"Go ahead, make your choice. The outcome will decide whether you're ready or not." Matthew looked at the table in front of him. A hammer with a golden head and a glass of clear liquid, maybe water. He looked around the room, but there was nothing else. The door he'd come in through had disappeared, and the only feature beyond smooth concrete was a single light bulb dangling from a chain, doing an awful job of lighting the room. This was his test. If he wanted to join, he had to prove he was worth the time.
He picked up the glass, holding it at eye level. It looked like water, moved like water when he swirled it around. Whatever voice had spoken before was keeping silent, so he assumed to could inspect the items before making his choice. He set the glass down and picked up the hammer. It was a miniature sledge hammer, but its head was gold. He felt it in his hand, experimentally tapping it against the table a couple times. It didn't dent the table, rather, the table dented it. So, it wasn't just painted; it was actual gold.
"What am I supposed to do?" Matthew asked to nothing in particular, casting about the room.
"Make a choice." The voice answered back. "And finish the test based on what you choose." He looked at the hammer again, thinking. This kind of hammer wasn't meant for driving nails, it broke things. Being made of gold, it was naturally bad at its own purpose. Was that the test? Break out despite his tool's inefficiency? And why the cup?
Whatever was in that cup, water or not, he wasn't drinking it. That's probably what they expected. He took the cup again, noticing that it was made of some kind of reinforced glass that was hard to see through. He poured a drop on the table, watching intently. Upon contact the drop sinked into the wood, and the soaked area turned grey and shiny. Matthew tapped a finger to it, hearing a high ting. It was metal, maybe iron. He looked between the cup and the hammer, immediately understanding. He dipped the hammer into the glass, getting the gold soaked in the liquid until it turned grey. He tapped the now-iron hammer against the table again, this time making the wood splinter. Satisfied, he walked around the room, scanning the walls, and finding a large crack in one of them. With one strike, some of the wall chipped away, revealing it was just drywall. He hit it again, and false wall began to crumble until he could force a hole big enough to step through by hand.
On the other side was a rather large room, maybe an old basketball court, with a door at the far side. Two people had just come through, a woman with silvery hair and a portly man carrying some kind of case. The man set the case on the ground and opened it, setting supplies along the floor, while the woman called out to him.
"Nice job." She praised, giving him a round of applause. He couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not. "You'd be surprised how many people drink the cup of myrrh. It's harmless, of course, until it comes out the other end."
"Uh... thanks." Matthew responded from across the court. "Was that it? Everyone I know took at least three tries to finish the test." And they'd all come back with claw marks. Matthew kept to himself.
"Right, it's this part they kept getting hung up on. To test your abilities in combat, we pit you against one of our best fighters." She said, rolling her shoulders. "So... I guess I'm supposed to attack now." Something sprouted from her back, and Matthew could hear the back of her shirt rip. Two wings, leathery like a bat's, flexed and stretched, and Matthew could see her fingers were tipped with vicious claws now.
"My name's Lilith, by the way." She said before launching herself forward. The wings weren't even flapping, but she was flying at him so fast he could hear the air whistling behind her. Matthew flopped on the ground, narrowly ducking under her as she zoomed past. He stood up, clutching the hammer in shaking hands as he turned to face Lilith, whose outstretched fist was lodged in the wall.
"Nice reflexes." She complemented, yanking her hand free. Bits of the wall sprayed out, landing in chunks, and Matthew could see a bent piece of rebar she'd punched into. "Maybe I should have specified, but this is an 'anything goes' kind of fight. Don't be afraid to use your powers." She rushed at him again, this time stopping right in front of him. She was close enough for Matthew to see her eyes, which were strangely glowing red. He barely registered the punch that jerked his head to the left, and didn't even see the one that came right after. His head was spinning when she grabbed his collar and jumped, taking him up with her. By the time the world had stopped spinning, he was inches from the metal beams along the ceiling, and she was looking at him like one might look at a meowing dog.
"You're an Anivis, aren't you?" She asked. He nodded, and ended up making himself more dizzy. "hen can't you do some kind of weird mind thingy?" Without waiting for an answer, she let go of him, letting him fall. The panic hadn't come to Matthew until he was about halfway to the ground, where he realized he still hadn't done anything to stop himself. He closed his eyes and focused. He didn't need to stop, he just needed to slow down. He wrapped his arms around himself, trying to extend the mental connection, and slowly pushed upwards. He added more force, feeling the wind in his ears slow, but being careful not to add too much at a time. It's not the fall that kills you, he remembered his brother telling him. It's the sudden stop. Strecth it out over time, and you'll be fine.
He opened his eyes to find himself a little less than a foot off the ground, suspended in the air. He smiled, pleased and amazed that he'd managed to stop completely, until he looked down, saw Lilith was holding his ankle, and realized he was upside down. So he was looking up.
"You were slowing down," She told him. "But you'd probably have snapped your neck if I hadn't caught you." She dropped him and let him catch his breath. "We can stop, if you want."
"Are you asking me to give up?" Matthew sputtered, trying to sit up without vomiting.
"I'm asking you to consider your own health." She said. "There a tons of creepy crawlies out there, much bigger and meaner than me. Even if you got past initiation, you'd be expected to go up against them."
"I understand."
"Also, you're kind of scrawny."
"I can't argue with that."
"Really, I've seen malnourished seven-year-olds with more upper body strength, and they're joining us because their only alternative is to starve." She knelt down, meeting Matthew at eye level. "From what I understand, you have a family and a home in the city. You certainly aren't joining us out of necessity, so why do you want in so badly?"
"Unlike you, I wasn't born with my powers." Matthew started, choosing his words carefully. "The Order justifies making monsters to destroy monsters, and if they get something wrong, they just throw it out and try again." Lilith nodded, and the man that had come in with her called out from across the room.
"You're with the guinea pigs? I thought they wanted to stay independent."
"They do. Most of them are pacifists, just trying to stay out of the Order's way. But... some time ago..." Matthew caught held his tongue, and continued. "They can't let the general public know what they've been doing, so they've been hunting us down. They don't catch many of us, since we blend in with the crowd, but... we can get unlucky."
The scene flashed in Matthew's mind. The house was ransacked, blood splattered along the walls, broken and torn bodies strewn around the floor. He could smell the stench of the dead and dying as his brother carried him out of their hiding place. He remembered seeing someone still at the front door, surprised that he'd missed two of them. His brother stopped in his tracks as the man raised his gun, trying desperately to negotiate with him. Something had clicked in Matthew's mind, and realized something. He hated this man. He opened his mind and told this to him, while wrapping a mental hand around the barrel of his gun, bending it so it wouldn't shoot. He did the same thing to the man's arm, then his other arm, and his legs, bending and folding them in ways they shouldn't go, all the while repeating the message over and over. I hate you. The man's screams died down and he was left in a heap on the ground, bloody and broken just like everything else in the house.
Matthew snapped back to reality, dispelling the thoughts from his mind before he did something he'd regret. "My problem isn't a lack of power; it's a lack of control." He stood up on shaky legs, facing Lilith. "I wanted to join to help control my powers, so I could concentrate them on doing the right thing. If you'd let me, I'd like to finish the fight."
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