"You took your time," Mike huffed, one hand greasing back his frazzled hair, the other fixing his crimson tie. "The battle's almost started and you're chatting with Bell instead of getting Shadow Dancer ready."
A cerebral cord connected Mike's slate to the clump of parts beneath the cloth-bound mound behind him and gritted his teeth as if in pain.
"If I had known you'd be late, I'd have spent my time more wisely, like going out with Silica or buying a new suit." Despite the fact Mike's green suit looked like he was ready to sell her a stolen car, Lex raised an eyebrow at the thought he needed a suit at all. But when it came to finding love, Mike had always been confidently incorrect at every turn.
"Your answer to getting dumped is to latch onto the first girl to look at you?" Lex sighed. "It's that enthusiasm to have a family and raise kids that drove Bell away. Stop rushing into things, you're a … big strapping man and, um, any girl would be lucky to have you. Just, maybe wear something a bit more glitz in future. Like a cyberpunk jacket, or street kid clothes like Kai, or even that." Lex pointed to a man managing to pull off a fishnet shirt.
"Class never gets old," Mike said.
"Mike, buddy, I love you, but you are so very wrong," Lex said and winced as she noticed his pointy-toed shoes. "You look like you own a pawnshop. But enough of that, why'd you think I was talking to Bell? I tried to invite her, but she's working."
"I'm guessing you didn't see her then."
Lex frowned. "Of course I did, numb-nuts. We go to school together."
Mike gestured with his clean-shaven chin. Twisting her head, Lex pulled off her goggles to get a better look at a booth filled with First Floor dandies and their rented companions.
One boy with cold blue eyes and the abs of a marble statue danced for the giggling troupe, while a gorgeous, near-naked girl with hair and eyes of shifting hues lay in the lap of some scaeg with hands used to owning. The girl was strangely familiar though, with long legs, smooth olive skin, a sweet pink smile …
"Bell?" Lex froze.
Lex felt her heart lurch in her chest. All those times Bell had brushed off Lex's attempts to go out. To go clubbing. To go to a bar. A party. A parade. All that time, Bell had been coming here. She had kept this side of her a secret; she hadn't trusted Lex.
"It surprised me too when I learned what she really does," Mike said, his eyes large and longing. "Not that I … well … I wanted things to work with us. I still love her, Lex; I knew from the first date that we were meant to be. Until we weren't, and now yes, I'm trying to throw myself at the first girl to look at me sideways."
"Mike," Lex said and rubbed his shoulder. "I'm sorry."
He grunted and pulled the cable from his slate.
Bell's eyes slid lazily across the Third Floorer filth, sliding past Lex, snapping back to Lex and widening. She sat up, but the man she sat on grasped her neck and forced their mouths together. He kissed her while Bell stared with naked horror.
Mike winced and turned away.
In the arena, the Empyrean girl had her ribcage torn open for the crowd. Lex stared, her mind blank, waiting for her to get up and fight back. If it was a hologram, then how had they made it so detailed? As Perseus chopped off her head and held it high, Lex could see the woman's bloody tendons and severed vertebrae. A man in red robes and a silver Spartan helm, waved his arms to calm the crowd.
"—I, Ajax, Temple Master of Ares, beseech you o' master—"
Ajax continued to beg for the attention of the Ares as the crashing music drowned out his voice and set the ground trembling. The gladiator begged the sky above, his hands covered in blood and, just like the stories, Ares appeared crimson and beautiful.
A hologram, the red armed angel descended to touch the gladiator's shield, the Royal Medusa appearing upon it, and a thousand silver snakes set to writhe around the edge like living tassels.
The gladiator saluted the projection and walked off stage. The projectors in the ceiling slunk away. Incense filled the air, the sacrifice carried to the gods on a bed of smoke. The very real corpse remained in a pool of gore.
Lex choked on the acrid smell, her eyes glued to the body as it was dragged away by Ares's zealots, the blood staining their sandals.
"Lex, it's time," Mike said, coughing into his suit arm, and gestured to her blanketed droid being lowered into the arena. On the other side of the pit, a larger droid descended, all shining chrome. "Get in the pilot's seat and direct-code a fix for the processor shard—it's not listening to me, no matter what I do." His eyes softened. "Sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned Bell. Tonight is about family."
"Lex?!" Bell said, much closer than before, and squinting to make out Lex's features past her disguise. The First Floorer strode behind her, his hand grasping. She shoved him away. Angry, he pulled her back—the ice-eyed dancer stepped between them, forming a protective wall of milk-white muscle.
"What are you doing—it isn't safe for you here," Bell said, ignoring the glaring boys behind her. "If they find out who you are, they'll tear you apart. You need to leave."
"Why did you say you weren't going out, Bell?" Lex sniffed. "Why did you lie to my face?" She had only one friend who wasn't family, only one person who would speak with her at school. "What other lies have you been telling me?"
"Nothing, it's not like that, I—"
"Put your hands together for tonight's challenger, Nyx!" Ajax cried and gestured to Lex with his microphone-tipped staff, three searchlights centring on her from above. "And her droid, the custom Vulcantech machine, Shadow Dancer!" The lights shifted to the blanketed droid below.
"Lex, please," Bell said, grasping her arm. Lex tried to pull away, but Bell held tight. "It's dangerous, this place is full of High Spartan supporters. Poseidon's pride, if they find out you're Empyrean you'll be torn apart!"