I suppose if this is to be an autobiography, I should start with my childhood. There are not many significant events that I can remember of my early life, but there are some details I can recall with stark clarity.

I grew up in the Gemma Research Lab. They don't raise children there anymore, but thirty years ago, there were far fewer Gemma and far less was known about us. There was no way to differentiate between Gemma and regular humans, so most families wouldn't know their child was Gemma until their powers showed. If the child was young enough, it wasn't unusual for parents to ... donate their Gemma children to the Lab. The Lab would give the Gemma child a new identity, effectively removing them from the family records. 

I was named Lav Sciarra. Whether the name was computer generated or handpicked for me by one of the scientists, I do not know. I've been told that I displayed powers earlier than usual so at two years old, my parents gave me over to the Lab. Though I can't recall their faces, I have a faint recollection of walking hand-in-hand with them, their shadows engulfing my own, and a splash of green that could have been a tree. It is the only memory of them that I have.

There were two other Gemma living in the Lab besides me. One was a decade older than I, and she moved out once she was of age. The other was a boy a couple years older, but he was unfortunately very weak and he eventually passed. I rarely spoke with them, so the Lab scientists who visited me were my only companions. That is, until I met Kel.

Perhaps it was inevitable that we'd be drawn to each other. Gemma were rare, and to meet another of the same age was rarer still. I don't quite remember when we first met, but we went to the same school and saw each other frequently at the Lab. The teachers tended to ignore me as I was content with keeping to myself, completing the allotted classwork and reading in my spare time, but they had their hands full with Kel, who interrupted class with his incessant questions. More often than not, he was left with a question unfulfilled, and we would spend our time searching the Net for answers and creating more questions.

"So the crystal core isn't actually a crystal?" Kel asked, tilting his head.

We were sitting on my bed, discussing the latest Gemma discoveries and absently playing a game of catch with a rubber ball. It floated in the air between us, arcing back and forth without one of us ever touching it. My room was white-walled and had been bare for many years, but over time, I decorated them with posters, scientific diagrams and constellation maps. There were prints of fauna and flora from before the Fall, and illustrations of the Dunelands and the lindworms that lived there. Scattered among the drawings and photos were minutiae on geology and quotes by famous scientists.

I tapped the Cyband on my wrist and the device brought up a holographic drawing board. "Well, the most popular theory is that it is. They think that perhaps the crystal core stores magic energy that we can use." I drew the shape of a set of lungs, then drew a rough oval to represent a heart. Underneath the heart, I drew a diamond with rounded corners. "When the Lab first dissected the core, it was called a crystal because of its resemblance to a gemstone. Hence the naming of the people with this crystal core — Gemma."

"Okay, but what do they think now?" Kel prompted.

"They think it could function more like an organ that produces magical energy. Considering its proximity to the lungs and attachment to the heart, it could be feeding magic energy into our blood. The first core they extracted was rock-hard, but it isn't that way in a living body — it's soft and flexible. The Lab thinks oxidation causes it to crystallize."

Kel furrowed a brow. "What's oxidation?"

I shrugged. "I'm not sure. I'm just quoting what I heard."

Kel tapped his Cyband and pulled up a search bar. "'A process in which a substance changes because of the addition of oxygen'." He glanced at me through the holographic screen. "So, when it touches air?"

"That sounds right."

"But that still doesn't solve the problem of object manipulation from afar —" Our Cybands chimed in unison and a notification showed in the corner of our screens. Check-up time. Kel and I looked at each other, then closed the holographic screens in sync. The rubber ball fell to a stop on my sheets.

"Right. I'll see you in a bit," Kel said. "Don't forget, I've got something to show you after." I nodded in reply and we split up to head to our respective testing rooms.

The rooms the Lab scientists used to test our abilities were double-walled and reinforced with steel wires. The outer chamber was where the main scientists would stand, and where miscellaneous equipment stood along the walls. An amphitheater on the upper floor allowed for observation through the only window into the testing room. In the center stood a large inner chamber made of bulletproof glass. The inner chamber was only in use when we were testing our powers and their limits — or to restrict a Gemma whose powers were out of control.

I'd only seen it used that way once. The woman inside had destroyed an entire apartment block after she found her husband cheating on her. I remember seeing her handcuffed to her seat in the middle of the chamber, using only her powers to shove at the walls that surrounded her. One of the walls had cracked under the pressure of her telekinesis and the scientists had her sedated immediately. She was sent to an institution for dangerous Gemma the next day.

I stepped into the outer chamber and greeted the Lab scientist inside with a polite nod. Hemer was a man I rarely talked with and while I could admire his cold professionalism, he'd once taken away a chocolate bar I'd received, then given a lecture on how it was detrimental for my health. He didn't give it back, either. 

"Lav, welcome," he said, tapping away at his holographic keyboard. The screen in front of him was filled with diagrams which were quickly replaced with moving x-ray images. I shifted a fraction and the image shifted with me. 

"How are you feeling today?" Hemer asked, glancing at me over the rim of his glasses.

"Good," I replied. A standard response. 

Hemer didn't question it. "Good," he echoed back. He typed in a few more notes, then brought up a new data entry and began recording the session. "Please step into the inner chamber."

I glanced at the room with its bulletproof glass. Inside were metal bars of different sizes, stacked neatly in the middle of the floor. Hesitantly, I stepped into the chamber and listened as the doors hissed shut behind me. Hemer's voice crackled over the audio feed.

"For this session, we will be testing the limits of your power. Please pick up one of the metal one-kilo bars using only your telekinesis."

It started easy enough. Hemer increased the weight in increments and each task grew progressively more difficult. My mind strained to hold up forty kilograms, and the stack of weights hovered a centimeter from the floor for a few seconds before landing with a soft thud. It wasn't a significant difference from the last time we'd done a similar test, but a year ago, I couldn't lift more than twenty-five kilos. 

We progressed to lifting several separate weights at once, and trying to lift a weight that I couldn't see behind me. There were a few more tests to see if I could do anything besides telekinesis, but with no luck. After all the tests were done, I exited the inner chamber. A robot rolled over and whirred as it looped around me to take a full body scan. Hemer stepped towards me with an empty syringe in his hand.

"And now for a blood sample," he continued, as professional as always. "Please hold out your arm." Obediently, I did, pushing up my sleeve. I watched as the syringe filled with my blood, a dark and viscous red. A tiny drone hovered by my arm and sprayed the pinprick wound with an invisible biosealant. I inspected my arm, not looking forward to the inevitable soreness that would come tomorrow.

"Thank you, Lav," Hemer said, busy keying in notes. "You may leave."

I headed out the door and nearly bumped into Kel. He must have finished earlier and waited for me. He tilted his head and grinned.

"Sanctum?" he quipped.

"Sanctum," I agreed. We let one of the scientists know that I was leaving the Lab to visit Kel's place, and headed off.

Kel's apartment was halfway between the outskirts and the center of the city, a twenty minute walk and a five minute hovercar ride away from the Lab. The city's monochrome and neon coloring peeled away as we walked, revealing patches of dandelions growing from cracks in the sidewalk and wall art that hadn't been maintained by robots. Where the city center's buildings were towering architectural monuments of glass and steel, the ones here were half as high and more rustic, with each building having a bit of personality. The constant hubbub of downtown faded into the background, replaced by a faint electrical hum that persisted throughout the city.

We walked past Kel's apartment building and headed towards a playground in a park. The equipment was set up like a castle for children to climb, and the topmost part was shaped like a roofless turret. The only way to access this part was to climb in from the bottom, and the inside held just enough room for two children.

This was our Sanctum, a place for secrets that Kel and I shared, and a place where we would practice using our powers. We switched the Sanctum's location semi-frequently, changing it each time to a location we felt was more secure. The secrecy was necessary — Gemma were prohibited from using their powers anywhere except at the Lab. What Kel and I were doing would have been grounds enough for arrest and a jail sentence, though we were likely too young for such a serious consequence. Still, we had seen the news: a Gemma sent to jail for lifting a kite down from a tree, a Gemma executed for attempting to assassinate a Counselman. We weren't taking chances.

We clambered into the Sanctum and peeked over the wall to give a cursory check to our surroundings. The playground was empty. Kel crouched down, his green eyes somehow brighter in the shadows.

"You know how Gemma magic isn't limited to just telekinesis, right?" he asked. 

I nodded. The main reason why our powers were called magic was because they were unpredictable and followed no logical path. Most Gemma could use telekinesis to some degree, but there were some that couldn't. Others could make things spontaneously combust, and a very rare few had displayed the ability to heal. It was entirely possible that a Gemma could have three different abilities at once. There didn't seem to be a rhyme nor reason to how Gemma could have such vastly different powers, and it was one of the many things the Gemma Research Lab sought to understand.

Kel's eyes glittered. "Well, I've been trying some things out." He held out a hand and beckoned for me to lean in closer. I inched closer. There was a faint crackling sound and in his palm, flickers of light dashed between his fingertips. My eyes widened.

"What was —"

"Electricity," Kel said, a smile stretched wide across his face. "A lightbulb in my room was flickering, and on a whim, I imagined controlling the current to fix it." His grin turns sheepish. "I shorted out the bulb instead, but I definitely felt that I'd done something. I've been practicing since Monday."

"You can control electricity," I murmured, gazing at him in awe. "We need to test this —"

"— and formulate some hypotheses." Kel closed his hand. "We've tried manipulating other elements before with no luck, so why does electricity work for me?"

"Do you think the research on lightning and thunderstorms that we did a while back might have helped?" I asked.

"And some stuff on circuits, since I'm picking up a bit of programming," Kel answered.

"Interesting." I tapped my Cyband and began writing notes. "So having a greater understanding of a certain element might help with manipulation. I can think of some tests for you to try with your new ability. And maybe I could try and follow what you did and we can see if I achieve the same result."

"Yeah!" Kel grinned. "And if it works, we can both do this!" He held out his hand. A bright spark snapped across his palm, tinged faintly in green. 

I rolled my eyes. "You can be my Cyband charger," I said. 

"Hey!" Kel pouted.

"Or a portable battery."

"I'll fry your Cyband instead," Kel grumbled half-jokingly. He glanced at the time and his eyes widened. "Oh, we've got to go now, or we're going to be late for dinner." 

Kel scrambled out of the Sanctum and I followed suite. We ran to his apartment where his moms had laid out a lovely homecooked meal for us. After board games and dessert, Kel and I huddled in his room, creating theories and discussing every topic under the sun.

We were drunk on the thrill of new discoveries and intoxicated by the endless possibilities. We were blind to what lay ahead for us.

Another chapter done! I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know your thoughts!

Word Count: 3940

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