After stepping through the portal Russel immediately notices a small headache and a foul vomit smell. He quickly pinches his nose and sees a few recruits in the corner hurling over. "I should go over there and help them" he thinks in his head. As het steps to them the Initiate Officer is way ahead of them and gets there almost in the blink of an eye.
"Huh, how is she so fast?!" Russel was 100% sure that there were a few recruits behind him and she entered last. He looks over to her and sees on her left ankle a small dagger tattoo in black. "That must be the manifestation of her Trigger!" He exclaims.
A lot of heads turn his way and the murmurs of the students stop. "Oh I was talking out loud." Russel thinks in his head now. He feels so embarrassed that he wants to face palm himself right now.
The female initiate turns around and looks at Russel, who still has a twinkle of amazement in his eyes. "Yes that is correct, for most of you this is common knowledge, please abstain from questions about this since you will be given classes about this if you succeed in the recruitment tests." After this Russel sees her turn around and she speaks to the 5 people who were hurling over.
Russel sees shame and fear in their eyes, which is very understandable. After all if they don't get in the IGA their chance of getting a Trigger and becoming rich and powerful goes down the drain.
"You have been evaluated as unfit, employees of the IGA will take you apart and send you home. You can try again one more time next year." After that a dozen employees with masks on enter the room from a couple of doors and take the failed recruits away. Just like that there are roughly 45 recruits remaining.
Everyone is observing this very silently as reality hits them like that, your career can be over in the blink of an eye. However Russel couldn't be more excited. He just saw the first usage of an ability by a Trigger! His dad and brother never showed him anything since its forbidden to publicly disclose this.
The lady with the dagger Trigger speaks up again: "Alright recruits! Time to get changed. In the changing room you will find a track suit in the locker with your name on it. Afterwards the test will begin in the next room. You have 5 minutes"
Russel immediately goes into the changing room, so does everyone else. "Nope, nope, nope, ah there is my name!" Russel immediately walks over to the sleek locker with his name on it. He puts his finger on the black scanner and it opens.
He takes out the track suit, shoes and vest and quickly puts them on. After that he stands up walks towards the big door as he admires the architecture of something simple as a changing room. The IGA truly goes all out with their budget to maintain its prestige.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
He bumps very hard into another recruit. "Ow!" Russel falls on the ground as a very big guy with red short hair walks past him.
"Just drop out now plebeian." The guy named Manu Fironion according to his vest looks at him with disgust. There seems to be a fire burning in his eyes. Russel's mouth is hanging open since he did not expect this to happen. He is speechless for a moment.
"HAHA, leave the poor guy alone Manu at least he can asks question and is not as stupid as you! Russel looks at the guy with Yellow Spiky hair and recognizes him from earlier.
"Whatever Lex, just giving some friendly advice to an ant" Manu says, as he keeps walking.
The guy with yellow spiked hair, Lex walks over to Russel and offers him a hand. Russel takes the hand and gets up.
"Don't mind mr. muscle" Russel sees his eyes go to his name on his vest. "Russel is it? Nice to meet you I'm Lex!".
"Hi, my name is Russel indeed!" Russel notices that besides his yellow hair his eyes are also bright yellow.
"Haha yes they are real, it's because of my family." Lex says.
"Oh wow! That's so cool, what was this Manu's problem anyways?" Russel wonders out loud.
"He's just one of the Fironion family. In case you don't know it's one of the prestigious family's of earth who have been a powerhouse for a long time. He just feels like he has to establish dominance, probably inferiority issues" Lex shrugged.
"I understand" Russel nods as they keep walking and enter a large track field.
Russel and Lex get guided by one of the masked employees to a big purple translucent box. When its Russel's Turn he steps in and after a few seconds he gets told to step out. Confused about what is going on he looks at the employee with the mask and asks "What was that for". The employee just looks at him, does not reply and looks towards the next recruit who steps in.
Frustrated but excited Russel continues walking as they are all lined up.
The Initiate with a dagger Trigger stands around 50 meters from them away. "Okay! We have just measured your bodies so there is no need for any physical tests since we can exactly see what you are capable of. Now its time to test how bad you want to join the prestigious IGA!"
"Just come and give me a hand and you can take the final intelligence test." She says with a mischievous smile.
"I do not feel good about this, I think there is more to this, but what could it be?" Russel Wonders. He keeps standing still as he decides to observe first.
He sees Lex immediately go into a full on sprint and others decide to follow Lex. But as soon as they get within 10 meters of the Initiate some of them freeze and stop moving.
"Huh, what's going on" Russel decides to also walk over now as there was no mention about a time limit. As soon as he enters the 10 meter range he feels a pressure build up in his head.
It bothers him a little bit but he can keep walking, he sees that Lex's full on sprint has come to a slow walk and he is almost there he also sees Manu slowly walking over while he has a serious expression.
Then Lex shakes her hand, and exhales like he could not breath for the past 30 seconds. Manu follows next.
Russel grits his teeth as the pressure keeps building until the final meter. He does not feel in control in his muscles anymore...
