“Pfft. Yo to you too, Hermes.” The young man laughed and mimicked his greeting a little mockingly.

When in Ypsilon or Sentinel-related settings, they always referred to each other by their Codenames. That meant that from now on, Avery was Hermes, and Lucas was Lamb.

With his roguish grin, dyed black-and-russet hair, and sharp chestnut eyes, Kairo Nakamura – or Codename Puma, as the man ought to be called right now – was the only other Sentinel in the region. He was their senior, both at school and at work... and he was also Lamb’s ex-boyfriend. Though it didn’t entirely seem that way as Puma turned to Lamb with bright eyes. “Hey, sweetie! Long time no see. You look just as awake as usual.” He chuckled, and before either of them could protest, stepped forward and grabbed Lamb by the chin. The playful glimmer in his eyes sharpened into a glint, and his teeth bared in a dark grin as he looked down at Lamb’s startled face. “Wow, you haven’t tanned at all. Weren’t you in Singapore all summer? I was kinda looking forward to some sexy tan lines.”

Cheeks flushing, Lamb scowled and shoved the man’s hand away, but Puma didn’t seem bothered. He lifted his hand and pet the boy’s head instead with a cheerful laugh.

“Ah, I missed you. I missed seeing your face.” Puma dark eyes softened as he smiled down at Lamb’s glare. “Welcome back, Lamb.”

Hermes clearly saw the flicker of uncertainty in Lamb’s blue eyes before the boy turned away with an irritable huff.

“Shut up. Don’t talk to me,” Lamb growled, turning his back to Puma and crossing his arms firmly. “Better yet, get out of my sight.”

Lifting his hands in surrender, Puma took a step back, but looked thoroughly entertained as he chuckled. “Ooh, feeling tough today? You’re cute like that, too.”

A flush creeped into Lamb’s face and he glanced off to the side in another look of hesitation. Knowing better than to get involved, Hermes sighed and turned away before they could see his exasperated eye roll.

Hurry, save me from these idiots...

They were up early today for a company retreat at Ypsilon headquarters, beneath a rural forest to the north. This retreat was the first of its kind... it was going to be the first time that Ypsilon gathered all of their Sentinels together in a single place, at the same time. Hermes hardly ever felt excitement, but even he had to admit that it was going to be interesting, meeting the other machine-integrated humans. Lamb and Puma were the only other Sentinels that he had properly met so far – the others had been spread out across the continent. He glanced at them... squabbling loudly because Puma was insisting on giving Lamb a shoulder massage, and sighed. Hopefully, the others would be a little more... refined.

At 6:50 AM, the train arrived. It was a single-compartment, bullet-shaped shuttle, magnetically powered and protected from Sentinel interference. Hermes and Lamb used to take this often on the weekends when they were young, to visit the outside world, so it was nothing particularly interesting to him. But as he followed the pair into the sleek compartment, he felt a slight prickle of curiosity when he saw that there were already a few people inside.

There were three sitting at the front, two of them together, one on a single seat at the side. Hermes could only see the back of their heads, so he didn’t want to make any assumptions, but it looked like a pair of young women and one man. At the back were two more – a feminine-looking person with short black hair, and a young man with blond hair who had kicked up his leg over three adjacent seats. Hermes wasn’t too surprised to hear the blond-haired man call out to Puma as soon as they entered.

“Oi! Kitty! Over here!”

“I have eyes, thanks.” Finally releasing Lamb, Puma lumbered over and grinned down at the two of them. The dark-haired person also acknowledged him with a quiet nod. “I can’t believe I’m seeing you guys again so soon. Normally it’s like months before we get to run into each other.”

Friends of Puma’s... As Hermes followed Lamb to a pair of seats in the middle, he found himself eyeing them. They must be Dispatch Sentinels too, then.

Ypsilon had created a total of twenty-six Sentinels, humans whose brains had been mapped and partially integrated to machinery. All of the Sentinels possessed the ability to control electronics to some degree – and in a world where cities were built almost entirely on electronics, such an ability was essentially a superpower. But out of the twenty-six Sentinels, four had been selected and given further military training – these four were the Dispatch Sentinels. Ypsilon referred to them as ‘a team specialized to handle particularly dangerous scenarios’... but colloquially, they were known as assassins.

Lamb passed out almost as soon as he sat down, but Hermes snuck a few curious glances over his shoulder. The blond-haired man had put his feet down properly and Puma was sitting beside him. The two of them were talking loudly, their voices unabashedly filling the entire compartment as the train set off.

“So what’s fourth year like? Are the classes easier?” The blond-haired man asked in a brash voice.

“It’s the same as third year, I’m bored already.” Puma replied with a shrug. “My sister’s third grade homework is more interesting, they get to colour and shit. What about you, Cinders?” He nudged the blond-haired man and lifted an eyebrow in a suggestive grin. “You transferred to McGill, didn’t ‘cha? Hook up with any cuties?”

“Nope.” Cinders waved his hand and shook his head. “Just moved into dorm yesterday. Ask me next week, I’ll have a few by then,” he added with a chortle.

“This bastard.” Puma laughed along with him, then turned to the dark-haired person.

“Don’t even.” They spoke up before Puma had even said anything, in a low and quiet voice.

“... Typical Nam. I know you aren’t interested in getting laid. I was just gonna ask how’s graduated life,” Puma protested.

Nam shrugged, not looking particularly angry nor interested as they spared the dark-haired man a glance. “I was on vacation for a while. Getting pulled back to HQ for a year, so I doubt I’ll have much of a real life for a while.”

“Oof,” Cinders huffed, while Puma reached over to pat Nam’s shoulder.

“Back to HQ? Rip.”

“It’s fine.” Nam shrugged again. “Don’t have to worry about maintaining an alter ego. Making friends and stuff is tedious.”

“Hah, yeah, this one –” Puma chuckled forlornly as he pulled away. “– This one’s a real robot.”

Something heavy struck his shoulder and Hermes jumped a little, then realized it was just Lamb’s head rolling onto him. As he glanced over, Lamb mumbled something, then huffed and began to breathe evenly against his neck.

Used to it by now, Hermes ignored him and reached for his phone instead. When he had first met Puma, he had been a little surprised to see that a Dispatch Sentinel could seem so... ordinary. But it looked like the others weren’t that different, either.

Then again, I’ve never seen them on the job. He glanced over at Lamb’s sleeping face, and felt his brows furrow slightly as he caught the threatening glimmer of drool in a corner of the boy's lips. But he could never really bring himself to feel irritated at Lamb, and with a musing sigh, Hermes leaned against his friend’s head and closed his eyes, too.

Even this idiot gets pretty serious when it comes to work.