Scene 10 - November 6th

Exterior Training Grounds, Continuous

Abraham Armstrong

I bounded across the simulated rooftops, keeping my ears open for reports from my team while I scanned both the horizon and the streets blow me for any sign of the opposing team. As I landed from one long, power-assisted leap, my earpiece crackled to life.

“I’ve found Newton,” Anima reported. “They have the flag clipped to their belt. Moving to engage.” That... didn’t make sense. Giving the flag to Quinn, okay, I supposed - Simone had the highest mobility, but Quinn was highly mobile as well and had ESP to prevent a stealth approach. But the person with the flag engaging instead of running...

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Journey just dropped off Sequoia, who’s coming at me with intent,” Starling reported. “The flag is clipped to his belt, so I’m engaging.”

I sighed. That explained it - two flags? Holly must have created illusions to hide them. No doubt their entire team carried a ‘flag’ - of course, it was almost certain that the real flag was elsewhere. “Broadcast: don’t prioritize flags carried by the Journeymen,” I said to the whole team. “Loki has created illusions to hide its true location.” I paused for a moment, considering, then added, “Our best path to victory here is to take out their team, rather than to find their flag.

“Starling:” I said, switching to a direct line, “switch to hunting players, not the flag.”

“Understood.”

The real flag was somewhere, but almost certainly not with any of the Journeymen. Classic shell game - the ball wasn’t actually in any of the shells, it was in the magician’s hand... or in this case, probably invisible and somewhere hard for someone who couldn’t teleport to get to. No real point in searching for it, not when we outclassed the Journeymen in combat skill.