The next day, after what people dubbed 'The Fall', many people were talking about all the fun powers they had. A person's skill is related to something they are passionate about. There is a group from a dance app that coined the phrase 'natural skill,'. They all had one thing in common: something always named strangely to them. For example, a chef's skill is called "king of pan", which made it so that he couldn't burn anything, even if he left it on the stove for hours. That chef made a few videos and streams showing people how nothing burned. Another one I heard about is a woman who posted that their skill name is 'Muscle muscle man'. Her skill gave her Superman levels of strength. She made a video of being shot with a gun, and survived. Mine had to do with plants, which made sense, given my plants were the sun of my life. Others hurried to level up their new skill so that they could enter the towers next. While others grew afraid of how fast the world changed. I watched on with excitement at the ability and thought about showing mine off.
I saw many people showing off when the first video went viral. A kid with laser vision using it in the house to show off only to cut through the wall, then came the shrill screaming. The camera dropped to the floor as the kid ran to see what had happened. On the other side of the wall was his mother walking down the hall. The kid sliced through her arm, amputating it. She was a lucky though as just a few moments later she would have died. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only mishap of powers. Many people were hospitalized or worse from a power getting out of hand.
The other problem with powers was the fights. With ability, people started fight clubs to see just what their skills could do. Beating each other up as much as they could. I never got it, but as they were so popular right now, there weren't enough people to stop them. T.V. stations loved showing people fighting with multiple stations showing the fights. At points, it would freak me out when one fighter would beg to be let out of the ring, that they didn't want to be there. It would usually cut to a different fight, leaving me to wonder if they were okay. When someone got the bright idea of stealing from a department store. That started the fight of 'heroes vs villains', where somewhat controlled fights, moved to the streets where anyone can join in. The problem is when the over powered cops showed up. With little control over their skills combined with the dangerous situations of others using their powers. The cops went with 'as few prisoners as possible' stance. This caused both 'heroes' and 'villains' to face many casualties and escalate their crimes.
If only that was all we had to deal with. The places where the towers landed that had people, had crushed them under it. Honduras, Mexico, had one of the most densely populated areas for the tower to fall. It also had an enormous tower compared to the one near me. Thousands of people gone in moments. We watched the count of people missing from the areas that the towers now stood. It climbing at rapid rates, with names and photos of those people. Some children didn't have photos yet without some form of school ID. When something else happened.
Then there were countries like North Korea and Iran that had many revolts to take place. With the new powers, people grew brave and struck back in ways other than protests. Starting slowly, they fought back in new creative ways without taking lives, but when a dictator shot and killed several peaceful protests, that ended. Making enormous waves of death and happiness. With the people fighting to do the right thing. They seemed to pay as little attention to the world outside and changed their governments or died trying. While fighting against ourselves, we didn't see the signs.
Mother nature was angry. Tsunamis rose in five different countries. One of which was off the coast of Nigeria where one tower made land fall. The water rushed 20 miles inland before rushing back into the ocean. Search and rescue went looking for survivors, with some luck. It wasn't enough to rescue many people, but the few that did live were terrified. I watched the footage of new stations in the area get wiped away even though they stood away from the coast by ten miles or more. When those were done in two other countries, another tsunami struck.
When sudden earthquakes joined the tsunamis. With the earthquakes of Islands sending another tsunami. The earthquakes lasted for a full 1-4 minutes, being on the 6.1 scale every time. That being longer than the typical 30 seconds. Taking more people with them. As the days passed, more natural disasters accursed. You name it when a tornado started touching the ground faster and longer. Rain and Ice rain took hold of other areas, locking people away in their homes, or force them to flee. Volcanoes erupted around the worlds. The surprise was that the first one to erupt was a dormant volcano.
It took months for Mother nature to calm her anger. Natural disasters were still larger than before but now calmed down to not be killing thousands every day. I thought we had weathered the storm and came out on the other side when the religious extremest showed their faces. They claimed that god must be mad at us, that is why there were so many disasters the last few months. They wanted to help god cleanse the earth of sinners. To sacrifice us, hoping to make him appease him. They used their skills to attack any house that didn't place a cross on their front door and join them in their righteous crusade. At first, no one thought they would actually do it. Crusades took place decades ago and everyone knew better now. When they killed almost a whole town in one night. They took children from their parents and placed into a facility to rid them of their sins. While they killed the parents and teen children that fought back in cold blood. People pretending to join them while hiding others away solved this. The fake ones found names and places they were going next and leaked them. With so many people working actively against them, we could have most of them arrested for murder. New laws and regulations were being formed in front of everyone's eyes. To keep us all under control, and after fighting for our lives on multiple sides, we didn't object to hard about most laws.
After three weeks of settling into normal day-to-day life again, people demand to be allowed to look for their beloved family. The ones that stupidly went into the towers. People grew worried that those people would not be returning. The governments around the world spoke about what to do. After that long meeting they came together and said that they would send in a two units into the tower to look for them. That every country would join in the search. They made a time frame for it as well. In three months, they would enter the tower. With some backlash from the people, they explained: "We can't enter the tower right now as theirs no one that can go, 'We have all our units searching the areas hit by disasters and other crimes. While we want to get our family and friends back to us daftly, we have no choice but to choose where to use the people we have right now. There's a chance that everyone in the towers is fine and safe. There's also a chance they died when entering the tower to begin with. What we need now isn't to rush into a situation and get more people hurt. We need to fix things here so that any survivors can come back to their family and not see them missing.' -Representative of the world conference.
With that, people excepted the fates of waiting… no, they didn't. There was a report once a week of people trying to break into the towers to find their families. Sometimes they could get into the tower before the feds could catch them, other times they were arrested before they got the chance. Things were slowing falling back into place.
With, the Governments around the world rushing to regain control of things. Some take more of an aggressive approach to the cause than others. The Government of my country is one of those aggressive countries. They sent a message, through all devices, that they would call people to register their skills. They announced birth dates on T.V., radio, and text to signal registration. The only exceptions were children under the age of ten that didn't get a skill or 'status' after the fall. The Governments didn't allow people who weren't registered to work. So everyone stayed home for the next month and a half. They could collect again rent in another three months, leaving us to figure out how we were going to pay rent again, until we could register.
When the Government began calling on birth months instead of exact dates, I grew anxious about it. For the first week, they called January and February to go to the nearest location and register. There were at least four locations in every city, making it easy to find a place to be. I've never been involved with the Government before and didn't want to start now. It's irrational but I have this fear that they would deport me, even though I'm a citizen. Both my parents and grandparents were born here, but that didn't stop the worry that I wouldn't pass their test. That they would look at me and decide that I wasn't American enough to stay.
When my birth month, October, got called, it turned my veins to ice. I had already seen all the videos of people being dragged out of their homes and arrested for not showing up. I heard about all the deportation that happened thanks to their homes being raided and people not appearing for registration. Even found out that my family survived the baffling chaos, after seeing my older brother getting arrested for not going to registration. I wish I could say I didn't crack and didn't immediately call and message them after seeing him in handcuffs. That I didn't worry about him being locked away. I didn't even get voice mail.
With the fear of what could happen if I didn't go, I went to the registration. It was strange being outside, now that I was so used to the apartment life. At the registration, they had us do the physical first before the other tests. It is hell for someone that has not gotten off the couch for the last 14 days. The first one they told us to do is run laps. The worst part of running those laps is that we weren't to stop for as long as we could. I thought that 'it is a stupid test' until I heard of a girl running 678 laps before stopping. She got the skill named 'Forest', which let her run without putting an unnecessary strain on her body. I stopped running when my lungs burned. This test was already exhausting. I got a few laps, but nothing like some others.
They timed the second laps they told us to run. Two miles in 30 minutes that we also had to run. I'm thankful that it looked easier than just running until I dropped. Something about giving everyone a chance to show what they are good at. I ran as fast as I could, but lost steam once I passed the first corner of the track. When I passed the finish line, I fell to my knees, gasping for air. My heart began pounding in my ears loud enough that I thought I wouldn't be able to hear again.
"27.35," The man said, watching me. He gave no more attention to the fact that I felt like I'm going to vomit my lungs out. After I got a few deep breaths in, he continued, "Move to the next area" before grabbing my arm and hauling me up. I made glared at him, shocked that he could do that with no help. He responded by pointing to the next place I'm supposed to be. If I wasn't so scared of them, I would have flipped him off.
My lungs burned like they were trying to burn their way out of my body to fill with more air. There were blood tests, X-rays, DNA tests, fingerprints, and the basic physical tests. They wrote all the information they gained. They asked me questions like "Have you played any video games recently?", "Have you read any books about other worlds or beating a tower of trials?", "Do you have fantasies about becoming a dominating player?" And other questions that were the same thing. I think they were trying to catch me in a lie.
"All right, you're almost done," the agent said, getting his clipboard and pen ready. "All we need now is to see your status screen. I'm going to record the information".
"Okay, how do I show you? Or is it saying open?" I asked, rubbing my hands. Feeling both everything and nothing at the same time. I wanted to both pass out and stay awake.
"Just say 'open' and turn the screen so I can see," He sighed, sounding tired. I know that it probably had more to do with how many times he explained that, but I felt worse about it.
"Right, okay," I said, a little out of breath. "Open." I reached out and physically turned the screen toward him. My eyes widened as he moved the screen toward him. It didn't have a weight or touch to it. Later, when I tried it at home, I found the screen weird. It felt like moving the air. The agent said nothing at first, writing the information.
"Ha," I saw him cover his mouth. "Um sorry, Natural skills are always named…uniquely," He tried to excuse himself. He saw it offended me, as he quickly added "I mean 'Nature's sugar baby' isn't that bad.". I sat there waiting for him to finish after he said that.
"I'm not the one that laughed," I thought later in the car as a comeback. I smacked my hand on the wheel for not thinking about that sooner. Not that I would have been able to speak, anyway. My hands shook from the embarrassment and stress. Why laugh if you were going to give a half-ass excuse after? Sighing, I focus on the road ahead of me.
When I got home, I showered and changed my clothing before wrapping myself up in a blanket. I laid down on the couch after turning on soft music to distract my brain. I'm emotionally exhausted by all that and wanted to sleep. After I curled up and closed my eyes, I could hear what sounded like a bunch of leaves shaking, but ignored it in favor of sleeping that day. I'm not sure I could even open my eyes if I wanted to. Not wanting to deal with anyone or anything yet. I barely got home after eight hours of tests and questions. After the sounds stopped, I felt safer and fell asleep.
When I woke up, my plants grew. There is no way that plants are supposed to grow that quickly. Some vines wrapped around the room before reaching the front door. They grew around the door and large leaves blocked the view of the door completely. It looked like they locked me in the apartment. Surprised at that, I threw myself up and tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. Thinking that my skill is being able to tell when plants needed something, nothing else. I didn't think that they would move to my will. Trying everything I could think of to get the plants to move out of the way of the door. After two hours of trying different ways to make the skill work, nothing changed. I'm stuck in my apartment. It didn't matter. I had nowhere to go, even if I got the door open.
There were a few developments that changed things. A leek said that governments were working on a type of smartwatch that would keep track of our vitals and if we used our natural skills. Outrage spread globally, but then a few European countries said they would make it possible to enter the towers. The decision to allow access to the towers calmed the outrage, but additional issues about the watches arose. Even now you can't watch T.V. Without coming across someone telling us about theories about what the watches will do. There were even people that were designing colorful and unique designs for the watches. Even though we had yet to see what they even looked like. It's something for people to gather behind.
Exactly four weeks to the minute after the fall, the world governments made a move. We watched as multiple military units entered the towers in search of more information, as well as the people that ran in one day one. They had yet to return from the towers and people thought they were dead. Their families still demanded and beg for someone to go look for their loved ones. We cheered them on and all got the day off. On the third day after they left, the work began again. The only difference now is that people were changing to jobs where their natural skills fit best. This changed how we were doing things in the world. It's thanks to the Governments, that had reacted so quickly that there were few people that caused havoc. The authorities arrested and tried those who committed crimes.. While the others are still being looked into.
Two more months passed after the units left with our hopes of finding the lost people. Five of the original people appeared. Out of the final 358 people that entered the tower before the governments could lock entry, 98.6% of them died. They walked out of the entrance of the tower they had entered. After seeing the world for the first time in two months, they collapsed onto the ground. The five were severely malnourished. They all needed emergency care for the other issues. It took an entire week before the reporters got to see them.
They weren't from the same countries. They didn't enter the same tower but ended up meeting during the trials. The survivor from South Korea had to take a boat out to where the tower landed. They said that even though they didn't speak the same language at first, but got enough time to learn. They claimed it helped keep their sanity while trying to survive. When asked about the 'time' they all mentioned that they were gone for years. The reporter corrected them, saying they have been gone for only three months. This caused three of them to have panic attacks or to shut down. While the other two wouldn't believe it. Reporters from all over the world were trying to get any scoop that they could from the survivors. The reporters caught the survivor from Hoyland, Norway, fighting with their parents. They were asking about the little brother that had entered the tower with him. That it took years before he could move on. The reporters called it fighting, but the survivor didn't speak and wouldn't look at his parents. After a few moments, all he said is "We did a stupid thing, thinking that we had read and watched enough of these types of things to handle this. They should not hold us as anything but idiots." When pressured to give themselves a name. Four of the group said nothing. The only survivor from Houston, Canada, said "cursed with stupidity." and said nothing about it again. Reporters cut that short to be "cursed" and call them that.
After finding out about the military units that saved them, they all grew agitated and would start muttering. They brought back items from the towers. The inventory system would only work for objects, not people or dead bodies. The items they brought back were extremely rare materials or items that we didn't know how to use yet. That causes these items to be extremely expensive. With the desire to get these items, people are trying to get their hands on them. Rent around the world increased and inflation followed close behind.
The Government wouldn't let people into the towers until the military units came back. Which took another two months. When they came back, only 43% survived the trial. They recorded everything they could. It only took a day and a half before a leak happened. There were video leaks that showed a lot of monsters attacking. For a long time, people posted and re-posted the videos, with their theories about the towers. We found that a lot of weapons were useless against them. On the first trial, there looked like a bunch of fungi plant monsters that would attack them. The video that held the clearest view is body cam footage. It showed the fungus monster charging at fast speeds toward the cameraman. It took multiple bullets and didn't show any signs of damage. The monster kills the cameraman. One thing that we learned because of the leaks is that said the tower changed the order that the trials given in. The cursed had a different order of the same five trials than the military, which caused a bit of a fight until someone gave that suggestion. People argued about which group had it worse between the two, for a few weeks before that died down.
Governments around the world made a law that only those with military experience could enter the towers. They made that law to take control of the situation. Some did that to save as many lives as they could. The law worked for a little until people broke it in droves. People were joining their government's military in droves. The ones that were rejected would make fake military IDs and break into the towers. They would sometimes have people chasing them until the moment they entered. One officer entered the tower with the person they were chasing. Neither returned after the two months were up.
It took a year before the collective governments wrangled things back under their control. Hundreds of people died during that time. Inflation skyrocketed, making things worse. It's harder for people to get jobs that would keep them fed and housed. The businesses were having a hard time keeping people hired because it did not pay them enough. Advancements in technology help see others' status screens. They implemented the smartwatches to keep track of those entering the tower. The smartwatch also keeps track of your heart rate so that if you die, it can alert your family. The heart rate feature also helped outside the tower. Heart attacks and other heart problems are now being tracked with constant reliance.