Ryan stared at the digital clock on the cable box. It read 12:00 noon.

So much for first thing in the morning.

Ryan had already tied his sneakers on, folded the blanket Anya had given him, and was sitting on the couch waiting for the other two to emerge from their rooms. He had been up since 8:00am. A small gurgle came from his stomach. All of his snacks had been left in his car, and from his venture into Anya’s kitchen, he didn’t find anything appetizing. It was filled with cans of soda, meat for cooking, and a few cups of pudding. He sniffed at the meat and wrinkled his nose. His stomach wasn’t quite used to the animal meat on Earth. He thought for a few times that maybe he should go in and wake them up. But every time he decided to get up and knock on their doors, he sighed and sat back down. It had been a tiring night after all. They had needed the rest.

But now it was noon and Ryan was bored to death.

All right, time to wake up.

As soon as he got off the couch, the creak of one of the doors could be heard being swung open. Anya walked out fully awake, her T-shirt on, her shorts on, and her boots on. She strode over to her swivel chair and retrieved her leather jacket.

“Is Jamie up yet?” she asked.

Ryan took a look around his surroundings. Obviously not. And why are you ready all of a sudden?

“I guess I should wake her up huh?” Anya turned and walked back down the hall to knock on the door. She gave a few swift taps but there was no response.

“Um…Jamie? You ready to go?” she asked. Still no response. “Did you see her come back in last night?” she asked Ryan. Ryan shook his head. I fell asleep as soon as soon as she left. It’s been so long since I slept that well.

“Oh no…what if something happened to her?” Anya was beginning to worry. What if she left us? More likely. Ryan thought. Anya opened the door and looked inside, there was no sign of Jamie.

“Well, we have to wait until she comes back right? I knew I should’ve given her my number. When she was walking out, I thought to myself giveheryournumberbutnooooijustlethergolikeanidiotyouwouldthinki’dhavelearnedbynow—“ Her sentences started to slur together as she began to talk faster and faster. Suddenly the sound of keys jingled on the locks of the door. It swung open and a loud and happy voice shouted:

“GOOOOD MORNING!” Jamie strode in, carrying a large shopping bag. She plopped it in the center of the living room and put her hand on her hips. “I have brought gifts!” she said in a dramatic tone.

“Where were you?” Anya asked. All signs of earlier panic disappeared.

“I woke up super early and decided to do some shopping, now that we’re a team and all.” Jamie reached into the bag and pulled out two black leather jackets. They were plain and un-studded like Anya’s. “I wanted to find some that matched yours.” She tossed one of the jackets to Ryan and pulled the other one over her shoulders. “Look, see? Now we look like some sort of gang right? Every team’s got to have a uniform,” she giggled.

A tacky gang that wants to draw attention to ourselves yeah. Ryan wasn’t too excited about the jacket. He let it sit on his lap. Anya seemed to be pleased though. Touched even. A huge grin stretched onto her face as she watched Jamie model her new jacket. After doing a few turn-a-rounds, she turned back to the bag and reached in and took a new item out.

“As for transportation to Origin, I’ve taken care of that as well. Since you so graciously offered to let us into your home, I got one of my old uh…colleagues to give me three of his transport discs.” She opened her hands and showed off three tiny coin-like rings. Transport disks were one of the most popular modes of transportation. It made jumping from galaxy to galaxy very efficient. But transport disks were also expensive.

“So your companion just gave you three transport disks like it was nothing?” Ryan asked in a suspicious tone.

“Didn’t say it was a companion. But yes.” Jamie said, wanting to nip the subject.

“Just gave them to you?” Ryan kept pushing. Jamie stared at him with a smile and walked right up to where he was sitting and bent down, her face inches from his.

“I’m veery persuasive,” she said, almost whispering.

She hasn’t brushed her teeth.

“Can we just get going already?” Ryan asked, leaning back into the sofa. They act like we’re going on a trip to the zoo. I have things I want to inquire about too.Ryan thought as he fiddled with the empty bottle of vial in his hoodie pocket that he had found in the so-called “Gargoyle’s” apartment.

“Yes, of course. And thanks Jamie. This definitely helps out. I only have a few of these left.” Anya took one of the discs out of Jamie’s hand and flipped it like a coin. Ryan grabbed the other disc and stood up. The three of them took corners of the living room and gave each other enough space to throw the disc down.

“You're not going to wear your jacket?” Jamie asked. Ryan looked at the jacket he had left behind on the couch.

“Not now,” he answered. A look of disappointment flashed across her face but she left it alone. All at the same time, they each clicked a small button on the side of the ring, and let their discs fall to the floor in front of them. The rings expanded and formed a glowing blue circle, big enough for them to individually stand in. A hologram of a tall, robed female shot up from the circle. Her hair was formed in the shape of a triangle and she had scaled purple skin. She spoke out in a ghostly voice,

“Thank you for using the I-Transport Center. Where would you like to go?”

“Origin. Registration Center. Return requested.” Ryan said loud and clearly. He could hear the other two repeating his words to their own Center worker.

“Origin. Registration Center. Return request accepted. Please step into the circle and keep your limbs inside the port until your destination.”

Ryan stepped inside of the circular ring, tightened his ponytail to make sure it stayed in place, and took a deep breath. He knew that many species enjoyed the trip via Transport Disc, but he honestly preferred travel via ship. It may take longer, but traveling by airship was a lot more fun than standing in one place. He heard the sound of bubbling and whirring and could feel his body getting lighter. Anya’s apartment disappeared and instead there were beams of light blues, pinks, and greens among other colors flashing by. He couldn’t feel the rest of his body anymore and resisted the temptation to look down. The sensation of floating almost made him lurch forward in an attempt to find balance. Ryan clenched his eyes shut to help him keep still.

“You’ve arrived on Origin. Registration Center.” Ryan opened his eyes and saw that he was in a blindingly white room. “Your return trip can be redeemed at anytime. Thank you for using I-Transport.” Ryan stepped out of the circle and waited for the ring to shrink again. Ryan picked up the small metal disc, the cool, icy feeling that the disc gave off felt good.

Ryan looked around, trying to find Anya and Jamie. There were a few other people in the room. Not nearly as much as when Registration for Open Conquest first started two years ago. The scents of many different species flooded into his nose, too many to count. The room was all white except for a few circular windows in the walls that showed off the scenery outside. The grass outside was green and sparkled with flowers of every color and the sky that blanketed it was a gorgeous cotton candy pink.

“Hey!”

Ryan tore his face from the windows and saw the other two, who had met up in the center of the room.

“Love that this place is as white and dull as ever.” Jamie said sarcastically. “Would it kill ‘em to have furniture of a different color at least? I never understood it.”

“Can I assist you?” a voice suddenly boomed from across the room. It came from a faceless being behind a tall white desk. The three of them walked up to the desk. Anya, with a confident stride, placed her hands in the pockets of her jacket and walked right up to it. Ryan followed after Jamie, who had a slight bounce to her step. The desk towered over them by a good two feet.

“We would like to register for Open Conquest.” Anya said confidently. The faceless being stretched his neck over the desk and it extended unnaturally to meet Anya’s gaze. He was wearing a white skintight turtleneck and it rustled as he turned his head side to side, looking at each of them.

“All of you?” he asked.

“All of us, as one unit.” she said. The being cocked his head to the side quizzically. The sound of his long nails tapping from high up on the desk was unsettling and made the skin on Ryan’s neck stand up. He then waved his long arms towards a door on his left as it slid open.

“Thank you.” Anya said. Jamie and Ryan followed her through the sliding door.

Yeesh. I forgot how creepy these guys are.

They found themselves in a connecting tunnel leading to the next room. They heard a voice: Please wait until cleansing is done. Pink gas shot out of tiny holes in the walls until it completely enveloped the room entirely. This was Ryan’s least favorite part. The whole point of cleansing was so that when they inhaled the gas, it enabled their powers useless. It took away any super strength, any psychic powers, and even the least threatening of abilities was taken away. They made it so that you were basically a defenseless newborn. Ryan hated that feeling.

Cleansing Complete.

The next door opened and they were let out into another white room. This one was completely empty except for a long desk that stretched horizontally across the room. Multiple faceless beings were sitting at the desk. They were murmuring to each other as they watched the three of them walk to the center of the room.

Almost feels like we’re about to confess to a crime. Ryan laughed a little to himself. I guess we are, sort of?

The being in the center of the large desk was wearing a tall, white diamond shaped hat, its long neck was already stretching to meet Anya who had taken front and center.

“Divinity, Chameleon, and,” it gave one more sniff, “Pyrotanian.” It was a woman’s voice and it had a regal tone to it. The rest of the beings began murmuring to each other again. “You are all registering as a unit for Open Conquest, correct?” She said this slowly and deeply.

“That’s right.” Anya said calmly, not breaking eye contact, or at least where eyes would’ve been, with the being. There was a pause until finally it said, “Do you have registration cards?”

“Yes, right here.” Anya opened her jacket and pulled out three registration cards the size of index cards. She also hovered over something else that she had in her jacket but didn’t bring it out, whatever it was. The being stretched it long arms and grabbed the cards from her hand. It looked at it closely, front to back, and seemed to communicate silently to the other faceless beings that were looking on curiously.

“Very well,” it finally said. “You may fill these out.” It slowly gave Anya the cards back. The sound of air escaping sounded from the floor in front of the three of them. Three white podiums rose up from the floor with a floating laser pen alongside each of them. The three of them stepped up to a podium and began to fill out their card as the beings watched. The sound of numerous nails tapping echoed off the walls. Click click click click

Name, Species, Age, Planet of Residence, Individual or Species Unit. These were the things that they needed to fill out. Under individual or species unit, Ryan would’ve put Pyrotanian. But since he wasn’t fighting to give Earth over to the Pyrotanians anymore, he chose Individual.

Individual: 3-man. Aw shoot, they want a name for this thing. We never decided on a name. He looked to Anya. As if reading his mind, she said,

“For the name just put Decide Later. I completely forgot.”

“Why don’t we come up with something now?” Jamie asked.

“No, we should really think about it first. You don’t want us getting stuck with a stupid name when we finally come out to the humans right?” Anya said.

Are we really going to get that far though?  Ryan hated that he was such a pessimist but he couldn’t help it. There were so many things that could go wrong. Just being in front of these beings was getting him antsy.

Even without expressions I know they’re judging me for betraying my kin. How dare I, right? I know. I’m the worst. Besides, I’m only a symbolic member. I don’t even have to do anything right? Anya said so. Earth’s better in her hands than in the hands of the Warriors.

They finished filling out the cards and left them on the podiums. The white podiums lowered down again and disappeared into the floor.

“Thank you, we’ll leave now.” Anya said, turning to leave.

“One moment.” The being with the tall hat said loudly. “We can’t allow you to leave just yet.”

Oh God. Here comes the third degree.

The being’s arms reached over the desk and laid its hands on the floor as it stretched itself all the way out to meet Anya’s face. It’s long nails scraped against the shiny floor. The scent of these creatures was subtle, but up close, Ryan could smell the plasticity and burning chemicals. The complexion of the faceless beings were flawless except for the occasional crack along its skin. On this one, there was a crack where a mouth would’ve been; it created the illusion of a sinister smile.

“You must realize how strange this is? To have three already dispatched members of the Noble Four approach us together as one. And in their human forms no less. We have been given orders from Origin’s Rulers to question your motives. No one leaves until we are satisfied.”