Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, be-

Ren rolled onto his back as he removed his hand from the alarm clock sitting next to his bed, and grinned. Ren had barely been able to sleep after what he saw last night. The amount of fights that occurred were spectacular, so challenging that Ren himself could barely keep up with them. One of Randy’s later fights in the tournament had involved sacrificing one of his extras so that they didn’t kick away a grenade, this saved one of his other extras by stopping them from picking up the grenade and chucking it back, allowing them to turn in time to intercept one of his opponents extras. Who on earth would have thought of that?

“Reeen! Come on, I made pancakes!” The sweet voice made its way into Ren’s tired and recovering ears and slowly but surely Ren began his arduous journey to satiate his hunger. Swinging his legs out of his messed bed and yanking back the covers he slowly pulled himself up, rubbing at the edges of his eyes with his hands as he did so. A small feeling tugged on the corner of his mind, trying it's best to invade the frays of his thoughts, but he shook it off and went to his drawer, pulling out a random pair of shirt and shorts in the process. “Coming!” He yelled.

Yanking off his long blue pyjamas he pulled out a spare pair of undies. Pulling up his shorts he snagged the can of deodorant sitting on his desk, four short precise but still fairly decent sprays later he pulled on his shirt and moved to his next task. After giving his bed a solid brief pat down, not nearly enough to actually be considered made, it was curtains open and out the door.

“What took you so long this morning honey? You know I told you not to stay so late for that event.” Ren’s mother said knowingly, her tone light but still sharp enough to cut through meat like butter. Ren had certainly slept in a little bit this morning. “It wasn’t that late… and besides! You know how crazy that whole thing was!” Ren tried to explain, but his mother didn’t bother to even pretend she’d heard it. “It doesn’t matter now, come on. It’s the weekend for sure, but you have school just a day from now. That means it's an early night for you young man.” Ren let out a sigh at that. He knew she was right, but still… He wasn’t even sure he’d get any sleep tonight, at least last night he had been exhausted enough to collapse.

The clanging of plates and cutlery as well as the smell of morning pancakes broke Ren out of his small inner thoughts and right back into the present. Ren hadn’t eaten a thing last night, he had only saved to pay for the ticket, and although he didn’t regret it he was more than ready to admit he was starving.

Ren thought it was funny in a way, only some years ago, before he was born, the world had been in complete and utter depression, no-one had any fun and things were bleak. Humanity as a race had completely handed off all of their jobs to machines, and as a result no one had anything to do but what they wanted to do. It took us 20 damn years to get off our asses and do something to not feel meaningless, but now we’ve never been happier.

In truth, Ren didn’t fully understand that whole happy sad balancing act that the human brain experiences, and he never cared to, not when he just understood that he had to do things, even mundane stuff that didn’t seem to matter, if he wanted to be happy. Ren disagreed with that a little bit though, VR had changed how people approach physical activity, experiencing pain and pleasure at the same time, and with Time Fighters it was something else, the training was intense as far as he had heard. Even so, that didn’t stop his want to become one. Ren wondered briefly why Time Fighters wasn't a VR game, and even more curiously why humans would need a sense of purpose to be happy. Quickly discarding the thought he dug into his meal.

In truth Time Fighters had actually been around for a while, if only as a concept. Only recently had the TFI, the Time Fighters Initiative, actually finished the technology and most of the testing to finally announce the world's newest game, a sport like no other. It was definitely exciting. Now he just wanted to participate himself. He was curious why the TFI didn't announce their name or goals sooner though, and how they were able to secure themselves so quickly.

Ren finished gulping down his last pancake and then looked at his mom pleadingly. She gave him a knowing look before shaking her head. “Fine, but at the very least before you go, can you help me do the dishes?” She asked, and Ren quickly pumped his fist before running over with his plate and cutlery. Running water was free, and so was soap, and food, however household appliances were not. Although things were generally considered cheaper now than they had been in the past, the average wage was also a lot less, and so for a single mother like Alissa, purchasing something like a dishwasher to save on time was big no no. Not that she minded.

It was for this reason that Ren would spend the next twenty minutes cleaning dishes with his mother, pouring water into the sink, soaping it up, and giving each and every plate and dish a good hard scrubbing. The act was calming to Ren in a way, the simple and mundane task occupying his thoughts and sparing little room for anything else. For just a moment Ren reconsidered believing whether or not the balancing act was real, before deciding he didn’t care and putting the last plate away. He wasn't a neuroscientist, that was for sure.

“Alright, since you’ve done it all without complaint, I’ll let you go.” Ren’s mother said, and he practically disappeared as he dashed toward the door, his mother chuckling behind him as he left. In truth Ren never complained about chores, in fact he welcomed them. How else was he going to earn money to make it to the TFI arena? Despite that fact, Ren knew he wouldn’t be able to go again for a long time, it was a miracle he had been saving for something else beforehand and managed to just scrape up enough money to go.

Normally, even on a day like today, Ren would head to the local supermarket in hopes of getting his hands on some more cash, but the events of last night could not stay his to know, he had to talk about it. Ren, like any boy his age, wanted to talk. Rounding the corner of the third block Ren practically collapsed, but his mad sprint would stop for no man, and he could see his friends chilling out on the bench closest to the water, right at the edge of where the grass met the sand.

“Hey! Frizz!” Ren yelled before gasping for breath and tripping over himself, landing in a heap on the soft grass and earning himself a chorus of laughter from the three boys. “Ren mah dude! How was the fight? Was it cool? Who won!?” Frizz exclaimed, when he had finally been able to stop laughing. “Frizz man… you have no friggin idea!” Ren said as he rolled onto his back and left his hands by his sides, sighing in exhaustion and satisfaction.

“Come on, tell us!” Ryan said, a little too eagerly. Then again, that’s just how Ryan was. Ren took a moment to catch his breath before pulling himself into a cross legged sit. “Okay, so it all started with these two guys who got raised on two pedestals, one of them was Randy!” Ren said, trying his best to not trip over his words as he spoke. “Randy!? You mean like… The Randy? Randy Rogers?” Harley asked. Harley was a strange boy, with a strange name, but none of the boys cared, after all, he was fun to have around and good to talk to. “Dude I’m serious, it was THE Randy. But get this, some guy I’ve never even heard of before shows up, called himself Fenardo Prier.”

“Fenardo Prier?” Ryan said, completely confused. Clearly he had never heard the name before either, but Harley looked strange, as though he knew something. Ryan didn’t catch on, and Ren didn’t want to pry, but Frizz was a little bit more naive. “Harley, you know something! Come on, tell us!” He said, more encouragingly than demanding. Harley shook his head, but Ryan was onto it now, and he wanted to know too. “Harley come on, let us know! This is like one in a lifetime!” Ryan said coolly, but Ren could tell that he was itching to know, so much so that if Harley refused, he’d probably get mad.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“I- I can’t tell you. My dad would get really… really mad.” Harley said, refusing to divulge the information. Ren seeing this tried to step in to hold down the possible argument he knew was about to break out. “Ryan come on, his dad told him not to share, it’s probably super important.” Ren said as he stood up, right as Ryan planted his foot in front of him. “Come on man, we aren’t gonna tell anyone.” Ryan shot back, but Ren felt differently. Depending on what the information was, there was a very good chance they wouldn’t be able to keep a secret. Especially not Ren.

“We’ve been friends for years Ryan, come on man. Don’t get aggressive.” Ren said, steadfast and unwilling to step back. Ryan wasn’t happy, but Ren was right, and unable to refute him he sat back down grumbling. For as angry as he could seem, Ryan was never one to actually get physical. One would be wrong to say he's all bark no bite, but he just usually prefers not to bite. “What happened next man?” Said Frizz, all too eager to forget what just happened and hear the rest of the story. Ren didn’t blame him.

“The entire stage shifted and moved, like it was transforming, and a killhouse rose from the ground. I think it was nanotechnology…” Ren said, and briefly contemplated the thought before sneaking a glance at Harley, who was frowning slightly at the new information. So Ren was right… or at least, very close anyway. It wasn't supposed to be revealed how the arena worked yet, and Ren was sure he had just figured it out. He gave a mental hoorah before returning his focus to his friends. “That’s awesome! Who won? What happened! Don’t skip any details now!” Ryan said, clearly over his previous bout of anger.

Ren did his best to re-enact a play by play, the thoughts and feelings that had completely taken over him and the crowd around him as Randy had managed to clear out three Fenardos on his own, and the sheer genius of Fenardos own cheap counter in the early game against Randy R. Ren even went so far as to suggest an entirely different timeline of events, in which during the last section of the game Randy Rogers shot Randy U, saving Randy R from the flashbang and leaving him to watch the upper section while Randy Rogers took care of the ones he took down originally. That might have resulted in a win.

By the end of it Harley was smiling coyly, Frizzy was holding his head and smashing it into the ground, clearly unable to properly follow the description, and Ryan held himself in contemplative thought. Ren smiled at his friends, they were an odd bunch, but they got along. “Dude, how did you even follow that fight?” Frizzy asked, still rubbing his head and groaning slightly. Ryan shook his head and nodded, “Dude, Frizzy is right, that would have been crazy to watch.” Ren just grinned wider and nodded. “I’ll never forget it.”

Suddenly a buzz sounded from Frizzy’s pocket, and he got up as he patted down his shorts. “Sorry guys, I promised I’d be home for lunch, my grandparents are coming around today.” He said apologetically. “Man don’t worry about it, but if you’re not here tomorrow I’ll kill you myself!” Ryan said jokingly, and they all let out a hearty chuckle. After a small distance Frizzy held up his hand and waved without turning around before turning a corner.

Just then Ren’s pocket also got a buzz, but Ren hadn’t had anything on today. That was strange… Ren frowned as he pulled his H-Pad out of his pocket. “Aww man dude, don’t tell me you have something today too?” Ryan said, and Harley nodded in agreement, but Ren only shook his head when he saw the message. ‘Ren! You get home right now young man! Someone is here to see you.’ Ren had no idea what that meant, but it was clearly urgent. “Sorry guys, I have no idea what it is but it looks like something important came up. I’ll see you later!” Ren finished, already halfway down the road. Ignoring Ryan’s protest he burst into a complete sprint.

Who could possibly be coming to visit him at midday? Ren didn’t really know anyone besides his classmates and his three friends, and he certainly wasn’t sure what made the visit urgent. Ren considered that perhaps it was a surprise visit from a cousin... though that still wouldn't explain why the message was sent with such urgency. Casting the thoughts from his mind he ran faster, all the more reason to see what this was about. 23 Griffon Street. Turning in at the number he saw the door was already open, suddenly a wave of questions approached him. Why was the door open? Have we been attacked? Is mom okay?

Immediately those thoughts were dispelled when he looked at the dining table, where his mom sat with none other than Fenardo Prier, the winner of last night's first Time Fight match. Ren practically collapsed before catching himself on the floor and standing back up. His mothers expression quickly swapped from one of joy to one of complete concern. “Ren! Are you alright honey?” She asked, though it was more of a demand. “I’m fine… I just pushed myself a little hard is all.” Ren said as he gathered himself, his gaze returning to Fenardo Prier, who in turn had shifted to face him.

Fernardo smiled. “We like people who can push themselves hard, and especially those who can pick themselves back up again afterwards.” Fenardos smile turned predatory. “It is a trait we find admirable. Take a seat, Ren.” Unsure how to react, and uncomfortable at being told to take a seat in his own home, Ren stood where he was. “I’m fine thank you.” Contrary to Ren’s expectations Fenardo only smiled wider, but this time it no longer reached his eyes. “Well Ren, the reason I am here is because you have been chosen.”

Ren’s heart began to beat faster, but he didn’t jump to conclusions just yet. Then again, there was very little chance this was a coincidence. “Chosen for what?” Ren asked, barely able to get the words out of his throat without a gulp. “You see Ren, that was only the first Time Fighters event ever hosted, and as you can imagine we would very much like to host more. See, with that comes an issue though.” Fenardo explained. “What issue?” Ren asked, still barely able to contain his excitement, he already knew where this was going.

“We need more fighters, more participants who can attract more people. We decided to choose at random a number of participants ranging in age from 14 to 16 to join a special school. The Time Fighters Institute will, of course, give you a normal school curriculum. However, in addition you will be given extra courses, ranging from physical fitness to unique theories surrounding the application of Time Slips. If you participate and pass, you are almost guaranteed to be able to partake in TFI activities.” Fenardo finished, and Ren nearly collapsed for the third time that day.

But Ren felt something wasn’t quite right. “But?” Ren asked, and this time Fenardo genuinely appeared taken back slightly, but he quickly regained his composure, just without a smile this time. “But it is in Montreal. Of course, that’s quite the distance from the outskirts of Toronto… you would of course be allowed visits, but it is unlikely we’d actually be able to let you come all the way here, so they would be limited to your mother driving to you and… well to ensure focus we don’t allow these visits particularly often. We can assure a once a year visit though.” Fenardo said. Ren was sure there was a singular bead of sweat on the right side of his forehead. Fenardo had not wanted Ren to know that.

Ren was about to refuse, he could always find another way to get into Time Fighters after all, he wasn’t ready to leave his home and friends to go to some academy, his mother was already so lonely… but as he opened his mouth to speak his mother cut him off. “I think you should go, Ren.”

“But mom, I-” Ren tried to object, but his mother was faster.

“Ren, I know how much you liked that tournament. Besides, you’ll get an even better education than you get here! Even a better chance to do what you love. Don’t let me hold you back, Ren.” Ren couldn’t really refute that, she was right and he knew it. Even so… “How long? How long will I stay at the academy?” Ren asked. Fenardo raised an eyebrow but, after considering for a moment, he answered anyway, “Well, the standard is four years, but if you show exceptional achievement, that can become three. Even so, I would say it is unreasonable to expect such fast development.” Fenardo explained, quickly adding on the comment of development to the end, just to give himself deniability.

“Ren, you should do this. I’ll be right here, and I can visit. Don’t worry about me.” Ren was tearing up now, his mother holding his head in her hands and kissing him lightly on the forehead. “Mom…” Ren said, but this time Fenardo interjected, and Ren suddenly decided that as great as he was at time fighting, he hated his guts. “I believe Miss Karter is correct Ren, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity after all.”

Ren gave him a sudden death glare, before turning back to his mother. Fenardo did not speak again, and thankfully his mother did not notice, or chose to ignore it. She did not like the man either, it seemed. “Ren, if you can’t do it for yourself, do it for me.” Ren slowly nodded before withdrawing from his mothers grasp. “Alright… I’ll do it.” Ren said. Fenardos smile finally reached his eyes. “Fantastic! Here are the papers, your ride will pick you up tomorrow afternoon. I will see you on the grounds Ren.” Fenardo said before placing five pieces of paper on the table and pressing a button on his collar. There was a rush of air as the button gave out a soft click, before Fenardo disappeared.