"Ma, you don't need to pack me a lunch every single day. Liam goes out for lunch every day! Why can't I?!" 17-year old Billy Sunders was pissed. 

Amanda Sunders wasn't all joy either, "I don't care what your friend Liam does! You will eat what I make WITHOUT argument."

Billy left in a huff, the door slamming behind him as he raced off to school. Billy hated that his friends got to go off and get fast food while he was stuck with leftover pasta. Especially because his mom was on a health kick and it was just plain vegetables and spaghetti. 

But as the school building neared in sight, he put those thoughts out of mind. Today was Potential Day! He did a little hop and accelerated towards the arching gates of Greenwood High.

Quickly making his way to the near-stadium size auditorium, he scanned the bleachers for his buddies. He spotted Conner's neon hat and made his way up the steps two at a time. 

Conner raised his hand in a lazy shake before turning back towards the main stage. 

"Who'd we get?" Billy asked, his eyes also trained on the wide main stage. 

"South Commander I think. See the silver on her chest...I think that's what that is." Conner's eyes were still trained on the stage intently. 

Today was a big day for Conner too. He had more stakes on this than Billy, his parents both being mid-ranked supers. It'd be a shame for Billy to not realize any potential, but his family was firmly normal and middle-class. He didn't have the same pressures Conner did.

It was another couple minutes before Liam, Roan, and Keith joined them. Bounding up the stairs they took a seat just below them. 

Billy leaned down, greeting them. 

Just as he was about to strike a conversation the suspected South Commander tapped her transparent podium twice and her voice projected out and through the speakers. She cleared her throat loudly. "Good morning. My name is Ardilla Torna and I am a South Commander stationed at Sumter. I will be presiding over your Potential Realization. There will be groups of twenty called down at a time in alphabetical order. Then you will follow Lieutenant Odin," a hulking man with a salt-and-pepper beard raised his hand, "through the hall-1 doors."

She glanced around the auditorium once before turning to a roster appearing on her podium.

"Nimor Abrahim!"

"Madison Abston!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

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The first group of 20 made there way down. Then the second. The third. And another. 

In 45 minutes about 3000 of the 4000 seniors made their way out of the auditorium. And then it was Billy's turn.

"James Styndt!"

"Billy Sunder!"

Billy's breath quickened and he shot up after being nudged by all 4 of his friends. He shot them an appreciative glance before quickly making his way down to the base floor and lined up behind Styndt. 4 names later and they were making their way through hall-1. 

The group of 20 went into classroom 206. A woman stood at the front of the classroom in front of a large write-screen. 

"Take a seat in the first three rows," she said. Her eyes were flinty as she looked at the group of 20. She glanced to the back of the room. "Thank you Odin, you may go."

As the group settled in, Billy looked to his right and left, offering a nervous smile to his neighbors. The girl on his left returned it. The boy on his right didn't acknowledge it.

The frosty woman turned back after dismissing Odin, "My name is not required here. You may refer to me as madam for the duration of our interactions. My talent is Inspection. My role here is to assess you. I will administer a dose of Unlocker and if your output is positive we will continue to ranking your Potential. If your output is negative you will be taken to another room where we will discuss your alternate plans of either college or career. Those who have their power ranked will have their enrollment at Greenwood High immediately terminated and you will finish the final 8 months of your senior year at an Academy. The specifics will come later. For now, please remove any coats and bare your elbow."

This wasn't anything new to the 20. Either you had the potential and you would get training and join a superhero team or you would finish high school, possibly attend university, and settle into a normal life the supers would protect. 

Neither option was particularly unattractive to Billy – but what high schooler didn't want powers? But the chance of powers was closer to 0% than it was to 0.1% and Billy didn't have his hopes up. 

Billy pulled his sweater off and rolled up his sleeves. As 'madam' went around he gulped at the size of the needle. He did not do well with needles. Nevertheless, he clenched his eyes shut and laid his arm on his desk, elbow up to the ceiling.

He squeezed his eyelids tighter as he felt the cold entry of the needle. The needle came out as quick as it went in leaving behind a flaring cold that he could physically feel traveling up his arm. 

The madam put her surprisingly warm fingers against his head and tilted it back. The following minutes were extremely uncomfortable for Billy. The cold turned into an oil-like texture that he could feel crawling behind his eyes. He grunted before exhaling as the pain ebbed.

And then it vanished; he groaned as he brought his head back level and blinked a few times before staring back at the front of the classroom where madam stood silently. 

He glanced around at his fellow group and saw that most had recovered with three still groggily blinking. 

Madam cleared her throat and the group all turned their eyes towards her. "We will take this row-wise. I will call on your desk number and you will come up and lay your palm on my tablet," she vaguely gestured to the front desk, "and if you see an asterisk, remain in this room. If you receive a negative, please exit this room and find your way to the career pathways center."

She pointed to the first desk. A boy got up and walked to the front desk on shaky legs. He placed his palm on the tablet slowly and flinched away from the result. Negative. His shoulders slumped and he made his way out of the room. 

This persisted. Negative. Negative. Negative. And then it was Billy's turn. He got up with his stomach fluttering. He quickly made his way to tablet and almost stabbed his hand on the tablet in his rush inciting a couple snickers.

The 2 seconds it took to get a result felt like eternity.

He glanced down at the blue-grey tablet with wide eyes.

Asterisk.