In their dugout room, the remaining 105 members of Team USA waited anxiously. Instead of separating into men and women, all the pairs waited together in two columns. Calista was closer to the front now, waiting with Harrison. In front of her were Catherine Graham and her Iota Favorite student, Beatrice Bustamante.
At the very front were Reilly and Rosalina. The Hajjian woman hadn’t really interacted with Calista since the Tsunami game, but the previous bit of animosity they had was practically gone. Calista would still keep her guard up, though. Hajjians were unpredictable.
She looked behind her. Lílitha was with Damaris a few rows down. Further down were Bark and Hillary. Then Cam and a Martian guy from her Guild. Belinda was with a Mercurian called Elmer from her Teamwork class.
At the very end was a trio, given the uneven amount of members. Calista wondered if they had an advantage with three instead of two.
The holo-screen displaying the news now had new scanned poses for the fighters. During break the previous day, they recorded new poses with their partners. Harrison and Calista had gone for a classic back-to-back pose, both of them crossing their arms while smirking confidently. They looked pretty cool.
The counter finished and the doors opened. Calista gulped and prayed under her breath as they walked out, the national anthem playing.
Harrison talked to her through their helmets while the other anthems played, introducing the other teams. “You okay?” he asked.
“Never been better,” she panted, realizing her heart rate was up.
“It’s a bit less scary now, though, right? Since we’re together.”
“Yeah… yeah, it is.”
“I have a good feeling.”
“I wish I could say the same.”
He chuckled. “If we go down… we go down together.”
Calista shook her head. “No… you keep going. You’ve gotten so far, and you have so much to prove. Don’t let me bug that up if they let you stay.”
“Then you promise me the same thing.”
“Huh?”
“If I get cut, but you have a chance, you stay.”
She nodded. “Okay… I will.”
The anthems ended, shorter than the last time. It was a bit ominous, how the anthems grew fewer with every round. At least they didn’t have to stand there for too long anymore.
“Let’s see what game we have for the duos today!” Lasso announced after starting the introductions.
The wheel spun. Breaths halted.
‘FREEZE DANCE’.
Calista stared at it, then looked at Harrison, who already had a smile on his face. There was no way it could be this easy.
Freeze Dance was sort of a race. There were three segments; in each one, the pairs had to follow their respective dancers to progress. The music would periodically stop for them to freeze in place. If they messed up, the squares below them would open and send them into elimination. Once they got to the last segment, they would be safe.
The challenge was that in this particular game, if one half failed, both failed. If she was eliminated, so was Harrison.
The countdown started and they got down to run. Harrison’s hand grabbed hers, squeezing her fingers comfortingly. Calista felt her face heat up, her body freezing.
“FIGHT!”
They ran forward. Harrison and Calista soared through the barrier and landed at the start of the first section. Far ahead, they could see a giant pyramid; the third segment of the game.
“Our prayers were answered,” said Harrison.
“Let’s not get too overconfident,” Calista reminded him. “I’m good at this, but I can still mess up.”
“I know. I trust you, though.” He winked.
Calista’s heart fluttered. She looked away. Snap out of it, Calista, she thought. Don’t distract yourself.
They stepped onto the dimmed tiles, which instantly lit up in colors. Before them, two holographic giants, a man and a woman, stood with their arms crossed. They got into positions to dance.
“Who would’ve thought I’d be doing something so lame in a Chaos Round?” Harrison muttered, copying the male dancer’s position.
Calista glared at him. “Excuse me? Dancing is a skill. A great one.”
The tiles followed the song and the dancers started to move. The two followed them carefully. It was a basic ballroom dance so far. The music paused and the two went still as statues.
“Seriously, how did they get to do this?” Harrison wondered aloud. “People aren’t gonna like you.”
“Well, too bad. They should be less stuck-up and dance more often.” The music resumed and they danced towards the end of the strip.
Harrison chuckled. “I wonder how Savage and Gravity are doing.”
“Probably fuming,” Calista snickered. She spun around, stepping closer to Harrison. Her cheeks tinted in pink.
They reached the end of the strip after a couple of minutes. They ran as fast as they could to the next section. Throughout the blank parts of the map, there were traps for elimination. “Easy mode,” Harrison commented.
“Please don’t say that.” Their helmets started to beep.
Looking up, a pair of male fighters from Team Ukraine descended onto them. Calista yelled and jumped out of the way. “Thanks a lot!”
Harrison easily subdued one of the pairs— probably a beginning fighter— but didn’t get to eliminate him. The partner was a lot more experienced, nearly kicking Calista into a pit he opened. Harrison used the magnets on his gloves to connect with hers and pull her back up.
“We just have to open those trapdoors, and they’ll be out,” Harrison said through their helmets, the trapdoor triggers glowing in their visors.
They continued their combat. They only needed to eliminate one of them to get past them. It was obvious that the more experienced of the two was protecting his other pair, like a mother hen.
“Get behind them,” Calista told Harrison.
Harrison got down and slid between the better fighter’s legs, causing him to slightly lose his balance. Calista took the opportunity to push-kick him, using her hands to hold her body up. Since that kick needed some work, it wasn’t forceful enough.
He smirked and approached Calista, who’d fallen after the kick. She got to her feet and looked around for an escape. But by distracting him, Harrison was able to trip him and open a trap.
The ground disappeared beneath his feet and he dropped into the hole. The other pair tried to catch him or pull him back to the surface, but it was too late. He hit the barrier, and in doing so, the less experienced fighter turned into a blue streak, as well.
“Ooh, sad news for Team Ukraine: Havrylo and Artem Pavlovych Tkachuk have been eliminated by USA’s Harrison ‘Cheater’ Smith and Calista Medley!”
“Let’s go!” Harrison ran to the next section, which was much longer. This time, individual dancers appeared in their visors, guiding them through a fast-paced pop dance. They had two different dancers, but they complimented each other.
Behind them, a few more pairs of fighters reached the dance strip, guided by their own dancers with different styles. The music stopped and they all froze.
Harrison panted. “That was insanely hard to keep up with.”
“Because you’re not paying atten-” Calista wobbled, going off-balance.
“Way to go,” Lindsay remarked.
Harrison yanked Calista off her tile just as it disappeared, giving way to elimination. The music restarted and they tried to get back in sync. Their helmets beeped.
“LOOK OUT!” Harrison pushed Calista to duck under a missile. One of the pairs of enemies were shooting at the fighters around them as they progressed.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“I’m not paying attention?” said Harrison.
“Don’t start.”
Multiple projectiles flew in every direction possible. Calista tried to keep track of the overwhelming alerts in her helmet, but they were giving her a headache.
On the other hand, Harrison was able to gauge where each bullet and rocket was coming from. He grabbed Calista’s wrist, pulling her down, and deflected a smaller missile with his arm guard. The music halted and they all stopped.
“Thanks,” Calista panted.
“You’re welcome.”
They stared at each other for a moment. The music resumed and Harrison’s helmet beeped.
“Behind you!” his Pet, Jupiter, warned him.
“Down!” They dove to the ground as a missile flew over their heads. In their visors, their dancers shook in red light and the tiles below them began to shake. They scrambled to get back in sync as a new song played.
“I know that song!” Calista exclaimed excitedly. She took the lead, pulling Harrison along. They practically ran across the tiles while dancing.
“Whoa, whoa, Calista! Wait!” Harrison stumbled behind her, hoping he wouldn’t get them both eliminated. The tiles shook with every wrong move.
They paused. The other fighters had fallen behind, except for one pair of girls from Switzerland, who were only a few feet away. One had equipped a weapon.
“You got my back?” Calista asked.
“As soon as it starts again.”
The song resumed and Calista immediately copied her dancer’s spin, letting Harrison catch her and lift her for a roundhouse kick. The fighter crashed into her partner, her gun going off. Harrison and Calista danced away from the trembling tiles.
“Why does the Versus have Socializer songs?” Calista asked.
“What do you mean, ‘Socializer’ songs?”
“Do you know this song?”
“No.”
“Exactly.” The Swiss girls gained on them. Calista quickly punched, then kicked one of them as her dancer dropped to the ground. She took the chance to trip her opponent.
“Well, I didn’t know it. How does that make it a Socializer song?” Harrison said, fighting off the other girl.
“Because…” Calista stood again with a jump, dodging a kick from her opponent. “Most of these songs are songs I listened to all the time on my channel, with the other girls.” She ducked under a punch and rhythmically blocked more strikes, still following the dance moves perfectly. “If we listened to them, I doubt anyone at our school or in this competition would listen to them. You guys always seem so… disgusted by stuff from us ‘Socializers’.”
“Leave me out of this.” They paused again.
“It makes sense. They put on songs they know most of you guys won’t know so it’ll be harder to get through. That’s why so many are getting cut out.”
As if proving her statement, Lasso announced another elimination. “Team Belgium is running out of fighters!”
“Well, it’s a good thing I have you here, Miss ‘I know a lot of songs’.” The music returned and they hurried away from their opponents.
“Yeah, we make a great team, don’t we? I do the dancing part, you do the-” Their helmets alerted them. “KICKING BUTT PART!” They dropped under another missile from their Swiss opponents.
“When the music stops again, we shoot back, okay?” Harrison said.
“Okay.” Calista pre-selected a missile, listening carefully to the song. She muttered the lyrics under her breath. “Running out of time, the sun is down, time is ticking by.”
As soon as the song paused, the American duo, inches from finishing the segment, they aimed their arms and fired the missiles. The stuck fighters instinctively ducked, but the move cost them. The tiles opened and they fell into elimination.
“Dakina Mara Bollmann and Aila Schläpfer from Switzerland’s Stolz Academy have been out-danced by Harrison and Calista!”
“Finally.” They jumped off the strip and ran full speed to the pyramid for the last segment of the round. They’d spent about five minutes on that strip. Their helmet timers marked 6:32 and counting down.
Scores of duos were already on the staircase pyramid that rose up to a glowing ball of light. Everyone danced a different style to a different song, using the moves they got to fight each other. Calista and Harrison started at the bottom, their dance moves getting fancier, even including some gymnastics like somersaults and flips. They rapidly ascended the staircase.
Their alerts sounded and a couple of fighters landed in front of them just as the music paused. To their dismay, they weren’t from any other team. Hillary Kaye smirked as she looked down at them.
“Isn’t this a coincidence? The golden couple of the team.”
“Yeah, cute,” Bark said, uninterested.
“I’ll admit, human… I’m impressed. Really. You’ve made it pretty far. I guess you’ve avoided me long enough. Lucky that Hothead decided to carry you through that last round, right?”
“Like Bark’s carrying you around?” Calista retorted.
Hillary scoffed. “Typical. You’re so embarrassed by your own actions that you try to push them on others. So pathetic.”
The music resumed. “Hey, Calista, how about you do that thing you do?” said Harrison.
“What, this?” Momentarily deviating from the dancer, Calista jumped and spun around, kicking Hillary in the face. This provoked Bark to leap and catch Harrison in a strangle. The Paeseoan woman growled in anger and started fighting Calista.
Despite her condescension, Hillary’s fighting style had changed. She wasn’t as overconfident and reckless as she was in their previous fight. She seemed to be taking it more seriously, sticking to her dance.
Harrison pushed Bark onto the ground and tried to hold him face-down, but the strength advantage was too obvious. He wouldn’t be able to hold Bark down in any way, and if he got caught in one himself, he’d never get out. The tiles below them trembled threateningly. When the music paused, they stilled, Harrison keeping a firm hold on Bark.
“His side is sore. One of his ribs was broken in a high fall last round,” Jupiter informed Harrison. “Notice how he keeps turning away?”
The fight resumed and Harrison quickly matched his dancer before he could be eliminated. He kept targeting Bark’s face and stomach, pretending not to notice the weakness. Jupiter was right; Bark was guarding his left side more than anything. His rib would be healed, but since they were only allowed slow healing, there would still be residual soreness.
Harrison’s dancer got down and kicked his feet in the air. Jupiter signaled Harrison, “Now!”
Harrison used his boosters to power his kick, hitting him hard. Bark had turned on his gravity boots to avoid flying off the map, but the kick hurt, sending him to his knees. He jumped to the side as the tiles opened, avoiding the pit.
Calista cried out suddenly, momentarily distracting Harrison. “No, no! Keep-” Jupiter started.
Bark recovered and tackled him, pinning him to the floor and punching him. Harrison blocked his fist and tried to reverse their positions. Bark counteracted by turning up the gravity.
“Could you take your mind off your girlfriend for one second?” exclaimed Jupiter.
“She’s not my girl- ow!” Harrison got punched again. Both men scrambled off the lower stairs just before they dissolved. The dancer suddenly disappeared in Harrison’s visor and the song changed.
“You’ve crossed to the ‘Freestyle’ half. Just keep to the rhythm of the music and you’ll be fine,” his Pet informed him.
Hillary laughed as the music paused. She had Calista in a chokehold. “I thought this game would be easier for you,” she said. “I guess it goes to show that anyone can dance. It’s not a talent.”
“Glitch…” Calista elbowed Hillary when the song returned, getting out of the hold, but the Paeseoan didn’t let her rest. She was a few steps higher, forcing the human girl down towards the other half of the pyramid.
“You have less than five minutes to get to the top!” Jupiter warned. “Get out of there! Use a weapon, or something!” If they weren’t at the top when the timer ran out, they were out of the game.
Bark suddenly grabbed Harrison’s arm, throwing him to the edge of the pyramid. He held on tight, his gloves sticking to the surface. Before he could pull himself up, everyone paused again.
“Hill, let’s go. We only have a few minutes,” Bark told his girlfriend. “Stop focusing on that human.”
“It looks like your ‘musical talent’ will amount to nothing, human.” They resumed. Hillary punched Calista in the face again, opening her lip.
“Hill, let’s go!”
Calista touched her lip, and her emerald eyes filled with rage. Hillary scoffed at her. “Always caring about her looks. You’re so pathetic.” She ran after Bark, keeping her rhythm.
“You little-” Calista charged at her, but was pushed back by a blast. Bark had activated a gravity gun in his arm guard. Calista bounced down the stairs towards the edge of the pyramid. Harrison quickly released a wire from his wristband, shooting it down so she could catch it, just as the music paused one more time.
“Three minutes,” Jupiter reminded.
Harrison pulled Calista up and got to his feet once they could move. “Three… you think we can get up there in time?”
“Together… yeah.” She winked at him.
They ran up the stairs, stopping when they needed to. Many remaining fighters tried attacking them, but they were able to avoid them, with Harrison shooting weapons and Calista purposely bumping people whenever the music stopped. Their only goal was to get to the top.
“Two minutes.”
“Yeah, I think we can count the seconds ourselves, J,” Harrison panted.
“I was just letting you know…”
“Your Pet nagging you too?” Calista said. She grunted suddenly, her hand shooting to her ear. “Ow! Lindsay, don’t yell! And yes, you are nagging!”
“Just put the timer on my screen,” Harrison said. Jupiter obeyed and displayed the remaining time on the bottom corner of his visor.
Harrison stumbled just after another pause. The stairs behind them sunk down, leaving a gaping fall to elimination. Other fighters fell with screams of defeat.
“There goes Cheater cheating elimination again!” Lasso exclaimed as he announced the eliminations.
“Huh. So that’s why you’re Cheater.” They restarted their rhythmic run.
“Yeah, I… never really… thought about it that way,” said Harrison. For the past five years, he’d been called ‘Cheater’ because he was a swindler, an unfair competitor, someone who stole credit and victory from those who ‘deserved’ it.
This was the first time he was called ‘Cheater’ for cheating death— or elimination, in this case. He liked it.
One minute left. They were almost there. Ahead of them, on the last few stairs, Bark and Hillary were dance-fighting others as they ran up.
Calista suddenly ran forward, flipping over and over like a professional gymnast. “Calista, wait!” Harrison yelled.
Calista pirouetted and kicked Hillary in the head, then forced her back with rhythmic punches. She then tackled Hillary down just as the last pause occurred. A gap opened where they were, sending them both down. Calista managed to grab onto the edge, with Hillary grabbing onto her feet. The human girl tried to kick her enemy off.
“30 seconds!” Jupiter warned anxiously.
To Harrison’s relief, Camelithia came dancing down the stairs, helping Calista up. Hillary managed to hold on, avoiding elimination. At the beat drop, Camelithia performed a fancy turn, following it with her iconic dropkick, sending Hillary down to crash into Bark.
“Harrison!” Lílitha, already standing at the top, stretched her limbs down the stairs.
Harrison reached out, grabbing her wrists. He yelled as she yanked him up to the platform. “Thanks,” he panted.
She reached down and pulled Calista and Cam to the top platform. In the last ten seconds, Bark and Hillary managed to make it in time.
“GAME OVER!” The map turned into colorful sludge, taking the remaining fighters with them. Blue streaks filled the air. The entire group of surviving fighters cheered loudly, everyone hugging their teammates and whooping in victory.
“Cheating death, as always, Harrison?” Lílitha smirked.
“That’s the second time I hear that today.”
“It suits you,” Camelithia agreed, nodding. “That was a heck of a close call.”
They looked over at Bark and Hillary, who seemed more than disgruntled. Hillary was complaining to Bark, but their voices were muted. After arguing for a bit, Hillary left the Hajjian standing alone. The map dissolved completely, bringing everyone down to the bottom.
“That was the lamest round I’ve ever played,” Lílitha commented. “Dancing. Unbelievable. You must’ve had fun.” She nudged Calista.
“Actually, yeah, it was kinda fun. Until they showed up.” Calista glared at the lonely Bark.
“It was fun! Dancing like that. The songs were great, too. Much easier for me than most of the other rounds.” Cam groaned. “We still have five more rounds…”
“And I have five chances to kick that glitch out of the game,” Calista muttered, glaring in the direction the blue-haired woman had gone.