The first beam fired off in his direction, and he barely avoided it by stumbling backwards just before it fired.
Another rod lit up brighter than the rest and Kale struggled to determine which it was. His heart pounded, every muscle in his body stiff with hesitation.
Trusting his luck and hope, he took a random step forward and made the laser miss him by a slight margin. The sharp hiss of energy burned the air just inches from his face.
Doing what he was doing wasn't as easy as it seemed. Sweat gathered at his temples and his chest rose and fell unevenly, as though the room itself had stolen the very air from his lungs.
He let out a sigh as he noticed two rods glowing brighter.
"Two at once…? You've got to be kidding me," he muttered under his breath.
The girl before him had moved with unnatural fluidity, swerving as the crimson beam aimed at her.
Not once had she faltered, not once had she second-guessed her steps. She danced across the floor as though she knew the rhythm of the rods before they even lit up.
Kale clenched his jaw. He wasn't her. He didn't have the same composure, the same ridiculous reflexes.
Every step he took felt like walking across the edge of a blade, one wrong move meant being unable to get a good score.
The rods hummed again. His eyes darted back and forth, trying to track which ones would fire, but the brightness blurred together until they looked the same.
He didn't think, no, he couldn't and so, he jumped.
Three beams fired at where his legs once were.
Miss Cayenne tilted her head in shock at what she was seeing. Heck, even Axel was surprised.
Kale was just jumping about and barely avoiding getting hit by the beams. His luck was clearly something else.
"I guess he is still technically avoiding the lasers." Axel placed his hand under his chin and let out a shaky breath.
It would soon be his turn, and he was quite nervous, though he'd never admit it to Kale.
The latter was still in the room barely swerving until eight beams hit his chest at the same time.
Kale stopped his erratic movements to catch his breath.
His eyes briefly grazed the rods that had powered down while his mind remembered Ming Lee.
He could still see her smooth movements in his head.
Shaking the memory out of his head, he left the room as Axel entered.
Axel exhaled slowly and looked at the rods as their glow swelled and then moved ever so slightly to the side.
A laser beam missed him by a few millimeters.
He performed a backflip as two lasers flashed and missed.
Kale watched as Axel made precise movements aimed at tracking and avoiding the lasers in awe.
Save for the fact that Axel had no training, Kale felt that he and Ming Lee were on the same level.
While avoiding five lasers, Axel made a slight miscalculation and got hit on his foot.
The rods powered down and signalled the end of their test.
Ironically, in the test that required precision, Kale, the one with the least precision, had the best performance. Excluding Ming Lee.
Miss Cayenne adjusted her stance as she recorded the data.
"Onto the next test." Her heels clicked against the tiled floors.
The three of them went on for about twenty minutes before getting to their destination.
Twenty tables were lined up side to side and filled with machine parts. A large TV hung in the air in front of all twenty tables.
"Go to a table, the test will begin then." Miss Cayenne stepped away to handle something.
Kale and Axel moved to the left end and waited patiently for the test to begin.
Whilst waiting, seven more people came and fixed themselves behind a table. They were now ten.
Kale was about to speak when the TV turned on.
The image that appeared on the screen was a table filled with parts not unlike the ones they had.
"Assembly Tutorial 1.2b" A robotic voice echoed from the TV and the image, no video, started to play.
A mechanical hand slowly started picking up and assembling some of the parts on the table in the video.
Watching closely, Kale tried to reach for the same parts on his table.
His finger slightly grazed the object and a massive shock jolted through him. He pulled his hand back immediately but noticed the slight burn mark on it.
"Did that thing just shock me?!" Kale held his finger. Such damage from a slight graze.
Axel remained undisturbed by Kale's screaming and kept his eyes fixed on the screen, learning what was being passed on.
Kale soon resumed watching after complaining for about two minutes but unfortunately, the video ended as soon as he laid his eyes on the screen.
"BEGIN." Miss Cayenne walked out of seemingly nowhere.
"Uh?" Kale went pale. "Bro. Bro! Bro!!! Axel??!!"
"What?" Axel started rummaging through the pile looking for the first thing he would need.
Kale touched the pile but this time, experienced no shock and took a silent note.
"I need your help!" He shouted in a whisper tone that drew everyone's attention.
"You do know that shouting while using a whisper tone is still shouting!!" Axel shouted back in a whisper tone.
"Yet you just did it," Kale replied in a smug tone.
"Since everyone here already knows you are calling me, let me address the issue, what do you need help with?" Axel was connecting some wires.
"I didn't pay attention to the tutorial. Can you teach me?" The request was so bizarre that Axel almost dropped the circuit in his hands.
"A five-minute tutorial. You want me to explain to you a five-minute tutorial?" Axel raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah."
"Sure. Let me just put down my own device and teach you." Axel said.
"Really??!!" Kale's eyes sparkled.
"What? Of course not. That was sarcasm." Axel scoffed.
"I would have loved to help you despite your lack of information being entirely your fault but I can't." Axel continued his connections.
"How about you follow all that I have done so far?"
"Sure. I'll try." Kale started following what he had seen Axel doing and hoped that luck would favour him once more.