“Thank you everyone! Have a good evening! Tip your wait staff! Skidpunks are people too! Give them the right of way! And frankly, defer to them in all things!”

  Your lecti has been named. Habby is now your guide to the aether system.

  [I have no idea what half of that meant, but I am still cringing at the thought of it.]

  A small orange chili pepper wreathed in flame glared at me with indignant, beady black cartoon eyes. Habby. My lame childhood fan character from a lame anime. The thing I’d later gotten as a tattoo, half ironically and half as another memento to my lost family. And I was now doubly glad I had it, because the locket was gone. But now that beloved childhood memory was also the avatar of the lecherous, condescending spirit who was supposed to help keep me alive.

  [What exactly did you turn me into?]

  ?You’re um… a chili pepper. A habanero, to be exact. Anyway, nice to finally meet you face to face. Habby.?

  [You take an eating skill, and then you turn me into the very thing you plan on eating. I can’t help but feel a little threatened, Jett.]

  ?Ehh, you’re too mild for my tastes. Maybe I shouldn’t make build decisions on an empty stomach.?

  “We’re here,” said Chris. “Um, fair warning. As the first—and until now, only—Guardian working for G-Tech, I’m what the marketing team likes to call the ‘visible face of the company.’ So just… be ready for that. If you see a surface that doesn’t have my face smiling back at you, odds are you’ll see a certain ice motif in the decor. The only part of the company that isn’t all about me is payroll.”

  Tessa chuckled at that.

  And I thought I could see it already, even before we entered the building and even though it was still mostly dark. G-Tech headquarters was five stories tall, and it had a white blocky exterior. It looked a little like someone had parked an iceberg in the middle of the city.

  A middle aged woman with greying hair waited for us at the building’s entrance. She was flanked by a pair of beefy sorcerers wearing similar outfits to Chris’s team. “Good morning,” she greeted us as we approached.

  “Something like that,” was all I could manage.

  She didn’t react to my comment. “Welcome to G-Tech. My name is Isabel Marin, and I am the president and CEO of the company. We are all very relieved that you have arrived safely. I wanted to personally greet you and show you where you’ll be staying. Eisner, Team Snowcrest, exemplary job as always. You may make your reports and check in your equipment. I’ll take it from here.”

  Chris patted me on the shoulder and promised we’d speak again soon. Fu playfully punched me in the arm and turned to Wally to do the same. She thought better of it when he flinched preemptively, and instead gave him a pat on the shoulder. The rest of the team bid us various subdued farewells as we entered a large open atrium and set off in different directions.

  The atrium was huge, extending the full width of the building, with a mezzanine level and a large fountain as its centerpiece. Habby was out, and it seemed even he was awed by the sight of the place. I didn’t see Chris’s smiling face anywhere, but I did see screens at regular intervals, currently dark, and plenty of white and blue swirls on the walls and floors. There was a large chunk of ice on top of the fountain, and I saw two column-like shapes rising from it. Legs?

  “Is that an ice sculpture?” I asked.

  “Chris’s hobby,” said Marin. “He’s quite good at it, and he has a skill that makes it last most of the day. He’s quite enamored with doing likenesses of the first Guardians. He’ll change it up now and then, but odds are you’ll usually wake up to an eight foot tall armored figure holding a sword. I suppose it projects the right image.”

  I noticed that Wally was walking with a slight limp, and his legs were making a whirring sound. “You okay there, Wall?”

  “Legs need a tune-up,” Wally sighed. “Power cells are getting low too. It’s a straight up miracle they did this well on their first outing. At least I’ll have something to do while we’re here.”

  “Hey.” I conjured Bullet Train. “Imma need some modifications, Wall. Maybe even a whole new stick. Preferably with a pointy tip. And calibrated to, you know, the new way things work. If you need something to do, I can provide.”

  “Oh, I think we can do better than that,” said Marin. We had reached a door, and she had paused with her hand on the handle and a keycard in her hand. She turned to regard us. “I’m hearing you’re quite the accomplished engineer, Mr. Donner, and that you even contributed to the fight tonight.”

  “Yeah,” said Wally, as if just now realizing it. “I guess I did.”

  “Have you ever been fitted for a runeband?”

  “N-no, ma’m. I tried Jett’s on once. Felt something, but…” he shrugged, gesturing toward his legs. “I couldn’t really test out the effects at the time.”

  “Well. Our teams have a mixture of full sorcerers, runebanders with standalones, and runebanders with other skills they can use to augment themselves, such as Miss Tetsumi.”

  “Tetsumi,” said Wally. “Right.” I looked at him sharply. He’d taken on a dreamy tone.

  “Even if you’re unable to use a three-rune band, we also keep a staff of engineers and scientists in our lab facility. I have a feeling we’ll find a place for you, Mr. Donner. From the sound of things, Mr. Fulgen would trust you exclusively to service his equipment?”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “No question,” I said immediately.

  Marin nodded. “We’ll discuss details once you’ve both gotten some rest. Let’s look at where you’ll be staying.” She opened the door.

  “This barracks is normally used by on-call team members and police liaisons during their shifts,” said Marin as she led us into a narrow hallway lined with doors. “As such, I’m afraid these are meant to be bunkrooms and aren’t apartments in any sense of the word. However, the room at the far corner wraps around, so it’s a bit larger than the rest. It normally has an extra bunk bed, so we’ve replaced that with a couple of trunks and a small table. Oh, and we’ve borrowed a wheelchair from the hospital next door, Mr. Donner, in case you need it. We’ll have yours from your apartment in a few hours.”

  We peeked in on the room, and it was as advertised. The wheelchair still had an IV pole, and it made it difficult to move around. There were two generic sets of pajamas on the lower bunk, two sets of G-Tech branded clothing that would probably fit us, and two plastic bags with basic toiletries.

  “Bathrooms are down the hall,” Marin said. She rubbed her eyes tiredly.

  Yeah, welcome to the club.

  I stepped inside the men’s room and looked around. Pretty much your college dorm setup, though cleaner than a bunch of eighteen-year-old dudes usually left things. You had your toilet stalls, your sinks, your vaguely gross shared shower stalls.

  That was all fine for me, but there was a problem. I stepped back out into the hallway.

  “Hey um, it’s okay, but…” I pointed at Wally, “...how’s he supposed to take a shower?”

  Marin looked at me quizzically for a moment, then at Wally, then back at me, then at Wally, and finally on Wally’s mechanical legs.

  Her eyes went wide.

  It was actually an interesting test of G-Tech’s internal efficiency. In less than ten minutes a pair of technicians dashed into the bathrooms. There were some drilling and hammering sounds. Ten more minutes and they dashed back out. They had installed a handicap accessible shelf and handrail in one of the shower stalls and, I shit you not, an emergency cord. Wally had already unbuckled his cybernetics, and he wheeled on in, looking as exciting as anyone had ever been at the prospect of finally getting cleaned up. I could hardly wait either, but Marin had a couple more things to say.

  “I am so sorry,” she said, rubbing her forehead. She actually looked mortified. “We never thought such an accommodation would be needed here in the barracks. But we knew you were coming. I should have thought of it. Damn.”

  “Hey, it’s been a night,” I said.

  “That it has. I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.”

  She straightened, suddenly all business. “So. Next steps. I know you’re exhausted, but we’ll want to move things quickly, especially to get this pardon in place. I’m assuming you have the Life Support skill? Chris has it, and he seems to think all Guardians will.”

  I nodded slowly. That was one of my odd, not-quite-human skills. It could temporarily compensate for my physical needs not being met—sleep, food, water, or even oxygen—but with an increasing cost the longer I used it.

  “Can you instruct your lecti to let you sleep for two hours, but rest you fully?”

  Habby popped up next to me. It was a little startling, but I preferred this to him living inside my freaking skull. [That isn’t exactly how it works, but I understand what she’s asking. I shall make it happen.]

  “He says yes,” I confirmed.

  “Very good. Wash up and get some rest. At nine in the morning we’ll have a sorcerer all hands, and you’ll meet the rest of the teams. Virtually, at least. Not all of them will be on duty, and some of them will be stationed at precincts on the lower levels. Then we’ll head over to City Hall and get your pardon secured. After that we’ll onboard you back here, and then we can give you the grand tour. How does that sound?”

  I shrugged. “I’ve got nothing else going on.”

  “I suppose not.” She extended her hand, and I shook.

  “Welcome to G-Tech, Mr. Fulgen.”

  Brick wasn’t sure how he managed it.

  That wasn’t completely true. His high might and resilience was a natural trait, enhanced by his runeband. That certainly helped explain how he’d managed to carry the unconscious form of Mantis so far. How he’d managed to escape the police, though? How he’d managed to avoid notice, despite wearing a suit and carrying a woman much smaller than him, both of them covered in blood? He’d never know, but part of him cursed it. Getting caught might be an escape.

  He stared at Mantis, resentful. He had kind of hoped she’d bleed out, that she wouldn’t be his problem anymore. But her breathing, while ragged, persisted, and her wounds were slowly but surely closing. She obviously had a regen skill. It wasn’t as strong as what the Guardians had, but it was enough.

  Just what the hell was she?

  And what now? The mission had failed. The Garrison wasn’t purely cartoon villain-like, where failure meant a plunge down a trap-door into a piranha pool or a fire pit, but this had clearly been an important mission, and termination was on the table for those who didn’t perform.

  Brick took out the photo of his family. It was crinkled but otherwise unharmed. He touched the faces of Latrice, of Naomi. Hoping they were still sleeping peacefully, if only for a little while longer.

  Then the phone that was never supposed to ring, rang for a second time.

  Brick pulled the old phone out of his pocket, and the voice came through his ear implant. He felt a chill. It was a condescending voice he instantly recognized and hoped never to hear again.

  Double M.

  “Hello, Brick.”

  “What can I do for you?” he said carefully. “The mission failed. I’m sorry.”

  “No need to worry. Even our failsafe failed. You can hardly be blamed for that. I need you to go to these coordinates.”

  What followed was an address on L8-M12-S3. It was another supply pickup.

  Brick groaned, despite knowing he was speaking to one of the most dangerous people in the world. “A care package.”

  “That’s right. A second chance. 1,000 GCreds, a few boxes of ammo, two more crewcases, and that’s it. Your mission objectives remain unchanged: collect the Fire Guardian amulet. Your partner remains unchanged. Figure it out. I believe in you.”

  Despair chewed at Brick’s gut. “G-Tech has him now. It’s a death sentence.”

  “As a sign of good faith, 25% of your promised fee has already been deposited into your family’s trust.”

  Brick’s stomach twisted. “You’re not supposed to know about that.” But of course he did.

  “Yes, I get that a lot. Also, I might send special instructions to you through this link. These will be for you alone, Brick. Not your partner. Do not say a word to her about them. Depending on what happens, they could reduce the scope of this mission. Do this faithfully, and you may yet salvage this. You and your family will both benefit, and you move on to more… palatable assignments. Are we clear?”

  Brick glanced over at Mantis. Deadly, psychotic Mantis, who was beginning to stir as the morning light brightened on the sky projection above.

  “Do we have an understanding, Brick?”

  Brick thought he could smell lilac on the breeze. He gritted his teeth. “We do.”