• Bam! A loud crash thundered through the house, causing the whole building to shudder. The sound of something ceramic breaking followed soon afterwards.

    Celica was forced awake by the racket. She sat straight up, hit her head on something hard, and fell back down. She heard shouting from outside her door, and then a second earth-trembling collision.

    Still clutching her throbbing skull, dots dancing in front of her eyes, Celica swung her legs off of the side of the bed, but she felt nothing. It suddenly occurred to her that she must be on a bunk bed, and she had hit her head on the ceiling fan.

    She felt around for the ladder, her vision still swimming, and climbed down. More shouting carried into the bedroom, sounding forceful. It wasn't Peter's or Amos', and this worried Celica.

    She very cautiously walked over to the door, making sure her footsteps were as inaudible as possible. She gripped the brass handle, and opened the door slowly. After she had pulled it open just a crack, she could see Peter hiding behind one of the sofas.

    He looked up and saw her. He looked just as scared as he had been when Celica had first entered the house. He frantically, but silently, signaled her to go back inside, by jabbing his finger at the door rapidly and mouthing the words "Go back. Go back."

    She closed the door very silently, and then heard another door get kicked down. "Find the boy. The old man doesn't matter." Heavy footsteps resounded in the small room, and Celica could hear furniture being overturned.

    To her horror, footsteps were steadily approaching the door to her room. "He's probably in here." A gruff voice commanded the others. The brass handle jiggled slightly, and then Peter screamed "Hah!"

    A humming noise emanated from somewhere on the other side of the door, and red light shone through the cracks in the doorway.

    The brass handle became still again.

    More flashes, of all different colors, began to leak through the doorway. Yellow, blue, green, purple, and then silence. The handle began to turn again, and Celica instinctively lifted up her fists and got into a balanced fighting stance.

    The door slid open with a slight creak, and Peter poked his head in. "Come with me." As though he had read her mind, he said quickly, "I can explain everything, but not now, not here. Let's go." As he led Celica out into the only other room she had seen on Terra, she gasped.

    There were unconscious bodies lying everywhere, some of them sizzling. "Did you do this?" Celica asked incredulously, her mouth still slightly open.

    "Yeah, sorta." He said sheepishly, grinning a little despite himself. Celica didn't bother him to elaborate, because she knew there was a rush. "There will be more of them coming, we need to hurry."

    She didn't get a good look at the seemingly dead people scattered across the room, because as soon as her shock had worn off, she was already being pulled on the arm by Peter through another door, the same one that he and Amos had come through the previous day.

    This room was a small kitchen, just a refrigerator, a couple counters, an oven and a stove, and the sink. "Hold on, for just a second." Peter said as he released Celica's arm. He walked over to the sink, and ran water over his hands. Steam rose from them, clouding at the ceiling. Celica gaped, but Peter walked back over and grabbed her arm again, and they were walking again before she could ask.

    Suddenly, Celica realized something. "Where's Amos?" She asked breathlessly as they walked briskly through what appeared to be the front door. They walked out into a forest, where they were totally surrounded by huge, flourishing trees.

    "He left two or three hours ago, to find your mentor. He said he went West..." He trailed off, pulling a map out of his pocket, unfolding it, and turning it around a few times. "Ah. Here we are. We've got to go this way." He didn't grab her arm this time, but instead began walking alone. She jogged after him to keep up. He was much taller than she was, and had a much longer stride than she did.

    "So now can you explain what happened back there?" Celica asked, now very curious. "Or at least why those people-"

    "They're the police. You can tell by their vehicles over there." Without looking, he pointed over his shoulder at a cluster of very narrow, very short automobiles. They looked like smart cars, ony smaller and covered in solar panels.

    "Okay, and why did they show up? Did you do something illegal?" At this, Peter laughed, and looked up from the map to stare at her.

    "My existence is illegal."

    "That doesn't help at all." Celica said, exasperated.

    "I'm an Unknown." At Celica's still confused face, he carried on. "It means I have powers that no one understands. All we know is that it has something to do with controlling energy, and it's very unstable. Amos and I have been trying to unlock the secrets for a few years now."

    "But that doesn't explain why the police showed up." Leaves and brambles crunched underneath their feet as the woods grew denser around them.

    Peter sighed. "The police are required to hunt down Unknown. Years and years ago, there were a bunch of accidents. A lot of us simply exploded, unable to control ourselves. People died, buildings collapsed, forests burned down, you get the idea. Ever since then, the government declared us a threat to society began the executions. A few of them escaped, including my mother and father."

    Celica could hardly imagine Peter going on a rampage and destroying cities, killing people, or even controlling and kind of energy.

    "So what you did back there, that was... you controlling energy?"

    "You catch on quick for an Earth girl." He said, grinning.

    A small hut came into view between the trees. As they grew closer, a light turned on in the window. "You're about to meet your new Mentor. Michael Reed is his name, but he prefers being called Kunalo."

    Celica simply gave him the eyebrow. Peter laughed. "He may be crazy, but he can help you master Jumping. He was one of the best."

    "If you say so." Celica said warily as they approached the front door.