Hit and Run (attempt 3)

The voice jolted Kraken out of his thoughts, and he turned
to look up at the speaker. Warm brown eyes stared back at him inquisitively,
and it took a couple of moments for Kraken to speak.

"Sure." He eventually managed to mutter before
shuffling one seat to the right. His visitor took the seat next to him, before
immediately craning her neck past him to look out of the window.

"Oooh... so that's the maelstrom?" She observed.
Kraken followed her gaze to the enormous compression of energy below them. Even
as they watched, a fork of indigo lightning shot upwards, piercing the
blackness of the infinite with a bright light.

"Yep." He deadpanned. She nodded in
acknowledgement, but didn't desist from her staring.

"You know, you can have the window seat if you
want." He offered, his voice remaining monotoned.

"No, it's okay, I'm good." She gave the maelstrom
a final glance before returning to the conventional sitting position. A few
moments of silence passed.

"Why'd you sit beside me anyway?" Kraken
eventually asked, blowing a strand of jet black hair out of his golden eyes -
though it fell back over his pale forehead almost instantly.

In response, the girl made waving motions with her hands,
indicating their surrounds.

"The airship is full. This was the first empty seat I
could find." She admitted. Kraken looked around him, and realised with a
jolt that the girl was right. All the seating he could see was filled with
chattering students. How long had passed without him realising?

"You didn't notice?" The girl rose an eyebrow, as
if she were reading his thoughts. "What had you so lost in thought,
anyway?"

"A lot of things." Kraken stated. He considered
adding a "what's it to you?" after it, but decided against it in
favour of silence.

"How very specific." The girl pouted. "Listen
here... err... what's your name?"

"Kraken." The aforementioned man mentioned.

"Cool. Anyway, I'd like a more specific answer!"
The girl persisted.

"You're not getting one." Harrumphed Kraken.
"You have no authority over me, and as such, I can say what I want
to."

"Alright then. I guess I'll just have to find out
later." His interrogator shrugged. Kraken raised an eyebrow in response to
her statement, and she raised one in return.

"What? There's probably going to be a later... I guess
it depends on which class we end up in, but even so. I know there's no-one else
for me to talk to, and judging by how you were sitting alone and looking
EXTREMELY vacant, I'm guessing you don't have anyone either."

"Looks to me like the difference is that I don't WANT
anyone else to talk to." Kraken declared.

"So cold!" Lamented the girl. "Well, if you
change your mind, my name's Ruby C-Dragilla."

"C-Dragilla?" Echoed Kraken. "Not the most
conventional surname, is it?"

"Just Dragilla. It's just Dragilla." Ruby amended.
Kraken raised an eyebrow, but didn't call her out on the fact that she was
obviously withholding her last name.

"What's YOUR last name, anyway?" She pressed, in
an attempt to draw the conversation away from her.

"Not important." Snarked Kraken. Ruby chuckled.

"And you criticize ME for having a weird surname?"

"You know what I mean."

"No, I don't. Please verify your statement."

"I don't want to tell people my surname."

"Why not?"

"Why should I?"

"Why SHOULDN'T I?"

Ruby fell silent.

"It's not like you told me YOUR surname."
Continued Kraken.

"I told you! It's Dragilla!" She protested.

"I'm going to respect the fact that you don't want to
tell me your surname - your REAL surname - so please do the same for me."

"Well... fine, then." Ruby folded her arms, and
breathed a drawn-out sigh. "You don't want to tell me your thoughts, and
you don't want to tell me your last name... all I know about you is your first
name!"

"It goes both ways." Kraken reminded her.
"It's not like I know anything about you either."

"Well, you don't strike me as the sort of person who'd
be interested in other people a whole lot, so I decided to let you do the
talking - although, from the looks of it, you'd rather not tell others about
yourself either."

"Nope." Confirmed Kraken. Ruby rolled her eyes.

"Geez, how are you going to survive a whole year here
if you don't want to hold a conversation? CAN you even hold a
conversation?"

"None of your business, and yes. Aren't I holding a
conversation with you right now?"

"Technically." Pouted Ruby. "It's not like
either of us is getting anything worthwhile out of this, though."

"Have you considered not talking to me?"

"No, because I'd still be sitting next to you and then
it'd be awkward."

"For you. I don't really mind either way,
actually."

Ruby was about to say something, when a voice blurted out,
"Hoo boy! That's cold!" Turning around, Kraken saw two faces peering
at them from the seats behind. One face consisted of blue eyes, light brown
hair and an impish grin, whilst the other had choppy blonde hair, emerald eyes,
glasses and a rather startled expression.

"Seriously!" The smiling face continued to wear
the facial expression as if it were a default. "That is NOT - repeat, NOT
- how you treat someone trying to be social!"

"What's it to you, anyway?" Kraken snapped,
immediately irritated by the newcomer's unwarranted entry of the conversation.

"I just so happen to be an emissary of justice."
Declared the grinning spectator. "Oh, and she's my sidekick."

"Uh... hi?" The other person, a girl, waved
timidly. Kraken rolled his eyes.

"What sort of justice entails scolding someone for
being antisocial towards another person?" He pointed out, unimpressed.

"Common courtesy! Yeah, I know that's not really justice,
just go with it."

"I stanchly refuse." Kraken turned his head away
and continued to stare out of the window, watching galaxies fly past his gaze.

"Very, very cold." Mused the boy, nodding his head
as he affirmed his previous statement. "Well, in any case, what are your
names?"

"My name's Ruby, and the grouch next to me is
Kraken." Ruby filled in. Kraken rolled his eyes at her less than
flattering description of him.

"Okay, I'm going to pretend that I'll remember that,
and tell you that my name is Aaron," the boy declared, "and my
bespectacled friend is called Plue."

"I'll pretend that I'm going to remember that."
Muttered Kraken, his voice louder than he had anticipated - loud enough to
catch the attention of the other people seated by him.

"Ooh, a sense of humour! There's hope for you yet, good
sir!" Aaron declared, folding his arms and staring at Kraken with an
expression that might otherwise be worn by a proud parent.

"Goodie. I always yearned for your approval."
Kraken deadpanned. It was at this moment that a green light chose to flash
inside the transport, and a metallic thump followed soon afterwards.

"What happened?" Plue gave a start, twisting
around nervously in her chair. "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah." Ruby breathed, staring across the craft in
awe. "We're here..."

The incessant muttering was beginning to get on Kraken's
nerves. Aaron refused to desist from his irritating speech pattern as the
students wandered through a pair of steel sliding doors.

"Ugh, shut up, why don't you?" He snapped at his
peer, patience worn thin. In response, Aaron turned around and glowered at
Kraken.

"Kraken. I don't think you understand. We are being
taken - on - a - TOUR. A tour of the entire Nexus Force Academy... this'll be
awesome..."

"Yeah, Kraken, lighten up." Ruby piped up from his
other side. "Geez, you really have no idea how to enjoy yourself, do
you?"

"I've never had the need to enjoy myself."
Harrumphed Kraken. "All I've been concerned with in life is-"

"Well, you need to drop your concern, and enjoy
yourself!" Aaron remarked, as the group progressed down a corridor. A
guide in a Nexus Force standard uniform was guiding them round the hallways of
the facility, pointing out rooms and places of interest. "Not only is this
a state-of-the-art training facility for soldiers of the Nexus Force, but it's
also renowned for the marvels of the modern world it contains. New and
experimental technology is constantly being implemented, the training methods
used here have achieved revolutionary results, and we are often graced by
visits from long-standing members of the Nexus Force!"

"Great. More things to plague my mind."

"Sheesh, what the heck's wrong with you? Can't you
lighten up?"

The group walked through another doorway, following their
tour guide, and arrived in a new, far wider hallway that held a collection of
Nexus Force type weapons. Kraken was about to make a comment when he suddenly
felt a chill strike the back of his neck. Wheeling round, he was greeted by the
dreary faces of groups of recruits. He was about to relax when he caught sight
of a figure within the ground, wearing a mask of all things – it was
suspicious, how they seemed to be hiding their face. Though he had no proof, he
felt like they were staring directly at him.

Kraken blinked, squinted, rubbed his eyes a little before
narrowing them in suspicion. Perhaps it was just paranoia on his part, but he
could have sworn that he was receiving a hostile gaze. About a second or two
more passed, and then the masked figure promptly turned away, slipping into the
crowd and vanishing as fast as they had seemingly appeared.

"Yo. You spacing out on me now?" Aaron appeared
in Kraken's field of vision, a half bemused, half concerned look on his face.
The girl, Plue, stood beside him. "Come on, take a look at this
stuff!"

"I... sure." Kraken drew his mind away from the
incident and instead began to inspect the weapons on display. He had to admit,
their construction was impressive, with many having more than one mode or
function - like the Sentinel powerjouster, which was an axe and a spear in one.
But a sword was only as good as the knight who wielded it, after all. In fact-

Kraken's thoughts were disrupted as he received a nudge from
Ruby, her grey hoodie-clad arm anxiously tugging on his violet shirt.

"What?" He snapped. Ruby indicated with her other
hand.

"Doesn't that guy look really shifty?"

Looking where indicated, Kraken saw a student loitering near
the weapons at the front of the hall, and he seemed to be extremely interested
in some of the more vicious-looking tools. Even as Kraken watched, another
student, perhaps a friend of the aforementioned, sauntered over and tried to
tug on his sleeve, perhaps attempting to coerce him into moving forward.

Abruptly, the first figure wheeled round and slammed the
second person to the floor.

"What?" Gaped Kraken.

The assailant then proceeded to punch through one of the
glass cases that held a particularly nasty weapon, grabbed it, and aimed it at
the crowd of students.

"Oh no." Ruby spat, as the Paradox wormholer began
to rev.

"Great tour so far." Muttered Aaron.

The wormholer opened fire.

A wave of crystalline shards spewed out from the wormholer,
tearing into the surroundings and sending students diving for cover. Kraken
rolled behind a podium and reflexively covered his head as glass shattered
around him. It was as he did this that he noticed a pain in his arm, and upon
inspection realised that a crystal had hit home. Grimacing, he pulled the
offending projectile out of his arm and threw it across the room. The barrage
continued.

"Well, THIS is a pain." Ruby remarked, crouching
down next to him. Kraken raised an eyebrow, and brandished his injured arm.

"Cry me a river."

"Now is not the time for lamentation." She told
him, ducking low as a dozen crystals shot past their heads. "Can you still
fight?"

"Yeah." Kraken nodded. Ruby indicated with her
hand. Looking up, Kraken saw a weapon called an energy spork, a Sentinel
valiant weapon, on display.

"I'll cause a distraction." Declared Ruby.
"You grab that thing and take down public enemy number thirty." With
that, she stood up, drawing the shooter's attention.

"Good sir!" She called out. Perhaps she had
planned to say something else, but apparently, those words were all the goading
it took for the shooter to train his weapon on her. Squealing, she manoeuvred
her small frame behind cover, dodging the deadly blasts. Confident that the
assailant would be distracted for a while, Kraken sprinted past other hiding
students, leaping for and grabbing the energy spork. Turning around, he lowered
the weapon and-

-nothing happened.

Kraken was momentarily perplexed before facepalming as he
realised that he had no idea how to activate the electrical discharges the
weapon was famed for. There was no time to try and find out how it worked, as
the person was turning around towards Kraken, so the young man gritted his
teeth and charged.

There was an almighty clang as metal struck metal, with the
saw blade of the wormholer halted by Kraken's ramming of an energy spork into
the mechanism. A horrific screech of metal on metal echoed across the room.
Gritting his teeth, the psychotic attacked flung the weapons away as one, and
grabbed another item from a pedestal before Kraken could react. Taken unawares,
he could only watch as the person wheeled round with some kind of pistol in
their grip - most likely a Venture League weapon - and fired wildly in his
direction. Kraken fell to his knees, gasping and clutching at his side. He was
lucky that the strike wasn't lethal, but as Ruby had said, there was no time to
waste. The assailant cocked the pistol and took aim again, and Kraken was only
just able to hide behind another pedestal before they fired again, sending dust
flying as the projectile missed and hit his cover instead.

The fine, grey, stone powder settled over the dark blue
floor, and the psycho reloaded the weapon. However, at this point they were
halted in their tracks. Daring to look out from behind his safety, Kraken saw
the person fall to the ground as Ruby stood behind them, arm casually raised.

"Well, I can't say that wasn't fun." She shrugged.
"Kraken, did you-" Her words were abruptly cut off, and at the same
time Kraken heard a slumping sound. It took him longer than it should have to
realise that the sound had been caused by his toppling over. Pain flared up in
his side, and he groaned as Ruby hastened over to him. Other students began to
emerge when it became clear that the threat had passed, and in no time, there
was a small crowd gathered around Kraken.

"Well, this isn't exactly how I wanted by academic
career to start off." Kraken grumbled. Ruby flashed him a comforting
smile.

"That makes two of us." She conceded.

"Yes?" The aforementioned young man sat up a
little straighter in the bed, wincing as the injury to his side throbbed with
pain. The medical wing of the NFA was decidedly well equipped to deal with all
sorts of combat-related injuries - though it was unlikely they had anticipated
such an occurrence so soon - and his wound was looking very well considering he
had only been a patient for a day or so.

The speaker was a blonde man who looked decidedly
uncomfortable clad in a dark blue suit and tie to match. His stance seemed
almost flimsy, as if he had grown accustomed to weight and suddenly had no
heavy accessories on his person. His black eyes seemed dull, if not a little
inquisitive.

"Duke Exeter... sir?" Kraken managed to say,
unsure if the legendary faction leader was really in the same room as him.

"Just Duke is fine." The man declared, pulling a
chair closer to Kraken's sanitised, pure-white bed and reclining in it. "I
was never a fan of formality."

"Wait, you want me to call you by your title?"

"No, my name is Duke." Duke explained.
"It's... misleading, isn't it?"

"Somewhat." Agreed Kraken. "But I take it
you're not just here to destroy my misconceptions?"

"I'm afraid not." Confirmed Duke, leaning forward.
"I'd like to make some inquiries as to how exactly you were injured so
severely."

"I figured as much." Kraken groaned. "I guess
it can't look good for a student to go crazy during the introductory tour of
your academy?"

"Something like that." Duke grinned, humourlessly.
"Though, truth be told, I'm also quite curious as to what exactly
happened. Eyewitness accounts are so muddled, and I was hoping that you, as the
person who fought against this assailant, might have a unique take on this
situation."

"Well, I'm not the only person who fought back."
Admitted Kraken, remembering how Ruby distracted the psycho and then delivered
the final blow after Kraken had been injured. "A companion of mine was the
one who actually stopped him."

"I'm fully aware of miss Ruby's contribution to the
assailant's downfall, but I was hoping that you might have noticed something
that she might not have."

"I see..." Kraken stroked his chin. "Sir, if
you don't mind me asking... what exactly are you looking for?"

"Oh, nothing specific." Duke replied nonchalantly.
"But the truth is, these circumstances are... abnormal."

"What do you mean by abnormal?"

"I'll spell it out for you. The assailant was taken
into custody, and identified as a Mr Drake Gasai. What was interesting was that
the youth had no memory of his actions."

This caught Kraken's attention, and he leaned forward as far
as his injury would allow. "What?"

"When questioned, he recalled nothing, and said that
the last thing he remembered was experiencing the tour along with everyone
else." Duke explained, before looking up and into Kraken's eyes. "Do
you believe Gasai was telling the truth?"

"Would you be bringing it up if he wasn't?" Kraken
countered, and Duke laughed.

"Fair point. In any case, it appears that Gasai was the
victim of some kind of brainwashing or hypnosis... something to control him and
make him forget. We've verified that he was telling the truth, and looked at
his history and found no outstanding incidents of violence or aggression in the
past. We've let him go, under surveillance - no point in holding someone
innocent prisoner - but that does leave us in a tricky situation."

"You're back at square one." Kraken realised, and
Duke nodded.

"Precisely. Now, with that said, do you remember
anything?"

"Well..." Kraken thought for a moment. "Mind
control is not what I would have believed, had it come from a less reliable
source. His movements were very fluid, and he didn't look confused or... out of
it in the slightest..."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Stereotypically, when someone is under control, they
are confused or not fully aware of their actions. When I looked into his eyes,
I saw no hesitation or qualms. He just acted. Are we entirely sure that he
wasn't in control of his own actions?"

"Personally, I'm not so sure." Confided Duke,
chewing his lip in anxiety. "But he wasn't lying, and that's the only
realistic route we have facing us."

"Well, what's the conformation that he wasn't
lying?"

"We tested Gasai with state-of-the-art equipment, and
we also had him checked by our experts."

"And you're sure that they're not inaccurate?"

The look that Duke gave Kraken indicated that the man had
had the same conversation many times before, and had grown tired of it.

"Look, Rayne..."

Kraken blanched at hearing his last name spoken out loud. This
motion was not missed by Duke, who raised an eyebrow but chose to not call the
teen out.

"... Not that I don't appreciate it, but I've already
talked about this with many of the superior members of staff in my faction. I
was hoping for a different line of thinking when I came in to talk to
you."

Kraken remained silent.

"Come on." Duke coaxed. "Don't tell me the
son of Lady Pyrrha Rayne hasn't got anything new to add to the table?"

There were a few elongated seconds of silence before Kraken
spoke.

"No sir. I can't say I have." He deadpanned.

"I see." Duke rose from his place. "Well, I
appreciate the conversation nonetheless. Be sure to contact me if you come up
with anything new. My office is on the third floor. I'll be there for the
foreseeable future."

"Got it."

"In the meantime, we ought to focus on your education.
How long do you suppose you'll be in here for?"

"Another two days at the least." Groaned Kraken.
"Being shot in the side's nothing to scoff at."

"Well, when you're discharged, remember to report to
Hall Omicron. That's you're registered residence."

"Got it. Thank you, sir."

"You'll be in with, I think, seven other students, plus
an adult supervisor."

"What about factions?" Kraken asked. "Are we
divided by the factions we choose?"

"Actually, no." Duke admitted. "The training
here isn't specialised, so factions are chosen at the end of the year. For now,
students aren't grouped together with any specific organisation in mind."

"I see." Kraken nodded in acceptance of his
superior's words. "Thank you, sir."

"Do you have any other questions?"

"No thank you sir."

"Well, alright. I'll-" Duke's words were cut off
when a ringing noise blared out from his pocket. The faction leader paused,
turned to Kraken with a apologetic look on his face, and dug the phone out of
his suit pocket, holding it up to his ear.

"Duke Exeter speaking." He droned, sounding a lot
less animated then he had throughout the prior conversation. Kraken couldn't
make out the words being spoken on the other end, but they had a profound
effect on the faction leader, whose eyes widened.

"I see." He spoke, finally. "Yes, I - I see.
Well, keep doing that. I'll be with you as soon as I can."

Hanging up, Duke turned to Kraken with a dire look on his face.

"Stuff's happened, kid." He grimaced. "That
was my head of security. Gasai's dead."

It took a moment for the words to register, but when they
did Kraken jerked upwards.

"What?" He gasped. "How-"

Duke help up a hand. "I don't know. The autopsy is
currently underway, but there's no obvious indication as to what did him
in."

"Well, this is all turning into quite the
mystery." Kraken folded his arms, beginning to think."

"You could say that." Agreed Duke. "Well,
I'll be off. I'm going to oversee this investigation personally. You think of
something, let me know."

Kraken managed a salute with his good arm.

"Yes sir." He said as Duke left the room, closing
the door behind him.

It had been a relaxing experience in the medical wing, but
it had also left him out of touch with current affairs. And when he had finally
been set free, four whole days after the tour, the most prominent rumours to
grace his ears were ones about Hall Omicron being where the Nexus Force Academy
had grouped all of its most eccentric (or insane) individuals.

And it was the hall that Kraken had been assigned to.

Gritting his teeth, he pushed open the fluorescent pink door
(another sign that something was terribly wrong) and had taken all of two steps
down the old-fashioned wooden hallway before an alarmed voice rang out.

"He's here!"

The next second, someone slung their arm around Kraken's
neck.

"Good to see you!" Chirped Aaron, as Kraken
struggled for breath.

Ruby popped up in his field of vision, coffee-coloured eyes
sparkling as she took in his appearance.

"You're looking a lot better now! How are the
injuries?"

"Fine!" Kraken managed to choke. "Absolutely
fine!"

"Enough, you two." An unfamiliar voice entered the
fray.

Looking up, Kraken saw a figure clad in a green jacket with
a grey undershirt and beige trousers emerge from the shadows of the entrance
hall. His amber eyes glinted with warmth and humour, and a beige fedora was
placed atop his shoulder length, dirty blonde hair.

"Give him some space. He's just got out of hospital,
remember?" The newcomer chuckled. "Do you want to be responsible for
another accident?"

"Good point." Aaron removed his arms from
Kraken's neck, allowing the aforementioned to inhale gasps of air.
"Thanks, Will!"

"Don't thank me. Advice should be free." Will
declared, his long face all smiles as he approached Kraken. "Hey. I take
it you're Kraken?"

"Yeah." Kraken finished massaging his neck and
grasped Will's outstretched hand in his own, shaking both sets of fingers up
and down.

"These two-" Will jerked a thin finger towards
Aaron and Ruby, "mentioned you to me when we all first arrived here. From
the sound of it, you've already gotten yourself involved in some interesting
business. And... taken down some dangerous psycho already?"

"As I already told Duke Exeter, Ruby's the one who
actually did the taking down." Kraken filled in. "I just... helped, I
guess."

"You talked to Duke Exeter?!" Exclaimed Aaron,
rushing forward. "Bro, that's so cool!"

"Thanks, but never call me "bro" again."
Kraken deadpanned.

"Brohemian?"

"No."

"Double Bro Seven?"

"No."

"Macbrover?"

"Definitely not."

"Oh, fine. Anyway, what did he say?"

"Why do you care?"

"He's only, like, my idol!" Aaron punched the
air. "Sentinel for life!" He yelled.

"Destroy all the things!" Added Ruby, popping up
beside him.

Kraken rubbed his forehead, exasperatedly. "They're as
bad as each other."

"Do you want an actual conversation?" Will
offered. "I'm Venture League..."

"Not relevant." Kraken declared. "If it's all
the same to you, I'd rather just be shown to wherever I'm sleeping. I'm not
going to get any more days off, so I need to rest before everything starts
tomorrow."

"Fair enough." Will shrugged, as Aaron pouted
behind him. "Follow me."

Kraken nodded, and was about to put one foot in front of the
other when he heard a fresh voice call from out of sight.

"What's all the fuss?"

"Oh, here we go." Muttered Will under his breath.
Before Kraken had the chance to ask his companion what he meant, Will had
called out in reply:

"Nothing, miss!" He called. "Our, uh, new arrival
just showed up, is all!"

"Oh, which one?" The voice replied. "We're
missing a few, aren't we?"

"This is the one that saved everyone's life on the first
day and got hospitalised!"

"And a scar." Added Kraken, brandishing his
forearm as proof - it was pointless, he had decided, to try and dispute the
matter anymore. If everyone wanted to see him as a hero, fine. He just hoped
that they wouldn't come crying to him if he shattered their expectations at any
point.

"Oh, right, that guy!" A figure emerged at the end
of the hallway - a tall woman, clad in a leather jacket, jeans, and a shirt
with what was doubtlessly an ironic slogan on it. Will turned to Kraken with
what the latter could tell was a forced smile on his face.

"Kraken, this is Miss Faveos, Hall Omicron’s
supervisor."

"Just call me Ally, Will." The woman added, taking
advantage of her long legs to quickly stride towards Kraken and shake his hand.
""Miss" makes me feel all old."

"So you’ve said..." Will rolled his eyes.

Kraken, for his part, couldn't help but wonder about the
NFA's standard of supervision.

"Ally!" Aaron called from behind the others.
"I've reached the El Marco Diaz level, by the way!"

"Don't you dare play any more without me there!"
The supervisor snapped.

Oh.

It all made sense now.

She was just as crazy as the rest of them.

"Yeah, uh, Ally's personality is quite...
eccentric." Admitted Will, obviously noticing some of Kraken's discomfort
as their supervisor hastened past them to play videogames. "But she does
her job, and prevents us from getting into too much trouble."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she were the one causing
it." Muttered Kraken. His words were supposed to be heard by him only, but
Will picked up on them as well.

"I feel you there, bud." He commiserated.
"Anyway, come on. The rooms are upstairs."

Wallowing in his own thoughts and personal lamentations,
Kraken bowed his head and obediently let Will guide him up a flight of stairs
and into an empty room. There was a bed in a corner, and a desk and chair
against the opposite wall. Sterile golden lighting shone above them, highlighting
the pristine wooden planks that made up the floor. There was no other
furniture.

"I'm pretty sure you can make the dorms feel more at
home with personal stuff, but, uh... yeah. Is this ok?" Will asked as
Kraken entered the room.

"It's fine." He shrugged, lying down on the bed.
"Serviceable, at least."

"I'll, ah... leave you too it."

Kraken listened to Will step out of the room, shutting the
door behind him, before letting out a long sigh. All he had wanted was to get
to the battlefield as quickly and efficiently as possible, and yet here he was
- stuck with a bunch of idiots for a year of his life whilst the maelstrom just
kept getting stronger.

Rummaging below his violet shirt, he pulled out what he kept
hanging around his neck. A pair of dog tags, with the letters "L" and
"R" on them respectively. Childishly enough, his reason for keeping
them was luck. He certainly hoped that they wouldn’t let him down.

### ***CHAPTER 5: DEMONS***

Kraken Rayne considered himself a veteran of pain and an
expert on pain. Being hurt was a regularity. But he was currently experiencing
a type of pain that he'd never thought of considering just below some of what
he had been through.

The dull pain of boredom.

Eyes fluttering as he tried to stay awake, Kraken leaned to
the right to see his dorm-mates. Ruby looked almost as weary as him, hunched
over and resting her chin on her thick textbook. Beside her, Aaron had his
face down on the wooden surface in front of him and was outright snoring. Will
seemed to be the only person not suffering chronic tiredness, as he neatly
jotted down notes onto sheets of paper.

Whilst there were supposed to be four other people in the
dorm with them, Kraken had been informed that they were not going to arrive
until later, for various reasons, apparently, with the first one being that
very night.

Wonderful.

More social interaction.

He wondered, once again, what was really stopping him from
leaving the NFA, before deciding to be diligent while he could and turned his
attention to the man who was speaking. He was in a room which had a low center,
and then expanded upwards similar to the structure of half an amphitheatre. The
teacher was at the bottom, walking around and talking whilst the students were
sitting above. The room was a couple of stories high, and Kraken found himself
near the top with his team, only able to hear thanks to the installed speaker
system.

"Now tell me." The teacher, apparently named
Professor Chromes, exclaimed out to his class. "Who here can name five
distinct types of maelstrom opponent?"

Kraken rolled his eyes. An easy question, one that wasn't
worth his time answering. Any potential member of the Nexus Force should have
been able to name ten.

It was somewhat of a relief when a decent number of students
- definitely more than half - put up their hands so as to answer. Clearly the
NFA didn't recruit COMPLETE imbeciles. Though, Kraken noted, none of his fellow
members of Hall Omicron put their hands up either. Will looked bored, Ruby
didn't seem to register the question, and Aaron was somehow still asleep.

What a bunch of idiots.

The answer to the question, as well as the next few
questions in their entirety, floated over Kraken's head as he instead began to
sketch. Using the person next to him as his muse - because for all intents and
purposes Ruby was objectively quite good-looking - he used the pencils scattered
around the desk area to begin to doodle. He was only pulled out of this
concentration by a phrase, wafting around the air like the lingering stench of
failure.

"Demon-type".

Kraken's pencil swerved across his paper as he gave a start,
trying and failing to block out the words Chromes was saying. His behaviour was
not unnoticed by his muse, who subtly glanced at him in a curious manner as his
fist clenched and head lowered itself.

"Ah, yes. An infamous variant of maelstrom creature.
Typically, Demon-type maelstrom are similar to the Maelstrom lieutenants found
on Crux Prime, in that they exhibit a certain level of sentience. Especially
when compared to the other creatures of maelstrom. However, they are much
stronger than the lieutenants. More likeable to generals, in comparison."

Kraken could almost feel his heart rate increase.

"But yes." Continued Chromes. "They are truly
deadly. I've heard them be described as "the stuff of nightmares" in
the past. Not even the greatest heroes of the Nexus Force are able to stand up
to these beasts alone. In fact, as far as my knowledge extends, no single
warrior has defeated a demon-type creature solo. Only by working as a team has
anyone ever emerged from confrontations with such beasts alive."

Ruby's hand flew up.

"Professor Chromes, if this is true, how are
"demons" not well known? I'd expect them to be very famous if they
were so powerful."

"The answer to that question," said Chromes,
"is that these creatures are so rare. The last recorded sight of one was,
let me think... about a year ago? However, that was the first time someone had
seen one for almost a decade. I believe a demon attacked the town of Sionne,
where it went on a rampage until it was stopped."

"Be that as it may, something like that would still be
big news, would it not?" Ruby asked.

"Well, no. Not really." York explained. "Such
incidents are generally hushed up. The survivors spread rumours, of course, but
no official report has ever been published. My belief - and don't tell the
higher ups I said this - is that the Nexus Force refuses to admit that these
creatures exist."

"Interesting..." Ruby mused, taking her seat with
an inquisitive look on her face. "What do you think, Kraken?"

Her voice, normally irritating and flute-like, was now
barely registering to Kraken. It was only after she had repeated his name
against that he showed any signs of acknowledgement.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"I was asking you what you thought about demons!"
She declared whilst elbowing Aaron in the stomach to wake him up.

"Gah!"

"Oh, the demons? Yeah, it's interesting." Kraken
replied, not paying attention to the words coming out of his mouth.

"You know..." Ruby narrowed her eyes at him.
"You seem... off."

"Define "off"."

"I mean, you look all nervous." She stroked her
chin as she peered suspiciously at the boy sitting next to her. "And I
mean, that's fine and all, 'cuz I'm not going to judge if you're scared of the
demons. I know I am. But I didn't really have that sort of fear lined up with
your character type."

"My what?"

"You know, your character type! You're the strong,
silent type. You're all brusque on the outside, but you've got a heart of gold
- not to mention it's best to have you on side during a fight."

From her other side, Aaron poked his head upwards.

"Ooh! What character type would I be, Ruby?"

"Comic relief." Deadpanned Will from behind him. Aaron fistpumped.

"Yes! That's big!"

The chatter that followed went over Kraken's head as he
stared down at Chromes, hands supporting his head as he leaned forwards,
memories beginning to flicker back to-

A sharp pain in Kraken's back shook him out of his stupor,
and he jerked himself upright, hissing as he did so.

"Wha- Ruby!"

"Your posture is terrible." Observed Ruby, index
finger extended in a threatening manner. "You need to work on it, else as
an old man you'll be complaining about your back all the time."

"You make it sound like I'm going to live that
long." Kraken muttered. He had intended the muttering to be under his
breath, but a combination of his altogether frayed nerves and Ruby's apparently
advanced hearing resulted in the redhead turning to face him with a shocked
look on her face.

"You can't say things like that!" She hissed.
"How long are you planning on living, anyway?"

"I guess to the age of twenty-five, maybe?"

Ruby, unsurprisingly, looked shocked. "No!"

"No, what?"

"You can't just decide to live for that short a time!
The average life expectancy is, like, eighty something! How can you PLAN to
live for less than a third of that?" Her voice was rising, and Kraken
thanked fate that they were at the back of the room.

"Okay, okay, shush. I'll reconsider. Just don't make a
fuss about it." He rolled his eyes. Ruby peered at him for another moment,
then nodded affirmatively.

"Good."

That said, she turned back around and continued to listen to
Professor Chromes, leaving Kraken to ponder.

Why did she care, anyway?

### ***CHAPTER 6: NEWCOMER***

Mercifully, Kraken had been left alone for the afternoon. A free period and light workload had combined themselves into a lack of inane schoolwork to do, and he had taken the time to do some work in the dorm’s built-in gym. A good hour or so of training. Both the punching bag and Kraken’s fists were looking rather sorry for themselves, but he himself felt somewhat fulfilled. It was good to do work, and good to make progress.

Unmercifully, it was at this point that a shrill dinging noise rang through the dorm. Someone was at the door.

For a brief time, Kraken considered leaving whoever was disturbing his peace to their own devices, and continuing to work. However, a second ring rang out. Then a third. Figuring he’d save his eardrums, Kraken slung a towel over his shoulders and strode to the door. He opened it with as much of a grimace on is face as he could be bothered to muster, to demonstrate his irritation. He was met with a vaguely familiar face. Blonde hair, short –not that sort, he observed on further inspection, as it went at least past her shoulders – and a pair of tired-looking eyes, obscured and magnified by a pair of red-rimmed glasses.

Kraken could presume that the person was a new dorm member, judging by the suitcases by their side and their apparent age. However, they didn’t look like the textbook member of any military organisation – even a separate division for teenagers. Her physique was somewhat average, she didn’t carry herself like a fighter, and-

“You’ll need to lose the glasses.” He vocalised. No use beating around the bush, he supposed, as the girl gave a start at his words. After a moment of surprise, however, her expression devolved into something more peaceful. Also, more complacent.

“I know.” She sighed. “I’m planning on getting contacts.”

Kraken nodded his approval before stepping to the side. “You supposed to be in Dorm Omicron?”

“Yep.” She confirmed, not batting an eyelid at the bright pink door as she stepped past Kraken and into the hallway, suitcases clunking behind her. However, she stopped (presumably in surprise) upon seeing the hallway – or, to be more precise, its decoration. Upon receiving the news that more members were due to arrive in the dorm, Ruby had been ecstatic, and has spent most of the previous day (during which she had had plenty of free periods) attempting to decorate the entire dorm. Unfortunately, the only supplies she had been able to use were pink paint (left over from the door), tinsel (found in the attic) and over a dozen motivational cat posters (inexplicably donated by Aaron). The resulting mess would have been a professional decorator’s nightmare – as such, every time Kraken focused on it, he felt like he was getting multiple migraines at once.

“Yeesh.” The girl seemed to share his opinion. “It’s, uh… a bit of an eyesore, right?”

“Kind of makes me want to gouge my own eyes out with a spoon.” Muttered Kraken, glancing at the banister, which was slightly buckled from where Aaron had fallen against it while giving Ruby a hand (namely, flicking paint at the upper walls). Funnily enough, despite Ally joining in with gusto, and being responsible for the paint being on all the walls and a fair amount of the floor, she had actually done her job as a supervisor. No-one had been injured under her watch – in fact, when Aaron had fallen against the banister, she had caught him before he had toppled either over the edge, or down the stairs.

Who would have thought?

“Mmm.” She hummed in consent as she ambled forwards. Her suitcases, one per hand, trundled along behind her, making crunching noises as they rolled over fresh paint. Kraken stared after the new member for a moment, wondering if he should do anything further, or simply leave her be. A moment of conscience and a glance at a cat poster later, he followed her into what was affectionately known by the Dorm Members as “The Everything Room”. So called, because it functioned as a living room, a kitchen, and a dining room. On one of the room was a television screen and a sofa, in the middle was a large wooden table with a dozen wooden seats huddled around it, and to the left was a kitchen, complete with fridge, microwave, hob, and oven.

"This is the everything room." Kraken made no effort to sound enthused as he explained the dorm's basic layout. He was going to be a decent... host, but he wasn't going to pretent to be happy about it. "Because it has everything in it." Upon seeing a slightly incredulous look from her, he rolled his eyes. "It wasn't my idea." He and the girl were probably inches apart in height, but he was slouched over to such an extent that he found himself eye level with her. Remembering Ruby's words, he leant backwards and stretched his spine.

"Since you're just arriving, you don't have to start classes til tomorrow. So... I don't know. Just do whatever you want."

Kraken moved past the girl, hoping to get back to the gym, but was interrupted by her question.

“Where do I put my stuff?”

He turned back to see her tapping her fingers together, not really meeting his eyes. Oh, great. Social awkwardness. Why oh why, Kraken lamented, had this girl ever thought that it would have been a good idea to join an army? He straightened himself out, stretching his aching muscles as he stared down the girl in front of him. Words rang through his head, but the filter between his brain and his mouth prevented him from saying anything save:

“The rooms are upstairs. There should be a few still free. Put your stuff in one of them.”

And with his piece said, he turned on his heel and began to head back to the gym, arms trembling in a combination of the work he’d already done, and anticipation at the work he still had to do.

"How come you're here?" Once again, his journey was interrupted by the girl's voice. He turned around quickly, and must have looked scary or something, because she blanched and held up her hands placatingly. "Uh, I didn't - sorry. That sounded confrontational, I just... doesn't everyone have lessons, or something? Shouldn't a supervisor be here instead of you?"

"It's fine." Kraken sighed, going in for an answer before the girl's speech devolved into a full-on verbal freight train. Holy spades, if he hadn't encountered enough of those already. "I have a free period now, and I've gotten all my work done. As for why there isn't a supervisor..." His memory trailed back to his discovery that he had been all but alone in the dormitory that morning. (His free period was really more of a free day.) "I'd be hard-pressed to give you an answer."

"Understood." The girl nodded, before frowning in Kraken's direction. For his part, Kraken raised an eyebrow until the girl suddenly said:

"We've met."

Realising that she was right, Kraken cast his mind back to that first day on the bus - where he had met Ruby, Aaron, and...

"Plue." He said, out loud. "I mean... that's your name, right?"

"I, uh... yeah." She nodded. "And you're Kraken."

"Yep." He casually confirmed, narrowing his eyes as he tried to discern what else she knew. If she was privy to knowledge of his family, she was either indifferent, or hiding it extremely well. However, he sealed these thoughts back away in order to focus on a new question he had. "How come you didn't get here sooner, if you were there on the first day?"

"I was... I was injured in the attack." Plue explained. "I was only let out of the infirmary today, otherwise I would have been here sooner."

"Oh." Kraken found himself saying, a sense of... almost shame overtaking him. He hadn't even considered the idea of anyone other than himself being injured by Gasai's outburst. Whether it was confidence in his ability to take down the perpetrator, or self-absorbtion of his own hurt, it was unacceptable. He thought to apologize, then stopped, realising that she would have no idea what he was apologizing for, and it would be bothersome to explain. He settled for schooling his expression into one of what he hoped was sympathy.

A brief silence overhung the two, before Kraken - once again - turned around and began to walk back to the gym. Though she said no words, a couple of moments later, Plue's footsteps began to echo out behind him as she followed his tracks. Why, he wasn't quite sure, but he didn't feel like being prickly about it, and so allowed her to follow him into the gym.

Wasting no time, Kraken strode back towards the punching back, and sank back into a slight crouch. One foot forward one foot back, his spine became fluid as he shifted his torso, raising his arms and clenching his fists. Then, he lunged. His left hand sank into the bag with a shrill thud, ringing out through the room like a slap. Immediately, he retracted the limb and shot his other arm forward, striking the bag with even more force.

He repeated this several times, with his fists sometimes striking high, and sometimes striking low. Occasionally, he would crouch low for a brief moment - avoiding an imaginery blow from the bag, keeping himself on his toes. Sweat trickled down the back of his neck, and his bangs began to obscure his vision as they were jolted forwards, over his head. Kraken wasn't sure how much time had passed, but his common sense told him a few minutes, before he heard Plue's voice again.

"You're good."

A simple observation. He sighed, and rose, picking the towel off the floor (where it had fallen) as he did so.

"Maybe." He shrugged. In all honesty, he hadn't reviewed his own skills in comparison to those of his peers. He had trained a lot, certainly, but who was to say how good he was? Certainly not him. However, how other people saw him wasn't important. "But I could always be better. And in battle, all that matters is survival."

"I... right." Plue's eyes drifted to the ground, before focusing back on him. "But what about the objective?"

"The objective?" Kraken repeated, questioningly. Apparently, that was all the prompting she needed to continue.

"There's always a reason for fighting. Don't some people talk about causes they're willing to give their life for? Certainly, there must be some scenarios where there's a mission that needs to be completed, that goes above self-preservation?"

"One hell of a cause." This was all Kraken had to say. "I mean, maybe some people are like that." Some people. "But I don't think that's how I do things."

"...Ok." Plue nodded. Kraken couldn't help but feel as though he had failed some kind of test. "But doesn't that sound..."

Kraken raised an eyebrow. Instead of speaking further, however, Plue blanched and retreated inwards. "Never mind." She muttered.

After waiting a moment more, Kraken shrugged again and began to walk towards the door. His conversation with Plue had given his adrenaline time to wear off, and fatiuges and aches were beginning to hit him. He wouldn't be very productive in such a state. Better to shower and rest.

The sounds of flesh hitting bag stopped him.

Turning around inquisitively, he saw Plue trying to replicate his movements, hitting the punching bag with her fists. However, her arms and body were somehow both limp and rigid, and her awkward blows were as weak as anything. Before Kraken even knew what he was doing, he was stomping over to Plue and grabbing her wrist, halting her mid-blow.

"Hasn't anyone ever taught you how to punch?" He couldn't keep the incredulity out of his voice. Startled, Plue mutely shook her head. Kraken dragged his palm over his face in fustration.

"Ok, first thing's first." He crouched again, tilting his torso and bringing his fists up to his chin. "You're too rigid." He turned to her. "Keep your body mobile, and stay balanced on the balls of your feet. Bounce around if it helps. In a fight, you need to be prepared to either go on the offensive or back away from an assailant."

Plue shook herself out of her mini-stupor and nodded, mimicing Kraken's position.

"Now, when you punch - are you left or right handed?"

"Right." She informed him.

"Alright. Keep your left fist slightly in front of your right one, and keep both of them clenched."

She obeyed his instructions. "And... I don't stick my thumb in my fist, right? Otherwise it'll get broken?"

He nodded. "Luckily, I can't speak from experience on that one. But I know that it's best to keep the thumb outside the other fingers."

Her fingers twitched, and she tried to twist her body round further, mimicing Kraken's earlier motions. Kraken breathed in and then out, stepping forward to offer more guidance even as he wondered why he was doing what he was doing.

"When you punch," he told her, going through the motions with his own left arm, "you'll want to twist your arm round as it moves forward. Start off with your fist facing the... I guess, default direction of your hand, and by the time you make contact, you'll want your hand to be twisted to the side. Just imagine that you're giving someone a very violent fist bump."

Plue hesitantly stuck her arm forward, following Kraken's instructions. Her fist bopped against the punching bag, before sliding downwards as she relaxed her limb.

"And - oh, stars above." Kraken rolled his eyes. "Pull your arm back in once you've punched, instead of just letting it flop. Keep your hands as close to your chin as possible when you're not going on the attack."

"Ok." Plue nodded, repeating the motion and bringing her arm back to the aforementioned position, as per Kraken's request. It was good, he noted, but there was still something severely lacking in her technique.

"Hit harder." He ordered. "When most people start off, they have some kind of mental barrier that prevents them from going all out. They unconciously hold themselves back. Don't do that. This is war. If you're disarmed, you're going to be fighting for your life. You need to give every hit as much strength as you can."

Plue punched the bag again, faster and with more strength. Kraken nodded, appraisingly.

"Good. Again."

She used her other arm to deliver a hefty blow to the bag.

"Again."

The slapping sound of flesh on leather echoed around the gym as she ploughed her fist into the bag, presumably at full strength. For a moment, there was silence. Then Kraken exhaled.

"Okay." He began to walk to the exit. "Just keep doing it like that, and you'll be good. Stand more a chance, at least."

"Hey!"

Once again (the routine was getting old by this point) he turned to face her. She was panting slightly, her glasses askew on her nose. Her eyes were bright as they met Kraken's.

"Can we keep doing this?" She asked him. "Like, on other occasions. I... I think I need this."

Kraken exhaled deeply, emphasising how little the idea appealed to him. Nevertheless, she did need it. And there was the idea that teaching something to somebody was a good way to know if you knew it yourself. And it would be useful to have a sparring partner - even someone who was so blatantly untrained.

"Fine." He sighed. "But not today."

And with that, he rotated himself back around and finally - finally - walked out of the room without being interrupted.

### ***CHAPTER 7: LESSON ONE***

"And what do you have on your timetable now, good sir?"

Letting out a sigh, Kraken wordlessly handed his timetable to Aaron, who proceeded to fumble and almost drop it as they walked. The sun's rays flooded illuminated the scene, forcing the black and white of the timetable to blur together in an epilepsy-inducing fuzz. A couple of the passing students looked at Aaron quizzically, who rubbed the back of his neck bashfully before squinting at Kraken's timetable. Kraken wouldn't have considered a crowded corridor to be the best place to read, but Aaron seemed able to avoid collisions easily enough.

"Ah, anti-stromling melee!" He crowed, turning back to Kraken with a far-too-cheeky grin on his face. From the pocket of his trousers - which were a deep maroon - he produced a timetable that was scrawled on in many different colours. " Same!"

"Well, that explains why we're walking in the same direction. “Said Kraken, taking the time to swallow his irritation and observe Aaron further. His hair, which was a chestnut brown, was slicked back and up (presumably with gel), making him look taller than he actually was. As well as the red trousers, he was also wearing a light blue collared shirt with numerous tears in the front, revealing a dark undershirt. On his right pinky finger, he wore a single ring - it was bronze, and had a dull tint to it, as though it had been worn for some time.

"Yeah, I guess so." Aaron peered at the doors to either side of the duo, presumably looking for the one that led to their next lesson. "Let's see... F27..."

"There." Kraken filled him in, pointing to the corresponding door. Beside it stood a small group of students, including someone familiar.

"Plue!" Aaron abruptly yelled, beginning to push through the crowd in order to wrap her up in a hug. "You have the same lesson as us!"

"So it would seem." Plue looked a combination of surprised and bashful as Aaron released her. "What do you think it'll be about?"

Aaron stroked his chin and pursed his lips, creating an image that was somewhere between genuinely pensive and an impression of an aged duck. After a moment, he leant backwards with a yawn. Kraken heard a click, which presumably came from the young man's spine. Plue looked vaguely disgusted.

"You know I hate it when you do that." She muttered as Aaron leant back forward.

"Well." Either Aaron hadn't heard Plue, or he was pretending so. "My best guess is that they'll be teaching us how to fight all the different types of stromling. I mean, there are the regular stromlings, mechs, spiderlings... like, there's a large amount, right?"

"Yeah." Kraken confirmed. "If they have any sense, they'll teach specific techniques that can be used to take down each different type of enemy."

Aaron hummed agreement, and began to bounce on his heels as he stood in line. The clacking of his trainers on the hallway floor slowly faded as classes of students retreated into their rooms, one by one. Eventually, only Kraken's class remained, the silence somewhat uncanny. Aaron's feet hitting the floor was the only sound. It was annoying, and Kraken couldn't help but wonder when the lesson was due to begin. He then had to stop and consider, for a moment - he had just looked forward to a lesson. An inane lesson, filled with material that would either be useless, or he would already know. What was wrong with him?

His reprieve from these thoughts of self-deprecation came in the form of the door sliding open to reveal an armoured woman - presumably their instructor - standing with her arms folded.

"Enter." She simply said, before turning around and striding back the way she had come, metal clanking with each step.

Aaron made a noise of dissent as the group moved forwards, and Kraken saw Plue look at him quizzically. He then heard him sigh.

"The "unlikable" radar is acting up." He muttered, nonsensically. Kraken couldn't contain himself.

"The what?" He asked - quietly, as the group was walking into a large open room in a relatively subdued fashion.

"Ok, so, basically," Aaron seemed rejuvenated, presumably through Kraken showing interest in something he had to say. "I can, like, get a read on people really quickly. As in, what type of person they are. Call it a talent, I guess. Anyway, the unlikable radar is what I call the feeling I get when I meet someone who I know I'm not going to get along with, basically."

"You can tell that quickly?" Kraken, for his part, found himself dubious, but before Aaron could answer, the group came to an abrupt stop as their instructor wheeled round to stare them down, leaving them in the middle of a large room with a number of segments around the side, divided by high walls.

"Welcome to anti-stromling melee." The woman declared. She was tall, looking down on most of the students from haughty eyes - eye, Kraken realised, as he took note of the patch that covered one socket. Her armour was dull, covered in scrapes and dents - signatures left by battles survived. There was no cloak on her shoulders, no medals, no badges of honour. It was apparent - to Kraken, at the very least - that the woman was more than a fake, who would flout their honours and act like it was nothing. Whoever their instructor was, she seemed to be the genuine article. A real soldier.

Finally.

"Everyone, pick a practice room." She briefly motioned with one hand to the various walled-off segments of the room. "Combat simulations will run at whichever difficulty level you choose. If you want a weapon, state out loud which one, and the simulation will provide. And if I see anyone at a one out of ten difficulty, I'm removing you from this lesson. There's no point in you being here if you don't have a baseline level of skill. Understand?"

Most of the students nodded, blank or nervous looks on their faces. Kraken saw Aaron frown. For whatever reason, this woman seemed to rub him the wrong way. Surprising, considering the boy's general agreeable-ness. However, Kraken found himself not caring enough to pursue the train of thought, and so instead walked into one of the room, flicking the level gauge on the wall up to four. To get a feel for how difficult the simulations were.

The room itself was of an extremely clever make. Most of the floor worked similarly to that of a treadmill, meaning that a student could run on the spot in any direction. This way, they wouldn't be limited by the size of the cramped room. Holographic projectors lined the walls, and the several testing dummies could take any hard light-enhanced form, at random. As soon as Kraken placed his feet inside the room's boundaries, the blue and white walls and ceiling flickered in place. Almost before he could blink, Kraken was transported to a blackened battleground. Flames dotted the landscape and horizon, casting plumes of grey smoke into the overcast sky. The ground was blackened and rocky, with droplets of blood scattered amongst the pebbles.

Kraken didn't even need to consider what weapon he wanted. "Claymore."

The air shimmered, and a thick sword dropped to the ground. Though it didn't make a typical metallic sound upon hitting the rock, and though it felt light in Kraken's hands as he picked it up, he reasoned that it would suffice. All of a sudden, he heard a guttural moan behind him, and wheeled round to face a stromling.

It stood, wobbling, on one leg of flesh and one of bone. Grievous wounds in its torso and abdomen revealed pieces of what had once been a human ribcage and spine, but were now just pieces of skeleton lashed together to support the creature. One of its arms was muscular and blackened, the fingers sharpened into claws. The other consisted mostly of a curved metal blade. It didn't even have an elbow, and so hung stiffly at the stromling's side. Its eyes burned crimson, fire vibrating in its sockets as if struggling to be unleashed. The top of its head and shoulders burned with indigo and black flames. As Kraken watched, it opened its mouth - a maw, crammed with too many sharp teeth to properly close - and let out a high-pitched screech before lumbering towards Kraken.

Clenching his weapon in both hands, Kraken stepped forward and raised the claymore, before bringing it promptly down on the creature's shoulder. Instead of blood, mist seeped from the wound, joining the smoke from the fires in rising to the sky. The creature screeched again, raising its blade arm and lunging at Kraken. He dodged the blade by twisting his torso to the side, and gritted his teeth as he dug his sword out of the stromling's shoulder. More mist all but spurted out of the wound with a sound akin to a moan as the creature staggered away. It's left arm now hung uselessly at its side, whatever connection that allowed it to move severed. However, the right arm - the blade - still moved. The stromling raised its arm above its head, presumably intending to cleave Kraken in half. Before it could do so, however, Kraken leapt forward and dug his claymore into the creature's chest. Before it could react, he twisted the blade as far as his wrist would allow, before tugging it out, letting himself briefly fall backwards as he did so. Kraken then let his torso fall back towards the stromling, using his momentum from leaning back forward to moving in closer to push his arm forward. The claymore cut through the stromling's neck with ease, and the body slumped to the ground before disappearing in a shimmer of mist and hard light.

With a brief whirr, the simulation conjured up a second stromling. Not wasting any time, Kraken lunged forward and decapitated the creature before it could even attack. It’s head briefly flew off to the side before, once again, disappearing with a flash. The body never even hit the ground. As if adjusting itself the Kraken’s skill, the simulation spawned three stromlings simultaneously. They growled, and Kraken growled back, clenching his sword in both hands. He couldn’t see the feral grin slowly emerging on his face, but he could feel it.

This was going to be fun.

…

The leaderboard wasn’t a decision that Kraken would have agreed with, personally – why try to make war into something more competitive, after all? However, he couldn’t suppress the feeling of satisfaction that came from seeing his name at the very top. “Kraken Rayne. 87 kills.”

“Good job.”

Turning, Kraken saw Plue standing behind him, sweaty and out of breath. Her glasses kept sliding down her nose.

“Thanks.” Kraken nodded. A brief silence passed between them, interspersed with the discussion taking place between their other classmates. Plue then looked at the leaderboard again, pursing her lips.

“Probably would have done better if I didn’t have to keep adjusting my glasses.” Kraken heard her muse and, curiosity piqued, turned back to the board to find her name. As it turned out, she had come in eleventh place out of the thirty-odd members of the class. It wasn’t a particularly admirable score, but it was worth noting in Kraken’s mind for one reason: the following evening, she hadn’t even known how to throw a punch. How had she even fought, anyway? Did she know how to use weapons, but not how to physically fight? What kind of skewed-up mentoring had resulted in that? Or had she just gotten lucky?

These questions all swarmed around Kraken’s mind in a brief moment, but before he could properly address any of them, a voice called out.

“You Kraken Rayne?”

Turning around, Kraken saw someone in a jacket about as dark as their hair (which was black), hands in pockets and staring at him. The young man’s facial expression was indiscernible as he eyed Kraken with eyes that were obscured by shadow and darkened by intensity. This all meant that Kraken wasn’t quite short what to expect upon saying the words:

“Yeah, that’s me.”

This new acquaintance’s countenance broke into a grin, and he raised one of his arms from his pocket, extending a hand out to Kraken.

“Nice one, man. Lot of kills.”

Ah. It was a congratulation. Well, the act of talking was still a bother, but Kraken could at least appreciate the fact that someone was… well, appreciating him. He clasped the other boy’s hand in his.

“Thank you.” He said, quickly, hoping to keep the interaction brief. Not that he had anything against the speaker personally. It was just… interaction. Alas and alack, this other person was still speaking.

“You beat me by one, even! I mean…” He shrugged. “Kudos, I guess.”

Oh? Kraken turned back to survey the leaderboard again, and found that the other boy was right. Below Kraken’s 87 kills was an 86, apparently made by a… a Mr… Intrepid. That was all the board said. Just “Intrepid”.

He turned back to Intrepid. “Is that your actual name?”

Intrepid, for his part, simply shrugged. “My given one? No. The one I chose? Yes.”

“You chose the name Intrepid.” Kraken squinted at him, trying to understand this person’s logic. Why was naming yourself after an adjective even… just, why? Why would he?

Intrepid shrugged again. “I thought it was cool. But it doesn’t matter too much. I just need you to know something.”

“Oh?” Kraken said, even as he immediately put himself on guard. Something in Intrepid’s voice had changed, suddenly. Even he could tell. What did this guy want?

Intrepid moved closer. “I’ll beat you next time.”

Oh, that’s what it was. Kraken could feel himself relax, whatever uncertainties he might have had be washed away in… mostly relief. Though part of him felt somewhat cheated, as though Intrepid’s sudden intensity over leaderboard scores was anticlimactic. It was, after all, something trivial.

“Fine.” He said, evenly. “Is that all?”

Intrepid made a show of considering the question, swinging one hand up to his chin as his eyes rolled in the common sign of deep though. Then, his shoulders rolled and he smiled.

“Yeah.” He suddenly patted Kraken’s shoulder, who went rigid at the sudden contact. “Seeya around, Kraken.” And with that, he turned and sauntered back into the crowd. Well, if that hadn’t been decidedly weird…

However, Kraken was dragged out of his thoughts by Plue – specifically, her standing in his field of vision for several seconds without making any real effort to reach out to him. He spaced in, and focused on her.

“Is something wrong?” He asked.

She nodded. “Yeah.” And with that, she indicated with her hand, to the side of the crowd. Following her direction, Kraken could see Aaron in conversation with their instructor. A conversation that was quickly becoming more heated.

“No, actually, I don’t think it matters. We have a year. A year of our lives. A whole year. I think I have enough time to adjust to the course at my own pace.”

“You disobeyed my specific instructions.” Their instructor stated, folding her arms and staring down at Aaron, obviously using her height as an intimidation tactic.

“You said there was no point in being her if we didn’t have a baseline level of skill.” Aaron retorted, folding his own arms. “Sorry to say this, but I don’t actually have that skill. And yet: here I am. So I’m not sorry for starting off on one out of ten, because I needed the measure of how difficult this course is actually going to be, and my prior experience with actually fighting the maelstrom is at a minimum.” He spread his arms out wide to emphasise his point, trying to finish his piece before getting interrupted. “It was me making a rational judgement.”

“An unauthorized rational judgement.” The instructor grabbed his wrist, beginning to pull him towards the exit. “Rule number one is to not question orders, kid. Now, you’re coming with me.”

“Am I?” He asked out loud, even as he began to be physically dragged forwards.

“Fine, then. Come with me. That’s an order.” She turned to glower at him with her remaining eye. “Let’s see whether or not basic pattern recognition and short-term memory are beyond you.”

Aaron snarled, but relented, and allowed himself to be taken from the room.

“Class dismissed.” Their instructor declared in a louder voice before walking out, slamming the door shut behind them.

### ***CHAPTER 8: HERITAGE***

Kraken couldn’t even be bothered to give an exasperated sigh
as he ducked. The pillow that had been thrown at his head whipped over its
target, instead hitting and sliding down the far wall of the room with the soft
sound of felt on plaster. The thrower, Aaron, barely had time to
over-dramatically flick his fingers in disappointment before another pillow –
this one thrown by Will – hit him on the back of the head. The following
exclamations of laughter and betrayal prompted an eye-roll from Kraken, who had
been hoping to spend even a single afternoon reading in peace.

Following his dramatic run-in with their instructor – a
“Sergeant Moore” – Aaron had been seriously reprimanded by the powers that
were. His punishment, despite the general outcry at his actions, had relatively
lenient. Three days’ confinement to the dorm. In all honesty, Kraken’s
suspicion was that the only reason Aaron hadn’t been punished more harshly was
because they hadn’t expected anyone to get into trouble so quickly – how long
had it been, a little over a week? Since everything had begun? Not exactly the
most obvious time for someone to mouth off to a superior so blatantly, Kraken
reasoned.

In any case, the whole affair had left Aaron feeling
somewhat down, so the other members of the dorm had oh-so-kindly taken it upon
themselves to cheer him up with a pillow fight. Everyone’s bedrooms had been
ransacked (including Kraken’s, to his chagrin) for supplies, and it was
currently an all-out war between Aaron, Will, Ally, and Ruby. Plue stood off to
the side, clear that she wasn’t quite as involved as everyone else.

Slumping back down into the sofa he was sitting on, trying
his best to phase out of existence, he suddenly found himself in the close
company of Ruby, who practically fell backwards onto the sofa right beside him.

“Hi.” She waved. Kraken glanced at her before returning to
his book, observing the pillow clutched between her fists.

“Is this the part where you nail me in the face with that
thing?” He deadpanned. Ruby’s eyes flicked to the pillow before she laughed.

“No, no, this is just for defence.” She explained. “In case
any pillows fly our way. I wanted to, uh, ask you something.”

Well, this was interesting. Even as Kraken focused more on
Ruby, he began to pick up on things. She seemed more subdued than normal,
despite the chaos around them. And her gaze seemed – no, it *felt* as though it were more intense than
normal. Not that gazes could provide one with physical feelings, but…

“Ask away.” He relented. Ruby was nothing if not persistent,
and he reasoned that it would be more time-efficient to just get their
conversation over with than to resist for who even knew how long.

“Well.” Now that Ruby had been given the proverbial “go
ahead”, she launched into speech. “I was walking back from a class, and I got a
bit lost, and I walked through this hall. And this hall had, like, pictures of
loads of people there.”

Kraken nodded. “And?”

“And… your name is “Kraken Rayne”, right?”

He nodded again. He had a suspicion as to where the
conversation was going, but wanted to not make any snap decisions. “So…?” He ventured.

“So, you’ve got a relative in the Nexus Force!” Ruby almost
yelled, now as excited as normal. Clearly, calm could only be expected from her
for a certain extent of time. Ah well. “I mean, I think so. I saw a bunch of
people there I recognised – all the faction leaders, some of our instructors,
this one guy I saw in, like, the news or something for saving a planet chunk.
But there was also a woman whose last name was “Rayne”. Did you know her?”

“Probably.” He admitted. “Assuming we’re thinking of the
same Rayne.” If they were, he’d be lying if he said he was happy with this vein
of conversation. In spite of his best efforts, his past was still one it hurt
to look back on. And, of course, the loss still felt fresh and raw, no matter
how much time seemed to pass. But, for better or worse, spilling the truth had
always come naturally to him. “Do you remember her first name? Or what she
looked like?”

Ruby’s eyes drifted upwards as she tried to think. “Well,
one of the things that got me curious was that she looked like you.”

“Eyes?” Kraken guessed. He and his siblings had all
inherited golden irises from their mother, whilst their father’s eyes had been
a darker brown. To his surprise, however, Ruby shook her head.

“I don’t know, I don’t think I saw her eyes. But her face
looked like yours. Same nose, and… *maybe*
same eyebrows. You *definitely* had the
same hair, though.” Her gaze strayed to his. “Straight and black.”

“Was she wearing a cape?” With the eyes a dead end, Kraken
had to fall back on what he remembers his mother’s Nexus Force uniform to be.
Ruby nodded, and just like that, his suspicions were all but confirmed.

“It was red.” She said. Kraken sighed, and Ruby tipped her
head to the side slightly as she waited for him to continue.

“Well, assuming I’m right on this,” (because there was
always a *chance* that he wasn’t wrong,
it wasn’t like he had seen the picture himself), “that was my mother. Pyrrha
Rayne.”

“Your m- your mum?” Ruby certainly sounded surprised.

“Yeah.” Kraken said, simply. “She was in the Nexus Force.
Supposedly one of their top agents, or something. Bona-fied maelstrom killer, I
remember that much.”

To be fair, Kraken wasn’t quite sure what he had been
expecting as a reaction from Ruby, but he was fairly sure that an over-the-top
“cool!” wasn’t it. Classic unpredictable humans.

“You sound happy.” He noted. She nodded at him.

“I mean, I- I guess that’s just kind of awesome!” She
grinned. “To have a famous family member like that! And if you’re here- she
could give you advice!” Gasping, she leant forward slightly. “Is that why
you’re here? Because of her? It’s in your blood, right?”

“Something like that.” He offered the phrase as a
multi-purpose answer, because there were too many questions for him to answer
methodically and individually. Also, because while he could understand, to some
extent, her enthusiasm, he was already tiring quickly of the conversation.

“*That’s really cool*.”

“Thanks.”

### ***CHAPTER 9: SUSPICIONS***

“Hey. Bro.”

Kraken chose to not answer. Instead, he focused on slinging
his fists against the punching back, feeling it swing backwards under the force
of his blows. Every time he made contact, he felt a twinge of satisfaction to
go with the twinge of pain in his muscles – and decided that it was infinitely
preferable to the attempts of the resident overactive so-and-so to get his
attention.

“Broski.”

It was, he mused as he practiced, tiring sometimes. On the
one hand, he understood that people like Aaron meant no offence in their
persistent interaction with him – he couldn’t, in all good conscience, be
annoying or offensive to them. It wouldn’t be right. On the other hand,
however, he couldn’t stand it when people wouldn’t get a clue and leave him
alone. It was an imperative aspect of how he worked: he needed time to be on
his own. To works things through in his own mind, to focus, to be by himself
and only himself.

“Brohemian like you.”

Gritting his teeth, Kraken turned around to Aaron to fix him
with his best attempt at an accusatory glare. For his part, however, Aaron’s
only reaction was an apologetic shrug.

“I know, I know, don’t bother Kraken when he’s training.” He
said. “Look, I wouldn’t be trying to talk to you if it wasn’t important – can
you just give me five minutes?”

Kraken’s reflex was to tell Aaron to stuff it, but then he
focused. Looked at the scene closer. The truth was, Aaron was frowning, and
Kraken wasn’t sure if he had ever seen him do that before. So, he shook his
hands out slightly before wandering over to Aaron, panting heavily from
exertion.

“What is it?” He asked. As he watched, Aaron’s expression
contorted into one of surprise, which was… strange. Was it really so odd to see
Kraken willing to listen? Apparently so. Kraken rolled his eyes. “What’s so
important?” He re-emphasised the question, trying to get Aaron to focus.

Aaron’s surprised vanished, and he nodded. “Right. Yes.
Okay.” He took a deep breath. “Uh, this is going to sound weird, but… could you
keep an eye on Will?”

Aaron was right. It *did*
sound weird. Kraken raised an eyebrow, silently asking for elaboration. It
seemed an odd thing to ask – especially considering Aaron and Will’s status as
apparent best friends. Someone ought to be kept an eye on when they were under
suspicion, normally. Did Aaron suspect Will of something? If that were the
case, why was he going to Kraken and not someone in a position of authority? In
Ally, at least, that was fair, but there had to be *someone* in the academy better suited to handle the situation than
Kraken.

“It’s just…” Aaron trailed off. “Look, I know you haven’t
noticed, but take it from someone who’s known him his entire life: Will’s been
acting *off* recently. He’ll disappear
for periods of time and then, like, turn back up and not offer any explanation!
And there are just… other things. He seems more tired. Couple of other…
whatever. The problem is, I technically don’t have anything to go on. So, I
can’t report to the teachers – and even if I could, there’s every chance that
it’s just Will doing something private, and I don’t want to intrude on that! I
want to give him his space, but I’m also worried.”

Kraken folded his arms. “So, you want me to keep an eye on
him instead?”

“Only when I can’t.” Aaron elaborated, still frowning.
“There’s a good chance it’s either nothing important, or something private –
but what if it’s something else? Something worse?”

“What else could it be, though?” Kraken put forward. Aaron
rolled his eyes.

“I don’t know, but considering that this is Will’s wellbeing
on the line, I don’t want to take any chances!” He all but hissed. “Just- just
let me know if you see anything that’s really suspicious, okay? Please?”

“Alright.” Kraken nodded, knowing that he’d never be able to
say no anyway. If nothing else, the potential causes of such suspicious
behaviour wasn’t something he could objectively ignore.

To his relief, Aaron didn’t try and hug him or anything out
of gratitude. He simply sighed and lowered his head for a moment, before
raising it again with his usual self-assured smile back in place.

“Thanks a lot, bro.” He said, offering out his hand. Kraken
grabbed it and stared Aaron in the eyes.

“I’ll be convinced of your gratitude when you stop trying to
call me “Bro”.” He told him. “Or any variation that you come up with.”

Aaron shrugged. “It’s a term of endearment, Marco Brolo.” He
said. “You can’t stop me that easily.”

Kraken unceremoniously dropped Aaron’s hand, focusing on
staring him down. Aaron shrugged again, before turning away and beginning to
walk out of the gym.

“I really am grateful, though.” He said without looking
back. “You’ll watch out for him, yeah?”

“…Yeah.” Begrudged Kraken. He didn’t plan on going back on
his word, anyhow.

“Great. Good. Fantastic.” Aaron said in a single breath,
before turning on his heel and walking out of the room. “I’ll let you, uh- I’ll
let you get back to that. The punching.”

Kraken nodded acknowledgement – which, in hindsight, was
pointless because Aaron had already turned around – before going back to his
drills. He mused as he worked. Whilst he, of course, had no clue as to what was
going on with Will (if anything at all), it seemed unlikely that the other boy
would be doing something dangerous or potentially hurtful. Of course, the risk
was always there – otherwise he wouldn’t have agreed to keep an eye out – but from
Kraken’s perspective, it seemed unlikely. Aside from the soft-spoken young man
being possibly the most mature other person in the dorms, he seemed calm and
reasonable and unlikely to do anything overly dangerous.

As was the way with Hall Omicron, however, his peace could
never last for long. It was only a few moments later that he heard Ruby’s
voice:

“Count me in!”

Turning back around (and barely repressing a sigh of
exasperation as he did so), he turned to see the redhead leaning against the
door of the gym. He peered at her.

“Did Aaron… tell you about this?”

His suspicions were confirmed when she shook her head,
apparently more pleased with herself than she had a right to be.

“Nope.”

“You eavesdropped.” It wasn’t a question. Kraken narrowed
his eyes. Something about that knowledge made him feel uncomfortable – whether
it was on his behalf or on Aaron’s, he wasn’t sure. It didn’t help that Ruby
didn’t appear to regret it, looking at him with every bit of the usual
enthusiasm practically flowing from her.

“To be fair.” She said. “I didn’t exactly *mean* to.” Kraken must have looked
sceptical, because she began to wave her hands around in a frantic manner.
“Honest, I didn’t! I was passing by and I heard what he was saying…!”

“You could have just walked away.” Kraken pointed out. “If
Aaron wanted you to hear, he would have sought you out.”

“Hey, what can I say?” Ruby shrugged. It wasn’t a particularly
self-assured shrug, like he had almost been expecting – more of a normal “oh
well” shrug. “The chips have fallen where they may. Besides, I can do it
instead of you!”

“Instead of me?” Echoed Kraken, thinking the proposal
through. A very small part of him was tempted, saying that it was a large hassle
to bother with, but that part of him was quickly shouted down by his sense of
honour (Aaron had come to him for help, it would have been in poor taste to
pass the task off to someone else), his doubt (would Ruby do the job properly,
or would she get distracted in some way? Could she take it seriously enough?),
and the general stubbornness that clung to the job he now apparently had to do.
He shook his head in a literal response to Ruby’s offer. “Not that I don’t
appreciate it, but I’m doing this.” He paused for thought – an idea!

“That being said”, he said slowly, “I’m willing to let you
help – on the grounds that you defer to my judgement.” Upon seeing Ruby’s
confused face, he rolled his eyes but elaborated. “Come to me if you see
anything, and let me decide what to do. Basically.”

Ruby frowned, and then nodded. “Okay! You can count on me.”

“Alright, then.” Kraken said. “Remember, there’s a good
chance that this is either Aaron being paranoid, or Will doing something
perfectly acceptable. Keep an eye out, but don’t go overboard and assume that
anything suspicious is happening while it isn’t, okay?” He had said this out
loud because, in all honesty, he had a sneaking suspicion that Ruby would have
forgotten otherwise. Thankfully, she appeared to at least get the message,
saluting and nodding at him.

“Right!”

### ***CHAPTER 10: WAVELENGTH***

Under other circumstances, Kraken would probably have taken
the time to admire the make and quality of the Nexus Force’s training
facilities. The spaces were huge, the holograms and simulation technologies were
extremely advanced, and while it wasn’t a substitute for battlefield
experiences – which was something Kraken possessed in spades – it was probably
the next best thing. The circumstances that Kraken was *in*, however, denied him the opportunity for such admiration.

As well as maelstrom-fighting, it had been deemed necessary for
students at the NFA to learn how to actually fight other people. It made sense,
Kraken had to begrudgingly admit. Whilst the Nexus Force’s main role was the
role it played in holding back the maelstrom, it also held a lot of other
responsibilities, such as policing the Nimbus System and acting as a law
enforcement. This meant that there were going to be some scenarios which
required fighting humans instead of… things. One such example would have been
the tour, when that person – Gasai – seemingly went crazy. It was necessary to
prepare for such instances.

For Kraken, who’s interest ended at fighting the maelstrom,
he objectively understood the principle but definitely wasn’t a fan of it.
Subjectivity, however, was a privilege that he as a student didn’t have access
too (even if he was bothered enough to do something, he’d seen first-hand the
trouble Aaron had gotten into trying to do something subversive. Better, he
thought, to just let things happen), which was why he found himself now
duelling that person – “Intrepid”, he remembered, not that it was easy to
reject an alias as ridiculous – in another training exercise.

As indicated by his earlier scores, “Intrepid” was quite a
good fighter. He fought mostly defensively, surprisingly enough, using a metal staff
to both attack and defend, quickly flipping the weapon in his grasp around for
blows. It was a jarring contrast for Kraken, who himself was used to fighting
using his claymore (he adjusted his grip on the sword, raising it with both
hands and pointing it at Intrepid), and using it primarily for methodical and
powerful offensive strikes. He wheeled the sword around and tried to bring it
down on Intrepid’s shoulder, but Intrepid blocked it – holding the staff with
both hands, he darted a little *towards*
the sword and blocked it with the very centre of the staff. The metal vibrated
on impact, and Intrepid winced.

That was his own advantage, Kraken reckoned – the strength
in his blows. His strategy would have to be to overwhelm Intrepid and not let
him perform a successful offensive. His weakness, of course, was that his
movement were slow, and Intrepid’s far quicker movements could well become an
exploitable advantage provided Intrepid knew what he was doing. The saving
grace of Kraken’s claymore, he reckoned, was that its large blade was an
efficient block for incoming blows.

Intrepid suddenly struck! From his blocking position, he
spun the staff around himself, and brought the tip of it wheeling back towards
Kraken’s head. Thinking quickly, Kraken brought his claymore up to the side, by
his shoulder, and felt his hands tense as the staff slammed into the sword with
a clang that had his ear ringing a little. Kraken shoved back, pushing to the
side and sending the staff jerking away from him before bringing the sword
around and attacking low, aiming for Intrepid’s legs. Intrepid hastily blocked
it, but the hit was hard enough that he dropped the staff with a curse. Kraken
lifted the sword- Intrepid darted for the staff- Kraken brought the sword onto
Intrepid just as he picked up his staff and held the blow off, escaping being
struck right on the head by the skin of his teeth.

Not wasting time, Kraken planted a foot onto Intrepid’s
chest and shoved, sending his opponent sprawling. He then went in for a final
strong hit, knocking the staff out of Intrepid’s hand again, before finishing
by lowering the claymore until it was by Intrepid’s neck.

“Yield?” He asked.

Intrepid exhaled, then shrugged. His eyes glinted.

“Sure.” He said.

The score flashed above them – 17 to 13, in Kraken’s favour.
The simulation and weapons faded, leaving the men standing in one of the blue
training boxes.

“Kraken! Intrepid!” Their instructor, Sargent Moore, called
from her position in the centre of the room. “You’re on break. Get a rest and a
drink. You’re no good to anyone if you exhaust yourself.”

Both of them saluted.

“Yes Ma’am!” Intrepid barked. Kraken didn’t say anything,
hoping that Intrepid wouldn’t try to talk his ear off.

Cut to six minutes later, and Kraken – water bottle in hand,
swigging it like it was something just a little stronger – was wishing that his
ear would just fall off already, so that he wouldn’t be able to hear Intrepid
talking anymore. He wasn’t as bad as someone like Aaron or Ruby, who talked a
mile a minute and spoke gibberish that not even they seemed to be able to
understand half the time. Still, though, Intrepid had a penchant for
punctuating his sentences with “but whatever” and also laughing at his own
jokes.

One such laugh was coming to an end, as Intrepid shrugged
off the story he’d spent the past minute or so telling.

“But whatever, I guess you had to be there.” He said. As if
Kraken’s reason for not laughing was a lack of comprehension.

“Probably.” Deadpanned Kraken, shaking the last droplets of
water out of the bottle and onto his tongue. Intrepid nodded sagely, and then
bent down to adjust his shoelaces, chewing on his lip as he worked. When he sat
back up, his smile wasn’t there anymore.

“Hey, do you think we really need a year’s worth of training
before we can actually get out there?” He asked.

Kraken eyed him in surprise.

“…No.” He eventually admitted. Intrepid nodded frantically.

“I know right! It’s like- I dunno- there are some people,
like you, or me, who are already good enough, and know what they want to do.
And, I mean, why can’t we go out there early if we feel like we’re ready?”

Kraken shrugged, trying to act like he wasn’t actually super
interested in the conversation.

“Maybe they doubt our ability to be objective.” He reasoned.
“It could be that people have declared themselves ready before, and then been
killed or injured on the battlefield immediately? Or *something* like that, anyway.”

Intrepid nodded. “Yeah! Like, the Academy didn’t always
exist, you know?”

“I did.” Confirmed Kraken, though he figured that the
question part was, in hindsight, probably rhetorical. Apparently, the founding
of the Nexus Force Academy (twenty-two years prior) had been a huge event.

Intrepid gestured with his hands. “Just feels annoying. Like
they don’t trust us.”

“They probably see us as too young to understand, or
something along those lines.” Reflected Kraken bitterly as he stared out over
the training ground. He’d never much liked being judged on his personality and
capabilities by his age.

“I guess.” Intrepid sighed. “Still kind of sucks that we
have to wait so long, I guess. I just wanna… get out there.”

Kraken was mostly surprised that he’d actually encountered
someone on his wavelength (at least, on this particular matter), but managed to
collect himself enough to admit:

“…Me too.”

The next second, Kraken felt a hand clap onto his shoulder,
and immediately regretted ever saying anything as Intrepid stared at him with
an impassioned expression.

“You.” He said, solemnly. “You get it.”

Kraken tried to ignore the clammy sensation of the hand on
his shoulder. Gods, it was uncomfortable. “Yeah, I guess I do?” The words came
out sounding more like a question then a statement, but then Intrepid removed
his hand and Kraken suddenly found himself unbothered by that particular vocal
inflection.

“Nice.” Intrepid said simply. He then began to tear into an
energy bar, as if the conversation had never happened. Not even a “but
whatever” to cap it. It was a bizarre shift. Bizarrer still – if slightly nice
– to find someone that completely agreed with him on something, especially an
issue as important comparatively as *that*
one.

He was surprised how pleased it made him.

### ***CHAPTER 11: HELLO***

“I am a beacon of sin and I am here!”

Kraken jolted at the noise, dropping his pencil. He glared
accusingly at his door, which was open and had thus let the sound in. Not that
he earnestly blamed it, but he figured it was more socially acceptable to fix
with a look of disdain a non-sentient door than a very sentient person.

The real question, really, was what in the world – or
really, and unfortunately, it was going to be *who* in the world – was yelling and making a racket. As if intuned
with his disapproving thoughts, he heard them yell again.

“Restraint? Don’t know her!”

Just his luck that people like that existed in real life.

Kraken lurched violently towards the stairs, and stopped
just short of letting himself fall face-first down them. Instead, he walked
down like a regular human being and allowed himself to venture into the main
living area, where he saw Will and Ally making animated conversation with not
one person, but rather two people that were, to him, completely unfamiliar.
Both of them were wearing tank tops and cargo pants – though one, a boy, had a
tool belt around his waist, while the other, a girl, had instead what looked
like a bandolier slung around her torso. They also looked similar to one
another physically – both were slightly short, both had dark skin, both had fairly
short hair.

Everyone turned to look at Kraken as he entered, and he
immediately felt his toes curl. Attention. He wasn’t a fan.

“New dorm-mate!” It was, as it turned out, the girl who had
been the one with the annoyingly loud voice, and she now approached him
enthusiastically, shoving her hand out at him in a gesture he only recognised
after a moment. After another moment of hesitation, he shook her hand back
briefly and then let his drop.

“Hello.” He greeted. (They deserved his *cordiality* at the very least, even if he didn’t have any plans to
actually befriend them.)

“This is Kraken.” Will said for him, which he actually
almost appreciated.

“Kraken!” The girl gasped through her teeth. Then: “That
name’s badass!”

She wasn’t the first person to say something like that, Kraken
remembered. In any case, it *appeared*
to be a compliment.

“Thank you.” He said, simply. Ally stepped forward.

“This is Joy Vincent.” She said, seemingly making attempt to
be formal. (It wasn’t working; even *he*
could pick up on her underlying excitement.) “And this-” she indicated to the
boy “is her brother, Wally Vincent. They’re joining us in Hall Omicron – they’re
your new dormmates!” She was smiling. “Gosh, this ought to be interesting, ey?”

“Took the words right out of my mouth, miss!” Joy said. The
two high-fived without missing a beat, and Kraken was once again struck by how
un-military this stupid military organisation was.

The next second, Ally was dragging Joy out of the room
(something about a tour and a gaming system) and Will was following, shaking
his head and smiling, and then it was just Kraken alone with Wally. Wally
tapped his fingers together. Nervous?

“It’s, uh… it’s nice to meet you.” He said.

“Likewise.” Kraken managed to say, before turning on his
heel and retreating back upstairs.

It was just one thing after another in this wretched
academy.

### ***CHAPTER 12: A WORLD’S WORTH OF DIFFERENCE***

Kraken slumped down onto the sofa, thoroughly exhausted. He
narrowly missed Will as he fell – the other boy moved to the side at the last
moment, and Kraken shot him a semi-apologetic look (too tired for anything more
than that). From the other side of Will, one of the new recruits – the boy,
Wally – shot him a nervous glance that Kraken didn’t respond to. It wasn’t that
he disliked Wally, perse, so much as he was just unbothered by his presence.
Ambivalent over his existence thus far. Which was, at least, more then he could
say about the boy’s sister.

Joy Vincent was the final piece to Aaron and Ruby’s trifecta
of energy and chaos, and now that the three had become acquainted (never mind
the fact that they were residing in the same hall), they were practically inseparable.
Thoughts became ideas became schemes, ricocheting off one another all at once
like some loathsome game of tennis. Whilst Aaron and Ruby on their own had both
been eccentric, with Ruby unbothered by Kraken’s personal space and Aaron
having a general demeanour of over-excitedness combined with his issues with
authority (as it turned out, Sergeant Moore was not the only instructor that
Aaron had been destined to run into trouble with). However, Joy seemed to
possess the unholy talent of bringing them together incredibly consistently;
with a collaborative and personable spirit and the same mischievous streak as
the others, she was quickly becoming the ringleader of a three-person gang of
chaos.

One the one hand, Kraken reasoned optimistically, it showed
that she was at least capable of working with a unit – maybe even commanding
it. On the other…

Shrieks and hoots of laughter came from the other room,
along with the clatter of plastic on wood. The three individuals in question
had come together to play a board game (which one, Kraken wasn’t sure – it
wasn’t one that he knew, that that was all he knew), but if one were to judge
the situation by sound alone, it would sound as though they were embroiled in
some kind of physical brawl. Though perhaps that was simply what their game had
escalated to.

On the other hand, Kraken reasoned, she was a terrible
enabler of nonsense, and he didn’t see any way that he’d be able to get along
with her any time in the near future.

“Sounds like they’re at it again.” Will remarked, idly,
sounding not at all bothered by the rampant… chaotic… mess that sounded to be
happening only one room over.

Observing the other boy quizzically, Kraken realised that
actually, that was something curious about him – no matter what happened, he
always seemed so unflappable. Whenever something unexpected or annoying
happened, he didn’t have to stop to process it, and he never seemed to get
angry. He’d just shrug his shoulders, sigh (and even then, he’d sigh in a
good-natured way, not an exasperated one), and go along with whatever it was.

“How do you do it?” He heard himself asking. “How can you
always just be so okay with what people do all the time?”

Will looked at him with a funny expression; one that Kraken
couldn’t quite pin down.

“…I mean, it’s not like I could control what people do
either way.” He eventually said, after a moment’s hesitation. “People are
people. No changing that, even if we find them annoying sometimes.” He glanced
to the other room, and then back to Kraken. “Honestly, though, this isn’t even
that bad. As long as they’re not trying to get me involved, they can do
anything they want.” He paused, squinting off into the middle distance, before
making an amendment: “Well, anything that doesn’t get themselves or someone
else hurt.”

“But you could stop them?” Kraken persisted. “I mean- if you
wanted to.”

Will laughed in what Kraken perceived to be incredulity. “Not
in a million years.” He explained. “Whatever desire I have to stop them, people
like that… they always have a much stronger drive to do whatever it is they
want to do. You know, as goofy as it looks, underneath there’s this real…” he
motioned with his hands, “stubborn determination, I think, that you couldn’t
really do anything about if you wanted to. I mean, I guess hypothetically you
could stifle it, but… I don’t think you should.”

Kraken leant forward. “Wouldn’t it…” he began, before
trailing off. It was difficult to… to verbalize. But life was always so
complicated, and unpredictable, and frustrating, and wouldn’t it make more
sense if people weren’t always like that? Maybe it was a personal thing, but as
someone who’d always believed in doing things efficiently, because you wanted
or had to do them, it’d never made sense to Kraken how people would just… goof
around.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true – he knew, technically, that
people liked to have fun and liked to take time off the things they had to do
and rest. But then, why did they consider ‘rest’ to be doing something totally
different? Why wouldn’t they just literally rest themselves, and do something
quiet? What was this compulsion that people had to just engage in ceaseless
activity.

Will, meanwhile, was eying him as though he suspected some
of what Kraken thought.

“I think the thing about interacting with other people,” he
explained, “is that it’s inherently… strenuous. Especially when they’re all
zany, or whatever. I don’t think that’s something that can really change, so
much as it’s just something that’s a natural part of life and friendship.” He
leant back on the sofa with his hands behind his head. “I think it’d be dumb to
try and put a stop to it, because it almost definitely wouldn’t work, and it’d
make them unhappy. It just isn’t worth it.”

“But then,” Kraken ventured, “how do you… how do you work
with people?”

Will raised an eyebrow. “You want to?” He asked.

Kraken shrugged, helplessly. “I’m not an idiot. As much as I’d
like to just work on my own the whole time, aware that part of being in the Nexus
Force is the necessity of at least communication. Checking in with other
people, I guess. But, it’s just going to be difficult if they’re always acting
like that.”

As if on cue, there was a large crash. Two voices, though
Kraken couldn’t quite tell who was who, went ‘*wheeeeeey*’. Kraken fixed
will with an expression that communicated as best he could, “case in point”.

Will nodded sagely. “Ah, I see what your problem is.” For a
moment, Kraken perked up – thinking that Will had, perhaps, some clever
solution to offer – but his hopes were dashed as the other boy continued. “You’re
underestimating them.”

“Underes- they’re *always* like that, though!” Kraken
protested. “In all the time I’ve known them, they’re always just these…
hyperactive… they can’t take anything seriously!” They argued.

Will folded his arms and stared at him pointedly. “You’ve
known them for, at most, weeks.” He said. “And, in Joy’s case, it’s been more
like *days*. You really think you’ve gotten the full read on them in that
short a time?”

The observation bothered Kraken more than he would have
liked to admit. It felt accusatory, and he resisted the urge to say anything
back. Will didn’t seem like the sort of person who would be snide for no
reason, and it was probably just his interpretation of the words. It was on him
to remain unperturbed.

“Well,” he instead said, “it’s not like I haven’t seen them
in different contexts. At least – Ruby and- and Aaron.” He fumbled a little,
almost forgetting Aaron’s name for one highly embarrassing moment, but carried
on. “We were there at the tour, when there was that attack, and then we’ve interacted
in less stressful contexts as well. But even during the tour attack, when you’d
think they’d be serious, they… they weren’t. Aaron made a joke, I think, and
Ruby purposefully distracted him – Gasai – by saying something dumb to get his
attention.”

“Hmm.” Responded Will. “You’re sure that wasn’t her being an
idiot, but rather her being deliberate and decisive? You can be eccentric and
still be mature, you know.”

“Deliberate…?” Kraken trailed off. Well, yes, now that he
remembered, Ruby had been deliberate in her actions. He remembered her saying
that she’d cause a distraction…

Will nodded sagely. “I think you’ll get on fine, even if you’re
forced to interact with them in the field.” He explained. “People are… sometimes,
they’re a certain way. Maybe they’re too energetic for their own good, or they
think it’s funny to do stuff that’s actually really annoying. But there’s this
mutual sort of understanding that everyone comes to when they’re older, I
think, where the people like us learn to live with their eccentricities, and
they learn to tone themselves down – or, at least, channel that energy into
being productive – when the situation calls for it.” He turned away from
Kraken, staring off somewhere else. From Kraken’s perspective, it looked like
he’d suddenly started to stare into the middle distance. “Besides, you can’t
stop them without infringing on… them, I guess. Their desires, their energy,
their everything. I don’t think we have the right to try and change them in a
way that’d suit us better, you know? They’re just a certain way, and we have to
deal with it.”

Kraken could admit that Will was making at least some sense.
He couldn’t say that he’d appreciate someone trying to change *him* for
their own preferential reasons, so he could see why it wouldn’t be appropriate
to do that to anyone else, either. He guessed.

“I guess I can see that.” He admitted. Will smiled at him.

“There, you get it.” He said, sounding almost encouraging. “Plus,
I think it’s easy to not give them enough credit. Just because they’re annoying
a lot doesn’t mean they’re ALWAYS gonna be like that, you know? To use a
slightly reductive-sounding turn of phrase, just because they’re stupid doesn’t
mean their idiots.”

“…That doesn’t make any sense.” Pointed out Kraken. Will
laughed.

“That’s the joke.”