Dan’s eyelids felt heavy as he tried to open his eyes. The cracks of bright white light seeped through his eyelids and he managed to open them. His body had all the usual aches and pains from using his berserk mode. The warm wet substance around his eyes was definitely blood from his eyes, a nasty side effect from using such an ability.

Dan saw a few strangers in white lab coats standing over him. He glanced over to another group of staff wearing white coats speaking to Jane. Dan saw Li standing next to her, although he was holding his right arm.

“Ma’am, he’s awake,” one of them said.

Jane immediately glanced in his direction and began walking towards him. Out of the corner of his eye, Dan also saw Allen and Angie appear in his vision. They all approached him.

“Hey kid,” Allen said. “How are you feeling?”

“I think I’ll live,” Dan replied, rubbing his eyes. He turned to Li. “How did your fight with Jane end?”

“Poorly,” Li said. “Sorry Dan, I couldn’t secure us a win. The stat difference was just too much.”

“The point of the exercise wasn’t victory,” Jane interjected. “It was to analyze your teamwork and observe your performance against an agent more powerful than you.”

“How did we perform?” Li asked.

Jane glanced at Li and gave him an upward curl of her lip. Not quite a smile, but Dan knew his squad leader well enough that it meant she wasn’t going to rip into them. Much.

She stepped closer to Dan and crouched beside him. She reached into her pocket and took out a small cloth.

“Hold still,” Jane said. “You’ve been bleeding out of your eyes.”

She held the back of Dan’s head with one hand and wiped the blood from underneath Dan’s eyes. After a few seconds of this, she left the cloth on Dan’s chest. “I trust you can finish the rest?”

“Of course,” Dan replied.

“The hell? You never nurtured me like that…” Allen said.

“That’s because you were a lecherous asshole,” Jane shot back.

“And what? Dan’s supposed to be the son you never had?”

Angie shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe it’s her motherly instincts kicking in?”

The rest of the team chuckled except for Jane.

“Let’s get back on topic,” Jane said. She looked down at Dan. “I saw a bit of Michael Cynosa’s tactics in your execution today. Your ability to strategize has improved and your plan was solid. However, you’re still lacking in power. You’re not fit to fight higher-ranking tier twos and threes in a head-on fight. Your berserk mode isn’t a reliable crutch for you to take on opponents much stronger than you. But you will grow in time. You and everyone else put on a surprising performance today.”

Angie clapped and grinned and Dan smiled beneath his mask. Li settled with a respectful nod towards Dan.

“By the way Angie, I might have been hallucinating, but I saw you shoot bullets that curve,” Dan said. “Did that actually happen?”

“Oh yes it did,” Jane said. “I was forced to activate my energy shields from that surprise… development.”

Jane gave Angie some suspicious side eye. Dan presumed that Jane was still coming to terms with her subordinates using magic powers and strange developments like that during training were always a surprise.

“Oh yeah, remember three weeks ago when I was unconscious for two days?” Angie said.

“Yeah, Kind of like how I was out of it for a few hours during the heist,” Dan responded.

“Well, I had a super weird dream and some creepy voice spoke to me about ‘accepting the gifts.’ That dream ended up being a strange tutorial on using this new ability. It’s called enchanted firearms.”

“Enchanted firearms?” Allen said.

“Yeah. So I pour my magic energy into whatever gun I’m holding and then it imbues the guns with my magic. In the dream, that allowed me to curve my bullets so that they home in on my targets. It’s like a guided missile but for bullets. Pretty cool, am I right?” Angie’s huge grin and giddy attitude weren’t met with the same enthusiasm from everyone else. Jane looked at her as if she was a witch.

Li’s eyes darted around uncomfortably. Knowing him, he was most likely doubting whether Angie could properly control such a wild technique.

Allen glanced at Dan and he could tell Allen wanted to say That sounds like a future training accident.

Angie looked around and frowned. “Bunch of haters. At least Dan is happy for me.”

“Well, it bought time for Li to have an epic final showdown with Jane. I was conscious enough to watch some of it before I blacked out,” Dan said. “Speaking of that, what I want to know is how Li managed to steal the viper fang sword from you?”

“He didn’t,” Jane said. She glanced at him and did the same upward curl of her lip. “I didn’t have the weapon on me. Li had somehow found my hiding spot for the sword and stole it. He tried to use it against me.”

“Holy shit,” Dan said. “Where did you find it?”

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“Within one of the pillars,” Li said. “Out of curiosity, while you and Allen were getting shredded by Jane, I used my x-ray eyes to scan the arena for anything that could give us the edge in this exercise. Some of the pillars in this arena have secret compartments in them that can hide equipment, such as weapons and other gear.”

“I didn’t know that,” Dan said. “Jane never told us.”

“That’s because I wanted to see how you would operate while given minimal equipment. A limited selection of firearms only.” She glanced over at the stealth specialist. “Li over here decided to be devious and operate outside of my rules.”

“It was where I found the smoke grenade and to my surprise, Jane’s legendary viper fang sword,” Li said. “Our attack waves weren’t doing anything to put pressure on Jane and from witnessing Angie’s curving bullets, I knew it still wouldn’t be enough to turn the tide. So I concocted my own plan to gain the advantage over our squad leader.”

“He had a solid chance of pulling it off,” Jane admitted. “Using the smoke grenade and tracking me through the smoke with your x-ray eyes was smart. Had your stats been up to par with mine, you might have successfully brought my shield down and wounded me.”

Angie pouted and crossed her arms at Jane’s excessive praise towards Li.

“Huh, that’s some pretty good planning Li,” Allen said. He walked over and patted the stealth specialist on the shoulder. “While Dan was focused on teamwork and executing a plan in phases, you were out for blood.”

“While I was pleasantly surprised by your initiative and craftiness, even I have to admit you got a little bit serious there with your attempted swings and lunges towards me,” Jane said.

“You read my file,” Li said. “I worked with the Spec Ops Hellhounds. Being stationed at the border between Alpha and Kodak-Cresh territory, we were always in a constant state of alertness. Every day was a serious day, even during training and sparring sessions.”

“I see,” Jane said. She glanced at the rest of the team. “You all did well. And Angie, your curving bullets are deadly in the right circumstances. We’ll need more training for you to hone that ability before it’s battlefield ready.”

“Yes ma’am,” Angie said smiling.

“I have an idea for what you three can do next to keep yourselves sharp,” Jane said. “There’s a combat tournament coming up. The Alpha Corp periodically hosts an event known as the Combat Games. The events are for tier zeros and ones only.”

The three of them exchanged glances with each other.

“That sounds fun,” Dan said. “I want to hear more.”

Jane continued. “The purpose of the Combat Games is to better prepare young Alpha agents for the sort of scenarios you will experience in more dangerous missions. The type of missions a tier two or three agent would normally partake in. The performance of each agent who participates is graded on an individual basis. Depending on one’s performance, a well-performing agent would be recommended for more dangerous missions with high credit rewards, higher experience gains to level up and opportunities to work with more experienced agents. Think of it as progressing your career in any other job.”

“I can attest to that,” Allen said. “I remembered competing in the Combat Games a while back. My performance was what got me noticed by Jane over here. I quickly ranked up to tier two and I got assigned to a mission with her.”

Jane’s unchanged facial expression implied that Allen had much more fond memories than she did.

“So is there a grand prize for the winner?” Angie asked.

“There are no winners or champions in the traditional sense,” Jane clarified. “Agents are judged purely on their competence. Progressing further and further into the tournament into its later rounds just means that an agent has more opportunities to show off to the judges. Overall, the Combat Games accomplished multiple goals. It allows young agents more opportunities to progress themselves and gives entertainment to viewers.”

“Wait, our performance gets broadcasted live?” Angie asked.

“Yes it does. Agents competing with each other serves as both entertainment to the general population and marketing to potential new recruits to the shard.”

“Holy fucking shit!” Angie shouted. “I’m going to be on TV.”

“Of all the opportunities the Combat Games offer us, that’s what you’re excited about?” Li asked.

“Stop being a hater,” Angie said.

Jane cleared her throat, silencing whatever potential argument that could ensue between Li and Angie.

“The point of me bringing this up is that all three of you are associated with my name. But I need to make sure that none of you rest on your laurels simply because of your connection with me. I want you all to forge your own paths and stand on your own feet with your skills. Otherwise, you’ll merely be in my shadow.”

Li nodded silently. The reality set in for Dan as he realized that he might not be in Jane’s squad forever and there might be other areas where the Alpha Corp needed him. One day, he could be training and leading his own squad, passing down his knowledge and skills down to others.

“Since this is a combat tournament, I assume we’ll be facing off against other agents? Does that include agents from rival shards?” Li asked.

“Absolutely not,” Jane said. “The Alpha Corp would never willingly allow agents from Kodak-Cresh or the Church to attend our tournaments. All participants are recruited within the Alpha Corp and their subsidiaries.”

“Subsidiaries?” Dan asked.

“The Alpha Corporation owns numerous smaller shards,” Jane explained. “Li over here is one example. He used to be part of the Hellhounds, one of Alpha’s numerous subsidiary shards. You will find many other smaller shards competing in the Combat Games, but all shards fall under the Alpha Corp’s banner.”

“Are we competing in teams, or is it every individual for themselves?” Angie asked.

“Teams. You, Dan and Li will be a team of three,” Jane said. “The Combat Games will have rounds that will test your teamwork and coordination. The tournament will try to balance testing between individual and group competence.”

“What about our loadouts? Can we bring our guns into this tournament?” Dan said.

“It’s a combat tournament, need I say more?” Jane deadpanned.

“Translation, yes,” Allen chimed in. “You’ll have a few rounds where you’ll use stun rounds and others where live ammo is allowed. These Combat Games are no joke. A few agents will probably die. You can’t have a good tournament without stakes.”

Dan slowly stood up from the floor and looked at both of his teammates. “I’m in. What about you guys?”

“So am I,” Li said. “I’m interested in battling our competition and landing us some more opportunities. We’ll see what the rest of the shard has to offer.”

“For once, I agree with Li,” Angie said. “High stakes, high reward missions like the heist Michael chose us for don’t always come easy. If crushing this tournament makes it easier to get more missions like that, I’m in. Who doesn’t want more credits and experience?”

Dan smiled beneath his mask. “Well Jane, I think we’re all in.”

“Good. All three of you will be shipping out in two days. Until then, you’ll have time to yourselves.”

Dan held back his sigh of relief. Since the end of the heist, him and his two other new teammates haven’t been assigned on any more high stakes missions. But Jane made sure they every one of them was pushed to the very limit with more training exercises and drills.

“Fucking finally,” Angie said. “With all due respect ma’am, I was getting tired of you dragging my ass out of bed.”

Her comment got a snicker out of Li. It was indeed true that Jane literally paid Angie a visit in her apartment, broke in and dragged the lazy agent out of bed for a mandatory morning jog of twenty kilometers.

Jane gave Angie side eye before she turned around. “You’re all dismissed for the day. Rest up for the Combat Games.”