"Do you have to do that here?"

The words gave Iris a start; she hadn't heard Willow walk in. She'd been too busy cooking her own breakfast to listen out for that kind of intrusion, and the music she was blasting took up the bulk of her spare perception already.

Iris had gotten used to spending her mornings on her own. Amanita tended to keep to herself, and even when she was around, she wasn't exactly loud about it. Iris liked the solitude of the barracks, and the freedom that came with it; it was a lot like home, but with fewer responsibilities.

Willow's presence in the mornings was something she'd have to get used to.

Iris sighed, turned the heat down, and turned to face her comrade. "Do what? Cook?"

Willow stood in the doorway and sniffed disdainfully. Her hair was wild, her eyes were bleary, and her arms were folded in front of her pyjama-clad chest. In the harsh light of the artificial morning she came across as even colder than usual.

"Well, yes, that too. But I meant the music. It's far too loud."

Iris waved a gesture command to her portable speakers and the music hushed itself. She'd gotten the speakers a day or two ago, a gift from Searl to make her quarters a bit more homey, and had been using them pretty religiously since. They weren't half bad.

Perhaps Willow was jealous.

"What's wrong with my cooking?" Iris asked. "I've got to eat, you know."

Willow rolled her eyes. "Every morning you coat this room with a layer of grease," she sneered. "It's disgusting."

The sizzle in the pan changed subtly, and a faint burned smell started to creep into Iris' nostrils. She glanced at the frying pan and saw the facon starting to char; she took the pan off the hob quickly, swearing silently, and started to serve up. Maybe if she'd not been distracted…

Willow rolled her eyes again and walked up to the coffee machine, quickly but calmly engaging hidden settings and diving deep into its menus. She placed her cup under the spout, fed the machine a pod and set it going.

Iris could still barely make it give a basic cup.

The door swung open once again, and Amanita entered the room. She was in her pyjamas, as Willow was — Iris felt overdressed in her T-shirt and jeans — and just as dishevelled as ever. She had a pill box in her right hand, but in the other she held a coffee mug. She stood at the door, waiting her turn at the coffee machine, until Willow was done.

Clearly, one medicine was more important than the other.

"Does that even mix with caffeine?" Willow asked, as she sat down to drink her own cup.

Amanita said nothing; she shambled into the room and started the machine again. Iris took the intervening silence as a chance to sit down with her own breakfast.

Willow scowled. "You know it's polite to say good morning, don't you?"

She hadn't said it either.

"Morning," Amanita said quietly. She took her now-full mug and joined the other two at the table.

Willow took a dainty sip from her cup. "How's the arm?"

Amanita took two pills from her pill box and swallowed them with a swig of coffee. "Fine."

"Only I don't want to go into the field with a liability," Willow continued. "It's bad enough having to work with this amateur; at least she's capable of intelligent thought."

Iris filled her mouth with breakfast. There was no need to say what she was thinking.

"It's fine," Amanita said. She was as unreadable as ever.

Willow finished her coffee, stood up from the table and reached into one of the cupboards. She pulled out a small loaf of bread and put two slices from it into the toaster.

"It had better be," she said.

Iris stopped eating with a huff.

"What's your problem?" she asked. "Isn't this job hard enough without us bitching at each other?"

"I can be nice," Willow shot back, "when the world is no longer at risk."

Iris sighed. Clearly, Willow was immune to criticism; she should have just kept her mouth shut. But it wasn't fun to watch her abuse Amanita.

The toast popped up. Willow took her two slices, buttered them and left the room without another word. The silence lingered behind her for a moment.

"Are you okay?" Iris asked, eventually.

Amanita just shrugged.

"I hate the way she talks to you." Iris added. Though really, she hated the way Willow talked to everyone.

"It's fine," Amanita said.

"Maybe we could talk to Colonel Adler?"

Amanita shrugged again. Iris finished her meal in silence.

After breakfast, Iris went back to her room. She stepped inside the room and closed the door behind her, breathing a minor sigh of relief as it clicked shut. She lay on the bed, stared at the plain white of the ceiling and thought.

Was there any point in talking to the Colonel? Maybe Amanita was really unbothered by Willow's attitude. Maybe Iris was the only person who cared, the only person with skin so thin that—

Her phone buzzed. She rolled over and grabbed it, unlocking it with her thumbprint.

Dad:
hope you're doing okay. physiotherapy going well. any chance of a visit some time soon? it's pretty boring here

Just as she finished reading the first message, another came through.

been reading about this project you're in. nice lad from the army came and brought me some stuff to read. Harry something. any chance we could talk about it?

What?

Iris dropped the phone and lay back down; the thoughts in her head were moving too fast for her body to move at all. It felt like a betrayal. Harry was talking to her dad, behind her back. Was he even allowed to do that? What the hell was she going to say?

She'd have to get some answers.

The television in the break room flashed light and colour and noise. Iris was barely watching it, lost in her own thoughts and feelings.

She needed to talk to Harry, to find out what was going on. Harry was a nice guy, supportive. He had to have a reason for talking to her dad, and surely he'd be happy to tell her if she only asked him.

Beside Iris on the sofa, Amanita was reading and slurping ramen. The noise washed over Iris like water.

Iris sighed, and stood up. There wasn't any point in sitting around and waiting. She had to talk to him. She strode over to the door and put a hand on it to push it open, but suddenly stopped in shock.

For about half a second, she could've sworn she had a sixth finger on that hand.

"You okay?"

Amanita's voice pulled her out of the haze. Clearly, she was tired. She had plenty of reasons to be tired, and weird shit happens to your head when you're tired. She'd have to get an early night tonight.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm good."

With that, she pushed the door aside and went into the corridor in search of Harry Searl.

The base outside the break room hummed like a well-organised machine; its personnel walked along the corridor like blood cells in an artery, carrying notes, equipment, ideas and energy this way and that through the underground complex. For a moment, Iris found herself swept up in it, a leaf on the wind, but she soon shook herself into readiness for her task. She had a job to do.

She walked into the hustle and bustle and immediately ran into Colonel Adler.

"Oh, Miss Platt," he said. "Is everything all right?"

Iris hesitated. She didn't want to drop Harry in it, but…

Why are you protecting him?

Iris frowned. "What did you say?" she asked. She'd been miles away, but…

Adler looked back at her with concern. "I said, is everything all right?"

"Uh, no… after that," Iris said.

"I didn't say anything after that," Adler said. "Miss Platt… Iris… is something the matter?"

Iris shook her head. She could've sworn…

"I think I'm just tired," she said. "I didn't sleep that well last night." She wasn't sure that was exactly true, but it seemed like as good an explanation as any.

Adler nodded. "Perhaps you'd better take a quick rest," he said. "You never know when you might be needed."

Maybe he was right. But she needed to talk to Harry first.

"Have you seen Ha— er, Lieutenant Searl?"

Adler pondered for a moment. "He'll be coming back from lunch any moment now, I'd expect." He straightened up a little. "Speaking of which, I'd better eat as well. If you'll excuse me…"

With that, he left.

It took Iris at least half an hour to find Harry Searl. He wasn't, as Adler had said, coming back from lunch; instead, she found him sharing a table in the mess hall, talking with about a half dozen other soldiers who all clammed up as she approached, leaving her with a sneaking suspicion that she'd been one of the topics of their conversation. She put that thought aside and tapped Harry on the shoulder.

"Harry," she said. "Can I talk to you?"

Harry Searl put his tea down and turned around in his seat. "Iris? Of course. What is it?"

Iris glanced at the other soldiers at the table. Probably not the right people for this talk. "In private?"

Harry nodded and stood up. "Back in a moment, lads."

As he and Iris walked away from the table, a faint ripple of laughter followed them. Iris blushed.

"Sorry about them," Harry said.

"It's okay." It wasn't, but she didn't want to get into it.

Iris and Harry found a quiet corner to talk in a side-corridor just outside the mess hall itself, a low-traffic passageway to a maintenance section. The lights above were dimmer than the rest of the base, and the walls and floors were scuffed from what Iris guessed was probably heavy equipment. Though what sort of equipment that could be, she had no clue.

"What's up?" Harry asked.

Iris sighed. "You talked to my dad."

"Oh," he replied. "That."

They stood in silence for a moment.

"What did you tell him?"

Harry Searl scratched the side of his nose with a thoughtful look on his face. "Just the basics. We can't tell him much more than that, really." At least he sounded apologetic.

Iris frowned slightly. "The basics?"

"The most broad goals of the project. A little bit about Aberrants. How important you are to fighting them."

"Why?"

Searl blinked, clearly taken aback. "He's… your dad. Don't you want him to know what's going on with you?"

"Well, yes, but—" Iris felt her words catch in her throat. "But he should hear it from me."

Now that she'd said it, it sounded pathetic.

Searl sighed and shook his head. "You hadn't told him anything, had you?"

"I didn't know what I could!" she protested.

But it wasn't the real reason.

Harry sighed. "Oh, Iris…"

Iris felt herself shrink under Harry's gaze. She appreciated his friendship, and she could handle his sympathy. But his pity was more than she could bear.

She was such an idiot.

"I'm sorry," Searl said. "I should've talked to you first. But you need to talk to him. He's worried about you."

Iris said nothing. She had her reasons.

The alarms went off.

The Aberrant attack was taking place some way out of the city centre, in a suburb not entirely unlike Iris' home of Ilwich. It didn't take them long to track down the beast. There weren't that many places to hide in a place like this, all uniform housing and grid-patterned streets. It was the first time all three of Willow, Iris and Amanita had been deployed together properly, three girls of varying colour and configuration leaping into action like a well-oiled machine.

Iris should have been excited. But half her mind was stuck thinking about Harry.

The Aberrant stood at a crossroads. It was strange, much smaller than the others that had come before, only a metre or so taller than a normal human, looking like an ant in the shadow of the three Thanatos units. It had four spindly limbs curving out from an oblong body, and a bulbous head with an almost-human-looking face. Iris trained her gun on it, and for a moment, she thought she could see fear in its features.

"Ha," Willow said. "This'll be easy." She took her own gun and fired three rounds into the creature's body, leaving it smeared across the suburban street. She turned to go.

So much for any hope of distraction, then. Iris and Amanita turned to leave as well, but stopped when the radio crackled.

"Wait," Klein said. "It's not dead."

Iris looked back at the monster. Klein was right: the smear of Aberrant goo was moving, pulsating, collecting together, rebuilding itself from the ground up. Two feet appeared, then legs, then a body, then arms and a head, the process creating a humanoid form much taller than before, its head level with Iris' own. It looked her in the eye with a terrifying, uncanny gaze, and spoke.

"Help me!"

Thanatos fought as Iris watched.

Thanatos' limbs tore at the human-Aberrant thing in front of it, pulling liquid flesh apart like molten play-dough, the beast's awful ululations and pleas running off Thanatos' un-ears like water. Iris heard every desperate word, but from her place in the cockpit she could do nothing.

"What are you waiting for?" Thanatos said. It had her voice. "Kill it!"

Iris screamed.

It was one thing when the Aberrants were just unthinking monsters. But this one seemed to have some intelligence, some humanity. They couldn't do this; not to a living, thinking thing. Not to a person. They had to stop, to try talking to it, to try to understand at least. What if they were all like that?

But Iris was powerless.

Amanita unloaded a volley of gunfire into the creature. Willow slashed at it with knives. The creature didn't fight back; it seemed too out of it to defend itself. Iris wanted to throw herself in front of the attacks, protect it, save it, but she couldn't.

She — Thanatos — was attacking it too.

The monster threw its arms up, trying in vain to protect its head. It did no good. Thanatos cut through the arms like butter, and Willow took the opportunity to attack its now-exposed belly. Amanita kept up her fire, pausing only to reload when the magazine ran out. Destruction rained upon the creature from all directions, and all it could do in reply was scream.

Stop. Stop. For fuck's sake, STOP!

The creature stopped. Willow wiped her knives clean and sheathed them.

"Told you it'd be easy."

Amanita nodded. "Strange, though."

"What's strange?" Willow asked.

"It didn't fight."

Willow shrugged. "We got the drop on it."

"Is that what happened?" Iris realised belatedly that she had regained control, that she was speaking.

"You have a better theory?" Willow sneered.

"I…" Iris looked down at herself, red-streaked white chrome gleaming in the afternoon sun. "I don't know. It looked like…"

She didn't know what to say. Or rather, she did, but she didn't know how to admit it.

"Iris. What's the matter?" Klein's voice was as plain as ever, betraying no emotion in her words.

Iris sighed. "It's nothing."

"Good. Return to base."

Iris couldn't sleep. She didn't want to be alone with her thoughts; they weren't safe, not after that. She tried music, but everything was too loud. She tried reading, but her eyes kept slipping off the words. Even exercise, her usually-familiar friend, failed to comfort her. And so, she found herself standing outside Amanita's room at 11pm with a pillow, debating whether to knock.

She sighed, and did so. The door opened about a minute later.

Amanita was still dressed. She drowned herself in a hoodie, the hood up with tufts of black hair escaping it, and held a mug that smelled suspiciously like coffee.

It was terrible sleep hygiene. But Iris didn't feel like judging her at that moment.

"Hey," she said. "Can I come in?"

Amanita thought for a moment, then nodded. "Was about to watch Tetsuo: The Iron Man. You want to join?"

"No, I…" Iris sighed. "I don't know if I'm up for an old superhero movie right now."

Amanita blinked, and thought some more. "It can wait."

She stepped aside and beckoned for Iris to enter the room.

Amanita's room was a cave of wonders. In one corner, clothes were piled up, all sorts of weird and wonderful garments in many styles and colours, many of which completely went against Iris' idea of Amanita's wardrobe. Another corner was filled with stuffed toys, animals both real and imaginary. Between the two, there was a utilitarian metal desk; it carried a desktop computer with a frankly ridiculously-sized screen and speakers to match. The floor was strewn with instant ramen packets and assorted other snacks.

Amanita swept a corner of the bed clear and patted it. "Sit."

Iris nodded bemusedly and sat down. She'd suspected Amanita's room would be a bit untidy, sure, but this was way worse than she'd ever imagined.

She was even worse than Dad!

Amanita sat down in the chair by the desk and looked at Iris thoughtfully. She said nothing.

Iris felt Amanita's gaze burning into her.

"I couldn't sleep," she said. The explanation felt flat, fake.

She tried a different tack.

"What happened today? With the Aberrant, I mean."

Amanita shrugged. "It didn't fight."

Iris shook her head. "Before that, I mean."

Amanita looked blankly at her.

"I could've sworn…" Iris sighed. "I thought it said something to me."

"Said something?"

Iris swallowed nervously. "It said… I thought it said… 'help me'."

Amanita shook her head. "I didn't hear that." She paused for a moment. "You fought it too." It wasn't a question, but it wasn't entirely a statement either.

"That's the other thing," Iris said. "I think…"

She stopped. What was she going to say? That she'd completely lost control that afternoon, like she wasn't in control of her actions? That something inside her had taken over and murdered something — no, someone — and there was nothing she could have done about it? That she felt like there was a monster inside her, put there by—

There was no other word for it. That was insane.

Iris sighed. "Never mind."

At around the same time, Willow knocked on Doctor Klein's office door. She knew the woman would be in; she practically radiated workaholism with every breath. So it was little surprise when the door opened to reveal a rather tired-looking Klein along with the scents of overbrewed tea and stale cigarette smoke.

"Oh, Willow," Klein said. "What are you doing here?'

"Better question," Willow sneered. "What are you hiding here?"

It was obvious that there was something that she was hiding. Even if the last mission's revelation that the pilots were a ticking time bomb wasn't evidence enough, this mission's bizarrely passive Aberrant was the smoking gun; there was something about the Aberrants that they weren't being told, and Klein seemed like the obvious candidate to be the one to ask. It was just logical.

"There's a lot of mission-critical information you're not being told, Willow," Klein answered. She had the tone of a teacher chiding a student.

Willow seethed. She hated being talked down to.

"Fuck you, Klein," she growled. "I'm not an idiot, and as it happens I've actually been on this project for longer than you have."

She put a hand on the door frame and got up close with the doctor. Intimidation range.

"So," Willow continued, "I think I deserve some answers. What are the Aberrants, really?"

Klein rolled her eyes. "Go to bed, Willow. You've got no leverage here."

She went to close the door; Willow stopped her with a foot.

"I won't hesitate to call security," Klein told her, flatly. "I won't be threatened by a teenager."

Willow looked her dead in the eyes. "Just tell me one thing," she said. "They're human, aren't they?"

Klein didn't reply; she pushed Willow away and slammed the door.

But that was all the answer Willow needed.

Next time:

Colonel Adler sets a some challenges for our pilots! If they can fight monsters, surely they can handle a glorified obstacle course. But can they learn to work together well enough to handle to challenges ahead?

Find out in the next exciting episode. Episode Eight: Smoothing!