Leland flopped back and forth as Mark grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him violently.

“This is insane,” he hissed. “You’re him. You’re really him.”

Leland pushed his best friend back and turned back to his Chemistry textbook, suddenly finding it interesting. “No, I’m not. Shut up.”

“What do you mean? You saved the world. You’re just like Psyche!”

“No, I’m n-not,” Leland repeated, shooting him a look. “I did w-what I did because I didn’t have a choice. I-if anything, it was just speaking p-practice.”

Mark elbowed him in the ribs. “Sure. Whatever you say. Nice super suit, by the way. Did you design it yourself? It looks like a hardcore superhero fan made it.”

“N-no.” Leland pinched the bridge of his nose. “I-it’s a long story.”

Mark grinned. “Honestly, I’m surprised. I didn’t think you would rise to the occasion like that. Don’t worry. Your secret's safe with me.”

“You c-couldn’t tell anyone even if you w-wanted to.”

“True. You put me under that spell.”

“I’m n-not a wizard.”

“No, you’re not. You’re a superhero.”

Leland grabbed Mark by the shoulders and shook him violently. “I’m not, I’m not, I’m not!”

“You are, you are, you are!”

Leland started stuffing books in his bag. Usually, he studied in the library after school, but his best friend had been bugging him all day, echoing the same sentiments any chance he got. Maybe it was a bad decision to reveal his abilities to him.

“Where are you going?” Mark asked.

“H-home.”

“I doubt it. Are you sure you’re not going to— ow! See, you threw that pen too well! That must be one of your powers— ow, ow! Stop throwing— ow!”

Mark laughed and it seemed to be contagious, because Leland laughed too.

“I’m sorry,” Mark said. “I know it’s not something you want to do but the fact is that you did it. You saved everyone. Remember, you saved me! If I’m the only one who’s going to know this shit, I’m going to express my gratitude and be your hype man.”

“Y-you’re not the only one w-who knows.”

“Oh really? Who else?”

Leland’s smile vanished. He hung his head low. “It doesn’t m-matter. They b-blocked me for being...”

“A prick?” Mark guessed bluntly. “

With a wince, Leland slowly nodded.

***

The following day, Leland didn't wake up in bed. Instead of resting on his comfortable mattress, he found his face pressed against a rigid, purple surface.

“N-new rule,” Leland said. “No using p-portals while I’m asleep.”

“Request denied,” Cadell said, effortlessly helping him up with one arm.

“Sorry, little Lee,” Staress added. “It’s easier this way.”

Leland rubbed both eyes before stretching out each of his arms. The trio stood in what seemed to be a spacious sports hall. The four walls and ceiling enclosing them glimmered purple. Ahead of them were two trios of alien species, and Leland recognised them instantly. He pointed an accusatory arm at them.

“I-it’s them! O-one of those rocky guys and slime guys invaded us!”

“You’re right,” Staress said. “The rocky aliens are called Geolings and the purple slimes are Oculons. I don’t think they were invading though. As we’re in the same group, they probably wanted to test our capabilities.”

Volengi stood in one corner, arms folded, staring at them with squinted eyes. Leland only just noticed him.

. “Aren’t we supposed to be in groups of three?” Leland whispered. “Why is Volengi alone?”

“I don’t need a team, you foolish human!” Volengi barked from afar.

“I think he heard you,” Cadell said.

The announcer’s voice erupted out of nowhere. “It’s finally time, ladies and gentleman, for the Slug Game’s group stages. Today, we have four teams from group A who

will compete for the top two positions in order to advance to the knockout stages! To give the slug species a fighting chance, the teams will play three human games.”

Leland let out a sigh of relief. Please be chess, please be chess, please be chess.

“Game one is between the humans and Geolings in a game of dodgeball. Both teams must start on opposite ends of the hall, and the game will begin in one minute. If you’re not in the correct position before the game begins, you will be executed on the spot. You must stay inside the rectangular zone during the game. The team that achieves 3 victories first emerges as the winner.”

While the Oculons scuttled to one side to spectate, a row of red balls materialised in the centre of the hall.

Perfect! Leland thought, as he jogged to one end of the hall. Physical education had never been his favourite subject, but he enjoyed most indoor sports, dodgeball being one of them. It wasn’t too aggressive and required agility, something Leland was skilled at even before the superpowers.

He turned to Staress and Cadell. “S-should we have a game plan?

Staress smiled at her phone, scrolling with a thumb. Cadell turned the page of a manga.

“G-guys! F-f-ocus up!”

Cadell didn’t look up but frowned, as if he hadn’t previously woken Leland up from a deep sleep. “You focus up, superhero.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I’m not a—”

“Three, two, one, go!”

Leland dashed forward and Staress yelled out something just as he grabbed one of the red balls. It exploded. His right limb propelled forward while the rest of his body flew back, spinning several times before slamming into the purple wall behind them.

“Lee!” Staress shrieked. She ran towards his slumped body dripping with blood.

“Regenerate,” Leland croaked.

“Are you okay? I tried to warn you.”

“Y-your m-music sucks. If you have zero h-haters, I am dead.”

Staress smiled and helped him up. “Sorry. I got distracted by an amazing article about you. Ah, I’m so proud of you. You’re finally becoming something special… a beacon of hope for humanity!”

Leland’s eyes widened while his new arm rapidly grew out of his shoulder like a growing vine. “No. I’m the o-opposite of a b-beacon of hope.”

Staress gave him a quizzical look. “You want to cause despair?”

“Y-you know what I m-mean…”

“We’re going to give this round to them,” Staress said. She pointed at Cadell behind them who dodged an onslaught of red balls thrown by the geolings. “He’ll buy us time while I fill you in on a strategy and your arm regenerates.”

“O-okay.”

“So, as you just witnessed, this isn’t ordinary dodgeball. Some of the balls are traps. See how the Geolings are doing fine right now? Their strong bodies can defend against them.”

Leland scowled as one of the large Geolings tanked two exploding balls and hurled them with an astonishing strength. Cadell stood still, defending with a large portal.

“W-why bother rigging it?”

“Because they don’t want us to win, of course. We’re the hated slug planet underdogs. But don’t worry, Lee. With my knowledge, your power and Cadell’s portals, we’re going to decimate them into pebbles.”

Leland smiled, noticing the same passion in her eyes when they were playing chess. “W-what’s the plan?”

“I know which balls are safe. You hang back and I’ll get the safe balls and toss them to you. Cadell will assist you… When I get hit, don’t bother healing me until after the round is over.”

“Huh?” Leland said, despite hearing the words perfectly well.

“I’m probably going to get hit at some point,” Staress repeated. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

“Hell no,” Leland said. “I w-will protect you.”

Staress sighed. “Listen, Lee. I need you to trust me. Friends trust each other, right?”

“F-friends p-protect each other, right?”

Staress said nothing but gave him a look of disappointment. Leland turned away. What does she expect me to do? Let her get… A chill ran down his spine as he imagined the worst case scenario– her dead body.

Cadell strolled off the playing area.

“Round One goes to the Geolings! One more loss and the slug planet is outta here! What a disappointing round! Sorry for the lack of entertainment, folks. We didn’t expect the primates to be so useless. How they got this far is beyond me.”

The trio lined up on the edge of the court.

“Whoa,” Cadell said with a smirk. “He really said that last bit from the heart.”

“I know, right?” Staress replied. “As an entertainer, I’m ashamed. Let’s give them a performance, shall we?”

“Three, two, one, go!”

Staress dashed diagonally but the three Geolings reached the centre first, thudding on the purple surface with one large bound.

“Don’t,” Cadell said, just as Leland was about to lift a foot. “Follow the plan.”

“You heard the plan?”

“I didn’t have to…”

Staress grabbed the red ball on the furthest right while catching another with her free hand. She backflipped to avoid two more whizzing projectiles, then tossed the two balls behind her. Leland burst into a sprint, soaring in the air to catch them both.

This is for trying to flatten us! He hurled the two red balls and… missed completely…

At least initially. The two balls entered portals and left two more to hit two of the Geolings directly in the face.

Leland grinned at Cadell who looked up and returned the grin. Staress was not lying about the assist.

The last Geoling took several steps backwards until it boxed itself in a corner. Staress passed two more balls to Leland, one to Cadell and grabbed one for herself.

“Oh my, oh my,” Staress said. “How the tables have turned. Maybe you shouldn’t have underestimated humans.”

“Maybe you should shut your slug ass up.” Leland jolted as the telepathic retort entered his mind. “Your undeveloped, sewer planet can’t possibly think it can win. Just thinking about Earth makes me sick!”

“He’s the one who tried to flatten New York!” Leland cried.

“Errr… umm…. No, I didn’t. You did. Shut up.”

Even telepathically, it was very clear that it was lying.

Leland chucked his ball and Cadell followed suit. The alien shrunk to half its size and sped across the hall. “You’ll never catch me! Never!”

Staress took a quick run up, spun twice, and hurled her ball with the throwing form of a professional javelin runner. It slammed into one of the balls on the ground which exploded into the air and hit the Geoling directly in the torso. The ball detonated again on impact. Rock fragments burst everywhere.

Leland and Cadell exchanged a look.

“Pebbles,” Staress said with a nod.

“I-is he dead?” Leland asked.

Staress didn’t need to answer. The rock particles began to vibrate before suddenly flying into the air and sticking back together. Seconds later, the Geoling was back to its original form. Foreign words spewed into Leland’s mind and judging from the Geoling’s expressive, grand arm gestures, he was pretty sure they were the foulest words it knew.

The announcer cleared its throat. “Well… it may seem that by some miracle Round Two goes to the slugs. Round Three will decide it, ladies and gentlemen!”

Leland smirked as the trio walked back to their starting positions. He gazed in amazement at Staress from behind, and as if sensing his gaze, she turned and gave him a reassuring thumbs-up. “Let’s finish this.”

Once again, the announcer counted down. “Three, two, one, go!”

The three Geolings tore off parts of their bodies and began flinging sharp rocks at them. Leland flew out of range, and Staress darted forward, weaving left and right to avoid the bundle of projectiles. Cadell hung back and defended any rocks which came his way with small portals.

Staress rolled two balls backward, which were then gathered by two portals. One red ball landed in Leland’s hand, and the other in Cadell’s. She dashed in a parallel motion to the row of red balls, executing a sideways flip and skidding on her knees to narrowly evade the incoming barrage of projectiles. After at least a dozen evasive acrobatic moves, a small circle of safe balls ended up beneath Leland.

She did it!

Leland dropped low to pick up one of the balls. His smile dropped.

They were stained with blood.

He looked back up. A sharp rock impaled Staress’ shoulder.

“No!” Leland yelled.

Three more rocks pierced her body before she fell into a portal and outside the zone of play, curled up in a pool of her own blood.

“You’re finished!” One of the Geolings leaped onto their side of the court. A steady stream of rock-like bullets burst out of its arm. Almost instantly, a portal materialized, swiftly absorbing the onslaught of heavy fire, coming to Leland's aid. “What are you waiting for?” Cadell yelled. “Finish it!”

Leland cursed while clutching two blood-stained balls, one in each hand. How many times had she been hit? How could someone hide injuries so well? He had intently watched her mesmerising gymnastics and not once did she slow down or cry out in pain. Why would she do something like that?

“Friends trust each other, right?”

Leland blinked back tears. “Super strength,” he grunted before hurling the two balls, quickly followed by two more.

The attacks were only raw power, lacking skill and technique, so chaotic that Leland wasn’t even sure which direction he had thrown the balls. However, after seeing Staress’ blood, he’d decided to do the exact same thing she had done— trust.

Blurs rocketed in and out of a tapestry of portals, not a shred of momentum lost. The two Geolings still in play dived in opposite directions but there was no escape. They flew backwards, each on the receiving end of three whizzing projectiles flying at an astonishing velocity.

Cadell turned to Leland with a frown. “You almost took my head off.”