The Threnosh built Danger Complex was configured into an eerily life-like replica of Ranger HQ and the surrounding area. Streets, businesses and homes.

The way the floor could move with them like a treadmill while the malleable surfaces and hardlight holograms changed was nearly imperceptible to the naked human eye.

They could walk to anywhere in the world all within a space the size of a medium-sized sports arena.

When Alin had seen the total cost he had just about passed out.

So many zeros.

It wouldn’t have been possible without the Threnosh council’s generous contribution.

Naturally, they hadn’t done it out of pure altruism.

They expected future returns on their investment in the form of aid against outworld invaders.

Rino, Kare and the others had been doing good work over there and the Threnosh wanted more.

If they wanted more then more needed to be trained.

Alin and his friends got a treat for his birthday party.

Instead of a beach day, they got to fight and train in the Danger Complex for the entire weekend.

The last weekend was a session in one of his dad’s mindscape training programs, which had been terrible.

It had seemed like all their parents had asked his dad to make it so they’d never want to fight again.

Ha!

Parents knew nothing.

The traumatic experience only made them want to get stronger on account of not wanting to go through that again, especially, in real life.

Alin took point because he had the unfair advantage of power armor.

He was armed with a recoilless rifle loaded with training ammunition designed to be tracked by the complex’s sensors in order to assign hypothetical damage.

The way the ammo exploded into bright splats of paint was his dad’s idea.

They would’ve just turned into easy to wipe flakes otherwise.

“This is so real,” Gob said.

“Cut the chatter,” Luzi said.

She was team leader for this first run and she was taking it really seriously.

They organized as the standard ranger fire team so that they could put their training of the past year into practice in an environment as close to reality as possible.

The only difference was that no one was at risk of dying.

Alin fit seamlessly into the team even though he hadn’t trained with them since last fall. And they had barely just started doing fire team stuff at the time.

Turns out his dad wasn’t above cheating what with putting him through the same kind of training.

He even had an advantage since he was training with experienced fighters in mindscapes that were indistinguishable from reality.

Recent realization of the privilege being his dad’s son had afforded him tempered his feelings of isolation and being left behind by his friends. Especially, when it seemed that he might’ve been a little ahead of them.

“Boy, those fancy scanners of yours picking up anything?”

“Nothing, sir.”

He walked down the middle of the street, while the rest of squad leap-frogged from cover to cover.

“This even feels like a real truck.” Just tapped the rusted hulk.

They covered each other as they moved up the street, using vehicles, alleys and building corners.

Their objective was simple.

Find and neutralize the enemy.

They didn’t know the type or numbers.

Luzi’s plan wasn’t complicated.

Use Alin’s superior defensive capabilities to draw said enemy out. Then everyone else would blow them away.

Unfortunately, the enemy had superior power armor and decades of experience in a training chamber just like this one and, more importantly, in real combat.

Predictive software beeped a warning, but for the purposes of training any automated countermeasures his armor could take had been disabled.

Bright pink paint splattered over his faceplate.

A flat voice spoke in his ears a moment later.

“Boom. Headshot. Simulated hypersonic armor-piercing bullet. Designation: Alin Cruces. Dead.”

His dad had programmed the virtual intelligence’s vocabulary.

“Take cover!” Luzi barked.

Alin lay down with a sigh and switched to an overhead feed from one of the drone cameras recording the action to see how the slaughter would commence this time.

“Did anyone see where that shot came from?”

The answers Luzi got were all negative.

Alin could’ve helped them with that.

The shot had come from the other end of the danger complex behind the rubble of a destroyed house.

Naturally, he was dead and guys like him told no tales.

That was a weird saying the old people had and they were way off.

The dead could tell tales thanks to spell and Skills.

They even left psychic imprints behind where they died.

His team didn’t even need to rely on more powerful or esoteric abilities.

His helmet could be networked with others like it and they could’ve viewed a first-person perspective of him getting shot in the face.

That would’ve made things easier for his team, which was why they hadn’t been allowed any mechanical communication aids for the training session.

Alin accessed the opposing force’s comms.

It’d be a wasted opportunity not to listen in on how experienced fighters conducted themselves.

“I want to engage in close quarters combat, Frequency.”

“Negative, Primal. That is not the current scenario.”

“I have no challenge.”

“This exercise is not for you. Your assigned role is clear. You will adhere to it.”

“Then why not have Kynnro fulfill it? That is their role in reality.”

“Because prior experience does not exempt us from learning and reinforcement.”

“Acknowledged.”

So, Alin mused, entrenched sniper scenario?

The briefing had been light on details.

All they got was that there was an enemy that needed killing.

It was interesting that open-ended quest parameters like that were actually more difficult than ones with specific objectives.

He had the two flipped before he had started training strategy and tactics.

Was Primal alone?

Because if he wasn’t it would complicate things further.

Luzi grimaced.

The team was split in half by the four lane street.

No cover across.

She could try covering fire, but Primal was behind rubble and in power armor that made tanks look like they were armored in foil.

Granted, the Threnosh was playing sniper and those weren’t typically known for impenetrable defense, but Luzi didn’t know that. Plus she had to account for a sniper that might’ve had good defense through spells or Skills or impenetrable skin.

There were no rules that said that someone like Hammer with her metallic skin couldn’t take up sniping.

In that case the sniper could ignore incoming fire to calmly pick off her targets as they tried to run across the open street.

Luzi seemed to come to the same conclusion.

“We’re splitting up! Advance through the neighborhood!”

Her gestures were emphatic.

They really could’ve used comms.

Shouting plans wasn’t a winning move.

“I approve of this team’s caution,” Frequency said.

“It prolongs my boredom. I preferred the previous team’s tactic,” Primal said.

“They charged blindly toward your position.”

“Yes. It was quicker.”

“But they did not give us the opportunity to utilize the drones.

Ah, the drones.

His friends hadn’t had the pleasure of going up against those disturbingly life-like things. Almost indistinguishable from the real thing, aside from hard to spot with the naked eye fuzzing around the edges, along with dead eyes and unnatural stillness when not in motion.

The team that had been on the west side of the street was all boys and down a person.

Gob, Isaak, Roe and Lee moved in pairs up the neighborhood toward the north where Primal’s shot had come from.

They stuck close to the homes on their right.

Two covered from house corners and brick walls, while the other two jumped over the low brick walls separating the properties front yards.

They moved pretty good from what Alin could tell.

The year of real ranger training hadn’t been wasted.

They hit their first obstacle a few streets up.

A barricade of twisted metal blocked their way, forcing a turn down the street to the left unless they wanted to backtrack further.

“That’s a fucking high wall,” Gob muttered. “So, ambush?”

The other three agreed.

“Classic L-shaped ambush. Shooters in those houses?” Isaak indicated the one closest to the wall on their side of the street and the one on the corner to the left of the wall.

Lee jabbed a thumb to the rear of the houses.

“Let’s hit them from there.”

“What’s the number one rule about getting ambushed?” Roe said.

“Don’t,” Lee shrugged. “But it’ll take us longer to back track and there’ll probably be setups like this all over the place. Which is why I’m saying we should do one of the other rules. Ambush them first.”

“If I suspect there’s an ambush, then I don’t want to walk right into it,” Roe said.

“What’s the big deal? It’s just practice,” Lee said.

“We’re supposed to treat it like the real thing,” Gob said.

“But it isn’t, so, I’m cool with whatever you guys want to do,” Lee said.

“I vote to attack,” Isaak said.

“Same,” Gob said.

Roe sighed.

“I guess I’m the only one then. Fine.”

“Cheer up, dude!” Lee thumped him on the back. “It’s just practice and the sooner we find out what’s so special about this place, you know? Aside from the nearly perfect recreation of the real world.” He knocked on the side of the house. “God damn! I can’t tell that this is just a hologram.”

“Can’t be worse than that mindscape training,” Gob said.

They hit the backyards, climbing over walls and trampling plants that weren’t real plants, yet looked and acted like them.

They even smelled like plants, though an expert plant person could tell that the scents were a little off.

The ambush was sudden and unexpected.

Not at their target house, but two houses from it.

Glass shattered as practice bullets erupted out of the windows.

A quick burst lasting barely two seconds and all four boys looked like clowns. Their camouflaged clothing dotted with many colors.

Gob kicked the grass in disgust.

“Everyone that had danger sense isn’t here!”

Alin was disappointed that they didn’t get the chance to see what the drones looked like.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The other half of the team was lucky or unlucky, depending on perspective, thanks to the aforementioned danger sense.

It pinged as they approached a house with its window blinds opened.

The observant among them noticed that the other houses they had passed had all their blinds closed.

Cate popped her eyes over the wall and dropped back quickly like a mole that wasn’t feeling the whacking game. She raised a clenched fist, stopping the others.

A rapid conversation in ranger hand signals commenced.

Ambush, probably?

Flashbangs, first and second window.

Luzi indicated Cate and Just.

Coming in from the backyard.

She pointed at herself, Sonia and Reena.

Follow on signal.

Cate and Just hurled flashbangs through the windows like neighborhood kids playing baseball.

The former hit the second story, while the latter, being taller slammed his down over the wall without exposing more than his hand and arm.

Luzi led Sonia and Reena over the wall on the loud explosions.

She hustled to the glass sliding door, shattering it with a burst from her recoilless rifle.

“Frag out!”

The practice grenade exploded in the kitchen.

She leaned her rifle around the corner and squeezed the trigger, spraying and suppressing.

“Go!”

Sonia and Reena swung around the corner. Trigger fingers itching something fierce.

One swept right.

The other left.

“Clear!”

“Clear!”

“Upstairs?” Luzi followed them in as they all took cover behind the wall dividing the kitchen area from the front living room and stairs.

That was when the couch exploded.

Perhaps it wasn’t realistic to have a drone masquerading as a generic Earthian soldier hiding inside the couch.

To their credit the trio reacted quickly, spraying the drone with practice bullets, causing its holographic disguise to fuzz as the projectiles struck its metal body.

Unfortunately, the drone had been quicker.

All three took hits.

Paint splattered their chest armor.

Dead, dead and dead… according to the V.I.’s voice in their helmets.

Cate and Just came in through the side window.

They hadn’t seen the Trojan couch tactic, so they were unprepared for the front living room’s furniture to explode.

Drone soldiers wasted them before either squeezed a shot off.

Dead and dead.

Just like that, the practice session was over.

A total party kill.

Alin shook his head.

It was a bit unfair that they weren’t allowed to use magic and active Skills since his friends had trained with using those things.

He supposed having to practice in the old ways was good for building fundamentals.

In any case it was a rough first practice against the Threnosh and they hadn’t even seen their target. It was like dying to the first set of mobs in one of the mall encounter challenges. Hardly anyone ever did that since the council had mandated minimum competency requirements. Tests had to be passed for permission to be granted.

He stood up and headed back to the exit highlighted by the helpful glowing arrows projected in front of him.

Suburban Southern California melted away as holograms shut down and silvery panels ranging in size from small to huge disappeared into the floors and walls, leaving the place looking like a featureless maze.

He saw his paint-splattered friends trudging to the exit, while at the other end of the massive chamber Primal’s massive power armor stood like a silent sentinel.

It seemed that everyone was leaving the session disappointed.

----------------------------------------

Nicholas List.

Code-named Death’s Dancer.

Loyal American soldier.

The elite of the elite.

He, in his own estimation, had accomplished jack shit over the last half year.

His Quest had been broad in scope.

Infiltrate Southern California and gather information.

Steal secrets, find leverage.

Rayna’s Rangers and the local government were his top two targets.

It shouldn’t have been that difficult with his invisibility power.

Sure, there were countermeasures, but he had tested himself against the best detection methods his side had and found that he could easily beat the below average to above average quality, while the top tier ones was anyone’s game.

He had proved himself right when no one had detected him prowling around their offices and listening in on conversations.

The problem was that he got nothing that his superiors would consider actionable intel.

For some reason whenever he spied on the mayor in her office or at her home the conversations were always about stupid, pointless crap like her kids and pets or the new recipe her husband came up with.

Yeah, the birria tacos sounded awesome, but command wouldn’t exactly give a shit about that, would they?

The rangers were worse.

Towards the end of it he was starting to think that they knew he was listening in going by the inanity of their conversations and the pointed insults toward his— their rightful government.

The ranger commander was a foul-mouthed bitch and he was impressed. Had they been on the same side then he easily could’ve seen himself taking orders from such a hardass ball-buster. Her being in charge explained why the rangers were so good.

Even if it was kind of stupid that they called themselves ‘rangers’.

From what he had observed only a small number of them actually qualified under the true standards of the title.

And as for the eponymous Rayna?

Nothing.

He hadn’t seen or heard anything about her.

It was like she didn’t even exist.

Maybe it was the lack of intel, maybe he was getting bored. He was definitely feeling useless.

Six months away from his brothers and sisters with no contact ate away at him.

The thought that they had to fight while he got to walk around and eat the best foods while spying on people was a knife to the gut.

All that made him careless.

He went north.

Just up the freeway.

About thirty miles.

Took him an hour.

Could’ve done it in less then half the time, but he slowed down and didn’t super jump it.

Had to be careful about being detected.

So he ran alongside the freeway, hopping fences and houses when needed, while sticking to their shadows.

The casino and hotel was a lot busier than he had expected.

It had almost been completely off their radar.

The file had said it showed minor signs of habitation, attributing it to a satellite camp for access into Los Angeles.

What he saw didn’t match that.

Minor signs?

Fuck that!

It was busy as shit!

And there was this futuristic-looking building, like a cube-dome thing, all shining in the sun.

People everywhere.

Futuristic-looking fences and guard towers surrounded the entire place.

Strangely, it seemed that not all the towers where manned. It skipped one or even two towers.

He saw a few of the same golem things they had down south.

They couldn’t pierce his invisibility either as he strolled right into the main building.

Nicholas List, Death’s Dancer, elite lieutenant in America’s combined armed forces woke up in a soft bed.

The same way he had over the last week.

Once again he had to pinch himself.

Once again what was a dream had felt real, while what was real felt like a dream.

He was a prisoner, but one that could wander around on his own with only his word that he wouldn’t leave or try to spy as the invisible bonds around his wrists.

And that was the strangest thing of all.

He had given his word and had no intention of breaking it.

Despite the fact that his orders should’ve been all he needed to smile, shake that man’s hand, then stab him in the throat.

He was a soldier and the highest honor was to do everything for his country.

In this case that was eating six gourmet meals a day, one or two of which was an all you can eat binge at the buffet. Interspersed between that was playing a few card games and slot machines. He got bored of that quickly because he wasn’t willing to wager Universal Points with the handful of gamblers and card sharks trying to gain levels. Nope, all he was willing to waste were the colorful plastic coin-like things available for free.

Today was a bit different because he got a lunch invitation to meet with the guy in charge of it all up in the boardroom.

Well… not so different after all.

The large wooden table was filled with cartons of food.

Lunch was sushi.

That was another new thing.

Sure, he had tried them over the years whenever a quest took him to places that had sushi-type restaurants nearby, but the variety and quality provided by Skill-backed chefs was noticeably superior to the random strip mall restaurant food that they had to prepare themselves.

His mouth watered as he stood at attention.

“Sit anywhere, feel free to eat. We’re busy people, so I figured a working lunch was best,” Cal Cruces said.

Black-haired, brown-skinned. Built, but short. A total manlet.

He couldn’t grasp the man’s features and even the sound of his voice. They always slipped from his memories like sand on the shore.

Name. Rank. Serial number, he thought. I’ll say that and just stand here. He can’t make me do anything else. If he threatens then that’ll finally give me the right to attack and make a break for it.

Instead, he grabbed a plate and started piling it up.

Sushi had good protein, carbs and veg.

Pretty much everything he needed.

Seems dumb not to eat on his points. Plus, he might slip up and feed me intel. Just need to keep my words to a minimum. That way I’ll minimize my chances of slipping up myself, he thought.

“So, I heard you’ve been enjoying the amenities. I know that the gym isn’t quite up to the standards of someone with your kind of strength.”

“I’m a prisoner. Weirdly free to move around a lot, but still prisoner. So, I figure I don’t have much to complain about. I’m willing to pay for what I’ve eaten. As long as it’s fair. Not paying for the room or the other stuff cause… prisoner.”

“Nah, it’s all comped. That’s what they used to call it. Free rooms, food, booze other stuff, like escorts for the whales. That’s what they called the guys that dropped a ton of money gambling. Bit before your time, right?”

“Wasn’t really free then? But, what do I know? Didn’t have casinos in the bunkers. Waste of space and time. Still don’t have them. More important things to put effort into. Like rebuilding our nation. You remember that?”

“Yes. The rebuilding is an ongoing process. Like you’ve seen during your many months down south. Objectively speaking… how do you think they’re doing? Better, worse, the same? When compared to your government’s efforts? I’d say it’s an obvious ‘better’.”

He snapped his mouth shut.

Obvious bait was obvious.

“I will give you guys the edge on giving young people animal powers. We’ve got zero of that. You guys are up to the hundreds by now. Maybe sinking into the four digits. And all it cost was the lives of nine out of ten young men and women. Oh… wait… you’ve been lurking around here for the last six months. Deep cover like that probably means you haven’t been getting information from your government. It’s not just young men and women anymore. That eidolon is dipping into your teenagers. Still mostly taking from the ‘colored’ ones, though. I blame that on your racist leaders. Bunch of old white men clinging to their pre-spires mindsets. Honestly, I’d rather you put your captain in charge. She’s a generally decent person… aside from the cowardice—”

“Watch it,” he warned.

“Hey, I just call it like I see it. Did you guys even look into the eidolon’s experiments? You could’ve sneaked in there any time with your invisibility power. See the atrocities for yourself. But, I guess that’s the last thing you’d want. Kind of hard to stick to the whole ‘I’m just following orders’ line when the kids that you should be bleeding for get treated worse than cattle all for the ten percent chance at animal powers.”

“If you know all of this then why aren’t you doing anything about it?”

“C’mon, dude, don’t be naive about this. You know exactly what would happen if I took direct action. Do you really want open war with me?”

He suddenly remembered something as if a locked memory had suddenly been freed.

“Why not? What’s the difference for you on this versus Florida? You just straight up attacked them.”

“Terminus World. I can ignore you guys while I deal with global issues. And naivety on my part. I’d rather the good people amongst you do the right thing and deal with your own evils. That isn’t to say that I’ll wait forever or even six months. That’s the thing. You’re running out of time. You remember the slavers? Now, picture yourselves in their place. There is no amount of animal-powered young people that’ll save you from us. Nukes? Gone. Sure, you’re thinking that you just need to take a facility from us to start pumping them out… well, how’d that turn out the last time you tried? The eidolons you’ve sold your kids to? We’ve dealt with several eidolon teams around the world. The only reason yours are alive is because we made a deal.”

“What?”

“Oh… you didn’t know? Why do you think they pulled back when you guys were just about to start using violence to force settlements back into your arms? Rightful Destiny? Weird how you guys always use grandiose terms to obfuscate the fact that you’re going to kill innocent people to take their stuff.”

“That’s not how it is at all.”

“How old are you?”

“Old enough.”

“Twenty-eight. That means you were a baby when the spires appeared. What were your parents? Military? Political types? Or just ultra wealthy? Had to be one or more to get a spot in the bunkers. So, you probably grew up pretty privileged. Am I right? Got the first shot at food, supplies. Didn’t have to worry about all the things that came with power imbalances in a closed society. Then you got powers sometime around puberty. That had to propel you into the upper echelons of privilege—”

“Shut up! You don’t me or my history.”

“Fair enough. I was just trying to point out that you’ve got a responsibility. You were given a gift. The ability to single-handedly effect change for the betterment of everyone. Not just an elite few clinging to the scraps of their power when they should just do us all the favor of dying and jumping straight into the compost toilet of history. Should be trying to make a better world rather than returning to the old and crappy.”

“Sounds like you can just do what you want. So, why not? Cowardice?”

“From some perspectives, yeah. I don’t want to kill more people than I have to. I don’t want to kill at all. You, for example, if I was to make war on your side then you’d follow your orders straight to a grave at my hands.”

“Can’t know how a fight’ll turn out until it starts.”

“C’mon, we both know that you aren’t the delusional type. You know that your fight at the nuke facility was a stomp. You, your captain, your elites… are only alive because the relentless one left you that way. You guys don’t have a global reach anymore. Your intel’s incomplete at best. I’d rate your most powerful individuals as middling at best.”

“What do you want from me, bro?”

“For you to make the right choices in life of your own free will. Six months is a long time to be away from home. I’m letting you go provided you head straight back like a homing pigeon. You probably don’t know what that is.”

“I can figure out the context!” he snapped.

“Well, do that, head straight home to your masters and speak to your captain. First thing. I’ve already sent her some intel. She’s probably going to want to verify it for herself and to do that she’ll need her best infiltrator. So, here’s the thing. That eidolon’s been pushing to escalate his abomination program. Things might be hitting the fan soon-ish and they’re getting nervous. I’m concerned that our agreement may not be long for this world. It’s almost like a game of chicken. They’re considering baiting me into action first by giving the eidolon what he wants?”

“To be clear, you’re talking about the animal enhancement program?”

“Jesus! Give it a clinical name and you can disassociate yourself from the abominable nature of it. Nine out of ten dies or suffers a fate worse than death and that just flies over your head. That’s why I want you to see it for yourself. If you can still cling to orders after seeing that then I will know what sort of person you truly are.”

“To be clear, you’d kill me if that’s how it turned out?”

“I think you know the answer to that.”

“Then you’d better put me in the ground quick, cause otherwise you’ll never see me coming until I plant one of my spears in your throat.”

“Okay, so, your eidolon friends are pushing to go younger. You see, it’s cause the younger the subject the higher the chances of success and the more potent the power.”

“So, that’s good then. Less deaths.”

“Yeah, sure, if you’re cool with children being experimented on. You’ve got a few young cousins, right?”

How does he know? Calm. Breathe. Don’t react, he thought.

“Well, I guess maybe their privilege will keep them safe for awhile. At the least your leaders won’t want to mess with the chance to train them up just like you. Assuming they have your powers or something similar. But, that’s not the end goal. The eidolon wants to work on fetuses. Practically guaranteed success with the greatest amount of power. All for the cheap cost of the mother’s life. Would your leaders go for that? If it meant soldiers near your level?”

No question about it, but he kept his mouth shut.

“Listen to me. You’re getting close to my line. I’m stopping the eidolon before he starts work on his next batch. If that means war, then its war. It’ll be short and quick. I won’t spare your leaders. They have no privilege with me. Time spent dealing with your problem is time spent away from dealing with other problems. That could mean invaders gaining a foothold or some kind of eldritch monstrosity being enabled to wreak havoc. I’ve made this clear to your captain. Who knows… she’s got a conscience and she’s got an analytical mind. Wouldn’t you rather be by her side?”

“Yes.”

“I’m counting on you guys doing the right thing.” Cal Cruces smiled.

The window opened.

Wind swirled powerfully this high up, pushing the cartons on the table.

“Since you’re running out of time I’m going to speed you on your way.”

Nicholas suddenly found himself flying out the window and into the sky with the ocean to his back.

He covered his face as a loud boom deafened him for a moment.

The landing sucked because he ate dirt.

Didn’t hurt much.

Once one got to certain level of superior durability they could fall from any height without getting hurt thanks to the whole terminal velocity thing.

He choked and spat.

Something wiggled in his right nostril.

He tugged the poor worm out and tossed it.

East.

He headed east eating up ground with each great leap.

Once night fell he’d be able to navigate by the stars.

Orders were orders.

He’d do his duty.

Captain Patriot.

The chain of command all the way up to the president.

He knew which orders he’d always follow.