Power-Rate Me

Lee Seng shook his leg underneath the table. Zoe was glaring at him from across the table which made him nervous. She tapped away at the table, arm up on the table with her hand supporting her head. A lock of blonde hair fell down her forehead. The table shook with each tap and leg shake. The two were staring at each other. Zoe pushed away from the table and groaned, spinning her chair slightly away from Lee Seng.

"Wait, you're telling me you saw my little brother?" Zoe asked. She turned her chair back and Lee Seng slowly nodded. He looked off to the side and could see that she was obviously frustrated. Despite her only looking to be Lee Seng's age, she was 25 years older than him.

"Yeah and he's adamant about making up or whatever." Lee Seng added.

"Oh boy... I swear, that child never seems to amaze me on how simple he thinks." Zoe swung her chair back at Lee Seng and folded her hands together onto the table. "Look, I'm not getting involved if you're trying to get me to."

"Oh, no, I didn't want to involve you. I just... wanted to tell you before he told you." Lee Seng looked up at Zoe again. He leaned forward and rested his head on his hand. "Yeah, so that's about all that happened today." Zoe nodded and leaned back. She folded her arms and slowly spun the chair a couple of times.

"Alright, sounds like a time. I'm shocked you aren't getting heavily charged for any of this."

"I left before that part happened." Lee Seng smiled. Zoe rolled her eyes. Lee Seng couldn't help but laugh. Even though the situation could get him in big trouble, he knew his father wouldn't do anything drastic to ruin his life. The Creator had an image to uphold, after all.

"Okay, let's just move past this and figure out where you're at power rating-wise. Like I said on the phone, I can only do this for you here. We don't deal with Class stuff. We'll schedule you something in that department after we're done with the power rating, 'kay?" Zoe explained. Lee Seng nodded and Zoe reached down and grabbed a clear ball. She set it on the table and pushed it over to Lee Seng.

"Just like last time, you'll put your hands on this. The system will begin to register your power and rate you based on your power capabilities. This will be recorded in the system and we can get a grasp of your potential." Zoe explained.

Lee Seng moved his hands over to the clear ball and hovered over it for a moment. He glanced at Zoe who was waiting patiently. Lee Seng let out a long breath and then grabbed the ball. The ball began to spark like plasma energy. It connected shot at Lee Seng's hands before dissipating. The clear ball began to turn black. A misty cloud of black spreaded outwards.

A mist of white and gray began to form before the clear ball began to hum. Zoe stood up on cue and walked over to the computer the ball was connected to. Lee Seng patiently waited as Zoe scanned through the data. Zoe began scratching her head in confusion and turned to look at Lee Seng who was mindlessly staring at the orb.

The orb flickered between three different colors. Lee Seng felt the orb pulling at him. The orb began to pulse, flashing different colors to an unknown beat. It started to speed up and the beeping picked up.

"Crap, what the hell is happening?" Zoe asked. She was scanning through the data when the orb started to rumble loudly. Cracks were starting to form. Lee Seng snapped out of his trance and pulled away. The pulsing continued as the cracks grew larger.

"Dammit, Zoe!" Lee Seng threw the chair backwards and backed up. He pointed his finger towards the orb. "I think it's gonna--"

BOOM!

The orb shattered, pushing the shards outwards. Black, white and gray mist shot out with blazing speed. Lee Seng quickly shielded himself as Zoe threw a barrier up in time. The shards of glass embedded themselves all over the room. Lee Seng grunted as shards shot into the side of his body and arms.

"Lee!" Zoe screamed. Glass shards shattered upon contact with her barrier. As soon as the glass shard storm was over, Zoe quickly ran towards Lee Seng who was grunting in pain. "Lee, are you okay? Oh god, there's so many glass shards in you!" Zoe's hands hovered over a huge glass shard embedded in Lee Seng's body.

Lee Seng wrapped his hands around the glass and pulled it. He screamed in pain as he dropped the glass shard.

"Mmmmm....!" Lee Seng groaned. His wound began to heal and he looked at all the smaller glass pieces. "This is gonna take forever." Lee Seng slowly turned away from Zoe.

"What're you doing? Let me grab someone!" She shouted. Lee Seng waved her off.

"Stay there. I-I can push them out." Lee Seng said. He positioned himself and the glass shards away from Zoe and him. He gritted his teeth together and stirred his head to look in the other direction.

'C'mon, this shouldn't be hard.' Lee Seng thought. He steadied himself and took a deep breath. 'One... Two...' Lee Seng felt the vibrating and then flexed the left side of his body. He imagined the glass pushing and falling out. In a moment, the glass all shit out and shattered at the other side of the wall. Blood and blood glass crystals splattered all over.

"Ahhh!" Lee Seng screamed in pain. He stumbled backwards as Zoe quickly reached and grabbed him.

"Lee!" Zoe shouted. She pulled him and steadied him. Lee Seng grunted as his wounds began to simultaneously heal at once. He could feel the burning sensation and shut his eyes. "Are you okay?" Zoe grabbed Lee Seng's face and moved it. She began to inspect his left side. Where the glass shards hit, Zoe couldn't see anymore. She let out a sigh of relief and brushed off small shards of glass on Lee Seng. Lee Seng sighed in relief and opened his eyes. He looked around the room and the monochrome mist had dissipated. Lee Seng took a step back and quickly shook himself clean.

"Why did it shatter like that?" Lee Seng asked. Zoe had already started towards the table, staring at the remnants of the crystal orb.

"I think you overloaded it." Zoe theorized. She walked over towards the computer and looked at the incomplete results. "Yeah, you definitely overloaded it. Look at this."

"What?" Lee Seng came over. Zoe pointed at a specific part of the results.

Power reading.....48%

"48% only?" Lee Seng said. Zoe nodded. She scrolled a little further, scanning for anything else. She stopped and started to read the information under her breath.

"Density charts are abnormally high..." She muttered. "It's not enough information.... You definitely overloaded the orb." Zoe pointed at the broken orb. Lee Seng looked at the orb for a while and nodded.

"Doesn't that mean it can't read my full limit...?" Lee Seng asked. Zoe shrugged.

"I think this means we have to either get a better orb or..."

"We don't." Lee Seng finished. Zoe looked at Lee Seng with a confused look. She turned and lightly smacked him with her backhand on his chest.

"If you never figure out what exactly your power-rating is, they'll have to go with incomplete information that'll make you look like a cheater or I didn't do my job correctly." Zoe pointed out.

"Aren't those huge orbs really hard to get into anyways?" Lee Seng asked.

"For a regular person, yes. If a Number we're to call and ask... It could work." Zoe replied. "Well, I can figure out something. In the meantime, I'll send you the link to figure out your class type and then you can figure out your power." Zoe pulled her phone out and quickly tapped away.

Lee Seng's phone dinged and Zoe pointed at him to pick it up. He grabbed his phone and saw an Instant Message from Zoe. He clicked at it and clicked the link.

"Fill the form out and put a time that would work for you." Zoe motioned. "I'll have to ring someone to clean this up." Zoe turned away, tapping away at her phone before putting it on her ear.

Lee Seng filled the information out and selected the next closest date. Zoe yapped away on the phone and Lee Seng took it as his cue to leave.

- - - -

"Let me make one thing clear." The Creator said. He turned in his seat to look at Scarlet and Akio who were both sitting. "My son may think I won't do anything but I already have. He will take the Entrance Exam and go to the Academy like he wanted, but it just makes it easier for me to keep an eye on him."

"And what about the device reading, sir?" Scarlet asked.

"The device reading isn't broken. It simply means something interesting has happened to him."

"What in particular?" Akio asked. The Creator looked at Akio and Scarlet and slowly turned his back towards the Numbers.

"The Protocol did awaken but the main core has been... compromised." The Creator said.

"We'll keep an eye on him and if the Protocol activates, again... What do we do?" Scarlet asked.

"He comes back to me."