“Wait!” Daniel called out, following her into the restaurant — a cutesy-styled desert store, with cartoon drawings of ice creams and cake plastered over the pastel walls.

The girl hurried back across the room, to a table with a purse on top.

“I promise that wasn’t what it looked like. I didn’t really knock that guy out,” Daniel chuckled. “Are you a Fighter, though? Asking for a friend.”

She finished the food in her mouth. “Can I be done with my croissant, first?”

“Sure, but…couldn’t you have used that chance to tell me yes or no?”

The girl raised a finger as she stuffed the final bite of her croissant into her mouth, and took a long moment to chew. As a distant explosion rumbled through the entire store, Daniel crossed his arms and tapped his fingers. When he finally thought she’d answer, she actually raised a napkin to her lips to wipe a few crumbs off.

“Oh, just splendid. Now then,” the girl cleared her throat. “To answer your question, yes, I am. My name’s Nimbus. But I know yours.”

Nimbus extended her gloved palm, and Daniel watched in awe as a cloud formed in the air above her palm. The cloud grew as it floated beside her, with a smiley face drawn out in dark, cartoony lines. But, the cloud darkened. Nimbus rose to her feet and reached into the gray puff. First the handle, then she pulled out the cold steel of a massive sword, as long as Daniel was tall, with a broad, rectangular blade that gathered to a point at the end.

“I humbly challenge you to a ranked Fight, Chase!”

Daniel gasped, and so did the person working at the front counter as a menu appeared between them, showing her stats.

[https://i.imgur.com/ZOTDIFi.png]

Her stats were almost the complete opposite of his, with high Combo-Potential, Long-Range, and higher Health. The exact stats he had lowered — and sacrificed, in the case of Combo-Potential and Long-Range.

“I recognized you as soon as you passed by the store window following that other girl,” Nimbus said. “The boy who won the South City Beginner’s Tournament and got to star in a movie, right in my own neighborhood. How perfect of a chance could I ask for?”

Nimbus swung like the blade didn’t weigh anything; the slightly blunt edge smashed through her table, decimating the furniture.

“A chance to push my product!”

Daniel raised a quizzical eyebrow. “What…?”

He pressed accept, and the referee spawned in between them, a ghost-like man with blue skin and an ethereal blue glow around his entire body. “Nimbus VS. Chase. Best of three! Fighters, enter your starting positions!”

“Hello, everyone!” Nimbus shouted, waving to her left, and then to her right, to the invisible audience. Every Fight was automatically streamed and televised by the System to the entire area. “My name’s Priscilla Sharpe, the CEO of Overcast Incorporated. Chase, aren’t you tired of wearing that same drab black tank top?”

Daniel pinched at his sleeveless black shirt. “I don’t know, it’s perfectly—”

“Of course! Everyone gets sick of wearing the same attire day after day to keep up their image. Well, why don’t you add a splash of color to your wardrobe? Any color!”

From behind her back, Nimbus pulled out an identical black shirt in one hand and a spray bottle in the other. After a single spray, blue dye splashed onto the black shirt’s surface, and the color spread through the fabric, consuming the entire thing. In the blink of an eye, it transformed to a full blue.

“Introducing Paradigm Shift, the new product sold online at—”

The referee cleared his throat, potinging down at the blue square behind Nimbus, indicating where she was supposed to be standing. “Fighters, enter your starting positions!”

“Sold online at retailers near you!” Nimbus said, stepping back to her specified spot. Her sword struck sparks against the tile floor, screeching loud enough to make Daniel jump. “A new look refreshes the mind. I’m feeling quite level-headed right now, so watch as I beat Chase to a pulp in my last match as an A Class!”

“Round one!”

Daniel entered his fighting stance, remembering to lower his fists just a bit. He wasn’t in any better of a position, ranking wise. Her ranking was an actual number, but, even though they were in the same Class, a bright red banner at the top of his Fighter menu had shown him exactly what he needed to know.

If he lost, he’d derank back down to a B Class.

“Ready?”

But, all he had to do was not lose. Not lose, and figure out exactly how far this new moveset would take him.

At the front desk, the cashier flipped her sign to “closed” before disappearing into the back room.

“Fight!”

Daniel pressed the offensive with a step forward. Nimbus backpedaled, but a dark mist gathered around her massive sword. As she slashed upwards, the mist gathered into a puffy cloud, launching in front of her. Daniel had to back up to dodge her upwards slash. The cloud floated in the air, darkening with every passing second.

His second of hesitation gave Nimbus the chance to push on, though she didn’t have to step forward very far — her sword easily closed the distance. Daniel blocked her two slashes, frustrated at being too far to retaliate before the third, downward hit.

She crouched at the same time and lunged forward, slashing at the air. Daniel gasped, recognizing the down and forward motions. A powerful gust of wind circled her blade, tossing furniture towards him.

Daniel weaved underneath a flying chair, but at that moment, the cloud had completely darkened to gray. Thunder rumbled through the cloud before a bolt of lightning struck Daniel’s chest, freezing him in place.

As he strained, frozen, Nimbus took advantage. She planted the blunt edge of her massive sword right into the side of his head, and stars flashed through his vision. The second hit smashed a rib, and on the third, a blast of wind launched Daniel through a table, leaving him on the ground below the front window.

Daniel reeled, gritting his teeth against the pain. Ahead, Nimbus swung at the air twice, firing two more clouds. Clearly, this annoyance was what made her a Zoner. Her sword’s size wasn’t for damage; the range let her space him out and attack from a place he couldn’t retaliate, and the thunder clouds covered her openings.

He shot to his feet and tried to rush in, but lightning leaped from the cloud on his left. Daniel blocked, noting the specific timing between when she created it and when the lightning revealed itself. The second cloud darkened, seconds away from firing a bolt of its own. Nimbus shifted her stance to swing.

And Daniel thrust his hands to his side. As a blue glow filled his entire body, lightning struck his chest, yanking time to a crawl. Daniel phased through her slash and stepped close enough to attack, but the counter window faded away. Nimbus raised her elbow, bringing up her guard to block the first two hits of his blockstring.

At least, what he thought would be the first two hits. On the third, his body froze, as if gears within his brain were grinding against one another, forcing his muscles to pause. The freeze ended once Nimbus recovered from blockstun. He still went through the motion of the punch, though.

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Easily, she dodged and elbowed him in the chin. She thrust the base of her sword into his gut and finished with a final wide slash, tossing him across the room, reducing another pile to wooden debris.

Daniel winced against the pain, pushing a discarded table leg off of his chest as he mentally facepalmed. That’s what lowered Combo Potential felt like. But, on the bright side, he glanced at his fists — his Counter had stored the damage from the lightning, and a faint blue aura hovered along his skin.

Down. Backward.

Again, as Daniel recovered, Nimbus acted out the commands for her special move. “Weather Report: Below Freezing!” she shouted.

This time, she summoned three clouds, each floating in place in the space between them. The clouds didn’t darken; all three fired bursts of cold wind, like the AC had dropped to zero.

And, sadly, Daniel had tried to counter, expecting lightning. The Counter faded away, taking the stored damage with it. He kept his block up, but the chill still pierced through his bones, slowing his movements, freezing every breath into visible clouds. He dropped his block and tried to run out of the way, but he was so slow, Nimbus had a chance to fire another Wind Slash to shove him backwards.

Not again!

He held the wall to steady himself, but his movements weren’t slowed — not yet. He had to act fast. Daniel rolled out of the way of Nimbus’s next Wind Slash, dodging both her attack and the blasts of ice. She fired a third Wind Slash, but he was ready, this time. He struck his counterpose perfectly on time, and lunged in to grab Nimbus by her shoulders.

As time resumed, Daniel twisted sharply, throwing her to the floor. Her sword flew from her grasp, clattering against the ground. He stepped away, allowing her to roll to her feet and grab her blade. Daniel chuckled to himself — Raph would always criticize how he let people get back up, but punching someone on the ground felt like a jerk move.

Down. Forward.

Nimbus swung her sword in a massive, wide circle. “Wind Slash!” she shouted, eyes gleaming blue as a powerful gust circled around her and swept through the entire store. She brought her blade down; the Wind Slash was so powerful, blue energy visibly followed as it charged across the store.

Against his guard, the sheer weight shoved him back a foot. Daniel released his guard and dashed forward as she recovered, but that wasn’t it. Wind still gathered around Nimbus’s body, billowing through her hair. She swung again, firing a quick second Wind Slash.

Once it smacked Daniel right in the face, everything went black.

The referee revived Daniel from the blackness of unconsciousness afterwards. As the dining room repaired itself, Nimbus sprayed herself with a bottle of perfume, filling the room with a sweet smell that had a background scent of mintiness.

“Smell that, Chase? That’s my new brand, Cloud Nine, sold at—”

“Round two!” the referee shouted, cutting her off. “Ready?”

Daniel wiped a bit of dust from his mouth and shot to his feet. He had forgotten about the lowered combo potential. The system really meant it when it said his combos were limited to two hits, clearly by freezing him whenever he tried to hit more than twice.

“Fight!”

Nimbus slashed upwards, firing a sweet-scented Wind Slash. Daniel saw it coming — he struck his counterpose, rushing closer, pivoting to the side opposite her sword hand.

Down, Back.

After lunging back to space out her blade, Nimbus swung upwards. A dark cloud shot out of her blade, but Daniel blocked her sweeping slash and her following slash, too. A breath later, lightning leaped from the dark cloud. He had the rhythm down; Daniel beatboxed to himself quietly, right at the moment when the lightning fired, and countered it easily.

Time slowed to a crawl. Instead of striking back, though, he merely dashed right through her, phasing through her to end up behind her.

Nimbus wheeled around, glaring at him. “Something's different, again. Your fists didn’t glow like that in that last big fight.”

Daniel grinned, shrugging. “Maybe something’s different. Come find out.”

“You insolent — you think you’re better than me?!”

Down. Down.

NImbus crouched twice, and wind swelled around her feet before she lunged towards him, swinging like a baseball player going for a home run. Daniel raised his guard against the first slash, though the second nearly took him off of his balance — how the hell did she swing that large sword around?

On the third, she flipped her blade to the side and swung it through a nearby set of chairs and a table, smashing it to pieces, flinging the debris right at him.

Daniel drew in a sharp breath and countered.

He countered the flying table itself, and closed his eyes as the wood phased through his body. The light around his fists intensified. As power pounded through his heart and blue light traced his limbs, Daniel weaved and bobbed and planted his fist into Nimbus’s jaw in a heavy hook.

Compounded from countering the lightning and the furniture, power exploded from Daniel’s fists in a visible shockwave of blue energy, rocking through her entire body, decimating forty-percent of her health in one blow. He pressed on as she reeled from the massive hit, chaining a punch into her ribs to a punch to the chest, taking another twenty percent.

Nimbus stumbled backwards, and blood trailed from her nose as she leaned against her sword to keep her balance. She wiped her nose, but stared at the crimson staining her white glove. With a shaky hand, she reached towards her ear, on the side where his fist had made contact.

The side that didn’t have a lightning earring anymore.

“You…my earring!”

“Uh, you know it comes back after the round, right?” Daniel chuckled. “No way it’s that serious.”

Anger shot through her face as she glanced back toward the window, where a few bystanders were watching. Daniel couldn’t fight his smile — he knew exactly what he was doing.

“Damn you!”

She swung wildly for his head, and Daniel easily struck his counterpose in time. He stepped in and grabbed her by the shoulders, thrusting a foot behind her ankle to shove her to the ground. As the grab took a bite from her health, leaving her at a mere ten percent, her blade’s momentum continued and sent it flying into the wall across the store.

Her hat was thrown from the top of her head, and her long black hair spilled across the floor, freed from their constraints. The makeup around her nose had been smudged, and Daniel backed away a step as she glared in horror up at the people watching through the window. Desperately, she grabbed a broken table leg and swung at Daniel’s head in a final last-ditch effort.

Daniel easily weaved out of the way. A fist to the face broke her other earring, and the last of her health disappeared.

“Down!”

The windows muffled the cheers of the small crowd gathering outside the windows, supercharged by Daniel’s explosive victory. But, below him, Nimbus wasn’t looking as happy. Daniel backed away to let her stand. Her hat returned to the top of her head, and her sword appeared in the air for her to grab. But, she was so focused on scowling at Daniel, she didn't even bother grabbing it before it dropped onto the floor.

Daniel glanced at his wrist, checking the blue bar denoting how much Meter he had. He hadn’t used much, so four bars had built up through the two rounds.

Nimbus checked too and picked up her sword, clenching a fist around the handle. “You’re not getting away with this. I’m gonna win — and even if I possibly didn’t, I’m suing you into the ground for defamation, for assault, for—”

“It isn’t about pushing your product. It ain’t even about business anymore, is it?” Daniel chuckled. “You're just mad you look like a wimp in front of all these people.”

“Final round! Ready?”

“Don’t worry,” Daniel said. “I used to know someone like you. She grew out of it.”

“Fight!”

Shouting, Nimbus pointed her sword forward, and the tip led her charge. Daniel tensed, expecting a high thrust, but she stabbed it into the floor at the last moment and vaulted over it. Her foot smashed across his face a moment later. Before he could even gasp, she landed and elbowed him in the stomach, freezing him in hitstun long enough to finish the combo with a Wind Slash.

As Daniel hit the window and fell through a table, Nimbus fired two dark-gray Weather Report clouds. Just as Daniel tried to rush in, though, she fired a third cloud — this time thin and misty. He blocked in surprise, but the wispy puff bursted into an even bigger cloud, obscuring his view like a hissing smoke grenade.

The clouds! Remember the beat!

His mind screamed at him to the beat of a rhythm, and just when he expected it, a bolt of lighting cracked through the smoke cloud. Daniel ducked underneath the first and countered the second, and took the chance to run out of the cloud of smoke.

Right into two freezing clouds already setup for him. Nimbus wore a confident smirk. He tried to block, but the frigid air still gathered frost around his arms, slowing every move.

And like a checkmate, Nimbus took advantage.

Back, Forward, Right, Down, Left, Up.

She jumped for the final motion and floated a foot above the ground. Light flooded through her sword. As her eyes gleamed yellow, the sun itself shimmered through the blade. The moment her feet met tile, she broke out into a low sprint, but Daniel couldn’t lower his arms fast enough.

She uppercutted him with the blade’s dull edge, and light filled his vision. The next thing he knew, he hit hard concrete. Around him, the scene had shifted — he was in the center of a cracked city road, with the corpses of decimated cars laying by the roadside. Dark storm clouds roared above the skyscrapers as rain poured down.

With her eyes like beacons, Nimbus now floated hundreds of feet in the air, far, far ahead. Her sword had grown to be even larger. A powerful blast of wind knocked Daniel’s hat from his head as the storm raged on.