Emile and Emma sat next to each other on their government provided couch in their government provided housing. The couch was made of a dark brown, soft leather and felt like it was constructed on a bed of leaves rather than soft cushioning.
Their new home was a one bedroom apartment. They shared a bedroom which was nothing more than two twin beds with a single sheet on them and a dresser for their clothes. Attached to the living room was the kitchen. It had a coal powered oven and a large, cooled chest that acted as the fridge. It was minimalistic and dull.
The two had their heads rolled back and were watching the ceiling. They simply couldn't believe they had been drafted. It seems as though no matter how many things work out, something new will always come and disturb it.
Emile stood up and turned to Emma. It was time to get her gift. Tracing their steps back to the Tower, then from there to the collections camp until they finally arrived. They weren't entirely sure if they were allowed to just roam back into the building, but Warden May gave them a good enough impression to at least ask.
And as predicted, May was ecstatic to have company. Both times Emile had wandered through the camp he never saw any other normal person except for May. Emile started to suspect that she really had no human interactions and so to have visitors must have been the highlight of her day.
Emile and Emma asked if they could just kill one of the spiders in the base and if not go back through the portal, but May luckily had no problem sacrificing one of the spiders.
Emile and Emma were both standing inside a large square room. Stood twenty feet away was a spider, unmoving and gazing past the twins. Emma patiently walked up to the creature and put a dagger to its chest. She hesitated for a bit and started to shake, but eventually she closed her eyes and leaned forward, pushing the blade into the spider's heart.
The spider blew into the air and was absorbed. Emma fainted and started developing her core.
Six hours later she came to and found herself on the blue velvet couch in May's office. Meanwhile, May was going through the alphabet with Emile. Noticing that Emma was awake, Emile said his goodbyes and the two went back to their apartment where they discussed their gifts.
Emma's was called Boost and it rapidly accelerated objects in motion. Emma was also able to apply it to herself. With that the two unhappily climbed into bed, not ready to start military training in the morning.
The two stood in a large gymnasium with around twenty other people. The same green lanterns lined the walls and a muscular, bald man in a black uniform stood behind a podium at the front of the room. Next to him sat the translator from the day before.
"Welcome to Camp Two," he proceeded to say, "for the next six months you will each undergo general and special training suited to your gifts. At graduation you will be placed into separate units that will put your gifts to their best use where you will serve for three years. Many of you will probably die during that time, but some of you will rise above mediocrity and become more. More for our kingdom and more for yourselves. I will be your instructor for the duration of your stay here, you will refer to me as Colonel Leo."
After his speech he called the names of everyone in the room and split them up into groups of four, however due to Emile and Emma's sudden appearance there were two groups of five. Emile and Emma were in a group of five.
After explaining the language barrier, Emile and Emma introduced themselves. Grouped with them was a small girl with short, black hair and an attitude, her name was Violet.
Then, there was another girl, Brie, she was the same height as Emma and had bright orange hair that hung down to her waist and never broke eye contact.
Lastly, another boy joined their makeshift band. He was taller than Violet, but shorter than Emma and his weight made him stand out. He's been the only person Emile had seen so far who was overweight, not huge, but pudgy. His name was Roman and he was the son of a Viscount.
"For your first assignment, each group will work together to eliminate an Arachnid. We'll begin in ten minutes."
The group of five awkwardly looked at eachother. They were all dressed in the same white sweats and t-shirt.
"I want everyone to tell me their combat experience and gift." Roman finally broke the silence.
"Oh! Hi again, I'm Emma. I have absolutely no combat experience and my gift lets me speed things up!" Emma didn't even open her mouth yet her chirpiness was translated perfectly to everyone's head.
"My father is a Forerunner and took me with him outside of the kingdom for many hunts. My gift is called Air Tight and I can harden the air into various shapes." Brie went next.
"Standard elementary training from school. I make things stick to each other." Violet said.
"You make things stick to each other?" Emile repeated.
"Yeah, like, I can make something I touch super duper sticky and I can make it not sticky too."
Emile looked at Violet with a blank stare. Emma's gift had been great, potentially even incredible. Doubling, tripling the speed of a bullet or arrow made a world of a difference. And Brie essentially had the gift of creation as long as she could actually mold air into anything. And Violet makes things stick. "Ahh–super duper sticky" Emile thought to himself.
"Well I guess it's my turn," Emile moved on, "I'm pretty much your standard healer I suppose."
The three new members all looked at Emile simultaneously.
"You can heal?" Brie repeated.
"Yeah?" Emile responded.
"How exactly though?" She questioned again.
"I think I just speed up your body's natural recovery. I probably can't regrow limbs but general things like cuts, bruises, those things I can take care of."
"Wow!" Violet commented on the side.
"Why what's wrong?" Emile asked.
"Healing is an incredibly rare gift," Roman explained, "if you consider that there are an infinite amount of gifts that can be granted, from making things sticky to producing bolts of lighting, how many of the infinite has something to do with healing? The answer is not a lot."
"Anyway–" Roman continued, "no combat experience. My gift is Synthesize. If I already know how to make something and I have the ingredients with me, I can make it almost immediately. Food, potions, tools, as long as I've physically made it once I'll get it to you."
"Five more minutes!" Colonel Leo yelled over the discussing groups.