I looked around the small cement room I was being held in. It was definitely small, looking about 15 feet square from my best guess. There was a long, rectangular florescent light above me, emitting an annoying buzzing noise. My hands were handcuffed behind a chair, the handcuffs one size too small, causing my hands to fall asleep. I would have gladly joined them in slumber, but the HX, the organization that had me in this tabled cell, was using an experimental form of interrigation- sleep torture. They were pumping the chamber I was in full of a gas which its name I don't know, which was meant to keep me awake.

There was a device on the back of my neck that I suspect cancels out my Adrain powers.

Adrain was the name of my race.

About a month ago, I was like the common population, thinking that race was white, black, asian, and so on. But I now know the true use. I am an Adrain, a person who has three key abilities- Rifting (teleportation), Phasing (becoming out-of-synch with our physical world), and Stealth mode (selective invisibility and unnatural silence of the physical body). I only know of three races right now- Adrain, my race, Kisthanians, or the normal people, and Zanac, people who were talented at Binding, which was the act of Transmutation and Transformation of objects, among many things.

I had been sent on a mission a month ago to retrieve something called the Shadow Crystal, in exchange for my freedom after I was charged of Causation of Potential Treason by Hacking. A mouthful, I know. Well, we were supposed to go into a kind of Dungeon and get it and bring it back. We would give it to the Cordain, a group of benevolent aliens that had a branch on Mars in exchange for alien technology. When we went to the dungeon, we (me and the team I was assigned to go with, the Alpha Team) were subject to trials laid out by the builders of the dungeon, an Ancient tribe of humans known as the Alteran tribe, which had disappeared about 20,000 years ago.

When we had finished the trials, after most of us nearly dying several times, we busted down a wall to get the crystal, and found nothing.

As you can imagine, the Human Special Forces (HX) wasn't happy with us when we came back from the Third War Wastelands empty handed. We were all separated for 'independent briefings', and here I am.

I strained my neck, trying to see my watch on my wrist behind the chair. It was covered by my dirty and bloody sleeve. Damn.

The door that was opposite of me opened. In walked a man that I had only glimpsed while walking the HX- the eleventh man in history to reach the ranking of Five Star General, General Samuel Aston.

"Hello, First Private Saris."

"What do you want?"

"I want one billion dollars."

"Shut up."

"Okay, then. I came here to tell you this- the HX is offering to enlist you. You can live a normal life, you can get free college, post-grad education, service obligation until 28, and you can choose to work for any government organization that you are qualified for."

"If..."

"Two things. One, you musn't tell anybody about this Twilight Crystal business. It wouldn't be good for the HX. The protectorate would take control of us that much faster. And the other..."

"What?"

"They want you to go on another mission."

"What!? I nearly got killed last time!"

"Think about the benefits, Luke. Your family doesn't pull enough income to send anymore of their children to college, even with your mother's new husband combined."

I found myself considering it. Free education, I would be set for life. I could live normal, too... Normality is the last thing I thought I would ever have after this.

"What's the mission?"

"You'll be briefed on it. BAIMS?"

An LH Michelle-like voice came from nowhere. "Yes, General?"

"Release Luke."

"Yes, General."

The handcuffs and device on the back of my head fell off. I stood up, stretching.

"You'll have the same room as before, but no locks. There is a new Anti-Rifting barrier. You can't rift out of here, and I doubt you can use your phase powers for very long. Briefing at 1700 hours."

He walked out of the room, I followed him until I came to my room. I opened the door, looking around. I found the mirror, and froze when I saw myself. I had a thick layer of hair following my jaw. My hair had grown at least an inch and a half. I had three cuts, one going over my right eyebrow, one over my nose, and a particularly black one going from the outer edge of my right eye to my nose, which would probably develop into a scar. My eyes were red, almost bloodshot, making the light brown iris look much darker. My brown hair was greasy and dirty, small but visible chunks of cave rock everywhere.

I threw off my dirty and bloody field shirt that I had been wearing almost two weeks now and fell onto my bed, falling asleep right away.