The creature bucked onto its hind legs and filled the space between the floor and the ceiling until the hunch of its neck and the top of its back were pressed into the roof. Its many legs spread out, making it as wide as it was long.

Assistant flew towards Ian at full speed; whether to stop Ian or hit the monster, Tanya wasn't sure.

Tanya summoned Phantom Brand, running to catch up with Ian, trying to hit it first. It couldn't be anything but a Mini Boss. Tanya had no idea how it had gotten in here.

Its face full of eyes glinted in the light, tongues lolling out of the side of the mouth that had torn its face in two, all the way to the back of its jaw.

"Fifi!" a low voice yelled from behind the beast.

Tanya faltered.

Assistant stopped mid-air.

That beast is—

Fuck.

"Ian!" Tanya yelled.

Fifi tapped her hind legs on the floor in excitement. Tanya could see it now. She was playing.

Ian thrust his knife towards Fifi. Fifi descended one massive claw down at Ian. It was large enough to impact most of his body. One second he was there, and the next he was flying across the room, his body breaking a side table. He hit the wall and collapsed like a rag doll into the rubble his body had created.

Fifi dropped to the ground, stretching her legs out with her bum in the air, the same way Tanya was sure she had as a puppy. The only difference was that the other few legs sticking out of her sides were crouching with her too, or stuck out at random angles, twitching.

Tanya sprinted to Ian, summoning all of the bandages to heal him out of her arm on impulse.

Vitality, Tanya. Vitality.

She forced her thoughts into reason and unsummoned the others, just wrapping the Vitality bandage around his chest. Assistant became her third hand, managing to be exactly where Tanya needed to speed the process. Tanya leant down to his mouth as she did, feeling and hearing the soft breath against her ear. Tanya relaxed slightly, focusing on making sure the bandage was tight enough to work without injuring him more.

Before she'd even finished tying it, he let out a wheeze and his eyes flickered open.

He scrambled towards the wall, grunting in pain. Tanya looked over her shoulder to see a flustered Boris and Fifi peering over the smaller gentleman, trying to work out what was going on.

"It's fine. She was a dog. She has a Class now," Tanya insisted.

"I'm so sorry, she didn't mean to," Boris chorused at the same time.

Fifi nuzzled into Boris's head, but he was ignoring her, focused on Ian. She whined. It sounded like a chainsaw starting.

Ian may as well have been grey, his skin was so pale. His mouth was open, one of his front teeth chipped from hitting the wall. A trickle of blood oozed out of his nose, dripping onto his lip. He didn't reply.

Tanya held up a hand to Fifi, feeling her own heartbeat speeding as she approached her. It may be Fifi, but it was also one of the most terrifying monsters she'd ever laid eyes on. Fifi pressed her face into Tanya's hand, whining again and padding from side to side. "See," Tanya said. "She's safe."

Assistant stayed behind Tanya, struggling to believe that this mammoth of a monster was still the same creature they'd met. Back then, Fifi was recognisably hound-like, but now she seemed to have mostly escaped her canine genetics. All that was left were the flopping ears and tufts of fluffy fur, but even then, they seemed more like faint reminders of a beloved pet than true parts of the beast before them.

"What was racket—Boris is you? Boris?" Olena called from further inside. She came round the side of the car, seeing the scene and gasping. "Boris! Why you let dog hurt guest and break my table! Ian will never stay for my armour now."

There was something very amusing about Olena's tone, like someone who had seen a dog chew a slipper rather than throw a human across a room.

Ian looked towards Olena. "Armour?" he said, dazed.

A few minutes later, Ian was back on his feet with a glass of water in his hand and the warmth back in his cheeks. He circled Fifi, studying her like he couldn't quite believe it. She watched him back, one ear flopping as she tilted her head.

"You sure you feel better?" Tanya checked again. It was good to know whether her healing tattoo bandages worked on people without a Class, but Tanya was also trying to work out if she should try to make him rest for longer.

"Just bruised," he said, not looking away from Fifi. "It's like ibuprofen, I think—the bandage feels like it numbed it," he added offhand. He turned to Boris. "What is it? A dog?"

Tanya looked at Boris properly. He looked similar to before, but with a lopsided set of armour and a thick scar down his eye all the way to his chin. His beard hadn't yet grown over it, so it must have been more recent than the healing gave it credit for.

Tanya suddenly felt guilty for how long it had been since she'd seen him properly. She had no idea what he'd been going through.

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Boris held out an apologetic handshake. "I'm Boris. Fifi was a poodle until she ate a Monster Core."

"A what?" Ian asked, not even noticing the handshake.

"A Monster Core," Boris said again. He lowered his hand.

Ian shook his head slowly. "Those don't sound like words at all."

"Oh, fuck, The System. It restricts what people can and can't hear when they're low-level or don't have a Class."

"What level are you, young man? If you don't mind me asking that is."

"He have no Class!" Olena chipped in.

Boris adjusted his glasses. "Oh." It was all he seemed to be able to respond. He stared at Ian, slack-jawed for a minute. "In that case, I will go and make sure Fifi is far away."

Ian shrank back. "Didn't you say she's safe?"

Olena nodded gravely. "That was when Boris thought you were man. You have no Class, so you are basically baby. Never leave excited death hound with baby."

"Oh," Ian replied.

Boris led Fifi to the far wall. She crushed a car on the way with an uncontrolled foot. Tanya was starting to see her weaknesses. Upon first glance, she did look like a Mini Boss now, but she seemed only able to control some of the legs at once.

Olena glared at Boris across the room. "Boris! Cars important."

"Sorry! Sorry!" he called back.

Ian turned to Olena. "Wait, before, did you say armour?"

Olena's face lit up. "Yes!" Then it turned into one of horror. "Oh no! Olena you supposed to keep it surprise." She slapped her forehead.

Assistant almost vibrated with excitement, bouncing around Olena's head.

Olena laughed. "I have fan!"

Tanya heard the clunking of chains from the corner and the upset whines of Fifi.

Ah, that's what those were for.

Tanya, Assistant, and Ian followed Olena's excited babble all the way to one of the doors at the back of the room. Up close, the neon signs were even more extensive. Without electricity, many of them were almost completely transparent, blending into the bricks behind them.

"So yes, Boris have to take apart storage room because of Fifi space. He was going to take away my room but I scoff and threaten him with knife."

Ian's step faltered.

"Don't worry, it was butter knife." She turned and winked at him. "Is not about how sharp it is. Is about how you use it."

Before Ian could work out how to reply, Olena was at the door. "We are here!"

Olena swung it open. Tanya, Assistant, and Ian stopped at the door.

In the centre of the small room was a huge chestplate in the centre of a large wooden table. It was mostly white and silver, sections of cars that had been melded into the perfect shape. Unlike Olena's cannon arm, the seams went from being a messy patchwork into a symmetrical design choice. The most notable feature was the large circular indent in the centre of the chest, with wires poking out of a small gap in the metal. Tanya circled it, and she could see the inside was upholstered with leather car seats.

There were other shelves around it, but everything but the chestplate faded into the background. Even the lighting itself only focused on it: a traditional ceiling lamp that looked like it had been pulled further out of the roof and was now hanging a foot above the chestplate on a precarious wire.

"What's the indent for?" Ian asked.

Tanya looked over to him, seeing the same awe as she felt.

Olena giggled manically. She placed a loving hand on the chestplate. "Is space for Monster Core to be hooked up to. It will eventually connect to mech suit."

Assistant ran a finger across the shining metal.

Ian furrowed his brow. "Are you sure that's a word? You're not joking?"

Tanya patted his shoulder. "Once you have a Class, I think you'll be able to hear it."

Ian thought for a second. "Is there anything else I could do to get into your god's good graces?"

"God?" Olena asked.

"The System," Ian said. He tapped his hands on the edge of the table, studying the chest plate. "Like praying or sacrifices or anything," he added.

"Gettin' a bit dark there, bud." Tanya laughed awkwardly.

Assistant was too enthralled with the chestplate to react, studying it from every angle.

She could see the desperation in Ian from the moment they met, but those words said in earnest created a pit in her stomach. It wasn't that she thought Ian was a bad person, but she hadn't even considered how far normal people would go to survive and save their families before.

Maybe the people who tried to hurt Maria on the motorway were normal before too.

Tanya shivered.

Olena must have replied because Ian had already moved on.

"System is like Auntie that keep asking if you have boyfriend yet," Olena continued. She grew more impassioned with each line. "Doesn't care what boyfriend is as long as you like him, but no boyfriend and Auntie will focus on bitchy little sister Julia instead and make you tempted to pull gay best friend into life of fake marriage."

Ian looked more confused than before.

"The System wants people to be Worthy," Tanya said carefully. She paused a second to make sure the word hadn't been redacted.

He was watching attentively. "Worthy?" he asked.

"Somethin' innovative you do that The System rewards with more abilities to help you do it."

"What are yours?" he asked, looking between them.

"Tattoo Summoner," Tanya said.

"Mecha Combatant," Olena added.

Ian furrowed his brow, leaning his head against the wall. He sighed. "Not real words again."

Tanya got lost in thought, wondering why Classes themselves would be Redacted—he supposed to make it harder to plot to get a specific Class. She could feel the same thoughtful aura coming from Assistant.

Ever good at bringing up the mood, Olena said, "Want try it on?" She stared down at the chestplate with a wicked grin.

The frustration on Ian's face melted away, and he nodded. "What do I do?"

Olena lifted the hunk of metal with the help of Assistant, and eased it over Ian's head through the split on one side. Tanya could see the Frankensteined seat leather making up the inside in various shades of black and brown. Ian staggered slightly at the weight, then regained his composure and heaved it towards his neck so it fit properly.

"Now we accessorise!" Olena declared.

She danced around the room, grabbing old gloves and duct tape and a pile of padding that Tanya assumed came from car seats.

A whirlwind of Olena's excitement later, Ian was in a hodgepodge suit of armour. Not a single element of it went together. The chestplate glimmered—a strangely superhero-esque feel with the indent in the chest. Leather working gloves were duct taped to Ian's plaid shirt to keep in the padding that Olena had filled his sleeves with. They reminded Tanya of really poorly made muscle shirts. On his legs, Olena had found a beat-up pair of shin guards that she had apparently bought to protect her shins from flying wrenches after an old banger was incredibly hard to take apart. The final piece was a transparent face shield with a metal frame.

Ian stood a little bit straighter, trying a jab with the sharpened wrench Olena had ground against the bench sander for him.

Tanya's nerves had settled. If she could face that monster in the stairwell, then with this suit, Ian could bring back the monster corpse for Mrs Eceer.

Maybe Mrs Eceer partly suggested the quest to help prepare him for his journey to Epping.

Tanya forgot sometimes the caring streak of the older woman, but standing here, she had to admit the mad quest might have been Eceer's clumsy version of kindness—throwing Ian at trouble so he'd find his footing before the trip to Epping.

Tanya, Olena, and Assistant all walked Ian to the door.

"Stay local," Tanya said. "Focus on the block around here. Bring anything you get back to Olena, and she will help you get it back to the warded area."

Ian replied with a sharp nod. He was scared but ready.

"My Kaylee would go mental if she knew that Daddy got to look like Iron Man."

He walked out onto the street, flashing an emotional smile before he disappeared around the corner.

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