The Evaluation

Flying across the countryside was amazing. With the wind on my face, I could see the storm clouds rise into the sky like skyscrapers. No one bats an eye at an anonymous flyer, the gray suit speaks volumes for such a simple uniform.

For the four hour flight, I had packed myself some ideas about the test, and I wanted to score high, Dad spoke with me over the phone and I practiced for three hours just to get the evasive maneuvering correct. Fighting? I googled the most dangerous plants to exist and turned them into baseball bats and grenades. Hell, I think my favorite weapon might be a whip.

There were quite a few plants I considered too harsh to use in a battle. There is a bush that exists purely called the pain bush that I hesitated to grow.

I overshot Washington DC by eighteen miles, fantastic. I went back, checking the map to see where I was, and flying accordingly towards Washington DC. The Washington Monument came into view, tall and white in front of the snow-covered lawn of the Capitol.

It looked absolutely nothing like Denver, with clean streets, Christmas lights, and trees propped up. And for the first time in possibly years, I saw no columns of smoke on the city skyline.

Department of Superheroes, a grand dome jutting out of the ground, with seven twenty feet tall pillars. I flew down, then realized there was a radioactive shield up as I felt gravity suddenly take a hold of me. "Ack!" Too late -- I fell and crashed face-first into the lawn.

Ow. I groaned as I peeled myself off the ground. Thank god I didn't break my neck.

"Hey, you alright?" Someone lent me a hand.

"Yeah." I coughed, taking his hand to pull myself up, and saw the older man's fiery red hair, and bright red eyes, a little bit of stubble. Wait a minute, I know that badge. "Oh!"

"Yes?" He grinned, recognizing the look on my face.

"You're Flametongue?" I exclaimed. It's really Flametongue, the Torch of Europe. He's the one that won the Battle of the Mediterranean. He's the one that brought down five different factions. "Um, a pleasure to meet you. Hi. Hello."

"What's your name? Your pseudonym. I'm sure you didn't decide to faceplant into the headquarters just because." What a shame he's way older than me, that French accent could make anyone swoon.

"They call me Utopia." I grinned.

He blinked, surprised. "Oh, you're the one that outwitted Dystopia?"

"More like gaining a death sentence."

"Ah, I could relate. I blasted his arm off once, pretty sure he hasn't forgiven me yet." He cracked a grin.

"Flametongue!"

I looked past him towards the entrance of the building, where three people stepped out. One of them stormed over to the two of us with more fire in her eyes than Flametongue himself.

The leading woman wasn't in uniform like Flametongue but instead dressed in a navy pantsuit, dark-haired. "You're still on probation, what the hell are you doing outside?"

"I got sweetbread for Groundhog." He held up a grocery bag. "Besides, I couldn't ignore Utopia falling fifty feet onto our lawn."

I grimaced from the consequences of my terrible entrance. The woman sighed and gestured to her followers. "Take Utopia to Evaluation, please. Get Chroma and Luz as the judges. You, come with me." She dragged Flametongue by the ear towards the building.

The other two secretaries escorted me inside. Since I don't have a card to my name yet, I was given a visitor's pass at the front desk.

The interior was brilliant and clean. I wished I could just take photos of the hanging lights and the domed interior of the Department. The floor was incredibly reflective, it was almost like walking on air. No camera in sight, all of them were hidden rather well. Eight elevators lead downward, and I took the one for the guest visitors.

The training gym was four floors down, it was as if a weight had been lifted off my chest as I exited the radiation field and into a free zone.

There was one man in the entire training area, he seems to be testing out some of the equipment as the floor, walls, and ceiling undulated at the touch of a single button.

It's strange, I walked through twelve hallways, and saw not a single person in sight. Was everyone really that busy?

Luz greeted me with a tired smile. I probably woke him up in the middle of the night due to time zone differences. "Chroma couldn't make it, so I will be doing your evaluation today. First of all, let's determine what your powers are if you would stand in here." He gestured to a room, all white inside.

I entered, jumping back as lasers scanned me down, the air was almost too cold.

"Stand still for a second...Now move around."

[System record: Utopia. Powers: Botanical manipulation, Flight. Side effects: requires at least three hours of sunlight each day, and thrice more water to survive. The need for sunlight has enhanced perception of colors and movement, comparable to a hawk.]

"My eyes improved?" That was a surprise, but looking around, I could see the rapid and more detailed definition is seeing everything, like switching from a compact camera to the cameras they shoot movies on. Needing to go outside more was also a bit...Maybe I can ask my parents to buy a lamp for me. Water was not a problem, Mom and Dad can afford that much.

"You can see more colors than the average human person, you see in higher definition, and you can see ultraviolet light, which is pretty cool." Luz's voice came through the door. "If we're ever on a mission together, I would be so glad you would see the same things as me."

"You can see ultraviolet too?"

"Oh yes. I can see all spectrums of electromagnetic waves. Visible light and ultraviolet are just what I prefer." He pulled a document from a table nearby. "I'll give you a few minutes to warm up, then we'll begin the Placement test."

"Do I get weapons?"

"Yes."

I frowned, looked around the training gym. Still, a lack of people.

Since I could see almost every movement of the battle machines just shifting ever so slightly into attack position. Flying allowed me to completely avoid the ground. Dad's evasive maneuvering lessons came in handy, but at the last moment, I was slammed from behind onto the mats, then the ground got the jump on me and slammed me into the ceiling.

"Pretty good, you just need to watch your blindspots more," Luz commented from above. It was like he was watching a gladiator battle as the Emperor.

"Avalanche took me out the same way. Ow." I grumbled.

"Great, now neutralize these fifty dummies in any way you know how." Parts of the ground raised up, forming and unveiling into multiple targets. "Pick your weapons from the wall if you need to."

I grew a tree in my hand and swept through the army in one swing. The log oddly feels light in my hand, or maybe that's just referring to plants. "Does that count?"

"There's not just robots down there."

Someone's arm gripped my neck and yanked me back. "Whoops, sorry, looks like you are dea--"

I elbowed them in the stomach and wrapped vines around her arms, pulling them down to the ground and away from me. I stumbled out just as she ripped apart the vines, and something sharp barely grazed my cheek as I barely dodged an icicle.

First toy! I threw dynamite fruit around her.

Bam! Bam! Bam-Bam! She flung up the ice around her to block the impact of the exploding fruits. "Since when do plants explode?!"

"Yeah, nature is scary!" Second toy. I gripped a bark handle as thorns and bramble extended into a long, poisonous whip. "Come towards me. I dare you."

"So you're weak to long-range." She formed ice in her hands and shot razor-sharp icicles at me. I barely dodged them in time as I brought up a bark wall, the ice pierced through, freezing it and shattering the wood. I ran towards the far side of the gym, cursing myself for getting cocky.

"Oooh," Luz observed me flying frantically through the air. "Should probably keep talking to a minimum."

"Ah!" I yelped as I flew a complete 180 to the other side of the gym, up and over her. Icicles followed me as I dodged and weaved. Blindspots, watch out for blind spots! I ducked down behind my own log for a breather, she was barely giving me enough time to launch an attack. Wait a minute, she can't fly. I just need to keep floating in the air.

"You can't run forever." She yelled as I frantically wove vines between my hands, folding each leaf over and over until I had a ball of thorns. The log suddenly shattered. "I'm only at the third difficulty, and you're already retreating?"

I zipped out over the top of the ice spikes and threw my thorny vines to lash out, at the same time, hail rains from above. Pain lashed my back as dull spikes dug into my skin.

"AHHMph!" I was knocked out of the air into the foam floor yet again. But, my vines got her.

She shrieked in pain. "Okay! Okay. Stop the thorns, stop!" I looked up, seeing her frozen in place, arms out. "Okay, this is not funny anymore. Take them off!"

"I don't know if I can take them off." I frowned. "I've never tried."

"You mean I need to have each thorn taken out painstakingly?" The woman grimaced.

"I am so sorry." I forced the thorns to grow back into themselves and focused until they were harmless, smooth vines. I flicked my hand as if to make them go away, and then they decayed into ash. "Oh, I can decay plants? Cool."

"Now I need a few hundred bandages, excuse me." She limped awkwardly towards the medkit trolley, limbs frozen.

Luz called from the balcony. "Hold on, what's the grade, Alysha?"

"If you're caught in any of her attacks, you're going to wish you were dead instead. I'd give her a B. Technique just needs a lot of work, and lack of experience shows. If I went straight to level five difficulty, I can wipe her out for sure." She combed her brown ponytail out of the way and opened the kit. Then she began applying tiny circular bandages up her arm.

Luz leaned towards me from above. "The way you fly is similar to Supernova's jumps. Is the rumor about you being his daughter true?"

I raised an eyebrow, suddenly cautious. I remembered how terribly cautious Dad was about not wanting the Department to know where he was. I took a strip of gauze and held it to my bleeding cheek. "...Why do you want to know?"

"So it is true?" Luz descended from the balcony, scribbling on his clipboard.

"Well-no-it-no. No."

Alysha grinned. "You are a terrible liar. How has he been doing? It's been a while."

I sucked in a breath, my jaw clenched, and slowly turned away, trying to avoid the question. "Uh, Luz, are my grades ready?"

"Welcome to B-class, Utopia. Seriously, why would you not want to talk about your father?" He handed me a platinum-glass card. "We all used to be friends with him, and now that he's alive suddenly, it's just a miracle."

"Classified."

Alysha frowned. "He's definitely not dead, we just saw him on the news yesterday."

"I promised my parents to not talk about it, so I'm not talking about it." I held the card up to the light, pleased to have such a high-quality item, then put it in the pocket. "Is that all I need to do for today? How is Mystical?"

"Yes, that is all you need to do for today." Luz nodded. "I don't know much about Mystical, but since you're situated in Denver, you are to do whatever Mystical tells you to do as part of the registered superheroes within the city. I suggest you get a custom mask made, and ask for a teleporter to take you back."

I nodded and turned away to find the exit.

"Wait." The woman said.

I paused, turned around.

"When you see Supernova again," The woman looked at me. "Could you say hello to him for us?"

I sighed. "Alright."

The teleporter dropped me off at the ruins of the festival since it was the only place the teleporter saw within Denver. It's strange coming back as a registered superhero. All the damage was being cleaned up, quickly rebuilt, and the water was shoveled into the river in an attempt to fix the pipes under there. The wooden vines and frenzy did hold any collapsing structures in place. The construction workers and first responders thanked me as I flew past.

...How was I supposed to go back home in this uniform?

I suppose I can check up on Hailey, borrow her clothes for today. I wondered what type of psychic damage she has, and if she was launched up the waiting list yet.

I landed on the balcony of her condo and knocked on the door to her bedroom. "Hailey! Hailey, it's me. Open the door. I have need of your clothing wares." I peered into the window, squinting at the lump on the bed. "Hailey? Are you sleeping at seven in the evening?"

Benjamin entered the room, seeing me outside the window. "Oh! Charlotte!" He opened the door.

"Is Hailey okay?" I took off the mask and plopped down beside the bed. She looked feverishly red, a cold towel was pressed to her forehead.

"No, she went into a coma just a few hours ago. Another week, and she might become a vegetable." Ben stared at her solemnly, moving a hair from her face. "Rapid mental deterioration. I'm worried."

"Avalanche definitely wasn't Avalanche." I frowned. "It could be a mercenary Dystopia hired to pretend to be Avalanche."

"They didn't seem to be working together when the fight was recorded." Ben frowned.

"No, they were. I...pretended to die. I think they were working together." I scratched my head.

"It looked like Dystopia decided to ally with Fake Avalanche at the last second." He thought aloud. "Or they're both amazing actors."

"Avalanche said he was under some orders, but I remember the news saying he's not part of Dystopia's faction."

Benjamin took out his phone to look it up. "You're right, Mountain Breaker confirms that Avalanche is part of Mastermind's faction, all the way in the Himalayas, he just robbed a bank yesterday around the same time."

"We need an accurate list of every super in the city right now, even if we outnumber Dystopia, We don't know who is on his team."

"I'll get to work on that."