The only part of the obstacle course that the examinees could see was the cargo net hanging vertical from somewhere overhead. A tall light skinned man with a scar running from one cheek to the other and crossing his nose stood in front of it. He wore an army combat uniform but instead of a beret he wore a wide brimmed hat. A few minutes after the examinees arrived the red light appeared briefly on their PUCs. Robyn found Kiera and joined the group.

“Good Morning, Recruits! My name is Sergeant Brandon Savage, and I will be your Drill Sergeant for this course! Your PUC will alert you when it is your turn to attempt this course! When it does you will assemble by my position and wait for your signal to start! Are there any questions! “ Not a single examinee pressed the yes button that appeared on their PUCs. “Excellent! The first five recruits step forward!”

“Out of my way, peasants!” Tracksuit snapped as he pushed his way to the course.

Sergeant Savage’s attention snapped to him. His announcement was the exact wrong thing to say, and everyone who saw the sergeant’s head snap knew it. The sergeant marched up to Tracksuit, “Recruit!! Are you a member of the Imperial Royal Family!?”

“I am the Crown Prince of Dalimar,” Tracksuit said.

“Then that is negative! Do you realize the point of this examination!?”

“It’s a formality,” Tracksuit said.

“That is an incorrect answer! Drop and give me fifty!” Savage barked. “Not you!” Fanboy had fallen to the ground and immediately began to do push-ups. He stopped and jumped to his feet with a hasty salute.

“I’m not a recruit!” Tracksuit shouted in outrage.

“Are you on my course!?” Tracksuit opened his mouth but was immediately cut off, “Do you understand the meaning of insubordination!”

Instead of answering, Tracksuit got into his terrible push-up position. He had barely started one when the sergeant shouted again, “Recruit, what do you call that!? Bring in your arms! Lower your ass!”

Kiera knew she shouldn’t be enjoying this spectacle, but seeing this asshole being put in his place was delightful. The sergeant grew in her esteem but she knew better than to say anything out loud.

Tracksuit only glared at the sergeant. Savage was about to say something, or more accurately about to yell something, when his PUC flashed. He glanced at it and scowled, “Get up and get in position, Recruit!” he yelled at Tracksuit. Once the narcissistic prince was in position Savage blew a whistle, “Begin!”

The five examinees clambered up the cargo wall, one of them fell down halfway up, but the Sergeant said nothing. Whatever had come over his PUC had soured his mood. Once all five of the examinees were out of sight Kiera’s PUC lit up. She approached the cargo net with Gargax, Tamalyn, Kinlsey, and Robyn. Kiera didn’t think it was a coincidence.

“Recruits, are you ready?” Savage shouted.

Kiera couldn’t help herself. Kinsey couldn’t, either, “Yes, Drill Sergeant!” they shouted in unison.

The other three repeated the line together a heartbeat later. Savage grinned at them, “You recruits are alright. Begin!”

Kiera had been watching when the first group climbed. The cargo netting swung easily and one person’s progress could be interrupted by someone else pushing or pulling on the net at the wrong time. “We need to do this together,” Kiera said, “First rung step with your leg!” She called out the movements while keeping an eye on her left and right.

The others helped, Gargax called out a halt to let Tamalyn catch up, and Kinsley grabbed onto Kiera’s arm when the net unexpectedly sagged under Gargax’s heavier weight, preventing her from falling three quarters the way up. Their progress slowed the closer they came to the top of the netting.

“Tamalyn, finish climbing to the top!” Kinsley called out, “Everyone else, hang on.” They complied, waiting until the medic had reached the top.

“Kinsley next,” Gargax rumbled, “hurt girl, Kara after.”

Kinsley ascended the cargo net like a spider, never pausing or hesitating for a moment. Robyn was right behind her. Kiera climbed up after her. Her movements were much slower and when she reached the top Kinsley and Robyn grabbed her arms to help her up. She was starting to feel like she was out of energy, and the course had just begun. The cargo net shook like it had just caught a giant fish as Gargax hauled himself to the top of it. All four girls were glad that he hadn’t displayed such raw strength sooner. From below the heard surprised shouts followed by screams.

“I guess they were staggering us instead of waiting for each group to reach the top,” Kiera said. She looked out to the next part of the course. There was a row of thin logs suspended by ropes hanging from branches. The logs were spaced two feet apart, requiring the examinees to swing on the logs to reach the next one in order to cross the chasm to the third obstacle. They would go together as long as they spaced themselves out properly.

“Kins, you and Gax go across first. Tam, Robs, and I will follow you,” Kiera said, looking around at her teammates. The others nodded. Like with the cargo ropes, Kinsley seemed to be a natural, progressing across the twenty five logs they had to cross without missing a step. Tamalyn proved what she lacked in strength she made up for in agility, the logs were already swinging due to Kinsley’s passage making it a bit harder, but she didn’t fall either. Robyn didn’t seem to have any issues with them. Kiera was right behind her keeping a distance of five logs between them. When Kiera stepped across onto the next platform Gargax still hadn’t moved. He was eying the logs warily and kept glancing up into the branches.

“You’ve got this, Gax!” Kiera called, “This is just another fitness test and you demolished those!” The other three joined in with the shouts of encouragement. Gargax grabbed onto one of the ropes and gave it a tug, not responding to the cheers. Satisfied he pushed off the platform and started the brachiate across the chasm, not bothering to balance on the logs. He crossed the chasm even faster than Kinsley did, landing with a smirk.

“Those logs probably could have held your weight,” Kinelsey said, “They held up that fat headed prince…unless he fell.” she glanced down at the space below the logs. Gargax just shrugged, he tended not to say a lot, preferring to let his actions speak for him. Kiera led their group to the next obstacle where they saw Tracksuit slowly making his way across a set of overhanging bars, basically the opposite of the last obstacle. The bars were suspended between two trees at the same height that the chin up pole was. There were two other boys waiting to go across and a third only two bars behind Tracksuit. The distance wasn’t nearly as far as the hanging logs.

“You’re going to have to wait in line,” one of the boys said, “We’re staggering ourselves.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Kinsley said. She jumped to the first bar and instead of brachiating across she pulled herself up to the top and started to run across. Kiera followed behind her; the bars weren’t nearly as far apart as the hanging logs,a foot at the most. Gargax lifted Tamalyn up so she could reach the bars, and she followed the other two, Robyn right behind her. Like the last obstacle, the ork waited until his friends had reached the other platform, and again brachiated across the bars without much effort to the shouts of the boys still waiting their turn, and the two that were still on the obstacle. He passed them easily, with no risk of running into them or causing them to fall.

“You cannot do that!” Tracksuit yelled, “You have cheated, I will not be passed, I’m the Crown Prince of Dalimar!”

Kiera’s group ignored his protests and kept going. If they waited soon there would be a backup that would only continue to grow worse as more people reached the overhead bars. They reached the fourth obstacle to find a giant mass of branches ahead of them and a pair of sentry drones flying around them. Kiera looked at her PUC for confirmation of the obstacle. “It’s a tire crawl,” she said, “But instead of tires we have to crawl through that vine nest. Any attempts to bypass will get us shot by the sentries.”

“Finally, something I’m good at,” Tamalyn said. She went up to the nest and crawled through one of the smaller openings. Kinlsey laughed and followed her, disappearing into the vines like a snake.

“We’ll wait for you on the other side,” Kiera said, patting Gargax’s arm before disappearing through one of her own holes. The ork was more brawny than bulky especially with his height at approximately six and a half feet. Kiera didn’t think that he would have too many problems getting through, but expected him to be slower than they were.

The nest wasn’t easy to navigate through, not only was it a tight space but it was arranged to be a labyrinth. More times that Kiera would have liked to admit she was forced to squirm backwards to find a different path, some of them had her contorting her frame to get through. A few times the nest shook followed by war shouts in orkish; Gargax seemed to be having more trouble than Kiera predicted. The other problem was that the labyrinth was dark, the only light was faint rays of sunshine. Thanks to her heritage they were more than enough for her to see by, but most humans would basically be in the dark. Finally, Kiera squeezed out of the labyrinth and onto a platform where Kinsley and Tabitha were waiting

“That was better than I thought it was going to be,” Kiera said, letting Kinsley help her to her feet, “How long have you two been waiting?”

“Not too long,” Tamalyn said, “Some of those ‘passages’ were pretty tight, I thought I was going to lose a shoe.”

“I felt fat in a couple of those,” Kiera admitted, “I think poor Gargax is having a terrible time.” Her sentiment was reinforced by another blood curdling battle cry and a string of orkish. Robyn scrambled out a moment later and glanced behind her like she was being chased.

A hole was torn through the top of the nest a little more than halfway through. Gargax climbed out of it, vines wrapped around his arms and legs; the heavy boots he wore were missing. One of the sentries flew up and fired a beam of electricity at him. It struck the ork’s torso but it had no effect. Without even looking at the drone, Gargax hurled one of the vines from his arm and struck it before he started loping across the nest. The last ten feet he cleared in a single jump, all the while ignoring the increasing number of sentry attacks. Once on the platform, the drones disengaged.

Orks were known for two things: their power of belief and their insurmountable rage. Defying all explanation if an ork believed that something would work it did, no matter how banged up, patched together or otherwise by all appearances non-functional it worked. Their battle rage made them some of the fiercest warriors in the galaxy. They felt no pain, could not be stopped, and had enhanced strength, stamina and resilience. A single enraged ork had been known to tear through an entire regiment of soldiers before being brought down. It had led to the Empire adopting different tactics when having to face them in battle.

Gargax seethed in front of them, he had a wild look in his eyes, and an ever present snarl on his lips. It was terrifying. He radiated rage and Kiera could feel panic starting to well up inside of her. Every instinct told her to move away from this force of nature in front of her. Instead she stepped into his sight and took his hand.

“Good job, Gax, you made it through that maze. I never had a doubt that you would.” she gave him her best smile. His head jerked, and his enraged eyes locked with hers. His attention briefly went from Kiera’s face to her hand, “It’s alright, we still have a long way to go before we’re done with our tests. Can you take a deep breath and calm down? We’re going to finish this together.”

Gargax’s attention went to her face as she was talking, the homicidal look seemed to be diminishing. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, and laid her head on his chest, “Just a big, deep breath for me, okay?” Nymphs were known for their charisma and their beauty, and ability to soothe even the most enraged foe. Kiera was counting on that to help her friend, she hoped she was enough. Her mother was able to calm anyone down and worked as a counselor, she told Kiera when she turned sixteen many of her nymph talents would awaken. She wasn’t sixteen yet and couldn’t charm him or soothe him with an ability, but a calm demeanor was the foundation of soothing.

Slowly Gargax’s arms enveloped her, his breathing became slow and steady, she could feel his body relax and the rage fueled adrenaline fade. A sigh escaped him. Kiera gave him a tight squeeze, “Welcome back, my friend,” she murmured. She held him until he pulled away, their embrace only lasting about a minute. Behind her she could hear Tamalyn let out a shuddering sigh of relief.

“You’re a nymph,” the aasimar said, “I could feel you soothe away his rage, that was fascinating.”

“I guess that secret’s out,” Kiera said, “That would only make Tracksuit’s accusations worse and then I would have no end to these guys hitting on me. That wasn’t nymph soothing, just a counseling technique my mom taught me. Being calm is the foundation for soothing. You’re empathic?” Kiera asked, changing the subject.

“Yeah, not a lot of aasimar are. Mine is really only tactical, I have to be touching someone and can feel where their pain is, helps to direct my halo, but I felt that.” Tamalyn approached Gargax, “I’m glad to see that you’re not hurt, and the rage has subsided.” Gargax could only nod, the side effect of ending their rage was exhaustion, the benefits of his rage reversed.

“We probably have time to rest,” Kinsley said, “Some of those guys may be refusing to enter the nest because of Gax’s declaration of war against that annoying labyrinth.” Gargax shook his head and started forward, his shoulders were dropped and his pace was slower than normal. Kiera caught his hand and walked next to him, Tamalyn on the other side. He had done a lot to help them and they were only happy to repay it.

On the other side of the platform they were met with a field of balance beams, some of them were seesaws, others hung suspended from vines, but something else caught all of their attention. Monkey-like humanoids called Varana stood on the various balance beams, each one wearing a glide suit and wielding a staff. Their feet were shaped more like hands and they had long, prehensile tails to act like a fifth limb and covered in a light layer of fur. They were highly intelligent and acrobatic, which more than made up for their lack of strength and stamina. Combined with those flight harnesses they were completely in their element. On the far side of the field was the final platform.

“Think this is where it turns into a solo thing, or do you think we can still get through this together, Kins?” Kiera asked.

“We follow the same path. The shortest routes take us through the seesaws, rotating beams, hanging beams and all those other more difficult obstacles. But based on their arrangement there should be a path that lets us avoid all those. It likely means fighting, but if we work together then we should make it to the otherside just fine,” Kinsley said.

“On your lead. Tam, take second, Robyn next so we can keep Gargax between us,” Kiera said.

“Roger,” the medic said, putting her hand on Gargax’s. Her halo flared and frown creased her face, “I was hoping I could help restore some energy.”

“What, no short nickname for me, Kiera?” Robyn teased.

“Robs felt kind of weird, and I’m not calling you Rob, sweetie, and ‘Bin’ is just weird. I’ll think of something!” Kiera said with a grin.

Kinsely stepped onto the first balance beam, and the varana leapt into action, most of them literally. Some propelled themselves into the air and opened their glide suits, others dashed across the balance beams, not seeming bothered at all by the height or their suspension. Tamalyn followed closely after Kinsley. Robyn stepped after her, keeping an eye on the ork. Gargax moved slower, not nearly as steady as he was and moving much slower, which could prove to be a huge disadvantage. Kiera stepped into place behind him, one of her hands on his shoulder to help steady him.

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Kinsley stepped from one beam to another, a varana landing on the same beam. He hit his staff on the beam and caused it to turn ninety degrees, separating Kinsley from the group. A second one dive bombed her, swooping down quickly and wielding a staff in his tail to make his attack. It missed by a wide margin and the one who had changed the orientation of the beam dashed forward, staff in hand.

Stopping to watch Kinsley’s brawl would only be a distraction, and Kiera wasn’t the only one that realized that. Tamalyn kept moving forward, choosing to step onto a beam that was suspended from a pair of ropes to their left. If she could swing it, the beam would take her to a stationary one only a few feet away. Unfortunately, this beam was much larger than the ones they had to cross during the second obstacle. A varana landed on the beam next to her, causing it to swing, but Tamalyn was far from helpless. She lashed out with a punch that caught the varana by surprise, forcing him to lose his footing and scramble backwards Just like Kinselys’ brawl, Kiera knew they couldn’t watch Tamalyn’s; the varana were attempting to break them apart and were doing a good job.

Gargax inched his way forward, his eyes locked on the beam that Tamalyn was on and hand firmly on Robyn’s shoulder. One of the varna landed a few feet in front of them. Just like with Kinsley, this varana tapped his staff on the branch and caused the end that it was on to dip down forty-five degrees. Gargax lost his footing and slipped, taking Robyn with him. As quick as she could, Kiera threw herself onto the beam and reached out for Gargax’s foot. She caught him by the ankle, but she wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to stop him from falling. All three of them fell.

A cargo net that had been set up underneath the obstacle caught them, it sagged towards the ground but fortunately didn’t hit it. Kiera growned; she wasn’t injured but falling onto a net with two others wasn’t how she planned on finishing the course.

“Tough luck, examinees,” a proctor called, “Go ahead and climb off the net. Continue down the path until you find a tower. You’ll have to climb back up it to reach the platform for your final obstacle.”

The three of them clambered out of the net as someone else above them crashed into it. At least they weren’t the only ones to fall. They walked one hundred feet along the cargo and came to a ladder leading up into the trees. They climbed the hard, unforgiving rungs and were on the platform just as Kinlsey and Tamalyn hopped onto it. Handing staves they held in their hands to a pair of Varna who were waiting for them.

“Are you guys okay?” Tamalyn asked.

“Just some wounded pride,” Kiera answered with a grin.

“You missed the fun, and the puzzle,” Kinsley said, “The staves could change the direction of the logs depending on which of these little switches were hit. Once Tamalyn and I figured it out it was easy.”

“Especially when that loudmouth Dalimarian called the Varana mo–” she caught herself and glanced at the two Varana who were standing nearby, “A derogatory. They dog piled him.”

Kiera glanced back at the course, the others were hindering each other’s progress, two of them were actually fighting each other rather than the varana. The person who had landed while they were getting off must have been Tracksuit. He caught up to them faster than she anticipated. Gargax’s “gardening” might have had something to do with it.

At the end of the ramp was a cable that disappeared into the trees and connected at some point below them, a zip line. There were climbing harnesses, carabiners and hooks that looked like they were made to slide down the cable. The other option was to walk down a set of steep stairs. Kiera didn’t hesitate and grabbed one of the harnesses, her PUC instructed her how to put it on and how to connect herself to the zip line. The others were busy putting on harnesses as well.

“Check gear,” Gargax said, tugging on each of the girls’ harnesses and making sure the straps were connected properly and tight enough. Kinsley inspected Gargax’s and gave him a thumbs up. They didn’t need to discuss who was going first; the ork was the heaviest among them. The hooks were on a piece of cable that was attached to the front of the harness that was long enough to hook onto the cable. There was a box nearby for anyone that couldn’t reach. Without any hesitation Gargax pushed himself down the zipline as soon as his PUC turned green.

Kiera moved to the jumping position next; their order didn’t matter anymore and she was eager to see how fast she would go down the zip line; piloting had revealed that she was a bit of an adrenaline junkie. When her PUC flashed green she pushed herself off the platform and shouted out happily as she was hurtled towards the earth. She kept her head on a swivel; the military wouldn’t just put something fun as an obstacle, everything was a test. The sun glinted off something as she approached the tree line. Kiera swung herself to her left, barely dodging some kind of flying projectile. Another one fired off from her right and like a pendulum she swung the other way using the momentum to her advantage. Whoever was shooting at her timed her movements and something sticky and heavy hit her leg. Kiera grabbed it and pulled it off and tossed it away. She could feel it solidify while in her hand.

She pulled herself up using the connection wire to dodge another one of those heavy goo balls, and shifted her weight enough to swing away from the next one. Another struck her from behind, it made it harder to avoid the next ones, her movements hindered with each new expanding orb. She burst through the treeline, and looked around to check her surroundings, finding herself soaring over a lake with the end of the line in sight. The zipline plateaued and she was pulled into the water. The orbs fell away and dissolved immediately. An aquanaut was on hand to help her up, a grin on his face. The was was tepid and the point where she landed was separated from the lake.

She climbed out to find Garbax was soaking wet. Kinsley, Robyn, and Tamalyn plunged into the water one after another, each one sporting gray orbs. Kiera suspected the carabiners released them as well; they shouldn’t have fallen no matter the weight.

“What are those?” Tamalyn asked, “I was hit by a couple of them, but the only one I couldn’t get off was the one on my back. Kind of a cheap shot.”

“Suppression orbs, once they hit they begin to expand, growing too heavy for anyone hit to move. These ones dissolve on contact with water; we wanted to get you used to the water before your swim,” he winked at them. They were probably having some fun at the examinees expense.

Kiera looked at her PUC, their next event was the Swim test. It made sense they’d already be wet. The Dock where the test would take place wasn’t very far from the end of the zip line, so the group made their way over. For the next hour examinees appeared sliding from the zip line, all of them fell into the water the moment the line started to straighten out and sent waves of water shooting into the air. It was rather entertaining to hear a shout come from the woods and then watch someone take the plunge. One of the last examinees was hidden by the orbs and he didn’t last until the line evened out. He dropped into the lake and soaked the dock. An aquanaut immediately leapt into the water and pulled him out.

A motorized boat pulled up to the dock, cutting the engine as they drew near. A woman and a man dressed in the blue and silver uniform of the Aquanauts secured the boat to the dock and then stepped out of the boat. The term Navy had been changed from the military branch that served on the sea to the ones that served in the stars. Aquanaut was a term taken from Oceanus to replace it. The female Aquanaut walked over to Kiera’s group as they took advantage of their wait and rested, her eyes locked on Gargax. She checked a datapad before speaking to him.

“Examinee Eskar, can you swim?” the proctor asked.

Gargax lifted his head and looked at her, as if he didn’t understand the question. Then his eyes went to the lake, “Do not know word.”

“Move through the water, like that,” the proctor pointed to the boy who had been covered in suppression orbs making his way to the dock.

Gargax shrugged, “No reason enter water.”

“Just like the other one,” the proctor said, “You can take a fail on this and ride in the boat with us. It’s better than us having to pull you out of the water because you're drowning.”

“Ma’am, if he can float on his back and do a backstroke, could he make the attempt?” Kiera asked, “I’ll be willing to stay with him.

“Same here,” Kinsley said, “Between the four of us we should be able to get him across the lake.” Tamalyn and Robyn nodded their ascent.

The proctor looked from the girls to the ork, then turned and walked over to the other Aquanaut. They spoke quietly and Kiera saw the man give a shrug. Heavy panting came out of the water, drawing Kiera’s curiosity about who the unfortunate person could be. The tracksuit jacket was gone leaving him with just a gray t-shirt. He had bruises on his bare arms and venom in his eyes. It was another forty-five minutes before the two proctors approached the group.

“Good Afternoon, examinees! I hope that you are all feeling rested after your playtime in the trees. Before anyone asks, yes that was on purpose, this is the hardest test that you will face today and we take your safety seriously. Lieutenant Fields and I will be monitoring you the entire time, and so will other proctors. If you feel that you cannot continue you need to slap your PUC and begin treading water. Someone will reach you as fast as they can. If anyone cannot swim please raise your hand now. One of our other proctors failed to ask that question and there was an incident. It was a lesson for everyone involved.”

Gargax obediently raised his hand. There was a snort of derision near the back of the group. The woman, who still hadn’t introduced herself, just nodded at him. She had a light voice, it didn't ring with the authority that some of the other proctors had, but the look on her face was just as serious.

“This is no laughing matter. Not every species in the empire spends time on the water, and everyone has their own experiences. Examinee, we spoke earlier and the offer that your co-examinees made has been denied. There is too much risk, you’ll ride with us and assist in pulling other cadets out of the water. For this test you will swim from this dock to the other side of Lake Frostbite, the lake is not named idly. You may use any kind of stroke that you’d like, and you may abandon your shoes here if you’d like. We won’t be carrying them for you. Any questions?” She was just met with shaking heads, “The lieutenant will tell you when to begin.”

She walked to the end of the dock, taking off her hat and starting to undress. Her hair was seashell pink, her skin lightly tanned. There were fins on her arms and legs. With a graceful dive the proctor leapt into the water. “Cael Nimue is in the water, you may begin!”

“A knight?” Kinsley said, raising an eyebrow, “She’s Atlantean. I envy her hair.”

Kiera laughed, “Let’s get this over with, a cold lake isn’t my idea of fun.”

Kiera jumped into the water; diving head first into a lake was usually a bad idea, the depth around a dock could vary from five feet to ten feet or more and there had been more than one story of someone diving off a dock and drowning because they knocked themselves out. Cael Nimue wasn’t kidding when she said the water was cold. It was frigid. Kiera ws gasping for breath when she surfaced, more from the unexpected cold than anything.

The crawl was her strongest stroke and she was glad that she was wearing lightweight shoes; even then they were added weights to her feet. With each stroke her body temperature dropped, it was getting harder and harder to swim, her hands and ears felt numb. She wasn’t going to make the entire kilometer. Kiera started treading water, again harder because of her shoes and managed to press the emergency button on her PUC. The screen started flashing red and orange. Kiera wasn’the only one who had abandoned the swim, there were lights all around her, some ahead and some behind.

Someone else was getting close to her, Kiera tried to push herself away but it was too hard to get her legs back up with how heavy they felt and how tired she was. Maybe it was a proctor? No, it was another examinee. They were gulping and gasping for breath. He grabbed onto her, as if she were buoy. Before she could say anything they both went under. He clung onto her tiger, pulling at her torn tank top as he kicked down, hitting her in the head. The blow dazed Kiea and she felt herself sink further. The blow dazed her, she didn’t know which way was up.

Slender, strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her to the surface, she coughed gasping for breath and was pulled along the water to a boat that her rescuer pulled her onto. Kiera trembled and coughed again. “She’s breathing, get her warm,” Kiera heard Cael Nimue say.

Kiera was lifted to a seat, a warm towel wrapped around her. A splash came from behind her, a movement later the aquanauts were hauling someone else into the boat. Kiera didn’t bother to look to see who it was. Part of her was disappointed that the pretty knight didn’t give her CPR.

“Drink this,” a man said, putting a thermos into her hands. Steam rose from its top, but she could barely feel the heat with how numb her hands were.

“Saeshala, are you good to stay in!?” one of the men called.

“I’m in my element, Sam! Take care of those three,” Cael Nimue called back.

Robyn was sitting next to her taking a small sip from a thermos. The person on Kiera’s otherside, the one who likely almost drowned her, he shot Kiera a dirty look as he waited for a thermos, muttering something about whores being served before him through chattering teeth. Kiera tried to raise her own thermos, but she was shaking too much. The man who had told her to drink took it from her and put it to her mouth, “Sorry, I didn’t realize how much you were shaking, or how pink your fingers were.”

“T-that o-one s-should b-be m-m-mine,” Fanboy complained.

“Kid,” the man said glaring, “You tried to drown her. You can wait,”

“Can’t believe they chose Frostbite for this one,” muttered the boat operator starting the engine.

“The greens get any more aggressive and we’ll all be begging to swim in a half frozen lake,” another one said, handing a thermos to Fanboy.

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” the aquanaut helping Kiera said, “I shudder to think about that weapon being used at all.”

Their commentary stopped as they drove across the lake. They stopped and pulled Isaac out of the water, his face was pale and his lips were blue. She hadn’t seen Kinsley or Tamalyn anywhere, maybe another boat picked them up. The aquanauts checked on them, taking their temperatures and encouraging them to keep drinking the soup; they wouldn’t let any of them close their eyes.

The boat reached the other side of the dock where other examinees were disembarking, all of them had a thermos in their hands and a blanket around their shoulders. Two dryers had been set up and there was a queue to use them. Kiera thanked the aquanauts as they disembarked, still shivering from the cold. The warm soup they had given and the blankets had helped. Isaac and Robyn walked with her and joined the queue.

“Move peasants!” Tracksuit shouted through chattering teeth, “I am a prince and royalty goes before commoners!”

“Try to cut in line and I’ll throw you back into the lake!” one of the boys threatened, glaring at Tracksuit. He stepped into line behind Kiera. Others grumbled their agreement. Being that cold brought on less patience. Defeated, Tracksuit stepped into the line behind Isaac.

“Do you see Tam and Kins?” Keira chattered, looking around them. The boy behind Kiera wrapped his towel and arms around her, his body pressed against her back. The added warmth was welcome.

“What do you think you’re doing, Pal?” Isaac growled before Kiera could say anything.

“Helping her get warm,” the boy replied, “Body heat helps, she’s shivering. You should do the same to the girl in front of you. They’re more badass than we are and should make sure they’re taken care of.”

Kiera couldn’t argue that she was feeling warmer. His reasoning was logical even if it was a little overprotective and he’d done it without permission. Kiera decided to let it slide, “Can I at least get your name?”

“Locke Mickelson,” he said and then paused and grumbled something she didn’t understand, “I’ll stop. I’m sorry, I acted without thinking it through. I just saw a pretty girl shivering and went into rescue mode.”

“You're fine,” Kiera said, “This is nice. ASF?”

“Yeah,” Locke replied.

“Hey, I see them,” Isaac said, “The other line near the back. Gax is with them. Kiera turned her attention to the other line and picked out the flash of gold light as Tamalyn’s halo glowed. Gargax towered over a foot taller than her. Kiera was tempted to get out of line and join them, but she didn’t want to move much if she didn’t have to; as long as Tracksuit kept his mouth shut she would stay where she was.

“I bet they didn’t have any problems with this test,” Robyn commented, pointing to a pair of Atlantean examinees.

“Probably just as much in their element as Cael Nimue,” Kiera replied.

While they were waiting a pair of soldiers clad in white coats walked down the line, analyzers in their hands. They sprayed something on the hands over several of the examinees, including both Kiera and Robyn. Almost immediately feeling came back to them, and she thanked the medic who only replied with a small smile. The line moved quickly, and soon Kiera ws inside the dryer, Locke insisted that she go first. Each examinee only allowed five minutes in the dryer, and her shoes were only a little damp by the time she stepped out. She waited for Robyn, and Isaac to use the dryer before hooking back up with the other two girls.

“How far did you two get?” Kiera asked.

“Not much further than you. Did that guy seriously try to drown you, or was he just stupid?” Tamalyn asked.

“I think he was just stupid,” Kiera said, “The idiot floundered after he pulled me under and kicked me into the head. I’m glad that Cael Nimue was nearby and saved me.

“She got us out, too, so jealous of her hair.” Kinsley said, “I really wish I needed her to give me CPR!”

“I know, right?” Kiera said

Robyn grinned, “I think we’d have a shot of more than CPR with those other two Atlanteans!”

Their PUCs beeped, directing them to follow the path to this last event, The Combat Trial.