With the immediate threats neutralized, Thomas began raking his hands through his body to check for extra wounds. Robin's eyes betrayed concern, prompting Thomas to reassure her that he wasn't going to drop dead any time soon.

  “It was a glancing shot, far from any vitals. Accelerated clotting provided by the nanomachines will sort it out.”

  Robin didn’t look satisfied with the answer, but moved on.

  “Now where’s our rich girl at?” She said, looking around. “Was she in the back of the truck with you, Lloyd?”

  “I haven’t seen her. . .” Lloyd’s voice was muffled behind his stone shell.

  Thomas remembered the second opponent he defeated, the one who couldn’t seem to pull out their pistol. He doubted they would have had time to fire on him either way, but the providence felt wrong. They rarely acted human, merely an approximation of a gun-toting villain. Would the Doctor actually add such a factor?

  No, he wouldn’t.

  “Gloria-Grace, I know you’re here.” Thomas sighed.

  “Wait, what?” Robin nearly broke her neck surveying the area again. “Where?”

  “Right here, darling!”

  A single dainty hand appeared from nowhere, tapping Robin’s shoulder. It extended from nothing, as if it were peeking out from camouflaged curtains. Robin made a triple take, reaching out to grasp the hand as if it would disappear at any moment. Not a strange thing to do, considering the hand really could disappear.

  “Damn, girl! I didn’t know you could do this!” Robin exclaimed.

  “Me neither!” Gloria-Grace said as the rest of her body came into view. Despite the crash, she looked no worse for wear. Practically unscathed as a matter of fact. Her sophisticated (downright complicated, really) hairstyle didn’t have a strand missing. I should’ve known, Thomas thought.

  Weirdo or not, a Goldenchild will always be a Goldenchild.

  “Another use of your light abilities, I assume.” Thomas said. “Manipulating how sunlight bounces off your body, effectively making you see-through?”

  “Oh, uhm, sure?” Gloria-Grace shrugged. “Grandfather said something like that long ago.”

  “Let me guess, the crash jogged your memory?”

  “But more importantly, how could you, Thomas? I was just about to deliver a most gruesome punishment to those mongrels! Stealing the spotlight from a Goldenchild is an unforgivable trespass! Fall to your knees and apologize!”

  “You want me to apologize for something unforgivable?”

  “Well, it’s the thought that counts.”

  Lloyd raised a timid hand.

  “Just speak, Lloyd.”

  “Not to interrupt or anything, but shouldn’t we get going?”

  Gloria-Grace nodded. “Well said, scar-boy! I only counted four dead mongrels. Which means there should be eight fully armed mongrels converging on us at any second.”

  Thomas cursed. Between getting knocked unconscious and his first fight to the death, he’d completely forgotten Gloria-Grace’s recon from earlier.

  “No problem!” Robin clamped a hand on his good shoulder. “We’ll get this thing on its wheels in no time at all.”

  There was a flame in her light brown eyes. Thomas knew what it was feeding on. The competitor, the athlete in her was desperate for a moment to heal her wounded pride, to match up with her peers. It was a feeling he understood like none other.

  Thomas nodded gratefully.

  “But can you really use your Blessing on something of this size?”

  “Yep! As long as it’s not connected to the ground, we’re good.” Robin cracked her knuckles. “Hey Lloyd, go to the opposite side of wherever Thomas goes!”

  “Y-yes!”

  Thomas rushed to the right side of the wrecked truck, searching with his hands for the slightest grip he could find. Another critical moment arrived, and it was entirely out of his control. Carrying the captive for miles was improbable, especially with armed assailants on their tail. Thomas cursed again as he understood his blunder. He was worried about the captive, when the armored truck, the means to their end, was even more important.

  The truck needed to be put upright again, or they fail.

  And it was all on Robin.

  “You boys ready?” Robin called.

  “Affirmative!”

  “Um, affirmative!”

  “Wind speed isn’t too bad, but be ready either way! Here it goes!”

  The weight of an armored truck is easily two tons.

  As Robin activated her Blessing, the truck’s weight dropped to a virtual zero.

  Immediately, the wind threatened to snatch the eighteen-wheeler away. Thomas held to it with the lackluster grip he managed to find. The resistance coming from the other side told Thomas that Lloyd found one as well.

  “Lloyd! I’m flipping it now! Keep that grip!”

  “Affirmative!”

  With as little effort Thomas could muster, he gently pulled upward with the force equivalent to the flex of a pinky finger. Immediately, the truck launched upward. If not for Lloyd, the truck could have sailed as far into the sky as the wind would allow, or until Robin ceased her Blessing’s effect. Lloyd held the truck from underneath. With his usual nervousness amplified by standing underneath thousands of pounds, Lloyd trembled as if the weight wasn’t completely removed. Thomas wished their situation wasn’t so dire. He’d laugh at this rendition of Sky Giant’s punishment of holding up the stars.

  “Oh, would you look at that? I can see them catching up to us.” Gloria-Grace calmly stated.

  Thomas could hear the roar of the engines from far off. With the speed of a motorcycle on an empty highway, they’ll be getting shot at in no time.

  “Now we’ll set it down together! Let go on my mark!” Thomas hurried to bring the wheels to the ground. When each and every wheel was set, Thomas yelled,

  “Robin, now!”

  The weight of the truck returned just as Thomas and Lloyd let go. For less than a millisecond, it floated and drifted in the direction of the wind. This stopped abruptly once the truck remembered its weight. To an onlooker, it was as if the truck made a miniscule turn on its own. It was the cleanest job they could have done, given the circumstances.

  “Nice work, all of you.” Thomas said. “You two, take their weapons and hop in the back. Robin, with me!”

  “Naturally!” Gloria-Grace sang.

  “Right!” said Lloyd.

  “Gotcha!” Robin said. Her muffled voice piqued Thomas’ curiosity.

  He looked back at Robin and recoiled. She was looking up from the asphalt, and the black smudges on her reddened face confirmed she was recently face down in it. I hadn’t taken that tradeoff into account, Thomas thought.

  Robin’s Blessing doesn’t virtually remove weight from an object. Robin’s Blessing virtually steals weight from an object. Though her body doesn’t sustain any damage from the severe weight change, her strength stays the same as well. She must have flattened out on the floor instantaneously upon receiving that weight.

  He wondered if he should ask if she was ok, then thought better of it.

  That wasn’t what someone like her wanted.

  Thomas helped her up, “You did it.”

  “I did.” She smiled. Thomas ushered her through the driver side door. The passenger side was severely dented. The point-detonating ammunition they used was the real deal.

  “Too bad you didn’t think of lying down before using your Blessing.”

  “Oh no,” Robin cringed. “How does it look?”

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  “It’s gonna bruise.” Thomas said as he got in after her. After scanning his thumb, the engine roared back to life. Thank the Myriad.

  “Yeesh. That bad?”

  “Bad?” Thomas raised an eyebrow as he set the truck to autopilot. “It’s a battle scar. Be proud.”

  “You’re so lame.” Robin chuckled.

  He could see the motorcycles in the rear view. Leaving them in the dust was an impossibility.

  “We’re finishing them off here. Once they get close, we’ll neutralize them.”

  Thomas opened the blast door connected to the back of the truck. As they left the wheel to drive on its own, Gloria-Grace flamboyantly passed a carbine to Thomas.

  “Anyone else know how to shoot? No? Thought so.”

  He pressed the rifle to his chest similarly to the weapon’s previous owners as he marched to the exposed behind of the truck. He dropped to one knee, praying the autopilot would keep the vehicle steady.

  “Why the heck aren’t you taking cover, bro?”

  “Look who’s directly behind me.” Thomas jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. He was positioned right in front of the caged captive.

  “You’re wagering that they won’t endanger their leader?” Gloria-Grace figured. “What if these mongrels aren’t programmed that well?

  “After fighting them and killing them, I know how human they really are. They’ll try to ram us again to extract our captive.”

  For better or for worse.

  “Um, In that case. . .” Lloyd uttered, reaching a hand out to Gloria-Grace who held the second rifle. “If you’re sure they won’t aim for us. . .”

  “Oho?” Gloria-Grace smiled as she passed it to him by the handguard.

  Lloyd dropped to a knee next to Thomas, who regarded him incredulously.

  “You know how to shoot?”

  “My father is a firearm instructor.” Lloyd stared down the iron sights without a hint of hesitation. Though his face lacked a practiced calmness, his movements were fluid and conventional. Thomas could tell it was far from Lloyd’s first time with a gun. He decided it would be best to ignore the fact Lloyd didn’t volunteer this information until he was told he wasn’t at risk.

  “Hitting smaller moving targets from a distance is going to be a long shot, so we’ll fire until we hit something or we run out of ammo. Gloria-Grace and Robin. . . use your Blessings at your own discretion.”

  He can’t tell them to do everything. They’re his classmates, not his pawns.

  “Here they come!”

  Thomas transformed his head into an eagle’s. He could use the vision. Though they were already close enough to see, Thomas preferred to see every pore on their sunken gray faces. Television could only wish it was as high-definition as the eyes of an eagle. The androids’ motorcycles moved in diamond formation on the road. They were all just as armed to the teeth as the previous ones. In the far back of the diamond formation, Thomas saw a pair with rocket launchers on their backs.

  Because of course they had spares.

  “Cawwww!” Thomas said.

  “W-what does that mean?”

  “Open fire, dude!” Robin translated.

  The pairs up front hadn’t unslung their rifles yet, but Thomas wasn’t planning on waiting. He fired on the one to the left, nearly exhausting a mag to finally pepper the rider to death. As it went limp, the passenger quickly reached the handlebars to right the motorcycle before it crashed.

  That gave Lloyd more than enough time to eventually land a killing blow on the passenger as well. The pair collapsed with their motorcycle, skidding into heaps on the highway. The other androids coldly avoid the crumpled bodies of their comrades, leaving them behind to keep chase.

  Six down.

  “Nice shootin’, boys!” Robin shouted.

  “Pass us both a mag, quick!”

  As Thomas feared, the androids accelerated at the sight of Thomas and Lloyd’s reloading. Their formation tightened into a row behind the truck. Each of the pillions began to balance themselves.

  “They’re g-going to jump on!” Lloyd struggled to reload as he panicked. Thomas had only just received his own magazine as well. Do I reload now, or prepare to melee? Once again, he hesitated.

  And once again, he was bailed out.

  The sound of tires suddenly burning against the asphalt snatched Thomas’ attention away. He watched as the gunmen came to a skidding halt in the middle of the road. Thomas’ eyes twitched.

  Did his eyes deceive him?

  What was a bottomless hole doing in the middle of the highway?

  “Gloria-Grace?”

  “Hm?”

  “That was you, right?”

  “Oh, you saw the gaping chasm as well? Only the mongrels were supposed to have their eyes affected. What a troublesome Blessing I have. . .”

  “Full of surprises.” Thomas said as he and Lloyd finished reloading. “Robin, can you check how much longer we have?”

  “I gotcha.” Robin flung open the blast door and shut it behind her. Seconds later, she returned as hastily as she left.

  “We’re so close! ETA’s seven minutes!”

  Robin’s excited smile proved infectious to Thomas, but he didn’t get carried away for long.

  “More than enough time for them to catch up, though. Gloria-Grace, how long will their eyes be affected?”

  “Oh, that only worked for a couple seconds, and I have to be looking at what they cannot see so I can absorb the light.”

  “We only have a magazine left for each of us.” Lloyd worried. “If we used one just to hit a single bad guy. . .”

  Robin squatted in between Thomas and Lloyd, resting an elbow on each of their shoulders. Her giggly behavior hadn’t changed. Thomas noted a mischievous, nearly malicious glint in her eyes.

  “S’all good, bros. I saw something else on the map. There’s a sharp turn on the highway just before we pull into the city. We’ll take them all out there.”

  “And how exactly—actually, no. Whatever you’re planning, just tell me what I need to do to help.”

  “Whaaaat?” Robin twisted her face in shock. “You don’t want to know?”

  “I get the feeling it’ll be a headache if you tell me.”

  “You just need to go manual on the wheel and speed up as much as you can when the baddies show up. Make them speed up to catch you. Then turn as nicely as you can, so we don’t die and stuff.”

  Thomas eyed the rifle, then Robin. She shook her head.

  “Hold onto it. You can teach me after we pass.”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Alright, as for you two, stay as still as possible. Which means I need Lloyd to. . .”

  The conversation muffled as Thomas shut the blast door. He returned to the wheel and clicked MANUAL CONTROL on the cracked dashboard touch screen. As his hands took hold of the wheel, the androids were reflected in the rear-view mirror. Thomas hit the gas. The truck didn’t move much faster, but with a sharp turn in his future, Thomas found his breathing unsteady.

  Once he was convinced he reached top speed, Thomas checked the rear-view mirror, confirmed that they were catching up with an even higher top speed, then focused for the turn of a lifetime.

  He could see the turn ahead. They were so high up. It felt like the skyline of green parks and gray skyscrapers rushed to meet him. What a fall it would be, soaring forever into Downtown Seraph. Just a few seconds more. Thomas let go of the gas, slowing the truck just a little. The androids kept their speed, trusting in their agile machine.

  Thomas bore his teeth in a grin as he finally understood. With that small reserve of confidence—of trust he allowed himself to have in Robin—he made the turn of a lifetime. Hand over hand, the view of the Downtown Seraph skyline swerved from the windshield to the driver-side window. Thomas hit the brakes after he turned. With a turn like this, he couldn’t risk dangling his teammates and captive over the side. His eyes darted to the rear-view window.

  And what a sight it was.

  The androids attempted the turn as well, leaning hard to the right. It would have worked too, if it weren’t for Robin. The motorcycles simply flattened to the sides going over 70 miles per hour. Of course, the androids were moving at that speed as well. Thomas watched and counted as both motorcycle and gunmen careened off of the highway and plummeted into Downtown Seraph.

  Twelve down. Targets neutralized.

  Thomas let the truck drive on its own once more, and went to check in on his comrades. He wasn’t expecting a gut check the moment he opened the door.

  “Oof. . .”

  “What kinda driving was that, dude?” Robin grunted. Her face somehow reached and even harsher red from before.

  “It was ‘surviving a harsh turn going sixty plus miles per hour on the highway’ driving. Also it worked and we’re all alive and they’re dead. Need I remind you I only just got this permit?”

  “Oh my face, my faaaace. . .!”

  “Taking the weight off their motorcycles to make them fall off the highway? It was a good plan. A headache of a good plan, as proven by your face.”

  “Screw you, bro.” Robin raised a hand, palm facing Thomas.

  “That boyish language is unbecoming.” Thomas returned an open palm, high-fiving her.

  “Ooh, what’s this?” Gloria-Grace raised both hands, mimicking the high-five. “Some form of lowborn camaraderie? Let me try!”

  She began forcing a whimpering Lloyd to high-five her repeatedly.

  “Ow, you don’t have to hit so hard!”

  “But Rock-Boy, how else will I achieve that satisfying clap the other two had performed?”

  “Stay vigilant, you two. There could be more.” Thomas said, not realizing yet that he had already leaned against the inside of the truck. He slid down until he was sitting. Adrenaline drop-off was wracking his body. Or was it his mind? He ran dozens of miles at the precinct, dozens of miles at Myriad High. Why was he so exhausted after a fight to the death that was no more than a minute?

  “Not looking good there, mall cop.” Robin plopped down next to him.

  “Likewise.”

  “It’s a real burden, being the leader.”

  “I guess so. It’s only ever been me until now. Me and my father.”

  Now that his father wasn’t always around, it felt like Thomas was in a new world entirely. Others would be comforted by this, but not Thomas. His entire life was in between an iron yoke. Those harsh standards that were set upon him, with his only competitor being his father at Thomas’ age, and his only reward being a nod of satisfaction. . .

  Thomas had missed that yoke.

  “I know I freaked out earlier, but is the deal still on?” Robin asked.

  Thomas faced Robin and her quivering voice. The brightness of the rendezvous point pierced even the depths of the truck and reflected off of her glossy eyes. He could tell that she missed the yoke as well. It was a shame how desperate the both of them were. To hell with this. Thomas decided then and there. By the time he graduated, he wouldn’t fear freedom nor discipline.

  He’d make sure Robin wasn’t afraid either. Too much potential there.

  “You think a single screw up is gonna make me lose all faith in you?” Thomas laughed. “What was it you said to me earlier?”

  “Dude, don’t. . .” Robin covered her reddened face in embarrassment. They probably had less than a minute left. The golden light was practically enveloping the truck now.

  “Oh, I remember.” Thomas sneered. “Whose standards are you even going for, bro?”

  “Uggggh!” Robin gnashed her teeth as she slapped Thomas' shoulder.

  Thomas felt weightless for a moment. Before he scold Robin for using her Blessing in retaliation, he noticed she was also floating, along with Lloyd and Gloria-Grace. He watched as the captive glowed yellow and disappeared into the light. The dull pain of his bullet graze had ended just as quickly.

  “Good work, everyone.” Thomas’ eyes grew impossibly heavy, as the simulation forced his consciousness to end.

  Mission complete.

  END OF EARLY ASSESSMENT B