The Defenders

It was the morning two days after Ian's first domain experience. Alec stated that he usually rests for one whole day after he explores a new domain so, they both agreed to meet today when everything has subsided down. 

Ian exited his so-called house behind him and as he was closing the old creaking door, a shout in front of him startled him to a stop.

The shout was followed by the door bursting open and the same teenage boy from before exited the room. They both locked eyes and Ian could see that there were dried tears on his cheeks and his eyes red. There were also the familiar bruises that stopped on his neck - only because he was wearing an old turtleneck even with the sunny weather of the month. 

The boy stuttered a greeting but stopped when Ian approached him. Ian only stopped in his tracks when he saw the boy trying to physically shrink against the door. 

With a sigh, Ian asked: "What's going on?"

"Nothing," The boy was quick to answer, he awkwardly tried to put on a smile. "Sorry, it must be loud."

Ian frowned. It does not seem like it was just nothing - judging by the physical state of the boy and the dried tears on his cheeks. But he knows not to press on the matter too much - seeing as they just happen to be neighbors and had only met two days ago. 

Ian let out a worried sigh again. "Where are you going?"

"I, uh, somewhere," The boy said, hand motioning to their surroundings. "Just…out."

"Don't you have school?" Ian said - still valuing education even with the monsters and domains in their world. 

"I don't go to school." 

"Oh," Ian awkwardly said. "I'll just go, see you around."

The boy let Ian ahead of him - probably uncomfortable walking side-by-side with the older man as they just said their goodbyes seconds ago. 

When Ian was on the second floor of the stairs, Ian was met with a familiar set of short white hair and intense yellow eyes - however, this time they seemed to glimmer down a little. 

"There you are," Alec said with a smile. "I was about to get you."

"Alec," Ian started. "We really should exchange numbers because I don't want to bother you with going in and out of…this place."

Alec nodded, eyes glimmering even with the old lightbulb above them. The both of them started walking down as Alec motioned a hand for Ian. Confused, he just grabbed it which made Alec laugh loudly - a neighbor on the second floor glared at them. 

"Your cellphone, Ian."

"Oh," Why was he so awkward this day?! 

Ian handed his phone to Alec which made him slightly embarrassed not only because of the wallpaper of a random cute cat he saw on the streets but also because his phone was close to collapsing. The screen had a large crack in the middle and some at the ends - while his clear phone case was starting to turn yellow. 

"I like the aesthetic," Alec joked while looking at his phone. 

"I have no money," Ian deadpanned which Alec laughed again. 

Alec inputted his number and called his own from Ian's phone. After the exchange, they entered the familiar black car and rode away from his ratty government-supported housing. 

"So…" Alec cut the silence in the car. "I'm just going to formally introduce you as one of my workers - you'll get to know how things work and the like."

Ian nodded. 

"I'm technically under Gamnique but I also like to operate my own…office," Alec said, hands waiving around which made Ian unconsciously think of his teenage neighbor. Now that he thinks about it, the two slightly looked alike - their skins are both in a warm and deep shade of brown and their hairs are also light. Alec's white buzzed-cut hair gives him a neat appearance and paired with his always glowing yellow eyes, is a stark contrast to his skin. 

"Gamnique is a little bitch but he knows how things work," Alec chuckled lightly. "I don't give a rat's ass on the current political system of the domains and all that shit."

"Then why are you working as a savior?" Ian wondered. 

At this, Alec stopped rambling and let out a 'huh' as he comfortably sat his back on the car again. His eyes wandered around and shouted: "Gab, boba!" 

Without a word from the chauffeur, the car screeched to a stop which made the vehicle behind them honked loudly.

"What the-," Ian bewilderedly asked when the man driving the car angrily knocked on the chauffeur's window side. 

"Hey! What do you think you were doing?!" The man angrily said and honestly and lowkey as well, Ian agreed with him. It could've been a huge accident had it not been for the man's impressive reaction time.

Gab, the chauffeur, didn't pay attention and instead, Alec decided to open his side of the door entirely. Met with the infamous Alec Craig, the man stopped what he was saying to look at Alec with shock. 

"I'm sorry!" Alec said, eyes pleading - was he really pleading or just acting? Ian never knew. "I just really like this boba shop, would you like one? My treat!"

"I-I'm good man, just be careful next time." The man said and was about to retreat to his vehicle when Alec forcefully grabbed his forearm. 

"No, I'm serious!" Alec shouted. "I'm really sorry!"

With that, the two entered the boba shop and the vehicle was silent. Ian locked eyes with Gab in the rare view mirror but no conversations were exchanged.

About five minutes later, the two emerged from the shop and parted ways with Alec still smiling. Ian couldn't see the look on the other man's face which reminded him that he should probably see an eye doctor soon. His entire family had a genetic eye disorder which caused most of them to wear glasses or do surgery. The last time he checked with the local doctor, they informed him that he needed to buy glasses as he had myopia with a -2.50 grade. That was two years ago - he now wonders how bad his eyes were now. 

The doors to the car opened and Alec went in holding three boba plastic cups. He happily handed one to Ian and the other to Gab. 

Ian was stunned, this was the first time in a while that someone had given him something edible. "Uh," Ian stuttered, mouth watering at the brown boba in front of me. "Are you sure?"

"Of course!" Alec stated nonchalantly. 

"Thanks," Ian said and happily popped the plastic straw on the plastic lid and took a sip. It was heaven. He delightedly chewed on the boba balls. 

Seeing his reaction, Alec laughed and silently signaled Gab to continue with his driving. 

"Hey, I'm just wondering…" Ian started, pausing a bit before continuing with: "Why did you invite me inside the domain when you work alone?"

Ian saw Alec side-eye him momentarily. He chewed twice and then his throat bobbed as he swallowed a boba. 

"You're gonna work under me exclusively," Alec stated. "You have to know how domains and how I work."

"You force people to enter a domain just to make them leave?" Ian asked incredulously which was met with a light chuckle from Alec. 

"You did something - you healed the people there," Alec said. "That counts as an experience, right?"

-

"Here we are," Alec stated, motioning towards the white walls. "Gamnique's headquarters are located in Quezon too and it's just a ten-minute drive from here. This building is essentially my whole office - I hire different kinds of defenders so don't be surprised if this place suddenly looked like it had been ransacked by monsters on a Tuesday." 

They continued walking with Ian mindlessly looking at the place. He kind of expects the usual television drama effect here - with the workers stopping their tracks and bowing when their head enters. But none of that was present here - the workers just stared at Alec for a second then gave him a small awkward and formal smile. Some just ignored him completely while others physically cowered under his stare.

"This is the gym," Alec said, "Even if we rely on cores, physical attributes are still important, I'm sure you know that judging by your build." 

Ian shyly let out a chuckle. It was hard to hide in the crowd when he was practically towering over people. 

"Which reminds me, do you go to the gym often?"

"No, I'm broke," Ian unconsciously flexed his muscles. "These are from doing construction jobs which I often do."

"Right…" Alec trailed off. "Bad question." 

Ian laughed. "It's alright."

They entered the gym and one thing to describe it - it was huge. The whole place was covered in some sort of white material - which Alec explained was a material that is resistant to much of the geo element such as water, fire, and sometimes ice. 

About twenty people are huddled in a circle apparently sparing with each other. Ian looked at them in amazement which didn't go unnoticed by the other man next to him.

It looks like the two sparring are forbidden from using any core-related force and they were just going head to toe with each other.

A cough from the man beside him and soon the heads huddled turned towards their general direction.

The group had an interesting way of addressing Alec, unlike the workers outside the gym. They openly express their happiness and amazement at the presence of Alec.

"Sir Craig!" They shouted and then bowed in their direction - Ian physically wanted to disappear as he did not want eyes on him.

A woman in her twenties ran towards them and smiled. "Hi boss, is this a new recruit?"

"Aguilar," Alec nodded and stated: "This is my exclusive guide." 

At this, Ian turned to him confusedly not noticing the gaping mouths the people in the circle, including the woman, throwing at them.

"What's an exclusive guide?" Ian asked quietly. 

"It just means you're working for me and only me, that's it." Alec waived him off.

"That's new boss," Aguilar said in amazement. "He looks like he's good at sparring; do you want to try?"

The way Ian's head turned to the woman quickly might've given him a whiplash because he suddenly became slightly lightheaded. "W-what?"

Alec turned to him, a playful glimmer in his eyes, and stated: "Why not?"

"U-Uh, okay, but I'm not good at fighting…"

"We are about to find out," Aguilar chuckled and ushered Ian to the circle with Alec trailing behind them. 

"Peek, you're up!" A similar-statured guy as him stood up from the circle. He had brown hair that fell under his brows and his lips were pierced along with his nose. 

"I'm Peek, a savior," The guy offered his hands to him. Ian shook it weakly. 

"I, uh, I don't know how to spar," Ian pointed out. 

"Don't worry, I'm gonna go easy on you," Peek said.

"That's no fun!" Alec shouted which the others in the circle laughed at. "Go at it! WITH CORES AND ALL!" 

Ian looked at Alec as if he was insane (he is) - he was a fucking guide and Peek was a savior. Not to mention that he didn't have any experience in sparring while the other guy looks like he fights monsters in his sleep. 

"Are you sure?" Peek said, a devilish smirk erupting on his face as he looked at Ian. His friendly demeanor was nowhere to be found and Ian was terrified. 

"H-hey, you're joking right?" Ian asked Alec. 

"We have healers here and I'm also here in case something bad happens."

"H-huh?" Ian said, feet slowly walking backward. Alec is insane, oh my god. 

"Everyone, make way for the two!" Alec said and the people in the circle stood up to watch at a distance.

 As soon as no people except Alec were near, Ian felt a wave of air hit him on his face and soon, his back was on the floor. Bewildered, he noticed that the rush of air was from Peek who was dangerously running towards him.

Ian quickly stood on his feet and ran in the opposite direction. When he realized he was backed into a corner, he put his hands in front of his face as a cover. 

A strong blow of wind suddenly hit his forearm. Ian winced in pain and tried to heal himself from the impact. Ian tried to throw a punch at the man but was quickly dodged. The two went like that for two minutes - Ian trying to lay a blow but Peek just dodging. Ian was just doing a series of clumsy and uncoordinated moves - obviously, he did not fight even with his build.

He thinks that Peek was going easy on him - judging by the smirk still on his face. Tired from the exchange ( can he even call it an exchange? ), an abnormally large blow of wind shot his full body and soon enough, Ian found himself on the ground - staring at his experienced opponent in shock.

Taking advantage of the opening, Peek sat on his torso and began giving painful blows to his face. It was clear that the fight was over before it even began. Seeing his state, Peek quickly stood up and said: "Sorry,"

Feeling kind of humiliated, Ian slowly sat back. He can feel pain in his face and torso the most. The crowd quickly moved to circle him. Aguilar instructed another person to heal Ian and in a minute, he did not feel any pain at all - another reminder of his lack of experience.

Alec whistled as he walked to them - motioning for the crowd to disperse. 

"You did well," Alec patted Peek on the shoulder while the other just gave out a thumbs-up.

 When the crowd was gone and all that was left in the huge room was Alec and Ian, Alec said: "You're pretty weak."

"Way to state the obvious," Ian said, grunting as he stood up to meet eye-to-eye with the other. "You're fucking crazy, you know that?"

"I've been called worse," Alec said. "It was just a test to see where you are at your fighting abilities - which is none," His tone was teasing.

Ian glared at him at which the other laughed aloud. 

"Don't be mad, he didn't kill you, right?"

-

"Here's my office," Alec stated calmly as if he had not tried to get Ian killed minutes ago. The room was like any other office room except for the mess on the floor. To be completely honest, he kind of expected how it looked seeing as Alec was disorganized as a person as well. No floor was not covered in paper. Alec sighed as he jumped to sit on the brown couch. "Your office is next to mine."

Ian nodded, still a little grumpy from what he had experienced earlier. 

"Anyway," Alec stated as he got up and walked towards one of the drawers - pulling out a stack of paper and then handing it to Ian. "This is an introduction to guiding and all the shenanigans."

Ian looked at the paper and his face turned to disgust when he saw the font - it was fucking Comic Sans. Even if Ian is poor, he is knowledgeable of the fact that most people don't even use this as he acquired experience by hopping from one job to another - at one point, he was an assistant to a shady office. Ian turned to look at the other, expecting it to be a form of joke, but he was serious. 

"What?" Alec asked - oblivious to the fact that this font was an abomination. "I did that just yesterday." His tone was shy which Ian felt slightly bad. 

"What does it contain?" Ian said, choosing to ignore the font, and then scanned the papers. It was full of jargon he did not know. 

"Everything you need to know, I'll see to it that you memorized all," Alec said and a glimmer in his eyes told Ian this was about to go horribly wrong. "If you don't pass the test in three days, I'll fire you." 

Ian's eyes widened. "H-hey, you can't do that - that's against the labor code!"

-

And so, Ian was now back to his house - hands clasping the stack of papers that Alec had given him. The same man also said that he was free to do whatever he wanted with the money he also had given him with a quick statement saying: "Go eat, brain needs food!" So, Ian grumpily obliged and went to the nearest small local shop that sells instant noodles. He bought three with the money he had and seeing that he had more, he bought two powdered coffee and decided to save the remaining money. 

He quickly cooked the ramen and when done, he sat on the floor in front of the small coffee table (the only table he owned) and quickly scanned the documents again. He flipped to a random page and was met with:

 Guide to the Second Gender!!! 

Ian grimaced - it surely was made by Alec himself. Sighing, he decided to read the first page as there was no cover page or title page. Ian once again cringed when he saw that the text was still underlined with the color blue - clearly a direct copy and paste from a famous site. The document starts with:

In 2009, the first domain appeared in Southeast Asia with the first ever element - Geo. The Philippine government examined the domain and as a result, multiple people died or were injured when faced with the then-unknown monsters in the said domain. As a result, multiple countries had to intervene with the domain and soon the domain's boss was defeated by a group of special private combatants from the United States of America. 

As soon as the US had defeated the domain, a then-rare newborn was recorded in Bogota, Colombia. The nurses who had helped the mother give birth stated to the authorities that they were alarmed at first when the baby was suddenly engulfed in flames and after minutes, they stated that the newborn seemed to have control over the fire. Similar cases have appeared around the world - all occurring at the same time as the amount of domain increases. Additionally, it was not only newborns who may have powers. There were multiple reported cases of people who suddenly had the power to control ice or light at a mature age. Many of the people who suddenly possess powers are in their mid-twenties to fifties. 

Ian looked and saw a little scribbled note on the side which made him chuckle. 

 Now, domains are used to fund corrupt politicians, can you imagine that?! 

As a result of the appearances of people with powers and domains, the Universal Council was established and it is headed by the two superpowers - the United States and China. The Universal Council, which body is made up of representatives from all countries, is tasked with overseeing and addressing concerns regarding the domains and powers. 

In 2019, scientists in India noted the existence of cores when the group was permitted to study the body of a fifty-year-old dying man who consented to the research. The study concluded that people with powers have cores as opposed to those who do not. The said core is located in the mediastinum of the person and may die with the person if the said person's body dies as well. Currently, a study is being conducted to know whether or not a core can be transferred to another person but was put on hold when no core users consented to undergo such research. 

Ian flipped the page and was bombarded with what looked to be Alec's personal notes which were only digitally scanned. Ian had to squint and bring the paper closer as he found it difficult to understand his handwriting. He groaned when he realized he also had to stop eating since the papers were in front of his mouth. 

2 categories of people with power!!! 

1. They are called defenders but that's so old. 

2. One is called a savior and the other a guide; this was done because I think they noticed the cores of people have differences. The core of the savior is yellow, like the eyes…and purple for the guides.

3. You already know this but saviors are people who can do different kinds of things - they can make fire or lightning! More on this on the next page. 

4. Guides are like healers, I mean yeah they are also healers. But they are also there to protect saviors!!

The page was back to copy and paste from multiple online articles again. 

As such, many believed that the cores were from the will of the person- another scribble. 

They are still debating on that because if the will of a person makes them suddenly possess a core - does that mean babies already have wills the second they are born? We are still not even done with the debate of whether babies are naturally evil or not -.- 

The Universal Council decided to make a subgroup to categorize the different powers a savior is under. However, it is also worth noting that the power a savior may possess can be different from others. A geo-savior that can control water may control ice while a similar geo-savior who also can control water couldn't control ice. 

1. Geo. These are saviors who can control the natural elements of the earth such as plants, water, fire, and electricity. These also include other elements that are a result of the basis of the element - ice, smoke, and oil. This is second to the most common element. 

2. Techno. These are rare elements that can make saviors have control over technologies and computers. They are also the people credited for rapidly advancing technologies. There are many sub-groups under the techno element - some are classified as advanced and others traditional. The traditional ones can make a computer screen appear out of thin air, while the advanced ones can sometimes connect their own minds to the whole world wide web - making it easier for them to get information that is already out on the web.

3. Necro. Though a gruesome element, it is an element that is highly sought out by corporations who aim to explore new domains. The people who have necro elements can control death - it can be animals, other people, or even their own. People who control their own are also reported to have regeneration abilities - a known case is Alec Craig who can sustain heavy injuries and regenerate even when he is smashed flat to the ground. 

Ian saw another note next to the passage which read: hehe. As long as I want to live, I will never be killed.

4. Metamo. These are elements that make core users change one's being such as one's physical appearance, health, and the internal structure of their bodies. Not much is known about this element since this sub-group was just announced a few years ago. 

5. Bruto. The most common type of element among saviors. Those who are categorized under bruto have enhanced bodily strength that easily exceeds that of a person with no cores. The users mainly rely on hand-to-hand combat. 

Ian couldn't continue anymore as he felt his eyes slowly shutting down. Disregarding the paper and the dirty dishes in his sink and table, he felt himself lull as he completely let sleep take over.