Out in the center of the floor, the lights dim. The announcer’s voice comes on in my earphones. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he exclaims, “let’s—get—started!”
The arena around us fades out, and we are transported into an alternate world.
Cold sunlight makes me squint. I hold up a virtual hand to shield my eyes. Then, gradually, the glow fades, and I find myself suspended in midair, overlooking a vast expanse of blue ice and snow-covered glaciers, all shifting and cracking under their own weight. The snow glitters under an alien sun in a million points of light. The sky is a sheet of purple and pink and gold, and giant planets are suspended against it, their rings curving past the horizon. Enormous ice monuments tower in the landscape, erupting from the glacier at random intervals. The monuments look carved from the wind, hunched and holed and weathered, translucent, and stretch as far as the eye can see. Even the music playing around us sounds cold—synthetic bells, echoes, a background wind, and a deep, thudding, rhythmic beat.
But what really catches my attention are the towering cliffs of blue ice on either side of us, forming our path. Frozen inside this blue ice are enormous beasts. A polar bear as large as a skyscraper. A white wolf with a missing eye, its jaws frozen into a snarl. A snake-like dragon. A saber-toothed tiger. A woolly mammoth. I shiver in awe at the size of them. They look as if they could explode from the ice at any moment.
My stomach dips as I dare to look down. I’m outfitted in bright red Architect gear, my boots and thick hood trimmed with scarlet fur, and I’m standing on what looks like a hovering board strapped to my boots. Blue flames shoot from two cylinders attached to its base. To my left, Asher and Ren are both dressed in similar red snow gear, each of them also hovering in midair on boards. This is going to be a race.
To my right, our opponents appear.
The Demon Brigade is dressed in bright silver. Jena gives Asher a smirk, then a mock salute. Asher just crosses his arms and ignores her. Max Martin’s gaze sweeps coldly across us all. But Tremaine is the one with his full attention focused on me, his ice-blue eyes unreadable. He will be aiming for me, and I remember how I’d trained for him with the others, how Roshan had warned me of his adaptable nature. Nearby, Roshan’s jaw is set tight. The two refuse to look at each other.
“Welcome to the first official game of the championships!” we hear through our headphones. “Today, the Demon Brigade faces off against the Phoenix Riders in the White World, a landscape of speed, stealth, and quick thinking. There will be no time to hesitate!”
Our team Artifact appears over Asher’s head, a glittering red diamond. A silver diamond appears over Jena’s head. Dozens of colorful power-ups pop up around the level, suspended in the air and over the monuments and down on the ground. I look over them, searching for any within my range that might be worth a grab.
“Emi.” Asher’s voice comes on in my ears, fed into our personal team loop. “The monument closest to you. See the Lightning power-up? Get your hands on it.”
I catch sight of a white-blue marble suspended in the center of a gaping hole in the first ice structure. In my mind, I bring up the 3-D rotating landscape we’d been shown before the game, as clear and detailed as if it were still hovering before me. I allow myself a brief smile. “Got it,” I reply.
“And what an interesting choice for Captain Asher!” the analysts are now saying. “Flanked on either side by not just one, but two wild cards in the Phoenix Riders’ first match of the season. Emika Chen and Renoir Thomas must have impressed him during their training.”
“Good luck,” Ren says as the announcer reads out the familiar rules of gameplay. I know it’s directed at me, and as usual, I can’t quite tell if he’s saying it earnestly or maliciously. I give him a tight smile.
“Same to you,” I reply. Silently, I remind myself to look for the first chance to seize him.
We all tap our chests twice with our fists as the announcer finishes. The world stills. All I can hear is silence.
Then, the starting call blares.
“Game! Set! Fight!”
The world around us comes to life. Blasts of wind send snow flying high into the sky. The flaming exhausts on my hoverboard turn ninety degrees—I’m shot forward like a bullet from a gun. Instantly, my boarding instincts kick in—while the others around me wobble unsteadily, I crouch down in position, perfectly balanced. Asher glances at me in surprise. Snow rushes into my face, obscuring my vision. I blink it away.
Already, my board is speeding up. The white landscape rushes past me, and the ice monuments loom close. Beside me are Asher and Ren. Asher has started to pull ahead of us. I gingerly test my hoverboard, then realize that a button exists on the board beneath each of my heels. When I push my front heel down, I speed up. When I push my back heel down, I brake. I’ll have to be careful—if I brake too hard, I’ll stall in midair and go tumbling.
Beside me, Ren breaks away and heads off in Asher’s wake. I grit my teeth, then decide not to follow after him for now. Ren had heard Asher’s instructions to me. If I’m too obvious about trailing him instead of listening to our captain, he’ll know I’m up to something else.
The diamond shines brightly over Asher’s head. In the center of my vision hovers a transparent, circular map, showing ten dots for where each player happens to be. I nearly lose my balance as another blast of wind hits us. The first ice monument rushes toward me.
“Now, Emi!” Asher snaps in our comms.
I look at the Lightning power-up hovering in the middle of the giant hole in the structure. Then I shift my weight to my back leg. My hoverboard zooms upward. I hunch down until I’m as low on the board as I can go—the change speeds me up, and I rocket toward the marble.
I snatch it out of the air as I zip through the hole.
My memory of the 3-D landscape flashes in my mind. I see the way the structure looks on all sides, the crevices nearest it, and the way the terrain tilts. In a split second, I make a calculation of how this ice structure might topple if I mess with it right now. Do it, I tell myself. I whip out a stick of dynamite from my belt and slap it onto the side of the structure as I pass through. Then I rush downward.
“Get out of the way!” I say through our secure feed.
Behind me, an explosion shakes the level. Snow and shards of ice fly past me. I cringe and duck down low on my hoverboard. The structure I’d blown groans, the sound echoing across the landscape, and I glance over my shoulder to see it toppling forward toward all of us. The other Phoenix Riders scatter, thanks to my warning. I dart sharply sideways, too, so suddenly that I almost topple out of control. At the same time, I aim the Lightning power-up straight at where the Demons are clustered. I throw it.
Lightning strikes all of them except for their captain, Jena, lighting up the space in a flash of brilliant gold. For a single, precious second, the Demons all freeze.
Jena only gets a chance to glance up at the giant, falling shadow before shouting a warning to her teammates. “Move! Move!”
But the Lightning attack has thrown off the Demons. Their players scatter left and right as the structure collapses in an explosion of cracking ice. They barely make it—all except for Darren Kinney, their Shield. The falling pillar clips him hard on his shoulder, and he goes spinning wildly out of control, disappearing into the cloud of white. His life bar shrinks to 0 percent.
Darren Kinney | Team Demon Brigade
Life: -100% | STRIKE OUT!
EMIKA CHEN strikes out DARREN KINNEY!
He regenerates a good fifty yards behind me, with a new life bar.
“First strike!” the announcer screams in disbelief as the audience goes insane with cheering. “Goes to Emika Chen!”
Hammie whoops joyously over our comms, while Ren lets out a curse and Roshan sounds bewildered. Asher’s voice finally comes on. “Next time—warn me,” he shouts, even as his tone is one of admiration.
I’m trying to concentrate on the dizzying landscape that rushes past us. Jena’s Artifact hovers glittering and silver over her head. “You’re welcome!” I shout back. All around us come the screams and cheers from our invisible audience.
“I don’t believe it!” an analyst yells. “Another early move from a wild card in the first game of the season, and what a move it is! She couldn’t have picked a more accurate way of toppling that structure toward the Demons. We’ve been underestimating Emika Chen. This is going to be a fun one, folks!”
Suddenly, one of the Demons sidles up to me, then spins around on his board so that he’s facing me. It’s Tremaine. My smile vanishes as he lunges for me, slashing me hard in the chest with the blade embedded on his armguard. My vision blurs scarlet.
Emika Chen | Team Phoenix Riders
Life: -40%
My hoverboard wobbles as I dart backward, and I nearly lose my balance. Tremaine lunges again. He’s so fast that his limbs seem to blur. If he knocks me off my board, I’ll go tumbling into oblivion and regenerate behind everyone. I’ll be useless for a long time. My hands scramble for the hammer at my belt.
Out of nowhere, Roshan appears on my other side right as Tremaine throws another strike at me. Roshan narrows his eyes and brings his forearms up in a bracing cross. The move activates his armguards—an enormous, glowing blue shield bursts outward from them in a circle, arcing protectively in front of us both. Tremaine’s attack hits the shield instead, sending sparks flying everywhere.