“Alright, everyone ready?” Carlos called out from the center of the wall, getting ready to activate the challenge.
“We're ready.” Greg confirmed for him and Brittany.
“As are we.” Tessa answered for her and Meredith.
“I'm as ready as I'll ever be.” Victor sighed. This challenge didn't exactly play to his strengths.
“Then let's do this!” Carlos roared, activating the challenge. Immediately a horde of gigantic praying mantis looking creatures appeared, letting out roars of their own as they charged towards the wall. As soon as they appeared, Greg started sending out smoke, creating a field of metal spikes between the horde and the wall, Brittany covering some in illusions while others were left bare. It didn't seem to make much of a difference either way, unfortunately, as the horde simply charged through, the front of the wave impaling itself on the spikes as the ones that followed charged over them. As the horde got closer, Casey and Emily went to work, throwing out fire and flying blades to thin it out before it reached the wall, and Greg finally finished setting up the spikes, the last ones set up on the wall itself, pointing downwards, transforming into his scorpocroc form as he prepared for the horde to hit the wall.
As the horde of mantis creatures reached the wall, they began flinging themselves up it. Some missed and impaled themselves on Greg's spikes, but a good chunk of them reached the top, where they met Carlos's barrier, bouncing off and falling back into the swarm. Carlos covered as much of the wall as he could, keeping the mantises down while Greg and Tessa handled the areas he couldn't reach, tearing into any mantis that came near them. Meredith carefully monitored Tessa's condition, shooting a pulse of healing into her every now and then, while Brittany covered Greg in an illusion of himself, controlling it to send fake attacks at the mantises to cover Greg's, confusing the mantises as much as she could. Since Casey and Emily couldn't shoot through Carlos's barrier, they turned to support the other two teams, taking out any mantis that got around Tessa and Greg. Meanwhile, Victor slipped into the horde on Tessa's side to cause confusion, pushing and shoving the mantises into each other, creating openings for Tessa where he could. Unfortunately, even the fact that he was unnoticeable didn't keep him from getting knocked around by the press of the mantises, so he had to retreat fairly often to get healing from Meredith.
As time passed, Carlos began to wear out and his barrier started to shrink, forcing the squad to move closer and closer together until they were back to back. Then Victor was finally knocked out, Meredith too focused on Tessa to spare him any healing, and not much later Tessa fell as well, the rest of them falling soon after as the mantises broke through, swarming over the rest of them. “Hey, I can still keep going!” Greg protested as he was knocked out by whatever metric the network device was using. Though, admittedly, the strain was starting to get to him and his body was exhausted. He was pretty sure the only reason he was still moving was the smoke.
“Could you fucking not though?” Victor groaned. “Fuck, even if it's just an illusion, that shit fucking hurt!”
“I'm sore in places that don't even exist.” Carlos complained. “I don't think I've ever pushed my barrier that hard before.”
All the others nodded in agreement. The challenge had been intense, pushing all of them to their limits before they finally fell. “Has anyone checked our rankings yet?” Brittany asked.
A chorus of groans echoed out as everyone checked their network devices. The rankings were split into four categories in which all twenty-five thousandish people in their section of the ship were ranked. The categories were offense, defense, survival, and development, and you could earn benefits by ranking higher in each category. “I'm in the top four thousand.” Victor announced.
“Me too.” Brittany added.
“Top thousand.” Tessa smirked.
“Me too.” Meredith shot back.
“And me.” Carlos replied.
“Us too.” Casey answered for both her and Emily.
“I'm… forty-fourth?” Greg frowned. “That doesn't seem right…”
The rest of the squad shared a few looks. “Seems about right to me.” Victor shrugged. “How many people do you think are capable of altering the battlefield like that and then fighting longer and harder than anyone else? Your spikes did just as much to keep the mantises off of us as Carlos's barrier did, and you handled an entire side better than me, Tessa, and Meredith combined.”
“Yeah, dude, you're pretty ridiculous.” Carlos agreed.
“Terrifying.” Emily shuddered.
“I mean, sure but aren't the rankings supposed to adjust for stuff like that?” Greg pointed out.
Tessa shook her head. “The rankings adjust for strength. You aren't stronger than anyone else, you just do more than anyone else. Which is probably what the aliens are looking for in the first place.”
“I'm kind of surprised you're only forty-fourth, all things considered.” Brittany commented. “Who's ahead of you?”
“Uh… people?” Greg replied, looking over a bunch of strangers' names.
“Probably other people with weird powers like him.” Casey waved dismissively. “He can't be the only one, right? Not mixed in with twenty-five thousand other people.”
Tessa snorted. “I think Greg is more unique than you might think. He probably just didn't make the most of what his smoke could do.”
“Hey?” Greg protested.
Tessa rolled her eyes. “You didn't even touch your telekinesis, or the heat power from your other form.”
Greg blinked, then coughed awkwardly. “I- was conserving resources? It didn't seem like I needed to use them, you know?”
Everyone stared at him incredulously. “All that and you were holding back!?!” Casey hissed.
“Only a little!” Greg retorted. “I mean, I can only focus on so much at a time, and I was busy fighting monsters!”
“All I'm hearing is that you need more training.” Tessa muttered.
“Well… yeah?” Greg agreed. “I've only been doing this shit for like a week.”
They all paused, then Victor snorted. “And he's still forty-fourth.”
Brittany sighed. “Alright, come on, let's focus on figuring out what we could have done differently. Any ideas?”
“I don't think Casey and I should have attacked before the swarm hit the wall.” Emily suggested. “We didn't noticeably thin their numbers and it drained our stamina for the fighting on the wall. We should have focused our energy on picking off the ones that were actually a threat.”
Tessa nodded. “I think we got too focused on the idea of defending the wall. The way this challenge is set up, it's inevitable that we'll be overrun, and our focus should have been on our own survival. Instead of focusing on the middle, we should have taken an edge, so we could focus on defending one side instead of splitting our resources to defend two. There are clear boundaries to this challenge and we should take advantage of them.”
“That'd let me do more, too, since I wouldn't have to deal with every monster myself.” Greg added. “Though that would probably be solved by Victor and… Bethany?”
“Brittany.” Tessa sighed, while Brittany gave him a weird look.
“Right, if you both learn some offensive or even defensive spells, it'd help a lot.” Greg finished.
“Well, duh.” Victor scoffed. “But that isn't exactly something we can fix until we've gotten more challenge points.”
“Ah, right…” Greg muttered. “How many challenge points did we get?”
“We get ten points the first time we complete any challenge, another five if we take it again and beat our previous performance, then three more if we do it again, and a final two for the fourth, for a total of twenty max points from each challenge. After that, all it does is affect our ranking.” Brittany explained.
“Gotcha.” Greg nodded, then paused. “So wouldn't it be a good idea to just run around and blitz through every challenge you can find? If all you have to do is challenge it for the points, then it doesn't particularly matter if you try or not, right?”
“Ugh, I wish, but the aliens already thought about that.” Victor grumbled. “Your network device monitors your condition and you can't do another challenge until you're back in tip top shape. And, if it determines you didn't actually try in a challenge, you don't get the points either.”
“Ah, smart.” Greg nodded. “So what does ten points get you?”
Victor rolled his eyes. “What am I, your mother? Look it up yourself. There's a whole online store you can browse.”
“We'll still need to complete a few more challenges before we can buy anything significant.” Tessa explained. “Even basic spells require fifty points to get, and they are far from the only things we need to get stronger.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Oof.” Greg grunted.
“Alright, so, back to the base?” Carlos suggested.
“Not like there's anything else for us to do right now.” Victor grumbled. “The entertainment hall costs points and we can't even buy alcohol here!”
“I can probably get a pool table for you, but you're on your own for the alcohol.” Greg offered.
Victor blinked. “You can?”
“Yeah? I'm still on Earth, remember?” Greg reminded him.
“Aw, fuck yeah!” Victor grinned. “I know just where to set it up too! Adios Jake, hello game room!”
“Dude, too soon.” Carlos groaned.
“Hey, you don't have to play if you don't want to.” Victor smirked.
“Yeah, right.” Carlos snorted. “You just want a chance to win for once.”
“Pfft, who wants to win?” Victor retorted. “The fun is all in losing gracefully! That, and the ball puns. Gotta love the ball puns.”
Tessa rolled her eyes, turning to Greg. “You can get some board games too, right?”
“Sure. And books, and anything else in the safe zone.” Greg replied. “It's not like there's anyone else around to use it.”
They all shared a look, then Brittany sighed. “We're going to need to make a list.”
*
The squad returned to the base and then Greg spent an hour or so running around the safe zone dissolving and making copies of everything people wanted, which ranged from specific games to personal mementos, the most surprising of which was an engagement ring hidden in Meredith's room that she immediately ran off with the moment Greg gave it to her, and he swore he saw tears in her eyes as she did. Once he finished, he set up the pool table for Carlos and Victor while the rest of them set up with a board game at a table nearby. “So… what are we going to do next?” Carlos asked after he broke, turning to the table as Victor took his shot.
“We should probably take a look around to see what factions are developing.” Tessa commented. “I can't imagine Dad isn't up to something, and I doubt he's the only one.”
Victor snorted, standing up after missing his shot. “You can deal with that shit if you want, but I'm not touching that mess with a ten-foot pole.”
Tessa frowned at him. “Even if you don't want to touch it, they aren't going to ignore you, and they definitely won't ignore Greg. Knowing what they want is the first step in staying out of it.”
“Ugh, fine.” Victor grumbled. “But only so we can avoid it.”
Tessa rolled her eyes. “Victor, do you really think I'd be in this squad if I didn't want to avoid politics?”
“I mean, no, but we were all abducted by aliens yesterday, Meredith is on the squad somehow, Jake isn't, and Greg has a girlfriend! Shit’s crazy and I'm not making any assumptions.” Victor muttered.
“Jake's not in the squad anymore?” Sarah asked, surprised.
“No, he isn't.” Brittany grumbled.
Sarah shifted uncomfortably. “Is- is it because of me?”
Everyone turned to look at her. “Why would it be because of you?” Tessa asked, a mix of concern and suspicion in her tone.
“Because I'm a burden?” Sarah offered hesitantly. “I can't fight, I can't earn challenge points, and you have to leave people to protect me all the time so they can't earn challenge points either… I'm just- a problem.” She finished, grimacing bitterly.
“Sarah, you are not a problem, you have a problem.” Tessa corrected her softly. “Would you talk about someone with a broken leg like that?”
“I guess not…” Sarah muttered. “But at least a broken leg would heal.”
“And so will this.” Tessa assured her. “We have magic now! There has to be a way to fix whatever is wrong with you.”
“I should probably ask the Archmage about that, huh?” Greg muttered. “Actually, I'm just going to do that now or I'll forget.” He sighed, pulling up his network device and typing up a message explaining Sarah's situation.
“Uh, Greg, are you sure that's smart?” Brittany asked tentatively as Greg typed.
“Why wouldn't it be?” Greg asked, glancing at her weirdly before refocusing on his message.
“Because it's the Archmage!” Emily hissed. “How did you even get her contact in the first place, and how can you even think it'd be okay to use it to ask her random questions?!?”
“Well… I'm kind of her apprentice? Answering my questions is pretty much her job.” Greg shrugged, finishing up his message and sending it as everyone stared at him incredulously. “There, done!” He looked up from his network device to see everyone staring at him. “What?”
“You're the Archmage's apprentice?!?” Casey exclaimed. “How!?!”
“He intrigues me.” The Archmage answered, appearing behind Greg, looking around for a moment, before focusing on Sarah. “As I thought. A premature awakening.” She turned to Greg. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. There isn't much we can do to fix the issue, but I will make sure she is protected from the consequences of it.”
Greg cocked his head. “What is the issue? A premature awakening?”
The Archmage nodded. “It is rare, but occasionally individuals will experience an awakening before they reach physical maturity and begin leaking uncontrolled mana. This mana creates a sort of aura around them, exhibiting a minor effect based on their natural mana, such as decreasing or increasing the temperature around them, or projecting their emotions with minor illusions. It's rare for these effects to be harmful, but with certain types of mana, such as this young woman's, the effect can still be… inconvenient. Unfortunately, the only cure is to wait until she matures and gains control over her mana.”
Greg sighed. “Well that sucks. She's still got like four years before she's mature.”
“It could be less.” Tessa interjected. “Physical maturity can happen as early as sixteen for women.”
“Fifteen, actually.” Victor commented, pausing as everyone gave him a weird look. “What? It's basic biology!”
“Oh? And what's the earliest a man can be physically mature?” Brittany asked, crossing her arms.
“That one is sixteen.” Victor answered, rolling his eyes. “Y'all need to pay more attention in school.”
“Alright, so she only has one to four more years of this.” Greg summed up. “That's not so bad, right?”
“One to three, actually.” Victor corrected. “The latest for girls is seventeen. Though this is all averages and what not, so who knows? Maybe she's an extreme outlier who won't finish maturing until she's thirty.”
“Why would you even say that?!?” Brittany groaned as Sarah went pale at the thought of something like that happening.
Victor shrugged. “Why not?”
The Archmage raised an eyebrow at the exchange, before turning to Greg. “I've added a warning system that will trigger when a network device senses her mana signature, warning any men to maintain their distance. Additionally, her network device will send an alert to the nearest supervisor if it senses an unapproved male mana signature come within arms length of her. I've approved all the men here, but you will need to talk to a supervisor if you want to approve any more.”
“Got it, thank you. That should help a lot.” Greg nodded, smiling gratefully.
“It is simply my duty.” The Archmage smiled back, disappearing a moment later.
“Did that seriously just happen?” Carlos muttered.
“Yup.” Victor confirmed. “What did I say? Shit’s crazy, y'all.”
“How- how- how?!?” Emily asked with a panicked edge in her voice, having been frozen the entire time the Archmage had been there.
“I'm intriguing, apparently.” Greg shrugged. “My smoke is pretty weird.”
“Understatement of the century.” Casey muttered, rubbing Emily's back to help her calm down. “And could you please stop freaking out my girlfriend!?!”
“I can try but it's not like I'm doing any of this crap on purpose.” Greg sighed. “It just kinda happens, you know?”
“Does this mean we no longer need to protect Sarah?” Jennifer asked, primarily because she was the one who always ended up protecting her, and it was hard not to resent it.
Greg considered that for a moment. “I think it's still a good idea to have someone watching out for her, but I don't think we need to hide her anymore. In fact, it's probably better to let the asshole bring down the aliens' wrath on themselves before they can get any stronger. But we don't know what the aliens' response time is, so it's probably best to have someone around to hold them off just in case.”
Tessa scowled at Greg. “We are not using Sarah as bait!”
“Eh? No, I didn't mean we'd do it on purpose! I'm just saying we can let Sarah go out and do whatever she wants, and if she happens to catch an asshole's attention, bonus.” Greg explained.
Tessa eyed him warily. “You're not allowed to draw their attention to Sarah either.”
“Now hold on a minute.” Greg raised a hand at her. “What's wrong with that?”
“Because Sarah deserves to be able to go out without worrying about you bringing trouble towards her!” Tessa growled, jabbing a finger at him. “In fact, you're going to do everything you can to make sure she never encounters an asshole in the first place!”
Greg narrowed his eyes at her. “Mmmm-fine, but I still don't see what the problem is. It isn't like I'd let her get hurt.”
Tessa rolled her eyes. “She doesn't need the stress. She has enough to worry about.”
Jennifer frowned. “Can I join you for challenges or not?”
Greg glanced at Tessa. “Yes?” Tessa nodded, though she narrowed her eyes at Jennifer as she did. “Yes.” Greg confirmed, then paused. “Actually, what can you do, anyway? And- where the hell is Tina?!?”
“Here!” Tina burst out of nowhere with a giggle, appearing right in Greg's face, planting a kiss on his nose before disappearing again. “And here!” She appeared on Tessa's shoulder. “And there!” She pointed at Sarah's head, appearing there a second later as rolling around as she giggled uncontrollably.
Greg shook his head. “Alright, so Tina can teleport. Jennifer? Whatchu got?”
“I'm- not sure what to call it, but it lets me do this?” Jennifer got up and began sliding around on the floor like she was skating.
“She’s really slippery!” Sarah added. “No matter how hard I tried to grab her, she just kept slipping out of my hands!”
“Something to do with friction?” Brittany muttered thoughtfully. “Does it work on other things, or can you only use it on yourself?”
Jennifer blinked. “I- don't know?” She turned to the couch, focusing on it for a moment, then giving it a slight push, watching it slide away. “It worked!” She exclaimed giddily.
“Okay, that is going to be useful.” Brittany muttered, freezing as the couch disappeared and reappeared where it'd been, whirling around to stare at a proud, but a bit put out looking Tina incredulously. “That too.”