Graduation

Since childhood, Avery Banks had an unusual childhood. While his peers idolized the powerful human warriors who fought terrifying interstellar battles for the Human Federation, Avery was busy watching cooking shows. While his friends sat to discuss powerful martial arts, genetic powers and ability tactics of the heroes at the battlefield, Avery would go through Monster Taste trading cards, an obscure game that helped children memorize all kinds of monsters, beasts and plants.

While his friends were busy exercising on the field, going to train in combat dojos and working hard to become stronger, Avery was busy learning to cook. His friends thought that Avery was a weirdo, with weird hobbies. Which guy grows up obsessing to learn to cook?

However, Avery's parents were supportive. From a young age, Avery went to one of the best cooking schools on Planet Sirius IIb, with the caveat that he would also focus on other studies and on becoming stronger. After all, this was the interstellar age, and strength was the key to everything.

Avery, who hated exercising could only reluctantly agree. But when he discovered, to his shock, that without decent strength he couldn't even cut through the kinds of obscure meats and fruits in cooking class, he turned serious about the matter. In such delightfully peaceful days, time passed by and Avery turned eighteen.

On his eighteenth, Avery looked like a fit young man, just graduated out of high school with good grades. He had been very talented academically, and popular among the teachers for having helmed the cooking club at high school for three years straight. As far as strength went, he was indistinguishable from his peers.

In this modern age, raising a child under carefully guided training was pinned down to a science. In terms of physical strength, Avery had already achieved a 1.0 rating in the galactic strength index, the standard expected of every high school graduate.

Now, at the moment of graduation, the graduates would be given their awards, and along with that, take the activation potion and get their activated ability diagnosed in front of their parents and examiners.

The activation potion has a long legend in the annals of human interstellar history. Legend has it that humans were visited by a powerful interstellar being with a spaceship unlike seen before or since. The interstellar traveler had provided humanity the push to reach for the stars, by helping the fragmented nations unify under a single federation and provided humanity the technology to create the Activation Potion.

The Activation Potion is a technology beyond even current human understanding. The mechanism is unclear, but the results of taking it absolutely are. On consuming an activation potion, a human would awaken a dormant ability that could almost be considered to defy known understandings of science.

It is now theorized that the activation potion mutates the dna to turn them into Dark Energy generators, allowing humans to wield abilities beyond current understanding of physics and biology.

Today, in the ten thousandth year of the interstellar era, one summer morning on Sirius IIB, Avery walked onto the stage to cheers and hoots by his peers and claps from the teachers.

Known for his crazy passion for cooking and his dream of becoming Gourmet Hunter, Avery's zeal had won him over quite a few friends over the years.

Now under their watchful eyes and the happy eyes of his parents, Avery observed the glowing blue metallic liquid injected into the vein on his left hand. The process was absolutely painless and instantaneous, and a host of holographic screens analyzed Avery's granular detail and displayed the activation process.

A bright white glow enveloped Avery like a cocoon. No one was surprised by the phenomenon because this was completely standard. After a few minutes, the glow subsided.

The computers were at work, rapidly churning out information as Avery felt the changes in his body. An examiner who checked the computers, told Avery to focus on his eyes and Avery did so without question.

Immediately, he found that his vision changed dramatically. He was able to see a variety colorful glows surrounding the room, on people and on objects. After a minute, his head began to hurt and he instinctively stopped using the ability.

"Good. Analysis Completed." The Examiner spoke authoritatively. "Avery Banks - Activated Two Star support ability Energy Vision."

There were a host of subdued cheers, some nodded, some felt sad. Avery nodded. Two star ability Energy Vision - it was a relatively common ability awakened on Sirius IIb, a decent support skill that allowed the user to observe the energy hidden in the object as well as its attributes.

Abilities were graded using stars. One Star had the lowest potential, followed by two stars and so on. There was no peak star level as newer abilities were discovered all the time and the star level wasn't an absolute qualifier, after all history was replete with human warriors of low star abilities beating those of a higher grade. However, as a general rule, a low star indicated a low growth potential and a slower growth rate.

Energy Vision, in particular, was purely supportive. It did not augment combat abilities directly and thus growth in strength was based on one's own efforts. Without any offensive ability, Avery was also very weak to those who had abilities that did not fall in the direct augmentation category.

However, Avery wasn't too shocked. He had never been too interested in becoming the strongest person or dreamt about being a hero. He was a practical person and immediately realized that this ability would be useful for his future career as a gourmet hunter.

As he walked off the stage in his graduation dress, he walked towards his parents who ruffled his hair.

"Don't feel sad child. Energy Vision isn't a bad skill, after all both me and your mother have the same skill growing up, haha." Avery's dad, Jim laughed. His mom smiled gently, while holding Avery's hand.

At that moment, one of Avery's quieter friends, William, walked onto the stage and underwent the activation process. Soon, the crowd turned silent, because they felt a terrifying black miasma envelop William and a pressure forced everyone to shake in their boots with fear.

"This pressure..." The Examiner exclaimed in a cracked voice. His excited face poured into the reams of quickly appearing data. "Amazing! A nine star ability and a new one not seen before! An absolute top potentate!" He screamed fanatically.

William had a smile on his face. He looked towards a boy in the crowd who had tested earlier. The boy was currently perspiring. Avery looked over and saw that it was the guy who always tried to bully William, a boy called Shane.

"Shane, it is now time to acknowledge our bet. You and me will fight, now!" William said authoritatively.

There had been rumors that William and Shane had had some enmity because of a girl. Avery had been dismissive of the matter given how quiet William always was, he never thought that there might be a grain of truth to the rumor.