12: Modern Day Velociraptor

"Amaryllis Lavrova. You're up next," Susan calls out, with half of her previous energy, taking a page out of Zelia's book. "State your powers, then begin."

"Shapeshifting," I say, and without further ado…

My eyes turn deep orange and my body rounds out as I rapidly shrink. Gray feathers sprout all over my body, with the ones around my neck taking on a tint of green and purple.

My clothes warp to fit my body, with my coat modifying itself into a sleek, tiny vest to allow my wings free movement. Underneath, my dress and leggings merge into my coat. Simultaneously, my shoes wrap around the center of my foot, allowing my very pink, clawed toes to peek out.

I walk up to Susan, bobbing my head with every step, and crane my neck to look up at her.

"Guu? Guu…"

I have turned into a pigeon.

She taps away at her tablet and looks at me again. "Is there anything more you can do?"

"Guu!"

My eyes and feet rapidly darken into less obtrusive shades, while my feathers darken into a deep, inky blue and take on a greasy sheen. Rainbows shimmer down my back as I move around in the sunlight, looking like an oil spill in bird form — if it wasn't for the white tail.

Susan looks at me with a blank expression, not much more impressed by the Nicobar pigeon than the typical kind; so, I start shifting into other, fancy kinds of pigeons.

Then, I hear it.

Out of the girls left, three of them cluster together and begin whispering. They whisper, look at me, giggle, then whisper some more, sometimes while staring at me directly.

I stop showcasing the wonders of pigeons and simply stare at them, but their behavior continues. I sigh and look at the ground, trying to retain my patience and block out their noise. I pace back and forth as they continue to whisper.

Susan tells me something, but I'm a bit too preoccupied at the moment to care about her.

My body rapidly grows while still retaining my bird shape and becomes covered with fluffy, black feathers, while the feathers on my head and neck recede to expose my blue and red skin. Slightly adding to my height, a casque grows on my head, and my transformation is complete — I'm now a cassowary.

I slowly approach the girls, which only causes them to giggle more.

Bad move.

Feeling peeved and insulted, I single out the one who seems to be the leader and stare her down.

So, it's her, huh? Layla.

I thought she looked unfortunately familiar with her dirty blonde hair and cheap looking highlights. I'm really not sure what her deal is, but she liked ganging up on random people back at the high school, spreading nasty rumors about them, and destroying or stealing their stuff.

At this point, I'm not sure if she is dumb or what… or maybe just she feels safe, since she saw I was a human and no one ever put her in her place before?

Whatever the reason, her danger senses must be horribly off, as I am far more dangerous and unpredictable than any of the wild animals whose form I happen to take.

Her and her posse don't even seem to notice everyone backing away from them. How pathetic, and they all hope to be "heroes."

I launch forward, sprinting the last few steps to reach the group and jump, kicking her in her soft belly. My clawed toes sink deep into her body, which I then thrust downward, ripping through muscle and skin, gutting her as I land.

Layla falls over backwards, screaming in pain. Her so called friends, instead of helping her, are long gone, fleeing from me in terror. I scoff, watching them run, but it doesn't mean I don't have something in store for them too.

Eir, however, rushes in to help, instinctively shielding Layla from me with her body. Pale green light envelops the fallen girl, healing her.

Of course.

Eir — preventing natural selection since 1998.

Welp, not my problem anymore.

I shrink back down and furiously flap after the running girls as a seagull.

With impeccable aim, I poop precisely on both of their heads for good measure, and ha-ha-ha in seagull glee as I fly back to others against the backdrop of flailing and shrill screaming.

Though, it should go without saying, but before I actually returned, I circled low above them in the air a few times, terrorizing them more and occasionally dive bombing them to fully enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Unsurprisingly, once again, we've caused enough commotion to gather the attention of the other sections.

But, the real question remains…

What grade did I get for all of my antics?

***** ****** ******

"I got a 'C'!?" I exclaim as I look at my ID card, plastered with an image of my smug mug.

"Out of all the super power grades I could get, I got a 'C'!?" I continue storming back and forth in circles around Struan, who is still right where we left him. "That's one step above 'D.' One step! One step above the grade reserved for the virtually useless, and for all intents and purposes, the same as a regular human."

"But didn't you just recently get your powers?" Eir asks, trying to calm me.

"N— Yeah…" I say. "But, still!!! I'm not a friggin' 'C'!"

There are seven possible grades, with the gap between each level growing exponentially in terms of power. Going from strongest and most rare, to weakest and most common, here is the approximate distribution:

SSS = .0001%

SS = .001%

S = .01%

A = 1%

B = 9%

C = 30%

D = 60%

And I got a 'C.'

Do you know what that means?

I've essentially been declared a common mob…

"Well, what did you get!?" I very calmly ask Eir. Super calmly. Extremely calmly. Definitely not shaking her shoulders and getting in her space or anything, calmly.

"Well…" she stalls.

"Just say it already," I snarl.

"'S'..." She says.

"Of course you did!"

"'S'..."

"Did you just add another 'S'!?" I hiss, then suck in a breath.

"It's still weaker than where I probably actually am…" Eir adds quietly.

"Burl, what did you get?" I ask. He, very considerately, chose to wait with us to make sure Struan recovers from this ordeal.

"I got a 'B.' If it wasn't for you helping to sell my power to Susan, it probably would have been much lower, so thank you," Burl says.

"So I've been declared the weakest out of all of us!?"

"I mean… I am L— you know who…" she says.

"But I'm not weak! When Susan came by to snap Struan's picture after everyone from our batch finished, all Struan did was lay here and convince her that he is weaker than what Burl's power showed, getting an 'A' when she wanted to give him an 'S'! She even said he could be higher, but she couldn't give him that without seeing his powers first."

"That's kinda your fault for fooling around so much, Ama," Struan adds. "Eir showed her healing abilities on an otherwise fatal wound; lifted up a bus in one hand and a car in the other while flying; and zapped around an obstacle course — with the vehicles — as a beam of light…

…But you just kinda kicked and pooped on people and made bird noises."

"When you put it that way…" I say.

"Also, Ama… #*@& you..." Struan grumbles as his chest finally deflates. At last, he is gently lowered to his feet… but his boobs aren't gone quite just yet. "You live for chaos… You weren't trying to help anyone…" he scowls.

Hehe… He's, like, really mad this time, hehehe.

"Sorry… yours might take a bit longer than the fifteen minutes to fully vanish," Burl says, sympathetically. "I've… never seen anything like this before…"

"Regardless, Ama. The exam can't measure your kindness," she says, smiling at me.

Right next to us, Struan starts coughing. "Are we talking about the same person here!? Did you miss how she tried to kill Layla?"

"Struan! Don't accuse her of such horrible things! She didn't try to kill Layla! She's just new to her strength. Besides, she knows who I am and knows that if something goes wrong, I can fix the situation."

Struan blinks at Eir. He isn't even sure where to start in fixing Eir's false assumptions.

Eir blindly defending people is somehow working in my favor this time… not that I'm complaining.

"Still… I'm glad you were able to do something, Ama. I felt bad for Burl standing there awkwardly, yet you managed to make this fun for everyone," Eir says.

Struan looks at Eir incredulously, his jaw slack, until he fiercely thrusts both thumbs at his chest, pointing out a prime example of someone not having fun. He puts a finger on his lips and tilts his head to the side, as if thinking, but with too much dramaticism to actually be concentration. He briskly pantomimes flapping wings with his arms, then squats back as best he can as if pooping. Then, he mouths the words 'Layla,' bullies,' and 'me' with increasing attitude in his expressions and gestures, flinging his arms wider and wider to punctuate each word.

Unfortunately, no one else from our little cluster except me seems to notice, but Struan does turn heads from passersby.

"Yes, Ama is very kind," Burl joins in, "But there is no need to feel bad. My power is very… unique."

"I don't know what else to say about that… This was… more unpredictable and chaotic than fighting the Primordial Sovereign…" she shakes her head.

Struan eyes her, his arms supporting his enormous boobs from beneath. By this point, finally they were each about half the size of his torso.

Even though Struan can now walk and tightly fit himself into Eir's car, Burl continues to wait with us to make sure Struan is fully back to normal.