Days turned to weeks as I rehabilitated at the hospital. My mother and brother visited daily, and I began a physical therapy regimen to strengthen my atrophying muscles. As the doctors had explained it to me, my recovery was nothing short of a miracle. I had been shot a total of five times, including two shots to the head, yet the bullets never punctured my vital organs. It was as though a shield had prevented them from fully damaging me. It was publicly believed that the ammunition David had used was somehow defective, but I knew the real truth. PAL had saved me.

PAL had spent the better part of my recovery trying to recruit me into various schemes and conspiracies. First, she tried to get me to use my newfound fame to set up a meeting with a government official so that I could extract information from him, then she tried to convince me to use my powers on hospital security so that I could break out. I denied her each time.

Then the day finally came for me to be released. Ethan bought me a new shirt and tie for the occasion, and he even helped me tie the tie, which I was super thankful for. With my mother and brother in hand, I walked down the hospital ward, through the front lobby and out into the blinding June sun. A crowd of well-wishers and onlookers cheered me on as I shook hands with doctors and hospital administrators before making my way towards a waiting car. Dr. Toya was the last to shake my hand, “speedy recovery,” she jeered as I entered the car. I closed the door and we rode off, away from the crowd and back to our normal life.

Ethan ran his hand across the stubbled remains of my shaved hair. “We will be in the same boat come next week,” he laughed. Ethan should have shipped out weeks earlier, but the Air Force Academy had given him a special dispensation so that he could help me with my recovery.

“That’s right, the Air Force Academy is going to shave you, aren’t they?”

“Don’t remind me,” he pulled a chunk of his wispy brown hair in front of him, “this hair is one of my best attributes, all the girls at school used to love playing with it.”

“Since when did you become such a playboy,” I prodded him.

“Lots of stuff happened while you were in your coma.”

Including the death of David. Maybe Ethan was too afraid to talk about the subject, or maybe he simply didn’t know how to broach it, but I knew that it had to be eating away at him.

I dampened my tone slightly, “I just want you to know that you can talk to me about anything. I mean anything. Don’t forget that.”

“What brought that about?” He questioned me skeptically.

“Well, with you moving away in a week I just wanted to let you know that I will always be available if you need someone to talk to.”

“Thanks bro, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Boys,” mom interjected, “I want to let you know that after what happened, I plan to take some time off to travel the world and work on my writing. I will be leaving the day after Ethan ships out.”

“Whoa mom!” Ethan jumped, “How will I keep in touch with you?”

“You have my number.”

“But, mom.”

“It’s okay Ethan,” I shook my head at him, “this has been very stressful on mom. She deserves some time to herself.”

Of course, I knew the real reason that she was running away; she didn’t want to talk to me about my dad. Her travel was nothing more than an acknowledgment that we needed to spend some time apart.

“Thanks for your understanding,” she half-heartedly smiled at me, “I will leave you access to my checking account, please pay the bills on time every month, and don’t spend any of my money on your video games.”

“I won’t mom.”

“Good.”

After that conversation, mom and I didn’t speak again until the day she left. During that time, I conducted a couple of awkward phone interviews with local TV outlets, helped Ethan get ready, sent him off, and then brought mom to the airport. Her last words to me were, “we’ll talk when I get back,” and with that, it was just me – and PAL.

Good. Now, with those distractions out of the way with, we need to begin plotting our strategy.

“Our strategy for what?” I rolled my eyes at my newfound alien parasite.

World domination, of course. We will use this planet as a launching pad to conquer this galaxy and rebuild the IGC.

“Great, I’m sure that conquering the world will help put the conspiracy theories about my alien heritage to rest.” I popped down in my cushy beanbag chair with a tray of my favorite snacks and grabbed for my gaming controller. The new Micro Effect 3 DLC was out, and there is no way I was gonna let PAL ruin my playthrough of it. It's not like there was really a pressing need to conquer the world.

Did I mention that the Serpians are on their way here? Their scout ships alone have enough power to obliterate this entire planet. If we fail in our mission then everyone on Earth will die, including your brother.

I flung up from my beanbag chair, sending chips and popcorn flying everywhere. “Wait, they are on their way here, to Earth? When?”

The scouts will arrive within a decade. My pod was designed with an experimental dark matter thruster that allowed your mom and I to travel here within the span of 6 earth months, but the Serpians lack such technology. They will send their more agile scout ships first, and their main fleet will arrive not long after.

“Ethan and I will still be alive by then!”

That’s why we need a plan to fight back. Simply put, the humans of this planet lack the organization, technology and skills needed to survive such a threat.

“And that’s why you want to conquer Earth?” I questioned PAL.

Every action I take is backed with purpose, Admiral. I was supposed to embed myself within this population and force them to confront the threat, but that is not an option. That’s why I need you to force them for me.

“But I’m a libertarian,” I protested. The idea of conquering the world was not at all enticing, but the idea of keeping humanity safe, especially my brother, was. I wrestled with whether conquering the world was truly the best strategy to protect Earth, or if there were less drastic measures that could be taken. No matter how I examined the issue though, it seemed foolish to think that the divided people of the world would ever be willing to put their differences aside to fight back.

“I’ll do it,” a sudden rush of energy surged through me, “you’re right, we will all die unless I step up to the plate.”

Excellent. Let’s get started.

“Not so fast,” I grabbed for one of my brother’s old notebooks and sat down at my mom’s writing desk. “If we are going to do this, then at the very least I need information about the basic mechanics of this game-like reality that you have created for me.”

Very well. That seems like a fair request.

“First of all,” I readied my pen to take notes, “I see that I have 20 experience points and am level 1. How do I earn experience points, what do they do, and what does my level indicate?”

Experience points gauge your compatibility with my systems. Experience points can be earned by using your abilities and completing operations. Your level represents the strength of your connection with me. As you level up, you will gain skill points that you can use to gain new abilities. Your next level up will occur at 100 points, and you will have to earn double that amount to level up again.

“So that explains why my experience points increased from 0 to 20 after using my ability on that psychologist,” I carefully jotted down PAL’s explanation into the notebook. “I also noticed that I have a skill called Biomechanical Health Modulation, can you explain what that is?”

It is a skill that is governed by your biotic power. As long as you have biotic power points, your body will be able to heal itself on its own. That is how you survived your recent attack.

“I will have to be careful not to completely expend my biotic power then,” I began pondering some strategies with the newly received explanation. “Do physical dexterity points and skills work the same way?”

Indeed, they do. You have not unlocked any physical skills yet, but they function the same way. If you run out of physical dexterity points, then your body will collapse in fatigue.

“How do I gain more points in these two areas?”

When you level up you will receive points based on the way that you used your powers during the leveling up process. Health points are the only type of point that increases in standard increments.

"What is the difference between a skill and an ability?"

An ability is a physical manifestation of a skill. There are two types of abilities, passive and active. Passive abilities do not require the use of any power points and will remain active so long as you will them to do so. Unfortunately, due to my processing limitations, you can only have one passive ability active at any time. Unlike passive abilities, active abilities cost biotic power points or physical dexterity points if you choose to use them. Both types of abilities can be unlocked by interacting with your environment, but their power can only be increased by leveling up and integrating with me.

I wrote down all of my skills, abilities and point allocations and pondered the information. I had roughly ten years to level myself up enough to defeat the Serpian scouts, a powerful enemy strong enough to wipe out an entire galaxy of humans in a mere blink of an eye. My prospects for defeating them did not look hopeful. “What level would a Serpian be at, roughly?”

That is difficult to answer. Most Andromedan humans were between levels 3 and 5. Artificial Intelligence interfacing was strictly prohibited within the IGC at the time of its downfall, but most Andromedans were paired with lesser virtual intelligence systems that allowed for limited biotic and physical enhancements. From my data at the time of the destruction of the IGC, I was able to discern that the Serpians had interfaced with artificial intelligence systems and that most of their soldiers were between levels 10 and 12. Their ships and technology are the primary problems, it would appear as though they have made strides in engineering that even I can't fathom.

I closed Ethan’s notebook and pushed it to the side. Leaning back in my chair, I stared blankly at the ceiling, lost in my own thoughts. Leaving the house was not my favorite hobby, and neither was interacting with others, but if I wanted to level up then I would have no choice but to go out in public.

“Okay PAL,” I stood up and brushed some crumbs off my shirt, “let’s do this. Time to grind some levels.”