Chapter 7

I walked to the pavilion, I missed my dad so bad and Jacqui. Quinn joined me and we strolled around, he shoved his hands in his pockets.

"I heard you're a prodigy"

His shoulders dropped and he exhaled. "Word gets around fast," I added, my curiosity tweaked at me

"How'd you do it?"

He was silent, I didn't want to push boundaries.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, I just put a lot more effort than I would usually"

"How old are you?" I asked

"I was about your age when I reached the black squad"

"Really?"

"Yeah. Come on, I need to show you something"

Excited, I wasn't having any classes today so I followed him as he walked briskly, hands in pockets. He had graceful steps too, I felt like a cub trailing helplessly on a lion.

We walked by a couple of female students who admired him nearby. The girls sneered at me, I ignored them and caught up with him. I could see the room before he flicked on the lights.

It was an office, I saw medals and badges on the shelf, a picture that changed over time into several different photos of him with teachers. Leaning on the desk, I accidentally activated something, looking up at the fluorescent windows showing algorithmic randomness, it was a big mess.

"Oops"

He tapped the computer desk and the whole thing vanished, tapping the fluorescent buttons on it, a window appeared.

Name: Burt Davis Griffith"

Codename: Tetro

Code: 1273

Sex: Male.

Department: Biochemistry, mathematics, pure science.

Status: Deceased [Profile deletion in progress]

My eyes watered seeing his picture, unsmiling and grim. He had been an agent here.

"My dad hated math and he couldn't help me with homework" I sniffed.

"If my dad was a scientist here and lived a normal life...then all your claims about memory wipe is false"

Quinn swiped the window to show an eye icon

"What's this?"

"Lumen, an anti-LOU organization, the league's been fighting against for years."

He swiped again and zoomed in on the men in camouflage holding guns, it seemed like I was looking right at the call of duty, then magnified the eye on their shoulders, tattoos. I recognized the man who had attacked me that night. Memories of his face and his barred yellow teeth flashed in my head.

"Wait" I swiped to the recent picture "I remember this guy"

"So do I"

I was angry at him, I wanted revenge for what they did to him.

"Why do they want the essence?"

"Recently our team of scientists made research, they wanted to push the boundaries of chemistry and physiology and create the ultimate human weapon with enhanced abilities and superpowers.

With how far they had come, they were confident that they could achieve that feat and began to conduct experiments on humans.

For the rest of the test subjects, nothing happened.

They continued to make readjustments on the essence until the incident on November 19th, 2005, Agent 1762 had the opportunity to be the first human on whom the essence affected on"

He said and sighed "Besides that, it's useless, it doesn't work"

"It does" I bit my lip, Sith had told me not to say anything. He stood up straight.

"What?"

"It worked on me" He looked at me as if I was crazy. I exhaled phasing through him, he turned genuinely shocked at this discovery.

"I also have night vision" I confessed and mentally punched myself. "It happened at the factory and the lounge when the place was on lockdown"

"How does it feel?_ aside from using infrared night vision goggles" He looked curious.

I shrugged "It's just...the same without the lights on. Everything's clear"

"Oh__"

"Dr. Singh made me promise not to tell anyone"

"My lips are sealed" He mimed closing a zipper on his lips, grinning.

"Swear it"

"I swear" He raised his hand casually and gave me a necklace with an owl on it, I held it up, it was dark purple.

"This is to remind you that you can count on me for help"

Admiring the necklace, I put it on and tucked it into my shirt, and grinned.

"Ok"

It was well over 10 pm, everyone had retired to their quarters. We were supposed to rendezvous here but she was running late. I started for the wall

"Excited to start without me aren't you, Darcy?" I winced at the sound of her voice, it was late and I was on the lookout for prefects.

I slid down uncontrollably, Kristen showed her for the thirteenth time. I sighed when I got it wrong for the thirteenth time in a row.

"I'm sorry"

"It's okay, I needed to go the extra mile anyway" She showed me her calloused hands that were red from climbing for too long. I had come prepared, I brought gloves.

"You can stop now, I'm hopeless" I managed a smile and held a knot, pulled myself up, and braced my booted feet against the wall. Gravity pulled me downwards, it got harder and harder to hold on.

"You should've seen me on my first day, I bawled like a baby," Kristen said, Darcy held the second knot and moved her left feet then right, I laughed.

"I don't find that hard to imagine"

"Yeah_hey" She scolded me after giving it a second thought.

"I could've been obliterated on the spot by Mister Wade Wilkins."

"Shh, it's Shadow Knight around here"

We giggled teasing him, I held another knot and moved my right foot and left foot. Tilting my head backward to see her upside down, she wore a blue jacket, sweatpants, and All-stars shoes.

"He meant to kick you out" she shrugged

"I know but imagining it that way makes it fun. I can't believe I can't even get past a wall, it looks so much easier in the movies" I snorted

"Maybe a lot easier than you thought" Kristen brushed her hair behind her ear.

"Huh?" I was almost overcome with dizziness when I looked at how high up I was. I gave out a half laugh and sat on the top of the wall recovering from that wave of dizziness and anxiety. Adrenaline pumped through my veins.

"Look at me!" Gently, I pushed myself up on my feet and outstretched my arms, the cool breeze blew from behind me.

Kristen laughed "You did it," She said audibly, I got down the other side which was a lot easier than climbing up.

"On to the next one" I moved to a giant net and smiled "This should be easy" I climbed up, the net rocked back and forth, held my breath till it steadied itself.

"Keep going!"

I exhaled and climbed, the higher I went, the more confident I became, swinging my body over the leg and descended the net, relieved the moment, my feet touched the ground, my heart raced and I shook with excitement.

Kristen moved to the next obstacle course and clapped

"This course's not gonna finish itself"

If only I had agility as a superpower.

There was a hurdle of logs, the same

"You roll over and then under"

"Over and under" I repeated and took a deep breath.

Rolling over a log and under the next one, I might have tasted grass when I landed on the ground a little too hard. I was out of breath at the third under, sweat trickled down my face and got into my eyes till it stung.

Gasping I rolled under the last log.

"Next!"

"I'm beat" I even felt grass in my collar. I held my knees panting

"My arms feel heavy and whole body's on fire"

"You're not going to finish the obstacle course pouting like that" She teased pointing at the next, two nets set over the biggest mud puddle I had ever seen.

"I'll go if you'll go," I said, I saw her expression of bewilderment.

"But I_"

She was about to protest until she remembered the "pouting" she made earlier. I smirked

Of course, she crawled out faster than I did, Kristen jumped and cheered, raising her muddy hands

"Refreshing"

It was a literal drag, not only was I covered entirely in mud but grass. She helped me up

"Is it over yet?"

I asked feigning agony, we had to hop through tires and climb through monkey bars, I jogged to the finish line and collapsed on the grass. Kristen knelt beside me while I recovered and finally had the strength to roll over.

"49 minutes and 15 seconds," Kristen said, pulling out a stopwatch. She had been recording the whole time.

"I hope the talking doesn't count," I asked "Other than that I did it"

"Darcy, it's not that simple, you have to practice over and over till it feels like breathing"