Lady Luck lay unconscious on the ground as Dynamo strutted toward her with thunderous steps. Tempo, his white eyes enlarged, could do nothing but watch as Lady Luck’s good fortune had finally run out. He wanted to intervene, as did Infinite, but the announcer had already warned them about what happens when one interferes. He'd already lost his temper during Tempo and Celsius's hard-fought battle against the siblings; one wrong move could mean certain death for their entire team.
“COME ON! GET UP!” Tempo was shouting as if she could hear him; his voice was so desperate, the others knew their suspicions about the two of them were one hundred percent correct. The two of them were far from being a serious item or calling themselves being in a relationship, but their feelings for each other were still present and obvious to anyone observing them.
Dynamo came to a halt, looking down at Lady Luck’s unconscious self with furrowed brows. He didn't hate her for what she did to his teammate, but he had to do what needed to be done to ensure victory. He opened his mouth and a beam of light manifested deep within his esophagus. The veins around his neck gleamed like bolts of lightning and his eyes were drowned out by blinding beams of light.
“AAAAAH!” Dynamo bellowed, discharging energy from within himself, his throat acting as a canon. The beam was so quick, that Lady Luck was instantly engulfed in a white light. During their fight, Dynamo had released quick bursts of energy from his mouth previously, small in width and precise akin to a sniper’s bullet. However, this time, this blast of energy was like something out of a space opera, it was as if he was firing an Earth-destroying orbital laser onto her body.
Team New York watched in horror as Lady Luck was seemingly fried for what felt like an eternity. After thirty seconds of shouting his energy beam at his victim, Dynamo closed his mouth and his beam ceased. In front of him, there was nothing left of Lady Luck, just the charred remains of what once was. Her and the floor where she lay, had been reduced to ash.
Team New York and the audience were stunned, dead silent as they watched Dynamo stand over what remained of Lady Luck. However, the announcer's lips slowly curled upward before transforming into a devious, distorted grin that covered half of his face.
“THAT. WAS. INCREDIBLE!” The announcer screamed into his microphone, riling up the crowd who then followed suit and cheered for Team Shibuya’s first win. Dynamo’s eyes tracked the announcer and he scoffed before he placed his hands in his pockets and retreated to his teammates. He thought it was disgusting how this violence was glorified, if there weren't any repercussions, that mouth beam of his would target the announcer next.
“TEAM SHIBUYA TAKES ROUND THREE! THE SCORE IS NOW… TWO TO ONE!”
Everyone on Team New York was devastated aside from Infinite. In fact, he had a smile on his face as he stared directly at the burn mark on the ground. Professor Anarchy noticed his smug expression and couldn’t help but inquire further. “What’s funny?” He almost sounded as if he took offense to the laughter, holding his tongue from saying what he really wanted to say.
“No one noticed.” said Infinite. “There’s no outline of where her body was either. He really pulled it off.” Infinite then looked at Professor Anarchy with an even larger smile than before. “Look around you, Professor. Notice anyone missing?”
Professor Anarchy checked each and every last member of the team, counting only six of their ten members. The Blur and Fixer were still nowhere to be found, Lady Luck was seemingly erased from existence, and Tempo…
“Of course… Tempo.” Professor Anarchy’s slight smile was shielded by his mask, yet still heard through his voice. Tempo was secretive about his abilities, such that no one on his team really knew how they worked. Despite this, Professor Anarchy and Infinite were able to formulate what happened. In fact, Infinite was sure he even saw what happened.
Right before the beam had struck Lady Luck, he could see some sort of displacement for a single millisecond! He immediately looked around to see that Tempo had disappeared. ‘So he teleported her out at the last second, huh?’
Infinite’s theory about teleportation was nearly accurate, but the truth was that Tempo froze time just before the beam struck Lady Luck, and then he grabbed her before finally teleporting her away just as time resumed itself. No one but Infinite noticed a thing and they avoided disqualification.
Tempo found himself holding Lady Luck's unconscious body in Team New York's waiting room; it was the only place he could think of out of his limited options to choose from. In an instant, he cleared the coffee table at the room's center and laid her down atop it. Without a second thought, he cut a piece of his own costume off and began unzipping Lady Luck's leotard so he could treat her wound.
For a moment, he hesitated. “I’m so sorry.” he whispered, averting his eyes before covering her chest with his jacket so as to not invade her privacy. He could see the wound on the right side of her body, bleeding profusely. There wasn't any sort of object visible, it was as if she'd been shot by an invisible bullet that dematerialized after Impact. He placed his ear over her chest and could still feel her heart beating weakly, but her body had gone cold; he was running out of time.
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“Apply pressure.” he thought to himself, using a smaller piece of fabric to apply pressure to her wound before wrapping it up in his ripped clothing. Looking down at her, he knew this wasn’t going to be good enough, it was only delaying the inevitable unless her wound was treated properly. However, his options were scarce.
“I need a doctor but…” Tempo wanted more than anything to take her to the medical facility in the arena, however, he remembered what the announcer had told them about interfering. If word got out that he’d saved her, his entire team could be wiped out as punishment. Nonetheless, all hope wasn't lost for the time warper. “Psychometry!”
Tempo shrouded his own body in his Temporal Cloak and amplified his own speed before dashing out of the room, making his way into the medical facility where multiple doctors and nurses were seeing other beta testers with fatal injuries. ‘It’s going to be impossible to find the information I need, so I have to prompt the information out.’
As he scanned the area, he saw Celsius carrying Flora into the emergency room. The two locked eyes for a moment and Celsius could see the blood on Tempo's hands and clothes.
“Gunshot wounds!” Tempo yelled out, gaining everyone's attention in the room. The doctors were confused, to say the least, but their minds were on exactly what he needed now. Tempo ran up to a surgeon, grabbed his hand, and immediately activated his Psychometry ability to absorb what she knew about treating an injury similar to Lady Luck's. As if he’d studied medicine for years, Ky immediately gained the temporary expertise of a trained professional, allowing him to help his teammate. However, this knowledge would fade fast, just as his ability to learn Spanish did back when he cheated on his presentation. Regardless, it was going to be enough to save her and buy him enough time to get her properly healed.
Tempo froze time, grabbed the necessary items, and teleported himself back into the room with Lady Luck. He wasted no time, immediately getting to work using his newfound knowledge before it could fade as if he were taking an exam directly after a cram session.
“Alright, alright. Clean the wound.” Tempo whispered to himself, frantically taking a few of the towels lying around the waiting room, dampening them with warm water, and dousing them with a saline solution. 'I don't have the tools to properly irrigate the wound, but this is good enough for now.'
Once the wound was cleaned as best as Tempo could do, he pulled out some suture wire he borrowed, along with a needle, and began stitching her body shut. Upon impaling her skin with the needle, Tempo nearly threw up from the sensation. He didn't do blood very well, his queasiness wouldn't prevent him from doing what needed to be done.
Meanwhile, Celsius burst into the room, deducing that this is where Tempo must have gone. Upon seeing the state of Lady Luck, along with the blood all over the table and floor, Celsius's eyes widened. "Holy shit! Do you even know what you're doing!?"
"I can steal knowledge from people's brains and use that information myself. I've done it to learn Spanish once before." Tempo continued stitching Claire up as he spoke, missing not even a single beat. "I thought it was permanent, but after ten minutes or so, I'll forget most of the details. That's why I have to work fast."
Celsius ran over and looked over Tempo's shoulder, covering his mouth upon seeing him work on Lady Luck's gnarly wound. "Gross. How can you even stand to look at that?" Celsius backed up, using Tempo's shoulder to shield the wound from his eyes.
"Because I want to save her. Can you shut up if you don't have anything useful to say? This isn't a joke!" Tempo raised his voice as he continued working on the wound. Celsius said nothing, though internally, he had a lot to say. 'I've never seen him so serious outside of a fight...' he then looked at Lady Luck who was starting to wake up earlier than Tempo had expected. 'He must really care for her... Didn't they just meet?'
Even Tempo didn't understand why he cared so much about her. They weren't a couple, they simply shared one single moment together, yet Tempo felt as if he was willing to turn the world upside down if it meant saving her. Part of him felt embarrassed about it all, especially once Celsius walked into the room. He was desperately trying his best to heal this girl who barely knew him to the point where he was on the verge of tears. Yet he wasn't sure if she even shared the same sentiment.
As if he were a pro, Tempo had nearly closed the wound. As he did so, he could see Lady Luck’s face starting to move and she began wincing with every action he took. 'Damn it. Don't move so much, Claire.' he thought.
“Ky…?” she whispered. As if saying his name took what remaining energy she had left, Lady Luck immediately drifted back into unconsciousness. It only took a few more seconds and her wound was closed. It nearly looked like a professional had done it, though it started becoming sloppy toward the end as Ky's stolen knowledge began fading.
“Her wound is good enough for now. I should take her to an actual hospital now. Just in case…”
Tempo lifted Lady Luck on his back and looked at his rival. "Can you take us to a hospital? It'll be faster if you help us." If only he could use Temporal Recall to teleport anywhere in the world, but alas, he could only teleport to a place that’s been recorded by his ability.
"Yeah, let's get outside first. I'll get you guys there in no time."
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Meanwhile, Infinite, the caped hero of New York, and Professor Anarchy, New York’s most powerful sorcerer, stood side by side on stage with the condition of Lady Luck and Flora pushed to the back of their minds.
They needed to win this next match, or else the score would be tied. Since they were short two members due to the Blur and Fixer being missing, they would be eliminated from the tournament due to a forfeit.
The announcer then flourishes his arm, pointing at Team Shibuya before welcoming their chosen fighters to the stage. “And would Team Shibuya’s representatives please make their way onto the stage!”