“What the hell?” exclaimed Tom. “Why are there words coming up in my vision?”

Jason turned to look at Tom who was swiping at the air in front of him. Amused, Jason laughed and said, “Tom, that’s the UI that was installed. I’m assuming that they took a line from video games and made it so the areas that we come to are superimposed over our vision to let us know where we are. If I’m not mistaken, the words should fade shortly.”

As if Jason’s words had been a switch, the words superimposed over the bridge slowly faded away into the mist surrounding them. Jason smugly looked at Tom and nodded.

“Hmpf,” Tom grumbled. “Stupid kids and video games. Never saw the appeal of them. Thought they were a great recruiting tool for the Complex as we got lots of newbies who came off of their Call of Warzone 8 or whatever thinking that they could pick up a gun and shoot like in the game. Poor morons didn’t realize what they were signing up for until it was too late and then they were bound by a three year contract with the Complex.”

Jason nodded in understanding. He had known that much of the Complex’s recruitment strategy had revolved around using popular video games to convince young men and women to join up. There had even been a piece done in the news a few years back about how recruitment had quadrupled every time a new game in the ‘Call of Warzone’ series came out.

Teenagers as young as 17 and 18 were lining up outside the recruitment stations every time a new entry in the franchise came out and the news piece had talked about some subtle manipulation placed in the games to increase recruitment. Jason had never had the stomach to play the games so he never understood the appeal, but he knew that each year’s entry was bigger and more expensive than the last one. The Complex was never hurting for new recruits and the poor saps who signed up for service found that it was nothing like the video games.

“You get used to it,” Jason remarked. “It’s something that most modern games do to help orient new players to where they are.”

Jason turned to look at Misty who had a puzzled look on her face. “What’s up?”

Misty frowned and said, “What does it mean that they’ve been ‘waiting for us?’ There’s no way that they could have known that we were coming right? At least that’s what The Director told us.”

Misty adopted her best Kingston pose, placing her hands on her hips, and said in a deeper voice: “Each of the portals is randomized so we have no way of knowing where you will go when you come out. However, each portal has been reviewed by our complex algorithm and outside sources to ensure that Power Stones will be available for you when you proceed through the trials.”

Misty shook her head and adopted her airy voice again. “It just doesn’t make sense to me. The portal glowed black when we went through and now that we’re through, there’s a distinct yellow aura to this place. I’ve never seen such a distinct change in aura’s in such a short time.”

Jason glanced at Tom who shook his head. “What do you mean about the ‘aura’ of the portal and this place?”

“Oh!” Misty exclaimed. “I’m sorry. I forgot that I haven’t explained what my synesthesia shows and what the aura’s mean! Think of it as a generalized idea of what the major traits to something or someone is. Remember when we first talked, I said that you had some blue to your aura? That usually shows up when there’s something sad associated with the person or location. Yellow tends to lean more towards good humor, but the more gold it gets, it often has to do with positive things.

“Violet and purple tend to be more serious colors and brown often denotes hidden things, like when I read Tom’s aura. Black is the most difficult to read as it typically means serious or strict, but at times it can mean ‘nothing’ or ‘empty.’ Hence why I saw the portal as black. There was nothing behind it or it led to nowhere, which was confusing. But here we are in some place that the aura is practically bleeding gold.

“The energy of this place is really powerful and is washing out most everything else. Even now, I see that both your aura Jason, and yours as well Tom, is turning golden. But I don’t really know what that means since I’ve never seen something this strong before. This is really new to me and I typically didn’t tap into my synesthesia in my regular life unless I was painting.”

“When I look at you,” Jason mused, “I see that your synesthesia is actually listed as a power of yours and neither Tom nor I have anything at this time. I think your synesthesia may actually be a superpower that has lain dormant until now and is fully coming into use now that we’ve crossed into these ‘Isles of Destiny.’” Jason made quotation marks in the air.

“That is ABSOLUTELY right! *shss* Correct! *shss* Proper!” A metallic voice sounded in Jason’s ear and made him whirl around to face the speaker. Misty’s eyes bugged out and Tom immediately grew stern and shifted into a fighting stance. Jason looked for the speaker, but did not find anyone immediately in the vicinity. A scan of the clouds and mist that surrounded the island showed nothing of note either.

“Who’s there?” demanded Tom as he glanced around. Jason noted that he swept areas of the clouds, putting sections of the clouds into a quadrant and moving onward with his search once he was confident nothing was in the quadrant. In Misty’s case, she just stared straight ahead, wide eyed and with a look of terror on her face. Jason didn’t think that he looked much better, the voice had startled him and shook him to his core.

“OH! My apologies! *shss* Regrets! *shss* Condolences!” came the voice again. Jason could swear that it was just behind him, but as he turned again, there was still nothing there. “I am here to help guide *shss* lead *shss* instruct you on this course *shss* death trap *shss* opportunity for advancement.”

Jason noted that in between each word change a slight fuzz would occur, like the old tube televisions that would have white noise during off broadcasting hours. It seemed as if the voice was attempting to determine the correct wording, but had to choose similar synonyms to get the point across.

“Oka-ay,” Tom dragged the word out so it came out longer. “Where are you? Can you show yourself?”

“Absolutely! *shss* Certainly! *shss* Indubitably!” chirped the voice. Again, Jason heard the voice directly behind him but when he craned his neck to see where the voice came from, there was nothing there.

Suddenly, a shimmer appeared in front of Jason, Misty and Tom. As the object came into view, Jason realized that it was a robotic drone that hovered a few meters above the ground. It was small, egg shaped and had a silver, metallic sheen that seemed to be the main housing of the drone. A large screen took up most of the front of the drone and as Jason watched, a simple pixelated face appeared on the front of the screen: two simple eyes and a mouth. Jason thought it seemed like a very simple emoji that he often would use during his texts.

“Greetings! I am BUDDI. That stands for Biological Universal Demonstrative and Detection Intelligence.” The little drone’s faceplate changed into a :). “Or it might stand for Biodiverse Ubiquitous Dancing Dimensional Interface. Or maybe it just means that I’m your BUDDI.

“In any case, I am to be the guide for your team as you progress through the islands *shss* trials *shss* locations in this area as directed by *shss* [NAME REDACTED]. Oh but don’t worry [NAME REDACTED] only has the best of intentions and has some great things planned for your group. [NAME REDACTED] knows all about the SuperPowered Games and has been a fan ever since Season Alpha-50-b aired [TIME REDACTED].”

Jason started. Every time that BUDDI had attempted to say the name of his creator or employer or whatever, his UI had flashed “[NAME REDACTED]” and the same white noise would play over what BUDDI had said. The same thing had occurred when BUDDI had attempted to explain when his employer had started watching the show.

Misty looked at BUDDI and smiled warmly. “Hi BUDDI. I’m Misty, but I’m pretty sure that you know that already.” BUDDI dipped in acknowledgement and his face changed to a ;). “I can’t see an aura around you and every time you tried to tell us who your benefactor was, I received a ‘name redacted’ message on my UI. Is that something that you can help with?”

BUDDI’s face changed to a :( and he sadly replied, “No. Unfortunately, I believe that the UI has been updated by the Liquid Gold Corporation, or LGC, to automatically redact or hide information that might be beneficial to those at odds with the corporation. As my employer, [NAME REDACTED], has found through the various seasons that have been streamed of the SuperPowered Games, there are many who would like to take what the LGC has created for their own gains. Some nefarious in origin, while others are just seeking to ruin *shss* destroy *shss* liquidate their competition.

“As you will soon become aware my contestant friends, this competition is something of an anomaly and the information and technology that the LGC uses to host this competition is in high demand. The LGC guards its secrets closely and there are few who know what the company is actually capable of with its technology.

“My employer is a friend *shss* ally *shss* affiliate with the LGC and has generously decided to aid your group specifically after watching the introduction episode. Each episode comes out in real time and while there might be some slight alterations and additions of graphics to the presentation of the episode, it is mainly captured from the perspective of the contestants and various cameras that are strategically placed in the base camp.”

“Wait,” Jason interrupted. “You’re telling me that over the last few days or weeks or whatever, there have been episodes aired based off of what has been occurring in the camp and when other teams went through the portal?”

“Of course!” chirped BUDDI. “My employer and I have been watching extensively and knew that we wanted to sponsor your first endeavor into the realm of the SuperPowered Games!

“As we watched the introductory episode, we saw you stand up to the Director, Jason, and knew that your team would be one to watch out for. My employer has had one dedicated stream watching your team since the beginning and the last few days have been extremely interesting with your group, what with the installation of the UI and Misty’s reaction, or lack thereof, to the system installation in her brain. My employer is very happy to be sponsoring this first event of yours.”

“Hold on a second,” Tom spoke up. “I want to clarify a few things with you BUDDI. You’re saying that your employer, ‘Redacted Whatever,’ is responsible for us ending up on the Isles of Destiny and is going to sponsor this event. What the hell does that even mean? I thought that the portal connected to a randomized location that had the required power stones. There should be no way to change that system right?.” Tom looked irritated and Jason could tell from his posture that he was a few seconds away from swinging at the little robot that hovered in front of them.

“And how do we know that you are here to help support us? There’s no way for us to know and you could be part of the challenge and need to be something that we have to overcome!”

Jason had to admit that Tom was asking the right questions. It did seem rather convenient that there was a helpful little robot waiting for them before they even started the trial. And it was equally curious that they had been expected since, as Kingston had been oft to remind the contestants, all portal connections were randomized and the LGC had no way of determining where the contestants would end up.

“Oh that’s easy!” chirped BUDDI. “To answer your first question, my employer has the capability of altering probabilities. That’s my employer’s superpower; or at least one of them that I am aware of. I am not expressly allowed to state what the other superpowers are that my employer has. In addition to altering the probability of the situation, my employer also knew of the changes that were instituted by the LGC: offering two Power Stones to individuals who chose to go through the portal to take a trial.

“My employer simply made sure that there were multiple power stones, six to be exact, available in this reality and in this location for the portal algorithm to locate. The rest, as you say, was child’s play for my employer’s superpower to ensure the probability of the portal arriving at this destination.

“And to let you know that I am here to support you, I have taken the liberty of adding a map of the area to your UI, if you will focus in the top right hand corner of your vision.” Jason looked to the top right corner of his vision as instructed and noted that there was a small square map icon. As he focused on the map, it enlarged in his vision and he found that there was a small island surrounded by a sea of black. Jason could see the rope bridge extend off into the distance on the map and the island that they were currently standing on was marked as “Portal Island.” Three small dots of different colors noted where he and his team were standing.

Jason had to admit the functionality of the map was impressive and if his hunch was correct, the map should expand further the more he explored the area. “BUDDI,” Jason started, “will the map that has been installed on our UI expand to the base camp when we return, or will it just be the Islands of Destiny?”

“Excellent question!” Jason was beginning to like the chipper little robot as its face transformed into a :D. “With the functionality of the UI that you have been given, you should find that your map has several different tabs on it. Each of these tabs is related to the various realities that you have visited and will be accurate to the nearest meter.”

Jason checked the map again and as it expanded, he noted three tabs below the current map. Each one was listed with a name: “Home,” “Twilight,” and “Isles of Destiny.” After focusing on each of the maps, Jason found that what BUDDI had said was correct. Each of the maps had detail down to the meter of where Jason had already been and although the “Twilight” map was limited to a small area that the base camp was situated, the “Home” map was much more filled out.

Jason removed his focus from the map and it returned to a small icon in the corner of his vision. “Wow, that’s cool BUDDI! Is this a functionality that is given to the other contestants with their UI?”

“Uh…” BUDDI hesitated as if waiting to hear if he could provide that information. “No. That all depends upon the reality that they have found themselves in for the first trial. If you remember, the UI will update and adapt to the user’s needs as they come up. I just happen to have a little shortcut that I am able to offer due to my programming and being a LGC certified bot.”

The little robot practically glowed with enthusiasm Jason thought. “Is there anything else that you can add to our UI BUDDI?”

“Hey!” shouted Tom. “I don’t want my brain messed around anymore by something that I don’t necessarily trust.” He gestured to BUDDI. “This little robot might be helpful, but like I expressed earlier, I don’t trust him. Call it too much time in the Complex, but I’m not trusting this robot.”

“Understandable!” cried BUDDI. “It is extremely wise not to trust someone that you have just met! I hope that over the next few hours and days that you will be able to trust me as I help guide you through the various islands!

“If I could direct your way to the rope bridge, I believe that it is time for your first challenge!” BUDDI could barely contain his excitement. “It is time for the CHALLENGE OF THE GODS!”