REN PLUTO
The walk to the Portal Chamber was a new kind of hell.
It wasn't a death march. It was a parade.
They were a new, fractured, broken thing. Ren was at the point, his shattered shoulder a dull, fiery throb under his blazer. He'd lost the pry bar—Ravi had made him dump it, claiming it was "unauthorized" and would get them all flagged. Ren had just about broken his jaw, the "Alpha Struggle" a live, sparking wire between them. But he'd done it. He was unarmed. He was furious.
Nyx was at his left flank. She was the other weapon, her face a mask of cold, bored calculation. They were the iron triangle, the "hard" assets. Ravi, Sia, and Zara walked in their shadow.
And then... there was Jules.
He wasn't in the formation. He was just... following.
He was blank. A "perfect" student. His honey blonde hair was perfectly combed. His pure blue "sapphire" eyes were... empty. He was a zombie. A walking, breathing husk of the kid who'd been a liability.
Ren hated it. He hated looking at him.
It was a walking reminder of their failure. A trophy of Dr. Gray's victory.
Every student they passed in the hallway just... stared. They saw the unit. They saw Ren (448), the bloody, stapled Wolf. They saw Ravi (455), the new, cold Handler. And they saw Jules. They saw the ghost.
The word was already out. Unit 734 had been Audited. And one of them had been wiped.
They weren't "Pigs" anymore. They were victims. They were a warning.
And it was so much worse.
"Eyes forward, Ren," Ravi muttered from behind him. His voice was a low, cold command.
Ren didn't turn. He just kept walking.
He hated this. He hated the new Ravi. He hated the "team" bullshit. He hated that the bastard sounded like a leader.
The Portal Chamber was... different.
The rest of Vara Rose was old, dark stone. Gilded, gothic rot.
This... this was the future.
It was a massive, circular room, cold and sterile as an operating theater. The walls were all black, reflective glass. The only light came from the floor, a cold blue grid.
In the center of the room... the pods.
Two dozen of them. Sleek, white machines. They looked like coffins.
And standing by the main console... him.
He was tall. Too thin. His gray uniform hung on him like a shroud. His skin was pale, almost translucent, like he'd never seen the sun. His eyes... his eyes were a bright, electric, cybernetic blue. They were wrong.
This was Aaron Luther. The "Digital Ghost." The instructor for the Portal.
"Unit 734," he said. His voice... it wasn't a voice. It was synthesized. A low, digital hum. "You're late. Two minutes. That's a... data discrepancy."
"We were... detained," Ravi said, stepping up.
Luther's head snapped to him. A fast, unnatural, bird-like motion.
"By Dr. Gray," Luther "spoke." "I have the file. Mr. Albright. Mr. Dasa. Ms. Abara. A... messy... audit." He... he knew.
"Sit," Luther commanded. "The test is active."
They moved. Ren headed for a pod.
"Not you, 448," Luther's voice stopped him cold.
Ren turned.
Luther was looking at him. "You're... volatile. You're a brute. This... is a stealth op. A zero footprint data theft. You... are a liability... in my world."
The insult was a slap. Ren felt the rage spike.
"So..." Luther continued. "You'll be Group Alpha. You'll be... point. But... your team... they're shackled to you. Your failure... is their failure. You go loud... you all get a -10."
This... this was a setup. He was testing the new "Alpha Struggle." He was forcing Ren to obey Ravi.
Ren just... stared at him.
He saw Ravi... nod. A small, sharp, "take-the-hit" nod.
Ren turned. He stalked to his pod. He didn't say a word. He hated them. All of them.
He laid back. The pod was cold. A click. A hiss.
A cold, wet gel flooded his temples. A clamp came down.
"Dive," Luther's voice.
Ren's world... dissolved.
It wasn't a fade. It was a shatter. A high-pitched, digital scream... and then... nothing.
... and then... everything.
He was... standing.
The air was... clean. Too clean. It smelled like ozone.
He was in a... a city. A high-tech, white-and-blue, digital city. It was... beautiful. And sterile.
"Comms... check," Ravi's voice, a clean, digital whisper in his ear.
"Check," Nyx's voice.
"Check," Sia.
"Check," Maven.
"Check," Zelie.
Ren just... grunted.
He looked down. He wasn't bloody. He wasn't stapled. His shoulder... it worked.
It was fake. None of it was real.
"Okay," Ravi's voice. The leader. "Luther said 'zero footprint.' That means no kills. No alerts. We are ghosts. Understood? Sia. Give me a map. Maven. Find me a firewall. Nyx. Overwatch. Zelie, Jules... stay the fuck back."
Ren saw the avatar of Jules. A perfect, honey-blonde, blue-eyed... doll. He was just... standing there. Blank.
"And Ren," Ravi's voice.
Ren waited.
"You're with me. You're my shadow. You... you don't breathe... unless I say so. Am I clear, 448?"
The challenge. It was right there. Ren could feel the tension, even in the digital world. He hated this. He hated being leashed.
"Clear," Ren growled.
They moved.
It was... flawless.
Sia was... alive here. She wasn't a ghost. She was a god. Her avatar flickered, glitched, teleported. She was in the code. "Sub-dermal maintenance vent. 400 meters. Three guards. Two... digital. One... analog. Moving."
They were at a wall. A firewall. A huge, glowing, red barrier.
"Maven," Ravi commanded.
"I'm... I'm in," Maven whispered. Her avatar was just... her. But her hands... they were a blur. Code... virtual code... was flying around her. "It's... it's old. It's lazy code. He... he wants us to break this. It's... it's a trap."
"So don't," Ren snapped.
"I'm not," she hissed back. "I'm... I'm not breaking it. I'm... I'm using it. I'm... I'm piggybacking on its own... 'clean-up' protocol... Done. We're... we're 'trash code.' We're invisible."
The wall rippled. It didn't break. It just... let them in.
Ren was... impressed.
Ravi's plan... it was working.
They were in. The server room. A vast, white, endless space.
"The file," Ravi said. "It's... it's that one."
He pointed. A single, red file.
"It's... it's too easy," Nyx's voice, from above. She was on a rafter. "It's a honeypot. It's a—"
Too late.
Jules... the zombie... he was walking.
He'd been ordered.
"Jules, NO!" Ravi screamed.
The blank, blue-eyed doll walked right up to the file. He touched it.
An alarm. A deafening, digital shriek.
The room flashed red.
TRAP. TRAP. TRAP.
The walls dissolved.
They were... in a new room.
The... the Chair.
Dr. Gray's office.
And Jules... Jules was in the Chair.
A video... was playing.
They were watching it.
They were watching Gray wipe him.
"It doesn't hurt, does it?" Gray's voice, from the video. "It's... quiet."
"It's... it's quiet..." Jules's real voice, in their ears. The blank... he was... remembering.
No.
"Ravi..." Jules whispered. His avatar was... flickering. "Ravi... it... it hurts..."
Ravi just... froze.
He was watching it. He was back in the Chair.
"I... I..." Ravi was stuttering. "I... I 'Love'... I... 'Resentment'... I... I can't..."
An alarm. Another one.
[PROXIMITY SENSOR TRIPPED: R. DASA]
Ravi... he'd panicked. He'd moved. He'd failed them.
"We're... we're flagged!" Maven shrieked.
Guards. Digital guards. Pouring into the room.
The plan was dead.
"Fuck this," Ren roared. "Fuck the plan."
He moved.
He wasn't bait. He wasn't a ghost.
He was a wolf.
"Ren, NO!" Ravi screamed.
Too late.
Ren slammed his fist into the first guard. The guard shattered. Not into blood. Into... light.
It's not real.
He laughed.
"Nyx!" he roared. "LOUD."
"On it," her voice. She dropped from the ceiling. A hurricane of digital blades.
"Sloppy," she grunted, as she disintegrated two guards. "But fast."
It wasn't a heist. It was a fistfight.
It was chaos.
Ren, Nyx, and Zelie were a whirlwind. Zelie was vicious. She was enjoying this.
"Maven, GET THE FILE!" Ren yelled.
"Ravi's frozen! He... he's down!" Maven shrieked.
Ren looked. Ravi's avatar was glitching. He was out. He'd crashed.
The Handler was broken.
"Fuck him!" Ren roared. "Maven, the file! NOW!"
Maven grabbed it.
"Extraction!" Ren screamed. "Nyx, cover her! GO!"
They ran. They weren't spies. They were a goddamn riot.
They crashed out of the simulation.
...
hiss.
The pod opened.
Ren shot up, gasping, ripping the gel-pads from his temples. He was drenched in cold, real sweat.
He looked over.
Ravi was puking. He was hanging over the side of his pod, just heaving.
Luther stood there. His face was unreadable.
A screen on the wall flashed.
[GRADE: 68%]
Ravi looked up, his face white, spit on his chin. "We... we failed... A... a -10..."
"Correct, Mr. Dasa," Luther's voice was cold as the void. "You failed the 'zero footprint' op. You failed the team op. You... panicked."
He turned. His dead, cybernetic eyes landed on Ren.
"And you, Mr. Pluto. You broke protocol. You used lethal force in a non-lethal simulation. You are a brute. Not a spy."
The screen flashed again.
[REN PLUTO: -10 (ACADEMIC FAILURE)]
[RAVI DASA: -10 (ACADEMIC FAILURE)]
[NYX: -10 (ACADEMIC FAILURE)]
[ZELIE XILLO: -10 (ACADEMIC FAILURE)]
Ren felt the hit. Ten points. Gone.
He was 438.
But the screen kept going.
[MAVEN KIM: +10 (ACED EXAM - DATA EXTRACTION)]
[SIA ABARA: +10 (ACED EXAM - INFILTRATION)]
[JULES ALBRIGHT: 0 (DATA CORRUPTED)]
Luther smiled. A thin, cold, digital smile.
He'd split them.
He'd broken the "muscle." He'd rewarded the "techs."
"A team," Luther said, his voice a hiss, "is only as strong as its most volatile parts. And your parts... are at war. Fix it."
He turned, his gray coat swirling. He walked away.
Ren was fuming. He looked at Ravi, who was broken. He looked at Nyx, who was pissed.
He looked at Maven.
She was staring at her wristband. At her new, +10 score.
The "team" was a lie.
It was still every man for himself.
The walk back from the Portal Chamber was a walk of shame.
Ren's shoulder was screaming, a phantom, sympathetic throb of pain from where Thorne had tried to rip his arm off. The VR sim was fake, but the memory was real. The failure was real. He was ten points poorer, a fresh, stinging -10 stamped on his record because their leader had choked and their zombie had walked right into a trap.
He was Rank 438. He was going backwards.
The unit was a fractured, silent mess.
Maven and Sia walked five paces ahead. The winners. They'd done their job, and they'd gotten paid for it. Ten points each. They were the "techs." The "brains." They were the only two who hadn't failed.
Ren watched the back of Maven's head, her straight black hair swinging. He watched her new rank, 490, glowing softly. She was climbing.
He was falling.
The journal's warning was a cold, slick poison in his gut.
She wasn't just faking it. She was beating him.
Behind him, Ravi was a ghost. He wasn't talking. He wasn't leading. He'd puked his guts out into a sterile, white trash receptacle, his whole body shuddering. He was broken. The "Handler" had been handled. The "Alpha" had been neutered by a video.
Ren felt hot, corrosive contempt rise in his throat.
This... this was the guy who'd told him "you report to me"? This failure?
Jules was just... there. A blank, blue-eyed doll, walking with perfect, even, soulless steps. He was a 490, but he was empty.
Nyx and Zelie were flanking Ren. The losers. The "muscle." The ones who'd been punished for going loud.
Nyx was a coiled spring of pure, lethal rage. Her 485 was a goddamn insult.
Zelie was amused. She was actually humming.
"Well," Zelie drawled, her voice a low, toxic purr. "That was a disaster. So much for our fearless leader. He folded like a cheap suit."
Ren didn't say anything. He just hated her. He hated all of them.
They got back to Deathpig. The second the door hissed shut, the fragile truce shattered.
"You," Nyx snarled. She was in Ravi's face. He was just standing there. Dazed. "You froze. You choked. You cost me ten points."
Ravi just stared at her. His tan skin was a sick gray-green. "I... I... the Chair... I... I saw..."
"I don't care what you saw," Nyx snapped. "You're the leader. You're the one who's supposed to be stable. And you just... broke. You're weak."
"Nyx," Ren growled. "Back off."
Nyx spun on him. Her dark eyes were fire. "Don't you start, 438. You were just as bad. 'Loud is dumb.' You're a thug, not a spy. You're just... rage. You're a liability."
"I got us out," Ren shot back. "I saved Maven. She got the file. She got the points."
He didn't mean it as a compliment. It was an accusation.
He looked over at Maven. She was at her bunk. She flinched. She looked guilty.
"I... I just did what Ravi... what he told me..." she whispered.
"See?" Ravi said, his voice a shred. "She... she listened. You didn't. This is your fault, Ren. You broke the plan. You always break the plan."
The blame. It was a disease. They were all infected. They were at war.
Ren just laughed. A dry, cold, ugly sound.
"You're all pathetic," he said. "The 'team' is a joke. Fix it?" He sneered, quoting Luther. "You can't fix this."
He pointed to his head. "I'm going to the one place that makes sense."
He turned. He stalked to the door. He was done.
"Where the hell are you going?" Ravi yelled. "The bell hasn't—"
"I'm going to class," Ren snarled, shoving the door open. "I'm going to the Kinetic Sprint. I'm going to go hit something until it breaks. It's the only goddamn truth on this island."
The Kinetic Arena was a church.
It was the opposite of Luther's sterile, white, fake world.
It was real.
A huge, cavernous pit. The walls were rock. The floor was dirt. It smelled like rust, sweat, and blood.
And she was there.
Professor Scarlet Rex.
She wasn't a ghost like Luther. She wasn't a vampire like Gray.
She was a monster.
Seven feet tall. A mountain of scarred muscle, her red hair braided into a tight, practical weapon. She wore cargo pants and a tank top. She wasn't faculty. She was a god of war.
She stood in the middle of the pit, a massive titanium maul resting on her shoulder.
"Welcome," she roared. Her voice was gravel. It shook the dust from the ceiling.
"Welcome... to the truth."
She slammed the maul into the dirt floor. A BOOM that shook Ren's teeth.
"Luther lies to you," she sneered. "He teaches you to be cowards. To hide in the shadows. To run. He is a ghost. Ghosts are weak."
She spat.
"I am Scarlet Rex. I am not a ghost. I am real. This is my house. In my house... we do not hide."
She smiled. It was the most brutal thing Ren had ever seen.
"In my house," she roared, "we bleed."
"Today is simple," she barked, stalking the line of students. "CQC. Graded. You will fight. You will win. Win fast... you get points. Win clean... you get more points."
Her pale, dead gray eyes landed on Jules.
The zombie.
"You," she grunted. "The blank. 490. You're first."
Jules just walked. His blue eyes were empty.
His opponent was a Tier 3 Striver. A short, stocky kid with a mean face.
"Go," Rex commanded.
The Striver charged. He threw a punch.
Jules just stood there.
The punch connected. A smack of knuckle on cheekbone.
Jules's head snapped to the side.
He didn't fall. He didn't flinch. He didn't cry.
He just turned his head back.
The Striver stopped. Confused.
"What the fuck?" the kid stammered.
"He's wiped," someone whispered from the stands.
"Hit him again," Rex commanded. Bored.
The kid hit him. Smack.
Jules turned his head back.
Smack.
Smack.
Ren watched. He was horrified. This was worse than the crying. This was obscene.
Ravi was shaking. He was watching the monster he'd almost become.
"ENOUGH," Rex roared. Disgusted.
[JULES ALBRIGHT: -2 (PUBLIC WEAKNESS/FAILURE TO ENGAGE)]
His rank dropped. 490 to 488.
"Get the corpse out of my pit," Rex snarled.
Jules just turned. He walked off.
"Next!"
Nyx.
She walked into the pit. Her dark skin gleamed with sweat. Ready.
Her opponent was a Tier 2 girl. Fast.
"Go," Rex grunted.
The girl lunged. A knife-hand strike.
Nyx moved.
It wasn't a fight. It was math.
Boring.
Parry. Joint-lock. Knee-strike. Disarm.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
The girl hit the ground, choking, her arm at an angle it shouldn't be.
Four seconds.
Rex nodded. Once.
"Perfect, 485," she grunted. "And boring. You have no fire. You're a machine. 90 percent."
[NYX: +5 (ACADEMIC PASS)]
Nyx's rank climbed. 485 to 490.
She walked out. Pissed. She'd wanted a +10.
"Next!" Rex roared. "Pluto. 438."
Ren moved.
He stalked into the pit. The dirt under his boots felt right. This he understood.
He looked at his opponent.
His blood froze.
It was him.
The kid from the tunnels. The one who'd run. The witness.
Tate.
The kid was white. Trembling. He looked like he was going to puke.
Ren looked at Rex.
She was smiling. That brutal, vicious smile.
She knew.
This wasn't a spar. This wasn't a test.
This was a goddamn execution.
"Go," Rex barked.
Tate screamed. A high-pitched animal sound. He charged. Swung a wild, sloppy, "please-don't-kill-me" haymaker.
Ren didn't move.
He let the kid hit him.
The punch connected. Right on his bad shoulder.
White-hot, blinding agony exploded in his arm. Ren roared.
He didn't go down.
He ate it.
He ate the pain.
He smiled. A bloody, stapled wolf smile.
Tate froze. His eyes went wide. He'd just hit a monster.
"My turn," Ren snarled.
He exploded.
Not CQC. Not Nyx's boring math.
A street fight.
He didn't block. He hit.
He broke the kid's nose. A crunch of cartilage.
He dislocated the kid's shoulder. A pop.
He swept the kid's leg.
Tate went down. Gasping. Blood everywhere.
"Tap!" Tate shrieked. He slapped the dirt. "I tap! I tap!"
Ren stopped. Stood over him. Chest heaving. Bad shoulder on fire.
He looked at Rex.
She was just watching. Arms crossed. Disappointed.
Ren understood.
"You talked," Ren growled. Low animal sound.
"I didn't... please..." Tate sobbed.
"You talked," Ren said again.
He looked at Rex. Looked at the arena.
A marked man. A thug. A liability.
Fine.
Hate and Protection.
He was the Wolf.
He stomped. Hard. On Tate's other knee.
Snap.
A scream. High-pitched, god-awful. Cut through the arena.
The entire place went silent.
Ren stood there. Breathing. Covered in blood.
He'd broken the rules. In front of everyone.
"REN!" Ravi screamed from the sidelines. "REN, STOP!"
Rex was beaming.
A glowing red panel flashed on the wall.
[REN PLUTO: -5 (PUBLIC DISRUPTION/INSUBORDINATION)]
Ren's heart stopped. He'd failed. He was 433.
Failed again.
Rex laughed. Deep, booming, joyful.
"You're a mess, 433," she roared. "Sloppy. A thug. No discipline. A disaster."
The red light flashed again.
[...CORRECTION. OVERRIDE: S. REX.]
Ren held his breath.
[... +10 (ACED EXAM - LETHAL INTENT)]
His rank climbed.
433... 438... 443.
He'd won.
Rank 443.
Rex smiled. Her dead gray eyes were alive.
"You're a mess, Pluto. But you're a real mess. You're my kind of mess. Get out of my pit."
Ren stood up. Covered in blood. Shoulder gone.
He looked at his new rank.
He looked at Ravi. Horrified.
He looked at Maven. Terrified.
He'd just proved his way worked.
Pain worked. Violence worked.
The Wolf worked.
The team was more fractured than it had ever been.