Sudden Superhero

5. What Can I Do?

I FOLLOWED MS. HENDERSON down to another floor. She punched in her key code, and a large set of black, windowless doors slid open for us. They closed after we entered, and I walked to the center of the wide room.

How could I explain this place? It felt like we were in a secret bunker in the middle of nowhere, not in one of the top levels of a skyscraper.  The floor was some dark blue material similar to a firm gymnastics mat. There were no windows, the walls were black, and the ceiling was high. The vents gave off a dreary, loud hum.

I shrugged off my backpack and left it on the floor, leaning it against a wall. I whistled, and the noise echoed sharply. "So, what do you mean by testing?" I asked.

"Before you attempt something fatal, like jumping off a building when you can't actually fly," she said, shaking her pen to get the ink out, "we need to know exactly what you can do."

I looked around the room again. There was a large closet, but I couldn't see what was behind its closed doors. However she was testing me, I didn't know. "What first?" I asked.

"This is a long shot, but can you fly?"

I took off my shoes and socks, feeling more comfortable with my bare feet on the mat. I stared down, wiggling my toes. How was I supposed to test this? I jumped in the air, feeling ridiculous, but I landed back on my feet and shook my head.

She took notes on her clipboard.

I was suddenly hyper-aware of the fact that it was just us in the room. She was the head of the company; I was expecting her to have assistants who would help her with this, but it was just us, and Kavanagh wasn't even back yet with whoever Jenny was. The only explanation I could come up with was that maybe she didn't want all her employees to know what was going on. She was trying to keep it contained to a small group.

The doors opened, and in came Kavanagh. Trailing behind him was the woman from the train. A triumphant expression that clearly said, I knew it!, overtook her face. I understood then that she told Ms. Henderson what happened on the train, and that was how they tracked me down.

"Ah, Jenny," Ms. Henderson said. She clicked her pen closed, handed everything to the newcomer, and turned to me. "Jenny and Agent Kavanagh are your handlers now."

Jenny nodded. Remember what I said about having employees do the work? I guess I was right. She left without another word, the doors shutting closed behind her.

Kavanagh stood still, one foot resting against the wall as he looked around the room, his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't say a word to either of us as Jenny introduced herself to me as an employee of the super serum project, and I introduced myself as a local teenage nobody. The only time he interacted was to help Jenny drag some things out the closet.

I stared at the first thing they brought out. A tennis ball launcher? Why?

Jenny alarmingly aimed it at me. "Reflexes, Peter," she said, answering my unspoken question, which was likely apparent in my expression.

Okay...that made sense, but was I willing to get pelted by tennis balls for the sake of testing? I didn't have a chance to respond or even nod before she turned it on. The machine must have been on the lowest setting possible, because I dodged the ball easily.

I was expecting Jenny to crank it up slowly, but she immediately switched to the max speed.

An unfamiliar ease overtook me. It wasn't like time slowed down, because time definitely didn't slow down. I was just quick to notice the little neon yellow death demons, each and every one of them, and I kept dodging until I got tired of it and started catching them.