Yesu sat on a single bed, legs cradled in her arms.

A soldier had tossed her a change of clothes before she had been escorted to a large bathroom to take a bath.

It was a plain brown jumpsuit. Yesu had just sighed and put it on.

She hadn’t seen many Campers as she was led to the prison-like room she now sat in.

Yesu looked out the metal-barred window. It was already late in the night. The rain had finally stopped falling.

Across the large fields and endless identical buildings, a high fence loomed with soldiers on strategic watchtowers.

When Yesu had first been brought into the camp, she had noticed from afar that there was a side of the wall towards the back that served as a refuse dump. There were large dumpsters with trash bags piled around them.

It reminded her of the back of her school. The area instructors avoided.

Security would be thinner there. Yesu was sure of it.

It had become clear that the Facility had no plans of letting her go for the time being. Who knew how many more ’evaluations’ they had in store?

And where exactly was the help she had called for at the hospital?

Yesu had never depended on anyone in her life. Not because she didn’t want to, but because there was no one to depend on.

"Hey, mister," Yesu called out to the soldier guarding her room. Cell. That was the better word for it. The door was made of metal bars.

"What?" The soldier asked, eyes forward.

"I need the toilet."

"No."

Yesu scowled. "Rude."

She stalked back to the bed and dropped onto it. Her gaze returned to the window, to the fence beyond.

***

In an office not too far from Yesu’s cell, the Head Warden stood before the Camp commander.

"Your Campers were a complete disgrace." The Commander stated.

The Head Warden kept his eyes on the ground.

"The best of both years couldn’t even hold their own against a powerless test subject. What happens when they are released into the real world?"

The Commander’s voice was dangerously low. "This is Foundation camp, not kindergarten."

Then he raised his voice.

"Do you know what will happen if word gets to Central that we’re prepping babies?" He banged a fist on his desk.

"Sir..." "the Warden said quickly, voice shaking. "We still have the final year Campers. They’re the best we’ve prepped so far."

The Commander sighed. "Get out of my sight."

"Yes sir." The Warden rushed to the door, grabbing the handle like he was holding on for dear life.

"Wait." The Commander ordered.

The Warden let out a shaky breath, then turned. "Sir?"

The Commander leaned back in his chair.

"The most outstanding Camper will be rewarded. Let them know that."

***

The sound of metal bars screeching open woke Yesu.

She sat up abruptly. It was already daylight.

A soldier stood in the cell.

"On your feet." He said.

Yesu sprang up. "Another trial?"

The soldier said nothing, just made way for her to pass.

Yesu walked out of the cell where two other soldiers stood in wait.

They led her down the hall, past the Camp commander’s office and a whole lot of others.

They moved between countless buildings, across fields. Campers stared at them as they walked by.

Then finally, when it seemed like they were never going to stop, they entered a small, silent building.

Sports gear and a first aid kit sat in one corner beside a few benches. It looked like a storage unit.

There was a door at the end. A soldier swung it open.

Yesu stepped into a wide field, the largest she had seen in the Camp so far.

Beyond it stood the wall. The same wall she had spent half the night staring at.

The spectators from the previous trial stood watching from the tower.

The Commander, Head Warden, and some board members.

The grass was still wet from last night’s rain. Mud clung to Yesu’s shoes as she stepped forward.

Then she spotted Doctor Heckman with the troop. He wore the same quizzical expression as always.

The Campers were already waiting at the far end of the field.

Six of them.

Older. Sharper. Dangerous in a way the others hadn’t been.

The red-uniformed boy stood at the front with his arms folded, broad-shouldered and built like someone who trained more than he slept.

Beside him stood a yellow-uniformed girl with tightly braided hair and focused eyes that never seemed to settle in one place for long.

Next was a boy in blue with water slowly circling his wrists in thin floating streams.

The black-uniformed girl stood calmly beside them, hands behind her back. The wet grass around her boots bent unnaturally inward, pressed deeper into the earth by invisible weight.

Advanced Class.

Then there was the white uniform.

A pale-looking boy with tired eyes and dark hair falling over half his face. Rare Class.

He looked uncomfortable being there at all.

And finally, the second blue uniform.

A girl.

Hands tucked lazily into her pockets while faint sparks snapped across her sleeves every few seconds.

Unlike the others, she was smiling.

Not confidently. Excited.

Like this entire thing was entertainment.

Above the field, the Commander raised a hand.

"Begin."

The smiling girl moved first.

Lightning exploded beneath her feet with a violent crack.

She shot forward so fast the wet grass burst apart behind her.

The others moved instantly with her.

Not separately.

Together.

Water streamed from the blue-uniformed boy’s arms, spreading rapidly across the rain-soaked field.

Yesu lost footing immediately.

The yellow-uniformed girl raised one hand sharply.

Invisible force struck Yesu sideways.

Telekinesis.

The impact hurled her directly toward the lightning girl.

Electricity slammed into Yesu’s shoulder.

Pain tore through her body as she crashed into the mud.

The red-uniformed boy reached her first.

Muscles swelled visibly beneath his uniform before his punch drove into Yesu’s ribs hard enough to lift her partly off the ground.

Something cracked.

Before she could breathe properly, the black-uniformed girl stepped forward.

The air suddenly became heavier.

Yesu slammed violently into the ground as gravity multiplied around her.

Mud flattened outward beneath her body.

Then the pressure vanished completely.

And reversed.

Yesu shot several feet upward into the air.

A floodlight above suddenly snapped loose.

The white-uniformed boy flinched slightly as the metal structure crashed toward Yesu at the worst possible angle.

Probability distortion.

Not dramatic.

Just wrong.

Yesu twisted barely enough to avoid being crushed.

The attacks didn’t stop.

Water wrapped around her ankle.

Telekinetic force jerked her sideways.

Gravity kept stealing the ground beneath her feet while lightning blasts scorched through the air around her.

The smiling girl laughed every single time she attacked.

"You’re still moving?" she called brightly.

Yesu barely heard her.

Everything hurts.

But slowly...

Her body began adjusting.

She braced instinctively before gravity shifts.

Turned before the telekinetic impacts fully landed.

Moved before lightning fired.

The Campers noticed immediately.

"She’s adapting." the yellow-uniformed girl said uneasily.

The smiling girl grinned wider.

"Even better" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The black-uniformed girl thrust both hands upward.

The pull beneath Yesu vanished instantly.

Then reversed.

Yesu launched violently into the air. Much higher than before.

For one suspended second, she saw beyond the wall.

The dumpsters.

The open land outside.

Freedom.

The lightning girl realized it instantly.

"Oh no you don’t.."

Electricity burst upward toward Yesu.

But Yesu twisted instinctively midair, avoiding the blast by inches.

And used the momentum.

She swung herself sideways.

Straight over the fence.

The spectators on the watchtower froze as Yesu flew past them.

Then disappeared beyond the walls of the Foundation Camp.