Industry

“Hello, my name is Angela.” The sweet, shy girl said to me. She had long golden hair, and her eyes were amber. She was taller than me, to my surprise. She had on a long, modest dress that had light pastel shapes woven in it. I shook her hand, it was the lightest and softest of the group. I heard that Angela’s Guardian name was Angel, and she is a healer. The girls were showing me to the rest of their crew. I just also met Mary, the smallest girl with the red ponytail and black lipstick. She said her Guardian name was Marionette.

“My pleasure. And who would this be?” I turn to the last one. She has long black hair, tied up in a bun. Her clothing is very loose-fitting and it drapes uncaringly.

“I’m Death.” She introduces herself coldly. Tiana pushes her playfully, even though Death’s expression doesn’t look like she’s having it. She has her arms crossed and keeps me in her stare.

“This is Elizabeth, she will warm up to you.” Tiana says almost hopefully. Death must have introduced herself as her Guardian name.

“Hey, you don’t like to go by your real name, Tiana,” Death retorts, overemphasizing Titan’s real name. Tiana’s face fell, losing the playfulness. Luckily, the encounter didn’t continue and they both fell silent.

“So we wanted to take you to the capital, right?” Angela attempts to lighten the mood with a cheery voice and claps her hands together. She looks around and the group, pretending like the atmosphere isn’t tense from the recent exchange.

A couple of girls nod and I follow the group. The roads are still that clay texture and wind around seemingly randomly. It’s strenuous to me, but it looks like the other girls are doing just fine. They probably are getting stronger the closer we get to the center of the city, on top of it all. The ever-so-cute Tiana graces me by patting me on the back, letting her Pink give me strength. She noticed my struggle, how embarrassing. I appreciate the gesture, however, and my laboured breath goes away. I notice the tingle of power much more clearly this time.

The wooden houses turn to steel skyscrapers as we get closer. All the buildings ascend upwards, mimicking the pillars. The roads begin to form into something more rational and are easier to navigate. They carve thin pathways through the ever-growing cityscape. Soon I can’t even see how far they go up, as the tops are completely out of sight.

At that moment I notice the Grid is all around us. Running up the buildings, through the streets, coating the city-scape. The light faintly courses through millions of channels, pouring to every location. Some sectors are clearly overwhelmed with a certain colour, where others are a mix of them. Their light is most definitely going to be amazing at night. It’s getting later in the day, and I’m very excited to see how it all looks, glowing in the dark.

“What’s all this for?” I ask, pointing to the closest veins. The new members in the group looked at me like I’m stupid. Apparently they didn’t get a debriefing.

Not surprisingly, Angela comes to the rescue again, “The colours flow to the place they are used the most. The reason they look like that is because colour travels at different speed through different medium. The slowest is the air, the ground is faster, and when it’s directed through these pre-existing channels, it’s the fastest.”

We enter a store, apparently because I desperately need new clothes. I think my clothes are fine, but between Ms. Pretty Pink Princess and angry armour lady, I have a feeling I’m going to be here a while.

It wasn’t but 3 minutes that we were in the store before I was handed an outfit and practically shoved into the changing room. I decided not to go against Tiana, now that I know she is the actual embodiment of limitless strength. I dutifully undressed and tried on the outfit. I took one look in the body length mirror and guffawed. Is this really what the men wear here?

There was tight material around my waist and stomach, showing my abs. It was so tight, I don’t think my abs show this much even when I’m shirtless. It was dark coloured, and it had an ombré up to bright blue at the neck of the outfit. The pants fit on my waist but were also skin-tight against my legs, making them look like sticks. They were also gradient blue, but a bit darker. I looked closer in the mirror at myself. My eyes were gray. I didn’t think of it before, but the girl’s eye colour is the same colour as their power.

I step out of the dressing room, expecting them to laugh at me. Most of the girls were just browsing the store like customers, but Ms. Pink was still waiting for me. She informed me that I looked good in that, and asked if I liked it. I joked her that the pants were a little too loose at the bottom.

She started to talk about different types of pants that would increase mobility, then her voice pittered off and she stared at me. I was confused for a bit, until Small Ball of Fury came over and lifted my shirt from my shoulder.

“He’s absolutely a Gray. I’ve never seen one drain the colour from a shirt so fast.” She says, and lets my shirt go.

I look down, and sure enough, the colour was quickly fading before my eyes. The bright blue was already well into the pastels. Tiana took the shirt off me and zapped it with some power. It flashed back to its normal blue.

I was standing there, shirtless and confused. I drained the colour? I checked and saw the pants were well on their way to being colourless also.

“Well, we know your size now. But we can’t have you draining the colour from their inventory. Grays don’t usually drain colour that fast, though. It’s more like weeks before their clothes lose their colour.” Tiana says as she put the shirt back on the rack.

I go back into the changing room and change back. I give her the pants and she reverts it back to its original colour.

“I don’t know how the heck a gray survived out in the far lands. You were far from home, buddy.” The perpetually angry girl says. It’s clear my accidental guise of being a crusader is well and completely blown.

“Maybe he’s just soaking up power to replenish what he lost? We can still try to take him the the crusader facility…” Tiana looks hopeful.

The short girl pulls Tiana aside. Sheila speaks in an undertone voice, just like the one she used when I first met her, “What if he is a Gray? We don’t know the extent of what could happen if we try and use that much power on a Gray. It could kill him, the girls, or some other equally terrifying consequence!”

Tiana gives me a look. I don’t know how to explain it, but she seemed sorry. Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration and thought. I didn’t feel like a part of the conversation, so I looked at some nearby clothes. I strained my ears to listen in as best I could. I did catch a bit of the conversation.

Tiana’s quiet voice murmured, “... he’s different than a Gray. You saw how fast he soaked up the power…”

“That almost makes him seem more dangerous!” The hushed voice of Sheila only half attempted to stay quiet.

“What about when I gave him strength? It didn’t feel like I was giving it to a Gray.” The conversation continued back and forth for a while. They were arguing a lot over me, and I felt terrible. Mostly because I have no idea if I have anything to do with this. It’s not like I can change any of this. Something about the way Tiana put faith in me really wrenched my heart. She really wanted to help me, and I didn’t know why. I found myself agreeing with Sheila, though. Neither of them have reason to trust I am what they suspect. I don’t even know what I am. I don’t understand and of this power stuff, so what if I really could be a problem?

Angela approaches me, sifting through clothes on the rack. It’s clear to me that she doesn’t care about the clothes she is looking at, but that she just wanted an excuse to talk to me. Confirming my suspicion, she turned to me.

“Don’t worry about Tiana and Sheila. They always argue. It just means they care.” The sweet girl was trying to make me feel better. Well, it worked. I can tell Tiana is passionate about my situation and Shiela is trying to be reasonable, wanting to keep anyone from harm.

“Thank you Angela. I really don’t know what happened. I don’t want to be a burden on you all.” I felt like I could trust her from the minute I met her. She seemed like she was very compassionate, and I found myself opening up to her.

I looked up from the clothes and her golden eyes were looking at me. Her eyebrows were scrunched.

“Oh, no! You’re not a burden. We truly want to help you. We are just trying to find out the best way to do so.” She was so genuine it hurt my heart. I almost wanted to comfort her, she seemed so upset when I said that.

“Thank you so much for your hospitality. I really feel welcomed, and I’m glad I met you all.” I said it both because I meant it, and because I wanted to see her cheer up. And boy, did she brighten up. Quite literally, she started glowing yellow. Her power was much more refined. It wasn’t like the android’s thin channels, but it most certainly wasn’t Tiana’s rough grid. The wireframe that faintly wrapped her face and body was beautiful. It looked much more purposeful than Tiana’s, her face was cuter all lit up. Maybe she did that to ease the pain of whomever she was healing. Or the channels were like a fingerprint, and she happened to get a really gentle, flowing pattern.

“I’m really happy to have met you, Ben. I hope you will always feel comfortable talking to us. If you have any trouble, do come talk to me about it.” Her power subsided as she talked, but was still smiling.

“The problem I have right now, if you would like to help me with it, is what to wear!” I chuckle lightly.

She laughed with me, “It would be my pleasure…”

We spent 10 minutes looking around, and she would occasionally ask me if I liked one piece of clothing or another. I remembered that colour doesn’t matter, because it will turn gray anyway, so I tried to look for familiar clothing items. I couldn’t find shorts, which was a total bummer. I’m certainly not getting skintight clothes, though. Angela finally showed me something normal looking. She passed over jeans, and they looked like they would fit.

“Let’s purchase them before they go gray. There’s not much we can do about that, though.” She says sweetly, obviously not intending any harm in saying so.

“Thank you for getting them for me. If there is anything you need me to do for you, I’d be glad to help out in some way.” I offered, already feeling more comfortable with her than the others. She smiled and nodded, bringing the items up to the automated clerk. A pleasant ding signified the purchase was completed, and she handed me the attire to go change.

By the time I got out of the changing room, The pink warrior and the armoured fairy had finished their discussion. My clothes still had their colour, but I knew that it would not last.

“How do I look?” I do a little spin, jokingly. My head turns back to them, expecting a reaction, but both girls don’t respond. My arms fall to my side. They still must be irritated. It’s hard not to feel like it’s my fault.

“You look great, darling.” Angela says as she hugs me. This distracts me from the gloomy mood that Tiana and Sheila were giving me. The wonderful embrace lasted shorter than when Tiana hugged me, but I couldn’t explain the energy I felt from it. She must have put out some power because my heart was beating much easier, like a massive weight was lifted off my chest, one I didn’t know was present.

She looks at me with her hands on my shoulders still. She was my height, so I could easily match her gaze. My hands fell back to my sides, I didn’t really know what to do with them. She kept my attention on her, and I could tell she knew what I was feeling when I saw their response to my joke. It makes sense that a healer would be an empath.

“You’re so thoughtful. What did I do to deserve your kindness?” I asked, looking at wonder at the girl who only just met me.

Again, I saw the immediate effects of my words on her face. She blushed a deep red. She took her hands off my shoulders and brushed her long, golden hair back.

“I don’t know what any of the other girls think of you, but I think you’re a great guy, and can be trusted. Maybe that’s my flaw, trusting too easily. But I believe in you, Ben.” Her eyes gave away that she was speaking the truth.

Warmth rushed into me, as if I could feel the connection between us. I looked down in surprise as my shirt became colourful again. Was I getting my energy back?

I realized that everyone was watching us. They must have been watching ever since Angela hugged me, and now saw my colour return.

“Oh my, how spectacular.” Mary said with a monotone voice. I haven’t heard much from her since she introduced herself, but her voice grabbed my attention. It was peculiar, when she spoke, all other sounds faded away. I looked at her and figured it out. Her bright blue eyes gave away that she probably wields a control-type power. That makes her guardian name, Marionette, way cooler. They all chose pretty suitable names. Which makes me very scared of Death. I surreptitiously looked at Death. Her eyes were black at first glance, maybe a little bit of purple. The hot android, Lucy, only told me that Violet was a teleporting power, she never mentioned dark purple. Elizabeth-Death still had a frown on her face when she met my eyes. A shiver ran down my spine and I almost forgot that everyone was still looking at me. I dub that her Death stare, pun fully intended.

“You are a peculiar child,” Sheila says simply. It’s clear that nobody knows enough about what’s going on with me to judge the situation.