The hallway to the registration room is exactly as white as the waiting room I had just left. Right beside me, The Doctor and his colleague walked side by side, staying silent and keeping their eyes forward. I don't know what I expected when he says that he knows someone in here but I didn't expect it to be a girl- Seriously, what the fuck?
I side-eyed the Duskkin and she is as attractive as the rest of her race; with long ears augmented by little black boxes implanted at the top and bottom half of her ears, they're connected by thin seams of plastic that go over the inner lobe of her ears, covering it up with rectangular bars dotted with LEDs that occasionally blinked with blue light.
'That's it,' I can't take this anymore, I'm way too curious about how the two knew each other- "So, what kind of relationship do you two have?" The curiosity is killing me at this point and I'd take the faintest bit of closure I can get and no, I'm not gonna let their painful stares stop me from getting an answer, "Are you guys just colleagues or?.."
"We used to have a relationship." Says the Duskkin and holy shit- What?
"How the hell did that happen?" Did The Doctor drug her? Wait no, that sounds like something he doesn't want to do- Actually, being with women sounds like something The Doctor would outright despise. So did she drug The Doctor? I can't see the man being in any sort of relationship other than his work. Or maybe- I smirked when I thought of something that'll piss The Doctor off-
"Are you the reason why The Doctor's depressed?" Pretending like everything I said makes so much sense to me is easy as breathing. If I didn't know any better, I'd probably believe my own act too.
"Depressed?" The man in question asked with a frown. The part where he didn't deny their relationship also didn't go ignored, "I'm not depressed, I don't think I can be-"
"Yes."
"I knew it." I nodded sagely. "Why else would he overwork himself most of the time?"
"Accurate." The Duskkin agreed. "He does spend all his time in that lair of his doesn't he?"
"Yes!" I snapped my fingers, "He does." To most people, this is where they would play the wingman and say to the girl that she should come back or something so that The Doctor can feel happy again but fuck The Doctor.
But also, I won't stop her from taking the chance herself- "Hmmm... Then maybe I should come back to you?" The Duskkin smirked when she said that, She tapped something hard and square on the pocket of her lab coat and I swear I saw a brief glimpse of red light phase through the white when she did just now. "Ga-"
"Oh, I guess we're close to the registration room now, we better hurry," The Doctor walked ahead of us and I wouldn't have wasted the opportunity to tease him but I had other things occupying my mind, 'Wait, was she about to say his name?'
And wow- I mean, I just realized that even after all this time, I actually don't know The Doctor's real name. It was Ga- something, which the Duskkin hinted.
I stared at his retreating back, 'Wonder what was that all about.' The Doctor couldn't be ashamed of his own name, can he? I shook my head at just how ridiculous that sounded. 'It just feels too farfetched...' I mean, the only way for that to actually be true should be because of how he's raised. 'I guess I'd understand if he hates his mom?' I shook my head- I'm starting to get confused, so I chose to forget everything I thought of just now.
Between the remaining time for us to reach the registration room, the Duskkin and I didn't talk because her mood actually soured. Soured because The Doctor ignored her advances. Because of that, we walked the rest of the way to the registration room in complete silence. Seriously. Not even her high-heels made a sound.
"I... This is it?" I faced the bored looking Doctor to my right, who was seated in one of three overseer desks on the room's southwest wall. He held a tablet in one arm and is messing with buttons with the other.
His eyes left the tablet to give me an exasperated look, "What did you expect it to be?"
"I thought that it'd be more... grander?" I replied.
Compared to the obstacle course of my expectations, the actual registration room looked more of like a highly specialized gym for anyone that needed physical therapy, it had all of the usual gym equipment like weights, treadmills, mats, and even a rock wall for climbing. It also has a few new additions such as a cubical room with foam floor and walls that had circular cushions of different sizes, a room with an open skylight letting sun rays in at the top, and a tank of water that went deeper into the floor.
All of the extra rooms had glass walls for observation as well as hidden modifications. For example, the skylight room had circles on its floor, which I assume is hiding fans twice my size.
Two pats lightly hit my shoulder in sympathy, "Don't worry, if you prove that you're better than the typical Cape, then we can move you to the next room for a more intense registration." Says the Duskkin as she passed me. I didn't react and simply watched her occupy another overseer's desk, when she sat down, her ears blinked with light then she nodded at me, "Anytime you're ready." she said with a professional tone.
"I'm as ready as it can get," I replied and looked at all the gym equipment sprawled across the room, "Where do I start?" I asked but if I had a choice, I think I'd pick the treadmill first to get my heart pumping.
"Pick whatever you want." Was the Duskkin's curt reply.
So the treadmill it is then.
As I walked, I kept my eyes on the machine, the treadmill got larger with each step, becoming clearer to me until I can make out its design. Except for a single feature, the treadmill looked as mundane as it can get, and it's just that, a treadmill. It had no obvious wires or blinking lights to give it any sense of aesthetic, its treads also didn't look that different from the standard treadmill, just a flat gray thing that people can run on.
I stepped onto the treads and fidgeted with the controls, the hardlight hologram was easy to navigate and on the blue panel were various graphs and scans that showed my vitals, heart rate, blood pressure, stress, as well as the airflow within my lungs. According to the Duskkin, if any of those go down from the standard set by the treadmill, it'll get recorded and the speed would get adjusted accordingly.
Externally speaking, the panel was the only futuristic looking thing the treadmill has and I'm glad that it's so easy to navigate because of it.
I activated it and started jogging, "So, you guys know what's the standard currently set for me?" I asked. The speed that I'm jogging at right now isn't that bad all things considered and preferably, it can go even faster.
"Start using Theikos and the machine will adjust to your rate of absorption and usage." Says the Duskkin which didn't answer my question but sure, let me just-
I followed her words and coaxed the Theikos around me to help, things were weird this time around because I felt them agree. But then I also felt their boredom with the situation and since the energy wanted me to be more proactive with my movements, I got an idea- I challenged myself to be as show as possible during this test.
Things started slow and I only increased my stride, stepping out as far as I could whilst also slowing down my pace, in response, the Theikos boosted my physiology with just enough power that I can pull the thing off while looking casual. That got the machine to react and the tread under me got faster. So in response, I hunched my back and started running, another boost later and the machine once again responded- that process repeated until I was running like a cartoon character with my back lowered while my feet ran in small strides.
"What the fuck is he doing?" The Duskkin swore. "Is he okay?"
"Do you see his outfit?" The Doctor asked emotionlessly,
To which the Duskkin just replied with, "Yeah, that's fair."
With an ear ringing beep, the machine turned off and the treads slowed down to a halt. I grabbed the supports to my side and my knees collapsed, collapsed, "I- I don't know what I'm doing either." I said through pants. The Doctor and the Duskkin didn't reply because both of them waited for me to recover, and when I did, I was the one who spoke first over them anyways, "Okay, so, what's my measurement?"
As the Duskkin scratched the bottom of her mechanical ear, her face twisted into discomfort, "While, usually- uhm, we don't know the exact measurements for Capes during their first physical test..." With a sigh, she started tapping the tablet on her hands, "... you are an exception and I think, as far as anyone is concerned, you have a lot of potential."
The Doctor nodded in satisfaction at her words, which I decided to ignore, and asked, "Then can I go to the other room?" Looking around, I didn't exactly feel like my expectations were met by this place.
"Well... yes and no." I felt happy when she said yes and that happiness faded the moment the word 'but' came out of her mouth, "The second and third stages of registration are usually reserved for Capes who have a permanent power instead of something that gradually builds up." She explained, emphasizing the word permanent, "If you were a Cultivator, or maybe even just a regular Cape then yes, we would allow you into the place but as what you are now..."
I nodded, "Yeah, I completely see your point." Did I say that too aggressively? Probably. "Sorry."
"I completely understand your frustration," She said with a motherly tone which got my mind wandering if The Doctor had- Nope. No. Don't want that mental image stuck in my head.
"So I'm not allowed to go into the cooler places," I held back a smile when the Duskkin rolled her eyes, "but then how are you gonna measure my Wave and figure out where I am in the Spectrum?"
"Don't... say it like that." Her motherly tone came back. And hey! It's not my problem people refer to it that way! "Though, if I were to give a rough estimate then..." She looked at The Doctor, seemingly for reassurance (or confirmation,) and the man nodded, "... You are around Wave 7 right now."
She looked at me weirdly when I didn't react, "Aren't you supposed to be happy?"
"No? I already expected that much." I can't feel happy when the expectations have told me the answer from the start, and my latest revelations of just how powerful the original is didn't help with that either. "If anything, I'm pretty disappointed that I'm only on Wave 7." And what's Peerless' Wave again? 13, 14? That's high. Way too high to be normal even.
The Duskkin said something about people getting more arrogant as time goes on under her breath before getting back her happy attitude with a clap of her hands, "Alright! Now that you're done with one of the physical tests, how about you move on and continue with the others? The weights over there are looking like they need someone to carry them." She said passive-aggressively.
I did what I was told and laid down on the bench, I stared at the steel-colored handle hovering above me, the only thing that kept it from falling on my face and crushing it are the two prongs to the side, magnetically holding the thing and locking it in place. My eyes moved over to the weights on either side of the handle, they didn't look like much, "Is this gonna be the same as the treadmill again?"
"Yes." The Doctor is the one who replied this time, "Those two weights are enchanted to get heavier when someone who uses Theikos grabs the handle, feeding off of the holder's natural capacity for the energy and-" I tuned him out and grasped the handle with both hands, starting from the middle, then sliding down to the side until my hands collided against the prongs.
"Can someone spot me?" I asked kindly.
"I assure you, that you don't need someone to do that." And why? What if this thing falls on me when it's super heavy? - The answer to those two questions came from The Doctor who stopped his tirade to say that the weights reset the moment someone lets go of them.
"Cool," I said, not really believing his words but regardless, I slid the barbell out of the prongs and started doing reps. One, two, three- I counted until I reached 30 and my arms started to burn, I kept going until 40 when I can feel my arms wanting to give up and put the barbell back on the holders so that they can rest.
That would be the time for normal people to say, 'Ah, guess I should take it slow for now,' and exactly do that but I'm not normal, so, instead, I decided to try out if my words can affect the Theikos, "Is this it?" I asked, pretending like my arms didn't feel like noodles. I kept my eyes on the handle and started to get a feel for the Theikos around me, I couldn't feel their emotions this time around- making me think that maybe I was just hallucinating earlier - but I can tell that they were excited.
"I can go all night if it's this easy!" The Theikos started to squirm, making it easier for me to manipulate them into myself. Unfortunately, they weren't as eager when I tried to absorb them.
'Okay, words make them easier to move and actions make them want to support,' Good to know.
To test that theory out, I decided to do the reps faster and yep, the Theikos easily got absorbed and boosted me to be able to do what I just did. I felt my hands regenerate, relieving the burning feeling they feel and relaxing my muscles, doing so got me to be a bit confident and I thought that maybe I can pull a few reps with one arm in my current state and I quickly found out that I couldn't.
"FUCK!" The barbell slipped out of my grasp and fell down to my face. The resulting hit felt like getting punched by a kid, "Huh, guess the weight does rest huh?"
"Yes. Now, get up. It's time for you to do the other physical tests." The Doctor's monotone voice said.
The hallway to the registration room is exactly as white as the waiting room I had just left. Right beside me, The Doctor and his colleague walked side by side, staying silent and keeping their eyes forward. I don't know what I expected when he says that he knows someone in here but I didn't expect it to be a girl- Seriously, what the fuck?
I side-eyed the Duskkin and she is as attractive as the rest of her race; with long ears augmented by little black boxes implanted at the top and bottom half of her ears, they're connected by thin seams of plastic that go over the inner lobe of her ears, covering it up with rectangular bars dotted with LEDs that occasionally blinked with blue light.
'That's it,' I can't take this anymore, I'm way too curious about how the two knew each other- "So, what kind of relationship do you two have?" The curiosity is killing me at this point and I'd take the faintest bit of closure I can get and no, I'm not gonna let their painful stares stop me from getting an answer, "Are you guys just colleagues or?.."
"We used to have a relationship." Says the Duskkin and holy shit- What?
"How the hell did that happen?" Did The Doctor drug her? Wait no, that sounds like something he doesn't want to do- Actually, being with women sounds like something The Doctor would outright despise. So did she drug The Doctor? I can't see the man being in any sort of relationship other than his work. Or maybe- I smirked when I thought of something that'll piss The Doctor off-
"Are you the reason why The Doctor's depressed?" Pretending like everything I said makes so much sense to me is easy as breathing. If I didn't know any better, I'd probably believe my own act too.
"Depressed?" The man in question asked with a frown. The part where he didn't deny their relationship also didn't go ignored, "I'm not depressed, I don't think I can be-"
"Yes."
"I knew it." I nodded sagely. "Why else would he overwork himself most of the time?"
"Accurate." The Duskkin agreed. "He does spend all his time in that lair of his doesn't he?"
"Yes!" I snapped my fingers, "He does." To most people, this is where they would play the wingman and say to the girl that she should come back or something so that The Doctor can feel happy again but fuck The Doctor.
But also, I won't stop her from taking the chance herself- "Hmmm... Then maybe I should come back to you?" The Duskkin smirked when she said that, She tapped something hard and square on the pocket of her lab coat and I swear I saw a brief glimpse of red light phase through the white when she did just now. "Ga-"
"Oh, I guess we're close to the registration room now, we better hurry," The Doctor walked ahead of us and I wouldn't have wasted the opportunity to tease him but I had other things occupying my mind, 'Wait, was she about to say his name?'
And wow- I mean, I just realized that even after all this time, I actually don't know The Doctor's real name. It was Ga- something, which the Duskkin hinted.
I stared at his retreating back, 'Wonder what was that all about.' The Doctor couldn't be ashamed of his own name, can he? I shook my head at just how ridiculous that sounded. 'It just feels too farfetched...' I mean, the only way for that to actually be true should be because of how he's raised. 'I guess I'd understand if he hates his mom?' I shook my head- I'm starting to get confused, so I chose to forget everything I thought of just now.
Between the remaining time for us to reach the registration room, the Duskkin and I didn't talk because her mood actually soured. Soured because The Doctor ignored her advances. Because of that, we walked the rest of the way to the registration room in complete silence. Seriously. Not even her high-heels made a sound.
"I... This is it?" I faced the bored looking Doctor to my right, who was seated in one of three overseer desks on the room's southwest wall. He held a tablet in one arm and is messing with buttons with the other.
His eyes left the tablet to give me an exasperated look, "What did you expect it to be?"
"I thought that it'd be more... grander?" I replied.
Compared to the obstacle course of my expectations, the actual registration room looked more of like a highly specialized gym for anyone that needed physical therapy, it had all of the usual gym equipment like weights, treadmills, mats, and even a rock wall for climbing. It also has a few new additions such as a cubical room with foam floor and walls that had circular cushions of different sizes, a room with an open skylight letting sun rays in at the top, and a tank of water that went deeper into the floor.
All of the extra rooms had glass walls for observation as well as hidden modifications. For example, the skylight room had circles on its floor, which I assume is hiding fans twice my size.
Two pats lightly hit my shoulder in sympathy, "Don't worry, if you prove that you're better than the typical Cape, then we can move you to the next room for a more intense registration." Says the Duskkin as she passed me. I didn't react and simply watched her occupy another overseer's desk, when she sat down, her ears blinked with light then she nodded at me, "Anytime you're ready." she said with a professional tone.
"I'm as ready as it can get," I replied and looked at all the gym equipment sprawled across the room, "Where do I start?" I asked but if I had a choice, I think I'd pick the treadmill first to get my heart pumping.
"Pick whatever you want." Was the Duskkin's curt reply.
So the treadmill it is then.
As I walked, I kept my eyes on the machine, the treadmill got larger with each step, becoming clearer to me until I can make out its design. Except for a single feature, the treadmill looked as mundane as it can get, and it's just that, a treadmill. It had no obvious wires or blinking lights to give it any sense of aesthetic, its treads also didn't look that different from the standard treadmill, just a flat gray thing that people can run on.
I stepped onto the treads and fidgeted with the controls, the hardlight hologram was easy to navigate and on the blue panel were various graphs and scans that showed my vitals, heart rate, blood pressure, stress, as well as the airflow within my lungs. According to the Duskkin, if any of those go down from the standard set by the treadmill, it'll get recorded and the speed would get adjusted accordingly.
Externally speaking, the panel was the only futuristic looking thing the treadmill has and I'm glad that it's so easy to navigate because of it.
I activated it and started jogging, "So, you guys know what's the standard currently set for me?" I asked. The speed that I'm jogging at right now isn't that bad all things considered and preferably, it can go even faster.
"Start using Theikos and the machine will adjust to your rate of absorption and usage." Says the Duskkin which didn't answer my question but sure, let me just-
I followed her words and coaxed the Theikos around me to help, things were weird this time around because I felt them agree. But then I also felt their boredom with the situation and since the energy wanted me to be more proactive with my movements, I got an idea- I challenged myself to be as show as possible during this test.
Things started slow and I only increased my stride, stepping out as far as I could whilst also slowing down my pace, in response, the Theikos boosted my physiology with just enough power that I can pull the thing off while looking casual. That got the machine to react and the tread under me got faster. So in response, I hunched my back and started running, another boost later and the machine once again responded- that process repeated until I was running like a cartoon character with my back lowered while my feet ran in small strides.
"What the fuck is he doing?" The Duskkin swore. "Is he okay?"
"Do you see his outfit?" The Doctor asked emotionlessly,
To which the Duskkin just replied with, "Yeah, that's fair."
With an ear ringing beep, the machine turned off and the treads slowed down to a halt. I grabbed the supports to my side and my knees collapsed, collapsed, "I- I don't know what I'm doing either." I said through pants. The Doctor and the Duskkin didn't reply because both of them waited for me to recover, and when I did, I was the one who spoke first over them anyways, "Okay, so, what's my measurement?"
As the Duskkin scratched the bottom of her mechanical ear, her face twisted into discomfort, "While, usually- uhm, we don't know the exact measurements for Capes during their first physical test..." With a sigh, she started tapping the tablet on her hands, "... you are an exception and I think, as far as anyone is concerned, you have a lot of potential."
The Doctor nodded in satisfaction at her words, which I decided to ignore, and asked, "Then can I go to the other room?" Looking around, I didn't exactly feel like my expectations were met by this place.
"Well... yes and no." I felt happy when she said yes and that happiness faded the moment the word 'but' came out of her mouth, "The second and third stages of registration are usually reserved for Capes who have a permanent power instead of something that gradually builds up." She explained, emphasizing the word permanent, "If you were a Cultivator, or maybe even just a regular Cape then yes, we would allow you into the place but as what you are now..."
I nodded, "Yeah, I completely see your point." Did I say that too aggressively? Probably. "Sorry."
"I completely understand your frustration," She said with a motherly tone which got my mind wandering if The Doctor had- Nope. No. Don't want that mental image stuck in my head.
"So I'm not allowed to go into the cooler places," I held back a smile when the Duskkin rolled her eyes, "but then how are you gonna measure my Wave and figure out where I am in the Spectrum?"
"Don't... say it like that." Her motherly tone came back. And hey! It's not my problem people refer to it that way! "Though, if I were to give a rough estimate then..." She looked at The Doctor, seemingly for reassurance (or confirmation,) and the man nodded, "... You are around Wave 7 right now."
She looked at me weirdly when I didn't react, "Aren't you supposed to be happy?"
"No? I already expected that much." I can't feel happy when the expectations have told me the answer from the start, and my latest revelations of just how powerful the original is didn't help with that either. "If anything, I'm pretty disappointed that I'm only on Wave 7." And what's Peerless' Wave again? 13, 14? That's high. Way too high to be normal even.
The Duskkin said something about people getting more arrogant as time goes on under her breath before getting back her happy attitude with a clap of her hands, "Alright! Now that you're done with one of the physical tests, how about you move on and continue with the others? The weights over there are looking like they need someone to carry them." She said passive-aggressively.
I did what I was told and laid down on the bench, I stared at the steel-colored handle hovering above me, the only thing that kept it from falling on my face and crushing it are the two prongs to the side, magnetically holding the thing and locking it in place. My eyes moved over to the weights on either side of the handle, they didn't look like much, "Is this gonna be the same as the treadmill again?"
"Yes." The Doctor is the one who replied this time, "Those two weights are enchanted to get heavier when someone who uses Theikos grabs the handle, feeding off of the holder's natural capacity for the energy and-" I tuned him out and grasped the handle with both hands, starting from the middle, then sliding down to the side until my hands collided against the prongs.
"Can someone spot me?" I asked kindly.
"I assure you, that you don't need someone to do that." And why? What if this thing falls on me when it's super heavy? - The answer to those two questions came from The Doctor who stopped his tirade to say that the weights reset the moment someone lets go of them.
"Cool," I said, not really believing his words but regardless, I slid the barbell out of the prongs and started doing reps. One, two, three- I counted until I reached 30 and my arms started to burn, I kept going until 40 when I can feel my arms wanting to give up and put the barbell back on the holders so that they can rest.
That would be the time for normal people to say, 'Ah, guess I should take it slow for now,' and exactly do that but I'm not normal, so, instead, I decided to try out if my words can affect the Theikos, "Is this it?" I asked, pretending like my arms didn't feel like noodles. I kept my eyes on the handle and started to get a feel for the Theikos around me, I couldn't feel their emotions this time around- making me think that maybe I was just hallucinating earlier - but I can tell that they were excited.
"I can go all night if it's this easy!" The Theikos started to squirm, making it easier for me to manipulate them into myself. Unfortunately, they weren't as eager when I tried to absorb them.
'Okay, words make them easier to move and actions make them want to support,' Good to know.
To test that theory out, I decided to do the reps faster and yep, the Theikos easily got absorbed and boosted me to be able to do what I just did. I felt my hands regenerate, relieving the burning feeling they feel and relaxing my muscles, doing so got me to be a bit confident and I thought that maybe I can pull a few reps with one arm in my current state and I quickly found out that I couldn't.
"FUCK!" The barbell slipped out of my grasp and fell down to my face. The resulting hit felt like getting punched by a kid, "Huh, guess the weight does rest huh?"
"Yes. Now, get up. It's time for you to do the other physical tests." The Doctor's monotone voice said.
