People made withdraws, deposits, and talked in Quartz Bank, as the door opened.

‘Welcome to Quartz Ba…” The teller froze as she saw a person in purple diamond armor standing at the door.

“Could you open the vault, please?” The armored girl said.

It was breezy and sunny at Quartz University, two persons walked up, a tan boy with a shaved head, and a girl with dark brown skin and a braid down to her back.

The girl turned to the boy. “Interview?”

He looked at her. “Yeah.” And he immediately broke eye contact.

That’s when a blond with glasses and a clipboard appeared. “Carmen, Pedro, I’m Eliott and I’ll be your escort.”

The two teens followed him into the massive glass building that was Quartz University’s main office. Standing in the lobby were two men and a woman.

“This is Mr. Yamachi, Dr. Boston, Commander Quint,” Eliot said.

“Please call me Jiro,” Mr. Yamachi said as he held out his hand.

The teens both shook it but Carmen had questions.

“I got an email saying I had a scholarship to here(which she thought was a scam, her mother thought otherwise), didn’t apply for one here and this place looks like it’s been open a day.”

“It opened today actually, come,” Jiro started walking and so did Eliot, the doctor, and the commander.

Carmen and Diego stared at each other for a second before following along.

It wasn’t before they reached a white door. Jiro bowed his tall form to face a screen on the wall. A red laser went down his face and the screen turned green.

As soon as the door opened, a creature ran to Carmen’s feet and her face lit up. “Hi, how are you?” It looked like it was made of orange crystal, body shaped like a bunny but it had a long thick claw on each arm and leg and three coming out of its triangular head. “What is this?”

“An alien,” Jiro said.

Carmen giggled. “Seriously?” But she saw all the adults were serious.

Everyone walked into a huge white lab filled with scientists walking up, down and all around.

“What is this?” Carmen asked.

“Our research lab, the Quarry,” Jiro said.

Pedro first for the first time said something. “There are no wires, where’s the power coming from?”

“From him,” Jiro pointed to an alien the size of a big house cat, made of red crystal, a hexagon-shaped head with a square chunk missing from the top middle, and three orange dots in the middle of its face for eyes.

Pedro looked at it with shock and curiosity about how it powered the lab.

Jiro could see the questions whirling in his eyes. "It generates and emits a form of electricity, it's different than any power source I've seen but works like regular electricity."

"This is cool but this doesn't really answer why we're here," Carmen said.

"Eliot, show them the footage."

"Right, Mr. Yamachi." He took his phone out of his pocket. “This is security footage from a bank robbery two hours ago.”

The video was fast-forwarded, It showed the girl in the purple crystal walking into the bank, the bank teller letting her into the vault and walking out with two big bags of money. The police showed up but she made a run for the door, they shot at her but the bullets bounce off her armor.

“That’s the person from the news,” Carmen said.

“Yes, that girl has been robbing banks for the last month,” Jiro said.

“We brought you here, your job is to stop her,” Commander Quint.

“What?” Carmen and Pedro said.

“These aliens have the unique ability to bond with people not just emotionally but psychically giving them powers and armor like the one you saw in the video,” Jiro said.

“So you want us to become superheroes?” Carmen asked.

“No, we...”

Jiro interrupted the Commander. “Yes, basically.

“I looked at everyone in Quartz City, searching for who would be most likely to bond from a psychological standpoint, and who would be the best from a moral one, you two aced both,” Dr. Boston said.

“So if we say yes what would we do?” Carmen asked.

“The next time she appears you apprehend her and the U.S. government decides what to do with her from there,” The commander said.

“I get she’s a criminal but she hasn’t hurt anyone, isn’t this excess for a petty criminal,” Carmen said.

“$50,000 in a month isn’t petty,” Jiro said.

“And she hasn’t harmed anyone yet,” Quint said.

“I get why you’re concerned, I wasn’t about this at first, I became a psychologist to help people not deal with aliens, but then I realized this girl has a lot of power that she probably doesn’t understand and she could hurt herself or others,” Dr. Boston said.

“Then why do you want us to use that kind of power?” Carmen asked.

“You have this place is filled with some of the smartest people who’ve been studying this for years, she doesn’t, I do what I do because I want to help people and that’s all I want to do.”

Carmen stared into Dr. Boston’s warm chocolate eyes, they felt so sincere. She turned to Pedro who seemed to be in his own world. “Pedro, could we talk?”

He nodded, and they walked into the hallway and stood in the middle.

“What do you think of this?” Carmen asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“It sounds like they want us to do good things but we literally just met ten minutes ago, so I have no idea if we can trust them.”

“I believe the doctor, the rich guy doesn’t seem like he cares, but the commander scares me a little.”

Back in the lab, everyone watches Carmen and Pedro.

“What if they say no?” Eliot asked.

“We’ll try the next best candidates on the list,” Commander Quint said.

Carmen and Pedro walked back into the lab.

“Have you come to a decision?” Jiro asked.

“We decided to think about it,” Pedro said.

“We can’t wait around for you to make up your mind,” The commander said.

“I think this is a good idea,” Jiro said. “You can each take an alien home and we can see if you’re truly compatible with them, right commander Quint?”

“Fine, we give you two days with them,” He said with a scowl on his face.

“Wait, how do we take care of them, what do they eat?” Carmen asked.

"You ask a lot of questions," The commander said still scowling.

"I know." She said unphased.

“We’ll send you everything you need to know about them,” Dr. Boston said with a smile.

“Plus more information about Quartz University, even though the aliens are a big part fo it, it’s still a school,” Jiro said.

“And remember if the aliens are hurt, go missing or are used in any way I have not directed, I promised I will be your nightmare.” The commander stared harshly at the teens.

“Yes sir,” they said.

Across town at an abandoned house. A teenage girl with dark skin in with two bags. “I’m back.” She walked into the living room where two boys her age were waiting.

“What took you so long?!” One boy asked.

The girl was startled by the bass in his voice. “We went to the park to play.” She put the bags down and crouched down patting a purple crystal animal resembling a dog with two heads and no eyes.

“You took him out in public?!” The same boy asked.

“I wanted until the park emptied out, no one saw.”

“Xander leave Gem alone,” The other boy who was named Harlee said.

Gem lifted the alien up. “You had fun right, Sonics?”

“You named it?” Xander asked with a bewildered look.

“Yes.”

“Sonics, what is it a hedgehog?”

“Xander that’s enough, we have more important things to deal with.” Harlee said, he opened one of the bags the girl brought in and picked up a stack of money. “Tomorrow we go alien hunting.”