Officer Nix scrutinized me from the other side of the table. His Guide screen was out, ready to type. This wasn’t an interrogation, inside a cramped room under the pressure of A ranked Hunters. We were actually in a pleasantly bright room with a painting of Gate Vale on the wall and matching mahogany table and chairs to sit at. If there was one thing upsetting in the whole room it was the security camera blatantly hanging in the corner.

Now, not only was my every action under the sharp eyes of the men across the table, but someone else that I couldn’t even see was probably watching on the other side of the camera.

The older officer seated next to Nix, named Officer Garth, tapped on his own Guide screen. “Can you tell us what happened this evening, Miss Devnro? Why were you in the gym with Mr. Iglesias? What did you talk about? What happened when the building collapsed?”

I paused, thinking. What was Marco going to say when they asked him what we were talking about? Technically, he was the one that was going to get in trouble if he was tied to the cult. I still had clean hands, for now.

“Marco and I were invited to the same party this weekend,” I said, being as vague with details as I could, tying a lie with the truth. “Going alone made me nervous so I was trying to find someone to hangout with while I was there. Marco and I don’t know each other that well, so I wanted to know if there was another girl going. You know, power in numbers kind of a thing.” For being a good girl my whole life, I didn’t know if it was a good thing that I was getting better at lying with a straight face and calm voice or not.

The men typed on their screens while I talked. When they were done, Officer Nix looked at me. “What happened after you were done talking?”

I shook my head. “We weren’t done talking yet. Out of nowhere, Marco just got shot. He screamed and fell down. Then a fireball landed in the gym and blew up. Everything was on fire, and Marco was unconscious. Then another fireball hit the outside of the gym and the building collapsed on us.” I hugged myself like I was freaked out. “It was so scary. I don’t know how we weren’t crushed. It was a miracle.” Yeah, a miracle of my own creation because of leveling up from all the dumb things I’d lived through over the past few months.

“Do you have any idea why this happened? Anything funny going on around you or Mr. Iglesias that you’ve noticed lately?” Officer Nix asked after he was done typing on his screen.

I frowned and looked at the painting of the Gate. “I don’t know about Marco. Like I said, I really don’t know him. We’ve talked only a couple times, both very recent.” I took a breath and jumped off the deep end. “But I think someone is trying to kill me.”

Both of the officers paused and looked at me. “Has something like this happened before?” Officer Garth asked.

I frowned, trying to figure out how much to tell them. Technically, right now would be the perfect time to lay it on the table. “Not in Eden. But several weeks ago, a man attacked me in the Gate. He died because he wasn’t careful in the Feng Rainforest. And I know there are two men stalking me right now.”

Officer’s Garth’s dark eyes narrowed. “Have you reported this?”

I shook my head.

“Why not?” Officer Nix demanded. “We can’t do anything if we don’t know anything.”

I looked at them, thinking about what I wanted to reveal. This was the main problem why I hadn’t reported it yet: There were a couple people I knew that wanted me dead, number one being Bethany Wilks. If there was another person, well he already tried to kill me with his own hands once. Unfortunately both were high profile people. But I couldn’t prove they were behind the attempts on my life. Without proper evidence, any accusations I presented would be swept under the table. After all, they had the money and backing to make any report disappear, especially Bethany Wilks, the daughter of a Hunter Councilman.

“Honestly, I can’t prove for sure who’s after me or why. I just know because of things they’ve said while I was hiding from them that implied they were going to kill me.”

“So you’ve seen them? What do they look like?”

I took a breath, thinking back to the first day I entered the Josu Rainforest. Luckily, it was still fresh in my mind. Something like seeing a man getting eaten alive in front of you was hard to forget. Slowly, I described Beaked Nose and his Mage buddy the best I could.

After I was done, the officers looked at each with a knowing glance.

My eyes narrowed. “Do you know who they are? Are they hitmen for hire?”

Officer Nix sighed. “Can you think of any reason they’d want to kill you? ” he asked instead of answering my question.

“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t know why anyone would kill me. I haven’t done anything wrong.” Really, I hadn’t. I’d never stolen anything from them, I never even said anything bad. My only offense was that I existed. Me, a measly E. God, it was frustration being labeled like that for something I couldn’t control.

But at least I finally reported the issue. After the gym blew up, the police couldn’t ignore the problem now that it was brought into Eden.

*****

The next morning, I found out that I exploded the Hunter forum chat — twice.

Hunters kept talking about how someone got shot in E District which led to the Hunter’s Association conducting a search on every gun owner in Eden — and even some surprise searches on some suspected unregistered gun owners. A couple of people were arrested, but that was all they knew about the subject. The Association was very effective at plugging up any leaking information.

But even they couldn’t hide the fact that the building that man got shot in exploded. I mean, the building was gone. By the time I woke up, every beam, piece of wall, broken shard of glass, and heat warped exercise equipment was gone. They even peeled up ruined blue flooring. If it wasn’t for the blacked concrete in the shape of the missing gym, it was like the building had never been there.

When I came down the stairs, the Hunters in the commons room were talking about it so loudly, throwing out speculations about what happened and why, that I simply walked right out the front door. There was no way I was going to get interrogated by them. I simply bought brunch and a lunch for later at a shop and ate the breakfast sandwich on the tram to the Gate.

The second way I made a splash in the Hunter pool was my behavior in the Josu Rainforest yesterday. Outside of the Gate, it was all about the gunshot and the exploding building, in Gate Vale, nearly every conversation I overheard was about how the Josu Ghost was apparently a Huntress. Probably the same woman that people saw months ago, fleeing from a Plesiosaurus by running on air. Back then, she appeared out of nowhere and disappeared just as fast. Now she was back again. People were dying to know about her unique magic style and how they could get her to join their teams.

When I landed in Josu Forest, a dozen or more teams were waiting around the transportation circle. Some were in the trees, some were on the ground taking up so much space that someone apparently had to put up another protective barrier to keep the ground monsters at bay.

Outside the faintly glowing larger barrier, packs of Velociorheas stalked the circle, staring at the group of Hunters inside. Whenever a pack got too close to another pack, they would shriek and snarl at each other. Thick tree roots clumped around the bottom of the barrier, twisting and wiggling around each other, and slithering up the barrier like snakes, searching for a weak spot to get in.

As soon as I landed on the ground, every eye focused on me. A second later, every eye looked away as a collective disappointed sigh whooshed through the musky air. My lips twitched in humor. Oh, if only they knew. But I wasn’t going to announce to the world who I was. Before I got these powers, all I wanted was a quiet life. Now that I had them, I still wanted that normal life. Just like I wanted a normal planet to live that life on.

I took a couple running steps and leapt into the trees. From there I sprinted away from the crowd as fast as I could. When I was sure no one was looking, I activated Stealth and jumped off the branch. Thirty feet from the ground, I activated Mist and spread my cloud out the full forty feet.

After yesterday, I had some serious doubts about using Mist in the rainforest again with all the people headhunting me. But the vision that it gave was such a bonus, it was worth the risk. Especially now that people were convinced that I wasn’t a monster.

My mist spilled across the ground and lower trees, filling in every nook and crevice. As it did, a thorough picture of my surroundings appeared in my head. I could see every patch of moss, every decaying leaf on the ground, inside every hidden cavity in every tree.

God, why was I doing it the hard way for so long? Like this, I could search so much faster. Sprinting like this, I could cover the bottom half of the forest in the afternoon, looking for the Cyan-Agaric. Then I could search the treetops for the Aero-Teuthida in the evening. I could kill two birds with one stone.

“Ma’am! Wait, Ma’am!” A woman yelled above me.

It took me a second to realize that she was talking to me. I paused and looked up to see the rainbow brigade standing on a branch above me. The pink colored Healer waved at me, a big smile on her face.

As soon as I stopped, I noticed a large group rushing in my direction. Most of whatever was coming was in the tree tops, but there were a couple dozen on land, obviously Velosiorheas. A moment later, a mob of Hunters pushed and shoved each other as they ran on the wet branches.

“I wanted,” Pink yelled down towards me, “to ask you if you would join our team? We think you’re really cool.” She obviously couldn’t tell where I was because she was looking at the spot five feet from me.

I blinked at her. If I did, what color would I have to be?

“Hey, back off! We’re going to recruit her!” A tall Huntress yelled and skidded to a stop on the branch right next to the rainbow brigade. Her boots slid across the wet bark, carrying her nearly right into Green, who was at the end of the line.

He stepped back to give her more room. When he did, his brawny elbow bumped into Purple right behind him. She gasped and stumbled back in surprise, waving her arms while she wobbled for balance. Green spun around and grabbed Purple to hold her steady, but not before Purple’s hand smacked Pink across the head.

Pink yelped and jerked in an exaggerated movement. The soles of her boots slipped right off the wet bark. She shrieked as she fell backwards. Orange, right next to her, dropped to his knees and reached for her. His fingers closed in the air, missing her pink robe by inches. Pink’s blood-curdling scream ripped through the air as she plummeted.

On the ground, the Velociorheas looked up expectantly.