After an hour and a half of easy running, I hopped off the fitness machine and unattached myself from all of the wires. I pulled my class clothes back over my training clothes and stood awkwardly waiting for the scientist to come back. I waited for ten minutes. Usually the scientist would come out after three minutes at the most. There were cameras in every corner of every room at the base, so the base leaders could see every move we made.

I walked quietly back into the foyer of the Test Lab, my bare feet were a little sweaty and stuck to the pristine lino floors.

'Excuse me?' I called out. No reply. 'Ma'am, excuse me, I've finished my testing now.' I knocked gently on the restricted entrance door to the scientist's office. The door creaked open slightly and a scientist I hadn't seen before popped her head out.

'Magdalene, is it?' She questioned her voice barely a whisper. I just nodded. 'Well Magdalene, it's time you went to your classes.' She sort of smiled. I heard a shout from inside. I recognised the voice instantly. Kermit.

'That's Kermit, please, is he okay? You have to let him out. He hasn't done anything wrong.' I frantically babbled.

'You need to leave Magdalene. Now.' The scientist raised her voice.

I did something I never, ever thought I would do. Touching a human was strictly against the rules.

I shoved the scientist.

'You need to let me see Kermit, now.' I matched my volume with hers.

The door slammed in my face. The full brunt of what I had just done hit me, I was going to be severely punished. Mentor Christian would delight in punishing me, considering I was the only one on the entire base to never have put a foot out of line, or had but just hadn't been caught.

Why was this different? What came over me? I started to run. I sprinted through the bas, past the class rooms, past the training block, and right into my room. I collapsed on the floor behind my closed door. I was slightly sweaty and my hands shook violently. What was happening to me? All of a sudden I felt a searing pain in my head, in my hands, my eyes. Like a fire ripping up my sides. I screamed out in pain, hot tears streamed down my cheeks. I heard footsteps, and then Avery was there, holding my face in his hands.

'Avery what's happening to me?' I sobbed. His cool hands touched my forehead and he whispered things like it's going to be okay and you just need to calm down, you need to control it, as I drifted in and out of consciousness until it was all just nothingness.

I woke up in the Medical block. The only difference with the med block is that all of the walls are a light blue. Supposedly it's because the colour blue is calming, and also I think the builders wanted a little more colour into the shiny white base. I tried to remember what exactly happened. I remembered the pain and then the cooling sensation of Avery's hands. Avery.

Avery was one of the first of us to be scouted and collected. He was bought in at the same time as Charline. The scouters kept him with his parents until they found another one of us. So he wouldn't be alone in the early years. After him and Charline, six others were collected in the period of three months. Avery is eighteen and he has developed nine alms, which is the most on the base. He has one of the rarest Alms, and no one else has it, he can control time. It's sort of amazing watching him at training. He'll pause time and move, tripping you out. I've only fought against him once. I lost miserably, because at the time I only had telekinesis and I was the smallest, even smaller than Otto. I still am. Skinny and pale, Fidelia says that I look like a brown haired version of Snow White. I'm about as useless as Snow White too. Along with her 6 alms, Fiddy has a photographic memory and remembers a lot about her past, she gets injections to stop her memories from coming back. The scientist talked her through it. Apparently it is so she can adjust easier without the turmoil of the world to worry her. Fidelia says that its bullshit, and that they do it so she won't rebel. She also says that she was two when she was scouted so she hardly remembers anything anyway.

I sat up shaking the thoughts out of my head, the plastic bedding rubbed against my bare skin. I was completely naked. I wondered where my clothes had gone, and then I saw them. A charred mess on the ground, my clothes were burned. My hands ran along my arms and legs as I checked for injuries. There were none. Maybe they had burned my clothes because of a virus or disease. But then they wouldn't have left them on the floor.

I tugged at the needle sending fluids into my body. A drop of blood formed where the needle had been. I just wanted to go back to my room. Just as my feet touched the light blue lino floors, a medic walked in followed by two scientists.

'Magdalene, you're awake. How are you feeling today?' The medic smiled.

'Great, can I go?' I stayed standing.

'Put some clothes on first please.' The medic said again, looking sympathetic. I gasped, I had completely forgotten that I had no clothes on. My fingers scrabbled for the top sheet on the hospital bed. I wrapped it around myself, and my cheeks burned with embarrassment.

One of the scientists handed me a neatly folded pile of training clothes. I looked at the door, trying to hint for them to leave.

'Oh.' The Medic gushed, and she ushered the scientists out the door and closed it behind her.

I quickly got changed into the clothes. The pants were long and hugged my legs. A completely new design to the previous black, baggy, cotton pants. And the shirt was long sleeved and tight too. They even had a different feel, leathery almost, and my training shirt had another alm symbol on the side, a flame within a circle. The fabric was tight, as it hadn't yet loosened.

I sat back down on the bed and folded my legs. The scientists came back in. Firing questions before they had even sat down.

'Do you remember anything about last night?' One asked.

'What do you think happened?' The other asked.

'Can you tell us how it felt, developing a new alm?'

The questions were in quick succession, one after the other and I had no time to answer them. I stuttered and gasped.

'I, uh developed a new alm?'

'Yes, obviously.' The male scientist looked down at me like I was stupid.

'So you don't remember anything?' The female one asked. Both were furiously scribbling notes down on their clipboards.

'Well, I remember feeling angry. And then, hot, and then that was it really.' I looked down at my hands.

'So anger is a trigger...' The girl scientist mumbled. They both stood at the same time.

'We have all we need.' The man said gruffly, and they left without another word.

'You can go back to your room Magdalene, do not participate in training until you are taken to the test lab. Mentor Trudy will come and get you later this afternoon.'

'I don't understand.'

'You have developed a rare alm, the scientists are in the midst of researching it. When you were spotted in the cameras you were in flames. Very strange, and then all of a sudden you weren't but your clothes were completely burned. We left them on the floor because the scientists thought that the clothes presence would jog your memory.' The Medic went back to tapping words into her tablet.

They weren't telling me anything! I had a right to know what alms I was developing! I was so confused. I had finally developed my third alm, but I didn't even know what it was. Fire? Heat? An elemental alm? I decided that I would have to talk to Avery, that maybe he could help me figure it out. I wondered if he had been burned. He had touched me, and my clothes were burnt to a crisp.

'Is Avery okay?' I asked quickly.

'Of course, why wouldn't he be?' The Medic didn't even look up.

'Because, he well, he was with me when, you know. It all happened.' I gestured to my clothes, and then back to me.

'My dear, you must have imagined it. He wasn't anywhere near you. He was in the training block.'

I stumbled towards the door, and grabbed my black training jacket off the bed. It had the same leathery feel as my shirt and pants.

'Oh, your clothes are fireproof, a new design from the scientists. You should be very grateful Magdalene.' The medic yelled as I exited.

My head was spinning, was Avery really there? Had he saved me, or was it a figment of my imagination? Maybe it was a coping mechanism. Whatever it was, I knew I had to at least talk to Avery. Ask him what was going on; he had the most experience out of all of us. He had to know something.