Ding~!

  You have ten viewers!

  Gen squinted at the notification. Her arm still ached a little where the iguana had bit her previously. With the new change, maybe the iguanas would at least be more friendly.

  Most of the group was ignoring her now, idly discussing their complication polls while waiting for them to resolve, only Morna remained focused on her.

  Seeing her distracted, Morna questioned, "Did one of your polls complete?"

  Gen nodded absently, "No idea what the result does though."

  Morna nodded enthusiastically, "LEO is really good at that! Some of my polls turned out totally differently than I expected! I think he likes to keep both us and the audience on our toes!"

  Gen was already feeling a bit exhausted by her fangirling and asked directly, "So I'm new here, could you give me some societal context or something, are you in a cult? Do folks worship LEO, work for him, or what?"

  Morna didn't seem offended and only giggled and produced a business card that said LEO's Ladies with some contact information below, Gen took it for closer examination. It was decorated with hearts and stars as well as a chibi version of LEO complete with hat and cane. Flipping it to the other side, it was the exact same except said LEO's Laddies instead.

  Looking at Morna questioningly, Morna explained, "It's not really a cult or religion just more a club where we discuss LEO and all the cool things he does." She paused before inching closer to Gen, "Speaking of which, you still haven't told me anything about meeting him!"

  Gen sighed, "Answer some more of my questions and I'll relay the experience."

  Morna squealed in agreement and Gen quickly tried thinking of what she needed to know, she'd been taking everything in pace so far, but there was very little about the situation she understood.

  "Do people not like generated?"

  Morna's enthusiasm dampered and she looked awkward, "It's not that exactly… there are certainly some who don't respect them to the same degree as descendants." She pointed at herself and shook her head, "Not me, of course. I respect all of LEO's work!"

  Gen wasn't convinced having been just interrogated a moment before.

  "Why don't they respect them?"

  Morna gestured around, "It's the nature of the scenarios. LEO creates all sorts of things and creatures, presumably a gnome in this case, usually we have to kill or defeat them to end the scenario, and then move on, and everything in the scenario disappears. As a result, they're treated like NPCs or video game characters more than real creatures, and as generated are made in the same way and because of… the way they usually are, people often don't see them as real people."

  To confirm Gen asked, "After the universe was destroyed, all humans were dead, right? So everyone alive now is a descendant of a generated."

  Morna shrugged, "It doesn't make sense, sure, but they prefer not to think about it too much, basically the powerful families can trace their genealogy back to the founding generated and the further back you can trace your ancestry the more of a real human they consider you to be."

  Gen sighed, humans were really excellent at inventing new types of racism.

  Pivoting, she pointed at the number 2 above Morna's head, "What is a level?"

  Morna glanced up at it and smiled, "Levels represent how much starting power you bring into a scenario. I'm level two, so that means any scenario I enter, my viewers can select two of my finalized rewards to bring with me."

  "Finalized reward?"

  Morna pointed at an iguana that was sleeping on the ground nearby, "I assume the cute iguanas are yours? You're level 0, so you don't have any finalized abilities to bring from a previous scenario, so you must have acquired it during this scenario. Once the scenario ends, you lose all the rewards you gained except for one which the viewers get to finalize. Then when you enter a new scenario, viewers get to select a number of rewards from amongst your finalized rewards equal to your level that you get to enter the scenario with."

  Gen scratched her new head of hair as she processed the info dump. The phrase roguelike with meta progression came to mind.

  ding~!

  LEO's voice echoed in her head.

  What's this a tie? Never fear! I LEO will step in and decide your fate! Let's see here what tantalizing option I get to pick today? It's… eye color… hmm not very dramatic, but alas let's see what we've got! A fancy word for blue, a fancy word for white, and a fancy word for green… well you've got a lot of blue going on already and your light blue skin is halfway to white already so let's go with verdant for some contrast!

  Gen thought she was prepared for whatever pain might hit her after this body modification, but she hadn't anticipated her eyes shooting out of her head and smacking into Morna's face before exploding.

  She was spared from the sight as she was momentarily blind. She felt a sick stretching sensation, as new eyes that were presumably verdant green formed within her skull.

  She couldn't shake the feeling that things looked slightly different with her new set of eyes, but it was too subtle to pinpoint anything specific.

  Morna was momentarily stunned before recovering and wiping eyeball guts off her face with a small cloth from a bag at her hip and her smile returning, "You got your eyes! They're so pretty!"

  Gen frowned, "Was it really necessary for my old eyes to fly out of my head?"

  Morna shook her head, "Of course not, it's more entertaining this way though, right? We can't forget that being entertaining is essential to maintaining reality's existence."

  Gen wasn't convinced, she had the distinct feeling that LEO could find a less disgusting way to entertain the masses.

  She gestured at the cloth that Morna used to clean herself, "Do you have more of those? I'm a bit…" she gestured to her own bloody appearance with chunks of Roger and iguanas still sticking to her clothes and hair.

  Morna smiled and offered her the cloth, "Just the one, but it's a gore cloth so it won't get dirty from use. I need it back after though."

  Gen reached for it, but Morna pulled it back smiling brighter, "First tell me about LEO!"

  Gen sighed and started relaying her encounter, she considered embellishing as there really hadn't been much to it, but Morna somehow was impressed with the truth and she nodded her head excitedly with each new statement.

  "LEO really seemed to have liked you! From what I've heard he usually doesn't compliment anyone!"

  Gen shrugged as she cleaned herself quickly, the gore cloth lived up to its name somehow making the blood and meat bits disappear with just a light brush like something in an infomercial.

  "So what you were saying about finalized rewards, is this cloth one of yours?"

  Morna laughed, "No it's just normal equipment, separately from what the viewers select we can bring in things we purchase in the overworld. Each piece of equipment has a plot score determined by LEO and the sum of your equipment's plot value that you bring in can't exceed your level." Taking back the gore cloth she said, "The cloth, for example, is .1 plot."

  Gen was going to ask more, but was again interrupted by a poll completing.

  ding~!

  By everyone's reactions around her, it seemed like their complication polls had completed at the same time. She heard some groans and some cheers and a fresh bout of crying from Billy.

  Three tunnels that had been sealed with heavy metal doors opened on one side of the room. They looked like swirling energy portals and the ground in front of each one glowed slightly.

  LEO's voice shouted from above, "Places people! It's showtime in ten minutes!"

  A holographic projection counting down from ten appeared near the tunnels.

  People began speaking quickly and several started moving to various portals to stand on the glowing sections of floor.

  Morna leaned close and whispered, "This is the decision phase, I usually just go with the flow, but some people get really into it."

  To answer her words, Flora, the woman who said she could see lies, stepped onto a glowing section and faced the crowd, "This is my tunnel, my complication is color, anyone who wants to join will need to tell me their complication as well as their abilities."

  A level 2 woman behind her named Saresh, who had already been on the glowing section, grunted and said, "I was already here, you want to set up shop and make us dance for you, do it at a different tunnel, I'm not interested."

  Flora turned to face Saresh, her expression emotionless as she said, "Looks to me like you're dancing to my tune already."

  Saresh glared, but before she could speak her legs started twitching and she broke into a tap dance as she moved off the glowing section and back to the center of the room.

  As she danced along, her expression shifted between anger and fear as she tried to use her arms to force her legs to stop dancing without success. Just as quickly as it started, the dancing stopped and the crowd watched her to see what she would do next.

  Saresh scowled at Flora before cursing and walking to another tunnel, shoving Jacob who was already there out of the way.

  Morna whistled, "Metaphysical abilities like that are hard to handle, there's no projectile or anything so you can't dodge it."

  Gen nodded feeling concerned, "Is there anything you can do to stop it?"

  Morna shrugged, "Maybe, there's always unique limitations. Maybe requirements to use it, range, duration, repeated use, some you can force your way free from with willpower. There's really no predicting it and most people keep their ability details to themselves." She gestured at the tunnels, "As a whole, the scenarios are cooperative, you'll never be pitted in a death match with other actors, but the viewers like drama so there's plenty of incentive for betrayal and infighting so it pays to keep your cards in hand."

  A line had formed in front of Flora where several people were interviewing for a spot. The other two tunnels were also busy with people actively discussing. Some people were showing off abilities such as a lady who could summon flames, but most the discussion was around people's complications.

  She asked Morna, "So what complication did you get and how do they affect things?"

  Morna giggled, "My viewers are so funny I got instant death!"

  Gen couldn't help but grimace at the revelation.

  Morna saw the look and shook her head, "Just because it sounds bad doesn't mean it is! Well, usually it is, but you never know when you might get hit with a twist!"

  Gen didn't reply as she started to wonder if avoiding Morna's tunnel was in her best interests.

  Morna helpfully continued, "As for what complications do, it's complicated and depends on the scenario and situation. In this case, the scenario is called The Gnome's Minefield, so it's a safe bet that mines or explosives will be heavily featured and at least one gnome will show up. The complications will either affect the enemies, the environment, or the actors directly. With something like instant death, it might make it so that any injury from a landmine would instantly kill you even if it's a small wound. It could also be more benign, like say that trigger delay for mines is instantaneous, extra sensitive, or the mines instantly affect the surrounding area instead of exploding like normal."

  Gen nodded, "My complication is gravity, so that could make us weightless or make the mines weightless?"

  Morna beamed, "Oh that sounds fun! You should definitely come to my tunnel! Either of those could be it or the direction of gravity could be constant flux or the mines could have their own gravity and pull you toward them, the possibilities are endless!"

  Gen mulled over that, the other actors were loudly and quietly discussing options and trying to figure out whose complications they wanted in which tunnel, but based on what Morna said it might ultimately be pointless if a complication that sounded benign ended up being terrifying.

  Against her better judgement, she decided to stick it out with Morna and her instant death complication. Morna might be a cultist, but she was genuinely helpful in answering questions and Gen didn't want to ditch her.

  Five minutes were left now and Flora's group was settled it seemed. She ended up only accepting one other person to join her, another level 3 woman named Amari who was the one showing off a firebending ability earlier.

  Gen had assumed that with nine people and three tunnels there would be three people in each, but Flora had upset the balance.

  The far right tunnel had Billy sitting by himself with a tear streaked face. The middle tunnel had three people, including Jacob, Saresh, and Henry.

  Only the bald man holding one of her iguanas was left as he seemed to be patiently waiting for everyone else to decide. He gave another thumbs up at her when he saw her looking and she once again returned it.

  She glanced at Morna, "I'm assuming Billy got torture, but that's our only real choice unless we want to cram five people into a tunnel or start fighting people like Flora."

  Morna lit up, "Torture and instant death seem like a good pairing! One kills you quick and the other kills you slow, maybe they'll cancel out?"

  Gen looked at her questioningly, "Can that happen?"

  Morna shrugged, "I've never seen it, but there's always a first!"

  With that, they headed toward the right-most tunnel and Billy's face filled with hope at their approach.

  Gen was surprised to see that the four iguanas that weren't being held all got up from their naps and joined her in the glowing area, she hadn't gotten to test the new augment, but it was already showing some effect.

  Jacob looked hesitant as they drew even with him and said, "You guys know that I have torture right?"

  She nodded in confirmation and he relaxed before tensing again and asking "You're not going to force me away from the zone are you?"

  Gen glanced at Morna, "What happens if you're not in a zone when the time is up?"

  Morna smiled, "Instant death."

  Billy gulped.

  Gen looked back at him, "We're not planning to do that."

  She wasn't above killing someone if her life depended on it, but the whole of reality 2.0 thing was endless gambling so she wasn't going to go full murder hobo just to improve her odds. It would have to be for something more worth her while.

  Hesitant Billy asked, "So what are your complications?"

  "Gravity."

  "Instant Death."

  "Gazebos."

  They all spoke at once and Billy's expression rapidly changed as his eyes bulged at Morna's complication.

  He muttered, "And I thought my viewers hated me…"

  Gen focused on the bald man that had appeared behind her at some point and apparently had a complication of gazebos. He was level 2 and his name was Chuck.

  She asked him, "Why join us instead of the middle tunnel?"

  He held up the iguana, "This little guy wanted to go with the rest of his team."

  Gen wasn't finished, "And why join him?"

  Chuck smiled, "I have an empathy ability, not so direct as seeing lies, but I can tell you're a good lot. The other choices were a group that wouldn't take me and a group that would leave me to rot at the drop of a hat."

  Chuck pointed at one of the iguanas that was particularly bright green, "Except that one, it's evil."

  The iguana that was singled out hissed at him in indignation, but he simply gave it a thumbs up.

  They had only sixty seconds left and their group seemed fine to just wait things out, Gen felt like they should be planning some sort of strategy, but presumably the rest of the group had some idea of what they were doing…

  A glance around showed Morna smiling happily, Chuck petting his iguana with a relaxed expression, and Billy again on the verge of tears.

  We're fucked.

  As the time elapsed, the portal pulsed and drew them in. There was a feeling of full-body static and then they were in what looked like a cavern with large crevices and ravines breaking the terrain up into isolated sections. They were standing in a gazebo and she could see multiple gazebos in the surrounding area.

  LEO's voice echoed out from above, "Welcome! Nice and simple for you all. Get to the other side of the cavern! You all have a collar-" Gen reached up and confirmed she was indeed wearing a metal choker.

  LEO continued, "It has a ten minute timer built in and once it's up POP instant death! Don't worry, though the timer only advances when you're outside a gazebo. Every minute that passes, however, the collar will trigger a torturous effect that escalates from the previous! Oh and gravity will turn on and off every thirty seconds! Good luck!"

  She glanced around at the group, she noted the five iguanas each had their own explosive collars, Chuck was doing stretches, Morna was running a finger along the gazebo's railing inspecting the paint, and Billy was clutching his collar while hyperventilating.

  Chuck spoke first, glancing at Gen, "I can get the discussion started, usually once we know the scenario people will volunteer information about their abilities that seem relevant."

  He pointed at himself, "Starting with me, I have an empathy ability that I mentioned before that lets me feel the vibes from people. I can also teleport behind anyone who has given me a thumbs up as long as I can see them. After doing so, I need another thumbs up to do it again."

  Gen wrinkled her brow, realizing how he had appeared behind her earlier, Morna immediately gave Chuck a thumbs up. Gen paused only a second before doing the same. Billy looked unsure, but also gave a hesitant thumbs up.

  Chuck chuckled, and looked at them expectantly.

  Morna raised her hand, "Me next!"

  Seeing she was waiting for confirmation, Chuck shrugged and said, "Sure go."

  Morna wore a smug expression, "I can make meow sounds emerge from nearby and I have an augment for it to make the meows deal sonic damage! I have a physical augment that gives me cat-like movements!"

  To demonstrate, small meow noises started echoing from the corners of the gazebo, startling the iguanas. It wasn't painful, so Gen supposed the damaging augment was optional.

  They were interrupted as a feeling of weightlessness enveloped them as gravity turned off. The iguanas quickly linked arms and anchored each other to the gazebo wall.

  Billy clung onto a wall as well while Morna was spinning wildly and laughing, Chuck seemed a bit more measured as he bounced up to the ceiling before pushing back down and practicing movement.

  Gen copied him trying to get a feel of things, there was no timer for the gravity so she mistimed it slightly and fell a couple feet as it ended, but managed to stick the landing.

  Morna, despite her cat-like abilities, landed on her head and groaned as she had been in midspin.

  Chuck spoke where he was hanging from the rafters, "So with the gaps in the terrain we'll have to time our movements when there's no gravity to pass them."

  Morna was rubbing her head and nodded in agreement, and Gen also signaled she was on board.

  Billy whimpered that he was afraid of heights, but they ignored him.

  Continuing the previous discussion, Gen glanced at Billy, but he didn't seem eager to volunteer, so Gen went next, "I can summon more iguanas. They have an augment to help them with teamwork, but I'm not exactly sure to what level. And umm… I can take photos with my mind."

  Stolen story; please report.

  There wasn't much of a reaction and they all looked at Billy. He looked nervous as he said, "I can shoot my emotions in the form of bolts from my finger, depending on what I'm feeling, they do different things."

  Morna gasped, "That's so cool, what does each emotion do?"

  Billy looked downcast, "Fear makes whatever I shoot bigger, stronger, and more vicious. I don't know about the rest because I'm always afraid."

  Morna squealed, "Shoot me!"

  Billy shook his head and Chuck said, "Morna, he said it makes you vicious, if you go feral on us then it's going to make things more difficult."

  Morna pouted, "He said more vicious though! Right now I'm not vicious at all, how bad could it be?"

  Billy gulped, "In my first scenario I buffed my teammate three times and he lost his mind and killed sixteen people before everyone else put him down."

  Morna chuckled and gave him a pat on the back, "Don't worry it happens!"

  Gen frowned at her sensibilities, but Morna at least wasn't begging to get buffed for the moment, but Gen suspected the cultist might bring it up again.

  Cataloguing their abilities, most didn't actually seem useful for this trial. Chuck could teleport between the gazebos as long as someone else went first, but that only helped him and not the group. Morna's movement augment wasn't clear on how it worked, but maybe she could run faster.

  Gen peered out from the gazebo inspecting the area. The cavern was roughly tunnel shaped, but was quite wide, and there were many gazebos spotted around the area, giving them choices on which route to go. She hadn't known LEO for long, but she doubted things would be as simple as running the length of the tunnel within the time limit.

  Gen made a decision and said, "I'm going to fly up to the ceiling first and take a video of the area, then we can plan out which route will be easiest."

  There were no disagreements, and when the gravity shut off she stepped out of the gazebo and pushed off, shooting toward the ceiling. As she flew she could feel her collar pulse each second as it counted down and she used that to monitor how much time she had left of no gravity.

  As the ceiling rushed toward her, she realized she hadn't fully thought this through and braced herself, smacking into it roughly. Hissing in pain as she ricocheted off and drifted in open air.

  Cursing, she twisted her neck taking a panoramic shot of the area. In addition to ravines, there was a wall with two short towers near the midpoint.

  She didn't have time to consider it though, as she only had twenty seconds left to get back to the ground, and stuck drifting in midair, she had nothing to push off of.

  Before she could panic a voice whispered in her ear, "Need some help?"

  Suppressing a yelp of surprise, she twisted around to see Chuck had teleported behind her. He laughed and pushed off against her with his legs rocketing her back toward the gazebo. He blinked out of existence a second later, presumably returning behind either Morna or Billy.

  She tried to orient herself midair, but it was difficult and she smacked into the ground, rebounding back into the air and past the gazebo.

  A helpful chain of iguanas holding hands stretched out from the gazebo and grabbed onto her like a lifeline, their small legs were too weak, however, and she felt them starting to separate as her momentum pulled them away from the gazebo.

  She heard Morna shout something and a second later the iguana holding her beefed up considerably, going from 5 ft to 8 ft long and its arms becoming thicker with corded muscles. Like a ripple, black bolts flew from the gazebo, beefing up the five iguanas one by one.

  Their newfound strength allowed them to hold her tight and haul her back toward the ground just in time for gravity to return and she fell the last two feet, knocking the wind out of her as she landed on her stomach.

  Recovering quickly, she scrambled back into the gazebo to pause her timer. She couldn't see her own time remaining as the clock was around her throat, but she could see Chuck had only used two seconds.

  Gasping for air she asked, "What's my time?"

  Chuck responded, "9:27 so you used 33 seconds."

  Gen nodded, not as bad as she feared, but still a lot more than she would have liked.

  Chuck's eyes lit up as he seemed to listen to something and then said, "Nice, I got a poll for my nothing personal ability for saving you."

  Morna clapped him on the back, "Congratulations! Hopefully there's some good options."

  Chuck smiled, "One or two, we'll see what my viewers select though."

  Billy questioned from the side pointing at the iguanas, "Are those going to be okay?"

  The beefy iguanas were all much bigger than before and now looked like they could easily take on a komodo dragon in a fight.

  Chuck examined them and shrugged, "They're still giving good vibes, except the evil one of course, but it strikes me more as lawful evil so I think it's not going to attack us without a reason."

  Morna cheered, "See I told you it would work! Now shoot me!"

  Billy looked at the other two helplessly, but they just shrugged and he sighed as he shot a black bolt at Morna. Her body jerked as she was struck and she laughed maniacally as her muscles expanded and she grew a foot in height.

  "Oh yeeeaah!"

  Her voice was huskier and Gen had flashbacks to an odd memory of an animated jug of juice with a face crashing through walls.

  Before she looked lithe and not particularly muscular, but she now was 6'5" and looked like a professional bodybuilder.

  She didn't immediately attack anyone so they gradually relaxed, but Billy kept an eye on her.

  Gen considered asking to be shot as well, but she didn't like the idea of mind alteration. Both her mind and body were newly formed and she worried it might permanently affect her.

  Speaking of which she asked, "Is she like that forever now?"

  Chuck shook his head, "Once you complete a scenario, all injuries are healed and any temporary effects are dismissed. One time I was turned into an animated candlestick for the whole scenario…"

  Gen nodded and indicated she was going to start planning their route now. Turning inward, she took a look at the video she'd taken. She'd been spinning and drifting at the time so it was at a bad angle, but she kept pausing and zooming in as she looked at the landscape.

  Her initial plan was to use the zero gravity time to fly over large amounts of the area as quickly as possible, but after the brief aerial adventure she realized just how hard controlling her direction was when weightless. If Chuck hadn't redirected her, she would have fallen sixty feet when the gravity turned back on.

  With the experience she instead planned a route that passed as few ravines as possible so that they could primarily move when the gravity was on.

  Reaching the wall, she squinted and zoomed in on some details she missed.

  Looking at the group she said, "We've got what I assume are gnomes. Halfway there's a wall that goes the length of the tunnel and it looks like there's guards evenly stationed along its length with two towers built into it."

  Morna spoke gruffly smacking a fist into her hand, "I'll pulverize them!"

  Billy edged a few steps further away from her.

  Chuck seemed to consider, "Do they have weapons?"

  Gen zoomed in further, but her eye camera wasn't high enough resolution and it was hard to make out, "They've got sticks, but I can't tell if they're rifles or spears."

  They discussed some strategy, but eventually they settled on making their way close enough to the wall to get a better view of what they were facing before finalizing a plan.

  Gen did her best to outline their first target. They couldn't see it from their gazebo, but to their left across a ravine and up a ridge was another gazebo that would allow them to run along the ground directly through a series of four gazebos before reaching a ridge that gave a view of the wall.

  Summoning another dozen iguanas, Billy buffed each one a single time and their gazebo started to feel very cramped.

  They timed their exit with ten seconds left of gravity and sprinted toward the ridge, pausing for just a second at the edge of the bottomless ravine as they waited for gravity to turn off and enact their plan.

  Chuck stayed behind in case anyone accidentally floated away so he could save them like he did with Gen.

  Once gravity disabled the iguanas scrambled into action. They had communicated the plan to the beefy reptiles, but she had worried they hadn't fully understood. They proved her wrong however as they linked arms and made a bridge across the ravine.

  Crawling across it, they hurried to take advantage of their momentary low weight. The iguanas were stronger now, but not strong enough to make a bridge while gravity was still in effect.

  Morna led the way on all fours, looking almost like a muscled tiger as she sped along easily. Gen was next, moving quickly, but still careful enough to not lose her grip and repeat her earlier accident.

  Billy was behind and moving painfully slow as he hesitated with each new iguana, terrified that it would suddenly bite him.

  Halfway there, Gen felt her collar pulse and the first round of torture activated. It felt like an electric current zapped against her skin, but compared to the pain of her physical transformations before she shrugged it off easily and it ended a few seconds later.

  Cresting the ridge, she and Morna clung onto a rock while watching Billy's ascent. He clearly wasn't going to make it in time and the iguana-bridge would collapse as soon as gravity returned.

  Morna didn't hesitate as she gripped the lead iguana and started hauling the whole bridge up over the gap. The iguanas that Billy had already climbed over likewise started scrambling up the bridge behind him as they tried to reach safety.

  Gen struggled to assist moving the mass of iguanas while not losing her own purchase. Her fragmented memories from Kyle's life, she remembered playing in zero-gravity playgrounds that were a common attraction on their colony, but she hadn't realized how big of a difference it was playing in a small jungle gym with hundreds of padded handholds vs a wide open cavern with nothing to hang on to.

  Billy predictably panicked as the tide of iguanas swarmed up behind him and he started trying to run up the bridge, but as he pushed against it he flew upward and lost connection to the bridge itself.

  Gen and Morna ignored him, trusting Chuck to get him flying back in the right direction. They had only a few seconds left and they wanted to get all the iguanas to safety before gravity reactivated. Gen knew her actions were contradictory, in the first phase she had allowed hundreds of iguanas to explode and now she was desperately trying to save a handful of them.

  She wasn't sure if it was because they had the teamwork augment now and were actively trying to assist her or because of Morna's comments highlighting that she herself wasn't much different from the generated iguanas, but she didn't want to just use them as disposable cannon fodder.

  Gravity returned and iguanas landed all around her as they adjusted and she finally had purchase against the ground to pull up on what remained of the iguana bridge, downside now it actually weighed something and was rapidly pulling her over the edge of the cliff. Morna dug her heels into the rocks and the iguanas that had already climbed up joined them as they hauled their brethren up and over the edge. Chuck and even Billy started helping at some point, confirming that Chuck had managed to save him while she was distracted.

  She was gasping for air when they got the last iguana up, and they all started rushing toward the next gazebo, she'd completely lost track of time, but she guessed that gravity was about to turn off again any second.

  She reached the gazebo just in time, iguanas still left outside grabbed onto each other to keep from drifting and they started pulling them in one by one.

  Shortly later they were crammed into the gazebo safely once again and they took stock of the situation. Gen had the least time left at 8:17, then Billy at 8:46, then Morna at 8:50, and Chuck still had the most at 9:13 as he saved lots of time by teleporting.

  All of them except Chuck had gone through the first round of torture and even Billy agreed it hadn't been that bad, but LEO had been clear that it escalated each time so they weren't looking forward to what came next.

  They caught their breath and went through a few cycles of weightlessness, the next three gazebos were all in a straight path with no obstacles. The path Gen had planned front-loaded the the difficult section so they were able to pass through each of the following gazebos in around ten seconds each, her time was reduced to 7:36 and she had experience another round of "torture", but it still hadn't been much worse than a prolonged electrical shock maybe 20% as powerful and equally as much longer than the first session.

  As planned, they were now clustered in a gazebo overlooking the wall.

  LEO's voice echoed in her mind, Nice job! You almost went to infinity and beyond at the start, but your big brain got your team to the midway point! I really thought you'd just try to fill up the ravines with hundreds of innocent iguanas, but I guess you have a conscience after all!

  Here's a reward!

  Glancing around she saw that both Billy and Morna seemed to be listening to LEO describe their own polls with opposite expressions, Chuck didn't appear to have gotten another one.

  Closer now she could clearly see the gnomes, but the details were still a bit hard to make out. Taking a picture, she mentally zoomed in, it allowed her to zoom in about 10x her normal vision before losing quality. In the pictures she could clearly see the gnomes were all wearing black leather outfits with pointy metal helmets, each one also carried a 3 foot rod with a metal fixture at the end that reminded her of a tesla coil.

  She relayed what she saw and they set to strategizing. Morna wanted Billy to buff her twice more and then she could "go beastmode" on the gnomes, but that plan was vetoed by the whole group despite Morna's confidence in her self-control. Chuck suggested enraging one of the gnomes instead, but it seemed that Billy's bolts could only shoot thirty feet or so before dissipating and the gnomes were too far away to snipe.

  Surprisingly, Billy suggested enraging an iguana instead and sending it in for a suicide attack, the second he suggested it, however, the iguanas all started hissing in displeasure. Gen knew they were more intelligent after the augment, and she was glad she hadn't tried using them as slaves, the augment had specifically mentioned teamwork, and teamwork went both ways.

  With Billy cowed into silence, they were at a bit of an impasse lacking any easy solutions.

  Chuck shrugged, "We can just charge."

  Morna gave him a thumbs up and Billy whimpered. Gen didn't have a better plan, ideally she would create an army of iguanas, but the gazebos had limited space and if she created them outside they would be doomed when their collars' time was up.

  A few minutes later, of planning they charged. They timed their attack right when gravity turned back on, with the plan being to reach the base of the wall and then use the no gravity period to climb it. Gen had observed the gnomes and each one had a rope buckled to their waists and a rail on the wall in front of them to keep them from drifting off accidentally, if they could destroy those or unclip them then the gnomes could potentially be punted.

  The iguanas were actually shockingly fast, especially after Billy's buff, they reached the wall well ahead of the humans and didn't even wait for the gravity to end as they started working together to make an iguana pyramid and scale the wall.

  The gnomes above lacked ranged weapons, but were yelling angrily while swinging their sticks, Gen could see electricity sparking at the ends of the weapons, confirming her suspicions.

  She reached the wall just as the first iguana reached the top, but she missed the ensuing fight as her eighth minute torture session started and she reflexively gripped the collar as it began shocking her repeatedly. Again, the pain and duration had spiked up and it was now majorly distracting.

  A few seconds later she refocused just as gravity turned off and saw that chaos had erupted. Iguanas were floating and grabbing each other trying to join their comrades who had formed a bloodsoaked foothold on the wall, she shuddered to imagine what someone who had been buffed three times by Billy's ability would look like as it already was devastating.

  Morna was likewise benefiting as she pounced straight up to the top of the wall grabbing a gnome by the throat breaking it with a sharp crack, a chorus of angry cat yowls erupted as the gnomes swarmed toward her only to be halted as the sonic attacks blew out their eardrums and crippled their coordination. Morna didn't miss the opportunity as she dashed forward completely uninhibited by the zero gravity, her hands were like claws as she ripped the throat out of one disoriented gnome after another.

  She heard a whistle next to her as Chuck also took in the scene, "Do we even need to help? Between Morna and the iguanas, the gnomes don't stand a chance."

  Gen saw Billy hiding behind a rock looking hopeful at Chuck's words. Gen narrowed her eyes, this wasn't a natural obstacle, it was something LEO had put here for entertainment and while seeing gnomes massacred might be entertaining in its own right she strongly suspected a showrunner wouldn't have such an anticlimatic end to the trial.

  Taking in everything her eyes focused on the towers to their left and right, gnomes were clustering on the tops and were tinkering with something. Trusting her gut she shouted, "The towers!"

  Kicking off, she shot herself toward the rightmost tower, she didn't know what they were doing, but if she could stop it, then hopefully nothing could stop Morna.

  She quickly realized her flight path was crooked as usual and cursed as she summoned one iguana after another. The new iguanas were weaker than their buffed brethren, but they quickly oriented themselves to their new existence and seemed to instinctually understand what she needed as they wrapped around her arms extending their length, by the time she reached the tower she had six iguanas on each arm and it extended her reach just enough for the iguanas to grab a gnome by its head and drag her to the tower's surface.

  Up close she could see what they were working on, it was basically a much larger cannon version of their electricity sticks. They swarmed her as she landed and a fierce melee broke out immediately as her iguanas threw themselves at gnomes and started biting and scratching any exposed skin. Compared to the buffed iguanas, the natural ones were woefully outmatched, but she kept summoning them one after another hoping to overwhelm the gnomes.

  She'd hesitated to summon more iguanas before, but the fresh summons all started with ten minutes and she judged they were close to the end of the tunnel that they would be able to escape.

  Gravity returned and she and the mass of iguanas fell on to the tower top, gnomes where knocked prone all over and she scrambled to steal an electricity club and started beating gnomes with abandon.

  The clubs didn't actually appear to be deadly, instead just inflicting debilitating amounts of pain on whoever they hit, there were a dozen or so gnomes, so she rapidly alternated which one she was clobbering in a game of wack a gnome to try and keep them all disabled while the iguanas tore into them. She couldn't concentrate enough while hitting things to summon more iguanas, but she had sixteen or so of them fighting alongside her.

  Abruptly she was hit by her own debilitating burst of electricity as her torture collar once again activated. Her vision went white and her whole body spasmed as electricity coursed through it. At the same time she felt herself become weightless and start to drift upwards as gravity once again deactivated. Her iguanas hissed in pain as their shock collars activated, but they were freshly created and only had the first level of pain that quickly ended, unlike hers which lasted much longer.

  Around her, dozens of gnomes were starting to drift around as they recovered from her electric pummeling, the iguanas hadn't done much damage, but they had managed to bite through the safety cords that secured the gnomes to the tower.

  Seizing the opportunity, she started grabbing gnomes and flinging them toward the ceiling one by one, each gnome she threw pushed her in the opposite direction and she quickly managed to drift back onto the tower where a helpful iguana handed her a safety line that she used to reel herself in the rest of the way.

  Looking along the wall, she saw that things weren't going well for the rest of the team, the other tower had its electricity cannon activated and it was shooting a continuous stream of chainlightning at Morna as well as the buffed iguanas around her. Fitting the torture complication, the cannon seemed to be entirely non-lethal instead, just inflicting agony while also disabling Morna and the iguana army.

  Chuck seemed to have made a similar attack as her own on the opposite tower, but it hadn't gone well without iguana backup and he was being pummeled by ten gnomes gleefully smacking him over and over with their electricity batons. She wondered why he didn't teleport to escape, but remembered he had to see his target to teleport, and with gnomes all around him he didn't have an opening to use the power.

  As for Billy, he was still hiding behind the original rock where she'd left him.

  Weighing her options, she stationed herself on the electricity cannon and tried aiming it at the opposite tower, the seat and controls were all gnome-sized and very uncomfortable, but she managed to swivel it and activate the weapon, the attempt failed, however, as the electricity dissipated only halfway to the other tower.

  She sank into the gunner's chair as gravity returned and she heard the screams of approaching gnomes as the ones she'd thrown around plummeted back to the earth. Throwing herself out of the chair, she dodged a gnome that crashed into the cannon with a sickening crunch and laid still.

  She gritted her teeth, she had less than thirty seconds before the next round of torture and based on the trend she'd be helpless for around ten seconds while it was in effect. Her eyes darted along the tunnel, there were no more visible obstacles along the remaining path of gazebos and she could see the glow of the portal marking the escape. If she abandoned the team now, then it would be easy to pass the trial, based on the trend, she almost certainly would even receive another poll for doing so as LEO relished in the drama.

  Chuck had read her vibes correctly though and she glanced at the iguanas and said, "We need to reach Billy."

  The iguanas were quick to react as they located a long length of safety cord which she secured before using to climb down the side of the tower and run toward Billy. The iguanas trailed after her, expertly sliding along the rope's length.

  Billy saw her coming and looked rightfully afraid as she hissed, "What are you doing!?"

  His reply was interrupted as first she and then him were wracked with another bout of tortuous electricity coursing through their bodies. Mentally she resisted the pain as she clung onto her safety line as gravity again deactivated, iguanas rushed around them pulling Billy closer as he started to drift precariously upward.

  A few seconds later the pain was gone and she watched some of the iguanas twitching as they had their own bouts of less intense torture.

  Billy was crying as usual and she slapped him, causing him to spin around in the zero-gravity, "Buff the iguanas once each."

  Her new set of iguanas were certainly useful, but they were too small to directly fight gnomes and she needed more muscle to save the rest of their team.

  He didn't argue as black bolts flew to the iguanas one by one, giving her a fresh crew of beefy iguanas to hopefully seize control of the second tower. They missed their window to assault the tower as gravity again returned.

  Bracing herself for the next wave of torture as well as weightlessness, she ignored Billy as she looked at the iguanas, "Form up on the tower when gravity turns off, scale the sides, if we stop the cannon then Morna and the other iguanas will be freed."

  She considered summoning more iguanas, but there wasn't enough time for Billy to buff them as well and the battlefield was chaotic enough without a dozen more iguanas running around.

  As the iguanas moved forward, Billy looked at her nervously, "What will we do while they attack the tower…?"

  She smiled wickedly at him, "You'll be rescuing Chuck."

  Gravity turned off and she gripped Billy, hurling him at an angle above the tower. Chuck couldn't teleport due to his vantage point, but if Billy passed above him it should give him a window to escape. Hopefully he could then kick Billy in the right direction to save him as well before gravity returned, if not… well, Billy hadn't exactly endeared himself to her and it wasn't real death right?

  Immediately after she was hit by the electric current of torture, she felt like she was going to pass out and idly wondered if surviving ten minutes was possible or if the pain would kill her long before that.

  She felt ill as the pain withdrew and she began grabbing gnome bodies that had fallen near her and throwing their corpses one after another toward the cannon, hoping to block the electric shocks long enough for Morna and the original iguanas to reposition.

  On the tower, the iguana attack wasn't going as well as she had hoped, the powerful reptiles scaled the tower easily in zero gravity, but a ring of gnomes protected the sides holding them back with painful electric blows.

  Watching Billy flailing through the air as he passed above the tower, she held her breath and sighed in relief as Chuck suddenly appeared above him and kicked him back toward the wall. Whether intentionally or accidentally, Billy flew directly into the line of electric current shielding Morna for a brief window.

  Chuck disappeared and Gen glanced behind herself, seeing him standing there, she hadn't seen from a distance, but he looked awful with hundreds of bruises all over his face and body. She quickly gave him a thumbs up to refresh his ability.

  Gravity returned and she saw some ill-positioned iguanas fall from the tower, but the others held on using their powerful claws to grip the stone. Morna had moved during the brief window she could, but now she and Billy were next to each other, both being hit by the continuous electric blast.

  Gen cursed, she had less than half the time remaining and they were at a stalemate again having only managed to swap Billy for Chuck. It was an overall improvement in terms of companionship, but Billy's ability had more options of the two.

  Before the two of them could speak, they saw movement as Morna suddenly stood resisting the electric current. She had grown again twice over and was fifteen feet tall now with a bestial expression on her face as she let out a deafening "MEEEEOOOOWWWWW!".

  Everyone froze for one second before Morna jumped from her current position directly onto the top of the tower, ignoring the electric current pummeling her. She grabbed the cannon and picked it up, swinging it like a mace, instantly pulping gnomes and sending the survivors flying.

  Chuck and Gen shared a look, and she said "Beastmode…"

  The two of them started running toward the exit. They were on the wrong side of the wall, but Gen's safety line still connected up to the top of the tower and they climbed up it quickly, reaching the top of the wall just as gravity turned off.

  Morna was still going hog-wild as the tower itself began to crumble under her pummeling, she had enough presence of mind to grip a handful of safety lines to keep herself from flying away. Gen was confident that none of the gnomes were still alive, but that didn't stop Morna from attacking. The iguanas had vacated the area and she saw them chaining together as they grouped up with the bright green iguana leading them toward the exit without her.

  Billy had a dead-faced expression as he huddled into a ball floating while ignoring the monster he had created.

  Chuck shook her out of her observation and said, "Go! I'll throw Billy toward the exit and blink to you if needed!"

  She tried to nod, but another bout of torture hit her at that very moment. Wracks of pain coursed through her body and she only saw flashes of her surroundings as she flew through the air as Chuck must have shoved her toward the exit.

  The electric shocks lasted a full fifteen seconds and her whole body pulsed in agony even after it ended, and she took stock of her position. She was a full ten feet above the ground, but flying in the correct direction. The iguanas were nowhere in sight, possibly having already reached the exit with their incredible speed and coordination. She was starting to suspect that she had misunderstood their teamwork augment, it made them work with each other primarily and they would work with her if their goals aligned, but the iguanas hadn't hesitated to abandon their human comrades once the disabled iguanas were rescued and she suspected that if she summoned more they would only scurry toward the exit rather than attempting to assist her further.

  She heard a wail from behind and saw Chuck flying through the air rapidly catching up with her, in his arm was a screaming Billy with lines of tears streaming behind them. Further back she saw Morna on top of the bloody tower with her eyes locked onto the three of them.

  Gulping she yelled, "Gravity is coming! We have to get down!"

  Chuck nodded and chucked Billy at the floor before teleporting behind her and kicking her in the same direction, she met his eyes and immediately gave him another thumbs up, refreshing his ability just in time for him to blink back down to her as she smacked into the ground.

  Gravity returned and she pushed herself up, the portal was close enough to see with only one gazebo between them and it, she ignored the gazebo, just rushed forward as fast as her exhausted legs could carry her.

  She heard Chuck running alongside her, and Billy seemed to have remembered how to move as his screaming wasn't getting any quieter as she ran forward.

  A distant, but rapidly loudening chorus of "MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW" was echoing from behind them and she regretted glancing back to see Morna running on all fours as she ate up the distance between them.

  Seeing the absolutely wild expression on Morna's face, as well as what looked like blood in her teeth, Gen joined Billy in screaming as she ran to be joined shortly by Chuck who also saw what was behind them.

  They weren't too short of the exit when Chuck had the presence of mind to shout, "Gravity is gone in 3!"

  Morna cursed as she tried to time a jump forward, she knew that her torture sessions were lining up shortly after gravity turned off, so she only had one chance to throw herself at the portal before she was immobilized.

  Kicking off a second early, she spiralled instead of flying straight and before she could check her direction the collar activated flooding her with agony.

  Everything was painful and white and she almost wished Morna would hurry up and finish the job, when abruptly it stopped and she was standing in a plain room similar to the first waiting area. Chuck was to one side and Billy to the other, in front of them she some of the actors who had gone into the other tunnels as well as a group of thirty or so beefy iguanas that had abandoned her.

  Before she could fully orient herself, she heard LEO's voice, he was sniffing as if he was crying heavily, It was so beautiful! Companionship, comaradery, risking your life for the team! If it wasn't for all the pulped gnomes this would be perfect for a family movie night! You earned a reward!

  Immediately after a second poll appeared.