The two boys asked no questions and slipped their t-shirt off over their heads, their masks were pulled on their face and they climbed through the door of Master Wen’s aiv. Their briefing took place during the journey. Neither of the boys was allowed to speak, the expectation was for them to simply observe some of the newcomers to the gym. It turned out the reporters cared more about the gym becoming popular again than the new fighters it had obtained. Especially considering their disastrous first fight.

Both the boys were pleased with this, they had bothered dreaded actually doing some PR. Uvo was considerably nervous, he had no idea how to act in front of a camera, he was unsure of even being capable of walking properly so he had to thank his lucky stars that they only had to sit down.

When they arrived they found a couple of other aiv’s parked outside. The entrance to the gym shocked the boys to the core. It had been completely refurbished. The wood looked like new, the sign was repainted and beautifully written. The building itself was still in shambles but the addition of a presentable entrance allowed the boys to walk in with their heads held high.

Their first sight when walking in was 2 reporters taking photos of Tom training 2 new students.

“This is not as grand as I expected,” Antony whispered.

Uvo just shrugged.

“What did you expect from winning 1 low-rank fight?” Master Wen chimed in.

It was Antony’s turn to shrug. They approached the stools at the back and each took a seat. They watched the new students train for 5 minutes before doing some training of their own which was also filmed by the reporters.

Eventually, after half an hour of unanswered questions and Master Wen bragging about her teaching qualifications, the reporters left and the newcomers were faced for the first time with the two boys who were currently the face of Taijitu.

“Anaea, Sheb. This is Yin and Yang. I’m afraid I can’t tell you their real names for obvious reasons.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Anaea.” A pretty girl with red hair waved shyly to the two boys.

“I’m Sheb” A dark-skinned boy with jet black hair smiled and shook the two boys hand.

The boys nodded, unsure of how to greet without speaking out loud, again for fear of recording devices revealing their identity.

“Lovely, now that you’ve met let’s get back to training.”

Master Wen took the boys into her office, leaving Tom to take the newcomers through some basic routines.

“What do you think?”

“Yeah, they look good.”

“Not the students you daft boy, the renovation.”

“Oh, it looked fantastic Master Wen. By the way, where were the sponsors?”

“Oh, they came round briefly to watch, you guys didn’t notice. With luck, they should be in Jerefiah and Tracy’s office right now finalising the deal.”

“Oh, he’s done a good job.”

“Yes, I think so too. Right, enough pleasantries. You boys have your next fight this weekend.”

“So soon?”

“We need to capitalise on our victory, I’ve tried to arrange a rematch with your first fight but if they say no I have another team who are 2 points behind them. Happy?”

“Sure.”

Uvo nodded. Master Wen smiled and shooed the boys out her office. They had their training already so they both went home. The rest of the members already had.

“Jerefiah, how did it go?”

“Perfectly, the company is a sportswear shop, they said they’d provide clothes as long as they wore their shorts during fights. Well, there’s some more nitty gritty but that’s the gist of it.”

“Simple enough.”

“Yeah, and the best part is that they have contacts for gauntlets, proper ones.”

“That would be extremely useful. The boys need some proper gloves.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“How’s Tracy handling the work?”

“Well, the fighting licences have her round the bend but she’s getting the hang of it.”

“Good.”

“How are the boys?”

“They’re better than anything I’ve trained before, I just hope they maintain that fire.”

“Good, seems like we’re pretty set.”

“Never. How’s the work on the premise going?”

“Fine, the funds are holding thanks to the new members, the fight winnings and the sponsorship. Are you sure we can use it all? Don’t you need to eat?”

“I haven’t eaten in 7 months Jerefiah, I can probably keep going for another 3.”

“Instead of that, how about we go to dinner? You know the place right next to the station?”

“The European one with a red sign?”

“Yeah, that one.”

“Sure, haven’t been there in years.”

A1 paused before opening the door. Dreading the bollocking he was about to receive.

“Come in, A1.”

He sighed.

“Yessir.”

Guranahan stared at the machine that entered. It was floating, a huge sniper mounted to its back and a blank face made it impossible to tell what it was thinking.

“You have good news I hope. I rarely get good news.”

“I’m afraid not, Sir. The girl is being protected.”

“Protected, by who?”

“By Wen Daiyu. It took me a long time to figure out exactly who’s shield it was without being detected.”

“By Wen? How is that possible?”

“She’s much stronger than me, even you Sir. I am not capable of killing someone under so much protection.”

“Oh but this has made me want to kill her even more.”

A1 did the closest thing he could do to sighing.

Monty was sitting on the white sofa with his feet propped on the table in front. He’d been on the planet for a good week now and he’d accomplished everything he’d needed to. He’d found his brother, he’d also worked alongside the daughter of his father’s acquaintance.

His baggage had been whisked away into his own fabricated space and he was just making full use of the minibar before heading home, his planet awaited his mission’s outcome. They would no doubt be disappointed that his brother had entered into an honour contract.

When an Alo Rel’lar enters an honour contract, they are required to keep to it. Such things are only formed in extreme circumstances, so much so that there had not been one in place for centuries. A breach of the contract by the employer meant the Rel’lar was free to terminate the contract, a breach of contract by the Rel’lar was punishable by death, carried out by the Rel’lar who wrote the contract, or a senior Rel’lar.

This was not something he could meddle with lightly so decided to allow his brother’s employer to live out his puny lifespan, his brother could handle a couple of centuries, hell it may even convince him to join the Ola Rel’lar considering they need not worry about such annoying things.

He hopped off the sofa, scarfing the last shot of liquor. He made up his mind to visit the planet again soon, despite his short journey he was very interested in the future of some of the residents.