The chatter of voices and the clatter of knives and forks filled the large room as Erica dropped her plate on the table with a think and squeezed into the place left for her. Wes sat to her right, and on the other side of him was another man named Brian. Across from Brian was a blonde woman named Rachel. The other two spaces at their end of the table were filled by a red-haired Activator called Chelsea and her boyfriend Mick.
The group greeted reach other tiredly and gave introductions to anyone they had not met yet. Erica knew them all due to her work in the infirmary the day before.
"So, who does what?" Asked Wes. "I can throw fireballs, and we know Erica's a healer."
Chelsea snorted, and said, "You'll probably think it's funny, given my name, but I can control water." Erica couldn't help a small smile at that.
It turned out that Brian could turn his body invulnerable, which he discovered by taking a hit protecting his niece. Rachel had used a tornado-level gust of wind to blow away the aliens attacking her group of friends (and passed out right after), and Mick had focused so hard on the aliens' guns that he'd unlocked a teleportation ability. He transported the weapons to somewhere unknown so the aliens could not shoot Chelsea and their families.
"Oh, you were meeting the parents?" Wes teased, "maybe the invasion was a blessing in disguise for you two, then!"
Erica frowned slightly.
"Have any of you got a second ability? Healing is actually my second, my first is protection."
The others shook their heads and asked her to explain, so she walked them through what had happened.
"Oh, that makes sense. Maybe none of us have been in a situation that needs a second ability yet." Brian nodded, agreeing with his own conclusion.
The Activators continued to chat through the rest of dinner, taking their time to relax after their long days.
While they were chatting, a soldier quietly walked up to their table.
"Excuse me, are you the Activators?"
The group all turned to look at him. Erica nodded in confirmation.
"Follow me please, there's been a development. The Brigadier wants to see you." With that, the soldier turned and started to walk away.
Erica and the others scrambled to their feet, quickly stacking the plates. Brian ran them to the wash station set up in a corner as the others hurried to catch up to their fast-moving guide.
The Brigadier was waiting for the group in what appeared to be a conference room. To his left sat a teenage boy, and a man and woman occupied the chairs to his right. The Activators took their seats on the empty chairs, looking between the officer and the strangers.
"Thank you for taking some of your leisure time to speak with me. These are Julian, Stevie, and Miles. They're the reason I called you here," the Brigadier's eyebrows furrowed as he glanced down at the table. "The three of them activated their systems today."
Erica and the others looked at him blankly.
"I know," continued the Brigadier, "that doesn't sound surprising on the surface. More people are activating every day when they're under threat. However... there is a difference. Julian, Stevie and Milo have been on the base since yesterday morning. Even before all of you. None of them were in any danger when the System appeared for them."
The Activators exchanged looks.
"Maybe it's just chance?" Wes suggested.
"There could be an unseen danger." Rachel added.
Erica leaned back in her chair, eyes drifting to the ceiling. Everyone around her put forward a suggestion, but the upshot was that no one really knew why any of this had happened. Without more information or a larger sample size, there was no way to come to a conclusion.
In the end, the Brigadier asked everyone to be on the lookout for new Activators, and to stay on their guard at all times. There was no way to completely rule out that they activated due to some unknown threat, after all.
After the meeting, the group took their new colleagues to a recreation room to play some games and get to know each other. The room was quite well stocked, with a selection of consoles, video games, board games, and even foosball and air hockey tables.
"People have been grabbing games and equipment when they're out looking for survivors. Who knows how long we'll all be here, and we'd definitely go crazy without something to do!" Brian grinned as he explained. Erica wondered if she could convince someone to pick up some musical instruments or art supplies they find.
The Activators split into smaller groups, Brian and Wes aggressively spinning foosball handles, Milo and Mick playing air hockey, and Rachel and Stevie finding a deck of cards.
Chelsea, Erica and Julian plopped themselves down in front of an older-model Nintendo as fired up Mario Kart. They had a great conversation about their abilities (Julian could manipulate technology), their activations, and their duties on the base. Julian won every round, with Chelsea coming in a close second. There was lots of laughter and squeals, especially when Erica decided to cut her losses and tried to sabotage Julian's round. No luck, he just used his ability to control his character!
There was one interruption, when Miles accused Mick of cheating. Mick, of course, had been cheating by teleporting the puck to the inside of Miles's defence. The incident ended in more laughter, mostly at Nick's absolutely awful attempt at lying with a straight face.
Finally, someone noticed that it was getting on for midnight and they all had morning shift. With cheerful goodbyes, they packed up and headed back to their quarters, promising to meet again the next day.
Erica made it to her room and fell straight into bed again. She considered checking her stats and levelling up before bed, but decided that dealing with choices when she's practically delirious from exhaustion was not a good idea.
She closed her eyes and fell asleep with a smile on her face.