The Purple Tortoise surrendered, and their training was deemed a success. Since they passed their first major training, Harper made two announcements. First, they were now ready for computer training, and would be receiving company computers to use for them. There would also be a welcome party for them that very night, hosted by the other special teams of Gale Research.

  Ashton had to leave with Harper right away to pick up the computers, and get the rundown on how to use them. He would need to be able to explain everything to his team later and help them set things up. Harper even helped him set up his own company account first to make sure he knew how everything worked. It was a lot of information at once, but this was the sort of thing Ashton was used to.

  His first stop was Summer’s place. She was home, and invited him in immediately. "Come in," she beckoned, "I actually have something I need to ask you about, and I might need help setting it up."

  He began setting it up and discussed the basics of the company computer rules and made her company account. It was the basic rules that came with many loaned devices. The device was never to be used for anything personal, whether that be gaming or storing photos, or even accessing a personal email. When he mentioned that whatever was done on the device would be monitored, Summer seemed appalled by the idea.

  It had been a long time since Ashton had stopped to think about it, but it was a bit invasive. Still, people in general couldn’t be trusted not to download some sort of virus and put the company at risk. He could fully understand why they would need to monitor them. Once Summer got over that and finished making her company account, she was stunned again by the sheer amount of trainings.

  Their deadline was a week, but Ashton could easily see how the number could be overwhelming. If he remembered correctly, Harper had told him there were forty-seven different trainings to complete. Each one should take anywhere from five to fifteen minutes, save the three with embedded videos from the Department of Powers. He still had to tackle them himself after setting everyone else up. According to Harper, he had six extra trainings the others did not have.

  "They should all be relatively short," Ashton assured her.

  Summer suddenly grabbed his hand. "Can you give me a reward to look forward to, then?" she asked, "If I make good progress, promise me you will go to the party with me as my date."

  "It's not going to be the kind of a party," Ashton warned her, a bit flustered. He wasn’t sure what kind of parties she had been to, but his experiences of office parties were awkward and boring with some cheap food and soda and some kind of raffle. He doubted a welcome party would be much different.

  "That doesn't matter. Just pick me up and stay with me. We can make it a date, right?" Summer begged.

  She must feel anxious and lonely now that things had gone this far. He wouldn’t have much spare time as team leader later, so there was no reason to refuse. "Alright," Ashton agreed, "but you don't have to earn it. You can always just as-"

  "I do have to earn it," Summer interrupted before she got tempted, "If I don't have some kind of incentive I don't know if I will be able to manage all those trainings."

  Ashton paused for a moment, then sighed. "Alright. Then I will work on them after I help set everyone up as well," he told her, "We could make it into a game, if you want. See which one of us finishes the most before the party?"

  For some reason, he couldn’t stand the sight of her feeling down. Cheering people up wasn’t really his forte, but Summer jumped on his suggestion with unexpected vigor and excitement.

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  "A game? Kinda like a bet?" Summer asked, "You're on! Oh, but we should have some sort of stakes on it, right?"

  "What kind of stakes?" Ashton asked.

  "Um..." Summer paused for a while before answering with uncertainty, "Dessert?"

  "Whoever loses has to bring the other a treat?" Ashton guessed.

  "Exactly!" Despite her momentary surprise, Summer agreed as if that had been her plan all along. Ashton couldn’t help but find that cute.

  Cute? That was a dangerous thought. He quickly left to visit the twins and help them get set up before he said or did anything stupid. They might be dating, but these were working hours. If he couldn’t keep his work and private life separate things were bound to end badly.

  Luckily the Smith twins were easily set up. They didn’t have many questions, and seemed glad for something to occupy their time. Kayla was a bit more difficult, but that was because it seemed like she had never used a laptop before and had to be taught how to use a touchpad mouse.

  “Are you going to the party later?” Kayla asked him.

  “I am,” Ashton confirmed, “I will be taking Summer there.”

  “Oh… See you there, then,” Kayla told him.

  Ashton felt a bit guilty, but he couldn’t return whatever her feelings were when he couldn’t even trust she wasn’t a spy sent by MysteriousMaskz. Not only that, he was already dating Summer, and he was not the kind of pathetic fool to consider cheating. He would also rather not make room for any strange misunderstandings.

  Now that he was done setting everyone else up, Ashton sat down at his own company computer. A treat, huh? He wasn’t really that interested in dessert, and it might make Summer feel better if she won this. He should just do a few and claim that setting everyone up cut into his time. That was how he felt until he saw her text.

  "Let's up the stakes of the bet. The treat has to be handmade."

  He could feel her mental suffering and desperation through the black and white letters. It made him smile for a moment until he realised what that would mean. He had confidence in being able to purchase a decent enough treat with his new income, but he had never made anything like that before. Since he couldn’t feed his girlfriend burnt garbage, he would have no choice but to completely crush her in this bet.

  "That difficult? Sure."

  That should sound normal enough. As long as she couldn’t tell he was panicking, it was fine. Ashton clicked on the first training, reading as quickly as he could. Then he got to a video. Twenty-three minutes. He winced. Harper had warned him the videos were a bit longer, but this was sure to be painful.

  The chibi cartoon hero that greeted him when he pressed play made things exponentially worse. He recognized it as one of the mascot characters of the Department of Powers.

  "Welcome to the Department of Powers, Emergency Assistance division!" it began in an overly cheerful voice that reminded him of a text to speech program, "Whether you were hired on with DOP or through the Gale Research Outreach program, you have an important role to play in the safety of this world!"

  It went on with all the pompous self importance Ashton had come to expect from the hero world. It mentioned several emergency situations and what to do when facing them, but very few of them were ones his team was likely to come across. The methods of combat one slippery surfaces were so ridiculous, Ashton almost laughed. Perhaps this would seem more serious if it wasn’t being acted out by chibi cartoons.

  The questions after the video were all easy, and Ashton was able to go on right to the next training. Now that he was careful to look out for that video symbol, he was able to race through the short classes with ease. He was glad he was able to read so quickly, or he likely wouldn’t have been able to catch up to Summer given her headstart.

  Pushing until the last possible second, Ashton finished the majority of the trainings, leaving his leadership trainings and the two other videos.He had to admit, the information didn’t really sink in doing it this way, but he could always revisit them if he wanted to.

  Now it was almost time for the party. Should he change into something a little nicer, since it was a date?