Avowing iciness was spreading across Joaquim's aching and supine body. Strong sunlight did not reach this deep into the chasm, and barely any reached the threshold of the makeshift cave. Indeed, the forced cracks in the entrance revealed that a supersoldier, assumedly during one of two platoon's musical chair tests, had punched out a hiding spot for themselves.

  "Is anyone here?" Joaquim called towards the darkness within.

  His voice echoed with no response in return.

  Borrys and both Cadet Wamis, did you three get the rules explained to you? Iker asked on the call.

  Yes sir, Gabe replied. I am so sorry again for avoiding you guys.

  ... what in the actual fuck? Joaquim asked himself.

  Joaquim frowned and closed the two platoon call. He did not have to hear the rest and he did not want to either. His brother's voice would piss him off further. Whenever the music would start across the military outpost they were in, that would be when the musical chair test would start and Joaquim did not need to know anything else.

  However, Joaquim was now enveloped in darkness again.

  I should try to heal my foot first.

  At least with working legs he would have all that he needed to pass the test to join two platoon. Joaquim did wish it was zero platoon instead, but vying for a spot in Trickster's platoon was a lot more than what he could have bargained for.

  Joaquim willed the Kayaku menu to appear again, and a text message spawned beside after a handful of seconds.

  Iker: okay i see you opened kayaku just now. just making sure you're ok. sorry about gabe, he joined the test last minute.

  Joaquim's frown deepened. Is this how Camilo, Farouq, and Gabe are going to justify him being here? Did his fireflies help him qualify for the test? Did his anagami form really qualify him...

  An even more disturbing question caused more gooseflesh to form on Joaquim's dark skin, in addition to the ones already there from the freezing cave floor he was lying on.

  Why... how do I have no memory of Gabe having flux powers? Did he hide it from me the whole time?

  No, this was not a case of cullaways. His overwhelming intuition was telling him that something sinister was toying with his memories. However, there was another priority before he could act on a potential solution he came up with just now. After selecting menu options with his will, a hologram of Iker's drone RNGesus spawned from the Kayaku app. Joaquim knew of the drone from popular clips that he watched from the earthplexus, both from educational clips and from clips of Iker's fights in No Man's Land.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The biggest mistake new flux users usually make when trying to accelerate the body's process of healing using flux is replicating defensive methods of using flux instead, RNGesus explained. The drone talked like a robotic child, their pitch was even higher than the Morti bots from No Man's Land when they had enough battery power to speak. I will provide multiple explanations on how to regenerate, but it seems no matter what words or metaphors are chosen recruits will often build protective flux instead of actually regenerating. However, we had a sixty-one percent increase in success rates when I told new flux users that this was likely the first mistake they will make.

  Joaquim willed the app to shut off, causing the cave to plummet in darkness again. Now he had every intention to remain hidden while he tried to heal his foot.

  How could I be so stupid? The light from the apps could have gotten me spotted... by them.

  At the forefront of his mind's eye now was the first time Farouq had taken a life. Even whatever force was toying with Joaquim's recalls of the past had no chance of deleting that memory. It was so unnecessary; Farouq's rage was more maddening than a yellow book or a religious book could ever be. The rage did not make him believe in interdimensional cities or that a man on a pegasus could split the moon in half, but it did make him want to snuff out a teenaged boy that just experienced a decisive defeat. The wannabe thief had no chance against Farouq, and he had laid motionless on the cratered sidewalk with blood soaking his overworn clothes. The smog-coated sky had brightened the world with an ethereal overcast light, not being generous at all with lighting the scene of Farouq holding a rock the size of a rice bag over his head while standing triumphantly over his first eventual murder victim.

  It seemed if anything Farouq was utterly and thoroughly offended that the thief believed he had a chance at all rather than it being an act of self-defense, but before Gabe and Joaquim could have stopped him with their little child hands, the most anti-climatic thud came from the rock Farouq dropped on the thief.

  Joaquim would have thought that the sound of a life being taken would be more pronounced, but no. It was such a fleshy and mortal sound, as if to warn how fragile the human body is. The skull and its insides had insulated most of the noise from the fall, and a distorted interdimensional scream played, but it was definitely not from the thief's body. His vocal chords were somewhere in between the rock and the aged concrete the thief lied on.

  Nearby talking vultures had waited perched on a dilapidated house frame for a human meal.

  Returning back to reality, Joaquim was even more determined to stay hidden until the test started.

  While he played that horrid memory within his mind's eye, he was also focusing flux in a different way towards the foot he used on the chasm's ledge to soften his fall. When he used flux to protect himself from damage earlier, he kept imagining it as an extra layer of skin. With enough practice it would become subconscious, but Joaquim was not there yet. When it came to regenerating, he instead imagined a source of warmth within the many bones within his feet. Inside the muscle tissue of his feet too.

  Joaquim heard relaxing crackles from his foot. They were comforting, like the sensation of purrs from talking cats that would rest in his lap when they finally trusted the Alkrezian boy.

  Wait... did I break my foot?

  "Hey, Joaquim... you there?"

  It was Gabe.

  Joaquim silently rolled himself further into the dark cave.

  Is he by himself? Should I tell him I'm here? He called me by my name. Is it a trap? Did he change his mind again?

  If Joaquim had to guess the distance he had from the entrance where Gabe's silhouette was now standing, it was about ten meters. Joaquim had a chance to not get spotted.

  However, Gabe let his fireflies free from the jar he was holding.