Several hours later, Val stepped out from the Council’s boardroom into one of the halls of the Guild Administration building. Taking a few steps to the side, she leaned against the wall and let out a heavy sigh. She hadn’t known what to expect when the Defect squad had been summoned to speak with the Council, especially given her heavy discussion with Zyra that morning.

Fortunately, Zavis had quickly taken responsibility for representing the squad, despite his earlier insinuation that he expected Val to negotiate for the upgraded lodgings. The ease and familiarity with which the Defects talked to the Council made it clear that this was a common occurrence, or at least much more frequent than Val had expected. In hindsight, it wasn’t so surprising. The Defects didn’t fit into the normal Guild structure, but represented a significant fraction of powerful Users.

It makes sense that they’d report directly to the Council.

Indeed.

Val cocked her head, catching a slight undertone of emotion from Noir. It was clearly an unintentional slip, and it took Val several seconds to finally parse the feeling as one of deep thoughtfulness.

Credit for your thoughts, Noir?

Mmm? Well, I must admit to being a bit surprised by the tight relationship between the Defects and the Council. As you know, my previous Users were often instructed to… terminate powerful rogue Users, which disproportionately came from groups like the Defects. But I’ve never seen the group work from the inside. It’s… taking considerable computational effort to integrate the new perspective into my world view.

The ties between the two groups are stronger than you thought?

Yes. It must not have been easy for the Council to assign some of my assignments.

An involuntary shudder ran through Val. She couldn’t imagine being ordered to kill any of the Defects. Putting aside the fact that she had no chance to take any of them down, they were some of the only people who had tried to help her since she became a User.

She was interrupted from those difficult thoughts by the sound of the door opening to let Bri and Kaya out into the hall. The silent sniper took several steps in the opposite direction before leaning against the wall. Bri nodded to Kaya, but then approached Val with a warm smile. Val mentally toggled the opacity of her visor to let her face be visible before returning the smile.

“You doing OK?” asked Bri. “That was… quite a lot in there.”

“Yea, I think so. To be honest, I think I’m still mostly in shock about the whole situation,” replied Val.

The majority of the meeting had been going over Val and Noir’s records of the abduction and her subsequent return to Peakpoint. As usual, the process was greatly assisted by Daemons, both from Noir directly and the Daemon collective at large. Noir’s contribution was raw audio, video, and other evidence of the entire incident, while the rest of Peakpoint’s Daemons were able to confirm none of the data had been tampered with.

There had been several eyebrow-raising moments during the debriefing when Val had been called upon to provide her own thoughts, but she had been mostly relegated to the sidelines throughout the process. Some small part of her burned with indignation that the Council seemed to largely ignore her, but Val mostly felt relief. The whole situation was way above her paygrade, and it seemed like finally the people of the right paygrade were dealing with it.

“Well, if you ever work through the shock and need someone to talk to, my door is always open to you,” said Bri as she leaned against the wall next to Val.

“Thanks,” responded Val. “Although speaking of open doors, did they finally get around to talking about our new base?”

“Wallon had just started negotiating everything when Kaya and I left. We trust him to get all the good stuff, although Zavis stayed to ensure he didn’t go overboard.”

“Wallon’s the one negotiating?” Val’s brow furrowed in confusion. “I had assumed it would be Zavis, since, you know… he seems like the de facto squad captain.”

“Ahh I keep forgetting how little you know about us! Hopefully we’ll have some downtime to remedy that soon,” Bri said as she flashed Val another grin. “Zavis has the most leadership experience in combat roles, but Wallon’s got a sharp mind and an even sharper tongue. He handles almost all of our external interactions. Usually that just means negotiating with specialty suppliers, but it includes more sensitive Council talks too.”

“Huh, I never would have guessed. I suppose I owe him an apology for misjudging him,” said Val with a grimace.

Bri let out a chuckle. “Don’t worry about it. I think Wallon likes to play up the mad scientist vibe to make people underestimate him. Frankly, if I hadn’t seen him in action so many times, I don’t know if I’d believe it either.”

The boardroom door opened up again. Wallon practically skipped out into the hall, rubbing his hands gleefully with a twinkle in his eye. Zavis followed shortly after with an impassive expression on his face as normal, but Val noticed him clenching his left fist tightly. Noticing her gaze on him, he forcibly relaxed his fist and gave her a small nod.

“You look happy, Wallon!” It seemed the man’s enthusiasm had spread to Bri as well as she sported a wide grin on her face.

“Oh yes! I’m incredibly excited to see the new space they’ve got lined up for us.” The man sighed happily before he seemed to calm down. “A complete pity about those negotiations though.”

“Were they difficult?” asked Val.

“No, no, that’s the problem! It was much too easy,” Wallon replied with a slight pout. After seeing Val’s confusion, he continued, “After sticking us in a basement for years, I had amped myself up to fight for some better conditions, but the Council rolled over almost immediately! There’s no fun in it if they give up without a fight. Ahh, just when I thought I’d have a chance to flex my political brain cells… What a letdown. I guess they’ll continue to atrophy.”

“I… see,” said Val weakly. She looked over at Bri, who just gave her a small shrug.

“Don’t bother trying to understand him, Val.”

The unexpected yet familiar voice made Val turn back just in time to see Mae, Celedon, and Zyra leave the boardroom as well. It had been Mae who had spoken up, and the Technician Guildmaster waved to Val as she approached.

Wallon clicked his tongue before shooting a glance at Val. “Yes, it would have been much more interesting if you didn’t already have these three Council members squarely on your side, Val.”

“I do? Oh, well I guess I owe you all my thanks,” Val said, meeting each Guildmaster’s gaze momentarily. The absurdity of the moment struck Val suddenly. Clearly her User experience was not well calibrated if she had three Council members supporting her openly.

Yes, I did check this actually. I believe you have broken several records for the number of Guildmaster interactions for a newly inducted User. Most notably, being involved in at least two official Council votes and having them come out in your favor so early in your career.

Two? Oh, I guess my initial pairing with you, and now this?

Yes. Also, you hold the record for number of Guildmaster interactions outside of your own Guild for an F-ranked User. Of course, since you are a Defect, they ALL count as outside your Guild. Hmm. Perhaps this statistic needs to be recalibrated.

Hey, don’t just change the rules and take stuff away from me!

Oh, so you want your name to pop up in all sorts of rankings that the social elite use to monitor rising stars among young Users?

… On second thought, maybe a recalibration would be good.

“No worries, Val. I think we’re all just happy that we can finally actually help you for once,” said Mae with an apologetic tone.

“What she said,” added Celedon. He nonchalantly twisted his torso to dodge an elbow from Mae before grinning widely. “Now, I don’t know about you but this hallway is getting pretty crowded and I hear there’s a cool new building to check out. Why don’t we take a field trip?”

Those last few words triggered something deep in Val. She immediately dropped into a more defensive position as Noir’s baton slid into her right hand. The response from the rest of the Defects was immediate. Despite the lack of an obvious threat, they shifted into combat stances and surrounded Val in a box formation. Mae and Zyra stared at the group in confusion. The tension built for several more moments before Celedon burst out laughing.

“You asshole,” said Val through gritted teeth. She relaxed her stance and stowed away her weapon. “Sorry everyone. There’s nothing wrong. It’s just that Celedon called some of his more intense training exercises ‘field trips’ during my rotation with the Scouts. Clearly I haven’t gotten over the trauma yet.”

The Defects slowly relaxed, although Bri made a point to stand between Val and Celedon. The slender man lifted his hands up disarmingly as he got glares from Bri and his fellow Council members. Val shot him another glare but it held little heat. She had to admit that she likely owed some of her survival to Celedon’s grueling training.

“Forget that nasty man,” Bri said as she draped an arm over Val’s shoulders. “He’s not invited on our new house tour anyway.”

“Hey, wait,” sputtered Celedon as the group started to leave without him.

“Reap what you sow, Guildmaster!” shouted Val over her shoulder as they turned the corner.

Zyra led the group of Defects, Mae, and Celedon through the streets of the Guild District away from the Admin building. The Scout Guildmaster had sulked behind the group for a block before rejoining them and regaining his boisterous mood. The crowds of Peakpoint citizens split before the group. After all, seeing three Guildmasters and a group of heavily armed Users was not a common occurrence.

Val had to admit her own appearance did little to help the impression. The large majority of her exosuit was still splattered with blood from the various creatures she had killed on the way back to Peakpoint. Long gashes crisscrossed the legs and arms of the armor, and cracks spiderwebbed out from the center of her breastplate from Bri’s punch. She had made her visor opaque again in embarrassment, but that only made her ensemble even more intimidating.

In an attempt to distract herself, Val focused on the streets around them. The Guild District served as the heart of the surface city. This was where her feet had tried to take her last night before Zyra had escorted her into the inner city. Although the Guilds had buildings scattered throughout the city, they each maintained a branch in this section of the city to facilitate inter-Guild cooperation.

At the heart of the district sat the Guild Administration building, which Val had spent the better part of the afternoon in. The Admin building served as a true neutral ground between the Guilds and the meeting place for the Council. Surrounding the Admin building were compounds for each of the Guilds. Of course, each Guild kept their true headquarters deep within the safety of the mountain, but they all maintained a public presence here.

To Val’s continued surprise, Zyra led the group only three blocks away from the Admin building before stopping in front of a nondescript three-story building sitting on the corner of an intersection. Property in this part of the Guild District could not have been cheap or acquired so quickly. Bri looked around in surprise as well, although Zavis and Kaya wore neutral expressions. For their part, Wallon looked excited, Mae looked on with interest, and Celedon wore a smug expression as he took in their reactions.

As usual, the bastard. Val examined the building further before recognition sparked in her mind. Wait, I… know this building.

Really? This is not marked as anything special in any of Peakpoint’s records.

Exactly. And who would keep some of the book assets?

Val looked to the side and met Zyra’s gaze, raising her eyebrows questioningly. Zyra gave an almost imperceptible nod before the corner of her mouth twitched upwards. Looking back at the building, Val remembered that she had come here with her mother several times as a child. Noir might not be able to look it up, but she was sure that Zyra had gifted them one of the outposts from the Messenger’s spy network.

“Well, shall we–” Celedon started before Val interrupted him.

“Don’t you dare ruin this,” she growled under her breath, staring daggers at him before stepping into the building.

Val had gotten accustomed to the functional staging room at the entrance to the Defect bunker on the outskirts of the surface city, so was surprised when she stepped into a fairly upscale lobby. The room was large enough to easily hold a dozen people and was sparsely furnished. The major exception was a wide desk along the far wall that was currently staffed by a young man, who stood up when they entered. Zyra strode up to the receptionist and spoke with him quietly before turning to the rest of the group.

“This is Bell. He’s run the front desk here for several years and I highly recommend you allow him to continue doing so. It will maintain the illusion that the ownership of the building hasn’t changed, and Bell is an extremely trustworthy and talented member of our support staff. He will remain a member of the Messenger Guild, so you will have access to our systems and databases. He has as much clearance as you do and will keep you apprised of any developments regarding the Unshackled.”

“We’ve also given Lev limited access to the Scout and Technician systems as well.” said Mae as she jumped in. “Val, I’d like you to keep me updated with your cracked core if possible. And access to the Scout systems will help you plan your upcoming missions.”

Even Val realized that while Bell provided a lot of value, he was also clearly a way for the Council to keep a closer eye on the Defects. She wasn’t sure if they would appreciate trading their independence for the upgraded facilities. Thankfully, Wallon put most of her fears to rest when he burst out laughing.

“Oh yes, this is perfect! A double agent we can’t refuse, support from a minority of the Council, backdoor access to Guild systems… I haven’t felt so alive in ages!” Wallon gleefully rubbed his hands together.

Bell suddenly looked a little more nervous than before. The Guildmasters exchanged a look before Zyra patted the poor receptionist on his shoulder.

“Very well, glad that’s settled now. Let’s see the rest of the facility, shall we?” asked Zyra.

The rest of the tour went smoothly, and Val found herself very impressed. It certainly helped that the building had already existed, but clearly the interior had been renovated in the past few hours to take into account their demands. Wallon got his kitchen on the first floor, Zavis got his tall bed frame in the living quarters on the second floor, and Bri got her armory and workshop on the top floor. A central elevator took them deep underground to a training arena, complete with an extra-long gun range for Kaya. The group was in high spirits as they toured the various stations in the training arena. Celedon and Mae eventually left to return to their respective Guilds, but Zyra stayed with them until they reconvened at the elevator.

“There’s one more level you should be aware of,” Zyra said.

The elevator dropped down even further before opening into a small chamber. Val immediately recognized the pillars along the wall as the same tube stations that connected the surface and inner parts of Peakpoint together.

“As you may have guessed, this is an off-the-books transport hub. It’s completely disconnected from the main Peakpoint system and only has a few fixed endpoints. However, the terminal stations are at the edges of the surface city. We’ve gone ahead and added a stop in your old bunker as well. This should allow you to get in and out of the city quickly and discreetly. Partly to throw the Unshackled off your scent, and partly to avoid causing a scene if you come back looking rough.”

Val winced as she looked down at her shabby looking armor. Bri wanted to try the new private tube system, so the Defects decided to head back to the bunker to pack up their things. Even though she didn’t have anything over there, Val wanted to tag along as well. Zyra took her leave of the group via the elevator, although not before extracting a promise from Val to come over for another breakfast some time.

The tube trip was uneventful, but the idea of having their own personal transport system was exciting. While the other Defects prepared for the move, Val walked over to the workbenches and finally traded her broken bulky exosuit for one of the more modern models. Her weapons and midlayer settings were transferred over, although she was forced to simply strap Noir’s batons to her waist. Val was already thinking of ways to modify the suit, including the bracer storage for the batons, when Bri sidled up next to her.

“Done packing already?” Val asked.

“With the personal stuff, yes. The armory will take a larger effort, so I’ll do that in a separate trip,” answered Bri with a shrug. “I see you finally got out of that broken armor.”

“Yes, the new models are much sleeker. But… is it weird that I kind of miss my other armor already? It got me through my first serious adventure as a User, after all.”

“Not weird at all! The recordings we saw today proved that armor really did its job keeping you safe. It wasn’t just the armor, though. You were also moving much better!”

Val blushed at the sudden compliment. “Thanks, I guess. I still have a long way to go, but I learned a lot out there.”

“Want to show me?”

“What?”

Startled, Val looked up to see Bri gesturing towards the training pit. She had an immediate sinking feeling in her stomach.

“Uhh, I mean… Maybe right now is not the best–”

“We still have a few minutes before everyone else finishes up. Don’t want to have a friendly spar with your favorite squadmate?” Bri stuck out her bottom lip and gave Val a big set of puppy dog eyes.

“Ye– Well, no– That’s not what I meant… OK, fine,” Val stuttered before ending with a resigned sigh.

“Yay!”

Bri jumped up and grabbed Val’s hand before dragging her towards the fighting pit. She pushed Val into the ring before walking around to the other side and jumping in herself. The instant her feet touched the inside of the pit, her demeanor changed. Val shivered as Bri went from “bubbly Bri” to “kickass Bri”. Both variants were worthy of respect, but one of them was significantly scarier to fight against. Val gulped nervously as a borderline sadistic grin spread across Bri’s face.

“Ready or not, here I come Val!”