Author's Note: Yay! I actually finished another chapter this week! Also, I need help thinking of some female teachers. I need a principal and a magic teacher, among others. See my latest deviantART journal for details.
The Test 2: Try Outs
Somewhere else in the United States, Jimmy and company were waiting in their own special testing center. There had been twenty other kids there when they'd arrived that morning. They'd been given numbers in alphabetical order, and they were called into the testing room individually. The wait between tests was usually ranged from an hour to an hour and a half. Jimmy didn't envy poor Carl. He was number twenty and would probably be there until midnight.
The boy genius tried very hard not to be nervous as he waited with the others, going over every scenario he thought the exam might hold in his head. First Sheen was called in, then Libby. A few hours later it was Jimmy's turn.
"Next." A man with a British accent and blue hair parted nicely to the side called. Jimmy glanced at his remaining companions.
"Good luck Jimmy!" Carl said encouragingly.
"Yeah, if you're lucky they'll just ask you a bunch of math questions instead of asking to see your powers." Cindy said snidely.
"Well, I certainly hope they don't give you a personality test Vortex." Jimmy snapped back, and turned to follow the man.
In the testing room, the man sat down behind a desk, looking at the paperwork Jimmy had filled out while waiting in line.
"Right then. My name is Ray, and I'll be administering your test today." The boy genius couldn't see the man's eyes, as they were hidden by large dark sunglasses, but his smile seemed genuine enough.
"First off, I'm going to need a description and demonstration of your powers." Ray pulled out a pen and notepad.
"Oh, well…" the boy stammered. So they were getting to this already. How was the man going to react when Jimmy told him he had no powers? Would he just throw the boy genius out?
"I don't have any powers, per say, but if you'll turn your attention to my paperwork, you'll see my IQ test is off the charts." Jimmy said quickly, explaining before the man could react to the 'I don't have any powers' statement.
"Oh." Ray glanced at the paperwork. "Oh!" He said again when he read the note under 'Intelligence'. "Right then. We'll skip right to the survival test."
Jimmy didn't like the sound of that. "What exactly does the survival test entail?"
"Just what it sounds like. You make your way through an obstacle course tailored to test your skills, and see how long you can survive." Ray cleared his throat. "Er, you did sign the waiver, right?"
Jimmy gulped as the wall to his right opened up, revealing a table holding many tools and gadgets, and beyond the table, a mechanical maze of spinning blades, pitfalls, moving platforms and paintball cannons.
"You can start whenever you like." The man told him.
Jimmy walked up to the table and surveyed the tools he had available. A simple raygun, a grappling hook, a pair of exo-goggles (Like x-ray goggles, but with a wider variety of functions), and a variety of other devices he couldn't identify at a glance.
While there wasn't enough here to build, say, a jetpack to just fly over the course, the boy genius was already thinking of things he could build to make the obstacle course easier.
After just ten minutes of tinkering, Jimmy entered the maze with an array of gadgets, many of them altered.
At the first pitfall, Jimmy simply grappled over it, and did the same with the first set of moving platforms. He was keeping it simple, nothing fancy, just getting through the maze. Then he came across some spinning blades. He pulled out what had formerly been the exo-goggles. They now bore a closer resemblance to a medieval telescope, with a series of lenses lined up to focus light. This was attached to a small flashlight.
He pointed the altered device at the first spinning blade and flicked the flashlight on. A thin beam of white-hot light emitted from the end lens and cut straight through it.
Ray's jaw dropped. The rayguns couldn't leave a scratch on those blades. How'd this boy manage to build a laser powerful enough to cut them in half in ten minutes?
After rendering the blades harmless, Jimmy continued to work his way through the maze. He'd occasionally run into a dead end, but he always found his way back to the correct path and he never ended up going in circles. As he reached the center of the maze, he encountered paintball cannons. He pulled out the raygun, but this too had been clearly modified. When he pulled the trigger, instead of firing a bolt of energy, the beam hit a filter and curved around him, creating a shield that protected him from the cannons' fire. Jimmy continued through the maze without incident, prepared for every obstacle. When the boy reached the end, Ray was trying his very best not to look impressed. As a test administrator and an agent, he couldn't be partial to any of the potential students.
"Well, er… I suppose we'll move on to the written test then." The man said, readjusting his shades.
Jimmy smiled and put down his gadgets. He hadn't even broken a sweat! Not much of one, anyway. The written test was where he was expecting to really shine, and the tester was already clearly blown away.
The boy genius took the test sheets from the man and answered all the questions in fifteen minutes. Ray could not hide his astonishment now. He couldn't even speak for a few seconds, just looked down at the completed test. Finally, he shook himself out of it.
"Well, thanks, you're free to go." The man said.
Jimmy turned to leave.
"Oh, and…" Ray added, "I'm not supposed to say how I think you did, since you're performance hasn't been scored yet and all, but… I expect you'll be hearing from us again real soon."
"Really?" Jimmy asked in excitement.
"Yeah. Don't tell anyone though, I could get in trouble."
Next time: Opening Ceremonies
