Before the law

A black infinite void surrounded a young man. He had brown curly hair and an athletic build. His deep blue eyes pierced through the darkness and witnessed the grand scenery in front of him. He was standing on the root of a gigantic tree floating upside down in the endless nothingness. The tree gave off a bit of light that illuminated a bit of the darkness.

The young man, only 16 years old, crawled in the direction of the edge. He was careful not to fall into the abyss, that he was trying to witness. 

Will looked over the edge of the root and could see far below him the crown of the tree. It was an eerie feeling to look down and still have the feeling of looking up, to see into the branches of a tree. There was no telling what exactly was underneath the giant leaves of the tree but there seemed to be a golden gleam. Will could tell that as the leaves furthest away from him gave off a different light. He slowly crawled back to a more secure foothold and sat up. 

"Guys I have good news and bad news. The good news is we guessed correctly. We are standing on a giant root that belongs to an even more gigantic tree. The bad news is, our situation is just as hopeless as we imagined", Will said to the group of frightened people next to him. 

Probably not the best choice of words to calm the confused, huddled-up group of three. A middle-aged man with glasses - he looked a bit like a timid pencil pusher -, an old woman with grey hair and a young girl that clung to the woman. She was probably not even older than ten. 

"What now, we can't stay here forever. Nothing changed in the last hour but who knows how long we'll be safe here. Also, there is no water source around. We are all going to die of thirst.", said the timid pencil pusher.

The young girl clung even more to the old woman who tried to calm her.

A small man with a military uniform next to the group of three intervened. 

"Alright, everyone stay calm. We told you. Me and my partner are going to look for a way out..."

"And leave us here to die", shouted the pencil pusher who now fully tapped into his hysteric side. His voice getting higher and higher. 

"No ... we won't leave you here but perhaps it is smarter to first scout ahead and we'll be faster at doing so if I and my partner do it together"

"He is right", his so-proclaimed partner agreed. He looked almost like a complete copy of the first guy in uniform if not for the additional military hat with a small cross emblem on it. He looked a little bit annoyed.

"Are you insane? Do I need to remind you that it is your job as Listeners to protect us, normal folks? So you are not going to leave me alone." retorted the pencil pusher. 

Will observed the entire scene silently. He was not concerned too much with getting left behind by those uniformed guys. Yes, they were powerful Listeners who could protect the group if need be. But they were only Listeners of the first rank and it was too apparent that they were not interested in saving the group. 

'Perhaps they know as well what this thing is. If so I have to be careful of them. I stand no chance against them in a direct confrontation. Maybe I should leave the group so that I can get the first hit. On the other hand, maybe I jump to conclusions too quickly. Ah, this is a bad situation if I jump to conclusions I might endanger the group. But if I don't I might not be ready when they strike.'

Will, actually knew what this entire thing was. Well, not entirely but he had a good guess. The whole thing started a few hours ago. Will was on his way to the transportation system. On his way, he had to walk through a few gutters of New Berlin. You need tall boots to avoid the black mud on these streets. If you don't have tall enough boots you might as well cut your foot off. 

It was on one of these crossroads that smelled like old eggs, piss and puke. Will was about to walk into the street on his right. But a sudden air push out of that street nearly made him fall into the mud. Will quickly regained his balance and then he saw a golden gemstone. It emitted a golden aura that started to envelop Will and then the entire street. 

After that, Will came to his senses in this strange dimension. Or was it an illusion? 'I could also be in a coma. Right now there is no way I can tell. I can't even be sure if only a few hours have passed.' That is the part Will hadn't figured out yet. He was pretty sure that the gemstone he saw was a T-crystal. An extremely rare crystal that could give anyone, Listener or not, an ability. 

Will, never saw one in real life of course but he saw them once in a propaganda show. The T-crystals on the show had a different colour but the golden crystal had the same shape as the ones on the show. Every form of crystal had its distinct shape. E-crystals for example had the shape of a cube. T-crystals on the other hand were perfectly round. That leaves only one conclusion. 

However, there was still a problem. As far as Will knew those crystals don't transport random people to a dark void. So, Will could be completely wrong with his hypothesis.

"You are not leaving without us", the pencil pusher finally stopped Will's inner monologue.

'Is this still going on? I can't believe that they still have not decided on what to do. It's been already half an hour since they started to argue.'

"You know what old man? You are lucky that I did not already leave you here to rot. Not because I am selfish. No. No, It's because your balloon voice is so high I am surprised that you did not fly into the air already." The military man with the hat finally lost his composure.

"Calm down. We are still Listeners of our noble clan. We have to uphold an image." The hat-less military guy tried to calm his colleague down. 

"This insolence! Do you even know who I am?", said the pencil pusher with his very high voice.

"Alright, Alright. Enough of this. We are going to do the following. We are going to walk in a formation." The hat-less military guy had held back his partner while saying that. Simply because his partner was completely annoyed and fuming.

"Fine", the group finally agreed.

'Am I adding fuel to the fire if I ask who is going to walk in front? No there is only one logical way this is going to go.'

"Ok listen, I volunteer to walk in the front and my partner will walk in the back. This way we can protect the group the best." The hat-less guy managed to calm down the group with his suggestion. 

Even the hysteric pencil pusher.

'Well, I can't blame the guy for being scared. I was shocked too when I first got here. A sudden change in the environment with potential danger. However, this guy is a bit much. Even the little girl is better at holding it together. After all, in this world... Wait I am probably in another world right now. Nevermind, in this world you eventually get accustomed to danger.'

'If you live long enough in this world you eventually witness true danger. You have to be prepared for the eventuality of death. How come that this guy isn't?'

Eventually, the group started moving.