#2 Blossom

It happened after all the hardships I was put through. I passed the BARP wavelength test.

After the first people with power showed up or after the anomaly, people started going crazy about it. A lead group of scientists took up the initiative and went ahead and formed the bureau. The Bureau for Anomaly and other Related Phenomenon. Within just years of coming together, they found a test to check if you have awakened your powers. The test checks for the presence of the anomaly waves and the intensity of the waves. People tested with intensity above the mark were declared as Awakeneds.

The nation declared that if the youth wanted to stay in the city and not in the border force, they had to pass the BARP test. And I finally did. All that was left for me to do was to figure out my abilities.

Normally you would expect BARP to come up with a scientific method to tell you what your ability was. Only, they didn't. Jahania came up with a method, but it was not so scientific, rather psycho. All they had asked us to do was go through a few curated near-death experiences and voila. Luckily I heard from others that you don't die from this but can be mentally stressful. I had to do it and I registered myself for the Ability ID test.

Although our nation was going through an economic crisis, civil unrest and potential intrusion, Jahan kept funding the Awakeneds program and was actively trying to increase his awakened personnel.

I signed up for the test the next day.

All of the participants were asked to gather in the venue. We were all scanned for malicious belongings and got to sign a consent form regarding death. We were asked to say yes although we weren't asked any questions. Everybody just said yes. The lights went out and all of a sudden a guy on the dais started speaking.

"Welcome everybody. I hope everybody's had a nice sleep yesterday because you won't have enough sleep for what's about to come. Also, remember this isn't the end. You can always try again and go through this near-death experience again. You will all be briefed about the tasks at the location. Good luck and don't puke."

Why would we puke and where is this location he talked about. The instant I thought about this my flesh started disintegrating into cubes and vanish off into thin air. Everybody else was going through the same thing and the pain was unbearable. My mind went blank and I found myself conscious in a different place. I started to recall what happened and I could only theorise that I got teleported. And at least I didn't puke like the others. The whole place smelled horrendous.

And we didn't have much time to get ourselves together. A loudspeaker nearby instructed us:

"Welcome hamsters, I will be your host today. I want all of you to do the tests shown on the screen and wait for everybody to finish. Also if you pipsqueaks score high and finish first or set a record, Jahan said he'd let you all have a high post.

As if a predator went into insane focus when hunting its prey down.Those words "high post" set up a fire in me. The peace I've been striving for, This was it, this is what I had to do.