The black car pulled up at the front of the tall and skinny building, Walter in the back seat, almost shaking with nervousness. He had been unable to sleep the night before, too many things rushing through his mind to possibly process them all. A fairly common occurrence for Walter.

“Are you okay, honey?” His mother, Mary Suen, asked. He wasn’t okay, not even close. He had been a nervous wreck ever since the AASAU agent had left his house. He couldn’t help but feel that this was his only chance to thrive in his life, and it terrified him to even consider failure here.

“Yeah, mum. I’m okay. Just a bit… Y’know.” Mary turned to him, looking him in the eye from in the front seat of the car. Her usually bright and excitable face was pulled into one of concern.

“You know you can leave at any time, honey. You don’t even need to go in there if you don’t want to. Legally they–“

“Legally they can’t force me to join any team, but they can force me though basic training.” Walter said, knowing full well what his mother’s next words were going to be.

“We could fight that, call for an exemption under the–“

“The undefined exclusion laws. I know, mum.” There was a soft silence between the two, her dark eyes looking at the man in front of her that she could have sworn was a boy not a year ago. Tears started to well up in her eyes.

“Aww, mum. Please don’t cry.” Walter said, his face scrunching into one of concern and confusion. Mary sniffled and wiped at her eyes on the sleeve of her suit jacket.

“I’m sorry honey. It’s… it’s just a scary world out there, Walter. And knowing that you’ll be in it scares me. I can’t help you out there.” This was the sentiment that Mary and Richard Suen had held regarding their son for years. They were incredibly supportive and excited about anything their son achieved, from the smallest achievements in a video game, or his extremely good grades in school. He had worked hard for them because they worked hard for him, and now he was venturing into the very world where they could do nothing but watch.

“I know, mum. But they’ll find a way to drag me in. I may as well go willingly.” Mary looked about ready to put up a fight but quieted down. She wrung her hands in much the same way that Walter and his father did. A family full of nervous wrecks. It was better than it sounded.

“I can walk you in if you’d like?” Mary asked, almost hopeful, but Walter shook his head. He needed to start now if he wanted to be able to start moving forwards towards his goals. Walter grabbed his bags, got out of the car, and gave his mother a long farewell hug.

“I love you, Walter.” She said, simply. They both knew the hundred other words she wanted to say.

“Love you too, mum.” And he turned, hauling his bags towards the entrance, far overpacked, but he tried to take as much as he could from home. He walked through the sliding doors, turning to wave at his mother one final time, and letting those doors close behind him. He let out a big sigh of both relief and mourning.

“Mum come and drop you off?” a voice said from beside Walter, making him jump and almost squeal. There was laughter as he set eyes on her. All blonde hair and smiling face, she was slim and at least four inches taller than him, which was intimidating for some reason. Not to mention beautiful.

“Ah, yeah. I’m Walter.” He said clumsily. The girl didn’t seem to mind, shifting her stance to allow for her to stick a hand out in greeting while she still held onto her bags.

“Aaliyah. How are you?” She asked with a smoothness that Walter wished he could reproduce himself. His father could, but him and his mother still struggled with it. He shook her hand the way he had been taught; firm and welcoming, but not making it into a dick measuring contest.

“I’m doing alright. Bit nervous, really.” She looked thoughtfully at him, tapping her leg in a rhythm only known to her.

“I could see that. It’s a big change, no matter what life you come from.” She said, pointedly looking at the difference in their clothing. Walter was wearing clean and almost brand-new jeans and a large, oversized hoodie. Both had cost a good amount, even in Walter’s book, but for him the comfort was worth it. On the other hand, Aaliyah was wearing clothes that were probably nice at some point years ago. A worn and frayed bomber jacket and a pair of jeans with holes that probably weren’t manufactured.

“I wonder if we’ll get a uniform?” Walter thought aloud.

“Nah, but we do get free pick from some generic clothing items, as far as I can tell.” Aaliyah said nonchalantly.

“Have you been here long?” Walter asked, curious.

“Nope! Been here a few minutes longer than you, talked to the receptionist and he told me to wait here while he grabbed someone to deal with me.” A laugh bubbled forth from her, and Walter couldn’t help but laugh with her.

“Hopefully they won’t be long. I’m starving.” Walter said, rueing his decision to not bring any snacks after not eating dinner or breakfast. His stomach growled in agreement.

“Yeah, honestly. I wouldn’t mind grabbing something to eat with you?” She asked, though she said it in such a way that Walter didn’t really have a choice in saying no, so he just nodded, not sure where they were even going to get food yet.

That was when the receptionist returned, followed by the AASAU agent Walter had met with the day before.

“Good afternoon you two. How are you both faring?” Walter mumbled a response and Aaliyah just nodded.

“Alright, I assume you both want to get up to your rooms and settle in, so let’s get right too it them, shall we?” The agent walked forwards towards Walter and stuck out her hand.

“Codename is Tracker, though Aaliyah already knows that.” The brown skinned woman chuckled pleasantly, her features lightening as her face pulled into a smile.

“Ah, thank you for telling me. I forgot to ask in the moment.” Walter said sheepishly, gaining an amused snort from Aaliyah, who was picking up some of his bags and moving to follow the direction that Tracker had started moving.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. The other two didn’t bother to ask and I’m not sure they cared either. Had to tell them my name after I brought them here.” Aaliyah, Tracker and Walter entered into an elevator that, only moments after pressing the floor button, had zoomed up eight floors in astonishing speed. Aaliyah seemed shocked, especially at how there was seemingly no g-force created from the acceleration. Walter had been in a few elevators just like it, and one particularly impressive one that lifted him and his family almost one hundred stories in only a few seconds. Seeing Aaliyah’s shocked face, Tracker grinned.

“Linktech, don’t question it.” Walter shared Tracker’s grin, well aware of the inside joke. Linktech was so wild that sometimes, just to save a few braincells, you just needed to accept that someone had figured out how to create it. If reports were true, a Linked had managed to create a machine capable of slowing time by a few fractions of a microsecond. How that worked, no-one could even guess.

Aaliyah grumbled something under her breath as they exited the elevator, exiting into a corridor with five doors. Each door looked identical and the spacing between each door was approximately the same.

“Alright, Walter is in room three and Aaliyah is in room four. Aaliyah, there will be a change of clothes in your approximate size within the wardrobe in your room. Lunch has passed, but if you two are hungry, you can order from your rooms and Chef will probably be nice enough to send up what you want.” Tracker smiled, her Indian-Caucasian features scrunching in a genuine expression. Walter had a momentary pang of primal glee that someone was smiling at him so genuinely, before he pushed it down and nodded.

“Thank you, Miss Tracker.” He said trying to be as polite as possible. Tracker laughed, waving him off and walking up to the door of room five, pulling out a key card, swiping and entering.

“Ooh la la, shortie’s got a crush on the boss lady!” Aaliyah teased.

“Hey, what?” Walter said, embarrassment written on his face.

“Oh, come on, you basically lit up like a Christmas tree every time she so much as looked at you!” And when Aaliyah looked at him too, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. Walter had an internal war for a moment, before blurting out a string of words.

“I just think she’s nice!” Aaliyah scoffed.

“Nice looking, more like.” Walter spluttered, his face going truly a deep shade of red that she hadn’t ever seen on an Asian complexion. She just laughed, patting him on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I’m just messing with you.” She walked over to her door, opening it with a keycard that had been given to her moments ago, and walked through.

“Eat together when food arrives!” She said, not waiting for a response, the door closing behind her.

Walter sighed, energy drained by simply being around the girl. He opened his own door, finding the inside to be surprisingly spacious and luxurious, expecting more of an army barracks than an apartment. He entered, dragging the bags that Aaliyah had helpfully carried upstairs and dumped them in the lounge room, going back to shut his door.

He took a moment to just sit and relax, trying desperately to acclimatize to the sudden social environment that he’d been thrust into. He whipped out his phone and began to idly scroll through the various social medias he frequented. All of them held different interests for Walter. Some of them were raw, a realer reflection of Australia. Some were idealised, basically only focusing on those that live in the upper areas like himself. Some were discussion about Linked worldwide, and what was happening in other countries. Walter was careful though; he knew the danger of media. He knew that they would lie to him to keep him happy, rather than show him what was really happening in the world. He had a sneaking, terrible suspicion that it was a whole lot worse out there than the headlines and articles said it was.

For who could hope to speak up against those with ultimate power?

Walter just sighed, realising that scrolling through his media feeds was actually just stressing him out more. So he resigned himself to ordering food. He hadn’t expected it, but just like the rooms not being army barracks, the menu wasn’t slop either. It was filled with foods, ranging from delicate French dishes to unholy American abominations. Walter, of course, picked a burger. Though it was a chicken one and sounded a touch healthier than a fatty beef American burger. It was still a burger, nonetheless.

He waited excitedly for his food, the receptionist saying that it should be up in twenty minutes. One arduous wait later, stomach grumbling the entire way. A knock finally rapped out on the door and Walter jumped up opening the door and seeing the chicken burger on a warm plat sitting on the floor. He picked up the burger and walked over to Aaliyah’s door, quickly tapping on it and waiting for a reply.

A few moments later, a freshly washed head of long blonde hair appeared from behind the door, dressed in a crop top and baggy light pants. Walter was hit with how obviously stunning Aaliyah was, but quickly pushed it down in fear that she would notice and tease him about it.

“Come on in Walt.” She said cheerily, letting him walk past into an identical living room as his own. There was already a plate sitting in the middle of the coffee table, with the TV opposite the couch blaring some random station.

It seems like Aaliyah had ordered an American burger, beer battered chips and all. As soon as the two of them sat down, Aaliyah started to lay into the burger, surprising Walter just how much the girl could put down.

“What, never seen a girl eat a burger, Walt?” She said, a hint of mock accusation in her voice. Even knowing that she was joking, Walter still stumbled over his words trying to explain himself before she let out a peel of raucous laughter, pushing him gently on the shoulder.

“Come on Walter, you’re making it too easy. Going deadpan would work better than whatever you were trying to do there.” Aaliyah grinned mischievously, about to continue on her ribbing when there was a knock on the door. Aaliyah huffed with displeasure.

“Mind grabbing that for me?” Before Aaliyah had even finished the sentence, Walter was up and walking towards the door. He quickly swung the door open wide, revealing the form of a truly massive man, smiling as he looked down on Walter.

“Hey, you guys new?”