+10 Rel-P (Quinlan)
“Where’s Dad?” Calista then asked.
“Uh…” Katelyn deflated a bit. “He’s gone back to work. He and Mom have been fighting… a lot. So, he’s leaving a lot.”
Calista’s shoulders sagged a bit. “Oh.” Disappointment flooded her. She thought her father would step up and be with his kids more often now. Was he really going back to his habitual routine— running away and leaving his kids behind to fend against their mother?
“But we’re okay,” Katelyn said. “As long as you’re there, we’ll be fine. You won’t believe how excited we are for you, Cali.”
“Maybe we’ll sneak out and visit you,” Quinlan joked, though there was some seriousness in his tone. Calista wouldn’t put it past him to actually attempt that.
Her heart clenched with homesickness. She was excited, but she kind of wished she’d stayed home. She felt so alone in this huge room, without her siblings there to console her, or even her mother to give her advice. Jennifer always told her exactly what to do and how to do it. Now that she really was on her own…
“You should try and make some friends, though. Fighters still have some social lives. It might help you get adjusted,” Katelyn suggested.
Calista paused, pondering the thought, and nodded. That could potentially help her acclimatize. Going from a life of making friends to completely isolating herself was too intense. She hated her old life, but she liked having some company. Fighters wouldn’t be as masky as Socializers, surely.
“We love you. Tell us all about your first day tomorrow night, okay?” Her sister smiled proudly. “You’ll do amazing, I know it.”
“Uber-amazing!” Quinlan mocked in a high-pitched voice.
“Shut up,” she laughed, hiding her discomfort. If she wanted friends here, she really needed to lose the Socializer talk. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Bye!” The hologram disappeared. Calista lied down, staring at the window. There were all sorts of feelings bouncing around in her stomach: happiness, excitement, insecurity, anger, guilt… and fear. Mostly fear.
She went to the window and looked out at the courtyard. Below her, she could see a few students milling about. Most were in class, even though it was a weekend. There were no vacations or breaks allowed until the Versus Games started. What had she gotten herself into?
Hearing a strange buzzing noise by her ear, she turned, facing a palm-sized sphere with a black screen on its face. She screamed and backed away from the window, swatting her hands at the sphere.
It beeped and two small, blue eyes appeared on its face screen— unlike regular Pets that had a simple oval for an ‘eye’. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you,” it said in a young woman’s voice.
Calista screamed again, tripping over her feet and falling on her rear. “Relax! Don’t scream so much,” the Pet said.
The Earthian girl pointed at the flying sphere with a shaky finger. “Y-you talk.”
“Yeah?” It sounded confused. “You’ve never seen a talking Pet before?”
“No!”
“Seriously? Not even on the Versus News? All fighters have one. You should’ve seen us last Versus. I know we’re a bit new, but we were all over the Hub last time-”
“Okay, okay, stop talking for a sec.” Calista stood. “What are you supposed to be?”
“Your Pet.”
“I have a Pet.” She detached her current Pet sphere from her belt and let it hover beside her, its small wings buzzing quietly. “This one.”
“I’m your Versus Pet,” it explained. “I have all the same functions as a regular Pet, but the special part is that I record and study your fighting patterns. I’ll track every aspect of your style; the way you move, your rhythm, your patterns, favorite weapons, everything. If you get on the team, you get to use me as a weapon. And I’ll keep developing the longer you stay in the competition. I’ll be even better if you get past the preliminaries.”
“Whoa, okay… slow down.” Calista approached the Pet carefully. It was white with red and blue touches and the academy logo was on the back. “A Pet with a personality.”
“Yeah, well, we were basically a gift from Mars. They built us with real artificial intelligence. You humans are so afraid of a takeover that you built… those.” It looked at Calista’s pink Pet, which still hovered silently in place. “At least you made AIDAs. That’s close enough, I guess.”
“So… you’re my Pet now?”
“Yup! Everyone in the Versus school has one, and all of you newbies are receiving one today,” it said. “You can name me and customize me. You can just send your other Pet back home.”
Calista glanced between the two. “O… kay. Um… AIDA, send my Pet back to my house. I’m keeping my Versus Pet.”
“Object: Calista Medley’s Pet marked for delivery.” The Pet went to store itself in the closet.
“I’ll just attach to your belt and install the new UI…” the new Pet continued, zooming to the slot in Calista’s belt.
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“New UI?” Calista blinked when her UI restarted, a loading wheel appearing first, then a new layout spreading across her vision. She could suddenly see a bunch of stats she couldn’t see before:
Calista Elise Medley
New Student
Level 2
XP: 35/100
HP: 100/100
EP: 75/100
RP Status: Unknown— -4 RP
Strength: Lvl 1
Stamina: Lvl 4
PT: Lvl -1
Agility: Lvl 14
Speed: Lvl 5
Intelligence: Lvl 7
Self-Control: Lvl 5
Weakness Level 16
- Physical: Lack of training, lack of proper exercise, unhealthy diet. Low weight. Has BDD (body dysmorphia), bone deconstruction, muscle weakening, and other symptoms of post-modding damage. Requires heavy sleep aids.
- Emotional: Insecurity, anxiety, no sense of identity. Obsessed with belonging to a group or "popular" identity. Feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, self-consciousness, and low self-esteem. Has no confidence in herself or her abilities.
“Whoa, whoa, slow down! What’s all this? I can’t even see!” Calista blinked and stumbled, disoriented.
“It’s just me assessing you. It’ll all disappear in a second,” the Pet said, and the UI did so, as if obeying it. “Wow… you’ve got your work cut out for you. What did you do before coming here? I got all this just from your holo-call conversation.”
“You heard all… what is going on?” Calista’s heart skipped a beat. “You do have micro-cameras here!”
How else would this Pet have known all these details? They were all watching her, weren’t they? Were they broadcasting her to the entire school? Was everyone watching her and laughing at her? She frantically tapped her AIDA band, but no viewer tracker came up. Panicked, she went to one of the walls and started banging her fist on it, trying to get through to the cameras.
“Whoa, Calista, calm down!” The Pet ejected from her belt and zipped in front of her, its digital blue eyes wide. “There’s no micro-cameras! I just overheard the call because I activated when you came in! You didn’t notice me, so you didn’t deactivate me. That’s all. If I’m in rest mode, I swear I don’t hear any private conversations.”
Calista’s green eyes narrowed. “You sure? You’re not broadcasting me right now?”
“Broadcasting?” The Pet’s eyes looked confused, then showed realization. “Wait… were you ever involved with Socializing?”
Calista’s hands clamped over her mouth. Of course she blurted that out.
“Relax, I’m not judging you. It just makes sense. Your low Strength, Pain Tolerance, everything. Also explains why you have post-modding damage; fighters never mod their bodies— at least, not legally.”
“I’m not getting kicked out, am I?” Calista paled and sat on her bed, clutching her chest. This was too overwhelming. She should’ve stayed home and listened to her mother. Now she’d get expelled and everyone would hate her.
“As long as you’re not modding right now to get an advantage, no. Past mods that aren’t active anymore won’t get you expelled,” the Pet explained. “It did quite the number on your body, though. You’re going to have to visit the Infirmary soon and get yourself some reconstruction meds.”
“What do you mean? What kind of damage?”
“If you were a Socializer, I’m assuming you did a lot of modding. It deconstructs your muscles, bones, and cells after a long time. If you kept at it for a little longer, you never would’ve been able to fight. You stopped right before the no-go point. But don’t worry, meds will slowly fix you up, and Fistborn covers the costs! The Versus School has a lot of privileges.” It winked at her.
Calista only stared with an open mouth. This was way too much info to process.
-2 EP
-1 EP
“Okay, let’s backtrack. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overwhelm you. I just tend to spill it all right out, since… usually, new students just know the basics of what they need to do.” The Pet giggled. “You can always look at your stats some other time.” All the extra stats cleared from Calista’s vision, leaving the usual UI she was used to. “Let’s start from the beginning. You’re Calista Medley, and I’m assigned to you as your Versus Pet. You can name me and change my voice, and later on, you’ll be able to change my colors. You can also change your identity tag; you can do ‘New Student’, ‘First Year One’— that’s the more common one— or ‘Beginning Fighter’.”
“First Year One?” Calista inquired.
“Versus School students have 16 years in Fistborn, but technically it’s just supposed to be first to fourth-years. This year, it’s your first year one. If you choose to train in non-Versus years, you’ll be a first-year two. You with me?”
“I think so…”
“What do you want to name me? I’ve got a randomizer if you don’t know what to pick.”
Calista nodded slowly, taking in the information. Her body-modding situation would have to wait. For now, she’d focus on the tasks at hand. If she started asking more questions, she’d probably be so overwhelmed that she’d glitch out before she even started her new school.
Task Acquired: Name new Pet— No XP
Next Task: Report to Training Center at 11:45 AM— +2 XP
“Okay… a name. A name.” She circled the hovering Pet, observing it. She liked the voice— a light and friendly one, like a young woman.
“Lindsay…” she muttered. She always wanted to name her future daughter Lindsay since she was a little girl. It was old-fashioned, barely used anymore, and it was a common name for pre-Utopian celebrities.
“Lindsay, huh? I like that! You want me to mark it as permanent? You can’t change my name later,” the Pet warned.
Calista nodded. “Yeah, Lindsay. I’ve always liked that name.”
“Lindsay it is!” The name appeared on the Pet’s side, written in blue. "Welcome to Fistborn, Calista. I’ll be here to assist you 24/7 in everything related to fighting! Let’s hope we can bump you up from Level 2.”
Task Complete— Pet Acknowledged
New Person: Pet Lindsay
+10 Rel-P
Achieved: Friendly Acquaintance Status
+Interactions I
+Association I