Heath led the others confidently down a side street lined with shabby apartment buildings and large pots of flowers, placed at regular intervals to remind any pedestrians that this was a nice neighborhood and that they should find somewhere else to loiter after dark. Streetlamps and the glow from every window made the evening feel comfortable, especially for a crew that hadn’t spent much time recently under natural light. He turned left at the next intersection, the surroundings fading into the background with more of the same. Then right. Left, and left again. At the end of the trek he was facing a dead-end alley between a movie theater and a coffee shop.

  “Thank you for this riveting tour of your home world. The natural beauty and ingenious design are unparalleled. Truly.” Ekaterina’s voice was flat as she surveyed the yellow stains on the damp concrete.

  He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling as it heated at the scrutiny of the others. “I may have forgotten the exact right way to get there.”

  “It’s not far,” Jenny Mae chirped behind him. “I have [Navigation] running, this way!”

  “Could’ve said that in the first place,” Copperfield said as he turned to follow the Aide-de-Camp.

  “I thought Heath might know a shortcut. Pathing skills can improve with exposure to novel routes!”

  “Huh, who knew?”

  Ekaterina turned to follow as well, leaving Heath to trail behind in shame with Emerald.

  “You should have known! It was part of the reading I sent you.”

  “Right,” Copperfield replied. “You know I meant to go through that.”

  Heath hissed at the misstep. From the twitch to his right, Emerald had caught it too.

  “Don’t worry, I remember it enough to tell you now!” Jenny Mae didn’t hesitate to launch into an explanation of skill archetypes present on the crew, and the established methods of development.

  “You think the cheery one will notice if I’m invisible? Can maybe duck out into the next store and get one of those…” Emerald trailed off as they pointed at the nearby storefront selling some doo-dad. The kind of shop that shouldn’t be able to support itself in a low traffic area. “Whatever they are. Must be better than this.”

  “She will absolutely notice,” Heath said. He let the lecture wash over him. Unlike Copperfield, he had done his assigned reading. Mostly. The Loon had turned it into an audiobook with her own commentary which had been remarkably helpful in getting through the dry text. “You could offer some of your own wisdom. From your many, many years as a Classer.”

  Heath turned to the side to find himself alone, Emerald having gone invisible to duck out from the conversation.

  “Aaaannnd, we’re here!” Both hands in the air in a flourish, Jenny Mae turned to watch the rest of them group up. Emerald had phased back in so silently Heath hadn’t noticed.

  ‘Here’ was an abandoned park, one Heath had spent hours in growing up, playing with his friends and pretending to be a combat Classer or an Explorer out on the Edge. It looked…small. Great for kids with big imaginations, but less impressive as an adult. Even the obstacle course, one of his favorite places growing up, would be trivial for him at rank two. The edges of embarrassment crept in, eroding the idea in his head of the rest of his crew having fun climbing and crawling across the structures.

  “Cool.” Copperfield nodded approvingly as he kicked at the decorative border of local grass.

  “Looks fun!”

  “An acceptable early training program,” Ekaterina was surveying the playground like a general on a battlefield. “It lacks appropriate practice for improving reflexes, but that could easily be remedied by an observer with sandbags.”

  In his relief, Heath easily agreed to go against Copperfield in the first race of the night. They lined up at the starting mark, woodchips still damp from the earlier rain providing a soft layer under their feet.

  In a twist Heath hadn’t seen coming, it was Emerald who appeared in front of them. Rather than say anything, they held up a hand, five fingers splayed. Then they bent one down. Another. Three. Two. One.

  Heath was off, Copperfield beside him. There was no hope in beating Copperfield in a regular race, their resident tank having the edge in a straight physical contest. But this was Heath’s old stomping ground, and as such he had a chance.

  He was also going to cheat outrageously.

  Charging towards the first obstacle, he leapt without slowing, grabbing the top of the short wall and hoisting himself over. He darted across a balance beam, and onto the rope wall without breaking a sweat. As a kid, the ropes had been the cause of more than one impressive bruise. The tangled net scramble was hard enough, swinging from rope to rope afterwards without losing momentum was even harder.

  For an unClassed child. Heath was barely breathing hard, leveraging every firmer footrest and the best places for gripping that he could recall from growing up playing here. He should have known that wouldn’t stand. A jet of water blasted into his face, blinding him and causing him to drop onto the woodchips below. Jenny Mae cheered next to a smirking Ekaterina.

  “Why?”

  “For Reflexes training,” the Wizard said. At the same time, another jet of water hit Copperfield squarely in the mouth.

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  When the former pirate finished sputtering, he scrambled after Heath towards the ladder that led back to the beginning of the obstacle. A little water wasn’t going to stop them.

  Laughing and soaked to the skin, Heath crossed the finish line a hairsbreadth in front of Copperfield, to applause from the rest of the crew. It was just past midnight, but the park was far enough away from any residential areas that they should be forgiven for the noise. He took a bow, coming up with a flourish and shaking hands with Copperfield.

  “Who’s next?”

  “Oh, me! And Emerald!” Jenny Mae was already lunging for her challenger, to drag them to the start.

  “Well, well, isn’t this cute?”

  “Hmm?” Heath turned along with the rest of his crew towards the unexpected voice, his face flushing. They were supposed to be alone out here, that was part of the point.

  A full moment passed before the recognition kicked in. Then everyone moved. Like a well-oiled machine, his crew collapsed into their standard formation, Emerald fading to invisibility. The problem with that instinct was they were usually armed. Ekaterina had her staff but the rest of them were weaponless, looking down the barrel of a plasma pistol.

  “None of that, now.” The man– Heath was no longer willing to call him the Accountant – shifted the gun a few degrees to the left. “Where I can see you.”

  Emerald faded back into view, exactly where the gun was now pointing.

  “You aren’t going to outsneak me, you pathetic excuse for a Rogue.”

  “Hey!”

  “Quiet!” The gun swung back around to cut off Jenny Mae. “You idiots are going to listen, and then die politely.”

  “Hey man, no need for that.” Copperfield had his hands up but was nudging Heath with his foot. “Syndicate cleared the bounty so you won’t get anything out of this.”

  “No need? You made me a laughingstock! I’ll get plenty out of this, mark my words.”

  A surge of mana was the only warning. Copperfield glimmered as his upgraded [Mech Armor]l activated. The thin layer of protection was not as strong as when he was in the mech, but better than nothing.

  With [Perception Aura] at full blast, courtesy of Jenny Mae, its newest feature highlighted weak spots on their attacker. One at the left armpit, right thigh, and his exposed neck. Weird but he would trust it. Her newest [Party Sense] skill let the information she gathered flow between each member of the crew, so that the rest of them coordinated perfectly.

  The ground melted and flowed around the assassin. It wasn’t enough to send him reeling, not at his level, but it didn’t need to. Ekaterina’s spell had hardened again, trapping the man’s feet where they stood. Only for a moment, but a moment was all they needed.

  The phase pistol went off. And kept going off. Heath grunted as his mana took a hit, as each shot slammed into a [Shield] placed perfectly to intercept. His own improved [Crew Sense] combined with Jenny Mae’s Skills, letting him know who was most in danger at a given moment and placing the defensive Skill to help.

  His crew had taken advantage and closed the distance. This man was a sneak, an Assassin or something like it. He should have shot them from the dark. A force lance, an armored punch, and a knife to the throat landed all at once.

  The results were disgusting. Blood and gore fanned out over the playground as their former passenger collapsed. He wasn’t dead yet. But without healing, not even a build with every stat point in Toughness would save him.

  “Should we…” he gestured to the soon-to-be-body, looking at the others.

  “It would be a mercy he has not earned,” Ekaterina said. “We showed compassion once before and look what has become of it.”

  Heath sighed. “I was hoping we could wait a bit for the ‘I told you so’ portion of the evening. But I’m not sure I can just watch.”

  “Too late.” Emerald’s gruff voice broke into the argument.

  Heath turned back to their attacker, and confirmed Emerald was right. The assassin was dead.

  “Is now a good time for the ‘I told you so’?” Ekaterina nudged what was left with the toe of her boot, making sure he really was dead, maybe.

  “No, now’s the time to figure out what to do with the body.”

  “Can we just leave it?” Copperfield suggested. “No one saw or they’d already be out here, right?”

  “This is a playground! For kids!” Jenny Mae shout-whispered.

  At the same time, Emerald voiced their own objection. “A strange body shows up in the neighborhood, who do you think they come talking to? The same locals that never cause problems or the new Classers who just rolled into town?”

  As if they planned it, or maybe because [Party Sense] was still running, they all turned to Heath at once. He forced himself to survey the damage. Killing people wasn’t getting easy, but he was less conflicted about it than the first time. Maybe he should be concerned, but this guy had already gotten lucky once, and decided to attack them for it. Heath wouldn’t lose sleep over putting him down.

  But he would be losing sleep if a little kid went home crying to their parents about stumbling on a dead body. “How much dirt can you actually move with that skill?” He turned to Ekaterina, who had returned her staff to its storage mode as an ornate bracelet.

  “It’s freeform, so I can keep going in a small radius, just mana intensive.”

  “That’s impressive! I was reading up on mage classes, I didn’t think they got that kind of spell until rank 3.”

  Ekaterina was too well-trained in court manners to puff up at a compliment, but she did stand just a bit straighter. “Yes, the benefits of the Wizard class. Not so many formal skills to make the magic easier, but I am only limited by my own focus and training.”

  “You think all that training could make a grave?” Heath asked.

  “A playground, Heath, a playground!”

  “I know! But we can’t just cart a body through the city.”

  “Yeah, but…” Jenny Mae trailed off.

  Heath didn’t like it either but didn’t see another option. “Just do it quickly.”

  Maybe it was a cutthroat noble upbringing, or just Ekaterina’s practical nature coming to the fore, but she had no objections of her own before getting to work. A pit slowly formed, the excess earth piling up around it as she went deeper and deeper. Twice over the course of an hour she had to stop to let her mana regenerate.

  The others stood watch, Jenny Mae muttering about how they were defiling a childhood sanctuary until Copperfield took one for the team and distracted her by asking questions about how their new Skills had synergized.

  By two hours after local midnight, it was done. They had tossed the body and any of the bloodier woodchips they could find into the hole, and helped Ekaterina by shoving the dirt back on top, letting her save her mana to pack it down to match the rest of the playground. Reshuffling the woodchips and it was like nothing had ever happened by the time they left for the Loon.

  Heath’s mom was generous and would have happily let them stay at the apartment. But five grown adults in a two bedroom was actually worse than a cargo hauler for privacy and elbow room. A blessing in disguise, Heath really didn’t want to explain what had just happened, and there was a good chance his mother was still up and working.

  Waved through by a tired third-shift guard at the port, they made their way onto the Loon in silence. By mutual understanding, they flowed to their normal spots on the bridge and collapsed into their seats.

  “So,” Heath started.

  “I told you so.” Ekaterina hadn’t even let him finish before she finally got to say it.

  Heath couldn’t even deny it. She had told them, and he had made the choice back on Caramov to leave the guy and deal with the consequences later. “You did.”

  “What happened?” The Loon asked.

  Rather than recount the whole thing, Heath took advantage of his upgraded [Ship Merge], sending the Loon his memories of the event in their entirety.

  “I see. While I lament the cruel necessity that brought this upon you, may I say that I am proud of your progress, your teamwork, and your decisiveness in the face of adversity.”

  “Thanks Loon. Would have been better if we hadn’t needed to deal with it at all. I guess next time we have to do what needs to be done the first time.”

  “No! Heath, do not discount the impulse of mercy and what it means. While I am not a human, I do believe I have gained some knowledge of non-digital lifeforms. Killing might sometimes be the way forward. But your generosity of spirit is responsible for my own life, and I would not see you lose that.”

  “Hopefully we don’t need to do something like that again.” Heath ignored Copperfield’s scoff and barreled ahead. “Let’s get some sleep. If that guy could find us, so could anyone else. We spend tomorrow getting cargo if we can, but we leave the day after. No matter what.”

  They all followed his direction, Jenny Mae with a look that said his timeline was taken as a personal challenge.

  Copperfield clapped him on the shoulder as they arrived at their bunks, bright smile belying what came next. “Who’d have thought it was that easy to hide a body?”