Team Lance's Plight

Lance went back into his routine of trying to figure out an answer day after day while not getting too injured by the gloves. They were stronger and faster, but thankfully he now had a pause when the gloves allowed him to get back on his feet. It seemed that same as before, the key was to hit each one with enough overwhelming force to disable them. Only this time, he also needed to be fast enough to dodge the others. So, he needed to have enough control to first amplify his legs to move faster and then his arms to punch.

Meanwhile in the outside world, team Lance were facing their own difficulties.

They had been pulled out of the mission successfully indicating an accomplished mission but Lance was nowhere to be seen. On asking the supervisors, the only answer they got was that he was somehow injured and was now recovering.

After spending a lot of time together, Darius and Entsy had built a bond with Lance. They worried about him and hoped that he was fine. As for the twins, although their time with the trio was relatively shorter, the camaraderie between them had resulted in them becoming good friends.

Another problem was that they had no idea about the results of the test. The performance of a team could not be judged by the amount of time they spent in the pods. Lance's team were among the first to come out, but some others who had come out before them had much lesser overall strength.

Incidentally, the team which came out first had been comprised fully of newbie initiates. On talking with them, they found out that the scenario they had been through had been completely different.

Each team member fervently tried to contact their ancestor to find out more details. Sadly, all communications to the outside of the testing area were blocked.

"You can forget about the results. If you had joined my team as I asked, you would have placed first. Instead, you chose to be with that useless punk. Now, he even went and got himself injured. Placing last seems to follow him like a cloud." A gloating voice was heard from ahead as Apollo slowly walked towards them.

Just before the reflex test, both Darius and Entsy had been asked by Apollo to join his team. They had disagreed, mostly due to Lance. Knowing that this guy had hurt their friend, there was no way they would agree to be on his team.

The incidents that followed had served to show them that they had indeed made the right decision.

"That 'punk' made you fly through the air and suffer multiple fractures. Give it up Apollo. No matter what team you assembled, there is no way that you could beat us."

"Oh really? Lets test that out. I challenge your team to a friendly spar. Do you accept?", asked Apollo with a crafty look on his face.

On the IE station, the concept of "Team" was very important. Since ancient times, humankind had only survived by relying on one another and working as a team. Any team formed, even if it was only for a temporary mission, was classified as a unique entity with certain powers and responsibilities. One of the powers was the right to challenge another team for a spar. Regardless of the number of the people present in the team, rejecting a spar would result in a negative mark on their profile. A team could even challenge a single man. Of course, if they bullied him/her, there would be a negative mark on the teams profile. But if the man/woman managed to beat a team 1 v 5, that persons profile would get a much bigger boost.

Apollo was taking advantage of the fact that Lance wasn't here. The truth was, he was a little scared of the power he had shown. His ancestor had instructed him to obstruct Lance in any way possible, so he had hatched this plan to beat Lance's team into the ground when he wasn't present and affect him psychologically, thus disrupting his cultivation.

It seemed like a plan with no danger. Even if Lance came back and joined, at worst it would be a draw.

Many times, if even only a single team member was present and was challenged, he would accept to defend the honor of the team. Even if he lost, he could go back to his team with his head held high. Denying a challenge though directly resulted in the negative mark. No one knew why the system was like this-it was very easy to take advantage of.

Now, there were 4 of them. The thought of stepping back didn't even appear in any of their minds.