"You'll meet Nora in the morning," Elvina winked at him as she dropped him off in a gated cavern underneath Infraburst Manor. "See you soon!" she waved, flying out.

Brand surveyed his surroundings, not able to see much in the gloomy cave. The more he peered, the more the darkness looked like mist. He could vaguely hear chuckling voices when suddenly a bright light shone in his eyes, and the snickering erupted into laughter.

"You should have seen the look on your face, man!" one of the multiple people surrounding him howled.

"What, where am I?" Brand backed away from the strangers, each of them looking more absurd than the next.

"I'm Jubert, I control what people see," he introduced himself with a mocking bow. The underground space was beginning to feel a lot more homey, he could even feel carpet underneath him. "Bet you thought they were tossing you in a dungeon or something," Jubert chuckled.

"I'm Alex, pleasure to meet you," he took Brand's hand without consent, and Brand immediately felt drained of all energy. "I'm basically a leech," Alex hissed, baring his teeth.

"Of sorts at least," another one of them chipped in. "I'm Ashley, I control pressure essentially." As if being drained of his energy wasn't enough, Brand now felt twice as heavy as he actually was.

"I'm Edwin," a slithering voice morphed into a half naked man. "I can transform myself into just about anything," he laughed, his body soon shifting to appear as if he were wearing clothes.

"Let's see, oh there's also Ernest," Jubert pointed to a boy sitting in the corner. "He can see anything," he chuckled, not caring to elaborate. "So, what power you packing?"

"Fire?" Brand answered, not entirely understanding what was going on.

"Sweet! You're like a true Infraburst then!" Jubert hollered. "This is our man cave. We're like the Infraburst secret ops unit, so welcome to the team!"

"Team?" Brand stared at all of them, Jubert far more eager than the rest. Edwin was already crawling away, morphing into some sort of primate creature. Alex stared at him blankly, with Ashley giving him an odd gaze.

"Still a newbie," Jubert sighed. "Don't worry, it'll all make sense tomorrow. In the meantime, get some rest," he told him, pointing to a corner with stacked bunk beds.

"Unfortunately for you, they're all claimed," Edwin sneered. "Kidding, the bottom bunk to the left corner is still open."

Not knowing what else to do, Brand crept over to the free bed and sat there, staring at the rest of them as they did anything but sleep.