Registering an ability

I walked out of his office calmly. It was time for me to register my ability. The ability I'd just made up would explain all my physical strength. My hardened skin, and my accelerated healing. I yawned, and stretched slowly.

Goliath was waiting for me outside the office calmly reading something on his watch.

"Lets go get me registered," I smiled falsely as I waited for Goliath to lead the way.

"You're not very good at faking a smile," Goliath motioned for me to follow him.

"Discomfort, and smiles don't tend to go together," I snorted.

"Are you really that uncomfortable like this?" Goliath glanced back at me over his shoulder.

"Its like a constant itch," I glanced around us, "At first its not that bad, but it slowly gets worse, and worse the longer I stay this way. I'll be fine though I've gotten used to it for the most part."

We walked into the schools main office, and Goliath walked up to the desk. The gal behind the desk looked surprised when Goliath told her he was registering a new ability. I gave her the same details that I'd described to the guy that interrogated me before.

"So how exactly does this ability work?" She asked a second time.

"My body gets stronger each time I get hurt," I tried to think of a simpler way to describe it, "Lets say you punch me. My body recognizes the damage, and adapts so that a punch hurts me less the next time I get hurt. It's a slow process. The worse I get hurt the faster I get stronger. I only get big boosts from major injuries. A double edged sword really."

"Do you happen to know how strong you are now?" she asked.

I looked up to Goliath, "Ask him. He re-evaluated my physical capabilities."

I looked around the office curiously while Goliath explained my current strength to her. They seemed to finish talking sometime later.

"Hey," Goliath grabbed my shoulder, "Aren't you going to give her your watch?"

"Oh yeah sorry," I smirked as I pretended to have heard what they said, "Why?"

"You need a new one," She brought out a red watch.

"Can I take it off?" I cocked my head curiously.

"Why would you need to take it off?" she frowned at me.

"My ability requires me to get hurt to get stronger," I straightened my neck out, "A broken wrist is easier to splint without tech in the way."

"I can make it so you can remove it," she put it in a little mount attached to her computer, "The only problem is how long you plan to have it removed?" she raised her eyebrow at me, "These are designed to monitor your vitals as well as your location. We can't help you if you get killed while your now wearing it."

"Oh," I nodded, "I understand. It takes about twelve hours for me to heal a broken bone, but it heals enough to take off a splint in six or eight hours to remove the splint."

"Alright the watch will send out an emergency warning if you take it off longer than eights hours," she clicked on the holographic keyboard below her desktop, "Automatically. I don't like putting this kind of command into one of our watches since its dangerous to do so, but I don't want to hinder the growth of a new ability."

"Kind of a lenient policy if you ask me," I threw a friendly smile onto my face, "Are they always this nice when it comes to new abilities?"

"New mutations are rare," she didn't seem to like my smile so I dropped it, "Our equipment isn't necessarily properly designed for new mutations so we just adjust to your needs until our equipment can catch up." she took my new red watch out of the mount on the side of her computer, and handed it to me, "Students only have to wear these watches until the end of their school term so its easier just to adjust to our students needs for the time being."

Interesting. I felt genuine pleasure at the thought. This would give me a lot more wiggle room.

"One more thing," She glanced up at me, "You'll be trading your normal fitness class for one of Goliath's second year combat classes for specialized training."

"Specialized training?" worry rushed through me as I looked at Goliath, "Please don't kill me."

Goliath just laughed at that statement as he walked away from the counter. My jaw actually dropped as I followed. That odd feeling that came with my camouflage failing washed over me. My eyes this time. I covered my eyes with a pained expression on my face.

Pain was something I had faced many times so I could convincingly fake pain.

"What's the matter?" Goliath noticed that I'd slowed, "Headache?"

"Sort of," I peeked at him with one eye.

Goliath pulled me in close so that we were facing the wall. The hallway where we were wasn't very busy. Thankfully.

"Does that happen often?" Goliath asked.

"No," I felt my camouflage go back to normal, "You just scare me. Getting transferred to your combat classes took me by surprise. It has been happening more often though. This mask isn't going to last forever."

"That sounds like a problem," Goliath started walking again.

He knew I would follow so I did. I tensed as I was walked back to my dorm.

"Backlash would be pretty inconvenient for you right now," Goliath lowered his normally booming voice to barely more than a whisper.

I walked up to my dorm, and went to my room. I closed my door, and threw my clothes off. Switching forms easily. Taking my watch off was now an option for me. They had no idea how much that kind of thing helped me.

Eight whole hours of complete freedom. That kind of thing would serve me quite well in the future. I could effectively disappear for eight hours without raising an alarm. I opened my door cautiously. I hadn't gotten out to stretch in a little while, and it was making me restless.