Chương 37: S-Power Theory

After breakfast, the sergeant once again led us to the lecture building. This time, Ted was not dragging himself along at the rear, gasping for breath, he was practically flying ahead of everyone, nearly stepping on the sergeant's heels and impatiently tapping his foot at every door. Yesterday, I had not noticed such a fierce thirst for knowledge in him, but today it was as if he had been replaced. Apparently, the promise of moving on to practical superpower training had hit him like a shot of adrenaline.

"Good morning, cadets," Selina greeted us with a gentle smile. In her immaculate white lab coat, she looked more like a caring school nurse than a leading specialist in interdimensional anomalies.

"Good morning, Professor Langstrom!" we replied in unison. Even Ted shouted his greeting with unusual enthusiasm. As usual, the sergeant took his position by the wall, turning into a silent stone statue. His presence worked better than any sedative, perfect silence instantly settled over the room.

"As I promised yesterday, today's topic is S-Power," Selina walked up to the board and, with a sweeping motion, wrote a huge stylized letter S in the center.

"Does anyone have any ideas what this term actually means? What it really is?" The silence grew even heavier. No one wanted to risk looking foolish in front of the professor.

"What a surprising lack of motivation compared to yesterday," Selina glanced at Nick with mild disappointment, as he, contrary to his usual behavior, was diligently studying the texture of the desk surface.

"Perhaps you would like to share your thoughts, Cadet Drake?"

"No, ma'am, I'd rather just listen today," Ted narrowed his eyes slyly, not giving Nick a chance to say a word.

"The faster you finish the theory, the faster we get to the good part, training!"

"Overly straightforward, but honest," Selina nodded in understanding.

"In that case, I won't keep you waiting with long introductions. In dry scientific terms, S-Power is energy of interdimensional origin." She clicked a remote, and the projector filled the room with a cold light. An image of a portal appeared on the screen, not a photograph, but a highly detailed computer model. The virtual camera moved inside the vortex until thin, barely noticeable blue waves began to spread along the edges of the frame, resembling ripples on water. Selina paused the video.

"These pulsations are S-Power in its pure form," she said, pointing at the blue distortions.

"The human eye can't see them, the ear can't hear them, and the skin can't feel them. Without specialized spectral equipment, we're completely blind to it. But it exists."

"Like radiation?" Nick spoke up. Ted immediately shot him such a contemptuous look that the guy instinctively shrank his head into his shoulders, as if to say, don't drag this out with your questions, genius.

"Not exactly," Selina continued readily, and it was clear this topic was her true passion.

"We're surrounded by many invisible waves: radio signals, the Earth's magnetic fields, Wi-Fi. Humanity discovered and harnessed all of those through the evolution of science. But S-Power waves were forced upon our planet. They were exported from other worlds through rifts." She resumed the video. On the screen, the portal collapsed and disappeared, but the blue waves remained. They lingered in the air, slowly dissipating and mixing with the atmosphere.

The scene shifted to a time-lapse of our planet, covering the period from the eighties to the present day. In different parts of the world, megacities, islands, villages, portals flickered into existence and vanished, each flash leaving behind a cloud of blue ink that spread through winds and currents. At some point, the entire surface of the Earth became wrapped in a thin blue veil.

"So... S-Power's everywhere? Right now, in this room?" Louise's voice trembled as she looked around nervously, as if expecting to see a ghost.

"Are we... breathing it? Is it in our lungs?"

"To your first question, yes. To your second, no," Selina adjusted her glasses and gave a reassuring smile.

"As I said, S-Power has no density in our understanding. It's not solid enough to settle in the lungs or remain in the tissues of an ordinary person. Think of it like mobile network coverage. An internet signal passes through you every second, but you don't die from it or feel any weight in your chest, do you?" Louise let out a loud breath, visibly relaxing. Apparently, the idea of turning into radioactive waste had frightened her the most. But another question came to my mind, a far more practical one.

"Professor Langstrom," I raised my hand.

"My curator said that S-Power's a unique fuel that creates the abilities of the awakened. If this energy's spread throughout the air, why doesn't it affect everyone? And if it's the key to our powers, shouldn't it be localized inside us somehow?"

"Bravo, Staff Sergeant Ross. You've arrived at the most interesting part," Selina clicked the remote again.

"Let's move on to the next chapter: The Influence of S-Power on Human Biology." New computer-generated slides appeared, showing silhouettes of people: elderly individuals, athletes, children, overweight figures, and thin teenagers. Blue waves passed through them effortlessly, leaving no trace, like light through clear glass. Then the image shifted to a pregnant woman.

She remained transparent to the waves, but when S-Power passed through her abdomen, microscopic glowing spots appeared on the tiny, barely formed embryo. The slide expanded to show millions of women around the world, each carrying a fetus marked by this energy. The video froze.

"Underdeveloped embryos are among the very few entities on this planet whose cells can interact with S-Power waves," Selina announced, her voice becoming more serious.

"Every child born after the First Rift has a potential chance to become awakened. But not everyone's capable of realizing that chance." The video resumed. We saw the life of one such marked child: birth, first steps, school. The blue spots in his cells did not disappear, they slowly absorbed energy from the environment, like batteries on a long charge. In the corner of the screen, numbers displayed age and probability of awakening. From birth to ten years old, the probability was a pitiful one percent.

Then, as adolescence began, the spots started pulsing and glowing brighter. The graph shot upward: twelve, thirteen. At fourteen, the probability reached its peak, a record five percent. Then the line dropped just as sharply. After eighteen, the counter returned to one percent and stayed there into old age. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"In a way, S-Power in our cells is like a virus," Selina explained, turning off the projector.

"It can lie dormant for decades. But its most powerful and only mass opportunity to emerge and transform the host occurs during the hormonal surge of puberty." She fell silent, giving us time to process the information and fill our notebooks.

"So that's... it?" Ted scratched the back of his head, clearly disappointed by the lack of epic flair.

"So everyone's got this virus, and we just sit around waiting to see if we hit the jackpot or not? No choice at all?"

"Crude, but essentially correct," Selina crossed her arms, leaning against the edge of the desk.

"Science hasn't yet found a way to artificially trigger a superpower surge. It's a biological lottery. All we can do is record the outcome."

"I'm not a scientist, just a comic book fan..." Nick coughed awkwardly, adjusting his glasses.

"But hasn't anyone tried exposing teenagers to extreme stress? You know, artificial high-risk situations? Half the X-Men got their powers that way, when their lives were hanging by a thread and their bodies had to pull off a miracle to survive." The teenagers chuckled in unison, appreciating the comic book comparison, but none of the adults in the room even smiled.

"If you'd been born thirty years earlier, Cadet Thompson, you'd probably have received a grant for your bold hypotheses," Selina remarked with irony. She removed her glasses for a moment and wiped them with the edge of her pristine white coat, gazing somewhere past us.

"But as of today, all of that has been tested on volunteers. No, it's not possible to trigger awakening through artificial means, whether it's extreme stress, radiation exposure, or chemical injections. We can only wait for nature's mercy. But who knows, Cadet Thompson, maybe you're the one who'll make a breakthrough in this dead-end field someday." Nick blushed to the roots of his hair and practically sank into his chair, unsure where to hide from the sudden attention.

"I have a question," I raised my hand, cutting through the whispering among the teenagers.

"If human embryos are affected by S-Power, does this extend to fauna? Are there awakened animals?"

"Oh, cows with laser eyes!" Ted burst out laughing, leaning back in his chair.

"There's no such thing as animal superheroes, Tom! Otherwise, we'd already be fighting off flying pigs or telepathic squirrels..."

"SILENCE!" The sergeant's voice, until then motionless in the shadows, struck the eardrums like an exploding shell. Ted instantly snapped his mouth shut.

"In fact, animals with super abilities do exist," Selina replied unexpectedly seriously, and the image on the screen changed.

"However, their cognitive abilities are usually so primitive that they're not even aware of their gift. All viviparous species on our planet have a statistical chance of awakening. Moreover, even among alien life forms there are individuals who possess this energy, but we'll cover that in detail in the next lecture." I nodded silently, trying to maintain an expression of mild curiosity, although inside I was practically buzzing with excitement. This question had not been random.

My [Trainer] status opened up tempting possibilities. If I could find, for example, a chimpanzee with an active awakening gene, and if its intelligence were sufficient to accept a bond, I would gain not just a loyal [Familiar], but a full-fledged combat partner with its own set of superpowers. It was a plan for a very distant future, but the foundation had to be laid now. Selina started the video again.

A fourteen-year-old teenager appeared on the screen, one of the rare lucky ones who had hit the jackpot in the biological lottery. The blue S-Power spots on his body flared into a steady, pulsing glow, saturating his tissues at the molecular level. In the next frame, the boy effortlessly lifted off the ground, soaring toward the ceiling like Superman. A graphical bar appeared beside him, rapidly draining as he gained altitude. Pause.

"S-Power's your fuel," Selina tapped the screen with her finger.

"It's the resource you spend every time you activate your abilities. Your body works like a capacitor, constantly absorbing dispersed energy from the surrounding air, which in turn is replenished by active portals. Nothing in this world is free. The law of conservation of energy works flawlessly. However, even at zero balance, you still retain a tiny margin of power, the so-called residual background. Everyone here knows who Danny Kim is?"

"Of course!" Ted blurted out, forgetting the sergeant's recent outburst.

"His YouTube video where he vaporizes a tsunami in Japan all by himself got over twenty million views! That's insanely cool!" I let out a quiet chuckle. If I ever casually mentioned to Ted that this so-called fire god had been my personal curator, the kid would probably burst from envy. I had no intention of becoming his best friend, but having such a trump card in reserve would not hurt.

"So," the professor continued, "even when his main reserves are depleted, Danny can still light a candle with a single glance. I am sure that if you apply proper effort in training, you will also find similar loopholes in your abilities." The room instantly filled with an excited buzz. I allowed myself a faint smile. My situation was the reverse: almost all my abilities, with rare exceptions, required no external energy at all.

As Danny had suggested, this was because I was not trying to reshape the external world, my power was directed inward, toward optimizing my own body.

"S-Power regenerates continuously, but the process is extremely slow," Selina pressed Play again.

"Maximum efficiency is achieved only during sleep. When consciousness is inactive and cells are fully relaxed, your body becomes something like a sponge." In the video, the sleeping teenager was literally drawing in blue waves from the air like a powerful vacuum cleaner.

"Now, about the nature of abilities," Selina clicked the remote, and a massive pulsing question mark appeared on the screen.

"In forty years, the best minds of humanity haven't been able to determine the algorithm. Geography, parental professions, and lifestyle provide no clues whatsoever. Each of you receives a completely random set of tools." She sighed heavily, and in that sigh I clearly heard the bitterness of a researcher confronted with an unsolvable mystery. She cast a brief glance at Nick, as if hoping the young comic fan would produce some wild but correct idea, but he only kept writing down every word.

"Any questions about the material?" she asked, glancing briefly at her watch.

"Yeah," I raised my hand.

"The name itself. S-Power. Where did it come from? What does the S actually stand for?" Selina froze for a second, then slowly spread her hands.

"We don't know for sure," she replied, but her voice suddenly gained a strange depth.

"There are many theories, Special, Source, or Super. But the thing is, scientists didn't come up with the letter S. Some awakened individuals have a specific trait... something like internal text interfaces." She looked straight into my eyes, long and studying, almost intimately.

"Those people see the world differently. They can read the characteristics of other awakened individuals, including the exact numerical energy reserve. And in their interface, that parameter is always labeled exactly the same: S-Power." The room became so quiet that the hum of the projector was audible.

"And how many people can see those messages?" I asked, trying to keep my voice casual.

"Only five in the entire world," Selina gave me an almost imperceptible wink.

"I'm one of them. Any other questions?"

"Professor Langstrom!" Ted nearly fell out of his chair.

"You're... you're awakened too?!"

"Of course. In our camp, I am far from the only instructor with that status, and you will soon meet the others," she swept the now silent group with a commanding gaze.

"That concludes the theory. Well, cadets, are you ready to move on to practice and test yourselves?" The teenagers jumped up as if stung, ready to rush to the training grounds. I rose more slowly, gripped by a strange premonition. All my thoughts were focused on Selina. Five in the world? And she was one of them? What were the chances that her abilities resonated directly with mine?