The Aberrations of S.I.D.E.

No. 23: Flying's Overrated

...............

Virgil was standing on the edge of a wide canyon, the rest of the class either next to him or on the other side. Rock towers of different heights filled the canyon, and the bottom was too far down to see... but if you looked down, you could see flashes of teeth, claws, and glowing animal eyes.

Ooooooh boy.

"Welcome, all, to... The Beast's Canyon!"

Remy appeared in front of them, hovering in midair and grinning. "The rules of this challenge are simple. Your goal is to go after the various artifacts in the canyon, while avoiding being knocked off course by your competitors or the monsters that reside in the canyon itself."

"Which artifacts?" one of the students asked.

"I was hoping you'd ask that." Remy snapped his fingers.

Little hovering objects appeared on top of each of the rock towers, all differing in size, shape, and color. There was only one rainbow one, which was on the highest tower.

"Okay, so all of them are important, but getting that one means that you win," Remy said, pointing at it. "You get to use your powers to try and reach them, and---"

"So this is basically Warcross?" Virgil interrupted, the gears turning in his mind. "Just, they don't give you any set power-ups?"

Remy blinked. "I... I have no clue what you're talking about, but---"

"Yeah, I get it now. I'm gonna crush this." Virgil rubbed his hands together, then jumped.

"What---" Remy let out a groan. "Okay, fine! Simulation starting! Go crazy!"

As everyone else let out a cheer and jumped off of the sides of the canyon, Virgil quickly grabbed some shadows and wove a rope, lassoing around the nearest tower. He landed on one of the shorter ones and stuffed the artifact into his pocket.

"HA!" Virgil crowed, grinning. "I got the first one!"

Roman swooped past him on a pair of hand-drawn wings and grabbed two different artifacts, sticking his tongue out at him.

Virgil narrowed his eyes. "Oh, it is on."

He let the rope fall apart in his hands, reshaping it into a pair of wings. "Nox, you ready for this?"

"Uh, from my point of view, you're waving your hands around at nothing just like everyone else," Nox reminded him. "Can't help you out in the simulations."

"Kapeesh." Virgil shot into the air.

The second he started flying, a tentacle brushed at his heel. Virgil looked down, expecting Remus, but once he saw what had actually crawled up the rock tower, he instantly regretted it. It was some kind of bug... alien... octopus thing, with way too much teeth in its mouth.

"Remy, you are a sociopath," Virgil hissed, climbing higher into the air.

"What? What'd he do? Lemme see!" Nox said excitedly.

"Can't you, like, read my mind?"

"Oh, yeah, forgot I could do that---OH MY GOD THAT'S THE COOLEST THING EVER!" Nox shrieked. "Can we use that thing as one of our monsters?"

"No, we can't!" Virgil shouted, dodging another tentacle. "No the FUCK we can't!"

"Fine, jeez, such a spoilsport."

Virgil sped away from the octopus bug, ignoring the screeches coming from the rest of his classmates as more monsters started to climb up the towers. He grabbed a couple of other unclaimed artifacts, eyes set on the little rainbow glow in the distance.