1 Month later
Days after days went by as they work out, ran, and did college classes that could make any grown man cry, the daily routine continued for several more weeks. Then one morning, instead of Dante showing up to take them to the forest track, Vex appeared in the training room. She blocked the doorway as she looked at the three of them.
"Change of plans today," Vex rumbled in her deep voice. "All three of you, come with me."
Kinnetos, Monty, and Sarah exchanged curious glances. Vex rarely spoke to them directly, and when she did, it was usually just a grunt or a nod.
"Where are we going?" Sarah asked, setting down her morning workout gear.
Vex's expression was serious, but there was something that might have been excitement in her eyes. "We're going out hunting."
"Hunting?" Monty repeated. "Like… actual hunting? With animals?"
"Something like that," Vex replied cryptically. "Let's go we leave in 1 minute."
Vex grabbed a key and twisted it into what looked like empty air. A door materialized, and when she opened it, they found themselves in at a giant fire watch tower stretching high above a dense forest canopy.
"Come on," she said, stepping through.
They climbed all the way down the tower, making their way through the thick trees below. The forest was dense and confusing, with paths that seemed to lead nowhere.
Finally, as they pushed through another tangle of branches, Sarah asked, "What are we exactly hunting?"
Vex stopped and turned to face them, a grim smile on her face. "Abnormals."
She leaned against a tree and continued her explanation. "Abnormals are creatures that accidentally absorb paradox energy - also known as WEIRD Energy. When normal animals are around Paradox Energy for too long, they start forming and deforming until they become weird monsters."
"Wait, so any animal can become one of these things?" Monty asked nervously.
"Worse than that," Vex replied. "If someone believes in the creature too much, it can transform even further. Like, a lizard could turn into a full dragon if many people believe that lizard is actually a dragon. The collective belief feeds the paradox energy and makes it real."
Sarah looked around the forest with new wariness. "So what exactly are we hunting today?"
"This abnormal started as just a few little mice that became a little too big," Vex explained. "And a couple of pigeons that now look horrendous and weird. The problem is, some hikers spotted them last week and started spreading stories about 'giant mutant rats with wings.'"
"Oh no," Kinnetos said, understanding where this was going.
"Exactly. The more people hear about them and believe the stories, the more dangerous they're going to become. We need to find them and neutralize the situation before they transform into something much worse." said Vex
"Now, I don't usually do this hunting," Vex admitted, adjusting something on her belt. "It's usually Axe and Jes who handle abnormal extermination because they're really good at annihilating all of them quite easily."
She pulled out what looked like a high-tech rifle and checked its settings. "But in this case, I'm supposed to be showing you three what abnormals look like. You need to understand what happens when paradox energy goes wrong."
"Wait, we're going in there with actual abnormals?" Sarah asked, her voice rising slightly.
"Don't worry," Vex said, pulling out two more weapons and handing them to Kinnetos and Monty. "We've got guns. These are specially designed to disrupt paradox energy. They won't kill the abnormals, but they'll weaken them enough that we can contain them."
She looked at Sarah. "You'll stay behind us and observe. Your job is to watch how they move, how they behave, and how they react to different stimuli. This is educational, not a combat mission."
Kinnetos hefted the familiar weapon nervously. "What if something goes wrong?"
"Then we run very fast and let Axe and Jes handle it later," Vex replied matter-of-factly. "But these are small abnormals. Mice and pigeons. How dangerous could they be?"
The moment she said that, a horrible shrieking sound echoed through the forest ahead of them.
Vex sighed heavily. "Jesus Christ. I need to keep my mouth shut."
They all ran toward the direction of the shrieking sound, pushing through branches and undergrowth. When they broke through a clearing, they saw a horrifying sight.
A camper was on the ground, cowering and covering his head with his hands. Above him, clinging to the trunk of a massive oak tree, was what had once been a mouse. But this thing was the size of a large dog, with matted, dirty fur and glowing red eyes. Its proportions were all wrong - too-long limbs, oversized claws, and a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth.
The creature let out another ear-piercing screech as it spotted the new arrivals. Then, without warning, it leaped from the tree directly toward the terrified camper.
Vex moved with lightning speed, pulling out her pistol and firing a single shot that caught the abnormal mouse directly in the head.
But instead of dropping dead, something bizarre happened. The creature's head began to grow larger and larger, swelling up like a balloon. Its eyes bulged out comically as its skull expanded to three times its normal size.
Then, with a wet *POP*, the head exploded like a burst water balloon, spraying strange, glowing liquid in every direction.
"Gross!" Sarah shouted, ducking behind a tree to avoid the supernatural gore.
The headless body of the abnormal mouse twitched once and then collapsed to the ground, finally still.
"And that," Vex said, holstering her weapon, "is why we use paradox-disrupting ammunition."
Vex walked up to the traumatized camper, who was still cowering on the ground and muttering incoherently about "giant monster rats."
"Sorry about this," she said matter-of-factly, and delivered a precise karate chop to the back of his neck.
The camper immediately went limp and collapsed unconscious.
"Why did you do that?" Sarah asked, looking shocked.
"He was about to go back to town and tell everyone he saw a 'massive demon rat that exploded when shot,'" Vex explained, checking the man's pulse to make sure he was okay. "The more people who hear that story and believe it, the stronger the next abnormals in this area will become."
"So you just… knocked him out?" Monty asked.
"He'll wake up in a few hours with a headache and vague memories of getting lost in the woods," Vex replied. "Much better than him creating an urban legend that turns the next mouse abnormal into something the size of a bear."
She looked around the clearing, scanning the trees above them. "Speaking of which, where there's one abnormal mouse, there are usually more. And we still haven't found those pigeons."
As if summoned by her words, a horrible cawing sound echoed from deeper in the forest, followed by what sounded like multiple wings flapping.
"There they are," Vex said grimly, raising her rifle again.
Vex put on a pair of tactical glasses and scanned the area ahead. When they reached the source of the noise, they found themselves at the edge of a large clearing in the forest.
What they saw was chaos.
Dozens of abnormal rats, each the size of small dogs, had dug a massive hole in the center of the clearing. Above them, a flock of grotesquely mutated pigeons with wingspans twice their normal size were dive-bombing the rats, their beaks twisted into sharp, predatory hooks.
The rats and pigeons were fighting each other in a vicious territorial battle, screeching and cawing as they tore at each other with claws and beaks.
Vex sighed heavily. "Well, maybe they'll do the job for us," she said hopefully.
But as she watched more abnormals emerging from the hole and more deformed pigeons swooping down from the trees, she realized there were far too many of them.
She loaded up her AR and began shooting at the creatures, but after dropping only a few, she shook her head in frustration. "This'll take too long because there are so many of them."
"Screw it," Vex muttered, lowering her weapon.
She clapped her hands together and began mumbling words that none of them could hear clearly. Then she raised her hands toward the clearing and suddenly, thick burning ropes shot out from her palms, streaking through the air like flaming whips.
The ropes struck everything in front of her, incinerating rats and pigeons alike in brilliant flashes of fire.
As the smoke cleared from the incinerated abnormals, Kinnetos and Sarah stared at Vex in amazement.
"What was that?" Kinnetos asked. "You use fire like the killer did. How did you do it? I thought it was something specific to certain people."
Vex raised her hand, and a small flame appeared dancing on the tip of her finger like a tiny torch. "Paradox Energy is weird and can be formed into any energy that exists. Including fire."
"Any energy?" Sarah repeated, watching the small flame flicker.
"Pretty much," Vex nodded. "If you know the formula and combination for it, you can create fire attacks." She made the flame on her finger grow slightly larger, then smaller again. "And if you know that, you can just multiply it and create bigger fire attacks."
"So anyone with paradox abilities can learn to use fire?" Monty asked, clearly fascinated.
"It's kinda simple," Vex said, extinguishing the flame. "It'll just take a while to learn the proper formulas and energy conversions. The killer we fought probably spent years perfecting his fire manipulation."
She looked around the now-quiet clearing, making sure all the abnormals were eliminated. "That's why understanding the mathematical foundations is so important. Paradox energy follows rules, even if they're not the same rules as normal physics."
"Could we learn other energy types too?" Sarah asked eagerly.
"Eventually," Vex replied. "But first you need to master your own codes. Fire manipulation without a solid foundation is a good way to accidentally incinerate yourself."
As they made their way back through the forest toward Vex's portal door, Monty looked thoughtful.
"Well, we didn't really contribute much to this mission," he said, glancing back at the cleared area where the abnormals had been.
Vex chuckled, a rare sound from the usually serious woman. "Yeah, no. I just wanted to show off today."
She opened the portal door back to their base and gestured for them to go through. "But you will soon. We'll have a mission dedicated for both of you when you get your abilities under control."
"Really?" Sarah asked as they stepped through the doorway.
"Really," Vex confirmed, following them through and closing the portal behind her. "Once you understand your codes and can access your anchors reliably, you'll be going on real missions. Today was just… educational entertainment."
Kinnetos looked at his hands, thinking about the energy that had been leaking from him during their training runs. "How long do you think it'll take?"
"Could be days, could be weeks," Vex replied with a shrug. "Depends on how quickly you figure out what your paradox energy is trying to tell you."
As they walked back toward their quarters, all three of them were thinking about their training, about abnormals, and about the moment when they'd finally unlock their true abilities.