I watched Charlotte fall to the ground, blood pouring out of her eyes and nose. I noticed the pulse of energy from the impossible box, but I was too stunned to move.

  ‘Did the box do this? Did I do this…’

  Thankfully, there were more people around than me as the scientists and Kalani circled Charlotte to help her, Medical Doctors arriving shortly after. They took her, and I followed them, getting stopped outside a room by a nurse. So I sat down and extended Lunar Aura, planning to use my minion to watch what was happening inside the room until I realized that was extremely unhygienic. Instead, I moved and fiddled around with my minions, extending and maneuvering them like a hand.

  Then I was brought out of my head by someone, I looked up and saw one of the scientists who was observing us on the track, specifically the scrawny one.

  “Cadet Jacob, would you mind following me?”

  I looked directly into their eyes, “Why?”

  “Testing, it’s connected to what happened…” they pointed at the medical room Charlotte was in, “Specifically to see if we can stop that from happening.”

  I nodded and stood up.

  Then I followed him, finding myself in a pristine white lab, the harsh lights above irritating me. Then the scientist pulled out two chairs next to a thick metal box with a hole in the side of it.

  “So,” I said, “What’s happening?”

  “Well, half an hour ago, we tested to see your synergy with Ms. Miyazaki.”

  “Yeah, and it failed.”

  “No, it didn’t, that wasn’t the synergy's fault, at least there’s nothing indicating it since it did succeed. But when I read the instruments it showed an absurd surge of energy going into her from you, and even more readings from your monitoring bracelet,” they pointed at the chunky white silicon bracelet around my wrist I had forgotten about, “Showed that you use an absurd amount of energy anytime you use your skill, but only a fraction of it goes into the skill. And so when you synergised with Ms. Miyazaki, that excess energy went into her, who has a minuscule MP pool compared to you, creating a phenomenon we have labeled Mana overload.”

  “So I just use less MP then?”

  “That is the end goal, but we don’t think it’ll be that easy. So we, well, Bekert planned on draining your MP so you would be forced to use less, and it would prevent the risk to your partner. And hopefully in two weeks you won’t need the crutch.”

  I nodded, “So how are you going to drain my MP?”

  They pointed towards the box, “Put your hand in there and grab the big chunk of salt, then use your skill for a bit, and hopefully the crystal will absorb your MP.”

  “Salt? I didn’t know salt was magical.”

  “No, no. For some reason, crystals can absorb and store Mana, salt is just the cheapest.”

  “Guess those healing crystals have some science behind them after all.”

  The scientist rolled his eyes, “Don’t get me started, gah, just put your hand in the box.”

  I did as he said, finding the salt and filling it up slowly since it just absorbed ambient MP, so I used my power to directly pour my MP into it to speed up the process.

  Then I pulled my hand out and said, “Done.”

  “Thanks,” the scientist grabbed a thick metal disk and put it in the hole in the box, screwing it on tight, then offhandedly asked, “What color is your MP at?”

  “Light yellow.”

  “Ok, over the next couple of days, we’re going to see how often you’ll have to be drained to get a balance so you can still practice without hurting anyone.”

  I nodded, “Am I free to go then?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  They waved me away, and I took it as confirmation. I made my way back to the outside of Charlotte's room. But then I looked at a clock and realised it was lunch time, so I made my way to the canteen, finding Charlotte there looking completely fine. I stood there, eyes wide, then she and the person next to her (Kalani) noticed me, and they gestured for me to come over.

  I did, and I said before they could talk, “Um, sorry about what happened to you.”

  Charlotte waved away my apology, “You didn’t mean to, plus there isn’t any actual harm, just some bruises.”

  “You were bleeding…”

  “Seeing my blood is nothing new.”

  “Oh, ok,” there was a silence before I said, “I’m going to get some food now,” then walked off.

  But I was stopped by a call from Kalani, “Hey, why don’t you sit with us, since we’re going to be together a lot for the next two weeks, we might as well get used to each other."

  I wanted to say no, but their reasoning did make sense, so I got my slop and sat next to Charlotte. She shrank away from me, and I respectively did the same, exchanging the courtesy of ignoring each other.

  But that was foiled by Kalani when they said, “So, what brought you two here?” Neither of us answered, but our slack was picked up by Kalani, “I’ve been in the Marines for a good five years, like my dad. And I was off in Korea on vacation when the Gate opened a block away. It was a big deal since it opened in the middle of some train tracks. And I was trying to help some civs when I discovered I could manipulate air when I blew away smoke so people wouldn’t choke. I probably wouldn’t have done it if I had known I was going to go through boot camp again."

  The joke got some chuckles, but I just kept forcing the food down my throat, trying not to gag.

  Then, feeling embolden Charlotte said her piece, “I was a couple of miles away from the Gate that opened in Oregon City, I noticed my powers pretty immediately too. When I, uh… nearly killed my cat with a laser. After that, I immediately went to the police, since you know I pretty much had guns for hands. Then the government decided to put me into the Marines, for some reason, I don’t know why they put me in it, though. Well, I do have lasers and stuff, but why me? Uh, wait, I'm rambling, I'm going to stop now.”

  There was silence as we ate, then Kalani turned their attention toward me, annoyance bubbling up at the anticipated question.

  “So, where were you when the Gate opened, Jacob?”

  I clamped down on my desire to curse and said, “I was right in front of the one that opened here.”

  “Really,” Kalani said, “How close were you?”

  “About two steps.”

  They whistled, “Damn.”

  “Um,” Charlotte said, “What did it look like? I've only seen the pictures online, and I don’t think any of them are real.”

  I took a moment to gag down my food before I said, “It’s a gray disk, and on the other side is a pine forest.

  Kalani quirked an eyebrow, “I thought nobody could really see what was on the other side?”

  I cursed inwardly for forgetting that detail, deciding to cover up with something else they would’ve learned eventually, “Well, I went to the other side.”

  Kalani’s eyes widened, “How are you alive?”

  “Well, my skill is rather good at keeping me safe, and I wasn’t given a difficult quest.”

  “Wait,” Charlotte interjected, “Isn’t our expedition meant to gather samples to see if there are any viruses that’ll cause another pandemic. So, shouldn’t you be in quarantine or something?”

  I was silent, clicking my tongue in thought before I replied, “They already did a bunch of tests and stuff, so I should be fine.”

  “Oh, ok.”

  The conversation went on without me as I combed through my memories, because Charlotte brought up a really good point. At no point had they tested for something like that, and despite my wishes, they weren’t that incompetent.

  ‘But why would they do that intentionally? Did they want to start another pandemic?’

  Despite thinking on it long and hard, I could not for the life of me come up with a reason, so I just stored it away in the back of my head to pull out later.

  Soon the meal was finished, and we went our separate ways to our bunks, and I did my usual routine before bed of slinking around the compound. I investigated the impossible box again, but there just wasn’t anything new, so I put it into the ever increasing filing cabinet labeled ‘for later’.

  Then the days went on, and a rather pleasant routine started up. I would eat breakfast, get my MP drained by one of the scientists, train, eat, get free time, train, eat, then go to bed, where I would sneak around the compound. It was relaxing, finally having something stable and consistent, even if I did hate the training and eating parts.

  Especially since the other Marines that were a part of the Expedition didn’t seem to see me as part of them and were subtly shoving me away. But it did bother me, stability was stability, though I forced myself not to fall into it since it was temporary, and I wouldn’t let myself get entrapped in good enough.

  ‘I would get back home, and I would get back with my family… Jacob's family…’

  I snapped myself out of it, observing the world around me in roughly 120 miles, bored out of my mind since I had already memorized it in the past week. Then I noticed a discrepancy; somebody was wandering around the track with the impossible box, and they weren’t on patrol. Making a beeline for it, and when they were right next to the impossible place, they entered it.