Norfield was a new city, it had only been established in 2015, yet it had a bustling commercial city center, a university in the heart of the city, a working train station, adequate housing sprawling in every direction outward for miles, and it even came with multiple leisure activities such as swimming pools, nightclubs as well as indoor trampoline parks.

Though it was a new city and was consider a part of Yorkshire in England there was one problem it was not in England nor was it on Earth.

As the clocks struck midnight around the globe and the earth moved into the second millennium A.D (as it was still called at the time) there were cracks in the face of reality forming. At first, they were slight, and most people passed it off as light reflections in the corner of their eye. However, as time progressed the cracks grew and began to expand outward.

Eventually a global research project began, these cracks were in every city and town around the world and even some desolate places like the middle of the ocean or the outback of Australia.

The first incursion happened in Osaka, Japan during September of 2000. In the middle of the city center two giant creatures pried the crack open and stepped through. They stood as tall as skyscrapers, a humanoid form with long thin appendages. They were thin and every bone could be seen. Their skin was a dried and washed out brown, even becoming red in at joints where it had struggled to stretch of its own hulking bones. Four large spikes protruded from the back of its neck each connected with a fin like webbing colored a faded orange. Their eyes had a film like covering that appeared to be a pale yellow.

The two creatures seemed to be distressed and lashed out at everything around them, an instinctual protection. Eventually Japan’s Defense Force subdued and kill the creatures, however it was too late for Osaka as most of the center had been decimated and many lives had been lost. In the half an hour the creatures managed to cause millions in damage and kill 12,000 civilians and soldiers.

The Japanese news called them Kurushimeru, which means distress, or torment. The name stuck and military blockades were created around every known crack or rather portal that had been discovered.

By December of that year the UN had created an exploration party to enter the Osaka portal and see what was on the other side.

As the team passed through the blue light, they arrived to see a beautiful field of grass. The place was untouched by humans and at the end a cliff that led to the most enchanting body of water they had ever seen. Unfortunately, the magic of the moments did not last long for as they were setting up their recording equipment they all suddenly felt off.

Though the air was not toxic it had a different effect; the air of this new world altered the DNA of anyone who breathed it in, thus creating Alterations. An Alteration is anything a person gains from inhaling the air of this world, though it was a shock to the system of the first people who went through as time went by and more of the new planet leaked into our world the less taxing gaining an Alteration was on the body.

Alterations were thoroughly researched with willing participants over the next few years as well as mapping the terrain of the other side of all portals. It is believed an Alteration is partial based on someone’s personality, bloodline as well as a stroke of randomness. Though it has been observed that an Alteration can expand its abilities if a notable event happens to someone, a personality shift, a traumatic event or a change in lifestyle.

This new planet was eventually found to be 3 times the size of our own planet. There was actually a lot of debate between the name of this new home for us. Most people didn’t really care what it was called, the internet referred to it as Earth 2, scientists referred to it as Sole Novum b which came from the designated star Sole Novum. There was actually a vocal outcry in the media to continue with our Solar System’s naming conventions of myths and legends and call it Janus for the god of new beginnings.

Eventually most people settled on what they wished to call it and most knew what you meant if you referred to it as any form of slang of the previous 3. The only stipulation was on letters you know had to specify the postage address as E for Earth or SN.

In 2007 most countries were allowed to buy land and expand their borders across the portals, unfortunately the portals weren’t a 1:1 placement. A portal in London could arrive 3 miles away from the one connected to Chicago or it could be above the ocean. The only guarantee was that every portal was safe to pass through, no giant cliff edges or the bottom of an ocean.

In 2008 it was decreed that Alterations had seen to have minimal adverse effects and thus were more important for people to have than to not. Though over the next two years Police and Military personnel would be given exclusive access to Alterations as it should allow them to combat those with malicious intentions and powers.

By 2010 the new world was opened to the general public and they were allowed to move there.

With the mass of new Alterations being gained, constructions speeds increased tenfold. The cost dropped as soon as people could create all the materials themselves and new cities like Norfield that were established in 2015 could be up and running as a full-fledged city within three years.

With construction and land being the new most valuable resource Victor Chevalier soon became the richest man in two worlds. He owned the largest construction company in the world known as Proud Buildings, he had invested in technology which had boomed since the explosion of resource creation and intelligence increasing Alterations. Finally, he bought uncharted land plots and sold to the highest bidder.

Though much of the world had been mapped geologically by satellites there were places no one had ever seen with their eyes nor on video.