The arena management had simply replaced the striking robots with more willing models, and at last, the map of the battlefield was in front of them. Three towers on their side and three on the opposing team’s. In between, forest, hills, and rocks.

"The rules are simple this time," Hammer explained. "The team that lights all three beacons at the top of the opposing towers first wins."

"Sounds really simple," Ember agreed. "So we get to add two more people?" She frowned and her snub nose crinkled. Now she was focused on the game and, as Wave knew her, she had already forgotten that she had just nearly sent her friend running. "Who do we take?"

Wave took a breath, letting the thoughts of what had happened roll off her back, and eyed the map as well. 'Don’t hold a grudge against the people who travel with you, no matter how stupid they act,' her father had explained to her. 'So that your judgment isn’t clouded in the right situations. So you don’t do anything you’ll regret later.' That was the father she had loved. Wise, forward-thinking, and someone for whom revenge seemed like a foreign word. How could he have changed so much? She threw away this thought, too. There would be time enough for that later. Some other time. Never.

"If we have five players, that means we’re one short of defending all the towers and attacking the others at the same time," Wave stated the real problem with this task, ignoring the question of which team members might be most useful to them for now.

"We could guard all three towers and only send two of us forward." Hammer ran his fingers through his beard as he ran through the possibilities. For a moment, the crackle of his whiskers was the only sound the synth transmitted. Ember and she held their breath, waiting for something to click in his head. "But if they entrench and hold back any more defenders, we won’t get through and we’ll probably lose our attackers." He tilted his head. "No, we’ll attack with three people and two of us will guard the towers."

Wave wasn’t sure that was the right way to go. "If they also attack with three, then the faster team wins. And the one that’s better at taking out two people with three. That’s a gamble. That’s not good enough. Come on, Hammer, you’ve got a better plan, right?"

Hammer grinned. "We’ll trick them. Speed is actually a factor, and every moment that makes them hesitate helps us. We'll only defend two towers, but give them false information which ones."

"How are you going to do that?" Ember squeaked.

"Two of us take off our clothes and we build dummies out of them. We’ll put them visibly on top of two of the towers. Our defenders will lie in wait near the towers instead."

"That’s good," Wave admitted. "They’ll probably also try to outnumber us and take one of the towers, most likely the one that seems unguarded, and we ambush them. Still a gamble, but better than nothing."

"How would something like this have been resolved in the outside world?" Ember asked. The question was genuine, not a tease this time.

"We would have talked to them. There was almost always a way." Wave snorted, dissatisfied with her own answer. "Unfortunately, that just doesn’t help us here. We should avoid any direct confrontation until we outnumber them."

"So you go to the attackers, Wave? Sneak up, take out the guards and take the towers?"

"Yes. They’re either on top of the towers or in front of the entrances. If they’re at the bottom, I’ll climb up the outside walls from behind."

"Well, it was obvious you’d have to show off your climbing skills again." Ember stuck her tongue out at her and Wave had to grin. She wasn’t her best friend for nothing. Ember could make her go white-knuckled and then laugh again a moment later.

"You just know me. Why take the stairs when I can climb?"

It had been her climbing that had introduced her to Hammer and Ember in the first place. That had been about two or three years after her getting citizenship; the experimental learning program had taken a bit of a toll on her memory of that time. In any case, she had felt hemmed in by the city and the rules. Thanks to her parents' actions, she was even under house arrest. Therefore, she resorted to desperate measures to be able to feel free again, at least sometimes. So she started climbing up the walls of her apartment complex at night, jumping onto other buildings, and from there on even higher.

When that was no longer enough, she started to climb the citadel itself. At the top, she would have immortalized herself with a graffiti. A real one, not a virtual one. She would have shown those stupid bureaucrats who they were messing with. Without spilling any blood, of course. Somehow the Security Corps didn’t find that funny anymore. Housing complexes were okay, those were a small price to pay to keep the daughter of public enemy number one happy. But their city’s landmark was too sacred for these hypocrites. So they had sent drones after her, pushing her down when the Secs had given up trying to climb after her.

After three days in custody, thirteen-year-old Ember suddenly showed up, having snooped through her dad’s files and gotten on her case. Wave was exactly the kind of person that was still missing for their newly formed arena team. That had been six years ago now. Half an eternity, it seemed to Wave. And here they stood, facing their next battle together.

"If I sneak up, Ember will go head-on and distract the guards, I’d say."

Ember followed in her father’s footsteps and wanted to be part of the Security Corps, too. Because she was so small, she had to show the guys at the academy the ropes. She trained like a madwoman in the melee techniques of the Secs and after being regularly underestimated at first, thanks to her size, she was now notorious. In fact, two teams had already pulled out of the race simply because they had spotted Ember’s name on the list of participants.

Ember nodded, and Wave could imagine the gleam of excitement in her eyes that the synth, unfortunately, didn’t reflect.

"I’ll stick with the defenders." Hammer unbuttoned his padded doublet. "And I’m donating my armor to one of the dummies."

Ember whistled at the sight, and Wave rolled her eyes. "Hammer is a taken man, remember. And he already has a daughter."

"Spoilsport," Ember muttered. "So I’ll keep my armor on, just so we’re clear."

Wave shrugged and slipped off one of her gloves. "Okay, who else is in line?" The three of them formed the core of the team and had priority if they wanted to participate in a game. The others had to wait and then started their own round if there were enough players left. "Hmm, Aegis is great as a defender, but we need someone who can hide in the bushes with you. Impact is in the queue, he’s strong on offense, we’ll definitely take him." Impact was probably the only construction worker Wave knew who could carry a steel beam without the assistance of a robot. Thanks to his artificial arms, he was half robot himself, but who cared about the details?

"Yeah, that’s a good choice," Hammer agreed.

"How about Bob?" suggested Ember.

"Funny, Ember, very funny." Hammer shook his head. Bob was the latest addition to the team. So new, he hadn’t even thought of a decent player name yet.

"There’s no bonus just because you think he’s cute," Wave teased.

"I - it’s not even true!"

Then Ember tried to list Bobby's qualities, other than being cute, but she couldn’t count more than two of them. Well, that was the way it was for newbies. In the end, they agreed on Stoney, named like this because he could sit motionless like a rock in the landscape for hours without anyone noticing him. Ember bumped into him every time they met in real life because she supposedly hadn’t seen him.

They brought them both in when the dummies of sticks and clothing were ready for use, then finally the round began.