When Ashton had warned them that Harper’s next lesson would be far more practical than the last, this was not what Summer had expected. When they arrived at the training grounds, they looked completely different than they had the day before. The open practice field had been filled with large obstacles, and Harper was waiting for them on the outer edge.

  "Good, you have all arrived. My explanation will be brief," Harper told them, "Ashton is your leader. You must obey his commands. In this training, I am the enemy. You must prevent me from calling in backup. Stall me in whatever way you can. Once my backup arrives, you will have no choice but to fight. Understood?"

  "Does your backup know this is just a training simulation?" Kai demanded, "As a non-combatant team, none of us are really suited for fighting."

  "He does, but that doesn't mean he will go easy on you. He was once one of the villains working for SI, so he knows well how to make things seem very real even when they aren't."

  Summer glanced at Ashton before she could catch herself, but she wasn't the only one. Ashton seemed oddly calm about the situation. Had he been told in advance? She sure hoped so. That would make things easier. "How long do we have to stall you to win?" Summer asked.

  Harper considered for a few moments. "Let's say Ashton called for reinforcements before engaging in battle," she proposed, "In an emergency situation, the longest it should take for reinforcements to arrive should be half an hour as long as you stay within your boundaries. If you can last that long, whether it is through stalling me or my backup, I will consider this training a complete success."

  Half an hour. That would be thirty whole minutes. One or two was already a stretch. The only possible way Summer could even think of to stop Harper from making a call was to steal her phone.

  As soon as she realized the difficulty of the task, the training began. There was no time to waste, and Ashton immediately gave them orders.

  "Summer, blind her!" He called out, "Kai, speed. Get the phone as far away as possible. Kayla, give Summer a power and help her figure it out."

  It was amazing to watch how quickly Ashton's orders came to fruition. Summer knew she would follow him, but she had secretly doubted the others would listen. Especially Kayla. Once Kai had gotten the phone to a safe distance, Ashton ordered Levi to become a giant and block Harper's movements. It was a mass of chaos and Summer struggled to keep Harper blinded when she couldn't see her or what was going on.

  Still, everything was going so well. Perfect even. Too perfect. As if responding to Summer's thoughts, Harper activated her shield. It seemed different from the day before. The darkness was pushed back outside her aura, letting light in enough for her to see. Maybe it had been a bit careless to try to create a darkness blindfold. Things only got worse from there.

  Harper was able to shove past the giant Levi, and easily spotted the speedy Kai, despite his now small stature. That was when Kayla made it over to Summer. That's right! She had some other power now. All she had to do was figure out what it was. If only it was some kind of convenient summoning spell that would bring the phone right into her hands.

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  “What the-!” Kai shouted as Summer saw a small object shooting towards her at high speed. Instinctively she reached out her hand and caught it. Her hand stung, but she had a cellphone in her grasp. Was this a flip phone? With buttons? Maybe Harper had used some cheap phone in case it got destroyed in the training.

  That aside, she couldn’t believe it actually worked. “I can summon things to me!” she told Kayla excitedly, “Is that because I knew about this test before you gave me a power?”

  “Watch out!” Ashton warned, “She’s coming!”

  Summer was a bit too late to react. It hadn’t occurred to her that Harper would realize so quickly and charge straight at her. She was knocked to the ground and the phone skidded across the ground in front of Kayla. Kayla panicked and scooped it up, chucking it towards Ashton. Summer quickly took the opportunity to blind Harper again, but the woman was relentless. Was this what it was like to be a professional?

  That was how the seemingly endless game of tag began. Summer could grab the phone but she couldn’t do much with it once she had it. Harper was strong and fast, and even when the twins tried other variations of their power, they couldn’t hold her back. Kayla couldn’t do much now that she had given Summer her temporary power and ended up passing the phone from Summer to Ashton.

  As for Ashton, even he couldn’t deal with Harper alone. He seemed hesitant to take any drastic measures, and so the endless game continued. It was hard to tell how much time had passed. It could have been a few minutes, or they could have almost won when Harper got a hold of the phone. Summer immediately tried to use her new power to summon it, but Harper managed to block it with her shield aura.

  Summer quickly snatched the phone again, but it was too late. That call had gone through. For an instant she swore she saw the caller ID listed as ‘Dad’ before she snapped the phone shut. Was this Harper’s personal phone after all? Summer was glad they hadn’t broken it. Now what did they need to do?

  “Run for cover!” Ashton ordered, “We can’t fight here!”

  As soon as he finished speaking, Ashton made a break for the obstacle course. While it wasn’t the best cover, none of them had any idea what they were dealing with. Summer quickly followed. Were they going to fight now? How serious was this training? What if someone got hurt? Summer knew she would be hopelessly helpless. Her little summoning trick was likely useless now. She should have tried to think of something better.

  As soon as Kayla, who lagged behind the rest, made it into the course and ducked behind a barrel, their new opponent arrived. To Summer’s surprise and horror she recognized exactly who it was. During her time at SI she had been warned about one bizarre villain called the Purple Tortoise. He would appear during battles between other heroes and villains and steal the spotlight.

  What did he do with this spotlight? Whatever he wanted. Unlike the other villains, this one was genuinely insane. While he was famous for causing more mischief than actual danger, he was also the only villain to acquire his artifact from the Old Town. Now that Summer knew all that was a ploy, she knew he was powerful on his own.

  It was hard to imagine such a strangely dressed man was actually a threat. He wore a purple scrap of cloth around his eyes with slits cut into it. On his back was a cheap costume turtle shell that had been dyed to match his makeshift mask. It was a far cry from the more professional outfits the other villains wore. Despite this, he was an unstoppable force. At least, that was how it was recorded. Summer had never actually encountered him until now.

  “What’s this? Hide and seek? I’m game!” the Purple Tortoise announced, jumping down from the wall he had scaled to enter the training zone.

  Their real training had just begun.