Adeema fired the first shot.
Spiff jumped to his left to avoid it. He dodged the shot, but he didn't dodge the sharp rock he ended up jumping into. The rock's edge scraped against his arm, and Spiff felt it draw some blood. He let out an involuntary "Aaagh!" as three more shots whizzed over his head.
"G-g-gonna have to do better than that, suckers!" Spiff yelled, as he ducked behind the rock, two more shots hitting it as he jumped.
Safe behind the hard piece of scenery, Spiff took a moment to inspect his arm. To his brief surprise, he saw that it was perfectly pristine- no blood, no cut, not even a tear on his uniform. He remembered that, this being a simulation, his uniform was equipped with a shield that could fix up wounds. He thanked his lucky stars.
Though he was safe behind the rock, the same couldn't be said of his teammates. Neutralizer blasts were being fired at an almost continuous rate. Spiff couldn't see who was firing them and from where, but he could hear loud grunting and a lot of zapping. He peeked out from his hiding spot, blasting in random directions to cover himself. He didn't have time to see much, but it looked like Green Blizzard - Adeema, the wiry boy, the lizard kid, and the dog kid - had pushed Blue Lightning into a corner.
"Oh no!" Spiff narrated, "Spiff's teammates are getting creamed out there!"
As he dived back into cover, Spiff heard the announcer sound. "Blue Lightning has lost a member!"
"Oh come on!" he shouted. He jumped out of his hiding spot and fired, running across the room in search of more cover. The shot connected- it hit the short, wiry Green Blizzard member, and zapped him out of the game.
"Green Blizzard has lost a member!" exclaimed the announcer, as a laughing Spiff ducked behind another rock, on the opposite side of the room.
The defeated Blue Lightning member was Mort. Rolf was still blasting away at the Blizzards, and Fargle was huddled below him, but Mort was nowhere to be seen. Behind his rock, Spiff cackled, "Spaceman Spiff's irritating 'leader" has been defeated! It's all his game now!"
Up in the Judge's Tower, where he was zapped after losing, Mort was enraged. "I can't believe I didn't see that shot!" he screamed. He kicked at a chair and smacked himself on the head.
"We'll at least you're out of danger, right?" said Zyzyx, a little green girl from Yellow Rain. She'd been knocked out quite early, as had the rest of her team. Also zapped out were two of the four Red Twister members, Rob and Picarra.
"We weren't IN any danger, you dolt!" Mort snapped back at Zyzyx. "Awol, how long 'til this is over? I'm bored as hell over here!"
Awol was sitting glued to his spot. He focused 110% on the Test. Staring at the screen. Not even blinking. He didn't even realize Mort was talking to him.
Between Mort and Awol, a bright light flashed. When it cleared, Fargle was there, laying on the ground in a fetal position.
"Oh, damn, not you too!" Mort groaned. "Awol?! Come on! Time is friggin' money!"
Still transfixed on the game, Awol muttered, "Almost over."
Down below, Spiff was getting ready to pounce. Fargle had been knocked out of commission by Adeema, but that left her out in the open, and the others were preoccupied with Rolf.
Spiff counted. "Three. Two. One... Go!"
He dove over the rock and landed in his stomach, firing three shots. They missed. He rolled on his right side to dodge fire from the lizard kid. He tried to jump onto his feet, but slipped, and got a blast to the shoulder. He jumped again, stuck the landing this time, and fired.
The blast hit the dog kid in the leg. They stumbled, and almost dropped their gun. Rolf, who was laying on the ground behind them, swept their other foot, knocked them down, swiped their gun, and began brawling hand-to-hand.
The announcer's voice sounded again. "Red Twister has lost a member!" This had nothing to do with the battle, but the lizard kid and Adeema still stopped for a split second to listen.
"You're not very bright, are you?", Spiff said, and he fired. The blast hit the lizard straight in the face- a "kill" shot. He teleported away.
"Wha-?!" stammered the beefy girl. She'd come to her senses just in time to dodge Spiff's next shot, but this also made her fall over, on top of Rolf and the dog
Spiff couldn't help but cackle. This was just all too easy. Both opponents just where he wanted them, and Rolf right there backing him up? Why, it was almost unfair!
'I'll just even the stakes...' thought Spiff, and he closed his eyes. Then, he fired twice, in the direction of the pig-pile.
Grinning, Spiff opened his eyes. He saw...
Two members of Green Blizzard and a charred bit of ground next to them?
Up in the Training Tower, Rolf had just arrived. He was quite confused.
"Kan... Kan he DO zat?!"
Rolf looked over to the other disqualified trainees- literally everyone, except for Spiff, the two from Green Blizzaed, and one from Red Twister. "Kan he DO ZAT?!"
They had no answer.
Finally he turned to the judges. "KAN HE D-"
"Yes!" Awol interrupted. "Team kills are absolutely permitted. Now shut up!"
Back down in the Arena, it was the Adeema's turn to cackle. "Nice shot!" she exclaimed. She grabbed her discarded Neutralizer and aimed it right at Spiff. "But mine are nicer!"
"What kind of a taunt is that?!" Spiff retorted. Just as Adeema fired, he did too, and launched himself in the direction of some nearby cover.
His aim was true! His shot hit the lizard kid dead in the chest, teleporting him away.
"I mean, really!" Spiff continued. "'Your shots are nicer'? That is so lame!"
Just as he suspected, Adeema angrily peered around the corner and shot. She shot THREE times! But Spiff dodged them all, and ran to yet another hiding spot.
"Uh oh. I think you're mad!" taunted Spiff some more. He jumped out from cover and said, "What's the matter, Chunky Kong? Lose your gym card?"
The girl was too enraged to even attack. Instead she bellowed, "my name is Adeema, you little punk! And I'm gonna knock your ass to kingdom COME!" To Spiff's surprise, Adeema actually threw her gun away and charged at him!
'She's even easier than I thought!' thought Spiff.
Adeema was a fast runner, and she really was pretty scary, but Spiff knew better. He fired point-blank into her chest, and she was zapped out. Simple as that.
The announcer grinned as she said: "Blue Lightning has passed the dueling challenge!"
Behind the announcer, two tall teens were getting quite emotional. One was Mort, and he was laughing. The other was Adeema, freshly warped in, and she was fuming.
"He GOT you! Oh my god, he totally got you! Ha haaaa!" Mort guffawed.
Adeema smacked him on the shoulder. "Shut UP, you lunkhead! I still managed to get YOU out! And if that kid wasn't some kind of smarty we'd have gotten your whole team!"
"But ya didn't! We won! We beat you all fair and square! Haha!" Mort was so excited that he began thumping his fists on Fargle's shoulders. Fargle said nothing.
"Well, ah... Not exactly," said one of the judges. In front of her was a grinning Awol, looking quite sinister.
Confused, Mort looked back at his view screen, where Spiff was still inside the cave, currently doing a bunch of silly victory dances.
Suddenly, the cave broke apart. Pounds and pounds of lifelike rocks and stone crumbled to the ground, and seemingly disappeared. Within minutes, Spiff was no longer standing inside a deep and dark cave, but outside, in the middle of a rather barren playing court.
The announcer's voice crackled. "One final test for Blue Lightning!" Her voice was as chipper as always, but for some reason, it seemed a lot more... sinister.
The ground began to shake. Uh oh. Spiff had seen enough movies to know that wasn't a good sign.
The shaking became harder. Louder. Longer. As they got closer, Spiff realized that they were sounded in a rhythmic pattern- as if they were footsteps. And they were coming from the direction straight behind Spiff.
Spiff was afraid to look. He knew he wouldn't like what he'd see. But as the thumps grew louder, and louder, and more terrifying, he knew that he had to.
Spiff turned. Directly behind him was a towering behemoth of a monster. It was colored varying shades of putrid puke-green, with three blue eyes, massive powerful legs, a segmented tail, and the biggest, nastiest, toothiest, ugliest Spiff-sized jaw you'd ever see.
Spiff knew what it was. It was a Zorg- the most deadly creature in the universe!
