The room filled with roughly a dozen people, most of them in what I assumed to be marine uniforms, with the bald guy from the interrogations standing at the front, next to a projector screen. I saw his eyes follow me as I sat down at a nearby metal fold up chairs, then he looked away and cleared his throat.

  “Welcome everyone, today's briefing is about the portals called Gates that have opened around the world. I have assembled a Squad of Marines and 3 scientists to go into the one that has opened here in Oregon City on the fourth expedition. Your goal is to determine any harmful pathogens and bacteria that could cause a pandemic by protecting the scientists as they collect samples. But that will not be all, to get out of the Gate, you must complete something called a quest.”

  The room around us took a moment to process what he just said, whispering breaking out between people. But it didn’t take long for them to quiet down with a stern stare from the man at the front of the room.

  He took a breath, then said, “Those are missions given by something called The System, and if you don’t complete them, you will be physically blocked from exiting the portal. This team will have three people who have access to The System, called Gifted, each of whom has the ability to create a Party of four people. Allowing people without The System in, but it also comes with the downside of each of them getting a unique quest; we do not know what these quests will be. Any questions?”

  A Marine with brown hair and blue eyes raised their hand, and spoke when they were pointed at, "Lieutenant Gray, these people that have access to The System are also the ones who have shown ‘magical’ abilities on the news, correct?”

  ‘Had that really gotten on the news already? I should start paying attention to that stuff since my existence seemingly is starting to hinge on the public's perception of Gifted… That feels nasty to say.’

  Gray nodded, “Yes, Private First Class Adnet, this leads me to my next point. Due to the small number of those with The System, two out of the three granted ones have no military experience. And will be going through two weeks of training specifically to remedy that issue, to be more specific, everybody will work together with them to figure out how to meld their ability with the team.”

  Adnet raised their hand again, “Wouldn’t it be better to just give them regular weapons training than rely on a weapon we don’t know?”

  “Good question, normally that would be the case. But regular weapons have been shown to be less than effective against the creatures inside the Gates. But those in parties with the Gifted can take a fraction of their power and use it.”

  I tilted my head.

  ‘How does that work? It would have to connect our souls and portion them off to each other…'

  I shivered at the thought of my core being so easily manipulated. I felt Orchid mentally pat my head. I flinched at that and glared at them. But they just laughed at me, and I pointed my attention back to what Lieutenant Gray was saying.

  “-And today, the three Gifted, Jacob Davidson, Charlotte Miyazaki, and Kalani Brown, will be having their evaluations. If they would line up and follow Mr. Ulysses to the evaluation room, please.”

  I looked around the room, two people standing up, one an asian woman in a green blouse and short hair, the other a Marine with tan skin, dark eyes, and curly hair. I stood up, trying to ignore the eyes on me as I walked up to the old white man next to Lieutenant Gray. Following them through the halls and towards a new room filled with exercise equipment.

  The next hour of my life was a blur of pain and horror, every inch of my body in agony as I stretched it beyond every limit possible. At the end of it, I was given an evaluation paper, and I walked out of the room, my head a little fuzzy.

  But I heard the voice of Jenkins say, “Hey, Jacob, how did you do?”

  I handed the paper with a shaking hand.

  They read it and said, “You… you got a 63…”

  “Hey, that’s a passing grade in the UK.”

  “Out of a thousand… a thousand Jacob. I… I didn’t even know this was possible.”

  “Look at me, already exceeding expectations.”

  Jenkins sighed and shook their head, “Let’s hope you do better on the second part.”

  “...What.”

  To my refleaf there wasn’t a second physical evaluation, and I was taken to a room filled with weird machines that looked medical in nature. There were two people sitting around, one of them a black man, who gestured for me to sit down on a cushioned chair.

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  I did, and he wasted no time asking questions, “Would you mind telling me the stats assigned to you by the system?”

  I looked at my sheet, taking a moment to decide between my human or Lunar Moth ones, deciding on the human one, saying, “My HP is 9, MP is 62, and EP is 12.”

  They and their assistant looked at me, “62 MP?”

  I suppressed a grimace. I knew that would be high, but I didn’t want to create any unnecessary lies to tangle myself in when I already had so many big ones.

  “Yeah, is that bad?” I deflected

  “Oh, just ignore me,” they continued, taking notes on their laptop.

  They proceeded to ask a couple of questions about how my skill worked, which I only divulged what I knew they already knew about it. Then they wheeled over one of the machines, which was a yellow box with a rod sticking out of the side and a display on the other, looking like an old Geiger counter.

  Then the assistant, a young man in his early 20s with mousy brown hair, said, “We will be using this machine to measure the energy signatures coming off of you while you use your skill. It will make some noise, it is nothing to be alarmed by.”

  I nodded.

  Then they continued with their spiel, “When we ask you to use your skill, please do.”

  Then they flicked a couple of switches, a guttural hum emanating from it, and they gave me the thumbs up to use Stealth. I found the pieces of it that had fallen apart when I forced Domain through it and put it back together, almost activating it, before a loud pop caught my attention.

  I looked around the room and found the yellow box had started smoking and the lights above flickered, then the box burst into flames. The two scientists scrambled around the room for a fire extinguisher while I watched, detached from what they were doing. Only snapping out when the spray of the fire extinguisher splashed my face, I jumped out of the chair, spitting out the bitter taste of the spray.

  A few moments later, after whipping the spray of my face, I saw the two scientists look at the box with wide eyes. Then the older one said with a half hearted grin.

  “Guess that’s what 62 MP does to old batteries.”

  Nobody laughed.

  After cleaning it up, I was rushed through the rest of the Evaluation, having been given a clunky bracelet, only being told that ‘it was to measure energy like the box, but this didn’t have anything that could explode,’ which I tested and found was true, thankfully.

  I walked out of the room and found Jenkins waiting again

  I waved and said, “So, what’s next?”

  “You’re to be transferred to a nearby military compound with the rest of the Expedition team.”

  “Ah, today is the day I’m going on my journey to become a true united states Marine.”

  “Tommorow actually, they’re still evaluating your information and determining the best training method for you.”

  “Oh, another day of waiting… Yay.”

  A few minutes later, I found myself in the back of a van with tinted windows again, going to God knows where. I leaned my head against the cool metal, feeling it vibrate my skull.

  ‘Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, all this mess would finally condense down to one path.’

  “The hell are you talking about,” Orchid snapped.

  “I mean, look at us out there. We’re just a jumbled mess of notes that not even a Jazz musician would like. Back in there, we had something, we were something.”

  “We were nothing. Just a toy for those ‘god’.”

  “Maybe… maybe that’s better, being a toy was simple, even though...”

  “What happens when we’re broken? What happens when Terra gets bored? Do we just get discarded, what about that!”

  “We’re going to die anyway.”

  “Jacob, I will not let myself die an infant because you’re crumbling, I will not let you chain me however you will just because you find it easier.”

  “Then you take control. You speak like you're nothing, Orchid, but you’re half of me, so do it.”

  They were silent for a moment before saying, “You really mean it…”

  I nodded, and I let go of my control, floating into the abyss of my soul.

  O O O

  I opened my eyes, feeling the body of Jacob overtake me. A human body was weird, a moth suited me better, but it wasn’t like I didn’t know how to control one from all of Jacobs memories and the few times he’d let me take control. But it never came with such a sense of finality, I felt for Jacobs half inside of us, finding it floating limp, like a corpse.

  Then I took a breath and inhaled the world with every sense I had, feeling it on my own for the first time without the constant commentary of impressions from Jacob. Then I found Jenkins, and I stared at him. I never liked that bastard's face, it was too much like a leaf. I wanted to eat it.

  He noticed my stare and asked, “What is it, do I have something on my face?”

  I tilted my head, making a clicking noise with my tongue, and said the first thing on my mind, “What would you have done if I had refused your little offer at the park near the salt and straw. Point blank, I mean.”

  Jenkins creased his brow, then shrugged, "I was told I would have taken you into custody,” then they crossed their arms, “But you didn’t, plus, there’s no need to dwell on things that never happened.”

  “I like thinking about stuff like that, it makes the next time it happens easier.”

  “Oh, really. Then what would you do now after all your thinking?” they said with a tinge of badly hidden condescension.

  “I would kill you.”