Pride x Familiar (36 page)

The second phase required us to perform simple
movements, then more complex ones as time progressed.

Then there was a final tuning phase that felt
like my skin was bonding to the suit’s interior layer. When it was
over I felt naked though I was still dressed in the black and
gun-metal grey material.

Each of us wore neural contacts. The devices
resembled large hair clips, and attached to the skin over our
temples. It took a while for me to grow accustomed to them. In
fact, after a half hour wearing them I still wasn’t used to their
presence. But they were quite unlike the headset and visor I’d used
before with my old skinsuit.

I looked myself in the mirror, and I had to
admit the skinsuit looked snug on me.

The boots were flat heeled, but that didn’t
matter since I’d be wearing the Valkyrie Armor over the skinsuit’s
feet, legs and forearms. I was instructed to summon the armor a few
times to allow the technicians to adjust the skinsuit to the
Fragment. I wore the skinsuit over my Fragments, yet the armor
locked onto my body regardless of the material that lay between it
and the bracelets and anklets.

That wasn’t the case for Maya. Her skinsuit had
slightly shorter sleeves than mine, and lacked the connecting
gloves that I wore. Her hands and wrists were bare, and her
Fragment bracelets were clearly visible.

I had no idea why our Fragments were so
different, but I refrained from asking.

After what felt like an eternity having my
skinsuit adjusted to work in conjunction with the Valkyrie Armor, I
was finally freed from the technicians. While waiting in an empty
corner of the large laboratory-like fitting room, Rina walked over
to me.

I glanced at her wrists. “Where’s your
Fragment?”

She held up her right arm and tapped her wrist
over the skinsuit. “Under here.” She grinned. “Maya had to have her
sleeves cut. When her Fragment manifested, her gauntlets sliced up
the lower sleeves of her skinsuit.”

“Yeah, I noticed that. It surprised the techs.”
I glanced at around discretely, and saw Constance was finishing up
too.

Rina inhaled deeply, then made the decision to
wave the girl over.

We both saw Constance hesitate for a noticeable
moment. Then she bowed her head a little and stiffly walked over to
us. She stood beside Rina, which meant the latter was sandwiched
between Constance and I.

Rina noted, “So you get to wear the full
skinsuit too.” She giggled. “Poor Maya. I bet she’s annoyed.”

I shrugged lightly. “So long as it doesn’t
affect her performance, I’m sure she won’t mind.”

I gave Constance a sidelong glance, but the girl
said nothing.

Then Rina muttered, “I really don’t like
her.”

“Who?” I asked.

“That Silia Alucard.” Rina crossed her arms over
her small chest and pouted. “Her breasts are super-sized and
annoying. She came up to me and poked me all over. She told me to
lay off the sweets and lose some pounds. I don’t even have a sweet
tooth.”

“But you ate my pizza,” Constance pointed out.
“It’s no wonder you’re getting fat.”

“I’m not fat,” Rina protested with a sour look.
“I just haven’t lost my baby fat.”

I was about to disagree, but Constance spoke
first.

“No, Alucard is right. You’re going to have
trouble keeping up with us.”

Rina shot the girl an angry look, but then
turned away with a troubled one instead. “I can’t help it. I only
Awakened a little over a month and a half ago. The Soras didn’t
begin training me until they found a Fragment I was compatible
with.”

To my surprise I planted a hand on her shoulder
and said, “Just stick close to us. We’ll cover you.”

“But lay off the extra pizza,” Constance warned,
“and we’re not going to carry you if you fall behind.”

Rina started to weep. “Pepperoni. Mozzarella
cheese. Sweet onions. Anchovies.”

“Shut up,” Constance warned. “Now you’re making
me hungry. I should never have given you my pizza.”

Rina wailed and threw her arms around Constance
who was so shocked I saw the whites in her eyes.

“Connie—what am I going to do?”

“Stop calling me that,” the taller girl
complained. “My name’s Constance. You hear me?”

I stared at Rina. Wasn’t this girl supposed to
be shy? She rarely spoke during the three briefings we had in the
Student Council President’s office. In fact, she gave me the
impression of a meek little cat that was doing its best to remain
in the background.

But this Rina was rubbing her face in
Constance’s average chest and whining about all the delicious pizza
she was going to miss out on.

Constance raised a fist over Rina’s head. “I’m
going to hit you if you don’t let go.”

Rina sobbed. “Connie—don’t be mean to me.”

I saw Rina look up at Constance with such a
forlorn look that the latter actually stuttered.

“Y—you—you—what are you doing? Stop looking at
me like that?”

“Connie….”

Constance looked conflicted. She seemed to be
battling against a torrent of mixed emotions that locked her body
and expression rigid.

Then, just when I saw her begin to relax, Rina
muttered loudly, “You smell nice…like pizza.”

“Aggh,” Constance yelled and thumped the girl
over the head.

#

(Caprice)

Three hours after we arrived at Artemis
Industries we finally found ourselves on the cusp of commencing
training.

We also found ourselves standing on a balcony,
looking out over a habitat that was every bit as complete as the
habitats inside Island Three.

What threw me off was the fact this habitat was
a training habitat.

Rina spoke in a hushed, awed voice. “Wow. It’s
so big.”

Constance wondered, “Is this real? It looks
real. I mean, I’ve never seen a holo-image this detailed before.
You’d need a hundred thousand projectors for something this
big.”

I understood what she meant. The habitat
appeared to be a complete environment, yet it was hard believe
something like this existed inside Pharos. I counted roughly
eighteen blocks stretching into the distance, and twelve blocks
from left to right. That made it roughly a third the length and
breadth of a full sized habitat. There was even a mag-lev network
running between the buildings.

I stepped closer to the balcony railing and
looked down at the buildings and streets below.

There were people down there walking the
sidewalks, and vehicles on the streets. The sounds of a habitat
reached my ears, complete with the throng of commuters on foot and
driving in automated cars. The place really did look like a
populated environment. But there was something odd about the
populace.

My Fragment told me they weren’t real.

They were holovids surrounding the ubiquitous
bowling pin shaped robots that performed automated tasks within a
habitat, including sentry and maintenance duties. In other words,
there was a bowling pin robot inside every holovid person I saw
down on the streets below.

That made for a lot of robots.

Maya stepped up beside me. “The buildings and
cars are real, but the people are not. That’s so weird.”

I nodded. “I think it’s going to feel even
weirder when we start training in there.”

My Awareness tingled. I sensed a number of
people enter the balcony from the entrance behind us. Maya and I
both turned to see Silia Alucard and three other young women
dressed in matching skinsuits form a line abreast of her. I didn’t
have to ask to know this was her Artemis squad.

The four women, including Alucard, gave us
rather dismissive looks. Their superior attitude was beginning to
get under my skin, and thereby my skinsuit.

Maya stepped forward, and by an unwritten
consensus Rina, Constance and I fanned out behind her.

Maya asked politely, “Are we to begin training
now?”

Silia Alucard shook her head. “Not exactly.
First, we want to see what you can do right now. We’ll use that to
determine how much training you’re going to need, and where to
start from.”

I noticed Maya dip her head slightly. “You’re
not going to induct us into basic training?”

“No, because most of you have been training
individually for many, many months. Unfortunately, that doesn’t
include pudgy over there.”

“Geh!” Rina gasped.

Silia smiled cruelly. “But don’t fret, we’ll
have you burn off those extra pounds in short order. We’ll turn you
into a lean, mean, little machine in no time at all.” The young
woman narrowed her eyes. “Until then…no pizza!”

“Gah!” Rina swayed on her feet.

Silia’s Artemis team members laughed amongst
themselves. These girls were older than us by a few years, taller
and carried themselves with confidence born of experience.

And they were Aventis.

My Fragment gave my thoughts a subtle nudge and
inserted that tidbit into my head. It could sense the Symbiote
inside them.

Maya shifted her stance. It wasn’t openly
combative but it held a hint of rebellion.

“Very well,” she said. “Formation or individual
combat?”

“Four on four,” Silia replied. “We’ll give you a
ten minute head start, then hunt you down. The longer you last, the
better your final grade. One thing to be mindful of is collateral
damage. Injure a passer-by or civilian and you’ll be demoted
points. Damage property and buildings and you’ll lose even more
points. Other than that, almost anything goes. But remember, this
is a mock battle. We’re not out to kill you or permanently injure
you. We expect the same from you.”

Maya asked, “So you’re telling us to hold back
on what our Fragments can do?”

“Like I said, short of permanent injury or
killing someone, you’re free to come at us however you see
fit.”

Maya raised her chin. “When do we start?”

“Now,” Silia replied.

Before I could summon my Valkyrie Armor, a cold
chill filled the air and the black mist surrounded Rina. When it
cleared heartbeats later, she held a large sniper rifle in her
arms. The weapon looked fit to snipe an armored vehicle from ten
kilometers away.

What happened next took everyone by
surprise.

Yet in hindsight I should have expected
something like this to happen.

Events had been building up to this moment.

Rina yelled like a wounded feline and heft the
rifle underarm. “You’re not taking away my pizza!”

Particles of violet let danced in front of the
barrel and a second later the weapon shrieked and fired at
Silia.

The young woman and her team scattered a
millisecond before the blast of violet light missed them. It struck
the balcony entrance behind them. The wall and security glass held,
but the air hissed and wavered.

“Apologize to pizza!” Rina shouted, and fired
again and again at the Artemis girls.

The rest of us had jumped back to the balcony
railing, summoning our Fragments in a heartbeat.

Rina was shooting with surprising accuracy, but
the Artemis team narrowly avoided getting hit. Within seconds they
dove off the balcony and into the habitat below. The girl ran to
the edge of the balcony and began firing quickly into the
habitat.

Maya ran forward and kicked up the rifle’s
barrel.

Then she smacked Rina lightly on the head.
“Idiot—you’re damaging the buildings.”

Rina started to laugh unsteadily with a huge
twisted smile on her face. “The power output is down to one
percent. It’ll just burn the paint off the walls.”

Constance yelled, “We’d better chase after them
or they’ll start chasing us. Either way, I don’t think they’re
going to give us a head start anymore.”

Maya groaned loudly like a tree about to fall.
“Aggh, damn it.” The girl trembled violently for a short while.
Then she relaxed and nodded angrily. “Fine. We go on the offensive.
Stick together. We don’t know the habitat’s layout, but we’ll move
rooftop to rooftop.”

Constance and I nodded, but Rina suddenly looked
aghast.

“You—you mean we’re going to jump from building
to building?” The girl’s expression worsened. “You mean we’re going
to have to
run
?”

Maya grabbed Rina by the scruff of her skinsuit.
“That’s right. And after the stunt you just pulled you’re coming
with me. I’m not letting you out of my sight. I swear I will kick
you if you fall behind.”

With those words, Maya jumped off the rooftop
while holding onto the scruff of Rina’s skinsuit. They disappeared
from view and I heard Rina scream all the way down.

I glanced at Constance.

The girl looked undecided, then quickly shot me
a sideways look.

I knew what she was thinking. I raised my
gauntlets up. “Truce.”

She was quiet for a heartbeat. “Truce.”

I waved at the edge of the balcony. “In that
case, we’d better not fall behind.”

Constance inhaled deeply, then gave me a tight
nod.

I returned it, and temporarily shelving the bad
blood between us, Constance and I jumped over the balcony railing
and into the habitat skyline below.

There are two kinds of Aventis.

The first kind of Aventis is a Regular that
developed a degree of compatibility with one of the eight strains
of Symbiote. This normally happens during or after puberty, thereby
confined to the teenage years. If their compatibility exceeds
seventy percent, they are granted admission into the specific Pride
they are most compatible with. The Symbiote then takes residence
within the Regular’s body, and they join the Aventis ranks.

The second kind of Aventis is one that is born
with the Symbiote inside them. Elements of the Symbiote flow into
the fetus during the second trimester when the baby is more fully
developed. It then continues to grow along with the fetus. Such an
Aventis is commonly referred to as a Pureblood.