in front of the circular hole and walked a few meters away from the hole. Seth hated being underestimated.

He held the shovel in front of himself again. He thought about every single instance that had resulted in him feeling the burning feeling. The burning swelled up inside him, more than ever before. It was difficult for him to breathe.

He closed his eyes again, holding the shovel in front of him. He directed the flames into his eyes. And with the flames, cutting pain surged into his eyeballs. He felt as if his eyes were about to burst and could not resist screaming out of pain.

But he could not close his eyes. They were glued open, the iris of his eye turned black and his pupil white. His earring started glowing.

The woman could not see what was happening to Seth's eyes through his long hair, as seth was staring at the ground. All she could see was a yelling boy holding a glowing shovel and a glowing red earring.

His earring started glowing more, and his white pupil started transforming into the same pattern that was on the earring his grandpa gave him.

This, however, resulted in even more pain. Blood started dripping from Seth's eyes. He fell to his knees.

The woman rushed over to Seth and turned him around. As she looked into his eyes her mind flashed blank white for a split second. Seth fainted with bloodied tears running down his eyes.

'What on earth are his abilities…' thought the woman, picked up Seth, and walked back towards the building.

It was getting late.

By now only a few workers were left moving in the hall. The place now resembled a hospital after visiting hours were over.

The woman carried Seth back to his bed.

'A man should have no business being this light,' she thought and almost as if threw Seth onto his bed.

A man with a notepad entered the door.

"Report. How was he?" the man asked, and clicked his pen.

"His powers seem too complicated to figure out as of now. Power level unknown. There are grounds to speculate the power is too great for the boy to handle as of now."

"Is that all?" asked the man and looked up from behind his notepad.

"The boy's background requires further investigation."

"Roger," said the man, clicked his pen, "Excuse me," and left the room.

The woman stood closer to Seth and held his earring. Looking at the complex triangular pattern in the middle of the dark black earring made the backs of her eyes itch so she stopped.

'What the hell are these earrings, and what the hell was up with those eyes? They had the same pattern as these earrings...' the woman thought, and also left the room.

A few days passed before Seth woke up. His eyes still hurt even after waking up. The woman greeted her as he woke up, and gave him instructions to come back here after five days and to take it easy until then.

And as Seth did not have a place to crash anymore he asked the woman where he should stay. The woman then gave him two options. To either go back to his original home or stay at an apartment near the research institute free of charge.

"I don't know…" said Seth, and fell into thought,

'The way grandpa looked at me when I was taken away, seemed as if he didn't want me to come back… That smile still haunts me from time to time. I think it's better if I don't return to that place.'

"I'll take the apartment please."

"Good choice."

The woman threw him a key, with a little paper that had directions on it. Seth thanked her and left.

The woman then walked back out to the training field.

She walked over the slash in the ground, left by Aria. There was water at the bottom of it, and bugs and frogs moved around in the bottom. It resembled that of a small ravine.

But making her way over to Seth's hole, she noticed something. It was silent. She looked down into the hole. And a vile stench hit her nostrils like the air blast from a popped balloon. She was forced to cover her nose with her sleeve.

Dead birds, rodents, frogs, and bugs had piled up in the bottom and started rotting.

'What the fuck is this?? Wait...' the woman thought and rushed back into the building. She made her way into the basement, where many experiments on lab rats were conducted. She snatched one of them and ran back over to the hole.

She dropped the rat into the hole.

It died instantly, not even letting out a squeak.

'My god… there's no way he has a kill on contact ability, right? I need to test this on humans…'

"Hello, Mrs. Mapuche."

An elderly man with a slim figure had walked behind her and observed her actions. The man was dressed in black, with the badge of anti-fumes corps on his shoulder. He was wearing a black top hat that covered his eyes. Only his mouth and his long grey beard poked out under the edge of his hat. Smoke was rising from his back.

"Who gave you permission to further investigate Mr. Seth."

"I'm sorry, Sir! It was my innate reaction to do so, Sir!"

"I will forgive you on the instance that you found some useful information. Speak."

"I speculate that Seth might have a kill on contact ability.

"Is that so?" the man said, scratching his beard, "very well. I will send you three death row inmates tomorrow. Report back to me immediately after you have confirmed your findings."

"Yes, Sir!"

"Good."

The man turned into a puff of smoke and vanished.

Mapuche let out a sigh of relief and a joyful smile appeared on her face.

Mapuche was one of the lead researchers in the anti-fume corps research division. Her favorite kinds of experiments involved insanely strong fume props and human experiments. She was notorious for giving death row inmates another hell before going to the actual hell.

'Seth might be even crazier than Aria,' she thought, twitching from joy and the urge to experiment.

'Oh tomorrow, come faster please!'