Jason and Tom followed Misty over to where the director sat and as they were picking their way through the crowd, Tom inquired, “Misty, where have you been? I haven’t seen you for a while now.”

Misty smiled sheepishly and replied, “I was talking with one of the women on the Bruiser Babes. I believe her name was ‘Natalya’ or ‘Natasha.’ I couldn’t really tell because she had a very heavy accent…” Misty trailed off, gathering her thoughts.

“From what I could understand, she had recently emigrated to the city with her sister Anya to become a nurse, but she hasn’t had any luck with finding a job. She had received the email from the Liquid Gold Corporation and growing up she had been a huge fan of a local superhero comic. I believe that it was called ‘The Bear Spirit,” but it could have been ‘Boar,’ I was having a hard time understanding.

“She said that the superheroine had been a normal girl who had bonded with the deceased spirit of a bear that a hunter had killed. The hero had then gone on to save the local townsfolk or town, again, she was hard to understand. It was really interesting to listen to and she was very animated when talking about superheroes. She said over and over again, ‘I want to be strong like Bear Spirit!.’

“When I mentioned that I was an artist and had done a few commissions of comic covers to make ends meet several years ago, Natalya and I began talking about my pieces. I did mention that over the last few years I had gotten pretty famous with my artwork and I think her eyes got a little big when she realized who I was.

“I hate it when people find out that I am a famous artist. I just make art that happens to sell really well to really rich people. Being in the limelight is not something that I want. I much prefer to be offstage setting up things in the background.” Misty hung her head and shook it as if trying to dislodge a bad memory.

Her voice softened and she looked up at the starry sky above, “Things were so much easier when I hadn’t been noticed by Mister Strahnt.”

Jason stumbled and realized that Misty was talking about the third richest man in the world. He had initially created a means of wireless energy and information transfer that allowed for an extremely cheap alternative to conventional wired transmission. Ezekiel Strahnt had utilized his money that he had gained from his invention and built up an empire that spanned the globe and covered projects from technology to infrastructure and real estate. There were rumors that Strahnt had been involved in some nefarious dealings but nothing had ever been proven.

“Mister Strahnt introduced me to lots of other important people,” Misty continued. “Jace Tython, the actor, Instance Beyond, the singer…” as Misty listed more and more famous individuals, Jason could feel his eyes widening. As he was about to joke that Misty knew enough people to set her up for life if she pulled the right strings, they arrived at Eggburton’s workstation.

Eggburton sat at an ornate wooden desk that seemed to be made of dark wood; mahogany, Jason would have guessed, had it not been for the slightly green tinge to the wood itself. The desk was carved in ornate patterns and had a crest in the center that had the words “Aurum Clavis Est” around the crest.

“Gold is the Key,” whispered Misty. “It’s a dead language I believe, but I could be wrong. I’ve seen this before, but I don’t remember where…” Misty trailed off as she looked at the rest of Eggburton’s workstation.

Paperwork littered the desktop and rather than a laptop or other computer on the desk, there sat an old inkwell and what Jason believed to be a fountain pen. Jason found it ironic that a man such as Eggburton who was pushing the bounds of science, fell back to writing with a fountain pen and ink. The paperwork seemed to have no discernable order to it and seemed to cover every inch of the desk. There seemed to be a blueprint of something sitting in the middle of the desk, but most of it was covered by papers and Jason could barely make out the word “DEVICE” in bold capital letters.

As Jason reached over to brush the paperwork off the blueprint, a loud “AHEM,” came from behind him. Startled, Jason whirled around to see the small, portly doctor glaring angrily at him.

“Do I look around your place of work like a snivelling velocigator there boy?!” Eggburton practically screeched at Jason. Eggburton seemed very agitated, more than Jason had ever seen before. “This is my workspace you howling buffoon! Now go away! There are important documents that are not for you to see at this moment!” He made a “shooing” gesture towards the trio and pushed through them to get to his desk.

“Uhm, excuse me,” Misty said in a tone that Jason barely heard. “We have been called to go through the portal.”

“Eh?” Eggburton had made his way to the mahogany desk and sat down in the chair. He had immediately begun scribbling on a piece of paper and barely acknowledged that Misty had talked to him.

“She said that we were called to go through the portal, old man,” Tom said testily. “I can only assume that she was told to come to you directly. Right, Misty?” Tom looked towards the girl.

Misty gave a sheepish grin and said “Well… I don’t know if I was told to come here directly… I just heard our names called and came to grab you two. I guess I assumed that we were supposed to meet at Doctor Eggburton’s desk since he had given us the paperwork.” Misty looked like she was about to cry.

Jason stepped in and attempted to placate both the doctor and Misty. “I’m sorry to interrupt sir, but would you be able to let us know where we need to go in order to get geared up to head through the portal?” Jason had seen several of the other teams enter the portal with various gear so he knew that they would be outfitted accordingly, but he had not paid enough attention to know where to go.

Eggburton ignored them and continued scribbling away on the paper in front of him; various calculations and formulae appeared quickly as he wrote, crossed out and rewrote numbers and symbols on the paper. As Jason was about to ask the question again, Eggburton pointed at a series of lockers that had been set up several meters away from his workstation, near the portal.

“Go there and you’ll find that Tempo is waiting for you to help you set up your loadout,” Eggburton had not looked up from his work and he once again returned to scribbling on the page, making noises of assent and disagreement.

Jason looked at Misty and Tom and shrugged. They began making their way over the uneven, rocky ground towards where Eggburton had gestured. Jason noted that what he originally believed to be lockers, looked more like dressing rooms made of a carbon fiber material. There looked to be doors with handles at waist height and a rubbery mat had been placed down in front of each door to allow for an easier time to gear up. The dressing rooms were about a meter square each and looked like Jason would have no trouble fitting in the room, despite his frame being much larger than his collegiate days.

As they continued their way over to the dressing rooms, Jason looked at Tom. “Are you sure that you want me to lead the team? I haven’t really done anything with my life and I don’t know if I’m the right fit. You have more experience than I do, and hell, you were even in the Complex for several years.”

Tom stopped suddenly and Misty practically ran into him. She fell to the ground apologizing about her clumsiness as Tom reached down to help pick her up. Once both were back on their feet, Tom looked at Jason with a look that he had never seen on his face. Jason thought he saw admiration, fear, and potentially a bit of pride in Tom’s look, but he could be wrong.

“I’m sure.” Tom said in a low voice and looked at Jason, right in the eyes. “Like I said, I did my time in the Complex and I’ve had enough of leadership roles. Plus, I got that feelin’ remember?”

Misty gaped at Tom. “You were in the COMPLEX?!”

Tom ignored her outburst and continued to look Jason directly in the eye, matching his gaze. His stare was so intense that Jason began to feel intimidated and broke off the eye contact. “Ok, I’ll do it, as long as Misty’s ok with it. Misty?” Jason looked over at Misty, who was still staring incredulously at Tom.

“Huh?” Misty shook herself out of her reverie. “Oh. Uhm. Sure!” she bubbled. “I would love to have you lead Jason. I’m not much of a leader myself, like I said earlier.”

“I guess that settles it,” Jason said. “I’m the leader of our little bunch. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, anyone have an idea of what we should call ourselves? I noted that the other teams had a name and we have yet to choose one.”

“Uhm, it seems to me that we might have already chosen our name,” Misty thought, her finger to her chin. “If I remember Jason, you decided to go by ‘Jason Phantom,” I’m going by ‘Misty Steppes,’ and Tom has the pseudonym ‘Doctor Destiny.’ Considering that two of the three names that we have chosen for ourselves are related in some way, why don’t we call ourselves ‘The Ghosts?’”

Jason thought for a second and shook his head. “No… ‘The Ghosts’ is way too generic. We need something that is going to help us stand out. But I do like the line of thinking, Misty. What if we went with ‘The Soundless Spectres?’” A glance at both Tom and Misty showed Jason that they both agreed with the name.

“I like it,” grunted Tom. “Simple. Effective. Alliterative.”

“I like it too,” chirped Misty. “It’s spooky! It’ll help put fear into our opponents!”

As they continued to discuss the new team name, they proceeded to the center of the changing rooms. Jason noted that there were far many more rooms than individuals involved with the competition, which he thought might be indicative of how many times they had used this specific base camp for the games. Jason tucked that knowledge away for future use if he needed it.

In the center of the changing rooms sat a carbon fiber table. The table was heaped high with various equipment, including weapons, climbing gear and other items that Jason couldn’t name, although they did look familiar to him. Leaning against the table, a wiry man, decked out in military gear waited for them to walk up. Jason assumed this was Tempo, but he hadn’t gotten a good look at the man before.

As they approached, the man looked up at them and Jason started. A large scar ran down the man’s left eye, stretching from his forehead to almost his jawline. The eye was milky white and stared at he and his team as they approached. The eye, along with the sharp features of the man, including a sharp jawline, high set cheekbones and a short buzz cut, gave the man a dangerous feeling.

“You Phantom, Destiny and Steppes?” The man’s voice was soft, like a razor brushing against leather. They all nodded.

“Good. My name’s Tempo. I’m here to get you kitted out for your turn into the portal.” He hooked a thumb at the dressing rooms. “Choose one o’ the rooms. In it, there’ll be some tac gear that you’ll want to put on. Dark pants and a tight fitting shirt. Don’t worry about whether or not it’ll fit you, the material will mold to your size. Even you big guy.” A glance at Jason made his cheeks burn.

“You’ll also find a case that looks similar to a contact case,” Tempo continued. “In it, there will be two lenses. Put them in your eyes as they will act as your HUD for the games. It’ll give you a detailed breakdown of your health, stamina and other factors that will be updated as soon as you make it through the first round and get your powers.”

“Don’t worry about losing the lenses. They’ll bond to your eyes and become a permanent part of your physiology.” Tempo rolled his eyes and spoke in a monotone voice, as if repeating something that he had said over and over again. “You can of course choose to not use the lenses, but that will put you at a disadvantage during the contest as there will be information relayed directly to the lenses regarding objectives and other information that you will not have access to otherwise. Refuse the lenses at your own risk.

“Once you are done with getting all of the necessary gear on, come out and find me. I’ll be outfitting you with the necessary equipment for your first challenge. If you have any questions,” Tempo sighed and ground his teeth together. “I am here… to… help.” The last word seemed to be forced out of Tempo’s mouth.

Jason, Tom and Misty all chose a different dressing room and opened the door. Jason found a much bigger room in the dressing room than he expected. I guess if you have the power to manipulate reality, you can also do some screwing with physical space and size limitations, Jason thought to himself.

Jason found the clothes that Tempo had referenced and pulled on the skin tight shirt and loose pants. He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed. His stomach had a bit of a pudge to it and although he worked out, sitting for eight hours a day making phone calls was not good for his overall health. Jason found himself being a bit self-conscious about his weight and hoped that he would be pushed hard during the contest to potentially get back into shape. Round was not a shape that he wanted to continue to be in.

As Jason pulled on the boots that sat under the table where the clothes had sat, he saw the small white case that looked like a contact case. Jason opened the case and found the two lenses that Tempo had mentioned.

“Here goes nothing,” Jason said to himself as he placed the first lens, and then the second lens into his eyes. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then a sharp pain stabbed Jason’s eyes and he blacked out.