Lucas Engels nervously paced back and forth in front of one of the cordoned off subway stations. It was the one where all first dives started, unless people were crazy and liked adrenaline. There should be a base on the other side that was a hub where all newbies gathered and got branded by their first and most important tattoo, the one that enabled them to return home.

  No one really knew where the place actually was. It could be another dimension, a place in a far away galaxy, a fairyland of some crazy wizard, or a universe-wide net to where their bodies were transferred via a mysterious digitalization process. Although no one knew for sure, it was a new place to explore and there were signs of revolutionary technologies there that the wealthy of the world were willing to invest in or outright grab for themselves for further research.

  Sometimes, the base had to be completely evacuated when a threat came too close, but there seemed to be no trouble at this time. His first steps seemed to be without any complications despite many people warning him that becoming a Moth was too dangerous.

  He looked at his uniform and felt strange, Moths were a part of the army, they were categorized as army scouts, but the ordinary army considered them as almost something dirty and unworthy of being its part. The reason was that there was not many people willing to do the job and the enemies were simply too dangerous. It was said that training was completely useless and Moths were dead the moment enemies spotted them no matter their equipment or skills. It was the cause for their nickname, Moths. Their units were like moths and enemies were fire, they would burn if they flew too close with no chance for resistance.

  That was the reason why the army went along the way of quantity over quality. No particular skills or physique was necessary to become a Moth, only courage. Moths were even required to carry tracking devices and body cameras that could not be switched off without consequences, the army clearly did not trust them at all.

  Despite all the downsides, there was a chance for an astronomical reward, something that kept attracting more and more people to try their luck in the infamous division of Moths. Honestly, he could still not figure out why the job was dangerous.

It made no sense!

"What is to be afraid of anyway? We can just teleport away anytime we want, right?" Lucas asked one of the other newbies of his unit that just arrived at the station's entrance.

"Oh man, have you even read the guidelines?" The exceptionally thin man answered and stretched out his hand.

"Wyatt, and you?" The uniformed man looked into his eyes, it was the gaze of someone who wanted to rob him

"Lucas, nice to meet you. I read the basics, but it felt rather disconnected from reality." Despite his suspicions, he remained polite.

"That is cause that is how that place is. Disconnected from reality, like your wife's whims." He cackled, not too much concerned that Lucas had close to no clue about their mission.

"Is there some countermeasure against the teleportation ability or. . .?" He glanced to the side and noticed that his unit's commander had arrived. The murmur of the few gathered men immediately subsided. The strict looking man swept them briefly with his gaze and frowned.

"Welcome to the unit, you will become a Moth after your first task is finished. Follow me." He walked away almost as quickly as he had arrived.

"Further explanation after we have achieved our first objective, you have been briefed on the details already." He turned around and added dismissively while waving a thin booklet in front of their noses. Lucas realized that it was probably not the best idea to ignore the brochure they had been handed out to him during the recruitment process.

"Hey, what was in there? Anything important?" He whispered in Wyatt's direction and the man struggled not to burst out laughing.

"The device that brands the tattoos with teleportation ability is one station away from where we arrive. If you get caught during that trip, you are dead. It's most likely some kind of an initiation ritual. " Lucas heard his words and gulped with his throat dry. He had thought that the army's intention was to have fewer casualties, introducing a dangerous initiation ritual made no sense.

  They walked through multiple guarded doors and arrived at an ordinary looking place that was encircled by a stripe of red tape. Their commander did not stop or said anything more to them, just waltzed directly to the encircled space and disappeared.

"Follow your commander or face charges for desertion." A nearby guard reminded them of their duties, interrupting their shock. Soldiers like him were common in the place, the assault rifle he held in his hands adding to his argument. Especially considering the recruits had only knives, because according to the army, to where they were going assault rifles were useless anyways.

The few of them began to move and one after the other disappeared from their world, emerging in a dark underground of an unfamiliar subway station.

"There is nothing! Shouldn't there be the base here?" One of the Moths asked in confusion, his preparations were clearly similar to Lucas', nonexistent. "They said Moths can just teleport away if anything happens! Shitty lying advertisements!"

"Expecting an advertisement to be truthful, are you an idiot?" Another man scoffed at the speaker and began to move in the direction of the pitch black tunnel near them.

"The camp is this way, report back to the headquarters after you have successfully received your first tattoo." The commander's voice cut through their chaotic conversation and the eyes of everyone found the man in the darkness of the dilapidated underground hall. However only for a second, because the next second the man vanished, he had probably teleported back to Earth.

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"Army my ass! He did not even pretend to try have some discipline. " A guy who looked the closest to a soldier that had probably been looking forward to see the others getting drilled by someone shouted in surprise.

"Why would he? We can all die in ten minutes and he would have tried for nothing." Wyatt laughed at the would be soldier who immediately fell silent.

  Except for the soldier and Wyatt, Lucas glanced at the other two men that were with them. One of them had a dull expression and his uniform could not be called clean, his dirty and baggy clothes was not evoking any positive feelings. His friend did not look better, the skin on his legs and hands showing, as his uniform was too small for him for a change. All in all, the duo looked like a pair of homeless people who had found a set of uniforms.

"We should hurry, if we are lucky there will be no knights in the tunnel." The man whom Lucas had dubbed Soldier in his head spoke, but his words were a mystery for him.

"Knights? Like the guys on horses with lances?" Lucas asked and decided to hold back his tongue the next time around, because three of the four people looked at him strangely.

"You should take the missions more seriously." Soldier glared at him and began walking in the direction their commander showed them before he had vanished back to Earth.

  They walked in silence for some time and Lucas wondered why there was only a single rail in the tunnel. He had taken the job as a joke, but he started to feel uneasy, realizing that all the rumored dangers might actually be true. He heard that multiple people were Moths around his house, but he had never taken them seriously. The details of the job were simply too ridiculous to be true.

"Are there any other dangers except for the knights?" Lucas asked in a tiny voice a while later.

"Except for the knights who are the strongest and nearly unkillable, there are the Lurkers that have very good camouflage bordering with invisibility. The last threat are of course The Ashes. "

"The last ones have no incredible ability? At least some good news." Lucas tried to joke, but Soldier did not laugh even one bit.

"Those are the most tricky, because they are humans who have accidentally been cursed by that damnable tattoo. They keep setting up traps to get resources or simply vent their anger on the ones who can still return home back to Earth." Lucas nodded and decided not to ask anything else. He was going to search for more details when the mission was over, there was no need to embarrass himself even more.

Suddenly the stale air blowing in their faces through the tunnel carried words in their direction, words that began as a whisper, but grew louder with every step of their feet.

"

One step forth useless,

Second step vain,

Third step of clueless,

man who is to blame.

Who hides at home,

runs and fears danger.

in his place search I must,

one lonely stranger.

Look under rocks,

concrete and bricks.

Understand everything and gain the power,

Stored behind locks,

doors and in bins.

to climb the sky high, damned black tower.

With your duty mine,

your lives have no meaning.

Let's spill now blood thine,

and paint red the ceiling.

"

They all felt a chill and were finally able to see the silhouette that walked in their direction.

"Who are you?" Lucas asked in a trembling voice even before he could see any details of the ominous shadowy figure.

"Oh, we shall honor the code and start with you two." The unknown man moved in their group's direction and some of them took out their knives.

"Not a step closer! State your name and purpose." Soldier spoke loud and clear, perhaps hoping that his words would give him courage to confront the creepy man in front of them.

"Yes, yes. He will start with you two, because you definitely are not beautiful." The stranger ignored Soldier and moved closer.

  When Soldier and Wyatt who had taken out their knives wanted to attack the man, they hesitated when they saw that the stranger held in his hand a plastic bottle with lemonade which he slowly placed down in front of the pair in dirty uniforms. As soon as he placed the first bottle, a second one had been taken out of his bag that was hanged over his shoulder.

"Do not fret, you will be next." The person sneered at Lucas and handed out more bottles, placing them in front of the unit. He said it in a tone that implied something sinister, despite just distributing a green luminescent lemonade.

"Lemonade? You say it like you were cutting off our fingers, is it poisoned?" Lucas asked the stranger, not understanding what he was doing in the slightest.

"It is perfectly fine, I guarantee it is!" He picked up on of the bottles he had placed in front of them and tasted the lemonade to prove them that there was nothing wrong with it.

"It is very tasty and nutritious and in case you have consumed all of this, " He walked to the wall of the tunnel and began producing more bottles, placing them at the side of the tunnel. It started to feel weird because he could not possibly stuff all the bottles back into his bag, there was too many. "I will put here some extra."

"Wait, that is the lemonade! I know this stuff!" Wyatt recognized the bottle when he saw it up close, because of the tunnel's darkness none of them were able to connect the dots earlier. "These are incredibly cheap, but its taste is not bad indeed."

"He is too suspicious! Do not move or we will attack! Are you a Moth? Is this some kind of a test?" Soldier was nervously gripping his combat knife.

"No, not at all. I am just handing out lemonade, the question is if you are beautiful enough to enjoy it." Lucas hated the smirk on the person's face, it felt like he was laughing in their faces. "Ah, do you hear? They are coming?"

"Is it your unit?" Soldier asked hopefully, but the man did not respond and backed away to the wall, the next second he opened a door that they had not noticed due to the darkness of the tunnel and closed it behind him.

"He entered a service tunnel and escaped out of the blue? Should we pursue him?" Lucas asked with unease, but they all had been confused by the man's behavior and no one could offer him an explanation. Lucas wanted to chase him, but heard some kind of mechanism operate behind the door, it had to be some sort of a lock. The stranger was clearly prepared to meet them here.

"Someone else is coming. Do you see a shadow moving over there?" Wyatt asked and they stared into the darkness silently, listening to the nearing footsteps that seemed too loud even considering the barren walls of the underground tunnel that echoed their every word.

"Hope this one will be less crazy." Soldier mumbled and shortly a tall shadow towered over them, it had to be the biggest man Lucas had ever met.

"Ugly." His deep voice said a single word and Soldier's eyes widened, too late he had realized what had just happened.

"Run!" He screamed, but he fell to the ground one limb short before he had managed to make a single step. Lucas felt a warm liquid on his face, it had to be Soldier's blood. At the same time he saw that the big figure seemed to be wielding a large sword in his right hand and realized that it had to be the knight Soldier had warned them about.

"I should never have come here." Lucas whispered and saw the blade moving in his direction, too fast to be avoided.

All the rumors about the job were true. The teleportation ability had instilled a false sense of security in him, a lie that proved to be the end of him. The last question in his mind remained forever unanswered. Why would the army do this? Had they some kind of malicious intent?