Emma was surprised by Derek’s request. “You want to join us? Haha I know my speech at the beginning made us sound very cool but you must understand. What we do is something very serious and things can get messy. No wait, things always get messy. You seem like a good kid so I suggest you don’t get yourself involved in all this, lest you lose your little life”. Derek was silent but then resolutely said “you don’t have to try and dissuade me. I’ve already made up my mind. I have always thought that there was no meaning to life and was always bored, never have the desire to do anything in life. But now, for the first time, my heart actually yearned for something. So how can I just walk away? My mind is made. So please, keep your promise and let me join 8th sense”.
Emma could see the burning passion in Derek’s eyes. She sighed and wondered what to do. She really wanted to pull this interesting guy into her side. Moreover, considering the fact that her team messed up, she wouldn’t be assigned another subordinate. In this organisation, subordinates were different from teams. Her team not only answered to her but also to the higher ups but subordinates were different. They were genuinely and truly under her. She carefully considered her options and asked Derek a question “hypothetically, if I do let you join 8th sense, in which direction do you prefer specialising in? to give you a vague idea, your options are academics, special forces, research, damage control, strategy and Covert Ops. At this point, I can’t give any more information” Emma looked at Derek’s face trying to discern what his thoughts were but his face was devoid any expression.
Derek calmly thought about the various options and deduced what each direction would lead him to. He had never been interested with anything to do with academia or rather, whatever academia had to offer before today hadn’t interested him but who knows how far ahead the technology branch this organisation was. Even though academics and research sounded interesting, those things weren’t enough. What truly excited him was the possibility of fighting. Living life by the edge, not knowing whether he was going to be alive tomorrow. That was what Derek wanted from this organisation. So, it had to be special forces or Covert Ops. Having made his decision, Derek gave Emma his choices. Special forces or Covert Ops. Somehow, Emma wasn’t surprised by Derek’s decision. “Alright. Give me a moment. I will get back to you within the hour. I need to consult some people” having said that, Emma left the room again.
After exciting the room, Emma walked towards her quarters. After arriving, she went to her office area and made a call. At the other end, a gruff voice answered “what? I told you that we can’t interact much now that the situation is like this”. Emma, slightly annoyed, snapped “I know, I know. If it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t have called. I can’t believe you still consider me as the little girl you took in. I’ve already grown up”. As she heard nothing but silence from the other end, she proceeded to tell about the issue with Derek, the mix-up of names and him wanting to join the organisation. After a brief silence, the voice replied “You think he can help you? You know your road ahead and the hardships you’re going to face better than anyone else. Would he be a good choice as your first subordinate?” “I know all about that but he would surely be better than the subordinate assigned by the Org. what can I do with a marine biologist? I live to fight and they knew it. Yet I was assigned some idiot. I am somewhat thankful that this mix-up happened” Emma said. Again, the other person was silent. Irritated, Emma said “Alright. I will take your silence as a tacit agreement. I’m going to proceed with the initiation and send him to the academy. Then it will be up to you. If he is ordinary, don’t bother. I will consider it as me doing a good deed. But if he shows promise, I hope you guide him” the other person wanted to say something but Emma interrupted “I know how high your standards are but there is something about him. I can’t quite pinpoint it but I think he is going to surprise us all”. A sound of hmm came from the other end. Emma hung up and took a deep breath. “Well Derek, looks like we are going to be tethered to the same dock henceforth. Let’s see if you can bring me any benefits.
Having made her decision, Emma walked into the room and gave Derek the good news. “Okay Derek, I’ve made my decision. I am going to let you join 8th Sense as my first subordinate. You don’t know how important a first subordinate is to an instructor. There are hundreds of thousands of instructors in the Org all competing against each other. More on this later. Now, let me give you a bigger picture on what exactly 8th sense is and what we do. 8th sense is an organisation that was set up a very long time ago. The ones who set up the Org are called Forefathers. It all started when the forefathers came across a mysterious place while hunting and they experienced changes in their bodies. No one knows what prompted them to establish the Org but later, when the technology improved, it was discovered that the mysterious place was actually a mine of an unknown ore. Though the use of this ore, humans could actually unlock their 6th sense. Henceforth, the ore was named Sensium. I know, it sounds stupid but I presume back then, the scientists where more excited about the possibilities of the ore and didn’t spare much thought for creativity. In the outside world; 6th sense is always associated with uncanny intuition but things aren’t so simple”. Emma saw the dazed expression on Derek’s face and smirked. Her reaction was exactly the same when she had first heard all this. “Can you keep up or do you need me to stop so you can take a minute to process the information?” she asked. Derek nodded furiously, urging her to continue. He couldn’t believe the things he was hearing. He could hear his heart starting to beat faster as Emma continued.
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“Where was I? Oh right. The 6th sense isn’t just intuition. While this does have some semblance of truth, in reality, the 6th sense doesn’t just unlock intuition but also other things, other wonderful and mystifying things. I know it is somewhat hard to understand so I will just show you.” Having said that, Emma Stood up asked Derek to focus on her. When she noticed Derek staring at her without blinking, she unlocked her 6th sense. The moment she unlocked it; her hand was instantly covered with fire. Derek was shocked as he saw Emma being enveloped by the fire around her. The fire swallowed her completely and she emerged after a second, covered in an armour of fire. Even her hair had transformed into fire, albeit of a different shade. As Derek saw Emma in all her glory, he was stunned. He couldn’t believe that unlocking 6th sense could let a person control such firesome power. As if she knew what he was thinking, Emma said “this is just the tip of the iceberg. I just have the control over fire. There are many more people with powers that are a lot more awesome than mine haha”. Derek couldn’t believe it but the truth was Infront of his eyes. He looked like he couldn’t wait to unlock his 6th sense immediately.
With a knowing smile, Emma said “I know you are excited but calm down. Once I am done with the initiation, I will send you to the academy. In the academy, you will undergo a couple weeks of training before unlocking your 6th sense so you will have to be patient”. With a puzzled expression, Derek asked “Academy? Don’t tell me I have to study again?” “Of course, you have to study. The knowledge out in the outside world isn’t even 1% of what we have here. You at least have to be brought up to date. After your unlocking is done, you will also have to spend a couple years in the academy learning fighting and harnessing techniques. You think this kind of power is easy to control?” Emma scoffed. With a resigned expression, Derek asked Emma to continue.
“Now that you know about the special powers the people of the Org possess, let me tell you about the two major battles that we have been embroiled in. One is against a group of monsters. Like us, they also have peculiar and astounding abilities. The main reason we are in battle is because the place where Sensium is mined is their territory and even the monsters need Sensium to improve their fighting prowess. How they do it? We don’t know. All we know is, the monsters getting stronger could be dangerous. Very dangerous. The other battle is with a bunch of evil people who have banded together and formed a cult called ‘The Order’. Just like us, even they have existed for a long time. Some claim that their history is even longer than our Org but there’s no proof to these claims. This cult takes orders from some sort of higher being. No one knows who or what this higher being is. They have always acted against humanity. If we haven’t stopped them, the world as you know or rather knew would already be over. Apart from this, there also a few other groups and organisations that have harnessed the use of Sensium. I’ve said so much already, my mouth is dry. Do you have any questions?” Emma asked with a smirk.
Derek took a deep breath. A few hours ago, he had woken up with a hangover and was discussing conspiracy theories with Matt and now here he was in a completely different world. It was like he was a new born learning about the world for the first time. After calming down and restructuring his thoughts, he looked up at Emma and said “Yes, I have a lot of questions but they can wait. I only want to ask you one thing right now. You said that we can use Sensium to unlock 6th sense. After that, can we continue to improve our powers? If so, how?” Derek looked at Emma with an eager expression. Emma Laughed at the question and said “I knew you would ask something like this. You seem to be itching to grow strong and fight, I like it. Now, as for your question, the answer is yes. We can continue to further improve. As for how, obviously by further unlocking senses. We are called 8th Sense for a reason”.