SEVENTY-SIX: The Rescue Game

      .       Alden headed over to the side of the gym where the rescue game was going on and received his instructions. He was on a team of six “heroes” who would be facing off against four “villains.” There were also three victims being played by other students. The heroes had to get the victims safely from one side of the gym to the other while the villains attacked them. Alden was the only B-rank in the whole group this time, but there was a familiar face among his fellow heroes. “Rabbit guy!” said Konstantin as soon as they’d gotten their initial instructions and clustered up to discuss strategy. “You’re the other rescuer, right?” Alden nodded at the Adjuster. “Hi, Kon.” The other four hero team members were supposed to focus on engaging with the villains and keeping a corridor of the fake disaster zone enemy-free for the rescuers to move through. “All right!” said a serious-looking Brute girl with short brown hair. “So you two are in charge of victim transport, and the four of us will be protecting you from the villains. What are your talents? Are either of you fast?” “I’m going to be amazingly useless at this,” Kon announced, giving everyone an easy smile. “I read objects and restore them to previous states. Nothing else.” The other members of the hero group looked confused. Alden didn’t blame them. It was a weird-sounding talent package for a hero school candidate, and it was so limited for an S-rank Adjuster. Usually they had a bare minimum of three spells to go with their skill to start. “I can take on a lower ranked non-Brute in a fight…if they can’t use their powers. Probably. But I think they put me here just so I could prove I’m not a panicker,” Kon added. “Since there isn’t much point in me participating in duels.” <<Wonderful,>> one of their new teammates—a Strength Brute—said. His voice was an ill-tempered mutter. <<We’ve got two useless experimentals in our group.>> “We’re all on the same side here.” The short-haired girl spoke with forced perkiness. “We’ll be showing off our ability to get along and deal with the unexpected as much as anything else. Rabbit, you—” “It’s Alden.” He’d literally put his name tag up without a single word on it except for his name so that people would stop calling him just Rabbit. “My skill will freeze the victims in place and protect them as long as I’m carrying them. They have to give me permission to pick them up, or, if they’re supposed to be unconscious, one of you will have to do it to make it an accurate representation of how the skill works.” “Okay,” said the girl. Everyone else was letting her take the lead, so Alden decided to consider her the team captain, too. It was pretty lucky that there wasn’t some kind of fight for dominance going on here. The villain huddle was already talking with raised voices. “What do you mean freeze them in place and protect them? Is there going to be a shield around you, and we don’t need to worry about you taking damage, or—” “He’s a B and a Rabbit. We have to worry about him taking damage no matter what,” the Wright with the pain weapon said in a bored voice. He was a really plain-looking guy, and the weapon that had everyone side-eyeing him was almost as nondescript. It was a foot-long black tube with beads of what looked like molten glass around one end. Alden was tempted to call it a wand. Other than the rare Adjuster receiving an impression-specific tool, the variety of wands humans had access to were pre-loaded spell shooters, and they could look like all kinds of things. “I can use this as a shield until I grab a victim,” Alden said, gesturing with his umbrella. “And then I can use the victim as a shield.” They all stared at him. “I mean nothing that hits them will hurt me or them as long as my skill doesn’t get overwhelmed” Alden clarified. “So if I’m carrying someone on my back, we don’t have to worry quite as much about things hitting me from behind. Spells, weapons, and strikes should just bounce off the victim. If the victims can walk on their own I can use other things for shielding material, instead.” “So you basically turn things into shields.” <<Only after he has permission from someone else? That’s an awful limitation.>> There’s more to it than that. It’s not just shields. Alden refrained from saying it. He felt offended on his skill’s behalf, but they didn’t have to understand every little thing about his talent for this exercise. Just like he didn’t need to perfectly know theirs. It would take ten minutes to explain all the ins and outs of everybody’s abilities, and they probably wouldn’t even be able to make use of it. “I have a movement trait that only works on ground,” he added. There was a Ground Shaper on the villain team who’d been given stacks of sandbags to use, so there was a faint possibility of that coming into play. “And I have a spell impression that turns these balls invisible and makes them scream. It’s good for distractions.” He held up one of the two temper spheres he’d brought for this exercise. Everyone else started going over their own talents, and a plan gradually began to develop. The captain girl—Emma—was a vocal Brute. Like longsights and audials, a lot of people thought the vocals should be considered a different class altogether. But if your powers were body-modification related and you got a large number of foundation points, the System said you were a Brute. “Right now I can just make myself horribly loud,” she said apologetically. “I can burst everyone’s eardrums and deafen them, but—” Alden shuddered. “My voice-directing skill is only level one so I can’t focus the noise I make well at all. But if you’re standing in a kind of cone shape behind me instead of to the sides or in front, it shouldn’t hit you when I use it.” “How do the suits handle it?” Konstantin asked. “Do they just hurt peoples’ ears, or do they really cut sound?” “They do it pretty realistically,” she said. “The faculty have the gym set to make all the negative effects last for ten seconds or less, though. So even though I’d only have to do it once in reality to knock out the other team’s hearing, today I’ll have to do it over and over when we want to interrupt their communication.” In addition to Emma, Kon, and Alden there was an Object Shaper who would be trying to turn a box of old glasses, wrist watches, and cell phones into obstacles for their opponents. “I’ve been practicing a caltrop shape,” she said. “So that’s the most complicated thing I can manage right now. But I can throw the objects around just like any other Shaper!” “Flying glass and metal caltrops would make most people think twice about messing with you,” Alden said. They also had the Wright with the pain stick, and the strength Brute. “I’m the only useless one.” Kon sighed. “Unless we want to turn some of the caltrops back into broken cellphones when we’re done. I could do that for you. Alden, you’re not in financial distress, right?” “Who just asks somebody that?” the Wright said. “It’s relevant. Anyway, I figure if you’re trying to be a Rabbit hero, being rich is going to be one of your powers, isn’t it” “I don’t consider it one of my powers.” “Fine, but you’re at least not broke? I’ve been thinking about your sunshine-smelling breakfast all morning, and I’m ninety percent sure that wasn’t normal food. You’re paying someone with a skill to cook for you. Whatever…I don’t care… can you afford to waste your temper spheres?” “You know what they’re called?” “I looked up the spell impression you said you had while everyone was talking. Can you?” “I could donate some. Why?” “We don’t have any good long range talents other than Emma’s screaming, and that’s not going to stop people for long. They’ll just get used to it.” True. Even the pain wand—which the faculty had re-approved for use after making some kind of adjustment to the way the gym suits handled it—only worked from around ten feet away. Beginner Shapers didn’t have much range either, and theirs had been practicing fine control over shape creation, not aiming, so she couldn’t telekinetically fling things with any more accuracy than the average person could throw them. “The thing is,” Kon said, “I think all of our victims will be dead right away if we don’t focus on their Meister from the start.” “Their Meister?” asked Alden, looking over at the other team. “You mean your brother?” Kon pursed his lips. “It’s unfortunate. I want to tease Lexi about being Meister of the Mind Writher so bad. Because it’s an alien whip. Called Mind Writher. So funny. But it’s actually useful and terrifying, and he’s been practicing with it for hours every day. And he’s pretty accurate with it from a long way away.” Alden looked over in surprise. The thin gold chain of the strange weapon wasn’t very long. <<You’re just mentioning it now?>> their Strength Brute demanded. “I wasn’t sure what the faculty meant by pitting us against each other,” Kon said with a shrug. “I was trying to decide if they were testing brotherly loyalty or team loyalty or what before I said anything.” “You settled on team loyalty?” Alden guessed. “Actually, I just decided they were testing Lexi. To see if he’d hit me. He would be a shoe-in for the program, but he’s gotten a reputation for exploding recently. A couple of suspensions on his record…the latest looked pretty bad. Anyway, I’ve been deliberately driving him nuts all day. I think they want to see if he’ll focus on the task or if he’ll take the chance to humiliate me. Even though there’s not much point in attacking me at all, since he knows my magic isn’t useful here.” Alden was surprised. Kon had seemed so cocky and confident this morning. Nearly relaxed. And quite dismissive of his older brother. But apparently that was more of a front than Alden had realized. “So, I can be brotherly loyal by pointing you all at him and giving him an opportunity to overcome difficulty! And I can be team loyal by telling you that his whip is a mentally-directed tool, and it’s perfect for sneaking through openings in our defense and hitting the ‘kill’ targets on the victims. And I can avoid him torturing me with it. Win-win-win.” Then he smiled at Alden. “Except for you. You have to lose your balls.” “Hilarious,” Alden said dryly. “But yeah, I can spare more temper spheres. I’ll have to go grab them.” They were sitting on a table full of other peoples’ spell ingredients in the storage room under the bleachers. There wasn’t much risk of them being stolen, since nobody here was trying to piss off the school. “I’ll get them! I’m just here to taunt my brother anyway, I suppose,” said Kon. “What I think we should do with them is—” “Turn them invisible and give them to the Brutes to use as projectiles,” said Alden. It wasn’t like it hadn’t occurred to him that Brutes—especially the strong guy—throwing invisible things would be scary…but it was so expensive. If we need range, we need range. “Exactly! Lexi will stand at the back of their group. He’ll think he’s safe there. Invisible things hitting him with Brute force should keep him pinned down until someone can break through to engage with him up close. Mix them in with some of those concrete chunks and bricks that are scattered around so that he and the others are busy dodging and blocking the things they can see.” Maybe it will show my team spirit, Alden thought as the Adjuster dashed off to fetch the spheres. ********   The heroes and the villains both started on the same side of the gym. Across the width of it, on the opposite side, the three victims were sprawled among the rubble. The interfaces showed each of them with glowing “kill” spots, where any strike by the villains would be deemed lethal for the purposes of the exercise. One of the students who’d been assigned to the victim role was dramatically groaning, so at least somebody was having fun. [Start in 5…] I wonder what this is going to be like? A loosely developed plan. Teammates who were a little volatile and stressed out. Multiple opponents. Why am I the only B? In a way, Kon was worse off. Physically he’d be more capable than Alden. But his main job between now and the time when the victims were either rescued or dead was to be Alden’s assistant and entrust him with things. It was nice for Alden, and Kon seemed completely relaxed about it. But it had to be frustrating on some level. Stay focused, he told himself. You’re not supposed to be fighting unless something goes wrong, so don’t pay attention to what the fighters are doing. His umbrella was open and preserved already. He was holding seven temper spheres against his chest with his other arm. Nobody could hold them for him until the official start, since they were his spell item. Feels like an arbitrary rule. And the unitards need pockets. How did they even talk the Artonans into making suits without them? [START] Madness. Konstantin and the Strength Brute guy snatched the temper spheres from Alden. Emma dashed toward the enemy and screamed. Her vocal targeting skill couldn’t be as bad as she’d said because he didn’t hear her. He only knew she had done it because that was the plan, and he heard the other team crying out in shock. He didn’t look. “Haunting Sphere” he commanded, pointing the hand not holding his umbrella at one of the orbs in the Brute’s hands. The artificial focus took him; his vision narrowed. His fingers flicked. The sphere screamed and disappeared. The Brute flung it with a manly grunt of effort. Hopefully it hit Kon’s brother. Alden couldn’t spare the attention to check. The three of them started across the gym together. Thanks to the semi-brainless way spell impressions worked, he could cast “Haunting Sphere,” jog, and hold his umbrella between his body and the enemy at the same time. But anything more was going to be tough. He felt something smash into his umbrella. He ignored it. Three invisible spheres. Four. Five. That’s enough. He quit casting, and he and Kon split off from their Brute protector. Alden ran flat-out the last few yards toward the first victim. Since people were actively trying to kill all the victims, it just seemed wisest to go for whoever was closest instead of trying to figure out who was the most injured. Diving behind a broken block wall that looked like it had been stolen from a real disaster site, Alden and Kon examined the student lying there. She was a girl with the spiky hair who had her arms and legs in a starfish posture. Her tongue was lolling out. She had a piercing. “What’s with the tongue? Are you supposed to be dead already?” Kon asked. “Are you unconscious for this exercise?” Alden asked, targeting her and flinging the umbrella at Kon. She didn’t answer. “Guess she’s a method actor. And she’s unconscious,” the Adjuster said, closing the umbrella. “I give her body to you, Bunny Dude.” “Freak,” said the girl, cracking open one eye to glare at him. “But, yeah, Bunny Dude! You can pick me up.” That was good. The faculty must have filled the victims in on the entrustment thing. “Great,” Alden said quickly. “Kon, are we clear enough for you to grab a second victim and follow, or—?” “Should be. We moved so fast. Let me check. You stay down.” Kon popped his head up over the wall. “Well that’s not good.” “What?” “We’ve already got a problem. Their team’s Ground Shaper just threw a twenty-five kilo sandbag in our Torture Wright’s face. Guess he missed with his evil pain stick? Yeah…now she’s got him on the ground and she’s smashing him in the stomach with it.” Alden winced. A fifty-five pound sandbag backed by telekinetic force didn’t sound like a good time. “Ha!” said the unconscious victim. Kon and Alden both looked at her. “That guy deserves a taste of his own medicine.” “He’s getting pummeled. Emma and Caltrops Girl have got two of them pinned in the far corner. Our Strong Guy is pelting my brother with spheres and running at him, so we might be all right if he can deal with Lexi fast then handle the girl with the sandbags…but I don’t actually think he can deal with Lexi fast. And if we split up to take two victims, the sandbag girl will for sure stop one of us.” As the slightly more useful team member, Alden was supposed to keep his head down, but he was having a hard time picturing what was going on from the description. “Can we make it across the gym with just this one or not?” he hissed. “I don’t know,” Konstantin said. “If we go together, I can maybe distract the Sandbagger—” He’s just giving everyone fake names at this point. “—but if Lexi told her what my skill and spell are, then she might ignore me altogether in favor of rapid-smacking you and then the victim. It would really help if Torture Wright would at least try to point his weapon at her.” “Do you think she’s an A or an S?” “A. She’s a bludgeoner, too. No refined shaping techniques yet. That’s why she’s using the whole bags instead of fooling around with loose sand. She’s going to hit hard, but she’s not going to do something awesome like make sand fingers.” “You can just tell?” “It might be more obvious if you grow up around Avowed, and you’re used to seeing everybody get their powers.” Oh. True. He’d probably seen half a dozen people from whatever school he went to come out of affixation with a similar set of talents. “Let’s change plans,” Alden said, hoping it wasn’t a stupid idea. “You carry the victim. I’ll shield you.” Kon ducked down behind the wall. “Why? You’ve got the rescue people skill.” “You’re just unconscious, right?” Alden asked the girl. “Or are you supposed to be bleeding out and on the verge of death? Do you have some damage that will be seriously worsened if you’re not frozen in transport?” “They just told me I’m unconscious.” “So it’s not actually necessary to preserve her, is it?” said Alden. He switched targets to Kon. “You’ve got to be stronger and faster than me—” “Oh god yes,” said Kon. “Do I look like I wasted points on fluff like Appeal? It’s mostly in Strength and Agility.” “So you carry the victim. I’ll be able to keep up with you and shield you. We’ll move way quicker.” “And you’re just going to take hits from flying sandbags with your umbrella?” “I think I can.” “She’s got a rank on you.” “I can do it.” Sandbags weren’t arrows. And she was only working with one right now. He’d definitely see it coming. And it’ll be good to know how I compare. “Let’s go with it, then,” said Kon. “Being your caddie wasn’t doing my coolness justice anyway.” He stuffed one of the remaining temper spheres into the sleeve of his suit and passed the other one to Alden, who did the same. “I give you back your umbrella shield.” Alden hadn’t mentioned that the entrustment didn’t have to be quite that literally spoken, and now didn’t seem like the time to explain. He took the umbrella, opened it, and preserved it. Kon grabbed the girl with the tongue-piercing by the ankles. “You’re not even going to carry me?” she asked. “So lazy.” “What are we? Newlyweds? I think dragging you like this is one of the safer ways to move you since you’ve got unknown injuries. I’ll carry you if we have to run through the caltrops or something.” They moved. As they came around the wall, Alden got his first look at the mess that was the battlefield. Kon’s brother had been tackled, disarmed, and pinned to the ground by the Strong Guy, so that was good. But Emma had lost the other team’s Strong Girl; she was heading to rescue her fallen teammate. The Sandbagger was standing ten feet away from the Torture Wright, lifting and lowering one of her arms repeatedly to smash him with the heavy bag. That seems overzealous. But I guess he brought a pain wand, so she figures it’s justified? The Object Shaper from Alden’s team was occasionally flinging a spiky metal ball at one of the enemies as she hurried over to stand guard over the other two victims. I think she should probably...