"So all those explosions were from the Kayaku app?" Sergeant Uzi asked. "Geez, Colonel Felix sure added some convincing effects on those holograms!"

  "Yes he did!" Joaquim replied, trying to match the same enthusiasm as the platoon's arak.

  Sergeant Uzi, Corporal Woo, and Lucia found an enclosed area near the summit for Joaquim to sit and regenerate his injuries. They even gave him some pointers. Rock spikes surrounded them all and casted shadows within, leaving the snow beneath them either glimmering with sunlight or tinting with blueish hues.

  "I mean... he let me use it before... before I ever did the test, but couldn't people use the app to cheat now?" Corporal Woo asked. "Like... someone could use those explosions to make it seem like a fight is happening over a chair?"

  "If I have known anything about Iker... er... Colonel Felix, is that he does like creative solutions. Stop giving the cadet new ideas why won't you?" Uzi chastised jokingly.

  Corporal Woo raised an eyebrow. "... that was the first time I heard you referred to the colonel by his first name."

  Sergeant Uzi levitated verself further up. Indeed, the arak that belonged to a species that had three sexes instead of two and went by ve, ver, and vis pronouns. That was how ve introduced verself to Joaquim. "It has also only been recently that I was allowed to be in his presence outside of work!"

  Corporal Woo nodded, later raising a finger to scratch her chin. "I forgot about that."

  "Well, the song hasn't even started and you're having to regenerate. I didn't even have to learn how to do that until I went on a mission," Lucia said. "It's not that serious, don't push yourself next time."

  "Why is it not that serious?" Joaquim asked.

  Corporal Woo glared at Lucia while Sergeant Uzi spun midair to give the husky a look too.

  "Er, about Gabe."

  "Yes, Gabe. Good old Gabriel."

  "Ah yes, let's talk about that brother of yours!"

  "We mean Cadet Wami."

  "Ah yes indeed. Forget everything but your brother."

  "So," Lucia declared. "Do you want to help your brother join our platoon?"

  "How did he even become a candidate to join two platoon?" Joaquim asked.

  "I thought you would know," Corporal Woo grumbled. "I was wondering the same thing. I thought it was your doing."

  "Nope," Joaquim said while shaking his head. He then circled his ankle that he was healing with flux.

  "Okay so none of us know how," Sergeant Uzi added. "But do you want us to help him?"

  "Why does it matter what I think?" Joaquim asked.

  The trio glanced at each other before returning their gaze back to Joaquim.

  "We heard about everything that happened," Corporal Woo explained. "Mostly about his reaction to meeting the colonel outside the police station... and finding out about you."

  "He didn't find out anything... well I don't know what's wrong with him," Joaquim said. Well.. I can't really tell them that Ameen and the Alkrezians are pressuring him. However, if Gabe did help me escape earlier he might be in danger.

  "Yea, I want him to join two platoon," Joaquim said. But what if he is still with Camilo and Farouq? What will happen to us?

  "I already know where he is," Corporal Woo said.

  Too late.

  Corporal Woo vanished and reappeared with Gabe having a flabbergasted face. Corporal Woo still came back with a deadpan face.

  "Where am I?" Gabe asked. "Wait, are we up high on the mountain?"

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  "Yes," Sergeant Uzi said. "So we have the two Alkrezian boys I have heard so much about."

  Gabe's face said that he apparently recognized the non-human voice. The slight static and the high pitch that would only come out of an arak's tendrils. Noticing what was behind Gabe, he did not even bother to glance behind him.

  "So... they're real?"

  "Don't play stupid Gabe," Joaquim said. "You fall for every conspiracy theory you hear about."

  "No I don't!" Gabe yelled. "And besides... if what is behind me is what I think it is... it was never a conspiracy theory."

  "If you believe every conspiracy theory... then it doesn't count when one of them comes true," Sergeant Uzi said. "If you believe all of them then one of them will eventually be true. It's just a matter of chance, not of intelligence."

  Eventually Gabe gathered the courage to slowly turn. The gravel and snow crunched under his feet until Sergeant Uzi and Gabe were gazing at each other.

  "So you made friends with a talking animal and this thing Naomi?" Gabe asked.

  Sergeant Uzi flung verself much closer to Gabe, causing him to flinch. However, Sergeant Uzi was able to stop verself right before colliding with him.

  "First of all, I know this is not your first time being in uniform. So you have less excuses to not be calling soldiers by their ranks," Sergeant Uzi scolded. "Second of all, say that name again and I'll throw you off this mountain Alkrezian. The little supersoldier you worship from Earth won't save you from me flinging you off the cliff nearby like the fool you are. The only reason I am not doing it is because your brother wanted to help you. I'll repeat it once more so you hear me. Your. Brother."

  Gabe's face flattened, however all the fear that was in his face went into his trembling wrists.

  "I am sorry. You're right," Gabe said. "I'll call him Cadet Wami from now on."

  "Good," Sergeant Uzi said. "Now that that is settled. Let me show you my ingenious plan for us to ace this musical chair test."

  "Our," Corporal Woo corrected.

  "Well you got us all the chairs," Sergeant Uzi said while floating away from the group. "But I came up with our actual plan."

  "Wait," Joaquim said. "You got all the chairs?"

  Lucia, Sergeant Uzi, and Corporal Woo busted out laughing simultaneously.

  "Yea," Lucia replied. "I think after this... the colonel and the lieutenant will have to change the test. Or the test location at least."

  "That was the only reason I am not fighting for a vacation by the way," Corporal Woo added. "I thought this was too hilarious to pass up."

  "You were the one that jaunted me here right?" Gabe asked Corporal Woo, adjusting his uniform and knapsack.

  "Yes."

  "So you jaunted all the chairs up here too?" Gabe asked.

  "Like the sergeant likes to say... indeed," Corporal Woo said, giving ve a friendly shoulder nudge when she went into the same direction as Sergeant Uzi.

  "Well, there are two panels that reveal where all the chairs will be," Joaquim said. "Can't the other soldiers just climb the mountain and get the chairs?"

  "That's where my plan comes in," Sergeant Uzi said. "Follow me."

  The infectious hilarity of what awaited the brothers at the summit of the mountain infected Joaquim too. Even Gabe had to shed a smile while the other soldiers were trying to hold in their overstaying laughter.

  One had to imagine how much effort Iker put into coding and getting the drones to drop all the metal chairs onto random spots on the Ersatz Mountain Range flying platform, just to suddenly have all of them reappear on the summit stacked up like church chairs.

  It may have been from the stress of not knowing where Gabe's mind and heart was, or not knowing where Farouq and Camilo were hiding during this test, but Joaquim allowed himself to laugh with no restraint for just for this moment. This was all rather silly, and it was only going to get sillier.

  "So about the fools that are going to climb this mountain," Sergeant Uzi said. "This is phase two of my flawless and excellent plan. And a hilarious plan to top it all of."

  "Did you tap every chair?" Corporal Woo asked.

  "Of course I did! I am no fool myself!" Sergeant Uzi declared. "Everyone grab a chair and sit on it."

  "We are going to have a seat at the mountaintop?" Gabe asked. "What are we gonna do? Have tea while we watch people ski on the other side?"

  "Watch and see," Lucia said.

  And everyone followed Sergeant Uzi's instructions. Joaquim and Gabe helped unstack the chairs designed for the test and sat on their own once the seats were arranged in two rows. Nine chairs total.

  "Hang on tight," Sergeant Uzi said.

  And Sergeant Uzi revealed verself to be an esper like Farouq, because the chairs began to move on their own.

  Now a husky, three humans, and an arak were seated in midair chairs while hovering above the mountain. Not only was the ski resort visible, but the other natural platform called the Hubble Jungle Platform came into Joaquim's vision too. The area facing them was the artificial beach adorned with parasols, most of them pairing white with a primary color.

  "This is so stupid," Gabe said.

  Joaquim shushed him.

  "Thank you," Sergeant Uzi said.

  "You're welcome," Joaquim replied, inciting a glare from Gabe.

  He stayed quiet though.

  "The explosions will be too much, but a cloud will do," Sergeant Uzi said.

  "Say," Lucia said. "What song do you think the colonel will pick?"

  "Something from the nineties again," Corporal Woo said. "And not from the twenty-nineties."

  Sergeant Uzi groaned statically.

  And a white cloud spawned beneath the supersoldiers.

  With the realization that they were disguised as a cloud in the sky, the group laughed once more.

  And their question was answered with a man singing about having a good time across the military outpost.

  The musical chair test, the test that will decide whether Joaquim and Gabe will join two platoon, had begun.