We all ate our lunches quietly for a while before I decided to do something about it. This oppressive silence was even worse than the fighting. Karen wouldn’t look at anyone and everyone was all tense as if waiting for things to socially explode. We couldn’t work together like this, and it wasn’t doing any of us any good.

“Umm… maybe we should all get to know each other a little better. You know, tell a little bit about ourselves and maybe how we became Altered and stuff,” I suggested, trying to find some common ground and maybe show Karen that we had all lost people and been hurt.

“Hmmph, maybe we should all join hands and sing Kumbaya while we’re at it. That sounds like a great use of our time,” Karen snarked without even looking up from her food.

Somehow, I managed not to let slip a sigh of exasperation, I didn’t want to do that while my voice projection app was running and let her know that she was getting to me. “Think of it as a team-building exercise. I’ll even go first,” I offered.

With that decided, I gave an abbreviated story of the Incursion and how I had become Altered, starting with when Kelly woke me up in the middle of the night. I tried to keep it brief and tell only the important things, like how I saw my father cut in half by Titan weapons, how Mom was captured, and then how Kelly was captured too while trying to act as a distraction to protect me and Moonlight after telling me to hide. I also admitted how scared I was, especially when that Titan looked like it was going to kill me and Moonlight.

I finished my tale with my Sprouting, how I had burst out of my cocoon, and the events that immediately followed it. I told them how big and scary everything was at first, about Moonlight making her presence known and me thinking I was going crazy, and how I learned that I had been trapped in that cocoon for over three years. I told them how frustrated I felt having to learn to use my new body and how confused I was by the gender stuff at first until Breeze cracked my egg and made me realize I was trans.

For a moment, after I had finished my story, everyone was quiet and I thought that I might have actually gotten to Karen, but that hope was dashed as she snorted. “Nice story, but there’s one thing that doesn’t add up. You said that your sister, Kelly, was captured by the Titans, but she’s sitting right in front of me. She must have really suffered.” Her tone was thick with sarcasm, and she rolled her eyes.

“You don’t know anything,” Kelly all but growled and Karen let her mask slip for a brief moment from the sheer vitriol in my sister’s tone. “I remember them taking me through the Breach and then nothing! Nothing for almost three years until I woke up naked and pregnant in a dark room with no memory of how I got that way! I had no idea what they did to me or what I was turning into, and then the Titans dropped me and some other Altered outside of a Breach in the middle of the desert five months ago like we were garbage! I lost the baby, and I thought that everyone I gave a damn about was either dead or on the other side of the Breach still!”

A lot of eyes in the mess hall were suddenly looking our way at my sister’s outburst, and I thought I saw Karen wince, but whether that was in sympathy or discomfort, I couldn’t tell. Kelly was shaking and her eyes looked a little damp as Ainslee put an arm around her in an attempt to comfort her. “Yeah, that was a great idea, Lily, that made things so much better,” I chided myself bitterly.

Ainslee seemed to be helping to calm down my sister so taking a deep breath, I decided to try to salvage this somehow as I turned my attention to Karen. “Every Altered has been through an Incursion and lost something we care about, Karen. Most of us have lost our humanity and have had to get used to being something else, many of us have lost people we care about, some have lost our whole lives, and some of us have lost a hell of a lot more than that. Do you really think you’re alone in having trauma? Let me tell you, you’re not.”

Karen was looking guilty now, shrinking back into her chair as I added, “And yeah, maybe some of us get lucky too. I got a body I was happy with, I have Moonlight, I met Poppy, and I was able to reconnect with some of the people I thought I lost. I was lucky that my sister still had her implant so Vanguard could identify her, and the nurses were able to bring us back together after I Sprouted. She wasn’t as lucky, she needed me.”

“I’m… sorry,” the Dark Elf said quietly, just loud enough to be heard by the people at our table. “I…”

Whatever she was about to say, she couldn’t seem to finish it, so I took the opportunity to say more while I had her attention and silence. “In our first meeting after the Incursion, Kelly was catatonic in the psych ward. She tried to kill herself several times, but her invulnerability prevented it, and she constantly has nightmares that she can’t be sure are just her worst fears manifesting or memories of things those alien motherfuckers did to her while she was their captive. She still has a lot of healing to do.”

“I… didn’t know.” Karen’s voice was barely audible now as she looked anywhere but at her table mates.

“No, you didn’t,” I agreed, “and that’s the lesson here. If we’re going to be a team and work together, we need to know and trust one another. If we don’t, and we’re not all on the same page, someone is bound to get hurt. It could be emotionally or physically, and it could be any one of us. Right now, none of us knows or trusts you, but we’re willing to give you a chance, even if you don’t make it easy for us. I’m not asking you to be nice, tell us your story, or give us trust we haven’t earned yet, I’m just asking you to give us the same opportunity we’re trying to give you. Get to know us and give us a chance.”

“What, because friendship is magic? Is that what your little pony told you?” she snarked, though it seemed more of a learned reaction than having any real bite to it as if her heart just wasn’t in it. “Love and trust aren’t going to prevent people from getting hurt, I know that better than anyone. Sometimes, the people you care about die right in front of your eyes, no matter how hard you try to save them, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.”

I wasn’t expecting to bring down the walls she had spent years erecting in one day. I was optimistic, not stupid, but if I could just get one crack to show on the surface then there was hope for her in the long run. This might just be that crack. I was trying to think of something motivational to say when Ainslee interjected.

“That sounds like experience talking,” my best friend said as my sister took deep breaths to calm herself and they both looked over our new teammate. “So, is that your thing then? You lost someone you cared about, so now you push everyone away with this act? We’ve all lost people, just like Lily said. That pushing people away though, that’s bullshit. I’d rather get stronger and learn to use my new abilities to protect the people I care about, so that shit can never happen again while I’m there to prevent it.”

Then Poppy piped up with, “Sometimes you can’t prevent it, and I’m still learning to accept that. It was pure luck that I wasn’t at home with Mum and my grandparents when the building we lived in collapsed during the Incursion. I still blame myself sometimes, but I know that even if I had been there with them, I couldn’t have done anything. I probably would have just died along with them. I think they’d be happy I lived, and that they would want me to be happy.”

Karen’s mask started to slip again; I could see it as her frown deepened. She had more in common with my teammates than she probably wanted to believe or accept. I didn’t want to push her too hard though, not right away, it would just push her away and then I would have more work ahead of me. “I’m not asking you to join our little family, or even to be our friend, Karen. I just want us all to be able to get along and trust one another so we can work together. Can you manage that?”

The mask slammed firmly back into place as she grumbled, “Fine, whatever. It’s not like I have much choice anyway.”

“One step at a time,” I reminded myself. This was going to be a slow process, and we would need to remain emotionally available to her and try to include her in our group. Hopefully, this would act like exposure therapy for her feelings, and we could get her to slowly open up and confront her fears over time. I still wasn’t sure that I was the best person for this job, but I would do my best.

Ainslee and Poppy shared their origin stories as we hurriedly finished our lunches, but Karen wasn’t ready yet to open up about her past, so I told everyone that we had to hurry to get to our scheduled training exercise on time. We were actually a bit early, arriving at the training room a little over five minutes before we were scheduled to start.

The team training exercises were not what I was expecting, I was expecting training drills, obstacle courses, and the like. There was no equipment in the massive room though, save various holo-projectors, let alone an entire obstacle course, even though the underground chamber that we were in could probably fit several football fields. Other than those projectors in the walls, floors, and ceilings, the room was bare save for us and our instructor, Sergeant Vale.

The sergeant was an imposing Vampire man who was six and a half feet tall, had muscles for days, and whose arms were covered with strange, glowing tattoos. He had crimson eyes, pitch-black hair that was down past his shoulder blades, and an expression that said that he would take absolutely no shit. The man was quite frankly terrifying as he fixed his gaze on us and sniffed at the air.

“I smell fear,” the sergeant said as his lips curled upward into a smile that I didn’t like the looks of at all. “That’s good, fear is our instincts telling us that we’re in danger. Listen to those instincts, but don’t let them control you. Two types of people die in their first altercation against the Titans, those who don’t have the sense to respect the danger they are in and those who let their fear control them. Respect your fear, but don’t let it rule your thoughts and actions. Courage is what lets us do that, and I’m here to help you find your courage. Any questions?”

None of us moved or said a word as the Vampire spoke, remaining at attention and I was the one who spoke up, using my voice projection app to carry my words. “Vice-Commander Carpenter didn’t tell me what these exercises would involve. I was expecting drills or obstacle courses.”

The sergeant nodded thoughtfully before replying, “You will be facing those very things during your weekend training sessions with all the other Cadet students once you start classes, but for now we will be doing something different. I’ve been told that your team may be called in for first response if Incursions happen if Cadet-Major Pierce can transport troops and equipment there. It’s my job to prepare you for that.”

He paused, letting that sink in before speaking again. “Listen up, buttercups, I know you’ve all been in at least one Incursion before, you wouldn’t be Altered otherwise at your age. There is probably fear and trauma attached to those memories for you, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of, but today you’re going to start to face those head-on while you learn to work as a team.”

“W-wait… you mean…” Karen started to ask, sounding nervous as her eyes darted around to take in the projectors spaced around the cavernous room.

“This entire chamber is a hardlight holographic training simulator, and we will be doing Incursion training,” Sergeant Vale replied. “Most people would be putting you kids through virtual training to start you off, but I’m not most people and the VC wants you ready for the real thing. With virtual training, your minds know that it’s not real, that the danger isn’t real so I’m dropping you in the deep end.”

He went on to tell us that since we had a healer on hand, he wouldn’t stop the simulation unless one of us was in danger of being seriously injured or worse. He also would not be participating himself since he would be monitoring our progress in the main control room with roving cameras that would be following each of us. Then he sent us to a changing room at the far end of the colossal chamber to prepare ourselves.

Waiting inside the room was a woman maybe in her mid-twenties with olive skin and dark hair and, while she looked human enough above the hips, her lower body was that of a huge snake. The Lamia was pretty and wore the uniform of a Private in the Vanguard. As soon as we entered the room, she gave us an encouraging smile.

“Hi, I’m Private Callas,” she said with a slight accent that I thought might be Greek. “You girls are pretty lucky; you’re not even going to the university yet and you’re all being issued equipment and getting special training already. I guess that makes sense if you might be jumping into Incursions though. I’m here to give you a quick primer on how your gear works before throwing you into the sim.”

“Gear?” Kelly asked in surprise. “I was kinda worried he was just going to have us go in like this. Wouldn’t we need training for any kind of special gear?”

“Normally you would,” the Lamia agreed, “but you’re just being issued the basics today and I can show you how to use them in a few minutes. The body armor will be yours to keep, but the weapons will have to be checked out and then returned when you’re finished the sim. Anyway, let’s start with the armor then.”

Private Callas led us to a bench that was probably usually used for changing clothes and sitting, but for the moment hosted weapons that I had seen being worn and/or carried by the team that came to retrieve Ainslee, Karen, the big blue asshole, and me after our scuffle. A box, roughly the size of a small toolbox, also sat on the bench. It was that which she opened first, revealing what looked like some sort of silver-hued metal chokers, three in normal person sizes and two that were surprisingly small enough for me and Poppy.

“These are the DS-4 Personal Protection System. Using them is fairly intuitive and they’re standard issue for anyone that has even a speck of magical talent or abilities,” she explained as she pointed to a similar choker around her own neck. “To activate the armor or retract it, you just need to push some mana into the collar, and it’ll do its thing.”

“Is it some kind of nanotech?” Poppy asked, though I was pretty sure we didn’t have anything like that yet, at least not as advanced as this.

“Nope,” the Lamia said with a grin. “It uses dimensional shunting enchantments to store the armor in the collar when it’s not in use. It also has enchantments for self-repair if the armor is damaged and a shielding spell that will give additional protection to your torso and head. The added spells aren’t super powerful though since there’s a limit on how much magic an object can hold so I’d try to avoid taking any hits if possible. They’re looking into better magical materials, but that’s probably going to take time.”

We each took one of the chokers and put them on and I was a little surprised at how easy it was to use. I just had to put the tiniest bit of mana into the choker, and I was suddenly covered by a skin-tight black body armor from neck to toes and fingertips. It had slits for my wings in the back, felt easy to move in, and was essentially a simple black catsuit with no embellishments but the Vanguard decals on the shoulders. The material almost felt like leather on the outside and there was a bit of squishy give to it that made me think there was a gel underlayer to absorb impacts.

The others managed to activate theirs as well and Poppy sidled up against me, practically purring, “Ooh, I do love a girl in uniform, Love.”

Thankfully I was small enough that nobody but Poppy could see my blush as I asked, “So… umm... how good is this armor? And what happened to my clothes?”

“They’re tough but fairly basic,” Private Callas replied with a shrug. “Mine has protected me against shrapnel, and heavy impacts that would have broken bones otherwise, and they’re rated as bulletproof, but with some of the heavier magitech weapons that the Titans bring to bear, it’s better to just try not to get hit in the first place. Some people choose to wear a heavier armor over top, but it hampers mobility. As for your clothes, they’ve been shunted into the dimension that usually stores the armor until you activate the collar again.”

Kelly nodded and looked thoughtful as she replied, “I guess that’s the best we can ask for. It’s not like I really need it, and I’ll do my best to keep you all covered.”

The Private nodded and gestured toward the bench once again. “Okay, weapons now. I’m afraid we don’t have anything in Sprite size that would be useful in combat, but you all have elemental magic anyway so it’s not like you’re helpless. For you other three though, we have the standard-issue Desert Eagle Mk XXVI handgun and the M7 Punisher high-powered assault rifle.”

I was about to object that a regular handgun wasn’t going to do shit to the Titans, even if it was a fifty caliber, but that was when she explained that in addition to being able to use a normal loadout of armor-piercing shells, there were enchanted rounds available as well. They still probably wouldn’t do much against a fully shielded Titan since the bullets could only hold so much magic, but they would get its attention. The bullets exploded on impact and would do far more damage to one of us, which was why she gave Kelly, Karen, and Ainslee a brief gun safety lesson and told them not to point them at anyone but the giant alien mecha.

The Punisher on the other hand, was a pure magitech weapon that had been developed by studying damaged or destroyed Titan weapons. It looked bulky for an assault rifle, more like a small cannon and the barrel was diamond shaped rather than round. It could be loaded with condensed mana clips, or the user could feed mana to it directly, and it fired massive bursts of destructive magical energy, much like a smaller version of that violet beam of energy that had eviscerated the roof of our stables.

Once Private Callas finished showing my human-sized teammates how to use their weapons and reminding them to be careful where they pointed them, we were ready to go. Thankfully, neither weapon would be using live ammo, and she was just trying to get them into good safety habits, since nobody wanted an accident with first-time weapons users. The guns all had little sensors attached that would connect them to the simulation so it would act as if they did have live ammo when used against our holographic opponents and the Punishers were otherwise disabled. We would still have to be careful with our special abilities and magic though, especially Poppy, Karen, and Ainslee.

After the safety talk, the Lamia in uniform directed our attention to a holographic image that she activated from a console in the wall. It looked like a peaceful little town. “Okay, girls, this shows the interior of the training room. Any minute now, a Breach will open to begin the Incursion simulation. Your job is to get there as soon as you can after the Breach opens and to protect civilians and the designated shelter until reinforcements can arrive. Good luck.”