The only people who were expected to interact with Visette for the next few years would be Lyn and Dr. Eliza who constantly advised Commander Wakefield to expand Visette’s social interaction only to be met with repeated refusals.

Dr. Eliza would come to the secured warehouse twice a month to examine Visette and expand her psychological profile, but she failed to gain any new insights into the mind of the young girl. There was a significant lack of progress on that front, but for Lyn, Visette seemed to improve at an incomprehensible rate each day. The word talent couldn’t describe her learning ability as she soaked up everything she learned like a fish in water.

Though just being skillful at something didn’t make her an instant master and there was a need to expand her awareness and reactions to certain situations. So, sometimes she had to fight in small wooden rooms to simulate close combat or shoot targets with only a few bullets to spare. It was Lyn’s way of trying to get Visette able to respond to factors out of her control. None of the scenarios Lyn concocted would be that dangerous for Visette since she had her psionics to rely on. And since the limit and strength of Visette’s psionic energy use was constantly expanding, her immediate worries decreased.

…

112 days had passed with Visette showing little reaction to anything other than training. The words she shared with Lyn were usually short but for some reason, after exactly 112 days had passed, she asked a question that was unrelated to a previous topic of conversation.

“Could you explain the nature of a joke? I seek to construct one but I still am unable to.” Visette suddenly asked as the usual training wrapped up.

“...A joke? You want to make a joke?” Lyn thought she misheard so she had to repeat it just to make sure.

“Yes.” Visette nodded seriously, “I would like insight as to how to construct a humorous anecdote.”

To Vis’ surprise and confusion, Lyn burst with laughter in front of her.

“What? You’re serious? Visette you- I don’t even know where to start...” Lyn’s laughter slowly faded out as she regained her calm but a smile was stuck on her face.

“If you found my words humorous, does that mean it was a joke?” Visette was clearly bewildered and the billions of dollars that went into making her didn’t assist in solving her current conundrum.

“No, Visette, a joke is like…” Lyn thought of how best to put it. “It’s like telling a story or making a statement that isn’t necessarily true.”

Visette’s eyes slightly widened as she seemed to realize something. “I think I understand.”

She stood there silently, her look of deep concentration was incredibly funny to Lyn who struggled to hold her laughter back.

'To think that a person who was so skilled at killing would be so naive.' Lyn thought.

“I have thought of a joke...I will now tell you a joke.” Visette’s monotone voice and still expression showed anything but humor but Lyn indulged her.

“Go for it,” Lyn said expectantly, the smile on her face growing even more.

“Your jacket is not fully fastened.”

Lyn looked down at her leather jacket which was zipped up and then back to Visette. Her lips trembled slightly and then her expression fell apart as she began laughing, less at the joke and more at Visette.

“...You need to work on it a bit more, but yeah, I guess you could call that a joke.” Lyn shook her head.

“Noted. I make a better attempt on the next occassion.” Visette thought social interaction was of a high importance as it was described in the book so she put a high priority on decrypting the methods behind it.

Lyn departed soon after and Visette went to read more of her books. A simple geographical map of the continent, Sulvar, was produced. Named after a now long dead King who was said to almost have half the continent in his control in spite of Corrupted attacks. The continent of Sulvar was similar to Earth’s Europe in size, but there were various “Deadlands” places where humanity no longer had a stake and was very likely to be overflowing with Corrupted.

Those places were all but stripped of living things and once it became totally barren the Corrupted would leave in search of more food or enter a period of hibernation. This created a cycle where animals would flee to the zone free from Corrupted allowing the food source to replenish somewhat. Once one end of the continent was deprived of a food source they’d come back.

Still, humanity managed to survive and there were dozens of cities, some big enough to be called small countries, located all over. The distance between each city usually brought on a long journey so for the most part, they stayed to themselves. Although some cities were hostile or maintained a trade alliance.

Originally, New Mayhall, Copperhaven, and Roslin were three major cities in the mid-western area of Sulvar. They agreed to a non-aggression pact together, one which didn’t include the now, fourth major city, Freedom City. It was seen as a sanctuary for Abnormals, and due to the lack of Corrupted activity, its population increased as people made the journey to it. That wasn’t included in the book but something Lyn had told Visette.

Visette closed the textbook and went into a meditative position to channel her psionic energy which now flowed through her like a river.

And like that, her day ended as it always had.

…

A total of 547 days went by, nearly a year and a half since Visette’s training with Lyn began.

The draining routine and lack of interaction would drive most people crazy or cause negative effects on their mental state at the least, but Visette was unaffected. She had spent years trapped in her own consciousness, floating in a dark tank without the ability to comprehend her own existence. Minerva didn’t even realize or expect Visette’s complete mental cognizance after she received the Blue Swan Neural Implant.

The nanites in Visette body, as well as her near perfect genes, allowed her to grow at a healthy rate. Something that went largely unnoticed was the tattoo on Vis’ right shoulder that formerly read F-13 now read F-14. Since the dull grey detention outfit covered her shoulders and was the only type of clothing she wore, it would continue to go unnoticed.

At the moment, Lyn and Visette were sparring with practice swords. Vis had dense weighted bars attached to her legs but she was managing to keep up just fine. The rhythmic tapping of sparring swords rang out they exchanged blows.

Lyn was fully immersed in the fight, at some point, training Visette began to help her own skills improve. She enjoyed her sparring with Visette and was able to put her all into it.

Most of the wins Lyn had were won due to adding stipulations to Visette with the aims of making her better. Ankle weights, vision obstructing eyewear, a restrained arm, anything that would hinder her in a real fight was used to its fullest extent.

Lyn swung downward only to have Visette parry her strike and thrust the practice sword at her throat, stopping a few centimeters from her neck.

“Your win.” Lyn’s breathing was erratic as she wiped the sweat from her forehead with a towel.

“I now have a total of ninety-six wins while you have a total of two-hundred three.”

“You still remember?” Lyn asked as removed the thin piece of cloth from around Visette’s eyes.

“You requested me to record the statistics of our exchange.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Lyn grabbed another towel and wiped Visette’s face before she took a step back and spoke, “Hey, how’s your smile going?”

Visette’s facial muscles visibly tensed and not much else happened, providing an answer for Lyn’s question.

“Another failure.” Lyn smiled effortlessly which Visette studied in great detail before making an attempt to mimic it.

After a few minutes, Vis’ failure was apparent and Lyn could only shrug regretfully, “You’ll get it one day, you just need something to smile about.”

“Then you must have a reason for doing so, correct?”

“You could say that,” Lyn replied as she began to put on her jacket. “Training you is one of them, you know.”

Just as Lyn was getting ready to leave the warehouse, she suddenly remembered something.

“That’s right, you’ll be free for the next two or three days. I have a mission coming up.”

“I understand.” Visette nodded, wondering the contents of the assignment Lyn was given but choosing not to ask.

“Do you want to know what’s it about?”

“Is that not classified information?”

“So? It’s sort of about you so it doesn’t matter. Plus, who are you going to tell?” Lyn looked around the warehouse only training dummies and targets were there to witness the conversation. “We’re intercepting a supply convoy from Roslin that’s heading to Freedom City. It seems they have chosen to ally themselves with the Freedom City and are the most likely culprits of that incident. Anyway, it’s a simple mission so I’ll be back soon, until then just do some basic practice while you wait.”

After Lyn left, Visette could only think of the implications of the attack on both Freedom City and Roslin. While it was true that Roslin was relatively innocent in the matter, Freedom City clearly had plans against New Mayhall. Everyone out of the group of Abnormals led by Hawk was caught in different restricted areas around the city. It was clear evidence they were investigating the layout of New Mayhall. Whatever the case was, it did not concern Visette and she could not see it affecting her objective.

She wanted to obtain a Novidium battery to power the Minerva Laboratory. She estimated she would need one larger than the batteries used to power vehicles and soon learned the approximate size of the one she sought would be well over 3000 kilos.

At the moment, it was still unthinkable for her to move that amount of weight with her psionics alone. She would also need engineering knowledge so she could install it as well as a few other necessary parts. Commander Wakefield wisely excluded in-depth material relating to the process of refining Novidium or the manufacturing of Novidium batteries.

With her large amount of free time, Visette chose to practice her psionics. Although she lacked Charlie’s creativity, she came to the realization that she would need a way to stop projectiles without giving away her psionics. Rachel and Charlie were the only ones who knew about her psionics and she only made that decision due to her lack of knowledge. As her understanding of Novo Prime increased so did her cautiousness toward revealing her psionics.

Visette created a psionic barrier but the dim blue light, indicating unstable psionic energy, was clear to see. Creating a solid barrier consumed more energy and would take on the full force of an object hitting it. She loosened the density of the barrier until it became more a fog, filling the air like a heat shimmer. It was less obvious than the barrier but it would still give her away. She spent the rest of her day making alterations to the psionic distortion field. It had the capability of diverting projectiles away from her but the energy needed to be compressed so it would be less noticeable.

…

Hours later and somewhere far away from New Mayhall a mission was being carried out.

Lyn, equipped with black tactical gear, was crouched down, her body hidden by the undergrowth. In front of her was a dirt road with faint tire tracks indicating its usage.

[Captain O’Hara, eight trucks approaching. Four armored cars with roof-mounted heavy machine guns as an escort...Looks like that’s all.]

A voice came from Lyn’s radio.

“Got it. All teams, radio silent. Attack once the signal is given and make sure your identities aren’t compromised if they manage to escape.” Lyn responded back.

She grabbed a ballistic mask from her side and put it on, fastening it tightly, before checking her auto-rifle magazine. After that was done she peeked at the suspicious mound of dirt piled up in the middle of the road, the object that would create the signal no doubt.

After a few seconds went by, the electrical hum of vehicles powered by Novidium batteries could be heard in the distance.

Lyn raised her hand into the air and the bushes behind her shook, bodies of other people becoming visible as they crept closer to the road.

In the meantime, the trucks advanced unaware of the hidden danger. After driving the route so many times they had become understandably relaxed, especially since the Corrupted had barely made an appearance in the recent days.

The armored truck at the front of the convoy had a lookout manning the mounted gun but he didn’t notice anything strange. Most likely because he wasn’t paying much attention, daydreaming with a bored expression on his face.

The armored car drove over the buried landmine and suddenly exploded into a cloud of fire, flipping onto its side and churning out black smoke. At the same time, Lyn’s raised a clenched fist, giving a signal to the team behind her. The transport trucks behind it skittered to a halt and the armored cars around began to aim at the dense forest growth around them.

“Ambush! Aim at the trees and fire at will! Repeat-” The shouting man on the mounted gun couldn’t finish as a sniper’s bullet found its way into his head, creating a red splatter behind him.

Lyn took cover behind a nearby tree and aimed her rifle, firing at those on the mounted machine first just like the rest of her team.

“Where the fuck did these guys come from?!” A man climbed out of the car and used the door as cover, returning fire to the unseen enemy.

“Fuck if I know!” His comrade moved to the adjacent door.

Without any warning, a cylinder-shaped canister came flying overhead and landed on the roof of the car with a thud.

“Grenade!” One man shouted loudly but instead of an explosion, smoke came pouring out of the canister. “Smoke grenade! Check fire! Check fire! Keep your eyes peeled and your knives ready!”

A cloud of smoke drifted over the area, obscuring everyone’s vision. If someone fired, they would be unable to tell friend from foe, including the attacking force. That’s why Lyn moved on her own first. Stealthy slipping into the radius of enemies, Lyn began placing remote detonation charges on the armored trucks.

“Hey-” A woman trapped within the smoke spotted Lyn only a few meters away but was too late to act.

Lyn drew her sword and rushed the woman, slitting her throat with one quick strike.

“What was that?!” A man yelled while shooting into the smoke randomly.

Lyn rolled under the truck, avoiding the bullets and hiding from sight.

“Stop firing! Stop firing you fucking idiot! By Anton’s soul if you don’t stop firing I will shoot you myself! Wait for the smoke to dissipate!”

The gunfire stopped and those within the smoke tensely waited while Lyn maneuvered past each truck.

“Huek!” A strange sound could be heard in the smoke, the cry of someone who died abruptly.

“Ahk!” Another death cry from an unfortunate soul rang out.

“Damn it!” The soldiers who were buried in the smoke only grew more paranoid but that’s when the sound stopped and the smoke finally began to fade.

“Take aim...Wait...” The commanding officer spotted a brick-shaped item on his truck with a blinking light and realized what it was at the last moment. “Take cover! Everyone take-”

He couldn’t finish the order as the three armor trucks exploded simultaneously. Leaving no one left alive except for those in the transport trucks.

Lyn swung her sword to clean it of blood before sheathing it. She stood atop the large transport truck and surveyed the area for any survivors before grabbing her radio.

“All teams move in. Make sure everyone is dead and kill the drivers.” Lyn gave the order and then hopped down from the truck. She opened the back of the transport truck to see what was inside.

“Parts to construct a Novidium battery.” She tossed in a detonation charge before slamming the metal door of the truck while gunshots rang out.

“Please! I’m only a driver! I didn’t-” The plea of mercy was cut short by a gunshot.

Ignoring the sight, Lyn moved onto the next transport truck, opening it up only to see containers of food piled up. Freedom City was still relatively new and they didn’t exactly have a good infrastructure so their current stores of food wouldn’t be enough to keep up with the intake of people.

Lyn held onto the detonation charge in her hand. Who would be the ones to suffer because of the actions that were taken by the ones in charge? Innocent lives would be put at risk without the food.

The explosive in her hand felt even heavier as the choice became clear.

The gunshots stopped and the soldiers under her command looked at her for the next order.

"We have no casualties on our side, Captain O'Hara," A soldier reported.

Lyn nodded, taking a deep breath as she tossed the charge in before closing the metal doors.

“Let’s go before reinforcements arrived.” She signaled the retreat and when they reached an appropriate distance, one of the trucks blew up.

[Captain O’Hara. It appears a detonation charge failed. Do we go back and set another?]

Lyn was silent for a moment before she replied. “No, that smoke is visible for kilometers and there are probably people on the way. We’ll continue our retreat.”

They moved through the trees and arrived at a clearing where piles of leaves showed that something was hidden. The soldiers began to move the leaves revealing off-road four-wheelers. Pairs of two climbed on each one except for Lyn who was alone before they sped off into the distance.

Lyn removed her ballistic mask, staring at the smoke behind her, and after delaying for a few moments she followed after everyone else.