Chapter 1
Joel hated lines. He hated even the idea of waiting. Maybe it was his ADHD. It surely wasn’t that his time was worth more than anyone else’s. Possibly the opposite was true. He knew that the more time he had to think, the more likely he was going to change his mind. He realized that his impulsivity was a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it gave him the ability to jump into any challenge with both feet, but on the other hand, it meant he didn’t always think things through fully. However, Joel also knew that if he didn’t jump in with both feet, he’d overanalyze everything and be stuck in a thought spiral of insecurity and doubt, which would inevitably overwhelm him and, you know, maybe it wasn’t too late to run after all…
He turned around quickly, intending to leave the line he had been stuck in for over an hour, but before he could fully jump ship, he felt a finger tap his shoulder. He turned around and saw one of the cutest girls he had ever encountered, endearingly smiling back at him. She was of average height and had brown hair that fell just above her shoulders. Her pronounced cheeks were dotted with a few freckles, enhancing her gigantic grin. “I think you’re next,” she said in a super friendly tone, immediately putting Joel in his head. Her voice was oddly familiar, and that soothed his nerves.
“Oh shit, sorry!” Joel shuffled toward the sign-in machine, which scanned him from head to toe and then asked for his name. He entered Joel Allen. The message “Welcome to Top Seed. Thank you for applying!” loaded onto the screen. He scrolled down to an empty field, above which was a question about the nature of his powers. Joel thought back to his conversation with Ariella right before this whole ordeal began, very glad that she had walked him through what to do at this part.
***
Sitting with Ariella in an old-school diner on the main drag of the non-secret part of Eden, Ohio, Joel nervously tapped his foot in rhythm against his bags, which were neatly tucked under their table. An Oasis tune played through the jukebox. He was getting used to 90s BritPop as it was his mentor’s favorite music, and Joel was starting to develop his own fondness for the genre. For her part, Ariella was pulling her hair back into a messy bun, signaling to Joel that she was ready to get down to business. The early morning sun made her red hair glow, almost like she was in one of those black light paintings standing next to a unicorn on a bed of mushrooms with fireflies that looked like butterflies fluttering around her head. “Let’s go over it one last time.” She asserted before taking a huge gulp from her coffee mug.
After swallowing, she started the same spiel she had given him daily since obtaining the details of the upcoming weekend’s events. “Each day will have one event. They will come one after another without rest, so keep that in mind. The first will be a sort of endurance trial, and when that event is over, only 100 competitors will be left. The second day will include something that has to do with creativity or strategy. At the end of the second day, only 24 competitors will be left, and the last trial will be focused on martial prowess. Just remember: endurance, creativity, and fighting. You must score high enough in each phase of the trial to become one of the twelve that moves past the first round, or all is lost.”
“No pressure, huh?” Joel waved past Ariella’s response to his wise-ass mutterings and quickly continued, “What I don’t get is why you have to disappear all of a sudden. I don’t even really know how to use these powers!”
“The Heralds can’t know I’m working with you, and you have great control over your powers now! Just focus on the sleep aspect. We can train again after you make it past this weekend.” Ariella tried to reassure him.
Joel sighed. “I thought you were a Herald!” He was starting to feel like he had been sold a bill of goods.
“I am! But I'm also not…it’s complicated. I'm supposed to be the one who makes sure The Heralds don’t abuse their power. Although I must admit, sometimes I feel like I've been totally failing. But that’s why this is so important.” Just then, a bird flew in the door of the diner and made a beeline over to their table, landing on the wrist of Ariella’s outstretched arm.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Joel narrowed his eyes. “None of this makes sense.”
Ariella shrugged. “Get used to it, kid. Most of life doesn’t….Hey, you want some fries?” She fed a fry to the small red bird that had hopped up to her finger and then offered one to Joel. Her smile had a tinge of sadness, as if to apologize for everything she was piling on him.
***
Having read Joel’s mood shift from apologetic for stalling the line, to some sense of giddiness, to frustrated anger, Bailey asked, “Are you ok, dude?”
Joel had two competing thoughts as his mind snapped back to the present. He wondered if this girl in front of him was single. He also had the overwhelming urge to change his hair and outfit and work out more and… “Sorry, this is a bit overwhelming. Never thought I’d be here.” Joel said as he typed S-L-E-E-P into the tablet computer in front of him. The girl had moved to the stall next to him. After hitting “Next,” another page loaded asking him to enter his alias. “Fuck,” Joel didn’t have an alias. He had previously decided that he was going to lean into the sleep aspect of his powers, so it should probably have something to do with that. “Slumber? Sleeper? Ugh, this whole thing is so dumb,” Joel was thinking. He just typed “Z” into the empty field on the screen, attempting to move on to the next page before he decided to cancel the whole thing out and leave. A red “ERROR” flashed above the alias field. “Too Few Characters. Your alias must be three characters or more.” Joel entered two more “Zs” and hit “Next.”
The next question on the screen was, “What is your power classification?” and his eyes went wide. Joel put his hand on his forehead as if to massage a non-existent migraine. He forgot what Ariella had told him to put in this section. This was becoming a fucking disaster. Joel turned to the very friendly girl at the stall to his right. “To be honest, my power is kinda lame so I never paid any attention to this stuff.” Joel gestured to the question on the screen.
“Oh, no worries, I totally get it. I can help if you want!” Bailey said.
“That would be amazing, thank you.” Joel was genuinely thankful. He had been under the impression that this was going to be a cutthroat competition full of the most competitive metas in the country. But this young woman was being so nice to him. Joel wasn't used to this.
“So Creators create things from whole cloth. Like someone who can shoot a laser or create rocks from nothing.” She read his silence as a cue to continue. “Manipulators can, um, well, manipulate things that already exist. Like someone that can use the water from a lake as a whip.” Joel shook his head. Bailey continued, “OH! Precepts can interact with minds, like mind reading or creating illusions in people's heads…”
Joel noticeably reacted to that one. Precept was the one Ariella had told him to go with! “Yeah, precept sounds right,” Joel said as he tapped the PRECEPT button on the screen.
“Now that I know something about you, I guess I should share too. I'm going by Hieroglyph here, and I’m a manipulator!” As if in one breath she continued, “I assume you’re not on a hero team or working solo, so you can just press n/a on the next screens until you get to the media consent form.” Bailey realized by Joel’s reaction that he was unfamiliar with these types of contracts so she continued, “It’s just saying that they’re allowed to use your likeness for profit, blah blah blah. It just covers them legally.”
“Do you work here or something?” Joel half joked as he finished up on the computer. It printed off a marathon runner-type sheet that Joel could pin to his clothes. He glanced to notice that Bailey already had hers in her hand.
“Ah, Hello, Triple Z,” she said, reading the name from the tag he was pinning to his shirt. “And no, I don't work here. I'm familiar with these forms because I'm trying to break into voice acting. I have to sign these types of things on the daily,” Bailey grinned. “Looks like we’re going to the same place. Wanna walk together? Seems like this’ll be a hard place to make friends, and I'm sensing a connection between us, ‘zzz-Meta84516136’.”
“I don’t know what the rules are about using our names versus our meta aliases. But, you can call me Joel. And, uh, yeah sure, let’s walk,” Joel said as he looked down at his chest where Bailey was reading his ID number off of his tag.
She continued to cheerily talk about Los Angeles, some auditions she had done, and a couple of videogames she’d had a few lines in, as they walked together to the transport bay that would port them to their section of the arenas where the first trials were about to begin. A friend is something Joel could really use right now. He just hoped it would last after the crazy weekend ahead.