“44 seconds,” Moff said with the same level of enthusiasm he’d displayed for the first two students. “2.272. Get—”

“2.2727,” Vector interrupted. “Round it up.”

Moff sighed, tapping at the laptop. “2.273.”

Camie went next; her pace was much slower, closer to Verse’s. She also took her test cautiously, although she missed the third moving target. 69 seconds. Luca whispered something to Ace with a giggle.

“Not your highest score, Miss Luçin,” Spade called from the bleachers, smug smile still in place.

“You didn’t even run!” Camie scoffed back. “It’s an inconsequential test, nonetheless. I’m going to be a general.”

His smile widened. “Ah, yes. Forgive me for forgetting your chronic third-child-syndrome—heir, politician, general. Don’t we love formulas?” Spade mocked, clearly pleased with the opportunity to remind everyone of his own inheritance. Which was ironic, Verse thought, since they were pretty certain Spade himself had a few older siblings.

Camie suddenly turned the gun to Spade and fired at his arm.

“Ow!” Spade screamed, clutching the arm. The plastic bullet bounced to the ground. “Bloody hell, Camie!”

Professor Moff grabbed the gun from Camie’s hands. “Camie. Don’t shoot your classmates. Vector, restore my faith in this academy.”

Camie stormed to the water fountain. Ace huffed a brief laugh. “You kinda earned that, dude,” he said to Spade.

It was Vector’s turn to show off. She’d probably get double Verse’s score; it was an expected routine. Vector shot down the straight as an unidentifiable blur, hitting each target as they approached with conservative distance. She accelerated into the turn—a Vector staple, no matter how many times Moff advised against it—along the inner wall, firing thrice. Out of the turn, into the second straight. The return trip was even faster. Fifteen total shots. Fifteen targets lit. Vector made a small loop as she crossed the line to stop herself. 33 seconds; high score of 3.030.

“Used to make sub-thirty,” Vector sighed.

Luca looked up from her phone as her name was called, somehow having missed Vector’s entire run. She stumbled onto the track, missed three targets for an even 1.200, and stumbled off. She had already returned to her phone when she reached the water fountain, taking selfies. Luca had her own priorities. Mali made the final single-person run. He managed to shoot every target completely out-of-order and somehow hit the twelve stationary targets from the curve, all without seeming to aim that intently. Mali secured second-place. He threw the gun on the ground and walked away. 1.56 Standard Yukis.

Moff worked silently at the laptop. Then he moved to the cart of rifles, carefully loading each one. The class regrouped at the bleachers. Quiet conversing evolved into louder white noise; Verse waited patiently in the center. Yuki, Ace, and Vector were all busy, and Verse wasn’t about to strike up conversation with anyone else.

“Quiet,” Moff suddenly shouted. The demand was met instantly. Then he sighed, “We’re not done. Yuki, Verse, Spade, and Ace. You’re up first.”

Verse reluctantly returned to the floor with a pang of dread. Ace was better than Yuki and Verse combined. Spade probably intended to hurt Verse. Yuki was too kind to stop either of them.

Moff handed the blue rifle back to Yuki. “I wanted blue,” Spade quietly muttered.

“Well, you showed up an hour late,” Moff snapped.

Yuki held out the blue rifle. “We can swap—”

“No,” Moff interjected. “He lost his blue-gun privileges. Ace and Spade get red.”

Verse hesitantly took the second blue rifle from the cart and looked to Yuki; neither of them had discussed strategy. Same plan as usual, Verse supposed. The four testers lined up at the start of the track.

“Reminders, for those who didn’t read the paper—” Moff shot a glance at Spade and Ace, “—skipped targets are ten seconds. Only one pair can claim each target. Partners share a time; it ends when both cross finish. It’s under one thousand now, not one hundred. Take your time. But also, don’t.”

He tapped at the laptop. The screen switched to show two timers, side-by-side. There was a moment of suspended anticipation. Then the beep sounded, and the timers started. Ace shot off from the cluster, speeding down the straight past the first targets. Yuki nodded to Verse and chased after him.

Spade immediately attacked Verse. He shoved them against the wall with his gun and started on the track, aiming at the first target. With a strike of frustration, Verse launched off the wall and grabbed Spade from behind. Spade’s shot missed the target. Half across the track, Ace sniped the final target; it lit red. Yuki closed in on him around the turn. Ace hurriedly shot the second-last target.

Spade broke away from Verse and tried at the first target again. This shot hit. Verse and Yuki were down three. Verse abandoned Spade for the time being. They carefully fired twice, securing two blue targets. Three left on the first straight. Spade claimed two, and Verse the final target. Seven left total.

Immediately it became a rush for the unclaimed moving targets. Spade pushed past Verse in a break for the turn. He aimed at the middle-most target. It suddenly lit blue; Yuki shot it from the other end of the turn. “Ha!” she cheered. Then Ace hit her from the side, shot the second moving target, and rushed the second straight. Spade shot the last moving target and finished out the turn, Verse in pursuit. They each took aim at the first of the final set.

Verse missed. It went red. Eight out of fifteen; Spade and Ace had a majority. They couldn’t lose many more. Ahead, Yuki was wrestling for Ace’s gun. Verse again split from Spade and carefully lined up the furthest target. Blue. Two left.

Ace rushed the finish. Yuki let him go. She turned back and took a shot. One more blue target. One more unclaimed. They could still clutch seven, and it had not yet passed three minutes. Verse lined up the last shot as Yuki continued on.

But then Spade half-tackled them from behind. They tumbled off-balance and hit their knees on the hardwood floor, skidding across the track until they slammed into the wall.

Yuki broke to a halt. She turned back, rushing to their side. Spade sped by and shot the last target. Verse’s head spun with disorientation, their whole body pulsing with pain. Yuki extended a hand; Verse awkwardly pulled themself up, retrieving a discarded blue gun from the ground. Still holding on to Yuki, they crossed the line together.

“What was that, you—you tar door?” Yuki shouted indignantly. “That’s totally illegal!”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Spade mocked, “but the Legion doesn’t recognise law on the battlefield. I thought you, the little Legion daughter you are, would understand that.”

Yuki seemed just about ready to actually hurt Spade when Moff stepped between them. “Quiet down. Test is over. Get out of the way,” he snapped. Then he turned to Verse. Softer, he said, “Are you okay?”

They were still reeling from the impact. Each heavy breath brought a surge of pain. But Verse nodded nonetheless. Moff stared them down for a moment as though assessing their health. “Break,” he said to the class. “We’ll finish in a minute.”

Their times were displayed on the screen; 181 seconds for Yuki and Verse, and 167 seconds for Ace and Spade. Nine missed targets put them at 271; a final score of 3.69, compared to the mens’ 4.41. It could have been worse.

Ace was standing aside, seeming rather uncomfortable. “Sorry,” he said quickly before returning to the bleachers. Verse hesitantly followed him.

Yuki chased Spade to the water fountain, apparently not finished with her tirade. “And, anyway, it’s just dangerous! That’s how Vector hurt her ankle, you know!”

“People tend to get hurt in war. No one said it was fair,” Spade shot coolly. His breathing was much heavier than before.

“Fehr,” Luca mimicked, giggling.

Ace found a seat beside her. “I have to live with that stupid Choran accent, you know.”

“Yeah,” Luca grinned, “really clashes with Kaminari.”

“I don’t have a Kaminari accent,” Ace said defensively.

“Just a slight one.”

Verse shuffled into the bleachers, wincing as they sat down.

“Keh-min-ah-ri,” Luca quietly finished.

The second half of the class was called to test next. Yuki reunited on the bleachers; Spade had mysteriously disappeared.

“I want the blue one,” Camie whined as Moff handed her a red gun.

“You lost your blue-gun privileges when you shot Spade. Take the red.”

The second partner test was much less eventful. Between Vector and Mali, the teams were rather evenly matched; it came down to a sniper duel between them while Camie and Luca made a somewhat pathetic wrestling match. Mali scored one more target than Vector—again, seemingly without effort in his aim. Verse watched with rapidly-decaying interest; as far as they were concerned, the test was over, and the remainder of the day was time to relax. 

With the final test completed, the class was dismissed while Moff pulled Ace aside for some conversation that probably pertained to Spade. It was not even noon. There was a silver lining to the Aptitude Test after all.