Two Years Ago.

The field was deathly quiet, and I hated every moment of it.

Essien and I moved forward as a team, ducking from cover to cover in the generated terrain. It was a broken city, with rubble from falling buildings littering the ground. The occasional thunder sounded overhead, signaling rain that would never come.

Overturned vehicles offered excellent protection, but we couldn't stay in one section for too long. We were about halfway across the giant field, and we haven't seen our opposing team yet. The only time we saw them was before the simulation began, and I hadn't even got a good look at them then.

"Either their ipseites are personal, or they're patient individuals." Essien said smiling, looking over the rusty car door. "I heard winning one of these practices earns you tickets for extra meals. Not like you need them with your food stash."

"My granola bars have been running low because of your midnight snacking. It doesn't help either that the Greens running the cafe line refuse to spare me their extras. Those jerks." I wonder if our opponents were running around the field like us or setting up camp near the flag.

Signaling with my hand, Essien and I moved up the field more, hiding at the corner of a skyscraper. Across the terrain, I saw a flit of movement between two buildings. Judging by Essien tapping my shoulder, he must have saw it too.

"Trap?" I asked him quietly.

"Maybe an attempt to draw us out." Essien offered. "I think we should wait and see what happens.

I ran my fingers over the handgun attached to my hip. "I was never the patient type." Ignoring Essien's protests, I slowly made my way across to where I saw the suspicious activity. I looked back at Essien who motioned down the field. He mouthed the word flag and began moving, leaving me by myself.

I hopped over a car, listening for anything. Occasionally there were crunches on the ground, sounding something like an irregular heartbeat. My breathing became more tense as I carefully made my way, looking and listening for anything out of the ordinary. The crunches on the ground went from my left to my right, and seemed to be moving north.

I picked up the pace, going from a slow crawl to move of a jog. Whoever was around here had no intention of being slow, so neither did I. Crouching in a broken window frame, a blond girl scanned the area, her eyes narrowing with effort. I immediately noticed her purple shirt and took caution. Purples were never fun to deal with. They always had something crazy up their sleeve.

She turned her head, and her purple irises made contact with my blue ones. She quickly hopped off the bricks and ran. Cursing mentally, I took off myself, trying to keep pace with her. It was hard considering I had to leap over cracked asphalt and building remnants. She was fast, but I could keep pace if I focused. She was taking a very deliberate route, not running straight, but in a shallow diagonal line. Between the obtrusions, I saw where she was going. She was running towards an unaware Essien.

I wanted to yell his name, but that would only alert the other Purple of his and my location. I raised my left hand and a familiar blue glow enveloped it. Just like every time I did this, my blood began to hum, forcing a shiver down my spine. A chunk of concrete started giving off the same blue light as my hand.

Knowing that I had full control of it, I lifted it and tossed it downfield, directly in front of the Purple's path. She cleanly stopped however, watching it land in front of her. Essien looked over at the slab that suddenly materialized next to him. I wanted to shoot myself from the headache that started from moving an object that heavy. Sometimes, just sometimes, I wonder if telekinesis is really worth it.

The Purple looked at me with a glare before jumping, higher than I expected, and grabbing the top of the slab. She was pulling herself up and over.

"You're kidding me," I said.

I ran, fast as I possibly could, towards the Purple. Essien just saw her peek over the wall and began to move, heading farther down the field. He had to be close to the flag podium now. Without warning, something hit me from the left, throwing me off balance and to the floor. I turned over and a knee hit my chest pinning me to the ground. I stared up at a dark-haired girl, her maroon eyes remorseless. She took her pistol out it's holster and pressed the cold metal against my forehead, pulling the trigger.

The gun clicked and I rolled my eyes in frustration.

"Bang," she said, hopping off me and running away, no doubt to assist her teammate.

Getting up, I made my way towards the edge of the simulated field. I stepped over the boundary line, out of the simulation and ran up a flight of stairs leading me to the observation room. Several bored kids stood around with the overseer judging our exercise. I placed my handgun in the weapons rack, looking at all the potential weapons I could've took. The Overseer shot me a glance before returning his gaze towards the field.

"Not much you could do there, Marshall. Good job though." Some kid said to me.

"Throwing that concrete brick was pretty smart." Another said.

I ignored both of them and took my spot at the viewing window, watching Essien do what needed to be done. The only thing I could count on was his hand to hand combat proficiency and field awareness. Unfortunately, Essien hasn't found his ipseity yet.

Down on the field, Essien was almost to the flag, the Purple who "killed" me hot on his trail. I could see the other Purple, the one who caused the distraction, running parallel, about to intercept his path. He wouldn't be able to handle both of them at once. I shook my head, regretting that we had split up in the first place. I shouldn't have been so careless.

As expected, the first Purple intercepted his run, forcing him to make a decision he didn't have the time for. The second Purple placed the gun against the back of his head, pulling the trigger and ending the simulation.

"Congratulations to our winners Yonnie Volkova and Valencia Orlov!" The overseer announced over the speaker system. "Don't forget to obtain your reward before leaving the training center."

I watched as Essien came up the stairs behind the pair of cheering Purples, a crestfallen look on his face. "Sorry man," I said, "I shouldn't have been so stupid."

"It's alright," he said, offering me a smile. "Always next time, right?" Patting him on the back, we began walking down the stairs, until I heard someone utter my name. I walked backwards looking at the girl who was looking at me. It had to have been her.

"Did you say something about me?" I said, which came off a little more accusatory than intended.

"I said a little patience would go a long way, Marshall." The girl said, what sounded like contempt in her words. She was a Blue, shorter than me and clearly not threatening. She looked like the type to value her appearance over anything else. Not like she could get fancy beauty products in here anyway.

I narrowed her eyes at her. "And who are you to criticize me? If you have an issue, then we can throw hands in the arena."

"I wasn't trying to start anything, but I'm not one to back down from a challenge." I looked at the overseer for approval, and he only shrugged his shoulders.

"Next field test isn't in an hour. Both of you go down there and I wouldn't mind running a contest." He said, messing with a few buttons on a control panel. The girl and I made eye contact before running down the stairs, taking our positions on the blank concrete floor.

"Don't get too far in your feelings when you lose," I said.

"Says the guy who was the first one eliminated," she fired back. Whatever.

"Standard altercation rules apply here. The field is halved from its normal size. The defender gets field choice; the challenger gets an addition towards the field. First one unable to continue or the first one to surrender loses." The speaker relayed from the overseer. "Marshall Risinger, your field option?"

I thought about what I could use with my ipseity. I need objects to move, but nothing too heavy. The perfect idea came to me. "A junkyard."

"Aurora Fontaine, any additions?" So that was her name, Aurora. It didn't matter, not like she'd be important after this altercation anyway.

She didn't hesitate on her choice. "Rain," she said.

After a few moments, a blue square erupted on the floor, extending a holographic grid towards the ceiling. The empty training room disappeared around me, being replaced with a dirt ground and piles of metallic trash, one spawning directly between Aurora and I. Thunder roared overhead and rain began coming down, slowly at first but rapidly picking up speed. I could hardly see past the pouring rain. I had to admit, she made a good choice.

I telekinetically ripped the hood off an old car to float beside me. I didn't know what Aurora was capable of, and I wasn't going to take any chances. I walked around one of the trash mounds and something clanged off the hood I was carrying. I quickly turned in that direction but didn't see anything. Something hit me in my back and I turned once again to nothing but rain. So this is the game we're playing.

Aurora apparently didn't want to play that game because she ran up and kicked the hood into me, making me lose my concentration and drop my shield. She took a swing at me and I parried it. She didn't let up with her assault, forcing me to either block it or get hit, the latter happening more than the former. The wet dirt wasn't helping me with my footing either. Getting fed up with her, I willed a stream of metal debris into her, sweeping her off her feet and launching her a fair distance back.

"So this is what we're doing?" She asked, analyzing the various cuts and scrapes she had on her.

Aurora stood up, stretching both her arms. She raised her hands high and was enveloped in a blue outline, a stark contrast to her chocolate skin. Slowly but surely, the raindrops froze in midair, along with my heart. The raindrops moved towards Aurora, swirling around her grounded figure. As they collected, a miniature hurricane began to form, lifting Aurora slightly into the air. Her blue eyes were like beacons, reflecting her calm rage.

"You have got to be kidding me," I said.

Aurora smiled. "You brought this on yourself," she said.

The ocean of water flowed towards me, and the last thing I remember was desperately searching for air before my mind shut off.