Joining A Squad 3

Mr. Patton's hologram welcomed him as he got out of the pool. "Good work on completing the second task Dorian, that was absolutely splendid," Mr. Patton's hologram said in an already pre-programmed way, "thanks," Dorian said smiling and trying to get water out of his ear, "now it's time to know the third task, "Mr. Patton said and the holographic board appeared with only two names shuffling and after some seconds, the shuffling stopped on the lightning squad so he'll be doing the strength task next.

The hologram pointer appeared again and Dorian followed, 'what's the time?' He asked noid and a small digital clock was displayed for him which showed 11:45AM. Dorian walked really slow to the next destination as he was completely exhausted from swimming for more than an hour, something he has never done in his life. Come to think of it, he didn't have breakfast before coming for the tasks. Was it part of the task? Or was it because he woke up late? 'maybe I should have stood up as soon as I woke up. At least I could have eaten something before the test started,' his stomach grumbled loudly as he walked still soaked in water.

'Please get something to eat,' noid said as Dorian saw the room for his next task, "of course I know," he replied. It was funny how all this happened in his mind. It was just a five minutes walk to his destination even though he walked slowly.

"Nice boy really nice…" Mr. Patton's hologram popped up in the middle of the room, "as you already know, you'll be doing the strength task next. This task is actually simple and not complex to understand but ninety one percent of mutants from our statistics has failed this task. Here's the task. You'll be lifting a 1500lbs weight ten times to complete the task. I know that's almost impossible to do but it's a task. So now you have to show if you're one of the ninety one percent or the few nine percent. One last thing about the task. You've got only one minute to complete it and that's six seconds to rest after each lift, the one minute starts immediately after the first lift. You've come this far, good luck. Dorian sighed after trying to figure out a way to normally lift a 1500lbs weight ten times in one minute. That's humanly impossible but not in his case.

"please dry yourself," an artificial intelligence voice said from a machine he was seeing for the first time in his life. The machine looked like a box with the height of an average human and a huge fan on one side. Dorian walked to the side with a fan and immediately, a warm air was blowing at a fast speed from the machine towards him. Within some minutes, his clothes were completely dry. "That's cool," he said and straightened his roughened hair.

Dorian went closer to the weight and tried lifting it but it wouldn't budge. 'Okay… last resort,' he thought, 'noid, anything we can do about this?' he asked, 'of course,' noid replied.

'ACTIVATING HYPER ACTIVE MODE'

'ACTIVATION COMPLETE.'

As soon as the activation of the newly discovered feature was completed, Dorian felt a surge of energy through out his body, he felt like he could do anything in the world. He moved closer to the weight and smirked. He slowly placed his hand on it and waited for few seconds before making his first lift. Immediately a one minute countdown timer holographic board appeared which reduced rapidly. Dorian was done with the task within 20 seconds. He dropped the weight with a loud bang on the floor. 'thanks noid,' he said, 'anytime,' noid replied and displayed,

'DEACTIVATING HYPER ACTIVE MODE'

'DEACTIVATION COMPLETED'

'BATTERY REMAINING THIRTY PERCENT PLEASE CHARGE.'

Was displayed by noid. 'what?!' the whole energy had left him alongside a huge amount of his battery life, 'disadvantages of using hyper active mode,' noid replied.

"Congratulations Dorian on completing the first three task. Well, this is the last task, doesn't absolutely make it the easiest," Mr. Patton's hologram appeared again, "we won't be needing a shuffle board for this do we?" Mr. Patton's hologram asked sarcastically, "onto the last task then shall we," the hologram said and vanished. The pointer appeared once more and led Dorian to his next destination.

Dorian got to his next destination and Mr. Patton's hologram appeared again. "Alright Dorian, this is the last task," the hologram said as the smile on its face faded away, "its going to test your bravery. Here's how it'll go." There was a small window-like opening in the ceiling of the room he entered. Slowly, someone was dropped down with a rope tied to the person. At the same time there was another opening directly under the person as the person hung freely in space. Dorian looked into the small opening and saw that it was very dark which depicts that it was very deep and it was sure death for anyone who falls into it.

Two hefty men came into the room one was tall and dark skinned while the other was short and white. The short guy pulled the cloth over the face of the person and it turned out to be someone shocking. "Amanda!" Dorian screamed and tried to reach her but the other tall hefty guy stood in his way. Dorian tried to punch him but he grabbed Dorian's fist and threw him few meters back, "you aren't the only one around here with super strength kid," the guy said with a stern look. Amanda had been knocked out and was unconscious. Mr. Patton's hologram continued speaking, "the main objective of this task is to enter inside that box and stay in it for an hour. Try anything aside that and the rope will be cut by one of these guys and Amanda will most certainly die and you'll fail the test." A metal box which was about two times smaller than an elevator was brought down by another rope.

'Seems like they know I'm claustrophobic that's why this is one of the task,' Dorian thought, 'but I have to do it,' he gulped, 'everything about a mutant is known by the top officials in M.R.I,' noid replied Dorian, 'noid, set a countdown timer for an hour,' 'okay Dorian,' noid replied and a countdown timer appeared. Inside the box was dark and Dorian started sweating, he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand countless times. He felt like suffocating even though there were spaces on the box to allow the passage of air. Dorian was starting to imagine things, he was uncomfortable and after some minutes, he fainted and he dropped into a sitting position.

A bright light shinned over his face and he opened his eyes slowly. All he could see was a white light, he looked around and saw someone walking towards him, he walked towards the person and the person's face became visible. "Mum? what are you doing here?" Dorian asked, but his mother just kept on smiling without saying anything. Slowly, everything started fading away and he was back in the dark room with a tiny voice in his head which said, 'process completed,' he opened his eyes and looked around, 'I had to keep you calm by making an image of your mother from your memory,' noid explained, 'why did you do that?' Dorian asked, 'I needed you to be calm to complete the process of phobia removal, the feeling will last for a short time though, I haven't practiced making it last for a long time, that's somehow impossible for me,' noid explained, 'oh… okay,' Dorian said shaking his head vigorously,

Dorian spent the last seventeen minutes left of the time looking round the box. The time was completed and the hefty men opened the door. "Amanda! Where's Amanda?' Dorian asked, "she is safe, nothing to worry about, as a matter of fact, the box she would have fallen into was just a hologram," the short man replied, Dorian stared at them suspiciously and eventually looked away when a hologram popped up, it was Mr. Patton's hologram, "congratulations Dorian on completing all the tasks. Please come to my office to decide your squad." There was a glitch in the hologram and it faded away.

Dorian walked out of the sports arena and was welcomed by fireworks blasting into the air. He was so tired he didn't even notice. He walked into the building, took an elevator straight to Mr. Patton's office and knocked on it, he didn't wait for an answer before he barged in, "why did you take Amanda?" Dorian asked, "I'm really sorry Dorian but it was all part of the task and her safety was our top priority through out the task…" Mr. Patton explained, "been a while since we had a candidate completing all tasks, that was really good performance there good job, good job," Mr. Patton continued, "so now, without much waste of our time… decision time, choose the squad you want to join since you completed all tasks," Mr. Patton said shifting his glasses back into position, Dorian had made his decision in his mind already but he smiled and said, "may I get some minutes to think about it?" "of course," Mr. Patton replied beckoning at him to sit, "thanks," Dorian replied and sat down, he closed his eyes for a short time then opened them and said, "I would like to join…" and he was interrupted by a mail which was for Mr. Patton.