The morning haze rolled off the roofs of Crescent City as Alex walked briskly toward the RSA Regional Branch compound. The building loomed ahead like a sleeping titan—tall, square, and obsidian black, veined with silver light that pulsed faintly at its edges. Two robotic sentries scanned him with red sensor eyes as he passed through a shimmer-field gate.
Kael was waiting just inside, as if he knew Alex would come.
"Told you the system would get under your skin," Kael said, grinning. "Follow me."
Inside, the compound hummed with energy. White halls stretched in clean symmetry, lined with floating info-panes. Awakeners in sleek uniforms passed by, some bearing visible elemental marks—crackling fingertips, glowing pupils, translucent tattoos pulsing with runic lines.
Alex's heartbeat quickened. This world felt real now. Tangible.
They stopped at a biometric console embedded in the wall. Kael gestured toward it.
"Time to register. This links your awakening to your legal identity, your element, and your starting rank. You'll also be bound to RSA field laws from here on."
Alex hesitated for only a second before placing his palm on the scanner.
Light pulsed beneath his hand. The machine buzzed.
Subject: Alex Orin
Element Detected: Lightning
Status: Stable Awakening (Recent)
Classification: E-2 Initiate
Access Level: 1
Special Marker: Fluctuating resonance—potential latent trait flagged
Kael whistled. "Huh. Your lightning signature is odd. Like it's wearing a mask. But that's above my paygrade."
Alex said nothing. He felt it too—that disguise. Deep within, something greater stirred. Something older than lightning. Every night since the bite, he'd felt it coiling inside him, watching.
A weight in his chest. A whisper behind his thoughts.
"Grow stronger," it seemed to say. "Or be devoured."
Kael handed him a sleek black bracelet with a crystalline core.
"Your RSA unit. Tracks your missions, health, and authority level. You'll need this to enter training zones and accept tasks."
Alex slid it on, and it clicked into place like it had always belonged.
"And your benefits?" Kael smiled as he tapped on a nearby screen.
RSA Initiate Benefits (E-2 Class):
Monthly stipend: 300 credits
Basic enhancement pills: 2/month
Medical/energy support at all RSA branches
Combat simulator access (Tier E)
Emergency teleport marker (1-time use)
Access to Tier E and D missions
Elemental channeling permit
"All of this for joining?" Alex asked, surprised.
Kael smirked. "You're on the books now. Legally recognized, federally tracked, and expendable—like the rest of us. Congratulations."
The Unease Inside
Despite the sarcastic tone, Alex didn't feel amused.
Since the night in the alley, he'd felt it: a growing uneasiness, like he was a container being slowly filled with something too vast to hold. His body twitched with surges of energy when he was alone. Sometimes his vision blurred and the world around him warped. His dreams were filled with stars. With a voice. With the world forming inside him.
The lightning was just a veil.
He knew this instinctively. It wasn't paranoia—it was instinct, primal and certain.
Something inside him was waking—and it had its own agenda.
If he didn't get stronger fast, it might consume him before he could control it.
First Mission: Urban Surge
The next morning, Kael sent him his first assignment.
MISSION: Sector C-9 Grid Surge
Type: Containment
Objective: Assist in subduing a rogue elemental causing power grid disruptions. Suspected element: Electric (unstable).
Alex rode with a field team in an RSA carrier van. The team leader was a woman named Captain Mira—short, muscular, with red flame tattoos on both arms. She didn't speak much.
When they reached the scene, chaos reigned. Sparks flew from light poles, transformers burst in fountains of fire, and people were running from a barely-controlled teen crackling with uncontrolled electrical bursts. He floated two feet off the ground, eyes wide with panic, fingers pulsing with blue arcs.
Mira nodded to Alex. "You're lightning. You're up."
Alex stepped forward, uncertain—until instinct kicked in.
He raised his hand, focused on his breath, and visualized flow, not force. The pendant's echo guided him.
A sharp arc shot from his palm—clean, precise, controlled. It struck the boy at a key nerve point and sent him crashing to the ground, dazed but unharmed.
The team moved in quickly with suppression cuffs.
Mira glanced back at him. "For an Initiate, you've got teeth."
Three missions followed over the next week—each harder than the last. One involved a runaway pyrokinetic in a subway tunnel. Another, a containment breach in a lab. He handled them all. Barely.
Each fight fed the star within. And each night, he watched his inner world grow: landmasses forming, energy storms crackling, skies thickening. It wasn't complete yet—but it was close.
He knew that when it stabilized, space would awaken.
And then things would change.
Plans and Family Ties
Back at the orphanage, Alex scrolled through his RSA bracelet interface and reopened the file he'd bookmarked: the Sael'Var Family.
"One of the seven noble vampire bloodlines.
Affinity: Spatial manipulation, distortion, and compression.
Known for discipline, secrecy, and high-level recruit standards.
Status: Neutral toward RSA, aligned with internal Vampire Council.
Location: Obscured. Contact possible through encrypted channels after meeting elemental criteria."
He stared at their crest: a silver spiral enclosed by stars.
The same spiral he'd glimpsed in his dream.
He knew what he had to do.
"I'll rise through the RSA ranks first," he whispered, "and when the time is right—I'll join them."
The lightning would open doors.
But the space power—the truth behind it—would decide his place in the hidden world.
And in the dark corners of Crescent City, someone watched him with interest—a figure cloaked in shadow and blood, waiting for his next move.