“This isn’t about grading you as an individual,” I said.

“It’s about the team,” Sveta said. “I don’t want to let the team down. Can we start? I’ll get more nervous if we wait.”

“Sure,” I said.

The other three weren’t wrapped up in their discussion anymore. I called out, “You guys want your flag?”

“Here,” Sveta said. She held out her hand. I passed her the blue flag.

She passed it to the others, hand and forearm gripping the flag, tendrils pushing the hand and forearm. She stopped short, relying on only the momentum so it only punched Chris lightly in the man-boob. He caught her hand and arm in one large hand, plucking the flag free before releasing her hand. He smiled as he held it up, then he reached low to hand it to Kenzie. The two of them went to plant it, with Chris picking up a fallen tree on the way.

It seemed Chris and Kenzie got along better like this.

Ashley didn’t join them. Instead, she started walking toward us, picking her way through weeds and grass. She still had a partial smile on her face from before.

I flew to meet her partway.

“Ground rules?” she asked, when I was closer.

“Place your flag. You grab ours and bring it to yours, or vice-versa. Whoever has both flags at their starting point wins. Try to avoid hurting the trees. No personal injuries that aren’t going to heal in a day. Bruises and scrapes are inevitable, but let’s avoid them if we can.”

“Understood.” She turned to walk away, one hand raised to give me an over-the-shoulder salute as she did.

Tristan began altering the battlefield behind her, drawing out fifty little sparks to move along the surface of our side of the hill.

The other team was just on the other side of a trio of trees. The nervousness we all felt was apparent as Kenzie’s cube lit up, making a deep beep sound.

All three faces of the cube that I could see had lit up. Numbers were apparent. ’10’… ‘9’… ‘8’…

“It’s worth remembering that she can remotely control the cube,” Tristan said. “Hm.”

“Just the flashlight gun and the eyehook, right?” Sveta asked, giving Tristan a look.

Tristan moved his hand, and finalized his alteration to the slope between our fort and the halfway point of the battlefield. Uneven ground, raised segments and lowered ones. Most of it was flat, the spikes sticking out of the sides or toward the ground at an angle. The material was solid, white with orange-red in the crevices, running through it like ore in rock.

The timer continued. ‘3’… ‘2’… ‘1’… ‘Go’.

They came out of the trees. As Tristan had suggested, Ashley’s plan was to go on the attack.