Having peered into the past of both Infinite and the Blur, Ky perceived these two heroes as just that, heroes. From the looks of things, there were no facades at play within the two of them. Like Ky, they wanted to use their powers for the overall well-being of society. For the Blur, his goal was to find the man who murdered his family and bring him to justice before he could hurt anyone else. For Infinite, he wanted to become powerful enough to protect the entire planet from anything thrown at it.
Their goals only reminded Ky of his own goal; discovering the truth about the game, the developers, and its origins. He took a look around the room, wondering what goals lay within each of his temporary teammates.
"So, what do you do? With a name like Tempo, I'd guess you and I are similar." the Blur asked, excited to know more about the member he shared the top ten with. "Oh, you know… I can control the tempo of objects, hence the name Tempo." Ky chose to speak a half-truth, of course, he could control the tempo of an object, but at the same time, that was only a fraction of what he was capable of.
He trusted both the Blur and Infinite, but at the same time, one could never be so sure. With his Psychometry ability, there were only two ways to go about it. Either pick a point in time and observe it like a movie, taking in every last detail, or skip through it as one would on those short-form video apps that grade school children seemed to be addicted to. Ky chose the former, wanting to understand their powers and motives before anything else rather than seeing micro, ambiguous moments.
"Can you control the tempo of your own body!? Oh! Can we race!? C'mon, C'mon! I beat this guy five times already!" The Blur threw his thumb over his shoulder, pointing at the caped hero behind him as he whispered, "And he's still a little salty about it so don't bring it up." Infinite rolled his eyes. "You know I have super hearing– and it was four times. One of those was a draw."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night Mr. Infinite! Maybe you should change your name to Numerable." the Blur laughed at his own joke as he looked back at Ky with a smile that was visible as his blue mask only covered the upper half of his face. "So how about it, Tempo? Wanna race?"
"Maybe later." Ky had absolutely zero interest in racing the Blur, not only because he'd lose, but because he didn't want to expose his powers if he didn't need to."
"He's not going to leave you alone until you do it." Infinite added. It was true, the Blur asked five million two hundred and seventy-three times before Infinite finally agreed. "I'm also curious. I'd like to race you as well."
Ky sighed. "Alright, alright. How about after we land or whatever? Do you guys even know where we're going?"
"Nope."
"Not a clue."
Ky's eyes locked onto the beta tester in the all-black, skintight suit; he was still stabbing himself in the hand on repeat, the rest of his body unmoving. Ky leaned toward both the Blur and Infinite, whispering to them. "What's up with that guy?" As if the all-black-clad individual had heard him, he looked at Ky for a few seconds, his eyes hidden beneath his blank, black mask, before going back to his strange hobby.
"That's Novacaine. He doesn't talk." The Blur whispered past his cupped hand.
Infinite then leaned in and added, "I fought him once, back when I barely knew my own strength. I punched a hole right through his chest. He didn't scream, wince, or anything. The hole closed and he was back on his feet as if nothing ever happened." Infinite's brow was furrowed as he thought back on the day, it was quite a disturbing sight, to say the least.
"What about that guy?" Tempo pointed toward the individual with the all-black hooded robes and a skull mask over his face.
"That's Mania. I heard his power is smelling like ass." the Blur said this comment aloud as if he wanted Mania to hear him. Mania, with his arms crossed, sat in the same spot without moving a muscle.
Infinite lightly smacked the Blur on the back of the head as if he were his older sibling. "Can you quiet down?"
As Infinite scolded the Blur, Ky smirked under his mask. He didn't have many friends outside of the ones he'd game with online but lived across the world. He could see himself becoming close with the two heroes. 'These guys are alright.'
"Bum bum bum!" A loud, obnoxious voice could be heard entering the room, knocking Ky out of his deep thoughts. In an instant, Ky's entire demeanor changed. His shoulders drooped and his head hung low. He sighed as Celsius, in his new costume, made his appearance.
His outfit was all white, including the half-mask that covered the lower half of his face, allowing his long hair to breathe and flow behind him. A white and grey vest was wrapped around his chest and with no sleeves beneath it; Celsius's pale arms were out for all to see. His all-white dress pants and dress shoes matched perfectly with the rest of the outfit, and it wasn't until Tempo had one long look at the guy that he realized the costume was the polar opposite of his own.
"Wait a second…" Tempo muttered. Celsius had hoped Tempo would notice, looking right at him with a smile hidden beneath that half mask of his. "That's right! As archnemeses, we must have contrasting costumes!"
Tempo's jaw dropped, so much so that it was even visible through the mask that fit around his head like a layer of skin. His glowing white eyes looked over at the two girls as they were laughing at Celsius, which meant they were likely laughing at Tempo as well.
"I do not know this guy, by the way. If anyone was wondering." Tempo pointed at Celsius as he looked around the room, but it was clear that no one was buying it.
"It looks to me like you two are best friends," said Flora, the girl with roses-shaped irises.
'This might be the most humiliating moment of my life. I'm going to kill myself.'
The black-suited man from before then walked into the waiting room, his hands clasped together in front of him. "Ah, you all look great in costume! I hope everything so far is to your liking, yes?"
Everyone nodded in agreeance. Their costumes were all perfect, and Elegante had done a good job portraying their personalities and abilities through their outfits. Though Tempo was having some second thoughts after seeing Celsius's contrasting, yet matching outfit.
"Wonderful. As you may have noticed, there is a circle at the center of the room. I would like you all to stand inside this circle, shoulder to shoulder. It'll send you all to your destination." There was a moment of hesitation. Oddly enough, this hesitation was not due to the idea of possible teleportation as they were beyond desensitized to their new wacky reality by this point. It was the fact that most of them viewed each other as strangers. Considering that the Coroner would have been among them if Tempo hadn't trapped him in a time prison of sorts, there was no telling what type of people were in this group.
Regardless, the beta testers began doing as instructed, forming a circle at the room's center. Ky found himself shoulder to shoulder with Blur on one side and Novacaine on the other. Of course, Novacaine was still making holes in his own hand as he does. With trembling eyes, Tempo stared at the man in black, compelling Novacaine to look up at him and offer his knife to him as if he were asking if he wanted to try. "I'm good, man."
Novacaine shrugged as if to say, 'Suit yourself' and went back to what he was doing.
The suited man then stood in front of them, pointing his palms at them. "You might feel a bit of nausea after this. Just for a little bit. Good luck."
Faster than they could have blinked, the team of ten was suddenly transported into a gargantuan stadium, one that was filled to the brim with spectators already cheering them on despite nothing having occurred yet. Each member of the crowd had entered to become a beta tester just like the top ten, however, they were not selected. Instead, they were given the opportunity to watch the event live. The event was also live-streamed everywhere around the world for those who were not lucky enough to be invited.
As the group of ten looked at what was surrounding them in awe, an energetic man with a jesty smile; wearing a black suit with a bow tie, began speaking into a microphone.
"Hello, everyone! Welcome to the first annual Hero x Villain Online International Tournament! This year, there are twenty-four different cities from around the world, all competing for the grand prize! What is this grand prize you may ask? It's…" A drum roll swelled in the background as the host held his tongue. "One free unlock token for any move in your skill tree, whether it be a level one ability or level one hundred, it'll be all yours! Also, the winning region will have one hundred extra beta codes sent out to the people in their region!" The crowd roared upon hearing they could potentially become beta testers if their home city won. "Now to introduce our contestants:
New York!
Los Angeles!
Houston!
Toronto!
Shibuya!
Gangnam-gu!
Bejing!
Canberra!
London!
Berlin!
Mexico City!
Paris!
Rome!
BrasÍlia
Madrid!
Moscow!
Taipei City!
Jakarta!
Bangkok!
Amsterdam!
Riyadh!
Cape Town!
Abuja!
And Davao!"
"Our first matchup of the tournament will be– New York versus Los Angeles! The two American teams, and the only two regions from the same country will face off against each other in an all-out battle!"
"Speaking of all-out battle, here are the rules! Each team has ten members and they will select one representative for each round. Each round will be ten minutes long and if a contender is knocked unconscious or knocked out of the stage for ten seconds, they will be eliminated! If a death occurs... Well, I'm sure you can figure out what that means. Every round must be fought as a one-on-one battle and once a round starts, there will be no substitutions of fighters. Additionally, each contender must fight at least one time per phase. Other than that, there are no rules! Anything goes! Are you ready for the Hero x Villain Online International Tournament!? Let me hear you!"
The crowd roared, glossing over the fact that they might witness someone being killed in front of them; perhaps some of them had even hoped they'd get to see it happen. The contestants on the other hand, those unmasked and masked alike, were visibly tense.
"Alright! Team Los Angeles and Team New York, go ahead and make your way toward the stage and send one representative to begin round one!"
Team New York looked around at each other, each being afraid to be the opening act. "So, who's going to go first?" Ky asked, looking at Infinite directly. However, even Infinite was hesitant to be the first one on stage.
Without a word, Mania made his way to the stage, climbing on top of the marble square that was around the size of one basketball court before standing at its center with his arms crossed. "I guess Mania is up then…" Ky mumbled.
"It looks like Team New York is sending Mania up first!" said the announcer, still as energetic as ever.
Meanwhile, a woman wearing a cougar print bra and skirt set lept onto the stage like a cat. She looked like a cavewoman, her messy hair and animalistic aura only amplified the comparison.
"And for Team Los Angeles, we have Tigress!"
The crowd boomed once more as the two contenders stood face-to-face at the center of the ring. Tigress, in a low stance with her fingers curled, retracted claws from each of her fingertips. She had a confident smirk on her face, and her sharp, lusting eyes looked as if she wanted to tear Mania apart.
Mania, however, stood unmoving the entire time; his arms folded across his chest.
"Let's begin!"
Like an animal, Tigress sprinted at Mania as if she were a lion on the hunt for its prey. Suddenly, just a few feet from Mania, she halted in her tracks– her eyes growing wide as they trembled along with the rest of her body.
"Tell me." Mania's voice could be heard, though only by her inside of her own head. His thunderous voice reverberated off of the walls inside of her skull. "What is it that you fear the most?"
Conjured from nothingness, spiders began to crawl all around the young woman's body, covering every last inch of her below the neck. She released a bellow of horror from between her quivering lips as she began clawing at herself to remove them, ripping flesh from bone from her own arms, legs, and chest.
Meanwhile, Mania stood in place, still without moving a single muscle with those arms of his still folded. His teammates, however, were staggered.
"What the..."
"She's insane."
"I told you he smelled like ass."
From everyone else's perspective, Tigress had completely lost her marbles; the spiders were nonexistent, and the feline had simply gone nuts, ripping and tearing through herself for no visible reason.
The spiders, in her own mind, then made their way onto her face. Of course, she began tearing her own face apart, ripping out her own eyeballs from their sockets, shredding the skin off of her face until her beautiful tanned skin was no more and the pinkish muscle beneath it was seen by all.
This continued for half a minute; meanwhile, the crowd had gone completely silent. The only things heard by anyone were Tigress's earsplitting shrieks and her tendons being torn from her muscles.
Eventually, everything was silent, including Tigress.
As she lay unmoving at the center of the stage, Mania dropped his arms and walked back toward Team New York. His own team, bunched together, backed away from him as one unit with full eyes before he found a place to stand with folded arms once more. With just his eyes, which could be seen beneath the eye holes of his mask, Mania glared at his teammates, compelling them all to take a few steps back in fear; accompanied by a mixed shudder.
As if something horrific didn't just occur, the announcer screamed into the mic. "Alright! Was that hype or what!? Who's excited for some more!" Again, the crowd was stunned; absolutely speechless until a single person cheered. That one single voice influenced everyone else to then cheer like barbarians starved to witness even more bloodshed.
"So... Who wants to go next?" the Blur asked, getting absolute silence as a response.
Tempo was hesitant, but he didn't like the anxious feeling building up inside of him. He decided it would be best to get it all over with. "I'll go." he said, placing one foot after the other onto the stage. "I'll go after him!" Celsius said, of course.
Ky eventually found himself standing face-to-face with Los Angeles's representative, a young man wearing a cropped shirt that showed his entire midriff under a long coat. He wore belts in places where wearing belts was nonsensical and his face was hidden behind a cloth, black face mask with a ghastly smile across it. His hands rested in his jacket pockets, his dull eyes and Ky's were both in the running for the most sleep-deprived looking.
"Next up we have Spectre vs Tempoooooo! Begin!"
'Alright, there's no time for games. I need to figure out what this guy's power is as soon as possible.'
Snap!
Ky froze the world around him before cautiously walking over to Spectre with his hand outstretched; prepared to use his Psychometry ability on him. However, as if he were just a ghost, Ky's hand passed right through him.
'What!?'
Time resumed as Ky's arm was seen passing through Spectre's body. Spectre then looked at Ky, jerking his head to the side with a devilish smile hidden beneath his mask. He scoffed at him, "Tch. Teleportation, huh? Lame." and punched Ky in the chin, sending him rolling backward.
Ky came to a rolling stop, refusing to reverse time to undo his mistake. 'I'll let him think he understands my powers... Chess not checkers.'
Ky was playing the long game. If he never allowed himself to be struck, it would allow everyone watching to have a better guess at what his true powers were. 'Besides, I can't just reverse time every time I get hit by a little punch. I need to save my cooldowns for something that actually hurts.'
Ky spit blood from his mouth and stabbed his sword into the ground, using it to help him back onto his feet. For once, finally, Ky found himself before a formidable foe, a true archnemesis.
Just behind Ky, Celsius was clearly jealous. It seemed that someone else got to land the first punch on his rival. "You better kick his ass Tempo! I still want my rematch!"
It would seem that Ky's unbeatable ability to stop time had met its match; the equally unbeatable ability to become intangible. Though it was scary for Ky to finally have been touched by someone else, it was somewhat invigorating.
'Finally.' he thought.
'A real fight.'