part0025

Brushing him aside with my shoulder, I walked away and grabbed my discarded carbine and then pulled out my spare finger gun.

Raikidan followed a little ways behind as I slung my carbine over my shoulder. “You want to ask something else.”

“Why did you tell Seda to call you Laz?” he asked. “You told me to only call you Eira because it was your name.”

I didn’t look at him. “Ask a different question.”

Raikidan grabbed my arm and forced me to face him. “What are you hiding from me?”

Yanking my arm away from him, I moved my face closer to his and narrowed my eyes. “Everything.”

My visor snapped over my eyes, and I walked a little ways away from him, ignoring his confused look. “Aurora. Aurora, are you there?”

My brow furrowed, and I called in again, receiving the same response. Something wasn’t right.

“I don’t like this,” Raikidan said.

I nodded and looked up at the team board. There were three of us left. Raikidan’s face and my face were up there, but where the image of Raynn’s last teammate should be, there was a black square. “It’s all too convenient.”

Raikidan looked at me. “You think Raynn is behind this?”

I spat on the ground. “No, I know he is. Rylan knows who this last enemy is, so that means Aurora and the others know now as well. Now that our focus is on this last member, they’ll do anything to make sure we don’t find out.”

“So, what do we do?”

I sighed. “The only thing we can do is search for him on our own until we can make contact with the others.”

He looked around. “Should we find a lookout?”

I shook my head. “There’s no point.”

He narrowed his eyes. “What do you know?”

I closed my eyes and sighed. Placing my hand on his back, I urged him to walk with me. It wouldn’t get us anywhere to stand around. “I can’t be certain, but I have a suspicion of who we’re dealing with.”

“This enemy doesn’t appear on the scanners, but it’s obvious he’s moving. He doesn’t appear on a heat sense, although he’s living. I only know of one experiment that can avoid both of those types of detections.” I looked up at the team board. “If I’m right, his name is Chameleon.”

“Chameleon? As in the animal with color changing abilities?”

I looked up at him through my lashes. “Yep, except this guy doesn’t just change color. An assassin-type experiment, the makeup of his DNA allows him to fuse with just about any object, becoming undetectable. This maze is a playground for him. He can move anywhere without being detected as long as he’s attached.”

Raikidan narrowed his eyes. “How do we fight an enemy we can’t see?”

I shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I’ve never had to fight him before, and when I’ve watched Raynn’s team fight in simulations in the past, if Chameleon was on the team, they always won. No one has ever beaten him.”

“But it’s not impossible.”

I looked at him. “Nothing is impossible, really, but I think I remember hearing he had a weakness. Just like Doppelganger can’t always have copies out, Chameleon can’t stay hidden forever. He has to change back to his original form, but I don’t know the time frame he has to stay out or can be in, especially now that his ability is being boosted.”

Raikidan pulled out his pistol. “Well, that gives us a better chance. So, what’s the plan?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but was cut off by a blast of light that crashed through the maze wall. “Run!”

We picked up our pace. Looking back, I hoped to catch a glimpse of Chameleon, but luck wasn’t on my side this time. We kept running until we hit a dead end. The beams of light had stopped by this point, but that didn’t mean we were in the clear.

“What in Lumaraeon were those?” Raikidan demanded to know.

I shook my head. “I think it was a type of plasma gun, but not sure.”

“You can’t be sure? How can you not be sure about your own technology?”

“I’ve been gone a while, okay? Things change at a rapid pace in this city, especially technology. When I left, plasma guns were still in the prototype phase.”

“Fine, I’ll go with that, but what are we supposed to do now?”

“How well do you do with scaling walls?” I asked as I looked at the walls.

He looked at me funny. “What?”

Without explaining myself, I backed up a little and then, with a running start, I scaled the wall. I crouched at the top and looked down at him. “You coming, or what?”

“How the hell did you do that?” he yelled up.

I grinned. “That’s a secret. Now get up here or I’m leaving you behind.”

“Looks like I won’t be saving your ass anytime soon,” he muttered.

I chuckled and watched him jump up to me. I frowned. “Show-off.”

Now it was his turn to chuckle. He jumped when a bullet hit the wall near him. We didn’t need any other invitation to jump down.

“You’re lucky he has cruddy aim.”

With a grin, he pushed me. “So, what now?”

I shrugged. “The best we can do is to keep moving. It’d be best not to split up as well.”

“You sure about that?”

I nodded. “With the connection problems with the outside, I don’t want to worry if these communicators will stop working once we split up.”

He gave a curt nod. “Okay.”

I furrowed my brow and looked around. Someone was watching us.

Raikidan pushed me. “Watch it!”

I turned as I fell and observed a figure with a combat knife quickly lunge out of the wall and merge with the adjacent wall face. I didn’t get a good look at the figure, but I didn’t need to. It was definitely Chameleon. I got back up on my feet and took off. “Let’s go!”

Raikidan didn’t have to be told twice to follow. We sprinted down the corridor and took any turn that came up, in hopes it would throw Chameleon off for even a moment.

“Watch it!” Raikidan shoved me into a side corridor unexpectedly.

I fell to the ground just as bullets flew through the air, and my carbine clattered on the ground. Scrambling to my feet without thinking about grabbing my weapon, I took off again, with Raikidan close behind. My pace quickened every time Chameleon reared his head in some form. I didn’t stop running until I was tired enough to need to catch my breath. “Raikidan, we nee—Raikidan?”

I looked around for him, only to find myself alone. Inadvertently, in my attempt to flee from Chameleon, I had also managed to lose Raikidan. This is just great. Now we’re going to be easier targets. This had to be what Chameleon wanted.

A bright beam blasted through the wall near me, and I continued on. It’d be nice to know what that weapon is. Shaking that thought out of my head, I focused on the issue at hand. Raikidan and I were separated. We could only speak through the communicators, and it was going to be harder to formulate a good plan to take Chameleon out together.

The wall behind me disappeared when another bright beam broke through it, and I pushed faster, reminding me that the plan to take him out wouldn’t happen if I couldn’t survive. I quit running when the light beams finally stopped, and I leaned against the maze wall. My breath came heavy, and in ragged bursts. This is so stupid! I had no idea where I was, and I couldn’t be sure where Chameleon was now. He could be toying with me, for all I knew, or he had given up on me and gone after Raikidan.

“How are you holding up?” Raikidan called in.

I took in another gasp of air. “My lungs are about to burst out of my chest.”

He chuckled. “It amazes me how weak you humans are.”

“Shut it, dragon-boy.” He chuckled quietly, and I grunted. “How about you?”

“Fine so far, except that I’m completely lost.”

I started moving again. “You’re not the only one.”

I passed a few corridors and took a right at a fork. Strong hands suddenly grabbed the back of my bodysuit and pulled me back to the corridor I had left. Normally, I would have retaliated since the only thing I could see was the black bodysuit he wore as he pinned me with his body against the wall, but his familiar scent kept me calm. Then I heard the barrage of bullets fly through the corridor I had nearly entered. I was confused. Raikidan was there to bail me out of danger yet again, but how?

“You should be more careful,” he murmured.

“You shouldn’t sneak up on me,” I replied. His chest rumbled against me as he chuckled. I attempted to squirm out of his embrace, to no avail.

“It’s a good thing I came out of the corridor when I did.” He pushed himself away until his arms were fully outstretched and hands flat against the wall.

I looked at him. “How do you do it?”

He furrowed his brow. “Do what?”

I pushed him away from me. “Know when I’m in trouble. Be there at the right time to save my hide?”

He shrugged. “Luck, I guess.”

I chuckled. “Lucky for you, or me?”

He placed his arm behind my back and pushed me toward a corridor. “Both, I suppose. Now we need to get moving.”

I complied without a word. I wasn’t really sure what to say after what he had said, but now wasn’t the time to mull it over.

Picking up our pace, we ran down the corridor. Raikidan looked over his shoulder and pushed me into a side corridor. For the second time, I was pinned against a wall as bullets flew through the corridor we had left. I expected Raikidan to let me go and keep moving, but he didn’t. He let out a low growl and glared at the entrance of the corridor. Suddenly a shape peered around the corner, and Raikidan let out a breath of fire, letting me go in the process.

Grabbing him by the wrist, I took off. “Keep moving!”

I dragged him around a corner and down the corridor. We came to another corner and rounded it. As we did so, we were met with a wall of bullets. Raikidan grabbed me and pulled me close, letting out a blast of fire, but it didn’t go down the hall like I had anticipated. Instead, it swirled around us, creating a protective barrier. I looked at it in awe. He did it so effortlessly. Never had I seen such control or such a move from a non-shaman. Of course, such control was possible by ordinary elementalists, but I had never seen it from them, either.

But I was also worried. I could tell the barrier was working, but Raikidan was going to run out of breath sooner or later, and that’s when we’d be in trouble.

He frowned, and his grip on my bodysuit tightened. He’s running out of air. I had to think quickly. Being so close to him, I wouldn’t be able to create my own fire without him noticing. I was going to have to take a risk. Reaching up, I went to take the fire from him. His eyes widened as he looked down at me.

“Trust me,” I whispered.

Filling my body with heat, I wrapped the fire around the tips of my fingers and pulled it away from him. My eyes widened. It was so strong—so hot. So much power he holds. I had no idea he harnessed such power. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on controlling the fire.

Raikidan wrapped one arm around my waist. “I can take it back now.”

I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

“You’re struggling.”

“You can’t keep this up at this rate.”

“I don’t plan to. Stay behind me.”

He moved closer to me, and I exhaled slowly as I pulled my other hand up. Stay calm. You can do this . I had only one shot at this, and if I messed up, we were done for. I took a deep breath and my eyes bolted open. Grabbing the fire with my free hand, I forced the fire down to the ground and then out in all directions as far as I could. I forced it down every corridor that crossed the fire’s path. It spread and spiraled until I could no longer hold it. Exhaling slowly, I let it go.

“We need to move,” I stated, stumbling a bit. “He managed to dodge that somehow.”

Raikidan grabbed my arm, holding me up. “Are you all right?”

I nodded. “I’m fine.”

“I’m not going to lie, that was impressive. I’ve never heard of someone controlling fire that wasn’t their own.”

I looked away from him, slightly embarrassed by his praise. “It takes a lot of skill and training, and it’s not something that can be completely mastered.”

He pulled me by the arm toward a corridor. “I might just make you teach me.”

I laughed dryly. “You can’t just learn it in a matter of days or weeks. It takes years of practice and discipline.”

He smirked. “I’m a fast learner.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll think about it.”

He grinned triumphantly and set a fast pace for us.

Raikidan placed a hand on the wall, his posture slightly hunched. “How does he keep finding us?”

I took several deep breaths. “I’m not sure.”

“It’s as if he’s tracking us.” Raikidan shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Wait. My eyes widened in realization. “The communicators…”

His brow creased. “The communicators?”

I ripped mine off my head and pried it open. Inside were thousands of tiny circuit boards and wires, but I wasn’t interested in that. Looking around, I finally found the flashing red light.

“What is that?” he asked.

I sighed. “It’s the tracking device that allows the technician of the teams to track our whereabouts.”

“So, what does this have to do with Chameleon?”

“If I’m correct, Raynn’s technician is blocking out Aurora and homing in our signal so he can relay them to Chameleon.”

Raikidan scowled. “I don’t like that.”

I shook my head. “Neither do I, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use that to our advantage.”

His brow furrowed with confusion. “What are you talking about? How do you use something like that as an advantage?”

I grinned. “Hand me your communicator.”

He complied. “Okay, now what?” I crushed it and his eyes widened. “Why the hell did you do that?”

“I have my reasons.” I looked around and then scaled the wall. He followed. “See the room where we fought Raynn and Nioush? We’re going to split up and meet there.”

“I still don’t understand, but if you know what you’re doing, then fine.”

“I’ll take my communicator, which will give you more time to get to the meeting spot, okay?”

“Uh, sure. But don’t we need those to communicate with each other? Not that it matters now, since you already destroyed mine.”

“In a normal situation, yes. But this isn’t a normal situation.”

“Then how the hell are we supposed to know if either one is in trouble or needs any sort of assistance?”

“Well, I just assumed your luck would save us this time,” I teased. He looked at me sternly, causing me to laugh. “We’ll just have to make a flare. You can make one, right?”

“I’m sure I can figure it out.”

I jumped down from the wall and looked up at him. “All right, I’m going to trust you on this decision, but don’t make one unless you really have to. It could mess up my whole plan.”

He furrowed his brow again. “If you told me your plan, you wouldn’t have to worry.”

I chuckled. “You don’t need to know now the exact details. Just know that I know what I’m doing, and as long as you meet up with me, it should work.”

I ran off without another word. If I was going to get this to work, I needed to get away from Raikidan and get Chameleon’s attention. It wasn’t long before Chameleon found me, although he appeared for only short bursts to shoot at me, which was quite easy to avoid. I was running as fast as I could and used every surface to give me an advantage.

Pulling my hand close to my mouth, I let out some fire and threw it behind me. That should give me more time. I scaled another wall and headed for the open room. When I reached it, I tossed the communicator on the ground near the center and hid by the entrance of another corridor.

“Here we go…” I tossed a fire flare into the air before inhaling deeply to utilize my heat sense ability.

My body filled with heat and my sight distorted as I climbed up the wall to look around. Objects were no longer defined by textures and individual shapes, but by layers of color. This ability allowed me to see the hottest and coldest portions of every object that gave off some sort of heat. I could see Raikidan’s colorful image running quickly through the maze. As I had predicted, he used the most direct route to get here, which included the corridor I chose to wait in. Slipping down the wall, I waited for him. I didn’t have to wait long before he quickly came around a corner and rushed over to me.

“What—” I placed my hand over his mouth and held a finger to mine, telling him to keep quiet. He glared at me but nodded slowly, and I pulled my hand away. I moved closer to the entrance and peeked around the wall. Raikidan joined me.

Something began to move on the far wall. As we watched, a young, handsome man with short multicolored hair and kaleidoscopic eyes pulled away from the wall. He cautiously walked to the center of the room, his skin rippling with several shades of color as he moved. He had his communicator on and had his attention fixated on the readings the device was relaying. When he reached the center, he cursed and kicked my communicator.

“Ezhno, tell Raynn they figured it out,” he muttered. “Now what do I do? Okay, understood.”

I would have loved to have heard what had been said, but as long as Chameleon turned away from us, it didn’t matter. As luck would have it, he did just that.

I looked at Raikidan with a grin. He responded with a smirk and nod and then charged Chameleon, knocking him to the ground. I was close behind. Chameleon turned over and faced us, fear lining his face. Raikidan and I grinned at each other.

“What do you think we should do with him?” he asked me.

“I think it’s time to put the poor soul out of his misery.”

Raikidan held his pistol at the ready while I held up my finger gun. Chameleon’s eyes widened more, and he tried to scramble back. Raikidan and I fired simultaneously, Raikidan’s bullet penetrating Chameleon’s chest while mine shot through his head.

Chameleon screamed in pain before bursting into pixels, and the team board pinged for the last time. We looked up as Chameleon’s face appeared with a large X crossed through it where the black box had been. Raynn’s team pictures disappeared, and our team pictures became larger. All members who had been removed no longer had Xs over their picture.

I held up my hand for a high five, but Raikidan didn’t reciprocate. He stared at my hand, his brow furrowed. “What are you doing?”

I chuckled. “Looking for a high five. You trusting me for such a crazy plan deserves it.”

“It’s when you hit each other’s hands together to show excitement or greeting. We also bump fists or arms for similar reasons.”

Raikidan hesitantly raised his hand, looked at it, and then mine. With a furrowed brow still, he smacked his palm into mine. “Like that?”

I ignored the slight sting from his strength and nodded. “Yep.”

He smiled. “I’m glad I listened to you, even though it wasn’t easy. We make a good team.”

I smiled despite myself. “Yeah, we do.” I looked down at my feet, which were starting to pixelate away. “Time to leave.”

Raikidan grinned. “I’ll be waiting for you.”

I nodded with a slight smile, and I closed my eyes as I was pulled out of the simulation. Eventually I could hear muffled voices, but I didn’t open my eyes just yet. My head was still spinning from the transition. When the spinning finally stopped, I opened my eyes. They were met with the closed lid of my pod. Slowly I pushed it open. I blinked a few times to get my eyes adjusted to the light.

“Slowpoke,” Raikidan teased. He was leaning over my pod and looking down at me.

I playfully kicked him before I sat up. He extended his hand to help me stand, and even though it wasn’t necessary, I accepted the gesture anyway. I looked around and realized the rest of the team was waiting for us, grins plastered over their faces. Raikidan and I walked over to them.

“You guys did great!” Ryoko exclaimed. “That fire trick was really cool.”

I chuckled. “I probably wouldn’t have had to use it if we could have communicated with you guys.” My head tilted with interest when I saw the eye shifts between Ryoko, Aurora, and Rylan. “What?”

“Well… we kinda had that fixed around that time, but you guys seemed to be doing well on your own, so we stayed quiet about it,” Ryoko explained as she scratched the back of her head.

I glared at her. “Obviously, you all are blind if you thought we were fine.”

“Aw, babe, don’t be like that,” Aurora said. “Raikidan, you understand where we’re coming from, right?”

He shook his head. “I’m with Eira on this one.”

I crossed my arms. “Thank you.”

“What does it matter?” Genesis asked. “We won! Now let’s go check the scoreboard to see how well everyone did.”

“Scoreboard?” Raikidan whispered in my ear.

“When teams face off, the computer records everything that happens and tallies different types of scores for each team member,” I explained, keeping my voice low for his sake. “The data is then displayed on a public scoring screen to be reviewed. It’s a way to see how you’re using your skills and a way for others to assess you for battle and assignment worth. Just follow us and you’ll find out.”

He nodded and we caught up to the others. Pushing our way through the crowd of experiments, we looked up at the scoreboard and waited as it compiled the scores. Ryoko rested comfortably on my left shoulder while Raikidan stood on the other side of me. Rylan, with Genesis on his back, stood next to Ryoko, and the boys next to him. Highlights of the match were shown for each team on separate screens.

An impressive-teamwork highlight between Argus and Blaze was shown, along with Ryoko’s fearless march into battle in the beginning, my attack on Doppelganger’s copies in the maze, and a sniper highlight by Rylan. Even my fire trick against Chameleon made it in.

Ryoko grinned. “Trained shamans are pretty skilled.”

I didn’t look at her. Her comment embarrassed me. With a grin, Raikidan nudged me, which only made it worse, causing a small smile to appear on my face. I could feel my cheeks flush despite my attempt to keep it at bay. It was interesting to watch at this view. My face was so serious and concentrated and yet slightly relaxed, although I hadn’t felt relaxed at all when performing the maneuver.

Raikidan and Seda also made it onto the highlights. Raikidan’s highlight showed him releasing a large breath of fire on Nioush. I figured it was the first time when I had been trapped under the wall slab, and as I watched, I wished I had witnessed it firsthand.

Seda’s highlight was even more impressive. It showed her lifting up an entire wall and throwing it at Nioush. Nioush did block it with some type of force field, but with Seda being defined as a Seer and still having that amount of psychic power, it was just incredible to witness.

On Raynn’s team, Mocha received a highlight for when she trapped Raikidan and me in that cave, along with Nioush receiving his highlight for when he painfully killed Blaze. I cringed when I watched it. Blaze had been lifted into the air and slowly squeezed to death. I was glad that had been only a simulation and hoped we never had to fight any Battle Psychics still loyal to Zarda in the near future. I couldn’t face the idea of my teammates dying in such a manner.

The highlights faded out before they finished, and the scoring began. Dan was up first. A video image of him was seen, and then it stopped as his scores were calculated. The screen showed all sorts of calculations, but I focused only on a few.

Gun-skill, eighty-nine percent. Teamwork, eighty-three percent. Special ability score, insufficient data.

This didn’t surprise me. Dan tried his hardest, more than most experiments, to be normal. Most now didn’t even know what he was capable of.

Blaze and then Argus were shown next.

Gun-skill eighty-three percent. Special ability, strength-based, ninety-three percent. Teamwork, fifty percent.

I cringed at that score. Blaze, we’ll need to work on that.

Blaze grumbled unhappily, causing us to laugh.

“Better luck next time,” Argus said. Blaze grunted and shoved him, making Argus laugh.

Argus had a much higher score.

Gun-skill, ninety-four percent. Teamwork, ninety-four percent. Special ability, intelligence-based, forty-two percent.

Argus smiled contently. Not bad, Argus. I wasn’t going to get on him for the special ability score. Battles were tough to show his kind of smarts.

Ryoko, Rylan, and then Seda were shown next.

Gun-skill, eighty-nine percent. Teamwork, ninety-seven percent. Special-ability, strength-based, ninety-seven percent. Very good work, Ryoko! Railgun accuracies sometimes weren’t great, even for a simulation, so I was sure to keep that in mind when making my own praise evaluations.

Rylan’s score looked almost opposite to hers.

Gun-skill, ninety-eight percent. Teamwork, ninety-seven percent. Special-ability, element based, insufficient data. I don’t think he needed to use his ice abilities, so I’ll let it slide without issue.

Seda’s score was slightly different since she was a psychic.

Teamwork, eighty percent. Gun-skill, insufficient data. No surprise there. In its place, her special-ability score broke out into three parts. Control, eighty-two percent. Wisdom, ninety-six. Power, ninety percent. Damn, Seda! That was the power level you’d expect from a Battle Psychic, not a Seer.

Glancing over at Raynn’s team board, my jaw nearly dropped.

“What’s wrong?” Ryoko asked me. I only pointed at the scoring board in response. She looked at it and her eyes widened. “By the gods!”

On the screen, extremely low stats belonging to Nioush displayed for all to see.

Teamwork, ten percent. Gun-skill, insufficient data. Control, sixty-five percent. Wisdom, nine percent. Power, Ninety-three percent.

Nioush’s power score may have beaten Seda’s by three percent, but it meant nothing when compared with his other stats and the knowledge that Seda was a Seer and shouldn’t have the high power score she had.

A loud crash and a string of profanities echoed through the room, and the crowd of experiments erupted with laughter.

“Looks like you pissed off your brother, Seda,” Argus observed.

Seda smiled in response. She didn’t have to speak for others to know how she felt about this. Not only had she beaten Nioush in battle, but she also had beaten him in the scores. That was a feat that no Seer had ever been known to do.

The scoring continued, and the board showed a video of Raikidan looking around with his carbine in hand and then showed his score.

Gun-skill, forty percent. Teamwork, eighty-five percent.

Already this looks good. I didn’t expect his gun skill to be much higher. He was still learning. And his teamwork score was above average, looking good for the team and himself. I looked at the last score.

Special-ability, multiple categories, ninety-nine percent.

Well then… I never thought I’d see the day a teammate’s special ability score would rival Ryoko’s, besides me.

Ryoko crossed her arms and huffed in response.

“Aww, is somebody upset their teammate outscored her in her favorite category?” I teased, squinting my eyes.

“Shut up,” she grumbled.

Raikidan chuckled. “Better luck next time.”

She pointed at him, placing her other hand on her hip. “I want a match, just you and me.”

Raikidan smirked. “Fine, it could be fun.”

Ryoko winked. “I’m looking forward to it.”

He gave her a blank stare, showing her how clueless he was, and she stared back with a tilted head and confused eyes. A strange sensation twisted in my chest, but whatever it was, I ignored it easily.

Don’t get your hopes up, Ryoko. There was no way she’d convince him to fight her. I doubted he’d be okay with a wrestling match. Maybe we’ll have to get a special event going for these two in the virtual reality. It couldn’t hurt.

“I don’t see why you’re so worked up over this, babe,” Aurora said. “Laz gets a higher special-ability score than you all the time.”

“It’s because Raikidan is the rookie,” Rylan explained.

Ryoko tossed her thumb at him. “What he said. He’s not supposed to rank higher than the veterans of the team.”

“Doesn’t that just mean Laz made a good choice?” Aurora asked.

Ryoko sighed. “I guess so, but I still don’t have to like it.”

Rolling my eyes, I chuckled and looked back up at the scoring board. The battle leader was always shown last, so my score was being tallied now. The video clip it showed was of me running through a maze corridor and then scaling a wall. I gathered it was when I was going to attack Raynn and Doppelganger.

When my score was shown, I smirked. I had done well.

Gun-skill, eighty-one percent. Teamwork, eight-nine percent. Special-ability, multiple categories, ninety-nine percent.

Glancing over at Raynn’s team score, I laughed. Ryoko looked at me funny but joined in my laughter when she looked as well. “I didn’t know you could have negative scoring!”

Neither of us could stop laughing at Raynn’s displayed score.

Gun-skill, seventy-five percent. Special-ability, twenty percent. Teamwork, negative seventy percent. What an impressive score, Raynn!

Normally, that would have looked bad for most teams, but it was expected for Raynn’s main team. Most of them didn’t know much about team loyalty, especially Raynn. The ones who did know had split from the main group and tried not to associate with the main group as much as possible. I felt bad for that group, but it was hard to get the Council to allow transfers to other teams with the new living situations and jobs that had to usually be arranged.

“Hey, the battle partner scoring is being calculated,” Aurora pointed out.

I looked back up at the screen, although I wasn’t all that interested in this part. In the past only Blaze and Argus ever made it on this board. As I thought would happen, a video of Blaze and Argus fighting side by side was shown when the computer chose them as battle partners. I was taken by surprise at what happened next.

The video clip vanished after it was done, and the next one shown was of Ryoko and Rylan. The two were shown on a split screen with them talking to each other while they fought at different ends of the battlefield. Although it hadn’t surprised me that Rylan had watched Ryoko’s back from his sniping locations, I was slightly surprised by how often he had done it. He had to have done it quite a bit in order for the computer to pair them.

I glanced at Ryoko when I noticed her shift her weight. Her arms were crossed and a small smile was planted on her face, but her eyes gave away the turmoil inside her. Although she was happy they were paired together, it was her feelings for Rylan that made this match-up conflicting. Taking a quick glance at Rylan, I saw him look at Ryoko from the corner of his eye. The look he gave showed he was feeling the same as her. I wanted to hit them both. It wasn’t a secret to anyone on the team how they felt, but the two were just too oblivious and stubborn to see it themselves.

“Well, look at that,” Seda mused. “Laz, you finally made it up there.”

Ryoko let out a low whistle and nodded.

“What?” I snapped my attention back up to the scoreboard.

As Seda said, I was up there and so was Raikidan. Speechless wouldn’t begin to describe how I felt.

A video was shown of when he carried me, and I hit him on the head, and then transitioned over to when we had our little argument after we had killed Nioush. That video clip transitioned again, to when I pushed him away from me after he had pinned me against the wall to protect me and then again to when we were crouched around the corner, waiting for Chameleon to turn away from us.

In my years of being a rebel, I had never been paired with a teammate. But here I was on the board now with Raikidan, the rookie. I wasn’t sure what to make of this.

Blaze snickered. “Raikidan better learn to stay on Eira’s good side. She’ll make his life a living hell if he doesn’t.”

“That happens to you every day and you’re not her battle partner,” Argus teased.

Blaze glared and shoved him. Argus smirked and shoved him back. I glanced quickly at Raikidan, who was growing confused from the hushed whispers in the crowd around us.

“Well, a congratulations is in order, I guess,” I said to him.

Raikidan’s brow rose. “Why is everyone making this out to be such a big deal?”

Ryoko placed her hands on her hips. “Cause no one has ever been paired with her. You don’t know much about us yet, but Rylan was scientifically designed to be that person, and not even he’s been paired to her.”

“It’s not a bad thing,” Rylan added. “It’s just surprising with how many of these simulations we’ve done.”

Raikidan looked at me, but I turned and walked away before I took the chance to catch his expression. My mind was on other things. We’d run these simulations many times before I left, and I doubted they’d stopped after I’d gone on the run, either. Blaze and Argus were always paired up and that was that. Nothing ever changed. Why was the outcome so easily changed this time? And so drastically. What made Raikidan so special? None of this made any sense, and it was giving me a headache.

“Is Laz going to be okay?” Ryoko asked someone.

“She will be fine,” Seda said. “She just needs time to think.”

I headed for Aurora’s computer station. She had a small fridge there, and if I was lucky, there’d be something for me to drink. I needed it. Unfortunately, Raynn came out of nowhere and stepped in front of me, blocking my path. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with him. “What do you want?”

“You owe me an explanation of what your friend is,” Raynn said.

“I owe you nothing.”

Mocha snaked her arms around Raynn’s neck and hung over him. “You owe all of us an explanation.”

I glared as more of Raynn’s team came to back him up. “Quit being sore losers and get out of my way.”

The confrontation attracted attention, and my team ran over to back me up.

“No one has ever been chosen to be your battle partner by the computer, not even Rylan, and you want me to accept that this outsider can just waltz in and change all of this in one simulation?” Raynn spat on the ground. “Not happening. Now, what the hell is he?”

I didn’t get a chance to respond. A figure jumped in front of me and slammed his fist into Raynn’s face. Mocha screeched and jumped away.

My brow twisted. “Raikidan?”

Raikidan growled a little. “I told you if you had a problem with me to take it up with me, not her. Now back off!”

“Bastard.” Raynn spit out some blood and wiped away the small trail that dripped down his mouth.

Mocha moved closer to Raikidan and hissed. Rylan moved in front of me and let out a wolf-like growl in response.

Raynn spat more blood on the floor. “What’s wrong, Eira? So weak you have to have your man-toys protect you?”

“You don’t know what loyalty is,” Rylan growled more. “You wouldn’t understand.”

I snickered. “Haven’t you already had your ass handed to you enough by me today, Raynn?”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

“That’s not what your eyes told me before I smashed my fist through your face.”

“I know what you’re capable of.”

“You don’t even know the half of what I’m capable of.” I wasn’t going to let Raynn put in another word. With extreme speed and agility, I maneuvered around Raikidan and Rylan and nailed Raynn in the face with my knee. Without a moment’s hesitation, I grabbed him by the back of his hair and smashed his face into the ground and then proceeded to throw him through an empty computer station.

Mocha hissed and lunged at me, but Rylan slammed his fist into her face. She stumbled back and growled at him. “I thought you didn’t hit women.”

He snickered. “You’re right, I don’t.”

Raikidan chuckled and then punched another one of Raynn’s teammates as he attempted to attack me.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said. “I could have handled it.”

He grinned at me. “I’m now labeled as your battle partner. I might as well live up to that.”

I rolled my eyes and focused my attention back on Raynn, who was getting up with a groan. Broken electrical wires swung and sparked all around him, but he didn’t pay them any mind. His focus was now on me.

“You’re a fucking cunt, just like Amara,” he spat.

Rage burned inside me. “Take that back.”

He grinned. “Aww, did I hit a nerve? Good. She also got exactly what she deserved.”

I lost it. No one insulted her, especially not like that. Before Raynn could react, I grabbed him by the back of his head and forced my knee into his face. Shortly after, I brought my free hand down on him. He was only able to stop me when he grabbed me by the throat. My grip on his hair loosened as his grip tightened, allowing him to stand up. I grabbed his arm and dug my sharp nails into his tough skin, causing him to bleed. Although I was slowly suffocating, I refused to show any weakness.

I fell to the ground when Raikidan slammed into Raynn and air rushed into my lungs. Raikidan pummeled Raynn in the face a few times before Raynn kicked him off. Raikidan stumbled but recovered quickly and stood in front of me as Raynn got up.

I stood up and looked at Raikidan. “This is my fight.”

He turned his head and looked at me. “No.”

I could only stare at him because of the strange look he had. It wasn’t one of a man, not entirely at least. It was much different than what an ordinary man would give when protecting someone. Dragons protect… I sighed inwardly. How could I forget so easily he was a dragon?

The look also made me feel a bit strange.

I shook that idea out of my head, as well as the feeling pricking at me. Dragons protected other dragons, not humans. It was something else. It had to be.

“I won’t let him touch you again,” Raikidan stated before looking back at Raynn.

I stared at him and that feeling threatened to come back. I didn’t know what to think now. I was so confused. Today was just one upside-down day.

“How sweet.” Raynn chuckled. “Too bad I’m going to have to cut your lovefest short.”

Raikidan went to say something, but the creaking of the entrance doors stopped him—except it wasn’t just him. Everyone in the room turned their attention to those doors. My heart stopped. Standing in the entrance of the doors were five helmetless soldiers.

“Well, well, well, look at what we have here,” one of them stated as he held his gun at the ready.

My mind was abuzz. What were they doing here? How did they find this place? What were they doing in the sewers in the first place? They couldn’t be allowed to expose this place, so I said the first thing that came to mind. “Kill them.”