When Ava arrived at school the next day, she was surprised at the reception she received. Nobody knew for sure that it had been her that killed the Roberts Killer, as the media had dubbed him; there wasn’t anyone but her and Sam in that part of the building, and the fight had happened in a camera blind spot, so the media hadn’t been able to get any footage of Ava landing the killing blow.
However, the high school rumor mill worked the way it had always worked, and Ava had already built up quite a reputation that made it very easy to believe she’d been the one to take down the intruder. She quickly went from being an object of fear to being the center of attention; she ignored the vast majority of it, simply quickening her pace of walking when people would try to ask her what happened.
The one person who did successfully catch her attention was one she didn’t actually expect to care: Luke Albright, the kid she’d body-slammed into the tile on the day all this started.
“Hey, Ava!” she heard him yell, after she had successfully broken from the crowd. She looked back at him; he was five-nine, a blonde to his brother’s reddish-brown, and clearly someone who spent a lot of time working out. Frankly, she was a little impressed with herself that she’d won that one without the Code.
“You looking for round two?” she asked back, all bluster.
“God, no,” Luke said, holding his hands up as a gesture of peace. “Actually, that’s what I wanna talk about. No hard feelings on my end over that fight, alright?”
Ava smirked.
“Hey, you’re the one that punched me,” she said.
“Yeah, and I’m…” Luke paused for a second. “I’m not sure if I should say I’m sorry about that, or if I’m kind of proud of myself that I landed that punch. Kinda both. You’re a tough fucking girl.”
The smirk became a genuine smile.
“Thanks,” Ava said. “I appreciate that, honestly.” Something about the way Luke was approaching the situation told Ava that they weren’t really all that different; he had a fighter’s soul, just like hers. She respected that. He extended his hand, and she shook it.
“We cool?” he asked.
“One hundred percent,” Ava said, dismissively. “Now let me get to class already.”
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Eventually, the final bell of the day rang out through the halls, and the crowd poured out towards the building’s assorted exits, with Ava, Scott, Luke, and Sam all being pulled along with its tidal wave. The group found its natural formation somewhere in the parking lot, near the sidewalk, as the four noticed each other’s presence.
“Well, that sucked,” Ava said. Luke scoffed.
“You kidding me? I’d kill for that kind of attention,” he said.
“I did kill for it, and I fucking hate it, so I wouldn’t,” Ava replied, curtly, then looked over at Sam. “How much does he know?” she asked her comrade.
“Luke? He’s got one, too,” Sam said. “I didn’t actually know until just now; he’s not usually home when I’m hanging out with Scott, and he wasn’t at the house last night. But I can sense it.”
“Sense what?” Luke asked. Ava sighed.
“Did you get attacked by anything weird lately? Kinda looked like a jellyfish, or like one of those facehugger things from the Alien movies?” Ava asked.
“…yeah, why?” Luke asked in return.
“Did it make you have a seizure and lay on the ground unable to move, in horrible pain, for a few hours?” Ava asked.
“Yeah, I thought I was gonna die,” Luke said.
“When you woke up after all that was done with, were you able to do anything weird that you couldn’t do before?” Ava asked.
Sam slapped his forehead in annoyance at this line of questioning.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, let me just read him and see what his deal is,” Sam said, cutting between Ava and Luke. “Gimme your hands.”
Luke extended his hands, and Sam clasped his own over them.
“Code of Sword,” Sam said. “That was easy enough.”
“What’s that mean?” Luke said.
“I’m… not entirely sure, but we can try some stuff,” Sam said, looking around for a stick. He eventually found one, and handed it to Luke. “Ava’s turned out to be really simple: just put all of her focus into a punch, and it happens. Yours seems like it might not be all that different. Let’s go find somewhere to test it out,” he continued, leading the rest of the group into the woods nearby the school.
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It didn’t take long for the group to arrive at the exact same spot that Ava had first tested her powers at, complete with the cracked tree stump of the oak Ava had punched straight through. Sam picked up a long stick, and handed it to Luke.
“Try swiping at something with this, with all your power,” Sam said.
Luke took the stick, looked at it, and looked at Sam.
“What’s that gonna do?” Luke asked.
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“I dunno. We’ll see,” Sam said. Luke looked at a tree of his own and ran at it, taking a swing and fully expecting the stick to just crack… and it sliced through the tree like a hot knife.
“Whoa,” Luke said, looking at the stick.
“I guess that’s what the Code of Sword does. Any object you use that could resemble a sword now has a razor-sharp cutting blade, even if it shouldn’t,” Sam said. “Good thing you guys don’t have a dog, because that would make batting him with a newspaper kinda difficult.”
“That’s fucking badass,” Ava said. “Like, come on, that’s better than mine.”
Sam adjusted his glasses.
“Nah. About equal, I’d say,” he said, looking Ava in the eye. “Actually, at a glance, it wouldn’t be that unreasonable to say you two have the exact same power, just manifested in different ways. You’re both just projecting direct destructive force; yours is blunt, his is sharp.”
Ava rolled her eyes. Luke smirked.
“So, I guess that means we could get that round two after all, huh?” Luke asked, holding the stick up and taking a fighting stance.
“I’m ready if you are,” Ava said, answering with a spread-leg stance that put her perpendicular to Luke.
“Whoa, what the fuck?” Scott asked. “Hey, just because I can heal you guys doesn’t mean you should start trying to kill each other all day.”
“Shut up, little bro,” Luke said. “You don’t get it.”
“Yeah, you really don’t,” Ava said, as she charged forwards and threw a punch at Luke, holding back her full force so that she wouldn’t kill him. It connected with his jaw and sent him reeling, spiraling through the air like an American football, until the dirt stopped his momentum, scraping his skin all the way. Luke picked himself up, wiping the blood and dirt off of his face and spitting out one of his teeth, and laughed.
“I guess I deserved that one,” he said. He charged at Ava.
It seemed almost too familiar, Ava thought to herself. It was just like their first fight. Luke was a little faster than the first time this happened, and this time it was his tooth getting knocked out and not hers, but outside of that it may as well be the same thing. A German suplex felt repetitive, so Ava decided to go for something a little out-there, by comparison.
Luke was surprised to see that Ava, instead of dodging, chose to drop down to the ground. He barely had time to wonder what her strategy was going to be, let alone take a swing with his stick, before she backhanded him dead-center in the testicles, sending him several feet into the air with an unnaturally high-pitched yowl of pain.
Sam and Scott both absolutely doubled over with laughter as the latter rushed to Luke’s side to heal his wounds, laying his hands on his brother’s jaw to mend it. He very pointedly refused to render any aid to his brother’s bruised genitals.
“Not so equal, I guess,” Sam said.
“Yeah, I knew you’d regret making that comment,” Ava said to him.
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It hadn’t taken the group long to decide on going to the Albright house. As it turned out, Luke and Scott’s parents had died in a car accident several years prior, and the two were emancipated from the savings they’d been left; this meant that their house was a perfect safe house for the crew to discuss things, so long as Ava and Luke could be kept civil with each other after the latter’s second loss.
However, something unusual happened when they came up on the intersection leading to Luke and Scott’s street; a tall, middle-aged man in a business suit, with long, black hair and skin that was so pale it almost looked gray walked up to them. He looked Ava in the eyes, and sensing a threat, she assumed a fighting stance.
“Ava Hidalgo?” he asked. “I’m not here to fight. I’m here with a proposition.”
“A proposition?” Ava scoffed. “I’m not gonna bang you for money, if that’s what you’re asking. More of a fighter.”
“That’s exactly what I’m looking for. Come with me; we’ll discuss this further in my limo, away from prying ears,” he said. “I think you’ll like what I have to offer.”
“What about the rest of us?” Sam asked. The man blinked.
“Do all of you have the parasite?” the man asked. Sam looked through the group, and then back at the mystery businessman.
“That’d be a yes,” Sam said.
“…well, alright, then, all of you come on. Your specific mileage may vary, but I don’t see any reason why this opportunity shouldn’t be open to the rest of you, as well,” the mystery man said, and beckoned them around the street corner into the black Chrysler limousine he had waiting.
Somehow, Ava figured this was probably a mistake, but her curiosity (and her desire for another good fight) was telling her to walk directly into the danger. So, she did, and the others followed.
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Within the limousine, there was a security guard waiting for the businessman: a very large, muscular, bald black man, wearing sunglasses.
“Mr. Johnson,” the guard said. “I see the girl had company?”
“Yeah,” Mr. Johnson, the businessman, said as the teens piled into the limo. “I don’t know what they’re working with, but I’m extending the offer to all of them, in case there’s more than one interesting one in the bunch.”
Ava sat down across from the businessman.
“Alright, so… what is this offer, anyways?” she asked, her eyebrow raised.
“I represent some extremely wealthy interests who are very aware of the whole… parasite problem, and see it as an opportunity. To that end, they’ve been hosting a fighting tournament between parasite hosts every five years since 1947,” the businessman explained. “The current champion is a man named Maxim Konstantinov, representing Rosneft in the tournament. We want you to not only win, but kill him and cripple the Russian oil economy in the process by ruining their investment.”
“And how difficult is that gonna be?” Ava asked.
“Maxim Konstantinov is sixty-five years old this year, and has competed in the tournament ten times before, starting at the age of fifteen,” Mr. Johnson explained. “He has won each and every one, and killed most of the fighters who have gotten in his way.”
“This sounds like a very, very bad idea, Ava,” Sam said in a serious tone, looking her in the eyes. “Do you really wanna get murdered by an old Russian guy?”
“No, not really,” Ava said, smiling. “But I do think I wanna murder an old Russian guy. What’s in it for me if I win?”
“If you win, you get the tournament prize pot, which is ten million dollars,” Mr. Johnson said. “If you kill Konstantinov in the process, that’s another ten; do both and that’s twenty million in an offshore bank account in your name.”
All four of the parasite kids blinked.
“You know what, Ava? I’m starting to think this is a pretty good idea,” Sam said. “You’ve definitely got my vote of confidence. Luke, do you wanna join too?”
“Yeah, I’m thinking I might have to get in on this,” Luke said.
“Alright, fine, fuck it, I’m in,” Ava said. “One condition. Luke and I bring the other two around as our support team, and we don’t get seeded against each other unless we both make it to the finals.”
“The other two of you aren’t entering?” Mr. Johnson asked.
“Scott’s a healer and Sam’s a radar,” Ava explained. “Neither of them are fighters, but they’re born cornermen. We’ve got a much better chance of taking this Russian son of a bitch down if we’ve got them in our corner.”
“Fair point,” Mr. Johnson said. “Alright, you have your condition. There’ll be a black car taking you to the Port of Galveston on Saturday at around eleven o’clock; all four of you, have your bags packed and be ready to go. Pack for four days; that’s how long the tournament usually takes.”
The limousine dropped the four teens at their houses in short order. Luke and Scott had no parents to explain anything to, so their situation was the easiest; Ava’s mother didn’t seem to fully understand what Ava was going to do, and asked her to get a six-pack on the way back for her; meanwhile, Sam chose the path of outright lying, and claiming that it was a class trip to Mexico for Spanish II.
All four were able to clear their passage, and all four arrived at the Port of Galveston at the scheduled time, ready to begin the Parasite Tournament.