It is then that you sense them, as if a curtain has lifted from a stage and revealed the actors. Amongst the audience are sprinkled four people.
The first you sense the best. He is a Nautolan, an amphibious species, but he seems to lack pigmentation as he is ghostly white. He wears a heavy dark blue overcoat, and sports a metal chestplate. Small wires dig into his skin at various points. He is staring at you and smiling.
The next one you see is a well-built man, not unlike yourself, with dark tousled hair and five o'clock shadow, wearing a black sleeveless shirt with a gold-colored chevron across the chest. His left arm is blatantly cybernetic, and he is bickering with someone.
That someone is the third person, who is wearing a glaringly red hooded cloak. The hood is down and you see a girl with a tense but beautiful face, her skin ivory and her hair red. She is arguing casually with the second man.
The third is a rugged fellow with combed dark hair and thick sideburns, wearing a beaten brown leather jacket and a gray shirt. At his belt are a pair of heavy pistols, which he looks very comfortable with. He has edged away from the other three and is watching you quietly.
"Well done, Xavier!" Cralt says. "I am most impressed! We shall have to patch you up and put you against another unworthy contestant, hmm?"