Jason glanced around at his team who surprisingly did not have their hands raised, unlike the rest of the crowd around them. Surprised, Jason looked at both Misty and Tom, having expected one of them to have their hands raised. Tom looked like he had just swallowed a lemon and Misty had a concerned look on her face.

At Jason’s raised eyebrow, Tom shook his head and grunted, “Too convenient. There’s got to be more than just obtaining a ‘Power Stone.’” Tom made quotation marks with his fingers. “It just feels too simple and clean for my tastes. If anything, the previous group’s failure should be enough to show how little we know about what we’re going into with that portal.”

“I have to agree with Tom,” Misty replied, her face pinched into a frown of concentration. “There seems to be something off with what was presented to us.” Misty thought for a bit longer and said, “The argument could be made that Director Kingston has been approved for more powers, but something in the colors of her decision doesn't quite sit well with me.”

Jason raised an eyebrow at Misty’s words. “Colors?”

Misty smiled at him and replied, “I have synesthesia and see colors when people talk; most of the time those with synesthesia see colors with music, but for whatever reason, my brain sees it when people talk. It’s quite handy when you’re trying to get a handle on people and paint them. In fact, I incorporate the synesthesia colors into my paintings of people and that’s probably why they became so popular: I painted what I heard and people found that it reflected who they were.

“For instance Jason, I see a lot of green and yellow when you talk, which I often associate as someone who is steadfast and has a good sense of humor. But there’s also some blue, which I find shows up when someone has a bit of sadness tingeing their soul.

“And our friend Tom here is violet, brown and fuchsia when he talks. He has things to hide but there is generally an overall goodness in him. He is very strict, but that does not stop him from wanting to protect those with home he considers friends.

“Normally when the director talks, I see quite a bit of brown and black, which I have again come to associate with strictness and seriousness, but with that last speech there was some blue and a tiny speck of green. Sometimes the green appears when people are lying to me, but I don’t really know why there was green in her words. That has thrown me off enough not to trust her.”

Jason nodded at Misty in understanding. “It sounds as if you’ve already got a superpower of your own,” he joked. Misty blushed again and Jason continued, “But if what you’re saying is true, you must have been picking up on the same subtle clues that we all were that the Director was giving off. I don’t trust her motivations at this time and there has to be something that she has been hiding. This seems too convenient to change the legal document that we all signed before coming in here.

“If you see green in Kingston, then there must be…” Jason’s words were cut off by a commotion that was coming from the front of the crowd.

The three of them looked up from their conversation and saw that a scuffle had broken out between two teams, both of which looked like they were vying to be the next one into the portal.

“My team is going in next!” shouted one large man with ebony skin and close cropped hair. “We got here first and we were the first ones to turn in our paperwork out front!” A group of four others behind him, three women and a man, all nodded in agreement.

“That don’t make a lick of sense!” replied a woman dressed as Fantastic Girl who was surrounded by three other women who were cosplaying as less common superheroes. “It don’t matter who were here first! It just matters who’s gonna be goin’ into that there portal first! Me an’ my girls are gonna be headin’ in there first and no Captain Justice ripoff is gonna get in my way!”

Jason chuckled at the reference. Captain Justice was a very popular black superhero who often was depicted as towering over the other superheroes due to his height. And the man who the woman was standing against did have a good half meter on her height. She might be shorter than the man, but she definitely was not backing down.

“Captain Justice can shove it in his fake pipe and smoke it!” yelled the man. “I didn’t come here to be shouted down by some Fantastic Girl wannabe cosplayer and her merry band of misfits! I came here to become a real superhero, and no one is going to get in the way of that!”

“REAL SUPERHERO?!” roared the woman. “I AM A REAL SUPERHERO! I dunno know about y’all, but I’ve been dreamin’ of this moment since I first picked up a comic book with my chubby little fingers!”

It was only the timely intervention of Director Kingston that prevented the two parties from going to blows. She stepped in between the two leaders and said in an authoritative voice: “Stop. There is no reason that you both should not be able to go through at the same time.”

This immediately brought reactions from both parties who stopped glaring at each other and stared at Kingston incredulously. The man grunted and said, “Why didn’t you give us the option of doing that before?”

“Yeah!” interjected the woman. “What’s all this flim-flam about gettin’ two parties in at once? I was hopin’ to go in and get me some o’ them superpowers!” She emphasized the final words with a flex of her arms.

Kingston looked at both of the parties and smiled wanly. “If there are two factions that would like to enter the portal at the same time, there is a special head to head match that is available. In fact, it was the hope of the LGC that something like this would come up; great ratings you know.

“There is a specific dimension that is available for our use that has a series of extremely dangerous dual courses that allow teams to race one another to the end of the course. It is an extremely dangerous series of obstacles that will pit the best of the best against one another. Most teams lose one or two members along the way and the contest is usually reserved for the final rounds when there are fewer teams left. There will be a penalty instilled on the losing team however, so that is not an option that most contestants choose to go with at the beginning of the games.”

“We’ll do it!” both team leaders said in unison.

Director Kingston smirked. “Excellent! I’ll have the coordinates dialed in immediately!” Kingston waived her hand at Eggburton who began flipping switches and typing rapidly at a console near the quantum teleporter. His hands flew so fast over the keyboard that Jason barely could keep track of where they were landing and the tapping of the keys sounded remarkably like a woodpecker.

Kingston turned to look at the two opposing teams. “As said before, there is a penalty for the losing team that will be determined after the match. Please make sure that you put on your broadcast gear and monitors before preparing to enter the portal. Also be aware that you may interfere with the other team’s progress, so plan accordingly.”

Jason was sure that Kingston smirked at the last comment, but when he looked again, she had her stone-faced blank look on yet again. Jason watched the two teams gather together and put on the broadcast gear and monitors. He couldn’t see any bulky equipment for the cameras and several of the various team members gestured to their eyes as if putting on contacts.

The equipment must be designed in such a way that it wouldn’t interfere with the players in any way, Jason thought to himself. I wonder if there’s a way to prevent it from broadcasting or circumvent the broadcasting ability of the equipment. Jason had already begun formulating plans and knew that any video broadcast after the foray into the quantum teleporter would allow any other contestants to learn more about them. I’ll have to talk with Tom about that and see if we can put the equipment on a loop or something so the other contestants can’t determine what we’re doing.

After the two teams had put on the broadcast equipment, they each had a brief discussion with Kingston, who then turned and looked at the waiting contestants. “I give you, Team Bruiser Babes,” she gestured to the group of women with the leader dressed as Fantastic Girl, “and The Behemoth Allies,” she gestured to the group of five with the crop topped man. “Bruiser Babes will be led by Shayla DuBuque and the Behemoth Allies will be led by Demetrius Williams.” Two more gestures to each of the team captains as each were referenced.

“Doctor Eggburton, would you do us the honors of starting up the portal?” Kingston waved magnanimously to Eggburton at the console controls. Eggburton nodded and placed on some goggles before hitting the switch for the quantum teleporter. A whirling and whizzing filled the air as the portal powered up.

An image appeared in the teleporter that looked to Jason like a distorted version of a blow up obstacle course. Instead of bouncy slides and various obstacles that looked squishy and easily moved, there seemed to be a deadly course full of spikes, lazers and Jason was pretty sure that he even saw a pit full of the velocidiles that were roaming around the camp.

Kingston raised her hands and nodded to the portal. “Ready!” She gestured to each team who acknowledged that they were set. Jason felt like he could cut the tension that rippled through the crowd like a knife. “BEGIN!”

Like a shot, each of the teams raced through the portal. Jason was sure that one of the members of Behemoth Allies had been elbowed in the face by a Bruiser Girl, but there had been several punches thrown back and forth between the teams after so he wasn’t sure about which team had started it or who was better off.

To his and everyone else around him’s surprise, Kingston gestured to the large screen that had previously had the heart rates and status of the initial team that had gone through the portal. Instead of heart monitors and a general status of the individuals, Jason saw that the screen had been split into two halves. The left half of the screen was labelled “Bruiser Babes” and the second half was labelled as “Behemoth Allies.” Each side had a first person perspective that Jason could only assume was the team leader’s point of view. Underneath the POV, was a list of each of the team member’s names and their current heart rate and status.

Kingston spoke again: “If you’re wondering why we are able to watch this round live, that is because the time dilation between this reality and the reality that the two teams have entered is non-existent. There is a one to one correlation between time here and there, resulting in a real-time perspective on what is happening with the teams. This will not necessarily reflect on the challenges that your team will have to go through, but it will give you an idea about some of the challenges that might appear during the later rounds. Watch closely and learn.”

Jason, Misty and Tom watched the screen closely to make sure that they did not miss a single thing.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kingston was happy with the response that she had received from the contestants. Typically there were only a few contestants that were willing to go back into the portal after experiencing the death of a fellow contestant, but almost all of the contestants this round had been willing to go into the quantum teleporter after the change in terms for completing a challenge.

There had even been two teams willing to face the dual trials challenge, something that she was sure would boost ratings sky high. Teams facing the dual trials challenge was usually reserved for the last few teams left and to have two teams eager enough to face the danger that the trials offered was going to make for some excellent entertainment.

Kingston walked back to where Eggburton was sitting, monitoring the various dials and toggles that were required to run the quantum teleporter. She watched quietly, not wanting to interrupt the Doctor’s work; previous interruptions had resulted in losses of entire teams and it was part of her and Tempo’s job to ensure that the Doctor was not interrupted while operating the complex machinery that ran the quantum teleporter. Not that she had ever seen anyone get past Tempo before, but there was always a first time.

Satisfied that everything was going well with the portal and that there were no anomalies that she could see on the various readouts, Kingston returned her gaze to the contestants on the screen. Periodically, the POV would switch to another member of the team on the screen and the contestants would be able to see the action from the perspective of another team member.

The Bruiser Babes seemed to be ahead of the Behemoth Allies and were currently tackling a series of spinning saw blades that came horizontally across the path. Kingston winced internally when the POV showed one of the girls get her hand cut off due to mistiming an incoming saw blade. There were ways to replace limbs and more often than not, the power stones would often replace, regrow, or even sometimes alter existing or missing limbs. Kingston remembered one man on one of the previous sessions had his hand replaced by a series of tentacles that allowed him greater dexterity. It didn’t save him during the third round from a fireball that had been sent at him, but he had been very good at puzzles that required him to maneuver small objects.

Kingston sighed as she thought about the first group that had gone through the portal. It was going to get rave reviews during the initial broadcast, but that had been a serious pain to deal with. Although the higher ups at LGC had authorized her to add additional incentives to the prize pool, it still irked her that the initial challenge had resulted in a complete team wipe. That was the second group in a row that had their initial team wiped at the first challenge.

Kingston knew something deeper was going on, but she hadn’t quite figured out what. Making some additional notes, Kingston resolved to talk with Eggburton about the chances of two teams in a row during back to back seasons seeing an initial wipe. She had to believe that the odds of that were astronomically low, but twice felt like too much of a coincidence for her.

She turned her focus back to the screens and noted that while the Behemoth Allies were behind the Bruiser Babes, they had suffered far fewer injuries than their counterparts and were catching up to their opponents.

She admired the leader, Demetrius. Sure he was hot headed and quick to get into a fight, but as she watched him through the view of one of his teammates, she noted that he stopped before each obstacle and observed the patterns and potential pitfalls that could occur. He then would confer with his team and they would formulate a team plan and execute it.

Like all teams that had just gotten to know one another less than 24-hours ago, they were rough, but Kingston liked what she saw. Demetrius had potential to go far and she would have to keep an eye on him.

As she watched, Demetrius launched himself through the spinning saw blades, showing remarkable grace for such a big man, and planted a large rock in the way of one of the blades. The planted rock dug into the ground as the saw blade tore at it and eventually the blade came to a halt, allowing the rest of the team to proceed through the gap that had been made.

The POV switched to Demetrius, and while the Behemoth Allies had been proceeding through the obstacle course slower, they had definitely built up their fair share of injuries. One of the women had an eye that was swollen shut, and both Demetrius and the other man had a cut over their eyes that bled into their eyes, making it difficult for them to see. But despite their injuries, the team continued onward through the dangerous obstacle course, dodging death traps and deadly flamethrowers as they made their way through the course.

It looked as if the Behemoth Allies would catch up to their rivals, but the Bruiser Babes pulled off an amazing last minute completion of the course, beating out the Behemoth Allies by almost a minute. Kingston was slightly disappointed that the Beheamoth Allies did not win as she valued taking things slow and deliberately, but impetuousness often paid off in the short term.

As each team grabbed their respective power stones, directions led them to a short range teleportation device which sent them back to the portal at the beginning of the course. It had taken the teams almost four and a half hours to complete the course, which was double the length that it normally took teams. However, there had been no casualties, surprisingly enough, and the worst injury was just a missing hand.

Normally, the contestants had powers to get them through the course so the fact that the teams had made it through without powers was a testament to their fortitude and abilities. Kingston smiled internally. This was going to be an excellent season for ratings.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As the contestants made their way back through the portal, Jason exhaled a breath that he did not realize that he was holding. He was expecting for there to be one or two losses on this course and the vines hanging over the velocidiles had almost claimed two separate teammates, but amazingly enough, each of the teams had made it through with all of their members. Jason felt bad for the girl who had lost a hand, but better a hand than a life.

As the teams emerged from the portal, one after the other, after proceeding through the short-ranged teleporter, the assembled contestants began to cheer. James found himself cheering and realized what the director had done: she had specifically set up a challenge that, while deadly, offered a greater chance for contestants to make it through. Should there be a loss of contestants, the general contestant pool was aware of the risks. But if everyone made it through, the hype for the next round of teams would be even higher and everyone would be clamoring to make an attempt.

“Clever girl,” Jason mused to himself and saw Tom nodding to him. He too had seen through the director’s plan and determined the manipulation behind what had just occurred.

Kingston greeted each of the teams as they emerged and after the girl who’s hand had been severed was treated, had each of the contestants hold up the power stones that they had retrieved.

“I give you the winners of the first head to head challenge: The Bruiser Babes!” Kingston announced to the cheers of the crowd. “I know that I said that there would be a penalty placed on the losing team and I’ll tell you what it is now!”

Kingston gestured at the Behemoth Allies. “Unfortunately for the losing team, they will not be able to reap the benefit of getting two powers from their stones. Due to their loss, they will only receive one power at this time. However, they are still free to remain in the competition and continue to amass powers if they wish!”

Jason had to admit that the penalty for loss was not as bad as he expected. Granted, this being the first round of the competition, he mused, Kingston must be wanting to keep the contestants happy and pushing towards the final goal as much as possible.

“I will now direct the winning team to stand on these platforms,” Kingston gestured to four circular plates that stood on the ground that Jason hadn’t noticed before. In front of each platform sat a tangle of wires that then fed back to the console that Eggburton sat at. “If you hold your power stone in both hands in front of you, you will now receive your first set of powers,” Kingston directed the winning team.

The Bruiser Babes did as they were told and stood on the plates. With a flash, the four women disappeared in blinding light. Jason closed his eyes and held his hands up to his face and a few seconds later, the light faded. When Jason opened his eyes again and looked at where the Bruiser Babes had stood before, he saw that Kingston had not been lying. Each of the four women had been altered physically and displayed manifestations of their new power.

One held green fireballs in her hands as she stared in awe at them while another had wings like an angel sprout out of her back. A third had bulked up and was now a mountain of muscles and Shayla, the leader, was now levitating in the air several feet above the platform.

“Son of a monkey’s uncle,” Tom said quietly. “Kingston was true to her word. How about that.”