Charlie's Tests

--Charlie's Perspective--

It was my turn for the tests, the strength, the speed, the intelligence, and whatever ones they would plan to throw at me.

It was shortly after Boo, Asoh, Chi-Chi, and that 'Shike' guy arrived that I was called into the back by a voice over the loudspeaker.

As time went on, I slowly began to trust my comrades once more. I could only prove that Orion was the one true person there because all of these other people came after them. If Genesis was still waiting to strike, then he would come after Orion. My hand was always on my axe, watching closely over these fake people that surrounded me.

The door swung open and I was told to enter over that loudspeaker thing again. The voice sounded feminine, so I didn't have to worry about it being Genesis. With my axe still in hand, I walked into the room, gazing all around to make sure Genesis wasn't with me.

The voice spoke up again as I entered. In the middle of the room stood three tables, one with some devices on them, and another with a bunch of paper on them. When I picked one of the devices up on the far left side, the voice spoke up again.

"Grip Strength- in this test, you will squeeze the two handles as tightly as possible to determine your grip strength," The voice said.

I looked at it for a bit and then did exactly as I was told with my left hand. My right hand still tightly gripped the axe.

"One Hundred and Ten Pounds Left Hand. Please try the right hand," It said.

"One Hundred and Eleven Pounds for Right Hand," It said next. I nodded, looking all around.

Is this what took Solstice and the others so long to finish? This is unreal... and stupidly easy so far. I moved to the next device with my axe now in my left hand.

This one was explained to me as well, that I just had to lift it perpendicular to my body as straight as I could and keep my arms for as long as possible. With my left hand, I held it up and waited for about a minute and thirty seconds. Right after that, I switched hands and did the same exact time before complete exhaustion.

I repeated this pattern with the rest of the devices, testing multiple muscle groups all at once. For some of the devices I had to get onto a bench and hold a bar over my chest, and then do reps with it, going up and down around fifteen times with 150 pounds of weight.

The bar itself had these weird grip patterns on the outer parts of it like I was supposed to put my hands there. When I followed those instructions, the loudspeaker continued with more. I was being watched, but not attacked. After I was finished, I set the axe down on the table. It was only getting in the way.

About ten tests altogether were on the table I deemed "Strength Testing", so right after I was finished with the rest, I moved to the next table. Ten of the same hand-held test were around, so once I picked one up, it was explained to me.

"Reaction-Speed Test. Squeeze as soon as you see the green light," The loudspeaker voice said.

I hated to admit it, but I was actually having fun while doing this right now...

I waited, watching for the green light at the very top of the rectangular screen in front of me. The device had a handle on the bottom with a trigger on the back, following up into that rectangular screen with zeroes and colons on it.

As soon as the light appeared, my hand reacted and squeezed the trigger, to which the numbers on the screen at the top of the device changed.

It said "0.10 seconds, trained athlete" right beside it. I took it as a compliment and performed all of the same reaction tests afterward.

My average time ended up being just around 0.11 seconds, and I kept getting that same title... "trained athlete". I was satisfied with my work and then moved to the final table, looking at tons of papers on them.

At the very top of each sheet, it was explained to me that they were IQ tests. Patterns of all kinds were on them, and a pencil chained to the table was sitting on the top of the first paper of ten.

They were one-sided and filled in with color when it came to shapes. They asked simple questions at the start that got harder over time. I hate to say it, but I wasn't even concerned about Genesis anymore... I was having too much fun here.

"List the pattern of the shapes below..." I said out loud, reading the words in front of me. With a simple nod, I filled in my answer, smiled, and thought about it.

Filled in my answer...

How did I do that? I mean, I've never written in my entire life before... how did my brain just know?

I shook off the inconsistency in my mind and continued on, describing the pattern of each picture until I ended up at the very last pattern of the first sheet. Instead of a pattern sitting on the bottom of the paper, it only read one line.

"Is Genesis watching?" It asked me.

I was filled with an anxiety right then, dropping the pencil and picking up my axe, looking all around me.

I could swing this thing pretty hard, and my reaction time was a trained athlete level. Genesis can't beat me, not anymore. I was confident one good swing at his neck would lob his head off and bring me great joy.

I kept looking even in the darkest corners of the room, watching them with my head tilted down and my eyes pointed up, to show that I wasn't to be messed with.

I grabbed the pencil in my right hand and held the axe in my left, filling out the rest of the next page of the IQ Tests.

The patterns were simple, I could recognize them, and apply them elsewhere, but still, at the bottom of the page, it asked me again.

"Is Genesis watching?"

I filled in the correct answer, 'Yes', and continued to the third page.

Simple, then that question again.

"Is Genesis watching?"

I kept going, tightening the grip on my axe each and every time I filled out those answers, until I made it to the seventh sheet of paper.

"Is Genesis watching?"

I froze, staring at that question again. For the first time in a few days it felt like, my brain started to turn a different direction.

This entire time, I've been afraid that Genesis was watching over me, waiting for his time to strike... but this was wrong.

An absolute wrong thought.

"No," I filled in the blank, and moved to the eighth sheet of paper.

This was an IQ Test, a pattern recognition... and I wasn't recognizing the pattern behind it all. I've been skeptical this entire time for a man I may or may not be able to see.

But that's just it... I haven't seen him since.

I logically started pulling solutions on why I didn't see him. Perhaps it's because I'm in a closed room... perhaps it's because that man, Shike, saw him instead of me. Genesis was gone.

I sighed, almost crying in relief as I started to shake, and then got to the bottom of the tenth page.

"Is Genesis watching?" It asked me one last time.

"Not anymore," I filled in.