Gossip traveled fast in the training center and research facility. Pretty soon, everyone had heard about how my mana shields saved the collection team from near annihilation. Requests for my presence in dungeons began to inundate Mr. Tumamait’s desk. 

Dr. Montressor pushed back as much as he could, listing my age as reason enough to stay away from dungeons after the first time went so badly. Never mind that I’d practically saved the collection team from certain death; all he cared about was that I nearly died. Therefore, he wasn’t going to let me go back in until I was older.

Dr. Montressor’s stubbornness unexpectedly met its match sooner than he would have expected. By the end of the year, the government had proposed, voted on, and organized a new entity called the Enhanced Association. This new branch of the government functioned to monitor and organize all of the enhanced departments (both research and training) across the country.

The leader of this organization was a woman named Eliza Jerome. She was from Tennessee and was a survivor of one of the first gate breaks in that state. She previously held the position of governor of Tennessee, so she was already an active politician. However, when her mana ability awakened, she switched her focus to creating laws to regulate and protect American citizens who developed abilities. As such, she was a natural choice to lead this new country-wide organization and became the director of the Enhanced Association.

I wasn’t sure how she heard about me from all the way across the country in her new Washington, D.C. office, but one day she showed up to take a tour of our training facility. Several men and women dressed in black suits trailed behind Director Jerome as they walked into my martial arts class.

Dangling from a small loop of mana that I’d created in order to escape my teacher's attack, I twisted in the air to look at the new arrivals. Realizing they were all staring straight at me, I released the mana and dropped to the ground lithely. My teacher also straightened from the crouch she’d dropped into in preparation to leap up at me before she turned to acknowledge our guests.

“Good afternoon. May I help you?” Mrs. Rayban asked as she offered her hand to Director Jerome.

“Yes, good afternoon. I’m here to meet the county’s youngest enhanced. I’m Eliza Jerome, the new Director of the Enhanced Association.”

Mrs. Rayban’s eyes widened in surprise, but she didn’t seem all that intimidated. Although, as a gold Olympic medalist in taekwondo and the winner of several national taekwondo competitions, it probably took a lot to intimidate her. She glanced over at me, so I calmly walked over to her side and held my hand out.

“My name is Teagen Ashby. It’s nice to meet you, Director Jerome,” I greeted her politely.

Director Jerome spoke with the gentle drawl of a southern accent that I associated with a delicate “southern belle,” but her handshake was firm and her hawk-like eyes never left my own.

“A pleasure,” she responded. “I’ve heard all about how your defensive powers saved a collection team in a dungeon a while back. Would you mind giving me a demonstration?”

I blinked in surprise, and a long-suffering half-smile quirked up my lips. “As much as I would like to, Director, I don’t have enough mana to create anything as large-scale as what I did in the dungeon,” I explained with a small shrug, already having given up on convincing Dr. Montressor to let me back in a dungeon until I was 18. “But I’ll show you what I can.”

With that, I first created a shield that fit perfectly on my arm. I demonstrated how sturdy it was by taking a direct roundhouse kick from Mrs. Rayban. The mana absorbed the shock, making it so I barely even felt the powerful kick and was easily able to hold my ground. 

With a casual thought, the thick shield began to thin and expand to create a latticed cage around me. One of the people trailing behind Director Jerome stepped forward this time, coating his fist with a green mist and slamming it into my dome. Even though it looked as thin and delicate as a snowflake, it withstood the mana-enhanced punch without so much as a dent.

“And I’ve heard you’re able to levitate yourself and others?” Director Jerome prodded after a few more Enhanced threw a variety of powers at my shields without causing any damage.

“If I have enough mana, then yes,” I responded as I mentally directed the mana in my shield to come back together to form a surfboard shape.

It hovered in front of me, a few inches off the floor, and I stood on it with practiced ease before gesturing at the Director to step on behind me. She didn’t hesitate to do so. She also didn’t react when a strand of mana wrapped around both her feet to anchor her to my mana board.

“Hold on to my shoulders if you feel like you’re losing your balance,” I suggested to her before gently moving us up.

Once the manaboard had risen above everyone’s head, I took the Director for a spin, weaving gently through the air to give her a taste of the range of my mobility. Although I avoided doing anything crazy like flipping or doing a loop-the-loop.

Glancing over my shoulder, I was surprised to see the director smiling as we zipped through the air unimpeded. Seeing as she seemed satisfied, I took us back down. With our feet firmly on the ground, I molded the mana to become a shield again since it was the shape I was most comfortable with. I left it floating in the air next to me, just in case she asked for a different demonstration. I was back to only draining mana crystals, so once I let this mana dissolve into the air, I wouldn’t be able to create anything bigger than my fist until my next examination came around.

“Well, I declare,” Director Jerome drawled with a wide smile. “You have an incredible gift, young lady. There aren’t many Enhanced that have defensive abilities like your shields. It seems a shame to leave y’all out of the dungeons like this.”

“My foster father is very protective, and I’m quite young. I understand why he doesn’t want me to put myself in danger,” I replied, trying not to let my inner frustration leak through my words.

“And yet you have received recommendations from several instructors and even passed a psych eval with flying colors. So the question is this. Do you want to join a clearing team?”

I met Director Jerome’s fierce eyes in stunned silence. I wasn’t sure what ability the director had unlocked, but as I held her gaze, I thought I could feel a kind of magnetic attraction to the mana that was coursing through her body. She was strong. A shiver of excitement went through me, and I slowly nodded.

“Yes, ma’am,” I admitted with quiet longing.

A satisfied smile crossed Director Jerome’s face, and she nodded with obvious approval. “Good. Give me three months, young lady. I’ll sleep easier at night knowing a blossoming talent such as yours was being utilized,” Director Jerome stated with a satisfied smile.

She didn’t linger or give me any details about her plan. Shortly after her visit, however, news of a new government initiative began spreading through the training facility.  Rumor had it that the Enhanced Association was going to build living quarters attached to every training facility, so that Enhanceds could more easily train together as teams. Not to mention the added benefit of being in one place when a gate was discovered and Enhanced needed to be dispatched at a moment's notice.

Exactly three months after Director Jerome’s visit, she revealed her plan to help me go into the dungeons. And the plan she had come up with suited a politician perfectly. Simply put, I was to become an emancipated minor.

Dr. Montressor and Yesenia argued with the representative that Director Jerome sent to help get the legal process underway. However, in California, as long as the minor was 14 years old, had a source of income, a place to live, and was attending school or had achieved a GED, they could become an emancipated minor (legally independent from a guardian). Since I agreed to be employed by the Enhanced Association and could move into the new living quarters for Enhanceds, there was no legal reason for them to refuse.

“Are you sure this is what you want, mija?” Yesenia asked when all three of us went to the court to sign the emancipation papers the day after my birthday.

The tender way she called me mija, which was a Spanish term of endearment that translated to “my daughter”, made my resolve shake for a moment. It had been several lifetimes since I’d had such kind people acting as my parents. Even though Yesenia and Dr. Montressor hadn’t officially adopted me, I knew they held genuine affection for me. I almost felt like I was betraying them by claiming my independence.

It was tempting to hide away from the world of monsters and special powers and pretend to be a normal teenager, but I just couldn’t do it. After living nine lives where I devoted myself to my one special person, and the resultant satisfaction I received from helping bring about a happy ending to whatever story I found myself in… I felt anxious in this strange limbo where I couldn’t figure out what story I was in. I hadn’t even been able to make any meaningful friendships with anyone close to my age. In a nutshell, I was missing my purpose for living. I was willing to do whatever it took to find that purpose; no matter how selfish.

“I’m sure,” I replied resolutely, signing the papers as clearly as I could. As I held out the pen to her, thoug,h I couldn’t help but give her a hopeful smile, “But… I would still like to visit you often. If you’re really okay with that.”

Yesenia’s eyes became misty, and she leaned forward to give me a warm hug, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.

“Of course you can, mija. I’ll cook all of your favorites for you, so don’t be a stranger,” Yesenia declared exuberantly. I chuckled as I squeezed her back, letting myself nestle into her arms for a few brief moments.

Peeking past her shoulder, I met Dr. Montressor’s stony gaze as he watched our emotional hug. He flicked his eyes away from me, not saying a word as he took the pen and signed where it was indicated before turning and leaving the courtroom. My shoulders slumped at his cold reaction, knowing that he was taking my decision harder than he would ever let on. Hopefully, he would eventually come to terms with my decision. I made another mental vow to myself to be as cautious as possible when I was in the dungeons so I could prove to Dr. Montressor that his worries were unfounded.

And so, at the tender age of 14, I was declared legally independent. To my surprise, I wasn’t moving into the new living quarters alone. Gail had also decided to take up the offer of a free apartment provided by the government, and we ended up being next-door neighbors. Yesenia took a day off from her work to help us both move in.

Once I moved my belongings into the two-room apartment and tested out the new kitchen appliances and furniture, we had pizza delivered and spent hours in my new living room laughing and chatting happily. After three “just one more hug!” declarations from Yesenia, she eventually left. Gail also wished me goodnight and went back to her apartment.

Finding myself completely alone for the first time since moving in with the Montressors, I was ashamed of the loneliness that crept into my heart. Shaking my head firmly to dismiss the useless feeling, I turned off the light in the living room and went into the bathroom to prepare for bed.

Soft music emanated from my cell phone as I brushed my teeth and washed my face. As had become a habit, I tried to recall the list of all of the stories I had read that featured dungeons and special abilities. None of them were based in the United States, though, so I was either forgetting a story or I had been born in the wrong country.

“I must just be forgetting the story,” I thought to myself with a tired sigh as I crawled into my new bed. It was softer than the mattress at Yesenia’s house, which I wasn’t sure was a good or bad thing, but I quickly dismissed the unhelpful thought and tried to cheer myself up.

“Once I meet my best friend, then I’ll be able to remember,” I encouraged myself quietly as my eyes began to flutter closed. “I hope I find you soon, wherever you are.”