This Is Going To Be Fun

Zane woke up early. It was weird. He hadn't met Mike or his sister. He felt weird being surrounded by strange people suddenly.

He got into his uniform and stepped out of the room. He got out of the barracks then and waited at the bus stand. It is a cold morning, there is not even the sound of the birds chirping. An eerie silence with sleeping blue darkness covering the sky waiting for dawn to break. Soon other cadets arrived from his building. And then the bus came.

He sat on the bus. Looking out the window as the sun rose.

#

The bus comes to a stop on the other side of the base. The cadets moved out of the bus into the building.

It looked like a scientific facility. The cadets were made to walk the length of the hospital like building and into another part where all the cadets were lined up.

Colonel Obadiah then came along in front of the row of cadets. He appeared almost unscathed from yesterday's incident. He then began speaking.

"good morning. I hope you are ready for today. I will explain the procedures of what will be done to you. You will be taken into an operation theater ten at a time. You will be then tested for Azazel bacterial concentration. Once it is of optimal level, you will be knocked out. Then your chest will be opened and the core will be inserted into you along with other safety devices. It will take minimal space in your body and surgeons will ensure no harm to your body. Once your core is inserted and your chest closed up, you will be taken to the activation room. You will be strapped down and be given relaxing agents. A special machine will then point to your chest and start activating your core. Then we hope to see results."

The colonel walked away.

Zane and all the other cadets were given medical gowns and were made to sit. Zane's number wasn't far back.

Half an hour later Zane's number came up along with 9 other cadets. He couldn't find Roselyn.

He was walk through into a surgical room. He was made to lie on the bed and a needle was poked into his stomach.

"10 cubic liters, optimum saturation" said a surgeon.

"alright then start the surgery" the surgeon said.

The needle was removed . An oxygen mask was then placed on his face and he went unconscious. He would not feel anything. He started dreaming weird things. Something he would rather not speak about to anyone.

Soon he woke up. It felt like he slept a hundred years.

"surgery successful" a surgeon said.

Zane felt a tad heavy in his chest. He could breath, stretch his back, and all the normal stuff but only a scar and a little heaviness is what he felt in his chest.

He was soon walked out of there and into another room. It had white tiles all over with a single white chair in the middle welded down to the ground with straps on the armrest. There was a glass wall from where people in lab coats could observe him.

He sat down on the chair and the guards strapped him in. he looked at the wall in front of him. It was a large metal circle with an amber core in its middle supported by a ball-joint. The amber core glowed brightly.

"administer relaxants" a lab coat said.

One of the guards beside Zane injected him in the arm. Zane instantly felt lazy and sleepy. He felt as if he didn't want to lift a single muscle.

"start activation."

The metal circle then extended towards Zane. It stopped a few inches from him. Then the amber core shown brightly and pointed its light towards the scar on Zane's chest. He slowly felt a burning sensation. It was like a warm feeling and then a short nanosecond worth of seething pain. The relaxants helped him to ease the pain.

"activation completed"

The circle retracted. Zane looked down to see his red burning chest. Suddenly he could feel the thing inside him jump a little. But now the heaviness was all gone. It was like he was back to normal.

"what the hell" Zane thought to himself

The lab coats ran what looked to be diagnostics on Zane to make sure he didn't go insane.

"core installation and activation completed status is normal move on to testing area" said the lab coat.

Zane was freed from the straps. He was then taken to a hall below stairs. It was a large hall.

"alright then, exterminator Zane raphael, you are now equipped with proper materials to initiate your powers. You are now required to manifest your powers. This will allow us to examine and determine your core-weapon also termed as a Talum. All exterminators are given one after their procedures to weaponize your powers. As you climb ranks and increase your power we will assign you a better Talum or upgrade the existing on based on your decision. If it is determined that your power exceeds the capacity of our current arsenal of Talum then you will be given a custom made Talum to adapt to your powers. Your power testing begins now. Take your time."

All went quiet in the large room. Beneath the floors 2 large statues shaped like Azazels appeared. Zane figured he needed to destroy these as part of his test. But how the hell was he supposed to use them. And did he even have any in the first place? According to him if imagination is what made allowed to form powers then he hit a dead end right there. If the medal for the most boring person in his class was to be given to someone it was him. He couldn't remember what he was ever interested in?

"what the hell…what am I even supposed to do?" Zane stood there thinking.

"alright that colonel said if was because of my bacteria….right?"

Zane applied pressure to his core area where the core was inserted. He tried and tired as hard as he could but nothing came of it.

"god….DAMMIT" Zane yelled.

He tried again. Harder then ever and suddenly he started to smell something weird. He stood up straight with an embarrassed look.

"amazing….all I did was fart" Zane said.

After a long while he became frustrated, clearly not being able to manifest his powers Zane started to think again.

He kept thinking what was a plausible way to use his powers. That too someway that was easy to summon.

He used all the knowledge he had about Azazel's and exterminators. What could be that secret. He wished he could've asked his colleagues in his group but even if he would they wouldn't really answer him.

"wait a minute…"

Zane stood in front of the Azazel statue. He remembered about a hero in his comics he liked very much. He remembered he used to shoot beams straight out of his hand like a plasma rifle and cut through almost anything. He was surrounded by this power and just used it, flowing it however he pleased.

Zane raised his hand with his palms open in front of the Azazel. He looked at it keenly. With murderous intent. He concentrated and wanted it gone. 

He kept looking and then imagined he was the same comic book hero.

In an instant a bright golden glow emerged from Zane's hand. It was like his hand had turned into the sun, such was the brightness of the glow. He then looked at the Azazel. In an instant a sharp ray of glowing light shot out of his glowing hand and pierced the Azazel square in the center and blew up its top part.

Zane was thrown aback by the explosion. He couldn't believe his eyes. The statue's upper part was erased. He looked at his hand and didn't really feel a lot but he could suddenly feel this strange force going up and down his body. He stood up and again raised his hand towards the statue. He imagined himself shooting.

The glow in his hands came back again and he shot ray of light. Although this time it did little damage. He figured he needed to stockpile this 'glow' in order to give a powerful shot. He tried again and bought the glow back. This time he kept it glowing and the ball of light that his hand had become formed bigger and bigger, before he shot another ray of light and the result was another blown up statue. He figured all he needed to do was stockpile and shoot. He could even shoot bullets like rays sending out bits of light instead of one big shot.

"power testing completed, congratulations exterminator raphael your power has been rated type-3 'Ranged Combat'. Please choose your Talum of liking. "

A screen came up in front of Zane. There were an assortment of weapons that looked like guns, swords, pikes etc. He went below, his eyes searching over and finally found a Spear labeled 'Talum-640 Longinus: able to store and discharge powers, recommended to Ranged Combat'.

"Amazing they have everything, I guess they finally put those tax dollars to good use" Zane said.

He selects the weapon.

"Talum-640 Longinus assigned to Exterminator Private Zane Raphael." Said the PA.

A moment later a cabinet across the hall opened. Zane went over and opened it to find his weapon. It was a long spear a half-a-foot taller then him. It was white, with grey accents and felt heavy at the bottom. Its grip was firm and Zane could swing the spear easily without dropping it. It helped with his weak body he could swing around and bash anyone in sight. The tip was a sharp long blade that could cut through metal. There were a lot of screws and had a rudimentary screen displaying power stockpiled.

"Hey can I test the weapon out bring up a statue" Zane asked.

"Affirmative" said the PA.

A statue then popped out of the ground. Zane looked at it as much as he could and then raised the spear from the grey grip at the center of the spear. He then concentrated. The grip started to glow and the screen started displaying the power levels rising.

His hand started to glow intensely an and so did the entire spear. A button then popped up just below his thumb. He pressed it.

The tip split open and a sharp light, sharper then both the times before, shot out completely obliterating the statue and damaging the wall behind it with a broken hole as if he had fired a shell used on battleships .

Zane was astonished.

"update Zane raphael power rating has been moved up to type-4" the PA said.

It was amazing. He felt almost exactly like that super hero in his comics, even he had a spear. Although he had more superpowers he couldn't remember them. Zane felt exhilarated. In just a month he was now an exterminator and would now be able to earn for his sister.

"this is going to be fun" Zane said.