After witnessing Xalla dispense her… unique way of disciplining staff, let’s just say that I am very glad that the girl likes me. Hell, even Q’s magic couldn’t get rid of some of the more stubborn stains that splattered the room. Ultimately, Q had to get some specialists in to replace the portions of the room that just wasn't salvageable.

  “Alright everyone,” the admin addressed the small army of servants who were busy cleaning things, “Please take June to Containment for the rest of Excuriiation, and someone get us a drink, please.”

  I stepped out of Q’s little bubble, careful not to disturb my resting friends on the ground, and went over to his side. I wanted to give the man a hug, but he was here in his professional capabilities, so we settled with a handshake. That didn’t stop me from hugging Xalla though, much to the girl’s embarrassment. She excused herself with a blush, but not before giving me a comforting squeeze; that professional demeanor was still at play it seemed.

  “Good to see you back as Admin,” I said, turning back to greet Q.

  He gave me a polite nod back and returned the smile. “All because of your hard work." He paused to look at his old work place, his smile never leaving his face. "But I’ll admit, I missed it here. Even the outdated equipment here brings back memories… I honestly prefer the old stuff to the fancy new models.”

  I chuckled. “Just don’t tell Bob that!”

  “That man’s a little busy with other things at the moment,” he said with a wry grin, “But I’ll make sure to thank him properly as well. Anyway, I apologize for waiting so long to see you here, there wasn’t a good opportunity for the Site Administrator to make a personal visit to the Main Stage, you see.”

  “No worries man, it’s just good to see you happy again.” I pointed to the blob that used to be June. “But what do you mean take her for the rest of Excuritation? I don’t think there’s much left of her.”

  “She’s a spawn of the Overseer, or at least a spawn of a spawn in any case,” Q explained with a shrug, “It’ll take more than physical force to kill her. Plus, Xalla was mostly just subduing the Enforcer, her punishment’s barely begun.”

  I winced, but couldn’t exactly feel any pity for the woman. “But why’d she even come here? I can understand her starting things to mess with the Anomaly’s group, but without the old Admin team in the picture? It seems like her info’s not exactly complete.”

  “She was in charge of Jordan’s safety,” Xalla answered, “And the safety of the Restus that were conveniently destroyed. She came here under the direct orders from the Overseer.”

  “Ah, that explains it then.” I sighed and shook my head. “And that bastard won’t even dispose of his trash himself. Now I kind of feel sorry for her.”

  “You wouldn’t if you heard some of the things she’s said behind closed doors,” Xalla said with a shake of her head. That action was a little too much for her because one of her frills accidentally poked out of her suit’s eye socket, which was rather disturbing to see. She cursed under her breath before poking the offending tentacle back inside the suit. “Ugh, I can never understand how you two wear these things for so long!”

  “You can change back if it’s that bad,” I offered, “There’s no outsiders here now.”

  Xalla sighed. “I’d love to, but I’m to stay with Q when we talk with your Aspirants. It took me a lot longer to change into this human guise than the other one, and I don’t want to destroy another suit.”

  “That’s her fourth one,” Q added with a frown. “The ones we have on Site are the standard mass-produced works, not like the ones we had at Lord Babylon’s.”

  “Ugh,” Xalla continued, squirming uncomfortably, “You can feel the quality. This artificial skin's giving me a rash, I swear.”

  I looked at my own body. “Nothing beats custom-made ones, I suppose.”

  “I’ll make you a better one once I’ve sorted out the mess the Overseer made,” Q apologized.

  Xalla sighed but shook her head. “Don’t worry, Q, I can last at least a few Earth hours.”

  “Anyway,” I continued, “So what brings you here, other than saving our hides from the Overseer’s spawn that is.”

  Now Q’s smile grew wide. “Why, to help our best prospects, of course! Now that you’ve shattered every record we have, I can, in my official capacity as Administrator of Site 1102, offer you unparalleled assistance. It is in Central’s best interests to see such amazing Aspirants grow, and it is thus my job to ensure you have the chance to do so.”

  “And the Overseer’s fine with this?” I asked with a raised brow.

  “He has to be fine with it, at least on the surface, as I am doing things exactly as stated under various Central Regulations. He would be seen as deliberately sabotaging the operations of this Site if he tried anything funny. My reinstatement has put a lot of curious eyes on his operations, you see, so unless he can change the fundamental purpose of the Training Sites, he is powerless to intervene.” He paused and grinned. “There is a lot of interest in Pandora right now, I made sure of that.”

  “But,” Xalla interrupted, “That doesn’t mean that he’s going to take this clear challenge to his authority lying down. He will retaliate, but not now, not when there’s so much fresh attention on Pandora and especially on Anomaly Kim Jae-Hyun. He's become somewhat of a celebrity among the Sponsors.”

  I nodded slowly, finally understanding what Q was trying to do. “So you’re ensuring we get as much of a headstart as possible while the Overseer’s tied behind red tape.”

  “Exactly!” Q exclaimed, “We won’t be caught off guard like last time, and I’ll be taking this time while the fifth Trial is still under construction to ensure that no ‘accidents’ are to happen.”

  "And I am assisting in that department," Xalla added, her tone turning icy cold. “Now that I am not sent on useless assignments and can act in my full capacity, there will be drastic personnel changes. I’ll find and weed out every last one of the Overseer’s minions, and I want to see the oversized slug try to stop me when I have the backing of the entire Xollon race behind me.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  I winced. Yeah, Xalla can be scary when she’s working, although she did look kind of ridiculous in that 5-foot-nothing skin suit. Not sure why they gave her that one now that I thought about it; it didn’t exactly scream threatening.

  “Anyway,” Q continued, “Just give us a few moments to clean this up and we’ll have a proper chat with the Aspirants. Like I said, we intend to rectify some of the chaos that the Overseer had caused.”

  I held up a hand. “Hold on a second.”

  “Hm?”

  “Your plan is to provide us with support and rewards, right?”

  Q nodded.

  “And you’re asking for nothing in return?”

  “Of course we wouldn't ask for anything back,” Q answered, looking mildly shocked. “Your Guild is ranked number 1 in the entirety of Earth, it is only natural that we expend resources into its continued growth.”

  “And can the Aspirants reject the help?” I asked, remembering Jae-Hyun’s warnings about the Sponsors. I doubt he’d differentiate Q and his people from the gods.

  “Well, I suppose they can,” the admin said with a frown, “But I will specify that they have no additional obligations to us, save their continued success. I doubt anyone would reject those terms.”

  “Yeah…” I muttered, “There might be a problem with that. Our Anomaly’s a little paranoid, especially with Central, so if you’re planning to give him stuff without asking for anything back, then there’s a pretty high likelihood that he’ll just reject you.”

  Q frowned, looking more and more puzzled. “But I’ll present the terms and conditions clearly, and this help can only benefit all of you in the long term. What reason could there be to distrust us that much? Surely there should be no doubting that.”

  "Yeah... I think you're underestimating human paranoia here, Q. And plus, how’d those terms and conditions work out with the Overseer?”

  Q sighed. “Fair enough, so what’s your plan then?”

  I grinned. “Well, since they don’t accept free gifts, then we just have to pretend to demand something of equal value. Jae-Hyun will insist that we’ll be fine regardless of your support or not, so there’s the added challenge of ensuring that he can’t reject your help as well. We’ll do it like this…”

  * * *

  “Oh god, my head…” Vadeem grumbled. He sat up from his chair and looked around. “What the hell happened?”

  “About time you woke up,” Noel tutted, “You’re the last one, probably took longer for the blood to go from your muscles back to your tiny brain. We’re not at the base anymore, if you haven’t noticed.”

  That was true. Initially, Q had wanted to just speak in the Guild building, but that didn’t have the grandeur and presence that I needed. Atmosphere was important when it came to negotiations, especially when I wanted to make a strong impression. Q needed to appear to have total control over the situation, where there was no room for the Aspirants to do anything other than accept his demands, and that meant that we couldn’t meet in some dusty old office.

  Vadeem frowned and shook his head, too confused to even respond to Noel’s quips. “Seriously, what happened?”

  Jae-Hyun got up from his spot and gave the man a rough rundown of the current situation. He told him that some kind of power dynamic was at play in the background of Central, how we’d been knocked out shortly after those two new people came in, and that we should be absolutely weary of that blonde guy. As I thought, he did recognize Q, and from his tone of voice, I was guessing that they didn’t have the best of relationships in his previous life. It was a good thing that I made sure to plan for that.

  “So…” Vadeem said, poking the glowing blue barrier that surrounded the room with a probing finger. “We’re trapped here until these freaks come? What if they just leave us here?”

  “They won't,” Jae-Hyun assured, “They’re waiting for the last of us to wake up. Now that you’re coherent-”

  “As much as Vadumb can be,” Noel interrupted.

  Vadeem rolled his eyes and ignored the redhead. “Now that I’m coherent, they should come soon, right? What do you think they’ll want?”

  “Nothing good,” the Regressor grumbled. “I don’t know what’s going on, but don’t trust a thing these “people” tell us. This intervention all but confirms Walter's earlier theory that they cheated with our group in the last Trial. They'll hold some kind of bargaining chip, I don't know what it is, but don’t accept any deals, no matter how tempting.” He turned to Noel. “And you, watch yourself going forward. I know how frustrating it can get, but we are not at a level where we can retaliate against these foes.”

  “Sorry…” the girl muttered, showing a rare moment of remorse. “I’ll behave.”

  Jae-Hyun nodded. “Anyway, try to leave the negotiations to me and stay silent. Things can get dangerous if we don’t proceed carefu-”

  His last words were cut short by the dispersion of the barrier and a pair of guards came to escort us to the preplanned meeting room.

  “This way, please,” one of the two individuals said, “The Admin is waiting to greet you.”

  “Remember my words,” Jae-Hyun whispered before taking the lead. We followed behind, trying to look as confident as possible. I don’t think anyone bought it though.

  The two escorted us down a long corridor, our footsteps echoing off the empty halls until we arrived at the only door. Several winged individuals guarded that door, their armor and weapons glinting in the artificial light. They radiated menace with every movement they made, and that aura of violence only increased as we approached. From the tense expressions of my friends, this small display of power was doing its intended purpose.

  “Please enter,” our escorts said as one, “The Administrator is waiting inside.”

  As if on command, the two sentries opened the double doors; an insane amount of blinding light surged out of the doorway, blinding us, and without giving us a chance to recover, the two guards shoved us inside.

  “Greetings,” Q said with a familiar smile.

  Normally, his appearance would have had a calming effect on the people around him, but I had specifically requested that he come without his human guise. Instead, his smile had the exact opposite effect, and from the dazed expressions of my friends, he was making one hell of a first impression. The Aspirant’s eyes became lost in the spiraling galaxies orbiting his body, and it was only until Q spoke again that they could untangle their consciousness from Q’s visage.

  Xalla was still by his side, wearing that same dorky skin suit, but she had chosen to restrain none of her presence. You’d have to be a fool to think that she was anything other than lethal, and none of my friends were fools. They took some furtive glances in her direction but otherwise did their best to ignore her.

  “Please, have a seat.” Q continued as he gestured to a resplendent set of sofas and recliners close by. “I have a proposal for all of you, and it is best that you hear me out.”

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