That morning, Lamb had woken up to the sun in his eyes. Slowly, at the pace of his own sluggish conscience – not to an alarm, or brash fanfare, or Hermes dragging the bedsheets away from him. He’d squinted against the bright sun rays, rolled his face into the pillow, and gone back to sleep.

He did eventually manage to tumble out of bed sometime mid-morning, once he’d become bored of sleeping. And because it had been a long time since Lamb had gotten that much sleep, he’d woken up in an extraordinarily good mood. The crisp, clean feel of Ypsilon HQ and the excitement of the Mission Royale had further boosted his happiness, turning him giddy to the point where he’d been sure nothing would go wrong today – until it did.

“What?!”

Hurtled abruptly off the cloud he’d soaring on all morning, Lamb stared up at the Sentinel’s metal mask in disbelief.

Perhaps thinking he hadn’t understood, Messiah repeated himself matter-of-factly. “I won’t be participating.”

“But – but we’re already here…!” Shortly after lunch, all the Sentinels had gathered together for the Mission Royale. The rules had been revealed, and then they had been hooked up to VR machines with wires for sensory simulation. The spacious, marble-covered lobby that they were in now was an Ypsilon outpost in a downtown city – the location of their simulation. Lamb had been with Hermes all morning, so he hadn’t spoken to Messiah much – but the masked Sentinel had cooperated this far. “W-What do you mean, you’re not participating…?”

Messiah was still for a moment, but eventually sighed and turned away from Lamb’s pleading wide-eyed stare. “All you have to do is accept mission orders from Alicia, just as you normally do on work shifts. You get points for completing missions, and the pair with the most points wins. You can do that fine on your own. I don’t see the point of participating.”

“But…” Lost for words, Lamb cast the other Sentinels a helpless glance. Most of them had already left the outpost and set off with their partners. A few were lingering by the hologram terminals at the counter, selecting their last few supplies for the competition. Hermes had gone already, and he’d also turned off their internal communication for the duration of the event. If Messiah refused to help, then he’d be completely alone for the next five hours… “But, w-what will you do instead, then…?”

“Take a long nap.” Messiah crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, as though to prove that he wasn’t going anywhere. “I’m Generation Zero. I don’t handle any of these civilian missions, so this competition is irrelevant to me. If you don’t want to continue alone, you can just relax until the event is over.”

Ugh… as if I’d do that! Gulping down the tension in his throat, Lamb forced himself to take a deep breath and turn away. He didn’t know why, but he had a feeling that Messiah’s opinion of him was getting worse every time they talked. He didn’t want to get on the man’s bad side any more than he already had.

“… Alright. Have a nice nap, then…” Sighing heavily, he shrugged his small backpack up over one shoulder and headed for the exit, alone.

Of course, he’d been looking forward to working with Messiah. Even if Lamb hadn’t been biased by the fact that Messiah’s tall, sturdy body was exactly his type, the masked Sentinel was undeniably cool. With his flowing long hair in stark contrast to the black cloth and metal that covered the rest of his body, the man looked every bit like Ypsilon’s first Sentinel – Generation Zero, the founder of everything, a walking legend. What would it be like to fight by his side…? Lamb had been excited to find out.

That said, he hadn’t come to the company retreat just to moon over an unexpectedly epic co-worker. Earlier, the operators had given them a quick and simple explanation of the rules. Mission Royale would last five hours, from 7PM stimulated time to midnight. Sentinel pairs would compete via mission points, which could be earned by completing mission objectives. Missions could be chosen from a list, and once assigned to the pair, Alicia would provide assistance as usual. However, another pair could intervene, steal the mission objective, and earn the points for themselves – although they would not have any help from Alicia or the operators. At midnight, the pair with the most mission points would win a prize and distinguished recognition from the company.

It was totally doable. Lamb had been a little apprehensive yesterday – if it had been a contest of Sentinel abilities, he wouldn’t have stood a chance. But completing missions…? That was his very reason for existence. He did this on his own almost every night, anyway. He didn’t need help from anyone, not even Messiah.

Stepping out onto the cool city streets, Lamb looked up at the apricot sunset and stood up straight amongst the skyscrapers with a determined huff. Okay. Time to prove that Ypsilon’s imperfect Sentinel is just as capable as everyone else.

<Alicia, show me the list of missions.>