Hector had always felt a sense of longing and incompleteness when he gazed up at the night sky. The moon, with its seemingly barren and desolate surface, only accentuated this feeling. It was as though the moon itself echoed his inner emptiness, leaving him with a deep, unshakable sense of yearning and unfulfilled longing.

That changed during the Chinese New Year. Héctor wasn't celebrating the holiday since he was Hispanic, but a chance to go drinking with friends was not to be missed. He didn't know if he was drunker than he thought or if his last nightmare had become real.

“Guys, did the moon just wink?” Hector asked as a cold chill washed over him.

Hector cast a glance over his shoulder to check on his friends, only to witness them contorting in anguish on the unforgiving concrete. Their eyes, filled with terror and delirium, seemed to mirror the intensity of the moon's haunting stare. As he turned away from the moon, Hector felt an irresistible pull to look back and confront his mounting dread. The celestial body seemed to fixate on him, its eyes teeming with madness and its gaping, cratered mouth appearing to mock him as he turned away.

The air echoed with the raucous laughter of the deranged moon as Hector sprinted desperately, his chest heaving with exertion. He stumbled like a drunkard, fear lending speed to his feet as the unholy laughter pursued him relentlessly.

Hector tasted blood in his mouth and realized the laughter was his own. He couldn't stop running, his feet taking him home. He stumbled, coughing and laughing, to his apartment building. The doorman, Jack, still inside, rushed out to help him. As Jack began to ask what was wrong, he saw the moon.

Something in Hector moved like a tumbler shifting in a lock. He reached out toward Jack, who was now shaking and letting out a silent scream as he tried to push him back inside. The air in front of Hector solidified and shot forward, slamming Jack back through the doorway. The metal frame and glass door exploded across the lobby, with the motionless Jack lying among the debris.

As the world dimmed into darkness, Hector found himself fixated on the impending expense of repairing the door. His rough, fading laughter accompanied him into the depths of unconsciousness.

*********

“It's chaos in the streets, sir.” A man in a military uniform said.

General Williams had known about abilities and magic since he had unlocked his abilities during the Gulf War. He never expected an event like this would happen.

“Vulnerable targets have been moved to the bunker with blackout protocols. Those who witness the anomaly on the moon seem to have varied negative effects. From current reports, those who survive have been unlocked.” The soldier finished waiting for a response.

The general rubbed the bridge of his nose before answering.

“Activate the emergency response protocol 7b. Find out who is available to secure major cities. We need to whip our people back into action.”

The soldier rushed to carry out the orders. General Williams had always worried about the gifted becoming known, but this was far past his fears. Across the world, those affected would soon understand what had happened to them. No way to track or handle them all. 7b was a last resort planned in case a gifted threatened world peace.

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“I want numbers on how many enlisted unlocked their skill tree and the amount of binding cuffs Hansen can crank out a day. I want all suppression units on standby ready for teleport. This is not a drill. The moon has gained a face that drives those who see it so close to madness that they unlock their abilities. I wish I was joking, but this is zero-day folks. Everything changed today.” The general watched as the room scrambled.

He could easily imagine the destruction the next few days could bring. Plans to make abilities public have been talked about for years, but now there was no choice left. His skill tree was three levels deep from years of using his abilities. He had the most combat skills out of those currently enlisted. He just knew this was going to be a lot of work like never before. No cold war dancing around the bushes with something like this.

************************

Hector woke up on the hard pavement outside his apartment building, the destruction of the entrance before him. He could see the still form of Jack the doorman, his chest rising and falling slowly. At least Jack was alive, Hector thought as he tried to get back on his feet. He didn't know how much time had passed, but the taste of blood still lingered in his mouth.

He didn't dare look back to see if the moon still bore the face of madness that had driven him to run. His whole body screamed with exhaustion as he stumbled towards Jack. He could hear sirens and what sounded like an old tornado warning from all over the city.

“Jack… Jack, man, you with me?” Hector asked, feeling stupid since Jack was knocked out.

As he stumbled through the glass and twisted metal of the frame, Hector could see Jack had a broken leg. What had he done, he pushed the air. This thought caused a rush of information. He knew what he had done. He could instinctively feel he had four abilities unlocked.

As he processed this new fact about Himself, Jack groaned and woke up, snapping Hector out of his thoughts. Jack began to scream, not out of pain but pure rage. Before Hector could do anything, Jack pulsed with a green and pink light swirling around his broken leg. The leg with a sickening squelch and snap of bone repaired itself.

“Hey man, stay down, you might still be hurt.” Hector's words fell on deaf ears.

Jack was now on his feet, his head whipped towards Hector. Bloodshot eyes locked on a target was all Hector could think. Jack surged across the lobby, the debris barely registering as an obstacle.

Hector didn't want to hurt the doorman. After seeing how his leg just snapped back together, he didn't know if he could hurt the man charging toward him if he wanted to.

Not knowing if it would work, he activated the ability he had used before Solid Air. Hector had suddenly just known how to activate the ability, but it seemed this one used his imagination to solidify the air near him into shapes he could control. Hector turned the air around Jack solid, locking it in place before he tackled him.

“Jack, if you can hear me, I'm going to run upstairs now. I don't know what's going on, but I somehow know this will not hold you for long.” Hector said, moving toward the elevator.

The animal-like screams echoed in Hector's ears as the elevator doors closed, carrying him up to his floor. Once inside, he secured the locks and promptly collapsed onto his couch, succumbing to exhaustion.

Sleep dropped down on him hard, his body spent from his mad sprint across the city. Deep within Hector, one of the abilities on the skill tree activated.

Hector often dreamed of an old shopping mall where he would get dropped off when he was younger. He had been so often he memorized the place normally when he dreamt it would be a ride-along kind of experience. This time, he found himself standing in the arcade very aware he was in a dream and with a powerful intuition that he was in more than a dream.

The mirror ceiling of the arcade reflected Hector's slender, bearded face, framed by unkempt hair. As he gazed at his reflection, he noticed someone moving past the entrance in the mirror. It was unusual for him to see others in his dreams, and the way the person swiftly disappeared from view left an unsettling feeling within Hector.

Upon exiting the arcade, Hector found himself standing before the food court. As he stepped through the doorway, he could sense a subtle change in the nature of his dream.

“Arcade is on the first floor. The food court is on the second,” Hector said, a little confused.

“I didn't want to wait for you to find me, so I did a little shift.” A man dressed in a dark blue and purple striped suit said while waving to Hector.

“OK, this is new.” As Hector said it, he could feel the intuition again. He knew this person sitting at a food court table covered with food.

“ I agree this is a first for me. I have been in many a compact signatory sanctum, but this is my first with a food court. I honestly feel cheated that the others didn't have such considerations.” The well-dressed man said while eating some wings.

Hector noticed the man had a plastic glove in one hand. The man ate like someone who was taught manners and etiquette. He even cleaned His mouth with a pocket square after sampling the chicken.

Hector's intuition was screaming at him not to offend this entity in front of him. As he thought of the word he knew it fit, this was not a person but a thing of power and danger.

“Don't just stare, sit, and eat with me. Break bread as they say. We have terms to discuss between us. We have time, and I enjoy the settings.”