A heavy wheeze escaped Val’s lips as her back slammed into the hard-packed dirt of the fighting pit. The back of her head bounced off the ground, although the padding inside her helmet cushioned the blow. Half-dazed, she lay on her back as she stared up at the blank concrete ceiling. The brief moment of respite was interrupted as a shadow blurred in her peripheral vision. Her body reacted on instinct, rolling out of the way as a heavy boot came down with tremendous force, barely missing her head.

Val popped up into a low crouch as she took stock of her surroundings again. Bri wore a grin on her face as usual, but the excited and battle-hungry glint of her eyes made Bri’s expression look more sinister than normal. With a cracking sound, Bri lifted her foot out of the ground and turned to face Val head-on. Val’s gaze darted down and her eyes widened as she saw the deep imprint of Bri’s boot stamped several inches into the dirt.

Good thing I kept my helmet on if that’s the sort of force she’s using while sparring. Val directed the thought to Noir, but frowned when she got no response. My helmet would have stopped that, right?

Probably.

The Daemon’s tone was perfectly neutral, indicating they had gone through the trouble of filtering out any unwanted subtext.

Probably? Don’t you have a more quantitative answer?

I don’t think you actually want me to answer that right now, Val.

When you put it that way… I guess maybe I don’t.

Val licked her lips nervously. Her eyes darted around the edge of the ring to take in the other Defects. Bri’s initial friendly spar intended to kill time had clearly morphed into a full-blown training session over the past twenty minutes. While Val struggled to survive Bri’s relentless onslaught of blows, the squad had finished packing and even moved their belongings to the new building before returning to spectate.

Sudden movement drew Val’s eyes back to the center of the ring just in time to see Bri’s fist rocketing towards her face. Her right arm shot upwards as she brought her baton up to hit the inside of Bri’s arm. The baton barely deflected the punch but it gave Val enough space to duck her head and only take a glancing blow off her shoulder. She twisted her torso with the blow, lessening the impact even as she counterattacked, slashing at Bri with the knife in her offhand.

The knife’s blade gave off the typical high-pitched whine of the activated nano edge. At first, she had been reluctant to use the knife’s full power against Bri, but Val had quickly been disabused of the idea that she posed any real threat to Bri. The older woman caught Val’s wrist, deftly twisting Val’s arm to keep the knife from making contact with her armor. A quick yank pulled Val off-balance and a leg sweep completed the takedown.

Frustration burned in Val’s chest. With a snarl, she let go of the knife and latched on to Bri’s forearm. The nano edge winked out as the knife broke contact with her hand, and Val barely noticed the inert knife bouncing off her helmet. The baton in her right hand morphed into the needle as Val stabbed the weapon into Bri’s calf. Surprised, Bri tried to jump back, but Val stubbornly clung on as she pumped a quarter of her power into a nano disruption attack.

Her attack had only caused a momentary disruption to Bri’s body enhancement subroutines before the more powerful Defect recovered, but it was enough to make Bri stumble. Grunting through clenched teeth, Val focused on her own enhancement subroutines and pulled on Bri’s arm as hard as she could. Bri fell to the ground with a heavy thud, and Val took advantage immediately as she leapt atop Bri. Pulling her needle free of Bri’s leg, Val raised her arm above her head. She clasped the needle in both hands, ready to plunge the weapon down into Bri’s chest.

Warning alarms went off in Val’s mind as Bri’s grin got even wider and more feral. Val tried to bring her hands down, desperate to get even one good hit on her sparring partner. Unfortunately, her speed was no match for Bri. An open-handed slap caught Val in the stomach, and despite Bri’s awkward position on the ground, the blow sent Val flying across the ring. Val tumbled across the dirt until her back slammed into the low wall surrounding the pit. She half-heartedly tried to push herself back up, but the pain and exhaustion of the bout finally caught up with her.

“You… win,” Val panted between labored breaths.

“Oh, I know. That was never in question,” Bri said with a smirk.

Bri strolled over to Val and reached out with a hand. Val scowled at the proffered hand, but as Bri’s smirk slowly faded into the warm smile she usually wore, Val eventually sighed and took the help up. A pang of pain shot through her ribs as Val was lifted up off the ground. Some bruising, but no breaks. The notice from Noir surprised Val, but she took it in stride quickly, sending back her appreciation.

“What was the question, then?” Val asked. “Or did you just want to beat on the newbie?”

“Nah, although I’m looking forward to more sparring sessions in the future. Wallon and Kaya refuse to play– I mean, train,” Bri said, pouting at the mentioned Defects in turn. “And fighting Zavis is boring, he just puts up his shield.”

I wonder why, mused Val. She examined Bri out of the corner of her eye. The woman’s personality was back to cheerful and supportive, a complete 180 from the aggressive demeanor she had during the fight.

“The point was actually to see how well you’ve been incorporating your Daemon’s abilities into your fighting style,” continued Bri. “It’s one thing to see it in the footage but it’s another thing to see it in person. Whaddya think, Zavis?”

The man straightened up from his position near the edge of the fighting pit and gave Val a long look before responding. “We have a lot of work to do. Your new techniques are powerful, but you were barely able to use them against Bri. Some of that is just practice, but you need to radically rethink your combat style if you want to get stronger.”

“That bad, huh?” Val said with a wince.

“Well, you’ve clearly got potential… Not many F-rankers can bring me down even once,” Bri said in a consoling tone, reaching out to pat Val on the shoulder.

Val sighed, accepting the compliment but resigning herself to more serious training in the near future. Zavis’ assessment stung slightly, but the truth was that she already knew she had to rethink both her combat style and how to utilize Noir’s techniques. Noir’s previous Users had prioritized ending a fight as quickly as possible, but Val was just not strong enough to use the same strategies. She could feel some ideas brewing in the back of her mind, but it would take some time and more thought before she was ready to try any of them.

Fifteen minutes later, Val stepped down onto the ground floor of their new building. Her hair was still damp from the shower. She had taken slightly longer than normal washing up after spending several days in an exosuit. The fresh set of tight-fitting clothes felt good, but Val couldn’t help but feel slightly exposed, missing the protection of the exosuit already.

Apparently, while the Defects had been packing their things and Bri had been kicking her ass, someone had moved all of her belongings from her small apartment into one of the suites on the second floor. Val suspected Zyra, and after getting over her momentary annoyance at the intrusion into her privacy and autonomy, she admitted it was nice to not have to tie up that loose end.

In fact, a quick check with the city’s administrative Daemons showed that she no longer officially rented her old apartment. Instead, there was a new monthly charge being applied for the new building. Val’s eyebrows raised as she saw the increased rental charge. More than I want to pay, but admittedly the place is pretty nice. Good thing I have some savings, though. She toggled over to her finances and stopped in the middle of the hallway in shock. She refreshed the interface several times, but the big red negative number didn’t change.

Hearing voices from the kitchen around the corner, Val rushed in to discover the rest of the Defects already surrounding the small island. Wallon looked to be preparing some sort of smoothie. The pint glass looked tiny in Zavis’s massive hand, and the image of him sipping the drink through a small straw was comical enough to stop Val in her tracks.

“This one’s for you,” chirped Wallon, sliding another glass over the counter towards Val.

“Thanks,” muttered Val as she ripped her eyes away from Zavis to look at her own drink. She took a sip, her eyes widening in surprise at the burst of flavors. She took another sip and sighed contentedly before remembering her earlier panic.

“Wait, has anyone else checked their bank accounts recently?” asked Val urgently.

Wallon tilted his head, looking at her curiously. His eyes unfocused momentarily before meeting Val’s gaze again.

“Yes, everything seems to be in order for me. The downpayment for the new place looks like it went through as well.”

“What downpayment?!”

“Oh!” Bri smacked her forehead with the base of her palm. “I totally forgot, she had already stepped out when we were talking about this place.”

“Ah, right,” said Wallon. “Well, long story short, we owe the Council a decent chunk of credit for taking over these facilities. Part of that was pulled from our accounts this morning, and the rest we’ll pay as a monthly fee that includes maintenance. And probably Bell’s salary, among other things.”

“A downpayment?” Val’s jaw worked soundlessly for a moment before her next words squeaked out. “Is that why I apparently owe nearly a million credits to the city now?”

“Ahh, yes, that would be it,” replied Wallon sheepishly.

“Why do you make it sound like it’s not a big deal?” asked Val.

“Because it’s kinda not,” said Bri. “We take a lot of missions, and don’t have many expenses besides gear. You’ll probably be able to pay it back sooner than you think, but for now we can spot you.”

Bri looked around the table, and when she got a series of nods from the other Defects, her eyes unfocused as she talked with her Daemon. Shortly afterwards, Val got a notification of a joint loan for a quarter million credits each from the four Defects. Accepting the loan, she watched her net balance jump up to just over ten thousand credits. Enough money to set up a new exosuit and kit, but she was looking forward to some of those missions to put a dent in the new loan tab her interface had.

“Wow, thanks. That’s a lot of money. I really appreciate it,” said Val. She felt the tension start to leak out of her shoulders as she relaxed. Unfortunately, the respite was brief as Zavis finished his drink, setting the glass down on the counter.

“There were several other conditions you should be aware of,” the big man said.

Val’s hand tightened on her own smoothie. “More conditions?” she asked, memories of the last first conversation with the Defects coming to mind.

“Yes, about that too,” Zavis rumbled. His fingers tapped several times against the countertop, making him look uncharacteristically nervous. Which in turn made Val very anxious. What could make one of the strongest Users in the city so nervous?

“I want to apologize,” said Zavis.

Val blinked in surprise. “What for?”

“One of our early conditions was asking you not to kill another User. At the time, given your Daemon’s… reputation, it sounded prudent.” He paused and gave a quick glance over at Kaya. The silent woman stared at Val for a moment before looking back to Zavis and giving him a nod. Zavis continued, “However, we didn’t realize you’d be placed in such a dangerous situation so quickly. So we’re modifying the condition for our support: Only kill a User in self-defense, if you have no other alternatives.”

“Oh. Well, that sounds just as good to me. I’d still like to not kill people if I can.” Val took another moment to think before adding, “Not like I can right now anyway. Even my full strength was enough to let me get away from those Unshackled.”

“That’s true now,” Zavis conceded before his eyes hardened. “But we’ll start changing that soon.”

Val looked at the man questioningly, but it was Wallon who answered.

“What Zavis said will make sense when we tell you what else the Council asked of us. But before that, it’s important you understand the significance of how our relationship with the Council and other Guilds is changing right now,” said Wallon, his eyes sparkling again.

“The Council has kept us at a distance for many decades now. We operate completely independently of any of the Guilds, taking on high-risk missions. We are powerful, but not considered critical resources. In a word, we are dispensable.”

Val caught Kaya looking at her again and wilted under Kaya’s intense gaze. Despite his enthusiasm, Wallon didn’t miss the exchange.

“Yes, Noir has played a role in our dispensability in the past. But that’s changed since you were assigned to us. One of the biggest ‘sticks’ the Council uses to keep us in line – suddenly, Noir is an ally instead of a threat. The Unshackled are targeting you specifically, and since the Guilds clearly can be infiltrated, the Defects are the safest place for you to grow. In one fell swoop, we go from being dispensable to some of the most powerful and important Users in the city. The new building is just proof of how many resources the Council is willing to invest in you, Val.”

“Why? I mean, I like that they are willing to keep me safe and train me up. But, as much as I would hate it… wouldn’t it be smarter for them to take Noir back and chalk me up as a failed User?”

“Smarter?” Wallon seemed to taste the word before shaking his head. “I don’t know. Safer, certainly. But look what you’ve accomplished. A mole in the Guardian Guild uncovered. The presence of at least four known Unshackled near Peakpoint: Wolf, Brawn, Brain, and Void.”

“I’m not sure being abducted is an accomplishment,” mumbled Val.

“Maybe not. But your escape? Evading recapture and working your way back to Peakpoint? Impressive for a brand new User, even more so for a Defect with potentially unknown complications.”

Wallon gave a vicious smile, reminding Val of Bri’s grin during their spar. She remembered Bri’s comment that while Zavis was the Defects’ tactical leader, Wallon handled all of the politics. Val could practically see the gears turning in the rotund man’s head, slowly untangling the motivations and weaknesses of the various Council members and Unshackled.

“The Council may still decide to retire you and retrieve Noir,” continued Wallon. “But until then, they’ve decided to gamble on you. Any of Noir’s future Users will likely not fit well in any of the Guilds, and while your nanosystem is partially damaged, your strong neural connection with Noir is intriguing to the Technicians.”

“That’s… good, I guess?” Val didn’t particularly appreciate being treated like an experiment, but if it gave her a chance to continue getting stronger with Noir, it was something she was happy to exploit. Her stomach sank as Wallon leaned forward again. “Oh no, don’t tell me. This gamble doesn’t come for free, does it?”

“Sharp as a nano edge, this one,” cackled Wallon. “No it doesn’t come for free at all.”

Zavis cut in now. “The Council believes you have potential. But they require some proof that you can follow through on that potential. They want to see you pass your E rank certification within two months.”

Val’s jaw dropped as her mind raced through what she knew about the ranking certifications. Even the most powerful non-Users rarely made it out of the F ranks, so an E ranking really signified superhuman performance. New Users typically made it to the E ranks within six months, the D rank within the first two years, and the C rank in the first decade. The B and A ranks were reserved for those with unparalleled drive or talent, and the S rank for the truly extraordinary.

Although I am up at F2 now… With the right training, E might be possible in two months.

Val breathed in deeply through her nose before exhaling out between pursed lips. “OK.”

“OK?” Wallon raised his eyebrows.

“Yes, OK. It’ll be hard, but with your input, I think I can make E rank in two months.”

Wallon burst out into a full cackle now. Wiping a tear from the corner of his eye as he stopped laughing, he said, “Oh, this is great. What confidence! You’ll love what comes next then.”

Val’s head whipped back towards Zavis, heart plummeting as she saw him nod and start speaking again.

“And they want to see you make D rank in another six months after that.”