Team Reforged; Power and Overpower
Copyright© 2026 by FozzieBare
Epilogue: New Dimensions
Three weeks after Reforged won the Summer Tournament, Abby discovered that being an intern was largely a matter of doing the jobs nobody had realized existed until five minutes after they became emergencies. Her classes at Cal State Sacramento were manageable. Reforged’s sudden popularity was another matter.
Her official position was still somewhat unclear. Intern. Interim press officer. Communications assistant. Person who told reporters that no, Adrian and Amy would not be answering that question. She had started putting all of those titles on internal documents just to see if anyone complained.
Nobody had. Which was how she found herself walking through Reforged headquarters with two phones, a tablet, a cup of coffee she had forgotten to drink and the firm conviction that success was badly overrated. Then the front door opened. Aleks walked in. Abby stopped. She knew who he was, obviously.
Everybody around Reforged knew who Aleks was now. The guy who had found the bug. The guy Martin had hired. The guy who had somehow managed to become Martin’s second set of hands without becoming Martin Number Two. Which, according to Martin, had been the entire point. Aleks saw her.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
A pause. Abby realized she was still staring. She stopped.
Mostly.
“You’re Aleks.”
“That has been my experience.”
Abby laughed.
“Sorry. Abby.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“You’re the person who keeps reporters away from Martin.”
“I try.”
“That makes you one of the most important people in the building.”
Abby considered that.
“I’m putting that on my resume.”
“You should.”
Martin appeared in the hallway.
“Aleks.”
“Coming.”
Aleks glanced back at Abby.
“Nice meeting you.”
“You too.”
He disappeared into Martin’s workspace. Abby watched him go. Then looked down at the tablet in her hand. She had absolutely no idea what she had been doing.
“Great,” she muttered.
Apparently Reforged had found yet another way to complicate her job.
“You could try saying hello again,” Amy said.
Abby nearly dropped her tablet.
“How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
Amy’s eyebrows went up. Abby pointed at her.
“Don’t.”
“Still not saying anything.”
“Your eyebrows did.”
Amy smiled. Abby glanced toward Martin’s workspace.
“He’s cute,” she said quietly.
“Of course.”
“Amy.”
“Still not saying anything.”
Somehow that made it worse.
Corbin’s complication arrived by video call. Elias expected a routine conversation with Reactor Critical. Instead, Corbin was sitting beside one of their managers looking more uncomfortable than Elias had ever seen him inside a WarMAC cockpit. The manager smiled.
“Corbin has something he wants to ask.”
Elias looked at Corbin.
“Should I be worried?”
“Probably not.”
“That is not reassuring.”
Corbin took a breath.
“The loan was supposed to end after Summer.”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
Another breath.
“I’d like to stay.”
Elias leaned back.
“With Reforged?”
“If you’ll have me.”
The answer came so quickly it surprised both of them.
“Yes.”
Corbin blinked.
“That easy?”
“No.”
Elias smiled.
“The paperwork is going to be terrible.”
“That sounds like your problem.”
“There he is.”
The Reactor Critical manager laughed.
“We’re open to extending the arrangement. He’s still ours.”
“Understood.”
Corbin leaned closer to the camera.
“But I’m Reforged too.”
Elias smiled.
“Yeah.”
“You said so.”
“I did.”
“I’m holding you to it.”
“You should.”
To the surprise of absolutely everyone, Amy and Adrian did not move in together. Reuben lost five dollars. Cass lost ten. Tex claimed he had never participated in the betting pool and refused to explain why there was a line with his name on it. Amy maintained that everyone involved was creepy.
Adrian wanted to know when the betting pool had started. Nobody told him. Their actual relationship changed less than people expected. They still trained together. Still argued over WarMAC configurations. Still watched terrible videos late at night. Still sent one another Cedandan memes at hours when civilized people were asleep.
They still watched Lords and Ladies. Even started a rewatch while they waited for the new season There was one difference there. Whenever the show decided its fantasy nobility had reached a sufficiently high relationship level to forget that clothing existed, neither Amy nor Adrian suddenly found Cedandan memes quite as fascinating as they once had.
Nobody commented on that either.
Mostly.
And they developed a ritual. Not every night. Not even most nights. But often enough. One of them would reach the point where leaving felt increasingly silly. Then came the question.
“Your room or mine?”
Sometimes Amy asked. Sometimes Adrian. The answer varied. Nobody at Reforged ever asked what happened afterward. Amy would not have answered. Adrian would not have answered. There were boundaries even Reuben understood. Eventually. Whether they had become intimate was their business. What everyone could see was simpler.
They were happy. Really happy. And for two people who had spent entirely too much time believing happiness was something that happened to other people, that was enough.
Martin was staring at a test report. Aleks stood across from him. Neither spoke. The report had arrived ten minutes earlier. Aleks had already checked the numbers three times. Martin had checked them four. Then he checked them again. The expression slowly appeared on his face. Aleks had learned what it meant.
It was the Martin expression that roughly translated to:
That should not have happened.
Closely followed by:
Excellent.
Martin flipped back to the first page. Then forward to the third. Then backward again. Aleks waited.
Finally:
“Repeatable?”
“Five runs.”
“Same result?”
“Within margin.”