Because there are so many fewer diversions on this station than on the previous one, Aegis takes to those that are offered with more of an open mind than she might have done before. For instance, she stays after personal combat sometimes, to watch Sue sparring with Howlett. Now and then she takes a turn herself. Today she's just supervising.

Author: autokinetic	Because there are so many fewer diversions on this station than on the previous one, Aegis takes to those that are offered with more of an open mind than she might have done before. For instance, she stays after personal combat sometimes, to watch Sue sparring with Howlett. Now and then she takes a turn herself. Today she's just supervising.
Author: pythbox	Sue sparring with Howlett is a real education. It always looks like at least one of them will be leaving the room on a stretcher at any moment, but so far, nobody's sustained significant injury. That is about to change. Howlett attacks with the characteristically aggressive style of these after-hours sessions; Sue responds with equal force. They go back and forth for a while, a surprisingly even exchange considering the difference in skill level. Then Sue manages to grab Howlett's wrist, and he immediately spins, pulling the attached arm out straight and throwing his whole weight against the back of the elbow. It makes a very nasty sound. They don't even pause; Sue, laughing, presses the advantage, and Howlett defends, and despite his now-useless right arm he manages to hold Sue off for half a minute more.
Author: autokinetic	What the - "What the hell? Did you just break his elbow?"
Author: pythbox	Howlett snorts. "Yep!" says Sue, proudly. His victory having now been established, he lets Howlett up; the personal combat instructor rolls his shoulder a few times, waiting out several more nasty sounds, and then flexes the afflicted elbow. Good as new.
Author: autokinetic	"...Oh," says Aegis. "Roomful of mutants, huh?"
Author: pythbox	"Yup," says Howlett. "It's the best," says Sue. "I get to hit him as hard as I want." Howlett looks amused.
Author: autokinetic	"Is it a secret? I mean, during classtime you scarcely get hit, but that's not never, if you don't need people to hold back you could tell them."
Author: pythbox	"I'm not supposed to advertise it," says Howlett. "I only found out 'cause I broke his nose a while back," says Sue.
Author: autokinetic	"Why aren't you supposed to advertise?" Aegis says. "Mine's public - I wear evidence of it around all the time - and Sue's is public 'cause it's useful."
Author: pythbox	Howlett just shakes his head.
Author: autokinetic	"If it's private and you won't tell me why, you probably should've told Sue to pull his punches, or sent me away before you started," says Aegis. She doesn't mean to sound threatening, but she happens to think that this is true.
Author: pythbox	"Why's that?" asks Howlett mildly.
Author: autokinetic	"Because I hate doing things when I don't know why I'm doing them," says Aegis, "and I also hate not knowing things in the first place."
Author: pythbox	"Tough," says Howlett. Sue rolls his eyes. Howlett relents. "Politics," he explains. "If it gets around that a mutant's teaching personal combat at Tacical, and enough people get their panties in a twist, my job's probably going to be the first thing to give."
Author: autokinetic	"You on thin tether for some other reason? As far as I can tell IF policy is mutant-neutral and practice is often pro-, 'cause we're useful. Like, I'm the only person in the military who can use certain military-grade hardware." She stretches her arms above her head.
Author: pythbox	"I have," says Howlett, with a slight smile, "an insubordination problem."
Author: autokinetic	Aegis giggles. She glances at Sue, and giggles some more. "Understood," she says.
Author: pythbox	Sue and Howlett exchange a grin.
Author: autokinetic	The Tactical School routine is not as much fun as the playful childhood of Battle School, but it's got work enough for her once Aegis has loaded up on electives in not just personal combat but also xenobiology and engineering. She keeps busy. The months go by. She's twelve and a half and Sue's approaching fourteen. And he's been terribly moody. "You've been a pill lately," she says, when she's between xenobio protein flashcards winking by in spaced repetition on her desk. She throws a rolled pair of socks at his back. "You okay? Has puberty eaten your personality, am I next?"
Author: pythbox	He winces at the impact, then lets the socks roll off him without returning fire. "Yeah," he says with heavy irony, "it's all the hormones' fault."
Author: autokinetic	"No, seriously," she coaxes. Then: birdbirdbird?
Author: pythbox	Sue flops down on his bed and puts his pillow over his head. You don't want to know, he says; the undertones are tired, sad, uncomfortable, ashamed.
Author: autokinetic	The hell I don't, who do you think you're talking to?
Author: pythbox	Fine. She's told him before that he's a multimedia presentation; what he shows her next is definitely in that vein. Sight, sound, physical sensation, emotional content - all muffled, at one extra remove, like he's shielding her from the full impact. For good reason. It started a few weeks ago. One of the older kids, nearer graduation. They had a scuffle in the corridor, which is not all that unusual; what's unusual is that the other guy won. And he held Sue against the floor, and it felt wonderful and terrible and frightening in ways Sue didn't really understand. Then the same boy found him again, another time. Again they fought. Again Sue lost. But this time, it did not end there. He tried to push his suffering to make him back off, like he did with that gang back at Battle School, but this kid just mocked him for his conflicted feelings, for his shame, his fear, for the part of him that liked it. He went to a teacher, after the second time. Not Howlett. He couldn't face Howlett with this. The teacher flatly told him it wasn't happening. Sue has never in his life been blown off with such absolute conviction. No help there. Yesterday it happened again. He barely tried to fight back. His new best friend was very happy about that. Sue wanted to throw up, or maybe just gut himself. And, lest anybody doubt what a slut he is, he still got off on it. When the narrative flood subsides, he's crying softly into his pillow.
Author: autokinetic	The dorms are in a medium-gravity section; Aegis is at his side in a moment to wrap him in a hug. Oh Sue. Oh my bird.
Author: pythbox	Sue clings to her and sobs.
Author: autokinetic	Why not Howlett, could you tell him if I was there, could you back me up if I told him - he wouldn't pull that crap, he gets you -
Author: pythbox	He cries harder. I couldn't, I just couldn't. It would hurt too much to know he knew.
Author: autokinetic	She squeezes him. Then - then I'll stick by you, we can get him together, she says, like that last time, you and me.
Author: pythbox	He sniffles into her shoulder. Maybe, he says, unconvinced. I don't know. I'm afraid. He doesn't specify of what.
Author: autokinetic	I want to find something to do that you're not scared of, but I don't know if there is something like that.
Author: pythbox	I'm afraid he'll hurt you too.
Author: autokinetic	I - Well, she has no clever response to that. Now that he mentions it, she's scared too. But. He might do that anyway, just because I'm your friend.
Author: pythbox	...And now he's crying again.
Author: autokinetic	And I'd tell, anyway, I'd tell until someone listened, and then he'd get iced.
Author: pythbox	This is a strangely appealing prospect. Except. I still don't want you getting hurt like that. Underlying the words: it makes sense for shit like this to happen to Sue. Sue is already twisted. Aegis is beautiful and perfect and any world where she gets hurt is a wrong world.
Author: autokinetic	You shouldn't be getting hurt either. The world's wrong in a billion ways and that's one of them and if I can stop it I want to. I'll do it without getting hurt if I can, though.
Author: pythbox	Yep. Crying.
Author: autokinetic	Hugs. This isn't something urgent to figure out on a scale of right now; the creep can't get into their room. (Unless he can, unless he can fool the palm scanner, but then they'll have to go with trying to beat him up anyway and any elaborate plan will be moot.)
Author: pythbox	Aegis is such a good friend. Sue never wants anything bad to happen to her, ever ever ever. He pushes that; it seems important.
Author: autokinetic	I agree with you. Except it doesn't make it okay for bad things to happen to you either. I wouldn't be such a good friend if I thought so, e?
Author: pythbox	He laughs softly. E.
Author: autokinetic	Hugs are good. Hugs help even when they don't. You got a better idea than cornering him with me there and kicking the kuso out of him?
Author: pythbox	Nope.
Author: autokinetic	There's a scratching sound and a series of beeps at their door. Aegis sits up. The door slides open. It's a familiar face. Hello, Sue's new best friend. "Hiding in your room? What, forever, Tommy?" asks Sue's new best friend. "Not very sociable of you." (Sue's name is, alas, not hard to find. The teachers will use a nickname simply because that's the only way for them to get him to respond, but "Thomas Chester Sanderson" goes on being stamped into every official record.) Aegis stands in one fluid motion.
Author: pythbox	Sue freezes.
Author: autokinetic	birbirdbird going to need some help, here says Aegis, dropping into a ready position. "Get out of our room," she says. Sue's new best friend touches the panel on the wall that closes the door, and it slides shut. "Mm," he says, "no."
Author: pythbox	He links her, but he doesn't move—he can't move—all he sends is fear, soft quiet mouselike fear.
Author: autokinetic	Sue - Sue, if he can take you by himself, I don't know if I can take him alone - Sue's new friend moves fast. Sue's old friend moves faster, but she is not as strong, she is not a speed-mutant but only an efficient user of her limbs, and either this guy knows how her exo works or he's lucky, because after a lot of dodging has gone on and she's gotten one admittedly solid hit to his gut, he clips her across the ear and sends her head careening into the edge of her bunk and her motor cortex goes screwy; it's like she seizes, twitching all her muscles at independent random, and then she falls to the floor like a rag doll. Like a twelve-year-old girl. "I like how you're all cooperative," says Sue's new best friend, nudging Aegis with his foot and getting a half-conscious groan in response. "She thought she was being helpful, maybe but you know you don't mind if I come in to visit you whenever I like."
Author: pythbox	It's a nightmare, a living nightmare, all of the worst things that could possibly happen, worse than dying, almost worse than going home. But—how'd he forget this so fast?—he used to live a nightmare as bad as this one. Sue chooses to stop caring that he is afraid. He uncoils from his tense stillness and launches himself into the older boy, fast enough that the force of impact slams him against the door.
Author: autokinetic	"Oh, you want it rough today," is the response, and the fight is on. Sue's new best friend is barely hampered by the hit he took to his stomach, and he's confident, not scared, he's beaten Sue before.
Author: pythbox	There is only one way to make this stop. Sue understands that now. He doesn't fight to 'win', to merely immobilize his opponent; he fights to cause maximum damage, and any injury he sustains he reflects ruthlessly back at the person who caused it.
Author: autokinetic	Sue's determination doesn't give him reach, or mass; his reflections don't change the fact that his opponent isn't aiming for injury himself, just an inability to do more than squirm, so at first this doesn't change much. But damage accumulates, and Sue's new best friend starts to realize that he's not playing at resistance or about to roll over like before, and he starts talking. He's not an idiot. They don't let idiots into Tactical. "C'mon, don't you want to get her to the infirmary, it'll be over sooner if you just - she's probably got brain damage, you know," says Sue's new best friend. "Maybe it's helpful brain damage, maybe you can reach in with your mutie linky thing and pick her up like a puppet, maybe she can play a little more, hm?"
Author: pythbox	Sue replies by biting his new best friend's hand. Hard.
Author: autokinetic	That gets him a hiss and his head knocked into a bunk, too. "Bet you she's dying. I'll let you run her to the infirmary to save her and make up some story about how you hurt her yourself if you quit - fighting - me -"
Author: pythbox	Maybe she is, but this guy's word isn't worth a chunk of puke. Sue doesn't do anything different, here in his room. He still fights like a cornered rat. But he also reaches out to the infirmary - he knows it well enough to find the minds that belong there - and he touches one, and sends a pure-informational message: Aegis hit her head on her bunk and she's not moving and they should send someone to check her out.
Author: autokinetic	The doctor he alerts is going to send someone along at once. Pity they're on the opposite side of the station. "I'll tell them it was her and you fighting, and I heard you and that's when I came in, and you hurt her, and even if she wakes up she's got a head injury, who'll she believe?" But he's slowing down now, just a little, favoring one shoulder.
Author: pythbox	He cuts the link to the doctor and finds another soft place to sink his teeth into.
Author: autokinetic	"Little fucker - all I ever did to you was give you what you wanted anyway -" But Sue's winning, now, the balance has tipped just enough to add up to his advantage.
Author: pythbox	Sue pushes, with stark clarity, I want you to die.
Author: autokinetic	Sue's new best friend has a little problem with his jaw now, but as long as they're linking - Oh, you think so, but you're always gonna think about it, gonna wish you'd let me one last time - kill me now and who'll ever want you? It'll get around, he killed the last guy who so much as touched him, not even desperate guys gone space-gay will look twice at you unless they want to get with your little friend when she grows tits - you'll die alone, little friend when she grows tits'll have her pick and there's no way she'd want a freak like you -
Author: pythbox	He fills the link with the extensive depth of how much he does not care, and jams his elbow into the older boy's throat.
Author: autokinetic	Sue's new best friend chokes. He has no clever rejoinder.
Author: pythbox	Sue does it again.
Author: autokinetic	Sue's new best friend cannot breathe. He strikes out, but he's just flailing, now, eyes unfocused.
Author: pythbox	And it's easy, now, to pin him to the floor. And wait. Just wait. That's all.
Author: autokinetic	There are three minds in this room. Sue's new best friend gets in a parting shot, dripping with malice. You sat there while I trashed her. She'll remember that. Now there are two.
Author: pythbox	Sue sits down on the floor, leans against his bunk, and waits.
Author: autokinetic	The medics arrive, and they split up to check each of the three bodies in the room, and declare Sue's new best friend to be Sue's dead best friend, and they load Aegis onto a stretcher and carry her away. "You need the infirmary too," says one of the medics, looking Sue over. "Can you walk?"
Author: pythbox	He pulls himself to his feet and immediately stumbles, catching himself on the wall. "Kinda," he says distantly.
Author: autokinetic	"Need another stretcher over here," says the medic, and Sue is loaded onto it and carried down the hall after his - friends.
Author: pythbox	He spaces out a little on the way. There just doesn't seem to be anything to think about.
Author: autokinetic	Aegis wakes up before they get there. bird?
Author: pythbox	He pushes her everything. What happened, what he felt. What the other guy said.
Author: autokinetic	my head hurts, she replies, and she can no longer bird, the wall goes back up.
Author: pythbox	Sue goes back to his nothing.
Author: autokinetic	They're adjacent to each other in the infirmary. The other guy is in the makeshift morgue; he's not the first person to die on the station, although they don't have enough population to have a permanent setup for it. They're treated for their injuries. Aegis regains the ability to bird again after about an hour. you okay?
Author: pythbox	no
Author: autokinetic	he hurt you?
Author: pythbox	He doesn't know. Well, yes, but he doesn't know if that's what's wrong. He makes his confusion available over the link.
Author: autokinetic	they say I'm gonna be fine, she volunteers. they got to me quick enough. they won't tell me how you are.
Author: pythbox	i showed you what happened, he says. do you want it again?
Author: autokinetic	I know what happened. I don't know how you're recovering. I'm not a doctor.
Author: pythbox	me neither
Author: autokinetic	but aren't they telling you? I want you to be okay
Author: pythbox	i don't care if i'm okay.
Author: autokinetic	I do!
Author: pythbox	why
Author: autokinetic	you're my bird. my friend I mean, you're my friend.
Author: pythbox	i like being your bird, he says listlessly.
Author: autokinetic	you don't sound like you like anything, right now
Author: pythbox	He considers this, then agrees wordlessly.
Author: autokinetic	what's wrong, help me help you
Author: pythbox	don't know, he says. i just. don't care. about me. about anything.
Author: autokinetic	Aegis has to dig very deeply to bring down enough wall for it, but she finds out that she can, if she wants to badly enough, send a virtual hug.
Author: pythbox	Now he is crying. Is that an improvement? It feels like it is.
Author: autokinetic	talk to me? please?
Author: pythbox	don't know what to say, he says. thank you, i guess. for being my friend.
Author: autokinetic	you're welcome
Author: pythbox	He doesn't know what the name of this feeling is, but it's a good feeling and he can't remember the last time he had one of those, so he sends it.
Author: autokinetic	Sending feelings is hard, and her head still hurts, or she'd reply in kind. thank you
Author: pythbox	you're a good friend.
Author: autokinetic	I like to think so. I wish I'd been better. I could've softened him up more if I'd been ready, but he just - I was thinking ambush but he just came in.
Author: pythbox	i wish i'd been better too. if i hadn't froze up he might not have got you like that.
Author: autokinetic	you couldn't help it. you would've fought if you could. you did, when you could.
Author: pythbox	He sniffles.
Author: autokinetic	you don't think they'll ice you for this, do you?
Author: pythbox	if i show them what happened, and they do, then i don't want to be here anyway.
Author: autokinetic	they better not.
Author: pythbox	He almost says he doesn't care that much, but... home is home. yeah.
Author: autokinetic	There's nothing else to say. I'm going to sleep.
Author: pythbox	okay
Author: autokinetic	They're released from the infirmary at about the same time. They aren't called to any meetings, no one reacts beyond giving her missed lesson plans and homework assignments when Aegis goes back to class, Sue is not ordered to report to a shuttle to Earth. It's like nothing happened. They're hanging out in their room again when Aegis says, "So have you actually been to a million disciplinary hearings already when I haven't been looking and you just haven't mentioned or - are they doing exactly nothing?"
Author: pythbox	"Nothing," says Sue. "I don't think they even told all the staff. Howlett doesn't act like he knows."
Author: autokinetic	"That's weird," says Aegis. And she pulls out her desk. Her old hack should work - pretty please can she have another backup of the files she's lost, look, she has this earlier save - Sue's file is bigger now. She reads. It's a raging brawl, insofar as text can be. Sue's patron-champion-careerbooster is livid that - that the higher-ups ordered that the teachers ignore what was happening so they could see what Sue would do. They didn't sic the older kid on him, but they did stand by; they did know what was going on all along - they did give him a chance to see a teacher using the master door-opening passcode. You said we hadn't seen him under enough pressure, says one of said higher-ups. He doesn't respond to academic inducements, so we engineered a test he could not ignore. This wasn't the right kind of pressure. You may well have destroyed our best chance in the name of testing, to say nothing of the moral atrocity! You will never make a soldier out of this child. You might, if you're lucky, still make him the commander that saves humanity. But you'd best hope to God he never finds out what you did. "Sue," says Aegis quietly.
Author: pythbox	"...What?"
Author: autokinetic	"If I had just found out something that might make you very, very angry, and if at least one person thought that making you that angry might lead to humans going extinct, should I tell you that something anyway?"
Author: pythbox	He snorts. "Yeah."
Author: autokinetic	She turns her desk to face him and bows her head.
Author: pythbox	Sue reads. Slowly, quietly, carefully, he turns her desk around again.
Author: autokinetic	She waits.
Author: pythbox	"If I do save humanity," he says, far too lightly, "then they'll give me these guys' heads on a platter when I ask."
Author: autokinetic	"You can pin them to your uniform with all your medals," agrees Aegis.
Author: pythbox	He laughs.
Author: autokinetic	Aegis sets her desk aside and hugs him tight.
Author: pythbox	Somehow, his giggles metamorphose into sobs.
Author: autokinetic	"You're okay, you're okay," she murmurs, "or you'll be okay, it'll be okay."
Author: pythbox	Sue clings.
Author: autokinetic	"You'll be okay," she repeats. "You're not as breakable as that guy thinks you are and you'll be okay."
Author: pythbox	"I know," he says. "Hurts, though."
Author: autokinetic	"Can I help?" she asks, hugging harder.
Author: pythbox	"You are," he says, hugging back.
Author: autokinetic	"Yeah, but - could I be doing it better?"
Author: pythbox	"Dunno." Cuddle cuddle.
Author: autokinetic	"Well - if you think of anything - lemme know." Cuddles.
Author: pythbox	"I will," he murmurs.
Author: autokinetic	"Good."