"Tournament Island is an Island given to us by the gods so that we may hold our great battles away from anyone who could get hurt. However, according to the Time Seer, it became known as a country called Australia in certain timelines! Isn't that just exciting?" The attendant was annoying, Axel thought to himself.
These were stories told to us when we were mere infants. Why must it keep being told us even as we're practically adults? Tired of hearing the woman speak, Axel began to tune her out as he gazed about the architecture of the arena. Immaculate. Columns reached up for what seemed forever. The walls are lined with pastel paintings of the previous champions. Axel simply could not wait to be included in this grand hall. Alongside the statues of ancient warriors and leaders.
He could see it already. In his mind, he saw children thousands of years from now walking down the hall and admiring the painting of him on the wall. It was exciting. As two kids with purple hair pushed past him, he was snapped back to reality. The taller of them bumped into him. Axel, annoyed, was about to call them out on it but was immediately shut up as he noticed the ears and tails they had. Resembling those of cats. He was absolutely baffled. He had heard no such thing as mutants, yet they were before him. It could have something to do with their powers. He didn't want to pry until the taller one turned to face him, and Axel immediately recognized him. "Samuel?!"
The purple-haired boy's eyes widened as he realized who he had pushed past. He immediately rushed towards him, arms wide. The cloak he had been wearing was opened, revealing the black suit and red tie he wore underneath.
Before Axel could retreat, he was wrapped in a tight hug by the boy, Samuel. "Holy shit Axel! It's been far too long, my friend!"
Axel laughed, pushing Samuel away from him softly to not offend him. "Yeah, man. What has it been, six years?"
Samuel swiftly nodded; Axel couldn't read his movements as Samuel just appeared next to him, arms wrapped around Axel's should. "Dude! It's six four years and nine months. Almost seven years! We were supposed to be best friends! Well, at least we were, until, well."
Axel grew concerned a moment. Not seeing Samuel and his sister had not been his own fault. In fact, Samuel and his father had just stopped visiting all too suddenly. Now, Axel's curiosity was peaked about what had happened. "Yeah, about that, what happened? You used to come and visit at least once a week, and then you just stopped" Axel's curiosity about why he stopped visiting caused him to forget that Samuel now had the ears and tail of a cat.
Samuel's mood seemed to have shifted as Axel questioned him about what had happened. Samuel stepped away from Axel and rubbed his shoulder a bit anxiously. "Well, It's A Long Story"
Axel, the good friend he liked to think of himself as, raised his hand to put on his shoulder. "Listen, man, if you don't want to tell me, that's fine, but we've been friends for as long as I can remember, and I'm not going anywhere right now. I have time."
Samuel brightened up a bit. This fact was given away by the cat ears on his head perking up. However, they quickly flattened against his head, and he simply laughed it off. "Look, we were childhood friends, but as I previously established, we haven't seen each other in years. We've known each other a long time, but we haven't known each other just the same. People change over time. And by all technicality, we are complete strangers now. It's charming you have such compassion, but we are enemies right now, and we may even have to kill each other by the end of this tournament" He pats Axel on the shoulder. "But I do wish you luck in remembrance of our past."
With those final words, he left Axel staring in disbelief. Something clicked in his head that he may not have changed since childhood. Has he not even grown at all. "Well, fuck you too…. dick."
He was about to start running back toward the group, like Samuel, when he realized the other purple-haired kid was still there, a short beautiful young woman he immediately recognized. "Woah… Clarise… You've uh. You've changed."
Despite being shorter than him, her demeanor and Aura made Axel feel like he was looking up at her, and she was looking down at him. Butterflies filled his stomach. "W-Wow. You uh… how've you been?"
Instead of responding to him, Clarise simply stepped closer, letting out a soft giggle before kissing him on the cheek. This caused his face to glow red and stunlock him. If this had been a fight, she could have killed him, but instead, she just walked off. He was utterly dumbfounded, unable to move until he felt a slap on his back. "Axel out here with unspoken Rizz."
He turned quickly, broke out of the stunlock, and finally noticed the other pair who had been watching him. One was a tall white kid wearing a brown leather jacket. His long blonde hair covered his eyes completely. The other was a dark-skinned girl wearing a tank top, shorts, and a cloth belt. Making her look like some sort of fighter. "Oh, Thomas! Pershia! I completely forgot you guys were gonna be here!"
The girl remained silent, merely puffing out her cheeks and turning away, seemingly annoyed. Thomas, however, continued laughing with his overly optimistic attitude. "Man, all that training together, and now we will finally see who's the strongest."
Axel had been training all his life with Thomas and Pershia. Unlike Samuel and Clarise, who were like playmates, these two warriors fought by his side and brought him to newer heights, although our parents never let us reveal our powers to each other. He had never really thought about what would happen later in life. Was everything really changing around him, and he didn't even realize it?
"Uh… yeah, you're right. We finally get to go all out on each other! I can't wait… I think… I think I need to be alone for now."
Quickly distancing himself from his allies, now turned enemies, he checked his info brochure to figure out exactly where he was meant to be resting and immediately went to his quarters for a nap.