The hivemind is conquering for me?

The man pulled his arms into the air and chuckled. ”Woah! Easy Babe, I was just trying to get your attention. Now that I have it, my name is Kevin, what is yours?” The man said, his eyes squinting as he smiled.

Orchid just went back to eating. Ignoring the man completely.

Kevin looked over to the bar, his friends were snickering at him, at his clearly poor attempt at picking the babe up. He had talked the talk and he had to walk the walk by any means necessary.

”Look, cupcake, I don’t think you understand who I am. My Father is an Archon, so. Lets you and me go for a nice walk and see where the night takes us, hmm?”

Orchid just continued eating. Ignoring the man completely.

”Oi! Look at me when I am talking to yo-” The man started and reached out for the plate. His hand touched the rim before a steak knife was embedded within. ”Ahhh! Bitch!” Orchid looked up from her plate and began twisting the knife.

”I warned you. I gave you fair legal warning of my boundaries and you decided to break them. As such, I had every right to defend myself.” Orchid said all of this with a flat expression on her face and began twisting the knife even more.

The screams of the man caught everyone’s attention and when Orchid saw his friends rushing over to help him, she pulled the knife out of his hand and engaged in a combat stance. She would have to apologize to Apollo later, she tried to stay out of trouble like he said, but it found her... At least she could kill some people in the process.

As the group of men charged over, a sudden blue shockwave erupted through the bar, knocking all the men over. Orchid also had to brace herself against the non-lethal attack, but she remained standing.

The source of the sudden crowd control was the small woman Orchid had witnessed earlier. The 4ft10 woman was average looking, but her aura as she made her presence known was something else.

Orchid was more surprised than earlier, this was a powerful human, one she wasn’t sure she could kill if it came to it. Said woman looked at Orchid curiously for a moment as she made her way over and stood before the grounded men and tutted in disgust.

”You know, there is a group of sleazy nobles like you every year that don’t take the initiation warning seriously. Who think they are above rebuke because daddy runs a planet. You make me sick.”

There was no response from the downed choir, only moans of pain from the surprise attack.

”Everyone that I knocked down, you are expelled effective immediately and will be branded as unreliable Psionic wielders. You four by the bar, you didn’t run over, leave now before I change my mind and drag you in with this snivelling lot.”

The four men took no chances and ran to the door, only one looking back at a particular purple haired woman for a moment before leaving.

”As for you.” The short woman turned and looked up at Orchid. A tension rose within Orchid. She couldn’t fail Apollo by getting expelled, this would be a catastrophe! ” I heard what you said, you were minding your own business, they accosted you. You will not be expelled.”

Orchid felt her body lighten up hearing this, a relief washed over her. ”However, you caused more harm than needed to make your point, that man will need a metal hand now or spend a decent chunk of credits on some healing Psionics. Come with me, you have detention.”

Orchid paused hearing this. She didn’t know what detention was... However, she had nothing else happening right now. She did have one question for the mystery human. ”Can I bring my food?”

The woman looked at the plate of uncooked meat and gagged, but ultimately nodded her head. ”Sure, but eat fast, if you get blood on my carpet, it will be your end.” Orchid turned a deaf ear to the threat, it didn’t seem sincere. She grabbed her meat with her hand and began shoving it into her mouth while following the strange woman. She wondered if there was a correlation between female human height and strange powerful Psionics as she did so.

...

As I watched Janine take another shot, we suddenly heard an incredibly loud whistle coming from below us. ”That’s it marksman, clubs over, put away your crap and get going!”

”AWWW!”

A group of grown adults cried out in unison, clearly they were all enjoying themselves. Most had not been able to hit targets too far away, sticking to closer shots, but the adrenaline each time a bullet hit was magical to them.

Janine had a beaming smile on her face, with her own gun, she went into her element, she had totally drowned out my existence as I attempted to talk to her and just fired shot after shot after shot. She fired so many that she ran out of ammunition at one point and began wandering with her open hand in her pouch. I couldn’t help myself and wanted to keep her happy, so I gave her my ammo.

It was just as well as I clearly needed actual marksmanship training, after she stopped helping me, I hit about three targets total and none of them were the one a mile away.

As we packed our stuff away, I told Evanthe I would come find her at some point and we said our goodbyes. Janine and I stayed behind at Fergus’ request and once everyone had left, he sat on the edge of his desk and folded his arms.

”So, an Archon and his Mercenary Sepiida? That must entail quite the story... Don’t worry, I won’t pry into the deep end, I am sure it’s interesting, but honestly, If I listened to every interesting story about my students, I would forget how to shoot a gun as something has to give way. No. Let’s talk about why you are here.”

He then clicked his fingers and an exact copy of my bullet emerged above his palm, only it was stable and not growing in power. ”This is some extraordinary stuff Apollo, I meant it. I mean, not as great as some of my bullets, but for someone your age? Yowzah! I think is an acceptable term. Who taught you?”

”My teacher.” I answered plainly, prompting Fergus to point at me and nod. ”Good! Keep intel as short as possible, less truth can get lost or jumbled. I also can tell I won’t get anymore out of you, but you gave me plenty so thanks for the honesty, now you, blueberry muffin. Mercenary, how?”

”Quasi Adopted by a mercenary captain when I was young, filed off my horns till they stopped growing back, wore a helmet. Learned to snipe. Secured my position as overwatch.” Janine mimicked the no nonsense straight to the point attitude Fergus was displaying and the man nodded his head as though he had predicted this.

”Sorry about the horns kid, thats pretty fucked up. But that is the empire we live in... I’ll make the situation simple. You continue to shoot well and the both of you keep it in your pants while you are here, I will keep this a little secret. Now, once we have all warmed up to each other and become buddy buddy, you can tell me some mercenary stories. Now scram, I have another smaller group coming for the club that had scheduling conflicts.”

The two of us left and both agreed that we liked that teacher. He was no nonsense, but was also very kind in a very practical way. As we were walking back to the compound, we ran into a familiar face.

”Oh Mindy, hey! I thought you dropped the club when I didn’t see you earlier, did you have a scheduling issue?” Mindy beamed a smile at seeing me, but looked a little downtrodden upon hearing that I had already been.

”Yeah, cosmetology started, I couldn’t miss it. But next club we will have together, I think.” She declared, causing me to smile. ”Thats great! It will be good having all my friends together, taking the same club activity. Oh, and you will like the teacher, he is a good dude.”

The two of us then parted ways and once Janine and I were back inside the compound, Janine took off her gravity gear and stated. ”Huh, my breasts feel really heavy now... Did you have to bring that point up earlier? I won’t be able to stop thinking about it now... Apollo, my eyes are up here.”

”Huh? Oh sorry, you brought attention to them, I was just paying attention to your two excellent points.” I stated, causing Janine to blush and look away. ”Ass.” I was about to continue my analysis of the points she was making, but I was suddenly disrupted by a voice that had emerged from behind me.

”Apollo-Lambdason, come with me. We need to discuss your recent blessing.”