Marcus Kane stood beside Tom and Rachel with the three new recruits lined up across from them. He glanced at his watch and saw it read 7 AM. It was clear that none of the three was used to getting up this early. All of them wore training clothes that had the omega symbol emblazoned on them.

  “Welcome to Day One, newbies,” said Marcus. “We’re going to be doing a mix of training activities over the next month. Some of them will just be with you three, some of them will be with the senior members of the team, and some will be individual. We’ll be testing and training different aptitudes with these excursions. Some mental, some physical. The point is not only so you grow accustomed to your new powers but also so you can think on your feet and work as a team.”

  Marcus turned around and gestured to the door behind him. It opened up, revealing a large, round room. The room’s height extended high, about two hundred feet up. There was a large spire in the center of the room, with platforms at various heights moving up the spire.

  “The first task is a simple one. No transformations or powers needed for this obstacle. All you have to do is climb from the ground all the way to the platform at the top of the spire,” said Marcus.

  “Is that it?” asked Alexa with a grin. “See you all at the top!”

  “Alexa, wait! You—” Tom had started to warn her about the challenge, but Alexa had already darted into a run before he could finish getting the words out. He sighed, knowing that she’d realize the truth pretty quickly.

  Alexa jumped to grab hold of the first platform and then it was a quick hop to the second, just a short distance from the first. When she made the jump from second to third, the platforms shifted and the third platform moved just out of reach.

  “Whoa!” Alexa grabbed the edge of the third platform with one hand, dangling above. The platform sped up, rotating around the spire, and Alexa’s grip faltered.

  Alexa cried out, but her fall was broken when she vanished in a flash of purple light. She rematerialized right with the rest of the Knights, landing on her butt.

  “Ooph!”

  “Your Gauntlets have been programmed to automatically teleport you back to the beginning if you fall. When you’re up on the spire, if one of you falls, all of you fall,” said Marcus.

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you before you ran off,” Tom said to Alexa. “It’s a team exercise. We have to work together to get to the top.”

  “Okay, so it’s my bad, no big,” said Alexa.

  “At the start, it’s no big,” said Rachel. “If it happens when we get further up, we have to start all over. This game doesn’t have any checkpoints.”

  “But you two did this once before, right?” asked Ethan. “You know how this thing works?”

  Tom shook his head. “Each time you start from the beginning, the pattern randomizes.”

  “We can only fit about two to a platform at a time, maybe three. If we go over the weight allowance for a platform, it’ll retract into the spire,” said Rachel. “Limiting ourselves to two per platform should be within the weight restriction.”

  “Also a time limit on how long the platform will stay active with only one person on it. If anyone gets too far ahead or if anyone falls behind, the platforms will also retract,” added Tom.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Oh, and just to make it extra fun? The spire throws in a few random changes,” said Marcus. “Good luck. I’ll be watching.”

  With Marcus’s exit, the platforms began rotating around the spire at different speeds. Rachel studied the movements, observing the speeds and also when they intersected.

  “First two are moving at more or less an equal level of speed, but that third one’s whipping around pretty fast,” said Rachel. “Then four is slow, but pretty high above three—too high for a simple jump.”

  “And that fifth platform keeps changing speed,” said Tom. “Okay, so we’ll have to partner up.”

  “I’ll take up the rear on my own,” said Rachel.

  “In that case, Olivia will follow me and then Ethan and Alexa,” said Tom. “First two should be simple to traverse, third’s faster, but shouldn’t be too difficult if we time it right. But to reach the fourth, we’ll need to work together. So Olivia, I’ll give you a boost, then you help pull me up, then I’ll help Alexa, and so on.”

  “What about that fifth one?” asked Ethan.

  “As long as we stay two by two, we should be fine. Just don’t miss your cue to jump or the platform might retract.” Tom looked at Olivia. “You ready?”

  “If I say, ‘no,’ can we just skip the whole thing?” she asked.

  Tom gave a grin and shook his head. “Not how it works.”

  “Okay…” Olivia took a deep breath. “I guess I’m as ready as I’m gonna get, then.”

  Tom ran towards the first platform and jumped, quickly ascending it. Olivia joined him and when the second came around, Tom jumped first. Once it circled back around to Olivia, she followed.

  “Whoa, duck!”

  Tom pulled Olivia down as the third platform whipped over their heads. “The second and third are close together, so be careful!” he called out to the others, just as Ethan and Alexa were on the first platform.

  “Okay, we’re gonna have to be quick here. Watch me and do as I do,” he said.

  Olivia swallowed and nodded.

  Tom watched as the platform circled around. He held his arms up and grabbed onto the platform, letting it pull him with it. He scrambled on top and looked back at Olivia.

  “Arms up and get ready…now!”

  As soon as Tom commanded, the third platform passed by and Olivia grabbed it. Just as it had done with Tom, it pulled her off the second platform. Tom gave her a hand to help her climb up. They both looked at the fourth one.

  “I’m gonna boost you up, okay? But I need you to tell me when the platform is coming, because I won’t be able to see. And then once you get up there, I need you to hang over the edge so I can reach you.”

  Tom cupped his hands and squatted. Olivia put one foot in his hands and put her hands on his shoulders, climbing onto him. She started watching the platform and when she thought it was within range, she called out.

  “Now!”

  Tom lifted her leg, pushing her up. Olivia sprung from his boost and just barely snagged the edge of the platform. She hung for a moment and struggled, the muscles in her arm straining to pull her onto the platform. Once she made it, she fell on her face and caught a breath.

  “Olivia!”

  “Right…now the hard part…”

  She looked over the edge and saw that Ethan had now joined Tom on the third platform. Olivia tried to position herself on the platform so that she was sure she was secure on it and that Tom’s weight wouldn’t pull her down. She hung her arms over the edge just as Ethan boosted Tom up.

  Tom’s hand came within reach of hers, and Olivia grabbed his wrist. Tom used her arm as leverage to raise up his free hand, and then he grabbed the platform’s edge.

  Just below them, Alexa joined Ethan on the third platform, and he helped pull her up. And below them, Rachel was waiting to ascend to the third.

  “I’ll stay here and help the next person up, but that means you have to jump to the fifth platform. You got it?” asked Tom.

  Olivia watched the fifth platform. Sometimes it moved quick, other times slow, and then other times it would alternate between those speeds mid-rotation. She watched, waiting for the right time to jump. But whenever she was about to jump, the platform would change up its speed.

  “Olivia! We have to move now!” called Tom.

  “Hurry up, we’re running out of time!” shouted Alexa.

  Olivia felt the pressure on. It was now or never. She closed her eyes and sprung up, but at that moment, the platform sped up and it slipped right out of reach.

  “Shit!” she called out as gravity took hold and pulled her further from the platform and down towards the ground. There was a flash of yellow energy and then she landed harmlessly back at the start point with the rest of the Knights there, too.

  “What the hell?” shouted Alexa. “It was right there! If you hadn’t hesitated, we could’ve made it!”

  “I wasn’t sure I could get to it. I was trying to time it just right,” said Olivia.

  “You wait too long and you miss your chance,” said Alexa.

  “All right, calm down,” said Tom.

  “Nice effort, but not quite,” came Marcus’s voice over the loudspeaker. “Back to start, try again.”