Boo! How about another chapter to brighten all of our moods?

Enjoy!

Countdown- 8 hours, 24 minutes

I didn't grow up like many. No, I could never have foolish naïveté that children in other worlds could have.

Yes, I said other worlds.

All worlds are different. Some could have the lowest form of technology with no intellectual inhabitants. Most, though, have a wide arrange of features that made them unique with the most intuitive, curious inhabitants. Some had technology, and a few stayed stable with very traditional features, but then others had these innate power many would call magic. And those were just the main categories. Subcategories branched far and wide, going on with endless possibilities.

And with each world came each purpose for it being there. Most would thrive for peace, but usually had a hard, long time attaining it. Others had different objectives that had no consistency. It was all up to a lengthy strategy to see if it was actually attainable.

Which is where a certain world comes into place and makes it its job to help. My world. Built with open access to all worlds since its beginning, it has been our cause to regulate each world's progression to its goals. Once the world attains its goal, it's our job is to give another goal. Or if there is a violator that hinders progression, we solve the violation by going to the world and taking a 'hands-on' approach. Some would argue that we had no right to meddle, but those opinions were far and few between. My people were given the technology and the know-how, so we used it to our best ability.

You could say it's our world's goal to help those that cannot help themselves by themselves. Well, that's the standard, built-in definition we follow without complaint.

Since we were only based with the purpose to focus, the world we lived in could also be called plain, or bland in others view. While almost every world had a spectrum of colors vivid, bright colors, we had a wide arrange of grey. Sometimes we had this bright white here and there on flowers, or pitch black sky at the tip of midnight at a certain part of the year. I had always wondered if Others would call it depressing. That word and those colors are usually always linked together.

And when I mean 'others', I mean 'Inhabitants', another word for the people of other worlds who possessed intellectual processes.

Unlike others, our world is also very small. Comprised with twelve small islands circling around a central, and overall bigger, island. Two of the islands produce our food resources, growing a wide array of silver crops or raising the few species of animals our world has to offer. The other ten islands are populated with my people, a little over ten million now, all with the same similar, 'depressing', white-grey-black features.

The rest of our world is filled with water. Usually only refered to as The Jumper's Sea. It used to be almost impossible to travel through due to the creatures that dwell in its dark depths and the raging waves that crash against the man-made, metal shorelines.

And on those shorelines is where you would usually find me, on island 11, when I wasn't at work or at home. Not many of my people would be found here,-unless you were a jumper- so this place ends up to become a serene place for my collection of thoughts. I would just precariously sit on the ledge, watching the crashing black waves slamming against the wall in absolute anger.

I remember the last time I stood by the shore. The evening that I unknowingly changed my future.

It was a normal and cool, windless day. Grey clouds loomed over head as I whistled a casual tone and kicked my feet far above the black water.

"Hello."

I looked over my shoulder and saw a young lady, maybe a year or two older than my twenty-three. She smiled, her perfectly straight and white teeth contrasted against her full, dark grey lips as my grey eyes met her same grey eyes.

Just like all of my people, we all look pretty much look the same. Biologically speaking. The lady before me however wore a white lab coat, her hands stuffed into its massive pockets. Her short, wavy and well combed with hair didn't look anything like my long, strict straight white hair.

"Hi?" I questioned catiously, unsure why a high ranking looking Scientist was speaking to simple a Analyzer; me.

"May I sit here with you?" The lady asked me, waving toward the spot beside me.

The crashing waves behind me screamed no. "Of course. This is public area."

The lady clapped her hands together happily and sat herself beside me. But the smell that entered my nose striked me as odd. She smelled of something strong, stinging my nose so much I had to breath through my mouth. It almost brought tears to my eyes. Almost.

"Thank you. I've been needing a break for awhile now." She said, looking out to the horizen. "It can become quite lonely sometimes. The lab, I mean. We can get so caught up in our own work we forget to have a social life. It's probably why many of my colleagues are always under the weather. We're just silly anomies, huh?"

I didn't say anything in reply. I felt cautious about her being here and not in a lab. That's what job she was assigned to after the Academy, so that's what she has to be doing. Scientists are not to be spoken to because of how important they are. Creating the technology we use, sending the Field Agents into the world's to fix the Anomolies, or doing research into new ideas that could help accomplish goals. They are always too busy to take breaks and 'socialize'.

And then there is the fact that I was just a lowly Analyzer who currently watched screens all day and filed reports. She should've been looking down at me.

"Maybe we should do more research for the sake of our people rather than the other worlds every once and a while." The lady laughed, turning her gaze at me. "Rather selfish, I know, but we shouldn't we be sometimes? It would help our survival of our world."

I blinked a few times, confused on what to do. I've never been in a situation where I had to communicate with another social class unless being given orders.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I forgot to introduce myself." She stuck out her hand for me to shake. "I.D. 436-11-7628, codename LIE. But just call me Nat. It's a name from a world I researched in last year."

I took her hand in mine, eyeing her with apprehension. "Hello, uh, Nat," It was unusual for one of our kind to take up a 'nickname'. "I'm I.D. 276-11-1019, codename KOE."

"Two-seven-six? A Field Agent," Nat mused and kicked her legs happily. "Just placed on leave as a temporary Analysis?"

"No, I've been on leave for awhile now. I only have just a few more days."

"Really? You seem quite young."

A pang of guilt hit me and I lowered my eyes.

"I've always considered leaving and taking up another profession," The Scientist confided easily, musing the thought. "Sad to say you can only do so if you're a Field Agent going on leave to be a temporary Analyst. I've always wondered what it would be like to be an Official."

I kept my mouth close, not wanting to be a deviant. The world I lived in didn't accept the questioning of our world's regulations. So for twenty-two months I've been a Analyzer, just one step down from my original work as a Field Agent. During the two and a half years I would be an Analyzer, allowing more time for me to spend at home. They told me what I was going to do was a need, so I never questioned and complied peacefully.

Even though I loved being a Field Agent and the feeling it gave to me.

At work, being an Analyzer, I just analyzed three different worlds. I learned their languages and forms of writing and tried to search for Anomalies. An Anomaly is someone or something hindering the flow of a world acquiring a goal. When I would find one of great importance I would have to file it on a piece of paper and send it off to the Field Agents Office. Tiny bits are okay, occasionally.

When I go back to being a Field Agent, I will be the one receiving those reports. Then a group of us would go into that would and fix what needed fixing. It could've been as easy as destroying a building or we can go all the way to taking out an individual for good- which was killing, I mean.

Nat stopped kicking her feet and cocked her head over to me with big, curious eyes.

"I think I've heard your codename before, Koe," She told me excitedly, using my codename as an other name. "Weren't you the youngest Code to become a Head General? The higher ups call you the Ashen Tactician."

I shrug my shoulders. "Yeah, but it's no big deal when compared to you."

I was higher-ranking during my time in those offices, which allowed me to pick and choose the Anomalies to go and fix as well as pick who would accompany me. Leading my fellow Agents into the field, taking charge and making tactical movements were all part of the job. Those were my few perks that I reviled with.

"No!" Nat clasped her hands together against her chest. She shook her head, messing up her hair enough to let a few white strand stock out."You've been a great topic of discussion lately amongst the Scientists and the Officials. We've been dying for you to go back to work!"

"Oh?" I leaned away from Nat and slowly started to get up and away from her.

Nat stopped me by grabbing and hands, pulling them toward her. Her hands shook and grey eyes glittered in joy. "Yes! And you're coming back! Oh, everyone thought you would decide to stay as an Analyst but then we would lose a marvelous chance for our world."

"Excuse me?" I interjected rather rudely and shook off her hands, "What are you even talking about?"

Grinning like a mad person, she hopped off the ledge.

"I'm sorry," She told me, not meaning one word, " I have to head back to the lab. Goodbye."

She waved as she turned away from me and left the area. I only sat there and watched as her leave, a white flash disappearing into the dark grey background. It was minutes after she disappeared that I regained the sense of the roaring waves behind me. The smell she brought with her was gone, with the smell of salt now overpowering my nose.

In truth, I'd rather rub salt in my wounds.

Tada! How was it? Good, bad, eh? Why don't you tell me!

Next chapter we're gonna delve into the future... OHH, mysterious!

Alright, until the next chapter, I'll see you guys later!

Leylainie