George stood in front of the convention center as part of the crowd in front of the main entrance. Everyone who had gone inside had been told that the EDA would be meeting them outside. George tried to make himself inconspicuous as the collection of police officers, fire fighters, and paramedics. There were two doctors, also, who did not fit in with the crowd of first responders, but they stood with straight backs and made medical talk as if to casually impress the others with their profession.

For his part, George preferred no one knew the details of his job. He thought he might die of embarrassment if the first responders realized that someone from Sanitation had taken one of the spots that should be theirs. Not that he would let humiliation stop him from getting his hands on these powers. Besides, his boss, his boss's boss, and his boss's boss's boss had all made it abundantly clear that the city did not have the budget to replace even a fraction of what had worn down in the pump stations. Stuck between the demand to keep the infrastructure running and the refusal to give me the funds to do his job, George had made the sarcastic suggestion to get someone from the EDA to use their superpowers on the equipment. Somehow, someone had taken his jest as a legitimate solution. And here he stood. A sanitation engineer seeking to harness the power of gods to save the city a few million dollars in necessary repairs.

Any pride he had once felt from his job had shriveled up that morning when he saw the lineup before the door. Please, he thought, let these lessons not have a 'tell us what you do for a living' roundtable.

"I count twenty here," came a gruff voice. George spun to look at where the voice had come from, directly behind him. A man and a woman stood there, both of them wearing the all black uniform that the entire city now knew to belong to the Earth Defense Army. He recognized The Man Who Caught A Building and realized his mouth had opened. Better close that before I catch any flies, he thought. The woman beside him began calling names. As they went down the list, Mike Dombroski checked their identification and pointed for them to stand behind the woman. George's name came last.

"So you're like a plumber or something?"

George stared at the man. "Uh, something like that, I guess."

"They listed you as department of public works, facilities. We weren't sure what exactly that meant, but the boss bet you were either water in or waste out. She was surprised the city didn't try to stack the class with infrastructure employees to maximize their dollar value." The man shrugged. "I was betting you were a park ranger or something. Shows what I know. Everyone ready?"

The group lurched into the air, looping out, up, and back down to land on the roof of the convention center. Everyone stumbled when the invisible force encasing their bodies released them. George swallowed as he recalled the sudden motion that had brought them four stories high in a matter of seconds. He hadn't seen much due to the wind of their passage, but he had been a Pittsburgh native his entire life. He knew they had risen to the top of this building in less time than it would take a jumper to hit the ground.

Mike ushered them inside a door to the left. "This is the public side of our headquarters. You don't go into the secure side unless someone from the EDA escorts you there. Let me say that one more time, with a little more emphasis. If you go into the secure side of EDA headquarters without proper authorization, we will react under the assumption that you are hostile. Don't get yourselves killed."

George glanced around at the pale faces of his fellow students. Good. He wasn't the only person doubting the wisdom of signing up for this class.

A cute young blonde poked her head through an open door. "If you're done terrifying the students, Centurion Dombroski, we're ready for them in here."

"Your instructor is Centurion Wilcox," the man said, nodding towards the girl. "Don't give her any shit or we kick you out off the class. If you're particularly annoying, I leave you on top of a building of my choice."

The girl pointed into the room and the students poured inside as if fleeing a tormentor. There were three others there in the black uniform of the EDA, standing with hands behind their back to scrutinize everyone walking inside. George took a seat as an invisible force manhandled him in the direction of one. He saw the others hastily moving to appease the invisible grip.

Once she had reached the front of the room, the girl turned to face them. "I am Centurion Wilcox of the Earth Defense Army. You will address me and my assistants as Instructor. My purpose here is to instruct you in the use of the three talents. You will receive ten eight-hour days of my time. We don't have to be excessively strict, but this facility is being operated as a military base. Anyone who leaves the room needs to be escorted. That includes to the restrooms. Raise your hands whenever you have questions. Otherwise, just obey our instructions and work hard."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Centurion Wilcox walked through the room and shook their hands one at a time. The moment her hand touched George's, he felt a mass of something fill his mind. He barely noticed when she released her grip to move on. He held power within him. He might not know what to do with it yet, but he had it. Centurion Wilcox talked them through separating out the charge into three separate flavors of what she called precursor. The one called nous expanded his mind in an instant, as if it knew what to do on its own. The one called animas pushed out around him in a sphere, which he realized after some experimentation could touch the world around him. The final precursor, gravitas, did nothing obvious at first. Based on the lecture they were receiving, it would enable them to harden their bodies to bullets-bouncing-off-of-superman levels, but he couldn't really figure out how that was suppposed to work.

Then began the exercises. They were give rubber bouncy balls and instructed to have it orbit around their heads. When everyone managed a basic level of proficiency with that, pieces of chalk were placed in front of them and they were told to make a slice of it separate with the gravitas power, what they called the teleotic talent. It took a while, but they eventually managed it. More exercises were introduced. They levitated around the room, rained salt out of solution in a glass of water, navigated obstacle courses of chairs wearing blindfolds, and hardened their skin to resist puncture from a needle. When lunch finally arrived, George felt exhausted.

Centurion Wilcox flew them down in groups of five to the sidewalk below with instructions to be waiting there in an hour for pickup. George made his way to a Subway for a sandwich, then returned to wait. He positioned himself where he could hear the conversation of some first responders.

"The power ran out for me," a super fit man said to the group.

A tall beast of a man laughed. "Me too. Maybe we could ask Centurion Cutie for a recharge."

Super Fit wiggled his eyebrows. "I could ask her for more than just a recharge."

"I hear ya, brother," Tall Beast said. "I bet she's a wild one once you get around her strictly business attitude."

George moved a little further away from the guys. He didn't want to be associated with that conversation. His impression of Centurion Wilcox was a bit different than what the group of Chads saw.

"Look at this guy," Super Fit said. "You afraid the EDA is going to overhear some guy talk, Sewer Man?"

George froze. They were all looking at him. "Do you want to get on the bad side of Centurion Dombroski?"

Super Fit scrunched up his face in dismissal of the concern. "I'm not worried about him. He's not even a real soldier, just some washout who couldn't handle the National Guard. They did a whole story about him on Sixty Minutes. In ten days we're going to be just as powerful as him. Maybe more."

Tall Beast laughed. "What the hell were you watching? The guy fought MMA. Don't you see those ears on him?"

"One win and one loss," Super Fit said. "He's nothing. Trust me on this."

"The Building Catch," Tall Beast said, voice firm.

Super Fit rolled his eyes. "You people are all drinking the Kool Aid. This guy is playing at being something he's not. All of them are. This is a choreographed production they are putting on to impress us. They fly us around to show off, imitate hard ass military commanders, and act impatient when we aren't as good at them with skills we haven't learned yet. It's all bullshit, guys. These are amateurs and they are giving away the only thing that makes them special. In two weeks, we are the new powers in the city. I guarantee it."

George put some distance between himself and the group while they argued among themselves, which put him in range of the two doctors. The chubby one wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "Mr. Public Works, I am very curious why the city sent you here. First responders are obvious and doctors make sense after the hospital attack, but what are you going to be doing with power?"

George shrugged off the arm. "I'm going to be saving the city up to five million dollars. They keep putting off replacement of critical infrastructure in our pump stations, but we're at the point where we don't have a choice. Unless I can magic the system back into proper working order."

Chubby Doctor snorted. "Well, I guess that makes sense. Our cheap city is more interested in saving money than in saving lives, after all."

He escaped the doctors to wait by himself off to the side. Centurion Wilcox picked them up in groups of five and they returned to their lessons after a quick restroom break. They were charged back up and set to the simple exercises once more. George almost didn't notice when Super Fit called over the Centurion. However, no one missed what happened next.

"Could I have everyone's attention?" All eyes went to Centurion Wilcox. "By show of hands, who thinks they are here to flirt?" She looked around the room, then very obviously down on Super Fit sitting in front of her. "No one. Do you want to learn the talents, student?"

Super Fit, face red, muttered something.

"I couldn't hear that. Speak up."

"Yes, Instructor, I want to learn the talents."

"Then try to behave professionally." Centurion Wilcox looked around the room. "Back to work."

George didn't bother to hide the smile on his face.