Present day

Year 2210

“Spirits: What are they? Many theories were made on the subject. In the beginning, religious groups thought they were ‘the evil within us’. Some other groups believed that Spirits were our souls, or at least a part of our souls, while some believed they were gods or deities. Of course, later these religions were dissipated for their ramblings; Spirits are far from divinity and are essentially harmless. The famous researcher Carl Miller’s theory was that Spirits are the manifestation of our unconscious selves. My personal favorite is Wolfstein’s original theory: the untapped potential of mankind. Which one is true? In the end, they’re still only theories; it’s just a matter of what you believe in. But we’re getting slightly off-track; we’re here to explain, and later demonstrate, the different ways of summoning Spirits. We’ll start with the basic way, commonly known as ‘Beast Summon’, which is simply summoning the Spirit itself as a separate entity. Then we’ll gradually look into more complicated ways, starting with ‘Partial Summoning’. Partial Summoning lets us use certain abilities from our Spirits without having to physically manifest the Spirit in question. Finally, we’ll show you some examples of both types of ‘Morphing’; ‘Partial Morphing’ which yields a part of our body to the Spirit, and ‘Full-body Morphing’ which transforms the entire body as the name suggests. Remember: Full-body Morphing carries extreme risk; only 0.5% of people survive the experience without mental repercussions and even less without physical damage. Even Partial Morphing carries risk as it can lead to a Full-body Morph through loss of control. You should never, ever-”

The screen went black. “Hey! I was watching that.” Catherine looked at her mom in annoyance. She was standing behind her with the remote in her hand, which she had sneakily taken away.

“Didn’t you hear the door? Your teacher’s here; it’s time for your lessons.” Mary Taylor, Catherine’s 43 year-old mom, stood behind the forest-green sofa at five feet and a half tall, same height as her 17 year-old daughter. Her brown eyes, curtained by her shoulder-length straight brown hair, stared at Catherine’s green ones as if it could transfer some sense through them.

Mr. Fisher, the private teacher, waited in the living room’s doorway while awkwardly watching the scene. He was wearing his usual black suit and tie from the last century and held his tablet under his arm in a timid fashion.

Mary gestured towards Mr. Fisher impatiently. “Go on, I’ll record it for you.”

Catherine got to her feet with a grunt. She tied her long auburn hair in a ponytail and walked away saying: “You better.”

“Don’t be rude.” Mary told her.

“It’s rude to say I’m rude.” She replied.

Her mom sighed as she watched the both of them leave the room. Teenagers… Normally she wouldn’t have recorded the documentary on Spirits; she believed the less her daughter knew about them the better. But, lately Catherine was getting more and more defiant and Mary knew that she couldn’t keep it from her forever. “Well, she might already know more than I do on the subject.” With that in mind, she recorded the program.

Meanwhile, in her mom’s old office, Catherine was studying with her private tutor. This room had been rearranged to home-school the child starting from middle-school level; before that she went to school like normal. The reason for that was because her mom believed that when the kids start having their Spirits the schools become what she calls “a bloodbath”. Of course, it was obvious to Catherine that her mother was exaggerating and probably acted that way out of fear. Personally, Catherine had never wanted to be home-schooled. She had lost most of her friends that went on to middle-school, but at least she had managed to stay in contact with her closest friend. As numerous graphics and equations were shown to her, she could hardly concentrate on them while she thought about her friend Melany and the fact that they were finally seeing each other tonight. They always kept close contact, but it had been almost a year since they last met.

Later, as she was picking up the last of her things to leave, she noticed the glint of her jade earring resting on top of her jewellery box. The setting sun was shining through her window and was reflected in a green hue through the jade, making the earring stand out in her field of vision. Catherine looked at herself in her large mirror on the wall over her clothes-drawers, thinking to herself: “Should I wear it?” The reflection’s green eyes blinked at her, the room behind it was cast in an orange light, the small bed covered in blue blankets by the opposite wall, the wooden nightstand beside it with the tiny lamp, and a small green jade earring shining in the corner of the mirror. She was wearing a pink shirt with blue shorts and another earring, this one golden. The important difference between that one and the jade one was that the jade earring contained her Spirit. She knew that in case of emergencies it was safer to always have your Spirit with you, even if she had never used it before. “But jade just doesn’t go well with pink.” She decided to leave it there, since carrying it by itself ran the risk of losing it somewhere. She picked up her things and went out of the room, leaving a lonely green glint behind as she closed the door.

Melany’s place was somewhat far, requiring Catherine to take a train there. Trains were the only public transportation left for NSUs (Non-Spirit-Users); most people used their Spirits to go from place to place. Because of that though, the AI-piloted trains were rarely crowded and provided a comfortable ride for Catherine as she listened to her music. She stepped off at the neighboring city and started the 15-minute walk to her friend’s house. All around her, people riding their Spirits passed by; some flying over her head, some galloping, some running on more than four legs, some ugly, some beautiful, some scary, some cute and some who were indescribable. Every Spirit was unique, just like the people riding them. Yet, this fascinating scenery simply rolled off the back of the young girl steadily walking on the sidewalk and humming her favorite songs. This was a common occurrence which wouldn’t catch her attention more than someone eating their breakfast.

The house was just like Catherine remembered it from a year before: blue exterior covered with a grey-tiled roof, seemingly small but with a large basement underneath the whole building. The lawn in front felt like it used to be a common playground, but was now empty and long-forgotten. She knocked on the door and soon enough Melany came to greet her. “Catheriiine!”

“Melanyyy!” They hugged each other for this long-awaited reunion.

“It’s been FAR too long.” Melany said. She had changed her hairstyle to a loose wavy one, which fit her blond hair better than her previous pigtails. She was about the same height as Catherine, with a slightly larger bust and thicker legs. She wore a skinny white shirt and black leggings. “Come in, come in. I recently got this new game that you just HAVE to try.”

Catherine followed her friend to the basement, where they usually spent most of their time together since Melany’s room was down there. They spent a couple hours playing games, then proceeded to catch up while eating a snack. “So…” Catherine took a bite from her cookie and continued, “You said you had something to tell me in person?”

“Yes! It’s been so hard to keep it in for the last week so I’m just going to blurt it out.” She paused. “I’m dating a guy!”

“What?!” Catherine almost spat out her cookie. “Seriously?!”

“Well… it’s not that serious yet; it’s only been a week. But he’s really cute. And I don’t mean it like ‘handsome’, I mean ‘cute’ cute. He’s adorable.” Melany clasped her hands together and looked up to the ceiling, as if seeing something far away.

“I don’t understand how that’s a quality.” Catherine replied.

“Of course, I mean, he’s not your type at all. You’ve always been rough around the edges.” She raised her hand as if to point something out. “He’s not only cute though, he’s ranked 3rd in our school.”

“Oh, so he’s got good grades.”

“Not grades, silly, Power Rankings: his Spirit’s strength.” Melany laughed a little.

“Right… Power Rankings, obviously.” Catherine said sarcastically.

“He’s the right hand of the school’s #1, even if he’s not 2nd best. He told me it’s because the #1 is on bad terms with the #2 guy. He also told me he only accepted to be the right hand to try and find a weakness and defeat him later. Isn’t that exciting?” She went on and on about her new boyfriend. How it was a miracle that he was interested in her even though she only ranked in the 200s and how they met. She described his Spirit before describing the person, which seemed weird to Catherine. “What about you? Are you interested in any guy?”

“Oh no, definitely not!” Catherine answered. “Not being in school means I barely see any guys; I can’t even start to think about dating one.”

Melany took her friend’s hand in her own. “It must be such a downer for you; cut off from friendship and love.”

Catherine sighed. “Yeah… it is.” Then she looked at Melany and smiled. “But luckily not completely cut off from friendship.”

“Yes.” She smiled in return. “And I’m sure there’s a way for you to meet a guy you like.”

“I’d need some kind of disaster.” They both laughed.

The two girls kept talking for a good while; long after the cookie plates were empty. Then at some point Catherine began to be self-conscious about the time, since she had to catch the last train back home. “I should probably get going; I don’t want to miss the train.”

“Oh, alright.” Melany said. “It’s a shame there’s school tomorrow, you could’ve slept over.”

“Maybe another time.”

“Surely.” Melany escorted her friend back to the door upstairs. “Let’s not wait so long for the next time, ok? I really miss playing together.”

Catherine put on her shoes and opened the door. “Yeah, next time maybe I could meet your boyfriend and give my final judgement.”

“I hope you won’t be too hard on him.” She laughed.

“Just a little.” Catherine laughed as well.

Melany reluctantly waved. “Okay, bye!”

“Bye!” Catherine started to walk away, hearing the door close behind her a few seconds later. She felt sad that she couldn’t spend more time with her friend, but she was glad that she finally had spent some together.

15 minutes later, Catherine was waiting at the station for the train. The street was empty and no one else was waiting for the late-night ride. The atmosphere was tense, even though she was alone. She hopped from one foot to the other anxiously; something didn’t feel right. Just when she thought the wait would never end, the train’s headlights finally came into view and she let out a sigh of relief. It rolled on and slowly stopped in front of her, opening the doors. The cars were all empty; no one usually rides the train at this hour.

Suddenly, just as she stepped forward to enter the train, something crashed into it from the other side. It hit between the cars so hard that they were pushed toward her and ripped apart. Catherine narrowly escaped being hit by the car she had been attempting to enter by reflexively jumping to her left. She fell to the ground and hit her right knee hard on the pavement. Her cry of pain was deafened by the sound of the scraping metal train cars. As she was wondering what had happened, she turned her head to see what had crashed into the train.

A bulking figure stood in the shadows at the point of impact. It started moving toward her. At first glance the shadowy outline seemed human with two arms and legs, but when it stepped into the light it was hardly comparable to one. The arms were large and beefed up with muscle, the legs had an extra joint below the knee and the feet were hooves, and its head was that of a bull’s with horns protruding from its forehead. When the minotaur saw her it snorted, stomped a hoof and charged at her.

Unable to bring up the courage to move, Catherine just watched in fear as the hulking beast was swiftly closing in. Then, out from behind her, a bolt of lightning appeared and struck down the charging minotaur. She watched it fall on its back, and only when she was sure that it was staying motionless did she dare to look behind her. A man stood there with his arm raised in her direction. His features were all normal at least, except for the fact that he was wearing an eye-patch on his right eye. Did she just imagine sparks on it? It wasn’t really clear.

The man bent himself on his knee and looked at her with his remaining eye. “Are you alright?”

Catherine didn’t find the words to answer; she was still under the shock of what had happened.

“Can you stand up and move?”

She wasn’t sure herself, but managed to pronounce three small words. “I think so…” A hand was extended to help her up and for a moment she wondered if it was going to electrocute her if she took it. Nevertheless, she accepted the gesture and winced in pain as she stood up and put her weight on her injured knee. It hurt, but it wasn’t unbearable. Now that she was standing she saw that she was a couple inches shorter than the man in front of her. He was wearing regular clothes: jeans, sneakers, white t-shirt and a black coat. He looked like any guy that you cross on the street every day. The only reason you might give him a second look was his black eye-patch.

“Is your house close by?” He asked her.

Catherine shook her head. When she spoke she couldn’t project her voice at all and it sounded barely louder than a whisper. “I was supposed to go back with the train… My friend’s house is 15 minutes that way.” She gestured her thumb behind her back. At that moment they heard the sound of an explosion coming from that direction.

The man sighed as if exasperated, looking away in the distance. “It’s not safe that way.”

Catherine looked at the destroyed train. She couldn’t go home. She couldn’t go back to Melany’s. A feeling of desperation took over her and she was on the verge of tears.

“You can’t stay here.” He told her.

I know. Catherine thought, but she couldn’t say it. She kept looking at the train wreckage.

“Are you listening? Do you have a place to go?!” Urgency sounded from his voice.

She grabbed his coat with both hands, tugged at it and shouted with her eyes closed. “No I don’t! Okay?!” She held her head low to hide her tears from him, keeping a firm grip on the coat. “Just… don’t leave me alone...” Even if the guy was a stranger, he had saved her. She could trust him. Probably. “Please…”

He seemed to feel awkward in this situation. “Alright, alright. Can you let go?”

Catherine nodded. She found it hard to unclench her hands, but she did and let her arms fall to her sides.

“My house isn’t far.” He continued. “We’ll go there for now.”