Now that I had officially passed half a decade of life, it was disgusting how fast time seemed to be flying by. Not only did a year pass by like a blink nowadays, but the world had gone bananas and I found myself right in the center of the storm. I’d never been one to sit at a desk anyway, so realizing that I could mess with gravity and kill monsters I’d never even imagined at my age was nothing to complain about. I’d also picked up a stray kitten as my new niece, so all in all I was satisfied with my life. 

My stray kitten, on the other hand, was beginning to worry me a bit. I got along fine with my biological nieces and nephews, but I’d never really involved myself with raising them since my siblings were great parents and I was satisfied with being the “fun” aunt. Teagen though… that crazy kid wormed her way into my heart and uncomfortable feelings of responsibility had crept into me at some point. 

A year had passed since the kid decided to become legally independent and leave her cushy home with Yesenia and her grump of a husband. It took me less than a minute to decide to sell my lease on the apartment I’d found when I relocated to LA and move into the place next to Teagen. 

I thought the kitten would get lonely being all on her own, but instead, she somehow got her GED a few months later and started traveling the country to clear dungeons. Even though we lived next to each other, weeks could go by without me seeing her and it had been ages since I could take her with me to the beach for a surfing break. It was a little painful to see the scamp throwing away her youth like this, but for some reason, she never turned down a request and seemed almost obsessed with going into as many dungeons as possible. 

“It’s not healthy,” I muttered to myself one day as I watched her give me a wave while carrying only a small backpack on her way to the airport again. 

When she was home she spent as much time as she could in the training center, usually with my team. At some point, she expanded her ability from making shields and defensive items to actually being able to launch projectiles at her targets. Her ability was getting to legendary proportions and a lot of the younger recruits looked up to her. 

One big change that left me with fewer opportunities to mess with newly enhanced was that the the world’s smartypants figured out how to measure a person's mana potential without them going into a dungeon. They had also come out with a ranking system that divided enhanced people into letter grades. All current enhanced had been told to get tested and I had been given an S rank, which I thought was dumb. They should’ve just made A rank be the highest you could get, but who was I to argue with the powers that be?

I didn’t understand all the fancy science behind the process, but whoever went into the testing room got bathed in mana from mana crystals and then a scanner of some sort told them the speed they absorb mana and their limit of internal mana storage which determined their rank (E through A, with S being for monsters like me and Teagen). 

In addition to their mana potential rank, the scanner could also give them an idea of the class of ability they belonged to (physical, elemental, healing, etc.). It wasn’t fool-proof yet, but it was reliable enough to put an end to dungeon excursions, which made clearing dungeons a lot smoother. And since the scanner gave them an idea of how their mana would manifest in an ability, it was no longer necessary for me to torture ahem or rather “encourage” new recruits to use their ability in a state of duress. Which was a shame, since it had been a great way to relieve pent-up stress. But more and more gates were appearing every day so I didn’t really have the time to mess with new enhanceds anyway. 

With the new testing system in place, the government made a rule that anyone 18 and up could get tested. If their enhancement results were good enough the government would offer them a spot in the enhancement training program and if they proved their worth they’d eventually join a clearing team. The government was pretty generous with their pay since us enhanced were the only ones that could bring mana crystals back from the dungeons safely. Mana crystals had become the biggest thing since sliced bread and some of the technological advances they had prompted made the invention of the airplane seem like child's play. 

When the first baby-faced 18-year-old brats started trickling into the training facility I was surprised to see Teagen welcome them warmly. She’d never told me about any friends when she was going to school, so I figured she didn’t get along with kids her age. I’d briefly been hopeful that this would be a good opportunity for Teagen to relax and act more like the teenager she was. That didn’t end up happening though. 

Most of the new brats seemed intimidated by Teagen, who was younger yet far more experienced than them as an enhanced. From what I could see, most of them treated her more like a teacher than a friend, and with how often she was gone a wall seemed to go up between my fierce kitty and the brats. 

Then there were the handful of brats that felt jealous of Teagen and had the gall to actually try to pick on her. They learned real quick that stray kittens have claws and if I saw any of them try to take revenge or mess with her at all I made sure to take them aside and teach them a lesson in respect.

My one hope had been a young man with a fire enhancement named Brandon. He reminded me of Pyro, the poor kid, he even had dark skin like him. He’d turned 20 before the testing center opened so he was a little older than the barely out of high school group and he was at least slightly more mature. When he showed up at the training room Teagen almost immediately tried to get close to him. 

At first, I thought they were getting along well. If Teagen was in LA they were often seen sparring together and I’d seen her offer some pointers as he got a hang of his fire ability. Unlike Pyro who had sent a spiral of fire from his hands, this kid created a line of fire that he used like a whip, and whatever it touched caught fire without fail. 

My whole team seemed to share my feelings that they wanted Teagen to spend more time with kids her own age and whenever possible they encouraged Brandon to train with her. I guess us adults were being too nosy though, because I walked into the training room early one morning and overheard an argument. 

“Look, I’m grateful for your help, but you’ve got to stop! You’re not even part of the clearing team here, so it’s a waste of time training with you like this,” the kid had growled at a volume that was just under a yell, and with so much annoyance in his tone I immediately wanted to smack him. 

Teagen blinked her big eyes with obvious surprise and for the first time since I’d known her, she looked hurt. 

“I didn’t mean to keep you from training with the team, Brandon. I was just trying to help since we’re friends…” she said with her shoulders slightly slumped. That ungrateful kid actually snorted at my sweet niece and folded his arms haughtily. 

“Since when were we friends? I don’t even like you.” 

Should I kill him, the rebellious thought flitted through my mind without a shadow of guilt or remorse. Before gates leading to what I assumed were different dimensions filled with monsters, I’d never considered myself a violent person. It was amazing how your morals could change when you were constantly exposed to violence. 

I didn’t end up acting on that dangerous thought though. As I was contemplating how to get away with murder, Teagen’s eyes went wide with surprise, but weirdly the hurt that had been on her face completely disappeared. 

“You don’t?” she asked with what almost seemed like hope in her voice. The kid flinched slightly, obviously as surprised by her reaction as I was but then he scowled and shook his head. 

“Obviously not. Who’d like getting their butt kicked by a girl 5 years younger than them?” he asked with a sneer. I realized then that although he masked it well, he was just like the jealous brats who tried to pick on Teagen to make themselves feel better. He’d hidden his nature well, but it seemed like something in their training today had been the last straw. 

“Oh! No that makes sense,” Teagen replied while tapping her fist into her palm as if she had finally found an answer to something that had been troubling her for a long time. “Thanks for letting me know, I won’t bother you again,” she said with a brisk, professional nod. 

The kid gaped in astonishment as Teagen created the manaboard she used both when we went surfing and in daily life to fly through the air. Without a wave or a goodbye of any kind, Teagen turned her back on the kid she’d been spending hours every day with and zipped out of the training room. 

The sound of the door she’d pushed open closing with a loud thud echoed through the tall-ceilinged training room. I watched as emotions of shock, confusion, and frustration flashed across Brandon’s face before he turned around and came face to face with me. A cold smile spread across my weather-worn face and the kid flinched. 

“Brats like you who can’t appreciate what’s right in front of you have no place on my team,” I announced with finality. The kid’s mouth dropped open in shock and he started spluttering, obviously trying to come up with an argument, but I didn’t bother listening. 

There were several clearing teams throughout California, but I knew that a lot of people believed that my team was one of the most desirable since I’d been around since the beginning and now pretty much had my pick of which dungeons I wanted to clear. I could tell at a glance that the kid had been trying to get onto my team, but if he thought he could treat my niece like that he had another thing coming.