The next few days were...odd. AEGIS and I kept up our daily routine of practicing martial arts, though given that we'd shelved working on powers for now, we did a lot of it in the backyard, since I wasn't going to burn anything down by punching too hard. After we'd both mastered all of the basic movements and blocks, we added a bit of slow-spar in, mostly AEGIS just drilling me on how to move and block as her attacks came at me in slow motion.

It did a lot for me, as I noticed steady improvement in my ability to reflexively throw out the right response to AEGIS' attacks. Mentally, just doing something felt great, even if I did still have moments where I thought about just how slow and weak I still was compared to Dragon. But as AEGIS put it, if you stared at the final boss at level one, you'd never beat any game.

It did a lot for the other girls, I think, to be around and training visibly. Maybe it was just my improving mood...or maybe I was just seeing them through an improving mood, but everyone seemed better off. Lia was bubbling away most days, AEGIS was clearly ecstatic to have a 'thing' just for the two of us, even Chiho thought it was 'pretty cool'. High praise indeed.

But not Whitney, of course. Since turning me down as an instructor, we'd hardly spoken, but even one as unobservant as myself could see her interest was completely piqued. If nothing else, she was still here when she had no other business being so, and watched me practice often.

She'd also apparently taken up the other half of my studies, delving full-bore into electrodynamics, and could often be found in the garage testing out electrical properties with freshly-assimilated machines, or pulling a Moon in the corner behind a thick book or a tablet, doodling out equations and diagrams which looked suspiciously like applications to lightning powers usage.

I held out hope she'd crack and indulge me with her training, as she obviously seemed to want to do, but the days had slid past without her doing any such thing. Or even talking to me.

I was outside practicing with AEGIS as usual. Early evening, velvet sky, warm weather, Saga pretending she was another of the roots in the tree. We were midway through sparring, AEGIS kicking at me high and low while I did what I could. A forearm block here, ducking there.

Slipping, a kind of lazy-looking leaning dodge from boxing was quickly becoming one of my favorites. I'd always favored evasion, since as a quarterback, I wasn't exactly going to block for myself and had to rely on getting away, and the staccato bursts of movement as I slipped AEGIS' punches felt natural and tight. It was a full body dodge, turning on the balls of the feet to lean left, right, or back, while keeping yourself centered and ready to counterattack, unlike a dodge as I'd known it until now.

In fact, I liked a lot of boxing. There was a lot more to it than just punching the other guy in the face, as I'd been learning. My favorite analogy so far had been of twisting the knife -- present yourself broad like the flat of a blade, then when they attacked, twist away one way or the the other to reduce your profile to just the edge, and then cut them with that edge, using the same motion.

Muay thai was AEGIS' favorite, and I was unsurprised to learn that technically it was classified as a style of kickboxing, and anything that had 'kick' in the title immediately had her attention. 'Legs are stronger and have greater reach,' she'd said like it was the most obvious thing in the world when I asked about it. Given her auto-gyros removing any of the normal issues of balance, and her body's resistance to fatigue, I guess it was pretty optimal, and the girl did love her optimizations.

We were just finishing up with some boxing drills when she got a strange look on her face and froze, giving me just long enough for my heart to stop as I connected that reaction with the virus Targa had put in her, that had perished along with her in New Eden.

But her movement was synchronized with Saga's, who sat up violently, staring at nothing just as intently as AEGIS.

"Sorry--" AEGIS said, as her engines kicked on and she bolted into the house in what looked like a single stride. I stood there stupidly, hands still up at my chin for a one-two that never came.

"Fire," Saga said. "There's a fire."

"What?"

"The garage."

I looked over and couldn't see anything. The garage looked normal as ever. Fire? No giant plumes of smoke or jumping flames. An alarm started beeping really loudly, though. I looked back at Saga with alarm of my own.

She continued without me needing to ask. "Whitney started a fire on accident. More of her electrical experiments. It looks like AEGIS has it under control. Got there early, and the girl has eight fire extinguishers in the house."

"What happened?"

"Dang it, Athan, I'm a code-X, not an engineer. Why would I know? All that technobabble in her head is lost on me. Something about trying to overlap three currents out of phase or some bullshit. Trying to figure out how to get more oomph out of your powers, basically. Without having the powers. Or apparently the safe practices to reproduce them."

"I more meant...like...what happened? Is she okay?"

"Oh, right, you care about people getting maimed. I always forget that. Mind writing me a little reminder so I remember? Do you have a notepad on you?"

"I assume by the fact you're joking around that Whitney's fine."

"Eh, a little singed, but fine. Mostly just mad at herself for screwing up an experiment she feels like she shouldn't have been doing in the first place."

"Why not?"

"'Cuz it's based on your powers, dumbass. And she hates your powers."

"Thanks for the update, Saga. I'll see if I can do anything to help." I jogged in and discovered quickly that AEGIS really had taken only one stride. She'd exploded right through the glass door at the back of the house. I sighed and stepped carefully around the wreckage to grab a broom.

I'd only just gotten the bigger pieces in a bin when Whitney came out, sweat and some streaks of soot on her face. She was breathing through the top of her tank which made it rise up off her belly, revealing the end of her ugly scar under her arm.

"You okay?" I asked. "I heard there was a fire?"

She pulled down her shirt and held her throat for a second. "Sorry. My fault entirely. Especially after I said you'd burn the house down. I'm really sorry."

"No, it's okay. No harm done?"

"I dunno. One of the benches is ruined, I think. AEGIS kicked me out because of fumes. Burned up a lot of wires and plastic, and the flames were reaching up into the insulation in the ceiling." She skirted the disaster zone and sat down glumly in the couches. "Sorry again. I hate making excuses, but...I'm useless in there, apparently, so I get to be useless in here instead."

"Is your neck okay?"

"Yeah, just inhaled some stuff, I think. Some fire, probably. Burns, but I can still talk and breathe, so not that bad apparently."

I finished sweeping for the moment and rummaged in the kitchen for a moment before presenting her with a cup of ice water. She spent a few seconds looking at it in my hands before looking at me.

"I hate that you're an Exhuman," she said plainly.

"Uh. Thanks? Me too?"

She shook her head as she took the cup and drank slowly. "I mean, I hate that it colors my perception of everything about you. Maybe you're just a nice guy offering me water. Or maybe you're a power-hungry manipulator who needs my expertise to further your Exhuman ambitions."

"You've gotta know by now, I'm not that good."

"Yeah well, that either means you're not, or you're just really good. And frankly, with how competent you seem at times, and completely incompetent at other times, it's hard to tell. And harder still when I know my every thought and action is under scrutiny in here. That flame hadn't exploded for more than five seconds before AEGIS bust in, before the fire alarm even went off." She shook her head again. "And they're on your side. It'd be too easy for everything you say or do to be a fabrication."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Can I say something blunt for once?"

"Always."

"Isn't that like, really conceited? To imagine we're doing all this shit just to fool you? And you don't strike me as a really conceited person."

She sipped her water slowly and swallowed it heavily.

"Yeah, you caught me," she admitted, giving me a small familiar smirk. "I'm just running away from reality again, aren't I?"

"Are you?"

"Well, I either accept that you're what you appear to be, and I get to reevaluate a lot of notions I've held a long time...a long, long time. Or I don't, and continue on as I've always been."

"Man, there's a strong theme of accepting or rejecting reality that's been recurring as long as I've been Exhuman," I laughed. "AEGIS, Karu, Saga, Lia, Chiho, and me...we've all had to face that at some point or another. It's not easy, and none of us were really the type to avoid reality in the first place." I frowned. "Except Karu, I guess, in the end."

She handed me back the glass and stood up, picking up my broom and dragging it deliberately along the kitchen tile. I felt kind of useless sitting here now, but better me than her, I suppose.

"It's not like I avoid reality," she said to the ground as she swept. "I just don't ...see the point in...confronting it?"

I laughed. "You are like, one of the most confrontational people I know. You always say exactly what you're thinking, you just said you hate excuses, you don't mince your words or hide your opinions."

"Being direct and always saying everything you're thinking isn't the same thing. I'm not so insufferable that I need to make sure everyone always knows my every inane thought." She smirked at me as her hands stopped for a moment. "When's the last time we spoke?"

"A few days now, I guess. I thought you didn't want to talk to me."

"I didn't. You're uncomfortable to talk with, given the situation. So I don't. Not confronting reality, right? Kinda sounds like I'm hiding from you, I suppose. But I'd charitably give myself the perspective that I'm just...transcendent."

"Uh huh. Very charitable there. Very divine."

"No, not a god, just that I want to believe I'm above that stuff. Talking to you wouldn't accomplish anything but, I don't know, smoothing over feelings or something. Something trivial, so why bother?"

I didn't know how to respond exactly, and she began sweeping again which made me think the conversation was wrapping up, but I didn't want us to spend the next few weeks still not talking. Even if it was 'trivial'.

"I think I understand," I said. "You're really big on like, don't sweat the small stuff? Same reason you don't really...mince words?" I was trying to be engaging and complimentary, but fuck if I knew what I was doing. I expressed an interest in your brain, converse me!

"I guess," she said. The sound of the bristles on the floor seemed to echo in the relative silence of the smoke alarm blaring in the next room.

Well that went perfectly.

"I don't get you," I said, dropping all pretenses, and going for the direct, honest approach, like she would. "You obviously are into this stuff, you study and sketch and experiment all day, all the crazy electrified weaponized ideas you dream of, but I'm a guy who can literally pull lightning out of his ass if he wanted, and you don't even talk to me."

"You're an Exhuman. I thought my distaste was obvious."

"And you're human!" I said, throwing my hands in the air. "You're as capable of building electric death weapons as I am, and I don't shun you in the fear you might be evil and awful."

"Hmm," she said, stopping sweeping again and looking at me. She didn't seem like she blinked as much as a normal person, which really just accentuated how her eyes flickered back and forth as she looked at you.

If she was going to say or do more than that, I never found out, because at that moment, the fire alarm finally stopped, and as we turned to look, the garage door opened with a bang and AEGIS stomped out, one fire extinguisher under her arm, one in her hands. They dropped to the floor with a cacophony of clangs and clatter as she stomped her way over to Whitney and cornered the girl, hands on hips.

"What in the hell did you think you were doing in there?" she yelled at Whitney, who lowered her head like a berated dog. "From what I put together, that whole setup was a fireball waiting to happen."

"I was just...testing a three-phase setup to see what the expected thermal output might be...if Athan could master that."

"Well the thermal output was enough to burn down a bench, melt half a machine, and start a fire in the wall. So fucking hot, I'd say is your answer."

"Sorry."

AEGIS made a guttural noise as she stomped forward and yanked the broom out of her hands. "No! Not sorry. Sorry isn't good enough!"

"I don't know what else you want me to do. I tried to help."

"Yeah, by standing in a fire, unprotected. You were going to burn out your throat, you idiot. What were you even thinking? Maybe you've been studying Athan too long, but killing yourself over a problem doesn't actually help."

"Hey," I said. "I've never once killed myself."

"It should have been fine, though," Whitney protested. "The resistors, the wires, the circuit, everything was graded for those voltages. It was going to get hot, but nothing was supposed to melt."

"Did you happen to check the ignition point of the wooden bench you were using?"

Whitney's head hung lower.

"AEGIS, everything turned out fine though, right?" I said, stepping up. "She made a mistake...a big one, sure--"

"It is not fine," she said, whipping around so fast her twintails twisted like vipers. "If you and I were out training, the whole garage might have gone down."

"And...that would be bad...but at the end of the day, it's just stuff. You guys are what matter. The fire alarm was working, Saga noticed right away through Whitney and could have gotten everyone out--"

"Everyone, huh? Everyone?" AEGIS narrowed her eyes dangerously at me as she stalked forward. "How about AEGIS Prime, Athan? Who'd rescue her?"

"What?"

"The servers in the garage. All that remains of her memories and legacy. All the knowledge I need to become a more complete person, my life, my dreams, my ambitions, gone, all because she--" AEGIS pointed a finger backwards at Whitney "--wants to play Exhuman and burn it all down."

"Jesus, AEGIS, calm down," I said, but Whitney was already moving.

"Where do you think you're going?" AEGIS barked.

"To...the garage. To get my things."

"Nobody goes in there until we get an inspector out to verify the wall's not coming down."

"But--"

"I don't care! Go to your room!"

"The garage...was…my room..."

"Go to my room, it's fine, Whitney," I said. "I'll talk to AEGIS."

Whitney gave me the smallest of grateful nods and then fled as fast as I'd ever seen her move. Maybe she really was non-confrontational.

"What the hell, AEGIS?" I asked. "You're like, her only friend period, and you rip her head off for making a mistake."

"Those servers were fifteen feet from that fire, Athan. Fifteen feet."

"And they were fine, weren't they?"

"Only barely!"

"Then for the sake of a friend, let it go."

She glared at me incredulously, pushing up her glasses and crossing her arms as she puffed herself up. "I'm sorry, I know we don't see eye-to-eye on what constitutes a person, but if she set a fire that was fifteen feet away from burning up Lia, would you forgive her so readily?"

"That's not--"

"Oh, it's the same. AEGIS Prime is like a sister to me. The data in those servers is her, on ice. I could pull that out and stick it in a Rua model and she'd be as alive as I am. And she almost was erased just now, Athan. Because of Whitney fucking around with stupid bullshit. You expect me not to be pissed?"

"I expect you," I said, taking a deep breath to counteract how angry I was feeling at her "to realize that people make mistakes, and friends forgive each other for them."

She stared at me, posture leaned forward, fists shaking straight down. I could almost hear her teeth grinding as she glowered. She screamed something like 'GAARAAUA!' and spun, throwing the broom through the other, unbroken glass of the back door with a crash.

[Hey, watch it!]

AEGIS stomped and pounded her feet into the glass, and I watched with horror as the soles of her feet split apart into a shredded, morbid mess of dangling synthetic skin. After long moments, she curled up on her feet and squeezed her head to her knees. Fetal position, on her feet. After a minute I thought I heard her crying.

"Are you crying?" I asked, stupidly. Because that was the smartest thing to say when a girl was crying.

"My feet hurt, okay? Fuck you."

"I'm sorry," I said, but she just flipped a gesture at me. Gradually, the offending arm receded, and then eventually, so did AEGIS, walking outside through the broken windows to retrieve the broom and start sweeping.

"She didn't mean to," I said.

"I know."

"It was an accident. She won't do it again."

"I know."

"I'm sorry, too."

AEGIS stopped sweeping and stared at me over her glasses. "Say what you want, Athan, but I know how pissed you'd be if one of us almost killed Lia out of ineptitude. This wasn't...maybe...the best outlet for my anger, but don't you fucking dare pretend you'd be any better. AEGIS Prime was my big sister, and she almost died today."

I thought back to how I'd broken my wrist impotently punching the ground when I thought Saga died. I guess I could hardly fault AEGIS for stomping around in some glass like a moron.

"I understand. I would be mad. Do you want help cleaning up?"

She sighed as she surveyed the damage. "No...this will give me plenty of time to cool down. Sorry for breaking shit and yelling. Just...leave me alone for a while. Go tell Whitney I don't hate her, please."

"I will."

And feeling very much like Whitney looked when she escaped, so did I.