We took some time to watch the board as it cycled through names.

The first time it ran through the D’s, Anne and I kept watch. Paul Drake’s name did not appear on it.

“He’s probably just not been able to check in,” Anne said.

I nodded. “I’m sure he’s fine.” After all, I hadn’t received a QUEST FAILED notification, so it was likely that he was okay, just… somewhere.

We were standing in front of the board when a lady with a helmet and fluorescent safety jacket came along and interrupted us. “Excuse me, have you registered for your meals?”

“We get meals?” I asked.

“Sure, young man. Do you have your ID card with you?”

“We didn’t have time,” replied Anne. “He dropped his wallet somewhere in the city, when the aliens were shooting at us.”

“I see. Do you have your ID?”

“Yes.” Anne dug a plastic card out of her jeans. “Anne Drake. Ninth grade, Everard High. We live at 2508 Pendleton.”

“All right.” She handed me a small piece of paper. “This is a meal voucher for you, young man. Your sister can show her ID card and she’ll be able to swipe it for a meal. I suggest you go to the cafeteria and get something to eat. Have you located your parents?”

“Not yet. My dad’s not showing,” Anne replied.

“Well, the board is still being updated. You can have a bite and it’ll be there when you get back.”

The cafeteria turned out to be quite organized. Several queues were lined up in front of tables with packets of food, which were being handed out by grim-looking men in uniform. Several policemen were walking around the lines, with batons visible in hand.

Anne and I were waiting in one line when a scuffle broke out between two men. Within seconds, two cops were there, rapidly separating and cuffing both the troublemakers.

“The cops seem to be effective at keeping order,” I muttered to Anne.

“Looks like it,” she replied.

Tables were set up across the cafeteria, but each seemed to be occupied by large families. Anne and I took our food packets to a ledge in the corner and dug in.

“Tastes like chicken,” I muttered, as I bit into cubes of some unidentifiable meat.

Anne giggled. “Dad says that any new type of meat tastes like chicken. For all you know, you might be eating crow.”

“If that’s the case, my new favourite dish is fried crow.”

“We’ll see what we can do, once we meet Dad.”

A thought struck me. “Anne…. once we get out of this… I need your help.”

“Sure.”

“I don’t exactly have a place to stay.”

Anne nodded. “Figures. What with the amnesia and everything. I think you should stay with us.”

“Us?”

“Me and Dad.”

“Wouldn’t your dad object?”

“I’ll just tell him you saved my life, then. It’s the least we can do.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem-o. Of course, this assumes the Sarnak haven’t trashed our place.”

Day turned to evening, and the bulletin board flickered through the D’s for the tenth time. We ate dinner, then were given a set of sleeping bags and directions to the common sleeping area.

“I would’ve thought they had dormitories,” I muttered.

“Families wanted to stay together,” replied Anne.

“You know a lot about this stuff.”

“Our school organized a debate on how the shelters were designed and why. It was really interesting.”

Minutes later, we found a place to bunk down, surrounded by hundreds of others. Most of the people there were asleep.

"Are you okay sleeping here?" I whispered to Anne.

"It's fine. There's two cops on duty." She pointed out two uniformed policemen, who were patrolling the hall. "Besides, it's not like we have a reservation at the Hilton."

I snorted. "Sure. I'm right here if you need anything."

"Right now, I just need sleep," replied Anne, zipping up the sleeping bag. "Good night."

"Good night," I replied.

Within a few minutes, the sound of soft snores emerged from Anne's sleeping bag. I smiled. She was a good kid. I was lucky to have met her when I … appeared.

Which didn't answer the question of why I was here.

Or who I was. Or why I had a weird superpower which I could not understand.

Or why, despite lying back in a reasonably comfortable sleeping bag, I wasn't at all sleepy.

Possibly the effect of the running around all day and some leftover adrenaline in my system?

Hmm.

I wondered if my power had any hints about what was happening to me.

The blue screen I'd seen had some hints about me. Could it possibly have more?

Maybe if I went through it in more detail, I could get a clue about my past.

I tried to summon it again.

"Blue screen," I whispered.

Nothing happened.

"Self-awareness list."

Nothing.

"Weird numbers?"

"Andrew Drake's bio?"

"Stats?"

Still nothing.

I tried to recreate the feeling I'd had when it had shown up for the first time.

Nothing, and I couldn't be sure I'd gotten the feeling right.

I hadn't said anything the first time, so maybe I had to think it?

I ran through the choices again, this time mentally, and nothing happened.

Maybe I just had to want it badly enough?

I tried to want.

Nothing. I also realised that trying to want something consciously when you're not sure you actually want it is a fairly strange feeling.

YOU HAVE GAINED A PHILOSOPHICAL INSIGHT INTO THE NATURE OF DESIRE AND LONGING.

VERY MATURE FOR YOUR AGE.

+1 TO WISDOM.

Oh for crying out loud…

Maybe I just need to see those… attributes.

Attributes, I thought.

The screen popped up in front of me.

NAME: UNASSIGNED

CLASS: UNKNOWN

FACTION: NONE

LEVEL: 2

XP: 150/2000

ATTRIBUTES:

STR: 10

DEX: 10

VIT: 11

INT: 15

WIS: 14

CHA: 10

PER: 12

ATT: 13

LUK: 8

UNUSED ATTRIBUTE BOOSTS: 1

SWIPE LEFT FOR MORE

I swiped left.

SKILLS:

UNARMED COMBAT LVL 1

HIERARCHY LORE LVL 1

ETHICS METER: +10

TITLES:

THE NOBLE SAVAGE: +150% TO TESTS REQUIRING WISDOM WHEN NAKED.

And that stupid title…

The 'Skills' list seemed new, though. I wondered if I could understand it better.

I wondered what would happen if I touched the letters….

I touched the words 'Unarmed Combat' for a second. They expanded:

UNARMED COMBAT: THE ART OF DEFEATING YOUR FOES USING ONLY YOUR BODY AS A WEAPON.

REQUIREMENTS: 10 WISDOM, 10 DEXTERITY.

LEVEL 1: YOU CAN BEAT UP SMALL KITTENS BY YOURSELF. KEEP PRACTICING AND YOU MAY BE ABLE TO OVERPOWER AN ANGRY PUPPY.

My 'power' was starting to get annoying.

What was Hierarchy Lore, though?

HIERARCHY LORE: KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIERARCHY, THE ALLIANCE OF ALIENS AT WAR WITH MANKIND.

REQUIREMENTS: 15 INTELLIGENCE, 10 WISDOM.

LEVEL 1: WITH THE EXCEPTION OF A FEW FACTS, YOU KNOW LESS THAN A NINTH GRADER. KEEP YOUR EARS OPEN AND YOU MAY BE ABLE TO DO SOME GOOD SOMEDAY. MAYBE.

Another snarky remark….

ETHICS METER: +10

YOU HAVE SOME GOOD KARMA. MAYBE YOU'RE NOT A COMPLETE WASTE OF SPACE. OR MAYBE YOU'RE JUST A GOODY TWO SHOES. YOU DECIDE.

What the hell?

Was this my power, a stream of constant put downs and sarcastic quotes aimed at me?

What kind of stupid power design….

My brain skidded to a halt. Design? I knew nothing about superpowers in general. Maybe they were all like this, for all I knew.

Who would design superpowers, anyway?

More to the point - my screen told me nothing about who I was, or my past. Hell, even my name was a big glaring UNASSIGNED.

Not Unknown, but Unassigned.

Was it possible I'd never been named at all?

No, that made no sense. I knew I was a human, and human beings had names. Right?

Besides, I knew stuff – things that a normal human should know, like history and geography and arithmetic. Sure, I had a few gaps in my knowledge base – like the whole alien invasion thing – actually, I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

But to learn those things, I must have gone to school. Somewhere and sometime.

And if I'd gone to school, I had to have a name.

Maybe it'd come back. Maybe I'd get a quest that led me to discover it.

Until then, I'd just have to be pragmatic and go with …. Something.

What name would I choose for myself, if I could?

The only one that came to mind was the one Anne had come up with. A half second of thought, to get us out of a tricky situation.

Andrew.

Did I feel like an Andrew? Or was I a Toby or a James or a Bryan instead?

None of the names seemed to resonate.

Except….

Andrew somehow felt more right.

There was no reason why, but it still felt more…. me, than any of the others.

A new box popped up:

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCEPT THE NAME 'ANDREW'?

YES / NO

…..

I could choose my name?

….

Not that it would help, since I had no idea what else I would want to be called.

….

Eh, why not.

I reached up and touched the 'Yes'.

YOU NOW HAVE THE FIRST NAME 'ANDREW'.

HIDDEN QUEST ALERT: EARN YOUR NAME! EARN A FIRST NAME, A SURNAME, AND A SUPERHERO NAME.

REWARD: +100 XP FOR EACH NAME + NAME SPECIFIC REWARDS.

COMPLETED 1 OF 3 STEPS: YOU HAVE GAINED A FIRST NAME. +100 XP.

NEXT STEP: GAIN A SURNAME. BE WARNED, NAMES HAVE CONSEQUENCES.

I swiped left. The box disappeared.

My attribute screen had updated:

NAME: ANDREW ????

XP: 250/2000

Was there a list of quests somewhere?

Quests, I thought to myself.

A list appeared:

QUEST: FIND ANNE'S FATHER. QUEST: EARN YOUR NAME.

Okay, so that made for a handy reference.

What else might I be able to understand?

What was XP, anyway?

XP - EXPERIENCE POINTS. THESE ARE A QUANTITATIVE REPRESENTATION OF YOUR LEARNING AND LIFE EXPERIENCES. OVER TIME, AS YOU GAIN XP, YOU ELEVATE YOURSELF TO A NEW LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING AND ABILITY.

XP ARE GAINED THROUGH ACHIEVING QUESTS, DEVELOPING SKILLS, AND THROUGH COMBAT. THE MORE CHALLENGING A QUEST, SKILL OR BATTLE, THE MORE XP ARE EARNED FOR ITS COMPLETION.

YOU ARE CURRENTLY AT 250 XP. YOU NEED 2000 XP TO ACHIEVE LEVEL 3.

I'd known I had levels - it had shown in my messages - but what did that mean?

LEVELS - THE MARK OF A SENTIENT IS ITS NATURE TO IMPROVE ITSELF. AS A SENTIENT BEING PROGRESSES THROUGH LIFE, ITS LIFE EXPERIENCES ELEVATE IT TO HIGHER LEVELS OF CAPABILITY. THESE LEVELS CAN BE QUANTIFIED.

THE TRANSITION FROM ONE LEVEL TO THE NEXT OCCURS SEAMLESSLY AS THE INDIVIDUAL GAINS XP.

TO REPRESENT THE ACTUAL GAIN IN CAPABILITY, UPON TRANSITION OR LEVELLING UP, YOU ARE GIVEN THE OPTION TO PERMANENTLY ENHANCE ONE OF YOUR ATTRIBUTES. THIS IS AN ATTRIBUTE BOOST.

YOU HAVE 1 UNUSED ATTRIBUTE BOOSTS.

CHOOSE WHICH TRAIT YOU WISH TO APPLY IT TO.

I could improve my attributes?

I had to test this.

Which to test on … hmm.

Let's see …. Vitality.

VITALITY: LIVING BEINGS ENDURE. VITALITY IS A MEASURE OF THAT ENDURANCE.

I mentally focused on Vitality.

Nothing happened at first.

Then a text box appeared.

INCREASE VITALITY BY 1 POINT?

YES / NO.

I touched the YES.

VIT: 12.

HP INCREASED BY 10.

Wait….

HP?

HP: HEALTH POINTS.

HEALTH POINTS REPRESENT THE DEGREE OF DAMAGE YOU CAN TAKE BEFORE YOU SHUFFLE OFF THIS MORTAL COIL.

DO PAY ATTENTION TO THEM.

WHEN ENGAGING IN COMBAT, KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR HEALTH POINTS. IF THEY GO DOWN TO ZERO, YOU GO DOWN - PERMANENTLY.

HEALTH POINTS RECOVER NATURALLY WITH TIME, FOOD, AND MEDICAL ATTENTION.

What?

Oh well, better figure this one out too.

"Health Points," I whispered.

HP: 120/120

REGEN RATE: 0.12/SEC.

Okay. That meant…. something.

Did other creatures have HP as well? Or rather, did my power characterize them as having HP?

What about the Sarnak?

Could my power …. tell me something about it?

TEST OF WISDOM: PASSED.

YOU HAVE GAINED A BONUS QUEST DUE TO YOUR HIGH WISDOM!

QUEST ALERT: GAIN INSIGHT INTO A FALLEN FOE.

REWARD: +50 XP.

Aaand my power was really weird. My high wisdom? Seriously?

I summoned my attributes screen again.

This time, the display had changed slightly.

NAME: ANDREW ??????

CLASS: UNKNOWN

FACTION: NONE

LEVEL: 2

XP: 250/2000

HP: 120/120

CUSTOMIZE VIEW?

I could do that?

OPTION: HIDE CLASS AND FACTION DATA UNTIL ACQUIRED.

YES/NO.

I touched YES. The display appeared more concise now. I flicked through ATTRIBUTES, SKILLS, and QUESTS, moments passing as I looked at each.

HIERARCHY LORE.

The letters glared at me.

Could I understand more about the Sarnak by…. just looking at them?

A tiny button appeared below the letters: BESTIARY. A gentle touch, and the blue screen vanished, replaced by what looked like a black encyclopaedia page.

ENEMY SPECIES

SARNAK

Touching it pulled up a picture of the alien I’d seen this morning.

SARNAK GROUND TROOPER

LEVEL 12

THE SARNAK ARE THE FOOT SOLDIERS OF THE HIERARCHY. THEY ARE STRONG, LOYAL TO THEIR MASTERS, AND BRUTAL IN THEIR DISCIPLINE.

A TYPICAL SARNAK STANDS SIX FEET THREE INCHES TALL AND WEIGHS 180 KILOS.

SARNAK SOLDIERS ARE EQUIPPED WITH HEAVY COMBAT ARMOR AND HIGH ENERGY PLASMA RIFLES.

BASE HP: 500 ARMOR: 50 (BODY), 25 (LIMBS), 25 (HELMET - IF EQUIPPED).

TOTAL HP: 600

ATTRIBUTES:

STR 30 DEX 8 VIT 30 INT 5 WIS 2 CHA 0 PER 5 ATT 0 LUK 0

WEAPONS/ATTACKS:

PLASMA RIFLE +100 DAMAGE/HIT +25% BURN, 4 SHOTS / MINUTE

COMBAT KNIFE +60 DAMAGE/HIT

BAREHAND PUNCH +30 DAMAGE/HIT

KNOWN WEAK POINTS:

EYES +400% TO DAMAGE

Good grief. The Sarnak I'd fought had been three times as strong as me. And five times the health Points. Plus a gun that could kill me in two hits.

I'd been incredibly lucky.

What was Burn?

BURN: +10 FIRE DAMAGE/SEC.

ON HIT, WEAPON HAS 25% CHANCE TO INFLICT BURN ON TARGET.

So, the Sarnak's weapon did set things on fire.

Very lucky indeed.

Although the Sarnak having zero on some attributes was a good thing. Certainly my being luckier than it. Though I had a feeling 8 Luck wasn't particularly impressive.

Interestingly…

My Health Points were basically Vitality times ten. The Sarnak's were twenty times its Vitality. So there were probably some modifiers there.

Were there other details for aliens?

More to the point, this was a Sarnak ground trooper. And it was Level 12.

They must have officers and commanders as well. Those were probably higher level. And tougher to beat.

Why was I thinking of fighting the Sarnak anyway? I wasn't a warrior.

My mind flashed back to a bloody hubcap.

Okay, maybe I wasn't a warrior, but it seemed that war had come to me.

I'd need to be ready to fight.

QUEST COMPLETED!

YOU HAVE GAINED INSIGHT INTO THE SARNAK, A CLIENT SPECIES OF THE HIERARCHY.

YOU HAVE ACCEPTED THE TRUTH OF THE WAR-TORN WORLD YOU FIND YOURSELF IN, AND RECONCILED YOURSELF TO YOUR DUTY. A WISE CHOICE.

+50 XP.

BONUS REWARD: +1 TO WISDOM.

Huh, self-realization resulted in wisdom gains. Who knew.

Also, high wisdom appeared to result in hidden quests getting unlocked and bonus XP. Which meant a chance of getting more boosts.

Although….

Maybe high wisdom just unlocked quests that needed wisdom. Other attributes might unlock quests more slanted towards them. Like physical challenges for strength, intellectual challenges for Intelligence, or… well, I'd have to find out.

Then again, I had a specific skill called Observe. Maybe it would help me find out things?

The interface helpfully displayed a description:

OBSERVE: TO SEE IS TO UNDERSTAND. USING THIS SKILL ON AN APPROPRIATE OBJECT OR PERSON WILL REVEAL DETAILS ABOUT THEM WHICH WERE OTHERWISE NOT OBVIOUS AT FIRST SIGHT. AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS, EFFECTIVE OBSERVATION YIELDS SPECTACULAR RESULTS.

REQUIREMENTS: 10 WISDOM, 10 PERCEPTION.

LEVEL 1: VIEW ENEMY LEVEL, HP.

VIEW SPECIAL OBJECT DESCRIPTION.

CHANCE OF INTUITIVE LEAP:

INT + PER + LUK - ENEMY LEVEL, MAXIMUM 50%.

CURRENT CHANCE: 35% - ENEMY LEVEL.

ENERGY COST: 3 MP/USE.

What was Energy cost? And Intuitive Leap?

INTUITIVE LEAP: A BLINDING INSIGHT THAT REVEALS A CRITICAL SECRET ABOUT YOUR TARGET.

ENERGY METER: UNLOCKED.

MENTAL ENERGY IS USED TO MANIPULATE THE REALITY OF THE WORLD THROUGH THOUGHT. THE GREATER THE DEGREE OF CHANGE TO BE EFFECTED, THE MORE ENERGY IS CONSUMED.

MENTAL ENERGY IS ALSO USED TO DEFEND AGAINST PSYCHIC ATTACKS AND MIND CONTROL.

MANAGED CAREFULLY, IT CAN CHANGE THE DYNAMICS OF THE BATTLEFIELD. MISMANAGED, IT CAN SEE THE USER BROKEN AND ENSLAVED IN SECONDS.

ENERGY: 225/225 MP (MENTAL ENERGY POINTS)

REGEN: 3 MP/SECOND

Whoa!

225 points?

It seemed quite impressive. Enough for…. 75 uses of Observe, and a full recharge in 75 seconds.

That MP was used as a psychic defence also seemed important to remember. I'd had a mind for less than a day and didn't want to end up mind-controlled.

Could that be what had happened to me, though? Could I have been mind-controlled and only now gotten free?

It would explain a few things. Though not all.

I wondered about what would happen if I used my new skill.

I stared at the ceiling. "Observe," I whispered.

MP: 222/225

A CEILING. NOTHING SPECIAL OR INTERESTING HERE.

…. Okay, so Observe didn’t work everywhere.

I wondered if I could Observe myself.

…. No dice.

Could I trigger an Intuitive Leap deliberately?

SKILL UNLOCKED: PROPHET’S ROULETTE

PROPHET’S ROULETTE: ONCE A DAY, YOU CAN DELIBERATELY TRIGGER AN INSIGHT, BASED ON YOUR LUCK AND INTELLIGENCE. IF YOU ARE LUCKY AND SMART, YOU WILL LEARN SOMETHING NEW. IF YOU ARE NOT, YOU WILL END UP WITH A MAJOR HEADACHE.

QUALITY OF INSIGHT IS RANDOMIZED. RESETS EVERY 24 HOURS.

ENERGY COST: 100 MP + 50 MP/LEVEL.

DAILY LIMIT: 1

TRIGGER PROPHET’S ROULETTE? YES/NO

200 MP?

Well, it wasn’t as if my points were going anywhere. And they had recharged to 225 anyway. I’d still have some to spare...

I chose YES.

For a second, my head rang, as if struck by a hammer.

Then letters appeared:

TEST OF LUCK: PASSED

TEST OF INTELLIGENCE: PASSED

MENTAL ENERGY POINTS = INT X WIS

MENTAL ENERGY REGEN = INT X LEVEL / 10 PER SEC

….. There was a mathematical explanation for it!

My maximum MP were my intelligence multiplied by my wisdom; my recharge rate was ten per cent of my intelligence multiplied by level.

Maybe there was a similar explanation for my HP also.

I couldn’t trigger another Prophet’s Roulette for a day, so I’d have to wait till then.

What else could I do?

….. A snore interrupted my train of thought.

Well… that was a hint. Tomorrow was likely to be a long day - I’d best sleep.

I closed my eyes, and in seconds darkness claimed me.