Impractical Decisions

I had never run so hard in my life.

Every action had consequences.

My lungs were on fire, every intake of breath flooding my chest with mustard gas. My calves, hamstrings, knees, and even the soles of my feet were screaming in protest. The test had already gone on for hours, much of that time spent running. Even in good shape, I didn’t have much juice left in me.

Every decision, repercussions.

The world passed by in a blur. I shot through the streets like the dogs of hell were on my heels, dodging past cars, ducking through alleyways, only stopping to check I was following the right route.

Even a lack of action, indecision, could have knock-on effects.

Each time I caught sight of the radio tower, it was still impossibly far away. It felt like I’d been running for hours, but the distance never seemed to close. The finger of smoke beckoned me, mocked me.

There were times when keeping something to yourself could have catastrophic fallout.

Guilt and fear and fury and a thousand other emotions gnawed at me, consuming me from the inside out until I was a bag of skin containing only mixed emotions, all at war with one another.

There were times when the wrong word at the wrong time could burn the whole world down around your ears. I would know.

I could only hope the consequences this time weren’t so severe.

Caution had fallen to the wayside long ago. I paid barely any attention to my surroundings. Could’ve run past an enemy without ever noticing.

My mind was only on putting one foot in front of the other, as fast as I possibly could. Only my current location and my destination mattered.

Somewhere beneath that ominous pillar of smoke, Julia was in danger. And I was the reason she was there. If I’d been clear about everything, forthright about my suspicions of a hidden test, she might never have felt the need to go off on her own and complete my tasks for me. Only my A-rank was left, and it was clear something had gone wrong. Whether it was an accident or enemy action, it didn’t matter.

It was my responsibility to help her either way. No one else’s.

My tracksuit was dirty and covered in small tears, and I was starting to think I was more bruise than skin. The group had been baffled when I’d started to run towards the radio tower the moment I laid eyes on the rising smoke, and they’d held me back. A frenzy had overcome me, and it wasn’t until Billy pinned me to the ground that I came to my senses.

Convincing them to take action from there had been a trial. I’d been forced to lie.

It had taken me a while to put together a reasonable proposal: we had to take control of the area around the tower in order to allow our surely exhausted wayward comrade to have an easy run back to the finish line. What was a little longer, when their time score was already going to be so abysmal?

Getting back across the open space had been easier than our charge to the tower, but there’d still been enough resistance to frustrate our efforts. We’d known what to expect, at least. I couldn’t dwell too long on why the saboteurs had attacked us in the exact same spaces as before, nor why the effects were blatantly weaker than what had hampered our way in, but I snatched the advantage with both hands. I’d been more reckless, rushing ahead rather than scanning our surroundings. We’d swarmed over the ring of buildings, hunting the saboteurs down one by one.

At least, that’s what I assumed had happened. I’d slipped away at the first opportunity.

Now, I was running like my life depended on it, because it was entirely possible a life really did depend on it. Ignoring the protests of my body, I pushed myself harder, faster. I hit my limit and battered right through it, hurtling through the concrete maze.

Agonising seconds bled into excruciating minutes. Another nightmare squirmed into my head every moment, images of Julia’s body crushed beneath tons of rock flashing through my mind.

The world became a blur. Time lost all meaning. I moved on autopilot, watching my body run as if from behind. My mind went blank.

Then the wall of buildings opened up, and I stumbled out onto the hood of an abandoned car. I stayed there for a moment, my limbs shaking. There was no time to rest, but my body wasn’t responding.

Now, more than ever, I cursed my lack of powers. If I’d just had something, anything, to give me an edge, so much about this situation would look different. I’d like to think that I still would’ve formed an alliance even if I had walked into the test a Level 10, but there would’ve been so much more assurance among my allies. I never would’ve needed to make the stupid promise about leaving my tasks. I would’ve led from the front, an inspiration.

Instead, I was sprawled over the hood of a rusty old car, lamenting yet another of my mistakes.

The more morally righteous heroes out there liked to peddle the idea that power wasn’t the most important thing in the world, that there was more to life.

It sure as hell felt like the most important thing in the world when you had none.

My eyes blurred with tears of frustration, and I growled as I wiped them away.

Pathetic, a voice inside me whispered. I couldn’t identify it; it could’ve been any one of a thousand.

“Fuck you,” my own voice replied.

Lifting my head, I took stock of my surroundings.

Hemmed in by a packed parking lot, the radio tower stretched high overhead, a skeletal red-and-white frame surrounding a ladder, with an array of satellite dishes above a platform at the top. At its base stood a stately building, four stories tall and wide enough it could’ve taken up a block on its own, seeming more appropriate for some kind of palace than a radio HQ.

Every window was shattered. Many of the walls were cracked and crumbling, and one corner of the building was sagging down. The column of smoke was rising from the other end of the building, but I couldn’t smell burning, and the telltale roar of fire was absent. It was too slow for a blaze, too. Drifting, rather than pluming. A dust cloud, then.

The revelation was hardly a relief.

Over the thunder of my heartbeat storming in my ears, waves of terrifying sound blared from within the radio building. It was inhuman, unnatural. There was a blood-curdling shriek, like a thousand knives being scraped together and compressed. Then came a clap of thunder, the rush of displaced air. Following that was a rumble, and the building visibly shook. The sagging corner dropped lower, like extra weight had been added to it.

A part of me was relieved. If the fighting was ongoing, it meant Julia was surely alive, if still in danger.

The majority of me, reason and emotion and instinct all working in concert, was overwhelmed by horror.

I recognised that sound. I’d heard it barely two hours ago.

Julia was alive, but she was being hunted by someone willing to kill.

Dragging myself back to my feet through an exertion of pure will, I started hobbling through the rows of cars. Caution was a foreign concept to me now; I approached the grand front doors without even a thought for stealth. They’d already been blown off their hinges, and I walked straight into a reception room

The insides of the building were nothing like what I’d seen in the UCTZ so far. This place was evidently used for some kind of indoor training, because it was fully furnished, decked out to simulate what I imagined the front reception of a radio station might look like.

It had been torn to shreds, unfortunately. The front desk had been twisted up as if a great hand had reached down and given it a squeeze. Carpet had been shredded and torn up, the walls seemed to have been slashed by mighty claws, and the floor was covered with debris, shards of glass and vases, and a thick layer of dust. Half the tiles on the ceiling had been smashed away, exposing pipes and wiring. The lights flickered, more off than on, and even when they worked, they gave little light.

An exhausted, delirious corner of my mind wondered if the attackers would lose points for causing this much collateral damage. The rest of my mind caught up with the thought, and immediately hoped that they’d already be on a flat 0 for every-fucking-thing else they’d pulled today.

Another shriek split the air, hammering nails of fear into my heart. Inside the building, I could feel the air quaking as much as I heard the following boom and rumble. A few more tiles fell from the ceiling.

It was a potent power, to be able to cause such widespread damage.

I started walking towards it, heart pounding.

Broken doors at the back of the room led to an unlit corridor. Instinct screamed at me, a primal fear of the dark that pricked my flesh and sent a shiver down my spine, but it went unheeded. Following the corridor to the left took me to the corner of the building. Intermittent screeches dogged my footsteps, the answering booms and rush of air sending rumbles through the entire building that had me stopping despite myself each time.

I picked my route by chasing down the unearthly screech, and it bore me right around to the other side of the building, picking my way through offices, server rooms, and even studios. A staircase took me up to the third floor, where the sound was so loud I could barely hear my own heartbeat.

Concern for Julia had driven me to recklessness, but caution won out when the building started swaying like the deck of a ship. It lasted only a second, but that was two seconds too long, in my estimation.

But it couldn’t stop me. No amount of trepidation could.

Crouching down low, I started moving with stealth. All the joints and muscles in my legs banded together to protest, but the concerns of my body were nothing to me, now.

The building was a labyrinth, and none of the signs were in English. Finding my way back out would be a nightmare, but I kept going deeper, getting more lost. Before long, I was navigating purely by the proximity of the screech.

As I was checking a door that seemed to lead only to the technician’s room for a studio, I heard voices. Low and distant, but distinct.

With every second, getting louder. Closer.

My heartrate spiked, and I shoved myself into the room. I couldn’t afford to close the door and make a sound, so I had to leave it slightly ajar. Settling down beside the door, I stilled my breathing and waited.

Not a second later, footsteps echoed along the corridor I’d just been sneaking through. They were walking with an easy gait. Casual, unconcerned.

“This is getting tiresome,” a boy said, and I frowned as I recognised the voice. Where had I heard it?

The answer came to me as a girl replied. She sounded out of breath, frustration bleeding into her voice. “Letting the bitch escape would be an embarrassment to us both, Taeyong. We can’t afford that.”

It was Sooyoung, my saboteur from the written test. Taeyong had to be the boy who tried to calm her down when she confronted me before the test.

“Is it really a big deal? We’ve already taken out plenty of competition, and our tasks are all done,” Taeyong said, sounding bored.

“The tasks are meaningless. We’re not trying to impress Herakles here.”

“Okay. That’s true. But do you think she will be impressed by us stubbornly chasing down a girl who clearly has a tactical advantage in this place? You know her reputation.”

They passed right by my door, close enough I could hear the rustling of their clothes as they walked. I caught a glimpse of them through the crack in the door. Sooyoung was just as I remembered her: impossibly perfect in every aspect of her appearance even in the midst of a gruelling test, black hair pristine, skin unblemished, clothes immaculate.

Taeyong was almost the opposite. His hair was bone white and wild, sticking up like he’d just taken an electric shock. He was clearly Asian, but the freckles dusting the bridge of his nose and cheekbones implied he was maybe mixed race. His tracksuit was baggy, both the sleeves and pant legs rolled up. He walked with a slouch like there was a weight on his shoulders, staring straight ahead with half-lidded eyes.

They passed by, and I lost sight of them.

“I’ve already failed once today,” Sooyoung snapped, sounding like it pained her. “I can’t afford to do so twice.”

There was a moment of silence. “We could run away. I can protect you.”

Sooyoung barked a laugh, and even barely knowing her I could tell it was forced. “You’re a prodigy among prodigies and your power is incredible, Taeyong, but brute strength means nothing against a chaebol. I need an army at my back. Or in front of me, I should say. Besides, it’s not like you’re invincible.”

“No one is.” Taeyong heaved a sigh. “Will you be satisfied after we’ve caught this pest, at least?”

“It’ll have to do. I can’t imagine there’s many people left in the test, anyway.”

“Let’s get her, then.”

Sooyoung replied, but their voices started to fade as they got further away.

I was left staring at the glass in front of me, my mind absently cataloguing the details of the recording studio and its myriad instruments beyond. My body was shaking, and only a tiny part of it was down to fear.

My vision was slowly going white. Something hot was flooding my head, burning my brain until I could swear my vision was overlaid with a vision of raging fire.

I’d already suspected I was going to be dealing with someone willing to kill. Getting confirmation meant little.

It was the way they talked about it that had me rising to my feet, fists clenched, fatigue forgotten. The callous disregard for the other contestants. How they knew their actions would meet with Herakles’ disapproval, but didn’t care. Selfishness had oozed from every syllable, and it had felt like it was dripping acid into my ears.

They said they’d already taken out plenty of competition. They wanted to do the same to Julia.

Fuck them both.

I’d already dealt with two villains today. I was happy to double that number.

I moved to the door, reaching for the handle.

It swung open, smashing me in the face, sending me sprawling back in shock.

My rage drained away, pushed out of my body by a tranquil sense of the inevitable. Calm settled, and I lowered myself into a fighting stance. I didn’t know what Taeyong’s power actually did, but I was willing to bet it was going to be unpleasant.

But as long as I got to punch him in the face first, I’d be content.

A head poked through the door, and I swung all my strength into a right hook.

I had half a second to realise this head of hair was black, not the white I’d seen through the crack in the door. My fist struck only air as she ducked the strike, then immediately stepped into my guard and pushed me back. My mouth opened, but she slapped a hand over it. Balance failed me, but she stepped back with a hold on my arm, keeping me upright.

Julia gave me a flat stare, lips pressed in a thin line. She looked totally unruffled, not a hair out of place and not a scratch or stain on her tracksuit. Her powers were active, opalescent light outlining her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

“Nice of you to show up,” she breathed. “But I had things under control.”

“Those guys aren’t wearing kid gloves. They almost killed someone earlier,” I replied on instinct.

“Oh? I’d been under the impression that the vortex boy wanted to use his power to tickle me. I had my suspicions that he wasn’t actually trying to redecorate this place, now that you mention it…”

“Don’t take this lightly. That Taeyong guy’s powerful.”

She shrugged. “So was Slash. And just like Slash, he’ll have weaknesses. We can figure something out.”

My brain caught up with the situation, and I hurried to whisper. “There’s no time to argue. We need to get out of here.”

Julia gave me a look of genuine disbelief. “What are you talking about? We haven’t completed your last task yet.”