After nearly a full day of training, Team New York was ready to call it a day. Mania released the team from their slumber, allowing the team to open their eyes to the real world as their bodies lay on the ground.
"Ow…" Celsius was rubbing his neck, which was bent awkwardly the entire time his consciousness was trapped inside of the Hades Realm. With a swift neck jerk, he cracked his neck before turning that part of his body into ice. "Ah…" he let out a sigh of relief as it healed itself almost instantly.
Everyone else got back up on their feet, looking around the room in a daze. The moment they stood up, they could immediately sense the change in gravity. Despite gravity being normal for them, it felt as if they were on the moon after spending the entire day under 2Gs of pressure. However, this isn't to say that the training hadn't taken a toll on their bodies. As Mania stated, his world inflicted a placebo effect on anyone who entered it, causing their bodies to truly believe they underwent hellish training. Their bodies would even go as far as creating muscles in the areas that were trained.
"Where's Blur and Fixer?" Infinite looked around the room to see that the child and his best friend were nowhere to be seen.
"I kicked the child out." Mania said plainly.
Everyone else was so focused on their training, they hadn't even noticed he was gone until just then. Only Mania and Novacaine knew he'd been gone for the majority of their training session. "So you get a kick out of bullying kids?" Infinite stood up for Fixer, unknowing of the truth that Mania forced out of the boy. Mania, with his arms folded, rolled his eyes under his mask at the caped boy scout.
"I did not bully him. He's afraid to fight. He thinks he'll die. So I told him to fuck off until he figured it out." If Mania were a parent, he'd be the type to use the touch love approach; on the other hand, Infinite would be more of the soft parenting type, but not one to be a pushover.
"You sent the fourteen-year-old kid on his own when he needed your help– are you an idiot?" Infinite was clearly peeved, but there wasn't much to be done about it. The deed had been done.
"The kid didn't need a pep talk. He needed a taste of reality. Isn't that right, Novacaine?" Mania looked to the mute in all-black tights as he spoke. Novacaine nodded quickly in agreeance.
Infinite sighed and started for the door. He grabbed the handle and before opening the door, he looked back at his team one more time. "If we're going to win, we need to be a team. I'm going to go find our teammates and actually help them." Infinite pulled the door handle and walked off, leaving the rest of the team standing idly in the waiting room.
Professor Anarchy threw up his arms. "The boy scout has a point." he said. "But– Mania is right. The child needed a stern talking to. Before the reality of the game set in, he wasn't taking things seriously. He's such a bright kid– so intelligent. At the same time, he's naive. Let's hope with some time to think, he will be ready to take things to the next level tomorrow. I say we let Infinite talk to both the Blur and Fixer. In the meantime, we should all head to our rooms and get some sleep."
The team was either indifferent or in full agreeance with the professor. And so, they cleared the waiting room and headed straight for their dorms. Tempo, walking with Celsius, read the names listed on each room inside of his own head. All the while, Celsius was talking his ear off.
It seemed that every room was shared between two members of the team. To Ky's luck, his roommate was none other than his rival, the ice manipulator, Celsius.
'I am going to kill myself.' Ky thought.
Celsius grabbed the door handle, swinging it open for the two of them. Tempo lifted a hand, "I'm gonna walk around for a bit. Alone." he said sternly. Celsius was exhausted; therefore, the proposition wasn't an issue for him. "Alright. Goodnight." Celsius spoke with a melancholic cadence as he began shutting the door behind him. Before the door could close all the way, he peeked his head out and called out to his roommate. "And Tempo–"
Tempo stopped in his tracks, turning just his head. "What's up?"
"Thanks." Celsius, for once, sounded oddly serious; such so that Tempo had to turn his body fully and face him. "For what?" Tempo asked.
"For being my training partner. It was fun– even the parts when you blew me to tiny pieces." he chuckled slightly, as did Ky. "I hope we can train again sometime. Maybe even after the tournament."
Though it was hidden beneath his black mask, Tempo smiled warmly. "Bet. Goodnight, man." Tempo exhaled humorously before turning back around and strolling down the hallway.
Moments later, Tempo could be found sitting all alone in the arena as if he were a spectator. As if he were a member of the audience, he stared at the stage, imagining him and Team New York battling it out on stage. He pictured himself zipping in and out of view, throwing projectiles, and creating constructs of temporal energy. As if physical training wasn't enough, he was mental training; imagining strategies and knowledge checks that he could pull on his opponents during the next phase.
Before he could get too deep into it, a voice startled him. "Whatcha up to?"
Tempo nearly jolted out of his seat upon having his mental training disrupted by none other than Lady Luck of all people. She wasn't wearing her costume, only her mask and the grey sweatsuit that was given to all of the contestants.
"You scared the shit out of me. How long have you been here?" Tempo asked her, trying his damnedest to get his heart to slow down after getting snuck up on. It also didn't help that he found himself alone with a girl.
"Just a few seconds. I saw you were being a weirdo and staring at the stage as if there was a fight going on. I was curious what you were doing." Based on the inflection of Lady Luck's voice, one would assume she was teasing him, perhaps even flirting with the time warper. However, unless she held up a sign with flashing letters explaining that to him, he would remain blind to it.
"I was–" Tempo nearly admitted that he was playing pretend in his head, but he stopped himself. "It's stupid. You'll think I'm lame."
"Try me." she said with a slight smile.
Again, Ky was hesitant, but he explained it nonetheless. "I was mental training. Basically coming up with strategies and imagining what I would do in certain situations."
"Oh, so you're playing make-believe all by yourself?" she asked in jest, still having that smile on her face.
"Well–"
Lady Luck couldn't contain her laughter any longer, holding her stomach as she cackled beside the time warper. However, her reason for laughing wasn't for what he'd assumed. "You're so serious all the time. It's hilarious!" she said through her own laughter. "Your eyes!"
Tempo's glowing white eyes went from wide to settled as he watched her continue to laugh. He often forgot that his mask allowed him to be expressive despite his face being covered due to the gleaming eye sockets.
Lady Luck caught her breath before looking down at the stage, grinning softly. "I'm impressed that you're still training after all we've done today. Everyone else is beat."
"Why are you up?" Tempo asked her, looking at her with his luminescent eyes.
"Can't sleep. I'm too anxious about the next phase. I'm afraid my luck's gonna run out or something. I don't know." For once, Ky could sense a tinge of vulnerability in her voice. That flirtatious cadence she'd often used had all but vanished and her smile turned solemn. "Why are you up? Besides the training stuff."
Ky folded his arms, leaned back into his chair, and exhaled. "I don't feel like hearing Celsius talk– and I guess I might be a little anxious too."
"Even you?" Lady Luck seemed surprised. Tempo's entire face was covered, so the constant look of stress was often hidden unless his eyes showed it.
"Yeah." Tempo admitted quietly. "I bet even Mania and the Professor are too, despite acting like hardasses all day."
Lady Luck blew air from her nose as she looked down at her feet, swinging them above the concrete beneath her. Things went quiet for a while until Lady Luck raised a question. "Are you afraid to die?"
Tempo could physically feel the air around the two of them shift as she spoke. This question was so sudden, that he was stunned. There was a small moment of silence before he gave his answer. "I wasn't at first, but now I am. What about you?"
"Same." she admitted. "I thought I was invincible once I got my powers. You know, I used to just rob places for the fun of it? My family didn't need the money or anything, I just liked the thrill. I liked feeling invincible. I felt like nothing could stop me– but all of that went away when we beat Team Los Angeles."
Tempo didn't say anything, he just nodded along as she continued venting.
"That guy you beat, the one who could turn his body intangible– I bet he used to think he was invincible too. Now he's–" Lady Luck clenched her fists and looked away from Tempo. She began imagining if she and Flora were the ones who were killed instead and tears nearly began to well up in her eyes. "He's gone. That could've been us. Just like that, I could be wiped from this Earth despite thinking I'm untouchable."
Once again, there was a brief moment of silence. Ky was unsure what to say. He felt the exact same way as her, yet couldn't find the words to speak. The silence was eventually broken by Lady Luck once more. "What do you think they told their families?"
"I don't know…" he muttered. He immediately thought about his father, sitting alone at their dinner table waiting for Ky, the only family he had left, to come home. This image in his head, despite being bleak, inspired him. "That's why we have to fight harder." Ky spoke with full determination. There wasn't the slightest hint of self-doubt or pity in his words. "Not just for ourselves, but for our teammates and our families. I'm not letting my dad live alone. No way. I'll win even if it's the last thing I do."
"How can you be so certain?" she asked him. She too wanted his confidence, even if it was just a sliver of it.
"Because I trust my teammates. Infinite and the guys are strong. I'm strong. You are too. Even though I haven't seen Flora fight, I bet she's strong too. I can see it in the way she carries herself. We're gonna be alright."
"Maybe you're right." Lady Luck whispered. She yet again blew air from her nose and looked up at Ky with the slightest of grins. "You know, you really are contagious, just like everyone says."
"Hm?" Tempo looked at her once again, seeing her smiling up at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"We all watched you and Celsius fight for a while. The two of you inspired us to work harder, you especially. We could tell that you were in so much pain trying to fight him, yet you still pushed yourself past your limits. It made us all do the same. And now, part of me believes our team can win. It's your resolve. That's what's contagious."
"Oh, I see. I never noticed." Tempo looked back at his interactions with past beta testers, namely Celsius. Celsius was obsessive at first, but Tempo realized that Celsius must feel the same thing that Lady Luck was describing. The reason he wanted to fight him so badly was because he inspired him to become stronger. What way to gauge one's strength than to battle it out against your one inspiration?
"Maybe that's why I feel drawn to you–" Lady Luck spoke quietly, looking away from Ky. That flirtatious cadence was gone, yet inside Tempo's mind, he saw a bright, flashing sign pointing at her with three hundred different types of arrows with the words, I think you have a chance written across it.
"Drawn– to me?" Tempo stumbled through his three-word sentence, barely making it to the end.
"Yes, dummy. How much more obvious do I have to make it?" Lady Luck's heart was pounding. Despite her alluring appearance as Lady Luck, with her leotard and mask, she too was a nerd just like Ky. Throughout the entirety of the tournament, Ky failed to notice her gaze. When he first stepped into the waiting room in New York, her eyes were locked onto him the entire time, though once he looked toward her, she looked away. She thought he had a cool costume, and he had this composed aura around him. During his fight with Spectre, she finally had an excuse to stare at him and she did so hardly without blinking. The way he fought with his brain, figuring out how to beat someone intangible was impressive to her. When she went on stage herself, she wanted him to watch her. Even during their training inside of the Hades Realm, watching him master his Spatial Construction ability enamored her. She was hardly doing any training herself, most of it was spent watching Tempo.
Despite all of this, Ky was blind to it all.
"Ugh! This stupid mask makes me feel confident but–" Lady Luck removed her masquerade-esque eye mask and placed it on her lap. "Lady Luck is all just a persona of mine. I try to be cool and outgoing but sometimes, it just feels silly. And it's exhausting."
Tempo's jaw nearly unhinged and dropped to the floor upon seeing her face. Once the mask was off, that feeling of familiarity had increased, yet he couldn't wrap his head around where he'd seen her before. Inside his mind, he began cycling through the girls from his school who matched her description, a Southeast Asian girl with a bob cut, but none of them matched.
"My real name is Claire. Keep that between us. Only Flora knows."
'Well, this feels like a trick... Or a very elaborate prank.' Despite these thoughts, Tempo trusted her. They were teammates after all. It also didn't help that he was crushing on her very, very hard at the moment.
'Fuck it.'
"You know, I feel the same way. The mask makes me feel like I'm a whole new person. Tempo feels like one big facade." Tempo removed his mask, revealing Ky Tempus who was hidden beneath it. "But the real me is just some guy named Ky."
"Oh, thank God." Claire whispered as she looked deeply into Ky's eyes. "I was hoping you'd be cute."
Awkwardly, Ky stumbled his way through yet another sentence. "Oh– thanks, I think you're very beautiful also." If it wasn't obvious, this was his first time talking to a girl in an intimate matter before. The closest he'd ever gotten was that one time he played an MMO and dated a woman he had no business dating as a high schooler.
"Have you kissed anyone before, Ky?" The moment she asked this, the world around Ky froze, yet his fingers remained unsnapped. Inside his own mind, Ky could see two versions of himself, a logical version and a fearless version.
"Now's your chance!"
"It could also just be a question."
"No, she wants you to kiss her! Go for it!"
"Don't listen to that one, listen to me!"
"No, me!"
"No, me!"
Ky snapped back into reality and gave his answer. "Nope." he answered. "Have you?"
"Nuh-uh." Claire shook her head.
"Alright, go for the kill shot!"
"No, wait it out!"
The logical angel and the fearless angel on his shoulders continued to argue, but Ky ignored them both. "Well, it would be a shame if we died tomorrow without having our first kiss, right?" Ky asked her. He wanted to kiss her, but he also wanted to be sure he was reading things correctly.
Claire looked at him, her eyes meeting his as she nodded. "That would suck, yeah."
Ky started to lean forward, as did Claire but Ky hesitated for a moment. "Can I kiss you?" he asked, as if the answer wasn't already clear.
"Yes, you idiot." she whispered as she grabbed his face and pulled him in close. The inexperienced kissers pecked each other once, then twice. They both opened their eyes at the same time, sharing a giggle before closing their eyes and pecking each other once more. After their third kiss, the two were getting the hang of things and locked lips.
As they kissed beneath the moonlight, there was a brief moment of peace. Those thoughts of death were silenced during the entirety of their lips embracing each other.
After their kiss, Claire's face was beet red. She hadn't planned on kissing him at all, she just wanted someone to talk to, yet it happened. She couldn't bear to look at him, so she turned her head and spoke in the opposite direction. "Ah, well– thanks. For the talk I mean. Goodnight." In one swift motion, she stood up and walked back toward the dorms, leaving Ky alone with his own thoughts.
'No fucking way.' he thought to himself. 'Well... I really can't die now.'
As if he'd eaten ten cans of spinach, Ky was energized. If it wasn't 11 PM, get right back into training. However, he too needed sleep. And so, with a smile spread across his face, Tempo placed his mask back over his face and headed back for his dorm room with restored resolve.