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Aaron Cyrus: February 5th,20XX

Almost twenty dozen pairs of eyes drilled into my back as I floated up and down to the floor, but I tried to pretend I didn’t notice. It had only been a month since I’d gotten these new abilities but I’d gotten so used to them, and since Joyce knew and she didn’t treat me any differently, adjusting to my new reality had been a bit too easy. It took seeing the shocked expressions on all of the researcher’s faces to help me return to reality and remember just how ridiculous this all was.

“Okay! Now that you all see I’m not a crazy rich woman with too much time on my hands, I hope you’ll all prove you’re worthy of how much I spent on you all!”

Joyce’s voice that she usually kept light and playful around me burst out of her smaller frame with strength and pushed the scientists to work. Some of them ran to their respective computers and began to type furiously while others ran to the walls and began inputting instructions to a pad.

“umm. Sir! Would you mind coming down!”

A woman scientist was the first to speak to me. She had bright blue hair that had faded at the roots and a strong pair of frames that she had haphazardly put on. Her voice trembled as she called to me to show that she was scared but I didn’t have the luxury to sympathize with her.

I glared at my girlfriend that had pulled me through a train of rooms that were chock-filled with technology I couldn't recognize before pushing me into a room full of eggheads and forcing me to fly.

She gave me a slightly apologetic look in response, but I could tell that she was satisfied with how things had turned out. I knew that she wouldn’t do anything that would harm me, so I wasn’t worried about being exposed to these new people, but I had wished she had given me a bit of preparation.

“I can come down, but you guys have to give me some space. I’m not that great at landing yet.”

The few that had scattered onto the floor ran behind the barricade and watched me with intense eyes. Some were terrified, some were thrilled and some constantly looked up at the ceiling to make sure it wasn’t an elaborate prank.

Under that much pressure, I tried my best to land softly but the floor was still dented. I stood directly on top of the dent to hide the evidence as best I could but the truth eventually came out when I moved toward Joyce. A few loud gasps echoed around the room as they noticed.

“Mr… What should we call you?”

I was about to tell them my name when Joyce suddenly butted in,

“You can call him Cyrus!”

At first, I wondered why she used my last name as a 'code name' but then I was forced to remember that day over a month ago when I had set the precedent. I must have looked bothered to Joyce because she immediately walked over to me and tapped me on the shoulder comfortingly.

“Don’t worry, we’ll come up with a better code name layer. For now ‘Cyrus’ will have to do.”

Okay, now she was just messing with me.

I wanted to get back at her but I was quickly overwhelmed by a wave of scientists and their virtual notepads.

“Sir Cyrus! Can we ask how you did that? Fly I mean.”

Ah, starting with an impossible question right off the bat.

“Wish I could tell you-"

I took a look at their name tag before I finished off the sentence. In general, I was a fan of getting to know people’s names, but since it looked like I would be around these people for a while, it became more of a priority.

“Ivette, is it? But I have no idea. I just woke up one day on the ceiling and from then I could fly.”

“And when would that ‘one day’ be?”

“About a month ago?”

“Sorry to repeat the question but would you mind detailing exactly how the flying process goes for you?”

“Okay… Okay! At least let him have a seat before bombarding him with questions! He already booked off the month to work with you all so he isn’t going anywhere!”

Well. I’d thought I was taking a month off to spend some time with my girlfriend, but this was fine too. At least she would be around.

Joyce pulled them back and guided me to a seated area. She took a seat at another table and set herself up with her laptop while I tried to answer all the researchers as honestly as I could. Although they had all looked so scared before, it looked like they had quickly given up their apprehension in favour of fulfilling their curiosity.

“Well- Scorda. ‘Flying’ feels like my body becomes slightly lighter than normal but otherwise, it doesn’t feel much different. Landing is pretty much the opposite. My body just becomes heavier and I go back to the ground.”

“How is movement in the air? We’ll test you properly, but a self estimate would help.”

“I haven’t done much…movement in the air besides bringing myself back down to the ground. Ah, you’re Marsha.”

“I’m Nagi. How much do you think you could carry while flying? About as much as you could carry normally? Less? Or more?”

Nagi took the initiative to introduce himself before asking his question, having caught onto my attempts to call everyone by their name.

“I haven’t tested how much I can carry but I’ve brought Joyce up with me once. She didn’t feel particularly heavy.”

I’d been too panicked at the time to think about it but I couldn’t remember her weighing much at all. While it was overwhelming to be bombarded with all of these questions, I felt like they were revealing more about my pow- my abilities than I had even thought to explore.

“Sir Cyrus! I’m Danka. On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your grasp on the abilities you are aware of?”

“Well, I can't control the indestructibility at all so a zero on that. But for the flying, I would give it a four? I can land whenever I want too but I’m not too great at landing or moving around.”

Ever since I’d saved Raf a month ago, movement in the air had become extremely difficult. It wasn’t like it had ever been easy, but it felt especially impossible. It probably didn’t help that I hadn’t tried anything more than getting from my bed to my phone on the other side of my room.

“Indestructibility!! Sorry, I’m Sema. Do you mean that you can't get hurt?”

The mass of scientists went into a frenzy at the suggestion and the tapping intensified as they came up with new theories. I was, once again, burdened to respond but I could only be honest.

“Well, I haven’t explored it, but I haven’t gotten hurt at all in the past month.”

“Anatha here. Have you visited a doctor lately for a physical? Were there any differences?”

My doctor appointments had been cancelled last month so I was still waiting for them to be rescheduled.

“No. I had a few appointments a month back, but they ended up cancelled.”

Joyce’s phone rang out in a familiar theme song she’d used for as long as I’d known her. She took a look at the caller id and put on a conflicted expression before eventually declining the call.

I was curious about who could call and put my girlfriend in such a conflicted state of mind but I was rushed off to a lab before I could ask.