“You’re the support I’m expecting?” Lumi asked Penelope as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Support? I’m here for a debrief. Someone took my GM out for a spin before it was fully repaired.” Penny replied.

“I already don’t like this.” Lumi fingered her collar nervously before reaching out with her power. She retained the same feeling of unease but focused behind Penelope now. Penelope’s eyes widened at the sight of Lumi’s collar and she took a half step back before stopping herself.

“Don’t you dare try to mind whammy me! Mom and pops always said I was especially hard headed. I’d never bow to your strange and exotic techniques no matter how attractive you are!” Penny blurted.

“What? Oh, no I can’t do anything like that.” Lumi distractedly responded.

“Oh, if you say so…” Penny said dejectedly, not that Lumi could tell at all. She pulled her radio from her belt and flipped channels until she found the one she was looking for. “Ace, Three, any movement upstairs?” there was no response.

“Who’re you trying to reach?” Lumi asked.

“My fireteam. Maybe you should check in with your guys too?”

“Ah. I’m here early, and I don’t usually have a support team.”

“That’s no good! Pilots are the most vulnerable outside our Vain Glories.”

“I’ll be fine, I can summon mine.”

“Bzzt! No good!” Penny said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Even Jenni and Benni have squads and they paid for the big summon upgrade too. The only person here that should be exempted from that is Ice Queen’s…Daughter…” Penelope trailed off, realizing who she must be speaking to.

Oh no, She thought to herself. I’ve been flirting with the psychic boss’ psychic daughter. Can she hear me? This is mortifying, she’s so pretty, crap don’t think about how pretty she is… I can’t stop! Lalalalalalala if a sing a little song in my head then you can’t hear how pretty I think you are, Fuck. It’s true though, she’s rocking the silver pixie cut and her eyes are so blue… and that look of focus? Ohhhh, I hope you can’t hear me rambling on and on.

She was thankfully pulled from her spiral by Lumi finally moving. Unfortunately it was because Lumi had raised her gun and taken aim.

“Wait, I know I’ve been rambling in my head but isn’t that a bit mu-”

Before she could finish her sentence 3 shots rang out and Penny dove out of the way. She prepared herself to lunge at Lumi but noticed that she was still firing at the spot not where she had been standing but behind her and to her shock a figure in an active camo cloak, knife in hand revealed themselves. As they fell back Lumi lunged, gripping her knife as she dove forward it emitted a high pitch whine before sliding under the previously unseen assailant’s chin.

“Behind me!” Lumi Shouted and Penny wasted no time swinging a wild haymaker in the space behind the girl. Her gauntlets crackled with electricity and she felt something crunch before another figure crashed against the wall and flickered in and out of view.

Lumi spun towards the door and ordered Penelope down before she proceeded to empty her clip, another assailant dropping as it revealed itself. She focused her power again and received a deep feeling of tranquility.

“Well that was exciting.” Lumi said turning towards Penny.

“What the hell was that?” Penny shouted.

“Bad guys obviously.” Lumi replied.

She pulled her knife from the first attacker she dropped and wiped it off on his now opaque cloak. She hesitated only a second before pulling his balaclava off noting that there was plating sewn into the face.

“Is this one of your fireteam?” She asked Penny.

“No, we need to call this in.”

“We can’t, not yet. The one you hit is probably still alive, and I’m not wasting first aid on the one by the door but if he makes it great. That’s two people we can question. They had tasers and cuffs on them, I think they were here to snatch us rather than kill. Let’s get them secured then check to make sure your team is okay.” Lumi said, moving across the room to check the one she dropped.

“Sure...Man you’re kind of scary, its pretty hot though.” Penelope muttered.

======================

The first thought in Elijah’s head that morning was about whether or not he had missed his flight. The second was him wondering whose bed he was in. It was more firm than he preferred and much brighter than it should have been. He opened his eyes slowly to reveal a ceiling with Fissured tiles and florescent lights. The rest of the room was hidden from him by a white curtain but his mind could fill in the blanks easily enough, it wasn’t the first time he had been to the med bay after all.

He wasn’t awake long before he caught sight of a nurse approaching.

“Well hey there handsome. Shift change just went down so lemme take a quick look at your chart.”

“Feel free ma’am.”

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“Ah geez, rough time last night huh?” She said giving him a sympathetic glance.

“I’d say I’ve had worse but that’d be a lie. Tour was supposed to be done today, am I cleared for travel?”

“I don’t see why you shouldn’t be...Oh, you have an appointment scheduled with Doctor Chase before I can clear you?” She asked in confusion.

While this didn’t surprise him, the presence of his aunt seemed to throw the doctor for a loop.

“Is that normal?” He fished.

“To have a world class surgeon look you over? Not really. Doctor Chase isn’t usually out in the field, excuse me a minute I need to confirm something.”

He watched her leave, not closing the curtains. She pulled a radio from her waist and was about to speak when Elijah noticed his mother and his aunt arrive and make a beeline towards her. She snapped off a salute before a short but intense conversation broke out, the nurse occasionally glancing back at his direction. Soon whatever they had been talking about cleared up and the nurse saluted them before leaving. He waited until they were within earshot to greet them.

“So, what got her so wigged out?” He asked.

“Oh not much, I don’t tend to do house calls so cherish the opportunity.” Nadia said, smiling at him.

“I’m actually impressed at her perception. With blue ring protocol in place noticing small details like that and reporting them immediately is absolutely the right call.” Bianca chimed in. “I got to make the fun choice of is this nepotism or above her paygrade. I’m proud of you for not leveraging your name you know. Though if you did maybe this would have been a little easier.”

“So now what?” Elijah asked. What he had done last night was supposed to have been impossible and was in hindsight more than a bit stupid.

“Well first, do the thing please.” Nadia said, handing him a small black box with a blinking light.

Elijah took the familiar box in hand and flooded it with his power, rather than the usual gentle warmth he felt a burn behind his eyes.

[Hello World.]

[Bug Check.] He sent simply.

[Acknowledged. Scanning.]

[…]

[…]

[…]

[Room Clear.]

“Rooms clear.” He said, handing the box back.

“Now, I know we did a quick and dirty check last night but since we have the time let’s be a bit more thorough. Have you noticed anything different regarding your ability?” Nadia asked.

“Well, I had bit of a… Burning sensation instead of the usual feeling? I dunno, purple stuff is weird.”

“Ah, that’s just strain. You’ll be fine in a day or so if you take it easy.” Bianca said.

“What about the Vain Glory?” Nadia asked.

“What about it? S’just a big machine isn’t it?” Elijah replied.

“All this time on base and you haven’t had a reaction to one before now, what changed?” Nadia asked.

“I have no clue, me and Zaza had worked on repairing that particular unit though I had my gloves on at the time.” He said. “I really didn’t feel anything from it until I touched that freaky bit that gets jacked into the pilot’s skull.”

“I see.” Nadia said adopting a thoughtful pose. “Perhaps forging a link was necessary, or maybe it was the input?”

“Did anything seem off when you linked with it?” Bianca asked.

“Yeah actually. It was way too responsive, it almost felt...Needy?”

Nadia frowned and turned her full attention to Elijah. “Explain.”

“Well most things I uh, connect with are reactionary. They don’t do or say anything until I send an order first.”

“And the Vain Glory was different?” Bianca asked, now frowning as well.

“Yeah, it started complaining for lack of a better term. The speakers and screens were trashed and it let me know in a loop until I offered it a solution. And it…” He trailed off, thinking about how his interaction ended.”

“It what?” Nadia prodded.

“It was harder to communicate than it usually is, like we were having trouble with each others dialect. It also panicked when I was going to disconnect. I could feel a wave of anxiety trying to crush me that didn’t recede until I promised to come back. Then it answered.”

“I see.” Nadia said.

“What do you mean answered?” Bianca interjected. “I thought your ability always filtered machine interactions and programming as a talk?”

“Sort of, but it’s always acknowledgments. If I ask something not possible I’m greeted with silence more often than not. The VG gave me a clear ok.”

“That’s disturbing, was that a change in your powers or something fundamentally different with the VG?” Bianca wondered aloud.

“Let’s change tracks for a second, have you ever interacted with an AI before?” Nadia asked.

“Not that I recall, but you’ve always let me know how dangerous what I can do is. So it’s not like I test it or push the envelope usually.”

“But you thought it would be alright to pilot something for the first time in an active combat scenario? That sounds incredibly out of character for you.” Nadia said. “Did you feel a compulsion or influence or anything of the sort?”

“Not that I could tell, but that Cerberus was on me pretty fast, and I may or may not have sustained a head wound?”

“Sure but the Hydras? Benaiah’s request for reinforcements was sabotaged, you shouldn’t have even been aware of them but you took down four of them before you were found looking like a corpse in the pilot seat.” Bianca pressed.

“Honestly, having to route my power into the radio and the VG sort of drowned everything out. All I could think of was solving the next set of problems and the Hydras were flagged as problems. After I popped the Coffin the next problem was getting a medic. It’s all a jumbled mess.”

“This is not happening again without vigorous testing and medical staff on hand.” Nadia said.

“I agree, we need to get you back home. Sunny can help with the data we’re going to need to gather and Adam can help with the purple stuff until your uncle Eli can relieve me. This is too vital not to handle with our utmost attention and care.” Bianca said. “That still leaves us with an important question, is this something you even want to do? Piloting a Vain Glory?”

Elijah took his time to gather his thoughts, the rush he had felt when he engaged the Hydras was amazing. The sheer speed he could move at, the feedback that came with each strike was intoxicating but those weren’t the deciding factors for him. In the end he could really only think of how lonely the GM had felt and the quiet hope it had given off with its simple “ok”.

“Yeah, I think I’d like to try.”