The teams recorded their presentation scans in the morning after breakfast. It wasn’t too hard for them to act like they all got along and enjoyed each other’s presence. But many of them were dying to get out of there in the end.
They were at a loss. How would they ever be able to work together with people like this? Harrison had gone to Lisa and tried to switch some members, but the lists were final, and there was no way around it.
The Dean seemed a bit guilty when she discussed the matter with the young Student Coach and his Favorites. As they suspected, part of this decision was influenced by Chrisman. Lílitha had her own theory; they kicked out the worst members that were still in the games and booted them to Harrison’s team, since he was the most ‘unwanted’ of the Student Coaches. She wouldn’t say this out loud to the Earthian man himself, of course.
Basically, they were a pile of rejects. Low reputations destroyed by rumors, social status, and bad attitudes. To many of them, that was important, and they were bitter that the other students saw them that way. Now their names were affiliated with Harrison and Calista, and they couldn’t afford this bonus blow to their already low reputations in the academy.
Lílitha would scoff at their desire for popularity. They didn’t want to make a name for themselves, they wanted the famous ones to do it for them.
The only one that was actually a good fighter, besides the Kappas, was Bella ‘Freezer’ Yosta. She didn’t complain or even comment on their situation. She merely took it all in stride. How she managed to keep that permanent poker face and cold disposition up 24/7, Lílitha didn’t know.
The remaining members of Team USA were now organized in three columns, which were headed by their group leaders. Reilly was at the front of the first team, followed by Rosalina. Disaris and Delaine were the second team, then Elisa and Catherine were the fourth team.
Lílitha was behind Calista. Despite having a higher rank, Calista was Harrison’s ‘first Favorite’, so she would be second in line. The human girl looked behind her, waving enthusiastically at Camelithia and Belinda, who were on Disaris’s team. Lílitha stretched her hand and pulled the other girl’s wrist down, shaking her head.
“What?” Calista asked.
“Don’t get distracted.”
“I’m not distracted, I’m just saying hi.”
Their scans showed up on the Versus News screens. Eight would stand in a line while the other seven crouched in front of them. They lingered on the screen so all the fighters’ faces could be seen and recognized.
Lílitha cringed when she saw their team’s scan. She stood at the center of the seven in the front, standing at her full height. Everyone next to her crouched. She regretted not stretching her legs at least a little bit.
The US anthem began to play and the fighters headed out all together, the teams side-by-side. 12 countries were left to compete, Team Brazil having been completely eliminated the previous day. Spain, France, and Germany were low on fighters, each only having one team of less than 15 members. Those with the most members were Japan, Korea, and Ireland.
Lílitha took a deep breath. Numbers don’t matter, she reminded herself. What mattered was that the best of the best would get to the top places in the interplanetaries, and she would do her best to get there.
She kept her mind in a static numbness throughout the rest of the anthems and the introductions from Lasso. She would turn on her focus once she was through that barrier.
The randomizer wheel spun. Lílitha’s black marbles were fixed as it slowed down.
‘BATTLESHIP’.
Then the countdown. Stomping feet.
Okay. Battleship. That wasn’t too hard of a game. They just had to bring down the other teams’ ships and try not to get hit. The trickiest part was fixing any damages while also trying not to get eliminated. Only 15 minutes.
When they shot off, Lílitha’s elastic limbs sprung her forward, putting her in front of Harrison and Calista. They traversed the barrier through the usual blue tunnels of light and landed in their allotted battleship. It was easy to identify them; it was colored in red, white, and blue, and ‘USA TEAM 3’ glowed on the side.
The ships were in constant motion, rotating through the large map, which was nothing but sea. The booby traps were icebergs, whirlpools, and lightning strikes, which were all out of the ships’ courses, but if they were redirected by their opponents, they could hit one.
“Okay… Battleship.” Harrison rubbed his gloves together. “Not something we practiced this morning. That’s okay. You can’t go over every game.”
“Well, if it hadn’t been for certain changes, we would’ve known what game we’re playing before today,” Horace commented, briefly glancing at Calista.
“What is that supposed to mean?” the human girl retorted.
“Tarzan, if you’re going to hold us back by starting up arguments, then throw yourself into elimination now, because we really don’t need you.” Harrison glared at Horace, who remained silent. “Calista, just ignore him. We don’t have time for this.”
“We should split up,” Lílitha suggested. “There should be at least two at the bow to control the boat— or more?”
“I’d say three. Thanks, Piranha,” Harrison agreed. “Two should go to the bow and man the controls. Two others should be at the stern to defend. The rest of us man the weapons and fix any holes-”
The ship jerked with a loud bang. A few meters away, a huge hole opened up in the wall.
“Like that one,” Harrison finished, pointing at it.
“I’ll take the controls,” said Damaris. She ran to the front.
“I’m with you!” Charlotte followed her.
“Okay. Hammerhead, Parthos, you guard the stern.” Thankfully, the two obeyed and ran to their position. “All of you, get on the weapons and start shooting. Freezer, help me fix this thing.”
“On it.” Using her powers, Bella formed a wall of frost over the hole. Harrison grabbed a welding gun from the tool selection and hardened the frost so it could close the hole.
Lílitha opened a weapons hole and looked through the selection. Outside, two ships were on the left, opening fire at their opponents. Another hole blew into their ship, shaking them.
“Freezer, Orthos, you guys are on damage control,” Harrison commanded. The two obeyed and went to fix the next hole using their powers. Having both a Klausian and a Voraxian on the team was quite advantageous for this game.
“I suggest the icicle gun,” Lílitha’s Pet, Merthos, told her. “You’ll have to shoot a lot, though.” Lílitha followed his advice. Her fangs flashed within an excited smile as she opened fire. She wasn’t as reckless as Hothead or Gravity, but she understood the appeal. Shooting non-stop at opponents was fun.
She glanced next to her, seeing Calista a few rows down. She watched as she armed a classic ship cannon and shot. She screamed and fell back from the force.
Lílitha sighed, shaking her head. Inexperienced or not, Calista had to stop screaming like that. If she kept that up, her call sign would be ‘Drama Queen’.
As she shot, her icicles broke off of the sides of the other ships, but some buried themselves into the metal. If she got enough in, she could bring them down with the icicles’ weight.
Another blow nearly sent her flying from her station. She held on to her gun handles and resisted the ship’s motion.
“God, this is not good for my stomach,” Geija muttered next to her.
“You didn’t take an anti-nausea supplement?” Lílitha said.
“I didn’t know we were playing this!” She swallowed as she shot fireballs out of her cannon.
Lílitha rolled her eyes. “How did you survive this long?”
“Don’t judge me!” She huffed. “Maybe I can barf into the gun and shoot that.”
Lílitha groaned at the imagery. “Don’t make that your call sign.”
“Geija ‘Barf’ Herifa,” Calista joked. “Makes sense.”
“Shut up, Socializer.”
The ship suddenly jerked to the right, sending everyone sliding across the weapons gallery. They groaned as they crashed into each other.
“What are you doing up there?!” Alka shouted to the girls at the bow.
Damaris communicated with all of them through their headsets. “We almost got pushed in a whirlpool, so we had to steer it. Sorry.”
“Nice warning,” Geija muttered.
“How about you guys try and steer a massive ship like this?” Charlotte answered.
“Guys, I said no more fights!” Harrison was obviously exasperated.
The ship shook once more, prompting everyone to return to their weapons. Horace stopped and looked towards the bow. “I’m going up there,” he said, starting to run.
“What are you doing?” Blair yelled after him. “They’ve got it, you have to help us out here!”
“They’re not doing a good job.”
“Oh, and you’ll do better?” Lílitha butt in.
“Better than you, shorty.”
Her fingers clenched around her gun handles, but she didn’t dare start a fight in the middle of the round.
“Horace, please, this isn’t the time for this! This is why you got kicked out last Versus!”
“Just keep shooting. What’s one person leaving going to do?” He ran to the bow.
After a few moments of struggling against enemy forces, Harrison came running, Freezer and Orthos behind him. “Where’s Tarzan?” he asked, noticing the empty slot among them.
“Smarty thought he would do better steering the ship, since the girls up there aren’t doing good enough for him,” Lílitha told him, shooting more icicles into a French team’s ship.
“He’s got a point,” Diego said.
“You shut up, no one asked you.”
“Piranha.” Harrison gave her a look. “Orthos, you take Tarzan’s station.” As he ran to the bow, the ship jerked again, throwing him to the floor. “Freezer!”
“On it!” She followed the yells from Hammerhead and Parthos at the stern.
“Hey, Li— can I call you Li? Or is that just Harrison?” Calista communicated privately through Lílitha’s headset.
“Yeah, what?”
“Is it a thing to just say people’s call signs in group rounds?”
“You’re asking that right now?”
“It’s just something I noticed!”
Lílitha rolled her eyes. “Yes, it’s a formality. The team leaders refer to experienced fighters by call signs and other fighters by their names. Why?”
“Do I have to call him ‘Cheater’?”
“Technically, yes, but you’re close to him, so not necessarily.”
Calista paused. “I wonder what mine will be.”
“Drama Queen comes to mind,” Lílitha teased.
“Ha-ha.”
“Seriously, you need to stop squealing every time something happens-”
BOOM!
“AAH!”
“… like that.”
“You’re going to blast my ears out, Hyena,” Orthos grunted.
“Don’t call me ‘Hyena’!”
“Then stop screaming.”
“We can’t call her that. It’s taken,” said Ghost. “I was thinking ‘Howler Monkey’.”
“That sounds more like Tarzan. That should’ve been his call sign,” Lílitha interjected.
“Good point.”
Calista shot her a grateful look for the diversion. She responded with a friendly wink. She could tease Calista all she wanted, but she didn’t want her name to crumble like that. She’d worked hard enough to earn her respect.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
They heard a Tarzan yell up front. Then, the ship suddenly jerked again, practically flipping over. Lílitha’s face smashed against the wall.
“Look out!” Merthos shouted.
She braced herself as everyone from the other side came crashing into her row. Her bones were protected by the armor, but the pain sensors made the experience of being crushed excruciating.
The ship settled back again, sending them all to the floor, groaning. “What happened?!” she screamed in her headset.
“We got hit by a giant cannonball,” Harrison answered. “Hammerhead and Parthos are stuck at the stern.”
As he spoke, the team roster appeared in all their visors, showing Parthos’s face shot disappear.
“Parthos Selem of Team USA just fell off the back of his ship! What an impact from Team France! That’s one way to crush your enemies!” Lasso shouted.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Lílitha stood and ran to the bow. At the controls, the girls were frantically trying to steer the ship while Tarzan stood off to the side, paralyzed by Harrison’s furious glare. Lílitha had never seen him so frustrated.
“I don’t know how you even got to the Versus in the first place!” he yelled. “Thanks to you, one of our members got cut!”
“What did he do?!”
“Captain here steered us right into enemy fire,” said Damaris.
“I wouldn’t have steered us if you guys hadn’t confused me,” Tarzan retorted.
Lílitha’s hands went to her head. How did he have a call sign? How was he on the team?
A huge groan resounded through the entire ship. They heard Hammerhead yell, “THE GLITCHING SHIP’S SPLITTING IN HALF!”
Lílitha immediately ran back, hearing the others on her tail. Harrison said, “No, you two stay and steer us. Tarzan, you’re with me, understand?” They reached the damaged part of the ship, finding the hallway crushed and blocked. The metal was being weakened by an icy spray hitting the damaged wall, causing it to break apart.
“Holy bugs.”
“Who’s back there?!” Harrison called.
“Me, Freezer, Orthos, and Diego!”
“Not good.” Harrison stuck his hands in the small crevice between the crushed walls. “Ghost, get over here!” he said through their helmets.
Horace suddenly turned and ran back to the weapons gallery. Harrison didn’t bother to call him back, irked beyond measure. Lílitha flattened her hands to fit in the crevice and pulled on the crushed walls with all her might.
Blair came running. “What is it?”
“You think you can shape-shift and open this wall?”
“Easy.” Her hands thinned until they were shaped like hooks, the suit adjusting to the shape. She stuck them into the crevice and strained as she pulled. The metal started pulling apart further, exposing them.
“Not good, not good, not good…” Their part of the ship separated from the crushed hallway. They pulled their hands out. The cannonball-shaped dent crumbled under immense weights of ice, breaking off and splashing into the water.
Lílitha jumped into action. “Harrison, hold my feet!” She stretched her arms and reached the separated stern, pulling with all her might. Harrison attached himself to the floor and held her boots under his arms. Using her core strength, Lílitha tried to pull the stranded fighters back.
“Be careful! You can get severely injured like this!” Merthos warned Lílitha.
Horace came back with his iconic Tarzan yell. Using a Slime string, he swung off their part of the ship and shot laser beams from his wristband. He managed to damage the enemy ship attacking them, forcing them to retreat.
“Help us out, you idiot!” Lílitha yelled.
“I am helping!” He swung to the stern, still annoying everyone with his yell. Suddenly, a laser beam hit him in the shoulder, followed by another cutting the Slime string. He screamed as he fell into the water and turned into blue light.
“One of Ireland’s ships just eliminated USA’s Horace ‘Tarzan’ Cattlebee!”
“Just great!” Harrison strained.
“I hated him anyway,” Hammerhead said, leaping over the gap with his jump boost. Orthos followed him, then Freezer.
“Come on, Diego!”
The ship jerked again, pulling Lílitha’s limbs further. She cried out from the intense pain and let go of the stern. Diego lost his balance and held on to the wall.
“Your arm ligaments are torn,” Merthos alerted.
“Jump! Diego, JUMP!” Harrison shouted.
A huge fireball smashed into the stern, bringing it down into the water, and a blue light shot into the barrier. “What an epic elimination by Team Ireland! Diego Lakh from USA is out of the game! Cheater’s ship is struggling!”
Harrison pulled Lílitha to safety. Her arms were slackened, aching fiercely, and her abdomen muscles were pulled. She couldn’t fight like this.
“What’s going on over there?” He turned to the three others. “Stay with her. Freezer and Orthos, try and close this hole.”
Lílitha felt nauseous and faint. She never strained herself like that before. She could barely hear everyone arguing in the weapons gallery.
“How much time…?” She trailed off, grunting. Merthos understood her, giving her the timer in her visor. It counted down from 5 seconds.
“GAME OVER!”
She sighed in relief. They were okay… for now.
===
“You were completely useless!”
“I brought down the other ship!”
“And almost got us taken down!”
“Where were you? You could’ve done something-”
“I was steering the ship!”
“Oh, and you did a great job!”
“It’s this idiot’s fault we got hit!”
“Stop blaming me!”
“Excuse me!”
The last voice belonged to Dean Lisa. Everyone stopped, turning to her. The rest of the competitors were in the review room, staring at them.
“Could you all quiet down, please?” Lisa’s eyes were wide with shock and a bit of outrage at their conduct. They sheepishly took their seats.
Lílitha sat between Harrison and Calista. On Calista’s left were Camelithia and Belinda. The former nudged the human girl. “What happened?” she whispered.
“Don’t ask,” Calista answered.
The Ilamikoan hissed in pain. She got treated after the fight, but she didn’t have time to get fully healed before the Review period. They told her she’d be healed overnight and that she’d be able to fight the next day, but holy glitches, it hurt. Her hands were still useless and her midsection ached with every movement.
“Let’s start with Team 1. It should be a lot easier to get through your fights in detail,” Lisa said. The HARP-ED screen morphed to show Team 1’s ship. It started playing the recording at three times the speed. Throughout the round, they were doing incredible, avoiding traps, attacks, and eliminating opponents. Their ship approached a whirlpool, being stuck on the edge for some time.
Then, the ship suddenly jerked away from the whirlpool. An explosion burst in the side of the ship, eliminating a couple of fighters on their team. Lisa stopped the recording.
“That’s at… 9 minutes 25 seconds. Only 45 seconds left. What happened?” Rosalina signaled to answer. Lisa nodded at her. “Hothead?”
“I was projecting my powers through a weapon,” Rosalina explained. “Then Flash decided to go help steer and he tripped and crashed into me. This triggered the explosion. I managed to hold onto something, but the two fighters beside me, Abraham and Renette, fell.” The two Rosalina mentioned sulked as she recounted what happened.
Flash, a Seeyastian Alpha Guild member, interjected. “I lost my balance because the ship jerked suddenly. You can see it there.” He pointed at the screen. “They were having trouble.”
“Who was in charge of manning the ship?” Dean Gina asked.
Reilly signaled. “Myself, Dean White. And two of my Favorites, Savage and Scratch.” He motioned to Bark and an Emitonian named Bellassa.
“Who caused the ship to move so suddenly?”
“It was me, Dean White,” Bellassa admitted sheepishly. “Flash is right; we were struggling a bit. You can see we’re near a whirlpool, being sucked in by the force. We couldn’t steer properly. We asked our stern guards, Felix and Osins, to blast the side of the ship for a bit of force. It worked, and we detached from the whirlpool, but this caused the momentum to make Flash trip and redirect Hothead’s powers.”
“Hmm.” Lisa watched the recording play out again. “While this was a good way of saving your team, you need to warn your teammates as much as possible,” she advised. “Even if they get annoyed by the constant talking, do it. That way, accidents like this can be minimized.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Otherwise… your performance was nearly perfect. Good job.”
Lílitha resisted a scoff. They had the best Student Coach and top-ranking Favorites on their team. It was a given.
Team 2 did even better in the round. Only one of their fighters was eliminated after a large blow to the stern. Disaris had an irritating air of self-satisfaction, practically boasting when he told the deans about his strategy.
Lisa skipped to Team 4. Despite being the smallest team, they also did well, having only one casualty. Elisa and Catherine high-fived at the end of their discussion, only getting minor criticisms.
Then came Team 3’s review.
Lílitha could hear the snickers and judging whispers from the other students. They were especially prevalent when Tarzan came out with his iconic yell. Horace shrunk in his seat, realizing how stupid he’d been.
“Okay… a lot to unpack here,” Lisa started, eliciting laughter. She shut everyone up with a piercing glare. “Naturally, you got hit a lot in the first half. Everyone does. But… there are lots of hits that could’ve been avoided.”
“It’s because we had the worst people up front,” Diego Lakh commented.
“How is that our fault?” Damaris retorted, leaning to see him across the seats. “You guys were hardly hitting them. Your aim is terrible.”
“Still, you’re in control! You’re terrible drivers.”
“May we review this round in a civilized manner?” Lisa snapped. “If you continue with these attitudes, I’ll disqualify all of you myself. What kind of behavior is this?”
They were silent. Harrison had covered his face, embarrassed beyond measure.
“Cheater, did you appoint your teammates to their positions?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered, “but Damaris and Charlotte decided to go to the controls.”
“You didn’t protest against this decision?”
“I didn’t think it was a big deal. None of my team spoke up, and none of them said they were good at ship controls or anything. I just wanted people on the job.”
Lisa rewatched the recording. “From what I see here… their control is okay, but they’re playing it too safe. And they made the same mistake the other teams did; they didn’t warn everyone properly. Every twist, every turn, every movement should be announced to the rest of the crew.”
She forwarded to when they were blasted by the giant cannonball. The team could now see what happened on the outside. The ship turned away from an iceberg, going to the right. It was smooth, so they hadn’t felt it, but Tarzan announced it with his ‘yell’. They steered directly towards three ships. It was slow enough so one of the Irish ships could aim at them and bring out the catapult, which popped out from the top of the ship and launched the cannonball at them.
“Who steered there?” Gina asked.
“Tarzan, ma’am,” Charlotte spoke up.
“Cheater, did you want Tarzan to man the controls?”
“No, ma’am. He was on weapons with everyone else,” Harrison answered.
“And where were you?”
“I was on damage control with Freezer and Orthos. When I came back to check on everyone, I noticed Tarzan wasn’t there, and they all told me he went to the bow, so I went there. I was telling him to go back to weapons, but he didn’t.”
“Why did you disobey your leader’s orders, Tarzan?” Lisa eyed Horace.
“I… I just thought I’d help with the controls. Damaris and Charlotte were jerking the boat too much, so I thought they needed a third pair of hands,” he answered nervously.
“But I told you to get out of there,” Harrison said. “I would help them. You literally ignored me and took the controls, and you steered us right into enemy fire. That’s why we got hit, and you got eliminated.”
“That’s why the ship glitching broke in half,” Charlotte said through gritted teeth.
“I wouldn’t have bothered going up there if you two did a better job,” Horace argued.
“We wouldn’t have gotten us cut in half!”
“You should’ve just let it go! That binary-code-head had to try and bring the stern back.” He pointed at Lílitha.
“Oh, count yourself lucky that I can’t stretch right now, glitchhead,” Lílitha retorted.
Lisa sighed. “Okay, that’s it. Teams 1, 2, and 4, you’re dismissed. Team 3, you stay here. You’ll have to arrive at your Guild Meetings late today.”
The other students filed out of the lecture hall. Camelithia squeezed Calista’s hand comfortingly as she stood. Once Team 3 was left alone with the Deans, Lisa raised her hands in disbelief and question, her mouth dropped open at their behavior.
“I literally have no words.” She shook her head. “In all my years of fighting, I’ve never seen a team so dysfunctional. I had to work with some terrible teammates in my time, but we knew how to put aside our differences when it counted.”
“With all due respect, Dean White…” Hammerhead began. “This team? It’s the worst combination. Horace here has too big a head to even deserve his place on Team USA-”
“What are you talking about?”
“You shut it. Lots of us have bad histories with each other. Nobody wanted to work with Cheater— no offense— or his Favorites, especially Miss Socializer.”
“That’s your problem,” Calista retorted.
“These aren’t issues we can’t just brush away. They’re directly related to how we work together. This entire team doesn’t like each other, especially Tarzan.”
“Would you stop targeting me?” Horace exclaimed, offended.
“You’ve been starting fights with everyone.” Hammerhead shrugged. “Maybe we have a better chance now that you’re out.”
“It’s not entirely his fault,” said Ghost. “Piranha shouldn’t have tried to get the stern back. Diego got eliminated anyway. She decided to butt in and do Cheater’s job.”
“She was trying to help, as my Favorite. It’s her job,” Harrison defended. The little woman was silent, her fists clenching with rage.
“As your Favorite?” Ghost smiled with condescension. “Isn’t Calista your first Favorite? She hardly did anything all round.”
“All she did was scream every time she shot her cannon,” Orthos added.
“I was just holding my position-”
“You don’t know how to take initiative,” he said, pointing accusingly at the Earthian. “And Piranha doesn’t know how to step down. Now she hurt herself.”
“You’re welcome for saving your glitchy caboose from elimination, cache-hole,” Lílitha snapped. “If I had known, I would’ve left you there.”
“Because of her and Tarzan, we almost lost the round. We were just lucky time ran out.”
“So this is your solution?” Lisa said, disappointed. “Playing the blame game?”
“That’s just our perspective,” said Orthos. “The timer saved us. A few more seconds, and we would’ve been out completely. And then Tarzan, like an idiot, had to go hanging off the boat with Slime… what were you even trying to do?”
“I was trying to take down the ships! And I did! If it weren’t for me, we would’ve been eliminated. That would’ve been Piranha’s fault. I saved you guys. Not her. And not the timer.”
Lílitha’s jaw clenched. She almost got herself torn in half, and for what?
Okay, that was an exaggeration, but it hurt. She did it to save teammates that didn’t even like her. Not one thank you. Just blaming.
“I don’t remember teaching any of you to blame your teammates for things going wrong.” Lisa crossed her arms. “All of you are at fault, no matter how small your job was. As a team, you should listen to your leader, hold your positions, and keep your teammates safe.” She numbered her points on her fingers. “None of you did any of that. You’re all fighting against each other, trying to get attention. You want fanfare. You want people to see you save your entire team, or whatever. Because of your pride, arrogance, and immaturity, your teammate got hurt.” She pointed at Lílitha. “She made a sacrifice, even though none of you were helping.”
“I sacrificed myself. I’m out of the competition.” Tarzan beat his chest with his fist as he spoke. “But you guys aren’t. Why? Because I had the guts to get out there and do something about it. So you’re welcome. I still would’ve been in the game if Elastigirl there weren’t in the way.”
“And I wouldn’t be ‘in the way’ if you hadn’t taken over the controls!” she yelled, wincing at the pain in her abdomen.
“Again, you could’ve just left the stern alone. How many times do I have to say that?”
“I hate him, but he’s right, Piranha,” said Ghost. “You could’ve gotten us cut out. He’s an idiot, but he made up for it by patching up your mistake.”
“While I was patching up his.”
“It’s all your fault as a team,” Lisa silenced them. “Look, if it were my choice, none of you would be together. But the teams aren’t entirely up to me or Gina.”
“Of course it isn’t,” Calista whispered.
“All of you need to grow up and learn how to work together,” said Gina. “You’re very lucky you’re still in. You’re not in the team you wanted. Well, boo-hoo! That’s the way this game works, children.”
“I’ve seen your training recordings. A lot of you have disrespected Student Coach Harrison’s authority, and we’re not going to allow that. Whoever I call tonight after Guild Training will be under punishment for Disregard of Authority and Misconduct. And this whole team—” she motioned to all of them— “will lose Break period privileges for the rest of the prelims.”
They all exclaimed in outrage.
“And your Lunch and Dinner periods will be cut short. I’m sorry, but this is the team you have, and you’ll have to figure out how you’re going to get through the other games. If any of you continue with your unacceptable behavior, you’ll be disqualified. We’re being nice, actually.”
“Thanks a lot, Piranha,” someone muttered.
This set Lílitha off. She stood from her seat and stormed to the door. “Lílitha!” Harrison ran after her.
She went straight to the Medical wing to complete her treatment. Her arms were aching horribly and she couldn’t breathe without pain. The yelling wasn’t helping.
When she entered, the AIDA scanned her. “Species identified. Torn elasticity ligaments detected. Torn abdominal muscles detected. Proceed to Station 3 for treatment.”
She went to the station and sat on the offered bed. The AIDA took care of her, healing the most severe injuries. They weren’t too serious, so there was no need for further analysis.
Once it was done, she was given a pack of healing pads to complete treatment overnight. Outside the infirmary, Harrison was waiting. “You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine.” Her voice shook. “I just need to be alone for a bit, okay? I’m not mad at you, I just need to be alone.”
“Okay. You coming to training?”
She hesitated. “Yes. I’ll be late.”
He didn’t ask anything else, letting her go. He’d seen her this upset before, and he knew she needed isolation when she felt this way. It was rare for her to feel a lump of tears like this.
She entered her dorm room and changed clothes, attaching the healing pads to her ribs and arms. She fastened on a jacket to apply pressure. The pain was already fading away.
Her family would have a field day with this fight, if they even bothered watching. She could already see them replaying it over and over, laughing at her misery.
Tears welled up in her black marbles. It didn’t matter what she did. It didn’t matter how hard she worked, or what she did for others. According to everyone else, she never did anything right.
She would never be good enough, would she?