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So it turned out that all Sylvite needed was a little bit of structure in her life and maybe a tiny bit less doing flips off of buildings in the middle of the night for things to finally start falling into place. Like, she'd ended up with a commanding officer finally and he was super cool to boot, and she was making all these friends and maybe even getting a little bit better at fighting and best of all she was finding all these cool mysteries.

Sometimes, she was even finding answers, and that was the really cool part and the part that had led her to make a decision. The Information branch had always interested her the most. She was definitely better at talking and trying to learn stuff and figure stuff out than, like, fighting, and with her already getting practice with investigations, she decided to make it official.

So she'd set up her meeting with one of the General-Kings and now here she was, walking down one of the hallways in Negaspace and softly humming her way through the Little Mermaid soundtrack. She stopped that when she neared the office door, though, tried to stand up all straight, and knocked.

Patience wasn't exactly one of Sylvite's virtues, but she tried. She tried hard. She made it stock still for a whole five seconds before she started tapping her foot on the crystal floors, about fifteen before she sighed and started to wonder what the heck was going on. Did she do something wrong? Was this the right place? If it wasn't the right place, that wasn't gonna look good on her record.

She spent the next fifteen seconds squirming nervously, finally breathing when the huge aura showed up. It was kinda intimidating with how big and crushing it was, but at least she was in the right place.

The next couple moments were spent looking wide eyed at the General-King. Like, she'd seen him a few years ago at the meeting after Negaspace had gotten invaded, where he'd looked all cool and important, and now he was here. Talking to her.

After the starstruck phase passed, she broke into her typical grin and made her way into the room. "Oh, it's okay!" she said, immediately sitting down cross legged in one of the chairs. "I know you have all your important duties and stuff." She was being honest, although looking up she realized she wasn't quite sure how to talk to a boss. After a quick pause, she added an "Uh, sir."

She looked around. The box caught her attention for a little bit, but the cookies were what she ended up staring at the cookies. She really wanted some cookies. Had she been supposed to bring cookies? She hadn't and totally regretted it.

"Um, you're in charge of the Information Branch, right?" she asked, tapping her fingers on her knee. In between small talk and business seemed like the way to go.

She was still a bit fidgety in front of the General-King, but if his job was to know things about people, he was doing a good job of it. He had figured out the way to Sylvite's heart pretty quick. She reached out for a cookie and grinned.

"Yeah, it's great to meet you too," she said, her manners coming back in bits and pieces. She sat up straighter and put her cookie free hand on the desk, trying to look a bit more like she knew what she was doing, even though Axinite was being super nice about everything.

"Uh, I was thinking about joining Information, yeah. Like, I want to. I want to join." Her curls started to bounce as she nodded. "So I was doing this investigation thing and then I was looking through the records and they're kind of empty. I mean you have this whole branch so I hope you know what you need to know for like secret missions and stuff, but as far as stuff everyone can see, the database, like, knowing what we're up against?" She shook her head just a vigorously as she'd been nodding. "Yeah, no. I thought I could try to work on that maybe?"

She shifted to sitting on top of her feet. "Or mysteries. Mysteries are fun too. I like this stuff. I think I wanna focus on it." She took a bit of her cookie and looked up with a hint of puppy dog eyes.

She was in!

She grinned even bigger at that. It was just a little title thing, and something the Negaverse encouraged, but still. It was hers. She was a specialist now.

She couldn't hold back a quick happy squeak, and then a "Really? Thank you so much!"

The stack of papers was pretty cool, too, and she took it from Axinite and started flipping through right away. True, it was mostly stuff she'd already read through on her tablet, but there was something nice about seeing it all laid out on crisp white paper, and also, that meant that she could solve the second biggest problem of the Negaverse database: the fact that it was boring. Like, she got it. The Negaverse was a military. Black and white textbook font was professional, but still.

"Eye strain?" she asked. "I mean, I might break out my highlighters, make it all pretty and all color coded. Do you think that'd be okay?" Negaverse stuff shouldn't be that much worse than regular computer use.

But when he mentioned ranks, she leaned back in her chair, not sure what to make of it. "I mean, yeah, I think I'd be more productive with an upgrade. Maybe someday, right? Or is there stuff you can do to earn one?"

She started to thumb through the stack of papers in front of her, mind whirling with ways to make them better now that she'd been given the go ahead to do what she wanted with them. The rest of Axinite's information just got nods to show she'd heard. Twenty four hours wasn't bad. She'd be asleep or in school anyway.

It took the talk of an upgrade to get her to straighten, and as she realized what he might be implying, she finally sat properly, scooting forwards in her seat so that her feet touched the floor and folding her hands on the table. This was some kind of test for sure, and she puffed out her cheeks for a second as she thought.

"If you were looking at my records, you probably know I got, uh, captured back when I first joined up. Like, it's fine and everything, I'm mostly over it now," she said after a bit, although she ran a thumb over her wrist as she talked, over where the rope burn scars were still kinda there under her gloves. "But I learned pretty quick that I had to be careful, y'know? So, if I went out right now I'd still probably stay away from anyone too strong. With more power, I wouldn't have to worry about that as much. I could talk to people who've been around longer, who know more, and fight back if I had to, or like, if people are being weird about energy draining. Oh, and I'd probably get quicker at basic stuff like that so I could spend more time on this." She pointed to her new papers.

Serious stuff out of the way, she tilted her head and gave another big grin. "Also, I'd probably try doing flips off taller buildings and teleport and stuff like that 'cause honestly, it seems really fun. Just for a little bit, though." She could play and work. That was kinda the whole point of the Negaverse.

Alexa's eyes were wide as ever, with a little worry plain in them, 'cause this was obviously some kind of test, and also she never even tried hiding her feelings. She let out a breath when Axinite said she had good ideas, even for the fun stuff. She smiled big again. She almost thought she could see where this was going.

Then, he actually said it and she grinned even bigger, so big her cheeks almost started hurting but that was okay because after four years of all this she was gonna get an upgrade!

She nodded first, several times, and bouncing a little, which took a lot of restraint since what she really wanted was to start doing cartwheels down the hall or something.

"I want that, yeah," she said, not beating around the bush this time, "And I'll do my best, really. I'm ready."

All of the extra excitement and nerves that came out through fidgeting seemed pulled in for a moment when the General-King stepped forwards. Sylvite's eyes were still bright, but she stilled. This was happening. This was happening now.

She knew what was coming this time. The hand resting on her chest was a lot better than the one shoved over her mouth back when she'd first gotten corrupted in that gross alleyway. She looked up to meet Axinite's eyes then sucked in her cheeks and bit down hard so she wouldn't scream, 'cause she was already way stronger and way better at this than she'd been back then.

It still sucked. It still sucked a lot, having all that energy shoved right into her soul. Everything felt like it was burning up from the inside out, and even though it didn't take that long it sure felt like it. She still flinched, hard, and tears still came out of her scrunched-up eyes. All the rest of her was trying to scream since she wouldn't let her mouth do it.

When it was over, there was blood in her mouth from where she'd bit through the inside of her cheeks and she felt like she'd sprinted all the way across the city, but she also already knew that it was worth it.



"Yeah," she said, breathless. She looked down and saw that the back of her skirt was longer now, and her buttons looked a little different. The light started coming back to her face. "Yeah."

The pain was gone, pretty much, even though she could still feel it a little at her core. What was left over was exhaustion. She was so tired. Had it been like that the first time, too? She didn't remember, which was a pretty good sign she'd been out the second she got home.

Sylvite's eyelids fluttered, but she still nodded along as the General-King talked. She steadied herself on Axinite's desk, using one hand to prop herself up while the other reached for a cookie. The superpowers and the friends were totally awesome and all, but the third best thing about the Negaverse had to be the sweets. "Thank you, sir," she said, quieter than normal and actually serious. She said it when she was grabbing her snack, but she meant about the upgrade, too.

The Captain had her grinning again. She still hadn't totally processed everything that it meant, but yeah. That had happened.

"I'm gonna keep working hard," she told him. "I know this stuff is important." Although for now, she was gonna eat this cookie. She took a bite, and it was super sweet, just the way she liked it. "For tonight, I should probably rest, though, yeah?" She turned back over her shoulder to look at him. "Are you taking me back or should I call someone?"

She was pretty sure she could technically teleport now, which was gonna be really handy and awesome when she was actually, like, present enough to figure out how.