She ran. There was nothing she could do against a skirmisher. Each one of its four arms could bend steel. Its hourglass torso led to a lower body with eight wheels. It rushed forward, clumsy, unsteady from the damage that had been inflicted on it. One of its arms swung, flattening a sign that read, ‘Limit 20 mph’.

Lyssa adjusted her grip around the android, who had begun screaming, and took cover in a multi-level shopping mall. Rows and rows of empty clothing racks were arrayed before her. There was nowhere she could hide. The skirmisher was bashing at the entrance, making a larger one for it to enter.

She placed her hand over the android’s mouth.

“Shush,” she said. Somehow it worked.

There was nowhere else to go but up. She made a run for the staircase. Behind her, concrete and steel crumbled and snapped. The bot gave chase.

An interesting development at thirty-second street in the shopping mall. One lone applicant has taken a victim into it, and they have not left the building!

They were watching. Lyssa had forgotten entirely. The announcer’s voice seemed to penetrate the very walls. She leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths. The jackhammer in her chest took its sweet time slowing down.

The young lady probably hopes it would forget, but these new bots don’t have an aggro leash. They’ll just keep coming and coming once they get a taste.

Lyssa cursed. She stopped loitering and continued to run. A summer spent without Phys Ed turned to knots in her calves and arms. She climbed flight after flight. The sound of shattering architecture followed her, as loud as ever.

Aaand with that she is out of our observation range. Looks like we won’t get to see what her gift is. Let’s move on to Zerzes Lear, the rising star of…

“It’s coming after us,” the victim in Lyssa’s arms said.

“Do you even know what you’re saying?”

“I’m scared.”

“I know.” Lyssa turned a corner. They were in a complex of office cubicles. Only the walls and desks had been set up. The skirmisher slowed. Bright beams extruded from its eyes, sweeping the floor.

There was nowhere else to run; she had reached the top floor. The end of the line. She was in a corner again.

Lyssa cradled the victim close as she ducked in the shadow under a desk. The robotic facsimile took a deep breath and held it, while the floor trembled from the footfalls of the skirmisher.

With nowhere she could go, Lyssa had time for a moment of self-awareness. Running, running, always running. A lifetime of it. A hereditary trait. A mother who ran to dice and drink. A father who ran to other women. The family to which life was a marathon with no end.

“Lyssa.”

Desks never protected anyone. It had never protected her from that thunderstorm. She had screamed and cried with every clap of lightning.

“Lyssa.”

Gentle wind ruffled her dense, black hair. The time was spring, the air lukewarm. Her father sat next to her. Together they enjoyed some semblance of quietude under the apple tree. Before one of them had to talk.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Lyssa.”

“Where were you?” Lyssa asked.

“Where was your mother?”

“You know where she was. I was asking where you were.”

“I was at a friend’s place.”

“Sleeping over?” Lyssa retorted. “I’m older now. I understand what that means.”

“Look, kiddo, I have needs. And, well, there’s food in the fridge, right? And you have your allowance.”

“I haven’t for weeks.”

“I’ll make it up to you.”

“There was a storm last night. I was scared.”

“I thought you said you were a big girl.”

Lyssa turned away.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” her father said. “I’ll… I won’t go anywhere for a while.”

“…Alright.”

“You want something to eat? Something sweet?”

“I want dark chocolate.”

“How about some Twizzlers? Let’s go.”

For how long? That had been the question. How long were you staying? But Lyssa knew how to play the game. Ask the wrong question and she got nothing. Her father would have left. Was it her fault? She had wondered for so long. Wondered what she had done to make them come home so rarely. She had seen what other children’s parents were like, what they were supposed to do, and what she was supposed to get. It had driven her to quiet tears under the bedsheets. Then into apathy. Then further below even that. Then finally, years after she had taken the hint and learned to be alone, Lyssa felt anger. She set the victim down.

---

The Langshir Square. Two massive streets intersecting. An asphalt block full of boulevard islands and zebra stripes for pedestrians. A battlefield.

“Hold them off!” Edward Intyre shouted from his vantage point. His pupils dilated, expanding across his eyes. Where a normal human might only see a single detail in a small area of their vision, he focused on the vastness of the square. Every movement by the enemy, every twitch of their actuators, he read and imagined as clearly as he could. Beside him, Lian Tenant stood with a hand on his shoulder, reading his mind and broadcasting the positions out to everyone.

“To your left!” Edward shouted. “Two bots!”

“Got it!” Carrie kept her grip on the water. The hydrants all along the roads were for show, empty. It took a lot of time and effort to pull the moisture from the air. She used it like a whip, a transparent dragon that tore through the skirmisher’s armor like butter. The bot fell in a heap.

And then the dragon dissolved, splashing onto the asphalt in a long wet spot. Carrie bent over, panting.

“Tap out for a minute,” Xiaoshu said. He stood in front of her and caught the fists of the second bot, bracing it to a full stop. With a deep breath he turned it around, applying enough power and momentum to crush the skirmisher. It folded like a soda can.

“How do you think she’s doing?” Carrie said.

“You’re getting distracted.” But Xiaoshu gave it a thought. “Hopefully, she’s hiding until the test is over.”

“And if you’re right? About the… thing?”

“If she wanted to kill herself, the observers will stop it.” Xiaoshu nodded at Edward up at the ten story office building. “He’s a category 3 overeye, and he’s quite good. This stage is being overlooked by multiple category 4 overeye’s. Lyssa will be fine.”

“I hope so.”

“What’s on your mind?”

“I just think about what else I could have done for her. You know, while we were in school.”

“You’re too nice, Carrie.”

The conversation was interrupted by a single loud proclamation. Lian Tenant’s voice shouted directly into everyone’s heads.

“It’s here!”

They looked down the street. An office building collapsed under a single machine’s advance. Grey plumes of dust and clouds spilled forth. One massive foot extended out of the fog. Then another. Followed by a few more.

“Guess it’s time to run,” Xiaoshu said.

“Stop chasing kills!” Edward yelled. “Let’s go!”

Lian let go of his shoulder and raised a palm. Together they floated back down to ground level, joining the rest of the fleeing applicants.

“Five bucks says team captain over here lets it get to his head,” an applicant close by said.

Carrie regarded him with a glare.

“John, right?” She said.

“My friends call me Johnny.”

“Every hero force has a leader. We can’t act alone and expect cohesion.”

“Please. We haven’t even been admitted yet.”

“I’m sorry, what did you do in that fight? What is your gift?”

“Secret. And I helped more than you could know. See ya.” Johnny began to accelerate, leaving a wake of blurred air behind him.

With the category 5 hot on their tail, how will this promising batch of applicants fare?

“God, so annoying,” Carrie said.

Looks like they’re taking the cat-5 away from downtown to minimize collateral. Our applicants are headed towards the shopping district and- what’s this? Looks like our friend with the messy hair who we last saw taking refuge in the mall has finally revealed her gift! And what a gift it is! Makes us wonder why she was so reluctant to use it!

Carrie frowned. She looked to Xiaoshu, who shook his head.

“Can’t be,” he said.