Song of Earth

Ian Rainwall checked his dimension pistol. It felt too light on his belt to give him a real sense of safety.

He received a sour look from a military officer for even daring to glance at the pistol.

Soldiers in their cybernetic suits gathered around the town square. The colors in their armors replicated the colors of the flag, the proud symbols of the Earth Nation – blue and green, the colors of life, perfectly blending new with things that were eons old.

Ian swallowed. He wanted to crack a joke about the corny military aesthetic, but that would have invited trouble. Ian didn't want trouble. He wanted a good system.

A nervous clicking sound echoed from the walls as new and inexperienced gun users made sure their ceremonial dimension pistols were not loaded yet.

It was not just another day in Town 13.

This was the coming of age ceremony for a hundred young men and women. They had turned eighteen already and they were now ready to be initiated into their systems and receive their superpowers.

It looked so fancy, with the newcomers of the superpowered world clothed in light cybernetic armor, carrying their performative pistols, but nothing else about this was a show.

Twenty years ago, everything on Earth had changed when a hostile species of interdimensional sentient creatures had attacked the planet. Apparently there were so many dimensions that not even the best quantum computers were able to reliably keep up with what happened and where it happened. Earth, or anything like it, did not exist in the dimension the attackers inhabited.

The hostile creatures came to the planet and gave themselves a name that humans would repeat with fear for the rest of their lives.

Krobinnuti. They called their species the krobinnuti, perhaps because the name sounded crunchy and vaguely intimidating.

The krobinnuti were trying to propel themselves through the fabric of the multiverse, via Earth to a dimension of humanlike creatures. Earth was, in itself, completely insignificant - humans merely existed in an interdimensional hotspot that was unfortunately crucial for the passage of the krobinnuti.

In their hurry to retrieve some kind of an important object from the other species, the krobinnuti had managed to do some geographical renovation work on Earth in order to build a better interdimensional portal. The power of the krobinnuti was so great that in one night, they had mashed all continents into one huge supercontinent. Humans had adapted quickly as was common for the resilient race of men. They had decided to mash all their governments together to match the new, strange form of the world. It was easier to cope with the massive loss of life if they were all working together.

The humans had thought they would have to fight alone, but the humanoids had arrived, and it had been an exciting time of hope. They fit into just about any dusty and outdated ideas of what aliens were supposed to be like, and what was even better than big-headed alien kitsch was the fact that they had access to the wildest technology that mankind had ever seen.

From that point onwards, everyone who had turned eighteen would be able to receive a randomized superpower from a gamelike system that was much like virtual reality. One notable exception to actual virtual reality games was that this system reality was actual reality, affecting in real time both the system bearers and the world. One of the most important things about this system besides having to hope to get a cooler power than Extreme Botanical Expertise was that the wielder had to collect something called Power up Points to upgrade their skills. Soon enough, a loving nickname had been applied to Power up Points.

They were puppies by the time Ian turned eighteen and had to start worrying about his place in the army.

Ian nearly chuckled as he thought about all puppy-related jokes, but this was not the time and place to be laughing alone. He was seated in a row of less experienced future soldiers, having parents with skills that were considered less useful.

Ian had always looked at things from the outside, towards the inner circles, the packs of humans, groups that did not outright despise him but didn't let him, either.

Ian had been receiving funny looks for his long hair, and he had grown fond of his self-imposed social exclusion in a way. If rockstars could have long hair, he was allowed to ķeep it that way, too, especially as he had learned the secrets of conditioners three years ago and resembled a walking hair conditioner advertisement – opposed to the days before his enlightenment, when he had carried the nickname "Troll".

Perhaps Ian was a bit clueless, but he had taken it as a compliment before the horrible day of finding out that his best friend laughed at him with the others – behind his back.

He was given sour looks even now. It was as if the immature new soldiers could not form a functional group without someone to keep out of said group.

Ian thought he shouldn't complain. He could still get a superpower that would allow him to do solitary work all his life. Perhaps he would become a translator or a diplomat. He would earn well with negotiations.

Ian threw his long locks back in a defiant motion of his head that certainly was not a part of the ceremony.

The old general in the front frowned at him.

The task every man and woman had to do was to find and open a Mini Portal. This way, the system would be able to access them and its powers would spill over to Earth.

The portals that gave humans access to the system were liquid. They had been placed by the universe in random locations.

Behind the last fences of the legendary old 13, an excitingly tropical jungle sprouted up from the ground fertilized by the Triple Volcano.

The humanoids had brought with them a biological bumper – exotic creatures from their own dimension that helped with the whole krobinnuti problem. These beasts were aggressive towards humans as well, though they did seem to have a special kind of hatred for the krobinnuti.

Ian smiled as he thought about what lofty ideas people had about 13, considering its reputation as one of the ten most dangerous places to live besides the Middle Desert.

Now, though, he had to concentrate. Soon they would run into the jungle, to the places where the veil between worlds was the thinnest and liquid system portals were easier to find.

A girl beside him looked at Ian with curiosity in her eyes.

Ian was used to being an absolute circus animal. He could sort of play with that expectation and be the clown at times, although it was true that rarely did clowns want to be clowns.

Usually, everyone wanted to be the hero.

"Young soldiers!" the general roared, startling the girl who had so rudely been gawking at Ian.

"We will now swear the Oath of Humanoid Friendship and sing the Earth Anthem."

"United we stand, our strength as humans lifting us up to heavens. A common enemy knocks on our door, but our species will survive."

The uniform pronunciation echoed from the walls. Ian even got chills. It was a beautiful thought.

"All beings that know right from wrong will fight. All species join the war. The war is against the hostile, the treacherous and the cruel. For our sake...for the sake of our families...our love...our lives."

The Oath was completed, and then everyone joined in the song that they had known from infants, the sentimental, dramatic Earth Anthem, designed to tug that mysterious heartstring that caused a human being to feel like a part of something much greater.

Ian began to feel courage and hope about his future, but that was a bit silly.

There was little he could do to make things better.

The ceremony ended. Ian followed his peers into the jungle outside 13.

The jungle was as beautiful as it was hostile. The ruins of a giant supercity were buried under vegetation – rhino cobras lived here, and so did filtigers, too, and there was always a sizable chance of running into krobinnuti that had managed to let itself in through a portal of its own making. There was little sense in building walls against them, for the krobinnuti could pop up anywhere, at any given time.

"I can't understand why the humanoids don't just give everyone a system," a guy called Aiden hissed at his friend as they dived into the heart of the jungle in order to split up and find their own portals.

"Shut up!" Ian said. He didn't want to be around people who made too much noise.

"I'm sorry, did I hear something?" Aiden asked with a mocking tone. "I think you'd better shut up and prepare for your Sandwich Maker System."

Ian had a perfect comeback and he fully intended to use it.

"Quiet, you will alert everything to our presence!" the general yelled, making ten times the noise the young men had made.

Finally, after an excruciating moment of passive-aggressive silence, the general commanded them to split up and find their own system portals.