Chapter 3: Weak Spots

Roger held the pads while Fanny punched. He was the thin boy from under the rankings board.

“Know why Layla’s like that?” he said. “You broke a record nobody had ever broken. On your first day, in front of everyone.”

“It’s a board,” said Fanny. “The Shield wouldn’t let me near the front. That’s a real problem.” She said it loud enough for the whole hall.

Two days later Layla stopped behind her. “I heard the Shield wouldn’t send you to the front. Is that why you came to a school for fourteen-year-olds?”

Fanny laid Layla flat with her sergeant’s throw.

“I can show you that one too,” she said. “It saves a lot of time.”

“If you’re finished,” said a dry voice.

It was Fanny’s first class with Professor Joe, back from a field exercise. He wore a monocle. He taught the Combat Division, the students trained to fight Enders at the front. Team B3 was his: Layla, Roger and now Fanny.

“Places.”

Across the hall the pink-haired girl from the billboard warmed up alone, bare-knuckled. After every punch her guard returned to her chin.

Only the Shield’s oldest sergeants do that, thought Fanny. Somebody taught her long before she had drones.

At “Places” two round gray drones with cat ears lifted off a bench to the girl’s shoulders. The black-haired girl next to her caught Fanny staring.

“If you ask her how she trains, she’ll talk for an hour.”

“Two hours!” said the pink one.

Joe opened a gold-covered book. A life-size VR Ender filled the wall. It raised an arm. As the arm came down, its chest plates split and a core glowed inside. Then the chest shut.

“Enders expose their weak spots only when they launch attacks,” said Joe. “They don’t strike easily. When one does, that is how long you get. So when do you hit it?”

“When it attacks,” said Layla. “Obviously.”

“Three ranks,” Joe went on. “Ultimate Enders are deadliest and release the other two. Then Super Enders, then plain Enders. The small ones kill the most, because there are the most.”

“Hurt them badly and they go quiet for weeks. We call it a lull. A lull always ends.”

The last slide was a shaking recording. A ship of black blades hung over a city in a red sky. Smaller ships swarmed around it, and Enders dropped from them onto the roofs.

The placeStorm Citadel

“From the oldest records the Academy keeps,” said Joe. He read the caption. “The Storm Citadel. Concealed within storm clouds, it can unleash devastating electromagnetic interference over large areas.”

Interference meant every machine under its storm died.

“This afternoon Team B3 drills the weak spot. The report lists kills by name.”

Layla smiled at Roger. “Scared, Roger? Hide behind me, then.”

“Okay,” said Roger. He meant it.

The VR drill copied the Academy grounds. Fanny waited for each Ender to strike, then put a blade in its open chest. Layla fired from a bright doorway at the far end, low charge, thin and true.

With a minute left, Roger ran for the spot behind her, two hundred meters of open ground. He was puffing hard. A claw slammed into the paving at his heels.

“Gah!” He went down on his back. The Ender reared over him and raised its claw.

Fanny’s cable shot out before she had decided anything. It wrapped the claw, shining, and she hauled until it stopped a meter above Roger’s face.

Caught in mid-strike, the Ender’s chest stood open, the core glowing. Fanny went up over it on her thrusters and came down blade first for the last blow.

A thin white shot passed her ear and went into the core. The Ender burst into light.

In the doorway Layla swung the cannon up over her shoulder. “If you’d led them over earlier, I could’ve killed them all even faster!”

“These ‘Ender’ things, huh. What pushovers!”

“Layla...” said Roger.

Fanny was out of her pod first. She caught Layla by the tie.

“You idiot! What were you thinking?!”

“Do you even realize just how dangerous that was?!”

The shot had passed a finger from Roger’s face.

“Dangerous?” Layla knocked her hand away. “What, you doubt my judgment, is that it?”

Fanny clutched her own head. “You arrogant little...”

“Some thanks I get for saving your life!” said Layla. “You could at least be grateful!”

“Enough arguing, guys...” said Roger from his pod. Nobody heard him.

The board read out the score. “Team B3: VR training complete. Your score: 33 enemies taken out within 10 minutes.”

“Of these 33: Fanny defeated 15, Roger defeated 2, and Layla defeated 16.” The sixteenth had been on Fanny’s cable.

“I did it! I won! Victory is all mine!”

“Whoa, Layla’s awesome! Nice work!” a girl called.

“Congrats, Layla!” a boy shouted. “You’re finally not trailing along in second place anymore!”

“Shut it!” said Layla.

A boom shook the hall. “That’s the lull over,” said Joe. “They’re awake.”

The siren began. Ultra Enders were attacking the defense sphere in Terrinia’s Northeastern sector. They had ripped a breach eight meters by two. The dome, thought Fanny. Every tutor was called through the academy gate portal.

“Ultra?” said Roger. “Is that Ultimate?” Nobody answered. Joe was already at the door, his sword drawn.

“Team B3. With me.”

Roger did not get up. Fanny lifted him by the collar.

“Protecting Terrinia is our duty.”

FannyVoice line

A tall frame by the main gate was filling with light. The portal: step in, come out at the breach.

“And now, it’s our time to shine!”

“Hey, that’s my line!” said Layla.

They ran into the light together, still arguing over whose line it was.