[Can’t Opt Out]

Elijah loved raids. They were one of his favourite things, and unlike most vets, it was rare that he found his mind pulled back to the war during them. Part of it was probably that while he had occasionally served at the front, he hadn’t exactly been a top-tier soldier—not that he’d been terrible! He had been acceptable enough, and while he’d never been able to get used to sparking the way a lot of soldier had—the nausea was no joke—he had been skilled with microsparking. Combined with his Perfect Physical Levels and Load Levels high enough to support some resource heavy mapping and recon skills, he’d been quite useful as part of rescue teams, quickly moving through half-collapsed buildings to rescue people after the danger of more attacks had faded—and occasionally while the battle raged on. While there had been a point, soon after sparking was developed, where those who could spark would stick around to quickly rescue those who were trapped, later in the war, those who could spark would be gone, off to deal with the next attack while they all ran on barely any sleep. So, it was up to those of them who were part of more dedicated rescue units to retrieve the remaining victims of the attack.

There had been a lot of dead bodies, which was rough, but rarely had he come face to face with any monsters of war, unlike his brother, who while a medic, was skilled enough that he had often worked near the front. It had, unfortunately, not been uncommon for those medical units to suddenly find themselves at the centre of a battle. A lot of those medical units had been wiped out in barely a blink early in the war. Even later on, a lot of doctors and medics had died in such assaults because they refused to leave the patients who were too critical to be sparked to safety to die alone.

Where Elijah’s life had only occasionally been threatened by monsters, he had been in a few building collapses. It was part of why he avoided indoor raids on the occasions his mind already seemed likely to spiral back to the war. Sterling, on the other hand, had been at the heart of the front multiple times, both when he was purposefully putting himself there—the idiot had volunteered to head to the front to help get heavily injured frontline soldiers into a condition they could be moved more than a few times—and during the numerous instances that his unit had suddenly been all that was standing between the injured and a legion of monsters.

All that amounted to the fact that he was a veteran soldier who had rarely experienced true war, so raids didn’t bother him often. Sterling, on the other hand, avoided raids. The fact that he had even shown up to raid with himself and their older sister… that meant a lot to Elijah. Even if his brother had almost immediately called him out for being an idiot—and let all the stars hear him as he admitted that he knew he was an idiot—Elijah couldn’t begin to describe how loved he felt.

There was also so much regret within him, however, for letting his brother do this. While Sterling didn’t have the PTSD some veterans had, he still didn’t revel being in raids the way Elijah himself did, nor did he view them with the disinterest Arabella did. The regret had been almost immediate, as his brother sparked in and the RaidZone formed. Now, Elijah’s regret for allowing Arabella to bring their brother into the raid skyrocketed as he caught the look of horror that crossed Sterling’s face as an invader bore down on their sister, so fast that Elijah knew even he wouldn’t make it.

Sparking within raids wasn’t impossible, but with so much of the aether being used to support the raid itself, it was far more difficult. Even for top heroes who could spark near-infinitely outside of raids, it took a little longer for their Censor to pinpoint spots in the aether that could be used to spark. All real-world skills with no properly optimized raid version were technically like that: a little slower than normal, a little odd when compared to their use in the real world.

At least, that’s what Elijah had heard from heroes who were both top heroes and low-devs. Aside from sparking—which he didn’t do often, due to the physiological effects—he couldn’t say he usually noticed anything too different with his use of unoptimized real-world skills within raids when compared to their use in the real-world. Then again, given he had no intention of becoming an echo hunter or spending time in the Dread Coliseum or becoming a criminal—the three places where skills of use in raids were commonly used in real life—as well as his preference for raid-only skills, it wasn’t like he had much recent experience with the use of such skills within or without raids.

That said, when comparing his memories of what those skills had felt like during the war and what raid-only and raid-optimized skills felt like, he generally thought skills meant to be used within raids easier to activate—something that he knew caused constant controversy, as critics claimed the raids were giving heroes the impression they were stronger than they were.

In Elijah’s experience, the only people who denied that was the case were Hail employees, the Baalphorian government, and the sort of heroes who were likely to get themselves killed trying to fight an echo they were in no way equipped to deal with. Actually sensible heroes—which was currently most of them, although an increasing number of heroes entering their gap decades were anything but sensible—didn’t deny that raid skills were different from those used in real fights. Elijah knew some heroes argued that, as raids were meant to be a game, it made sense that Hail would work out a way for skills to activate faster within RaidZones. Yet, raids were also supposed to be a way to keep people ready, in case war began anew, and how was creating an environment where people could easily be fooled into thinking themself more powerful than they were doing that?

Worse, perhaps, was that Elijah knew a number of people had died in echo attacks when they tried to use a raid-only skill that had no real-world version. The skill only worked within RaidZones, and the people who had tried to use it in the real world suffered for their mistake. It was all very messy, and while Elijah loved raids, he could understand why people were frustrated with Hail. Surely, there must be a way for Hail to find a middle ground between making sure raids were enjoyable and that they didn’t mess with a hero’s ability to defend themself in the real world?

It was all fascinating, and even if Elijah didn’t understand too much about skill design or how the raids worked to have any solutions, raids were still his favourite thing in the world. That was why he knew that none of his or his brother’s skills would be able to reach Arabella before the invader crashed into her. Even her own skills, prepping in her Censor, weren’t going to be fast enough because while Arabella had rarely stepped foot onto the front, she was still a trained soldier. Arabella, who rarely raided and likely didn’t realize the difference in activation speed and that she would be better off using a raid-only skill or her willbrand to defend herself—was instead trying to activate a real-world skill and it wasn’t going to be fast enough.

While logically, Elijah knew the invader couldn’t seriously hurt his sister, his heart still seized. Most likely, a big part of it was the lingering stress from being with that clone—not to mention realizing that Emilia was friends with a Black Knot agent, that terrifying woman in the wheelchair who had been able to summon an army of clones to deal with Victor’s parents and all the people they had dragged into their attempt to force Beth to contact The Black Knot and ask that their son be released.

That woman was friends with Emilia and would do anything for her. Emilia was friends with Beth and would do anything for her. That woman was a Black Knot agent, not afraid to pull other agents into her mission to keep Emilia safe, and in this case, keeping Emilia safe meant keeping the people she cared for safe.

It was disturbing and terrifying and almost… sweet all at once. Elijah also had no idea what to do with any of it, other than keep his distance from his ex. Just a few hours locked away in that room with those three clones had been enough for him, the memory of the one he had primarily interacted with scratching through his brain like a parasite. The thwap, thwap, thwap of his foot hitting the table leg as he watched with those predator eyes. Everyone knew the clones were monsters, but being in a room with them…

No. If Elijah had to switch schools or run away to the middle of nowhere to make sure he never upset Emilia enough that the clones came calling again, he would. The worst thing was that up until earlier that day, Elijah was sure that Emilia had still cared for him. Maybe things hadn’t been great—and yeah, they probably had been heading for a breakup for a while, Elijah just hadn’t imagined it would end like… that—but they hadn’t been so horrible either.

Yesterday, if he had needed help, Emilia probably would have called up her Black Knot friend and asked for help if she thought it necessary. Now, he was on the receiving end of that help, and that hurt. It hurt to know that he had fucked up so much that someone was now helping Emilia protect her friend from him.

It also hurt that he wasn’t going to be able to get to his sister in time to help her. He could already see what was going to happen—could imagine her body being flung backwards. One of the auto-release raid skills would cushion her as she slammed into the building behind her, but it was still likely to knock her out. With enough time, Sterling would be able to rouse her, but what a mess. This was supposed to be cheering him up—something to get his body and mind moving so those hours in the clones’ custody couldn’t tear through his genetics and cause traumatic knots to form. Instead, he was going to watch his sister be hurt. Then, he would watch his brother fall apart trying to heal her as he remembered all the people—the soldiers, civilians, and friends—he had been unable to save during the war.

It was terrible.

It was horrific.

It was a nightmare, and Elijah could understand why so many veterans hated these things.

What a way to end this whole disaster of a day: by scattering his love for raids to pieces and leaving him with yet more traumatic knots. It was, perhaps, what he deserved.

Sterling vanished through the aether, aiming to spark in front of Arabella and take the hit for her. Stupid—they were both going to be injured like that, Sterling sent spiralling backwards and taking Arabella out with him. Hopefully there was another medic nearby to help them.

Of course, Sterling wasn’t going to be fast enough for even that. Instead, he was liable to pop out right next to the invader after it had already slammed into their sister, then be sent flying somewhere else—or worse, he’d be sent flying into Arabella where she would lay against the wall after having been sent careening into it.

Sterling appeared in front of Arabella. That wasn’t right.

Sterling didn’t go flying backwards into Arabella, and that wasn’t right either.

Sterling blinked into the space where the invader should have been, his eyes snapping to its new home, across the courtyard. That definitely wasn’t right.

Who…

The invader twitched, its arms wiggling as it tried to remove itself from the wall it had somehow found itself imbedded into. It didn’t work, its arms too short to give it the leverage needed to pull itself free—not that it would have gotten far even if it had managed to escape. One moment, it was wiggling in its attempts to regain its freedom, the next, it was a smear of black liquid over the wall.

“Too easy,” a voice sighed, Elijah’s eyes snapping to the speaker.

His first thought was that he didn’t recognize her, with her long red hair that lay loose around her, flowing almost to her feet as though she had no worries that it might get in her way. His second thought was that her feet were bare, and while the weather certainly didn’t call for warm clothing, it was odd for anyone outside of a few specific regions—like the Penns, with its perpetual beaches and lazy lifestyle—to go without shoes on the street. His third thought was that she had a temporary Censor around her neck. A glittering red, it appeared to be one of the newer models—the sort of models that few people who weren’t echo hunters or still part of the military bothered upgrading to, due to the cost.

His final thought, before a flurry of raid notifications erupted over his vision, was that no, actually, he did recognize her, this girl who was a rarely seen, but still public member of Division 30.

Well, that was… a turn to the evening that he definitely hadn't expected.