Monday December 3rd

It was finally the day. Well, morning. A cold, bitter December morning. Their breath hung in the air, crystalising before them. Fog enveloped those stood at the train platform. The whole course piled onto a train at the Northfield station at 7 a.m.. Tired zombies hobbled to the seats on the carriage, their faces drained of life by sleep deprivation.

Each train car fit one of the three teams and a couple lecturers, to keep an eye on them.

For what felt like forever to the passengers there was a silence. Everyone was nervous. Anxiety ran through everyone's mind, this was what they had been building towards all semester. Some were scared, what if they didn't get in what would happen to their grades? Was it even possible to fail?

Jude himselfwas mess, riddled with stress. He had been on this train for ten minutes already and he hadn't even looked around the train, he had stared out the window trying to plan what was to come. He doubted himself in his own mind, was he a capable strategist? Was Rin going to be able handle being the leader? What was everyone else thinking? Sweat trickled down his back, his body ignoring the freezing temperatures.

Jack’s head rested on the table that was between four seats. Jude looked at him for a while, whilst Damian prodded Jack’s scalp. The final member, quite unsurprisingly, was Rin. Kuna was sat on the seats behind Jude, but he was mainly playing games and listening to music.

Still being poked Jack ignored it and spoke up, “What’s even the point of this tournament and league?” The other three took a brief pause, none of them had actually considered that question before. This event was something so exciting to them all that the mere thought of its purpose was alien to them.

Fortunately for them and unfortunately for Alex, there was a lecturer sat behind Rin and Damian. Alex was sat chatting to Moxie, another lecturer on the course. They were having a nice conversation until two heads appeared to spring up from the seats in front.

“Alex, what’s the point in the league?” With a sigh to finish his conversation he explained as briefly as he could.

“Well mainly it is for two reasons. First and foremost is because this a junior version of a real sport, even if it is quite new. You can earn a lot of money from it. It is like boxing in a way you get money because you get the snot beaten outta ya. The second reason is for guilds to look for new members, they will send talent scouts to matches and especially to the final Champion League.”

“Guild? What’s that? You mean like in RPGs?” Questioned a very perplexed Damian.

“Well I guess you could compare it to video games, but then again that is what happens when you leave culture up to the decision of nerds and mercenaries. We actually will discuss guilds more in your second semester, but for now basically think of them as individual companies who complete jobs using their alterations.”

The two boys pondered for a second; Rin was more in thought whilst Damian was beaming with excitement. Alex just stared at them, hoping they would leave. After half a minute he turned back to Moxie to carry on his conversation and as he did Damian opened his mouth. A rare feeling washed over Alex, annoyance. But when he turned to answer the question the two heads had disappeared, and they had retaken their seats.

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Suddenly the table was alive with conversation. The guild idea had given their group new life and a great thing to keep them occupied for a bit. Unfortunately, the signal around them was not great so they could not do too much research, so they began to talk about it, with the very limited knowledge they had.

“Okay I’ve decided. I’m going to make the best guild in the world.” Jude stated, with no fear. Rin chuckled a bit causing Jude’s face to go red. His nerves now kicking back in, embarassment now melded itself with anxiety.

“I’d expect no less from the guy that names his fighting moves.”

“Jude names his attacks? That’s so cool!” Damian shouted looking enamoured.

Across from them, on the other side of the carriage, was another four-seater with a few girls on their course. Amelia twisted her torso to face the boys. “Awww Jude, that’s so cute. I bet they all have really cool names. Did you also name the costume we designed together? I bet you have a cool codename like ‘The Blue Defender’.” Amelia grinned and both Delilah and Sofia began to laugh at the comment. Nerissa, the final member of the four-seater, had her earphones in and was not even bothering to look at what the rest were doing and stared out of the window. However, Amelia would forever swear that she saw Nerissa crack a little smile.

The girls' laughter died down. The carriage was quiet, the bit of respite and levity had lightened the mood momentarily. However, everyone had now gone back to their default state on what could be described as fear. It took Jude a minute to recollect his thoughts and look around. As he drew his attention back to the real world, his friends did too and surprisingly none of them had noticed but Jack had found a way to sleep in all the commotion.

It was a few hours before he awoke, now only half an hour away from their destination Jack’s head raised. Not only was he groggy his hair was a mess.

“Good morning sleepyhead.” Damian teased, causing the girls to laugh again. With a yawn and a stretch Jack fully woke up,

“Hey boys. Sorry about that, what were we talking about?”

“Nothing much.” Jude replied.

“Good ‘cause I got a question to ask you all. You wanna get a house together?”

“Can do.”

“Hell yeah!”

“Nah, sorry lads I promised to move back in with my parents next year.” Rin was the only who said no. Though the boys did not let that get them down and Jack immediately turned around, reached over the chair, and tapped on Kuna’s shoulder.

“Hey there buddy, you wanna live with us next year?” The answer came in the form of a thumbs up. With that Jack took his place back on the seat. “We can ask AJ later, make it a house of five.” Jack and Damian shared a fist bump to end the conversation.

Twenty minutes or so later the train pulled into the station. Everyone dragged their bags off in an awkward manner, most of them were quite stiff from being sat down for the majority of the morning.

After a short shuttle bus ride, they arrived at a hotel. Like a slab of concrete placed in the middle of town, with a big red sign displaying its name: ‘QuickHotel’. There was another small delay for everyone as rooms were sorted out. Everyone had their own room, but some people wanted specific places in the hotel. This meant that Jude and Jack were both sent to the top floor and right at the back, having opposite rooms.

“Okay everyone. It’s currently noon right now, I’ve been informed we all have to be in our hotel by five p.m. for an announcement and meal, so you have, really, about four hours to explore this town and enjoy yourselves.” Alex told everyone before they scuttled away to place their bags down.

The boys all met up after throwing their cases and bags in their rooms and ran back to explore. Kuna did not run; he just used his portal to get back to the lobby.