===Callam===
It's been only two days since Callam got to the base, but many things have happened since then.
When he and the others arrived, the tour didn't last long, as they didn't have access to many of the places on the base. They could go to the public ones, like the bathroom and the dining hall, and from the other establishments, only Lab #1.
At Lab #1, they had to assemble power armor or different types of energy guns that the soldiers of the Allied Army would use. They used the mana gems, which the Professor was famous for creating, as a source of energy, but the rest of the design was pretty basic.
Even the mana gem they worked with wasn't of a specific Element, just a neutral one that was good for being an energy source but with no other effects.
Callam expected they would work with something more advanced or help research on advancing what they already had, but they didn't even get a chance to give their suggestions.
They had already fired four of the people he arrived with, as they had messed up with the assembly for one of the power armors, making it unusable and destroying its mana gem.
He also had made a new friend, and a female at that. He was never good with people, especially of the opposite gender, but with her, it was different.
On their first day, after the explosion of the power armor that led to the group of four getting fired, everyone paid attention to their actions and surroundings. Callam was working on assembling energy guns since, unlike the power armor, it was a one-person job.
Working on the power armor assembly could earn him more points than the person overseeing them. Still, the energy gun assembly was safer if others screwed up in the power armor; you would look bad, too, then.
The girl also assembled energy guns in the workstations next to Callam's. Callam noticed that Henna's aura changed dramatically while working on a task.
When she didn't work, she had the aura of a regular person, but as she worked, it kept changing and increasing in power. Callam paid attention to her if he could find the reason behind it, and it was fortunate for both of them that he did so.
She was ready to add the mana gem in its specially made chamber at the handle of the gun, but she had forgotten to put it around the chamber a special lotion. The lotion kept the leaking energy of the mana gem in it for enough time for the whole assembly to be over, and its design would start using this energy for the gun to be factional.
If she put the mana gem like that, the whole thing would explode before she would finish the assembly.
He caught her wrist, which had the mana gem to stop her.
At that point, the girl froze as she slowly turned towards him.
"You forgot to use that, " he said, pointing with his other hand towards the lotion bottle.
Her eyes got wide, and at that point, Callam left her arm. She put the mana gem back on the table and then bowed at Callam.
"Tha… thank you. My name is Henna."
That was all she said, which stayed like that for some time.
"You two slowpokes over there. Quit wasting time and go back to work. Both of you got a warning, and no dinner for you today."
The person in charge noticed them and shouted at them. However, it seemed that he didn't see what Henna almost did.
They got back to work, and actually, they had to work during dinner, too.
They were sent to sleep when they finished enough for the person in charge to be happy. Callam tried to make small talk with Henna on the way there, but she seemed too shy to speak with him.
He walked with her to the part of the base where female low-rank personnel like her would sleep and then turned to go toward the place where male personnel were supposed to be staying.
"Thanks again, Callam."
He turned to ask how she knew his name, but she had already gone inside.
She also sounded more confident in this last sentence.
On the second day, nothing changed work-wise, but he noticed that Henna seemed to work faster than yesterday.
During the lunch break, she joined him and had lunch together, though they said nothing to each other. At least it seemed like they had gotten somewhat closer to each other after that almost incident.
Callam also noticed something pretty weird happening on the base that day.
There was a door with guards on it, which was the case for most of the doors, but at this one, he noticed that only some high-ranking personnel were getting into it. He had seen the Professor and knew where his lab was, which wasn't behind that door.
He knew most of the base's rooms beforehand, as he had found a recent blueprint. It wasn't legal to have, but he didn't have any ill intentions. The door, though, and the secret room weren't in the blueprint, and it didn't seem to be a fresh addition.
He wanted to learn more about it, but he could only dream about it with his current access. But then a plan formed in his mind.
It would take some time, but if it worked, then things would finally start getting pretty interesting. He may even get the chance to work with the Professor himself if everything went well, but he would be happy if he could just get access to those tools that enabled the user to use magical creatures' abilities.
Dreams would become a reality.