Book 2: Chapter 37 - Everybody Loves Group Projects, Right?

Talents designed to enhance or prohibit others
are some of the most difficult to use.

These usually have no method of designating between
friend and foe. As a result, they must be used strategically.

Whether the talent is meant to improve or impede, it must overcome
the target’s resistance attribute to take effect. 
The efficacy of the talent will also vary based on resistance.

The higher a target’s resistance, the less the talent will change other attributes. 

If a talent is applied with sound, it will also affect any who hear it.
A supporting lancer must consider all factors when applying these talents.
—Abel Bouvier, Lecture

Dustin’s humming was louder than Violet expected. He was about fifteen feet ahead of her, but she could hear him like he was breathing down her neck. The entire group could. They were traveling on the long, abandoned road in two columns of four. Every member of each fireteam was ten feet behind the next, with the second column staggered by five feet. This kept each student close enough to communicate, but far enough to survive most area of effect attacks.

Everyone also had every zipper taped down, along with their student dog tags. Every step was deliberate, starting at the heel and rolling slowly to the toe. This was all standard procedure for certain operations in high-risk regions, apparently. Hedron had heightened perception just like the lancers did, and any noise might’ve attracted them. And yet, Dustin was humming loudly enough for everyone to hear him.

This was because of his calling, of course. The song he was humming would provide a perception enhancement to everyone who could hear him, with varying effectiveness. Depending on the resistance of the listener in question. Violet thought it was a bit pointless to enforce such strict noise control when one of their members was being so intentionally loud. Especially since they were not, in fact, in one of the higher-risk regions. There were unlikely to be hedron higher than orange anywhere near them, at least in the direction they’d been traveling. But the trip was, ostensibly, for training purposes. So she supposed the effort had value for practice, if nothing else.

It wouldn't make a huge difference, in any case. Mr. Clay wasn't immediately next to them, but he was close enough. He was keeping an eye on three separate groups who’d entered the mist about half an hour apart, with Violet and Kassie's team leaving first. At his category, it would be fairly easy to watch every group at once and bail anyone out if they got in over their heads.

Violet wondered if that didn't defeat the purpose a bit. She didn't know how the other students fed their callings. But she had to imagine that anything enhanced by the danger of the mist would be negated by this. If Mr. Clay eliminated any risk, what was the point of the mist? 

Not that she truly cared. Her advancement wouldn't be happening in the mist anyway. Unless she badly misunderstood her own calling, and that was unlikely. 

Aside from the fragile silence, however, she was actually having a little fun. The mist was much thicker than back in Roseville. Even with her perception, she couldn't see Zach at the front of the group. She was in the back, so he was nearly forty feet in front of her. Even so, that meant the mist was fairly oppressive. 

She heard another noise, just past the humming. Her resistance was fairly low, which made Dustin’s talent more effective. She moved two fingers to her lips and waited. If she alerted the group too early, someone would realize her perception was higher than it should’ve been. Perhaps not the overly confident blonde who was leading the group, but Aubrey was sharp. Aubrey would put the pieces together. 

The actual pieces. Not some bullshit theory like Kassie had built around Bouvier. And the longer Violet thought about it, the more certain she was that that was what had happened. Kassie had sounded convincing. Enough that Violet had nearly taken the airheaded theory as fact. But Violet had chosen to escape, if only briefly. That moment alone disproved the theory. Violet wasn't under Bouvier's control. She would have noticed something like that. She was neither stupid, nor easily manipulated.

Kassie had nearly sent Violet into another spiral. Before the reaper realized it was little more than an overactive imagination. Kassie was the type of girl who always had her head in the clouds. The druid had obviously invented a more interesting reality. The more likely explanation for the lack of AWOL students was simple. Living at the academy was more comfortable than in some satellite city. 

Especially for how poor everyone else seemed to be. And before now, students never had to enter the mist. The danger didn't feel real, and people liked having a home and good food. It was obvious. Violet almost felt like an idiot for being drawn into Kassie’s story. Thankfully, once she pieced together the truth, she felt much better. No one was controlling her mind or emotions. There was no talent ruling over her, keeping her obedient. Obviously. Violet was in control.

Kassie was just a bit of a storyteller who liked attention too much.

The hedron was finally close enough, and Violet whistled. It was soft, and she released the noise in a brief pattern. To indicate the hedron was in her direction, it was small, and it was airborne. An owl again, based on the sound. It was interesting to see so many of them, considering the time of day. But crystallization had an interesting effect on wildlife. They never quite behaved normally in the mist.

A bright orange laser split the mist from Zach's direction. And with that, the owl fell dead to the broken asphalt. Zach had rolled well with his talents, Violet thought. For a man with supposedly random and "volatile" talents, he definitely showed up with an effective set for the day's activities. She wondered if he ever had the opposite sort of day. When he needed to fight, but he woke up with a talent for animal husbandry, or churning cheese. That would’ve been amusing, to say the least. But it seemed likely he was simply more predictable than his calling’s name implied. She'd need to ask him later, if she got the chance.

This routine went on for hours. Violet was near her friends, but was stuck with only her thoughts for company. When a hedron approached from her side, she alerted the group. When one approached from Zach's side, he handled it without a word. Dustin somehow continued to hum the entire time. It was entertaining… until it wasn't.

By the time the team arrived at the nest, Violet was nearly ready to try to attract a swarm of hedron just to end the boredom. It was unlikely to work if she did, but that only increased the temptation to test it. It absolutely would not be worth it, and she was aware of that. But if every class trip into the mist was going to be like this, then one of these days… 

Thankfully, they finally arrived at the nest. It was in a smaller city from the old world, but large enough to have notable ruins. It was interesting to Violet. The clean city and the abandoned wasteland both wore crystal as a scar. Prism had it smooth and coating every wall, with the exterior made entirely of violet. But this city had it in patches. Growing at random from different buildings and abandoned cars like some kind of infection. The fact that it only appeared in red and, to a lesser extent, orange, revealed that it was a safer part of the mist.

It might have been safer than Prism, Violet realized. As much as the mist existed as the nightmare of every child growing up, and as careful as the city was to protect the lower categories… all the mist had were monsters. Monsters that wouldn’t even hurt her, at least most of the time. But Prism? Prism had Bouvier and Samuel. Prism had Cyan Asher.

Kassie whistled from the center of the formation, then held one arm up and circled it a few times. The signal to “round up” around her. The entire group quickly did so, closing the gap they’d been maintaining for the arduous journey. They didn’t drop discipline entirely, of course. They formed a circular perimeter around Kassie, keeping an eye outward but an ear inward. Admittedly, Violet’s team was far less practiced at this. They were placed less perfectly and with less consistent spacing, yet they displayed a far higher level of vigilance. The formation was an interesting portrait of practice in safety compared to real-world experience. Kassie’s team knew how to do this correctly. Violet’s team had done it.

“Well, that’s a relief!” Kassie exclaimed. “We can all talk now! Of course we wouldn’t usually, like, drop noise discipline right away. But we never really needed it. We’re gonna call that training exercise a success, and leave it behind us for the actual nest. Gotta practice one thing at a time, you know? Anyway, you got a L.A.C.E report, Vi?”

Violet kept her eyes on the nest in front of her. An old indoor mall, two stories high, and entirely covered in smooth red crystal. It was much wider than the bat’s nest had been, and Violet wondered what sort of hedron would be inside. Clay knew, of course. But finding out for themselves was part of the training exercise. Often, it would be something local to the area, but not always. The apes she’d used against that leech team the other day certainly hadn’t been local to old-world Seattle. But in the centuries since it had been renamed “Prism City,” the type of hedron that could be found had widely expanded.

As the silent moment extended a bit too long, Violet remembered the lesson where she’d learned about the report in question. They hadn’t practiced much, and it had slipped her mind. As soon as she connected the dots, she moved from her spot and briefly checked in with Aubrey, Kiera, and Guy. “My team is alright,” she belatedly replied. “We all have water left in our canteens, and none of us have used any clarity. Obviously, none of us are dead, and our gear is more or less untouched.”

“Okee dokee!” Kassie confirmed. “You can skip casualties when they aren’t relevant if you want! Team Girlboss is good too, minus three clarity regeneration potions!” 

Violet didn’t miss as the fox on her fireteam tensed, but she didn’t address the problem right away, leaving it to hang in the air for a moment. She decided it would be better to break the tension than to increase it. Kassie had known to use the potions as a last resort. They wouldn’t have used them without a reason. So Violet opted to keep things lighthearted.

“Team Girl Boss?” Violet asked. “But you have fewer women than we do.”

“But the boss of our team is a girl,” Kassie countered.

“Us, too?” Violet replied with an obvious question in her voice. 

“But you didn’t claim the name, so it’s ours, I’m afraid,” Kassie insisted.

“What is our name, then?” Guy asked.

“Team Harem,” Zach replied with a jealous scoff. “You have the exact party composition for an anime where…”

Zach trailed off as Aubrey, Violet, and Kiera turned to offer him a dangerous glare. Violet was first, and he ignored that. Aubrey was second, and he winced at the intensity. But it was Kiera who silenced him. It was a superpower of hers, apparently. Ever since he’d decided to believe the rumors of her murderous tendencies. That was likely why he’d responded a bit to Aubrey as well, actually.

“Guy is not the main character of this story,” Aubrey dismissed.

“And if I were in a harem story, I’d like an even split on the party composition, thank you very much!” Guy protested. He only grinned like a self-satisfied idiot when the girls turned their glare toward him.

“How about Team Spirit?” Ajia suggested. “You’ve got a Banshee and a Kitsune, after all.”

“What kind of spirits are a Tank and a Scout?” Kiera asked.

A Reaper might count, Violet thought.

“It also sounds like Teen Spirit,” Aubrey pointed out.

“Smells like it, too,” Guy complained.

Actually, Team Murder kind of works. We all kind of… Violet was letting her thoughts wander when Kassie clapped again.

“How about we table it! We for real gotta raid a few rooms in this nest soon, or we’re totally gonna fail the assignment!” she said.

“Wait, before we do, who drank the potions?” Kiera pressed. Violet had been hoping the fox would drop it, but apparently that was too much to ask. She noticed Guy relaxing a bit as the question was clarified, and realized there had never been any avoiding it.

“I drank one,” Zach answered confidently. “I don’t know, I just trust the people trying to keep us alive out here.” There wasn’t exactly vitriol in his voice, but it wasn't a statement without accusation, either. Violet’s hackles rose, but Kassie spoke up next.

“I did, too,” she admitted. “And Dustin took the last one. I am being careful, I promise. But the three of us used a lot of clarity on the way over. There were more hedron than planned, and it took some extra work to keep them away. But we’ll be like… extra, extra careful not to use another one in the nest, I promise!”

Kiera and Guy shared a nervous glance. Violet found it interesting to hear that Kassie had used a lot of clarity. She hadn’t noticed any talents from the blonde, which was interesting, if nothing else. 

“We appreciate that,” Violet replied. Then, she directed her attention to her own team. “And don’t worry. We only have to go through a few rooms. We need to find the heart to get full marks, but we all pass so long as we map enough of the nest out. We kind of brought a gun to a knife fight here, too. So no one should need another potion while we're in there. Instead of eliminating threats before they get to us, both our teams will be facing them head-on. We’re honestly in more danger of tripping over each other than from any hedron. And if we all listen to our team leaders, even that won’t be a major issue. Trust me, we’re all good!”

“Exactly!” Kassie agreed. She then held her hand out in an exaggerated thumbs-up. “Now, who is ready to fight monsters?”

Post chapter note:
Poll results!
Far and away, the classmates perspective won, with the following three being Magical Girl Violet, a Shephard chapter, and Xanxia Violet!

And I am going to write all four in order of popularity, then distribute them via newsletter.
I can't promise these quickly, but the first should come out in a month or two, after all necessary story events have happened for it, and the following three over the next year.

Thanks for voting, all!