Val strode through the streets of Peakpoint towards the Guardian outpost indicated by her mission briefing. Like all Guilds, the Guardians kept their main headquarters deep in the mountain in the inner city, where the critical city infrastructure, Daemon mainframes, and the human elite could be better protected. However, the Guardians were tasked with responding to emergencies throughout Peakpoint, and so maintained several outposts in the surface city.

Turning the corner, Val’s gaze fell on the Guardian outpost where she would meet up with Fynn’s patrol. She had spent a lot of time in these outposts during her Guardian rotation, but it felt different returning after her experience with the Defect compound.

The outpost was a solid two-story building made of nano-infused concrete, clearly intended to be a defensible fallback position in case beasts overran the outer city defenses. Armored Guardians patrolled the streets around the outpost, and several stood watch from the rooftop.

To the naive watcher, the rooftop sentries might have seemed relatively exposed, but Val knew better. Any projectiles or attackers targeting the airspace above the building would be blown out of the sky by Daemon-controlled anti-air cannons. Shields of nano would snap out to cover the rooftop and protect the sentries from physical attacks or debris in mere seconds.

It was the same invisible defense system that encircled Peakpoint and deterred most wildlife from encroaching on the city. During the city’s resettlement, some had pushed for a physical wall, but the maintenance costs were enormous and it was soon discovered traditional defenses like walls worked poorly against nano-empowered beasts. Once the alliance with the Daemons was forged, it was much more effective to track and intercept any threats on a more localized basis. Even in the cases where large swarms attacked the city, the high ambient nano made it straightforward to quickly erect walls, trenches, and any other defensive structures where they were needed. As long as they had enough notice, that is.

During her rotations, Val had been very impressed and proud of the defense system. Despite living out in the exposed surface city, the Guardians had been a calming presence, reminding her that she was protected from the wilderness. Now though, Val’s examination of the outpost gave her a very different feeling.

Maybe it was seeing the intensity and power of the Defects the day before. Or maybe Noir was subtly enhancing her senses and pointing out slight details she would have otherwise missed. But the Guardians almost seemed… too casual. They walked slowly in well-worn patterns and kept only a loose grip on their weapons. They spent more time chatting with each other than scanning their surroundings. This was routine to them. They didn’t actually expect to deal with anything dangerous.

A wave of anger came over Val despite her apprehension over the upcoming mission. Her teammates were thrown out into the wilderness constantly, risking their lives to eliminate possible threats. These supposed protectors milled about every day instead. And someone was trying to use them as cover to take advantage of Val just because she existed.

She realized it wasn’t fair to many Guardians who simply wanted to help the citizens of Peakpoint, but the feelings of irritation gave her focus. She posted up on the corner of the street and watched for Fynn to exit the outpost. Whatever trap they had planned for her, she had no intention of just delivering herself to them.

To their credit, two different Guardian patrols noticed her loitering and came over to confront her. They eventually left after she explained her mission, but the unusual situation had them frowning as they walked away.

After ten minutes of awkwardly standing around, Val breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Fynn exit the building with three other Guardians. She made a beeline for Fynn but another man stepped out to intercept her.

She immediately disliked him. He was several inches taller than her, and he stared down at her with sharp blue eyes. He had the confidence of a leader, but it wasn’t Zavis’s quiet competence; instead, it was a strident scream for respect and obedience. The bad impression was not alleviated one bit when he finally addressed Val.

“Are you the Defect tagging along today?” His nasally voice dripped with unveiled disgust.

Val was taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered as she adopted a neutral expression. Oh, this is how it’s going to be, huh?

“Yes. I’ve been assign–”

“I don’t care what they told you. We don’t need help from a useless newbie that couldn’t go on whatever mission your Defect friends are on.” He sniffed imperiously. “We have several new Users as well and are working to increase our team cohesion, so we won’t be adding you to our squad connection. You can follow along, but stay out of our way.”

Val clenched her fist as she tried to control the rage bubbling up inside her. Noir, any chance you can take over and keep my facial expressions neutral? Having a hard time here.

Fine control like that requires a higher level of sync. I might be able to stop you from punching his smug face though.

Oh really? I was actually joking, I had no idea that was possible. Cool. And scary.

You have bigger problems than anger management right now. In one stroke, he just isolated you from the other Guardians. And if you make a scene, you’ll only play into his hands.

Glancing around at the other Guardians, Val realized that Noir was right. The two she didn’t know were regarding her with suspicion and closed body language. Fynn looked confused and concerned, clearly trapped between his long standing friendship and a sense of duty to his new superior.

Val tried to keep as much heat out of her voice as she could when she responded.

“I’ve specifically been assigned to your patrol because I’ve personally sighted the beast whose potential tracks we are investigating.”

The Guardian leader waved his hand dismissively. “Yes, I’ve heard the theory that this is an Enhanced direwolf. Ridiculous. Clearly, the mission dispatchers think so as well given the low difficulty rating.”

Val gritted her teeth as she tried again. “With all due respect, I intend to take this mission seriously. I wouldn’t dare distract you personally, but maybe you can designate a member of the party who I can communicate with, just in case I spot anything.”

The leader’s eyes narrowed, but Val barrelled on without letting him interrupt. She pretended to scan over the squad before taking a step towards Fynn.

“Ahh, I think I saw you several times during my Guardian rotation and during User Selection. Since we’re both learning the ropes, maybe you could be my point of contact?”

She extended her right hand out towards Fynn. At the same time, she brought her left hand up so that her torso blocked it from the squad leader. Using the primitive hand signs she and Fynn had developed to sneak messages to each other in school, her left hand flashed out a quick message. Help. Play along. Introductions.

The change on Fynn’s face was instantaneous as the confusion was replaced by an easy smile. Val was impressed. She doubted anyone other than her could see the slight strain in his face indicating the fakeness of the smile. Taking a step forward, Fynn switched his helmet over into his left hand so that he could shake Val’s hand with his right.

“Oh yes, I remember you now! It was… Val, right? My name is Fynn. This is Yessa, a brand new User like us –” he gestured to the blond girl standing next to him “– and Wren is mentoring us.”

Fynn indicated the slight older man standing in the back, who gave Val a slight nod. She returned it as Fynn continued.

“We’ve been lucky to work under Kriven. So far, he’s been a wealth of knowledge,” Fynn said, his grip tightening ever so slightly to emphasize the word for Val.

“Thanks, Fynn. Looking forward to working with you all,” Val said. She tried to give Yessa and Wren friendly glances before turning her attention back to Kriven.

Thanks to Fynn’s hint, his shitty attitude finally made sense. It was not uncommon for the rich elite of Peakpoint to look down on those who lived in the surface city. Being a Defect was another point against Val. Still, she didn’t like the look in his eyes after she had forced the introductions.

Be wary. Everything up until now could be explained by incompetence or elitism. But if he keeps trying to drive a wedge between you and the others…

Noir didn’t have to say the rest for Val to understand their point. Anything more overt now was a clear indication that Kriven was purposefully isolating Val.

“Fine, I suppose that is acceptable. We’ll head out now. Try not to fall behind.”

Val let out a breath of relief as Kriven turned around and started leading the group towards the outskirts of the city. Fynn’s grip tightened again, and Val looked over to see concern in his eyes again. Val shook her head slightly and extracted her hand.

Later. Thanks. She signaled with her left hand again, and Fynn gave her a nod before putting his helmet on. Val had never taken her helmet off, but she kept her visor transparent so that the others could see her face. Letting Fynn take the lead, they rejoined the rest of the patrol.

Kriven continued to make life difficult for Val. Without including her in the squad communication, she had to keep a close eye on the patrol so that they didn’t leave her behind. On the rare occasions that a message was passed down to her through Fynn, it was often to send her off on her own to check for tracks further into the ruined section of the city.

Unfortunately, Kriven’s actions straddled the edge between petty classism and malicious isolation. Obviously Noir heavily suspected ill intent, but Val had been around enough wealthy elites that she was not so sure.

To make matters even worse, Zavis had been right to assume that both missions were based on real threats. The patrol quickly found tracks that clearly belonged to a large direwolf, increasing Val’s anxiety tenfold despite Kriven’s dismissal of the possible dangers. The Enhanced direwolf she had seen the previous day had seemed extremely intelligent and patient. Val shuddered as she thought about the damage a beast like that could do on the unsuspecting populace.

Val. The alarm in Noir’s voice was greater than anything she had heard before. While these tracks are in less traveled sections of the city, they are still relatively close to where some humans walk normally. Given that the direwolf didn’t seem to be wandering aimlessly, it seems much more likely that it was stalking something in particular.

Sounds sensible. What have you found?

I think I’ve found a match for a potential path this direwolf could have been tracking.

Val blinked as a map of the current city sector was overlaid in the corner of her vision. Two routes were then highlighted on the map, as well as her current position. One of the routes immediately stood out as the wolf tracks she had been following all afternoon.

The second route was odd though. It was clearly running through human-populated sectors of the city, but it didn’t seem to match any expected behaviors. Despite that, it was clear that the direwolf route stayed close enough that someone or something following the second route would always be within range of the beast’s enhanced senses.

I don’t recognize this second trail at all. What is it?

It’s your walk from last night, where you just wandered the city after the big discussion with the Defects.

Val immediately froze, her mind struggling to process the implications of Noir’s statement. But that means…

You were the target all along. And you are in significantly more danger than we thought.

Ripping a knife free from her suit, Val dropped into a defensive stance immediately. Her eyes darted back and forth, desperately trying to find any danger in her immediate vicinity. Plot the locations of the Guardian patrol right now.

I don’t have precise locations, but here’s a general area.

A small circle appeared on Val’s map. Two things jumped out at her immediately. One: she was not in the circle. And two: the circle was moving away from her. Faster than she expected for a detailed investigation.

Shit. Val sprinted down the alleyway she was in, desperate to make it back to the patrol. While she didn’t trust Krevin much, he was clearly the better option than taking on an Enhanced direwolf by herself.

She made it about two blocks before a heavy weight slammed into her side, knocking her to the wall. She heard a growl and felt a heavy pressure clamp down on her left arm before pinpricks of pain registered as well. She looked up to see the Enhanced direwolf gripping her arm in its jaws. Blood slowly rolled down her arm and off her fingertips as its teeth had managed to penetrate her armor in a single bite.

Her mind was in shock but her body acted on its own. She swung her knife at the wolf’s neck, hoping she could get a solid blow in before it was too late. She activated the knife’s subroutines and heard the high-pitched humming to the blade’s edge coming to life.

Time seemed to slow as her fist shot forward. The wolf’s eyes seemed to widen slightly, the pressure releasing on her arm as it started to back away. Almost there, just a lit–

A loud crack rang out through the alleyway and suddenly Val’s body stopped obeying her. Pain arced through her, causing her muscles to tense. She felt the knife fall out of her right hand, just inches from the wolf’s jugular. The momentum carried the knife forward, but as it left her hand, the subroutine sputtered out and the blade bounced harmlessly off the wolf’s matted fur.

Confused, Val looked further up the alleyway. There, perched on a rooftop several blocks away, with a rifle pointed squarely at Val, sat Krevin. He put down the rifle and smirked at her. That bastard. He actually just shot and electrocuted me. As she watched, he masked his expression with fake panic and started calling out to the rest of the patrol.

He’ll probably say he was aiming for the wolf and you got in the way.

Val couldn’t help but agree. It was true that the patrol would be coming now, but they were too far away and the damage was already done. Val’s best chance at ending the fight quickly had literally slipped right through her fingers.

The wolf took immediate advantage of Val’s incapacitation. It dropped her arm and grabbed her midsection in its jaw. Picking her up, it started racing through the alleyway. Val’s heart sank as she realized they were heading towards the wilderness. She didn’t need Noir to tell her that her chances of survival dropped to nearly zero if she left the city.

The residual shock in her system slowly dispersed, allowing her to finally start to struggle back. The wolf growled around her body in its jaws before moving closer to the side of the alley. Val didn’t understand why until she felt the solid corner of a building slam into the back of her head as they passed through an intersection. She struggled in vain, but the second impact caused her vision to go double. Each time her head slammed into the wall, her ability to fight back diminished, until finally she lost consciousness.