February 16. 2054

WARNING: YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER INTO A WAR ZONE.  

I quickly ducked as three bullets whirred past me.

“What is this,” I shouted, “some typa war zone?”

Ashana rolled her eyes at my dramatics.“Yeah, this is exactly how I imagined World War III to be like,” Ashana yelled back.

I shot two enemy officers down as Ashana ran her blade through another one who originally had her trapped in his huge arms. He staggered back and she finished him off with a blow to the head.

Suddenly the bullets ceased along with all the noise.
It was quiet.
Too quiet.
I looked around our premises and heard a distinct beeping sound above us.

 I muttered, “Of course Simone would include a surprise attack.”
I pursed my lips in concentration. I was just about to set this place on fire when the beeping got noticeably louder.
We ducked behind some bushes and I raised my fist to create a telekinetic shield around us. Not even 10 seconds later, the bomb went off and 5 missiles whizzed past the bushes. All that was heard was our heavy breaths. We were a slither away from getting blown up. 

I whispered “Ashana, are you good?”
“Never been better” sarcasm oozed from her words and I could practically hear her rolling her eyes.
I mumbled, “O-kay then, you kno- wait do you hear that?” I unclenched my fist and the shield around us disappeared. 

“Hear what..?” 

“Exactly.” 

“Nadia, I don't think that's a good idea-” She mumbled warily.

I rolled my eyes. “Please, it’s not like there’s gonna be two surprise attacks, that's too...predictable, plus you worry too much.” 

“God, you’re so stubborn.” she sighed.

I crawled from behind the bushes, careful not to injure myself or make too much noise. I looked at our surroundings trying to find anything that could potentially harm us. There was nothing in sight. I called Ashana over, this was our cue to leave; well at least I thought it was. Not even two minutes after we crawled out of our hiding spot, did a sharp blade zip past me almost slicing my ear off. 

“What the actual-” I gasped. We immediately sprung into action.

“Told you this wasn’t a good idea!” she yelled as she swing kicked the gun out of a guy dressed in all black.

“Can you not do this right now, it's obviously not the time for arguing!”

I shot down the three guys running towards me that were clad in all black with a bullet. I looked at my aftermath in pride.

“Nice one!” 

I beamed at Ashana when suddenly the ground started to violently shake. We were both roughly thrown to the ground.

Everything went black.

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I could feel my vision slowly coming back to me. I looked around me, we weren’t in the simulation anymore but in the training center.

 I pursued my lips because I knew what was coming.

“You guys need to treat this like a real mission, you can’t be getting distracted o-or easily thrown off like this.” Our trainer, Simone, scolded. 

We simultaneously dropped our heads down in shame.

“Nadia, you need to work on being able to use both your abilities concurrently. You can't just unintentionally turn one off by focusing on the other. Here’s a tip: when you’re feeling stressed, breathe.”  Simone, our trainer reprimanded, “And Ashana if you sense that Nadia’s going to do something, that probably isn't a good idea then. Do. Not. Let. Her. Do. It. Please.”

“Got it.” We muttered.

She cast us a wary look.

“Okay then...other than that, you guys did well and definitely improved since last time,” She said as he glanced at the digital clock on the wall, “You girls are free to go, it’s 2:30. Good luck on your next mission and remember what I told you.”

Ashana and I waved Simone goodbye and walked toward our dorm room building. Our training session was the last period of the day. 

“Hey, on the bright side our next mission is at a party in Manhattan. I heard it was at some private school kids’ mansion. I convinced Jorani to come help us out. And we should definitely make some new friends.” She tried to cheer me up.

I gave her a look “Says who?”

“Says me.”

“Sooo you turned this mission into one of your quests to get us to be more ‘social’ ”

She nodded as her curls bounced against her forehead. 

“Um no I don't think so,” I said, “Nice try though”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re so lame.”

“Yeah and I don’t care. See you in a few?”

She gave me two thumbs up and a saccharine smile. 

“Oh and be at The Elevator at 8:30!” she yelled at my retreating back. I gave her a thumbs up indicating that I would be ready before that.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I met up with Ashana and Jorani, then we got into The Elevator that was headed to the check out room (that would eventually lead us out of the world of Genica and into Manhattan). Butterflies began to fill my stomach at the thought of going to my first high school party even if it was just for a mission. I’ve read way too many teen fiction books and watched way too many movies to be able to predict what this party was going to be like. Just the thought of it made my stomach get all knotted up and my palms all sweaty.
“Earth to Nadia.” a voice brought me out of my thoughts.
I looked up. The voice belonged to Jorani. She gave me a reassuring smile.
“Breath, I’m sure everything is gonna go according to plan and that Ashana got this under control. Well, I hope she does.” She mumbled out the last part. 

“Would you guys relax? I do have this under control, ok? Just trust me on this.” Ashana tried to reassure us. “Tried” being the keyword here.

We finally got to the checkout table where Ron was staring at us with suspiciousness swimming around in his forest-green eyes. I tried my best to muster up a bright smile but I’m pretty sure I failed and ended up looking constipated instead.

“Here for your mission right?” he gruffly inquired. I could tell from his ghost of a smile that he knew exactly where we were going but still chose to question us.

Ashana gave him a bright smile. How does she do that?

 ”Yup.” We held up our bags loaded with equipment for emphasis.

He gave us each an electronic check out card. 

“Don’t lose those cards, girls.” He started, “Oh, and be careful.”

We released the breaths we were holding in once we stepped into the transport elevator.

“Did you notice how that camera was zooming in on us-”

“I swear I was one second away from shooting that thing down-”

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We dropped off our equipment bags in the locker room of the training center and met up with Rihvan, a 5’9 teen boy with prominent Malagasy features and a mischievous smile followed by Erez, an Ethiopian boy who was slightly shorter and wore a shy smile. We all headed out of the building and boarded the next bus to Manhattan. While they were arguing over which type of weapon was the best (fire of course), I observed the giggling mortal girls that looked around my age. One of them had dark, voluminous curls that framed her brown face the other had a darker skin tone and silky straight hair that fell way past her shoulders. Both of them were scrolling through their phones and would occasionally show each other something funny and start giggling. I never understood why humans were so attached to their electronic devices. Was it really that hard to make conversation with each other? How texting became their form of communication and replaced human to human interaction. How emojis became their display of emotion. In Genica, we only used our phones if we really needed to and preferred communicating with each other.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When we got inside the mansion I could literally feel the music blasting from the speakers. It was just like the movies. The strong stench of alcohol and sweat filled my nose. 

As we made our way through the dancing bodies that had heat radiating off of them, a sense of danger and uneasiness washed over me. I cautiously looked around for men dressed in all black. 

A 6’0 guy clad in all black with bright red hair and striking hazel eyes strolled in followed by a bunch of his Error goons also dressed in all black. The music abruptly stopped and everyone turned to stare. I recognized that mischievous smile from anywhere, Paul. 

“Well look who it is.” Paul smirked, “My favorite kind of people.”

“Wow, what a grand entrance.” Rihvan chuckled. 

Ashana turned to a blonde, whose eyes immediately glassed over. 

“Make sure everyone is out of this house,” Ashana said.

The blonde nodded dazedly and led everyone out of the house. 

I signaled to Jorani that there were cameras and she shot them down with her laser eyes.

Jorani turned towards me and Ashana.

“You ready for some action,” she asked.

“Born ready” I winked.

Three Errors came rushing towards me pointing at me with their super-advanced shotguns. Breathe. I made a gesture with my hand that sent them crashing to the ground. A knife came slicing through the air towards Erez and with a wave of his hand, it disintegrated. Jorani emitted laser beams from her eyes that turned three guys into ashes and took two more out with her throwing stars and nunchucks. Ashana sliced her blade through two goons and coldcocked another. She was somehow able to make two Errors fight each other. Rihvan took out the last two men with a disjointed countertop. The only person left was Paul. He looked like he wanted to flee but he knew that there was no way he could escape us. This was gonna be fun. 

Paul’s eyes glazed over as he walked towards us. Ashana. He yelped as Jorani burnt his arm with her laser beams and his eyes returned back to normal. His weapons disintegrated along with his bulletproof vest. Lastly, Rihvan sucker-punched him which sent him crashing to the ground. 

“Any last words, Paul,” I said with a wicked smile as I stood over him.

“I-” He started.

“Too late” I laughed as I ran a knife through his chest.

 THE END.