บท 4: The League of Testing
[3RD PERSON—DONATELLO'S HOUSE]
It's been 3 days since the events that happened at their school, and Donatello rushes down the stairs of his home when he hears the doorbell. You see, Donatello's parents are scientists, and they would take any opportunity to help people. Especially if the people in question are the best friends of their child.
Donatello cracks open the door and peeks through it to see his friends. "Oh hey guys, come in."
He steps to the side and opens up the door fully, allowing them to enter his house. They look around at the various paintings and sculptures in the entrance hall of Donatello's home, each of them thoroughly impressed. They notice a bust statue of a little boy that's displayed clearly, but Donatello quickly stands in front of it. He clearly doesn't want to talk about it and its meaning, so they don't force him to.
"Uhh, welcome to my home guys. Come see my parents." He says as he motions for them to follow him into his kitchen.
They all follow him into the kitchen and see his parents just sitting at the counter, discussing something over some coffee. Donatello waves to his parents to catch their attention and he points at his friends, letting Alberto and Valentina know that they've arrived. His parents stop their conversation and look over, excitedly shooting out of their seats and walking over to them.
"These are my parents, they're scientists and they can help us with our little situation." Donatello says with a proud smile.
"You guys have all grown up so fast!" His mom exclaims as she gives each of them a big motherly embrace. "Donatello has already gave us the rundown on everything that's happening, so we already have everything set and ready to help."
"Thank you Mr and Mrs. Santoro, it means a lot," Natalie says kindly.
"You don't have to thank us, you've been Donatello's best friends for so long that you're like family," His mom says.
"So, who would like to go first?" His dad asks.
Nobody raises their hand, leaving his parents with an awkward look on their faces. "We promise it won't hurt. We'll just be testing your vitals." His mom reassures them.
Chris slowly raises his hand, "I'll do it! Doesn't sound bad to me."
"Well if he's doing it, then I guess I will too," Natalie says.
[CHRIS—ALVAL LABORATORY]
I step behind a curtain with Donatello's mother and sit on the bed, doing as she directs me to. She brings out a machine to measure my vitalsthat has several things attached to it, and plugs it in then turns it on. I watch her do all of this in silence, and I truly hate silence, so I make some conversation.
"So, how are you?" I ask.
"I'm good, thank you for asking!" Mrs. Santoro says, and she approaches with a thermometer before I can even say anything. "Open your mouth, tongue up."
After that, she places the thermometer under my tongue, and I shut up, taking the hint. I close my mouth and let the thermometer rest under my tongue. The temperature begins rising quickly, and Mrs. Santoro looks at the screen in disbelief. My face scrunches up in confusion as she adjusts her glasses like if she's seeing something wrong.
"That can't be right." She whispers to herself.
"Everything alright?..." I mumble with concern.
"I need to redo the test, hold on." She tells me, then resets the machine and pulls the thermometer out of my mouth.
She puts it back when the device starts up again, but the number stays the same. She winces and turns the machine to me, showing my temperature. I look at the screen, watching the number rapidly increase from 120 to 309 in just a few seconds. She pulls the thermometer out of my mouth finally, just to prevent the machine from inevitably exploding.
"I don't know if it's glitched or what because it would've kept going if I didn't take it out... What are your powers exactly?" She asks.
"I catch on fire, practically." I say.
"That would explain the high temperature.." She looks at the machine and then at me again. "Would you mind demonstrating?" She asks, grabbing a nearby fire extinguisher.
After she sets the proper precautions, I roll up my sleeves and ready myself for presentation. I set my hand out in front of me and start to shake it slightly, a wave of heat gravitating from my shoulder all the way to my wrist. It burns a little, then it goes away when a small flame bursts in my palm. She watches it and does that adjusting of her glasses thing once again. To extinguish the flame I close my fists, watching as the steems seeps through the cracks of my fingers.
"Interesting..." She says, looking down at the iPad in her hand and typing in some stuff.
"When it first happened, it was all over my arm, but it somehow didn't burn my clothes." I tell her.
"It seems you have control over what your fire burns and what it doesn't. When it's on your body anyways." She explains to me.
"What does that mean?" I ask, not understanding.
"It means that your powers run deeper than I thought. You have mental control over the intensity of the heat, meaning you could engulf someone in a blanket of flames and still give them a first-degree burn if you really wanted to."
I nod to express my understanding, and she checks all my vitals. My blood pressure, my heart rate, my breathing, y'know, all those important things. Once she evaluated that I'm all good, and my vitals are alright, she moved on to the abilities part of my test.
"Do you think you can do anything else?" Mrs. Santoro asks me. I shake my head, so she pulls out her iPad and jots down some quick notes. "It'll take Al and me a little while to make a fireproof containment room, so we'll have to put a hold on the powers testing."
I nod again, and she shows me all my vitals, explaining if anything is abnormal due to my powers. "You have to be careful about going to the doctors, they'll be able to detect these changes just by looking at your temperature. Your guy's DNA was altered through radiation because the radiation in your body is off the charts. You aren't contagious, but your DNA is not the same."
"Is that a bad thing?" I ask, worried.
"No, your body is handling it very well, actually." She says. "A little too well. Al and I will need to monitor your blood and DNA to see if any changes happen. But right now I wouldn't worry and just try your best to keep the temperature down for now. And learn to control your abilities."
[NATALIE—ALVAL LABORATORY]
Mr. Santoro pulls back a curtain to reveal a doctor-like setup. I sit on the stool when he points to it, then he brings out a vitals machine. Like one that you would usually see in a doctor's office.
"So are you a doctor?" I ask curiously.
"No, I'm a scientist. But it's important to check your patients' vitals." He replied, and I catch the word 'patients'.
"If you're not a doctor then why'd you call me a patient?" I watch him set up the machine and plug it in then bring the thermometer over to me first. I decided it would be best not to probe his mind and read it. I just conversate with him, like a normal person. Whatever that means.
"Would you rather I call you a test subject or a specimen?" He asks.
I hum in response, "That's a good point."
He sticks the thermometer beneath my tongue. After that, he wraps the blood pressure cuff on my arm as well and puts the little clip thing on my finger. I sit there and wait, watching the numbers on the clip.
"It seems that your powers can't be detectable through simple tests on your vitals, so what are your powers?"
"I guess I can read and control minds. I'm not really sure how it works though." I tell him.
"Well, would you like to test your powers?" Mr. Santoro asks as he jots down my vitals on the IPad nearby. It's on a stand and facing toward me, connected to his computer so I can see what he's seeing. He looks at me and then smiles.
"Uhm.. sure. On who?" I look at him and slowly realize who he means. "Oh, you want me to test my powers on you? How would you know? Like, how would you be able to record it?"
"What? No-- Not on me--" His smile fades when I finish speaking and he frantically shakes his hands in front of him, signifying that I'm very far off. "Stay here."
He turns and walks away, leaving me alone for a few minutes. He then comes back with the most innocent member of our group, Talia. My eyes quickly flicker between his face and hers. She waves at me happily, while I hesitantly wave back.
"You want me to take control of her? That's like asking me to take control of my child, I won't do it. No." I say, shaking my head.
"No, no, all you have to do is read her mind. We need a more feeble psyche for that kind of testing. To test with such a high functioning brain might be taxing on you." He explained.
"Thank you!" Talia says to the 'high functioning brain' part.
"Oh. That's fine with me then." I say, looking at her.
I don't know how my powers work exactly, but I focus on her for a few seconds and then begin to hear her voice in my head. I fish around her thoughts for a little while, doing the best I can to listen to all of them at once
"I'm just hearing a whole lot about snacks... a lot of snacks. And 2 games. Stardew Valley and Bunny Park?" I say.
"My favorite games," She chuckles. "And you have no idea how hungry I am."
"Do you think you could dig a little deeper? Those are only surface thoughts." Mr. Santoro tells me.
I fiddle with my rings so I don't lose control, and begin to refocus my energy back on her. There's eerie whispering around us, presumably from me using my powers harder than usual. Underneath those thoughts about snacks and , I begin to hear her express her worry about being too weak.
Yet, I still see a smile on her face. She acts like she's okay, but she isn't. I close my eyes and look down, no longer listening to her thoughts. And before I know it I'm pulling her close and hugging her warmly, letting her lay her head on my chest.
"You aren't weak, Tals," I tell her then smile, looking down at her.
She begins tearing up but she still keeps the smile on her face. She'll always be a little ray of sunshine, no matter what. She started tearing up after I told her she was not weak because she's never told anyone about it. Bringing my hand up to her cheek, I wipe her tears with my thumb.
All of a sudden, I hear sniffling and look up, seeing Donatello's dad is the one who's doing the sniffling. He has tears in his eyes as well that he wipes away. "Sorry..." He sniffs, "That was a beautiful moment." Talia and I just chuckle.
After that, we both leave the lab area. She goes to Trevor while I go and sit next to Penny. She looks at me and notices my misery, but she looks a bit afraid to touch me. So I grab her hand gently and hold it. I feel her fingers curl around mine a little bit, but not with her entire grip.
I bring her hand up to my cheek and place it there gently. She exhales slowly, then cups my face with her hands. I hold her hands, the both of us smiling widely and gazing into each other's eyes.
"It's been a crazy few days and I'm glad I've had you here with me." She says, stroking my cheek gently.
I let out a happy sigh, "I'll always be here for you, Mon Cheri."
"I'll always be here for you too. Don't forget that." She gives me a soft forehead kiss after she finishes speaking. Flashing a small smile, I lean my head on her chest and rest it there. I hug her waist and she wraps her arms around me in a comforting way, enjoying our warm embrace.
[DONATELLO—ALVAL LABORATORY]
I sit outside of the testing room alone, right next to the door. I have my headphones on, blasting my favorite songs to drown out the noise of the real world.
I sigh, "I'll go with dad, and Melanie you can go with my mom."
The both of us get up, and we walk into the testing room, then inevitably go our separate ways. When I walk in, I'm instantly hit with the scent of hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies. This is one of the first times I've been in the lab, for very obvious reasons. I mean, who would want their child to spend time around chemicals and several sharp objects? They did a good thing hiding me away from this lab and all the potential injuries I could've faced. In fact, they've hidden me away from a lot of things in life, and it does make things easier sometimes.
Interrupting my thoughts, my dad peaks his head out from behind the curtain and motions for me to come behind it. He disappears back behind the curtain and I follow after him, then sit down at the stool he points to. He hooks me up to a vitals machine, then first measures my heart rate. It's normal, and he runs the rest of the tests.
All of it comes back normal, but my dad looks a little confused. He freezes for a moment, re-reading the screen. "Oh uh, it seems that not all of you have changes in your vitals. Only some of you."
"That's weird." I reply, sensing he might be lying about what he saw.
"So what can you do?"
"Uhm, grow trees? And make earthquakes? That's pretty much what happened during gym class. Roots came out of the ground, and they grabbed my classmate and gym teacher." I tell him.
My father nods his head, "So I can only assume that your powers have to do with the earth, the terrain and such. Which is quite interesting... Why don't we conduct a few tests? Let's go to the Botany room."
"We have a Botany room?" I ask, scrunching up my face in confusion. He just begins to walk away, so I chase after him, "Wait up!"
He brings me to a completely white room with plants and lights in there. I see all the different plants, and I start to feel at peace. It just feels right for me to be standing where I am standing. Inhaling, I take in the sent of the leaves and fresh soil. Is it weird to say I feel at home?
"I would like you to come over here and revive this plant. Then afterwards, I want you to grow this seed."
He places two pots in front of me. One contains a seed buried beneath some soil, and another that looks more than dead. It looks like it's practically unable to be saved, the poor plant. I hope I can do it, I mean I grew trees on the field. Clearing my throat, I take a step closer to the pots. My fingertips touch the leaves of the dead plant gently, and I furrow my brows to get my powers working. Nothing happens, so I inhale deeply and focus harder.
When I let out an angry exhale, the plant begins to perk up and return to its normal, vibrant color. I chuckle a bit and touch the plant, seeing it has indeed been revived. My dad immediately pulls his tablet out and begins writing things down.
"It seems your powers react to your strong emotions. That's good, we can use that to try and tame your powers." He says.
"Why do we need to tame them?" I ask, looking over at him.
"I took a closer look at your powers through your vitals and it seems you harness intense levels of energy inside of you, meaning you're the most powerful one here. If you get too out of control then you could practically destroy the whole world." He says.
My eyes widen, and I chuckle as I shake my head in disbelief. "There's no way I could be that powerful, it just seems nearly impossible."
"Well, you better believe it. We have to make sure your emotions don't get too out of control. Which is why it's important that we see what you can do exactly." He gives me a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
A heavy sigh exits my mouth before I touch the soil of the other pot, the one with just the seed in it. I try my best to focus, and I begin to see a small leaf sprout through. The corners of my lips curve up into a small smile as the plant continues to grow. It grows fully into a beautiful succulent.
"It's good how calm your powers make you though. It makes it easier to tame them." He says.
I think about my friends, and I begin to worry about hurting them. The last thing I ever want to do is hurt any of my friends. "Are my powers going to.. hurt anyone?"
"Not if you keep them under control," He pats my back, acknowledging my worry. "Don't worry, son. I'll be here for you every step of the way."
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