3 Time To Move
*GASP*
Seth wakes up to an unfamiliar ceiling. The ceiling, with almost the entire rest of the room, was painted white. The room felt deep, with Seth's bed being the only one in the room despite there being room for more beds.
He gave in to his irresistible urge to stretch and knocked something heavy off his bed in the process. He peeked over the edge of his bed and saw a big dark black shovel. Even more irresistible than the urge to stretch was Seth's urge to pick the shovel up. Not being near it made him feel uneasy so he picked it up and analyzed it closely like a stingy manager at a shovel factory.
"So you are awake," said a woman's voice from the other side of the room. Seth shifted his gaze from the shovel to where the voice came from.
A tall woman with a lab coat and red hair to her shoulders stood there leaning on the wall next to the now open white door.
"That right there is your fume prop," she then said, walking towards Seth's bed, who was already back to analyzing his shovel.
"My fume prop? But I didn't see one materialize in front of me..."
"There are cases of people waking up with fume props, suggesting that one can materialize for a sleeping person."
"But I passed out, right?"
"Pretty much same as falling asleep, right?"
"If you say so... But where am I?" said Seth, looking up towards the door only to find his view blocked by an orange shirt, the sides of which were covered by a lab coat.
"This is a research facility for fume prop-related studies," said the woman, who was now looking down towards Seth.
"So my prop is a shovel… Is that bad?"
"Depends on the kind of power it gave you. Want to find out?"
"Of course I do."
As Seth got up from his bed, in a black pajama, and grabbed his shovel the woman walked back to the door.
"I didn't even notice I had my pajama on."
"Should I have called for a male doctor to put it on for you?"
Seth blushed and didn't answer.
The two walked out of the room and through a very busy corridor. People were rushing around the corridor, in and out of different rooms in a surprisingly coordinated-looking manner.
"How is everyone else?" Seth asked.
"The ones that went back inside and to the bunker nearly survived."
"And the ones outside like me? Survived too right? That's good. I must have been lucky," Seth smiled.
"That's the thing," said the woman, "I don't know how you survived."
"What do you mean?" Seth asked with a concern overtaking his smile.
"By some miracle, you alone survived among the ones who were left outside. For some reason, the silent one left you alone and tramped everyone else down like flies."
Seth fell silent. The image of inspector Gard, who had raised him away from home and whom he had known closely for five years, dead by the hands of a silent one. He remembered his grandpa and prayed for nothing to happen to him. He also felt a wave of slight anger, a burning sensation within him. Even if only slightly, he felt certain wrath inside of him.
The two walked for quite a bit more. Passing through many corridors and busy people in lab coats.
They arrived in a room, that was identical to the room he had woken up in. Seth realized, that the doors in the corridor were all evenly spaced, hinting that the layout of every room was the same.
This particular room had a weird device in the middle of it. This device nearly filled half of the entire room. It had numerous golden brass pipes connecting different gauges and vents. The front of the machine had a compartment with a door on it.
"Put your shovel in there. We can somewhat measure your abilities with it. You should have an idea of how it works, right?" said the woman and stood next to the machine.
"Every fume has a set amount of carbon in them, and if they materialize, this carbon isn't lost. And because the power of the fume prop is directly derived from the fume it materialized from, we can somewhat predict the power of the prop. Even if most of the power doesn't lie in the prop, but rather the user," said Seth.
"So they make even the evacuation guys learn every textbook by heart huh... Anyway, you can go ahead now."
Seth puts his shovel in the large compartment. The compartment was large enough to fit him and the woman together. It made him think what kind of props people have for them to have a need for a compartment this big.
He closed the door, and the woman started operating the machine. The gauges started bouncing and the woman started taking notes.
"I expected more to be fair," said the woman shutting down the machine and throwing her notes away.
"Is something wrong?"
"It's just that another kid from your batch, Aria. She was the first person to ever have a silent one materialize for them. Her prop's power was immeasurable by the machine. That's how strong she is, and why my expectations for you were also a bit warped."
"What?! She had a silent one materialize for her?? What's her power?"
"Her fume prop is a blue single-edged sword. It gives her the power to move at speeds over 1000km/h, nearing Mach 1 without drawbacks. She still has a hard time controlling it tho."
"Woah, isn't Mach 1 almost 1300km/h?" said Seth baffled by the new power his best friend had gotten, "how do I find out what my power is?" he asked, hoping for his power to be as special as his friends.
"Oh right they, didn't teach you that. Take your prop and hold it in front of you."
Seth takes his shovel and does as said.
"Now, close your eyes and try to picture a fume in front of you. The scarier the better"
Seth tries, but he doesn't feel anything. He tries his best to picture the worst fume he could think of. The biggest, the scariest. The silent ones. As soon as he thinks of the silent ones, he feels the same angry yet sorrowful burning inside. The silent ones picture in his mind then starts burning as well, and the flames start dancing.
The flames then take the form of a 'grave',
then the form of an 'eye',
and then the form of 'fire' itself.
"What can you see? What are the images made of in your mind?" the woman asked, still standing by the machine, now with her hands crossed.
"Fire."
"Ooh, an offensive type."
"It took the shape of a grave, then an eye, and now it's just burning like fire."
"Yeah, ok now you can stop. Again, you just let people's expectations down, don't you."
"Why do you say that?"
"I mean, a grave? That sounds weak and compared to the stats the machine showed it probably is. You won't survive if you join the anti-fumes dome corps. Even though you saw regular fire too, which has the potential of becoming strong on its own, it was the last image you saw, right? That means your strongest ability is related to that grave. Which, as I said sounds weak to me so my expectations aren't high."
"I understand," said Seth, feeling let down. He felt the burning sensation in his chest again.
"If you want, I can get you an apartment near the dome and write you off as hurt with permanent damage."
"No thanks, I have someone I need to go back to," said Seth. The burning in his chest got worse, "by the way…" he said right as he was about to leave.
"What is it?"
"Has anyone become strong, despite having a seemingly weak ability by training?"
"Yeah, of course."
"Could I become strong?"
"Are you stupid? Do you know what that means?"
"No, I don't."
"The only way to train your fume power and get stronger is to fight fumes using said power. It is more dangerous than just working in the anti-fume corps. What would make you want to do something so reckless?"
"I have someone I must protect no matter what. Also, I heard the dome guards get paid pretty good," said Seth and looked at the woman. The woman could see the determination in his eyes.
"Fine. I feel sorry for you losing your leader and friends. I will train you. But on only one condition."
"What is that condition?"
"You show me results in one month."
"Deal."
"Ok, let's go," said the woman and started walking.
"Wait, we start right now?" Seth asked in confusion.
"Yes? You only have a month. Plus, you should try and manifest your power now when the images are fresh in your head. Now stop slacking and let's go."
Seth rushed after the woman who had already left out of the door.
