“Thanks Jasmine!” I exclaim with a grin, waving goodbye to the girl. She’s a little younger than us and a whole lot shorter. She never talks and barely looks people in the eyes with exception to Leo. She nods at me and turns around, her blonde hair waving after her and reflecting the sun for a moment before she’s gone. “Teleportation is so crazy, isn’t it Mercury?”

“Whatever. Makes me feel sick.” He says meekly, crouched over with his hands on his knees.

I reach over and put a hand on his shoulder, “Let’s go, you’ll feel better when you start moving.” I drag Mercury by his shoulder, “Plus we’re in India! Dude have you ever been here before? Place looks awesome, I wanna eat some kheer!” I can’t stop my smile when I think about that sweet rice treat, topped with dried apple. Maybe some nuts on top as well for a variety of texture and then some pear to balance out the creamy rice, boiled in milk? It sounds heavenly!

“TJ, calm down. We’re on a mission. Let’s get situated.” Leo says flatly, rapping his knuckles against the back of my head. He’s decked out in military garb identical to the outfits we all have, save for a golden bar on his chest pocket. Intercoms are attached to the shoulder of our bullet proof camouflage jackets, thin black tank tops underneath that I think are like, fireproof or something? Then our baggy pants which I know for a fact are fireproof and tear proof. Our combat boots have jagged metal sticking out along the bottom for grip, I feel like we could run up a sheer cliff. “As established earlier today, we’re splitting into groups of two to search for the target as early reconnaissance. Get with your partner and look. If you find the target let us know and don’t engage. Remember, the EEE squad is causing a militaristic skirmish tomorrow at noon to isolate the target from help. That's when we strike.” Leo pauses for a moment and looks over to our class, I can swear his eyes linger on me the longest though. “And…” He sighs and becomes really distracted with the sky. “Good luck. It’s your first mission, so things might get messy or feel hard. But try not to die,” he murmurs quietly, a light breeze causing his jacket to shift around as we register what he said.

“Thanks Leo! You’re the best, I’ll let you know if we find anything right away now don’t die or do anything crazy like that ok? Bye!” I exclaim while waving one hand and grabbing Mercury with the other, basically bolting to get into the nearby city of Ahmedabad.

- - - - - - - -

“Don’t I look like a new man?” I ask Mercury with a grin on my face, striking a pose and waiting for his sour face to turn into approval. It’s already midday, so I can’t afford to NOT buy a change of clothes. Plus we were getting weird looks for wearing those outfits in the city.

“It’s still against regulation.” Mercury says flatly, facing me but staring at a sherwani hanging in the store’s display window.

I slither over to him, putting my chin on his left shoulder and my hand on his right. “Dude, you would rock that outfit. Plus, nobody is ever going to know that you did it. It’s all for reconnaissance purposes, right? We’re just blending in more with the locals…” He pauses and glances over to me, then to the intercom sewn into his jacket. He crosses his arms and furrows his brow as he engages into a staring contest with the outfit.

“No. I couldn’t. It’s against article-”

- - - - - -

“You look so good!” I compliment with a laugh, Mercury coming out of our hotel’s bathroom in a completely new outfit. He’s wearing large peach colored pants, but you can only see the lower half of them due to his sherwani. Which, by the way, is in essence a long coat that falls to his knees. It’s colored a mint green, with golden threads spread throughout. Yet, for some reason, I couldn’t get him to take off the uniform’s jacket. Whatever, the camo kinda works on the outfit. In a Mercury type of way. Which is to say, “You actually almost pull it off!”

“Almost?” He asks incredulously, raising an eyebrow. “TJ, you just don’t know the intricacies of fashion.” Mercury shoves his hands into the coat pocket and starts walking down the crowded street away from me.

“Heyyy!” I call out with a smile, pushing my way through the crowd and kicking up a little bit of dirt from the road. “Come on man, don’t be like that! I couldn’t come close to pulling it off, but you’re super close! That’s a compliment! Nobody actually could pull that off!” I exclaim, catching up to him right as I realize my words didn’t really make the situation any better for myself. “I’ll-” I wheeze and get cut off by a fist he firmly plants in my stomach. “I’ll…Buy you some kheer?” Mercury rolls his eyes at my words but I can see the ghost of a blush on his cheeks.

“Fine. Then, and only then, are we even,” he retorts with a small smile, heading into a restaurant while I’m still doubled over. Man, that guy can pack a punch and a half! It’s no wonder he’s one of the top in our class, if he actually cared about what he was doing most of the time he’d be a superstar.

“Mercury, good friend, old dear pal of mine, wait up!” I call after him, rushing into the restaurant after catching my breath.

The place is awesome, with a golden Hindu statue in the center of a dark circular lobby with black velvet decorating the walls. The statue stands just over two feet tall and has a face with way too much detail, a disturbing smile plastered across its face. The tables surrounding the statue are all taken but ones against the walls are free, and we have a waiter come over to us dressed up in a two piece suit. “Table for two?” He asks in slightly stilted English, flashing us a nervous smile. Instantly, I’m intrigued.

“Yep! We’ll take the table right here,” I start, patting on an empty table with a grin, “How did you know we only speak English? How’d you figure that out? I mean I guess it’s kinda not hard given our jackets and stuff, but that’s still cool! How long have you been practicing English? Did you ever live in America or the UK or something like that? Oh also could we both get a watER!” My voice raises and cracks sharply at my last word, because Mercury stomped on my toe. The metal tread of his boot stabbed through my shoe, and it hurts like crazy! But I have to finish the order, “Sorry about that. Two waters and some apple kheer. What’s your name? Oh! Also draw a card!” I exclaim to the slightly overwhelmed waiter, who simply stands there motionless for about 12 seconds before blinking twice.

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“Two waters, an apple kheer. Ok. I’m Rahj, your waiter today, and uh…” He reached out gingerly and gently picked a card out. “What should…I do with the card?”

“Natta!” I exclaim, snagging it from his hands and admiring the 4 of clubs. That’s a fun little pick from Rahj! “Thanks though! Are you super busy or do you have some time to chill? I wanna hear about some hot spots for tourists!”

Rahj blinks and then looks around a little nervously, “I’ll check while getting your orders put in.” He responds, nodding his head once to us before heading to the back kitchen. He’s got pitch black hair and chocolate brown eyes. There’s a little mustache on his upper lip but given how weak it is he couldn’t be anything but a teenager. He’s also maybe a little too skinny, he should eat something with us!

“He’s nice.”

“And you’re crazy! We’re not here on vacation, we’re not here to celebrate and have a grand old time. This is our job, we have a mission to uphold.” Mercury hisses quietly at me, while tapping his foot against the ground anxiously. The waiter comes back and hands us our waters, before pulling a third chair along the table and sitting down awkwardly.

“Hey Rahj!” I announce with a grin, my eyes still trained on Mercury, “Do I remind you of a crazy guy?” I ask lightly, waiting for him to say no.

“Well. Yes.” Oh ok. My face falls and I turn from Mercury’s amused smirk to Rahj’s anxious face. “In...In the best way?” He adds on hesitantly.

“No no, the damage is done.” I respond slowly, my shoulders falling. “He’s not going to let me live that down for a while.” Turning to Mercury’s ever growing smile, the light in his blue eyes twinkle brightly. “We are teenagers after all, it’s only right for there to be some infighting betwixt friends.”

“Betwixt?” Mercury murmurs in amusement, a grin now plastered across his face.

“I’m also a teenager, I’m 17, I hope we will get along? It is your first time in India?” Rahj interjects into the conversation with apprehensive eyes. His hair is messy and short like mine, but black instead of brown. His eyes are a warm brown and despite obviously worrying a lot of the time he doesn’t have any wrinkles, rather his skin seems really surprisingly smooth with the exceptions of a thin mustache on his top lip and a small patch of acne on his left jawline.

“Yeah, a little business trip our…parents brought us along for.” Mercury says in a slightly off-putting tone. He picks up the water and twirls it in his hands, furrowing his brow while he stares at it. It’s kinda funny they didn’t put ice in his glass, but it’s a quick and easy fix for him.

“Regardless, Rahj, what does-” I bring up a fun conversation about his favorite foods and whether he’s ever been to America before. As it turns out he was born in America! That’s really cool, he moved here when he was just a few days old, and lives with an adoptive family. He’s very sweet, when he mentions his family his eyes grow soft and his face riddled with anxiety becomes soft and warm. Mercury shot a glance to me when Rahj brought up his dad but I wave him off. Mercury worries too much about that. I’m a strong person, and I don’t want him to worry. It’s not a big deal, my Dad and I. He’s dead and that’s all there is to it, I just didn’t tell people for a while.

Mercury doesn’t even have a family, or I guess technically he does. He’s a Theta, which means he's from a line of people exclusively born to inherit emblems. His family’s adoptive in a manner of speaking, because it's better to think of the 'Theta' or 'Beta' or 'Alpha' families in the school like a clan more than like families. They accept people into their fake families if they're strong, and kick them out if they're weak. Apparently their ‘family leader’ Benjamin Theta found out about our mission in India, and Mercury's going to be in some serious trouble if things go poorly. And also, apparently Benjamin Theta is the worst. I’ve never met him, but Mercury’s told me all about him.

Why is everything quiet? A lull in the conversation? Not on my watch! “Rahj do you wanna see something really cool?” I ask him with a grin, giving a signal in the form of a look to Mercury,

“Yes, I suppose, I would.” He says nervously, as Mercury flashes a big ‘X’ with his arms and shakes his head furiously.

“Alright, awesome, check this out.” I chuckle, waving Mercury’s worry out of my mind with a wave of my hand as I stand. I walk over to the wall of the restaurant and knock inconspicuously against it, leaving my marks where I knock. “Now, Behold, Rahj!” I exclaim, chucking my deck of cards and activating their marks, the metal cards slicing into the wall and sticking out of the wall to form letters that spell ‘Rahj!’. “I am a magician.” I exclaim proudly, wearing my inspiration on my shoulder.

“You are a magician...” He murmurs quietly, his brow raises in what appears to be worry but must simply be awe.

We go back and forth continuing the conversation for a while, our food comes out after another minute and I plow through it with Mercury.

“I need to go, return to my family. Thank you though,” Rahj announces quietly, he’s been pretty quiet since my magic trick, but I guess he’s just been a little more nervous since he knows I’m a magician.

“Haha, yeah no problem! Have a good one man, thanks for humoring me.” I announce with a broad smile, watching him leave the restaurant and instantly meet up with three of his friends, and they hurriedly start talking. It’s kinda funny how much he talks to them, given how quiet he could be with us. He’s nice though. “He was pretty nice, huh?” I ask Mercury, turning to look back at his cold blue eyes.

“Yeah I guess.” He says quietly, slouching a little lower in the chair and taking a sip of his water with his eyes almost fully shut. “He was whatever.” Mercury murmurs, as though it would be a crime to put him on the same level as us.

I laugh and lightly shove his shoulder, “Come on man, give the dude some credit! He ended up paying for our kheer, and you gotta admit that it tasted good.” He groans and falls further down his chair into his jacket.

“Sure, whatever. I’m jet lagged, let’s go find a place to sleep.” He complains in his slovenly state, lying his butt off about being tired.

“You are not jetlagged.” I retort with a snort, swirling my own water in my hand. “You’re just, always tired.” I add on, glancing to see Mercury giving me a stink eye which I delightfully ignore while sipping innocently at my water. “Why didn’t you freeze your water? You hate water without ice.”

“Unlike you, most people hate being the center of attention. I’d basically announce I had an Emblem, which you practically did.” Mercury pushes himself up off the chair and smacks the side of my head with the back of his hand. “You’re not supposed to do that. Now come on, we’re going to bed.” He states, heading out the restaurant while yawning. I stifle a laugh at his comment about being the center of attention. I don’t care how tired he is, when he rocks an outfit like his he’s absolutely going to draw the gazes of basically everybody.

“Sure, sure, sure.” I remark, chasing after him. "Let's get some sleep for tomorrow."