“Shit! Scatter!”

Two tore the lower portion of her shirt off, exposing her midriff, but didn’t seem to care as she smashed it into the ground, creating an earth-shaking boom and kicking up a billowing wall of fog and dirt, which Alius made the mistake of breathing in.

As he was hacking up a clod of dirt, Ditus looked over in concern. “You alright?”

“Yeah, just-” Alius leaned on his knees and spit out one last glob of dust. “Ok, I’m good now.”

“Well, that means I can chase you again.” Ditus shrugged, but looked back over his shoulder. “Orrrrr… I could catch the eight of them. Uh, minus Three.” He nodded towards the body that was now caked in a generous layer of mud and dust. “Which would be irresponsible, but maybe more fun.”

“It does seem more fun. They’re a…strange group.”

Three groaned from his pile. “Alius, although we’ve only known each other for all of two minutes, I still feel slightly hurt.” There was a moment of silence before he added, more quietly, “Even if it’s true. Especially if it’s true.”

“Well, they’re a resourceful bunch.” Awkwardly, Ditus scratched his neck. “All slightly mad, but I suppose it comes with the family.”

“Then I’ll go to get them. Be back in ten!” Ditus bent his ankles before jumping into the sky, leaving two footprints and a concentric ring of shattered earth. In the air, Alius watched as his dot erupted with a tiny flash of silver, and blurred towards the horizon. But Ditus didn’t disappear. His dot flashed again, making a sharp turn towards the ground, slamming into the forest with force that made the ground beneath Alius’s feet tremble.

Within a second, Alius heard multiple crunches of trees being obliterated, screams of rage, and ear-piercing metallic shrieks. A ring materialized in the sky, gradually filling with spiraling blue void as spears fell from someplace beyond the sky.

CRACK!

The sound of shattering glass faded into a scream as a man plummeted from the sky.

“Fuuucccckkkkk!!!!!!!”

He crushed a wall, slammed off the ground, and landed in a heap of debris.

“WHY AM I ALWAYS FIRST?”

Another person hurtled towards the ground, but caught themselves in a roll before springing back up to her feet.

“You make a very large target, brother. Even more so with your big mouth.”

More of the siblings crashed into heaps of debris. Before ten seconds, six jabbering mouths were spewing insults and pointing fingers.

“Two, definitely cheating. Somehow.”

“Seems like your problem. How long did you last, two seconds?”

“What? You only did three.”

“Wow, you didn’t make it to five?”

Several voices spoke in unison. “Shut up.”

“But as I was saying. Two. Cheating.”

Three chuckled from his pile. “All of you are too slow. I managed to fight him for a minute already.”

“Wha-!”

There was a startling silence that caused everybody to shut their mouths as Ditus appeared in the middle of the scorched huts.

“Why is Alius still here? Alius, I gave you ten seconds.” Ditus frowned, but the twitch in the corner of his mouth gave away his amusement.

Alius stood speechless, both from Ditus and from what he had just seen occur. He shook his head, trying to clear his head, and shakily asked, “Ten seconds? Not minutes?”

Ditus shook his head in mock disappointment, but couldn’t hide his tiny breath of laughter. “Ten minutes? You’re slow.” He put his hands behind his back and looked into the sky. “Honestly, kids these days. So lazy.”

Three, still sitting in a pile of wood, tutted. “Where’s Two, Ditus? I don’t see her beaten into a fine mash.”

Ditus smacked his lips together, then awkwardly turned and jumped into the sky again.

“ByepeopleI’llberightback”

“Well, he’ll be there awhile.” Three sighed in relief. “In the meantime, meet Alius. He nearly had his head taken off by my success, and now, from the bottom of my heart, we’re best friends.”

“More than us?”

“Oh, yeah, you guys are assholes. But really, Alius seems like a cool person.”

One of the men pointed to Alius, asking, “Not to be rude, but we’re talking about that boy, right? The small one?”

Alius waved.

“He’s the one!”

The man sighed and reached out his hand, grasping Alius’s in a firm handshake. “Hello…Alius.” He had a thick line running down his cheek.

Alius nodded. “A pleasure.” He stepped back and ended his greeting with a shallow bow.

Immediately, Alius heard squealing from behind them, feeling a deep shiver run down his spine, but the chill subsided when Three shouted in a somewhat frantic tone, “Wait! I figured it out too!”

Immediately, four women shot around Alius and pounced on Three.

When did they get behind me?

One of them, a blonde dressed in form-fitting leather, with a cloak draped around her shoulders, gripped Three by the collar, dragging him out of his pile and holding him up in the air. Alius met Three’s gaze, Three trying to signal something, but failing as he was mobbed by the group.

“Figure what out, Three?” The blonde had a asymmetrical swirl motif dancing on her forehead.

“How to use them.” Three tapped his toes together, releasing a pulse of blue-green energy that pushed the blond back. “Which means you can’t stick me to walls anymore, One.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” The man Alius shook hands with earlier pushed past the gaggle of women to firmly grasp Three by the shoulders. “Does that mean…”

“Yes Sir! We got there first! Sir!” Three snapped his arm into a salute before whooping and throwing his arms around him.

Yet another person rushed up to the two. “We won?”

Three laughed and pulled him into the hug. “We won!”

The three broke off and started dashing around the ruins chanting, “We won! We won!” while the girls and Alius stared.

The blonde-haired woman nervously licked her lips, but eventually settled into a sigh and muttered, “So immature.” before walking off.