REN PLUTO
The bell was a gunshot.
A single shrill digital scream that meant move.
The amphitheater came alive. Two hundred students, two hundred scraping chairs. The sound was a goddamn avalanche.
Ren didn't move.
He just sat there in the back row. Heart a cold dead stone in his chest.
He's just announced to a room full of predators... that he's dangerous.
Thorean's voice. That silk poison amused voice.
Not a warning. A death sentence.
Ren felt the stares. He'd felt them before. The Pig stares. The trash stares.
This was new.
This was the look a pack of wolves gives the new wolf. The one that's wounded but still stupid enough to howl. They weren't just looking anymore.
They were measuring.
He saw Darian Blackwood in the front row stand up. Darian didn't look back. Didn't have to. He'd heard. Clocked it. Ren had just—in one stupid angry five-second speech—put himself on the radar of Rank 001.
"Get up."
Nyx's voice. Low urgent hiss.
Ren looked at his unit. They were all standing. A tight terrified broken little huddle.
Nyx was a coiled spring. Hand on baton.
Ravi was pale. Eyes darting. Counting exits. Counting threats.
Jules was just... gone. Ghost. Eyes vacant.
Zelie was smiling. Tiny private excited little smile. She loved this. Loved the chaos. Loved that Ren had just set the whole goddamn forest on fire.
And Maven...
Maven was staring at him. Not with fear. Not this time.
With something else. Calculation. Looking at him like he was a problem. A variable she hadn't accounted for.
Don't trust the mice.
"Get. Up. Now." Nyx snarled.
Ren stood. Legs felt like wet sand.
The walk back to Deathpig was the longest mile of his life.
A gauntlet.
The whispers weren't whispers. They were loud.
"That's him. The 498."
"The one who sassed Thorean? Fucking dead."
"Heard he fought a Tier Two in the tunnels. That's how he got his rank."
The rumor mill. Already working. He wasn't just Ren. He was 498. A number. A threat.
"Keep walking." Ravi's voice tight. At Ren's right. A buffer. "Don't look at them. Eyes forward. Eyes forward, Ren."
"A guy just spat at Jules." Ren growled.
"I know." Ravi hissed back. "And if you stop, we all get a minus fifty for public disruption. You're a marked man, you idiot. They're baiting you. Don't be so goddamn stupid."
Ren's jaw clenched so hard his teeth ached. Hated it. Hated the logic. Hated Ravi for being right.
He kept walking.
Felt the stares on his back. A hundred new rivals. A hundred new ways to die.
They got to the cliffs. The long rusted iron staircase down into the fog.
It felt different.
Not a commute.
A retreat.
Back in the Pig Pen. Safe.
The second the heavy door to Suite 734 slammed shut, locking them in, Ravi exploded.
"What THE HELL was that?"
Not Sunny Boy. Not the Handler. Just furious. He shoved Ren. Hard.
"What was that, Ren? Was that your plan? You just challenged the DEAN? In front of everyone?"
Ren shoved him back. "Get off me."
"No!" Ravi shoved him again. Face red. Eyes wild with weaponized terror. "You don't get it, do you? You never get it! You're all wolf! All rage! You just put our names in his mouth! He doesn't just see you! He sees 734!"
"He's right."
Nyx's voice. At the door. Hand on the frame Maven had just fixed. "You were loud. Loud is dumb. You just painted us. Painted this room. Now everyone's watching. You made the job harder. For all of us."
Ren felt the walls closing in. Looked at Nyx. Looked at Ravi.
Right here. Cornered. By his own team.
A target. And now, thanks to him, they were a target.
He needed a weapon. An edge. Something now.
His rage... shifted. Needed a new target.
He found one.
He spun around.
Maven.
Already at her bunk. Her lab spread out. Trying to be invisible.
Too late.
Ren crossed the room in two strides. Slammed his hand against the concrete wall next to her head.
Maven screamed. Small terrified mouse sound.
"The vial." Ren snarled. Face inches from hers. "You've had it for hours. Talk. Now. What did you find?"
Trembling. Terror real. "I told you. I don't—"
"You're LYING!" He roared. The room went dead silent. "I'm a marked man out there! They're coming for me! For us! I need a weapon! And you're hoarding it! Hiding it! The journal was right! It was RIGHT about you!"
Losing it. Knew it. Didn't care.
"Ren..." Ravi's voice soft cautious. "Ren, back off her—"
"STAY OUT OF IT!" Ren yelled. Not even looking. Eyes locked on Maven.
She was crying. Tears streaming down pale cheeks.
"I'm not a traitor." Sobbing.
"PROVE IT!"
Maven's face... crumbled. The fear, the tears... just... stopped.
Replaced by cold searing fury. The Alchemist was back.
"You want to know?" She hissed. Low shaking poison-dart. "You want to know what it is? You idiot?"
She shoved him. Her. She shoved him.
Ren stumbled back. Stunned.
"It's not a poison!" She yelled. Voice cracking. "Not a sedative! It's a net! A goddamn neuro-inhibitor!"
On her feet now. Grabbing her cipher-filled notebook.
"It doesn't stop the fear!" Almost screaming. Tears of rage on her face. "It just disconnects it! Severs the emotional response from the memory! Holds it! Stores the trauma! It's a goddamn battery, you stupid paranoid ape!"
Ren just... stared.
A... battery.
They're fueling the island with our trauma.
The journal. True. All true.
Maven just confirmed it.
The room was silent. Nyx staring at Maven, eyes wide. Ravi looked like he might be sick.
Maven breathing hard. Chest hitching. She'd just shown her hand.
"It's a storage device." Whispered. Rage gone. Terror flooding back. "Stores us. And I don't know how to stop it. I don't know."
Not enough.
Not a weapon. A diagnosis.
Ren still a marked man. Still nothing.
His hand went to his pocket. Felt cold hard oval shape.
The locket. The other weapon. The glitch.
He needed it now.
Tried to threaten Maven. Tried to threaten Ravi. Out of time. Couldn't force them.
Had to ask.
Hated it.
He turned. Looked at Ravi.
Ravi still staring at Maven. Face a mask of horrified understanding.
"You." Ren growled.
Ravi's head snapped up.
"You're the leader." Ren spat. Word tasting like ash. "You know the Pigs. You talk to people."
Ravi just looked. Waiting.
"There's a tech-head." Ren's voice low quiet humiliated rumble. "Rank 499. Kieran. A sophomore."
Ravi's eyes narrowed. He knew the name. "Yeah. So?"
Ren pulled his hand out of his pocket.
Opened his fist.
The small tarnished silver locket sat on his palm.
"I need him to open this." Ren said. "Read what's inside. And you're going to set the meet."
Ravi just stared. At the locket. At Ren.
Not Sunny Boy. Not the Handler.
The one Ren had just been forced to ask for help.
The one with all the power.
Ravi nodded. Slowly.
"I'll find him." Voice quiet. All anger gone. "But Ren? You pull a stunt like Thorean's class again... and I'll feed you to the wolves myself."
The meet was set for 0200.
"The old aqueduct." Ravi had said. Face pale. Eyes still holding that new hard leadership edge. "Kieran doesn't like the main levels. Stays in the tunnels. Sub-Level Six. Just be careful. He's not stable. And 499s are 499s for a reason. They're desperate."
Ren had just grunted. Snatched the hand-drawn map.
Desperate. Ren knew desperate. Desperate was a mirror.
Now he was here.
Sub-Level Six. The real basement.
Not a damp hallway. A goddamn sewer. Air thick wet cold. Smelled like a billion years of rust, mold, and something metallic and sour Ren didn't want to name.
Alone.
His move. His risk. His weapon.
Only light was the weak-ass flashlight on his phone. Small pathetic cone in crushing absolute darkness. Water dripped from the ceiling. Constant maddening drip... drip... drip... echoing off curved brick walls.
Walking on a narrow grated catwalk. Ten feet below, black oily water flowed.
A shit-show. A perfect kill box.
He felt it before he heard it.
The air moved.
Ren didn't think. Acted. Dropped. Rolled forward. Tucked his shoulder as something whistled through the space his head had just been.
Thunk of metal on metal.
Ren snapped his light up.
A pipe. Heavy lead pipe. Stuck quivering in the rusted metal bulkhead he'd just passed.
"Shit." A voice hissed from darkness. "He's fast."
Ren already moving. Back to solid wall. Light sweeping.
Three of them.
Not Pigs. Tier Twos. Strivers. Cleaner uniforms. Better boots. Slumming.
And in the center... Ren knew him.
Marcus Thorne. Rank 150. Tall thick brute with a shaved head and a face like dropped pie. A former Pig. Survivor who'd clawed his way up. Hated everyone still in the basement.
"Well well well." Thorne's voice low gravelly rumble. Stepped forward. Cracking knuckles. Holding a length of chain wrapped around his fist. "Look what we found, boys. A lost little Piggy."
Ren kept his light steady. Scanning. Thorne. Two lackeys. One with crowbar. One with shitty serrated knife.
Three on one. Bad odds.
"Kieran set me up." Ren's voice flat.
"Kieran?" Thorne laughed. Ugly sound. "That little sophomore 499 rat? He just squealed. Told us the Marked Man was coming for a playdate."
Thorne stepped closer. Smell of cheap synth-booze rolling off him. Drunk. Angry drunk.
"You're 498." Thorne sneered. "Think you're hot shit, don't you? Sassing the Dean? Beating up one of my crew in the tunnels?"
Ren's blood went cold. That was it. The kid he'd fought—the Tier Two—had been one of Thorne's.
"He got in my way." Ren said.
"He was ours." Thorne roared. "And you're just trash. A Pig. I'm here to put you back in your fucking pen. Permanently."
He lunged.
Crowbar guy from the right. Knife guy from the left.
Ren moved. Didn't fight. Survived.
Went under the crowbar swing. Slammed his phone—flashlight-first—into the guy's throat. The guy gagged. Wet choking sound. Dropped the bar.
Ren didn't wait. Grabbed the guy's arm. Spun him. Shoved him hard into the knife.
A scream. High-pitched. Girly.
Knife-guy staggered back. His own friend impaled on his blade. Not deep. But messy.
"You stabbed me, you fuck!" Crowbar-guy shrieked.
"Idiot!" Knife-guy yelled.
Ren didn't give them time to regroup. Kicked the back of crowbar-guy's knee. Wet cartilage pop. The guy went down.
One.
Knife-guy staring at his friend. Rookie mistake.
Ren grabbed the lead pipe from the wall. Heavy. Perfect.
Swing. Not at the guy. At the catwalk railing.
Deafening metallic CLANG. Knife-guy flinched. Hands flying to ears.
Ren didn't hit him. Shoved him.
Off-balance. Stumbled. Pinwheeled. Toppled over the side.
A splash.
A scream, cut short, as the kid hit the oily black water.
Two.
First kid still on ground. Clutching ruined knee. Sobbing.
Ren let him. Non-threat.
Ren turned. Light found Thorne.
Just... watching. Face not angry anymore. Impressed.
"Not bad, Pig." Thorne unwrapped the chain. "Not bad at all. You're a wolf, just like they said."
He cracked the chain like a whip. The snap echoed in the tunnel.
"But I'm a goddamn bear."
He came at Ren. Fast for a big guy. Chain a blur.
Ren raised the pipe. Chain wrapped around it. Thorne yanked.
Pipe ripped from Ren's hands. Clattered to the grate.
Fuck.
Thorne laughed. Swung his other fist—massive meaty hammer. Ren ducked. Blow caught him on the shoulder.
Like being hit by a car.
Force sent Ren slamming back against brick wall. Head cracked against stone. World went white. Phone skittered away. Light spinning. Wild spastic shadows.
Thorne on him. Hand the size of a goddamn shovel wrapped around Ren's throat. Lifted.
Ren's feet left the floor.
"You're just a little rat." Thorne choked. Face purple. Spit hitting Ren's. "You are trash."
Ren's vision tunneling. Black spots. Kicking. Boots hitting Thorne's legs. Like kicking a tree.
Dying.
Nineteen years old. Dying in a sewer. Choked to death by a drunk Tier Two bully.
No.
His stepfather's face. Ungrateful little shit.
NO.
Ren's left hand pinned. But his right...
His right was free.
He stopped kicking. Let his body go limp.
Thorne, thinking he'd won, grinned. Loosened his grip just a fraction. To savor it.
Ren moved.
Hand shot up. Not to the hand. To the face.
Jammed his thumb hard into Thorne's left eye.
Thorne roared. Pure animal agony. His grip shattered.
Ren fell. Landed on the grate. Gasping. Choking. World a blurry dark mess.
Thorne screaming. "My eye! You... I'll kill you!"
Lunged. Blind. Wild.
Ren already moving. Grabbed the pry bar from the sobbing kid on ground.
Thorne swung the chain. Wild blind arc.
Ren stepped inside it.
Drove the hooked end of the pry bar—like a piston—straight into Thorne's ribs.
Wet sickening crunch.
Thorne stopped. Looked down. Looked at Ren. His one good eye wide. Confused.
Ren yanked the bar back.
Thorne fell to his knees. Making wet gurgling sound.
Ren stood over him. Shaking. Not from fear. From rage. Adrenaline.
"You're dead." Thorne gurgled. Blood on lips. "They're gonna find you."
"No." Ren's voice raw empty hiss. "They're not."
He raised the pry bar.
Swung.
Not a fight. A job.
Survival.
When it was done, the tunnel was silent.
The kid with the broken knee was gone. Crawled away. Fled. A witness.
Ren didn't care.
Standing over Thorne's body. Covered in blood. His. Thorne's.
Alive.
Looked at the body. Looked at the black water below.
If they can't find the body, it didn't happen.
Grabbed the corpse by the boots. Heavy. Didn't care.
Dragged it.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Rolled it to the edge.
One last final kick.
A splash.
Black water swallowed the body. No bubbles. No trace.
Gone.
It didn't happen.
Ren sank to his knees. Whole body on fire. Shoulder broken. Throat felt like swallowed glass.
Shaking so hard he could barely stand.
Laughed. Dry ugly choking sound.
Leaned head against cold damp brick wall.
His wristband flashed.
Looked at it. Dim red light.
[UNSANCTIONED VIOLENCE DETECTED... ( -50 )]
Ren's heart stopped. No. They saw. The witness—
[...CORRECTION. NO FACULTY ALERT. VICTIM STATUS: ERASED.]
[PERPETRATOR: UNDETECTED.]
[ACADEMIC LAW 11.6 APPLIED: "If they can't find the body, it didn't happen."]
[APPLYING TERMINAL REDACTION PROTOCOL... ( +50 )]
[RANK UPDATING...]
Ren watched. Breath caught in ruined throat.
The dim sullen red 498 flickered.
Flashed once. Twice...
Turned solid bright white.
RANK: 448
He stared at it.
Fifty points.
He'd just murdered a kid. Erased him.
And the school... the goddamn school... had rewarded him for it.
Ren looked at his new white shining rank. Looked at the blood on his hands.
This wasn't a school.
It was a machine.
And he'd just figured out how to feed it.