Lyssa woke at six a.m., tired and dazed. She spent the first few minutes of her mornings blinking, waiting for the stiffness to leave her eyelids. Remnants of visions, notions, and dreams whispered in her ear in those minutes before they were eventually fully forgotten.

Thus life continued after that session with Lian. Just differently. Before that letter slipped through her mail slot, Lyssa had no trouble managing her anxious thoughts. Now every night she had to wonder if she would wake in a room inside her own head, while someone else drove her limbs. Someone dangerous.

She ate breakfast with her roommates, listening quietly to their conversations. She usually said nothing. Penny seemed to wake at a hundred, like a second sunrise. Amelia often read the news on her tablet, describing any current events that piqued her interest.

“Helena Industries just launched a subsidiary for heavy payload rockets.”

“That’s cool,” Penny would say.

“The allegedly ‘meteor-proof’ condo downtown got dismantled by a vigilante. Something about exposing the way companies monetize tragedy.”

“I’m not sure that’s the right way to do that,” Penny would add.

“Campus news. M.A.G.E is asking all students to avoid leaving the premises past ten p.m. on account of a violent psychic signature somewhere in the area.”

“Oh no. I hope they find them soon,” Penny said. “A few years ago they found an insane psychic in Buenos Aires. Cat-5. Made a thousand people nearby think there were spiders crawling inside them.”

Lyssa’s spoon dropped in her cereal. Penny waved dismissively.

“Apex’s Psy-Ops team took care of it,” Penny said. “Don’t worry, Lyssa.”

“I remember that incident,” Amelia said, looking up at the ceiling. “A few dozen people nearly bashed their head open trying to get the bugs out. Some slit their stomachs. Psychics are the most heavily regulated gifted for a reason.”

“You don’t seem worried,” Lyssa said carefully.

“There’s an upcoming seminar,” Amelia said. “They’re bringing in a telepath to teach us basic mental defenses. They’re also installing extra neural dampening fields around the entrances.”

“I heard the Director himself is a telepath,” Penny said. “A high category one too. We should be fine so long as he’s on campus.”

“Where have you heard this?” Amelia asked. One of her antennae tilted upward quizzically.

“I’m not sure actually,” Penny said. “But I’m convinced it’s true for some reason. Weird.”

“You are so gullible, Penny.”

“Shut up! I’m…”

They would then engage in some good natured banter. And then Carrie would come into the living room to interrupt their repartees, often wearing nothing but a towel; her showers took her within ten minutes of class starting.

It made Lyssa anxious, not for herself for once. This was irreplaceable. Moments like these. Nothing motivated her more to get her gifts under control. She would need that drive; today was the second training session.

Tobias monitored the class, as serious as ever, fingers primed to grab that whistle he kept around his neck.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Today we’re going to test your movements during a search and rescue situation,” he said, his voice as loud as ever. “Make sure your FASE suits are worn properly so we could get data from your gifts.”

The gym had been rearranged. The walls, ceiling, and floor was made of variable geometric architecture. This time there was only one biome, urban.

“Kind of apocalyptic,” Eden remarked. It took Lyssa a moment to remember the transmutationist.

“Yeah. It’s… reminiscent,” she said.

The way the half-demolished buildings formed a jagged, treacherous landscape. The way water spewed out of destroyed fire hydrants. Some places were still on fire. Most of the students itched to begin.

“I hope you’ve been paying attention to Rajamani’s class,” Tobias said. “You’ll need an intuitive understanding of physics before trying to pry a victim out from beneath the rubble. Alright enough talking. Three…”

Lyssa took a deep breath.

I am my own master.

“Two…”

I am in control.

“One… GO!”

And they were off.

The speedsters carried people around. Fire extinguishers to the burning buildings. Water manipulators or temperature related gifts. A student with silica skin walked straight into the flames and came out with a victim android in his arms. A few students had wings, which they beat to generate winds. Eden transmuted the wind into carbon dioxide to starve the flames.

Finding something to do was difficult. Lyssa kept her eye open, but there simply weren’t any roles open to for her to take.

“Remember,” Tobias said. “You’re not loitering, you’re observing. If you force yourself into a job that wasn’t necessary, you’ll just end up wasting energy and get in the way.”

Lyssa felt as though that was addressed directly to her. She jogged through the shattered streets, watching her peers work. Rubble being lifted and searched. Speedsters ferried victim androids to safety.

A girl suddenly appeared out of a wall, causing Lyssa to yelp.

“No one in here,” she said. She noticed Lyssa with an odd look. “You just hangin’ out? That’s cool. That’s what they’re doing.”

The girl pointed down the street at an intersection. Lyssa was not alone in having nothing to do. A few students whose gifts were best used for raw combat stood on standby. There was a guy who was nine feet of muscle and bone. A lady covered in ice flowing down her FASE suit like a dress, with mist draping her shoulders like a cape. And a man who hovered a few feet in the air, covered in fire.

“What’s your name?”

“Lyssa.”

“Marin. I might go by Amorphous when I graduate.”

Marin went to the collapsed house on the opposite side of the street and walked straight through the ruins. She walked out with a victim and set it down on the street.

“Oi!” She shouted. “Beep! Beep!”

A strong gust of wind swept past. The victim was gone. Lyssa saw a speedster pick it up and take it away in a fireman carry.

“That can’t be comfortable for the victim,” Lyssa said.

“You can see them?” Marin said. “Speedsters are just a blur to me. Very useful though. The thing about combat types is that they’re not useful most of the time,” Marin said. “Look at the living tiki torch over there. What’s he going to do in a situation like this? Finish the survivors off?”

“Villainy has been on the rise,” Lyssa said, remembering the increasing vigilantism on the news.

“We want law enforcement, sublethal responses. Guys with fire powers are walking war crimes. The Geneva Convention is a gentle reminder to them by nature. God help you if your gift makes things explode.” She kept working as she talked, casually strolling through broken walls and unstable ruins. “What about her? Ice queen over there?”

Lyssa noted the student at the intersection whose skin seemed to drip with rivers of fog.

“That’s Ophelia Aquarion,” Marin said. “Her body temperature liquefies oxygen on idle. How do you help people if you can’t even touch them?”

“How do you touch people?” Lyssa asked.

“I can phase a set amount of foreign mass with me. Perfect for disaster rescue.”

“Looks like you need a disaster to have a job, then,” Lyssa said.

“Touché,” Marin said, chuckling. “Let’s hope you have something to do when-”

“Help!” Someone shouted. Not an android; it was another student. A house exploded into countless splinters as someone smashed through it back first. The student picked himself up out of a heap, wobbling from the impact.

“I-I think something is broken,” he said, feeling his shoulder.

The ground trembled one beat at a time. A two legged mech strode through the broken urban environment. Its enormous legs disintegrated anything in its way with sheer force.

“You kids all failed to do one basic thing,” the speakers on the machine blared with Tobias’s voice. “All of you forgot to investigate what caused this situation!”

“Alright, I take it back,” Marin said. Her voice rose an octave. “Protect me!”

“I-I can barely protect myself,” Lyssa said. But she opened her mental doors and formed her armor. She raised her fire claws, trembling ever so slightly as she debated between fight or flight.