“Alright everyone, come over here and we can go through what just happened,” Nudge’s voice sounded from behind him. Liam almost kept going, the exit was so close. Yet the knowledge he’d have to work with this man held him back. He wanted to be a Hero. And to do that, he had to stay with Nudge. If that meant an awkward meeting with the other two, so be it.

Turning, Liam found the man in the same sleek black capture suit he’d been wearing when he exited the pod. The suit’s multiple electrical contact points enabled the wearer’s nervous system to operate their avatar in the simulation. It all helped to enhance the experience as there was no controller to command your avatar. All the commands came from your mind, the interface took those and melded them to the machine.

Unlike Liam, Nudge was also wearing his mask. Something Liam was forgoing more often than not these days.

A moment after Nudge’s order, Wire and Tank pushed back the cloth walls of their own rooms and joined the group. They were each dressed like Nudge. Masks covering their faces. Liam shifted his gaze from both of the new arrivals. Not wanting to see the ridicule he knew was hiding just behind the cloth masks.

As a group they traveled down the cloth walled hallway, Liam taking his place in the rear. There were another six unused pods in the place, making it an amazing training facility. Almost any team could fit their entire group into the pods to practice together.

Liam wondered why the Academy didn’t use similar tech. He doubted the government would pay for top notch pods, but there had to be some knock off version out there. The likely reason for their reluctance to use the devices was something macabre. Like wanting the trainees to feel the pain of their mistakes. Breaking your arm was always an excellent motivator not to do something again, yet it didn’t carry the same weight in the simulation.

When the group exited the hallway they came to a large room with rows of couches all facing a large black screen. If there’d been a popcorn machine nearby, the room would’ve looked like a movie theater, only a slimmed-down version. Well, it might be closer to those home movie theaters people with too much money built and never used. While Liam knew he’d never have a room like this, he had to admit they were an obvious status symbol.

As a kid, Liam always wanted something like this. Some place to bring his friends and brag about. A place they could escape to watch a movie where the adults wouldn’t be hovering over them.

Falling into a couch, Liam realized just how much the desire for a place like this had grown. Not as much for the screen. He wouldn’t get much use out of that. But for the comfort he could find in the secluded dark space. It’d be a blast to stretch out and have friends there with him. Liam frowned, not that he had many of those these days.

“Should we start by watching the video, or would you all like to say your initial impressions?” Nudge asked the group at large.

There was a muttering from the rest of the people showing they’d leave it up to Nudge to decide. Liam himself remained quiet.

“Good, now how do you turn this thing on?” Nudge wondered to himself. Then asked aloud, “Video on?”

The screen in front of them flashed to life. ‘The Watch, Training Site 2’ blazed in the center.

“Perfect, now then. Video on,” Nudge said again before cocking his head as nothing on the screen changed.

“Video on,” the man tried a third time, his voice growing firm.

Nudge was growing visibly upset by the TV’s refusal to change. The man crossed his arms over his chest as he stared daggers at the screen.

“V-I-D-E-O O-N,” Nudge tried again and, to no one except the man’s surprise, the screen remained the same. A dull black rectangle with the same logo in the center.

Caught in a dilemma, Liam debated if he should help and turn on the video, speeding up his shame, or sit here and wait for it to eventually come around. At the rate Nudge was getting the system setup it would take hours before everything was up and running. There was a moment where Liam was fine with that. It put someone else’s problems at the center of attention and not his own, yet that feeling faded. In the end, it was Liam’s impatience that won out.

“Play video,” Liam said. Using the command he’d have set up if he created the system. The two words were all that was needed for the video to start.

“Ah perfect, thanks,” Nudge said as he nodded at Liam. There wasn’t even a hint of shame at his inability to work the display in the man’s eyes.

The screen was an aerial view and showed the group of Heroes sneaking into a building. If Liam didn’t know it was from the simulation earlier, he’d be hard pressed to prove this wasn’t a video of something he’d actually done. The hints were there, in some of the shading and strange buffering of objects farther away, but they were minor issues when looking at the video as a whole.

“As you can see, we made entry fine,” Nudge narrated along with action on the screen. Slipping through an unlocked window. It’d been a tight squeeze for Tank, yet she’d made it through with the rest of them.

It wasn’t until they made it inside that the tells this was a program became obvious. The biggest was the camera, which was at an angle above the roof. Yet as the party moved into the building, the roof disappeared, allowing those watching a clean line of sight at what was going on inside.

The group moved quietly after they were all through the window. Going down hallways and rooms with little more than a whisper. They didn’t find a single hurdle through the first half of the search. At the time, the suspense had been building in Liam. He’d been ready to go, and not seeing anyone only spurred the feeling on. Now, watching it happen again, a fresh feeling boiled up inside of him. Not for the first time, he debated if he’d be able to escape the screening. He was left caught up in his own internal struggles when the group on the screen reached a large room near the middle of the building. It was too late to get away now, this was where things went sideways.

When they reached the center of the large room, Cowls poured in from all sides, surrounding the Heroes. Dozens of people rushed to attack from all angles. After that, it didn’t take long for their little group to lose cohesion. Cowls slipped between Liam and Wire and forced them into their own fights.

After that, it was only a matter of time until each Hero was overwhelmed. Wire was the first to fall. Liam followed only moments later.

When Liam flew by Wire, the people he’d been fighting switched their focus to her. The influx of new opponents took her by surprise and threw off her choreographed dance. It wasn’t long before attacks started to land. Which broke Wire out of her defense and allowed the Cowls to overwhelm her.

Even after seeing her go down, it’d been interesting to watch her fight. Something he could do much easier now that he didn’t have attacks flying towards his face. Wire used several drones flying around her. Each had their own functions from stunning an enemy to causing a distraction. It was an interesting form of combat. More about Wire herself avoiding attacks than her dealing it out.

After Wire, it was Liam’s turn to fall. He avoided watching. To upset at his own shortcoming in the fight to be forced to watch it again.

Once he was taken care of, Liam turned back to the display. The lumbering form of a giant metallic Cowl was crawling over Liam’s prone body. It’s claws coated in blood. It was a scene from a nightmare and something Liam would be all too happy to forget. Maybe he’d turned back a second too soon.

While he and Wire had been by themselves, fighting desperate battles against overwhelming odds. Tank and Nudge had stayed together. Each playing off the other’s abilities.

Their fight was much more interesting than the previous two. With each wave of enemies, Tank would jump into their path. Allowing Nudge to take apart their opponents with his vines from the cover she provided.

The two held on for a while as the waves of enemies came quicker and quicker until it was a flood. Only when their opponent’s numbers covered the two Heroes did the fight end. The press of bodies was too much for even those two to stop.

With the video coming to an end, Nudge turned to the group.

“Who would like to explain what went wrong?” he asked like a teacher standing at the podium.

“We lost cohesion as a team,” Tank said. Her voice displayed her boredom with the exercise.

Liam wouldn’t call them a team, but the woman had a point. If they’d worked together, it wasn’t a sure thing they’d have been able to hold out. But even if it wasn’t guaranteed, they’d have done better than their pitiful performance.

“That is true. We came in as a unit, but dispersed at the first issue,” Nudge agreed.

The screen corroborated what Nudge said. When the enemies swarmed towards them, Wire dashed at the biggest. Three drones swarming off her back. Liam had the sinking suspicion she was trying to take out the leader and prove herself. With the results they’d achieved, the act garnered the opposite result.

Liam would like to say his performance was better, but he’d let a Cowl get between him and Tank. After that it was just a matter of time before he was pushed to the side by more opponents until he was in an isolated engagement.

“Once they separated us, it was a matter of picking us off. When we are out there for real, this won’t fly,” Nudge said as he turned from the screen to look at all of them.

“If we are together,” Tank shot back.

“Let’s be honest with each other. You wouldn’t have gone through all that training if you didn’t want in.”

Tank was quiet for a second before she relaxed into the couch and said, “Just tell us what we’re after.”

“First, I need to make sure everyone agrees to join the team.”

“Yes!” Wire exclaimed. The prospect of joining the team brought her out of the stupor she’d been in since the meeting started. She was likely worried she wouldn’t make the cut after her performance in the simulation. With that no longer a concern, she was full of excitement.

“What about you, Source?”

The group turned towards him. Under the pressure of their gazes, Liam found it hard to decide what to do. He wanted it to just be the two of them, yet he’d known this would happen. Deep down, he knew it wouldn’t just be a group of two he’d be signing on with. And because of that, he’d already known what his answer would be.

“I’m in,” Liam said.

He’d work with this group, but that didn’t mean he’d trust them.

“I’m glad that’s settled,” Nudge said. “I’ll get the contracts written up and sent out to everyone tonight.”

“Really, we have to sign contracts. I thought you were joking about that,” Tank said with a sigh.

“I don’t think they are necessary, but The Watch is adamant about these things. I find it’s easiest to just do it right the first time rather than deal with their nagging afterwards.”

“Fine, I’ll sign it,” Tank said.

“What about the rest of you?”

Liam and Wire nodded their heads.

“Great, now has everyone heard about the ghost cruise ships?” Nudge continued as if the brief exchange about contracts hadn’t even happened.

Liam thought about it and remembered seeing a few news reports. Being in Iowa, a thousand miles from the Gulf of Mexico, they didn’t hear that much about what happened on the sea. Yet Liam still remembered it being mentioned on the news. One reporter had even compared him to whoever was abducting people on the ships.

“People are still going on cruise ships after the first few incidents?” Wire asked. “I thought the government would shut them down.”

“This is the US. People went on the cruise ships in the middle of a pandemic. Do you think a string of passenger abductions will stop them?”

“Do you have any idea who’s doing it?” Liam asked. He already knew enough about the public to not question when they put themselves in danger. He was more interested in the details of what they’d be doing. From the reports he remembered no one had any idea what was going on out there or who was behind it. And the ships being in international waters and not always originating from the US, meant no American Hero team was taking the lead in hunting down the culprit.

“Thats the real question. And the reason we’re all here,” Nudge said. Building up Liam’s anticipation.

“Enough with the suspense. Do you know who’s doing it?” Tank asked. Not willing to play the man’s games.

“Bank-Breaker,” Nudge said. Looking each of them in the eyes.

The room stilled. Everyone held their breath as the news settled in. The news no one could believe was true.