THAT'S the New Rule? No Way!

They’d been flung from the starting area by something unseen and, of course, Eligh had ended up stranded with Jordan with Mara nowhere to be seen.

“Mara! Do you hear me…? Mara!”

“It’s no use, man,” Jordan said to Eligh as he picked leaves and twigs from his mostly bright red hair. He had some gray strands growing out from his roots and chin hair that revealed his age. Though Eligh was taller, slenderer, and more stoic than Jordan, the man about twenty years his senior had such a boisterous character and youthfulness that made him appear Eligh’s age.

Taking Jordan’s words for truth, Eligh gave up on calling for Mara. “I hope she’ll be okay.”

“Oh, she’ll be fine, dude. Trust me. If I learned anything from Phase One’s stats, it’s that she totally rocks and you suck.”

“Hey!”

“You’re right, let’s not be harsh. Maybe, ‘untalented?’ ‘Amateur?’ ‘Unimpressive?’ ‘Weak?’”

“Mara’s crazy older brother rigged my stats!” Eligh interjected.

“Yeah, sure.” Jordan said briskly, and continued, “Or maybe ‘unfortunate,’ ‘totally lost,’ ‘sad—”

Jordan was interrupted by the brain-rattling audio of the Gear Up! Games fanfare theme. Eligh’s knees almost buckled and yet, Jordan recovered fast and was speaking again, “That reminds me. You know that rule I was talking about before, on the plane?”

Eligh was rubbing his ears. The music sounded so much closer than it should. “Yeah,” he muttered.

“It’s piggyback.” Jordan said.

“Huh?”

“It’s to piggyback another contestant. I heard it from someone who heard it from someone’s someone else.”

Eligh snorted, “Yeah, that’s convincing.”

“I’m not lying.”

“You’re lying.”

“No really, I’m not lying.”

“I urge you to believe that you are lying.”

“How?!” Jordan complained, then shook his head, “Look, when they make the announcement, we’re going to have to jump each other’s backs!”

“Don’t say it like that!” Eligh shrieked, shuddering. “And anyway, I’m not doing that.”

“Suit yourself. I’m making it to Phase Three even if I have to hog tie you to my back.”

Eligh wanted to dare Jordan to “try it,” but he knew the other guy was right. Mostly, he was just bitter.

He imagined carrying Mara piggyback and almost cried at the loss of what could have been.

Suddenly, the familiar spherical, airplane-sized jumbotron from Phase One comprised of thousands of tiny screens was snapping together with tremendous noise in the clear skies. It took mere seconds for the sphere to loom over the playing field, so large that even while partially obscured by the tall island trees, Eligh could see it.

Just like Jordan predicted, a loud announcer’s voice shouted over the now-whispering music.

“Phase Two has officially commenced! In this wildly exciting battle of Capture the Flag, participants will traverse the tricky jungle terrain into opponent territory.” The jumbotron’s screen blipped to life. Animations of little ‘contestant’ triangles traveling across an animated island filled the screen.

The speaker and the animations continued, “There are eight-hundred-thirty participants stationed on extreme opposites of the island’s jungle terrain, not including the beaches. I’m sure you have noticed the red or yellow armband you were given on the plane has a flag attachment.”

Eligh nodded. His team was yellow.

“Your objective is to claim the flags of participants from the opposing team while reducing their chances of capturing yours! Use the tools in your gear to hinder their movements. Using energy blasts or anything potentially harmful is not allowed. Also, straight up flying to avoid capture? Not allowed.

“Every contestant whose flag is pulled is immediately sent to Captive’s Jail in the opposing team’s territory using teleportation technology. Every captive earns the other team ten points. You’ll need another teammate to break you out of jail if you’re going to continue in the game. (Jailbreaks earn your team five points). Passage to Phase Three depends on your being out of jail! And the team with the most points wins a three-star dinner and spa treatment! But that’s not all…”

The announcer paused as a drumroll crescendo-ed through the air. The jumbotron blinked snippets of an image Eligh was unable to see well. He thought the screen might sometimes be showing… the gargantuan hands and legs of… a giant?

“You’ll need to enhance your vision to avoid, and see, the holographic juggernauts surrounding you. They can’t touch you, but they can stop you! In addition, every contestant in this vast arena must find and carry three teammates piggyback for at least ten minutes, each, during the contest duration. That’s thirty minutes out of one hour!

“Get to know your neighbors,” the announcer roared, “exchange those gift orbs from Phase One, aaaand game on!!!”

Jordan already had suggestive eyes on Eligh as the announcer’s voice faded out.

“Hard no.” Eligh said.

Goddammit.

Eligh was running through the thick with annoying-ass Jordan on his back. A small scattering of other participants was darting through the dense jungle as well.

As soon as the announcement had ended and Jordan had attacked Eligh with a winning round of Rock-Paper-Scissors then jumped on his back, the terrain around them started reacting to invisible assaults. Immediately, there were craters and slabs of land as tall as the trees splintering from the ground.

“It’s the juggernauts!” Jordan had cried, still unable to see them.

Without time to complain, Eligh had activated his gear. “Brace yourself,” he’d warned Jordan and tensed a fist behind his back. Speed Burst. He and Jordan had skated on the air, remaining low to the ground, like human torpedoes, getting far ahead of the destruction behind them in a couple seconds flat.

Now, they reached the center of the island with several more bursts of speed, running alongside other contestants who were on their team.

“Look, here they come!” Jordan called, and Eligh searched with his eyes through the trees. A few younger-looking contestants wearing goggles approached quickly, short red flags flowing from their biceps as they ran forward. They ran low to the ground but fast, dodging things that didn’t seem to be in the way. “We can take ‘em.”

Eligh wasn’t so sure. He skidded to a halt. “Hey, get off.” He told Jordan and shrugged the older man off before he could comply, not paying attention as Jordan hit the ground.

Eligh clanked the metal bracelets against each other right in front of his face and said, “Vision Up.” The bracelets pieced into goggles directly onto Eligh’s face giving him just enough time to dodge the holographic fist that came smashing the ground he just stood on.

The land went belly up and so did Eligh, and Jordan whom he had grabbed hold of. They had avoided being thrown into oblivion again by the juggernauts, but now they were off balance and ripe for the picking.

Someone screamed, “Now!” and Eligh glimpsed a large, white net flying toward him as his momentum continued to carry him to the side.

No! He yelled internally and remembered the rules forbidding flying and the use of blasts. He settled on one other move he’d only read about in the manual. “Gear Spin!” he shouted and felt as his body began to spin at a wild pace.

However, he forgot that he still had hold of Jordan; the guy was dead weight that slowed their spin down. The white net smacked into the both of them, sending them crashing onto the grass.

“Got them!” A chipper voice cheered, and the rapid sound of approaching feet pounded against the land.

Oh, come on! Eligh grumbled, struggling against the net. Struggling to free his right arm from under Jordan’s heavy body.

“We’re going out like this, already??” Jordan exclaimed, unable to struggle even a little. “Isn’t there any yellow team that could help us??” He called out.

Eligh knew there had been, but no one had stuck around to help them out. They were long gone.

“So much for teamwork!!” Jordan cried.

Finally, the three members of the red team stood over Eligh and Jordan. “I can’t believe we caught someone else first!” The smallest one said.

“No kidding, they must suck,” another one said.

“You caught us mid dodge!” Eligh countered and widened his eyes as the third red team member walked around to Jordan’s side and snatched the flag from his armband. Jordan’s body disappeared in an instant and the weight on his side of the net slacked against Eligh’s face.

That was creepy as hell.

“Oh!” Eligh cried and shimmied away from the red beasts as they laughed over him. The net stopped him from getting anywhere. In his mind, he refused to beg them for their mercy, but his mouth had another mind. “W-Wait! Let’s be cool. Let’s think about this.”

The trio laughed harder. Just as they were reaching through the net to snatch Eligh’s flag, a streak of yellow zoomed by and all three of the red teams’ bodies vanished. Eligh’s eyes went saucer wide as he looked for his savior.

She dragged the large net off him. “Mara!!!” Eligh screamed. He scrambled to his feet and rushed to embrace her—without thinking. He screamed, red in the face. “Sorry! Th-Th-Thank you! But… sorry. Wh-Where did you come from?”

Mara, her face also as pink as a candy, cleared her throat. “No problem. Actually, I was looking for you.”

Eligh’s heart shot up to his throat. He couldn’t help it; his knees hit the ground, tears in his eyes. This is the day I’ve been waiting for.

“Um, Eligh?” Eligh shot back up. Mara covered her lips with her fist while she laughed. “I ran into someone on the way over.”

This perked up Eligh’s ears. “You did? Who?”

Footsteps sounded from behind Eligh, and he turned to see familiar shaggy black hair, dark eyes, and a slender build. It was a family resemblance of almost spitting image.

“Me.”

Eligh’s voice lagged behind his reaction for a moment until he finally said, “Olly!” Eligh couldn’t help the goosebumps he got.

Meanwhile, Oliver didn’t look happy to see him, and it took another moment for Eligh to realize that his younger brother, sporting a red armband, was on the other team.