Chapter 2: Team Building

After the Professor's speech people had begun to mingle. A few people had started to approach Elaine but she didn't stay. She had something more important to do. Oh, she really wanted to spend some quality time with some of the people who had been eyeing her, particularly the pretty girls who had been giving her appraising looks, but she had seen Brandon disappearing into the hall with one of those girls who had been looking at her approvingly and the girl hadn't looked happy about the fact.

Brandon had been a nuisance for their entire training. The six Awakeners had had multiple psych evaluations thrust upon them but Brandon had somehow managed to pass all of them even though Elaine knew in her heart that the guy was a sociopath.

It was hard to give a second chance to a guy who had once tried to rape you.

Brandon was a typical jock. Hell, from what Elaine had been able to gather he'd literally been a frat boy before the Invasion. And boy did it show. Brandon did what he wanted, knowing that, up until this point, his rich parents and winning smile had gotten him out of all the trouble his rotten personality had gotten him into.

But Elaine would be damned if she let him pull this shit on someone who couldn't fight back. She was messing with her AR displays with both hands, dialing Lieutenant General Hayworth with her right while her left searched for the camera app on her CARD. Could it even be called a camera if it took a screenshot of precisely what your eyes were looking at? Eh, whatever, she'd leave that to someone who gave a shit about terminology.

**

Evelyn Dupree had wanted nothing more than to talk to the brunette in white, if only to put to rest the weird feelings the girl was inspiring in her. And hey, if anything she had already found an Awakener she might want to bond with. Before she could talk to her though she saw the brunette leaving out a door, a determined look on her face. Her curiosity thoroughly piqued, Evelyn followed.

She gave it a minute before she left through the same door the brunette had exited through and found herself in an empty hallway. She was about to turn around when she heard the sounds of a girl struggling. Had something happened to the brunette?

Evelyn rushed in the direction of the sound, which came from around a corner, but as she rounded the corner she had to stop herself from running straight into the brunette's back.

The brunette asked: “What the fuck are you doing, Brandon?”

Evelyn saw that this Brandon character had pushed a terrified-looking blonde with glasses against the wall and was busy tearing her clothes off. The blonde struggled but there was nothing she could do against the muscular guy holding her still.

“Fuck off, Caldwell”, he told her, his voice harsh. “We're just raising our Bond Level a little. And you have no right to complain, you already rejected me.”

“Rejected, huh?”, the brunette asked. “That's a nice way of saying that you tried to rape me and I kicked your balls up under your chin so hard you were pissing blood for a week. Wanna go for a repeat performance or will you just leave her alone?”

Evelyn was shocked by what she saw but also excited. Yes, this Brandon character was a huge scumbag but it turned out her new girl crush was as upstanding as they came.

Finally Brandon let go of the girl, who sank to the ground and huddled up into a corner, and then he turned to Elaine and said: “There's something you should know, Caldwell. I'm a lot stronger than the last time. Back then the last set of meds hadn't kicked in yet. So if you don't stay put we will go for a repeat performance and this time I'll make you my personal cocksleeve until you learn to love it.”

Evelyn was so worried she barely noticed there was someone coming up next to her until she heard the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked along with a high-pitched electric sound.

She looked up to find Lieutenant General Hayworth pointing a weirdly futuristic-looking gun at Brandon as he said: “There's something you should know, Cooper. This compound works on a three strikes system. This was your third. Any last words?”

Brandon suddenly did a complete one-eighty. He switched from his sneer to a winning smile and told Hayworth: “Now now, this is all just a big misun---” He never got to finish the sentence. Hayworth pulled the trigger, there was a flash of light, the smell of ozone flooded the hall, and Brandon Cooper was nothing more than a pile of ash on the ground.

Evelyn didn't know where her thoughts were. This guy had been a scumbag of the first order but what she'd just seen had been nothing other than an execution. No judge, no jury. What if that had been a misunderstanding? It hadn't been, but what if?

But Evelyn's fears were laid to rest when Hayworth said: “I'm sorry you all had to see this. Thank you, Sergeant Caldwell, for calling me and sending me photo evidence of his crimes. That was very quick thinking, exactly what we need here. As you were one of the people harmed by his actions and the only one of those who can make use of this for now, you can have his stat points, if you want them.”

Elaine shifted uncomfortably. “I didn't do this for the stat points, sir.”

“And yet, they would go to waste if you don't take them.” Elaine looked around. She saw the terrified blonde – Alexis – and she saw Evelyn.

She sought eye contact with both of them, trying to reassure herself that they wouldn't judge her for it, before she said: “Alright, I'll take them.”

A flash of light surrounded Elaine and then disappeared.

Evelyn didn't know what that had been about as she couldn't see status screens yet, but Elaine flexed her fingers as if something about her body had just changed. Then the brunette shook it off and went over to Alexis, who was still huddled up in the corner Brandon had dropped her in. She knelt down next to her and asked: “Are you alright?”

The blonde looked up, righted her glasses, looked into Elaine's eyes and said: “I-I think so. Thanks to you.”

Then Lieutenant General Hayworth cleared his throat: “By the way, don't go around killing others for their stat points. The only way to harvest stats is with these special guns that the Professor, Jeanne, Rachel and me carry. And don't try to steal one, they're locked to our aura and don't work for anyone else.”

**

What had been supposed to be the start of a new life had turned out to be the single most terrifying experience of Alexis' life. She had expected to be terrified when she'd signed up with the Army after the Invasion but she'd expected the terrifying part to be when she battled horrors from beyond space-time, not by having an overgrown frat boy who was supposed to be on her side drag her off to rape her.

But then none other than the girl she had been ogling, the one she'd been staring at when Brandon had thought she'd meant him, had come to her rescue. She'd stopped him, dealt with the situation smartly and then had come to comfort her. And here she sat, what little makeup she'd worn running down her face and looking like a complete mess when she'd wanted to make a good first impression on the hot brunette.

Not that the brunette seemed to mind as she said: “I'm Elaine, what's your name?”

Alexis sniffled and then smiled: “Alexis.”

Lieutenant General Hayworth took one more look at the scene, then nodded and walked off.

Even looking like a mess Alexis was ecstatic that Elaine was being so nice to her and wanted to comfort her. Even better, apparently all cadets needed to find themselves an Awakener to work with and she had a really nice one right there in front of her. As if Elaine had heard her train of thought she asked: “Would you like to join my party, Alexis?”

Alexis wanted to play it cool but there was no way to play anything cool when she was already looking like a hot mess, so she nodded enthusiastically.

Then Elaine turned and looked at the redhead who was still looking at them: “Sorry, you came all the way here and had to see something bad. Did you need something from me?”

**

Evelyn was an emotional mess. The blonde on the ground looked like a mess but she seemed more put together than Evelyn currently felt. Between the roller coaster of horrifying and impressive she'd seen as Elaine and the Lieutenant General had dealt with Brandon, the former sex offender and current stain on the tile floor, to the brunette looking so unsure of herself as if people would judge her for taking whatever it was she'd been offered by the Lieutenant General.

On top of all that Evelyn was still struggling with the fact that she was suddenly finding a woman attractive. A woman who was now treating her as an afterthought. She knew it was irrational, she knew it was stupid, but still what came out of her mouth was: “No thanks, there's nothing I need from you.”

And she stormed off.

**

Elaine didn't know what to make of this. The redhead had looked impressed with her but when Elaine had asked her why she'd followed her, hoping the redhead had wanted to join her party, her face had gone through half a dozen different emotions before settling on a sneer and after a biting remark she'd run off.

On a more positive note, she'd finally caught Brandon in the act and the bastard had finally gotten what was coming to him, though Elaine still felt a little queasy by the swiftness of his execution. And on top of that, she'd already grabbed herself a new teammate. And damn was she a cutie. It had taken everything she had not to react to the blonde checking her out before the Professor's speech and now the two of them were a team, practically forced by circumstance to at least try to become friends. Judging by the looks Alexis had given her, that friendship might not stay platonic. Then again, after what Brandon had just tried to do to her she would probably not be fine with intimacy for a damn long time.

Fucking bastard, Elaine thought. Cock blocking me even from beyond the grave.

**

Ophelia Devereux had wanted to go talk to the brunette who had intrigued her so but when she looked for her she couldn't find her. So she walked over to where the brunette had been standing and tried to get her scent. It was an intriguing scent, musk and gun oil overpowered by roses, and Ophelia's senses were sharp enough she could easily follow the trail of her scent. It was almost as if she could see the trail, even though this sense had nothing to do with her eyes.

She followed the scent to a door, then slipped quietly out of it and followed along. She didn't know what she was being quiet for but quiet sneaking came naturally to her.

It wasn't a vampire thing. It was a 'sneaking back into the house well past her curfew' thing. Ophelia had only been nineteen when she'd been turned and that had only been three years ago, so even though she was an immortal terror of the night she was still only twenty-two, her teens only barely behind her.

She sensed people around a corner and was about to turn it when she heard Lieutenant General Hayworth saying: “There's something you should know, Cooper. This compound works on a three strikes system. This was your third. Any last words?”

Then a man with a patently arrogant voice was stammering some excuses before there was a flash of light and an overwhelming scent of ozone flooded the hallway.

Ophelia sneaked a glance around the corner and saw the Lieutenant General pointing a weird gun at a pile of ash. Behind the pile of ash huddled a terrified-looking blonde with her clothes half torn off. Next to the Lieutenant General was a pretty redhead and in the middle of it all stood the brunette Ophelia had been looking for, looking queasy.

She'd wanted to ask the brunette to let her join her party but she felt she didn't understand the situation enough to intrude, so she turned around and walked off. Soon she heard the smart shoes of Lieutenant General Hayworth turning a corner behind her to go back to the assembly hall.

As Ophelia kept walking the redhead from before ran past her. She looked like she was crying and was muttering under her breath:

“Stupid, stupid, stupid. You're so stupid Evelyn.”

**

After that, the next two weeks passed by in a rush. The death of an Awakener had caused quite a stir. On top of that, several of the new cadets had decided to take their time picking out an Awakener to get along with, so Elaine's team stayed two people strong. The cadets had their hands full with the training regimen they'd been put on. Classes on military jargon and strategy, endurance training, firearm courses, the works. For the remaining five Awakeners, all of this was old hat and they breezed through everything in half the time, so for them this was the next best thing to a vacation.

Finally, after two weeks of intense training and a weekend for the cadets to relax, it was time for people to gather up into teams and go outside.

Elaine and Alexis decided to gear up together. On their way to Jeanne's armory, they were stopped by a black-haired girl – Ophelia – who asked if she could join their party.

Elaine had barely seen the girl around. She did, however, remember vaguely that Ophelia had been one of the girls who'd checked her out that first day.

Alexis looked at Elaine in an “up to you” kind of way and Elaine told the raven-haired girl: “If you want to, sure, we'd love to have you.”

“Don't be so hasty”, Ophelia said. “There's something I need to tell you before you decide.”

“What is it?”, Elaine asked.

Ophelia smiled wide, showing off her distinctly too long canines. “I'm a vampire.”