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As the adults continued writhing around on the floor, their heads in their hands and screams in their mouths, the young girl watched them with amusement. The noise had come, loud and sudden enough to make her lose control. She had fought it, fought the urge to drop into instinctive panic, with every drop of willpower she had. After a few moments, it passed, leaving her senses numb, her body shaking.

Over ten seconds later, everyone else around her was still making quite the show of overreacting. Then finally a few of the adults began to pull themselves up, back into their seats with spaghetti limbs. Her guardian, an ugly man with big eyes, gave her a terrified look as he lifted himself beside her. It looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his head.

She began to grow annoyed. A few people were still whining aloud, tears falling down their faces. One woman was still screaming. The young girl’s amusement was quickly fading as the seconds passed and the people continued their incessant crying.

You heard a really loud sound! She wanted to scream at them all, especially the woman who was still screaming. Get over it already, you babies!

She reached up behind her head, feeling for the ribbon holding up her blonde hair. The young girl had gripped at her head while the sound screeched through her, and the ribbon had come loose. She pulled at it, letting her hair spill past her shoulders. Just then, a voice spoke out. It was male, calm, collected.

At first she thought it was an apology from the conductor, but the words were nothing of the sort. The words excited her, making her heart pound within her chest. Commands? Panels only she could see? That was impossible, wasn’t it?

The girl turned to her guardian, the man who was in charge of transporting her, looking into his dumbfounded face and whispered the word Check.

In front of her eye, a small display appeared. Her breathing caught. Where had it come from? She turned her head from side to side and the panel followed her as though it was attached to her. She tried to touch it with her finger, but it seemed too close to her eye, maybe even on her eye.

Her transporter paid her no mind as she stared at him, reading the information along the three columns. The center column read his name and age. David Roc, 53 years old.

To each side of his name, two other numbers, each with a label hanging above them. To the left, Kara, to the right, Bara.

She continued listening to the voice as it explained how the system worked. It seemed that David was a bad person, having a single level in Bara, with the word Transmit displayed on the right side. She wasn’t too surprised to learn that about him. He had been transporting her, after all.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Glancing around the train, she realized everyone else was sitting motionless, eyes cast up to the train’s ceiling as though listening required their body’s full attention. Many were still on the floor. Why couldn’t they stand up? They had legs. If she could stand, so could they. She started to hate them more with each passing moment. To occupy herself, she put her red ribbon into her mouth and began working at setting her hair back into a ponytail.

A few moments later, the voice said something that gave her pause. Someone on the trains that had just entered the city was already a level five in both Kara and Bara. That meant they had ten Commands already? How was that fair? She didn’t know exactly what Commands were, but that person already had a big lead on everyone else. She Checked a few others on the train and they were all level zero in both categories, except one woman who had one level in Kara. She was just as old as David though.

The girl finished working on her hair, pulling the bow together angrily. The system favored those who had been alive longer, didn’t it? Older people had had more time to get points.

“CheckSelf,” the girl whispered.

The panel shifted to show her information.

Her heart skipped a beat.

Only one person in the whole city had ten Commands? She stared at the panel, her body beginning to shake anew, this time because adrenaline began pumping through her veins. Somehow, the young girl began to feel something akin to gratitude. For the first time ever, she began to think that maybe her life had been but a long preparation for this day. Everything that had happened to her was just leading to this moment. That old life was ending as her new life was beginning.

Yes, now she was the one in control.

The voice stopped speaking, adding in that those in the city were stuck inside. That fact excited her even more. She had no one she wanted to see outside anyway. Her life was starting over.

Finally, all of the adults began to pull one another off the floor, murmurs rising as they tried deciding what to do. She noticed David turning to her. She saw him mouthing a word.

The girl tilted her head to give him a grin as a look of shock came over his face. Shock and, yes, fear. He was afraid of her. His face began to slack, and he pushed himself to his feet, taking a step away from her, unnerved by her smile. She smiled wider.

Then her eyes turned to her panel which was still displaying her own information. She picked the first one she saw.

“Queen’s Light,” the young girl said.

In the next instant, David Roc was dead.

A light shot down from the heavens, piercing through the train’s roof, through it’s floor, vaporizing David to a spray of disgusting liquid. The car rocked hard enough that the people who had finally gotten to their feet were launched back down to the floor. This time, everyone was screaming, but she was okay with it. The doors of the train slid open, and immediately they began to squeeze themselves out as fast as they could.

As they scurried like mice, the girl stared up at the smoldering hole in the top of the train, up at the glowing satellite hanging above the city, the brightest star in her sky.

Alone in the car, the young girl turned towards the crowds of people now outside the train, running into the city beyond.

“Queen’s Light, Queen’s Light, Queen’s Light!” the girl said in rapid succession, watching as three bright beams shot down to incinerate whoever she laid eyes upon. The screaming of the crowds was instantly renewed and their speed picked up.

The young girl fell to her knees, unable to stop her rising laughter.