[TAS] Volume 2 - Chapter 62 - Intel

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Hello everyone, LunaWolve here!

Volume 2 - Interlude 57.5 - A Proprietor's Lot has just released on RR with no changes except for the Title now having a number.

For the Wolf Lords, this chapter has seen no changes.

And also: Please do not read the chapters here on Patreon, but go for the googledoc, .pdf or .epub instead. Patreon butchers all forms of formatting and you're missing out on easier and more enjoyable reading experiences.

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There is, in-fact, intel inside this chapter.

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I'm looking forward to hearing your first impressions and opinions on this chapter. \o/

I hope you will enjoy it!

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-------------------- End of Pre-Chapter Author Note (Patreon-only) ------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is the link to the chapter:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Wmifm_NzJsLbcEDsncLGz0xgeFhJbl4nv-EMt8SFuJM/edit?usp=sharing

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Volume 2 - Chapter 62 - Intel

“Of all the gifts the Allbright System offers humanity, none are as quietly monumental—or as dangerously underestimated—as Classes. 

“Attributes push us past human limits. Skills refine our very understanding of everything around us. Our Faction Trait keeps us alive. 

“But Classes? Classes define us.

“Classes are the single most important component of the System when it comes to personal power. Not because they overshadow everything else, but because they shape and get shaped by everything else in-turn. 

“A wisely chosen Class at Tier 1 can snowball into unimaginable strength at Tier 4 or 5, while a poor one locks a Marine into a struggling foundation before they ever even realize they had the chance to touch true potential. 

“The compounding effect is brutal: Every Tier, every Class, every grown Ability matters. 

“And the ability to bring Unique Abilities from one Tier into the next is what allows high-Tier Marines to wield powers that reshape entire sectors.

“We’ve all seen the like on the propaganda reels: Those few legendary Battlefield Aces, the UHF specifically ships around and even stations at the worst hotspots in the galaxy. 

“The ones the other Factions whisper about in pure dread. 

“When they unleash their true array of Abilities—stacked through careful Class choices, carried over from Tier to Tier, woven into their Attributes, Skills, and real experience—the result is something the rest of us can barely even comprehend. 

“They aren’t just powerful; they are downright cataclysmic in nature.

“And all that starts at Tier 1 already. Before that, as a Recruit, even.

“One Class. One decision. One path that overwrites every mistake—or locks them in forever.

“Which brings me to the part nobody likes talking about.

“The UHF’s current approach to Classes, especially in Recruitment Drives, is… hands-off. 

“Too hands-off. 

“Recruits are given information, yes. Some guidance, yes. Even some private lessons and advice for the few that go out of their way to ask. 

“But no structured training on build theory, no enforced planning, no mandatory preparation on how to navigate the decades of progression in a more efficient, mathed-out manner. 

“The System lectures and classes throughout the first year barely scratch the surface, when it really comes down to it, and then the UHF sends tens of millions of new Marines out into the Galaxy armed with half-formed ideas and a vague sense of “figure it out later.”

“Is that really the best we can do?

“We all know the truth: Most Recruits will die before reaching Tier 2. 

“Everyone accepts it because that’s just how the Galactic War works. 

“But if the UHF truly values human life as much as it claims, then why let so many walk into the grinder with suboptimal foundations? Why let ignorance lock away future potential that could save lives—maybe even win battles—years down the line?

“I understand the counter-argument, I truly do. 

“Too much control risks stagnation. Too much guidance could create predictable soldiers, predictable strategies, predictable weaknesses. 

“It fuels innovation—sometimes even raw genius.

“But the cost of that innovation is truly staggering to consider.

“For every Battlefield Ace forged through clever Class choices and lucky instincts, hundreds of millions of capable, promising Marines die before they ever get the chance to climb even a single Tier.

“And so I pose the question that needs asking, again and again:

“Is this truly the kind of Faction the UHF wants to be?

“A Faction that claims to put human lives first, yet treats its entire Tier-1 force like a colossal testing lab?
“A Faction that prides itself on efficiency, yet allows avoidable inefficiencies to snuff out talent before it ever matures?
“A Faction that wants victory, but sends its most valuable soldiers into war with tools they don’t even fully comprehend, much less know how to use?

“Classes are the beating heart of the Allbright System. 

“They determine what a Marine can become.
“They determine who lives long enough to matter.
“They determine whether your name ends up on a memorial or if it becomes etched into history.

“Perhaps it’s time the UHF Marine Corps started acting like it, and stopped throwing the lives of our sons and daughters away for nothing.”

—

[“The UHF MC’s stance on Classes” — Arthen Valcor, Military Systems Columnist for the Helion Strategic Review – PFC912]

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The remainder of the System 102 lecture went about the way Thea expected, with the flood of questions thrown at Professor Hirana—and the rapid clarifications that followed—pulling her full attention back into the moment.

Most of what was asked already felt obvious to her, thanks to her years with Terra’s games.

The whole idea that “games were modeled after real life to bypass System restrictions” was still something she couldn’t fully wrap her head around, so it kept catching her off-guard each time another mechanic she had long interacted and gathered experience with in a game lined up almost perfectly with reality.

But there were also parts of the Q&A that she found genuinely useful to hear explained or re-emphasized.

Things like Class Abilities transferring into the next Tier moving into the usual 5 Active and 8 Passive slots—meaning she’d have to free up space every single time she Tiered up if she wanted to build a large collection of Unique Abilities.

Or the revelation that some Classes didn’t offer one of the three aspects at all. 

Some didn’t have a Base Growth Rate.
Others have no Variable Growth Rate at all.
And some rare ones didn’t even come with a Unique Ability Portfolio. 

Just a heavier focus on the remaining two that they did have.

That was also something she’d seen before in Terra’s games.

‘That’s going to be so difficult to math out without proper information on a large number of Classes, damnit… I might actually have to ask Major Quinn for access to the UHF’s Class database before the end of the year… somehow,’ she’d thought when the professor explained that part. ‘How am I supposed to convince the brass that I’m not just asking for it for fun…? Should I tell them I have actual experience with this stuff from the games? But would they even care about video game experience, even ones created by Terra…?’

The last thing she wanted was to look like a complete fool in front of Major Quinn, especially after their latest talk. She owed the woman a debt of at least some professionalism now. 

And going, “Hey, I’m pretty good at this video game stuff, can I please have access to one of the most closely guarded database servers in the entire Faction for my personal use,” didn’t exactly sound professional in her head.

She pushed the thought aside for later, to mull about in the next weeks or months, until she could figure out how to approach it without sounding like an idiot to refocus on the end of the lecture.

The final point she found especially useful to have confirmed—again something pulled straight from her experience with Terra’s games—was that higher-Tier Classes could have prerequisite Class choices attached to them. 

If you didn’t take a specific Class in the Tier before it, you would never gain access to the one it unlocked. 

“Class-chains” was what she remembered them being called.

‘Another one where having prior knowledge of Classes would be invaluable…’

Naturally, there had also been a storm of questions, trying to pry details out of the professor on how exactly to acquire the specific Classes shown—especially the (Deadeye) one—but Professor Hirana shut every attempt down. 

She reminded them that there would be in-depth classes on Class selection and acquisition later in the year, and that half-baked answers right now would only do more harm than good.

That had quieted most of the hall… though not well enough to stop half a dozen more questions about the exact same topic—just rephrased in increasingly creative ways—from being thrown out anyway.

The lecture finally wrapped up with Professor Hirana once more stressing the importance of their Recruit year. 

“Do not mistake this first year as a simple warm-up, Marines. This is where you build the foundations for the decades—possibly centuries—ahead of you. Don’t take it lightly just because it feels like you have all the time in the universe to fix mistakes later. The moment you step out of the DDS and onto a real Battlefield, there are no more guardrails. 

“You are not invincible, and you are entering a war that has burned for almost a thousand years. The horrors being unleashed on those fighting grounds across the galaxy are enough to make even me lose sleep sometimes—and I’ve been doing this for several decades now.”

The room grew quiet and heavy at that, but Professor Hirana didn’t leave them on such a grim note.

“However, also remember this,” she said, her expression softening into a gentle smile. “The entire Marine Corps—and the UHF as a whole—is behind you. You are never alone in this war unless you choose to isolate yourself. Trust your squadmates. Trust your officers. Trust the brass. Much like the other Factions have spent centuries trying to wipe us out, so have we been denying them that pleasure. And you are all part of that legacy now, too.”

She swept her gaze slowly across the room, giving small, reassuring nods to anyone who looked like they needed it.

“So do not be afraid. We’re all in this together. And never forget: Shoulder to shoulder, UHF Marines stand as the strongest fighting force in the entire galaxy.”

With those final uplifting words, Professor Hirana dismissed the hall, stepped back from the podium, and began gathering her materials.

Thea and Lucas packed up slowly at first, both of them still riding the mental high of the lecture.

“Honestly?” He said while folding up his stylus and slipping it into the side of his datapad case. “That might’ve been the most interesting class we’ve had so far. Confusing, in a way, but… very good. It’s really nice to see just what we’re actually working towards, that was kind of a genius move by the Professor to include the Class examples at the end.”

Thea snorted softly as she started putting away her own pad. “Yeah. It was… kind of a lot. But I’m actually glad she explained the messy parts of this first year’s importance instead of simply sugarcoating or ignoring them entirely.” 

She paused for a second, tapping her datapad against her palm. “I do wanna stop by the Professor, though. There’s something she said earlier that I keep circling back to, but it didn’t really fit into the Q&A…”

Lucas nodded easily with a shrug. “Sure. You go do that, I’ll wait outside. Might as well stretch my legs a bit before we head back to the dorms.”

Thea shot him a grateful glance, a big smile spreading across her face. 

She was very glad he’d picked up on her unspoken question—maybe she really was starting to get the hang of this whole social interaction thing, slowly but surely. 

“Thanks. I appreciate it, Lucas.”

They wrapped up their things side by side, still chatting about random parts of the lecture—Lucas muttering about the Tier 1 vehicle-related Classes he really hoped existed, Thea half-laughing but still half-serious as she told him she already knew about a dozen of them, assuming her game knowledge was accurate to real life analogues.

Lucas made her promise—enthusiastically—to write him a list, which she agreed to without any reservation.

With that settled, they started down the stairs toward the podium—Thea already rehearsing how she was going to phrase her question about lowering her own PV, while Lucas stretched his absurdly large frame like a cat, as if sitting for a few hours in the lecture hall’s seats had somehow strained every muscle in his body.

They only made it halfway down when Thea’s habit of scanning her surroundings—something she’d consistently been doing since she remembered the importance of it during the middle of the last lecture—paid off. 

She stopped dead, cursing underneath her breath.

“Fuck, not this shit now…”

Lucas blinked, caught off guard by the sudden cursing and halt, then followed her line of sight.

Standing directly in their path—having just risen from her seat moments earlier—was the one person Thea would’ve happily avoided forever.

Rachel Veronica Masters.

Her perfect, cascading golden hair framed that familiar sneer, posture stiff enough to make durasteel feel inadequate, eyes locked onto Lucas with a look that dared him to even consider existing incorrectly—or at all, really.

“Callahan,” she began, her voice soaked in disgust.

Lucas took a long second—much longer than Thea ever would—before answering, “Yes, that’s me. Hello, fellow Marine. What can I do for ya?”

Thea watched him from the corner of her eye, though she didn’t dare take her attention off Masters for even a heartbeat. She wanted to step in out of pure instinct, to tell the Masters girl to fuck off and leave them alone, but there was nothing she could say here that wouldn’t come across as petty or childish. 

Masters wasn’t here for her. She wasn’t even really part of this conversation.

“I… What?” Masters muttered, clearly thrown off by Lucas’ lack of respect, fear or even mild recognition. She shook her head sharply. “Whatever. Listen—I would rather not waste my time, but I consider it proper courtesy to at least inform you that I have issued an official Challenge for your position as Alpha Squad’s Defensive Heavy. Major Quinn accepted it this morning, and it will be formally announced, along with the date of conductment, at the end of the week.”

Thea sucked in a sharp breath, but Lucas didn't so much as twitch.

They’d known this was coming—expected it even—but hearing it straight from the pest’s mouth gave the whole thing a weight that pressed directly against Thea’s ribs. 

It wasn’t some theoretical future problem anymore, but something very real that would require extensive work dealing with as soon as possible.

Masters’ grin widened into something sharp and smug. “I recommend you take this next month seriously and prepare properly. Not that it will help you, of course, but I would prefer you make a decent showing of our Challenge. Otherwise it will not be clear enough to everyone else that they should bother people other than me once I am part of Alpha Squad.”

Then, her eyes shifted to Thea—and to Thea’s shock, the sharpness actually eased. The sneer faded, not gone entirely, but softened in a way that felt… strangely genuine.

“As for you, McKay. I hope to maintain an amicable working relationship in the future. You have proven yourself worthy of what the UHF has bestowed upon you, against all odds and expectations. I very much look forward to seeing what we might accomplish together in the future.”

Just like that, Thea was pulled into the conversation.

A dozen sharp retorts flared in her mind, but almost none of them made it past the what the fuck? moment of suddenly being addressed somewhat respectfully by Masters of all people. 

She barely had time to inhale before Lucas cut in.

“Thanks for the heads-up, Marine. Real kind of ‘ya,” he said, and Thea didn’t miss the exaggerated drawl in his voice. “Eh… just for the record though—who are you again? Gotta match the face to the name when Major Quinn announces it, you understand.”

And that’s when it clicked for Thea.

‘Oh, you’re evil,’ she thought, forcing her face into something resembling neutrality as she struggled not to burst into outright laughter. ‘You’re one nasty man, Lucas. I did not expect that.’

Masters slowly rotated her gaze back toward him, staring like he had sprouted two—no, three—heads right in front of her. Her jaw tensed, a vein pulsing at her temple, and Thea had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from reacting.

Lucas didn’t blink. His expression remained perfectly bland, perfectly polite and curious.

Finally, Masters managed, “You will remember my name, Callahan. I promise you that. Consider this the one and only courtesy I show you.”

Then she spun on her heels and stormed off down the stairs, leaving a small trail of confused Marines staring after her rapidly disappearing golden mane.

Lucas and Thea just stood there on the steps, both trying to process whatever that had just happened.

And then Thea started chuckling—soft at first, then slipping into full-on laughter she couldn’t hold back. Lucas cracked a grin before giving up entirely and joining in a moment later, only managing to keep a halfway serious face for about a second before he broke too.

Lucas and Thea laughed until their ribs hurt, the kind of helpless, breathless laughter that only came after something absurdly stressful. 

Thea wiped her eyes, catching her breath as she leaned slightly onto one of the nearby desks.

“Her jaw was clenched so hard I thought her teeth were gonna snap,” she managed between snickers, then pointed an accusatory finger at him. “And you—I didn’t think you had that level of pettiness in you!”

Lucas just shrugged with an easy smile. “I’ve had to deal with people like that before.”

Thea raised a brow, curiosity slipping past the fading laughter.

“Back on Quaris,” he explained, voice casual, “we kinda had this whole… caste-system thing going on, I guess. I was born in one of the higher castes, technically. Supposed to act all proper, follow traditions, care about status—blah, blah, blah.” 

He waved a hand dismissively. 

“Never really fit me. And a few of the more ‘noble’ types didn’t enjoy that I didn’t play along. Made them all look bad or something like that.”

Thea nodded slowly as he continued.

“So I spent more time with the lower-caste folks. Better people, honestly. They were the ones who took me out to the hunting grounds, taught me how to fend for myself. That’s where I learned how to do my whole Defensive Heavy schtick, too, I guess. Rinox hunts always needed someone to get the beast’s attention so the others could take them out safer.”

“You couldn’t just shoot them from afar?” Thea asked.

Lucas snorted. “Could’ve. But that’s not how we do it on Quaris. Hystasis, the god of the hunt, would not have been happy with us. There’s a whole tradition behind it too—respect for the hunt, respect for the land, respect for the creature. Sounds kind of weird when I explain it like that, but it’s just… how things worked.”

He stretched again, rolling his shoulders with a sigh. “Anyway, the hunts ended up giving me more recognition and credits than sticking to my caste ever would’ve. And that, ultimately, got me here. To the UHF, to Alpha Squad. So honestly?” 

He shrugged again, relaxed and confident. “If people like Masters want to act all high-and-mighty, that’s their own damn problem. Folks like that, treating me just like that, are exactly why I am where I am in the first place. Not changing that for her either.”

Thea shook her head, smiling despite herself, still trying to get the last of the laughter out of her system. “Well… whatever it was that made you do all that just now? It was glorious. So it’s definitely golden in my books.”

Lucas’ grin widened. “Happy to be of service.” Then it slipped away, replaced with something quieter. “All that said… the Challenge is real now, huh?”

Thea’s own amusement faded. “Yeah. It seems that way… I’m sorry we couldn’t get you better moments in the Assessment, so you didn’t have to deal with this sort of stuff…”

Lucas stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. “That’s not your job and not your fault. Don’t make it yours, Thea. It’s a bad habit. I just didn’t perform as well as I could’ve with the situations we ended up in, that’s all. No point crying over a lost Rinox—there’ll be more. There always are.”

He let out a long sigh. “Though this Challenge… honestly, it does have me worried. I’ve really been enjoying my time in Alpha so far, and I’d really hate to leave, you know?”

A sharp pang hit Thea at the thought of losing him from the squad. “I will help you prepare as best I can, promise.”

He nodded gratefully. “I’d appreciate that a lot. I don’t think I could even get close on my own. But Isabella’s been working me hard this past week already, and if I could get you to help me figure out my build stuff—maybe even show me some things in the arcade like you did with Isa…?”

Thea nodded without hesitation.

“That would be awesome. Truly. I’m in your debt, Thea,” Lucas said, dipping his head slightly.

Thea shot that down immediately. “No, no, no! We’re a squad! No owing anyone anything, what the fuck, Lucas? Shove that high-caste, owing-shit-to-others up your ass. We help each other when there’s a need for it. That’s all there is to it.”

Lucas blinked at her outburst, then let out a low chuckle, shaking his head like he’d just been scolded by a very small, very angry bird. 

“Alright, alright. Message received,” he said, hands raised in surrender.

Thea huffed, but the edge of her frustration faded fast. “Still… it’s going to be tough to actually prep for this. We don’t even know what Challenges really involve yet, at a detailed level. This’ll be our first one, so we’re basically going in completely blind. And trying to prepare for someone like Masters…” 

She trailed off, grimacing. 

“She’s had way more training than any of us in this sort of stuff. Probably taken together, even. Kinda hard to know what to train for without any idea of what the fight looks like...”

Lucas opened his mouth—probably to say something reassuring—but another voice spoke up from directly behind them.

“I might be able to help with that. If you’d be willing to entertain my company.”

They both turned at once.

A young woman stood a few steps above them, ebony-black hair framing her face in a clean, deliberate style. Soft velvet shadow around her eyes added a quiet elegance—not flashy, but unmistakably high-class at a closer look.

The words she’d spoken had been directed at Lucas, but when her gaze shifted to Thea, meeting her eyes without so much as a twitch—

Recognition hit her like a pulse-jolt.

‘Evelyn?!’ Thea’s eyebrows shot up.

It was her. 

The same girl who’d been a trembling mess asking for her autograph just the day before. 

But the resemblance stopped at her eyes. 

The hair was different, the makeup was new, the posture wasn’t even close, and the timid stammer had mostly disappeared.

This… was not that girl.

Evelyn swallowed, suddenly looking a bit more like the version Thea remembered as she stumbled over her next words, now addressing Thea directly. “I—I’m sorry, I don’t want to intrude or anything of the sorts. I just… overheard. Hard not to, when you’re in the stairway… And I… um… I actually know quite a bit about how Challenges work in the UHF.” 

She paused, then added in a quieter voice, “And about Masters. As a person, I mean. I could help with information on those topics.”

Thea narrowed her eyes at the girl, suspicion-levels off the charts.

‘The same girl that I just met yesterday, just so happens to have the exact information we’re looking for today…?’ 

Thea held Evelyn’s gaze for a second longer, the thought prickling at the back of her skull. 

The timing was too neat. Too convenient. 

Yesterday this girl had been practically shaking herself apart asking for an autograph, and now she suddenly had intel on Challenges and on Rachel Masters specifically, just as they were looking for exactly that kind of information?

But necessity nudged past her paranoia. 

If Evelyn actually knew anything about how UHF Challenges worked—and especially about Masters’ build or intentions with it—then she’d be worth her weight in damn Crysium for Lucas’ prep.

“…Right,” Thea finally said, exhaling slowly. “That’s… a big coincidence, no?”

“It is!” Evelyn blurted, hands coming up quickly in a half-defensive gesture. “I swear it’s just a coincidence. I—I didn’t mean to eavesdrop or anything; I only caught the last part when I was considering squeezing past.” 

Her voice softened, and the nervous tremble returned now that she was addressing Thea directly. “I just thought… if I can help, I should.”

Lucas looked between them, eyebrows tightening. “Uh… do you two know each other?”

Evelyn winced. “K… kind of? We… met yesterday. Briefly.”

She shifted her weight, eyes dropping to the floor as she added quietly, “I, um… I asked for her autograph.”

Lucas’ confusion melted into recognition. “Oh. Got it. That tracks, actually.”

He shot Thea a teasing smirk. “I get it—secret fan club stuff you couldn’t talk about.”

“W–What! What do you mean that tracks?! And what secret fanclub stuff?! There is no secret fanclub!” Thea snapped, then immediately turned on Evelyn. “Tell him! There is no secret fanclub!”

A beat passed, and before Evelyn could speak, Thea added weakly, “Ehh… there is no secret fanclub… right?”

Evelyn jerked in place, eyes going wide.

“I—no! There’s no secret fanclub!” she sputtered, hands lifting in a panicked little half-defensive gesture. “I just… I thought you were really cool… and what you did during the Assessment, and I… I guess I went a little overboard…”

Lucas raised both brows, struggling not to grin. “Mhm. Totally sounds like something a non–secret-fanclub member would say to disperse suspicions.”

“Lucas!” Thea hissed, cheeks heating.

Evelyn shook her head so fast her carefully styled twist shifted out of place. “There really isn’t one! I swear! It was just me being—” she swallowed hard, face flushing, “—weird.”

Thea felt something tight inside of her squeeze at that. 

“…Okay,” Lucas said at last, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “Okay, fine. No fanclub. My bad.”

Evelyn let out a small, shaky breath, her shoulders finally easing.

“But I was being honest,” she said carefully, meeting both of their eyes with cheeks still burning red. “About the helping stuff. I really can help with the Challenge—and with getting you the information you’ll need to prepare for Masters.”

Thea and Lucas exchanged a silent look, an entire conversation happening without a word. 

Lucas was clearly asking for her read, and—honestly—Thea couldn’t bring herself to distrust Evelyn. 

The girl was strange, sure, but she was also painfully, downright brutally genuine.

‘That level of embarrassment aired this openly… in front of your celebrity-crush, no less,’ Thea thought, wincing. There was no way anyone could fake that.

So, in the end, she gave Lucas a small nod.

Lucas took that cue and stepped in. “Alright. What exactly do you want in exchange for your help? I assume you wouldn’t give up your afternoons for nothing.”

Thea blinked. 

She… hadn’t even considered that. She’d just assumed Evelyn was offering for free, but—of course—people usually wanted something out of a deal.

Evelyn didn’t flinch. 

If anything, she straightened, as if she’d expected the question, immediately proving Lucas’ approach completely right.

“I…” Her eyes flicked briefly to Thea, then back to Lucas. Her blush deepened. “I’d just… like to be part of it? If that’s okay? Sit in while you train. Maybe learn something. You’re both Alpha Squad, after all… it might help me figure out what I’m doing wrong.”

Her shoulders dipped with a quiet exhale before she added, voice smaller but steadier, “And I… I’d like to consult with Thea on things. When she’s not busy helping you. I’m sure there’ll be moments where she doesn’t need to focus on your training the whole time. I’d just… like the chance to talk to her then.”

Lucas didn’t move to answer—he just looked at Thea, clearly leaving the final call to her.

Which made sense. 

She was the one “paying” here, so to speak. 

But Thea honestly didn’t see it as much of a cost at all. 

Talking to someone who admired her? She’d done that hundreds of times before as MMM. 

It wasn’t difficult. It wasn’t even annoying, most of the time. It might be different in-persona like this, but it’s not something she didn’t feel like she could handle.

But learning about Challenges—and especially about Masters’ plans for them—was practically priceless right now.

So she nodded almost immediately. “Sure. That’s fine with me.”

Evelyn blinked, almost stunned she’d gotten a yes that quickly.

Lucas took that as confirmation and nodded once, decisive. “Alright then. Sounds like we’ve got a deal.” He pulled up his Interface, flicked over his contact ID, and sent it to her. “I’ll message you once we’ve got a time for our first prep session. Probably a day or two, tops.”

Evelyn accepted the ID right away, her whole posture brightening with a barely-contained jolt of excitement. “T-Thank you! Both of you! I won’t waste the opportunity, I swear… Ehh, or your time!” 

She dipped her head several, several times—far too many times—then hurried down the stairs, already fixing the strands of hair that had shaken loose from her twist mid-flight.

Lucas and Thea watched her go. 

Then quietly exchanged a look.

Lucas didn’t say a single additional word about Thea’s very obvious superfan. 

‘Bless him,’ she thought.

With that, they finally continued toward the podium—only for Thea to realize, with a small deflated noise, that Professor Hirana had already packed up and slipped out during their conversation with Evelyn. 

Her question would have to wait for another day.

Not a big deal. They hadn’t been that pressing and they’d gained far more in exchange.

And as she and Lucas stepped out of the hall together, Thea felt a sharp spark of excitement climb up her chest.

Only a few hours left until her meeting with Peria.

Guns, builds, and theorycrafting.

It was going to be a very good afternoon…

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