#nexuschallenge

Catching her breath, Aurora stood from the position she’d crouched into moments ago, her arms held up in defense and a determined look painting her expression. In all of her time training, she was getting better at a pace that was too slow for her, but frankly, better than nothing at all. Strength she could build easily. Weight lifting, though it wasn’t her favorite activity, was a good way to hone in on the heightened muscle she’d been gifted with when she found the Nexus. Even outside of the walls of the space ship, she found herself training, whether it be lifting items at the Cafe in the solitude of the stockroom that were well out of her normal limit or rearranging her furniture at home with the ease, it was under no debate that she was getting stronger. Agility was on her side as well, enhanced, she assumed, by her years of gymnastics and her bid on the Cheer Team. It was her greatest strength, she thought, if not considering her drive and her stamina. Even when she was taking a beating, she was able to hold her own--for a good amount of time, at least. Her endurance was one of the reasons she’d managed not to give up already. 

She was alone now, dodging punches from intangible enemies, moving with flexibility and careful planning, if not with grace and speed. Perhaps, she thought, the quickness and lightness on her feet she once felt she had disappeared to be replaced by her newer, less familiar strengths. She’d gain them back, though--she had to. 

This though crossed her mind daily, and she was stuck on it when the alarms started to sound. It began with a sudden vibration, shaking Aurora off her feet and onto her rear, where she listened to Zordon and Alpha Five scream Danger! Danger! in an unthinkable pitch on a constant loop. And then the walls started closing in on her, her breath caught in her throat, her heart clenching and suddenly...She wasn’t on the ground anymore. She wasn’t on her feet, either, but on the ceiling, rather. The gravity mode. She was attacked with a swirling mess of thoughts that screamed at her from every direction of her mind, clashing together with the siren screams of Zordon and Alpha Five. 

“What do I do?” She yelled into the room, not necessarily at anyone in particular. Zordon and Alpha Five, as blaring as their voices seemed to be, were nowhere to be found. She was alone, unwitting, and probably about to die. 

She couldn’t push the walls back--she wasn’t that strong. She wouldn’t know where to start going about finding out how to re-activate the gravity mode, not would she know how to do it even if she were to find where to go. Absently, she remembered a myriad of useless facts about the Nexus that Alpha Five rambled about through her training, none of it--Unless...

The escape pods. That had to be it. But where were they? As intently as she tried to listen in on Alpha Five and Zordon while they tried to assist her and the others with their training, she wouldn’t deny zoning out here and there. Evidently when it was important, if her lack of knowledge when it came to the location of the escape pods was any evidence. 

“Oh, this is bad,” She muttered to herself, trying to push off the ceiling with no avail. When she couldn’t make it back to the ground, she settled for attempting to crawl towards the opening of the room, hanging onto the door frame to leave the space that still felt like it was closing in as she exited it. “This is very, very bad.” 

Stray hairs tickled her cheeks as she whipped her head around, glancing from hall to hall, demanding the information she needed to come back to her. Escape pods...Escape pods...

“Aurora, you absolute space cadet...Find the escape pods.” 

Although it was difficult to even think over the shill screams of her mentors that rang through the entire ship, she tried to focus on the location of the escape pods, wondering just where the hell everyone else was as well. Finally, it came to her and she started moving again, lunging through the air from door frame to whatever she could grab onto next, moving in the direction of what she thought was North. 

The escape pods are located in the Northern side of the ship, right on the docking platform. This is a wide platform that allows spacecrafts to adjoin with the Nexus or it can serve as a space dock, for space vessel reparations.

The words of the little robot flitted through her mind and she rejoiced when she finally found what she was looking for, waving dust and rubble away from her face as she tried desperately to crawl into the little pod she was searching for. Rather than having to pull herself into the pod when the door slid open, she fell--and then there was nothing. 

The breath knocked out of her, she lay there, limbs in every direction as the alarms stopped and Zordon appeared. Convenient timing, she thought, mildly confused until the giant head started speaking. 

Congratulations, Aurora. You have successfully completed our drill. You could have been quicker, but you completed the task at hand regardless. This drill was meant to prepare you to react in a crisis. Not every attack can be anticipated. 

Irritated and dejected, Aurora lay on the floor of the pod long after Zordon disappeared. 

Challenge 1

CHALLENGE 001 - ABOUT