Author's Note: Yo guys, so I have finals coming up. Maybe I can squeeze a chapter out before Saturday, if not then most definitely by Wednesday or Thursday. My finals are all Monday and Tuesday then I have to pack to go home for break. I hope you all can be patient and I'll do my best to write as much as possible :) Enjoy this AWESOME chapter. (in my opinion)

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For one second, all was well and I kept moving forward through the darkness hoping that wherever I was supposed to go wouldn’t require me to stay in this darkness for much longer. It was slightly unnerving to walk without knowing where you’re headed after all.

In the next second, my body instinctively tensed up at an uneasiness which I couldn’t pin the source on to.

Then it hit me in the third second—pain. An excruciatingly unbearable pain swept through my body as if a raging fire had set my very cells ablaze.

Collapsing to the ground in the fourth second, I threw up a mouthful of blood and felt as if millions of bugs were crawling underneath my skin.

‘Did they bring us here only to kill us? What kind of sense does this make?’

Scenes flashed through my head at the speed of light. My parents. My siblings. My friends. All the things I’d promised to do and aspired to do.

‘I’m sorry mom…dad…I guess I won’t be coming home after all...I’m sorry…’

Pain uncontrollably raged through my body and I felt something snap inside of me.

In the fifth second, I could bear the pain no longer and fell into unconsciousness, fully believing that it would be the last time I’d ever do so.

………………..

I felt myself regain consciousness some indeterminable amount of time later.

Opening my eyes, I sit up with some effort due to the weight of the pack on my back and realize with relief that the terrible, burning sensation of pain had vanished. The only source of discomfort now were the small aches around my entire body from the entire ordeal.

Looking around, the first thing I noticed was how many people lay on the ground who were all either still unconscious or groggily waking up same as me. The number of people that I saw was many times over the amount I’d previously seen walk into the tower before me so I could only assume that everyone who’d entered the towers around the world ended up in this same place.

Taking a look behind myself, I see Akito, Kualin, Milik, and Pixie sprawled out on the ground unconscious. Moving over to them, I shake each of them awake and find a couple seconds to get a good look at our surroundings.

The inside of the tower was plain white and the room was several times larger inside than how it appeared to be from the outside. The four walls around us and the floor were all at least worth three football fields in width and height.

The ceiling, however, was another story. Where I’d expected to see another white ceiling was a roiling mass of a blood red liquid. Simply looking at it made me feel squeamish inside at the thought of it actually being blood.

Opposite of where a large majority of people were now helping one another wake up was an opening in the wall which held an obsidian grand staircase leading twenty feet up into the wall. My first instinct was to laugh at this oversight on the Overlords’ part, but quickly decided against it since I knew they surely wouldn’t put it there without a reason but…

‘Why the hell would they put in a staircase that leads straight into a wall?’

By this point, my friends were all groggily getting into standing positions and they also began to marvel at the interior of the tower.

They weren’t the only ones though. People of all nationalities were scattered across the room with astonished gazes on their faces as they realized they had walked into a place which turned out to be a lot more than they’d expected.

“Yo, check that out.” Kualin said, pointing in the direction of the obsidian staircase. Looking over, I saw that crazy black spiky haired dude about thirty yards away shouting at over thirty people. I quickly took notice of the fact that his hands were no longer cuffed and some of the cuffed people he’d been thrown in with were also releasing each other from their cuffs with what looked like a metal wire.

“…no salvation for the ones that threw us in here! We will have our vengeance! Together!” He shouted to all those listening to him and strode directly towards the stairs. I was extremely uncertain of where he thought he was going since there was nothing but a wall there. He remained oblivious to the fact until he seemed to rebound off of an invisible wall placed at the foot of the stairs. The rebound forcibly threw him back a couple yards and he scrambled to his feet with fury evident in his eyes.

“Is it just me, or did that crazy over there just get pushed back by nothing? If so, then I guess I’ll be the crazy one…” Milik said out of the corner of his mouth.

“That seems to be the only way out of this room…I’m sure something will be explained to us soon by the Aliens. They’re probably waiting for all eight hundred of us to wake up and get a good look or something,” I responded back to him.

“Alex, what do we do now?” Pixie asked me tugging on my shirt. I hadn’t heard a word she said though.

My attention was currently set on a girl I’d caught sight of when watching the guy from barrack one or two shouting. She was standing all alone in the mass crowd of people in tight dark blue jeans and a long-sleeved, form-fitting brown shirt with a bulging pack on her shoulders.

I’d seen a lot of beautiful women in my nineteen years of life and even pixie was one of those ten out of ten girls that’d make even the most innocent men stop and stare, but in my eyes this girl had them all sorely beat. She shone like an everlasting bright sun amidst a crowd of mere light bulbs.

Before I even knew what I was doing, I took Pixie’s hand off my shirt and began walking over towards the girl. I had never believed in love at first sight, but if ever there was a moment in time where your heart is no longer your own simply from glimpsing the true nature of a person, then it happened within a millisecond of when her eyes met mine—I knew in that instant that this was completely illogical and under the worst circumstances…but whether it was love or not, I knew I would never get part of my heart back from this woman.

Her facial features were soft, yet refined and a tinge of pleasure shivered through my body as I admired her flawless olive skin. She was only half a head shorter than I was and smooth brown hair fell in waves around her head, ending a couple inches below her shoulders. The eyes that were currently staring back into mine were a mesmerizing mix of sapphire blue and peridot green.

How it had only taken such a short amount of time to sear her appearance into my brain, I’d never know, but what I did know was that as my gray had looked into her shining eyes, there were traces of tears brimming near the edges of them. Feeling an electric jolt run through my body, my heart immediately ached for this girl I had only caught sight of mere seconds ago.

I soon stood within a couple feet of her and without really knowing what else to do, I just stared into her eyes. I was never the emotional type that people would reach out to when they were upset, but I was going to change that right here and now. Without thinking, I let the words at the top of my head fall out of my mouth…big mistake.

“So beautiful…,” were the words that came out and I couldn’t feel any more embarrassed than I was when the girl immediately blushed and wiped her tears away, looking at the ground bashfully.

‘Oh, yeah! So goddamn smooth, Alex!’ I wanted to die of embarrassment, but I needed to salvage the situation with her. I couldn’t even think of slinking away into the nearest hole and burying myself within because then I’d never have the opportunity to get to truly know this girl who I had abruptly begun to feel so strongly for.

But, of course, I could never simply show such feelings to a girl I’d just met. There’s no way she felt what I did when our eyes met. Right?

Sticking my hand out to her, I spoke with as much confidence as I muster, “Hiya, I’m Alex.”

‘I’m so damn lame.’ Surprisingly, she took my hand quickly.

“Clara,” she replied in a soft, but silvery tone. That did it. She was externally perfect.

‘I didn’t know girls were made this well. I just hope her personality is as amazing as the rest of her...’

Before I could get to asking her why she was nearly crying, a projection on the wall closest to the gathered eight hundred people lit up in a brilliant display of color before a room shrouded in shadows came into view and the only thing that I could see was a solitary hooded figure seated upon an embellished throne. Before I could even begin to look around for my friends that I’d left to come over to Clara, I felt a hand grasp my shoulder.

“Right here, man.” Kualin leaned over my shoulder looking at the screen and before I could berate him about getting in my ear again, the hooded figure began to speak.

“Oh, humans. You are a bundle of surprises to me. All eight hundred of you actually decided to show.” The man, or well I assumed whatever it was to be male, spoke in an amused tone as if this scenario hadn’t involved the race of our world. I spared a glance at the group of people composed of the men and women from barracks one and two and they were glaring daggers at the projection of the hooded figure.

‘Guess they hate anybody forcing them to do something.’ Turning back to the hooded figure, I waited for him to continue speaking.

He began speaking again, but this time the words sounded uncharacteristically excited.

“I have waited for this day far longer than any of you could possibly imagine…” The alien seemed to take a moment to compose himself and began speaking in a disinterested voice. “Assuredly, you’ve all realized that you’ve been marked. These marks will signify your abilities and prowess and they may even change as you grow.”

I start nodding at his words, but then became puzzled. ‘Wait, so we are being given elemental abilities?’ I became a little excited at the idea, but the voice carried on as if it wasn’t dropping bombshells of information.

“There are currently eight hundred of you humans within this room. You will break off into groups of eight. There are eight different types of marks. Each type of mark symbolizes an element: Air, earth, fire, water, light, darkness, lightning, and the mind. Every group will represent all eight elements. It is your greatest chance for survival. I suggest you choose wisely. You have ten minutes to get situated.”

Once the figure finished speaking, the projection disappeared and everyone was staring at the wall in confusion. After about another second, the room burst into movement as people went about finding a group. I looked at my friends and found that they were all staring expectantly at me. Even the new girl I barely knew, Clara, was looking up at me waiting for me to speak.

‘I don’t remember putting myself in a leading position…’ I embarrassedly thought.

“Ummmm okay, okay.” I nervously laughed out. “Alright, so eight elements. I assume we want to know if it’s possible for us all to be in a group together.” They all nodded towards me. “Alright, so I’m more than likely air. Pixie here is lightning; I’ve seen her mark. Akito, you’re water, right? I saw the raindrop on your back when you were doing all those squats yesterday…?” He nodded to me silently and I continued speaking. “Kualin and Milik…I haven’t seen your marks yet. Which elements do they correspond to?”

Kualin was the first to speak. “I have this huge mountain on my back. It’s kinda cool actually because someone told me that rocks come tumbling down it every now and then…” he trailed off because I must’ve been looking impatient. “It’s earth.” He finished. I nodded towards him and turned towards Milik with a raised eyebrow.

“What’re you, bro?” I asked him.

He pondered for a moment before speaking. “I think that I’m darkness.” He thoughtfully looked skyward for a little longer and then, “Yeah. Darkness,” He confidently finished.

Nodding towards Milik, I turned to Clara and she spoke before I could ask her what she was.

“I’m light!” Her sweet voice was pleasant to listen to, but I tried not to get distracted and took a step back from the mini-circle we’d formed.

Counting them, I say, “Okay. So, luckily, we already have six of the eight elements in our group. We’re missing fire and mind. Any suggestions on how we should go about this?” I addressed them all and began looking around. Before I could even register any information from the bustling movement of the other seven hundred ninety-four people in here, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning to see who it was, I realized Akito was the one who had my shoulder in his firm grip and he was currently pointing over towards the people from barracks one and two.

Speaking in a clear and deep voice, Akito said, “She looks to be particularly on fire at the moment.” Looking at the obsidian staircase, I see a much larger group of people there than I’d seen earlier and realize with a grimace that people of like-minds really do flock together. I could tell that all the people over there believed in some of the stuff the black spiky haired dude had said and were currently attempting to complete their groups with people who didn’t want to fight for Earth’s survival, rather they wanted to tear it and the Overlords down.

The spiky black haired guy looked like he was about to explode from anger as he looked at a very short girl in front of him. She was probably a whole foot shorter than me, but her body was voluptuous. She had a perfect hourglass figure and her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail. Her face was extremely red and she looked furious. Her blue eyes shone like lasers aimed directly at the spiky black haired guy.

“What the fuck do you mean come with me!? I saw you outside the tower! You’re a crazy, overbearing asshole!” She was waving her hands and shouting loud enough for the people around to hear her.

I grinned and looked back towards Akito. “I like her attitude a lot. Let’s go see what element she is and if she’s willing to come with us.” He nodded and began moving in that direction. I was about to follow him, but had a thought and turned back to the rest of my friends.

“Hey, Clara, will you come with us?” She nodded and smiled sweetly at me before walking off after Akito towards the fuming short girl. I turned to watch her leave and smiled to myself. Even in this situation, I could only sigh in admiration at her beauty. Hearing a snap, I turned back to see Kualin, Milik, and Pixie laughing at me.

“Alex, were you going to ask us to do something before you got distracted,” Their laughter broke into a louder volume and I could only cover my face in embarrassment.

Forcing the image of Clara’s figure out of my head, I started nodding. “Yeah…yeah, I need you three to go and look for a mind element person. We’ll meet over near that corner in about five minutes.” I pointed in an area towards the corner furthest from the stairwell as well as far from where the projection had shown up. “Got it?”

Pixie nodded her head. “Got it.” And then she walked off with Kualin and Milik trailing behind her.

I turned and sped off to catch up with Akito and Clara who were nearly at the short girl and spiky black haired guy. The argument seemed to have escalated into a full scale shouting match and had managed to draw quite the crowd. As I was contemplating how to get in between them, talk to the girl, and not give her a reason to shout at me, the guy threw a punch at the girl.

Before his punch got anywhere near landing on the girl’s face, Akito stepped in between them and caught his fist. The guy tried pulling his fist free, but couldn’t budge. He finally got around to looking at the huge, muscular man holding his hand and I saw his eyes widen in surprise.

I laughed out loud at the look on his face and broke through the crowd to stand next to Akito and, though the guy shot me a murderous glare, he said nothing about it.

Sneering at the girl behind Akito, the spiky haired guy said to her, “I see you can’t even take care of yourself without some help. Guess I was wrong to think you’d even fit in with your level of strength.” He continued to struggle against the hold that Akito had on his hand to no avail.

Akito only looked at him with hot rage in his eyes and I didn’t feel a shred of anxiety over what I knew was about to happen. Sure enough, Akito tightened his grip on the guy causing him to cringe in pain and bend down until his knee thumped into the ground. His face was tightened in a grimace of discomfort, but he didn’t cry out.

“What’s your name?” Akito asked him in a cold, rough voice.

“As if I’d just tell you my...argh!” Akito was now twisting his arm and I was standing to his side looking down on the man.

“Telling you his name might make things easier for you,” I suggested to the guy with a grin on my face. I was actually really enjoying this. The guy had been acting all high and mighty since before we’d even entered the tower and now he was on his knees.

Not willing to stand by and watch the man in pain, one of the men from barrack one or two rushed me so that he could try and get Akito off the guy. He reared his arm back, aiming for a punch at my face and I just smiled as he approached. When he unleashed his fist, I stepped in, dodging the telegraphed move and flipping him over my hip, slammed him into the ground. Lightly patting the dazed man’s chest, I looked at spiky hair guy with a light smile and said, “It’s only a name.”

He internally struggled for a moment before finally saying through gritted teeth, “Matt…”

“Listen here, Matt…” Akito spat out the man’s name. “I don’t want to see you mistreat any of my teammates ever again or we will have words again.” Akito then threw Matt’s hand toward his face causing him to lightly smack himself before he stopped his hand.

Making a shooing motion with my hand I say, “Run along little Matthew. Your friends are waiting for you. Oh, and take this one with you.” Lightly prodding the guy on the ground with my foot.

His mouth was set in a firm line and his eyes seemed red with rage, but I didn’t care and neither did Akito for that matter. I’d had monsters stare me in the eye with a purer intent to kill. This guy was nothing compared to that.

I nodded towards Akito and he motioned towards the blonde haired girl and with Clara next to me and I began to lead the way over towards the corner I’d designated for us to meet back up with the others at. Clara, I was pleased to note, was looking between Akito and I as if we’d just single-handedly fought an entire army even though, in reality, it was just two stupid guys who’d managed to piss us off.

Akito turned to the girl and her face was now beet red. “Are you okay?” He asked her.

“Yes! I didn’t need anyone to save me! I could’ve easily thrashed him!” The short girl confidently said back to him with a broad smile on her face. Now that I was closer to her, I could see that she had a doll-like face and her red blush was giving way to a tanned white skin color. Akito and her exchanged names as Clara and I walked ahead of them. Turning back, I chanced a look at the girl and she looked at me fiercely. She was more than likely thinking I was going to try and force her to join my group like the spiky haired dude had done.

Akito must’ve noticed the look on her face since he hurriedly began speaking. “Oh, they’re with me Izzy. We were wondering if you’d like to join our group. Are you the mind or fire element?”

She looked at both Clara and I, not speaking for a moment. I looked around and saw that most people were calmed down and speaking with their new group members. Then the short girl, Izzy, looked like she had decided on something and started talking.

“I’m fire and joining your group is the least I could do since I suppose you both did help me out of that little bind.” She smiled upwards at Akito’s hulking figure and turned back to Clara and I. “I’m Isabelle, but you two can call me Izzy.” It seemed like she’d calmed down immensely and was acting as sweet as Pixie does.

‘So she’s one of those girls that act sweet and innocent, but on the inside are similar to a raging inferno. No wonder that crazy dude was trying to get her to join his group. He must’ve been sorely confused when she’d rejected his offer,’ I silently thought.

I smiled at her and gave her my name. Clara did the same and we were still making progress towards the corner that I’d told Kualin, Milik, and Pixie to meet us at. We had to bump and jostle our way through a lot of groups that seemed nearly finished and it wasn’t made any easier by the packs that we all were carrying. Finally making it near the corner, I spotted my other three friends with some African-American girl who was about my height and laughing at whatever Kualin and Milik were saying. Pixie was also listening to them, but I could see her looking around frantically.

‘Time’s running out, so she’s probably looking for us.’

When we got close enough, Pixie spotted us and began leading the other three over towards us. When we reached them, I looked at the African-American girl and she sported a regal stature, emerald green eyes, and mocha-colored skin. Reaching my hand out, I introduced myself and those behind me. Making sure to point us all out as I said our names.

“I’m Kyra,” the noble girl responded to which we all answered with smiles and nods.

“Okay everyone. Izzy…” I pointed to the short doll-like girl. “…is our fire element.” I pointed over to Clara and my heartbeat sped up. She was just way too beautiful. “Clara is our light element.”

Carrying on I pointed to the hulking mass of muscle that was Akito. “Akito is our water element.” I looked at Kyra and asked, “I assume you’re our mind element?” She nodded upon hearing the question and I started talking again while pointing out each person. “Pixie is our lightning element, Kualin is our earth element and Milik is our darkness element. That’s seven elements and my air element makes eight all together. We’re good.”

Just as I finished speaking the projection came back on and the hooded figure looked out at us all neatly divided into one hundred groups of eight.

“Now, marked ones, allow me to tell you what you’ll be doing in the tower.” The deep, cold voice of the hooded figure echoed throughout the utterly silent room.

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Author's Note: Annnnnd scene. Lol. Leave some comments on what you guys thought about the brief fight scene (I hadn't written one in a while and figured it was needed) and the new (dare I say it?) love interest! Haha you guys have a great week. I'll try to post as soon as possible.