Ever since you were little, every day you asked the Universe to give you some kind of feeling you had a special purpose in life.

You never expected the Universe to answer your request quite like this.

It started like any other Saturday; you were out of snacks and your weekly fix of waffles, so like any other sensible young adult, you decided to venture out of your cramped, yet barely affordable studio apartment and head down to your local supermarket a few blocks away. Once inside, you grabbed one of the handheld baskets and let your body go into autopilot grabbing the things off of your grocery list, following yet another mundane chore for your uneventful weekend.

Soon enough you find everything on your list and turn to walk towards the cashier to pay for your groceries. You grab a roll or two of toilet paper while you walk and put those in the basket as well, because you can never have too much toilet paper. That reminds you of the leak your toilet has; you seriously need to have a chat with your super before you forget –

"Ahh! No!"

"Shut up, Monster lover!"

What was that?

You turn in the direction of the commotion and walk down several aisles in the relatively sparse supermarket.

You can smell the alcohol on his breath before you even see the guy.

He stands around 6 feet tall, wearing worn down jeans and an equally stained wifebeater and black leather vest. On top of being bald and a middle aged white man, he clearly looks like the stereotypical thug that you wouldn't want following you in the dark.

However, above all else, the thing you notice the most is the black armband with a white eagle embroidered on it.

One look is all it takes to tell this guy is a member of the Purity League.

The Purity League is your typical white supremacist group, that would attack and harass anyone that wasn't a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Its original members consisted of bigoted old men and other undesirable angry people, and if you knew where to look, a politician or two. Ever since their founding at the turn of the century, they have been a blight on the nation's image as the representation of everything wrong with the world. As time passed, when society became more open minded and progressive, it almost looked like the hate group was going to die out.

But then the Monsters arrived from Mount Ebott, the mountain the city was named after.

Afraid and angry at the sudden appearance of their inhuman neighbors, new members joined the Purity League in numbers unseen in decades. Stronger than ever, the hate group was responsible for the unspoken rule amongst Monsters to avoid certain neighborhoods and suburbs for fear of being attacked, or worse, Dusted.

However, none of that seems to be important right now because of the second person in front of you.

Standing in the corner, dwarfed by the shadow of the thug, is a kid.

The kid is by no means a small child, but they're clearly a number of years younger than you, maybe no older than thirteen. Although you can't tell whether the kid is a boy or a girl, you can't help but think you've seen them somewhere before. Their face slowly swells up with bruises, meaning that the creep managed to get one or two hits in before you showed up.

Strangely enough, there appeared to be a flower wrapped around their arm. Even stranger is the fact that said flower had a face. Locked in an angry, vengeful grimace, the flower hisses at the assailant as if trying to protect their friend. The vines that made up its body were slowly growing little red thorns in its fury, yet it appeared that it was trying its best not to hurt its human friend with them.

The sight is enough to stir deep anxiety and a boiling anger within you. If there was one thing you hated above all else, it was bullies that picked on people smaller than them.

You know that there is no way you can fight this guy off. He is at least two heads taller than you and about three times as heavy. You also know for certain that if you try to run and get help, this kid is going to get even more hurt, or worse.

It looks like it's going to be up to you to step in and do something.

You have to be BRAVE.

"Hey!" You shout before you even realize it, "Leave those kids alone!"

All three parties in question snap their attention towards you. The kid and their flower friend seem to not look at you, but something within you, and stare at you in shock, but you decide to ignore it for the time being.

The PL thug does a one over at your small frame and mutters, "Piss off, girl. This ain't your business."

"It is my business if you're assaulting children," You retort with a glare, "you're just being a giant prick."

"This brat has been on my radar for a long time," the man says, "I'm not letting some kid like you ruin my plans. Now go away if you know what's good for ya."

Suddenly, the kid takes their' assailant's distraction as an opportunity to get away. They lift up their leg and kick the thug right on the side of one of his knees, buckling it slightly. Unfortunately, all that seems to do is bring his attention back to them and piss him off even more.

"You little –" the man grumbles, towering over the child once more, "You're gonna pay for that."

The Purity League member snatches a strong grip on the kid's short brown hair. They start screaming in pain. The flower hisses, then bites down on the offending arm of the thug with sharp little fangs.

You react as quickly in kind. Before you can even stop yourself, you reach towards one of the shelves and grab hold of something weighty, then throw it as hard as you can.

The jar of what you now know is tomato sauce flies through the air before shattering right in between his shoulder blades. He shouts in shock more than pain, as he turns in fury towards you again. Thankfully, you are the only one in his sights, for he lets go of the kid's hair and lets them sag towards the ground.

"You little whore," he growls, "You're gonna get it now." He's upon you faster than you can even blink, with a fist raised against you.

You flinch and raise your arms in a pitiful attempt to defend yourself.

You brace for impact –

Only to find that it never comes.

You open your eyes to find that everything around you has disappeared. The thug, the kid and their flower, and the supermarket itself has all but vanished as you seem to float in an endless void.

There's no ground to stand on, and no attempt to move your limbs causes you to change your orientation or balance.

It looks like you're stuck here for the time being.

It is a noble thing to be BRAVE.

What was that? It sounded a lot like your voice. But you know for certain that wasn't you talking just now.

The ability to rush into danger, be it for the thrill of action, or to protect the weak. This is what BRAVERY means.

The strange voice continues.

However, it is hard to be BRAVE if you cannot defend yourself.

You start to feel a warm and fuzzy sensation in your chest. Suddenly, something slowly emerges from within you.

It's a small orange heart that beats in time with the organ in your chest. It glows brightly, filling the void with a comforting light. It reminds you of the sunset, or a lantern.

Luckily, the SOUL has ways to protect itself, should its owner choose to accept them.

Are you willing?

You stare at the heart curiously. Is this your soul, like the voice said? You feel compelled to reach out and take it.

So you do.

The reaction is immediate.

The light starts to creep up your arms and quickly spreads down to your legs and up your torso. Soon enough your entire body is glowing in this strange orange energy. Your body is filled with intense feelings of something you can only describe as pain and euphoria all at once.

There's another blinding flash of light –

And suddenly you're back in the supermarket.

However, nothing is where you left it.

The thug that was going to attack you is gone. Instead, he lies in a heap all the way at the other end of the aisle. He's knocked over a few boxes and other items are strewn all over the floor. Orange steam radiates off of the guy's stomach. He's groaning in pain, but clearly knocked out cold.

That's not what you find the most shocking, though.

Your body is radiating with an orange force that illuminates everything around it. It moves and flows much like fire would, but without any of the heat.

You look at your hands, which radiate with this energy the most, then back at the thug, with the orange steam seeping off of his chest. Did you really punch the guy that hard? Did whatever happened in that dark void with your soul cause this to happen?

Did all of that really happen in just a split second?

The orange aura slowly fades until it's just your hands expelling the foreign energy. You stare at it as that eventually fades away as well.

You shake yourself out of your trance and turn towards the kid. They're shaking on the floor, staring at their unconscious assailant.

You grab the kid's wrist and usher them on, "C'mon, before fatso here gets ups again!" The shelves of the supermarket blur together as you run out of the store and towards the sidewalk across the street.

Your body immediately regrets exerting all that energy on top of what just happened. God, you're out of shape.

After a few minutes and the loss of most of your adrenaline, your heart is finally slowing down and you can finally breathe easily enough so that you can take your hands off your knees and check on the kid.

They're staring at you with the most indescribable face. They seem to be looking within you again, whatever that meant. The flower's expression looked especially grave.

"Do you have any idea what you've just done?" It? They? He? surprises you by asking. So the flower can speak. You look at them incredulously.

"Look, that was the first time I ever did anything like that in my life," You exclaim, pointing back at the supermarket, "Now somebody please explain to me what the hell I just did before I…before –"

The world appears to suddenly swirl together, and your head seems light. You feel something pour out of your nose. Are you having a nosebleed? You haven't had anything like that since you broke your nose when you were a kid. You take a hand and wipe at your upper lip before anything drips on your shirt. Bright orange fluid is what you find when you pull your hand away. Since when was blood orange? Now you're really feeling sick.

The kid's and flower's voices seem to fade in and out, but you do manage to catch something about calling their parents. You think you hear sirens approaching as well. Are you dying? You certainly seem to think so.

Finally, your knees give out and the world fades into darkness.