The next morning saw us once again heading to Vanguard Tower for training, and Ainslee would once again be joining us. Not only was she going to have to be there for the team training exercise after lunch, but during the morning, while the rest of us worked on improving at using our racial magical abilities, she would be working on her special ability. Not the part where she summons those magical plasma weapons since that seemed to come to her as easily as breathing, but the more physical aspect.

Part of Ainslee’s special ability was a natural talent for close-quarters combat, especially with bladed weapons. So, she was going to be working with a close-quarter combat specialist to develop that talent into experience and skill, at least until school started and we had less free time. I thought that she might be reluctant when I brought it up yesterday, but my best friend actually seemed pretty eager to get started. She was serious about wanting to protect the people she cared about and fighting the Titans.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to deal with the media again since Ainslee and I gave our statements. Not that we would have anyway since I was teleporting us to Vanguard Tower. I was supposed to be training my special ability by pushing my limits and teleporting as much as possible, so it made sense and saved us from paying for public transit.

It was probably for the best that Ainslee and I avoided public places for a while anyway, at least until the whole situation blew over and the media got tired of us. The big story on last night’s news feeds was that Terry Lundburg was dead. Apparently, after the local Vampire population heard about the charges against him and his sentence, they didn’t let the grass grow under their feet. The prison was swarmed by them, all of whom specifically requested the big blue special. They all wanted a piece of him, and he was drained dry within a day of being put on the menu.

As expected, Terry’s parents did not take this news well. In addition to publicly announcing that Lundburg Technologies was severing all ties with the Vanguard (their biggest customer), they also launched a smear campaign against not only Vice-Commander Carpenter and Commander-General Kline but me and Ainslee as well. Those rich assholes were taking victim-shaming to a new level with any news agency or reporter that would listen.

They were painting me as having viciously attacked him without provocation and Ainslee as a slut and a tease who provoked their poor, innocent boy into a fight, despite his previous charges and evidence that the attack was premeditated. Not only did the video I streamed clearly show that, but so did his own thoughts and files that were found on his comm implant, which had been surgically removed as normal prison procedure to prevent communication with the outside world. The Vanguard countered by releasing those files, including Terry’s kill list, and Vice-Commander Carpenter released an official statement first thing this morning.

The statement declared, in no uncertain terms, that Terry Lundburg was a citizen of the city-state of Amethyst Harbour and subject to its laws. Laws which he had repeatedly broken. The statement specifically referenced the law regarding using special abilities or dangerous Altered abilities to attack people and the law about assaulting Vanguard personnel, stating that I was an officer in training. Finally, it stated that his sentence was issued due to the premeditated nature of the attack, his lack of any remorse, and the danger he posed to the population in general if allowed back on the streets.

The media was having a field day with all of this. So, I was more than happy to avoid any possible encounters by teleporting us to Vanguard Tower. The only good thing about this whole affair was that Karen’s name was hardly coming up at all, but she was currently locked down in Vanguard Tower and keeping quiet. Like that girl needed more trauma in her life.

People were mostly focusing on Terry since he was an attempted murderer with rich and influential parents. Those same parents, who were making their presence very known, were also a major focus, and through them, the Vanguard, me, and Ainslee. My best friend and I were getting the focus as both victims and secondary targets of the smear campaign, while people outside of Amethyst Harbour loved to read about a possible Vanguard scandal, which some of the headlines were touting.

Regardless, we all went through our morning training sessions with our individual trainers and were due to meet for lunch in the mess. I was not on my way there yet though. Even though I was tired from training my magic and teleportation ability over the past couple of hours, I had to make a stop before joining my sister, Poppy, and Ainslee for our meal.

I still didn’t know the layout of Vanguard Tower very well yet, so it took me longer than I would have liked to find the room that Karen was staying in. It probably would have taken less time to follow the locator beacon in her tracking implant than to look for the right room number on the right floor, but after ten minutes, during which I had to call the others and assure them that I would meet them shortly, I found the correct room. However, I hesitated before reaching out with my comm crown to issue the security code that would unlock and open the door.

As eager as I was to get what would likely be a very awkward first meeting with our new respective positions and ranks over with, I was also worried. I had so many different worries about how this would play out. What if she refused to play ball and follow my orders once she found out I was her commanding officer? What if she got hostile and I had to taser her with her implant?

My biggest fears of all though were: What if I’m not the leader that Vice-Commander Carpenter thinks I am? What if I can’t handle this? What if I fuck up somehow and make the broken girl behind that door worse instead of better? They were valid fears, very real possibilities, and that was what made them so insidious.

Karen was so traumatized inside and hurting so much and her tendency to push people away was going to make it hard to reach her so that my friends and I could have any sort of positive relationship with her, or one that was not purely negative at the very least. I was going to have to handle this situation, and Karen herself, very delicately. I hadn’t even opened the door yet and already it felt like I was walking a tightrope of possible success while a yawning chasm of failure stretched out below me, waiting to swallow me whole. And if I did fail, it wouldn’t be me who paid the price of my failure, but Karen.

No, I needed to think positively. Vice-Commander Carpenter seemed to believe in me and the sure way to fail was to hesitate or let myself be paralyzed by fear and not even try. If I played this right, I could help Karen, but I knew that success would likely be a long road, one that I would have to take one careful step at a time.

“It’s time to take that first step,” I told myself firmly as I mentally reached out with my comm crown to issue the security access code.

~You can do this, my Maiden,~ Moonlight gently encouraged. ~It may take time, patience, and effort, but I believe that you and the others can help Karen.~

“Thanks, Moonlight. I hope you’re right,” I replied as the security lock beeped, and I could hear a faint clicking sound before the door slid open with a pneumatic hiss. The room it opened to reveal was spartan, there was little more than the bed with a trunk at the foot for clothing and other belongings, a simple nightstand, and a metal desk with a basic office chair. There was one other door besides the one that I had just opened, which I assumed must lead to a bathroom since Karen was basically a prisoner here until school started.

Vice-Commander Carpenter had mentioned taking Karen home briefly to get some clothes and personal items, so that explained the small, decorative safe atop the nightstand, which I figured must contain valuables and/or personal items. It looked expensive, not like it belonged in a room like this one. Much like the well-dressed figure who was lying on the bed.

Karen was on her side facing away from me and didn’t even turn her head to see who her visitor might be, she just remained there lethargically. I might have feared that she was dead if I wasn’t already watching her vitals via the app for her tracking implant. The readings were all in the green and the lack of flashing red in my HUD or any alerts assured me that she was merely either sleeping or ignoring her visitor.

“If you’re here to deliver my lunch, just leave it on the desk and get lost,” she said. She sounded despondent, so empty of life, like she couldn’t be bothered to put out the effort of putting any real fire behind her words.

I hit my voice projection app and called out, “Attention, Cadet Smythe!”

As much as I would have rather called her by name, I feared that getting familiar with her too quickly would put her on guard with me from the start, if she wasn’t already just because of how we met. Going by what I knew of her, I felt that she would ironically be more at ease if I first addressed her by rank, like another cog in the machine. I hoped that it was the best approach, at least to start with, for a girl who wanted to keep people at a distance. This way, she could think that this was just business for me, or that I maybe still held some hostility toward her, and so I wasn’t a threat of getting past her guard.

Karen hadn’t received any real Vanguard training yet, much like me and the others on our team, so she didn’t snap to attention and get to her feet. She did, however, turn her head to regard me for a moment before eliciting a derisive snort of feigned disgust. “Oh, it’s the mosquito,” she said dryly, nearly getting under my skin despite my resolve to be understanding and not let her do so. “What the fuck do you want? Are you here to see me suffer? Are you enjoying the show?”

I sighed, feeling helpless and trapped. There were so many metaphorical landmines for me to step on here. I didn’t believe her feigned ignorance for a minute either, I knew very well that the Vice-Commander had informed her about being placed on my team. Perhaps I was wrong about keeping her at a distance at first. Maybe I needed to push her a bit instead. Or maybe a bit of both?

“No, I’m not,” I told her sternly, “so you can drop the tough act and get off your ass, Karen. I’m here as your new commanding officer, to take charge of my new team member. We’re going to the mess for lunch and then we have some team exercises.”

Karen snorted again but did get to her feet as she sarcastically stated, “Whatever. I bet we’re all going to be one big, happy family and that your Unicorn shits lollipops and farts rainbows.”

“I think we all know that trust is going to take time to build after your last meeting with me and Ainslee. On both sides,” I told her honestly. As much as I wanted to add that she wasn’t the only one suffering, that she wasn’t helping anyone with her bitch act, least of all herself, I held that back for now. There was pushing her and then there was pushing her too far. I needed her to lower those walls a bit first and I was really hoping that these team exercises and being around the rest of us might help with that.

Karen was quiet all the way to the mess, though she maintained her scowl, and her body language remained closed off as I flew alongside her, observing and giving the occasional directions to our destination. Wasn’t it mentally exhausting keeping up the act all the time? I wanted so badly to break down those walls, but if I moved too fast and shattered them, I would likely do more harm than good and make it harder to gain her trust.

Ainslee was the first to notice us as we arrived at the mess hall, got our respective meals, and approached the table she and the others were sitting at. I saw her whisper something to my sister and Poppy and then they too were looking up at our approach, their expressions guarded. “Poppy, Sis, this is Karen Smythe, our new teammate who I was telling you about. Karen, you already know Ainslee, so this is my girlfriend, Poppy Lancaster, and my sister, Kelly Pierce.”

There was a mishmash of muttered greetings from my loved ones while for a brief instant, Karen stared at my sister and then looked between us in confusion. It was fairly obvious that we weren’t genetically related after all, even before becoming Altered, and now it was even more so with me being a Sprite and Kelly a Huli Jing. It was nice to see Karen show an actual honest reaction, even if it was out of surprise. Her eyes seemed to linger on my sister though as she tried to put her mask of angst back in place.

My sister tried to extend the olive branch by offering, “Our Mom couldn’t have kids naturally, so we were both adopted.”

“I didn’t ask for your life story, Whitey,” Karen snapped as she sat down, looking very carefully down at her food and taking a sip of her drink before speaking again. “Hmph, and I thought this team was going to be bullshit before. Now I have to work with the fucking mosquito and her little pony, her firefly girlfriend, the bitch who maimed me, and you? I feel so fucking safe. What do you do, Whitey? Besides looking pretty. It’s like I’ve been conscripted to join a fucking girl band.”

As much as I really wanted to defend my sister and the others, I needed to at least give them all a chance to come to some kind of truce on their own first. That wasn’t looking likely though as I sipped at my nectar and Poppy fumed. “Firefly? Racist bitch.”

It was grumbled under her breath so only I heard it, and I gave my girlfriend an imploring look over our tiny table as I whispered, “Please, we all promised to give her a fair shake.” Poppy didn’t seem happy, but she reluctantly nodded and took a deep breath to calm herself.

“I’m invulnerable,” my sister was snapping back at Karen over us. “Nothing hurts me, least of all your pathetic little barbs. Desperate cry for attention much? I’ll be covering everyone’s asses and putting myself between you and the stuff that might splatter or incinerate you otherwise, so if you want to feel safe, maybe you should give me a reason to want to do that for you.”

I found myself wincing as Ainslee muttered bitterly, “Yeah, this was such a good idea.”

Unfortunately, my best friend had a point. This was not going well, and I was not looking forward to the work ahead of me. “Get through lunch first,” I told myself as I held back a sigh. “If I’m lucky, they won’t all try to kill each other before we’re all finished eating.”