A Bad Guy

The first test was pretty simple; it was a strength test. We stood in the middle of the scrap mountains of scrap metal and rundown junk as far as the eye could see. I stood sitting on the ground having taken off my hoodie leaving in my muscle shirt. Mary and Rachal just got done dragging in everything needed for the strength test. A fridge, boxes of different items, a shit ton of scrap metal, a dumpster and several cars. Rachal quickly walks over as she has a little clipboard.

“I’d say we got everything ready to test out what level of strength you have”

“So you did this test with Mary?” I quickly hop onto my feet

“Yeah she got around the 12 ton range in strength” I swear I could see Mary smirk as she dropped the last car on the ground with a thud. I walk over to all the junk I’ll be lifting “so when do we start?” Rachal puts on her goggles as Mary stands near her with her arms crossed “now would be nice”.

I quickly walk over to boxes as I start grabbing them and they like holding a bunch of feathers as I quickly stack all 6 boxes on top of each other, lift it up and put it down with no real stress. Rachal writes some things down as she gestures towards the fridge. I open it and see it's filled with scrap metal and then closed as I grab the fridge by its sides, feeling my finger slightly dig into the thing. I lift it up a bit heavier then the boxes but still not feeling any strain as I quickly toss the fridge in a far off pile of scrap as Rachal eye slowly twitches “I’m going to have to reorganize that later”.

I quickly walk over a bunch of scrap metal welded together into a ball as I lift that off as I feel the weight this time as I roll away like a bowling ball just needing some pins. As I get to the dumpster Rachal quickly walks over “hey how are you doing” I turn to her “good why?” she looks at her clipboard “well you're about to be entering tons of lifting capability and depending on how strong you might end up getting hurt and I don’t want that ok” I nod as I walk over and grip the bottom of the dumpster as I feel the weight not heavy yet but getting there as with some effort I lift up the dumpster over my shoulder and hold it there a minute straight.

“So far so Good you're able to at least lift up one ton so Far now for the cars If you lift the first one fine I’ll grab one fly up and put it on top of the other ok?” I nod as I walk to a rusted car, moment of truth to see if I could chuck a car. I put my hands under the car and grip the metal as dust starts flowing off the old thing as I lift it. I feel the weight double that of the dumpster as I slowly lift it above my head. Rachel puts the clipboard into Mary's arms as her wings unfurl as flies over to another car. Her claws pop out as she digs her hand into lifting it up and slowly flies above me.

“You ready?” I take a deep breath “yeah” as I hear her let go as I feel the weight double. I nearly fell to one knee as this feels heavy. I feel my muscles start to ache as My legs shake a bit as my mouth slams shut with strain as My feet slowly dig into the ground. I stood there as Mary had a worried look on her face “hey Richy I think you're good, put the cars down” I turned to her as I just shook my head. I can handle this. I'm Strong now, I'm not a weakling. I hear Rachal grab another car as she flies above me “hey are you sure you want to do this you seem close to reaching your limit” I hear genuine worry in her voice as I can feel her hesitation.

“Do it, I can handle it” she ponders for a moment as I hear the car drop. The weight becomes immense as I fall to one knee as I feel my muscles start to scream as The cars slowly fall onto me. I feel everything slow down as Mary starts running forward as I start to slowly stand up. My muscles are on fire. I'm gritting my teeth so hard they feel like they're about to break. As with a massive amount of effort I lift the car above my head for several seconds then toss it to the ground as I’m breathing, I gasp for air as it feels like my lungs are on fire.

I feel Mary rush over and just hold me as I catch my breath. I eventually catch my breath as I feel all my torn muscles and crack teeth healing already. I stand up as Mary gives me a quick jab into my arm, thank god she could control her strength or I would be across the scrap yard.

“You're goddamn idiot Richard, seriously you could have been crushed but nooooooooo you had to push yourself!” she was worried and pissed at the same time

“I’m fine really I’m already healed too and plus we gotta know my hard limit and that is?” Rachal quickly flies over holding the clipboard as her snake friend writes on it with its mouth, still don’t know how that tail works.

“Well your lifting strength limit seems to be 6 and half tons half your sisters, that's pretty good” Mary sighs as she tosses the cars into one of the scrap mountains.

“So what's the next test”

“That would be striking strength aka how hard you can punch. I already have the testing area set just follow me” yay punching time my favorite.

We head to another part of the scrap yard, this one has 3 blocks set up. One wooden one, one concrete one and one steel one.

“So essentially each one of these blocks is solid and this test requires you essentially either punch through them or shatter them” Rachel pats the solid steel one “this also lets see how tough your hands are”.

“Break a leg well hand in this case” Mary slaps me on the back knocking me forward and nearly making me fall. I quickly walk over to the wooden block. I think it was made out of oakwood? Can’t tell anyways it's solid like Rachel said. I take a deep breath as I lift back my fist turn my torso. As I quickly take a step forward, turn my body and shoot out my fist.

I Feel the wood splinter as soon as my fist makes contact then as it keeps going with the momentum the rest of the wood shattered too with little resistance. Splinters fly everywhere, coating the ground in wood chips.

“So I’m guessing you know how to throw a punch is part of that instinct power?” Mary has curiosity written all over her face.

“Yeah It’s like I know what to do hell even my body acts on its own sometimes like I got muscle memory” I move over to the the concrete block

I get ready for another punch as I put a lot more force into this as I take a deep breath, turn my torso, I once again take a quick step forward, turn my torso and shoot out a punch. The concrete is a lot denser and rough as I feel some of the impact from my punch lesson but my fist just like before shatters through turning it to dust that coats my hand.

Rachal plays with the chalkboard by tossing it around as she speaks up “Maybe it's a self mentalist ability, one that lets you have instincts and natural combat skill”. Mentalists, one of the more terrifying power classification any mind based power falls under them mind control, telepathy, illusions and then there’s self mentalists that alter their own brains there pretty rare abilities such as super intelligences, perfect recall, super learning and even forms of precognition, guess I’m one of them.

I walk over to the final block, the steel one that will most likely break my hand but here goes nothing. I go through the motions, I take a deep breath, turn my torso, I take a quick step forward, turn my torso and shoot out another punch. I hit the metal As I feel my fist go a couple inches in but stop in place as I see my hand has dented the steel block and my hand is bleeding.

Mary Snorts as she walks over “when I Said break a hand I didn't mean literally”. I pull my hand back and my knuckles are a deep purple and and have cuts on them with blood slowly dripping from my knuckles. The purple quickly disappears as the cuts seal themselves and will never get used to seeing that.

“Hey Rachel can I try again”

“I don’t see why you’ll just hurt your hand again”

I lift up my left hand and turn it into steel. It looks different, the claws are longer and sharper, the scales are looking more like littles plates, the metal is just a shade brighter and the metal reaches a small bit past my wrist now. It feels stronger and more durable now it also feels easier to use and I feel like I can use it more. Guess that's from me using it so much yesterday.

“Hey Rachal I wanna test out my striking strength with this power activated. Is that good?”

“Yeah if it enhances your striking capabilities might as well see how much it does” I nod as I go through the motions once more as I take a deep breath, turn my torso, take a quick step forward, turn my torso again and throw a punch. I feel no resistance as I feel my punch cave through the metal block as if I was punching paper it, it even cave in like paper as it was heavily bent and deformed as it flew away 20 feet away from me.

Both Mary and Rachal had looks of shock on their faces. Rachal writes something down on the clipboard “well You have much striking force then Mary that"s a fact”. I stare at my metal fist and wonder did I kill a person with this? I mean when I fought that gang On my first night with these powers did I kill any of them? They weren’t looking in the best condition and the closest hospital might have been far away. I didn’t think to even check on them or at least call a hospital. I just ran off with the money. The money I took the money they stole well they actually didn't say that for all I know that was money they earned, the money that was probably meant for food or clothes or anything that could help them and I just beat the shit out them maybe killed them without asking a single fucking question. I haven’t even fucking used the money just having waste in my closet.

I then start to think about that villain I………I killed her, I brutalized her made her unrecognizable a bloody mess and I made it painful but she deserved it the thing she did to those children and she was gonna sell them to people that would ruin there life over fucking money. She was a monster and she deserved everything that happened to her.

“Hey you ok there? You’ve just kinda standing there staring at your hand” I heard Mary's voice ending my train of thought.

“I’m good just thinking”

“Is everything ok” I can hear the worry in her voice much more appsrent this time then all the others

“Ok guys are gonna be heading to the next test, the speed/agility test. I have a feeling you're gonna like this one Mary.

“Oh I’m gonna love it” as she gives me a sinister grin that entails dark things to come

“THIS IS SO BULLSHIT JUST STAY THE FUCK STILL!!!” Mary's screams at the top of her lungs as I dodged another hail of rainbow paintballs. This test was set up in a large open area, where Rachal would drive in one of modified cars that was essentially a normal car but with a mounted paintball gun that Mary would use to try to shoot at me. The goal was to try to outrun the car while dodging paintball fire and scrap that was laid kinda like an obstacle course. Now normally this would sound impossible to do but surprisingly I was doing well.

I heard that when people develop powers there are 3 things that decide what power they’ll get. The first deciding factor is related to trauma or traumatizing events that can cause a lot of mental issues and even the power can relate to their mental state most villains having this be the reason they get their power.. The second is genes aka people with parents or ancestors who had powers. The power is always very similar if not identical to the people there related to powers. The final one is that power is related to what they love. There can be someone who loves animals getting animal control or someone who loves a firefighter gets hydrokinesis. I guess whatever is happening might have given me some minor super speed because I love running.

Dirt and shards of metal shootout beneath my feet as I’m outpacing the car with not that much difficulty as I jump the side avoiding a pile of scrap. I then quickly hop onto a pile of old cars and use it to help me jump 10 feet avoiding another spray of paintballs.

“GOD FUCKING DAMMINT!!!” Mary is actually starting to spark but I can’t blame not only am I fast but my enhanced senses let me hear the paint balls flying through the air and my enhanced reaction gives me more then enough time to predict when and where they're gonna hit. I don’t know how fast I’m moving but I’m definitely moving faster than the car and Rachal said she modified the car to where it would move at least 300 hundred miles per hour so yeah I’m pretty fast.

“WOOOOO HOOOOO!!” Speaking of Rachal seems like she is having the time of her life as she swerves and makes sharp turns throughout the area.

“RACHAL KEEP THIS THING STEADY I’M TRYING TO GET A GOOD SHOT AT HIM!”

“WHAAAAT? CAN YOU SPEAK UP I”M BLARING ROCK MUSIC IN MY HEADPHONES RIGHT NOW” the clouds get a bit darker and bigger as Mary had a devious smile.

“You know what? FUCK IT LETS SEE IF YOU CAN DODGE THIS?” She lets go of the Paintball gun and starts charging her with blue electricity. Fuck shes getting pissed that means she’s gonna shock me. Recently whenever Mary gets pissed at something she has the tendency to shock things and she has enough control over the lighting and electricity that she can hit someone with it and only cause them pain and for them to freeze up.

I don’t really feel like getting shocked so I need to think of a plan as I slow down my perception to a halt and start thinking eventually I get one.

This is gonna be fun as I put my perception back to normal and jump forward as I land on my left hand as it turns to steel as I hear the car getting close and Mary shoot out a bolt of electricity as I do a handspring I feel myself rush through the air I see Mary slowly look at me as I take a deep breath as I feel my heart beat a bit faster as Sparks traveling up my throat.

I fire a quick bolt of electricity out of my mouth aiming for the canister holding all the paintballs as it explodes coating the front of the car and Mary in rainbow paint. Sorry Mary my aim is just better, I quickly turn in the air landing on the ground causing a small plume of dust to shoot around me.

The car quickly stops skidding against the ground as I walk over with a smile on my face as Mary hopes off of the car as she wipes paint off her face. Rachal gets out after her as the both of them have a very annoyed look on there face as they both walk over to the and simultaneously they both punch me in the face. I got launched several feet as I slid across the ground, yeah I probably deserved that.

Next was an accuracy test, my favorite and a test of my newly upgraded chaos breath. Several targets were set up on different objects at varying distances and my goal was to hit at least one. I have 5 different types of breaths. I can probably do more but that's when I have more training with this power. The current ones are fire, air, earth, water and lighting.

“So your Chaos breath got stronger, how? Also cool name by the way” Rachal asks as she gives me curiosity.

“Oh yeah I was about to die and Kinda just willed the dragon in my head to wake up”

“Excuse me what!?”

“Anyways let's start” as I walk forward where a red line is drawn. The first target is a car about 12 feet away. I feel my chest get solid as rocks start to form in my throat. I feel like I should choke but I don’t. I take and breath and open my mouth as a volley of razor sharp stones shoot out of my mouth and slam into the car. Most of the volley of sharp stones miss the target shooting out like a shotgun and stab into the car but a few do hit the target.

“Ok I didn’t expect rock breath I get lighting fire hell even water but rock seriously?” I shrug at Mary, really no one chooses their powers. I turn to see the next target being an old oven about 20 feet away. I feel the heat build up in my throat as I breath out the flames firing in a large stream. It hits the target and the entire oven, it actually blows up the oven and burns part of that area.

I turn to Rachal as she shrugs “hey you're just blowing up my junk I may be part dragon but that doesn’t mean everything I own is part of my hoard”.

“Isn't all junk?”

“No” She has a very serious expression.

The third target is 32 feet away. It's a mannequin with a kick me sign. I take a breath as this time my lungs feel with air as I shoot out a tunnel of condense rotating wind. It hits the one side of the mannequin shredding that side pieces and launching the mannequin several feet away.

The next target being another mannequin placed behind a car and set up as if it was hiding about 60 feet away. I take a breath as I feel like I swallowed a bunch of water. I release a condensed beam of pressurized water cutting through the wall then the mannequin. It is extremely hard to control as It slices through the wall then the ground as it knocks my head back.

I quickly shut it off as I stood up and before Mary could laugh or Rachal could ask if I was ok I felt the lighting sparking up in my throat. The last target was on a mannequin about 200 feet away, it was on a pile of cars, it was on a lawn and chair and was holding a book.

I feel the yellow lighting sparking from my mouth as with a loud BOOM it hits the target in a second destroying it and the pile of cars. Mary and Rachal are clapping as I cough a bit from using my power multiple times in a row.

“Got to give you props Richy you got some good range on you and this is coming from the weather manipulator” Mary gives me a toothy grin

“Yeah so far your a good all rounder not amazing at anything but pretty good” Rachel writes one final thing on the clipboard as the snake hisses with a happy look in its eyes

“Thanks” I take a quick sniff as I smell a large amount of petrichor.

“Hey it’s gonna rain soon let’s get inside”

“Yeah I can sense it too” as all three of us head back inside of the shop. We head inside as Rachal takes us to a little dining room she set up in the shop. She says she got a place with her parents but she likes to stay here sometimes. I make some burgers as we sit at the table eating as it rains pretty heavily outside.

“Hey Richard?”

“Yeah?” I turn to Mary

“Me Rachal are heading out on a night in the city later wanna come”

I don’t really like socializing outside of my family and well now Rachel and even then it’s only so much for any of them.

I go to speak but Rachal gives me the cutest puppy dog eyes, her odd eyes making it even more adorable.

“Please”

I sigh as I finish My burger in one bite, swallow and throw the rapper in the trash can behind me “sure”.

“YAY!” as Rachal hugs me and Mary as I smile.

It’s just a night in the city hanging out with my sister and her friend. What's the worst that can happen?