The Redwell Guild consisted of a number of buildings. Most of them served as living quarters, but there was also a mess hall, infirmary, training grounds and various commodities to spend the internal currency. 

Most Enhanced had small and simple bedrooms and had to use communal washrooms. But if you earned enough Redwell Coins, you could buy yourself a better room that came attached with a private bathroom. Those rooms were quite spacious compared to the basic ones, but you still had to pay extra for various commodities like desk or wardrobe. Squad nine was the squad with the highest ranking and mission success rate, and all four of its members had nicely equipped rooms like that.

As Kay got closer to his room, he could hear someone squabbling inside. 

“Fuck, what would you have us do, you–”

“At least I want to do something instead of waiting around!” 

He closed his eyes in resignation. All his quad members had private rooms, so why was it that they all treated his as their personal meeting room? This part of the Redwell Guild even had rooms like that for the squads living here! While they had all made copies of their room keys for each other in case of emergencies, he hadn’t anticipated his room to be occupied on a regular basis.

Opening the door to his room, he saw Caden and Rae standing in the middle, arguing. Aiden was sitting at Kay’s desk, looking like he’d want nothing more than draw some silencing runes on the two loudmouths. Because of their loud argument, they hadn’t heard Kay approach and looked up in surprise. Quickly, their faces turned into ones of relief.

“Captain!”, the three shouted in unison.

“Why are all of you here?” Kay actually needed to talk to all of them, so this saved him the trouble of having to go get them individually.

Caden walked towards him, but Rae grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling him back and using this chance to go up to Kay.

“We were so worried about you!” Rae mustered him closely, seemingly looking for anything out of place.

Kay felt slightly confused, he hadn’t seen any of them today and not told anybody about being called to the research facility.

Aiden seemed to notice his bewilderment and piped up from his place at the desk. 

“Caden saw you walking to the RRC and came to find us.”
“He was so pale, we almost thought he saw your dead body instead,” Rae chimed in.

“Fuck, you all know what kind of place it is,” Caden said, sounding aggrieved, and reached out to pull at Rae’s hair. It was braided and almost long enough to reach her midriff. At the last moment, Caden stopped, apparently having thought better of it. Kay noticed Rae’s nails shimmering with the telltale metal shine that showed she was more than ready for a fight.

“Stop it, you two.” Kay’s words immediately made the two of them stop their antics, and they looked at him expectantly. He knew the two of them didn’t have animosity for each other, it was their own way of letting off some steam. Relaxing their tense nerves and dealing with stress. They’d grown so used to arguing with each other that it became part of their daily routine, to the chagrin of Kay and Aiden.

“Take a seat somewhere. I have some matters to inform you of.”
Kay went to sit on the edge of his bed, looking at his three squad members in turn.

Aiden was still sitting at the desk. He was slightly shorter than Kay, with almost shoulder-length hair, which he always put up in a bun. Aiden said he was too lazy to cut it and would only shave his facial hair when the stubble annoyed him. Despite the slightly cold atmosphere he exuded, Aiden appeared approachable. Though unlike his brother, Aiden wasn’t a big fan of crowds and rather spend his free time reading in a sunny place.

Caden and Aiden were twins, but despite their identical features, people that knew them would have no problem telling them apart. Although the casual acquaintances Caden liked to make would occasionally bother Aiden.

The corners of Caden’s lips were naturally slightly raised, making him appear to be in a constantly good mood. There was usually some stubble on his chin, and his hairstyle was sloppier than Aiden’s. All in all, it gave Caden a flirtatious air, which Caden was pleased with and Aiden complained about. 

Caden had simply plopped himself down where he had stood, waiting for Kay to tell them what was up.

Rae sat on the desk, using the armrest of the chair Aiden was in as a footrest, after taking off her shoes. Typically, Aiden would have taken the opportunity to use Rae’s knees as a headrest, but it seemed that he wasn’t as calm as he appeared on the surface.

“Relax, it’s nothing too bad,” Kay paused, not quite sure how true that statement was. 

“They called me to the RRC because we’re getting a new squad member.”

Caden looked excited about having someone new join them, while Aiden furrowed his brows.

“Why would they make you go to the RRC for that? Isn’t it guild business?” Aiden pointed out the crux of the matter, and Caden’s mood dampened a bit as his face turned more serious.

“It’s not someone fresh out of the lab, is it?” Rae asked worriedly from beside Aiden. Kay knew she was worried about having a liability on their team.

“It’s not someone new. She has worked as a mercenary for a few years, and they want her to stop doing solo missions.” 

Aiden was the first to come to the correct conclusion, and his mouth opened slightly in bafflement. His head plopped against Rae’s knee as he stared at Kay, willing him to deny his guess.

Kay nodded in confirmation and said, “It’s Aki.”

“Fuck!” Rae cursed, slapping her tight and almost smacking Aiden in the process.

Caden exclaimed, “Why the fuck does she have to join our team?! She has been doing solo missions for so long, why have they suddenly decided to toss her to us?”

“Hasn’t she messed up the last one quite badly?” Rae mused, “I heard it was an easy mission, but she vanished for almost two months.”

“It’s not the first time she went missing for so long after going on a mission,” Aiden commented, “Maybe Greystone is worried that she’ll get herself killed if she continues like that.”

Kay could hear Rae’s nails digging into his wooden desk, and he shot her a warning glance. 

“Dammit, are we supposed to play babysitter for her and just carry her through combat?” Rae muttered angrily before looking at the scratch mark she had left on Kay’s desk and flashing him an embarrassed grin.

“She can’t be that bad of a fighter, right?” Caden said hopefully, “I mean, she did stuff solo for so long, that must mean she has some abilities, right guys?”

Rae dashed his hope mercilessly, “Who even knows if she completed those missions. Didn’t she get a nice room as soon as she joined the guild? She didn’t even lift a finger before they gave her special privileges.”

“She’s the only one that goes in and out of the research facility that frequently.” Aiden agreed.

“They’re not sending her over here to monitor us, are they?” Caden grimaced at the possibility, but Kay shook his head. 

“There’s no need for them to monitor us like that unless we don’t care about our lives.” Kay thought back on his short encounter with Aki. At the time, he hadn’t been in the best state of mind, unease about having to go to Greystone’s office weighing heavily on him. Kay remembered the very faint but still fresh smell of blood the wound on Aki’s lip had exuded. It was obvious that the injury hadn’t been very old. At least not old enough to have happened during her mission. The same scent had come from Greystone, so Kay guessed that the man had not been too pleased with Aki.

“Let’s make the best of it. If I suspect her to be a liability for the team, I’ll make her wait somewhere safe. I’d rather she earns coins for doing nothing than putting you guys at risk.”

Notes:

Author: *throws bone* go get it!

Kay: 🔪

Author: *logs out”

Kay: *goes to find bone*