By the time Simon reached the center of Comet’s Peak, he was heaving. It wasn’t because he wasn’t out of shape and walking wore him out. No, June decided he had to be punished. So to start their newest chapter, June pushed him down the hillside behind his house. While he was struggling his way back up from the valley, June laughed like a hyena. Once he got back to the top, she made things worse as she made a mad dash for the square from the outskirts where he and his family ran the veterinary practice.
Of course, he had to give pursuit.
Even in his prime, a nearly six-minute mile was not something he wanted to do without a chance to warm up. Not to mention that he’d just eaten. The eggs, bacon, sweet roll, and juice churning around in his stomach were starting to stage a cue in protest.
Leaning off to a corner into Mrs. Baker’s bushes, the rebellion succeeded to the sounds of retching and violent upheaval.
June winced as she turned back to check on him.
“That looks unpleasant.”
Another retch followed with the distinct splash that always came with a voided stomach.
“Sounds unpleasant too.”
A third retch came, but there were no additional sounds from the battle as Simon got back to his feet and grimaced. “Give me your water.”
She did without argument as he held it above his mouth, washed the bile from his lips, swished the icy liquid through his teeth and mouth, and spit it out. He handed it back, panting heavily as he tried to get his breath back and speak at the same time. “I hope… Mrs. Baker… doesn’t… mind.”
“Oh, she will, but I won’t tell her it was you,” June assured as she made a beeline back for the square. “Come on! I can see the others.”
And June was off again.
“Wait up!” Simon called out as his stomach grumbled in its emptiness.
“Nope,” June replied. “Waiting is what got us into this mess. We’re almost late!”
Simon groaned.
“No,” he corrected, trying to shoulder her into the nearby hedge. “Pushing me down the hillside and laughing at me instead of just walking like a normal human being got us into this.”
June smiled from under the brim of her hat. “I said I was sorry.”
She didn’t and wasn’t in any way, shape, or form, and they both knew it.
“No, you didn’t.”
“Didn’t I?” June asked, moving into a leisurely pace. ”I could have sworn I just did.”
Simon sighed. There was no winning with her.
“Look, we have to check in with the Ranger Gabs before we’re late.”
June raised a brow. “Gabs?”
Simon nodded. “Yeah, Gabby?” June continued to blank. “Gabriella? The tall woman with the red hair and heterochromia?” June scratched her head. “The one who led all our instructional classes on basic esper nutrition and basic care?” Simon sighed as the blank stare continued. “The one you thought was an esper trying to pass itself off as a human?”
“Oh, that was her name?”
Simon slumped his shoulders. He could tell her the sky was blue, and she’d forget sometimes. “How are you second in the class?”
“Because you’re first?” June offered.
True enough, but it still didn’t explain how she seemed to lack basic people skills. Even he had those. June was just a totally different entity that only acknowledged a handful of people: her parents, his parents, him, Ranger Roy because his name sounded funny, and any wild esper that crossed her path. Anyone else simply didn’t match up to her higher-than-average expectations of how living creatures should act.
With a few moments to spare, the two esper trainers in training made their way into the group of other hopefuls as Ranger Gabs reached them in the roll call. Dressed in forest green pants with neon orange trim and a matching shirt, Gabs wore her hair freely normally, but for the duty she had today, it was tied back into a tight ponytail. On her right breast was pinned her silver ranger badge, dictating her authority level as higher than an iron or bronze cadet, but still below a gold. Her voice was clear and crisp with the hint of an accent she refused to share the origin of as Simon’s name rang clearly.
“Simon Tripps.”
“Here,” he huffed for the last time as his lungs finally managed to catch up with his needs.
“June Travis.”
“Here!” June waved easily.
Simon watched as her finger traced down the screen of her phone before looking back at the group. “No one’s seen Austin?”
“Not since last week,” a voice Simon couldn’t place called from the group.
“I heard he dropped the idea,” another said snidely.
Simon knew that voice all too well.
“And why might he have done that, Mister Petras?”
Apparently, so did Ranger Gabs.
Peter Petras had moved to town after the last trial and was two years Simon’s senior. Why he hadn’t passed before was anyone’s guess, but Simon and June more than agreed that the man lacked any empathy for anyone outside of himself. He wasn’t lacking in skill or planning, but kindness wasn’t something you could easily teach.
When Simon tried to say as much, Peter challenged him to a practice duel with the class’s rocats. Simon accepted and under the supervision of a match judge, thrashed him soundly despite his elemental disadvantage. with his combined experience with his parents’ espers, better draws, and planning skills. The conflict should have ended there and then, but when the judge was in the middle of calling the match, the bastard unleashed an Overdrive attack and injured his rocat so badly that it had to spend a week in the intensive care unit.
Thankfully, Simon only had to stay two days in the regular ward due to the phantom pain.
Despite being declared the winner, Peter never forgave Simon for putting him through his paces, and Peter took it out on everyone else he could. Unfortunately, Austin was one of those people that didn’t have the skill or the power to stop him when the others weren’t around.
“Couldn’t cut it?” he offered, shrugging his shoulders.
Ranger Gabs sighed, wiping her eyes and pointing to another student. “Go find Austin and tell him it’s safe to come,” she looked directly at Peter now. “Any antics to knowingly interrupt a trainer’s first esper capture is punishable by the stripping of any and all espers and barring of any additional license trials in accordance with the Esper Trainer’s Code Section T-1.”
Simon savored the way the smile fell from the jerk’s face as his phone buzzed silently.
June: Team up? ?_?
Simon smiled, quickly typing his reply.
Simon: Couldn't think of a better partner.
June: Your imagination needs work. I can think of at least five people that are better than you.
Simon sighed as June snickered next to him. At least she was thoughtful enough not to interrupt Ranger Gabs continuing to rip Peter a new one as she oh-so-helpfully reminded him and a few others about the trainer’s code of ethics.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Simon: Is there time to reconsider?
June: Nope!
Simon: Are you sure? Really sure?
June: I just checked. Sorry, all the other teams are full.
Simon: Other teams? There are other teams I could have joined and you didn’t tell me?
June: Could, but didn’t. Sorry!
Simon: -_-
June: ^_^
Simon: ( ><) // _|__|_
As the lecture continued and Austin arrived with his arm in a sling, the texting devolved into a collection of pictographs as the two did their best impression of pre-esper teenagers. The only thing missing from their exchange were the catchy memes of cats dressed as colorful pastries farting rainbows.
The pre-esper times were strange indeed.
Still, their conversation, if it could still be called that, died down after a few moments, and Ranger Gabs finished tearing down what was left of Peter’s inflated ego. Satisfied with the dress down, Ranger Gabs returned her attention to the group before her and began to fill them in on their travel plans for the week.
“Alright now that that’s done, I don’t think I need to go into the nitty-gritty of why we’re here. Everyone here has earned the right to become an esper trainer and all that entails.”
As she spoke, she moved down the line, asked for their dominant hand, and placed a corresponding glove onto it. The glove wasn’t fancy or even that attractive. It was a gray, fingerless glove that had three fixtures to attune esper essence into. As theirs was a rank 5 glove, only a single one of the fixtures had a stone. It was a low-grade, thumbnail-sized, milky white opal that danced with all the colors of the rainbow when the light hit it at just the right angle.
“This is your trainer glove. On it, you will find your assigned attunement stone. Break it, and you’re out of luck. This is a common variety of attunement opal. It can affix to any element when an esper extends its essence into it. The stone can be swapped out later once you know your esper’s element for a higher sync rate. Do not attempt to swap it until you’ve returned home and had the proper training for moving bonded essence.”
No one questioned her as they looked at the tool they had longed for. Simon ran a finger over the stone. It was amazing that these hunks of rock were what it took to make an esper truly trust and rely on you. Even almost a century after they’d come into being, it was still one of the great mysteries why.
As Ranger Gabs began speaking again, she pulled out her phone, pressed her finger across the surface, and began to distribute one of the restricted programs to the prospective trainers, The Esperpedia.
“You will be traveling with me out into the base of the Great Northern Range to search for a compatible esper to the style you’re most interested in pursuing. You will have five days to find your esper and attempt to bond with them in whatever ways you see fit. This app will be used to monitor your progress, for you to check in each night, or to get help if an emergency arises. The app also gets regular updates from the ranger teams and shows the region’s distribution of espers. Please look now and check the report for the northern range.”
Simon didn’t need to be told twice and opened the program.
As the blue screen with white letters reading Esperpedia V3 popped up and began to load the latest build of the program. The way the tiny stylized Sheeletic lit the bulbs of the screen didn’t take away from the long first load time. It seemed like minutes, but soon, the main screen was active.
The interface was kept simple. Five icons were arranged in a circle on the screen and depicted each function: the Esper Species Index, Local Chat, SOS, The Index, and Map.
In the form of a stylized fox, the Esper Species Index was the equivalent of an evolving encyclopedia on all known Espers. Here, Simon knew he could find information on everything from deck lists of each species, natures and dispositions towards taming, refresh rates based on a variety of factors, advice on evolution paths based on the trainer’s need, and oh so much more. It was the guarded treasure trove of trainer information. While it wasn’t illegal to distribute it, it was frowned upon to give non-trainers all across the Espernet such hard-won information. Then, there was the risk a banned party could gain and abuse it. So, the Esperpedia was only entrusted to approved or well-advised trainers.
The word bubble representing the Local Chat wasn’t a surprise either. Inside it, the chat interface was broken into a chat window, a tab for private messages, and a tab populated by the regional trainers in range and their rank with first names only to give them a sense of protection while still giving them ownership of their words. Opening it, he saw everyone in the group, four Rangers, and the other locals in Comet’s Peak. The others in his training group were all grayed out, currently locked from using the function, but the rest were sending words of luck to the newbies.
Samuel (T2): Good luck!
Gary (T3): Don’t stink it up!
Garnet (T3): Blaze bright!
Ranger Roy (Silver): Be careful out there.
Ranger Tilla (Bronze): Come back with your shields or on it, cadets.
Ranger Roy (Silver): Don’t make me ban you, Tilla.
Bill (T1): Don’t screw up.
And so on, and so on. Simon read a few more words of encouragement and then moved to the next icon.
The siren representing SOS was marked ‘For Emergencies Only,’ so he didn’t bother to test it. He had been told that as soon as he pressed it, the entire local area would be alerted to his location and need. If he could, he could also add a message to be sent to the local chat as well with more information. Surges, sudden migrations, and other important information that couldn’t wait for an update were usually distributed this way.
The message board icon was a bit deceiving. The Index was an evolving, curated wiki on wisps, attunement stones, medicines, and countless other items that had slowly cropped up since the first espers were tamed. Just like the Esperpedia, the Index was a closely guarded, coveted collection of information. Not just anyone could post, but suggestions and modifications could be submitted to the Curators, a rumored Platinum-ranked group of rangers, T1 trainers, breeders, and high-ranking researchers, to be evaluated and possibly added to it.
Opening this section of the app, Simon clicked on an article and read the snippet when he found what he was looking for.
Attunement Stone - Opal
Last Updated - Yesterday
Clearance Level: T5 - Trainer
Attunement Opals are the most common, simple attunement options for introductory esper trainers or trainers that are unsure of what they may encounter. As with any attunement stone when an esper agrees to be raised by a human, this stone can attune to become any element, warping the stone to fall into line with one of the elements such as electricity, frost, or earth. However, these are not recommended for greater espers or espers of a more complex mana type. The more complex the elemental energy becomes, the more likely the stone will fail and rupture, releasing the attuned mana in the form of unrestrained energy and injuring the wielder.
A rupture could also cause a cascading effect and destroy other attuned stones. Elements such as gravity, healing, pain, or storm are not recommended for Attunement Opals for this reason.
Related Articles:
Attunement/Bonding
Attunement Ruptures
Attunement Stone Recommendations Per Element
Greater Espers
Esper Types
Elemental Alignment
The information was good to be sure, but again, it wasn’t something Simon didn’t already know from his time in training. He was already more than prepared for his second esper. Absently, his hand slipped into his right pocket and ran along his good luck charm, a thumb-sized spinel, an almost fog-colored gemstone he’d found when a frost wisp stuck around too long one early spring day. It wasn’t as good as an opal for general use, but it would be perfect for a frost or fog-attuned esper.
The last and arguably the most important of the icons was the regional map. Opening it, Simon found himself where he expected smack dab in the local map in the center of Comet’s Peak, surrounded by other trainers as marked by the small, green pips. On the right were four icons, a plus, a minus, a square between them, and a green icon marked with a stylized fox.
The Plus was grayed out since he was already zoomed in as far as the map would allow. Pressing the square would bring him to the regional map, which showed him all of Comet’s Peak for about ten miles in all directions. On his map, he could still see the pips, but they were a quarter of the size. There were other marks added as well, roads, safe trails, and curated mana wells to help espers recover safely. Pressing the minus brought up a larger map. Simon continued to press it until he had half the continent, from the Great Divide to the Atlantic Ocean, displayed.
On each version of the map, the green fox icon remained unchanged. This was the region report he had been told to read. Since it would change based on what he was looking at, he pressed on the plus icon until he could view for miles around Comet’s Peak and scrolled north until he reached the Great Northern Range. Once there, he pressed the last icon for the report:
Esper Report: Great Northern Range - Base
Updated: Today at 10:47 am
Clearance Level: T5 - Trainer
Local esper population: Stable
Element Attunement in order of Population: Earth, Stone, Plant, Poison, Wind, shadow
Incursion: Active - Greater Espers
Incursion Attunement: Plague, Energy, Fire, Nature
Postulated Incursion Reason: Territory Dispute
Danger Level: Elevated
Danger Area: Isolated to Greater Espers
The information was… a bit underwhelming compared to what he’d expected. The incursion was interesting, but greater espers were always trying to protect their groups. It wasn’t uncommon for a territory dispute to break out near the beginning or end of seasons. The typings were interesting though. Plague espers were usually hunted on sight, so a greater plague esper was rare. Deadly, but rare. Energy was more common but usually wasn’t a general typing you saw above ground in this region. Greater energy espers could shoot fire as well as lightning or even control magnetic forces depending on their progression and disposition. Greater nature espers, well, nature embodied everything natural in the world. It was the least dangerous and most versatile of the three while also being the most dangerous.
Simon would be steering as clear as he could from that grouping.
When he looked up from his phone, Ranger Gabs was looking at him. He faltered a bit, placing the phone back into his pocket.
“Well, Mr. Tripps, what have you learned?” He repeated what the report said, and she nodded. “Good to know you weren’t just playing games like Peter.”
He could feel his eyes roll, but there was nothing he could do to stop them. Being compared to Peter was like being compared to the sludge at the bottom of one of the abandoned industrial plants from the pre-esper days— toxic.
Thankfully, Ranger Gabs ignored it.
“So, any questions?” When no one raised a hand or a word, Ranger Gabs smiled like a snake with a cornered rat. “I hope you’re all prepared for this because there’s no going back now.”