“Our requested candidates know how to fight,” Mr. Estalen told Benson. “Yours-”

  “Has potential,” Benson said. “I’ve been Vice President for a few years now, with all due respect, Professor Estalen. Every request I’ve had, whether for the Junior Versus or the Versus Games themselves, all of you have doubted. But don’t they usually become the best fighters of the batch?”

  “You didn’t notice this girl in her Junior Versus applications,” Josephine pointed out. “She said she applied twice.”

  “Perhaps she wasn’t ready. Now she is.”

  “I agree with Vice President Kalley,” Gina White said. “She just needs coaching, which is what the school is for: turning Level 0s into Level 30s. It’s not like she’s being put on the team; it’s just the first step. There’s a lot of students in the Versus school that have been here for years and haven’t gotten on the team once. Why are we arguing about this particular applicant when we have plenty of students we never should have accepted?”

  “Benson’s usually right about these sorts of things,” another professor remarked. “He hasn’t disappointed us.”

  Gina was right. These people didn’t care about this human; they just didn’t like Benson. Still, Lisa couldn’t help a little doubt.

  How did Benson even know her, anyway? Every time he requested an applicant, he would have seen them in action before exam day. Where did he find her?

  Josephine let out a huge sigh. “Very well.” She moved the human girl’s file into the ‘Accepted’ section. “There. All of our requested applicants are admitted. Now to analyze the rest of them.”

  After a few tiring hours, the board and the faculty finally had their 330 new students for the Versus Fighting School of Fistborn Academy. The rest of the students applying for the other schools would be analyzed by the other respective Deans; poor Gina had a lot of work to do tonight, being the Dean of the non-Versus branch of the Fighting career. She would probably take some of the Versus School rejects so they could polish themselves up.

  Task Complete— +300 E-Digits

  Task Acquired: Talk sense into Benson— Reward Undetermined

  “Benson, a word?” Lisa said before the Paeseoan could leave. They waited until everyone was out of the room.

  Benson chuckled. “I didn’t think that would work.”

  “I don’t feel good about this,” Lisa told him. “She fainted at the sight of blood. How will she handle the training?”

  “She’ll be fine. There’s plenty that don’t like blood. She’ll get used to it.”

  “I just don’t need a human attracting any controversy right now. This is my first year as Dean. They’ll think I hacked something for her to get in.”

  “They won’t think anything. And even if they do, that’s their problem. Why are you so against this girl?” Benson said.

  “I’m not against her, I just think this spot should go to someone that deserves it,” Lisa reasoned.

  “And it will. You should know by now that I always know what I am doing.”

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  “How do you even know her?”

  “That’s a long story.” He tapped his fingers on the table, looking away.

  Lisa narrowed her eyes. “Benson?”

  He was silent for a few moments. Finally, he sighed. “This stays between us.”

  Lisa opened her AIDA band and made sure no recorders were on in the room. “I’ll lock it down. What is it?”

  After a pause, he quietly said, “I may have seen her on the Genesis X station.” He then proceeded to tell her the whole story, revealing that he was on the station the day of the full-scale raid a few weeks back, and that he was a regular customer at a hacked bar.

  Lisa rose from her chair, repeating his words in her head to make sure she’d been paying full attention. It took a few moments for her to reply. “You mean to tell me that your candidate came from Genesis X?!”

  “No, she doesn’t live there. She was there to meet me.”

  “You’ve been going to one of the worst stations around the planet, Benson!” Lisa paced nervously. She had to hope he wasn’t recognized there at all. If this got out, their academy’s already-suffering reputation would take a massive hit they couldn’t afford. Earth was already enough of a laughingstock in the Utopia.

  “I just needed to take some time away, and I liked it there. Great drinks, no one pestering me-”

  “You couldn’t have gone… I don’t know, literally anywhere else? Anyone up there can see you and put it on the Hub!”

  “No one has! Well- until now, but-”

  “‘Until now’? You got spotted?”

  “Could you just listen for a minute? Please?”

  Lisa sighed and sat back down, quieting. She glanced nervously at the door. They were alone, and the room was soundproof, but she still feared someone would hear them.

  “I’ve been going there since Irenna died. I just needed somewhere to get away… and forget.” His eyes were fixed on his hands, too ashamed to meet Lisa’s. “I usually go there weekends, but that day was hard for me, so I went anyway. My Mask malfunctioned and the girl working the bar recognized me. She made a deal with me that she wouldn’t report that I was there if I talked her sister into applying.”

  +20 Rel-P

  Approaching Confidante Status

  “For all you know, she lured you there so you could be a victim of the raid,” Lisa suggested.

  “No, she’s not involved in that. Both of them almost got kidnapped, like I said.”

  “Are you sure it was an Emitonian she fought?”

  “Positive. She had good reflexes and form, strong force behind her hits, and that was with body mods! She reacted well under pressure.”

  “Body mods?”

  He winced. “Her arms were… thicker when I saw her back then.” He imitated balloons on his shoulders. “I think she’s some kind of Socializer; I ran a check and she’s related to some famous pageant person. Those mods she had were severely destroyed, and they should have hindered her movements, but she escaped. I think she was simply… overthinking it during the test. If her sister’s working at a hacked bar at such a young age, I don’t know what her home life is like.”

  “A Socializer?” Lisa stared at him. “You were… considering one of them?”

  “I don’t villainize every one of them, Lisa. Besides, a Socializer looking to be a fighter is no Socializer. They ‘don’t believe in violence’, remember?” The last sentence carried heavy sarcasm, and Lisa knew Benson was recalling the mockery the Socializers threw at him when his sister was killed.

  Lisa opened the girl’s file on the table. Calista Medley was her name. She was a pretty one, her waist evidently shaped by mods, and there were repairing scars on her shoulders, which matched Benson’s testimony.

  Why would she be here if her mother was some famous pageant queen? Weren’t the Versus Games considered a sacrilege by those people? Why would she even be interested? How would she have trained? There were so many unanswered questions about this human, and Lisa didn’t like it. Everything about this was too masky, especially with the Planetary Leader elections coming up.

  Was this some kind of strange ploy Whitley Geanna was pulling? She’d slandered Lisa enough through words alone. Did she plant a Socializer and risk her community’s reputation to sabotage the Games?

  “Just give her a chance, Lisa,” Benson said. “I have a good feeling about her. A Socializer becoming one of us could bring a lot of change, too.”

  “You said her sister wanted you to see her. What if she doesn’t even want to be here and her ‘sister’ forced her or something? All of this… it doesn’t make sense.”

  “Like Gina said, she’ll just be in the school. It’s up to her to get on the team.” He disabled his translator chip as he left, saying a Paeseoan phrase that Lisa understood. “Pali nebetem a thia.”

  ‘It takes a special set of eyes.’

  Task Cancelled— No Reward