Numbers

With held breaths, everyone waited anxiously and I too waited along with everyone in the room, with burning curiosity.

"Kin," I said, leaning towards him, while whispering loud enough for only Kin to hear, coming to the conclusion without being informed that there had to be a good reason why the girl Kin had spoken to earlier had chosen to whisper, and even as we stood together, only a handful of people spoke saying only a few words to each other.

"Yeah? " he immediately whispered back the moment he heard me, leaning closer, almost too close for comfort but for the sake of how nervous he looked, I chose to ignore it.

"Can you ask the girl in front of you, how many people have failed the tests so far?," I asked, not wanting to do it myself and seeing in a split second, the usefulness of having someone to call a friend.

I was mostly homeschooled by my mum at an early age and the only thing that kept me safe from bullies in my early years was my unusually cold demeanor whose main disadvantage was my inability to make friends as everyone gave themselves different reasons to avoid me, and maybe I also gave them a few...

"Why not directly ask the person in front of...," Kin began to ask only to pause when our eyes met as I tried my best to hold his gaze, doing a puppy-eyed expression with my eyes usually reserved to be used against my mum, but which I decided to use on the spot.

"I would never have guessed...you had other sides to you," Kin whispered to me with a small smile on his lips, before taking his face and body away from mine, leaning towards the girl in front of him as I barely make out the question he asked her,

"I have many sides. As long as I get what I want," I thought as I waited for him to get back to me.

After a while of anxiously waiting and straining my ears while trying to catch the long strings of words being whispered among them,

Finally I watch Kin lean away with a sad and a more anxious expression on his face as he leaned closer to me, whispering as he did so,

"31 and only 80 have been in the cylindrical tube for their examination so far," he said, clearly unhappy about the results he just heard.

"That's high," my dumb ass self blurts out wondering where my filter disappears to at the most crucial moments as I watch Kin's expression get darker as he nodded,

"Yeah it's pretty high. Ray, don't you think the exams are a little unfa...," he starts to say but unable to finish as I began to cough loud enough to cover up his words and stop him from saying more.

I won't compare myself to a genius but even I am smart enough to know that it's dumb to speak about the government in a government facility filled with super heroes with amazing powers since the hero headquarters was basically in charge of everything that happened in each city and continent as a whole.

I shook my head in his direction as he seemed to want to say more before he finally decided to keep quiet upon seeing the expression on my face, understanding the message I was desperately trying to pass across.

I was still thinking of what to say to make him feel better when the door of the second test opened with the boy coming out with a calm expression on his face as everyone couldn't help but wonder about the reason behind his transformation.

The next moment, the door "dinged" as a big green circle appeared on the door. The second it did, everyone breathed a sigh of relief for the boy but mostly for themselves as the more people smoothly passed the tests the higher the chances of others passing it too.

Unconcerned and in no hurry at all, everyone watched him go into the third cubicle, to take his third test which was meant to test his rank but there was no tension in the air since regardless of a person's rank nothing would be done to them,

"Rank C," suddenly appeared on top of the small and reinforced cubicle he went into, and without the need to take any more tests, the boy came out of the third cubicle.

"80% hero," came an automated beep, the second he wore the band he was given before he was taken to the next room by a female soldier who was all smiles as she congratulated him.

"96, Number 96," came an automated voice from somewhere in front, as the girl standing before Kin stepped forward to begin her test,

"Maybe we should have come a little later, "I slightly grumbled knowing fully well that it wasn't long before I and Kin would have to take our tests,

Looking around, I turn my head back and forth trying my best to see the numbers of people around us held in their hands, and I was shocked to see how high their numbers were, as their numbers were all in the hundreds,

Annoyed, and pissed off at what could possibly have happened to me and Kin if the exams happened a little faster than normal,

"We should punish her," My inner voice whispered to me,

"It's what a true villain would do,"

"No, that's what a hero would do. I on the other hand am not. For messing with me, I intend to introduce her to despair," I thought, already thinking of what I could do to her the second I'm done with the exam.

"Number 97, 97," came the automated voice again, which immediately made me look up in time to see that number 96 had passed with no problems at all, with a meager "D rank( 90% Hero)" as her power " Freeze" was shown alongside her rank before she was led away to another room.

Again, I continued to watch in anticipation as the tests began to go smoothly,

Number 96 got the power " Absolve metal- B rank(60% H)"

97 got the power " Flight" with a C rank and a rare secondary power of " speed" which was deemed to be an A rank...(95% Hero)

The moment 97 was led away and the automated voice called the "Number 98," I immediately felt Kin began to fiddle with his clothes and hair as if any of them mattered.

Turning my head to look at him, I immediately saw droplets of sweat begin to pop out all over his skin as his anxiousness levels skyrocketed knowing fully well that he was next,

"What power do you think the cute guy is going to get?" I asked having no issues whatsoever with calling a fellow guy cute since I wasn't blind and he obviously was.

"I for one, think its Mega attraction," I said watching a tiny smile appear on Kin's face as I tried my best to distract him, happy to know that I wasn't doing a particularly bad job.

"Or Ultimate distraction," Kin replied as we both watched the boy enter the cylindrical tube for his brain to be charged.

"Have you ever heard of people that were unable to get any powers regardless of how many times the awakening exam was done?" Kin suddenly asked out of nowhere as I nodded remembering that there were indeed such people and they were nicknamed " pawns" since even normal jobs were given depending on the type of power a person had,

"Yes?" Wondering what he was trying to say by bringing it up,

"Well, My dad is one of those people," he says as we both watch number 98, get a "B rank" with Power " Invisibility( 50% Hero)", his rank determining how strong his powers would be even though the cute guy didn't look a tad bit happy about what he got,

Before I could say any other thing to cheer him up, Number 98 was led away as the automated voice called out the next number.

"99!, Number 99!,"