There’s a loud bang, waking me up from my nap. I open my eyes and move my arms. My arms are trapped beneath a warm blanket and I wrap it up closer to me. Did Kaiden give me a blanket or did Gates come in earlier? No, Gates wouldn’t be so kind but I don’t know much about Kaiden. I raise my hand to my face, feeling my fingers brush across my horns. I lower my hand, then rub the sleep out of my eyes. Something hits the ground and I hear an over exaggerated yawn. “God damn!” A girl gasps. “You’re so lucky you don’t have to go to school anymore, Kai.” There’s some movement as it draws closer and the footsteps stop. I turn over to see a tall girl with long brown hair and somewhat lanky limbs. She strikes me of a sportsman. Maybe a warrior, her arms suggest experience with a sword. She’s wearing a uniform, a blue blazer with a coat of arms on it and a skirt with gray and blue lines going vertically down the length of the skirt.

There’s a guy behind her too. The guy is short but wide. Not plump but stocky. He’s muscular and barrel chested with shaved, brown hair. He strikes me as plain, perhaps a bit baby-faced with a square jaw. He’s wearing a blazer like the girl, but instead of a skirt, he’s wearing gray trousers. I’m almost certain that Lucifer said I was going to America, a continent on the Mortal Plane. But he said that they were casual-wear to schools, not uniforms. I pull off the blanket, folding it up in my hands and the girl and boy exchange looks.

“Kai?” The girl asks. Kai looks over at us and shrugs, returning to his work with the mechanical thingies he spoke about. “As much help as usual,” he mutters. “Who are you? And what’s with the-” she points at her forehead and I exhale. Everyone keeps referring to my horns, I’m starting to get tired of it. I tilt my head back, not wanting to answer, I’m tired of giving people answers, I’m tired of being scared and being some piece of shit’s dog. I just want things to be reliable and if I can’t make my own way through life, then what’s the point of gaining my freedom. “What’s going on, cat’s got your tongue?”

Kai raises his head again, standing silently and approaching from the table. There’s a loud clicking sound from the ground and he’s being followed by large spider-like constructs. The girl shrieks as they come closer, jumping back a couple feet landing on a chair reaching for her side for a sword that isn’t there. “No yelling. No fighting,” Kai hisses. “New member. She’s cool.”

She looks at me then Kai and snorts. “First, get the spiders away from me!” She shrieks. Kai looks stunned and he waves off the spiders. She seems to calm a little and she drops down from the chair. “Second, Kai vouching for a girl. Kai, you don’t vouch for anything, unless she’s a robot in disguise.”

Kai blushes and shakes his head. “Elmira isn’t a robot. She’s our new team member. My brother brought her.” He returns to his station again, but he doesn’t stop working, he has his eye completely focused on me. There’s a distinct feeling of absorption in me. I’m not sure what it is but if what he said is true, his absorption in me could just purely be curiosity. It’s not like I haven’t seen that look before, but he’s the only person who I can’t understand his intentions. At least with my brothers, their absorption was completely brotherly or closer, Kai seems distracted. It’s not brotherly nor is it affection, it’s analysis.

His hands start moving, he picks up a chunk of a pliant gray goo, slowly forming it into a small figure. I force myself to break eye contact, in case I treat him in the same way he’s been treating me. The girl approaches me, looking at me, curiosity bristling in her eyes. “Hey there, Elmira. I’m Gabriella Einhart. Gabbie for short. Basically, my power makes any weapon I wield more powerful, but I stick to a rapier. I project the weapon forward in a force can pierce metal. The big guy behind me is Walter Marnie. He can-”

“Let me say it. I’ve got a better understanding of my own power,” Walter says. He sits down on the side of the table and he looks me in the eye. I almost break eye contact, but he breaks it first, grimacing as if he can’t manage sustained eye contact with me. “Anyway. I change carbon molecules. I can change any type of carbon if I’m touching it. I can make something as weak as graphite or as strong as diamonds. This includes my skin.” I try to imagine that, changing your skin to diamond, what’s that like? “What about you?”

I pull my knees up to my chest, quailing at all the attention I’ve drawn. I shiver and I let my eyes wander for a moment. “Uh,” I murmur. I feel my eyes scan the room as if trying to avoid this whole conversation, but I take a deep breath. “Warlock. I’m a channeler-warlock.” I spout the lies Gates gave me. I don’t like lying, it makes me feel like I’m hiding from my past, which is exactly what I’m doing, but that doesn’t mean I want to be hiding. I’m just scared, scared of the world out there, that I’ll be lumped in with the invasion too.

“Like Gates?” Gabbie questions. I snap my head up to look at her and then I nod. What’s with Gates? Dennis knew her, she also knows the director, which I imagine has a similar amount of power to one of the Arcanists. Why is she so famous. “So we finally got a magic user. I’m happy, they’re so rare and I was worried we’d be one of those Vigor sinks. Just a failure team.”

“A-” I tilt my head to the side, giving her a questioning gaze. “Failure? What?”

“Have you been living under a rock? Failure teams, Vigors with no magic users. They don’t have much of a showing. They’re strong in specific situations but when it comes to general situations, magic users are superior,” Gabbie responds. “Like, there’re tons of Vigors in comparison to magic users.”

“Why?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. There’s a talent for magic, it’s a precise science and abilities… Well, they aren’t, it’s not earned like magic, but why don’t you know? Shouldn’t you know this? I mean the information is easily available.” I shrug and pull my legs onto the chair, pulling my knees against my chest. “Right. If you need anything, just say. Oh, and your room is the third door-” she points at one of the doors, the third door along the line. “I doubt Kai would’ve told you anyway.”

Gabbie and Walter exchange glances then stalk away, leaving me alone, thankfully without asking any further questions. They enter the kitchen opening the silver box and pulling out food. I watch them, curious as to how it works. Does it dispense food, or is it storage? It must be storage. They take their food and sit at the island, eating their food in relative silence, the only time they speak is to talk about school, what they did and what they learned. None of what they talk about is easy to recognize, I understand the words, but the names mystify me.

I feel unwelcome like I don’t belong and the inability to follow their conversation doesn’t make it easy to feel welcome. It doesn’t get easier with a knock at the door. Gabbie raises her head from her food and she approaches the door. I raise the blanket over my head, to hide my horns and she opens the door. Gates strolls in without waiting to be greeted or without being welcomed in, she’s followed in by Hercules, his arms draped in a plethora of different bags. From cardboard to plastic. “Holy shit, Gates?” Gabbie gushes. “I’m a m-”

“Room,” Gates commands. “Where is it?” She’s looking at me and I raise a finger toward my room. “Follow.” I stand up, letting the blanket fall to the floor and shuffle along grudgingly. She leads me to the room and she opens the door.

The room is massive, just like everything else. There’s a queen size bed with white covers and large pillows, a massive black window. There’s a mirror and a set of wooden drawers and a bookcase. There’s also a steel desk with a strange machine on it. Something that it seems Kai would work on. There’s also two doors, one with a corrugated door which I assume to be a wardrobe.

Gates walks up next to the window and taps the wall, the window becomes transparent allowing me sight of the massive neighboring buildings and the sun. It’s like magic, maybe it is magic. Gates walks over to the corrugated door and opens it pointing at Hercules.

He sighs. “I wish you would stop treating me like your mule. I thought when you contacted me it was an emergency.” He steps into the room then returns the bags missing. “I’m done. You can hang ‘em up yourself. Seriously. Get someone else to help next time, or better yet, summon those demons.”

“It was an emergency. And no demons. Can’t, not with her.” Hercules shakes his head and leaves the room, leaving me alone with Gates. I smirk, not happy to be alone with her. She walks into the wardrobe then sticks her head out, looking at me. I follow and step inside, being greeted with shelves and hangers lining bars. She digs through the bags on the floor, withdrawing a few clothes. When she decides on one, she hangs it easily on one of the hangers or folds it, putting it on one of the shelves.

She finally finds what she wants to find. A short black skirt with a loose white belt and brass decorations. She pairs it with a white blouse and a blue jacket, which she passes to me with underwear.

I take them and she points at me. “Put them on and then wait for me.” I return into the room dropping the clothes on the bed and then slowly pull off the leather clothing I’m wearing. It peels away and I drop it on the ground before moving on to my pants and then removing my underwear. I sigh, grabbing the clothes. She’s so arrogant, so difficult to talk to, I don’t like Gates at all, no matter how much she’s been helping me she makes it seem like it’s a burden to be helped.

I pull on the clothes, quickly, as if I’m being rushed, it’s something that I’ve done since I was young, in the Demon Plane. I leave the blouse one button from the top and then pull the jacket on, zipping it up tight. It doesn't seem to hide my features as well as the stuff my brothers had me dressed in. It's not as if I have to hide who I am in this world- well the exception being my horns. I stand up and look in the mirror, I look good, but at the same time, I look lost… Trapped.

Gates exits with shoes and socks in her grasp. She drops them on the ground in front of me. “Put them on now. We’re going to check whether you can use magic. You damn well hope you can or you’re going to be in a lot of trouble.”

I grab the socks, pulling them onto my feet. “Why do you have to be so crude? Why are you treating me like the dirt? What have I done to you? Why are you being just as difficult as my brothers?”

“I’m helping you,” she growls. “I’m doing what I can give you a life here. You should be respectful, be happy that I’m going out of my way to help you.”

“And I am glad,” I hiss. “But you’re exploiting me! You’re a warlock, I know your kind. You’re more interested in demons than you are humans and I’m filling that void. You’re giving me as much as you’re gaining, so back off!”

She seems stunned but she transitions with a jerk of her head, symbolizing a nod. “Fine, but you should know I’m treating you how I would everyone else. Don’t expect any better.”

I slump my shoulders, drained. I just don’t want to deal with her, I can’t deal with her. Janus was right, she’s an incredibly difficult person. What is with this place drawing difficult people? The director, Gates and Kai. That’s just under half. I need to endure, maybe I can get used to it, maybe they’ll warm up to me. I slip on the shoes before standing up straight and looking at Gates.

Gates leads the way out and I follow slowly. Gabbie and Walter are still sitting at the island, confused, they haven’t had the pleasure of dealing with Gates before. Apparently people aren’t what you might think they are like. Kai is looking up from his work, but he’s mostly looking at me, that’s a guy who has seen Gates before and knows what she’s like. She leads me to the range and points at the target. “Let me explain. A warlock isn’t like a normal magician. Their magic only works if they’re confident. There is no waving of the fingers or chanting. You command demon magic to do your bidding. Remember the Demon Lords and the areas they govern and then command them to assist you. If you see a demon, command them to do what you want them to do. That is a warlock. Confidence is key.”

“So you’re saying we could be a warlock,” Gabbie laughs.

“Only warlocks can be warlocks,” Gates growls, not happy about the distraction. “They need to be tied to the Demon Plane.” She raises a hand, pointing at one of the human shaped targets. “Sathanus, burn my enemies!” She yells. A circle burns to life, a small runic circle in the air. A plume of flame explodes outward, roaring loudly and the target is reduced to ashes. It’s like Sathanus’ demon masters, the rank underneath him. Powerful, but nowhere near as capable as Sathanus himself or even the Arcanists. “You now,” she whispers. Clearly she doesn't know what chanting is.

“I- uh,” I stutter.

“Confidence!” She shrieks. “Without confidence how the hell are you supposed to be a warlock without confidence?”

I clench my fists, leering at her. She grimaces and I turn to face the targets. I raise my hand, grinding my teeth. “S- Sathanus, incinerate my target!” I know that she said there’s no chanting, so this should be fine. Silence, it fizzled, it didn’t even work.

“Again. No confidence. If you can’t be confident, fake it. Don’t stutter and act like you are telling him what to do. Tell him just like you told me just a few moments ago. Channel your confidence at me, but at someone else.”

So she means hate. She wants me to be bitter. Fine, I’ll be bitter. “Brother, burn them all!” I yell. A runic band floats about halfway down my arm and my back tingles. The air burns away before flames explode outward with an incredible force. All the targets get blown apart and it leaves scorch marks on the wall.

I turn to Gates and she smirks. Gabbie and Walter look completely shocked. “Holy crap,” Walter whispers. “That’s a little… Whoa.”

“Brother?” Gates whispers.

I shrug. “It worked, and it’s not like it’s really so bad. It’s a replacement. Do you want me to do it, or not?”

She shrugs. “That’s fine. Look, you wanna control demons too, same thing, they get one scent of doubt in your words. Any hesitation and they’ll rip your throat out.”

“There’s a difference between you and me,” I whisper so only she can hear. “They will listen no matter what. I’m a Lord, you’re a pretender.”

“Same way as the invaders did?”

“It was different then. They were given commands. When they are here of their own accord, they’re mine to control.”

She clicks her tongue. “Fine. If that’s how it works for you, then I don’t care about it.” She starts walking away. Essentially meaning whatever plans she had for teaching me, that was it. There’s no longer any teaching left. All I have is to perform stupid warlock magic is that I need to be confident. She walks to the door, looking as irked as usual, but she stops for a moment, turning back as if expecting someone to say something.

It does come, except it’s in the form of Gabbie. “Um- Gates. Is it okay if we fill your Junior slot? Like now we have a full team and we need a team to shadow. Can we-?”

“Yeah. That’s fine. You go tell the Director I said yes.” She steps outside and Gabbie pumps her fist as if she’s won a rare victory. The door slams shut and I walk back to the chair. Sitting back down, alone. It isn’t long before Gabbie joins me with a bowl in the crook of her arm filled with thin wavy food. She places it between us and she grabs a box, then presses a button.

The mirror flickers and colors stretch across it. I stare at it, shock growing on my face. A man stands in the mirror, with a rectangle in his hand. The gun that Dennis had. “Holy shit. I love this movie,” she gushes. She looks at me. “What’s that- Wait, long shot here, but you don’t know about Vigors and magic users. You’re not from here are you?”

Nail on the head. It’s not going to be easy to pass off as someone who lived here. Then again, I’m betting Gates came up with the whole lie because she knew I wouldn’t pass off easily. I shake my head. “I was born here… But I lived in the Demon Plane.” Honestly, that’s still right, even if it seemed like it was a lie. I technically was born here then in my infancy I was transferred to the Demon realm by one of the Arcanists. “I found my powers at a young age and then I was stuck in the Demon Plane. I only escaped recently.”

“Holy shit. I gotta hear this,” Walter mutters, approaching. He drops down on a chair opposite us and Gabbie takes a handful of the wavy stuff, crunching down on them. She offers some to me, and I take one chewing on it with a little bit of caution. I bite into it with a loud audible crunch. It’s incredibly salty and it tastes fatty, but also like it’s been roasted in the oven. It’s almost like it’s trying to imitate a potato but failing at it.

“Yeah. What are the demons like? What’s the hierarchy? I’ve heard some stuff, but it’s not like it’s part of our education. Plus, not many know about them except warlocks and there aren’t that many,” Gabbie rattles off. She talks at a million miles a second, I can barely keep up. She’s quite an exhausting character. I was the one who wanted to ask questions, like why the glass box has people in it and what a movie and what the storage box is. Instead, I’m the one forced to answer questions.

“Well. It starts with the Demon King, Satan. Then it is the Demon lords, Lucifer, Sathanus, Asmodeus, Belphegor, Leviathan, Mammon, and Beelzebub. Then it’s the Arcanists, there are a bunch of them, but they're rare. They’re the special envoys of the Demon Lords and they have two demon powers. One from their birth rights, the other of the lord they serve. Then there are Demon Masters, who are born under Demon Lords. And then there're regular demons. In other words, the rest.”

“And what about English? How are you talking English?”

I exhale, placing a hand on my face. “It’s a long and complicated story and I don’t want to talk about it for the second time today. The Demon Plane had English first. Your plane just took it, butchered it and called it Latin. It took way too long for you to make English the way it’s meant to be.”

“One of the most complicated languages on the planet?” Walter asks.

“It a language made by Demons. Obviously, it’s complicated. Anyway, I want an answer. What’s a Junior team? Why were you so desperate to be the Juniors to Gates?”

“Well-” Gabbie begins. “Juniors are what we’re called. Until we turn eighteen that is. Then we become a proper team. Anyway, Juniors do the stuff that full-fledged heroes don’t do. Crowd control and minor inconveniences. Mostly stuff that other teams don’t have time to do. Gates is famous and her team has an awesome record. Being the Junior to her team is a fantastic opportunity, plus we might end up in the thick of it, which means that we’ll be better prepared in similar situations.”

I look at her as if she’s just spouted the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. What’s the point? What’s the point of dedicating yourself to be a hero? It’s much like living your life to risk your life. In fact, that’s just the case. “Why a hero?” I ask without thinking.

“Because there are villains. Because there are people out there who fight against everyone else. Maybe I could’ve done something else, but I don’t think I could. I want to be out there to save everyone else and a police officer won’t cut it. Besides someone’s gotta do it, an’ I wanna be the one who does it. Is there something wrong with that?”

I shake my head. It’s still an issue here. I’m stuck in this team. For more than a few reasons. Surveillance, protection, and utilization. I’m going to be forced to help them to help myself. I don’t expect that I’ll die, but then again, I don’t like the idea that I’m doing something that I don’t want to be doing… Then again, what else would I do? Stumble around the Mortal Plane with no ambition in mind? Hoping that a better opportunity will come? At least they’ve got a plan, it’s far more than I have.

“You hungry? It’s almost dinner and I wanna get an early night,” Walter says. He walks his way to the kitchen, pulling open the silver box. “Whatchu want?”

“Just fry up some burgers for all of us. If they aren’t hungry we’ll just have it for breakfast tomorrow,” Gabbie says.

“Cool.” Walter pulls out a pallet of some sorts and a wide array of vegetables before placing it aside and pulling open drawers and cupboard. He withdraws plates and a pan before getting to work on cooking dinner. It isn’t long before I can smell the aroma of meat sizzling. I don’t know how he’s cooking it without a flame in the middle of the kitchen, but then again, I don’t know how half the things here work.

Gabbie is watching her movie and I’m content just sitting in silence, keeping an eye on Gabbie and another on Walter. I don’t really want to get into another conversation with them. I feel like I’ll just be questioned again.

Luckily I don’t. I suppose I want to be alone while being in the company of others. Safety without over surveillance. Odd desires, but acceptable desires. I’m just not ready to be accepted among humans yet, I feel like they should be as weary of me as I am of them. Walter doesn’t take long and then he approaches us, balancing a few plates in his hands and then dropping them on the coffee table in front of us. He collapses into the chair next to me and he raises his head. “Kai, your food’s in the kitchen! Get it while it’s hot, or as you usually do, as cold as the steel that you use to build your robots!”

I take my own plate, drawing it across my lap and then look at it. It’s quite depressing, a chunk of meat on a roll of sorts with seeds and a small array of sad looking vegetables. I grab it in my hands, mimicking both Gabbie and Walter and push it into my mouth, slicing through it with my razor sharp teeth. It’s fatty, oily and it doesn’t have the taste of fresh meat, more like it’s been stored for days at a time. It has more a larger array of flavors than anything in the Demon Plane, but it’s not worth the sacrifice of the sad meat.

I eat half the meal then drop it onto the plate and take the plate in my hand. “You aren’t hungry?” Gabbie asks. I shake my head, even though it’s lying, I don’t want to appear ungrateful. I’m thankful for the meal and I might be spoilt, but it tastes… Synthetic.

“Thank you, but no, I’m not hungry, I’m tired. It’s been a long day and I just want to get some sleep,” I whisper. I carry the plate to the kitchen and drop the remainder of the meal into a trash can before placing it in a bowl with a few other plates. I immediately retreat to my room, my stomach gurgling in conflict with the newly digested food. I feel the horrible taste lingering in my mouth and I croak as I shut the door. I pull my hand over my mouth then rush through the far door, into the bathroom and lean over the bowl of a large chamber pot like object with water within.

The meal comes out into the bowl and my stomach burns in pain. I pull back, groaning and wiping the back of my hand against my lips. No, I can’t eat that, no, something in that disagreed with me. I’m fine with bad food, I can stomach it, perhaps barely, but there’s something in there that was really wrong.

I grab the top of the chamber pot, clutching the edge of a box to lift myself up. My finger sinks in, pressing a button and the water spins violently for a few moments and the reddish-brown mixture fades to clear water. I stare at it in shock, it’s magic, just like everything else. This world is so strange. I look around the bathroom, finally getting a look.

The bathroom has white tiles with a large mirror against the wall, over a large vanity with black marble and a basin laid into the marble. There’s a huge bath against the other wall, with a stick with holes in it hangs over the bath.

I lean over the basin and grip one of the handles, toying with it a bit to see whether it too is magic. All of a sudden water erupts from one side and I jam my head under it, trying to wash the taste from the meal from my mouth. I drink greedily, trying to have some sort of water replacing what I lost then I hit the lever, returning it to its former position.

I step back into my room heading toward my bed, then I hesitate. I stumble over to the side, where Gates went and I find a switch. I toggle it and the glass fades from clear to translucent to completely opaque. I leave it on opaque then collapse into the bed, shutting my eyes. Sleep comes just like it did earlier, with ease and suddenness.