I woke up in a hospital unlike any other. The room was spacious, pristinely white, as if designed for one use and to be disposed of afterwards. I was wearing an uncomfortably drafty hospital gown, just as brightly pure as the rest of the room. The intravenous unit was held up in midair, and the different measuring instruments were run by holographic computers. I was back in the other world. A woman stepped into the room and spoke in English.

"Hello, child. What is your name?"

I stared at her body. Her upper half was regular human, while her lower half...well she didn't have one. I could only see distortions in the air from what was sustaining her off the floor. She spoke in a very formal manner and she had coils and coils of brown hair draping behind her.

"Are you going to answer? None of your information is on Statusin records other than your previous encounter with the lowroad."

I steeled up, "My name is Carlos Galván. I'm from Houston, and I want to know where I am. I'm an American citizen."

The lady smiled politely, although she was clearly also taken by surprise "You are in Magai City, the capital of the Magai Empire. My name is Uma Celen Reqqna. You can call me Uma" she pronounced the name of this place "madge-eye", one word.

She conjured a Statusin hologram by connecting her index fingers and thumbs to form a square, then expanded it to the size she wanted it to be. Then she flipped the screen so I could see,

"That's your galaxy right there, you call it the Milky Way. We're over here," she swiped away and past satellite formations towards what I recognized as...

"Andromeda?" I gasped, "I'm millions of light years away?"

"You teleported here. We have no clue how you did that. The amount of energy—what am I saying. You have no clue, do you? Your abilities are probably in their nascent stages."

"Abilities?" I asked, "What are you talking about? I don't—"

"You've been teleporting around," she insisted, "There's no denying that."

"But—"

"We would have to send you to the sensory stimulator in order to find out what you can do. Are you willing?" she asked.

Well, considering what you just told me is completely illogical, I thought.

"No," I gave her a look more frightened that I would have wanted.

"Well, then, you'll never find out what your powers are," Uma taunted, "I can just never let you out of here."

I stared her down, but failed. Her eyes were unblinking and hard as steel.

"Fine."

She smiled and moved the hovering bed to a seamless wall, where she placed her hand on a glowing control panel. A rectangular doorway appeared in the wall. Outside the room was a clearing to a jungle with enormous trees and a thick underbrush. We passed through the opening.

"What is this?" I asked, scared out of my mind.

With no response, she went back into the room and left me there.

"Hello?!" I shouted, getting out of the bed. I was fine?

There was a rustling in the underbrush, which startled me. Then, a giant dog-like thing sprang out. I put my arms out in front of me and closed my eyes. When I opened them, the beast was immobilized, hovering in midair.

I screamed a lot more than maybe I should have.

I spun on my heels, swinging the beast around in the air, but not really meaning to. Another beast pounced into the clearing, but I was prepared this time.

If by prepared, you mean not really. I swung the dog already in my control to hit the other one while it was still in midair. It flew back into the bushes with a whimper. When I turned to look at the first dog, it wasn't there anymore. I

heard a growl from behind me, so I spun on my heels again and pointed at it with two fingers. Blue arcs of electricity shot from my fingers and impacted the hellhound, killing it instantly. I staggered backwards, bewildered at what I had done.

"That will be all," Uma's voice boomed through the jungle. Instantly, cybernetic grid lines ran all around me, returning me to a plain white room, but this time there was a table in the middle.

Uma was sitting in front of me when she spoke, "It looks like you only displayed a fraction of your power there, Carlos. By the looks of it, if you're commanding teleportation and telekinesis and electromancy you're probably a magician of some sort. You should—"

Normally I would be excited about something like that. I didn't really care. I wanted to go home.

"So when do I get to go back?" I asked loudly.

She looked at me strangely, "Go back? Never, I presume. We have not had any physical contact with Earth in quite a while."

I refused to accept that, "Then how did I go back the first time?" I asked, now desperate.

"You went back? I thought you teleported somewhere else in the city. Someone called in the ambulance, so they brought you to the hospital. You are positive you went back to Earth after the your encounter with the lowroad?" Uma inquired. I just nodded.

"Then I shall speak with the authorities. You are free to roam the city with the guidance of a Statusin," she said distractedly.

"Where am I supposed to go?!" I demanded.

"Find an apartment, there are lots of free ones for visitors with no citizenship," she said, just as I was dropped, chair and all, through a hole in the floor onto the sidewalk of another busy street, "I'll be in touch!"