by Simon Archer
“That’s some interesting competition,” Matt muttered. “They’re fucking brainwashed.”
“And well trained,” I reminded him.
“Oh, I’m not worried,” he replied with a wicked grin. “We’ll just dangle you up on a pole, and they’ll flock to your shiny object, squealing like lovesick school girls. We’ll have the whole field to ourselves.”
“He has a point,” Aylin admitted quietly.
I grimaced. “We are not dangling me from a pole.”
“Trap you in a cage, then?” Matt offered. “Trust me, you’ll want to be out of reach. They’ve got claws.”
I got about fifteen minutes to try to live that down before it was finally time for Valcav Academy to take the field. Our team was composed of Matt, Kristen, Andie, Kara, Eric, Aylin, and me. Andie and Kara met up with me as we gathered before Gemma with little chocolate smears on their lips. I chuckled at the sight of them both, kissing each and turn to clean the chocolate away. They giggled and pulled me between them, hanging on either arm.
Eric’s nervous energy caused him to sparkle and glisten with tiny little lightning bolts that ran up and down his body. He glanced to the three of us, then to Aylin, then to the twins.
“I’m totally gonna fall on my face,” he announced.
I looked over at Aylin and smiled. “She said the same. Just blame Matt and say he tripped you. Everyone’ll believe it. He’s a dick.”
“Fuck you, Gateon,” Matt fired back in his best approximation of good-naturedly.
“See?” I grinned.
Eric laughed, and some of the tension eased out of his body. “Alright, fine. I’m blaming Matt. No hard feelings, Barbur.”
“Again,” Matt retorted in an almost sing-song cadence, “fuck you both.”
Kara poked me in the side. “But what if Matt falls?”
“Then we blame air pockets,” I suggested.
“That works.” She nodded firmly with an amused grin on her lips.
Gemma waved at the gate, and that was our cue to line up in formation. I was up in front with Matt, and the four girls were behind me. Eric was named the flagbearer, and he was given a large flag by Gemma to hold onto. It was a black flag with a blue tidal wave, representing both Alexandria and Valcav.
“Eric, you’ll take the lead,” Gemma said with a soft smile before gesturing to Matt and me. “You two will follow behind him. March slow and steady. It’s not a race. Give the world a good view of my favorite heroes, okay?”
“You got it, Gemma.” I grinned and gave her a thumbs up. “I’ll make you proud.”
Her soft smile didn’t waver, and a little bit of emotion lingered in her gaze. “You already have.”
Our march was greeted to the roaring approval of two hundred thousand people. It was a veritable sea of humanity, from all ethnicities and all walks of life. Many of them showed their love for their favorite academies. Some wore the school colors, some hoisted banners and signs for their favorite students, and others, well, some took things to a bit of an extreme, starting at body paint and going to, well, I didn’t pay much attention to those. Eric faltered when he first entered the field, nearly tripping as he’d predicted. I caught him before he could, smiling at him as I steadied his steps.
“Buddy, it’s gonna be okay,” I assured him. “You’ve got this.”
“R-Right,” he stuttered. He breathed in deep, held it, then let go. “I’ve got this.”
“You’ve got this,” I repeated and clapped him on the back.
“Hell yeah!” he bellowed and waved the Alexandria flag vigorously. “I’ve got this!”
Eric’s march around the arena was probably at a slightly faster pace than Gemma would like, but he was very enthusiastic about it. He waved the flag back and forth the entire way, showing pride and joy for his city and the students in his company.
Matt rolled his eyes at Eric’s antics, but I was proud of him. He was an amazing flagbearer.
As we turned the bend and began marching towards the center of the arena, I finally caught sight of my father in the audience. He was surrounded by a sea of black and red garbed people, each bearing the burning fist symbol of their nation. Dad, though, stuck out like a sore thumb as he held up a giant hologram of my own face as the sycophants around him each lifted signs that read, ‘GO NICK!’
I nearly tripped when I saw them, and this time, it was Matt saving me from a fall.
“What the--oh,” he cut himself off. “Wow. For a monster, he’s pretty dedicated.”
“He’s my dad,” I reminded him quietly. “Remember last semester? He tried to kill you to protect me. He’s always been like that.”
“Bullshit. He tried to kill us because we’re the children of Jasper Barbur,” Matt shot back. He wasn’t angry, despite the history being dug up right there in the middle of the arena, surrounded by thousands. His tone was more matter-of-fact than anything else. “You were just the excuse he needed.”
I ducked my head, unable to refute the point. Instead, I glanced up at the stands and reluctantly gave my father a thumbs up. Immediately, his eyes lit up, and he screamed my name, waving my giant glowing head around like it was a flag of his own.
I might be mad at him, but I’d never hate him. I just couldn’t do it.
“This is gonna be a long semester,” Matt muttered next to me.
“Tell me about it,” I agreed.
We took our place among the other academy teams near the center stage where Triton was patiently waiting. The second everyone was in formation, he began to speak, and his voice carried over the crowd in a booming echo. He didn’t seem to be wearing any visible mic, so the effect was rather magical.
“Welcome to a very special edition of the World’s Finest!” He raised his hands in greeting to the entire globe, watching through the satellite feeds and live in the stadium. The audience cheered in approval, and it shook the arena.
I felt butterflies gather in my gut.
It was a full minute before the audience quieted enough for Triton to continue his speech. “Academies from all over the world have come here to celebrate peace and unity. Though not all will walk away from here with a gold medal, to serve even a minor role in this competition is an honor that will live with you for a lifetime.”
He let that hang over the students assembled before him, and I felt the full weight of his words before he continued. “It is my greatest honor to stand here with the young men and women who represent the greatest potential for heroes on this planet. Over the coming week, we will see who earns their place in history. To that end, let the games begin!”
The audience roared, but I didn’t see it. Out of nowhere, a tremendous wall of water rushed all around us and formed into the mouth of a shimmering blue dragon that seemed to swallow every student whole. The entire arena rocked to the beat of Alexandria’s intense anthem, and the dragon burst upward all around us, forming wings of water and a long scaly body. Looking at Triton, I noted his concentration to be the source.
The dragon roared and then flew up over the stadium. His body swirled as water rushed to contain the form with every movement.
After making several passes over the crowd, who reached up to touch its shimmering body, it flew up through the dome, passing through the force field like it wasn’t even there.
“I didn’t know he could do that,” Matt whispered, looking utterly terrified. “He made a fucking dragon. Could he always do that? Who even does that?”
“Triton does that apparently,” I whispered back. To say that I was impressed would be an understatement. “Can Judgment do that?”
“I… I-I don’t think so.”
“We need to figure out how to make a dragon,” I laughed. I was so giddy and ready to take on the world now. This year was going to be amazing. “I’ve got a lot to live up to.”
“Yeah. I think we both do.”
9
The next day, Gemma was looking especially frazzled at the start of the first event of the World’s
Finest. Her dark hair was tied up into a bun, but it was already partially undone by the time we all met her in the arena. Her eyes were wild and bruised from lack of sleep, and she paced with a strange, frenetic energy that suggested a bit too much coffee.
The other teams were also gathered with their mentors in preparation for the oncoming storm, but Gemma was substituting for Triton and Judgment today. I didn’t know where they were or what they were up to, but I couldn’t bring myself to question it. I had other problems.
The biggest of those was the fact that my father was guiding the Inferno team personally that day. He was wearing his classic outfit, with a long billowing black cape and spiked shoulder pads over his intimidating new-and-improved power suit. It was mechanical, near-impenetrable, and full of about a million gadgets and deadly devices so that he could take down half a city without even using his fire abilities. The fire-fist symbol of his empire glowed like the color of lava on his chest.
I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he kept darting his gaze back to me more than once during his speech. Every time we nearly made eye contact, I ducked away. This was the closest I’d been in proximity to him in nearly a decade, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
“Alright,” Gemma said as she marched up and down the small line that we’d formed. Andie and Kara were on my right, Aylin on my left. Eric had his phone out and was taking notes on the details of the future match. The twins lingered behind him, their arms crossed, looking dour as ever.
“Alright,” she repeated. She glanced at Inferno’s back for a moment, then frowned and looked away again. “The World’s Finest rules committee has finally hashed out the exact format for the tournament this year.”
I nodded. Considering the compression of a year-long event into just one week, there would have to be a lot of changes to the format, the events, everything. The rest of the team all looked equally attentive, so Gemma continued with her explanation.
“Instead of the usual dozen events spaced out through the year, the committee has condensed it down to what they have decided are the three most important events.” She ticked off on her fingers as she recounted them. “First, rescue. Second, defense. Third, nemesis.”
“I’ve heard of the first two,” Matt growled, “but nemesis? I don’t like the sound of that.”
Aylin raised a shy hand. “And I am not familiar with any of them aside of the rescue test, Gemma Corcoran. Could you please enlighten us?”
“Of course, Aylin, of course.” Gemma was repeating herself again, but she took a deep breath and focused. “The first event is a rescue tournament. You did plenty of those last semester, so you should be able to do this with your eyes closed, but it’s single elimination. If you lose early… well, only the top six academies will advance to the second event.”
She turned her attention to Aylin. “As for defense, that’s second. All six remaining teams will be working together to defend a simulated city from an invasion scenario. You will be scored on three criteria: civilian protection, property protection, and enemy defeats. Only the top four schools will move on to the final event. I don’t have more specifics aside from the fact that event will be held in the Brand.”
I took in a deep breath at that. I knew it was coming, I knew we’d be going there, but that didn’t make it sit any better with me. To cover my discomfort, I asked, “So, what’s nemesis, Gemma?”
“Right, right.” She nodded as she tried to smooth out her slightly frazzled hair. “Often, as you know from your classes, a hero has to deal with a villain one-on-one in straight-up combat, and that is the heart of the nemesis event. So, each of the remaining academy’s captain and co-captain will be placed into a tournament of single combat, single elimination.” She raised a finger. “However, to continue the World’s Finest’s emphasis on teamwork, each academy’s score for the event will be accumulated from both member’s final ranking in the tournament.”
Kara rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “So, it would be possible for, say, Nick to win the nemesis tournament, but if Matt does poorly, Valcav could still lose the event in total? Or, if they placed highly but neither won, we could still win?”
“Exactly,” Gemma replied with a nervous smile. “Basically, we can’t put all our eggs in one basket.” Her eyes drifted towards me before going to Matt. “You all have to try your hardest, and while it will be tough, I know you can do it.”
Andie nudged me with an elbow and laughed. “So, why are you nervous, then?”
“Nervous? Who’s nervous?” With too-wide eyes, Gemma scanned the room around her before pausing on Inferno’s back once again and then another group that I didn’t recognize. Largely dressed in black, they were quiet and withdrawn. I couldn’t remember the name of their academy nor the city they represented. Their mentor was a tall, beautiful woman with raven-black hair and spooky pale eyes. She stood firm with her arms crossed and addressed the group in calm tones.
One of the bunch, a guy my age with vibrant teal ends in his hair, spotted me watching and glared my way. I frowned and lifted a brow back at them. I didn’t recognize the face, which meant he either had beef with me because of family reputation, or he considered me a threat in the tournament. Either way, Gemma had already moved on and was gesturing towards the twins with a tired sigh.
“Are you ready for this, Matt?”
Naturally, Matt was not happy with the unspoken criticism. It was no great secret that he wasn’t the best on the team. He snorted and pretended not to care, disregarding her attention to glance at Inferno’s back, the same death glare the twins had been giving him the whole time.
“Matthew, I asked you a question--”
“Yes, Gemma. I’m ready. Alright?” Irritated, he turned his glare towards her instead. “Been training for weeks, and I can keep up with Nick when he’s not busy being a god. I can do it.”
Despite Matt’s hostility, Gemma’s frown was somewhat sympathetic. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. Efraim doesn’t have the final say here.”
“I want to,” Matt said. It was a lie because after all the training we’d done together, I knew better. The last thing Matt wanted was a spotlight. “I can handle it.”
Gemma looked to pressure him some more, but I held up a hand and caught her intention. “It’s alright. We’ll be fine.”
Gemma wasn’t convinced, but she didn’t know Matt like I did. He was going to shift full authority to me the second we stepped out on that field, regardless of what Efraim wanted. We both knew I could handle it.
“Kara,” Gemma moved on, “did you give them the communication devices?”
“Oh, you mean the comms? Yeah.” Kara tapped her ear, and I heard her both in my ear and to the right of me. “Check.”
We all responded with, “Check,” immediately afterward.
Kara beamed and gave Gemma the thumbs up. “Everything’s working.”
“Good.” Gemma nodded. “What did you bring to the tournament?”
Kara produced four small metallic boxes. “I prepped these ahead of time,” she explained. “They’re basically blank slates filled with parts and circuitry for now, but I can adjust them on the fly depending on how the battle goes. One’s probably gonna be a gun for me, the rest I’m not sure. I have a new force shield design based off of my studies of Nick’s abilities that I want to test out.” Kara glanced my way with a respectful nod. “You remember, the one you used to protect the twins from that robot?”
“Yeah.” I nodded back. “Is it strong?”
“Probably not as strong as yours,” she admitted. “Unlike you, I don’t have an unlimited power source, but it should hold up to most forms of attack.”
“Andie,” Gemma shifted attention. “Your suit’s been adjusted both for better elasticity and insulated to help against elemental attacks, something your stretching powers can’t defend you well against. Since Kara’s on shields, you should be able to be more offensive. Did you test it?”
Andie hummed an af
firmative and stretched her arm up to the rafters up above us. Her older uniforms didn’t follow her stretching, but this one was clung tightly to her form as it stretched nearly as far as she did, following wherever her arm went. She snapped it back to normal a moment later and grinned.
“My little strawberry designed it,” Andie said as she flexed her fingers. She wrapped an arm around our mutual girlfriend and pecked her on the cheek with an expression of pure adoration. “‘Course I’m ready.”
Kara blushed at the public display and muttered, “Not just me. Some others had a hand in it. I wanted to make sure you’d be safe.”
“I’ll be more than safe,” Andie reassured. “I’m gonna kick some ass.”
“Hell yeah, you are.” I chuckled.
Gemma focused her attention on Eric, who looked up from his phone with an embarrassed grimace. “I’m taking notes,” he said.
“I know, sweety,” she said with a nod, “but are you ready for this?”
“For the most terrifying, exciting, crazy moment of my entire life? Yeah, no.” Eric shook his head. “I’m gonna bomb this so hard.”
“You’ll be fine,” Gemma insisted. “This is a team effort.”
“Uh uh.” Eric did not sound so convinced.
Gemma pulled Eric aside to speak with him privately, and the party broke up. Aylin, who’d been quiet to the left of me, followed as I left the group behind to find a corner to hide in. She must have been concerned that I was avoiding everyone, but then she followed my gaze back to my father. His back was towards us, still addressing his students, and she made a nod of understanding at that.
“He’s gonna come over here any minute,” I warned Aylin.
“Starlight, I am here for you. He does not scare me.”
I turned my gaze from the world’s most notorious villain to look deep into Aylin’s glowing eyes. She was utterly sincere, her head tilted slightly as she looked deep into mine as well. The patterns on her face were especially prominent here in the shadows. I wanted to trace them with my finger, follow them wherever they led.