ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR: Poor Mice

****** 124 ***** “I don’t understand.” Jeffy was standing at the back of the study room, watching Reinhard pronounce a string of Artonan words for the tenth time. The wordchain was supposed to increase energy, and the archer said he wanted it for tomorrow. Lute listened to him from his perch on the edge of the conference table. “You don’t go to class sometimes?” Jeffy asked Lute. “And the teachers don’t mind?” “They’ll mind if you don’t go to class,” Lexi told him. “Get over here and discuss the water obstacle with Njeri. It’s important.” “Being an Aqua Brute is so cool,” said Astrid. She’d been trying to hype Jeffy up about swimming ever since arriving from her special Morph training to join their team planning session. She had given herself an aquiline nose and added long asymmetrical bangs to her hair. Her tongue was pierced again, and she assured them she was now confident in her ability to make her legs four and a half centimeters longer “without any loss of their leg functionalities!” for her running and hurdling convenience. She did seem taller when she walked in, Alden thought, scraping the last of the tabbouleh out of a takeout container from Cafeteria North. He was sitting between Astrid and Lucille, watching footage of Team Vandy/Marsha. Over the course of the evening, everyone had fallen into the habit of calling the other teams by the names of their most intimidating members. Naturally, that meant the S-ranks. Alden had been annoyed by it to start with, and now it sounded almost natural. The rank fixation is pernicious. He thought it was also keeping some of his teammates from giving the other players due respect. “Does anyone know if Reinhard can actually shoot Mehdi? I know we said it would be an option, but just because he’s an A-rank it doesn’t mean—” “Of course I can!” <<Return to your lesson, unruly student,>> Lute commanded in Artonan, pelting Reinhard in the forehead with one of the paper clips he’d been bending into interesting shapes for the past hour. He’d taken a fistful from the supply room on the way into the library, and thanks to his fast hands, he’d gone through dozens of them already. Reinhard rubbed his head, glared, then went back to practicing. “Rein can probably hit him,” said Astrid. “Mehdi’s got his threat detection skill, but its radius is a little less than three meters right now.” “That’s relevant if Reinhard’s shooting him from behind,” Alden said, “but we’re not going to get off many surprise attacks. The bell rings when one of us crosses the finish line. They all know something’s coming. Mehdi might be looking right at him when he draws the bow.” Alden still didn’t have a good sense of how fast everyone and everything moved in the gym. Yesterday, when Reinhard had fired on Febri—the S-rank Agi Brute from the team they were now calling Febri/Shrike—he’d missed. Febri had the same Instant Corners skill as Instructor Klein, and even though it was at the first level, he’d managed to use it to change the position of his body in a blink so that Reinhard’s shot had swept past his back instead of hitting him dead center in the chest. Apparently, Alden wasn’t the only one remembering that moment, because Haoyu piped up from the corner where he, Everly, and Maricel were watching video of an Adjuster who had the same super-slick ice trap spell that Everly could use. “If we face Team Febri/Shrike again,” he said, “I think their Adjuster, Olive, would be a better choice of target than either of the S-ranks.” Lexi pointed at Reinhard. “He means you were an idiot for targeting the one member of that team you definitely couldn’t hit last time.” On the screen, Alden watched Winston Heelfeather emerge from the pipe and hit the speed zone Max had laid down between it and the fire obstacle. There was another speed zone inside the box with the flaming walls itself and yet another with the weights, alongside the zone that Alden thought of as the invisible swimming pool. “They used him so fucking badly.” Irritation crept into his voice as Max arrived back at the fire himself only to have to cast the speed spell again. “Who?” Njeri asked. “Winston?” “No. Max.” “He didn’t sleep in his room last night,” Jeffy said. “I called to ask where he was, and he was on the train to his mom’s place. He stayed there.” Several people looked interested at the news. Njeri walked over to stare at the screen. “I don’t really see how they misused him, Alden. The speed increases are helping them all get through that section of the course with a lot less movement restriction penalties from the burns, and the…float zone?…is making it so that some of them can move the weights when they wouldn’t usually be able to.” “Those are fine areas to put his zones down. Practically the whole course is a good place for one of them,” Alden said. “But almost every member of their team who comes to one is using it, regardless of what the state of the rest of the group is. Max’s zones are cool, but they have capacity limitations. Someone with high stats blasting through them or someone standing inside of one using spells makes the effect end faster.” The fire obstacle was a big slowdown if your team didn’t have a hard counter to it. And the Vandy/Marsha team didn’t have many. “You think Winston should’ve dodged the zone and left it for someone behind him?” Njeri asked. “Lucille can get through the fire with no help and a ten percent movement restriction. Winston should be able to do at least that well.” In Alden’s opinion, there was no good reason for a Speed Brute to have his pace tripled when there were a bunch of slower people on his team and he couldn’t move through upcoming obstacles without them. “He just doesn’t want to be slowed down for the rest of the course,” Astrid said. “He’s trying to get exciting shots for his fans, too.” One of Everly’s silver buns was gradually coming loose as the night wore on, the pencil holding it in place sagging toward her ear. “When he posted his gym clips this morning, that moment when he ran through the flames was his opener. He mentioned that he’d benefited from a spell effect in the text description, but nobody reads those.” “Is he allowed to post the official school gym footage?” Alden asked. “I thought there was a rule against putting it online?” “You can if you’re the only person visible.” She lifted her eyebrows. “I’ve been meaning to ask you…when are you going to update your account? I tried to connect with everybody in the class, but you haven’t posted anything since October of last year.” “He’s got thirty thousand comments on that post,” Njeri said. “He’s never going to be able to read them all.” Lute spun around on the table. “I read a lot of them. They mostly say, ‘He died.’ Or ‘He’s not dead!’ Or, more recently, ‘He came back for the radishes.’” Good to have a summary I guess. Everly side-eyed Lute. She’d been doing that a lot, but she hadn’t said anything negative. “Why are you all studying a picture I took of a bunch of pigeons over a year ago?” Alden asked. They exchanged looks. “I wasn’t going to say anything,” said Reinhard, dropping his hands from their casting position. “Because I don’t know you. But if I were you I’d post something soon. Take advantage of all the interest you’ve gotten recently. Leverage it. You should try to do something cool during the run tomorrow and put it up. And talk about the video with that girl who was…uh…” He frowned at Lute. “How dare you think unkind thoughts about my cousin,” said Lute, curving a paper clip into a spiral. “Alden could do a ‘How I Became an Avowed’ post!” Everly said. “Those are always soooo much better for globies than for us. It’s exciting because being chosen is a surprise for all of you! Maricel’s started posting, but she hasn’t done one of those either.” She nudged Maricel with her shoulder. “Vandy has suggested it a few times,” Maricel said in a neutral voice. When Alden didn’t answer right away, Haoyu cleared his throat. “Guys, he might not want to curate a media presence as a first year.” “I don’t.” “My profiles are all private,” Haoyu added. “Some of you are really rushing superhero persona creation.” “I don’t do social media,” said Lexi. “Never would’ve guessed,” Reinhard muttered. “Can we get task-focused?” Alden asked, gesturing toward the video. “I’ve never wanted to be an internet-famous person. I only posted the pigeons because they were walking along the sidewalk in a perfectly straight line. Now, about Winston—” “No wonder he’s got a problem with you,” Reinhard said. “He wants to be an internet-famous person so bad. And you’re getting there without trying.” Fine. Let’s not be task-focused. It was eleven o’clock at night, and they’d all been at this off and on throughout the day. Expecting everyone to stay on topic one hundred percent of the time was probably too much. “We were discussing famousness in the locker room before the gokoratch video!” Astrid announced. “Winston got really mad at the party when people started giving Finlay advice about this kind of thing.” Alden sighed. “Is he seriously mad that Finlay is more popular than him online? That’s it? That’s his whole issue?” “I think so,” said Astrid. “Getting more popular,” Njeri corrected. “Winston’s actually still slightly ahead on the follower count. But that’s just because he started months ago. Finlay’s going to pass him and then keep passing him…in multiple ways, which probably makes it worse.” “I do feel a tad sorry for him,” said Everly. “I think his family put a lot of money into advertising him before he even left home. There was some kind of a tour of the US? He was doing interviews and making so many videos. He’s more friendly on camera than in person, and it must have been a lot of work. It’s probably part of what made him appealing to the admissions committee.” Wow. It really is some kind of celebrity wannabe drama. Apparently Winston was going for that sports drink branding deal he’d mentioned the first time Alden and Maricel had met him. “Can we talk about Marsha?” he suggested hopefully before they could get farther away from business. He paused the video on a curvy girl with blue eyes and shoulder-length dark hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. She’d spoken to him exactly once, during the class meet-and-greet on acceptance day. She’d been fairly condescending about B-ranks, and they’d basically never had reason to speak to each other since then. On the screen, Marsha was carrying a polearm with a haft that looked like it was made of engraved bone. She could change the shape of the blade. It currently resembled a glaive, and she was bringing it down in a sweeping motion toward Finlay, who’d shoved Jupiter out of the way of the strike. Finlay would’ve managed to dodge it if Marsha was wielding a normal weapon, but the polearm could deliver a near-instant magical follow-up slice equal to the force of the original swing. Two deadly strokes for the price of one. Marsha could choose to some degree what direction that invisible slash of force traveled in, so if she missed someone with a swipe of the physical blade, the magical strike coming in from a surprise angle might get them. Which was exactly what happened to Finlay. “Marsha’s got a unique personality,” Everly said in a diplomatic tone. “Marsha’s got a lot of pent-up feelings,” said Njeri. “Or something.” “Marsha just sliced that fast guy in half, and she looked happy about it. Avoid her.” They all turned to Lute. “What? I’m not allowed to comment? I’m the team trainer.” Alden grinned at him. “She probably looked happy because that was the only time anybody in our class has ever beaten Finlay. What I was going to say was that it seems like Marsha might be able to run the whole course by herself. Is that right? The way she uses the magic strikes to toss some of the weights is really cumbersome and slow, but other than that…” The girls exchanged looks. “I think it depends on if it’s her first run or her second,” Maricel said. Lucille was nodding. “She doesn’t like to hold back,” Maricel explained. “Our advisors for The Superlatives club even mentioned it. She’ll use her talents for everything even if she doesn’t need to. So by the end of class, if she’s the last one left on her team, she might not have enough magic to run the whole course.” “Marsha has run herself dry attacking Instructor Klein twice already. Vandy tried to give her advice about it the second time…” Njeri shook her head. “That didn’t go well.” Alden looked back at the video of the S-rank. After dispatching Finlay and returning to her team’s half of the course, she chanted a spell over the weapon and flung it at the magic wall like a spear. It embedded itself deeply near the top. Rather than taking a weapon recall talent like many Meisters did, Marsha had done the opposite and taken an ability that pulled her body toward the polearm. Alden couldn’t imagine what it looked like if she used it to move along the ground, but ground-to-air looked uncomfortable. Like she was being yanked forcefully upward by unseen puppet strings. It works great though. Her hands clamped onto the haft, and she swung herself up onto the top of the wall, pulling her weapon free as she went. “I want to do that,” Jeffy said longingly. Astrid spun her chair around to face him. “Sure! But just imagine how much more awesome it would be to do something like that underwater.” ****** They worked until midnight and might’ve kept going if not for Lexi threatening to read them research on how lack of sleep made you too klutzy to run obstacle courses. “Does that specific research really exist?” Haoyu yawned as they passed below a lamppost on their way back across campus toward Garden Hall. Alden and his roommates were lagging a couple of minutes behind the rest of the group, since Lute had wanted to explore the library’s free office supply offerings some more. “Some scientist made a bunch of people go without sleep, and then ran them through an obstacle course?” “It was a maze. And it was mice. But it still applies.” “Poor mice.” “Are you guys going to win?” Lute asked. “I’ll be depressed if you lose now that I’ve contributed.” “Three wordchains,” said Lexi. “Hours of tutoring,” Lute countered. “Reinhard won’t be a fatigued maze mouse even if he stays up all night. Njeri will be very slightly stronger. And Astrid will feel more peaceful when everything’s going wrong. Assuming they all remember what I told them. I have my doubts.” “Thank you for doing it,” said Alden. Lexi sighed. “It was nice.” “It was great of you!” Haoyu agreed. Lute leaped ahead of them on the sidewalk and gave them a dramatic bow. “I am great. But seriously…are you going to win? The other teams look scarier than you guys.” “They all have an S-rank weapon Meister except for us. Tuyet, Marsha, and Shrike are pure offense,” said Lexi. “Are we seriously supposed to call Knife Guy ‘Shrike?’” Alden asked. “Even if he’s picked a favorite hero name, are we sure he doesn’t want us to use his real name in casual conversation?” “You’re calling him Knife Guy,” Lexi pointed out. “And I can’t believe you didn’t know the name of one of the class S-ranks.” “I’ve barely interacted with him. Maricel didn’t remember either!” The Knife Meister wasn’t much of a talker, as it turned out, because of a language gap. He was just learning English, and he often kept translations turned off for the immersion experience. “Ignacio wants to use both names, so either should be fine,” said Haoyu. “I think we could win. Our team is interesting, too. Lots of versatility. Strategy is up in the air still since we decided to let everyone have at least one of their personal goals. But even with that, we’ll work together so much better this time around.” As they approached the dorm, Lexi said, “You never mentioned if there was anything you wanted to try.” “Me?” Alden asked. Lexi nodded. “That’s true!” said Haoyu. “You were the one who said we should be open about it if we wanted to test something out or show something off while we have access to the course. Didn’t you want to try anything?” Alden looked up toward his own bedroom window as they passed below it. The neighboring girls’ dorm had gotten an upgrade yesterday in the form of twinkle lights in their ivy. He assumed the boys’ building would soon follow. “I just want to hang out in the background and find ways to use my power to support everyone else,” he said finally. “Is that all?” Haoyu leaned around Lexi to see him better. “You’re sure?” “I’m going to use my new wordchain, too. And I’ve got a few ideas that could be fun if the appropriate situations arise. It’s enough. I’ll be getting plenty of practice whatever I do…as long as nobody knocks me out.” They entered the sliding doors, paused for a moment in the common area so Lexi could throw a bunch of trash someone had left on one of the tables into the recycling bins, then headed up the stairs. “I call the tub,” Lute announced as their feet pounded up the steps. “It’s my right as team trainer.” Haoyu nodded. “Sounds fair.” “I call—” said Lexi. “First shower is mine!” Haoyu said in a rush. “Ha! I win. You can—” A scream interrupted him. Alden jumped. His hand clenched against the soft fabric of his bag. All four of them looked at the ceiling. “It wasn’t that loud,” said Lexi. “It must have come from inside a room.” “Should we—?” Haoyu gestured upwards. “Someone’s on fire.” Lute tilted his head. “What?” Lexi demanded. “What do you me—?” “Someone’s really…FUCK!” Lute shouted, bolting up the last few steps and then racing for the third floor. “ET!! ET yourself!!” They were all three right behind him. Alden’s laptop-laden bag smashed into his hip as they rounded the corner. He took the stairs up to the next floor two at a time behind Haoyu. No time for thoughts other than the most obvious. Fire? Who is it? My skill… Voices were shouting. Lute was banging on the door of Suite 313, cursing a lot, and yelling for whoever the injured person was to emergency teleport to the hospital. The door flew open, and Sanjay from their class pelted out. “Sanjay!” Lexi said. “Who’s hurt?” Sanjay leaped through the air, heading down the stairs Alden and the others had just come up without actually using them. He hit the landing in a roll that smashed him into a wall, then he was up and leaping down the next flight, nothing but a broken flip-flop left behind. “Holy shit,” said Alden. They pushed into the apartment. Every surface was covered in food, bags, and tech; and people were shouting in the hall. They ran in to find themselves at the back of a group of their classmates who were crowding the doorway of one of the bedrooms. “Oh my god, oh my god,” Rebecca was saying. “He needs the hospital.” “It’s out! The fire’s out! Stay calm!” someone shrieked wildly. “Everyone stay calm!” <<Is he okay!?>> “Shut up! I can’t hear!” “Søren? Søren, why didn’t you ET?” The air smelled like smoke. Without pausing to figure out exactly what had gone down, Alden tried to squeeze his way between Rebecca and another one of the class’s Brutes to get through the door into the bedroom. Someone was apologizing almost hysterically. “Rebecca,” said Alden, “Rebecca, if someone’s hurt, move.” “Hey!” a voice rang out sharply. “Fucking move, all of you!” It was Lexi. “Alden’s...