Seeking Strays

I lounged on the couch, and idly listened to a detective radio play. My ears twitched toward the distant sound of Sylvie in the shower. Last night was… rough. Getting back to the lab only to be drained of my blood in an attempt to get the Stygian Growth Serum back hadn’t been fun. I could heal from a lot, but blood loss was one of the few things that could totally take me out.

On a related note, it’d also been pretty pointless. Vigil was right. The doctor wasn’t able to recover an uncontaminated version of the serum, which meant I had the only Stygian Growth Serum in existence. That’s something, I guess… though I’d rather not have any other modification from Hades.

“Operator, your status had been updated,” Vigil said quietly from his position on my chest. His glowing red eyes looked down at me, and pulsed softly. 

“Thanks.” My tail twitched to the side, and I shifted to get more comfortable. A moment later, the Blackwater Anomalous Biosystems popped up into my vision.

| Subject: Reyna Vargriev

Subject Species: Silver Wolf Apex

Subject Profile: 

STR - 1.7 ACU - 1.3

AGL - 2.4 PSI - 2.5

RES - 0.8 ANM - 0.2 

Traits: Regeneration, Rage, Mutant, Witness, Stygian Growth Serum

NLC - 10/158

=Blackwater Anomalous Biosystems V7.77

=Blackwater Anomalous Rend

=Templar Basic Immuno Mask(10)

Vitae: 2

Blackwater Catalogs: Basic Nyter, Blackwater Anomalous |

”I thought you said these Trait things were rare?” I asked him. We’d talked about the status quite a few times since I first saw it. Not like there was much else to do when walking through the Mire back then. “That’s two in the past couple days.”

”Past month.” Vigil corrected me. “And they are rare.”

My tail curled against my thigh, and the tip brushed lazy circles. I watched it move mindlessly. Heh, right… It was only a few days for me. To everyone else, there was an added month thanks to my coma. Still, so much for being rare.

| Stygian Growth Serum - Gain Strength 10% quicker. |

”This will go away after the serum gets cleared out of my system, right?” After I injected myself, I talked long and hard with Doctor Mysoph about the thing. It couldn’t self-replicate, so my kidney would eventually clean the serum out of me. 

“About that…” His eyes looked almost guiltly. “It seems the serum merged with the Biosystems Nanite Strain.”

”So…” I squeezed my eyes shut. Of course they did. Things with the syndicate could never be easy. “That’s here to stay?” 

“For the foreseeable future. Should I hide it as I have your warnings?” He asked. For once, it wasn’t a terrible suggestion to hide that kind of thing.

“No…” It was another claim of Hades on me, but one that I took willingly. I could take it as a reminder of what I did, and hopefully a sign of what I’d do in the future. ‘Sides, it might even be good. It was hard to say no to growing stronger. While I was at it, I pulled up the Blackwater Anomalous Catalog as well. 

++ Catalog - Blackwater Anomalous ++

| + Daily Curio(18h 56m): 

Training Spear

-1000V > 100V

+ Blackwater’s Choice(18h 56m):

Psionic Technique: Sovereignty 

-5V

+ Anchor Estate Liquidation:

Owner: Garth Dorian(deceased)

[ Open? ]

+Blind Acquisitions: 

Lost and Found - 10V

Basic Catalogs - Locked

Veil Curio - Locked

+ Blackwater Bounties:

Locked 

+ Blackwater Anomalous Relay: 175/500 |

Not like I could afford anything, so there was no point in looking. Still, I had nothing better to do than check it. The new items certainly caught my eye. The Psionic Technique, in particular, was within reach. I just needed to feed Rend one heart. Just one.

I shook my head, and rubbed at the silver streaks in my tail. Maybe I could convince Quinn to take me calamity hunting or something. It’d do the city some good, and give me some Vitae. She’d get suspicious if I suddenly wanted to go hunting, though, so maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. I wasn’t totally sure, but it felt like she was looking at me weirdly recently.

”Any luck with your Grail Knight?” I asked Vigil after a few moments. After talking it over, we figured it was best for him to look for traces online. Seek couldn’t start from nowhere, unfortunately. 

“None so far. Given the circumstances, it’s for the best.” His eyes flashed weakly. “Chapter Commander Bartmoss is likely still hunting—“

A knock at the door cut him off. I sat up quickly, and set him aside on the couch. “Should be Quinn.”

I opened the door, and the Guardian herself walked in a few moments later. Unlike how I usually saw her, she was wearing a fancy suit. “Thanks, Reyna.” 

As could probably be expected of her, though, it was in complete disarray. One of her sleeves was rolled up alongside the dress shirt underneath, fully exposing her lower arm. A silver arm band sat on her other. The shirt itself was only half tucked in, with one side still dangling out over her slacks. She hadn’t even bothered with the silver tie, and it dangled unevenly from around her neck.

”Don’t mention it.” I closed the door, and tried not to wince at my trainwreck of a best friend. There was a silver lining to her chaos though. It became even more apparent as she flicked her hair over her shoulder, and a refreshing scent spread across the room. “You smell nice.”

”Thanks?” Her head tilted to the side. A smile slowly crept onto her face. “Whatever happened to taking a girl to dinner first?”

”Not like that.” My nose twitched, and I shook my head. She just didn’t have the stench of alcohol all over her. I hadn’t even caught a whiff of it since I woke up, actually. Instead, she smelled like rainwater? “You, uh, you wearing that?”

”Yuh. We have to look nice during orientation.” Quinn looked at me like I was an idiot. “You going in a hoodie and jeans?”

”Thought I’d whip out a skirt, actually.” I had a couple of them stashed away in my closet somewhere from previous events. I usually didn’t bother given Harbor’s lack of a uniform.

“We’re ultimately combat instructors, Reyna. Probably stick with something you can fight in if we need to.” She tossed me a silver instructor’s arm band. “Here’s yours.” 

I caught the band, and stared down at it. I never thought the day would come that I’d be the one wearing it. Me. I was terrible with children, and these would be Beyonder kids at that. What was she thinking? No—wait, what if Hades caught wind of it? They probably already knew, actually. What if they ordered me to do something? What if—

My fingernails dug deeply into my palm. Thin beads of red welled up, and were wiped away with my thumb in a practiced motion. I took a deep breath and tried not to think about all the ways this could go horribly wrong. “Keep it on at all times?”

”Yep. It’s got an RFID chip in it for security.” Quinn moved around to the couch, and plopped down. Her blue eyes dropped to my neck, and narrowed slightly. “New choker?”

My hands shot up to the black band around my neck. I’d completely forgotten that I had it on. I was just so used to wearing one at this point. “Um, yeah. Lost my last one in the Mire.”

”It’s nice,” she muttered softly, though her eyes didn’t leave the metallic structure. I felt increasingly uncomfortable under her stare by the moment. It was a good thing I put the Rose Window Ear Cuff away or she probably would’ve asked about that, too.

“I’ll go get dressed.” My ears twitched toward the back as I heard the shower shut off. Sylvie should be just about done, too, and then we could head off to the academy. It'd been a while, so I was incredibly nervous.

— — —

The ride to the school was incredibly quiet. Like, unnervingly so. Sylvie and Quinn felt like they had it out for each other—more accurately, it felt like Sylvie had it out for Quinn, and my Guardian was just tired of dealing with her. It made conversations die quick despite my best efforts to get them to talk. 

I leaned against the window, and the cool pane felt incredibly refreshing against my head. I didn’t have a suit jacket, but I did have a vest. I was dressed basically the same as Quinn with that minor difference. 

“You okay, Reyna?” Sylvie asked from the back seat of the SUV. “You’ve been out of it since this morning.”

”Just a lot on my mind.” I frowned, and shifted the subject away from me. “You know, with the semester starting up and all that.”

“It’ll be fine.” Quinn, our driver, reached across the console and patted me on the shoulder. The tip of my tail twitched slightly in happiness. “I’ve got our curriculum all figured out.”

”If you say so.” I picked at my dress pants uncomfortably. I had no idea what I’d do once we actually got to the academy. Quinn made it seem like she’d take care of everything and I could just act like a student, but that didn’t quite feel right.

I zoned out and stared at Vigil. I didn’t exactly have pockets for him, but I couldn’t leave him behind. I’d just have to carry him around, which was a bit… unfortunate? It didn’t exactly help my image to be carting around a cute plushie everywhere. 

“Who’s your friend?” Sylvie leaned forward between the two front seats. Her eyes were locked squarely on Vigil, and one of her ears sat cocked to the side.

I reached forward, and picked Vigil up. My thumb gently traced his silver wolf ears for a moment before I carefully handed him back to my little sister. If I just outright admitted him having a name, wouldn’t that look like there’s more to him than meets the eye? “Hadn’t thought of naming him… should I name stuffed animals?”

“‘Course you should, big sis.” Sylvie stared down at the silver wolf plushie with narrowed eyes. Just as I thought she was about to stare a hole through him, she handed him back to me. “Especially for ones you drag around everywhere.”

I flinched, and shook my head. ”Not everywhere—“

”I haven’t seen you without it—him once.” Quinn cut me off. For the first time all morning, she picked Sylvie’s side over mine. “Just saying.”

”Keep your just sayings to yourself,” I hissed at her quietly. It didn’t matter. Sylvie had the same ears as me, which made it pointless to whisper so close to her. I hugged Vigil to my chest, and looked down at his pretty eyes. “I just… he brings me comfort. I’ve been a bit uneasy since coming back.”

”Of course.” Sylvie instantly backpedaled, and smiled radiantly at me. Her canines cutely peeked out for a split second before she started to talk again. “There’s nothing wrong with an emotional support stuffed animal, sis. There’s a few girls in my school that have them attached to their purses.”

That wasn’t a bad idea. It’d mean dragging a purse around, though. I never got into them back then since they were so damn expensive, so I didn’t even own one. It was a hard thing to justify buying when I could barely afford to put food on the dinner plate.

Lightning cracked somewhere overhead, and drew me out of my thoughts. I brushed his soft, plush fur lightly. ”How about… Vigil?” 

”Vigil the Ninth, Operator,” he quickly corrected me.

”Heh, right. Vigil the Ninth.” I shook my head, and smiled down at the silver wolf plushie. No one would ever recognize him with that exceptional false identity. 

“I like it, Reyna. Has a nice ring to it,” Quinn said.

Sylvie laughed sillily to herself in the back seat. Her tail thrashed in cheerful arcs where it was pinned against the seat by the seatbelt. ”It’s cute. Totally fits, sis.”

“I think so too.” I set him back on the dashboard, and leaned against the window once more. It was only a matter of time until I had my first day at the academy… this time as an instructor, no less.

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