Waking up the next morning was a struggle for Mirah.

Her sleep had been far deeper than normal and somehow sleeping the whole afternoon, evening and night away, giving her a distinct pang of anxiety when she woke up. Realising that she had been completely defenceless to the world was almost panic inducing.

Maybe she was making some strides in the emotions department, but that was something that Mirah held at the core of her being after all the years of protecting herself.

She got up from her spot on the floor and gave a cursory glance to the clock on her bedside table. It was still pretty early in the morning, giving her easily enough time to get herself washed up and make her way down to the cafeteria to grab an early breakfast.

She washed herself quickly, scrubbing her short cropped hair with the shampoo and conditioner that was sitting in the small alcove in the shower. After which she dried off, got dressed and was out the door with little to no fuss.

The trip down to the cafeteria, and even to the Underground had become second nature at this point. She was relatively sure that she’d be able to make her way there blindfolded.

The elevator was empty, and stayed that way all the way down to the cafeteria where she traded places inside the elevator with a man who had quills running up the side of his arm, flattened against his skin. She had no doubt that he could make those stand on end, or even shoot out. She had seen only a few who were significantly changed by their link. Most you couldn’t tell from anyone on the street.

This time of morning was pretty quiet. The truly early risers were already down in the Underground, training their little hearts out. The early risers are generally the groups that have been around a while, probably training up for actual field work or whatever they do.

Mirah walked towards the team’s table, immediately spotting one of the taller people in the current population of this place, Ajax. He was sitting at the table and quietly waiting for something he’d ordered already, she presumed.

She made her way to the table and sat down, making Ajax look up from his phone for a moment and smile in her direction. She nodded in response. She ordered a piece of toast from the touchscreen but already expected that something totally different would come out of the kitchen. It’d become a bit of a recurring theme when mealtimes came around.

After a long moment of silence and Ajax looking down perplexedly at the screen in his hand, he put the screen face down on the table and looked right at Mirah.

“The world is a crazy place.” He said simply. Mirah was a little taken aback. In the most recent conversations the group has had together, Mirah was very rarely referred to. They had stopped trying to get her to speak after a few days of shrugs and nods.

Mirah just shrugged, silently agreeing. Ajax let out another frustrated sigh.

“I know things were looking bad when I last was keeping up with all the world event stuff, mostly from my grandparents telling me bits and pieces, but this…” He ran a hand over his face, “this is some pretty heavy stuff.”

Mirah’s eye quirked, curiosity getting the better of her, she spoke, “What stuff?” Ajax looked slightly shocked that he’d even got a response in the first place, but then confusion made an appearance.

“You don’t know? China and America are basically staging a war using their Linked. Thankfully the stronger Linked are staying out of it, but it’s still terrifying. Both of those countries have some of the largest military might due to their Linked population and training. Most other countries pale in comparison.” Mirah tried to think back on the lessons she’d received as a young child. She knew the countries, and their rough demographic, but apart from that she was drawing blanks.

“Are others going to get involved?” She said quietly, trying to remember world war history to supplement what she didn’t know, which was a lot. Ajax thought for a moment and then shrugged.

“No idea, honestly. It’s a bit of a mixed bag. America and China are the countries with the strongest governmental presence, with one of the world’s most powerful Linked acting as America’s effective dictator and China being so nationalistic since forever. Other countries don’t really have the same structure. Even Australia is like three different countries in one. Melbourne is mostly where all the warring happens, Brisbane is doing their own thing after they managed to get together a few powerful Linked and wipe out the gangs, and everything west from there is a giant shithole.”

“So we’re safe from the war for the moment then?” Mirah said tentatively, trying to process all the new information.

“Who knows, Mirah. It just seems like everything is going down a dark path, and I’m not all that sure that there is going to be an elegant solution.” Ajax would have continued his griping, but a large plate of seasoned eggs on toast was placed in front of him, and in front of Mirah a small stack of pancakes, drizzled in maple syrup.

“I wouldn’t think on it too hard. As we are now there isn’t much we can do about it.” The waiter that manned the cafeteria in the mornings said. A regular heighted man with curly black hair and pale features. The waiter scratched at the side of his face as he addressed Ajax.

“Gotta say man, the guys that are ruling the roost in countries like that? They are far, far too powerful for their own good. If they actually clashed, I wouldn’t be surprised if entire countries went missing.”

“I guess so. It’s just not a fun thing to think about.” Ajax grumbled. The waiter laughed.

“You’ll get used to it. But keep your eyes on what’s happening here first. We have our own issues we need to worry about before we go off and worry about America and China.” The waiter waved goodbye and went back to the kitchen. What followed was the sound of eating and a lot of contemplative looks into Ajax’s eggs. After a while, Mirah spoke up.

“What’s here?” Again, Ajax gave her an odd look, but didn’t voice his thoughts.

“Mostly the gangs. There are a tonne of them, but a few really powerful ones that no-one seems to want to fuck with.” He shrugged, “People speculate that they have a whole lot more sway over the country than we can see at a surface level.”

“Of course, they do.” Aaliyah’s snarky voice called out as she walked over and plonked herself down in the chair on the opposite side of the table from Ajax and Mirah.

“What makes you say that?” Ajax asked, questioning eyebrow raised.

“Oh, nothing much. Just the fact that money and power run everything, and the gangs have a hell of a lot of it.” Mirah nodded in affirmation. The gangs were the one thing that she was even remotely privy on, and it was only because Linked went around wearing their colours on the streets. If they could get that many Linked to be in their gangs, then there was clearly a lot of power being thrown around.

With both Mirah and Aaliyah actually agreeing on something, Ajax had to dampen his curiosity. Even though he had a sneaking feeling that Aaliyah knew more than she was letting on.

“Well, I guess we’ll be rubbing up against those gangs soon enough, in whatever capacity. Care to give a man a rundown?” Aaliyah gave the massive man a disbelieving look.

“How don’t you know the gangs? Have you been under a rock your whole life?” Ajax chuckled.

“In a forest actually. Before that I lived mostly in the country. Though when I was in the suburbs, or the city, I wanted nothing more than to get out of dodge as quick as possible.” Aaliyah gave a stiff nod.

“I feel you.” She grumbled, “Alright, the basics are that the smaller guys are just subsidiaries of the bigger guys, or are just people that the big fish use to profit from. Fucking with them is safe enough but will get the signal up to the bigger guys that something is up. Bad idea to wipe them all out ‘cause you’ll just piss off the big fish and they don’t like to have their supply chain fucked with.”

“Supply chain?” Ajax asked. Both Aaliyah and Mirah rolled their eyes.

“Drugs, idiot. And Linked ‘services’, whatever they might be.” Ajax grimaced at the explanation that Aaliyah gave, but let her continue on.

“There are two really big fish in the game at the moment, Utopia and Rightful Order. There are a couple of other big guys, but they shrunk into the background quick smart after Utopia and Rightful Order allied. Haven’t heard anything about Red Street for a while but wouldn’t be surprised if they got eaten by Rightful Order.” Aaliyah shrugged emphatically. Ajax furrowed his brow, along with Mirah as well, who voiced her own question.

“Utopia?”

“Scary collection of Linked with less than moral dispositions. There’s only a handful of them, but they’re enough to frighten all the other gangs into subservience. Well, that was except for Rightful Order, until their leader allied with them and left his younger brother in charge. Utopia is really just a collection of the meanest Linked around, and Rightful Order is more of the typical gang stuff.”

“You know a lot about all this.” Ajax stated, not so much suspicion, but wariness in his voice.

“I’m good like that.” Aaliyah said in response, flipping her blonde hair extravagantly, but didn’t go into more detail.

Soon enough Aaliyah’s meal came and went, and then Walter finally made an appearance, rushing to sit down at the table and ordering his food before Willem would drag the team out of their chairs and down to the Underground for their daily dose of torture.

“You should really just set an alarm man.” Aaliyah snarked as she watched the young man scrabble to order his breakfast. He turned and looked at her sheepishly.

“I did. Three. Somehow I wake up, turn them all off, and go back to sleep and don’t remember it at all.” He sighed tiredly, rubbing at his eyes. Aaliyah giggles at his antics, making Mirah almost grimace.

Mirah can barely stand to be around the girl, she reeked of predator to her trained nose. The way she acted was just so inherently fake to her. Mirah was pretty sure it was a ‘I know you know’ deal as well. As long as Mirah never got in Aaliyah’s way, they’d stay in neutral territory. Not like Mirah really cared all that much for Aaliyah acting fake. People had their reasons and, as long as it didn’t include Mirah, she was fine with that being the case.

The food made it to table along with a set of the sachets that held the energy jelly they’d been forced to eat after every breakfast. Mirah grabbed the sachet, tore at the dotted line and downed the foul-tasting jelly easily without a moment spent thinking on it. Thankfully the taste didn’t last all that long in the mouth if you suck it down quick enough.

Funnily enough, Aaliyah was always the one that had the most trouble with eating the jelly. It was amusing to see the sarcastic and sometimes caustic girl struggle to choke down the mixture.

“Alright kiddos. We’ve got work to do.” A harsh voice called out from beside the table, making the team collectively jump. Of course it was Willem, who seemed to want to defy every possible expectation you could have of him at his appearance. The team got up from the table, grumbling after the fright that Willem administered.

For some reason Willem decided that he needed to go greet them at their table every morning, despite knowing that they could get down to the Underground just fine. Maybe it was just for kicks to see the group jump.

The short and stocky man lead the way, punching the code into the elevator and it quickly moving downwards at a speed that was probably ridiculous. After the doors opened, he lead the group through the corridors and through the stadium like training room to their private training room. Only addressing them once they

“Alrighty then.” The man sat on one of the many benches attached to exercise machinery that only Ajax has even started to use so far. The rest of the group has still been doing running, though Mirah can clearly note the difference in her physical capabilities than when she first got here. It wasn’t much, but she didn’t feel as if she were going to hyperventilate and die every time she ran.

“So, you’ve all been doing pretty well when it comes to physical training, and that’s really what we start with anyways. It’s the building block that all of your skills will be built upon.” He said, something that he has well and truly drilled into the team over the past week or so, “However, the development of your links isn’t coming along as well. This is no fault of your own.” He said, dissuading the worried looks on the team’s face.

“Instead, we are going to try something a little different first. Accelerating a part of the curriculum forwards.” He grinned devilishly, making the whole team tense with worry again.

“You’re going to learn to fight.”