Welcome to Nova

After a few minutes of struggling, he managed to open his eyes.

Ulrich lay on the floor of…somewhere. He was just looking at a grey ceiling that seemed extremely far away. He tried moving his legs. They were wiggling a small bit, that was good. The room was pretty warm, so he'd probably get his energy back sooner or later. He kept moving his legs, tried moving the rest of his body. It took what felt like ten minutes or so, but he was up. He walked forward a few inches, trying to get rid of the pounding headache he suddenly got, when he ended up hitting his face against a long wood table. Now both sides of his face hurt like hell. But the fall did wake him up slightly and make his sight slightly less blurry.

Positives, positives.

He ran his hand across the metallic red wall, until he felt his hand slip slightly. This seemed like some kind of door. He felt the door, slightly less red than the wall, until he found what felt like a door handle.

Wouldn't budge.

Great, Ulrich thought. He tried saying the word, but it appeared his mouth didn't get the memo about being up and slightly ready. But his eyes were adjusting, and he was slowly getting a vision of his surroundings.

He looked up at the low ceiling, and then towards the walls. Right next to the door was a metal plate with a hand engraved on it. Presumably, it was some kind of fingerprint scanner, like something from a sci-fi movie. Ulrich was about to touch it, hesitating for a brief second. He scanned the room, and figured it was either touch the panel or starve waiting for someone to get here. For all he knew, he was in a doomsday bunker with suspiciously good furniture. And so, he touched the scanner.

And then the alarms started.

His sight was back. His hearing was back. He heard himself make some incoherent noise, so his mouth was back. He looked around for a hiding place. The table was wooden down to the floor, so he looked around it for some kind of switch, hoping to retract under the wood so he could hide or something. But there didn't seem to be anything like that, and so when the door opened, he was in the middle of the room.

What came into the room was a man in some kind of uniform, his black helmet obscuring his eyes, his bulky black armour covering his body as well as the doorway, alongside some kind of two handed gun.

"Who are you?"

"Uh, Ulrich Hart?" Ulrich blurted back.

"Age?"

"Eighteen?"

"Are you with the Novas?" the man screamed.

"The who?" Ulrich screamed. Shit, should've played along.

The man rushed at him, and Ulrich managed to jump out of the way, accidentally letting some fire out of his hand near his landing place.

Fire. His body recovered enough for fire.

His body seemed to recover enough, so he collected the heat in his left hand and threw it at the man, who yelled something angrily as he moved out of the way. His helmet automatically covered the rest of his face, and Ulrich tried channelling the heat from his left hand, but before he could do anything, the mans gun was already bashed against his face. The last thing he felt being the table against his skull.

When Ulrich came to, he was in a small and very cramped room. Metallic grey door closed, Deep Metallic grey walls feeling like they were closing in on him, and another man in deep grey armour standing next to him, his gun being a slightly lighter metallic grey, which was probably the most interesting thing to look at. Or the yellow light calmly humming above him, but he kind of liked having eyesight at this point.

And as he was waking up, the one thing he noticed was his arms. Most importantly, how much they hurt. And his ass, for that matter. He assumed the chair was grey and metallic, and he was pretty sure wooden chairs were less expensive. And his arms hurt due to how pulled back they were when tied to this chair with chains attached to them, which felt metallic. And probably grey.

"So, any idea of when the chains come off?" Ulrich asked the guard.

The guard didn't reply.

"Cool." Ulrich replied to the silence. He checked if could still shoot fire, and he felt his right hand heat up slightly. He looked at the chains in an attempt to burn them away, but turned around and saw himself before the barrel of a gun.

"Cease your fire!" He barked at him.

Ulrich stopped the fire immediately.

"It's out. I stopped the fire. Please don't kill me." He said in rapid fire.

"Yes, killing won't be necessary."

The guard lowered his gun and turned around. "Oh, miss master. Glad to see you here!"

"You too. Now back to guard duty, if you don't mind."

The guard saluted the woman and went back to the door. The woman sat on the chair across from Ulrich, which he didn't even notice due to how exceptionally grey and metallic it was. She just leaned back on the chair, arms crossed, and Ulrich could get a decent look at her. Short black hair, tanned skin, and a black turtleneck. Brown eyes looking towards him with a mix of ferocity and confusion.

"Uh, hello?" Ulrich finally piped up, after a few seconds.

"Good day, sir." She nodded, leaning forward "Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions, and you are going to give honest answers, are we clear?"

"Does it get these chains off?"

"It can be arranged."

"Ask away."

She reached down and pulled a small piece of paper out of her pocket.

"Now, question one. What's your name?"

"Ulrich Hart."

She gave a quick nod, taking out a pen and scribbling something on the paper.

"Age?"

"Eighteen."

"Very cooperative." She noted, jotting the information down. "Now, where are you from, may I ask?"

"Florida." Ulrich replied.

"Okay, good to…" The woman's voice stopped. "Florida. Flo-ri-da." She repeated to herself, letting the syllables hang around across her mouth. "What level would that be, exactly?"

"Uh, United States?" Ulrich replied.

The woman glanced over at the armoured man. "Do you know what these 'United States' could mean? Is that a code for something?"

"Not to my knowledge, ma'am. I can inform the novas at the next meeting, should that suffice."

"Forward it at your next opportunity." She scribbled something on the sheet and left it on the table.

"There's an I in the middle of Florida." Ulrich informed.

"Thank you." She replied, adding this information. "And now, the big question the higher-ups want to know. Just how did you get into the Nova meeting room?"

"The what?" Ulrich asked back.

"The room where the Nova families meet? The room where you were found?"

"Oh, that. I came in from…another dimension?"

Ulrich maintained direct eye contact with the woman, who's face slowly collapsed into contorted confusion.

"Another dimension?" She asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Yes." Ulrich said, keeping the serious tone.

"Care to mention what you were doing in this alternate dimension?"

"Fighting a witch. She grabbed hold of me, and I ended up here."

"Well, you certainly don't seem to be lying." The woman replied, adding to her notes. "Now, are you capable of teleportation?"

"No?"

"Well, there's one possibility eliminated."

"I shoot fire." Ulrich added.

"Which would explain the damage to the floor. Sir, if I may have a report on the damage of the room, please?"

"Outside of the aforementioned floor damage, nothing to our knowledge."

"I see, thank you. Now let's review...no proof of teleportation, no proof of break-in, and no proof of assistance."

The woman folded the paper and placed it back into her pocket.

"Quite frankly, your story was completely ridiculous, but I have no reason not to believe you. But anyway, your cooperation was appreciated, thank you."

"So…will you undo the chains?"

"Well, before I do, I need to tell you your options outside the cell."

"Got it." Ulrich nodded.

"'Whether intentional or accidental, rich or poor, a crime is a crime.' That is our motto here when dealing with criminals. And considering the severity of your actions, you will have to be treated like all criminals your age."

"So…what are my options?"

"You have two. The first, and the one I would recommend, is death."

Ulrich waited for her face to change. It didn't.

"You're recommending I die?"

She pointed to the gun the guard was holding. "One shot from this, and you'll be dead before the pain can register. Quick and painless, kind of a luxury when you think about it."

"And my other option?"

"I see." She sighed. "Your other option is to enter the criminal's gauntlet."

"I'm sorry, gauntlet?"

"In brief, every criminal from the ages of fifteen to twenty-one will be entered into a type of obstacle course. The twenty who survive the course will enter the next stage."

"And how many criminals are entering?" Ulrich asked.

"Around three hundred this year, more or less."

"Ah."

"It's why I recommend dying here. Your chances of survival are next to none."

Ulrich leaned back in his chair, or at least tried to. "Well, you see, that fight I was apart of? I was teleported out halfway through. I need to know what happened after that, so dying isn't exactly an option."

"I see. So, you agree to the game?"

"Yes." Ulrich tried sounding as determined as possible, but the woman's unchanging face made him unsure if it worked.

The woman sighed and whispered something to herself, taking a second sheet of paper out of her other pocket, handing Ulrich her pen.

"Sign here, please."

The guard removed one of Ulrich's restraints, and he made his way through the form, adding his name and age.

"Hey, I can leave out this 'level' part, right?"

"In your case, yes."

Ulrich left it blank, and then it got to the 'power' section.

"Power?"

"You shoot fire, correct?" the woman replied. "Write that down."

Ulrich wrote 'fire' as instructed. "So, are powers just a normal thing here?"

"Are they not where you come from?" The woman asked.

"I've only been able to use fire about two weeks."

"Well, would you like a demonstration?" The woman asked.

Without waiting for an answer, she stood up, took a small coin out of her jeans pocket, and flipped it while facing the wall. And as soon as it hit the wall, she burst over to the wall, slamming her hand onto the coin before it could hit the ground. She sat down in front of a stunned looking Ulrich.

"I can lock onto things." She said calmly, taking the completed sheet of paper, and undoing the other restraint on Ulrich's hand, while the guard opened the door.

The three of them started walking through the orange hallways, and the woman pressed on a black earpiece.

"Yes, I got him to enter the game."

Ulrich heard some kind of noise come out of the earpiece, and the woman shut her eyes in distress.

"I'm sure he will, yes."

Ulrich tried keeping on with the ensuing conversation, something about sponsors and percentage cuts, but quickly zoned out. If there was something to do with his survival, he didn't know. He went through on auto for a couple minutes, and he was finally entered into a room. One of many in a long hallway. Grey and metallic.

"Get some sleep, the gauntlet's tomorrow." Was the last thing the woman said to him before Ulrich heard the door lock, and two sets of footprints walking back whence they came.