Lyssa had never known the extent of the world she had missed by avoiding wanton browsing of the internet. Compilations, web shows, podcasts, endless hours of advertisements, all focused on the upcoming M.A.G.E Annual Tournament. People have broken bone in those. And of course the official announcement came with the promise that safety was their primary concern. No one had ever died or suffered permanent illness from the games. Not that students would be swayed either way.

Spectacle wasn’t the only reason to attend. Private security firms routinely scouted the games, among many other companies looking for gifted to add to their ranks. They paid good money to have the opportunity to set up their recruitment vectors among the contestants.

Meanwhile message board denizens filled digital space with speculation, fueling sites with clicks as they extrapolated who would excel in which game. There would be obstacle races, endurance sports, superball, et cetera. The one that garnered the most talk were the combat elimination trials.

She watched a recording from last year, a HD uncensored video of a turtle animalian crush someone’s arm with his back. When he stood back up his opponent was screaming, his arm broken in a multitude of places. Even if the injury wasn’t permanent the mental scar must have been. The one v one didn’t look balanced to begin with. Then again, unless gifts were identical, a fair fight would be a difficult ask.

“Never would have pegged you for an attendee at one of these,” Amelia said, looking at the laptop screen over her shoulder.

“Carrie convinced me to,” Lyssa said, “but now I’m not so sure.” She swiped two fingers down on the laptop pad. “The comments are loving it.”

“The opiate of the masses, so to speak,” Amelia said. “It is a stressful thing to live in a world with gifts. Sometimes people need to see bone break safely.”

“Are you going?”

“Of course. My family will be watching. It is tradition.”

“Right.”

Lyssa’s gaze lowered. She nearly jumped when Amelia wrapped her in a four armed hug.

“Apologies, I forgot about your circumstances,” Amelia said.

“It’s fine,” Lyssa said. She stayed in the embrace for a while longer. “I’m not the only one who have lost family. Can’t let that hang over me forever.”

“I’ll tell mine to watch you too.”

--

“Alright!” The students winced from Tobias’s voice. “The games are due in a month. About thirty days to get you kids combat ready, starting with our first practicum.”

They had been led down a mazelike series of steps, leading into a gymnasium. The light came from crystals in the ceiling, simulating midday. The campus looked expansive enough from the outside. Now it seemed like it was the tip of the iceberg.

“This room is nine by twenty-one hundred feet and two hundred feet tall,” Tobias said. “If you look closely you might notice that there are four biomes. Urban, forest, rock, and flatland. One by one you will all be tested by my TA’s in this environment and we’ll determine how to capitalize on the strength of your gift.”

There was a row of men and women in FASE suits standing at the ready. They pointed at random, calling students forward. Lyssa watched them work. The students would introduce themselves, their gift, and then get tossed onto the ground, sprawling.

“If all you are is your gift, your career will not last,” Tobias said.

Someone cried out as their arm was dislocated from its socket, then relocated back into place by their TA.

Lyssa felt someone approach her side. She recognized the face, and the build.

“Hey Xiaoshu,” she said.

“Didn’t expect you to still be here.”

“Why?”

“It doesn’t matter why. Clearly I was wrong.”

“What do you think of M.A.G.E so far?”

He took a deep breath.

“No more or less than I expected,” he said. “But we’ve only been here for a few days. And I’ve been preparing ever since my strength manifested.”

“There’s a lot of that here,” Lyssa said. She grasped her shoulder, trying to quell the sudden surge of anxiety. “A lot of people who knew exactly what they wanted to do since they were kids.”

“There are billions of gifted in the world. Takes mettle to be a hero.”

“Yeah.”

“You feel as though you don’t belong.”

“Do you think that?” Lyssa asked. “So many people here have been training their whole lives. I could barely do a sit-up.”

“You made it past the entrance practicum. You are worthy. Whether or not you think you are is your journey.”

“Thanks, Confucius.”

Xiaoshu laughed. “My parents came up with that one when I asked a similar question to them.” He left her side; a TA had called him up.

“I hope you stick around,” he said.

An alarm blared, stopping the tests momentarily. A plume of smoke had erupted somewhere in the gym.

“Everybody get back,” Tobias said as he ran forward. He opened his mouth and projected forth waves of sound, pushing the smoke up towards the ventilation fans. The students muttered to themselves, mostly wondering what the big deal was.

Tobias came back irritated with a male student behind him.

“You pull something like that again I’ll have you pulled from the tournament,” Tobias said.

“Sorry, sir,” he said.

Lyssa saw a young man with an unassuming face and dense, brown hair. His eyes however where multi-chromatic, and ever changing. His nails were each a different color as well.

“Take the day off,” Tobias said.

“Yes, sir.” The young man went back to the waiting area. Lyssa walked over.

“What did you do?” She asked. “If you don’t mind. I’m Lyssa by the way.”

“Eden,” he said. “And it was a mistake.” He retrieved a pebble from his pocket. Metallic crystals jutted out of the rock as it dwindled in size. He willed them to recede back into the pebble. “I transmute matter. But the state of it has to be the same. Solid to solid. Liquid to liquid. I was trying to transform the surrounding air into anesthetic. I accidentally made mustard gas.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. It’s hard to transmute gas back and forth. I have to be relatively close and gas tends to spread. This usually doesn’t happen. I was nervous.”

“That’s a very frightening power.” Lyssa looked around them, then said quietly, “Do you ever make-”

“Gold? Precious metals?” Eden nodded. “Used to. The thing is my gift isn’t unique. There are laws that prevent transmutation for personal gain. The treasury doesn’t like it. The denser metals are hard to do anyway.”

“That would make sense,” Lyssa said. “I…”

“Hey you!”

That had been addressed to her. A TA was pointing.

“Me?” Lyssa asked.

“It’s your turn, get over here.”

“Good luck,” Eden said. He smiled awkwardly, the mistake still hanging over him.

Lyssa wasn’t good at comforting people. She decided to just mind her own business. She followed the TA into the woodland biome. The TA was a woman, tall, with a tanned body like chiseled stone.

“My name is Samantha. I’m also called the Pretzel Maker,” the TA said. Lyssa nearly laughed. “They always think it’s funny at first.” Samantha grabbed the bough of a nearby tree and pulled. The branch whined and bent until it fractured into countless splinters.

“Now, what do you do?” She asked.

Lyssa conjured that space in her head, her house of selves. The doors opened. Sethlana walked down the steps and stood beside her. She did not seem happy, but that self never was. Black stone scales crawled over Lyssa’s FASE suit, beginning at the shoulders. Foot long lengths of fire extended from her fingernails. It was an odd state to be in, to be herself while using her gift.

“How hot can those go?” Samantha asked.

“Hot enough to melt skirmisher armor,” Lyssa said.

“Cool. Come at me.”

“What?”

“Try to hit me.”

“Are you sure that is a good idea?”

“Do you want to fail today’s session?”

Lyssa pursed her lips. She rushed forward, arm raised. She swiped towards the TA, stumbling forward as her claws caught air. Powerful hands grabbed her arm and pulled her straight into a knee aimed for her stomach. It didn’t hurt, but Lyssa was sent rolling across the ground, leaving a trail of singed claw marks where her hands happened to touch the earth. She definitely felt the plating around her torso crack.

“You’re too slow,” Samantha said. “Those claws might be useful against robots, but a human with cat-1 agility could avoid it.”

You’re using it wrong. Let me do it! I’ll kill her. I’ll…

“I don’t think so,” Lyssa said.

“Are you arguing with me?”

“No! No. I meant I knew it wouldn’t work.”

“Treat your claws like physical weapons. A human can’t just pick up a sword and be proficient. You need practice. It should be easier for you to improve since your fire is massless.”

“Alright got it. Thank you.” Lyssa turned off her flames and patted the dirt off her suit.

“I didn’t say we were done,” Samantha said before lunging forward, body slamming Lyssa back on the ground.

The TA was incredibly strong. Lyssa felt the air forcefully leave her chest from that impact.

“Look at what I’m doing,” Samantha said. “Don’t flutter your eyes. My left arm is raised.”

Lyssa raised her arms quick enough to block the fist.

“No more hints,” Samantha said.

Lyssa felt the plate around her left cheek shatter as Samantha’s other fist landed flush. For a moment, Lyssa felt her control slip, and she grew angry. Her claws flared. She swung both arms up, but stronger hands pinned her palms back on the ground.

“You need to watch your opponent for weaknesses,” Samantha said. “Just like how I watched you. Your claws seem to become much shorter if your fingers aren’t straight.” Samantha tightened her grip. Lyssa’s fire blades receded. She grit her teeth. She could feel something being pushed too far in her hands.

“If I was a villain,” Samantha said, “I might kill you, or break your hands. You need to throw me off, but your hands are indisposed. You have forgotten you have legs.”

Between panicked breaths, Lyssa saw a glint near the TA’s chest. “You have dog tags,” she said.

“What?”

“Metal.”

Another door opened inside her mental world, another self stepped through. Lyssa felt the electrons moving in the stamped plaques, and inspired a different, more forceful trajectory onto them.

Away.

The TA grunted as she was tossed about ten feet back. When she stood back up, there was a reddened rectangular spot on her chest where the plaques had been pressed into.

“What the hell?” She managed to say between coughs.

Lyssa smiled nervously.

“Did I pass?”