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Sam stood in front of a pair of glass, sliding doors. He was in a train station, a place he had only been to when he was much younger with his family, when it didn’t matter if he had a talent or not. Sam frowned as he turned his head to the side, towards the brown-haired woman with green eyes. Wendy had disguised herself, but she was still cold and unapproachable, a scowl seemingly etched in her face. She noticed him looking and turned towards him. “What?”
“Nothing,” Sam said, lowering his head to stare at the ground. There were black spots on the tile, dried pieces of gum that had been trampled and walked on for years. A black ferret crawled out of his shirt, its head swiveling as it took in its surroundings. Unlike when he was a talentless, his current clothes didn’t have any patches in them. Before he had left for the mission, the queen had gifted him a brand-new outfit. Of course, she didn’t deliver it in person, but Sam appreciated the thought—and the warmth. Sam frowned as the ground rattled, the vibrations faint beneath his feet. “If we’re taking public transportation there, how are you going to teach me?”
“Thanks to Monarch’s contributions to the transportation system, there’s always one car reserved for Monarch employees,” Wendy said as Raindu retreated back inside Sam’s clothes. “It remains empty if no employees are present.” She glanced at Sam’s jacket pocket. “You have your employee badge with you, right?”
“Yes,” Sam said, putting his hand into his pocket. “It’s right….” He rummaged around, a furrow appearing on his brow. “Here…?” His hand came out of his pocket, his fingers holding the lining to turn the pocket inside out. There was nothing there. “Uh…, hang on.”
Wendy’s expression remained neutral as Sam’s hands roamed around his body, checking all his pockets. After watching him panic for a bit, Wendy cleared her throat. “Did your ferret take it?”
Sam blinked before tugging at the collar of his shirt. He looked down towards his stomach, where Raindu was lying on its back, using Sam’s tucked-in shirt as a makeshift hammock. The ferret blinked its mahogany eyes at Sam before waving its front leg.
“Did you take my employee badge?” Sam asked, speaking into his shirt like a crazy person.
Raindu blinked before reaching into its fur. As if by magic, it retrieved a heart-shaped pendant that it offered to Sam. Sam furrowed his brow. “That’s not the badge,” he said. “Who did you steal that pendant from?”
Raindu stuffed the pendant back inside its fur before Sam could get a better look at it. Then, it retrieved a card with a lanyard attached to it. Sam exhaled and reached inside his shirt, but the ferret juked him, hiding the employee badge behind itself while chattering. Even though Sam couldn’t speak ferret, for some reason, he still understood what it was saying: it was hungry. Perhaps he was reading its vibe? Did animals even have vibes?
Sam released his collar and looked at Wendy. “Do you have any snacks a ferret would eat?”
“I’m not sure what ferrets eat,” Wendy said and reached into her pocket. “Try this.” She retrieved a lollipop, passing it to Sam. He accepted it with a blank expression before pulling open his collar once more.
“Here,” Sam said, offering the lollipop to Raindu. The ferret took it and gave Sam his employee badge back in the process. Sam sighed. “Next time you’re hungry, just tell me. You don’t have to steal my things. Actually, please, don’t steal my things in the future.”
Raindu’s attention turned onto the lollipop’s wrapper, the ferret acting as if it hadn’t heard a word Sam said. The wrapper flew out of the collar of Sam’s shirt, Raindu evidently too picky to store trash in its fur.
“It eats candy?” Wendy asked, raising an eyebrow. She reached into her pocket and pulled out another lollipop. She crinkled its wrapper, causing Raindu to stick its head out of Sam’s collar. The ferret’s piece of candy was already half-eaten, Raindu’s teeth much sharper and tougher than the lollipop could handle. The corners of Wendy’s lips curved upwards, turning her perpetual frown into a neutral expression on her face. She leaned forward and offered the ferret the lollipop. “You want it?”
Raindu’s teeth stripped down the rest of its lollipop, and it tossed the stick away, not caring about the laws against littering. Its paws stretched towards the piece of candy Wendy was offering, but the disguised woman bent her wrist, keeping the lollipop just far enough away to prevent the ferret from grabbing it. Raindu’s eyes widened upon seeing the action, and it shook a closed paw at Wendy while glaring and chattering.
The rattling of the ground grew stronger, and lights came into view, reflected off the glass doors in front of Wendy and Sam. Wendy withdrew the lollipop, much to Raindu’s dismay. “I’ll give you more on the train,” Wendy said, looking the ferret in its mahogany eyes. “In return, you’ll have to listen to me, okay?”
“You’re going to train him with candy?” Sam asked.
“Her Majesty trained Squishy with treats,” Wendy said, keeping her eyes on the animal. “How else are you supposed to teach an animal? It’s not like Raindu will respond well to a beating.”
A shudder ran down Raindu’s spine, and it sank downwards into Sam’s shirt. It didn’t disappear from view completely, keeping an eye on the lollipop Wendy was holding. The train pulled into the station, the first car coming to a halt in front of the duo and ferret. The glass doors slid open at the same time as the train car’s, and Wendy pulled out her employee badge.
Sam blinked as a short, humanoid figure walked out of the train; it was gray, hairless, and had large eyes akin to the lenses of sunglasses—black and glossy with a lack of irises, pupils, and sclera. The gray creature was wearing a blue suit and holding a scanner with a three-fingered hand. Wendy held out her badge, letting the gray creature scan it. “Welcome aboard,” the gray creature said in a monotonous voice. “Have a nice trip.”
Wendy stepped onto the train and gestured at the gray creature with her head. Sam held out his employee badge, and it too was scanned by the gray creature. “Welcome aboard,” it said again, speaking the exact same way as before. “Have a nice trip.”
Sam stepped past the creature and glanced at it as he walked onto the train. The gray creature boarded as well before taking a seat in the corner of the car. “Is he … she … an employee of Monarch too?” Sam asked, whispering to Wendy.
“Technically,” Wendy said. “That’s a modified grayling. Rather than an employee, you can think of it as a biological robot Monarch created.”
“Monarch can make graylings?” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. The graylings were one of the native species of the new plane the Earth had ascended to during the cataclysm. Humans had to contend with them for resources and territory. The two species would’ve had a friendlier relationship if it weren’t for the intrepid human foodies who had discovered graylings tasted like ice cream.
Wendy shook her head. “That’s not what I said. Monarch modified an existing grayling, so now, it listens to us instead of the reptilians,” she said. “There are some side effects though.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “And the reptilians don’t care?”
Wendy shrugged. “They won’t care about one or two missing graylings,” she said and took a seat. “The reptilians have bigger things to worry about than humans taking one or two ants away from them.”
“I see,” Sam said and glanced at the seat beside Wendy before settling with sitting across from her. It’d be too easy for Raindu to steal Wendy’s things if Sam sat right next to her. The doors closed, and Sam couldn’t help but turn around to look at the now-empty station. “Were Tamara and James not coming with us?”
“We’ll meet them there,” Wendy said and took a piece of candy out of her pocket. She crinkled its wrapper, and Raindu’s head snapped towards the sound. “Your task is to train Raindu. Within the next three days, you have to teach it to steal on command.”
Sam nodded. The train had sleeping quarters for overnight trips. He was told there was even a bathroom with a shower, but he hadn’t personally seen it yet. Three days to train a ferret, it couldn’t be that difficult, right? “Alright, Raindu,” Sam said, looking down at the ferret poking out of his collar. “Do you know what stealing is?”
Raindu shook its head.
“It’s when you take something that doesn’t belong to you,” Sam said.
Raindu chattered and tilted its head. Sam’s mouth twitched. He was getting the impression the ferret thought everything in the world belonged to it. How could it steal if it was only taking back its belongings?
“Fine,” Sam said. “Stealing, taking, whatever you want to call it.” He pointed at the grayling sitting in the corner like an unused puppet. “If you take its badge scanner and give it to me, you can have the candy.”
Raindu looked at the grayling. Then, it looked at the lollipop Wendy was holding out. Raindu gulped and climbed out of Sam’s shirt. It landed on Sam’s thigh and stood upright, looking at the grayling. After staring for a bit, it shook its head and slipped back inside Sam’s clothes, popping up through his collar once more.
Sam frowned and looked at Wendy. “Is the grayling aggressive?”
“No,” Wendy said. She stood up. “How about this?” She placed a piece of candy on the floor of the train car. Then, she walked towards the grayling, leaving behind a trail of lollipops. She placed a final lollipop in the grayling’s hand. “Raindu seems to be scared of leaving you. We should train it to be less cowardly first.”
Raindu chattered and shook a closed paw at Wendy. “He’s not cowardly,” Sam said, translating for the animal. “He’s just cautious.” Sam blinked. “You can understand his vibe too, right?”
“Surprisingly, no,” Wendy said and shook her head. “I noticed your vibe became muted as well after you obtained Raindu as a pet; it must be one of his protective features. Raindu was an incredible weapon; it only makes sense for him to have incredible abilities.”
Sam glanced down at the ferret before looking back at Wendy. “But you can read his body language, can’t you?”
“Without vibes, I have a hard time understanding people; it’s even harder understanding animals,” Wendy said and shrugged. “It’s the same for most people who awakened whilst young.” She pointed at the floor where the first lollipop lay. “Does he want candy or not? If he doesn’t decide soon, I’m going to eat it myself.” She stared at the ferret for a second before bending down.
Raindu squeaked and jumped out of Sam’s shirt, snatching the lollipop off the train floor before Wendy could. It stuffed it into its fur and raced to the next stick of candy. Wendy narrowed her eyes and leapt forward, racing ahead of the ferret, causing it to squeak and sprint onwards, turning into a black blur as it ran, swiping all the lollipops before Wendy could touch them. Before Sam knew it, the ferret had raced from to the grayling and back into his shirt with nine pieces of candy hidden within its fur.
Wendy furrowed her brow, turning her head to look in Sam’s direction. She was standing in front of the grayling, practically on the other end of the train car. Despite her proximity to the grayling, it remained seated and unmoving, gazing at its two feet, which had three long toes each. Wendy’s scowl deepened as she walked over to Sam. Somehow, she was slower than a newborn ferret? Even if he was born from an amazing weapon, he was still less than a day old. Had Raindu been born at its full potential? That would explain the ferret’s amazing speed.
Sam grinned at Wendy. “How did he do?” he asked. “Pretty good, right?”
Wendy nodded. “Very impressive,” she said. “The queen would be proud.” She pointed at the grayling’s hand. “Unfortunately, he forgot to steal the badge scanner.”
Raindu crawled out of Sam’s shirt and onto his shoulder, standing on its hindlegs. The ferret puffed out its chest and raised its front paw, revealing a device that looked remarkably similar to the brain-melter. “He stole this instead,” Sam said. He furrowed his brow as he stared at Raindu’s eyes. “He says it’s shinier and more valuable.”
Wendy frowned and grabbed the object, but Raindu pulled it back at the last moment. His eyes glistened as he stared at Wendy’s pocket. The disguised woman snorted before pulling out a piece of candy. She offered it to the ferret, but it shook its head and held out its free paw, pointing three toes towards the ceiling. Wendy snorted again as she reached into her pocket, pulling out another two lollipops. “Is that enough?”
Raindu nodded twice and held out the shiny object. Wendy grabbed it, and instead of honoring her deal, she stowed the three lollipops back into her pocket, causing the ferret’s eyes to bulge. A deluge of chattering and clicking filled the train car, and Sam winced before looking at Wendy. “He said, uh, please, honor the deal.”
The ferret continued chattering, and Wendy looked at Sam. “That’s a lot of noise to say four words,” the woman said before raising the shiny object up to her face. A furrow appeared on her brow. “This device … it’s definitely a Monarch product. Why did he have…?” Wendy’s eyes widened as she whipped her head around to look at the other side of the train car; the grayling was gone. “Damnit!”
Sam blinked. “What happened?” He leaned to the side to see where Wendy was looking. There was nothing there. “Where’d it go?”
Wendy ran up to the window, pressing her face against the glass, looking in the direction the train had come from. “Graylings can manipulate time and space ever so slightly.” She let out a sigh and pushed herself off the window. “They’re good at escaping. Raindu removed Monarch’s controller from its brain, so it regained its freedom; though, it doesn’t have very long to live.”
Sam winced, his face contorting. “That sounds bad,” he said. “What do we do?”
“Nothing,” Wendy said and shrugged. “It’s not our problem anymore. Other awakeners from Monarch will take care of it.” She pressed her fingers against her temples and closed her eyes. A second later, a trickle of blood ran down her right nostril. Her eyes wrinkled as they shut even harder, and after three seconds, she opened her eyes, lowered her hand while wiping away the blood in the same motion. “They’ve been alerted.”
“Is that your talent?” Sam asked.
“Yes,” Wendy said.
Sam frowned. “And you get a nosebleed every time you use it?”
“Asking for details about one’s talent is quite rude,” Wendy said. “You should keep your talents a secret as well. There are several creatures out there capable of reading minds. If someone who knows your secrets is captured, you’ll be at an extreme disadvantage.”
“Great,” Sam said and let out a sigh. “We have to deal with mind readers now too. First, I can’t speak out loud in case of spies; now, I can’t even think in my own head.”
Wendy’s eyes shifted downwards. “Yes, mind readers are a nuisance,” she said. A faint smirk appeared on her lips. “Just wait until you encounter the dreamlurkers. You’ll love them.”
Sam blinked. “Sarcasm?”
“Yes,” Wendy said.
Sam nodded. Honestly, it was hard to tell. The delivery was on point, but her vibe felt … off. He wasn’t experienced enough in reading people’s vibes to understand the disconnect though. He scratched his head. “Are you alright?” he asked.
“Of course,” Wendy said and sniffed hard. She sat down and crossed her arms over her chest. “Alright, Raindu doesn’t need as much training as I thought he would. He’s very intelligent.” Her eyes scanned Sam from head to toe. “You, however, we should start sooner than later. What do you know about your chakras?”
“Just the basics,” Sam said. “There’s seven of them, and each one is a different color of the rainbow.” As for the rest of the details, no one explained things in depth to the talentless. He shrugged. “That’s about it.”
Wendy nodded. “You barely know anything about them,” she said. “Perfect. We’ll start by focusing on your root chakra, the Muladhara. It’s the foundation of your whole spiritual body; it’s where your energy gathers. Without training it, you won’t be able to manifest your intent.”
Sam furrowed his brow. There were a lot of words he didn’t know being spouted here. “Hang on,” he said. “Do you mind if I take notes?”
“Go ahead,” Wendy said.
Sam reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone, the brand-new one he had received as part of Monarch’s perks. He unlocked it, and the lights in the train went out. Lights flickered on his phone, and the screen died less than a second later. “What?” He raised his head, and a pair of glossy eyes, shining green in the darkness, were staring right at him. “Holy!” Sam reflexively punched forward with his right hand, striking the grayling’s left eye. There was a squelching sound, and Sam shrieked as he withdrew his now-wet fist, waving it rapidly, flinging grayling inner-skull fluids everywhere.
The lights turned back on, and Sam froze. The grayling was collapsed on the ground with a fist-sized hole in its face, green fluids leaking out of it. His hand was covered in the same sticky fluid, and green splatters of said fluid were painted on Wendy’s body as well. She was standing over the grayling with her hand curled into a fist. She examined the dead grayling before turning towards Sam. “You did this?”
“I, I think so?” Sam asked, looking at his fist. Despite punching through what seemed like glass, his hand was perfectly fine, albeit a bit dirty. “How did I do that?” He looked down at Raindu; the ferret was holding its front paw up in a thumbs-up pose. Sam grinned. “Yeah, I think so too, buddy.”
Wendy stared at the celebrating ferret and its owner. Then, she looked down at the grayling. Graylings weren’t weak. If they were, they wouldn’t have given humanity such a huge headache. Even if this grayling was disoriented and didn’t have any weapons, its ability to distort space and time was powerful enough on its own; it wasn’t reasonable for someone who hadn’t honed their chakras to defeat one, yet Sam had done just that and in one punch too.
“Hey,” Sam said, looking out the window of the train. “Is it just me, or is the train speeding up?”
Wendy glanced out the window, and she frowned before walking towards it. The train was speeding up, something it shouldn’t be doing. There were a few curved rails the trains had to travel on while traversing the city, and if the trains went too fast, they’d derail. Wendy dashed towards the front of the train car, opening the door to the driver’s compartment. A messy scene of red and yellow fluids spread all over the dashboard, walls, and windshield came into view. It looked like the driver had been turned inside out, one of the graylings’ favorite methods of execution. Sparks danced along the dashboard, and a surge of electricity shot towards Wendy. She narrowed her eyes, and it bounced off the air in front of her nose, redirected towards the fluids on the windshield. A fire broke out, and she closed the door to the driver’s compartment.
Sam stood up and leaned over, but the door had already been closed by then. “What was that crackling sound?” he asked. “Is everything alright?”
“The train is going to derail,” Wendy said and glanced at the grayling corpse on the floor. “He left us a present before dying.” She raised her head and met Sam’s eyes. “Let’s go.”
“Oh,” Sam said. “The train’s … derailing.” His brow furrowed. “We’re going to warn everyone, right?”
“No time for that,” Wendy said while walking towards Sam. She wrapped her arm around his waist and grunted, lifting him as if he were a short-legged puppy trying to get down a flight of stairs. Blood leaked from her nose as she narrowed her eyes, and the train car’s window exploded outwards. Without giving Sam or Raindu time to ready their hearts, she stepped on a seat and leapt out the train.
A shriek and frantic chatters resounded through the air as the group plummeted towards the ground, the train rails having been built above the city’s roads like a highway. Wendy sucked in a deep breath and exhaled through her mouth. Her eyes widened, and her pupils narrowed as an invisible force exploded out of her. A crater formed in the ground from the force as Wendy’s descent halted seconds before hitting the concrete sidewalk. Then, with a thud, she landed on both feet, still carrying a shrieking Sam, whose eyes were closed. “We’re safe now,” Wendy said. She frowned as Sam’s screams continued; he must not have heard her. Without ceremony, she released Sam, letting him fall a few inches, his face making contact with the ground. She looked up towards the train, which was still increasing in speed, the usual, slow rattling its wheels made sounding like a chain of continuous machine-gunfire.
Sam stopped shrieking and pushed himself off the ground. His nose was scraped, but it wasn’t bleeding—unlike Wendy’s. She had two streams of blood leaking from her nostrils, one stream each. Sam sat up and looked around before standing up on a pair of shaking legs. Raindu crawled out of his shirt collar, and chattered as it looked around. “I don’t think this is the afterlife,” Sam said, answering the ferret’s question. He looked up just in time to see the front car of the train approach a curve and fly off the railing instead of turning. Like an elongated missile, the train flew from the rails and struck a nearby building, train car after train car disappearing into a series of explosions that caused the building to collapse. Sam’s mouth dropped open, and after the last train car went over the edge, he swallowed and looked at Wendy. “The people on the train, you let them die?”
“Yes,” Wendy said. “The same way I let the moon control the tides and the same way I let the sun set to bring about night.” She wiped her bloody nose with the back of her hand and sniffed hard. “I’m an awakener, not a miracle worker. Did you expect me to stop a train with my bare hands?”
“No,” Sam said, his brow furrowed as he stared at the destruction. People were screaming and fleeing the scene like a herd of gazelle sprinting away from a lion. He couldn’t help but glance down at Raindu. The beady-eyed ferret stared back up at him. If the ferret hadn’t removed the controller from the grayling, the derailment wouldn’t have happened.
Wendy let out a sigh. “It looks like we won’t be able to take a train for a while,” she said. “It’s always annoying when plans change.”
“I’m sorry the loss of hundreds of lives caused your plans to change,” Sam said, watching a massive plume of smoke floating up into the sky.
Wendy nodded. “As you should be,” she said. “After all, it was technically your ferret’s fault. As its owner, an apology is the least you can give.” She raised her right hand up to her temple and squinted. After a second, she lowered her hand and sniffed. “I’ve sent Monarch an update. They’ll know what to do.”