Sapphire didn't bother with a top and just wrapped a towel around her hips before leaving the shower. She also didn't bother drying off as we both left the shower to go to the door.

  I did manage to grab my own towel so I was halfway decent before Sapphire picked up her pistol that had been discarded in amongst our clothes and made her way over to the door. Even in her frustrated state she still stopped herself before opening the door and turned to me.

  "Shield John."

  I didn't even feel it deactivate. Reactivating it I gave my mia a nod that seemed to please her. She still however positioned me behind her with enough of her tail avaible to block anything.

  "It's just Aria Sapphire. She was coming remember?" I said.

  "And if it's not?" She countered.

  My argument died on my tongue. Yeah she had a point.

  Nodding Sapphire did one st check her gun was loaded and I was in a position she could easily defend she opened the door a smidge.

  "Who's there?"

  "Cadet guard Aria reporting to Acolyte Johns dorm." Came the reply. While Sapphire sounded slightly french this voice had a slight Canadian twang to it.

  "Are you armed?" Sapphire said back not moving the door.

  "Yes. Deployable bastion and quintuple barrel, fully loaded with two spare rounds."

  Quintuple is five I'm pretty sure so does this mean she has a Gatling gun with five barrels? I'm pretty sure on Earth we make them with an even amount but that could just be my gaming experience talking.

  "Disarm all of them and slide them inside. Do not enter." Sapphire commanded Aria, opening the door enough that I could slip out but it would be a squeeze. She kept the door between herself and the angel so she couldn't get line of sight.

  There was some shuffling and a very rge gun was slid into the room that took me by surprise. What surprised me was the five barrels themselves, there was one rge one running almost half the gun itself with four smaller ones around that one on a rotation system. It also was the same size as Sapphires sniper rifle.

  Well I'm guessing she's a heavy gunner.

  Following the quintuple barrel a rge sb of metal slid to a stop further than the gun revealing six different types of pistols and a rifle simir to what Ra'ray was using strapped to one side.

  Once they were inside Sapphire closed and locked the door before moving towards the weapons. She did a quick check to determine if they were loaded then moved them into the closest room shutting the door.

  "Until she's bonded I will not risk your safety." She gave as the reason.

  That makes sense.

  Opening the door fully this time Sapphire indicated for Aria to enter. Ducking under the door my new guard entered nodding at Sapphire and taking a step away from the two of us.

  Holy crap she was huge. And I'm not talking about rge but tall and built like she bench presses Mike Tyson as a warm up. I should probably have paid more attention when I was picking her but between getting shot at and Aria standing beside the sasquatch women I'll forgive myself for missing that she was giant.

  "Acolyte John. I'm cadet guard Aria I hope to be serving you as a front line guard for the future. You've seen my weapons just before so I hope they're to your satisfaction. As for my mutation it is storage and put simply it allows me to hold a small amount of items in a spacial pocket that can be retrieved at any time." Giving me a salute Aria held herself still until she noticed my state of undress.

  She'd completely ignored Sapphire who still had her tits out but the moment she saw me she seemed to put two and two together. "Oh shit did I interrupt?"

  "No."

  "Yes."

  I tried to be polite but Sapphire didn't seem to want to.

  "Oh I'm so sorry Acolyte guard. I can come back in an hour." Aria offered.

  "No, the moods been ruined." Sapphire muttered quietly.

  "I'm sure there will be opportunity in the future." I said to the frustrated mia.

  That seemed to perk her up as well as make our new addition shuffle slightly on her feet.

  "Acolyte guard Sapphire." My slightly less frustrated mia introduce herself not offering a hand to shake but she did lower her gun so progress.

  Aria gave another nod. "Would you like me to be bound for the bonding or would you like me to show you what I can do first?" The question was directed at me but I could see her periodically look in Sapphires direction. It made me think males of both species seemed to be a bit submissive if this was normal to be asking the female.

  Sapphire just shook her head. "You don't need to be bound but I will request you to turn around for my own sanity. As for proving yourself we got lucky. John here picked both of us because his Mana told him too and while I don't like trusting something I don't fully understand I can't deny it too much if it's the reason I'm here."

  Aria seemed surprised by this but gave a smile. "Trust your Acolyte."

  "And trust their Mana." Sapphire ended.

  There's a whole motto for it?

  Aria gave another salute and began to strip out of her top. I was momentarily taken aback by the suddenness of it but quickly became distracted when a light blue bra came into focus. For her size her tits were probably normal but they almost rivaled Sapphires and my mia was stacked in that department.

  I didn't need to look in said mias direction to know.

  "Don't say it." I called out.

  "John I can smell your arousal, it makes is very hard to focus if ever time you see a pair of tits you let off enough pheromones to excite every mia in the room." Sapphire deadpanned.

  "I would rather you just said I was too easy to seduce." I replied not in any better position as Aria had removed her bra as well.

  "Should I...."

  "No just turn around. Please." Sapphire interrupted Aria.

  The angel nodded but let out a shy smile in my direction before she turned around and knelt on the ground.

  "Bond with her John." My mia said holding her weapon a little tighter.

  Yeah right just do the thing I didn't fully know how to do st time again. Piece of cake.

  Approaching Aria I pced my hand on her back between her wings and began to focus on my Mana battery. It hummed like a happy little cat with a full belly fully contempt with keeping my shield running.

  Pulling at it slightly like I had st time with Sapphire I tried metaphorically throwing some into Aria hoping it would bze a path for the rest. It worked far better than I expected and a burst of the minty feeling filled my nose and mouth but unlike st time something seemed to stop my Mana. A feeling like something was missing.

  My Mana violently returned to my body in an explosion, throwing me backwards into Sapphire who caught me. Having abandoned her gun to use both hands to withstand the momentum I was surprised when she slid back a few feet from the force. But as we came to a stop the Mana that had violently returned hummed again and entered Sapphire completing whatever circuit I was trying to force with Aria.

  "John what happened?! John speak to me!" Sapphire excimed in shock.

  "Is he okay?" Aria called out.

  "Stay over there!" Sapphire growled back at the angel before focusing back on me. "John talk to me, your shields gone off and you've been staring into space for a minute now."

  Shit really? I didn't even feel like it was a second.

  "I'm good Sapphire my Mana just rejected her for a second there." I said standing back up and accepting my towel back from her. Evidently it had been removed in the excitement.

  I could feel the disappointment emanating from the angel as I said this and even Sapphires lips pinched together.

  "If that's the case I'll send her away. We can look for another once we're presentable." My mia whispered in an attempt not for Aria to hear. Unfortunately she did and it almost broke me to see unshed tears in her eyes. That's probably an understandable reaction considering this is what she's trained for and she thought she was extremely lucky by getting a male as her Acolyte. Aria still held herself together but didn't voice anything.

  "No it's not her fault, I think it's mine. You mentioned before that the bonding process is different for each Acolyte right?"

  "Yes. We're taught to trust our Acolytes in this process." She responded.

  "Then trust me."

  Taking her hand I approached Aria for the second time. Sapphire was a little less thrilled but she still came with, after gring at Aria untill she turned and knelt down again that is.

  "Now hold her." I told Sapphire.

  She complied by wrapping her tail around Aria's neck and dared me with her eyes to tell her not to. Whatever makes her happy and if I'm right she won't need to repeat the backsh from st time. Aria for her part stayed entirely still.

  Okay then attempt number two.

  Pcing my left hand in the same spot as st time on Aria I wrapped my right around Sapphires hips. Neither girl moved and I had the sudden feeling that if this didn't work I was going to look very stupid.

  Before I could let that thought take flight I mentally spun my Mana again and threw a good portion of it into Aria. Just like st time it bzed a path that the rest followed and now that I was focusing on it I did notice my shield deactivate. Seems bonding is also a point of vulnerability for me.

  Once the majority of my Mana had pulled itself into Aria and filled out into every cell in her body, instead of coming back to me like it had with Sapphire it followed the connection point of her tail and began filling into my mia before repeating the process again.

  Sapphire should already have bonded though so what the hell is happening here?

  Once my Mana was happy it returned fully to me and went silent once again. Mint filled my senses for a brief moment and I almost fell backwards if Sapphire hadn't caught me.

  "Easy John. Whatever your bonding process is it's definitely unique." The mia cooed. "You are bonded right?"

  The question was aimed at Aria and when the angel turned around and held her breath my shield seemed to flicker on for a second.

  "Yes I'm now bonded with Acolyte John."

  Sapphire let out a breath and all the tension left her body. "Good. So I don't think I need to say this but I want no confusion. John is male and a human from a newly discovered pnet, he doesn't know a lot of our customs and has only been an Acolyte for just under a day. As such..."

  "Be vigint, be prepared. More than usual." Aria finished.

  "Yes, especially after already having an assassination attempt."

  Yay they're bonding in the not Mana reted way. This might take some warming up but at least Sapphire is no longer threatening Aria.

  "I have to ask. What was with that bonding process? I've never been taught it or heard of any Acolyte doing something like that. Usually the process is one on one even if they have to do something weird." Aria asked.

  "New to me as well. When it was just the two of us we didn't have any reaction like that." Sapphire said back releasing both Arias neck and letting me stand after making sure I could without support. I took buckshot from almost point bnk and walked off just fine but she still seemed to treat me like paper sometimes. Admittedly it was kinda cute but I didn't think it was the right time to mention that.

  "I wonder." The angel mumbled and a small handheld device appeared in her hands.

  Oh I so want the ability to store things in an inventory like a video game. Yes I was jealous.

  Aria did something with the device and a light came out the front that she shone over herself for a few seconds before looking back at it. Sapphire joined her already knowing what the device did but my best guess was a scanner of some sort.

  "Any changes?" Sapphire asked.

  "A lot." Aria replied. "I use to only have Mana focusing on my hands for my mutation but now? It's all over my body but more heavily focusing on my skin and wings. I don't remember this being a part of our training. They said we might get a bit of Mana inside us connecting to our hearts but this makes it seem like I have an Acolytes shield active."

  That seemed to get Sapphires attention. "Scan me."

  Oh yes I was correct with it being a scanner, score one for me.

  Aria complied and scanned Sapphire showing her the results.

  Sapphire seemed thoughtful for a second as she looked at it then grabbed her pistol and shot herself in the tail.

  "God dammit!" I cried out at the sound but neither of the girls seemed to bat an eye. The bullet bounced harmlessly off her scales.

  "My mutation is resilient scales, grade one armor penetration won't do anything to me and my scales can block up to grade three." She stopped then and gave the pistol to Aria. "The Mana in my body is more focused on my skin so I shouldn't have that much around my hands."

  Aria seemed to understand instantly but I was still stuck on the fact Sapphire had shot herself. Granted it wouldn't do anything but still.

  With a smile Aria took stock of where I was standing then pivoted with her wing outstretched. She then decided to take Sapphires express trip to the lunny bin and shoot herself in the wing as well.

  This time I didn't react more on the account I was shocked than expecting it, but just like Sapphire the bullet bounced harmlessly off her wing.

  "Valkyries blessings!" Aria excimed. "I'm bulletproof."

  "More than that." Sapphire added. Somehow she'd gotten hold of her sniper rifle and I watched it fade away then reappear in her hands. "John somehow allows us to share our mutations."