"A gymnast?" He wrinkled his nose, aghast. "That's it!? How lame do you think I am?" Mao played up being insulted, glad to have something to keep this conversation from getting too dark. "I can't be a swordsman? Or a ninja? A ninja swordsman kick boxing fire juggler master?"
Mao bit his lip and turned his attention back to his now rather sad looking excuse for an ice cream cone. "...Yeah." Why was Luke so surprised? He could use force fields, how was walking through solid things any crazier than that? "Who else would they test on? Maybe they can't give powers to people who are already adults. And...I dunno, kids are easier to brain wash and force to do things. You know, like those child soldiers in Africa or whatever." He sounded a little doubtful. As good as his guess felt to him, he couldn't recall anything being done to him to prep him for warfare. All the fighting he absorbed had been stuff he sought out all on his own.
"He knew that Katie was going to break her leg. He tried to warn James or something before it happened, but he was all vague and weird about it and James didn't listen to him until it was too late." After speaking, Mao spat out a wad of gum and threw it off into the tree line. That was the problem with bubble gum ice cream, the good kind always had a ton of gum in it, but then chewing it ended up distracting you from eating the actual ice cream part.