The Castle appeared floating above the Ocean without anyone noticing, nor knowing just exactly what it was for or who had put it up there. It looked like a castle so that's how it became known. Since its appearance, no one had claimed it, and frankly nor could claim it. The consensus was that only an alien technology could have kept it up there, seemingly immobile. But to the disappointment of those who hoped for aliens making contact, no creatures made their appearance over its shining round platforms or sleek towers. The Castle simply floated. Silent. Empty.
One day, to everyone's surprise, a powerful ray of energy shot from The Castle into space. Like a solid column of concentrated light, it crossed the atmosphere and pierced fiercely into space to disappear, disintegrating any rubble along the way. When the shot was gone and The Castle had returned to silence, there was no damage to the structure, not even a single scratch. Shots continued to happen twice a year like a tuned clock.
That was a game changer. Until then the value of The Castle had been debatable, for harnessing its floating technology was too difficult and costly. But a weapon was a real threat to humanity that justified all costs to gain its immense power.
A world race for its conquest began, which unfortunately ended with no results. After landing, it turned out that The Castle wasn't a fortress. It wasn't defending anything. No one operated it. And there was no machinery to support the theory it was a disguised weapon. Just no answers.
Years later, finally a change, a real one.
After a glitch, angel-looking creatures appeared on its surface. White like statues, with large wings, they looked striking and genuinely good. They moved freely in a skin that shined like white marble, yet their expressions remained impassive. Floating over the main platform, they opened their arms inviting humanity into a warm embrace, into salvation. No human had ever sculpted features so perfect.
Under the United Earth Coalition, an expedition landed on the Castle. The first contact was televised across the planet. The glow on the first explorer's face while taking his space-suit off to greet these magnificent creatures beamed through the TV screens of billions of people tuned in, holding their breaths. Finally, a boost in human evolution awaited!
Fairly taller than humans, their heads bent looking down into humble bows. Their features remained expressionless but solemn, still capable of captivating the heart of gullible humans. An angel stood right in front of the first explorer, behind him the other explorers gathered to seal this unforgettable moment. Just two steps away, the explorer extended his arm with confidence and wonder, seemingly unaware of the billions of people watching him.
In a matter of seconds all hope shuttered. The angel looked up, revealing a large mouth hidden under the chin of the glassy mask everyone thought it was its face. The mouth wet with drool opened wide. Its tongue thrusting inside wildly. The angel lowered its head and bit the human, impassively as if a matter of routine.
By then all the humans had already been surrounded, and bitten one after the other. Teeth digging deeper and deeper into the flesh. The screams of the humans trying to wrestle away exacerbated with the swings of their limbs shaking wildly. The scene bathed in blood, human blood.
The terror in their eyes was aired. Transmission interrupted.
After that, what survived were accounts passed on around the internet. As the accounts moved from mouth to mouth acquired more details and improvised explanations, most surely affected by the emotions and fears of those telling them.
It was said one of the explorers jumped off the platform, promptly caught by a stretched tongue of one of the angels. Someone else begged the angel to let her free, but the angel bare its sharp teeth and she died of fright. Another angel, having secured a human with its teeth, bent over to the floor on its hands and feet and rattled away like an insect, dragging the human with it through the gate of the main tower. And so on.
Anticlimactically, there was no invasion. The fact of the matter was angels had disappeared and never showed up again. The Castle returned to regularly shooting laser beams into space. There was an emptiness that needed to be filled.
People didn't forget, that one man,John Miller, had been taken away by the angel, and gone missing. He was never going to come back home. Many couldn't bare the thought. It didn't matter the kidnapping never happened.
A few months after the incident, some humans began displaying newfound powers. News media began dishing out every piece of information about them that they could get their hands on. The audience seemed it couldn't get enough of those possessing powers. News media clogged their channels with information about how powers worked and who had them. The best part was that the number of humans displaying powers grew with every news cycle. Humans were becoming invincible.
Backed by experts, news shows formulated that powers sprouted from an infection from angels' bites, and believed those powers put humans at the level of the angels, making them fit to fight the angels. Human rights NGOs wanted to find John Miller and retrieve his body from the angels. Although unlikely still alive, it was a vindication of the importance of human life in the face of a foreign threat. A call to action.
Incredibly the idea propelled governments to invest in programs for more explorations of The Castle. Audiences wanted fights, justice for humanity. But explorations were about conquering new technologies, new riches in whatever form they came. Could we learn from these angels how to become powerful, more evolved?
Quite frankly the number of people displaying powers were too many to have spurred by the tiny number of people involved in the fatal expedition.
All the same, powers seemed to become more and more common, and more or less detailed information of how infection spread and contagion became common too. Anyone could gain powers if they knew were to look. If you tried hard enough, you could gain those powers too and be admired as humanity's savior.
There was a cost, though, outside of official networks, a rumor spread of how people died because of the infection. But as more and more people improved their powers and appeared on talk shows, the strongest quickly yielded celebrity status. People began envying them, wanting to be like them, becoming their fans.
Many agencies set out to scout them, to have them work as hunters for the sake of humanity.
What does this has to do with me?
Infection completed. System restart.
I was born into this world, so I became a hunter.
Between you and me, my reasons to become a hunter were selfish.