Chapter Nineteen

Part One: Prepared And Weaponized 

 Captain Trauma watched the candidates train on the open lot, each of them doing their own separate practice. Dart took a knee in front of one of the many steel targets Glitch lined up. She repeatedly fired accurate shots, hitting the bullseye every single time. Quill pensively walked up to her friend and watched her effortlessly display her talent.

The loud blasts of the gun eventually went silent. Dart started reloading her weapon, but then noticed Quill in her peripherals. “Hey Quill. Wassup?”

The Unit stiffened awkwardly. “Oh! It’s nothing. I just wanted to see how your training was going.”

“As you can see...” Dart gestured over at the steel targets where the center of them had been practically demolished from the plasma shots from her rifle. 

“… I think it’s going quite well. Care to join me? There’s plenty of spare plasma rifles. It wouldn’t hurt to practice your aim a bit.” She suggested kindly to her teammate. 

To which Quill dejectedly looked down at the floor. No matter how much she’d practice there was no way she'd be nearly as effective as Dart. 

“Thanks, but no thanks Dart! I shouldn’t bother with that. Heh.” She chuckled dismissively. “I think I’m going to go check on the others.”

With that she walked away with her arms folded. Quill kept her gaze downward, watching her feet with each step as her pink sweater around her waist swayed. 

 She then looked out to see Zero and Vanity were tossing backpacks full of metal scraps between each other. Back and forth. 

Quill approached them and tapped her fingers together. “What…what are you two doing over here?”

“Hey Quill! We’re working on our arm strength! We’re just tossing the bag between us!” Responded Vanity with a smile. It was the same backpacks they used for their endurance training.

“Though I doubt we’d have to carry anything this heavy out in the field.” She grimaced as she caught the large bag from Zero, it almost pulled her to the ground.

“You never know.” Began Zero. “Humans are pretty heavy Vanity, you might have to carry one of us one day.”

 Right then Quill’s attention was drawn elsewhere. She glanced over to see Fives and Below sparring with steel rods nearby. Each time they’d strike a loud clanking noise rang out. Fives attempted to charge at Below but he quickly grabbed the boy's weapon and effortlessly tossed him aside.

“You know you could’ve let go of the weapon Tinker.” Stated Below as he offered a hand to help Fives off of the ground.

“Tinker? That’s new.” Chuckled Fives as he took his hand. “If I let go, I’d be weaponless! But… I ended up on the floor anyway, so much for that doing me any good.”

The two guys then abruptly stopped when they noticed they had an audience. Both looked over at Quill, she was watching them with wide eyes. During the initial training Quill couldn’t even inflict damage on a dummy with her swinging a hook claw with all her might. Everyone else was able to manage, all but her. Fives might’ve not been athletic like her, or have any physical prowess, but he at least had his resourcefulness going for him, what did she have that could benefit the team? Quill sighed and walked away from Fives and Below, who exchanged concerned looks. 

Meanwhile, Trauma pulled his Slate out after it had been beeping several times from within his pockets. He looked to see what notification he’d received. Soon after, his crimson eyes widened at what he read, clearing his throat he urgently called out to the children.

“Hey!! Can all of you come here for a minute?” He shouted while beckoning them over. 

Each of the Units stopped what they were doing and gathered around the Captain. Dart and Quill both smiled at each other, though Quill's quickly faded when her teammate looked away. 

 “What’s up Captain T? Do you need us to do something?” Below asked while moving his auburn colored fringe out of his face. 

Trauma glanced at each one of them with concern in his eyes. “No. I’ve been evaluating your training long enough…” He began.

 “That’s all for now, training is over.” 

“Return to your living quarters. Please.” Ended the Captain. He looked deeply troubled, which made everyone feel uneasy. 

“What do we do in the meantime?” Asked Fives curiously while tilting his head. 

“Don't die.” He said bluntly.

Fives gulped at that response. He wasn’t planning on it any time soon, but ending training this abruptly and without a reason was odd. “He must’ve had a reason to give such a dire warning.” Thought Fives to himself.

“You heard the man! We need to return to our living quarters.” Commanded Below as he adjusted his fingerless gloves. 

Everyone followed Below’s lead and headed back inside of the Beacon, all but Dart who slightly lingered behind. She just stood there, lost in thought. She then turned to glance behind her where she met eyes with Trauma. They exchanged silent looks.

 A few moments later, the girls were all in their room as they were ordered to do. Quill was sitting on the top bunk with Vanity laying on the bottom. Dart was laying in her own bed with her eyes shut. They sat in utter silence until the door to their room slid open, revealing Captain Crest. His narrow piercing gaze scanned the room; he looked at each of the three ladies with a blank expression on his face.

“Dart, Quill and Vanity. Meet me outside of the Beacon in an hour.” He ordered bluntly with no context.

 “I’ve already informed the boys.” Crest then looked down at the ground between his feet. “Be ready for anything…”

With that he turned to walk away. Quill nervously watched the Captain leave. All of the Captains' behaviors suddenly began to get strange, like they were acting against their will almost.

“What is this all about?”

“We definitely haven’t finished training, it hasn't even been a week yet. You think she has something planned for us?” Asked Quill while swinging her legs off of the top bunk as she sat.

“The Intrinsic Soleria Illow, I mean.”

Dart was laying on her back in her bed looking up at the ceiling, she sighed so heavily that it briefly blew her bangs off of her face. “I think so.”

“This probably means something big came up, throwing off her schedule, we’ll most likely be hearing from her pretty soon.” 

“If that’s the case, what do you think changed?” Asked Vanity.

Dart didn’t have the slightest idea, Trauma seemed bothered by whatever order he heard. Crest seemed to have gone out of his way to give them a warning, telling them to be “ready for anything.” If this was due to Soleria Illow’s actions, and things did change, she’s probably doing something that both Captains’ don’t approve of. And something told her that it wouldn’t be long before they knew what it was.

 An hour after, outside of the Beacon. Dart and the rest of the group waited for Crest to show up. They arrived just as they were all told but there wasn’t anyone in sight. 

“What do you think Captain Deadeyes wanted from us? To call us all out here like this?” Asked Below curiously. 

“No clue!” Fives shrugged his shoulders. “I hope it’s something cool, I need some thrill!” 

“We get it Fives. You’re bored out of your mind.” Muttered Vanity.

All of the sudden Zero pointed towards the entrance door to the Beacon. Everyone’s sights followed their fingers to the giant metal doors of the tower. Crest was coming their way while carrying two bags in hand, while Idol was pushing a crate on wheels with all her might. Dart’s eyes narrowed when she saw that the two Abyssus Units were being led by Soleria Illow.

“It seems we have to expedite this process.”

Crest walked up to Dart, Below, Vanity and Fives and placed the duffle bags on the ground in front of them. Fives couldn’t contain his excitement for whatever the Intrinsic had planned for them, so he thought.

“Today you all will have your first official mission, to fight and dispatch Abyssiti.” Declared Soleria. Fives’ excitement quickly morphed into anxiety.

Everyone looked at Soleria as if what she was saying was some sort of joke. No one said a word for quite some time. A breeze blew by bringing a sharp cold wind with it. 

“Uh… Uhm… did you just say we’ll be facing Abyssiti? Like real ones?” Asked Below while trying to play off his strong aversion to that prospect.

Idol leaned up against the large crate with a yawn. “Mmm. It seems irresponsible to send these candidates to go fight Abyssiti so soon.” She mumbled to Crest, who was standing next to her.

Crest scoffed. “Yeah. No kidding.”

Soleria put her hands together with a smile. “Due to your efforts in the training, monitored by Captain 666-K, I’ve come to the conclusion that 773-A, 197-B, 732-B and 555-A are my task force.” 

“004-B you're also qualified, but I don’t have a need for your skill this time around.”

Upon hearing this, Quill looked down sadly, as Dart, Below and Vanity exchanged troubled looks. 

“So I… stay behind?” Mumbled Quill to herself gripping her hand, everyone on her original team was qualified to go out, once again… all but her. 

“Time is short! So, I will be sending you four on a mission outside of the Federation’s Walls! However before I send you off I must get you all equipped.” She stated while pointing down towards the two bags and crate that Crest and Idol had brought.

“These are all of the weaponry I had made for you all! I spent a lot of time and energy to get them here in time for your mission so I hope you like them.”

Soleria pointed at the two bags between Below and Dart. “Those two have the gear I made especially for the team leaders!”

Dart and Below both grabbed their respective bags and opened them. Dart was more hesitant and took her time to open it, however Below threw caution to the wind. He was like a child opening up a present. Below pulled out a single double edged blade out of his bag while Dart struggled.

“A… sword?” Asked Below while holding the two bladed weapon, he looked up at the Intrinsic with confusion.

“What happened to giving Abyssus Units standard hook claws?”

“Like I’ve said, you all aren’t standard Units.” She responded to Below confidentially. 

Then not even a few moments later Dart pulled out an entire high impact sniper rifle out of her bag. Fives stared in awe.

“What the hell? Is that real?” He exclaimed while looking upon the weapon.

Dart’s dark blue eyes lit up. “Never in a million year did I think I would ever get a personal gun.”

“Hmm. Well 773-A your aim surpasses everyone here… I rigged this military grade sniper rifle to be easy to use for you specifically.”

Soleria then looked over at Fives and Vanity. “Now for you two! 001-Z, retrieve what is inside of the crate please!”

Idol sighed. She went up to the crate and fumbled with some keys. She then used the keys to unlock the container. It revealed 4 colored coded outfits; Red, Blue, Green and Orange. At the base of the crate was a chest. Idol opened it and pulled out two strange devices and handed it to Vanity.

“A pair of… bracelets?” She asked curiously.

“Put them on! Please, I implore you!”

She put on the bracelets, they fit perfectly around her wrist. She activated the bracelets and large glasslike disks formed around them. Vanity flinched from shock.

“You have a special device I personally designed! You can create Hardlight shields around your hands!”

Fives looked at everyone’s gear with starry eyes. He was so thrilled by the mere thought of what he might get that he’d briefly forgotten he was being sent to face the creatures of Abyss shortly after.

“What do I get?” He asked eagerly with baited breath. 

Soleria’s face seemed to lighten up with the same enthusiasm Fives had. “Oh! Yours is the most unique! I couldn’t decide what weapon you should get so I gave you several!”

She turned to point at the Orange outfit hanging inside of the crate. “Your outfit 555-A has a tool kit, with several devices and items for you to create or modify whatever you see fit! Also you have two pistols.”

“Yeahhh!!!!” Fives cheered. It was a dream come true.

“These weapons will allow you to fight the Abyssiti better than the rest! As long as you have them and each other you will not die. You all will only prevail!” Stated Soleria with a grin.

“Captain Crest, may you please find a Rift for my task force here to handle?” 

“Yeah. Sure.” Responded Crest while pulling out his Slate. 

Quill stood silently behind Dart. Dart looked behind her to see that Quill was clearly beating herself up about this whole situation. Dart knew that she always felt like the weakest link in the team, and this surly just reinforced that feeling for her. She made eye contact with Quill briefly and delivered a warm smile. She gave Dart a faint smile in return.