Aaliyah was immediately suspicious of new person at her door. Actually, she was suspicious about basically everything here.
She didn’t understand Tracker’s involvement, neither the clearly upper-class kid who was at the door, standing in front of the goliath on the other side of the doorway. Meeting that kid was pure luck playing it’s part. Who would have known he was in the same group as her?
She tried analysing Walter’s motives over and over while they chatted about random things and couldn’t come up with anything super solid. But something had to have pushed him into joining this team, otherwise it’d make no sense for him to leave behind his life of probably abject luxury.
The one thing that she did learn, was that he didn’t have an ulterior motive. In fact, she wasn’t sure that he had a sly or cunning bone in his body. She was so sure of it, that she actually felt kind of safe around him.
Wait, did attraction count as an ulterior motive? Well, not when it showed on your face as clearly as it did on his.
“Uh, yeah. We got here, like, an hour ago.” Walter stammered out. Maybe surprised by the towering man. The large man ginned pleasantly.
“That’s great! Me and the other team member got here yesterday,” he stuck out his hand to Walter, mindful of his size, “I’m Ajax.” Walter hesitantly took his hand and it was shaken.
“I’m Walter.”
The Asian boy’s hand was comically small in Ajax’s gigantic hand, totally dwarfed in both size and in clear calluses. The larger hand covered in calluses from some sort of physical work.
“You guys getting a first taste of the food here?” He looked over to the food that Aaliyah and Walter were eating. Aaliyah had to admit, the food was excellent, mind-blowingly so really.
“Yeah! I don’t think I’ve had a chicken burger that actually tasted good.” Walter was more excited that Aaliyah was about it, which was surprising seeing as he was from the upper class.
“I think the chef might be Linked honestly. It’s just a little too good for normal cooks, or I’ve been cooking steaks wrong my entire life.” The man laughed heartily before making a gesture asking if he could walk into the room. Walter gave him the conciliatory head nod.
The large man walked into the room with a sure stride that made Aaliyah even more suspicious of him. A person capable of walking into a social situation like this with so much confidence almost always had something they wanted. She would know.
The man walked in and sat down in a chair facing away from the TV and instead towards the couch where Aaliyah and Walter were sitting.
“So, both of you are undefineds as well, yeah?” He asked, already knowing the answer he would receive. Walter looked awkward for a moment, but Aaliyah just shrugged.
“The other girl is probably one as well, so we can confirm they didn’t lie to us about a team of undefined. You guys all good with talking about your abilities?” He looked to the two of his captive audience, they both nodded, Aaliyah putting on a cool guise.
“We’ll be forced to talk about them at some point, may as well get it done with.” Aaliyah smiled confidently. Ajax smiled back, even as Walter looked worried.
“Then I’ll start. I can talk to axes.” The baffled faces of both Walter and Aaliyah made Ajax burst out in laughter.
“That’s, uhm, pretty abstract.” Walter said, trying to be kind to the man, but Ajax waved it off.
“Nah, I gain power from aligning myself to the ‘will’ of my axe.” Ajax shrugged and Walter perked up.
“How much power?” But Ajax just shrugged again, either unsure or not telling. Walter looked thoughtful for a moment, before speaking up as well.
“I’m able to control elements, I think.”
“You think?” Aaliyah said, eyebrow raised.
“I– I mean I can. But it’s weird. I don’t know how to train it.” Walter deflated a little, haemorrhaging confidence. Aaliyah laughed pleasantly and spoke herself.
“My power changes as my emotions change. I get real strong when angry, and other people get lethargic around me when I’m sad. I heal faster when I’m happy, etcetera.” Walter looked even more interested.
“So that’s why your skin changes colour?” He asked, curiously. She nodded.
“The more of one emotion I feel, the more of the corresponding colour covers my skin, the more powerful the effect is. I can make myself feel emotions and get a response too.” She shrugged nonchalantly.
The room was silent for a moment after that. There were more things to talk about their links, but no-one was willing to take that step forward.
The next thing that you’d usually talk about was your capital ‘A’ Awakening. The moment you were ‘blessed’ with a link you underwent an Awakening. A sudden burst of power manifested by the initial link.
Some stories were relatively tame, simply a dream that introduced their power to them in very dream-like ways. Sometimes, though, an Awakening can be catastrophic. For some it is at the most terrifying moment in their life that they gain their link, or they create the most terrifying moment of their life by their link suddenly becoming available to them.
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The rest of the night was spent talking about nothings instead, skirting around that particular hole into someone’s soul. They simply talked about what they believed was the reason for someone to bring together a team like this, but it was all softball. There were no tough opinions put out there. It was more of a bonding exercise than anything, and precisely because of that it flubbed as a bonding exercise as well.
Before long Ajax left the room, retreating to his own for some downtime, leaving Aaliyah and Walter in the room alone. Having finished eating a long time ago, they simply quietly watched TV together. Aaliyah enjoyed that time, simply relaxing with Walter. Which was intensely strange for Aaliyah.
She hadn’t had company like this in a long time, existing alone in the world just trying to survive. Walter was simply happy to have company at all. He had long since been living a solitary lifestyle, and suddenly falling into the company of someone that doesn’t seem to be uncomfortable being in his presence was a boon to him.
It was nice in comparison to his life beforehand. But before long, it started to get later in the day, spent mostly in idle conversation and silence. Walter eventually left to his own room, giving a gentle goodbye.
His door closed behind him lightly as he quickly walked into his room, flopping onto his bed. It had been a short day, categorically, but for some reason he just felt so tired.
Maybe that was what happened when everything in your life changes in the span of forty-eight to seventy-two hours. He was drained in so many different ways, emotionally, physically, mentally. It was all taking a toll on him as he laid down on his bed, his eyes struggling to stay open, even as his mind raced with all the possibilities that this new life could bring him.
All that he could muster as an answer to all those thoughts was that he would try his best to seize ever opportunity.
He just didn’t know how to do that yet.
And without being able to resist, he fell into a deep sleep.
----------------------------------------
Walter’s eyes snapped open to a pleasant knock on his door. He quickly picked up and looked at his linktech phone, seeing the time at 8:30 in the morning, far earlier than his regular wake up time. He groaned, lifting himself out of the comfortable and warm bed.
He plodded over to his door, the clothes he had worn the day before still on during his sleep.
He opened the door in a stupor to reveal Tracker, looking fresh and professional, her dark, wavy hair pulled into a loose but conservative ponytail.
“Good morning, Walter. Sorry for the early wakeup call, but this will be when the whole team wakes up from now on. Please get ready for the day, including changing into something you are able to do exercise in, and we will walk down to the cafeteria together.”
“Ah, thank you.” Walter said, quickly turning and racing into his room, frantically digging through his various bags to find where his mother had packed his exercise clothes. After a minute he managed to put together a few articles of exercise clothing that had been bought years ago, but never used, and threw them on before slipping on his runners and stumbling out the door.
To his mortification, the other three members of the team and Tracker were standing at the stairwell at the end of the hall. He jogged over, something he hadn’t tried to do in years.
“Alright, thank you all for joining us,” Tracker looked at each member individually, nodding in their direction, “we are going to be walking down to the cafeteria. Please follow me.” Tracker began to walk down the steps, prompting the other team members to follow.
Walter looked around, seeing Aaliyah again, her skin a gentle tint of blue dressed in what looked like yoga clothing, looking quite fetching. His eyes also met the back of Ajax’s head, even though he was three or four steps down from him, was wearing a tee that wasn’t quite big enough, especially with his powerful shoulders bulging through the fabric. His exercise shorts looked more like boardshorts, thought they managed to surround the circumference of his muscled thigh comfortably.
Then there was one other person here as well, who Walter assumed was the other group member that Ajax had referenced earlier. She was striking, the picture of poverty. Her face was gaunt, as if she hadn’t eaten in days, and her face had a large scar running through it, her bottom lip mangled by whatever blade had cut her. She wore generic exercise clothing that he could only assume was from the wardrobe in their rooms.
She seemed… uncomfortable to him. Probably even more uncomfortable than himself.
There was no talking on the way down to the cafeteria, the flights of steps quickly becoming dizzying for Walter, but before long they managed to make their way to a large open space filled with small tables for around five people at max. Many of those tables were filled with groups already, some silent, some chatting.
Walter couldn’t count the number of groups that were in the cafeteria, but it gave an immediate larger scale to those that were actually being trained in the AASAU training facility. It was frankly sort of impressive. He hadn’t ever wondered how many Linked went through training here.
“This is the cafeteria, you will be eating here every morning, starting at latest by nine. After which we will meet with your instructor for your duration of being here. Please enjoy the food.” Tracker nodded, led them to a table that was free, with the name ‘Group 11’ on the table, and then she walked off to a table that held what Walter could only assume were other employees.
The group all sat down at the table and with a touchscreen that was supplied on the table, everyone ordered something. Walter ordered simple eggs on toast, as did Ajax. Aaliyah ordered porridge of some description, and the other girl ordered a piece of toast.
“Hey, I’m Aaliyah. Looks like we will be working in the same team now.” Aaliyah made the first step, putting out her hand to shaken. The hand was tentatively clasped and shaken so weakly that it made even Walter cringe.
“Mirah, and yes.” She said, her words stale the moment they came out of her mouth. The conversation died at that, and the table waited for the orders to be send, as per the request of the touchscreen.
It was an awkward few moments before the food was supplied by a non-Linked employee, placing it on their table without a word and bustling off to somewhere else. The group immediately began to eat, each of them famished to a certain degree. The food was amazing and all of them got exactly what they ordered, except Mirah.
Mirah had received two slices of toast with jam perfectly spread upon its surface along with what Walter assumed was tea, or maybe coffee. She looked uncomfortable as she looked at the meal in front of her, picking up a note that was laying on her tray. She looked at it for a moment, closely guarded it to her chest and folded it neatly and put it in a pocket in her shorts. Aaliyah raised an eyebrow at the odd happening but didn’t say anything.
The group quickly finished eating and then, as if by magic, Tracker appeared at their table.
“Finished eating I see?”
The group nodded their heads.
“Alright then, are we all ready to go meet your instructor?” She smiled, and the group subduedly bobbed their heads.
The group began walking again, following Tracker’s fast and particularly efficient strides. This time the group went to the elevator and waited for the elevator to entirely free up, then entering.
“Remember group, the code is ‘2128’!” Tracker quickly punched in the numbers and then held her thumb over the close door button, while a green light scanned her thumb. After a few moments the doors closed and began to travel down, and down and down. It became apparent that the elevator was, even at its previously displayed speed, going down very deep under the building.
When the elevator finally stopped and the doors opened, the group were treated to the sight of sterile and incredibly reinforced hallways. Tracker turned to the group, smiling.
“Welcome to the Underground.”