Destia Jayden February 23rd,20XX

Nagi, large as he was, ended up being a fast walker. I didn’t want to call out and ask him to slow down, so I picked up my pace and tried my best to speed up without breaking into a run.

While I focused on adjusting my pace and putting one foot in front of the other, I couldn’t help but notice how much my raggy clothes stood out when contrasted with the bright monochrome of the equipment and the bleach white walls.

I shook my head free of those thoughts and tried to guess what they would do to me once I got there. About halfway through the nightmares of being cut apart and inspected, Nagi halted in front of a familiar set of sliding doors.

The stop was so sudden that I almost bumped into his back, but I reacted fast enough and ended up backpedalling by a few steps.

Or well, I’d meant to go a few steps, but I ended up about a mile away from him. I must have been more nervous than I consciously recognized because I could usually keep better control of my abilities than this.

Nagi heard the screeching of my rubber soles as I ground to a stop and spun around. He noted my sudden distance from him with a surprised expression, and his dark eyes twinkled in excitement.

“Incredible- Ah. I mean, no need to be so nervous Ms. Kila. The rest of us are in here. You remember Ivette, right? And Danka?”

The two that were introduced got out of their seats and greeted me with warm smiles. They didn’t look scary in the least, but I was still so nervous about meeting so many people alone a mere day after being introduced to them. It was even scarier to remember than they knew about my powers and were here to study them.

The cold-looking man stepped forward as Nagi said his name. He looked like a quintessential doctor and wore a bright white lab coat and had a stethoscope hung over his collar.

“We’re going to start with a physical. If you’re uncomfortable with me doing this, then Anatha is more than capable of taking your measurements as well.”

I looked over at the pretty older woman and traded a smile with her, but shook my head at the request. She looked preoccupied with something, and I didn’t particularly mind being looked after by a male doctor.

He brought out an old-fashioned measuring tape and led me into a different room. The octagonal room we were just in led to many other rooms. I’d wondered how they were all going to work with such little technology in the space, but now I realized that the octagonal room was more of a conference room than any sort of working space.

He directed me toward a cabinet and left the room so I could change into the bright blue hospital gown and shorts.

They looked pretty standard and looked to be made of a loose cotton material that barely weighed anything. Well, I’d thought that was the reason for having me change into the new set of clothing but when he returned, he grabbed an unworn set of the clothing, set them onto the scale and negated their weight before he had me step onto it.

“One hundred and sixty-eight pounds. Five-foot 9.”

He used the voice recording function on the large screen on the wall to take down my details. The words sprawled out on the surface of the device and plugged the data into a vague graph.

168 wasn’t a lot, but it wasn’t a little either.

“Don’t worry about your weight. You’re well within the average, and chances are it’s mostly muscle rather than fat. But that’s what we’re going to find out next.”

He must have noticed an expression on my face because he immediately used his dry voice to comfort me.

Even though he’d said he was a doctor during his introduction yesterday, I was still surprised by how quickly he worked through everything.

“We’ll have to do the x-rays and scans another day. But for now, we want to ask you a few questions. Please make your way back to the room we just left from… I’ll get out if you want to change.”

While walking around in hospital clothes wasn’t fashionable, it was better than what I’d come in wearing.

“No, I think I’m fine. Thank you.”

I walked out of the room and made towards the gaggle of white lab coats in the middle of the room but was quickly directed to a couch in front of several desks.

They all took seats at their desks and bombarded me with questions.

“When did you first notice these powers?”

I dug deep into my mind and tried to remember the day I’d first noticed I could do things that others couldn’t.

“I’d say about a year ago? It’s been a little while.”

While I didn’t know what answer they had been hoping for, I gathered they hadn’t been expecting my answer.

“A year! Wow... Which of your abilities did you first discover?”

It felt strange to be not only talking about my powers but to be doing so to such an invested audience. I felt my spine slightly shrink back, but powered through it.

“The first was my speed. I was running away from a loose dog in my neighbourhood and found that I could move incredibly quickly. I ended up breaking my nose when I slammed into a corner, but otherwise, I was okay.”

I tried to remember the time I found out about my ability to become invisible. It hadn’t been as dramatic as the speed, but it had shocked me so much more.

At the hospital, I’d been playing hide and seek with the patients that could walk on their own. I could still remember the exciting feeling that had run through me when one of them looked me right in the eyes but hadn’t registered me.

The scientists all took notes like students at a lecture and waited anxiously to ask the next question.

“What does using your powers feel like? Please try to be as descriptive as possible”

“Well, using the invisibility just feels like I’m holding my breath? I’m not sure how to explain it. It’s a very purposeful action, and it takes a bit of strain to maintain it, but I’ve gotten better at it as time passed. Using the speed just feels like regular running, only I can do it a bit faster than others. I also don’t get tired as quickly as I used to. My skin is also pretty tough. I noticed when I tried to sign something earlier, I had to use a hammer and a pin before I broke skin.”

I tried to go into as much detail as possible, but it was harder than I’d thought it would be to explain the incredible to others. I fought back the instinct to hide away from their glares and made eye contact with each of them.

Instead of the fear or apprehension that I had been expecting, I only saw the excitement in their eyes.

Finally, one of them spoke up, I think their name was Sema.

“Well, would you mind us going down to the field and running a few activity tests?”

The already thin treads on my sneakers were even thinner now than they had been in the morning so I couldn’t do too much, but I looked at the grass that padded ‘the field’ and convinced myself that it would be okay.

As long as I was careful and nothing out of the ordinary happened, then these could last me at least two presentations.