Squad VII was escorted to the military educational tower, the default processing for military enrolled students and anything games related. It was odd to file one behind the other, marching their way up the stairs from the main floor to the nearest accessible elevator, where they separated into two groups.

“Ladies first,” one of the security officers stated with a wave of her hand. She was heavy set, middle aged, with flex of grey hair. She walked with an odd gait. Hope rushed in, taking her position at the back of the elevator and stood at attention, an action she was trained to do. Regina shuffled in, sulking, she couldn’t be bothered to pretend her military training had any significance to her future. Esmey and Elle’s fingers broke from another. Seth watched half of his team disappear behind sliding doors. No one dared to look him in the eye.

The squad would do fine without Esmey. She was a great fighter, resourceful and imaginative, the kind of fighter he imagined Astral would approve of. But the Hunter hadn’t taken an interest in Esmey who had taken the time to teach their newest member how to grapple, how to escape holds, and how to use her small frame to her advantage. He wondered how effective Esmey’s fighting style was against husks. They were the grabby sort.

Astral had taken an interest in Elle, who tried to share the art of focusing to the detriment of all else. Who tried to impart the importance of a clear mind and a heightened awareness of her surroundings. Conflicting advice to be sure, but it must have made some sort of sense to someone like Astral.

Regina had taken the wise older sister approach with Astral, trying to educate her on things all women should know. The Hunter would offer a curt smile and wander off mid-sentence toward the nearest loud noise which was often Hope who was messing about with an old piece of tech as Smith and Gerald supervised. The secrets of womanhood would have to wait.

“Gentlemen,” their officer gestured to the second elevator. Seth was the last to enter and like the rest of the men in his squad, stood at attention, hands behind his back, his gaze set straight ahead. Erick must have been brought in ahead of the girls to avoid further confrontation.

They followed their officer through the security ward’s open area, to the back of the room, down the corridor just left of the decorative map that indicated that most of the students were all safe inside their assigned residential areas save for the handful of red dots who where not at their assigned areas. Blue dots indicated the retrieval teams sent to collect the rogue rule breakers. Behind the wall holding the map, they entered a second elevator that brought them to the holding area.

Seth stepped through the yellow veil of the security shield, making the hairs on his arm stand on end. His body tingled. A chime rang above him, as it had done for every member of his squad. There would be no escaping tonight.

“The whole damn team,” the officer informed the guard who would act as their babysitter for the evening. The officer pressed his thumb to the security console, handing off the responsibility of his collection to the guard, who pulled the console toward him to review. “Juicers!” His lower lip disappeared as he shook his head.

“Dun’t know, dun’t care. Your problem now, Al. Night.” The officer waved and was out the door, leaving the night guard shouting after him. “Get them to bring me a coffee, will ya!” With a grumble to himself he added, “they always forget about us in here.” He took a moment to review the documents, leaving the squad to linger in mercy of their imaginations.

“Right, curfew is an easy one. You boys will be spending the night over here.” He shambled down a corridor lined with small cells, each holding two beds one on top of the other. “You have access to educational feeds for studies and homework and whatnot, but you won’t have access to socials. No calls. No IMs. You’ve got…” he glanced to his device, “about six hours until lights out. Good time to get ahead of things. Wouldn’t be the first time people have missed curfew for a little quiet time. In you go. You and you,” he gestured to Gemma and Rogers, then to Smiths and Gerald. If Erick came back Seth would have to spend it with Erick. The knot in his stomach got a little tighter.

“First part done. This juicing business,” the guard stared at his device as though willing it to change. “Well good news is it’s only a squad flag. Which of you belong to Squad VII?” It wasn’t like he could say, if you quit we won’t test you. Everyone raised their hands. “None of you are juicers right? Cause we’re running tests on everyone who belongs to Squad VII. If you are, your team will be removed from the competition this year. Juicers will be benched for the season, plus rehab, and community duties.”

“Where’s Erick?” Seth noted a hesitation in Smith’s voice. He wasn’t comfortable thinking for himself.

“Erick?” The guard reviewed his entries and nodded. “In the back. Footage is being reviewed for some serious allegations. I’m sure it’s all fine.” The guard smiled. He struck Seth as the sort of guy who had spent the better part of his career in a job where nothing happened. Or maybe there was something more to his jovial approach. Was it possible that he was a fan of the squad? Did he believe that they were in holding by accident. Was his flag anonymous?

“Doc will be along shortly to sort out those tests. Oh, in case you’re wondering, the girls are just on the other side there,” he gestured with his head. “We don’t hold with co-opping this sort of thing.” The second set of shields flashed on. “Bathroom is down the hall to the left. It ain’t the private sort of peeing, just so you know. Buzz to ask for a pee. Pretty basic.”

He shambled down the hall muttering to himself.

Minutes ticked by. Seth relished the stunned silence. The peace it brought was some of the first quiet moments he had had since Astral and he had fought that evolved husk… what had she called it? A construct. Not yet a demon, it’s form was a symptom of function, but not yet finalized. It became a demon only after it fed. Not all demons were huge, but size made an impression, which spiked the adrenaline levels in their prey, marinating their meat. Not all demons were ugly. Succubus were among the most beautiful of the demons. Not all demons had a physical manifestation. Which was the case with this demon. It was everywhere, staining the walls, and influencing the people. It was the glitch in the system, the odd delays, the elevator dropping a student off at the wrong floor. But even this demon had to fall in line with a particular feeding habit, a preference for one flavour over all others.

Hunting was complicated.

Seth sat. The bed roll did little to soften the metal shelf that was going to be his bed for the night.

There was nothing he could do about Astral. Unless he could get the people who voted against removed from the team. The problem was he had no idea who voted for Astral’s removal. He had no way to validate his assumptions, since all votes are kept private. Erick had removed himself from play just by virtue of reacting so violently. He doubted Erick would be expelled, but Seth would have plenty of reason to have him removed from the team. Three severe strikes in just one meeting. Erick shouldn’t be much of a problem from now on. Regina was gone; he was confident she voted against Astral. The problem was he had no idea how many of his team members had chosen to save their own skin. Missing even one vote against made the effort futile. She’d have to find another way.

“Happy now?” Smith grumbled.

“I’ll be happy when the juicers are off my team,” Seth said.

“You really think Erick’s gonna quit for the good of the team?” Seth could picture Gemma’s scowl.

“You’re right. I’ve just cost us this years’ game.” A weight lift from his shoulders. She was right, the games were a waste of time. He was spending too much time with social politics instead of throwing himself into his training. What was he going to do, negotiate with the demons? If humanity couldn’t pull together in front of a real threat, then maybe it was time humanity stepped aside. These self-serving rituals were getting them no where. He felt a twinge of guilt for not feeling bad for his part in this disaster. “It’s stupid to think that Erick would have done what was right for the team. If he can’t have what he wants, he’ll take us all down with him. I counted too much on him being a decent guy.”

A bitter snort escaped from one of the inmates. “Isn’t that what you did? Didn’t want to get rid of the Enhanced, so now you’re punishing us for it. Erick said you would.” Gerald had followed Esmey onto the team, a young man who was convinced he was in love. He fell in love with Elle a year later. As captain, he had been concerned about the dynamics of the trio, but nothing ever came of it. Seth had counted his blessings and had moved onto more important things. He had to be angry about Esmey. “I wish she had said something," Seth said. "I don’t have all of the answers, but I was afraid too. I was looking for answers.”

“She found hers.” Gemma said. “You don’t need to feel guilty about what people do to themselves.”

“Erick was there, when he was busy chasing tail.” Gerald spat at Gemma. “Erick’s right about Seth. You just haven’t figured it out yet. I don’t know what he has on you, but you don’t owe him anything.”

Gerald was right. He had been neglecting the team. He should have stepped down. He thought he could have his victory. He believed he could use the games to train for the war. He didn’t expect that Astral was going to be resistant to sharing what she knew. Revealing what she knew made her a target, subject to exile if discovered. Someone like Erick would use that against her. It was too dangerous to share what she knew.

He couldn’t play in the next game, what would it matter if he stepped down.

A group of people lingered in the cell entry, chatting with the guard. “Yeah, sure, he’s over here.” The guard was already halfway up the aisle when he addressed the officers. Swathed in white and blacks, the E.M.I. scowled at Seth as they stood in front of his cell. They wore their scars with pride. The woman, a blond with a half shaved scalp had Enhanced scarring that wove its way down her face and down past the collar of her jacket in perfect parallel formations.

“Agent Wright what are you doing behind bars?” Her voice was softer than he had imagined, and should have been impossible to have carried such an annoyed tone.

“Excuse me?” Agent?

“You were scheduled to report in for duty as of curfew. Did you not receive the notice of your job change?”

“No, mam. I’ve been detained since… since the incident with Daamon.”

She frowned at him before nodding to the guard to deactivate the shield. “I’m Agent Avery White. Your keeper. Welcome to the E.M.I. We’ll get the details sorted later. Your training starts now.”