Clay woke up at the crack of dawn, the whine of his alarm pushing him out of bed. Groggily he left his room to prepare for the day. He would be returning to the NDSA, this time as a brand new recruit rather than a victim.

Morning sunshine, how did you sleep?

Clay silently ate his eggs and sipped his juice, the only noise in the house was the low volume of the TV he had turned on to watch the news.

You really should treat guests better, you’re incredibly rude.

It was going to be a long day.

Leaving his house, Clay tried to ignore the still very visible scorch marks across his front lawn. He decided he would walk to work today, given it was beautiful out and he had plenty of time to kill.

Turning off his street, an idea came to mind. The path downtown was pretty straight and quite long. Concentrating on the spiritual energies flowing through him, he stepped forward and found himself dozens of yards down the street. Clay took another step, though he didn’t go quite as far as last time.

You’re just throwing the energy into the movement randomly. Try using as little energy as possible, then ramp it up from there.

Clay put all his concentration on the energy flowing through him. The feeling was a truly alien experience, trying to control it was like trying to ride a bicycle for the first time. He put as little energy as he could into his next step. Succeeding at the task, the distance he traveled was barely longer than a normal step. Clay had a slight smirk as he focused on his next move.

Walking through the front door of the NDSA, Clay was feeling a bit more confident in using his new ability. He was starting to get a handle on energy manipulation. Clay approached the front desk where an older gentleman sat.

“Hi, I’m Clayton Diamont, I’m here for onboarding.”

“Down the right hall, first door on the left” the man replied lazily before sipping his coffee.

As Clay entered the room, he was greeted by the same woman who had interviewed him just two days ago.

“Hi Clayton, we are really glad to have you on board. I am just going to need you to fill out some paperwork.” As she said this, she plopped a thick stack of papers menacingly on a nearby desk.

“Please let me know when you are done,” she said with a fake cheerful tone.

“Sure thing” Clay sighed.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally finished the last page. Approaching his recruiter, he felt like he was in school again, about to turn in his all-day end-of-year test to his teacher.

“All done are we? Well, then I suppose it's time we introduced you to your boss.”

As if on cue, a man waltzed into the room. “I’m here to collect my recruit,” he said, eyeing Clay up and down. “This him?”

“Yes, he’s ready to go” the woman responded.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Clay was it? My name is Cedric” the man stretched out his hand. “Glad to meet you, I'm excited to be on board,” Clay said shaking his hand. “Well, let's get to it” Cedric turned and led him down a labyrinth of hallways and office spaces, explaining the various departments and locations along the way.

“Have you had any success with my sister… about Uriana’s kidnapping?” Cedric shrugged “Dunno, that's Investigations, I just run a field operations team. Rookies always start here first” Cedric explained nonchalantly “I see” Clay sighed.

“And here is the training rooms. We are going to be spending a lot of time getting you ready for field work so you don’t go dying on us. Though I hear that's not a permanent thing for you.”

Clay didn’t respond as he peered into the room. “Ah, good timing, meet my second in command, Valerie.” A woman approached, giving Cedric a head nod before eyeing Clay.

“Hi I’m Clay,” Clay said, offering a handshake. “Yeah I’ve heard about you, everyone here has. Not every day a corpse comes back to life and escapes from this building” Valrie responded, ignoring his hand. Clay laughed awkwardly, unsure what to say.

“Well then since we’re all in the training room, how about a friendly sparring match?”

The suggestion took Clay by surprise “Against you?” Clay asked a bit nervously. “Haha, no of course not, against Valerie.” The two eyed each other again. “You have any experience fighting?” Valerie said as she entered the room.

“Well, I did do some MMA as a kid” Clay responded following her.

“Hopefully won’t be a total wash.” The two climbed into a ring intended for sparring and faced each other. Cedric sat outside the ring watching. “You ready? Let's begin.”

Clay got into position, he figured he would go for a quick and easy tackle and pin, and prayed he wouldn’t hurt her while doing so. Without warning he charged forward, wrapping around her waist. He was about to lift her when he was struck hard from above in the back. He slammed to the ground and she easily pinned him. “What the” Valerie was way stronger than she looks. Letting him up she smirked “Wanna try again?”

“Hell yes,” Clay grumbled, rising back to his feet. Getting back into position, the two stood facing each other. Clay couldn’t decide on a way to approach, he was still shocked by the strength Valerie had.

“Not going to come at me?” She lunged forward with surprising speed, swinging her fist for Clay's face. Clay moved his hands to block, but her punch trajectory instantly changed, and instead her fist slammed into his stomach.

Clay fell to his knees in pain, but now he knew what he was up against. Mana-Muscle coordination. He had learned about it in his MMA classes, but he had so little mana he could never use it himself. By focusing your mana on various body parts speed, strength, and reflexes could be enhanced, though a lot depended on your base physique and mana level. Clay imagined it was a lot like how he used his powers.

Clay pushed himself to his feet again. “I’m impressed by your resilience, but I already know you have no mana, and your fighting skills are amateurish at best. We can do this again after you train some if you like.” Clay smiled “One more time, I want to try something.” Valerie looked at him curiously “Fine, let's do it.” The two faced each other once again, though this time Valerie wasn’t waiting. She lunged forward, same as before, arm extended to strike him. Clay focused as little energy as he could, and stepped forward, appearing behind Valerie. Smiling to himself as he heard Valerie’s gasp of surprise, Clay spun around to nail her in the back with an elbow jab. But his strike never found its mark, as he suddenly felt his legs sweep out from under him and he slammed back into the mat below.

“Well I have to admit, that was definitely unexpected” Valerie taunted amusedly “With some training, maybe you will actually turn out to be a decent sparring partner.” Clay groaned out a “Thanks”, as he stared at the ceiling.

…

Clay stumbled out the front door hours later, exhausted from a day of constant training. From firearms, to combat drills, to magic defense, to survival skills, and many others, Clay had been drilled class after class. Looking at the road ahead, Clay focused his energy and began his trip home. “Spectre step,” Clay said to himself, deciding to name the movement. He laughed “kinda lame, sounds like a video game move”.

Approaching his house, Clay could see someone sitting on the steps leading to the door. “Dad? Is everything alright?” His father looked up at him “Oh, hey Clay, how was your first day?” Clay just shrugged “It was a day. What are you doing out here?” His Father averted his eyes, looking down at the scorched grass in front of him. After a long pause, he answered “Rose… has gone missing.”