by Riker Kane
“It’s gotta be something magnanimous…” Quentin scratched his chin, deep in thought. Suddenly, his eyes widened. “I’ve got it! The Gorgeous Guardians!”
“Uh…”
“Think about it. We’re protecting the world and we’re all pretty good-looking, which you’ve gotta admit.”
My entire body shook as I chuckled. “I don’t know…” I looked over at Nina. The redhead was calmly chewing on her slice as she stared intently at the pizza in front of her. “Any thoughts?”
“How about the Defenders?“ she said.
“Simple and effective. Works for me,” I said with a laugh. “Quentin?”
Quentin twisted his lips like he was trying to search for an objection. “We can’t just be the Defenders. It’s too plain.”
“How about the Great Defenders?”
Nina nodded in approval with a smile on her lips.
Quentin held up his floppy slice of pizza for another toast. “To the Great Defenders. Now we need code names.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I put my hands up. “Hold on a second. Code names?”
“Listen, Liam. You’re squad leader. You should know better than anybody what it’s like to shout our names. We’re an elite government squad running high-end, humanity-saving missions. We can’t call each other by our names.” He pointed his index finger at me to emphasize his point, which only made me laugh even more.
I squinted at him then looked at Nina as if she would help me understand he was getting at. She raised her eyebrows at me and looked just as confused.
“You’re Quentin. She’s Nina. What’s wrong with that?”
“Not professional enough. I think we should have names. For our camaraderie, too.” He gave Nina a wink and she laughed.
“Code names would go well with our squad name,” she said.
“Fine,” I said. “What do you want me to call you?”
“Oh, let’s see.” Quentin put his pizza down and rubbed his hands. “Something cool. But simple. Not too complex.”
“How about Q?” Nina said.
“That’s too simple.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I kinda like it… Q.” I was already chuckling but the way he rolled his eyes made me laugh even harder.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll take it. How about you, Nina?”
The redhead shook her head. “It’s not something I’ve ever thought about.”
“Think about it. You can call yourself anything you want. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not.”
“How about Rose?” I said.
“Not bad. It goes along with her red hair. And roses smell nice, too. Uh, not that I’m smelling you or anything…”
She looked at me. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking but her lips twitched into a smile. “I like it.”
“Picking a name because you like the smell,” Quentin said. “What do you like the smell of, Liam?”
“French fries and chocolate cake.”
“Me, too. I don’t think it’d be a good idea to be yelling that out in the middle of a battle though. It’d just make my stomach growl.”
“I’m open to suggestions.” I held my hands out to them. They looked at one another. We were silent with the gears churning in our heads.
“You’re the leader. The heart and soul of our team. It shouldn’t be too hard to come up with a name for you.”
“How about that?” Nina spoke it softly then turned to me. “Soul.”
“Soul…” The more I thought about it, the more it grew on me. “That’ll work.
Quentin nodded in approval. “Soul. Q. Rose. I can dig it.” He grabbed another slice of pizza and got up from his seat. “To the Great Defenders!”
He said it loud enough to get the attention from some of the other tables. Nina and I joined him in his toast.
“To the Great Defenders,” she said.
“Great Defenders,” I said.
Quentin took his seat, never looking so satisfied.
“Try not to eat too much pizza,” she said. “I don’t want you underperforming at the next Junction because of indigestion.”
“Relax, Nina. I’m a Vanguard. This is just fuel for me.”
“I think I’ll start checking out the bestiary on my dorm tablet,” I said. “We’ll be ready for tomorrow, Nina.”
16: Friends and Foes
Liam Aldridge
Level 2 Private Serviceman
(100 Red Mana until next level)
Hit Points 100
Endurance 50
Strength 8
Speed 8
Durability 9
Control 8
Red Mana 1250
Blue Mana 425
Green Mana 250
I stood at the display tablet just outside of the dining hall near the dormitories. While the other recruits and Omegas were busy scurrying in for breakfast before heading to the Nerve Center, I considered how many levels I had to gain.
The tablet indicated I had enough Red Mana to increase five levels. The decision to level was easy. The hardest part was figuring out how to spend my stat points.
I didn’t know what control meant or if I would ever use it, so I ignored it for the moment. The other three stats helped though I knew things would change as the Junctions got more difficult. I figured it was still early and stopped thinking too much about it.
Two points in strength. Two points into speed. One point into durability.
I pressed the button on the blue touchscreen to approve my choice and my communicator tightened around my wrist. I grunted softly as a familiar warmth pulsed in my veins like my blood was boiling. It surged through the rest of me before subsiding.
I looked down at my display to see the changes when I noticed something.
“What the…”
My mouth slightly agape, my fingers pressed on my other forearm. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear I was actually getting a little firmer.
“Hey.”
I jerked my head up to see Nina suddenly standing next to me. The halls of the dormitory wore so silver and sterile, her green-eyed stare was always striking in the light. Her familiar, feminine scent filled my nostrils.
“You snuck up on me for a second there,” I said.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“You didn’t startle me. It’s just…” I pushed my fingers into my arm. “I gained a few levels. I think it’s starting to show. Pretty soon they’ll have to resize me for a new uniform.”
“It’ll take all the Red Mana in the world for you to turn into a muscle-bound freak, if that’s what you’re looking for. The Mana only amplifies what you already have but it won’t change your appearance too much. Even Captain Bell and Captain Magnus aren’t that big out of their armor.”
“I guess you’ve got a point… I still feel an improvement though, if that makes any sense.”
“I understand. I leveled, too.”
I looked her up and down, trying to spot a change. I had an idea how slender she was underneath her uniform but there didn’t appear to be a difference.
“How are you feeling today?” she asked.
“Not bad… Spent some time reading the bestiary last night. Turns out all you have to do is use a wolf’s aggression against it to beat it.”
“They’re low-level threats for a reason. Perfect for beginners to level on.”
“Speaking of which, I can’t wait to get back to it. We should probably get some breakfast before we head to the Nerve Center. I wanna get through as many Junctions as we can today. Maybe I’ll pick something up for Quentin while he sleeps in.”
“Good. But first there’s something I need to show you.”
She moved in front of the tablet and began swiping through it. She changed the display until the LOD logo appeared with a password input beneath it.
“What are you doing?” I said. “It says right there that page is for authorized personnel only.”
Nina ignored me, punching in a pass
word until the screen cleared up. A new set of icons appeared. “Let’s see… Where is it?”
“Uh, Nina…” I looked at the passing cadets to make sure nobody caught what she was doing. “Are you sure you should be—”
“Here it is. Hold up your communicator.”
I narrowed my eyes at the display and saw the word SYNERGY in big, bold letters.
“Are you sure—”
“Trust me. It’s not anything that’ll get you kicked out of the academy.”
Looking into Nina’s eyes, there was a feeling in my gut to trust her. I didn’t know if it was because I thought she was trying to help me or I was a sucker for her green eyes.
“Okay…” I held my communicator up. The red scanner on the tablet flashed green and my communicator rang. Nina locked the display tablet and rotated back to the campus map.
I looked down at the new information on my communicator.
SYNERGY with LIAM ALDRIDGE
Nina Higashi - Level 1
Quentin Young - Level 1
“What is this?” My eyes narrowed at the information.
“It’s called the Synergy Project. It’s experimental right now. Your Synergy stats… They’re a measurement of your affinity with the people you’re close to on campus.”
“My affinity? Are you telling me they’re keeping a record of my feelings?”
“Your heartbeat. Your blood pressure. Your breathing. Your retina and fingerprints. Everything up to your brain waves is on record. Is it a surprise they can measure something like this?”
Nina’s reasoning was sound though it didn’t make me more comfortable. “What’s the point of this?”
“You create a bond with your squadmates. LOD officials have been studying it for years. The belief is when you create a stronger bond, you get certain bonuses. Whatever your squadmates are good at, you kinda get it, too. They don’t know exactly how it works but it might have something to do with the Mana making feelings actually tangible. It’s some type of osmosis.”
I thought out loud. “Wait a second. Are you telling me with higher Synergy, I’ll get stat bonuses?”
“That’s right.”
I searched her eyes for any sarcasm but Nina hadn’t played a joke on me ever since I met her. “If that’s the case, we should just say we’re really close friends and get the biggest bonuses we can.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that. It’s reading your brain patterns. Just pretending you have a bond with someone is like trying to fake a lie detector test.”
“And people fake being friends, too…”
I already had enough to deal with. My stats. Junctions. Trying to balance how I was gonna spend my Mana. This was all on top of completing my missions so I’d be making a decent amount of cash. Now Nina was telling me I had to manage my relationships.
“How come Janice didn’t say anything about this?” I asked.
“It’s still experimental. For the time being, they want us cadets to be… us.”
“Are you taking part in this experiment?”
She smirked and shook her head. “I did say it was an experiment. It’s designed for squad leaders anyway, since they would benefit the most.”
“I guess the risk is worth it,” I sighed. “Now the question is how do you even know about an experimental project?”
Nina didn’t answer me. Her thin pink lips twisted as she shifted her gaze away from me, making it obvious she didn’t wanna talk about it. I figured there was no point in pushing her since it didn’t make a difference now. It didn’t hurt that the look of feigned innocence on her face was kinda funny.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Let’s get a quick breakfast before we head to the Nerve Center.”
~ ~ ~
The sprawling Junction Room was filled with Omegas and new recruits making their way through the dozens of available steel gates leading into Pandora. The higher floors above were less occupied though there were still some strong enough to face more dangerous threats.
Nina and I waited for Quentin to show up. I crossed my arms and looked up at the display screen to see the changes.
Current World Status: Green
Threat Level: 28%
Junctions Closed: 73
Junctions Available: 94
Current Herald Threat: Emerald Basilisk
Most Junctions Closed
Rhys Griffin - 12
Gregory Harding - 12
Brooke Silvestri - 7
Most Shadows Defeated
Rhys Griffin - 211
Gregory Harding - 143
Arthur Hill - 115
“The threat level has gone up,” I said.
“The Mana is consolidating,” Nina said. “It’s all moving to the World Boss. The LOD scientists who operate the Junctions are constantly creating gates so we can strike first. We close enough Junctions, we get the World Boss. We beat the World Boss and they start the search for the next closest dimension threatening to unleash Shadows on Earth.”
“They’re doing a hell of a job. We haven’t had an invasion since the First Event.”
“There’ve been some close calls but every Omega campus around the world is operating at the highest level. As more recruits get stronger, there are more people to challenge Pandora.”
“Maybe we’ll get strong enough to close Pandora permanently. End these Shadows forever.”
“That’s what everybody is hoping. The only thing we can do for now is to keep fighting.” She turned around. “Speaking of which, where is your friend? Do you think he’s sleeping in because of all the pizza he ate?”
“Or maybe it’s because we closed four Junctions. I don’t think he’s used to how exhausting it is to be a Vanguard.”
I looked around the sprawling Junction Room at everybody walking by. Elliot was wearing the light-green armor of a Gunrunner as he stepped through a Junction with his squad. Douglas, Brian, and Paige all had the same starting Cavalier armor I had.
“It looks like a packed Room today,” I said. “I can’t imagine the World Boss is too far off.”
“Ha!”
A sudden laugh coming from my side made me turn my head. There I saw Rhys walking toward me with his buddy Gregory right behind him. I did my best not to roll my eyes but rolled them anyway.
“Look at the cute little recruit,” he said as he looked me up and down. He was dressed in the same Cavalier armor as me. At least, it would’ve been the same if his wasn’t so polished. The light-blue chrome was so clean I could see my reflection in it as he moved closer. He puffed his chest out to show off the three silver stars branded on the left side of his chest beneath the LOD logo.
Gregory was just as much of an arrogant-looking blond as Rhys except his hair was long, cascading down the sides of his face. The bulky dark-red Zealot armor he wore and the maul strapped to his back almost made him look intimidating… as long as you avoided his pretty boy face.
Rhys pointed his chin up and looked down his nose at me. Just the way he stood with his palm on his hilt made him look as smug as possible. That was probably what he was going for.
“What do you want?” I said.
“I don’t want anything. Not from you. I’m merely looking at the next generation of Cavaliers.”
“Yeah, well, look elsewhere. Mind your own Junction.”
“Hmph. Funny coming from someone like you. I was trying to talk to your friend here and you just had to interrupt me.” He shifted his gaze toward Nina, giving her a look made by punks who thought they owned everything. Nina crossed her arms and looked away from him.
“That’s all right,” Rhys said. “You’re new here. Once I take the Apex, again, and beat the World Boss, again, you’ll know who runs this place. The Thunder Brothers run the Vegas District.”
He held his fist up and bumped it with Gregory’s.
“Thunder Brothers?” I scrunched my face in confusion. “I thought Quentin was making it up about you having a squad name…”
“It’s easy for everybody to know who runs this joint when there’s a name attached to it. And we’ve got the best name.”
“Uh… I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”
I slowly turned to Nina. She clenched her jaw tight. Her lips quivered like she was trying to hold back a laugh. Judging from how much her flat stomach was shaking, she wasn’t doing a very good job.
“Rhys. What the hell are you doing?”
We all turned toward the high-pitched voice and saw Brooke walking toward us. The curly-haired brunette marched over to us in armor similar to what I was wearing, though the light-blue sheen was more noticeable. Her shorter, more petite frame was apparent from how close the metal plates stuck close to her shape.
“Here we go.” Rhys rolled his eyes. “As usual, Miss Nosy has to butt-in again.”
Brooke put her hands on her hips. “Why don’t you leave the new recruits alone? You wanna get disciplined? Chancellor Layton won’t cut you any slack.”
“I’m not gonna get disciplined for stating a fact. I’m just helping the newbies out. Everybody wants to close Junctions thinking they’re gonna get the Apex. I’m just saving them from the heartbreak.”
“You’ve got a lot more competition now.”
“Ha!” Rhys scoffed and looked at Gregory for approval. “New recruits don’t stand a chance.”
Rhys wiped the smug smirk off his face as he took a step toward me. I walked forward to meet him and looked him in the eye.
“Liam…” Nina put a hand on my shoulder but I ignored her, my attention focused on Rhys’s beady little eyes.
“Fall in line,” he said. “Know your place. Do your job… Private.”
He spun around and strolled away with Gregory in tow.
“Liam…” Nina squeezed her hand around me and I realized how tense I’d gotten. I loosened my jaw and sighed a deep breath through my nose.
“Rhys,” Brooke sighed. “There’s one on every LOD campus.”
“The Apex,” I said. “What’s he talking about?”
“The Apex Challenge is a bonus for the one who performs the best during the current World. Whoever closes the most Junctions and beats the most Shadows gets to be the Apex. They get lead position against the World Boss. Lead position means more Mana and more victory bonuses. Rhys has been Apex for the last four worlds now. That’s why he’s at such a higher rank than everybody else.”