Ch 5 A Pop Quiz of Power

"Cairn! How could you do this! Its all over the news! This was not what the contract stipulated!"

        "I did what I had to be done."

        "What had to be done?! This is far past anything that you ever had to do! Didn't you think of the consequences?!"

        "I had no choice in this matter."

        "Then I don't have a choice in what I will have to do. Guards! Escort this psycho to the gas and incineration chamber, we cannot allow this incident to be tied back to us."

       "Cairn...Cairn...Cairn!" Thump!

       Slowly Cairn awoke from his slumber as a book hit the floor, while readjusting himself to the room he was currently in he felt a throbbing pain on the back of his head. Cairn soon heard an exasperated sigh, "I can't believe anyone could sleep so deeply in such a small period of time, at any rate, I need you to follow me." Upon hearing this voice Cairn turned around an saw Angela with an impatient look on her face. Angela quickly began to walk away practically expecting Cairn to be right on hers heels. Cairn attempted to get out of his cubicle and nearly fell as he tripped over himself and his chair while he tried to escape his cubicle.

       Angela continued to walk with Cairn rather quickly noticed a distinct lack of noice coming from the other cubicles that were in the room and was wondering if the others had already left the facility but he continued to follow Angela. While Cairn followed Angela a text appeared on Judge Dub's phone which only had three words 'Do Your Worst'. After seeing the text Dub grinned and placed his cap on his head so that he could easily cover his eyes otherwise he wouldn't be able to hide his joy at the idea of another test from Hank, Noir, and Deker who were at attention against the wall, and Angela who was bringing the next victim. Deker, Hank and Noir looked at Judge Dub out of the corner of their eyes all to aware of the joy practicaly radiating from Dub's seated figure and slowly appreciating the fact that they were no longer newbies. Eventually there was a knock at the door almost signifying that the bell had been rung on this challenge.

    "Enter"

     'Huh? That's weird, I thought everybody already left for the day and why does everybody have such serious expressions on their faces?' Cairn thought. As Cairn walked into Judge Dub's office alongside Angela, he stole a couple glances around the room and noticed the rather obscene amount of work that had been done to the place. The office practically looked like an OCD sufferer's wet dream with how clean and organized and it was. Judge Dub sat up in his chair before stating, "Squire Angela has informed me that you have completed your work to satisfaction. Usually we would start to work on getting your uniform but we still need to get one last thing taken care of before we can get that taken care of and end today's work." Cairn curious about what Dub needed him to do before they could leave for the day raised his left eyebrow. "I'm sure you have questions for me but they can more than likely be answered in time, follow me."

       Judge Dub pressed a button under his desk which prompted an anouncement system to come online and say, "Stairway disarmed." Afterwards Dub stood up and walked towards the wall behind his desk and touched the wall before another anouncement came online, "Welcome back Judge Dub." Judge Dub smiled and said, "Good to be back" before part of the wall slid down to reveal a well lit stairway. Soon, Judge Dub turned back towards the others,"Follow me." he uttered. As Angela, Hank, Deker and Noir followed Dub, they slowly remembered all of the "test" they had to undergo before they were even allowed to wear the uniform. In short, they felt both excitement at what they were about to do and pity for what was about to happen to the newbie. As Cairn walked behind everybody else he noticed that they seemed to be preparing themselves for something mentaly this only increased his annoyance as this meant something troublesome was about to happen.

       Soon enough, the group approached another wall before Dub put his hand on this wall as well and another anouncement appeared, "Acknowledged." Slowly the wall slid upwards to reveal a large underground room with three pillars that were as tall as oak trees in the middle, there was an exstensive weapon rack replete with swords, staffs, lances, glocks, hammers, Axes, Maces, and even a couple war fans. Cairn was even impressed as each one of these weapons was at the seventh tier, one with one of these could easily put a dent in a hill. The room appeared to have been made from mainly stainless steel as every part of the room was shining thanks to the flourescent lights installed onto the ceiling. "This will be your next test." Dub stated. Judge dub pointed towards the three pillars, "You will use a physical weapon of your choice to strike the first tower, next you will use your Will with your weapon to hit the second tower, and lastly you will use your Will alone to strike the third tower. Are you ready?" Dub proclaimed. Cairn nodded and walked towards the weapon rack and he picked up a scimitar and a glock. When the others saw him grab the glock they immediately took quick looks at one another to confirm that they all had same idea as to what type of Will user he was. Cairn gave the weapons a quick inspection to make sure they were working properly before he adjusted his weapons, placing the gun in his jacket pocket and the sword in his right hand. Cairn slowly walked towards the first pillar before he took a deep breath, collected himself and raised the blade in the air. Cairn stayed in this position for less then a second before he swung the blade downwards. Clang! The sword chipped the pillar before being deflected upwards, sending numbing vibrations through Cairn's arm which almost made him drop his scimitar. Cairn looked upwards and saw that the pillar had a screen, on this screen it had a grade and for Cairn, it said third stage 3/10.

       Soon afterwards the others appeared to be momentarily suprised before they masked the emotions as everyone there understood what it meant when this type of Will user had that much physical strength. Next, Cairn walked towards the second pillar before once again holding his sword upwards. This time when Cairn held his sword of and closed his eyes the air noticably began to chill as the sword slowly began to be encased in ice. Slowly Cairn opened his eyes and swung down. Crash! This time the instant the sword hit the pillar the ice surronding the sword broke while the sword left an imprint in the pillar before being sent skyward once more only this time the blade felt out of Cairn's hand due to the whiplash. Soon, a new grade was displayed like the first had done only this one said third stage 7/10. The others believed they were right immidiately after seeing the second screen as an increase like that could only be done by this type of will user. Cairn didn't bother glancing at the sword before he continued over to the third and final pillar, he pulled the glock out of his jacket pocket before he aimed it at the center of the pillar. Unlike the last two times where he simply closed his eyes this time he looked down the iron sights of the glock before he held down the trigger, faster than the wind the gun started to glow, lines of white went from Cairn's hand through the handle past the bullets down the barrels and out the gun. Bam! A dent soon appeared on the front of the pillar. Once more a pillar lit up and the last pillar displayed his grade, fourth stage 5/10.

       Judge Dub walked behind Cairn as Cairn lowered the glock and said, "So, your a coder? Not bad, not bad at all." The others began to gather around Cairn. Hank began to move to the side of Cairn while Noir was closer to Cairn's back. "Alright, Apprentice Cairn, now there's only one thing left to do!" Dub exlaimed. Then Judge Dub walked over towards the sword that Cairn dropped, he picked it up and walked towards the third pillar and then yelled one word, "Jump!" Cairn was confused at first until he heard something shredding through the air which he dodged on pure instinct. Noir had a sword in her hand and was catching her balance after failing to hit Cairn but Hank made up for that missed chance by hitting Cairn in the stomach hard enough to send him flying towards Dub. While still hurting from the cheap shot Cairn tried to make an ice platform to stop his fleight but Angela shot the platform, effectively destroying it and booking Cairns fleight to the Judge house of pain. As Cairn flew to his supposed doom he pulled out the glock he still had in jacket pocket and aimed it at the readied Dub as Cairn desperately charge his will to fire a blast at Dub, the Judge suddenly leapt out of the way almost as though it was planned from the start. Cairn couldn't adjust his shot in time and hit the pillar. Once he hit the ground, Cairn transitioned from a kneeling to a standing firing position but he still wasn't prepared for what happened next. Flash! A blinding light clouded Cairn's vision after blinking his eyes a few times he slowly recovered his vision, only to see Judge Dub staring up before Dub muttered, "Huh, so that's what you can really do." The grade displayed on the third pillar had changed and now it said, fifth stage 1/10. The Judge looked back down at Cairn and said, "Congratulations on passing your pop quiz! I have to admit that was quite exciting, usually even special recruits are in to much pain from being hit after using their most powerful abilities to even continue with the pop quiz, but look at you! Even giving someone like little old me a suprise gift like that is pretty flattering. Let me give you a little bit of advice though, you have plenty of quantity but praticaly very little quality if you wanted to rain bullets for days then you certainly have the reserves to do so but..." Judge Dub got slightly closer and whispered, "But each bullet would be like a mound of dirt hitting a hill, there would be no point even wasting the metal needed to make the bullet." Dub backed away and walked towards the staircase before turning at the entrance, "You have potential Apprentice, and I will dig it out by hook or by crook! That also means we're going to get your affinities retested, you wouldn't be the first case where somebody became a late bloomer. As I said earlier we'll go get your uniform now but, before we leave I want you remember one very important detail, you are a member of the Judges that means you must exhibit proper behavior and follow proper procedures at all times." He declared. "Now then, lets get a move on I don't want to have to pull a third double shift in a row, right Deker?" The Judge jokingly said. "Ah come on sir! Why did you have to bring that up in front of the rookie?" Deker bemoaned. As the others looked on, amused at the Judge and Squire's coversation, while walking up the stairs only Cairn lagged behind as he could only think one thing, 'I should've just let Judge Orname Kill me.'

       And so the 54th squad walked away from the training grounds and back towards their room amidst laughter and brooding.