There was a brief period of silence where the two individuals mutually agreed to rest.

Dario tried wiping the blood off his face, but after a few moments of trying and failing to do so, Miss Aimee finally took pity on him.

“Here,” she said, gesturing to a nearby wall. The tall, bald beauty walked over to a sink off to the side and turned on the faucet’s running water. “Clean yourself up.”

“You sure I should clean up now? What if I get bloody and dirty all over again?” Despite his words, Dario walked over and started washing his face. 

Thankfully, he could once again sense his body quickly healing itself. His headache and bruises seemed to be fading away remarkably fast. He could even feel some broken bones move themselves back in place. It almost made his beatdown worth it just to know how much damage he could heal from. Almost.

“Don’t worry, I’m done pounding into you.” She grinned at Dario’s groan. “Seriously though, normally I’d play around with my examinees a lot longer, but you really got into it, and straight away too. You’re probably the only one I’ve had who’s put up so much fight and the one who’s taken so much damage so quickly. Most people just fall over and beg for the Status Band instead.”

Dario froze in his tracks. 

“Status Band? Like that thing all supes have?” 

Dario and anyone who was anyone knew of Status Bands. All supes had it and usually wore it somewhere visual on their body to denote their Superior status. He personally knew of several women who had them, but they never let him near theirs. Even his mother had one.

“Yes, it’s not just for decoration, you know. It’s how us supes keep track of progression in our power classes,” she lectured. “It tells us our stats and whatnot.”

“Do you mean to tell me that I didn’t have to go through all that ass whooping to know my power stats?” Dario asked dumbfoundedly. “That was an option!?”

“Well, yes, but that’s the boring way right?” The bald demoness laughed as Dario fumed. “Not to worry though, it wasn’t all for naught. In order to be able to see your status on the Band, your body has to have World Energy circulating within for the device to scan and assess. Most newbies can’t do it on command, but after our short exercise, your body is definitely flowing with your own unique World Energy by now.” She then looked up at the ceiling and spoke aloud as if calling out to someone. “All we need now is a Status Band to use!”

The door to the room suddenly opened and in walked a pale skinned young woman about the same age as Dario, and of similar height. She had familiar smokey eyes with amber irises, but unlike Miss Aimee, she had no facial tattoos and had long white hair that faded to black as it reached the tips, the sides braided and dreaded. 

What she did share with Miss Aimee was the same distinctive fashion sense. The young woman wore tight leather pants and a sleeveless black shirt along with some kind of tool belt on her waist. In her hand was an identifiable hexagonal object the color of gold. It was clearly a Status Band.

“Right on time, and Lin sent you of all people? This is quite a treat,” Miss Aimee said cheerfully.

“Ms. Psylink had me waiting outside the door for a couple minutes,” the girl said sourly as she approached. “Said that I needed to have perfect timing.”

“Yes, our illustrious Guild Master does love her little jokes,” Miss Aimee chuckled. “I think she just enjoys peeking in on everything. She’s actually a closeted pervert, did you know that? There was this one time where- ow, ow, okay I’m sorry.” She clutched her head with a wince.

Dario simply looked on in wonder. 

Ms. Psylink was the Guild Master? If that was the case, then he really hoped he had put on a good first impression. However, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he had probably looked like an idiot during their interactions. Wait, could she hear everything he was thinking? Best not to think about it, or anything incriminating. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

All of a sudden, a wave of calmness came over him and he felt at ease. 

“Relax kid,” Dario heard the familiar voice of Psylink echoing within. “I don’t look into other people’s heads unless they’re screaming their thoughts or pumping out anxiety like you are, so just… relax.” 

Dario took a deep breath and exhaled with a feeling of contentment. He certainly did feel calmer after whatever she did to him, yet in the back of his mind, he still felt a bit wary of her ability to just force him to calm down like that. The fact that she did it from some imperceptible, unknown, distant location made it even more terrifying. What else was she really capable of? Dario shook his head and tried not to think about it.

The teenaged girl rolled her eyes and shook her head in exasperation. She looked around and coughed to get everyone’s attention. 

“Anyways, I’m here because everyone else was too busy to fetch the new guy a Band, and I wanted to give you something before you left for the Wildlands again,” the girl said before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small black metal ball. “Here, take this.”

“What is it?” Miss Aimee asked, rubbing her aching forehead as she took the small object.

“I finished making it this morning. It’s a specialized smoke bomb attuned to whoever puts their blood into this small hole, see?” She pointed to a small crevice in the device. “Any supe attuned to it can see through the smoke like it’s not there. It has a ten meter radius, and takes about twelve hours to recharge, so use it carefully.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you! Thank you!” Miss Aimee reached forward and hugged the shorter girl in a tight bear hug that lifted her off her feet.

“Alright, okay, you’re welcome. Put me down now please,” the girl groaned in embarrassment. 

Once she was placed back down on the ground, she turned towards Dario and handed him the golden hexagon shaped object.

“Here’s your Status Band, just put it against any part of your body and press these two buttons at the same time.” She pointed towards two small buttons on the sides, opposite each other. “Straps will come out of it to form a loop around whatever you place them on. Just press the buttons again to release.”

Dario placed the device on his forearm and pressed the two buttons. Immediately, two black strips with intricate golden engravings emerged from the object and formed a seamless loop around his arm. The metal of the device itself seemed to bend and conform perfectly to where it lay on his skin.

“That’s pretty cool, I always wondered if these things did anything special,” he said in awe. “Is just about anyone able to wear this?”

“No,” the girl replied. “Status Bands are made by Artificers, like me, and have specialized traits. They only work on supes and can only be taken off by the user it’s synchronized with. They’re also extremely durable, but I recommend you don’t test that. They can be pretty expensive to replace.” 

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll be taking good care of it,” Dario said absentmindedly. He had always wanted one of those, and having one in his possession felt like holding a priceless treasure. It was a symbol of his childhood ambitions and meant a lot to him.

“Okay, any other questions before I go?” the young woman asked him.

“Hmm.” There were a few questions he wanted to ask, like—What was an Artificer? How was she one of them? How did they make the Status Bands? There were many reasonable questions he could have asked, but for some reason, he chose none of them. “Is your hair real?”

“What?”

“Your hair,” Dario repeated. “I’ve never seen that coloring before, pure white fading to black at the tips. It’s really unique,” he remarked.

“Thank you, and yes, it’s real. It’s a genetic thing, everyone in my family has white hair that fades to black over time.” She placed her hands on her hips and gave a cocky smirk. “No one else outside my family has it. It’s completely unique to my tribe.”

“Even I have it,” Miss Aimee chimed in. “You may not see it since I’m bald and I have dark eyebrows, but my hair starts out white.”

Hearing this, Dario couldn’t help himself. “There’s only one way to prove that white is your natural hair color you know,” he told the older woman. 

The girl looked at him in horrified disgust.

“Oh? You want to see if the carpet match the drapes, hmm? Perhaps I should show you.” Miss Aimee grinned. It was a bit nonsensical as she had no ‘drapes’ to speak of, but everyone knew what was implied.

“Mom! Please, stop. Not while I’m around at least, that’s just gross.” The young woman scrunched her nose in revulsion.

Miss Aimee laughed and placed her hand on the girl’s hair, rubbing it back and forth. “I’m just joking around Deja, you know I like messing with people.”

Deja, the young woman, rolled her eyes as she pried her mother’s hand off her head. “Yes, and people wonder where I learned my shenanigans from.”

Meanwhile, Dario was stunned to find out that Miss Aimee was actually a mother! What’s more, she was a mother old enough to have a kid around his own age! It shocked him as he had initially thought the two were sisters. It was hard to believe considering how Miss Aimee looked like she was in her late twenties at most. It made their past interactions seem a bit weird, but strangely enough, he’d had worse. A Superior’s vitality was truly an astounding feat of nature.

“It’s part of our charm dear, it makes us memorable.”

“Whatever, anyways I gotta go now and work on some other stuff. I’ll see you later, alright?”

“Wait!” Miss Aimee grabbed Deja’s shoulder. “Don’t you want to see what this newbie’s power classes are?”

The younger woman sighed. “Do I have to?”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but it’s always good to know what your peers are capable of.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Deja acquiesced. “Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Dario asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No,” they both replied at the same time.

“Ouch, double teamed by two women, how could I possibly resist?” Dario asked amusingly.

“Ookay Mister Suave, just place your finger in the center here and hold it there until it starts glowing,” Miss Aimee instructed.

Dario could think of several innuendos to respond with, but he decided to simply follow instructions.

Dario placed his finger on the center of the hexagonal Status Band, right in the middle of twelve different symbols arranged in a circle. Each symbol had three or four letters above them, most likely denoting the different power classifications. After a few seconds, some of the symbols began glowing with numbers inside each of them.

“Hmm, Defender level 4, that’s pretty good,” Miss Aimee praised as she peeked over Dario’s shoulder. She was probably talking about the number 4 glowing in the shield symbol with the letters DEF over it.

“That’s better than mine,” Deja mumbled.

“Huh, only a Physique of 3 though. That’s quite a bit lower than I expected based on your performance in our little spar,” Miss Aimee noted. “There has to be something else that could explain it. Move your finger, I think there’s another symbol glowing.”

Dario moved his finger, and sure enough, there was a third and final symbol glowing. It was the number 3 glowing in the middle of a circular serpent eating its own tail. Above it were the letters, ASS.

Dario chuckled at the absurdity of the newly revealed symbol. 

”Apparently, I’m an ASS, a level 3 ASS to be more precise.” He turned to look at the two ladies beside him, expecting amused expressions. Instead, he was met with shocked faces, paler than their usual complexion.

“Assimilator 3,” the older woman muttered. “Oh, fuck.”

“Well, shit,” Deja agreed. “You’re fucked, dude.”