Chapter 5: The Trial

Jeff walked into the cafeteria and saw a group of people standing at a window facing the training grounds. The group was composed of most of the enrolled patients who had just been training outside, and they were whispering to themselves. Jeff took this opportunity to sneak up on them, saying in a very loud voice, “And what are we doing over here?”

This of course made all of the observers jump a foot in the air before shooting glares at Jeff. The little girl, Eva Cooper, spoke first saying, “Why are you so mean! We are trying to spy on the new guy!” Jeff was about to come back with a childish rebuttal when a stern voice called from across the room.

“Eva! Come here please.”

Eva immediately walked over to her advisor, a very mousy woman with black hair in a ponytail. She leaned down and spoke into Eva’s ear. Eva nodded and went back to her seat in the cafeteria, but shot her tongue out at Jeff before returning to eating her food. Jeff made a face at her then looked out the window. Angela was standing beside Tom, who was doing push-ups next to her. A young man with very blue eyes and straight blonde hair poked Jeff asking, “Isn’t he your roommate Jeff? What’s he like?” Everyone turned from their observing to listen to Jeff.

He could understand their curiosity. No one new had been enrolled to the CMA since Eva, who had been there for six months. He wanted to tell them something, but really he didn’t know Tom very well. Actually, Tom had been acting freakishly normal considering the environment. And Jeff had been more interested in the football game anyways. He did have an audience though, so he had to say something. “His name is Tom Gilroy. He is new, so I don’t know much, but, he talks a lot while he sleeps. I don’t know how strong he is if that’s what you’re asking, Keith.”

Keith looked back out towards the training grounds, and then smirked. “It doesn’t matter; he won’t be stronger than me.” With that he went back to a group of guys who were sitting together talking loudly and laughing. Jeff frowned. It was true that Keith was strong, probably as strong as himself, but arrogance and strength are a dangerous combination. Jeff thought about having a word with Keith’s advisor when a slender hand touched his shoulder. He turned and saw Jan Korby, another very strong patient. But Jan was very quiet, and Jeff had always been a little afraid of her. Her developments creeped him out. She was definitely not his type. She looked up at him and asked, “Do you know what kind of surgery he had?”

When he said no, Jan sighed, and walked away. Jeff got a shiver as two beady yellow eyes peered out at him at the nape of Jan’s neck from underneath her long dark hair. They blinked twice at him, then they closed. She sat by her advisor in silence.

When Jeff looked out the window again he saw Tom running laps. Another of the group watching Tom from the window, Benjamin Vargas, spoke then. “She’s wearing him down so that he’ll have to tap into his new strength. That’s how they started me out too.”

Jeff had come to the CMA at the same time as Benjamin, but they never got that close for some reason. Ben was into arts and books and other boring stuff, so Jeff never wanted to hang out with him. Not to mention that whenever the two of them practiced together, Ben always won. Ben could manipulate his will into dark masses, usually in the forms of lines or cords. After getting ensnared in a few of Ben’s black nets, Jeff stopped trying.

When Jeff looked outside again, Tom had stopped running and was breathing hard, his hands on his knees. Angela was yelling at Tom, so he started running again. Jeff laughed, thinking of all the times Angela had chewed him out for not working as hard as possible all the time. Benjamin slapped Jeff on the shoulder, saying, “This is going to take a while, let’s get something to eat, huh?” Jeff was hungry, so he went with Ben to the kitchen area. As they walked away, Ben sent a dark line to pull the string next to the window, closing the blinds. The rest of the onlookers, now deprived of a view, went back to their eating and mingling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the training field, Tom was quickly running out of stamina. He had been in a hospital bed for some time, and while it felt good to exercise again, he could feel a big difference in his endurance. Angela called from across the field, assuring him that they would be doing this often, and that he should get used to it. Marvelous. I don’t see the point in doing this though… I figured that I would be doing something weird considering what everyone else here can do.

Angela, feeling that Tom’s level of fatigue was sufficient, called him over to her. He stood next to her, sweaty and gasping while she spoke to him.

“Tom, this next part is very simple,” she instructed as she reached her hand into her pocket, “all I want you to do, is pick up this penny.” She pulled a penny out of her pocket, and dropped it on the ground.

He looked at her incredulously. “You’re serious? It’s a freaking penny.”

She sounded a little mad when she answered, “I am always serious when it concerns you, Tom Gilroy. And don’t say ‘freaking’. It makes you sound like a delinquent.” She stared at him, crossed her arms, and looked at the penny. “This will probably take you a while, and I have some errands to attend to, so I’ll come back and check on you later tonight, alright Tom?”

She walked away, leaving Tom feeling foolish and confused. He reached down to pick up the penny, and was amazed to find his hand slow down as he got closer to it. When his hand was a few centimeters away from it, he found he couldn’t move any closer to it at all. He pulled back, and called out to Angela who was still walking away. “What is this? I can’t even touch it!”
“That’s why it will take you until tonight to figure it out, Tom!” Then she went inside the cafeteria.

Tom already hated this penny game, and wanted to take a break. He reached at it several more times for it, each time failing. He kicked it once, only to discover that it was much like kicking a cinderblock, and cradled his foot for a few moments afterwards. He jumped on it, punched it, then just squatted there staring at it.

Well, this is getting me nowhere.

“You’re going about this all wrong, Tom.”

Tom spun around, sure that the voice had been directly behind him. There was no one on the field though. Yet the voice had been so clear, so real.

“Where are you?” he spoke to the air.

“Who are you talking to?”

Tom turned back around and saw a tall woman with short brown hair looking at him with her hands on her hips. She had pale skin and big green eyes. She tilted her head and asked, “Anybody home?”

Tom looked around one more time for the speaker of the strange voice then replied, “My name’s Tom. I just got here.”

She looked down at the penny. “I can see that. What have you tried so far, Tom?”

When he told her, she nodded. “I actually tried to chew my way through I think. What a frustrating day that was. Hmmm.” She looked up t the sky and smiled. Then she patted him on the shoulder. “Well, I’m gonna go, but you keep at it!”

Tom had a quick dilemma over whether to ask for her name or her help. One quick glance towards the penny made him choose the latter.

“Any hints on how I’m supposed to do this?”

She gave him a look that said “Isn’t it obvious?”, but instead told him, “Just remember why you are here at all. Bye Tom.”

She closed her eyes, and as best as Tom could tell, she evaporated right in front of him into a cloud of steam. The cloud quickly floated all the way over to the door of the apartments, where it passed through the cracks, and she was gone.

Tom was dumbfounded, but she was right, whoever she was. He just wished he knew what he could do. He sat down next to the penny and tried his best to focus on it alone. He stared at it for what felt like an hour. His mind started to wander to other things. Why am I here? I don’t see how this is supposed to help me at all. Stupid penny. Why couldn’t they get a large stack of money? That would be more motivating.

“Irritated?”

Actually, yes I am! And who are you?

“Think on that irritation Tom. Think of exactly you want to do to that penny. Any words coming to mind?”

I’d really like to throw that penny off a cliff. I’d like to melt it down into a bullet, and shoot some other penny with it.

“While those are interesting suggestions, it’s not quite what I’m looking for Tom. You’re thinking too broadly. Give me… an idea, a concept, something that captures how you feel in one word.”

Um, how about smash.

“Smash? Are you fifteen?”

Why does everyone criticize how I talk? It’s not like—

“Whoa, easy killer. Just give me another one.”

Ok then… err… obliterate.

As Tom even thought the word “obliterate” he could somehow feel an excitement growing in his chest. He stood up quickly, and took a step back.

“There it is, Tom. Now, I want you to focus on just that word. I’ll say it with you.”

Tom clenched his fists, and thought hard on the word “obliterate”. This was very weird, and a more than a little unnerving, but nothing else seemed to be working, and whoever this was seemed to have more of an idea of what was going on, so why not? His thoughts started to feel like a chant in his head.

Obliterate…Obliterate…Obliterate…OBLITERATE!

Tom lifted his left hand straight out towards the penny, and spoke in a vehement voice, “Obliterate!”

Tom’s eyes shone with a brilliant pale blue light as heat flew from Tom’s left hand. The heat gathered into a sliver of white light above the penny. The sliver slid into the sphere protecting the penny, and when Tom felt the sphere being pierced, he instinctively knew to make the sliver of light explode. The explosion knocked Tom back a few feet, but he kept standing. He knew that he shattered the sphere though, he had felt it. Once the smoke had cleared, he walked over to the penny and, after a slight hesitation, picked it up. It was a little charred, but still a penny.

But Tom was met with silence. He couldn’t get a word out of the voice, no matter how hard he focused. Then a wave of fatigue hit him, and he fell to his knees. He was confused, but elated. All he could do was laugh at himself, sitting on the ground, holding a burnt penny. And I’m talking to a voice in my head! I must be going crazy!

~~~~~~~~~

Angela was watching from a window as the gleaming light glistened beside Tom, and widened her eyes at the resulting explosion. This had taken far less time than she had anticipated.
A man in a white coat walked up behind her. She didn’t have to turn around to know who it was. She spoke first, hoping to leave a good impression on the silent figure.

“He is advancing quickly, sir. Would you care to look at his—“

“Did you not notice anything unusual about that display of power, Angela?”

Angela couldn’t help but to jump a little at the gravelly voice. Before she could answer, she heard him turn and start walking away. Before he left he told her, “Look more closely at his mannerisms in the future. That is all.”

She quickly tried to recall everything that had just happened in her mind. Tom had sat for a moment, then he stood up in a hurry, concentrated on the penny on the ground, raised his hand and… raised his hand. He raised his left hand! She flipped through her notebook to confirm what she already knew would be written there. Many physical movements can be given a probability or certainty of occurrence. The mental reconstructions specified that Tom Gilroy would, if given the choice, use his right hand in all instances. She snapped her book closed, and began walking to her office. There were some calls she needed to make now.