"So you gonna kill her or what?" Farouq beseeched.

  The musical chair test had yet to begin and Joaquim already sustained his first injury.

  "Get up!" Gabe yelled.

  Midway through Gabe's command to his brother lying in a supine position, Joaquim jammed his flux-infused heel into the gravel beneath him and catapulted himself skyward. He burst through a pine bole somewhere upwards, leaving behind smoky trail.

  Shit that hurt.

  Joaquim's back seared as he lost more momentum scraping through forest canopy and the snow coats on the trees. Tearing through more branches he lost momentum altogether and fell into Gabe's arms. Once they heard Farouq and Camilo running towards them somewhere past the bushes, Gabe threw Joaquim back on the ground.

  The surge of adrenaline from the two injuries gave Joaquim the strength to hop right back up, but Gabe caught him in a headlock. A fake one.

  "You're not even trying," Joaquim whispered. Before his brother could stop hesitating on tightening his lock, Joaquim pushed him aside and performed his first official fluxjump ever. He did not yet complete the Kayaku exercise for it, but he had to get away from Gabe's own loyalty test to Ameen. Taking advantage of the opening he created amongst the trees from his unofficial fluxjump from a supine position, he jumped through it.

  Why did you try fighting him with kaya form? Your fireflies are way better at it! Joaquim heard Farouq yell in between pants somewhere behind him.

  After flying past the last bit of snowy spruce, he was now somewhere in the sky.

  Wait, how am I going to land?

  If there was a way to use kaya form to fall or land faster on the ground Joaquim had no knowledge of it. He had to wait for the Ersatz Mountain Range's perfect sphere to pull him back towards the forest. However, there was no landing in the forest as it all became a green blur until his momentum slowed. He was now above a clearing made up of frost and boulders. And even then he was not landing there either. Flying past the clearing, the platform was now pulling him towards a shallow chasm where the platform's only river was rushing through.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  For a moment in time, before he fully began to fall, momentum stopped ever so slightly, or perhaps it was Joaquim's own perception of time. For a moment in time, he was able to catch his breath while staying in midair, until the platform committed to pulling him downwards. He planned ahead to smash one of his boots into the ledges of the chasm, but he was now thinking too far ahead as momentum had yet to catch up. During that moment he could think clearly, he glanced away from the chasm to spot three silhouettes running towards him within the clearing. Now nearby the ledge he smashed his left flux-infused into it to cushion his fall. However, he did inflict another injury on the foot he used and he had no eagerness to find out how extensive it was. Luckily that decision helped him not take too much damage from the outcrops he was crashing into, and he focused on layering his skin with a coat of flux, imagining it as if it was an additional layer of skin above his skin and clothing. He crossed his forearms to use them to cover his face, now rolling through multiple outcrops until he landed on one large one. Via discovering the cave to his left, he found his hiding spot from the Alkrezians hunting him down. He threw himself up, and toppled over his left foot. A surge of pain from it flowed upwards, and he faceplanted onto the outcrop. He then realized a bit of his silhouette formed on the outcrop from landing, and he kicked that part of the outcrop with his right flux-infused leg, sending that piece of the outcrop towards the downward river. He rolled himself leftwards into the cave, hopefully safe for now.

  Should I get the medic? But I will have to explain to them why I ended up like this.

  Whether it was from a lack of imagination or the pain relinquishing his ability to think on the fly, Joaquim had no convincing stories to tell the medics. And even worse, if the supersoldiers were to find out that he was sent to Ember City by Ameen, what would they do to him?

  Am I just going to have to do this test with all these injuries? Or maybe I have to learn how to regenerate here and now? Fuck, I am going to fail this test aren't I?

  And with that final thought, Joaquim's connection to the earthplexus summoned a speaker icon, lighting up the dark cave he was lying in a supine position in.

  Welcome to another musical chair test two platoon! Iker announced as Joaquim scanned his injuries.