Talents

The rest of us followed Uncle through the door. We were met with a very large room, divided up into eight separate sections. Each section was labeled with one of our names on it on the floor. Each little section was a testament to our interests ...or were they capabilities? Mine was covered in the battle diagrams of several conflicts that had shaped the world. Waterloo, the Battle of the Bulge. Various firearms cluttered the table, along with books about war, firearms, and battle. Uncle made his way over to my section. "This is the room where you will teach each other your specific skills. Listen up. The mission, or more importantly, your lives, depend on it." I was surprised at this statement. I had thought that the mission was inherently more important than our lives. Uncle must have read my mind. He continued: "Yes, your lives are more important than the missions. You are worth the outcomes of ten missions. I suggest you keep yourselves alive. The world needs you. I'll give you all until 2200. I suggest you all go to bed then. Our timeline has been moved up. You know the way back to your rooms. Use the time wisely." He then left with the two guards. That last statement was something that a schoolteacher would have said. I turned back to the rest of the Team. "Alice, want to go first?" "Sure." She was already fiddling with the contents of a massive chest in her section. "Well," Alice began. "Fooling around with the elements results in some pretty volatile substances. For example..." She fished out some red powder and grey powder from the chest. "Thermite. You need three parts iron oxide-rust- and one part aluminum." She held up the respective jars as she did so. She measured out three grams of rust and one gram of aluminum. She put these in a beaker and stirred them up with a popsicle stick from the chest. She pulled a lighter from the chest and held the beaker in her hand. "Better go outside for this," she mused, gesturing to the door. The crowd gathered around her section parted and she went outside to the range. She set the beaker and lighter down on a range table and vaulted the guard rail. She grabbed the lighter and the beaker, and poured the beaker's contents on the ground. "Okay... this stuff will burn at half the surface temperature of the sun, so uh... don't look at it. She stooped down to the red-grey pile and lit it. It immediately roared to life. Orange flames spat out of its center- a bright white ball. It burned brilliantly for a second, then disappeared. It left behind a charred spot in the dirt of the range. Everyone else headed back into the giant room. I stayed back as she vaulted back over. "Impressive." I stated, beginning to walk alongside her. "Yeah, pretty simple. Pretty neat, though, too." She replied in that half-exhausted tone that people always spoke in whenever someone complimented them for something they thought was sub-par. I held the door, and we walked back in to find the Asian guy talking about circuitry. It was interesting, but I questioned the value of learning anything directly related to field work. All that we had to know was the general aspects of something. The details were better left up to the respective expert. Alice and I stood watching several other little presentations of technology and invention. They were all right, and we took in the gist of everything. It was down to the last presentation. The Japanese guy started saying something about hiding. At this point, it seemed like everyone in the room was already checked out. A yawn made its way around the room, even infecting the Japanese guy. I was about to check out as well, but a few words strung together caught my ear. "It is very easy to hide. Just become a shadow, hide the light. Sit in darkness. People will not find you, something that you are hiding, or a secret, unless they know exactly where to look. You can hide your emotions as well. You can even let go of them, turn them off. I can turn mine back on right now." I saw a tear run down his cheek. He wiped it away and resumed speaking. "See? Very simple. Also, people are oblivious nowadays- at least the civilian folk. Use that to your advantage. Keep in mind, when people are looking for something, they will likely look for your clothes and colors. Utilize a quick change. He took off his jacket, pulled a baseball cap from the table, and slicked back his hair. You could actually see his eyes now. "I look entirely different. If someone was looking for me then, they won't find me." I looked over at Alice. She was the only other one that was even remotely paying attention. I looked at the clock on the wall behind the Japanese guy. 2205. The Japanese guy finished up just in time. When he was finished speaking, the rest of the kids started their way back to the room. I politely waited for the Japanese guy to go ahead. He looked up for the first time. "Hey. You, me, uh... and you. My talk was the most relevant one to listen to. Us three," He made a circle motion with his hand-

"Are going to be the military arm of this Team. Everyone else is support or tech stuff. Keep that in mind." He walked up ahead, out the door, where his girl was waiting for him. Alice and I followed him out and began walking past the range.