Superhero CITY - The Test

Chapter Nine (edited)

"Line up at the painted black border! Team leaders at the front."

Miss Summer's voice rang out clear and true through the heavy atmosphere in the arena. We all rushed to obey her command, and I noticed as we did that white numbers had been sprayed over the top of the foot thick black line that ran evenly through the firmly packed dirt around the edge of the stadium's gigantic field. They were each three digits in length and spaced evenly apart, starting from triple zero – "000" – and extending anti-clockwise around the area past what I could read to finish right back beside the first number at five hundred – "500".

"In front of a number everyone, starting at zero and moving up one at a time. I don't want to see any gaps between you or any of you not at a number. There are only fifteen teams approved so far, so I expect the last of you to be at zero-fourteen."

We all shuffled around slightly until there were white digits directly ahead of each of the team leaders, including myself. We'd been in the middle of the crowd before, but somehow, I'd not noticed that my team had been shifted along until 001 was printed at my toes. Bravo was at 000.

"We are expecting a turnout of almost five hundred teams entering the Test at our arena, and that is far too many for people to be able to recall every single team name. from now on and over the next four weeks, that number will be your identity. Memorize it, because you will need to know it. Mr Glyph beside me has already entered each one beside your team name in the system, so don't think of changing it.

"Now that that is over, we can begin. Simply switch your suits and weapons to limitations and follow your name to where it will be hovering above a section. You will be fighting three-way battles and following standard rules, only begin when everyone is ready."

Miss Summers tapped something on the tablet she held in the palm of her hand, and we watched as foot high barriers rose from the ground to form a series of triangles in the centre of the arena, twisted together to form a pentagram with a two foot gap between each thirty-three foot wall. Above each battle ring, hovered three names in holographic, glowing letters, each set in a different colour.

I saw "CITY Keepers" in vibrant orange, sandwiched between "Bravo" and "Imagine Demons" respectively. The latter team had only been mediocre last year in the Test, but Bravo had been one of the eight to continue on to the capitol city, and they would be a real challenge to beat. Both teams were made of thirteenth graders, meaning also that they would most likely team up against us.

If my team could just hold out against them, then we would know that we'd be ready. We didn't have to win, we just had to not give in without a fight.

It wasn't like it would be a fair one anyway.

As soon as the last person had stepped over the dirt ridge, a barrier lip up, the same thickness as the shaped earth at two inches and travelling through the air straight up for ten feet before beginning to curve and join at the centre another five feet above that. It was transparent, but glowed the same fiery orange that our names had, and I watched as the other four barriers were raised and shimmered in their own respective colours of neon green, sky blue, slate grey, and lavender purple.

In each of the three corners a name hovered in white. Ours was in the inside corner, where the corners of each of the other triangles conjoined to form the centre of the pentagram. Bravo moved to our left if we faced them, and Imagine Demons to our right. We were all equally distanced from each other and the ground of the arena spread inside our battle triangle was completely flat. It seemed that there would be no prearranged terrain to help or hinder in our fight.

After all of us had hunkered down in our respective spots, we turned to our equipment. On the inside of our collars was a miniscule button that could be switched at will. It was designed so that when it turned on, our suits would act in much the same way our school uniforms did. Any abilities we used would be restrained to non-lethal levels in a way that was farm more complicated than I could possibly understand. They would also register any hits taken as if not restricted, calculating the strength of them from the data flow between my suit and my attacker's including by how much they're being restricted. They would simulate any injuries received as if I actually got them in a way that I would feel the full levels of pain and limits on my movements without actually physically hurting me in any way.