By the time we got to the compound at the edge of the city, it was dinner, so we were escorted towards the mess hall, and I was given a depressing plate of slop. Though I suppose all human food was depressing to me.

  ‘Why didn’t they just eat leaves? They were so much prettier.’

  With a sigh, I sat down and forced the food down my throat for no other reason than to keep Jacob's body healthy. I pushed my Domain around the room, suppressing Jacob for once, so I could monitor anything that happened, then I noticed someone approaching me. When I turned my head, I saw it was the guy who was asking all those questions in the room, Adny, if I remembered correctly.

  Seeing me see him, he smiled, reaching his hand out, and said, “Hello, my name is Private First Class Caleb Adnet.”

  ‘So I hadn’t remembered correctly.’

  I looked at the proffered hand, trying to remember what it meant, then I took it a moment later, saying, “Hello.”

  There was a moment of silence that Caleb took up with a, “So you’re one of those Gifted that showed up with the gates? I honestly didn’t think they were real until I saw what Private Kalani could do with air. They were like Aang from that M Night Shyamalan movie.”

  I felt Jacob visceraly react to the comment for some reason, almost surfacing just to give him a look of pure disgust. But he didn’t thankfully, and I watched as Caleb sat down opposite me, eating their own plate of slop.

  “I heard Charlotte can do something with light or lasers or something, but I hadn’t heard anything about you, so I was wondering what you could do?”

  “Didn’t you all get a rundown of my abilities?”

  Caleb shook their head, “That’s supposed to be two days from now, after assessing your abilities and determining what the Gifted best places would be.”

  “Oh.”

  There was another pause.

  Caleb coughed, “So… would you mind telling me your ability?”

  I thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to explain Stealth without revealing more than was already known. But I was too tired, so I decided to demonstrate. I activated Stealth and saw Caleb look around the room, confused, as I walked up behind him and said, “Here it is.”

  Caleb jumped and whirled around with wild eyes, elbow first, plunging it into my gut. At first, everything inside my body went numb and tingly, then the next moment it exploded in pain, feeling like everything was being shredded apart. My vision blurred, and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground, my entire gut in pain, and my breath having escaped me.

  I felt a hand gently touch my shoulder, and an androgynous voice say, “Hey, you good?”

  I groaned in reply, getting my hands under me so I could stand up, two people helping me along.

  Caleb's voice saying, “Oh my God, I'm so sorry!”

  But it was drowned out by the voice of the person I recognised in front of me as Kalani from the metting, with tan skin and matching black hair and eyes, saying, “Hey, can you look at my finger?” I did, and they said, “OK, looks like you don’t have a concussion from the fall. But if you feel anything weird, go to the doctors immediately."

  I nodded as Caleb profusely apologised to me.

  Which got on Kalani’s nerves as they snapped, “Then maybe don’t elbow somebody directly in the liver next time you’re trying to make friends. Seriously, how do you hit the most painful place in the body by accident?”

  “Sorr-”

  “I already told you to stop that.”

  As they started bickerring, I picked up my tray and moved to another table, alone. Caleb tried to join me, but Kalani grabbed him and shook their head, Calebs shoulders slumped as he sat back down. Then I ate my dinner in peace, putting the tray away when I finsished and was escorted to my bunk that I shared with some of the other male members of the squad, which thankfully didn’t contain Caleb.

  Then it was lights out, which I found pleasant since I didn’t have to deal with my overly sensitive human vision anymore. But it did leave one problem, I couldn’t sleep. I could handle boredom unlike Jacob, but I had a good five hours before sleepiness kicked in.

  So I pulled out a portion of my original body from Slip Away, taking a scraping of Lunar Scale Dust from a wing and sprinkled it onto a bug I found nearby. And left traces of it all across the room as traps for any wandering critter.

  Then I went back to bed and activated Lunar Aura, using my extension to explore the compound. Mapping it out and planning escape routes in case I ever needed them, then I came across an oddity.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  There was a space on the running track in the middle of the Compound that my bugs could find, but didn’t seem to be there. It was roughly a fifteen-foot square box that just didn’t line up with the rest of the space.

  I tried to explore the space around it and investigate, but smell wasn’t the best at giving spatial details. So I would have to use my admittedly more well-suited human vision since I didn’t have any minions at the moment that had good vision and was inconspicuous.

  But it was the middle of the night, I was getting tired, and I wasn’t confident that I would be able to spot all the cameras before they caught me, plus, the bracelet they gave me definitely has a tracker. So I decided to leave it for the next morning. I yawned and stretched out, letting sleep finally take me.

  O O O

  The next day was… unpleasant to say the least. The training had started, and most of it was focused on cardio, with no weapons, since there wasn’t enough time for proper training, and they probably thought that me being able to run away was better than nothing. The problem laid in Jacobs pre existing fitness being less than non-existent, the two months of near complete inactivity in the hospital didn’t helping either.

  But I somehow got through it, cursing Jacobs' name every step on the track in the middle of the camp, the same one with the impossible space. I had originally been excited about that, but it was quickly beaten out of me by the Drill Sergeants screaming at me to go faster.

  ‘Why did they even yell? It’s not like I’m paying attention to them for doing that, hell, I’m ignoring them. Humans are always such idiots.’

  Then I finally reached the end of the final lap, and I nearly collapsed, but we were given a small break, so I persisted. I guzzled some water, the inside of my mouth tasting like blood for some reason despite there being no pain. I rinsed the water around my mouth, spitting it out to see if there wasn’t any. I looked at it, confused, when I heard Kalani behind me.

  “Why are you wasting water?”

  “There’s blood in my mouth.”

  They winced in sympathy, “Did you bite your tongue while running?”

  I shook my head, “The thing is, I can’t find it. I swear I can taste it though.”

  “Oh, yeah, that sometimes happens when you’re working out really hard. Something about small amounts of blood in your lungs and releasing hemoglobin or something like it. I'm not a scientist, though, so don’t quote me.”

  “That happens?!”

  “Yeah, it’s nothing to worry about, thankfully.”

  I shook my head.

  ‘Human bodies are so horribly designed, no wonder they’re idiots.’

  I couldn’t stew about the many inefficiencies of human anatomy for long, though, as the second part of our training commenced. The Drill Sargent called us over, a small group of scientists having gathered, one of them being Dr. Bekert, the one who had interrogated me.

  Then the Drill Sargent said in a volume just below a yell, “Today we will be testing and hopefully training something called Synergy. It is a phenomenon among Gifted where if they use their skills in unison, they will produce a new result, sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes nothing at all. And these,” he pointed at the scientists, “are the people who will study what happens to help future efforts, so be cooperative, or else I’ll make you run so many laps you’ll wish you never had legs.”

  We all gave a weak “Yes, sir,” in a discordant mess, still recovering from the run.

  “Good,” one of the scientists said, a scrawny white guy with a rats nest of brown hair, “Now, all of you join a party together, this makes doing it easier since the System will help, then use your skills in unison.”

  We did, and Kalani and Charlotte decided to go first, but were a bit confused.

  “Um,” Charlotte said to the scientist who spoke earlier, “What do you mean by ‘using our skills in unison’?”

  “Use them at the same time.”

  “No, I know that, but like, do we just blast each other with our skills?”

  He shrugged, “Each one is different, but if you try it together with intention, the System should guide you. The end goal is for you all to not need the assistance so you can take more people into the Gate.”

  She nodded, and the two fiddled around for a bit while I rested, taking the time investigate the impossible space. I looked for it and found it in the same place, and I walked towards where it should’ve been, but there was just nothing. I tried to find the hole or whatever my minions were sneaking into, but there wasn’t anything, despite knowing for a fact it was right where I was standing.

  Then I heard a yell, and I looked and saw a rainbow so bright that it felt like my retinas were on fire. Thankfully, it only lasted a moment, after everyone took a moment to rub their eyes, a scientist said.

  “First result for Charlotte Miyazaki and Kalani Browns synergy recorded, let's move on to Jacob Davidson.”

  I turned towards the one who said it, recognising Dr. Bekert, who was staring at me with something odd behind her eyes.

  I nodded, walking away from where the impossible box was, saying, “Who do you want me to do it with?”

  I saw Kalani smirk for some reason.

  Then Beker said, “It doesn’t matter.”

  Charlotte raised her hand, “I-I’m up for it, I have more MP than Kalani.”

  “Ok then, Synergy test for Charlotte Miyazaki and Jacob Davidson commencing.”

  I stood next to Charlotte, and we used our skills in unison. It didn’t succeed the first time, but the second time, the System sent instructions. I grabbed the System thread with my Domain before it could enter my head and do anything. I read it, then discarded it.

  I grabbed Charlotte's shoulder while she raised her hand, palm up. She looked at me uncomfortably for a moment, but went along with it as our powered collide, creating a stream of invisible light that burned a patch of the grass.

  Charlotte smiled, whooping in excitement before two things happened. The first was a pulse of energy coming from the impossible room, the second was blood leaking from Charlotte's eyes and nose. And then the next moment, she was on the ground.