Scene 6 - November 6th

Exterior Training Grounds, Early Afternoon

Quinn Kaufman

“Alright, gather round!” Canaveral called, gesturing for everyone to circle up. Today was the annual paintball game - the New Champions vs the Journeymen. It was the most heroes I had ever seen in one place - all but two of the professional heroes in New Venice were present. Zookeeper was on patrol, as there had to be at least one person on patrol at all times - although for today, the console was being covered by a regular MLED agent, rather than a hero on standby - and Referee was out of town again. Apparently, Canaveral had sources - one source in particular, I was guessing - that told him this weekend would be a good time for almost every hero to be busy.

We circled together, and Canaveral smiled at us. “Most of you know how this works,” he began, “but we’ve changed the rules a little since last year, and Newton has never taken part in our little tradition. So here’s the short version.

“A lot of MLED teams hold some sort of tournament as a teambuilding exercise. Back in Vegas it was gambling - we liked to lean into the stereotypes - but here it’s paintball! Well, sort of.

“We’ve added a new element this year,” he explained. “Instead of just trying to defeat the other team with paint, there’s an alternative win condition - you can also steal their flag. The Champions will have a white flag with a black MLED logo on it, the Journeymen get a black flag with a white logo. Get your hands on the opposing team’s flag and escape any pursuit, and you win regardless of how many players are left on either team. If one of your enemies can recover your flag before you get to safety, however, the game continues. If everyone on a team gets knocked out, that team also loses. Clear?”

We all nodded, and he continued. “Now, because I like these tournaments to serve as training as well as fun, it’s not just paintball, it’s paintblade. We’ve had foam bats made and soaked with paint, to roughly simulate the capabilities of your powers.” He broke away from the huddle to take one long bat and a shorter, dagger-sized bat, both stained a deep red, from a nearby table that was full of colorful weaponry. “Very roughly,” he admitted. “You can use your powers, but nothing that could endanger anyone - that’s what the paint is for.”

“Do we get to pick our weapons?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No, they’re assigned to you based on your powers. The bats are particularly powerful abilities, which can take out myself, Vulcan, or Sequoia with enough hits, or others with just one. The daggers are abilities of more average strength, which can take out non combatants with enough hits, or the three of us with lots of hits.” He held up a hand to forestall complaints. “Vulcan, Sequoia and I are all either physically tough or capable of negating damage, so it takes more to take us out.”

“I was actually going to ask how it’s judged if someone is out or not.”

“We get a few agents to watch and keep score for us,” he told me. “They judge when someone is out and will be judging if someone has escaped pursuit with the flag. The should be on the loadspeakers already - say hello, guys!”

“Hello!” A cheerful, high-pitched voice. “I’m Sam!”

“Hey there. Delilah here.” A more measured alto.

“‘sup.” A deep, rumbling voice. “John.”

“They’ll make a localized announcement whenever someone gets knocked out,” Canaveral explained. “If you’re close enough that you would have seen the battle, you’ll know who was disqualified and by who. If you’re too far away, though... well, I’ll pass out the bats in a moment, but first let me go over the other stuff you’re getting.”

He clipped his bats to his belt, then took two boxes from the table and handed one to Loki. “These are the earpieces that we use in the field. Each box has five. Register your name with it when you put it in, then speaking the name of a teammate will let you speak to them, or say ‘broadcast’ to speak to everyone on your team. Whoever is designated team leader can listen in to everything, if they choose to. Use them to keep your team updated on your status. Any questions about them?” We all shook our heads. “Right.”

Canaveral began passing out the bats. Anima took a large paintbrush bat in light red and a sponge, which confused me for a moment until I remembered that she could both heal and animate powerful golems to fight for her, as well as drain people of energy with a mere touch. Starling was given a pair of shorter bats in dark green, seeming resigned at the reminder of his lower power. Vulcan received two massive bats in dark blue.

“Color-coded, so it’s easy to tell who did what,” Loki explained to me as Canaveral reached the Journeymen’s side of the circle.

I, like Starling, got a pair of dagger-sized bats - mine were light blue. Journey, in bright yellow. Hypnos stared dejectedly at his single paint dagger in gray. Sequoia tried to comfort him, but the two large bats he had been given in light green weren’t helping. Finally, Loki received a single dagger in black, and...

“You get an actual paintball gun?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I’m the only one here who has ranged attacks that don’t involve flinging things,” he pointed out.

“I guess...” I had been a little worried by how little firepower - paintpower? - our side of the game had in comparison to the New Champions, but seeing that Loki had what was probably the best weapon in the game, I felt better.