27 Ice Planet not Nice Planet

The foursome watched the few remaining teams slowly circle each other as the planet they were on crumbled making the battlefield shrink with every minute. It was down to seven teams of the initial 250. Isabel was by herself as one of the seven.

Ralnas was idly scrolling through his Ripple feed when he noticed a post about Isabel. "Hey, guys! Look Isabel is trending on human Ripple pages!" Jayce and Micu nodded with disinterest, they weren't that surprised about this. Both of them had experienced a close call with fans on their way into the Coliseum and were quickly becoming accustomed to public attention.

Jenira, on the other hand, was still excited about it and she opened up her own feed before quickly finding the posts on Isabel. "Wow! There's so many!" Her eyes lit up as she scrolled on and through the comments. Most were encouraging her. "We need two standout human teams!" was a common post. There was a lot of pride being expressed by the humans. Even a few of the less warlike races were offering support for her. Underdog stories attracted attention no matter who the underdog happened to be.

Micu watched with bated breath and every time she was in danger he would tense up. Jayce patted his back, "Micu we're not going to be able to see the end. We gotta go check in." Micu looked dejected. "Okay..." The foursome climbed down the stands to the same robot as last time. It scanned them and then pointed to a different room than before. They opened the door to the simulator and were greeted with the sight of hundreds of different races and teams. Each team had been assigned a tile to stand on and they made their way through the crowd. Jayce noticed quite a few eyes lingering on them.

Their little stunt on Leon's had broken through human news sites and into the wider simulation awareness. It was undoubtedly the talk of the town. One of the teams from a large minotaur-like race didn't move out of the way for the humans to make their way through. Jayce smiled at them and shot at them with his hand. They glared back. Jayce then confidently slipped past them as they growled and stamped their feet.

Ralnas watched his friend with interest. Jayce had always been overly competitive. In fact, Ralnas was pretty sure that if they weren't friends he would hate Jayce's guts just because of this competitive side of him. However, he had always been a quiet confident before their big exams at Chiron's. This Jayce striding before him was being far brasher. "Has he always been like this? Or am I just now noticing it?" He muttered to himself. Jayce finally led them to their designated tile. They were assigned to position one which was located at the dead center of the rest of the teams. Jayce grinned. "Looks like we should be ready for an attack right away."

Micu had regained most of his composure on their walk through the crowd and observed those around them. They were by far the smallest race in the area. "I wonder if we did something to piss off one of the organizers." He wondered aloud. Jenira glanced at him, "why do you say that Micu?" He pointed to the distance they were from the corners. "The two other leaders were in one of the corners, to begin the round so that they could make their way towards the center. We are already at the center so everyone is going to be coming for us the whole match." Ralnas gulped with anxiety before looking around them again.

Every team was looking at them with burning ambition. Whoever knocked out this exceptional human team would certainly earn a large amount of attention from the elite teams. A warning bell rung out before that feminine voice that everyone had come to slightly hate spoke once more. "Competitors please prepare for your exam. We will be beginning in 10 minutes."

Jayce pulled off his backpack and offered snacks to his friends. "We've got no idea how long this is going to take, better be prepared." They gratefully accepted as they shed the disguises that they had worn to get into the Coliseum. Jayce wore his customary all-black look. A new sleeveless hoodie adorned his body with tapered sweatpants making his muscled body look sleek and powerful. Micu and Ralnas had chosen to match each other and wore crimson t-shirts with three-quarter pants. They once again began their intricate handshake routine while laughing and yelling throughout it. Jenira had chosen to wear sleek crimson leggings with a black long sleeved athletic shirt. They unintentionally made a very well matched team.

Jayce looked to his friends, "Alright everyone set your watches to tactical settings." They put thin wireless headphones to their ears and pushed their voice detection settings to maximum. He then patted Micu on the back, "and follow this love birds instructions. Let's get another W team!" They huddled around each other and closed their eyes. They squeezed each other's shoulders and released. "Ready?" Jayce asked no one in particular.

Micu nodded with determination. "Let's do this thing." The feminine voice returned. "Prepare for simulation in five, four, three, two, one!"

The four landed in a clump on the top of a small hill. Small walls lined the four sides and they saw the planet that they had been put in was covered in ice and snow. Of course, since it was a simulation there was no actual cold to accompany this weather. The four quickly did an inventory check to see what they had been supplied with. Each had a semi-automatic gun, a pistol, two grenades, and Jenira had been given a grappling hook. Micu nodded after this quick accounting of gear. These four were beyond familiar with each other's tendencies and preferences. Micu knew them like the back of his hand and could confidently lead them without even a second thought.

He pointed to the walls, "One of us to each one. This looks like a very defendable position." They moved quickly to duck behind the walls. "Any limits on ammo?" Ralnas called out. Jayce glanced down, "Nope, simulation set to infinite bullets but limited clip size." "Got it," Ralnas said. An explosion near Micu's wall had them all duck down quickly. Micu peaked over the wall as two teams engaged each other not far from their position.

"Do not engage. Let's see if we can observe some teams before they see us." Micu whispered into his mic. The other three nodded and ducked as low as they could while still being able to see over the walls. The guns made a whistling sound when shot and Jayce noticed that they left a red residue where they hit. "It literally is paintball." He thought to himself.

Two more explosions rocked the ground to the south. Micu motioned for Jenira to take a look while he repositioned Ralnas to cover her side of the hill. Jenira jumped over the wall and tried to stay behind large snowbanks as she crept down the hill they were on. The boys shifted into a triangle formation and Micu spoke softly, "Jen first sign of trouble you get out of there." "Got it," she replied quietly.

Jenira crept through the snow until she was standing on a snow bank looking down over a large frozen lake. Red dots peppered the sides and there were quite a few teams engaged in an all-out war. Jenira counted seven different teams in various states of elimination before she scurried back to their initial position. Hopping over the wall she slid next to Micu. "There are seven teams down there fighting on a frozen lake. I think we could get the jump on them if we position ourselves on a snow bank that overlooks the lake."

Micu nodded pensively. He looked at Jayce and Ralnas. He knew they were desperate to get into the action. He looked back to Jenira, "take us there." Jenira nodded and then motioned for them to follow her. Their standard movement pattern was Jenira in front followed by Micu then Jayce and Ralnas covering their rear. This had been born out of the many times that Ralnas and Jayce had seen an enemy and immediately attempted to attack them. Since Micu had assumed the position of the tactical leader of the team this problem had been his first one to solve.

Jenira crept down the snow putting her steps into the ones she had made before so to not make more noise than necessary. The boys followed as carefully as they could and did their best to keep an eye out for other teams. They finally reached the snow bank looking over the lake. Jenira army crawled to the edge of the bank and then pointed down at the teams still fighting. Two of them had been completely wiped out but the other five were fighting even more intensely in their absence.

Micu slid down next to her and then looked through the scope of his rifle. "Alright, we wait til there are three teams left and then we mop up the survivors." The four quickly arranged themselves into a firing line and prepared to strike on Micu's command.

...

Chiron had invited Jane Good to join he and his wife to watch the exam. He had reached out to Micu's parents but it went straight to voicemail. Still, he left a nice message inviting them to join if they wanted to.

Jane was sitting tensely in one of his many antique chairs. His wife had prepared hot cocoa for them and then disappeared. She wasn't as invested in this as her husband was but she loved entertaining guests and was cooking up a feast in case Micu's family did arrive. The delicious smells floating in from the kitchen did nothing to relax either Jane or Chiron. They sat with clenched fists watching the four creep their way towards the lake. Chiron's breath was bated, but in the back of his head, he knew that with Micu leading them they would surely do well. Ever since he had taken over the team their performance in the weekly battles had skyrocketed. Chiron even specially designed tests to challenge Isabel and Micu just to see how they would react.

Now watching them compete on one of the biggest stages in the whole simulation his pride was growing rapidly. "Micu is even more impressive in this battle than he is during school exams." Chiron mused. Jane relaxed slightly and smiled at him. "I sure hope so. I can't stand to see Jayce angry with himself any more than I already have to." Chiron laughed heartily. He too was very familiar with the intense way that their whole team reacted to defeats. "You know one time they lost to Isabel by a fraction of a second and they barely spoke the rest of the week." Chiron laughed remembering this memory and returned his focus to the TV screen floating in his living room. Jane laughed nervously at his story. "Exactly what I mean."

...

There were four teams still remaining by the lake but each team was down to one or two members at most. Micu made a gun with his fingers and fired it. Ralnas nodded and did the same to Jayce. The three of them took a breath in. "Now." Jenira's calm voice echoed in their headphones. Four whistles fired in unison at four different targets. Each one splatted against their intended target and they faded from the simulation.

After this initial volley, they were on free fire. Ralnas held his trigger and unloaded his whole clip into two opponents. Jayce moved with methodical precision and eliminated the last two members of the remaining team. Jenira had spun around to make sure no one snuck up on them from behind. Micu glanced around looking if there were any more enemies that they could see. "We're clear. Everyone reload and we'll move back to the hill.

Just then a grenade bounced in front of Ralnas.