My senses slowly returned to me, and my vision was the last to come. Likely in part thanks to this completely alien location I found myself in, surrounded by countless people brushing against each other. I stood up, thankful that the crowded bunch had given me room to lay down in. A needlessly rough pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and jerked me awake, as if I wasn’t already.

I recognized Garald’s voice. “YU! What the hell is this? I’m sorry for doubting you!”

I put my palm to my forehead and rubbed it to help my brain adjust faster. When I finished, I blinked a few times as my eyes slowly got used to the bright interior, some unknown light source illuminating the pitch-black steel walls, floor and ceiling of whatever this room was. Well, the one wall I could see. I assumed the other end of this space had one too, however far away it may be. The blurry face beside Garald would soon be recognizable as Barb. I was glad to see her, but that just made me more concerned that only one of us was absent.

“It’s fine… I wouldn’t believe me either.”

Garald seemed ready to cry behind that stern stare. “That makes it worse! I want us to trust each other..!”

I winced at his unabashedly straightforward remark. “…Me too. I think you were right to be cautious, though. It’s not like this kind of science fiction stuff happens often.” I turned to look at Barb, who seemed similarly concerned, though a good bit more composed than the other.

She spoke while tapping her phone, “There’s no service here, but I saw more news outlets talking about the UFO.”

“So it is aliens?!?” Garald screamed. Barb sighed, “No. Well, maybe. UFO just means an unidentified flying thing.”

“Oh… Where did the O come from, then?”

Barb raised her brow at him, giving him a look of slight disbelief. Normally I would have enjoyed their comedy routine, but as I scanned the whole crowd, I couldn’t see a single sign of Rubi. She was taken before us. What did that mean? Was she in a different situation?

“HEY!” An unknown woman’s voice rose up among the crowd. “Does anyone here have a single clue where we are?!”

Why would they? I admired and pitied her attempts at communicating with such a large group. To no surprise of mine at all, nobody replied, simply muttering amongst themselves.

After an awkward silence, a frail voice that sounded like it belonged to an older person rose up, causing me to turn my head in the direction. He had raised his hand to signal he wished to speak. “I was watching the news with my wife before I was brought here. It was a live report on an unidentified flying object, larger than anything I’d ever seen. Do you think it’s related? I think it was a lighter color than this room, but…”

As he trailed off, Barb spoke with her phone in one hand. “I saw it on Twitter, too. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. They said there was no way something like that could fly, so who’s to say it didn’t have some other unheard-of technology like what brought us here?” There was no internet connection, but she seemed to have saved the page she was scrolling for reference.

Before anyone could draw any conclusions, the wall suddenly opened up to reveal another room, but of greater interest was the mysterious, white figure that exited. It seemed to shuffle its lower body in order to move, so I deduced that it was alive, but everything about it was unnatural. It seemed roughly 9 feet tall with no limbs. It had what looked like a head, with only one eyeball and a sideways open mouth like a puppet. They looked like they were carved by a child rather than being a part of its biology. If such a phrase as “biology” even applied to this thing. Of significant note was the way that its body bent like a lightning bolt, with two orifices lined on the inside by tooth-like spikes on the left side of its body, on what would be its head and torso. Upon closer inspection, the spikes coming out of those entrances seemed to move organically like the legs of a centipede. Nothing about this abomination was natural.

“Hello~o! Everyone! How are you on this fine morning? Or evening, or night. Time of day doesn’t really apply where you are now, anyway! You catch my drift?”

Not a single noise left the crowd. Somehow, what looked like hundreds, maybe thousands of people, were all silent. I saw no mouth movement, or anything that would indicate speech, but it came from the direction of the white thing, and it boomed far louder than a human’s voice could.

“Um… Hello? Hola? Bonjour? Konnichiwa? Guten Tag? Assalamu Alaikum?” It continued, extending one of the spikes in its left orifice to the length of an arm, causing a few people to cower, although it only meant to wave at us. It was mimicking human behavior far too well. Although, if it were truly human, surely it would recognize that now isn’t the time for such joviality, right?

From the same entrance, a group of people followed behind it, smaller than the crowd I was in but still seeming to be in the hundreds. I immediately noticed Rubi’s small frame near the pale being and I felt a massive weight off of my shoulders. I watched her walk forward until her and the others were standing in a row in front of the figure. All those shapes and sizes up there prompted me to give another look at the bigger crowd I was in. It seemed like every portion of the world was represented in this room. It must not have been only the places near the ship as I would have assumed.

image [https://imgur.com/Hq13Tkp.png]

“Attention!” Rubi declared loudly, as intimidatingly as she could with such a high-pitched voice. “You all have…”

“You all have been chosen!” A man in the line had cut her off, speaking in a deep voice. He was taller than even Garald, with a huge, imposing body. His poor shirt was struggling there. “Chosen to be… Ack!”

Both the bodybuilder and Rubi received playful smacks to the top of the head by the figure’s extended tendrils. They retracted into its body quickly as it coughed to bring attention to itself. Something gave me the impression that “coughing” was not a natural bodily function of this thing.

“These dunces only learned the situation half an hour ago, so I will explain.” The creature gestured with its body as if to show it was speaking to us. “Hi. I have no name, and I am from a distant planet, which also has no name. Well, it especially has no name now, considering it got exploded. By a big meteor, or something. I dunno, I was out buying groceries. Anyway, I want to live with you guys.”

I couldn’t believe the revelations it was dropping on us with such nonchalance. Aliens exist? I mean, I probably could have guessed that, but this is way too much! It felt like it was skipping a few details, but I guess they weren’t exactly relevant to our situation at hand.

“I can tell you’re all wondering why you’re here. I don’t want to bum at any of your houses in specific. I just wanted to integrate into your society naturally. I’ve made it so that every one of you can hear me in whatever language is most convenient to you. Don’t try to comprehend my powers too hard or your head will explode!” It spoke in a cheerful, childish voice. “Our people tend to do this when we’re separated from our home. You know, hop somewhere else. And, uh… Guess who’s permanently separated?! Haha… Ugh…”

I glanced over at Rubi to try and see how much of this she already knew. Her expression was kind of awkward, as if she had already anticipated that the thing would ramble on like this.

“So!” The being proceeded. “To my main point. I.. hate you. I’ve absorbed all of you peoples’ culture, language, even that which you carry deep within your soul, and you people are reprehensible.” Its tone suddenly seemed to shift to a calm yet disgusted one. I felt a pressure that I had never felt before, as if that thing’s sheer hatred would crush me where I stood. Rubi’s expression seemed to tell me that she had been told this, too. How could she be so calm?

“As easy as it would be to destroy this planet, this place is nice and inhabitable. It’s just.. you people. I want to make this place more like my ideal world. How my planet would be right now. You wretched little animals are going to start agreeing for the first time! I know it’s difficult, not being at each other's throats, but I would like you to fight for my amusement! Wait, my amusement isn’t the main reason… Fight to decide the law of Earth! You’re all going to shred each other apart, and the survivor gets to decide what moral code everyone else will agree to live by! With a little bit of pixie dust and my gross bodily fluids, nobody will be able to disagree with you. Not even me! Well, I could disagree, but I don’t care that much. I’m just going to go by whatever the winner declares and then I’ll live here. I’ll mind my own business, so I won’t interfere in your human lives. That is, unless the winner declares that I must interfere. That would be weird, though. Just saying, the winner is like your new God. Any questions?”

We’re supposed to kill each other..? I immediately began to glance around at the people around me, who were mostly doing the same. Suddenly, everybody was suspicious of one another. Well, except for one. Among the row of people that Rubi was in, I saw a man with dark, slicked back hair gazing at the alien with an expression that I couldn’t decipher. It seemed blank, yet also something akin to excitement was hiding in there. His pitch black eyes threatened to swallow my soul if I stared into that abyss for too long. He stood out amidst the frantic emotions. This guy, whoever he was, was happy. I found myself transfixed by him and I wasn’t entirely sure why.

“Calm down... These guys aren’t gonna jump us with just that knowledge.” Barb grabbed my arm and Garald’s and pulled us closer, as if trying to protect us. My eyes met with Rubi’s and I could see in her eyes that she wasn’t worried. If she heard about this before us and isn’t agitated at the moment, it must mean the fighting won't start here. It’s too cramped, anyway.

My eyes wandered still. Making sure everyone else felt the same about saving the fighting for later. One man in the crowd seemed to be slowly turning purple in the face the longer I stared at him. Holding his breath from the stress, maybe?

“Alien! Stop reveling in their fear and continue with the explanation.” Rubi smacked the tip of her wooden sword into the ground as she barked at the white figure. Alien, huh? It felt too comedic to accept as fact, but I guessed that is what you’d call it.

“I have a name, you know… Well, nothing that translates into any human language.” It remarked smugly. Didn’t it just say it had no name earlier? How much of what it’s telling us is even true? Without any visible movement from the alien, our surroundings instantly vibrated and were replaced by a new one before I could comprehend it. I felt nauseous from this sudden shift in environment and it looked like I wasn’t alone in that. A few people fell over.

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The area we found ourselves in was a wide, empty, grassy plains, with some scattered trees in the distance. Before us was a massive stone wall, stretching as far as the eye could see. It didn’t look like it circled, so I wondered what the point of it was.

Atop the wall was a row of people that I couldn’t discern alongside the alien, who spoke to us from a great distance upwards, yet it was transferred directly into our ears as if it were right in front of us. “This is your battlefield. We’re in the back of my ship here and I’ve replicated a composite version of your planet by absorbing its history. Even the sky is fake! Looks pretty real, though. This wall here stretches around the whole planet. Non-combatants will watch from up here where I am. Don’t worry, they’ll get cameras and can’t be hurt from stray attacks. Oh, but none of you will ever get to watch from here. Hehe… As your captains were trying to say, you all have been chosen by your gifted pals to join them in this war. You will be fighting until you win or die, or until your captain decides to surrender. Although, I’m pretty sure your captains won’t be doing that any time soon.”

I was worried by this especially. Was it blackmailing Rubi or something? Even if it wasn’t, I struggled to imagine her surrendering, but this is a much larger scenario than anything she’s been involved in. It must be blackmail. I want to ask, but what if part of the blackmail prevents her from telling us about it?

“The onlookers I mentioned will be… Everyone on Earth! Don’t worry, the walls are big enough, and I’ll let everyone bring a bed or something. I’ll even provide them with food and drink. Not you guys, though. You’ll catch it yourself, hunter gatherer style. Sounds fun, right? You kids like survival games? Except the enemies are your fellow man! Haha! I’ll give you warning before the battle, though, so don’t flip out.”

The alien vanished and reappeared in the middle of the group, causing a large amount of the crowd to panic and disperse in fear. The people on the wall alongside the alien had also been warped behind it, revealing that Rubi was indeed among them still.

“Hey, hey! Stay close, now. I’ll take you all to your starting points when I’m finished. So, about the winner deciding your morality and stuff. The captains of this battle are the people on your planet with the strongest conviction. No bias on my end! I don’t know any of these people. Only people with a certain level of mental conviction reacted to my initial wave. Those are the ones who came first. Then, I allowed each of these people to select up to three teammates. This was the second wave. You get it? So be a good team if you wanna live! Oh, and those waves… Well, they’ve done something special to your bodies. I won’t spoil it yet. Your captains will show you, or maybe they won’t! Have fun!”

A handshape emerged from the blob’s body and waved to us cheerfully as my surroundings once again shifted to that of a serene riverside surrounded more closely by trees with the wall only slightly visible in the distance. I was getting sick and tired of having my brain thrown around like this, closing my eyes and leaning my head back, for once reveling in the wind blowing my hair out of my forehead.

I lingered on that last thing it said. Maybe that guy with the purple face was experiencing symptoms. If it’s something that noticeable, maybe we should be focused on that aspect.

I heard Garald and Barb greeting Rubi, but I didn’t look. Even though I felt like I understood the situation well enough, I couldn’t get over my swarming emotions. What kind of arbitrary factor is “conviction?” How did the alien even determine that? It’s not like you need conviction to be a good person. Well, the alien probably doesn’t care if the winner is good or not. If having conviction is the deciding factor, then what am I doing here? Did Rubi honestly think that picking me will make me start fighting for something? Hopefully she didn’t. I would like to think she knew me better. This sort of bright-eyed thinking is beyond me. I’m not so conceited as to think I could make any positive change in the world. Well, here’s Rubi with the golden opportunity to change the world right in front of her, just because she felt like doing it. An alien has made her fantasies a reality. How convenient for her.

“Yu! Are you okay?!” Speak of the devil. The short girl shook my body as best she could with those weak wrists. It wasn’t much of a shock, but I opened my eyes to look at her. Her eyes were worried and hopeful simultaneously, sweat drops falling from her face while her lips quivered to hold back a smile. Of course she’s enjoying this. She didn’t even look like our argument earlier had left any impact on her. Not like I wanted her to be upset about it or anything.

“Yeah… I’m okay… How are you..?” My wispy breath left me, and she quickly replied. “I’m good! This situation is scary, but I… I can finally…”

“I meant, how are you so accepting of this? I…” My voice trailed away, being reminded of the end of our carnival trip and not wanting to get angry with her again. Who the hell was I to tell Rubi that her goals are too correct? It’d just be projecting my issues at that point. “Sorry… Today has been.. long… I’m really sorry for raising my voice at the carnival, too… It was wrong of me to put my problems on you.”

As I finished that statement, I saw that she was glaring at me with a firm brow and fiery eyes. I averted my gaze to avoid embarrassment, but Garald and Barb were staring at me just as awkwardly. I was hoping they would speak and take some of this burden off of me, but as anyone would, they left me to my devices.

Rubi spoke at last, her voice no longer as concerned as it was back on Earth. “I understand, Yu. Don’t get so down. I acknowledge your apology. There’s nothing wrong with showing vulnerability to a friend! Seeing your weakness makes me feel more confident about our friendship, actually. I feel like I understand you better now. I am glad you can share your troubles with me.”

I couldn’t speak as I took in what she had said. That sure was a predictable answer, but in my self-loathing I was unable to foresee it. Only someone like her could get over it so quickly, and after that view me as some sort of victim, like I wasn’t just a sad loser lashing out at a good person. I started wondering if maybe this battle wasn’t as contrived as I initially thought. If somebody like Rubi won, maybe I would be able to believe in something as strongly as her.

Garald snapped me out of it unintentionally by yelling out, “What did he mean about our bodies?! What’s gonna happen to us?”

That reminded me of my earlier thought process, before it got swallowed by the others in my head. “Oh, yeah! Uh, I saw a purple guy…” I stuttered a bit before taking a deep breath and continuing with a much calmer tone. “His face was slowly changing color. I thought his breathing was impaired, but thinking back on it with our current information, it looked like he was mutating…”

“I’ll explain what I can.” Rubi announced as she took a seat on a tree trunk that had been knocked over beside the river. The rest of us followed her example.

“So, I watched the other captains, and it seems that most if not all of them have developed special abilities. They were secretive of the specifics after we were told that we would be fighting each other, but I witnessed a couple of them at work before you all showed up on the ship. Just to give you an example, one of them could reinforce their body by transforming into steel, or so it seemed. Another could freeze people by looking at them.”

My mouth was agape. “L-Like some kind of comic book..? Is this a joke?”

Rubi returned my disbelief with an unwavering gaze. “I’m serious. From what I can gather, the powers relate to our convictions, like the alien mentioned briefly. Whatever it did to resonate with our brains that way, it also must have brought out our inner selves into these powers. Like the alien said, there was no bias on its part. The waves that it sent from its body naturally react to who we are and turn that into some sort of supernatural ability.”

I still couldn’t take this completely seriously. How can it tell all of that about us as people? Does that mean morality is some sort of physical thing, like our cells are? Or is that alien’s physiology somehow linked to its spiritual existence?

Garald looked stumped from the way he crossed his arms and tilted his head. “Okay… I won’t think too hard about it. It’s just like a video game, or something. But how do we know what our powers are? And does everybody get one or only you captain guys?”

“That I do not know.” She shook her head. “Some of them reacted immediately, as if it was a natural part of them. I still don’t know what mine is…”

I was more shocked by that than I probably should have been. I assumed that having strong morals would make your power awaken earlier, based on the contrived conditions in which they are born. Maybe that is still true, though, and hers is such a powerful ability that she simply can’t use it yet.

Rubi stood up and slid her wooden blade into a mini rope sheath tied to her skirt, keeping it on her in case she needed it. “I presume that if you look into your own heart, you’ll find your ability. That’s what they’re created from, after all.”

Now, how am I supposed to do that? Ugh. I’m totally not fit for this sort of stuff. I looked at the others, still sitting, to see that they had both closed their eyes. Their faces were tight with concentration. Rubi seemed pleased by how quickly they had taken to it. I didn’t even bother. I couldn’t begin to comprehend how to “look at my heart.”

Under his breath, Garald said, “I wanna turn into steel… I wanna be an iron man…”

I don’t think that’s how it works. Besides, you just heard her say someone else got that power. That did made me wonder if two people could have identical powers, though.

Opening an eye to look at me, I saw Barb with concern on her face. “You don’t think you can do it?”

“Um, no, I… I’m just procrastinating. I’ll do it later.”

She was clearly not pleased by that answer. “Come on, kid, don’t lie like that. I know you’re not one to take kindly to this spiritual junk. I mean, I’m usually not, but I do a little introspection from time to time. My mom used to meditate a lot, and for all the dumb shit she did, I thought that one was worth picking up.”

I chuckled. “Meditation? You? Wow. Didn’t take you for the astrology type.”

“Shut it!” She barked. This caused Garald to jump, who then crossed his arms tighter in annoyance. I chuckled under my breath, which seemed to cause her to ease up.

“I’m not a kid, by the way.” I relaxed my arms at my sides and leaned back as far as I could without falling into the river. “You’re only a year older than me.”

Barb smirked and replied, “Stop acting like such a moody kid, then. You’re not too old for this yet. You can stand to open your heart a little before you graduate and sell it to capitalism, ya know?”

“Haha… You seem confident we’re getting out of this alive.” I dug my fingers into the wood.

“Of course, we will. If these powers are based on the soul, do you know any more soulful bunch than us? If you did, I’d call you a liar.” She remarked as if it were fact. When she said it like that, I couldn’t help but feel a weight loosen off my shoulders. “Besides,” Barb continued, “It’s just my philosophy to treat every situation like I’m gonna get out of it alive, ‘cuz if I’m gonna die anyway then it was probably out of my control to begin with. Don’t lose your shit over things you can’t change. If it’s meant to work out, it will.”

Hearing those words from her, it was hard to dismiss them. I didn’t know Barb as the type to think that wistfully if it wasn’t true. She can be even more blunt and depressing than me when the situation is dire enough. I let out a breath of relief and loosened my grip on the trunk. This, I quickly realized, caused me to fall straight back towards the open maw of the river. However, before I could move my body, I saw that Garald had sprung up and caught me, but he had moved too suddenly to stop, and both of us fell into the water with a loud splash.

I swallowed a ton of water as my chest hit the bottom, but I shot my head out and was able to cough most of it out. Garald pushed my stomach in roughly to help out, but I only choked more, trying to hold my laughter in until after I was out of choking range. Garald seemed fine, aside from his ruined hair and clothes. I tried not to lock eyes with him out of embarrassment at my stupidity. Barb and Rubi had gathered by the riverbed, Barb extending a hand out to Garald. When he gripped her, however, he yelped and pulled his hand away.

“Ow!! You zapped me!” He yelled. “I thought that only happened with metal… Wait, did I really become a metal guy?!” Barb looked at her fingertips in surprise. She didn’t even entertain the idea that he was a “metal guy.”

“Electricity… Hey, let me try it on you again.”

Garald jumped backwards and extended his arms to keep her at a distance. “Hey, no way! That hurt!”

Rubi cut in by snapping a twig off of the log, dipping it in water and pointing it at her. “Here!” She tossed it high into the air, to which Barb stepped forward to grab it, causing an electric shock to fry it and vaporize the small leaves on it. She immediately dropped the stick, as it was now charred and smoking.

The shorter girl nodded her head and grinned. “Yep! That’s it! Electricity. Makes sense, doesn’t it? You don’t let people get too close to you, but you’re super strong underneath that thorny veneer!” She turned to stare at Barb intently, who reacted by blushing a bit. “Well, I mean… I’m not as cool as that… It’d be presumptuous to say it fits me…”

I glanced around us to check for enemies and also to give myself something to do that didn’t involve watching them. Garald reacted so quickly even with closed eyes that I considered it may have had something to do with his power, too. I brushed off the thought as mere conjecture based on emotion. I was jealous that mine had yet to awaken, even though I wasn’t particularly trying.

When I heard Rubi’s voice, I turned to see that she had set up a tent, or maybe it was already there and I had been too distracted. “Everyone! This was waiting here, along with some basic tools for gathering and preparing food. We’ll need to get our own tools soon enough, though. These don’t cover everything.”

She dropped a wooden crate in front of her so that we could see into it. Aside from the tent that she had already taken out, I saw some hard wire, string, a small knife and a bundle of wood and sticks. Talk about the bare necessities…

“Ooh!” Garald eagerly stuck his hand into it to dig around. “We could make a fishing rod with this, I think. My old man taught me lots of fishing tricks, including survival in the wilderness.”

Rubi clasped her hands together excitedly. “Awesome! That’s your job, then. I want us to find a way to chop wood ourselves, but for now, we’ll set up a campfire with this. Hopefully one of our powers proves itself capable of gathering materials. We can discuss that after we get this fire started. It's cold out here. Especially for you two, I imagine.”

My eyebrow raised at her in annoyance. I wasn’t quite ready to joke about that yet, I was ready for a fun outing so I wore my nice clothes. Well, as nice as I owned, anyway. Garald had already stripped to his boxers and started arranging the wood to be burned. He left his clothes at a safe distance from it to dry them quicker.

Once more, I let out a sigh as I started doing the same.