Thankfully, the catering guy didn’t follow us or anything. At least, that’s what Moonlight told me as we looked for somewhere more peaceful and private to speak with Naia. She was watching our backs, as I had asked, while remaining ethereal, so if he had followed us, then she would know. She promised to inform me if the situation changed, though.

We managed to find a quiet spot on the campus quad to talk, under the shade of an old oak tree. There weren’t a lot of people around, and most of those were older students passing by along a nearby path, going about whatever they had planned for the day, or new students of the baseline human variety taking the afternoon to freely explore the campus. In any case, the tree not only gave some welcome shade from the afternoon sun, but also a bit of privacy to get to know Naia and discuss some things.

Despite it being the beginning of September, the weather was nice and warm, and it was a beautiful afternoon to spend outside. Poppy and I would have to be on guard for any predators that might consider us a meal, like hawks, cats, and such, but we were starting to get used to that. Ainslee, Karen, and Kelly would all be on guard for that kind of thing as well, and so long as we stuck close to our human-sized teammates, we would probably be okay.

“Sorry about having us all leave the party to do this, Naia. I felt it would probably be better to have this talk somewhere quieter and more private, where we wouldn’t have to worry about people bothering us,” I offered to the Siren as we all made ourselves comfortable.

“No… that’s okay… really. I’m not really a fan of big social gatherings,” she assured me, waving her hands in front of herself as she spoke. “So… thanks for getting us out of there. I have a bit of… umm… social anxiety. It was… uhh… a bit of a problem in high school. I didn’t make friends easily, and I guess being the quiet music nerd didn’t help.”

Poppy gave her a sympathetic smile. “No worries, Naia. I feel you there. Before I ended up in a cocoon of blood and gore for several years, I had issues talking to people, too; I still do sometimes. And I was openly lesbian and a music nerd too. So, yeah, I get socializing being hard.”

I was a little surprised when Karen smiled weakly and nodded in agreement. “It’s cool, not everyone is a social butterfly. I tried to avoid social interaction for a long time; I avoided making friends. These girls… didn’t give me much choice, and I still have trouble dropping my guard sometimes, but as teams go… If you do join us, I know they’ll all have your back… like they do mine. I’ll try too.”

“Awwww… our team tsundere is trying to be nice and welcome her. I’m so proud,” Kelly teased the Dark Elf.

“Fuck you, furball.” Karen retorted before going quiet again. There was a faint smile on her face, though.

What Kelly said hadn’t been entirely in jest, and I was kind of proud of Karen, too. First, she was watching Kelly’s back, and now she was trying to make Naia feel welcome in her own way. Even the one-fingered salutes that the pair exchanged held no real animosity. It was nice to see Karen taking baby steps and making progress, because I knew that she still had trust issues, and this friendship thing wasn’t easy for her.

Ainslee shook her head at the exchange, but she was smiling too as she inquired, “So, Naia, if you don’t mind me asking, why didn’t you take a year off before starting at the University? I hear that a lot of Altered in the city do that if they haven’t Awakened and gotten their special ability yet. I was planning on doing that, but I Awakened over the summer.”

“Actually, that was the plan,” Naia replied, looking down at her hands. There was a touch of nervousness in her voice as well, not as bad as at the party, but enough to see that she genuinely had anxiety issues when dealing with new people. “I was ready to wait a year, and then on Saturday… well, stuff happened, and next thing I know, I’m talking telepathically with my sister. The distraction nearly got her ass blown off.”

I winced in sympathy, but at least it sounded like her sister was okay. “Yeah, I imagine that wasn’t the best time to be on the receiving end of that discovery, in the middle of an Incursion and all,” I commented.

“Yeah, that’s putting it lightly,” she agreed with a grim nod of her head. “Anyway, she reported it to her superior officer after the fighting died down, and then on Sunday, we got a visit from Vice-Commander Carpenter. She… umm…. set me up with someone to help train my telepathy, got me an appointment for testing tomorrow, and… uhh… fast-tracked my registration for classes and stuff.”

“She probably decided to introduce you to us and see if we all click as soon as she had all of that set up,” I muttered. The Vice-Commander had made a good point about Naia being useful to our team, with us possibly being one of the first teams on site if we had a visual for me to teleport to. And if she could stay in touch with command to get new orders or pass on important information with that kind of range, she would make an excellent comms officer.

I wasn’t against the idea, so long as we all got along, and so far, it seemed like she would be a good fit. Even Karen was trying to be supportive and make Naia feel somewhat welcome, and I knew that wasn’t easy for her. Besides, the VC could have made Naia’s assignment an order, but she was giving us the choice, and I appreciated that.

I was so lost in my thoughts about that, I almost missed my sister asking our potential new teammate, “So, Naia, will you be staying in one of the dorms, or living at home?”

“We’re… umm… my sister and I are hoping that I can find a place in one of the dorms, but it might be a bit late for that now. If I could live here on Campus, it would be much more convenient. And my sister would move into one of the barracks rooms in Vanguard Tower. Not having to rent an apartment for us would save her a lot of money since it’s only just the two of us.” Naia’s expression was thoughtful as she replied, and she seemed to be losing a little of the hesitation in her speech the more we talked with her. The latter was a good sign.

“Well, if things work out and you do join our team, we do have an empty bunk in our room, so long as you don’t mind living in Rainbow Dorm,” I offered. She seemed nice so far, and the others weren’t giving me any signs that they would have a problem with her joining us. Even Karen and Moonlight hadn’t made any objections yet, either subtle or obvious.

The Siren just sort of gaped at me for a moment before she managed to find the words and will to reply. “Wait, really? You’d all… umm… let me room with you?”

Ainslee gave me a subtle nod and a smile before replying in my stead. “Well, if we all get along and we’ll be training together anyway, I don’t see a problem with it. It’s sort of the reason we’re all rooming together anyway. So, as long as you don’t have a problem living in the dorm for LGBTIQ folks…”

As my best friend trailed off thoughtfully, Naia was wildly shaking her head from side to side. “That’s perfect!” she blurted out, looking a little more relieved than just for having a possible dorm room. “I mean… I’m… uhh… I don’t know where I fall on that spectrum exactly, but I’m… not really attracted to guys. Not that I… uhh… have much experience or anything.”

Well, things might actually work out better than I feared when the Vice-Commander approached us with poor, shy Naia in tow. I was starting to feel positive about this in general, right up until Moonlight’s voice slipped into my thoughts. -My Maiden, someone is watching your group again.-

Well, shit. My mood immediately soured as my thoughts were tinted with annoyance, and I inquired, “Is it the same guy from the meet and greet? The catering guy who was watching Kelly?”

-No, this is a human girl, close to your age. She does appear to be focused on your sister, though. Look to your right, she is standing on the path and has been looking at Kelly very intently for several minutes now.-

I turned to look in the direction that Moonlight had indicated and saw a girl who looked like she might be one of the new students. She was just standing there, in the middle of the path, and looking in our direction. With a silent command to my comm crown, I accessed its camera and jumped in VR for a moment so I could zoom in and get a better look at the girl.

She looked ordinary enough, baseline human of mixed ethnicity with dark hair and eyes, and she was dressed casually for the weather in a pair of jeans, sneakers, and a green blouse. She was carrying a bag from the University bookstore and otherwise looked unremarkable. But then there were those dark eyes of hers, which looked vacant, just like the guy earlier, and that empty gaze was once again laser-focused on Kelly. This was not a coincidence; I could feel it in my bones, and something about that empty stare bothered me deeply.

“Girls, Moonlight says that we have another watcher,” I said just loud enough to carry to the others.

“Moonlight? Watcher?” Naia asked, looking more than a little confused at my sudden announcement.

“Fuck,” Karen muttered before glancing around.

Meanwhile, Kelly was explaining to the Siren, “Moonlight is Lily’s Unicorn, she’s invisible right now, so we don’t get even more attention. We’ll have to introduce her to you later. Wait, what do you mean by ‘another watcher’?” The last was asked as my sister seemed to finally process all of what I said.

“Yeah, I see her. Different person, but the same creepy, empty stare, and her eyes are locked right on Kelly, just like the last one,” Karen announced before mirroring my thoughts. “I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

With that, Karen and I quickly explained to the others what we were talking about, and Kelly visibly shivered at the unwelcome attention as she tried to subtly get a look at the girl. “I don’t recognize her,” she said after a moment.

“Me either,” Ainslee agreed. Then she turned her attention toward me and asked, “So, what’s the plan, Lily?”

I frowned as I considered the situation. “The way I see it, we have two choices here, girls. One, we go find somewhere else to talk and see if it happens again, or two, we confront her here and now. She might bolt if we’re too obvious about it, though, and I want to know what this is about.”

“I say we go, let her know not to fuck with our friend, and get some answers about what the fuck is going on,” Karen bluntly suggested, her face set in a frown that seemed even more angry than I was used to seeing from her, even when we first met. Yeah, this had her on edge and pissed off, but she wasn’t the only one feeling that way.

“Maybe you and I should go in, Love,” Poppy offered. “We’re small enough to avoid notice if we’re careful.”

I considered the idea. I wanted to confront the girl, as Karen suggested, and to be able to have my sister confront her and find out what her malfunction was, but my girlfriend made a good point as well. Getting the drop on her would be a good idea for a lot of reasons. I smiled as an idea came to me.

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” I announced as I started doling out orders. “Naia, are you familiar enough with the Vice-Commander to contact her telepathically?”

“Y-yes, Ma’am,” she quickly replied with a nervous nod of her head.

“Okay, I want you to contact her then. Let her know what’s going on and tell her that I think we may have a problem here. We might need some backup here, maybe a medic if things go off the rails, though she looks like she’s a regular human, so that’s just a contingency in case something happens we’re not expecting, or in case she’s an Altered with no visible changes. Once you’ve done that, I’m going to teleport us right to her so she can’t try to make a run for it. Everyone, be prepared in case she pulls a weapon or does anything else hostile.”

It was a moment later that Naia confirmed that she had informed Vice-Commander Carpenter of both our current situation and location. The staring girl hadn’t moved a muscle so far as I could see, and she was still focused on my sister, to the point where she was either ignoring the rest of us or just didn’t see us as important. It was time to correct that assumption.

I had already tagged everyone while Naia was doing her thing and said, “Okay, everyone, this will be easier if you’re all standing and ready to react as soon as we change locations.” As soon as everyone stood up as I had asked, I focused on the spot directly in front of my sister’s strange stalker and moved us there.

Everyone was in motion as soon as we appeared, save poor Naia, who looked just a little disoriented from her first time teleporting. Ainslee and Karen immediately moved into position to cut off any escape, and the Siren quickly followed their lead while Poppy and I hovered at my sister’s shoulders, directly in front of the girl. Her eyes immediately widened, though it somehow still looked almost as if the lights were on, but nobody was home. “Who the hell are you, and why are you watching me?” Kelly almost snarled, glowering threateningly at the girl in front of her.

She blurted out something in surprise, but it wasn’t any language that I recognized. Kelly did, though, I could see the recognition and fear written all over her face as it lost any color it had, turning almost as white as her hair and tails. In that same instant, the girl’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell to the ground in a dead faint.