I couldn’t fully comprehend what was happening. I’d fixated so purely on this moment, on every possible, painstaking step I might have to take to get to this point that having it happen so quickly and easily felt strange.

And even though I thought I’d considered every possibility, this wasn’t one of them.

I was standing in the center of what was once a large gymnasium, the kind you see in wealthy private schools or anywhere with a serious athletic team. It was kitted out to the nines, complete with climbing walls, and folded up basketball hoops on either side. The center comprised a series of massive mats. Two groups of Users clad in full gear were recovering from some sort of strenuous exercise, possibly a mock battle.

Nick was walking through them, inspecting each person. His classic good looks hadn’t suffered in his captivity. Neither had his physique. If anything, Nick appeared even more muscular than before.

He’s been leveling.

I didn’t like that realization, or the many questions it incurred.

Mind control?

Somewhere in the distance, there was the echo of something massive and mechanical clicking into place. The lights took on a red tinge, and Nick swiped at the air. His brow furrowed. “We have a situation. Everyone form up on me.”

Not only is he out and about unguarded, but he also holds some portion of authority.

One of the two groups of Users in black athletic gear snapped to attention immediately, lining up behind Nick.

A blonde man—judging from body language, the leader of the other group called over to Nick. “What’s with the alert?”

“Intruder in the silo.” Nick said. “Somewhere in this wing. We need to gear up and get moving.”

Fuck. The woman at the bus stop screwed me. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. In her own words, she’d teleported me directly to what I “sought.”

Nick.

And she’d put me in an incredibly compromising position. I’d bypassed whatever screening process Sunny intended and entered their facility directly. Even worse, I was out in the open with nowhere to hide. The only reason no one had seen me yet was a combination of my mask, stealth feat, and that I hadn’t moved. If I tried to take cover behind something, they’d spot me immediately.

“There!” A voice said called from behind me. I knew, instinctively, it was directed at me.

Too late.

screamed.

I stepped to the side blindly, heeding the warning. A blade whistled through the air, carving the space I’d previously occupied in half. It was impossibly long, with a slight curve. The woman wielding it cackled, spinning in place, lashing out artlessly. But the power behind her blows was nothing to sneeze at.

The attacker rotated her blade ninety degrees and swung it in a savage arc towards my neck. I let myself fall backwards, barely dodging it, all the while racking my brain on how to handle this. Killing anyone now was a bad look, even if it was in self-defense at no fault of my own. If I surrendered, there was a non-zero chance they’d take me captive, but entirely possible that my mask would come off in the process before Aaron or Sunny interceded.

Then there was the problem of Nick. Unlike everyone else present, Nick knew exactly how I fought. What weapons I used. It was an oversight I hadn’t considered, because I didn’t think I had to. I’d assumed that if Nick figured it out, he’d stay silent. But as much as I wanted to have faith in Nick, faith had never served me well.

I had to operate like he was with them until I received definitive confirmation otherwise.

What would Myrddin do?

What image did I want to present to the suits? Compassion and empathy—hell, even humanity—wouldn’t help me here.

These people were hyenas. Any hint of softness would sharpen the knife at my back.

Myrddin was cold. He enjoyed hurting people, but was rational enough to understand that impulse could work against him. At this point in his life, he would have worked out exactly how far he could push the limit. What was acceptable, and what wasn’t.

He was everything I tried not to be.

“A living being seeks above all else to discharge its strength; Life itself is Will to Power.” Azure quoted.

Unsurprisingly, my summon was fond of Nietzsche, alongside every other creative on the planet. But Azure had a point. Myrddin had done nothing wrong here and they’d attacked without warning. He wouldn’t hold back, wouldn’t flinch at his enemy’s pain. And if he was in a position where killing was off the table, he’d make damn well sure that the lesson was etched in flesh.

There could be no understanding for mistakes. No tolerance for weakness.

The woman struck again, aiming for Myrddin’s head.

A living being seeks above all else to discharge its strength.

I casted on my glove and caught the blade between my fingers.

The woman’s mouth dropped open in an expression of pure surprise. I pivoted quickly and grabbed her jaw, dragging her down to the ground even as I felt the pressure of her teeth on my armored gauntlet. I pinned her head beneath my knee, cocked a fist and struck downward.

It was like punching concrete. There was a faint shimmer around her face from where the blow landed, and from the muffled swearing and struggling she didn’t appear stunned.

granted me vague insight into the ability. It was a shield, but not a strong one.

Three more quick strikes and the shield shattered. The woman’s jaw snapped like a twig.

“Stay back—“ I heard Nick yell out.

To no avail.

Two more charged me in quick succession, others followed but kept their distance. A bruiser with a strong, ridiculously proportioned upper body that made his head look tiny, and a mage.

They were a step up from the last encounter. Coordinated. The mage kept his distance, methodically tracking the bruiser’s movements, so he didn’t catch the larger man in his crossfire, attacking with thin beams of light from a wand—the magic covered little area, but it felt powerful, like the thin focus point had magnified the potential somehow.

The two Users staggered their attacks expertly, to the point I didn’t have time to do anything more than dodge.

I smiled behind the mask. Early on, this would have been more than enough to take me out of the game permanently. But things had changed.

” He’s going to hit you any second now he’s going to hit you he’s going to hit you.” I barraged the bruiser with waiting for an opening. The mental bombardment took a toll, because suddenly, the bruiser was shooting nervous glances towards the mage.

I faked a stumble.

The bruiser raced forward out of turn, axe overhead, just as the mage was carefully aiming a shot. The thin ray of light just missed the Bruiser’s head, singing his eyebrow.

The bruiser glared daggers at the mage. “Hey! Watch where you’re—“

I drove my thumb into his eye. In ordinary circumstances, you wouldn’t catch me within ten feet of an opponent like this if I could help it. But as I’d done nothing but avoid their attacks since they’d engaged with me, the bruisers guard was down.

He dropped his heavy axe with a scream, stumbling backward, blood leaking from the hand that cupped his face. “Motherfuck—“

I sprinted past, the bruiser already forgotten. Mages were the real threat. The only reason this one hadn’t already flattened me was that he was a team player, unwilling to hit his ally with friendly fire. I needed to end this before he changed tact.

The mage back-pedaled. Several Users behind him brought weapons to bear, but they were too slow to interfere before I reached the mage.

Unfortunately, the mage reached the same conclusion. Instead of attacking, he drew the wand in a tight circle around himself.

I knew what he was doing before emulation told me. Creating a barrier.

That wasn’t good. If he managed it before I got to him, that would be enough to hold me off until the others stepped in. I could draw a weapon and potentially break through the barrier, but giving away more of my repertoire might tip off Nick.

Damn it.

No. I could still do this. Judging from the faint outline, the mage’s shield was forming a bubble. That was smart, as it meant I couldn’t simply attack him from the sides, but I knew from my experiences during the transposition that magical shielding took a small amount of time to kick in.

Pitch black particles danced across my glove as I fired off Despite its description specifically detailing multiple application, one use of the ability was incredibly draining.

It slowed the shield’s formation, but it was almost too late. There was still a hole, near the top that would close in seconds.

I toggled the and leapt. My enhanced agility guided me, as it had against Cameron, and I narrowly threaded the needle through the opening. I landed squarely within the mage’s bubble and knocked the wand from his hand, then grabbed him by the throat.

The flesh around his neck turned white from the pressure as I squeezed, looking around curiously at the still maintained bubble. A dark chuckle escaped my lips. “Can’t dispel it without your wand, can you?”

His eyes grew wide, panicked, as he strained in vain to reach the wand at his feet. When that failed, he struck the arm that held him with wild slaps and punches that carried little force. If I were to guess, he’d probably not bothered putting any stats into Strength. As a fellow glass cannon, I felt for him. Though only a little.

Unfortunately for the captive mage, Myrddin would see this as a prime opportunity to show he was not to be fucked with. But how?

Despite their advanced capabilities, I wasn’t sure even the suits could fix a serious neck injury. Hence, wheel-chairing this guy was probably a bad idea. Flesh-wounds were recoverable, unless you accumulated a lot of them, like I had during the transposition.

“Please.” The mage begged.

My eyes landed on his rapidly bobbing Adam’s apple. I wrapped both hands around his neck, and positioned my thumbs against it, and prepared to push.

“Wait.” Nick said. He’d moved up next to the bubble, a sweat of perspiration dripping down his forehead. He held both hands palms out, though the non-threatening gesture didn’t extend to the rest of his body language.

“Now you want to talk?” I snarled.

Nick nodded. “You’re right.” He turned to the others. “He’s right. Why I keep telling you grumpy fuckers to use your goddamn words before you throw yourselves headfirst into something half-cocked.”

He rounded on the mage. “And why the hell did the both of you decide to engage a potential threat with nothing but your wand and a track suit?”

“… Hurk…” The mage said.

“Do you mind?” Nick asked me.

I loosened my grip slightly.

The mage lapsed into a coughing fit and struggled to speak. “I wanted… to distinguish myself.”

“So you rushed, and now you’re about to distinguish yourself all over that bubble.” Nick gave the mage a hard look.

The mage wilted.

Nick strained to smile. “I appreciate your help, teaching these guys a lesson. A lot of them have some kind of experience, but they don’t take the powers and abilities as seriously as they should. Sometimes, it takes a self-serving of humble pie to shake old habits loose.”

I inclined my head slowly.

Nick rubbed his neck awkwardly. “Thing is, the idiot in a tracksuit you’re about to strangle was placed under my charge. And I take that seriously. His name is Keith. And he might be inexperienced, and an idiot, but I’m responsible for him. The others will live. But if you strangle the life out of him, I’m not sure I can let that go.”

Keith suddenly tried to break my grip, and I responded by winding back an arm and slapping him across the face hard enough that my hand hurt.

When Nick tensed, I shrugged. “He was asking for it.”

“This is your chance to reset. If you keep pushing, it won’t go well for you.” Nick warned.

How deep are you in?

“What. You’re going to stop me?” I challenged, trying to gauge his mental state. So far, he looked and sounded like the Nick I knew. Exactly like the Nick I knew.

Nick blinked. “I mean, I’ll try. Can’t say how much good it’ll do. You put a respectable scrapper out of commission, then manhandled my best tank and mage, all without a weapon. You obviously know what you’re doing. The problem comes when you get out of the gym.”

“Oh?”

“Oh-indeed, buttercup. Because all of us,” Nick pointed to the surrounding group. “We’re the Z team around these parts. Assuming you clear the room—which is a big assumption, because these guys have put in a lot of work and I’m proud of them—out there?” He indicated the door on the far side of the gym. “You won’t make it twenty feet.”

A dark-skinned girl with gauges in her ears stepped forward beside Nick. Late teens, maybe older. She spoke with a thick middle eastern accent. “There is a woman who can freeze you to stone with nothing more than a glance. A little girl capable of turning your insides to jelly. A man who can pulverize bone with a gentle touch.”

“And a unicorn to round out the lot?” I sneered.

The woman frowned sternly. “And as irritatingly modest as my friend here might be, he’ll offer far more resistance than you might expect. He is one of our best—“

Nick shouldered passed her. He was still maintaining the sheepish affect, but there was real irritation in his eyes. “Thank you, Halima. One of these days we’re going to have a little talk about the importance of under-promising and over-delivering.”

Halima didn’t look like she got it, but she stepped back just the same.

“They respect you.” I realized, saying it aloud before I could stop myself.

“And now that the pre-starting gun jitters are out, they’ll stand down if I ask them to. Let’s just start over from the beginning.” Nick pointed a finger gun at me and grinned. “So, tell me what you want, and we’ll see if I can help you out.”

So upfront and honest.

Nick wasn’t being controlled. If I wasn’t already sure, Azure confirmed it. He was under the geas and nothing else. Also, there was no tell, no obvious giveaway that he was doing any of this under duress. If it was simple blackmail, leveraging a random User core and claiming it was Jinny’s, I doubted he’d be able to maintain this facade under stress. If it was anyone else, I’d have believed they’d succumbed to whatever temptation Aaron offered.

But Nick wasn’t anyone else. I’d watched him go through physical therapy so rigorous and draining it was essentially torture in the guise of recovery. I’d watched him struggle as he readjusted to school life. Saw him lose a promising sports career and countless so-called friends.

You can’t trust someone you’ve only seen at their best. Only after you’ve seen them endure hardships, can you glean an inkling of who they really are.

I was there the night Nick hit rock bottom. Saw the truth for myself.

It was why I hated him. Why I cherished him. Because no matter how many times he got knocked down, how many hardships he endured, Nick served as an eternal rebuttal to my core belief, that people were only as upright as their circumstances allowed.

Nick was earnest, and genuine, and good.

There had to be an angle he was working. It was just a question of finding it.

What the hell are you up to?