Leigh was staring at him, a surprised, open mouth smile on her face. Archer blushed a little and shrugged.
“I didn’t think they’d be airing it so soon,” he said. “Wow…”
He grinned and turned up the volume on the controller as the program shifted to show him and Rachel sitting across from each other in the studio. The camera cut to an angle that only showed Rachel as she asked the first question.
“I’ll jump straight to the point,” she said. “Archer, there are some people who claim that you have… benefited, from your brother’s disappearance. Do you see any validity to that line of reasoning?”
Archer frowned as the camera panned back to him on the screen.
“Of course,” said Archer. “It’s nice having a comfy bed. The food is higher quality. Lots of perks to it.”
What the fuck?
“That… wasn’t the question that she asked me!” He looked over at Leigh and then back at the screen, unable to believe what he was watching.
The news program was showing Rachel again, looking genuinely stunned by Archer’s coarse answer. It was all a farce, created in the editing room, rather than reality. Rachel’s expression was a mask, the face of an actress rather than a serious reporter.
“Wow, okay. Before this happened, did you ever feel as though it was you who really deserved to be in the Metal Squad, and not Trevor?”
“I am the right man for the job,” said Archer. “I know how to survive better than most.”
“You sound as though you don’t have much sympathy for him,” said Rachel. “Even though he was a hero to the city of Tempus, and your brother. Can you at least say that you love him, that you miss him?”
“The two of us had a complicated relationship,” said Archer.
Archer shifted on the couch, balling his fists and trying to keep his anger in check. Leigh put her hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, it’s okay,” she said. “This will probably blow over in a couple of days, once you start protecting the city.”
“It’s a fucking character assassination,” muttered Archer. “I don’t understand it.”
He took a deep breath and turned the TV off.
“It’s just how they operate.” Leigh put an arm around his shoulder, gently hugging him. “You’re playing their game now. They’re trussing you down so that it will be easier to manipulate you into supporting one faction or another.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do?” He sighed, and shook his head. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to fight back against this.”
Leigh put her hand on top of his and squeezed.
“If you have any free time tomorrow, come find me,” she said. “I have some friends that I think you should meet.”
Archer raised an eyebrow at her, but didn’t ask any further. The tone of her voice was conspiratorial, and rather than being put off by it, he found he liked it.
CHAPTER 19
Despite the doctored interview, or perhaps just because of his exhaustion, Archer still managed to get a full night of sleep. He woke up the next morning, changed into the clothes Leigh had left out for him, and found that she’d already left the apartment for the morning. A note was waiting for him on the counter, along with breakfast.
Archer,
I need to take care of a few things. I’ll be around later today for what I mentioned last night.
Leigh
She’d drawn a small, cute smiley face next to where she’d signed her name. The note was vague, but that one detail almost made him want to reread it again, as though it was some kind of love letter.
He sat down and ate breakfast, his mind running through the interview again, and again. The idea that people had seen the interview, beyond just him and Leigh, was horrifying. He would be dealing with the fallout of the words that woman had put in his mouth for some time to come.
There was a knock at the door before he’d finished eating. Archer opened it and wasn’t terribly surprised to find Ada standing on the other side.
“Come on,” she said. “You have training to do today.”
Archer sighed.
“Can I at least finish my breakfast?”
Ada shook her head.
On the rail car outside, Archer sat in silence for the first minute or two. He was waiting for her to bring it up, but it didn’t seem like she intended to.
“Ada,” he said. “Did you see the interview last night?”
Ada nodded.
“Of course,” she said, simply.
“Look, it’s not true,” said Archer. “They took my answers and created new questions to go with them. It’s why my responses all seemed so callous.”
“I’m well aware of that, Archer,” said Ada. “But doesn’t mean it’s solely their fault.”
“What?”
She turned to look at him, frowning slightly.
“If you’d used your head, you would have considered such a possibility before ever opening your mouth,” she said. “This could have been avoided if you’d chosen your words more carefully.”
“That’s… true, I guess,” he said. “But it’s not like I’m the one misrepresenting myself.”
“Get off it, Archer,” said Ada. “You’re going to be training with Vivian today. I need you to be ready for it.”
“Vivian…” Archer ran a hand through his hair. “Trevor’s fiancée? She’s not a fan of me, Ada.”
“I talked to her,” she said. “Now that Trevor’s gone, Viv is the second best fighter in the Metal Squad, after Bart. She’s also the only one currently not on assignment.”
“Why isn’t she on…” Archer trailed off, realizing that he could guess the answer on his own.
She isn’t on assignment because her fiancé just died.
“Anyway, please,” said Ada. “Be on your best behavior. You might have to explain yourself to her a little before she warms up to you. Do it. We can’t have interpersonal issues getting in the way of our team.”
Archer nodded. The rest of the ride went by in silence. He and Ada climbed out of the rail car once it reached the North Compound and headed inside.
The techs in the armory were running diagnostics on Archer and Vivian’s armor skins. When he entered the room, he felt a half dozen eyes subtly size him up. He couldn’t tell if they were angry or distrusting, or if they’d recognized that the interview was fake and were supportive, but there was definitely something new in the air.
“Change into your undersuit,” said Ada. “We need to get started immediately.”
“Right.”
Archer headed through the side door and into the locker room. His undersuit was in the same locker where he’d left it, and he briefly wondered about how and when the tight fitting, rubber garment was washed as he stripped his clothes off.
He was fully naked, struggling to get his first leg into the suit, when the door opened behind him. Vivian walked in, wearing jeans and a white blouse. She took in the sight of Archer’s nudity and then scowled, while he cringed.
“I’ll change once you’re done,” she muttered.
“Didn’t realize that Metal Knights were so uptight about that kind of thing,” he said. He’d meant it as a joke, but it came out wrong in both message and tone.
Vivian’s eyes flashed with something murderous. She glanced over him, almost as though she was trying to see all of the details.
I wonder if she’s comparing me to Trevor in her head.
It was a ridiculous thought, and Vivian was already leaving the locker room before he had time to harbor it for more than a second. Archer shook his head and finished pulling on his skin tight undersuit.
He headed back out into the armory, and again, felt most of the room’s attention subtly shift to him. Archer ignored it and headed over to his armor skin. It looked exactly the same as it had the day before, all jet black and navy blue, like the human form of a stealth fighter from the old era.
Climbing into it felt easier than it had the day before. He pres
sed the buttons inside and the helmet pivoted over his head. The view screen immediately scrolled through several warnings. This time, there was nothing about him being an unauthorized user.
“It’s responding to you even better than it did yesterday,” said Ada, over the speaker. “Why don’t you head out into the training area? Vivian will be joining you momentarily.”
“Got it,” said Archer.
He turned and walked through the door that led into the training area, his body adjusting to the sensation of having the armor skin amplify each movement and strengthen each joint.
Trevor was waiting for him on the center of the floor, grinning like a maniacal villain. Archer felt horrified and glanced in the other direction, as though he could beat his ghostly brother just by focusing his attention elsewhere. He’d been hoping that it had just been a onetime thing, an anomaly created from the initial resistance of the armor skin to a new wearer.
“Archer!” called Trevor. “How delightful…”
Archer frowned and thumbed the mute button, making sure he wouldn’t be overheard.
“I talked to Karen about the armor skins,” he said. “She told me that many of the Metal Knights suffer from emotional and psychological issues, stemming from how the armor skins work.”
“Not hallucinations, though,” said Trevor. “I’m real. Which is rather… unfortunate, for the both of us.”
“You aren’t real,” said Archer. “I don’t believe it.”
Trevor laughed, and Archer felt his face flush with anger. He did believe that it was really Trevor, or at least that it was possible, despite his own outward denial.
“You don’t have to believe the truth for it to still be true,” said Trevor. “I’m real. I guess in a sense, you could say that I’m haunting you from the afterlife. Though, in reality it’s far less than supernatural.”
“What about the notebooks, then?” asked Archer. “In your desk? And the weapons? If you’re real, you should be able to explain those…”
Trevor frowned.
“You didn’t flip past the first few pages in the notebook, did you?”
Archer shook his head.
“Good,” said Trevor. “Most of those sketches aren’t really for you to see, brother. It was a hobby of mine, and the guns? We live in a dangerous world.”
Archer was silent, unsure of what to do or say. Ada had been giving him commands for the past minute or so, but he couldn’t tear his focus away from Trevor’s apparition.
“What do you want?” asked Archer, in a quiet voice.
Trevor’s eyes flashed with something that bordered on demonic.
“You’ll know, soon enough,” he said. “Just relax, little brother. Keep doing what you’ve been doing.”
Archer didn’t have a response for that. His despair had coalesced in his stomach as though it were a solid thing, painful and heavy. He closed his eyes, unmuted his mic, and took a deep breath.
“Archer, can you hear me?” asked Ada.
“Yeah, sorry,” he said. “I got distracted for a second.”
“Vivian is on her way out. Follow her lead from here.”
“Got it.”
CHAPTER 20
He walked further into the training area. Trevor didn’t say anything, but remained present, appearing in the periphery of his vision. Whenever Archer tried to focus on him, he vanished. It was more torturous than if his brother had been aggressive and shouting.
Archer felt like Trevor was like some kind of vengeful phantom, slowly sneaking up on him from behind, biding his time until he could take his revenge.
Isn’t that what Trevor’s doing? Does he blame me, somehow, for all of this?
Archer heard metal footsteps and looked up to see Vivian headed in through the entrance of the arena. Her armor skin looked so different from his, pink and white and feminine, while still managing to give off the same powerful aura of a Metal Knight. Archer remembered how Vivian had reacted to him the day before and wondered if maybe some of the effect came from the woman inside.
“The training weapons are against the wall, to your right,” said Vivian, in a cold voice. “Take one.”
Archer hesitated, wanting to clear the air between them as much as he could before he did anything.
“Vivian, look,” he said. “I think we should talk for a minute about what happened yesterday.”
Vivian froze in place. She seemed to be glaring at him, though it was hard to tell, with her eyes not being visible through the view screen of her armor skin.
“There is nothing for us to talk about,” she said, stiffly. “You deserve worse than what I gave you, after what you said in that interview!”
Archer swore under his breath. Or at least he thought it had been under his breath. From the way Vivian reacted, it seemed like the mic was more sensitive than he’d assumed.
“Vivian, that interview was a complete hack job!” he said, anger entering his voice. “She cut and pasted my answers to fit questions she hadn’t even asked me!”
“Trevor has spoken about you before, Archer,” snapped Vivian. “I was his fiancée. I didn’t know the whole story, but I knew enough.”
Archer glanced over to where Trevor stood. His brother was frowning slightly, but not at him. Trevor’s attention was completely on Vivian, and his thoughts were clearly elsewhere.
“You think you knew enough?” asked Archer. “Everything Trevor ever said about me and all of the facts on record are lies!”
“You bastard!” she shouted. “How dare you insult his memory?”
“It’s the truth,” said Archer. “Whether you believe it or not. I was his brother, and I was on the receiving end of his callousness.”
“He was gentle, and kind!”
“If there’s one answer from the edited interview that was accurate, it’s that I didn’t love Trevor,” said Archer. “He didn’t give a fuck about me or our mom. I didn’t give a fuck about him.”
Vivian let out a cry of pain and rage. She hurled herself forward faster than Archer would have thought possible, swinging her arm into a punch that connected with the side of his helmet. The force of the blow was unbelievable, enough to knock Archer off his feet.
More unbelievable still was the way his armor skin absorbed and dissipated the energy of the attack. He felt a flash of pain from the neural node transmitting the sensation, but it was contained, as though he’d suffered a scuff or a slap. His focus was slightly shaken from the acceleration that went along with the impact, but it was nothing compared to the damage he would have suffered unprotected.
Archer caught himself on his arms as he hit the ground and immediately tucked into a roll. His momentum brought him back to standing, and he turned in time to block Vivian’s next strike, a side kick that Archer caught with both of his forearms held outward.
“You fucking bastard!” screamed Vivian. Ada was yelling at both of them over the speaker, but Archer didn’t hear her.
“If you knew him like you say you did then you know it’s true!” he shouted. Archer threw himself forward, shoving Vivian back. She stumbled slightly, and he moved to follow up.
Just as he pulled back his arm for a punch, Trevor appeared directly in front of him, his hands extended in front of Archer’s view screen. Archer tried to shift to see past him, but Trevor moved with him, distracting him from being able to target Vivian properly.
“Don’t touch her,” said Trevor.
Vivian took her opening, leaping into a flying kick that struck Archer square in the chest. He flailed, grabbing onto her leg as he fell backward and pulling her along with him. The two of them hit the ground hard, metal clanging against metal as their suits banged against each other.
Archer wrestled her back. She was just as strong as he was in the suit, but her movements were enough to let him know that grappling wasn’t something the Metal Squad practiced very often in their armor skins. He could feel the metal of her suit through the sensors in his, the armor skin’s artificial nervous system
making it act, as the name implied, like a second skin.
“Let me go!” shouted Vivian. Archer straddled her, pushing her arms back at an angle that would make it difficult to counter. He didn’t expect her to give up, but the way she fought against him was almost feral.
“Stop it!” he shouted.
Vivian lunged forward, head butting him directly in the face. It stung a bit, and Archer’s eyes began to water on reflex. It gave her the opportunity she needed to squirm out from under him. She rose to one knee and fired off a barrage of punches that Archer wasn’t ready for. As he tried to block, Trevor began distracting him again, blocking his line of sight and ensuring that most of the blows found their target.
He did manage to push her back a few feet with a lucky shove. They stood facing each other, both furious and committed to the fight. Vivian took a step forward to launch her next attack, but before she could, the training area’s door opened and Ada stepped through, holding a massive rifle in her hands.
“Stop this now!” she shouted. Archer barely heard her, his attention still locked on Vivian’s pink and white armor suit. She took a step forward, and suddenly, a flash of white lightening exploded into the space between them, blinding Archer with its intensity.
“I will aim for your suits, next time,” said Ada. “It’s a lightning gun. It will cause both of you real, serious pain, without doing any damage to the armor skins that can’t be easily fixed.”
Archer took a slow breath, forcing himself to calm down and think rationally. Vivian appeared to be doing the same thing.
“I can’t work with him,” said Vivian.
“He’s joining the squad, Vivian,” said Ada. “You don’t have a choice. He’s Trevor’s-”
“He’s not!”
“He is!” said Ada, her voice sharp, severe, and commanding. “He’s Trevor’s brother, and he’s Trevor’s replacement. Get used to it.”
She turned and left the training area, apparently content with the effect of her words. Archer looked over at Vivian in her armor skin. She looked vulnerable, despite the fact that she was incased in one of the most advanced military weapons ever created.
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