The air in the void grew heavy with anticipation. Seven people stood in a circle, blue screens materialising before each of them. The weight of what they were about to do pressed against them—not just changing their own lives, but reshaping the future of earth and civilisation.
AJ felt his mouth go dry. After all the planning, all the debate, the moment had arrived. He looked around the circle one final time, meeting each pair of eyes that had become familiar during their imprisonment.
"Alright," he said. "Let's do this."
He stepped forward to his screen, the blue light casting harsh shadows across his face. For a moment, doubt crept in—was he really about to give up his humanity? But then he thought about the transformed Earth they'd witnessed and the dangers waiting below.
"I wish to become a slime," he said, his voice gaining strength as he continued, "one capable of consuming and breaking down any material into raw energy, and converting that energy back into any material I've previously consumed."
The screen flickered, processing his words.
"Granted."
Maria stepped up next, her jaw set with the determination of a mother preparing to face any threat for her children. She'd spent her entire adult life protecting others, and that wasn't going to change now.
"I want to give this team everything they need to survive," she said. "Innate understanding of survival tactics, basic combat skills, strategic thinking. Make us ready for whatever's out there."
"Granted."
Victor approached his screen. His usual sharp suit was rumpled now, but his eyes held the same intensity that had carried him through countless boardrooms.
"I wish to optimise the physical and mental performance of this team," he said. "Enhanced strength, speed, reflexes, intelligence—everything increased within their limits."
"Granted."
Walter shuffled forward, seemingly in desperate need of his cane. His weathered face reflected his concern and determination.
"I wish for the Earth to be protected from extinction-level catastrophes," he said, each word carefully chosen. "Shield it from anything that would end all life—asteroid impacts, supervolcanic eruptions, whatever disasters this wish event might trigger."
"Granted."
Lily approached her screen with trembling hands.
"Please," she whispered, then raised her voice. "I wish for the Earth to keep its ecosystems intact. All the animals, all the plants, everything that makes it alive and beautiful. Don't let it all disappear."
"Granted."
Ethan stepped up, no ceremony or hesitation. He'd spent too many years scraping by, watching resources run short, feeling the constant pressure of scarcity.
"I wish for the Earth to stay rich in natural resources," he said simply. "Metals, minerals, energy sources, clean water—whatever people need to rebuild and survive. Make sure there's more than enough."
"Granted."
Only Sam remained. He stood apart from the others, notebook clutched in his hands, his face a mask of internal conflict. The blue screen waited before him, patient and glowing.
The others watched as he struggled with his decision. His mind warred with his heart, curiosity battling against the very real fear of what might happen if he made the wrong choice.
"I..." he began, then stopped. He looked around the circle. "I need to understand what happens to those who don't participate," he said finally.
He stepped back from the screen, his decision made.
"I'm not making a wish."
The screen flickered once.
"No wish made."
---
A small detail they had overlooked was a lack of cities on the map of new Earth, this oversight would be something they come to regret quickly.
They didn't have to wait long before the void around them began to dissolve.
Light erupted around them, not the harsh white of their prison but something warmer, more complex. The sensation of falling seized them.
The transition was violent this time, disorienting in a way their arrival in the void hadn't been. Reality reasserted itself around them with jarring suddenness.
AJ hit solid ground hard, his knees buckling as a familiar gravity reasserted its hold. The air he breathed tasted of metal and ozone, charged with energies that hadn't existed before.
He pushed himself to his feet, immediately aware that he was alone. The others were nowhere to be seen.
The landscape around him defied easy description. What had once been familiar terrain—he thought he recognised the general shape of hills in the distance—now pulsed with veins of luminescent crystal that ran through the earth like arteries of light.
Trees nearby had grown to immense sizes, their bark gleaming with metallic sheens that reflected light in strange patterns. In the distance, spires of what looked like living rock pierced the horizon, twisting skyward in spirals that suggested some kind organic growth.
The air hummed with power. Every breath felt charged, as if the atmosphere itself had become denser with potential energy.
What disturbed him most was his own unchanged state. He looked down at his hands—still flesh, still very much human. No gelatinous transformation, no sign that his wish had taken effect.
What went wrong? The thought struck him. Had the entity deceived them? Had his wish been too complex to grant?
He tried to push down his emotions. First things first—find the others. Answers could come later.
---
Several hundred meters away, Lily stood in what had once been a meadow, now transformed into something from a dream. Flowers the size of dinner plates glowed with their own inner light, their petals constantly changing colours.
But the beauty of the transformed landscape couldn't mask her growing terror. She spun in a slow circle, calling out names that echoed strangely in the charged air.
"AJ? Maria? Anyone?"
The silence that answered was oppressive, broken only by sounds that had no place in any natural world—crystalline chimes from the glowing flowers, a deep thrumming from somewhere underground, the distant cry of something that might have been an animal but sounded like no creature she'd ever heard.
Her enhanced capabilities—the survival instincts Maria had wished for them all—kicked in automatically. Find shelter. Assess threats. Locate resources. But beneath the new competence ran a thread of pure adolescent panic: she was alone in an alien world, separated from the only people she might be able to lean on.
Her hand moved instinctively to where a weapon should be, found nothing, then remembered that her enhanced knowledge included combat skills she'd never learned. The realisation was both comforting and terrifying—she was no longer the anxious teenager who'd been pulled into that white void, but she wasn't sure who she was becoming.
---
Maria stood in an open field of grass.
She focused on one overwhelming reality: her children were somewhere in this changed world, possibly terrified, possibly in danger, possibly making wishes of their own that could put them in even greater peril.
The strategic thinking gifted by her own wish supplied options—find high ground for reconnaissance, locate communication methods, establish a secure base of operations. But her maternal instincts screamed a simpler imperative: Find them. Find them now.
She picked a direction and started walking. Each step took her further into the alien landscape that had once been her neighbourhood, but she didn't hesitate. Her children needed her, and nothing was going to keep her from reaching them.
---
A few kilometers away, in what had once been a city center, Victor stood in a dense forest. His enhanced mental capabilities immediately began processing the implications—economic collapse, governmental breakdown, a complete restructuring of human civilisation.
But business analysis felt inadequate for the situation. This wasn't a market crash. This was the end of the world as he'd known it, and the beginning of something he couldn't begin to imagine.
His hand moved to straighten a tie that was no longer there, a nervous habit he'd developed. That version of himself felt like a stranger now—someone who'd thought quarterly reports and profit margins actually mattered.
The others were out there somewhere, probably as disoriented as he was. Finding them had to be the priority. Whatever this new world demanded of them, they'd have a better chance of facing it together.
---
Back in his transformed meadow, AJ tested his body cautiously. He could feel the enhancements Victor had wished for them all—strength, speed, mental clarity that cut through the disorientation of their return. Maria's gift made itself known in his immediate assessment of the environment, his mind automatically cataloguing threats and opportunities.
But still no sign of his primary transformation. He remained frustratingly, recognisably human.
Maybe it takes time, he told himself. Maybe the change is gradual.
Or maybe something had gone very wrong indeed.
Either way, standing around wouldn't solve anything. His friends—and he realised with surprise that he did think of them as friends now—were scattered across this alien landscape. Finding them was the first priority.
He picked a direction and started walking, his enhanced body moving with a grace and power he'd never possessed before. Whatever he'd become or failed to become, he was no longer the same person who'd entered that white void.
The question was whether that would be enough to survive what they had all helped create.