CARNIVAL (The Spark Form Chronicles Book 2)

by Doyle, Matt

  DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT: AN INTERVIEW WITH FAHRN STARCHASER

  The shot fades in on Fahrn Starchaser standing in front of a plain blue curtain, arms crossed against her chest. She stands in silence for a moment, then nods, seemingly deciding what to say.

  "There are a lot of rumours circulating about me right now," she begins. Her voice is slow, deliberate, but no less powerful than normal. "It's the same thing every year, it's the same thing at every event, it's the same damn thing everywhere I go. Everywhere."

  Fahrn tilts her head back and takes a deep breath, keeping her eyes focused on the ceiling as she concedes, "Part of that's my fault." She drops her head back down and fixes the camera with her eyes as she clarifies, "I like to get under people's skin. I like the reactions. I like them, good or bad, because they mean that I'm doing my job right. They mean that, whether you like it or not," she continues, stretching a hand out towards the camera, "I'm reaching out and making a connection with all of you."

  Fahrn pauses, dropping her hand back down, and letting her eyes drift to the floor for a moment before balling her fist and returning her gaze to the camera. "Maybe that's why everyone's always so convinced that I'll never win the title. I've spent my whole career focusing on giving you all what you want, and believe me, you wanted me to get to you just as much as I wanted to do it. You want me to give you a reason to shout and scream and swear. You want me to be the one that gets you angry then comes up short ... You want me to give you a target."

  Fahrn shakes her head. "I let myself be a victim. I made myself something I hate," she spits, biting out the last word. "My people are fighters," she continues proudly. "Survivors. And I am no different. I've taken everything that everyone has ever thrown at me and kept getting back up, kept coming back, year after year after year. Well, this year, I'm taking something back with me. And I'm not gonna run down Hong Chan and Laqueta, I'm not gonna say that Connor Ford's past it or that John Forrester won't beat me a third year running, because none of that matters. It's all just words, meaningless words."

  The camera zooms in and a dark smiles creeps across Fahrn's face. "I'm not here to get a rise out of people any more. I'm here to take home the title. It is what it is."

  We fade to black as Fahrn turns and walks off camera.

  DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN FORRESTER

  The shot fades in on John Forrester sat on the sofa in his changing room, his hands drumming excitedly on his thighs. After a short 'drum roll', he throws himself back, extending his arms in the air with a triumphant "Whoo", then sits forward again with a huge grin on his face.

  "Connor, Connor, Connor, that was so, so awesome. I mean, I spent so much time watching you play when I was starting out, and I don't just mean in the qualifiers, I mean way back when I first started playing, when I was a little kid with no idea how to even build a deck, let alone what cards to play and when. I studied you, I paid attention, I hounded you at Conventions, you remember that, right? The scruffy kid with a ton of questions?"

  "Honestly Connor," he continues, hopping his legs up so that he's sitting cross-legged on the sofa. "You were, and still are my hero. I modelled my playing style on yours. And I don't mean that I copied what you did or anything, that would be such an obvious lie it's ridiculous. No, no, no, I mean I mimicked your thinking. Or how I thought you were thinking at the time. And how I think you're still thinking now.

  "And that," he says, playfully waggling his finger at the camera, "is how I know I'm gonna beat ya today. See, I know how you play. I know what cards you keep in almost every deck, I know what cards you're likely to favour, what sort of things you'll add to counter the cards that I tend to keep in most decks, I know which of Jariah's strengths you'll play to and how you'll build up Blood Lust so that you can finish things just like that," he says with a snap of his fingers. "I know you Connor, I always have, and storming in like you did was a dream come true for me not just because I got to face down my hero the way I always wanted to, but because it proved to me that you haven't changed at all and that's great, it's really, really great."

  John leans back again with a content sigh and crosses his arms behind his head, relaxing into a light grin. His fingers immediately start to tap rapidly on his elbows. "Ya know, I never wanted to beat the shadow of a former champ, I wanted to beat the man. I wanted to beat the malicious, foul mouthed, never backs down, rips you to shreds just because he can, legendary multi-time World Champion. After seeing you here today, I know that you're still him." John pauses for a moment and smiles at the camera. "You don't change because you know how good you are. After today though, you're gonna know how good I am."

  John gives a cheeky wink and finishes, "Game on, Connor Ford," and the shot fades to black.

  FAHRN - 11:45

  "Will it be enough?" I ask.

  "I think so," Sean nods, turning away from his laptop. "You basically fessed up to being intentionally antagonistic and then outright stated that, as of now, you're focused on the prize rather than winding everybody up. It was enough like normal to not affect you if anything goes wrong, but at the same time subtle enough that a lot of people won't realise that they're connecting you to a different set of ideals in their head until after it happens." He smiles. "You did well Fahrn."

  Maria's hand hasn't left my own since the end of the interview, I've been shaking so much. That it wasn't Maria's touch but instead the praise from Sean that's finally stopped the nerves would worry me if she hadn't just given me a proud smile and a reassuring squeeze. Slade meanwhile bellows loudly, "You see Starchaser? Selling yourself short, just like I said," and gives me a hearty slap on the shoulder.

  "I hope you don't mind," Sean continues, "but I took the liberty of consulting Dr Schaefer with regards to where to place the segment. Don't worry, no names or details were mentioned, it was just a basic 'what if we needed someone to appear a third time' conversation. His advice was that it would be better to prolong one match rather than add another appearance. The Djorkiev's agree."

  "So you want to run it straight after my first match?"

  "Yes. To ensure coherence, you'll need to stay plugged in too. Manually switching you to a wireless link up would mean risking The Surge at best remaining in force or at worst getting boosted when you try to speak."

  "Won't staying hooked up be risky too though?" Maria asks.

  "That depends," Sean replies, rubbing his chin, "on how long the match takes. We'll be keeping an eye on the live readings and can reduce the flow if needed though. If that fails, then we'll cut it and go into the angle cold. While hooked up would be preferable, I won't do anything to risk her health, you have my word on that." Maria nods gratefully and Sean turns to Slade. "While you're here, did you catch Lana De La Cruz's match with Connor Ford yesterday?"

  "Of course," he booms. "A most entertaining battle indeed. Such a shame that the esteemed Mr Ford managed to rile her up so much, or she would have had a good shot at defeating him."

  "The fans took to her as well. If you're fine with it, we want to run a speed tag with you two against the Delaneys in the bonus match."

  Slade laughs. "The Beauty and the Beast battling against the odds to redeem themselves after hard fought losses."

  "Something like that," Sean smiles.

  "In that case, I shall take my leave. Miss De La Cruz will no doubt want to talk strategy before our epic encounter with destiny." He turns back to me and smiles widely. "My congratulations again Starchaser, Charla and I shall be watching closely whilst you conquer the demons of the Spark Forming world." Finally, he turns to Maria and says, "And to you Miss Grace I leave the task of ensuring that Starchaser's new found success does not go to her head."

  "I haven't succeeded yet Slade," I say with a smile.

  "But you will, Fahrn. Because unlike most, you have something more than simple fame to fight for. Until later my friends."

  With that, Slade leaves with a barrage of laughter and a loud stomping of his feet as he marches up the ha
llway.

  "Should I feel sorry for Lana?" I ask.

  "Given that I haven't told her that she's tagging with him yet, probably," Sean replies with a wicked smile.

  "You're not going to tell her before he finds her, are you?"

  "After what she put me through yesterday? Nope."

  Maria starts giggling and I realise that I really do like this side of Sean. Even after how he's been with me this year, I'm still not used to feeling anything other than resentment for anyone in authority, but if he can make Maria laugh like that, then he can't be that bad.

  JOHN FORRESTER - 11:47

  "So that's two empty corridors and five full of newbies," I say with a slight smile. I may have the mental equivalent of a game of ping pong on speed going on most of the time, but I'm actually quite observant.

  Most of the staff here are nameless to me. Well, nameless apart from the nicknames and general identifying roles I use to tell one from the other, but the point isn't that I haven't got a clue what most of their names are, but that I do usually recognise the staff. Or most of them anyway. Well, not the revolving door that is the wardrobe department, but the general security and maintenance staff are fairly consistent. One or two new faces wouldn't leap out at me, but given that every person we've come across has definitely, one hundred per cent, without a shadow of a doubt been a new person, alarm bells have started ringing.

  Carnival gives a nervous grunt, her eyes occasionally darting about as we walk. We figured out pretty quickly that they're most likely part of Lana and Finn's plan. We even tried a little idle conversation with each other to see if they'd react but all they did was keep doing what they're doing, whatever that may be.

  "Still feels odd, huh? Being watched like this isn't the same as being out on the field, is it?" I ask, and Carnival responds with a short, frustrated pant. I nod. "It's kinda nice though."

  Stopping dead in her tracks, Carnival gives a confused blink and watches me take a few steps forward before turning to face her with a big smile on my face. She tilts her head, finally ignoring the small group of definitely-fake-but-if-I-wanna-be-paranoid-maybe-on-the-off-chance-real-and-just-not-paying-attention-staff a few feet behind us, and waits for me to respond.

  "Normally, we'd have to be really careful when we're out and about together, even here. Right now though, we can just chill a bit. I mean, sure, I don't like being watched like this either. Oh, and there's the not knowing what Lana and Finn have planned or how these sneaky observers play into it. Plus, the format of today means that we don't really have much time to come up with ideas for what could happen or how to combat it. But at least we don't have to hide. We can walk, talk, do whatever and not have to worry about who's going to catch us."

  Carnival opens her mouth to respond but nothing comes out. After a moment, she drops her muzzle and looks away, her mouth still open and eyes deep in thought. I step forward and she lifts her head again.

  "Whatever happens will happen, we can't escape that. And yeah, if I'm being honest with you, I am scared, and I'm panicking because I don't know what I'm supposed to do or say to make sure that when that whatever happens, it doesn't end up with you being taken ..." I sigh. "I'm pretty sure they don't want the Colonies knowing about you, so they'll be careful to make sure that any witnesses are on their payroll. We'll be outnumbered no matter what we do, but at least we won't have to hide ourselves away and that makes it a lot easier to face things down. We can do that," I say, stepping forward again and taking her hands in mine. "We can do that."

  Carnival's hands tighten on my own but quickly loosen again as she regains her composure, her lightly swishing tail and the almost unnoticeable ripple that runs down her ears being the only signs that she hasn't really done so. She lets out a single pant that almost sounds like an exasperated laugh, then closes her eyes and brings her forehead to mine, turning her face awkwardly to the side to make up for her otherwise inhibiting snout.

  After rubbing her head against mine, Carnival pulls away again and stretches nonchalantly. With a cheeky grin, she turns back to our Emblem endorsed shadows and blows them a hearty raspberry, then immediately resumes our journey towards the entranceway, leaving me to dash to catch up.

  "I tell ya though," I say, "even with all this stuff going on, facing Connor Ford is like a dream come true for me. He really was my hero growing up." Carnival responds with an unimpressed growl and I laugh. "Be nice. Hey, I wonder if he's already there? I bet he is. Oh, remember, no costume change until he's already entered. We've gotta leave him as little time as possible to adjust."

  Carnival yips happily.

  CONNOR FORD - 11:50

  "You think you've got me, don't you, you little bastard." I laugh to myself, marvelling at how young my voice suddenly feels as it echoes around me. "Fool."

  Oh, he's achieved what he wanted, there's no doubt about that. He's forced my hand. After that little video of his, I had to set Blood Lust in place or I'd look like I was backing down, afraid that he had a counter in mind. I laugh again, this time out loud. "Of course he has a bloody counter strategy or he wouldn't have tried goading me, would he?"

  I'll give him his dues; he knows how to play. And play well at that. He's a strange boy though. He goes out to win, that much is clear, but his eyes aren't hungry. Which means that, regardless of what I said in the interview, it's not the glory that he's after. "So what does he bloody fight for then?"

  I look down at the Data Wick on the floor by the door to the entranceway, the red standby light flashing at regular intervals, lightly illuminating the scrapes and slight cracking on the casing that gives away how well used the thing is. Resting on top of it, the Mobile Loader those idiots found at the storage facility for me is equally as broken down in appearance, the colour almost stripped away from it.

  A smile creeps slowly across my face. I may not know what Forrester fights for, but I know what I fight for. I will die this day and do so wielding battle worn weapons in one last great hunt for glory. Then my love you will see me again, just as you did the first time that you laid eyes on me. A warrior, shining brighter than all others, dragging the world kicking and screaming along with me as my tale reaches its final chapter.

  "Someone looks happy."

  "I see that you brought your pet," I spit, turning my head to face my opponent and his furry shadow. I shoot them both a malicious grin. Even knowing that the beast to his left has no capacity to appreciate the gesture, I still gain some satisfaction from it. "Like lambs to the slaughter."

  He laughs and says, "Come on Connor, you know it's not going to be that easy, right?"

  "And that is why you will lose," I snap. "Easy? Hard? I have never given any thought to what sort of battle lays ahead of me boy, not once. When you keep your eyes set ahead with nothing but your goal in mind, all battles are equal. Count yourself lucky that you rarely face anyone of note. Starchaser is the only one that's given you any trouble the last few years because she's the only one that comes here with a bloody goal."

  "Yeah, Fahrn's fun," he replies, that stupid bloody grin covering his face. "She's not unbeatable though. I can't think of a single person who is."

  The lights above the door to the entranceway start flashing and the quiet alarm that signals the start of the show starts to fill the room.

  "Well, at least you've realised that much," I sneer, grabbing my borrowed Mobile Loader and pushing Jariah's card in. The Data Wick light goes green and the machine slowly floats up in front of us, the warmth of the air around it hitting me instantly and causing a light ripple on my robe as I turn back to Forrester. Without the added effects of the arena introductions, the image of my chosen Spark Form appears quickly around the Wick's metal casing, leaving the towering Vulthera to stand ready behind me, her mock breathing accompanied by short growls. "All can be beaten, and all can be upstaged, remember that."

  I turn to the door, but stop myself advancing. Some things need to be done, just in case. Without looking back, I growl, "I should thank you
Forrester."

  "Thank me? Why?"

  "Because boy, I. Am. Alive," I roar and step through the door, Jariah following calmly behind me.

  MEERA THORNE - 11:53

  "Hmm? Didn't I explain that yesterday?" Hong Chan asks, trying to reach the manual switches at the side of the TV. We hadn't realised that the remote control was missing until we actually tried to look for it.

  "Nuh-uh," I say with a shake of my head. "I just kinda thought that John Forrester and Connor Ford are so good that ... you said that if they over-run we'll probably just go straight into the match with Fahrn. If the Doctors are still checking them then won't we be in the way?"

  "There we go," he says, stepping back with a smile and sitting down next to me. "There shouldn't be any problem with anyone getting in the way. There are three rooms that lead to the entranceway."

  "There are?" I ask, suddenly feeling very stupid. I should know something like that.

  "Sorry," Hong Chan replies, his apologetic tone giving away that he's spotted how dumb I feel. "It must have slipped my mind to explain that. Didn't you ... no, actually, with Dorian doing his walk-out thing I guess you wouldn't have needed to ask where he was when the med team were with you."

  I shake my head.

  "What normally happens is that both competitors take the same room before they enter, then get syphoned into separate rooms when they come back after the match. It's rare that people end up in the same room, unless there's a miscommunication or something goes wrong." Hong Chan pauses and starts clicking his tongue while he thinks something through. After a moment, he nods and continues, "Actually, I should probably mention that just in case. Something happened to Connor Ford yesterday. I'm not sure what exactly, but he ended up in the same room as Lana after their match."